** **¢ MINUTES OF THE SEPTEMBER 1994¢ MEETING:¢ ======================================¢¢ We welcomed CURT VENDEL our¢ member from Staten Island N.Y. to the¢ meeting. CURT has been with the 8-bit¢ since 1981. This was the first time he¢ was able to attend a meeting. We hope¢ it wont be the last! SYSOP, CURT used¢ to run his own bulletin board. He is¢ an old hand on the 8-Bit.¢¢ CORRESPONDENCE:¢¢ A letter to our member OCTAVIAN¢ GRECU in Bucharest Romania informing¢ him of a gift of 7 P.D. disk donated¢ by our member BILL SMINKEY from CA.¢ A letter from BILL SMINKEY to¢ RON, where he says. "Thanks for the¢ nice letter re OCTAVIAN. It was a¢ small matter trying to help someone¢ who is living under conditions that it¢ is difficult for us to comprehend. We¢ take so much for granted. While we may¢ rant and rave about the incompetence¢ and avarice of our politicians and¢ bureaucrats we still have the best¢ place in the world to be living in,¢ both politically and economically."¢ A letter from JEAN BROKAW the¢ editor of the PACESETTER NEWSLETTER,¢ LARGO FLORIDA. She thanked us for¢ mailing them the U.S. version of TURBO¢ BASIC.¢ A letter from the A.A.A.U.G.¢ asking RON if he could supply them¢ with his program called "TREASURER'S¢ REPORT". The program was promptly¢ mailed to them free. They send their¢ regards to their ex member JOHN HARDIE¢ now an OL' HACKER. They will remain an¢ 8-bit exclusive club, like OHAUG!¢ Our member TOM SMITH from CA.¢ writes us that he is pleased that his¢ article on SPREAD SHEETS will appear¢ in one of our future newsletters. Its¢ called "FOOTBALL.TXT". It can be used¢ very effectively for betting purposes.¢ TOM wants to load a binary program¢ from BASIC."TOM, just use TURBO BASIC.¢ It has a binary load command BRUN¢ "D:FILENAME". You don't have to go to¢ DOS to load binary." ALEX answered him¢ and thanked him for the disk. He¢ mailed us a wire 3-D program and a¢ label program.¢ A letter from our AKRON, N.Y.¢ member DANE STEGMAN. He tells us that¢ he really enjoyed the JUL/AUG 1994¢ newsletter and the games on it. He is¢ looking for a users manual for the¢ ATARI 800. Our member CURT VENDEL will¢ mail him a copy. There is very little¢ info in that manual.¢ A letter from TOM WRAY in TX to¢ ALEX. He thanked ALEX for the prompt¢ answers to TOM'S questions. TOM had¢ some more questions for ALEX to¢ answer. TOM has come a long way since¢ he joined OHAUG. Thats the way to go,¢ TOM!¢ A letter to ABBUC, BIT BYTER¢ club, in Germany from ALEX. He mailed¢ them SPARTA DOS version 3.2g June¢ 1994, to relace their older SPARTA¢ DOS copy.¢¢ DEMOS:¢¢ ALEX demod an envelope address¢ printing program made by our deceased¢ member KRIS HOLTEGAARD, that ALEX had¢ modified. If your printer will accept¢ envelopes without removing the paper¢ then you should get it. You do not¢ have to print gummed labels anymore if¢ you have this program. ALEX did not¢ put it in the library at this time.¢ We then saw COLLOSUS CHESS from¢ ANTIC. Boot it up with no BASIC. It is¢ fully documented. It has a very nice¢ graphics board and it is a very good¢ program. CURT VENDEL was called up to¢ play it. He was very impressed with¢ the program. It is in our library¢ #514.¢ Next RON showed a program that¢ was written by ALEX called FORMDOS. In¢ my opinion, it is one of the great¢ classical, usefull, utilities that¢ everyone should have-Its AUTORUN.SYS¢ file will format your disk, write DOS¢ and RAMDISK.COM on your disk in Drive¢ #2. without your doing anything. Once¢ its loaded, it is completely¢ automatic. It does its job¢ continuously until you hit BREAK. All¢ you do, is keep taking out completed¢ disks and putting in new ones. This¢ means you can format as many disks as¢ you like. I use it all the time. It is¢ a great time saver. time ago. It is¢ in the Library because it was reviewed¢ and demonstrated some time ago. Look¢ for it on your Library disks.¢ Next we saw a FORMDOS version¢ that in addition also puts TURBO BASIC¢ on the disk, also all automatically.¢ It will do one disk at a time and then¢ stop and ask if you want to do another¢ disk. Library # 515, side 2.¢ Then we saw a third version of¢ FORMDOS that in addition to¢ FORMATTING, adding DOS, RAMDISK.COM,¢ TURBO BASIC, it also writes a¢ PROGRAMERS UTILITY for centering words¢ all automatically on your disk in¢ drive #2. It also puts an AUTORUN.SYS¢ file on the 2nd disk that will copy¢ the centering utility into the RAMDISK¢ D8. I wrote this version of FORMDOS.¢ Library #515¢ Next AL SHARKIS showed a word¢ processor called CHICK SCRATCH. It was¢ written by ROBERT CHICK of Guam. It¢ never received much publicity. It is¢ very interesting. It has some unusual¢ features. It uses a minimum amount of¢ memory and a minimum amount of code¢ space. It will work with any DOS. The¢ default setting can be changed while¢ the program is loaded. If you want to¢ modify it you must put it on an¢ enhanced density disk to have enough¢ space. AL used it with SPARTA DOS-X.¢ The default setting is without WORD¢ WRAP on. This is so you can write¢ BASIC programs with it etc. It has a¢ 40 column screen. It will print 80¢ columns on the printer. It has margin¢ settings. It has has help screens by¢ using [CNTL & H]. It has a very¢ extensive help screen setup. The free¢ RAM space is 25K or enough for 13¢ pages of text. But you can chain text¢ if you have larger needs. It does not¢ use the RAM BANKS or bank switching.¢ It is a very good word processor for¢ you to get from the library.¢¢ ITEM-CONNECTICUT ATARI SHOW ¢¢ JOHN HARDIE then gave us a report¢ on the CONNECTICUT ATARI SHOW. MIKE¢ HOHMANN'S MARS-8 is still in the¢ works. Also the TURBO 816 is being¢ worked on. There was not too much new¢ 8-Bit stuff. They also had a JAGUAR¢ contest. JOHN won a JAGUAR. That makes¢ two that he now owns. JOHN helped man¢ the Fine Tooned engineering table.¢¢ITEM A NEW 8 BIT MAGAZINE¢¢ We saw issue #1 and #2 of ATARI¢ 8-BIT ALIVE which is written by DAMON¢ WALKER of RD #1, Box 62, Salem N.J.¢ 08079. A great newsletter that is¢ completely written by DAMON. He¢ charges $2.79 per issue.¢ ALEX wrote to him and invited him¢ to join the OL' HACKERS. DAMON replied¢ that he intends to join us soon. This¢ is another great way to "spread the¢ word!"¢¢ DOOR PRIZES:¢¢ RON FETZER¢ HAROLD PEGLER¢ ALEX PIGNATO¢ FRANK COSTALDO¢ JOHN HARDIE¢¢ Written by Ron Fetzer¢¢ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>END<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<¢¢
