President's Corner - by Mike Fitzpatrick
No News From The Interim President for September.
President's Corner- by Mike Fitzpatrick
Fall is upon us and things should be getting back to normal.
At this time I'd like to thank Greg Leitner and his crew on their on-going inventory of SPACE property. They are doing a fine jab for such a Herculean Task.
November is Elections of Officers. So please be at the October meeting to voice your nomination choices.
This month Mike Weist will not be at the meeting and we'll have need of someone to fill in as secretary. Please feel free to volunteer.
If you are wondering what happened to the September Newsletter. Our Newsletter Editor made a wise choice to not publish due to lack of input. Like everyone else I'm guilty.
See you at SPACE.
The BBS was backed up on Monday the 25th of September. So if you tried to call and did not get through please be happy that the BBS has been backed up.
We should be so happy that the BBS has the UPS online as it performed it's function again last night. The Thunderstorm that hit around midnight was quite violent were I live and we had a lightning strike quite close. However the UPS performed well for the brief period of time until the power company's substation automatic switching had us back with serviceable power.
Also, as a note to Atarians there is another Atari BBS on-line here in the Metro area. That is Warp-10 @ 221-9895. It is private and has on-line games for those of you who enjoy such activities.
by Greg Leitner
We had a typical summer meeting in August in that only about ten members showed up. Despite the small attendance we still had a good and very interesting meeting. Lance talked about how his 8-bit business has really picked up lately, and then really laid a surprise on all of us by announcing that a CD-ROM unit was in the plans for 8-bitters in the near future. I will need to see this one before believing it, but I must say that if this is true it could really liven up the 8-bit world.
Our treasury rebounded somewhat in August due to having only the expense for the BBS phone. Mike Schmidt was not in attendance in August so we will have to double up on the expense for the Newsletter in September. As for our receipts, we sold a few Doms's and some blank disks for a total of $59.00, so we ended up with a net gain of about $30.00 for the month. Our balance at the end of August is $428.17.
We didn't have any new or re-newed memberships in August and this is something we need to keep a focus on. We will have a hard time surviving with just our sales and ice cream socials. I hope we all realize how important it is to keep up memberships when they become due.
So please attend the meetings and pay those dues. It's the best investment you can make. See you all in September.
by Greg Leitner
I think it is time to give our members some financial information concerning how our budget may shape up on a yearly basis.
Keep in mind that a membership fee is $15.00 per year per member. If we had thirty members (which is a little on the liberal side) we would take in $450.00 in a twelve month period.
Since our room rental fee is $30.00 per month it takes two membership fees each month to cover the yearly room rental expense. Our BBS phone bill is about $30.00 per month, which needs another two membership fees to cover also. Our monthly Newsletter costs about $15.00 which is one more membership fee. Add these up and you can figure that we would need sixty members (five per month for twelve months) to cover our normal monthly expenses for a year.
Because we have much fewer than sixty members at this time, we must make up the difference with our DOM sales and other miscellaneous income such as our ice cream socials. This is why it is so important that our DOM sales remain a larger percentage of our monthly income each month.
We average about two paid memberships each month and so far this year we have averaged $40.00 in other income which includes DOM's, blank disks, ice cream socials etc.
At this rate (about $70.00 average per month) we will take in $840.00 for a twelve month span. Our expenses, with no changes, will be about $900.00 for the same period. Simple math tells us we come up four memberships short of our yearly expenses.
Now I know this seems like we are very close to meeting our needs, but what you have to realize is that the chances of our monthly expenses going down is not as likely as our membership or our DOM sales changing. And if the change is down instead of up you can figure that the difference between our expenses and income could be considerably greater than $60.00 for the year.
Right now we have a balance of $490.00 in our account. We had five membership fees paid in September and we also had good DOM and miscellaneous sales, we took in $120.00 for the month (our best since Jan.'95). Our expenses paid in Sept. was $28.74 for the monthly BBS bill and $12.84 for the Aug. Newsletter. We just paid $90.00 for the second quarter 1995 room rental billing and any day now we will be getting another bill for the third quarter.
Well, all I can say is that you can see on paper what needs to be done. We certainly have the capability and I know we have the desire to make this Club see many more years of financial stability ahead. It may be hard if not almost impossible to increase our membership, but we can definitely support the Club by continuing to purchase DOM's.
Just a reminder, don't forget next month about the ice cream social (courtesy of the Fitzpatrick's). You now know why this extra money from the ice cream socials is so important in helping to add that little extra to our monthly income. So come October 13th and hold off eating your dessert until you come to the meeting. See you all then.
