ENGLISH SOFTWARE APOLOGY
Dear Les,
Any chance of pointing out in your next issue that
FORBIDDEN FOREST which was reviewed as being really awful in issue 14
is NOT from English Software but is published by U.S. GOLD in the U.
K.
I would hate to think that this game will undeservedly give ENGLISH
SOFTWARE a bad name!!
Philip
Morris,
English
Software.
* Oops, sorry. That is obviously why it is not as
good as Jet Boot Jack! Perhaps all U.S. GOLD titles are 'really awful'
and that is why they never send any out for review!!
_____________
TOUCH TABLET ADVICE
Dear Page 6,
I thought that you might like to know of an
undocumented feature of the Atari Artist cartridge used with the Touch
Tablet, to allow pictures to be saved in Micropainter format.
The method is to press the INSERT key whilst the
picture is on screen and the picture will be saved with the filename
PICTURE. Be sure to have a disk ready as there is no prompt. Once
saved the picture can be loaded into a Basic program with any of the
published picture loaders.
Mike Power,
Manchester
* Many thanks. This is one of those little bits
of information that I thought everybody knew but apparently not as I
have had several letters recently asking if this can be done. One
thing to watch is that all pictures will be saved with the filename
PICTURE so it is important to use option E of DOS to rename the file
before saving another. You can also use this in reverse. Take any 62
sector format picture and rename it PICTURE, go to draw mode and press
the CLEAR key and the picture will load in and can then be worked on
as usual.
_____________
TOO EASY!
Dear Les,
I would like to register a complaint about how easy
some of Atari's games are. For example I bought the official PENGO a
while ago and it was so easy that by the next day I could reach over
300,000 with just two lives on the hardest level. Even though the game
is almost the same as the arcade version graphics wise, I still think
it was a waste of money.
Paulo Fragapane,
Bristol
* I haven't tried PENGO but I wish I could find
some easy games! Can you imagine how difficult it is to write reviews
when you can't even get off the first screen!!
_____________
GO
TO GERMANY
Dear Page 6,
I am a a British civilian living in Germany and
purchased an 800XL here last year. Having found the manual totally
useless, I decided to wait until a visit to the U. K to purchase some
decent books.
I stayed in Manchester which is by no means a small
town and was totally amazed at the lack of Atari literature and
software available. The 800XL is very popular in Germany, second only
to the Commodore 64 according to German magazines, and both specialist
computer shops and departmental stores are full of Atari literature
and software. German computer magazines tend to have many more
articles, tips and listings for the Atari than their U. K
counterparts.
I spent many weeks deciding whether to buy an 800XL
or a Commodore 64 and I am convinced I made the right choice but
wonder what owners in the U.K. feel?
Malcolm Pearce,
W. Germany.
* This is still the biggest problem Atari face in
the U.K. They have always had the best machines so the fact that the
new range is even better will not automatically gain them the
recognition they deserve. Unless and until all retailers start keeping
a good range of Atari software and supporting material Atari have very
little chance of getting anywhere near the C64, BBC or Spectrum let
alone catching them. This is an area that Atari and their distributors
MUST give priority to otherwise all the promises will remain
unfulfilled
_____________
MISSING MEMORY
Dear PAGE 6,
Can you please tell me why so much memory is lost
with a 64k RAM module on a 600XL. Only 3k is lost to the O.S., screen
display and Basic on a 16k machine. Now I lose 16k to the O.S., 8k to
Basic and 3k to the screen and other 'bits and bobs'. Even the Atari
Helpline cannot answer this. Can you tell me why?
Michael Phillips,
S. Wales
* Any 8-bit machine (which all the existing
Ataris are) can only access 64k total memory which must include the
Operating System and language as well as RAM. The memory on all models
is made up as follows: The first 1791 bytes are used by the Operating
System, up to the 48k boundary is RAM (if installed) and the final 16k
is the Operating System. The basic cartridge always occupies the area
from 40k to 48k. On a 16k machine RAM is installed only up to the 16k
boundary but the top 16k of Operating System is also there as is BASIC
which still occupies the same area. If you like, your 16k machine is
really a 40k machine so when you upgrade to 64k you only get an extra
24k which is why you feel that you are 'losing' more. Originally Atari
called their 48k RAM machines '48k' despite the fact that total memory
was 64k but then Commodore started calling their machines '64k' and
Atari lost sales. The XL machines are called 64k for commercial
reasons and although you might think you have been cheated they do in
fact have more 'user-RAM' than the Commodore 64!
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