Crawly Crypt Collection 1/crawlyvol1.bin/magazine/aeo/aeo_9214/aeo_9214.asc

Text File | 1992-09-20 | 130KB | 2,702 lines

                      ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE MAGAZINE
                      ------------------------------
            Published and Copyright (c)1992, Atari Corporation
                      1972-1992 - 20 Years Of Service
                           1196 Borregas Avenue
                       Sunnyvale, California 94088

                                AEO STAFF

    ~ Editor In-Chief......................................Ron Kovacs
    ~ Contributing Editor...................................Ed Krimen
    ~ Contributing Writer...................................Bob Smith

                       ARTICLE CONTRIBUTORS/AUTHORS

    ~ AtariUser Magazine....................................John Nagy
    ~ AtariUser Magazine...................................BJ Gleason

                         EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

    ~ President, Atari Corporation........................Sam Tramiel
    ~ VP Software Development.........................Leonard Tramiel
    ~ Developer Relations Manager........................Bill Rehbock
    ~ Director, Marketing Services.........................Don Thomas
    ~ Director of Communications...........................Bob Brodie
    ~ Corporate Director, International Music Markets....James Grunke
    ~ Atari Explorer Magazine............................Mike Lindsay

                               Z*NET STAFF

            ~ Ron Kovacs         ~ John Nagy          ~ Jon Clarke
            ~ Bob Smith          ~ Lisa Ruff          ~ Mike Davis         ~ Ed Krimen         ~ Bill Whiteman
            ~ Dr. Paul Keith

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    September 19, 1992          Volume 1, Number 14          Issue #14
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

                     | | |  TABLE OF CONTENTS  | | |

         ||| The Editors Desk.........................Ron Kovacs

         ||| Z*Net Newswire.....................................
             Latest Atari News and Industry Update

         ||| Glendale Show Report......................John Nagy
             Part One of a two part Exclusive Report!

         ||| Glendale After Show Conference.....................
             Conference with Bob Brodie, John Nagy and John
             King Tarpinian....

         ||| Atari Press Releases...............................
             BCS Press Releases!

         ||| FCC Update.........................................
             News from CompuServe

         ||| GEnie Flow Control........................Ed Krimen
             Messages from GEnie ST RT

         ||| My Computer Friend........................Bob Smith
             Stan Lowell Remembered

         ||| Portfolio Users Update....................AtariUser
             Reprint from August 1992 Issue

         ||| GEnie ST RT News.......................John Hartman
             Weekly News and Report

         ||| HiSoft Update.........................Press Release
             DevPac 3 Notes

         ||| AtariNet.................................Bill Scull
             New network for Atari Users!


 | | |  THE EDITORS DESK
 | | |  By Ron Kovacs
 | | |  ----------------------------------------------------------------


 Just a short commentary and update before we get into this weeks
 edition.

 We didn't publish an issue last week as news about the death of Stan
 Lowell really shocked us locally.  He was a close friend and someone
 who will be greatly missed around here.  I was going to include a short
 memorial for him but after reading the article supplied by Bob Smith, I
 decided not to re-write his comments which covered most of everything I
 would have said.  However, there will be a special issue of Z*Magazine,
 next week dedicated to Stan Lowell where I will include my personal
 comments.

 Lastly, I want to thank everyone for sending condolences and all of them
 will be forwarded to his wife and family.



 | | |  Z*NET NEWSWIRE
 | | |  Latest Atari News and Industry Update
 | | |  -----------------------------------------------------------------


 ATARI FALCON AT BCS THIS WEEK
 Atari Corporation will be in attendance at the Boston Computer Society
 Thursday September 23, 1992.  Invitations were sent out and received by
 many press representatives for the 5:30pm showing.  This press reception
 will include a full demonstration by Atari's president Sam Tramiel.
 Before the showing of the Falcon030 takes place, Sam Tramiel and Bill
 Rehbock will be at a special taping for the program PCTV in New
 Hampshire on Thursday afteroon.  PCTV boasts viewing of over 40 million
 people around the country.  Check your local listings for additional
 information.  The program is expected to broadcast Thursday evening.
 The Boston Computer Society will take place at The Copley Hotel, 138 St.
 James Avenue, Boston, MA.


 JMG ANNOUNCES FREE DISTRIBUTION OF FULL RUNTIME PACKAGE
 JMG Software announced the worldwide release of the HYPERLINK RUNTIME
 PACKAGE at the Glendale Atari Show.  HyperLINK is a multi-purpose
 product, the leading "Application Generator" product for the Atari ST
 line.  The most common use of HyperLINK is in database oriented
 applications, where users can design custom forms, reports, graphical
 screens, and also combine text, graphics, and other types of media with
 the more common database files.  The full HyperLINK package, with
 Application Builder, Report Generator, and additional modules, sells for
 $149 US and is available through Atari dealers or directly from JMG
 Software.  JMG Software, 892 Upper James Street, Hamilton, ONT L9C 3A5
 Canada.  Phone [phone], Fax [phone], BBS 416-389-9064  GEnie
 Address JMGSOFT.


 INVISION ELITE
 The Creative Genius and Program Designer responsible for this monochome
 program is Harlan Hugh.  DMC Publishing is proud to announce the release
 of INVISION Elite for your Atari ST, STe and TT.  A complete DEMO
 version of this program is currently available in the GEnie library.
 Many of you had the opportunity to download the DEMO free last month on
 GEnie.  Very little has changed from Harlan's original announcement,
 except the price.  The suggested retail price of INVISION Elite is US
 $129.95 or $149.95 Canadian.  INVISION Elite is a program which allows
 you to create sophisticated black and white raster images.  Stretch!
 Skew!  Bend!  Rotate!  Thin!  Thicken!  Copy!  Outline!  Anything you
 want!  If you can think of it, INVISION Elite can probably do it.  Using
 images that you create in the program, or ones from other sources, you
 can manipulate your graphics in a hands-on manner to achieve stunning
 visuals.  INVISION Elite's easy-to-use processing features give you
 limitless possibilities.  The release date for INVISION Elite is
 September 17, 1992.  For further information, please contact: Nathan
 Potechin, DMC Publishing, Inc., 2800 John Street, Unit #10, Markham,
 Ontario Canada L3R 0E2  Tel:[phone], Fax:[phone], CIS:
 76004,2246, GEnie: ISD, Delphi: ISDMARKETING


 INFINITE COMPUTER BOOKS ANNOUNMENT!
 Purple Mountain Computers, Inc. is now taking orders for our FREE
 Infinite Computer Books catalog which contains over 2000 computer books
 which covers general computer topics, and specific computers: Amiga,
 Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore, Macintosh, IBM, Windows, and others.
 To get our FREE CATALOG, send us e-mail on GEnie to: PMC.INC or to
 72567,302 on CompuServe.  Or write to us, FAX/call us at 206-747-1519.
 Purple Mountain Computers has released a newsletter/newspaper called ST
 News.  ST News made for the benefit of all ST users and is free to
 anyone.  Included is an interview with the Codeheads, information and
 dates about upcoming shows, a story on ICD's new Link, as well as
 excellent bargains on recycled software and hardware for the ST, cutting
 edge new software such as MacSEE, Diamond Edge, tremendous discounts on
 other software such as the budget desktop publisher Easy Text Plus for
 just $29.95 (the lowest price anywhere for a commercial Desktop
 Publishing program).


 1993 GLENDALE ATARIFEST ANNOUNCED
 John King Tarpinian, Glendale show spokesperson and organizer, has
 announced the 1993 Glendale Show for September 18 - 19, 1993.  The long
 time premier west coast Atari show will continue it's tradition after
 another successful show just last weekend.  Part one of Z*Net's
 exclusive report is contained in this weeks edition of Atari Explorer
 Online Magazine.  Official updates will be circulated next year.


 CODEHEAD ANNOUNCES WARP 9 (3.71)
 CodeHead Technologies ups the Fun Quotient in the Atari world with
 Extend-O-Save, the modular screensaver in the new version of Warp 9!  No
 longer do you have to put up with the same dull screensaver graphics day
 after day -- with Extend-O-Save the possibilities are almost limitless.
 Warp 9 now comes with 5 screensaver modules (maybe more by the time you
 read this).  The method for writing modules will be freely distributed,
 so any programmer will be able to write new modules at will.  PinHead is
 now built into Warp 9, so you can remove one more program from your AUTO
 folder.  Full automatic control of the 'fastload' effect for specific
 programs is included, just as it was in PinHead.  A revamped Warp 9
 Control Panel, with new controls, and an improved 'Save Config' option.
 To upgrade from any previous version of Warp 9 to the new Extend-O-Save
 version, just send us your original Warp 9 master disk and a check for
 $15.00 (includes postage and handling).  When you mail us the disk,
 there's no need for a special envelope or disk mailer; simply put it in
 a normal letter-sized envelope and drop it in the mailbox.  If you own
 any version of Quick ST or Turbo ST, you can upgrade to Warp 9 for just
 $30.00 by sending us your original disk and a check.  (The previous
 limited $20 upgrade offer has been extended at this new price.)  The
 retail price of Warp 9 is $44.95.  CodeHead Technologies, P.O. Box 74090
 Los Angeles, CA 90004, Phone: [phone] (Mon-Fri 9A-1P PT), FAX:
 [phone], BBS: [phone]


 COMPUTER NETWORK ANNOUNCES NEW PRICES
 Atari has dropped TT030 prices and the Computer Network is passing on
 the savings to you.  Here is a list of our current prices:  Atari TT030
 with 2 meg ST Ram $1485, Atari TT030 with 4 meg ST Ram $1649, Atari
 TT030 with 4 meg ST Ram & 4 meg TT Ram $1935, ADD Seagate 48 meg Hard
 Drive $250, ADD Maxtor 120 meg Hard Drive $375, ADD Maxtor 213 meg Hard
 Drive $689 (other configurations available...please call with any
 questions).  The Computer Network is also one of the first dealers in
 the world to receive the new ICD Link host adaptor which allows you to
 connect most external SCSI Hard Disks to Atari ST Computers.  They have
 a limited supply left from their shipment for the Glendale Show.  So if
 you are interested please call for availability and pricing.  The
 Computer Network, 1605 West Glenoaks Blvd., Glendale, CA 91201, Voice
 (818-500-3900), Fax [phone])


 PURPLE MOUNTAIN FREEDOM FLOPTICAL DRIVE - Press Release
 We at Purple Mountain Computers have been busting our buns working
 overtime to get the Purple Mountain Freedom Floptical Drive ready for
 shipment.  It takes the place of hard drive and removable cartridge
 drives (like the Syquest).  This piece of hardware is incredible, so
 read this very carefully.  We are the first company to have floptical
 drive ready for the ST.  Now.  At the lowest price.  In fact, read the
 end of this press release for the most incredible price you'll find on
 a floptical ST drive.  And hurry, because the drives will last forever
 (well, almost) but the low introductory price won't!  The Freedom
 Floptical Drive (TM) is a 21 MB floptical 3.5 inch disk drive for Atari
 ST computers.  You can store 21 megabytes on each rugged and portable
 diskette, and the media is fully removable.  Here's the scoop on the
 Freedom Drive: includes FREE 21 MB floptical disk, newest version
 (currently 6.0.0) of ICD software, includes ICD Link adaptor, case, and
 power supply, reads 1.44 MB and 720K disks (2 to 3 times faster than ST
 floppies!), takes up very little space (4.7 x 7.8 x 2 inches).  The
 price?  An incredible $399.  Complete.  Ready to go.  You WILL NOT get
 a better price than this anywhere.  We are operating at a loss to get a
 large number of units out the door a③nd build up our user base.  This is
 an introductory special and the price WILL go up (we think that will be
 sometime in October).  There is a warranty, and we guarantee that the
 drive will work on your ST system.  Questions?  Call us.  Write to us.
 Fax us. E-mail us (GEnie: PMC.INC, CompuServe: 72567, 302).  Whatever
 you do, claim your low low price today.  We are taking orders as you
 read this.  Contact us for the current price.  We stand behind the
 Freedom Drive with full tech support.  We also have an electric adaptor
 that makes it compatible with international currents.  Floptical
 diskettes are $24.95 each in two paks (if you purchase a Freedom Drive
 from us), and $29.95 each for use①rs who do not purchase the Freedom
 Floptical Drive.  Shipping in the United States is via Federal Express
 Insured and is $15.  Contact us for shipping costs outside the US.
 Purple Mountain Computers, Inc., 15600 NE 8th St. Ste. A3-412, Bellevue,
 WA  98008, 206.747.1519.


 COURT ISSUES INJUCTION AGAINST HAYES
 Judge David Doty on September 15 issued a Preliminary Injunction against
 modem maker Hayes which enjoins Hayes from running their recent ad,
 headlined "Tick, Tick, Tick. Boom!  You're Dead."  The Hayes ad, which
 ran in July and August of 1992 in a number of computer publications as
 well as TIME and Business Week, includes a photo of several sticks of
 dynamite wired to a timer.  In the ad, Hayes warns users of a "fatal
 flaw" that may exist in their non-Hayes modems that can paralyze their
 ability to transmit data.  The Court order prohibits Hayes from
 "continuing to publish the advertisement" from "issuing the test kit
 offered in the advertisement", and from "disseminating any information
 that states or implies that the test kit is a data file that may occur
 in a user's data."  In granting Multi-Tech the injunction, the Court
 stated that "Consumers have a right not to be subjected to deceptive or
 confusing advertisements so that they can accurately assess the quality
 of a product and choose a product that is in accordance with their
 preferences."  The Court found that the advertisement and test kit
 "...would likely mislead consumers..."  Thus, the Court found that
 "...Multi-Tech has demonstrated that permitting Hayes to continue
 publishing its advertisement and issuing its test kit would likely
 undermine the public interest."


 ANTI-COUNTERFEITING DEVICE IN PHOTOCOPIERS
 The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) will urge color photocopier
 makers to adopt a device to prevent counterfeiting.  The use of
 photocopying machines to produce counterfeit paper money has been
 increasing in Europe and the BIS will ask photocopier manufacturers to
 voluntarily introduce the anticounterfeiting device.  From: PacRim News
 Network


 WANG WANTS COURT ACTION
 On Friday, Sept. 18, Wang asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for authority
 to terminate approximately 118 unexpired leases which the company now
 has for various facilities throughout the United States.  The company
 will reduce its annual rent expenses by approximately $35 million as a
 result of this action.  At a later date, Wang will also ask the court
 for authority to terminate approximately 85 additional unexpired leases,
 an action which could result in an additional rent expense reduction of
 $10 million.  No hearing date has been set for this motion.  The U.S.
 Bankruptcy Code permits a company under the protection of Chapter 11 to
 reject any unexpired lease with the court's approval.


