_____________________________________ ZMAGAZINE JULY 4, 1987 ISSUE:60 Publisher and Editor: Ron Kovacs Assistant Publishers: Ken Kirchner Susan Perry Rich Decowski _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG INDEX 60 /*/ Zmag Newswire..Atari Update /*/ Newswire Cont..New product /*/ ICD Tour.......A visit inside /*/ CIS Watch......850 Interface Pins /*/ Zmag Review....QUBIE Modem /*/ Atari Answers..from CDAC Mag June /*/ Zmag UGOM......Ol Hackers /*/ Atari Rumors... /*/ Antic Online...June Faire Report /*/ Publishers Page _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG NEWSWIRE ......Atari News...... _____________________________________ The following text ctsy of Online Today. ATARI TO SELL COMPUTERS THROUGH MUSIC STORES Atari Corp. has announced it plans to sell 520ST and 1040ST personal computers through US music stores. According to J.J. Brown, vice president and general manager of Atari's US operations, the company will start signing up music dealers this weekend at the International Music and Sound Expo in Chicago. The trade show is sponsored by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM). -It's a natural fit for Atari,- said Brown. -Music stores already sell music software, and the ST is rapidly becoming the computer of choice for musicians because of its low price and high performance. Another reason is that it is the only personal computer with a built-in MIDI (musical instrument digital interface). Musicians can use an ST immediately; there's no need to buy a MIDI interface board.- --John Edwards ATARI MEGA ST RELEASE IS IMMINENT An Atari executive has reacted to rumors that Atari's Mega ST would not be ready until September. Atari users have been hearing rumors that the new machine would be delayed until September. The reason usually supplied was that the SLM804 laser printer was having production problems and Atari wouldn't release the MEGA without the printer. Neil Harris, Director of Marketing Communications at Atari, says that the release of the Mega ST is -imminent.- Although Harris didn't comment on the laser printer's supposed problems, he did say that Atari saw -no reason to wait on the laser printers to get the Megas out the door.- He also said that the SLM804 (laser printer) will be ready well in advance of September. --James Moran _____________________________________ Xx NEWSWIRE CONTINUED _____________________________________ INTELLICREATIONS ANNOUNCES NEW PRODUCTS AND FORMATS Chatsworth, CA -- June 25, 1987. IntelliCreations, Inc. today announced the upcoming release of new formats for a number of existing products. Following the June release of Video Title Shop for the Commodore 64/128, the Atari and Apple versions will be on the market in July. Video Title Shop is a computer + VCR utility that allows the user to create text and graphics screens for use with recordings of all kinds - family occasions, holidays, school and business. The first supplemental disk, Graphics Companion I, will be released simultaneously with each system release of Video Title Shop. Alternate Reality - The Dungeon for the Commodore 64/128, which was released in early June, will be available for the Atari XL/XE and Apple II systems in July. The Dungeon, a sequel to The City, can be played with a character created in The City, or with a new character entering the mysterious world populated by beings beyond description. Alternate Reality - The City, which has been available for the Commodore 64/128, Atari, Atari ST and Apple systems, will be released for the Macintosh in June and the IBM PC in August. A Survival Handbook for players of The City was shipped in May and is available at a suggested retail price of $9.95. New product releases for the second half of 1987 include: Tomahawk, a helicopter simulation in which the player gets to pilot the Apache helicopter flown by the U.S. Army -- a machine designed to fly at speeds in excess of 200 mph, and whose sole task is to seek out and destroy anything that gets in its way. The player can select combat or training missions at four pilot- rating levels in a 3-D real world display. Features include offensive and defensive flight maneuvers; ground attack and air-to-air interception, day and night vision systems, and instruments only flying. Tomahawk will be released in August for the Atari and Commodore computers at a suggested retail price of $34.95. Force 7, an action/adventure game in which the player is the commander of a special forces unit sent to the planet Karis to rescue the humans at an Energy Fabrication plant which has been overrun by aliens. One space suit has survived the journey, so you can