›‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’…›ü      ˆŠˆ   ˆ       Ôèå  Óðéòéô  ü›ü     Š     ˆ                     ü›ü   ŠŠ     ˆ         Ïîìéîå Îå÷ó  ü›ü  
      ˆ                       ü›ü  
        ˆ        Áðòéì  ±¹¹²  ü›ü          ˆ                      ü›ü  ˆ   ˆ             Öïì ³ Îï® ´  ü›š’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’ƒ››Óðéòéô Îïôåó ­ Òïâ Óãïôô››Greetings again Atarifans! Just like spring we have returned. This month I'd like to go into just who we are. The Spirit is mostly produced by myself with the assistance of a few other sysops in the Ontario Atari BBS Association, a non-profit organization created solely for the purpose of expanding the horizons of the telecommunicating general public. We aim to bring new life into an unsupported computer by keeping you up-to-date on important issues effecting the 8-bit Atari community. We will try to keep you informed as to the best sources of software, hardware and computer supplies for Atari 8-bit home computers. We make no money for this service.››Recently one of our correspondents was informed that due to copyright laws they cannot put our newsletter out on their BBS's! What a crock! I don't know what laws they have been reading but it's certainly not a Canadian law, and I in no way EVER said sysop's could not put the Spirit up on their boards. That's ridiculous! Some pointed to the disclaimers etc. that we put in every issue, well if that's the case then we just won't put it in there anymore, but you might want to check with the author of a piece before you rip it off and use it elsewhere. As far as I know everything in the Spirit is in the public domain with the exception of the name Spirit. You can mention that if you like, I just don't want some whacko using our newsletter name in vain. To all them sysops who have refused our newsletter because you were afraid of putting it up, get a life.››Now, on to bigger and better things. I've recently received the latest BELLCOM public domain shareware 1992 catalog, the address to get yours is below. One of our correspondents has been in contact a time or two with Don Bell and he assures me that BELLCOM is still in business. The new catalog is jam-packed with new and exciting Atari software and from what I've read, Don is offering free trade-ins on defective items that customers may have purchased in the past, That's service! BELLCOM has been in the PD/Shareware business for many years and we hope that it will continute for many years to come. If you would like to obtain the new catalog write to BELLCOM at the following address:››BELLCOM›P.O. Box 1043›Peterborough, Ontario›Canada K9J 7A5››Note that now with each order Don has a new item that he includes free. It's a disk filled with information for Atari users. Just exactly what is in these infodisks I'm not sure as of yet but hopefully Don will start to include a copy of the Spirit! (Just a plug there Don). We should now rally behind all the few remaining sources of Atari 8-bit supplies and give them the pat on the back they deserve and BUY THEIR PRODUCTS, as without them we would soon have nothing new for our computers and then we would be forced to use them as "GAME MACHINES", a term I personally hate with a passion.››A previous issue of AS carried a fairly decent list of companies still supporting the 8-bit line.››Anyhow, after all this I may not have much room left for everyone else's stuff so I will cut outta here and let someone else get a word in edgewise. Till next time, see you in a 8-bit!›Rob Scott, Editor/publisher The SPIRIT.››          Íéóã Òáíâìéîçó›          ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­›            Äáöå Óãïôô  ››       Well two months since the Spirit hit the press, and still nothing much to say. Was pleased to talk to Don Bell the other day and find him still supporting the 8-bit in the same excellent fashion he always has. Oasis games have gone through some major changes of late with Gladiators being taking beyond what I thought was possible for an 8-bit BBS game.›Pro has finally installed ANSI support. Good for Pro! The IBM callers get real confused when they call and get ANSI color and Graphics as they do in Oasis 5.0 and Pro..heh.. Always brings a chuckle when we decieve our Big brothers.›Seems the layoff got a few more columns going this issue! GREAT! Always happy to see that happen! Ye Ole Junction is now functional as Oasis node 035 (v4.7). And welcome back to Shane Gaudaur AKA Iceman who has reopened Clasic 8 BBS here in London.. Gee for a guy that didn't have much to say..