1123 lines
36 KiB
Plaintext
1123 lines
36 KiB
Plaintext
FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:01:50 Page 1
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Volume 2, Number 26 12 August 1985
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+----------------------------------------------------------+
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| / \ |
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| - FidoNews - /|oo \ |
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| Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ |
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| Users Group | | \ \\ |
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| Newsletter | (*) | \ )) |
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| ______ |__U__| / \// |
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| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
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| (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
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| (jm) |
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+----------------------------------------------------------+
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Publisher: Fido 107/7
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Chief Procrastinator: Thom Henderson
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Fidonews is published weekly by SEAboard, Fido 107/7. You
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are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
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Fidonews. Article submission standards are contained in the
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file FIDONEWS.DOC, available from Fido 107/7.
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Disclaimer or don't-blame-us:
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The contents of the articles contained here are not our
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responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them;
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everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING
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received.
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The Dog Barks in Washington
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We may be getting some power soon. I'm hearing rumors that
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a "FidoPAC" is in its first stages of birth.
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For those of you who are unfamiliar with politics (as I
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pretty much am myself), a PAC is a Political Action
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Committee. I gather that they lobby for specific issues,
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make campaign contributions, and so forth.
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With this in mind, a FidoPAC sounds like a pretty good idea.
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It's sure as taxes (literally) that the guys in Washigton
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are going to be passing laws which affect us. It's only
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common sense that we should try to provide our input into
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that lawmaking process.
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There's a small catch, though. Anything like this takes
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both manpower and money; mainly money. Now don't scream,
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we're not talking hugh amounts. True, an effective PAC
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needs a fair sized war chest, but divided out among us all
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it shouldn't be that much.
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And no, this is not an appeal for money. I just want to get
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:01:53 Page 2
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you used to the idea. Whenever things start moving on this
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I'm sure you'll hear about it. So start thinking about it
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now, and be ready to unlimber your checkbook when the time
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comes.
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The real question, of course, is how effective anything like
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this can be. I think it can be pretty powerful; especially
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if backed up by a strong show of support from the user
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community. This, too, may get easier.
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We are all of us so used to keying in our messages on boards
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or on the net that it becomes a real nuisance to have to
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actually print something out and put a stamp on it. But I'm
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also told that a Senator may soon be setting up a Fido of
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his own. This means you could express your support merely
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by entering a message as usual. In fact, if we ever do get
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any politicos on the net I'd suggest that all sysops donate
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phone charges by setting the message cost to zero.
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I know I'm horrible about writing letters, but pretty good
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about sending netmail. I'm sure many or most of you are the
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same way. I'd so much like to get a congresscritter on the
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net that I'd donate a copy of our mail system to them if
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they'd promise to use it.
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So things may start happening soon. Someone somewhere found
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an organizer for this sort of thing, which is what we need
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the most right now. Just be ready to do your part once the
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ball starts rolling.
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:01:54 Page 3
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============================================================
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NEWS
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============================================================
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From: David Horowitz (Fido 107/2)
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More on software piracy...
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Yes, yet another person has decided to put there two cents
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into this issue. Now before you Control-C, lets just set a
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few facts straight...
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Software piracy is STEALING! Yes, a crime. Now as far as I
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know no one has gone to jail yet, but it is no less a crime
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than walking out of your office with a typewriter.
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If you walked into your local department store with the
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intent of purchasing a TV. Color, 25", stereo, and cable
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ready. You ask the salesman "how much?". Common question,
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right? He says, "Eleven Hundred Forty Nine Fifty". You
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say, "Are you crazy?". We all know that a state of the art
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TV is expensive, but we don't steal it because we can't
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afford it, now do we?
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Now, a little more on why software costs what it does...
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Let's take a look at what it might cost to develop a
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program. Since Lotus is the hot issue on price, and they
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probably have spent more than most, we will use it. Now I
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do not know exactly what things cost, but I hope these are
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fair estimates.
