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eca00070ff23fe008033300fd5b
^2<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<:O:>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
^1T H E W O R L D O F C O M M O D O R E S H O W
^114th - 17th NOVEMBER 1991.
^1A Special Report from Mike Tilley.
^2<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<:O:>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
^4 Mike Tilley visited the show on Friday 15th November. As we
^4couldn't get there to see things for ourselves, we asked him to see
^4what was on offer, especially things that would be of interest to
^4Amos users.
^6 Not only did he agree to that, but he found out that Francois Lionet
^6would be at the Europress stand. So armed with a portable tape
^6recorder, he set out to interview Francois. What follows is an
^6edited transcript of the tape Mike sent to us, it was very
^6 interesting to listen to Francois talk about Amos, and Mike asked
^6plenty of questions!
^4 Thanks must go to Mike for comming up with this fantastic `scoop'
^4interview, and to Francois for finding 40 minutes in a very busy day
^4to talk to him.
^2%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
^2Francois:^5 I've never seen Totally Amos,..
^6Mike: ^5It's very new, you may have heard of the couple who produce
^5the magazine - Len & Anne Tucker - they produce quite a lot of the
^5Deja Vu licenseware. The 1st issue has only just come out, this
^5interview is for the 2nd issue
^2Francois: ^5Can you ask them to send it to me?
^4(No sooner said than done!! A.)
^6Mike: ^5I've got a couple of questions from Anne & Len to ask you.
^5They would like to thank you for the change that Amos has made to
^5their lives, and hope to meet you some day. They weren't able to
^5come to the show,
^2Francois: ^5I'd like to meet them...
^6Mike: ^5I'd like to say the same, your program/system has meant so
^5much to me & 1000's of other people who otherwise couldn't produce a
^5solitary thing . It's an incredible system that has changed a lot of
^5people's lives.
^2Francois: ^5It's what I wanted when I first came on the Amiga. I was
^5so lost & I wanted a good language I was so lost It was impossible...
^5I hate `c' and assembly language when you come on this machine is so
^6Mike: ^5Tell me, how does a vet become a computer programmer?
^2Francois: ^5By buying a computer when you start training to be a vet!
^5With this type of study, you have obligatory classes in the morning
^5and in the afternoon you can come or not. So guess where I was? I
^5was in front of my computer every afternon! The first computer I
^5bought was a very odd one a 502, then I bought an Oric
^6Mike: ^5I remember the Oric
^2Francois: ^5I wrote my first game on it with a title, a high score
^5table, main game, it was good and worth selling it I made money with
^5it. I thought Then I made a few games on the Oric then I bought a
^5Commodore 64 Can you recall Chicken Chase? That was me!!! There
^5 were a few others not so well known
^2Mike: ^5Can you tell me, other than doing Amos itself, do you prefer
^5doing utilities to Games programming?
^6Francois: ^5I was a game programmer, I did Chicken chase and other
^5games called Rank Xerox on the Atari ST I did Captain Blood on the
^5Commodore 64 and on PC. I was basically a games programmer before
^5making Stos so I knew what was needed
^6Mike: ^5Did you create Stos because you wanted an engine to use for
^5your own programming?
^2Francois: ^5No, I used to work with jawx they let me meet somebody who
^5wanted to do a new Dos on the Atari ST because we did not like Gem
^5when it was on ST. We decided to do a new Dos just like MS dos, but
^5on the ST. I would do a basic I decided to do fancy instructions for
^5sprites and animation , sprites and all the things that did not exist
^5in GFA
^6Mike: ^5Did it gradually evolve from there start small and get bigger?
^2Francois: ^5First there was Stos 4 years ago, which went quite well,
^5then we decided to do an Amiga version and then came the big
^5question, should we do exactly the same or change it to fit the
^5machine? We decided to write the entire program for the machine
^5otherwise it would be a bad product .
^5 The way I work, I cann't send an exact spec out, beforehand that's
^5the main problem with me! And Richard is always saying that to me!
^5I can tell you that I want sprites.... I can say that it'll be good,
^5but that's about it! The ideas come when I program as with a lot of
^5people.
^6Mike: ^5Did ypour interest in computers begin simply by buying a
^5computer? Did you just want to play games?
^2Francois: ^5I had a TI 57 at first - do you remember Texas
^5Instruments? with the 49 steps of programming it was fun and I
^5wanted to go further . I had a very rare computer in France, only
^5about 10 people had it so I had no contacts. So first I made some
^5games in basic and I saw that it didn't go fast enough so I tried to
^5to assemble by hand doing the code and looking through a book. Then
^5I did a small monitor in basic to assemble for myself, and did a few
^5games later, I did a nice Defender. It was fast and furious.
