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SitComm Magazine
------------------
Issue Number 1 - May 1990
* Eye Witness Report from CeBit '90
* Comments from STeVeN and a Hacker
* Reviews of Quartet and Waterloo
* Guide to getting Public Domain Software and a start to
Comms.
* Smiley Faces from Usenet
* Interview with The Assembly Line
* You want to be a SysOp?
* The Disk Version contains a load of programs to complement
the above.
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
Editors: Matthew Miles, Lucien Oppler, Steven Green
Disk Editor: Laurence McDonald
Contributions : Marcion, Frank Dunn
---------------------------------
Disk Magazines can be obtained directly from us, by writing to:
10 Oak Farm Gardens
Headcorn
Ashford
Kent
TN27 9TU
Enclosing a cheque or postal order for £1.50 Made out to Matthew
Miles. This pays for postage and the disk. No Profit.
Subscriptions will be on offer next issue.
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
Editorial
This Months Editor is Matthew Miles
Hacking, once again, is showing it's face again.
Marcion writes that he has some form of political right to be
able to Hack, to make sure that he does indeed live in a
democracy.
New Computer Express writes on the arrest of thirteen people and
we hear that BT is coming down hard on phone phreakers, and on a
side line F.A.S.T is getting very tough on pirates.
All i seem to hear is complaints of this, why? You might argue
that you enjoy the challenge of hacking another computer, and
that you don't to any harm - anyhow i'm doing everyone a favour
by making sure that we live in a democracy and that it's a great
big mainframe so what difference does it make ? Has it ever
occured to you that you (as the hacker) are actually, as a group,
destroying the BB community?
About a month ago someone hacked a bulletin board in Scotland,
managing to wipe it's message base. The Hacker did not gain
anything by doing this, in fact it would of cost him a lot of
money. Full details of this this will be available next issue.
The very same people who are the hackers are the vandals of the
bulletin boards, by giving them a hackers closed user group, you
are giving them ways of hacking another bulletin board. I used to
run a Hacker area on my board, I closed it because people were
trying to hack into my Bulletin Board, and found that the people
who were hacking were not always just reading information; they
might try to change it or destroy it.
The frightening thing is that the method that the hacker used on
the board in Scotland can be used on almost every type of
bulletin board software.
The Bulletin Board world is full of deceipt and fraud. I make it
clear on my bulletin board that I must have a users real name and
address, but many users refuse to obey this. Why ? One can only
assume that they are interested in something for which they would
not like to be identified, I now have no areas on my board to
hide; so why?
Too many people are intersted in breaking the system; rather than
flowing along it, and anything that is happening in parliament
which could aid the stopping of these people is of great benefit.
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
The ST Abroad
-------------Report by Lucien Oppler
CeBIT '90
--------- The week beginning the 21st March saw the staging of the
second 'CeBIT' exhibition - the largest exhibition of computers,
computerised industrial machines and software products in the world.
The setting was just outside Hannover, in the Northern part of Germany.
Twenty three halls - each the size of Earl's Court, twenty two
restaurants, a large hotel and a heliport go to make up the grounds for
the event and the fields around it afford parking accommodation for two
thousand cars.
This was one exhibition Atari could not afford to miss being the
most important showcase for products of the year (whilst they have
dropped support for specific Atari exhibitions in the UK). Atari and
its entourage of supporting firms made their appearance in Hall 7, one
of the larger halls. Unfortunately, for all the grandness of the event,
Atari had little more to offer in the way of new products than it has
in recent shows in the UK - namely more detailed information on its
'soon-to-be-released' machines: the Atari TT and its Abaq Transputer
Workstation (the ATW).
Of the latter two, numerous were on show displaying their powerful
number-crunching abilities and their zippy GEM interfaces. Three TT's
were on show. For those who have forgotten Atari's specifications for
these, here is a short review:-
Processor: Motorola 68030 CPU with clock speed of 16Mhz.
Graphical Capabilities: 1024 x 1024 monochrome.
1024 x 748 16 colours.
Other combinations with more colours from
pallet of 16 million.
Standard ST resolutions.
Operating System: TOS 040 (extended version of TOS 1.4)
UNIX system V OS provided as standard.
Optional MS-DOS emulation running at 12Mhz.
Hardware: 40 meg hard drive.
Optional multi-sync monitor.
The price for the above set-up less the monitor is expected to be in
the region of £1500. The monitor will add another £600 or so to this
figure. Regarding release dates, Atari were obscure. The lady I asked
said that release on the continent was 'imminent'. When asked for UK
release dates, she made as if she did not understand. However, there
could well be some truth in the TT's 'imminent' arrival. Next month
sees the first magazine to be published here in Germany dedicated to
the TT and the products that are available for it and rumour has it
here that this is partly funded by Atari themselves. At present
however, it seems that only developers have been lucky enough to lay
their hands on TTs.
The compatibility of the TT and the ATW with present ST products
was being pushed strongly at the show. Calumus, the professional
Desktop Publishing package was being displayed on both the machines and
showing off their machines' superiority in speed over the ST. The ATW
looked extremely impressive if a little on the large size, its box
being about one and a half times the size of early IBM XTs. However,
this size seems to be necessary if Atari's claim of the ATW being able
to address 64 megabytes of RAM is to hold true. Also space for the
large number of transputers it can take also seems necessary. I had
doubted that the ATW existed at all and was not just the realization of
Atari's wish to move into the more serious, powerful and expensive end
of the computer market. Once again, release dates were a little sketchy
with the answer of 'all over Europe by the end of the year'. Once
again, developers have them at present.
On the ST front, the main causes for interest certainly didn't
come from Atari who were trying to interest the German ST-using public,
of which over 85% are monochrome users, that the new 4096 colour
palletted STE was a good thing. By far the most of interest came from
the German firms which Atari housed under its stand's roof. Alot of
extremely interesting software was being displayed by 'Markt &
Technik', Germany's largest book and software publisher/distributor.
Amongst the translated English products it was showing (Hisoft software
mainly), it displayed a number of fresh new German titles - a new DTP
package sporting the features of Calamus at a fraction of the cost,
vast amounts of new MIDI software and a veritable downpour of new ST-
related books (from Data Becker for whom they distribute).
GFA Technik were there showing their four new products: a fast
assembler, a GFA Basic to C converter, version 3.5 of GFA Basic
sporting new Algebraic and Combinatory abilities as well as a better
built-in editor, and finally GFA-Strukto described as (translated from
German) 'a dialog-orientated structured programming and instruction
system'. Numerous forms of networking were also on show, both the MIDI
and DMA kind. One firm was showing off one of the latter together with
STs which they had somehow upgraded to run at 2.5 times the speed with
the aid of a 'power-box'. They were guarded when I asked what was
inside this box, however, as they were not intending to release it
commercially for a while. The network itself literally flew though.