 COMPUSERVE AND VISA SIGN
 CompuServe and Visa USA announced a new five-year, $72 million agreement
 for CompuServe to provide network services for VisaNet, the bank card
 association's point-of-sale (POS) authorization and settlement network
 used by retailers.  CompuServe is the exclusive public network provider
 of dial-up POS credit authorization and settlement for Visa U.S.A.  More
 than 500 million VisaNet transactions were processed via the CompuServe
 network in 1991.


 SONY'S NEW PORTABLE CD-ROM PLAYER
 Sony introduced the industry's first portable, self-contained Multimedia
 CD-ROM Player.  Designed for personal and business productivity,
 information, education and entertainment, the new Sony Multimedia Player
 integrates a CD-ROM drive supporting the CD-ROM XA standard, PC
 compatible microprocessor, LCD display panel, speakers, keyboard and
 cursor pad in a small, lightweight package (approximately 7 inches wide
 x 2 inches high x 6 inches long, weighing approximately 2 pounds).  The
 new device also plays audio CDs and has an audio jack for stereo
 headphones or speakers.  It can be connected directly to a color
 television and has a serial port for outputting to a printer, uploading
 information to a personal computer or, with proper software, connecting
 to a modem.  CD-ROM titles created for the Multimedia Player also can be
 played on a standard desktop CD-ROM drive connected to a pc. This cross-
 platform playability benefits the customer, who can use these Multimedia
 Player discs both on the road and with a PC.  The Multimedia Player will
 be available at retail in November 1992 and will have a suggested list
 price of $999.95  This package includes a Multimedia CD, IBM's Secrets
 of Power Negotiating and a coupon for a choice of Random House's
 Audiobook Plus, The Civil War by Geoffrey Ward with Ken Burns and Ric
 Burns; Compton's NewMedia Let's Go USA or King James Bible.  A premium
 Multimedia Player/software package, which will have a suggested list
 price of $1,099.95, will feature The Wall Street Journal Guides to
 Business Travel: USA and Canada from Ramdom House, and a coupon good for
 the choice of one of 12 additional titles.


 INFOWORLD PUBLISHING CHANGES NAME
 Computer Buying World will be called InfoWorld Direct starting with its
 November issue.  The publication will maintain its own editorial staff
 under the direction of editor-in-chief George Bond, in the same offices
 occupied by Computer Buying World in Wakefield, Mass.  InfoWorld Direct
 will run hardware and software product reviews and evaluations derived
 from research conducted at InfoWorld's Test Center in San Mateo, Calif.


 POLICE ARREST HACKER
 A 16-year-old computer hacker faces fraud charges for allegedly using
 his computer to break into a long-distance telephone service system and
 charge more than $10,000 worth of calls.  The teenager faces up to 12
 years in prison if convicted on all three fraud counts.  Police said the
 boy is also a suspect in other hacking cases, including one in which the
 computer system at the Detroit Free Press was violated as a hoax.  The
 suspect not only rang up more than $10,000 in illegal phone calls, but
 posted long-distance codes on computer bulletin boards so other users
 could have access to them.


 FCC ISSUES NEW RULES
 The FCC issued new rules governing the fast-growing telemarketing field,
 with the aim of cutting back on intrusive telephone solicitations.  The
 commission ruled that telemarketers may only call residences between 8
 a.m. and 9 p.m., and banned telemarketers from making automated calls on
 emergency lines, to health care facilities and on common carrier lines
 on which the called party will be charged for the call.  The new FCC
 rules, which go into effect on Dec. 20, also require that pre-recorded
 calls using an auto-dialer must identify the caller, give the caller's
 number or address and release the called party's line within five
 seconds of a hang up.  The agency also banned using artificial and
 pre-recorded voices, except for non-commercial calls, commercial calls
 not transmitting an unsolicited advertisement, calls from parties with
 whom there is an established business relationship and calls from tax-
 exempt, non-profit organizations.  The FCC also banned unsolicited "junk
 fax" advertisements to facsimile machines and required that a fax
 clearly indicate the sender's name and the phone number of the sending
 device.




 | | |  GLENDALE: THE SUPER SHOW OF THE WEST
 | | |  Story by John Nagy for the Z*Net News Service
 | | |  ----------------------------------------------------------------


 The Earth moved again in Southern California last weekend.  Nearly 2,500
 people scrambled to meet falling prices and rising expectations, while a
 strange new bird circled overhead on Saturday and Sunday, September 12
 and 13, 1992.

 It was the Southern California Atari Computer Faire, Version 6.0, and it
 was another major success for organizer John King Tarpinian and his
 HACKS user group.  This show series featured the first ever Atari
 Corporate participation in a user group show when it began seven years
 ago, and with a single interruption, what has become known as "The
 Glendale Show" has been a top draw in every year since.

 Held in the Glendale Civic Auditorium (as usual) in Northeast suburban
 Los Angeles, the show featured 40 exhibitors, plus Atari itself.  And
 while attendance was down from 3,500 last year, this year's crowd
 matched the 1990 draw of 2,400 plus.  And according to the retailers at
 the show, Glendale sales were never better than this year.  Some
 developers reported somewhat less sales than last time, but never was
 heard a discouraging word, as each declared the show to be profitable.
 As for the show-goers, the mood on the whole was uplifting, hopeful, and
 excited about the new Falcon.

 This year's show featured a preview of the long awaited Falcon030
 computer.  Crowds thronged around the demo machine on the stage of the
 auditorium, as demos of the Falcon's outstanding audio and video
 performances were given by Atari's Bill Rehbock.  Also on hand from
 Atari were James Grunke and, as always, Bob Brodie.

 Atari donated the use of a half-million dollars of equipment for the
 show, supplemented by personal machines brought in by the nearly 50
 volunteers from area user groups.  Proceeds from the show go entirely
 toward show expenses and advertising, plus a startup fund for next
 year's show, scheduled for September 18-19, 1993.  As part of Atari's
 general cutbacks in spending, there was no supplemental funding of
 advertising, resulting in smaller ads and less overall promotion of this
 year's show.

 On the brighter side, Atari donated a full-fledged Falcon as a DOOR
 PRIZE!  Winner by drawing of the 14 megabyte with 65 meg hard drive
 Falcon030 was Jason Spoor, who had also volunteered many hours of his
 time in support of the show.  He's had--and turned down--a number of
 offers from buyers who want to get it before the October commercial
 release date of the computer.

 Glendale's show was another fully pipe-and-draped affair, with a single
 Atari Corporate seminar held on Saturday.  Dave Small was to give one as
 well, but airline problems prevailed and he arrived too late.  Why so
 few seminars when other shows go the other way with multiple continuous
 seminars?  Explains John King Tarpinian, "Our people want to shop!  And
 when we take them AND a developer off the floor for a seminar, it's hard
 on everyone."  The operation seems to work well, as sales and
 satisfaction at the Glendale shows remain among the highest in the
 country.

 Two sold-out Calamus SL classes were held on a reservation-only basis,
 conducted by Mario Georgiou of DMC Publishing.  Students got more than
 their money's worth, and learned most of all that there is so much more
 to learn about the DTP system that is now a full pre-press solution.

 There is no banquet or formal Show activity on any night of a Glendale
 show.  Says John, "Remember, this is Los Angeles... we have Disneyland,
 Magic Mountain, Hollywood, Santa Monica Beach, Universal Studios, and a
 hundred other things to do.  Everyone has their own idea of what's most
 fun, and we don't push any one agenda."  Many developers did enjoy the
 now-standard Saturday evening party at the CodeHeadQuarters, though.
 And the party/fellowship among Atari developers is an awesome thing to
 behold--if you dare!

 This week, I'll detail the dealers and developers and their products
 shown at Glendale.  Next week, look for a report on the Atari seminar
 and Falcon demos in real detail (I've got it all on videotape, and have
 to review it for every shred of information).  I also sat in on the
 private showing of the Falcon for the press, which included Jerry
 Pournelle of Byte Magazine.  Revelations made in that session will be
 exclusively covered in next week's issue of Atari Explorer Online.  And
 photographs of the entire affair will appear online and in upcoming
 issues of Atari Explorer and AtariUser (look for it in the October
 AtariUser, available October 1).

 THE GLENDALE SHOW EXHIBITORS, Alphabetically:

 [Prices are suggested retail unless shown as $xx/$xx, where the retail
 is first and the show sale price is second.]

 ATARI CORPORATION:  Bob, James, and Bill worked overtime talking to the
 thousands of visitors, answering the same questions again and again...
 "When will I be able to get a Falcon?"  Well, at risk of repeating it
 again, the answer is in Late October, when all dealers should have at
 least two Falcon030 units.  Production will then ramp up into 1993.
 Again, look for much more detail of what Atari showed and said in next
 week's issue of Atari Explorer Online.

 ATARI EXPLORER MAGAZINE:  New editors Mike Lindsay and Darren Meers had
 a booth with back issues of Atari's house magazine, Atari Explorer, for
 all comers.  No stranger to Glendale shows, Mike and Darren hustled
 stories and review possibilities for upcoming issues.

 ATARIUSER MAGAZINE:  Every visitor to Glendale received a September
 issue of AtariUser ($Free) with their entry ticket.  Though AtariUser
 had no booth, theirs was the ONLY September Atari publication available
 at the show!  And AtariUser writers and editors (like me!) were
 everywhere, getting ready for a special Falcon close-up in the upcoming
 October issue.

 BECKEMEYER DEVELOPMENT:  Their Hard Drive Toolkit ($24.95 show price),
 Hard Disk Sentry ($39.95) de-fragmenter and backup software was a major
 seller.  Also drawing attention was Beckemeyer's new kit that allows
 installation and use of standard SCSI tape backup drive in an ST or TT.

 BEST ELECTRONICS:  Imagine an all-Atari yard sale, and you have Best
 Electronics.  As always, visitors combed the tables full of amazing
 Atari junque and impossible to find parts dating back to PONG and up to
 the TT030.  At prices that would make Jack Benny smile.  Wizztronics was
 featured, showing Cartmaster ($199/$150), a way to keep 4 carts plugged
 in at all times and switch among them, ideal for music software with
 dongles, the Spectre/GCR, and scanners.  Another Wizztronics item: a
 Dual OS board, $129 with TOS 2.06.

 BIO ILLUSTRATIONS:  New to the Atari and soon appearing in the MAC and
 IBM marketplace, Bio Illustrations features original art in IMG format
 ($11/disk).  And oh, what art!  Barry Shapiro painstakingly draws each
 image of human anatomy, sea creatures, animals, etc., and scans them
 using his Atari.  It's the finest original biological illustrations I've
 ever seen for computer use.

 BRANCH ALWAYS SOFTWARE:  Darek Mihocka had his amazing GEMULATOR for
 sale for the first time anywhere ($299/199, shareware registration of
 the software: $59), and the first release of the driver software is
 competent indeed.  While it requires a blazingly fast PC to run ST
 software at familiar speeds, it works.  Really.  That's saying a LOT.

 CLEAR THINKING:  Once again, EDHAK V.2.36 ($29/$20), the anything-editor
 desk accessory was offered and sold well by Clear Thinking of Michigan.
 Also shown at the CT booth was AIM, the Atari magazine based in
 Michigan.

 CODEHEAD TECHNOLOGIES:  With "The Cure for the Common Code," Charles F.
 Johnson and John Eidsvoog gave their patented blazing demos of their
 full line of utilities and applications.  New and very, very hot was the
 latest version of WARP 9, now at V.3.7 ($40 at the show), with EXTENDO-
 SAVE, an extensible screen saver.  They sold out on Saturday.  Also
 moving well was MegaPaint (sold out at $100) and the incredible document
 processor CALLIGRAPHER (Pro, $125, Gold $175 at the show).  The T-shirts
 went away quick too.

 COMPO:  Now selling direct in the USA with a California location, COMPO
 pushed lots of THAT'S WRITE ($199/$120) and WRITE ON ($99/30) word
 processors, plus CompoScript was on sale for $200 (regularly $349).

 COMPUTER NETWORK:  A super-standout at the Glendale show, TCN is a
 Glendale retailer that took a full 8 booths... and made it into
 something else altogether.  In a "backstage" format complete with bright
 pink "stage passes," TCN had a curtained-off private sales floor even
 larger than that at their store!  It paid off, with sales topping any
 two-day period in their history.  (Try a MegaSTe2 for $705!)  A MIDI-
 MAZE setup provided protective custody for a number of small and not-so
 -small fry.  Tony Lee and company spent days without sleep preparing the
 booth.

 COMPUTER SAFARI:  Jay Pierstorff brought Safari Fonts and lots more,
 plus he introduced Steve Kipker of Steve's Software to Glendale.

 D.A. BRUMLEVE:  Our pick for Ms. Congeniality online and in person,
 Dorothy Brumleve said she made back the cost of her flight in the first
 half hour of the show.  Sales and interest in her outstanding programs
 designed for children continued throughout the show, between her
 cigarette breaks.

 DMC (ISD):  Mario Georgiou represented the Calamus and DynaCADD folks
 with continuous demos of Calamus SL on a TT and color monitor.  Sad
 faces prevailed on the main floor when Mario had to fold operations
 during his classes in the lower level of the civic auditorium.  Handouts
 for Envision Elite and Cybercube Research graphics cards were popular.
 (Some vendors think they should charge for the flyers and give away the
 software, considering how many stacks of paper disappear at these
 shows!)

 DRAGONWARE:  Chris Roberts returned to the Southland with a variety of
 new goodies, the most asked about being PowerNet and PowerDOS,
 networking solutions for the entire line of ST computers.  G-MAN, the
 Dragon Stacy Battery, and other products filled in his showings.

 FAIR DINKUM TECHNOLOGIES:  The mates with odd name from down under
 demonstrated CYBERDROME, a space flight simulator/game/interactive
 multiplayer adventure... thing ($39).  Very impressive.  John Hutchinson
 was a treat to meet, ay!

 FAST TECHNOLOGIES:  Jim Allen and Tricia Metcalf had the Tiny Turbo
 ($599) and Turbo030 running, nay, screaming through demos.  A new
 product to be coming very soon from Fast is the TurboRAM board ($199
 bare, $359 w/8meg), allowing any ST to have up to 8 megabytes of memory!

 FREEZE DRIED SOFTWARE:  The new kids on the block with that amazing
 terminal program made a dazzling and perhaps almost too formal a showing
 as their public premier played out with pleasant profits.

 GADGETS BY SMALL:  Mark Booth held the fort while Dave Small tried to
 catch up to his luggage.  Dave finally made it (after a string of
 disastrous flight mixups) late Saturday afternoon.  When he got there,
 the MegaTalk board was the hot demo, while Mark happily sold out of his
 sound sample disks several times.

