----------------------------------- Zmagazine February 23, 1987 Issue 40 ----------------------------------- Zmag Staff: Publisher/Editor in Chief:Ron Kovacs Editor/Coordinator:Alan Kloza ----------------------------------- ZMAG USER GROUP OF THE MONTH *** C.H.A.O.S. *** Capitol Hill Atari Owner's Society Lansing, Michigan Call Their BBS at: (517) 371-1106 ____________________________________ This Week in Zmag...... <*> ATARI CORP. POSTS EARNINGS-- 1986 A PROFITABLE YEAR <*> EXPRESS! STATUS REPORT-- NEW VERSIONS FORTHCOMING <*> LEDBETTER RESIGNS AS SIG*ATARI SYSOP <*> CHICAGO ZMAG EXCERPTS-- WHAT'S NEW IN THE ATARI MAGS <*> GAMES COMPUTERS PLAY NOW PLAYING WITH THE ST'S <*> FIRM ACCUSED OF PIRATING SHAREWARE PROGRAMS <*> ADDING A HARD DRIVE TO YOUR ATARI 8-BIT--STEP BY STEP All this and more in this weeks edition of Zmagazine..... _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG NEWSFILE--ATARI NEWS ....Atari Corp. Posts Earnings...... _____________________________________ FEB 20,1987 (ATARI) (ATC) Atari Corp. Reports 1986 sales up 82 percent. Net income up $59 million SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BW)--Atari Corp. reported Friday record results of operations for the year ending Dec. 31, 1986. Sales for the fourth quarter were $92,667,000 vs. $65,350,000 for the prior year, an increase of 41.8 percent. Income before extraordinary credit for the fourth quarter was $11,950,000. Net income was $22,997,000, or 87 cents per share, vs. $14,899,000, or 64 cents per share for 1985. Sales for the year ending Dec. 31, 1986, were $258,131,000 vs. $141,987,000 for 1985, an increase of 81.8 percent. Income before extraordinary credit for 1986 was $25,050,000 vs. a loss of $14,314,000 for 1985. Net income for 1986 was $44,516,000. Net income per share was $1.89 in 1986 vs. a loss of 62 cents in 1985. -Our strong performance in 1986 is the result of growing consumer awareness of the value of the ST personal computers and a resurgence in demand for video game systems,- said Sam Tramiel, president. The ST is steadily gaining market share in the United States and is already one of the largest selling personal computers in Europe. Sales of video game systems continued to be strong, with the company enjoying one of its best Christmas seasons for video game sales in recent years. Tramiel said the introduction of advanced computer and video game products will drive the company's growth in 1987. Atari announced important new products in January, including an IBM PC clone that will sell for less than $500; more powerful multi-megabyte versions of its ST computer line and a laser printer for desktop publishing; and the powerful XE video game system. -We're operating from a position of strength now,- Tramiel said. -We are virtually debt free and have a solid equity base on which to build the company's future.- Atari Corp. is one of the largest manufacturers and marketers of personal computers and video game systems in the world. Atari Corp. is located at 1196 Borregas Ave., Sunnyvale, Calif. 94086. Telephone: 408/745-2000. CONTACT: Atari Corp., Sunnyvale Greg Pratt, 408/745-2349 or Amidei and Co., San Francisco Gary Frank or Hunter Gooch, 415/788-1333 _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG NEWSFILE--8-BIT NEWS ....Express! Status Report _____________________________________ [The Terminal Programs] 1030 Express-Currently at Version 2.1 850 Express-Currently at Version 3.0 MPP Express-Currently at Version 1.0 The scheduled release of 3.0 for the 1030 and MPP has been delayed. Probably won't be released till summer at the earliest. [The BBS Programs] 1030 Express-Currently at Version 2.0 850 Express-Currently at Version 1.0 ST Express-Currently in Beta Test The ST version of BBS Express! is currently running in beta test. Call the Midnight Express BBS at (804) 379-4156 and at elf Express (219) 233-5777 to check it out for yourself. We are currently recording all suggestions for additional features for the 1030 and 850 versions of BBS Express!. We are also looking into ways to incorporate some of these suggestions. At this time and until a solution to the memory limitation can be worked out, we do not have any scheduled release dates for upgrades to the 1030 and 850 versions. As the status of the Express! series of programs change, we will update the status here, so you can get the inside scoop here instead of the 'Rumor Mill'. If you currently own the 1030/XM301 version of BBS Express! and would like to upgrade to the 850-compatible version, send your original disk (again?!?), $14.95, plus $2 to cover shipping and handling (total $16.95) to us. Please include a note saying that you are upgrading to the 850 version of the BBS. The 850-compatible version of BBS Express! is now shipping! To run the 850 version, you must have an 850 interface (or compatible [P:R:]) and your modem MUST be able to hang up with