›Also want to share a BBS role playing game with you all. On Desert Illusion we have just started to try a game of Diplomacy and are presently going through the election campaign, which in turn is becoming a smear campaign.. Hopefully we will be able to add other Boards to the game and get a world empire running. Next issue if the game works I will submit a guideline for our version.. heh.. And perhaps we can get Forgeign aid from you?››Well enough babbling on to the serious stuff... Welcome aboard to the new Board in New Jersey who now carries Spirit Mag ( Sorry Stan I forgot your BBS name! Duh....).. Well welcome aboard Stan and the gang hope you all enjoy the Spirit as much as I have these last 5? ¼Åĺ³«¾ years We have been doing it.. Well Rob anyways..heh..››Dave Scott›Desert Illusion BBS›Oasis 5.0 beta Test bed & Oasis Support›London Ont. Canada›1-(519)-457-3998››           ×Å ÇÅÔ ÌÅÔÔÅÒÓ¡››G'day from Australia.›Would love some mail contact!›Am interested in anything Atari 8.›Write to:›Dave Blears›22 Georgia Street›Godwin Beach 4510›Queensland›Australia›Write Now!!!! ›Am interested in Action!, Mac65, everything.››         Ôèå Ãìáóóéã Åéçèô ÂÂÓ››      Welcome to this month's SPIRIT! I figured it was about time I got off my duff and started writing something here in this great publication.››     For starters, I am now running the Classic Eight BBS. It is actually my third board. I run BBS Express, and soon to be putting up PRO! Node X233.››     My first board was run using Express BBS. It was called The Baby Oil BBS. Needless to say, I had a few users complain about the name, thinking it was some kind of sleasy board, so I took it down and awaited for my PRO! Node to arrive.››     After the node arrived I had some fantastic help from a friend of mine, Ron Godmaire, who runs POPS BBS(519) 432-0251, here in London. Ron was a great help to me, and help me get started with the Desert Storm BBS. Due to some computer malfunctions, I was again forced to take the board down, finally about 9 months later, Dave Scott loaned me his 256K and I am now back up and running the Classic Eight BBS.››     I will be putting up the PRO! Node near the end of April as my storage space will be expanding. The expantion will include some GREAT on-line games such as ARENA. And as always, the message bases will be running smooth because I have such great users!!!››     Well, that's about all for this issue, but I'll be back!!!››          Shane Scott Gaudaur›        Sysop:Classic Eight BBS›           (519) 645-6070›              London, ON››            Ôåãè Ôéðó¡›            ½½½½½½½½½½›            Áôáòé Æòåä››     Often wondered why you get errors and yet you run the head cleaner through the Drive at least once a week?       Could be you haven't REALLY cleaned the drive latley? I mean tear it down and give it a good honest cleaning. WHAT!!! You never have? Surprised it works! Depending on usage or even lack of usage and the enviroment your Computer is setup in there is no set scheduale as to when you should do preventive cleaning. I do my Happy enhanced 1050 every month. But I'm a slob and smoke near my machine. ( OH YUK HE SMOKES!!) Opps there goes my fan club. Regardless, it's simple. ››Step One: Remove the top portion of your case by removing the four screws in the embedded reccesses on the bottom of the drive. CAREFULLY lift the top and set it aside. You are now looking down on the drive mech.›Step Two:›Remove all dust balls etc. from the drive itself. The running arms on the head are lubricated and require some good acohol cleaning to remove what I like to call drive goop that will cause the drive to falter and thus err. Having done this and using a QUALITY cotton swab CAREFULLY clean the two ceramic postions on the read/write head a poor quality Swab will break down and cause more problems than you can imagine! Having cleaned the Drive mech and seeing as the case is open, do a visual inspection of all wires. Ensuring that all are firmly seated in thier respective places. Now, using a fine grade sewing machine oil. ( No 10w30 please!) put a small dab on each head runner, (the two metal bars the head rides on) as you removed all the lubrication with the alcohol cleaning. Now carefully place the cover back on and screw the 3 screws you stil have left back into thier holes. (The forth screw? Atari has a screw on every drive with a built in Transporter that sends it back to the factory when removed. At least thats my story and I'm sticking to it!). Simple enough! Be careful DON't knock the heads off of alignment and make sure it's unplugged!››Till Next issue...››Atari Fred... My 8-bit ain't dead!››---------------------------------------›     ÂÂÓ Åøðòåóó ÐÒÏ¡ Ò® Çïäíáéòå››     Well I was ask by the boys at Spirit International this time around to write a little something to include in this month Spirit World.  