Atari Explorer Online: 10-May-94 #0308
From: Bruce D. Nelson (aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 05/16/94-01:39:47 PM Z
From: aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Bruce D. Nelson)
Subject: Atari Explorer Online: 10-May-94 #0308
Date: Mon May 16 13:39:47 1994
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Volume 3 - Issue 8 ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE 10 May 1994 ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: ::
:: ATARI .............. News, reviews, & solutions ............ ATARI ::
:: EXPLORER ............ for the online Atari .......... EXPLORER ::
:: ONLINE ................. Community .............. ONLINE ::
:: ::
:: Published and Copyright (c) 1993-1994 by Subspace Publishers ::
:: All Rights Reserved ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: Publisher ........................... Michael Lindsay EXPLORER ::
:: Editor .................................. Travis Guy AEO.MAG ::
:: Assistant Editor GEnie................ Ron Robinson EXPLORER.1 ::
:: Assistant Editor CompuServe.......... Albert Dayes AEO.1 ::
:: Assistant Editor Delphi......... Andreas Barbiero AEO.2 ::
:: Assistant Editor Internet........ Timothy Wilson AEO.8 ::
:: Atari Asylum ... [Closed] ...... Gregg Anderson AEO.7 ::
:: Unabashed Atariophile ..... Michael R. Burkley AEO.4 ::
:: Atari Artist ................... Peter Donoso EXPLORER.2 ::
:: Jaguar Junkie ............... Tal Funke-Bilu EXPLORER.5 ::
:: User Group Coordinator ........ Ron Whittam EXPLORER.4 ::
:: ::
:: Contributors: ::
:: """"""""""""" ::
:: Randy Hoekstra Boris Molodyi ::
:: Thomas Schmidt David A. Wright ::
:: ::
:: ::
:: Telecommunicated to you via: ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: GEnie: AEO.MAG ::
:: CompuServe: 70007,3615 ::
:: Delphi: AEO_MAG ::
:: Fnet: AEO Conference, Node 319 ::
:: AtariNet: AEO Conference, Node 51:1/10 ::
:: ::
:: Internet mailing address: aeo.mag@genie.geis.com ::
:: FTP recent AEO issues from: rahul.net: pub/wilsont/AEO ::
:: Search gopherspace under "aeo" for back issues ::
:: ::
:: Internet subscription service: stzmagazine-request@virginia.edu ::
:: (Internet subscription requests ONLY!) ::
:: ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Table of Contents
* From the Editors .............................................. Time out.
* Digital Briefs ..................................... Computer, and video
game industry news.
* Rare Gems ......................................... Quotes worth reading.
* Jaguar Tackboard ............................... New developers & titles.
* 64 Bits ........................... News from EET - Details of the Sigma
Designs Card - Developer News.
* "proTOS" Show Report ....................... Thomas Schmidt reports from
the Ulm Atari faire.
* That's Write 3 ................. Boris Molodyi gives us an in-depth look
at Compo's powerful new word processor.
* Andreas' Den ................... Andreas has a lot on his plate - EMail,
emulators, co-processors, videogames.
* ExtenDOS ........................... Running a CD-ROM from your Atari is
child's play with this new software
reviewed by Randy Hoekstra.
* "From a Saved Backup" ....................... This time up, planning and
running user group demos.
* Legends of Valour .................. Andreas RPGs into yet another world.
* Of Lasers and Men ....................... Tim Wilson says "wait" to this
Falcon only Wolf 3D clone.
* The Unabashed Atariophile ................. Michael Burkley lists new PD
and Shareware files for
_your_ Atari computer.
* GEnie News ........................... New files & happenings on Atari's
Official Online Resource.
* Developing News ....................... Texas Atari Festival
Connecticut Atarifest '94 News
Atari's Summer Lynx Games Deal
chro_MAGIC's MultiSync Gizmo
Fractal Frenzy CD
Towers 1.4
DMJ's View 2.5 Planned Additions
* Shutdown ............................ Around the world and up your block.
--==--==--==--==--
||| From the Editors ....... Atari Explorer Online: The Next Generation
||| Travis Guy
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.MAG Delphi: AEO_MAG Internet: aeo.mag@genie.geis.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Time for another look at events in the World Atari!
First up, there is no Bob Brodie Dateline: Atari RTC in this issue.
Bob is midway through his first vacation in a few years. He should be
back, well and rested, and raring to go next month!
So what's new? Tal spent a few days tracking down a few Jaguar
developers and quizzing them on their work. (Well, I helped too....)
News-hungry Jaguar owners have a few bones to chew on - some details
on the Sigma Designs Jaguar card; Atari's "adopting" Wavefront's
Gameware graphics and animation software as "tools of choice"; hints
of future Jaguars...
As an aside, I've been asked to pass along the news that after having
"lost" a few EMail orders for Tempest 2000 in already cluttered
EMailboxes, Atari Customer Service has instituted two new EMail
addresses for orders only. You can find them in the Lynx Summer Games
Sale offer in this issue. (Do you like Lynx? If so, you've got to
check it out - there's a tremendous sale going on!)
Which reminds me, just before Bob left on vacation, he used his
magical powers (Honest! He has them!) and created a group EMail
address for the entire AEO staff on GEnie. Mail sent to AEO$
<aeo$@genie.geis.com> will be read by all of us. So if you've ever
wanted to ask a question, offer a compliment or criticism, but didn't
know to whom you should address, fire your EMail there.
Atari computer users, you wanted more computer news in AEO, and for
the second straight issue, we deliver! Boris Molodyi has turned in an
in-depth review of That's Write 3, and an impressive package it is.
Andreas and Tim have other things on their minds, and have reviews of
Legends of Valour and Of Lasers and Men. Postponed from last issue is
Randy Hoekstra's review of ExtenDOS - CD-ROM driver software that
delivers Atari "plug-and-play" ease for a growing base of CD software.
Of course we have the usual columns and features. It wouldn't -be-
AEO without them, would it?
At the moment, it looks as if I may have some personal matters
interfering with the next issue of AEO. What? Something more
important than devotion to Atari machines!? Well, there may be. If I
have to postpone the next issue until the weekend of June 4th, I'll
drop a note in all of my usual distribution areas, but don't worry, if
any important news arises, there'll be AEO News! bulletins to keep you
informed.
In any event, rest up yourself and have a wonderful May! There's
going to be Fuji Fireworks a'plenty at Summer CES in June!
--==--==--==--==--
||| Digital Briefs - Industry News
||| By: Albert Dayes
/ | \ CIS: 70007,3615 GEnie: AEO.1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Atari News
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
ATARI and SIGMA DESIGNS PARTNER to DELIVER JAGUAR for the PC
SAN JOSE, Calif. - May 3, 1994 - Atari Corporation (AMEX: ATC)
today announced that it has exclusively licensed Jaguar technology
to Sigma Designs (NASDAQ:SIGM) to deliver PC cards incorporating
the award-winning Jaguar 64-bit technology with Sigma's
Reel-Magic(TM) full-motion video capabilities. This deal will
expand Jaguar's market reach by allowing more than 10 million users
to play Jaguar software titles on their IBM-compatible personal
computers by year's end.
"Atari will once again jump ahead of the market by bringing the
world's most advanced game technology to a new group of consumers
in record time," said Sam Tramiel, president of Atari. "Knowing
there would be great demand for Jaguar on personal computers
- we designed the system to talk easily to the leading computer
architectures. This has allowed us to move quickly to partner with
Sigma Designs to make this happen before Christmas."
"We are pleased to join Atari in its mission to expand the industry
standards for video game play," said Julien Nguyen, vice president
of engineering and chief technical officer of Sigma Designs.
"Jaguar's 64-bit technology will be extremely attractive to the
MPC customer base of more than 10 million users. By combining
Sigma's Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) technology with Atari's
3D animation, we look forward to bringing the hottest video game
technology and software titles to the desktops of users worldwide."
Sigma Designs, headquartered in Fremont, Calif., is a leading
manufacturer of high-performance multimedia computer products and
document imaging display solutions. With the the release of its
ReelMagic MPEG controller in October 1993, Sigma Designs redefined
affordable video playback for the PC. ReelMagic allows users to
experience a new generation of realistic entertainment, education,
training, and business presentation software titles with full-screen,
full-motion video and CD-quality sound. All Sigma Designs products
are sold worldwide through a network of dealers, distributors and
system integrators.
Atari Jaguar is the world's first 64-bit interactive multimedia home
entertainment system and is the only video game system manufactured
in the United States. Jaguar, the most powerful multimedia system
available, was recently named the industry's "Best New Game System"
(Video Games Magazine), "Best New Hardware System" (Game Informer)
and "1993 Technical Achievement of the Year" (DieHard GameFan).
Jaguar also recently was given the European Computer Trade Show
Award for "Best Hardware of the Year."
Atari Corporation, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., manufactures and
markets 64-bit interactive multimedia entertainment systems, video
games and personal computers for the home, office and educational
marketplaces.
ATARI SELECTS WAVEFRONT'S GAMEWARE AS WORLDWIDE GAME DEVELOPMENT
SOFTWARE FOR JAGUAR SYSTEMS
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., - April 25, 1994 - Wavefront Technologies, Inc.
and Atari Corporation have announced a worldwide agreement making
Wavefront's GameWare the exclusive game graphics and animation
development software for the Atari Jaguar system. The GameWare family
is a comprehensive set of 2D and 3D tools that incorporate a wide
range of capabilities specifically geared towards game authoring and
development needs.
Under the terms of the agreement, Atari will itself use GameWare for
internal content creation and will advise third-party developers to
use GameWare as the image and geometry authoring tool for the new
64-bit Jaguar game system. Wavefront in turn will provide special
pricing to Atari Authorized Developers wishing to purchase GameWare
licenses.
"Jaguar's performance and the realism delivered by GameWare provide
our developers with a significant advantage in maximizing the
capabilities and potential of our 64-bit design," said Bill Rehbock,
vice president of Software Business Development for Atari. "Visual
realism is central to Jaguar's capabilities and it has the rendering
speed and throughput to drive realistic character animation at a price
point that is viable for the home market."
"Based on our extensive evaluation, Wavefront's state-of-the art game
authoring tools are the best software for our developers to really
demonstrate the Jaguar's capabilities. Wavefront's easy-to-use 3D
animation and modeling tools will help artists focus on creative,
show-and-tell story elements instead of the mechanics needed to
implement special effects."
"The Atari Jaguar represents the first of the next generation game
consoles that will revolutionize the industry with its real-time 3D
graphics capabilities," said Bruce Sinclair, electronic games
marketing manager for Wavefront. "Atari's selection of GameWare as its
exclusive authoring tool will showcase our product with the industry's
leading developers in creating some of the most visually stunning
games to date."
GameWare is Wavefront's graphics software package tailored to meet the
specific needs of entertainment content developers. GameWare runs on
Silicon Graphics workstations and provides the graphics tools needed
to create games containing realistic 3D objects and terrain, 3D
synthetic actors with realistic motion and stunning special effects.
GameWare can generate images and geometry suitable for any game
platform. An open architecture allows developers to integrate their
existing software tools with GameWare. Hyper Plug-ins available from
Wavefront allow enhanced functionality, including GameWare Composer
for 2D special effects and color reduction, and GameWare Dynamation
for creating special effects such as explosions, fire, smoke and
collisions.
Since its introduction at the Consumer Electronics Show in January
'94, GameWare has quickly been recognized as the graphics tool of
choice among leading-edge game developers. Atari joins the rapidly
growing list of gaming companies using Wavefront software including:
Acclaim, Accolade, Arc Development, Argonaut Software, CAPCOM, Core
Design, Electronic Arts The Learning Company, Midway Manufacturing,
NAMCO, Ocean Software, SEGA, SNK, Spectrum Holobyte, Taito, Tiertex,
US Gold, and Williams Entertainment.
Atari Jaguar is the world's first 64-bit interactive multimedia home
entertainment system and is the only video game system manufactured in
the United States. Jaguar was recently named the industry's industry's
"Best New Game System" (VideoGames Magazine), "Best New Hardware
System" (VideoGames Magazine), "Best New Hardware System" (Game
Informer) and "1993 Technical Achievement of the Year" (DieHard
GameFan).
