~~~ The STE SIG ~~~ By Gary Spiteri First, an apology... ˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ At very short notice, it was decided to include the incredible MYMONO STE monochrome emulator. In the speed of it all, the program and its doco was compressed into an LZH archive. Unfortunately, we didn't test it, and was unaware that MYMONO was incompatiable with LHarc. So for those who wanted it (like Steve from the Sunshine Coast (did you get it in time?)), it is included in MYMONO.ARC on this disk. TOS 1.62 - Who wants it? ˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ Even an STE is not perfect, and TOS 1.6 doesn't help. All new STE's _should_ now have TOS 1.62, which is the version that all STE's should of had when it was released back in 1989. So what happens to all us suckers who have TOS 1.6? I asked Alistair at Atari, and he told me a sorry story. Atari Australia wanted to launch a TOS 1.4 upgrade costing ~$60, and so made ~140 sets of the upgrade - only 10 sets were sold. In light of this Atari are obviously reluctant to release a TOS 1.62 upgrade because who is going to buy it? There are alot of STE owners out there, but only a few of these are members of ACE and are reading this... If we _want_ TOS 1.62 we must all be prepared to _buy_ it and thus generate the demand which will allow TOS 1.62 to become an upgrade. Spread the word, and maybe we can make enough noise to get something done! WOW! ˙˙˙˙ On the subject of Atari Australia and Alistair, at the last meeting (2nd March) he was kind enough to demonstrate a TT030/8. The general opinion was "Wow!", and "Gasp" etc etc. This beast is fast, very powerful and looks like a real powerhouse machine. The 256 colour mode looks great as does TT medium, and the 256 grey scale mode is amazing. Just watching Calamus fly was enough to make me lust for one. I have to thank Alistair for making the time to come to our meeting, and lets hope that this is the start of a new attitude that Atari has towards its userbase. DMA Hard Drive Problems ˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ In a past issue I mentioned that due to a faulty DMA chip, connecting an STE to a Hard Disk drive runs the risk of corrupting the drive. If you are planning to one day own a Hard Drive, or are using a Hard Drive now, then you should check to see if you have a bad DMA chip. If you have, then change it by going to an Atari Service center or Atari themselves. However, if you are only using your STE for games (!) or are not considering investing in a Hard Drive, then you have not problems what so ever and shouldn't worry. You can check if your machine has a faulty DMA chip by checking the serial number on the bottom of your machine. The pattern for the number is:- ?? ?? ??????? ^^ These two charcters are the ones to check. They are of the format year/month and indicate the month in which that batch of machines were manufactured. The format is:- Year Month 9 = 1989 1 = January 0 = 1990 2 = Feburary 1 = 1991 3 = March 4 = April - etc etc - 9 = September A = October B = November C = December So a number like ?? 9C ??????? shows that this machine was made in December 1989, and ?? 05 ??????? indicates a manufactor date of May 1990. If your machine was manufactured AFTER July 1990, then you have nothing to worry about. However if you do have a machine built before August 1990 then you know what to do! Thanks to Phil Reeves of the Paragon Computers, and Swavek for drawing my atten tin to the article in "The Paragon Report" Feb 1991 issue.X-Control Panel˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ I tried out the new modular control panel on my STE , and strangely enough it works! The only module that didn't work is the New Desk Window Colour control, which ofcourse TOS 1.6 doesn't support. However, wi th my trustyScreen Shot grabber (I use SNAP.TOS because SNAP.PRG v2.2 doesn't like STE's) I grabbed a few shots of X-Control in action. The fancy text was do ne in HyperPaint II using the GDOS Dutch font at 18 point. CPX_1 - CPX_9 are from a Mono screen and CPX_10 & CPX_11 are in colour.HyperPaint II˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ ˙ On the subject of HyperPaint II, this is the latest paint program to support the STE's graphics functions. Its must endearing features are:- * Select Colour - Gives you 8 screens of 512 colours to choose from! * Make B/W - Uses the 16 grey shades to render a colour picture Black and White. * ING Support - You can create a IMGage file in any rez as big as free memory will allow you. * Multi Rez - You can load low/med pictures into a MONO screen, or load MONO screems into low/med rez. * Multi Format - Import _AND_ export PC? ,PI? ,NEO, Art Director, and IMG. Even save mono NEO pictures even though neochrome doesn't support mono! * GDOS support - Use GDOS fonts in your pictures. I'll be doing a demo of it at the next meeting - BE THERE! MYMONO is great! ˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ God's gift to the STE - Tony Barker, has done it again. he has coded simply the _best_ mono emulator on the ST/Mega/STE. It is for STE's only and its just great. I'll leave it to Tony's doco's to tell to more, suffice to say that the best speed in #2 or #3 and Calamus has never looked that good on my TV before! MonSTEr Screens ˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ MonSTEr is a emulator that fools the STE into thinking its using a 19" Monoterm monitor with a resolution of 1296 * 980. By using the STE's hardware scrolling the screen acts like a floating window of the huge screen. This program is in the vain of BIGSCRN.PRG, but this one hardly slows the screen down (and Quick ST II actually supports MonSTEr) and is simply great. It supports all resolutions, all well behaved GEM programs and though it supports ST's with TOS 1.4 - its too slow to use. Available on the ACE BBS now. STE Samples ˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ Tony has also coded a little program that converts 12 bit SoundDesigner Midi samples into 8 bit STE stereo samples. Its great! Also one can use any non IFF Amiga samples on the STE too. The TT/STE Talking Clock ˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ One of the best applications of the STE's samples is a new PD talking clock DA. Every 5 minutes a nice clear voice announces the time "It is now...." Its available on the ACE BBS now. The problems with DCShowIT v1.1 ˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ This program works okay on the STE except that sometimes it doesn't display the text until you press "T" for the top of file. I've worked out that if you press Return or Enter instead of using the mouse at the Show/Print/Cancel alert box, the problem never happens! STOS fixes are here! ˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ The ACE BBS now has the offical STOS intepreter and compiler fixes, which upgrade early versions to 2.6 thus allowing them to work on the the STE. This means that runtime STOS games made in this version will also now work on the STE. Also included in the ARChive is a similar fix for Fun School II which in the past didn't work on the STE. Well I think I've talked enough now... Please check out the article written by Mark Brinkworth as he discusses the mysterous TOS 1.6 Cookie Jar. This is the _first_ STE article not written by me and one of the very few articles not written by a Committee member. Thanks Mark, a stick-on gold star is coming your way! Until next time - Gary. PS - If you want to write a private BBS message to me, PLEASE write it in either the STE message area, saying YES to the private message prompt or write it in NetMail addressing to Gary Spiteri, and when the BBS asks for an address enter 3:5200/5