*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*¢¢ NEWSLETTER REVIEWS¢ by Alan Sharkis¢ OHAUG Newsletter Librarian¢¢ Spring the season of rebirth, has¢ sprung. Atari is no longer under the¢ heavy thumb of JTS, but will probably¢ see a rebirth of sorts under its new¢ owner, Hasbro Interactive. At least¢ some of the old games will be¢ reworked and released for the PC and¢ for the Sony Playstation. Whether¢ the new versions of the games will¢ bear the familiar Fuji trademark or¢ not remains to be seen. Whether or¢ not (and I'm betting on NOT) there¢ will be a revival of Atari hardware¢ (for which Hasbro now holds the¢ rights) also remains to be seen. ¢ When Hasbro acquired what was left of¢ Atari, for the bargain price of $5¢ million, and also picked up ten times¢ that amount in Atari's outstanding¢ debts, and then stated that it really¢ doesn't have the resources to produce¢ hardware, I thought my hunch was¢ correct. But jiggling around in the¢ back of my mind is the fact that¢ Hasbro also picked up Tiger¢ Electronics (which manufactures hand-¢ held games) for ten times the price¢ they paid JTS for Atari. Time will¢ tell. Meanwhile, our community¢ continues along its merry way, and¢ user groups continue to be active on¢ the 8-bit front. A rather large¢ sample follows:¢¢ LVAUG News for January/February 1998¢ -- The LVAUG seems to like reprinting¢ ZIGGY cartoons. (Of course, Ziggy is¢ always having amusing difficulties¢ with his computer and equally amusing¢ reactions to those difficulties.)¢ You'll find three of these classics¢ in this issue, as well as a reprint¢ of an ad from Compute Magazine for¢ FINAL ORBIT by Sirius software.¢ There are also list of Web sites that¢ offer help with income tax returns, a¢ reprint of COMPTERS AND SOCIETY by¢ DAVID D. THORNBURG (Compute, July¢ 1983,) and a rather pessimistic view¢ of the status of user groups by JOHN¢ MORAN (Hartford Courant - Allentown¢ Morning Call, 12/7/97.) But for 8-¢ bit-specific information, you have to¢ look at the meeting notes for¢ November and December.¢¢ (FR)ANTIC for February 1998 -- MANUEL¢ GARCIA contributes his experiences on¢ the Web, looking primarily at foreign¢ sites. Below his article is a¢ picture he picked up at one of those¢ sites -- a picture of the original¢ Pong game. Later on, Manuel gives us¢ a type-in program (reprinted from¢ 6/92 (FR)ANTIC) that will strip the¢ "IBM-style" form-feed and carriage¢ return characters out of a text file¢ and substitute the ATASCII EOF¢ character. An article entitled, "Has¢ The Internet Killed The BBS?" is food¢ for considerable thought. It was¢ written by a former AAAUA member, JOE¢ BARTH, who's now the chairman of the¢ Alamo PC BBS Committee. (I agree¢ with Joe's conclusions. There is¢ still room for BBSs and they continue¢ to serve important functions -- Ed.)¢ HARRY WOLFERTH, subscribing member of¢ AAAUA, contributes Part II of his¢ series, "Computers For The Small¢ Water System." In this installment,¢ Harry reviews Syncalc, B-Graph and¢ VCR Titler. On the back cover is a¢ list of Atari 1025 Printer Control¢ Codes and a BASIC program that uses a¢ simple flight simulator to¢ demonstrate how BASIC and Assembly¢ Language achieve the same goals.¢¢ SCAT President's Letter for Spring¢ 1998 -- Nick DiMasi seems to be¢ president of a very active user¢ group. They run a charity auction¢ every year. One of the members¢ bought an 8-bit ComputerEyes at the¢ auction and learned it fast enough to¢ demonstrate it at the next month's¢ meeting.¢¢ SLCC Journal for March 1998 -- 8-bit¢ software chairman BOB SCHOLAR was¢ reported ill. We all wish him a¢ speedy and complete recovery. BOB¢ WOOLLEY demonstrated a 512K ramdisk¢ on a single chip housed inside a¢ 1200XL.¢¢ The PACESetter for March, 1998 --TOM¢ KAUFMAN contributes a cheat sheet for¢ Zork I. A complete list of Atari 8-¢ bit power supply adaptors and¢ transformers, complete with diagrams¢ is assembled from information¢ obtained from the AAAUA occupies¢ three pages. ROBERT FASOLDT¢ continues his series on "Flight¢ Simulator II."¢¢ JACG Newsletter for March 1998 -- SAM¢ CORY has volunteered his services as¢ a ghost writer for the JACG. He¢ will, with facts and outline a JAC¢ member presents to him, write an¢ article in that member's name and¢ never reveal that he did the writing.¢ Although Sam outlined what he wished¢ to do in the last issue of the JACG¢ Newsletter, it will be repeated for¢ the rest of the year. Of course, Sam¢ has also delighted us with a sample¢ of his own work on cloning. DON¢ THOMAS, in an article called,¢ "CatNips Epilog," describes his¢ history with Atari. The story was¢ downloaded from JAGUAR EXPLORER¢ ONLINE and will be serialized in the¢ JACG Newsletter. JOE HICSWA reviews¢ Shanghi Dragon Slayer. He continues¢ his series on Flight Simulator II.