HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: wells_s@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (steve wells)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Looking for the Game "Nine Lives"
Date: 19 Dec 1992 04:29:59 GMT
Organization: Wellington City Council (Public Access), Wgtn, Nz
Reply-To: wells_s@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
NNTP-Posting-Host: kosmos.wcc.govt.nz

> I've got what appears to be a demo of the game "Top Cat's Nine Lives" and 
> attempted to find out if a complete game was ever released commercially.
> What appears to be the related software companies are "Frames" and "ARC".
> It's a fun game with a cat jumping around, rescuing other cats but I have
> never come across any info on the game itself.

Actually it's just 'Nine Lives' - the top cat's bit is the high-score
table 8-)

It's a very nice little game that, and apparently was mistakenly released
into the PD.  But, the version I have has walls all around the current area,
and once you've rescued 2-cats (or is it 1??)  You are stuck!

Atari threw a tantrum, and de-released this, as well as NEO-Chrome, and
a lot of other software, which was claimed as PD.  (Although, NEO-Chrome
at that stage had been available for at *least* 2-years in the Public
Domain).

ARC is actually Atari's own Label, I presume ARC stands for Atari something
or other!

 =============================================================================
 | O O    If I told you how much I needed this,            |       |||       |
 |  o     I wouldn't have time to eat it.    Zaphod B.     |       ||| TARI  |
 | \_/    Steve Wells - Wellington, New Zealand.           |      / | \      |
 =========================WELLS_S@KOSMOS.WCC.GOVT.NZ==========================
From: mppi76@cd4680fs.rrze.uni-erlangen.de (Harald Schoenfeld)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: More about the Falcon
Date: 18 Dec 1992 11:22:19 +0100
Organization: Regionales Rechenzentrum Erlangen
NNTP-Posting-Host: cd4680fs.rrze.uni-erlangen.de
Summary: First impressions
Keywords: Falcon


I have the Falcon for 6 days now, and here are my first impressions:

Contents of the package:

Falcon 030
4MB
65MB Harddisk
VGA adaptor
English (!) manual
Game manual
CalApt plus manual
Driver Disk
Extra Disk with Landmines, Breakout, Talking clock, CalApt & Calculator

TOS:
TOS 4.01, no MultiTOS yet :-(


The Hardware

The case is full of hardware as one can see because of a small hump on
it's top :-). The keyboard feels almost like the old 1040 one.

The hardware works very well: AD and DA converters sound excellent (also
the bass is increased for headphones). Using 33 or 50 kHz it sounds
just like the cd-player itself. Sending data via DMA from one subsystem
to another works extremely easy. 
Together with another developer I've programmed a small programm to
produce an echo, using the DSP and both, the AD and DA converter.

Saving sounddata with 50kHz is no problem for the build in harddisk and
also the "slow" SyQuest cartridges work fine.

The videosystem is working correctly with all types of monitors. Although
the picture is quite far left on RGB-televisions. The picture is sharp
(better than STE quality).

The DMA-matrix is really a fantastic thing! Things can be done that
are absolutely impossible on PCs.


I think the hardware is ready to be sold. The software is a problem
at the moment. I don't think that ATARI will sell the Falcon to
many users as long as MultiTOS is not complete. Also some of the
included programs are not completely ready (One must start the
talking clock to initialize the sound system before landmine has
its nice sounds...). But it's good that we developers get the Falcon
now, so the users will have a bundle of software to buy, as soon as
the MultiTOS is ready.

I didn't any benchmarks up to now, because there is really too much
interesting hardware to be studied!!!

I think I will upload sone selfwritten demos to atari.archive in the
next weeks - so you can use them when you get your Falcon.

-- 
Harald Schoenfeld (hs@cnve.rrze.uni-erlangen.dbp.de)

Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
From: kfason@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Kevin Fason)
Subject: OLR programs
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 03:14:41 GMT
Organization: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO  80523

I use an OLR reader for QWK packets on a local board.  It is run off of
WWIV and the door is WWIV/QWK v4.something (reg) and it does not accept my
.REP packets.  I have used the following:

Maxi*Miser 2.09G
MicroTalk QWK v1.08D
Red Wine Reader v1.0
Captians QWK v1.14

It accepted the Captains .REP, but I posted it to one base, and it stuck it
it another.  The last two did not like the boards QWK packet, but the first
two had no probs with it.  but would not accept the .REP from all but Captains.

