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D}T@@@ 'XT@@ P*uJTP @@j@BE}T A&PT Aw\]IAЧ\]IF}A@&?UE֟i %?GLE_*@UP@/CLiLOG} *`@3/@\lO*@(@s/@PTKjA/T%PH} aC/T%PO `/U%QSiTU%R@)I}%XUP @@JT@  BPPJ}@ UV@P@@j _-[PQP@ _yPU@ K}-_TU %_T@UPoU_j L}`@oEUo*@@(@3/i_U *u@s/V_VjuAM}Vo[@j@t aC UooKt ` ZU~itT YA}N}Oit%X YAyS*uJiAvV@@@ B+iAuVUP O}  {AeWU@ @ EeYUP@@* UVUP@P}@j-U[UU@ % U[[UU@ UPA_WUQ} `@oQ_וO@(@/Q_j@ @oQ_U*@R}AYU_@* a_U[Vj@ `U[@jS}TUZW %XeUZVUQ@JeZUOjQu T}B eZUES*@Ru ef媕UE@@U@Ru eeUUUEP U`%V @ U}UUUUE@ UXF@u-eUUUEPEjF*u% eYUUU@Z uUPeiV}UTPj @`@iZfUTZ(2jYUT@j@rZiUTW}j@Zj VUiUT*@* CUeUT @* UUOX}jj@TfU_ 'X%fU[*PJUU Y}U~ BUUOjB@ZjZUS*jBu ZjkU@@U Z}Fu jjoUP UPF u%jjoYU@ UT%F@@%i^UPUiJ*[}uUPo@EZ@ ju`Pj* u(֦Z@\} ڦUj*U@Z@UUTjFVjjUPj ]}Vo*@UUTW UP * oU[UUTjjZ^}UP jj*UUT@o U~@Ao_}iB@voj*jF oJ@@ F*oVoJ P`}J *[QUdUJ@j [EiJ*@jo@a}Ij@oP**PjPPb}T@UUP  `檤UP Ud檨UUP*c}@e֪UP@j*VB꿑UUP)jV믐jUP(d}_[U*UUR(o[[Z U@Bdoo[[YFd @e}oo[_YjF` k_YZ @J `**koYjJ@Pjkf}ojJ*P oojhJjAjooZj Jookg}j**oZ꽦jojꮖPGoZh}@UUP  暪UPpx~jojꮖPGoZ; j} PHOENIX ISSUE 2 CONTENTS k} ======== EDITORIAL l} NEWS A.M.S. 7 REPORT GAME REVIEWS... m}HARDCORE HARDWARE BOOLEAN THEORY SIDE B CONTENTS n} An IAU Production Release Date Jan'94 o} An IAU Production Release Date Jan'94 9L@2DEJB VLDpEHIB VL Ob01"/`pppNpq}Nr}AbD1:PH1.DAT@DEBJ VLDOE'HIs}B VL OXOY`D1:PH2.DAT@ B V` ө/ = ``c6>t}8pp8?ww>>u}x`x`~<~~<0~~0 ~~ 6666666 >h>v} ~cf 3c68of;p88p66~0~ 0`>go{s> < >c>`<c>`w}`ff`~c>>`~cc>>c>cc>>c?<0 0 ~~0  0coo`?6ccc~c~cc~>c``c>x}~cccc~`~```~```>c`oc>ccccc? ??f<cf||fc`````cwkcccs{ogc>cccc>~cc~``>cccg>~cc~fc>`>y}c> ccccc>ccc6cckwcc66ccc  0>0000>`0 >>>>?c?`n{cc~z}?```?;occ?>c`>  ?cc?~`n{scc< >s``f|fc >cwkcn{scc>ccc>~cc~``?cc?~g``{}`>`>~  cccc>cc6ckwcc66cccc?>0<~~<~x|nf <  08<80 @ILfIpMd |} pB:@BPB:@Bd@A@ Use  or  to change selection }} Press RETURN to load pMd pB:@BkB:@B@A@ Use  ,  ,  or  to~} scroll text RETURN for contents. to print textppppppppp0B`ABABABABABABAA>A  } | | | Loading Article... |  | D}1:FILENAME.DOC | *T~ (2<"\2QLa/XJt_ CO+W\0?d2\X? f$kEZ* DOS SYS 037} DUP SYS 042 PH1 DAT 061 PH2 DAT 007 NORUN SYS 037 EDIT1 DOC 003 PH1 DAT 062 BACKGRD DOC 01}7 SOAPBOX DOC 011 MOREMOREDOC 054 HARDCOREDOC 051 PRINTER DOC 062 SIDEB DOC 011 COMSOON DOC 011 DETAILS DOC 0}09 PICT1 OBJ 004 FONT DAT 009 HEADER DAT 005 PRINT DAT 005 MAURA DAT 014 NEWFNT 008 INIT DAT }004 JASON 037 RUNME 034 BOLOX 012107 FREE SECTORS} E ,E>/oЩ)ЩˍЩpԢ8}tusvw`˩p̢`  `0@1>/)ЩˍЩ`LH>}0A1ЍЩ`>/  `0@1)ЩˍЩ`>/ FLE؅ΩϢ! ` NF} 'F  NF  'F LHEе ULE`ɛ(ei F`ɀ ؅} F`8( F` T`kͥHɛLFɦh`榥(h`H ( LFhLF}؅ F`HHG ԍGGG` ԍТBBBBBBХiЍ TũЍЍЍЍЍ}ЍΗGΗGG ԍP ԍЩGGh(h@PHЩFh(@G \`BBBBiBBiBTLb}?Ң0-DHEBJ V07mDBEBHI V B V`D1:*.*hh HLHE?ҩ̩Bi̥i} ?B iE@DBEBJ V0DEH@IB VЉ B V`D H X HLH }Y HLH [LE[8X /)Щˍh`@@.4&),%VUVHЍЩ"/0'W1(W0V1LU qU'W) PHOENIX ISSUE 2RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 1994Hello and welcome to issue 2 ofPhoenix, I would like to start ofand thank e}veryone who has sent meletters, of praise andencouragement.One thing I would like to point out,is the fact that PHOENIX }disk magwas actually programmed by the otherhalf of I.A.U, Jason Keane.I have been getting a lot of letterspraising 'ME' }for what a great job Ihave done in programming PHOENIX'sstructure and how easy it is to readthe doc's and print them etc, }sadlyI can't take the praise for that, Iwish I could but my programmingskills leave a lot to be desired.Maybe I should ta}ke this time to letyou know what both of us do for theI.A.U group, well as you might haveguessed Jason's main job is to do}all the programming for the group,he also is are electronics wizard,and he writes regular articles forthe disk mag,... my} job, well, I amthe editor of PHOENIX which intailsgetting each issue together, findingPD programmes for side B, persuadin}gpeople to contribute articles toPhoenix, plus the biggest job Ihave, and anyone who has tried torun a newsletter or mag }etc willknow, is promoting it, making sureevery user knows it is available,getting copies to PD libraries etc,plus answer}ing users letters. Sohopefully that has shed a bit morelight on the 'Irelands Atari UserGroup'.So here we are, January }'94, a yearthat looks to be full of newmachines being released on thepublic, all claiming to be betterthan the others and} promising to doeverything, Atari's new baby theJaguar, seems to be the best so far.So where does that leave our beloved}8-bit, well as long as there areusers that are willing to help eachother, support the companies andpublications that suppo}rt them,there is no reason why we can't goon for a long long time to come,even outlasting some of the newmachines.But he}re is a question for you, hasanyone ever thought that the ourClassics need to be brought into the1990's. Looking through }variouscatalogues listing upgrade afterupgrade for the 8 bit Atari, steroand memory upgrades to name but afew, think of t}he potential forprogrammers if every user had theseupgrades installed in theirmachines. Especially the memoryupgrades, p}icture what games couldbe created if the programmer hadmore memory to work with, moreanimation sequences could be put int}o make the sprites move asrealistic as possible, sampled soundeffects or music could be used aswell, sampled sound effects} etc, arestandard on other machines nowadays,so why not our machines, the 8 bitAtari is capable of it, well lack ofmemory} is one of the reasons why, an800XL has only 64k, you can't domuch with 64k, even 130XE's withtheir 128k are not much use }either,sampled sound effects or music isone of the biggest eaters of memory.So do you want to get the best fromyour machi}ne, how about going forthat memory upgrade, I know thereare two question that need to beanswered...1. Whats it going to} cost for the upgrade.2. Is there any point.Well the cost of an upgrade seems tovary, I have seen 800XL upgrades to}256k going from #25.00 to #60.00,you do need to shop around.Is there any point, well it is up tothe programmers, at the }moment allnew games etc come out to becompatible with every users system,64k or under, any user who hasupgraded their mac}hine will findthat the only use they get fromtheir upgrade is from demos, or diskcopiers and the odd program thatloads mo}re levels into the extramemory. I was once told that atleast 50% of users had 256k or morein their machine, well if the o}ther50% upgraded their machines to atleast 256k then we could put it tothe programmers to at last give usprogrammes that }use this memory tothe full, games could be morereleastic than ever with life likesprites wizzing around the screenbeing f}urther enhanced by theatmospheric sound effects... its notjust games think of the otherapplications you could put thisext}ra memory to, word processors orart packages that are featuredpackage, and many more besides. Its up to you the user to d}ecide, inmy view every user upgrading theirmachine would be a good thing, atlast programmers could go to town onnew softw}are and we would finallystart getting the full use out ofour Atari Classics, but as I said itis up to all the users, I wou}ld liketo hear your views, also I wouldlike to hear the views from anyprogrammers out there, I willenclude any of your vi}ews orthoughts next issue in'Soapbox',(send your letters to theusual address).Well thats about it for this time,you wil}l notice that there is alotmore to read in this issue. Issue 1was rushed through so we couldrelease it at AMS 7, but this} time Ihave taken my time and waited till Ireceived enough articles that wouldmake up an interesting read, sohopefully yo}u enjoy issue 2 ofPHOENIX, and it will give you theurge to write an article and send itin for publication, help us to help}all the 8 bit world.Next Issue should be available endof April 94.RegardsRob. PadenLook out for the competition} in nextissue!!!!Please send all letters andcontributions to the followingaddress;ROBERT PADEN54 ARD MILLAN CRESCENT}SCRABO ESTATENEWTOWNARDSCO DOWNN IRELAND BT23 4PWPlease remember 'PHOENIX IS