////////////////////////////////////// ZMAGAZINE 72 //////////////////////// ////////////////////////////////////// September 25, 1987 (c)1987 Ron Kovacs ______________________________________ Published/Edited by: Ron Kovacs Assistant Publishers: Ken Kirchner, Sue Perry, Rich Decowski ______________________________________ ZMAG INFORMATION NETWORK (201)968-8148 ______________________________________ Xx ZMAG INDEX 72 ______________________________________ <*> Zmag Newswire <*> Atari News Update <*> User Group Focus <*> Technical Help...By Mr. Goodprobe <*> Letter to the Editor <*> News from Bruce Kennedy <*> Zmag Update ______________________________________ Xx ZMAG NEWSWIRE ______________________________________ From The Chicago Tribune/Courier News The US government is accusing a 17 year old youth of breaking into AT&T computers across the nation and stealing sophisticated software worth thousands of dollars. We will supply more information should this develop. ---=========--- Are you a customer of WHITEHOUSE COMPUTER?? Zmag reader Shawn Harmon recently informed us about the rip- off of many by this firm. Current information tells us that the firm has closed anf filed bankruptcy. In the letter, there were over $200,000 in claims with only $20,000 in assets. Whithouse Computer is located in Williamsport, PA. If you are one of the many waiting for goods or you have encountered a few problems, here is what you can do to hopefully get your monies back! contact: Bureau of Consumer Protection 1-717-963-4913 Attn: Mr. McGowen Better Business Bureau Scranton, PA United States Postal Inspector Please write a letter to the B.C.P with a copy to the US Postal Inspector and the PA Better Business Bureau. Include your cancelled check with a full explanation of what you have done to retrieve your goods. Zmag will keep you informed as this story progresses. ______________________________________ Xx ATARI NEWS UPDATE ..From GEnie Services Atari RT.. ______________________________________ The XEP80 80-column adapters are in the Atari warehouse in Sunnyvale and are available for immediate shipment to dealers. The XEP80 plugs into the 2nd joystick port of any Atari 8-bit computer. Any video monitor can plug into the XEP80 and deliver true 80-column text. An extra port on the XEP80 allows standard parallel printers (ST or IBM compatible) to plug directly into the 8-bit Atari computers. The driver program for the XEP80 lets it take the place of the E: device. Software that is compatible with the E: device (such as Atari BASIC) will work in 80 columns without modification. Other software that writes directly to the screen (bypassing the OS) would need modification before working in 80 columns. Atari is working on AtariWriter 80 and Silent Butler 80 to support the XEP80. Delivery dates on these products are not yet set. The XEP80 retails for $79.95. The new XE Game System has also arrived in Sunnyvale and is on its way to toy stores and other retailers in the USA. The XE Game System retails for $149.95. It comes with a sophisticated keyboard, a light gun, and three top games including Flight Simulator II, Missile Command, and Bug Hunt. ______________________________________ Xx ________User Group Focus__________ ______________________________________ Brooklyn Atari Society for Information and Communication (B.A.S.I.C.) New York City's oldest Atari Computer User Group President - Peter J. Fazio Vice President - Larry Richards Secretary/Treasurer - K. Edward Bienkowski Newsletter Editors - Pete Fazio & Bill Kokoni BBS Sysops - Pete Fazio Larry Richards Bill Kokoni The Brooklyn Atari Society (B.A.S.I.C.) was founded in May of 1982 by a group of Atari computer users who frequented a local computer store in Brooklyn. One of the sales people at the store came up with the idea of forming a user group and began to contact all the -regulars-. All of us were very enthusiastic about the idea and one of us, who ran a training school for electricians, offered his classroom as a meeting place. The first meeting of the new group was full of excitement, as the idea of a user group was new to most people at that time. Just the idea of a whole room full of people who were all interested in Atari computers was something wonderful. The meeting lasted long into the night as we all compared notes and got to know each other. This first meeting led to another and another and soon we were meeting regularly. After a few months we decided to open membership in the group to the public, but since the classroom we were meeting in was a little on the small side, we decided to find another meeting place. Luckily, one of the members belonged to the Knights of Columbus and arranged for us to meet there. After a meeting there to familiarize ourselves with the facilities, we held our first public meeting. Thanks to the people at the computer store, who publicized the group in