 GENIE:  A virtual cavalcade of online stars:  Darlah Potechin, Sandy
 Wilson, Kene Estes, Dave Flory, JJ Kennedy, Steve McDonald, and more
 offered demos not only of their online service, but of the new Double
 Click terminal called STORM.  Written by Alan Page, the man who did the
 original FLASH for Antic, STORM is a totally new product... but not
 ready for sale yet.  FLASH II (no relation anymore) was also shown in
 the booth.

 GRIBNIF:  CARDFILE 4 was the hot ticket at Gribnif Software.  Rick
 Flashman and Dan Wilga had the misfortune of finding that UPS would be
 delivering their products to the hall the day AFTER the show ended.  So,
 they punted, and still scored well with the only product they had stock
 in hand.  The new address book and appointment calendar update CARDFILE
 4 ($39.95) sold out, and the NeoDesk, Stalker, Steno, and Arabesque
 demos were successful in generating sales of Gribnif products at the
 retailer's booths.  Hey, a sale is a sale is a sale.

 ICD:  Another horror story, this one in stereo.  The product shipments
 to the Glendale show and to a simultaneous Amiga show across town were
 botched, and ICD had to load their staff with carry-on products just to
 have ANYTHING to sell at the two major California shows.  Yikes.  Tom
 Harker and crew made do, while shuttling back and forth between the two
 shows.  The new LINK ($119), ICD's modular answer to the question of how
 to use an ST drive on a TT or Falcon's SCSI II port, was a show
 favorite.

 JMG:  The Hyperlink folks had a satisfying update to the relational/
 graphical database system ($149), along with a long desired new manual.
 George Gerczy was smiling, so I think it went well.

 LEXICOR:  Lee Seiler, the graphical genius, simply dazzled audiences
 with his animations, combined with endless lectures on how simple and
 easy it is to do on the Atari.  While the talks kept many of us in rapt
 awe, I believe that Lee will learn to spell long before any of us learn
 to draw like he can.  A highlight of the Lexicor booth was the
 interconnection of his Iris Silicon Graphics workstation with an Atari
 Mega ST.  Lexicor products are being designed to work on both, with the
 graphic power of the Falcon being a motivating force.  A Falcon graced
 the Lexicor booth too.  Demos of the Lexicor line of graphic software,
 plus MONA LISA, a forthcoming SGI and Falcon title, were a delight.

 MAXWELL CPU:  Standing in for Tim Reyes who couldn't make it to Glendale
 was Mike Fulton, ex of the LA area and now working at Atari.  He showed
 Silhouette V.1.39 ($95/$65), a progressively more competent and
 versatile outline tracer and vector/raster art program.  Version 1.5 is
 due in a month or so, and can be upgraded for $15.

 McDONALD & ASSOCIATES:  ST INFORMER Magazine and the A&D line of
 products were available as Rod McDonald an company showed their wares.
 A plus at the booth was the HAYAI hard drive copying software of Bob
 Arp ($59).

 MICRO CREATIONS:  A good idea that not many wanted but wouldn't die:
 GIMETERM ($49/$35) is a graphic terminal program that has progressed
 steadily and deserves another look.  Atari wants to see it developed for
 sending and receiving real-time vector graphic images.  I wonder what
 they have in mind there!  Video Poker was also being shown and selling
 well, especially after hearing the digitized splash of winning coins.

 MID-CITIES COMP-SOFT:  Another L.A. retailer, Mid Cities was in no way
 outdone by the TCN folk.  Although more straightforward in their layout,
 the Mid Cities booths were decked in red and yellow, with matching t-
 shirts.  A MIDI band gave continuous performances and demos of hot music
 software featuring the development team at Barefoot Software, and a DTP
 area was showing Goldleaf and ISD products.  It worked, as Mid Cities
 sold out of TT's twice, and had to buy more from Atari on the spot.  At
 least 11 TT's left the Mid Cities booth, along with a ton of games and
 other software at prices that would frighten small children and animals.

 MIGRAPH:  Winners of the "let's get John's money" competition, Liz and
 kevin Mitchell had a hit with their new "WAND" full page scanner ($499
 plus $199 for the base unit).  Of the wringer-washer variety of unit,
 the Wand does dynamite 400 dpi scans of up to 10 sheets per load of the
 power base.  Upgrades of Touch-Up and the Migraph Optical Character
 Recognition software that embrace the new power of the WAND were also
 shown and available.

 OREGON RESEARCH ASSOCIATES:  Bob Luneski brought his latest DIAMOND BACK
 II V.2.50 ($49/$35)lightning fast hard drive backup program, plus a pair
 of premiers for Glendale: Diamond Edge ($69/$50), a diagnostic and
 repair system for hard drives and data recovery, plus Ultimate Virus
 Killer ($29/$22), which needs no explanation.

 S.D.S.:  Sort-of showing the PHOTOMAN camera, Scott Sanders was telling
 the intrigued about his current project: an enhanced (color compatible)
 camera is now available to him for about the same cost as the Logitech
 electronic camera he based his imaging software around.  That means that
 in just weeks, a new Atari Photoman product will be released that will
 have higher resolution and better imaging using the new camera, at
 little or no more cost than the one he WAS selling ($699 camera and
 software, $99 software only).  A color version of the software would be
 next.  I'll wait for that!

 SUDDEN INC:  Rod Coleman's ultimate text editor was streaking along on a
 TT.  Sudden View ($49) was called by Jerry Pournelle "the best
 programming editor in the industry," and Rod is about to port the desk
 accessory to the MAC and other platforms.  This is software you have to
 see to believe, and have to use to appreciate.

 WINTERTREE SOFTWARE:  Phil Comeau brought a new product to Glendale, and
 it sold like thunder (oops).  Spelling Sentry ($59/49) is sort of
 everything that the accessory spelling checker Thunder and the writing
 accessory Abbreviator were, together in a well thought out package.  It
 will do real time spelling checking through virtually any application
 (even telecom, online!), and offer alternatives to your blunders.  And
 like Abbreviator, Spelling Sentry will do replacements for key
 abbreviations without your effort at all.  GramSlam and Grammar Expert
 were also moving well.

 Z*NET:  That's us.  We were busy finding all the info for our news
 support of Atari Explorer Online, Atari Explorer Magazine, and
 AtariUser.  Pictures, too.  No booth, sorry.

 ZUBAIR INTERFACES:  Z-Keys, the Z-RAM 4 meg upgrade, and more gadgets
 were moving at half price sales!  The 4 meg kit, regular $149.95 was
 going for $74.95.

 USER GROUPS:  Hosting, without a booth, was HACKS of Glendale.  Other
 groups attending with booths where they sold PD disks, used software and
 hardware, and of course, MEMBERSHIPS, were ACAOC, RAM, LOCH, SBACE,
 NOCCC/ST SIG, and ACES (who also declined a booth in order to help out
 more with volunteering).

 NEXT WEEK:  I'll take you to the Atari seminar with Bill Rehbock and Bob
 Brodie, then to the press briefing with Jerry Pournelle, and finally,
 give you an up-close look at the Falcon... all in the next Atari
 Explorer Online Magazine!



 | | |  AFTER THE GLENDALE SHOW CONFERENCE
 | | |  Edited by Ron Kovacs
 | | |  ----------------------------------------------------------------


 Monday Night Real Time Conference - Sept. 14, 1992
 After the Glendale Show with John King Tarpinian, Bob Brodie, John Nagy


 <[Lou] L.ROCHA1>
 Good evening and welcome to the show after the Show.  Thanks to John
 King Tarpinian, Bob Brodie and John Nagy for joining us.  Let's begin
 with opening comments from organizer John King Tarpinian.

 <[The King] JOHN.KING.T>
 The attendance for Saturday 1784 and on Sunday 607 for a total of 2391.
 The exhibitors that were at the show were as follows:

 ATARI CORPORATION           THE COMPUTER NETWORK        COMPUTER SAFARI
 OREGON RESEARCH ASSOCIATES  CLEAR THINKING              D.A. BRUMLEVE
 SUDDEN INC                  FAIR DINKUM TECHNOLOGIES    MICRO CREATIONS
 BRANCH ALWAYS               MID-CITIES COMP-SOFT
 FREEZE DRIED SOFTWARE       McDONALD & ASSOCIATES
 WINTERTREE SOFTWARE         BEST ELECTRONICS            JMG
 COMPO                       ICD                         S.D.S.
 CODEHEAD                    FAST TECH.                  LEXICOR
 MIGRAPH                     DRAGONWARE                  GENIE
 DMC (ISD)                   BECKEMEYER
 BIO ILLUSTRATIONS           GRIBNIF                     GADGETS BY SMALL
 ZUBAIR INTERFACES           ST INFORMER MAGAZINE
 ATARI EXPLORER MAGAZINE     Z*NET                       ATARIUSER

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 We were very impressed with the upbeat mood of the crowd, and the sales
 that our dealers reported.  Even though the attendance was a little bit
 down this year, the dealers reported higher sales.  So we were very
 pleased.  In addition, we had a chance to spend quite a bit of time with
 Jerry Pournelle.  And he was impressed.

 All in all, a very upbeat, postitive weekend.  Lots of interest in
 developing new products for the Atari Falcon030, and a number of dealer
 inquiries as well.  Dealer inquiries at a user group show are quite
 rare, so I was VERY impressed.

 <[The King] JOHN.KING.T>
 The retailers has greater sales $$$ this year than last.  They were very
 pleased.

 <[Lou] L.ROCHA1>
 Thanks Bob and John.  John, how did this show compare from an attendance
 viewpoint with previous shows at Glendale?

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 Last year's show had over 3,000 people in attendance.  We attribute part
 of the drop in attendance to the lack of advertising Atari was able to
 provide the show this year.  Plus there were several other unfortunate
 events related to advertising that hindered attendance.

 For example, EXPLORER was supposed to run an ad, but didn't.  On the
 other hand, Mid Cities SOLD OUT of TT's at the show, and bought more
 from us at the show to fill their orders.

 <[Nathan @ DMC] POTECHIN>
 Congratulations on this year's show.  Under the circumstances I think
 the turnout was great.  Who WON the FALCON 030 and did they take
 delivery at the show?  So I can make them an offer. ;-)

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 The Atari Falcon030 was won by Jason Spoor, and he did not take delivery
 at the show.  I don't think he's accepting offers.  His personal unit
 broke down 6 months ago, and he's been borrowing his club's CPU.  Quite
 a replacement program, eh? :)

 <[James] J.FRENCH2>
 Can you elaborate on the interest shown by Jerry Pournelle?

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE> Jerry indicated that he was very impressed
 with the sound capabilities of the Atari Falcon030.  And that he thought
 the machine was a very positive step away from the "same old thing" that
 we see from the Macs and PCs.  He felt that based on what we showed him,
 he wanted to have an Atari Falcon030.  And we are making plans to give
 him a fully decked out unit, with all of the appropriate software,
 shipped in a single case.

 <[The King] JOHN.KING.T>
 I walked Jerry around the show floor.  He was impressed by the Lexicor
 booth and spent quite some time at the GEnie booth.  Mario was in doing
 the Calamus SL class so he was not able to show off Calamus SL.  Better
 luck next time Nathan.

 <[John Nagy] ATARIUSER>
 The audience LOVEd the first looks (and listens) of the Falcon!  This
 show had the same number of visitors as the Glendale of TWO years ago.
 Last year was up a thousand from this year's 2400.  I found no dealers
 or developers who were UNhappy.  All of them said they did well, and
 were happy to see the level of interest that was shown at the show.

 I sat in on the Jerry P. demos, and he was intrigued.  And promised
 coverage, as he is interested in viable challenges to the MAC/PC wall.

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 Jerry was quite pleasant.  I enjoyed our time with him thoroughly.

 <[John Nagy] ATARIUSER>
 It was great as always to catch up with the friends we have made across
 the wires... and see new products continue to come out.

 <[Lou] L.ROCHA1>
 Bob, would you like to comment on interest shown in the Falcon?

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 In general, Bill Rehbock was mobbed by people on the stage while he was
 giving Falcon030 demos.

 <[The King] JOHN.KING.T>
 There was always a crowd around the Falcon.

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 We had a crowd of at least four people deep all the time around Bill.
 It was EXTRAORDINARY.  I also couldn't help but notice that many of the
 same questions are being asked over and over.  The typical questions
 were "What is the price?", "When will it be available?", "What are the
 specs?" , etc.  We need to make sure that Sam's Falcon030 conference
 gets better distribution. :)

 <[John Nagy] ATARIUSER>
 The sound demos, where Bill used the twin microphones, plugged into the
 Falcon with no additional hardware, using the software that will come
 with every Falcon... were wonderful.  The sound is true CD quality.
 Remember the first time you ever heard a CD?  And how it made your hair
 tingle?  The Falcon did that all day.

 <[Lou] L.ROCHA1>
 I take it the MIDI people were crazy about the Falcon?

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 The Music people went NUTS, so did the sound specialists.  Scott
 Gershwin of SOUND DELUXE showed up, and was VERY IMPRESSED!

 <[John Nagy] ATARIUSER>
 Scott Gershwin (Born on the 4th, JFK, Honey I distorted the kids) was
 dazzled, as was Stevie Wonder's road manager... and they WANT Falcons.

 <[Lou] L.ROCHA1>
 I'd like to get a developer's viewpoint for a minute.  Dorothy Brumleve,
 care to share your experiences?

 <[Baaad Dot!] D.A.BRUMLEVE>
 OK. I enjoyed seeing many of my customers once again.  I had a new
 product for this show, that is, one I didn't have last year.  So I sold
 a bunch of Multiplays!  I enjoy the California ambiance. ;-) I'd like to
 thank Atari for once again supplying my show equipment.  Worked great!
 And I'd like to point out what I thought was an especially professional
 touch by HACKS... They provided vendors with real BUTTONS with a nice
 show logo and the vendor's name.

 <G.CROSS>
 Bob, are there any press kits available on the Falcon that can be sent
 out to user groups?  We do put out newsletters, you know?

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 Gerry, the press kits are in development at this moment.  I even got
 FEDEX shipments at the hotel with revisions in them, and had a stack of
 them waiting for me when I got back.  When the material is done, we'll
 upload them here, as well as make sure they get out to all your favorite
 publications.

 <[John Nagy] ATARIUSER>
 Jerry, Look for photos and lots of information in this and next
 AtariUser.  I'm perusing the photos as we type.

 <[James] J.FRENCH2>
 Does the current version of Notator work on Falcon?