only teleport one crew member at a time to the planet's surface to fight the invading aliens. Force 7 will be available for the Commodore in August, and the Atari and Apple systems in September at a suggested retail price of $19.95. Additions to the war strategy game series include Bismarck - The North Sea Chase, a battleship simulation in which the player can choose to command the Royal Navy or the dreaded German battleship that sunk H.M.S. Hood in 1941. This multi- level game gives the player the opportunity to use conventional battleship weapons or take to the air in a Fairey Swordfish torpedo plane via a cockpit -perfect flight simulator. Bismarck will be available for the Atari, Commodore and Apple in September at a suggested retail price of $34.95. Tobruk - The Clash of Armour will be released in October for the Atari, Commodore and Apple at a suggested retail price of $34.95. This tank simulation, war strategy game puts the player into the role of Rommel, head of the German Afrika Korps, in his attempt to defeat the British in North Africa and move into Egypt, thus destroying the Allies hold on the southern Mediterranean. Dark Lord is an introductory graphics /text adventure in which the player has inherited his grandfather's house and all his possessions, including a journal that reveals the unbelievable discovery he claimed to have made. Dark Lord takes you into the Alterworld where you must destroy the evil wizard who has risen from his grave and enslaved the realm. Eighty screens of outstanding graphics, animation, original music, plus a self-running demo and a random relocation of objects option combine to make Dark Lord an exciting game that will be played over and over again. Dark Lord will be available in August for the Apple and Commodore systems and ill be priced at $19.95. _____________________________________ Xx AN ICD VISIT ...Tom and Gerry Visit ICD... _____________________________________ By Jerry Cross and Mike Lechkun Oh well, Mike's lousy mouse joke at least got us in the door and to the receptionist. We entered an old textile factory on a bumpy road on the south side of Rockford, Illinois. The building's reduced demands allowed it to house small, emerging buisnesses. This is where ICD resides. After the aforementioned bout with the receptionist, we were greeted by Marilyn, one of the executive secretaries, and were shown the main office. This office house other secretaries, accounting and art departments, and programmers. Sitting on a dresser in the middle of the room was a 520ST, Courier 2400 modem, disk and hard drives--in short, the ICD BBS. That's where the fun started! We were introduced to staff programmer Keith Ledbetter. Keith, of Express! fame, showed us his first products for his new employer. ICD Express! (we think that was the title) is an ST BBS program that will knock your socks off and send them across the room! It's really that good! The program is a mixture of features found on 850 BBS Express! and some of the major on-line services. Written in a language composed by Keith (also to be released as soon as it is documented), ICD Express is a callers dream, yet not a Sysop's nightmare. In the download section, a user can scan the list of available files, or view each filename followed by a brief description. Arc'ed files can be un-arc'ed on-line to view the separate files contained in the master file. The sysop may set a variety of flags restricting/allowing different privledges to individual users. Standard X-modem, CRCX-modem, and Y-modem are the protocols supported. -Kermit's batching allows some users to type in -*.*- and download everything, and I'm not too keen on that,- said Keith. 32 message bases can be created, with a maximum of 250 messages each containing 4000 bytes of information. This will cost you over a meg of memory, but that's the breaks--get a Mega ST when they come out! Thread following, tagged messages, and a new on-line text editor makes this message area complete. I thought the suggested retail of $79.95 was reasonable, Jerry thought it a bit pricey. For ICD's first foray into the ST field, this seems an excellent product in the tradition that ICD has established. After Mike got up off his knees in worship to Mr. Ledbetter, the tour moved on. Up an escalator and through a vacant machinery room we went. Marilyn left us in the capable hands of Brad, head of shipping/ handling and production. Stacks of untested, incompleted MIO devices were about the room. Each MIO is tested from 9 to 24 hours for reliability before packaging and shipping. This commitment to quality along with ICD's excellent consumer support has forced them to expand three times within the warehouse. Surely a fourth expansion is eminant. When Jerry complained of a lack of quality service on non-ICD equipment in his area, Brad rather matter-of- factly said -send it in to us - Tom (Harker, ICD's President) will look at it.