the store, there were many new faces at the meeting and the group began to grow. At this time, I was elected to be the first president of the group, a position I continue to hold today (nobody else seems to want to do it!). Unfortunately, after about a year the member who belonged to the Knights of Columbus had to leave the group and we were once again forced to find a new meeting place. This time another member stepped forward and offered use of his company's meeting room and we once again had a new home. At that time we began to consider publishing a newsletter. The major problem with publishing a newsletter at that time was that we had no means of having it printed. Then a couple of members came up with the idea of publishing the newsletter on disk. Except for one commercial disk magazine, a disk-based user group newsletter was a new idea. Thus -The B.A.S.I.C. Bulletin- was born. The -Bulletin- grew in popularity and our subscription list expanded to include subscribers in several countries and two continents. Unfortunately, once again we were forced to find a new meeting place as the company which had the meeting room we were using moved away. Luckily, we were once again able to find a new location thanks to a couple of members who belonged to a model railroad club and arranged for us to share their club room. The new room was a little smaller than we would have liked, but we were now in 1984 and a low point in the history of Atari (just before Jack Tramiel bought the company from Warner Communications), so our membership was also at a low point. We continued meeting and publishing our newsdisk, and in June 1985 the Dateline BBS, our new user group BBS, went online. Starting on an 800 with 2 810 drives running FoReM 26M software, it quickly added an ATR8000 and grew to 4 double- sided, quad-density drives and BBCS software. About a month after Dateline went online the first 520STs appeared in the stores and many B.A.S.I.C. members, myself included, bought them. This posed a couple of problems, along with a number of benefits for the group. Because the new machines used a new and incompatible disk format we could no longer publish one newsdisk for all our members, and we could not publish two seperate disks. Also, because the BBS quickly began to support the new machines, we found that the once-huge storage capacity of the quad drives was suddenly filling with the much larger ST files, and we were rapidly running out of disk space. The ST also brought an influx of new members into the group, and while this was great for the group, it caused our meeting room to become very cramped very quickly. The BBCS (Bulletin Board Construction Set) software that was in use on the BBS at that time proved to be very buggy and was constantly the cause of problems with the system, so we decided to replace it. Since the ST content of the BBS had grown to the point where it was dominating the board, we decided that it was time for the Dateline BBS to switch to ST hardware, and in June 1986, almost exactly one year after it first went online, we switched to a 520ST and MichTron 1.8 BBS software. Shortly after that an Atari SH204 20 meg hard disk was added and the BBS really began to grow in both scope and popularity. Now running MichTron 2.10 software and with 45 megs of online storage (thanks to the recent addition of an ICD ST hard drive), Dateline is one of the busiest (and best, in my humble opinion) Atari BBSs in the country (and now accessible through PC-Pursuit). The number for Dateline is 718-648-0947 (300/1200/2400 baud, 24 hrs/7 days). For access through PC-Pursuit, call the 212 area and use ATDT17186480947 to have the PCP modem dial into the 718 area (the other half of New York City). While the BBS was growing, our newsletter was not. After one last disk issue (in which the newsdisk was retitled -Dateline: Atari- to match the BBS), we had to suspend publication while we decided how to best support both Atari computer lines. Membership in the group was becoming more and more ST-oriented, and the combination of a great desktop publishing program for the ST (Publishing Partner) and a member who is a professional printer made the choice very clear. The first printed issue of -Dateline: Atari- made its appearance this spring, and more are now following on a bi-monthly schedule. Thus with our successful BBS, our re-vitalized newsletter, and our excellent new meeting facility, B.A.S.I.C. (now in our sixth year) continues to be a leader on the New York City Atari user group scene. Peter J. Fazio, President For more information about B.A.S.I.C. contact: Brooklyn Atari Society c/o Peter J. Fazio 2724 East 23rd Street Brooklyn, NY 11235 718-646-6384 (voice - evenings) 718-648-0947 (Dateline BBS) ______________________________________ Xx TECHNICAL HELP ______________________________________ The BBS Quest...The Search for More Drive