Major news of course comes from Atari whose new
products are detailed elsewhere in this issue. Meanwhile there are
strong rumours that a number of 'bargain' packages will be available
from Atari built around the 800XL. Unfortunately we were unable to
secure any details at the time of going to press but if you are thinking
of upgrading get in touch with your dealer. It may well be worth it.
English Software who have been very quiet since last
summer are to release Colossus Chess 3.0 on 48k cassette or disk. It is
the first chess program written in the U.K. for the Atari and has been
programmed by Martin Bryant, one of Britain's foremost computer chess
programmers. Also available will be Smash hits volumes 1 - 3 at £14.95
on cassette or £17.95 on disk. Each pack contains five titles and, even
though Jet Boot Jack is included in each pack, they represent incredible
value for money.
Revision C basic is now available in the U.K. Although
released by Atari it is available only through Silicon Chip Ltd. 302,
High Street, Slough, Berks or Software Express, 31, Stoneyhurst Road,
Erdington, Birmingham, B24 8HA. Plug one in your 400/800 or XL and cure
all known ills! Price is £9.99 plus £1.50 post and packing.
Reports from America say that none of the major
software producers have written anything for the Atari in the last six
months. They are watching and waiting. The future is firmly in Atari's
hands.
LONG JOHN SILVER's LAST STAND? By now a Private
Members Bill sponsored by the Federation Against Software Theft should
be receiving its final reading and is expected to become law. This Bill
makes it a criminal offence to distribute or import software on which
someone else has copyright. Penalties proposed are an unlimited fine or
two years imprisonment. In addition it will be illegal to sell, exhibit
or possess such software. Penalties would be up to £2000 fine or two
months imprisonment. So far software companies have not taken action as
a civil case would cost more than was being gained but, if this Bill
becomes law, all that a company needs to do is get someone to hire a
program from one of the less reputable hire libraries, or buy one
through the small ads, and if it is a copy just pass it to the Police
and sit back. Watch the papers , the next time you find yourself with a
copy of a program you could well be committing a criminal offence.
____________
FLIGHT OF THE SWAN. The disk version as listed
will only work with DOS 2.0. Remedy is to replace all reference to 15000
in lines 20, 1100 and 1117 with 1790.
MUSIC MAKER from issue 13 will not run in 16k.
Oops... sorry!
____________
GANGSTERS
We received several calls saying that Gangsters would
not run on the 600XL or the 800XL despite TYPO showing a correct table.
It does run on the XL series, it was written on an 800XL.
Investigation reveals that there may well be a number of XLs with faulty
BASIC. Robert Katz of Atari proved very helpful in trying to pinpoint
the fault but was unable to recreate the problem which lies in the
corruption of the variable name/statement pointers when CSAVEing.
Revision B Basic is said to be the culprit although the machine used for
writing the program had Revision B. Revision C basic should cure it by
doing the following.
I . CLOAD or LOAD the listing.
2. LIST the file to cassette or disk with LIST "C:" or LIST
"D: filename".
3. Switch off, insert Rev. C cartridge and power up.
4. ENTER the listing with ENTER "C:" or ENTER "D:filename".
5. Resave using CSAVE or SAVE.
If that does not work you could always type it in
again with Rev. C in place. If it still does not work (having checked
with TYPO) then your machine must be faulty.
NOTE: Before parting with your cash for a Revision
C BASIC, check that you don't already have one!. Type PRINT PEEK(49145)
and press RETURN. If you get 96 you have Rev. A, 114 means Rev. B and 0
means that Rev. C is already in place.
top