Wavefront Technologies, Inc., founded in 1984, develops, markets and
supports a complete line of workstation-based three-dimensional and
two-dimensional computer graphics imaging and animation software
products for professional users in the entertainment and industrial
markets. The Company's entertainment customers use the software to
create images and special effects for movies, television programming,
advertising and electronic games. The Company's industrial customers
use the software to create images for enhancing and marketing
products, visualization of design appearance and function,
presentation of complex project concepts and illustration of
engineering and scientific phenomena that would otherwise be difficult
to understand.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Computer Business
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// CBM Closes its Doors - Commodore International Ltd., the computer
""""""""""""""""""""""""" manufacturer that provided many with
their first computers, is going out of business. The computing
pioneer that sold many PET, Vic-20, C-64 and Amiga computers is
finally closing its doors.
Commodore said, "This is the initial phase of an orderly voluntary
liquidation of both companies." The company reported a loss of $8.2
million for the previous quarter
//// Multimedia Newscasts - Intel Corp. and Cable News Network
""""""""""""""""""""""""" announced they have entered into an
alliance to test live multimedia news services on business PCs.
Beginning in May at a variety of test sites, business PCs on local
area networks (LANs) will display the programming of CNN, the
comprehensive breaking news, business and information network, and
Headline News, with its concise, fast-paced, half-hour format.
To date, video applications have been too bandwidth-intensive for
deployment on LANs. Intel's multicast video technology allows a
single stream of video packets to be received by multiple stations via
existing network wiring, conserving LAN bandwidth. A channel of
specially compressed Indeo video can be delivered using less than five
percent of the bandwidth of today's LANs.
//// Pure Water - A microscopic mineral speck suspended in water is a
""""""""""""""" floating boulder to a submicron semiconductor chip.
So chip manufacturers looking to stay competitive by decreasing
product defects are taking a close look at their water.
"To produce defect-free semiconductors, there is a growing need to
maximize control over everything in the manufacturing process -
including the ultra-high-purity water used for wafer rinsing and
cleaning," said Michael Reardon, chief operating officer (COO) of
United States Filter Corp.
//// FRAM Memory - Hitachi and the US seminconductor company Ramtron
"""""""""""""""" International Corp. have established an agreement
to jointly develop high-density "FRAM(R)" memory, a semiconductor
product Hitachi says could be the "ultimate memory."
The long-term agreement calls for the development, production and
sale of high-density FRAM (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory)
products by Hitachi and Ramtron. The sale of these products could
grow to more than $600 million per year by 1998.
High-density FRAM products will be used to replace DRAM, SRAM and
FLASH memories. FRAM memories combine the high-speed of DRAM (Dynamic
Random Access Memory) and SRAM (Static Random Access Memory) with the
non-volatility of (ROM) Read Only Memory - features that at present
are not available in any single semiconductor memory device. The
resulting products from the joint development will be used in many
current applications as well as a range of new applications created by
the rapid shift to down-sized, portable electronic devices such as
multimedia systems, communication products and other rapidly growing
portable-application areas.
//// The Math Factor - In 1977, Scientific American magazine offered
"""""""""""""""""""" a $100 prize to anyone who could find the
factors of a 129-digit number. The prize was recently awarded to
students at MIT and Iowa State University and to an Oxford University
professor/Bellcore scientist.
The significance of the "crackers" project is to determine the safety
of encrypted data using approximately 120 digit keys. RSA is one company
that uses the same idea for its encryption technologies. Most of RSA's
keys are close to 200 digits. Currently RSA technology is used by many
different industries including telecommunications, defense and banking.
Over 600 people got together via Internet to work on a solution to the
129 digit problem. The solution was one factor with 65 digits and
the other with 64. With over 1500 computers working for a total of 8
months the problem was finally solved. All types of computers were
used in the effort including PCs and supercomputers.
"This is how a person would feel if they had 129 locks on the door
that were only breakable if the world's great locksmiths had to work
together for eight months," said James Bidzos, president of RSA Data
Security. "You'd probably feel pretty good about that."
//// Motorola's Celligrams? - Motorola's Cellular Infrastructure
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Group announced that it will develop an
open network protocol that will allow more rapid introduction of new
and enhanced messaging services for cellular phone users.
Fax notification and custom text messages are among the new,
industry-leading cellular services scheduled for availability in the
third quarter of 1994. In the future, Centigram will also be
providing E-mail notification, text-to-speech conversion and access to
information services.
//// Computer Science Takes NASA - Computer Sciences Corp. announced
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" it has been selected by NASA for a
$1 billion-plus contract to provide computer services at the Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Computer Sciences beat out
incumbent Boeing Co.'s computer services operation, and Harris Corp.
for the 8 year deal and will take over the contract immediately.
//// Kodak Focuses on Imaging - Eastman Kodak Company revealed a new
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" corporate strategy that will focus
the company's resources and management attention exclusively on its
imaging businesses, and wipe out its holdings in certain other areas.
"Imaging offers Kodak tremendous opportunities for long-term success
and growth. It is the business Kodak knows best, built on over a
century of brand strength, marketing know-how, and technological
leadership," said George M. C. Fisher, Kodak's Chairman, President,
and CEO. "To achieve maximum success, we have concluded that we must
commit our entire resource base to imaging opportunities and divest
non-core businesses."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Video Games / MMedia
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Game Over - Electronic Arts and Broderbund Software called off
"""""""""""""" their proposed merger. The main reason was
differences of opinion over the final price. In addition the stock
values have dropped which greatly affected the all stock transaction.
//// Nintendo Does DMA - Nintendo announced that the highly acclaimed
"""""""""""""""""""""" video game developer DMA Design Ltd. of
Dundee, Scotland, is the latest company developing games for
Nintendo's 64-bit Project Reality home video game system, now being
developed for Nintendo by Silicon Graphics Inc.
DMA, creator of the classic series of "LEMMINGS" video games, will
dedicate its company's resources to support the launch and early
development of Project Reality, what Nintendo claims to be the
world's most advanced home video game system. It will debut in the
fall of 1995 at a suggested retail price of less than $250.
//// A True Pitfall - Activision has announced that it has hired
""""""""""""""""""" Kroyer Films Inc. and Soundelux Media Labs to
participate in the production of "Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure," an
all new interactive game based on the hit video game series of the
1980's, "Pitfall Harry." The game is being developed for the Sega
Genesis and Super NES platforms and will eventually be introduced for
various CD-ROM based platforms including Sony's new PSX multimedia
system.
//// Dial "0" for Startup - Telecommunications giant Bell Atlantic
""""""""""""""""""""""""" and The Interpublic Group of Companies
Inc., joined forces with InterActive Partners to fund and build
start-up companies in the interactive television and multimedia arena.
Interactive Partners is headed by Robert M. Fell, a well-known
entertainment communications investor and entrepreneur, and David S.
Morse, a technology leader who founded and developed the core
technology for Amiga Computer as well as the technology for The 3DO
Company's Interactive Multiplayer.
Fell and Morse were both founding directors of Crystal Dynamics, a
prominent game software company which serves as the prototype for
future InterActive Partners companies.
This powerful coalition provides strategic relationships and direct
funding for the companies emerging in home shopping, electronic
games, education, children's entertainment, gaming, location-based
entertainment and other areas. Initial portfolio companies include
VideoStream, The New Children's Studio and Silicon Gaming.
//// Time Warner's Title Wave - Time Warner Interactive has set up a
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" multi-title deal with Tsunami Media
to publish and distribute a number of its PC CD-ROM entertainment
titles.
The deal includes taking over distribution of six previously released
titles and publishing Tsunami's latest science fiction adventure game,
Return to Ringworld, which will be available this summer.
"What makes Tsunami unusual," said Craig Moody, executive vice
president, Time Warner Interactive, "is that their products combine
intelligent user-sensitive simulations and leading-edge interactive
video which puts a brand-new spin on the traditional
exploration/adventure game genre."
//// Sega Lion to Us? - Sega and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. agreed to a
""""""""""""""""""""" precedent-setting deal to jointly create a
line-up of interactive media titles, television programs and motion
picture titles, as part of a multi-year, multi-title effort.
The non-exclusive deal calls for MGM and Sega to invest an undisclosed
sum in the effort. Beyond that investment, the deal calls for both
parties to collaborate in the development, production and marketing of
media products. Products resulting from the deal will bear both the
MGM and Sega names. Although product to be developed will be new and
original concepts, Sega and MGM also may choose to develop interactive
games based on forthcoming 1995 and 1996 movie releases from both MGM
Pictures and the United Artists Pictures units of MGM.
//// A Princely Game - The singer Prince, who recently changed his
"""""""""""""""""""" name to a unique symbol not found in normal
ASCII, has been involved in a new game bearing his name. Graphiz Zone
the producer of the game for Sigma Design's Reelmagic board for the PC
said the name of the game will be Prince Interactive. The game will
have music written specifically for the CD-ROM in addition other songs
and videos written in the past. The product should ship around Summer
1994.
//// Catwoman Never? - Warner Bros. and Acclaim announced the two
"""""""""""""""""""" companies have entered into a pact whereby
Batman Forever, the highly anticipated blockbuster Warner Bros. movie
starring Michael Keaton, will lead Acclaim's recently announced 1995
entry into the coin-op arcade market. In addition, Batman Forever will
headline several Acclaim interactive entertainment software titles for
leading home video game cartridge and CD-ROM systems, including those
produced by Sega and Nintendo.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Rare Gems
||| Compiled by: David A. Wright
/ | \ Internet:dave.wright@magic.org
----------------------------------------------------------------
The following are the "Rare Gems (sm)" selections for April 17 to 23,
1994. "Rare Gems" is a service mark (sm) of Rare Breed Noninc. and
David Alan Wright. Compilation copyright 1994 by same. All Wright's
rights reserved. Each weekly or monthly collection may be distributed
freely as long as this notice is retained. Multiple collections, such
as CD-ROM, print, electronic, and other publications, may not be
distributed without further authorization. This space intentionally
left filled. --:Dave
===
The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late,
is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer
because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you
in proportion to your fear of being hurt. --Thomas Merton
The universe is made up of stories, not atoms. --Muriel Rukeyser
People who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy. --Bob Hope
A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to
us. To live is to be slowly born. --Antoine de Saint-Exupery
It is remarkable how often our complaints reflect our own
shortcomings. --Dick Overton
To Gary Hill, who I promised to remember in my will, I want to say,
"Hi, Gary." --Lewis Grizzard's will
Well, Red Cloud, it just so happens I -did- ask the chief!... A
bear claw necklace is a symbol of honor - a Grizzly Adams
fingernail necklace is not! --Indian, "The Far Side" cartoon by
Gary Larson
The following are the "Rare Gems (sm)" selections for April 24 to 30,
1994. "Rare Gems" is a service mark (sm) of Rare Breed Noninc. and
David Alan Wright. Compilation copyright 1994 by same. All Wright's
rights reserved. Each weekly or monthly collection may be distributed
freely as long as this notice is retained. Multiple collections, such
as CD-ROM, print, electronic, and other publications, may not be
distributed without further authorization. Smoke-free zone. Put it
out, or it'll put you out. --:Dave
===
If you can't beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing.
--Unknown
"Instinct" is just a fancy word that means, "We don't know why the
hell they do that." --Unknown
No one can do me any good by loving me; I have more love than I
need or could do any good with; but people do me good by making me
love them - which isn't easy. --John Ruskin
"Hee Hoo keeps his head while all about him are losing theirs..."
"Is getting paid to operate the guillotine." --"B.C." strip by
Johnny Hart
Call me insane one more time, and I'll eat your other eye. --Unknown
A key ring is a handy little gadget that allows you to lose all
your keys at once. --Unknown
I know that parenthood is an institution, but I'm not ready to be
institutionalized. --Dixie Cousins, "Brisco County" show
The following are the "Rare Gems (sm)" selections for May 1 to 7, 1994.
"Rare Gems" is a service mark (sm) of Rare Breed Noninc. and David Alan
Wright. (Internet: DAVE.WRIGHT@MAGIC.ORG) Compilation copyright 1994
by same. All Wright's rights reserved. Each weekly or monthly
collection may be distributed freely as long as this notice is
retained. Multiple collections, such as CD-ROM, print, electronic,
and other publications, may not be distributed without further
authorization. Not sanitized for your moral protection. --:Dave
===
You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife?