ONLYAVALIBLE FROM PUBLIC DOMAINLIBRAR}IES'Special thanks goes to the usualpeople... you know who you are. PEACE TO ALL!! } } } } } U As promised last issue, I will tryand bring you up to the minute newson all things 8 bit, plus anythingthat might be in}teresting in thecomputer world in general.This year is set to see Atari eitherregain its crown as video game kingor fina}lly die in history as themanufacturer of great computers butforgot to tell anyone they hadreleased them, their furture rel}ieson what they can do with there new64 bit wonder machine the Jaguar.Below is information that Jason andmyself has comp}iled from varioussources for the last few months, soto start of I will hand you over toJason, who will look at what theJa}guar is made off (please noteJasons text was written in earlyDecember 93)....Today, the modern-day games machineshave }changed dramatically since theVCS2600 days. Now, the compulsivegameplayer no longer looks for themovement of blocks around} a screenas one block chases another, whilemore blocks are "fired" across thescreen. Today, computer games arefilled with} characters that imitatereal-life movement. Games such asFlashback, Prince of Persia, StreetFighter II, etc. provide a lev}el ofrealism never dreamed of ten yearsago. But of course in order toexecute this realism, software hadto be written and }hardwaredeveloped.Atari in there early days were atthe fore-front of games machines.They released the first gamesmachin}e that was anyway decent(relatively speaking!) the VCS2600.From there they produced a brilliant8-bit machine, the XL serie}s(including its parents &off-spring), the first 16 bitcomputer aimed at the home usermarket. They then went onto theexce}llent hand-held, the Lynx, andfinally the all powerful Falcon030.But Atari, faced with 'serious'competition from companies} likeNintendo, Sega and Commodore had toget their act together. Thesecompanies were selling machines intheir thousands At}ari couldn't justsit back, although for the past sixyears year it seems as if they did!The Jaguar is Atari's latestmirac}le. And according to them it'sbeen in development for the pastfive or so odd years, perhaps that'swhy the company was so q}uite ? Butnow, the Jaguar, is completed andready to take on the market might ofSega, Nintendo and Commadore. Butwhat exac}tly is the Jaguar? The Jaguar is a console thatprovides to the consumer a platformof technology never seen before inthe }home. It's a 64-bit machinecapable of supporting full motionvideo (FMV), CD sound, true colour(16.7 million of them i.e 24}-bit)and nearly everything else!The 64-bit power of the Jaguar is abit confusing at the moment. Somesay that the machine }is completely64-bit others say different. From myown research and 'phone calls, itseems that the graphic chip set ofthe J}aguar IS 64-bit RISC and thischip set handles FMV and the like.However there's another processor inthe machine namely the }68000 as usedin the ST and Amiga. This 16/32-bitprocessor is used as a generalpurpose CPU and handles themiscellanous thi}ngs like joypadinput, expansion ports, memorymanagement etc. There's also onethird chip, a DSP (Digital SignalProcessor) }that's 32 bit. This isfor the sound side of things andpossibly others. The others aresomewhat vague at the moment, buttim}e will tell. So there's we haveit, hopefully! The real power of themachine lies in that graphic chipset.The graphic chip }set, affectionatelynamed "Tom" provide the Jaguar withsome awesome power. They allowmorphing (stuff from Terminator 2),3D} landscapes - including therotation, expansion & compression ofthem, true colour, full motion video(which means you could }use theJaguar to watch a film!) and so on.Quite simply : "Wow!"The Jaguar is cabable of producingCD quality sound, and th}is is helpedalong by a DSP chip in the machinecalled "Jerry" (now we have "Tom AndJerry"). A DSP allows programmers tocha}nge digital streams of data inreal time and although it has beenstated that the DSP is for sound,one would imagine that it}'s usecould be extended to visual effects.The type of DSP chip used is unknownat the time of writing, but it couldbe a Mo}torola 56001, similar to theone used in the Falcon030, orsomething completely different. The Jaguar is one hell of an aw}esomemachine.At the moment details about theJaguar are still somewhat sceptical,everybody seems to have their owninterpr}etation of what the machineis. Details such as a 64-bit 68000even the use of a 68060 and colourdepths of 32-bits are flyin}g around,but I doubt it. Hopefully the newyear will see some confirmed detailsabout the machine. The details weregathered} from various conflictingsources and I drew on the mostcredible specifications.So, now that the basic machine isoutlined}, let's take a look at otheraspects if it.The main concern about the machineis price. It's no use having acomputer that n}o-one can afford.Atari have properly addressed thisproblem, a price of $200 is what'sbeing quoted in the States. Allowing}for tax, and other extras it willprobably be selling in Europe foraround the 200 pound mark. Thiswould be bang on!Secondl}y, expansion, Atari havealways made possible expansion ofall their machines (the XL'sparallel bus is the greatest of anyo}f BBCs, C64s, Speccies, etc.) andthe Jaguar is no exception. Theadding of peripherals like a CD ROM,a Virtual Reality unit} and FMVdevice is all supported by themachine. However it remains to beseen weather or not such exoticperipherals will be} released but allgoing well I cannot see why not. The main problem for Atari at themoment is the marketing strategy,}the market is already flooded withother consoles like the SNES orMegaDrive 2. Each of these machineshas support beyond be}lief. This isthe Jaguar's potential failure.Software support. There's no pointin having the most powerful machinein the u}niverse if there's nosoftware to run it! However, there'sa handful of software titles onrelease at the moment. I've seent}hree of them and have been toldthat there the best so far. Andthey're brilliant! The three areTempest, Chequered Flag II, }AliensVs Predator. The latter two areexcellent. Chequered Flag II is aracing simulation very much likeVirtua Racing from }the Arcades, ituses polygonal 3D world stylegraphics, but is very fast. AliensVs Predator is incredible! Thegraphics are }very realistic. Its asif you (the player) really are inthe game. It has to be seen tobelieved. Excellent!But what about }the competition?Surely Sega, Commodore and Nintendohave the market cornered betweenthem. Well, yes, but none of theabove }companies have a machine thatcan touch the Jaguar, and this iswhat Atari have to exploit. Perhapsthe most powerful of the }previouslymentioned companies is the AmigaCD32. Commodore's lastest baby. Butlet's compare the Jaguar to it:The CD32 has} a 68020 CPU as it'smain CPU and AGA (Advanced GraphicsArchitecture) as it's graphics chipset. Both are 32-bit. The Jaguar} hasa 68000 CPU as a periperalprocessing unit (ooohh!) it's 16-bitexternally, but 32-bit internally.The main processing p}ower is thegraphics chip set, it's 64-bit. TheAmiga can put 262,000 colours on thescreen at once but only in a HAM(Hold A}nd Modify) mode, which is astatic picture. The Jaguar displayin true colour which is 16.77(24-bits) million colours! The A}tarisupports morphing from in-builtroutines, the Amiga has to load themin as still isn't as fast. The Amigaonly supports }MPEG1 (Motion PictureExperts Group) standard, the JaguarMPEG2 which gives a higherresolution for FMV and is the wayforwar}d. The Jaguar has a DSP chipthe CD32 does not. The CD32 costs299 pounds the Jaguar will costaround 200. Both machines supp }ort CDquality sound, however, the Amiga(all Amigas) is (are) a piece ofsh%& the Atari is not.Well as maybe clearly seen  }theJaguar blows the Commodore's machineaway not to mention anything aboutthe MegaDrive or SNES (both are16-bit and suppor }t