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*---== ST REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---* """"""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine" _____________________________________ from STR Publishing Inc. """""""""""""""""" October 12, 1990 No.6.41 ======================================================================= STReport Online Magazine? Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32205 ~ 6672 R.F. Mariano Publisher - Editor _________________________________________ Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EDT BBS: 904-786-4176 USR/HST DUAL STANDARD FAX: 904-783-3319 12 AM - 6 AM EDT _________________________________________ ** F-NET NODE 350 ** 500mb Online ** STR'S owned & operated support BBS carries ALL issues of STReport Online Magazine and An International list of private BBS systems carrying STReport Online Magazine for their users enjoyment __________________________________________________________________ > 10/12/90: STReport? #6.41 The Original 16/32 bit Online Magazine! ------------------------- - The Editor's Desk - CPU Report - CPU MacNews - ATARI "Good Feelings" - PAGESTREAM 2.0 - Online Today - ZERO WAIT STATES! - NE ATARIFEST!! - STR CONFIDENTIAL * '030 ACCELERATORS - "HOT STUFF!!" * * EXTENSIVE COVERAGE-> WAACE SHOW * * CFJ'S BANQUET SPEECH! * ========================================================================== ST REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE? "Only UP-TO-DATE News and Information" -* FEATURING *- Current Events, Up to Date News, Hot Tips, and Information Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports ========================================================================== STReport's support BBS, NODE # 350 invites systems using Forem ST BBS to participate in Forem BBS's F-Net mail network. Or, call Node 350 direct at 904-786-4176, and enjoy the excitement of exchanging ideas about the Atari ST computers through an excellent International ST Mail Network. All SysOps in the F-Net are welcome to join the STR Crossnet Conference the conference code is #34813, and the "Lead Node" is #350. Join Today! ========================================================================== AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH: GENIE ~ DELPHI ~ BIX ~ F-NET ========================================================================== > The Editor's Podium? Charles Johnson's speech at the WAACE banquet delivered much more than a few humorous quips to all of us. It had a number of excellent messages in its content a few of which I felt were directly applicable to STReport and the future. I have included the speech one more to make sure everyone had a opportunity to read and re-read its eloquently delivered messages. You can bet on one thing, I let me know that the critiques of certain Atari execs got old fast. And that the use of a certain 'nickname' accomplished nothing more than obtain a few smirks from those who knew the meanings of the "cutesies" If any of the execs involved were personally offended, STReport then owes an apology for that situation. And does take the opportunity at this time to apologize for the use of the nickname. (I gave my word not to use it again) The WAACE Show is behind us and it was a GREAT show. They really outdid themselves this year. The coverage this week is slanted more toward the impressions the show made on the writers. The actual reports on the various pieces of hardware and software will be forthcoming. The SLM 605 and a number of rather nifty TT type goodies including the new monitors made their way to WAACE... hmm what was in the 'tan' cartons? As always, thanks a bunch for all your fine support!! Ralph...... PIRACY IS KILLING THE ST MARKET TOO! *********************************************************************** NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY COMPUSERVE WILL PRESENT $15.00 WORTH OF COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE TIME to the Readers of; STREPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE? """""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine" NEW USERS; SIGN UP TODAY! CALL: 1-800-848-8199 .. Ask for operator 198 You will receive your complimentary time and be online in no time at all! NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE WHAT'S NEW IN THE ATARI FORUMS ------------------------------ CONFERENCE WITH LEXICOR The Atari Arts Forum will be sponsoring a national online conference with Lexicor Software on Thursday, October 18th. The time will be an- nounced shortly. WAACE ATARIFEST The WAACE show was a big success. Details of the event can be found in LIBRARY 1 of the Atari Arts Forum in the following files: WAACE.TXT, WAACE2.TXT, and STR640-1.ARC. Many thanks to Scott Lapham for reporting on WAACE for the Atari Forums! DESKTOP PUBLISHING COMPARISON CALCOM.ARC is available in ISD Marketing's Library (LIBRARY 17) of the Atari Vendors Forum. This file contains a DTP comparison that is based on all the reviews done by all the major publications that overlook Calamus. NEW SYSOP FOR ST FORUMS Please join us in welcoming Bob Retelle to the sysop staff of the Atari Forums. Bob has been a very big contributor to the Atari community for many years and comes to us with his vast experience and knowledge of the Atari ST and Atari community. Bob will continue to use his current User ID, 71550,3312, until his new sysop number is assigned. ANNOUNCING THE DEBUT OF START ONLINE! We're pleased to announce that START ONLINE is now live and available for use. Just enter GO START at any CompuServe service prompt to access it. This first update includes new feature articles, survey results, reviews, and an updated User Group listing. Lots more coming soon!! NEW PRODUCTS FROM CODEHEAD ANNOUNCED IN ATARIVEN The folks at CodeHead Software are pleased to announce a new product for your ST - CodeKeys, the Macro Tool! CodeKeys lets you automate any task by recording all key and mouse button presses and playing them back with precise timing, or as fast as possible. See file CKDEM2.ARC in LIBRARY 16 of the Atari Vendors Forum for a demo version of CodeKeys with docs on how to get it running. CodeHead Software are also proud to announce LookIt! & PopIt!, by Doug Harrison! Demo versions of both programs, with a text file explaining how to set things up, is available in LIBRARY 16 of the Atari Vendors Forum as LPDEMO.ARC. *********************************************************************** > WAACE SHOW 1990! STR SHOW NEWS? Comprehensive Reports ============================== "THE SHOW OF SHOWS!" ==================== by R.F. Mariano For weeks I had been hearing the apprehension of many folks relating to the successes of the remaining shows for 1990. And after the "bottom line" reports trickled in from the west coast, the was good reason for concern as to how the "Premier Event on the East Coast" would fare. As I stepped into the Reston International Inn at about noon, I couldn't help but wonder if the guys at WAACE had bit off a bit more than they could ever chew. "This place is laid out very nicely", I thought to myself as I walked the semi-circular perimeters of the show areas. The more I looked the entire floor plan over, the more excited I became. The people flow will be perfect and the exposure for everything will be equal, I thought to myself. Friday evening rolled around and I finally caught up with Bob Brodie who graciously took the time to bring me up to date. After my visit with Bob, I met Gordon Monnier, of MichTron, in the main lobby of the hotel and joined him for dinner. Well, the tables (specially arranged) actually wound up seating over twenty people directly across the dining room from Dave Small's entourage of an equal number. I knew, at this time, judging from everyone's upbeat attitude, that this was gonna be a great show. The welcoming party, had in attendance the who's who of the Atari Community. As always the developers and the folks commonly known as the movers and the shakers in the Atari world kept this party humming until the wee hours of the morning. Saturday morning couldn't have come any quicker. After breakfast, I found my way to the main show areas and as if miraculously, everything