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2006-10-19
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.IF DSK3.C3
.CE 6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
^W-AGE/99 * NEW-AGE/
^99 *NEW-AGE/99* N
^EW-AGE/99 * NEW-AGE
^/99 *NEW-AGE/99*
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^*by JACK SUGHRUE, Box
459, East Douglas, MA 01516*
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^#11
THE LADY FROM LOWER BURRELL
Mickey Schmitt, president of the West
Penn 99ers, is a young lady with
extraordinarily varied T.I.
interests and talents. She is an
ardent fairgoer, ranging along the
eastern seaboard inland to Lima,
Ohio, and north to Canada, visiting
with her hundreds of TI friends and
fans and oftentimes representing
groups or companies who couldn't
attend.
Mickey is an author, programmer,
tutor, collector, and adventure
aficionado whose great sense of
humor shows through almost all her
activities. For example, in a very
clever adventure she wrote for the TI
Adventure Module (OLIVER'S TWIST -
cassette or disk, Asgard, $7.95), she
requires the player to PUT BACK
treasures in order to win the game.
Her latest Asgard adventure,
RATTLESNAKE BEND, is like John Wayne
playing Viva Zapata. Wild, hilarious
stuff. But hidden beneath the
jocularity is a mean adventure
guaranteed to please, pardner.
Adventuring seems to be in
Mickey's blood. She is THE expert in
the field. If there is an adventure
for the TI she hasn't uncovered and
played, it was probably written this
morning.
A few years ago we had a chance
to talk for awhile at one of the
computer fairs, and she felt there
was a real need to compile a listing
of all the various adventures
available for the TI so that users
could have some kind of idea what is
out there. I agreed but felt the
task was formidable. Mickey didn't,
fortunately for the TI community.
She began collecting, sorting, doing,
evaluating, and compiling every
available adventure for the TI.
The result of this massive
undertaking is THE ADVENTURE
REFERENCE GUIDE, a 62-page, 8x11"
commercially printed, easy to read
book that not only gives a complete
alphabetical listing of over 200
adventures but breaks them down into
different sections by language (XB,
E/A, etc.) and type (INFOCOM,
Educational, Role-playing, etc.).
There are astute reviews of selected
adventures and sections on sources,
utilities, and adventuring history.
There is also a checklist for solving
and comments. This is an
indispensable guide for any
adventuring TIer (from Asgard, Box
10306, Rockville, MD 20848; $9.95 /
$2 S&&H). [Last I heard, Mickey was
continuing to test new and new-found
adventures for updating this magnum
opus.
If you own Scott Adams' ADVENTURE
MODULE or the disk loader interpreter
of this module available from user
groups, I'd highly recommend
investing in Mickey's two games.
Life is strange. At least the
life that goes on inside my head.
When I sat down to write this article
I was planning a review of Mickey's
newest book on cassette systems. But
I pulled out THE ADVENTURE REFERENCE
GUIDE from the Mickey Schmitt section
of my TI library by mistake and
couldn't resist rereading it. Then I
couldn't resist playing SORCERER (an
INFOCOM game reviewed in the book by
Mickey which I had started but never
finished). Then I couldn't resist
eating lunch, still thinking of the
spells and magic items I needed to
get out of the SORCERER.) Finally, I
put all that stuff behind (more from
frustration than feeling the noble
urge to return to task) and got back
to doing this review. But I couldn't
resist writing about this woman's
profound adventuring influence
first. Now, the "real" topic of this
review: GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR
CASSETTE SYSTEM.
GETTING is based on the series of
articles by the same name that
appears in newsletters throughout the
world. This entirely rewritten work
is a professionally published, 8x11",
52-page, loose-leaf package,
containing all the original (though
updated and revised) articles that
first appeared in her group
newsletter.
Not only is this book handy for
what it does, but Mickey has provided
a way for user groups to make a few
kopeks on it. She is offering this
project for $9.95 plus $2.50 S&&H to
any individual or user group. User
groups need only purchase a single
copy. She grants the rights for the
group to reproduce it entirely for
members of the group free or as a
fundraiser, providing no copies are
given or sold to persons outside the
group. Neat idea. Hope it catches
on. The packages must be ordered
directly from the author: Mickey
Schmitt, 196 Broadway Avenue, Lower
Burrell, PA 15068.
Now, what does GETTING get you?
First, a chance to rethink your
group membership and future growth,
because the cassette is still a
powerful tool for a beginner or basic
user. This book might just show your
group new ways to attract new (or
old) members into the fold.
Second, it opens one's eyes to lots
of possibilities of cassetting
previously unexplored. One of my TIs
at school is cassetted, for example,
and this book proved to be an immense
help in ways I never dreamed of.
More on this later.
Finally, this book made a
multi-system user of me. I really
only need one disk drive system to do
all the tasks I do, but many times
the system is tied up with heavy-duty
printing or converting graphics or
any number of long-time chores.
Rather than sit and wait or go watch
TV or clean my wallaby's teeth, I
just move over to my OTHER TI SYSTEM!
That's right. I have set my other
console ($3 at a yard sale) onto a TV
with a tape recorder hookup. Many
nights I now just use the SILENT tape
recorder system for some utility or
recreational use. And I'm finding
more and more uses, including lots of
cartridge (MINIMEM, LOGO, etc.)
activities I had forgotten were so
exceptional, even with tape. I have
a sidecar 32K, though many people are
putting the chip right in or making
that chip part of a Zenoboard
package. Anyway, with 32K and Will
McGovern's CASSTRANS I can load
ASSEMBLY games and utilites into my
computer from tape. I can
AUTOMATICALLY!!! locate and RUN
programs from my tape recorder with
Joseph Bartle's CS1*FINDEX. I have
my cassette boxes labeled and a
catalog on each tape, thanks to
Mickey's LABEL and CATALOG programs.
All this stuff, by the way, is in the
book in short, easy to type in,
clever programs. (Will's program is
Fairware and in all group
libraries.) No more being restricted
to BASIC and XB files. Now I can
play FREDDY from my tape recorder.
No more searching for programs. I
don't even need a tape recorder with
a counter on it anymore. Now, like
the Timex/Sinclair user, I can
automatically run a program anywhere
on a C-60 tape after locating it in
the FAST FORWARD speed mode! In
short, tape recorders have come of
age. They can be powerful and fast
and reasonably efficient and
orderly.
Mickey's book is extremely
non-technical. She explains
everything about computer taping from
the VERY beginnings to the state of
the art. And it really might get you
into that SECOND system.
[If you use NEW-AGE/99 please put
me on your exchange list.]
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