Cables! by Mr.Goodprobe As we proceed into the first of hopefully many articles with hints, hardware projects, and modifications for your Atari equipment, let me serve notice that I need YOUR questions, advice, ideas, and projects in order to share them with others. I am an electronics technician of 15 years experience, and a father of three among other things. I am quick to reveal that fresh, new and exciting ideas can not proceed with consistent regularity from any single human being, no matter how intelligent, diligent, or perseverent! I need YOU so we can together provide the hardware information that the Atari community has so dearly lacked these past few years. I would encourage you to write up a short text file with your project, hardware modification, upgrade, question, idea or any related item, include you name and address so we can give proper credit, and upload that text file to the Zmag Information Network which can be reached at 201- 968-9148 300/1200 baud 24 hours a day, or to my daily haunt at the Stairway to Heaven bbs which can be reached at 216-784-0574 300/1200 baud 24 hours a day. If call the Stairway, the fearless SYSOP, Angel, will allow you to post your questions and the like in our hardware message base. If you are so kind as to send a text file, please leave me a note informing me of the upload and I will take it from there. Thanks! On the Atari computer bulletin board of today, it sometimes seems like things become a never-ending quest for more disk space to hold the ever expanding message bases and file transfer sections. I have quite objectively noticed that a large part of Atari bulletin boards have message bases that outdo most other brands of computers, as the users there have learned the value of the exchange of information which is at the heart of a great bbs! So...in order to fill the bill for more disk space, used disk drives and interfaces are purchased, printers are added to systems to keep better track of user logs, and you never seem to have enough cables!!! Ever noticed the drive cables you purchase are long enough to hang yourself on? Lets summarize how you can build the cables you need by yourself, and those that are neat and a pleasant addition to your system! You will first need to obtain the 13 pin connectors which can be found at the end of your drive cables. A good source for this connector is a mail order company called MCM, but your local Atari computer store should also carry them as a matter of course, and I have seen them regularly for well under $2. And you will require one of your present drive cables. For every drive cable you lop in half, you end up with one extra. You will need 2 connectors for each cable operation, one to go on the end of the cable you chopped in half, and one to go on other remaining end of your new cable. You will need these connectors in two's, if you wish one extra cable, you will require 2 connectors, if you wish to obtain two extra drive cables, then you will need 4 connectors and so forth. If you wish 2 drive cables of equal length, then simply use a pair of sharp wire snippers and cut the drive cable in half. If would like to have one cable short for neatness sake, and one long one, then simply cut according to your needs! You could also even cut the drive cable into 3 short pieces, thus ending up with 3 neat drive cables. If you do indeed choose this route, you will need 4 connectors to complete your task. After cutting the cable in half, cut back the insulation on the connector free ends about 1 inch. And ideal tool to do this is an Ex-acto knife. Due to the fact that the wire coloring has been found to be different in many of these cables due to different manufacturers, the best way to match the wires is to take the cover off the end of the cable which has a connector on it, and match, wire by wire, the wires on the connectors end, to the wires on the end you are installing the connector on. Solder the little metal tab onto the stripped wire, and then insert it inside the connector housing so that the small metal ear locks the metal connector inside the housing. The numbering for the wires can be found on the outside of the housing. After installing the metal pins on all 13 wires, and inserting them into the connector housing, simply snap the cover on and install the screws that hold on the sheath. Now you can enjoy the benefit of having extra cables on hand, the fulfillment of having done it yourself, and your BBS users will of course appreciate the extra disk space! Hardware Q&A Forum Each week we will try to answer a few users hardware questions. If the questions begin coming in at a quicker pace, I will make this a separate column! -Question- With the extremely large amount of software available for the Commodore C64, is it possible that an emulator can be written that would allow an Atari 8 bit computer to run those same programs? H. Gnagey