the DTR lead. Watch for more Express updates and status reports as they become available. _____________________________________ Xx..Ledbetter Leaves SIG*ATARI...... _____________________________________ ********************** From: Keith Ledbetter To: SIG*ATARI Members ********************** Effective Saturday, 2/14/87, I am resigning as a SYSOP on SIG*Atari. I have accepted a new job that requires relocation, and I feel that the requirements of the job will no longer leave me the time needed to hold a SYSOP title here. I plan on staying active on Compu-Serve as time permits, and can be reached under my non-SYSOP ID of 72457,3442. I would like to thank everyone on Compu-Serve for the enjoyment that I have gotten out of this job. And, a big thanks to the other SYSOPs of SIG*Atari. I have greatly enjoyed my time here, and look forward to continuing to be a part of the fine SIG*Atari network. Keith Ledbetter _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG NEWSWIRE--CHICAGO ZMAG ...Excerpts From The 2-10-87 Issue.. _____________________________________ Bruce Kennedy (the originator of Zmag in Chicago) is now at work on a local Rhode Island edition in conjunction with RIACE (Rhode Island ACE). This will bring the number of local Zmag editions up to 3 (that I know of)-- Chicago, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. If you know of any others, drop me a line. If you'd like to write to Bruce, send it to: Bruce Kennedy 310 Spring Valley Drive E. Greenwich RI 02818-1912 *********************************** * Mag-Bytes * * Atari Points of interest from * * Antic and Compute * *********************************** February Antic: If you're worried about 8-bit support, one look at Datasoft shows that there are still companies who are still interested in supporting our machines. They have 4 new programs out, with 6 more on the way. Present titles include 221B Baker Street, Alternate Reality (The Dungeon), Theatre Europe, and Mind Pursuit. The six new ones are Video Title Shop, Mercenary:The 2nd City, Tobruk, Bismark, Swords and Sorcery, Saracen, and Black Magic. If you're interested in using the extra memory of the 130xe, Bill Wilkinson (normally seen in Compute) has an informative article on how to do it. What goes on at the Atari Corp BBS? A great deal of work to provide us users with a direct-link to Atari. Check out the article to see how they do it and why. February 28th is the deadline for the Batteries Included Buy one get One free offer. Purchase any BI product and choose between Home-Pak and B-Graph on the 8-bit or Timelink and I*S Talk on the ST. The coupon and details are on page 65. March Antic First off, there are some impressive new changes to Antic Online. 1. You will be able to d/l Antic programs, and as they're replaced they'll be placed in the Sig*Atari file section. 2. Vidtex Pictures will be in Antic Online, allowing you to see pictures that accompany the story. 3. You can subscribe to any Antic publications online and be billed for them later. The STEREO-TEK 3-D glasses are now available for $149.95. The first 3-D titles are Stereo-CAD 3-D 2.0,Stereo Cybermate, Stereo Ray Tracing, LCS Wanderer, and Stereo Maps and Legends 3.0. QMI's New Deskcart! gives you 14 powerful desk accessories for the ST on a cartridge that doesn't use up memory. It also has a built-in clock device. The 14 accessories include: Terminal program with u/l and d/l, Keyboard Macros for any program use, Ramdisk, Print Spooler, Screen Dump, Memory Test, and Control Panel with load and save options. The cartridge goes for around $70. Compute March First off, there's 2 demo disk offers that ST owners can take advantage of. For $2.75 Epyx will send you a demo version of their new Sub Battle game. This is the first program in their Masters Collection. The coupon is on page 1. Activision will send you a demo of their strategy game Shanghai for $3.00. This demo contains a sample puzzle. Send your check or money order to: Activision,Inc. P.O. Box 7287 Mountain View,CA 94039 Commodore has just released their new Amiga 2000. It costs $1500. Features include 1 megabyte of memory, standard printer and modem ports, operating system in Rom, built in clock, and card slots. I wonder where they got the ideas for some of those features? Too bad that the MegaST 1 will have the same features for $500 less. _____________________________________ Xx ZMAG NEWSFILE--ST NEWS ...GCP Expands Horizons... _____________________________________ Finally! The long awaited ST version of GCP is now available. You ST owners no longer have to feel short changed because you can't access GCP. We are happy to welcome you back and we have much to offer. Lords of Space has been released, revised, and is about to be expanded further, online rates have been lowered, and upload time is now FREE! The ST software is GEM-based and runs in low or medium resolution (color system