The new issue of the german ST Computer is now available. The summer season has been used to completly redesign the layout and to introduce some newbies. E.g. from now onwards there will be a quarter monthly reader CD for subscribers. From the contents: An extensive review of the new TOS Clone Milan and a preview of the forthcoming Atari Show in Neuss.

Doug Little, the programmer of the well known Falcon graphics application Apex Media, has ported a large portion of the OpenGL 2D/3D graphics libraries for the TOS platform. Some OpenGL demos already work, even though they don’t always do what they are supposed to yet. Only Falcon graphics modes are being supported at the moment, but future versions could support GEM and graphics cards. OpenGL applications ported to TOS will then run on all Ataris and compatibles. A bigger problem for Doug is the port of the GLUT library (used by a large number of GL applications), which includes a lot of platform specific code. If you want to know more and/or want to help Doug out a little, click here for the original message.

Mario Becroft has developed an easy to use interface which allows you to use any serial mouse on your Atari. All you have to do is to plug the interface into your mouseport and that’s it. If using a mouse with three buttons the third button can be used to activate a double click. For the official announcement click here.

The Dead Hackers Society are currently working on the aim to build up a complete collection of modules from ST and Falcon demos. A first version of the archive is online since yesterday and you can already download a big selection of modules sorted by democrew names. To make the archive grow in the future help in collecting the musics is highly welcome.
Atariscene Modulearchive

atari-computer.de has now started a big giveaway of Atari related hard and software. For the next couple of weeks you have the possibility to sign in and win a complete Mega STE system with monitor, two Mega ST2, a Lynx, CDs and more. All you have to do is to answer a form with 5 questions correctly and send it to them until 13.09.98, 24h CET.

After a long beta testing phase version 1.04 of the graphics multi talent Smurf has been released by Therapy Seriouz Software. Since the first version a lot of bugs have been removed and some nice little improvements have been added. E.g. all modules now have a proper preview window with optional (and now fully operational) zoom function, a module to freely scale images (with or without interpolation) has been added and lots more. After my first tests the new version seems to be very stable too. Users of the full version can now easily register their Smurf with an easy to use installation program. If you haven’t got a Smurf living somewhere on your harddisk yet you should try out the demoversion (german language). Download (475,4 kb)(no longer available)

The organisers of this years ACC 98 have now announced stand prices for PD and Shareware authors. They are also looking for people who can help out in some areas. For the official announcement click here.

Well, not quite yet but at least there is a decoder available. Based on the sources of the Amiga decoder RAdecode Petr Stehlik has written a TTP that converts 14k4 RA/RAM files to raw audio data (16 bit, signed, 8khz, mono). A first version can be downloaded from his homepage. The sourcecode is included so probably someone tries to make a full Real Audio Player out of it…?

The new issue of the html based diskmag Atari Times is now available from the Atari Times homepage. You may either download the whole issue for offline reading or stay on the website and read everything online. This issue features reviews of the new accellerator Veloce 020, MGIF 5.01, Mummies Playtime and Hellgate as well as news, programming hints, an interview with Deano (Mummies Playtime) and more.

This website can now also be reached using the easy to remember xonline.atari.org address. You will be automatically redirected to the atari-computer.com server. If you are now interested in your own myname.atari.org webaddress for your homepage you should visit www.atari.org. It is planned to build something like a Yahoo for Atari there. Besides the possibility to get free virtual domain names a couple of other services are planned for the near future.

On the homepage of Olivier Booklage you can find a selection of interesting clients for the TCP/IP stack Sting like an alternative overlay for CAB. This overlay allows you to surf the net with the combination of Sting/CAB. Using the latest CAB 2.7 it supports cookies and authentification. If you want to try out an alternative to Dan Ackermann’s overlay then you should pay a visit to Olivier’s homepage.

After the big success of the first Milan chat, which took place shortly before the first Milans hit the shops, the Milan Team now decided to repeat that event on September 7th. At 21.00h CET on channel #Milan the interested Atarian will be able to ask the Milan Team everything (or nearly everything). Milan homepage

The biggest Atari event this year the Atari Show in Neuss now has it’s own webpage at www.atari-messe.de. There you get to know everything you need to know as a potential visitor.

You are still looking for a suitable program for the forthcoming Milan chat? Then you may try AtarIRC for Stik/Sting. The fully GEM embedded IRC client has just been released in a new version and can be downloaded directly from the author’s homepage.

M_Player is a tool by Guillaume Tello which allows you to play and to create various movie formats like AVI, MOV and MPEG. The new version features a faster greyscale display for MPEG movies:

• 160*120 +30%
• 352*240 +5%

M_Player Homepage

Men at War is the name of a forthcoming Falcon game by Bonus Software/FUN. Your quite complex task is to eliminate your opponent with the help of a machine gun. The game is played from an overhead view in various arenas (playfields). A couple of nice extras makes the FUN go on. The latest preview can be downloaded directly from the FUN homepage (new in this version: bonus items, drone bombs, new ingame gfx, module music by Toodeloo/DHS).

