AVATEX CORRECTION

Matt Ratcliff's Choosing Your Modem (Antic, May 1988) was mistaken in saying that the basic Avatex 1200 baud modem is not acceptable for running a bulletin board because it requires you to switch manually between 300 and 1200 baud. You only need to change baud speeds manually for outgoing calls. The modem automatically adjusts to the baud rate of incoming calls, which is all a BBS sysop needs to be concerned about. I have no problems running the LDS/BBS in San Jose-(408) 226-6523--with an Avatex and BBS Express! software.

Rich Anderson
San Jose, CA

JERSEY TRANSPLANT

As a past president ofJACG, I too read Paul Tupaczewski's ACENNJ disk newsletter with pleasure and interest. But it is certainly not the first on-disk users group newsletter. For more than two years, Bit Byter User Club of West Germany has published an excellent on-disk newsletter, which we received atJACG as early as the spring of 1986. The Brooklyn Atari Society published another excellent on-disk newsletter in 1983 and 1984.

I should add that many users groups here in Germany publish their newsletters on disk--in fact, there's a public domain program here that makes the editor's task much easier than you'd think.

Joseph Kennedy
Marl, West Germany

WORDPERFECT UPDATE

The latest update disks of WordPerfect 4.1 for the Atari ST are dated March 25, 1988 and are currently being distributed free to all registered Atari WordPerfect owners.

We apologize for any problems you may have experienced with past copies of the Atari version of WordPerfect. We recognize that the program was released too early and with too many bugs. We have since attempted to rectify the problem as quickly as possible by providing free updates as the software is improved and bugs are fixed. We feel this latest update is up to our standards of quality and will provide you with a clean and efficient piece of software. More revisions will be made as necessary.

We are dedicated to the Atari market and plan to introduce some of our other products into that market in the near future, including WordPerfect Library. We hope you will find this latest revison satisfactory and enjoyable as you use it.

Rebecca Mortensen
WordPerfect Corp.

LAPTOP HELP

This is for the May 1988 I/O Board letter write who couldn't get his laptop to communicate with his Atari. I bought a Tandy 102 laptop (little brother to the reader's Tandy 200) after reading the Laptop-to-Atari Connection (Antic, Novembe 1987). I hooked it to my Avatex 1200hc modem using a male-to-male phone adapter. Sure, faster transmission rates are possible through the RS-232 serial interface, but that would mean disconnecting the modem each time, so I settle for the slower 300 baud rate.

I use the Tandy's TELECOM program with the parameters M8N1E, and 850 Express! on my Atari. Set the Atari program to ASCII format and half duplex. Make sure the switches on the side of the Tandy are set for Direct Connect, Originate Call. Then tell the Atari program to answer a call, and press F4 on the Tandy. You will hear a raspy tone from the Tandy and when it stops, you should be connected.

Troy Carpenter
Harlingen, TX

SUPERDOS MEMORY

Thanks to Matthew Ratcliff for his enthusiastic review of SUPERDOS (Antic, June 1988). I would like to clarify the point he brought up about the amount of memory SUPERDOS occupies. In Atari XL/XE and expanded 800 models, available free memory for BASIC is 31093 bytes--only about IK less than DOS 2.0 or 2.5. That's for two single-density or double-density disk drives. The LOMEM value printed in the review only applies to computers with 48K or less memory and DUP.SYS loaded in. This makes the DOS menu instantly available (no MEM.SAV). Of course, 48K Atari owners could easily configure their systems for more available memory and less convenience.

Charles Cherry
Technical Support

BASIC DIRECTORY

The following BASIC line, entered in direct mode, lists the disk directory without affecting the program in memory. Afterwards, it always generates an ERROR 136--but don't be alarmed: just type END.

OPEN #1,6,0,"D:*.*":FOR X=1 TO 1E9:GET #1,A:PRINT CHR$(A);:NEXT X

Phillip Chow
Cleveland, OH

FILENAMES

In the following short routine, I can't figure out how to LOAD a filename into A$. It always tries to LOAD a program called D:A$.