And finally, on the communications front, a more interesting and
new concept - a high-speed modem (offering V21/22/22bis/32 with
V42/42bis and MNP 5) with a Motorola 68010 CPU, 512k of RAM and 256k of
ROM...(!). Hayes compatible of course, it has built-in advanced comms
software and comes in a MegaST-sized case. This is the entry-level
model, other models having higher amounts of RAM (up to 16 megabytes)
and built-in hard disks. All models have a 1.44Mb 3.5" drive and the
option to install FAXing abilities in the machine. Could this be the
Sysops' machine of the future? No price as yet (but don't expect it to
be low!) - Look out for it under the name of the Fury 9600 TI.
And that was it really! It must have been one of the few shows
where the surroundings were more interesting than the new ST products!
Beside this, there were numerous 'PD-pushers' who seemed to be making a
VAST amount of money from the notoriously enthusiastic German PD-using
populace.
The General ST Scene in Germany
-------------------------------
To get an idea of what the German ST scene is like, it is
necessary to give you an idea of what the Germans like to do with, and
to, their computers. The Germans like power and speed in LARGE doses.
When the ST came out, its 8Mhz offering at the price it was offered was
was extremely attractive to the Germans and a large ST userbase sprang
up. Nowadays, however, 8Mhz is about the lower limit that any serious
computer user can tolerate and so the market changed to one of
'serious' upgrade. This fits in very nicely with the Germans love of
customizing their computers. Many of the products that are for sale
here have sprung up from clever individuals attempts at customizing
their computers in the way of upgrading speed and performance. Upgrades
for every aspect of computing abound here. There are upgrades for the
ST's graphics capabilities, upgrades for its sound capabilities and, of
course, its raw processing power. There seem to be a large number of
processor caches here and some are even sold in department store-type
shops (yes! Just like Woolworth's I hear you say!). For those of you
not acquainted with processor caches, these are extremely fast RAM
chips (about 40 ns or so) which store the last few instructions sent to
the processor. Since most programs operate on loops, this means that
data is sent to the processor much quicker when repetitive data is
needed again (as compared to the 100-120ns RAMs that most computers
use).
Also very popular are customized keyboards with completely PC-like
replacements for both the ST and the Mega ST. However, its when you
realize that over 85% of ST users in Germany have monochrome systems
and its when you see the speed and size of hard drives for the ST in
Germany that you really realise that the ST here means BUSINESS and
SERIOUS work... none of this game-playing rubbish for the Germans!
There are a huge numbers of firms here making hard drives for the ST.
In the UK, it boils down to 4 or 5 competitors (ie. Third Coast, Power
Computing, Frontier, Atari with Triangle more or less out of the
running these days). Here there must be maybe 15-20 with products
ranging from 5ms access time, 800k per second transfer rate type
systems to the new 'Gigafile', an optical Write-Once-Read-Many times
laser-disk system with a 600 Mb capacity. These, however, might well
take time to hit the UK with the exchange rate being so appalling and
these type of products being VERY prone to exchange rate fluctuations.
The ST is big here but not as big as I had thought. The games
market is dominated by the Amiga, the ST games scene being virtually
non-existent. This is reflected in all four of the regular ST magazines
here which seem to be made up solely of serious-product reviews,
serious-product advertising, and programming courses. Only one magazine
here comes with a disk, its name 'ST-Plus'. The whole magazine (and the
disk which accompanies it and only works in monochrome) is dedicated to
programming methods, help and tips.
With the ST being put almost totally to serious use, the public
domain flourishes. It is well-known that the Public Domain is not noted
for its quality games but its quality applications and utilities
packages in the ST scene. With so many programmers around to create the
demand for such things and, indeed, to write such things, the PD scene
here is brimming with exceedingly good quality software for serious
applications: MIDI programs, utilities, PD CAD and DTP packages all in
good quantity and quality mean that PD libraries here thrive and are
vast in number. Once again, where there are maybe 6-8 good public
domain libraries in the UK, here there might be over 40 each boasting
libraries of over 2000 disks. Whatsmore, people here DO send money to
deserving shareware writers and there are many who make a living from
such things (!).
One would think that with all the incredible PD software here and
the interest of programmers to share their work and discuss programming
that Atari BBS would flourish. However, this is not the case. The few
that do exist seem far behind in complexity and technology, most of
them being run on about 10 megs with modems that just make it to V22.
Most of these also cater for specialized areas such as MIDI or
computer-aided design. Perhaps the Germans think that they should leave
the shareware- and pd-pushing aspects to the PD libraries who do such a
good job... who knows.
Although it may seem that Germany is far advanced to us in the UK
in many aspects of the STs' uses, the price of hardware here is
extremely high, even after taking into account the present exchange
rates. If you want to buy cheap, it is best to look to the UK or the
USA ST markets. The lack of ST games players must also be hurting the
Atari market. It is the games players who by far make up the gross ST
population in the UK and are themselves ensuring the emergence of more
software for serious users and well as leisure users. Computer users
often start off as games-players and develop a more serious interest in
their computers when they learn more about it. Hence I would say that
the German market is slowly killing itself and unless something new
turns up and things take a radical change, the ST here has a limited
future. Prices in the PC market here, in the meantime, are already
endeavouring to ensure that the ST is a shortlived phenomenon, sad as
it may seem.
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
Waterloo sunset
As the French tourist once queried why do you British name
your railway stations after defeats? The Iron Duke himself made
Waterloo out to be "...the most desperate business I ever was
in." Once having played Peter Turcans' second innovative wargame
the reviewer can only agree, its a knife contest playing either
side in a battle that's much smaller in area and units than Borodino
(ST World 37). A quick recap though on why this system is the best thing
yet for computer wargames.
At the speed of horse?
Before the advent of radio the main way to command an army in
the field was by rider. Commands and information back from the front
went as fast as the rider (about 5 1/2 miles per hour). By the time
the order to attack had arrived the corps in question might be in
full retreat. The other limitation was that nobody could see further
than the next ridge - no all seeing AWACS here. So not only the
commander couldn't react to the event in real time they often didn't
see it happening either. The vast majority of wargames before Turcan
have simply ignored these factors and have presented the gamer with
god like powers and senses.
Its all in the AI
The Turcan system gives you a realistic static perspective
view of the battlefield from the point of view of the commander
and limited in range by the Eye Ball Mk1 - usually up to 2 miles
for a land battle. Combined with this is an excellent parsing
module that allows the entry of English commands that are relayed
to the corps commander by rider and are thus subject to fortune
on the battlefield - they get lost, killed or confused.
Driving the whole is the artificial intelligence (AI) at the four
levels of command; Commander in Chief, corps, division and
regiment - the gamer provides the played sides commanders AI. The
actual mechanics and sequence of play are derived from boardgame
rules. All of this has been attempted before but never as a whole
nor with the historical rigour that Peter Turcan displays.
War and Peace
Waterloo was the climatic battle of the Napoleonic era, a
period of war and some peace that ran from 1799 to 1815, bringing
together for the first and last time the two geniuses of the
battlefield - Emperor Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington. In the
previous four days the French army had fought two battles and
thus succeeded in driving the Allied and Prussian armies apart.
