No Fragments Archive 12: Textmags & Docs/nf_archive_12.iso/MAGS/TEXTMAGS/ATARI16/INFO91.ZIP/INFO91/351.TXT

Text File | 1997-04-16 | 21.6 KB | 502 lines

Date: 24 Jun 91 22:22:22 GMT
From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!samsung!know![e-mail]
 (Thomas Hill)
Subject: Atari-To-Amiga Convert Info Source!
To: [e-mail]

[e-mail] (Darling) writes:

[e-mail] (Thomas Hill) writes:

>                                        Even Atari's best feature,
> good MIDI software, is weakening as several of those authors port their
> software to the Amiga.

%Ever met a professional producer, Tom?  We use the best programs available on
%any computer:  C-Lab's CREATOR/NOTATOR for sequencing, Digidesign's ATARI
%SOUND TOOLS for digital audio recording/editing, and POLYFRAME for patch
%editing.  None, I repeat, NONE of these have been ported to the Amiga.  And
%unless future Amiga machines clean up the severe MIDI timing problems they've
%got now, they never will be.

 In all my reading and experience with the Amiga, I have yet to hear one
complaint about "severe MIDI timing problems". Care to back that up with some
source material? Also, please re-read what I just wrote, as you seem to have
taken it out of context. "Even Atari's best feature, good MIDI software, is
weakening as several of those authors port their software to the Amiga." Did I
mention any of the above titles? The answer is no, but I can promise you that
I always deal in facts. After all, facts are what made me pick the Amiga over
the ST and any other computer in it's price range. Here are a few quotes from
the January 1991 issue of Amiga User International-

 "In 1985 Steinberg introduced an Atari sequencer called the Pro24. It was
good, well ahead of it's time in some respects, and tt's dit rapidly
gained professional acceptance."

 "The fact that Steinberg have released a Pro24 version on the Amiga is
significant in several respects not least in that it indicates that Steinberg
are now prepared to take the Commodore Amiga music market seriously. Make no
mistake...the Amiga, from a technical viewpoint, can run rings around the ST
but because of the lack of music software many musicians had, until fairly
recently, been wondering whether professionally useable packages would ever
arrive."

 "The Amiga version of the Pro24 is not a direct port of the original program-
it's a complete re-write. The aim was nevertheless to produce an enhanced
look-a-like, as opposed to an identical one, and this is something which has
clearly been achieved."

 "With Pro24 Amiga all of this is taken one stage further because the program
runs in the standard multi-tasking environment. Whereas machines like the ST
are struggling to provide the sort of environment in which several programs
can run simultaneously..."

 It goes on to say many nice things about the program. Anyway, beyond this
there are several other Atari software vendors ported their MIDI software to
the Amiga. Some of these (even titles you mentioned) are still in the rumor
stage.

> On the other hand, Amiga sales are higher than ever.

%Bzzzt!  Commodore just posted its worst figures in 4 years.

 Oh really? I'd love to hear where you got that information. I can post recent
figures from the source that say we've just had one of the best years. Care
for them?

>                               If you need any advice on file conversion,
> where to buy Amiga-related hardware for the best price, information on the
> Atari ST emulators out for the Amiga, or have any other questions related
to

%I'll save you the time, Tom.  Amiga ST emulators blow.  They're all slow,
%buggy, and none, I say again NONE, work properly with any MIDI software
%whatsoever.  Makes ME want to rush out and buy one, so I can play 32-million-
%coloured games instead of all that WORK I'm getting done now.

   As typed in from the Feb issue of Amiga World, page 109:

                                BrainSTorm

        It had to happen and here it is! The MAST ATARI Emulator!