required), so you can have your desk accessories available online. The entire system fits on a single disk, so you won't have to shuffle disks anymore. This disk combines the Boot, City, and Lords of Space disks of the 8-bit version (sorry, CyberWorld and BioWar are not available for the ST). As you would expect, the ST version is much faster than the 8-bit version, and the Lords of Space graphics are stunning! The ST version is posted as a download in the ST SIG on GCP's new text service (see below). Since text service does not require special software, you can logon with your favorite terminal program and just download the program from the ST SIG. Detailed instructions on how to do this are posted in the ST SIG. If you do not wish to download the software, you can order the software from GCP for only $9.95. This includes the disk, shipping, and $5.40 worth of online time. You may also order the software through the GCP Office by leaving your name, address, and MasterCard or Visa number. GCP is no longer just the most advanced graphics online service. It is now the least expensive text service. With the recent introduction of a new text-only service, GCP introduces a truly affordable system. The text service offers a variety of SIGs. They all offer conferences (message bases) and download libraries where you can find the best in public domain software. Since uploading is free, the libraries are expected to grow faster than ever. Since GCP is now also a text service, you can logon without the special GCP software. Boot your favorite terminal program, and you're off! If you have any questions, you can leave a note in the GCP SIG, or call GCP at (717)848-2660. GCP has reduced its online rates to the following: [TEXT SERVICE ONLY] BUDGET TIME..............$2.95/Hour (2am-7am Weekdays) (2am-10am Weekends) STANDARD TIME............$4.50/Hour (6pm-2am Weekdays) (10am-2am Weekends) PRIME TIME..............$15.00/Hour (7am-6pm Weekdays) For graphics service (standard GCP service), add .90/Hour to text rates. All times above are LOCAL times. Rates are the same for 300 and 1200 baud access. Lords of Space (LOS)is expanding and improving! GCP has been collecting comments and suggestions that the LOS players have made over the past few months and are now working on dramatic new features for Lords of Space. These new features include faster colonization, improved team activity, more effective planetary defenses, and expanded fleet rules. Full details of the proposed changes are available online in the new text service in the GCP SIG and in the LOS bulletin board in your company's station. User comments are welcome, so get your opinions to GCP and you may see your suggestions incorporated into the game! Games Computers Play, Inc. 112 East Market Street York, PA 17401 (717)848-2660 _____________________________________ ZMAG GENERAL NEWSFILE ....Computer With A Sniffer......... _____________________________________ You might say Dr. Michael Baudry has a real nose for computers. Working with a team of experts, the University of California computer scientist has invented a computer that can smell. The computer can recognize more than 20 odors by analyzing their chemical makeup. Here's how it works:Researchers feed the computer an odor in the form of it's chemical components and the computer matches it by sorting through it's memory bank. Why make a computer with a sniffer? Baudry says programming a computer with the capability of smell is the first step in creating computers that work like the human brain. Other applications of such a brainlike computer system include voice recognition, speedy information retrieval and automatic data sorting. Source: Copley Radio Network Submitted by: Dave Brehm _____________________________________ Xx Money And Banking Software _____________________________________ COMPUTER PROGRAM TELLS STUDENTS ABOUT MONEY - ELKHART, IN - A special computer software program known as -Money and Banking is being made available by Midwest Commerce Banking Company. The program, developed by Data Trek of Encinitas, Calif., is used in twelve states and allows students to learn the fundamentals of credit, savings, checking and budgeting. Software for IBM and Apple is available. Teachers can duplicate this -freeware- as well as the accompanying Teachers Guide in unlimited quantities. Money and Banking comprises in-depth tutorials on credit, savings and checking, plus a simulation excercise that allows students to develop a savings plan. The program was recently distributed to high schools in Elkhart County, Indiana by Midwest Commerce Banking Company and it's parent Company NBD Bancorp Inc. Through color graphics and computer-generated sound, students make decisions, manipulate variables and solve problems. Feedback is immediate, the program's providers said. -Money and Banking- is suitable for use in business education, social