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Initial Idea. The cost is time. Now time can not be
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measured in dollars per say, but what about the fact that
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while you are thinking about it you are not earning any-
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thing. Now I know that the inventor of Lotus 123 got the
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idea in college. He wrote a marketing paper on it. Got a
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"B" on it too, why? He professor said that the paper was
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good but would not sell. And that the author did not do
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enough marketing research. Now that's a laugh.
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Development. How long? For a program like lotus I would
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have to say one year at a minimum. Now here come the
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megabucks...
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A staff of programmers. Making $30,000+ a year. So, to be
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fair lets say 6 programmers. That's $180,000. Now you
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can't just let 6 programmers do what they want, you need
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managers. Systems Analysts, or what ever you want to call
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them. They earn more. So, two at $45,000. Another
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$90,000.
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Ok now you have spent $270,000. You need to test the
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product, and then debug it. You need to hire testers. Now
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Lotus 123 was thought to be used by financial experts. They
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would have to test it. They earn on the order of $25,000 -
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$30,000 a year. So, two for two months, that's $9,000.
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Now, they are sure to find bugs. Another three months of
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:01:56 Page 4
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work easy. Buy now you might have put some of the man power
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on another project, so 2 programmers, and one manager for
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two months... $17,500.
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Now lets just total up to see what it might cost to develop
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Lotus 123. Now remember at this point the inventor has no
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guarantee that the product will ever sell, and in fact only
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received a 'B' on his paper, because a supposed marketing
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expert said it would not ever sell... $296,500.
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Nearly Three hundred thousand dollars! And not one penny in
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return. A substantial risk, I don't think there can be any
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argument here.
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Now as already stated, your investment is just beginning.
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You have to market your product. Now I can not even begin
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to imagine how much money went to promote 123. I remember
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prime time TV adds. They cost a bundle! So, lets pick a
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number that no one would argue over. Another $500,000.
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Remember full page magazine adds cost too. And Lotus went
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on an advertizing blitz for a while.
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Ok, So, Lotus Development spent nearly one millon dollars to
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develop this program. They put a price of $500.00 on it,
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how many copies did they have to sell to break even. 2,000
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copies. Now I think you might even agree that my estimates
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on development are quite fair, and I did not include
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packaging!
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True Lotus sold more than 2,000 copies, but could you
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guarantee this, would YOU put up the millon dollars? I
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think the profits they are making are very fair, it is the
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American Dream!
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:01:58 Page 5
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(excerpted from: The Generic Adventure Game System (tm)
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manual, Copyright 1985 by Mark J. Welch; used with
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permission.)
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----------------------------------
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A Short History of Adventure Games
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----------------------------------
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by Mark J. Welch (125 Bay St., #5, San Francisco, CA 94133)
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415-982-4591 (voice)
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415-391-9148 (data: WelchNet, Fido 10/459)
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You probably realize that there is a whole class or
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genre of computer games called "adventure games." The genre,
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of course, was itself based on role-playing games,
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particularly Dungeons and Dragons, a game developed in 1974
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by Gary Gygax, who formed TSR.
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The grandfather of all adventure games was called
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simply "ADVENTURE," and took place in "Collossal Cave." It
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was written by Will Crowther and Don Woods on a DEC PDP-10
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in FORTRAN. To win the game, one had to capture a bird,
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dispose of a nasty snake, avoid a dwarf's pointy knives, and
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figure out what toll a troll wanted to cross a bridge, among
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many other hazards; the rewards were many but usually had to
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be sacrificed in order to obtain some other goal.
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The game was quite successful -- partly because it was
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virtually the only game available and partly because it was
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free -- and was quickly copied onto many large timesharing
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systems at universities and companies. Many hours were
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spent translating the game so it could run on many
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mainframes and microcomputers. Other programmers wrote
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extensions into the game, adding new rooms, hazards, and
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treasures. There are now two popular versions: very few
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people ever solve the entire original 350- or 375-point
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Adventure, although a few have even conquered the 550-point
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extended version.