10 REM TEST
20 DIM A$(100)
30 POSITION 2,10
40 ? "ENTER THE FILE TO BE LOADED";
50 INPUT 16,A$
60 LOAD A$

I also tried LOAD "D1:A$ and LOAD "D1:";A$; in line 60 to no avail.

Jeff Guadagnolo
Hamilton, Ontario
Canada

Try the approach below.--ANTIC ED

10 REM TEST
20 DIM A$(20),B$(20)
30 A$ = "D1:"
40 POSITION 2,10
50 ? "ENTER THE FILE TO BE LOADED ";
60 INPUT #16,B$
70 A$(4)= B$
80 LOAD A$

R-VERTERS IN S*P*A*C*E

In SX212 Software (I/O, April 1988), you recommended using Atari's new SX212 modem with the R-Verter handler widely distributed by users groups and online services. The R-Verter works with both AMODEM and 850 Express! to let 8-bit owners use this fine modem without an interface until Atari releases SX Express! software.

S*P*A*C*E (Seattle & Puget Sound Atari Computer Enthusiasts) developed this handler, then mailed copies to other clubs nationwide and uploaded it onto key local and national bulletin boards. S*P*A*C*E members Marc Ingle and Tom Neitzel successfully adapted the old R-Verter handler for the SX-212. The latest version is SX212 Companion! for use with 850 Express! It's available from most users groups as well as GEnie and CompuServe.

Nick Berry
Corresponding
Secretary
S*P*A*C*E

SOFTWARE WANTED!

The success of Antic's previous write-in campaigns has prompted this new section of the I/O Board. Software Wanted! will list title requests sent in by Atarians hoping to inspire Antic readers to begin writing to the Presidents of software companies and calling for Atari conversions.

ELECTRONIC ARTS
8-BIT: Paper Clip for the XEP80 80-column board (Larry Lussier, Glen Falls, NY). Bard's Tale, Arctic Fox, Marble Madness, Skyfox (Dustin Christmann, APO NY). ST: Chuck Yeager's Flight Simulator, Ferrari Formula One (Anthony Robinson, Lansing, MI).
WRITE TO: Trip Hawkins, President, Electronic Arts, 1820 Gateway Dri Mateo, CA 94404.

SIERRA ONLINE
8-BIT: 3-D Helicopter Simulator, Thexder (Jeff Wood, Cheyenne, WY). WRITE TO: President, Sierra On-line, P.O. Box 485, Coarsegold, CA 94039.

MICRO ILLUSIONS
8-BIT: Fire Power, Turbo, Galactic Invasions, Land of Legends, Faery Tale Adventures (Jeff Wood, Cheyenne, WY). WRITE TO: President, Micro Illusions, 17408 Chatsworth Street, Granada Hills, CA 31344.

ACTIVISION
8-BIT: Game Maker (Jeff Wood, Cheyenne, Wy). Aliens, Hacker II, Last Ninja (Dustin Christmann, APO NY). WRITE TO: President, Activision, Inc. P.O. Box 7287, Mountain View, CA 34039.

EPYX
8-BIT: The "Games" and "Street Sports" series, Championship Wrestling, Sub Battle Simulator (Dustin Christmann, APO NY) WRITE TO: President, Epyx Inc., 600 Galveston Drive, Redwood City, CA 94063.

MICROPROSE
8-BIT: Gunship (Brion Forget, Morrisonville, NY). WRITE TO: William Steahley, President, MicroProse Software, 120 Lakefront Road Hunt Valley, MD 21030.

DESIGNER WOES

I have a Legend 808 Epson-compatible printer, and Print Shop works fine with it. However, when I choose the Epson option in the Designer Labels (Antic, April 1987), I get an extra space between the lines of my graphic. In fact, this happens no matter which printer I choose. Any suggestions?

