Commodore Free 5/Commodore_Free_Issue_05_2007_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.iv moorman

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 9KB | 311 lines

uInterview with Loadstars Dave
Moorman By Commodore Free

Picture used with permission from
http://www.dickestel.com/expo2005.htm
photograph taken by Robert Bernardo

>Q. Please intoduce yourself to our
Reader

A. My name is Dave Moorman. I am 57
years old, and have been a hobbyist
programmer since 1979. I am married,
have one grown son, and live in
southeastern Colorado.

>Q. Tell us a little about what you
do for a living

A. My real vocation is an ordained
clergy with the United Methodist
Church. I serve three small churches,
preaching twice every Sunday morning.
I am theologically "progressive," yet
revel in the power of the Spirit that
changes lives.

>Q. For anyone who doesnt know what
is your commitment to Commodore

 A. My first Commodore computer was a
C-128, bought in 1986 when I needed a
real computer for my work. Thanks to a
flakey power switch and a marvelous
book (The Complete Commodore Inner
Space Anthology by Karl J.H. Hildon),
I "graduated" to the C-64 in 1988. In
1992, I saw a railroading game on my
sister's PC and had to try to do
something like it on the C-64.

One of the greatest thrills of my life
was getting that game -- Sea to Sea --
published on LOADSTAR #107. I wrote
quite a number of other programs for
LOADSTAR during the next several
years, along with some articles.

In 1999, I discovered PC emulation,
and suggested to Editor Fender Tucker
that we make a LOADSTAR for PC people.
He said "Go for it," and I did. During
2000, I published eLOADSTAR to a
growing number of subscribers. At the
end of 2000, Fender was ready to end
the magazine at issue 199 and move on
to other things, so I offered to
continue LOADSTAR as long as possible.
We just shipped #247, and will
continue through issue 256.

>Q. What Commodore equiptment do you
own

A. I have several C-64s and 1541s
around the house and church. But my
main set-up is a C-64 II, a 1541 II,
and two CMD FD2000 drives. I am
ashamed to admit that these are not
even JiffyDOSed. I do most of my work
on VICE 1.07, since it gives me fast
access to the harddrive and a couple
of great MSDOS utilities: 64Copy and
1581Copy.

>Q. Tell our reader a little about
the Loadstar history and how you came
to be working on the magazine

A. Back in 1982, a couple in
Shreveport, LA, decided to put
together a disk software magazine for
the Apple II called Softdisk. Jim and
Judi Mangham began their enterprise on
their dining room table, but soon grew
to office space in downtown
Shreveport. In 1984, the C-64 was fast
becoming the leading home computer,
and Softdisk, Inc., decided to branch
in that direction. The name LOADSTAR
is from the

command to start the disk -
LOAD"*",8,1.

In 1984, Fender Tucker, a guitarist
for a bar band in New Mexico, came to
Shreveport to become the new managing
editor of LOADSTAR. Fenderbrought a
unique "off-kilter" attitude and a
quest for something he called (but
never quite defined as) LOADSTAR

Quality. Two things about LOADSTAR
impressed me from the first issue I
every read: First, the magazine --
both in text and programs -- was a
continuous environment. One of the
Qualities of a LOADSTAR program was
that exiting it took the user back to
the main menu. I thought it must be
like being on QLink, but I was wrong.
LOADSTAR was better! The other thing

-- and this was back in 1988-89 --
was that unlike the numerous paper
mags, LOADSTAR respected the reader's
intelligence. Many of the paper
publications were kind of stuck at
"here's how you get started." LOADSTAR
had tutorials on using custom fonts,
getting bitmaps to work, and
compression algorithms. It also had
utilities and ML toolboxes that
openned whole new possibilities to
programmers.

At some point, Softdisk, Inc., decided
to discontinue the original Apple II
Softdisk publication -- at aroundissue
163. In a couple of years, LOADSTAR
sailed past that milestone and became
the longest running disk magazine in
history.As I said, after getting Sea
to Sea published, I became a regular
contributor. During rough times, I
imagined moving to Shreveport and
sitting by Fender and Jeff Jones all
day long whacking out code. I kind of
got my wish, except no Fender or Jeff.

>Q. Why is loadstar to finish

A. Two factors (maybe three) caused us
(my wife is the bookkeeper and "stuff
it lady") to decide to bring LOADSTAR
to an end. The first is that our
subscription base has dwindled. This
has always been a semi-commercial
venture, mostly a source of "mad
money." Putting together an issue
takes a certain amount of time -- and
waning subscriptions no longer covered
the time spent.

