ST NEWS Volume 10 Issue 2

ST NEWS Volume 10 Issue 2
Released on Friday, June 16th 1995
Dedicated to Richard Krajicek

= A GREAT MORNING/AFTERNOON/EVENING/NIGHT TO YOU! =======================
 
 
 On  the disk in your disk drive you will find "ST NEWS" Volume 10  Issue  
2.  It  was finished on November 25th 1995,  and it's the 40th  issue  in  
total and 13th since "ST NEWS" went undead, now quite some time ago.
 Below you will find some more details concerning this issue (like how to  
copy it and what's in it).
 
 Have fun reading,
 
 
 Richard Karsmakers
  a.k.a. Cronos
  of the Amazing Cracking Conspiracy (ACC)
  of the Quartermass Xperiment (QX)
 (Editor)
 
 
= WHAT'S IN IT, HEX? ====================================================
 
 
 Yes,  indeed,  what may be found here?  Below you will find a summary of  
some  of  the  most important bits,  the CAPITALIZED parts  of  which  PD  
library owners are invited to use in their catalogues.
 
=========================================================================
 THE MOST COMPLETE DISK MAGAZINE ROUNDUP EVER!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Never  before  has the human eye seen such an extensive  "Disk  Magazine  
Encyclopaedia".  With  over  150  items  listed  and  over  50  magazines  
written/emailed  to  for status verification,  there is bound  to  be  no  
equivalent of it anywhere.
=========================================================================
 FURTHER  INTERVIEWS WITH JENS "EX-MALMSTEEN" JOHANSSON,  DAVE  "EX-STEN"  
MOONEY...AND MORE!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Once  more  we have pained ourselves considerably  to  find  interesting  
people to interview...
=========================================================================
 SECRETS OF "NEODESK 4"!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Mr Al Fasoldt, rather famous person in more than just a few Atari users'  
circles,  recently did his essential "Secrets of NeoDesk 4"  article.  We  
got kind permission to use it here...
=========================================================================
 ADVENTURE SOLUTIONS:   "ELVIRA II",  "HUGO III",  "MASK OF THE SUN"  AND  
MORE!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Why  wait  for  multiple (or 'stranger') aeons  until  another  magazine  
chucks out the odd tip on your favourite adventure that you've been stuck  
on  ever  since  the week after you bought  it?  "ST  NEWS"  has  offered  
solutions   to well over *100* ST and PC adventures.  You  need  look  no   
further;  check  out  the  "Adventure Solutions Index". If your favourite  
adventure's not in there then there's quite a chance it's not actually an  
adventure.
 By now,  Math might actually have grown a beard.  Haven't heard from him  
in a while...
=========================================================================
 LITERARY BIT: "THE BLOODLESS COUP" AND "THE SEVEN GATES OF HELL"!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Our  #1  fiction  contributor,  Mr Roy Stead,  has  given  us  the  sole  
permission to feature his first complete novel, "The Bloodless Coup". The  
bulk  of  this issue's "fiction" segment will be taken up by  the  second  
part of this work.  I have also written something myself,  this time: The  
32nd and final Cronos Warchild story...
=========================================================================
 REVIEWS:  VENOM (CONCERT),  A CHANGE OF SEASONS (EP),  THE RESTAURANT AT  
THE END OF THE UNIVERSE (GRAPHIC NOVEL / COMIC), VTEK MONITOR (HARDWARE),  
STRAD  TO  STRAT (CD),  DOUBLE BUBBLE 2000  (GAME),  FOUCAULT'S  PENDULUM  
(BOOK),  SPEED  OF LIGHT 3.8 (ULILITY),  JOE  SATRIANI  (CD),  BRAVEHEART  
(FILM), THE STAND (VIDEO), YNGWIE MALMSTEEN (CONCERT), SOUL MUSIC (BOOK),  
DRACONIAN TIMES (CD), CRYSTAL ATARI BROWSER (UTILITY)...AND MORE!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 The various contributors to "ST NEWS" don't just use their  computers...  
no,  they  also read books and listen to various bits of  digital  sound.  
Sometimes,  indeed,  they  leave their dark attics to go out  and  mingle  
among  other  mortals to see concerts and films and  the  like.  So  some  
opinions may be found here as well...
=========================================================================
 A NOW EVEN MORE COMPLETE FALCON SOFTWARE COMPATIBILITY LIST!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Now  you can see for yourself what old and recent stuff doesn't work  on  
the Falcon and,  vastly more important,  what *does*.  It is probably the  
most complete list of its kind,  and trustworthy too;  much of this stuff  
is  from  my own experience.  This time we got quite close to  the  "1000  
items listed" mark!
=========================================================================
 INTERESTING PROGRAMS TO BOOT!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 As usual you get some extra bits of software.  This time,  for  example,  
you'll  get the "Final Grandson of Wowbagger the  Infinitely  Prolonged",  
"Cookie  Monster" and "Printfil" (the latter which can print a lot of  A4  
pages of "1st Word Plus" file onto one A4 page in tiny writing)...
=========================================================================
 