--Benjamin Franklin
It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a
disease than what sort of a disease a patient has. --William Osler
Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.
--Ronald Reagan
There's so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the
streets? --Dick Cavett
If thee marries for money, thee surely will earn it. --Ezra Bowen
Grad school - It's not just a job, it's an indenture. --Unknown
If life is like a highway, then the soul is just a car, and objects
in the rear-view mirror may appear closer than they are. --Meatloaf
--==--==--==--==--
||| Jaguar Tackboard
||| Confirmed information about Atari's Jaguar
/ | \ Compiled from online and official sources
-----------------------------------------------------------------
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Independent Association of Jaguar Developers
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The IAJD (Independent Association of Jaguar Developers) is accepting
members on GEnie. The IAJD is a private group where confidential
discussions can be freely held. (Category 64 of the ST RoundTable is
the IAJD meeting place.) Consequently, membership in the IAJD is
limited to Jaguar developers who are registered with Atari Corp. To
apply for membership, send EMail to ENTRY$ on GEnie (or
<entry$@genie.geis.com> if you're not on GEnie). Regular EMail
correspondence with the IAJD should be sent to IAJD$ (again, or
<iajd$@genie.geis.com> if you're not on GEnie).
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Developer / Game List 1.10
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Editor: The following developers, licensees and game titles have
been confirmed to the best of AEO's ability as of May 9, 1994. Entries
in the "S"tatus column reflects any "e"rrors, "u"pdates, "n"ew titles,
or new "d"evelopers since the last AEO list. Titles in brackets (e.g.
[Cybermorph]) have been completed and are available in the US.
1-10 Titles
S Developer/Licensee Rating under development
" """""""""""""""""" """""" """""""""""""""""
21st Century Software - Pinball Fantasies
3D Games - Rainbow Warrior
- MORE
Accent Media Productions - Varuna's Forces CD-ROM
Accolade - Al Michaels Announces Hardball
- Brett Hull Hockey
- Charles Barkley Basketball
- Jack Nicholas Golf
Activision - Return to Zork CD-ROM
All Systems Go - Hosenose and Booger CD-ROM
- Jukebox (cart multiplexer)
e - B.I.O.S.fear CD-ROM
American Laser Games - Mad Dog McCree
Anco Software Ltd. - Kick Off 3 (for Imagineer)
- World Cup
Anthill Industries
Argonaut Software - Creature Shock CD-ROM
(For Virgin)
Atari Corp. - Battlezone 2000
- Chaos Agenda CD-ROM
- Club Drive
5 [Crescent Galaxy]
- MPEG 1 and 2 carts
- Star Raiders 2000
- Tiny Toons Adventures
- VR Helmet
MORE
Atari Games Corp. - Arcade Games Using Jaguar
Attention to Detail - Battlemorph: Cybermorph 2 CD-ROM
- Blue Lightning CD-ROM
7 [Cybermorph]
(For Atari)
Audio-Visual Magic
Bethesda Softworks
Beyond Games Inc. - Battlewheels
- Ultra Vortex
Black Scorpion Software
Bjorn Joos/Kris Van Lier
Borta & Associates
Brainstorm - [x86 Jaguar Development System]
Bullfrog Productions Ltd. - Syndicate
- Theme Park
(For Ocean)
Clearwater Software
Computer Music Consulting
Cybervision
CyberWare
Delta Music Systems Inc.
Dimension Technologies
Domark Group Ltd. - F1 Racer
DTMC - Lester the Unlikely
- Mountain Sports
- (Miniature Golf)
Eclipse - Iron Soldier
Elite
E-On
Eurosoft
EZ Score Software Inc.
GameTek Inc.
Genus Microprogramming Inc.
Gremlin Graphics Ltd. - Zool 2
- UNKNOWN TITLE (racing) - MORE?
H2O Design Corp.
Hand Made Software - Kasumi Ninja (For Atari)
u High Voltage Software - White Men Can't Jump (for Trimark)
Hisoft
ICD Inc. - Cat Box (AV & comm expansion box)
id Software - Doom: Evil Unleashed
- Wolfenstein 3D
Imagineer Company Ltd.
Imagitec Design Inc. 6 [Evolution Dino-Dudes]
6 [Raiden]
- Freelancer 2120 CD-ROM
- Busby in Clawed Encounters
of the Furried Kind (For Accolade)
n - Dino Dudes 2
Interplay - BattleChess CD-ROM - MORE?
Jaleco - Cisco Heat
- Bases Loaded
- MORE CD-ROM
Krisalis Software Ltd. - Soccer Kid
Limelight Media Inc.
LlamaSoft 10 [Tempest 2000] (For Atari)
- MORE MINTER!
Loricel S.A.
Manley & Associates Inc.
Maxis Software
Microids - Evidence
- Commando
Microprose - Gunship 2000
- MORE SIMULATIONS
Midnite Software Inc. - Car Wars
- Dungeon Depths
MORE
Millenium Interactive Ltd.
NMS Software Ltd.
Ocean Software Ltd. - (Movie title "The Shadow") CD-ROM
- Apes---
- (Comic title "LOBO") CD-ROM
Phalanx - Phong 2000
Photosurrealism - Galactic Gladiators
u Pixel Satori
(was Duncan Brown)
u PIXIS Interactive - Unnamed graphic adventure
Rage Software UK
ReadySoft Incorporated - Dragon's Lair CD-ROM
- Dragon's Lair II CD-ROM
- Space Ace CD-ROM
Rebellion Software Ltd. - Alien vs. Predator
- Checkered Flag II
- Legions of the Undead
(For Atari)
n - Hammerhead
Rest Energy
Sculptured Software Inc.
d Sigma Designs - "Jaguar on a PC" PC card
Silmarils - Robinson's Requiem CD-ROM
d Sinister Developments
Software Creations
Team Infinity
Team 17 Software Ltd.
Tecnation Digital World
Techtonics
Telegames - Brutal Sports Football
- Casino Royale
- European Soccer Challenge
- Ultimate Brain Games - MORE?
- Double Dragon 5 (For Tradewest)
- Super Off-Road (For Tradewest)
Teque London Ltd.
Thrustmaster
Tiertex Ltd. - Flashback (for U.S. Gold)
Titus
Tradewest - Troy Aikman Football
n - The Shadow Falls
Trimark Interactive -
U.S. Gold Ltd.
n UBI Soft International - RayMan
u - MORE (American Football)
V-Reel Productions - Arena Football
- Horrorscope
Virgin Interactive
Entertainment Ltd. - Dragon
- Demolition Man
Virtual Xperience - Indiana Jags
- Zozziorx - MORE?
Visual Concepts
Williams Brothers
WMS Industries
Zeppelin Games - Center Court Tennis
Pts Stars AEO Ratings
""" """"" """""""""""
10 ***** GAMING NIRVANA!!! - You have left reality behind... for good.
9 ****+ Unbelieveable GAME!! - Your family notices you're often absent.
8 **** Fantastic Game!! - You can't get enough playtime in on this.
7 ***+ Great Game! - Something to show off to friends or 3DOers.
6 *** Good game - You find yourself playing this from time to time.
5 **+ Ho-hum - If there's nothing else to do, you play this.
4 ** Waste of time - Better to play this than play in traffic.
3 *+ Sucks - Playing in traffic sounds like more fun.
2 * Sucks Badly - You'd rather face an IRS audit than play this.
1 + Forget it - ... but you can't; it's so badly done, it haunts you.
0 - Burn it - Disallow programmer from ever writing games again.
--==--==--==--==--
||| 64-bits (Jaguar news)
||| By: Tal Funke-Bilu
/ | \ GEnie: EXPLORER.5
---------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Jaguar Fans!
Well, it's been a busy two weeks for the Junkie, but I don't have as
much information as I would have liked. It seems I've ended up with a
little bit of news from a lot of developers, rather than a lot of news
from a few developers.
//// Future Jaguar Developments in EE Times
Electronic Engineering Times did a front page story in their May 2nd
issue on technical advances in the video game and computer game
arenas. Basically, there are moves to merge the two! Leaving the big
Atari/Sigma announcement until the next section, EE Times quotes
Atari officials as saying that internal design of the second
generation Jaguar (which could be software compatible!) will be
complete this Fall. The new chip will contain the equivilant of 1.25
million transistors, compared to the 750,000 count in the current
Jaguar chipset. A 10-fold increase in polygon performance is
anticipated.
Also spoken of was that Atari has joined other companies in designing
a cable-TV set-top box - based on Jaguar technology.
//// Sigma anounces JagPC - Jaguar on a PC card!
The big news on the video game front is the announcement from Atari
Corp. and Sigma Designs on the development on the rumored PC Jag
card. Yep, it's true, Sigma Designs announced that they plan to have
the card available to the public by the end of the year for "under
$500." At the moment, details are a bit sketchy, and rumors are
flying all over the Internet in every newsgroup from Atari to 3DO to
Sega to Nintendo. Not only is Atari leading the pack with the most
advanced video game system available, but now they are making it
available to an installed user base of over 10,000,000 users. As for
now, here are the facts as we know them:
[] The JagPC will enable PC users with a MPC2 compatible machine (and
the JagPC of course) to play JagCD games in a window on their PC.
[] PC users will not need to buy a special Jaguar CD-ROM drive as the
card will utilize the (double-speed) CD drive in the PC.
[] The card will NOT play Jaguar cartridges.
[] The JagPC will play the SAME Compact Discs that will play in
Atari's upcoming Jaguar CD-ROM drive. (i.e. you will be able to
pop a disc out of your Jaguar CD-ROM drive and run -the- -same-
-physical- -disc- on the JagPC.)
[] The JagPC will use an ISA bus slot.
(There is currently no name for the product. We are calling it
"JagPC" for lack of a better name!)
As far as we can tell, there are no current plans by Atari Corp. to
establish similar cards or devices for other computing platforms.
The JagPC itself is not only a "Jag-on-a-card." In addition to
allowing Jaguar CD compatibility, the card will also benefit the PC
user by acting as a ReelMagic MPEG card in its spare time. That's
right, it will be a ReelMagic/JagCard in one. Although it has not been
confirmed, it is likely that the ReelMagic's MPEG abilities will
utilized by the JagPC card, thus eliminating the need for a PC user to
have some type of MPEG Cartridge needed by owners of a "regular"
Jag+CD. With ReelMagic cards retailing for around $400, this is
definately exciting news indeed!
This also opens the door for PC software developers who previously
might not have considered porting their software over to the Jaguar.
The current ReelMagic card allows PC users to display MPEG compressed
video on a PC with over 32,000 colors in a resolution up to 1024x768
with no slow down at 30fps. It also allows for the playback of Video
CDs which are just starting to trickle into the market. Currently,
some of the more noteable ReelMagic developers are:
Activision, Sierra On-Line, ReadySoft, Aris Entertainment,
Trilobyte, Interplay, Access Software Inc., Virgin Games,
Compton's New Media, and Psychnosis.
//// Developer News
[] UBI Soft are not working on Jimmy Connor's Tennis, intstead they
are focusing their efforts on a futuristic adventure game entitled
RayMan. They are also trying to obtain licenses from either the NFL
or the NFL Player's Assoiciation for an upcoming American Football
title. Both are said to be "coming along quite nicely now" and they
plan to display them at the SCES.
[] Virgin's two main projects are a fighting game called Dragon,
alongside with Demolition Man, based on the hit movie of the same
name.
[] Pixis International told AEO that they were going to stay away from
"adult" titles with their first batch of Jag releases. They plan on
releasing an unnamed graphic adventure game for the whole family by
year's end or 1Qtr '95.
[] Imagineer reported that KickOff 3 "development is taking place on
schedule." EPROMs of this great soccer game have been reported in the
Atari HQ, but the latest reports show a reworking of the code to
correct a bug. Look for this one towards Fall.
[] Tradewest has their arms full with a batch of great titles.
Currently they are working on Double Dragon 5, The Shadow Falls (a
tournament fighting game with approx. 12 levels), and Troy Aikman
Football. All are progressing nicely and should be shown at the SCES.
[] Amid rumors of CD-Dev kits and what not, ReadySoft has confirmed
that they are well into development on Dragon's Lair CD for the Jag.
They are very pleased with the Jag's hardware.
