======================================================================= ZMAG/A\ZINE - THE ORIGINAL ATARI ONLINE MAGAZINE - OCTOBER 15, 1990 ======================================================================= -Your Weekly Atari and 8-Bit News Source- Issue #185 ======================================================================= PUBLISHED/EDITED by Ron Kovacs Copyright (c)1990, Rovac Industries, Inc. ======================================================================= /// EDITORS DESK ---------------- by Ron Kovacs Well, you can see that it has been awhile since the release of issue #184. We have had a few problems relating to legal situations that are yet to be resolved. For more information on the situation, please read Issues #538-540 of Z*Net Online. That situation is at a stand still until November. At that time we will see what gets resolved. This matter did put a hold on my personal participation and at the present time seems to be progressing in a positive manner. We are going to weekly releases effective with this issue. Each Sunday evening/Monday evening, we will release material. It will be available on the Z*Net BBS, GEnie and Compuserve and then on the Blank Page BBS which, is the official 8-bit BBS for ZMagazine. To support the 8-bit community, we need your help. Please write up something and send it in. We can only search a limited area for material and will be publishing reprints from user group newsletters. If your 8-bit group is interested in publishing your material in ZMag, send us a disk with your text files. This weeks edition includes the latest Atari news, a WAACE show report, reviews of BobTerm, Term80 and BBS Express! Professional. A new ZMag feature will be included from time to time from our corrsepondents Terry Schreiber in Canada and Jon Clarke in New Zealand. We are slowly returning from our LONG vacation. Help us by spreading the word we are back and send material when you can! Thanks for reading! /// Z*NET NEWSWIRE ------------------ START MAGAZINE ADDS Z*NET NEWSWIRE Beginning with the December, 1990 issue, the popular Z*NET NewsWire will be presented within STart Magazine each month. STart's Tom Byron and Z*Net's Ron Kovacs recently signed contracts that make Z*NET the exclusive news column in the well known monthly ST specific glossy magazine. STart features the largest circulation of any domestic Atari magazine, and has recently added the subscribers of ANALOG and ST-LOG to their rolls. Z*Net will provide about three pages of news bits and news stories for each issue of STart. Says Tom Byron, Editor of STart, -Its a natural progression. Z*Net has the reputation and track record for solid news reporting.- Z*Net Publisher Ron Kovacs adds, -This is a chance for Z*Net to reach a wider audience, beyond the modem users and user-group members who already get the Z*Net News Services.- It is expected that the added recognition and credibility that the merger of efforts will bring to both publications, will further increase the quality and quantity of Atari news presented in all media ventures of STart and Z*Net. Z*Net is already a regular part of the news coverage of a number of magazines worldwide, including PD JOURNAL of Germany and soon ST USER of Great Britain. The Z*Net User Group Newsletter Supplement also goes to nearly 4,000 readers in the USA, Canada, Panama, New Zealand, Australia, and England. STEREO COLOR MONITOR Released to dealers this week was a new color monitor to compliment the STE's stereo sound. The SC1435 is the latest edition to Atari's ever growing line-up of computer products. With the release of the STE line's stereo sound capabilities it was a natural to follow it up with the SC1435. The monitor is not a re-structured SC1224 as was first thought but of a completely different design. CANADIAN COMPUTER SHOW The Canadian Computer Show, November 12th thru 15th, International Centre of Commerce, Toronto Ontario. Judging from last years attendance records of 30,000 plus this is definitely Canada's largest computer show. If you couldn't make it to Comdex then plan on trying to make it to this one. Atari will again be attending this great event held each year in Toronto. They will be displaying their full product line (including TT) with staff on-hand to answer your questions. Check it out - Booth 3530 Atari Canada. BRODIE PASSES 1 YEAR Z*Net congratulates our former Z*NET correspondent who has just passed his one-year anniversary at Atari Corporation. Bob Brodie, Manager of User Group Services since September 1989, went to Atari after being both a staff writer for Z*Net and President of ACAOC, the Orange County, California user group. He