______________________________________ ZMAGAZINE 90 January 25, 1988 ______________________________________ Editor......................Ron Kovacs Circulation Assistant.....Ken Kirchner Circulation Assistant......

Tony Santos ______________________________________ (C)1988 Syndicate Publishing Company ______________________________________ Regional ZMagazine Headquarters XBN BBS..................(617)559-6844 JACG BBS.................(201)298-0161 MOUSE BBS................(219)674-9288 PANDORA BBS..............(614)471-9209 EBBBS....................(201)247-8252 WONDERFUL WORLD OF OZ....(808)423-3140 MACH BBS.................(207)784-0631 STARBASE I...............(201)938-6906 RATCOM BBS...............(301)437-9813 ______________________________________ Xx INDEX 90 ______________________________________ Editors Desk................Ron Kovacs Analog Confrence................Delphi News Station Command Guide............ ANSI Screen Codes..........Robert Ames ATARI8 Zmag Directory.......Ron Kovacs Programing in Basic......Jackson Beebe Atari News Update................Antic Software Review GACCRR..Lawrence Estep MTOS Documentation Info.......Tom Hunt ______________________________________ Xx EDITORS DESK ______________________________________ Well, things are progressing slowly since the system crash of a week ago. The word is spreading around and I hope everyone is still getting ZMag without any problems. As stated last week, you can call XBN BBS if you were on the ZMag BBS and continue with your access without a delay or wait for validation. ST-Report is a bit behind in circulation due to some personnel problems. We have made arrangements with ST Xpress Magazine to publish ST-Report on disk and through GEnie. I will keep you all updated on our status. If you have any text submissions you are interested in publishing, Please upload them to XBN or Starbase I systems. I will be calling these systems regularly. This publication will begin a slow

change during the weeks ahead. So, keep reading and watch. On the homefront, Kovacs child number 2 is still refusing to appear, however, it has positioned itself for a soon arrival. I stay with my prediction of 2-3/2-10...(you probably dont care, but it will be of interest to me....) Hmmmmmm Thanks for reading and for all the messages about supporting us. ______________________________________ Xx ANALOG CONFRENCE ______________________________________ Re-edited for ZMAG by Ron Kovacs TEXT OF CONFERENCE ON DELPHI REGARDING ANALOG BUYOUT JANUARY 17, 1988 Andy> I'd, first, like to welcome all of you attending this conference. My name is Andy Eddy and I'll be moderating the CO. Lee> First, ANALOG has signed contracts with a publishing company in LA. That company is LFP, Inc....Larry Flynt Publishing. We expect to have the next issues of both mags out in 3 weeks. Let me give a few words about the changes...First...Larry Flynt has little to do with daily operations of the company...as a whole. He will have nothing to do with the editorial contents of either magazine. Changes you will see include new (glossy) paper, a heavier stock inside as well as a heavier cover. More color pages thoughout, INCREASED distibution, Much improved service, and a steady frequency. What you won't see is ads for Hustler and the like. LFP, Inc. also publishes a Mens fashion mag, a running mag, a new automobile mag, a motorcycle pub and a Heavy Metal mag. With many more nonpornography titles on the way. Andy> Thanks, Lee. So the fears..that this will be anything like..Hustler will not materialize. This will remain the same Analog as before..but with some changes in the -productionend..not the editorial.

Lee> OK. There WILL be changes.. Because I won't have to deal with such things (as much, anyway) as distribution...subscription problems, and production, I can spend more time on editorial...that goes for Clayton as well. Andy> So you don't see anything but beneficial changes for the mags? Lee> Actually, let me say this...the only way someone will know we are owned by another company is a small blurb on the staff page. As far as changes go, I expect an even more steady stream of quality editorial since it will be the main direction of our time working on the mags. Maurice M.> Okay. I want to get this subject out of the way now especially in light of recent messages in the forum. Certain people have hinted that there will be changes in the magazine because of whom the ownership is. The point, I think has been refuted. However, DF Scott has in recent messages hinted that several of us writers were in a -dillema- over the ownership change and might no longer write for ANALOG. I would like to put to rest any fears readers might have about mass-defection of writers by asking you, Lee, if you are aware of any other regulars -leaving- because of this ownership change. Lee> No, not at this time. Let me respond to your comments. While I don't whole heartedly agree with Larry Flynts views. I am looking at what that company can do for our magazines. They don't know ANYTHING about what we publish, they (LFP, Inc) are leaving us alone in what we do. To them profit is what they want, editorial content is 100% up to what we do. They'll make the magazine look better, distribute it better, and put out a quality looking product, it's still up to me, Clayton, Maurice, Charles Johnson, Andy Eddy, MAtRat and the rest to put out a good magazine in product. To answer Maurice's question, other than Scott, no one has more than batted an eyelash over the buyout in terms of who it is. After the intial shock wheres off on the buyer's name, they settled in and want to get back to

