Miggybyte 9/Miggybyte 9.adf/DOCS/MB_25.TXT/MB_25.TXT

Text File | 1996-10-06 | 25KB | 383 lines

          Announcement from Jim Drew - Persistence Software

          The History of Utilities Unlimited... By Jim Drew

In  1984,  I  returned  from  Honolulu,  Hawaii  and  began working for a
Commodore  dealer  in  downtown  Portland, Oregon.  Within a few months I
became  technical  support  representative of the educational division of
Commodore for the state of Oregon.  I worked for this company for about 9
months  before  being approached by several individuals trying to recruit
me  as  an  employee  to  write  disk  duplication  software.  After some
nagging,  I decided to go ahead and I began working with a company by the
name  of  'Final Source Software'.  I wrote many commercial disk copiers,
and  designed  several  hardware  based disk copiers.  I was also writing
some  software  for  a  company  by  the  name  of  MegaSoft  (located in
Battleground,  Washington).   After  MegaSoft's  hardware disk copier had
failed  to  meet  its  expectations,  I  was asked to fix it.  I did, and
shortly  thereafter Final Source Software was dissolved and turned into a
retail software rental chain.  I worked for a few months at Central Point
Software,  and  wrote  their  Copy  ][  64/128  program.   After this was
completed  I  went  to  work  full  time  for  MegaSoft, which after many
problems changed its name to "Utilities Unlimited".

In  1986,  a couple (husband & wife) purchased 50% ownership in Utilities
Unlimited.   This  couple  previously bought and sold forklifts (they did
not  know  how to turn on a computer, but wanted to be on the road to the
future).   After  about 9 months of problems with the original owner, the
couple purchased the remaining 50% of the company, which included me.  At
this  time  the  C64  market  was  just about at its end, and our hottest
selling product, SuperCard+ (a hardware based disk copier) was just about
at  saturation.   A  deal  was made that I would get a small (very small)
percentage of the company if I would stay on and develop new products.  A
choice  was  made  between  a  Nintendo cartridge copier or an Amiga disk
copier.   We  went  the  Amiga  route  after a phone call to Nintendo was
returned by their legal staff.

SuperCard  Ami  was born.  I designed the hardware, the software, did the
advertisement layouts, handled dealer accounts, and technical support.  I
was  constantly busy with software updates due to new copy protection.  I
was  always  busy.   During  this time, I married my beautiful girlfriend
Chauna (pronounced Shaw-nuh).  During the course of the next two years, I
designed  the  KickStart  board  (ROM  switcher),  Boot  Drive  Selector,
DigiDither, SuperCard Ami II, SYBIL, and a few other things which did not
make it to market.  I also released more than 30 updates to SuperCard Ami
I & II.  I was still doing everything by myself.

We  filed  a  lawsuit against Ashcom Design & Development for ripping off
Super-Card  Ami  II.   More  than  a  year  after the initial filing, and
$10,000 later, we won the copyright infringement suit.  In return, we got
a  box  of  "MAC II" units (their copy of Super-Card Ami II) and that was
it...  no damages because the company had nothing (it had been liquidated
by  its  owners).   Some  things were a bit startling to me at this point
because  of sales starting to decline.  Ads were placed for products that
did  not  exist  yet  (like  SYBIL),  based  on  assumptions.   I did not
voluntarily  create  these  ads..  I was told to.  When products would be
late  (a  natural  thing in the software world), lots of excuses would be
given...   we even had a fire one time that never really happened.  I had
never  done  business  this  way before, although I did not like what was
going  on,  I  was  only  24  and did not own enough of the company to be
counted and the idea of working at McDonalds was not too appealing.

I  had  setup  a  deal with ReadySoft to bundle SYBIL with their AMAX II+
upgrade for A500 machines (software only since there was no Zorro slot on
the  A500).   After spending a great deal of time setting up this deal, a
lot  of  bad  things  happened,  and  it  cost Utilities Unlimited nearly
everything.   I  had  designed  a  custom  version of SYBIL that could be
detected (at the request of ReadySoft) so that you could just not run the
AMAX  II+  without  SYBIL.  I had the circuit boards made, boxes printed,
etc...  the deal fell through and Utilities Unlimited was in trouble.

The primary owners of the company decided to sell their home and move the
company  to  Lake  Havasu  City,  Arizona  (to  start fresh with some new
capital).  I had little choice but to go, so I did.