was also instrumental in the organization of the original Glendale Atari Shows. In a year, Bob has become the most sought after public speaker for Atari, and the most respected source of information about Atari. Thanks for everything, Bob! FOSTER LEAVES ATARI Frank Foster, formerly Atari's music division head, left the company early in September. Frank came to Atari from HYBRID ARTS, a respected software development company that lead the way for early MIDI applications on the Atari. Although there is no official statement from Atari regarding his departure, it is believed to have been a mutual decision of Frank and Atari. It is known that Foster did not agree with some of the new policies of the new administration at Atari, and had recently failed to follow through on sales appearances and other commitments. Friends of Foster have said that he has moved on to a graphics company, a field Foster has had considerable experience and success in even while at Atari. His departure leaves Atari with no individual directly in charge of MIDI development and music industry support. ADVANTAGE PACKAGE TO TRY AGAIN AT COMDEX As Atari prepares for COMDEX, November's big Computer Marketplace of the World, the ATARI ADVANTAGE is being once again prepared for presentation. The Las Vegas, Nevada, show draws hundreds of thousands of people, and thousands of vendors to show their wares. Atari has said that they will have the TT READY FOR SHIPPING by the November show, and now, the focus is widening to cover the 520ST system (or possibly an STe?) bundled with an array of software for a blockbuster price. This time for SURE...? COMPUTER SHOPPER DROPS ATARI The editor of the largest computer magazine in the world, COMPUTER SHOPPER MAGAZINE, told his writers and contributors this week that his magazine will end its regular Atari coverage with the November, 1990, issue. Editor in Chief, Bob Lindstrom, said that it was a hard decision, and one that was just made in the last 30 days after considerable market and supplier research. Earlier rumors of their dropping Atari were neither based on fact nor were they an influence on the final decision. Computer Shopper is moving more and more towards being MS-DOS only, with Amiga and even MAC coverage under careful scrutiny now. Shopper will probably continue to run major stories covering Atari products when it is warranted, such as when major new hardware is introduced. COMMODORE INTRODUCES THE C64 GAMES CONSOLE Commodore's UK subsidiary has introduced the C64 Games System, a C64- based games console for Western European markets. The C64GS comes with a joystick and a port for cartridge-based software. Cartridges will include four games, a feature designed to give the C64GS a competitive advantage against other game-only computers. The product will be sold in European countries, including the UK, which has become a new center for C64 software developers. SIERRA ON-LINE UPDATE Sierra On-Line announced that it will assume European distribution rights to Sierra and Dynamix products on Oct. 1, 1990. Sierra will also distribute more than 12 new titles for the 1990 Christmas season, with the much anticipated King's Quest V, Space Quest IV, Quest for Glory II, Oil's Well, Jones in the Fast Lane and updated versions of King's Quest and Mixed-Up Mother Goose. Dynamix, a Sierra subsidiary, will offer a mixture of products including Stellar 7, Red Baron, Rise of the Dragon and Heart of China. /// 1990 WAACE ATARIFEST REPORT ------------------------------- by Jerry Cross I want to begin by saying that the WAACE show was one of the best Atari Shows I have attended. And I have been involved in or attended a lot of them. One of the things I enjoy most about Atari shows is you can get a first look at many new products. This show had them in abundance. Joppa Comptuer Products introduced -JuST the FAX!-. This is a hardware/ software product that allows you to send FAX messages using 4800 baud, Group 3 FAX transmission. It also doubles as an excellent 2400 baud modem that will work with any communication program, such as FLASH. The software will allow you to convert IMG, Degas, and ASCII files into a FAX file for transmission. There are printer drivers to allow you to convert Pagestream and Calamus files to FAX, allowing you to produce your page and then FAX it to someone. The price for all of this is $169 suggest retail. It was sold at the show for $139. I did a few quick tests, and sent out a couple Pagestream pages to the FAX machine at work and it really works nice! There will be some upcoming upgrades that will allow both sending and receiving FAX messages at 9600 baud, and adds addtionals