was setup and looking great! GEnie's display was adjacent to Atari's and were the grand hallway's main attraction. Aladdin, written by Tim Purves of Michtron, was being shown by Neil Harris, Darlah Hudson, Jeff Williams and JJ Kennedy at the GEnie booth. Aladdin for the ST is GEnie's soon to be released term program for navigating GEnie quickly and economically for all Atari ST users. As will be said many times this show was great!! When one ambled through the crowd, or should I say allowed the crowd's flow to move one along, the action at every booth was quite strong. I decided that with the enormity of the crowd and the not wanting to bug the vendors during their busy time, I went about seeing the peripheral displays. They inclu- ded the emulator room, the midi room, the usergroup room, the swap meet room and last but not least the LYNX room. All the rooms were also busy but the Lynx room was dyn-o-mite! To watch the faces on the youngsters as they attempted to achieve high scores was treat in itself. The depths on concentration reach obviously were unknown to mankind until that day. Elsewhere in this issue is a copy of Charles Johnson's Banquet Speech is presented for your reading enjoyment it was a true highlight of the evening if not this year. Through the course of the next few weeks STReport will be presenting extensive reviews and reports of the excellent products that were avail- able at WAACE. ctsy GEnie WAACE ATARIFEST '90 FROM THE INSIDE ----------------------------------- by John Barnes I'm sorry that our friends on GEnie have not gotten much more on the doings in Reston, VA, last weekend. Those, like Darlah and Jeff who were working the event, were much too busy to post anything, as there were things happening pretty much (in my own case too much) around the clock. Unfortunately I was too busy helping to keep things running smoothly to spend much time at the rear of the crowds gathered around the vendors' and developers' booths trying to understand the things that were being shown. You could say that I missed the Fest. Russ Brown has the attendance figures. More than one vendor told me at the end of Saturday that they had done more business in that one day than they had in the four days of San Jose and Glendale combined. It was Christmas in October for the folks in the East. There were often four or five demonstrations or seminars going at the same time. The MIDI room especially attracted more attention than in previous years, largely through the good offices of Jim Pierson-Perry. The game room revolved heavily around Lynx. The swap room supposedly did quite well. One repeated comment from vendors concerned the demeanor of the crowd. The folks were said to be in a good mood. No doubt this encouraged them to dig deeper into their pockets. It was especially nice to see some different faces from Atari. People like John Townsend, Ken Badertscher, Cary Gee, J. Patton, and John Morales left very good impressions. The entire appearance of the thing, from GEnie's and Atari's booths, to the sales floor, on out to the surroundings, left an impression of tidiness and comfort that certainly must have contributed to an upbeat feeling. As I started out to solicit vendors for the event some people gave me a lot of heat about the jump in booth prices. Other people signed on willingly and worked cooperatively with us. In the end, by taking advantage of discounts for early signup and booth sharing, the typical vendor got his package of booth space and advertising for around $450. Some of the people who squawked the most paid much more to exhibit elsewhere with less return. Those who were late coming aboard experienced some problems because we could not got information to them in time. The Sheraton Reston is a little remote from the hurly-burly of Washington, which may have encouraged folks to stay close to the hotel and enjoy each others' company. Perhaps the biggest blunder that we as organizers made were the inhumane hours for the sales area. 10 am to 5 pm each day should be long enough. be able to relax and clean up a bit before the cocktail hour and banquet. Exhibitors would also be less rushed in tearing down to make their outgoing plane connections. Some people who failed to read the documentation or, who signed on too late too receive it found some mechanical surprises awaiting them upon arrival. The need to pay extra for chairs in their booths was a big source of irritation, but I suspect that one only needs to be more careful about warning people about that in the future. The baseline configuration that we offered was a minimum one. Those who need extra services should pay more. People were free to bring their own chairs and not everyone needed chairs. Smoking control was another glitch that would be hard to remedy without a corps of proctors to politely remind people of the "No Smoking" rule. A few of the booth inhabitants had some problems with this. We suffered a serious shortage of "Sherpas" to do things like moderate the seminars and demo rooms. It is a real problem when someone in a local user group essentially misses the show because he is contributing to it for two solid days, as some of our people did. On the whole, however, the demo rooms were well visited because they were right in the main flow of things and there was plenty happening. There was room for many more demos, and perhaps users from far away should be encouraged to contribute to these in the future. One aspect of these events that is not mentioned often enough is the "Woodstock" aura. People who travels for miles and miles to book into a hotel for the weekend are not doing it simply to pick up bargains. They believe in what they are doing and they pursue each scrap of knowledge avidly. Many are from areas where there are few other users and rubbing elbows with fellow Atarians may be a kind of reaffirmation of the faith. From our standpoint we had to get some heavy education in the realities of upgrading from a high school social to a trade show atmosphere. People who handle these things have professional tricks all their own, and we had to pick up some of these by total immersion. The only people who complained were a couple of locals to whom nothing is ever satisfactory. I think the admission charge filtered out most of these people, leaving those who took what they were doing seriously. There was a lot of talk about "next year", and it would be nice to have something similar. Over the next few weeks WAACE will be reviewing our performance and examining other options. We would like to hear from you about locations, timing, fees, etc. The WAACE team has worked to improve its formula over the years, with the result that this was a reasonably polished, if imperfect effort. Experience and practice in an arena close to home would seem to be key indicators of success in these efforts. Similarly, timing is important because people seem to plan way ahead for these affairs. I have been given to understand that Atari is looking at the possibility of doing a major East Coast show themselves. It would be nice to have a truly collaborative effort between user groups and Atari in something like this. If, however, such an effort is to succeed, the time to start is now. Thanks to the many people who said such nice things about the show. WAACE - A REAL WINNER! ====================== by Dan Stidham Whether or not Atari Corp would openly admit it, the WAACE Atarifest '90 was almost universally looked upon as a bench mark for the future success of Atari's ST/TT line of computers in the United States. Although to say it was 'do or die' time might have been overrating the importance of this premier east coast Atari event, many developers were looking to WAACE to provide an accurate barometer on the health of the US marketplace so as to take appropriate action in mapping out future strategies. I'm quite sure that Russ Brown, J.D. Barnes, Charles Smeton and the volunteer corps of WAACE were well aware that this show would somehow blossom to full maturity before the eyes of a hopeful and loyal Atari community nationwide. The stage was set. After being excluded from the Adult Education Program that they had previously taken advantage of to stage previous WAACE shows at a local