Now on the 18th June time was the essence for Napoleon to
defeat Wellington before an AI Blucher at the head of the
Prussian Army intervened from the east.
Hougomont or bust
The game starts at 11 am as the previous night had seen a
deluge of rain that made for a muddy field of battle that made
the siting of the critical artillery prolonged. The battle itself
takes place in an area about 3 square miles with a shallow valley
separating the armies. There are 3 garrisoned outposts in front
of the Allied army, Hougomont - superbly detailed in the game, La
Haie Saint with its sand-pit and La Haie. They are the key to the
Allied defence. The majority of the Allied army lies either on
the ridge or behind it out of artillery line of fire. Arrayed
against this are Reille's corp to the west and D'Erlon's to the
east each being supported by a cavalry corps whilst in the centre
rear is Lobau's corp and the Guard. There is no leeway in
reserves if you make a fatal error in your orders to the corps as
to when and where they attack. As once an attack goes in you
learn that it takes hours for a corps to pull back and reform.
And without formed reserves your going nowhere fast. You can tell
how well formed the corps divisions are as you can see them
either in neatly turned out lines and columns or scattered about
with some regiments heading rapidly for the rear.
Point and panic
By using the hand pointer ( changed from the telescope
cursor in Borodino ) and clicking on a unit their status appears
in the text window. This is effective up to the horizon, the only
way to check further is to move the HQ which you can do once ever
15 minute game turn. Just don't do what I did in the first game
and move the HQ into the path of a routing unit. All of a
sudden Napoleon found that the HQ was disorganized and wasn't
able to issue any orders for 2 turns or move the HQ. I sat there
like a lemon forced to look south whilst the battle raged on to
the north and broken regiments fled past the HQ. By which time
the first of Bluchers corps had started to arrive on the eastern
flank.
La Garde recule!
Waterloo is an easier game to get into than Borodino, its
size and scope make for a quicker more comprehensible game. I
could image actually playing this by mail - one option the game
gives. The corps commanders AI is quite believable, indeed you
curse Reille as he sends Jerome's division off on its own to
attack Hougomont. The victory points now increment thus
aiding you in noting how well or not your doing. Yet the graphics
are so realistic you can see by looking around locally just how
well its going. The manual is an improvement on Borodino's tho' I
couldn't find any note on the unit colours - I like to know if my
heavy cavalry are about to crash into British guards or Brunswick
militia. One final plea would be for an order retrieval module
so you can keep track of your sent orders. The game system
is excellent as it stands and can only improve as its developed
further - it has great potential.
Design: Dr. Peter Turcan.
Publisher: PSS/Mirrorsoft.
Price: £24.99.
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
Product: Quartet
Cost: 49.95 (UKP)
Publisher: Microdeal
Reviewed by STeVeN
Quartet allows you to create 4 channel music using sampled
instruments on an Atari ST, something previously only attainable
either by having an Amiga. For your money, you get a massive box
containing 3 single sided disks and a 67 page poor quality ring
bound manual and a lot of empty space. Not the best presented
program I've ever seen.
The Quartet package actually consists of three programs, the
music editor, a voice editor and a sample processor. It also
comes with a selection of samples for you to use, some demo songs
and some modules to let you use the music in your own programs.
The sample processor lets you take sound samples that have been
produced from any sound sampler and manipulate them into a form
readable by Quartet. This includes converting the sample between
Time and Frequency domains and shifting the frequency so that it
plays the correct note (instruments should be normalised to an
A). You may also apply low or high pass filters, loop the sound
for a sustained instrument and various other effects such as
anharmonic suppression and ramping (to avoid clicks when it
loops). My only complaints with this are that the conversion
between time and frequency can take quite a time (several
seconds) and you can only listen to the whole sample and not the
part in the zoom buffer, making it difficult to edit out sections
from a larger sample. However the software supplied with most
samplers will let you do this so it is not really a problem. I
have successfully processed many samples with this program taken
from the Amiga.
The voice editor simply allows you to make up a voice set by
loading in instruments created with the sample processor. You
may listen to the samples, set the playback frequency, insert or
delete samples.
The music editor is the main program that you use most of the
time. It has a GEM style user interface with pull down menus and
icons. The main part of the screen is taken up with a treble and
bass cleff. You simply click on the staves to add or replace
notes. Below the staves are icons representing note lengths
ranging from semi-quaver to dotted semi-breve. Below this are
some more icons for selecting things like tempo and which channel
you are editting. From the pull down menus you can select
instruments, load and save, and set the time signature. Other
functions such as slides and repeats are done using key-presses.
You may also input data from the MIDI port. I havn't tried this
yet so can not comment on it. There are also facilities to cut
and paste a block of data.
The editor although adequate for editting small sections of music
has many shortcomings. The worst being that you can only see one
channel at a time, selecting voice changes is a bit fiddly.
Editting is awkward since if you accidently click on top of an
existing note it is replaced with one of the current selected
length and you bar lines are all out of place. Moving to
different sections is also difficult since there is no ability to
include section marks and whenever you change channel you are
moved back to the start. However there is a menu option to move
to a specific bar line. It would have been better to have a
track structure similar to programs like Soundtracker, where you
could edit small sections and then paste them together to make a
complete song. The only way I've found to create long pieces of
music is to edit a section at a time and then tediously use the
paste buffer to add it to the end of the overall piece.
Sound output maybe either through the ST's monitor or through
the replay or replay professional cartridges (also available from
MicroDeal). You may select the playback frequency between 4 and
16 KHz. You get better quality with the higher frequencies. The
disadvantage being that a lot of processor time is used up. To
use quartet songs in your own programs there is program module
included which you simply load in using the Gemdos Pexec()
command and then tell it the addresses of your song and voice
set. Examples are provided in C, Basic and assembly language.
There are two versions provided, one is a safe version which
preserves all of the 68000's registers, whilst the other only
lets you use a few registers in your program, but lets you use
higher playback frequencies and uses up less processor time.
Overall, Quartet is a very good program, but let down a little by
its editting. However there are no other progams for sale that
will do what Quartet does and I hope the author will continue to
support it by adding new features. It should also not be too
long before there are some Public Domain utilities for Quartet to
allow conversion between other music formats. In fact I have
already written a program to convert from IFF SMUS (as used by
Sonix on the Amiga) to Quartet.
There are several quartet songs available for download on my
bulletin board (My Little Phoney, 0865-773277)
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
The Unofficial Smiley Dictionary
--------------------------------
:-) Your basic smiley. This smiley is used to inflect a sarcastic or
joking statement since we can't hear voice inflection over Unix.
;-) Winky smiley. User just made a flirtatious and/or sarcastic remark.
More of a "don't hit me for what I just said" smiley.
:-( Frowning smiley. User did not like that last statement or is upset
or depressed about something.
:-I Indifferent smiley. Better than a Frowning smiley but not quite as
good as a happy smiley
:-> User just made a really biting sarcastic remark. Worse than a :-).
:-> User just made a really devilish remark.
;-> Winky and devil combined. A very lewd remark was just made.