I know that Maxi*miser is the latest one, but I do not know about the others.
If these are not the latest, and you have later, please reply by mail.  If
you are the author of one of the above, or wrote one not above, please send me
mail too!  I can send you a packet from it, and/or a REP that it accepts (from
someone else).  I am the only one who has probs with it.  I am also the only
Atari user on it that I know of.  The author sent a REP that I made to the author
so we are waiting on that.  I also sent a message in the Maxi*miser FNET
conference, but no answer yet.  thank you.

-KF

Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
From: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov (John Hutchinson)
Subject: Re: HELP please!
Reply-To: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 16:39:17 GMT

In article 11708@crc.ac.uk, naffara@crc.ac.uk (Dr. N.A. Affara) writes:
>I have just got a second hand Mega ST4 + hard disk (SH205).
>I am well chuffed with it!!!!
>
>But I have a few (ok, lots of) questions:-
>1. The desktop info says copyright 1986,1987. Is this TOS 1.0 or 1.2?

TOS 1.2 was installed in all Mega ST machines.  It was essentially identical
to TOS 1.0 (unfortunately).

>2. What fixes will I need for this, and also for 1.4 which is in my ST?

You still need the folder fix program (FOLDRXXX.PRG, I think).  The "best" fix
is to replace the 1.2 TOS with 1.4, or even better, 2.06.  Either will improve
overall usefulness of your machine, improve disk read/writes, etc.

>3. What programs/files do I need to keep the hard disk working?
>   (eg ahdi.prg (?) + HD???.???)

All you really need is Atari's AHDI program and a good backup program such as
Diamond Back II from Oregon Research.  Use it.

>4. Ratehd.prg tells me the SH205 has an Adaptec 4000/4070 controller, 88 ms 
>   seek rate (pretty crap!) and 299Kb/sec transfer rate. How does the transfer
>   rate compare with other hard disks (like a Protar which I am going to get)
>   and also floppies?

Slow.  But don't put too much faith in arbitrary speed ratings.

>5. It has a blitter, but I haven't opened it up (yet!) to see what else there
>   is. (eg VME (?) or whatever you call it). If it has got one, what can I put
>   in it?

The MegaST does not include a VME port.  Only the TT and MegaSTe have that.

>6. It is suprising how fast you can fill up 20 megs, especially when just the
>   fonts for Timeworks take up 5 megs!

Old proverb... "You can never have enough RAM, CPU speed, or hard disk space."
When you can afford it, just exchange the existing 20Mb drive mech with a
bigger one.

>7. Will a cache of some kind speed up the HD? (I am still not satisfied!)
>   If so, which programs are recommended?

Unknown.  If you want to speed up the machine overall, try a hardware accelerator
from someone like Fast Technology or Gadgets by Small.  Great STuff!

>8. Is it possible to upgrade the mega to TOS 1.4? (how, cost, is it worth it?)
>9. Anything else I should get or know?

TOS 1.4 is a plug in replacement for your TOS 1.2.  Cost should be about US$60.
TOS 2.06 would require an adapter board from someone like Codehead Technologies.
I believe their TEC (TOS Extension Card) retails for US$139 or so with TOS 2.06.
You can also get an optional switch so you can switch between your old TOS 1.2
and 2.06; great to maintain compatibility with older software.

---

___________________________ John "HUTCH" Hutchinson _________________________
_________________ Fair Dinkum Technologies     Member - IAAD  _______________
________________ "No worries, mate... it's from Fair Dinkum!" _______________
____________ email: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov   GEnie: FAIR-DINKUM _____________
From: ekrimen@wet.UUCP (Ed Krimen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Virtual Memory on MultiTos
Date: 17 Dec 92 17:41:25 GMT
Organization: Wetware Diversions, San Francisco

In article <1992Dec16.043917.1193@cc.umontreal.ca> kosmatoo@JSP.UMontreal.CA (Kosmatos Odisseas) writes:
>I was wondering whether there are any plans on supporting virtual memory
>with MultiTos. Virtual Memory seems like a great feature. Example, with
>v.m. one will never have to worry about their terminal program's capture
>buffer getting full. Now, I have a feeling MultiTos does not yet support

My capture buffer never gets full.  I have STalker.  Just do a Receive and
everything gets spooled to disk.