 Make your Atari friends envious - now your Amiga emulates yet another
computer, this time the Atari. BrainSTorm is a software/hardware combination
from MAST Germany that runs 98% of Atari software (approx.), including MIDI
support. It even emulates the Atari keyboard click! All programs should run
except the very small percentage that do direct DMA or program the MFP. It
supports:

* 8mb Fast RAM, 2mb chip ram
* all ST resolutions including color
* full page monitor emulation with scrolling
* Amiga serial & parallel ports
* all Amiga drives (df0-df3) simultaneously
* two ST's at same time in one Amiga!
* almost ST speed, text is 120% faster, disk 108%
* hardware emulates the ST custom chips, has sockets for Atari ROMS, and does
  addr. translation
* Atari PD support on our BBS

Price is $99

 Call MAST at [phone]

[END OF FILE]

 Other ST emulators, some in total software, exist for the Amiga also.

>                                      I have received several requests for
> information to smooth the conversion from the Atari to the Amiga. I do this
as
> a service to fellow computer users.

%You noble soul!  The self-sacrifice!  In turn, I offer to help YOU smooth the
%conversion of your lips from their present location to my sweaty posterior.
%I do this as a service!

 This kind of talk leads nowhere and isn't productive to the conversation. If
you want to talk facts then I suggest you stay on the topic. I won't respond
to such remarks as they have nothing to do with the exchange of facts. Please
try to do the same.

%Tom, I haven't read such a heap of bunk it a long time.  If you're frustrated
%that your computer isn't being used in any professional environment, fine.
%But don't come over here and shovel propaganda and outright false statements
%in an effort to get others to join you in your malcontence.  Grow up.  A "my
%computer is better" rant under any other name smells equally bad, no matter
%how you may attempt to dress it up.

 You insult me and then tell me to grow up? I am willing to ignore attacks by
insecure users in order to help those who need the kind of information I am
providing. So far I have received mail from well over ten Atari users who
need help in converting to the Amiga. This makes it worth cutting through your
kind of message. If your not interested in leaving your ST for the Amiga then
I'm glad to hear it, but don't make things rough for those who want to.

   Tom


------------------------------

Date: 24 JUN 91 09:01:43 CDT
From: Z4648252 <[e-mail]>
Subject: At LAST, an international question!
To: <[e-mail]>

Hello all,
    I have noticed an improved quality in games for the Atari ST.
I'm not much of a gamer but even I get tired of using spreadsheets
and am wowed by phenomenal graphics and amazing sounds.  The recent
"AMIGA IS GOD" postings by the Amiga zealots further drives me
away from that alleged computer and demonstrates to me their
inferiority complex over the Amiga.  I thought that I had better
throw that in before some multitasking-is-god Amigoid tells me that
I should buy an Amiga 500 to play games with awesome graphics and
sounds.
    Ok, that was the preface.  There are some kind souls out there
who post game ratings and so forth for the Atari ST.  The lists
show up frequently here and I cannot recall the address of the
individual submitting these.  At any rate, I'd like to offer a request
and suggestion.
    Due to the amazing sales of the STe's lately (whenever they can
be found) it would be handy if two categories could be added:  ST and
STe.  I'd like to start buying games that use the hardware scrolling
and stereo sound of the STe.  The difference between games on these
two platforms are just incredible.
    The only way that this could be done is if the user who is doing
this review can actually test the game to see if it takes advantage
of the STe abilities.
    And PLEASE, Amigoids, STAY AWAY FROM ME!  I just happen to
enjoy and USE my ST!

Larry Rymal <[e-mail]> | ATARI ST USERS OF EAST TEXAS

------------------------------

Date: 24 Jun 91 15:36:54 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!mips!spool.mu.edu!olivea!genie!udel!brahms
 .udel.edu![e-mail] (Donald R Lloyd)
Subject: Juvenile user war crap
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Steve Yelvington)
 writes:
>It is noise. It drives reasonable people of good will away from the
>newsgroup. It has no place here. If you think you're doing Atari
>owners or c.s.a.st readers a favor, you're mistaken.

