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ZMAGAZINE 77 October 30, 1987
Atari News & Information (c)1987 Rovac
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Editor/Publisher; Ron Kovacs
Assistants; Ken Kirchner & Susan Perry
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Xx INDEX 77
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<*> Correction Notice from Issue #75
<*> Atari News Update....Neil Harris
<*> Zmag Technique.......Mr. Goodprobe
<*> ARCX Help............From GEnie
<*> DC AtariFest Report
<*> 1050 Disk Drive Fix
<*> SpartaDos Modification
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Xx CORRECTION NOTICE
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Errata for 850 Modification Article,
from Zmag 75...
Several errors in my original article
have shown up and I think it best I
correct these ASAP...
First of all, the XE series DOES use
the trigger input from joystick port
four. It is now used as part of the
cartridge interlock circuitry,
however. The text should have
mentioned that the XE series doesn't
use the trigger input from joystick
port THREE, not four.
Change all occurences of -53265- (and
-D011-) to -53266- (and -D012-). The
article is NOT accurate using location
53265.
Note that these changes DO NOT mean
modifying the hardware, if you've
already started in on these mods. You
only need to modify the software that
you might write for these
modifications, relative to the changes
I have just mentioned.
Sorry for the inconvenience...
Mike Davis
______________________________________
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______________________________________
Xx ATARI UPDATE
______________________________________
The following is a letter sent as a
reply. Written by Neil Harris and used
here as an Atari Update News Report.
September 25, 1987
CompUtah
c/o A.C.E. of Salt Lake City
P.O. Box 26664
Salt Lake City, UT 84126-0664
Dear Editor:
In the editorial of your September
issue, you take exception with my
statement concerning the Atari XE Game
System. Since the statement was a
brief one, I'd like this opportunity
to give you a clearer idea of Atari's
position on this system and why it
should be a good thing for 8-bit
computer owners.
At the time of the formation of the
new Atari Corporation in the summer of
1984, the 8-bit line was not faring
too well in the mass merchants. It
seems that the computers were
neglected during the last year or so
of Atari Inc. The largest companies
selling the computers, such as Sears
and K-Mart, had taken the position
that the 8-bit Atari computers were
dead, and they proceeded to close out
their inventories of computers,
peripherals, and software at below-
cost prices.
Compounding the situation was the set
of records that were inherited by the
new company. According to our books,
many of the big accounts owed us
millions of dollars for products
shipped. According to their records,
though, Atari owed them millions for
product returned. When two companies
have many millions of dollars in
discrepancies on the books, it is very
difficult to do business together. In
fact, the K-Mart account was finally
settled this past summer, fully three
years after the new company was
formed.
So we have the situation where the
product lines were closed out at a
loss, and the stores have the attitude
that these products are old and dead.
In some cases, the buyers at the
stores were fired due to the losses
they took at the end of the home
computer era. These were not just due
to Atari -- none of the mass merchants
sell -home computers- any more; K-Mart
does not (although a few isolated
stores buy some Commodores from
distributors), J.C. Penneys does not,
Montgomery Wards does not, and Sears
sells only business computers.
At the current time, Atari U.S. has a
substantial supply of 8-bit computers
in stock. Very substantial. We have
every motivation to sell 8-bit
computers. At times we've been
accused of trying to kill the line.
Why would we want to? Because many of
us came from Commodore, where we
competed fiercely with Atari? Most of
us had substantial respect for the
Atari computers as competitors (as
opposed to, say, Texas Instruments and
Radio Shack). Personally, I have a
fair amount of experience in Atari
home computers dating back to before I
joined Commodore -- check out
Compute's First Book of Atari for one
of the articles I wrote for them long
ago.
Despite our interest in selling
8-bits, they don't sell. During the
past three years we've tried
advertising, without success. We've
released more new 8-bit products than
anyone -- DOS 2.5, the XEP80, the
SX212, AtariWriter Plus, Atari
Planetarium, Silent Butler, Music
Painter, Star Raiders II, etc. Not to
mention the 65XE and 130XE computers.
We are frustrated.
Stores don't want to carry the
products. We even offered to let them
have the machines without paying for
them until they sell! If you know
anything about Jack Tramiel, this
isn't something he likes to do. But
stores value their shelf space, and
buyers value their jobs, and we had
little success.
On the other hand, there's the video
game business. We fully expected
video games to be a dead issue upon
joining Atari. After all, everyone
knew the video game business was dead.
