New Atari ST FREE magazine.

[oky2000]

I'm looking for ideas for a first issue of an ST magazine I am going to do, and have it distributed for FREE and anyone will be able to read it online. I want it to be based on a similar format to the magazine ST Format, mostly 1games but there will be hardware related articles too, but no reviews on what is the best spreadsheet or C compiler sorry. And if I'm right I won't need to ask for a single penny in donations to keep the site alive.

 

If all goes well I hope to make it a quarterly thing also, and it will be the most unique magazine you've ever seen for sekrit reasons I can't go into as it will spoil the surprise Still some testing going, possibly may need to purchase a new computer...not sure yet.

 

So I'm asking for some ideas. I have some, but need to think outside the box a bit and would welcome some ideas of what you would like to see in the magazine. News is something I'm not sure about, I don't like the way magazines like Retrogamer do their 'news' ie they wind the calendar back 25 years and say 'in 1985 on this day <company> did <something> or released <old game>' etc. I don't really think news works like that when you're doing a retro machine based magazine.

 

PS if you're really lucky my first serious article, which is 100% games focussed don't worry, will be related to something else I was working on.....it depends if I win a certain bit of Amiga kit on ebay.....that's all I'm saying

[+Guitarman]

I'd love to see a column on hardware upgrades. There are so many, old and new, that get lost in the shuffle. It would be great to publish these upgrades/mods/HW add-ons in article format. Do 1 or 2 per issue, complete with parts list and build instructions (if it is a do-it-yourselfer) or order instructions if it's available for purchase. Include a disk or file download of needed or optional programs for running/using the upgrade and instructions on its usage.

[oky2000]

I'd love to see a column on hardware upgrades. There are so many, old and new, that get lost in the shuffle. It would be great to publish these upgrades/mods/HW add-ons in article format. Do 1 or 2 per issue, complete with parts list and build instructions (if it is a do-it-yourselfer) or order instructions if it's available for purchase. Include a disk or file download of needed or optional programs for running/using the upgrade and instructions on its usage.

 

Interesting, I would certainly be all for including information about this in articles if people can supply them. I'm not really the kind of person you want to trust with a hot soldering iron and 16 RAM chips next to an ST with the lid off it...so this is more than likely dependant on other people submitting the information (and pictures too if they want)

 

One of the things I liked about the ST compared to other 8 bit computers before was all the juicy upgrades, like 2.5mb for Jeff Minter's Psychedelic ST and all those juicy CPU cards and internal 8086 PC compatible cards being fitted inside the ST case. Thanks for reminding me. I did build a flux capacitor for my C64....but that's a different story we won't go into now.....

Edited June 14, 2010 by oky2000

[+wood_jl]

How about some investigative reporting.

 

How about covering the "piggyback" 1MB upgrade mod for the original 520ST?

 

Would make a great article, to cover the mysticism around this upgrade. Why mysticism?

 

(1) It was at once (1986-1987) the most popular ST upgrade EVER. Even the Atari dealer in Anchorage, AK did them day in and day out and had the machines in that small town LINED UP for this mod.

 

(2) Now, NOT A SOUL (and I am not kidding, nobody on the ENTIRE PLANET AND THE ENTIRE INTERNET) has the writeup for how this is done. I mean some instructions. NOBODY. THEY ARE GONE. You can upgrade an Atari 130XE to 1MB with instructions that will come up on the first Google search. YOU WILL NOT FIND HOW TO GET 520ST TO 1MB. This is weird. Considering it was so popular before, therein lies the mysticism. Did upgrade board makers invent a time machine, then go back and remove the documents from existence?

 

(3) This upgrade is viewed as "unreliable" today. Why??? Wouldn't any solder joints done incorrectly or with poor solder be unreliable? According to Best - it WILL go bad and difficult to troubleshoot when it does. As opposed to any other soldered-in RAM that goes bad???? When did this become unreliable?

 

(4) Didn't Atari do this themselves with the "520ST+"? Are those all broken now, or what?