work. Maurice M.> Good to hear. I simply wanted to address the subject because I wanted people to be aware that Scott didn't speak for all of us. I'll step down now. Lee> Last Monday is when Michael Des Chenes and I signed. We are waiting to get them back from LA now then it will be official. Clay> Anyone who is interested in the terms of publication and how to submit articles may send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope and I'll see that you get our writer's guidelines. You can send requests to the PO Box 23 address in the magazines for now. Andy> Also with Analog's liberal policy of letting programs go onto BBS's after 1 month from issue date (that is right?), everyone gets to see the stuff they publish. Clay> Yes, Andy. Mike Brown> Will we be able to get back issues of both magazines and disks as in the past? Or will these -Classic- issues become collectors items? Lee> Yes! LFP, Inc is purchasing our entire supply of back issues. Including disks, 8-bit Extra's and so on. We expect to offer disks at a lower price and the availability should be MUCH better. JIMGAR> Thanks. My burning question is WHY???? Wasn't Analog a profitable venture? Lee> WHY is a complex answer. First WHY NOT? ANALOG was myself and a partner, Michael Des Chenes. As you may have noticed, Michael never spent much time on Delphi and while I have gone to over 100 Atari shows and ComDex's, etc., he has not. Michael has been bored doing the same thing for 7 years and wants to try something new. In addition, I couldn't see the company growing much further the way things have been, so this gives us a chance to expand greatly....plus I'll

be working on new publications, both computer and non-computer related in the next few years. Also, LFP, Inc. offered us a very good deal...and who really knows how long Atari will keep going. This way I can expand on my interests and do other things along with the Atari field -after all, I have been doing the for 7 years. A long time! JIMGAR> In other words, the whole thing got out of hand? Clay> A company can only grow within the facilities it has at hand. Lee> Right...We needed to expand, and as do airlines, insurance companies and so on. We were bought out to expand our capabilities. WHITEWIZARD> you said that the analog depends on the 8-bit...Does this mean that you might stop publishing in the future if the 8-bit fails (ANALOG, not ST-Log)? Lee> ANALOG depends on the 8-bit market ...Lets say that advertising right now isn't overwhelming and ANALOG would most likly take a new heading (orientation) in the event 8-bits REALLY dwindle. I could see a change happening probably this year some time... WHITEWIZARD> Would you combine ANALOG and ST-Log agian? Lee> Again, it is mostly up to the ANALOG staff, not LFP, Inc. Yes, I could see us doing one mag--but here is the problem. The ANALOG name is the best known, if we put in ST-Log then the mag becomes a general Atari mag again. If we kill ANALOG and continue ST-Log...well ANALOG has the more known name and that would be a mistake. Chances are ST-Log might have some 8-bit coverage...but that is all up in the air right now. When we are in place after a couple months we'll look at the whole picture. MADMODIFIER> With many software publishers spreading out to the Amiga..... Is there any chance that Analog might do the same?

Lee> I have plans to do another computer oriented mag but can't say much (exactlly nothing) about it. MADMODIFIER> You mean we might see AMIGA LOG <grin>? Lee> No Comment. But I hope to have a new project out in late Spring. Mike Brown> I would like to suggest that you run some type of a readership poll in your first new issue to determine what your readership looks like now. Lee> Huh...in what way? Between ST and 8-bit? Mike Brown> Well I imagine that the complexion of the readership has changed somewhat. It might be worthwhile from a marketing standpoint. Lee> You mean between 8-bit and ST??? Sophistication? Mike Brown> Well that and just what people are interested in reading about. What their needs are -today-. Lee> We have the -bingo- cards in the mag every month and poll those to see what people are using...however we have talked about doing another mailin campaign...a more in-depth look. Remember that Delphi users are more into their machines than many other average users. Mike Brown> Maybe, but I guess my point was that at least in the 3 user groups I belong to things are in a state of -change-. STeve M.> What direction will ST Log be taking in terms of content? General readership, programming, or what? Clay> I can't see much that will change in ST-Log. Is there something you WANT to see changed? STeve M.> No, just was hoping there were not going to be any drastic changes now. Thanks.