Before  I  left, I started getting phone calls from Joe Fenton, who was
living  in  Texas  at  the  time.   He  was  very  helpful,  giving  some
suggestions  to  some  quirks  he had with SYBIL.  After talking with him
quite  a  bit,  I  explained what had happended with ReadySoft, and I was
really  out  for  revenge..   to  write  a  full  color, multitasking MAC
emulation.   Joe said he had a pretty decent knowledge of the MAC OS, and
that he thought there would be no problems.

Once  I  got  to  Lake  Havasu  (April of 1992), I talked the owners into
hiring  Joe.  Joe came in the middle of May, 1992.  Much to his surprise,
I  was  the only person at the company (that did anything).  He was under
the impression (like thousands of customers) that Utilities Unlimited was
as large as GVP, having dozens of employees.

This is where things went really sour with Utilities Unlimited....

The  owners  wanted  ads placed immediately for EMPLANT (which by the way
was  just a name I thought up one day, and then turned it into an acronym
after  the fact).  I could not believe that they wanted to advertise such
an elaborate product that had not even existed yet!  I knew that they had
faith in my abilities, but this was a bit much.  So, a list of 'features'
was  made  based  on  what  Joe and I thought we could do.  Joe worked on
hacking  the  MAC  OS, and I worked on the circuit board layout.  We both
worked  on  the  custom  logic equasions and the features the board would
have (we had lots of ideas, some of which were implemented on the EMPLANT
board,  but have NEVER been used!) Keep in mind that EMPLANT, the circuit
board  layout, the software, in short EVERYTHING was designed on an Amiga
500!   I  had  a slingshot Zorro expansion on my A500 (which had a VXL*30
accelerator).   We  had  really  no Amiga equipment, just two accelerated
A500s  and  a stock A2000 (this at a time when the A3000 had been out for
awhile).

In  the  middle  of  August (already late for its shipping date), EMPLANT
went   to  FCC  testing  in  Chandler,  Arizona.   We  failed  miserably.
Actually, our Seikosha printer failed, along with our A2000.  The EMPLANT
board  had  absolutely  no problems, but if the system fails, the product
can  not be passed.  We were at FCC on a Friday, and returned on a Monday
(Joe's  birthday)  after doing some pretty elaborate things to our system
in order to get EMPLANT passed.

In  September,  we were suppose to show EMPLANT at the World of Commodore
show  in  Pasadena,  California  (at DMI's booth, supporting the Resolver
video  board).  Well, Joe, my wife, and I all went to the show and caused
quite  a scene because we brought the prototype EMPLANT board with us.  I
have most of it on video tape (my wife taped me with the crowd).  At this
point we had NEVER even scene a MAC screen pop up!

Joe  and  I  were getting very worried.  The company had spent all of its
money on advertising (full page/full color ads were about $5,000 each) in
the various Amiga magazines instead of getting us the equipment we needed
to finish and test EMPLANT.  Sometime in early November, we saw our first
MAC  screen  appear!   (I  don't recall the day exactly, but I have it on
video  tape!   We  had  a party that day!) Hey, we did it!  Only 3 months
late,  but  we  were  successful.   Upon  hearing  this  news, the owners
instantly  cashed  checks and ran credit cards..  even though the product
was  in no way ready to ship!  It would be almost a full month before the
first  version  was  ready  to  go.   Lots  of angry people!  Where is my
product!?   The  product  shipped,  and  wow  was there a ton of problems
(which  we  expected).  Joe and I were working 20+ hours a day, sometimes
in  30 hour shifts.  Not only did I have to help debug, I had to make new
advertisements,  handle  dealer  sales, do magazine interviews (try doing
that  with  a  straight face when you know what REALLY is going on), etc.
It  was  a  nightmare.  The only good thing about the entire situation is
that  I  had  beaten  ReadySoft,  which was my only intention in creating
EMPLANT.   The  first  release  of  software  was  reportedly  in October
(according  to  the  history)...   this  was faked!  It was not until mid
November  did we actually release the product for the first time.  Before
the first release, the husband of the couple died of a heart attack.  Joe
and  I  were  shocked  by the death, as it was completely unexpected.  We
were  a  bit concerned that the remaining owner (a women with no computer
experience what-so-ever) could handle things...  but who were we kidding?
We  did  everything  already  anyways!  However, pressure was intensified
greatly.  She had only one thing in mind, and that was retiring.

