¢ o=o=o=o=o=¢¢ THE Ol' Hackers Atari User Group ¢ Meeting of 9/21/96¢¢ CORRESPONDENCE: RON FETZER read a¢ letter from club member David¢ Oldfield who sent a check for $24 for¢ next year. Another letter was from¢ club member LARRY TISCHBEIN in¢ Pennsylvania who thanks Ron for¢ helping him with his wordfind game¢ and for sending him Dotmagic to make¢ labels. We got a letter from the¢ Plainview/Old Bethpage Public Library¢ asking who the club president is, the¢ secretary and our address. Ron sent¢ them this information. We have a new¢ member from Covetry, England named¢ RUTINA. Ron sent all of them the¢ newsletter, library and Welcome Disks¢ and everything else that they¢ needed.¢¢ ALAN SHARKIS read a letter he¢ received from JOHN POWELL of Texas,¢ who got his mail very late and¢ expressed his sorrow about Alex. ¢ John wants to write an article for¢ the Newsletter about adapting¢ Nintendo joysticks for use on the¢ Atari 8-bit and he wants to know how¢ he can put a diagram into the¢ newsletter. Alan sent him some info¢ about this.¢¢ Another letter ALAN read was from our¢ friend MR. STUART MURRAY of NOSAUG. ¢ He's in the process of moving and¢ that's why we haven't received any¢ disks from him recently, but Alan has¢ a couple here to show you later. ¢ Also, there's a personal letter to¢ Alex in it with some references to¢ JOHN HARDIE.¢¢ NEW MEMBER: B. RUTYNA from Coventry,¢ England who will be a member until¢ December 1996.¢¢ REPORTS:¢¢ TREASURER'S REPORT: JACK reiterated¢ our policy that anyone who joins¢ after June pays for the following¢ year plus the number of months left¢ of the current year. We're in the¢ black. JACK noticed there has been a¢ decline in library disk sales and he¢ suggests we keep publicizing our big¢ library. HAROLD PEGLER is working on¢ Library Index Disk #4 and we'll have¢ it by the next meeting.¢¢ PAT MULVEY, President of LIAUG and¢ now a member of Ol' Hackers, was at¢ this meeting and welcomed by Jack. ¢ JACK states that we're also having a¢ problem getting the plaque to Alex's¢ family and he suggests mailing it and¢ the dinner tape to them.¢¢ AL SHARKIS showed The October issue¢ of WIRED Magazine, popular among¢ people on Internet's World Wide Web¢ but not popular among Atari people --¢ yet. Wired just ran an article¢ called The Spawn of Atari, about all¢ of the personalities who were at¢ Atari during its formative years and¢ who have now gone on to do bigger and¢ better things. This was a two-page¢ wide foldout, and the members here¢ today could see that these two pages¢ are full of text on a number of¢ personalities with diagrams showing¢ their histories. For example, the¢ article explains how in 1996, Nolan¢ Bushnell joined a venture with¢ Aritsoft International to develop a¢ series of coin-operated video games. ¢ WOW!!¢¢ An article from Newsday prompted a¢ discusson about how your skin changes¢ resistance while thinking about a¢ video game with directional control. ¢ A new product to be marketed as¢ something called Mind Drive will use¢ a device that fits around your finger¢ and detects these changes in skin¢ resistance to control the game. Some¢ games out of the ten they will¢ produce are: Mind Steer, Mind¢ Bowling, Pinball Mind, FIB Party¢ Game, Mind Flight. The company¢ involved is called, "The Other Ninety¢ Percent Technology, Inc.," and it's¢ headed by another former Atari¢ executive.¢¢ ALAN SHARKIS AND PAT MULVEY went on¢ to discuss touchscreens. These¢ devices are very expensive to buy,¢ but they're very useful if you're¢ disabled or can't use a mouse or a¢ keyboard -- you just touch the screen¢ to make a selection or move an¢ object. PAT MULVEY explained that¢ one technique they use in touchscreen¢ technology is that around the edge of¢ a tv set there'll be a plastic frame¢ with photo receptors and¢ photoemittors which create a grid of¢ 8000 points on the screen that you¢ can touch and activate. Move your¢ fingers close to the screen but don't¢ touch it to activate it. It's like a¢ key press. Other touchscreens use an¢ actual touch-sensitive surface,¢ similar to a Koala pad in concept,¢ but transparent.¢¢ JACK spoke about when he was in a¢ hospital they made menu selections¢ from a computer screen with a light¢ pen similar to the one which we've¢ used on Atari for a long time. PAT¢ explained that the light pen looks¢ for light on the screen and gets a¢ pulse from the screen then creates a¢ matching electrical pulse. The¢ program doesn't alwayS Work well. ¢ Turn the brightness up on your¢ monitor when you use a light pen for¢ best results.