From: hoser@dainbramaged.EBay.Sun.COM (Mark Houser)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: PSAN
Date: 29 Jul 1992 21:33:46 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: dainbramaged.ebay.sun.com

In article <9207280005.AA22210@smithkline.com> poehland%phvax.dnet@SMITHKLINE.COM writes:
>The word I have is that PSAN folded last year.
>The last issue of PSAN I'm aware of came out around March 1991.  The cover was
>a riot.  It featured Saddam Hussein wearing a duncecap, & camels with bullseyes
>painted on their humps in the background.
>Sometime in the fall of 1991 I sent Jim Chapman a postcard inquiring about PSAN
>& requesting a sample issue.  I never received a response.
>Several sources mentioned it was a severe case of burnout.
>A few months ago I heard a rumor PSAN was going to start up again this Fall.
>We'll see.......
>
>     - BEN POEHLAND
>       The Alchemist
>
>******************************************************************************

I've had a subscription to PSAN for about two years and the last issue
of Puget Sound Atari News I received was May 1991.  About that time it
did indeed stop publication.  However I have recently received two
issues of Pacific Side Atari News -- PSAN.  Apparently PSAN has gone to
press again with a slightly different name and a new coordinator since
March, although the first issue I received was April 1992 (and it is
numbered #1, but there was a reference in a "Letter to the Editor"
about some March 1992 issue).

The only contacts listed in the masthead are for advertising, but the
Coordinator/Editor (still listed as a member of the "Puget Sound Atari
News Staff") is John Strand.  His number is listed as (206) 459-4156.
He can also be contacted via GEnie as J.STRAND1.

Some notes about the re-emergence of PSAN.  It doesn't have the "gloss"
of the earlier PSAN (one-color paper cover instead of two-color glossy,
for example).  The new "magazine" is also noticeably smaller.  There
are only 3 "Feature" articles in April/May 1992 instead of 10 in the
May 1991 (and the June 1992 is about the same), but I'm hoping that
this lack of meat is do to its hiatus and that, given time, it will
return to a status near it's earlier production.  To its credit,
however, the first new issue did contain a (1st of 2 part) feature on
how to perform a do-it-yourself SIMM memory upgrade for the ST.  So
there is meat, just not much of it.

Oh, did I mention that there is very little 8-Bit material -- one
review out of seven in the April/May 1992 issue (about European 8-Bit
games on cassette).  For 8-Bit support, you'll find the new magazine
disappointing and not worth the $2.50 cover price, but this may
change.  I hope so.

The past issues of PSAN that I have I still find to be good references,
much like Current Notes (and I certainly didn't mind all the little
projects for those of us who like to take things apart and burn fingers
with soldering irons :-), and I really hope that the new PSAN becomes a
good reference, also.  But I doubt that it will reach a status along
the lines of AIM or Current Notes; it is really more of a User Group
Magazine again.

Hope this helps everyone who was interested in PSAN.

Mark Houser
Sun Microsystems -- Education Services
Customer Training Instructor
mark.houser@EBay.Sun.COM