August 11, 1995
Space Meeting opened at 7:30 PM., Mike Fitzpatrick, Acting Space President, welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Mike asked if there was any additions or corrections to the Space minutes of July 14, 1995, hearing none he asked for a treasurer's report.
Greg Leinter, club treasurer, reported that the club had to play out $90 for room rent. Balance is now at $397.91.
OLD BUS1NESS------ NONE
NEW BUSINESS------
Mike Fitzpatrick reported receiving a newsletter and software from Atari ST Group up in Winnipeg, Canada. Club is grateful for receiving newsletter and software. Asked the Secretary to send a letter of thanks and a Space Club Newsletter. The Secretary will do this.
Terry Streeter, Club DOM person, asked the membership what they thought of the DOM of the month.
Mike Fitzpatrick said after end of Space Meeting, Lance Ringquist, club software and hardware person, would give a talk on what is going on in the Atari 8-bit world today.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00 PM.
Mike Weist Club secretary
Sept 8, 1995
Space meeting opened at 7:30 PM. Mike Fitzpatrick, Acting Space President, asked to start the September meeting. Mike asked for a treasurer's report.
Greg Leinter, club treasurer, gave a report. Greg said the club recently paid a $90 room rent, as stated in August Space minutes. Club took in $59 from August meeting and had a $16 returned check. Space club's treasury STANDS AT $410.
Greg also said Mike Schmidt, club newsletter editor will have to be paid for newsletter cost. More members are needed to attend monthly meeting and buy DOM's and other club things for sale, to boost Space club's treasury.
Mike Fitzpatrick asked if there was any additions or corrections to August Space Minutes. Hearing none, Mike proceeded to old business.
OLD BUSINESS-----Larry Serflaten talked about a new Space Club Flyer. Larry suggested forming a committee to do this. Larry asked membership for suggestions on what should go in flyer. Lance Ringquist said he could put a small advertisement about the club in his flyers he sends out to his Atari customers.
NEW BUSINESS----Mike Fitzpatrick asked membership to returned club property or let Greg Leinter know they have club property. This is necessary to get a handle on whereabouts of property. Inventory is still in progress. So far a good job of inventory is being done. After inventory is done, club may have a auction of unneeded property.
Mike Fitzpatrick also asked if anybody has been on Warp 10. Amos Jackson's BBS.
Larry Serflaten asked if anyone had seen the article in the Minneapolis paper on Atari.
Greg Leinter talked about CompuServe Online Service changing their prices they charge their customers.
Space club past president, Nathan Block, was spotted at the MINNESOTA GREAT GET TOGETHER-- Minnesota State Fair, misses club and everyone. Will try to stop by and visit everyone in future.
Greg Leinter reminded everyone that October 28, 1995 is Hamfest at Civic Center in Downtown St. Paul.
Mike Fitzpatrick reminded everyone that at the October 13, 1995 meeting, there will be nominations for officers for the Space club. Elections will be held at the November 10, 1995. Also there will be a ice cream social after the October 13 Space meeting. Don't miss this meeting or you miss Earline's ice cream sundaes!
Meeting adjourned at 7:58 PM.
Mike Weist Club Secretary
Reviewed by, Wesley Ringquist
Help wanted! Must be a cute teddy bear willing to risk his hide to save as many crystal's as possible.
Bentley bear is trapped in crystal castles home of Berthilda the witch, and her evil cronies. To escape, Bentley must harvest all the gems in each castle.
This ain't no little kids game! Although it looks like it could be. This is a 3/4 view game with standard graphics. This game has high replay value with great control. Well expect the control to stop playing!
There's big trees, giant worm type things, bees, skeletons, ghosts and witches that are out to stop Bentley. But don't worry, they are very dumb. Most of them don't even know about you until your right next to them.
I give this game ****
Ultra cool tip, when the giant worms are over a gem they eat it and one section at a time of their body turns red. At that time go up to them and run in to it. it will disappear.
Ultra cool tip, on the first stage go to the very back (behind the walls) and jump into the air. You will be transported 2 levels ahead and get an extra life.
Do video games for The current 16 and 32 bit systems seem boring? Well I think they do that is why I use my Atari Computer. The games are far better than on some of the other systems. The computer may not have the great graphics and color display that the other systems have, but the games are just plain fun and that is what I think makes the games and the system better than the others.
I have decided to make a review for one of my favorite computer cartridge games Berserk.
The game is very similar to Robotron 2084. You run around in a maze and try to destroy as many robots as you can. The graphics are good. The characters are average in size and there can be over 12 of them moving on the screen at one time. The sound on the game is great. It has several different sayings that are clear and sound perfect. The voice in the game can be turned on or off by pressing Option on the Title screen. The game has 11 different challenge levels. It is also has a two player option where each of the players take turns in the mazes.