high school, WAACE organizers went ahead boldly with plans to move the show to a hotel convention center, the Sheraton Reston International Center. Talk about turning lumps of coal into diamo- nds or lemons into lemonade. Twenty-thousand square feet of exhibition space, 950 free parking spots(the State of Virginia has a law that every room has to have its own parking spot), 500 rooms, tennis and basketball courts, picnic areas surrounded by lush vegetation, nautilus, swimming, an extremely friendly and helpful staff, etcetera. You could almost hear the orchestra pit tuning up and the audience murmuring expectantly just before the curtains rise. The show was a smashing success, critically acclaimed by the most finicky of prognosticators. Over 3600 Atari faithful made the pilgrimage and lined the pockets of those with a stake, not only with good to excel- lent sales but with, more importantly, renewed hope in the vitality and verve of the market place. Most developers, at least the ones I spoke with, were very satisfied with the response. I spied Charles Johnson and John Eidsvoog of Codehead Software, producing extra copies of their hot new product, CodeKeys, on the fly to meet exceeding customer demand--and this on the first day of the show. Charles reported great sales. Chet Walters of WizWorks Software declared that the show exceeded all goals and expectations he had set for WizWorks, and that he and his staff now face the interesting dilemma of either retiring on the profits or con- tinuing to churn out great software for the fun of it (just kidding). WizWorks and Dr. Bobware were demoing the sensational MugShot and MVG, the graphics manipulation tool extraordinaire. Gribnif Software reported brisk sales of Neodesk 3. Although it is not being distributed as of yet nationwide, for the WAACE show Gribnif made special arrangements with Toad Computers to sell show special copies at fifty dollars apiece. Upon arrival at the Sheraton Reston on friday evening, WAACE organi- zers held a special reception in a small banquet room for vendors and developers. The show itself encompassed all of the 20,000 square feet of convention exhibition area as there were no other events scheduled for the weekend. This meant that the entire convention wing was filled with developer booths, demonstration rooms for such computing specialties as MIDI, DTP, games, etc. WAACE handed out attractively laid out and bound programs for showgoers. In this program they had a professionally rendered layout of the entire show, pointing out areas of interest to the showgoer. Atari's presence was very strong and not just confined to a large main display area where they demo'ed the STe, the Mega ST4 DTP workstation, an Atari PC with a portfolio card drive attached, and several Lynxes. They had one of the smaller meeting rooms set-up as a complete Lynx playground with several stations set-up around the room, attractively and profes- sionally designed. At each station two children/adults could play individ- ually or compete via the ComLynx cable. This was a very busy room. Atari also put on two seminars, one with User Group Coordiantor and Vice Presid- ent Bob Brodie and another very interesting and revealing seminar with the software development team of John Townsend, Ken Badertscher, and Cary Gee. Ken revealed to a packed room the intricacies that are involved in releas- ing a new version of TOS. He also came out of the closet with the dope on the STe bug, TOS 1.6 booting problems, and other faux pas. The talk was humorous and revealed a very human side to the technical goings on at Atari. Ken, Gary and John came across very personably, willing to answer ALL questions and showed great personality throughout. GEnie unveiled Aladdin for the Atari ST and was giving demos constant- ly, explaining its completely GEM driven interface. Timothy Purves, the author of the ST version of Aladdin, did alot of the demos himself and revealed that the project had been three months in the making and would be completely ready for downloading by the end of the second week of October. Let me say this and maybe it will sum up the impact of this release--from what I saw, telecommunicating has finally befriended the friend of the user, the graphical interface, GEM on the Atari ST. Nearly every application for use on the ST has a thoroughbred GEM entry into the marketplace, and with Aladdin, modeming wears the GEM ring also. Understand that Aladdin isn't merely a navigator for use with your exis- ting telecommunications software package, its a complete modeming tool whose many powerful tools include built-in zmodem protocol (how about that!). Darlah Pine, Jeff Williams, JJ Kennedy, and Neil Harris were also on hand to demo Aladdin and man a large booth in the main hall that also included aerial modem battles and other features of GEnie and its Star Services. Best Electronics was there selling their usual potpourri of electronic parts to repair or enhance your present ST system. Of note they also were selling the Megamater Cable by Sprokits, a cable that allows a 520 to be attached to a Mega ST keyboard by unplugging the internal keyboard from its connector and plugging in the Megamater cable with the Mega ST telep- hone jack on the other end. Frontier Software came all the way from Britain and was displaying and selling their X-tra Ram memory expansion module as well as their Forget me Clock, a cartridge clock that allows for attachment of another cart via a pass through port. I found the ram expansion board particularly interes- ting. Its installation appeared completely painless with no soldering and after selling 8,000 of these units in Europe they reported no problems. Show special on the expansion board to 2.5 megs was $79, regular price being $89. Gadgets by Small was present and showing their 68030 expansion board up close and personal. They had it installed in a Mega ST and had the cover off so that showgoers could inspect it to their hearts content. A unfortunate accident erased programs on a hard disk that was loaded with programs designed to show its compatibility, but I was able to boot up my newly purchased Wordflair program and it ran flawlessly. Doug Wheeler who helped man the booth with Dave and Sandy Small, stated that the 68030 board, dubbed the 68030 SST, may be out by the end of the year or early next year. It boasts 12 megabytes fastRAM turning your Mega into a Mega 12, that's at the optimum as its memory expansion function allows 8 more megabytes, boosting your Mega 4 to 12. Gadgets claimed that most programs written for the St will run, by and large, just fine on the 68030 SST. Fast Technology's Jim Allen was also there showing Turbo 16 and his own 68030 expansion module. Jim's expansion module will require Turbo 16 to operate. Speaking of Turbo 16, Jim had good news for Moniterm and other large screen monitor owners. Turbo 16 will now cache screen memory for the larger screen monitors off of the solo expansion port inside the Mega. Jim reported that the speed increase is incredible. I'm getting it in about two weeks and I'll let you know how it turned out. Charles Smeton was also demonstrating his new Joppafax modem at an incredibly low price of $139 for the modem, fax capabilities and software to run the fax. Presently the fax only sends documents. Some of the many incredible features are drivers for PageStream, Calamus and other apps that allows the document to be saved in a faxable format. And all of this for the price of the modem! Charles announced that soon, his product would have receiving capabilities for an upgrade cost of $80. I saw many people taking Charles up on his product and purchasing it. Good luck with this one Charles. Looks like a real winner. Of course there were the usual other faithful developers showing their latest updates and releases. It seemed as though anyone who was anyone as a developer, with few exceptions, was present in banquet room G at the Sheraton Reston this past weekend. ICD was showing its line of AdScsi adapters and their new AdSpeed ST accelerator. ICD promises to support it until, as they say in their literature passed out at the show, it will be the best of its kind, it will be a good value and it will be fully and enthusiastically