*---== ST REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---* """"""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original Online ST Magazine" _______________________________ August 04, 1989 Vol III No.99 ======================================================================= ST Report Online Magazine¿ __________________________ Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32236 ~ 6672 R.F. Mariano Publisher - Editor _________________________________________ Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EDT BBS: 904-786-4176 12-24-96 HST FAX: 904-783-3319 12 AM - 6 AM EDT _________________________________________ ** F-NET NODE 350 ** FIDOMAIL NODE 1:363/37 ** Our support BBS carries ALL issues of STReport and An International list of private BBS systems carrying STReport for their users enjoyment __________________________________________________________________ > Issue: #99 STReport¿ The Online Magazine of Choice! ------------------- - The Editors' Podium - CPU REPORT - WOA - San Jose, CANCELLED!! - GLENDALE ATARIFEST OFF!! - STAG VIRUS DISCOVERED - Populous, In Depth Review - Developers SEE 68030! - ST PLUS a MODULAR ST? - HOLOBYTE MESS WORSENS! - Revolving Door Active - Price Club 520ST Sales - ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL --== GADGETS BY SMALL COUNTER-SUES HAPPY COMPUTERS ==-- ======================================================================= AVAILABLE ON: COMP-U-SERVE ~ DELPHI ~ GENIE ~ BIX ======================================================================= > The Editor's Podium¿ The MEGA ST, is it destined to become another in the long line of "almosts" in the Atari stable of really excellent computers? Certainly we, at STReport, hope the Mega is around for a very long time. (We own two!) Many folks say the Mega never lived up to the expectations of Atari as far as penetrating the business marketplace. Actually, the penetration by the Mega into the US business marketplace would have been excellent if only Atari had advertised as they said they would last year and perhaps changed the name on the Mega. The Atari name was, as it is today, too closely associated to the "game machine" image and thus, gives credibility to the business marketplace being somewhat uneasy as far as investing in the Atari Mega ST as a serious business oriented computer. Atari is, "according to certain inside sources", planning to release some tumultuous, earth shattering news very shortly. These revelations are alleged to be extremely good news concerning the new line(s) of Atari Computers and the directions in which Atari will be going. Considering all the whispers of the those who would like us to believe they "know" what's happening, to those at Atari who have nothing to say in response to questions from almost all areas, the level of expectation has never been higher. Alas, as always with this type of suspense, come those who are convinced that there is really nothing happening and thus the silence. They also eagerly point out the TOS 1.4 situation grinning as they say "it's consistent alright, consistently late"! Once again, we say the time is coming close for all to pay strict attention to the happenings at Atari, things are beginning to fall in place as Atari begins to take it's rightful place in the U.S. Marketplace. The Company as a whole, despite itself and certain folks still there, is about to begin a massive effort as far as the US market is concerned and will certainly make it's presence known and felt nationwide. There has been, of late, accusations levied at STReport of having gone to bed with Atari! HAH! Nothing could be farther from the truth. The bottom line is we are digging deeply and we find that the positives outweigh the negatives. Some of the same old unsolved problems are seemingly "never ending" but they too are slowly fading into the sunset. Thankfully, at this time the positives outweigh the headaches. We will, in future editions, be covering some of the old, unresolved problems in the userbase. Like the old Chinon drive thing, (you know, the refresh problem?) they are still popping up but; "all of a sudden" some "public relations expert" at Atari has decided to no longer honor the Chinon swap-out! Good Thinking! Give that guy in Michigan the benefit of the doubt, it's the right thing to do! Also, covered elsewhere in this issue, the Price Club/Dealers thing ....nothing like pouring salt in old, unhealed wounds...So you added some dealers, wanna loose 'em just as quick as you put 'em on? To our readers; thanks again for your support, Ralph..... "ATARI IS BACK!" *********************************************************************** NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY COMPUSERVE WILL PRESENT $15.00 WORTH OF COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE TIME to the Readers ST REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE The Online Magazine of Choice! NEW USERS SIGN UP TODAY! Call any of the St Report Official BBS numbers (Listed at the top of ST REPORT) or Leave E-mail to St Report - R.Mariano Be sure to include your full mailing address so your Compuserve kit can be immediately mailed to you! NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE *********************************************************************** EDITOR NOTICE: Michael Arthur is on vacation.. The Regular CPU Report will return next week. In the meantime, Mike left this passage for folks to ponder. The Staff of CPU Report believes that the Transputer-based computer that Atari licensed from Perihelion Inc. in England should NOT be named the ATW, or Atari Transputer Workstation, for two simple reasons: 1) Contrary to opinions of a few, the name "Atari", at least in the US, is commonly associated with Game/Entertainment/Arcade Machines. It is NOT associated with sophisticated, powerful computers having some of the best capabilities in the industry. Since we are owners of Atari ST's, we in the Atari ST community recognize Atari as being makers of quality computer products. But the general US population, and ESPECIALLY the serious workstation/business computer Industry, does NOT hold as high a regard for "Atari" computers as Atari ST owners do.... As such, naming Atari's Transputer-based workstation the "Atari Transputer Workstation" would CRIPPLE its chances of ever becoming half as popular in the US as the Atari ST, simply because its potential buyers would see that it was another "Atari", and simply shrug it off as a toy, or an odd curiosity. The Transputer would NOT be considered on the basis of its EXCELLENT and SUPERB capabilities, but on the past reputation of Atari, its manufacturer. Many potential Transputer Customers would then refuse to buy the ATW, instead turning to Sun, who has a superb RISC-based machine in the SPARCStation 1, because of Sun's better reputation in the workstation industry.... 2) According to industry sources, the reason Atari did not use the name "Abaq Transputer" as the name for its Transputer-based machine is that the name "Abaq" was already licensed by a Belgian Firm, and Atari didn't want to pay to license it. Given that Apple licensed the name "Macintosh", and given that it would probably not have cost Atari 67.3 Million Dollars (the price Atari paid for Federated) to license the name Abaq, why did Atari choose instead to give it a name which is not only simplistic, but actually would repulse many potential customers from purchasing it, because of their opinions about what Atari makes? One of the main reasons that Commodore has sold so many Amigas is because they did not name it the "Commodore Plus" or the C-1000. The name Amiga helped to differentiate the Amiga computer from the other products made by Commodore. Apple did the same with the Macintosh.... Since the ATW is so very different from the rest of Atari's product line, wouldn't it make more sense to give it a name that would differentiate it from Atari's product line? Consumers would STILL recognize that it was an Atari computer, so the ATW would help to boost Atari's image in the US, and would help "cure" the belief that the only thing that Atari makes is game Machines. BUT the main result of Atari naming their Transputer-based machine something that didn't directly associate it with Atari itself, would be that potential ATW customers would not immediately shrink away from buying it because of Atari's "Game Machine" image, but would approach the ATW, maybe at a SIGGRAPH or a COMDEX, see its capabilities, and then.... After they were hopelessly hooked on its capabilities, the business company would see the Fuji symbol, realize that they liked the "Atari" so much, and want to buy it ANYWAY, regardless of their past misconceptions about Atari products.... Also, the name, "Atari Transputer Workstation" sounds TOO MUCH like.... "Nintendo Transputer Workstation".... ____________________________________________________________________ > POPULOUS STR Review¿ Bill takes a long hard look at this goodie! =================== Populous--From Bullfrog and Electronic Arts =========================================== by William Y. Baugh Have you ever wanted to play god? To be in total control of your believers lives? Ever been mad and wanted to take it out by, say, flooding the place (sound familiar?)