Commodore Free 20/Commodore_Free_Issue_20_2008_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.b guide 5.2

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In the Beginning Part 5
By Lord Ronin from Q-Link

Chapter 5, Section 2

 OK the packages comes with the
GeoWrite and GeoPaint, photo tool,
dictionary, spell checking programme
several fonts, a few drivers for the
printer you may be using, basic input
device choices and more. At the time
of writing it is available for around
$25usd with manual from cmdrkey.com.
At the same place is a free DL version
in .D64 disks and in parts with
instructions for use in a step by step
manner. Set for those that are using
emulators. But the .D64 version will
work on a real C=. I know as that is
the version I use in the shop. However
it is listed as being a bit crippled
in that it is not supposed to work
with the additive disk programmes.
More on that next paragraph.

 I'm spending a lot of time on Geos.I
use it a lot myself, as one reason.
the other is that there is still a
load of stuff out there for Geos.I'll
get to that in a moment. I know of
three Geos additive sets that one
could pick up. GeoCalc, a spreadsheet
thinggy, GeoFile, sort of a data base
to my understanding. I own both of
those and have never had a need for
their use in my work. OK honestly I
dont know what they do because I dont
know a thing about using them. Last
one is GeoPublish. Not going into a
load of depth on this one. I use it
regularly, have a great tutorial for
its use, as well as the manual. No I
am not explaining it in depth because
there is way too much to explain. I
make the shop signs with it for the
"A" frame street sign, and interior
signs. Make the newsletter. Laying out
the columns, doing the header and
footer parts. Inserting  photo album
images, and flowing the text around
them. I've also used it to make
Business cards for the shop, BBS and
users group. Even made the membership
cards with the GeoPublish. You can
draw like in GeoPaint, oh there is a
way to convert GeoPaint and
GeoPublish. But that is another tool.
Suffice to say that it is very
powerful. Only that it works in
40column mode. Oh did I forget to say
that Geos comes in the option of the
64 version and the 128 80 column
version? <innocent look>Yeah I use
primarily the 80 column version. Right
there was in my collection a boxed set
that was specifically designed for
Geos to make newsletters. I barely
started it, and found GeoPublish.
Although it was for an older version
of Geos and replaced by GeoPublish.
Had a lot of nice things. Sadly it was
lost, strayed or stolen from my
collection.

 OK last paragraph on Geos. By the use
of the Geos programmers book, and
other things I am unaware of, people
made a mess of things for Geos. Input
drivers for other types of input
items. Such as other light pens, and a
different Koala tablet. I had over 60
printer drivers on my BBS for Geos.
They made games and made <we interrupt
this drivel listing for time and space
considerations>. OK I get the picture,
there is way too much to list. I will
say one thing for a tool that you can
find for Geos. There are a few
versions of a font creator. Right you
can make your own specific fonts. I at
one time had close to 300 of them on
the BBS. Now then, there are new
things for Geos. Wheels drastically
improves Geos and makes it easier to
use. That runs about $25 usd at the
time of writing at cmdrkey.com. Want
to turn your Geos system into a fax
machine? That is a can do. Want to
enter the Internet and www with your
C=? Well if you don't have a shell
account to access needing that PPP
alphabet soup stuff. Then you need
"The Wave". Oh forgot to say that this
is the way I go online, most of the
time. And yeah I use the system to
also print in postscript. So ending at
this point on the topic of Geos. I
confess to thinking it to be the best
WP and DTP for the C=. Now to
recollect all the stuff that I once
had on the Hard Drive.

 Some other things that you can do
with the C=. Handy Scanner, came out n
the early 90s I seem to recall. This
is a device that lets you scan an
image into the C=. A simple Black&
White digital hand scanner is used. An
art form not a science. As my
experience has proven. These image
scan can be converted to other
formats. I generally convert to
GeoPaint. Scanner company came out
with a few additives. I only have one
of them and not used it yet. Supposed
to help in capturing full pages in
multiple scan and aligning them up.
But the documents that I have are not
full and all in German. Eventually I
will figure it out, I am a little
optimistic I know.

 I know of and have a basic form, of
video digitalizer. No not even going
to try to spell that one right. One is
called Computer Eyes. The other is
VideoByte II. Both are designed to
take a image capture from a video
source. Computer Eyes lists them as
follows, VCR tape <VHS or Betamax >,
video camera, laser disk. That last
one should give you an idea of when we
could do video capture work. But for
the record the manual is copyrighted
1984ce. Hows that for a shock? This
one has additive disks to save the
captured image as a News Room, Print
Shop, PrintMaster and other formats.
My copies of the disks where damaged
before I got them. However I have a
tool that lets me capture the image
directly in Geos as a GeoPaint image.
Computer Eyes as controls for setting
the image capture. While VideoByte II
does, they are inset and not really
recommended for user adjustment. Now
this one has some advantages over
Computer Eyes. Mainly the ability to
add some colour right off the bat and
editing on screen. The other has the
nice fact that the image you capture
is saved as a 40 block Koala image.
Which with certain tools can be
converted to other art programme
forms. Where you can use the different
features for your editing.

