¢This article by Alan Hitchen contains mini-reviews of various disks available from the DGS PD library. If you need a catalogue of PD disks then just send a SAE to us at DGS.¢¢PD109a ULTRA TETRIS¢-------------------¢¢This shareware program written in Turbo Basic (a copy of Turbo is on the disk) by Tim Truesdale is a Tetris clone with a difference. In this version the pieces are rectangular and composed of three coloured squares. The object is to get three or more squares of the same colour into horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines. The first five levels can be selected but you have to work hard to beat the next five. Control is by keyboard for left, right, rotate, drop and pause. A high score table is provided, as is a rather impressive title screen. The registered version has instructions on how to unlock the hidden features of this game. If you like Tetris you'll love this version.¢¢¢PD109b DRAWPAC¢--------------¢¢This program written in compiled Turbo Basic by Jim Tesch is a simple painting program for the 256 colour format. Three brush sizes are available plus a pen for lines and rays. Box, circle, ellipse, display and undo functions are provided. The title picture gives you an idea of what can be achieved, or else see the disk below.¢¢¢PD11 APAC DEMO¢--------------¢¢This program by Jeff Potter displays 15 Amiga ILBM or converted GR.9 digitised picture files in 256 glorious colours.¢¢PD 10 THE BBK ARTIST¢--------------------¢¢This program by Barry Kolbe and Bryan Schappel is one of the best art packages available for the Atari. Unfortunately it can't turn you into a great artist but it eases your progress whatever your ability.¢¢On boot up you are presented with the main screen. This comprises a menu of 25 commands, a selection of 8 brush sizes, a colour selection menu, and a colour/texture pallette, all selected with the joystick.¢¢Where appropriate a further screen will appear. For example, the disk menu. Koala, MicroPainter and MagniPrint format pictures may be loaded, but the program saves in Koala format only.¢¢Having made your selection the drawing screen appears with a single information line at the bottom. This gives the X and Y location of the cursor, the colour/texture pattern selected, and reflection mode if active. Return to the menu is made by pressing OPTION.¢¢Four colours may be used along with 13 textures. The colours can be changed and new textures defined. Text can be added using the system font or any other, in various sizes and directions. Drawing is assisted with line, box, circle, ray, reflection and fill commands. Fine detail work is handled by the enlarge function.¢¢No instructions are provided but I have found this to be an extremely easy program to get to grips with. As selections can be quickly made from the comprehensive main screen before moving to the uncluttered drawing screen. To show you what can be achieved 19 sample pictures are included along with 3 text fonts.¢¢Note: you must boot this disk without Basic. If you boot with Basic, all will appear to be well, but your pictures will be corrupt when saved.¢¢PD110a EXTENDED ATARI BASIC¢---------------------------¢¢As its name suggests this shareware program by Robert Berry adds extra commands and features to standard Atari Basic. It is suitable for the XL/XE only as it utilises the shadow ram in these machines and thus only uses 3k of free ram.¢¢On loading the standard screen appears with an extra 25th line at the top telling you EAB is installed. Also on this line a clock counts the elapsed time until it is set to the current time by the appropriate command. The extra line will remain active until a graphics call is made.¢¢The program is disabled when DOS is called and so adds 10 DOS commands to reduce the need to do so. They are DIRectory, LOCK, UNLOCK, DELETE, RENAME, Write DOS, FORMAT, SINGLE density format, BSAVE and BLOAD. Another 11 commands help with Basic programming including a PROTECT command which will 'lock up' the computer to keep it safe from interference. As well as AUTOnumber, RENumber, Variable Name Table, VERIFY, DEC, HEX, SIZE, LOMEM, ERROR and CONVERT commands.¢¢Special function commands control the cassette, printer and 130XE rambank as well as providing coldstart and Basic off from the keyboard. Also available is a joystick controlled cursor, flashing if you prefer, 5 pre-defined and 7 user defined keys for your convenience.¢¢Most of the extra commands may be utilised by a Basic program via an XIO call. Sample programs are provided to demonstrate the CONVERT, FLASH, ERROR and BANK commands. Full documentation of all commands and features is provided.¢¢In conclusion Extended Atari Basic is a neat implementation of many useful commands and utilities for the Basic programmer.