225 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
225 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
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--- SiGnALS ---
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Issue V Volume I
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August 11, 1993
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Executive Editor : Necr<63>s of The PsYcHiC MoNkS
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Contents
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I..........................................Editor's Delusions
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II......................................................Basix
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III..................................Tricks 'n' Tips w/Necr<63>s
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IV.............................................Visualizations
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V......................................................Final<61>
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Greets to: Skaven of FC for a nifty ASM 93 MOD (even if it was a 3 hour piece
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of shit!), Pxyll ... or is it PaRaDiGm?, all the PM fans, all of those who
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have written me and recieved no response (more on that later), and Draeden of
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VLA for the assembly help ... even if he doesn't know it yet.
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I: Editor's Delusions
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Welcome to the fifth issue of SiGnAlS, the magazine for the modern MOD coder.
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You may have noticed some changes in the format of SiGnAlS, but they are
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mostly just aesthetic. BTW, sorry about the long delay before the release of
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this issue. I actually forgot I had another issue due. <:O (Will try to keep
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on top of things in the future!)
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MY MAILER IS DOWN FOR OUTGOING MAIL! Sorry to all of you who have mailed me in
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the last few weeks. I am trying to get the problem fixed, but until then, you
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will have to take my word for it that I am very grateful for your responses. I
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am trying to incorporate many of your questions into future issues. ;)
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Now sit back, relax, and catch the SiGnAlS. ;)
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II: Basix
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Well, last week we showed you how to actually sit down and start working on a
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module. In this issue, we present some more generalized info that should help
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you on your foray into the digital jungle.
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The 'module' format actually goes under many aliases. Some common formats you
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will see are MOD, AMF, STM, 669, S3M, and NST. MOD and NST are usually Amiga
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4-track modules. However, the MOD format also supports more tracks than 4
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(usually 6 or 8). STM, S3M, and 669 are usually mod-like creations with 8
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tracks. A good player should be able to handle many different file types.
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Modules are not intrinsically in stereo (for those of you with stereo cards).
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A mod player will usually assign each track to a discrete stereo channel,
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either left or right. To my ear, this sounds like garbage. Each track is
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isolated on one side, thus resulting in a 'pseudo-stereo' effect. The only way
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to make it true stereo (or like any the normal stereo you're used to) is to
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play the mod on both sides simultaneously. This obviously requires twice as
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many tracks as your mod; if you write four track mods, you only have two
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tracks to really work with in true stereo. Some good players allow (like DMP)
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allow you to mix the stereo channels, resulting in a very nice 'surround
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sound' effect. More stereo tricks later.
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Where to find mods? The best way is through FTP. Some local bulletin board
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systems carry modules in their audio directories, but usually they have a
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small selection. FTP sites usually have large (50-60) selections of modules
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for public downloading. Some good sites are:
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nic.funet.fi (Finland) /pub/amiga/modules
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wuarchive.wustl.edu (US) /pub/msdos_uploads/mods
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cs.uwp.edu (US)
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brad.ac.uk (UK)
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Make sure you are in binary mode before downloading, unless you like listening
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to digitized ASCII. ;)
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To logon to an anonymous FTP site, simply enter 'anonymous' as your name, and
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your internet address as your password. Usually the transfer rates are
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reasonable (3-4 Kbytes/sec).
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How do you know what you're downloading? You don't. This is not good,
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especially if you spend four or five hours downloading to find you have crap.
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Most mods have a text file that has the same name as the mod in the same
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directory. Download this first and read it. Hopefully they'll have some sort
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of description of what kind of module it is. You can eliminate some files by
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common sense. For example, if you hate techno, DON'T DOWNLOAD
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RhythmIsADancer.lzh!
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Ah, '.lzh'. I almost forgot. Most modules you'll download are compressed. This
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is good and bad. You don't have to spend as long downloading it, but you have
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to uncompress it before you can play it. Here are some common archive
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(compressed file) extensions, and the corresponding extraction programs.
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.LZH or .LHA - use LHA.EXE by Haruyasu Yoshizaki
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.ZIP - use PKUNZIP.EXE from PkWare
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.ARJ - use ARJ.EXE by Robert K. Jung
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These programs are available by FTP also, try the /pub/msdos/compression or
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/pub/msdos/utils directories. ;)
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Well, that's Basix for today. Enjoy your module coding!
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III : Tricks and Tips w/Necr<63>s
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We have two new tricks for use in your fun modules today. In this section, we
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will cover the magic sample offset effect (9XX), and also the fun Portamento
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to Note (3XX)! Ah, before you get mad at my blatant use of unseemly symbols,
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please read on just a little farther.
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Trick #1: Sample Offsetting
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What if your bass track sucks? Can you liven it up a little? How can you make
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even a disgusting stream of the same 'C-1' bass note sound inventive? The
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answer... yeah, you know already. Sample offsetting.
