Welcome to the April 2004 issue of MyAtari magazine. Since the launch of MyAtari magazine - almost four years ago - both Shiuming and I have said that we wanted it to be your magazine... the voice of the Atari community.

We wanted MyAtari to reflect the diversity and interests of the Atari on-line community as well as actively involve the readership in the magazine's development. As a result, your ideas and contributions have helped us make MyAtari what it is today.

With that ethos in mind... every year we give our readers the opportunity to reward the individuals and companies that continue to support the Atari community. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the 2004 MyAtari Reader Awards.

Last month, I requested nominations for the following categories:

• Best Atari supporting company of the year
• Best Atari magazine of the year
• Best Atari web site of the year
• Best Game release of the year
• Best Programmer of the year
• Best Commercial software release of the year
• Best Non-Commercial software release of the year
• Best Hardware upgrade of the year
• Outstanding contribution to the Atari community

Following almost 200 nominations (197 to be exact) and a good deal of deliberation by the MyAtari team, five nominees were selected for each of the award categories above. You have until 30 April 2004 to cast your votes... so what are you waiting for?! To cast your votes, click here.

Happy voting!

Matthew Bacon, Editor
matt@myatari.net

Even your face is brighter, with curry and spice inside ya
Sing that to the tune of Air Supply's Even The Nights Are Better. Remember a couple of months back we mentioned MyAtari's "board" meetings? We're having another one this month, bigger and better than before. It's the pre-JagFest curry night - so far you can expect to meet the whole UK MyAtari team, and folks from Cheshunt Computer Club, 16/32 Systems, JagFest and Retrovision. We'll talk and swap Atari, plan for JagFest UK 2004, and last but not least, enjoy some tasty Indian food. In our books, that's a recipe for real happiness. All supporters of MyAtari are most welcome, we look forward to meeting you for a great night out.

Feasting shall commence at 19:00 on Sunday 25 April (giving you five days to recover for the deadline of this year's awards voting period). The restaurant is very easy to locate. From Wimbledon Station (served by trains, London Underground and trams from Croydon), coming out of the main ticket hall, turn left and walk about one minute (past Centre Court shopping centre and Tesco Metro). It's hard to miss - even if you don't see it, you should succumb to the intoxicating aroma wafting down the streets. Failing that, we might be able to persuade the restaurant's management to put on some Fat Les records at full blast...

If you wish to join us, please send me an e-mail as soon as possible, we need to know definite numbers by 18 April. If you don't meet this deadline you can by all means still come along and hope there will be free seats available.

Atari arcade games
We're late with this month's issue and it's largely my fault. While taking a lunch break from a network cable installation in Wimbledon, SW19, I ended up in the local GAME store (across the road from the above curry house, incidentally) and spotted Midway Arcade Treasures for PlayStation 2 (also available on GameCube and Xbox) at just £14.99. That's less than the average amount I spend on a curry for one.

For the uninitiated, Atari Games, the arcade division, was finally taken over by rival Midway Games. This compilation of 24 games therefore includes Atari classics such as Klax, Gauntlet, Paper Boy, Marble Madness as well as Williams smashes like Robotron 2084, Defender and Sinistar. Consequently, in my excitement I forgot about lunch and had to sneak off site again later on when the pangs of hunger became unbearable.

I've been driving everyone crazy playing Klax and Matthew's been getting his fix of Marble Madness. So at least we have a very good excuse!

Shiuming Lai, Chief Curry Taster and Klax Fiend
shiuming@myatari.net

MyAtari magazine - Feature #1, April 2004