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 James, I'm told that it does, as well as the beta versions of Notator
 that we have in house that are in developement for future sales to
 Notator customers.  We are working very closely with C-Lab to ensure
 their products will work fine on the Falcon.  They have some exciting
 new things planned for their products....but I can't tell you about
 them!

 <[James] J.FRENCH2>
 Can you give any details as to what the direct to disk program does?
 (Other than record direct to disk? :)

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 Gee, James...that's exactly what it does, and there are a number of
 devs working on that.  Check the transcript from Bill's CO for details.

 <H.NAGRA1>
 Do you know what Jerry Pournelle means by a "new form factor" for the
 Falcon in November?  Is that a new case design for the Falcon?

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 No, I'm not sure what Jerry means.  I've only heard about the post.  He
 did indicate that he would prefer a tower case.  He hates our function
 keys, too.  But we told him that there are plenty of other people
 putting units in Towers, like Mid Cities CompSoft...who do it to TT030s
 all the time.

 <H.NAGRA1>
 What was actually demoed on the Falcon for Jerry?  He seems quite
 impressed.

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 Re the demo, lots of stuff. :) We showed him a true color slide show and
 a program that Leonard wrote that allows you to record sounds in real
 time and manipulate them via the DSP and a few other things.  He made it
 very clear that he wanted one...as he handed me his address.

 <[John Nagy] ATARIUSER>
 New products that impressed me: GEMulator.  Worked very well, very
 satisfying--on a 486/33MHz ($$) PC. Full page scanner from Migraph.  I
 bought it on sight.  Tape backup software from Beckemeyer. PowerDOS from
 Dragonware.  The LINK from ICD.  Hyperlink, in an improved version, from
 JMG.  Calamus SL, still and forever.  Lee Seiler's arsenal of STUFF,
 amazing graphics.  When he explains what he does, you realize how you
 don't even have enough understanding to listen appropriately (don't
 quite know the proper times to nod).  And Mark Booth's sound sample
 disks.  Top notch.

 <[No Biscuit!] CODEHEAD>
 Hi folks.  We really had fun this weekend, and want to thank HACKS for
 their usual terrific attitudes and support!

 <[The King] JOHN.KING.T>
 We just supply an empty room.  If it was not for the fine developers in
 the Atari community we would not be able to do a show.  Atari always
 comes thru for us, too.

 <[No Biscuit!] CODEHEAD>
 I got to talk to a lot of our customers and that's always enlightening
 and stimulating!  The response to our new modular screensaver built into
 Warp 9 was, er, excellent, to say the least.  The new screensaver is
 called .... <fanfare> Extend-O-Save ....Save.... Save....(hard to
 simulate echoes in ASCII)... It's a modular screensaver similar to After
 Dark for the Mac or PC, in that external modules.... can be loaded and
 removed, and programmer's documentation has been made public.  I just
 finished uploading the programmers' docs earlier tonight, in fact... So
 as soon as the sysops clear it, all you programmeroid types out there
 can start turning all those neat screen hacks into screensaver modules.

 <G.CROSS> John, some info on that tape backup software please?  And did
 Derek get that problem with the mouse movements fixed?

 <[John Nagy] ATARIUSER>
 The mouse moves on the Gemulator were not particularly noticable by me
 and Beckemeyer has their info online here.  You can install any SCSI
 tape mech and run their software.

 Back to the Falcon... the pictures displayed on the old faithful SC1224
 color monitor (ST/1985 vintage) were dazzling.  To think that the old
 CGA quality monitor can look that good... as good as ANY SVGA PC display
 for graphics.  And to think that ST High Res can be used on a COLOR
 monitor (or TV!) now... with the Falcon.  Whew.  Looked better than I
 imagined.  Even the RF output was SHARP.

 <[The King] JOHN.KING.T>
 I am proud to say that we have the BEST volunteers around.  I think the
 developer community is a bunch of swell people and ATARI always comes
 thru for us.  This is our 6th show and the large details are easy.  The
 little details need attention but that is OK.  I get a warm fuzzy
 feeling after the show.

 <H.NAGRA1> Codeheads: Did you show anything new for the Falcon ?

 <[No Biscuit!] CODEHEAD> We have some plans in the Falcon direction, but
 since we don't have access to one as yet, we had nothing to show at
 Glendale.

 <[James] J.FRENCH2> Were there any games shown for the Falcon?

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 James, there are several games that will be shipped with the Atari
 Falcon030, Landmines, BreakOut, and... I forget what the other one is.
 They all have terrific sound, and really, really good graphics.  This
 show was not intended to be a showcase for the Atari Falcon030, but
 rather to be a place where our faithful users could come ... and in
 addition to everything else that the Glendale Show has done so well, see
 a brand new Atari product for the first time.

 <V.HUTZ>
 Is there a large dev base?

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 Well, we certainly do not pretend to have the same number of developers
 as the DOS world, or the Mac.  But we have been VERY pleased at how many
 developers are interested, and we actually signed up developers at The
 Glendale Show!

 By a weird twist of fate, there was an Amiga Show in Pasadena, about 15
 minutes from the Glendale Show.  We were visited by a number of the
 AMIGA developers at the show.  We also made certain that we provided
 developer docs re the Falcon030 to all of the developers in attendance
 at the show.

 <[The King] JOHN.KING.T>
 I can verify that because I brought some to Bill Rehbock myself and they
 thanked me afterwards, the developers, that is.

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 I couldn't hardly move without being asked about developing for the
 Falcon030...it was amazing.

 <[John Nagy] ATARIUSER>
 It was interesting to note, as Jerry Pournelle did, that the NExT
 developers think the Falcon may make MUCH LARGER audience for their
 software, particularly DSP applications.

 Atari may sell hundreds to thousands of their software applications for
 each one that goes to a NExT owner... by comparison, Atari is the HIGH
 VOLUME producer. Ironic.

 <H.NAGRA1>
 How bad is the interlace flicker on the TV output of the Falcon?  As bad
 as the Amiga or better?  Also can we order Falcon docs now?

 <[John Nagy] ATARIUSER>
 Impartial opinion on Flicker: I can live with the Falcon flicker.  It
 does not appear in most graphic screens.  I CAN'T live with Amiga
 flicker.  And use an SVGA monitor, and you won't flicker.  At all. Nope.
 None.

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 Oh, the flicker question. :) John's right, especially on an SC1224.  On
 a SC1435 it's not as bad...and John's right again. :)  No flicker on a
 higher quality monitor.  Remember the flicker comes when you are running
 an SC1224 at 640x480x256 colors.

 <[John Nagy] ATARIUSER>
 I'm intrigued at the way the Falcon knows what output to give, based on
 whatever is plugged into the monitor port. Neat.

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 Which is to say that it happens at a rez that we had never intended that
 monitor to work at. :) Is that it?

 <B.MALATESTA>
 OK My question is based on the Gemulator and how Atari feels about it?
 Also does that thing work.  Can it hurt or help Atari?

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 Well, Bernard, I've been on record many times as saying that as long as
 Derek purchases genuine Atari TOS chips, he will have no problems with
 us.  And this is only after checking with the highest level of
 management here.  Jack personally signed off on selling Derek roms.
 I've seen Gemulator work, but personally, I'm not a prospective
 customer.

 <[John Nagy] ATARIUSER>
 An opinion from the sidelines: the GEMulator will open few sales for
 software devs.  It will give people who move platforms a way to use
 (quite well, too) their old software.  But it does NOT in any way, beat
 having an Atari.... it's EMULATION. And WAYYYYY behind a Falcon.

 <[Ringo] LEXICOR2>
 First I would like to thank all of the users that attended the show!
 Also John King for all the work and ATARI Bob B for all of the support.
 It was a great show for all.  WE had a good time showing the hot new
 demos.  I got to see a large number of the Online personnel.  That was
 nice.  Thanks to all.  John King, let me know how the rest of the show
 was I only got to see some of it. <GRIN>

 <[The King] JOHN.KING.T>
 This show has become a ritual end of Summer for me.  It is good to see
 friends that I only see once a year.  Many of our developers, volunteers
 and Atari staff have become REAL GOOD friends, in part because of the
 show.

 That is the most important part for me.  Also, I feel like I am helping
 our Atari community.  Since I cannot program this is the best I can do.

 <[John Nagy] ATARIUSER>
 It was another winner.  I'll know more about the show after I read my
 report this weekend in Atari Explorer Online....  Really, it takes a
 serious sit-down with the videotape, photos, notes, and a million
 handouts (some devs noted that they should have charged for their flyers
 and given away the software!)

 I think it should also be mentioned that the volunteers gave not only of
 their time, they brought their own equipment--in volume--to make sure
 all the devs had EVERYTHING they needed.  These folks worked til they
 bleed.  Of course, Tara's whip was responsible too.

 <[Bob @ Atari] BOB-BRODIE>
 We are thrilled that the Glendale Show was once again so successful.
 Congratulations are in order to John King Tarpinian, Tara Jacobs, and
 all the rest of the volunteers that we have in Southern California.  As
 usual, they did a first class job in putting on the show, as well as
 ensuring that every exhibitor was well cared for.  We look forward to
 next year's show, which we HOPE will be in the NEW Red Lion Hotel
 Convention Center in Glendale...actually within the Hotel itself.

 While Southern California is where my roots are, I've grown to
 appreciate the efforts of the volunteers even more since I've come to
 Atari.  The people there are truly exceptional...no other group(s)
 provide this level of support, anywhere.



 | | |  ATARI PRESS RELEASES
 | | |  From Atari Corporation
 | | |  ----------------------------------------------------------------


 ATARI SHIPS NEW MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM WITH ATARI FALCON030
 PERSONAL INTEGRATED MEDIA SYSTEM.

 Upgraded MultiTOS System Incorporates Notable New Capabilities Based on
 User Suggestions, Including Font Scaling Manager.

 BOSTON (September 23, 1992) Atari Corporation announced today its new
 multitasking operating system, called MultiTOS.  Available with the new
 Atari Falcon030 personal integrated media machine, the system will be
 available in November at Atari distributors around the country.

 "We took advantage of our strong user network and made many of our
 upgrades based on input from dedicated Atari users and developers around
 the world," said Leonard Tramiel, vice-president of system software for
 Atari.  "We designed the operating system around the way people use
 computers.  I believe the level of attention to users, and the degree to
 which this operating system addresses those concerns, is unique in the
 industry.  We've built in more options and flexibility and at the same
 time dramatically improved performance."

 Immediate Pre-Emptive Multitasking Capabilities

 Atari's MultiTOS is compatible with existing applications and upgrades
 from software developers are not required.  Running on the Atari
 Falcon030, MultiTOS takes advantage of the hardware memory protection
 built into Motorola's 68030.  Users can confidently run a word
 processing program without quitting out of a database or electronic mail
 program first.

 Unlike offerings from other personal computer manufacturers, Atari's
 MultiTOS is pre-emptive.  The system doesn't have to wait for permission
 from one application before switching to another task.  "Other
 multitasking systems may leave a user waiting indefinitely, until a
 calculation or manipulation is completed before changing to another
 application," said Tramiel.  "But MultiTOS is more sophisticated and
 will switch between applications automatically."

 The result is a true multitasking environment.  Multiple applications
 can be left running in background windows as new tasks are started in
 the foreground window.  A database program does not have to complete its
 sort before the user changes windows into a word processor.

 "NewDesk" Improved

 In addition to the operating system enhancements, the graphic desktop
 NewDesk has also been upgraded.  New features include:

 . Animated, color icons
 . 3-D buttons and scroll bars
 . Manipulate and resize background windows
 . "Drag and drop" across applications
 . Extensible file system support
 . Use soft-loaded fonts
 . Hierarchical and pop-up menus

 Font Scaling Manager

 Word processing and desktop publishing users will be especially pleased
 with the addition of Font Scaling Manager (FSM).  FSM makes it easy to
 view any font size by allowing applications to scale text to any point
 size.  FSM also makes arbitrary font rotation and skewing possible, and
 allows direct manipulation of font characters' Bezier outlines for more
 advanced type effects.

 MultiTOS will ship with the Atari Faicon030, available November 1992.
 Additionally, MultiTOS will soon be available as an upgrade to Atari's
 TT030.  Demonstrations can be seen at authorized Atari dealers around
 the country.

 Atari Corporation (AMEX:ATC) is a worldwide manufacturer and marketer of
 palmtop through desktop computer systems.  The company sells its
 systems, peripherals and software through authorized distributors,
 resellers and integrators.



 ATARI INTRODUCES FIRST COMPUTER SYSTEM DESIGNED FOR PERSONAL INTEGRATED
 MEDIA

 Atari Falcon030(tm) brings high-end capabilities to the market for less
 than $1,000.

 Boston (September 23, 1992)  Atari Corporation today announced the first
 available personal integrated media system, the Atari Falcon030
 computer.  From education to entertainment, personal integrated media
 (PIM) has the potential to change consumers' lives as dramatically as
 personal computers changed business offices.  The system will be
 available in November at authorized Atari Dealers across the country.

 A full scale computer based on the powerful 16 Mhz Motorola 68030
 microprocessor, the Atari Falcon030 is specifically designed for
 personal integrated media functions.  It gives even inexperienced users
 the ability to combine and manipulate video, audio, animation,
 telecommunications, text and graphics.  The system is optimized for
 these functions and incorporates technology usually reserved for high-
 end production systems.

 "The Atari Falcon030 is an ideal entry into the new and growing personal
 integrated media market," said Sam Tramiel, Atari's president and CEO.
 "It's a powerful system that gives users access to a whole new world of
 applications.  Yet the system remains easy-to-use and affordable."

 Consumers will be able to use the Atari Falcon030 as a color video
 phone, communicating in sound and pictures with other Atari Falcon030
 users.  The system makes it possible to create home videos complete with
 text and music, record lead vocals on a favorite rock 'n roll classic
 with the originals musicians playing along; narrate and score a family
 photo album, produce a visual family tree, invent and play an adventure
 game set in a childhood home; and much more.

 Atari Falcon030 users have immediate access to advanced PIM capabilities
 thanks to the following features:

 ||| Atari's Graphic Environment Manager (GEM) and built in graphics
     co-processor
 ||| A true color mode that includes more than 65,000 colors, twice the
     capability of the Apple MacIntosh LCII
 ||| The industry's only standard-equipped MIDI input/output ports
 ||| 16-bit stereo sound- input and output- for the highest quality
     reproductions available at sample rates up to 50 kHz
 ||| Built-in composite and RF video outputs for easy connection to video
     cassette recorders
 ||| External video sync for high quality genlocking
 ||| Overlay mode for easy video titling and special effects
 ||| Software for PIM applications such as desktop video productions,
     animations, music and entertainment.

