Newsgroups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting Path: wiretap.spies.com!netline-fddi.jpl.nasa.gov!hudson.lm.com!godot.cc.duq.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!news.moneng.mei.com!uwm.edu!fnnews.fnal.gov!gw1.att.com!nntpa!ssbunews!not-for-mail From: ofoz@intgp8.ih.att.com (-Ozdemir,S.S.) Subject: Star Tech Journals available from publisher Message-ID: Sender: news@ssbunews.ih.att.com (Netnews Administration) Nntp-Posting-Host: intgp8.ih.att.com Organization: AT&T Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 15:09:37 GMT Lines: 52 David Hanes sent me an article on a rare vector game (Cosmic Chasm) that appeared in the tech magazine called the Star Tech Journals. I was quite impressed with the comprehensive article, and during my paternal leave I ran across their phone number. Turns out that they're still in business! A quick call to them resulted in finding out that they do have some back issues (only of their first four volumes, 1979-1982)!! I sent away the $75 for those first four volumes and two weeks later a package of 700 pages arrived...that was Friday, 2/3/94. I spent the weekend reading all of the journals, and I can say that I sure got my money's worth! Any person who loves vector games should probably spend the $75, because these are the years that most of the vector games came out (except for some of the later Atari color games like MH, SW and ESB). Reading thought these Star Tech Journals felt a little like reading through a newspaper...the articles are informative, but they never go into enough detail to satisfy the reader (though the last volume from 1982 almost had what I felt were comprehensive articles and I'll bet that 1983 and on were fantastic). There were plenty of tech tips, however they seem to be very much like the tech tips you read in RGVAC ...so specific that you don't think you'd ever run across them in real life. All in all, there was tons of history/trivia packed into those 700 pages (I for one was surprised to read how often games locked up back then...I thought this was a more modern problem), and I really enjoyed reading the detailed articles about vector displays since most of this information has been lost. The address that I found in the back of their 1982 issue is Star*Tech Journals PO Box 1065 Merchantville, NJ 08109 I do know that this is the same town and state that I sent my check to (and the PO box looks familiar), but I can't garantee that the address is the same. If someone wants to call these guys before sending their check, you can find their phone number in the Replay's Decemeber issue that has a directory of all businesses. Does anybody reading this article have that issue (and Star Tech's phone number) handy? ps - As an added bonus for anybody that read this far, there was a SEVEN page article by Don Wright, chief engineer at Cinematronics, about how to repair Cinematronic monitors. While RGVAC has had documents about repairing Atari color XYs (and there is some expertise in repairing Atari BW XYs floating around), both Cinematronics and Sega color XYs don't have any docs to help you repair them. Well, now that's just not so anymore... if you are having problems with your Cinematronics monitor then send me your snail mail address by email and I'll send you out a copy of this article!