Those are the basic ones...Here are some somewhat less common ones:
(-: User is left handed
%-) User has been staring at a green screen for 15 hours straight
:*) User is drunk
[:] User is a robot
8-) User is wearing sunglasses
B:-) Sunglasses on head
::-) User wears normal glasses
B-) User wears horn-rimmed glasses
8:-) User is a little girl
:-)-8 User is a Big girl
:-{) User has a mustache
:-{} User wears lipstick
{:-) User wears a toupee
}:-( Toupee in an updraft
:-[ User is a Vampire
:-E Bucktoothed vampire
:-F Bucktoothed vampire with one tooth missing
:-7 User just made a wry statement
:-* User just ate something sour
:-)ss User drools
:-ss) User has a cold
:'-( User is crying
:'-) User is so happy, s/he is crying
:-@ User is screaming
:-# User wears braces
:^) User has a broken nose
:v) User has a broken nose, but it's the other way
:_) User's nose is sliding off of his face
:<) User is from an Ivy League School
:-& User is tongue tied.
=:-) User is a hosehead
-:-) User is a punk rocker
-:-( (real punk rockers don't smile)
:=) User has two noses
+-:-) User is the Pope or holds some other religious office
`:-) User shaved one of his eyebrows off this morning
,:-) Same thing...other side
|-I User is asleep
|-O User is yawning/snoring
:-Q User is a smoker
:-? User smokes a pipe
O-) Megaton Man On Patrol! (or else, user is a scuba diver)
O :-) User is an angel (at heart, at least)
:-P Nyahhhh!
:-S User just made an incoherent statement
:-D User is laughing (at you!)
:-X User's lips are sealed
:-C User is really bummed
<|-) User is Chinese
<|-( User is Chinese and doesn't like these kind of jokes
:-/ User is skeptical
C=:-) User is a chef
@= User is pro-nuclear war
*<:-) User is wearing a Santa Claus Hat
:-o Uh oh!
(8-o It's Mr. Bill!
*:o) And Bozo the Clown!
3:] Pet smiley
3:[ Mean Pet smiley
d8= Your pet beaver is wearing goggles and a hard hat.
E-:-) User is a Ham radio operator
:-9 User is licking his/her lips
%-6 User is braindead
[:-) User is wearing a walkman
(:I User is an egghead
<:-I User is a dunce
K:P User is a little kid with a propeller beenie
@:-) User is wearing a turban
:-0 No Yelling! (Quiet Lab)
:-: Mutant Smiley
The invisible smiley
.-) User only has one eye
,-) Ditto...but he's winking
X-( User just died
8 :-) User is a wizard
C=}>;*{)) Mega-
Smiley... A drunk, devilish chef with a toupee in an updra
with a moustache, and a double chin
Note: A lot of these can be typed without noses to make midget smileys.
:) Midget smiley
:] Gleep...a friendly midget smiley who will gladly be your friend
=) Variation on a theme...
:} - What should we call these? (what?)
:) - Happy
:> - what?
:@ - what?
:D - Laughter
:I - Hmmm...
:( - Sad
:[ - Real Downer
:< - what?
:{ - what?
:O - Yelling
:C - what?
:Q - what?
:,( - Crying
[] - Hugs and
:* - Kisses
|I - Asleep
|^o -Snoring
:-`.smiley spitting out its chewing tobacco
:-1.smiley bland face
:-!.."
:-@.smiley face screaming
:-#|.smiley face with bushy mustache
:-$.smiley face with it's mouth wired shut
:-%.smiley banker
:-6.smiley after eating something sour
:^).smiley with pointy nose (righty)
:-7.smiley after a wry statement
8-).smiley swimmer
:-*.smiley after eating something bitter
:-&.smiley which is tongue-tied
:-0.smiley orator
.smiley invisible man
(:-(.unsmiley frowning
(:-).smiley big-face
):-).."
):-( unsmiley big-face
)8-) scuba smiley big-face
=:-).smiley punk-rocker
=:-( (real punk rockers don't smile)
+:-).smiley priest
:-q.smiley trying to touch its tongue to its nose
:-e.disappointed smiley
:-t.cross smiley
:-i.semi-smiley
:-o.smiley singing national anthem
:-p.smiley sticking its tongue out (at you!)
:-[.un-smiley blockhead
:-].smiley blockhead
:-{.smiley variation on a theme
:-}.ditto
{:-).smiley with its hair parted in the middle
}:-).above in an updraft
:-a.lefty smiley touching tongue to nose
:-s.smiley after a BIZARRE comment
:-d.lefty smiley razzing you
g-).smiley with ponce-nez glasses
:-j.left smiling smiley
:-k.beats me, looks like something, tho.
:-l.y. a. s.
:-:.mutant smiley
:-\.undecided smiley
:-|."have an ordinary day" smiley
;-).winking smiley
:-<.real sad smiley
:->.y.a.s.
:-z.y.a.c.s.
:-x."my lips are sealed" smiley
:-c.bummed out smiley
:-v.talking head smiley
:v).left-pointing nose smiley
:-b.left-pointing tongue smiley
:-/.lefty undecided smiley
:-?.smiley smoking a pipe
.-].one-eyed smiley
,-}.wry and winking
0-).smiley cyclops (scuba diver?)
:-=).older smiley with mustache
:u).smiley with funny-looking left nose
:n).smiley with funny-looking right nose
:<.midget unsmiley
:>.midget smiley
}:^#}) mega-smiley: updrafted bushy-
mustached pointy nosed smiley with
a double-chin
:-).ha ha... ssss:-(.net.flame
|-).hee hee... O |-).net.religion
|-D.ho ho
:->.hey hey... 8 :-I.net.unix-wizards
:-(.boo hoo... X-(.net.suicide
:-I.hmm... E-:-I.net.ham-radio
:-O.uh oh... >:-I.net.startrek
:-P.nyah nyah.. 3:o[.net.pets
|-P.yuk
:-}.beard
:-{.mustache
:-#.braces
:-X.bow tie
:-Q.smoker
<:I.dunce
(:I.egghead
@:I.turban
8-).glasses
B-).horn-rims
8:-).glasses on forehead
:-8(.condescending stare
;-).wink
:-<.mad
Drama :-(.Comedy :-).Surprise :-o.Suspense 8-|
Male.:- Female.>- Birth.|-O
Death.8-#
Infinity.8
Have fun with these!
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
... And that's just my opinion
STeVeN's comment on the state of the computer games industry.
No one can help but notice that despite the proliferation of
games available for the Atari ST, there are very few high
quality addictive playable games amongst them. Most of them are
either poor quality arcade conversions, film licences or some
other pointless tie-in or endorsement. Most games are also very
expensive being between £20 and £30, with some costing even more.
The high cost is generally put down to low sales caused by piracy
and the longer development times that 16 bit software needs
compared to 8 bit. I'm sure everybody reading this has their own
theories and complaints about the so called "money grabbing
publishers".