Lee> I feel we have a good balance of information, sophistication and programs. I think Clayton, myself and our new west coast person will have more time to look at each issue well in advance and look at it's contents to see what blend of information it has...thus boosting the magazines quality...(not that it needs boosting <grin>) in addition, hopefully we'll add more pages too. Clay> The combination we've had in the past has worked out well, I think. I don't see any reason to change it. (More pages would be nice.) Lee> No, I certainly haven't seen any complaints about the balance of material. Keep in mind that I'm moving from New England (fresh air, no traffic, nice scenary) to LA (smog, Lots of Traffic and more smog) for the CAUSE. In other words...If I didn't see a tremendous potential in this I would do it! [Ed. Please read ST-Report 19 for the complete discussion] ______________________________________ Xx NEWS STATION COMMAND SUMMARY ______________________________________ DIRECTORIES Control-B Directory and loading of Print Shop Icons Control-D Directory and loading of Pictures (.PIC) Control-F Directory and loading of Fonts (.FNT) Control-R Directory and Loading of Plates (.NST) Note-For all directories except PRINT SHOP, RETURN selects middle item and ESCAPE aborts. DISK FUNCTIONS Control-X Control-S FONTS Format a disk Save a plate

Control-A Control-I Inverse Key Control-F Control-U MODE Control-T Control-G PRINT SHOP

Atari Font Inverse Text Graphics Characters Font Load (Arrows select-RETURN loads center font) Activate Loaded Font

Text Mode Graphics Mode

Control-B Directory and Loading of Print Shop Icons. Arrows select. RETURN loads the LEFT icon. ESCAPE aborts choice. Set size (1-3) by width command (Control-W) SPACING Control-P Moves cursor up one line for intermediate spacing Control-semicolon Moves cursor down one line for intermediate spacing Control-W Control-H Control-L Control-M OTHER Control-C Escape Control-V Control-J Control-K Control-P Color (1=draw, 0=erase) Toggles between THE PRESS and the EDITOR Load short ASCII text file (.TXT) Use Joystick with Graphics Mode Use Koala Pad for Graphics Mode Plot a point of either color Set Width Set Height Line Spacing for text mode Sets left margin

SHIFT-CLEAR Erases page ______________________________________ Xx OASIS BBS HELP ....ANSI Screen Codes.... ______________________________________ Captured from the XBN BBS

|<<<<[XBN]| | Msg. # |0069 | Sent To |All 01/20/88 | Post By |ROBERT AMES | Subject |ANSI screen codes If you have many IBM callers, you'll be interested in using the ANSI codes for SFUNCT.SUP. Here are someassuming I can upload to msg base OK. ESC[#,#H -- moves cursor to #,# ESC[#C -- Moves cursor # places forward ESC[#D -- moves # places back ESC[s -- save cursor pos. ESC[u -- restore cursor pos. ESC[2J -- erase display ESC[K -- erase from current col to end of line. ESC[#;...;#m -- set mode: where # is: 0 -- normal 1 bold 4 underline (ibm monochrome only) 5 blink on 7 inverse 8 invisible 30 black forground 31 red for. 32 green for. 33 yellow for. 34 blue for. 35 magenta for. 36 cyan for. 37 whtie for. 40 black background. |[+-NPRAEDQMV?]| ______________________________________ Xx COMPUSERVE'S ZMAG DIRECTORY ______________________________________ by Ron Kovacs The following text is the current ZMAG directory in the ATARI8 SIG on CompuServe. The reason for the listing is to help the readers there find specific article reprints and Zmag issues, and perhaps help you locate some of the older editions. Filename Upload Date Bytes -------------------------------------65XE.TXT 13-Sep-87 15374 COLE.TXT 22-Sep-87 7208 COMDEX.TXT 04-Nov-87 2870 FCCLTR.TXT 08-Aug-87 12648 FCCPRO.TXT 08-Aug-87 39872 PCP.TXT 22-Sep-87 3807