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First what you need is a sound that changes versus time. Let's use a bass
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sound for our example. Get a bass sound that maybe makes a 'wow' sound, or a
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'neeeeow' sound or a 'beeeeeooouuunnnnt' sound. (Sorry about the noises, but
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wait 'til I start uploading sample examples w/the mag. You'd think twice about
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d/loading this if it was 3 megs ;) Anyways, try this with your sound.
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Instead of this... try this.....
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01 C-1 01000 01 C-1 01901
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02 C-1 01000 02 C-1 01902
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03 C-1 01000 03 C-1 01903
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04 C-1 01000 04 C-1 01904
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05 C-1 01000 05 C-1 01905
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06 C-1 01000 06 C-1 01906
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07 C-1 01000 07 C-1 01907
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08 C-1 01000 08 C-1 01908
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09 C-1 01000 09 C-1 01901
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0A C-1 01000 0A C-1 01902
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. .
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. .
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. .
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What is this? We are using the sample offset effect (9XX). This starts playing
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the sample at an offset from its starting position, given by the XX modifier.
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For example, putting a 901 effect on a sample will play it at a slight offset,
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but a 920 effect may start the note halfway through the sample. By varying
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this on a repeated note, we can create different sounds out of the same
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instrument by playing different parts of the sample. Try it, you'll like it.
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Also try playing two long sounds at the same time, one normally, one with a
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901 sample offset effect. It produces a neat phase shift effect (and a nice
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stereo reverb for those of you w/stereo cards).
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Trick #2: Portamento to Note
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The Portamento to Note effect (3XX) is a neat way to create pitch bends
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without the hassle of regular port up or port down (1XX,2XX) commands. Let's
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say you want to slide from a C-2 to a E-2...
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The stinky way! The good way!
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01 C-1 01101 01 C-1 01000
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02 --- 01101 02 --- 01000
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03 --- 01101 03 --- 01000
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04 --- 01101 04 --- 01000
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05 --- 01101 05 --- 01000
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06 E-1 01000 06 E-1 01301
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07 --- 01000 07 --- 01301
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08 --- 01000 08 --- 01301
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09 --- 01000 09 --- 013F0
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0A --- 01000 0A --- 01000
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In the first example, we use normal portamento up commands to slide the note
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upwards. The problem is - how much do we slide so we land exactly on the note?
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Trial and error is the only answer, my friends. This can be avoided by the use
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of Portamento To Note (3XX). This effect specifies a destination note for the
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slide. The effect will never slide above that note, no matter how much slide
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you put into it. Notice in the second example, in beat 06 we specify the 301
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effect (PTN) with E-1 as the destination note. We then carry on the slide
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until beat 09. Then we make the slide REAL big for a beat (3F0) so we make
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sure if we're below the note ... we're there now (he he!). This takes the
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hassle out of your slides by placing limit value at the top or bottom of your
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slide. For downward slides, just specify a lower note. Don't even hafta change
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the effect. ;)
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IV: Visualizations
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A quick visualization today. Where is the American demo scene? Europe has
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their compos, Assembly '93 being the most obvious one. I haven't ever seen any
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event in the States even remotely like The Party anywhere. Is this due to a
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lack of coders? I doubt it. I know that a lot of people around here download
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stuff from FC and the other groups the week it comes out. But why is there no
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compos or anything like that? The hacker community BY ITSELF is big enough to
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support such a thing.
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Maybe Microsoft and IBM have dominated the scene so much that people are drawn
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to computer stores to purchase pre-packaged products like little lemmings. I
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haven't even seen an abundance of American demo groups. Hackers we have
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galore, but aside from a few, I haven't seen the interest. Most of the really
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awesome demos come from Finland and/or Eastern Europe.
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Maybe it's a mentality thing. America's solution to the limitations of the
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computer is to build a bigger computer. Europe's solution is to max out what
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you already have. Have you seen Windows NT? You know how many disks that is?
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Or maybe Ultima 7?
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I would really like to hear from any groups interested in starting a US Party
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(maybe for summer 1994?) that would feature the best talent on US soil and
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elsewhere. OK, maybe we could invite the Brits too ;) My internet addr is
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listed below, please feel free to distribute. Please make sure to mention your
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demo group affilitations and your duties in any correspondence, too. And
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mod-coders are always welcome to chat....;)
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V: Finale
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Another issue come and gone. I urge all of you to download the music files
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from the ASM '93 competition in Finland. Most good demo sites will have this,
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but if you can't find it anywhere else, try wuarchive.wustl.edu under
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/pub/msdos/demos. Until the next time ....
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e-mail: segaag@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (until September 1, 1993)
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turtle-xpress: Necr<63>s
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The PsYcHiC MoNkS
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7985 State Rt. 69
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Oriskany, NY 13424
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n/n
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