virtuallynothing!! Okay the MegaDrive II hasa CD ROM, but really!). As Christmas 1993 is approachingthis means th }at 1994 is not too farbehind. With the new year, we'll seethe new machines. This should beAtari's year the Jaguar is anex }cellent machine, it deserves everysuccess. It should get it! I wonderif 1994 is the Chinese Year Of TheJaguar? If not, it }will beAtari's...Jason Keane.So, the Atari Jaguar is on the brinkof release, (March 94) Atari hasfinally realised }that they have toadvertise their products to sellthem. Come March you should see atleast three different TV adverts fort}he Jaguar, all pushing the viewthat 16bit is dead and 64bit is theway to go, this with also be backedup by a national maga}zineadvertising campaign, will advertsalong the line of 'You've never seenGames like these before' and at thefar right eg}de of each advert theyhave a large Jaguar about to land onNintendo's Mario and Segas Sonic theHedgehog, with the caption '}We'rechewing up the competition bit bybit.So maybe Atari have finally got itright, but what of the competition,as Jason} said above the CD32 is theonly thing on the market at themoment that comes any were close.Everyone know that all they are} isan Amiga 1200 without the keyboard,and yes I am sure you would agreethat they are crap compared to othermachines on th}e market.But whatt about the machines thatare still to be released ?..Well the much talked about (and overpriced) 3DO, }has been getting alotof bad press lately, with everyreviewer comparing it to the Jaguar,and of course the Jaguar beats it}hands down.There is a rumour going round thatSony are pulling out of the 3DOproject but this has not beenconfirmed yet, t}he same rumourstated that Panasonic are thinkingtwice about releasing their 3DO(#600.00+) machine at all.Nintendo are at} the moment workingalong with Silicon Graphics(theTerminator 2 special effectscreators) on their own 64bitmachine, which }from first reportslooks as if it could be just as goodas the Jaguar, but at the momentthere is no fixed price tag and the}date that has been given to thepress as a release date is early1996 which by then, the Jaguar willbe in the stronger posit}ion withgreater software support.Sega's own future release isentitled 'Sega Saturn', it won't bereleased for at least an}other yearor so, Sega are fully committed tothe Mega CD for that time (andrightly so, considering its under ayear old). }The Saturn is a 32bit CDbased machine, Sega's first pressrelease states that their machine isbetter than the Jaguar, and p }robablythe best games machine evermade...there is also rumours goingaround that Microsoft (the PCpeople) developed the op!}eratingsystem for the Saturn suggesting anew standard in the gaming world.These first statements from Segacould be just r"}umours, trying to putdoubt in the minds of potentialJaguar buyers, about six months agowhen the Jaguar was just a rumouri#}tself, Sega said they had a newmachine(the Saturn) to take overfrom their own 16bit MegaDrive,claiming it was twice as goo$}d as theMega CD etc but stating that theprice for such a prowerful newmachine would cost no less than#350.00, that was si%}x months ago,now the price of the 32bit Saturnhas dropped to #200.00 and Sega isnow claiming it can do anything the64bit &}Jaguar can do but better, methinks Sega are the first to startpanicking.But of course the machine will onlysurvive if At'}ari gets companies torelease games for it (and on timeAtari), but I'm glad to say it lookslike Atari have this time, with (}over30 companies working on games forthe Jaguar, Microprose, GremlinGraphics and Accolade to name but afew. So things are)} looking good forAtari's new beast, next issue I willtake a look on how the Jaguar willpossibly effect Atari's othermachi*}nes but for now some 'Classic'news (at last did I hear yousay)....Details just in, on a shop thatclaims it sells hardw+}are andsoftware for all computer formatsever produced, and have quite alarge selection of Atari 8 bititems. To find out m,}ore send SAEto:- Computer Cavern 9 Dean Street Marlow Bucks SL7 3AAOr Phone:- (0628) 891022.To be honest I haven'-}t contactedthem as yet, so I don't know whatall they have, this info wassupplied by Daniel Baverstock, hegot it from the .}'Datablast' at theend of the ITV prog' 'BAD INFLUENCE'believe it or not, so it pays tokeep the old eyes open.Modem use/}rs will be glad to hearthat a new BBS board for Atari 8 bitcomputers will be starting verysoon, it will contain all usual0}features of a BBS board, messagefacilities, large selection of PD,and yes you will be able to download PHOENIX as well.Yo1}u also will be glad to hear thatby the end of the year at leastthree more BBS boards supporting theAtari will/should have 2}started.Anyway watch out for full details ofthe BBS board in next issue ofPHOENIX. And that bring us to the end of our3}news broadcast....Rob. 4} 5} 6} 7} o The All Micro Show 7====================By the time you read this AMS7 willbe well a truly over and you'llprobably h9}ave heard loads of thingsabout the show which took place inBingley Hall in Stafford on Saturdaythe 13th November. However,:} so far Ihaven't seen any reports about theshow as Page6 or New Atari User, isbetween copies at the time ofwriting, there;}fore I submit myreport of the show untilsomething/someone better comes along- which for me usually isn't long.After a 50<} miles journey to the showfrom where I was staying in England,I arrived -eventually- at BingleyHall. On the outside Bingle=}y Halllooks like a show jumping groundsand I must admit that I passed it atfirst and didn't expect the show tobe there. H>}owever... After parkingthe car and getting out to find myright foot in about 15cm of water Ibegan to make my way towards t?}heentrance. I recalled once readingsomething about the difficulties ingetting into such a show but when Iarrived I easily@} walked through, butI do suppose I arrived a tad early -10.10am, the show started at10.00am. After passing by the ticketcA}lerks, the first piece of the Atari8-bit world hit me. Standing to myleft was someone handing out flyers,at the time I didB}n't quite payattention to what he (or she!) washanding out, but being free my handmoved with intellectual confirmationandC} grabbed it. It was a sheet oforange paper titled "Dean GarraghtySoftware" and listed all the itemson sale at the show. I D}mustcongratulate Dean on excellentdevotion. I was now just inside theHall door and there it lay beforeme, the show.FirsE}t impressions of the show weremixed. I couldn't see any Atari8-bit stuff from the main door Iprayed there wouldn't be onlyF} acouple of stalls, with a meselyamount of stuff. A brief walk aroundgave me my bearings, and Idiscovered that behind theG} frontdoor stalls, lay a whole world ofAtari 8-bit stuff. It was likemagic, a dream, I don't know what,I've never seen soH} much 8-bit stuffin my life. To my right there wasPage6, Ke-Soft, Micro Discount(Derek Fern) amongst others, to theleft, I}NOSAUG (Stuart Murray), LACEc/o Peter Mattock and TWAUG. All Icould think of was "WOW!". Afterstanding in the middle of thJ}e hallstaring at this in awe for 10minutes and rousing the suspicionsof the security guards, I caughthold of myself I proK}ceeded to theLACE stall. Here I met Peter Mattockin person for the first time. I had known Peter Mattock forsometime, buL}t this was the firsttime I met him in person. Peter wasrunning the LACE stall and it tookup three benches on one end of aM}rectangle. There was a white sheethanging up with the letters L.A.C.Ewritten on it in big black writing.Along the benches N}was loads ofstuff. 