studies or home economics curriculum. If you're interested in the program, I suppose you could check with your local back or with Data Trek. Source: South Bend Tribune Submitted by: D. Brehm ____________________________________ Xx Pirating 'Shareware' ____________________________________ FIRM ACCUSED OF PIRACY (Feb. 19) Jim Weisz, author of the Ramtest shareware package, feels that some commercial firms may be taking advantage of shareware authors. Weisz released Ramtest about two years ago but recently began receiving calls from users who had no documentation, and had purchased their copies from commercial outlets. Further investigation led to two mail-order firms who were copying the software and selling it at what Weisz considered to be an illegally inflated price. One of the firms was convinced by Weisz's attorney to desist from selling the program. However, the second firm was not so accommodating. Weisz says that USA Electronics has neither responded to threatened legal action nor stopped shipping Ramtest. In addition, USA Electronics is accused of supplying pirate copies of IBM's PC-DOS with the shareware. Understandably, Weisz feels strongly about firms that appropriate the work of software authors. He also points out that commercial copiers charge users 2-3 times the suggested registration price of shareware. And too often, users are supplied with an outdated and unsupported version of the shareware. Weisz's comments were blunt: -Places like USA Electronics give the entire industry a bad name with their blatant disregard for both the law and the customer. [Users should] take a firm stance against this sort of piracy. Perhaps public pressure can accomplish what asking nicely couldn't.- ____________________________________ Xx ZMAG PANORAMA ....Hard Disks For The 8-Bits....... ____________________________________ This is the story of how one user achieved the 8-bit Atari owner's dream--upgrading his floppy disk system to 1/4 meg RAM and a 10 megabyte hard disk. It all began when I heard the rumors about a device called MIO promised from a little cottage industry company called ICD in Rockford, Ill. The specs for the MIO looked impressive enough; RS-232 Serial interface, parallel interface, built in print spooler, additional memory for RAMdisk in 256K or 1mb flavors, resident configuration program in ROM and communication along the long- neglected Atari parallel buss. What really captured my imagination, was the promise of a SCSI/SASI interface! The original impression that I got was that you could hook up a Hard Drive right to the MIO and be in business. Not quite! Admittedly, ICD had done most of the difficult stuff inside the MIO, but there are several important steps to follow before getting your HD online. Before I go on, let me say a word about a subject that people have given me a rough time about for quite some time. Yes, I confess, (just like the Kellogg Frosted Flake commercials) I am a SpartaDOS user, and I love it! A lot of people have said to me, -how can you USE SpartaDOS, there are so many commands to learn, and there is no prompting!-. Since I use MS-DOS based systems so heavily at work, the similar commands in SpartaDOS are welcome indeed. For those of you who don't feel good without a menu, SpartaDOS 3.2 has a MENU command file built in that looks similar enough to good old Atari DOS 2.x to get most people up to speed. Programmers and people who keep big software libraries will appreciate the Time/Date stamping of each file too. When all is said and done, SpartaDOS brings your Atari into the -Big Time,- but still keeps full DOS 2.x compatibility. Back to the hard drive. What they really don't explain very clearly is a minimum parts list for a successful HD installation on an 8-bit Atari. The following list gives you an idea of how much a hard drive and its associated cables and interfaces will set you back: ICD MIO 256K model $199.00 Adaptec 4000a Controller 135.00 (if you can find one) Controller to MIO Cable 14.95 Controller to HD Cable 12.95 Power Supply (HD & Cont.) 40.00 Case For PS, HD, Cont (opt.) 30.00 Hard Disk (10mb) 250.00 Now Put on Your Peril-Sensitve Sunglasses- The answer is: $681.90!! I guess that the only good news on this price chart is that adding another HD Unit will only cost you the drive itself as the controller will support 2 HD units and the MIO will support 2 controllers. According to ICD, a single 8-bit Atari now has a practical maximum storage size of just a shade under 100 million bytes. Now that we have the cost factor out of the way, if you are still with us, let's go through the steps needed to install a HD on an 800XL (XE's require an additonal $20 adapter for the ECI). Hooking up the MIO to your Atari is easy, just take a screwdriver and pop the cover off of the parallel buss cover plate on the back. This done, carefully slip the short ribbon cable on the front of the