SPACE.TXT SUPORT.TXT SX212.TXT XEGAME.TXT XEP80.TXT Z4880.TXT Z87IDX.TXT ZIDX2.TXT ZINDX.TXT ZJUN6.ARC/bin ZMAG03.TXT ZMAG09.TXT ZMAG31.TXT ZMAG32.TXT ZMAG34.TXT ZMAG35.TXT ZMAG36.TXT ZMAG37.TXT ZMAG38.TXT ZMAG39.TXT ZMAG40.TXT ZMAG41.TXT ZMAG42.TXT ZMAG43.TXT ZMAG47.TXT ZMAG48.TXT ZMAG49.TXT ZMAG5.TXT ZMAG50.TXT ZMAG51.TXT ZMAG52.TXT ZMAG53.TXT ZMAG54.TXT ZMAG55.TXT ZMAG56.TXT ZMAG57.TXT ZMAG58.TXT ZMAG59.TXT ZMAG6.TXT ZMAG60.TXT ZMAG61.TXT ZMAG62.TXT ZMAG63.TXT ZMAG64.TXT ZMAG65.TXT ZMAG66.TXT ZMAG67.TXT ZMAG68.TXT ZMAG69.TXT ZMAG70.TXT ZMAG71.TXT ZMAG72.TXT ZMAG73.TXT ZMAG74.TXT ZMAG75.TXT ZMAG76.TXT ZMAG77.TXT ZMAG78.TXT ZMAG79.TXT ZMAG80.TXT

21-Sep-87 06-Dec-87 14-Sep-87 06-Dec-87 21-Sep-87 19-Apr-87 16-Jan-88 29-Sep-87 08-Jun-87 09-Jun-87 26-Jun-87 26-Jun-87 21-May-87 23-May-87 30-May-87 30-May-87 30-May-87 30-May-87 31-May-87 09-Jun-87 09-Jun-87 09-Jun-87 09-Jun-87 11-Jun-87 26-Jun-87 19-Apr-87 31-May-87 06-Jun-87 08-May-87 11-May-87 20-May-87 22-May-87 01-Jun-87 05-Jun-87 07-Jun-87 13-Jun-87 21-Jun-87 12-Jul-87 06-Jun-87 05-Jul-87 11-Jul-87 17-Jul-87 25-Jul-87 31-Jul-87 07-Aug-87 14-Aug-87 21-Aug-87 29-Aug-87 04-Sep-87 12-Sep-87 18-Sep-87 25-Sep-87 02-Oct-87 09-Oct-87 16-Oct-87 23-Oct-87 31-Oct-87 06-Nov-87 14-Nov-87 20-Nov-87

6178 3753 1430 8676 1445 19900 25686 8593 1932 11520 21836 23349 36801 17886 24402 25516 25371 25731 27493 25283 31079 22861 24957 33087 22568 20763 21401 16991 21831 20872 32292 23322 31249 30701 23454 30100 23254 28906 30029 29551 23325 23140 22114 31996 28174 33491 30111 20976 28973 23269 21530 25794 21240 26327 32832 30866 30931 31485 39422 28185

ZMAG81.TXT 28-Nov-87 19636 ZMAG82.TXT 05-Dec-87 18143 ZMAG83.TXT 11-Dec-87 35110 ZMAG84.TXT 18-Dec-87 27800 ZMAG85.TXT 22-Dec-87 36674 ZMAG86.XMO/bin 30-Dec-87 49024 ZMAG87.TXT 31-Dec-87 30456 ZMAG88.TXT 11-Jan-88 40299 ZMAG89.TXT 18-Jan-88 42237 ZMAGFC.TXT 23-Aug-87 20731 ZMAGIN.TXT 15-May-87 9459 ZMR19.86 06-Jun-87 21644 CHGO.MAG/bin O4-Nov-86 23552 CHGO.ZMA/bin 16-Oct-86 22656 CHICAG.MAG/bin 03-Oct-86 24576 CHICGO.ZMG/bin 19-Sep-86 10368 ZMAG11.NOV 23-Nov-86 19775 ZMAG12.XMO/bin 18-Dec-86 14592 ______________________________________ Xx LEARNING TO PROGRAM IN ATARI BASIC ...Part 4 of a continuing series... ______________________________________ LESSON 2 Version 1.03 Variables, Reading data, Input, Math (C) COPYRIGHT 1986 by Jackson Beebe This is Part 4 Lesson 2 of Learning to program in Atari BASIC, brought to you by Jackson Beebe. Contact me at the address at the end of the lesson. -----------------------------------FEEDBACK: -----------------------------------Since Lesson 1, I have received inquiries about what Disk Operating System (DOS) I am using. I am writing for Atari DOS 2.0s/2.5, as everyone with an Atari has, or has access to this DOS. Other DOS's allow variable names beginning with #'s, and other features. More discussion of DOS in later lessons. -----------------------------------VARIABLES: -----------------------------------Two common ways of using numbers in programs, are to use them as CONSTANTS, or in VARIABLES. When you simply use a number like 3, that's a CONSTANT, because it's just and always 3. It doesn't change. VARIABLES can hold different numbers or letters at different times in a program. For example, a payroll program, could use the variables EMPLOYEE$, RATE, HOURS, and SALARY. These would hold new data each time they calculated an employee's salary.