As a veteran games creator myself (I'm not keen on the terms
programmer or coder, because creating games is a lot more than
just coding), I may be a little more aware of the facts than
those outside the industry. Licensed games outsell most new
original games several times over, despite lacking entirely in
gameplay and even getting bad reviews in the magazines. Thus the
only people who who can really be blamed for the situation is the
consumer who goes out and buys them!
Any publisher with a business sense is going to continue creating
what sells rather than what is good, so the only way to improve
the quality of games is to only buy the good original playable
games and leave the awful arcade conversions and film licences on
the shelves. Do not be tempted by the misleading adverts and
back-of-the-box screenshots (they are probably loading screens or
faked up screens). Read and take note of magazine reviews (not
previews).
Also piracy does account for a loss of revenue and the people who
lose out here most are the developers and the consumer. The
retailers, distributers and publishers just increase the retail
price to cover this.
Many people seem to think that because thay can not afford
software then they are entitled to copy it for nothing. This is
completely wrong and is the same as saying that you should be
able to steal anything you think is too expensive.
Many people seem to still be under the impression that games are
still developed by teenage millionaire wizz kids in their
bedrooms at weekends, but the reality is that games are written
by a professional team of developers over a period of many months
on below average salaries.
Many people think that computer game technology has not changed
since Space Invaders and that all there is to producing games is
to bang in a couple of numbers into your machine and stick it in
a pretty box. The reality is that a similar amount of creative
effort goes into a computer game in terms of concepts, ideas,
graphics, music and algorithms than into other media types such
as Books, Films and Music, yet you don't go and photocopy the
latest novel!
Few developers can afford to spend years on original programs
when they will sell far fewer copies than a simple 3 month arcade
conversion or film tie-in and publishers are only interested in
what they can sell.
- STeVeN.... And thats just my opinion!
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
SiTComm Magazine would like to point out that the views of the
writer of this article do not necessarily reflect the views of
the magazine.
Hacking By Marcion
"...To cut and clear (a way, path, etc) as through undergrowth".
So runs the Collins Dictionary definition for the word 'hack'.
Those who are familiar, either to a lesser or greater extent with
this ever-increasing activity - made possible by computer, modem
and telephone, may well feel this adequately describes the
activity or purpose of hacking.
Why 'hack' ? Firstly many do it for the challenge of invading
unknown territory which is prohibited to them. Despite this
violation, they enjoy the protection of simply being able to
'drop carrier' if things go awry. Secondly, it can have financial
benefits, ie. using the account of a Multi-National to make calls
abroad that would usually be impossible for the average modem-
user. Whilst some might deem this as theft, the fact remains the
account-holder can firstly afford it, and secondly can only have
it in the first place by commercial exploitation; therefore when
this occurs, the hacker is simply retrieving what does not belong
to the account holder in the first place. This may be seen as a
rather imperfect way of achieving this, but no one would suggest
we live in a perfect world in the first place.
However, the most popular reason for this activity appears to be
for perusing information that is otherwise unavailable to the
"general public". As time goes on, it is becoming more obvious to
even the most 'security conscious' person that the United Kingdom
is fast becoming a country of secrets, restricted information and
"access denied". An article appeared in the Observer not long ago
pointing out that in the last five years Britain had become a
country that was more secretive than many Eastern Bloc countries;
some therefore see hacking as a means to undo the very suspect,
if not dishonest, lengths that various agencies and bodies go to
in compiling confidential (and often incorrect) information about
people and then carefully ensuring no one can access this unless
they have some spurious government power to do so, or more often,
have the money to buy it. The newspapers abound with accounts of
the misery caused to so many in trying to obtain information held
by various authorities about themselves.
There have in fact been several incidents where hackers have left
warning messages to say they have penetrated the system, but
these have been ignored, eg. one person hacked inside a Building
Society system, then happily travelled around its databases and
then, very charitably, left messages at various points telling
the Society he had successfully penetrated the system. A week
later he called back only to find the messages had not been read
and nothing had been changed. It seems that with the epidemic of
secrecy attacking this country at present, complacency comes a
close second. Hacking must be seen in the light of current trends
and attitudes and behavioural patterns. It is a reaction, and a
wholly legitimate, reaction against depersonalisation and the
loss of freedom and personal initiative. A refusal to "comply and
submit" without protest.
There are very few very occasions when hacking has actually
effected physical damage. Invariably those who hack simply wish
to see if they can beat the system, almost as if in an Adventure
game. They may also want to travel though the vaults of
information hidden away from prying eyes, which in reality should
be available to the very people about whom they relate.
The Member of Parliament, Emma Nicholson, has recently made
stenuous efforts to curtail and criminalise hacking although the
subject has only attracted extraordinary sensationalism and
inaccurate reporting by the ever news-hungry news media. It is
interesting to note that Ms Nicholson, so dedicated to the
prohibition of hacking is also a keen supporter of the Embryo
legislation. Yes, the one that will allows our fellow infant
humans to be experimented upon and then flushed down the labor-
atory sink together with the garbage. Admittedly, some might not
see the connection, nor the parallel, but I find it more than
interesting that the same person who is so keen to stop one type
of freedom also supports the destruction of another. In reality
the whole question revolves around the rights of the individual.
This is closely allied with the changes at present occurring in
this country where more restrictions are continually and consist-
-ently laid down to squash people to stereotypical forms. In sum,
the weak just go 'under' and the remainder become unthinking in-
sensitive 'cardboard' people who cannot see or think further than
their bank balance. People who choose not to conform, or even God
forbid, challenge the system - and hacking is one example of such
"anti-social" behaviour - simply must be criminalised. All such
people, whether labelled 'dangerous deviants', revolutionaries.
non-conformists, are all fighting a system that is obsessively
intent on reducing people to non-thinking unimaginative robots.
This is no endeavour to 'politicise' the matter but rather arises
from a study of behaviour in 1990. Those who hack must have their
wrists slapped as they are not obeying 'the rules'and their very
activity shows they have not succumbed to State brain-washing to
obey the rules. Returning to the quotation supplied at the very
beginning; hackers are part of a group who are "cutting a way"
through an undergrowth of distortion, deception, secrecy, restri-
-cted power, disproprtionate power and wealth, and greed. To put
it crudely, hacking is sticking up 2 fingers at the power barons,
and only a fool would say that is a bad thing to do.
As this "democratic country" (!!!) of ours sees yet more and more
laws restricting various activities of the individual, albeit it
causes no harm to anyone, it is up to those who are enlightened
enough to see the way things are going, to 'stand up and be
counted' and combat this. The State's anti-hacking hysteria is
just another means of suppressing individuality, expression and
freedom, only and simply to protect excessive profits and those
who seek to control our lives. A curse on both their houses.
Marcion.
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
Making the most of your modem
Part 1 - What type of modem to buy?
Since most people who are reading this must have already worked
out how to log onto a board, download files and un-archive them,
I will assume a basic level of intelligence!