features to the modem. For more info contact Joppa at (301)679-4102. Alpha Systems, had two new products. JamMaster is a powerful software program digital sampling synthesizer program loaded with features. It requires a cartridge based sound digitizer for output, such as Digisound Professional, and a MIDI compatible keyboard. You create your own sounds and assign them to your keyboard. You can have up to 32 different sounds and any number of octaves. Instead of using musical sounds, try some digitized voices or sound effects. It's great! Also introduced was an inexpensive clock card called Watchcart. This is a simple, bare bones cartridge that is just what I was looking for. I'm not sure what the retail price was (it wasn't in their flyer) but the show price was $12. HiSoft was showing their line of products, including lattice C Version 5, and the new HARLEKIN program. Harlekin is a bunch of useful utilities rolled into one neat package. Just to name a few, there is a word processor, scrapbook, disk editor, terminal program, calendar, ascii table, RAMdisk, printer spooler...and on and on. It does require at least 1Mb of memory however. Hisoft is a British company, but I believe Michtron is a distributor of this product. (Sorry, I was reading my notes about this on the plane trip back, and it was too late to ask). In the Gadgets by Small booth...well what can I say. All sorts of new toys over there! Spectre GCR was running on a TT. The 68030 was installed and strutting it's stuff. It was running next to a second ST running the same bouncing ball demo, at TWICE the speed! The 68030 upgrade is quite large, and will probably be offered as a Mega upgrade only, unless Dave can figure out a way to shrink it down. The Telsa coil was a real grin. Can't wait for that to go into mass production. Sliccware introduced their new product SLICCTOP. WOW! This desktop replacement features multi-tasking, code swapping, process queuing, unlimited windows, data sharing, code sharing, dynamic memory, and too much other stuff to mention! Watch for a review of this product in the near future. ICD introduced their new product, AdSpeed. This is an 68000 accelerator for all models of Atari ST's from the 520 through the STE. Using a multilayer, surface mount design, the chip is the side of the 68000 chip and will be no problem to install. Just unsolder the old chip, install a socket and install the AdSpeed. I ordered one at the show and will have more information once I can get it installed and play with it. The flyer gives the following features: No mouse, I/O or blitter conflicts, no jumper wires, software selectable true 68000 8 MHz mode for 100% compatibility (switches speeds on the fly without rebooting the computer), 32 kilobytes of high speed static RAM for 16k of data/ instruction cache and 16k of catche tag memory, full read and write- through caching for maximum speed, and supports 16 MHZ high speed ROM access. Genie had a few surprises of their own. This month, Genie began their new price cutting rates. To help the user even more, they are introducing Aladin. This is a terminal program written by Tim Purvis of Michtron. You now have full featured program that lets you automate your online time by automatically capturing messages and download descriptions. You can then read and reply to messages while off line, and select files to download. The program will then automatically send your messages, and download the files. Full use of the GEM interface makes this program a must have for all Genie users. Best of all, it's FREE. It should be available for downloading sometime this week. Add to all of these new products a number of upgrades for many other products, and this was a very enjoyable show. The exibition rooms featuring a number of topics were great also! I don't know how they lucked out and found a hotel that could fit in so many of these -classrooms- but I sure hope they can secure it for future WAACE shows. But you didn't think I'd leave without complaining about something, did you? Will someone please explain the Dulles Toll road to me? You can travel from Dulles airport directly to Washington DC for free, but get off in the middle and you pay a toll? I smell a loophole in all of this! /// TERM-80 REVIEW ================== by Dennis Lukeman Term-80 by Mark Gamber, Rev.0.14(c)1988 Babarsoft, Inc. ------------------------------- Term-80, written by Mark Gamber, caught my eye, so I decided to try it, and here is my thoughts and observations: The only feature worth mentioning as -fair-, is that it's an 80 column term for the Atari. This is the main feature that convinced me to download and try it in the first place. I rate it fair, simply because it's the best feature of the file. The screen was hard to understand until I fiddled with the brightness and contrast controls, but I was finally able to understand what was in front of me. Another feature, which was really nice, but didn't impress me, was that the author's use of -windows- within the program, to help you fumble your way around. The documentation that came with the term explained -The functions should be fairly self-explanatory if you've used any other terminal.