? Well, in Populous, a new game from EA (yes, you read right), you have the chance to live your dream. You are a deity, either good or bad, and you have total control over your people, land and nature. The game, simply put, is, one of numbers. The more followers you have, the more power you have to totally wipe out the other deity who would dare live on the same world as you. The game comes on a highly protected disk (no hard drive use) and once loaded, has a great title screen with one flaw...it seems Bullfrog wanted to make it hard on you to make your selection with the mouse. You see, the three selections are at the lower right corner, the mouse initializes in the upper left corner and if you wait to long or miss on your click, the game goes into an interesting demo, but not one that you want to see everytime you play. The three selections are Tutorial, Conquest and Custom. The Tutorial is just as it says; you have a set game with set moves from the manual to help you pick up on the game. Custom I'll get to in a while, we're more interested in Conquest from the review point of view. Once selected, you are transported to Genesis, the first of 500 worlds in Populous. On screen is a menu describing the parameters of this world and the abilities of each god. The information tells you what the terrain is (grass, desert, rock and ice), how you may build your land (up and down, only in one direction or not at all and also on what you may build; people or towns), whether water is deadly or not (helpful when/and if you are flooded), the number of followers that both sides start with and the computer (or other opponents) overall ability. The computer is always the evil deity and starts out very weak. As the game progresses and your experience grows, so does the computers. How hard or easy a level will be is determined by the computers abilities (aggression and the rate at which its followers will settle) and the number of "special effects" it has. On Genesis, you start out with all of the effects (starting from the lowest in power consumption to the highest); build up-down, move papal icon, earthquake, swamp, knight, volcano, flood and armageddon. The computer starts out with none. So, the early levels are pushovers, but as you continually progress forward, more special effects are taken from you and the computer gains more and also improves on his abilities. Even though this sounds like a lot of information to swallow before you even start the game, you ain't seen nothing yet! But not to worry, most of this info becomes second hand and you'll only be glancing at the menu to see what the terrain is and what effects you have for that world. Once you press start, the fun begins! You are taken to the closeup map and generally you are in the vicinity of your followers. If not, there is the Book of Worlds; an overview map that shows the Good followers as blue dots and the Evil ones as red. Just locate the group of dots and click on them. Another way to find them and also an extremely useful function are the View Icons. You have one for the papal magnet (your cross; which is located near your followers at the beginning), one for your knights and one for battles (if any are occurring). These will take you instantly to whichever one you choose, so you don't have to "hunt and peck." The first thing you'll see when you get to your followers are the structures they live in. These may range from a simple Tee-pee, to grass huts, to large castles depending upon the area of flat land available when your follower (also called 'Walker') settled. You can tell the settlements apart by the flag flying in front of them. If it's blue, it's good; if red, evil. This is where all the fun and strategy starts. For your followers to reproduce, they must be in settlements. Once a settlement is full, a walker emerges and will walk until he finds a suitable spot to settle or dies (this depends on a lot of factors; covered later). Now, the smaller the settlement, the faster a walker will be ousted, but its defense is weaker when attacked. But the larger the settlement, say a castle, the slower it is filled (populated), but its defense is MUCH better and your overall population will grow faster in castles rather than in smaller settlements. So at the beginning of the game, you must gauge the sizes of your settlements to the number of followers that you have so that you will grow faster than the evil steadily building larger and larger land areas for your followers to populate. Your followers are controlled by the Influence Behavior Icons. These icons, in conjunction with your leader (the guy walking around with the miniature papal magnet), tell your followers what to do. These icons are; go to papal magnet, settle, gather together and fight. Each one covers a number of crucial aspects that are critical for winning the game. Information on how the game is progressing is displayed in the upper right area of the screen. There is a shield, made up of four quadrants, with two long, rectangular bars situated to the left and right. The bars show the manna of good (left) and evil (right). The manna is a direct correlation of the size of your population (remember, the more followers, the more power you have). The shield is actually a blown up version of the Query Icon that you may place on settlements or people (good or evil). In the quadrants they show what it's attached to, their strength or how populated a settlement is, and technology level. This comes in handy when your wanting to keep tabs on a particular person when you are not in his area or if your just interested in how evil is coming along. As your strength grows, you will notice the arrow on the bar that runs diagonally on the right will steadily move up to the right. Displayed on the bar are all of the special effects. The effects you may use are under the arrow and to the left. You control these effects by the Divine Intervention Icons which line the left of your control screen. Each one requires the use an amount of manna; the amount gets larger as you go to the right on the bar. You can cause some serious damage with these icons. The earthquake effect will cause a shake-up to occur in the area you have chosen. This will affect all buildings in this area along with drowning people if water is fatal. Swamping will create swamps in any flat area, in the location that you have chosen. Swamps may either be shallow or bottomless; meaning that you may remove a shallow one by just raising or lower the land on top of it. The bottomless kind you must build all the way down to the water to get rid of... a large waste of manna and land area. Knight...think of the terminator wearing old English armor and you have your knight. He will systematically go from enemy settlement to settlement and kill the occupants, then torch the place (nice digitized sound there). But, he is only as strong as you can make him. This is where the Influence Behavior Icons play a prominent role. When you knight, you make your leader the knight. So to make your leader stronger, you click on the "go to papal magnet" icon, there your leader will walk back and forth bumping in to the followers coming to the icon. Everytime he bumps into a person, that person becomes part of the leader, adding strength to the leader. After a few minutes of this, you have the superman of knights (he's practically indestructible). The next icon is Volcano which actually builds a very large mountain destroying all buildings in the area you select, with stones thrown in. Stones can only be removed if you dig down to the water. To get rid of a volcano requires much manna and it also ruins a large chunk of land. Flooding will lower the land one level, over the entire screen! So be careful when choosing this effect in that you will also flood yourself. This is very dangerous weapon in the early levels when you are able to build up multiple levels and the computer is only one up from the water. The last effect is Armageddon. This is the final match; when this is selected, you can only sit back and watch. All of your buildings disappear and only your followers remain. They converge on your leader, creating a tremendously strong person. This person will then battle the evil leader, the victor will then win that level. Once the game is won, depending upon your score will dictate how far you will advance to your next level (ala Sentinel). As you play and gain experience, you will learn the role that terrain plays in each level. You normally cycle through the terrains as follows: Grass, desert, snow and ice, rock and stone. Grass level is the easiest in that your walkers can walk for quite a while without dying. In the desert and ice, there is a very limited range that your walkers may travel before they buy the farm. Rock is a bit more difficult than grass, but having all the stones laying around makes up for its better climate. This is a very tight, complete and graphically pleasing game. All