Firstly, it is in your best interest to purchase the fastest
modem you can afford. Although you may have been brought up in a
society where you generally try to find the cheapest model of
anything this does not work with modems because your running
costs (i.e. phone bills) soon make your initial modem purchase
pretty insignificant in comparison. At the moment, most bulletin
boards will support up to 2400 baud and there are an increasing
number that support HST or V32. Almost everybody will save the
cost of a faster modem in the reduced phone bills after only a
few quarters.
If you call bulletin boards at 300 baud then STOP IT! It is
costing you a fortune. There are very few modems that won't at
least support V23 (1200/75). Some of the cheaper modems may
require you to use a special program to allow the use of the
split baud rates. On the ST a program called V23EMU will allow
you to use unbuffered V23 modems. Almost every ST based board
will have this in its download areas and if you have difficulties
setting it up then most sysops will be glad to sort out the
problem. There is nothing sadder than watching someone logged on
at 300 baud.
V23 (1200/75) callers are amongst the most disliked group of
callers to your average sysop because they are quite happy to
download for hours on end, but because they can only upload at
300 or 75 baud they rarely (if ever) do. Another problem with
V23 is that cheap imported modems or the newer faster modems
often do not support this speed, so Sysops are left in a dilemma
about whether to go put a fast modem on their board at the risk
of losing a lot of callers. So by using V23 who are holding back
the use of more advanced technology. If you are a V23 caller
then do yourself a favour and buy a 2400 baud modem. There are
several reasonably priced modems from the likes of Hi-Tech,
Frontier and Amstrad, or you could get a 2nd hand one. You'll
wonder how you ever managed with 1200 baud once you upgrade.
Part 2 - Connecting to a Bulletin Board
I don't intend to go into the mechanics of actually logging on
since as I said before anybody reading this already knows that!
What I will do is to try and point out some "obvious" facts that
may have eluded you before.
You will need a terminal emulation program to use your modem. On
the Atari ST there is a good choice, many of them being Public
Domain or Shareware. Some of the most popular ones include
Uniterm (my favourite), Vanterm and Flash. Most terminal
programs will include facilities to auto-log on to a board,
capture text into a file for later perusal and of course to send
and receive files. I will go into file transfer in more detail
later on, but for now the most used protocols are XModem, YModem
and Zmodem. You should find some of these built into the
program.
Make sure you have set your RS232 settings up correctly. The
main settings will include baud rate (This is the speed used
between the computer and modem and not necessarily the same as
your connect speed, particularly if your modem is speed
buffered). Other settings are length, Parity and Stop bits, for
most bulletin boards setting this to 8 bits, no parity and 1 stop
bit (8N1) is the best. If you set it to 7 bits, Even Parity
(7E1), which for some reason a lot of people seem to do, then you
will not be able to download or upload binary files, though you
will be able to use the message bases. Other settings could
include local echo which should be OFF since most bulletin boards
echo back your characters. Feel free to experiment with the
other settings.
If you call several bulletin boards please try to use a different
password on each board. You may think this is silly, but there
have been cases where people have somehow got hold of a password
file from one board and then used those same passwords on other
boards where those users may have higher privileges to cause all
sorts of damage.
When leaving messages use the normal typing technique of mixed
lower and upper case. If you type in upper case then firstly it
is more difficult to read and secondly it is a convention to
indicate that you are SHOUTING IN A VERY LOUD AND OFFENSIVE
MANNER! If you are one of these people then please try to find
out where your caps lock key is!
Be aware of your phone costs, you should have a little booklet
from British Telecom describing how to calculate phone calls.
The difference between cheap, standard and peak rate calls is
considerable so you should always call in cheap rate times (i.e.
6pm till 8am weekdays and all day Weekends). Also be aware that
if calling foreign countries the cheap rate times may be
different. Try to keep account of how much you use your modem,
then you will not be too surprised when you get the bill at the
end of the quarter. For example a normal trunk call (B rate)
costs you about 4 pounds per hour, so if you are on-line for half
an hour a day then that will cost you 180 pounds per quarter. If
there is a big demo that will take you 60 minutes to download,
then consider how much it is costing and perhaps wouldn't it have
been cheaper to buy it from a PD library instead?
Evening time is the most busy period for bulletin boards because
due to the society we live in, it is the time when most people
have spare time and also telephone bills are cheaper then.
Because of this most sysops do not like people downloading large
files during this time period. Downloading is better done either
early morning or at weekends.
If you are calling a bulletin board to leave a message, then try
to prepare it off-line with a text editor and then upload it to
the board in one chunk. Composing messages while sitting on-line
can be very time consuming, not to mention being awkward with the
on-line editors. If you do upload a message prepared off-line
then make sure your message is saved out in ASCII format. For
example if you use 1st Word disable WP mode before saving. Some
boards have the facility to upload a message using a transfer
protocol like Xmodem or Zmodem. If this is available then use
that. If not then you will have to do an Ascii upload straight
into the text editor. This is fraught with problems and often
you will lose the start of lines. If your terminal program will
allow you, then set the end of line delay to about a second.
Some boards will have the facility to archive and download
messages. If this is available then you should use it because
then you can log on, file all the new messages and log off. Then
you can read the messages in your own time without paying British
telecom loads-a-money. Then if you wish to reply prepare the
messages and call back to upload them. This could considerably
reduce your on-line time!
Phew... This is getting to be a lot longer than I was expecting
and I havn't even started on File transferring or File archiving.
So I guess this will have to wait till the next issue.
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
There are many sources of Public Domain software, mostly it
is spread through the use of Bulletin Boards, specific
Public Domain disc libraries and swapping software with
friends. There are advantages and disadvantages to choosing
one particular method or another.
Bulletin Boards
The software on Bulletin Boards tends to vary from the
excellent to very poor. If you are lucky enough to have
access to usenet then you are in a position to obtain some
of the latest software before it gets to the public domain
libraries as many authors also have access to usenet - such
as the excellent comms package Uniterm and the Double Click
series of software. Unfortunately it seems that the use of
usenet has to be paid for, and if your only reason for
subscribing is to get public domain software and totally
ignore the varied and interesting messages then you are best
to avoid it. However saying this "Tharr" Bulletin Board
(0234 261804 - V21 to 22bis - 24Hours) does offer free
access to usenet. If you do call this BB, and download
software - please enter a few messages as well.
There are other BBs that offer good downloads as well, but
as a general rule, leave plenty of messages. Most SysOps get
annoyed if all their effort in putting a BB up goes to waste
in users who just wish to download software.
However if the thought of a large phone bill deters you, and
believe me large phone bills are very common - especially if
all you download much software at slow speeds, then you may
need to turn to Disc Libraries.
Public Domain Libraries
Public Domain Libraries differ greatly in their disc
collection, service and prices. I think that, to show my
point, it may help if I compare a couple contributors to the
Public Domain Library scene.
SoftVille: SoftVille take their service very seriously and
don't offer a home run service. Their disk collection is
large and covers a range of different types of software.
The Catalogue is well held together, bound and a nice touch
i thought was the pages at the back which showed print outs
of clip art - you can see exactly what you will buy.
