ZAM 4

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Text File | 1994-03-14 | 6KB | 145 lines

Written by Gears Tuck your short 'n curlies away, lick the toilet paper, dance on a leaf, sniff the disk, tie your partner to a tree, balance a pole on your nose and keep the flies off because IT'S HERE !!!! ZAM-4 is in the place !! CONTENTS OF THIS INTRO :- ZAM - Where did it go for the best part of a year ? Why is it so thin on articles ? What is this new `REPLY' function for and how do I use it ? Installing to Hard Drive Epilogue - Go forth and read WHERE HAS ZAM BEEN ? -------------------- Hoho yes ! The sun is out, it's Spring time 1994 ! Bunnys are a-humpin, flowers are a-growin` and the ALL-NEW Zircon Amiga Magazine IS HERE ! Yes, we've been away... ZAM disappeared, ZAM died but now like Lazarus it has returned from the grave yard of Amiga magazines ! Okay readers ! Yes, we have been bad to you - but now we are back, and we are here to stay! It's me (Gears) at the helm so you've got nothing to worry about anymore (!!!) the NEW ZAM is here ! We are sorry for the HUGE delay, the APOLOGY TO OUR READERS article has a FULL explanation of exactly what happened ! IT'S A BIT THIN ON ARTICLES ISN'T IT ? -------------------------------------- Yep, you're right. I admit that most of the articles were written by me, but what do you expect after we've been away for a year ?! Okay, you may expect LOADS of articles to have stacked up in that time but that hasn't happened because we weren't around to ask for them ! Over the past week I have been working non-stop to get the code finished ! Before that I was editing, and before that I was writing and collecting articles ! Ooooo ! I work so hard for you lot ! Anyway, you might find it slightly ridiculous that there are only three menu pages. Yep, you're right again ! But, being the awkward sod I am, I did it like this because I was (A) fed up with other mags wasting a whole screen on one subject just to pad out their mag (it makes finding things a lot harder), and (B) because the next mag will be on two disks and there will be more articles to cram in. But, if you don't like the way I've done it just press that REPLY button. Oh yeah, now what is that all about ??? WHAT IS THIS `REPLY' FUNCTION ALL ABOUT ? ----------------------------------------- Ah, well. One night I was spread out on the floor (I had missed the bed somehow) and the following question kept going round in my head.... Why can't I get the readers to talk back instantly to what someone says in our mag ? Because, as we all know, ** you react better to something when your actually looking at it.** So, I came up with this.... Here is the idea : I've read magazines, and it's always when you're reading a particular article that you suddenly want to say, `Nah mate, you've got it wrong, I know how you should do that' or, `Yeah, I agree and I think you should do this aswell.....'. But, by the time I've read the mag I have forgotten what I was going to say and what the article was about. This is especially true if I want to reply to lots of articles at once. If I want to ask a disk-mag something or write an article I'd have to; (a) Find their address. (b) Check that the article is written in the correct format. (c) Check that I've included my name and group so that the article is creditted to me. (d) Get a blank disk and put it in a jiffy, never that disk ever again. So, I decided to put a simple text editor into the new ZAM-4 and activate it with a button situated in the article reader. And so I did ! This now allows anyone to say what they feel at the time about the article they are reading. For example :- You're reading an article, like you are now. You read someone's question like, "How do I get past level 2 on ... such and such" and you say to yourself "Hey ! I know !" Well, all you have to do is move the pointer to the REPLY button (bottom right) and press it. A screen will open with two windows. The top one is a little instructions box, and the bottom one is where you type. Just click in the box and (after entering you name, so we can say "Thanks to ______ for sending this") put your reply. Then click on save. Bingo. It is done. How to you get this vital info to us ? Read on.... GETTING YOUR VIEWS TO US ! -------------------------- You can do either of the following :- (a) Pass ZAM-4 onto someone else OR (b) Pop ZAM-4 in a jiffy with an SAE and send it to us for a free copy of ZAM-5 (disk 1) when it is ready ! OR (c) Make a copy of ZAM, and send that copy to us so that you can still read it !! PASSING ZAM-4 ONTO SOMEONE ELSE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you do (a) we cannot guarantee that your work will be included in ZAM-5, but at least it will let someone else reply and maybe they can send ZAM back. SENDING IT TO US - THE BENEFITS ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If, however, you do (b) you can request ZAM-5. If you do this, we will wait for ZAM-5 to be finished and then send it to you in your SAE !!!! There is the possibility that ZAM-5 will be on two disks, so if it we will send the first disk and you can get ZAM-5 disk two from your local PD shop for a meagre amount of cash ! You can ALSO ask for a new copy of ZAM-4 if your copy of ZAM gets full with other peoples comments ! Or, if you have received a copy from someone which is full, send it to us. We will send (provided you give us the VERY important Stamped Self Addressed Envelope) you a fresh copy of ZAM-4 with NO comments on at all ! HARD DRIVE INSTALLATION ------------------------- To install ZAM-4 to your Hard Drive, just drag the disk icon into the drawer you want ZAM to live. Then copy ZAM-4's fonts into your own fonts directory and put this in your user-startup :- Assign ZAM-4!: (to) Dh?:Wherever/ZAM-4! Please note that you cannot change the name of the drawer afterwards ! EPILOGUE -------- Well, I hope you enjoy the mag and its important NEW feature. Please read the REPLY INFORMATION article for more info. Gears 94