    Actually, it appears that Tom (the original poster of the 'informational'
message, which I never actually read but heard a little about) did so
specifically to start a flamefest in c.s.a.st.  My evidence for this is his
post from a day or so ago in c.s.amiga.advocacy inviting everyone to move
over to c.s.a.st and join in the fun....
         The best way, of course, to alleviate this problem is to just ignore it &
let it die out when people realize they're not getting the attention they covet;
we know, though, that that's not likely to happen.

--
  Gibberish   May the        Publications Editor, AmigaNetwork
  is spoken   fork() be      Amiga Student On-Campus Consultant, U of D
    here.     with you.      DISCLAIMER:  It's all YOUR fault.

------------------------------

Date: 24 Jun 91 14:41:32 GMT
From: van-bc!jonh![e-mail] (John Henders)
Subject: Juvenile user war crap
To: [e-mail]

In <[e-mail]>, Steve Yelvington writes:
>
>Sigh. I don't know why I bother. Maybe I should just unhook
>comp.sys.atari.st and rely on GEnie, where they pay people to spike
>ruggie user fight trash.
>
>You and the ill-mannered Amiga fanatic from Cleveland Freenet are
>engaging in a public pissing match, posting lists of messages from
>Freenet's Commodore forums and recycling ignorant, inflammatory,
>ill-intended messages.
>
>It is noise. It drives reasonable people of good will away from the
>newsgroup. It has no place here. If you think you're doing Atari
>owners or c.s.a.st readers a favor, you're mistaken.

        Steve, and all other .atari group readers who respond to this thread.

 Please remember that handy.dandy tool for getting this trash off this
newsgroup, the follow-up line. If everyone who follows up this thread
sets the followups to comp.sys.amiga.advocacy, the thread will die a
quick death.
 Perhaps we should add a section to the FAQ on how to deal with these
monthly nuisance threads.

--
          John Henders                          [e-mail]
          MIND over MIDI Productions    or ubc.cs!van-bc!jonh!jhenders
          Vancouver,B.C

------------------------------

Date: 24 Jun 91 12:54:42 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!snorke
 lwacker.mit.edu!ira.uka.de!smurf!nadia![e-mail] (Cabell Fearn)
Subject: Mac Roms are avaiable
To: [e-mail]

Anyone out there who is looking for Mac ROMs: I just found some at

RHOADS
519 W. Taylor #114
Santa Maria
CA 934564

[phone]

------------------------------

Date: 24 Jun 91 16:58:07 GMT
From: cleveland.Freenet.Edu![e-mail] (Marc A. Lombardo)
Subject: Noizetracker MOD Players
To: [e-mail]

After downloading almost every mod file player that the Atari archive
has, I have yet to find one that lets me use my hard drive to load in
the lengthy mod files.

The Audio Sculpture program is a work of art, and so is the Digi-Composer
program.  Both allow me to use the ST Replay cartridge for one speaker,
and the monitor for the other, allowing true stereo from my ST!  The
problem is, the sculpture program can only (as far as I can tell) be
loaded from a floppy drive, and doesn't allow the hard drive boot
program to load. (It is a boot disk)  The Digi-Composer gave a little
more hope, since it runs from GEM, and after the hard drive has been
installed.

The problem is, it won't allow hard drive use either, as far as I know.  I
set the preferences to save preferences to drive C, the modules to C,
and the samples to C.  I didn't have any problem understanding this, but
when I click on save preferences it gives me four bombs, or else it
clears half the screen and then another fourth, and then locks up.  It does
a similar thing when I try to load MOD files from the hard drive C partition.

I found the program Replay 1.5 MOD file player in the noiztrkr.lzh file
on the a.a., but this doesn't allow stereo output, but it does let you
use the hard drive.

Any ideas on how I might get this to work, or maybe an update on the replay
mod file player that allows stero output?  Any help would be greatly
appriciated.

Thanks in advance.
 .

