S P A C E

NEWSLETTER August, 1998

Greg
Treasurer's Report
by Greg Leitner
August, 1998

What can I say? I thought free food would surely lead to an overflowing room full of Atarians, but I couldn't be more off base. Only about ten members, a few spouses and no children shared the bountiful spread of Pizza Hut pizzas and desserts. Believe me when I say that even after eating more than we should have there was still plenty of leftovers for taking home.

You tell me what it is that will get your attention and attendance at future meetings. I hope that the auction in August will peak your interest. I brought in some of the 16-bit items from L R DATA so that all the members could get an idea before--hand of ST hardware that will be included in the auction. Since not many members saw these things I am not sure what interest there will be next month. But you can be sure that these items will go even if the Club doesn't make out as well as I thought it might. If you're not interested in ST hardware I know that some members will be bringing some 8-bit stuff to sell also.

Now for the actual treasury report. The Club's bank account took a beating in July due to all of the following:

  1. The second quarter room rental ($195.00)
  2. The PO Box fee for the year ($104.00)
  3. Two months BBS phone bill ($20.00)
  4. Stamps for the mailer -I sent invites to all our old Atari friends to join us for the Pizza party-not one old member showed up ($12.80)
  5. The expense for the pizza -pre-order of ten pizzas based on a minimum of thirty people showing up for the birthday bash($100.00)

Our total expenses for the month were $431.80. Our receipts were $90.00 which included five DOM's and one membership renewal. I also sold one of the 1040ST's to an outside individual who was really stuck when he dropped his 1040STE and it wouldn't respond. He paid $50.00 for the 1040 I sold him and as it turned out later, I coaxed him into letting me take his STE apart and look at the insides. All it needed was pushing a couple wires to the disk drive and everything started working like normal. Needless to say he was a very happy camper as he is a musician and the STE is perfect for that medium. He now has his STE and a backup ST all for just $50.00.

The Club's treasury now sits at $664.47 a far cry from the thousand dollar mark from the last two months. Now that all of our major expenses are out of the way until our next room rental bill sometime in September, this gives us a great opportunity to work our balance back up to the thousand dollar mark. We did bring up the fact that our treasury shouldn't be allowed to get up much higher than a thousand dollars because we don't know if we could remain a nonprofit entity.

What better way to build the treasury than with our auction next month. Keep buying the DOM's and renew your memberships when they come due and we will be talking again in November about the December Xmas party add maybe, just maybe the Club will have to kick in some money again to share the fruits our continued success. See you all at the auction.


Brian Little
Secretary's Report
by Brian Little
August, 1998

Finally got the Meeting Minutes from our Secretary. (Editor)

Mysteriously, a bottle with a message showed up to the editor's doorstep one day. Opening the bottle, the editor found a wrinkled piece of paper inside with something called a Secretary's Report by Brian C. Little AKA Angel Hacker. So, here is what the poor Secretary wrote....

Well, what is there to report. Oh. Right. Anyhow, the July 1998 meeting started at around 7:30 PM as usual. The place, for the big birthday party was very dead. Even with the deadness, we still had a good time. There wasn't really much as far as business to be concerned about at this point, the club is still doing great around that $1,000 mark but after the pizza its going to be dropping a little ways here. But we had a good time, the pizza was plenty and I even in the end walked out with a box full of pizza to bring home. That and a big smile from watching one of my personal favorite episode of Millennium on the TV.

Just a reminder for everyone that we have an auction next month, bring what you need to get rid of to the meeting and a big wallet for some of the great stuff we will have too. I suspect we will see quite a load of ST stuff, and I'm certain I will be walking out with a thing or two for my own ST.

Later,

Brian C. Little AKA Angel Hacker
An Englishman In Minnesota


The following article was submitted by Mike Weist, I did not receive it in time for last month's Newsletter. Editor

In memory of Don Langford

It was one evening that I received a call from our newsletter editor, Mike Schmidt. Mike informed me that our Space president, Don Langford had passed away, it seems he had a stroke. Mike informed me that there would be a wake for Don would be Sunday, June 7, 1998 from 4 PM. to 7 PM. at Washburn-McReavy funeral home, Coon Rapids, MN.

At the wake, Don's wife was surrounded by friends and relatives. All told stories about what kind of person Don was. Space club honored Don by sending some very beautiful bunch of flowers. Once again death has claimed another Atarian. I can also remember when our past president Sherm Erickson passed away, what a great loss too.