Akron, Oh -Answer- Truly, due to the skill I have seen the programmers of today display, I imagine there is almost nothing that is completely impossible. But, due to the relatively slow speed of the Atari 8 bit clock, 1 Mhz roughly, such an emulator would not be practical. To put this in perspective, the Atari ST has a rough clock speed of 8 Mhz, and the emulator for the ST of the 1 Mhz Atari 8 bit computer runs at far less than half the speed of the actual computer it is imitating. Imagine how slow a 1 Mhz computer would be emulating another 1 Mhz computer, the C64! -Question- Where can a person find the best possible prices on computers, drives, disks and software? Patty O'Prian Akron, Oh -Answer- One of the best sources for those items is the Computer Shopper. This is a large (500+) publication which comes out monthly. It is quite informative, and contains articles for Atari 8 and 16 bit computers along with the other major brands. Distributors of computer hardware and software from across this fine land of ours place advertising here, and you can reap the benefits! Some of the most outstanding prices on the items you seek can be found here. One of the first bargains you will find therein is the price of the Computer Shopper itself..a real steal! You can subscribe to this fine tabloid, or pick it up at your local bookstore such as Walden or B. Dalton's. The only gripe I can offer about the shopper is the length it takes to read through it, many times I have taken an entire afternoon, paper and pen in hand, scouring it cover to cover for great bargains! Single issues are available for 3 dollars and under, or you can subscribe for a low yearly rate of $18. If you wish to subscribe the address is: Computer Shopper, Inc. 407 S. Washington Ave. P.O. Box F Titusville, FL 32781 (305) 269-3211 Keep those Atari's hummin! -Mr. Goodprobe- (on lend from) Midtown TV (216)633-0997 Atari 8/16 Repair/Sales ______________________________________ Xx LETTER TO THE EDITOR ______________________________________ Message: 57 (#971) Title : Booo!! Author: The Chef! To: Susan Perry First let me say that I have been a long time avid fan of Z-MAG in all its forms,and thanks for the new ST mag upload. But...what happened??!!! After reading the current 8 bit version, I must admit to being extremely dissapointed!! In my opinion it amounted to little more than an advertisement for CompuServe. The usual fare of informative articles and commentary was practically non-exsistent. This issue and the magazine of late seems to have degenerated to little more than a display of on-line directorys of CIS or menu screens of Carina. What has happened to the substance that Z-MAG has always contained? I hope that future issues will not be merely a down load of CIS help screens! Sincerly, A reader who wants his Z-MAG BACK!!!!!!!! Message: 68 (#1051) - Reply to #57 Title : Booo!! Author: Susan Perry To: The Chef! Thanks for your comments concerning Zmag. We appreciate the feedback from our readers. Now to the business at hand... Ron Kovacs has made a commitment to the online services (CIS, GEnie,etc.) that Zmag will carry examples of the services they offer to Atari users. So, in light of this, you will be seeing more articles of this type in future issues of Zmag. You asked about substance. Some weeks are good, others...well. Ron cannot just take an article from a magazine, such as Antic or Analog, and reprint it. Reprint permission must be obtained, which is no easy feat. Nor can we use database articles from the online services without prior permission. This cuts down on the informative articles that Zmag readers are looking for. And the time it takes to receive permission often makes the article out of date. Zmag's goal is to bring our readers the most up to date information possible. But Zmag readers can help. We welcome the submission of 'original' articles. Did you attend a computer show or Atari Fest? How about that fantastic new piece of software you just bought? Do you belong to a users group? Well, submit a review or article about it. Zmag is not the editors and publishers ...it is you, the Atari user. And without your help the articles with substance will be fewer and fewer. Ok, enough of my long winded reply (I know, typical woman!). Zmag Information Network can be reached at 201-968-8148, 300/1200, 24 hours or by mail at P.O. Box 74, Middlesex NJ 08846. Ron welcomes feedback from Zmag readers. Again, thanks for your comments! Sue EDITOR: Chef, I apologize for the recent lack of interesting material. However, I am trying to let all the readers know what is available thru their modems. I know last weeks issue was a bit much, But it did give the many not on CIS the opportunity to see what they are missing. Future issues will contain info from CIS, GEnie and others, but it will not be as winded as last weeks issue. In response to the Carina