I/O Board

We have enjoyed PAC INVADERS published in your August '82 issue. I have some suggestions to add to this program. Many readers may find that if "156" and "158" in lines 520 and 530 are replaced by "UJ + 4" and "UJ + 6", the program will make more sense. For flashes of light occurring during the explosion, try the following: change:

230 POKE 712,62:POS. N,BHG:?#6;" ":POKE 712,54
240 POKE 656,3:POKE 657,8:?" ";SCORE;" ";:POKE 712,0:VC$(BG,BG+2)=BH$:LA=0:POKE53278,1:SOUND 0,0,0,0:RETURN
250 POKE 706-TURNS,0:POKE 704,PEEK(710):VC$=BH$:FOR O=70 TO 0 STEP -2:POKE 712,ZZ*(O/4=INT(O/4)):SOUND 0,220,8,0/5

add:

251 ZZ=48+INT(O/10):NENT O:POKE 712,0:GOSUB 420

An embellishment is to add a power pill to the disphly field using the fourth player. lf a PA(. MAN eats .l power pill the game ends instantly. This avoids the feature of having unshot PAC MAN figures disappear bek~w the "horizon".

change:

70 IF PEEK (53259)=1 OR PEEK (53259)=9 THEN 250

add:

75 IF PEEK(53255)>0 THEN TURNS=2:POKE 707,PEEK(710):GOTO 250
371 DIM PL3$(128):POKE 53259,1
395 POKE 53251,124:POKE 707,14:PL3$=BH$:FOR LP=93 TO 105:READ N:PL3$(LP,LP)=CHR$(N):NEXT LP
465 DATA 24,60,60,24,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0

D. J. Staff & family
Rochester, N.Y.

NO MORE COPY ADS

Frontrunner Software, subject of complaints from ANTIC readers for nondelivery of its product "Superclone," assures us that all orders are now being filled (see ANTIC #5 1/0 Board).

ANTIC here announces our immediate policy to reject all advertising for products primarily intended to copy software.

Therefore, absence in ANTIC of advertising for Superclone now may be attributed to this policy and not to failure of Frontrunner to honor its obligations.

FLIP FLOP

I bought the "Star Raiders" and "Basketball" cartridges and am experiencing a "mirror image" with them. Occasionally [SYSTEM RESET] fixes the basketball game, but not Star Raiders. l have exchanged the cartridges several times, but no change. Also, what do these memory tests you see advertised actually do?

Bruce Fuerbringer
Eau Claire, Wl

Mirroring sounds like a hardware problem, possibly a slow ANTIC chip. Try the cartridges on other machines to isolate the culprit. Memory tests are of many kinds, but all verify the correct operation of RAM. -ANTIC ED

AD ASTRA

Permit me to introduce the ATARI Microcomputer Network. We are an onthe-air users' group of amateur (ham) radio operators and short wave listeners who are ATARI computer enthusiasts.

We produce a bi-monthly journal known as "Ad Astra . . .", (L. "To the Stars . . ."). We have over 200 members covering the entire U.S., Canada, South America, Europe and the Far East.

Please spread the word.

Jack McKirgan II,
WD8BNG, National Net Coordinator
Washington C.H., OH

YES, YES, YES

Does the "Model Station" (ANTIC #5) require an 850 Interface? Does the Letter Perfect cartridge (as opposed to disk) facilitate single disk-drive compatibility with Data Perfect? Is it easy to disconnect the Full-View 80 board so the computer can be used for other things?

Joe Wills
Baton Rouge, LA

Yes, the word-processing setup requires the 850 Interfacefor the printer. Yes, the cartridge frees the drive for other purposes. Yes, the 80-column board is easily switched for 40-column format. Other readers asked about using double-density PERCOM drives in this situation. PERCOMs work only in single-density mode when storing Letter Perfect, and Letter Perfect is the only word-processor program now compatible with the Full-View 80 board. We have had trouble formatting diskettes for Letter Perfect using PERCOM drives. Both companies are now trying to identify the problem. More later. -ANTIC ED

3-D FAN

I am very impressed with the 3-D effect of ZAXXON. I would really like to see more of it. Can you name any other games with good 3-D effects?

David Kirkpatrick
Eugene, OR

See our reviews of Way Out, by Sirius, and Baja Buggies, by Gamestar, in this issue. -ANTIC ED

GENEALOGY

We have only had our ATARI for three weeks, and your magazine has been a great help. Do you know of any software on genealogy?

James Imhulse
Cincinnati, OH

We don't, but maybe our readers do. If so, write 1/0 Board and we will pass on the info. -ANTIC ED

COLORS

I have designed a little program to show off ATARI's graphics. It uses Graphics Mode 7 and all of the colors.

Marc Halpern (age 11)
Reseda, CA

10 GRAPHICS 7 + 16
20 FOR X = 0 TO 159
30 C=C+1:CO. C: IF C=127 THEN C = 0
40 PLOT X,Y:DRAWTO 159-X,Y: DRAWTO 159-X,95-Y: DRAWTO X,95-Y: DRAWTO X,Y
50 Y = Y + 2: IF Y>95 THEN Y=0
60 NEXT X: GOTO 20