- ICD routinely assists with all installation of their products at reasonable fees. ICD installs Rambo's (memory upgrades), and US Doublers (1050 drive enhancements) for $30 and $15...they'll look at user's equipment as well when their own product checks OK. After being frisked for any free sample MIO's (just kidding), our tour had ended. In spite of the grubby factory style surroundings, ICD is a company committed to dependability to all Atari owners. This is one book you can't judge by the cover! Article ctsy of the CHAOS BBS _____________________________________ Xx Zmag CompuServe Watch .....850 Interface Pinout..... _____________________________________ 190854 S13/Peripherals 28-Jun-87 Sb: 850 PINOUTS Fm: Don Miaw 70707,1414 To: PAUL T. WILLIAMS 73157,244 Paul, Take note: Serial Port R1: Pin 1 - Data Terminal Ready; 2 - Carrier Detect; 3 - Data Out; 4 - Data In; 5 - Signal Ground; 6 - Data Set Ready; 7 - Request to Send; 8 - Clear to Send. Serial Ports 2 & 3: Pins 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 - same as R1; Other pins - not assigned. Serial Port 4: Pins 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 - same as R1; 9 - minus 8V; Other pins unassigned. NOTE: pins 1 and 7 of R4 are not computer controlled and are always ON at +10V. Parallel Port: Pin 1 - Data Strobe; 2 - Data bit 0; 3 - Data bit 1; 4 - Data bit 2; 5 - Data bit 3; 6 - Data bit 4; 7 - Data bit 5; 8 - Data bit 6; 9 - Data pins pull-up at +5V; 11 - Signal ground; 12 - Fault; 13 - Busy; 15 - Data bit 7. [Don] _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG HARDWARE REVIEW .....QUBIE'S MODEL MODEM..... _____________________________________ By:Alan Roseman QUBIE' SUPER MODEM 1200 EXTERNAL 507 Calle San Pablo Camarillo, Ca. 93010 800-821-4479 Delivered Price $99.00 The QUBIE' SUPER 1200E is a standard size external modem (5-x9-), it's outer case is made of steel in a painted finish. It's face is a contrasting dark brown. The face of the QUBIE' SUPER 1200E displays a full array of informational LED's. HS-high speed, AA-auto answer, CD- carrier detected, OH-off hook, RD- receive data, SD-send data, TR- terminal ready, MR-modem ready. Immediately left of the LED's is a small slide open compartment which houses the 8 DIP switches making for easy access. The rear of the QUBIE' SUPER 1200E offers you access to it's RS-232C port, an on off switch, speaker volume control, telephone and power input. As you can probably tell from the description the QUBIE' SUPER 1200E is a very well equiped package. It has all the features we have come to appreciate in a top quality modem. Did I mention yet that it auto switches from 1200 to 300 baud on connect if necessary? Well it does that too. The QUBIE' SUPER 1200E accepts all standard HAYES commands, I have used it on all local BBS's as well as the major pay to connect information services. It has performed in an error free fashion in every case. The documentation is complete and easy to understand even for the novice. The QUBIE' SUPER 1200E comes as a bundled package with IBM software -PC TALK- making it a real bargain for big blue fans. Delivery which is via UPS is free and takes appx. six days. For about six dollars they will ship express which cuts delivery to about three days. You probably haven't heard of the QUBIE' Co. Well neither had I. I was put on to them by a friend who told me that QUBIE' doesn't advertise in the ATARI mags. They seem to stick with the PC related publications. That, I'm afraid, is a loss for both us and the QUBIE' Co. When I ordered my modem I made a point of telling the salesperson that out in the world are may varied micro users, they would only help their own cause by addressing a wider selection of us. When you are writing a product review and begin to sound like a shill for the product in question it sends out a clear message. This is a product which defies you to find fault. Whether you look at the price $99.00, or the product integrity. I give QUBIE' SUPER 1200E my highest recommendation. This is an opportunity for computer users to get the best of both worlds. A great product at a great price. _____________________________________ Xx Excerpts from the June Newsletter .....C*D*A*C* ENTHUSIASTS..... _____________________________________ P.O. BOX 2216 ALBANY, NY 12220 BBS (518) 237-1232 ANSWERS FROM ATARI Here are some often asked questions, and their