Menus, That article came right from the CarinaII demo uploaded to the BBS. I extracted the best I felt and published it in two parts. The reason I published it was to give equal time to Carina as we did for Oasis. When EXPRESS is released, I will also allow space for information. It is pretty much the way Sue Perry explained it. But I can tell you that there are a few big changes on the horizon, and I am sure you will be more than happy with them, (I Hope)... Thanks for reading Zmag and ST-Report. If you have further commentary, Please submit them, How else am I to know how I am doing?? Thanks again! Ron Kovacs Editor/Publisher ______________________________________ Xx PAY SERVICES Part 2 ______________________________________ HOW TO TALK TO ANOTHER FORUM USER -REAL TIME- For those of you that are having trouble or are unfamiliar with the commands that send those one-line messages that ring the console bell (or buzzer) and look like: ;;S_ATAR: - Job 120: Meet me in Conference? The following will give detailed step-by-step instructions on how to use this very powerful command, known as SENd. First, to see which users are in the Forum at any given time, type UST at any command prompt. The list of users that will appear will be formatted like: Job User ID Node Prgm. 13 76703,4363 T02LIU SIG 16 76703,254 T12NYY ACCESS 19 70206,1130 T04LAN SIG This tells you that the user with User ID (PPN) 76703,4363 is in this SIG, has JOB number 13, and is connected thru phone node link T02 from Long Island. If the User ID is unfamiliar, the WHO command at the MAIN MENU -Enter choice !- or -Function:- prompt will allow you to look up any PPN that is a member of the Forum. You may then send a one-line message by typing (at any command prompt) the following command: SEN JOB ## mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm or SEN ## mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm where mmmmmmmm is a message up to 79 characters in length, and ## representing the job number (NOT USER ID!) of the person you wish to contact. If you see a message that says -? That job is busy!- or -Can't SENd to that job!-, the system was unable to SENd to that job due to one of four reasons: The User has left the Forum or logged off, or may be in the process of DOWnloading or UPLoading a file, and can't be interrupted. If you don't get an immediate reply, it may be the receipient is in the process of replying to a message so please exercise a little patience. ______________________________________ Xx NEWS FROM BRUCE KENNEDY ______________________________________ #: 196624 S13/Peripherals 22-Sep-87 Sb: ZNEWS Fm: BRUCE KENNEDY 72327,1500 To: RON KOVACS 71777,2140 (X) Here's the latest for US. Who know how to hack computers. Let's hear it from our friends at CLAUG in Chicago According to Jon Berry in the September 21 issue of ADWEEK, the people from Microsoft have announced a joint partnership with Amdek in Chicago. Amdek has a CD ROM laserdrive which reads a 550 megabyte capacity CD ROM which contains The American Heritage Dictionary, The World Almanac, The Chicago Manual of Style, Roget's Thesaurus, Bartlett's Quotations. Now read that into your memory and smoke it! It's called Bookshelf, and is the first major, widely distributed offering in the new technology. Hats off again to Bill Gates, and the innovative people from Amdek. Don't forget...Amdek were the people who brought Atari the first IBM type plastic case diskettes. We didn't support them, so they soon liquidated a very nice double drive for our machines. Let's look at this system as a hacking community, come up with a way to use it, and support this fine partnership in leading edge technology. If it's good, the ST can use it! Let'S hear from you. Network and Report! BEKennedy from RIACE for ZMAG ______________________________________ Xx Zmag Update ______________________________________ Due to space problems, the Machine Language reprints have been condensed into one issue. This special edition will become available this week on the BBS. We have also updated the Zmag Index issue. Volume 2 will be available this week. Index will contain the indexes of Zmag issues 52 thru 71. We are gathering BBS numbers for our end of year issue. Please let me know if your system carry's Zmag. Send email to 71777,2140 on CompuServe, R.KOVACS on Genie, or on the Lions Den BBS in Chicago at (312)690-3724, or the XBN BBS in Mass at (617)559-6844 or also on the Zmag BBS (201)968-8148. Due date for information is November 1, 1987. Do you prefer Zmag in 40 columns or in 80 column?? The choice is yours! Please let us know what you prefer, we have received requests for changing over to 80 column. Please let me know your prefrence!!! ______________________________________ ZMAGAZINE 72 September 25, 1987 Please contribute news and articles! (c)1987 Ron Kovacs/Syndicate Services ______________________________________