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While some programmers were satisfied by solving,
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translating, or adding to the original Adventure, others saw
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an opportunity for new games, on microcomputers as well as
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mainframes. Some -- like Scott Adams at Adventure
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International -- chose to add graphics to their adventures.
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Some had very limited vocabularies and tight, simple
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grammers like the original adventure: you could "EAT BIRD"
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or "ATTACK TROLL," nothing more complex. Other programmers
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sought more natural language and more powerful and complex
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features: Infocom's Zork trilogy -- a variant on the
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original Adventure -- and that company's many follow-up text
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adventures (they, and others, accurately call their works
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"interactive fiction") use a complex vocabulary and permit
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very long and complex sentences.
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:02:00 Page 6
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On the earliest microcomputers -- like the S-100
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machines, the TRS-80 Model I and the Apple II -- adventure
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games were the first programs to be made available because
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they used only text and were written in standard languages,
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usually BASIC, and were thus easiest to translate.
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Several efforts have been made to write "adventure game
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generators," programs which would ask for input detailing
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the arrangement of an adventure and then generate a BASIC
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program for the scenario. Unfortunately, these generators
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too often were not complex enough to generate powerful
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adventures, or were too complex to use for someone who
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didn't want to learn a programming language in the first
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place.
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--------------
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Enter G.A.G.S.
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--------------
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The Generic Adventure Game System* was written in an
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effort to make writing an adventure game as simple as
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possible, while still permitting a great deal of
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flexibility. It *cannot* be used to write an adventure game
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with as many complex features as Infocom's. To do so would
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require developing a complete adventure game programming
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language, as Infocom has done, and would require adventure-
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game writers to learn a very complex set of rules.
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[Note: developing ANY playable, enjoyable adventure
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game takes time. You need to set up a map, and then type in
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the valid movements from room to room and the full text
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descriptions for each room, noun, and creature. While using
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G.A.G.S. is far less complex than writing an adventure game
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from scratch in Pascal or any other language, it will still
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take you many hours to write a game using G.A.G.S.]
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There are two clear advantages to the Generic Adventure
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Game System (G.A.G.S.). First, G.A.G.S. uses a standard-
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format ASCII text file for its data, and the adventure game
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can be modified simply by editing the data file with any
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text editor. Debugging the game involves playing it: as
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problems are discovered, the text file can be edited and the
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game re-played. Once a basic game is developed, it can be
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extended by adding new rooms or special features (much the
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same way Adventure was enhanced).
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Second, G.A.G.S. is infinitely expandable because the
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complete Turbo Pascal* source code is available. If you
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decide that another verb should be available, you can add
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it. If you think the parser is too simple, you can try to
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patch it -- or completely re-write it. By modifying the
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source code, you can add new features to the game which
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aren't available in the basic system. (Of course, modifying
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the source code could lead to week-long debugging sessions
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while you try to figure out why this particular procedure is
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infinitely recursive or why the disk is reformatted whenever
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you try to move east.) The GAGS manual explains how the
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source code was written and why, and suggests a number of
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:02:02 Page 7
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modifications that can be made.
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-------------------
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How to Get G.A.G.S.
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-------------------
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The Generic Adventure Game System (G.A.G.S.) is
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currently in beta-test. Version 1.0 will be available on
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September 1, 1985, and will be distributed as "Shareware"
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(or "User-Supported Software"). Users may freely copy and
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share the program, but are asked to become registered users
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by sending $15 to the author, thus encouraging the author to
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release updates and new software as Shareware -- as well as
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obtaining limited techincal telephone support.
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Copies of G.A.G.S. will be sent to many users' groups
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and computer bulletin-board systems. The complete G.A.G.S.
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disk will also be available for $10 from the author.
