Letters

Letters

Guido Schell, 19.07.1996, Auf dem Stocke 37, 32584 Loehne

Hello LCD! Shame on me! I know, I haven't been in touch for a long time. Thanks for your last letter and Scene #3. I hope you've had a chance to play Stratego by now!? The reason why I'm writing so late? Well, I'm working on a +D section for the two German clubs (Part 1 is already in the Profi Club issue from June 96). I really took on a lot there! The research for the articles takes longer than the actual writing. Besides, I have a tendency towards perfectionism. So it happens that I rewrite some things 2-3 times. Added to that, I don't spend that much time on the computer anyway. In summer it's even less.

In the meantime, the next issue(s) of Scene+ should be out. The last one I have is, as I said, #3. I would be happy if you could send me the latest issues. I offered my help in the form of articles for Scene some time ago. At the moment it doesn't look like I have time for it, but the will is still there. I just don't really know what to write about. Do you have an idea? By the way, do you know the magazine Computerflohmarkt (CF for short)? It's a classified ads magazine specifically for computers. There is also a Spectrum section. I put some advertising for Scene in the July issue there. I hope that's in your interest? The next issue comes out at the end of July. Let's see if everything I sent in is included. If you don't get the CF, I can make you copies of the Sinclair pages. If you want, I'll send you a few empty coupons (in case you want to put something in yourself). You see, I am a bit active too. I just always plan a lot and start many things. But usually, it gets finished eventually.

Enclosed are two disks. The first one is for the SAM. It's an old demo disk (FORMAT 1991). Maybe you don't have it yet due to its age. On disk 2, you will find some Wordmaster texts: 07.07.96 is my want and for-sale list. Please pass it on. Thanks! +d-ecke -01 and 02 are texts for the aforementioned +D section. Issue 02 is not out yet. So, exclusive for you in advance. If you want, you can also include the +D section in Scene. But Proficlub, Userclub, and ASC might be a bit much. And the Brits can't read my drivel anyway. Well, I'll leave the decision to you!

How many members does the ASC actually have? And how many of them are not in the German User Club or Proficlub? How do you become a member?

PS: What's the deal with the petty war between Prism PD and AlchNews? Due to a lack of English skills, I don't get it. Besides, I didn't catch the beginning of it. I find it all quite childish. Both of our German clubs (or rather their leaders) don't seem to agree either. I've had that impression for a long time and once mentioned it to Wolfgang from Proficlub. But he didn't really comment on it. Let's see how it develops. Hopefully not negatively, otherwise I'll threaten "coercive measures"! I have no desire for such crap! I think you see it the same way, or?

Hello Guido, finally I pulled myself together and converted this text for Tasword (please use Tasword, but in two months it won't matter anyway), so here we go with this slightly shortened letter:

Stratego tried it out! It plays quite well, but for a deeper game, my time is not enough. Due to an error in the +D system, some Legacy-files were cross-linked and I have to rewrite some things. That you revise the texts multiple times doesn't surprise me, you should have seen me when I made the SCENE paper-mag. As for articles, I'm not picky, only some Brits wanted something in English; I'm just as happy about articles about coding as I am about game descriptions (Classic/News) and everything else; the scene itself lives from programs.

I used to be very active in CF, but since I moved, it's quite a long way to the next magazine dealer who stocks it. I might be able to buy a copy again soon. By the way, I have never used coupons, I write everything normally with the Speccy and print it out. My activities are currently limited to everything that has to do with the Speccy, from a small hardware tweak (portable Speccy!) to writing demos and games. Not for Children II is already in the works, but 70 percent of my activity is dedicated to the Legacy. As for the number of ASC members, there are currently twelve people again; naturally, this does not include the Scene+ only readers, who are e.g. managed by FPD and swap subscriptions. To become a member, it is enough to send me a postal order or registered letter with DM 40,-/öS 280,-.

As for the (about the petty war!) war, it initially started about porn software, I believe. In any case, lawyers and other bloodsuckers have since been involved to reveal how many members the other club has (nothing with 600 from Alchemist!), I agree with you, it is so childish! The difficulties of the German clubs are based on the fact that their politics differ (actually no reason for a dispute) and their different contacts: SPC leans more towards Alchemist, while SUC sympathizes with Prism. I, on the other hand, remain neutral and try not to offend anyone and to ignore insults. I have nothing against Wolfgang, nor against Thomas, and that won't change anytime soon. Austria has always been somewhat neutral. Actually, I think that both clubs are necessary, and that their leaders do a very good job. It may be that the clubs are sometimes at odds, but that is no reason to fly at each other until the pages of their info sheets fly.