This is a very good action and shooting game if you like robotron 2084 I suggest you try this game out you may like it.
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You can stop the computers shots with yours.
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My ratings for the game are:
graphics: ******
sound: *********
challenge: ***** *
overall: *******
Space 13th Birthday Party
July 14, 1995 was the big day. It was Space club's 13th birthday party. Looming, threaten weather couldn't keep Atari diehards away from having a fun time. About 30 members showed up for a night of fun.
Members were treated to a 30 foot table full of delicious food, brought in by club members. There was Ray Wafer's famous potato salad, Bill Cotter's delicious meatballs, Mike Weist's meat tray, and allots of other delicious food items. There was plenty of food for everyone. Larry Serflaten's thompson grapes were great too! To wash all this food down, Greg Leinter's ice cold pop was great.
Besides the food, it was nice to have the opportunity to sit and chat Atari Talk to fellow club members.
A thanks goes out to Mike Fritpatrick and his wife and all the party committee members for the hard work put into this birthday party. And especially all the club members that showed up. Can't wait till the Space Christmas party!
Mike Wast
(The above article fiom Mike Weist was inadvertently left out of the August newsletter. Editor)
Due to a conflicting schedule for October 13, 1995, which is the day of the Space meeting, I will not be able to attend the Space meeting. I have business out of town. I would appreciate a Space club member coming forwards and volunteenng to take minutes for this meeting. This is going to be an important meeting, because nominations for the Space Atari Computer club will take place. Your help would be appreciated. See you all in November!
Mike Weist, Club Secretary
WORD SEARCH WATER BIRDS I K P X O G H R K J N D V P E N B T H W A T E R B I R D S U N R V N H T K M Z E P A N R E L A V L L W G D A T B T I E R B A P G N P L I H J V A T N T N D O T A C A O M U V P N L E E I E N Y R D S W I O O G B T R N R R E A R A M A S P I L A S F V E I H G J L A V R T L E O N E L E V T V I P I G V A O O N L N O A P S K M N E D T G X T K T M E A M N R I V B T K X M N E P E I T R I M V B B K T U G G E V M K T R N N O O V A I T D T A H J R E B E R G D U C X M N L Z Q I D L U T Y G O D E X Q G H N K L T L O T O H M Y E P Q I H J R A W N M U COMMONLOON PELICAN GOOSE TEAL SPOONBILL FLAMINGO SWAN IBIS CORMORANT GANNET GREBE TERN EGERT SWAN GULL
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| Larry's |
| ACTION! TUTORIAL |
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#13 DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS!
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Much of computer programming involves the use of expressions. Action! supports arithmetic, bit-wise and, relational expressions. Arithmetic operators, as their name implies, perform arithmetic functions. Bit-wise operators are used to manipulate values on a bit-by-bit level. Relational operators allow for combining variables or simple expressions to form much more complex expressions.
Arithmetic operators (*, /, +, -, MOD) are fairly self evident. Their use is the same as normal arithmetic! To save space, and your valuable attention, I wont try to explain how to use them!
The 'and' operator '& is often used to mask bits in a register, or limit the number of bits in an operation. The 'or' operator '% is often used to add bits into a register. The 'xor' operator '! has several uses, to toggle bits, subtract, and may be used to add and remove bits in a register.
Masking is produced by 'and'ing a value with another value which contains each bit set that is desired in the result:
turn==+1
turn==&3 > insures turn will only count from O to 3 and then wrap around back to O again. Using a mask value of 10 will not limit the count to 10. It will limit turn to be either 0,2,8 or, 10, if that was desired....
The following is an example using alot of bit-wise manipulation, it converts only alpha-numeric characters to their lower case normal video equivalents:
BYTE FUNC ToLower(BYTE a)
BYTE t
t=a&$1F
IF (a&$70)=$30 THEN
IF (a&$0F)<10 THEN
RETURN (a&$3F) ;Its a number
FI
ELSEIF (a&$7F)<$41 THEN ;Too small
ELSEIF t>0 AND t<$1B THEN
RETURN(t%$60) ;Its a letter
FI
RETURN(32) ;Too large
PROC TEST()
BYTE A,B
A=0
DO B=TOLOWER(A)
PRINTF(" %C%C = %C%E",27,A,B)
A==+1
UNTIL A=255 OD
These are the characters that will be accepted;
NORMAL INVERSE
Numbers $30 - $39 $BO - $B9
Capitals $41 - $5A $C1 - $DA
Low case $61 - $7A $E1 - $FA
You might know that the only difference between normal and inverse is that bit 7 is set for the inverse video characters. Once this bit is stripped away, we can limit our efforts to the values under the NORMAL column. The high nibble (a nibble is 4 bits) of every Number is a 3. We can test for that, then a test to be sure the low nibble is 9 or less will insure we have a number to work with. Numbers need no translation, once we have one, we can simply pass it back. Returning a&$3F will strip off the inverse bit of the incoming variable.