Their prices are quite expensive - roughly 2.50 per disk,
Single Sided and 4.00 disk double sided. Members of their
club get reductions. However, I think that the price is
justified in that you receive a complete service, they offer
a lot more than just Public Domain software - Labels,
Printer paper, blank disks, commercial software and even
hardware.
When I asked them why they thought that they were better
than other Public Domain Libraries, the reply - we receive
more disks than other libraries, 400 orders each and every
day. Well, they certainly have a following - but does this
mean that they are better?
16/32: 16/32 is a home run public domain library, the
owner, Nick Harlow, is well known on several bulletin boards
and offers a good service. They make it to every computer
show that is possible, always willing to help out with
something that you may be having problems with.
The catalogue isn't that well presented a few photocopied
sheets. Although this is understandable when you look at
their price list. The cheapest price is 50p for every disk
(this is if you supply the disk and are a member - 1.00 if
you don't supply the disk), 1.50 for a disk if you are not
a member. Very cheap i think you'll agree.
They specialise in Demo's from a look at their list, a very
good collection. Which not only covers product demos, but
amazing demos from crackers and demo makers, some which are
excellent but surprisingly rare. You will also find plenty of
utilities and comms stuff.
Whilst it may not look as flashy as SoftVille, if you are
prepared to have a good scrummage around I think that you
will find plenty of interesting disks.
Comparing these two libraries I came to the conclusion that
in all they differ for different people. SoftVille deals
with those who like a complete service - beginners, but are
prepared to pay for it. 16/32 on the other hand tends to be
for those who know their public domain and like find that
rare piece, possibly before other libraries, and are
prepared to do quite a bit of the work themselves.
I think you'll find that a lot of libraries are similar in
this, and you would be well advised to keep up to date with
all of them, then I think you'll find one which suits you.
Friends
Well not everyone is blessed with plenty of mates with ST's.
One way to gain them is to use BBs, enter messages and you
will find a whole load of people out there who are prepared
to swap software with you.
Although, it is worth pointing out that in general SysOps
and Library owners check for viruses, friends tend not to
bother, and the more you swap software the greater chance
you have of getting a virus on a disk.
Matthew Miles
Details:
SoftVille - Tel. 0705 266509. Unit 5, Stratfield Park,
Elettra Ave, Waterlooville, Hants. PO7 7XN. England.
16/32 - Tel. 0634 710788. 35 Northcote Road, Strood, Kent.
ME2 2DH.
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
SysOp ?
Article By Matthew Miles
Would you like to setup a Bulletin Board ? I think that many
people who are involved with comms think that they would like to
set a Bulletin Board up. How many actually succeed?
The first thing that you need to decide is the Bulletin Board
Software that you are going use. The Atari ST has some common
pieces of BBs software - FoReM, MichTron BBS Ver.3, QBBS-ST and
some people now seem to be taking to STadel. Your choice really
depends on what you want your BBs to do. Have a look around some
other boards that run these pieces of software and make your mind
up. A piece of warning, STadel is not friendly to the first time
user, you have to "enter" commands. For instance .r n will Read
New messages. Although it is more powerfull perhaps than the
others. QBBS-ST is quite a new piece of software, coming from the
PC, where it has gained much acclaim. It's most redeaming point
is that it allows the SysOp to completetly design the look and
lay out of his BBs, in a way that none of the others do. MichTron
does have it's own C Style language, but yet all of the boards
end up almost exactly the same.
Both QBBS and STadel are Shareware, this will allow you to set a
board up, and if you don't like it move onto another piece of
software without having paid anything.
Your choice of software will also be governed by the system that
you have. All the software above, especially QBBS and FoReM
require a hard disk drive. If you cannot afford a hard disk drive
and wish to run the BBs from floppies then it is probably
worthwhile having a look around BBs and public domain libraries
for small pieces of BB software. StarTerm is quite a nice, small,
piece of software. It is "styled" in much the same was as FoReM
but on a smaller scale.
After you have your board set up, your main problem will be
getting a good userbase. There is no point in setting a BBs up if
it sits there all day dormant. A few ways to get a large user
base:
i. High Speeds .. Users will not be interested in someone with
low speeds. These days most users seem to have 2400.
ii. Good Range of downloadable software. You have to decide if
this is a good thing, do you want your users downloading all your
software without returning an upload or leaving some messages.
iii.Good Range of messages. Don't have one message area just
consisting of Atari ST messages, you will get all types of users.
NetWorking is a good idea, it will enable you to exchange
messages with other BBs, therfore many more messages. Which
network you join depend again on your software. FoReM has it's
own network as does StarNet (but does anyone use it?), QBBS will
enable any network although the common one is FidoNet, this is
largely PC orientated. Although the Atari ST is beginning to
feature highly now. STadel has it's own network, although it does
allow other networks within it. "Tharr" for instance has Usenet
access, which accounts largely for it's popularity.
I think that your attitude is important, I see far to many "new"
SysOps imposing heavy restrictions on their users. Unless the
board is in great demand, which if it is new it won't be, then
you will find that the users of the board won't want anything to
do with it.
The spirit of Comms, within the comms community, it seems to have
a very bad impression outside of the community, is one of
seriousness but yet also with a lot of fun mixed in. I think the
secret to a good BBs is this, have areas where people can leave
jokes, chat, have a laugh - but yet also make sure that there are
areas where people can down/upload serious software and talk
about their ideas.
I myself started running a BB quite a while back. I started
running it on a piece of PD Software called Pandora, on an ST
with just over 1Mb of storage.
I then moved to StarNet, still on the same system. I only offered
v21 and v23. My opening hours were 9pm to 7am.
I didn't have many callers and the BBs was quite inactive.
I then moved my software over to STadel, same system and hours.
More people started calling and I started networking with a few
other BBs. This started looking up. Although i realised that
before long a hard drive would be required, and although i had
quite a few callers many were put off due to the non-standard key
strokes.
I then had a chance to move my whole system over to a PC running
QBBS. I did so. I now run the board at the same hours, and I
have a new modem (which allows 22bis).
Demand has greating picked up:
I have had my phone line engaged (due to callers on my board) from
9:30pm to 2am. A great achievement I feel.
Make of this what you will, I've found that the true success of a
BBs is the larger the better. A great shame because I have seen
so many small, new boards which had shown so much promise close
down due to lack of callers.
If you do desperately want to set up a BBs then the best advice I
can give is stick at it, determination will get you everywhere.
I can be contacted on the Invicta Conferencing System, V21 to
22b, 9pm to 7am, 0622 891308, and soon 24 hours on 0622 890888, if
you call and a voice answers or nothing answers call the 890888.
BBs to have a look at:
Tharr (STadel) 0234 261804 >22bis 24 Hours
My Little Phoney (FoReM) 0865 773277 >22bis 24 Hours
Penthouse (FoReM) 01 9303903 >22bis 24 Hours
JuSaVo (MichTron) 0324 32414 >22bis 24 Hours
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
The Assembly Line Interview
---------------------------
The Assembly line are a games development team, who have been
responsible for many good original games, including Xenon-II (with
the Bitmap Brothers published by Imageworks/Mirrorsoft), Pipemania
(published by Empire), Interphase (Imageworks/Mirrorsoft),
E-Motion (US Gold). Through the use of CIX (Compulink Information
eXchange), they agreed to answer a few questions. The interviewer
is STeVeN.
