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Text File | 2007-01-01 | 9.0 KB | 311 lines

uInterview with Loadstars Dave Moorman By Commodore Free Picture used with permission from http://www.dickestel.com/expo2005.htm photograph taken by Robert Bernardo >Q. Please intoduce yourself to our Reader A. My name is Dave Moorman. I am 57 years old, and have been a hobbyist programmer since 1979. I am married, have one grown son, and live in southeastern Colorado. >Q. Tell us a little about what you do for a living A. My real vocation is an ordained clergy with the United Methodist Church. I serve three small churches, preaching twice every Sunday morning. I am theologically "progressive," yet revel in the power of the Spirit that changes lives. >Q. For anyone who doesnt know what is your commitment to Commodore A. My first Commodore computer was a C-128, bought in 1986 when I needed a real computer for my work. Thanks to a flakey power switch and a marvelous book (The Complete Commodore Inner Space Anthology by Karl J.H. Hildon), I "graduated" to the C-64 in 1988. In 1992, I saw a railroading game on my sister's PC and had to try to do something like it on the C-64. One of the greatest thrills of my life was getting that game -- Sea to Sea -- published on LOADSTAR #107. I wrote quite a number of other programs for LOADSTAR during the next several years, along with some articles. In 1999, I discovered PC emulation, and suggested to Editor Fender Tucker that we make a LOADSTAR for PC people. He said "Go for it," and I did. During 2000, I published eLOADSTAR to a growing number of subscribers. At the end of 2000, Fender was ready to end the magazine at issue 199 and move on to other things, so I offered to continue LOADSTAR as long as possible. We just shipped #247, and will continue through issue 256. >Q. What Commodore equiptment do you own A. I have several C-64s and 1541s around the house and church. But my main set-up is a C-64 II, a 1541 II, and two CMD FD2000 drives. I am ashamed to admit that these are not even JiffyDOSed. I do most of my work on VICE 1.07, since it gives me fast access to the harddrive and a couple of great MSDOS utilities: 64Copy and 1581Copy. >Q. Tell our reader a little about the Loadstar history and how you came to be working on the magazine A. Back in 1982, a couple in Shreveport, LA, decided to put together a disk software magazine for the Apple II called Softdisk. Jim and Judi Mangham began their enterprise on their dining room table, but soon grew to office space in downtown Shreveport. In 1984, the C-64 was fast becoming the leading home computer, and Softdisk, Inc., decided to branch in that direction. The name LOADSTAR is from the command to start the disk - LOAD"*",8,1. In 1984, Fender Tucker, a guitarist for a bar band in New Mexico, came to Shreveport to become the new managing editor of LOADSTAR. Fenderbrought a unique "off-kilter" attitude and a quest for something he called (but never quite defined as) LOADSTAR Quality. Two things about LOADSTAR impressed me from the first issue I every read: First, the magazine -- both in text and programs -- was a continuous environment. One of the Qualities of a LOADSTAR program was that exiting it took the user back to the main menu. I thought it must be like being on QLink, but I was wrong. LOADSTAR was better! The other thing -- and this was back in 1988-89 -- was that unlike the numerous paper mags, LOADSTAR respected the reader's intelligence. Many of the paper publications were kind of stuck at "here's how you get started." LOADSTAR had tutorials on using custom fonts, getting bitmaps to work, and compression algorithms. It also had utilities and ML toolboxes that openned whole new possibilities to programmers. At some point, Softdisk, Inc., decided to discontinue the original Apple II Softdisk publication -- at aroundissue 163. In a couple of years, LOADSTAR sailed past that milestone and became the longest running disk magazine in history.As I said, after getting Sea to Sea published, I became a regular contributor. During rough times, I imagined moving to Shreveport and sitting by Fender and Jeff Jones all day long whacking out code. I kind of got my wish, except no Fender or Jeff. >Q. Why is loadstar to finish A. Two factors (maybe three) caused us (my wife is the bookkeeper and "stuff it lady") to decide to bring LOADSTAR to an end. The first is that our subscription base has dwindled. This has always been a semi-commercial venture, mostly a source of "mad money." Putting together an issue takes a certain amount of time -- and waning subscriptions no longer covered the time spent. The