The Atari 8-bit News-Disk Issue 13¢----------------------------------¢¢Editorial by Dean Garraghty.¢¢Welcome to issue 13 of the News-Disk! Hopefully, you will have seen our new opening screen. I did promise some changes!¢¢OK, LOADS of things to mention in this editorial, so I hope you have a nice mug of something hot to keep you going while you read this!¢¢First of all, you may be interested to know (I hope!) that I have now gone full-time into supporting the Atari 8-bit. After 5 years of supporting the Atari in my spare time while at college and university, I have now decided to start a new business called DGS to support the Atari. This is a HUGE risk on my part so I hope you will not desert me now! I need more support than ever!¢¢OK, you will need to know what DGS (Dean Garraghty Software) will actually do. Well, you already know! That's because it is just a more formal continuation of what I've been doing for years! I will continue selling PD, producing the News-Disk, selling commercial software, and buying/selling/exchanging used hardware and software. I will also be on the look-out for more new commercial software to sell in the UK. You should all have your free copy of the DGS catalogue. If you didn't receive it then please let me know and I'll send you one. This contains details of all the stuff I will be selling. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep buying from me so that I can keep supporting the Atari for years to come!! All cheques, etc. should now be made out to D.G.S. I look forward to your continuing support!¢¢Price decreases! I am pleased to announce two major price decreases! Digi-Studio has been reduced from 13pounds down to just 6.95! This will get you all the same stuff but for a lot less. Also, I am pleased to announce that in agreement with PPP, we have been able to reduce the price of QUICK down from 16pounds to just 12.95 including P&P. Also, the three games are now 4.95 each, or 12.50 for all three. I also have a new product from PPP. The Quick Ed character editor is a new character set editor, but has joystick, ST mouse, and touch tablet support! It has all the usual sorts of features, as well as the ability to edit 2 sets at the same time. It's all icon controlled, so there's no typing to do! The price is 4.95, and that gets you the disk, manual, and a special touch tablet template to allow you to use the touch tablet to edit sets without the need to keep your eye on the TV screen!¢¢Price increase (urg!). After 2 years of keeping the News-Disk at 4 pounds for 4 issues, I have been forced to raise the price to 5 pounds for 4 issues due to rising costs. Sorry! I hope this extra pound won't scare you all away! It's still cheap even at that! All subscribers whose subscriptions are still running will not be liable for this extra cost until their next subscription becomes due. Also, there are rumours going through the industry at the moment about extra import duties on blank disks from the Far East. This is likely to make the cost of blank disks rocket. If and when this happens, the cost PD disks and the News-Disk may have to rise even further. I will try and absorb some of the costs, but some will have to be passed on to you. More news when I have it.¢¢If your subscription number ends in /13 then it's your re-subscription time again! Please re-subscribe! I need your support more than ever now!¢¢New structuring of the News-Disk. As you may know, some people get the News-Disk on disk direct from me on a subscription basis, and others get it by downloading it from various BBS systems. But, the News-Disk is NOT public domain. This causes problems here, so this is what I have decided to do. From this issue, I will be producing two versions of the News-Disk. One will be a "Subscription" version for paying subscribers, and the other will be a "Download" version for people either getting the disk from on-line sources, or people getting copies of these. Which version you have is displayed on the opening screen of the disk. If you have a "Subscription" version and you pay for the News-Disk via subscription then you have no more to pay. If you have the "Subscription" version and do not pay a subscription then you have an ILLEGAL copy, and you should notify me immediately. If you have the "Download" version then you must pay a small fee to help us keep the News-Disk going. It isn't fair that one group of people should pay for it, and another group get it for free! The fee is very small! If you are in the US, then just send US$3 in cash to us. It costs 50cents to mail a letter from the US to the UK. You will get a letter of thanks in return! If you are in another country, then you may like to send us some hot PD instead! If you are in the UK, then send us 1pound (or some hot PD!).¢¢Adverts. There are two commercial adverts on this issue. One is for the Yorky 256K upgrade, and the other is from Dave Richardson (the developer of the Turbo Tape system). Check out the ADVERTS.DOC file for details!