 No other computer provides this level of performance and PIM
 capabilities at a more economical price.

 Applications Highlights

 PIM technology will make thousands of new capabilities possible.  There
 are already hundreds of software applications available for the Atari
 Falcon030, making it easy for users to accomplish a variety of new
 goals.

 Movie Quality Video

 With the Atari Falcon030, users can explore new avenues in home video,
 from inserting titles and credits to professional quality editing.  They
 can create music videos, cartoons, and school presentations.

 The Atari Falcon030 offers state of the art graphics, true color 16-bit
 mode allowing up to 640x480 resolution and a display of up to 65,536 on-
 screen colors.  It accepts external video synch for high quality
 genlocking, and uses a unique overlay mode for effortless titling and
 special effects.  In addition, users can obtain composite video signals
 directly from the Falcon030.

 High Quality Video

 Atari takes the music-industry standard -MIDI- one step further.  The
 only company to provide MIDI as a standard system component, the Atari
 Falcon030 also incorporates Motorola's 56001 digital signal processor
 (DSP) for the highest quality audio and special effects capabilities,
 allowing users to remove lead vocals and create their own Karoke machine
 or run music educations programs.

 The Atari Falcon030 provides users with features that are usually
 restricted to expensive, high-end machines.  But without any additional
 equipment, Atari Falcon030 users can record on two stereo tracks and add
 graphic equalization and special effects such as surround sound,
 harmonizing, reverberation, and echo.

 Pricing and Availability

 The Atari Falcon030 is a simple to use computer that doesn't require
 add-on boards or other costly optional hardware.  The Atari Falcon030
 already includes exactly what users need.  The machine offers a wealth
 of ports for communicating with existing peripherals, and application
 software for the Atari Falcon030 is readily available.

 Priced at $799 with 1 MB of RAM, the Atari Falcon030 is ideal for users
 who want a powerful, efficient, and cost-effective tool that can take
 advantage of today's technologies.  The system will be available in
 November through authorized Atari dealers.

 Atari Corporation (AMEX:ATC) is a worldwide manufacturer and marketer of
 palmtop through desktop computer systems.  The company sells it's
 systems, peripherals, and software through authorized distributors,
 resellers and integrators.

 Atari is a registered trademark of Atari Corporation.  Atari Falcon030,
 TOS, MultiTOS, NewDesk and BLiTTER, are trademarks of Atari Corporation.
 Motorola is a registered trademark of Motorola, Inc.

 Atari Falcon030 Specifications

 Contact:  Sue Baelen or Anne Ellingsen      Ron Smith or Bill Rehbock
           Redgate Communications            Atari Corporation
           [phone]                    [phone]
           [phone] - Fax              [phone] - Fax

 System Architecture
 -------------------

 ||| Motorola 68030 operating at 16Mhz
 ||| On-chip demand-paged memory management
 ||| Seperate on-chip 256-byte instruction and data caches
 ||| Independent address and data buses for increased performance
 ||| Pipelined architecture
 ||| 32-bit data/address bus
 ||| 1, 4 or 14 MB RAM configurations
 ||| 512K internal ROM; 128K external cartridge

 Sound
 -----

 ||| Eight 16-bit digital audio DMA record and playback channels with up
     to 50kHz sampling rate
 ||| Stereo 16-bit digital DMA audio input/output
 ||| SDMA sound/DMA co-processor

 Digital Signal Processor
 ------------------------

 ||| Motorola 56001 DSP operating at 32 MHz
 ||| 96 MOPS performance at 32 MHz
 ||| 32K words of 0 wait-state static RAM
 ||| DSP connector allows easy connection of low-cost 19.2K baud fax/data
     modems, voice mail systems, direct-to-disk digital audio recorders,
     JPEG/MPEG image compression, etc.

 Graphics
 --------

 ||| 640 x 480 resolution and 256 colors in Super VGA
 ||| True color 16-bit mode allows display of up to 65,536 colors
 ||| Accepts extermal video sync signal to allow high-quality genlocking
 ||| Overlay mode for easy video titling and special effects
 ||| Optional overscan
 ||| 262,144 possible colors
 ||| Hardware-assisted horizontal fine scrolling
 ||| BLiTTER graphics co-processor

 Expansion Bus
 -------------

 ||| Internal direct processor slot for 386SX PC emualtion, DMA co-
     processors, etc.
 ||| Optional processor socket for other co-processors

 Standard Ports
 --------------

 ||| SCSI II port with Direct Memory Access (DMA)
 ||| High-speed LocalTalk-compatible LAN port
 ||| Connector for analog RGB color (VGA or ST) or composite video
 ||| RS232C serial port
 ||| Bi-directional parallel port (also suitable for image scanners)
 ||| Cartridge poet (128K capacity)
 ||| MIDI in/out
 ||| Minature stereo plug input/output
 ||| Four 9-pin joystick connectors
 ||| Two 15-pin enhanced digital/analog controller and light pen
     connectors

 Data Storage
 ------------

 ||| 1.44 MB floppy disk drive
 ||| MS-DOS-format compatibility
 ||| Optional internal IDE hard drive

 User Interface
 --------------

 ||| Standard QWERTY keyboard layout.  Low profile, sculptured ergonomic
     design
 ||| 94/5 keys; 10 function keys.  Seperate numeric and cursor keypads
 ||| Keyboard processor to reduce CPU overhead
 ||| 2-button mouse supplied as standard

 System Software
 ---------------

 ||| Pre-emptive multitasking with adaptive prioritization (MultiTOS)
 ||| Inter-process commuication through MultiTOS messages and pipes
 ||| TOS operating system in ROM
 ||| Hierarchical file system with subdirectories and path names
 ||| Icon-based graphical user interface with self-explanatory command
     functions
 ||| Online help
 ||| Multiple window user interface with icons and drop-down menus
 ||| NewDesk desktop and eXtensible Control panel allows customization by
     user



 | | |  FCC UPDATE
 | | |  From CompuServe
 | | |  ----------------------------------------------------------------


 The FCC has taken some action to reconsider some aspects of the access
 charge pricing issue within its Open Network Architecture proceedings.
 Here's a copy of the press release from the FCC:

 Released:  August 14, 1992

 On July 16, 1992, the Commission adopted a Memorandum Opinion & Order on
 Second Further Reconsideration, FCC 92-325, released Aug. 6, 1992.  That
 decision addressed the Docket 87-313 price cap new services test issues
 raised in petitions for reconsideration of the Part 69/ONA Order, 6 FCC
 Rcd 4524 (1991).  It did not address the other issues raised in the
 petitions for reconsideration of the Part 69/ONA Order.  These issues
 include the pricing standard for basic service elements (BSEs), the
 elimination of bundled feature groups, and maintenance of the status quo
 with respect to access charge treatment of enhanced service providers
 (ESPs).  Before acting on the remaining issues raised by the petitions
 for reconsideration, we give parties an opportunity to update the record
 in light of intervening events, such as the effectiveness of federal ONA
 tariffs.

 Interested parties should file comments on the request by September 30,
 1992, and reply comments by October 30, 1992, with the Secretary, FCC,
 1919 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.  20554.  A copy should also be
 sent to Mark S. Nadel, Common Carrier Bureau, FCC, Room 544, 1919 M St.,
 N.W., Washington, D.C.  20554, and to the Commission's contractor for
 public service records duplication:  Downtown Copy Center, 1114 21st
 Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.  20036.  Copies of the petitions can be
 obtained from the Downtown Copy Center at [phone].

 We will treat this proceeding as non-restricted for purposes of the
 Commission's ex parte rules.  See generally, 47 C.F.R.  1.1200-1.1216.
 For further information contact Mark Nadel, Policy and Program Planning
 Division of the Common Carrier Bureau, at [phone].



 | | |  GENIE - FLOW CONTROL
 | | |  Compiled by Ed Krimen
 | | |  ----------------------------------------------------------------


 Some messages may have been edited for correct spelling, grammar, and
 irrelevant material.


 FALCON SIGHTING AT GLENDALE
 ---------------------------
 -=> In the "Atari Corporation Online" category (14)
 -=> from the "Atari Falcon 030 Computer" topic (20)

 Message 70        Mon Sep 14, 1992
 R.SCHILLING [Rob]            at 22:12 EDT

 Just got back from the Glendale show and the sighting of a real live
 FALCON 030!

 Looked just like a 1040 STE except that the Atari logo was rainbow
 colored and the nametag read "ATARI Falcon 030."  Bill Rehbock was
 demoing some amazing desktop video applications "Atari's answer to
 Quicktime". He had a 75-meg video file that was simply awesome.

 Also the Falcon was playing some great sound samples.  Bill showed off
 a graphic equalizer CPX to adjust the sound.  Also he had a microphone
 hooked up to the computer to show the DSP capabilities (echo,
 distortion, flanging etc...).

 All of this was running on an old SC1224 monitor.  The desktop I saw was
 640x400 (?) running in 256 color interlace mode.  The flicker was not
 too bad and did not affect the whole screen, just the windows, not their
 contents.  The desktop displayed looked just like a regular STE, nothing
 fancy, but this might have been a pre-production version.

 Bill Rehbock said that this was the final version of the machine.  He
 also claimed that there would be two Falcons at every dealer by the end
 of October or thereabouts.

 This show was fantastic and the Falcon sighting was worth the price of
 admission alone.  Thanks John King Tarpinian and Atari Corp.

 Rob

 P.S.  All above information is based on my memory of events witnessed at
 the show on Saturday, accuracy is not guaranteed.  (Disclaimer :-)
 ====================================


 MORE INFO FROM THE GLENDALE SHOW
 --------------------------------
 -=> In the "User Groups and Shows" category (11)
 -=> from "The Glendale Show - 1992 ... 9/12-13/92" topic (12)

 Message 235       Sun Sep 13, 1992
 LEXICOR2 [Ringo]             at 01:10 EDT

 Nathan.

 WOW! Excellent show........ I got to see and talk to Mario, THANKS.  He
 is really a pleasant person -- some what dynamic but great with SL.
 Much like Lee Seiler and the powerful artwork/animation that he does
 with Lexicor products.  Lee is a master of the ARTS.

 The first day was all work. We had hundreds of people running into the
 area.  The Falcon was running at our booth and also at the ATARI area.
 Lexicor is displaying wonderful Falcon animations, Falcon rendering
 samples, new version of Chronos running in the Falcon, and TWO new
 programs... Phoenix-512 a program that renders in ST,TT, spectrum format
 and also TGA 16bit Falcon and 24bit format!  Image mapping is really
 great.  We had sample images running under the Falcon.  Lee is also
 displaying Monalisa, a powerful true-color 16/24bit animation and Paint
 program on the SGI.  I got to see the great RINO painting.  The Rino
 looks so real!  For all ATARI users, Monalisa is a must have program.

 The Terminator-2 demo had the Lexicor booth full of people.  The demo
 was running on the SGI and the Mega ST.  The TT was running the new
 Phoenix 512 program and Chronos.  People were all over.

 It was a very good show for all.

 Nathan, I did see Darlah but we were all so bussy... Maybe tomorrow I
 will see other things in other booths.

 All others are at the party now!
 Ringo
 ----------
 Message 238       Sun Sep 13, 1992
 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP]            at 13:02 EDT

 Well it is morning and Mario has survived.  We did drag him out to see
 the sights.

 The mood of the crowd is decidedly upbeat, the level of excitement
 reminds me of the very first Atarifests that I went to.  Bill Rehbock
 spent most of the day up on the stage showing the Falcon to a crowd that
 completely engulfed him.  I was so worried that people were going to
 fall off of the stage!! :) What a trooper, he was on stage until 2:00,
 when he and Bob were SUPPOSED to do a seminar...and in walked Jerry
 Pournelle! A quick decision was made to spend the time with Jerry (good
 move!) and postpone the seminar for an hour.  Some of the seminar
 attendees groused a bit, but when they heard WHY...all was well again.
 Bob and Bill finally spent an hour and a half at their seminar, which
 was very well received.  When asked what Jerry P thought of the Falcon,
 Bob replied, "Well, he asked for one!" Good news all around!  As Bob and
 Bill were trying to make their way back to the stage, ANOTHER member of
 the media showed up, Linda from Newsbytes.  I was pleased to learn that
 she heard about the show from GEnie!

 Mario from DMC Publishing/ISD gave a very successful seminar which was
 very popular.  One of these days, I'll have to take one too.  :)  He did
 the seminar with a 26 meg TT, which was quite powerful.  Lee Seiler of
 Lexicor had a really different type of booth setup.  He had an area for
 users to sit in his booth, and see the way that his new paint program
 MONA LISA worked.  He had a Silicon Graphics workstation that he was
 generating input from a Mega ST via a GENLOCK into the workstation.  He
 had a terrific looking demo that he digitized from Terminator II.  Mike
 Lindsay of Atari Explorer is here, taking subscriptions to EXPLORER, and
 doing very well.  He's getting lots of questions...both about the mag,
 and what life at ATARI is really like. :) Dave Small had a series of
 mishaps trying to get a plane to land in Southern California...his
 luggage got here a day before he did!  I can't wait to hear his stories
 about this escapade!  MID CITIES, a large LA area dealer has Dana and
 Jeff from BareFoot Software in their booth, doing terrific MIDI demos...
 great music all day long.  The Computer Network took an entire island at
 the show, and enclosed their area behind tall curtains, which gave an
 interesting effect.  It was like people disappeared behind the curtains!
 Both dealers reported by mid afternoon that they had done better than
 last years show!  While we were showing STORM the young guys from Freeze
 Dried Software were showing off their program for the first time ever at
 a show.  I'll have to get over to see what all the talk is about with
 this program.

 Tom Harker from ICD is in town, there is an AMIGA show going on a few
 miles away in Pasadena...it was great to see him again.  ICD is showing
 The LINK, and everyone is impressed!

 CodeHead is showing an upgrade to Warp 9 (version 3.7) with a new
 modular screensaver.  We're right next to them, and I'm hoping to get
 over there to check it out when things slow down.  We got to meet a lot
 of our users in the GEnie booth, including BD Hall, and Ed Krimen.  It's
 always nice to see the faces behind the names.  Ken Estes from the SCI
 FI RTC and Dave Flory from the ALERT RTC stopped by to help out in our
 booth, and to check out the Falcon.  Next to the GEnie Booth is Mario
 from DMC/ISD, showing the power of Calamus SL.

 The GEnie booth was showing Flash II as well, one of the latest
 additions to the market.  People were really interested in the different
 terminal programs available.

 The show is opening now......more later as we can....
 ----------
 Message 241       Sun Sep 13, 1992
 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP]            at 16:10 EDT

 The show started out slow this morning and appears to be picking up.
 The DMC Seminar is going on now as I type.

