========================================================================= (C) 1994 by Atari Corporation, GEnie, and the Atari Roundtables. May be reprinted only with this notice intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie are *official* information services of Atari Corporation. To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt.Type XTX99437,GENIE and press [RETURN]. The system will prompt you for your information. ========================================================================== ************ Topic 3 Tue Dec 22, 1992 BRIAN.H [ST~SysOp] (Forwarded) Sub: FALCON 030 - Help and Questions Ask here if you need help or have a technical question to ask about the FALCON 030 computer. This topic is designed to inform users about the FALCON and discuss it CURRENT details and characteristics. 204 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 1 Tue Jun 01, 1993 B.REHBOCK [BILL@ATARI] (Forwarded) Steffan, the Falcon's video output is as good as many $2000 JVC and Sony video titlers/sketch pads that I've seen. Cogswell College is doing some production work right now with a pair of Falcons at this time; I'll touch base with James Grunke and see if he can give us a report on how they're doing in a professional environment. -Bill ============= Falcon030 Bundled Software Bulletin =============== Falcon030's with Hard Drives are currently shipping with the following software: o MultiTOS o SpeedoGDOS o Landmines o Breakout o Calappt (Personal Time Manager, Telephone Book/Dialer) o ProCalc o Talking Clock They are supposed to have (many didn't because everyone was eager to get machines shipped to dealers quickly) a mail-in card that you mail to Atari to receive: o Atari Works (Personal Integrated Productivity Package) o System Audio Manager (Accompany System Keyclicks and Events with Digitized Sounds.) o Audio Fun Machine (8-band graphic equalizer and special effects processor.) o FalconD2D (Direct-to-Disk recording system with special effects and editing.) IMPORTANT: We know exactly which dealers received machines without the mail-in cards and they are being sent their cards this week. Users that purchased machines and did not receive these cards can contact the dealer in about one week to get their card. All you have to do is fill out the card (make sure you include your dealer's name and machine's serial number); keep the verification half, and mail the other half to Atari. Machines without Hard Drives will not be shipped with SpeedoGDOS, Atari Works, or FalconD2D. They will have everything else (including the hard disk utilities in case you have your own SCSI Hard Disk). The Atari Hard Disk upgrade kits will ship with Atari Works, SpeedoGDOS, FalconD2D, as well as MultiTOS, etc. on the Hard Disk. -Bill Rehbock, Atari Corp. ======================================================================= ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 2 Tue May 24, 1994 J.KRACHT [Pixel Engine] at 23:30 MDT I have 3D Construction Kit 1.0 for the ST, and it works superbly on the Falcon030 (and it is _fast_). Does anyone have 2.0? Does it work on the Falcon? ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 3 Fri May 27, 1994 B.SEMAAN [BOSEM] at 04:07 CDT Kevin, Just in case Patton hasn't responded to your query about TOS 4.92 Beta, if you dl'd MTOS 1.08 from the dev RT then you already have it anyway. Jay told me last Sept. that MTOS 1.08 was indeed the beta version of TOS 5 (4.92). Bob ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 4 Fri May 27, 1994 PG.MUSIC [PG-Kevin!] at 07:48 EDT Bob, For some reason I'm never able to access the new stuff in the Dev RT. I guess there's no Atari Dev support on GEnie. I've asked them about it before. Guess I gotta go and ask on CIS if they can come over here for even 3 minutes... --Kevin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 5 Sat May 28, 1994 P.HULSE2 at 15:37 PDT I'm looking for suggestions as to which svga monitor to purchase for my Falcon. I've not enough gold to shell out for a multiscan, and I'd like to keep the purchase price down to around 200 kopeks, so if any of youse versed in the subject have any suggestions, I'd be glad to listen! Thanks! ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 6 Sat May 28, 1994 J.KRACHT [Pixel Engine] at 20:25 MDT P.HULSE2: Save your kopeks and get the multiscan later, when you can. Couple it with a Screenblaster from Compo and you'll have a _really_ versatile setu[ with dozens of resolutions possible. At any rate, I've heard good things about MAG, NEC and CTX monitors, as well as the Optiquest line (which are priced really well for being a multiscan). You might pick up a copy of COmputer Shopper and take a month off to read it (actually, it takes me two weeks to get through one... so many pages... so little time...). You could probably find a a great deal in there, somewhere. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 7 Sun May 29, 1994 B.SEMAAN [BOSEM] at 22:43 CDT Kevin, MTOS 1.08 (TOS 4.92, aka TOS 5) has been in the lib for at least 6 months. I'll check that file # for you. OK, its #350 in lib 6. ul'd Aug '93. That's also the one that has Speedo 4.2 and the latest AES documentation in it. Bob ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 8 Mon May 30, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 01:08 EDT P.H., what's the kopek/dollar exchange rate these days? :-) At any rate (arf, a pun!) you can, indeed, get a good msync monitor for $300, and you can find a VGA monitor for $200. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 9 Mon May 30, 1994 PG.MUSIC [PG-Kevin!] at 03:14 EDT Umm... if you're willing to spring for $399, go for the Optiquest 2000DX. Excellent monitor. Does all ScreenBlaster modes w/o a hitch. Remembers settings for 16 fav rez combos. :) --Kevin Bob, I can't access those files. I've asked "Beevis" (or was that the other one? ), but no avail. :( --Kevin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 10 Mon May 30, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 06:14 EDT Bob, I wonder if comments like that to another devloper, helpful as they are, might be better confined to the private area. This area is public, and not set up for a discussion of what is not yet publicly released. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 11 Mon May 30, 1994 ICDINC [Tom] at 09:29 EDT Kevin, Maybe it is time for you to join the developer community. :-) I don't think I have seen you in the IAAD yet have I? - TOM - ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 13 Mon May 30, 1994 R.WELTER2 at 15:27 EDT Bob, >I wonder if comments like that to another devloper, helpful as they are, might >be better confined to the private area. This area is public, and not set up >for a discussion of what is not yet publicly released. > >Al I second Al on this one. You had me all excited! Multitos and Speedo for the price of a download! Too good to be true. (sigh) Rich ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 14 Tue May 31, 1994 D.ALFONSO1 [D.ALFONSO] at 03:43 EDT I recently had the bass boost removal mod done on my Falcon and installed a RAM Gizmo and 14 Meg RAM. The memory is great, but when I use Cubase Audio, I've found that my system hangs during file writing. I don't recall having this problem when I only had 4Meg (I had OTHER problems). I have stripped the system bare of TSR's and Accessories..this has made the problem much less frequent, but I would like to know if there is anything else I should try. Any ideas? David ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 15 Tue May 31, 1994 D.COOKE [Rob] at 03:54 CDT Hello, does anyone know the DSP port pin layouts? Thanks for any info! ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 16 Tue May 31, 1994 R.BENNETT7 [Rodney] at 21:42 PDT D.ALFONSO1 [D.ALFONSO], This 'bass boost removal' mod, can it be done easily, or does one have to take it in? What exactly does it do? Rodney D.COOKE [Rob], The DSP port layouts are in the Falcon Owners Manual. Appendix E-1 to be exact in my manual. But... if you don't have it... Pin Signal -------- --------------- 1-10 GND 11 +5v 12-14 Not Connected 15-25 GND 26 SCSI 0 27 SCSI 1 28 SCSI 2 29 SCSI 3 30 SCSI 4 31 SCSI 5 32 SCSI 6 33 SCSI 7 34 Parity 35-36 GND 37 Not Connected 38 +5v 39 Not Connected 40 GND 41 ATN 42 GND 43 BSY 44 ACK 45 RST 46 MSG 47 SEL 48 C/D 49 REQ 50 I/O ------------------------------------------------------------ Hope this helps. Rodney ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 17 Wed Jun 01, 1994 D.COOKE [Rob] at 00:58 CDT Hi Rodney,thanks for the reply but the final copy of your message here on GEnie was messed up. Could you repost it again if it wouldn't be any trouble and save with the 'SN' command? ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 18 Wed Jun 01, 1994 R.BENNETT7 [Rodney] at 00:12 PDT D.COOKE [Rob] - Hope this works... re: DSP pin info D.COOKE [Rob], The DSP port layouts are in the Falcon Owners Manual. Appendix E-1 to be exact in my manual. But... if you don't have it... Pin Signal -------- --------------- 1-10 GND 11 +5v 12-14 Not Connected 15-25 GND 26 SCSI 0 27 SCSI 1 28 SCSI 2 29 SCSI 3 30 SCSI 4 31 SCSI 5 32 SCSI 6 33 SCSI 7 34 Parity 35-36 GND 37 Not Connected 38 +5v 39 Not Connected 40 GND 41 ATN 42 GND 43 BSY 44 ACK 45 RST 46 MSG 47 SEL 48 C/D 49 REQ 50 I/O Hope this helps. Rodney ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 19 Thu Jun 02, 1994 D.ALFONSO1 [D.ALFONSO] at 00:07 EDT Rodney, Re: Bass Boost Mod.....Like anything else, it's easy if you know how. Personally, I wouldn't know a surface mounted chip from a spatula, so I had someone do it for me. In A/B tests between the digital output and the Falcon outs, the bump in the low frequencies (as it comes from the factory) was obviously intolerable. As I need to mix Falcon outs with MIDI tracks when I mix to DAT, I needed to get the mod done. It's definitely worth doing! David ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 20 Thu Jun 02, 1994 D.COOKE [Rob] at 00:56 CDT It turned out better that time Rodney,thanks for the info! ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 21 Fri Jun 03, 1994 R.BENNETT7 [Rodney] at 22:03 PDT D.ALFONSO - Thanks for the info... although It would help if someone did up an .IMG of the pin layouts etc... and what needs to be modified to correct the 'Bass Boost problem' on the Falcon. Rodney ------ D.COOKE [Rob] - No problem. If you don't mind me asking. What exactly are you doing with the DSP port? Rodney ------ ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 22 Mon Jun 06, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 05:06 EDT Today I spent an awful lot of time pondering the "8MB in a Falcon030" question (after running across 2Mb x 8 and 2Mb x 32 SIMMs). I just can't get it out of my head that if you can get these size 8MB worth of SIMMs that are 32 bits wide, it HAS to be SOMEHOW possible to use them in a Falcon030 to get an 8MB RAM configuration (through a SIMMFIX-type program, at least). Otherwise, it almost seems like Atari went out of their way to make sure it wouldn't work! I know a few guys in Germany were working on it a few months ago, but I haven't heard anything since. I've gone out a few times the past week looking to replace my 'orphaned' Falcon030 with something else, but I can only find things to complement it (a Power Mac), not REPLACE it. So it looks like I'm stuck in Atariland! ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 23 Mon Jun 06, 1994 PG.MUSIC [PG-Kevin!] at 08:01 EDT SteveJ, Having a kick butt Mac and Atari _is_ kosher. I do it all the time. --Dr. Frankenstein ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 24 Mon Jun 06, 1994 J.NESS [Jim] at 09:00 CDT Somebody on CIS claimed to have a Falcon with a 16meg x32 single SIMM in it, so it looks as though somebody is supporting that SIMM style on a memory board. That means some sort of AUTO program should be able to tell TOS that it only has 8megs, if you plug in an 8meg x32 SIMM. -JN ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 25 Mon Jun 06, 1994 B.AEIN [B Man] at 23:05 EDT Jim, If it means anything the Wizztronics ram upgrade use's 1 SIMM, same as the Macs, 72 pin SIMM, in either 1, 4, 16 meg flavors. There is a jumper on the board that must be switched between 4 and 16. Bman ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 26 Tue Jun 07, 1994 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 00:50 EDT Atari has ALWAYS gone out of their way to make upgrading their computers difficult. Look at how they keep changing BUS types. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 27 Tue Jun 07, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 04:48 EDT J.NESS - Yes, there's one Falcon SIMM board from some company called Marpet something-or-other (Industries???) that uses single 32-bit (72-pin) SIMMs. There's at least two others (FalconWING and RAMGizmo) that use 4 8-bit SIMMs. And like I said, there ARE 8MB x 32 SIMMs AND 2MB x 8 SIMMs, so it SHOULD be possible to do with either board. B.AEIN - Oh! So Wizztronics also makes 32-bit SIMM upgrade boards for the Falcon030??? I guess that makes 4 different SIMM boards now (and the one ultra-unbelievably-expensive DRAM board from Zubair!). I wasn't aware we had so many choices! R.WATSON15 - Except the Stacy, which Atari was nice enough to put an RAM upgrade option on WITHOUT having to open the case and thus void your warranty! ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 28 Tue Jun 07, 1994 PG.MUSIC [PG-Kevin!] at 07:45 EDT Anyone know if Wiztronics finished the Falcon accelerator with the '040??? I need SPEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!!!!!! And compatibility. ;) --Kevin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 29 Tue Jun 07, 1994 AEO.MAG [Trust No One] at 10:58 EDT Kevin, AEO_0309 (uploaded last night) has the latest on the Barracuda 040. From memory, they are waiting on Atari approval for a TOS license. I believe Pete said that Wizztronics are shooting for a end of July release. --Travis ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 30 Tue Jun 07, 1994 J.NESS [Jim] at 16:42 CDT B Man - PCs are commonly using the large SIMM these days, too. My 486 has one 72-pin socket and 8 of the older, smaller ones. And, the large SIMM is available in 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64meg sizes. In this month's BYTE, I see an ad showing the 64meg going for $3950. Sheesh. So, anyway, there's an 8meg ($369) available that will fit in the Falcon. You "only" have to somehow convince the Falcon to accept it. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 31 Tue Jun 07, 1994 P-DIRECT2 [Tim @ TWP] at 20:05 EDT Wizztronics is completely done with the hardware design of the Barracuda. They've even redesigned it to combine a few chips to make it more reliable and less expensive. The reason they're not done is because, although Atari agreed to licence TOS to them MONTHS ago, Atari has failed to uphold their end of the bargain. Something like a day after they first contacted Atari and Atari told them to write up a proposal for the lisence, Atari got the proposal. Shortly thereafter, Atari approved the proposal. They just simple won't come through and they have no good reason for it. They keep putting it off. The Falcon's OS does not work on a 68040. The cache handling and MMU control is completely different, and due to the peculiar design of the Falcon, it boots at 8mhz, which the 040 won't even look at. Wizztronics has to get the source code to the Falcon's OS and go through it with a fine-toothed comb and find all the things that will upset the 68040 and rewrite them to work properly, as well as fix a few bugs in the OS, just to be nice. The Wizztronics board, from the specs we get, is VERY IMPRESSIVE. They're a great group of people and they have a wonderful product that we're just itching to take a good look at. We're also hoping to fill this nice big space on the front cover of Processor Direct issue #2 with a review of the Barracuda, which I'm sure everyone will want to see. If it doesn't happen, blame Atari. Did you wonder why the next issue of PD is behind schedule? Blame Atari. I keep wondering if Atari isn't intentionally trying to hurt developers. Especially ones producing good things like the Barracuda that take the Falcon, a machine with gaping holes in the design, and fill those holes. The Falcon should have had an 040 in it to begin with. Is Atari threatened by Wizztronics making up for Atari's deficiencies? ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 33 Tue Jun 07, 1994 D.COOKE [Rob] at 21:42 CDT Hello Rodney,what am I doing with the DSP port? Hrmm,kinda of hard to explain. I hate to leave it at this but right now I cannot say,sorry. Oh,thanks again for your help! ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 34 Sat Jun 11, 1994 T.STARACE1 at 20:56 EDT Has anyone here used the Video Master For the Falcon or VIDI ST 12 (the one that supports Falcon modes)? If so, how good are they, and which one is better? Thanks Tom ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 35 Sun Jun 12, 1994 P-DIRECT2 [Tim @ TWP] at 01:25 EDT There is an article in issue #1 of Processor Direct that reviews Video Master Falcon. See your local Atari dealer to purchase a copy. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 36 Sat Jun 11, 1994 J.KRACHT [Pixel Engine] at 23:31 MDT Tom: I have used VideoMaster FALCON, but not VIDI 12. I like VMF _a lot_ for what it is. I use it mainly to capture stills, but have put together some standalone full-disk demos with it. I recommend it because if you purchase ColorMaster with it, you can do true color frame grabbing in single passes. No more red, green, and blue gels with a video camera. This also means that you can capture true color stills from a laser disc, or video tape, without problem. The software is pretty neat, too. Very well done (for what it is). For more info, you might get ahold of a copy of the premier issue of Processor Direct magazine (CAT 15, TOP 24, I believe). There is an review of it in there. Note: VMF can also capture stereo audion along with real-time 160x100x256 color video. VIDI 12, if I recall, does nothing of the sort. VMF can be used to sample audio quite readily. J. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 37 Sun Jun 12, 1994 BRIAN.H [ST~SysOp] at 16:24 EDT Can anyone give my the address for SYSTEMS SOLUTIONS in the UK? I seem to have misplaced my copy of the address. SYSTEMS SOLUTIONS in the UK makes a tower setup for the FALCON. Thanks in advance! ~~~~Brian ... Written on Sunday 12 June 1994 at 05:22 p.m. ADT ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 38 Sun Jun 12, 1994 ICDINC [Tom] at 19:20 EDT Brain, If nobody comes up with it, I can find it at work tomorrow. They are a customer of ours. They also use the name of Atari Workshop if you have any UK magazines. - TOM - ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 39 Sun Jun 12, 1994 BRIAN.H [ST~SysOp] at 23:28 EDT Thanks Tom! I thought there was something about another name for the company. I will use the one I have from the November ATARI ST User. I need it for an EMail request fro one of the RT users. ~~~~Brian ... Written on Sunday 12 June 1994 at 11:08 p.m. ADT ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 40 Mon Jun 13, 1994 T.STARACE1 at 18:54 EDT Is there some way to get the old Vidi ST to work on a Falcon? ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 41 Tue Jun 14, 1994 S.DEITZ [Steve] at 06:09 EDT T.STARACE1 Not a chance. Software seems to work though. ----STEVE---- ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 42 Tue Jun 14, 1994 K.VANDELLEN [Ken Van] at 23:08 EDT I have the SpeakerOff utility in my AUTO folder ahead of DeskManager, and I've recently started getting the message that a program ahead of DM had been changed. I haven't changed anything, and SO is the only program ahead of DM. Any ideas? Ken Van ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 43 Wed Jun 15, 1994 REALM [Joey] at 23:33 EDT Ken, Just make DeskManager run first in your AutoFolder and you won't have any problems. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 44 Thu Jun 16, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 04:42 EDT By the way, just to let any of you who are interested know, there are a few guys on the Internet who are getting the ST XFORMER source code to 'fix' it for the Falcon030. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 45 Thu Jun 16, 1994 K.VANDELLEN [Ken Van] at 07:25 EDT Joey, Thanks. I wanted SpeakerOff ahead of it so I wouldn't get that BONGGG!!!! when DeskManager arrives, but maybe I'll have to just accept it. Ken Van ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 46 Thu Jun 16, 1994 DOLPHIN [Finnegas Z.] at 06:10 PDT Ken Van, I have run programs in my auto folder before Desk Manager with no problems. If I remember correctly, you said DM is telling you it has modified (renamed) a file & wants to know if you want to cold or warm boot. It sounds like you don't have SpeakerOff listed in your PRE file as an Auto program. ^ / \ ~~~/FIN\~~~ ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 47 Thu Jun 16, 1994 MUSE [Tomas] at 11:00 PDT Ken Van, Just a note to let you know you can configure Desk Manager to shut off the "Pleasant Bell Sound". Run it from the Desktop. ===Tomas=== ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 48 Thu Jun 16, 1994 HAINES [Chuck] at 18:51 EDT Vidi ST 12 can capture in up to 4096 colors, at resoultions up to 752x480 (? I think), though all these are interpolated from the base resolution of 320x200. Very good results, though you need a still video source to take the capture from. It incoporates the color splitter and gets is power from the catridge port. Works good for what is does, and has a very comprehnsive array of image manipultaion tools built in. Works on the entire St/STE and Falcon range, which the Vidi St will not. I uploaded some 4096 color tifs here a while back, but the upload corrupted, and I have not got back around to sending them up again. If I do, look at them. If you need audio though, and animation, go to VMF. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 49 Thu Jun 16, 1994 B.KOLINS1 [Brian] at 20:21 EDT Purchased the Wizztronics ram board, and a bit at odds with sourcing out the proper chip for this. My dealer said single-sided, the doc states low-profile, and my (very reliable source for most other things hardware related) said a 16mb SIMM module can't be both. It's one or the other. That be the case, which is it? Thanks, Brian ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 50 Thu Jun 16, 1994 K.VANDELLEN [Ken Van] at 23:06 EDT Fin, I could check your theory but I like Tomas' solution better. Tomas, Thanks. I'll just turn off the "Pleasant Bell Sound" that really BLASTS out of the Falcon speaker. ;-) One forgets these helpful details sometimes once an application is configured and installed. Ken Van ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 51 Thu Jun 16, 1994 C.THOMETZ [wildman] at 22:22 PDT Howzit...One note about the comments about Atari being sold in Damark catalogs. Ironically I bought my first 520 ST through JS&A sales catalog way back in '86 for $199.00, and this was about as Damarkian as you get. I'm really writing to plea for any information on what is supposed to be available by way of a Virtual Ram program for the Falcon. I'm so broke I can;'t pay attention, and finding & dedicating 850 bucks for enough 4meg by 8 smimms to fit mty ram board is tougher than skiing in Waikiki. Please, if anyone knows the source for this gizmo...drop an email line to me c/o WILDMAN or Fax 808-4880882. Big time mahalos. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 52 Thu Jun 16, 1994 R.SWANSON2 at 22:31 PDT HELLO ALL CAN ANYONE HELP ME??? I AM LOOKING FOR A PROGRAM TO RUN ON MY FALCON THAT WILL ALLOW ME TO VIEW 'GIF' PICTURES IN 640X480X256 IN SLIDE-SHOW FASHION, SIMILAR TO THE OLD 'DSLIDE' PROGRAM. I WANT TO VIEW 100'S OF GIF FROM MY CD-ROM WITHOUT MANUALLY USING SPEED OF LIGHT TO LOAD EACH IN INDIVIDUALLY. IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE WITH ANYTHING LIKE THAT? IF SOMEONE UT A PROGRAM TOGETHER TO DO THAT IT WOULD BE POPULAR. I'D EVEN PAY $100 RIGHT NOW!! THANKS, ROD /S ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 53 Fri Jun 17, 1994 R.BENNETT7 [Rodney] at 01:37 PDT Message 44 Thu Jun 16, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] said; >>By the way, just to let any of you who are interested know, there are a few guys on the Internet who are getting the ST XFORMER source code to 'fix' it for the Falcon030.<< Fantastic! On this subject, has anyone been able to boot up with Sparta DOS using the ST Xformer? Rodney ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 54 Fri Jun 17, 1994 S.DEITZ [Steve] at 05:46 EDT Rod, My GIF view of choice is JPEG220. It'll run in any res and automatically switch resolutions for viewing. It'll do GIF, JPG, TGA, PI?, and SPC (maybe more). It has a slideshow feature, and best of all... it's *fast*. BTW: turn off that CAPS LOCK. I don't like being yelled at first thing in the morning. Thanx :-) ----STEVE---- ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 55 Fri Jun 17, 1994 R.BEATTY3 [Buffalo Bob] at 02:58 PDT Rod, I agree with everything you said about a GIF Slide show viewer (except maybe the part about $100! Ouch!) I was lamenting the absence of such a utility this evening. For any creative types out there, it shuold also have screen buffering so that a second pic loads as one is displayed... Still, not quite $100 worth, though... Buffalo Bob ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 56 Fri Jun 17, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 07:20 EDT By the way, Atari Europe claims over 80,000 Falcon030s have been sold in Europe. That's certainly rather paltry considering how long it's been out and such, but I know quite a few people didn't even think it was THAT high. R.SWANSON2 - Unfortunately (and VERY surprisingly!), there ISN'T one (not PD or shareware, at least, as far as I've been able to find out!). The closest I've found is JPEGV220, which WILL do slideshows of GIFs and JPEGs, but you have to set it up manually (i.e. specify which files to be viewed) AND will only handle up to around 100 images or so. What I'd LIKE is something like B. Mott's FAST GIF viewer that would also re-size large GIFs to fit the current screen resolution (to fit the screen, NOT keep 'half-sizing' the screen until it fit!). I was also looking at the old Quick GIF .TTP programs since the source code is available, but its assembly which I'm not too up-to-speed on (not that I'm a C programming wiz either!). ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 57 Fri Jun 17, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 12:44 EDT Wildman, OUTSIDE from Lexicor is a virtual memory manager for the Falcon. I don't know how well it works. I downloaded a demo that was about as far from a demo that anything could ever be; it was a disgrace. But I do know one Falconite who uses it and says it works. Rod, You will have a choice of at least two viewers that will do what you want quite soon. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 58 Fri Jun 17, 1994 F.JANSEN1 [CYGNUS] at 19:05 CDT probably not. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 59 Fri Jun 17, 1994 DMJ [dmj] at 19:06 CDT Rod, Steve-J, There will soon be a viewer that will work on the Falcon that will display GIFs, and slideshow them. It will also slideshow lots of other picture formats... and even other types of files. This program was supposed to be finished already, but will be about another month (due to unforseen circumstances--I work as hard as I can). ~dmj ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 60 Fri Jun 17, 1994 GREG at 20:11 CDT Rod and Bob: You will be getting your wish for GIF viewers very shortly. Keep posted to GEnie for all the details. Rod: The viewer will have all you ask for but the $100 price. It's All Relative ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 61 Fri Jun 17, 1994 J.WILSON103 [J_Dub] at 21:19 CDT >My GIF view of choice is JPEG220. > ----STEVE---- Steve, I searched for this in the library but was not successful...are u sure of the name? Thanks. John ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 62 Sat Jun 18, 1994 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] at 02:38 EDT OUTSIDE also works on TT030's, I have the Demo but haven't tried it since I have goten the TT. It did not run on my Turbo 030. John B. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 63 Sat Jun 18, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 04:00 EDT J.WILSON103 - I'll upload JPEGV220 tonight. And forget what I said earlier about it only handling about 100 pictures -- I re-checked and it will do more, but you DO have to manually mark all the ones you want viewed, though (if you want them ALL viewed, you can just hold down the space bar until they're all marked!). It's shareware from England (5 Pounds registration fee, I believe, which will also get you a version that decompresses JPEGs a lot faster). ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 64 Sat Jun 18, 1994 S.DEITZ [Steve] at 04:35 EDT John, > I searched for this in the library but was not successful...are u > sure of the name? Thanks. Positive. The version before was 2.18, but didn't handle VGA as well as 2.20. I got it off Delphi, but I thought I saw it here. I'll upload it. Look for JPEG220.LZH ----STEVE---- ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 65 Sat Jun 18, 1994 S.DEITZ [Steve] at 15:55 EDT Steve-J, I don't use this feature much, but JPEG220 will slideshow an entire directory with Shift-Tab or Control-Tab. No need to mark files. ----STEVE---- ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 66 Sun Jun 19, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 04:36 EDT S.DEITZ - That's nice! One thing I don't like about JPEGV220.TOS for displaying GIFs is that it uses True Color mode exclusively, no matter what type of file it's displaying. Therefore, it displays GIFs with up to 256 colors out of a 65,536-color palette rather than out of an 262,144-color palette, so sometimes pics can look a little more dithered than usual. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 68 Sun Jun 19, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 09:22 EDT Studio Photo is available here ion a demo version, BTW. It handles JPEGs nicely, although only on Falcons and TTs (as far as I can determine). The demo is unusual in having only a few functions disabled. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 69 Sun Jun 19, 1994 P.BENSON6 [PKBX] at 12:56 EDT Hey Folks: Does any one out there have or know anything about those keyboard kits that allow the keyboard to be removed from the case and used seperately? I think ATY computers was selling them but I sent them Email and got no reply? I'd prefer one of the kits that allows use of Atari keyboard. Any info would be appreciated. pkbx ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 70 Sun Jun 19, 1994 ARCHIVIST [Charlie] at 14:16 EDT N.Gunn, I have moved your 'for sale' message to category 27 topic 2 which is for ST/TT/Falcon Hardware sales. It is the most appropriate place on the BB for your message and is more likely to catch the attention of interested buyers over there than here. Thank you. All, if you're interested in this Falcon please use cat 27 topic 2 or GE-Mail for your inquiries. Thank you. Charlie/sysop ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 71 Sun Jun 19, 1994 S.DEITZ [Steve] at 16:05 EDT Steve-J, >Therefore, it displays GIFs with up to 256 >colors out of a 65,536-color palette rather than out of an 262,144-color >palette, so sometimes pics can look a little more dithered than usual. It's 'half-size' feature will pull all dithering right out of the pic and smooth it out real nice. Fast too. Too bad it won't save a pic once it's scaled. ----STEVE---- ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 72 Sun Jun 19, 1994 DOLPHIN [Finnegas Z.] at 17:45 PDT pxbx, The best way to get a hold of Alex at ATY Computers is to call or FAX him. His number is (510)482-3775. He's a pretty busy guy & doesn't get online as much as he would like. ^ / \ ~~~/FIN\~~~ ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 73 Sun Jun 19, 1994 R.COOPER2 [Rob] at 23:20 EDT pxbx: >Hey Folks: Does any one out there have or know anything about those >keyboard kits that allow the keyboard to be removed from the case and >used seperately? You can contact ATY Computers at (510) 482-3775 (Voice & Fax) for this kit. I've not seen it personally, and I think the price was in the $90 range. ATY is located in Oakland, CA. Regards, Rob ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 74 Mon Jun 20, 1994 K.VANDELLEN [Ken Van] at 20:26 EDT The latest AEO had an item about somebody who sells a keyboard kit. Ken Van ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 75 Fri Jun 24, 1994 T.STARACE1 at 22:12 EDT Can anyone tell me if Hisoft BASIC 2 supports the Falcons extra features. (Graphics modes, sound, etc.) ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 76 Fri Jun 24, 1994 T.HEBEL [Spud Boy] at 21:38 CDT R.SWANSON2 Try the new version of GEMView. I think it is version 3.05. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 77 Sat Jun 25, 1994 DMJ [dmj] at 19:45 CDT T.STARACE1, If HiSoft BASIC 2 will let you access the XBIOS (and I can't believe it doesn't) then you can access all of the Falcon's extra goodies through that. However, you will need a book that details what all those functions are--for this, the Compendium is the most complete book available. ~dmj [Disclaimer: I have never used HiSoft BASIC 2 and I don't even know if it will _run_ on a Falcon. But GFA BASIC--which doesn't like the Falcon very much at all--will let me use the Falcon's extras.] ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 78 Sat Jun 25, 1994 T.BURTON at 22:55 EDT I saw on the Hisoft Basic 2 package "falcon enhanced". What that means I don't know. Shane ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 79 Sun Jun 26, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 05:06 EDT Speaking of THE ATARI COMPENDIUM, I just need to get the following off my chest... While Scott Sanders did an EXCELLENT job on its content, it is by far the UGLIEST book I've EVER seen. It would certainly stand out on a shelf with a bunch of other books, but NOT in a good way! T.BURTON - "Falcon Enhanced" means that it HAS added support specifically for the Falcon (so it probably has documentation and such for doing stuff on the Falcon). "Falcon Compatible" just means it runs on the Falcon. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 80 Sun Jun 26, 1994 DMJ [dmj] at 13:19 CDT Steve-J, Are you referring to the first or second edition? (The first edition _did_ have some tacky colors on it. I haven't seen the second yet.) ~dmj ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 81 Sun Jun 26, 1994 S.MCGEE2 [Sam] at 19:53 PDT T.STARACE1, I hope this doesn't sound like an advertisement ;) HiSoft BASIC 2.1 is VERY Falcon enhanced but you'll need to get the book Modern Atari System Software by HiSoft to find all the new system calls. I believe it's included in Lattice C but not in HS BASIC 2.1 :( New system calls: -8 video, 14 audio, 32 DSP -many new GEMDOS/MINT calls -new AES 4.0 calls: scrolling pop-up menus and sub menus, 3D controls in dialogs and windows, etc. -31 SpeedoGDOS calls The included toolkit routines make menus, windows, and dialogs a snap. The Compendium books also have the calls but you'll need Modern/Software for the correct syntax. Any other questions, switch to CAT 33 and leave me a message in the HS BASIC TOP or e-mail. Sam ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 82 Mon Jun 27, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 05:32 EDT DMJ - The FIRST edition -- I haven't seen the second edition either, but I HOPE the cover's been redone! ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 83 Tue Jun 28, 1994 W.DUDAN [WADE] at 07:22 EDT Here is a history question, perhaps best broached here on the cutting edge of the Atari experience (Falconers never forget) - Did Atari sell or otherwise transfer their word processor program, in whatever form, to Microsoft, who now calls it M/S WRITE and includes it in windoz? Does anyone remember this program? Probably was 8 bit. Was it ever available in ST form? I'm curious. tnx, Bill ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 84 Tue Jun 28, 1994 ARCHIVIST [Charlie] at 07:36 EDT The only 8-bit wordprocessor program I know of in the IBM world is Word Perfect 5.1. Charlie/sysop :-) ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 85 Tue Jun 28, 1994 ICDINC [Tom] at 08:14 EDT Bill, I believe that MicroSoft did or licensed that program to Atari for the ST early on. It was an MS property not the other way around. - TOM - ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 86 Tue Jun 28, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 08:21 EDT Bill, Microsoft Write existed for the Mac and was ported to the ST very early on. Microsoft disowned it immediately, and Atari did, also. The Windows version of Write is related to the ST version in the way that a Corvette is related to a Studebaker station wagon. :-) Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 87 Wed Jun 29, 1994 REALM [Joey] at 01:31 EDT I actually had Microsoft Write! Don't know where it went though. It wasn't a bad program just a little slow (what Microsoft program isn't:-]) but it used GDOS. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 88 Wed Jun 29, 1994 C.OINES1 [Chazz] at 05:54 CDT But it still has the same goofy redundant way of saving files. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 89 Wed Jun 29, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 06:55 EDT Is there a full MultiTOS manual or just the MultiTOS Quickstart User's Guide? The Quickstart Guide doesn't have a lot of information on it, so I was wondering if I was SUPPOSED to get a bigger manual with it. And just to make sure I'm not missing anything, was I supposed to get any documentation other than the following with my Falcon030?: Falcon030 Owner's Manual MultiTOS Quickstart User's Guide AtariWorks User's Manual AtariWorks Quick Reference Card SpeedoGDOS User's Manual SpeedoGDOS Quick Reference Guide Calendars and Appointments manual Audio Fun Machine/Falcon-D2D/System Audio Mgr/Breakout/Landmines manual Also, are there some newer manuals? Someone posted the DSP connector pinouts elsewhere saying they got it out of their Falcon owner's manual, but MY manual doesn't list that (it also doesn't list the 9-pin mouse/joystick ports!). Thanks! ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 90 Wed Jun 29, 1994 S.WINICK at 07:28 EDT Bill, As Al said, Microsoft Write was ported to the ST from the Mac version. Microsoft integrated GDOS into the package but did a terrible job on the program. Atari did their best to support the program by even bundling it with their 520STs back in '88. Only problem was that the program really need a full megabyte of RAM to run properly, assuming of course, that one could ever get it configured properly. It was definitely not an easy task to get the thing running properly. Microsoft Write may well have been one of the worst word processing programs ever released for the ST. It quickly became known as "Microsoft Wrong" in the Atari community. I must say, however, that the owners manual and packaging was definitely one of the most impressive looking packages ever released for the ST. Only problem is that most folks were really looking for an excellent piece of software, not merely a great looking manual. Sheldon (Computer STudio - Asheville, NC) ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 91 Wed Jun 29, 1994 P-DIRECT [Sean@TWP] at 18:02 EDT > And just to make sure I'm not missing anything, was I supposed to get any > documentation other than the following with my Falcon030?: I didn't get a MultiTOS manual either, in fact all my manuals (except for a few, were photocopies. I got mine back in May '93, though. I also don't seem to have a SpeedoGDOS User's Manual. Sean Dougherty Two Worlds Publishing ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 92 Wed Jun 29, 1994 PG.MUSIC [PG-Kevin!] at 18:19 EDT Tom, I dunno. It was one of the Atari 'areas' on CI$ where I ran into the message with subj: "Where is ICD" or something like that. --Kevin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 93 Wed Jun 29, 1994 C.LABELLE [Tintin] at 23:44 EDT Steve-J, My Falcon manual has a 5-page chapter on MTOS. I didn't get a Quickstart guide. The manual shows the DSP port but there are no descriptions of the pins. Tintin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 94 Thu Jun 30, 1994 REALM [Joey] at 00:37 EDT Sheldon, Microsoft has always excelled in creating manuals.:-) I think they judge their programming skills on how many trees they have to cut down in order to explain how it works. Maybe they charge by weight or something.:-) ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 95 Thu Jun 30, 1994 CBARRON at 01:34 EDT When I purchased MTOS I got quick start guide in four languages, only. Too bad, because configuration is so important for MTOS, and it is poorly described in the quickstart manual. MTos sits on my TT's HD in a dormant state... ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 96 Thu Jun 30, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 05:46 EDT C.LABELLE - Yeah, there is the 5-page MultiTOS chapter in the F030 owner's manual, but it's hardly informative -- it's more of an overview. My manual also shows the DSP port but not the pinouts. CBARRON - I can understand that. I have MINT.PRX in my C:\AUTO\ directory and it rarely gets renamed to MINT.PRG (because otherwise I have to disable a bunch of other things just to get it to boot up!). ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 97 Thu Jun 30, 1994 E.HAEFNER [HEFFS] at 08:52 CDT Hello to everyone, Saving the you the story of why I pulled the epson 3-1/2" drive from the Falcon in a (later to be known as a futile attempt) effort to plug into my 386. I seem to have misplaced the paper I wrote the jumper configuration upon. If anyone can help me out here I would be grateful indeed. As a after thought question does any one know about or have any experience in math co-prossers for the falcon(e.g. 68882). Thanks, HEFFS ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 98 Thu Jun 30, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 10:10 EDT Carl, You know this already, so it's directed generically: Eric's MiNT documentation is very helpful in setting up and using MTOS. It's here in the libs. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 99 Thu Jun 30, 1994 S.DEITZ [Steve] at 19:31 EDT Steve J, >I have MINT.PRX in my C:\AUTO\ directory and it rarely gets renamed to >MINT.PRG (because otherwise I have to disable a bunch of other things >just to get it to boot up!). Try renaming a copy to MINTNP.PRG and see what happens. Turning off memory protection increases compatibility somewhat. Heffs, I installed a FPU in my machine just a few weeks ago. Phoenix 2 really flies with it. Other than that, I don't have a whole lot of software that actually makes use of it :-( ----STEVE---- ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 100 Thu Jun 30, 1994 DMJ [dmj] at 18:57 CDT Al, Whether Eric's MiNT documentation is available in the library or not is hardly the point. A user who gets MultiTOS is apt to find it nearly unusable (IMO) because the documentation is so abysmal. Geneva's manual, on the other hand, is very complete, and a user who gets it will find setting it up a little easier. ~dmj ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 101 Thu Jun 30, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 23:01 EDT dmj, Good point. I doubt that many users of MTOS are going to look up Eric's documentation. We tend to forget that there are many. many Atarians who merely dance with the girl they brung, so to speak, and never look toward the other end of the barroom. :-) Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 102 Fri Jul 01, 1994 CBARRON at 03:18 EDT Al, or anyone who knows.... DA... What is the file name containing the docs. that are 'current' from using it, rather than all the functions it adds???? Yet another 300K download..... I have a few tries and its for such an old version that it is not too useful.... Two many gem apps come up memory fault. with 3.55 megs of tt ram free and nothing running its not funny.... DMj - all those 'new' falcon owners probably don't even have a modem. I am not a unix guru, but the nnomenclature is familiar. At present I have a disk occupant.... ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 103 Fri Jul 01, 1994 S.LYSTER [Stu Lyster] at 07:40 PDT A Falcon friend here in Vancouver has discovered a bug in TOS 4.04. Try taken a folder from a HD partition, and dragging that folder to the icon for drive A:. (Make sure you have a disk in drive A: that can accept the size of the folder!) On both his and my Falcon with TOS 4.04, this causes the computer to bomb.... two little bombs on the left middle. Has anyone else found this? Will this cause a need for TOS 4.05? Stuart Lyster ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 104 Fri Jul 01, 1994 J.NESS [Jim] at 16:47 CDT Stuart - Atari has stated that TOS 4.92 is the current beta version available to registered devs, so TOS 4.05 wouldn't be the solution, I'd think. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 105 Fri Jul 01, 1994 C.HAYWARD [Clar] at 18:45 EDT S.LYSTER...Message 103 Stu, I just tried it with 4.04 and no problem in Toronto. Maybe it's a Vancouver bug. Clar ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 106 Fri Jul 01, 1994 W.DUDAN [WADE] at 20:43 EDT Re: WRITE (Atari & MS) Whew, now I can use Write without guilt! Al- That wagon was indeed a turkey; however, can you improve upon the Hawk Commander or even a '57 pickup? Stude did a few of them world-class. Bill ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 107 Fri Jul 01, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 22:58 EDT Wade, Ah, the Hawk Commander! I drove one cross-country years and years ago. World class all the way. TraffiCops: And, yes, I think a Falcon would fit into a Commander's rear seat. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 108 Sat Jul 02, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 04:30 EDT S.LYSTER - Works fine on my Falcon030 w/ TOS 4.04! ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 109 Sat Jul 02, 1994 S.LYSTER [Stu Lyster] at 08:05 PDT This business of a pseudo-bug in TOS 4.04 is quite strange. David Toews and I might be the only people in all of Falconland where if you drag a folder on destop from a HD partition to floppy, the computer bombs. We bought our Falcons at the same time, from the same store in Vancouver... I wonder if the other two who bought with us, and only the other two, have a similar bug? It's not as if it is a major-league bug. Apparently, David reports that DB2, and I have experienced DB3, has no trouble creating a folder on a floppy during a back-up, and if the folder already exists on the floppy, then there is no problem either. Weird. Stuart Lyster ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 110 Sat Jul 02, 1994 ARCHIVIST [Charlie] at 12:41 EDT Stuart, have you checked the usual cuplrits, desk accessories and such? Charlie/sysop ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 111 Sat Jul 02, 1994 C.LABELLE [Tintin] at 16:08 EDT Stuart: Re-format your diskette with the normal Newdesk Format option, and try again. I had this problem before with diskettes formatted by some IBM computers, or even some third-party formatters. The DESKCOPY background formatter worked fine. Tintin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 112 Sat Jul 02, 1994 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 16:39 EDT Stu, Have you tried running with a clean system? Different HD driver? Just guesses. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 113 Sat Jul 02, 1994 S.PETERS2 [Steve Peters] at 19:47 PDT Do you use FAKEFLOP.PRG in your auto folder? When I don't, my system crashes whenever I try to access my floppy drive (A) if it had a disk in it during bootup. If there was no disk in during boot, no crash. I was never told anything about FAKEFLOP.PRG when I bought my Falcon. Just tried it, and it fixed this problem, which sounds similar to yours. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 114 Sat Jul 02, 1994 S.LYSTER [Stu Lyster] at 21:11 PDT CHARLIE/SYSOP - I think I have the problem narrowed down, with the Folder-copy- to-floppy-from-HD quasi-bug. Those of us who are in the habit of transporting ASCII files from Falcon to 386SX/25 carry a stock of MS-DOS formatted High Density disks - since MS-DOS disks work on Falcons, but not the other way around. The bug seems to only show up when the floopy to be copied to is an MS-DOS formatted disk. I did what you suggested, and removed DA's and AUTO fixes one by one until there was nothing left. Finally, I reformatted the floppy, and voila, it was fixed. The fellow who reported this quasi-bug - truly a bug for the nitpicker amongst us! - claims that he replicated the bug on a Falcon formatted HD diskette. I will challenge him with my new found empirical data! Empiricism is mightier than the sword!!! Stuart ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 115 Sun Jul 03, 1994 C.HAYWARD [Clar] at 18:31 EDT S.LYSTER...Message 114 Stu, I just tried 720 KB and 1.44MB disks formatted on my clone. The 720 worked fine but 2 bombs with the 1.44. I reformatted the 1.44 on the Falcon and again no problem. Clar ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 116 Sun Jul 03, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 21:26 EDT Stu, Whew! "Amongst," "replicated" and "empiricism" all in the same message. I didn't see "interremorsible," but I'll look back over your message. :-) Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 117 Sun Jul 03, 1994 ARCHIVIST [Charlie] at 22:25 EDT Hehe. Feeling challenged, Al? Charlie/sysop ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 118 Tue Jul 05, 1994 R.BENNETT7 [Rodney] at 19:46 PDT HiSoft Basic II does indeed work on the Falcon and access to it's extra features is supported as well. I had requested that a programmer's column using HiSoft Basic in St Informer Magazine be a monthly feature, I hope it turns out soon. To tell you the truth, articles from Compute!, Antic, Analog with it's type in listing helped me tremediously in learning the old 8-bit basic language. I upgraded to BasicXe then Mac/65 but switched to the ST in midstream, I have yet seen any articles on programming within Atari related magazines for the ST that matched the detail as with the 8-bit yet. GFA Basic from what I have heard is also an excellent language, but from what I have heard, it's no longer supported for the Atari line of computers. Oregon Research is still supporting HiSoft with companies in Europe as well. Rodney ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 119 Mon Jul 11, 1994 A.HAWKINS2 at 20:49 PDT Does anybody have any information on adding a 2nd floppy drive to the Falcon. I already have tried a straight ribbon cable to both drives, optioning one as d0 and the other as d1. There is no problem with room as I have installed the Falcon in a full size Tower. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 120 Thu Jul 14, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 06:35 EDT ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 121 Thu Jul 14, 1994 PG.MUSIC [PG-Kevin!] at 10:45 EDT SteveJ, Could you turn up the gain on your Falcon? I couldn't hear your last post. --Kevin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 122 Fri Jul 15, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 06:26 EDT PG.MUSIC - Ooops! I wish Aladdin would automatically delete blank messages! I decided to move my question I'd written to a more appropriate topic, but forgot to delete the reply here after I'd cut the text out of it! ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 123 Fri Jul 15, 1994 N.FRAGA [RECOIL] at 20:09 CDT Can I Get TT LOW, MED, and HIGH on a SC1435 or a 15" Phillip SVGA monitor? From where do I set overscan???? Is there anyway I can display aniamtios I created with Lexicor's Chronos/ANM-Link/Phoenix in TGAtoFLI faster than what is supported now. What Falcon accelerators will be compatible with Lexicor software? Any help would be apopreciated! Norm. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 124 Mon Jul 18, 1994 C.THORPE5 at 06:27 EDT HELP! Tim here from NZ. My Falcon refuses to record a stereo sound track. The Left channel dosnt sample at all! And it appears to a weird software problem. The DSP and DAC's play Stereo fine. And some times when a boot a sampling software like Winrec or SAM I only get the Left channel and not the right! This has happened once before. Any one got any ideas? Please emaM email me here via C.Thorpe5 Thanks. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 125 Tue Jul 19, 1994 B.SEMAAN [BOSEM] at 20:54 CDT C.Thorpes, It sounds like you got one of those Falcons with bad analog audio I/O circuitry. It is a known defect. If your machine is under warranty Atari will fix it for free. Otherwise, you'll want to have someone else fix it. We repair them here at Binary Sounds, but if by NZ you mean New Zealand, I imagine you'll want to use someone a little closer to home. We're in Texas. Bob Binary Sounds ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 126 Sat Jul 23, 1994 R.NELSON48 [Grouch (:{] at 19:22 PDT I boot my Falcon in 4 color rez with a rather crowded auto-folder as follows: BMAPFIX2 CODEKEYS DATALITE FAST_SER FSERIAL.DVI MACCEL34 MIC_ON OBURST SBLASTER.INF SBLASTER.PRG SPDGDOS SPEAKOFF UIS_III With this set-up I am ready to run AtariWorks or any other Speedo application and can also use Aladdin to reach this board. If I try to use STraight FAX or Flash II however, the programs don't work until I re-boot without my autofolder. Which one or how many of these need to be dumped to allow me to run my communication programs without re-booting? Why is it that when I load PageStream ffrom this 4 color mode it always comes up BLACK but in 2 color it is fine? Standing by for the Answers.....(:{ Grouch. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 127 Sat Jul 23, 1994 S.LYSTER [Stu Lyster] at 21:37 PDT Grouch (:{ - I boot my Falcon in 4 colour, med-rez, too. In my Auto folder is... BMAPFIX2.PRG FPATCH2.PRG MACCEL34.PRG TOS4_FIX.PRG, with these ready to go... FOLDRXXX.PRX MINT.PRX SAM.PRX SPDGDOS.PRX. These last might be important, because I use Falsh II all the time with no problems. I am also saving my pennies to get StraightFax, so have no experience with it, but will be listening in on others experience with it (incl. AUTO folder probs if there are any). I have found that Aladdin (via K.GERDES's LoadAladdin) only works in 4 colour Med-Rez, and does weird things to the font and display in other modes - it sounds a little like your probs with PageStream. Sign me, Standing by for answers as well. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 128 Sun Jul 24, 1994 C.LABELLE [Tintin] at 01:02 EDT When I set the Atari Clipboard CPX to clear on boot and a file exists, it freezes my system at boot-up. Is this a know problem? I am using version 1.0 and the clipboard path is D:\. Does anyone use Overlay, the video titling software? And where can I find MultiBlow? This is a shareware screen enhancer for the RGB monitor. According to ST Review magazine, you can get 1280 pixel wide. Grouch, I would disable the programs affecting the serial port first. With a boot manager it would not take long to find the culprit. I recommend Mouse Boot 4, shareware and available here. PageStream is fine in 2-color or 16-color mode. I haven't used it in any other mode. Tintin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 129 Sun Jul 24, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 02:37 EDT LOADALAD works fine in all resoltions of the Crazy Dots card on the TT, so the Falcon problem is unique to that machine. STraight FAX! has no problems with auto-folder TSRs here, and I have a lot of them, Nelson. The Falcon difficulties are a mystery. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 130 Sun Jul 24, 1994 JWC-OEO [Jon] at 10:30 PDT I fell into testing the speed of different floppy disk format methods on my Falcon recently. Don't remember why, it just happened. Anyway, it turns out the desktop does a very good job. Only the so called "FaST" format as implimented by TLC was faster (18.5 seconds vs 21.5 seconds using the NBM floppy test). The surprise for me was that the "FaST" format performed by DFORMAT was the slowest (35 seconds on the same test). I had been using DFORMAT because it was the champ on my old ST. I had never used TLC~FORM before the test and had always assumed that it's "FaST" was a direct copy of Diamond's. Obviously there is some difference (and I need to send in a sharewhare payment). Does anybody have a clue as to what produced this unexpected result. I suspect there is some timing problem that prevents DFORMAT from doing what it is supposed to on my Falcon. My Falcon has TOS 4.04. The tests did not change with changes in AUTO programs. Jon ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 131 Sun Jul 24, 1994 P.FLETCHER4 at 13:35 EDT I am having severe trouble with the serial port on my Falcon030. Flash2 and straight Fax normally will not work without me reseting the computer several times at bootup. I have tried fpatch, fpatch2 bmapfix2...but nothing. it tends to get annoying having to repeatedly reset the computer just to access my terminal software. I thought that maybe I was having modem problems...but I hooked it up to my ST and all works just fine. My St is collecting dust in a closet and I'd rather leave it there.....I dont have room on my desk to use the St just for communications. Thanks for your help, Pete /s ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 132 Sun Jul 24, 1994 JWC-OEO [Jon] at 10:39 PDT LOADALAD works as well in 16 color mode as 4 or 2 on my Falcon. That's the only way I use it. Jon ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 133 Sun Jul 24, 1994 R.NELSON48 [Grouch (:{] at 14:01 PDT Stu - I see you have TOS4_FIX in your auto folder. I seem to recall taking that out for some reason, at least it is no longer there. Hmmm. I wonder if putting it back would let me run FLASH and Load Aladdin without needing different set ups. Worth a try. (:{. P.FLETCHER4 - Give us a list of your Auto Folder programs, your TOS version, Your booter software version. Etc. and we will get that modem going on the first try. FLASHII is happy with out any AutoFolder nonesense and STraight FAX needs only Bconmap Fix 2. If you use FPATCH2.PRG make sure BCONMAP runs after it. (:{ Grouch. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 134 Sun Jul 24, 1994 B.SEMAAN [Binary Sound] at 17:26 CDT Grouch, You may have an old version of FastSerial. The one you want to use is .96B. Also, FastSerial works best when run after Mint. I'm not familiar with Fserial.dvi so don't know about it. FastSerial .96B also incorporates the BMAPFIX2 and FPATCH2 code into it so you can ditch those 2 prgs if you use it. Also, you need to use the Fserial cpx and make sure compatibility mode is on, Port is set to Modem 2, Handshake is RTS/CTS, and the other parms are set to match your connection (bps, parity, etc.). Click on the 'info' button to see your input/output buffer settings. You may find it necessary to increase them. Unfortunately, I don't know of any prog to do that other than a BackTalk configured Auxinit, which is part of Stalker. One of those German serial utils (HSMODEM2) will do it but I can't translate the docs to figure out how the config setter prg works. What monitor are you using? I've had no trouble with any mode, VGA or TV. But then I'm using an NEC 3-D. Al, All bets are off when you switch to a Falcon. Unfortunately, a set of TSR's that work on the TT may have to be reordered, some even removed or replaced, when moved to the Falcon. Pete, See above msg to Grouch. Bob ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 135 Sun Jul 24, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 19:20 EDT Jon, Are you testing how long it takes to format a disk, or how fast a disk formatted under various techniques can be written to? I could care less how long a disk takes to format, as long as the formatter checks for bad sectors. I *do* care how quickly reads and writes can be performed, and maybe it's time for some comparisons! Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 136 Sun Jul 24, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 22:12 EDT Thanks, Bob. I follow your posts with great interest. You know your stuff. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 137 Sun Jul 24, 1994 J.TRAUTSCHOL [Missionware] at 21:13 CDT Pete... I can't speak for STraight Fax, but in regards to Flash II, assuming you are running version 2.2 (which is the only version that works on the Falcon), you need no extra patch programs, auto folder programs, or what-have-you. Flash II takes care of the Falcon TOS serial port problems internally. It's very possible that the use of some of those patch programs is actually *causing* a problem with F2. It's possible that the SCC chip (serial port hardware) in your Falcon is bad. Doing the multiple resets might finally wake it up properly. It's hard to tell from this end, unfortunately. John Trautschold Missionware Software ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 138 Sun Jul 24, 1994 B.KOLINS1 [Brian] at 23:46 EDT Tintin, I reported the same lockup with Clipboard CPX to the author here -- he knew about it. It's apparently not entirely compatable on a F030. --BK ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 139 Mon Jul 25, 1994 CBARRON at 03:57 EDT At 80 formats at once I sure could use an automatic diskette changer! Three minutes is about time to start something and get interrupted! (a tt but formatting speed is slow...) ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 140 Mon Jul 25, 1994 R.NELSON48 [Grouch (:{] at 18:49 PDT B.SEMAAN - Regarding message 124, no offence but was that ment to be helpful? I read it several times and am left with the impression that it will only work well if I read German or have some AUX INT thing I don't know about. I'll check the LIB for the program. Thankx, (I think) (:{ Grouch. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 141 Tue Jul 26, 1994 N.FRAGA [RECOIL] at 23:19 CDT How do I get overscan on my F030?? I understand that in Europe (?) someone is selling an accelerator for the Falcon030 call the PowerUP. Is this something like the Cattamarran f for the TT030? ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 142 Wed Jul 27, 1994 B.SEMAAN [Binary Sound] at 02:20 CDT OK Grouch, I did not mean that you _have_ to change I/O buffer sizes. I was trying to say that you should make sure the FastSerial version you have is .96 (at least) and that you keep its companion cpx active when using FSerial. And that the cpx must be set correctly or you will most probably have trouble. THEN, if all that does not fix things for you, try using a utility to change the serial port I/O buffers. Chances are good that won't be necessary though. Bob ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 143 Wed Jul 27, 1994 JWC-OEO [Jon] at 18:10 PDT Al, All tests (several different versions) were of read/write speed. They all gave very similar results. Jon ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 144 Wed Jul 27, 1994 C.LABELLE [Tintin] at 22:01 EDT Recoil, There is a file in the library, OSUTILS I think, that has two programs in it: one to set overscan and the other to remove it. Overscan is possible on RGB and TV, not VGA. PowerUp is a 32Mhz fitting for the Falcon. It is inexpensive but the performance is only slightly improved due to the Falcon slow RAM access. You better wait for the soon-to-be-released Speed Resolution Card, which boosts the clock speed up to 40Mhz and more importantly the bus speed up to 20 MHz. By doing so the video bandwidth is also increased and greater resolutions are possible. See the latest AEO for details. It is not supposed to be expensive, either. Tintin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 145 Wed Jul 27, 1994 R.NELSON48 [Grouch (:{] at 20:34 PDT Bob - Oky Dokey, I shall attempt to follow your leader. (in my best Malcom McDowel voice) Catch you later! (:{ Grouch. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 146 Thu Jul 28, 1994 PG.MUSIC [PG-Kevin!] at 08:20 EDT Anyone know if the Barracuda 040 is released yet? I saw it adv in my new Toad catalog. :) --Kevin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 147 Thu Jul 28, 1994 E.HAEFNER [HEFFS] at 09:19 CDT Hello, I seem to be having a problem with just one CPX that came with the Falcon, SAM_SET.CPX. I cannot access it from the control panel. I've been using the ACC to configure SAM. I've checked to make sure it was acti ( opps ran out of screen, sorry) active but when I bring up the control panel it is not listed in the dialog box. My main concern is if it might be a symptom of a system bug or something. Thanks, Heffs ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 148 Thu Jul 28, 1994 B.SEMAAN [Binary Sound] at 21:04 CDT Heffs, Although SAM needs that cpx to be active (can't remember why right now), it won't show up because its not configurable. In other words, don't worry about it. Bob ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 149 Thu Jul 28, 1994 R.NELSON48 [Grouch (:{] at 21:09 PDT Binary Sound - Well, Fserial .96B was a tonic. Very refreshing. and in poking about I found an old message from BOSEM dated Dec. 31 1993 urging the Grouch to try FAST_SER.PRG. Anyway, I have dumped BMAPFIX2 and FPATCH2 and can still run STraight FAX successfuly so that has cut down on my auto folder some. I also tossed out the Fserial.DVI (but I note there is another .DVI in the zip file for this new .96B as well). FLASHII still needs to be loaded with a clean auto folder, but that is because it was coded right and doesn't need no stinkin' patches. Anyway, thanks for your help and advice. Now if only someone would translate the German Docs so the included CPX and other files could be used. I mean, what is this Fast X sir, and who is the Mystery Gal? Questions, we have lots of questions. (:{ Grouch. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 150 Fri Jul 29, 1994 B.SEMAAN [Binary Sound] at 01:33 CDT Grouch, Glad it worked for you. I'd forgotten we'd had this discussion over six months ago, myself. I also long for an English version of the Fserial .96B docs. I myself, would like to know just what the DVI file is for in the first place, as well if there is someway to increase the I/O serial buffers without another program. Bob ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 151 Fri Jul 29, 1994 C.LABELLE [Tintin] at 23:51 EDT Heffs, Not to worry. The CPX is required for SAM but is not accessible. This is both normal and strange but true. Tintin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 152 Sun Jul 31, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 06:28 EDT What the heck is the SAM CPX for, anyway? ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 153 Sun Jul 31, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 13:31 EDT Ee, System Audio Manager. Runs on the Falcon, TT and MSTe. Lets you play and fool with sound files, and assign sounds to system events. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 154 Mon Aug 01, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 06:22 EDT A.FASOLDT - I KNOW that -- what does the SAM _CPX_ do specifically? ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 155 Mon Aug 01, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 23:14 EDT Sorry, Ee. Your question wasn't as clear as it might have been. I think the SAM CPX does what the SAM ACC does, which is set up SAM's sound assignments. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 156 Tue Aug 02, 1994 K.HASAMA [Keith] at 00:08 PDT I just uploaded HSMODA04.LZH which someone from our users group uploaded. I've been playing around with it for a while and it seems to work pretty good. That is the SCC.PRG works, ESCC.PRG acts flaky. Oh yeah, and you have to run FPATCH2 before DRIVIN. I just arbitrarily set the input and output buffers to 16K. What are the advantages and disadvantages of setting it differently? ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 157 Tue Aug 02, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 04:55 EDT A.FASOLDT - Yeah, sorry if it wasn't clear enough. So the .CPX just reads the SAM.DAT file for SAM.PRG or somesuch? Where's Scott to answer these questions? I have two main gripes about SAM -- 1) When sampling, you're always limited to the amount of time 16-bit stereo sampling would allow (even if you're recording at 8-bit mono!). 2) When saving samples as .WAV files, it saves them without the number of channels data (i.e. it saves stereo samples as '0-channel' samples). 525(E).PRG also does something funky with creating .WAV files, so in order to get an 'on-spec' .WAV file, I have to save the file as a .RAW sample and then use a troublesome converter like SOX. And I still want an application that will do 8-bit direct-to-disk recording! ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 158 Tue Aug 02, 1994 PG.MUSIC [PG-Kevin!] at 08:48 EDT Hmm... I wonder if Scott will fix SAM.ACC so it will work under Geneva? --Kevin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 159 Tue Aug 02, 1994 C.LABELLE [Tintin] at 20:35 EDT About multitasking systems, is Atari going to release their newer version of MTOS soon? Instead of looking at 3rd party developers take the market and create headaches for developers who have to support Geneva and now Magic in addition to MultiTOS? MultiTOS is given away with each Falcon and I'm sure a lot of us would upgrade to a fast, feature-rich release. Oh, I know, there's the Jaguar. But still Atari has to offer minimal support for their computers. After all they are working on the Works BPS problem, no? Steve-J, I use Musicom 2, and is pretty good for me. It allows for 8-bit (and 16, of course) direct-to-disk, and has a nice visual "Cutter" tool for editing. Not to mention good Karaoke and spectacular level meters. And what about SuperSam to convert your samples? It has a WAV save feature. It's here in the library as #33326. However you won't be able to test it as the save is disabled unless you register :( Tintin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 161 Tue Aug 02, 1994 B.WILLIS3 [Bill] at 21:19 EDT EeEckyThump!, >>And I still want an application that will do 8-bit direct-to-disk >>recording! Have you considered using a 16-bit application and just recording everything at -24dB? ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 162 Wed Aug 03, 1994 STEVE-J [EeEckyThump!] at 06:08 EDT C.LABELLE - I know about SUPERSAM -- I uploaded the demo! I'll probably be registering for it soon (I'm just starting a new job and am low on funds right now), but it still bothers me that SAM and 525 don't seem to save 'proper' .WAV files. I've heard rather mixed reviews about MUSICOM/MUSICOM 2 and it doesn't loook like CLARITY-16 is anywhere to be found, so I'll be registering SUPERSAM and waiting for it to be upgraded to allow editing disk- based samples. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 163 Wed Aug 03, 1994 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 06:55 EDT TinTin, Forget MultiTOS. Geneva is far superior and IT'S SUPPORTED. Something MultiTOS isn't. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 164 Wed Aug 03, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 07:49 EDT Ee, You're right about SAM's limitations. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 165 Wed Aug 03, 1994 C.LABELLE [Tintin] at 20:28 EDT EeEckyThump! Oops. Something I rarely notice is the uploader name. Except when it's someone at Atari Corp! Then I fall out of my chair. Tintin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 166 Thu Aug 04, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 00:41 EDT TinTin, Wayne is right. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 167 Thu Aug 04, 1994 R.HALL49 [DARKCHILD] at 02:04 EDT Okay, I now this has been asked a hundred times but...I need to know what files I need to get my TOS 4.04/4 megs ram/85 meg hard drive Falcon all "patched" up?! I just downloaded the new (German?) high speed modem stuff so what else do I need? I'm going to be using STalker 3...Thanks in ad- vance! DarkChyld... ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 168 Thu Aug 04, 1994 B.SEMAAN [Binary Sound] at 02:46 CDT R.Hall, I recommend using FastSerial .96B and its companion cpx. It replaces both Fpatch2 and Bmapfix as well as providing flow control. If you are going to be using Stalker, the only other patch you may want to use with FastSerial is Auxinit to configure the serial I/O buffers. Then you can blow off the HSMODEM stuff altogether. You may not actually need Auxinit. Try going without it first. Then, if you have problems add Auxinit configured to 16K and see if that fixes things. Be sure to set the parameters in the FastSerial cpx. Set port to Modem 2 for Falcon. Compatibility mode on, and other parms according to your terminal setup. Bob ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 169 Fri Aug 05, 1994 R.HALL49 [DARKCHILD] at 00:38 EDT Bob...Thanks! I used that latest Hi-speed modem stuff from Germany and set the port for the TT and everything worked the 1st time! Love it! See ya... DarkChyld... ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 170 Sun Aug 07, 1994 S.DEITZ [Steve] at 10:44 EDT I was going to start a new TOPic for this, but I get the feeling this thread's gonna experience a quick death. Is anybody using a Falcon for voice-mail such as Pleide's Digital Storefront? Does it work well and is it worth the $$? I'm really more interested in having my Falcon act a simple digital answering machine as I really don't need the mailbox part (or the big price tag). Does anybody know of any shareware or cheap commercial offerings that will allow this? I looked at the VOXMAIL demo which *does* offer simple voice-mail services for a reasonable price, but alas the author is in Singapore for the summer. Thanx. ----STEVE---- ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 171 Sun Aug 07, 1994 C.LABELLE [Tintin] at 20:40 EDT Steve, Where can I get info on the Digital Storefront? I've never heard of it. Tintin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 172 Mon Aug 08, 1994 P.POTOS [Pete] at 09:16 CDT Steve I purchased Digital Storefront and had to return it. I bought it direct from Pleadies Research. Its been 3 weeks and I still don't have my refund... They claimed it worked for a user in Canada though :) I am the proud owner of Falcon S.N. 0000000012 and think it might be my machine. What I didn't like about D.S. is: - requires MultiTOS - requires Speedo to be disabled - requires S.A.M. to be disabled - turns all chaa characters in the file selector lower case - no editing of sound samples - _very_ low quality samples Anyone have any experience with BlackMail? ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 173 Mon Aug 08, 1994 COMPO at 17:07 EDT About a year ago, we recognized that nothing was really happening with the promise of a working voice mail system, so we started working on our own. It will be released before the end of the year. Pete - I don't think Blackmail has been released... Robert ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 174 Mon Aug 08, 1994 S.DEITZ [Steve] at 18:29 EDT Tintin, I believe Digital Storefront by Pleides Research is what should've been DOA's Blackmail system. I've seen it advertised in Current Notes (list $299) and in Toad's new catalog, but that's about the extent of what I know about it. I could swear that when I d/l'ed the VOXMAIL demo many moons ago, the uploader stated that the demo version made an answering machine sans the voicemail features. Neither the docs nor my experimenting confirmed this. Now I'm wondering if it was all a hallucination . ----STEVE---- ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 175 Mon Aug 08, 1994 S.DEITZ [Steve] at 19:25 EDT Pete, Aladdin lag on my last post. Thanx for the info. Those are *serious* drawbacks. Rob (Compo), You guys again? I should have known ;-) ----STEVE---- ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 176 Mon Aug 08, 1994 R.IRBY3 [Roy] at 21:46 EDT I seem to be having a problem with my Falcon. After performing some actions such as copying or deleting files, or running then exiting some programs, my desktop key equivalents get all screwed up. Instead of the normal letters, I get garbage *#$%^@. These characters will still execute the commands. Hmm.. Anybody else have this problem??? Roy ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 177 Mon Aug 08, 1994 C.LABELLE [Tintin] at 23:12 EDT Pete, Can DS be used to make a touch-pad menu, then call-forward to the appropriate phone number or say a message depending on the caller's choice? Is it more advanced than that? Which format are the samples? Steve, I downloaded the demo of VOXMAIL too, I don't think that's what I want. Robert, Without Compo what Falconers would do? :-) You supply the high octane gas our machines need! Tintin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 178 Tue Aug 09, 1994 R.HALL49 [DarkChyld] at 00:18 EDT COMPO! I was just wondering (I'm interested!) How fast is Studio Convert with Jpegs since its using the BrainStorm DSP routines? Thanks...DarkChyld ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 179 Tue Aug 09, 1994 R.HALL49 [DarkChyld] at 00:25 EDT Just thought I'd mention to everyone...I'm using Chro-Magics Multisynch Gizmo with a CTX AD1970 multisynch monitor on my Falcon and its GREAT! I get full hi- rez VGA and with a flick of one switch can still run all those neat Eurodemos (that need RGB/overscan/15.75mhz) and ST games on the same monitor!!! Call Chro-Magic today! Its only $24.99! (the only catch is that your monitor -must- be able to scan down to 15.75mhz!) Later...DarkChyld ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 180 Tue Aug 09, 1994 B.AEIN [B Man] at 23:30 EDT Tintin, Don't forget Trace Tech, or you wouldn't be using Aladdin on your Bird =`) Keith has some "must have" F030 utilites comming very shortly as well as some killer utilites that have been growing in Beta testing. To bad the Ch's are pretty