 Another thing that we have been doing
for over 20 years is digital voice and
voice recognition. S.A.M. is a
programme that makes the C=talk. I
have it and a poor copy of the
documentation. Apparently you can
alter the voice to say words. Of
course you have to write the lines in
a more phonetic style. I found that
English spellings over American are a
help. With this one you can add speech
to your programmes. But if programming
isnt your desire. This one will read a
text file. A version of this that I
found on a disk is called
"MuskogeeSpeaks". No programming lines
are needed. Bugger reads any SEQ text
file. Then the application would say
the words out loud.

 Magic mouth and a couple others came
to me that I passed along to others.
One of these I had working a bit. A
cart with a little mike on it. You
could store your words. Alter them, or
type in words. I had it sounding like
a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica.
Almost had it sounding like an
oriental girl. That one also was keyed
to work with those Infocom text games.
Where after a little adjustment. All
you had to do was say the word and it
would do the action. Others existed
but I haven't seen them.

 Best on the market in my opinion is
the Covox Voice Master. I have seen
three versions of this one. Most
people scored the cheaper one called
the Voice Master jr. Mine is the full
blown one. Here I can record my own
voice. Must do a little programming to
make it play back. As well as alter
the time and the pitch. Thankfully the
documents are a real help. There is a
way to have it recognise your specific
voice. Haven't played with that or
with the music part. Here you humm a
tune and it will record it. Then you
can play with the tune perfecting it
for playback as a song.

 Because the C=64 uses the same video
theme signal of a TV. Did you know
that you can video tape your game play
etc? Can't say if you can do it on a
DVD. Don't have a DVD burner. Anyway
there are many, and I only have a
couple of them, programmes to actually
make personalised screens for your
video tapes. One of them will even do
animation. Basically you create it and
save the thing to disk. Then put the
tape in, set to record and then just
run that file and record it to the
tape. Did that for me mum a few times.
Since you can record on the tape. Well
someone came up with a programme
called "Moviemaker". Got a copy messed
with it a bit only. In short you work
out through the tools in the programme
to your movie. Save the separate files
to the disk(s). Then record them file
by file onto the tape as you would do
above. Never really sat down and
created the images for it, well there
is just so much time and way too many
things for the C= to learn in my
lifetime. <BG>

 A thing came out and became very
popular for a time. This thing was
then modified for other activities.
These are called either screen or note
writers. Later they were modified to
be more of an entry intro screen to
programmes people made. We will stick
with the first part. Some of these
programmes are simple and others are
mega complex. The short end is that
you write a letter to someone. Or a
series of them These are saved to
disk. The guy you send them to, just
pops the disk in his drive. Loads them
up and reads what you have written. A
disk letter thing. OK now add music
selections, font selections, different
screen dissolves as it moves from
"page" to "page". Couple that with
colours, flashings, animations, gfx
symbols and more. Well you can see how
this moved along. I sent letters this
way to my mother. Now I have a guy
that isn't wired to the internet, who
exchanges them with me.

 Did you know that there is a free
programme that will let you look at
either Black & White or colour jpeg
son a Commodore? Right a picture
format that was invented almost 2
decades after the computer. Couple of
guys made it and passed it out to the
C= world. We also have gif viewers.
GoDot out of Germany is now a free
Down Load and at this time still
actively supported by the author. Does
a mess of things that I don't
understand. Perhaps you recognise the
term "image processor"? Well I have
seen what it will do in that part but
Not how to do it. All I have done is,
well convert art files from one C= art
format to another. Along with
converting them to different Amiga,
Mac and DOS formats. OK and converting
the other platform formats to
something I can see. Not real great
with it I admit.

 So short on space that the
programming part must be in the next
part. Jamming this fast at you. We
have carts that will let you do screen
captures of what is on the screen at
the moment you press the button.
Letting you save it as different art
forms. Where you can play with them
later. I cheat and use this to see
ways of colouring and 3D stuff. We
have a cart that will play the music
in stereo for you. A tool that will
write the music in 6 voice stereo. We
have a lot of applications that will
produce many things on the commodoe.
I've spent all this time and disk
space going over less than a
fingernail of what there is for the
C=. You can see now there is more than
most people ever thought. You can get
these programmes or many of them old
and new ones off the web. They will be
in a .D64format mostly. How to bring
them to the C= from another platform
is not the scope of this series.
However it is possible with different
tools.