[lp060]

Why not simply submit your articles to http://lowresmag.wordpress.com/

[LoTonah]

I'm looking for ideas for a first issue of an ST magazine I am going to do, and have it distributed for FREE and anyone will be able to read it online. I want it to be based on a similar format to the magazine ST Format, mostly 1games but there will be hardware related articles too, but no reviews on what is the best spreadsheet or C compiler sorry. And if I'm right I won't need to ask for a single penny in donations to keep the site alive.

 

If all goes well I hope to make it a quarterly thing also, and it will be the most unique magazine you've ever seen for sekrit reasons I can't go into as it will spoil the surprise Still some testing going, possibly may need to purchase a new computer...not sure yet.

 

So I'm asking for some ideas. I have some, but need to think outside the box a bit and would welcome some ideas of what you would like to see in the magazine. News is something I'm not sure about, I don't like the way magazines like Retrogamer do their 'news' ie they wind the calendar back 25 years and say 'in 1985 on this day <company> did <something> or released <old game>' etc. I don't really think news works like that when you're doing a retro machine based magazine.

 

PS if you're really lucky my first serious article, which is 100% games focussed don't worry, will be related to something else I was working on.....it depends if I win a certain bit of Amiga kit on ebay.....that's all I'm saying

 

Hey there,

 

Love this idea. If you'd like some help, let me know. I can write HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc., so if you need help customizing your website or tweaking Wordpress, let me know.

 

If you plan on doing it as downloadable PDF files, I've got a lot of Indesign experience.

 

If you need articles, I can do some reviews, and maybe write a programming column or two, mostly BASIC-centric (but willing to step outside of that, too).

 

Let me know what you think

-Don

[oky2000]

It's going to be an online thing, with the benefits that will bring to the presentation in the area of games reviews is all I can say right now But it's unlikely I would have time to do two versions ie a downloadable locally viewable one. It's all still dependant on getting suitable hardware for some software I have built and available.

 

The 1mb piggy back upgrade will hopefully be in issue one too with a bit of luck, not confirmed just yet but very possible.

 

Thanks to everyone for their input btw

[+wood_jl]

The 1mb piggy back upgrade will hopefully be in issue one too with a bit of luck, not confirmed just yet but very possible.

Thanks to everyone for their input btw

 

That is totally awesome! My hat is off to you for that, and this entire effort!

[Reptile]

Unfortunately I do not have a working ST setup at the moment but I am working on it.

Once I am up and running I would love to write some articles.

 

I have previously wrote for Total Amiga magazine so have had some experience.

[carmel_andrews]

who you got doing the games or software reviews, and will you be re-reviewing the games published during the st/e/tt etc's lifetime (85-1994)

Edited July 1, 2010 by carmel_andrews

[Reptile]

I now have a working ST setup. I would be happy to send you some articles on disk, just let me know what you are after.

I would be good at offering an opinion or sketch.

 

 

Reptile

Edited July 14, 2010 by Reptile

[oky2000]

This is still happening, slowly, as I have had less time and less funds available thanks to change of employment recently.

 

I still have a problem with the PC needed to produce the site which I am also working on.

 

1) But to answer the question about games initially in the first published version I will be just reviewing some early Atari ST games. Shortlisted at the moment are....

 

Gauntlet 1

Oids

The Pawn

TNT

Starglider

(and a few more, not decided which early games to put in...FS II is a pain to use without manual)

 

2) Hoping to have the 1mb piggyback thing done but have yet to find my source article for it! I suspect it may have been in an issue of ST Format not Atari User which could be a problem.

 

3) Also going to be reviewing some software blitter software, tested with some pretty heavy GEM serious software and if I can find it the Anibird demo with multiple birds flying across the screen.....if I can find a disk image of that too!

 

4) Provisionally will also do a back to back review of Degas and Neochrome for lores colour artists of the time.