 I have the Codehead folks next to me with their Extend-O-Save for Warp
 9.  Warp 9 was sold out yesterday and likewise with Megapaint.  It
 appears to be a good show for those Codehead guys.  My hats off to the
 Codehead Julie for a great party....

 There were great sales on games.  There were prices as low as $5.00.  It
 was amazing to see prices so low.

 The Falcon is being shown and sure appears to draw a great deal of
 interest.  The stage has been quite busy.

 Talking about a Falcon, Lee Seiler from Lexicor had one in his booth as
 well.  What a nice touch.

 More later as we can.........
 ----------
 Message 244       Sun Sep 13, 1992
 ST-GUEST                     at 17:11 EDT

 Kene here.

 They're jammin over in the Mid Cities booth again.  Behind me you can
 hear bells and the screams of kids playing MIDI-Maze in the TCN booth.
 People are on stage checking out the FALCON and Sandy has just returned
 from lunch.

 Everybody is having fun.  The Wand scanner from Migraph looks great, and
 BDT is showing off their tape drive software.

 Yesterday I bought Spelling Sentry and Diamond Edge I'll have to play
 around with them when I have a free evening next week.

 I'd like to compare Diamond Edge with Hard Disk Sentry too.
 ----------
 Message 248       Mon Sep 14, 1992
 STACE [Mark]                 at 23:28 EDT

 Well, I had a great time at the show!  I, too, upgraded to the new WARP
 9 with Extend-O-Save screen saver!  Looks totally cool!  I also plunked
 down the cash for SPELLING SENTRY from Wintertree.  Can't wait to to dig
 into it.  (A "online" dictionary is something I >really< need and have
 been wanting for some time!)

 It seems that show attendees were anxious to spend money!   I sold my
 used LYNX before the doors even opened on Sat! :-)  Then, once they did
 open I sold out on my soundbyte disks on Sat.  I was up till 1:30am
 (after CodeHead party) making more for Sunday and then I sold out again!
 :-)

 The Gadget's booth was just as busy as usual with Dave demonstrating
 both SST and MegaTalk (now shipping).  Dave was using dual Stalker
 windows to send data from one MegaTalk RS-232 port to the other at about
 900,000 baud!  :-)  That makes for a pretty fast network!

 I was demoing Spectre GCR and, given the low price one can buy a Mac for
 these days, I am amazed just how popular Spectre remains.  Several
 Spectres were sold at the show and both dealers had ROMs in stock.  The
 price on the ROMs appears to have dropped back down to around the $160
 level.

 It was fun leaving the MacPlaymate folder out on the desktop on my
 Stacy/Spectre and watch people come up and open it up to see what was
 inside.  (It was a "locked" folder that showed "0 items" inside!  <g>)
 They were sooooooo disappointed when they opened it up!  :-)

 I would like to take this moment to thank JOHN KING T. and all the
 volunteers at the show!  I certainly had a good time and I am already
 looking forward to next year!

 I would also like to thank the fine folks at CODEHEAD and, in
 particular, John and Julie, for the fine event they threw!  I had a
 GREAT time!

 Mark
 ====================================


 IN SEARCH OF USER GROUPS DOWN UNDER
 -----------------------------------
 -=> In the "User Groups and Shows" category (11)
 -=> from the "Looking for Local User Groups" topic (2)

 Message 38        Fri Sep 11, 1992
 D.FARRINGTO1 [David <><  .]  at 05:21 EDT

 I would like to find some Atari user groups in Australia.  If you know
 how to contact them please tell me by E-mail.

 David <><
 ----------
 Message 39        Fri Sep 11, 1992
 POTECHIN [ Nathan]           at 08:29 EDT

 There are many user groups across Australia.  I'd suggest contacting
 Alistair Campion at Atari Australia for a complete list.  He can be
 reached right here on GEnie at ATARI-OZ.  I have been personally
 receiving the monthly newsletter from one Australian User Group for
 years, FEEDBACK from the Adelaide Atari Computer Club. O.O. Box 333,
 Norwood 5067 South Australia Australia.  There is ACE is SYdney,
 Canberra Atari Users Group, Geelong Atari Users Group, Melbourne Atari
 Computer Enthusiasts, Queensland Atari Computer Enthusiasts, W.A. Atari
 Computer Club, Burnie Atari Computer Club etc.. I have a fairly complete
 list.  Perhaps you can indicate which geographic region and I'll dig out
 some specifics for you.

 Nathan @ DMC Publishing
 ----------
 Message 40        Sat Sep 12, 1992
 D.FARRINGTO1 [David <><  .]  at 01:31 EDT

 Hi Nathan:

 Yes I would like to ask you about this town in Austrlia.  I don't know
 anything about the country of Australia except what I've seen on TV and
 a movie or two (the place looks nice).  Anyway, the name of the town is
 Pyrmont, N.S.W.-Australia.  Anything in a 400 mile radius will do.  If
 nothing I can contact Mr. Campion.

 Thank you very much for the offer and the post.

 David <><
 ====================================


 SPEEDO.  NO, IT'S NOT SWIMWEAR.
 -------------------------------
 -=> In the "Goldleaf" category (35)
 -=> from the "FSM GDOS" topic (4)

 Message 152       Tue Sep 08, 1992
 WORDFLAIR [Lauren]           at 23:02 EDT

 We're very excited about the "new" FSM GDOS based on Speedo. Our initial
 testing shows that it's completely compatible, and extremely fast!  We
 think it's a great thing to define a font standard, especially one that
 has such and important player as Bitstream behind it.  For those that
 don't know, Bitstream is one of the largest font providers in the world.
 They have an extensive library of fonts in Type 1 format that they sell
 at extremely good prices.  They recently released a font scaler that is
 being used by both hardware and software vendors.  With this new scaler
 comes a new standard that will be supported on the Atari.  The upshot of
 this, is that you would be able to buy fonts at places like Egghead
 software.

 Watch this space for more news...

 john@goldleaf
 ----------
 Message 153       Fri Sep 11, 1992
 S.DANUSER [Soul Manager]     at 00:50 EDT

 John - So, I presume you have a copy of the new FSM?  I'm sure you can't
 comment on availability dates, but perhaps a word or two on how complete
 it seems?  It would be nice to have a standard at Falcon time...

 Soul Manager
 ----------
 Message 154       Fri Sep 11, 1992
 WORDFLAIR [Lauren]           at 21:40 EDT

 Soul Manager:

 You again? Yes, we have the new FSM.  Two points: it is perfectly
 compatible, and is much faster.  As to availability, Bill Rehbock said
 quite soon on his round table from this past Wedensday.  We really
 believe in standards, which is why we've championed the cause of FSM for
 so long.  We've got arrows in our back to prove it!

 Thanks for the post.
 John@Goldleaf
 ----------
 Message 155       Sun Sep 13, 1992
 S.DANUSER [Soul Manager]     at 04:15 EDT

 John - I share your championing of the FSM standard.  Old GDOS is simply
 ridiculous, and while (my current version of) FSM GDOS seems to have
 some flaws, I think it's a step in the right direction.

 Sometime I'd like to hear the story of how Goldleaf got the rights to
 FSM while no one else seems to.  I envy the close relationship you must
 have with Atari to get your hands on the fabled Speedo...

 Soul Manager
 ----------
 Message 156       Mon Sep 14, 1992
 BHARTSHORNE                  at 20:31 EDT

 John or Lauren, and more information available as to when you will send
 the update to Wordflair?  Are you waiting on the new FSM? (If so I am
 not going to hold my breath unless you are given to permission to ship
 it before ATARI releases it.  Quite frankly their real soon news
 translate into sometime in the next millenium...) Is the addition of
 font caching the only major change to WFII?
 ----------
 Message 157       Mon Sep 14, 1992
 WORDFLAIR [Lauren]           at 21:42 EDT

 We have no special rights over other developers.  It's just that
 Wordflair II is one of an extremely small number of programs on the
 planet that use FSM...

 As for a speedo update to Wordflair II, I won't speculate on that one.
 All I can say, is that we have plans to make a big update that will
 encompass Speedo FSM, Multitos, and the Falcon.  It all depends on when
 Atari delivers...

 Thanks for the continued support.
 John @ Goldleaf
 ====================================


 JULY/AUGUST ATARI EXPLORER ARRIVES!
 -----------------------------------
 -=> In the "Atari Corporation Online" category (14)
 -=> from the "Atari Explorer" topic (30)

 Message 87        Wed Sep 09, 1992
 POTECHIN [ Nathan]           at 09:29 EDT

 I just received the July/August 1992 issue of Atari Explorer.  I LOVED
 IT!  Those of you that have already received it will understand.  :-)

 The magazine starts with a GEnie ad on the inside front cover.  There is
 a picture of this freaked out multi-game player that reminds us that
 there is more to GEnie than the Atari RT's. Nah. :-)

 This issue covers the Invision Elite announcement, along with the
 upgrade offers from both Soft Logik and ISD/DMC.

 And then Page 17-21 has both an article and the top 5 entries in our
 second annual Calamus Creativity Contest.  They look GREAT!

 Page 32 has our 4 color ad that many of you have already seen in the
 other Atari magazines BUT THIS TIME it is in a glossy using 133 line
 screen and I think it looks fabulous, he says, freely admitting bias in
 this regard. :-) Dean's volcano shot looks incredible.

 And then page 33 starts a 5 page review on Calamus SL by the AE
 Technical Staff.

 Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed this issue. :-) Thank you to all the Atari
 Explorer staff.

 Nathan @ DMC Publishing
 ----------
 Message 88        Wed Sep 09, 1992
 D.A.BRUMLEVE [kidprgs]       at 09:32 EDT

 Yes, Nathan, the July/August Atari Explorer is well worth the read!  And
 somewhere in between the GEnie ad and the Calamus SL review, there's a
 review of Multiplay...Can't imagine how you could have overlooked it.
 ;-)
 ====================================


 TOS 4.0 IS MULTILINGUAL
 -----------------------
 -=> In the "Atari Corporation Online" category (14)
 -=> from the "TOS 4.0: When/where/which?" topic (25)

 Message 47        Sat Sep 12, 1992
 TOWNS [John@Atari]           at 15:08 EDT

 The ROM contains difference resources for each country.  They are:
 German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Swiss German, and Swiss
 French.  They are each a resource.  This is done because the resources
 are VERY different.

 The country and keyboard are stored in Non-Volatile RAM and read when
 the Falcon030 starts up.  There will be a CPX that will allow you to
 configure the NVRAM settings for Falcon030.

 As for screen shots, I will try to get some done as soon as I can.

 It is still WAY to early to say whether or not the features of TOS 4.0
 will be put together into an upgrade kit for older TOS machines.  We
 will have to wait and see..

 -- John Townsend, Atari Corp.
 ====================================


 TT PRICES HAVE PLUMMETTED!
 --------------------------
 -=> In the "Hardware" category (14)
 -=> from the "To TT or to STE, that's the question!" topic (27)

 Message 40        Wed Sep 09, 1992
 A.VALENT [Mike]              at 21:08 EDT

 Something that may have a bearing here - a little while back there were
 a couple of postings saying that Atari had lowered their TT prices.
 What can a TT be bought for now? A 4 meg TT RAM board?
 ----------
 Message 41        Thu Sep 10, 1992
 REALM [Joey]                 at 06:07 EDT

 I asked a couple weeks ago and it was:

  TT030/2-0  (2 megs ST RAM)                $1399
  TT030/2-50 (2 megs ST RAM,50 Meg HDrive)  $1599

  TTSRB2     (2 meg ST RAM Board)           $175
  TTSRB8     (8 meg ST RAM Board)           $650

  TTTRB4     (4 meg TT RAM Board)           $299
  TTTRB16    (16 meg TT RAM Board)          $1099

  TTM195     (19" 1280x960 Mono Monitor)    $899

 Prices may vary, as they say.  Not as bad as the original $3750 price.
 :-)
 ----------
 Message 43        Thu Sep 10, 1992
 D.CHARTER                    at 19:08 EDT

 I have found a TT, 4 Meg ST ram, 105 Meg Quantum HD, and 14" color
 monitor for 2350.00.  Actually I found it a little cheaper, but you must
 also count on the reputation of the store.  The 4 Meg TT Ram is an
 additional $299.

 Duane
 ----------
 Message 44        Thu Sep 10, 1992
 REALM [Joey]                 at 23:14 EDT

 If you're trying to cut corners when buying, get the 4 Megs of TT RAM
 instead of the 2 Megs of ST RAM.  You'll get more speed out of the TT
 RAM and 2 megs of ST is plenty unless you have an SLM804/605.  Then
 you're better off getting the ST RAM board.
 ----------
 Message 45        Fri Sep 11, 1992
 D.CHARTER                    at 22:55 EDT

 How good is the Atari monitor that was discontinued?  I have a chance of
 going either way.  Of course it is quite a bit more expensive.
 ----------
 Message 46        Fri Sep 11, 1992
 REALM [Joey]                 at 23:42 EDT

 I like Atari's monitor, believe it or not! :-)  It has good picture in
 every resolution, matches the computer and automatically adjusts to each
 setting.  The base is nice also since it perfectly matches the top of
 the TT's case and fits in the groove.  Even has the same vents as the TT
 so it doesn't block the air flow.
 ====================================



 | | |  MY COMPUTER FRIEND
 | | |  By Bob Smith
 | | |  ----------------------------------------------------------------


 I am writing this to tell you about a friend of mine and how you can be
 close to someone and yet never have met them.  This article is a little
 different than I generally write, but perhaps it is needed.

 My Atari computers have been used for many different and happy tasks and
 they have brought me many pleasures, a fact I cannot dispute.  But, I
 have also been blessed with a great intangible reward by having my
 computers.  This has been the meeting of some extraordinary human beings
 and becoming friends with them and additionally acquiring a few very
 close friends.  These friends of mine have all sorts of differences,
 shapes and thoughts, but we have one common interest that has bound us
 together and that is our Atari computers.  Some of us are System
 Operators (Sysops) on Bulletin Boards, some of us belong to a user
 group, and some of us are just users, but all share the same interests.

 Let me tell you about one such very close friend, whom I have known for
 over 4 years and im that time we have shared humor, pain, good times and
 not so good times.  His name is Stan Lowell.  You may recognize the name
 by reading this fine publication as he is on the mast head as a
 contributing writer.

