LE,

Fathers Day

Newsletter dedicated to the Sinclair family of computing

“the HACKER” is an official publication . of the Timex/Sinctair User Group of GEnie LAPTOP SIG

Las Vegas-a non profit, educational UNDER CONSTR UCTION

organization. Subscription to the The 288 has now found “HACKER” is $15.00 per year (12 its nest within the GEniel gr issues) and includes membership to Network. The Genie dE TSUG of LV. Please remit to: system is currently a Ralph Hammer(treasurer) reconstructing the SIG to keep up 2105 Oakwood Ave. with the ever-changing laptop Las Vegas, NV 89030 market and the needs of its users.

The new home for the 288 is located in category 6 for those who wish to use it. Check it out and see for yourself.

LETS GET TE ER June 18, 1989---1-3 pm.

PC-SIG----------- -4 pm. q the public is WELCOME

Meetings are held on the ene | tt as ZX-APPEAL Sunday of each month and include PK HONORS a light buffet lunch for members & FRED NACHB AUR

guests. The meetings are held at ? $

2345 Moorpark Way, Henderson, NV i HACKER peering ts e the

: : Vancouver c ser Group

ME o E E a a (V.S.UG.) a press release stating that RALPH HAMMER-------- 649-4127 in recognition of his past and present STEVE SAWCHUK-------- 45 1-6676 support and contributions to the world of Sinclair Computing.

CONTRIBUTING STAFF: V.S.U.G. is pleased to announce that STEVE SAWCHUK----- EDITOR IN CHIEF at the monthly meeting for April the

DAWN SAWCHUK---CO-EDITOR/MAILING RALPH HAMMER-PROGRAM/AD DIRECTOR members present voted unanimously CHRIS FENN---------- ART DIRECTOR to confer upon Fred Nachbaur of

AMY DICKINSON----- CIRCULATION MGR.

Nelson, B.C. the status of LIFE MEMBER of V.S.UG. All present agreed that Fred's endevours have enriched our abilities and added to our enjoyment of Sinclair Computers.

We of the “HACKER” staff congratulate Fred Nachbaur for the honor that he has received and for the work he has done for the

Sinclair community.

LEMKE SOFTWARE cos P PUBLIC DOMAIN

That's right! Stam Lemke has dropped out of the Sinclair line of software development. According to a message that he left on Comp-U-Serve, dated April 15,1989, his comments read as follows: “Due to the lack of interest and sales, I am forced to stop supporting the T/S market and am placing all my software into public domain”

Aithough anyone hates to see this happen, this message can send a negative meaning to any of the potential supporters still in production or developments of T/S products, states Rod Gowen in the latest issue of the PLOTTER.

But on a good note, if you are interested in obtaining the newly released LEMEE P.D. SOFTWARE, on tape or Larken disk, you can contact R.M.G. Enterprises and Rod will copy the programs for a modest charge plus shipping.

MS-DOS EMULATOR

READY FOR QL

The widely advertized MS- DOS Emulator for the QL is ready and now being shipped according to R M.G. Enterprises. Rod Gowen has shipped over one dozen of these long awaited units. Rod is also taking orders from any and all. It may not be the fastest way to use MS-DOS, but it is a way to go if you have already made major investments in your QL, states Rod. For more info on this unit, you can contact R.M.G. at the address located in this issue in

his ads.

TDM IS ALIVE & WELL!

The past happenings of TDM reads like a Mark Twain obituary. “The report of my demise has been greatly exaggerated”. Yes! Tim Woods has bounced back into the publishing business. That's right, he showed up at the CCAT/S meeting in April with copies of the latest issue of TDM, Vol 5, Number 1.

Tim stated to all the doubters out there that his intentions are to continue and make the magazine better than ever. Tim also hoped to have ready Vol.5, Number 2, s0 that they can be passed out at the CapitolFest that was held in May in the Washington, D.C. area. If you have not received your latest issue, get a hold of Tim and get him to send you a copy. I'm sure he doesn't want to disappoint you again.

men Sierra Nevada Airways padi,

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Tour includes pickup/dropoff at your hotel. Air tour of Grand Canyon aboard

our aircraft, land at the Grand Canyon Airport for a 3 1/2 hour land tour

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beautiful lodges for lunch. This 6 hour tour normally departs at 10:30 am

returning to Las Vegas at 4:30 pm. Call us anytime 24 hours per day to arrange your

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Reg. Price $155.00 pp No Expiration Date Mention the “HACKER”

more powerful machine. Sunset Electronics in San Francisco is one such company that sells

AE ; Sinclair products in pulk. The latest issue of the T/S Bulletin Newsletter, published OLOLALOLALALALALOLOLALOLOLALAL by Bill Harmer, reported that how ABOUT AOSERS HUTDE FOR ARCHIVE THATS COMPLETE because of a reorganization going on AND WRITTEN IN PLAIN ENGLISH FOR A CHANGE!