--
Marc A. Lombardo           User Address:[e-mail]
/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/--/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-
Atari ST, MIDI, Music


------------------------------

Date: 24 Jun 91 22:22:27 GMT
From: IFI.UIO.NO![e-mail] (LarsErikOsterud)
Subject: Noizetracker MOD Players
To: [e-mail]

Esion XLI soundtracker has full harddisk support (both for program and the
modules).  Both the ST and STE version can be used on harddisk (the oldest
versions have trouble with folders but the one posted with the ONLY-STE demo
works 100% and has the best sound yet)

 Lars-Erik  /  ABK-BBS [phone]  /   ____ ______ ________________________
  Osterud  /  [e-mail]  /   /___    /            The norwegian ST
__________/ ______________________/   ____/   /   Klubben,  user association

------------------------------

Date: 24 Jun 91 18:29:23 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!harrier.ukc.ac.uk!hobby.ukc.ac.uk![e-mail]
 (W.A.B.Evans)
Subject: Ram Disk
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>I am presently using EDISK on my ST, and I love the reset-proofness of it,
>but I find it annoying that I can't change Ram Disk sizes without a cold
>re-boot.  Can anybody either tell me what I am doing wrong, or tell me about
>a better program?
>
>Matt Asplund
>BYU
>Provo UT

        As far as I am aware, ALL reset proof ramdisks involve a RESET if
they are resized. In this EDISK is no exception.

        However the main point of this reply is to draw your attention to
Mark Williams Co.'s RDY ramdisk utility that is now PUBLIC DOMAIN - even if
you are not a registered licensee of Mark Williams "C". This is FAR more
sophisticated than EDISK (I am familiar with both!) - in that it allows
you to configure Reset-Proof ramdisks that are Booting or non-booting and
you can simultaneously load as many ramdisks as memory and/or volume letters
(C:\,D:\,....P:\) allow. You may also configure the ramdisk to have the FAT
structure of a FLOPPY so you can SECTOR-copy the entire contents of floppies
quickly onto them (using DFT.PRG - a program within DFSUITE2 - also available
on the network) - or you may use 16-bit FATS for additional access speed.
Further they may be saved WITH CONTENTS to .PRG files on floppy or hard
disks and loaded again with ease by simply executing them.

        As Mark Williams reputedly no longer write software for the ST, there
was a hiccup when I tried to use my old RDY installations on a new STE. I
looked into the problem, to discover it was to do with the RESET VECTOR not
being correct for the STE. A minor hack produced RDE.PRG - the STE-compatible
version of Mark Williams' RDY.PRG - which, with Mark Williams Co.'s
permission, was distributed on atari.binaries.st last January or early
February. This has solved similar problems for many who recently "upgraded"
to an STE - as is testified by the many Emails I've received.

        One further advantage is that saved RDY ".PRG" files may be packed
with an efficient packer (like PFXPAK - also PUBLIC DOMAIN) that makes them
extremely economical to store on Floppy. Working this way with a 4-Mbyte STE
I can load many different utilities on different ramdisks simultaneously and
have not so far felt the need for expensive error-prone hard-disks.

                        Anyway, hope this may help some readers.

                                        W. Alan B. Evans
                                        [ [e-mail] ]

P.S.:  Whilst EDISK is not as sophisticated as RDY/RDE, it is excellent
as a SINGLE reset proof ramdisk. It works equally well on the new TOS as
well as the older versions - which means it "looks up" the proper RESET
VECTOR, *((long *)0x4), in Supervisor Mode before executing it - which was
the fault with RDY (or at least the version of RDY I was given when I
upgraded to Mark Williams "C" version_3.0.6). When I upgraded I never was
given the sourcecode of this "newer" RDY that worked satisfactorily on 4Mb
machines (presumably there was insufficient space on the upgrade disk) - so
I would be obliged if anyone who bought version 3.++ of Mark Williams "C"
and who presumably got this "updated sourcecode" - which is now also PUBLIC
DOMAIN (or so I learn from a FAX from Mark Wms' Dale Schumacher - but I don't
really know where to access it) could be bothered to Email me this. True I
could probably get it from Mark Wms. Co. also - but, as they've left the
ST-scene, let's not bother them. I would then, I believe, be able to modify
it so that a single RDY.PRG would work (like EDISK) on all ST machines
 - the only slight doubt is whether there is enough room in the bootsector
of a self-loading RDY ramdisk to include the few bytes of additional code
required to "look-up" the reset address vector before using it.