1050's for 50 pounds. Tons ofsoftware, 800XLs with more operatingsystems that keys, 810s, 130XEs,etc..O}.. it was great. Having seenthe price of the 1050 I got myselfone as I'd never seen one untilthen, my only life line had bP}een anXF551. After some brief conversationwith Peter who was very busy, I saidI'd come back later for a bettertalk and heQ}aded off to the otherstands. The next place I headed wasto the Page6 stand. The Page6 stand was situated in onecorner ofR} the hall and two or threebenches in an L shape. On each ofthe benches there was tons upon tonsof software, everyting fromS} the veryfirst UK programmed 8-bit game -TheLone Raider- all the way through theyears to the latest releases. Therewas anT} incredible amount of stuff.And there I saw the 'famous' editorof Page6, Les Ellingham. Actually Iwas suprised when I saw U}him becausehe wasn't quite what I had expected.I had never seen him before, but Ifind that on reading somethingsomeone haV}s written you tend tobuild a picture of what that personlooks like. Which althoughcompletely wrong, fools you intobelieviW}ng that's what the personshould look like. Anyway, I'mbegining to waffle. At the standamongst other things I got mymischeX}vious hands on thevery-impossible-to-get-hold-offissue 35 of Page6. I actually had acopy of this but I lost it. Ofcourse Y}it was the only one I everlost and hence it was the hardest toget hold off. A short while laterafter rummaging through PagZ}e6'sstand, saw me moving onto to thenext stand.The next stand I moved onto wasMicro Discount's a.k.a. Derek Fern.Derek [}had quite a few people behindthe stand running around under theorders of Derek. Well it appeared tobe Derek, he was the ma\}n standing inthe middle of them throwing orders.I went over to the stand and startedto browse. Derek had just as muchstuf]}f on sale as Page6 and LACE, buthe had a lot of the German importedstuff on display as well. Here I was810's for 25 pounds^} and 850's for afiver. I grabbed myself an 850, eventhough I don't need one, but at thatprice I couldn't go wrong now coul_}dI. Moving on I moved on to theKe-Soft stand. Here was one fellowstanding behind the stand and hedidn't seems as busy as `}the otherstands. I went up to him and saw theLemmings equilivent for the 8-bitBrundles. I tried to make some smalltalk bua}t I soon learned that thefellow was from the continent anddidn't speak English too well,either that or he was shy. Ipurchb}ased Brundles. And moved onagain. Next up was ANG Software. Here stood three people. All hadcome across the waters to setc}-up astand. On display was there wholecollection of software. Everythingfrom the excellent "Operation Blood"to the simpled} but addictive puzzlegame "Whoops!". Here I purchased afew more software titles and noticedhow light my wallet was becomine}g.After that I decided to head back toPeter Mattock at the LACE stand.Peter, who's trade had quitened downa bit since I f}seen him last, wasstanding behind taking a break and Idropped in. We got to talk for ashort while about the Atari world,ig}deas, projects and other things.Peter also told me somebody waslooking for me and that he'd be backlater. This person turnq}B%DOS SYSB)DOS FILB>+PH1 DATBiPH2 DATB*pAUTORUN SYSB1EDIT2 DOCBmNEWS DOCB\8AMS7 DOCBrGAMES DOCBPHARD2 DOCBC_BOOLEAN DOCBSIDEB DOCed out to bean interesting experience, but moreon that later. Next came the PhoenixMag. P.R. stunt. I grabbed somecopies r}of the magazine issue 1, offPeter (thanks Peter) and began towalk around and handing them out tosome 8-bit users I came acs}ross. Allthe disks were received well and ingood faith. Thankfully, I wasdreading doing it!On my way back after the P.R.t} stuntI spotted TWAUG's stand and headedin that general direction. They toohad some software on display butalso had a steu}reo upgrade for theAtari with a sample program as ashowcase. Unfortunately, when Ivisited they had a problem with thesoftv}ware and couldn't get it going,I didn't get to talk to them as theywere too busy trying to get theupgrade going so I left w}for the LACEstand (Peter M.'s stand). Back at the LACE stand, I met withthe person who was looking for mepreviously. He x}was a friend of theprogrammer Tomohawk and wanted toknow weather or not I would beinterested in programming a demo fora By}ritish compilation of demosTomohawk was hoping to put togetheras he seen my IAU demo and liked it(somebody actually liked z}it!!!).Then, this is the strange part, hebegan rambling on about how Icouldn't actually be a part of theBritish Demo Coll{}ection as I wasliving in the Republic Of Ireland,and that I'd have to move to theNorth of Ireland for six monthsbefore I |}could become a temporarycitizen. Furthermore, he continued,that Ireland was once under Britishrule about 150 years ago and}} thengave me a lesson in the history ofEngland's rule over the ages. I wasthinking to myself what the hell washe on about~}! However he finallyreached a conclusion after arguingwith himself for ten minutes that Imay write a demo for the collecti}onif I wish. Gee, thanks! He thensuggested I go talk to Tomohawk whowas supposed to be walking aroundthe hall wearing a h}at with THstamped in big writing on it. Afterthat he just kinda bid farewell insome fashion and I was stillconfused! If t}his person whom I metis reading this text no personalinsult is meant by this, but it wasan interesting approach and first}impression to make on someone. Asluck would have it I never did getto meet Tomohawk, ah well hopefullynext year. Time was }moving on now, Ithought to myself I better begetting myself together. I gatheredmy stuff, I had accumulated anincredible }amount in the end! Peterwas getting busy now, so I got tojust say goodbye. I then headed forone last look around the hall.} Justas I did I seen one more Atari8-bit.I went over to this stall and therestood Stuart Murray. He was sellingand prom}oting his Futura magazineand I went over to talk to him.After an unusual introduction we gottalking and I learned that alt}houghI had travelled 600 miles to attendthe show from Ireland, Stuart hasdone 1,000 miles. Devotion... Anywayafter some s}mall talk, we came ontothe subject of this magazinePhoenix. Stuart wanted a copy, soyours truly gave him one and hebooted} it up on his computer andstarted messing around with it hesaid he liked it, good, somepositive response, and that he'dre}view it in his next Futura issue,which was issue 10. After some moresmall talk, he convinced me to bysome issues of Futura} even though Ialready had them! Stuart you're goodat sales! Shortly I left the stand.After this I headed for the maindoor}, 110 pounds sterling lighterand Atari stuff heavier. At the main door I looked out intothe Staffordshire weather it was}pouring rain. Turned around onceagain to look at the magical show.Grinned from the experience andheaded out into the rain.} After thoughts--------------Well the show for me was a completesuccess. I met loadsa people and gotsome great stuff.} However there wasthings I missed. Mainly DeanGarraghty's stand. I completelyforgot about it even though I hadgot his fly}er. I didn't remember ituntil I was driving back anddwelling on the show. I was temptedto do a U-turn and go back but Idi}dn't (I still don't know why!).There was also a couple of people Imissed I would have liked to met:Tomohawk and David Wyn }Davies ofAtari Classic Programmers Club.These I missed by minutes I foundout afterwards. But, there's alwaysnext year.T}hanks------This part I consider the mostimportant as without these people Iwouldn't have made it to AMS7: David Drew }and Rachel Wollacott for providing accomodation. Peter and Helen Mattock for putting up with my annoying self at the} show. They also sent me a Christmas card I didn't send them one!!!! Sorry! Robert Paden for providing a a platform }for 8-bit users. The Police Constable who let me away with speeding! To all 8-bitters out there who's dedication an}d support for their machine means these Shows can take place!Jason Keane. } } } } } ) Also starting this issue, is ourgames review section, what betterway to start of, than to look at twodifferent reviews o!}n what willprobably be the Classic's biggestselling game for 1994.... "Brundles"THE BRUNDLESAn Honest Review by Daniel!