supported. Its installation promises no jumper wires, no mouse, I/O or blitter conflicts, software selectable speed adjustments(on the fly), and many other features, including full compatibility with everything under the Atari sun (excluding those tenacious 8 bit machines of course). Goldleaf was there with Lauren Sellers and Craig Daymon, demoing Wordflair and giving hints about their impending Wordflair II release. Before I shove off I thought I might mention that Atari was giving attractive Lynx tee shirts away for the asking. They were also passing out little balsam wood airplanes with the words, "Atari Flying High" printed on them. My two little girls gave a big thumbs up to them and felt that they were a good omen of things to come--but what do two little girls know? More encouraging was the giant thumbs up given by nearly 4,000 showgoers in the direction of the faithful core of developers in the US. Til next time! ctsy GEnie THIS SHOW WAS GREAT! -------------------- by Dave Small Hi, we're just back Wednesday night from the show. (We took a few days to tourist DC. Monday was a little slow; lots of things were closed with the budget fiasco, but we did okay.) The show's a blur to me; I never can figure out how people write such coherent summaries of it. One minute spent demoing the 030, one minute a Mac CD-ROM drive, another wiping up a Pepsi that Jennifer spilled, another firing up the Tesla Coil and drawing a three inch arc to my finger (that's a head-turner, I tell ya ... Bob Brodie looked downright pale. Didn't even volunteer!). Just a bundle of impressions. THIS SHOW WAS GREAT! The WAACE show has always been a major upper for me -- this is my fourth or fifth year, and the *people* are so psyched and enthusiastic that it's great. I said last year it was my favorite show of them all, and that hasn't changed. That's why I went to some trouble and brought a Tesla Coil; I burned up a hundred or so dollars of 811-A tubes ($25 a pop) doing the demos. But I'd written about Tesla in Current Notes, the WAACE area magazine, and figured also the people there deserved some- thing special. BTW, my thanks to Ralph Mariano for pointing out I was melting down a plate in a tube; turns out Ralph's an old radio hacker and knows this stuff. Let's see. Lauren was patiently demonstrating Wordflair over and over -- and brought some wickedly good after-show Scotch that saved me on Sunday. It was good to see Jim Allen and his brother Garrett as well; we had a lovely chat about an SS396 Camaro and how to restore its engine. The DoubleClick guys were right next to us clicking away; we even tried a double-clicker in the Tesla Coil. Whups. The Codeheads were awesome as usual, and Charles Johnson's speech at the banquet was excellent; a lot of work went into it. L&Y (dealer) looked very busy, Frontier from England was there having fun, Dave Link and others from HiSoft hopped the Atlantic to show up (!!), saw many familiar faces, from Nathan to John Morales to Darlah to Jeff Williams to Jeff Greenblatt to Ron Luks to Joe Waters to ... The place was pretty crowded Saturday -- hard to get around -- and far harder to get around after I fired up the Tesla Coil (it took awhile to "debug" a bad tube.) Really drew a crowd, that did. Sunday the crowd was lighter, but very steady, and gave people a chance to talk with vendors, not just glance quickly in the crowd. We showed an ST running a Mac CD-ROM drive (620 meg of software), a TT running Spectre, a 68030 @ 18 mhz w/ 8 meg RAM extra ("Mega 12"), and the Tesla Coil. Things blur in my mind ... it is one long, long, long airline flight back to Denver with two kids, I'll tell you. I'll bet the Atari guys were wrecked. Many of them came and they did a good session on Atari's stuff. A weekend full of positives and without negatives. Such a deal! My thanks to the people that threw this bash, the people who came, and everyone who made it such a good time. I guess next stop is Comdex, huh? -- thanks, Dave / Gadgets _____________________________________________________________ > CHARLES JOHNSON'S BANQUET SPEECH A true high point of the show! ================================ CFJ's BANQUET SPEECH ==================== Good evening, ladies and gentlemen (and Atari fanatics -- who may or may not fit into either of the above categories). I hope everyone's enjoying the show so far, and enjoying your dinners. A lot of chickens and cows made the supreme sacrifice so that we might dine well tonight, and I'd like a minute of silence in their honor. Well, OK. Maybe not a whole minute. When I first came up with a concept for the speech tonight, I was going to draw a complicated parallel between the Atari saga and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. I pictured Jim Allen as the White Rabbit (if you know Jim, you'll know what a funny image that is...Jim in a bunny suit...), Dave Small as the Mad Hatter, and maybe Sam Tramiel as the Cheshire Cat. As I thought about it some more I realized that Atari itself would make the perfect Alice....only when she got to the part where she had to drink the potion to make her larger, she read the labels wrong and accidentally kept drinking the one that made her smaller, and smal- ler...and smaller... Anyway, as I thought about this some more, I started to realize that pointing out mistakes we all know about (and there are many) doesn't really do much to help our situation in the Atari community. And besides, I couldn't think of a good person to use for that caterpillar guy that smokes the hookah. This last year has been a very hard one for Atari users and develop- ers; there were several months at the beginning of the year when absolute- ly NO product was coming out of Sunnyvale, and many dealers were forced to close their doors because they simply couldn't get computers to sell. At the Glendale show last month, I talked to a charming old gentleman who bought a T-shirt from us. He explained that he would have loved to buy something else, but he had no money to spare....because the Atari store he used to work at had closed, and he had lost his job. He looked at me with sad eyes and said, "I'm sure you know what I mean." So what does help our situation? Sarcastic tirades against Atari execs? endless conferences on Genie? a bottle of great chardonnay? Well, all of these things have their place, but I'm not sure they're going to solve anything. It seems to me that what the Atari world needs more than ever right now is a clear vision of the future. There are some developments on the horizon that are going to pose great challenges for Atari in the months to come. Apple has awoke from its long, sated slumber and decided that they just might be interested in the home market after all; they've announced no less than three new low-cost Macintoshes, starting at about $1000. Steve Jobs has announced a new model of the NeXT computer that will have a color display, and sell for a much lower price. And of course, Windows 3.0 is making rapid strides toward a total takeover of the IBM world. The unique quality of the Atari line of computers has always been its combination of a high performance, user-friendly interface (the GEM operating system) with a very low price tag. But both of these advantages may soon be stripped away, because the big boys have woken up and noticed our niche. It remains to be seen whether Atari is going to be able to muster the combination of planning, dedication, and vision that it will need to even hold on to its present small share of the market. Perhaps the new leadership will be able to get things back on track...and perhaps not. Unfortunately, my crystal ball gets very cloudy when I ask it this question. Many Atari developers are starting to look at other platforms for their products, and my company, CodeHead Software, is no exception. We're working on Mac and PC versions, not because we love those systems (we don't), but because of simple economics, and the simple need to keep putting food on the table. We're NOT planning to abandon the Atari market...but it's gotten harder and harder to stay in business, with all of our eggs in one basket. Atari still does have one edge left, however...the incredible loyalty and dedication of its users. You won't find a