¢¢¢PD110b GLYPH FONT EDITOR¢------------------------¢¢Written in Action! by Jack Prevost, this shareware program is a fully featured font editor. The layout is clean and simple with a font display, edit window and menu table. The menu has 21 commands which are selected by arrow key or joystick, the edit window is also controlled by either method. Two new fonts plus the system font can be held in memory at once and can be swapped at will. The system font is for reference only.¢¢Creating a new font or altering an existing one is simplicity itself, but if you are feeling lazy nine fonts are included to show you what can be achieved.¢¢Some utilities have also been provided along with full instructions. FONTLOAD.COM allows SpartaDOS users to load a non resident font from the command line. ROSETTA.COM converts any font into Basic data tables or an Action! data block for use in your programs with the FONT.LST or FONT.ACT loader programs supplied. However as data tables take some time to load, see News-Disk 12 for an article and programs with which to convert fonts into strings for instant loading in a Basic program.¢¢PD121a CHICK-SCRATCH v5.9¢-------------------------¢¢This shareware program by Robert E. Chick is a word processor for the XL/XE fashioned in a very familiar style. On bootup you are presented with a red screen and a flashing cursor with a command line at the bottom. Editing commands are the usual CONTROL letter or OPTION plus CONTROL letter combinations. Print format commands are SELECT letter combinations. They are set up to suit the XMM801 printer but can be changed to suit any other printer. The commands are summarised on five help screens available at any time by pressing CONTROL H. The usual miniDOS screen completes the package.¢¢Needless to say if the default settings are not to your liking they may be altered. The customising program provided allows you to permanently change the default setings for text/screen colour, upper/lower case, insert/overwrite mode, screen width, print format, key click and text/program mode.¢¢The full documentation supplied provides all you need to know. As I have already intimated, it closely resembles other word processors and is thus easy to use if you are already familiar with the layout. But even for the beginner it is simple to use. It may lack features that more expensive word processors have, but it is still a very competent program that will handle your everday needs with ease.¢¢¢PD121b UTILITIES¢----------------¢¢1. MICRO MAILER is an American format address book program with print option.¢¢2. ATARI KEY converts ATASCII EOL to ASCII CR and LF.¢¢3. THE ULTIMATE GRAPHICS CONVERTER handles Micropainter, Graphics 8, Print Shop and Newsroom formats.¢¢4. PRINT SC3 saves a GR.0 screen to disk, see the sample file SCREEN provided.¢¢5. IOCB UTILITY 1&2 saves or loads a screen to or from PICSAVE. A sample file is provided.¢¢6. SETBASE redefines the space character. The rest of the character set is left undefined and therefore unavailable.¢¢7. DATAPACK converts Basic data statements into a packed string machine language file.¢¢8. CONVERT converts a machine language file into Basic data statements.¢¢¢Programs 2-6 are French in origin and therefore have prompts in French, but are fairly easy to understand.¢¢PD30a VIDEO JUKEBOX¢--------------------¢¢This shareware program by Chris Wareham plays one of 33 Pokey Player tunes supplied. At the same time it will display any Micropainter, Koala or Screen Magic picture file. You can also display pictures from a game disk if you know its starting sector. The pictures when loaded can then be written out in Micropainter or Screen Magic format.¢¢¢PD30b PICTURE BENDER¢---------------------¢¢This program allows you to manipulate picture files for your amusement. Fifteen commands such as mirror, rainbow, invert, fold, double, scroll, pause and restore may be included in a program of up to 251 of these commands. Nine picture files are included to get you started. Have fun!¢¢PD 41a SEEPIC¢-------------¢¢Seepic by John Brochu is a very good slideshow program with printout option. From the main menu screen you can choose a continuous show of all pictures, your own selection of pictures, or just a single picture. Twenty-two Koala format pictures are provided. The Epson compatible print option allows a b/w print preview and the ability to alter the shading for best effect, or even inversion of the whole picture. The picture is printed out sideways as a 7x9 inch image.¢¢¢PD 41b PICTURE PIRATE¢---------------------¢¢Picture Pirate is a basic program that will allow you to steal pictures from games on disk. Simple if fiddly to use, it will allow you to write out any picture you find as a 62 sector file. Instructions are provided along with 16 Koala format pictures and a simple slideshow program which dissolves each picture into the next.¢
