Profile of Colin Polonowski

    Name:            Colin Josef Polonowski
    Date of Birth:   21 December 1977        Age: 18

    Atari Setup:

    My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum which I got for Christmas in 1984
    - it still amazes me how much could be achieved with just 48k!  I still
    haven't seen any games which have more playability than some of the Speccy
    ones (one of my favourites was Mastertronics Rescue). In fact I still play
    on it sometimes!

    I first got my STe back in 1989, it cost me œ350 and came with the Power
    Pack software collection. Most of this software wasn't fully compatible!

    Since then I have upgraded it steadily, my first major purchase was a Star
    LC20 9 pin printer followed closely by an upgrade to 1 meg. Next followed
    a SC1435 colour monitor to replace my TV, a new Canon BJ10sx Bubblejet
    printer, a System Solutions Mini hard drive, SM124 Mono monitor and my
    Reveal Fax Modem. Also during this time I upgraded my ST's memory, first
    to 2 meg and then to 4.

    I bought myself an Atari Lynx 2 in 1994 and a Jaguar in December 1995.

    Favourite software:

    My favourite piece of Atari software ever must be Papyrus. There is nothing
    else on the ST which even comes close - it is even better than most PC and
    Mac packages.

    Another piece of software which deserves a mention is NVDI 3. It is a
    remarkable piece of programming and I don't think I could live without it.

    My favourite game at the moment has to be Microproses Civilization although
    it is closely followed by Frontier and Obsession.

    Out of the mountain of PD and Shareware software currently available, I'd
    have to say both Kandinsky and Gemview.

    Atari's main use:

    When I first got my ST, I used it purely for playing games. It wasn't until
    1991 that I decided to put it to more practicle use by programming some
    software.

    Since then I have written over twenty programs all of which are available
    as PD, Freeware, Shareware or Licenceware. In 1996, I launched the Croft
    Soft HTML News Letter (now The Atari Times) and the Atari Authors Association.

    I spend most of my computing time now either writing stuff for the News
    Letter, using Papyrus for typing various things and using the Bulletin
    Board Networks.

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