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(California residents must add appropriate sales tax.) The
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complete source code to G.A.G.S. will be available to
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registered users for $25.
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G.A.G.S. requires a 8088- or 8086-based computer, MS-
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DOS 2.1 and 256K bytes of memory. It is available from the
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author only on 5-1/4-inch disks.
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---------------
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Further Reading
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---------------
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Several books are available on writing your own adventure
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game:
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Tim Hartnell, "Creating Adventure Games on Your Home
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Computer" (in Microsoft BASIC), Ballantine/Random House,
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1984.
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Richard C. Vile, Jr., "Programming your own Adventure Games
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in (UCSD) Pascal," TAB Books, 1984.
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Frank DaCosta, "Writing BASIC Adventure Programs for the
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TRS-80" (Model I/III/IV), TAB Books, 1982.
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Another adventure-game generator program is available for
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free. Pete Levy has posted a copy of the "Levy Adventure
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Development System" (LADS) on the Games SIG on CompuServe
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(GO GAM-310). It's written in BASIC for the TRS-80 Model I
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and III.
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----------------
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* "Generic Adventure Game System" and "G.A.G.S." are
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trademarks of Mark J. Welch. "Turbo Pascal" is a
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trademark of Borland International. "MS-DOS" is a
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trademark of Microsoft.
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:02:04 Page 8
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Mark J. Welch, 125 Bay St., #5, San Francisco, CA 94133
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415-982-4591 (voice)
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415-391-9148 (data: WelchNet, Fido 10/459)
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:02:04 Page 9
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Update on ROVER
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(a Fido Clone)
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Bob Hartman
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Sysop 101/101
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The UN*X Gateway
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This is an update to an article published in the
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FIDONEWS about a month ago. In that article I stated that
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I was working on a Fido clone, and was starting with the
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message area. Well, the message area is now complete, and
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can be used from the console just like Fido in test mode.
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The current version is now called ROVERMSG instead of ROVER.
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This is because the full emulation system is going to be
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called ROVER, but I could see no reason why I should not
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continue to have the message base be a standalone program.
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Anyway, for those of you who have been using ROVER, the
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current version is 1.6 (August 8, 1985), please call my
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board and download the latest version. Thanks to all
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of you who have helped in the debugging process.
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Now on to more specifics. ROVERMSG now is a more
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or less full emulation of the Fido message system. The
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only differences have to do with parsing of input at
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certain points. Since the ROVERMSG parser is very small
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and simple, it cannot do some of the things that Fido does.
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The differences are minimal, and probably will not be
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noticed by 99% of its users. The good news is that I have
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added some functionality where it was needed most. I allow
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command line arguments to be set in an environment variable
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so that a long command line does not have to be typed each
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time the program is run. I also allow the user to use his
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favorite editor to edit messages, rather than the simple
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Fido line editor (although that also exists in ROVERMSG).
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Basically, at this point ROVERMSG is finished and I am
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working on the rest of ROVER.
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Work on the rest of ROVER is also proceeding
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smoothly. Currently all of the menus can be reached, but
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most of the options do nothing yet. Also, there is no
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support for using the COM ports. I am very interested in
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hearing from people that have public domain code for all
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of the different file transfer protocols for the file area.
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If anyone could send me the code for XMODEM, YMODEM, MODEM7,
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KERMIT, TELINK, etc. I would really appreciate it. Please,
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if you FidoNet it to me, try to make the name of the file
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something original (I would hate to have one person's
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XMODEM.C get overwritten by another). I am particularly
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interested in code that is written in C, but I will take
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ASM or PASCAL also.
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Finally, anyone interested in beta-testing the
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full-blown ROVER from the console (use it like in test mode
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:02:06 Page 10
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and see if it does what you expect), please contact me. The
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beta-testers for ROVERMSG have done a GREAT job, and if any
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of you would like to continue testing ROVER, just let me
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know.