MIO into the buss opening and onto the edge connector. It is a perfect fit. You should have no problem doing it right the first time. Next, plug in the MIO power supply (actually the same as an 850 p/s or a Disk Drive p/s). The MIO installation part is now done unless you have serial or parallel devices to connect. The first stumbling block that I ran into was finding a 50-conductor SCSI cable to connect the MIO to the Adaptec Controller. I looked around the area a bit, and even asked some computer repair shops that I do business with, but had no luck. I finally gave up and bought one from ICD directly. They sent me a cable that was about 50 times longer than I really needed, so if you are going to install one sometime soon, let me know; since I have a LOT of cable left over after I shortened it to a more manageable length (two feet). If you buy a MIO with the intent of hooking up a HD to it, save yourself some hassle and buy all of the cables that you need at the same time, their prices at ICD aren't too bad. Once you have the cable in your paw, you need to get a flat file and take about 1/16- off of the ends of the cable clamp that will go into the MIO. Maybe it was the cable that I had, but it was just barely too wide to slip into the slot on the right side of the MIO. Make sure that the colored stripe on the cable points toward the REAR of the MIO as this identifies pin#1. This is an ongoing problem with connecting cables in this installation. Most ribbon cables are -keyed- so that you can't put them on wrong. ALL of the supplied cables and hardware are NOT KEYED, so it's easy to put them on wrong and go nuts wondering why things don't work right. The next task is to connect the SCSI cable to the Adaptec controller. Before we do that, I might suggest that you make a modification to your controller board that I did. Place the controller board on a flat surface with the -select- LED in the upper right-hand corner (away from you). The Drive control edge card pins can be seen on the lower left side next to the power jack. The drive control connector is marked -J2- in white letters on the PCB. With GREAT CARE, take a fine-tooth hacksaw and CAREFULLY cut a notch in the PCB between pins 2 and 3 of J2. This will -key- J2 so that you can use standard cables that are keyed on the pin 1 end. The reason that I did this is because I was making my own cables out of junk cables and had only keyed female edge connectors. If you buy ICD's cables YOU DO NOT have to do this. That done, hook the SCSI cable from the MIO to the 50 pin connector on the top right side of the controller (next to the red LED). BE SURE to have the controller on a flat surface so that you don't screw up the PCB traces when plugging in cables! Make sure that the colored stripe on the cable points toward the LED or things won't work right. Now is a good time to hook up the data line cable, it should be a 20 pin ribbon cable. Plug it into the plug on the lower right side. This plug is marked -J0- and has an identical plug right next to it, the second plug would be used if you were hooking up 2 disk drives to one controller. Make sure that the colored stripe on the cable points to the LEFT. I am using a Seagate ST-412 MFM Disk drive, so I did not want any special options enabled on the board. Make sure that there are no jumpers between the jumper blocks (marked J5) in the middle part of the board (as they come from ICD they are set up with no jumpers). There is only one other jumper set to worry about, It is not identified on the PCB, but is in plain sight just above the plug marked -J1-. Most drives should have this jumper set for R-PU (Write Precompensation Turned off for both drives), fortunately this is how they come from ICD, so unless you are using a weird drive, you should not change ANY jumpers on the controller. The manual that comes with the Adaptec ACB-4000 series controller is very clearly illustrated and contains more information than you will ever need. Just for the record- I never had to refer to it once during my installation. Once both drive cables are attached to the Controller board, you need to find the corresponding edge connectors on the back of your hard drive. In the case of the Seagate, the connectors are clearly marked and keyed so there should be no problems with hookup. Just be sure that the colored wire on the cable points to the side of the connector marked -pin one- or maybe just with a -1-. You might want to check the switch settings or jumpers on your HD to be sure that it is set as unit #0 and that it has a TERMINATION RESISTOR installed (most drives come this way from the factory). You may have to consult your drive manual for more information on this. Again, I lucked out and didn't have to change a thing. The last step on the hardware side is to hook up your power supply to both the controller and the HD. If you are using a standard