So if it is kind of breif then its because I never had much of a chance to get ready  for it, but here goes. ››     Since I run Express Pro! then maybe I will start with talking a bit about that.  BBS Express Pro! to me is one of the most powerful BBS Programs available for the Atari 8-bit.  We at Pro! are ALWAYS coming up with new Ideas.  I believe as I am writing this right now they are working on the Z-Modem protocal for us 8-bit Atarians. ›    Another thing which has been slow in coming but is finally here is the FULL Ansi compatabillity.  This enable IBM user to take full advantage of the ANSI Graphics online while logged on to a Express Pro!.  This is version 3.2c and up.  It is still not available at POPS but we will get it soon enough. Another option not available very often with 8 bit Computers is BATCH UPLOADING which is now available with BBS Express PRO! which is one of the next thing in the books for POPS along with the newer version of the main program to allow Ansi and also the Multiplexer should be hopefully in by the summer.  ››     Just to let you all know a bit about POPS BBS itself.  It runs on an Atari 130XE upgraded to 576K, therefore giving it 512K of RAM. And on this Atari I have a 256K MIO which enables me to run a few other things.  I am currently running 2 Hard Drives on it. One being a P.T.I 50 meg Hard Drive which formats to 44 meg.  The other is a Rodime 60 meg Hard Drive which formats to about 58 meg. All toll this gives POPS about 103 meg online. Not to bad for the old 8-bit which they said would never go anywhere..  Also with these 2 Hard Drive I have a 1050 Disk Drive with an Archiver in it and also an Old Epson M/X 80F/T Printer.  All this comes together with a Supra 2400 baud modem and view on a 12 inch Monochrome Monitor..››     Well I had not written in this for a while but maybe I will find something else to write about next time around.  So for now and in case I don't.  Have a nice Summer....››               POPS BBS›            1-519-432-0251›            24 hours a day›             7 days a week›            100+ Meg online›             (London Ont.)››Êïççåò§ó Ãïòîåò®®®›Well its been a little while since we last spoke and no doubt much has happened with all of you...hopefully most of it good!› Last time I was here I was awaiting the arrival of my blackbox and hardrive and envisioning lots of fun with the bbs...› Its been a Month to the day that Ye Ole Junction went up and I tell ya I feel a lot older than I did a month ago..and as much wiser...I guess the best ability I could think that a sysop needs to have is the ability to take criticism and turn it to your advantage, cuz I have to believe that any newcomer is sure to be prone to errors...I know I have. › But there are things you really have to expierience to get the full benefit out of them...it's the best teacher there is around...for its easy to feel foolish when a fellow sysop explains something that sounds and most likely is easy..but then we all have to learn to crawl before we walk and walk before we run...so no matter how stupid you think your question is...don't hesitate to ask someone for the answer...as I am sure that somewhere in our midst is someone who can solve your problem or send you in the right direction. Talking about problems. Well, I have heard rumors of the Spirits' demise. The online magazine that is...those rumors are only that as long as we all send in something to make its existance a continuance. I hope we can all find something that is print worthy..and continue this avenue of communication amongst ourselves here in the Atari 8 bit community. So for now I should close with the comments that yes, being a sysop is a lot of fun, it's also a lot of work but it's well worth it when there are users like yourselves. I bid you all take care until the next issue I bid you well....››Jogger››Atari Spirit is prepared with the following hardware and software:››Atari 130xe (512k), Tandy TRS80 laptop (for when I get inspired!) and is edited with TextPro v4.5.›All articles provided to the Spirit are in the public domain provided they remain together. Contact the individual authors and the Spirit editor re: reprints of certain articles in other newsletters. Most authors and the editor/publisher may be contacted via any OABA BBS. The Spirit is in no way affiliated with Atari Canada or Atari Corp. The Spirit has no commercial sponsor. The Spirit is in no way responsible for any damage to any equipment or programs as a result of trying out suggestions from the individual authors.›Submit all articles to:››A)Any OABA BBS.›B)The Spirit BBS (613)623-0430 2400b 24 hours daily.›-----------------------------------------------------------------------------›