Atari/Atari Games VaxMail 1987 Jed Margolin ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::RAINS 2-JAN-1987 10:27:26.19 To: @sys$mail:engineer CC: Subj: Computer Health Note #3 VAX-edrin Headache #3 You've been poking around somewhere in another directory (something like SYS$USERDISK:[FRED.STUFF.MORESTUFF.EVENMORESTUFF]) and now you have found something you want to get back to or reference with out so much directory name baggage. Sure, it doesn't happen often, but when it does, what a pain! Well, take the recommended dose of the new and improved Name Directory command (ND for short). ND allows you to give the current directory an easy to remember (and easy to type) logical name by simply saying: $ ND EASYNAME Now you can refer to the file you are interested in by referencing EASYNAME:FILENAME, or you can go to other directories and come back with a GOSUB EASYNAME. You can use the DEASSIGN command to free up any logical names you have created with ND. These temporary logical names automatically go away when you log out. You create this complex command by putting the following symbol definition in your LOGIN.COM file: $ ND :== ASSIGN 'F$ENV("DEFAULT") One small caveat, though. The use of logical names has a certain downside because the system will translate them even when you don't mean to. I would not suggest naming a directory with the same name as a command. So names like MAIL are probably not a good idea (although MAILDIR should be fine). ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::RAINS 2-JAN-1987 10:49:15.06 To: @sys$mail:engineer CC: Subj: Computer Health Note #4 VAX-edrin Headache #4 So you say that you send a lot of mail to JUNK and ENGINEER, and you're tired of waiting forever for the DCL prompt to come back?? Well what you need is a command that will spawn off at separate task to send the mail and leave you free to do other things. Just so happens, I have this one already bottled and called POST. First, you edit your mail message with a standard editor (EDT, TPU, VI, etc.) and then you issue the command: $ POST MESSAGE.TXT "@SYS$MAIL:JUNK"/SUBJ="Blah, Blah, Blah..." After a few seconds, you'll get a spawn message and your DCL prompt will return. You will be informed when the posting is complete, but you won't have to wait for it before you go on to other things. To use POST, you need the following symbol definition in your LOGIN.COM: $ POST :== SPAWN/NOWAIT/INPUT=NL:/NOTIFY MAIL WARNING: WHEN YOU LOG OUT WITH SPAWNED SUBPROCESSES ACTIVE, YOU KILL THE SUBPROCESSES. SO IF YOU LOG OUT WHILE POST IS STILL RUNNING, NOT ALL THE MAIL WILL GET DELIVERED. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::RAINS 2-JAN-1987 17:29:51.46 To: @sys$mail:engineer CC: Subj: Computer Health Note #3 Revisited VAX-edrin Headache #3 Revisited: Untested Code If you tried using ND (Name Directory), you probably found it doesn't work. The logical name gets set to your home directory. I had originally implemented this command as a .COM file and it worked. The translation into a simple symbol assignment doesn't (at least not the way I did it). What WILL work is to create a file called ND.COM in your home directory which contains the single line: $ ASSIGN 'F$ENV("DEFAULT") 'p1 Now put the following corrected symbol definition into your LOGIN.COM file: $ ND :== @SYS$LOGIN:ND Sorry about that. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: SANDY::DAVE 2-JAN-1987 19:24:31.32 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: THUMBS DOWN WELL I DECIDED TO SPLURGE FOR NEW YEARS EVE. I MADE THE RESERVATIONS MONTHS IN ADVANCE. I CALLED AHEAD 1/2 HOUR BEFORE TO SEE IF THEY WERE BEHIND SCHEDULE. I WAS TOLD ABOUT 10 MINUTES. SO I SHOWED UP ON TIME. I WAITED 50 MINUTES BEFORE I LEFT. ALL I RECIEVED WAS VERY INSINCERE APOLOGIES, AND THE STATEMENT (I QUOTE) " WELL BY THE TIME YOU GET ANY WHERE ELSE IT WILL BE JUST AS LONG A WAIT". SO WHERE WAS THIS, YOU ASK. A DIVE CALLED "LE MOUTON NOIR" THIS PLACE HAS GOOD FOOD, BUT I REFUSE TO WAIT FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING REAMED OUT IN THE POCKET BOOK. GOOD FOOD DOES NOT MAKE UP FOR AN ATMOSPHERE OF HOSTILE SNOBBERY. P.S. THIS IS NOT A SNAP JUDGEMENT, AS ON A PREVIOUS VISIT FOR A SPECIAL OCCASION I WAITED MORE THAN AN HOUR AFTER BEING SEATED TO RECIEVE (AN ADMITTEDLY GOOD) DINNER. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::RAINS 5-JAN-1987 13:07:15.19 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: Computer Health Note #4 Revisited VAX-edrin Headache #4 Revisted: New, Improved Version After consulting with Steve Suttles, we have a more robust version of the POST command which works as a batch job rather than a spawned process. It corrects many of the problems and deficiencies of the old version (which, quoth Suttles, "...only works if everything is right."). The new command is used by putting the following symbol definition in your LOGIN.COM file: $ POST :== @UTL$COM:POST The calling format is different from the old POST command. The new format is: $ POST MESSAGE.TXT DISTRIBUTION "SUBJECT" /ETC where: MESSAGE.TXT is the text of your message (.TXT is the default extension). DISTRIBUTION is a comma-separated list WITHOUT EMBEDDED SPACES OR QUOTES listing the recipients of your message. "SUBJECT" is a quoted string with the subject text. /ETC is miscellaneous switches and qualifiers of the MAIL command. A batch log is sent to MAIL$LOGIN:POST.LOG, so you can see any problems which may have occurred. (MAIL$LOGIN is where your mail files are.) ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::RAINS 6-JAN-1987 17:11:09.61 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: TO BREAKOUT OWNERS OR DESIGNERS We are looking for Coin-op versions of BREAKOUT and SUPER BREAKOUT and any technical or creative design information relating to them. This is in regard to a possible copyright infringement action. Anyone with hardware or design documentation please contact Dennis Wood at X3765, or reply to me via VAXmail. -Lyle ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 6-JAN-1987 17:53:23.98 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: Contest update As you may recall, Atari sponsered a contest based on Gauntlet II. The player had to complete a secret task in a secret room in order to receive a secret code number. The player then submitted the code number to Atari, and if it was valid, then their name was entered into a drawing for prizes totaling over 10,000 dollars in savings bonds. Linda has been administrating the contest which officially closed 12/19/86. A drawing was to be held yesterday, but Linda would like to try to reach contestants with invalid entries to confirm whether they botched up a legitimate entry or were just taking a wild guess. The drawing will occur tommorrow though, regardless. We have 417 entries from 349 unique individuals plus 35 invalid entries. About 3000 Gauntlet II kits were sold into the domestic base of 8000 units. (THESE ARE CONFIDENTIAL NUMBERS - FOR ATARI PERSONNEL ONLY !!) And the winners are... ...to be continued ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 8-JAN-1987 16:15:37.28 To: @sys$mail:engineer,@sys$mail:wpuser,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: New prompts Have you ever wished the system would display the current default directory name somewhere so you could easily tell where you were? Well, now there's a utility to do just that, compliments of LVR. It'll change the prompt string to include the current directory spec (no device or node name) to a maximum specifed length or 32 chars whichever is less. For example, it makes my prompt string look like: [SHEPPERD] K$ !for my home directory [UTILITIES.COM] K$ !for UTL$COM: It constructs the "K$" by extracting the first character from the node name (K for KIM, E for ERNIE, etc.) and sticking on a dollar sign and a space. You can change that by defining the string you want to the global symbol PROMPT$TAIL. You can limit the total size of the generated prompt string (so as not to eat up too much of your command line space) by defining a value less than 32 to the global symbol PROMPT$MAXLEN. The utility attempts to squeeze the rightmost directory names into the space allocated and will truncate to the left all that won't fit but replacing it with one of "[...", "[.." or "[." depending on how much room there is. To use this feature, you must execute UTL$COM:PROMPT sometime after you've logged in (such as in your LOGIN.COM file). Then you must use the set default commands SD, CD, DC, GOBACK or WHERE (GOSUB and RETURN are obsolete now because VMS has DCL commands called GOSUB for go to subroutine and RETURN for return from subroutine). For example, place the following commands in your LOGIN.COM file: $ CD :== @UTL$COM:CD !Change Directory (what GOSUB used to do) $ SD :== @UTL$COM:SD !Set Default directory $ DC :== @UTL$COM:GOBACK !change directory back $ WHE*RE :== @UTL$COM:WHERE !display the set default history $ PROMPT$MAXLEN == 20 !only if you want to limit the string length $ PROMPT$TAIL == "What now boss? " !only if you want something different $ @UTL$COM:PROMPT !setup the prompt stuff CD and SD don't require full directory specs to change directories. The procedures will attempt to figure out what directory you are talking about by looking around both up and down from the current place in the directory tree. You also needn't specify the "[]"'s nor dots. For example, $ SD TEST will hunt around in your directory tree looking for a [.TEST] directory. SD with no argument simply displays the current default directory. CD is similar to SD except that it remembers the directory from which you came and the next CD you execute without an argument will return you to the previously set directory. DC does a GOBACK to the directory you just returned from. WHERE shows the complete history (stack) of where you've been and from where you came. Try them, you'll like them. Note that if you change your default directory with the DCL command SET DEFAULT either explicitly or via a command file instead of using the CD, SD or DC commands, the prompt string will not change so it won't reflect the current directory. WHERE will always update the prompt string as will @UTL$COM:PROMPT. Report trouble to KIM::RAINS. ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 13-JAN-1987 15:56:38.87 To: ERNIE::TOLONEN,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: Atari 401K Plan I have a question about Atari's 401K Plan as described in the recent handout entitled "WELLS FARGO BANK RETIREMENT ADVANTAGE PLANS SUMMARY PLAN DESCRIPTION FOR THE RETIREMENT ADVANTAGE PLAN OF ATARI GAMES CORPORATION." In Section 16 (HOW AND WHEN ARE BENEFITS PAID?) under the heading "Benefits Earned Under This Plan" it states: "Following your termination of employment, your vested account balances will be distributed to you in a lump sum, in periodic payments over a specified term, or in a combination of both methods." My question involves the next sentence: "Plan assets allocable to your accounts will be valued as of the Valuation Date (see Question 8) coinciding with or immediately preceeding the distribution." Question 8 says that the Valuation Date is the last day of the sixth and twelfth months of the Plan year. I assume this means June 30 and December 31. (Please correct me if I am wrong.) Therefore, according to the Plan, if I contribute $5,000 to the Plan in the next five months and leave before June 30, my Plan assets allocable to my account will be valued as of December 31, 1986. What happens to my $5,000? What happens to the company contribution? (Who is the Plan Administrator?) Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::TOLONEN 13-JAN-1987 17:13:10.04 To: KIM::MARGOLIN CC: Subj: 401(K) PLAN DEAR JED, I THINK YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON IN THE COMPANY WHO READ THAT DOCUMENT!! I WILL ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS IN REVERSE ORDER. THE PLAN ADMINISTRATORS ARE DENNIS, JOHN KLEIN AND HIDE. YOU WOULD NOT LOSE ANY MONEY YOU PUT INTO YOUR PLAN, BUT I WILL HAVE TO GET MORE INFORMATION FOR FOR YOU ABOUT THAT WORDING IN THE PLAN. I UNDERSTAND THE QUESTION. LET ME GET BACK TO YOU TOMORROW WITH A COMPLETE ANSWER. THANKS, JUDY ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SALWITZ 15-JAN-1987 17:58:47.27 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: renumber that macro! For all you macro users. How many times have you spent your precious work time looking for a new slot for a local label. You know.. trying to remember if you used 45$ or not.. Have I got the program for you. Direct from the Pete Lipson school of better C learning: MACRNM.EXE! This fine C program will renumber your otherwize sloppy local labels for free! Heres all you do: In your login.com assignment section: $RENUM :== $KIM::SYS$USERDISK:[SALWITZ.C]MACRNM.EXE Then.. After you have spent countless hours creating alot of unsightly unsequenced local labels you run my program: $RENUM filename[.MAC] [delta] [base] Where: filename[.MAC] -> is your MAC11,MAC65,MAC69 filename ( .MAC extension not neccessary.. we throw that in at no added cost!) [delta] -> is the (optional!) delta between labels.. ie: 1,10,100.. (we default to 10 at no added cost!) [base]-> is the (optional!) base of each label set. (we default to 10 at no added cost!) So act today.. don't delay friend.. this offer is limited to one macro file per run! send complaints to: JFS this address this address ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::ALBAUGH "Dr. Bizarro" 20-JAN-1987 16:26:14.97 To: MARGOLIN CC: Subj: $ tab = " " $ tab[0,7] = 9 $ if f$extract(0,1,''P1') .eqs. tab then goto gottab $ beep no tab $ exit $ gottab: beep yes tab ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SUTTLES 28-JAN-1987 18:17:33.55 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY CC: Subj: The PURGE Shortage of disk space has become a problem that we (the systems group) can't ignore any longer. So here's what we're doing: When you log in, your disk usage will be checked against your quota, and if what's left is 20% or less, you will be notified. You will also be notified if the disk has 10% or less of its available room. You may be well under your quota and still run out of room if everyone else has filled up the disk. So, if it looks like disk space might be a problem soon, you will be notified when you log in. It is up to you to determine if the available space is adequate for your needs or not. Now, this has all been said before, except for the courtesy of warning you to look out for the low ceiling. Also, all those new disk drives have lengthened (greatly) the time required for backups. Every other weekend, we make a tape copy of everything on all the computers, and put it in a fireproof safe. Or try. It has started not to fit. So, in order to A) reduce the tape storage requirements, B) reduce the time spent for backups, and C) reduce the number of incidents where available disk space falls to zero: WE ARE DELETING ALL YOUR FILES === ======== ... at least all of them that are out of date. BEFORE (yes, BEFORE) the biweekly backups are done, we will automatically do a PURGE of all files on all disks, retaining only the TWO (2) versions that are the most recent. We have come up with exactly one instance where this would be inconvenient, and we are willing to forgo the loss of information in that case. The reason we chose two versions is simple: one is not enough, and three is too many. Note that this is scheduled to occur only on weekends. The first weekend that we will automatically purge will be about February 21st. This gives you about three and a half weeks to see if the files you have superceded have any remaining value to you. Note also that it will be done BEFORE the backup, so the old versions will be gone. The files will still be maintained on the daily backups, but they have a short retention period. You have been warned. Notice that this only applies to files that have already been superceded two or more times. We don't expect any problems, but it's only fair to let you know. You may, if you wish, address complaints to this mail address (KIM::SUTTLES), and I will ignore them at my earliest opportunity, unless you want to learn how to do backups, all day, every other Saturday. -sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 29-JAN-1987 15:12:33.74 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: new employee We have a new programmer starting on Monday 2/2/87. Please welcome Ed Rotberg back to Atari. Ed worked here at Atari from 1979 to 1981. He programmed Baseball, and Battlezone among other things. Then he started his own company, Videa. Then Videa was bought by Sente. Then Sente was bought by Bally. Consequently, Ed has in-depth technical and product expertise in the coin-op game field. Ed will be joining us in a technical capacity as a senior staff level Software Engineer with nearly 14 years experience since receiving his BSEE from the University of Michigan. Ed will be programming and projectleading a coin-op game project. Ed's office will be just outside Cyndy's office. He will be using the old Roadrunner lab for game development. Norm has chosen to move (his option) his office out of the lab and into the office near Dave Ralstons office. I am happy to have Ed join our staff - please extend him a warm welcome...let's see, how do you exorcise evil "Sente" spirits?... ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 2-FEB-1987 11:13:54.10 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY Subj: SECURITY, GAMES, AND PLANTS Some major changes are being made with-in our facilities which in one way or another will affect all employees. These changes have been approved and will be put into effect at this time. SECURITY To beef up our warehouse security, the two gates separating the manuf- acturing warehouse from the engineering portion will be kept locked at all times. The locks have been rekeyed, employees requiring access through these gates must check out the key from the main lobby. GAMES A program has been undertaken to restore our archive games to working condition whereby they will be retained as archives and at the same time be available for use by the employees. The front lobby of 675 will be utilized for this purpose. All archive games will be marked with an "ARCHIVE GAME" sticker, and any game so marked will not be permitted to leave the building. PLANTS A decision has been made as to the disposition of our interior plants. Our plants for the most part are deteriorating adding little enhancement to our buildings. During the pass two years, several methods have been tried in hopes of up-grading, but have failed. In September we aquired the services of an interior landscape con- sultant to evaluate our plant problems. The results of his survey allowed us two choices: One being to overhaul (transplant, feed, and maintain) our existing plants. This sounded pretty good until we were told that only about twenty-five plants out of all the plants in the building were worth the efford. Our second choice, which we decided had more merit, was to remove all the plants from the buildings and replace them with new ones. Going along with our second choice created still another problem. To replace plant for plant would not be an equitable solution as many of our employees do not have plants in their offices or work stations. Giving careful consideration to all aspects, we feel we have arrived at a conclusion befitting all our employees. The following guide lines will be put into effect for both the manufacturing and engineering buildings. 1. New plants will be placed in all common areas, lobbies, cafeteria, lunnch rooms, and executive offices. 2. Employees are permitted to have personal plants in their offices and/or immediate work area. The maintenance of these plants will be the responsibility of the employee. 3. All "Atari" plants (with containers) are to be removed from our buildings, no exceptions please. Employees wishing to take their "Atari" plant home are encouraged to do so with the stipulation that their plant not find its' way back into our buildings. (Just think, this would make a nice Valentine's gift for that someone special). Our new plants are expected to start arriving shortly after Valentine's Day. We ask that all the plants be removed by Friday, February 13th. (How about that for timing ?) Any "Atari" plants remaining in the buildings after this date will be disposed of. So I won't be accused of a Saint Valentine's Day massacre, the clean-up will begin the following Monday. Three final items: Please be careful when removing plants from the building, plastic bags if needed can be obtained from the main lobby. The plants located in our main lobby and cafeteria are to remain until replaced with new ones. Finally, if you have a persoal plant that fits the description of an "Atari" plant, please contact me for conformation. Thanks again for your support. Bob ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::FCDOOM 2-FEB-1987 12:45:05.43 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: plant confusion - so if I take my plant home, then bring it back in, everything's ok???? but if I leave it here and don't let it visit my house, it's doomed????? ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MCCARTHY 3-FEB-1987 13:21:58.24 To: @sys$mail:engineer,MCCARTHY CC: Subj: Audio pot alternative There have been some complaints in recent times about the quality of the dual audio pot. (At low volume setting the two channels are badly unbalanced.) Also, this pot is difficult to source. (Only two sources, both with long lead times.) Also, this pot is not cheap ($2.25-$2.50). ??? IDEA ??? Replace the pot with a 256 position electronic audio volume control. The components would be : 2 DAC-08 ICs (one for each channel) $0.80 each, 1 74ls273 @ $0.30 and about 8 discrete compoments ($0.01 each). Total component cost is $2.00 and about $0.16 for the extra board space. How it would work. Putting the game into self-test after power-on would cause a volume adjust screen to come up. The volume would be adjusted using the regular control panel controls (maybe while the game goes thru an attract sequence with audio enabled). The volume level would be stored in the game EEPROM. On power-on the volume level would be set from the EEPROM. I am considering this as a direct possibility on the new SA (stand alone) Audio board currently in development for Catacombs and probably a few other games. The only disadvantage that I see is operator familiarity and ease of use. I am sure that many of you see other problems. What do YOU think. Replies to theis address will be appreciated. Pat Mc Carthy. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::DENCKER "Andrea Dencker" 3-FEB-1987 14:26:36.31 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,DENCKER CC: Subj: IBM PC (or Macintosh) program for creating banners Bob Frye asked me if we had the capability of printing banners on any computer printer in our buildings. I'm talking about the programs in which you enter the message you want repeated many times, and a dot-matrix or other printer spews out those words in a 20-foot-long "sign." I am aware only of the Sideways and Banner programs for the IBM PC. Do we have anything like this program tucked away on one of our VAXes or PCs? If you do, contact Bob directly. He needs it for some special purpose. Andrea ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 4-FEB-1987 13:01:29.83 To: SHEPPERD,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: DCL Dave, Please try the following: WRITE SYS$OUTPUT %XFF439EB1/%X10000 WRITE SYS$OUTPUT %XFFFFFF43 Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 4-FEB-1987 13:32:14.52 To: MARGOLIN,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: DCL So? %XFF439EB2 = -12345678. %X10000 = 65536. -12345678/65536 = -188.38 in either Hex or Decimal %XFFFFFF43 = -189.00 in either radix. Conclusion: %XFF430000 is not equal to %XFF439EB2. Dividing is not the same as and will not produce the same result as shifting right. It looks as though you wanted to (-12345678. & -65536.)/65536. which is the only way you can make sure a shift and divide will produce the same result. If, on the other hand, you wanted a result in Hex, you should have used FAO: write sys$output fao("!XL",%XFF439EB2/%X10000) ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 4-FEB-1987 13:37:07.40 To: KIM::SHEPPERD,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: RE: DCL Aha. Thank you. Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::CAMERON 4-FEB-1987 16:00:28.24 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: GOOD-BYE AND FAIRWELL SAD FAIRWELLS IT IS WITH GREAT REGRETS THAT I SAY GOOD-BYE. NO, I'M NOT LEAVING, BUT MY PLANT IS. MY PLANT AND I HAVE SHARED AN OFFICE TOGETHER FOR EIGHT LOVING YEARS. SURE, THERE WERE GOOD TIMES AND BAD TIMES, BUT WE STUCK IT OUT. SHE ALMOST DIDN'T SURVIVE HAVING "PROFESSIONAL" CARE, BUT SHE'S BACK TO GOOD HEALTH NOW. SO, SHE'S BEEN FIRED, TERMINATED, ASKED TO GO. WHERE WILL SHE GO? SHE WILL GO HOME WITH ME, DEFEATED AND BROKEN. I KNOW SHE WILL DIE THERE. SHE IS USED TO FLUORESCENT LIGHT, NOISE AND STRESS. THE QUIET DARKNESS WILL END HER LIFE. AND WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO ME WITH NO DAILY COMPANION AT MY SIDE? IT IS TRULY A SAD STORY TRYING NOT TO SOB, CAROLE ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 4-FEB-1987 16:16:34.14 To: ERNIE::CAMERON,BEHENSKY,ERNIE::MOTT,CHARM::SHEPPERD,ALBAUGH,DURFEY,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: Doors From: KIM::JED 2-FEB-1987 11:13 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY Subj: SECURITY, GAMES, AND PLANTS Some major changes are being made with-in our facilities which in one way or another will affect all employees. These changes have been approved and will be put into effect at this time. DOORS A decision has been made as to the disposition of our interior doors. Our doors for the most part are deteriorating adding little enhancement to our buildings. During the pass two years, several methods have been tried in hopes of up-grading, but have failed. In September we aquired the services of an interior landscape con- sultant to evaluate our door problems. The results of his survey allowed us two choices: One being to overhaul (transplant, feed, and maintain) our existing doors. This sounded pretty good until we were told that only about twenty-five doors out of all the doors in the building were worth the efford. Our second choice, which we decided had more merit, was to remove all the doors from the buildings and replace them with new ones. Going along with our second choice created still another problem. To replace door for door would not be an equitable solution as many of our employees do not have doors in their offices or work stations. Giving careful consideration to all aspects, we feel we have arrived at a conclusion befitting all our employees. The following guide lines will be put into effect for both the manufacturing and engineering buildings. 1. New doors will be placed in all common areas, lobbies, cafeteria, lunnch rooms, and executive offices. 2. Employees are permitted to have personal doors in their offices and/or immediate work area. The maintenance of these doors will be the responsibility of the employee. 3. All "Atari" doors (with containers) are to be removed from our buildings, no exceptions please. Employees wishing to take their "Atari" door home are encouraged to do so with the stipulation that their door not find its' way back into our buildings. (Just think, this would make a nice Valentine's gift for that someone special). Our new doors are expected to start arriving shortly after Valentine's Day. We ask that all the doors be removed by Friday, February 13th. (How about that for timing ?) Any "Atari" doors remaining in the buildings after this date will be disposed of. So I won't be accused of a Saint Valentine's Day massacre, the clean-up will begin the following Monday. Three final items: Please be careful when removing doors from the building, plastic bags if needed can be obtained from the main lobby. The doors located in our main lobby and cafeteria are to remain until replaced with new ones. Finally, if you have a persoal door that fits the description of an "Atari" door, please contact me for conformation. Thanks again for your support. Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 4-FEB-1987 18:16:09.67 To: STEMPLER,MCCARTHY,MARGOLIN,SNYDER,HOFF,MOORE CC: Subj: Nice feature for our Hardware It would be very nice if Hardware designs allowed for RAM to be placed in the Program EPROM sockets during development. Applied Microsystems charges several thousand dollars for 128k bytes of Emulation RAM. If we could put a piggy back board in the EPROM sockets and run a couple of jumper wires to bring R/W to the piggy back, we could give the programmers lots of emulation RAM for cheap. 32k by 8-bit SRAMS cost $15-20 quantity one. Four of them are needed to make 128k...so for less than $100, we can replace what Applied Microsystems charges several thousand dollars for. I would like to see this feature added to PCB's as well as wirewraps if it didn't cost to much. I imagine all that needs to be done is to make the EPROM address space writable and bring the appropriate R/W signal to a buffer capable of driving the new load. This signal would also have to be accessible to the piggy-back board. Gary Stempler suggested a jumper pin as used on SystemI to configure the progam space for 27128/27256. This could then be eliminated in production. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 5-FEB-1987 09:11:53.97 To: @SYS$MAIL:VANGANG,RAINSGANG,KIM::WOOD,ERNIE::EVELYN CC: Subj: WAREHOUSE SECURITY As a result of the new security restraints placed on the warehouse, I have received complaints primarily due to inconvenience. I agree that that the gates being locked is a nuisance, as I access the warehouse more so then others. The decision to strengthen our warehouse security came as a result of the east side door being left opened four times in a one week period. At the present time, we are involved in adding additional security measures which are due to be completed this month. Once completed, the system may allow us to re-evaluate our present situation with respects to the warehouse. Until then, your cooperation is appreciated, Thanks, Bob. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::RUSTY 5-FEB-1987 12:00:35.52 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,RUSTY CC: Subj: Radar trap on McCarthy... Well, Milpitas is at it again... Careful! Heading N on McCarthy toward 237, the motorcycle cops are sitting in wait just past where the speed limit is posted at 25mph. One cop is sitting just around the sharp right corner (out of sight behind the large pile of dirt) and will pull you over based on what his partner who is sitting behind the fence on the incompleted road to the left tells him is radar gun says. They had a regular production line going last night and were completely invisible in the dark (the cop with the radar gun did not have any of his lights on). Fortunetely I was stuck behind some slow traffic and did not get caught (this time). But beware, next time could be costly! Rusty ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 5-FEB-1987 13:09:01.93 To: FRYE,WOOD,VANELDREN,MONCRIEF,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: Locked Gates The locked gates would be especially inconvenient in the event of a fire. (At least for those of us in Moncrief's group.) Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 5-FEB-1987 13:21:06.68 To: KIM::MARGOLIN,WOOD CC: Subj: warehouse Jed, the warehouse is not a legal fire exit from your office area. This is why the fence was permitted in the warehouse. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::ROTBERG "Professor of Gonzo" 5-FEB-1987 14:38:57.60 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: Be the first on your block... Yo! Here are some definitions to (further) customize TPU to add a few features that I have grown to love on other EDT systems. The funtions added are: GOLD/Q quit GOLD/ctrl_Z exit GOLD/ctrl_W toggle between 80 columns and 132 columns GOLD/B go to buffer ( = ) GOLD/backspace flip the preceeding two characters Here is the code to add to your local TPUINI.TPU file: ! procedure edr$flip !flip preceeding 2 characters move_horizontal(-1); edt$delete_char; move_horizontal(-1); edt$undelete_char; move_horizontal(2); endprocedure ! procedure edr$set_screen !toggle screen size if edr$scr_size = 80 then edr$scr_size := 132; else edr$scr_size := 80; endif; set(width,main_window,edr$scr_size); set(width,aux_window,edr$scr_size); set(width,message_window,edr$scr_size); endprocedure ! procedure edr$buffer ! support routine for GOLD/ctrl_B LOCAL buffer_ptr , create_variable_string, term_char, buffer_name ; ! This is to move to a new buffer and map it to the main window. If ! the buffer does not exist, create it with the NO_WRITE attribute. ! Get the name from the user. buffer_name:=read_line('Buffer: '); ! get line from user edit (buffer_name, trim, upper, OFF); !bite off all white space if (buffer_name = edt$x_empty) then message ('No buffer specified'); return 0; endif; ! IF it exists just map to it. buffer_ptr := edt$find_buffer(buffer_name); if buffer_ptr = 0 then edt$x_make_buf_var := buffer_name; create_variable_string := edt$x_make_buf_var + "_buffer := create_buffer(edt$x_make_buf_var)"; execute (create_variable_string); ! Now get the pointer back, we know it is the last buffer in the list buffer_ptr := get_info (buffers,'last'); ! SET (NO_WRITE, buffer_ptr, ON); set(eob_text, buffer_ptr, '[End of '+buffer_name+']'); endif; map(current_window,buffer_ptr); return 1; endprocedure ! ! edr$scr_size := 80; ! ! define_key('edr$buffer',key_name('B',shift_key),"switch buffer"); define_key('quit',key_name('Q',shift_key),"quick quit"); define_key('edr$flip',key_name(bs_key,shift_key),"flip"); define_key('dms$exit',key_name(ctrl_z_key,shift_key),"quick exit"); define_key('edr$set_screen', key_name(ctrl_w_key,shift_key),"toggle size"); ! Good Luck -- Ed R. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DROBNY "Buddy Flyback" 6-FEB-1987 14:23:52.31 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: AMS 68010's For those of you that use or maintain any of our AMS 68010 systems, I have in my possession a complete set of schematics of the hardeware. I have actually had them for a while but never used them until yesterday when I came across a problem in one of the "Probe Tip" Pods. These schematics proved extremely valuable for I was able to fix the problem for about $1.59 instead of the minimum $1000 that Applied would charge us. So if you need them or would like to make a copy, see me, but be prepared to stand in front of the copy machine for awhile for there are alot of pages to be copied. By the way, I have the only copy in the building so we must keep track of them or back to the $1000 purchase reqs. that are always so much fun to push for signatures. Be There, Aloha. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::BENZLER 9-FEB-1987 09:51:01.19 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY,BENZLER CC: Subj: ATARI GAMES HOME SOFTWARE SALES If you haven't already heard the news (and even if you have), Atari is number one (and number two!) in European home game software sales!!! (Of course, we're talking bout Atari Games-designed coin-op product that has been licensed to European home software companies.) As far as we know this is an unprecedented event. Never before has one company held both the number one and number two places in sales at the same time. Gauntlet, released by U. S. Gold, became the number one selling game across Europe for the '86 Christmas season; this is the highest achievement in the computer games industry in the European market. (Last year the top selling game at Christmas was Commando and in '84 it was Ghost Busters.) When the Christmas numbers were compiled, Gauntlet had sales well in excess of 100,000 units of software. As Gauntlet continues to sell during the next few months, it is expected to become the best selling game in two years! In addition, Paperboy, distributed by Elite Systems, became the number two game at Christmas, also selling in excess of 100,000 units. The success of Gauntlet and Paperboy have created a great deal of interest in other products from Atari Games. Indiana Jones and Road Runner have been licensed, on very favorable terms, to U.S. Gold. Super Sprint and 720 are currently subject to various offers from major European software publishers. Even the three Star Wars games and I, Robot are now being sought after by certain publishers, despite the market's normal orientation towards "current" properties. So pat yourselves on the back and let's keep up the good work! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SYSTEM 10-FEB-1987 11:22:09.03 To: @sys$mail:everybody.uaf CC: Subj: System down time You may have noticed that you sometimes get hardware errors (parity errors etc). This is due to a cancer in disk drive DUA1:. According to a newspaper article, the drive suffers from excessive lubricant build-up on the heads which causes read/write errors. The drive maker, Fujitsu, has claimed to have solved the problem, however, the company from whom we bought it, Emulex, claims they haven't. We have been told that Fujitsu will either send us a new drive of the same kind with the problem fixed, or a different kind that we can use until they can find one that doesn't have that problem. In either case, it'll be a few days before we get it. So in the meantime we are going to remove the drive from the system completely. In order to do this, we need to move 500,000 blocks worth of files off of Kim's userdisk to Charm's. The system will need to be shutdown for about 3-4 hours to rebuild the currently 2 volume disk to a 1 volume disk. This procedure will begin this evening (tues 10-Feb-1986) beginning at about 6pm. ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 10-FEB-1987 18:09:46.18 To: @sys$mail:Engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: New and improved LLF LLF v2.0 has been released on Kim and Charm. UTL$COM:LLF.NEW_FEATURES describes the differences between v1.5 and v2.0 and UTL$COM:LLF.DOC describes all the features of LLF. If you haven't logged out and in again since tues at 6pm, then you'll need to: $SET COMMAND UTL$COM:LLF to get LLF to work at all. Let me know of any difficulties. ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 10-FEB-1987 18:49:34.57 To: KIM::SHEPPERD,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: RE: New and improved LLF I have logged out and in again and it doesn't work. PS - I was working on a program when the linker stopped working. Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::ALBAUGH "Dr. Bizarro" 11-FEB-1987 13:21:12.44 To: MARGOLIN CC: Subj: From: KIM::SHEPPERD 10-FEB-1987 19:42 To: SUTTLES,ALBAUGH,SHEPPERD Subj: LLF I released LLF v2.0 yesterday. If there anyone has trouble with it, you can do the following assignment to get the old one back: $ ASS UTL$ARCHIVE: LLF$EXE: I suggest that you not make that a system logical because if others are NOT having trouble with LLF and have started using its new features, then their programs will break. ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 11-FEB-1987 13:41:35.05 To: KIM::SHEPPERD,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: RE: New and improved LLF Ignore Previous Message. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MCCARTHY 11-FEB-1987 15:58:23.61 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,MCCARTHY CC: Subj: digital volume reply Thank you for your comments and suggestions on the digital volume control suggestion. Those replys can be seen in [mccarthy.psu]dacpot.txt. The biggest concern voiced was "lack of familiarity and ease of use". The other major concern was "what if the 6502 goes crazy and turns up the volume to the max". As stated before I basically agree that ease of use is a major issue. The best solution I have is to put either a two way return to center toggle switch or else two buttons inside the coin door, for VOLUME UP and VOLUME DOWN. I am considering membrane switches for this purpose (plus the extra functions of 'aux credit' switch and 'enter self test' switch. This membrane panel would either stick to the audio PCB, or it could be remotely mounted (stuck to a cleat) near the coin door. With this arrangement, there is no need to enter self test to set volume. I am also looking into the idea of an interlock on the volume latch to avoid the problem of the 6505 going crazy. Two writes would be required to change the volume level. Here is a summary of the other changes that are being made to the original design, based on the well attended design review held on Jan 15. . The address bus buffers were removed, (deemed not necessary) . The data bus buffer was removed, (deemed not necessary) . The spare 27256 ROM socket was removed. More than 32k bytes of program memory requires the use of a 27512. . The IRQ counter chain design was not altered. (The alternatives suggested were either not feasable or were too costly.) . IRQ acknowledge was added. (This was inadvertently left out) . The audio op-amps supply voltages were heavily filtered. . The CPU can be run from either 1.79 Mhz or 3.58 Mhz. When run from 3.58 Mhz, the cpu must be a 65c02 (cmos version). . The Bank select and address decode circuitry was simplified to a single PAL ic. Pat. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::ARVIDSON 13-FEB-1987 07:53:26.88 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,ARVIDSON CC: Subj: National Semiconductor. National Semiconductor is no longer represented by BayTech (Wade Miracle) who, in my opinion gave us poor service. Atari's account is now handled directly from National; the salesperson is Henri De Roule. He's anxious to make a presentation to those interested in their microcontrollers, graphics chips or memory support devices. Can I have a show of hands from those of you who are interested in a presentation or if you just need new data books? erwin ps: Henri's phone is (408) 730-3009 or 730-0632. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::TOLONEN 13-FEB-1987 11:32:10.20 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY CC: Subj: Performance evaluations with merit increase will go into effect on March 1, 1987. The proposed range for the merit increase is 2% - 6%, depending on performance. Thanks, Judy ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::ARVIDSON 17-FEB-1987 15:46:23.45 To: KIM::MARGOLIN,ARVIDSON CC: Subj: PLCC Extraction Tools. Jed, here is a list of the extraction tools that I know of. Burndy is probably the best and can be obtained thru Schweber Electronics, (408) 748-4700. EXTRACTION TOOLS Manufacturer & PN Cost Notes AMP $25 Tool may damage IC package leads. * BURNDY QILEXT-1 $15 Appears to be the best tool. JAE $5 Don't know anything about this one. TEXTOOL/3M 400-6230-01 FREE. Requires prying chip package out; will not work with most other sockets. * Recommended. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 18-FEB-1987 14:44:49.12 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY CC: Subj: REALITY IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN THIS SATURDAY AT ATARI. OUR NEW PLANTS WILL BE HERE, AND THAT LEAVES 48 HOURS REMAINING ON OUR REQUEST TO HAVE ALL ATARI PLANTS REMOVED FROM THE BUILDINGS. CAUTION, DON'T WAIT TILL SATURDAY TO TAKE YOUR PLANT HOME, IT WILL BE GONE. SINCE I'VE RE- CEIVED ONLY A FEW CALLS AS TO PERSONAL PLANTS, IT LOOKS LIKE I'LL BE BUSY SATURDAY. AS TO THE PEOPLE WHO CONTACTED ME, YOUR PLANTS ARE SAFE. JUST A REMINDER, THE 'ATARI' PLANTS ARE NOT 'RETURNABLE' A WORD ON THE NEW PLANTS: THE PLANTS WILL BE PLACED THROUGH OUT OUR BUILDING, THE LOCATION AND SIZE OF THE PLANTS ARE THOSE OF THE INTERIOR PLANT CONSULTANT, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, THESE PLANTS DO NOT BELONG TO ATARI. COME MONDAY, YOUR SUPPORT WILL HAVE MADE OUR BUILDINGS A LITTLE MORE CHEERFUL. THANKS, BOB print ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 23-FEB-1987 09:18:54.37 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: What's in a name? In case you missed S.J.Mercury business section on Sunday, there was an editorial by James J. Mitchell, regarding companies changing their names. He referred to his friend Bernie Chin, president of Name-It-Right, a leading corporate identity consulting firm, who stated that Atari was a prospect for a name change. "Atari," Bernie said. "It's a completely different company from what it used to be. Its strength isn't video games, but that's what the name means to the public. It should be changed to something strong, some- thing that means computers, something like Tramiel & Sons." I took the liberty to send a copy of this article to yours truly, hoping that he will give the "REAL ATARI" it's name back. Tks.,Bob ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 23-MAR-1987 10:36:47.81 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: CONTRACTORS IN HOUSE Tomorrow, 3/23 Cal-Air will be in our building to work on our A/C system. They will be installing a transfer system for the main lobby which should correct our door closing problems. The main door between design services and the lobby may be blocked off for a while to complete this work. The second work area involves enineering, just outside the conference room, through Gary Stempler's office, the printer room and into the computer room. A return duct will be installed down the hallway in front of the printer room. Cal-Air is sensitive to our engineering routine and will make every efford to complete this job with the least amount of disruption and are hoping for completion in one day. Thanks, Bob ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::LOGG 25-FEB-1987 09:44:40.38 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: File: CHARM::[LOGG.AMS]DNL.DOC Date: 12/5/86 The AMS fast download has been upgraded. The changes are shown below. Dave Shepperd will soon release a new DOWND which pass the symbol table to the AMS as TEKHEX records. This means one download will load the symbols and data. 1. The AMS will now print any characters that are not part of a TEKHEX or LDA record. For example, if you started the download (pressed ) before the LLF finished, then any LLF messages will be displayed. In addition, the sentinel "%" for the TEKHEX record will be displayed at the beginning of each record. 2. The AMS will now count the number of "." and generate a when the count exceeds 80. The terminal no longer need be set on WRAP. In case you missed all the information on the fast downloader, here it is again. There is no need to give up compatibility with old HEX files. The new downloader will support extended TEKHEX, LDA and SYM files. To get the new downloader do the following: 1. Burn 2 27128-3 EPROMs from the file CHARM::[LOGG.AMS]U55U56D128.LDA starting at 4000 and ending at BFFF. Label them LOGG-U55 and LOGG-U56 with the current date. Please label the outside of the AMS so that we do not send the AMS out for service with these EPROMs. 2. Replace the new U55 and U56 EPROMs with the ones in the AMS. They can be found on the PCB connected to the ribbon cable. On power up you will notice that there are CRC errors. Please ignore these. When I know how to CRC the EPROMs I will release a new version. The current version has a CRC value of 273D. 3. In your LOGIN.COM file define the symbol DNL. Please see the DOWND documentation if you need more information. For example, it is possible to tell DOWND to download several files at once. More importantly one can tell DOWND not to load all the uninitialized data by specifying the starting and ending addresses. DNL :== MCR DOWND /DELAY=0 /RECORD=250 /ADD=start:end 4. To use the new downloader, perform the following steps. The AMS will display a "." for each record read successfully. The letter "X" will be displayed when an transmission error occurs. But don't worry because the downloader will ask the VAX to retransmit the last record. A sample download is: >DNL type this on the AMS as usual $ DNL filename.xxx download filename.xxx .................... "." for each record read > successful completion If there are any problems report them to me at x1732 or via VAXMAIL at CHARM::LOGG and I will try to correct them immediately. If you have other ideas let me know so that I can try them out or document them here in this file. For those of you that would like to improve on the download time even further. The following can be done: 1. To speed up communication to the VAX, have the Systems Group set the terminal to 8 bit NOPARITY. It will also be necessary to change the AMS too by typing "SET #12,0", "SET #22,0", and "SAV". This will reduce downloading by approximately 1/11 (from 11 bits per character to 10 bits). 2. As a last resort, you can break the download data into several sections and load them separately. This is only helpful if a small number of these sections are being modified at any one time. The current performance of the new downloader is shown in the following table. Please note that your mileage may vary. For your information, it takes the VAX approximately 5 to 6 milliseconds to receive the ACK and start transmission of the next record. For this reason, it is desirable to have the record size as large as possible. There is a buffer in the AMS that holds the record sent by the VAX and I could not determine its size. This means I don't know how large a record it takes to blow up the AMS. For now, it seems to work fine with a record size of 250 and we cannot do much better with a larger record size, so let's use that size until someone determines the real buffer size. TYPE TEKHEX.HEX 56.0 seconds with parity set at 9600 Baud TYPE TEKHEX.HEX 50.5 seconds with no parity at 9600 Baud DNL TEKHEX.HEX/rec=32 29.3 seconds with no parity at 9600 Baud DNL TEKHEX.HEX/rec=64 22.5 seconds with no parity at 9600 Baud DNL TEKHEX.HEX/rec=96 20.8 seconds with no parity at 9600 Baud DNL TEKHEX.HEX/rec=128 19.9 seconds with no parity at 9600 Baud DNL TEKHEX.HEX/rec=200 19.2 seconds with no parity at 9600 Baud DNL TEKHEX.HEX/rec=250 18.7 seconds with no parity at 9600 Baud DNL TEKHEX.HEX/rec=300 19.1 seconds with no parity at 9600 Baud DNL TEKHEX.HEX/rec=400 18.8 seconds with no parity at 9600 Baud DNL TEKHEX.HEX/rec=500 18.9 seconds with no parity at 9600 Baud DNL TEKHEX.HEX/rec=infinte 17.1 seconds in theory at 9600 Baud ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::SHEPPERD 25-FEB-1987 10:23:28.46 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: DOWND A new version of DOWND has been released. This one, in conjunction with Logg's new AMS Eproms, will allow for downloading symbols. It works just the same as the old DOWND except it has two new options: /NOSYMBOL - if you don't want symbols downloaded /SYMBOL_ONLY - if you want only symbols (no data) It will normally download symbols if there are any in the .HEX or .VLDA file(s). ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 2-MAR-1987 11:38:51.91 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: KEY ANYONE HAVING A KEY #LL-228, I NEED TO HAVE THE USE OF IT FOR A FEW MIN. THANKS,BOB ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::BENZLER 2-MAR-1987 12:53:26.48 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,BENZLER CC: Subj: A MESSAGE FROM THE RECREATION COMMITTEE ATARI GAMES LOGO/SLOGAN CONTEST No, we are not trying to come up with a new logo to replace the renown Atari "fuji" symbol. In fact, we truly wish that the OTHER Atari would take another name and give us back the exclusive right to use the name Atari and the logo that has represented OUR technologically innovative and creative entertainment products. But enough editorializing... We want you and yours to put on your creative thinking caps and design some artwork and a phrase that describes the spirit of Atari Games and symbolizes our standing as the pioneer of and our continued leadership in the video games industry. At our 10th birthday the slogan was simple and full of hope for the future: "The next decade." Well, we have survived half of that "next decade" and things look pretty good for the five years to come. Coin Op, the REAL Atari, is more than just a survivor! June 27, 1987 marks our 15th birthday. Not a bad accomplishment in this crazy silicon valley. And we mean to celebrate! (Remember, here at Atari we take fun seriously!) A real honest-to-goodness, old fashioned birthday party is planned for that date. We hope that every single Atari employee and every member of their immediate family will be present for the festivities. (But you'll hear more about the party at a later date...) What we want now is your creative input. The logo and slogan that one of you Atarians comes up with will be used for all sorts of public relations stuff, both inside and outside of our industry. Aside from the birthday celebration mentioned earlier, we have been promised the cover of RePlay Magazine for the month of June, PlayMeter and other trade publications will, at the very least, feature stories about our company, we will have a birthday theme for our May/June distributor meeting, and we will seek coverage from the local newspapers and television stations. In other words, we are going to make a BIG DEAL out of this! There are posters all around 675, 735 and 737 describing the contest, prizes, etc. so the details won't be repeated here. Entry forms can be found in the lobby of building 675. We want lots of entries to choose from. The Recreation Committee will be selecting the winning entries (subject to approval by the Executive Committee). So pick up your entry form today and bring several copies home to your family! But for now... Get back to work! (We need to keep those innovative leisure products rolling off the line!) Thanks for your attention, -- THE MEMBERS OF THE RECREATION COMMITTEE ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::HORN "Erich Von Horn" 6-MAR-1987 13:24:55.98 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: HELP! Does anyone know of a place for rent? My landlord is selling my house and I need to relocate. I am looking for a place in one of the following areas: Castro Valley Hayward Sunol Union City Los Gatos Some hilly area within 20 miles of here Some other place interesting I need it by the end of April or before is better. I willing to pay up to $360.00 per month, but would prefer about $300.00. Looking for a shared situation or a small place for just me. If you know of anything around that fits within the above criti criteria(oops!) please let me know. Thanks, Yours in Atari, Erich Horn Office ext. 1765 Home phone [xxx]xxx-xxxx Vax mail: KIM::HORN ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::BROWN 6-MAR-1987 14:32:19.07 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY,BROWN CC: Subj: NWNL CLAIM FORMS LATELY, NWNL HAS BEEN ENCLOSING THE WRONG MEDICAL AND DENTAL CLAIM FORMS WITH THE "EXPLANATION OF BENEFITS" SHEET THAT IS SENT TO US AFTER A CLAIM HAS BEEN SUBMITTED. OUR CLAIM FORM IS WHITE AND IS THE ONLY ONE WE SHOULD USE. IF YOU RECEIVE A TAN COLORED FORM, DESTROY IT; IT IS PRE-PRINTED FOR ATARI (US) CORP AND WILL ONLY INCREASE THE CONFUSION IF IT IS USED FOR OUR CLAIM USAGE. I HAVE TALKED WITH OUR CLAIM REP, WHO WAS ALREADY AWARE OF THE PROBLEM AND HE SAYS HE WILL TRY TO RESOLVE THE MATTER. SANDI HUMAN RESOURCE ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DROBNY "Buddy Flyback" 10-MAR-1987 14:23:54.73 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Sandy Feet If you dont play volleyball at lunchtime, this message is not for you and to you I apologize. But if your a male, (as in his, or him) and you play volleyball at lunch, I am asking you to stop and find a way to leave the court behind you when your done, and not drag half of it back into the shower-room with you!!!! It is EXTREMELY IRRITATING to go in to take a shower and have your tootsies fill with sand. I am sure you can find a way to keep the sand outside where it belongs. Thanks or else, Frank Burns ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 10-MAR-1987 21:11:45.79 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: What's new? Just when you thought you had it all figured out, we go and change everything. What has been changed: Each user on all the systems now has a unique UIC (User Identification Code) which makes the cluster software officially released. You no longer need to use DECnet to copy files back and forth between systems. You shouldn't even need to copy files back and forth at all (except for backup purposes). For those of you who have directories on other systems, you can access your files (for read and write) from any system by using the device names of node$USERDISK (userdisk(s)) or node$SYSDEVICE (system disk) for example: $ DIR KIM$USERDISK:[FRED] Please avoid using the old (DECNET) method with KIM::, CHARM::, etc. We'd all appreciate it and so will you. I suggest that you use logical names to point to the various disks on which you may have directories. I think that you'll find the cluster much more convenient especially with PRINT, IMI and DIO procedures. The next thing we changed was the way the ques work on Kim and Charm (Sandy will soon be joining this group). They operate from a common job que manager file so each "knows" about the other's ques (both print and batch). Using the cluster software we were able to make the two line printers spool from a common SYS$PRINT. The consequence of this is that the items you asked to be printed on Kim for example, may in fact be printed on Charm's line printer and visa-versa. So, look in the baskets of either printer for your printout. At the moment, the batch ques work the same as they always have. You can still reference them as SYS$BATCH, etc. but they are really named KIM$BATCH or CHARM$BATCH, etc. As for the letter quality printers, you can use the PRINT command from either Kim or Charm to either the NEC spinwriter or the Diablo 630 in the common area: $ PRINT/QUE=LQ0 your_file !NEC spinwriter $ PRINT/QUE=RAINS$LQ your_file !Diablo What will be changed: I'm requesting input from everyone before I make the next major change. If you have some serious objections, then maybe I won't do it this way: I plan to combine all the user authorization files of all the systems into one common file. After this is done, all users will have an account on ALL the systems, however, each user's account will point to a single directory located on what will be called his/her "home" system. For example, my home system would be Kim, so which ever system I logged into, my default directory would be KIM$USERDISK:[SHEPPERD] so the LOGIN.COM in that directory would be run at login. Some one else's home directory may be on a different system. Those of you with accounts on multiple systems will have to specify (if it isn't obvious to me) which one they want as their home directory. There are some benefits to this procedure at present, namely the IMI and DIO could be run by anyone without having to have accounts on Kim and Charm nor would they have to copy files around or change defaults or whatever. You would no longer need node names on the mail distributions and indeed you should NOT put node names on the dist lists, since everyone will have only one MAIL file (in or off of your home directory) and all systems will know about all the users. This would make sending mail quite a bit faster (probably almost as quick as sending to someone on the same node as you). Kim and Charm's batch queues could be combined so that batch jobs would be scheduled alternately between them to better even the load. Techincally you could switch systems (via a SET HOST) if you found the one you were on was too busy, however, you'd be jumping from the frying pan into the fire if you switched from say, Kim to Ernie, Sandy or Mike during the day. I say this is technically possible, but Ernie, Sandy and Mike don't have the same software installed as Kim and Charm (and visa-versa) so your jobs probably wouldn't run on those systems anyway. We will be adding more Kim's, Charm's and Ernie's to the cluster in the next few months so the SET HOST scheme may become more of a possibility. We plan to make the first new VAX a processor dedicated to batch jobs. You'd still be able to SET HOST to it, but you may not want to if it has 4 to 6 batch jobs running on it all the time. More about this as things develop. These features, however, do not come free. The cluster node that has the user authorization, mail, network, job que and rightslist files has to remain up or the whole cluster would grind to a halt (crash). I'm going to put those files on the system with the highest reliability whichever one that might be. Accessing a file through the cluster costs both CPU time and access time. The raw data rate is roughly 1/2 of what it is via a locally connected disk and between 10 and 25% of both systems invloved in the I/O dissappears during the transfer. We are not, for most of the applications that we run on Kim and Charm anyway, anywhere near being I/O bound so that might not even appear noticeable. From: KIM::SHEPPERD 12-MAR-1987 15:53:33.92 To: @dups,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: One for all... You guys currently have accounts on more than one system. Beginning on Monday morning, EVERYONE will have an account on ALL the systems. This is available because after that date there will be a single user authorization file. This file will point your default login to a single node and no matter which system you login on, you will always be pointing to that same "home" directory. The consequence of this is that you will no longer be able to get at your MAIL messages on a particular node by just logging on on that node. What you will have to do (or even what you can do now) is, once in MAIL, type: MAIL> SET FILE node$USERDISK: where "node" is the node name on which you wish to read mail. If your mail directories are not named the same on each different node, then you'll need to specify the directory in addition to the node$USERDISK:. For example, in my case, I've SET MAIL_DIR on all the nodes except ERNIE to [.MAIL] so I'd have to type: MAIL> SET FILE ERNIE$USERDISK:[SHEPPERD] to get to my mail messages on ERNIE. This also implies that only the LOGIN.COM file that is present in your home directory will be run at login. If you have procedures that need to be run differently on each node (as many of us do), then you'll need to use conditional execution in your LOGIN.COM file such as: $ node := 'f$getsyi("NODENAME") !see which node we are, trim spaces $ kim = "IF node .EQS. ""KIM"" then " $ _kim = "IF node .NES. ""KIM"" then " $ charm = "IF node .EQS. ""CHARM"" then " $ _charm = "IF node .NES. ""CHARM"" then " $ kim $ do_kim_only_command $ _kim $ do_command_only_if_not_kim $ _kim _charm $ do_command_if_not_kim_and_not_charm You get the picture? ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 14-MAR-1987 15:27:29.18 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: New mail procedures Starting today, everybody has an account on every computer. This means that MAIL "knows" about everyone on every node all the time. You no longer need to specify a node name when mailing to someone, and you should remove all references to node names in any .DIS files that you may have made. MAIL will stil work if you use a node name, but you'll find to be MUCH faster if you don't (and everyone else will benefit from the reduced CPU loads too). ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 16-MAR-1987 15:51:03.20 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: "The Sands Of Atari" The SAND epidemic here at Atari is out of control.... First it invaded our main lobby, then you could do the shuffle on the manufacturing floor, and now the sand dunes in our showers. Where will it end? I agree with Chris, the sand has got to go. Since the ball has landed in my court, I've notified the landscape con- tractor to install a hose bib (connection) in the patio area near the volleyball court. This will allow the players to wash off their feet befor entering the buildings. An up-side-down hard brush will also be installed to clean the bottoms of shoes. Now the ball is back in your court, step on it, jump on it, drown it or what ever, let's keep the sand out of our buildings. Thanks, Bob ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 16-MAR-1987 18:47:45.69 To: @NEWDUPS,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: Changes to the changes Ok, ok, ok...It's back to the way it was (sort of). If you login to a system where you have a local LOGIN.COM in a directory on the local USERDISK named the same as it is on your home system, then the system will execute that login, define SYS$LOGIN to point to that directory and SET DEFAULT to the new SYS$LOGIN. If not then it'll execute your LOGIN.COM on your home node and leave your default there. For example: User FRED's home directory is KIM$USERDISK:[FRED] He also owns the directory CHARM$USERDISK:[FRED] and it has a LOGIN.COM file in it. He also owns the directory ERNIE$USERDISK:[FRED] and it doesn't have a LOGIN.COM file in it. He has no directory on SANDY If FRED logs in on CHARM, it'll execute the LOGIN.COM file in CHARMUSER$DISK:[FRED] and set his default there too. If he logs into ERNIE or SANDY, then, since there's no LOGIN.COM file, it'll execute KIM$USERDISK:[FRED] and leave his default at KIM. ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::SHEPPERD 17-MAR-1987 20:27:13.58 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: DOWND More changes. DOWND used to blow up if you tried to download too big of a file, now it'll try to download what it can instead. It may still exit with error status on KIM until Kim can be re-booted to reset an errant sysgen parameter. There is a problem with DCL in that it won't return to the requesting program the complete command line if using the MCR facility. You MUST follow the program name with whitespace to delimit user stuff from DCL stuff. For example, in the case: $ DNL := MCR DOWND $ DNL/ADDR=0:1000 fred !or $ MCR DOWND/ADDR=0:1000 fred DCL will use the expression DOWND/ADDR=0:1000 (which is what the expression will be after the DNL symbol substitution) as the filename of the program to run and will "eat" the /ADDR=0:1000. DOWND asks DCL for the remaining command line parameters and is given only "fred". You can get around this by one of the following ways: $ DNL /ADDR=0:1000 fred !always follow the DNL with a space or ^ this space is important $ MCR DOWND /ADDR=0:1000 fred !ditto ^ watch this space $ DNL = "MCR DOWND " !define DNL with a trailing space or ^ this space is important $ DNL := $DOWND !define DNL as a foreign command The setup time for DOWND increases linearly with the size of the input file in ADDRESS SPACE, not necessarily with the quantiy of data. This is because it builds a memory image of the data to be loaded. If you compile 1 byte at address 0 and one byte at address 1000 (hex), the file is assumed to be 65k bytes big even though there's only 2 bytes in memory. Two things happen as a result of this. One is you may exceed your virtual memory quota (most people have about 8Mb of quota). The second is the excessive time it'll take VMS to deliver n megabytes of virtual memory. If you know what the address limits are of the data you want to download (or MIXIT, it has the same restrictions), then specify them. It's fastest if you specify both a lower and upper limit. It's slightly faster still if you specify to exclude symbols (/NOSYM), even if the file you are downloading has no symbols in it. On a similar note, when using MIXIT, I suggest that you select a binary file format wherever possible; VLDA is the most flexible. Not only are the files smaller, but MIXIT, DIO, IMI and DOWND can process them many times faster than they can the TEKHEX and ROM formats. A number of you are taking .HEX files, MIXIT'ng them into .ROM files then doing something else with them. If that something else doesn't involve editing or assembling, then you should be MIXIT'ng them into a VLDA file (VLDA files can be appended). ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 18-MAR-1987 18:49:39.97 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: Take a BATCH of this... There's a new batch que on Kim and Charm that you are free to use which will alternately submit jobs on each system in order to balance the batch job load. I highly recommend that you use this, or at least try it a few times to see if it really works. After a breakin period, I will make the procedure the default. In your LOGIN.COM (at least those on Kim and Charm), place: $ assign 780_BATCH SYS$BATCH or, if you'd rather not "break" SYS$BATCH, then do submits as: $ SUBMIT/QUE=780_BATCH bla_bla... or, $ SUB*MIT :== SUBMIT/QUE=780_BATCH/NOTIFY...etc. If you are one of those people with directories on both Kim and Charm, then read on... There could be a problem if you submit a job on Kim, it starts up on Charm executes your LOGIN.COM file on Charm and that LOGIN.COM doesn't setup the same environment as you've setup on Kim. Your batch job may fail because some symbol or logical name hasn't been defined as expected or some such thing. When we first went to common system authorization file, I chose to force everyone to use a LOGIN.COM file in a "home" directory in order to remove these kinds of problems, but that caused other problems instead. Soooo, I put it back the way it was. Now with the BATCH system, it becomes yet again slightly different. (I think this is how operating systems get so confused; the designers have to use bandaids to make the system compatable and really make a mess of things). What happens in BATCH is the system finds which disk the file you have submitted lives on. It then "pretends" to have logged in on that system for the purposes of looking for your LOGIN.COM and setting SYS$LOGIN. This will not work under all circumstances, such as submitting a .COM file that lives on a different node. Also the node conditionals that you may have in your LOGIN.COM file will NOT be fooled by this. Anyway, try it. I will probably work fine for your simple day to day stuff such as compiles, links etc. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: SANDY::DAVE 23-MAR-1987 10:30:45.21 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: A RECOMMENDATION EVERY SUNDAY NIGHT FROM 8 TO 10 PM THERE'S A GREAT SHOW CALLED "NEW VISIONS" ON THE VH-1 MUSIC CHANNEL (10-B ON GILL CABLE) IT FEATURES FUSION JAZZ, JAPANESE JAZZ, JAZZ JAZZ, AND JUST PLAIN BIZARRE VIDEOS YOU WILL PROBABLY SEE NO WHERE ELSE. TRY IMAGINING A MIX OF SPYROGYRA SADAO WATANABE MARK EGAN FRANK ZAPPA FRESH AIRE/WINDOM HILL MILES DAVIS JEAN LUC PONTY ETC. AND ONE OF THE BEST FEATURES IS THAT EACH WEEK THEY HAVE ONE OF THESE GUYS AS THE GUEST V-J, SO ITS GOT A DIFFERENT ANGLE EACH TIME. CZECH IT OUT!!!!!!!!!!!! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 23-MAR-1987 16:28:05.30 To: ERNIE::BROWN,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: RE: CONTEST DEADLINE New Slogan: " Come Play With Us" Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 25-MAR-1987 17:16:46.03 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: 680x0 Processor Prices I just received some price quotes from Mary B. on 680x0 processors. Since they are quoting leadtimes, I assume they are available now. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 8 mHz, 5000 qty. plastic ceramic -------- -------- 68000 MOTOROLA 6.75 - 6 WEEKS SIGNETICS 3.10 5.10 ? HITACHI 8.20 ? 68010 MOTOROLA 14.55 24.80 2-4 WEEKS ------------------------------------------------------------------ WOW! Components will get the plastic parts qualified ASAP. Be sure to call out the P/N for the plastic parts in future designs. Programmers should REALLY consider 68000's over 68010's since it can mean another $10.00 savings! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::ARVIDSON 26-MAR-1987 07:32:09.05 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: Reply to "680x0 Processor Prices" Another reason to strongly consider the 68000 over the 68010 is that as far as I know, only Motorola makes the 68010. Signetics, contrary to the 68010 data in their book, will most likely never produce this. Another source for the 68000 is Thomson Components Mostek. Their salesperson claimed last week that they are very competitive. He will bring databooks, availability and more details soon. erwin ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 1-APR-1987 15:53:48.96 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY CC: Subj: POWER SHUTDOWN PG&E HAS INFORMED ME THAT ON SUNDAY, APRIL 12 THIS BUSINESS PARK WILL BE WITHOUT ELECTRICITY FROM 6AM TO 4:30PM. PG&E WILL BE ADDING ADDITIONAL VOLTAGE TO THIS AREA AS WELL AS INSTALLING A NEW TRANSFORMER FOR OUR BUILDING. PG&E WILL RECONFIRM THIS DATE AT WHICH TIME I WILL DO THE SAME, (KEEP IN MIND, THERE WILL BE NO ACCESS INTO OUR BUILDING DURING THE SHUTDOWN). ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 1-APR-1987 18:11:15.56 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: FYI: Surface-mount IC's - PCB processing The Atari PCB line is building about 650 NAMCO-designed Rolling Thunder PC Boards. Each Rolling Thunder PCB has (2) surface mount devices (SMD). They are plastic flat packs with gull-wing leads. Each SMD has 80 pins on 20-25 mil centers; there are 24 leads on two sides and 16 leads on the other two sides. Normally, the SMD's are attached first, using "vapor-phase" or "re-flow" equipment, and then the pin-in-hole parts are wave-soldered as a second step. To do this successfully however, requires the use of certain types of fluxs during wave-solder and a FREON wash after wave-solder. Since Atari does not have the right flux/wash, we cannot use that processing method. Instead, the PCB's will be wave soldered here at Atari as usual, then the PCB's will be sent out to have the SMD's attached as a second step. They will hand-solder each pin of the SMD. The Cost: $3.00 per PCB ($1.50 per part). ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::SHEPPERD 1-APR-1987 20:27:12.00 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: downd I noticed that the AMS dev sys Xoff's the vax after a DOWND before it has a chance to type out the stats, so it doesn't run SLEEP. I fixed that by making it not type out the stats anymore. After the download it quietly goes to sleep without any messages. If for some reason you want to see the stats, you can include a /STAT on the command line. ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 9-APR-1987 09:45:59.61 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY CC: Subj: FACILITIES BITS & PIECES POWER SHUTDOWN Just a reminder, the power will be off for both 675 and 735 on Sunday, 4/12, from 6 am to 4:30 pm. All perishables should be re- moved from department refrigerators and this would be an opportune time to defrost. MEN'S SHOWERS Both showers are running full force. VOLLEYBALL Because of your concerned effords in keeping the sand out of the building, a mini foot shower has been installed in the patio. FOCUS ROOM Auditors will be using the focus room starting Monday and through the end of April. Thanks, Bob ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::GROSSMAN 9-APR-1987 10:19:25.95 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: VTI Application Notes Morgan Hoff has asked me to make-up a new binder to be housed in the CAD Lab - "VTI Application Notes" Included in that binder will be three sets of notes - "Final Verification of Cell-Based IC Designs Using Cell Layout" "Test Generation Guidelines" "Power and Clock Distribution in Cell-Based IC Designs" ___________________________________________________________________________ From: SANDY::DAVE 9-APR-1987 14:44:35.28 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: IT FIGURES SO YOU SAY YOU'RE CONFUSED BY RECENT EVENTS FOREIGN EVENTS WISE??? YOU'D LIKE TO KNOW IF THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE ARE REALLY THAT STUPID??? WELL BUNKY, I HAVE FIGURED IT OUT!! YOU SEE ITS LIKE THIS: FACT #1 : ITS BEEN WELL KNOWN THAT THE NEW SOVIET EMBASSY IS SITTING IN A VERY ADVANTAGEOUS LOCATION TO RECIEVE ALL SORTS OF MICROWAVE PHONE LINKS, AND HAS DIRECT LINE OF SIGHT ON A NUMBER OF IMPORTANT GOV'T BUILDINGS. FACT #2 : ITS BEEN WELL KNOWN BUT UNDER REPORTED, THAT OUR NEW EMBASSY BUILDING IS BEING RIDDLED WITH BUGS AS IT IS CONSTRUCTED. FACT #3 : IT IS COMMON KNOWLEDGE THAT THE STAFF AT THE US MOSCOW EMBASSY IS ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY KGB AND FRIENDS. SO MY THEORY IS THAT THE MARINE GUARD WAS UNDER ORDERS TO FRATERNIZE SO AS TO CREATE ENOUGH OF A SCANDAL THAT THE FACT OUR NEW EMBASSY WAS BEING BUGGED COULD DRAGGED IN AS PART OF THE MEDIA EVENT. ALL THIS TO GIVE THE PREZ ENOUGH OF AN EXCUSE TO SAY " THE SOVIETS CAN NOT OCCUPY THEIR EMBASSY, UNTIL WE RECIEVE A NEW, BUG FREE EMBASSY"; AN EVENT THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN FOR A LONG, LONG TIME. OF COURSE, THIS SCENARIO WOULD BE TRANSPARENT UNLESS WE HAD ALREADY DEMONSTRATED OUR INCOMPETENCE WITH THE IRAN IMBROGLIO. SO REST EASY MY FRIENDS. IRAN DIDN'T USE US TO STING THE RUSS-IONS AND THE ISRAELIS, WE USED THE IRANIANS TO STING THE RUSSIANS AND IN THE PROCESS LENGTHEN THE IRAN-IRAQ WAR, WHICH RON'S PERSONAL FRIEND ADNON KASHOGGHI WANTS TO CONTINUE, SO HE CAN KEEP SELLING THEM ARMS!! MY HAT IS OFF TO COL. OLIVER FOR THIS BRILLIANT MASTER STROKE. P.S. IT IS NO COINCIDENCE THAT OLIVER N. IS A MARINE>>>>>> ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 13-APR-1987 12:28:54.31 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: Surface mount correction Put it in print and it's bound to be wrong. The 80-pin SMD's in Rolling Thunder are being soldered on at a cost of $3.00 each, total of $6.00 per board, not the originally quoted $1.50 each, $3.00 per board. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::DENCKER "Andrea Dencker" 13-APR-1987 19:40:42.52 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,DENCKER CC: Subj: Telephone area codes (online info) MAGICALLY QUICK SEARCH FUNCTION If you are interested in having at your fingertips an answer to the question "What part of the country is that telephone area code?" or "What's the area code of Boston?", here's how to get it. Simply insert this line into your LOGIN.COM file anywhere above the line that reads $ EXIT: $ AC :== SEARCH SYS$USERDISK:[DENCKER.MISC]AREA-CODES.LIS or you can copy that AREA-CODES.LIS file over to your directory and call it by your new name. To use the "AC" command, type: $ ac what-you're-looking-for For example: $ ac boston $ ac 818 $ ac oregon $ ac "new york" Note that if you're looking for two words that are separated by a space, you have to enclosed them with quote marks. The resulting display on your screen will be all lines in the file AREA-CODES.LIS that contain the characters you're searching for. The file only has the largest city in most area codes; the rest you have to look up in the phone book. The file does, however, mention the fact that three new area codes will be created in 1988 in Colorado, Florida, and Massachusetts. You can type the search string in uppercase or lowercase -- it doesn't matter. If you don't like the "ac" command, you can make up a different word, such as "area". Remember, after you update your LOGIN.COM file, you have to type $ RESTART to make the new command take effect (equivalent to logging out and in again). No warranties of accuracy or fitness for a particular purpose are expressed or implied. Andrea ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 16-APR-1987 11:57:47.42 To: STEMPLER, SNYDER, MCCARTHY, LY, HOFF, MARGOLIN, ARVIDSON, MEYETTE CC: Subj: PLASTIC 68000'S According to the Components Engineering Status report as of 4/15/87: "Two Signetic plastic 68000 microprocessor samples were tested in a System I game [running Road Blasters - 7.xx mHz clock] for 96 hours at 70 degrees centigrade with no failures." I believe they were 8 mHz parts. QUESTION: DO ANY OF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER TESTS YOU WOULD LIKE PERFORMED BEFORE WE ADD THIS PART TO THE AVL? If yes, then please get your input to Erwin by 4/21/87. Erwin, if you do not receive any additional test requests, please add this part to the AVL and give Gary Stempler and Doug Snyder the part number since they have immediate applications. Thanks, Chris ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 18-APR-1987 15:21:16.38 To: @NEWTERM,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: Bad terminal lines The TXG and TXH terminal ports on Kim crapped out so I moved all the terminals that were connected to any of those lines to alternate ones. So if your dev_sys (most were dev sys's) doesn't work, it may be because I hooked it up wrong or unhooked a port that was recorded as being unused but it really was. The following lines were disconnected because they were recorded as being unused: TXB7: edt_user in the Rustbucket TXD1: edt_user in the ceiling (??) TXD7: edt_user in the Audio lab TXF4: edt_user in the Rustbucket TXF5: ams_68k in the Rustbucket TXG6: blu_box in the Rustbucket The following lines were moved: From: To: Type Location TXG0: TXF5: edt_user Klein's office TXG1: TXI2: edt_user Shepperd's office TXG2: TXA0: blu_box Margolin's lab TXG4: TXA4: blu_box Morris's lab TXG5: TXA5: blu_box Horn's lab TXG7: TXA6: imi_prog IMI programmer TXH0: TXA7: blu_box Audio dev sys I TXH1: TXB7: ams_68k Audio Omnibyte I TXH3: TXD1: blu_box Thrasher lab TXH4: TXD3: blu_box Wiebenson's DND TXH6: TXD7: blu_box Dawe's lab TXH7: TXF4: blu_box Dungeon lab ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 20-APR-1987 14:42:36.64 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY CC: Subj: EARLY BIRD LUNCHERASE Tomorrow, Tuesday we will need to shut off the cafeteria grills and hood at 1:30 pm for cleaning and testing of the halon system. Be sure to get your order in early. All other services will remain the same. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::CAMERON 20-APR-1987 14:49:01.79 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE FIRST CAFETERIA ON THE MOON? GREAT FOOD....... NO ATMOSPHERE...... ___________________________________________________________________________ From: SANDY::PAAUW 20-APR-1987 15:13:06.49 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: VTI CAD TOOLS DOCUMENTATION AVAILABLE FOR V6R5 The V6R5 SOFTWARE RELEASE BULLETIN, V6R5 SOFTWARE STATUS BULLETIN, and a cover letter for the V6R5 software are now in the black binder labelled "SOFTWARE STATUS BULLETINS" in the cad lab. The cover letter lists some major changes to V6R5 and also covers standard cell incompatibilities between V6R4 and V6R5. -- DON ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::EVELYN 21-APR-1987 08:14:01.30 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Secretary's Week Just a reminder for those who might be interested: Flower list is available in the lobby - order by Wednesday for delivery on Thursday. Some of the specials - Large roses 2 doz $10.00 Baby roses 2 doz. $9.00 and Large carnations 2 doz. $10.00. There is a complete list of all the flowers offered from the Flowerman. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 22-APR-1987 14:11:23.09 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: BITS & PIECES..... April 22, HAPPY SECRETARIAL DAY to all the bosses out there..... From manufacturing..... Two gentlemen resembling Bartles & Jaymes are looking into the possibility of a joint mafg. - engr. road blaster day. Customer Service..... requesting that the perpetual volleyball trophy be placed in their area for awhile. Rec committee..... A road blaster for each employee ??? Egineering..... FOR SALE, ONE USED SKATE BOARD RAMP, disassembly extra. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::PPS 22-APR-1987 17:32:03.57 To: @sys$mail:engineer CC: Subj: Soliciting input on new PBUTIL The PPS staff is in the process of designing an updated utility to take the place of the current PBEXTRACT, PBREDUCE, and PBFORM functions. This new utility will be written in C, will handle the vertical reflect capability of our new hardwares, and support all current features across horizontal & vertical extractions. Additionally, this utility will include extensions to work with the new .RAD file format to be used on the new Animation Workstation (TAT for short). Since this utility will support our graphic work into the 1990's, I am soliciting input during this design phase; Any Suggestions ? A final note, the .DAT & .PBR format will be replaced with a more friendly file format, and a macro file include feature will be implemented to allow for customized output formats. Mr. PPS ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MCCARTHY 23-APR-1987 12:07:07.86 To: @sys$mail:engineer,MCCARTHY CC: Subj: Programming programmable logic A purchase order is being put through to replace the 303A-001 DATA I/O logicpak adaptor with the 303A-011A V02 adaptor. (We get a $50 refund for trading in the old one.) With the -011a we can program most makes of PALs and IFPLs. Without it we cannot program any PALs. The only thing we loose is the ability to program the Signetics 100 series (82S100 - 82S106). I have complete literature on the -011A. Come by if you want to see it. The assumption is being made that the ability to program the Signetics 100 series is no loss. If this is incorrect then speak quickly. Pat McC. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 23-APR-1987 12:45:52.32 To: MCCARTHY,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: DIO Are the 82S123, 129, 130, 131, 137, and 185 part of the Signetics 100 series that we will no longer be able to program? ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MCCARTHY 23-APR-1987 19:38:59.97 To: KIM::MARGOLIN,MCCARTHY CC: Subj: RE: DIO No. We will still be able to program all proms. The 82S100 series refers to 82S100 through 82S103. Pat. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MCCARTHY 24-APR-1987 10:50:35.76 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,MCCARTHY CC: Subj: programming logic part 2 I need to clarify my earlier message on programming programmaple logic. The 82S100 series refers only to 82S100 through 82S103. The LOGICPAK and its adaptors only program programmable logic (PLAs,IFPLs, FPLA, PALs, etc. PROMS are not affected in any way as they are programed using the UNIPAK. I.E. You can still program 82S23,123,129,130,131,137,147,185 ETC. Sorry for the confusion. Pat. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::ALBAUGH "Dr. Bizarro" 28-APR-1987 16:22:38.02 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: "new" as68k I have just replaced as68k on both Kim and Charm. If it blows up on you, change your symbol to use utl$exe:old_as68k instead. Then VaxMail me a note giving particulars of the screwup. The new version adds two features: If you just say " as68k fred", it will look for fred.s and fred.asm (in that order) rather than giving you a blank look. If you use the -x1 switch, it will change all "move.l #sym,An" to "lea sym,An", which is a wash in bytes and cycles, but which the Applied Microsystems will properly disassemble. This feature was added to a custom version (utl$exe:xas68k.exe) and has been used for some weeks by some Eds. The current change is to make it switch selectable. Mike ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 30-APR-1987 11:22:29.53 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: LAUNDRY ROOM ? It has been brought to my attention that the men's shower room has been turned into a messy laundry room. For the benefit of all, please remove excess clothing and towels when through using the showers. Wall lockers have been provited for this purpose and if needed, additional lockers can be provited. Thanks for your cooperation. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::FRYE 30-APR-1987 11:34:03.33 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: CORRECTION PROVITED SHOULD BE PROVIDED, SORRY ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::MORRIS 5-MAY-1987 13:28:16.25 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: Greenhill C, Are you having trouble?? If your greenhills C compiler just stopped working see me. Jim. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::ALBAUGH "Dr. Bizarro" 6-MAY-1987 17:09:25.38 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: 680x0 Systems? I'm attempting to put together a "generic" foundation/o.s./utility ROM for Motorola 680x0 based game hardware. The idea is to get something that is more-or-less standard from the programmer's (and operator's) point of view, and relatively easily "ported" to new hardware. In doing this, I have become aware of the following different hardware configurations for which games are being actively developed. I would very much like to hear from anyone who knows about the others that I know exist, with a description like that below: Hardware name Contact Description System I Ly/Albaugh The original Stamp/MO 68K hardware Comes in at least three flavors Gauntlet McCarthy/Flanagan Single-board/More M.O.s Catacombs Snyder/Flanagan Cost reduced, Single board "System I" Rasteroids Stempler/Rotberg Cost reduced/Interlaced/"med res" System II/68 ??/Harper? System II (med res) with 68010 CPU Tank...??? ??/Turner/Avellar Looks like Gauntlet so far? ??? ??/Kwinn/Salwitz? Dueling 68000's? System IV ??/Morris May not be applicable The most important info I need is the contact person for the hardware and software. Thanks in advance, Mike ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 6-MAY-1987 17:18:08.21 To: ALBAUGH,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: 680x0 System 4 exists but there are no plans to produce it. Instead, we will be using: GSP TURBO which is a 68010 based design that uses a Texas Instruments 34010 GSP for Graphics. The "TURBO" is because of a clever trick to get it to do Polygon Fills at 48 Mega-Pixels/sec. The hardware has an Analog Devices ADSP-2100 to do math. Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 7-MAY-1987 16:47:38.06 To: POPKIN,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: Gary, I think this is the connector. Atari Games Inc. Approved Vendors List - 7-MAY-1987 16:43:33 AVL Search for: 179157-060 P/N GENERIC DESCRIPTION 179157-060 CONNECTOR,HEADER,60CKT,RIGHT-ANGLE,.10_CENTERS MANUFACTURER VENDOR P/N BERG_ELECTRONICS/DUPONT 65823-126 Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 7-MAY-1987 17:09:14.20 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: A new and improved LLF I just released version 2.1 of LLF, so watch out. There were a number of bugs in the cross-reference feature which should have caused an acc-vio failure or at least jibberish to be printed if anyone had asked for one. There is also a bug in the VAXC optimizer that I haven't been able to isolate which may have caused some unusual problems. The latest version is compiled with that level of optimization removed (so far, no problems). The two most visible changes with this version of LLF are the sticky directories on the input filenames and the FILE and LIBRARY commands in the option file. The sticky directories behave exactly the same as all the other VMS commands; subsequent files in a list inherit the node, device and directory of the file preceeding it. For instance: $ LLF one,fred:two,three the file "three" inherits the device and directory specified by the logical name "fred:" on file two. If you don't want that, you need to say: $ LLF one,fred:two,sys$disk:[]three,four,...etc. the SYS$DISK:[] will restore the default to the current default directory. The FILE and LIBRARY commands in the option file allow for you to get around the 1024 character limits placed on the DCL command line input. You can specifiy as many files as you need and they will be processed in the order that they appear in the FILE/LIBRARY directive(s) and also in the order in which the option file appears in the command line input. For example, an option file named FRED.OPT contains: FILE ( one.ol two.ol ) LIBRARY ( three.lib ) FILE ( four.ol ) and a command input of $ LLF five,fred/opt,six will process the files in the following order: five,one,two,three/lib,four,six As with command input, the default file types of .OL, .OBJ or .LIB will be used on the files specified in the option file and the sticky directories behave the same as on the command line except the directories are not remembered across FILE or LIBRARY directives (i.e. each new FILE directive starts with a default of SYS$DISK:[]). ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::ARVIDSON 11-MAY-1987 16:41:28.43 To: MARGOLIN,ARVIDSON CC: Subj: Resistor Network, Ladder. I talked to Glen Miller, the sales rep for MuRata. He would like to obtain pricing. What was the small quantity that you wanted to order now? What production quantities would you like pricing for? The question came up as to which values are matched to 0.25%; we assume that 1K's are matched to each other and that 2K's are matched to each other. Am I correct is assuming that the 1K's and 2K's are matched to each other also? He said that these would have to be special ordered since none of the resistors are matched to 0.25%. erwin ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 11-MAY-1987 17:48:22.82 To: ARVIDSON,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: R2R Resistor Network Irwin, I am sending you a copy of my correspondance on the R2R Ladder Network. The question of what matches within 0.25% has never come up before. In order for this thing to work, each "R" must be within 0.25% of every other "R". Since "R" is nominally 1K, 0.25% is 2.5 ohms so that each "R" is plus or minus 2.5 Ohms and each "2R" is plus or minus 5.0 Ohms. If the "R"s don't track with the "2R"s, it doesn't work. The absolute tolerance on "R" is not critical, only the relative tolerance. 2 April 1987 Atari Games Corp. 675 Sycamore Drive P.O. Box 361110 Milpitas, CA 95035-1110 Richard Ponce de Leon Brooks Technical Group 883 Stierlin Road Mountain View, CA 94043 Dear Richard, As Evelyn suggested I am faxing the drawing for the R2R Resistor Network for which I would like a quote. I would like the quote for quantities of 1K, 5K, 10K, and 25K. I expect the game that I am considering this part for will be produced in the 3rd Quarter this year. I would also like cost and delivery information for 100 prototype units. Sincerely yours, Jed Margolin Senior Staff EE Atari Games Corporation 4/22/87 From Richard Ponce de Leon NRE for Soft Tooling and 10 prototypes - $250. [8-10 weeks] NRE for Soft Tooling and 50 prototypes - $300. [8-10 weeks] NRE for Hard Tooling - $250. [18 weeks] 25K 10K 5K 1K ----- ----- ----- ----- $0.38 $0.43 $0.49 $1.14 24 April 1987 Atari Games Corp. 675 Sycamore Drive P.O. Box 361110 Milpitas, CA 95035-1110 Jim Calhoun Moulthrop Sales Dear Mr. Calhoun, As Judy suggested I am faxing the drawing for the R2R Resistor Network for which I would like a quote. I would like the quote for quantities of 1K, 5K, 10K, and 25K. I expect the game that I am considering this part for will be produced in the 3rd Quarter this year. I would also like cost and delivery information for 100 prototype units. I have included the quote from LTI that you got for us three years ago but you may select whatever company you feel is most appropriate. Sincerely yours, Jed Margolin Senior Staff EE Atari Games Corporation Phone: (408) 434-1730 FAX: (408) 434-3776 5/6/87 from Moulthrop Sales, Janet LTI Resistor Network: 100 prototypes - $3.15 ea + $400 NRE 6-7 weeks ARO 1K 5K 10K 25K ----- ----- ----- ----- $0.63 $0.46 $0.43 $0.38 ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DURFEY 12-MAY-1987 10:37:09.75 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Sick time A person (non-exempt) has all 12 days of sick time acrued by the end of the year. This person then contracts hepatitis and not wanting to loose their two and a half weeks bonus sick pay, comes to work and infects the entire company and then everyone has to go home. just a thought ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 18-MAY-1987 16:01:46.97 To: MONCRIEF,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: VRAMs Rick, The Hitachi Video RAMs are: HM53461P-15 The Mitsubishi VRAMs are: M5M4C264P-15 They are available from: Diplomat Electronics 1310 Kifer Road Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (408) 737-0204 The Salesman is Dave Appleman but he is usually not in. Greg seems to do most of the real business. (I have recently been in contact with them for an updated quote.) Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 19-MAY-1987 08:54:18.85 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY CC: Subj: COMPUTER ROOM A/C THIS MESSAGE IS DIRECTED TO ALL PERSONNEL HAVING ACCESS TO OUR MAIN COMPUTER ROOM. Having recently completed installation of a second a/c backup system for the computer room, I would like to take this time to define it's operation. Should the main a/c unit for the comp- uter room fail, a red lite located in the center of the room on the hallway wall will come on. Please follow the instructions posted. A test was conducted following the compleation of this system. The results showed that all the computer equipment could remain running as the room temp erature remained normal. The additional backup air was supplied from a/c #2 and no complaints were received from that area during the four hour test. Bob ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::GROSSMAN 19-MAY-1987 13:45:08.02 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: W A N T E D The staff of the all new, extremely exciting Atari Games Newsletter is searching for "WANT ADS" to appear in this publication. If you have any items that you have wanted to buy, sell, trade, or give away, you now have the opportunity to do that in the official Atari Games Newsletter. The PREMIER edition will be put out in June. So you must act fast to make sure your ad appears in the first edition of this glossy, glitzy new publication. All ads need to be submitted to Cyndy Grossman (via Vax mail "Grossman" or interoffice to 675) NO LATER THAN MAY 29. So get busy and clean your attic, garage or the whole house and advertise those items in the Atari Games Newsletter. [Plans are to publish the newsletter on a bi-monthly basis so this is NOT a one time offer but will be repeated in July for inclusion in the Summer Vacation issue to be published in August.] ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::ARVIDSON 20-MAY-1987 17:00:08.08 To: MARGOLIN,ARVIDSON CC: Subj: Resistor Network, Ladder Configuration. Jim Calhoun representing Panasonic tried to contact you to discuss your requirements. The best that they would be able to do in the area of matching is 0.5% instead of 0.25%. The absolute value tolerance would be 2%. Jim wanted to find out if you could live with 0.5% matching. erwin ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 20-MAY-1987 18:14:31.68 To: ARVIDSON,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: R2R I have quotes from Centralab and from LTI for R2R Networks which I got as a response to my drawing which specified 0.25% matching. For an 8 bit network, 0.25% gives an accuracy of 0.64 LSB. 0.5% would give an accuracy of 1.28 LSB. Since this figure is greater than one LSB, there would be no point using 8 bits. I want to stay with 0.25% matching, especially since we have quotes from two companies who say they can do it. The quote from LTI came via Moulthrop Sales which also employs a gentleman by the name of Jim Calhoun. (Could he be the very same Jim Calhoun referred to in your message?) Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::ARVIDSON 21-MAY-1987 07:33:42.74 To: KIM::MARGOLIN,ARVIDSON CC: Subj: RE: R2R OK on the 0.25%. Yes, it's the same Jim Calhoun. I wonder why he didn't mention LTI. Maybe he assumed that I knew about the LTI quote. I'll watch for other potential sources. erwin ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MCCARTHY 26-MAY-1987 17:34:13.95 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,MCCARTHY CC: Subj: cost data A costing of the more common components used on our PC boards is available. Full instructions are given in the file kim$userdisk:[MCCARTHY.costs]areadme.lis To obtain a listing of all the components use $ print kim$userdisk:[mccarthy.costs]*.lis This costing information will be updated regularly. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::ARVIDSON 28-MAY-1987 16:32:51.43 To: MARGOLIN,ARVIDSON CC: Subj: R2R Ladder Network. The Atari part number is 118015-001 ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::TERRI 29-MAY-1987 09:38:11.12 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Bye from Terri To all of my friends here at Atari, I say Good-Bye. I have been here for 14 1/2 years and now it's time for a change. For those of you who didn't get a chance to talk with me about my Sailing Trip to San Diego & back, see Jess Melchor - he has a letter that I wrote about my trip. Bye, Terri Walters ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 29-MAY-1987 17:27:42.47 To: STEMPLER, MCCARTHY, PAAUW, HOFF, LY, SHERMAN, SNYDER, MARGOLIN, DROBNY, ROWE, LEVI, WIEBENSON, NGUYEN, DURFEY, DOWNEND, MOORE CC: Subj: LETA II precautions Several months ago, we converted LETA to a CMOS Gate array and called it LETA II. The old HMOS part is no longer available. It works fine (I think) in Trackball/opto-coupler applications. Apparently, there are additional circuit precautions needed if you plan to use it to read switches - the fast transition of a switch together with the long control harness, causes latch-up....see below... ........................................................................... From: SANDY::PAAUW 29-MAY-1987 13:41 To: DOWNEND Subj: leta II Ed said that the program would crash due to the Leta. I checked with Doug and he said that the switch inputs were ringing below ground, probably due to the length of the cables. This can cause SCR latchup in CMOS and this was apparently the case with the Leta's. The Leta chips would get very hot until power was removed. This is a classic symptom of SCR latchup. Doug replace the Leta with a lsttl part that also wouldn't work. The inputs would occaisionally be asserted onto the data bus even when the chip was not enabled. This would cause the program to crash. A Schottky part seems to be able to handle the ringing and is working OK for now. Doug believes that the cure for the ringing would be to place series resistors in series with the input wires. In any case, I believe that the problem goes farther than the Leta and that SCR latchup is not surprising under these circumstances. I just realized that I'm sending this only to you. Could you forward this to the others and to myself? Thanks. -- Don ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::BRAD 1-JUN-1987 14:15:34.06 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,BRAD CC: Subj: 2 column text utility If you write text files often you may have found yourself frustrated editing your file if it contained columns. Now there is a utility that will take an ascii file and process it into two columns. To use this utility add this line to your login.com: $ col*umn :== $ utl$exe:2col To use the utility, edit your ascii text file and include the appropriate commands (see below). I suggest using EDT or TPU since it appears re-editing an ascii file in WORDMARC is a pain. I mention re-editing because you may want to go back to your text file and touch it up after you process it thru the utility. All commands should be preceded by a carriage return and followed by a space. No more than one carriage return is allowed between column commands. There are just a few commands in two catagories: 1) column commands and 2) formating commands. The column commands are: {L put following text in the Left column. {R put following text in the Right column. {N treat text as is [default]. } end the current column. The formating commands are: {CL set left margin by [default = 0]. {CR set beginning right column by [default = 40]. {CR set right margin by [default = 80]. {S set spacing between columns by [default = 5]. {P set spacing between paragraphs by [default = 1]. Process your text file after you have typed in the appropriate commands by typing: $ column at the '$' prompt. When you run the utility it will prompt you for your input file. The output file will be the same name as your input file but with the extension: .2COL. You can also indicate your input file and your output file on the commandline like this: $ column infile.txt outfile.2col The default extensions are: .TXT for the input file and .2COL for the output file. There is also help available on how to use this utility. Just type: $ column ? And the list of commands will appear. Or you can contact me if you have problems. There are no guarantees with this utility, and if you do something wrong it will just usually blow up. But it is much easier to use then trying to format 2 columns in an editor. - brad - ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::LOGG 3-JUN-1987 09:56:04.00 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: I just have to get this off my chest! If someone offered to pay you $11,000 tomorrow if you pay them $10,000 today, would you do it? Even if the party is backed by US government? Well think twice and listen to my tale. It could happen to you!!!!! Let's say you worked for the IRS and wanted to fuck some poor bastard. Suppose you sent him the standard form letter, saying that he deducted $5,000 from some investment that the IRS does not approve of. The poor bastard thinks the IRS is out to screw him so he pays the $5000 plus $10,000 in interest from his investment three years earlier so that the IRS does not continue to add more interest to the amount he owes. The poor bastard is so confident that he is right that he pays an attorney $2500 to sue the IRS in court. Court cases usually take several years but for our argument the IRS decides the day it receives the attorneys nasty letter that it has made a mistake and returns the bastards $15000 plus $1000 in interest. (I should point out the IRS charges you 9% interest but only pays 8%.) The poor bastard thinks he has won until he has his taxes done. His accountant tells him that of the $10,000 he paid in interest, he can deduct $6,500. But the $11,000 in interest returned to him is ordinary income. So the poor bastard has to additional taxes of 33% x ($11000 - $6500) = $1500. Not only has he lost $2500 in attorneys fees but has paid $1500 more in taxes! So much for tax reform! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 3-JUN-1987 14:07:21.45 To: FRYE,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: KINDLY SUPPLY ME WITH THE NAME OF THE COMPANY THAT MAKES THE MOTION SENSORS USED ON THE DOOR CAMERAS, AS WELL AS THE MODEL NUMBER OF THE SENSORS. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SUTTLES "Yo speako TECO" 4-JUN-1987 10:35:39.27 To: MARGOLIN,SUTTLES CC: Subj: NVR/clock/calendar chip Can I get specs from you, and how do I go about getting a part? As I recall, you said that it was 2Kx8 minus the last 8 bytes (this is a question). sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 5-JUN-1987 11:32:22.25 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: EPROM Purchasing News Petersen/Wallin reports that things are really crazy in the EPROM market. We have contracts for delivery of large quantities at reasonable prices, but the spot price in the market is up to $12.00 for 27512's; hence deliveries have gotten flakey and Peteren suuspects the manufacturers are slipping our orders to fill more lucrative orders. Atari recently had to buy 10,000 27512's through distribution at $8.15 to meet current commitments. Rod Petersen also suggests we use $8.00 as the cost for 27512's until things settle out in the EPROM market. In the mean time, they have been working with Erwin Arvidson to get more vendors on the AVL - I believe Rod said that Toshiba, Mitsubishi, TI are now on the AVL for 27128/27256/27512. Manufacturing reports that the Toshiba's program much faster than AMD or any of the others. Also Toshiba and Mitsubishi have a fallout rate of about 1/2 % as opposed 1 % with AMD. Wallin also said they will be looking for ROM vendors since we have a verbal quote of $2.50 for 23512 ROM's from Sharp (masks extra - about $2000). Getting 200 ns parts is a REAL problem, getting 250 ns parts is easier, and Manufacturing would like to use 250's instead of 200's wherever possible or even "slightly not possible". Engineers should evaluate their timing and be prepared to make a judgement call in this respect. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 7-JUN-1987 16:53:31.78 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY CC: Subj: MA BELL ON TUESDAY, JUNE 9TH PACIFIC BELL WILL BE WORKING ON OUR LONG DISTANCE CALLING LINES FROM 1 TO 3 PM. TWO LINES WILL REMAIN OPEN AT ALL TIMES.IT JUST MAY TAKE A LITTLE LONGER TO GET YOUR OUTSIDE LINE. THANKS, BOB ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::ALBAUGH "Dr. Bizarro" 8-JUN-1987 17:19:43.62 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: VMS Hints and Kinks part 44352883 Maybe I was just the last to discover this, but the VMS SEARCH utility is a bit spiffier than most of us give it credit for. There is, for example, the /MATCH qualifier. The simplest real useful example of this I came up with is: $ search/match=and *.s "MOVE.W",",-(SP)" Which will type out all the lines containing the two strings, i.e. find the places that GreenHills 1.8.0 screwed you by pushing a word, rather than a long, as a parameter. /Match also has other neat possibilities. Explore and Enjoy Mike ___________________________________________________________________________ From: MIKE::HUDSON 15-JUN-1987 10:55:06.60 To: MARGOLIN CC: Subj: PR STATUS PR # 001855 - MOULTROP SALES - P.O. # CQ65736 PR # 001854 - BROOKS TECHNICAL - P.O. # CQ65701 PLEASE REFER TO P.O. # WHEN CALLING FOR STATUS. THANK YOU CANDY X 3955 ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::YAMAMOTO 15-JUN-1987 14:06:18.03 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY CC: Subj: TWO CONTESTS . . .WIN UP TO $500 ATARI GAMES CORPORATION is looking for a new name and logo that can be recognized within the entire home computer/video game world. We are having Mindscape of Northbrook, Illinois, convert our coin-op games for home computers and video game machines. We, therefore, need a logo and name that shows no resemblance to our present company name and logo nor can it be a derivative of our present name and logo. Please keep in mind we, as a coin-op manufacturing company, are not changing our name, just creating a new name and logo for our games to be distributed under the home consumer software market. So, let's go creative and think of something completely NEW! This is a contest for all Atari employees, not just those with artistic ability! We have 2 contests; one for those who are good with words can submit a name for our name contest, while those who are artistic can submit a drawing for our logo. If you have an idea for both, submit both. Entries will be judged by a selected committee of fellow employees and any name or design that is chosen to represent our company will win a cash prize of $250 for a name and $250 for a logo. All entries become the sole property of ATARI GAMES CORPORATION. Deadline for entries: June 30, 1987. Submit entries to: REBECCA DEPEW Legal Assistant 675 Sycamore Drive Milpitas, CA 95035-1110 ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::WIEBENSON 17-JUN-1987 15:16:44.26 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Through the nose Apparently the FCC is spending a lot of time trying to take from the modem users (US) and give to the phone companies (THEM). I just heard something about a $5/hour tax suggested! What's going on?! This same FCC is responsible for program-length commercials being allowed on TV, ...shopping channels, get rich quick shows, and mindlessly violent cartoons. With communications technology advancing so rapidly, I think we need a FCC with a little forsight and a combined IQ in at least the three figure range. It might also help if they only recieved paychecks from one employer. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 17-JUN-1987 15:39:49.36 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: LLF v2.2 Announcing version v2.2 of LLF so watch out, it may blow up. There are a great number of changes in this release mostly in order to complete the port to the Atari ST, and hopefully nothing much different than v2.1 (the one you've been using) as far as the VAX is concerned. Differences you might want to know about: The command line processor has been replaced and no longer uses callbacks to the VMS's CLI. This means that the command line interpreting may not be as robust as is used to be. It also means command qualifiers may be abbreviated to 1 character (no check for ambiguity is done). Commas between filenames are treated as white space so white space may substituted for commas. Multiple option files are allowed and they allow two new options: FILE (filename ...) LIBRARY (filename ...) There may any number of filenames specified in either of the commands separated by white space or commas. Specifying filenames in a FILE directive allows LLF to run slightly faster than forcing it to extract filenames from a library. I also should reiterate the points about constants expressed in an option file. They are interpreted as constants are in C, that is assumed to be decimal unless prefixed with a 0 which means octal or a 0x (or #) which means hex. Comments are delimited with a double dash (--) or exclamation point (!) and end-of-line. The C comment construct of /* and */ can also be used to comment text across multiple lines. More details about LLF may be found in DOK:LLF.DOC ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::ALBAUGH "Dr. Bizarro" 17-JUN-1987 15:49:38.86 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Dave Wiebenson's Nose Welllll Nooow, it all depends whose ox is gored. The "$5/hour tax" Dave Wiebenson is complaining about is actually the removal of an equivalent gift the FCC gave companies like CompuServe some time ago. It all started when the founder of MCI noticed that if he didn't have to subsidize home telephone service, he could sell long-distance at lower rates than Ma Bell. Ma was understandably annoyed at this, and when the dust cleared we got pretty much the current situation: You buy your local phone service from PacBell for whatever the PUC allows (often slightly BELOW their cost.) They make up the difference by charging Long-Distance companies (e.g. MCI) "access charges" which the long-distance companies (no fools) pass on to you. The theory is that poor folks get a break and yuppies who make a lot of long distance calls won't notice the extra charge. When this whole mess was set up, the "information providers", who in most other ways resemble long-distance companies, cried poor and got an exemption "for a few years, until business picks up". The net result was that I (who have never logged on to Compuserve) was subsidizing Dave and (not-so-coincidentally CompuServe). Lately the FCC has noticed that the Chairman of the board of CompuServe drives a nicer car than I do and decided it was time to let me off the hook. I happen to like that idea. Mike ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::HARPER 18-JUN-1987 10:47:40.85 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: A miracle Warning!! The UV ROM eraser can do more than erase your chips. While erasing 16 27512s (with a "White Water" sticker on them), I returned to find that 10 of the ROMs magically turned into 27256s!! Now this is either an act of God or the act of a slimeball. Please note that my sticker was still on the ROMs (like I wouldn't notice!!). A little peeved... Dennis ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 18-JUN-1987 15:42:57.39 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: VMS bites again... LLF now uses the C argc/argv argument convention to get the command line stuff. DCL specifies that no single argument be greater than 256 chars and that the total of all arguments be no greater than 1024 chars. Unfortuneatly, commas do NOT delimit arguments when using the argc/argv system, you must use white space. For example: file1,file2 is 1 argument as far as DCL is concerned, whereas: file1, file2 is 2 arguments. A problem shows up when you have a very long list of filenames such as you might have in a makefile and DCL assumes that list to be one argument. You'll get a nasty message: %DCL-E-TOOLNG, Argument to too damn long, shorten it up you turkey or words to that effect. To fix that problem, insert spaces between one or more filenames instead of or in addition to commas. ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 18-JUN-1987 16:07:22.42 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: Don't believe everything you read... I lied. Two hundred fifty six (256) is the limit, not the aformentioned 1024 regardless of whether you use spaces. Sorry, the option file is the only solution. ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::BROWN 19-JUN-1987 11:57:10.53 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,BROWN CC: Subj: PICNIC TICKETS EMPLOYEES WHO WANT TO PURCHASE TICKETS FOR OUTSIDE GUEST MAY DO SO TODAY THROUGH MONDAY MORNING. WE HAVE TO GIVE THE PARK A FINAL COUNT BY MONDAY NOON. THE PRICES ARE $10 FOR ADULTS, AND $6 FOR CHILDREN. TICKETS MAY BE PURCHASED FROM SANDI, HUMAN RESOURCES. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 19-JUN-1987 20:04:01.67 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: MAKE and LLF Now that you may need to use an option file with LLF, it has been mentioned that it can be a bit more of a pain to use a single dependency list in your MAKEFILE. The following is an excerpt from LLF's makefile. The commas in the VMS lists are required for VMS's LINK utility and the spaces surrounding the commas are required so MAKE doesn't screw up. LLF does not require commas between filenames so they are not included in the Atari ST build lists. LLF now allows for multiple option files, so you may leave your LOCATE commands and stuff in your current option file and create another one in the method section of your makefile. So, good luck figuring out what this does: ! ALLx are the dependency lists for a VMS version build ! (commas are required by LINK and spaces are optional, but... ! spaces are required by MAKE and commas are illegal, however, ! it works if there are spaces surrounding the comma) ALL1 = timer.obj , symdef.obj , symbol.obj , reloc.obj , qksort.obj ALL2 = pass2.obj , pass1.obj , outx.obj , object.obj , memmgt.obj ALL3 = mapsym.obj , llf.obj , lc.obj , insert_id.obj ALL4 = hashit.obj , grpmgr.obj , gc.obj , fnf.obj , dsubscale.obj ! ! ALLSTx are the dependency lists for an ATARI ST version build ALLST1 = timer.ol symdef.ol symbol.ol reloc.ol qksort.ol pass2.ol pass1.ol ALLST2 = outx.ol object.ol memmgt.ol mapsym.ol llf.ol lc.ol insert_id.ol ALLST3 = hashit.ol grpmgr.ol gc.ol fnf.ol llf.ln : #(ALLST1) #(ALLST2) #(ALLST3) makefile. $ bla_bla ... $ create llf.tmp !make a temp option file FILE ( srtlib:tosstart sys$disk:[]#(ALLST1) #(ALLST2) #(ALLST3) ) LIBR ( srtlib:srtlib ) $ LLF/OUT=LLF/MAP/err/rel llf.tmp/opt $ delete llf.tmp;* llf.exe : #(ALL1) #(ALL2) #(ALL3) #(ALL4) makefile. $ bla_bla ... $ LINK/map/exe=LLF #(ALL1),#(ALL2),#(ALL3),#(ALL4) ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DURFEY 23-JUN-1987 10:52:10.71 To: MARGOLIN CC: Subj: this is a copy of Chris' status repr From: KIM::BJORKQUIST 17-JUN-1987 15:38 To: DURFEY Subj: F From: KIM::DOWNEND 17-JUN-1987 15:03 To: @ALPHAGANG.DIS Subj: News Note 6/17/87 Here's a quick dump of recent events: 1) Managers and up enjoyed a dinner of sushi with Mr. Nakamura last week. Nothing significant was announced - highlights included a speech by Mike Hally extolling the wonderful success of APB at the Distributor Meeting (he even thanked everybody for helping - your're slipping Mike), AND Mr. Nakajima showed us all how to balance a plate i AND Mr. Nakajima showed us all how to balance a plate on the edge of another. 2) Atari has entered into an agreement with Mindscape to have them publish home computer versions of two of our games (Gauntlet and 720 I think). We are also talking to them about publishing our two Nintendo cart products: Temple of Doom and Gauntlet. This would be for the US market on the Nintendo NES game machine. We cannot use the Atari name in the consumer market for these products. This explains why we are looking for a new name other than Atari. 3) Atari is actively looking to buy an arcade chain. We have hired a consultant to assist in the search. In anticipation of getting arcade operations going, we are also looking for a name - this one SHOULD include the word Atari, such as Atari Adventure. 4) APB sales went very well at the Distibutor meeting that occurred 6/2-6/4 in South Carolina. It looks like Dave will actually have to FINISH the program...although he's still asking for "just two more weeks"... 5) ROBOX is coming up for Field Test in early July - just before Flanagan goes off to tie the knot. 6) keely and Norm are working hard to have Tank ready for field test in Kelly and Norm are working hard to have Tank ready for field test in latew July or early August - timing looks perfect for AMOA introduction if they can stick to the schedule. 7) Rasteriods has decided to NOT use interlace; resolution will drop form from 6c40x480 to 640 x 240. Rotberg is talking to some model makers (including ILM) to make models of his three ships which he and Alan will digitize to use in the game video. Ed has alos moved his schedule UP one month... 8) Cyberball hardware is finally coming up after a longer than expected de-bug time. 9) ROBOX is using a very dense PCB layout that pushes manufacturing tolerances to the limit. Manufacturing is worried, but we are goin to try it and see how it goes. If major problems show up we will have back off. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::CAMERON 24-JUN-1987 08:18:28.64 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: 1988 ANOTHER NEWS FLASH.....REAGAN VOWS TO HELP END UNREST IN SOUTH KOREA I DON'T THINK SO...CONSIDERING THAT L.A. AND MAYOR TOM HAS TOLD THE OLYMPIC COMMITTEE THAT L.A. IS READY AND ABLE TO HOST THE 1988 OLYMPICS AT A MOMENTS NOTICE. MAYBE WE SHOULD SEND IN THE CIA TO MESS UP KOREA SOME MORE. OR MAYBE WE ALREADY HAVE. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 24-JUN-1987 15:29:39.77 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: BIRTHDAY CHEERS AS PART OF OUR BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION, EACH ATARI PERMENENT EMPLOYEE AND THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS ARE TO RECEIVE A COMPANY T-SHIRT AND A COUPLE OF ROADBLASTERS. PLEASE DROP BY THE CAFETERIA TOMORROW, THURSDAY BETWEEN 11AM AND 1PM TO PICK UP YOURS. EMPLOYEES NOT ABLE TO PICK UP THEIR SHIRTS AT THIS TIME MAY DO SO NEXTWEEK. ALL TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES WILL RECEIVE ROADBLASTERS THURSDAY AFTERNOON. I'M PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE REC. COMMITTEE REACHED THEIR GOAL OF 500 PARTY GO'ERS, COME EARLY AND HAVE FUN. THANKS, BOBZZZZZ ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::CAMERON 24-JUN-1987 15:34:32.17 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: PICNIC GOODIES DO WE GET OUR CHOICE OF SIT-DOWN OR UPRIGHT ROADBLASTERS? OR DO WE JUST HAVE TO TAKE WHATEVER COMBINATION OF GAMES THAT YOU GIVE US. THANKS BOB! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::VANELDREN 24-JUN-1987 17:47:21.55 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: RUMORS: There's a pleasant rumor circulating that only those Engineering employees that show up to root for the Survivors tomorrow nite at 5:30 at Twin Creeks will be issued their regular paychecks for the end of this month. Of course, you can't believe everything you hear. Then again....... ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::RELIEF 25-JUN-1987 13:20:57.71 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: PETE LIPSON I JUST WANTED EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT PETE IS TOO THE SORT OF WEENIE TO LEAVE HIMSELF LOGGED IN AT THE IMI FOR HOURS ON END RELIEF ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 26-JUN-1987 09:30:06.39 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: Survivor News There is no joy in Mudville today... ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 29-JUN-1987 08:15:02.16 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: FACILITIES UPDATE BUILDING 675.....STARTING WEDNESDAY, JULY 1ST, FACILITES MAINTENANCE SERVICESWILL BE OUR NEW JANITORIAL SERVICE. BEING NEW TO OUR BUILDING, IT WILL TAKE THEM A FEW DAYS TO GET INTO HIGH GEAR. YOUR COOPERATION DURING THIS TIME IS APPRECIATED. THANKS, BOB ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::BENZLER 29-JUN-1987 13:50:54.45 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,BENZLER CC: Subj: BON JOUR Do you speak French? I don't. We just received the French language translations of the screen messages on our new game, APB, from our distributor in France. I am sure that most of the translations are relatively correct, but I would like someone to look them over to see if there are any obvious errors or misinterpretations. Unfortunately, Monsieur Jacques Aknin is on vacation for two weeks and is unavailable to help out. Please contact me at ext. 3750 or reply at this address if you are able to say, "All Points Bulletin" in French. Thanks! --Linda ___________________________________________________________________________ From: MIKE::MARGOLIN 2-JUL-1987 21:16:44.17 To: HALLY,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: $$$$$$$$$ MIKE, If you are interested in the real 720 PC Board costs, Read On. (The two boards, stuffed and tested, come to either $753.15 or $870.94, depending on whether or not the cost is "frozen".) Jed ASSEMBLY PART NUMBER? A043921-01 AS OF DATE? DATE: 07/02/87 COSTED BILL OF MATERIALS PAGE: 1 ======================== SORTED BY ITEM NUMBER STANDARD COSTS AS OF 07/02/87 PART: A043921-01 DESC: ASSY,CPU_PCB,720 UOM: EA SC: M REV: C EXTENDED EXTENDED EXTENDED BURDENED BURDENED BURDENED ITEM QTY PER MATERIAL LABOR OUTSIDE COMP PART NUMBER NO. ASSEMBLY COST COST PROCESSING ------------------ ---- ---------- -------------- -------------- -------------- A042571-21 1 1.00 177.961 73.890 0.000 043925-01 2 1.00 0.114 0.000 0.000 136047-1126 4 1.00 2.850 0.000 0.000 136047-1127 5 1.00 2.850 0.000 0.000 136047-1128 6 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1129 7 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1130 8 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1131 9 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1132 10 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1133 11 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1134 12 1.00 2.850 0.000 0.000 136047-1135 13 1.00 2.850 0.000 0.000 136047-1136 14 1.00 2.850 0.000 0.000 137412-107 17 1.00 0.990 0.000 0.000 -------------- -------------- -------------- 230.815 73.890 0.000 MATERIAL COST: 230.815 COMPONENT MATERIAL OVERHEAD COST: 0.000 ASSEMBLY MATERIAL OVERHEAD COST: 0.000 COMPONENT DIRECT LABOR COST: 0.000 COMPONENT FIXED OVERHEAD COST: 0.000 COMPONENT VARIABLE OVERHEAD COST: 0.000 COMPONENT OUTSIDE PROCESSING COST: 0.000 COMPONENT OUTSIDE PROCESSING OVERHEAD COST: 0.000 ASSEMBLY DIRECT LABOR COST: 11.480 ASSEMBLY FIXED OVERHEAD COST: 56.280 ASSEMBLY VARIABLE OVERHEAD COST: 21.440 ASSEMBLY OUTSIDE PROCESSING COST: 0.000 ASSEMBLY OUTSIDE PROCESSING OVERHEAD COST: 0.000 -------------- FROZEN COST: 320.015 SUM OF INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS' COSTS AND ASSEMBLY COSTS: 393.905 ASSEMBLY PART NUMBER? A043922-01 AS OF DATE? DATE: 07/02/87 COSTED BILL OF MATERIALS PAGE: 1 ======================== SORTED BY ITEM NUMBER STANDARD COSTS AS OF 07/02/87 PART: A043922-01 DESC: ASSY,VIDEO_PCB,720 UOM: EA SC: M REV: B EXTENDED EXTENDED EXTENDED BURDENED BURDENED BURDENED ITEM QTY PER MATERIAL LABOR OUTSIDE COMP PART NUMBER NO. ASSEMBLY COST COST PROCESSING ------------------ ---- ---------- -------------- -------------- -------------- A043879-21 1 1.00 182.282 43.940 0.000 043926-01 2 1.00 0.130 0.000 0.000 136047-1101 4 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1102 5 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1103 6 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1104 7 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1105 8 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1106 9 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1107 10 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1108 11 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1109 12 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1110 13 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1111 14 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1112 15 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1113 16 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1114 17 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1115 18 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1116 19 1.00 6.250 0.000 0.000 136047-1117 20 1.00 3.400 0.000 0.000 136047-1118 21 1.00 3.400 0.000 0.000 136047-1119 22 1.00 3.400 0.000 0.000 136047-1120 23 1.00 3.400 0.000 0.000 136047-1121 24 1.00 3.400 0.000 0.000 136047-1122 25 1.00 3.400 0.000 0.000 136047-1123 26 1.00 3.400 0.000 0.000 136047-1124 27 1.00 3.400 0.000 0.000 136047-1125 28 1.00 3.000 0.000 0.000 -------------- -------------- -------------- 312.612 43.940 0.000 MATERIAL COST: 312.612 COMPONENT MATERIAL OVERHEAD COST: 0.000 ASSEMBLY MATERIAL OVERHEAD COST: 0.000 COMPONENT DIRECT LABOR COST: 0.000 COMPONENT FIXED OVERHEAD COST: 0.000 COMPONENT VARIABLE OVERHEAD COST: 0.000 COMPONENT OUTSIDE PROCESSING COST: 0.000 COMPONENT OUTSIDE PROCESSING OVERHEAD COST: 0.000 ASSEMBLY DIRECT LABOR COST: 15.510 ASSEMBLY FIXED OVERHEAD COST: 76.020 ASSEMBLY VARIABLE OVERHEAD COST: 28.960 ASSEMBLY OUTSIDE PROCESSING COST: 0.000 ASSEMBLY OUTSIDE PROCESSING OVERHEAD COST: 0.000 -------------- FROZEN COST: 433.102 SUM OF INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS' COSTS AND ASSEMBLY COSTS: 477.042 ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::BROWN 7-JUL-1987 10:09:50.08 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,BROWN CC: Subj: PICNIC PICTURES *********************** W A N T E D ********************* WE WOULD APPRECIATE PICTURES, OR THE NEGATIVES OF PICTURES TAKEN AT THE ATARI BIRTHDAY PICNIC. WE HAVE SOME BUT WOULD LIKE TO DISPLAY AS MANY AS WE CAN. THIS CAN BE ON A "ON LOAN" BASES (THEY WILL BE RETURNED0, OR WE COULD PRODUCE OUR OWN FROM NEGATIVES YOU SUPPLY. PLEASE REPLY TO ME BY VAX MAIL, PHONE, OR A VISIT. SANDI (FOR THE RECREATION COMMITTEE) ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::WOOD 9-JUL-1987 10:26:08.93 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: NEW NAME FOR HOME COMPUTER SOFTWARE AND ARCADES The company has been searching for a new name that it could use in marketing its home computer software. Mindscape, Inc. has been selected by us as the company to distribute our home computer software. Presently, we are planning to have Commodore 64 and Atari ST versions of Gauntlet and a Commodore 64 version of Paperboy available in the stores this Christmas. Other titles and other formats will follow as they become available. Additionally, we are actively engaged in trying to open new arcades. We have received quite a few suggestions from our contest for a name and logo for our home computer software line. We have also asked informally for suggestions of names we could use for our arcades. Again, we have received quite a few suggestions. Upon consideration of all the names we received, the Executive Committee felt that it would be advantageous to have one name that could be used for both our consumer products and for our arcades. The Committee has selected four names that it would like to receive your comments/inputs. The four names are as follows: Alpha Zone Quarter Deck XYZYX (this is not a misspelling) Ganesis If you could send your comments to me by vax mail or by intercompany mail along with your rating of each name on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 mail along with your rating of each name on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest), I would appreciate it. Please note that when it comes to the arcades, we plan on still using "Atari" with the name that is finally selected. For example, the arcade sign might read "Atari Alpha Zone" or "Atari XYZYX." ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::RAINS 9-JUL-1987 12:41:23.56 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: 'nuf said As the young engineer reached the cafeteria, many people were already there. Most of the seats were taken, and employees continued to drift in. He found a place along the back wall and leaned lightly against it. He looked around at groups of his co-workers engaged in quiet conversation as they waited for the meeting to start. His eyes drifted down towards the floor to his feet, and then up to the shiny, new employee badge clipped to his shirt pocket. He removed it and read his name, "Ernest D. Seiner." He looked at his picture and thought how pale the face was, and how the eyes were half closed... He was startled by a sudden greeting, "Hi, Ernie." He quickly replaced the badge, trying to hide a slight embarrassment. He looked up to return the greeting. "Hi, Wanda. How are you?" He looked at the programmer who had started at Atari the same day he had. They had become friends during the past month. It had seemed that everyone else in engineering had been here FOREVER, and it had not been easy to break into the small social circles in the department. So they had kept each other company during lunches, and had shared new "tricks of the trade" and other discoveries. The room had grown crowded while he traded small talk with Wanda. The volume of conversation was rising as people waited impatiently for the meeting to begin. Ernie saw people across the room move aside to allow a man through the crowd. He recognized the man as Lyle Rains, one of the Vice Presidents of Engineering, though Ernie had met him only briefly during his introductory tour of Atari facilities. He could see the VP was talking, but couldn't hear what was being said. A hush started like a wave at the front of the room, and rolled quickly towards Ernie's position along the side wall. He heard a fragment, "... called you here." A few people in front chuckled as the rest of the crowd settled into their seats and strained to hear what the VP was saying. His voice seems so quiet, Ernie thought. The VP looked alternately at the ceiling and the floor, and then furtively across the crowded room as he addressed the assembly, "I need to talk to you today about drug usage." Ernie saw several people roll their eyes look at each other in apparent disgust. He felt Wanda looking at him, but he didn't look back. In the back of the room, a guy named Mike Hally quietly quipped, "What's wrong, aren't we using enough?" A few people laughed uneasily. The VP waited for silence and continued. "There have recently been several reports and allegations brought to our attention about drug use within Atari. These reports have come from inside and outside of the company. They are not about specific individuals, but about usage throughout the company. I am here to tell you that the management of the Atari will not tolerate drug usage by our employees. "If you are using drugs, you cannot do your best work for yourself or the company. You may also hinder others from doing their work well. You give Atari a bad reputation in the business community. Use of drugs is both illegal and bad for you." The VP's face was gravely neutral, but his voice was tense. "I hate to be here telling adults what they already know, at least as much as you hate to be listening to it, but I don't want any misunderstanding." His voice got louder now, as he spoke the words with slow precision, "If you are caught using drugs on company property or are found to be under the influence of drugs while at work, you will be fired. The same day. No exceptions, no questions." Ernie thought to himself, so this is what it's like working in the real world. He smiled inwardly. It's just like high school, he thought. Other things flashed through his mind as well. Things like a cluster of figures near the back entrance of the warehouse he had seen during his facilities tour. Like the familiar heavy sweet-smokey odor he had smelled wafting through the ventilation system one late evening as he read some technical manuals in his cubicle. He had assumed it was the night gaurd or janitors, since he thought everyone else had gone home for the night. Well, I only smoke a little marijuana at parties occasionally, Ernie thought, He's not talking to me. Ernie started suddenly as he realized that the VP was staring straight at him. Or through him. Ernie wondered if his inward smile had leaked onto his face. The VP's gaze quickly shifted away to other faces in the room and Ernie relaxed heavily back against the wall. "Don't do it here. Don't do it at all. End of statement." The VP waited a few long seconds and then left the room as quietly as he had entered. People rose from their chairs and engaged in hushed conversations as they slowly filtered out of the room. Ernie and Wanda walked in silence back towards their cubicles. Halfway down the hall, Wanda asked in a whisper, "What was that all about?" "Dunno," he said, though he felt he really did. "See you at lunch." ___________________________________________________________________________ ============================================================================== Regarding Lyle's Parable: The biggest supplier of drugs to company employees is: The Company. Drugs are openly sold to employees in the cafeteria in the form of beverages containing caffeine. Not only that, the company supplies drugs free of charge to its employees at the numerous coffee stations, conveniently located throughout the building. If you think that caffein is not a drug and if you are a regular drinker of coffee (not decaffeinated) or of tea (not decaffeinated), try going without it for 72 hours. No cheating when you want to wake up in the morning; assuming, of course, that you were able to sleep the night before. Lyle's parable suggested that employees who come to work under the influence of drugs should be fired. Is he suggesting that an employee taking prescribed drugs to control his high blood pressure discontinue such use? Possession and use of alcoholic beverages is legal in California for those persons 21 and older and yet their use on company premises (including the parking lot) is considered grounds for terminating said employee unless the alcohol is provided by the company at an official function. In his story he did not distinguish between legal and illegal drugs. By its policy on alcohol the company has made it clear that it has decided that it has the right to regulate an employee's use of legal drugs. Perhaps the message of Lyle's parable is that employees should only take drugs provided to him or her by the company. Jed _____________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::BROWN 9-JUL-1987 16:35:27.29 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,BROWN CC: Subj: PICNIC T-SHIRTS WE HAVE FOUND THAT ON SOME OF THE T-SHIRTS THE GOLD COLOR COMES OFF AFTER ONE OR TWO WASHINGS. THE PRINTER TELLS US THAT THEIR MAY HAVE BEEN A A POWER SURGE DURING THE PRINTING OF SOME OF THE LOTS, THUS THE COLOR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN BAKED ON AS WELL, BUT HE DOESN'T THINK ALL THE RUNS WERE AFFECTED. THEY WILL, HOWEVER, REPLACE ANY SHIRTS THAT ARE DEFECTED. SO, IF YOU FIND THAT THE GOLD ON YOUR LOGO IS NO LONGER, OR IS SLOWLY DISAPPEARING, PLEASE RETURN IT TO ME. I WILL THEN TAKE A INVENTORY OF SIZES NEEDED AND REORDER. FOR THOSE OF YOU WAITING FOR LARGE AND X-LARGE SHIRTS. WE WILL ORDER THEM AT THE SAME TIME WE REORDER THE REPLACEMENTS FOR THE DEFECTED SHIRTS. WE DON'T WANT TO DRAG OUT THIS PROCESS, SO I WILL SET A DEADLINE. PLEASE HAVE YOUR DEFECTED SHIRTS (CLEAN, PLEASE) TO ME BY 7/17. SANDI ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::MILTY 9-JUL-1987 16:37:15.40 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: MEMO JUST REMEMBER,..WHEN IT COMES TO THE BIG "D"..... .........JUST SAY NO! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::ROLM "SUTTLES, SHEPPERD, or ALBAUGH" 13-JUL-1987 13:52:46.77 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY,ROLM CC: Subj: Featured Feature -- BAD LINE (flash-*563) This announcement is about the BAD LINE feature. This might not sound like much to you, but it is. When you are making or receiving an outside call, several parts of the switch come into play. Of course, your telephone is involved, and the wires going to the telephone switch, but once it gets into the guts of the switch, your call can use as many as 80 different parts to get out of the company and into the public network. When you get a "bad line", it might be because of your end, but most likely, it is one of the trunk lines that hook us up to the public network. I can fix your line easily enough, but if I can't find the problem, I can't do anything about it. That's where BAD LINE comes in. When you get a bad line, if you'll do the following, it will help. WHILE YOU ARE STILL CONNECTED (even if nobody is there), FLASH, and dial *563. Remember the star. That will make a note in the computer, and it will tell me WHICH of the outside lines you were using. The problem may be on our end, or it may be on the public end (which we can't help). But, if several people (more than one) complain about a given trunk line being bad, I have somewhere to look. If we get complaints about bad lines, but they don't stick to one trunk or another, I can call the phone company with times and trunk numbers so they can ask their computer which lines were involved. If you DON't do this, I can do almost nothing about the problem. It doesn't harm anything to log a bad line when all that is involved is internal extensions. But it doesn't log it either (I don't know why, it's not my program). If you get a bad line on an INSIDE call (anything you didn't dial a 9 for first), you'll have to make the note for me. I'll need to know what extensions were involved (yours, and what other NUMBER (not name)). Presumably, if we have a bad line on the telephone side of our switch, it will always give poor connections. So it should be easy to find and fix. If you tell me. If you don't, I won't fix it. So there. The reason for sending this out, now, after being here over a year, is that apparently it is a well-kept secret. We have had a line that didn't work right (sometimes real staticy, sometimes nobody there) for the last two or three weeks. Evelyn logged it at the operator console 3 times last week, so I was able to find it. It was taken out of service at 10:00 last Friday. Since then, I have found out that literally DOZENS of people knew about it, because there have been several verbal complaints about noisy lines or completely silent ones. I am under the impression that the problem was eliminated at about 10:00 last Friday morning. If you have had problems SINCE then, please let me know. If you have problems in the future, PLEASE LOG THE BAD LINE (flash-*563). We don't have to wait for the line to drop dead before we fix it, and we won't, if I can find out sooner. Sorry for the length of the message. I am hoping that by knowing why I want you to do that, and what it will do for you, that more people will log the bad lines and we won't have another period of people thinking they were hung up on (because they couldn't be heard) or having to shout to be understood. It leaves Atari Games, and everybody here, with a poor image that isn't necessary. Thanx for reading this far, and thanks a lot for logging those bad lines with flash-*563. sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 13-JUL-1987 14:03:19.25 To: FRYE,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: Ants There are ants in the Cafeteria. Please take care of them before they infest the rest of the building (like they did in 1272). I doubt that a can of Raid will fix the problem. How about having an exterminator come in and really take care of it? Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: MIKE::HAYES 14-JUL-1987 09:43:54.23 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Stolen car stereo Some nice person stole my car stereo (parked at the side of 735)sometime between 6a.m. and 3p.m.yesterday.It could happen to you !!!!! The only minor consolation is that there were so many bits of it left behind on my car floor my car floor that the obviously amateur thief probably has an unsaleable item on his/her hands. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::MEYETTE 14-JUL-1987 10:35:58.25 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: STOLEN CAR STEREO's THERE HAS BEEN A RASH OF SIMILAR THEFTS AROUND THE NEW BUILDINGS OFF OF NORTH FIRST STREET, ON THE NORTH SIDE OF 237. THE THEIFS ARE PROBABLY DRUG ADDICTS THAT NEED TO SUPPORT THEIR HABIT. THESE GUYS THINK NOTHING OF USING A CROW BAR TO GAIN ENTRY INTO YOUR CAR, AND WILL WORK IN BROAD DAYLIGHT IN FRONT OF A ROW OF WINDOWS. IT WOULD BE WISE IF YOU HAVE A "MARKETABLE" STEREO IN YOUR CAR, TO PARK IN AN AREA WHERE YOU CAN KEEP AN EYE ON IT MOST OF THE DAY. RAM ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::PPS 14-JUL-1987 11:25:33.40 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: Logical Name for PPS Utilities Directory In an earlier mail message, you were informed that pps utilities would be located on only one node. To assist with this process, there now exists a system logical which you should now use in your login.com and any other alias com files which assign to pps utilities. The new logical is: UTL$PPS This would generally be used to replace: kim$userdisk:[pps.utilities] . Any questions, feel free to ask. Mr. PPS (soon to be Mr. RAD) ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::LIPSON 14-JUL-1987 14:13:41.23 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: nuf' said! all right, any Atari drug addicts stay away from my stereo! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::OHARA 15-JUL-1987 08:10:40.01 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY CC: Subj: New Schedule, Office Supply Dispencing Yesterday I posted a new schedule outlining my weeks at Atari, I have incorporated several changes. The first change is that I no longer will dispence Verbal Orders! so jot your needs down, with your Name, Dept#, and Extension and send them to me via Interoffice Mail or VAXmail and I will endeavor to give it to you Monday, Wednesday, or Friday mornings. Also I now have Office Hours so that you can find me, and discuss Special Projects (such as Will Calls, Deliveries, etc.), get Office Supplies (Bring Your Note With You) or any other problems that I may be able to help you with. Please Note: Office Supplies includes an incredibly large number of Items with a great deal of overlap into the realms of Art, Drafting, Computer Supplies (even furniture and equipment), so it may be worthwhile to check with me to see what I can do for you (since I am also the mailroom I have a collection of catalogs for your perusal). I am sorry to be so long winded, so thanks for your patience and cooperation. jbo ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 15-JUL-1987 16:11:38.88 To: MARGOLIN CC: Subj: ANTS THERE ALL GONE.......BOB ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 15-JUL-1987 20:20:50.68 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: New IMI routines Warning, I released a new version of the IMI stuff (MIXIT, DOWND and DIO to follow shortly). This release fixed a bug in file handling when word sizes were greater than 8 bits and the file was greater than 128k bytes (MIXIT, DIO and DOWND have the same bug). Also, UPLOAD will now work on the IMI although it won't re-mix the data back into non-8 bit words. That is, if you programmed 2 Eproms with 16 bit data and upload those two Eproms into a file, you'll get a file with 2 sets of 8 bit data not what you started with. New feature: You can get Eprom checksums without programming them or even downloading any data to the IMI. The checksum displayed is the number that the IMI would compute, not necessarily what your self test would compute (Lipson is working on a more robust version). To get them, type IMI at any terminal (it'll say something about not being able to run the IMI if you're not at the IMI's terminal, ignore that), do a DEVICE and FILE selection as usual and type IMI_COMMAND: CHECK start-end Example: $ IMI IMI_COMMAND: FILE TEST 16 IMI_COMMAND: DEV 27512 IMI_COMMAND: CHECK 0-1FFFF IMI_COMMAND: EX $ If you have trouble with this release, you can use the old one by: $ ASS KIM$SYSDEVICE:[OLDIMI] IMI$SYSTEM before typing IMI. ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::HORN "Erich Von Horn" 16-JUL-1987 11:17:15.75 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: break ins I also had a breakin on my car. They didn't get much, just three dollars, an empty check book, my drivers licence, social security card, and birth certificate. But they smashed my right window to smitherines to get the stuff. I had desided to install a cianide car alarm, so that these bad people won't get away. (thats "have" not "had" on line 4, word 3 -- oops) ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SUTTLES "Yo speako TECO" 16-JUL-1987 12:00:23.01 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,SUTTLES CC: Subj: Hit (aka smash and grab) and run Perhaps Atari Games should consider a new line of business. Do you think that there would be a market for silent car alarms? sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::CAMERON 16-JUL-1987 12:02:08.42 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: high tech toss Maybe the perfect car alarm system could be designed to toss out a cheapo fakeo stereo. The stupid thief would be satisfied and leave your car alone. Why would anyone leave their wallet in their car? ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::PIERCE 16-JUL-1987 14:38:47.24 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Car Alarm I suggest you do what I did. 1. Get your car stolen. 2. Have it returned with no radio. 3. Dont replace radio. 4. While leaving car unattended leave nothing of value in car and leave the windows open. If you follow these simple steps I assume your car will have a better chance of being looked over. MSP PS Perhaps the reinstitution of the death penalty would send a message to up and coming thieves. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::LIPSON 16-JUL-1987 14:15:52.89 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: auto-checksum utility ANNOUNCING! The end to last-minute, late-night checksumming of roms... No longer do you need to make two or three passes to get valid checksums for your files. CKSUM.EXE will accept any EXTEKHEX or VLDA file format and append records to it that will patch in the correct checksums (using the algorithms from GAUNTLET and SYSTEM I). Then you can download this file into a devsys or IMI and violin! it works! To use it, create a file .CKS with one line for each rom bank: :::::::::::: example :::::::::: CKSUM0 10000 27128 CKSUM1 18000 27128 CKSUM2 20000 27256 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: then respond: CKSUM >filename ( for .HEX files ) or CKSUM >filename.VLDA ( for .VLDA files) or CKSUM >HELP! ( for help on options ) the file to run is: KIM$USERDISK:[LIPSON.CKSUM]CKSUM This assumes that your system uses a seperate low address/high address rom for each rom bank, so 6502 systems are out of luck. Please let me know if you have any other memory organization you need supported. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::SHEPPERD 16-JUL-1987 16:29:38.51 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: Look out below...it's a new MIXIT Due to popular demand, MIXIT can now output a file suitable for assembly by the 68000 assembler. The file type is .ASM. The code is not inserted in any particular section nor is the PC set to anything (it could be "included" by a different module. The code is placed in DC.B statements, 16 bytes per line unless otherwise specified (with the /REC=n qualifier). Blank spaces are skipped with the DS.B directive. To date there are now 8 different output formats that can be created by MIXIT (and DIO/IMI uploader) and 6 input formats that can be read by MIXIT (and DOWNC/DOWND and DIO/IMI programs). The first two formats must be output only (MIXIT won't read them properly): $ MIXIT >OUT filename.ASM !or filename.bla_bla/ASM 68k assem format >OUT filename.MAC !or filename.bla_bla/MAC MAC65 assem format The remaining formats can be either input or output: >OUT filename.DLD !or filename.bla_bla/DLD MOStech load format >OUT filename.HEX !or filename.bla_bla/TEK Extended TEKHEX format >OUT filename.ROM !or filename.bla_bla/ROM Atari .ROM format >OUT filename.LDA !or filename.bla_bla/LDA DEC LDA format >OUT filename.VLDA !or filename.bla_bla/VLDA Atari VLDA format VLDA is the default input and output type. >OUT filename.anything_else !or filename/IMAGE binary image format ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::SHEPPERD 16-JUL-1987 16:36:25.09 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: Ooops...This is one I meant to send WARNING WARNING, DANGER DANGER!!! A new version of MIXIT has been released. This release fixes the bug mentioned in the IMI message because it uses the same file I/O routines as the IMI, DIO and downloaders. New features: You can put a /NOSYMBOL option on an INPUT or OUTPUT command to exclude the symbols that may be present in a file. If you put it on the OUTPUT command, then the output will contain no symbols from ANY input file. If you put it on an INPUT command, then the symbols contained in that input file will not appear in the output. End of file records (required for .HEX, .DLD and .LDA files only) will appear as the last record of the output file regardless of how many input files contribute to the output provided that MIXIT is exited with an EXIT command or control Z. No EOF record will be written if MIXIT exits via a control Y or control C. If this version breaks your program(s), you can get the old one back by defining the following before running MIXIT. $ MIX*IT :== $UTL$ARCHIVE:MIXIT Again, I suggest that you use .VLDA file type at all times for all your MIXed files since it is substantially faster for all the utilities to deal with than any of the other types (except for image, which is even faster still but much less flexible). ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::SHEPPERD 17-JUL-1987 12:01:29.19 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: New DOWND There's a new version of DOWND installed today. The /SYMBOL and /NOSYMBOL options will work now (they worked before, but only if they were in the DLC file...oops). ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::WOOD 17-JUL-1987 14:26:34.41 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: ONE LAST TIME FOR SOFTWARE AND ARCADE NAME I received quite a few responses regarding the previous four names that had been selected as possible names that we could use in conjunction with marketing our software and using as the name for our arcades. Before making any final decisions, the Executive Committee wanted to make a request once again for any suggestions for a name that we could use for both our home computer software and our arcades. You may submit as many names as you like. $250 goes to the submitter whose name is selected. I would appreciate receiving your entries no later than next Friday, July 24. Thanks. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::ALBAUGH "Dr. Bizarro" 20-JUL-1987 08:48:19.77 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: "Always fan, flex, and joggle", and other lost wisdom Back in the days when I/O meant punched cards, there was usually a sign near the card reader with the above inscription. The purpose of this exercise was to break the partial vacuum that existed between the cards of a deck that had not been used for a while, to discharge the static electricity it may have accumulated, and to align the bottom edges. Those who failed to heed this advice often got away with it. They also sometimes had their decks jam, which angered the operators and lost hours (perhaps days) of work. Nowadays few of us remember this admonition, which is no big deal, but we also forget things like the following: "Always clear the decimal flag on entry to an interrupt routine, and at power-up." A 6502 will come up in binary mode almost all the time, but we are not dealing with hand grenades or horseshoes, and once in a while one came get some very bizarre behavior. This bug bit one of our first 6502 games 10 years ago, and a later game about five years ago. It just bit again, a victim who shall remain nameless. Old bugs don't die. "DTACK and VPA must never be asserted at the same time." An amazing percentage of 680x0 systems will let you get away with this most of the time. When they do decide to get picky, the result is often a failure to stack all the information needed to return from an interrupt. This is particularly pernicious, since the symptoms generally occur when the interrupt routine returns, often many thousand (i.e. more than in the trace buffer of the AMS) cycles later. Another endearing feature of the AMS, is that such a botched interrupt is not recognized as anything out of the ordinary. The trace just shows instructions being executed with the interrupt routine "spliced" in, no JMP, no interrupt, just a quiet change of the addresses in the left column. Anyway, this hardware bug is getting more likely with the new "short-address" architectures, wherein the FFFFxx put out during an interrupt acknowledge is a valid address for some piece of game memory. The old fool, Mike ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::ALBAUGH "Dr. Bizarro" 20-JUL-1987 08:48:19.77 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: "Always fan, flex, and joggle", and other lost wisdom Back in the days when I/O meant punched cards, there was usually a sign near the card reader with the above inscription. The purpose of this exercise was to break the partial vacuum that existed between the cards of a deck that had not been used for a while, to discharge the static electricity it may have accumulated, and to align the bottom edges. Those who failed to heed this advice often got away with it. They also sometimes had their decks jam, which angered the operators and lost hours (perhaps days) of work. Nowadays few of us remember this admonition, which is no big deal, but we also forget things like the following: "Always clear the decimal flag on entry to an interrupt routine, and at power-up." A 6502 will come up in binary mode almost all the time, but we are not dealing with hand grenades or horseshoes, and once in a while one came get some very bizarre behavior. This bug bit one of our first 6502 games 10 years ago, and a later game about five years ago. It just bit again, a victim who shall remain nameless. Old bugs don't die. "DTACK and VPA must never be asserted at the same time." An amazing percentage of 680x0 systems will let you get away with this most of the time. When they do decide to get picky, the result is often a failure to stack all the information needed to return from an interrupt. This is particularly pernicious, since the symptoms generally occur when the interrupt routine returns, often many thousand (i.e. more than in the trace buffer of the AMS) cycles later. Another endearing feature of the AMS, is that such a botched interrupt is not recognized as anything out of the ordinary. The trace just shows instructions being executed with the interrupt routine "spliced" in, no JMP, no interrupt, just a quiet change of the addresses in the left column. Anyway, this hardware bug is getting more likely with the new "short-address" architectures, wherein the FFFFxx put out during an interrupt acknowledge is a valid address for some piece of game memory. The old fool, Mike ___________________________________________________________________________ From: SANDY::PAAUW 21-JUL-1987 11:22:11.25 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: New SLAPSTIC pinout The new SLAPSTIC II IC's are currently being built by NCR. NCR has informed us that, due to the small size of the die (and therefore long wire leads) and the pinout arrangement, wire shorting during packaging will probably cost us a minimum of 5-10% in bad parts. We can't do anything about the wire length but a new pinout would help some- what. The implications of a new pinout are: 1) The new SLAPSTIC's would be incompatible with all existing cart boards so any kits to the field would need new cart boards. I believe this is usually the case anyway. 2) All current projects using a new SLAPSTIC would have to adjust to the new pinout. The change would consist of rotating the pins on the SLAPSTIC, which would be fairly simple. 3) ?? Please send me your opinions on this. In fact, the last time I sent mail to sys$mail:engineer I couldn't find anyone who received it, so if you don't have anything to say, just reply with a blank. Thanks, Don ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 21-JUL-1987 13:15:23.57 To: GROSSMAN,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: Parking The Department Truck Please ask the people who use the department truck to show some consideration for others when they bring it back. For a while now it has been parked outside my lab area in, what is for Moncrief's group, a prime parking area. Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 22-JUL-1987 15:50:03.21 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: A new TPU section A new feature exists in the TPU section file in UTL$EXE. This feature is a balance checker. To use it you position the cursor on an opening double quote, curly bracket, square bracket, angle bracket or double quote and type Gold control B. TPU will search (only forward at the moment) for a matching closing character and select all the text enclosed including the opening and closing characters leaving the cursor pointing to the character after the closing one. Nesting is allowed to any level except for double quotes which cannot be nested at all (it'll stop at the first occurance of a double quote after the opening one). It will display a message if the cursor is not on one of the opening characters '"{[(' or if there is no matching closing character. In either case, the cursor is not moved. If you want to know how it works or if you want to make your own version, you can look in KIM$USERDISK:[SHEPPERD.VAXTPU]GOLDB.TPU for the program. ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: MIKE::AVL 22-JUL-1987 16:22:11.79 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY,AVL CC: Subj: Phone Lists Do you hate searching that old tattered Xerox'd phone list? Add: $FONE :==SEARCH ATARI$PHONE:PHONE1.LIS to your LOGIN.COM file and you can access the REAL ATARI PHONE LIST! If you don't know how to edit your LOGIN.COM file you can just type: @ATARI$PHONE:FONE and FONE will be installed for you. You can search for a name (or number) REAL fast. It's current as of 6:30AM every morning. All you have to do is type: FONE name1[,name2,...] where name1 is the name or number your looking for. First names, last names, phone extensions, anything will do. You can search for as many names as you like at once by separating each name (or number) with a comma. You can display ALL the local extensions by searching for our phone number prefix, 434. examples: $ FONE JOHN $ FONE 434 $ FONE SMITH,3700 $ FONE JAMES,JOHN,LYDIA Upper case/Lower case doesn't matter, and you can use any standard DCL SEARCH qualifiers including: /LOG will tell you how many matches it found /OUTPUT=file-spec will put the results into a file /REMAINING will list all the names starting at NAME1 /MATCH=AND will only find a record that matches all the names/numbers that you specify (ex: FONE/MATCH=AND JANE,DOE) If you do like old Xerox'd phone lists, you can get those too, in several formats. The following files are updated daily and may be copied to a suitable printer. ATARI$PHONE:PHONE.LIS (names & numbers in 3 columns, 132 columns wide) ATARI$PHONE:PHONE1.LIS (names,numbers,mail stop & Email address in one column, 80 columns wide) ATARI$PHONE:PHONE4.LIS (names & numbers in 4 columns, 158 columns wide) ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 22-JUL-1987 17:18:18.92 To: ERNIE::WOOD,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: RE: ONE LAST TIME FOR SOFTWARE AND ARCADE NAME Atari Game Room (Arcade) Game Room Video (Home Games) Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 22-JUL-1987 19:29:17.96 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: TPU revised While twiddling my thumbs waiting for vacation to start, I "fixed" the Gold control_b function I just added to work in the current_direction. If the current direction (as selected with KP5) is reverse, then you'll need to have the cursor placed over one of '"]})>' before typing gold control B. The messages should be clear if you don't do it right. This balancing act is to be credited to Ed Rotberg. It was his idea; I just coded it up in TPU. ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::LOGG 24-JUL-1987 18:21:21.53 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: New name for ROBOX Now is the time for me to finalize a name for ROBOX. I would like to have legal do a title search of at least four good choices for the game name, but I currently have just two, ROBOX and CATACOMBS. For those of you who have seen and played the game, what do you think of the name ROBOX? Please use REPLY so that I may get a sampling of your responses. For those of you who have not seen the game, it is now back in the engineering common area for you to play. It is currently very difficult and requires some play to become accustomed to the visual presentation, but it is on free play. The story line currently goes: You (General Diaster and Major Havoc for lack anything better) have been sent to the far distant planet of ???? to recapture this planet from the evil ROBOX empire. The ROBOX are a race of robots which have systematically invaded planets, destroying all human life forms and building huge underground structures. These structures are many stories tall and each level resembles a maze. There are exits to the next lower level and transporters which will move you to another portion of the same level. Your task is to destroy all robots on each level and exit before your energy pack runs out of energy. There are energy pods scatered throughout the maze to reenergize your pack but you must remember that your pack will not hold more than 100%, so it important not to waste the energy. An interesting feature of this game is that the players may collect coins which will allow him to build his character and restore those powers that are lost at the end of each level, such as vitality, mapping of the monsters, mapping of all the walls, etc. The players may buy these items at the completion of each level. Please send your suggestions to me before August 1. I will award the person who suggests the "winning" choice with two six packs of their favorite beverage or some mutually agreed upon prize. In addition, we can use the initials of all contributors in the high score table. Ed Logg ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::JACKIE 27-JUL-1987 11:15:26.90 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: IT'S A GIRL JESSICA LEE BENZLER ARRIVED THIS MORNING AT 4:15AM, WEIGHING IN AT 6LBS 3OZS AND MEASURING 19 INCHES. MOM AND BABY DOING FINE! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DROBNY "Buddy Flyback" 29-JUL-1987 09:38:44.08 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Secret? Charlie Weaver!!!!!!!!! Wally Cox!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Paul Lynde!!!!!!!!!!!!! all DEAD! DEAD! DEAD! There was more to Secret Squares than they lead us to believe! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 29-JUL-1987 15:13:50.59 To: KIM::DROBNY,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: RE: Secret? I think Totie Fields was a regular until she, too, passed on. Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 31-JUL-1987 16:30:02.82 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: Robox I have an idea for ROBOX. 1. Introduce a character who can see into the future, a See-er. (Maybe several of them.) 2. Rename the game "See-ers and Robox" . Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::ESCAPE "Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters" 31-JUL-1987 16:30:20.33 To: KIM::MARGOLIN CC: Subj: RE: Robox Ouch! Bonnie ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::LOGG 31-JUL-1987 16:35:10.16 To: KIM::MARGOLIN CC: Subj: RE: Robox HAR HAR HAR! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::FLANAGAN 31-JUL-1987 16:36:10.66 To: KIM::MARGOLIN CC: Subj: RE: Robox And if it makes a lot of money, we can call it ROBUCKS! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::FLANAGAN 31-JUL-1987 16:58:46.43 To: KIM::MARGOLIN CC: Subj: RE: Robox Do you remember Bezerk? Well, several people have complained that this game is similar to Bezerk but uses a different perspective. Well, I will get back at them and their Evil Otto by calling this game Otto Botz! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 31-JUL-1987 16:59:51.46 To: CHARM::FLANAGAN,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: RE: Robox I like it. Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::SALWITZ 3-AUG-1987 09:26:13.26 To: KIM::MARGOLIN CC: Subj: RE: Robox funny. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::CAMERON 3-AUG-1987 09:42:36.84 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: ROBOX I HAVE AN IDEA FOR ROBOX 1. INTRODUCE A CHARACTER WHO IS A MENTOR LIKE FIGURE FOR ROBOX. NAME HIM "MONTGOMERY". 2. RENAME THE GAME TO "MONTGOMERY'S WARD" ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::VICKERS 3-AUG-1987 10:42:05.04 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: ROBOX I HAVE AN IDEA FOR ROBOX 1. INTRODUCE A CHARACTER WHO IS A CHRIST-LIKE FIGURE. NAME HIM "JESUS". 2. MAKE THE SPINNING COINS SMALLER AND CHANGE THEM TO A BROWNISH COPPER COLOR. 3. RENAME THE GAME TO "J.C.'S PENNIES" ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::MILTY 3-AUG-1987 10:50:14.08 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: ROBOX YEAAAHH.....THAT'S IT,..SO HAVE A BUNCH OF COINS ,OF SMALL DENOMINATION, THAT WERE.......LOST,..THAT'S IT,..LOST BY A CARPENTER IN IN THE MIDDLE EAST SOMEWHERE ,...AND YOU GOTTA GO FIND 'EM...... .......CALL IT...J. C.'S PENNIES.......... ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::CAMERON 5-AUG-1987 15:57:41.85 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: GREAT FUN SITUATION: You are about to give a little party for some of your close intimate friends. You would like to show a video befitting the occasion. SOLUTION: Find a video rental store that has "PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE". This is probably THE worst movie ever made. It is so bad that it is totally hilarious. The plot is simple enough, Aliens from outer space arrive to rob graves. It's Sci-Fi and horror all in one. The special effects feature aluminum foil ashtray-like flying saucers lit with free-from-Radio Shack flashlights. The acting is incredibly bad (even though Bela Lugosi stars). All the while the story unfolds, it is narrated with a serious voice left over from Movietone News. If you like flying saucers and creepy cemetaries, you won't want to miss this one. It's the best! (or the worst) Make sure you have a lot of popcorn on hand. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::WOOD 5-AUG-1987 16:01:32.01 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY CC: Subj: ATARI GAMES ACQUIRES BARREL OF FUN ARCADE CHAIN Effective July 30, 1987 Atari Games Corporation and Barrel of Fun, Inc. of Savannah, Georgia have finalized an agreement for the sale of Barrel of Fun's entire chain of arcades. As of September 1, 1987 all of Barrel of Fun assets will be transferred to a new subsidiary of Atari Games. All arcades, which are primarily located in six southeastern states, currently operate under the name of "Barrel of Fun" or "2001 Entertainment Center." The arcade chain was founded in 1977 by Herbert C. Skinner, former chairman, and Richard W. Adams, former President and CEO. Adams will remain with the company and report directly to Atari President, Hide Nakajima. Commenting on the company's strategic move, Nakajima says, "This transaction was clearly a part of our long-term objective to expand our business through arcade operations. This acquisition complements our existing efforts in opening new locations, and much of our future growth will be concentrated in this end of the business." Herbert Skinner added, "The association between the two companies has been a very compatible one from the start, and I am pleased that Atari Games will be stepping in to continue developing the business with the same enthusiasm in which it was started." ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::BROWN 6-AUG-1987 10:08:11.57 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY,BROWN CC: Subj: VISITORS UP DATE DUE TO SECURITY AND SAFETY REASONS, THE FRONT LOBBY (SYCAMORE DRIVE SIDE OF BUILDING) IS OFF LIMITS TO UNESCORTED AND/OR UNSUPERVISED VISITORS. PLEASE DIRECT ALL GUEST AND VISITORS TO THE LOBBY GAME ROOM. YOUR COOPERATION IS APPRECIATED. HUMAN RESOURCES ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::ARVIDSON 6-AUG-1987 12:05:43.50 To: MARGOLIN,ARVIDSON CC: Subj: Your tantalum capacitor requirement. I just wondered what the latest status is on the 100uF tantalum. Please let me know when the decision is made to use this or not. A part number, 127000-107, has been reserved for 100uF, 10V, 20%, Axial (mainly so I have a folder to file the researched data). erwin ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::MORRIS 6-AUG-1987 15:32:30.96 To: @sys$mail:engineer CC: Subj: STEDT & ED, regular expressions now available Announcing the latest version of STEDT V6.01. This is an EDT/TPU like editor for the ST. Also available on the VAX. I have added Regular expression searching and subtitution to STEDT. (ED on VAX) This is a really powerful way to do search and replace. ^X PF3 (instead of Gold PF3) lets you enter a regular expression. Then PF3 will search for a match to that regular expression just like the normal search. As RE's can have unexpected match results the string actually matched will be printed out on the bottom line enclosed in "< >". Currently RE searches are only forward. Another feature is being able to select a range and hit ^X PF3 and the selected range will be copied to the regular expression. This allows you to have a file of commonly used RE's and include it to the top window, select the RE you want and then do ^X PF3. This will not search for the first match until you do PF3. It will also allow you to edit the RE until it works properly, very handy. NOTE that the RE's must only be one line. Lastly the substitute command (Gold Enter) works slightly differently when used with RE's. The matched string can be substituted into the text with '&' and sub-matches can be substituted with \1 \2 etc. This is explained on the next page. An example is if you wanted to append every label in an assembly file with ':' The RE is ^([A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_\.]*) ! matches a string whose first character ! is alpha, and has 0 of more alphanum's ! _ or . (ie a valid label) the substitute string would be \1: ! this will print out the label followed ! by a colon. Or if you wanted to do the same to labels not already terminated with a ':' RE is ^([A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_]*)([ ]) ! anything terminated with space or tab and substitute string \1:\2 ! substitute label part : then separator The Documentation on RE's following can also be found in: CHARM$USERDISK:[MORRIS.CPM68K.EMACS]STEDTDOC.TXT The ST program is in: CHARM$USERDISK:[MORRIS.CPM68K.EMACS]STEDT.PRG and the VAX version: ED:== $CHARM$USERDISK:[MORRIS.CPM68K.EMACS]ED.EXE REGULAR EXPRESSION SYNTAX A regular expression is zero or more branches, separated by |. It matches anything that matches one of the branches. A branch is zero or more pieces, concatenated. It matches a match for the first, followed by a match for the second, etc. A piece is an atom possibly followed by *, +, or ?. An atom followed by * matches a sequence of 0 or more matches of the atom. An atom followed by + matches a sequence of 1 or more matches of the atom. An atom followed by ? matches a match of the atom, or the null string. An atom is a regular expression in parentheses (matching a match for the regular expression), a range (see below), . (matching any single character), ^ (matching the null string at the beginning of the input string), (matching the null string at the end of the input string), a \ followed by a single character (matching that character), or a single character with no other significance (matching that character). A range is a sequence of characters enclosed in []. It normally matches any single character from the sequence. If the sequence begins with ^, it matches any single character not from the rest of the sequence. If two characters in the sequence are separated by -, this is shorthand for the full list of ASCII characters between them (e.g. [0-9] matches any decimal digit). To include a literal ] in the sequence, make it the first character (following a possible ^). To include a literal -, make it the first or last character. AMBIGUITY If a regular expression could match two different parts of the input string, it will match the one which begins earliest. If both begin in the same place but match different lengths, or match the same length in different ways, life gets messier, as follows. In general, the possibilities in a list of branches are considered in left-to-right order, the possibilities for *, +, and ? are considered longest-first, nested constructs are considered from the outermost in, and concatenated constructs are considered leftmost-first. The match that will be chosen is the one that uses the earliest possibility in the first choice that has to be made. If there is more than one choice, the next will be made in the same manner (earliest possibility) subject to the decision on the first choice. And so forth. For example, '(ab|a)b*c' could match 'abc' in one of two ways. The first choice is between 'ab' and 'a'; since 'ab' is earlier, and does lead to a successful overall match, it is chosen. Since the 'b' is already spoken for, the 'b*' must match its last possibility, the empty string, since it must respect the earlier choice. In the particular case where no |'s are present and there is only one *, +, or ?, the net effect is that the longest possible match will be chosen. So 'ab*', presented with 'xabbbby', will match 'abbbb'. Note that if 'ab*' is tried against 'xabyabbbz', it will match 'ab' just after 'x', due to the begins-earliest rule. (In effect, the decision on where to start the match is the first choice to be made, hence subsequent choices must respect it even if this leads them to less-preferred alternatives.) REGULAR EXPRESSION SUBSTITUTION =============================== Substitutions are made according to the most recent RE search. Each instance of '&' in the paste buffer is replaced by the string that matched the whole regular expression. Each instance of '\n', where n is a digit, is replaced by the substrings that matched parenthesized expressions within the regular expression, with parenthesized expressions numbered in left-to-right order of their opening parentheses. To get a literal '&' or '\n' into dest, prefix it with '\'; to get a literal '\' preceding '&' or '\n', prefix it with another '\'. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::ARVIDSON 6-AUG-1987 16:02:33.61 To: MARGOLIN,ARVIDSON CC: Subj: I thought you'd be interested in the ongoing saga of ultrasonic sensors in my life. A week ago I woke up with a bad 'hangover' in my head. The puzzling thing was that I had only one beer the night before. After mentally retracing my actions the previous day, the only thing suspicious was my visit to Crown Books in Cupertino. The store has suspicious little 3" domes mounted to the ceiling in two or three places. The head symptoms gradually wore off after 36 hours and I forgot about it. Two days ago (Tuesday) I was again in Cupertino and decided to buy a specific book from Crown Books. The previous incident didn't even occur to me at the time and after a longer visit (20 minutes) than anticipated, I left with my book. The morning after found me with another severe 'hangover'; worse than the week before. It's still with me now, nearly 48 hours later. It took nearly eight months to recuperate 99% from the Atari light sensors. The book store incidents show that it now only takes a few minutes of exposure to dramatically display the sensitivity that has been produced by that first heavy dose of Atari's ultrasonics. Together with the 'hangover' symptoms is the excessive ringing in the ears; something I've had for many years but not quite this bad. Anyway, that's another tidbit for your file. Erwin ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::BROWN 6-AUG-1987 17:38:09.50 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,BROWN CC: Subj: NAME FOR NEWSLETTER O.K., HERE'S YOUR LAST CHANCE. WE ARE ABOUT TO PUBLISH OUR NEXT ISSUE OF THE ATARI NEWSLETTER AND WE STILL DON'T HAVE A NAME FOR IT. FROM THE LIST BELOW, CHOOSE YOUR FAVORITE(S) AND LET ME KNOW WHICH ONE(S) THEY ARE. IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS, DON'T BE BASHFUL, SHARE THEM WITH ME. 1. GREAT MOMENTS OF ATARI 2. THE ATARI WIRE 3. ATARI HEADLINES 4. LIFE AT ATARI 5. THE ATARI STORY LET ME HEAR FROM YOU. SANDI ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::JACKIE 7-AUG-1987 09:42:14.90 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: IT'S A BOY!!!!! ADAM FUJIHARA WAS BORN THIS MORNING AT 3:00 A.M. HE WEIGHED IN AT 7 POUNDS 6 OUNCES AND MEASURED 19 1/2 INCHES LONG. MOM IS WIPED OUT BUT DOING FINE AND BABY IS HAPPY AND HEALTHY!! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::HORN "Erich Von Horn" 10-AUG-1987 14:06:06.73 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Duna, duna, duna, duna, Batman! I am looking for Batman comics and anything else having to do with the comic/TV characters Batman, Robin, and Batwoman. If you have anything I would be very greatful if you could let me use it /borrow it. I am doing some research on the stuff. You can drop the material off at my(Erich horn's) office or the office of Mark West. Please leave a note as to who it belongs to and weather you want it back! Erich, ext 1742 ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 13-AUG-1987 11:29:09.60 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: Getting a directory Have you ever wanted to get a directory from within your VAX program? Well, I had written an fdirectory function for PPSNET some time ago, so I extracted it and made a C callable subroutine which you can use. From C, you call it via: int fdirectory(string,length,array); char *string; /* pointer to directory/filename to search */ int length; /* size of buffer in bytes */ char *array; /* pointer to buffer where directory goes */ It returns odd values if it worked ok otherwise it returns even values. If it returns a 3, then that means your buffer wasn't big enough to hold the whole directory, although it returns as much directory as would fit in your buffer. The buffer contains stream data according to the following: byte 0 - length of longest filename returned (useful if you're trying to format the screen to hold a given number of columns). byte 1 - code byte: 0 = filename follows, 1 = directory name follows byte 2 - length of name that follows (0 = end of list) byte 3-n - name byte n+1 - code byte byte n+2 - length ... A directory name will preceed all the filenames that appear in that directory. There's an example program (UTL$MAC:FDIR.C) that you can look at or run by: $ MCR UTL$EXE:FDIR what_ever To use it with your program, you'll need to link in UTL$OBJ:FDIRECTORY. For example: $ LINK FDIR,UTL$OBJ:FDIRECTORY Happy directorying... ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: MIKE::BELL "Component Engineering - Ext 1750" 11-AUG-1987 17:27:10.63 To: MARGOLIN,OWENS CC: Subj: 136052 MEMORY MASTERS 136052 MEMORY MASTERS 11-Aug-1987 Page 1 PART NUMBER DESCRIPTION 136052-0101 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,10H 136052-0102 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,10J 136052-0103 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,10K 136052-0104 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,10L 136052-0105 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,200R 136052-0106 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,200S 136052-0107 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,200T 136052-0108 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,200U 136052-0109 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,200V 136052-0110 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,200W 136052-0111 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,200X 136052-0112 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,200Y 136052-0113 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,210R 136052-0114 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,210S 136052-0115 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,210T 136052-0116 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,210U 136052-0117 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,210V 136052-0118 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,210W 136052-0119 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,210X 136052-0120 IC,Pr_EPROM,421,137444-200,210Y 136052-XXXX IC,Programmed_Devices,Driving_Simulator(421) ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::FRANZELLA "Yvette" 14-AUG-1987 13:41:18.09 To: MARGOLIN CC: Subj: message Jack Leddy of Shelly Liquid Displays called regaurding your inquiry. 415-969-6313 8/14 ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 14-AUG-1987 18:26:16.65 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: TPU??? Not again! Before I go on a rampage and change TPU too much, I thought I'd solicit input from you guys first. Unless there are no objections, I'll install the following new single key commands (sometime next week): Gold/E - Edit another file. Reads a file into a buffer named the same as the file and marks the buffer for write on exit. Gold/F - Read a new file into the main buffer. Writes the old contents of the main buffer if it has been modified. Gold/N - Next buffer. Cycles the current window to the next buffer to which there is a file assigned (i.e. MAIN -> AUX -> xxx -> MAIN). Gold/B - map specified buffer to the main_window. In addition, I'll add a new line mode command: DIRECTORY which will put a directory listing into a buffer and map the aux_window to it. You will be able to cursor to the filename you want to read and Gold/I, Gold/U, Gold/E, Gold/F or INCLUDE it by specifying a special character (as yet unnamed) as the filename argument to those commands. With the exception of Gold/E, none of those keys are currently defined in our section file (Gold/E does the same as control E, increment tab stop). If you have defined any of those keys to mean something special for you, then your definition will win. If enough of you don't want me to use those particular keys, then I can be persuaded to use different ones. I'll also consider additional features for TPU now that I'm back hip deep into the section file and while I still remember how to program in TPU. From: KIM::SHEPPERD 18-AUG-1987 20:01:50.30 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: More TPU features... Hold on to your hats; here's a bunch of new things you'll find active in the new TPU section file starting with the next time you call up TPU. CHANGED features included in the standard section file: PF2 - (help key) is undefined. Use GOLD/KP7 HELP for help. Gold/A - (adjust tab) is undefined. Use control A instead. Gold/control_b - (balance check) resets any existing select range. I also fixed it so it correctly works in reverse. Gold/D - (decrement tab) is undefined. Use control D instead. Gold/E - (increment tab) has been re-defined to something else. Use control E for increment tab. Gold/I - has been changed so it won't ask anymore whether it's ok to blow away the AUX buffer. It just does it. Gold/number - processing has been changed to allow for DELETE and control U to work. The number you enter after the gold key will appear in the message window instead of the prompt line. You can quit the GOLD/number function by typing control U RETURN. TPU now reads your init file (pointed to by TPU$INIT) into a buffer called TPUINIT, executes the buffer then deletes it whether there were execution errors or not. It didn't used to delete the buffer. The TPU function DMS$INSPECT has had an additional argument added to its parameter list. If any of your custom TPU commands call this procedure, you'll need to add the 3rd argument (buffer name). TPU won't announce "attempts to move beyond end of buffer" when using KP0 and the arrow keys. The cursor just remains glued to the limit. NEW features included in the standard section file: Gold/E - Edit another file. Will prompt for a filename and will create a buffer whose name is taken from the name of the file and read the file into that buffer. If there is a buffer already present with the same name, then it will first write the modified contents of that buffer to its corresponding file. Files named HELP, SHOW, PASTE, DCL, MAIN and AUX are loaded into buffers named slightly differently. A message will be displayed indicating the buffer name. The file does not have to exist; that is, you can create a new emtpy file with this function. Gold/F - Read a new file. Will prompt for a new filename which will be loaded into the MAIN buffer first witing the modified contents of the main buffer to its corresponding file. The file does not have to exist; that is, you can create a new empty file with this function. This is useful if you have finished with the file you started to edit and want to edit another one without exiting the editor or, as happens to me often, mistyping the filename when you start the editor then having to QUIT and start again with the correct name. Now you only need to do a Gold/F to fix it. Note that Gold/E, Gold/F, Gold/I and Gold/U all call the same procedure but behave according to the following table: file rqd Cmd Buffer Window on exit to exist ------- ------- ------- --------- -------- Gold/E xxx AUX write no Gold/F MAIN MAIN write no Gold/I AUX AUX discard yes Gold/U AUX AUX write no Gold/N - Map the current window to the next buffer to which a file has been assigned or the DCL buffer. Note that the status line on the AUX window is updated each time Gold/N is selected, however, if the AUX window is not visible, then you may have to guess from the data displayed to which buffer your current window is mapped (or do a line mode SHOW BUFF command). Gold/B - Map the current window the the specified buffer. Prompts for a buffer name. Gold/Q - Quit current edit. (Same as line mode QUIT). Gold/control_w - Toggle window sizes between 80 and 132 column mode Gold/control_z - Exit current edit. (Same as line mode EXIT). Gold/back_space - swaps the two chars preceeding the cursor. Gold/number/Gold/W - sets the size of the aux window to 'number'. The aux window size defaults to 1/3 the visible length of the screen (8 lines on a VT100; up to 20 lines on the GPX). Gold/number/Gold/control_w - sets the size of the main window to 'number'. The main window size defaults to the page size of the terminal minus 2. ENTER - does a newline, tab (same as typing return, tab). DCL - A new line mode command that creates a subprocess, hands off the remaining text on the command line to the process and places all the data returned by the process into a buffer called TPU_DCL which is mapped to the AUX window. The subprocess is left hanging around in case you want to do additional DCL commands. Surprizing as it might seem, it IS faster to create a subprocess to issue a DIRECTORY command than it is for TPU to do the directory function that I wrote, especially if you do more than 1 directory command during a single edit session. The DCL command lets you get all your favorite DCL info using most of your favorite DCL commands and custom words. It is not possible to continue editing while the subprocess is executing its command; you have to wait for it to complete. DIRECTORY - Another new line mode command which actually expands to line mode "DCL DIR" + whatever else you typed on the command line. In addition there's a new procedure that isn't bound to a key. I used it extensively during the debug of all these features, namely COMPILE_PROCEDURE. This function (which I bind to GOLD/C in my startup file) will compile the procedure that the cursor happens to be in. It looks for the surrounding PROCEDURE and ENDPROCEDURE, creates a select_range and compiles the range. It does require that the words PROCEDURE and ENDPROCEDURE be the first words on the line. If you should find function broken that used to work just fine and you need it back, then you can get to the old section file by making the following assignment before running TPU: $ ass utl$archive:dmsedtsecini tpusecini Coming soon to terminals near you, MAJOR rework to CERROR and indirect filename pickup from the DCL buffer (cursor to a filename then use that filename in a subsequent INCLUDE, Gold/E, Gold/F, Gold/U or Gold/I function). I figure that these features will take some time to get working and didn't want to hold up the use of this other stuff until then. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 19-AUG-1987 15:52:58.50 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: FACILITIES I WILL BE ON VACATION FROM 8/20 TO 8/26,DURING MY ABSENTS REFER ALL FACILITY PROBLEMS TO SANDI BROWN. THANKS, BOB ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::ALBAUGH "Dr. Bizarro" 20-AUG-1987 10:21:47.00 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Soap Box After suggesting a name for the Atari newsletter, I was only mildly disappointed to not have it chosen. I was only slightly more miffed to not have it included in the list submitted for your votes. I was a bit annoyed when the second time I sent it in I did not even get a reply. But I was really annoyed when the newsletter came out with the name "Atari Life". There are still a lot of us around from the Warner Days, and many of us remember "Atari Life" as a Warner/Kassar artifact. To use that name now is roughly akin to playing "Dixie" at the Apollo. 'nuff said? Mike ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::PATCOOK 21-AUG-1987 09:41:59.94 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Re the infamous "Atari Life" newsletter. I'm all for giving it the ol guillotine, deep-sixing it, or removing it from the resuscitator. Afterall, who r-e-a-l-l-y needs it????????????? It's a waste of a lot of people's valuable time, Atari's money, etc., etc., etc. Here's to "Atari Death"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The S.B. Beach Bunny ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 21-AUG-1987 14:55:09.16 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: More TPU More changes to our section file: Control_V - scrolls down (by section) the aux window leaving the cursor in the main window. (Control 6 does the same thing). Control_^ - (control/shift 6) scrolls up the aux window (by section) leaving the cursor in the main window. Gold/control_b - has been changed (again). It now senses which direction to search based on the character under the cursor. If the char is one of ({[<, it'll search forward for the matching close character. If the char is one of )}]>, it'll search in reverse for the matching open character. If the current character is a double quote ("), it'll search in the current direction. Gold/K - (Keep/Kill) Toggles update mode bit in current buffer. If the buffer is marked for update (write on exit), then this function will mark the buffer for no write. It will prompt you for a Y or N to make sure you really want to do this. If the buffer is marked for no write, then this function will mark it for update and display the filename that the buffer will be written to. If no file has been attached to the buffer, then it will prompt you for one. You would use this function to convert a Gold/I into a Gold/U or visa-versa. You might also decide that you don't want to keep changes you made to a buffer without quitting the whole edit session. CERROR - This function that you've grown to know and love, has been re-written and behaves quite differently than it used to. Now it reads in the error file as before but marks all the lines in error in an psuedo-array which holds up to 40 errors. It also optionally does a Gold/E on all include files found in the error file. In the case of an include file, it prompts you for a Y, N (the default) or directory in which the include file may be found since only the file name is present in the error file. PF2 is mapped as the "next" error key and will select the next error according to the current direction. There may be multiple errors logged for a single line of source code. The buffer which contains the line in error will be mapped to the main window unless it is already mapped to the aux window in which case, the cursor will be moved to the aux window. Since the lines in error are marked at the beginning, edits to lines before and after the line will not screw up the mark UNLESS you delete the line that has the error even if you put it right back in. Deleting a line that has a mark causes the mark to move to the line following. The line number reported in the message window probably will be garbage if you've added or deleted any lines. Confused? You won't be after the next section update. I had a dream about TPU (nightmare?) the other night. I dreamt that I needed magic potions, charms, coins, keys etc. in order to enable certain TPU functions. Characters that were deleted disappeard in a cloud of smoke accompanied with popping sounds. Whole sentences would vanish with a loud bang. Theives would be crawling around in your buffers moving characters and strings while you are not looking. Hmmmm....just wait until the NEXT version of the section file is released.... ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 24-AUG-1987 17:46:21.48 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: New improved TPU... New feature: Gold/control_a - Adjust balance. Select a range that starts with one of "({[< or ends with one of ")}]> and type Gold/control_a. TPU will adjust the range adding the appropriate number of opening or closing characters to the beginning or the end of the range respectively. Double quotes are balanced by forcing there to be an even number of them in the range with additional characters placed at the end unless the first character in the range is NOT a double quote in which case the extra character will be placed at the beginning. The cursor will be left at the end of the range and select will be reset. THE PASTE BUFFER IS USED AS TEMPORARY STORAGE, ITS CONTENTS WILL BE LOST. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: MIKE::BORNN "SUZY-Q" 28-AUG-1987 08:39:16.31 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: HELP THIS MAY SOUND CRAZY BUT I'M IN NEED OF A STRAITJACKET. YES THAT'S RIGHT STRAITJACKET. IF ANYONE OUT THERE IN VAXLAND HAS ONE OR KNOWS WHERE I COULD BORROW ONE PLEASE REPLY TO THIS ADDRESS OR CALL X3919. BY THE WAY, THIS IS FOR A SKIT I'M DOING ON WED. THANKS, SUE ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::ARVIDSON 28-AUG-1987 16:12:57.07 To: MARGOLIN,ARVIDSON CC: Subj: Resistor Network Quote. I've been sending out our resistor network requirements to several manufacturers. I received one response to your part, 118015-001, and here are their figures: QTY UNIT PRICE 5K $3.00 10K $2.85 25K $2.75 NRE Charge = $1000 The company is Ohmtek. Kindof expensive, huh? erwin ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::ARVIDSON 31-AUG-1987 08:07:34.86 To: MARGOLIN,ARVIDSON CC: Subj: My message on Ohmtek resistor networks. I forgot to tell you that the delivery time is 10 weeks. erwin ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::ARVIDSON 1-SEP-1987 15:32:27.75 To: MARGOLIN,ARVIDSON CC: Subj: PLCC SOCKETS. PART VENDOR NUMBER DESCRIPTION MANUFACTURER PN 179237-068 Socket,IC,PLCC,68pin BURNDY QILE-68-P410T 179237-068 Socket,IC,PLCC,68pin ITT_CANNON LCS-68-02 179237-068 Socket,IC,PLCC,68pin JAE_ELECTRONICS_INC PLPS-68-T 179237-068 Socket,IC,PLCC,68pin MAXCONN MH-PLCC-68-T 179237-068 Socket,IC,PLCC,68pin METHODE 213-068-001 179250-068 Socket,IC,PLCC,68pin AMP_INC 821574-1 179251-068 Socket,IC,PLCC,68pin THOMAS_&_BETTS/ANSLEY PCC-068T-01 179252-068 Socket,IC,PLCC,68pin TEXTOOL/3M 268-6234-50-3577 ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::ALBAUGH "Dr. Bizarro" 1-SEP-1987 16:26:50.82 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: Change to S.A. Audio board Coin Counters If you are never involved with coin handling or do not intend to use the Stand-alone Audio Board, you can stop reading now. I just changed SACOIN.MAC per a request from the XYBOTS/ROBOX/CATACOMBS crew. The old version counted coins in the first two coin slots on the left counter and coins in the last two slots on the right counter. It seems that X/R/C only uses two mechs, and they are the first two, and Ireland wants two independant counters (regardless of how silly this is for a "Gauntlet type" game which dedicates each mech to a player position). Anyway, the new version puts the EVEN mechs (0 and 2) on the Left and the ODD mechs (1 and 3) on the Right. If you, like most, have just been shorting the counter-drivers together and driving one physical counter, there is no change. If you care, and deeply resent the change, please let me (and your audio person) know. Otherwise this will become the latest in a series of "universal standards". Mike ___________________________________________________________________________ From: SANDY::DAVE 2-SEP-1987 23:00:50.36 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: THINGS I HAVE LEARNED THINGS I LEARNED ON MY SUMMER VACATION BY DAVE SHERMAN THIS SUMMER I WORKED AT ATARI. IT WAS FUN. HERE ARE SOME OF THE KEEN THINGS I LEARNED. MOST OF THE ENGINEERS AT ATARI ALREADY KNOW THESE THINGS BECAUSE THEY ARE REAL SMART. 1) ALWAYS PUT A B OR N AT THE END OF SIGNALS THAT ARE ACTIVE LOW! YOU'LL BE SORRRRRY IF YOU DON'T! 2) ALWAYS DRAW A CIRCUIT THAT DOES SOMETHING THE SAME WAY EACH PLACE YOU USE IT, EVEN IF IT COSTS AN EXTRA INVERTER. AFTER ALL WHEN YOU ALREADY HAVE 40,000 OTHER INVERTERS IN YOUR CIRCUIT WHATS A FEW MORE BETWEEN FRIENDS? 3) DON'T BE AFRAID TO >>>STANDARDIZE<<< IF AT ALL POSSIBLE. VLSI CIRCUITRY ISN'T A CREATIVE EXERCIZE LIKE PAINTING AND A SCHEMATIC SHOULDN'T LOOK LIKE IT WAS DRAWN BY PICASSO. 4) TRY TO GO HOME BY ELEVEN, OR YOU WON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU DID THE NEXT DAY. WELL THAT SHOULD BE ABOUT 1,000 WORDS, TIME FOR MY REMEDIAL MATH CLASS NOW. MY SUMMER VACATION BY DAVE SHERMAN. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::WOOD 4-SEP-1987 12:27:27.35 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Barrel of Fun acquisition Effective September 1, 1987 Atari Games completed its purchase of Barrel of Fun. The arcade operations will now be run by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atari Games called Atari Operations, Inc. Atari Operations will continue in its efforts to expand the arcade operations. Dick Adams, formerly President of Barrel of Fun, will now be joining Atari and will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the subsidiary as Vice President of Atari Operations. - Dennis Wood ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::MORRIS 4-SEP-1987 15:27:40.79 To: @sys$mail:junk CC: Subj: BAWK, A GREP-based text pattern search and replace facility. A new utility is on UTL$EXE: It is BAWK.EXE. BAWK scans text files for regular expression patterns and executes a user-defined action (C code fragment) for each specified pattern found. This can be a very useful utility for converting files, and doing complex mass (batch) editing tasks. The documentation file is in CHARM$USERDISK:[morris.st.cug.tools]BAWK.DOC. Its is usually well worth the time to figure out how to use this program. Jim. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: MIKE::VELLA 10-SEP-1987 10:48:59.72 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: REIMBURSEMENTS ALL EXPENSES SUCH AS REIMBURSEMENTS FOR THE PURCHASE OF BOOKS,SOFTWARE, OR MILEAGE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED TO ACCOUNTING ON A CHECK REQUEST OR MILEAGE REPORT. BUSINESS EXPENSE REPORTS ARE TO BE USED FOR TRAVEL AND BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT ONLY. THANKS, MICHELLE ___________________________________________________________________________ From: MIKE::VELLA 11-SEP-1987 09:40:54.73 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: NEW MILEAGE RATE THE NEW MILEAGE RATE ALLOWED BY THE IRS FOR BUSINESS USE OF A CAR AS OF SEPTEMBER 1, 1987 IS 22.5 CENT A MILE. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 9-SEP-1987 08:17:05.60 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: FACILITIES UP-DATE NEW OFFICES NEXT WEEK CONSTRUCTION WILL START FOR FOUR NEW OFFICES AND A NEW MAIL ROOM. THE WORK AREA WILL BE THEFRONT LOBBY AND MARKETING COMMON AREA. DUE TO THIS CONSTRUCTION, ALL THE GAMES PRESENTLY IN THE FRONT LOBBY WILL BE MOVED TO THE CAFETERIA. ADDITIONAL POWER WILL BE INSTALLED TO GET THESE GAMES ON LINE. THE MAIL ROOM WILL TEMPORARILY BE LOCAT-ED IN THE VIEWING ROOM NEXT TO THE CENTRAL CONFERENCE ROOM, MAIN HALLWAY. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::CYBER 9-SEP-1987 09:30:49.14 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: cafeteria is for eating... Please !.. No Games In The Cafeteria.. I gotta work with these beasts all day.. do I have to eat with them too ??? jfs ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SUTTLES "Yo speako TECO" 9-SEP-1987 10:37:32.19 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,SUTTLES CC: Subj: "My best friend is a video game" We have no choice. We cannot keep the games out of the cafeteria, else we would be in violation of the ERA (Electronic Right Appendix). After all, Atari is an "Equal Opportunity Employer". On the other hand, maybe we could counter with a discrimination suit of our own! The games already have more "voice" than we do! Who is this CYBER guy, anyways? He's not even completed yet, and he's leading a rally for the popular vote! All seriousness aside, every time in the past 5 years that we had games in the cafeteria has made the site too noisy, hot, and crowded. This is the nicest cafeteria we have had while I've been here, and it seems a shame to regress to the crowded, noisy conditions of the past. As it is now, the cafeteria also makes a nice lounge during off hours. I think another area could be found; the engineering common area seems a natural choice, or maybe we could put them in some of the wider hallways (the central corridor could use some relief from the monotony). But I would rather see the games temporarily retired than put in the cafeteria. It also seems apparent that we need a bigger, or another, game room... Send hate mail to this address. sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 14-SEP-1987 15:44:03.97 To: CAMERON,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: Thingies In the Sixties there was the question: Suppose they gave a War and nobody came? In the Seventies there was the question: Suppose they gave a Revolution and nobody came? In the Eighties the question is: Suppose they give an Orgy and nobody comes? ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::ALBAUGH "Dr. Bizarro" 17-SEP-1987 09:44:29.77 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: New Utility I have added an "English to C" translator to utl$exe. To be more precise, I have added the program DECLARE, which takes a (more or less) plain English declaration and translates it to a C declaration. As usual, you need to make a foreign command, like: $ DEC*lare :== $ UTL$EXE:DECLARE then you can type: $ DEC array of pointers to functions returning pointers to float and have it type: float *(*X[])(); which in fact I just cut from my TPU_DCL buffer, having used Dave's spiffy DCL command. It can also be used by just running the program and typing a declaration to be translated in response to its "> ". For (a few) more details, see DOK:DECLARE.DOC. Mike ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SUTTLES "Yo speako TECO" 18-SEP-1987 10:40:30.71 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,@SYS$MAIL:MIKE_USERS,SUTTLES CC: Subj: Editing files in shared directories Have you ever "lost" an edit? Changes you made once mysteriously evaporated from later versions of the same file? The cause was probably "too many cooks". Yasee, both EDT and TPU create the output file (the edited version) when they exit. It is some manipulation of the file at the time it started. If you begin an edit session while somebody else is editing the same file, you'll both start with the same data. You each make your own changes, and when each of you finish, each of you writes a new version with your changes incorporated. The one who exits LAST will create the highest-numbered version, in other words, the current file. The poor guy who exits first has his changes evaporate. "Big deal" you say! Well it is, if it is your data that is lost. And the real pain of it is that this almost never happens except when deadlines are close and you can't afford the time to find it or fix it. Well, there's a cure. You can ensure that you don't step on anyone else; but you can't stop them from stepping on you. On the other hand, nobody wants to waste their effort; if all concerned are careful not to start an edit while another is in progress, it will never happen. There exists a command file that does all kinds of nice things for you, including checking for existing journal files (made automatically when you edit a file). It also finds an editor initializer file, if you have one, so you don't have to specify it every time, or copy it to each directory in which you intend to edit. To use it, define (in your login.com) EDT or TPU to mean @UTL$COM:EDT or @UTL$COM:TPU (your choice). You may use both, if you are bilingual. The command files are in fact identical, and find out which editor to run by the name of the command file you use. They check for existing journal files, for both editors (they know about each other), they do the initializer search, they know about the /READ_ONLY and /RECOVER qualifiers, and so on. They will NOT enter the editor if there is a journal file open. They will not enter the editor if an old journal file exists. If you're just looking, you can specify /READ_ONLY and it will remind you of the danger (of overwriting some- body else's changes) and let you in. In general: If you already define symbols that call out the editor you want, replace the EDIT/EDT or EDT verb part with @UTL$COM:EDT (and similarly for TPU). If the first thing after the name of the editor is a slash, you'll need to put double quotes in it, as follows: for use $ EDT :== EDIT/EDT $ EDT == "@UTL$COM:EDT """ ! note quotes $ HEY :== 'EDT' SYS$NAG:NAG.DAT $ HAY :== @UTL$COM:EDT SYS$NAG:NAG.DAT $ AGAIN :== EDIT/EDT/RECOVER $ AGAIN == "@UTL$COM:EDT ""/RECOVER" For those of you in engineering who use (or used) "E", that is the initializer locating logic installed here. If you have an EDT inializer file you always want to use, do: $ define edtini sys$login:edtini.ini ! or wherever it is $ define tpuini sys$login:tpuini.ini ! tpu version of the same As usual, if you find problems that I've missed, let me know. sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::BRAD 24-SEP-1987 16:27:36.37 To: MARGOLIN,BRAD CC: Subj: TOMCAT I still have TOMCAT's audio stuff that we did. Do you need it or can I delete it? - brad - ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SUTTLES "Yo speako TECO" 25-SEP-1987 16:04:43.23 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY,SUTTLES CC: Subj: oldies but goodies There are some ancient time management tools I created in UTL$COM (sched and nag). I've been asked about details on them and discovered there wasn't any documentation. For those of you who have been using them, here's your chance to find out if you've been doing it "right"; for those of you who haven't been on the computer that long, these might be good news. Check out the files DOK:NAG.DOC and DOK:SCHED.DOC for more details. There are no changes to the procedures; they just have documentation now. MAIL me bug reports, and I'll ignore them at my earliest opportunity. sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::SHEPPERD 2-OCT-1987 16:13:57.81 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: IMI Tired of waiting while you try to simply login at the IMI terminal? I've created an account, IMI (no password), that you can use to login at the IMI terminal. Virtually NO environment is established ( i.e. no local logical names and few global symbols) so you won't be able to use any of your favorite short cut commands and logical names, but neither will you have to wait forever just to get a lousy DCL prompt. At present, only 4 symbols will be known IMI, DIO, SD and GOS. You'll have to set default to your disk and directory and/or @ one of your favorite com files. This account has no home directory so you won't be able to upload any files. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 5-OCT-1987 10:49:43.14 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: Current Info on 27512 EPROMs Rod Petersen passed along the following information today: 1) Atari currently keeps about 100,000 27512's on order with AMD, our primary supplier. 2) Leadtimes are at 18 weeks so this is necessary. 3) Despite the requirement for 200 nS parts, all they can get is 250 nS access time parts. ENGINEERS BEWARE. 4) AMD says that the 250 nS parts are screened to run at 170 nS at ROOM Temp. As a Result: 1) Based on this, both Stempler (system II) and Snyder (XYBOTS) have issued deviations to use 250 nS parts in place of the specified 200 nS parts. Typically, they have found a worst case access time requirement of about 220 nS which allows slower parts to run OK at temperatures less than 70 degrees centigrade. 2) If you can squeeze out a few nanoseconds either with chipselects always "on" (with consequent increased power consumption, oh well) or with faster parts in the glue logic, it may be worth the trouble if it allows you to specify 250 nS 27512 EPROMS. That way you avoid the judgement call later in production when 200 nS parts are not available. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::ROLM "SUTTLES, SHEPPERD, or ALBAUGH" 5-OCT-1987 14:28:44.74 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY,ROLM CC: Subj: paging access codes Recently, there has been a significant increase in the number of "mistakes" in dialing toll free numbers. Generally, when making an outgoing call, if the 9 (for an outside line) is omitted, no problems arise, other than the caller not getting what he wants. However, since 80 is the current paging number for Engineering, the rest of the dialing tones go over the paging system. Despite a reminder sent out by junk mail, the problem continues to worsen. So,... Effective Monday, October 12, the paging access for Engineering will be 85, not 80. Dialing an 80 will immediately result in an error tone, so those who forget the leading 9 will have a more immediate indication. Also, there have been inquiries as to dialing credit card calls. With our system, the "normal" sequence is not possible. It is possible to speak to the long distance operator for Pacific Bell. From a Pacific Bell telephone, you are instructed to dial 00; however, Pacific Bell is not our normal long distance carrier, and this will not work! Because of several irregularities, it has been found to work on rare occasions to dial 9,0; and then wait until the call is placed, but before the operator rings; and continue with the number you want to call. This also is not reccomended; there is an excellent chance you will be routed to the wrong number (missing part of what you dialed) at your expense (the billing portion seems to work just fine). Instead, the reccommended procedure is: Dial #600 (pound, six, zero, zero) WITHOUT a leading nine. You will be connected to the Pacific Bell long distance operator. You may then explain that you wish to make a credit card call, and give the information vocally. Most times, the operator will suggest that you can dial the call yourself, saving some money. It is not possible on our phone system. It was built before telephone deregulation, and doesn't have the capacity for dialing embedded access codes. To recap: Next Monday, the Engineering page will be 85, not 80; Paging codes for Administration (86) and building 735/warehouse (87) are unchanged. Credit card or collect calls can be made by dialing #600, WITHOUT the leading nine; this is already in effect. sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::RAINS 7-OCT-1987 17:48:42.99 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: Report from JAA show, Tokyo FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH Late report from our man, Dan Van, in the heart of enemy territory, Tokyo, Japan. He reports that the JAA show is pretty busy, and there are plenty of new products being shown. A quick rundown: SEGA: showing AFTERBURNER in 4 or 5 different cabinet configurations, including a new intermediate cost sit-down. The program has been updated slightly, but remains basically the same. They were also showing a Baseball game in the same cabinet and on the same hardware as DUNK SHOT. Excitement on afterburner is still high in Japan, and among the international visitors at the show. NAMCO: is getting a lot of interest by American and European visitors in their PACMANIA game. Dan feels confident that we will have to show this product at the AMOA and make it available before Christmas. Namco is also showing their new linkable cabinet multiplayer driving game, FINAL LAP. They have four 2-player cabinets linked into an 8-player Pole Position type game. Dan isn't sure how significant the product will be, though the game gets a lot of play at the show. DATA EAST: is showing their 3-player Gauntlet-style REAL GHOST BUSTERS game, but Dan claims it's a bust. Not to worry.... TATSUMI: is showing a new first person, 3-D flying game which Dan claims is graphically superior to Lock-on or Afterburner. He's not sure if the game is better than afterburner, but it looks like someone else is starting to do some real 3-D stuff. TAITO: showed a video machine gun game, OPERATION WOLF, which was apparently receiving some attention. Dan says the compact cabinet design was highly favored as a good concept. KONAMI: is showing their 2-player Gauntlet-style game, DARK WARRIOR. Dan says the graphics are good, and the view is zoomed in much closer, so the characters and monsters are more than twice as big as Gauntlet. KASCO: has a genuine shooting game. The player gets 5 shots from a rifle with pneumatically fired plastic pellets. He shoots at a moving paper target, and the machine vends the target at the end of play. The rifle is secured to the cabinet by a cable and retaining bar arrangement, but is probably not safe enough. The cabinet is about 4' x 8'. There were a few other odds 'n ends, but that's the bulk of his report. I'll let him fill in the details when he get's back. -Lyle ___________________________________________________________________________ From: MIKE::JAMERO 8-OCT-1987 08:43:51.08 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: ATARI IRELAND'S TELEX NO. CHANGE FYI ATARI IRELAND TELEX NO. HAS BEEN CHANGED TO 70665. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 12-OCT-1987 11:07:39.99 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: IMI stuff I think I finally got all the bugs out of the IMI program. It appears to correctly handle 65kb Eproms with any word size. I'm sure I don't have to tell you to report failures to this address. ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 12-OCT-1987 13:59:34.06 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: More IMI stuff I forgot to mention the problems with UPLOADs. If you try to upload data when KIM is real busy (like anytime during the day), you MAY get "data overrun" errors. Sorry, but there appears to be nothing I can do about that at the moment. Second, the IMI has a bug in it where it forgets to stop transmitting upload data after it overflows any 65k boundary and there is no way that the VAX can stop it. The VAX will, however, write the uploaded data to your file (if it didn't get data overruns) even if the IMI doesn't stop when it's supposed to. You will have to press the "exit" button on the IMI programmer to get it to stop sending. ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 13-OCT-1987 12:13:52.05 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: A new and improved LLF Release 2.4 of LLF has been installed. This version fixes a problem with forward referenced local symbols colliding with undefined global symbols. This problem made some undefined globals seem to "disappear" by not being reported as undefined or even being listed on the link map. It also fixes a problem where the names of files that were multiply defining globals were not correctly identified. There are also a couple of new features in the option file: LOCATE ( seg seg ... : NOOUTPUT); The NOOUTPUT option instructs LLF to exclude any code or data in the listed segments from the output file. It may appear anywhere in the list of other LOCATE address options. I.e.: LOCATE ($$seg14 : 0x10000 TO 0x10FFF NOOUTPUT) -- exclude ram area You may DECLARE a symbol to have a value of TIME which is the 32 bit value returned from the RTL (VAX-C, GEMDOS or whatever OS LLF is using) function time(). It will match the value that is decoded and displayed on the map. I.e.: DECLARE (your_variable : TIME) -- put a time stamp in output file ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 14-OCT-1987 13:08:16.50 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: CONSTRUCTION IN PROGRESS TO ALL CONCERNED AT 675..... OUR CONTRACTOR HAS INFORMED ME THAT CONSTRUCTION FOR THE ADMIN-MARKETING PROJECT IS TO START TOMORROW, WITH COMPLETION IN TWO WEEKS. AS THE FRONT LOBBY IS ALSO INVOLVED, PLEASE USE ALTERNATE ROUTES WHEN EVER POSSIBLE. THANKS, BOB ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::LOGG 16-OCT-1987 09:51:56.93 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: IMI A word of warning to all of you who use the IMI. Even though the EPROMs you burned are verified by the IMI, that does not mean they will work in the PCB. It apparently has nothing to do with the speed of the EPROMs. I have had 27512s and 27256s fail in my PCB, yet they verify fine in the IMI. The DIO on the other hand, failed on a low voltage verify. Dave Shepperd believes the problem lies in the fact that the EPROMs have not been completely erased. He recommends that the windows be cleaned and the EPROMs be erased for an hour. I will ask Chris Downend to see if we can get another timing box that will go beyond 30 minutes for the second eraser in the DIO/PRINTER room. I will also try to get some cleaner available. Now that I have your attention, I would like to ask a favor of any user of the IMI/DIO. When you are waiting for your EPROMs could you PLEASE put any erased EPROMs from uder the UV lamps away in the correct drawers. Stacking them neatly off to the side so that you can erase your EPROMs will not help because they will erased again and again.... Now if you still have nothing to do, how about erasing a few EPROMs that are laying around on the table. If you can't do that please take them into the assembly area to be erased. One more word of warning. The eraser in the assembly area will NOT erase EPROMs if they are placed in the center of the tray. The UV lights must be directly above the EPROMs. Ed Logg ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 20-OCT-1987 14:36:00.50 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: NEED A KEY...... I NEED TO BORROW A KEY # AA305 TO OPEN A FILE, SHOULD YOU HAVE ONE PLEASE FAX ME. ALSO, IF YOU NEED A KEY TO LOCK YOUR DESK OR FILE FAX THE NUMBER TO ME AND I'LL TRY AND FILL YOUR ORDER. THANKS, BOB ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::MORRIS 20-OCT-1987 14:40:11.61 To: @sys$mail:engineer CC: Subj: New ASM68 works A new improved version of asm68 is now available. It fixes some of the old annoying bugs like: btst.b #1,t btst.l #2,d0 These no longer give errors, I haven't checked all the old problems, because I can't remember what they all were. So any prompts are welcome. It also has expanded macro capability, If you want to use the new features I have 1 manual you can look at. Otherwise it seems compatible with the older version of asm68. Do: $ @charm$sysdevice:[c68r5v0]cdefs.com ! setup new interc stuff in your LOGIN.COM file if you want to use the new assembler. DELETE the old one which looked like this: $ @sys$sysdevice:[c68r3v1.com]cdefs.com This will also define 2 new commands ASM68010 and ASM68020, which are assemblers for those chips (actually the same assembler, but enabling more opcodes). It also sets up the latest librarian if you have been using clbr. Typing: $ HELP/LIBR=c68help will give help on the switches for the new commands. Any problems, see me. Jim. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::MORRIS 20-OCT-1987 14:40:11.61 To: @sys$mail:engineer CC: Subj: New ASM68 works A new improved version of asm68 is now available. It fixes some of the old annoying bugs like: btst.b #1,t btst.l #2,d0 These no longer give errors, I haven't checked all the old problems, because I can't remember what they all were. So any prompts are welcome. It also has expanded macro capability, If you want to use the new features I have 1 manual you can look at. Otherwise it seems compatible with the older version of asm68. Do: $ @charm$sysdevice:[c68r5v0]cdefs.com ! setup new interc stuff in your LOGIN.COM file if you want to use the new assembler. DELETE the old one which looked like this: $ @sys$sysdevice:[c68r3v1.com]cdefs.com This will also define 2 new commands ASM68010 and ASM68020, which are assemblers for those chips (actually the same assembler, but enabling more opcodes). It also sets up the latest librarian if you have been using clbr. Typing: $ HELP/LIBR=c68help will give help on the switches for the new commands. Any problems, see me. Jim. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 20-OCT-1987 16:13:08.26 To: MARGOLIN, STEMPLER,MCCARTHY,HALLY,LIPSON CC: Subj: New Game Hardware While I think of it, let me pass along the right people to contact... Hally/Lipson are considering a game based on the Hardware Jed designed for the Driver project. In a traditional game set-up, I would expect that Hally/Lipson would want the usual Audio - a 6502 running RPM to drive Yamaha/POKEY/T.I. 5220 speech. For Jed's reference, Pat has designed the Stand-alone (S.A.) Audio PCB which will be used first in XYBOTS. It is envisoned as the standard audio base for our games and Pat will continue to support it. It includes everything from the 6502 to the TDA 2030 amps as well as a few other goodies. It talks to the main game processor through a serial chip (SCOM) that Gary Stempler designed ( 500-gate gate-array). This is probably old news to most of you, but I don't want to assume too much. Incidently, Brad Fuller has a mandate from Rains to find an alternative to the expensive (~$30.00) and sole-sourced Yamaha chip set. The audio group and Pat are looking into sampled sound generated via a dedicated 68000 and a DAC. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 22-OCT-1987 10:49:04.48 To: MARGOLIN,HALLY,LIPSON CC: Subj: PT-MAn audio One aspect of my mail message on the audio for PT-man was not clear. Hally/Lipson are free to choose any audio system they feel is best for the product including the TMS-320 based design used in Driver. The only point I was trying to make is that IF Yamaha-based sounds are desired, then the SA Audio PCB is the preferred implementation. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::MORRIS 26-OCT-1987 18:32:13.72 To: @sys$mail:engineer CC: Subj: New ASM68 does NOT work The latest version of th eassembler seems to have problems of its own, Unless you need to use its macros or 68020/68881 capability I suggest you go back to using the old one:- Do: $ @sys$sysdevice:[c68r3v1.com]cdefs.com Sorry for the wasted productivity to those who tried to use it. Jim. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 26-OCT-1987 19:45:37.91 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: A new TPU function Occasionally I've been asked how to make TPU search for \n's in a file. TPU can do it, but it is a bit messy. I've needed to do it from time to time too, so I figured out a way to make it less messy and built it into the section file. This new procedure allows you to use all the features of TPU's pattern matching expressions, so I'll briefly point out the functions: ANY(string) !matches any character in the string ARB(int) !matches an arbitray string of int characters LINE_BEGIN !matches beginning of line LINE_END !matches end of line MATCH(string) !matches all chars up to and including string NOTANY(string) !matches any character NOT in the string REMAIN !matches all characters to end of line SCAN(string) !Matches the longest string of chars that does not contain any of the chars in string SCANL(string) !same as SCAN but will cross record boundaries SPAN(string) !matches the longest string of chars that only contains the chars in string ANCHOR !search without moving off current position (advanced uses) The pattern operators (which have equal precedence) are: | !alternation (logical or) & !concatenation (logical and) Strings must be enclosed in either single quotes ('string') or double quotes ("string"). Parentheses may be used around subexpressions. No other operators are allowed. Some examples: "abc" !find string 'abc' 'a' & 'b' & 'c' !find string where a before b before c ("abc") LINE_BEGIN & 'fred' !find string where "FRED" is first thing on line LINE_BEGIN & " " !find line beginning with a tab ^ there's a tab character here ')};' & LINE_END !find line where ")};" is the last thing on it LINE_BEGIN & ANY("0123456789") !find line beginning with any number SPAN('0123456789') & '$' !find a local symbol "Oh goody, how do I use this spiffy thing", you ask? You have two choices. You may type GOLD/PF3, enter the search pattern and terminate it with another PF3 or you may open a buffer (GOLD/B to some empty buffer), enter your search pattern in that buffer, go back to the buffer you want to search through, type GOLD/PF3 =buffer_name terminating with another PF3. If TPU liked your expression, it'll search the buffer as always with PF3 finding the next occurance just as before. If TPU didn't like your expression, you'll get various nasty messages. If you use the buffer method then, of course, you can edit the buffer to fix your problem (or change what you want to seach on). Typing GOLD/PF3/PF3 will prompt for a "Search string (RE): " to which you can type a search expression or the =buffer_name and terminate it with a carriage return, KP4 or KP5. You may also notice that some extra stuff was inserted in your search string buffer the first time you use it, please don't change the extra stuff or you'll find your search string will always fail. If you're really intrested, here's a big example of a complex search sequence (stolen from a TPU procedure to find the next word, the variable edt$x_word has been defined as a string of the characters that may delimt a word): ! Redefine the forward word skipper: ! ! don't move off current character position ( anchor & ! if on eol,then match that ( (line_end) | !leading spaces,on a word delimiter (span(' ') & (any(edt$x_word) | edt$x_empty) ) ) | !no leading spaces, if on a word delimiter, move to second grp non-delimiter char ( span(edt$x_word) !skip all the leading delimiters & scan(edt$x_word) !skip all the non-delimiters & span(edt$x_word) ) !and skip all the next delimiters | !no leading spaces, on a real word, go to next word (scan(edt$x_word) & span(edt$x_word)) | !no leading spaces,on a last real word of line, match rest of line REMAIN ) & ! after matching, skip over trailing spaces if any ! except if match occurred at the eol. In this case,don't skip over blanks (line_begin|span(' ') | edt$x_empty) ; ! End of forward word skipper ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SUTTLES "Yo speako TECO" 27-OCT-1987 15:51:00.72 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,SUTTLES CC: Subj: for sale (sigh) Ole reliable: '72 Volkswagen Super Beetle. Very good shape. 72,000 miles on body, at least 10,000 left on tires, 300 miles since engine rebuilt. No accidents. $1,300 or best offer. Old, faithful, and heartbroken: 1961 Morgan Plus/4. I don't know what else to say. This is a genuine antique, still with all Morgan parts. Each (of 200 per year) Morgan is hand made. In 1961, they boasted a TR-3 engine, a Jaguar gearbox, Lucas electrics, and an all-wooden frame and suspension. They are no longer imported because Morgan won't degrade performance to meet U. S. federal emissions requirements. This specimen is in excellent condition. It was special ordered (as I presume all are) by a friend of my family (in 1960), and after about two months, traded to my father. He gave it to me. It has 36,000 miles on it, and has never been used for "transportation". It hasn't been driven in the last 5 years, and has been garaged for its entire life. If purchased for restoration, none will be necessary on the engine or electronics; only one body panel has rust and most of the upholstery is unworn; all is quite serviceable. I'm asking $13,000. There is a discount if you give me visitation rights. Also included is the definitive book on Morgans (1938-1969, if I remember right), itself a classic in automotive terms (it was purchased in 1972). It is fascinating to read just by itself! (although not worth 13 grand by itself.) Contact Steve Suttles, x1710, or RSVP by Vaxmail. sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SHEPPERD 27-OCT-1987 17:39:48.43 To: @sys$mail:engineer,SHEPPERD CC: Subj: Yet another TPU fix... I apologize to those that had been accustomed to terminating their search strings with PF3. I always thought that EDT would disallow that so assumed everyone would have been using KP4, KP5 or ENTER. When TPU came along, it allowed any KP key or RETURN to terminate the search string and I figured (incorrectly) that everyone would have switched to using RETURN or KP4 or KP5, since it seems a bit easier on the fingers. So, for those that do things the hard way and in order that you don't have to retrain your hands, I moved the regular expression key to PF2. That is, GOLD/PF3/PF2/string or GOLD/PF3/string/PF2 will use the string as a regular expression with which to search. Now who among you always terminates the search string with PF2? ds ___________________________________________________________________________ From: MIKE::BORNN "SUZY-Q" 29-OCT-1987 08:50:37.42 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: UNADDRESSED MAIL 2 x HOME COMPUTER GAME "STAR WARS" ON ATARI DISK.. FROM 'DOMARK' IN LONDON. WILL THE PERSON WHO THIS BELONGS TO PLEASE CALL REC. X3934. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::THEURER 2-NOV-1987 13:24:18.11 To: THEURER,ROWE,@SYS$MAIL:ANIMATORS,@SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: IP graphics utility to convert AMIGA graphics to PPS .pif format Subject: IP utility for conversion of IFF (Amiga) files to PPS .pif files From: Dave Theurer File: charm$userdisk:[theurer.amiga]ip.doc What it does: IFF (Interchange Format Files) are created by most AMIGA graphics programs. These graphics files may be uploaded to the VAX and converted to PPS .pif files using the new IP (Iff->Pps) utility. This program converts a single IFF picture file to pb 0 in a PPS .pif file. These files may be up to 5 bits deep. Why bother: The Amiga has some excellent paint tools. The Amiga color digitizer works better than the Atari digitizer and it has an extra bit of picture depth (32 colors instead of 16). What it won't do: > This program can not change bit depth. That should be done on the Amiga using Deluxe Paint or whatever before uploading the file to the VAX. > No merging or cropping of pictures is supported. This may be done after the conversion using the PPS. Operation: The Amiga file we've uploaded and now wish to convert is called dragon. Type in: @charm$userdisk:[theurer.amiga]ip dragon Wait while it converts the file. When it says >>Enter output filename (CR for dragon.pif): Type in the output PPS .pif filename or hit CR if the suggested name is ok. When it prints "PPS .pif file: dragon.pif" you're all set: pb 0 in dragon.pif will contain the converted picture. Please reply if > you have any problems with this utility. > you have a utility on the VAX to change a picture's bit depth. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 3-NOV-1987 12:59:34.37 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: Generator For Sale For Sale: Coleman/Powermate OHV1600 Portable Generator. 1400 Watts Continuous. Used 1.5 hours. At Home Depot (where I bought it) it sells for $449.95 + Tax. Orchard Supply sells it for $549.95 + Tax. (Their model comes with an Ammeter.) My price: $400.00 . (I am selling it because, although this model is considered quiet for a generator, it is still too noisy for me.) Jed X1730 ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::DOWNEND 3-NOV-1987 15:17:34.33 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER CC: Subj: kudos Xybots is in production. 81 were built last week starting 10/26/87 and 65 were built yesterday. (11/2/87). Production is working 12 hour days to make up for a slow start. Recognition is in order for several contributors to this significant product. It was developed in near record time and uses new electronics throughout. Even the cabinet is a brand-new design with an internal plywood structural sheet running the length of the cabinet.. Only the power-supply assembly is "old" in terms of being used in a previous game. 1) Bob Flanagan and Ed Logg: This programming team took the product from project intiation to production in less than one year! It was initiated 10/28/86; production started 10/26/87. This includes a significant re-design switching from "Gauntlet characters" to robots. Overall, the design manages to squeeze a great visual sensation from limited hardware. 2) Doug Snyder: Doug designed one of the cheapest video hardware set-ups we've seen in a long time. The board, without EPROMS or the associated SA audio PCB, costs about $105 (total cost is under $260 for materials including amps). In addition Doug worked very closely with Fujitsu engineers to design a standard cell custom IC that contributed significantly to the cost-effectiveness of the product. It worked first time with apparently good yields and even at elevated temperature for over 100 hours. 3) Leon Fritz: Leon laid the densest 4-layer PC board in Atari history. It pushes all the guidelines to the limit. Manufacuturing was afraid they would not be able to build it efficiently, but after tweaking their equipment, all appears to be O.K. 4) Pat McCarthy: Pat designed and re-designed a new SA audio PCB that combines all audio functions from the 6502 to the audio amps. Hopefully, this PCB will become a standard audio platform for subsequent games. Pat took great care to minimize noise in the analog section and did much of the PCB layout himself. 5) Gary Stempler: Designed the gatearray serial communication chip SCOM which also worked first time. This chip simplified the video-audio interface and did so at a modest cost. Did I leave "your" name out? I know there are other important contributors. Cris, Sam, Earl, Milt, Mike J., Marty V. Mike A. come immediately to my mind. Please let me say "thanks" to all of you, and to the six listed above in particular. It took a lot of cooperation and coordination to pull off such a significant new-design in near record-time. Ed Logg is always cautious until he sees how the prodcuct sells. Let's hope the players find the game as appealing as we do. But regardless of the product's success in the marketplace, the technical achievement still stands. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SUTTLES "Yo speako TECO" 9-NOV-1987 09:45:24.70 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,SUTTLES CC: Subj: lodging I'm looking for an apartment, with or without a roommate. The main idea is low cash flow; so all you guys looking for a live-in cook and/or bottlewasher, now's your chance. Also, if anybody knows of a good deal on a place, I'd surely appreciate hearing about it. Thanks in advance for the multitude of responses. sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SNYDER 9-NOV-1987 17:10:19.74 To: STEMPLER,MCCARTHY,PAAUW,LY,DAVE,HOFF,MARGOLIN,SNYDER CC: Subj: BONUS SPLITS The Zybots bonus split meeting is coming up and I have been assigned the catagory of engineering. The allocation of bonus in the past has been unstructured and sometimes rather arbitrary. I would like to set up a meeting to discuss this betwwen all of the engineers. Topics include: 1. Semi-standard Audio Boards 2. Custom chips 3. Circuit innovations 4. System innovations 5. Anything else If we (the engineers) put our minds to it, a more equitable system of bonus allocation could be formulated. If you are interested in attending this meeting, it will be in the Engineering Conference Room at 2:00 PM tomorrow (Nov. 10). Thank You Doug ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SNYDER 11-NOV-1987 10:51:28.83 To: @SYS$MAIL:HARDWARE CC: Subj: XYBOTS hardware Friday at 2:00 PM there will be a meeting to discuss the allocation of bonus for the electronic hardware. The allocation of other bonus (software, audio, animation, etc.) will not be discussed. If you have any input or comments reguarding this issue please attend. A copy of the XYBOTS schematics are available in my office. Topics include: 1. SA Audio PCB 2. Custom chips 3. Subcircuits 4. Anything else Thank you Doug ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SNYDER 12-NOV-1987 11:51:14.86 To: @SYS$MAIL:HARDWARE CC: Subj: XYBOTS HARDWARE MEETING The Xybots hardware meeting has been changed from Friday (tomorrow) at 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM. Thank you Doug ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::GROSSMAN 17-NOV-1987 17:01:17.00 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: WELCOME TO A NEW ANOTHER NEW ATARIAN Dan and Judi Van Elderen are the proud parents of a baby boy! Mark Daniel Van Elderen was born at 3:49 p.m. today 7 lbs. 3 oz. & 19 3/4 inches Mom and baby are doing just fine! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: MIKE::LIEBSTER 19-NOV-1987 11:25:19.66 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: HOLIDAY CHECK RUN DUE TO THE PLANT SHUT DOWN BETWEEN CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS, THE LAST CHECK RUN FOR DECEMBER WILL BE ON DECEMBER 17TH. PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT ALL INVOICES, CHECK REQUESTS, BUSINESS REPORTS, ETC. ARE INTO ACCOUNTING NO LATER THAN NOON ON DECEMBER 16TH (EARLIER WOULD BE APPRECIATED). THE NEXT CHECK RUN WILL BE BACK ON SCHEDULE STARTING WITH WED. JANUARY 6TH. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE GIVE ME A CALL @ 3761..... SHERRY ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::CAMERON 19-NOV-1987 12:03:25.52 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,LIEBSTER CC: Subj: HOLIDAY WHAT HOLIDAY SHUTDOWN!?! ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SUTTLES "Yo speako TECO" 23-NOV-1987 12:31:11.49 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,SUTTLES CC: Subj: %CC-F-SORRY, no help for you! Once again, the Doc has struck! VAX C has undergone hellacious changes since it first came out (which is when we bought the "little orange books"). The orange book describes version 1.0, and we're currently using V2.4. As most of you know, the help file on the system is concurrent with the software, but HELP is slow and it's tedious to find the piece of information you want. So, as a service to our readers, we've again transformed the help file into a (somewhat) structured document with a table of contents and an index. THERE IS A LIMITED QUANTITY available in the printer room. The duplication costs were prohibitive, and office services will not absorb any more printings. So please don't take one if you'll just lay it in a corner. If you have felt the pressure of inadequate documentation, by all means, take one. If we run out, and REALLY need more, your department's budget will have to pick up the tab. sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SUTTLES "Yo speako TECO" 23-NOV-1987 12:49:04.28 To: @SYS$MAIL:MIKE_USERS, @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,SUTTLES CC: Subj: Spreadsheet help Graphic Outlook is very powerful when you know how to use it. Unfortunately, that's a problem. We only have two copies of the manual. It has a respectable quantity of information in it's HELP facility; however, that's not always the most desirable mechanism to access it. So we've trans- formed the help file into a (somewhat) structured document with a table of contents and an index. THERE IS A LIMITED QUANTITY available in the printer room. The duplication costs were prohibitive, and office services will not absorb any more printings. So please don't take one if you'll just lay it in a corner. If you can (and will) really make use of it, by all means, take one. If we run out, and REALLY need more, your department's budget will have to pick up the tab. For those who don't know where the "printer room" is or can't get there, let me know you want one, & I'll send it through interoffice mail. sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MARGOLIN 23-NOV-1987 19:42:23.56 To: MONCRIEF,BEHENSKY,MARGOLIN CC: Subj: Multi-Sync Turbo The Multi-Sync Turbo is now working. Because we have half the memory of the full Turbo a Memory-to-Shift Register Load on every line only requires an address update of 512 words, not 1024. It works. To try it, download [Margolin.Sgsptst]Gsptst.hex Jed ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SUTTLES "Yo speako TECO" 24-NOV-1987 11:42:35.65 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER,SUTTLES CC: Subj: a new tool Did you ever have a new tool and wonder what you could do with it? In KIM$SYSDEVICE:[UTILITIES.LANG] you'll find a C program and com file (and several supporting files, which is why it has a directory of it's own) for doing language translation comparisons. Read no further till you need to. LANG searches the specified C program for directives (specified as constants--unless you are Ed or Bob, you'll have to change them) that delineate areas of text constants. Within those bounds, it spits out (to temp files) any strings it encounters. LANG.COM runs the program, giving it wildcard capability, and follows it with a DIFF run of the temp files, providing the cryptanalysts with a side- by-side comparison of phrases in (currently) English-French, and English German. The basic program is easily modified. It doesn't know much about C programs, including (excluding?) comments. It can be easily fooled. It is presumed that you're trying to work within its boundaries, not find exotic stuff that won't work. If you need help with using or modifying it, let me know. sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 1-DEC-1987 13:51:54.05 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: VISITORS AT 675 TOMORROW MORNING I WILL BE ESCORTING AN AAPPRAISER (FOR THE PROPERTY OWNER) THRUOUR BUILDING FOR A LOOK SEE. BOB ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::MELCHOR 1-DEC-1987 16:11:03.51 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Bob Frye's Tour Bob, are there going to be enough boxes to go around this time..I mean for the move back to 1272 in March of 88 ? Also Bob, has the jacuzzi been fixed? ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::SUTTLES "Yo speako TECO" 4-DEC-1987 15:16:13.28 To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER, @SYS$MAIL:RAINSGANG, @SYS$MAIL:VANGANG,SUTTLES CC: Subj: equipment change The letter quality printer (diablo) that was in the Engineering Common Area, right outside the animators' cubicles, has been relocated (permanently) to the PPS equipment room. This is the room with the perpetually closed door and the note to call Will Noble. The printer, for your info, is known as TTQ3:, or LQ1:, (less colons for queue names) and was at one time known as RAINS$PRINT. Please keep it neat in there, and watch your step. Lots of stuff to break, and if we do, Lyle, Rich, and the animators will jointly and singly revoke our privilege to use the printer at all. No complaints are being accepted. sas ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::ARVIDSON 8-DEC-1987 08:38:08.40 To: MARGOLIN,ARVIDSON CC: Subj: Your IC socket part number. Jed, here is the part number for the socket described below: 179258-024. As yet there are no approved sources. The AVL description is: SOCKET, IC, 24/.400, STAMPED, OPEN FRAME. Characteristics: Open frame, inside frame dimensions to be determined. Spacing of pin rows = 0.400". Stamped contacts, may be single or dual beam. Phospher bronze or Beryllium copper contacts, tin plated. PC board mounting, tin plated leads. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::MORRIS 10-DEC-1987 10:16:23.07 To: @sys$mail:junk CC: Subj: Condo FOR RENT FOR RENT. 1 bedroom, 720sq ft, condo. Situated in Santa Clara, a nice complex with pool, spa, cabana, gymnasium and laundry rooms. This unit overlooks the garden and pool. Available after January 8, 1988. Rent $675/Mo. (With option to assume 10.5% Adjustable loan). Anyone interest please contact Jim by VaxMail, or (xxx) xxx-xxxx (Day) or (xxx) xxx-xxxx (Eve.) Thank You. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: ERNIE::BROWN 10-DEC-1987 15:36:34.57 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,BROWN CC: Subj: 401(K) PLAN DURING THE MONTH OF DECEMBER EMPLOYEES MAY CHANGE THEIR INVESTMENT OPTIONS FOR THE 401(K) PLAN. THE CHANGE WILL BECOME EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 1988. THE THREE OPTIONS ARE THE SAME AS THEY WERE FOR 1987: 1. ASSET ALLOCATION FUND 2. MONEY MARKET FUND 3. GUARANTEED ASSET FUND "PARTICIPANT INVESTMENT DIRECTIVE" FORMS ARE AVAILABLE IN MY OFFICE. PLEASE FILL THEM OUT AND LEAVE THEM WITH ME OR JUDY NO LATER THAN DECEMBER 23, 1987, OUR LAST WORK DAY IN 1987. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: MIKE::AVL 11-DEC-1987 16:20:13.49 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY,AVL CC: Subj: On-Line CER submissions Users on MIKE may now submit Component Evaluation Requests on-line by typing 'CER' at the VAX system prompt ($). The program will prompt for information about the component, and forward the request to Component Engineering for processing. The user should be prepared to answer specific questions such as Atari part number, vendor part number, vendor contact and phone numbers. The program allows for several comment lines, in which the user may include whatever information may be appropriate. If additional information and/or samples are required, the Component Engineer assigned to each request will contact the requester if needed. The user will be notified when the CER has been completed, and the results of the evaluation. The command, 'CER' will become effective upon your next login or RESTART on MIKE. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::DECK 18-DEC-1987 14:03:54.81 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: Hearty Congratulations!!! Congratulations to Ed and Connie Logg for the birth of their baby girl at 4 lbs. 5 ozs. The baby was delivered 6 weeks earlier, but baby girl at 4 lbs. 5 ozs. The baby was delivered 6 weeks early, but both mother and baby are ok at the present time. The parents have not decided on a name as yet. The baby was born at 12:20 AM Friday, December 18. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: CHARM::OIDS 21-DEC-1987 16:39:43.42 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK CC: Subj: New Years Eve party at Owen Rubin's Palacial Mansion It's the FIFTH in the continuing series! Owen Rubin's SEMI-BIANNUAL (tm) New Year's Eve Party... When : December 31st 8:30 PM 'til ??? What : Beer, Wine & Munchies provided -- bring something creative Where: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxx-xxx-xxxx (car phone xxx-xxx-xxxx) (work phone xxx-xxx-xxxx) Please RSVP ASAP. Maps available upon request -- just call Owen or see Ed Rotberg when he's in a good mood. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::MCCARTHY 22-DEC-1987 14:26:49.07 To: @sys$mail:hardware,MCCARTHY CC: Subj: Meeting minutes Report on Meeting of Hardware Engineers on 12/21/85 Downend-gang, Moore-gang, Moncrief-gang and System-3D-gang were represented. Here is a synopsis of the discussions. Digital RGB standard : Requested by Rich Moore that we come up with a standard binary format for R-2R video output. Cyberball uses 5 bits Red, 6 bits Green & 5 bits Blue. The extra Green bit helps with the grass playfield shading. Blasteroids used 5-5-5, using the extra bit for a special function. Jeds circuit uses 8-8-8 (24 bit data path). Conclusion. We can't propose a standard that would be acceptable to all project leaders and animators. If they want to propose a standard as a group we will implement it. Classes in the different hardwares in development. : Requested by Moore, VanElderen and Downend. In general the hardware engineers did not percieve any productive use in classes for each other. The purpose of classes would be to inform programmers and game designers of what is currently available. The best format would be - one class presented by Doug, Gary and Pat explaining the main differences between the hardwares developed by each (to be presented sometime early February), and one class presented by Max/Jed explaining their system capabilities (time To Be Determined). System 3D wants to wait until they have silicon before they do anything. STATIC RAMs 8Kx8. Some static RAMs are described as "internally syncronous, externally asyncronous". Jed is concerned that these ICs may not work on all applications where other static RAMs will work. Specifically, when the IC is permanently enabled and the address lines are driven from a ripple counter, the address lines will not change state at the same time. Will the "internally syncronous device work". Conclusion : Erwin is to be asked to contact Toshiba and Fujitsu to find out the difference between these devices and other devices by the same manufacturers with similar specifications but no mention of the "internally syncronous" operation. If there is no difference then the parts can have the same Atari p/n as the other static RAMs. If there is a usage difference then they should have a seperate p/n. AVL: It continues to be very difficult (impossible) to obtain "current" information from the AVL as to what electronic devices to call out for a parts list for production. Part of the problem is - not being able to determine recent and commonly used production parts from parts that were approved years ago and probably never used in production. The specifications of those older parts should be examined by the engineer for suitability and cost-effectiveness before being used for production release product. However one cannot examine every part on a parts list. A suggestion was made that "out of date parts" (the criteria for out-of-date to be determined) be moved from the current avl database to an "old parts" database on an ongoing (bi-annual or annual) basis. Those parts could be reactivated at any time if they became "current". The "old-parts" database could still be used by anyone who wanted, but the "current" database would be the first choice location. The components group are encouraged to comment on this. PALS : Even though recent costing indicated that Fairchild PALs were the most cost-effective for production ($1.00), there is a problem using Fairchild PALs for prototype development. They cannot be programmed by our engineering DATA I/O logic programmer (unless we buy the adaptor for a few hundred dollars). This does not affect their suitability for production since we buy preprogrammed PALs for production. If you need to program a Fairchild part you can take the code to WYLE and do it there. It is not known if the National Semiconductor buyout of Fairchild will have any effect on this situation. If you have any comments on these items, or wish to suggest future items of discussion, reply to this address. We hope to continue these meetings approximately once a month. ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::FRYE 22-DEC-1987 15:55:37.50 To: @SYS$MAIL:EVERYBODY CC: Subj: FACILITIES Tomorrow, Wednesday, Dec 23, at 11PM the main lobby doors will be padlocked until 7AM Monday, Dec 28th. This will also be the case next Wednesday through Monday, Dec 30th - Jan 4th. All other doors will be operating as usual. Our main lobby will be open and operat- ing with guard service during the Xams shutdown, Dec 28-30, 7AM to 11PM. (No facility functions will be curtailed during this time). The janitorial crews will be in to do major cleaning of our building during this shutdown. Best wishes for the holidays. Bob ___________________________________________________________________________ From: KIM::BRAD 23-DEC-1987 11:47:56.46 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK,BRAD CC: Subj: Christmas Eve Service For those of you searching for a beautiful Christmas Eve service, Calvary Church at 16330 Los Gatos Boulevard in Los Gatos will have services at 4:00, 7:00 and 8:30. Care for children will be provided at the 7pm service. Each service will last a maximum of 50 minutes so that you will be able to prepare yourself for Christmas and then spend time at home with your family. A map to the church is on the board outside my office. brad ___________________________________________________________________________