There are two kinds of variables. 1. Numeric Variables (numbers) 2. String Variables (letters) Numeric variable names must start with a letter, and may contain up to eight uppercase letters or numbers (alphanumeric data.) No spaces are allowed. As a general rule, you should keep variable names short, but use names that suggest what they do. For example to set up a numeric variable to hold Fahrenheit temperature in a conversion program, you could call it FAHREN, FTEMP, F, etc. String variables hold letters, or words, sentences, etc. They must begin with a letter, and end in a dollar sign, as NAME$. A quirk of Atari BASIC requires that string variables be dimensioned before use. This is done with the DIM statement followed by the variable name, and the maximum length the computer should reserve storage for. For example: 10 DIM NAME$(20) This reserves storage for a name of up to 20 characters in length. If you typed 25 letters for input, it would only read 20. If you forget, you'll get an error message when you try and use a string variable you haven't dimensioned. More than one variable may be dimensioned by separating variable names with commas. For example: 10 DIM ADDR$(20),CITY$(20),STATE$(2) -----------------------------------LET STATEMENT: -----------------------------------The LET statement, assigns something to a variable. It could set X = 0, or NAME$ = Jack. The official form of the LET statement goes like this: 10 LET X=0 20 LET NUMBER=1024

30 LET TOTAL=NUMBER 40 DIM NAME$(25) 50 LET NAME$=-George Washingtonetc The way this ASSIGNMENT statement works, is that it looks for a variable name on the left of the equals sign. It will take what's on THE RIGHT, and put it into the variable on THE LEFT. Got that? It loads from the right, into the left. 10 X=256 (sets X equal to 256) 20 25 = SUM (*** WON'T WORK ***) 20 SUM = 25 (this is correct) 30 SUM = X (now SUM = 256) It happens that you don't need to put the word LET in there for it to work (how handy), and in fact it is nearly poor practice to do so. The 'hip' way to do it is: 10 20 30 40 50 X=0 NUMBER=1024 TOTAL=NUMBER DIM NAME$(25) NAME$=-George Washington-

We will use LET statements in EVERY program we write, but outside this lesson, probably never use the word LET again! Interesting tidbit. We'll see more examples as we progress. Note that spaces between variables, the equal sign, and constants, in the LET statement are optional. Atari BASIC is loose about this. Spread it out if it looks more readable to you, or eliminate spaces when you're running out of room in a 100+ character line. BASIC already has RESERVED WORDS that cannot be chosen for variable names. For instance, PRINT, STOP, END, SIN, COS, TAN, RND, INT, and others cannot be used for your variable names, as the computer already uses those words to call built-in functions. Remember to check for this in programs you just can't seem to de-bug. Next week Part 5 ______________________________________