}Baverstock Dreary eyed & slow paced I got outof bed on another college morning,unaware that my life was to changethat v!}ery day.While dressing, the most amazingthing happened. I received somepost!!My hopes were lifted yet furtherwhen I noti!}ced it was fromMicroDiscount. It's going to be Brundles,yes.....No...Lancelot!! I didn'torder this? My heart sank to the!}depths of despair!A thought suddenly occured to me,why don't I open the box up. Justmaybe Brundles is inside. Yippee!!Wha!}yhey!!Inside was a plastic envelope with agreen cover dipicting at first,somewhat blocky green graphics onthe back, (beca!}use of thelaser/photo copying process).Inside this I found theinstructions, which I found to bevery informative, a token,!}(explained later), & two disks, theGame & Level disks.After I had calmed down, I decidedto 'forget College', (howrespons!}able of me(!)), & try thegame out.After a few seconds of loading, thescreen, to my delight, was blessedwith many inch hig!}h, brilliantlyanimated Brundles, stopping everynow & then to turn the credits on &off. Well, you can imagine my joy when!}the colourful title screen appeared,populated by a large Brundle & tothe right, the various game options.(These being 'Sta!}rt', 'Select' fornew code, 'Option' for high scores,'Score', & 'Code' for the currentlevel code).Pressing Start, I was to!}ld to enterthe level disk, (the second of thetwo disks enclosed), from yetanother colourful Brundle populatedscreen.Afte!}r around 10 seconds, theinformation for the level appeared,telling me the number of Brundles inthe level, the number I was!} supposedto rescue, & the level code.The CustomizerI should point out that, at the verybeginning of the boot up, bypre!}ssing space bar you can load upthe customizer, enabling you tochoose your control, & if you have a130XE or upgraded comput!}er, the sizeof memory.You have the choice of Mouse,Joystick, Animation Station, AtariTouch Tablet, Atari CX85, & you can!}use the keyboard.By choosing the size of memory, youdetermine the number of levelsloaded into the memory at the sametime,!} (saving wear & tear on yourdrive).A 64K machine loads one level at atime, which is fine, & doesn'tinterrupt the game pla!}y whatsoever!The Screen IconsAnyway, I was using mouse, (whichhad booted up without me using thecustomizer). I pressed !}the button,&... it happened. They entered thegame! One after another, tiny, 5millimetre Brundles, with excellentanimation!}, fell from the Trap door,& mindlessly started walking to theright.Looking at the icons below, & havingknowledge of Lemmi!}ngs, I moved themouse, (which I found to be smoothon screen & easy to use, just likein an ST game), & crosshairs to thedi!}g icon, one of ten icons at yourdisposal, just like those ofLemmings. These consist of small,detailed pictures of the Brun!}dlesbeing any one of the following:-A Climber, Floater, Bomber, (myfavourite), Blocker, Builder,Basher, Miner, Digger, & !}finally anoption to nuke all the Brundles onscreen.Other display icons include the rateof the Brundles coming in, which i!}sat a set position, which can beincreased between that number & 99%,the number of Brundles entering thelevel, the number !}going out, & thetimer.The level is scrolled from left toright purely by moving the mousecursor to either line of Vertica!}larrows, with pixel perfect smoothscrolling. This can be done at anaverage speed, or by pressing themouse button, a littl!}e faster,depending on the urgency.I have used joystick also, which isfine, & the cursor is easilycontrolled, however I f!}ind the mousemore controllable, (despite the factthat I pretend that I am using anST!).GameplayGameplay is absolutely !}astounding, &the graphics, especially when youget up to the late teens & earlytwenties, are a work of art. Manyhave anima!}ted horrors, whose intentis to grind, fry, boil, & squish theBrundles to death.Just in case there is someone outthere wh!}o doesn't know the aim ofthe game, it is to get a set numberof Brundles from the entrance to theexit, in the set time.Ma!}ny of the levels I recognised tohave been taken from Lemmings onother formats, so it was a bonus tocomplete them on my Ata!}ri 8-Bit!I was addicted for hours, & even afriend, who owns the Sega MasterSystem II Version of Lemmingscommented on the!} playability, & theease of using a mouse. Now thatcoming from a Sega owner is veryencouraging!!My favourite level so far !}is onealso taken from Lemmings, level 19,that of a forest. The graphics, Ican honestly say, are brilliant!!All the level!}s have a totaluniqueness, & I have not encounteredthe same gameplay twice so far.Overall, there are 10 concepts, eachwith!} 10 landscapes. On you travelsyou will encounter Caves, EgyptionLandscapes, Cities, Woods, Hell,China, Rome, A Volcano, & !}finallyCrystalline World).The music, which changes aroundevery 2-3 levels, can be turned on &off using Select. A great o!}ption avaliable enables youto still scroll along the levelusing the mouse cursor while thegame is paused, to plan you rout!}e.The animation of the Brundles isgreat in each task, whether itswalking, climbing, digging, orparachuting down, & even !}though theymove foward a block at a time, theystill look exactly the same as theLemmings on other formats, & thisactually!} adds to the gameplay.The explosion, when you nuke them,is very well animated, & look like afirework display if you go ahe!}ad &nuke 70 of them!!!. Using the individual bomber icon,the Brundle has 5 seconds before heblows up, counted down on the!} lowerhalf of the screen if you have thecursor on the doomed Brundle. Insome levels you have to use this toyour advantage!}.The best idea of all is to have thelevels load from disk, instead ofdoing what many do by cramming asmany levels as pos!}sible into 64K,thus losing out on quality, graphics& gameplay.60 out of 100At the moment, in December 1993,Brundles co!}mes with 60 out of the100 levels. This is because the next40 levels aren't finished yet, Ihave assumed because MicroDiscou!}ntwanted to get Brundles out for theChristmas rush. Fear not! You get a voucher for the40 levels, when they are available!},free of charge, which you send offto KE-Soft, (in Germany). This voucher also entitles you to 5pounds off an Atari 8-Bit!} mouse theysell, (which comes with additionalmouse software).I personally, will send it toMicroDiscount to send off. Th!}e PriceNow, onto the price, that of 15.00pounds.Although this might seem a littlemore expensive that other Atari8-Bit s!}oftware, (ie a 2.99 budgettape), it is worth every penny!!Take a look at the price of Lemmingson the Master System, (which!} has 120levels), around 30 pounds.I cannot stress the addictiveness ofBrundles. Is the kind of game thatkeeps you coming !}back for more, & Iam told there are going to be futurelevel disks.This game is definitly the best ofmy collection. It has!} all thequalities of Lemmings, the levelsvary, but more importantly it is onthe ATARI 8-Bit, which many thoughtimpossible!}!If your going to use your Atari toit's full potential, you'd love achallenge, & you would like to playa game where you !}can use a mouse,then this is the game for you!VerdictOverall, all the addictiveness &great gameplay of 'Lemmings' hass!}tayed with Brundles. (The only question I would put toKe-Soft is why they didn't put it ina box, rather than just a plasti!}ccover).In my opinion, it is probably thebest game ever to be produced on theAtari 8-Bit. I look foward to other releas!}es from'Ke-Soft', & hope there as good asthis!This definitly gets: 10/10 Graphics & Animation. 10/10 Playability. 10/1!}0 Variation & Lastability. 9/10 Music & Sound Effects. 8/10 Presentation of packaging.(Ke-Soft - More mouse driven game!}splease!).Next we have Jasons' view ofBrundles, I have cut the reviewdown, leaving his views of theimportant point!}s of the game itselfas Daniel already has described thegame, and everyone should know nowthat "Brundles" is "Lemmings" on !