¢ATARI 8-BIT NEWS¢by S. J. Murray¢¢¢* The TSR SHAREWARE & P.D. LIBRARY is a new Atari 8-bit library set up by Christopher Friend of North Uxbridge, USA. Chris is 12 years old and has been 8-bitting since he was 4. He cites Don Bell of the now defunct Bellcom as a source of inspiration for setting up TSR.¢¢ Chris has mailed me his April/May 1994 catalogue. There are 24 single-sided and 8 double-sided disks. Titles include Pinball, Strategy Fun, European Demos, SuperDOS 5, etc. I have recently given him permission to include the Futura Sample Issue in his library (Chris has given it a TSR Rating of 100%!).¢¢ The prices for TSR disks are $3.50 for single-sided and $4.00 for double-sided. These prices fall to $2.75 and $3.25 respectively if you buy 20 or more disks. P&P is $3.50 US / $4.50 elsewhere.¢¢ Chris has also mailed me a copy of his own shareware program, Report Card Fun Deluxe. He has kindly given me permisson to alter the program for use in UK schools. This version will soon be available from the NOSAUG PD Library.¢¢ For more details of TSR contact:¢¢TSR Shareware & PD,¢309 North Main Street,¢North Uxbridge,¢MA 01538-9999,¢USA.¢¢ Best wishes Chris from all at NOSAUG!¢¢¢* ANG SOFTWARE in the Netherlands will now accept your orders in pounds Sterling (cash only!). Just send your pound notes (hidden inside an envelope inside of your letter) by Registered Airmail.¢¢ The people at ANG Software obviously share my philosophy about low cost software. Most of their titles are priced at only 5 pounds! They sell dozens of games including Adax, Darkness Hour, Humanoid, Operation Blood, Special Forces, etc, etc. all at only 5 pounds each! This is excellent value for money! ANG also sell Atari cartridges, cassette software, Mega-Mag, etc. P&P is only 2 pounds per order. Also, if your order totals over 30 pounds you get a 10% discount!¢¢ With a software pricing policy such as this, ANG deserve the full support of the worldwide Atari 8-bit community! Contact:¢¢ANG Software,¢Ridderkerksestraat 60,¢3114 RK Schiedam,¢NETHERLANDS.¢¢ ANG also accept US dollars in cash (1 pound = $1.50).¢¢¢* ALL MICRO MAGAZINE describes itself as a publication "for users of the Einstein and other golden oldies micros". It is a standard A5 newsletter of about 20 pages. The editor, Tony Adams, has sent me the last two issues, asking me to pass on information to any Einstein users who contact me. He makes a very interesting point in one of his letters:¢¢ "It's a real problem for users of obsolete machines to find a club or user group for their machine. A simple and user-friendly answer to this problem is for user groups to act as a contact point for other groups too."¢¢ This is an excellent idea! The Atari 8-bit is still reasonably well supported by user groups but we should not ignore the chance of bringing even more XL/XE owners into the worldwide community of Atari 8-bit user groups.¢¢ We should do as much as we can to support users of other systems, who in turn will offer similar help. With inter-group cooperation and promotion we can spread the word to as many users as possible!¢¢ Any Einstein users out there should send 3 pounds to: A.E. Adams, Ivy Cottage, Church Road, New Romney, Kent, England, TN28 8TY.¢¢¢* FUTURA subscriptions to Europe are now priced at only 13 pounds! Subscriptions to anywhere outside of Europe are now only 15 pounds!¢¢ If you write to Atari 8-bitters outside of the UK please let them know about Futura.¢¢¢* Many Futurians enjoyed the demo of SISYPHOS on Side B of Futura issue 11. If anyone is interested in purchasing the commercial verison (50 levels) then send DM20 to Oddware at the address in the games's intro scroll.¢¢¢* Bryan Zillwood has written to inform us of a new Atari publication. Over to you Bryan...¢¢ "Something I've come across in my Atarixplorations is a magazine called ATARI ENTERTAINMENT. Back in the days when the BaPAUG published 8:16, they had a Lynx hints and tips column in one issue which was taken from Lynx User. As a Lynx owner myself, I decided to write to L.U. and eventually bought a subscription. This was especially useful as Page 6's coverage of the Lynx was minimal at best. The issues came through about one every three months until they seemed to stop. Then one day a magazine called Atari Entertainment found it's way through my letterbox, claiming to be the son/daughter of L.U. and had expanded it's coverage to include the new Jaguar console. The new mag is printed on high quality paper with a colour cover and has some colour inner pages as well. A subscription costs 8 pounds for 6 issues and they can be contacted at Atari Entertainment, P.O. Box 7, Riseley, Reading, RG7 1YW, England. If you are interested, send 1.20 pounds for a sample issue."¢¢ "Back to you Stuart..."¢¢ Thanks Bryan! And now, computer news in brief:¢¢¢* ULTIMA 8 has been released on the PC by Electronic Arts.¢¢¢* Virgin have re-released GOAL! for the ST. They claim to have eliminated all bugs. I received my updated copy three weeks ago and have had no problems so far. Goal! is rapidly becoming as addictive as Dino Dini's supreme predecessor Kick Off 2. Whether it can take the pace remains to be seen! If you select a 1-player game you are automaticlly given the best team in Europe... Aberdeen! Some might say this has something to do with alphabetical order - I like to think the computer has simply given you the best team to play with (grin)!¢¢¢* TWAUG Atari 8-bit Newsletter #9 is due out soon. TWAUG also hope to release their new XL/XE book within the next few weeks. Best wishes lads from all at NOSAUG!¢¢¢* After the recent arrival of a small number of imported ATARI JAGUAR consoles in selected UK stores (Virgin, Glasgow stocked a handful - which went to those on an ever-increasing waiting list!), Atari UK have delayed the official UK release (surprise, surprise!) due to customer demand in the USA. Although Atari have given a provisional UK release date of June 1994, many industry experts believe we will not see a widespread national release of the Jaguar until late 1994 / early 1995. Also, it is rumoured that Atari UK will price the Jaguar at a ridiculously high 229 pounds! When will these fools ever learn!!!? Talk about pricing themselves out of the market! If they priced the Jaguar at 150 pounds, Atari UK could destroy the competition within six months. It's the Lynx experience all over again! Superb product - bad marketing!¢¢ Never mind, at least JEFF MINTER is programming software for the Jaguar! His Tempest 2000 looks amazing and he has hinted at a Llamatron conversion!¢¢ Look out for STAR RAIDERS 2000 coming soon - the Jaguar version of that classic of all 8-bit classics!¢¢ Other planned Jaguar titles for 1994/5 include BattleZone 2000, Space Pirates (for the forthcoming Jaguar CD-ROM) and Checkered Flag 2 (all by Atari) as well as Return to Zork by Infocom (CD-ROM), Zool 2 by Gremlin, Battlemorph (Cybermorph 2) by ATD, and, yes, believe it or not, KICK OFF 3 by Anco! Let's hope the rumoured prices are exactly that... rumours!¢¢¢* I was pleased to read in my latest MICRO DISCOUNT catalogue that members will now receive regular discounts on certain items. Crossbow at 10 pounds is a good deal. Also, Zeppelin disks at 1.95 each should not be missed! Derek Fern must be congratulated for these initial price reductions. Let's hope we see more Crossbow-type reductions soon. How about Printshop for a fiver Derek? (grin)¢¢¢* The 1994 FUTURA INFOFILE will be included in Futura issue 13. It will feature a comprehensive listing of Atari 8-bit suppliers.¢¢¢¢That's all the news for now!¢