Xx Atari News Update ______________________________________ ANTIC PUBLISHING INC., COPYRIGHT 1988 REPRINTED BY PERMISSION. ATARI GETS TOUGH ON TV BY Gregg Pearlman, ASSISTANT EDITOR In the wake of a Christmas season in which Atari Corp.'s video game sales were more than twice those of the same period last year, Atari plans to keep the ball rolling by launching a major first-quarter national television advertising campaign featuring six new commercials, according to Michael Katz, president of Atari's electronics division. The commercials will be aired in the top 30 markets in children's and prime-time viewing hours and will include syndicated and cable programming. Katz said that first-quarter spending will be comparable to what Atari spent in the fourth quarter of 1987 when the company sold out of two of its three game systems, the new XE Game System and the older 7800. The new Atari 2600 commercial, like the previous one, uses rap music while heavily promoting the new games available for the 2600. The new XE commercials include a testimonial/ endorsement commercial presented by the presidents of four computer game companies; a commercial comparing Atari's baseball game with Nintendo's; and three more promoting the range of new games for the XE. Atari also announced new playable, self-running point-of-sale display units for the 7800 and XE systems, available at no charge to retailers. ATARI PC: MYTH OR FICTION? January 6, 1988 --I'm sure that I will never see-Atari's duplicate PC...- That song's been sung for months. There's been little evidence of the IBM clone Atari started showing a year ago. But according to a classified advertisement in the San Jose Mercury

News, Atari is seeking a -Production Development/Sustaining Engineer for our growing line of PS2/PCAT/PCXT systems.So keep on your toes -- it may not be far away after all. ATARI NABS COUNTERFEITERS December 17, 1987 Agents of the U.S. Customs and U.S. Marshals Services seized 2,000 counterfeits of Atari's 2600 video game system at Terminal Island in the Port of Los Angeles on December 17. The imitations were manufactured by Fund International Co., Ltd., of Taiwan, and distributed in the United States by P.S.D. Inc. of Canoga Park, California. VIRTUSONICS LICENSING AGREEMENT December 16, 1987 Virtusonics Corp., creators of the Desktop Performance Studio, has entered a development and licensing agreement with 2nd Mate Systems, a marine navigation software systems company, to adapt and interface its Virtuoso software technology with 2nd Mate's computerized marine navigational systems. Boaters will now be able to plot their courses and positions on computerized charts using computers (such as an 8-bit Atari) and a monitor or television. A review of the Desktop Performance Studio and an in-depth article about Virtusonics and the Virtuoso Software technology will appear in the April, 1988 issue of Antic. ATARI WINS SHOOTOUT VS. NINTENDO December 15, 1987 A U.S. District Court Judge denied the request of Nintendo of America to halt Atari Corp.'s television commercials that said that more games could be played on the Atari XE Game System than on the Nintendo, according to Reuters. Nintendo had contended that the ads were false and misleading, but Atari

was -confident of the outcome,according to Michael Katz, Atari's president of entertainment electronics. -The commercial was hard -hitting but truthful, and we proved it,- he said. The XE Game System runs all cartridge -based Atari games, and a disk drive can be added to run all disk-based Atari games. ______________________________________ Xx REVIEW GREAT AMERICAN CROSS-COUNTRY ROAD RACE ______________________________________ BY LAWRENCE R. ESTEP Activision has produced many great programs in the past few years,and this review is of one of them. This piece of software is one of many classics from Activision software. If you love a good challenge, then you'll love this game! The object is to race from a city on the West Coast to a city on the East Coast in a time that will place you among the top contenders. You can also race in smaller races, from one state to another nearby state to gear up for the final challenge. However, in all races you have to be ready for unexpected problems, such as road construction, inclement weather, and of course the dreaded radar-detector and speed traps! This game is unlike most, as this one is always a challenge,no matter how many times you play it. There is always a new group of racers to compete with, and always a new problem that comes up! This is one of the best racing programs I've ever seen! The graphics are great, and the competition is thrilling! Check out this fine program from Activision, and continue supporting this company, so they can bring us more programs like this for years to come! ______________________________________ Xx MTOS ______________________________________ by Tom Hunt