-- 
   |||    Ed Krimen
   |||    ekrimen@wet.uucp
  / | \   E.KRIMEN (GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
From: hyc@hanauma.jpl.nasa.gov (Howard Chu)
Subject: Re: Virtual Memory on MultiTos
Organization: SAR Systems Development & Processing, JPL
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 07:18:20 GMT

In article <724600898.9501@minster.york.ac.uk> mjl-b@minster.york.ac.uk (Mathew Lodge) writes:
>In article <1992Dec16.043917.1193@cc.umontreal.ca> kosmatoo@JSP.UMontreal.CA (Kosmatos Odisseas) writes:
>>Another topic I was wondering about was whether MiNT (and thus MultiTos)
>>does the following: When a program is loaded, say program X. If the program
>>is loaded again in another window / by another user / by a background shell
>>script, will the operating system notice that it is already loaded and just
>>use the copy in memory (but having a local stack and program pointers)
>>or will it load the program all over again (thus wasting precious primary
>>memory)?
>
>You mean sharable code segments? A good idea, but there are problems with
>programs that use self-modifying code. I hope that these are few and far
>between (because they'll cause problems with processor caches as well).
>Llamamtron is an example of such a program -- the sample replay routine is
>self modifying :-(
>
>Perhaps there could be a bit set in the program header to indicate that its
>code can be shared... Eric?

This feature was added to MiNT in version 0.96. It is supported by the
"-mbaserel" option in GCC 2.2.2 and 2.3.1. (GCC support by Yours Truly... }-)

All I'd like to add at this point, along these lines, is caching of text
images even after the process running it has exited. I.e., when a shared-text
program is loaded, the text stays in memory even after the process exits,
allowing it to be re-executed at a later time without needing to reload it.
(And of course, the memory can be reclaimed if necessary to satisfy some
other process's Malloc requirements...) Currently, the text image is freed
as soon as the last process using it exits.
-- 
  -- Howard Chu @ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA

All true wisdom is conveyed in one-line witticisms.
From: Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Computer Magazines
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 00:09:33 PST
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: usa

Actually, I don't think there IS a good "non-specific" computer
magazine left in the marketplace today..
 
The concept sounds good, to support users of ALL kinds of computers
with articles, programs and advertising, but the reality of the
existing market forces some unpleasant realities onto the publishers
of these magazines..

I've gotten Dr. Dobb's Journal since the days when it was printed on
newsprint and featured articles about how to adapt "bargain" keyboards
to your homebrew computer system..  in recent years though, it's
become "just another PC magazine".. the high level of technical
information is still there, but with a different focus.  Flipping
through its pages though, you can see, in its advertising, why that is..

The ads are almost 100% for PC programming tools, libraries, editors,
and all the accompanying utilities.  With a "vote of confidence" for
one particular platform, it's not surprising that the editorial content
of the magazine reflects that PC focus.
 
Even Computer Shopper barely contains anything other than PC advertising,
and they've long since dropped editorial support for much else than
PC computers..
 
It'd be great if some magazine could buck the forces in the marketplace
and just publish whatever it wanted to, but unfortunately it probably
wouldn't last long..

BobR
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
From: ersmith@netcom.com (Eric R. Smith)
Subject: Re: gcc baserel tcsh etc (was Re: Virtual Memory on MultiTos)
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 05:51:51 GMT

In article <1gt7r0INNhrd@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> an375@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jason Baker) writes:
>
>>If the program was compiled so that it doesn't have any absolute
>>references to data (e.g. it uses an address register as a base pointer)
>>then this is possible. However, most programs cannot be so shared,
>>because they do contain absolute references (and thus every copy of
>>the program would share the same data and variables).
>>
>>(gcc can compile shared text programs if it is given the -mbaserel
>>parameter)

>	I was wondering what that meant.  The new mintlib readme metions 
>-mpcrel (or something).  What does this mean; under what conditions will
>gcc generate non-pc-relative code?

