Loadstar 215/215.d81/t.diskovery

Text File | 2002-01-01 | 5.0 KB | 180 lines

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          D I S K O V E R Y

           by Dave Moorman


    Ten years ago, as I write this, I
was in Albuquerque, NM, at my sister's
place. Sheri had driven to Missouri,
picked up her dad, Grandpa Jack, and
the next day they would be flying to
Phoenix, AZ to visit his sister. Matt
and I were also on the way to Phoenix,
to pick them up at the airport.

    My sister had a game on her PC
which kept Matt up all night: Railroad
Baron (I think it was called). Matt
was fascinated with the strategy. I
kept wondering if I could do something
like it on my C-64. The next day, we
arrived in Phoenix just in time to
meet Sheri and Jack. We had a grand
week visiting cousins -- while Jack
and his sister had one last chance to
be together.

    Matt and I drove all the way back
home on Friday -- and I couldn't get
the railroad game out of my mind. I
knew it would be a tight squeeze. A
continental-sized map would take a lot
of memory. What if each character tile
was about 15 miles on a side. Then 256
tiles would be 3840 miles -- more than
enough. 80 tiles north/south would be
1200 miles. Cut off Florida and most
of Texas....

    At home, Sunday afternoon, I
rummaged through some old LOADSTARs,
searching for information about using
fonts. I didn't even have a good font
editor, so I wrote one in Basic. I
also had to learn about bank
switching, and build an engine to put
the 256 x 80 map on the screen. The
program grew slowly.

    A friend from Kansas City came to
visit, and I put the project on hold.
We talked about most everything, but
one subject was how to get published
as a writer. Science fiction master
Robert Heinlein said that getting
published required five steps:

  1. You must write. (Funny how many
    wannabes don't get this part.)

  2. You must finish what you write.
    (That takes care of most of the
    rest of the crowd!)

  3. Do not edit. (Wait for an editor
    to buy your work and tell you what
    needs to be done.)

  4. Put it in the mail.

  5. Keep it in the mail (to various
    outlets) until it sells.

    My pal left, and I got down to the
thousands of final touches on the
program. I merged the homemade font
designer and the map/screen engine so
I could build nice coast lines and
such. The day came in September when
the program -- Sea to Sea -- was
finished.

    It looked good. And after the way
I had urged my friend to get his stuff
in the mail to be published, I needed
to go and do likewise! But where?

    Not only was the program too large
for paper magazines (can you imagine
typing in 20480 bytes just for the
map!), but the paper mags were gone. I
had not subscribed to LOADSTAR for
several years. For all I knew, it,
too, had slipped into oblivion.

    I called the Softdisk number. The
lady there said, "Oh, yes! LOADSTAR is
alive and well." So I put Sea to Sea
in the mail and waited for my
rejection slip.

    That year, I wrote a Christmas
pageant and the area churches were
performing it at the LeRoy farm
community, about half way between
Fleming (where we lived) and the
Lonestar school. One evening, we were
hurrying to get supper together before
practice when Sheri answered the
phone.

    "Dave, it's for you. Some guy from
Lonestar asking about your program."

    I must have sounded exceedingly
befuddled -- until the man on the
other end of the line mentioned "Sea
to Sea". This was Fender Tucker! From
LOADSTAR!

    I wouldn't be getting a rejection
slip after all.

    The ministry can get very
depressing -- and over the next years,
I found and kept my sanity by playing
"god" and pushing around bits and
bytes. During the worst times, I
fantasized about chucking it all,
moving to Shreveport, and working with
Fender -- for free, if need be!

    I had no way of knowing that part
of my fantasy would come to pass. In
2000, when Fender and Judi needed to
get on with other things in their
lives, Sheri and I were in the right
place at the right time to carry on
the LOADSTAR tradition.

    And we keep getting new software
to share with you. If you have a
Stereo SID cartridge, you will love
John Kaputa's great music. The
Derocher brothers have some "Tabloid"
fun to share with you. Take a tour of
Holly, CO. And enjoy some excellent
games and puzzles from the LOADSTAR
Vault.

    By the way -- I got the message
from 1541 users. The Presenter menu
and the order of software on the
directories are now the same. Sorry
about all the flipping and flopping
you had to do with earlier issues.

    As a part-time vocation, LOADSTAR
sometimes has to wait while other
things get done, like Vacation Bible
School. So we slip from our monthly
schedule a bit. But you certainly know
by now that we will send you every
issue of your subscription. We want to
see LOADSTAR live as long as you want
to enjoy our offerings.

    And finally, our proof-reader
Robin Harbron suggests I invite others
to share your stories. Think of it --
here is a chance to share how
incredibly clever you were with people
who know what you are talking about!
Just use Edstar or Mr. Edstar to put
your ideas on disk and send to the
address (or email) on the Masthead.

 DMM