Robert Haschalk
Papillon, NE

Your Legend 808 is not 100% Epson-compatible. Antic doesn't have one in the office, but here's what we suggest In line 2240, change the [CONTROL] [X] character (a small upside-down T) to [CONTROL] [L]. When you RUN the program, use the Epson printer option. --ANTIC ED

I typed in Designer Labels, I even downloaded it from CompuServe, but I can't get it to work with my Atari XMM801, which is supposed to be Epson-compatible.

David McGowan
Edmonton, Canada

Again, we don't have that spectfic printer to test, but this modtfication should work. In line 2290, change the [ESC] [LX] to [ESC] [VX] and change the [ESC] [LP] to [VP] NOTE: The P in this second change must be an inverse uppercase P.--ANTIC ED

OH, BROTHER

With one very small exception, I have found that Mighty Mailer (Antic, September 1987) performs "as advertised." There is no problem when I print to my Gemini 10X printer, but when I print to my Brother Correctronic 50 electronic typewriter/printer, each address contains a "(" as its initial character. How can that be eliminated?

Bill Chapman Jr.
U.S. Embassy
Vienna, Austria

Mighty Mailer was designed for Epson and Epson-compatible printers. The "(" symbol is part of an Epson printer command which sets the left margin.

Here's how to adjust Mighty Mailer for your printer: First, read through your printer manual and find the printer code which sets the left margin. Now LOAD the Mighty Mailer program and list line 1240. Find the part of the line which reads: ...?#4;"1";CHR$(40);FILE . . .

This Epson printer command, high-lighted in boldface, sets the left margin to 40. Change line 1250 the same way, but this time set the left margin to 10 (for the return address).--ANTIC ED

ANTIC PUBLISHER HELP

I can't load Atari Touch Tablet pictures into Antic Publisher (Antic, December 1987). When I pass them through the Rapid Graphics Converter (Antic, November 1985), I get garbage on the screen.

Nelson Pollack

Take your original Touch Tablet pictures and use the Rapid Gradphics Converter to change them from Micro Illustrator to Micro-Painter files which should work with Antic Publisher. --ANTIC ED

NIGERIAN ATARIAN

I am the financial manager with a medium-sized firm in Lagos and have been a devoted Atari user ever since I bought an 800XL, then an 130XE and a 1040ST. (I still want a hard disk, which would ease my operating problems considerably). Everyone who has seen my system at work is impressed--but they lament the dearth of information and Atari software here in Nigeria. Most of my information comes from my Antic subscription, which takes a while to reach me. I need any help that readers could give--ideas, software, magazines, books, etc.

Edosa Obaseki
P.0. Box 70475
Victoria Island
Lagos, Nigeria

GIF GOOF

In the April and May 1988 issues of Antic, we said that Spectrum 512 works with CompuServe GIF files. Unfortunately that only gave part of the story. Antic should have made it clear that GIF files must first be converted to Spectrum 512 format with Digispec--a $39.95 program from Trio Engineering, P.O. Box 332, Swampscott, MA 01907. (617) 964-1673.

TAX TEMPLATE FIX

There is an error concerning tax-exempt interest income in the 8-bit 1987 Federal Income Tax Spreadsheet (Antic, April 1988) that might have caused some readers to pay too much taxes. The problem is that although tax-exempt interest income must be reported, it is not included in gross income. The simplest fix is to just MOVE cell C14 to D14. This way the @SUM(D12:D28) in cell D29 can remain intact and not include your tax-exempt interest income.

Thomas Kelso
Alamogordo, NM

ENTREPRENEUR JUNGLE

Entrepreneur Jungle, the March 1988 Super Disk Bonus, generates an ERROR 2 when used with some older 800XL computers. To avoid this problem, just LOAD "D:ENTRE.BAS" from your March Antic Disk, delete lines 1-3 and then SAVE the modified program to another disk.

Antic welcomes your feedback but we regret that the large volume of mail makes it impossible for the Editors to reply to everyone. Although we do respond to as much reader correspondence as time permits, our highest priority must be to publish I/O answers to questions that are meaningful to a substantial number of readers.

Send letters to: Antic I/O Board, 544 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107.