answers about Atari products courtesy of Neil Harris of the Atari Corporation.. (6/10/87) Q: When will the new products be shipping? A: The XEP-80 and the SX212 (80- column for 8-bit and the new modem, respectively) will begin manufacturing any moment now for delivery around the end of June. The Mega ST 2 and Mega ST 4 are already on the way to Europe and are scheduled for North American delivery in early July. The Atari PC is also due in early July. Q: What about the blitter chip upgrade? A: It should be available for current ST owners around September. It will cost around $120. The final form of the upgrade is not yet set --it may involve a board swap rather than an add-on. Q: What about PC emulators for the ST? A: Both Atari's own software emulator and one called PC-Ditto should be released during the summer. A hardware emulator is still in the works for later on. Q: When will new ROMs be available for the ST and what changes are included? A: The ROMs are done and have gone into production. Availability as a separate item may take a while, though -- we need ROMs for the Mega ST. These ROMs support the hardware blitter (optional) and fix some TOS problems, like the infamous underline bug and the RS232 handshaking. Parts of the system have been sped up, like character output. A list of exact changes will be posted shortly. Q: What's happening with the 8-bit emulator? A: The author finally agreed to release the source code to the public domain, so Atari will allow him to distribute it along with our ROM code. Now we want to see you hackers out there work to speed it up -- at the moment it is only 1/4 the speed of an 8-bit. Q: What else is new at Atari? A: On the business side things are great. We just announced a 2-for-1 stock split, effective next week. New TV commercials have been produced for the ST (yay!) and the video games. We are also working on campaigns to support MIDI music and desktop publishing. The CDACE newsletter electronic text edition is available locally on the HIGH WAY BBS at 583-1943 and nationally in the XE Roundtable on GENIE in the Everything Else Library. The Publishing partner version of the newsletter is located on the ST roundtable GENIE in the TOS library. As some of the fonts used in the newsletter are commercial products you will need to purchase the appropriate font disks or reformat the text for public domain fonts. Other club's are welcome to use articles with credit given to the club and author. NEWSLETTER EDITOR - Bill Silverman, 439-6465 _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG USER GROUP OF JULY 1987 ....Ol' Hackers Users Group.... _____________________________________ The following are features of the OL' HACKERS BBS. The Ol' Hackers BBS Main Menu ___________________________________ [A] ATARI/ASCII [O] CES Reports [B] Browse D/L's [Q] Quickscan [C] Hey Sysop [R] Read E-Mail [D] Download a File [S] Send E-Mail [F] E-Mail To Sysop [T] Welcome Msg [G] Goodbye(Log Off)[U] Upload Hmmm [I] System Info. [Y] Your Status [L] Libraries [/] Mini Menu [M] List Of Users [?] This Menu [X] Windhover Proj. [N] System NEWS [P] BBS's By States [Z] Maze Craze! ___________________________________ [*] List Msg. Bases [=] Msg. Base# System Information ____________________________________ Computer_______130XE W/64k Ram Disk Memory_________1 Meg ICD MIO Board Ram Disk Monitor________Sakata SA-1000 Drives_________10 Meg Hard Drive 1 810 Disk Drive Printer________SG-10 Modem__________Avatex 1200 Please Read!! NEW!! Todays Date: Mon 8-Jun-87 ___________________________ Hello: RON KOVACS Last Date On: 06/08/87 ___________________________ Last Update For SYSTEM NEWS was 05/17/87 ___________________________ WINDHOVER PROJECTS _____________________________________ [1] Thing to do with the PBI [2] Ram-Disk Mods for all ATARIs _____________________________________ PBI INTERFACE PROJECTS _____________________________________ [1] PBI ARTICLE [2] PBI CONNECTION 1 [3] PBI CONNECTION 2 _____________________________________ Base [1].....General I Base [2].....General II Base [3].....IBM or ST Base [4].....Special SIG Users Base [5].....Ol' Hackers ONLY Base [6].....What's NEW In Music Base [7].....NETWORK SYSOPs Base [8].....The SPORTS Line Base [9].....Tech or HELP! SIG Next week we will include some text from this group. If have interest for more info, Refer to this weeks edition of Zmag's ST_Report. We will print the article next week in Zmag61. _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG ATARI RUMORS _____________________________________ DTACK GROUNDED INC. OFFERS FREE FAST BASIC TO ALL USER GROUP MEMBERS DTACK Grounded Inc., a New Mexican based ST