This is the first in what I hope will be a semi-regular series of reviews of various Mac products on the market. I intend to review at least one commercial offering and one public distribution (shareware, freeware, public domain) program in each issue; there will probably also be the “Bit Bucket Brigade” in each issue … my version of Siskel & Ebert's “Stinker of the Week.” The programs I review will usually be the latest and greatest (or worst) “neat thing” I've discovered recently, although I may go back in the archives now and again. Included with each review will be ordering information, where available. This is not to make any commitments on frequency or content; it is merely one user's opinion. See the end of any issue for credits, how to reach me, and other information.
Each review will include the application's icon, where available, a description of the software, and my own personal comments, kudos, and raspberries. I tend to be uncomfortable with the “scale-of-1-to-x” system, so I'll probably refrain from this.
•Commercial Game Feature of this issue
Anyone who has gone into an arcade recently will know about an interesting variation on a popular computer game. First there was breakout, a game involving a bouncing ball bouncing off of bricks, demolishing them in the process, and a user-controlled paddle desperately trying to keep the ball from “draining” down the open bottom of the playfield … sort of like the even earlier “Pong” with a weird variation. Arkanoid takes this and turns it into a space-age frenzy, complete with “goobers” getting in the way, indestructable and nearly-indestructable bricks, and falling power capsules that turn the “vaus” (the name of the ship that becomes your paddle) into such things as a laser cannon or an extended paddle, or break up the ball, allow you to catch the ball, and several other interesting things. If this weren't enough, there's a “pause game” feature, a panic key (which brings up a single-screen “text editor” that does pretty much nothing), and a framing sequence that definitely makes one think of an arcade game (including reference to adding additional coins to continue).
The game claims to be the first “true” adaptation of an arcade game to a home computer. I'd have to agree. Although it does lose something with a black-and-white screen, it's still easy enough (or difficult enough, depending on your tendencies with breakout-type games) to play. The sound faithfully reproduces the sounds from the arcade game. When the game is paused (done by pressing the space bar), the menu bar is available, from which the “About Arkanoid” selection will give you complete help on the game. Curiously enough, the help screens mention a “game file,” giving its icon; there is currently no save game option, however. The game is completely mouse-driven, except for a few special keys for turning off the sound, the panic (or “boss”) key, quit, and forcing the ball to minimum speed.
This game is a definite “go for it” purchase. I found it in the MacWarehouse catalog for $22.
•Public Distribution Game of this issue
This could also be called my “addiction.” Scarab of RA is a maze game with a few twists (no pun intended). The game has the player serving as an intrepid adventurer in the fashion of such greats as Mississippi Smith, searching the Great Pyramid for the three artifacts of RA: a staff, a Pharaoh-ish crown, and a cursed scarab. Each level is a maze containing various items, including a key (the only way to move down to the next, larger, level), food (adventuring DOES make one hungry), gold (good for depositing), first aid kits (some things can HURT), snake bite cure, and other odds and ends. You’re not alone, though; with you in the pyramid are monkeys that love playing with the stuff you’re holding, cobras, and lionesses. Then there’s the guardian of the scarab (remember, it’s cursed). Get to the door and move on; fair warning, though, don’t leave until you’re good and ready, because there’s only one keyhole on a door … no going back! Find all three artifacts and you’re free to leave; be careful, though, because if you miss it upstairs, you’re stuck in there forever. Don’t panic, though; you can make a map as you go along (or, rather, the program does it for you!) to make sure you’ve thoroughly scoured a level.
While this game doesn’t feature real animation (the monkey doesn’t swat at you or anything; you’re just told that he did), nor is it “real-time” (things only happen after YOU do something), the graphics are still excellent (lionesses are cute when they’re asleep) and the game is truly addicting. Along the way you gain “prestige points,” which guarantees you a certain status when you leave, anything from a humble student of archeology through an author of popular books, up to being a legend in your own time.
Version 1.2 has a few bugs: don’t try seeing the high scores list if you’re using MultiFinder (indeed, it’s better to not be running MultiFinder when playing, as game restoration doesn’t work most of the time in this case), and there’s a “full fast” mode you somehow get into where you NEVER get hungry again (quite handy). The author tells me, however, that version 1.3 is available to registered users; this revision fixes all known bugs.
Scarab of RA is distributed with Jasmine drives nowadays, in their shareware folder. It should also be available through the normal channels (BBS’s, CIS, GEnie, etc.).