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------------------------------------------------------------
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:02:07 Page 11
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Sam was your average 15 year old American
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teenager, except for one thing, he had a
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computer and a nack to get into things he
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wasn't supposed to get into. He would charge
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his peers to get into the schools computer and
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change grades. $10 for a D, $15 for a C, $20
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for a B, $25 for an A and $100 a shot for
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credit changes. He did have on policy though,
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he would not look at someones grades unless he
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was paid for it and said they wanted it
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changed.
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One day sam went to far! He dropped the credir
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rating of his english teacher because she
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flunked him on purpose becasue he wasn't one
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of her favorites. After he did this he swithed
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his grade and went to bed. The next morning
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he heard the front door bell.
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"OPEN UP it's the FBI" came a demanding voice.
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"oh well" sighed sam "they got me"
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He opend the door to find his best friend
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standing in the doorway.
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"Whatcha trying to do?" yelled Sam "give me a
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heartatack!?!"
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"nahhhh" replied Bob "Just came over to tell
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you that my mom said out English 1 teacher was
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in the store and couldn't buy a dress because
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her credit ratings had been slashed" bob
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continued
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"hmmmmm wonder who could have done that?" Sam
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replied stupidly
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"When are you gonna give this crap up?!?"
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asked Bob
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"In time" sighed Sam "in time"
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"I just hope the she doesn't put 1 and 1
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together and get Sam Sulivan!" stated Bob
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"She won't! she has no more brains that a
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donkey!"said Sam hotly
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"Maybe, but I wouldn't be to sure." Bob said
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solemly
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Sure enough that afternoon the password to the
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banks computer didn't work and the five
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O'clock news a small blurb about the fact that
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the banks computer had been broken into. Sam
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wolfed down his dinner and ran to Bob's house
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and asked what he sould do.
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"Welllllll" said Bob " lay off for awhile,
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|
let things blow over." Sam did this for about
|
|
two weeks but ended up getting back into it.
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A student at his school heard about his
|
|
service and paid him $50 to change two grades
|
|
from B's to A's. Well as you can guess Sam
|
|
was caught. At 18 the only thing he does
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|
with his computer is his homework and
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|
programing. He does no more hacking. He
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|
wishes that he would have never started but
|
|
now it is to late. Now in his spare time he
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|
tries to explain to young hackers what their
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:02:09 Page 12
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doing might be fun, but it is dangerous and
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there are high risks.
|
|
This story isn't true but it has probably
|
|
happened a hundred times all ready. If you
|
|
know of someone doing this please stop them
|
|
now, and explain to them what they are doing
|
|
to to the future of telecommunicating.
|
|
|
|
Mike Ringer 437/117
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soon to be the sysop of
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Ollie's board
|
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300/1200
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------------------------------------------------------------
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:02:09 Page 13
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Some observations on long distance phone services
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|
|
Those of you who actually read the nodelist distribu-
|
|
tions may have noticed that the phone number for the Wash-
|
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A-RUG FIDO (109/483) was recently changed to (703) 359-6549.
|
|
The reasons behind the change may cause you to think twice
|
|
before chosing an alternative long distance service.
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|
|
The both phone lines are provided by Hadron Inc. (they
|
|
pay for my computer habits). The original line went through
|
|
the office PBX system (no big deal) and was working fine.
|
|
At least that is what I thought, until I saw the first phone
|
|
bill.
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|
|
Our PBX make use of a computerized call routing scheme.
|
|
In theory, it will select the lowest cost carrier for all
|
|
long distance calls. It also seems that the service used
|
|
for all calls west of the Mississippi is SBS. Again it
|
|
would appear to be no big deal. FIDO bundles up the mes-
|
|
sages to save time and money, and the routing optimization
|
|
further reduces the costs. Right? Well, that was what I
|
|
thought. Seems that "Murphy" (never forget him!) was out to
|
|
prove otherwise. For a few nights last month, FIDO 109/483
|
|
was unable to connect to FIDO 100/22 to deliver a file. No
|
|
big deal, FIDONET tries to connect 20 times and then gives
|
|
up till the next night. All told, total of 40 attempts over
|
|
2 night, with only one connect that lasted 45 seconds. No
|
|
big deal. WRONG! Seems that SBS is unable to differentiate
|
|
a call that completes from a call that does not connect.