software firm, has announced that it will offer its new DTACK BASIC to over 400 Atari user groups across the country. Each group, upon receipt of proper identification, will receive free 63 DTACK BASIC disk labels, one or two master disks (depending on the size of the user group), and ten DTACK BASIC manuals. The catch? There is none! This offer is being made only to user groups, who are expected to distribute DTACK BASIC to its ST owners for a nominal fee (the user groups will define a price - no more than a normal user group library disk). DTACK BASIC is touted to be the fastest ST BASIC available today. A benchmark test between DTACK, GFA, Fast, and the newest ST BASIC showed DTACK BASIC to be the fastest by a substantial margin. The benchmark used was in an advertisement that appeared on page 45 of the May 1987 -ST Applications- magazine. For further information, contact your local Atari user group. EPYX...ARE THEY LISTENING? Rumors abound on reasons why Epyx has practically refused to support the 8-bit line of Ataris. However, the folks at Epyx seem to be waking up to our cries. Apparently, many Atari users have mailed in letters to Epyx requesting (or maybe even demanding?) them to release several of their most popular titles such as -Destroyer-, -Summer Games II-, -Winter Games-, -World Games-, and -Championship Wrestling-. Keep those letters coming!! Send all requests/demands to: EPYX, INC. 600 GALVESTON DRIVE REDWOOD CITY, CA 94063 BLACK PATCH GOES THE DEEP 6 It's official, and it has been official for a few weeks now. Black Patch Systems, a mail-order Atari hardware/software house has been declaired bankrupt by its owners. The Better Business Bureau claims to have hadmany reports from angry computer owners, many of them claiming to have placed an order that was never filled and no refund given. The BBB suggests filing a complaint quickly, if you have had similar problems with this company. NEW ATARI DISK DRIVE Atari has announced at a recent CES show the arrival of an upcoming Atari 5.25- disk drive (actually a redesigned and enhanced 1050). The new drive will be double sided, double density, and will operate about twice as fast as the soon-to- be-discontinued Atari 1050. The new drive will be smaller than the 1050 (between the size of the 1050 and an Indus GT) and will match the color and styling of the Atari 130XE computer. The DOS for this drive will be written by OSS, Inc., who have had a long lasting relationship with Atari disk drives and disk operating systems. The new DOS (named -A-DOS-, for - what else? - Atari DOS) was originally designed to run with the now defunct 3.5- Atari 8-bit drive. The DOS is nearly complete, but the rive will take a little more time to finish. An Atari contact says the drive about 60% finished, and after testing is complete Atari should have the drive ready to ship -around late Summer to late Fall-. _____________________________________ Xx ANTIC ONLINE REPORT June 1987 _____________________________________ ANTIC PUBLISHING INC., COPYRIGHT 1987 REPRINTED BY PERMISSION. WORLD OF ATARI FAIRE SANTA CLARA SHOW DEBUTS - -FINALIZED- ATARI LASER PRINTER - NEAR-BETA WORD PERFECT...& MORE BY NAT FRIEDLAND, ANTIC EDITOR 6/21/87 With all the other Atari Fairs that took place during the past 12 months and the huge Consumer Electronics Show just three weeks ago, it was surprising to find so much new to see last weekend during the hastily- organized World of Atari Faire at the year-old Santa Clara Convention Center But several unfamiliar companies with impressive ST software made their Atari Fair debuts last weekend. And a near-production version of the Atari SLM804 laser printer had its first public showing. This report concentrates on products that have not been reported on previously. The Atari laser printer is smaller and lighter than most current models, but seems just about as fast and sharp. It was operating in Diablo 630 emulation with a 4Mb Mega ST running a pre-release version of the Microsoft Write word processor with a WYSIWYG display. The laser controller board is in a modem-sized box cabled between the ST's high-speed Direct Memory Access (DMA) port and the printer. This controller box also has a second DMA port for connecting a hard disk. This 300 dots-per-inch printer supports Atari's GDOS (which automatically uses the highest resolution available to a printing device). We picked up a selection of the sharp graphics and muli-font printouts that the Atari SLM804 kept churning out throughout the day. Late summer or September is the current estimated market arrival for the Atari Desktop Publishing System. At a neighboring booth, Word