MTOS (C) 1988 SAMPLER MTOS is a revolutionary new operating system system shell for Atari 8-bit computers with 256k(+) of internal memory. This text is from the MTOS sample with some of it's most important features installed. The features of this sampler are as follows. ALLOWS MULTITASKING OF 2 BASIC USER PROGRAMS ATARI DOS 2.5 COMPATABLE SUPPORTS GRAPHICS MODES 0-6 GETTING STARTED WITH THE MTOS SAMPLER Copy MTOS.COM onto an Atari dos 2.5 disk that does not have any RAMDISK.COM on it. When this is done, turn off the computer for a few seconds, and turn it back on, with the disk you just created in D1: drive. Boot without holding down the option key (basic enabled). It is suggested that RAMDISK.COM is not on the dos boot disk, since MTOS uses the extended banks, and any files in your ramdisk might get corrupted. Type -DOS- from basic's -READY- prompt. When you get to the DUP.SYS menu, type -L- for binary load. At the next prompt (for the filename,) type -MTOS.COM-. After MTOS is done loading, you should be looking at the Executor (aka Exec, task-manager) screen. You can now initialize 2 user tasks, which in this sampler, is limited to basic. To attach (view) a task, choose the -view- option, choosing from the list of active tasks. Limit your viewing to tasks 1 thru 2, since tasks 3 thru 6 are non-existant in this sampler version. If you followed the above instructions, you should be looking at basic's familiar -READY- prompt. To detach from a task, just plug your joystick in to the second joystick port, and press the button. You will automatically reattach to Exec. MTOS stands for M.ulti-T.asking O.perating S.ystem. It is more properly called a shell, since it

works with your dos and the Atari o.s. rom. It offers the Atari 8-bit owner a new dimension of computer enjoymentthe ability to run more than one program at one time. I have designed MTOS to place as few constraints on people wanting to write programs that will run under MTOS as possible. There are a few constraints, however. Your programs simply have to be -well behaved- in that they can't indescriminately go poking around in memory, since our CPU doesn't support protected modes. In other words, don't expect your boot games to run under M.T.O.S. User programs are limited to 16k. Here are the features supported by the full-blown version of MTOS, which can be purchased from the address given at the end of this file. PREEMPTIVE MULTITASKING ALLOWS MULTITASKING OF 6 TASKS (5 DEFINED BY THE USER) (LIMITED) SUPPORT OF SPARTA DOSBATCH FILES BINARY LOAD BINARY LOAD FROM THE EXECUTOR SUPPORTS INTERMIXED BINARY AND BASIC PROGRAMS SUPPORTS LOCALIZED CUSTOM CHARACTER SETS SUPPORTS LOCALIZED SCREEN COLOR VARIABLES SUPPORTS THE ABILITY TO CHANGE TASK PRIORITY FROM THE EXEC LEVEL EXTENSIVE DOCUMENTATION THAT ALLOWS THE MTOS PROGRAMMER ACCESS TO SYSTEM VARIABLES PRIORITY SCHEDULING SAMPLE BASIC PROGRAMS PAGE 6 OF MEMORY UP FOR GRABS FOR USER PROGRAMS HIERARCHICAL FILE SYSTEM (ALLOWS FOR SIMULTANEOUS FILE ACCESS) 100% MACHINE LANGUAGE MINIMAL SYSTEM OVERHEAD COMMAND PROCESSOR

PAGES 0-5 OF MEMORY AVAILABLE TO M.L. PROGRAMMERS FOR EACH TASK There is a support BBS for registered owners of MTOS, where upgrades, *patches, and end user application programs will be made available. Technical questions from registered users will be answered within 48 hours on the BBS. We intend to enhance MTOS nd support it's users. PROJECTED ENHANCEMENTS TO MTOS A TOOLKIT FOR MTOS APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERTASK COMMUNICATION (WITH TASKS APPEARING AS FILES TO EACH OTHER) MTOS FILE SERVER SUPPORT OF HI RES GRAPHIC MODES SUPPORT FOR THE 128K 130XE NEW PRODUCTS A SWITCHER THAT ALLOWS3 VIRTUAL COMPUTER SYSTEMS TO RESIDE IN MEMORY AT ONE TIME (256K+). EACH OF WHICH CAN BE CONFIGURED FOR A DIFFERENT DOS. EACH IS A -SNAPSHOT- OF SYSTEM MEMORY/CONFIGURATION, INSTANTANEOUSLY SWITCHABLE WITH A SHIFT-CONTROL KEY COMBINATION. MTOS version 1.1 is now avalable for a special introductory price of $15.00 which is current until March 1988. MTOS ver.1.1 can be ordered by sending $15.00 in check or money order to: * DATAQUE 3308 PARK AVE. W. P.O.BOX 134 ONTARIO, OH 44862 ______________________________________ Zmagazine Issue #90 January 25, 1988 (c)1988 Syndicate Publishing Company ______________________________________