TCE Demo 2/TCE_DEMO_CD2.iso/demo_cd_.2/mags/stosser/stoser24.arj/stoser24.msa/DCK/TONYSBIT.DOC

Text File | 1996-12-08 | 11KB | 181 lines

                             TONY'S BIT

Where the hell is STOSSER?, Hmmm I have a feeling this subject will have
already been broached in this diskzene somewhere else, after all thats why
its here,  to fill the gap,  and its a great big gap thats been left, well
the simple answer is that no one really knows,  Bob Goodfellow was to  make
STOSSER  24  and  many  people  sent him  articles  for  the  next  issue,
unfortunately no one got an answer,  no one at this point in time knows the
truth as to what has happened to Bob,  but STOSSER seems to have gone with
him,  As the founder of STOSSER I am obviously very sad to see its demise,
but  input  was  sluggish  when it  was  thriving,  I  cannot  see  anyone
supporting  it  now,   plenty  have  expressed  their  concern  over   the
whereabouts  of it,  I feel for the ones who contributed to issue  24  and
then never to see their work, but your guess is as good as mine, where the
hell is it?

(Tony wrote this bit before I took over STOSSER. We now know that Bob has
 vanished and STOSSER is in my hands:-Deano)

I  love  diskzenes,  I  love  reading them as  they  are  a  source  of
information that cannot be gained from the glossies,  they are made by  us
ordinary folk,  how many of you go directly to the letters page first?,  a
sense of joining in can be gained from a diskzene,  a regular diskzene  is
even  better  as it can be used as a form of communication,  but  all  the
diskzenes seem to have gone as well, there is'nt a decent one left,

Actually i tell a lie there,  ST NEWS is still available, but its ironic
and  is'nt as good as its made out to be,  to be honest its full of  crap!,
there is just never anything decent to read in it,

DBA  seems to have gone Falcon only,  this to me seems about  the  most
stupid  thing  a  diskzene can do,  I would have  thought  that  purposely
cutting your audience down to the bare minimum was equivalent to  shooting
yourself  in  the bloody foot,  a great diskmag that has been  denied  the
general ST owning public,

There  are a few other crappy diskzenes about that rely on  text  taken
from the net and stupid articles mainly written by the author with made up
names next to them,  letters pages so obviously written by one person  and
the  whole thing generally filled with childish rubbish,  these are  usually
shareware meaning the person putting the magazine together makes a  profit
from whomever else may have contributed,  thats sick!,  personally I  think
all diskzenes should be public domain,  why should people contribute to  a
diskzene just to make some lazy git some money,

ST BEERMAT had the best approach to this situation, I feel it should have
been free?  but only because i feel all diskzenes should be  free,  anyway
they  stated  that ST BEERMAT was "author ware" ( at least I  think  thats
what  it was called",  the general idea was that if you liked  an  article
then you should send one pound to the author of that article,  this was  an
excellent approach and if a diskzene has to be charged for, then this would
be the best and most fair way of doing it,

I was often asked over the two years of STOSSER why we did not charge for
it,  to  give us the incentive to carry on,  well how could I  divide  the
money  honestly,  every little bit of the diskzene would be for  sale,  so
even  a small message would have been a contribution,  the  diskzene  only
survived  because of lots of small contributions and we could  never  have
split  the  money up fairly,  ST BEERMAT had the fairest and  most  honest
approach to this subject, but free is even better ( in my opinion? )

 MAGGIE.....The one shining light in a dark room,  other diskzenes seem to
come and go,  but Maggie just keeps on plugging away, I have recently read
the  latest  copy  ( Maggie 17 ) and a bloody  good  read  it  was,  being
involved  with producing a diskzene myself for two years I  have obviously
read  a  lot of other diskzenes ( as many as i could get hold of )  and  I
would say that at this point in time Maggie is the best written  diskzene,
thats the way it is written, no matter what the subject it is easy to read
because all the articles are written well,  the content and its worth is a
matter  for the reader to decide on,  at least its not  full  of  childish
rubbish,  it  is  a shame the author ( CIH ) wrote about  STOSSER in issue
17 and did'nt get his facts right,  Maggie is easily the best diskmagazine
available to the normal ST owner, they mention going falcon compatible and
hopefully that does not mean deserting the ST,

A  few diskmagazines are in the pipeline as one offs, there is an STE/STOS
diskmag to be released, in fact they may already be released as i have no
idea when this diskmag is out,

(There are two actually. E's Got It and STE STOSsterone:-Deano)

But what about the glossies,  what have they to offer us,  not much  is
the sad answer, alright lets get ST Format out of the way first as most of
you will say i am biased on the subject, well believe me I aint, hopefully
as this is a STOS diskzene you will have already read my two articles that
appeared  in STF issue 71 and 72,  well thats all i was asked  to  do,  if
there was a good response to these then they would ask for more,  what did
i get.........sod all, the first question everyone and i mean everyone has
asked is "how much" they all want to know how much i got for writing those
two articles,  not a sausage is the answer, i got paid nothing at all, but
i  asked  for  nothing  and i was offered nothing,  what  i  did  get  was
something that all the money in the world could not buy,  and if you  don't
know what that is then you would'nt understand if i told you,