 

5) Now what I would really like to do is have a gallery page too, this means finding all those 1986/87 demo pictures I remember...like the rose, the shire horses, the waterfall/devil/3D escher with colour cycling etc. I don't have all these pictures though so it's possible it won't happen this time!

 

Technically the bare bones of the site is done, the design/layout/basic graphics are all done too. The hold up is the games page, without a suitably decked out PC [supported components] I can't do what I want to do and so it's not getting launched. I could cheat yes but decided it has to be all my own work or submitted. I don't want to say any more as it will ruin the surprise re: presentation of the site in general and how I am doing the reviews, and I believe it will be the first time it has been done this way for any retro machine.

 

I also found a free site host with zero advertising on the pages and suitable domain name registrations, so it is all happening.....slowly

 

I decided on the name I want for the 'magazine' too but need to check if the domain is taken to use for the web address. Logos for the name will be shown once I have registered the FREE domain name and assigned it to a free host (two seperate companies!)

 

Also will create a dedicated PB page for uploading/remote linking all the graphics to keep as much in the 2gb a month limit for the free hosting.

Edited July 22, 2010 by oky2000

[oky2000]

Just a little update, I can now confirm that the 'Piggyback' 1mb RAM upgrade will be in the first release

 

I finally sourced the full article, read through it and am quite happy to transcribe it because so many people are looking for a simple 512kb upgrade for early machines that don't have any empty sockets etc like the STFM models.

[+wood_jl]

Just a little update, I can now confirm that the 'Piggyback' 1mb RAM upgrade will be in the first release

 

I finally sourced the full article, read through it and am quite happy to transcribe it because so many people are looking for a simple 512kb upgrade for early machines that don't have any empty sockets etc like the STFM models.

 

 

BRAVO!!!!! NOBODY (and I do mean, the world-over-via-the-internet-Google-and-every-Atari-forum-in-existence knows about this mod. Or they do, and they just don't give a shit. Either way, the info must not have been easy to find. Thanks!!

[oky2000]

The article has no pictures sadly. Might give it a go if I have the RAM as I have 3 520STs I found it whilst scanning Atari User UK lol

[The_Laird]

Dunno how I missed this thread but I have done alot of ST reviews over the years for another website which are no longer there. I could submit these to the magzine if you like, I did a few guides to ST coin-op conversions which could be cool.

 

Also as Jagfest UK is later this month down the road from you in St. Albans I could write a report on the show for you if you are not able to attend yourself. There is always a massive ST and Falcon pressence at the show

[carmel_andrews]

sounds like you could do with a helping hand oky, if you want to hit the ground running with your magazione project

[oky2000]

sounds like you could do with a helping hand oky, if you want to hit the ground running with your magazione project

 

Time needed to do traditional things is not really the issue, funding a nice powerful desktop to create content and the site is the biggest problem right now and of course because it is not the same old rubbish webpages everyone does for their online magazine but something pretty radical and fully utilising all the nice features of this decade's internet facilities means it is slightly more work even when I sort out my new machine. Will be worth it. Done some mockups, and low and behold some of the source material has already had a flurry of comments and discussion kicking off despite it being orphaned isolated content on a completely unrelated site with a totally unsuitable username! This bodes well for the site's popularity and my belief that this will indeed be quite an awesome design direction when it's all pulled together.

 

Anyway am quite pleased with the domain name, and it is both a spot on comment on the site's general intentions and manages to get ST into the title of the domain nicely At this rate it might be an xmas present for Atari fans worldwide though if you're lucky (and behave yourselves!) lol

 

edit: oh yes and a letters page won't really be required and is quite redundant I have just realised....lol can't say why or how though just yet sorry.

 

Hope to have a two page example/sample completely finished and out their for end of October anyway if all things go to plan, forgot to mention that also.

 

(have to be a bit cryptic with the content/style still sorry....but it's definitely going to be a case of 'now why didn't I think of doing it like that myself' when you see the first appearance heh)

Edited September 12, 2010 by oky2000