The second reason is that our supply
of new programs has dried up. We still
get a few -- Ricky Derocher, Jane
Voskap Jones, John Kaputa, Dennis
Hildreth, Andrew Roberts, and a few
others have sent material. But it is
harder to find new software. Finally,
I will probably move in a couple of
years. Methodist pastors move around a
lot. It would be best to wind up this
section of my life before we are sent
to Last Chance, Colorado.

>Q. You have started a Secret Society
of commodorecoders can you explain
this

A. Back at the LUCKI Expo -- was it
2004? -- I got talking with Bo
Zimmerman and others, sharing secrets
and ideas about coding. I wanted such
discussions to continue, so I came up
with the idea of the Secret Society.
The idea was to stick to just
programming on the unenhanced C-64,
but both in BASIC and ML. About a year
ago, I got extremely busy with my
pastorate and lost touch with the
SSOCC. I am glad Robin Harbron and
Jeff Ledger have continued the
discussions. I hope to get back to it
soon.

>Q.Loadstar to me seemed all about
getting people quality technical
information was this the goal

A. I hope we are! I like to offer a
range of interactive entertainment --
games, puzzles, multi-media, plus
tools, utilities, and information.

>Q.If someone wanted to start
programming where would they start

A. With a C-64! And a book on BASIC
2.0. The BASIC command list in the
user's guide would be a start. I would
strongly suggest sitting down with the
book and writing out a program with
pen and paper, then checking it by
hand. The secret to programming is
learning to think exactly like the
machine. Our NICKEL GAMES CD-ROM
includes a good beginners tutorial and
BASIC bible (which I would like to
publish in CommodoreFree, if you would
be agreeable). And LOADSTAR's
CompleatProgrammer has 2-1581s full of
stuff -- from basic BASIC to courses
on ML. Learning how to use ARRAYS is
the heart of all programming.

>Q.Do you believe modern systems are
too complex?

A. Right in One! I realize they must
have such complexity because of their
size. They need the size in order to
handle huge amounts of data (like wave
files, photos or movies). And while
the internet is great, it would not be
possible without advertising -- which
needs photos, etc. So the modern home
computer is way too big and complex
for most users, and yet must be so in
order to do what most users want done.

Back in 1997, I was assigned to a
church that had a 486 PC, and had to
spend a lot of time working on it - -
newsletters and such. I also got on
the internet on the PC. In fact, for a
year or so, I barely used my C-64. So,
even with the SuperCPU, I never got
into GEOS or Wheels or Wings. I
became, instead, a "cross-platformer."
PC for work. C-64 for fun.Today, I use
PhotoDeluxe to massage images, then
transfer them to the C-64 with GoDot.
I also do video editing and CD and DVD
burning on my Pentium 400 Mhz machine.
And of course, newsletters and
databases.

>Q. What's your favourite program/game
from Loadstar's long history?

A. Recently, I have become addicted to
Shamrock -- a solitaire by Maurice
Jones. Blockhead's Revenge, by Kate
and Ron Slaminko, keeps me up all
night. Sea to Sea is still a favorite,
as I try to get 6 trains in and out of
Chicago without a fatal crash.I would
say that the greatest piece of code
ever published on LOADSTAR was/is
Mr.Mouse, by Lee Novak. It came out in
1997, and made the C-64 totally
point-andclick. Plus, it has a
marvelous toolbox of useful commands
such as Print At and Scrolling Menu.

>Q. What's your favourite bit of
Commodore equipment?

A.The SuperCPU kicks the C-64 into
high gear. If Maurice Randall ever
gets mine fixed, I will be ready to go
back to my old "brown betty."

>Q. Do you prefer using an emulator or
the real thing?

A.I use VICE 1.07 -- which works well
on my 400 Mhz PC very well. I like
having the whole harddisk at my
disposal. And, I can flip between
64Copy (where I move files to and from
disk images), Photo Deluxe, GoDot,
WinZip, and VICE. I'm spoiled, I
guess.For me, it is not the machine.
It is the platform -- the memory map
and ML and BASIC, the VIC II and SID.
I have learned a lot about all this,
and still have miles to go before I
have fully explored this amazing
computer.

>Q. Will you still be a regular
Commodore user once Loadstar finishes?

A.I certainly will! Until my mind
fails, I will certainly get ideas for
projects. And the place for me to sit
down and make them real is the C-64.
Here I am god (little "g") of 65536
bytes -- who never talk back and
usually do what I want. And if worse
comes to worst, I can always press
<Alt-R>, and the machine happily says

READY.

...end...