------------------------------

Date: 24 Jun 91 12:06:51 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!ccut!wnoc-tyo-news!
 toumon!wucc![e-mail] (Y.Tsuji)
Subject: ST Software from British distributors
To: [e-mail]

An American buying software from UK won't have much trouble as you say.
Given the same TOS, the difference is only a few keyboard assignments (
@,
software from other part of Europe: the keyboards are very different!
But if you don't hit a key, the program should run without a hitch.

One thing worthy to note: when UK vendors export, they cannot charge the
notorious 17 per cent Value Added Tax. And 17 per cent is usually cheaper
than the air mail parcel post cost.

Cheers,
Tsuji

------------------------------

Date: 24 Jun 91 17:25:20 GMT
From: cadence!cadence.com![e-mail] (Jwahar R. Bammi)
Subject: This week's program
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (ATARI
 Computer Enthusiasts) writes:

> Many people have inquired as to where they can get our program's of the
 week...
>
> 100% assembly. ST, STe and TT compatible.
>

Actually, what would be infinitely more useful (to me anyways) would
be a short technical description of all the neat tricks you guys come
up with, how you did it etc, and maybe the source.
--
--
bang:   uunet!cadence!bammi                     jwahar r. bammi
domain: [e-mail]
GEnie:  J.Bammi
CIS:    71515,155

------------------------------

Date: 24 Jun 91 20:32:43 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!waikato.ac.nz!comp.vuw.ac.nz!
 med.wcc.govt.nz!galaxy.southpower.co.nz!ccc.govt.nz![e-mail]
Subject: Wanted: ZORK for Atari ST
To: [e-mail]

Aaaaarrrgghh!

I feel like I've woken up (over) a year late - which is what comes of
taking 'established' institutions for granted.

So, is there anyone out there willing to sell me a 2nd-hand copy of
Infocom ZORK (& maybe Lurking Horror, MIT games are folklore-ish too),
to run on an Atari ST ?

I'm about to be a little preoccupied, so I may be a little late dealing
with my post, but I would like to buy these programs.

Thanks in advance.

Trevor Ingham,       Systems Programmer, Christchurch City Council,
                                        P.O. Box 237,
                                        Christchurch,  New Zealand
e-mail:
[e-mail]                      Wellington City Council's node
or try                                  bounces a lot of our mail.
[e-mail]

s-mail:
Trevor Ingham,  P.O. Box 1459,  Christchurch,  New Zealand.

------------------------------

Date: 24 Jun 91 20:46:39 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!waikat
 o.ac.nz!comp.vuw.ac.nz!rata.vuw.ac.nz![e-mail] (Nathan Torkington)
Subject: Wanted: ZORK for Atari ST
To: [e-mail]

If you are capable of a little hackery, you could probably compile the
sources for dungeon (a Zork predecessor) which are available from
VUW Comp Sci's archive as
        /archive/comp/sources/games/volume12/cdungeon/*

Nat.
--
Nathan Torkington                           Contracting to CSC,
Internet: [e-mail]              Victoria University Of Wellington,
Vocal Abuse: [phone] (post-chronos)   P.O. Box 600, New Zealand.
This is not an official communication of any part of Victoria University.

IBM: It may be slow, but it's hard to use.
 - Andrew Tannenbaum <[e-mail]>,  author of Minix and Amoeba

------------------------------

End of Info-Atari16 Digest
******************************