[] Activision are looking at the Jaguar's sales performance to
determine whether they will be bringing their new Pitfall to the Jag.
A "far in the future" candidate for the Jag might be River Raid, but
that would depend on whether Activision decides to revive it.
(Personally, they told AEO that they feel the Jaguar would be a
success, and that it would be a great platform to do a new River Raid
on!)
[] DTMC has also confirmed that a Christmas release is likely for
Lester the Unlikely.
[] Jeff Minter has told AEO that his VLM is coming along great. "It's
got a bunch of just wicked effects!" He hopes to collaborate with
Atari in an effort to finalize the coding and include it in the JagCD
within the next month. Look for the "missing Minter files" to
resurface when Jeff makes it over to the states. AEO might also be
able to score on a RealTime Conference with Jeff on GEnie, but I'm not
making any promises.
[] Lots, lots, lots more developers are doing things with Jaguar that
will make heads SPIN! Announcements, as they always say, are coming
soon.
//// Sum... Summ... Summertime!
In a related note, AEO is currently pursuing efforts to obtain a badge
to the SCES. In the event that we are able to attend, we will be
putting together a comprehensive two hour VHS video of the entire 3
days. This will be a professional production that you wont want to
miss. (It will be packed with the works. Screenshots, gameplay,
interviews, what's up behind enemy lines (read 3DO), etc.) Also, look
for the Junkie to supply you with a special "ALL JAGUAR" issue of the
latest Atari (and related) news of the SCES within a week of its
completion. Keep in mind that this will only be possible if we can
gain access. AEO would like your feedback as to what you the reader
would like covered in the video and special issue. Please send all
questions, comments, etc. to Travis <aeo.mag@genie.geis.com> and to me
<explorer.5@genie.geis.com>.
That looks like it will do for this issue. I was planning on including
a bit more, but I just found out I have to take off to L.A. No Jag
for 3 days... uh oh.... BTW: 3,150,000 still the score to beat on T2K.
--==--==--==--==--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-- 1. Set your communications software for half duplex (local echo) --
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-- 2. Dial toll free: 1-800-638-8369 (or in Canada, 1-800-387-8330). --
-- Upon connection, enter HHH. --
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-- 4. Have a major credit card ready. In the U.S., you may also use --
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--==--==--==--==--
||| "proTOS" Report
||| By: Thomas Schmidt
/ | \ Internet: schmidts@minnie.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ulm, Germany, April 22th - 24th
As it is known, the largest ATARI-Fair, the "ATARI Messe" in
Dusseldorf, Germany, has ceased to exist. Instead, several German
traders have organized three smaller fairs in all corners of the
country. The first one was the "proTOS" fair, in Ulm in the south.
The second one, "CSA Falcon Competence Party", will take place on April
29th and 30th in Gelsenkirchen in the west; the third, "FEZ-A-BIT",
in Berlin on the 7th and 8th of May. (Yes, they will all have taken
place by the time you read this, but not yet for me!)
In Ulm, most of the exhibitors were traders and from the overall
impression it seemed that their happy mood either derived from the
sunshine outside or the good sales performance. Although there were
many visitors on Sunday, it seemed that Saturday even saw a higher
number.
On the hardware side, only a few prototypes were shown. Overscan and
Compo showed applications on two Medusa T40 68040 TOS-computers, but
could only promise to show the Afterburner 040 for the Falcon at the
"FEZ-A-BIT". The price was said to be around DM 1500 (about $900).
The offered version of the Medusa T40 for DM 7999 (about $4700)
included 8MB FastRAM, ET4000 graphics, and a 270 MB harddisk, all in a
towercase.
MW Elektronik showed the PAK68/3 accellerator board for ST and Mega
ST, it was reported that the processor speed (a 68030) can be
increased to over 50 MHz!
They also had a prototype of a VGA-graphic card adapter for the PAK and
promised to finish the work on the FastRAM option soon.
Even if you want to dismiss your ATARI for a "compatible" computer,
You need not neccessarily throw away all your TOS programs! VHF
Computer GmbH showed its "Janus" ST-board for PCs. It has a 16 MHz
68000 and sits in an ISA-slot. There are two SIMM-slots on the board,
so you can have up to 32 MB of RAM. Although the raw performance of
the processor is not higher than you would expect, the graphic
routines are processed by the host PC and therefore seem to exceed
even TT030 values. The shown board ran my game "Slartris" without
problems in a remarkable speed but apparently, there was a last minute
bug in one of the driver routines which made the PC speaker go
"beeeeep" forever everytime a text function was called.... As for the
price and release date, the card without TOS and RAM goes for DM 898
(~$530) and is said will be delivered around the end of May.
Heyer & Neumann GbR showed a prototype of their "Multiboard". This
allows you to increase the on-board memory of a Mega-ST (ST solutions
are under development) with an additional 8 MB RAM (SIMM modules). It
includes a slot for an ET4000 PC graphic card (which needs "ET4000
NVDI" by Behne & Behne) and an IDE HD-interface, also TOS 2.06-slots.
The additional RAM (the prototype ran in an Mega ST with 3 MB RAM) is
installed at the same addresses FastRAM is, but without the increased
speed. Therefore TOS 2.06 is needed to recognize this memory.
The price was announced to be about DEM 300 ($180) for the board;
delivery should start in June for the Mega ST version, the ST-version
not before July.
On the software-side, I like to mention two CD-ROMs with PD and
ShareWare mainly of German origin. They were compiled by Bernd Lohrum
(EMail: bernd_lohrum@clubbox.light.de) and offer many hundreds of
megabytes of programs and data, both in packed (for BBSs) and unpacked
versions, the newer one dated the 13th of April.
About the author:
I'm a 22-year German student of computer science at the University of
Stuttgart. Now I'm in the fourth semester, that's just about six left
to go!-)
My first connection with computers was a VCS 2600 back in '82, and I
stayed with ATARI all the following years. First with an 800XL, and
since '87 I have an 260ST, now with 2.5 MB RAM and a PAK68/3
accellarator. I started with BASIC and assembler on the XL; BASIC,
Assembler and C on the ST. I just had the "pleasure" to learn
HP-9000-RISC-Assembler at the University.
The only program I've "sold" so far (unintentionally that is) is
"Slartris". It was published on a PD-disk for the German "ST Magazin",
which ceased to exist shortly thereafter (No connection, afaIk).
--==--==--==--==--
||| That's Write 3.1g Review
||| By: Boris Molodyi
/ | \ GEnie: EXPLORER.6 CIS: 70322,624
------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: by now, That's Write is up to version 3.1h that fixes a bug
when in some circumstances, if "Dialogs in Windows" option was
selected, the text cursor might become invisible.
First of all, I want to say what That's Write 3 is and what it is not.
That's Write 3 is an advanced word processor with many powerful
features. However, it is not a heavily graphic-oriented program. If
you are looking for a word processor that will let you create
leaflets, flyers and generally do small-scale DTP, That's Write 3 is
not the answer. However, for writing letters, creating invoices
(self-calculating, if you want them to), academic theses; for writing
The Great American Novel, or for general text manipulation, That's
Write 3 is probably the most capable program available in the US Atari
market.
That's Write 3 allows you to manipulate fonts, page elements and even
images easily, but it does not have the graphical power of a DTP
program. COMPO says (rightly, in my opinion) that if you want a
complex layout, you probably should invest in a full-blown DTP
program. That's Write 3 does not display multiple columns on screen
(even though it allows for them) and does not reformat paragraphs as
you type. Instead, it waits for you to stop typing (or issue a direct
command to reformat) before doing it. You can find it distracting in
the beginning, but other powerful features of That's Write 3 redeem
these shortcomings.
//// Installation
To begin with, the current version of That's Write 3 comes on 4 disks
(more if you also get the MultiFont package that gives you all 35
standard PostScript fonts). It has an easy to use, completely
GEM-based installation program. After being told where you want the
program to be installed and what kind of printer(s) you have, it
installs the program - together with appropriate font files (more on
TW's font handling later) and printer drivers. You can also choose to
install demo documents, accessory programs and TOS fixes. The
installation programs also can make backup copies of master disks for
you, and displays the READ.ME file when you load it.
To work with That's Write 3 you need at least 1 Meg of RAM, and a hard
drive is recommended. It is possible to work on a floppy-based system,
but I would not recommend it, either.
//// Interface
The first thing that meets the eye when you run That's Write 3
(provided that you have installed the noSystem interface driver) is
That's Write 3's interface. Having better graphics than ST High or
Medium certainly helps. (The more colors and pixels you have, the
better; That's Write 3 will work with Falcon or any graphic board that
has working VDI drivers.) The interface is very well thought out, and
features 3D-looking gadgets for windows and dialog boxes (which are
moveable and may be placed inside windows). Radio buttons, check
boxes, exit buttons, all have a distinctive 3D look and are
color-coded for easy reference. (The default exit button is green,
while the "Cancel" button is red, for example.) This user-adjustable
interface, which is provided through the AUTO folder program, may be
used in other programs. (Currently, the latest version of Musicom from
COMPO uses it.) Almost every dialog box also has a "Help" button that
brings up a short description of operations made in this dialog and
describes various options offered.
Apart from the fact that it is really very nice looking, TW's
interface is very easy to use. Clicking on the right mouse button when
inside the text window brings up a pop-up menu that lets you get help
on the keyboard shortcuts, conduct various operations on the current
text, go to a specific place in the text, or set a marker in the text.
You may have two additional windows active: "Status" and "Macro".
Status presents information about the current text, such as its saved
status, current font, name of the author, author's remarks, current
paragraph format and other things. Clicking on a field in this window
brings up a dialog or selector allowing you to change this
information. You can, of course, select what information is displayed
and how it is formatted.
The "Macro" window shows a list of all currently defined macros, their
keyboard equivalents, and their names. Clicking on the macro name
carries on operations defined in that macro, while right-clicking lets
you edit parameters, such as the shortcut (useful for expanding short
abbreviations into long sentences), description, etc. Display
parameters of the "Macro" window also may be set to your liking.
For those like to have a full range of keyboard shortcuts at their
disposal, That's Write 3 offers two possibilities: you can use Atari
standard keyboard equivalents (for the most part, the same as on Mac
and Windows systems; Ctrl-X for cut, for example), or you can use the
SysKey set of keyboard shortcuts that has a single key shortcuts for
more frequently used operations, while less-frequently used
operations use two key sequences. This approach allows for keyboard
equivalents to be assigned to every single menu operation in That's
Write 3. For example, quitting the program (something that you
probably do only once during the working session) is defined as
Ctrl-F,Q (Ctrl-F selects the "File" menu, while Q indicates the
"Quit" menu entry). This system works similarly to that found on PCs.
That's Write 3 allows you to control other aspects of the interface as
well. Besides being able to chose whether you want your dialogs placed
in windows and selecting the style of keyboard shortcuts you prefer,
you also can select whether the text cursor blinks or not, whether the
system file selector (or whichever alternative one you have installed)
or TW's own selector is used.
That's Write 3 supports up to 9 documents and open windows at once,
even if you do not have MultiTOS, Geneva or Mag!X installed, and it
has commands for arranging windows the way you want. TW also supports
MultiTOS' drag-n-drop protocol. Dragging a text file onto one of TW's
windows gives you the choice of either opening the new window for this
file, or of appending the file with the current text. Dragging an IMG
file to TW's window loads this image and displays it in the current
text.
Clicking on a window's "Closer" button presents a pop-up menu with
choices of closing the window (without removing the text from memory),
removing the text altogether, erasing everything in the window (if
the text have not been saved, you will be asked if you want to save
it), or quitting the program. As every other pop-up does, this one has
single-key keyboard equivalents.
Other interface extensions offered by That's Write 3 include
improvements in window manipulation. You can scroll and move
background windows, like in MultiTOS. In addition, That's Write 3 lets
you size the window from any corner, and select whether the window
should have horizontal or vertical scroll bars or none at all. When
you are sizing the window, the mouse pointer changes its shape,
pointing in the direction of the corner you're using to size the
window. Any dialog or alert box, even if they aren't placed inside
windows (which is useful if you are running a multitasking OS) may be
dragged around, either in its solid form, or as a transparent outline.