Q) Thank you for agreeing to find time to answer a few questions
for SiTcom. To start with perhaps you can give us a bit of
background behind 'The Assembly Line', for example who are you
and what did you do before forming TAL?
A) First of all, a disclaimer: this information has already
appeared in lots of magazines & is probably stupendously
boring to anyone who's seen it before. Just so you know....
Martin Day:
Coded Impact and Helter Skelter with John Dale for ASL before
moving on to Pipemania (also with John) and Xenon II with the
Bitmap Brothers. Also the developer of SNASM, the cross
development system marketed by Cross Products.
John Dale
Designer rather than programmer; worked with Martin on Impact,
etc. & later with Adrian on E-Motion.
Adrian Stephens
Has been programming for a long time, starting with Killer
Gorilla on the BBC in 1981, moving on to Crazy Painter & Mr Ee
for the same machine, Donkey Kong & Ping Pong arcade
conversions for the Amstrad. Worked with Andy on the sadly
unfinished 3D epic, EPT, and produced Powerplay, then
Interphase, then E-Motion on the 16 bit machines.
Andy Beveridge
Worked on EPT with Adrian, then worked at Real Time Games in
Leeds on Carrier Command before returning to Bristol for the
start of the Assembly Line.
See also our resume on CIX.
Q) You must be one of the most prolific development houses of
recent times and yet you have still managed to keep your
programs original and of high quality. Are you dedicated to
producing original programs, or will you perhaps be turning
your attention to arcade conversions and film licences if the
opportunity arises?
A) Unlikely. Too much in a typical current arcade machine to fit
into an ST. Consoles maybe, when they're more widespread.
Never seen a good film licence yet.
Q) Do you play games yourself, and if so what sort of games do
you like to play?
A) Sometimes. In no particular order, Tetris, Gunhed (PC
Engine), Wanderer (PD IBM game, not the red & green glasses
one!), Mr Do (arcade cabinet - Adrian has his own), Defender
(arcade cabinet), E-Motion, Super Sprint.
Q) Several games now have a multi-player option using the RS232
or MIDI ports. Have you or are you going to be doing this in
any of your games?
A) Haven't done so yet, but we intend to. Particularly likely in
respect of 3D stuff where two screens can be used to show two
different views of an action sequence. RS232 more likely than
MIDI, because it is more straightforward to link any
combination of ST, Amiga & PC rather than just two ST's.
Q) Will you be continuing to produce playable demos of your
games so that people can try before they buy?
A) Depends largely on views of publisher. Empire liked them, US
Gold didn't. We are happy to do so if there is the demand.
Tell USG! And we would welcome feedback on any of our demos
(or the subject of playable demos in general) from games
players. Mail TAL@CIX or the ST conference which we read
regularly. In fact perhaps we can turn the tables and ask
some questions ourselves: [if you buy games] why do you buy
them? On the strength of a review? or the demo? or the
packaging? or the name of the publisher? or the developer?
How much difference does price make to you?
Q) Many people think the retail price of 16 bit games is too
high. This is often blamed on piracy or high development
costs. What is your opinion on this?
A) Don't know. If everyone stopped paying these prices then
they'd come down. Don't think piracy puts the cost up;
rather, it drives developers into other, safer, markets, so
there is less software around. It's a pity in a way that
nearly all software is marketed at the same price - if games
players could be sure that a more expensive game would
definitely be *better* then maybe pricing would seem more
reasonable. Many man years go into the best games; it's a
labour intensive business.
Q) Do you see much future in the Atari ST as a home computer and
will you be continuing to produce ST versions of your games?
A) We will produce games for it as long as it is economically
feasible. As long as publishers want to support the format we
will do so, but when the market shrinks (through piracy or
through upgrading) to the point when publishers no longer want
to sell for it, then we too will have to move on. This has
already happened to the ST in America - most of the big
publishers don't care about an ST version, only Amiga & PC.
No sign of this happening in Europe yet.
Q) What do you think about the future of home computers in
general regarding games? Do you think the anticipated console
revolution is finally going to hit Britain soon? And in
particular what do you think about the Atari Lynx?
A) Newer consoles (PC Engine, Megadrive) would be nice to develop
for. Depends how many machines are sold. Gameboy is
interesting & Lynx is *very* nice, but as always it's in the
hands of our publishers.
Q) ... and what about Compact Disk technology which seems to be
the in-thing at the moment?
A) See above. Don't know what the appeal is; what do you do with
an extra 500 meg? Stuff it with extra digitised sounds &
pictures, sure, & don't worry about data compression any more,
but how much will that improve the games? I wouldn't buy one
- I wouldn't have any use for it, or at least not to play
games with. CD Interactive, maybe, when the machines are
widely available, but that may only really help certain types
of games - RPG, adventure and so on.
Q) I'm sure our readers would be interested to know what they can
expect to see from you in the future (especially regarding
the ST). Can you tell us anything about what you have in the
pipeline, or is it all top secret?
A) Many things under development; which ones see the light of day
depends on how willing publishers are to take a chance on very
different games. We were lucky that Empire recognised the
potential of Pipe Mania & ditto USG with E-Motion. We have
other projects which are similarly unclassifiable which may
simply never be taken up by a publisher. Shame really.
Definitely happening, though, are a follow-on to E-Motion
(which uses similar ray-traced graphics but in a 3D
environment) and some solid (polygonal) 3D material. Both
will certainly appear on the ST.
SiTcom would like to thank everyone at The Assembly Line for
their valuable time and wish them all the luck in the future.
- STeVeN.
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
How to Contact Us:
Matthew Miles, Bulletin Board : The Invicta Conferencing System
0622 891308 (9pm to 7am) V21-22b
Soon 24 Hours on 0622 890888
For the Disk Mag : 10, Oak Farm Gardens, Headcorn
Ashford, Kent. TN27 9TU
Steven Green, Bulletin Board : My Little Phoney
0865 773277 v21-22b
CIX : sgreen
Fido Net : 2:252/25
FNET : 1004
Lucien Oppler,Bulletin Board : The Whitehall Penthouse
071 930 3903, v21-22b
CIX : luce
FNET : 1014
Lau. McDonald,Bulletin Board : Contact BBs
071 646 0746, v21-22, 9pm to 8am
--SitComm-May-1990--------------------------------------------------------------
SiTComm Magazine Wants YOU!
If you feel that you can write an article for our magazine then
please do. We are always on the look out for people to write
articles on anything to do with the Atari ST or Comms.
Articles should ideally be 65 columns justified to the right, we
prefer Quality rather than quantity. They should be straight
ASCII files.
Articles can be uploaded to any of the Bulletin Boards mentioned
in the Contact File, or they can be sent to the address mentioned
there as well.
--SitComm-May-1990-----------------------------------------------------The End--