What i have gathered from talking to people is that everyone wants a step
by step guide to making a game using the missing link,  well lets hope stf
get a good response, i will write one and you can all read it,

#4.25 an issue,  thats bloody expensive in anyones book,  the content has
improved immensely and the whole outlook of the magazine has come along  in
leaps and bounds, I am not blaming him because he aint there anymore, but
Trenton  Webb  did drag the mag down a lot,   it is a lot  better  in  its
present form than ever before,

 Atari World, great things where expected of this mag, but unfortunately it
failed on all counts,  when the now defunct ST HANDBOOK started we gave it
time  to  prosper because it was new and untried and needed  our  support,
Atari World however is being run by experienced ST magazine producers,  so
how come they are failing, I know why I think its a total loss, for me the
three  issues  i have purchased so far ,  well i have read  them  all  and
instantly  wished  i  had'nt spent my  money,  there  was'nt  anything  of
interest  to me,  i am a one meg STFM owner who has an extra drive and  an
old knackered nine pin printer, i have no money to spare and my main hobby
is  programming although i diverse here and there,  well sorry but  unless
you  own a Falcon or a Midi set up or have a pocket full of money to spend
then there is'nt much for the ordinary Joe public,  all the articles seemed
to be set out like adverts rather than informative articles,  you have  to
either  be rich or have a massive brain or be a total idiot to read  Atari
World,  there  does not seem to be an inbetween,  nothing for us  ordinary
folk!

Quiet is'nt it?,  i don't mean now audibly,  i mean everything is  quiet,
nothing much happening,  there does'nt seem to be half as much stuff being
released,  hardly anything happening on the contacts curcuit and all  the
diskzenes are disappearing,  ho all the Atari owning public are still  out
there,  but doing what?,  where has everyone gone, the NET thats where, it
seems  every  man and his dog has got a modem and is on the  net,  we  mee
mortals  have  been  left behind,  who needs pd libraries  when  you  have
instant  access to all the software you need or will ever want and can  be
downloaded for a fraction of the price, who needs contacts and the ever so
slow slow mailing system when you can send letters and software around the
world in seconds,

I have to admit to feeling left out,  i am going to buy a modem and i  am
going to go on the net,  i just cant afford the set up at the moment,  but
soon, i reckon #110 will buy me a 14/400 fax modem and thats plenty fast
enough, then theres the charge to get signed up onto a bbs or whatever, in
total i would say #140 to get on the net, then what?, well as far as i can
gather  ( and you are reading from a novice here ) there will be a  monthly
payment  to  your bbs and your telephone bill,  the payment  will  average
depending  on where you go to about a tenner a month,  your  phone  bill?,
well thats the beauty of it,  so long as you hook up to the net at a  local
bbs  thats  in  range for local telephone calls then  thats  all  you  are
charged,  local rates, so making contact in Japan or Australia or wherever
will only cost you the price of a local phone call,  at cheap rate this is
a  penny  a minute and from what i read in the paper could  even  be  free
soon,  to the best of my knowledge thats how the system works,  but i could
buy a modem and find that all the above is a load of bollocks,  i will let
you know!,  hopefully i will be on the net before this diskmag is released
so a full article on the subject could be here now!

(It made it....and its in this very issue somewhere:-Deano)

Well its now the start of August ( Happy Birthday to me on the  first!  )
and a couple of things to tell you,

Yes I finally got a modem,  there should be another article in this issue
on the subject,  the above bit was nearly true,  but see my other  article
for more on that,  one thing i will say, i am not the most educated person
in the world and everything computer related has to be learnt on the spot,
(  just like the rest of you i presume?  ),  i was not looking forward  to
tackling  the modem as i had read alsorts of things about  problems  etc,
well listen to me!,  it is NOT as hard as everyone makes out, in fact from
the first day i bought my modem,  by nightfall i could upload and download
stuff and leave messages, dont be frightened, get one if you can!

Bob Goodfellow, Well news has reached me that Bob is at home and is alive
and well,  So why is he refusing to acknowledge anyone who writes to  him?,
no idea!, he is there and still playing and working with his computer, but
does'nt seem to be answering letters, ha well!

Along the same line of thought,  I have ( before I knew Bob  was  still
alive  ) released H.E.R.O,  in a cut down form as Freeware!,  to keep  the
whole thing to one disk i have omitted the original intro and the original
end  sequence,  i have also removed the sampled sounds and  replaced  with
chip music ( yuk!  ), anyway its freeware and got 60 levels and is just as
much fun,  you can even have the source if you want it, i have'nt sent hero
to any pdls yet but probably will have by the time you read this,