aspects of the game are covered, right down to your walker tapping his foot while he waits for you to build land or if you accidentally trash his house. The game has a Custom creator that will allow you to design your own levels and you may even play over the modem! (It plays great a 2400!) Take my word for it, if your looking for a fun, strategy game, get Populous...you'll love it! Next week, some helpful hints on playing Populous. _______________________________________________________________________ > VIRUS STR Spotlight¿ Certain disks from Dearborn found infected. =================== This article first appeared in the August NEO STAG news and may be reprinted so long as it is not modified in any way and this preface is included in the reproduction. NEO STAG STRUCK BY VIRUS! ========================= Origin unknown ... members seek help Copyright ½ 1989 W.D. Parks and Chet Walters There's a trojan afoot in the Atari community! Beware! Write protect all your diskettes NOW! This trojan 'virus' spreads without any ill effects, unbeknownst to you or anyone who comes in contact with you, until it's too late! You can spread it as innocently as giving your friend a disk full of pics to look at. We have found this beastie on commercial disks, magazine disks, club disks, and many more. No disk is safe. Check all your disks! What first alerted the Wiz to the fact that all was not right with the world' was when I wrote an executable boot sector to the floppy in drive A: with DC Formatter. The boot sector was to bypass the hard drive auto boot and execute the auto folder on the floppy instead of the one on the hard drive. I copied a few files to the disk and rebooted the machine. Alas! The executable boot did not work as advertised. So, I wrote the boot sector again. Again it did not work. Hmmmmm.... it always worked before. Let's get DiskDoctor to take a look. Ok, the $60 BRAnch looks alright. The $38 offset looks ok. Let's see what's there. Yikes! This ain't no bypass! And why does the 'Dclick' that DC formatter always writes to the disk now say "00 00 00 00 c k"???? Hmmmm..... So, just for a lark, I ran a virus detector program and checked the disk. LO! A virus! Type 1. Known! Yikes again! There was something there overwriting the boot sector and spoiling the hard drive bypass routine. What? In closer examination, we found a routine that is explained in greater detail later in this article. However, we must first emphasize that the programs mentioned above had absolutely NOTHING to do with the virus. They were as innocent as we. They were victims. This trojan is all too easily passed around. All one needs do is boot with a disk infected with this virus and any disk placed in the drive thereafter will become infected whether it is read or written to and disks that need their own boot sector to work properly will be destroyed. If the drive motor spins for any reason -- ESC pressed to update the window, a file copied to or from it, a program calls up the file selector, just open the window -- it gets infected. This trojan can spread rather quickly throughout your system, your club, your community in this way. The virus itself seems only floppy oriented, infecting only floppy disks, but the KEY DISK might just do more harm to a hard drive than anything else. I discovered the culprit late Wednesday night (7-26-89) but was very occupied Thursday getting ready for a short vacation so I had little time for an extensive investigation. I did, however, sound the alarm to the other members of the club. In the limited time I did have, I found that nearly 50 of my disks were infected. Others of our club found more than that in their library, others not so many, but one fact is clear -- it seems that EVERYONE in NEO STAG is infected. I spoke to a friend in Cleveland and mentioned it. He called me back an hour later and said he'd found numerous disks in his library infected as well. A friend of his had two disks from the WOA show in Michigan that were infected and the man insisted that he had not written nor read the disks without the write protect tab in place which means that the disks came from the show in their present ill condition. This little beastie may well be very wide spread and a real threat to the entire Atari community. Whether this trojan is an old one that has resurfaced, or a new one that's newly circulated we can't tell. In perusing the reports from various members of our group, we seem to think that we first got infected here in early spring 1989. Judging from the disks infected and scouring our memory, it seems disks not placed in the drive since March or April are 'clean,' but many of those used after that time are dirty. This is a standard trojan that spreads silently and waits for a key disk to set it off. We haven't found the key disk. We want you to help. Here's all the information we care to release about this little beastie (if we give out any more there may be some unscrupulous individuals at large who could create and spread their own variety of key disk for this trojan). The lion's share of the digging was done by Dr. Bob. Because of his unique investigative skills and the fact that I was leaving for a four day hiatus at Virginia Beach, I turned the 'dirty work' over to him. This Trojan program seems to have come into it's 'hazardous' phase. Dr. Bob calls this a trojan because that is what it is. It is not a virus. In Dr. Bob's inimitable style of phrase: "A virus is a glorified term given to personify and to create a mystique for a simple off-color, fornicating device; to wit: a program that will damage your diskettes. These kinds of programs do not deserve ANY public relations other than jail sentences. So let's snip the 'hero cult' where it can't have any offspring! (preferably with something rusty!)" Dr. Bob's findings: The Trojan program that we have here is sometimes called TYPE 1. IDENTIFIABLE CHARACTERISTICS: At the very beginning of the boot sector the first 6 bytes are hex codes: $60,$38,$00,$00,$00,$00 the $60 ........ BRAnch instruction of self booting disk (normal) the $38 ........ tells offset to which to BRAnch (normal) the 4 zeroes.... There should usually be something! (abnormal) NOTE: Many self booting disks or disks with executable boot routines built into them have the $60 $nn sequence as the first word of the boot sector. The $60 is a flag which tells TOS to execute the routine at the $nn offset in the buffer. Disks with these codes are not always trojanized, they are simply boot-disks. Indeed, these are the very codes that alerted the Wiz to the trojan since the second byte had been modified so the 'bypass HD' boot routine wasn't executing. The two trailing zero words (4 zero bytes) are the quick identifier of the trojan in this case. IMMEDIATE SYMPTOMS: Few to speak of, other than all floppies get this auto boot sector written to them if the trojan is hooked into the system. It's a sneaky one, writing itself to all disks accessed in either floppy drive while you are unaware except that you might notice a slowdown in floppy access time. PURPOSE OF TROJAN: To duplicate itself on all diskettes and to wait for a key disk. DAY IN THE LIFE: This trojan is started by placing a diskette that contains the viral boot sector on it into drive A: and booting the machine which causes the trojan to wedge itself into the operating system's HDV_BPB vector... pointing that vector to itself. Hence forth, any calls to read a new floppy will pass through this new vector. Hard drive owners are not immune since the ST always reads the boot sector in floppy drive A: first and executes a 'flagged' boot sector that starts with the BRAnch instruction. After it's 'hooked in', the trojan first calls the old vector then, before returning to say... the desktop or PageStream or whatever program accessed the disk, it will sneak a peek at the boot sector. If it doesn't find a $60 $38 as the first two bytes it then knows there's a clean disk in the drive and proceeds to copy itself to that diskette's boot sector. This is done before the diskette has stopped spinning from the initial valid call so no one's any the wiser. It then simply falls through to the calling program which first accessed the diskette and all proceeds as normal. But the work is done! If the diskette accessed wasn't write-protected it will now have the trojan on it! That's what it does if it finds no $60 $38 as the first word. However, if it FINDS the $60 $38 already there THEN we got some action going. It will check the diskette's 'identity' at offset 2 and later at 4 looking for the code $10 $xx (again, we won't tell you exactly what this 'ID number' is so there won't be anyone else making KEY DISKS for this trojan other than the original SOB that started it) immediately following the $60 $38. If it finds the $10 $xx it knows that: THIS IS THE KEY DISK! It then goes through a little song and dance that can only be explained as "The Trojan's Author's need to check to make sure his routine worked." It checks the next two bytes also and compares them with itself. If the keydisk's number is larger than itself it acts! Now.... remember the identifying marks? 