279 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
279 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
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* Zmag/A\zine *
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* HOT Atari News and Reviews *
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* December 9,1986 *
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* Editor:Clinton Smith *
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* Asst.Editor:Jim Dobleski *
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Publisher:Clinton Smith
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Asst.Publishers:Jim Dobleski
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Rune Master
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Ron Kovacs
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The Wizard
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Columnists:Clinton Smith
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Rune Master
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Jeff Williams
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Gerry Feid
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* In This Issue *
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*Editor's Notes
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*Magbytes-Points of interest from Antic and Atari Explorer.
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*Elbow-Deep in the Bargain Basement from NJ Zmag
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*Sundog from FTL-a review by Clinton Smith
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*Zmag Christmas Survey Question
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*Zmag BBS List
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* Editor's Notes *
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***********************************
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Welcome to the December 9th Issue of Zmag
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In this issue,Zmag takes a look at the recent issues of Antic and Atari
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Explorer to pick out items of interest to pass onto you,the readers.Are you
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the type who likes to find bargains.If you are,I'm sure that you'll enjoy an
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interesting tale of bargain hunting from NJ Zmag.Looking for a strategy
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adventure game that uses the ST to it's fullest.Check out my review of Sundog
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-Frozen Legacy.
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Sysops!! Is your board carrying Zmag but you're not on the Zmag BBS list?
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Let me know about it.Leave the name and number of your board to me in a message
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on one of the Zmag Boards or send the info to:
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Zmag-a-zine:Dept U
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2104 North Kostner
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Chicago,Il 60639
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Zmag is looking for support from user groups(articles and software reviews).
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If you are a user group that would like to support Zmag drop me a line at:
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Zmag-a-zine:Dept S
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2104 North Kostner
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Chicago,IL 60639
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Got a question or comment about Zmag? Leave a message to me(Clinton Smith)on
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one of the Zmag Boards or write to:
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Zmag-a-zine:ATTN Editor
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2104 North Kostner
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Chicago,IL 60639
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**************************************
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* Magbytes-a look *
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* at recent issues of Atari Mags *
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Antic's feature project in the Jan 87 issue of Antic,is something that should
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make your computer(8-bit or ST)cheer(or at least say some numbers or letters.
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The talking typewriter circuit,that uses a radio shack speech chip,works with
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both the 8-bit and the ST via the joystick port.The typewriter program(8-bit
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and ST)repeats what you type in.Two 8-bit programs in the issue,Door Prize and
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Math Attack,can also use the device.
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Zobian Controls has just introduced a gem-like program for the 8-bits that
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uses their Rat or SuperRats.RAOS,Rat Accuated Operating System,costs $50
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,or $100(comes with the SuperRat).
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Would you like a drawing program for your 8-bit that has advanced features
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like airbrush painting and cutste.Then Blazing Paddles is for you.Check out
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the review for more info on it.
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Flight Simulator 2 is out for the St and Antic gives a shining review.Also
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some tidbits on the upcoming ST Jet were given.Lightning,Jet trails,explosions,
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sunsets,music,and other sound effects will be some of it's features.
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Degas Elite has some exciting new features that will knock your socks off.
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Check out the review for more details.
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Are you a fan of the public domain Star Trek games? The St Basic version looks
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to be the best yet.
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Atari Explorer
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This month's(Nov/Dec) issue has 2 articles of great interest to 8-bit and St
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game players.The year's best 8-bit games article is especially interesting
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since the writers,Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkel,were the original men behind
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Electronic
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Games.The top 8-bit games of 86 were Alternate Reality-The City,Ultima 4,
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Wizard's Crown,Spy vs. Spy 2,Zorro, Goonies,Battle of Antietam,Gettysburgh,
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Panzer Grenadier,U.S.A.A.F.,NAM,Lords of Conquest,the Racing Destruction Set
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,World Karate Championship,Fight Night,Hardball,Super Boulderdash,Koronis Rift
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,CrossCheck,and Fooblitzky.
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The top St games of 86 were Sundog,Universe 2,StarFleet 1,Breakers,Leather
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Goddesses of Phobos,Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,Borrowed Time,Brattacus,
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Hacker 2,Kings Quest 2,Phantasie,Rogue,Time Bandits,Gato,Silent Service,Word
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for Word,Bridge 4.0,Winter Games,Mean 18,Leader Board,Hole in one Golf,Strip
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Poker,Major Motion,Temple of Asphai Trilogy,and The Pawn.