¢¢Side 2 is different! Now that the PD and commercial software catalogues are available for free in printed form, there is no need to repeat it all on side 2 of the News-Disk. Side 2 will now be used to give a list of used software and hardware for sale, as well as details of special clearance offers, and other special offers. Eventually, I would like to take the News-Disk to double sided, but with the lack of articles currently coming in, it would be impossible at the moment. I need articles! And here's an incentive: 5 free PD disks for the article of the issue, and 3 free PD disks for all other articles I use (as long as they are of a decent size), and a free PD disk for all other smaller articles. Come on folks!!¢¢My degree. You may be interested to know that I have passed my degree in Computer Science gaining a grade II(ii) honours. Yippee!¢¢Now that I have finished University, I would like to thank a few people, and moan at some others! Big thanks should go to my fellow students for putting up with me for 3 years! It couldn't have been easy guys! Thanks should also go to Pete at the WaunFawr post office for putting up with my rather large volume of outgoing mail in my first year, all the porters at Cwrt Mawr for putting up with the rather large volume of incoming mail in my first year, Mike and Norwenna at the Penparcau post office, with special thanks to Norwenna for getting everything mixed up (we're lucky any orders got to anyone over the last 2 years!), thanks to all the guys at the local Spar supermarket for putting up with me several times a day as I went for more sticky buns and chocolate to keep me going, big thanks to my dentist for understanding that I don't really like long needles stuck in my gum at all, big thanks to my Doctor and physiotherapist for helping to get rid of a back injury, and HUGE thanks to all those people who have bought things from me over the last 3 years. Keep buying!¢¢And now the moans. People who have made life miserable over the years. BRITISH RAIL for being total pains in the arse! Getting Atari gear back and forth has been a task not to be undertaken lightly! We're looking at 5 boxes and a few bags to be taken on the train! Not easy, and BR has not helped in the task. Over the three years I have been moaned at constantly for having too much luggage. I have had many a showdown with BR guards. One threatend to throw my gear off the train (so I told him if he did, I'd throw HIM off the train!), one refused to allow the train to go until I moved my gear and sat down (so I said OK I've got plenty of time, and I just stood there!). BR are also good at messing things up in a bad way. My favourite of all time was while I was waiting on Birmingham station for the Aberystwyth train. Two minutes before departure the announcement "The Birmingham to Aberystwyth train will today depart from Wolverhampton" was made. Well thanks guys. Mmmm.....two minutes to get from Birmingham to Wolverhampton - not easy! Another brilliant one while waiting for a similar train. "Due to engineering works, the Birmingham to Aberystwyth train will today terminate at Wellington Telford West". Well, thanks guys that's nowhere near where I want to be! The plan was, it turned out, that I had to get off there, get a bus to Shrewsbury, and then on another train to Aberystwyth. Try doing that with 5 boxes, a back pack, 3 carrier bags, and a suitecase. Dedication or what?! Here's the moral of the story: don't travel by rail unless you HAVE to!!¢¢Another moan must go to Doncaster Education Authority for being totally stupid 2 years ago. They nearly cost me my degree because of some STUPID red tape. The story is too long to quote here, but believe me it'd make you laugh!¢¢News just in.... The European Commission have approved a grant for my first year of trading as DGS. That means that the News-Disk is now part financed by the EEC! Professional or what?! Thanks guys!¢¢Are you asleep yet? OK, that'll be all for this issue. Just a final word. Please support DGS as much as you can, send as many articles as possible, and keep subscribing to the News-Disk!!¢¢Here's what's on this issue:¢¢ADVERTS.DOC - the adverts!¢¢INTRO.DOC - this editorial!¢¢NET.DOC - all about the Internet and what it means for the Atari.¢¢RBREVIEW.DOC - a review of the PPP game Rubber Ball.¢¢YORKYREV.DOC - a review of the Yorky 800XL 256K upgrade now available again.¢¢TAPEWIZ.DOC - the doc file for:¢¢TAPEWIZ.OBJ - a nice program for Turboload tape users.¢¢GAMING.DOC - the start of a new series of games reviews by Richard Gore.¢¢COMP12.DOC - the answers and winners of the issue 12 competition.¢¢OHMYDOT.COM - a nice demo which will only work by binary loading it straight from DOS after booting without basic. Note: this is a good demo, but is spoilt by some bad language on the scroll line.¢¢CIVILWAR.BAS - a nice simulation of the American Civil war. Instructions are included in the program.¢¢Dean Garraghty, B.Sc.(Hons).¢27 July 1993.¢¢The News-Disk is published in the UK by:¢¢D.G.S., 62 Thomson Ave, Balby, Doncaster, DN4 0NU, ENGLAND.¢¢Phone: (0302) 855026¢International: +44-302-855-026¢E-Mail: djg0@aber.ac.uk¢