60 38 00 00 00 00? EVERYTHING is going to be bigger than 0000! Right? So why bother checking? I told you why! The programmer wanted to test it and not write over his own key-disk by accident.... What does it do now? That is a very good question. It does whatever the key-disk tells it to do since the key disk has an entirely different routine residing at the offset BRAnched to and THAT is where this little trojan jumps to when it finds the key-disk. It RUNS the key disk program (which appears to anyone viewing the diskette as though it were just another auto boot program; but now we know better!) It could do something as innocuous as print a "hello world" message on the screen and return your system to you. It could also do something as harmful as zeroing all the directories on your hard drive! So that's the key-disk to look for. It will have $10 $xx at the 3rd & 4th bytes in the boot sector (offset 2,3) right where the first two zeroes are on the trojan. It would look like: $60 $38 $10 $xx $nn $nn If the "$nn $nn" also contain zeroes then the key disk will be dormant.... maybe............ If you encounter the key disk, DO NOT erase it! Send us a copy so we can dig in there and find out first: what this sucker is supposed to do when it executes and second: identify the SOB that started this thing circulating! Send to NEO STAG PO Box 45 Girard, OH 44420. You will be rewarded. So, what do you do to prevent this virus spreading if you have it? You can, of course, get hold of a virus detector/killer program and examine all of your disks. We can't recommend a particular program for you because our bylaws forbid it. You see, the members of NEO STAG will not purchase, donate for, publish the name of, nor support in any way any single virus detector/killer program on the premise that the author of such a program is not above first releasing the virus eradicator then subsequently releasing the actual virus the program is designed to detect and kill thereby creating a demand for the original virus detector/killer program. That's that, though we can say that there are some out there that will detect and kill this trojan effectively. We can recommend you use a simple sector editor and look for the patterns described in this article. If you find the pattern, you can kill the trojan by writing a single zero byte to the very first byte of the boot sector. However! Don't overwrite ALL disks that have the $60 as the first byte. If it's a known boot disk (game, executable boot, etc.) then DON'T overwrite that $60 or the disk will be destroyed. Look for the trailing zero bytes like you see in the illustration, then you can feel comfortable killing the virus with the zero byte. The best way to prevent yourself from getting a virus is to always keep the write protect tab in the open position and always boot with a disk you know is clean. Again, if you find a disk with the `KEY' sequence, make a copy and send it to us. We want to see it! ___________________________________________________________________ > HOLOBYTE - MESS?? STR FOCUS¿ When is SH going to clean up it's mess? =========================== AS THE WORM TURNS ================= by Peter Szymonik Back when XORG and STReport said that Gilamn Louie's 'slander letter' would hurt the ST more than anyone cared to realize, most folks seemed to turn a deaf ear to the entire matter, like they were yearning it would go away! Well, the whole "schmear" is back! Right smack in ALL our faces!! Below, we humbly present just two of what we are sure is just the surface of this quagmire generated by Mr. Louie's smear campaign against the Atari ST and it's userbase in < the computer and gaming press. > By the way... We never did see that retract that was promised in the CO with Gilman and ...we have looked everywhere... Exhibit A: --------- CHESS LIFE August 1989 issue United States Chess Federation 186 Route 9W New Windsor, New York 12550 Page 23, Article: What's New in Chess Software by Eric Schiller "CHESSBASE II IS HERE AT LAST! ChessBase is at work on a Mac version - though it probably will not be ready for a long time, and it seems they have finally realized the truth about the Atari. So (at present) - go with MS-DOS for that program. I am sure that they will continue to support the Atari, but slumping sales of that machine are not likely to produce major improvements. In any event, MS-DOS is the best operating system of the three for portable machines, and it is clearly useful to be able to take the program along when playing in major events." Background: ChessBase is one of the most powerful chess programs and databases. Mr Schiller obviously shows up his pro-MS-DOS bias and has apparently never heard of the Stacy given his portability comments. Not only that, but Mr Schiller also apparently has access to Atari sales records that no one else has seemed to be able to get a hold of! I would like to know where Mr Schiller gets his information that sales of the ST are 'slumping', in New York there are selling ST systems as fast as they arrive. Not only that, but ChessBase is also widely used by many GrandMasters - who use the program on the ST in Europe - where it was first introduced. In fact Gary Kasparov, the current World Champion, uses a Mega 4 for his Chess data storage and has pushed for the sale of Atari computers in the Soviet Union to further chess in that country! Exhibit B: --------- The Wargamer Magazine July-August 1989 issue Vol. 2 Number 14 Wargamer & Moves Magazines P.O. Box 1289 Salinas, CA 1289 Page 62, Article: The Not-So-Jolly Roger by Dick and Lisa Volher An article on software piracy and its effects.... "The problem results from people who abuse their rights to [sic] by making a copy for somebody else, somebody who didn't buy the game. Lost sales due to piracy are a major problem in all segments of the software industry. Indeed, piracy appears to be the primary factor in the demise of the Atari ST." ====== Huh??? OUR machines are 'demised? Atari is 'demised'?? Due to piracy?? Wonder where these people could possibly have gotten this information from? Mr Louie?? Any guesses on this one??? These are extracts from only two magazines out of HUNDREDS that are out there.... In leaving you to make your own assumptions, the addresses of both magazines aren't listed there for idle exercise.....<> ------------------------------------------------------------------- NOW, a copy of my reply to the Wargamer article... I'd like to address a comment made in your "Inside Perspective" article in issue nr. 14. The article addresses software piracy, and while Dick and Lisa Volhers do a good job of addressing the issue, I must challenge their comment that "... piracy appears to be a primary factor in the demise of the Atari ST." Not only is this statement untrue, but I challenge the Volhers to back up their claim that the Atari ST is a 'demised' computer! While IBM, Apple, and Commodore have concentrated solely on the American personal computer market, Atari has targeted the global computer market and has done extremely well. The Atari ST line happens to be THE best selling computer in many European and Asian countries, outselling all others. In the field of MIDI music applications, the Atari ST outsells the MacIntosh by a factor of 3:1 according to MacUser magazine! It is true that Atari has not marketed the ST aggressively in the United States, but Atari has targeted this as the year they return to the American personal computer market and already many print and television ads for the ST are starting to appear on major cable and local metropolitan television networks. Atari's goal for the end of 1989 is to be selling over 60,000 computers per MONTH in the United States and if sales in the New York Metropolitan region are any indication, Atari is well on the way towards achieving that goal. To highlight Atari's success, Atari stock has been steadily rising in value since the Crash of 88 and Atari stock is consistently in the top ten most active issues traded on the AMEX exchange. The Volhers would also be interested to know that Atari has been listed in Fortune magazines top 500 companies for the past three years and currently sits at 400, up from 484 in the previous year - again, hardly a sign of 'demise.' I kindly ask that you print this response in The Wargamer or ask the Volhers to kindly provide their facts to back their claims. Unless they can I'm afraid that their remarks are something short of slander against a computer line which apparently they know little or nothing about. Their comments serve only to anger ST owners in the United States who decided to invest wisely in a machine that offers both color and monochrome displays that pale standard MS-DOS and MacIntosh set-ups at a fraction of the cost. Not to mention that with two very in-expensive third-party hardware add-ons the ST can run BOTH MS-DOS *AND* MacIntosh software (with Macintosh software actually running faster under Atari emulation that on a real Mac Plus!) Thank you, Peter T. Szymonik EDITOR NOTE: Gilman Louie, CEO - Spectrum Holobyte, promised to all of us in attendance during