 I first met Stan when I logged on to a local 8-Bit BBS and found out
 that the BBS was netting with others throughtout the country and Stan's
 Bulletin Board was part of the net.  At that time, I had sustained a
 severe injury to my wrist and had to type in caps.  Well, this didn't
 sit right with Stan and he sent a few messages, with increasingly
 pointed reminders, to turn off the caps as this was considered yelling
 in the BBS world.  Not being fully familiar with BBS etiquette at that
 time, I thought that this stranger from New Jersey, of all places was,
 being a real wise guy and as such I reacted with my best sarcastic
 humor.  Little did I know at that time that this would start a four year
 battle of the most irreverent and funny exchanges on almost any subject
 that Stan or I could think of.  Along the way others have joined in and
 this particular message base traffic has become almost indecipherable to
 any outsider that is not familiar with the personalities involved.

 As time went along, I learned about the computer, sysoping and what it
 takes to run a BBS.  My respect grew at the same time for these warriors
 of the BBS world and what they invest of themselves into this chosen
 advocation.  Stan was no different in this respect and many a time I
 could detect some of the frustrations that he had with the BBS and
 sometimes when his harddrive had a very definite mind of its own, I
 could just picture him sitting there mumbling, swearing, cajoling and
 begging his harddrive to obey him.  When you grow close to someone, you
 learn that they are strong, frail, and share the entire range of human
 emotions.  Stan's wife and children are the type of people that anyone
 would be proud to call 'family'.

 Oh yes, I forgot to mention Stan's dog.  This pooch is named Victory and
 if you listened to Stan rant and rave about Victory, you would know the
 name was very appropriate.  It was my impression that Stan loved his
 pooch, but could never quite master him.

 Stan and I shared some caring times too.  When I had injured my back, I
 was always encouraged by Stan to hang in there and his genuine caring
 and concern was of very strong help to me and I daily looked forward to
 logging on to the local BBS and seeing his messages.  It is a very
 special feeling that cannot really be described.  If you have a close
 friend that cares, you will know what I mean.  When I spoke to him by
 phone, he and I would try to best each other in different things and
 somehow it always came out even.

 As we get older family and friends mean more and more and when you lose
 one it is extremely hard to deal with.  A few days ago, Stan went to
 heaven and I'll just bet he is right now looking down on me and telling
 me that he is still trying to figure out what my last BBS message was.
 Stan, I will miss you more than I care to admit and yet your "GLOW" will
 always be here.  (You will have to read the message traffic to fully
 understand that).  Now Stan stop laughing and get back to fixing your
 harddrive.

 Stan, this "computer" is for you.  (Take off on the beer commercial.)



 | | |  PORTFOLIO OWNERS UPDATE
 | | |  Special extended version for Atari Explorer Online
 | | |  ----------------------------------------------------------------


 Reprinted from the August 1992 edition of AtariUser Magazine.  This
 article MAY NOT BE REPRINTED without written permission of Quill
 Publishing/AtariUser Magazine.


 PORTFOLIO ALERT:

 As we all know, the Portfolio helped save the world in the blockbuster
 movie, TERMINATOR 2.  Last month, we told you how our Atari appears with
 Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Dansen in the upcoming movie, "Made in American"
 (watch for it in the doctor's office!).

 And the Portfolio has also popped up a couple of times in the TV show
 "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" on the FOX network.  Keep an eye out and let
 us know what you see!

 Don Thomas of Atari Corporation has created a wonderful demo for the
 Portfolio.  This self running demonstration program is designed for IBMs
 and compatibles, with VGA screens, and takes the user on a guided tour
 of the Portfolio.  It's available on Compuserve in the APORTFOLIO forum.


 PORTFOLIO F.A.Q.

 As a writer for AtariUser, a software developer, and as a Sysop on
 Compuserve, I get asked a lot of questions.  Not that I mind questions,
 but a LOT of them get asked over and over and over again.  In this
 column I'll [once again] answer these "Frequently Asked Questions."
 They're not in any particular order, and the names have been removed to
 protect the innocent.

 Q. How large should I set Drive C: to with the FDISK command?

 A. If the computer should ever crash, all the files on drive C are lost.
    Many users keep all their files on the RAMcard, and set the C drive
    to about 8k with the FDISK command.  This will leave you about 100k
    of free memory for your applications.

 Q. Why does the screen flash when the computer is off?

 A. New users will occasionally notice the screen flash when the unit is
    turned off.  The computer will turn itself on about every two minutes
    to check the alarms in the diary.

 Q. How often should the battery in the RAMcard be replaced?

 A. The battery in a memory card lasts about one year.  In order to make
    sure you replace the battery in time, write the replacement date on
    the card.  You could also set the diary to alert you in about a year.
    To replace the battery without losing your stored data, insert the
    RAMcard into the Portfolio, and turn the Portfolio ON.  The Portfolio
    will power the RAMcard while the RAMcard battery is pulled out and
    replaced.  Do not let the Portfolio power down automatically [after
    2 minutes], or you will lose all the information.

 Q. Can I use Nicads in the Portfolio?

 A. It's possible to use rechargeable batteries in the Portfolio, but be
    warned--the discharge drop-off on rechargeable batteries are much
    steeper than normal alkaline batteries, so you might not even see the
    LOW BATTERY warning.  Keep everything on a RAMcard is you want to use
    rechargables.

 Q. Will the Parallel port and/or Serial port drain the batteries faster?

 A. Whenever using the serial or parallel port, you should always use the
    AC adapter.  These ports require about as much power as the Portfolio
    and will quickly drain the batteries.

 Q. Will the Portfolio run IBM files?

 A. Because of the unique design of the Portfolio, not all programs
    designed for a PC will run it.  The most common reason is that many
    programs directly address the hardware.  Much of the Portfolio's
    hardware is slightly different and this will cause a conflict.  There
    are some other differences, but to make the Portfolio as compatible
    as possible with a PC, access the SETUP menu and under DISPLAY set
    EXTERNAL MODE to TRACKED, REFRESH to BOTH, and SPEED to FAST.  Note
    however, that the FAST setting will use up your batteries quicker.

 Q. What is the UPDATE program?

 A. Atari has released an UPDATE program to fix some bugs in the
    Portfolio.  The UPDATE program is available from several sources.
    You can get the program from Atari on the DOS Utility Card (HPC-701
    $89.85) or on the File Manager/Tutorial Card (HPC-704 $20.00).  You
    can also download the program from the Portfolio areas on both GENIE
    and COMPUSERVE.  It can also be found on Atari's own bulletin board
    (408-745-2191), but first-time callers will have to wait two business
    days for validation.  Once you have the program, place the UPDATE
    command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that it is activated when you
    reboot your machine.

 Q. What are some of the Bugs in the Portfolio?

 A. The number one bug, one that causes frustrated new owners to bring
    the machine back to the dealer more than any other: if you try to
    load a zero length file into one of the built-in applications, the
    Port will lock up.  This is especially easy to cause when first
    playing with the applications; if you save a file with nothing in it,
    next time you load that application, you're dead.  Just reboot the
    machine, delete the zero length file, and you should be ready to go.

    Then there's the "ShotGun" bug.  When you power up the Portfolio, it
    will write a random byte to a certain memory location.  If an
    application is loaded, this can mangle the data file.  One way around
    is to exit any applications before the machine powers down, or enter
    the following lines in the CONFIG.SYS file:

    FILES=20
    BUFFERS=32

    The randomized memory location will then always be inside the file
    buffer area, and will not affect the data files.

    Also, the Portfolio will lock up if you try to load a file into the
    editor that ends with a <SPACE><RETURN>.  The UPDATE program fixes
    this bug.

 Q. How do I reboot the Portfolio?

 A. When the Portfolio locks up, there are three ways to reboot the
    machine.  First try the "three finger salute", <CTRL><ALT><DEL>.  If
    this has no effect, turn the machine upside down, and above the Atari
    label, there is a hole.  Use a paper clip to depress the switch in
    the hole.  If the Portfolio still refuses to reboot, you will have to
    cold boot the machine.  Remove the battery cover.  Use a paper clip
    to depress the small metal tab.  The cold reboot will take your
    Portfolio back to when you first got it.  You will even have to tell
    it what language you want to use.  Everything on drive C: will be
    lost.

 Q. Can the ROM be upgraded?

 A. No.

 Q. Can I run MS/DOS 3.0 or later on the Portfolio?

 A. No.  The unit is MS/DOS 2.11 compatible in ROM.  Due to the hardware
    differences and memory limitations, other versions of DOS will not
    run on it.

 Q. How can I get a list of filenames when I want to load a files into an
    application?

 A. When a built-in application asks for a filename to load, type
    *<return> to display a list of files for that application.

 Q. How can I find the developers names in the Portfolio?

 A. To see the names of the people who developed the Atari Portfolio,
    follow these steps:  From the editor, press <FN><F2> to get the help
    menu.  Press <K> to select Keyboard Help.  Finally press <ALT><[> to
    find out who created your machine.

 Q. How can I make my programs smaller?

 A. Disk space is a prime concern on the Portfolio.  To make programs
    smaller, there are two utilities, LZEXE and PKLITE, which will
    compress programs to about 2/3's their original size.

 Q. Is a Technical Manual Available for the Portfolio?

 A. If you're an amateur or professional developer and want to develop
    programs that take advantage of the inner workings of the machine, a
    Technical Reference manual is available from Atari for $60.  Call
    Gail Bacani at (408)-745-2022 for more details.  The manual includes
    emulation software for the PC.

 Q. How do I run a PBASIC program?

 A. PBASIC does not have an internal editor like GWBASIC.  Create the
    BASIC program with the Portfolio's internal editor.  You can then run
    the program with the command:

    PBASIC filename

 Q. What is ALTR.COM?

 A. ALTR is a TSR program for the Portfolio that will Automatically save
    the current file in the editor, exit the editor, and run PBASIC.
    PBASIC.EXE must be renamed to P.EXE to be used with this utility.

 Q. Can I use PBASIC on the PC?

 A. Yes, but you can not use any of the "Portfolio Only" features.  The
    PBASIC Editor, a program to allow users on a PC to write PBASIC
    programs, has been upgraded to version 2.0.  The major improvement is
    that the editor now provides emulation for those nifty "Portfolio
    Only" features.  So you can now view PGC graphics, as well as Boxes,
    Sounds, and Menus on the PC.  This should help speed up Portfolio
    software development.  The PBASIC editor is available on Compuserve
    in the APORTFOLIO forum as PBE.ZIP.

 Q. What are .PGC, .PGF, and .PGX  files?

 A. Don Messerli, of the Software Vineyard, has developed the .PGC
    (Portfolio Graphics Compressed) standard.  This standard, along with
    his excellent program, PGSHOW, allows for 9 frames per second of
    animation.  It is very impressive.  PBASIC also supports the .PGC
    standard, and allows up to about 4 frames per second.  There was an
    earlier version called .PGF, where the files were always 1920 bytes
    in size.  .PGC files are compressed to take up less space.  .PGX
    files are part of an Animation Package for the Portfolio.  Depending
    on the complexity of the image, the package is able to display
    anywhere from 16 to 20 images per second on the Portfolio's LCD
    screen.  To see the results of his labor, download PGFLIX, the
    animation package, and either DOMINOS.ZIP or HORSE.ZIP, the mini-
    movies.

 Q. What is a .HOO file?

 A. A .HOO file is a program designed to run from inside the Portfolio's
    internal editor.  Press <F6> inside the editor to get a list of .HOO
    files.

 Q. What is a .RUN file?

 A. This is a program that can be run from the memory card, leaving all
    the memory free for your data.  The programs are of a special format,
    and have been specially written for the Portfolio.  You can't always
    copy these files, since they have to be stored in consecutive sectors
    on the memory card.  To copy a .RUN card, the quickest way is to
    reformat the target card, and then copy the .RUN file first.  This
    will assure that it's stored on the card correctly.  To execute a
    .RUN program, use the command:

    RUN [filename] usage

 Q. Can I attach a Hard Disk to the Portfolio?

 A. There is finally a hard disk unit available for the Portfolio.  The
    BSE Company, 14701 Candeda Place, Tustin, CA  92680, (714)-832-4316,
    have developed the Flashdrive hard disk unit.  The unit interfaces to
    the Portfolio via the Parallel Interface.  The 20mb version sells for
    $499.

 Q. When using the Flashdrive, the MD command lock up the computer.  Why?

 A. On some models of the Portfolio, there is a problem with the MKDIR
    (MD) command.  The designers of the Portfolio never anticipated a
    hard drive connected to the unit.  The MD command can not handle
    drives larger that 2mb.  BSE had to create their on version of the MD
    command, called ATMD, to bypass this problem.  It is included with
    the Portfolio driver.

 Q. Did Xoterix release their hard disk unit for the Portfolio?

 A. For those people holding their breath for the hard drive/memory
    expansion unit for Xoterix, bad news.  According to the president of
    the company, the unit has been postponed indefinitely.  They did not
    receive enough interest for them to put the unit into production.

 Q. Where can I get programs for the Portfolio?

 A. ATARI BBS: 408-745-2191; FIDO BBS: 301-997-7204; Any PORT in a STORM
    BBS: 919-598-5320; CompuServe; GEnie; Internet/Bitnet:
    ATARI.ARCHIVE.UMICH.EDU

 Q. Can I increase the internal memory size of the Portfolio?

 A. Yes.  There are two approaches.  A device available outside the US
    called Memory Expander+ will increase the Port's internal memory to
    384k, and add a second RAMcard slot.  It plugs in like the Parallel
    Port.  Megabyte Computers in Texas will now upgrade the Portfolio to
    512k of memory internally.  The $299 modification includes a six
    month warranty for the work.  For more information call, (817)
    589-2950.

 Q. Can I modify the Portfolio myself to 512k?

 A. Probably not.  The Portfolio use surface mount technology for it
    chips, and the 512k chips require jumpers to be installed.

 Q. What is the APB?

 A. Atari has released the APB (Accessories, Peripherals Bulletin) for
    the Portfolio.  This twenty page manual includes hints and tips, as
    well as listing third party vendor's hardware and software for the
    Portfolio.  For a copy, see your dealer, or write to Atari, 1196
    Borregas Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1302.  The cover price is $1.00.

 Q. What is DIP?

 A. The Portfolio was developed by DIP systems in England.  They have
    much more software and hardware devices available than in the United
    States.  Contact them for more information.  DIP, 32 Frederick Sanger
    Road, Surrey Research Park, Guildford, United Kingdom, GU2 5XN.
    [phone].

 Q. Can I put the Portfolio Through an X-RAY machine?

 A. Yes.  I have always run the Port through the x-ray machine.  But be
    warned: most security people will want to look at it anyway, since
    they won't recognize it.  When you show it to them, they will ask you
    to turn it on, so it's best not to have anything embarrassing on the
    screen.  Many of them will be very interested in the machine and will
    probably want to know more about it.

