This month, I'd like to talk about shareware. There are a lot of neat programs available on the online services. Perhaps you have been leery of on-line services because you don't know what's there. Here's some information on various programs to be found there. (Many user groups get these programs, so if you don't have a modem, drop into your local user group and see what people have.) Two of these programs are being covered in our "Reviews" column, but I'd like to tell you about the breadth of software available.
WHAT IS SHAREWARE?
Shareware is software that can be passed around from person to person. If you receive it and like it, you send in a registration fee. This fee allows you to get updates of the program and perhaps more documentation. Sometimes registering allows you to fully use the program--you may receive the real working version or a password or something. Most shareware is based on the recipient being honest. Many people aren't, and unless there is just an incredibly huge market (like the IBM), shareware doesn't work as a means of subsistence.
Shareware for the GS ranges from Hyperstudio stacks to Eamon adventures to classic games to great demos to real, fully-functional GS software. Let's look at all the types of software available.
ENTERTAINMENT
Milestones Reviewed in our Reviews column this month, Milestones is a
ton of fun and helps the homeless at the same time!
Antetris A great revenge and a clever idea, Antetris turns Tetris
upside down and lets you blast those consarn blocks out of
existence! (This is also in our Reviews column.)
Bounce It! A very good implementation of the classic Breakout.
Mean 18 Courses
There are no shortages of these out there, but we contacted
the best course creators to do the ones featured on Softdisk
G-S. Many of them are worth looking at, though.
Hyperstudio Games
One stack I enjoyed was a riddle stack where you wandered a
maze to find a bunch of riddles. You must solve them, fit the
answers into a puzzle grid, then send your answer in for the
$100 prize! I came very close, but apparently I was the first
to actually REGISTER for the puzzle, so when I figured out
the right answer, I didn't have the heart to send it to the
guy. Shareware on the Apple just doesn't work very well, and
I didn't want to blow others' incentives for sending in their
registration fee. Maybe someday we'll publish something like
this if people are interested. It was fun.
Eamon Adventures
Eamon Adventures are public domain (they don't actually cost
anything) and are in a format that allows anyone with a bit
of diligence to make one. There are dozens upon dozens of
these adventures available.
Pangea Games
The guys at Pangea Software produced Xenocide, a great game
that I reviewed on Softdisk G-S #8. Partly to advertise this
game, partly to support the GS, Brian Greenstone and Dave
Triplett started producing "24-hour games"--games produced
over 24 working hours. These games are as follows:
Grackel: the first one--shoot the little birdies.
Quadronome: Three-D handball. Tough.
Copy Killers: Chase pirates and avoid viruses in
a scrolling maze.
Orbizone: asteroids with weird shapes--and you
can edit the shapes, too!
Senseless Violence: Frogger, except with a little
baby. NOT for the easily offended.
Senseless Violence II: Subtitled "You Use, You Die",
this game has you zipping through a space
tunnel collecting and zapping.
Cosmocade (Calibus and Naxos): Calibus is a very
cool Xevious-type game. You can edit
the backgrounds yourself!
Naxos: Originally developed for Softdisk G-S!
After we helped them with certain weak
point in their designs, they upped the price
133%. We are still quite irked by that, but
we got a slight revenge--the Naxos they
uploaded doesn't work. It is just like
Operation Wolf, though.
Sword of Sodan Demo
GREAT demo of a game that never got released. Sigh.
Dragon Wars Demo
Cool demo of a game that DID get released. It is like The
Bard's Tale, but has more animation and cool MIDISynth music!
APPLICATIONS AND SUCH
Paint 256 All our cover pages are done with this program. It's the only
one in existence that does what it does.
Hyperstudio Stacks
Tours of the IIgs, educational stacks, indexes, and more are
just waiting to be downloaded.
UTILITIES
Shrinkit
By far the most used program ever produced, this is public
domain. It is used to compress files for archiving or modem
transfer, and then decompress them for actual use. All files
on GEnie are packed by this program, so it had better be the
first thing you download!
SHR Convert
This program converts Mac, Apple, GIFS, and Print Shop
graphics to GS-format pictures. (GIFs are Graphics
Interchange Format pictures, which can be sent to another
computer and changed into that computer's graphics format
with a GIF conversion program.) It is very useful.
PROGRAMMER STUFF
Source code There's tons of source code available. If you need help,
look on GEnie or other online services for helpful source
code to look at. It's free and informative.
Programmers' Bulletin Board
If you need more help, leave a message for someone here.
Programmers' Real-Time Conference
If you need to ask direct questions, come to real-time
conference and ask questions of some of the best programmers
around. You can't beat it for real help. (I realize I've
digressed from shareware for a moment, but I wanted you
to know this is available.)
ART
Print Shop You think WE'VE got a lot of images? There are thousands
out there. However, there is no quality control, and it shows.
Clip Art Lots of handy clip art is available, but there is no quality
control here either.
Scanned Images
From Star Trek to nature to Bart Simpson to models to
who knows what, there are a LOT of scanned images online.
Scanned images are real pictures captured by a digitizer.
See, there's lots of inexpensive (and many times free) stuff for people. Contact your users group or the Big Red Computer Club for software, or get an account on GEnie. There's hundreds of programs waiting just for you!
A NEAT IDEA
My wrists began to hurt because I rest them on the table as I type. So my friend Donna made me a cotton-filled cloth-covered pad to rest my wrists on and the pain went away! It's about 5" x 15" x .25", and it works like a charm. Just thought I'd mention it.
NEAT IDEA II
Lee and I made wooden shelves that fit around our GS. There are slots for disk boxes, correspondence, Post-It Notes, a lamp, and so on. If you have any woodworking talent (I don't!), you might consider designing shelves exactly like you want them. Why pay for something that isn't exactly what you want?
MORE (OF THE SAME) WORDS FROM THE SCULLSTER
CompuServe Magazine reports that John Sculley has opened up a forum for questions about the Mac and Apple II lines on CompuServe. From the article:
There were a variety of topics discussed in the Apple II Forum, but
by far the question of most concern was Apple's future plans for the
Apple II family of computers.
Sculley addressed that concern as follows: "Apple will continue to
sell, support, and service the Apple II product line, and provide
product enhancements to that line as long as customer demand
warrants it. Apple plans to enhance the existing product line
through updates to system software and peripheral add-ons. On the
other hand, we have no plans to introduce new, stand-alone Apple II
models at this time."
Thanks for the new, refreshing outlook, John!
THE ADMISSION
Deep in the darkest recesses of my soul, hidden behind the locked and chained oaken doors of common sense and ego, in a small corner of the dark, shadowed hall of my programming subconscious, I still would like to write a lo-res game.
