TCE Demo 2/TCE_DEMO_CD2.iso/demo_cd_.2/mags/stosser/stoser09.arj/stoser09.msa/ISSUE_9/1.PNE

Text File | 1987-04-22 | 21KB | 370 lines

                               KEEFY'S BIT
                               ***********

Well,  hello once again,  and welcome to the crissy issue of STOSSER.  Ah
yes,  Christmas  .....  the  time of peace and love all over  the  world.
Mistletoe, holly, prezzies and best of all parties!.  (not that i've been
invited to any that is (anyone got a spare hanky?).   Anyway, before i go
nattering  on  any  further,  i suppose it would only be  right  to  wish
everyone of you out there, yes all of you!, a merry christmas and a happy
new  year (this may be academic to some of you as you probably  got  your
copy after crissy).

First off, somebody out there should have had an excellent start to their
christmas break, namely:

               MARTIN ANDERSON of LIVERPOOL

WHY?.   Because  he  was the winner of our questionaire  competition  and
should  now  be  the proud owner of some new games for  his  beloved  ST.
Congratulations Martin, hope you like 'em.

In total,  we received 18 completed questionaires, which on reflection is
a  pretty  good response,  when you consider the dwindling number  of  ST
users.   So many thanks to all of you for your opinions,  they have  been
very helpful.   If you wrote to us,  you will find your name below in the
roll call.

I  suppose that now you want us to tell you what our little  survey  told
us.   Well  i'm not going to!......okay okay......here goes.   The  first
thing that was apparent,  was that virtually none of you liked the  jokes
very much at all,  and finished bottom on virually everyones  list.   The
average  mark for that section was only around 3or4,  and  several  times
comments were added at the bottom of the questionaire asking for it to be
scrapped.   Your  wish is our command,  the jokes have now been  removed,
never to return again.  boo hoo!.

The  contacts section seemed to be fairly popular with  scores  averaging
around 7-8,  the same was said of martins problem page with scores around
the 8-9 mark in almost everyones opinion, along with a good few 10's.  So
keep those problems coming in (to martin, not me!), his address is around
in the zine somewhere.

The  letters page seemed to be very popular too,  with scores in the  7's
and  8's  each time,  trouble is,  we're not  getting  enough  intersting
letters to make it viable (note it's absence this issue).   For my mind a
scribbled note saying "Please send me the next issue of  STOSSER",  can't
be printed can it.   So if you're going to write to us,  why not spend  a
few  more minutes jotting down your opinions of the zine,  what you  like
and what you don't like, give us all something to think about eh?.  One
big letter a month hardly makes a letters page eh?.

Most  of  you  seemed  to  think the reviews  were  a  little  bit  harsh
sometimes.   Erm........  think  i'll   stick my hand up and say  i  was
probably  the biggest culprit.   I know that most of these  programs  are
written  for the fun and enjoyment of it,  so if you were offended  by  a
review of a program you've written,  then sorry.   Having said that, i do
think that we wouldn't be doing things properly if we just said every game
was good regardless.   We'd be wrong if we didn't point out bugs,  faults
or  pitfalls or whatever.   If you went out and bought a copy of  a  game
because  we  said  it was good,  you'd be pretty miffed if  it  was  crap
wouldn't you.

By  far  the most popular parts of the zine were the  giveaways  and  the
basic tutorial, with them getting full marks from virtually everyone.  It
seems  a lot of beginners read the zine and find these parts  helpful  in
their  learning  process.

The Inside Stos articles from dion guy were also popular, unfortunately i
don't think we'll be seeing any more of them as they were taken from  the
now defunct STOS magazine.  Still, it was good while it lasted eh?.    If
any  of  you  out  there have any of the articles  that  we  haven't  yet
included in STOSSER,  can you let us have them so we can share them  with
the STOS using  world?.

The meaning of STOS was not very popular, most of the time getting around
3 marks and occaisionally nothing,  and as requested by you, has now been
dropped.  I for one won't miss it,  as it seemed that i was the only  one
doing it anyway.

On the other hand the beginners guide to computing and the adverts fared
quite well,  averaging about 7.   Icidentally, we'd like to hear from you
if you've actually benefitted from either placing an ad or replying to an
ad.   Have you found what you were looking for because of us.   If so let
us know.  Also, don't forget, the adverts page is there for your benefit,
if you've just finished writing a new program and want to spread the word
the adverts page is an ideal place to start, it's free and as long as the
program  is  STOS  written you'll be welcome to  advertise  it  with  us.
Although we would like a copy of the program for review purposes.