At  the  World of Commodore show in Pasadena (1993), sound support and 32
bit   clean  operation  was  shown  for  the  first  time.   John  DiLulu
(Commodore's cheif marketting manager) and Alex Amor (Creative Equipment,
Inc.)  had a meeting with me to discuss an AMIGA/EMPLANT bundle deal.  An
agreement  was  reached, but as usual nothing came of it.  One thing that
was  requested  by Commodore engineers was our chunky to planar routines.
These  routines  were  given  to  Commodore  (through  John  DiLulu), but
apparently  never  reached engineering.  By the way, we did spend a great
deal  of  time  getting  licensing  agreements with Commodore for reverse
engineering  the multitasking code.  Commodore stated that if we were not
using  the  code  in  its  entirety,  then  no  licensing  agreement  was
necessary, but they would like a copy of the code for reference.  I still
have the letter from Commodore's managing division (John DiLulu's office)
pertaining  to  this.   Looking back, it is now easy to see why Commodore
went  down  the tubes...  the cheif marketting manager couldn't even pass
along a disk..  how the hell could he make executive decisions?

Things  were going pretty well for EMPLANT..  AMAX IV was no competition,
and  it  was  funny  to  see  them  with  a  full color, multitasking MAC
emulation  after  spending  several  years stating that it could never be
done!   I  do  have  to say that I have a great deal of respect for Simon
Douglas.   Joe  and  I  checked  each  new  version  of AMAX IV to see if
anything  had  been 'borrowed' from EMPLANT's MAC emulation, and we never
found  anything  even  remotely similar between our code.  This made it a
good,  clean,  competitive  game.   We  wanted  to  make  a PowerPC based
Pentium(tm)  emulation.   I  even  met  with  IBM  and Apple to discuss a
technology buyout because our ideas were so revolutionary.  We decided to
first  make  a  PC  emulation on the Amiga, and then port the code to the
PowerMAC  platform.   Business  was  starting  to slow down, so the owner
asked  what  was  next?  I told her that we could start working on the PC
emulation..   great,  time  for new ads...  remember those 'e486DX coming
soon!'  ads?   How  about the ads showing Windows running?..  the Windows
screenshots  were  faked!   We  hired Mark Wignall to write all of the PC
sided  drivers.   A  lot  of  the  speed  the  emulation  has  is  due to
experimentations.  We spent a lot of time creating things like the CD-ROM
driver,  comparing  our work constantly with SoftPC, PCTask, and CrossPC.
We  spent  countless hours on the ANSI routines so that text output would
be  the fastest possible.  We would time every revision with a stopwatch,
hoping  to  gain  that 1/10th of the second extra speed.  Mark also wrote
the  PC  emulation's  documentation,  which would be the last paper-bound
documentation  ever  produced  at Utilities Unlimited.  The owner did not
want   to   pay  for  packaging  or  documentation.   She  believed  that
documentation on the disk was sufficient.  She also believed that 'people
just throw away the packaging anyways, so why pay the extra money to make
it look nice?' Sheesh!

At  this point I was being told what to say and do.  Neither Joe nor Mark
had  a  clue as to what was really going on behind the scenes.  It became
so  bad  that Mark didn't even know when we released the PC emulation for
the  first  time!   He  was not to know, fearing he would try to convince
everyone  it  was not ready (which it wasn't)...  it did not run Windows,
DOOM,  or anything else it was suppose to.  It worked in simple DOS mode,
supported   the   x87  style  FPU,  and  had  the  Pentium(tm)  Processor
instruction  decoding.   For  the  most  part,  it did work well for what
support  it had (missing ALL of the protected mode and MMU mode support).
I  went to the World of Amiga show in London, and showed it for the first
time.   People were impressed at the speed of things that I showed, but I
could  not  show  Windows  because  it  simply would not work.  Mark left
because  of  what  was  happening.   Joe  and I continued our work on the
emulations,  but  we  wanted to build some new hardware goodies!  NO WAY!
The  owner  did not want to have anything to do with FCC or hardware ever
again.   Ack!   We had plans for a multiprocessor board, 060 board, video
board,  and  other  really neat things.  We had even drawn out schematics
and  gotten  developer information for everything we needed.  I know that
we  could  have  made  the fastest accelerator and video board ever.  Our
hands were tied (more like we were tied to a pay check).  About this time
ShapeShifter  was released.  After Joe and I looked at it, we were pissed
beyond  belief.  The majority of the code came from AMAX IV, with some of
our  code, and even Apple's code.  I immediately starting documenting the
code,  and  the changes that the code went through after several releases
(especially  after making it clear that much of the code was 'borrowed').
After  going  through  the  lawsuit  in the UK, the owner did not want to
attempt to go after 'some kid in Germany', because it would cost too much
money, and we would get nothing back.