more passionate group of computer users on any other platform; Atari people care about their computer, they care about the decisions made in Sunnyvale, and they're not reluctant to say so....loudly and in as many places as possible. So what does loyalty and dedication have to do with Big Business? How can our passion translate into useful effective choices that serve both the users and the manufacturer? What does involvement and commitment mean in the bigger picture? There are some signs that things may be changing on the Atari side. There's a new president (Elie Kenan), who just may turn out to be the new broom that sweeps clean. There are rumors of new product announcements coming at Comdex that will surprise the industry the same way the announ- cement of the ST surprised everyone back in 1985. And Atari seems to be much more committed to its developer support program than at any time in the past. On the software developer's side, one important occurrence has been the formation of the Independent Association of Atari Developers (known as the IAAD). This group shows promise of becoming an invaluable resource for software manufacturers, giving them a forum for discussion of issues, a united voice with which to speak to Atari, and a way to approach some of the problems that still plague our community....like the grim spectre of software piracy. It seems that there just might be hope for a mutually supportive environment to develop. What we, as Atari users, can do to help this happen is to keep speaking out, to keep protesting when we feel something is wrong, and to keep coming up with ideas and suggestions to help Atari along the road to success. The past year may have been rough...but the coming year is gonna be a doozy! Atari's going to have to be very quick on its feet to survive the Apple and IBM market blitzes that are imminent. Apathy has never been a problem...at least on the user's side. But now, it's more important than ever for each and every one of us to think carefully about our own personal commitment to Atari, and our own vision of its future....and to speak out about it, loudly and sincerely. So in closing, I'd like to leave you with a short prayer. Our users, who art in Germany Vanishing be thy name Thy TT come, thy Lynx be fun If you can find a local dealer Purchase this day our daily disk And forgive us our bugs As we disembowel those who pirate our software Lead us not into Cupertino But deliver us from evil MS-DOS For thine is the Fuji And the power without the price For ever and ever (or until the warranty expires) Return. *********************************************************************** :HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT: _________________________________ To sign up for GEnie service: Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN. **** SIGN UP FEE WAIVED **** The system will now prompt you for your information. -> NOW! GENIE STAR SERVICE IS IN EFFECT!! <- *********************************************************************** > PageStream 2.0 STR FOCUS? "Version 2.0 is a major upgrade" ======================== PAGESTREAM 2.0 ============== by Brad Martin Note, the following is a preview of PageStream 2.0. Currently PageStream 2.0 is only available on the Amiga, but the ST/TT version is being worked on and should become available in three to four months. PageStream, for those not familiar with it, is one of the two major Desktop Publishing programs for the Atari ST/TT (Calamus is the other). There have been a number of upgrades to PageStream over the years, the current version is 1.82, but these mostly have been bug fixes, with lim- ited new features added. Version 2.0 is more of a major upgrade, with many new features added, along with a few bugs stomped, and on overall increase of the speed of the program. The most important advancement in PageStream 2.0 is support for AGFA Compugraphic's hinted outline fonts and Adobe Type 1 IBM format (without hints). With Compugraphic fonts, your output will appear crisp and clean. Combining this with on screen display of the outline fonts, PageStream is much closer to true WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). PageStream 2.0 incorporates AGFA's Bullet outline font technology, a faster version of the Intellifont technology. The intelligence in AGFA's font outlines ensures that typefaces look good even at low and medium resolutions. This gives quality type on inexpensive dot-matrix printers, and takes the HP Deskjet, HPLaserJet, and Atari SLM804 to new heights. Both the screen and printed output looks great at 6 points to over 600 points. The collection of typefaces included with PageStream allow for varying styles to become truly powerful in print. CS Times Roman, Bold, Italic and Bold Italic, CS Triumvirate, Bold, and Garamond Antiqua, Kur- sive, Halbfett and Kursiv Halbfett make-up the collection Soft-Logik has licensed from Compugraphic. For further typefaces, you can use any Adobe Type 1 IBM compatible typeface library and convert the files to Amiga format. PageStream 2.0 has also added Bezier Curves to it's extensive graphics tools. This allows you to have smooth curves (which text will wrap around) in your document. PageStream's graphics tools are powerful enough that for graphs, diagrams, and simple pictures, you don't need another program. And of course Postscript (and Ultrascript) is still supported. The speed of the program has also been improved. Screen refresh rate is a lot faster. And printout speed is also improved. This is a very big upgrade to PageStream. It is vastly improved over the older versions of PageStream, with plenty of new features too make upgrading worth the money. If you are an owner of PageStream do upgrade, and if you are shopping around for a Desktop Publishing program take a good look at this program. Below, is a partial list of PageStream's features: * Definable tabs * Print color separations * Cut, copy, paste * Import most graphic files * Import most text formats * Supports nearly all printers * Search and replace by attributes * Tiling of pages for posters * Create columns on multiple pages * Long document page manipulation * Undo command * Display and print Compugraphic * User edited snap to grid and guides * Intellifont and Adobe Type 1 fonts included * Rulers showing cursor position * Text size .01 pts to over 200' * Definable view options 15-1500% * Eleven scalable fonts included * FULL Zoom features * Full Text & graphics editing * User-definable super and subscripts * 100 levels of greyscale * Text justification commands * Multi-line styles & widths * Leading to .01 points * Tracking to .0001 ems * Full-color ability & color printer support * Auto or manual kerning to .0001 ems * Full tag and style sheet capability * User edited coordinate control for all objects * Save documents as templates * Auto or manual hyphenation * Object alignment feature * Spell checking * Rotation three ways in .01 degree increments * Text flow around irregular graphics * Full Macro Implementation * Duplication feature with definable offsets * Complete PostScript support including Adobe Type 1 typefaces * Reshape command * Definable "bleed area * Bezier cubic curves * Up to 1,000 pages per document The Suggested Retail Price is: $299.95 Soft-Logik can be reached at: Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation P.O Box 290070 St. Louis, MO 63129 Voice Phone: (800) 829-8608 or (314) 894-8608 BBS: (314) 894-0057 ___________________________________________________________ > 030 ACCELERATORS STR InfoFile? 68030 Accelerators "ON THE MOVE!" ============================= FAST TECHNOLOGY'S ENTRY ======================= ctsy GEnie 030030030030030 030030030030030 030030030030030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030030030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030 030030030030030 030030030030030 030030030030030 !!!!!!! ! ! !!! !!! !!! !!!! !!!! !!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !- !- ! ! ! ! -! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!! ! ! !!! !!! !!!! !!!! !!!! FAST TECHNOLOGY IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE TURBO030!!! by Jim Allen TURBO030 is a 68030 based accelerator for the Atari ST. TURBO030 is desig- ned to fit in a MegaST or any ST placed in a "PC" style case. TURBO030 has the following features: * 32Kbytes of 30ns CMOS Cache Ram * 100ns TOS roms (25Mhz) or 45ns TOS roms (33-50Mhz) * Motorola 68030 CPU and optional 68881/2 FPU * Available in 25Mhz, 33Mhz, and 50Mhz versions...user upgradeable. * Includes 68000 chip for backward compatibility * TOS 1.6 modified to work with TURBO030 exclusively. * 32bit expansion bus...for heaven knows what ;-) * $999 US for base 25Mhz system. TURBO030 uses static ram caching just like T16 to provide the largest speedup at the lowest cost. TOS is held in superfast eproms that allow 0 wait state acces at all speeds. The cache is also 0 wait state at all speeds, and makes the most of your current memory investment. TURBO030 is the culmination of 3 years of work developing the premiere speed upgrade to the ST computer line. TURBO030 has been designed to be as compatible as possible to the ST while providing serious acceleration. Most current productivity SW, including all the major titles, are com- patible with TURBO030 and immediately take advantage of the acceleration. TURBO030 has a full 32bit expansion bus that allows future enhancements to the board, like high speed video and 32 bit ram. TURBO030 is an system that is designed to be upgradeable in both clock speed and features by the user. TURBO030 is designed to work up to 50Mhz and reflects the knowledge and experience that Fast Technology has gained in providing the premiere 68000 based ST accelerator. When there is a NEED for SPEED, call Fast Tech!!! The TURBO030 has been tuned to compliment the current crop of HI-RES video boards and greatly enhances both the ISAC and Moniterm boards. TURBO030 also works with the Supercharger and ATSpeed. As with T16, TURBO030 is manufactured with the latest state-of-the-art surfacemount techniques that ensure longterm reliability and reduce both size and cost. TURBO030 has been designed to be installed in Meag STs that use the ICD internal HDrive kit, and is completely compatible with all ST hard drive systems. TURBO030 allows the Atari BLITTER chip to reach its' true performance potential providing unparalleled graphics performance. Benchmarks will be posted soon, units will be available as of NOV 1. The installation is equivalent to the T16 in difficulty, we do recommend a dealers assistance for the inexperienced. TURBO030 is OUR answer to YOUR speed enhancement needs. I will have an upgrade policy for those who have been kind enough to purchase my products. The TURBO030 comes with 32K of cache ram designed to run full blast all the way up to 50Mhz. We do no have ram on the board because we wanted to provide the maximum speedup for your current ram investment, a 32bit ram board will be available in the future but awaits Atari's publishing of the complete TT ram allocation mechanism. Additional ram, NON-ST ram entails a number of basic incompatibilities that require SW patches. The ST was designed around the ram system, so DMA, VIDEO, and BLITTER activit- ies are all focused on the ST's 4Meg of ram. The caching design allows TURBO030 to get the most out of the current system with no incompatibilit- ies other than those an 030 chip itself presents. Going to 32bit non ST ram is a featured that has been introduced with the TT computer and en- tails extended BIOS calls that allow programs to load into the new ram. The TURBO030 was designed with the intention that an "optional feature" board would be made once the specs on this mechanism have been released. High speed 32bit ram is expensive so we have made the TURBO030 provide a serious speed increase without it, at a later date the user can upgrade to a ram?? board when the budget permits. We also felt it important to have a very low profile board that would fit in the system under any addon Mega expansion cards, and under an internal hard drive as these items are popular among our targeted market. The TURBO030 is also totally CMOS construction that uses only half again as much power as the original 68000 chip. The 68000 chip used for compatability is also CMOS. The ST power supply is only suited for a certain level of addons and a large chunk of ram will lead to a need for a beefier 3rd party power supply. Luckily, Best Electronics is selling just such a power supply so the ST's lack of power capacity has been addres- sed. For anyone considering purchasing a Moniterm Monitor for use with any accelerators, I would suggest buy an ImageSystems monochrome monitor and a Matrix adapter card from Germany. The Matrix card is totally CMOS and adds little load to the power supply. It even has a graphic accelerator chip on it for use with Calamus!!! ADDITIONALLY; for the 16MHZ ACCELERATOR BUFFS.... Here are the latest T16 benchmarks, using QINDEX 2.1 from Darek Mihocka of Branch Always Software, performed at the WAACE show: Mega4,tos1.4,monochrome T16 ADSpeed ---- ----- 164 164 204 204 register 203 203 divide 207 207 shift 167 161 text 155 158 string 139 114 scroll 207 166 draw Mega4,1.4,monochrome,TurboST 1.8 T16 ADSpeed ---- ----- 164 164 memory 204 204 register 203 203 divide 207 207 shift 535 521 text 1981 2001 string 144 137 scroll 470 438 draw This should make Gordon happy as he was interested in the benchmarks for the T16. The minor differences are due to different custom chips in the machines, IMP vs Ricoh. For your added convenience and information, I post the speeds for the T16 on the Moniterm and ISAC boards in mono (duo) chrome mode: T16 T16 + TST1.8 --- --- 164 164 memory 204 204 register 203 203 divide 207 207 shift 172 552 text 158 2197 string 31 31 scroll 190 468 draw ---==="""""===--- ctsy GEnie THE GADGETS 68030 ================= From G. Richardson The Gadgets 68030 is currently a Mega only expansion board that repla- ces the 68000 in your machine. Remove the 68000, put in a socket, pull the TOS chips from the motherboard and plug in the '030. No other wires or connections are required. There is no "68000 compatiblity mode", although most stuff that doesn't depend on the 68000 stack size should work. For those of you with 520's, 1040's and Ste's, after this board is on the market, Gadgets hopes to market reduced implementations for your machines. Now the specs: The board is completely asynchronous to the ST bus, which means we can run it from a minimum of about 16.2mhz anywhere up to a possible max of 33mhz. At the time of the show we only had 16 mhz 68030 chips, but were running them at 18.4mhz. More speed, more cost seems to be the only limit so far. The board has TOS 1.6 on board. Atari has commited to licensing TOS 1.6 to Gadgets for use in the board. This is required because earlier TOS's we re not processor independent. The board has a socket for a 68881/68882 math coprocessor. There is also a full 32 bit expansion bus connector on the card. Unlike the TT which has only a 16 bit VME bus, the '030 has a connector which brings all the 68030 processor signals out for use by expansion boards. I'm afraid to talk about all the ideas that have been proposed for using this bus. Now the gotcha: The board has no cache outside of that inside the processor. Why? Because it can have up to 8 megabytes of high speed ram that supports 68030 burst mode for up to 0 (yes ZERO) wait states! This is the equivalent of the TT FastRam. It cannot support video or DMA (same as TT) but any programs run from Fast ram are more than just fast. Let's say that you're running at exactly 16 mhz and your freind has a 16 mhz 68000 board with cache. Both boards have a clock cycle of 62.5 ns. The 68000 board requires 4 clocks for one access. Assuming that all the information required is in the cache, to access 4 long words (32 bit wide) would take 32 clocks or 2000 ns. On the 68030 board only 2 clocks are required for an access to the 32 bit wide fast ram. And in burst mode the next 3 accesses can be done in 1 clock each! So, with one wait state on the 1st access (3 clock- s) and no waits on the next 3, (3 more clocks) the total access time would be 6 clocks or 375 ns! That's 5.33 times as fast as ANY 68000 accelerator at the same clock speed (and the board can go more than twice as fast as the fastest 68000), and 10.66 times the speed of the standard ST at 16 mhz. Who needs a