HERE IT IS! JUST FOR YOU! ARCHIVE MASTER Our new book will Shipping out shortly after the ist of

with-in some Sinclair supplies, most dealers are selling off their

remaining stock at sale prices and anch 1987, We don't think that there is anything about otner deaiers are buying up large missed sone shall detail, but we can’t find itt

inventories and then fast tracking for Ue seep you through rai Mf uiege and een go on ta show clearance sales. you how o create bie PERFECT FILE’. After that, we show

add NEW FIELDS to an issin file. the

The next step is to show you, IN DETAIL, Ard fA r

RM.G. Enterpr ises, Sharps SCREEN EDIT function. Have you ever turned off you and Jim Horne ( sucessor to Fred wet “CANNOT OPEN FILE’? Tf beara sheng Bin ngs Pix for the corrupted file. THIS ONE ALONE IS WORTH THE PRICE OF Nachbaur) are examples of outfits THE MO Am e man E ma our bisiness sortare that still do business by sticking to ALLA Wale as ace ee ee

ONLY $44. 9S+43ph Over 200 8 1/2"x11" pages in a quality 3 ring binder. ANOTHER SUPERB EXECUTIVE WORKSHOP PRODUCT FOR YOUR QL! AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY FROM:

the Sinclair line. The heaviest loss of membership is that of owners of a Sinclair computer who suddenly uses

his machine as a part-time hobby or RMG, ENTERPRISES gives up all together for a faster, web ETT, OR 97845 503/655-748

QLALALALALALALALAQLALALALALALQAL

DID YA HEAR "4 ae WHAT'S WON ane |

GOING ON ALL AROUND

Nite-Times News reports that anybody who resented the sale of Sinclair to Amstrad will be glad to hear that the Wall Street Journal reported recently, Amstrad took a 16% drop in profits.

Zebra Systems has sold out. The last of their remaining stock went up for sale at the May CapitoiFest. WMJ Data Systems and R.M.G. Enterprises are currently bidding for the remaining stock. during the interia however, Zebra will not accept any ordersunder $25.

HATS N/L reports that there is a new Spectrum Clone available from Miles Gordon Technology in England. The new Spectrum has been named SAM. The specs on this machine have been called “very impressive”. Here is a brief description of the new SAM: 256K of RAM expanable to 512K, 64 colors, 65 column of text or 512 X 192 dot graphics and optional 780K 3.5" disk drive. The machine has been reviewed in some British computer magazines and an article in the “Sinclair Scene” section of the British Computer Shopper. The SAM processor is a Z80B running at 6 MHz-708 faster than the Spectrum 3.5 MHz-Z80A. Prediction as to the price is about 199.00 pounds ($360. U.S.) for a disk-drive version and

149.00 pounds ($275. U.S.) for a cassette model. The BASIC interpreter is derived from the Spectrum product BetaBASIC. SAM runs already existing Spectrum BASIC programs and the best features of ZX-BASIC remain. SAM has a palette of 64 colors, like the IBM's EGA color display. It also supports 4 graphics modes and has flexable memory paging in 16K chunks. The SA 1099 sound chip has six stereo channels with volume envelope and pitch control in steps of 256 tones per octive. There is a stereo socket for “walkman” headphones at the side of this computer. Other sockets include a joystick, mouse, trackball, TV, RGB, MIDI musical instruments, casette recorder, Centronics printer and a light pen. There is even a pair of “Net-Work” sockets which let up to 64 computers share peripherals via a two-way local link. .In theory is is compatable with the QL, but in practice the two are not happy with each other. SAM should be hitting the market soon. No date has been set. Stay tuned for when...........