the last Online Conference with him and Spectrum Holobyte that they would "indeed" send letters of a "different" nature to the same people who had received their "hateful" accusation letter. FOR THIS WE WAIT.....AND WAIT..... AND REMEMBER. Plainly said, the Atari userbase is NOT to be taken lightly, SH threw mud all over us, yes all of us, and now, SH must rectify this gross injustice once and for all. Please bear in mind, that with the new products and increased Atari visibility on the horizon, it would be a wise and prudent decision to make every reasonable effort to nullify the bad name SH bestowed upon the Atari ST users en masse. _______________________________________________________________________ > PRICE CLUB DEAL STR FOCUS¿ A lesson in "how to irk dealers"! ========================== PRODUCT BLOWOUT EFFORT BUNGLED! =============================== by R. F. Mariano It has been stated that it was ATARI's idea to call the 520ST that Price Club is selling the 'ST Super Game Machine'. They even packaged 20 free game programs with the system. We (the userbase) spend years convincing people that the ST is not a 'game' machine and Atari's marketing "genius" destroyed those efforts in one fell swoop! The real rub is the short shrift the dealers received as a result of this factory dump through the Price Club. It appears the dealers (most) are paying more money than the sales price over the counter at Price Club! Price Club is selling the 520 ST w/D/S drive for 349.95!! The average dealer is paying 400.00 for the same machine from Atari. Picture this if you will, the dealers call their respective representatives and find that they (the sales reps) are authorized to offer a 50.00 per machine, in inventory or ordered, credit to "try and make amends". Folks, this type of hindsight is a trademark of those who would attempt to "right a serious wrong". It is insufficient! Consider this, the dealer pays shipping, added to that the 350.00, (adjusted cost), and once again the dealer is up over the SALE price of the 520ST at Price Club. Since the Price Club deal has all the earmarks of a factory dump, there is a silver lining here -> the recognition factor. The sad part is, "whatever good comes from this dump will be forever overshadowed by the bungled "price protection" for Atari's loyal dealer base. No wonder many past dealers use expletives aimed at the Sunnyvale Sales & Marketing Comedy Shop. Actually, we are not against Atari using the "mass marketer" to spread the "joy" around, we are dead set against the dealers being left out in the cold!! They should have been offered this plum too! Then there are those who will say the machine, (520STF), has insufficient memory to be a serious machine and does not sell well. We say they are talking through their hats, why? Well, most of this type of "experts" look only at what they want to see and, most often, that's quite limited. The 520 STF still is sold in respectable numbers on the east coast. In fact, it is (was) a good income earner for dealer offered, in the field upgrades. Again... Atari should have allowed it's dealers at this trough ..and at the same pricing. _____________________________________________________________________ > WAACE ATARI FEST STR NewsPlus¿ Usergroups helping Atari and the users. ============================= Washington Area Atari Computer Enthusiasts (WAACE) Fifth Annual Atarifest Scheduled for October 7th and 8th, 1989 The Washington Area Atari Computer Enthusiasts (WAACE) has announced that the fifth annual Washington D.C. area Atarifest will be held at Fairfax High School, 3500 Old Lee Highway, Fairfax, Virginia on Saturday and Sunday, the 7th and 8th of October. Atarifest is a computing exposition featuring the Atari line of personal and home computers, as well as the complete line of entertainment systems. The show features educational seminars covering nearly all areas of computing; demonstrations of various applications of Atari computers, including MIDI music, desktop publishing, and entertainment; and exhibits by software publishers and hardware manufacturers showing the latest developments in the Atari world. In the past, representatives from Atari Corporation have been on hand to answer questions and provide assistance. This year's theme is "The Atari Alternative," and the goal is to show how Atari computers can be used in business and in the home. It will include demonstrations of both eight-bit (400/800/XL/XE) and ST software and hardware. Whether for creative endeavors, helping with some of the household paperwork, or just to have fun, the organizers of Atarifest '89 intend to show how the "Atari Alternative" can meet and beat other computer systems in its class, and why Atari Corporation's motto is "Power Without the Price." WAACE is a confederation of Atari user groups in the Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. area, each dedicated to supporting the Atari community in their respective areas. Atarifest is co-sponsored by the Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools' Office of Adult and Community Education, and the emphasis has always been on educating the public about computers and their uses. The 1985 Washington Atarifest was one of the first such shows, which are now held in more than 10 cities across the nation. Atarifest has grown in popularity, attracting thousands of attendees each year. This year, organizers hope to attract over 5,000 people. The show is open to all persons who have an interest in computing, and the FREE ADMISSION and hourly door prizes (including an Atari hard disk drive) encourage attendance by those who may not yet own an Atari computer. It is especially designed to have something of interest for everyone, from diehard Atarians to mainframe systems managers to computer neophytes. Fairfax High School is located at 3500 Old Lee Highway, just off routes 29 and 50 in Fairfax, Virginia. The school can conveniently be reached from the Vienna Metro station (Orange line) by taking the Fairfax Cue bus. Hours of the show are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Most user group demonstrations will be conducted on Saturday only. For further information, call John Barnes at (301) 652-0667. For further information contact: Gary Purinton (703) 264-8826 John Barnes (301) 652-0667 Vendors should contact: Johnna Ogden (703) 450-3992. _____________________________________________________________________ > Becker CAD STR Review¿ Bill Pike does another fine review. ====================== Design it Yourself ================== by Bill Pike (PAC) This program is a fully implemented CAD (Computer Aided Design) program. The original program is German and is a translation into English. This comes to us from the good people at Abacus Software. The suggested retail price for BeckerCAD is $395.00 and includes 5 libraries of Symbols & Objects. If you were to purchase this type of program for the IBM-PC or clone you would be paying from $800 to $2000 min. This is another reason to buy Atari. The program REQUIRES 1 MEG OF MEMORY and TOS IN ROM, 2 meg is needed for larger/more complex drawings, it also REQUIRES A DOUBLE SIDED DISK DRIVE, a hard disk is suggested but it is optional. Printers supported are the Epson LQ, Epson FX, Atari SLM804, NEC P5/6/7, Apple Laser Writer, HP-GL plotters, Epson HI-80 plotter, Post Script PS-A3 Driver for typesetters. The program also uses GDOS so if you put it on a hard-disk you will need to load the correct ASSIGN.SYS file, I would suggest the program G+Plus from Codehead Software to do this task. The BeckerCAD is mostly mouse and icon driven. The program supports from 1 to 300 different transparent layers that can be overlapped, as you wish, for the final printout. There are 2 sets of 20 drawing icons for a total of 40 drawing icons including, but not limited to; various lines, arcs, circles, elliptical arcs, ellipses, concentric circles, concentric ellipses, parallel lines, rays, as well as freehand drawing. There are several line sizes, pen sizes, and types of lines supported as well as many textures, for filling in objects. The drop down menus as well as hot-keys are included and greatly speed up your usage of the program. There is also a MACRO LANGUAGE that can be programmed in and MACROS that can be used to greatly speed up various drawing routines that are used often. Four different lettering fonts are also supported. You also have the option of snap to grid for your object/drawing placement. The program comes with a library disk with 5 libraries of objects, symbols, including; Electronic Components, Electrical Technology, Electrical Installation, Hydraulic & Pneumatic, Architectural Symbols. These libraries are normally sold separately, at a pretty fair price, as an addition to most CAD Programs. You can also create and save your own symbols/objects in your own symbol libraries. If you have the idea that this program can do just about anything you ask for it to do except make the pizza and popcorn you are right. I am very impressed with this program, as if you haven't figured this out already. The program can do anything from laying out a