cache? George Richardson Biased Designer Merlin's Associates ctsy GEnie From Dave Small; Nope, that's executing plain-Jane 68000 code. That's why the 68030 is such a screamer when running in our system -- the way George did it. We'll be posting benchmarks as soon as we're done with the system software end. The board is very, very strong. We now have 33 Mhz 68030 chips and can start getting into third gear with the system, and the fastRAM support really isn't all that bad to code up. I don't perceive that as a time factor. Interest at the show was extreme. We gave out three boxes (the big Xerox ones that hold two 8 1/2" reams of paper side by side, a foot deep) of literature in *one day* -- and I can tell you, the board has nose prints on it from being looked at so closely. The wonderful thing about fastRAM, to me, is that it's 8 megabytes of RAM that runs at warp speed (the realistic limits are WAY above 16 mhz) and the video contention inside the ST doesn't strangle things. Good stuff! Anyway, this was the world-wide debut of the board, and we're happy it's done. (Chuckle: I toasted George at a dinner Friday night. Next table over in the restaurant were some ST people, including Gordon and Ralph -- you should have heard the dead silence when I congratulated George on the 68030 board being done!) We have some software to do, and George has normal cleanup on the board to polish off, then we're set. Price cannot be set until we get quantity pricing on parts. But we'll keep you up to date. Incidentally, yes, we split with Jim Allen during the summer, and are trying to keep things amicable between us. The comparisons between the two boards ought to be quite interesting especially depending on who writes them! -- thanks, all / Dave / Gadgets p.s. Mega-12/68030. Now that's a machine. ____________________________________________________ > ONLINE TODAY CPU/STR OnLine? The wires are hummin'! ============================ THE ONLINE SERVICES OFFER... ============================ First in series of informative articles about the commercial services offerings. by Oscar Steele Welcome back to Online Today. There's much that has happened in the last week on CompuServe. First of all, Bob Retelle, a very active and occasionally "outspoken" CompuServe member, is now officially part of the CIS SysOp staff. Congratulations Bob! And there have been quite a few files added to the download area. The online services are one of the best places to get freshly made software, and there's been quite a bit of it recently. I'll give you a rundown of some of the new downloads on COMPUSERVE this week. Hopefully, this will give you some insight into whether the files are ones that you want to download. Coming soon, separate articles of in-depth overviews of GEnie and Delphi. B/STAT 2.362 File Size : 234411 Transfer time : 17.75 minutes Type : Graphical and Statistical Analysis Shareware Compression : LZH This is quite a large graphics and statistical analysis package. It is very complete and complicated. This version is a shareware product with a commercial equivalent available from the author. The shareware version has some functions disabled. The decision to download is easy. If you're looking for a Statistical Analysis package, download it. Compared to commercial versions (in the hundreds of dollars) which were once produced, the asking shareware price is trivial ($30). The LZH file will unARC to approximately 600+ K, so a hard drive or double sided disk is necessary. GEMINI 1.18c File Size : 375936 Transfer time : 28.48 minutes Type : Desktop Replacement Shareware Compression : LZH Gemini is a well-known desktop replacement from Germany. The majority of the documentation is in German; however, there is an English READ_ME file to get you going. This version also has a fairly complete English reso- urce file, which means that GEM items such as the menu bar are written in English. The program itself is very functional. A desktop replacement is a program that essentially functions as the GEM Desktop does, but in an improved manner. Thus, with Gemini, you can have numerous icons for different types of files, and you can create more for your own uses. With the GEM Desk- top, you're limited to the few that are pre-programmed. This is just a small example of the powerful functions a replacement desktop can add. If you don't want to shell out big bucks for the commercial programs (NeoDesk or DC Desktop), then it's definitely worth the download time and shareware fee. And since it's shareware, you can obviously try it to see if you like it! As with B/STAT, Gemini requires a hard drive or double sided disk to unARC to. And also included is AMC GDOS, a supposedly better GDOS than USA Atari's. IDLE 2.2 File Size : 14976 Transfer time : 1.13 minutes Type : Screen Saver Freeware Compression : LZH Eric Rosenquist, the author of STalker and STeno, has released a new version of his Idle screen saver. If you're without a screen saver, download this now. Don't risk burning a permanent image on your screen. One Idle's benefits over other screen savers is that it works on any monitor, including the MoniTerm. Idle is also quite sophisticated when it comes to watching for certain events. It'll check for RS-232 (modem) activity, mouse movements, or printer output. And the screen can be set to blank or twinkling stars. Idle also has a corner clock and caps lock indicator. All in all, it's a nice small power-packed package. QUICK CIS TEST File Size : 51088 Transfer time : 3.87 minutes Type : CIS Navigator Freeware Compression : LZH Last, but definitely not least, is Quick CIS. If you're even a casual CompuServe user, this is the one program that you should not hesitate to download. With QCIS, you can set your computer to automatically call CIS, read your mail, read new messages, download files you've selected, and log off. Very nifty. This new version has many improvements, includ- ing a much improved user interface. Please note, however, that if you have not used Quick CIS before, you must get an earlier version which includes all documentation. This file only contains an update notice for this Beta version #4 and the beta version. A note: I was restoring mater- ial from a backed up hard drive. Then I began downloading with Quick CIS and ran into a rare quirk. It seems that the folder which I set up to save downloads to was not restored. Quick CIS kept on downloading (thr- ough Shadow), but when it finished I found that it did not save the infor- mation! This is obviously a rare occurence, but one that I thought would prevent someone from wasting valuable time downloading nothing. Make sure that the download path in the Configuration menu exists! In the next Online Today column, I'll delve deeper into CompuServe! _____________________________________________ > Stock Market ~ STReport? And the Band Marches On.... ======================= THE TICKERTAPE ============== by Michael Arthur The price of Atari stock went up 1/4 of a point on Monday, but was down 1/8 of a point on Tuesday. On Wednesday, it stayed the same, but was down 1/8 of a point on Thursday. On Friday, the price of Atari stock went up 1/8 of a point. Finishing up the week at $2.625 a share, the price of Atari's stock had gone up 1/8 of a point since September 28, 1990. Apple Stock was down 1 point from Friday, September 28, 1990. Commodore Stock was up 1 point from 9/28/90. IBM Stock was up 1 3/4 points from 9/28/90. Stock Report for Week of 10/1/90 to 10/5/90 __________________________________________________________________________ STock| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Reprt|Last Chg.|Last Chg.|Last Chg.|Last Chg.|Last Chg.| -----|--------------|-------------|------------|------------|------------| Atari|2 3/4 + 1/4|2 5/8 - 1/8|2 5/8 ----|2 1/2 -1/8|2 5/8 + 1/8| | | | | | 13,300 Sls | -----|--------------+-------------+------------+------------+------------| CBM |4 5/8 ----|4 5/8 ----|5 3/8 + 3/4|5 5/8 +1/4|5 5/8 ----| | | |125,300 Sls | |221,400 Sls | -----|--------------+-------------+------------+------------+------------| Apple|30 1/2 +1 1/2|29 5/8 - 7/8| 27 -2 5/8| 28 + 1| 28 ----| |1,389,800 Sls | | | |888,300 Sls | -----|--------------+-------------+------------+------------+------------| IBM | 109 + 2 5/8|108 1/4 -3/4|107 3/8 -7/8|107 7/8 +1/2|108 1/4 +3/8| |1,851,300 Sls | | | |1,570,000 # | -----'-------------------------------------------------------------------' '#' and 'Sls' refer to the # of stock shares that were traded that day. 