¢ Joe has also taken to reviewing other¢ user group newsletters (PACE, LVAUG¢ and OHAUG) and plugging those fine¢ user groups to his own (Thanks, Joe!¢ -- Ed.) He contributes a fascinating¢ article called, "Mind Controlled¢ Computers?????" Joe suggests in this¢ article that although a lot of¢ research and practical applications¢ for those with disabiliities have¢ come out of using the body's¢ electrical signals to control PCs, we¢ should be doing the same thing in the¢ Atari world. (I concur, Joe. In my¢ volunteer activities, I see the high¢ cost of adaptive technology as being¢ an impediment to its more widespread¢ use. We could cut that cost by¢ cutting the cost of the computer¢ platform on which it runs, now,¢ couldn't we -- Ed.)¢¢ IMAGE for March 1998 -- This is¢ always a fascinating newsletter, even¢ if it seldom has references to 8-bit¢ activities. Lately, however, those¢ references have been appearing more¢ frequently. In this month's issue¢ for example, mention is made of an¢ attempt by "Chuck" (probably CHARLES¢ LAMB) to get a 130XE to read an IBM¢ disk, and "Steve" (probably STEPEN¢ ELEK, JR.) brought in the promotional¢ demo cartridge for the 8-bit, and¢ Miner 2049'er. (I wonder if this is¢ related to the more frequent¢ appearance of ED BAIZ in the FidoNet¢ National Atari Echo? -- Ed.)¢¢ XIO3 for March/April 1998 -- ROWLAND¢ GRANT's "Atari News and Rumours"¢ columm details the Hasbro purchase of¢ Atari from JTS. In it he states that¢ Hasbro stock went up while JTS stock¢ went down. (I checked; that is¢ continuing as I write this column --¢ Ed.) Rowland's "8-bit Affairs"¢ column, he describes how .ATR images¢ are the backbone of the Pool Disk and¢ how he was able to learn SIO2PC¢ quickly and use it to prepare .ATR¢ files. He also states that fellow¢ GCACE member GORDON HOOPER sent many¢ .ATRs of Bellcom disks to the¢ SCHREURS BROTHERS for Pool Disk II.¢ ERNEST SCHREURS, in turn, reported¢ receiveing many files in .DCM format.¢ He noted that many of the .DCM to¢ .ATR converison programs were not¢ reliable, so he wrote his own after¢ studying the Discomm structure. At¢ any rate, Pool Disk II should be¢ coming out very soon. B&C¢ COMPUTERVISIONS has moved. (We¢ already have the new address -- Ed.) ¢ BOB KLAAS announces that K-PRODUCTS¢ has obtained the rights to sell the¢ US Doubler chip for 1050 disk drives.¢ BOB PUFF (CSS) will begin to¢ manufacture and sell Floppy Boards¢ for The Black Box again when he has¢ 50 people who wish to order them. AC¢ Magazine will publish again, but¢ nobody knows when. New Atari User¢ has just published an issue after a¢ long hiatus. Larry Serflaten (Childs¢ Play Software) has advertised for¢ Atari 8-bit programmers, stating that¢ he knows a distributor who's¢ interested in making cartridge games¢ for the Atari 8-bit. Meanwhile, A¢ MyDOS cartridge and a SpartaDos¢ cartridge have made their appearance.¢ (The Newsgroup comments on both are¢ not very positive -- Ed.)¢¢ JACG Newsletter for April 1998 -- DON¢ THOMAS' second installment of CatNips¢ Epilog appears here, with a third and¢ final one scheduled for the next¢ issue. JOE HICSWA continues his¢ series on FLight Simulator II,¢ reviews the PACESetter again, and¢ writes a column in apology over the¢ fact that he missed a meeting and how¢ he perceived that meeting would go.¢ SAM CORY writes an interesting¢ article on organic food. He also¢ mentions speaking to me and includes¢ parts of our conversation, including¢ the joint OHAUG-LIAUG meeting¢ schedule, should JACG members wish to¢ attend. He also discusses the¢ falling price of Internet access.¢¢ IMAGE for April 1998 -- (This issue¢ is labled, "March 1998, but it is¢ clearly April -- Ed.) ED BIAZ makes¢ an interesting point. The¢ clock/calendar provisions in TOS, the¢ operating system family imployed in¢ the STs and their descendents, is¢ safe beyond the year 2000. TOS 1.0 is¢ OK to 2035, and presumably the later¢ versions will be fine beyond that.¢ (We 8-bitters who use RTime8¢ cartridges know that SpartaDos 3.2G¢ and beyond have also fixed the "year¢ 2000" problem -- Ed.) Ed also writes¢ in detail about the sale of Atari to¢ Hasbro and what Hasbro's plans for¢ the Atari assets might be. In the¢ Meeting Memo column, Ed reports that¢ the last meeting was entirely 8-bit¢ oriented. Ed, who has been an active¢ participant on FidoNet recently,¢ obtained ANDY FLOYD's programs and¢ gave them to CHARLES LAMB to¢ demonstrate for the club. The¢ response by IMAGE members was most¢ enthusiastic.¢¢ *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*¢¢¢