South Bay Computer Ciub reports in their Newsletter that George Kuby and John Petersen received phone calls from a gentleman claiming to repesent Cambridge 264 Computer Company. They both stated that the pitch started out that “Cambridge wanted to send them a Z86 for them to evaluate”. Sounded pretty good to have an hands-on experience for someone who hasn't had the

chance to see this machine in action. Then the so-called salesman asked for a credit-card number. John said “NO WATY” and that was the end of the whole conversation. This has happened to me (editor) several months ago. The same pitch and I didn't give a credit-card number either. So needless to say, no number no Z88. What gave me a funny feeling was that this guy, whoever he was, didn't know the name Nigle Searle. I can see the salesman point, where the credit card number is a way to insure the cost of the 286 in case it was not returned after reviewing. And what if this salesman was a flake and did not ship you a 288? You gave him your number. All of this might have been on the legal side, but this day a age, can you be sure? When this gentleman called me, he did not give any indication of a company phone number to verify his company and that's another reason why I did.not accept his offer. South Bay also has a catalog of Cosmic programs from NASA that are public domain. If you are interested in NASA-P_D. Software, contact South Bay C.C. or NASA. You helped pay for their Comsic programs with your TAX-BUCKS.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH ETC....Here's a three letter word Used by more than a few To make people think. They know more than they do.

-Wall Street Journal-

ADVERTISER'S SPECIAL

The “HACKER” will run for its

commerical readers, a 1/2 page ad, for six months, for $30. That's only $5. per issue. Send your ad's to the: “HACKER™ c/o of this N/L.

BUYER BEWARE 2? 272727222727

ZX-APPEAL and VISTA newsletters have reported that a strange occurance has occured within the Sinclair community. ZX-Appeals report on what happened is as follows.

“We find it difficult to report the following but must do so in fairness to the Sinclair community.

VSUG member Jim Horne set up shop as Insomniac Electronics and sent out notices that he would be taking over from Fred Nachbaur's Silicon Mountain Electronics as soon as Fred closed down. Disturbing reports are starting to trickle from V.S.U.G. members as well as other T/S users across Canada and the U.S. saying that Jim had been sent orders and money but nothing had been received in return. Many attempts have been made to contact Jim regarding this and other matters but to date no success. The Vancouver Sinclair Users Group therefor does not recommend ordering anything from Insomnic Electronics until contact is made with Jim to find out what the

problem is with his business. VSUG will try to mediate with Jim about unfilled orders but of course isn't connected with Insomnic Electronics and can't take any responsibilities for Jim's lack of performance’.

Please Jim, don't murder the Sinclair name and each of its user's. Live up to the reputation of a honest supplier.

APPLE SUES APPLE?

Apple Corps. Ltd., owned by the three surviving members of the

Beatles and John Lennon's estate,

is suing Apple Computer Inc. of Cupertino, CA, over alleged misuse of trademarks.

The dispute centers on an 1961 agreement between the two companies specifying which products could carry their respective Apple trademarks. Apple Computer agreed not to use the name “Apple” and its logo “in relation to apparatus specifically designed and intended for synthesizing music,” or on any related printed matter, software or services.

Apple Corps. contends that Apple Computer has marketed and licensed several such products, including Macintosh micros and an Apple compact disk player. It wants the U.S. company to remove the music component, or change the name and logo used.

Many thanks to VSUG for this timely bit of computer news.

KAHA HEALA RA HHRH NHHHHHRNHHRHHRAN

DO YOU HAVE Mia i N CASSETTE THAT YOU YOU poen LIKE TO WIAT WOULD YOU PAY FOK A PROGKAH THA HAT MOULD HOVE THEM FROM CASSETTE TO DISK AUTOMATICALLY?

Well we are here to announce just such a utility! GET READY!

S&K EXPRESS Another GREAT utility fron the author of such titles as: , KRUNCHER 1600 AND TRACER This tine we "bring you EXPRESS, as in FAST! We guarantee that this uti lity will save you a lot of tine transfering prograns to disk.

So sinple to use! All you do is boot up the progran and

pressi Piy on your tape recorder ee watch the ene Progra

then autonatical ly

ye cles t make it any easier! MD THAT'S EROT iti

This progran uses ABSOLUTELY NO HEHORY!

Once the transfer has been made, all pet is needed is

for you to reboot them, change the SAVE and LOAD commands vand re-SAVE then in an auto-run node.

The program includes a very good header reader and catalog function. It is just the first of many programs to Cone that utilize the bank-switching facilities of the 2068.

A GREAT ADDITION TO YOUR FD-a2 UTILITY LIDRARY!

THE PRICE? ONLY $14. 95182 SH.

EXCLUSIVELY FROM: RMG ENTERPRISES 1419 1/2 7TH STREET OREG OR 97045

AEBEK eRe RRR A AE DEN EEH A DEA EH DEREDE GE AH R EE

Once again, we had a cookout at the meeting that was held on May 20th. But with a turnout of only 3, we still managed to down grilled hot dogs, potato salad, cole slaw and Iced tea.

