I love the summer
Welcome to the August issue of MyAtari. With summer upon us, this month I've found myself making the most of it by taking time out to relax in the sun and going for picnics with friends. One of my favourite locations for doing such things is Richmond Park in SW London, the largest open space in London.

The park (which covers almost 2,500 acres) is one of many royal parks in the capital and is home to an array of wildlife including deer and species of birds as well Isabella Plantation, a stunning woodland garden.

However, I would like to stress that these have been selfless acts on my part, as the time that I've enjoyed in sun has enabled me to think up lots of cool ideas for the magazine... oh, as well as get a tan ;-)

On top of all that, this month I re-launched my other Atari related site... ATARItoday (selfless plug!). For those that have not come across it yet, http://www.ataritoday.com features all the latest headlines from all the major Atari news sites. Updated hourly, there is no easier way to stay up-to-date with what is going on in the Atari world.

The site will soon be include other exciting features including an automated links engine (I'm currently putting the finishing touches to the script), an English version of AtariUptodate and much more! So visit soon.

On a more serious note. Due to an unfortunate chain of events beyond our control, our mirror site at http://www.myatari.org was recently wrestled from us. As a result, back issues of MyAtari are currently unavailable to download - although you can still browse them on-line.

We are currently in the process of resolving the matter and will announce further details soon. Until then, enjoy the remainder of the summer.

See you next month,

Matthew Bacon, Editor
matt@myatari.net

You know the great thing about producing an Atari magazine now rather than when we first got our machines many years ago? Accessibility. The march of technology has brought us quality production tools that would previously have been well out of reach for many aspiring publishers. More importantly for all of us, the Atari kit itself is easy to pick up as people discard it, and people in the know, or just fed up with modern computing, start collecting all those things they never had before. Many of my generation probably couldn't afford a lot of this amazing stuff when it first came out, for example I always fancied a Vortex ATonce 386SX board for my Mega STE, just for laughs, but I don't know many teenagers who can afford £300 for a laugh. Now, courtesy of Cheshunt Computer Club's junk secretary, Mark Branson, I have one that cost me nothing. The problem I face now is finding time to install and tweak it.

Other gadgets and accessories are in abundance, from esoteric items made years ago and now finding new owners, to completely original designs developed specially for today's users. OK you can't walk into a shop now and buy the latest super Atari machine, however, there has probably never been a better time to indulge as the best of what has been can be had for pennies, while new products of a higher quality than ever are still being made. The incentive of profit margins is gone, it's now a labour of love, which often creates the best work. For users and collectors, the bottom line is a very worthwhile hobby.

Not only does disposable income enter the equation with time, but as we study and advance our professional skills, we can apply this creatively to our hobby to produce nice things that never existed before. The power is in our hands to shape the scene, and incorporate new technology and concepts to keep our systems fresh and still able to mix it in today's world.

So next time you think your job sucks, consider how you can apply the skills and knowledge to make your Atari even more fun!

Shiuming Lai, Features and Technical Editor
shiuming@myatari.net

MyAtari magazine - Feature #1, August 2004