^6Mike: ^5Did you ever study programming formally?
^2Francois:^5 No, never.
^6Mike: ^5Did you learn Assembler machine code by yourself?
^2Francois:^5 Yes with books.
^6Mike: ^5I remember a long time ago a friend and I were doing a program
^5in Assembler and it had one little bug and we were looking through
^5reams of paper its a nightmare, but you obviously love it.
^5Is there any aspect of programming that interests you more than any
^5other? are you more interested in sounds and graphics or is your
^5interest across the board?
^2Francois: ^5I'm more interested in ease of use I like to design
^5interface and also animation and the speed it goes very interested in
^5all the new possibilities in the CDTV The way you can put big samples
^5etc in it.
^6Mike: ^5Do you think that there will be a CDTV version of Amos?
^2Francois: ^5It's what we're going to do in the next month. We are
^5going to do a special extension to Amos to get the most out of the
^5CDTV. You will be able to play audio tracks and do a really good CD
^5product on Amos.
^6Mike: ^5Your Amos goes from strength to strength....
^2Francois: ^5Yes. You've heard of Easy Amos?
^6Mike: ^5Yes I've seen it advertised, as an Amos user, is it worth
^5getting Easy Amos. Do you use it with Amos, or is it a stand alone
^5product?
^2Francois: ^5It is a stand alone program, we have removed all the
^5difficult instructions such as sprites. The instruction set has now
^5been cut to 300 commands. There is also a monitor which is called
^5the Tutor in which you have a reduced window on your program, you can
^5step through your program with break points to help on evaluating
^5expressions. I've also done new graphics and put them into the
^5editor, so the interface is much better. So we will release Easy
^5Amos, and immediately after, Amos 2 which will grab parts of the Easy
^5Amos layout, the requestor etc and some other new things.
^6Mike: ^5Was the Commodore 64 the first Commodore machine you worked
^5on? You didn't go the way of the Vic 20?
^2Francois: ^5I played with it a bit, but what I want is a PET, if you
^5know of anyone who is selling a PET then I want to buy it!
^4(Can anyone help Francois find a PET computer? It's an early
^4Commodore machine Francois would like for his collection. If so
^4Please write to us at T.A.!)
^6Mike: ^5What do you think of the games' market in general, not just
^5Amos games?
^2Francois: ^5The French games market is crazy - it's not a good one.
^5Not so many people have computers, and there a people pirating a lot.
^5The distribution is strangely done, there are a few big companies,
^5but programs are not well distributed. The English market is much
^5more professional, they are three years ahead of the rest of the
^5world. You compare AMIGA FORMAT which sells about 100,000 copies
^5with the most popular French magazine which sells 15,000 copies.
^4 Mike tells Francois that he thought that the French market would have
^4been bigger as the French are such creative people and after all, it
^4is the home of Amos!
^6Mike: ^5Did you think that so many different things would be done with
^5Amos when he was developing the system.
^2Francois: ^5No, not at all. It was a dream selling 40,000 copies. I
^5just did my best. When I was doing STOS, I used to have my small
^5calculator an say that if I sell so many I will win (earn) so much.
^5But then I didn't win so much. So I stopped doing multiplications
^5and I just wait and see.
^6Mike: ^5Did you start programming Amos before you met Richard Vanner?
^2Francois: ^5I did STOS in France with JAWX, and JAWX found a French
^5editor, but the package was not good or well distributed and it
^5didn't have a name. But it was very professional with the Dos and
^5very friendly with the Basic. It had no aim at all which is why we
^5only sold 50 - 100. JAWX went to England and found Europress
^5Software, who were Mandarin then, and that's when we proposed STOS to
^5them.They said to get rid of the Dos and keep the Basic which pushed
^5me to write some utilities. Then the program was redesigned and put
^5into a very colourful box to be on the games shelf.
^6Mike: ^5How long ago was this?
^2Francois: ^5About three to four years ago.
^6Mike: ^5Most programmers try to keep their skills a secret because
^5they don't want just anyone comming along and using their skills to
^5make a Mega program. Did you ever feel that you wanted to keep the
^5Amos system to yourself?
^2Francois: ^5I never keep any routines for myself - I think that people
^5who do that are a bit rediculous. If you were able to write this
^5routine six months ago, then you are six months ahead of the guy who
^5is wanting to use it, so you will always be in front of him. It
^5makes people dislike you and not want to be with you after. So just
^5be fair with the people and it will come back to you.
^4Mike thanks Francois for being so willing to share his knowledge with
^4everyone, and says of the freedom to program now enjoyed by so many
^4people.