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**************************************
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* Elbow-Deep in the Computer Bargain *
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* Basement *
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* by Ken White From NJ Zmag *
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**************************************
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We've all read the stories about the person who lucked into the -deal of a
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lifetime- in the eternal search to add that one last piece of equipment to his
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or her Atari collection. I've read the stories myself with a bit of envy and
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some small amount of skepticism as well.I'm not saying these people were
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exactly...lying,you understand,but their luck seemed a bit of a fluke, not the
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kind of thing that happens to the average person.On the other hand, I'm
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beginning to think that I just may have miscalculated the effects of good
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fortune....
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About a month ago, I was wandering through a local Sears store and, as is
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my custom, I swung through the computer section; there's always the possibility
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of running into an -unadvertised special- (okay, so I don't read the Sears ad
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flyers...so shoot me...) on disks, or maybe some discontinued piece of
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software at an unbelievably low price. And Sears generally features one of the
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best bits of free entertainment in town - endless demonstrations of the
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Commodore 64 and 128. You can stand there and watch, sneering in an -oh-so-
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superior way. Pretty funny way to kill ten or fifteen minutes, if you know
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what I mean.Anyway, there I was in Sears, watching the endless Commodore demos
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on the screens, when I spotted a familiar box out of the corner of my eye.
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Since I'd rather watch an inanimate Atari than a Commodore doing an Irish jig
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with twelve naked dancing girls (though thirteen naked dancing girls just...
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might...sway me...), I headed over to check out what they had in the way of
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Atari hardware.It was the usual hardware package, the one that's been
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advertised by all the big mail-order companies in Antic, Analog, Computer,
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etc. etc etc. A 130XE, a 1050 disk drive, and a 1027 printer.The big price tag
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taped to the side said $349.99. No surprises there, either. That's about the
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price the package can be purchased for at all the mail-order houses.
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Sure, those three pieces of Atari hardware looked kind of lonely sitting there
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, surrounded by the Commodore hordes.Sad? Oh, yeah. Pathetic? Oh, maybe a
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little bit. Was I going to take it home? Not on your life. I already have two
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800's, three 5 and 1/4 inch drives, two printers, a 1040ST, and three modems.
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The last thing I need in my life is more computer hardware.So I left the store
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, hoping that somebody would find these three items and decide to enter the
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world of Atari computing. Unfortunatelythat person wasn't going to be me.
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Fast forward to about a week ago. There I am, back in the same Sears store,
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picking up a sale-pack of video tapes (yes, I'd taken up reading the Sears ad
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flyers.. especially when it saved me a long trip for something I needed quick)
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.Since the audio/video section is right next to the computer section, I decided
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to pay the Atari package a visit, to see if somebody had picked them up yet.
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The three pieces of equipment were still there, in their little corner. Only
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one thing had changed: the price.Like on those video call-in-and-buy-this-right
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-now-or -we-kill-your-dog shows, it wasn't $350. Not $300. Not $250. Not even
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$225. The price taped to the top of the three stacked boxes was $199.95.I
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stopped. I licked my lips a couple of times. I pulled my wallet out and
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ruffled through the thick wad of one dollar bills I carry around to feel like
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I've got money in my pocket. Nope. Don't have a hundred and ninety-nine one
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dollar bills in there. My heart was, as they say, filled with regret.Then I
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started thinking....Yes, I did have a couple of hundred spare dollars floating
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around that I could use if I had to.Yes, Christmas IS coming, and a complete
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Atari system would make a GREAT Christmas present for that special somebody
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(hey, you have to get them into Atari computing one way or another).So, back I
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went to Sears a day or so later, my...uh...regretful heart in my mouth. Had
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somebody else seen this -deal of a lifetime- and snapped it up? Had the
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computer center person at Sears (what am I talking about -computer center
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person at Sears? That's the guy who was fired from Toys R Us for not having
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enough computer knowledge to run THEIR computer center) realized that $199.99
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was below dealer cost for those three pieces? Was it all a dream (like the
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last season of Dallas)?But no. There it was, sitting in the same place.But
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there was no price tag on it. I was beginning to sweat it when I saw a guy
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with a tie carrying a couple of boxes wandering around. -Do you work here?- I
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asked. He nodded. I jerked my chin at the three pieces of Atari hardware on
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the cheesy computer table in the dark corner. -Didn't you have these marked
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$199.99 a couple of days ago?- I asked pleasantly. He nodded again. -You want
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'em for $199.99?- What a stupid questionI mean, really, why did this guy think
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I was asking? Did he think I was a comparison shopper for Consumer Reports or
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something? I somehow didn't think he was going to offer to sell it to me for
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$49 or something, so what was he asking me here? While he tried to figure out
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how to write up the ticket (there were no stock numbers of any of the three
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pieces), he informed me that 1) he was a former Commodore user, 2) he now owned