•System Utility of this issue
For those of us fortunate enough to have more than 1 meg of RAM (a miraculous occurrence nowadays), MultiFinder can become a great boon to Mac using. There are times, though, when you just don’t want the overhead; some games don’t like MultiFinder, some programs prefer more memory (such as HyperCard or a tape backup system), or you don’t want to have to worry about the DA Handler for bringing up your favorite desk accessory text editor. The solution is typically to change the “Set Startup…” settings; problem is, you have to boot up, change it, reboot, etc. You could set it for MultiFinder, but hold down the command key to force it into the Finder; the problem there, though, is that some INITs (those little things that clutter your startup desktop with icons, subtly changing the way your system runs) are disabled with the command key is pressed.
Take Off provides a solution to this problem. Set it up as a startup application, and you’re given a dialog box with various buttons, allowing you to select either Finder or MultiFinder, and what set of applications to run after Take Off does its thing. Better still, you can use Take Off while running under Finder to bring up MultiFinder without rebooting (unfortunately the reverse isn’t true).
Take Off v3.0 costs $3.50 + a blank disk, or $5; this gets you a version usable forever. For a limited-use version, which lets you use it for 100 times, is available via BBS’s, etc.
•Public Distribution Utility of this issue
Naturally I want to include the utility that makes RevUser possible (please, don't complain to him about it!). Before it was Take A Letter, an application that would take form letters (or templates with a built-in font) and text files produced elsewhere (your favorite word processor or text editor), and create stand-alone applications that would serve as a text viewer on the target system, without the end user having to worry about which application he/she needed to read the thing. Later on, Mark Wall took this concept a few steps further with DOCter.
DOCter incorporates many of Take A Letter's features, along with a text editor that can also display pictures, into one application. The application has its own font and size menus, eliminating the need for separate form letters. Up to 10 pictures can be pasted in (as you can see with the icons in this one). DOCter may save in purely text format, or create the application; there's even an option to include the font used, in case it's not a standard font. The created application has printing capability, plus a selection to extract the text to another file.
Since you're viewing an application created by DOCter, why not pull down the Apple menu and check out the About box; it has details on how to get the latest and greatest version.
•Flame Of The Week
This will hopefully be a rare addition to RevUser. This section will serve as a soapbox for gripes in the Mac user community. This issue's topic deals with file formats.
In the beginning there was MacPaint and MacWrite. These applications came with every Mac, and gave the user the ability to create text and graphics. As development tools became more plentiful, other programs appeared. Today there are hundreds of programs competing against each other, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, each with their own special file formats. Now, for a speciality application, such as a game, that's the way it's gotta be. Most graphics programs have the ability to save in their own format, or “export” to MacPaint or PICT format. Most word processors do the same, except they can export to text or MacWrite. Usually the private formats have certain advantages, in that they can take into consideration all the extra features that cannot be covered in these 4 standard formats. The problem with that, however, is that only people with the particular application can read them.
There are a few solutions to this. You're looking at one of them. Mark Wall's DOCter takes care of the problem by making the file an application that will get you where you need to be; Ray Lau's Auto UnStuffIt and Don Gilbert's ArcPop are also examples of this. A second solution is the Glue format. Glue (or its successor, SuperGlue) is a product that intercepts the printed image and saves it off in its own format; regardless of what application originally created the image, anyone with the Glue Viewer can read it. Solutions, Inc., the creator of Glue and SuperGlue, have recently allowed the viewer DA to be distributed publicly. The third alternative is to simply limit mass-distribution files to one of the standard formats.
When one looks at what's available from BBS's and information services such as CompuServe and GEnie, however, it becomes obvious that people don't take this to heart. How many public distribution programs have gone un-downloaded by Mac users who don't own MicroSoft Word? Quite a few, considering only the number of public distribution programs come with documentation in Word format. There is hope down the road, though; more and more word processors are adding capabilities to read other formats. Take MacWrite II, for example; it claims to be able to import Word, Write, Works, MacWrite (5.0, and hopefully earlier), and WriteNow formats. Vantage, a commercial text-editing DA that started life as the shareware McSink, has similar, but (by necessity) more limited, capabilities.
If you're a shareware author, or just someone who distributes information to many others, consider the other fellow or lady. If you MUST use features of your own pet program, also provide a version that most of the people on the street can also enjoy.
Next week's flame: How “soft” IS Bill Gates' head?
•Information
This issue of RevUser was created using DOCter 2.35, reviewed in RevUser #1. Icons were obtained using the standard screen save FKEY, and extracted for pasting using DeskPaint by Zedcor. The hardware used was a Mac SE with 4 MB RAM, 2 floppies, and a CMS 60MB external hard drive.
The author is NOT in the business of distributing software; back issues of RevUser are usually available from BBS's or any of the systems on which the author has an account.