There are several characters between 0 and $41, To insure no attempt is made to translate them, a simple 'less than' test will eliminate them. Since the next statement after the IF/FI is a RETURN(32), valuable space can be saved by letting control 'fall through' out of the IF/IF condition as opposed to including a RETURN(32) after the THEN.
We know the alphabet has only 26 letters. In both CAPS and low case, the letter A has a lower nibble value of 1. It stands to reason that the value for Z must be 25 steps up from the value of A. 26=$1A, so each bit of the low nibble is needed along with one bit of the upper nibble. The command t=a&$1F strips away all attributes from 'a and gives us a value in the range of 0 to 31. A previous test has taken care of values too low to use, so we know this is going to be a letter. If this value is equal to or between 1 and 26, it must be a letter. That test is performed, and if true, the value $60 is added to it to bring it up to the range of lower case letters.
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Next month; RELATIONAL operators.
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| Larry's |
| ACTION! TUTORIAL |
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#14 DEAL ME IN!
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DEFINE DECKS="4"
MODULE
BYTE ARRAY shoe(52)
;INCLUDE: (From my tutorial #12)
;Global variables; savmsc
; x, y
;Routines; MultiplyB
; AscToInT
; CLS
; EchoS
PROC Echo(BYTE a)
BYTE POINTER dst
dst=MultiplyB(y,40)+savmsc+x
dst^=AscToInt(a)
RETURN
BYTE FUNC PickCard()
BYTE crd,r=53770,vc=54283
DO
crd=(r&$38)%(vc&$07)
UNTIL crd<52 AND shoe(crd)<DECKS
OD
shoe(crd)==+1
RETURN(crd)
BYTE FUNC ShowCard(BYTE a)
BYTE ARRAY pip="A23456789TJQK",
suit=",.p;" ;(Use Control key)
BYTE v,s
s=(a&3) +1 ;Mask out suit
v=(a RSH 2) +1 ;Remove suit
Echo(pip(v)%128) ;Display card
y==+1
Echo(suit(s)%128)
y==-1
IF v<10 THEN ;Calculate value
RETURN(v)
FI
RETURN(10)
PROC Main()
CARD tot,cnt
BYTE i,ch=764
FOR i=0 to 51 ;"Shuffle"
DO shoe(i)=0 OD
tot=MultiplyB(DECKS,52);Total cards
cnt=0 ;Init counter
DO
CLS() ;Clear screen
y=O ;Init Y
DO
x=3 ;Init X
DO
i=PickCard()
ShowCard(i)
cnt==+1 ;Increment counter
x==+2 ;Next column
UNTIL cnt=tot OR x=37
OD
y==+3 ;Next row
UNTIL cnt=tot OR y=21
OD
x=11 y=23
EchoS("Press any key...")
ch=255
WHILE ch=255 DO OD ;Wait for keypress
UNTIL cnt=tot ;All cards out
OD
CLS()
ch=255
RETURN
This month you get a full blown program to shuffle cards and display them on the screen. This entire program can be run from DOS. If you have not written an Echo procedure, I have supplied one. You must supply the routines you typed in from issue #12. When typing in the ShowCard function, use the card characters in the suit string. I used printable characters so that our editor could easily print out the program: You must hold down Control when typing the characters between quotes.
Some casinos use 4 decks in what they call a shoe, for their Blackjack tables. Other games use less. DECES is given to allow for an easy method of determining how many decks are to be shuffled together.
The first relational operator is in the PickCard function. In 4 decks of cards, there are only 52 different cards, and only 4 of any one card. Both conditions must be met before the card is accepted. The next relational operator is in the Main procedure. I know I cant draw more cards than are in the shoe, nor do I want to attempt to print a card somewhere off the screen. At the start of the loops, X or Y is initialized. I may or may not run out of cards while in either of the loops. As you can see, if cnt=tot, then every loop will be exited from. The statement; IF cnt=tot THEN EXIT FI, would work. I like keeping things small, adding another IF condition would create the need for additional code.
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Further discussion coming next month.
Published by the Saint Paul Atari Computer Enthusiasts (SPACE), an independent organization with no business affiliation with ATARI Corporation. Permission is granted to any similar organization with which SPACE exchanges newsletters to reprint material from this newsletter. We do however ask that credit be given to the authors and to SPACE. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of SPACE, the club officers, club members or ATARI Corporation.