¢¢ AL SHARKIS, RON FETZER and HARRY¢ TUTHILL worked on discs and we thank¢ them for creating the discs.¢¢ DEMONSTRATIONS: DC.COM (Drunk¢ Chessboard) Library Disc #652 from¢ the INTERNET, and included in the ¢ newsletter was demonstrated by Alan¢ Sharkis. It looks like 3-D, and has¢ good color. There are 20-30 programs¢ of this caliber in the set that Alan¢ downloaded from Poland. Part One of¢ the series on Emulators (side 1 of¢ disk), along with Socoban and other¢ games, are featured in this month's¢ newsletter. On the other side of the¢ newsletter, an explanation of Drunk¢ Chessboard's origins can be found,¢ etc. Alan also demonstrated the¢ DOGBITE game.¢¢ RON demonstrated a disc from SLCC¢ July '96 disc (their #1407). Our¢ number will be Library Disc #653. ¢ The disk containts a game called¢ Submission among other programs, such¢ as a VCR Label Program (different¢ from another they previously¢ included) and other games called¢ "Doomed","Gauntlet", "Spelling Bee"¢ and "Thief" on side one. Side two¢ includes movie maker files from¢ Bellcom discs. He went on to¢ demonstrate the VCR Label Program,¢ explaining that it prints out on¢ paper. The program was made by Frank¢ Walters who must have joined SLCC as¢ a corresonding member or released¢ this program into the public domain.¢¢ RON then went on to demonstrate #1408¢ from August 1996 (our Library #654). ¢ There's a mailing list program on¢ side 1, a game called "Crossfire", a¢ home loan program, a poker program; ¢ on side 2 is the new "Dragon Lord",¢ an "In Memory" text file on Alex, and¢ files to accompany "Dragon Lord". ¢ Ron demonstrated the poker program¢ which he thought was the best on the¢ disk.¢¢ RON FETZER then ran a program from¢ Germany called ABBUC disc #19¢ (Library #655) which includes a game¢ called "Cultivation" on side 2, a¢ building list of parts for various¢ computers and disc drive numbers,¢ etc. for the SLT which can be ordered¢ from Germany, floppy docs, and info¢ about the clubs in Germany. Then he¢ ran a program called "A Color Picture¢ From Poland", a Harley-Davidson¢ motorcycle picture with great detail.¢ Then they looked up the prices for¢ several items and decided to buy from¢ California rather than Germany. Next¢ they looked at pictures of dogs, and¢ then other pictures of Poland with¢ good detail. Then they looked at the¢ DOS for the sector count of these¢ pictures -- the counts were not the¢ standard 62 sectors, but varied with¢ each picture file. Next we played a¢ game called "Cultivation" which is on¢ side 2 which uses gems also and that¢ was the German ABBUC disc.¢¢ BELCOM 231 and 378 (Library #656) was¢ demonstrated next: side 1 was KOALA¢ pictures and we viewed several¢ pictures which were excellent and can¢ be printed out. Side 2 only 1 out of¢ 12 programs work. These are high¢ tech demos from Germany. Next RON¢ tried Demo Stock Photo Object program¢ - same three guys as before who wrote¢ the routine. Next we tried Chaotic¢ Object program unsuccessfully.¢ Answer Object program unsuccessful¢ also.¢¢ AL SHARKIS has a Disk from NOSAUG¢ (Disk #17 replacement)(Library #657).¢ They now have 2 disks per quarter.¢ NOSAUG reviewed the Merry Xmas/Happy¢ New Year disk Turbo Basic Flyer¢ program.¢¢ Next we cancelled Library #657 and¢ replaced it with Library #635 for¢ NOSAUG Disk #17.¢¢ NOSAUG Disk #19 consists of two¢ disks: disk one side A has¢ instructions to boot with BASIC,¢ side B to boot without Basic (these¢ become library #657 and #658).¢ There are articles on adding a mouse,¢ DTP Atari 8 (2-part article), a short¢ and story, VCS, etc. We read "Adding¢ a Mouse," a text file that described¢ the multimouse program. Then we¢ tried the flip side of disc #1,which¢ contained pictures. Disc #2 side A¢ contained Font Master, Label 720, and¢ a financial calculator program. We¢ tried the Font Master program, which¢ could load a text file with up to 120¢ characters per line, load and change¢ a character set, margins, etc. Disk¢ #2 side B has three "Saddleman"¢ programs, a lot of "Levis" programs,¢ and we tried a few of them.¢¢ No door prizes were awarded at this¢ meeting.¢¢ The next meeting will be held on¢ October 19,1996.¢¢ o=o=o=o=o=¢¢