screwdriver design to designing a house and landscaping. The output is a standard blueprint including dimensioning and all other measurements including arc and angle descriptions, the drawings are all to scale and you can select the scale. As I said before, this system can output to dot-matrix printers, laser printers, and plotters. It works with all standard size drawings, including european sizes. The program has many features that I just don't have room to write or time to divulge at the present time. You really have to see this program to believe it. This is a rather expensive program to purchase unless you have a need for it, ie: I wouldn't purchase it just to play around with it. However it can really save you lots of time and lots of money if you have need of it, no more erasing and redrawing just pick the layers you want to use on the final drawing or make several drawings using different layers. In other words don't expect it to do the same job a $25,000 to $2,000,000 system can do but it sure beats the heck out of any other CAD for a personal computer. Editor Note: The reviewer who wrote the above article has done a nice job of describing Becker CAD and it's various features. There is, however,one point to be made here, and that is; although he is quite enthusiastic about this program, we find it hard to believe that he has performed in- depth comparisons all the CAD programs available for the Atari ST computer line. For this reason , we announce that in the next few weeks we will present a comprehensive review of ISD's DYNACADD. We feel, in so doing, we present to the userbase the opportunity to observe the finer points of a few of the many programs available for the ST. ______________________________________________________________________ > Atari Stock ~ STReport¿ Watching them go up and go down! ====================== THE TICKERTAPE ============== by Glenn Gorman Atari Stock dropped 1/4 of a point on Monday, up 1/8 on Tuesday and up 3/4 on Thursday. Finishing up the week at 8 3/4 points. Down 7/8 of a point from last Friday. Do to circumstances beyond my control, I did not get a report for Wednesday, July 26. Glenn Gorman +---------------------+ | ATARI STOCK WATCH | | Week 07-24 to 07-28 | +=======+==========+===========+=============+============+=============+ | | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | +-------+----------+-----------+-------------+------------+-------------+ | Sales | 1024 | 748 | ---- | 4016 | 1139 | +-------+----------+-----------+-------------+------------+-------------+ | Last | 7 5/8 | 7 3/4 | ----- | 8 3/4 | 8 3/4 | +-------+----------+-----------+-------------+------------+-------------+ | Chg. | -1/4 | +1/8 | ---- | +3/4 | ---- | +=======+==========+===========+=============+============+=============+ | From > THE CAVE ST BBS <> 609-882-9195 <> 300/14400 HST <> F-NET #351 | +======================================================================== An analyst's viewpoint or a casual buyer?? A point or two to ponder concerning the STOCK MARKET AND ATARI...... Will the Time-Warner Merger affect ATARI stock? Although Time and Life, Inc. has no relation to ATARI Computers, Inc., the merger between Warner Bros. and Time will affect the short-term value of ATARI stock. On the ABC show "Business World," shown Sunday July 30, it was revealed that the CEOs at Time would have to raise capital by selling their interests in: 1) Viacom ..the entertainment company 2) Hasbro ..the toy manufacturing company 3) ATARI ..the home entertainment/computer manufacturing company. Although there is no proof of these predictions, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what will most likely happen. Many of you are aware that Warner Brothers was the company that Jack Tramiel bought ATARI from. Most of the money "paid" by Jack was in the form of promissory notes and stock options when he took the company public. If the CEOs at Time/Life sell their interest in ATARI, that will create a large float of ATARI stock in the market. Also, if Warner needs additional cash to put the merger together, they will very likely sell theirs as well. If you also looked at ATARI's 1988 Annual Report, you will notice that it is an undervalued company. Undervalued companies are takeover targets in merger/acquisitions. What makes a company become a takeover target? When there is unusual activity in their stock! Raiders have many different "stock trading volume" alarms that they use to warn them about potential profit opportunities. Let's speculate about what might happen if a corporate raider finds out about the unusual trading activity in ATARI stock. His alarm is triggered and he starts asking "Why." He finds out that both Time/Life and Warner Bros. are unloading their holdings in ATARI. At first, the raider suspects that it's because some bad news about ATARI is about to be made public. But, after checking into that possibility, he finds the opposite to be true. He finds that the only thing that made ATARI lose money last year was their stupid investment in Federated, but ATARI is already trying to sell off their mistake. After poking around some more, the raider finds out that ATARI has a larger computer market presence in Europe than either IBM or Apple. "WAIT A MINUTE!" A larger computer market share than either IBM or Apple in Europe? Europe is going to be the largest free market in the world (over 350,000,000 consumers) when the European Common Market opens in 1992! Now, if I buy ATARI and use it as a beachhead to get my company's foot in the door... A casual thought, wonder why Poppa Jack has been in New York's financial district recently in conferences with the high dollar folks... ______________________________________________________________________ > PC DITTO II STReport InfoFile¿ Avant Garde; about PC Ditto II ============================== KEEPING THE RECORD STRAIGHT =========================== During a long telephone conversation, Computer Shopper's interview a few months back (which they remarkably got very accurate), much information was presented concerning the new PC Ditto, as a result, it can become confusing when you mention updates about a product when even the initial product has not been released. The engineering effort has been over for some time. As for EGA, a dn and other possible features, they will not be released with pc-ditto II initially. We are maintaining our policy of free software updates to our products. But, to clarify: pc-ditto II will be the same as pc-ditto...just faster. We are investigating several features, requested by our market. So far, we are looking into: EGA (enhanced graphics adapter); EMS (extended memory specification); Midi; and, Atari Laser printer support. We have received a few (or in some cases, only one) request(s) for other enhancements, such as: joystick (dual) support; task switching (under Revolver, for example); multi-tasking (simultaneous execution of GEM TOS and pc-ditto II); CD-ROM; and various hardware add-ons produced for the ST (harddrives, tape backups, high-density floppy disks, LANs, and A/D interfaces). We are open to suggestion. We give priority to requests according to the number of similar requests we receive, and the amount of work involved. That's the real scoop. Thanks for the questions! Avant Garde __________________________________________________________________ > WOA DALLAS STR FOCUS¿ ==================== WORLD OF ATARI SHOW -> DALLAS TEXAS =================================== World of Atari Dallas Texas August 19, & 20 1989 WORLD OF ATARI will be held at the Holiday Inn Holidome, Irving Texas on Aug. 19 and 20th. The hours of the show are 10 am till 6pm on Saturday, the 19th and on Sunday; 10am till 5pm. Admission is 5.00 per day or 7.00 for both days. Advance discount tickets are available directly from ST World for User Groups. Usergroup member ticket prices are 3.50 for a single day and 5.25 for both days of the show. The tickets must be ordered no later than August 10, 1989. Admission at the door will be at regular price with no discount. Atari Corporation will feature their full line of products, from the 2600 game machine to the Mega Computer systems. In addition,the pc Portfolio, the Lynx (New Handheld Game system), and the Stacy laptop. Of course many of the companies we are all familiar with will be displaying their latest products and some will be offering appreciable discounts as introductory offers to the users. Prospero Software will be offering a 25% discount as an introductory offer on their products. Also scheduled are instruction seminars designed to appeal to the new, as well as, the experienced user. Companies we are all familiar with who will be there to answer your questions and provide help. Abacus Software Alpha Systems Best Electronics Codehead Software Double Click Software FAST TECHNOLOGY ICD Inc. 8 & 16 bit Intersect Software Imagen Corporation Megabyte Computers Megamax Inc. MichTron Inc. Micro Computers Migraph Inc. Precision Software Prospero Software Reeve Software Seymor/Radix Softrek Marketing Wuztech Inc. plus many more... ___________________________________________________________________ > ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL¿ Sayin' it like it is... ====================== - San Jose, CA. ****** WORLD OF ATARI SHOW CANCELLED!!! ****** ------------- Amidst controversy and apparent hard feelings over 'other matters' which occured as a result of the Dearborn Show, the WOA folks have announced the cancellation of their scheduled San Jose California show. For further information, please call ST World Mag. at: 503-673-2259 - Glendale, CA. ***** TRADITIONAL GLENDALE SHOW NOT TO RUN! ***** ------------- According to J. Tarpinian, spokesman for the show, 'circumstances' beyond their control have brought about the "postponement" of the Glendale Show _until further notice_. Details are available, call 818-760-1831 the official sponsors of the show H.A.C.K.S.. - Lansing, MI. ***** GAMES FOR LYNX MADE ON AN AMIGA! ***** ------------ According to highly placed sources, the games programmed for the new Atari hand held game machine are programmed on an AMIGA!! How's that for a neat twist? "The Atari hand held runs programs made on an AMIGA.. sheesh! - Sunnyvale, CA. ***** 68030 OUT TO DEVELOPERS ***** -------------- Developers are begining to receive the 68030 machines from our favorite company, that is probably the singular most important signal of "things to come" all year long. JRI has one at this time for development purposes. - Sunnyvale, CA. ***** A MODULAR ST? ***** -------------- The ST-Plus is due to appear after the TT. More than likely it will be seen before the end of October. However, regarding the TT, it is suggested you obtain the September issue of STart Magazine reportedly, they will have an interview with Sam Tramiel (Atari Corp. President) about the future of Atari, and the new machines scheduled for release. The TT is guaranteed to appear before the end of the year. Atari is expected to make some new announcements on August 25th, and the ST-Plus will probably be part of them. Addittionaly, there is a dealer meeting scheduled for the 15th of August. Perhaps, at that point we will know more about the "modular ST". Oh! almost forgot, the Portfolio is now at the FCC Labs in VA. being tested for certification. It won't be long now! - Timonium, MD. ***** NEW GERMAN PACKER PROGRAM KILLS SPEED! ***** ------------- A highly experienced and well respected programmer reports, "the packer processed programs boot appreciably slower than those which have not been packed" therefore, it's use may not be to the advantage of the users. To us, at STReport, this means that the efficiency of the fast load features of TOS 1.4 and of course, "Pinhead", along with all earlier versions of TOS are traded off for a relatively small savings in program size. In our humble opinion, that ...is _not_ an equitable trade-off. - Sunnyvale, CA. ***** THE REVOLVING DOOR IS WORKING! ***** -------------- We see that the revolving door is engergized once again....there will be a new usergroup co-ordinator and assistant sales manager shortly at Atari, in unrelated occurances both C. Roberts and J. Mendolia are no longer at Atari. - Sunnyvale, CA. ***** ANOTHER STROKE OF GENIUS! ***** -------------- A few months ago, we praised the Atari exchange program as being one of the very best in the entire computer industry. It had value, it was realistic and it delivered a solid benefit to Atari's entire userbase. Now, just a scant three months later, we are "hearing" that the cost to the end user has become prohibitive and that certain of Atari's spokespersons now know "nothing" about an exchange program. What is it going to take to jog some memories? Copies of invoices, letters and perhaps exchange cost lists from everyone who has enjoyed the benefits of this excellent program? Why do we feel Atari 'must' learn how to "keep track" of what the right and the left hand are doing? Please don't munge up the exchange program, it WORKS and the userbase is comfortable with it. Especially in light of the; "overly generous and world famous", 90 day warranty. The costs to the end user used to be realistic. They are, according to what we are hearing, being raised! Why? Who caused this? Is this another masterstroke of the sales dept.? This type of thinking; "Trap the user into a sale", went out before Ralph Nader was born! Restore the exchange program to it's workable form, honestly ...something that's not broken need not be fixed! Hopefully, this is all a misunderstanding and nothing has changed. ___________________________________________________________________ > GBS vs HAPPY STR NewsPlus¿ Dave Small counters Richard Adams' suit. ========================= DISTRICT COURT, COUNTY OF DOUGLAS, STATE OF COLORADO Civil Action No. 89CV415, Division 2 ___________________________________________________________________ DEFENDANTS' ANSWER TO AMENDED COMPLAINT COUNTERCLAIMS AND THIRD PARTY COMPLAINT ___________________________________________________________________ That's how the legal docs appear at the title page, there are 11 pages of documentation involved in this suit will basically submits to the courts a denial of the allegations in the Happy suit and counter claims by GBS against R. Adams and Happy Computers. The denial and countersuit was filed and served Monday, July 24, 1989 by Gadgets' attorney in Denver Co. _________________________________________________________________ > DC-PORT STReport InfoFile¿ An inside look.... ========================= DC-PORT UPDATE INFORMATION ========================== Here is the scoop on the DC-PORT. DC-PORT does allow for up to 38400 baud thru DC-PORT, but alas, we do not support RTS/CTS at this time. I will discuss the possibility of adding this with Gilbert (he is the hardware wiz). We had decided at the time that rts/cts was not used much, and to keep size and cost down, we did not implement them. On another note, 5-port versions are now available. Previous question, we support the following lines: send receive DCD - carrier detect DTR - data terminal ready ground (unused pin) on rj12 We will post more info. It may be possible to make a special version which does support rts/cts, but I can't say for sure until speaking with gilbert. Here is our document describing access to DC-PORT. Please note that the document has changed slightly (shows rsconf for 38400) but I do not have the updated doc on hand. A five port version is available at this time. Programs which currently support DC-PORT are MichTron BBS v 3.0. Beckemeyer's MTC Shell is now having a device handler added to support DC-PORT. The upgrade to Flash (version 2.0) will have DC-PORT support. FoReM possibly be released with support for DC-PORT (Matt is experiencing various hardware failures preventing a port to the ST). STalker terminal accessory. Please direct all questions to us, we are more than happy to answer! OVERVIEW ======== DC-PORT is a serial expansion cartridge for your Atari ST computer. With DC-PORT you get two more RS232 serial ports. DC-PORT does not support the CTS/RTS and RING DETECT lines. If you need these, use the main ST serial port. INSTALLATION ============ 1) Turn off your computer. NOTE: Always turn the POWER switch OFF when inserting or removing DC-PORT. This will protect the electronic components and prolong the life of your ATARI ST computer. 2) Plug the edge connector of DC-PORT into the cartridge port. 3) Plug the cable, with female DB25 connector, coming from DC-PORT into the ST's main serial port. The label on DC-PORT identifies this cable as: To ST 4) Plug the 3 DC-PORT cables into DC-PORT using the end with RJ12 (phone) NOTE: DO NOT attempt to plug your telephone line directly into DC-PORT. Doing so WILL damage DC-PORT, and void your warranty. DC-PORT is designed to be used with an RS232 compatible device. The RJ12 connectors are *NOT* designed for direct connection to the telephone line. 5) Connect the male DB25 connectors to any RS232 compatible device, such as a modem, scanner, printer, another computer, etc. SPECIFICATIONS ============== DC-PORT supports the following RS232 lines: (numbers indicate the RJ12 pin number) TRANSMIT (1) RECEIVE (2) DATA TERMINAL READY [DTR] (3) CARRIER DETECT (CD) (5) GROUND (6) USAGE ===== To use DC-PORT, you must either be using a DC-PORT compatible program, or you must have the DC-PORT device handler installed. The program DCPORT.PRG adds devices to the ST's BIOS corresponding to the two extra ports. Programming to communicate using DC-PORT is provided through BIOS compatible calls. This section details use of these calls for DC-PORT and the regular serial port. ---- BIOS ---- using the TRAP #13 call. All examples are calling sequences from 'C' Numbers in parenthesis indicate the function number All the examples will use the following declarations: #define AUX 0x0002 /* main ST serial port, DC-PORT 0 */ #define DCP0 0x8000 /* DC-PORT 0, main ST serial port */ #define DCP1 0x8100 /* DC-PORT 1 */ #define DCP2 0x8200 /* DC-PORT 2 */ #define DCP3 0x8300 /* DC-PORT 3 */ #define DCP4 0x8400 /* DC-PORT 4 */ char input; /* character input */ long status; /* status - where applicable */ int port; /* DC-PORT select */ port = DCP1; FUNCTIONS --------- int Bconstat(dev) (1) Return character-device input status, D0.L will be 0x0000 if no character is available, or 0xffff if (at least one) character is available from the device. Example: if (Bconstat(port)) input = Bconin(port); NOTE: For ease of use, you can OR the value of the DC-PORT select with the AUX: device number. We will use this syntax throughout the document. Example (from above): if (Bconstat(port|AUX)) input = Bconin(port|AUX); int dev; dev is the device number as defined above. Does not return until a character has been input (busy-wait). It returns the character value in D0.L, with the high word zero. Example: input = Bconin(port|AUX); ------------------- void Bconout(dev,c) (3) int dev, c; dev is the device number as defined above. Output character 'c' to the device. Does not return until the character has been written. Example: ------------------- long Bcostat(dev) (8) int dev; dev is the device number as defined above. Returns character output status: -1 Device is ready to send (no waiting on next device-output call). 