}our8 bit, if not, what planet have youjust come back from....Brundles========The game Brundles is supplied on twodi!}sks accompanied with two sheets.It comes at the not-so-modest priceof 15 pounds and maybe purchasedfrom Ke-Soft or Micro D!}iscount. Oneof the disks is the game disk theother the level disk. Before you start playing the game itis necessary to se!}tup the game. Thisis a nice feature I liked. Byholding down the space bar when thegame boots you get a configurationscree!}n to set the game up forvarious memory sizes, and differentcontrols. The memory sizes handlesare from 64Kb to 320Kb and th!}e gamecan support everything from ajoystick to a CX-85 keypad. A verynice feature is the ability tosupport a ST mouse (of!} the computertype). This makes the game easier toplay and serious addicts will needone. NOTE: the game was played with25!}6Kb.Upon booting the game disk theprogram starts off with a statementof the game's name and the creatorsdone in a graphi!}cs 8 resolution, butit also has lemmings walking acrossthe screen behind the text stoppingoccasionally. This is an impress!}iveintro. From there the game begins to load. Aftera fairly long loading procedure ofthe game disk a screen pops upgivin!}g you two options, to loadeither levels 1-50 or levels 50-100into the extra RAM that I have. The64kb version is probably d!}ifferent.After an even longer loadingsequence the game eventuallypresents itself. The opening screen of the game isfair!}ly colourful is consists of twowell coloured lemmings holding whatappears to be a tablet of data ofgame info. like startin!}g level, lastlevel, pressing START, etc. The onething I noticed at this stage wasthe lack of a feature to set thedifficul!}ty. This I didn't give toomuch thought to then but now I wishthat the author had included one. Asyou find that when you ge!}t to playthe game a few times the 'Brundles'go too slow or the game just isn'tchallanging enough. However. On withthe gam!}e after pressing START. Thescreen changed and presented thefirst screen of the game. It lookedquite good and then the brun!}dlesbegan to fall.HEY! What happened to 'Let's Go!'" Ithought to myself. The "Let's Go!"squeaks through the speaker at th!}ebeginning of other Lemmingsversions. But, alas not the Atari.After this things began to slide.The Brundles fell from the!} hatch inthe roof and when I saw them I had aslight disappointment. Each brundleis the size of a single character ona gra!}phics 0 screen (i.e one likethis). The main game screen is donein graphics 12. This gives fivecolours but the resolution l!}eavesmuch to be desired. Anyway the micewere little blocks moving around theplace. I actually would have likedto see the !}game done in a graphic 15resolution, it would have meantsacraficing a colour but... anyway.After seeing these blocks/brund!}lesmove which was both jerky andindistinguishable the game began tolose points. After completing thefirst puzzle relative!}ly easily,impressions of the game were rivetedhome. Onto the next level.Everything remained the same,another puzzle, easi!}ly solved, thenext level, pretty much the same, sotoo for all other levels, ho-hum...So after about forty levels thingsg!}ot so boring that I eventually justswitched the machine off withoutremembering the level code, ah wellnot real loss. That !}was the lasttime I played the game. I have onlybooted it up again and ran through afew things for clarifaction in thisrev!}iew. That's how boring I foundit. Don't get me wrong, there's nothingwrong with the programming of it,the game is excelle!}ntly programmed,it just the design, the game startsoff on a positive note but graduallygoes downhill. Too many things are!}the same from the original game, butthen again not enough things arecopied, like the sound for example.I don't know about !}any other gameplayers out there who are Lemmingfanatics, but I love the digitised"Let's Go!" at the begining of everyleve"}l and the "Oh No!" forArmageddon. This game doesn't havethis, and personally I think ittakes from the game. As for theani"}mation, well I suppose theprogrammers are limited, trying totrack 100 Brundles is not easy feat,so the use of gr.15 for th"}e jobwould probably have slowed the gamedown, but still. Okay, so this is a negative responseto the game Brundles. Well y"}es,perhaps I'm spoilt because I usuallyplay the game on an ST or Amiga, orperhaps I'm just expecting too much.The authors"} claim to have spent 18months developing the game, well itshows for some of the game, theactual intro. screens are very go"}odand the graphics are well done, butthere is something missing from thegame.About twelve months ago I heardabout an At"}ari version of Lemmingsbeing programmed, I waited inanticipation for its arrival since.However, after getting the game I a"}msomewhat disappointed by it, somemay find it brillant, others okay,or me: interesting at first, butsoon becomes boring. "}The 15 poundsprice doesn't add to the game.Overall, if you are into the gameLemmings try before you buy.Actually, even if" } you're not a fan,try before you buy.Jason Keane. " } " } " } " } "} Hardcore Hardware (Part 2)============================Okay, so this issue of Phoenix hasyet another reprint of a Har&}dcoreHardware article from IAU's deceasedmagazine. However, it was neccessaryto include this article now as itand the pre&}vious Hardcore Hardwarearticle go hand in hand. The nextissue I promise you something new...Last issue, I described a pro&}jectwhich would allow people to connectfour relays to their Atari. This wasa relatively simple expansion incomparison to &}what you can do withthe Atari (ever think of adding aFPU to the Atari?). I mentioned thatto control the the state of ther&}elays -i.e. on or off - thatcertain values should be poked intomemory at specific locations inmemory. But what exactly hap&}penswhen you poke these values ? Whatdoes it effect ?Inside the Atari there's a specialmicrochip controlling, amongst ot&}herthings, the joystick ports.Basically all this chip does is turnon or off lines (or pins of themicrochip) depending on &}the valuespoked into its 'memory locations'more correctly termed registers.This chip is called a PeripheralInterface Adap&}tor or PIA for short.The type in the Atari is either aRockwell 6520 or Motorola 6821. ThePIA chip is the most useful of al&}lfor DIY expanders. It provides 20lines that maybe turned on or off.Eight of which appear across the twojoystick ports, t&}he others are usedon the serial bus or for memorymanagement (on the XL/XE only). ThePIA chip occupies four location inthe&} computer memory map, namely$D300 - D303 (54016 - 54019). Theregisters are as follows: $D300 (54016) ---> PORTA * &}$D301 (54017) ---> PORTB $D302 (54018) ---> PACTL* $D303 (54019) ---> PBCTL* Not present externally on XL/XEFou&}r locations the first two arecalled PORTs. Each port has 8 linesthat maybe controlled from itsrespective register. It shou&}ld benoted that for the external expanderonly PORTA is useful as PORTB is notconnected externally. PORTA is usedas the jo&}ystick ports (hence thename "ports"), PORTB is useinternally for memory management(XL/XE only), it can be used toswitch o& }ut the operating system andBasic plus access the full RAM on a130XE or expanded XL. It isimportant to realise that 400/800&!