Almost all options and buttons in dialogs and alerts have keyboard
equivalents which are underlined for easy reference. The "UNDO" key is
always equivalent to pressing the "Cancel" button. Also, text editing
in dialog boxes is greatly improved over the standard handling. You
can use the mouse to place the cursor in any position of the edited
text. You can also use shift key, together with arrow keys, to quickly
move to the beginning or end of the text.
//// Font support
That's Write 3 is very strong in the area where most Atari word
processors, until recently, were rather weak; support for multiple,
scaleable fonts. That's Write 3 can use Speedo fonts, as well as
bitmapped GEM fonts, and a printer's built-in fonts. Speedo support
means that you have access to a large library of professional vector
fonts. Speedo fonts are hinted and kerned, and screen and printed
output is very good. Support for GEM bitmapped fonts means that all
those GDOS fonts that you might have collected in the past are not
obsolete. You can also use COMPO's C-Font utility to convert any
Calamus font into a bitmapped font. Finally, support for fonts
built-in into your printer means that even if you have a dot-matrix or
ink-jet printer you still can print your documents fast and yet be
able to use graphics and Speedo fonts.
Since That's Write 3 does not use the SpeedoGDOS itself, but rather
has its own Speedo font scaler built-in, you can enjoy TW's superior
font handling. It also means that you can mix printer's fonts,
bitmapped fonts, and Speedo fonts in the same document - even in the
same word. As a result, you can have the body text in your document
printed in your printer's resident font (or in a font you have
downloaded to your printer), which is very fast, while chapter
headings and alike are printed in a large, nice-looking Speedo font.
That's Write 3's Font Parameters feature allows you to have real font
families. It means that when you select Italic from the style menu,
rather than getting a slanted version of the font you were working
with (as would be the case in SpeedoGDOS-based program like Atari
Works), you get the real Italic font. (The same goes for Bold, and
Bold Italic typefaces of the family.) Another benefit of this system
is that it allows for separate Bold or Bold Italic fonts to be defined
even for bitmapped GEM fonts. While Bold bitmapped fonts aren't very
popular, you are nevertheless able to define a font file that serves
as a Bold (and a Bold Italic) face of the bitmapped family. If you are
using C-Font or similar utility to convert vector fonts to bitmappaed
format, TW allows you to use Bold and Bold Italic versions of the
original font to create bitmapped fonts which will be used when you
select the appropriate style.
Also, That's Write 3 allows you to have many weights of the font in
the same family. While such weights as "Light", "Ultrabold" or "Black
Condensed" are not standard text styles and therefore can not be
chosen from a style menu, they are available within the same family.
Once you have selected the family (for example, Swiss), you can easily
select the desired weight.
That's Write 3 allows you to control the way Speedo fonts are cached,
whether they should be kept resident in memory for multiple printouts,
what encoding should be used with particular Speedo font (Speedo fonts
allow for more than 256 characters in the font, and encoding tables
let one choose which characters are used). For any type of font,
That's Write 3 lets the user control what the font is called in the
font selector, in what order styles of that font are displayed, and
what keyboard table is associated with the font or the font family.
With the help of keyboard tables you may assign any character to any
key. It is very useful when working with symbol fonts or fonts with
foreign characters.
That's Write 3 can load fonts at any time, as well as replace and
delete fonts. Also, with a click of one button, you can delete all
fonts that are not used in the current document.
//// Printer support
That's Write 3 comes with drivers for over 60 different printers.
(The STraight Fax package also has drivers for That's Write 3.) While
printer drivers used in the current version of TW are not extremely
intelligent and do not tell the program anything about the page sizes
supported by the printer (thus, creating a paragraph that is wider
than the printed page will result in the text on the right being
simply cut off), they allow for use of printer's own fonts as well as
for printing of graphics and Speedo and GEM fonts. Printing options of
TW allow for printing any number of copies, either in sequential order
or with every page being printed several times (since the page has to
be generated only once, it greatly speeds up output to laser
printers). Printout of only odd or even pages, and suppression of
graphics printing, are also options. TW even offers a unique feature
of printing pages from a user-selected list. (For example, you can
print pages 1, 3-6, 25, and 16.) Of course, you are able to select the
paper feeding method and port that your printer is connected to.
If your printer is not among ones offered in the standard package,
COMPO may create a driver for you. If you are more adventurous, COMPO
has a package that lets you design your own printer drivers.
If you require a PostScript output, COMPO has a completely PostScript
capable version of the program. It costs $100 more (with $50 for the
complete package of standard PostScript fonts and $50 for the program
itself). If you do not have a PostScript printer but still want the
PostScript compatibility, COMPO offers a deal on a package including
CompoScript, their PostScript interpreter, that allows you to print
documents without even having to quite That's Write 3.
//// Styles
That's Write 3 is a style-based word processor. That means that every
paragraph in the text has a style tag associated with it, and
changing the formatting of this paragraph changes formatting of _all_
paragraphs having the same style.
Creating paragraph styles is very easy. You call up a paragraph style
selector, enter an abbreviated name that isn't already present there,
and you are taken to the Paragraph Layout dialog. There you can select
ruler settings (margins, indents and tabs), the default font (if the
font you want isn't already loaded into TW, you can load it from
there), default text style (normal, bold, underlined, double
underlined, strike through, italic, sub or superscript),
justification, line and paragraph spacing, as well as some more
obscure options. You can declare any paragraph as the default, and it
will be automatically selected every time you hit "Return" (with one
exception).
You can make paragraphs always start on a new page, select a heading
level of a paragraph (used in the outliner), and declare it as a
remark paragraph (it will be displayed on screen, but not in the print
preview, and it will not be printed). Since your document most
probably will have several often used combinations of paragraph styles
(for example, section name is usually followed by a chapter name, and
it is followed by the body text), That's Write 3 allows you to chain
paragraph styles. Of course, you can always override this paragraph
sequencing manually.
The "Paragraph Layout" dialog also lets you delete style tags you do
not need anymore, and allows you to automatically delete all styles
that are not used in the current document.
Such aspects of paragraph layout as margins and tabs may also be
directly edited from the ruler (if displayed). If you have the left
margin and left indent of the paragraph in the same position, you pick
which to click-and-drag with the mouse by using the left mouse button
for one, and the right button for the other. When you drag either
margin markers or tabs, That's Write displays a thin vertical line
that lets you see exactly where you are, in relation to the text.
The "Page Layout" dialog allows you to define size and margins of the
paper you use, number of columns on page and distance between them, as
well as widow and orphan protection (how many first or last lines of a
paragraph may exist on the page by themselves). Also it allows the
user to define footnote separation and whether the line (length and
thickness, definable) should be printed before footnotes. You can give
your page layouts meaningful names, as with paragraph layouts. From
this dialog you also define headers and footers on the page. Any Page
Layout (or all unused ones) may be deleted at any time
That's Write 3 allows for as many page formats in a single document as
you want, and it even allows different pages to be of different sizes
and have different number of columns.
All these setting may be saved on disks in layout files. One of them
may be default and will be loaded automatically every time you load
the program.
//// The Works
You may enter text as you would in any other in any other word
processor. However, That's Write 3 offers many features that help you
in editing your text.
[] Blocks
That's Write 3 has a full range of block tools. You can select blocks
in a standard manner (windows will scroll when you drag the mouse to
the window edge) - by double-clicking, you can select the word or the
whole paragraph at once. You can also use commands to set the start
and end of a block, which is faster if you want to select a large
amount of text.
After a block is selected, it behaves in a manner close to that of
Calamus: unless you hide it, select a new font or style, or delete it,
it will not change, no matter what you type. If you are used to
Mac-like block handling, where once you have selected a block, typing
a single letter will replace the block, TW's way of block handling may
take some time getting used to. However, it may be easier to work
with.
Once the block is selected, you can go to its beginning or end, move
it, delete it, copy or save it. You also can cut and paste blocks, as
well as move them to Atari Clipboard. When you are cutting or pasting
block, TW offers you a choice of 4 internal clipboards. This method,
while requiring an extra action when selecting which clipboard to use,
allows you to have up to 5 blocks pastable at once.
[] Search and Replace
That's Write 3 has a full range of search and replacement tools,
including wildcards, searching either forward or backward, case
matching or ignoring, searching for complete words only, and an
ability to copy the currently selected block into "Search" or "Replace
with" fields (an option sorely missing from many Atari word
processors). When replacing, you have a usual choice of "Once",
"Query" and "All". "Search Again" is also available.
[] Outliner
That's Write 3 has a full-featured outliner with depth of up to 9
levels. It is not as nicely looking as Calligrapher, and, frankly, I
have never used it, but it seems to be as good as outliners I have
seen in other programs.
[] Spell checker
That's Write 3 features a spell checker, licensed from Houghton-
Mifflin Company. American and English dictionaries are supplied as
standard, and dictionaries for many other languages are available from
COMPO.
The spell checker seems to be good enough, but (as any other spell
checker I've ever seen) sometimes it can not find a right spelling for
the simplest word. Still, it has many specific legal and medical
terms, as well as many proper names.
When you are spell-checking your document and TW finds an unknown
word, it presents you with a dialog that gives you expected options of
looking for alternative spellings, skipping the word, or quitting from
the spell-check altogether. It also shows you the paragraph in which
the word is, in the original font and style - not in the system font
that other programs use. Thanks to that feature, you can easily see if
you're using a foreign language, or a mathematical symbol font. Using
the system font would not let you check for that.
If you are sure that the word is spelled correctly, but That's Write 3
still complains about it, you can add it either to the main dictionary
of the language, into the user dictionary (every document may have a
different user dictionary associated with it), or into the text
dictionary. Text dictionaries are saved with the document itself, and
are useful for words that you are using in a specific document, but
are not planning to use after you are done with it.
You can have That's Write 3 check your spelling as you type, and when
it detects a spelling error, it will ring a bell to alert you. If you
want, you can also have TW automatically correct errors as you type.
TW can automatically correct: capitalization errors (if you type
"chicago" it will be automatically corrected to "Chicago"); mistyped
characters ("offiver" will be corrected to "officer"); exchanged
characters ("hte" will be corrected to "the"); and accented characters
(for this you need to have a dictionary of a language that uses
accented characters, as French and German do). After doing so, TW will
sound a high-pitched beep. Of course, TW must be able to find a single
correction. If a mistyped word may be corrected in several ways or has
more than one error in it, TW will not be able to automatically
correct it.
At any time you may edit any of the active dictionaries: main, user,
or text. You can add, edit, or delete words in them. Also, you can
have TW generate a "Correction list" for you. It will contain all
words marked as misspelled. You can manually go through this list and
remove words that you know are correct.
[] Hyphenation
That's Write 3 may be told to automatically hyphenate text as you
type. It may also be told to ask you every time it finds a word that
might be hyphenated. You can select either using hyphenation rules or
the dictionary. Using the dictionary is somewhat slower and takes more
memory, but hyphenations are more accurate. You can select the amount
of white space in the text or switch the hyphenation off.
[] Footnotes, endnotes
That's Write 3 offers an automatic generation of Table of Contents and
Index. Just mark words or phrases you want to be present there, and
tell the program to do so; it will take care of the rest.
Unlike many other word processors, That's Write 3 can generate both
footnotes and endnotes in the same document. There may be as many of
both as you like. Footnotes are generated with a familiar superscript
number, and you can select whether you want numbering to be continous
or start from 1 on every page. Endnotes are generated with square
brackets around them. If you discover, after painfully entering a
thousand footnotes into your Nobel-prize paper (or dissertation),
that endnotes are required instead of footnotes, you can easily
convert between the two.
//// Nice Touches
That's Write 3 offers many nice touches that make text editing easier.
Pressing Ctrl-Z at any point will exchange the last two characters.
If you misplace characters often, this option will definitely speed up
the recovery, especially if you do not want to use the automatic
correction feature.
Another nice feature is TW's ability to insert up to 10 bookmarks in
the document. Unlike other programs, That's Write 3 saves these
bookmarks with the document, so you can define up to 10 places that
you want to always be able to go to. The dialog where you select a
bookmark to jump to shows the text around the bookmark, so you can
always see where you are going. In addition to the 10 bookmarks, the
last position of the text cursor is also saved with the document, and
when you load it at the later time, you are put exactly where you
left.
Equally nice is an ability to cancel any time-consuming operation
(printing, spell checking, a long macro, search and replace in a long
document etc.) by pressing both Shift keys.
