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From: ofoz@intgp8.ih.att.com (-Ozdemir,S.S.)
Subject: Star Tech Journals available from publisher
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Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 15:09:37 GMT
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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!