}owners have both ports for their ownuse and PORTB appears acrossjoystick ports 3 and 4. Keeping inmind the expandibility &"}of PORTB itmeans that potential expanders areleft with one port with eight lines,PORTA. The last two registers PACTL and&#}PBCTL are acronyms for PortAConTroLer and likewise PortBConTroLer. These two registers allowthe programmer to change the&$}direction of the two ports. That isthe sixteen lines of PORTA & PORTBmaybe either a register line or adata line. More abou&%}t that later.So, now we have two memorylocations/register left. All relatedto PORTA. So what exactly is PORTA ?PORTA is &&}the place (memory location)where the exact state of the eightlines maybe read or set by the CPU.The eight line are related&'} to the8-bit nature of the 6502 processor.One location, eight lines. How?Binary, awkward as it is to use,binary is how yo&(}u control the lines.In one byte eight bits exist. Eachbit has an equilivent decimal value,hence each line has an equiliven&)}tdecimal value. Perhaps a diagrammight help:bit 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 -----------------------------------l&*}ine 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 : 8 ----------------------------------- As above each bit has a decimalvalue, here they &+}are:bit = decimal value 0 = 1 1 = 2 2 = 4 3 = 8 4 = 16 5 = 32 6 = 64 7 =&,} + 128 ----- 255 =====To use line 1, you would access bit0, to use line 6 you would accessbit&-} 5 and so on. To access bit 0 youwould use the decimal value of 1 andbit 5 the decimal value of 32. Toaccess both of the a&.}t once add boththe decimal values together,1+32=33, i.e. access by using 33. Sowhat do I mean by accessing? When I say ac&/}cessing I mean turningon or off. This maybe done by pokingthe values in to PORTA. A bitlogical one means a line is on, al&0}ogial zero means off. Hence to turnall lines off poke the value zero inPORTA. To turn the all on poke 255.To turn lines 1 &1}and 6 on whileleaving 2,3,4,5,7,8 off, poke thevalue 33 as described above. Havingunderstood all that (!!) you nowknow ho&2}w to control PORTA. Oneregister down and one to go.Unfortunately this one is moredifficult to grasp the workings of.Howev&3}er...The bitmap of PACTL is:bit - decimal : description 0 - 1 : CA1 interrupt + 1 - 2 : CA2 direction &4} + 2 - 4 : DDRA access 3 - 8 : CA2 interrupt + 4 - 16 : CA2 transistion + 5 - 32 : CA2 direc&5}tion + 6 - 64 : IRQ A2 + 7 - 128 : IRQ A1 +All bits marked with a plus symbol(+) are not&6} of interest to us asthese occupy special pins on the PIAchip and in the Atari they are usedto control the interrupts on t&7}he SIObus. One worth noting is that thePIA controls the cassette motor andCA2 interrupt is the line to turn iton or off. &8}To turn the cassette onpoke PACTL with 52. (POKE 54018,52)to turn it off poke it with 60 (POKE54018,60).After analysing &9}all the bit withoutthe plus symbol, we find only one!(Great!) DDR access. What ? DataDiRection (the A means what port e.g&:}DDRB is for PORTB) access. Althoughthe PIA takes up only four locationsin the memory map ($D300 to $D303)there's actually &;}six locationsavailable to the user. Confused?Good, shows your human. Tocomplicate things the designers ofthe PIA decided &<}that the address ofPORTA should be used for two things.A PORTA register and a DDRAregister. What determines whichregister&=} we access when address$D300 (PORTA) is looked at is thelogic condition of bit 2 in PACTL. Azero means we are accessing DD&>}RA a,logical one means we access PORTA.So what exactly is a data directionregister (DDR) ? A DDR allows the programmer to&?} havethe eight lines of the port aseither data lines or register lines,or a combination of both. So far wehave talked of &@}PORTA being of datatype only. It turns on or off eightlines depending on the value poked.True. However the lines could bec&A}omeregister lines where an externalsignal turns on or off the lines,and their state read. An example ofthis is the joysti&B}ck. This isconnected to the PIA. When you pulldown a switch pulls a line on PORTAlow, when PORTA is read, the programknow&C}s that the user has pulled downon the joystick. Try this: 10 PRINT PEEK(54016) 20 GOTO 10And move the joystick ha&D}ndle around.When the handle is in the restposition, a 255 flys up the screen.However moving around revealsdifferent numbe&E}rs. Now type this inwith the other program: 1 POKE 54018,56 - PACTL 2 POKE 54016,255 - DDRA(!!!) 3 POK&F}E 54018,60 - PACTL 4 POKE 54016,0 - PORTA(!!)and again run the program. Movingthe joystick handlearound wi&G}ll showno change in the value of PORTA(54016/$D300). This is because PORTAis a data port. All the lines areoutput, none o&H}f them are input. Sonow you can have either an inputPORTA or an output PORTA. But wait,there's more.It is possible to hav&I}e PORTA as acombination of both input andoutput. While accessing DDRA, eachline has an equilivent bit value. Bysetting t&J}hat value to a one, theline becomes a data (output) line,by setting it to zero it becomes aregister (input) line. The way &K}eachline is accessed is identical to themethod described above for turningthem on or off. Just remember alogical zero mak&L}es the line input. Alogical one ouput. To make all linesoutput poke 255, all input poke 0-into PACTL! Moving away from bi&M}ts to changePORTA to DDRA simply take away fourfrom the value found in PACTL. Thenlocation 54016 (previously PORTA)become&N}s DDRA. To change back toPORTA re-poke the original value. Todo this in BASIC type: 10 X=PEEK(54018):REM PACTL20 Y=X-4:&O}REM less four30 POKE 54018,Y:REM 54016 is DDRAnow40 POKE 54016,255:REM all output50 POKE 54018,X:REM 54016 is PORTA60 P&P}OKE 54016,0:REM turn off alllinesAnd that's how to control the PIA'sPORTA in your Atari. The control ofPORTB is almost &Q}identical. There's alot of information here and I'vetried to explain is a simple as Ican, but I'm sure somebody somewhere&R}is still confused. If so you canwrite to me at the address included.You can also write to me if youwould like Hardcore Har&S}dware tocover some piece of Atari hardwareyou need explaining or anything, orjust if you have something to say.To finis&T}h off this issue, it shouldbe remembered that PORTA appearsacross both joystick ports on theAtari. Lines 1 - 4 of PORTA ap&U}pearon joystick port 1 and lines 5 - 8appear on joystick port 2. I havealso included the pinout of thejoystick port as is&V} was excludedfrom the last issue by mistake(sorry!) ----------------- \ 1 2 3 4 5 / \ 6 7 8 &W} 9 / -------------1 = to PortA (line 1)2 = to PortA (line 2)3 = to PortA (line 3)4 = to PortA (line 4)5 = to &X}Pokey. Analog input pin 16 = to G/CTIA. Input only.7 = +5V @ 50mA (recommended)8 = Ground.9 = to Pokey. Analog input pin &Y}2Jason Keane.Tower HillBorrisokaneCo. TIpperary. &Z} &[} &\} &]} &^} $ BOOLEAN EXPRESSIONSAndrew C. Thompson December 1993.Here's a programming delight thatyou'll probably find very nift*`}y ifyou've never come across it before.If you do know all about this, thenwhy not take the mick out of what Idescribe wro*a}ng. This way, when youwrite your version with all thecorrect bits in, I can findsomething in your article to takethe mick*b} out of. Fairs fair, don'tyou agree!?Anyway, here we have an articledescribing Boolean expressions. Thisis a technique w*c}hich can completelyreplace IF/THEN statements in Basicprograms, the reason being thatthese expressions process muchfaster*d}, hence, your Basic programswill work faster! How about thatthen!? Take a look at the 1stexample below:A=(F>0)A equa*e}ls, bracket, F greater than 0,close bracket. Now, come onexperts... what happens in this verysimple Basic expression? Well*f}, thevariable A will become 1 if variableF is greater than 0, else it becomes0. It's just like:IF F>0 THEN A=1 ELSE A=0*g}Ofcourse, if your not familiar withthe ELSE command then get readingPage-6 magazine. It's a necessityfor YOU.How abou*h}t:A=(F=5)Well, here A will become 1 if F isequal to 5. 