-mbaserel means "use a base register for all data", or in other words
"more than one copy of this program may be using the same image
in memory, so don't assume that data always follows the program in
memory". This option is essential for allowing shared text programs;
without it programs use absolute addresses and so each copy of
the program must be loaded and relocated in its entirety
every time.

-mpcrel means "use PC-relative addressing for constant data. e.g.
strings". This results in a small savings in time and space, and
means that constant data can be put into the text segment and
thus shared between multiple invocations of the program (assuming
that -mbaserel was also used).

>  Does the new gcc support both shared 
>and private data in the same program?

Only if the shared data is constant (or at least declared constant).

>	I would also like to bother you about tcsh.  I have version 6.00.02,
>and it doesn't complete dir names.

I don't understand; directory names are completed for me (except at
the beginning of the line).

>  Is 6.02.00 available?

I haven't seen it. If the Unix source is available, porting it to
the ST wouldn't be hard. (Note that I'm not offering to do the
port, I don't have time.)

>  Also, would it 
>be fairly simple to support threading and other options through shell_p?

No.

>And finally, how come tcsh needs such a huge stack?

Because all memory is allocated from the stack; tcsh has a very
silly memory management algorithm that assumes Unix like semantics
for sbrk(), i.e. that all the chunks of memory you allocate are
contiguous.
--
Eric Smith	ersmith@netcom.com	ersmith@atari.uucp
Not an official Atari spokesperson.
From: michael.smith@f842.n800.z3.fido.zeta.org.au (michael smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Closed Architectures Considered Harmful, Take 2 (was Re: Falcon Fut
Organization: Fidonet. Gate admin is fido@socs.uts.edu.au
Date: 11 Dec 92 18:44:10 GMT

Original to: dmb@xbar.ai.mit.edu
In a message of <04 Dec 1992 15:46:2>, dmb@xbar.ai.mit.edu (3:713/602)
writes:

 >> Sooory, software has already been written supporting the Falcon's DSP
chip,
 >>  some of which is packaged with the machine!
 d> 
 d> 1. You've never seen or used this vaporware.

Have & have - and it isn't.

 d> 2. I'm sure that when you buy a DSP board for a PC or Mac that you don't
 d> just get a chunk of hardware and a note that says "Have fun!"  They're
 d> obviously going to give you software to use it.

You wish.  I've seen & played with enough of the available hardware for the
PC and Mac - the usual support is either 'buy package X - they have drivers
for our DSP board' where package X is some monster application which costs
$K (try buying lab software - your great "favorite" Microsoft don't even
consider it a market worth pursuing) and doesn't do anything useful at all. 
If you are _really_ lucky they _might_ give you some precompiled libraries
for talking to the board, if you happen to use their favorite compiler, and
can live with doing all the hard work yourself.

If you are willing to part with even more bucks (and here we are talking
about paying more for the board than a Falcon costs, and then 2 or 3 times
more again) they may tell you how to talk to it...   of the half-dozen or so
manufacturers I canvassed, two were happy with the thought of selling me
data -and support, at typical support rates - trunk call to the US, US
daylight hours only.

NOBODY is going to fork out AUD$1500.00 for a DSP board for a PC...
especially when there isn't any standard implementation, not even one as
cheesy as the SoundFarter.

 d> Dave Baggett

Dave : the DSP is a Good Thing.  It may not be the great selling point that
the hardline loyalists make it out to be, but it is a cheap way of greatly
increasing the system's suitability for niche markets, which still has to be
one of Atari's prime market thrusts.

\`miff`                                                       /|\

--- ScanMail 0.68 X0501
 * Origin: That Which Is Not, ST in SA. 61-8-232-5722 (3:800/842)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
From: church@fraser.sfu.ca (Mike James Church)
Subject: LZH decompressor
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 03:39:42 GMT

2 questions.

1.   Where can I get the LZH file decompression program,

and,

2.   Where can Atari file be found on the net?



Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
From: dcable@nyx.cs.du.edu (Dan Cable)
Subject: Re: SCSI Floppy Drives
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 01:08:47 GMT

Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com writes:

>Umm.. yes, it will be trivially easy to "hook up" a SCSI floppy to
>the Falcon's SCSI port.