The most enjoyable part of the meeting was watching Chris Fean work the 386 machine that Dawn now owns. Chris tried several game type programs in the TURBO mode (20 mhz) to see how fast they would act and needless to say, the 386 is NOT a game machine. We did however get a few laughs out of a pretty slow meeting.

One of the orders of business that needed discussion was the idea of a

change in the days that we meet. It seems that several of our loyal members that do show, suddenly nave had their work schedules changed and find it impossible to attend the usual Saturdays. So the attending Board members discussed and voted to try the third Sunday of each month, to see if that can get any of the members out to the meets. We also discussed the possibility of taking off the months of July and August, so that some of the members can take a well needed vacation away from the desert. The newsletter will still be produced as usual, but I will kick back and take a little rest myself. So until June 18th., Nappy COMPUNE...

WHOA!! NOW YOU CAN DESTROY THE ECOLOGY OF THE WORLD AT HOME

If polluting the world and killing all living things around you, then raising the prices of things to make up for it is your bag, then have I got a computer game for you. Chris Fenn, our resident computer magazine collector, has come up with this old ad in a OCT.“ 1 copy of BYTES MAGAZINE. The ad appeared on page 324, from a company called DYNACOMP-. Here is what the ad said:

VALDEZ (available for all computers) $15.95 casssette/ $19.95 diskette

VALDEZ is a computer simulation of supertanker

€

navigation in the Prince William Sound/ Valdez Narrows region of Alaska. Included in this sumulation is a realistic and extensive 256 x 256 element map, portions of which may be viewed using the ship's alphanumeric radar display. The motion of the ship itself is accurately modeled mathematically. The sumilation also contains a model for the tidal patterns in the region, as well as other traffic (outgoing tankers and iceburgs) Chart your course from the Guif of Alaska to Valdez Harbor!

So if the destruction of the ecology is your thing, sit down at your favorite computer, pour yourself a few drinks, and pilot your supertanker the best you can. But don't let your third mate do the driving.

> ou, PROGRAM(S) REVIEW

Ralph Hammer

In going over si some recent * newsletters from other groups, I've noticed that a very important (or a least I think so) ingredient is not appearing as often as they used to. I've always had a notion that a program review by we, the users, had the power to make or break a peice of software. "The pen is

mightier than the sword" or so it seems. |

I recently purchased from RMG Enterprises, a nice little piece of s/w that goes by the name of “YACHT”. Written for the 2068 by Branson Wilcox. This poker-dice game replicates the traditional Yachtzee game that we all know and love. Even though it is entirely in BASIC (reads s-1-o-w), it moves along at a relatively good pace. I have a couple of ways to speed it up some, one by removing the on-screen instructions, which are not needed after playing once or twice, and the second is cutting down on the number of players (up to six can play). In case you forgot how to play it, there is an 8-page instruction booklet that accompanies your purchase, and includes for full- size printer use.

After saving it all to disk (with back-ups) and storing the tape in my "Master Tape Back-Up & Library’, it has become the game of choice by my wife. Used to be I couldn't get her near my computer. With that in mind, I rate “YACHT” as near -excelient.

As the title implies, I dare not pass up the chance to review one other program. “TAROT” comes from the “team” of Branson and Jean Wilcox.

Have you ever seen those little out-of-the-way places where a kindly lady will gaze into a crystal ball, read the mysterious cards, study and take your money from the palm of your hand, none of which is to

DEBUGGING Toal-

your total satisfaction? Well, fear O those dark alleys no longer. In the confort and safety of your 2068, there awaits for you the future...

I recently went through 10 days of unemployment. On the second night I wandered into the program. Just for grins and ha-ha's, I popped the question, "Will I find work soon”. After the process of laying out and explaining each card, I was given a negative answer. A similar response was given on the next four attempts, every other night On the tenth evening, after an exhaustive day on the streets, and the want-ads of the paper, I posed the question. Suddenly, my 2040 printer came to life, and spewed out the response. I awoke early the next morning, hit the pavement aboard my Suzuki 450, and found work.

Call it what you will; luck, chance, persistance. | find myself to be somewhat of a believer. Thanks Jean and Branson. I give you a A+ for TAROT.

(Ed. note: both YACHT and TAROT are available exclusively from RMG Enterprises)

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Thanks to RAMTOP N/L for this pix.