There laid Don Langford, so natural. It was like he was just taking a short nap. I too have good memories of Don Langford. I can remember when I first meet Don Langford. I was at a past meeting and when talking to other club members, I said it would be sure great if I could find a copy of the game Pole Position from Atari. A voice from back of me said, " I think I can help you out, I have the game at home". It was the voice of Don Langford. That was one memory of Don. Other memories were of him being the master BBQ'er at club parties. He cooked some very delicious food! Don was also our master auctioneer at many club auctions, with his assistant, Greg Leitner. Did we have some very exciting auctions!!! These auctions raised money for the club treasury. The best memory of Don Langford I have is when he stepped forwards to fill the role of club president. Don did a very excellent job as club president. Thanks Don!

In the next month the club is going to have to make some big decisions like finding a replacement for Don. I hope someone will step forwards to fill this position. It was a big responsibility for Don Langford and it will be for his replacement. I think if Don Langford could send a message from heaven he would say " Fellow Atarians keep the club going, keep Atari alive! Club members what are we going to do as a club to make this happen?

In closing, I would like to remind members of the Space club's 16th birthday party in July at the club meeting. Hope to see you all and have a fun time. Instead of having a potluck party, it will be a pizza party.

Mike Weist


Space's 16th Birthday Party

Space's 16th Birthday party was held on July 10, 1998 at the Falcon Heights Community center in Falcon Heights. This year we a different kind of party, instead of potluck we had Pizza Hut Pizza. Along with he pizza we had other things like the Fitzpatrick's famous cake, Greg Leitner's famous ice cold pop, cookies, and plenty of fun.

Although we didn't have more than 15 people at the party, we had a enjoyable night. I think those that didn't show up for the party, missed a good party.

A thanks should go out to the Birthday party committee, for putting on a great party and for all the members who showed up.

Remember it is auction night at the August Space meeting. So come , bring plenty of money, bid on things and have a fun time! See you all at the next meeting!

Mike Weist


The following articles are from Michael Current:
From: Jeff Potter 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 21:20:19 -0400

Frank-Oliver Malisch wrote:

> is there a document available containing all the
> SIO-level commands an XF551 drive understands
> (including parameter options) or does one have
> to reengineer that from the drive operating
> under sparta dos ???

Here's something I found (posted by Matthias Belitz, Feb 1, 1997):

$52     R       Read sector
$50     P       Write sector
$57     W       Write sector with verify
$53     S       get controller status, returns 4 bytes
        byte 0  drive status
                bit 0 - Command frame error
                bit 1 - Checksum error
                bit 2 - Operation error
                bit 3 - Write protect
                bit 4 - Motor on
                bit 5 - double density
                bit 6 - unused
                bit 7 - Dual (medium) density
        byte 1  controller status, returnd values are inverted
                bit 0 - busy
                bit 1 - drq
                bit 2 - lost data
                bit 3 - crc error
                bit 4 - record not found
                bit 5 - record type
                bit 6 - write protect
                bit 7 - not ready
        byte 2 time-out (format); $e0
        byte 3 unused; always 0
$21     !       format disk (single for 810 and stock 1050)
                as defined by CMD $4f for upgraded 1050 and XF 551
                (heard, that they will give back 128/256 bytes?)
$22     "       format enhanced (medium, dual) density (1050)

This was the standard command set of 1050 (810) drives

$4e     N       read drive configuration; returns 12 bytes
        byte 0  number of tracks [1 for harddisks)
        byte 1  step rate
        byte 2  sectors/track high (total number for harddisks)
        byte 3  sectors/track low
        byte 4  number of heads decreased by one
        byte 5  format (0=FM; 4=MFM)
        byte 6  bytes/sector high
        byte 7  bytes/sector low
        byte 8  drive activated
        bytes 9-11 unused
$4f     O       write drive configuration; see above
$3f     ?       get high-speed-index
                Happy, US-Doubler, HDI (Germany) return $0a
                Speedy (Germany) returns $09
These are supported by all double density drives.