Ever wondered what an Atari programmer is doing day by day? In two cases you now have the possibility to read all about their activities or inactivities in their online diaries. Tat of Avena started a so called demo diary for his forthcoming Falcon demo Binliner which gives you a regularly update of how the demo proceeds or not. The Reservoir Gods have now taken over this idea for their next Falcon game Republic and have created a diary too. So let’s hope that they will still find some time to code while writing their diaries…
Binliner Diary
Republic Diary

The august release of Calamus SL 98 (german version) is now available complete with demoversion. A lot of new features have been implemented since the last version. For more detailed information you may download the announcement from the german Mausnet newsgroup Atari.News here (german language).

The new Falcon accelerator Centurbo 2 by Centek is (after a long development period and a couple of delays) now available for some weeks. The first bunch of boards has already been sold out but the second series should be available by today. The board features it’s own 50 Mhz 68030 processor, 32 MB Fast RAM and the possibility to run the whole system with up to 50 Mhz (which allows True Color resolutions of 640*400 and higher). For some more technical information, prices etc. you may visit the Centek homepage. As long as the new site under www.centek.fr isn’t up yet you should take a look at the old location. If you want to know how the Centurbo 2 performs in different tests you may also download an archive with some benchmarks here. (no longer available)

Digital Lab is a new 32 bit ‘retouche’ software by Eric Da Cunha and Frédéric Bayle. The updated version is now also available in german and english language and can be downloaded directly from Frédéric’s homepage. Digital Lab makes use of the M&E System by Parx (available at the same place) and offers a nicely designed interface as well as a bunch of professional tools to play with. Additionaly you can make use of a couple of effects to give your masterpiece the finishing touches. When it comes to speed Digital Lab still shows itself very well usable on a standard Falcon. Frédéric Bayle’s homepage – Digital Lab

Better late than never two Falcon 4k Tros formerly planned for a release at the QuaST Party are now available from the Orneta / QuaST 98 Downloadpage. 4orce by the Dead Hackers Society and 4some by Mind Design.

The Reservoir Gods have striked again with the release of Godboy X a completly overworked and partly recoded version of their Falcon Gameboy emulator. Godboy X features a much faster Gameboy emulation, allows sprite clipping, original Gameboy colours as well as CinemaScope and double line screen modes. Especially the improved emulation speed comes in positiv and the first Godboy X release Megaman 2 stays perfectly playable even on unspeeded Falcons. Like in other Godboy releases the Reservoir Gods have added trainer modes and tracker sound to improve the gaming experience. Pink Pages – The Reservoir Gods Homepage

The demoversion of the new audio editing software V-Trax can now be downloaded from the homepage of one of the authors. V-Trax is based on the harddiskrecording software Studio Son but offers some additional professional features like:

• 8 tracks mixing console
• 32000 tracks timeline
• volumes and panoramic control to each track with possibility of control automation

V-Trax / Studio Son Homepage

The developers of NVDI Behne and Behne Systemsoftware now have their own homepage. There you will find everything you need to know about the Atari system extension no. 1, small updates like overworked printer drivers for free download and the NVDI 5 FAQ. (german language only at the moment) Get me there!

Popgem is an e-mail utility for Stik/Sting which allows easy access to your e-mail box. You can check for new mails, delete them from the server, download them etc. It is a cleanly written GEM program which supports modern features like AV server and BubbleGEM. Download

The online world for every atarian now offers some new services to their visitors: The ‘Rag-fair’ allows you to buy or sell Atari items of all kinds, the ‘BBS’ offers the possibility to discuss Atari hardware and software and in the ‘Links for All’ section you can share your top atari links. (all services are currently only available in german language) www.atari-computer.de

At the same time the QuaST Party was being held in Poland there also was the Jem Party going in France. Besides a yet unseen intro a new ST megademo called ‘Back in France’ (not Falcon compatible) has been released. Download it directly from the Dead Hackers Society website.

The english Atari magazine Atari Computing has made it up to issue 10 these days. Besides the nice cover there are as usual news from the Atari World, Reviews and Tutorials. Reviewed for the first time: Veloce+ – the new hardware accelerator for STe.

The QuaST Party (formerly known as Orneta) in Poland has ended on sunday and the first Atari releases can already be downloaded from the QuaST/Orneta 98 Downloadpage It seems as there were, besides some other stuff, three full Falcon demos released (Mystic Bytes, Escape and FUN have been active)!

The HTML editor Joe has been released in a new version. To download it visit the authors homepage.

Christian Felsch has released a new version of the popular text editor qed as well as Ghostscript for GEM (based on Ghostscript 5.10). For more infos check out his homepage.

Issue 26 of the long running english diskmag for Atari ST and Falcon has finally been released. This time there are no less than 1.1 MB of text waiting for you. So go directly to the Reservoir Dogs homepage and download your copy.

Ok, I finally managed it to finish most parts of this site so the X is online now. Have a nice look arround and don’t forget to bookmark this site.:-) I hope to have regular updates to make the site more interesting for you so check back often.