¢INTRODUCTION - ISSUE 4¢November/December 1992¢¢¢ Hello and welcome to Futura issue #4. The late release date (16th Nov) is due to my AMS6 trip. I decided to wait and include a full report of the show within this issue rather than leave it to issue #5. Anyway, I'm sure you will agree that Futura 4 was definitely worth waiting for.¢¢ Side A has 14 text articles for you to enjoy. These include Atari Trivia, Inside Atari Basic (Part 3), a full review of the first Atari Classics magazine, a profile of programmer Archer MacLean, 8-Bit News, and a full report from Stafford of AMS6.¢¢ There are also two programs on Side A. First up is Shop Steward. This great strategy game features you as the Shop Steward at your local factory. You must gain pay rises, increase production, protect the workforce from redundancies, and gain support for the Union. Not a game for those who are susceptible to stress!¢¢ The other program on Side A is a small graphics demo called Visions. Blast some music while you watch it!¢¢ Boot Side B WITHOUT BASIC for 11 machine code programs presented on a Howfen menu. As I mentioned in Futura issue 3, you can convert most Howfen files to DOS 2.X format with the File2Dos Converter. However, there are a small percentage of files which will not convert. Instead of forgetting about these files I have decided to include them within this issue. They were simply too good to miss out!¢¢ Utilities this issue are Super Duper Copier, 130XE One-Pass Single Density Copier, Mega Disk-Dupe, XL/XE Translator and Colourspace.¢¢ The games are Videostop, Cuttlemania and My Jong. Add to this the Passionately, Munich and Home Entertainment demos and you have eleven superb programs!¢¢¢Program Hints:¢¢¢Super Duper¢¢ This is a great little disk copier for any 48K Atari. It has an automatic density option. Just follow the on-screen prompts.¢¢¢130XE One-Pass¢¢ A single-density copier for 130XE users which will copy a SD disk in one pass.¢¢¢Mega Disk-Dupe (U.S.Doubler only)¢¢ Another single-density copier but this time it's for U.S.Doubler drive owners.¢¢¢Vidoestop¢¢ Press your joystick button to stop the dice. Doubles earn points. Triples earn points and a bonus!¢¢¢Cuttlemania¢¢ A 2-player game which has you bouncing around the screen trying to turn the squares to your colour. Try and get four-in-a-row!¢¢¢My Jong¢¢ A superb Shanghai-type puzzle game. You must try and match pairs of numbers with the pointer. Unfortunately, you can only match those at the left or right of the block (any height!). Use the pointer to select from the option bar along the top.¢¢¢XL/XE Translator¢¢ A very powerful translator program to enable you to load those old 400/800 programs on your XL or XE. Load XL/XE Translator first and then insert the 400/800 disk you wish to load. Press Start to load the disk.¢¢¢Colourspace¢¢ Firstly gain a good knowledge of the variables and their effect on the patterns. You'll be able to get the best out of the system if you know exactly what controls do what.¢¢ Practice improvisation. It's good training to see how well you can synch in with a track you don't know. Each preset setting has its own feel and inertia.¢¢ Don't worry about the large amounts of controls. The best way to learn the system is just to put on some good music and experiment. It's just about impossible to create something which looks actively bad, but the real skill lies in getting decent sync between the music and the light display. This skill requires a good feel for music, a thorough knowledge of the lightsynth, and lots of practice.¢¢Colourspace - Summary of Commands:¢¢A = Auto Demo on/off.¢S = Symmetry change.¢M = Screen mode.¢Z/SHIFT-Z = Vary Vertical Resolution.¢SPACE = Change Lightform Primitive.¢E = Explosion mode on/off.¢H = Perform Simultaneous Add.¢J = Simultaneous Adder Variable key.¢* = Select colour control effect.¢SHIFT-* = Colourflow resync.¢SHIFT-H = Zero selected colour parameter bank.¢] = Set strobo flash rate.¢? = Turn stroboscopics on/off.¢H,C,V,B,N,M,[ = Individual colour variable keys.¢(Inverse Text Key) = Base colour variable key.¢Q = Sloth mode on/off.¢T = Tracking on/off.¢O = Pulse Width variable key.¢P = Pulse Speed variable key.¢D = Smoothing Delay variable key.¢X = Speed Boost adjust.¢C = Cursor Speed adjust.¢V = Vector mode on/off.¢B = Buffer Length adjust.¢ESC,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0...DEL = preset keys.¢CAPS = Preset Bank Select.¢W = Wipe off foreground graphics.¢SHIFT-R = Begin Record Mode.¢R = Stop Record Mode / Begin Playback / Stop Playback.¢CTRL-R = Mixed Record / Live mode on/off.¢U = Define User-Definable Lightform.¢J = Dual Joystick mode off/on.¢; = Select second user's lightform.¢SHIFT-F = Begin drawing on foreground screen.¢F = Draw foreground graphics in original place.¢G = Draw foreground graphics at current cursor position.¢SHIFT-G = Change symmetry of foreground graphics plot.¢CTRL-Q = Start parameter save.¢CTRL-W = Start parameter load.¢CTRL-A = Start dynamics save.¢CTRL-S = Start dynamics load.¢Y = Enable/disable status line.¢¢ Colourspace was programmed by Jeff Minter. He recently released it into the public domain.¢¢¢ Well, there is definitely enough there to keep you going for quite a while. Feel free to write and give me your opinion of Futura issue 4. I welcome all feedback. Until next time... ¢¢¢SEE YA!¢¢¢Stuart J. Murray,¢Futura Editor,¢North Of Scotland Atari User Group.¢