^6Mike: ^5What do you think of Syntex's Demos? Do you know them?
^2Francois: ^5Yes, I know Syntex, at least by phone as they live in
^5Corsica. They are amazing, I don't know how they can do this!
^6Mike:^5 I think that the most amazing thing about Amos is the way that
^5extra bits can be bolted on to the system. What do you think of
^5Aaron Fothergill's Tome extension?
^2Francois:^5 It's really great.
^6Mike: ^5Do you have plans to write any extensions yourself for Amos?
^2Francois:^5 First there will be Amos 2, then a music extension and
^5screen dumps, and the CDTV extension.
^6Mike: ^5But no special extension such as the 3-D Editor.
^2Francois:^5 No, I didn't have any input into 3-D, but I did over see
^5the project.
^4Mike tells Francois that he thinks that being able to move a 3-D
^4object around in Amos is fantastic as it takes a lot of mathematical
^4functions.
^6Mike:^5 Have you got a favourite game that's been programmed in Amos?
^2Francois:^5 Ooh... that's a bad question! But I've been working on a
^5game for Easy Amos.
^6Mike: ^5 Have you completed Easy Amos?
^2Francois:^5 Not absolutely finished, but we're at the very end. It
^5will be released early next year.
^6Mike:^5 If you program in Easy Amos, can you still use the compiler?
^2Francois: ^5 No, the polocy with Easy Amos is that it will be about
^5half the price of Amos, and in Easy Amos you will get a voucher so
^5that you'll get Amos cheaper. You'll get both for about the price of
^5Amos.
^6Mike:^5 So it's a good introduction to programming with Amos?
^2Francois:^5 Yes we want to convince people who say that Amos is too
^5confusing. You will be able to compile a program written in Easy
^5Amos when you have the compiler and Amos itself. You cannot call the
^5compiler from inside Easy Amos, but you can use your Easy Amos
^5program inside Amos and so compile it from there.
^6Mike:^5 Now a question from Len and Anne. How is the PC version of
^5Amos comming along?
^2Francois:^5 We are designing the product now, and work will be
^5starting next year.It's going to be nice! I think that it will be
^5compiler only because on the PC market it is essential. It is going
^5to be a boring program because of all the graphic and sound
^5differences, but I will be producing this with another guy.
^4 Here Francois starts to show Easy Amos to Mike. We are lucky enough
^4to have seen a preview copy, so it is easier for us to imagine what
^4is going on. To help everyone else, we have included a review of
^4Easy Amos in the Rewiew section of this issue.
^7 The following are snippets of Francois's commentary as he put Easy
^7Amos through its paces.
^2...The requestor is really attractive, it is different, it remembers
^2the path, I don't have to do Set Dir anymore.
^2...You have an online Help. You just put the cursor where you want,
^2and press Help. You then have the Help window.
^2...Now the bob Editor, I did the graphics....You have your bank here,
^2they all fit in so you can test the Animation. You can change the
^2colour of the background, so...
^2...The Editor looks great... This is going into Amos 2 with more
^2functions. The Animation Screen will have more functions. There is
^2a menu to enable you to select what you want. From the Editor you
^2can grab a bob, put it in and edit it. You can set the hot spot in
^2defined places.
^4 Francois here showed how a background can be grabbed and a bob put
^4onto this background whilst still in the Editor.
^2 You can change the way your window is displayed. ...You can make a
^2bob as big as you like, 320 x 200 if you want - and it's so easy! If
^2you want to edit the list, you click on the hand.
^4 Mike says that the Bob Editor is Amos's answer to Dpaint!
^2...Another utility with Easy Amos is Amos Disk. This is a disk
^2utility rather like Diskmaster, but in Amos - it will be in Amos 2.
^2Well, you can copy,delete, it will tell you what sort of file you are
^2looking at, `this is an IFF picture' This is an Amos program' etc.
^2...You can request anything from here, you can play a music
^2file...set the frequency... play samples... you can pull each one
^2out and examine it or read Ascii files with the Ascii reader...format
^2a disk... ...This was a facility that was lacking in Amos
^2 Let's show you the tutor... it's a blockbuster!
^2...You've got a window on your program, you've got the output of your
^2screen. There's a window telling you what the next instruction is
^2going to be. You see the program is taking place in the small
^2window.
^4 Unfortunately, as Francois starts to explain the tutor, someone
^4whisked him away......
^4 ......he did give us nearly 45 minutes out of a very busy day, so we
^4can't grumble!
^5 Many Many thanks to Mike Tilley and his tape recorder!
^4...and of course to Francois for all he has given us with Amos!
^2%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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