second reason is that our supply of new programs has dried up. We still get a few -- Ricky Derocher, Jane Voskap Jones, John Kaputa, Dennis Hildreth, Andrew Roberts, and a few others have sent material. But it is harder to find new software. Finally, I will probably move in a couple of years. Methodist pastors move around a lot. It would be best to wind up this section of my life before we are sent to Last Chance, Colorado. >Q. You have started a Secret Society of commodorecoders can you explain this A. Back at the LUCKI Expo -- was it 2004? -- I got talking with Bo Zimmerman and others, sharing secrets and ideas about coding. I wanted such discussions to continue, so I came up with the idea of the Secret Society. The idea was to stick to just programming on the unenhanced C-64, but both in BASIC and ML. About a year ago, I got extremely busy with my pastorate and lost touch with the SSOCC. I am glad Robin Harbron and Jeff Ledger have continued the discussions. I hope to get back to it soon. >Q.Loadstar to me seemed all about getting people quality technical information was this the goal A. I hope we are! I like to offer a range of interactive entertainment -- games, puzzles, multi-media, plus tools, utilities, and information. >Q.If someone wanted to start programming where would they start A. With a C-64! And a book on BASIC 2.0. The BASIC command list in the user's guide would be a start. I would strongly suggest sitting down with the book and writing out a program with pen and paper, then checking it by hand. The secret to programming is learning to think exactly like the machine. Our NICKEL GAMES CD-ROM includes a good beginners tutorial and BASIC bible (which I would like to publish in CommodoreFree, if you would be agreeable). And LOADSTAR's CompleatProgrammer has 2-1581s full of stuff -- from basic BASIC to courses on ML. Learning how to use ARRAYS is the heart of all programming. >Q.Do you believe modern systems are too complex? A. Right in One! I realize they must have such complexity because of their size. They need the size in order to handle huge amounts of data (like wave files, photos or movies). And while the internet is great, it would not be possible without advertising -- which needs photos, etc. So the modern home computer is way too big and complex for most users, and yet must be so in order to do what most users want done. Back in 1997, I was assigned to a church that had a 486 PC, and had to spend a lot of time working on it - - newsletters and such. I also got on the internet on the PC. In fact, for a year or so, I barely used my C-64. So, even with the SuperCPU, I never got into GEOS or Wheels or Wings. I became, instead, a "cross-platformer." PC for work. C-64 for fun.Today, I use PhotoDeluxe to massage images, then transfer them to the C-64 with GoDot. I also do video editing and CD and DVD burning on my Pentium 400 Mhz machine. And of course, newsletters and databases. >Q. What's your favourite program/game from Loadstar's long history? A. Recently, I have become addicted to Shamrock -- a solitaire by Maurice Jones. Blockhead's Revenge, by Kate and Ron Slaminko, keeps me up all night. Sea to Sea is still a favorite, as I try to get 6 trains in and out of Chicago without a fatal crash.I would say that the greatest piece of code ever published on LOADSTAR was/is Mr.Mouse, by Lee Novak. It came out in 1997, and made the C-64 totally point-andclick. Plus, it has a marvelous toolbox of useful commands such as Print At and Scrolling Menu. >Q. What's your favourite bit of Commodore equipment? A.The SuperCPU kicks the C-64 into high gear. If Maurice Randall ever gets mine fixed, I will be ready to go back to my old "brown betty." >Q. Do you prefer using an emulator or the real thing? A.I use VICE 1.07 -- which works well on my 400 Mhz PC very well. I like having the whole harddisk at my disposal. And, I can flip between 64Copy (where I move files to and from disk images), Photo Deluxe, GoDot, WinZip, and VICE. I'm spoiled, I guess.For me, it is not the machine. It is the platform -- the memory map and ML and BASIC, the VIC II and SID. I have learned a lot about all this, and still have miles to go before I have fully explored this amazing computer. >Q. Will you still be a regular Commodore user once Loadstar finishes? A.I certainly will! Until my mind fails, I will certainly get ideas for projects. And the place for me to sit down and make them real is the C-64. Here I am god (little "g") of 65536 bytes -- who never talk back and usually do what I want. And if worse comes to worst, I can always press <Alt-R>, and the machine happily says READY. ...end...