|
|
That means 40 calls at $0.30 each! If you extend that over
|
|
a month or so, you can see that the nonconnecting calls can
|
|
wind up being more expensive than the one that get through.
|
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|
|
So, I got another phone line for Wash-A-RUG. It is an
|
|
external AT&T long-line, with no call optimization to muddy
|
|
the waters. As a side benefit, the new line has consider-
|
|
ably less noise on it. The old number still answers,
|
|
although the amount of noise introduced by the call forward-
|
|
ing is horrendous.
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|
The moral to the story? Check out your alternative long
|
|
distance services carefully. And NEVER forget that Murphy
|
|
is out there, lurking in the shadows, just waiting to prove
|
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|
|
"If anything can go wrong, it will"
|
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|
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SYSOP - 109/483 (Wash-A-RUG)
|
|
- 109/74 (The Bear's Den)
|
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|
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------------------------------------------------------------
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:02:11 Page 14
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|
|
For those of you that use [*shudder*] Wordstar on your
|
|
PCs, here are a few suggestions having to do with editing
|
|
and printing Fido-format documents (those following the
|
|
standard format of Fidonews and the various manuals).
|
|
This comes as a result of my trials and tribulations
|
|
experienced in downloading and printing the entire to-date
|
|
library of Fidonews and the Fido manual... and my attempts
|
|
to gather them into an easily handled format - loose leaf
|
|
binders.
|
|
I don't know how the format that Fidonews (and manuals)
|
|
use was arrived at, but I assume that it was in order to be
|
|
able to quickly use the DOS "TYPE" command to scan or print.
|
|
Indeed, this works out rather well, except for two
|
|
things that can't be done easily : format the page so that
|
|
the punch holes don't chew up words, and print using printer
|
|
control commands like doublestrike, LQ mode, etc.
|
|
The following was arrived at using Wordstar vers. 3.3
|
|
and an Epson FX-80 printer. It allows me to print documents
|
|
on continuous feed paper and leave room on the left for
|
|
punch holes.
|
|
Start Wordstar and call in the document to edit it.
|
|
Make sure your cursor is at the beginning of file, usually
|
|
on the "F" in the word Fidonews on page one (if that's what
|
|
you're working with). Now put in any print-control commands
|
|
you might want.
|
|
Next set your margins. I use left= column 5 , right=
|
|
column 85. It's important to maintain the 80 column
|
|
difference between the two... you might want to set each one
|
|
proportionally higher or lower depending on how much room
|
|
you want to leave on the left... I would think, though that
|
|
with the left at more than 10 you'd start to lose text off
|
|
the right side of the page.
|
|
Now just do a ^QQB to start continuous paragraph
|
|
reformatting, and hit the number 1 after it starts to speed
|
|
it up. When it gets to the end of the file, hit the space
|
|
bar to stop, and save it with ^KD... you can even be doing
|
|
all this while you're printing the last one - but don't set
|
|
the reformat speed faster than 5 or so, or the printer slows
|
|
down.