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an IBM PC that was too much computer for him, 3) that I should be saving up my
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money for the Franklin IBM clone behind me, 4) that he had -read- that the
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Amiga is a better machine than the ST, and 5) that he had also -read- that my
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ST, though having a full megabyte of memory aboard, could only access 256K of
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it at once. It was, as you might imagine, painful to talk to this person.But I
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didn't have much choice.On the counter in front of him was my -deal of a
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lifetime-.So I endured. And I walked out of there with $350 worth of computer
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equipment at nearly 50% off.If there's a moral to this story (and after a story
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this long, you probably are waiting for a moral), it's that you should always
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(A-L-W-A-Y-S) keep your eyes open, wherever you go, for bargains. Atari went
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through some hard times in the past, and we Atarians lost a lot of the support
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we once had from some merchants. But consider this - on one hand, we've got
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the additional support (both hardware and software) of all kinds of new
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companies.And out there, in the vast PC wasteland, there are probably hundreds
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(yes, hundreds - perhaps thousands) of bargains available at those merchants
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who gave up on Atari and don't know about the -Atari Revolution-.Selfishly I
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say, -Good! Leave 'em in the dark!- Because as long as these unenlightened
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folks don't realize that computer or disk drive sitting in the corner is worth
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a whole lot more than the price tag they've placed on it, there's more bargains
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for us all.Of course, recently I've begun noticing more people lingering in
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out-of-the-way computer-type places ...looking over counters...standing on
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tip-toe to peer over piles of boxes...muscling me out of the way when I paw
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through discontinued software with a terse, -Sorry, I thought I saw my little
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boy climb into this bin.-Perhaps I'm not the only skulking bargain hunter
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around after all....
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**************************************
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* Editor's Review:Sundog *
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* From FTL For Atari St *
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* by Clinton Smith *
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**************************************
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The best compliment you can give an adventure program is that even after
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you solve it,you still want to play it.I have solved Sundog,and I still have an
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urge to hop into my one man frieghter and warp around the galaxy.
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Just before your uncle died he took on a contract to build a colony for a
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religious cult on Jonnd.As his sole heir,you must complete this contract,with
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the money stored in the various banks in the different systems of the Drahew
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Region.I'll let you discover the various tidbits of Sundog,but these are some
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of the things you'll encounter.
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Muggers,Pirates,stock trading,drug smuggling,gun running,planetary discovery,
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price haggling in bars,and much,much,more.Pick up this game and explore another
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universe in your computer.
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***********************************
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* Zmag Christmas Survey Question *
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***********************************
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This survey is in effect till Dec.22.
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What computer related products would you most like to see under your tree
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this Christmas?
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Hardware:?
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Software:?
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Misc:?
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**************************************
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* THE Zmag BBS list *
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**************************************
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Chicago Zmag Boards
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24hr
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Windy City Atari-(312)775-2970
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Runequest-(312)430-4234
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Enchanted Castle-(312)525-0688
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Blue Moon-(312)457-2219
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CL.A.U.G.-(312)889-1240
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Captain Video-(312)725-0652
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Limted Hours
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M-Club1-(312)730-1846
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M-Club2-(312)458-8260
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Software Plus-(312)520-1780
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Nationwide Zmag Boards
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24hr
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East Coast Syndicate-(201)968-8148
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Launch Pad BBS-(804)872-9428
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Heaven's Gate-(608)255-4029
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Gates of Doom-(512)242-2066
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Limited Hours
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Enterprise Express-(804)874-3734
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If you have a question about Zmag
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Windy City-Clinton Smith
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Runequest-Jim Dobleski,Rune Master
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Enchanted Castle-Clinton Smith,
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Wizard
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Blue Moon-Clinton Smith,Gerry Feid
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Claug-Clinton Smith
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M-Club 1,2-Jim Dobleski
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Captain Video-Wizard,Clinton Smith
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Software Plus-Jeff Williams
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Launch Pad-Rocket Jock
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Enterprise Express-Captain Kirk
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Heaven's Gate-John Reuschlein
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Gates of Doom-Timothy Holden
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Genie-Jeff Williams,Bob Retelle,Gerry
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Feid
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East Coast Syndicate-Ron Kovacs
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Compuserve-Ron Kovacs,Tim Orosz
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***************************************
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* Zmag-a-zine December 9,1986 *
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***************************************
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