I sent two registered letters to the author, and each letter was returned
undeliverable.   I just wanted him to stop while he was ahead.  Joe and I
are probably the best 68K reverse engineerers in the world.  We have gone
through  gigs of code over the last 4 years, figuring out why certain MAC
applications  do  weird things with our MAC emulation.  We can tell which
Apple  engineer  wrote  any  part  of  the ROM or OS code, based on their
programming  style.   We  knew AMAX IV well too.  It was easy to document
what code came from where inside of ShapeShifter.

At  this  point I really can't do much about ShapeShifter, although there
are  a  couple  of  legal  councils in Germany willing to take 80% of the
earnings  of  a  successful  lawsuit.   Personally,  I  think  that  when
judgement  day  rolls  around, the author will wish that ShapeShifter was
just a character in Archon...

After  a  few  months,  we started working on the PowerMAC version of the
e586DX  emulation  module.  But because the company's revenue was slowing
down,  we  were  told to make something in the mean time.  So, MACPRO was
created  as  a  means  to  produce  income.   We  continued  to  work  on
PowerCLONE,  and  once again, the company's revenue was not up to par, so
we  created Mac1200 and MacLite.  These emulations took several months to
create  and debug.  The company was in bad shape, although it had several
considerable  assets  (a  new 10,000 sqft building, cars, etc.) On August
23rd,  (one  day  before  Joe's  birthday) the owner decided to shut down
Utilities   Unlimited.   We  had  absolutely  no  warning.   I  had  been
repeatedly  told that the owner simply had too much money invested in the
company to ever shut it down, so this was the last of my worries.

Utilities  Unlimited  International, Incorporated is officially bankrupt.
Even  though  there  were no creditors, a bankruptcy was filed to prevent
any  potential  lawsuits  in  the  future,  and  to  null  and  void  any
commitments (like the lifetime warranty on products).  Joe and I are both
unemployed  at  this  point.   My  small  percentage  of  the company was
dissolved  in  outstanding  loans to the owner.  The one thing that I did
manage  to get was the copyrights to all products free and clear (I owned
50% of the copyright myself, plus a percentage of the company's 50%, so I
had controlling interest in the copyrights anyways).

Since  together,  Joe and I did *everything* (except write paychecks), it
makes  sense for us to try to form a new company ourselves..  one that is
honest  with  what  is  going on, since we will have no pressure from any
outside  source.   We  have  decided  the  name  of  the  company will be
"Persistence Software".

We  will  provide  the  same  technical  support  that we provided to the
customers  in  the  past  (I  think  you  will  find  every review of our
technical support to be outstanding).  We will also still provide support
for  EMPLANT  customers,  and  I  am  going to make the information about
EMPLANT hardware publically available.

Since  November  of  1995,  Joe  and  I have been working on the PowerMAC
version  of  the  e586DX module.  That emulation is about 80% complete at
this  point.   IT IS NOT DONE!  ...and I am happy to be able to say that!
(Well,  maybe  not happy....  just glad I can be honest about it!) During
this  time,  we have also been working on a completely new Amiga based PC
emulation.   We  have re-written the emulation from scratch (yes, again).
And  instead  of  releasing  bullsh*t  specs, we are going to odopt a new
(read  as  REALISTIC) approach of hyping our software...  we are going to
release  a  crippled  demo  version.  If you like it, great...  order the
full version.  If not, you didn't get screwed and left with something you
can't  use.   Here is some information about this new emulation:  Product
name:   'PCx' Function:  PC emulation Computer:  Amiga This is an all new
80x86  emulation.   (Pentium  and  686  instruction  set, including Intel
undocumented  P5 instructions).  The speed is roughly 3 times faster than
v2.3 of EMPLANT's e586DX emulation in protected mode (like Windows, DOOM,
etc.).   It  is  about  50%  faster  in DOS mode.  This speed increase is
without  the  CPU  transcription, which has finally been debugged.  I use
the  words  'roughly'  and  'about'  because  it  has NOT been completely
finished  yet.   Things could get slightly faster (hopefully) or slightly
slower.   I  don't anticipate any significant speed changes, and again, a
demo  version  will show you exactly what the speed will be like (without
CPU  Transcription  or  Turbo  Mode).  PCx IS NOT DONE YET!  WE ARE STILL
TESTING IT!