'CBM' refers to Commodore Corporation. ________________________________________________________ > NE ATARIFEST STR SHOW NEWS? //////NEW ENGLAND ATARIFEST '90\\\\\\ ========================== //////NEW ENGLAND ATARIFEST '90\\\\\\ STATUS REPORT The following Manufacturers, Developers, Dealers, Vendors, User Groups, etc. will be represented at New England AtariFest '90, as of 09-Oct-90. o Asgard Productions o Gribnif Software Jamaica Plain, MA Northampton, MA o Atari Computer (U.S.) o GT Software Sunnyvale, CA Cleveland, OH o Beta-Cad o ICD, Inc. North Attleboro, MA Rockford, IL o Bit Bucket Computer Store o ISD Marketing, Inc. West Newton, MA Markham, Ontario o CodeHead Software o Joppa Computer Products Los Angeles, CA Abingdon, MD o Computer Bug o Chor-Ming Lung Hadley, MA Boston, MA o Computers, Etc. o Micro National Fairfield, CT Danvers, MA o Computer Zone o On-Line Computers North Attleboro, MA Salem, NH/North Reading, MA o Dr. T's Music Software o ST Report Chestnut Hill, MA Jacksonville, FL o Duggan DeZign & Hawkware o Step Ahead Software Pawtucket, RI New York, NY o ERM Electronic Liquidators o Syntronics Computer Center Melrose, MA Boston, MA o Fast Technology o Taylor Ridge Books North Andover, MA Manchester, CT o GEnie o TidBit Software Engineering Rockville, MD Maynard, MA o Granite Computers o WizWorks! Hillsboro, NH Girard, OH o Atari UG of Greater Hartford o Rhode Island ACE Hartford, CT Providence, RI o BCS/Atari o South Shore Atari Group Boston, MA Hyde Park, MA o Nashoba Valley Atari Users' Soc. o S.T.A.R.R. Acton-Boxboro, MA New Haven, CT o N. Attleboro Atari Computer Club o Valley Atari ST North Attleboro, MA Methuen, MA /////////////////////////Seminars (Titles Tentative)\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ 0915 "GEnie STAR*SERVICES" Darlah Pine, GEnie Atari RoundTables 1000 "COLOR DTP WITH PAGESTREAM", "TRACKER/ST" Nevin Shalit, Step Ahead Software 1100 "CALAMUS AND OUTLINE ART" Nathan Potechin, ISD Marketing, Inc. 1200 "DATA MANIPULATION WITH DATAKEN" Tyson Gill, GT Software 1300 "NEODESK 3: THE ULTIMATE DESKTOP" Rick Flashman, Gribnif Software 1400 "WHATEVER COMES TO MIND" Jim Allen, Fast Technology 1500 "ATARI SPEAKS" Bob Brodie, Atari Computer (U.S.) 1600 "ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS" Ralph Mariano, ST Report /////////////////////////How To Find The Show\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Location: UMass/Boston, Harbor Campus. Next to JFK Museum & Library. Take exit 15 from I-93S, exit 14 from I-93N. Free parking. McCormack Hall - 3rd Floor. /////////////////////////////For more info\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ o GEnie: Email D.JACOBSON2 o DELPHI: Email DPJ, NORMAN238 o BCS/Atari BBS (24h, 3/12/24/96) o N.E. AtariFest '90 info-line (617) 396-4607 (617) 527-4952 (recording) o Write: New England AtariFest '90, c/o Boston Computer Society, One Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108 ________________________________________________________ > Hard Disks STR InfoFile? Affordable Mass Storage.... ======================= NEW LOW PRICES! & MORE MODELS!! =============================== ABCO COMPUTER ELECTRONICS INC. P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32236-6672 Est. 1985 _________________________________________ Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EDT BBS: 904-786-4176 12-24-96 HST FAX: 904-783-3319 12 PM - 6 AM EDT _________________________________________ HARD DISK SYSTEMS TO FIT EVERY BUDGET _____________________________________ All systems are complete and ready to use, included at NO EXTRA COST are clock/calendar and cooling blower(s). -ALL ABCO HARD DISK SYSTEMS ARE FULLY EXPANDABLE- (you are NOT limited to two drives ONLY!) (all cables and connectors installed) * ICD HOST ADAPTERS USED EXCLUSIVELY * OMTI HIGH SPEED CONTROLLERS * * ICD ADVANTAGE+ HOST ADAPTERS * FULL SCSI COMMAND SET SUPPORTED * * SCSI EMBEDDED CONTROLLER MECHANISMS * Conventional Shoe Box Model Description Autopark Price ================================================== SGN4951 51Mb 28ms 3.5" Y 519.00 SGN6177 62Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 619.00 SGN1096 85Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 649.00 SGN6277 120Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 889.00 SGN1296 168Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 1069.00 SGN4077 230Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 1669.00 ================================================== WE HAVE A COMPLETE LINE OF 3.5 LOW PROFILE HARD DRIVES for USE IN MEGA ST COMPUTERS AND RELATED CONFIGURATIONS. 20mb #AI020SC 379.95 30mb #AIO3OSC 419.95 50mb #AI050SC 449.95 65mb #AI065SC 499.95 85mb #AI085SC $559.95 MEGA ST Internal Hard Drives CONNER HIGH PERFORMANCE MECHANISMS >>> ALL ABCO DRIVES ARE HIGH SPEED UNITS <<< (500 - 600k per sec @ 23 -33ms) CALL FOR SUPER SAVINGS ON ALL OUR OTHER CUSTOM UNITS FROM 30mb 28MS @ $419.00! Ask about our "REBATE SPECIALS" --==*==-- SHIPPING AND INSURANCE INCLUDED ============================================ * SYQUEST 44MB (#555)>> ABCO "44" << REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE * - SYQUEST 44 MB DRIVE - ICD ST ADVANTAGE PLUS H/A - ICD Utility Software - 3' DMA Cable - Fan & Clock - Multi-Unit Power Supply (1) 44 MB Syquest Cart. COMPLETELY ASSEMBLED AND READY TO RUN! --->> SPECIAL NOW ONLY __$769.00__ <<--- *** SPECIAL SYQUEST OFFER!! *** ORDER YOUR CUSTOM SYQUEST UNIT NOW AND GET A SECOND COMPLETE UNIT! ***** for $50.00 LESS! ***** * TWIN SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVES ... PROGRAMMER'S DELIGHT * SPECIALLY PRICED ** $1339.00 ** * SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE AND HARD DRIVE COMBINATIONS * - Syquest 44 Model [555] and the following hard drives - 50mb SQG51 $1079.00 30mb SQG38 $1039.00 65mb SQG09 $1119.00 85mb SQG96 $1129.00 LOWBOY - STANDARD - DUAL BLOWER CABINETS CUSTOM CONFIGURATIONS AVAILABLE Listed above are a sampling of the systems available. Prices also reflect various cabinet/power supply configurations (over sixty configurations are available, flexibility is unlimited) *** ALL Units: Average Access Time: 24ms - 34ms *** ALL UNITS COMPATIBLE WITH --> SUPERCHARGER - PC-DITTO/II - SPECTRE/GCR LARGER units are available - (special order only) NO REPACKS OR REFURBS USED! - Custom Walnut WOODEN Cabinets - TOWER - AT - XT Cabinets - Keyboard Custom Cables Call for Info ALL POWER SUPPLIES UL APPROVED -* 12 month FULL Guarantee *- (A FULL YEAR of COVERAGE) QUANTITY & USERGROUP DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE! _________________________________________ DEALERS and DISTRIBUTORS WANTED! please, call for details Personal and Company Checks are accepted. ORDER YOUR NEW UNIT TODAY! CALL: 1-800-562-4037 -=**=- CALL: 1-904-783-3319 Customer Orders ONLY Customer Service 9am - 8pm EDT Tues thru Sat ____________________________________________________________ > A "Quotable Quote" ================= "IF THE WAACE FALL/'90 SHOW IS SUCCESSFUL.. ATARI WILL BE ON A POSITIVE COMEBACK SURGE!!" .... The "Hopeful" Masses -------------------------------------------------------------------------- STReport? "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" October 12, 1990 16/32bit Magazine copyright = 1990 No.6.41 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Views, Opinions and Articles Presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors, staff, STReport? CPU/STR? or ST Report?. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Each reprint must include the name of the publication, date, issue # and the author's name. The entire publication and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written permission. The contents, at the time of publication, are believed to be reasonably accurate. The editors, contributors and/or staff are not responsible for either the use/misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained therefrom. --------------------------------------------------------------------------