Shareware and public domain news


TOSBOX v1 preview

[Screenshot]

This is latest shareware Atari ST emulator for the PC, programmed by Mark Slagell, in the US.
Like other software only emulators TOSBOX requires a TOS image which you can copy from your real Atari ST using the ROMIMAGE.TOS utility included in the distribution.
Unlike other emulators TOSBOX works from the system down rather than from the hardware up. Instead of trying to make a PC behave exactly like an ST, TOSBOX redirects and translates system code so it can run in the PC domain only resorting to hardware level emulation of an Atari ST when necessary. In practical terms this means TOSBOX is fast but not intended to run games and graphics demos - which sets it apart from PaCifiST (reviewed in this issue).
Despite it's early version number TOSBOX runs most cleanly programmed GEM applications and its ability to run Geneva sets it apart from other emulators and is bound to attract users. InterActive has been confirmed as the European registration point with registration set at £12.

[] Author: Mark Slagall
Email: bald_soprano@usa.net
URL: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/4448/

[] European registration: InterActive, 65 Mill Road, Colchester, CO4 5LJ, England
Email: support@inactive.cix.co.uk
URL: http://www.cix.co.uk/~inactive/



SMURF preview v0.9

[Screenshot]

Smurf is an image viewer, programmed by Christian Eyrich and Olaf Piesche of Therapy Seriouz software, and it looks very promising. The preview release includes over 63 import modules. The following is just a selection which caught our attention: BMP, IMG, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, Targa, GODPaint, RAW, ICN, IFF, Neochrome, PCX, PICT, Pixar, SGI, TruePaint, XBM and XGA.
There's 11 export modules but since none of the popular formats are included we're assuming this is a limitation of the preview version, more when we get a full release to review.
There's five different dither modules and over 30 edit/filter/effects modules which offer some exciting options for manipulating images, some are fun (twirl, wind, bumpmap and pixelate), some are functional (rotate, clip, scale) and others are photo manipulation tools (gamma correct, brightness, contrast, soften, greyscale). There's currently no Print options. CyberSTrider is expecting to announce UK support soon although as we go to press no registration details are available.

Email:
christian_eyrich@n.maus.de
olaf_piesche@w2.maus.de
denesh@cyberstrider.org



NoSTalgia

[Screenshot]

The Mac platform now has an alternative Atari emulator to MagiC Mac. NoSTalgia development is planned along similar lines to PaCifiST - the idea being to support games as well as other applications. NoSTalgia is a software only freeware Atari ST emulator, programmed by Philippe Gerin in Belgium, which works on Power Macs. Development is still in the early stages with beta release v0.2 supporting:
  • MC68000
  • Video Shifter (ST resolutions)
  • MFP (Timer a-d).
  • ACIAs
  • IKBD: keyboard, mouse and 2 joysticks
  • Interrupts
  • FDC (ST disk image format required)
  • Rasters
There's currently no sound, serial, parallel or hard drive support and you'll also need a TOS 1.00, 1.02 or 1.04 ROM image copied from your real Atari ST.

[] Author: Philippe Gerin
Email: ph.gerin@skynet.be
URL: http://users.skynet.be/sky39147/



[Atari Times logo]

You can never have enough Atari news can you? Atari Times is one of the leading English language Atari disk magazines published by Croft Soft Software in HTML format which means you can read it on any platform using any HTML browser.
Previous issues have included contributions from: Frank Charlton, Harry Sideras, Joe Connor, Colin Fisher-McAllum, Kev Beardsworth, Richard Spowart, Roy Goring, Ashley Seabrook and Matthias Jaap. Issue 12 is available now.

[] Publisher: Colin Polonowski
Email: polonowski@zetnet.co.uk
URL: http://users.skynet.be/sky39147/



Ruftrade v2.1

[Screenshot]

Charles Edwards has now stopped development of Ruftrade, the only intelligent German to English translation software, but it's not all bad news!

  • The final unrestricted version of Ruftrade has generously been made available for everyone to download - try the sites below...
  • Permission to use the Ruftrade dictionaries have been granted to Mark Wherry who is now developing GEMTrade, son of Ruftrade, featuring a modern GEM front end. Expect the first release exclusively on an Atari Computing Reader Disk soon!
[] Download sites:
URL: http://www.wizard.net/~godbey/rftrd2qn.zip
FTP: ftp.atari.archive.umich.edu/Applications/Language/rftrd2qn.zip



AUTOVIEW

Pop this small Freeware utility into your Auto folder and it can display Cyber SEQ files and play Chip or sampled music or autoselect between STe machines and ST machines (to play sampled or Chip music respectively) without any on-screen messages - ideal for intros, demos and publicity. SEQ files can be played once or looped indefinitely. All TOS versions capable of booting into ST-Low resolution (320x200) are supported. Alternatively AUTOVIEW can be launched or installed as an application for SEQ files on the Desktop.

[] Author: Tony Greenwood (STOSSER Software)
Email: stosser@airtime.co.uk
URL: http://www.airtime.co.uk/users/stosser/



Data Uncertain

[XaAES logo]

XaAES RIP? Craig Graham, developer of this replacement AES only received one patch set (GNU compile patches) in recent months and doesn't have the resources to continue development single handed. Unless someone else is prepared to help out and pick up the pieces consider XaAES a dead parrot.
On a more positive note Craig has recently uploaded lots of software to the download bay on his web pages:
  • DU Debug, the first release of a text based source level debugger for Lattice C + MiNT. Includes C source.
  • CLA v2, the full version of the CLA v2 digital design & simulation package (Electronics/Schematics), also features an interactive simulator (similar to Galaxy CAD).
  • CLA v3, the full version of the CLA v3. Maintained in parallel with version 2 because they are very different. This version is much more modern and easier to design with. Includes Supports GDOS, NVDI, ST-Guide hypertext documentation. Supports AES4.1 (iconify), colour icons on all machines, and much more!
  • FSMedit, finite State Machine CAD package with limited synthesis facilities. Exports VHDL, PALASM, PASSM and GEM metafiles.
  • FSMsynth, add on synthesis tool for FSMedit - much better synthesis performance than FSMedit.
  • CLA-VHDL, a limited implementation of VHDL. Compiles to CLA .NET files that can be included into a CLA schematic.
  • DUftp v1.13, PD GEM ftp client utility, this version fixes the lock-up caused when a transfer is stalled bug in the earlier release. Source available.
[] Author: Craig Graham
Email: c_graham@patrol.i-way.co.uk
URL: http://www.i-way.co.uk/~c_graham/



--- [ICTARI logo]

ICTARI is the a user group/disk magazine dedicated to supporting Atari programmers. All languages can be discussed at any level of skill. ICTARI has been going since 1993 with most of the previous issues available on the net. Issue 48 is now available at:

Email: augeas@elis.demon.co.uk
URL: http://www.elis.demon.co.uk/ictari/ictari.htm



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