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t.roxie
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2022-08-26
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u
PETASCII MOVIES
at the
R O X I E
Text and Theatre by Dave Moorman
Movies by Mega Factor,
Joe Passion,
Kyle Cantin
Long ago, in a computer galaxy
far, far away -- before the Internet
-- "telecomputing" meant getting a
nice 1200 baud modem and logging in on
a BBS. These were run by clubs and
businesses (LOADSTAR had one) and
served the primative needs of unjaded
enthusiasts.
Technology has advanced and never
looked back -- except for Lief
Bloomquist of Toronto, Canada, and
friends, who have found a new way to
enjoy the unique world of BBS
communications. The concept is simple
-- once we remember a byte is a byte
by any platform name! Connect a C-64
or 128 by modem to a PC server box,
which in turn is connected to the
Internet. Put a BBS program on the C=
machine -- and you're in business!
Now others, using a C=, can also
connect to the Internet through a term
program, and have full access to the
fun and fanaticism of a private BBS.
The only thing missing are the
expensive long distance bills BBSers
used to face after connecting with far
away places.
Lief demoed this at the LUCKI Expo
over Memorial Day Weekend 2004, and
showed a quaint form of entertainment
from pre-GIF days: ASCI Movies. But in
the world of C=, the movie maker is
not stuck with just letters and
punctuation. We have PETASCII, capable
of displaying remarkable graphics with
just the default font.
So I asked Lief if I could get
some of these movies to show to you.
He responded with a 3.5" disk. As soon
as I got home, I tried them out. The
Viewer program was in ML -- and ran
[WAY] too fast. I felt a great let
down. Here were some fun pieces of
entertainment that zipped by in
seconds.
After I calmed down, I tried a
different tack. I wrote a simple
program:
10 OPEN4,8,4,"MOVIE1"
20 GET#$,A$:S=ST:PRINTA$;
30 IF ST=0 THEN 20
40 CLOSE 4
And suddenly, the cinematic
capabilities of the C-64 flashed
before my eyes!
ROXIE has a little more to it.
(You don't have to type it in, so we
can go overboard anytime we want!) I
used MrMOUSE2.1 Jr. and CURTAINS to
add some pazzazz to the movie-going
experience. All you need is a box of
popcorn and some watered down soda!
Lief included a movie maker
program on the disk, and as soon as I
figure out how to use it, we will
offer it here on LOADSTAR. And if
anyone knows of other classic PETASCII
movies, send them in!
DMM