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Wrap
Text File
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1987-04-22
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3KB
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135 lines
STOS BITS 'N PIECES
by
Martin Cubitt July 1993
I started using STOS some five years
ago now. In that time I have come across
some very interesting facts about STOS.
This information has been accrued from
various publications (inluding The STOS
Newsletter, Atari ST User, ST Format,
New Atari User) and from personal
experience.
So now I bring to you a series which
will follow absolutely no pattern but
will hopefully give you more of an in-
sight into STOS.
First off, from the STOS Newsletter
issue 4 some fact about STOS and its
creator. If the people at STOS News-
letter want money for any possible copy-
right infringement (I see no copyright
in the newsletter so I think I am safe!)
consider the £10 subscription fee which
I paid and received nothing for as
payment!
20 things you didn't know about STOS
and it's creator.
1) STOS was written by Francois Lionet,
a Frenchman living in Creil, 60 Km from
Paris. Francois is in his late twenties.
2) Francois is a qualified veterinary
surgeon.
3) He married Carine.
4) His first computer was a Superboard
II from Ohio Scientific, in 1981.
5) He wrote two games for Firebird
software: Chicken Chase (Oric, CPC &
C64) and Ole (CPC). He also wrote three
commercial Oric games and a musical
puzzle for the C64.
6) He wrote the Captain Blood conver-
sions for the CPC and C64, in about one
month.
7) Francois can program almost any
computer.
8) He converted Around the World in 80
Days to the Atari ST using STOS. The
French publisher, FIL, went bust on the
day he completed it!
9) STOS took 18 months to write using
Kuma's K-Seka.
10) The compiler took three months to
write using DevPac II. Extension hand-
ling was the most difficult part to
program.
11) Francois programs listening to loud
music through his headphones. He built a
flashing light to tell him when the
phone rings!
12) STOS was first released in France in
the Spring of 1988. It was not an immed-
iate success!
13) Mandarin bought the rights to STOS
and a few bits and bobs were changed.
14) Francois wrote the Orbit game in two
days. Zoltar was more of a challenge,
taking a whole week!
15) The worst bug in STOS was the way in
which it handled new extensions.
16) The hardest part was writing the
sprite trap.
17) Francois, being French, has to do
military service (ha ha). He takes his
computers with him.
18) Francois' heroes are Jes
(Starglider) San, Bill (Sinbad)
Williams, Jeff (everything with Llama's
and Yaks) Minter and the Captain Blood
team.
19) Skateball from Ubisoft was origin-
ally written in STOS and then converted
to the CPC, Spectrum, C64, PC and
Nintendo.
20) Bullet Train is on sale in France at
around the £20 mark (two or three years
ago) under the title Expressing with
faster scrolling and improved graphics.
That is all for this issue, I'll be
bringing you more features soon. Watch
this space!
CUBITTM/STOS0001/190793