 Q. What do I do when the Portfolio dies?

 A. Atari has a trade in program for dead Portfolio.  They'll exchange an
    old Port for a New Port for $110.  Overnight shipping is available at
    extra cost.  Contact Atari before sending the unit.

 Q. Can I get a replacement Battery/Bus cover?  I lost mine.

 A. Extra covers can be ordered from Atari for 5 dollars.

 Q. Will there ever be a Portfolio II?

 A. Who knows?  Atari has always played close to the chest on future
    developments.  If you want to see an improved version of the
    Portfolio, you should write to Atari and let them know you want one.

 -BJ Gleason

 BIO:  BJ Gleason is an instructor of Computer Science at The American
 University in Washington D.C. and he's been programming for over a
 decade now.  He's the author of over two dozen utilities and games,
 including PBASIC 4.9, the 'freeware' BASIC interpreter designed
 specifically for the Portfolio.  His Email address is
 [e-mail] and his Compuserve ID is 73500,2517.  There
 are even more questions and answers in the PORT.FAQ file on Compuserve.



 | | |  GENIE ATARI ROUNDTABLE WEEKLY NEWS
 | | |  By John Hartman
 | | |  ----------------------------------------------------------------


 = DARLAH'S TREAT OF THE MONTH =

 This month's "Darlah's Treat of the Month" on page 475, Option #9 is
 Diamond Edge EDGEDEMO. Type m475;9 to receive this months "Treat".  This
 archive contains a demo version of Oregon Research's new program Diamond
 Edge.  The most advanced set of disk management tools available for your
 Atari ST: Disk and data recovery, Complete Undelete, file validation and
 disk diagnostics, Data protection, Disk optimization, Bad sector
 mapping, hard disk partitioning, Disk information archival editing and
 restoration, and much more.  Diamond Edge will be released on September
 12 at the Glendale show.  Brought to you by Oregon Research Associates.
 File: EDGEDEMO.LZH is 110848 bytes.  Remember.......this file is FREE.

 = REALTIME CONFERENCE =
 = Scheduled Wednesday RTC Guests =

 Have an idea for an Realtime Conference? Wish to promote a product, show
 or service?  Atari Roundtable Realtime Conference provides an excellent
 platform for announcements and discussions.  Contact RTC$, Jeff Williams
 [JEFF.W] for requirements and information on holding formal RTCs.  Jeff
 also captures and edits the formal conferences and uploads them into the
 Atari RT's Library.

 = Monday Realtime Conference =

 Stop in for Monday's Desktop Publishing Realtime Conferences.  Hosted by
 Lou Rocha with regular guests dealing with all aspects of DTP and
 associated topics.  All conferences begin at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time

 Monday DTP conferences - Hosted by Lou Rocha [L.ROCHA1] and Nathan
                          Potechin [ISD]

 = Atari ST Help Desk =

 Atari ST Roundtable holds a Sunday Help Desk to answer your questions on
 GEnie, Atari ST Roundtable and the line of Atari computers.  Stop in and
 ask questions or just visit the Atari RT staff and users.  The Help Desk
 starts at 7:00 pm EST Sunday on page 475;2.

 For Realtime Conference inquires and comments contact: RTC$

 = LIBRARY =

 Last Month's Top Downloaded Programs/Utilities:
 -------------------------------------------------
 25109 BILDSPAR.ACC             X J.TREVETHAN  920801    2176    254   2
 25389 PAULA20.LZH              X OUTRIDER     920822   61056    225  29
 25522 STZIP200.LZH             X M.FARMER2    920831  148992    209   2
 25390 MPLAY_13.LZH             X A.DOLORICO   920822   27776    217  29
 25388 ZOO214.LZH               X W.PIKE       920822   81408    200  40
 25394 SPC-3375.LZH             X J.PIERCE5    920822   13696    199   2
 25181 EVAL.LZH                 X E.KRIMEN     920806   13440    197   2
 25231 BLITZ_HE.ARC             X E.MONACO     920809   37760    187   2
 25185 LOCKCPX.LZH              X E.KRIMEN     920806    7680    184   2
 25160 FORMAT71.LZH             X M.FARMER2    920804    7424    183   2
 -------------------------------------------------
 Last Month's New Demos:
 ---------------------------------------------------
 25376 GIGADEMO.ASC             X D.PETERS18   920820    1280     19  10
 25374 SHADOW.LZH               X S.KIPKER     920820  303232     41  10
 25284 F_DEMO.LZH               X C.THORPE5    920815  447744     70  10
 25259 DEMOCM20.ARC             X C.HOWER      920813   29440     66  10
 25163 TCB_ACID.LZH             X SM           920804  276992     36  10
 25137 STY_DEMO.LZH             X C.BUCHANAN3  920802  222208     43  10
 25094 ACC_NEW.LZH              X S.KIPKER     920731   32128    204  10
 ---------------------------------------------------
 = REALTIME CONFERENCE =

 Sept. 21 - The CodeHeads discuss their popular new word processor,
 Calligrapher: The Ultimate Writing Machine, combining DTP features with
 a powerful, easy to learn word processing interface.

 Sept. 28 - A forum on CodeHead Graphic Tools, including MegaPaint, Avant
 Vector, Genus, Cherry Fonts & other utilities.  Also featuring Warp 9's
 extensible screensaver -  Extend-O-Save.  Bring your wish list for
 modules.

 All Real Time Conferences begin at 10:00 p.m EDT

 Last 2 Week's New Demos:
 ---------------------------------------------------
 25681 CF4DEMO.LZH              X GRIBNIF      920911   48512     76  10
 25577 HPIMG552.LZH             X D.C.GOUTHRO  920904   39680     58  10
 25534 CBD_DEMO.LZH             X FAIR-DINKUM  920901  126208    106  10
 ---------------------------------------------------



 | | |  HISOFT UPDATE - NEW FEATURES OF DEVPAC 3
 | | |  Press Release
 | | |  ----------------------------------------------------------------


 This file contains information on the differences between DevpacST 2.25
 and the new Devpac 3 for Atari computers

 The Editor
 ===========
 This has been extensively enhanced to include:

 * multi-window editing, full mouse control, bookmarks, cut-and-paste,
 pop-up option menus, visual shell facilities, faster search and replace,
 and different font sizes.

 The Assembler
 =============
 * fully support for  all the 68000 to 68040 and 68332 processors, the
 68881/2 maths co-processor and the 68851 MMU.

 The assembler produces S-records & Lattice linkable code in addition to
 standard TOS executable and DRI/GST linkable code.  Lattice Linkable
 code is also produced by HiSoft BASIC 2.

 To complement the production of S-records we supply an S-record splitter
 for use with EPROMs that are not the same width as the processorUs bus.

 The assembler is approximately 30% faster than its predecessor.  The
 assembler can now generate and process pre-assembled include files.
 This increases the speed of assembly of programs that use the operating
 system include files.

 LINE and HCLN debug hunks can be generated so that debuggers (including
 Mon version 3) can track the source code that corresponds to a given
 address and vice versa.

 The range of options has been extended and options may now be specified
 by name rather than using cryptic letters.  Command line support has
 been enhanced to allow the setting of labels and otherwise unavailable
 options.  Options are also read from a default file and this can be
 created using the editor.

 The assembler now gives an indication of where in a line an error was
 detected.  The full range of relational operators are now supported.

 Options have been added for listings on pass 1 and for tracing
 conditional assembly.  The use of privileged instructions can now be
 controlled using the SUPER and USER options.

 Further optimization facilities are provided.

 The CARGS and RADIX directives have been added.

 \# may now be used as a synonym for NARGS in macros and the macro.w
 feature has been added for macros that must generate code on even
 boundaries. \? may be used to find the length of a macro parameter.

 Default module names are more descriptive.

 The Debugger
 ============
 The front panel window display of Mon can now be organised as you wish.
 Windows can be split horizontally, vertically and also stacked in order
 to extend the number of available work areas.  Each stacked window may
 be locked to an arbitrary expression allowing interactive monitoring of
 complex data structures.

 Any number of source files may be loaded into each window along with any
 associated line number debugging information such as that output by Gen.
 Multi-module programs can thus be single stepped line by line from your
 original source file.  Two powerful new operators are provided which
 convert a program address into a source line number and locate any part
 of the program from its position in the source.

 This line number debugging information is also produced by Lattice C
 (version 5.0x and up), HiSoft BASIC 2 and HighSpeed Pascal (version 1.6
 and up).  This makes Mon an ideal medium level debugger for these
 languages.

 Mon understands the new video modes, 68030 and 68881 registers and
 instructions and the TT memory map.  It also includes commands to read
 and write individual hardware ports via the Query Port and Transfer to
 Port commands, compare memory and dynamic symbol table loading.  The
 full range of relational operators are now supported.

 Integration
 ===========
 The integration of the package has been further enhanced so that the
 Next Error (Alt-J) command now works in multiple files and the assembler
 and debugger will read include files from memory without the need to
 save these to disk.  The full range of assembly and debugger options is
 now available via the editor option dialogs.

 New tools
 =========
 Devpac 3 also includes CLink, the Lattice C format linker, our reset-
 proof ramdisk, a GST format librarian, more include files for accessing
 the operating system and a utilities for splitting S-record files,
 SRSplit and removing debug information from files, Strip.  Also supplied
 is a GEM based installation program to make stepping up Devpac 3 a snap.

 Devpac 3 is supplied on one Double-Sided 3.5" Double density disk and
 comes with an expanded 340 manual including an 18 page index.

 Devpac 3 runs on all Atari based 680x0 computers with at least one
 double-sided floppy disk drive.

 Upgrades from DevpacST2 and Devpac TT cost:

 39.95 UKP inside the U.K.
 42.00 UKP in the rest of Europe
 45.00 UKP outside Europe.

 Upgrades from Devpac 1 are available for 10 pounds more than the above
 prices.  These offers do not include magazine cover disks.

 These prices include shipping by airmail where applicable.  Please
 return your original Devpac master disk when upgrading.

 14 September 92

 HiSoft
 The Old School
 Greenfield BEDFORD MK45 5DE  U.K.



 | | |  ATARINET
 | | |  By Bill Scull
 | | |  ----------------------------------------------------------------


 AtariNet - You have been hearing about it, noticed a few messages
 referencing it, and wonder what it is??

 It's a new network for any BBS that supports the Atari home computer.
 It's primary intent is to bring all BBS's that support Atari users
 together.

 It is easily available NOW with the FidoDoor or FiFo program for the
 FoReM or Turbo BBS program.  After you have installed the door or
 utility, you will be ready to access this growing and sure to be,
 popular Atari network.

 There are currently several nodes already participating, and more are
 welcome to join.  The following is a listing of some of the AtariNet
 Echoes already established and a few on the drawing board.

 AtariNet SysOps
 AtariNet echoes discussion
 Atari products for sale/wanted
 Atari supported BBSes
 BinkleyTerm ST support
 Atari DeskTop Publishing
 FIDOdoor Support
 FidoNet ST discussion
 Atari general discussion
 Atari graphics
 IOSmail Support
 Atari programming
 Atari sound/music
 Atari tech talk
 Atari Explorer Online Magazine

 If you'd like further information or would like to join please contact
 one of the following people.

 US - South East   Bill Scull      Fido 1:363/112   AtariNet 51:1/0
 US - North East   Dean Lodzinski  Fido 1:107/633   AtariNet 51:4/0
 US - Midwest      Terry May       Fido 1:209/745   AtariNet 51:2/0
 US - West         Tony Castorino  Fido 1:102/1102  AtariNet 51:3/0
 Canada            Don Liscombe    AtariNet 51:5/0
 Europe            Daron Brewood   Fido 2:255/402   AtariNet 51:6/0

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 To  sign up for GEnie service call (with modem)  [phone].   Upon
 connection type HHH and hit <return>.  Wait for the U#= prompt and type
 XTX99436,GEnie and hit <return>.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 To sign up for CompuServe service call (with phone) [phone]. Ask
 for operator #198.  You will be promptly sent a $15.00 free  membership
 kit.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 If you'd like further information or would like to join AtariNet, please
 contact  one  of  the  following  via  AtariNet or Fido: Bill Scull Fido
 1:363/112 AtariNet 51:1/0, Dean Lodzinski Fido 1:107/633 AtariNet 51:4/0
 Terry May Fido 1:209/745 AtariNet 51:2/0, Tony Castorino Fido 1:102/1102
 AtariNet 51:3/0,  Don  Liscombe  AtariNet 51:5/0,  Daron  Brewood   Fido
 2:255/402 AtariNet 51:6/0.  You can also call the Z*Net News Service  at
 [phone] for more information.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 You can subscribe to the bi-monthly hard copy  Atari  Explorer Magazine
 for $14.95 for 6 issues, $39.95 for  18 issues.   Canadian  subscribers
 should add $5.00 per 6 issues,foreign subscribers should add $10.00 per
 6 issues.  Checks must be drawn in US funds on a US bank.  Send  orders
 to Atari Explorer, Post Office Box 6488, Duluth,  MN  55806.  VISA  and
 MasterCard orders, call [phone].
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Reprints from the GEnie  ST  Roundtable  are  Copyright (c)1992,  Atari
 Corporation and the GEnie ST RT.  Reprints from CompuServe's AtariArts,
 AtariPro,  AtariVen,  or Aportfolio Forums are  Copyright (c)1992, CIS.
 Reprints from AtariUser Magazine are Copyright(c)1992, Quill Publishing
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Atari Explorer Online Magazine is  a weekly  publication  covering  the
 Atari computer  community.  Material published in  this edition may NOT
 be reprinted without written permission, unless otherwise noted  in the
 article.  Opinions   presented  herein  are  those  of  the  individual
 authors  and  do  not  necessarily reflect those  of  the staff.  Atari
 Explorer Online Magazine is Copyright (c)1992,  Atari Corporation.  The
 Z*Net Newswire is an independent column and organization not affiliated
 with Atari Corp. and is Copyright (c)1992,Z*Net News Service/Ron Kovacs
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Z*Net  News  Service - Post Office Box 59, Middlesex, New Jersey  08846-
 0059.  BBS - [phone].  Voice - [phone].   Fnet  Node  593,
 AtariNet Node 51:1/13.0.  You can contact Atari direct via  Fnet Nodes -
 706 or 319 or via AtariNet 51:1/10.0.  Z*Net South Pacific - Fnet - 693.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Atari is a registered trademark of Atari Corporation.   Atari Falcon030,
 TOS, MultiTOS, NewDesk and BLiTTER, are trademarks of Atari Corporation.
 All  other  trademarks  mentioned in this publication  belong  to  their
 respective owners.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                      Atari Explorer Online Magazine
                   "The Official Atari Online Journal"
               Copyright (c)1992, Atari Computer Corporation
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~