I/O Board
PRODUCTIVITY, PLEASE
As the microcomputer age matures (and as young microcomputer enthusiasts mature), Ataris are being used more often to increase personal productivity. Yet Antic, a great magazine overall, is very sparse in coverage of personal productivity software. This is critical for users like me who live in other countries and depend on advertising and magazine reviews to guide our mail order purchasing decisions. We'd be grateful if you would produce more reviews of word processors, spreadsheets and the like.
Kirk Darling
Philippine Islands
Until recently, there was not very much serious Atari applications software to review. Fortunately that is now changing. You'll find a wealth of ways to put your Atari to work next month (March, 1985), in Antic's Personal Productivity issue – ANTIC ED
CROSSED STARS
In the review of the Star SG-10 printer in the July, 1985 Antic, Charles Jackson says that the SG-10 works with Print Shop software. I tried, and it didn't work. The people at Broderbund advised me that Print Shop is not compatible with either the SG-10 or the SD-10.
Kenneth M. Cox
Fayetteville, AR
Star Micronics told Antic that the printers ARE compatible – just configure Print Shop for a Gemini 10X and make sure your printer is in STAR mode (DIP switch 2-2 is UP). Antic successfully used Print Shop with many Star Micronics printers to test the Graphic Shop program. – ANTIC ED
AUTOBOOT
How can I implement AUTORUN.SYS so that a BASIC program will run automatically when I boot the disk?
Greg Pearson
Windsor, CO
You'll find everything you need to know about AUTORUN.SYS in the Lazy Loader sidebar on page 35 of the May, 1985 Antic – ANTIC ED
MORE CHROMA
Regarding Antic's December, 1985 I/O board: There is a solution for the lack of chroma output on the 800XL. The chroma output is at the emitter of Q5. You need to purchase a 200 ohm resistor and solder one side at the junction of R67 and R68. The other side goes to pin 5 on the monitor connector. You will have to extend the 200 ohm resistor by means of an insulated wire. The Chicagoland Atari Users Group gets credit for this solution.
Johnny Borden
Oak Lawn, IL
LUCKY STRIKE
This is for Chris Puzzelle, the unlucky guy who wrote to I/O (December, 1985) that he can't find a replacement for his 800 that got struck by lightning. Computer Mail Order (see their advertisment in Antic) is selling Atari 800 computers for a mere $69.95. But I strongly suggest that you buy a 130XE instead. With that 128K of RAM and SpartaDOS by ICD, you can configure 64K of extra memory as a 507-sector RAMdisk. You can also configure a second 59-sector RAMdisk to operate under Atari BASIC. I have found RAMdisks invaluable when developing assembly language programs where I may work with as many as six different .INCLUDE files at once. Also, the 130XE keyboard rivals that of the old 800.
Matthew Ratcliff
Ferguson, MO
Matthew Ratcliff is the author of Antic's Revision C Convertor and Atari 'Toons. Several other readers also suggested retailers who offer the Atari 800. – ANTIC ED
MOONLIGHT RIGHTS
The Antic Catalog is a great way to get otherwise impossible-to-find software, but now I'm worried about changes. Before the catalog, Graphic Shop would have been listed as part of the magazine instead of being sold for $19.95 in the catalog.
Ray Hill
Before the Antic Catalog an independent Atari programmer did not have an outlet to sell utility software that was too complex for publication as a magazine listing. Graphic Shop was co-written by staff programmer Charles Jackson (on his own time) and freelancer Darryl May. Jackson should have the same right as any other programmer to moonlight and earn extra money. During the Atari market's leanest times the Antic Catalog saved an entire body off fine third-party software from becoming unavailable. – ANTIC ED
GERMAN ATARIAN
In 1983 I bought a 600XL. In 1984 I visited the U.S. and first saw Antic. I became a subscriber as soon as possible and I must tell you I didn't regret it. Your magazine is superb. I would love to get in contact with Atari users in the USA, but how? I'm especially interested in contacts from New Jersey, as I will be there next year for about four weeks. I promise to answer every single letter I get.
Michael Schutz
Fritz-Kalle-Str. 26
6200 Wiesbaden
West Germany
POLAND PLEA
I am the owner of the modern computer, Atari 600XL. But I have great difficulty finding books or magazines about Atari computers in Poland. Thank you in advance for any help your readers can give me.