Perfect was showing a near-beta version of the forthcoming ST edition of its bestselling word processor. The GEM- based software, due in September, looked extremely fast and powerful. It will list at $395 but is often discounted by more than 50% in the IBM version. The WP rep said that the company is working closely with Publishing Partner's developers to assure immediate desktop publishing ompatibility for the word processor. Programmers will love Omniware's new Edit/Booster, an ST text editor that also generates GEM code by mouse. Select -Draw A Circle- from a drop- down menu and the GEM code apppears in your program. The version currently on sale just works with C, but updates for GFA BASIC, Personal Pascal and Modula-2 are promised soon. Omniware, based in Bellevue, Washington also showed a desk accessory controller for the widely used Hewlett-Packard Laserjet printer and an H-P terminal emulator. Iliad Software of Orem, Utah, another new entry, showed a powerful, user-friendly CAD/drawing program, Athena II, selling for $99.95. Athena equires a 1Mb ST, but functions in either color or monochrome. Coming soon is a circuit-testing simulation program called Circuit Maker. The company was also showing a multiuser, multitasking operating system, PDOS, which is similar to the system used on 68000-based VME workstations. A wide-ranging product line of specialized business applications for the ST was shown by Hi-Tech Advisors of Winter Haven, Florida. Their $199 titles included Church Manager, Service Station Manager, Video Store Manager, Inventory Pro and Sales Pro Plus. Mail Pro handles custom mailing lists and form letters for just $69. SBT of Sausalito, California kicked off a line of dBASE III business accounting modules based on the ST's dBMAN clone. Beckemeyer Development Tools of Oakland, California showed their latest addition, a touch-screen restaurant menu system. The demonstration model for a Chinese restaurant was almost frighteningly complete and efficient. Two image scanners were shown at the fair. Navarone, of Sonora, California had a $1,239 ST system including the Canon IX-12 scanner. The simpler $99.95 IMG Scan from Seymor-Radix of Irving, TX used a small box that tapes to the print head of any dot matrix printer that supports graphics. Old-timer Lou Schwing of Astra Systems was gleefully demonstrating the ruggedness of his HD+ unit which combines an 20Mb hard disk and a double-sided ST 3.5- disk. The HD+ was notably cool and even kept operating as he waved it in the air and laid it on its side. DeskCart, a $99.95 cartridge from Quantum Micro of Liverpool, New York is a real-time clock/calendar with a full set of Sidekick-type desk accessories including a filer, calculator, address book, notebook, macros, RAMdisk driver and other utilities. The cartridge format is claimed to save memory and operate faster. The World of Atari was busy and profitable for most exhibitors throughout its Friday-Saturday run. The thriving Antic booth was showing upcoming ST graphics software from The Catalog -- Cyber Paint, a paint program that creates images for animation with Cybermate, and Spectrum 512, a smooth-lined, ultra-clear paint program that can display all the ST's 512 colors simultaneously. _____________________________________ Xx Publishers Page _____________________________________ We update you this week with news about ST X-Press Magazine. This monthly publication, targeted at the ST population has decided to include Zmag in their monthly magazine disk. e will keep you informed. The Hard Disk Users Group has returned to phone lines. Not up more than a day or so, hard disk problems have suspended the re-opening. Zmag and the HDUG will be supplying you mor information on Hard Disks and membership information in the weeks ahead. Due to minor confusion here and lack of space, some of the articles that have been promised for publication this week, have been put on the shelf. When we have free space, I will continue the column on 30 Secrets of the Old Atari. Zmag's ST-Report has also changed in mid-stream. Due to the massive amount of ST material being received, we have changed publication dates from once a month, to twice a month. July's first issue is being sent out at the same time of this issue. The next scheduled release of the ST- Report, will be July 18th. Starting with this issue, we return to Friday evening publication. All issues will be listed on Z.I.N after 9pm eastern time each Friday. We wish everyone a Happy Holiday. _____________________________________ Zmagazine July 4, 1987 Issue #60 Please contribute! _____________________________________ (c)1987 Ron Kovacs