0 Device is not ready to send. Example: status = Bcostat(port|AUX); ----- XBIOS ----- These subroutines are accessed using the TRAP #14 call. All examples are calling sequences from 'C' Numbers in parenthesis indicate the function number. Examples are as above. --------- long Iorec(devno) (14) int devno; Returns a pointer to a serial device's input buffer record. dev is one of: devno Device ----- ------ 0x0000 RS232 (ST main serial port, DC-PORT 0) 0x8000 DCP0 (DC-PORT 0, ST main serial port) 0x8100 DCP1 (DC-PORT 1) 0x8200 DCP2 (DC-PORT 2) 0x8300 DCP3 (DC-PORT 3) 0x8400 DCP4 (DC-PORT 4) The structure of the record is: struct iorec { long ibuf; /* pointer to buffer */ int ibufsiz; /* size of the buffer */ index */ int ibuftl; /* tail index */ int ibuflow; /* low-water mark */ int ibufhi; /* hi-water mark */ }; For RS232, an output buffer record immediately follows the input buffer record. The format of the output buffer record is identical. 'ibuf' points to the device's buffer. 'ibufsiz' is the buffer's size. 'ibufhi' is the buffer's high-water mark. 'ibuflow' is the buffer's low-water mark. If flow control is enabled and the number of characters in the buffer reaches the high-water mark, the ST requests (according to the flow control protocol) the sender to stop sending characters. When the number of characters in the buffer drops below the low-water mark, the ST (106 left) More: (Enter) or (Y)es, (N)o, (F)lag, (NS)non-stop? tells the sender to resume transmission. The flow control operation is similar for the RS232 output record. ------------------- long Rsconf(port|speed, flowctl, ucr, rsr, tsr, scr) int speed, flowctl, ucr, rsr, tsr, scr; This function initializes the rs232 port. SPEED sets the baud rate for the RS232 port as follows: SPEED BAUD RATE ----- --------- 0 19200 1 9600 2 4800 3 3600 * 4 2400 5 2000 6 1800 7 1200 8 600 10 200 * 11 150 12 134 13 110 14 75 15 50 * FLOW sets the flow control as follows: FLOW TYPE OF FLOW CONTROL ---- -------------------- 0 No flow control (default value) 1 XON/XOFF 2 RTS/CTS * 3 Both XON/XOFF and RTS/CTS * UCR, RSR, TSR, and SCR set the corresponding 68901 registers. A -1 for any one of these parameters will not set the register: Bit in UCR Meaning ---------- ------- 0 Not used 1 Parity 1=even parity, 0=odd parity 2 Parity enable; 1=enabled 3,4 Start/Stop bits: Bit 4 Bit 3 Start bits Stop bits ----- ----- ---------- --------- 0 Do not use 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1.5 1 1 1 2 5,6 Work length: Bit 6 Bit 5 Word length ----- ----- ----------- 0 0 8 bits 0 1 7 bits 1 0 6 bits 1 1 5 bits 7 Must be set to 1 RSR, TSR, and SCR should be set to -1. NOTE: Selections indicated with a * are only supported in DCPORT0. ------------------- offgibit(port|mask) (29) int mask; This function sets the DTR line on one of the serial ports. MASK has a value of $EF: Offgibit(port|$EF) ------------------- ongibit(port|mask) (30) int mask; This function drops the DTR line on one of the serial ports. MASK has a value of $10: Ongibit(port|$10) ------ GEMDOS ------ These subroutines are accessed using the TRAP #1 call. All examples are calling sequences from 'C' Numbers in parenthesis indicate the function number. Examples are as above. FUNCTIONS Cauxin(dev) (3) NOTE: The standard GEMDOS call has no parameters. int dev; dev is as defined above. Return a character from the specified serial port (dev). Example: input = Cauxin(port); ------------------- Cauxout(chr) (4) int chr; NOTE: The standard GEMDOS call specifies a char Write a character to the serial port defined in the upper byte of the int 'chr.' Example: Cauxout(port|'A'); /* with port = 0x0000 it has no effect */ ------------------- long Cauxis() (18) Returns -1 [nonzero] if char is available from the main ST serial port; 0 otherwise. ------------------- long Cauxos() (19) Returns -1 [nonzero] if char is ready to receive a character, 0 if it is unavailable (for the main ST serial port). FOR FURTHER ASSISTANCE ====================== If you require further assistance from us, give our support BBS a call. We will be more than happy to help you with any difficulties which you find. WARRANTY ======== DC-PORT is guaranteed to be free from material defects for one year from the date of purchase. DC-PORT cables are guaranteed to be from material defects for 30 days from the date of purchase. Double Click Software will either replace or repair the defective unit, at the discretion of Double Click Software. Under no conditions will Double Click Software be responsible for damaged caused due to neglect. If the seal on DC-PORT is broken, the warranty is voided immediately. Double Click Software is not be responsible for any damage to your reputation, profit-making ability or mental or physical condition caused by the use or misuse of our hardware and/or software. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ====================== Mailing address: Double Click Software P.O. Box 741206 Houston, Texas 77236-1206 Support BBS: (713)944-0108 ------------------------------------------------------------------- This manual and its contents are copyright (c) 1989 Double Click Software. It may be distributed freely so long as it is not edited in any form. ------------------------------------------------------------------- _____________________________________________________________________ > STReport InfoFile¿ High Quality, Custom constructed hard drives.... ================= ABCO COMPUTER ELECTRONICS INC. P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32236-6672 Est. 1985 _________________________________________ Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EDT BBS: 904-786-4176 12-24-96 HST FAX: 904-783-3319 12 PM - 6 AM EDT _________________________________________ HARD DISK SYSTEMS TO FIT EVERY BUDGET _____________________________________ All systems are complete and ready to use, included at NO EXTRA COST are clock/calendar and cooling blower(s). ALL ABCO HARD DISK SYSTEMS ARE FULLY EXPANDABLE (you are NOT limited to two drives ONLY!) (all cables and connectors installed) SEAGATE HARD DISK MECHANISMS ONLY! ICD HOST ADAPTERS USED EXCLUSIVELY * ADAPTEK 4000/4070/5500 CONTROLLERS * * OMTI HIGH SPEED CONTROLLERS * 42mb #SG44710 569.00 - (1) mech 65mb #SG60101 729.00 - (1) mech 85mb #SG840110 949.00 - (2) mech 132mb #SG3A1210 1149.00 - (2) mech *** 264mb #SGT41776 1889.00 - (4) mech *** The above are just a few of the types of systems available. (over sixty configurations are available, flexibility is unlimited) * Embedded controller; ("N" type) drives - Special Order Only * *** ALL Units: Average Access Time: 26ms - 30ms *** ALL UNITS COMPATIBLE WITH --> MAGIC SAC - PC-DITTO/II - SPECTRE/GCR LARGER units are available - (special order only) *** Available for ST - Amiga - IBM *** LOWBOY - STANDARD - DUAL BLOWER CABINETS FAST Cabinets - Custom Walnut WOODEN Cabinets TOWER - AT - XT Cabinets ALL POWER SUPPLIES UL APPROVED 12 month FULL Guarantee (A FULL YEAR of COVERAGE) WE SHIP WITH * FEDERAL EXPRESS * ONLY _____________________________________ Personal Checks are accepted. ORDER YOURS TODAY! 904-783-3319 9am - 8pm EDT _______________________________________________________________________ > A "Quotable Quote"¿ ================= "THE PROMISES AND ASSURANCES OF A MAN ..ARE HIS BOND" Time Eternal.. "ATARI IS BACK!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ST-REPORT¿ Issue #99 "Your Independent News Source" August 04, 1989 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ½ copyright 1989 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Views, Opinions and Articles Presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors, staff, ST Report¿ or CPU Report¿. Reprint permission is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. All reprints must include ST Report or CPU Report and the author's name. All information presented herein is believed correct, STReport or CPU Report, it's editors and staff are not responsible for any use or misuse of information contained herein. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- le; 1=enabled