i/o board
ABOUT THE COVER
Artist: Eduardo Gutekunst
System: Quantel Paintbox, Varitel Video, San Francisco, Ca.
Original photograph: (c) The Image Bank West/Stephen Green-Armytage
LUCKY STRIKES?
I have had my Atari 800 for two years and I've been using it every day (except when I was on vacation) and I have never had a single problem yet.
But one day I was using my computer during a thunderstorm. With my good luck, the lightning had already blown up my computer drive and my modem. At least I was not using all my equipment at the time. So I brought my 800 computer to a computer store to get fixed and I left it there.
A week later, I came back to bring it home again. But when I arrived at the store, my good luck happened to me again. Before my eyes, I found the store in flames!
I talked to my insurance company and they said they would buy me a new computer. Then the computer store owner guy also said he would buy me another new computer. At that moment, I realized I could buy almost any computer I wanted.
So, I went to the store and I looked at a lot of PCs. But I only want another 800 (not an XL). No matter what price I offer and no matter how hard I look, I just can't get my hands on another Atari 800. Can anybody help me out?
Chris Puzzele
Milltown, N.J.
NEW BBS LIST ONLINE
Temple (Texas) ACE has set aside 170K on our group's Poor No Name BBS for the purpose of maintaining the most accurate and up-to-date list of Atari-oriented bulletin boards possible. Please leave your information on our BBS at (817) 778-2506. My CompuServe ID is 74206,1464.
James Weslowski
Temple, Texas
WHICH SIDE IS HE ON?
If, as Jack Tramiel has been known to say, "business is war," I wonder which side Trip Hawkins is on. His letter in the September, 1985 Antic is not the first time I've seen skeptical comments from him about Atari.
Electronic Arts has adopted a "wait and see" posture towards the new Atari STs while eagerly jumping aboard the Commodore Amiga and 128 bandwagon. I question the accuracy of his figures on the number of Atari computers and disk drives sold, I have seen authoritative higher estimates elsewhere.
Arthur Horan
Brooklyn, NY
DOUBLE QUADRUPLE
In Matthew Ratchffs Antic program "Custom Print" (March, 1985) there is an option for quadruple density dot graphics on the Gemini l0X printer. Did you know the Panasonic KX-P1091 also has a quadruple density dot graphics mode? To modify Matt's program for the Panasonic, change the lower case "z" in line 320 to an upper case "Z".
Anil Prasad
London, Ontario
Canada
BLUE MAX BLUES
A short time ago, I purchased a new 130XE computer to replace my old battle-scarred upgraded 400. But I found that when I tried to load the Synapse game Blue Max, I kept getting the familiar "Please Remove Cartridge" message on the screen. Even using the advice given in Antic about Translator, I could not get the program to load.
Marty Saletta
Dunkirk, New York
Broderbund told Antic that of all their games, Blue Max
and Dimension X are the only ones that don't load on the J3OXE and
they're not sure wby. -ANTIC ED
ENCORE, ENCORE
I can't thank Angelo Giambra enough for "Musician" (Antic, June 1985). I sing in a church choir and now I can listen to my best church music on my Atari!
Don't ever stop printing programs for the 800XL! I bought my Atari 800XL about four months ago and am very happy with it. I really like typing in programs. It seems to relax me.
I'm getting started late at my age, (I'm 34), but someday I'll be a good programmer!
David Shatraw
Rochester, NY
Don't worry, Antic is NOT about to turn its back on the million-plus
users of 8-bit Atari computers. -ANTIC ED
OKI MATES
Will Broderbund's Print Shop be coming out with a version for Okimate 10 color printers? Any similar programs that you can tell me about that will run with the Okimate would be greatly appreciated.
Timothy Dale
New Orleans, LA
As far as we have been able to find out, Broderbund does not have
a color Print Shop version in the works. RAMbrandt (Antic Catalog
AP157) has the best Okimate 10 color dump available. -ANTIC ED
A POKE CHEER
Here's something you probably didn't know was tucked away inside your Atari.
10 S=53760:POKE S,230:P
OKE S+1,175:POKE S+2,23
1:POKE S+3,175:POKE S+4
,229:POKE S+15,3
20 FOR X=0 TO 255.49 ST
EP 0.135:POKE S+8,X:NEX
T X:GOTO 20
Lloyd Burchili
Newcastle,
New Brunswick
Canada
No, it will not format your disk. -ANTIC ED
CHROMA I/O
Antic received many letters asking about the I30XE's separate chrominance and luminance (XLs do not have this). These helpful responses came via the ANTIC ONLINE electronic I/O Board. -ANTIC ED
From Ray McGoldrick (76556,710): I found that the 130XE does support
chroma output on the same pin as the old 800. It's true that the 800XL
has no output to the chroma pin. But I had good results using the video
output in place of the chroma output. The picture is not as good as with
true chroma input, but seems to be better than the straight video. I own
a computer retail store here in Alaska and have a l30XE running an Amdek
color 300 monitor with the chroma and luma inputs going in right now.
From regular Antic author Matthew Ratcliff (75756,2710):
I send the 800XL composite video to the composite chroma input at the back
of a Commodore 1702 monitor. This gives a sharper picture than just using
the video input at the front of the monitor. No problem.
AT YOUR SERVICE
A Long Island Atari repair facility that was on your list of Service Centers earlier this year is no longer in operation. However, Island Video Computer Service in Coram, NY is alive and well. And they did an excellent job of fixing my 1027 printer.
B.J. Freeman
Wantagh, NY