Last, but by no means least, both the adventure and the stos 3d tutorials
were  liked  by most of you.   Gaining around 8 marks across  the  board.
Unfortunately,  the  adventure  tutorial finished last  month,  but  this
months  collection  of tutorials should definately keep you  all  happily
poking away at your keyboards for a while, and don't forget, if you've
been following the adventure tutorial, you should have learnt enough by
now to have a go at entering the competition organized by deano to win
loads of goodies, he's extended the closing date so there's no excuse now.

For  those of you who added comments onto the end of your  questionaires,
you  will  probably have noticed that several of them have  already  been
acted on.   The jokes and meaning of stos for instance.   The story  also
ended last month,  by popular request.  You asked for a search option and
a change colours option in the doc reader,  you got it!.   So if you have
any other comments,  observations or ideas, then don't hesitate to contact
us, we're always prepared to listen.

Incidentally,  in a future issue of STOSSER, we're looking to have rogues
gallery of STOSSERS,  so if you have a scanner we'd like a mug-shot.   If
you  haven't  got  one  then simply send us a  passport  sized  photo  of
yourself.   I promise to do my best to return them all (although i  can't
bank on the p.o.).  You never know you may see your face in STOSSER soon.
This all depends on the response from you guys.

This month we have a new competition for you,  the prize this time  being
another  four  top quality ST titles.    But this time,  there's  also  a
second  prize of 10 disks of p.d.   It's another questionaire for you  to
fill  in,  but this time we want to find out a bit about you rather  than
what you think of us.   You find it under the name of HOO R YOO.  So have
a look at it and give it a go, you never know you might win.

Deano's competition also continues this month,  this was due to end  this
month,  but he received several letters from people asking him to  extend
the closing date,  so therfore you now have another 6 months to get  your
entries to him.  Have a look, you'll find it under the name DEANOS COMPY.
The prize is well worth winning.

Right,  i  think  that's  enough of competitions  for  now,  sometimes  i
think we're too good to you.  What else was there?......

Ah  yes,  you  may remember that last month we carried a  review  of  the
excellent  grandad  2.   However,  what we forgot to  mention,  was  that
Caledonia  PDL  are the official distributors of the  program,  for  more
information contact Jake Bain on [phone].

Also,  last month we asked you lot out there whether there was any  truth
to the rumour than STEN had finished,  loads of you rang to tell us  that
as far as you knew they had stopped doing it.  Most of you said something
about  Dave  Mooney  leaving the ST for the PC.   Because  of  the  sheer
ammount  of you who rang with exactly the same thoughts,  i think we  can
only  assume that STEN is dead for now.   For all our  sakes,  lets  hope
someone resurrects it.

It's not all bad news though, those of you who read the major ST mags may
have noticed the reviews of STOSSER in both ST Format and ST review.  78%
in format and 4 stars out of 5 in review.   Not bad in terms of score  if
you ask me, although i must admit i didn't agree with all their comments.
We also had a rather good mention in micro mart a few weeks ago,  so many
thanks to Mike at Goodmans International for submitting it for review for
us.  Thanks also to any other libraries who may have submitted STOSSER to
any of the mags.

We're  starting to get quite a bit of feedback now,  but it  still  seems
like  a hard core of around 20 people who are contributing to  the  zines
welfare.  We KNOW there are more of you out there than that, so by way of
encourageing  you  to  do articles for us we've come  up  with  a  little
incentive for you.   If you send in an article for the first  time,  we
will  send you a disk packed full of about 100 useful STOS  routines  for
you to play with, if we use the article that is.   None of them have been
given  away with STOSSER before so why not give it a  go.   This  dosen't
apply to the fantastic people who already contribute,  purely to those of
you contributing for the first time.

Now  i have an appeal to make,  we are now at issue 9,  and so far  we've
heard virtually nothing from the female st world (apart from julie worden
and  lynn  pratt). So come on girls, there must be at least a few of you
out there and we want to hear from you.   Also, as of yet we've not heard
an  awful  lot  from st users outside the  uk.   We've  had  people  from
Germany,  Poland,  France  and  Belgium.   But  what  about  America  and
Australia?,  has STOSSER reached that far yet?.  If so get in touch, we'd
love  to  hear from  you.    South  america?,  Asia?,  Africa?,  Russia?,
Canada?, wherever you are, talk to us.   Also,  i'd be very intersted  to
hear  details of Atari ST user groups all over the world,  what  do  they
do?,  when do they meet?.   Any info on that would be appreciated as we'd
like to compile a list of user groups for a future issue.   This sort  of
thing  needs our support so let us know about it.   In fact news  of  any
type which would be intersting to STOS and ST users would be great.