Special Speedy (Germany) commands:
$20             format automatically, acts like $21, but computer has not
to wait till
drive is ready
$51             stop write command, writes all data from internal buffer to
disk, stop
motor then
$44             configure drive/track display
$4b             configure slow/fast
$4c             direct jump command for internal processor of 1050
                jumps to location stored in DAUX,$30a
$4d             jump, as above, but drive sends a "COMPLETE" before jumping
$41             add/remove command to/from internal command table
$68             get length of internal high-speed-SIO-subroutine
$69             send high-speed-SIO-routine to computer
$60             write track, writes complete track
$62             read track

US-Doubler:
$66             format disk with special sector-skew

(no guarantees)

Jeff Potter


From: "Sam Casas"
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 17:32:53 -0500

DEUCE 98

The Atari Users of North Texas (AUNT) Computer Exposition will be coming again to Dallas this November in conjunction with the monthly DFW XChange Super Saturday activities at the beautiful Dallas Infomart. Show date is planned for Saturday the 14th. As with the last three DEUCE shows, the actual show date will be finalized 120 days prior to the exposition. The exposition, along with the Super Saturday activities, charge no admission fees and are open to the general public. The one day exposition is planned to begin at 8:30 AM and run until 4:00 PM. A Friday evening pre-show get together and a post show get together are also being planned. November is still a great time to visit the Dallas Metroplex. The DFW XChange Super Saturday activities are a monthly computer extravaganza where thousands of computer enthusiasts get together, share their computer interests and enjoy some of the best computer and high-tech electronic buys in Texas. This November will again be special for us Atarians because so many of our finest developers and dealers will be participating in the activities.

The Dallas Infomart facility, a replica of the famous 1895 World Fair Crystal Palace, is located in the heart of the Dallas commerce district at 1950 Stemmons Freeway (Interstate 35E). The facility is leased by the DFW XChange each month to provide a community service to all computer users in the Dallas-Ft Worth Metroplex area. The Atari Users of North Texas is one of many participating user groups that help support this community service by sharing our Atari computer interests, general computer expertise and providing user assistance to our local Atarians and the interested general public.

Vendors are being lined up. Systems for Tomorrow, chroMagic, Crawly Crypt Corp and Emmulators have already expressed their interest in participating in the show. Vendors interested in participating can contact David Acklam at (972) 242-9655 or via email at d.acklam@genie.com. You can also visit the AUNT internet home page at http://www.startext.net/homes/aunt.


From: marksim@bitstream.net (Mark L. Simonson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 22:53:54 +0100

It took a bit longer than I expected, but the TrueType font based the
Atari 8-bit character set I have been working on is finished. It will be
on my website sometime tomorrow (June 25) at this URL:

http://www2.bitstream.net/~marksim/atarimac/fonts.html

It is actually three fonts:

Atari Classic Chunky
   A pixel-for-pixel interpretation (think "stairsteps")
Atari Classic Smooth
   A version with the jaggies flattened out (think "ramps")
Atari Classic Extrasmooth
   Similar to Smooth but with curves (think "slides")

This is freeware and is available in both Mac and PC (Windows) formats.

(Note: some characters will not be accessible, depending on your OS, since
some of the A8 characters occupy special low-ASCII locations which have
special meanings to Macs and PCs.)

Mark

----------------------------------------------------
Mac/Atari Fusion: Atari 8bit Resources for Mac (and sometimes PC) Users
http://www2.bitstream.net/~marksim/atarimac/

Mark Simonson, Proprietor
marksim@bitstream.net

Atari user since 1982 -- Mac user since 1984

From: keita@mindspring.com (Keita Iida)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit,comp.sys.atari.st
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 04:42:36 GMT

A once in a lifetime gathering to pay homage the
legacy of Atari and its products will be held at
the Holiday Inn Casino Boardwalk in Las Vegas,
Nevada from August 21-23, 1998.  Although World
of Atari '98 is geared toward the celebration of
the historic videogame and computer company, it is
far from just Atari.  In fact, WOA'98 could just
as easily be called "World of Classic Videogames
And Computers."  Practically any classic console
and computer will be represented there.

Keita Iida, Atari Gaming Headquarters
(www.atarihq.com) co-editor explains.  "World of
Atari '98 is an event for all Atari aficionados
to honor and celebrate the contributions made
to the videogame and computer community by Atari
and other pioneering companies and individuals.
Atari's products have provided hours of enjoyment,
and the company literally defined the concept of
electronic entertainment.  It was high-time to set
a stage for its fans to gather and pay tribute to
Atari's influence on the world of technology and
leisure."