- The Documentation contained within the file was -semi- helpful, and could have been more detailed in spots. A very disappointing part of the term was the up/download capabilities. I attempted both X and Y-modem downloads with no success. Downloads started out good, but after the buffer filled and was dumped to disk, the transfer aborted a few moments after the dump. Uploading was no better, both protocols failed to handshake with several BBS's I attempted to send files to. Buffer up/downloads were no better. The -autodial- list must be maintained by a seprate file that is run from basic, unlike other terms that can be edited, updated and saved while running the term. I found also that there were no provisions for storing -macros- for those finger-saving, auto logons. Overall, I found Term-80 to be nothing more that an interesting toy, but having no other value as a term program. It's nice to see new software still being designed for the 8 bit, but here there were good intentions, but very disapointing results. Maybe later revisions will be more reliable. /// BOBTERM 1.21 REVIEW ----------------------- by Joel Kennedy (Reprinted from the Puget Sound Atari News, September 1990) Well guess what the friendly UPS man had for me on August 9th? Yep, SpartaDOS X and the R-Time 8 cart from ICD! SDX is great! I love it!!! The R-Time 8 is just as good (never again will I set the clock! right? Well, almost. The cart was sitting on top of my XE and fell a whole 2 1/2 inches. I now have a piece of foam stuffed inside the R-Time 8 to keep the battery in contact. Don't set the cart on top of your computer!). Ok, stop laughing and read about BobTerm 1.21 from Bob Puff. When you first boot up BobTerm (to be refered to throughout this article as BT) you see a well done title screen. What I find most impressive about it is its rather accurate depiction of the states. Good job, Bob! Next, you see the Main Menu. The options are pretty self explanatory, but I thought I would mention a few of them in more depth. A -- You can change between ASCII, ATARI (aka ATASCII), VT-52E, and VT-52O. VT-52 is a terminal emulator, the 'E' and 'O' denoting even and odd parity respectively. B -- Baud rates go clear up to 19.2k!! D -- Well, it seems self explanatory but Bob added an embellishment. If you press START while you press 'D' you will be switched into -echoplex.- This is primarily used when modeming between two individuals. One sets 'echoplex' on and the other stays in full duplex. Normally both would have to switch to half duplex, but echoplex will echo back the characters - just like a BBS. F&G -- For when you are talking to someone (voice) and want to go to the computer mode (data) without redialing. Very handy! R&S -- You can set both the transfer protocol, as well as the drive and path, for uploads and downloads. For Downloads BT automatically adjusts to the senders protocol. Also, for both uploads and downloads BT eliminates the need to pad a transfer block by switching to smaller blocks, and therefore lower protocols, if the rest of a file won't fit in the size block in use. For example: You are transferring a file that is 2,176 bytes long. You select 1k x-modem and two complete blocks of 1k are transfered. BT will then switch to standard x-modem for the remaining 128 bytes of data. K -- basically a standard menu of DOS 2.x/MYDOS commands. If you'd loaded the CP.BTM (as a module), it will give you an interface directly into Sparta's command processor. The lower menu commands are mainly used when you are in the Term mode. You can activate word wrap, reset the online time clock, switch between realtime/online time, do a screen dump, save a snapshot of the screen to the buffer and even activate fine scrolling. The chat window is an interesting feature, it allows you to pre-edit what you type before you send it. It only has a three line capacity but it is still handy. I don't use it much anymore because of the delay it causes. Everything that's in the buffer is sent when you press RETURN. Most people don't like you using it because they can't tell if you are typing something or just sitting there 