We've  heard news recently of a new club which has recently  started  for
the more mature ST user.  Tactfully entitled

                    THE ATARI WRINKLIES CLUB

You can find out more about it by contacting:

                               Jim Hornby
                          Atari Wrinklies Club
                             60 Crumpsall St
                               Abbey Wood
                                 London
                                 SE2 OLR

Remember to mention STOSSER if you do get in touch!.

A bit of natter now i think,  as if i haven't wibbled on enough. I had to
laugh the other day when i was browsing through our local computer  shop.
All over the counter were these display cases,  containing loads of disks
in  little plastic boxes,  upon closer examination i noticed  that  these
disks  were actually public domain programs packaged with a  nice  little
clear  case,  and printed insert showing what the game was like  and  all
that.   Then i noticed the price £4.50.   Forgive me if i'm wrong,  but i
always thought that the whole concept between the idea of pd was to avoid
all  the  things like fancy packaging etc...  I always  thought  P.D  was
supposed to be free?...  I suppose a lot of people have accused a lot  of
P.D.  libraries of just being in it for a quick buck, but this one really
took the biscuit.   I just wonder how many of the authors of the programs
knew their programs were being marketed in this way.   (just in case  you
were  wondering,  yes,  they  were  DEFINATELY  P.D.  not  licensware  or
shareware or anything else P.D.).   Fortunately,  all the programs i  saw
were for the amiga and pc.   Has anyone seen programs for the ST on  sale
in  a similar way.   I was going to ask a few questions in the  shop  but
unfortunately i got kicked out.  Just because i asked him if i could swap
one of my disks for one of his so-called P.D. titles.  Mind you i haven't
got a pc or amiga so i don't know why i asked in the first place.

Right before we go into the details of what text files we've got for  you
this month.  We'd like to say a special thank-you to Colin Pratt for his
help with some of the graphics for this issue.  Cheers mate!.

So what have we got then?, well, if you thought last month was a cracker,
then  you're  going to love this one.   Articles  covering  almost  every
aspect  of  STOS  programming,  from  the  very  beginning  to  the  very
experienced.   A couple of new names too,  and hopefully we'll be  seeing
them quite often.


Lets get on with it shall we?...First off,  the STOS tutorial by  William
Morrisson  continues  this  month,   with  info  on  re-sizing  pictures,
unsquashing  files and more.   William also gives us the low down on
TOS 2.06 and there's an article about disk boxes which definately strikes
a chord with me, and will no doubt with many of you too.

Martin  Cubitt  solves  some more of your  STOS  problems,  whilst  still
managing  to take the time out to continue his informative series on  how
to write STOS extensions, along with a comparison test between two of the
major atari glossy mags.

The first new name in this issue is that of Bob Goodfellow,  who came  up
with some excellent articles covering the stos tracker extension, loading
and  displaying  text,  the  complete solution  to  the  looping  tracker
problem, and also the first part in the series of CUSTOMISING STOS, which
hopefully  will help you to make your stos programs look that little  bit
better.

Deano  gives all you STOSSERS struggling with the Missing Link  extension
from  top  notch,  with part one of his brand spanking new  missing  link
tutorial starting this month, and Matthew Green keeps all you 3Ders happy
with his monthly fix of the 3d tutorial.

Fans of Colin Pratt's indomitable sense of humour will be pleased to  see
some  more  of his superb wit in two more files  written  especially  for
STOSSER,  The STOSSER panto, and XMAS POEM.  Jimbo joins in the humourous
festivities with the second part of english as she is spoke.

Brian  Crossland tells us all we'll ever need to know  about  ascii,  the
beginners  guide to computing continues,  and if you're stuck  for  ideas
for your next program then this month sees the start of what'll hopefully
be a new  part  of stosser called ideas.   This months suggestions come
from Tony Greenwood (the man himself),  but we'd like to see a few ideas
from you lot soon.

Scott  King comments on our review of his video titler a few issues  ago,
and once again we have two competetions for you to try.   There's Deano's
adventure creator competetion now with a new extended closing date, along
with a brand new STOSSER questionaire competition.   This time we want to
know about you,  instead of what you think of us.  Both competetions have
prizes  worth winning so have a look at them and give them a  go,  you'll
never win if you don't try will you?.

As  always there's the reviews,  contacts and adverts section for you  to
browse over, along with the start of a new message section.  We also felt
the need (unfortunately), to repeat an earlier article we did on viruses.
So please read that one if you haven't already seen it before.