Tiger's Claw of Illusion

Hello LCD. This time you were really hyper-fast. Two issues at the same time, a great achievement. Unfortunately, we are a bit pressed for time this time, our move is imminent and thus our Speccy is also lying fallow for a while. Nevertheless, we have set our minds on getting a few more things done.

As we can see, you have received contact with coders from the former USSR almost at the same time as we have. There is still a huge Spectrum scene there, even if our computer there is called "Pentagon" (128k version). We have since received quite a few demos and games, whereby no one has bothered us with any copyright rights. The letters just say that we can use the programs for the SPC and that there is much more. We will double-check that again but hope that it remains that way. Why should we pay money for something that is offered to us voluntarily? That is surely also in the sense of many users. For that, we naturally have to accept that the programs are kept in the Russian language. For most, however, the meaning is understandable and does not require much explanation.

Much worse, however, is the circumstance that many programs (and some demos too) do not want to run with our Speccys. For one thing, because of the Kempston joystick query, which is handled quite obviously differently on the "Pentagon", for another, programs/demos crash completely unexpectedly. We have sent you such problem programs. Every now and then there is also the notorious ULA-Snow, which is very disturbing.

For the diskmag, you can perhaps choose something from the abundant demos. The "Ecstasy" megademo as a whole certainly contains too many files, but "Imp Video" from it is very worth seeing and goes back a bit into our preferred "multimedia" corner. Since you are the editor, you now have the agony of choice. For the utilities, we suggest "Spectrum-D", which outputs (error) messages in German. After all, we are dealing with the only German-language diskmag. The program itself should be seen more as a gag.

We would also like to recommend two PD games. The first is "Chicago", a dice game that still gives us a lot of joy today. The Spectrum can, by the way, replace any fellow player. The other is "Tangram" together with "Tangmix". It is by Peter Miosga and we haven't even seen such a program of this kind among the "professional" ones. For fans of tricky figure placement, surely a treat. Hours of occupation are guaranteed.

So, that should be it for this time. We wish you continued success with "Scene". The WoMo team of the SPC.

Hi WoMo, unfortunately, probably because of the holidays, I have somewhat jumbled my schedule. I hope to catch up on this; issue 10 should appear on time again and still have a few small cosmetic specialities.

As far as the contact with Russians is concerned, I must confess that I got it via some Poles. In the USSR, there is a multitude of Spectrum clones, from the Hobbit, to the Scorpion, to the excellent Pentagon, which I will order soon (more on that in the editorial). It is unfortunately true that the Russian programs are in Russian, just like Spanish ones in Spanish and Czech ones in Czech; although one can assume that all users understand enough English to play games, only very few coders stick to this international language (SHAME!). The problem with the Russian texts can be solved, however, if people who understand something about it do a translation, just as I did the English version of Scorpiion's The Machine (well, I'm missing two words).

Well, since the Pentagon doesn't have SLOW memory (in the Speccy 48: 16384 to 32767), there is no ULA-snow there. The thing with the Kempston stick is like this: If no Kempston interface is connected to the Speccy, the values come from the ULA port (attributes). On the Pentagon and all other GUS-Spectrum clones, Kempston interfaces are already permanently built-in; there's probably nothing you can do about that except to inform the coders about our predicament, but not even Rüdiger Döring cared much about it. The "non-functional demos" sometimes run on the +2A, which I only recently configured for +D. Yes, Imp Video is great, but instead of...

...instead of putting that on SCENE+ all by itself, I'll release the whole demo piece by piece. I once saw something like Tangram on the PC, well, whatever. However, I did manage to get a game from a Polish democoder, even with a dedication (for SCENE), which is once again something special. And not to forget, the brand new "Ravers Paradise" by Illusion. I also wanted to include Dies Irae, but my copy failed miserably; that will be caught up on later. While we're on the subject, Jordan of Exodus will contact you shortly and also wants to become a member of the SPC, in exchange for contributing! I can only recommend him, as his latest demo is really impressive. Tiger's Claw of Illusion. - So, that would be all.

Now to the question: Do you think the dispute between SPC and SUC is good or bad? Write in your opinions on this (please, no insults to either side!). Perhaps it would be good if both parties involved had their say to make their viewpoints clear...