 
= NOTES ABOUT COPYING ===================================================
 
 
 I will be brief.  Just like the 39 prior issues,  "ST NEWS" is about  as  
Public Domain as you can get.  Spread it,  copy it,  sell it (as CHEAP as  
possible please),  I don't mind.  It is important that as many people  as  
possible get this issue,  so give it to a friend for his/her birthday! In  
case you're the owner of a Public Domain library, you are much encouraged  
to include it in that.  I need NO royalties.  This is NO licenseware. You  
can keep whatever profit you make yourself. I just hope it isn't too much  
- no need to rip off honest readers, is there?
 The disk format is:
 
 Tracks            : 0-79
 Sectors per track : 11 (that's hyper-formatted)
 Number of sides   : 2 (would have done 3 if only it were possible)
 
 You  can copy it with just about any modern disk copier  (though  Martin  
Backschat's  "FastCopy"  would  be a most  excellent  choice  (free  plug  
there)). And anyway, it's not *how* you copy it that's important, as long  
as you *do* copy it, possible in the *largest* numbers!
 Be  wise and steer clear of expensive PD libraries.  And please  send  a  
donation now and again if you've enjoyed our efforts. I have received two  
donations  (hi  Marinos  and James!) in the last  almost  four  years  or  
something.
 
 
= NOTES ABOUT COMPATIBILITY =============================================
 
 
Atari (MEGA) ST(E): "ST NEWS" runs on all systems,  including those  with  
                    512 Kb memory (though 1 Mb minimum would be nice, and  
                    better).  Graphic cards are not supported. Please use  
                    medium or high resolution only.
Atari TT          : "ST  NEWS"  has been tested on a TT  and  works  when  
                    launched from either ST medium or ST high resolution.
Atari Falcon 030  : "ST NEWS" runs smoothly from any 80-column VGA/RGB/TV  
                    resolution  with  the exception of "VGA  with  double  
                    line on and 2 colours" or "TV/RGB non-interlaced with  
                    2  colours" (in which cases it will  bomb).  Any  40-
                    column   resolution  (including  ST  low   resolution  
                    compatibility  mode) will cause all GEM and VDI  draw  
                    commands  to  be  limited to the  left  half  of  the  
                    screen.  Also, the file selector needed to specify an  
                    ASCII/WP  file  to  be written  is  usually  coloured  
                    wrongly  and drawn partly off the screen due  to  GEM  
                    not being properly re-initialised. Any suggestions on  
                    how to fix these problems?
                    Keeping  [ALTERNATE]  pressed  during  booting  on  a  
                    Falcon  with  VGA monitor connected  will  cause  the  
                    program to use ST high resolution mode instead of  ST  
                    medium  (among  other things,  this  slows  down  the  
                    scroller).
                    "ST  NEWS"  hasn't yet been tested on a  Falcon  with  
                    SM124/5  monochrome monitor.  If you can  test  this,  
                    please let me know the result. Should work, though.
GEMulator         : "ST  NEWS"  works with it,  as long as you  have  the  
                    music  turned off.  Some sources claim you  can  even  
                    have the music on...
MultiTOS / Geneva : "ST NEWS" will not work with any multi-tasking OS, as  
                    it uses no GEM at all. Please disable it.
Warp 9            : Exiting "ST NEWS" may freeze the system with "Warp 9"  
                    active.   This  can  be  fixed  by  adding  the  line  
                    "ST_NEWS.PRG  s0  b0 j0"  (turn  screen  accelerator,  
                    mouse  block  and mouse jump off) in  the  "WARP.DAT"  
                    automatic configuration file.
BlowUp 030        : Exiting "ST NEWS" will cause a return to a  distorted  
                    screen.  This is likely to happen with other extended  
                    screen resolution drivers, including "ScreenBlaster".  
                    Please  disable them.  Does anyone know  a  solution?  
                    I've heard it may be a bug in "BlowUp" though...
Disk drives       : There  are  a few (very few) disk drives  that  can't  
                    handle 11 sectors per track.  I am very sorry,  but I  
                    would  use a smaller format if I could.  There's  too  
                    much  stuff I want to put in "ST NEWS" but not  quite  
                    enough  simply  to  increase  the  frequency  of  its  
                    appearance,  and  I *never* want to start  using  TWO  
                    disks. Maybe, one day when everybody has HD drives, I  
                    will switch to HD disks.
 
 
 That's it. No use reading any further.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                              S T  N E W S
 
         *THE* ATARI ST/STE/TT/FALCON MULTI MEDIA DISK MAGAZINE
 
        YOU CAN SAY A LOT ABOUT IT BUT IT'S NOT A WASTE OF PAPER
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE END OF THE "ST NEWS" VOLUME 10 ISSUE 2 TEXT FILE
 

Emulation note

To run with Hatari, use TOS 2.06

To run with STeem, use TOS 2.06