That's Write 3 has an option of going to a specified page, line,
column, foot- or endnote. When moving to a line, page or foot/end-
note, you can specify either absolute number (go to endnote 3) or a
relative one (go 12 pages forward). Also, TW lets you go to the start
of the next or previous page (useful for checking that page breaks
are where they belong), the next or previous paragraph or the next
picture. If you are working on several documents at once, you can move
to a next or specific window with a single command.
The current date (in long or short form, formatted according to the
selected language) and time may be inserted into the document with a
single command.
That's Write 3 has many other nice touches as well, but describing
them all would make this review even longer (and aren't you tired of
me already?).
//// Macros
One of the most powerful features of That's Write 3 is its use of
macros. That's Write 3 allows you to define macros of any length,
containing any text, dialog box, or menu operations. Macros may be
linked together and may even be recursive. Since a recursive macro may
never stop, you have an option of interrupting a macro operation by
pressing both Shift keys simultaneously.
Macros are called by pressing the Esc key and then the key combo that
you have assigned the macro to, or by pressing the Function key. This
allows you to have very large number of macros active. Sets of macros
may be saved, and any one of them may be made the default. When a
macro file is loaded, you have a choice of overwriting macros already
in memory, or appending new macros to them. If a macro in the default
macro file is assigned to the Esc key, it will be executed
automatically every time That's Write 3 is loaded.
As soon as a macro is defined, its keyboard equivalent appears in the
Macro window, if you have it active. After the macro is defined, you
can assign it a meaningful name, a descriptive remark, and an
additional shortcut. Shortcuts work well as abbreviation expanders.
For example, when writing this review, I have "TW" defined as a
shortcut for "That's Write 3". Every time when I type "TW", I can hit
the UNDO key, which works as the abbreviation expander, and it will be
expanded into "That's Write 3". Possible uses include assigning
shortcuts to your name and address, and/or commands that you use
often. Since TW does not perform this expansion automatically, you
still can use the shortcut (which may be longer than two characters)
for other purposes, as evidenced by the use of TW as a synonym for
That's Write 3 in this review.
Other uses of macros include one-key activators for various styles,
block hiding, and operations for making a word UPPERCASE, lowercase,
or Capitalized. You can use macros for more difficult tasks as well,
since any sequence of operations that may be followed in That's Write
3 may be recorded in a macro. Macros may also include "beeps" and
pauses that may alert you that the macro has finished its execution,
or give you a chance to abort it before it does something you don't
want.
//// Instructions
Instructions are another very powerful tool that That's Write 3 gives
to you. Not many word processors, especially in TW's price range,
offer such a flexible tool.
That's Write 3's Instructions may be described as a programming
language whose statements are linked to tab stops of a paragraph
layout. Of course, this programming language isn't powerful enough to
write a new word processor, but it gives you very powerful tools for
the creation of self-modifying documents, self-calculating invoices,
etc.
That's Write 3 offers instructions that load the text (either as text
or as a number) positioned at the current tab stop or the paragraph
margin into a user-defined variables, manipulate this text, convert it
(conversion of Arabic numerals into Roman, string manipulations,
number operations and rounding, date and time conversions, etc.), and
put it back into the document. There are also instructions for asking
the user to provide some input and instructions for accessing document
information, such as the number of pages in the document or the
document filename, as well as conditional statements (if... then...
else) with the standard logical operations (and, not, or) and
comparisons thrown in.
Some of more obvious uses for Instructions are the creation of
mini-spreadsheets or invoices that calculate themselves. Such an
invoice might ask you, when you load it, to provide the address of the
person being billed, ask for a number of widgets shipped and the price
per widget, and generate the total due line. More complex invoices may
also ask about the payment terms and calculate the payment date based
on the current date.
Instructions may also be used for creating non-standard page
numbering, for example, using Roman numerals or letters of the
alphabet. Automatic chapter numbering system, with several levels
(Chapter 1.2.8 or something like that) may be created, and other
possible uses are limited only by your imagination. I have been told
that COMPO runs all their invoicing with this system.
As with any other aspect of That's Write 3, COMPO provides quite a few
demo files with examples of using Instructions.
//// Other Features
There are other features in That's Write 3 that make it one of the
most powerful word processors available for the Atari platform.
[] Mail Merge
One of them is a mail merge function. TW has a powerful mail merge
engine that allows you to have the standard letter combined and
printed with different information, taken from a data file. Fields of
a data file record do not have to be accessed in sequential order.
When the mail merge is performed, you may print all documents, based
on all records of a data file, or only selected ones.
One of the most obvious uses for the mail merge function is the
printing of the same letter to several people (hence the name "mail
merge"). That's Write 3 will load the data file, containing addresses
and names of those people, insert them into the form letter, and print
it out. Of course, you are not limited to address information, any
data may be merged with the document. If you use Instructions and
Macros in addition to the mail merge, it gives you very powerful data
processing capabilities, allowing you to manipulate information from
the data file, insert individual greetings and much more.
For example, you can have mail merge function print out invoices
(which, of course, may be self-calculating). If the payment date is
past, and no payment was received, you can have That's Write 3 add a
nasty remark to the letter.
[] Graphics
That's Write 3 allows the user to include graphics in their documents.
At the moment, TW is limited to monochrome IMG files, but future
version should support more formats, including vector graphics.
Graphics may be either inserted on a separate line, or overlaid with
text. While there are no functions for creating text runaround, you
may manually position the text around the picture. That's Write 3 also
has functions for moving graphics, scaling them for different
resolutions, resizing and cropping them. Display and/or printout of
any image may be suppressed for faster output. There are also limited
facilities for editing of images. You may move parts of the image
around and delete parts you do not need.
[] In- and outdenting
It is possible to create nicely indented paragraphs without changing
the paragraph layout. While pressing the TAB key moves the text on the
line to the next tab stop, the Insert key aligns the text on this and
all following lines with the next tab stop. This way you can create
paragraphs with hanging indents (outdents) using the same paragraph
style you use for the rest of your text. At the same time, pressing
Ctrl-TAB, will move the cursor to the next tab stop without inserting
anything.
[] System data
The "That's Write..." entry from the "Desk" menu gives you not only
information about That's Write 3, but also the number of pages, lines,
words, characters, and pictures in the current document, as well as
the amount of free memory. By the way, That's Write 3 is aware of two
kinds of RAM (System and Fast RAM) that may be present in your
machine, and uses both.
[] Page Control
To the left of the actual text, there is a narrow vertical bar where
page breaks and paragraph starts are shown. By clicking in there, you
may enter hard page breaks, or protect parts of text from a page break
occurring within this part.
//// Document Parameters
The Text Information dialog presents you with the information about
the filename and path of the current document, language and user
dictionary associated with it, and allows you to set many options for
the document.
A document may be protected with a password. Of course, if you save a
password-protected document and than forget the password, there is
little chance that you will ever be able to see this document
again....
Author's and editor's names and remarks may be entered in this dialog.
It makes easier to keep track of multiple projects, especially if
several people work on them.
Names of previous and following chapter may be entered here. Breaking
up a large document into smaller parts may allow users with little RAM
work with very large documents. After chapters are linked, you may
switch between them with a single command, and That's Write 3 will
automatically keep track of saving changes and numbering pages and
foot/end-notes.
Document creation and last change dates and times are shown in this
dialog. They may be changed there, but frankly, I don't see why one
would want to change those.
Page and footnote number offsets may be defined here, if you want to
start page and footnote numbering from something other than 1. If a
negative number is entered for the page number offset, pages that are
assigned numbers less than 1 will not have their numbers printed. This
is useful if you want to have cover page(s) without page numbers on
them.
There are other parameters that may be defined in the Text Information
dialog. You may set the document to be single- or double paged, you
may choose to flip margins on alternate pages, you may choose to have
images cached on disk, and you may choose to number footnotes
sequentially, or starting with 1 on every page.
In addition to that, you may have the document automatically execute
instructions when it is loaded (you are asked, however, if you want
this execution every time you load the document; if you are still
editing, you may not want to have instructions change it). Also, a
document may be defined as a template. Templates, when loaded,
"forget" their name, and thus you can have a predefined templates for
fax cover sheets, letterheads and alike. When you save such a
document, you are prompted for a new name, and the "Template" option
is deselected, so you can not overwrite the original template. If you
are still editing it, however, when loading you are given a choice not
to use it as a template. In that case, the "Template" option is left
selected, and instructions will not be executed, so you can finish
creating your template.
/// Configurations
Many aspects of That's Write 3 operation may be configured and these
configurations may be saved. You have choice of working in "Insert" or
"Overwrite" modes, having images displayed or not, and having That's
Write 3 reformat and paginate document while you look away.
Also, you can configure That's Write 3 to automatically save
configurations on exit, to ask confirmations for dangerous operations,
to have the text cursor blinking or not, to use the internal or system
file selector, to display all dialogs in windows, and to use (when
running in monochrome) routines writing directly to screen, which
gives faster display, but may be incompatible with some screen
accelerators or graphic boards. You also can select to have documents
automatically saved at preset intervals.
Other configurable aspects include the decimal separator (comma, as in
the US, or period, which is used in Europe). The selected character
will be used by decimal tabs, and by instructions, when generating
numbers. You may select whether you want Shift or Ctrl key for moving
word by word, and you can set parameters for the Status and Macro
windows. Also, you can define default paths for documents, That's
Write 3's files, and the current user dictionary.
In addition to defining and saving preferences, you can save
configurations, which also include window positions, open file and
cursor positions. If you work on a long document, you may want to save
a default configuration that will load this document and put you
exactly where you left it.
//// Goodies
That's Write 3 comes with quite a few additional programs and
accessories to help you use it.
That's Write 3 comes with 2 "fix" programs (LA.PRG and POOLFIX.PRG)
that fix certain bugs in TOS 1.0 and TOS 1.04.
Also present are several accessories (KeyShow, Macro Editor, That's
Snap and TRech) and programs. (That's Font 2 and C-Font.)
That's Write supports a special protocol, XACC, developed by COMPO for
easy communication between the main program and accessories. XACC
protocol allows for XACC accessories to be called from the keyboard,
and data exchange between the program and accessories is possible.
That's Write 3 uses the newer version of XACC protocol that works
under MultiTOS and allows for several programs to be called from the
keyboard or from the "Programs" option in the file menu. Accessories
supplied with the current release of TW still use the older version of
XACC, so they can not communicate with TW when running under MultiTOS,
however.
[] Accessories
Accessories provided with That's Write 3 are designed to simplify the
use of the program or to provide additional functionality. That's Snap
is a general-purpose screen snapshot accessory which works not only
with programs having a menu bar, but also can be called with a
keyboard from programs that do not give you an access to the Desk
menu, or to take a snapshot of a dialog. That's Snap is a pretty basic
program, supporting only IMG format, but nevertheless, it lets you
specify the part of the screen you want to capture, and seems to work
fine with 3rd party graphic cards.
KeyShow, as the name implies, shows you keys needed to produce various
characters. You can use either the keyboard or the mouse to select a
character. However, KeyShow has several shortcomings. It won't let you
select more than one character at a time, very large font sizes may
result in characters not fitting in their buttons, and (my biggest
complaint) if a character is not specified in the keyboard table for
that particular font, it will not be shown. That makes the accessory
quite useless if the character you are looking for happens to be
absent from the keyboard table. COMPO is incorporating KeyShow
directly into the future versions of the program, however, and they
promise to fix these shortcomings.
Macro Editor allows for making changes in existing macros. While I
find that if macro is sufficiently short it may be easier to simply
record a new one over it, if the macro is long and complex enough,
changing it in the editor may be easier. Macro Editor allows the user
to change, insert and delete lines in the macro. Menu operations may
also be entered or edited.
TRech (which means, in half-German, half-English, "That's Calculator")
is a "pocket" scientific calculator. It works in Decimal, Hexadecimal
and Octal systems, and support functions you'd expect from a pocket
calculator, but not much more. It does feature large buttons and a
display, however, and can be easily manipulated both by the mouse and
keyboard, unlike many other calculator accessories, which have buttons
so small it is hard to see them. The main advantage of using TRech
over other calculator accessories is that it supports a wide range of
methods of importing calculation results into your text. TRech allows
you to specify a short text that goes before and after the calculation
result, the decimal character, and the rounding.
