READER COMMENT. . .
Dear Editor,Your Bugs and Bytes feature on editing lock-up brought to mind my recent clash with the beast, and I thought that you and your readers might be interested to hear how I emerged victorious. After revising about fifty lines of a program, I tried to "CSAVE" hit Return, and found that the cursor simply disappeared. I hit Reset and tried again, but no go. I thought of the solution offered by the Basic Reference Manual (turn it off and lose your program!) and then I figured I better think again. After a number of unsuccessful ploys, I typed "BYE". Bingo! Up comes the Memo Pad. I had a feeling that when I hit Reset, everything would be Ready, and I wasn't disappointed. "CSAVE" started about two seconds later.
I can't guarantee that this will work every time, but it sure beats calling it quits and pulling the plug (or even listing
after every few edits as you suggest). My victory may have been a small one, but it sure made me glad that I was
born with a computer that has a little more range than "0" and "1".
By the way, if you want a little news filler, you might mention in the magazine that there is an effort being made to establish a National Atari Computer Net for radio amateurs (hams) on Monday nights at 8:00 p.m. EST on 14.329 MHz. The net has gotten off to a slow start because just when the publicity hit, the net control station W1UKZ, experienced some antenna trouble, and was off the air for some time. So if anyone is interested in getting on the radio and chatting about our favorite computer, please contact me.
Yours truly,
Dear Editor,
Hi! Forgot to tell you that I think the screen layouts in # 1 are really nice, I haven't tried using them yet because I haven't made any copies. (I assume we have permission to copy those few pages(?) ) But I will use them next time I write a program.
While we are on the subject of permissions, that has bugged me for a long time, but have never known any publishers to tell it to. The notice that everyone puts in their magazines says that nobody can copy anything without your (written) permission. Right? Could it or should it not be changed or amended or something to allow copying of non-article type material? Like ads and especially coupons for information or to order with. Who wants to chop up their magazines? Especially, GOOD ones like yours, (had to put that in) I realize that most people probably ignore the notice and copy anything and everything, but wouldn't it make more sense to allow copying of specific things "legally"? If I'm totally wrong, let me know, it wouldn't be the first (or last) time. But at least I found somebody to complain to.
I have a feeling you may know more about this than I, but I thought I would mention them in case you haven't and wish to discuss them in the magazine. The following are ATARI Tech Tips that correct or prevent several problems and the Customer does NOT pay for them even if the machine is out of warranty. (I will skip those that do not impact the end-user, service tips, part number changes, etc.)
#2 - 400 / Oscillating paddle while using the Super Breakout cartridge. This shows up as a very erratic paddle. It is corrected by adding a capacitor on the motherboard.
#4 - 800 / Machine remains in 'SELECT' condition when using the Basketball cartridge. It is corrected by removing three capacitors from the motherboard.
#9 - 825 / RF Interference. To minimize the interference, be certain that the coax cable coming from the rear of the Computer, extends away from or is layed at right angles to the 1/0 and printer cables. As an additional precaution, do not cross the printer cable with the power adapter cables.
#12 - 800 / Machines with 48K RAM using Star Raiders may invert the display. This is corrected by replacing one of the IC's with a higher revision.
Those are the current ones that a Customer may have experience with. ATARI has recently released upgrades for both the 400 and 800 to prevent the problems that were caused by card movement. And of course the goldplated contacts.
So you are a Star Commander ... I love that game. I haven't been playing too much lately and my highest rank was Lieutenant, Class 1. Well, I played one game last week and made it to Warrior, Class 1. In another couple years, I might catch up with you! Do you know about the alternate hyperwarp procedure, the one you don't have to steer for? It also isn't documented in the game description. Well, if you don't know, you can travel to a sector that you want to go to. Then press 'L' and 'H' and it will jump you up to the above sector easily. It does miss occasionally, but not anymore than when steering. It's great for when you have lost your computer but not long range (it doesn't work when LR is broke). The first time I played SR, I didn't have the instructions and found it by accident. I don't know if it detracts from your score either. But is is nice to know about!
Name & address withheld