>However..  has anyone ever *priced* a SCSI floppy drive..?

>Has anyone even SEEN a SCSI floppy drive for sale..?

Yes, I have seen one. Hooked up to my ST as a matter of fact.
Actually it's a floptical. They are more expensive than a floppy drive,
that's true but you also get a 21mb removable drive too.

>Secondly, a SCSI floppy would have to have a SCSI device driver installed,
>just like a SCSI hard drive.  The desktop is not going to just automatically
>recoginize it as "Drive B"..

The floptical is in fact not seen by the desktop as a floppy. The icon for
the drive remains the same whether you are using a floppy or the 21mb disk
and does indeed have to be installed.

>Would something like ICD's utilities for the Link work with a SCSI floppy?
>Maybe..    does ICD sell their Link utilities separately..?
>Will AHDI 5.0 work with SCSI floppy drives..?  If not, will Atari think it
>much of a priority to modify it to work with them..?  Perhaps the Falcon
>will have to come with a new set of hard drive utilities to work with the
>internal IDE hard drive anyway, and maybe those will also work with an
>external SCSI floppy drive..   does anyone who already have a Falcon
>know if that's true or not..?

Atari says they have AHDI 5.0 drivers for the floptical. I realize that
this drive is not really a floppy drive, but it is SCSI and it does read
and write them so what's the difference? (other than the fact that it
won't format them from the desktop or accept a diskcopy)
--
dcable@nyx.cs.du.edu
From: boblu@tekgen.bv.tek.com (Robert Luneski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Piracy of software
Keywords: Theft
Date: 15 Dec 92 21:15:26 GMT
Organization: Tektronix, Inc.

In article <BzB7yM.9u0@ccu.umanitoba.ca> ens@ccu.umanitoba.ca writes:
>Software piracy is decidedly a grey area. Tom is far too poor

Bull. There is nothing "grey" about software piracy.  Piracy is a euphamism
for theft. If you use software that you have not legally obtained a license
for use then you have stolen it. Period. Nothing grey about it!

>I have seen this scenario play out many times. It's illegal, yes.
>But as bad as stealing 6 TVs? Get serious.

You tell that to my son when I can't buy him shoes because software sales are
down and then I get calls for product support from three times the number of
users than can be accounted for by legal sales.  You would be surprised how
many unique stories people come up with for why they don't know there
registration number AND never sent in their card AND can't find their manual 
AND lost their orginal disk.

It happens, it's real, it's illegal, and it is killing ST developers.

>
>Werner
 ____                                                                   ____
/\/\/\  Bob Luneski   Diamond Back II, Diamond Edge, and UVK Support:  /\/\/\
\/\/\/  Oregon Research Associates            boblu@tekgen.bv.tek.com  \/\/\/
 \/\/   16200 S.W. Pacific Hwy., Suite 162    Genie: ORA.TECH           \/\/
  \/    Tigard, OR 97224   Phone: (503) 620-4919  FAX: (503) 639-6182    \/


Xref: sparky comp.sys.atari.st:18236 comp.sys.atari.st.tech:6220
From: Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Subject: Re: Surely someone knows...
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 92 23:54:03 PST
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: world

Stephen Matson asked about expanding the memory in a 520STFM..
 
The first step is to unsolder all 320 holes that Atari conveniently
soldered shut for you..
 
Then, for safety's sake, install sockets in all RAM locations.

The bypass capacitors aren't particularly critical.. use small
form factor .01 mfd units to make them fit..

The RAM chips are 256K x 1, 150 ns units.  You can install faster chips
if can get them cheaper..
 
The last step is to install three resistors in the RAS and CAS lines
from the MMU chip to the new RAM bank.  I forget the exact values of
these resistors (don't have a 520STFM myself), but they're in the range
of 150 ohms.  There should already be three resistors going to the
existing bank of RAM.. check to see what these resistors are, and
emulate them in the new installation.
 
That should be it.. the operating system will recognize the new RAM
automatically.. you don't have to do anything special to get it to
see the full 1 Meg of memory..
 
Lastly.. enjoy..!   (You'll love the new freedom of all that memory..!)

BobR