|
|
- Larry DiGioia 13/384
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:02:13 Page 15
|
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|
============================================================
|
|
FOR SALE
|
|
============================================================
|
|
|
|
CopyX is now available
|
|
|
|
CopyX.com is a comprehensive, user friendly Fido maintenance
|
|
utility featuring pop-up windows, designed to reduce the
|
|
amount of time required to maintain files.bbs
|
|
|
|
The COPY function employed within the program allow files to
|
|
be moved from one disk. or subdirectory to another with
|
|
overwrite protection. This is nothing special about this,
|
|
but what makes CopyX.com special is that it allow you to
|
|
enter the file description and after the file is copied it
|
|
appends files.bbs with the file name and description. Then
|
|
prompts you to delete to original. For example to copy a
|
|
file from your upload area to your sysop area you would:
|
|
|
|
1-enter file name >copyxdmo.com
|
|
2-give the file path >b:\bbs\sysop
|
|
3-describe f >Demo of CopyX the ultimate sysop utility
|
|
4-delete original >y
|
|
|
|
That's it, the file is now in the sysop area, the files.bbs
|
|
listing has been updated, and the original has been removed.
|
|
Time required 30 - 45 sec. Not bad ah ?
|
|
|
|
When using the file compare function, CopyX will read
|
|
through files.bbs and compare it to the directory listing if
|
|
it finds any `missing' files it prompts you to remove the
|
|
line from files.bbs (y/n) . If files are found in the
|
|
directory that are not in files.bbs you can add them by
|
|
pressing a single key, then entering the description. Other
|
|
options are skipping the file or deleting it from the
|
|
directory.
|
|
|
|
To round out the package a separate function allow you to
|
|
scroll through files.bbs a line at a time, deleting files
|
|
(and description) or adding/changing there description as
|
|
you go.
|
|
|
|
Additional supporting functions include displaying the
|
|
directory, listing files.bbs (or any other text file) and
|
|
changing drives.
|
|
|
|
CopyX is currently being distributed in two versions. The
|
|
first CopyXdmo is a demonstration version in which users are
|
|
encouraged to distribute freely to their friends and other
|
|
bbs operators. I hope that it will be available on all the
|
|
major fido BBSs. The demo version is identical to the real
|
|
version except that it will not save data to files.bbs.
|
|
|
|
This program can save you hours of work. If you value your
|
|
time at more then $ .50 per hour, you need this program. To
|
|
order send $25.00 to the address listed below.
|
|
|
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:02:15 Page 16
|
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|
|
Send Fidonet mail to 19/439 or US Mail
|
|
Robert Graham 1004 Cooper SQ Circle #267; Arlington Tx 76013
|
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FIDONEWS -- 12 Aug 85 00:02:15 Page 17
|
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============================================================
|
|
NOTICES
|
|
============================================================
|
|
It is with great sorrow that we must announce the death of
|
|
Andrew Fluegelman.
|
|
|
|
We have almost no details at this time, except for
|
|
confirmation of his death, apparently by suicide. We had
|
|
hoped to get someone closer to the scene to provide some
|
|
details, and we tried to find someone who knew him to write
|
|
a proper obituary, but as yet we have failed.
|
|
|
|
We never knew Mr. Fluegelman, or even very much about him.
|
|
We do know that he has exerted a profound influence on the
|
|
personal computer marketplace. He is probably best known as
|
|
the author of PC-Talk, which is probably the single most
|
|
popular communications program for the IBM-PC.
|
|
|
|
But he is also the first person to distribute a major
|
|
program using the freeware concept. In fact, the very term
|
|
"Freeware" is a trademark of The Headlands Press, the
|
|
company he founded.
|
|
|
|
Personal computer users everywhere owe a debt of gratitude
|
|
to Andrew Fluegelman, and he will be sorely missed.
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
The Interrupt Stack
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Nov 1985
|
|
Halley's Comet passes closest to Earth before perihelion.
|
|
|
|
24 Jan 1986
|
|
Voyager 2 passes Uranus.
|
|
|
|
9 Feb 1986
|
|
Halley's Comet reaches perihelion.
|
|
|
|
11 Apr 1986
|
|
Halley's Comet reaches perigee.
|
|
|
|
19 May 1986
|
|
Steve Lemke's next birthday.
|
|
|
|
24 Aug 1989
|
|
Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
|
|
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|
|
If you have something which you would like to see on this
|
|
calendar, please send a message to Fido 107/7.
|
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