ftp.whtech.com/ftp.whtech.com.tar/ftp.whtech.com/articles/reviews/05MIC94.TXT

Text File | 2006-10-19 | 10KB | 156 lines

     ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN MICROPENDIUM
     P.O. Box 1343  Round Rock TX 78680
     Phone [phone]
     Internet [e-mail]

     MICRO REVIEWS FOR MAY 1994 MICROPENDIUM
     by Charles Good
     -----------------------
     THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES by Arthur Conan Doyle

         Sherlock Holmes is probably the most famous detective in English
     literature.  By just glancing at someone he could usually tell the
     person's occupation, where he had been recently, and other details of
     the person's personal life.  He was a "consulting detective".  Other
     detectives (public police and private) as well as the general public
     went to him for advice when a case seemed particularly confusing.  It
     was the Sherlock Holmes stories that made author Arthur Conan Doyle
     very wealthy, in spite of Doyle's efforts to direct his writing
     talents elsewhere.  On two separate occations Doyle tired to tell his
     public that there would be no more Holmes stories forthcoming.  Each
     time public pressure and the offer of vast sums from publishers forced
     Doyle to write additional Holmes adventures.

          The Sherlock Holmes stories were originally published between
     1887 and 1926.  The copyrights have expired and everything is now in
     the public domain.  I have downloaded all these short stories and book
     length manuscripts from an information system, converted them into
     DV80 files on DSSD disks, and am making them available to the TI
     communtiy.

           These text files are nicely formatted in 80 columns, displayed
     double spaced, and contain no control codes or strange printer
     formatting codes.  Each file is about 200-300 sectors in length and
     contins either a complete short story or 2-3 chapters of a book length
     manuscript.  Book length stories are split up into several of these
     files.  The text files are too large to load into most versions of
     TI Writer but thats ok because you don't want to manipulate this sort
     of text.  You want to view the text on screen and/or print the text
     with your printer and this can be done with either Funnelweb, DM1000
     or DSKU.  With each of these software packages you bring up a disk
     directory and put the cursor next to the file name you want to view or
     print.  At this point using Funnelweb's Disk Review or using
     Birdwell's DSKU you press "V" to view and then a second key to print.
     Using DM1000 you press "T" to type the text onto the screen, or "P" to
     print the whole file.  40 column users will probably prefer using
     DM1000 for viewing and printing.  Funnelweb is the choice for those
     with 80 column systems.  Double spacing makes it easy  to view these
     80 column files on a 40 column screen.  Each text line wraps around to
     the next 40 column line during such a viewing, resulting in double
     lines of text on screen with a blank line separating the next double
     text line.

          The following Sherlock Holmes stories make up this collection:
     "A Study in Scarlet"-the book that inroduced Holmes and Watson to the
     world in 1887; "The Sign of Four"-a book; "The Valley of Fear"-a book
     that has within it another book; "Hound of the Baskervills"-in my
     opinion the greatest detective story ever written; and 56 short
     stories originally published separately and later gather together by
     Doyle into books titled "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", "The
     Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes", "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", "His
     Last Bow", and "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes".  Several of these
     short stories compilations contain very interesting prefaces by Doyle
     which were not included when the stories were first published
     separately.

           I am not asking for any copy fee. You can have the complete
     collection, archived, by sending me 14 DSSD disks or 7 DSDD (18
     sectors/track) disks and a paid return mailer.  Please make sure that
     disks are initialized and that the return postage is correct.  I will
     include the ARCHIVER progam (EA5 version) so you can unpack the
     archives onto DSSD disks and I will also include my SPEAK DV80
     program.  You can run SPEAK DV80 from extended basic and have your
     99/4A read the Sherlock Holmes stories to you using the speech
     synthesizer.  SPEAK DV80 will verbally speak any DV80 file.
     -----------------------
     THE CASTLE by Vern Jensen

           This is a really good game that is somewhat similar to TI RUNNER
     in that it has multiple levels (screens) that you reach as you
     progress.  My at home testing panel (ages 8, 13, and 15) each
     individually spent at least 2 hours playing The Castle.  The 13 year
     old spent about 6 hours spread over several days before he finally
     tired of the game.  These are really good times!  The attention span
     of these kids, who have access to a 386 PC and a Sega Genesis, usually
     isn't very long when it comes to TI games.   I spent several hours
     myself getting lost in The Castle in preparation for this review.

            The game is written in extended basic with CALL LOADed assembly
     routines.  The graphics are great and the game play is fast enough to
     suggest that it was totally written in assembly, which it isn't.  You
     start outside in a hail storm and duck inside a handy castle to get
     away from the precipitation.  There are treasures in the castle which
     you are supposed to find as you travel through all the rooms in an
     attempt to get to the last room where the exit is located.  Each room
     (screen) has lots of doors and various brick barriers.  One door leads
     to the next room, one door goes to the previous room, and most of the
     doors take you to another location within the same room.  It is very
     frustrating trying to find the "next room" door, and part of the
     frustration is physically getting to all the doors you can see in
     order to try them out.  Those brick barriers get in your way.  However
     some of the barriers are fake.  You can walk or fall right through
     what appear to be solid walls or floors.

          There is no instruction book, but there is a very well done on
     screen interactive tutorial on how to play the game.  You actually
     play an abbreviated version of the game.  You see the graphics and you
     get to experiment with all of the various types of on screen movement.
     Everything is nicely explained.  My 8 year old had no trouble running
     the game, going through the tutorial, and then playing the game, all
     with no help from me.

           The Castle comes with a bunch of predefined rooms.  When you
     have them all memorized, you can make a custom game by creating your
     own rooms.  You put doors, true and false barriers, etc.  where you
     want them.  A documentation text file explains how, since
     the tutorial does not cover costom room creation.

           The music, speech, graphics, and interest holding ability of The
     Castle are first rate.  I give it a thumbs up.  You can obtain The
     Castle for $6 plus $2 postage directly from the author Vern Jensen,
     817 Kingsway Drive East, gretna LA 70056.
     -------------------
     CONSTITUTION READER by Sam Carey

           When was the last time you sat down and actually read the United
     States Constitution, our country's basic law.  I did it a few years
     ago when there were special celebrations commemorating the 200th
     anniversary of this document.  Before that, the last time I did so was
     when I was in high school.   This is a really important document with
     which we should all be familiar.  It appears in the news almost daily.
     Gun control (why can't laws prohibit the ownership of guns), capital
     punishment (is it cruel and unusual punishment), abortion (do the
     unborn have "constitutional rights"), separation of church and state
     (is it legal to give tax breaks or "vouchers" to defray the cost of
     educating children in church sponsored schools) are among many current
     issues that relate directly to our Constitution.

          Now we can read the Constitution on our TIs.  Constitution Reader
     includes the entire text with all the ammendments (in DF40 format) and
     software for on screen reading of this text.  The reader is  "Load
     and Run" assembly software that loads from the EA module, the Mini
     Memory module, or from Funnelweb.  You see the text at the top of the
     screen and a command line at the bottom.  From the command line you
     can move back and forth through the text one line or one screen at a
     time, and you can search for text strings.  For example, you can
     search for the string "AMENDMENT XIV" to go directly to the 14th
     amendment.  There is no direct provision for printing to a printer.

          Of course all of this (line or screen up/down, and find string)
     plus printing could be done with TI Writer IF you take the time to
     type in the text.  As far as I know nobody has done this yet, so
     Constitition Reader is the only way to read this fantastic document on
     the TI.  Constitution Reader comes on a SSSD disk and costs $14.95
     including postage.  Send your money to Sam Carey, 5820 SE Westfork
     St., Portland OR 97206-0742