While the show is still two months away, World of
Atari '98 is already attracting serious attention
from both the industry and press.  Videogame
authorities such as Gamepro, Game Informer and
Electronic Gaming Monthly (videogames.com) have
ran stories about the event, and others are sure to
follow.  A large number of fan sites have also helped
to support the cause by publicizing World of Atari
'98 on their web pages.

The event promises to offer something for everyone.
Many of the industry legends, old and new, will be on
hand including Don Thomas (customer support manager at
Atari), Rob Fulop of Imagic fame (Demon Attack), Doug
Engel and Stephanie Wukovitz of 4-Play (BattleSphere),
Howard Scott Warshaw (2600 Yar's Revenge, E.T. and
others), Jerry Jessop (hardware development for home
consoles and computers), Dennis Koble (co-founder of
Imagic), John "Jawbreaker" Harris (formerly of
Tigervision), Dan Kramer (5200 Trak-ball) and Andrew
Soderberg (product manager for the Atari Computer
Division).  These guests of honor and several others
will be giving speeches and providing workshops, as well
as taking part in Q&A sessions.  Many other surprise
guests are slated to be in attendance and will be
announced as they are confirmed.

Vendors of Atari, classic videogame and computer
products will also be in full force.  Dealers such
as Best Electronics, B&C Computervisions, Telegames,
16/32 Bits, chro_Magic Software, Emulators, Inc.,
Centek, O'Shea, ICD, Video 61 and Wizztronics
Soundpool, Steve's Computer Technology, Systems for
Tomorrow will be have a wide array of products for
sale, as well as many private collectors who have
secured dealer space to offer their items for sale
or trade.  In addition, an official auction will be
held with a professional auctioneer, and you can
expect that some valuable items will be exchanging
hands when it's all said and done.

Other show features you will not want to miss include
gaming tournaments (with prizes!), an exhibit with
rare and historic items and a welcome reception on
Friday before the offical opening of the show.  A
French TV crew will be at World of Atari '98 filming
the event.

The show will also be the place where many developers
show off their wares.  Darek Mihoca of Emulators, Inc.
will be displaying (and selling) his latest Atari 8-bit
and ST emulators.  An individual from France has
completed Alfred's Challenge for the Atari 2600 and
will be selling cartridges of his game for the first
time at World of Atari '98.  Bob Colbert of Retroware
will be unveiling his latest creation for the Atari
2600.  BattleSphere, the highly anticipated
tour-de-force for the Jaguar, will be shown by the
folks at 4-Play.  And several European design houses
are set to show off their latest creations for the Atari
8-bit and ST computers.

The event is promoted by Richard Tsukiji, who had
previously been responsible for staging the wildly
successful World of Atari shows which catered to the
Atari 8-bit and ST computer crowd.  Atari Gaming
Headquarters (www.atarihq.com) is the offical website
of World of Atari '98, and is actively working with Mr.
Tsukiji to help organize the event.

For up-to-the-details on the event, as well as
information on show discounts and details on how to
purchase tickets, please visit Atari Gaming Headquarters
at www.atarihq.com.

WHERE:  The Holiday Inn Casino Boardwalk, Las Vegas

WHEN:   August 21-23, 1998.

WHO:    Well, you for one, but the list of attendees
        is over 400 names long at present.


***************************************************
Keita Iida
keita@mindspring.com
www.atarihq.com - Atari Gaming Headquarters
Fygar on #RGVC and #turbolist

From: rich@cstone.net (Rich)
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 04:58:25 GMT

Atari800Win is a freeware emulator of the Atari 8-bit computer line
for Win9X/NT. It is located on my web page:

http://www.cris.com/~Twist/atari800win

Here are the new features in 2.1:

06-28-98        Ver 2.1
  * The SIO patch option is now configurable on the fly; it doesn't
    reboot the machine. Besides the hardware dialog you can flip it
    with F11.
  * Hardware dialog was reworked to display better on ModeX screens.
    Antic dialog is gone; its contents are on the Hardware dialog
    now.
  * Now using better artifacting code from Perry (text mode still
    doesn't work)
  * Volume will not be set on MMsystems that can't handle it (what's
    up with THAT anyway? Seems to be true for ancient SoundBlasters.
    Ugh). Volume slider will be disabled on these systems.
  * Fixed SKSTAT handler (could cause missing keystrokes, missed reads
    of SHIFT)
  * Any nagging sound initialization problems people were having
    should be fixed
  * Added 48Khz sound output. Most sound cards probably don't support
    this; and the WaveOut functions can NOT check for this capability
    ahead of time, so be prepared for it to fail. It really rocks on
    my SoundBlaster PCI64 though; makes a huge difference for disk
    access noises and high frequency stuff.
  * Joystick dialog differentiates between "none" and "keypad". Keypad
    can only be assigned to one port, and should always work. On 101
    keyboards the arrow keys WILL work as Atari arrow keys regardless
    of keypad setting. I'm doing it the pristine MSoft way now; so if
    it still doesn't work on your keyboard, well, sue Bill Gates or
    something.
  * Woohoo! Autoduel works! Use 130XE, SIO patch on, and you'll want
    to have F8 (full speed) most of the time. One of the best games
    ever out of Origin.
  * Took out the internal Atari UI until it can be reworked. Too fugly
    with the first quicky attempt; and besides it doesn't do anything
    the Win UI doesn't.
  * Joystick button 2 (if available) flips between full and regular
    speed (same as keyboard F8). Button 3 pauses/unpauses (keyboard
    F9). Button 4 flips the SIO patch (keyboard F11). Yes, I will make
    these configurable later on.
  * Pausing the emulator now shades the screen 50%.
  * Reorganized CPU code for both (slight) speed and size improvement.
  * Fixed SIO bug in drive status (DCOMND 0x53).

Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 14:25:53 CST
From: rich@cstone.net (Rich)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit,comp.emulators.announce

Atari800Win is a freeware emulator of the Atari 8-bit computer line
for Win9X/NT. It is located on my web page:

http://www.cris.com/~Twist/atari800win

Here are the new features in 2.2:

07-12-98    Ver 2.2
  * A disk indicator is drawn at the bottom right hand corner of the
    display when sector I/O occurs. The small block drawn contains the
    number of the drive being accessed, and is red for writes, green
    for reads.

  * 5200 controllers work. F5 is reset, Shift-F5 is coldboot, F4 is
    the start button. Keyboard 0-9 are equivalent to the 5200
    controller 0-9 (you can use the keypad if you aren't using it for
    a joystick). Keypad * or regular * work as the 5200 * key, and
    keypad - or regular - work as the "#" key. When running in 5200
    mode with a joystick triggers 2-4 operate as 5200 triggers 2-4,
    NOT as function shortcuts like in Atari computer mode. WARNING: At
    present several 5200 carts fail. This will have to be worked on
    for a while.

  * Found the (atari side) bug that was keeping multiple stick inputs
    from working. You can now play with at least two sticks; I don't
    have four to test but that should work as well. I HAVE played a
    full game of MULE with joystick on one port and keypad on another.
    It works.

  * ModeX was abandoned in favor of simple linear modes at 320xXXX
    resolutions. Some cards will support these modes, some won't - but
    at least when present they work reliably. If you have "use ModeX
    for 320 resolutions" set in your DirectDraw control panel you
    might want to turn it off (default is off).

  * Switched back to DirectDrawSurface revision one interfaces, since
    it's obvious some cards that claim to be DirectDraw 5 compliant
    are not, and do not support DirectDrawSurface2 or 3. If full
    screen wasn't working for you, this was probably the reason (and
    it should work now).

  * Shift-ctrl + keycode is sent properly to Atari machine now

  * Fixed a potential Windows crash condition when the Atari crashed

  * Fixed a bug that could cause some cartridge options to not be
    saved out.

  * DirectDraw mode transitions are a little smoother (one screen size
    to other)

  * Sound is not restarted on mode changes, but it will still get a
    little garbled (unavoidable).

  * Various small tweaks and refinements.

  * Source code released (this doesn't imply it is done).

SPACE Auction Items:

1200XL System, No Monitor

ST Hardware

8-Bit Hardware and Software

(2) 486DX(33 & 66) Complete Systems w/VGA Monitors, The Monitors Are In Working Order (May Need To Be Replaced), Epson 9-Pin Printers, CD-Roms, Speakers, Loaded With Software, (Not Much In Way Of Game Software) The 486's Are Being Offered By The Newsletter Editor. (The Opening Bid On Each 486 Computer Will Be Low)

So, Plan on attending and bring something for the Club to Auction Off and also bring your Money for Bidding on the other Items.


DISCLAIMER

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.


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Last updated: Monday, July 19, 1999
URL:http://www.library.carleton.edu/space/news9808.html