Obviously, TRech works with XACC protocol, which is the best for use
with That's Write 3. If you are running under MultiTOS (where TRech's
version of XACC does not work) or want to import calculations in
program other than TW, you can configure TRech to use either the Atari
Clipboard, or the keyboard buffer. If you are calling TRech from
inside That's Write 3, the selected block will be transferred into
TRech automatically. Up to eight different export configurations may
be defined at the same time and chosen with a sliding selector. These
configurations may also be saved for future use.
[] Programs
Also included with That's Write are two programs. One of them is
C-Font. C-Font, which runs either as a program or as an accessory,
converts Calamus vector fonts (there are several supplied with the
program) into bitmapped formats for use with TW, GDOS, or Timeworks
Publisher and other programs that can use GDOS fonts, either
compressed or uncompressed.
The other program is That's Font 2. While COMPO themselves say that it
is not the best bitmapped font editor available (they recommend
Fontkit Plus), it is a powerful enough program. It works with several
formats of fonts (including TEX fonts and downloadable printer fonts),
has decent options for manipulating fonts (mirror, italics, shadow
etc.), and allows the editing of keyboard tables, which is the main
reason for its inclusion in the package. With That's Font you can
easily create a keyboard table for access to particular characters in
the font. Of course, you can use That's Font to edit fonts (especially
those created with C-Font), or create new ones from scratch.
Available separately from COMPO is a formula editor. From what I've
heard, it is a powerful program with a graphic interface that lets you
create complex mathematical formulae and place them in your documents.
//// Support
COMPO provides great support for their products. Of course, one must
bear in mind that the Atari market in the USA is rather small, and
COMPO is a small company. While there's not a toll-free 24 hour number
to call, there is unlimited, free support. In my experience, calling
COMPO, or sending them EMail always resulted in fast and good
assistance.
Future support (i.e. new versions) is well in hand. Compo tells me
that work is continuing on That's Write 4.
//// Verdict
Well, I hope that I have described enough of That's Write 3's features
for you. There are, of course, many more that I did not even touch,
but I hope that ones I've mentioned will give you an overall feel for
this powerful program.
That's Write 3 is not entirely free of shortcomings. I wish that the
printer support was somewhat more intelligent. "As-you-type"
formatting and on-screen columns would be great, too, as would be a
built-in table generator and support for more graphic formats (those
are addressed by COMPO in future versions). While nothing is
crash-proof, it is a very stable and compatible program with many
powerful functions. It is also quite fast in its operation and
supports enhancements in newer machines (FastRAM, Falcon resolutions)
and in system software (support for MultiTOS' drag-and-drop etc.).
That's Write 3 isn't a program geared for creating graphics-heavy
documents, as are Calligrapher and Papyrus on Atari, and MS Word or
Ami Pro on other platforms. However, as a writing tool, designed for
creation and editing of text-based documents, it shines.
If you have only a dot-matrix printer, and are looking for a word
processing program, I would recommend That's Write 3 wholeheartedly.
It will let you use your printer's built-in fonts for the body of your
text, saving a great deal of time and ear damage, and it still lets
you use graphics and Speedo vector fonts where you need them. If you
need a program that lets you create leaflets, flyers, and otherwise
generate documents with graphics, borders, boxes, etc., I'd suggest
looking at Calamus or Pagestream. However, if you need a tool for
creating, editing and printing text, such as books, invoices, novels,
academic theses, or letters to your aunt, I think That's Write 3 is
the best program available.
That's Write 3 is distributed in the US by
COMPO Software
104 Esplanade Avenue, Suite 121
Pacifica, CA 94044
Tel: 415-355-0862
Fax: 415-355-0869
GEnie: COMPO
List price: $199.99US
About the author:
I was born in Moscow, Russia (what used to be the USSR). I had two
Atari computers there (an 800XE, and later a 1040ST), and two cats.
I worked with numerous other machines (most notably, MSX thingies by
Yamaha, and Soviet-made PDP-11 and IBM/360 clones) while attending
Moscow Oil and Gas Institute with a major in Applied Mathematics.
Three years ago my family and I moved to the United States. Now we
live in a Chicago suburb, with only one cat :-( and a couple of
computers (including a TT030). Now I go to the Northern Illinois
University, where I major in Computer Science. We run a small
translation and publishing business, and I use my TT for DeskTop
Publishing, mostly in Russian.
I enjoy anime, obscure music (_really_ obscure: Henry Cow, Cassiber,
Van der Graaf Generator and Art Bears are among more well known bands
I like :-), and crashing computers.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Andreas' Den
||| By: Andreas Barbiero
/ | \ Delphi: ABARBIERO GEnie: AEO.2
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//// Connections and corrections!
I am going to warn you that this is going to be a long one, for I may
be absent next month as the wonderful Navy is calling me away again
for some inscrutable flight operations in California.
I spend a great deal of time typing away in AtariWorks and on the
online services. While my main area of responsibility is Delphi, I
find myself spending more and more time in the Usenet areas and poking
my nose deeper into the Internet itself. I have used Telnet and FTP
commands to get my way so deep into other computers around the world
that if it were not for the book, "The Internet for Dummies" I would
never be able to extract myself!
This book is in the same series as the "DOS for Dummies" and other
"for Dummies" books. This one of course is for the Internet, and
covers the items in detail without being obtuse or confusing. The tone
of the book is slightly humorous and organizes things in a way that
you painlessly learn the arcane processes that it takes to surf
through cyberspace. I won't go into how cool the Internet is when you
know what you are doing, (take my word for it, it IS cool!) but if you
are intimidated by the information highway, then get this book and
read it, you will want to try it out immediately.
The Internet for Dummies
John Levine and Carol Baroudi
IDG Books
San Mateo CA, 94402
19.95 USA
17.99 UKP
26.95 Canadian
The Internet is also very important to an Atari user. Accessing Usenet
and the FTP sites around the world is just like having an enormous
user group that meets when you want it to, and has access to just
about all the shareware in the world. In this spectrum of computing,
where you are and what service you subscribe to has little meaning
outside of the services that it can provide to you. GEnie is great as
it gets all the really cool conferences (Heck, I even got a free copy
of Scott Sanders "The Atari Compendium" out of a conference! Thanks!)
and if you don't want to mess around the FTP sites, you get new
uploads of GEnie fairly quickly. Delphi is a full node on the Internet
as well as being reasonable gateway to the Internet. All this means is
that if you have Internet access anywhere on the world, you can Telnet
into Delphi and use its services, or if you can call Delphi directly
you can access the Internet through Delphi.
(I understand that Compuserve allows telnet access now, and may allow
Internet access from Compuserve in the near future.)
//// Not on MY turf...
My wife, who helped start Atari United!, has been collecting
information from Atari computer users for quite some time now, and has
found that the Internet has given her access to Atari users all over
the world. As a result, she has been able to contact users and groups
in Mexico, Costa Rica, and all over Europe. Recently she telneted into
the Cleveland Free-Net and held a conference at the request of the
guys there. She reached people who have probably never seen GEnie,
Delphi or CompuServe, and who were able to log onto a FREE service.
//// Rocking around the block...
A funny thing that my wife and I have both noticed about many users
who communicate through the Internet to us was that many users don't
quite understand what they are doing. So, here are a few tips to help
everybody communicate around the world with ease! If you are a GEnie
user, and want to let others know your internet address, it takes the
following format: <[username]@genie.geis.com>. Many individuals have
written to us and listed their address as simply @geis.com. That won't
do it folks! Are you itching to get involved with sharing information,
but aren't sure how to do it from GEnie? It is very easy - just send
GEnie EMail, and when the software ask you "To:" enter the Internet
EMail address to who you are sending to, and follow up the username
with an "@INET#".
You cannot send files through the Internet in the same way that you
would if they were on the same system. GEnie has an excellent
interface on page 200 for sending files to another user on GEnie, but
you cannot use this to send mail to someone not on GEnie. There is a
way to send everything from an article to a GIF file to a program
anywhere. It is called UUEncode.
There is a TOS program around called ESSCODE, that allows you to pick
a file, convert it (to a UUE file) and send it like a normal text
EMail message. Yep, the file is converted to a text file and then
sent. (Editor: I use UUEncoding constantly to send AEO out to the
Internet distribution points from GEnie and to receive files from
virtually everywhere. It works, and isn't hard to do.)
UUEncoding is not great for file compression, as the UUE files are
larger than the original files, but it works! If you download a lot of
UUE files, getting a modem with modem compression and error correction
will help. This is where all those 'V.xx' and MNP numbers come into
play.
If all this UUE stuff seems confusing, it isn't, as even I have
managed to figure out how to do this by myself, and if you need to
send me a program from someplace other than GEnie or Delphi, just
UUEncode it and send it out! I accept programs and articles from just
about anyone, and just as soon as I can I will look at it and get back
to you. After all critiquing someone else's hard work while I sip beer
is what I do best.
If you are on Delphi and want to communicate with _anyone_ on another
service, all you have to do is go into MAIL and send them some! For
instance, if you wanted to reach me on my GEnie account, all you would
have to type at the "To:" prompt is: IN%"AEO.2@GENIE.GEIS.COM". The
IN% indicates that you are sending mail to someone who has no account
on Delphi and the "" mean that this is the address the person is on at
the service indicated after the @ symbol. Simple. We are a world-wide
community, and if you are on an online service, like GEnie or Delphi,
you have the best of both worlds, local personal access and world-wide
contact!
//// From the Past...
Way back when, I was invited to take a look at forthcoming Falcon030
games, I noticed a new controller plugged into the analog ports.
Several years has past, and in the intervening time, the Falcon030 has
shipped, and those games are now becoming available! Dino Dudes and
Steel Talons are now available in Falcon030 only configurations, and
Road Riot 4WD is soon to follow. These games seem to have been taken
over by Atari UK (Atari Europe for all intents and purposes.) and are
becoming available in the US. Remember those controllers? They are the
Jaguar controllers! Yes, you CAN use the Jaguar controllers on the
Falcon030. In fact I remember playing an early version of Raiden with
one of these on a Falcon030. We can only hope that more Falcon030
specific software will be forthcoming from Atari sources to spur the
marketplace, and other analog controller systems will come for the
Falcon.
There has been a great deal of talk on the Usenet as to whether or not
Id Software's DOOM! could be converted to the Falcon, I for one think
that a version is possible - not as powerful as the Jaguar version,
but done well nonetheless. If Wolfenstein 3D can run on a '386DX-33 (I
know, I have used it!) there should be no problem converting that to
work on a Falcon030. Maybe with the relationship that Atari has with
the Id boys, we can see it happen, though Id has recently said that
there are NO plans to do DOOM on a Falcon.
//// ...into the Future of Atari
As you probably read in the last issue, Atari may not have the time or
the money right now to support a new TOS computer, but into the gap
leaps the third party! I won't rehash the last issue, but things ARE
looking up. The CaTTamaran, Barracuda040, Janus, and other products
are going to allow us to upgrade to proven technologies. As long as
software applications like Calamus SL, STalker, Cubase, SpeedoGDOS,
and AtariWorks can run on them, the installed professional software
base will be preserved. The CaTTamaran's acceleration is software
selectable, and the Wizztronics' 040 board does not replace the
Falcon030's processor, so these items should maintain compatibility
with any entertainment software that will run on them in their
original configurations.
As perusers of the Delphi Forum will know, I am pursuing information
on a "do it yourself" PAK board from Germany. This is an '020/'030
board for the Mega and ST computers, which can run up to a 50MHz '030
with a 12MHz bus. I recently got a message about a chap who installed
a 64MHz 030! This may not be as slick as the more professional boards,
but at a cost of ~100DM (~$60 US) for the board alone, and the
inexpensive cost of surplus '030 chips, a total '030 solution may be
available for under $200!! I am expecting more information from Yat
Siu of Lexicor, and I will be following up with a letter or two to the
originators of the PAK in Germany. And for a thought, even less
expensive are 68020 chips. Used in some Macs, and not exactly state of
the art, they do offer a bit more power than the 68000 series is
capable of. Wilko Bulte <wilko@idca.tds.philips.nl> posted this for
your information.
Note: this a benchmark... this might or might not have any
relevance to your actual application. Got this from a friend
who tried it for me.