Right,  i  think  that  just about wraps it up  for  this  issue.   Merry
christmas  and a happy new year to all STOSSERS,  along with anyone  else
still left on the st scene.   Thanks to all the p.d.  libraries  stocking
STOSSER for their help and support.  Most of huge thanks to the following
people, without whom there wouldn't be a mag to support.

                                _________
                                ROLL CALL
                                ---------


                 ARSHAD...........              ACCRINGTON
                 ANDY CATO ........             NEWCASTLE
                 A.C. PORRITT.......            HARTLEPOOL
                 BILLY ALLAN........            DUMBARTON
                 BEN RILEY.......               ACCRINGTON
                 COLIN PRATT.........           GOSPORT
                 LYNN PRATT.........            GOSPORT
                 COLIN McALLISTER.......        RENFREWSHIRE
                 DEAN SHARPLES.......           ROCHDALE
                 DION GUY...............        BISHOPS WALTHAM
                 FRED DARLINGTON......          PRESTON
                 IAN HOLDEN..........           BLACKBURN
                 JEAN-FRANCOIS BERJON..         FRANCE
                 JAMES HORNBY........           LONDON
                 JULIE WORDEN.........          ACCRINGTON
                 KEITH DUNN............         COVENTRY
                 MARTIN CUBITT......            RAYLEIGH
                 MATTHEW GREEN......            CRAWLEY DOWN
                 STEVEN GOODING.......          SOUTHSEA
                 TONY GREENWOOD.......          ACCRINGTON
                 TONY GOODING..........         HANTS
                 WILLIAM MORRISON......         DONCASTER
                 WILFRIED KICKSTEIN....         GERMANY
                 R. WHITE.........              N.IRELAND
                 BRIAN CROSSLAND........        CHESTERFEILD
                 ANDY MORGAN...........         NUNEATON
                 JAMES AUBREY.........          SUTTON
                 PIOTR J. TIMINSKI......        POLAND
                 JAMES AMES............         PRESTON
                 PHIL GRAINEER........          OKEHAMPTON
                 PAUL CHAPMAN........           HARTLEPOOL
                 RAPHAEL AST.......             GERMANY
                 ROBERT LANNIGAN.......         CARLUKE
                 JAMES L MATTHEWS..........     MAIDSTONE
                 NEVILLE WILSON......           BIRMINGHAM
                 MARCUS PLATT......             TAMWORTH
                 PAUL ARCHER........            WITHAM
                 CHRIS SHARP..........          DINAS POWYS
                 MARTIN ANDERSON......          LIVERPOOL
                 BOB GOODFELLOW.........        DUNBAR
                 DEAN TACHBROOK.......          NORWICH
                 ELLIS WATSON.........          SWANSEA
                 CHRIS ???????                  DERBY
                 DAVID RAE                      NORTHAMPTON
                 SIMON FREEMAN                  BIRMINGHAM

If  we forgot to include your name,  then we're sorry,  maybe you  should
drop  us a line with an article or something to keep your name  fresh  in
our memory.

If you have any articles,  comments,  questions or you just want a natter
about anything st pooter related then write to:

          KEEFY, 57 HEARSALL LANE, EARLSDON, COVENTRY, CV5  6HF

If you have any routines, accesories etc... write to:

          TONY GREENWOOD, 29 PAXTON ST, ACCRINGTON, LANCS, BB5 1QQ

For all your the solutions to your STOS problems write to:

          MARTIN CUBITT, 14 DEEPDENE AVE, RAYLEIGH, ESSEX, SS6 9LG

Thats it guys (and maybe gals, we don't know?), enjoy the zine, and above
all  keep supporting us and with your help we'll be saying similar  stuff
next christmas.   I'm off for a tipple or two now.   JINGLE BELLS,  JINGLE
BELLS, JINGLE ALL THE WAY, OH WHAT FUN, IT IS TO READ, STOSSER EVERY DAY!.

******************************** STOP PRESS ******************************

STEN IS DEAD!!!!!!!.  Yes the other day i got issue 15 of STEN and what we
were all dreading has been confirmed.  There will be no STEN 16.  Dave and
the  lads  have become completely disillusioned with the ammount  of  help
they  were getting for the zine and have decided to pack it  in.   They'll
now  be concentrating on other things.   Good luck guys,  and  thanks  for
supporting  the  ST scene so avidly.   Let's hope it doen't end  with  the
demise of STEN.

For all you STOSSERS out there this should serve as a warning.   So if you
can contribute in any way no matter how trivial or stupid it may seem,  DO
IT!.