The  demo version limits you to 8 megs of hard drive space, no ability to
write to floppys, no Sound Blaster(tm) support, no CPU Trancscription, no
CPU  Turbo  mode,  and a few other limitations.  Yes, we do have standard
Sound  Blaster(tm)  support, which is mono only (v1.0/1.5 Sound Blaster).
We  can  probably  make it stereo, but no promises or bogus release dates
for  this  support.  We also have video board drivers.  These drivers can
use  the  Amiga's  system drawing routines, or direct access to the video
board's  memory.   Here are SOME of the features that we are planning for
the  full  release  version:   Nice  user  interface, without the mess of
multiple windows.  *DONE*

Self configuring.                                    *DONE*
Intel Pentium Processor(tm) instruction set.         *DONE*
Sound Blaster (mono) emulation.                      *DONE*
MDA/CGA/EGA/VGA support.                             *DONE*
VESA SVGA support.                                   *THIS IS NOT DONE!*
CPU Transcription.                                   *DONE*
CPU Turbo.                                           *DONE*
Video board support.                                 *DONE*
Selectable display modes (from display database)     *DONE*
Creation of our own BIOS.                            *THIS IS NOT DONE!*
Windows 3.11, OS/2, and Windows 95 support.          *THIS IS NOT DONE!*
ASPI compliant SCSI manager.                         *DONE*
Ability to mount Amiga partitions on PC side.        *DONE*
CD-ROM support.                                      *DONE*

We  have  set  the  retail  price  at $59.95 US (£49.95 UK/Europe), which
includes  a  licensed copy of American Megatrend's 'AMIBIOS'.  If you are
an  owner  of  EMPLANT's  e586DX  emulation  module, you can send in your
original  e586DX disk and get this upgrade for 1/2 off ($29.99 US, £24.95
UK/Europe).   At  this point, it looks like our disk labels and packaging
will  take  longer  to  get  than the completion of the software (we were
shooting  for  an  October  1st  release).   As we get closer to actually
releasing the product, the features list (above) will be updated.  We are
pleased  to  announce  that  Blittersoft  (a  UK  based company) has been
granted  the  world-wide  distribution rights to all Persistence Software
products.   Blittersoft  was  Utilities Unlimited's European distributor,
and  quite  frankly,  was the only reason Utilities Unlimited survived as
long as it did.  Paul Lesurf does an excellent job of promoting products,
and  I  know  that our products will be well handled by his company.  All
orders (also Trade) should be directed to Blittersoft.

Blittersoft  and  Persistence  Software  will  jointly  provide technical
support  through  WEB  pages,  email,  CompuServe,  GEnie,  and telephone
support.   Software  upgrades will be available through our WEB pages and
on   various  support  forums.   Again,  I  would  like  to  stress  that
Persistence Software WILL support EMPLANT customers.  There will still be
updates   and   technical  support.   No  more  EMPLANT  boards  will  be
manufactured (unless somebody wants to buy the rights to EMPLANT).  We do
have  parts  here  for  repairing boards, however, we will not be able to
repair  or  replace boards for free.  Some reasonable fee will be charged
for  any  repair work necessary.  I know that this announcement will come
as  a  shock  to  many  people.   Hey,  it  was a shock to Joe and I too!
Utilities  Unlimited  was one of the most successful and well known Amiga
companies  around..   and  everything  was done by only two people, not a
building  full  of  people.   We  have  accomplished  a  lot  in  a  very
restrictive  environment, and I know that we can accomplish much more now
that we have complete control.

The  reason  for releasing the 'history' of Utilities Unlimited is to let
people to know what really went on behind the scenes, and for everyone to
know  that  although I was the figure head for the company, somebody else
was  pulling my strings.  I will not do business like Utilities Unlimited
did.   I  want  honesty  at  all costs, even if it means losing business.
Although  there  is  only  two  of  us, I believe that we have proven our
abilities  sufficiently  for people to at least listen to what we have to
say.   Joe and I like to tackle the impossible, and fortunately, we don't
have  to  make  anymore wild claims.  Any officially released information
will  be  very  real.  I would be interested in hearing from you!  If you
have  an Amiga product idea that you would like to see a reality, drop me
a note.  We have a lot of nearly finished products (hardware and software
based)  that  we  are looking into releasing.  Since the Amiga market has
temporarily  stalled  (it  will  be  back),  we  are  not quite sure what
products  are  necessary  at this time.  This is where you, the user, can
help us!

I  can  be  reached  at  my new email address:  [e-mail] My AOL
account  will  be  gone  shortly,  so don't try there!  I appreciate your
support  in  the  past,  and  I  look  forward to providing you with high
quality products in the future.

Sincerely,
Jim Drew, Persistence Software

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