'twiddlin your thumbs.' When -J- is selected from the Main Menu three options will replace the lower menu. This submenu is pretty straight forward. By selecting the first option you will be able to see what the system macros have been set to. You can change your screen colors here as well as alter the macros. By choosing the third option the BOBTERM.CNF file will be written. This saves things other than just the macros and screen colors - so make sure you have everything set the way you want it. Selecting -E- from the Main Menu will put you in the Autodialer Menu. The options are clear. Something of note though to you people with 'call waiting'. You can use the long distance code feature to disable your call waiting. See the docs for the 'how to.' As I mentioned under the 'DOS functions' selection you can activate modules wich will add different features to BT. This are external modules which are loaded at bootup. Two are included, these are CP.BTM and XEP80.BTM. As I already said, CP.BTM gives you an interface to Sparta. XEP80.BTM is the driver for the XEP80 80 column card from Atari. I don't have this as yet, so I can't say how well it works, though I have been told that the one included in the version 1.20 arc file is buggy so make sure you get 1.21. Well that's all fine and well on how to use it, but what does it feel like to use it? Well, I like BobTerm 1.21! I have only one complaint - you abort an operation by pressing START and begin one by pressing SELECT. This seems reverse to me. Otherwise, to quote Dan Knauf from his 'Black Box vs. MIO' article, -pretty is as pretty does.- BT is very nice and user friendly (except for the use of the START key). I've used it for the past couple of months and the only time I had any problems was when the handler wouldn't load from my 850 (I have to shut EVERYTHING off and try again if this happens, not just the 850 and the computer. If I even leave the disk drive on it won't work. Is there something wrong with my 850? If you know please tell me.) or when I attempted certain operations from the command line interface to Sparta. Outside from the above mentioned things I have had no problems whatsoever with BT and enjoy it very much. ///BBS EXPRESS! PROFESSIONAL ---------------------------- As I was preparing this review a persistent rumor of the sale of Express Professional was running through the Pro SysOps network. On September 12th, 1990 Keith Ledbetter's Orion Micro Systems announced it had -sold the rights to Bbs Express! Professional to Robert Klaas's K-Products company.- -Keith still plans to keep upgrading the shell if K-Products asks him to, and we will still do our occasional new command for Pro.- ****************************************************************** Okay folks lets face it, not much has been happening with the Atari 8 bit computers in the past few years. Sure, there has been some great stuff released as PD/ShareWare from the few remaining die hard 8 bit programmers. A few cartridge programs and some hardware. In that time period, my expanded XL has only seen 3 new items pass through it. All were purchased just to give the XL something to do other than take up closet space and the occasional word processing duty. Discovering the modem in 1987 opened a whole new world to me. Logging onto the few local boards I saw the 8 bit programs available were outdated and in need of some major help. A local IBM SysOp used to always bust my cookies about getting a real computer and a faster modem. He invited me over his place one day to show off his system and to enlist my help. He wanted me to play assistant systems operator on his board taking care of the 8 bit Atari area. My instructions were to take all his files, arc them, send them back, answer Atari related questions etc. Loaning me a spare 1200 baud modem I was hooked! Another SysOp then asked for the same thing and for my troubles he gave me an old 20 meg hard drive. With the drive in my possession I figured what the heck and purchased ICD's MIO and a controller. Telling my wife that it would be easier for her and the kids when using the computer. All that searching through piles and piles of diskettes for the one program they wanted could be eliminated. Everything, right here in this one little spot. Little did she know that things would go as far as they did. I had a secret desire to start my own board. With two teenage children in the house a second phone line became a necessity. A line just for the kids (she fell for that one too). Doing a bit of research I decided to buy a new software package from Orion Micro Systems called BBS Express! Professional. On June 15th 1988 I set