At Commodore, we thought we'd killed
it! But, we were surprised when the
existing inventory of about a million
2600 systems sold during the first
year of the new Atari Corporation,
without any advertising and with
little effort. As a kind of
experiment, we built another million
machines and sold them during the next
year. -Aha,- we said to ourselves.
-Doesn't look like a dead business to
us!-
So we went forward with the 7800
system, for which parts were already
available, and lo! and behold, we sold
all we could make of them last year
also.
Now Nintendo and Sega have jumped in
with high-end, $150 game systems.
Nintendo in particular is doing very
well indeed. They don't sell as many
of these as we sell, but they sell for
more money. So Atari took a hard look
at the marketplace and determined that
we should do a $150 system as well.
Examining the products, it seems that
Nintendo has decent graphics, a light
gun, not much of a joystick... and a
robot. What does the robot do? Well,
it photographs very well in their
commercials, but really it doesn't do
anything to help in playing games.
For the same $150, we can provide the
consumer with a game system, light
gun, three pieces of software -- and a
computer-style keyboard. While not as
dramatic looking, I'm sure all
computer users know that some games
just can't be played with a joystick
alone. Flight Simulator II, which
comes with our XE Game System, needs
the keyboard. So do adventure games
and most other strategy games.
We can't get stores to carry the 8-bit
computers. They won't even sell the
software to their existing customers
-- for a while software companies had
to put the 8-bit programs on the back
of the C64 disk to get shelf space at
all! But when we showed the XE Game
System to the buyers, they were
totally enthusiastic.
This is truly marketing in action.
We have something like 50 cartridges
in inventory from the old days, and
are feverishly working on converting
disk games to cartridge. With some
clever programming, we can now get
256K of ROM on a cartridge, instead of
the 16K in the old games. That's how
we got Flight Simulator II *plus* a
scenery disk onto a single cartridge.
There is nothing different about the
XE Game System to make this work --
existing 8-bit computer owners can use
the very same cartridges.
So what does this mean to you? In the
beginning, all it will mean is that
more games will be coming in 8-bit
Atari format. But, what we hope is
that this will be the springboard to
revitalizing the 8-bit Atari computer
line. Once the XE Game Systems start
selling (and they have just begin
arriving in stores this past week), we
have a potential market of hundreds of
thousands of consumers. At this time
Commodore is selling around 300,000
C64's annually. With a market this
size, the motivation for software
developers to bring out new titles in
our format is enormous.
Remember, the XE Game System is
totally compatible with your 8-bit
computers. Once the customer takes
the XE Game System home, they discover
in the manual that the system includes
the Atari BASIC language and that
there is an SIO port for computer
peripherals. We expect that people
who may have been frightened of
computers, or leery of spending the
money on a computer with a drive
($400+) initially, may very well
upgrade to a fuller system. And we
hope that they will then demand the
kind of software that we need to see
developed -- serious applications
software.
While this is happening, we continue
to sell the 8-bit computers. Contrary
to some published reports, we cannot
simply remove the motherboard from the
65XE's and put them in the Game
Systems. It's a different board. So,
we still have the large inventory of
computers. And we expect that smart
Atari dealers will use the advertising
campaign for XE Game Systems and sell
the computers as a compatible
alternative. -Why,- they might ask a
customer, -should you spend $150 when
you can buy the system ala carte, with
a computer for $99 in a more compact
case and then buy whatever software
you want?-
Lets all hope this works. Atari has
tried just about everything in our
power to keep the 8-bit computer line
going. This is probably our best
shot.
One last fact -- for our customers in
areas where there are Federated
stores, Jack Tramiel has said that
these stores will carry a full line of
Atari 8-bit computers. So
availability should be a whole lot
better in California, Texas, Arizona,
and Kansas.
Thanks for giving me the time to
explain in much more detail than I can
online. We've been through some tough
times together. Please try to keep
the faith and bear with us just a
little longer while we get the 8-bit
situation straightened out.
Best regards,
Neil Harris
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Xx ZMAG TECHNIQUE
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Those Were The Good Old Days
by Mr. Goodprobe
Ah, remember when you could go down
the boardwalk and smell the nuts
roasting in the little shops, bikini's
were the most eye-catching thing
around beside mini-skirts, and
skateboards had metal wheels? Some of
the things from then I dearly miss,
and others not at all! Those killer
metal wheels on skateboards quickly
disposed of several pairs of jeans in
my teenage years, and accounted for
numerous shredded elbows, knees and
jackets!
The Atari 800 had one of the finest
keyboards available on the home
computer market, and the entire unit
was designed with longevity in mind.