0 otherwise. The way tolook at it is to say, IF F=5 thenthe a*i}rgument is positive, thus,A=(1). But, IF F<>5 then theargument is negative, thus, A=(0).But knowing this, what use could w*j}eput this too? Ofcourse, the mostobvious is the replacement of flagvariables. Well, if I gave you thefollowing Basic line*k}s, do you reckonyou could convert them to theirBoolean expression equivalent?50 S=STICK(0)54 IF S=07 THEN X=X+158 IF S*l}=11 THEN X=X-1Can you convert them?50 S=STICK(0)54 X=X+(S=07)-(S=11)If you've never seen Boolean before,then you'*m}ll be a bit baffled here.Let me explain the converted line.The line reads like so; IF S=7 thenthe 1st argument is positive*n} and the2nd argument must therefor benegative, though, IF S=11 then the1st argument must be negative andthe 2nd positive *o}since the joystickcan't be in 2 positions at the sametime! OK, so you should be able tosee that if we pushed the joystick*p}to the left (S=11) we would get:54 X=X+(0)-(1) ;to the leftBut, should we push the joystick tothe right (S=7), w*q}e would get:54 X=X+(1)-(0) ;to the rightTry executing the above examples andsee what you get. In fact, with the*r}X=X+(0)-(1), the X variable isconfronted with X=X+0-1 whichaffectively is X=X-1. The 2ndexample, X=X+(1)-(0) returns X=X+1*s}-0which is the same as X=X+1. How'sthat! Joystick horizontal control in1 mathematical expression. But whatabout vertical *t}movement, and evenboundary limitations. It is actuallypossible to achieve all these tasksin 2 expressions. 1 expression fo*u}rthe X variable and the other for theY variable.OK, let's make a start.Understanding how the X variableworks, you shoul*v}d be able to come upwith vertical movement as shownbelow:50 S=STICK(0)54 X=X+(S=07)-(S=11)58 Y=Y+(S=13)-(S=14)S=13 *w}is down and S=14 is up, so thisshould work fine. Right now, let'sget a little trickier. Let'sintroduce diagonal directions*x}. Ifthe joystick direction values are 5and 6 for bottom right and topright, while 9 and 10 are bottomleft and top left, r*y}espectively,then what would the 2 expressionsbecome..? Give up? Take a look:50 S=STICK(0)54 X=X+(S=07 OR S=05 OR S=06)*z}-(S=11OR S=09 OR S=10)58 Y=Y+(S=13 OR S=05 OR S=09)-(S=14OR S=06 OR S=10)Obviously, should you push thejoystic*{}k diagonally then both the Xand the Y co-ordinates should beaffected, and we have achieved this.Take the value of S=5 for *|}example;IF S=5 then X=X+(1)-(0) will betrue, and Y=Y+(1)-(0) will also beso, thus, if you push bottom righton the joystic*}}k (S=5) then X=X+1 andY=Y+1. The important points toremember here is the use of the ORoperator and especially the brackets*~}which group the whole expressioninto 2 parts, the positive and thenegative.Well, by adding the following linesyou shoul*}d get a simple drawingroutine:10 GRAPHICS 720 X=40:Y=5030 COLOR 170 PLOT X,Y80 GOTO 50Test out the program for a w*}hile andtry moving off the screen. Hmmm, doyou get an out of range error? Sothen, here's the next problem. Is itpossible *}to include screenlimitations in the same 2expression? Ofcourse it is, but justhow do we go about this...OK, let's break *}down the 2expressions to what they really are:X=X+(argument1)-(argument2)Y=Y+(argument1)-(argument2)Now then, what ex*}actly are thearguments? Each argument is, if youlike, a simple and direct condition.What if we break each argument downin*}to 2 conditions... OK, if I toldyou that to make 2 conditions out ofone then you'll firstly need the 2ndcondition, and wou*}ld you believe it,we already have this 2nd condition:the screen limitation! Right, the2nd problem is how to relate the 2c*}onditions to each other. Well, forthe X co-ordinate to be on screen itmust be 0 or greater, and it mustalso be less than 8*}0 for Graphics 7.Take a look at this:X=X+((S=07) AND X<80)-((S=11) ANDX>-1)Does that make sense to you? Noticethe u*}se of the extra brackets, theyain't actually needed in thisparticular expression, but when were-introduce the diagonal mov*}ementsand the OR operators, they will berequired. It is the extra bracketsthat actually seperate each argumentinto 2 cond*}itions!Anyway, the way to look at this is:IF S=7 AND X<80 (on-screen) thenargument1 is positive, while: IFS=11 AND X>-1 *}(on-screen) thenargument2 is positive. It's easyenough isn't it. Let's bring backthe diagonals:X=X+((S=07 OR S=05 OR S=*}06) ANDX<80)- ((S=11 OR S=09 OR S=10)AND X>-1)Well, there you have the joystickBoolean equivalent of:IF S=07 OR*} S=05 OR S=06 THEN X=X+1IF S=11 OR S=09 OR S=10 THEN X=X-1IF X<00 THEN X=00IF X>80 THEN X=80The Boolean version isn't o*}nlyshorter, it uses much less memoryand executes very much faster.Ofcourse, this Boolean stuff can beused in many aspects*} of programming,so how about coming up with someother extremely useful IF/THEN orwhatever replacements.Here's an example*} of an IFconditioned GOTO procedure using aBoolean expression. Take forexample;10 A=020 A=A+130 IF A<10 THEN GOTO 20*}40 ENDOfcourse, program control loops backto line 20 until A=10 wherebycontrol then passes to line 40. TheBoolean equiv*}alent would be:10 A=020 A=A+130 GOTO 20+((A=10)*20)40 ENDYou can even utilize the Booleanexpression for endless loo*}pcounters. Take for example;C=0C=C+(C<5)-((C=5)*5)In this case, variable C willincrement in steps of 1, wherebyupon*} reaching 5 it will then bereset to 0 and count over againendlessly. Packing normal Basicfunctions into single Booleanexp*}ressions this way also hasanother important advantage. Itremoves any set structures in yourBasic program, making your prog*}ramsmore internally accessible, ie; Takethis for example;10 C=020 C=C+130 IF C<5 THEN GOTO 2040 GOTO 10The Boolean*} equivalent earlierdoesn't need to address any otherlines in the program, it is asingle-line and can be used 100times in *}a program no matter whereyou access it from since it isself-counting and self-initializing.Well, I hope I've given you an*}intreaging lead into Booleanprogramming. Why not convert anothercommonly used nested IF structuresuch as the joystick rou*}tine. Younever know what you can achieve withthese expressions... Anyway, as Iend this article I'll leave you withsome po*}ints to take note of; the +and - signs are the key toseperating arguments, the bracketsare the key to breaking argumentsi*}nto multiple conditions and the *and / signs are the key to achievingvalue results other than 1 or 0,positive or negative.*} Have fun! *} *} *} *} (b PHOENIX ISSUE 2 SIDE B=======================CONTENTS========FRACTAL.BAS___________Nearly everyone who has a .}computerhas probably heard of fractalgraphics and Chaos Theroy. With thisprogram explore the complex andintriguing world .}of Chaos Theroy.Keys====To load the demo fractal pictures,simply type in their names at theprompt.When you have a fr.}actal on screen,press the number keys 1 to 9 thiswill display a box target on screenthe size depends on what numberpresse.}d.You now can move the target aroundthe screen to pick a part of thefractal to be resized.(Use Joystickand fire button).}Complete files for this program :-Fractal.bas, Julia, Julia.dat, Zoom,Zoom.dat.Note: When generating or resizing afracta.}l, expect to wait for at least2 hours for the finished results asthe fractal process takes alot ofprocessing time. (turnin.}g the screenof does help)MULTCOPY.OBJ____________An excellent multi file copier, thatI use to prepare this disk mag,.}simple and easy to use just followthe on screen instructions.EGO DEMO (to load, select LDR.BAS)________Andy Thompso.}ns new demo, this demois to let everyone know that the newprogramming book for the Atari XL/XEis finished, (Andy's a busy .}guy). Ifyou read the scroll it mentionsextracts from the book, theseextracts are on side B of this diskalso, (EXTRACT.TXT.}) they need to beprinted to an 80 column printer withyour favourite Word Processor to getfull effect. These extracts first.}appeared in issue 65 of Page 6.PANTHER.PIC___________A taster of what next issues mainfeature will be, no, not pant.}hers,but one of the Atari's main featuresits graphics capabilities.KRAZYSCO.PE & 256CLRS.BAS_________________________.}Two small programs to finish of thisissue.256CRS.BAS displays 256 coloursbelieve or not.KRAZYSCO.PE, hard to put in w.}ordswhat this is so i'll let you run itto see for yourself. (please note,after this program has loaded itlooks like it ha.}s crashed, ithasn't, leave it for about 15seconds and it will start to work.)Well thats it for this issue, hopeyou have.} enjoyed it, until nexttime.... .} .} .} .} ,u 2