Bogdan Borowczyk
66-400 Gorzow Wlkp
UL. Ios. Gdynskich
8117 Poland
OUT OF REACH
Is it true that you must put your disk drive at least three feet away from your TV set? What if you have a monitor? I've seen it closer in photographs – right next to the computer. It would be a lot easier to use if it wasn't so far away!
Andrew Diller
Chevy Chase, MD
Television sets and monitors put out static magnetic discharge – some more than other's. This could possibly cause disk data loss. But personally, we've never run into the problem. However if you pressed a disk right up against the monitor you could lose data. Give your arms a break and try moving your disk drive closer. As long as it's not actually touching the TV set, your data should be fine – ANTIC ED
AUTO DELETE
Here is a short program I use to automatically delete lines in programs. LIST the program to disk or cassette, then ENTER the program and type GOTO 32700. Follow the prompts to delete lines. Be sure to remove this line deletion routine before you SAVE your main program.
Tlanzo Williams Jr.
32700 GRAPHICS 0:? :? "STARTING LINE NUMBER";:INPUT START:? :? "ENDING LINE NUMBER";:INPUT FINISH
Warrensville Heights, OH
32710 ? :? "INCREMENT";:INPUT INC:FOR X=START TO FINISH STEP INC
32720 ? CHR$(125):? :? :? X:? :? :? "CONT"
32730 POSITION 2,0:POKE 842,13: STOP
32740 POKE 842,12:NEXT X
DRAPER PASCAL
Draper Software of 307 Forest Grove Richardson, TX 75080, would like Antic readers to know that Draper Pascal is still on the market. – ANTIC ED
STRIPE STRIPPER
I noted with interest Bob Whipple's letter in the October, 1985 Antic with a fix for Print Shop's striped printouts on his BMC BX-80 printer. Print Shop software was also causing this problem on my CP-80 printer. I tried the Mannesmann Talley Spirit 80 setup as he suggested and it worked for me too. Once again, Antic I/O Board saves the day.
Bruce Young
Ryukyu ACE
Okinawa, Japan
WHIZ KID
I bought my son David an Atari 400 for his fifth birthday and this year got him an 800XL (he just turned six). Every night, instead of wanting to read children's books, he reads Antic, which he begs me to buy each month. He even got mad at me once because I didn't know what RAMtop meant. He also wrote this simple program:
8 REM JOYSTICK TEST
9 REM By DAVID NOOR
10 IF STICK(0)=15 AND STRIG(0)<>0 THEN ? "NOTHING"
20 IF STICK(0)<>15 THEN ? "JOYSTICK"
30 IF STRIG(0)=0 THEN ? "TRIGGER"
40 GOTO 10
Children's software is too easy for him, but everything else is too difficult. And now my son is begging me to learn machine language, which I know nothing about! I don't know where to turn, as I don't think there are any resources to teach machine language to a child.
His Mother,
Jackie Noor
Corvalis, OR
Luckly, Oregon has some very progressive computer education programs. You might try contacting Magaret Moon, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Math Education at Oregon State University in Corvalis, or Jack Turner, Computer Coordinator at the Eugene School District, for advice – ANTIC ED
MYSTERY PRODUCT
Reading Antic's June, 1985 article about Atari MIDI connections reminded me of an amazing product I saw last year at a computer show in San Francisco.
Unfortunately I don't remember the name, but the product included a keyboard, a light pen, microphone, interface box and software. You would hear a sound through the microphone (like a musical instrument or spoken voice) and a wave pattern would show up on the screen. When you traced over the screen pattern with the light pen, the keyboard would be programmed with that sound. At the time, the vendor said it was not available on the Atari because they could not get enough data from Atari Corp.
Is this product available on the Atari yet? And if it is, will it work with the Casio CZ-101 sythesizer? Do you think that by using a microphone through your home stereo, with the line fed into the Atari DIN jack, a software program for the Atari lightpen and the MidiTrack II could do the same things?
Mark Hannan
Sorry, Antic would need at least the name of this product before we could try to find an answer for you. Maybe another reader has this information.
– ANTIC ED