HD power supply it will have white Keyed power plugs that are difficult to install wrong. They are a bit of a snug fit though, so take it easy, especially on the controller board. At last, plug in and turn on your MIO and HD Power supply. Basically there are 6 steps you have to go through to -prepare- the HD before use. Step One: SET MIO CONFIGURATION. After you have Booted your 800XL from a SpartaDOS diskette and set the date and time, hold down SELECT and press RESET. this will take you to the MIO configuration menu. Now you have to tell the MIO what device you want the HD to be. It can be any device number from D1: to D8:. Make sure that you do not have address conflicts with diskettes and RamDisks already on the system (including the MIO ramdisk). The slick part of this is that later you can SWAP drives after the system is up! If you want to make your HD Drive 2 and a diskette Drive 1, you can change your mind later and SWAP addresses for these devices. This makes it possible to BOOT from the HD, or from a RamDisk for that matter! This is an extremely powerful feature. In configuring the MIO for the HD, you need to know some specs on your hard drive, such as: the number of drive heads, cylinders, and max number of sectors for your type of drive. MIO manual appendix D lists 33 popular HD types by manufacturer. The ST412 is a 4 head, 306 cyl, 39,168 sector device. Just enter this information in on the configuration menu. Make sure that if you are using one controller and drive that ID/LUN is 0/0. This is not well explained in the docs. Press RESET when you are done and you will return to DOS. Step Two: PHYSICALLY FORMAT THE HD The MIO comes with a diskette of utilities to help you set up the HD. The low-level format program is called HDFMTPH.COM in the docs and on the disk. I found out when I bought the MIO that there was a revised HDFMTPH program called HDFMTPH4.COM. You can get this revision off of the ICD BBS. This program asks you some questions about the HD hardware much the same as the MIO config does. Enter in the # of heads, etc. etc. at the prompts. The actual formatting takes a while, so go out and have a beer. Mine took about 15 min for the format process. When the program finishes, it will display a -total number of available sectors on drive- which may be different than the -official- number of sectors for your drive. Make sure that you write this number down, because you will need to change the MIO configuration to reflect the actual number of sectors formatted. The reason that this is important is that the Physical Format Program will -lock out- bad sectors it finds on the media, and the MIO config needs to be told of the exact number of available sectors. Just for information, mine came out a little larger than its -official- specs. The number? 40,392 double density sectors- about 10.3mb! Step Three: PARTITION THE DRIVE This is only necessary if you have a drive that is larger than the SpartaDOS maximum of 16mb or 65535 double density sectors. This is done by going back to the MIO config program by pressing SELECT-RESET and entering in the Start sector (in my case -0-) and End Sector+1 (in my case 40393). The configuration menu is well documented in the MIO manual so you should have no trouble with this. Step Four: SAVE THE CONFIGURATION When you take option -4- from the MIO config menu and answer -Y- to the -Are you sure?- prompt, the entire MIO configuration is written to HD number 0/0. This will automatically reconfigure the MIO if you should happen to turn it off by saving the config. information to sector 0 of the HD. Step Five: DIRECTORY BUILD Again, ICD supplies a utility to write a main SpartaDOS directory to your HD. If you are using another DOS, you will have to fend for yourself. When asked for the -drive number?,- give the DOS ID number for the LOGICAL unit, such as D1:, D2: etc. (in my case I entered in -2-. This program takes about 30 seconds to create the main directory. Final Step: SET UP DOS Copy SpartaDOS 3.2d to each logical Drive partition that you may want to boot from, as I said earlier, the MIO will let you boot from whatever drive you want, so there is no reason not to have DOS on your HD even if it is not D1:. Once DOS is copied into the Main directory, use the -BOOT- command to set the boot flag to that file. The syntax is -BOOT Dn:X32D.DOS- where -n- is your drive ID. The BOOT command is well documented in the MIO manual and in the SDCS manual. That's it!! Now you are ready to amaze your friends with HUGE online storage! Even with making up cables, the total time for installation for me was around 1 hour. If you are a BBS operator or a user with a large file inventory, it makes good sense to upgrade to a hard drive. If you've got the bucks to do it, it's easy! ------------------------------------ Zmagazine #40 February 23,1987 Please Contribute ------------------------------------