the system up on -our phone line- just for a test. That was the last time I was ever able to pull one over on her. Requirements: Atari 800XL or XE, Hard drive recommended, SpartaDos 3.2, MIO, Black Box, 850, PRC and a Hayes compatible rs232 modem. The BBS can be run on a floppy system IF you have several of them. The message bases alone take up tremendous amounts of space. You can configure them as you like but you're locked into a fixed size once the base is made. For example a typical base containing a maximum of 100 messages with a byte count of 1130 requires 156,160k of space. Once it's filled, new messages start kicking out the oldest ones making maintenance a snap. You can make smaller bases but if you are going to Network with another Pro bbs the netted bases should be at least the same byte size. That's right, your bbs can call other Pro boards in the middle of the night and exchange messages with them. All without your intervention. The standard system features up to 32 message bases, 32 file areas with descriptions, 32 command security levels, the ability to have over 1/2 million files available for download and much more. Notice I said standard system. A few of those die-hard programmers have pushed the system way beyond that limit. Right now my board size is at 180 megs and I can think of another half dozen that are bigger still. Hard to believe the old workhorse can be pushed so far eh? The software comes on 2 SD diskettes formatted both sides with all the necessary files to get you up and running. Each package is assigned its own unique Node number for Network identification and access to the support bbs. The supplied users manual is well put together and takes you one step at a time through setting everything up correctly. Even the novice should have no problems following it through. The software supports normal ASCII text, ANSI (IBM) color, VT52 color, VT52 Mono and of course ATASCII graphics. Some boards are just now starting to put in IG graphics just for the ST'ers. If you haven't seen that yet it is a treat. Mouse support, moving graphics and sound all via the modem to the ST. That is just an idea of how flexible this software really is. Because of the memory limitations on the little Atari, Orion took a modular approach in its programming. That makes it simple to add or update the system. The core or shell operates like a policeman loading each module into memory as the user calls for it. Each one of these modules are actually programs in themselves and can be called from the the systems dosshell for ease of maintenance. An event scheduler is included to handle up to 30 maintenance items. Some can be set to run after every call, one or more times a week etc. These events include purging the userlog, preparing packets for networking, system back ups, and of course overseeing the different online games that are available. For the programmer you also get the system routines and equates so you can program your own files for the bbs in either Action or Assembly language. There are also cross assemblers available for the ST and MS-Dozers. Don't get the idea that the software is just a toy, my friends bbs is gone. It seems his 286 machine couldn't compete with my little Atari and its high speed modem. Yeah, that's right I begged a 14.4k baud modem to reach out and touch someone (something about saving money on long distance charges). Operating a BBS can be an expensive proposition. I figure the XL and the MIO worth maybe $150 dollars used. The hard drives and modem can always be put to use in another system when I'm ready to graduate to a -real computer-. Why spend mega bucks on the latest, soon to be obsolete technology just to run a bbs? To order Pro send $39.95 plus $4.00 S&H to: K-Products, P.O. Box 22122 A.M.F., Salt Lake City Utah, 04120. Include another ten spot if you want the networking modules too. /// GENIE FILE UPDATE --------------------- Ctsy Atari8 RT File Number:5233 Filename: COLRVW25.ARC Uploader: JDPOTTER Size: 42840 Description: COLRVIEW 4096 color viewer V2.5 File Number:5231 Filename: DBSOURCE.ARC Uploader: T.TUCKER10 Size: 66780 Description: DISK BASE SOURCE CODE (ACTION) File Number:5229 Filename: C_BBS.ARC Uploader: MARTY.A Size: 27720 Description: C Source Code For A BBS Program File Number:5228 Filename: TETRA.ARC Uploader: S.KINSELLA Size: 20160 Description: Tetra: a Tetris clone demo File Number:5224 Filename: DOSCMD.ARC Uploader: J.FULLER Size: 1260 Description: cc65 spartados execute function File Number:5223 Filename: XIO.ARC Uploader: J.FULLER Size: 1260 Description: xio function for cc65 File Number:5222,5221,5220,5219,5218,5217,5216 Filename: BOOK5A.ARC,BOOK4B.ARC,BOOK4A.ARC,BOOK3B.ARC BOOK3A.ARC,BOOK1A.ARC,README.1ST Uploader: C.VANOOSTJ Description: Daisy Dot III Manuals File Number:5215 Filename: BATDOER3.ARC Uploader: MARTY.A Size: 13860 Description: Version 3.0 of BATDoer for SpartaDOS File Number:5213 Filename: YATZ.BAS Uploader: M.EISSLER1 Size: 13860 Description: A Yahtzee game written in BASIC. File Number:5202 Filename: ZMAG184.ARC Uploader: Z-NET Size: 20160 Description: Issue #184, September 4, 1990 /// Z*NET CANADA ---------------- by Terry Schreiber ShareWares Ever tried to get the latest version of a shareware program? Now where is that address, I'm sorry, we don't take credit cards! A quick trot to the bank or post office to get that U.S. or Canadian money order or maybe not so quick. There are other problems involved as well but I'm sure you know most of them. Commercial software houses have distributors so why not the small independents? Dammed good idea? I thought so, thus along with our retail store we are opening an area called Sharewares, a one stop clearing house for Atari ST shareware software. Shareware will be taken on consignment and offered for sale through outlets in Vancouver and Seattle via Visa or Mastercard with royalties paid on sales at the end of each month. We are also planning on advertising in Club newsletters and magazines, this should help those Authors on a small budget to get some exposure. For more information contact me at (604) 278-2099 during business hours. Service Facility Expanding Atari Canada's General Manager Geoff Earle announced today a one hundred thousand dollar expansion to Atari Canada's service area. This includes new equipment and more staff to handle the service and shipping of repaired equipment. -We realize there have been some problems with the service department in the past- said Geoff, -but with this expansion and an inter-departmental network online we hope to become one of the elite that is know for their service as well as their product lines-. Recent marketing studies done by Atari in Canada have found the consumer is not buying on price but after market service. Atari is taking steps at this time to bring their service up to standards which will equal or surpass most in the consumer market. This will also reflect on dealer orders with a faster turn around on parts and supplies. Atari in Business The Pacific Rim Computer and Communications Show is Western Canada's answer to Comdex. This is held in Vancouver every year this year falling on January 14th to 16th and attracts the who's who of the computer manufacturers. Atari has attended this show before in conjunction with dealers but this year there are a few changes. Atari is serious about business applications and this show will be the first in a line of a new business campaign. Atari users have long known the positive aspects of the computer and now with the new -Atari TT- they have a more serious contender for this market. In attendance will be Jimmy Hotz (Hotz Box), Nathan Potechin (ISD Marketing), Geoff Earle (Cdn General Manager), Denise Carrol (Marketing Coordinator), Murray Brown (Western Canada Sales and Marketing Manager) as well as Tim Breck and Paul Garay, two notables in the MIDI field. The Atari area will be a show within a show featuring demonstrations on Desktop Publishing, Desktop Music, MIDI, Networking, Educational and Research, Word Processing and more. The entire line of products, Stacy, Portfolio, and MS-DOS line as well as the Emulators for display and demonstrations and of course, the 68000 and 68030 line. ======================================================================= Z*MAGAZINE Atari 8-Bit Online Magazine is a weekly magazine covering the Atari and related computer community. Material contained in this edition may be reprinted without permission, except where otherwise noted, unedited, with the issue number, name and author included at the top of each reprinted article. Commentary and opinions presented are those of the individual author and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Z*MAGAZINE or the staff. Z*Magazine Atari 8-Bit Online Magazine, Z*Net Atari Online Magazine, Z*Net are copyright (c)1990 by Rovac Industries Inc, a registered corporation. Post Office Box 59, Middlesex, New Jersey 08846. (908) 968-2024. Z*Net Online BBS 24 Hours, 1200/2400 Baud, (908) 968-8148. We can be reached on CompuServe at 71777,2140 and on GEnie at Z-NET. ======================================================================= Z*Magazine Atari 8-Bit Online Magazine Copyright (c)1990, Rovac Industries, Inc.. =======================================================================