much out of the loop, I wish that Code keys got a face lift with a better macro editor. Compo, Trace Tech, and Hisoft/Oregon Res seem to be the only real US devlopers doing anything for the Falcon. I wish someone would pick up the SLM to F030 product and start selling it, as well as KOBOLD. Still waiting to get a 040 in the Bird. Bman ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 181 Wed Aug 10, 1994 COMPO at 06:36 EDT DarkChyld - >How fast is Studio Convert with >Jpegs since its using the BrainStorm DSP routines? Super fast. A one meg JPEG decompresses in about two seconds. The Brainstorm DSP routines are just awesome. Robert ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 182 Wed Aug 10, 1994 P.POTOS [Pete] at 14:26 CDT Tintin Digital Storefront saves the sound samples with a .BM8 extension It is supposed to be a variant of AVR but not totally compatable. While it won't call forward, an upcoming version is claimed to send the message to a pager. Despite its problems I would have used it if it worked on my Falcon :( ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 183 Wed Aug 10, 1994 C.LABELLE [Tintin] at 22:59 EDT Bman, You're right, without TraceTech it was Aladdin on the 1040 and its 720K storage capacity :) Compo is not really a US developer, most of the good stuff they sell originate from Europe. At least I think that's the case. Pete, Thanks, I'm just vaguely interested for the moment in an answering system, and it would be for work, to answer technical support calls to an hotline number. Tintin ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 184 Thu Aug 11, 1994 E.HAEFNER [HEFFS] at 10:19 CDT Hi there, Does anyone know of a text file viewer for the falcon that works like DCSHOWIT. I just loved that little program but it doesn't seem to fly on the Falcon. many thanks, Heffs ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 185 Thu Aug 11, 1994 M.MOTOGAWA [MEL] at 15:07 PDT Heffs, You need Missouri which is discussed in Category 2, Topic 12. In file #33256, TRACTEC4.ARC, this little tidbit about Missouri was shared: Message 133 Wed Jun 01, 1994 K.GERDES [TraceTech] at 18:43 CDT Rodney, >question regarding an update to DCSHOWIT v1.1 to work in all Falcon 80 >column rez's... have you thought of doing that? Yes and no. Yes I have thought about it. :) No, it won't be an update/upgrade to DCSHOWIT....or to DCShower per se. [As an aside- FWIW Shower was the upgrade to ShowIt, which for some reason didn't seem to be taken advantage of by too many ShowIt users...] The TraceTech package is called 'Missouri'. The 4 main modules are: ShowText, ShowPics, ShowHex and Show_Me. It emulates most of DCShower's capabilities- ie. access via UIS3, desktop viewing, viewing within programs, etc. Missouri is compatible with all versions of TOS -- even TOS2 and up. This includes the Falcon naturally. ;) For more details, you can scan this topic for messages in the last week of 1/94 and the first week of 2/94. There are more details about Missouri in the above mentioned msgs now found in file #32310, TRACTEC3.ARC. Missouri is a great package and offers a ton of power and convenience when it comes to viewing ASCII, First Word/Wordwriter, binary or pic files. - Mel ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 186 Thu Aug 11, 1994 M.MOTOGAWA [MEL] at 15:13 PDT Heffs, I should have mentioned in my last post that Missouri hasn't been released yet, but keep your eyes peeled. - Mel ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 187 Thu Aug 11, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 23:43 EDT Heffs, Wow. you must not have heard about 1stView. It's a lightning fast text viewer that runs in its own GEM window, displays standard text perfectly, formats 1stWord and WordWriter texts with all their attributes (boldface, underlining, all that stuff), shows IMG files in any resolution, displays the contents of RSC files, plays sound files, allows any size system font for viewing, prints straight through or via GDOS, lets you save a document to the clipboard, and can open multiple, mixed files at the same time when you select a bunch of them on the desktop at once and double-click. I've had 250+ 1stView windows open at one time on the TT under Geneva. You just install it on the desktop as the viewer, or in NeoDesk 3.x or 4.0. Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 188 Fri Aug 12, 1994 COMPO at 05:56 EDT Tintin - >Compo is not really a US developer, most of the good stuff they sell originate >from Europe. At least I think that's the case. Actually, that's not the case. We've got an office in California and four locations in Europe, and it's basically the same company. However, most of the employees (and programmers) are in Europe... Robert ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 189 Fri Aug 12, 1994 D.ATKINSON3 at 08:55 CDT Mel, Do you know if 'Missouri' makes use of the hardware scrolling. I almost registered 'Scrolling Thunder' but found out it didn't like Falcon Rez's. I thought hardware scrolling was a wonderful feature that nobody seems to make any use of. I think it is way past time for developers to stop worrying about TOS 1.0 compatibility. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 190 Fri Aug 12, 1994 ICDINC [Tom] at 09:57 EDT Excuse me Bman but your forgot to mention ICD and our SCSI Pro Utilities. Howard will never forgive you for all the hours he has struggled working on Falcon support. :-0 - TOM - ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 191 Fri Aug 12, 1994 M.MOTOGAWA [MEL] at 08:00 PDT D.ATKINSON3, I'm not sure if it does or not. The best thing would be to pop the question in Category 2, Topic 12, which Keith monitors regularly. And to keep things on topic before the topic cops swoop down on me , there's also the Falcon 030 Toolkit coming from TraceTech, to make your day. Thanks! - Mel ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 192 Fri Aug 12, 1994 E.HAEFNER [HEFFS] at 20:06 CDT Al and Mel, Thanks for the info, I am truly grateful. Heffs, ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 193 Fri Aug 12, 1994 B.DEWITT [Perfesser] at 19:35 MDT For those of you who don't like the feel of the Falcon keyboard, I just finished installing a keyboard kit called TT-Touch (got mine from Sheldon Winick's Computer Studio). It took a little time to install, but nothing especially sticky, tricky or technical; and I can testify that it was well worth the time and effort. I am liking my keyboard much better now (I really hated the bouncy, bouncy feel of the original Falcon setup). It has a much better "touch" with a good, solid feel and positive response. I'd recommend it. Th'Perfesser ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 194 Fri Aug 12, 1994 R.HALL49 [DarkChyld] at 21:53 EDT COMPO: Robert,...thanks for the info...I'll be sending in an order soon! Can't wait to bust them Boris Vallejos Jpegs I've got at nearly the speed of light! Thanks again...keep on pushin' the Falcon!!! DarkChyld... ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 195 Fri Aug 12, 1994 B.AEIN [B Man] at 22:30 EDT Yep I forgot ICD, But has ICD forgoten Dual IDE support? My product still could benifit from it. Is Pro and CBAudio working together 100%? Thanks Bman ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 196 Sat Aug 13, 1994 R.HALL49 [DarkChyld] at 02:36 EDT I got NVRAM (the cpx) and am having trouble using it! Can anybody help? I set it to boot-up in VGA/16 color/80 column mode but I can't figure out how to save it so that it works when I re-boot...Any info would be - appreciated! (and yes I tried to read the docs but they were in German and the only other language I'm familiar with is Spanish -and Atari of course!!!) ...thanks again in advance... DarkChyld... ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 197 Sat Aug 13, 1994 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] at 03:47 EDT Perfesser, I have a TT touch kit installed in my 1040st so the upgrade you mention is also something to consider for non Falcon users. I like it although I have been told that some people don't. The best touch though is still my Mega keyboard. I dont' like the TT keyboard I have very much. Actually, I like the layout. The keys are well spaced and the angle is nice and the feel is fine but it's really clangy. The keys are quite loose so it's rather noisy. Anyone going to the CAF show should be able to pick up a TT touch kit either from Best electronic or TOAD, and as you've already mentioned, it can also be ordered from Sheldon at Computer Studio. I got mine from Best last year, it was quite expensive, how much did you pay if I dare ask? John B. ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 198 Sat Aug 13, 1994 R.BEATTY3 [Buffalo Bob] at 05:08 PDT DarkChyld, Glad to see tha Falcon is serving your needs... The NVRAM CPX should save the information automatically. Be careful not to set an unbootable config, from what I understand it'll crash at boot and require factory servicing to "make it right" Buffalo Bob Neutronics Honolulu, HI ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 199 Sat Aug 13, 1994 R.HALL49 [DarkChyld] at 14:48 EDT Well, I set everything then exited the Control panel and saved my desktop...then i went back to the NVRAM CPX and it was back to its default settings...I set it again, saved again, and rebooted to see if the settings would then take effect...no go...any other advice? Thanks again! DarkChyld... ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 200 Sat Aug 13, 1994 N.POWERS1 [Nick] at 19:07 EDT DarkChyld, > I got NVRAM (the cpx) and am having trouble using it! Can anybody > help? > I can't figure out how to save it so that it works when I re-boot I had the same problem a while back. To fix it, get file 29630, CONFIG.ZIP. This program from Atari Benelux is used to set the language and the keyboard layout in the non-volitale RAM. When I ran CONFIG.APP it told me that my non- volatile RAM was not operational and it offered to reset it. After that, the NVRAM CPX worked perfectly. I hope CONFIG.APP will solve your problem as well. --Nick ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 201 Sat Aug 13, 1994 ICDINC [Tom] at 20:18 EDT Bman, CAF and SCSI Pro have been working 100% since 6.5.5 which was released several months ago. Dual IDE? We haven't forgotten. - TOM - ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 202 Sat Aug 13, 1994 R.HALL49 [DarkChyld] at 20:45 EDT Nick! Thanks a lot...do you think that that reset NVRAM program in the NVRAM program might be for the same purpose?... Well, either way I'll download that file and give it a shot! Hope it works, will be nice to get a default bootup screen of VGA! Thanks again and see ya later! DarkChyld... PS Call my BBS sometime! I'm supporting the Falcon fully and have the GEMini CD online! (The DarkForce BBS @ 1-606-886-0914!) ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 203 Sat Aug 13, 1994 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 21:48 EDT Thanks, Perf! Al ------------ Category 30, Topic 3 Message 204 Sun Aug 14, 1994 D.ASHTON1 [Stargazer ] at 14:29 EDT Tom.... I must say that the upgrade to 6.5.5 is great! My Falcon hasn't missed a single boot since I installed the new SYS file. Well worth the cost to upgrade! ------------