Wilko
GEMBENCH 3.30 (C) Ofir Gal
Tests w/ and wo/ PAK3-020/16MHz
Reference: ST 1040, no blitter.
TOS version 1.04 2.06 2.06 2.06
MiNT no no no no
Blitter disabled disabled disabled disabled
Video Mode ST High ST High ST High ST High
FPU no yes yes yes
More?
PAK disabled enabled enabled enabled
Level 1 Cache n.a. enabled disabled enabled
Level 2 Cache n.a. disabled enabled enabled
GEM Dialog Box 286% 423% 411% 444%
VDI Text 876% 1514% 1775% 1985%
VDI Text Effects 743% 1280% 1424% 1766%
VDI Small Text 572% 1145% 1277% 1413%
VDI Graphics 362% 755% 869% 1046%
GEM Window 251% 378% 393% 442%
Integer Division 99% 576% 573% 581%
Float Math 100% 132% 2832% 2905%
RAM Access 99% 214% 393% 460%
ROM Access 99% 399% 399% 460%
Blitting 171% 411% 425% 536%
VDI Scroll 449% 586% 711% 771%
Justified Text 248% 455% 466% 545%
VDI Enquire 189% 207% 249% 268%
Average 324% 605% 871% 973%
Graphics 414% 715% 800% 921%
CPU 99% 330% 1049% 1101%
Ok, I'm back. As you can see the numbers are there. The math
co-processor does help out with the floating point operations, and the
average is about 3X faster than a good old standby 8MHz ST. You will
probably notice these results more if you are doing things like
graphics processing than word processing. Notice that GEM operations
are little more than 200% faster, and in order for the speedup to be
noticeable, more than a 500% increase is needed. I don't usually like
benchmarks, but when you spend money on speeding up your computer, you
gotta see something in return I guess. If memory serves, I remember
seeing 16MHz '020 chips going surplus for about $10 back in
California. This is a real lowball way to get performance out of your
computer.
It seems the Medusa from Germany is closer to arriving. If control
can be exercised to assure compatibility with standard TOS, then there
will be no problems with these advances. Like what was said in last
month's Atari Artist column, with a concerted effort, movement beyond
GEM is possible, allowing TOS to move forward and on to even different
CPU platforms. I don't see this as a death knell for the future of an
Atari designed computer, but as a way to widen the base of machines
that will be able to handle TOS. Will Atari come out with a new
computer? Well if there are '040 powered Falcons and other people
making totally new computers that will run TOS. the problem of
inactive Atari computer development is mitigated. Then again, they DO
have the Jaguar chipset, TOS 5 and MultiTOS, and if they wanted to,
they could define the next level of computing without stealing
anyone's thunder or being eclipsed by a competitor. In our case, the
more people defining platforms that can run TOS the better!
//// Two-Face
Last issue in AEO, mention was made to the Janus card for the average
PC compatable computer, and on the Internet, an Atari user from
Germany, Christoph Oberle sent me some mail.
From: IN%"oberle@informatik.uni-koblenz.de"
Hi, here is the adress of two distributors of the "Janus - the ATARI
in your PC":
I) VHF-Computer GmbH (actual developers)
Daimlerstr. 13
71101 Schoenaich Germany phone: (+49) 7031 75 01 90
II) edicta
Loewenstr. 68
70597 Stuttgart Germany phone: (+49) 711 76 33 81
fax : (+49) 711 76 53 82 4
Janus is actually NOT an emulator but an expansion card which
contains the main hardware of an ST (68000, 16 MHz and TOS 2.06, space
for 2 SIMMs (8 or 9 chip).
Here is an excerpt of the information in the magazine "ST-Computer",
issue 4/94:
"... Although there only is a 68000/16 on the board, Janus is fast,
because the CPU delegates a big part of its tasks (e.g. graphics
output and file operations) to the Intel processor. It only processes
system specific calculations. In many applications, the Janus board is
faster than a TT! Various resolutions are supported, depending on the
abilities of the graphics card. In the compatibility mode with ST
high resolution, almost all ATARI programs run without problems."
Technical data:
CPU: MC 68000
Speed: 16 MHz
Memory: 2 SIMMs (70ns), choice between 256KB, 1MB, 4MB, 8MB or
16MB each
Graphics card: Any standard VGA card
OS: Place for 2 ROMs TOS 2.06
Bus: ISA
Now, even at $300 would this card be a deal? If you are forced to use
a PC at work, then this is the product for you. Having TT030-like
access to programs like Calamus SL on a PC could be the salvation to
someone stuck with Windows or unable to sneak their Atari in to work.
It does have some benefits over the GEMulator in that it has actual
hardware implementation of the 68000. This means that it should run
faster on any PC, rather than fully relying on the Intel CPU to carry
out instructions meant for a Motorola processor. The Janus does use
the host computer's CPU to speed things up, but the actual speed of
the application will rely on the 68000. More needs to be said about
this machine as there are many questions that need to be answered. No
matter how good the statistics may look, if it doesn't run what you
need to, then it is useless. I have been in contact with Mr. Mihocka,
and I am sure that no matter how attractive the Janus could be, he
could make the GEMulator more attractive on a price point. As more
information comes along I will be sure to pass the info on to you!
//// Videogames without the VIDEO
Meanwhile, around the country, the Jaguar is making headway. Tempest
2000 (yes I know it seems we have talked about this game since
forever) is gaining kudos, and is far better than anything on the 3DO
or the 16bit systems. There is no CD-ROM unit yet for the Jaguar, and
that is giving Atari the edge. The edge here is in gameplay. Crash &
Burn might have looked pretty in the display case with the 3DO, but it
has little in the way of gameplay. CD-ROM's biggest claim to fame is
being able to provide full motion video (FMV) you know, live actors
and stuff like that. Having FMV in a game can be the worst thing that
can happen to a game. Unlike computer generated data, FMV is linear.
You watch it; it's always the same, and while it may be pretty, but we
are here to play a game, not watch a movie. Digitized video clips may
be fun to watch once or twice as intro or filler material, but after a
while you want to turn it off. IT IS BORING.
Computer generated material, like the images created for Alien Vs.
Predator, can be fully manipulated. With digitized bitmaps mapped onto
a 3D polygon, the computer can rotate it, twist it, blow it up, or do
just about anything with it that the programmer needs to. Remember all
those demos with wibbly-wobbly 3D images and shapes? They may have
been pre-programmed, but they still could be manipulated more than a
predefined animation. I like to compare these differences to a good
flight simulator. With games like F-16 Falcon and Cybermorph, you
could get OUTSIDE the plane, and rotate the world around yourself to
your hearts' content. Try that with a MPEG or Quicktime video clip.
Without a CD-ROM to distract software houses, they are going back to a
nearly lost art form, game design. There are dozens of games on the PC
which claim all sorts of fabulous video, but like CD-I, they end up
being a pretty demo with small bits of interactivity thrown in. Now,
what a CD-ROM can do for a game is allow it to be a huge storage area
for music and game data. Tempest 2000 has 30 minutes of CD quality
music, but on a CD-ROM with compression, that could be hours.
When the Jaguars' CD-ROM appears (along with the Sigma Design's
Jaguar-on-a-PC card), in addition to the potential of watching full
length movies, there will already be a vanguard of video games that
will fulfill a gamer's desire more than most current CD-ROM
offerings. Imagine a BattleTech game, with dozens of realistic planets
generated with weather, and all sorts of land and water conditions with
every 'mech, vehicle, aerospace fighter, and dropship in the inventory
realistically rendered. Huge digitized sound samples could be included
and a fantastic musical score all on one disc! That is how a CD-ROM is
effective, not as a mini-movie.
Ideally a BattleTech game cart should be available first, with the
programming hooks built in to allow a later CD-ROM to add on more
Battlemechs and combat scenarios. Imagine waging an entire war, battle
by battle! That won't be one game that you will finish quickly. (To
any developers out there... this is just my dream, and it just might
sell!)
Well, in the meantime, I guess I will save my pennies for one of those
Afterburner040 66MHz cards with the PCI card slot, or maybe I want a
Barracuda board with the 80486.... I am in the process of reviewing
Cannon Fodder for the ST, and it already looks good. Stay tuned.
--==--==--==--==--
||| ExtenDOS: CD-ROM Driver for your Atari
||| By: Randy Hoekstra
/ | \ GEnie: R.HOEKSTRA1
---------------------------------------------------------------
It's been a long time coming, but simple, affordable, and practical
access to CD ROM has finally arrived for the ST/TT/Falcon line. I am
refering to the ExtenDOS CD ROM driver by Roger Burrows of Anodyne
Software.
I first began my journey into the world of CD ROM when I saw an
announcement for the Gemini CD ROM for the TOS series of Atari
computers. It boasted of thousands of files specifically for the Atari
ST, TT030 and Falcon030, plus text and graphics files related to the
Lynx and Jaguar. With over 600 Megabytes of data it would be like
having easy access to a huge library of public domain and shareware
software. I decided I needed to get a CD ROM drive and get this disk.
Well CD ROM drives can be expensive and I didn't have a lot of cash
lying around. Fortunately, I had access to an AppleCD drive from work
which was just gathering dust sitting on my desk. But would an CD-ROM
drive made to work with one of those Mac type computers work with my
lowly MegaST or Falcon? I decided I just had to find out.
Being the cheapskate that I am, I first tried to make the CD-ROM work
with the MetaDOS drivers that I found in a PD archive. I connected a
male-to-male SCSI cable between my current hard drive and the AppleCD
drive. I set the SCSI ID of the AppleCD to the next available ID and
configured the MetaDOS control file accordingly. It seemed to load
okay on boot up, but no matter how I tried to configure it, I was not
able to access the CD ROM.
I then obtained the .XFS driver that is designed to work with MiNT
(Eric Smith's multi-tasking kernal), but quickly realized that I
didn't have the right software setup on my MegaST and I didn't have
the right cable to hook up the drive to my Falcon. I was beginning to
lose hope.
During my attempts to go the freeware route, I discovered a topic on
GEnie for discussing CD ROM on Ataris, and I naturally started posting
questions. It was there that I learned of a new CD-ROM driver called
ExtenDOS. Given the trouble I had been through already, I was hesitant
to spend the money to order ExtenDOS (yes I really am cheap), but
after seening one good report after another about it on GEnie, I
decided to give it a try.
Not more than a week later, I was sitting in front of my MegaST
installing ExtenDOS on my hard drive. It came with a simple and to the
point 20 page user manual. It contained step by step instructions for
configuring the driver for your system, with just enough technical
detail to satisfy the curious. By setting the CD-ROM drive ID to the
suggested default and installing the suggested drive icons, it was as
simple as copying the EXTENDOS.PRG file to the AUTO folder, creating
an EXTENDOS folder containing the CD.BOS and UNIDRIVE.DOS files, and
copying the default EXTENDOS.CNF file to the root directory of the
boot drive. With these files in place and the CD-ROM drive connected
and powered up, I had only to reboot to install the driver and open a
whole new world of CD-ROM access on my Atari ST.
It worked without a hitch and the Gemini CD is truly amazing. It's
hard to imagine having one drive icon accessing over 600 Megabytes of
programs, picture files, text files, and other data without
experiencing it for yourself, but let's just say it is enough to keep
a person busy for weeks just exploring. Of course I couldn't settle
with the default set up, so I had to refer to the details in the user
manual on how to edit the EXTENDOS.CNF file for the SCSI ID and drive
icon that I wanted. I made the modifications according to the
documentation and after rebooting, I was right back in business with
the configuration of my choice.
It's hard to give a detailed review of something like a CD-ROM driver.
If it's good, you simply install it and it works. ExtenDOS is good.
The only problem I have found so far is a small incompatibility with
Geneva, the multi-tasking environment from Gribnif. When ExtenDOS and
Geneva are used together, the system path somehow gets stuck on the
root drive and most programs when run from other drives will attempt
to locate their supporting files (resource or data) on the root drive
rather than on the drive where the program was run. Programs that do
not open additional files work fine. This bug also prevents the Geneva
file selector from seeing the files on the CD-ROM drive. Once Geneva
is disabled, non-root drive programs work fine and CD-ROM access
returns to normal. This has been reported to Roger Burrows and he has
already indicated that a fix is in the works. That's another good
thing about this software - it is supported very well by its author.
On the plus side, ExtenDOS is compatible with the entire ST line right