One nice touch the 800 possesed which
was eliminated with the advent of the
XL series was the internal speaker. I
can remember a game I used to enjoy on
the 800 whose name escapes me at the
moment. The general idea was to spray
the garden with bug spray to rid your
plot of pesky bugs that would flutter
about and devour your veggies. As the
bugs appeared on the screen, from the
internal speaker would arise such a
clatter that you would really have to
stop as it sounded for all the world
that they were ACTUALLY inside your
beloved computer...it was an uneasy
feeling to be sure! Now, just because
you upgraded to an XL/XE doesn't mean
you have to do without this feature
any longer! This will be one of the
simpler projects you will undertake,
but its rewards for the installer will
far exceed the effort expended. This
article will cover the version I
whipped together for the 800xl, and
next issue we will share the version
for the 130xe with you.
Parts you will need:
1. Diode: Part # ECG 177
2. Transistor: Part # ECG 123AP
3. Capacitor: .001 @ 50v
4. Resistors: 1k 1/2 watt
100 ohm 1/2 watt
5. Speaker: 8 ohm 1/2 or 1 watt
variety (The smaller the physical
size the better)
6. Small hook-up wire
Construction:
Dissemble your 800XL, remove keyboard,
metal shield, and screws and place
these items safely aside. You will not
need to remove the PC board from the
bottom of the case.
1. Attach wire to bottom side of
C23. This capacitor can be easily
located by first looking directly
between the RF modulator and the
cartridge slot on the right. find the
middle ground between these 2 points,
then mentally draw a line 3 inches
long back toward yourself from this
point and you see C23. Just above and
to the right of this part is a small
electrolytic standing on end. Found
it? Good!
2. At the other end of the wire
attach your 1k 1/2 watt
resistor.
3. The neatest way to build this
project is to build a large portion of
the needed circuitry right onto the
speaker itself.
Using the lead placement chart solder
the collector of your ECG 123AP
transistor to one of the lugs on the
speaker.
| |
\ * * * /
\ E B C /
\ /
\------------------/
(Bottom view with pins facing toward
you)
4. Grasp your ECG 177 diode, and
connect the end which DOES NOT have
the band on it to the same lug on the
speaker as you connected the collector
of the transistor to.
5. Connect the front (banded) end
of the diode to the other lug of the
speaker.
6. Connect the 100 ohm resistor to
lug of the speaker with the banded end
of the diode.
7. Connect the .001 capacitor to
the base of the transistor.
8. Connect the free end of the 1k
resistor to the base of the
transistor.
9. Locate the small 8 pin IC.
notice the small dot on the bottom
left corner. This is pin 1. Count over
to pin 4, this is the point we will
use for ground. Connect a wire here.
10. Connect the other end of this
wire to the following parts:
A: The free end of the .001 capacitor
B: The emitter lead of the transistor
11. Locate C14. This capacitor is
located directly to the left of the
modulator. The top of this cap is our
5v source. Solder a lead to this
point.
12. Connect the free end of this
lead to the free end of your 100 ohm
resistor.
All that remains to be done is locate
a spot to mount the speaker inside of
the cabinet of your XL. The smaller
the physical size of the speaker you
have chosen, the easier your task for
finding the needed space will be.
Also, it might be wise to use
electrical tape to insulate all
exposed wire leads of your add-on to
avoid any future problems.
Keep those Atari's hummin'!
Mr. Goodprobe
(on lend from)
Midtown TV
Atari 8/16 Sales/Repair
(216) 633-0997
______________________________________
Xx ARCX HELP
______________________________________
(C) 1987 by Atari Corporation, GEnie,
and the Atari ST Roundtable. May be
reprinted only with this notice
intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie
are *official* information services of
Atari Corporation.
To sign up for GEnie service, call
(with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon
connection type HHH (no RETURN after
that). Wait for the U#= prompt.
Type XJM11877,GEnie and hit RETURN.
The system will prompt you for your
information.
HELP for using ARCX v1.2 <file #1908>
This is a short -How to...- on the use
of ARCX version 1.2 as found in the
GEnie 8 bit Atari RoundTable. This
file is broken into two parts:
1> loading ARCX
2> running ARCX.
Since there are few differences in
ARCX v1.1 and ARCX v1.2, we will refer
only to ARCX. It is strongly
recommended that you download ARCX
v1.2 as it is about 30% faster than
v1.1 and will therefore save you some
time off line when recovering files.
ARCX is the program that you will need
to be able to recover and use all of
the files in the Atari RoundTable that
are stored in the ARC format. See the
file ARC.HLP for more info on the
creation of an ARC'd file.
LOADING ARCX