ABOUT...

ABOUT...

Hi, SPECCY'ers!

Well, the time has come for the next issue of my network zine, which you've already grown so 'fond' of (8-)). As you understood from the intro you just loaded, this zine is called:

<< OUT SIDE #6 ! >>

Well, I have nothing to do today, so I decided to sit down and write the texts, except as luck would have it, nothing comes to mind :(. But in spite of everything, the issue is on the air. By the way, when I described the controls in Sider #3, I forgot to mention (to be honest, I just found out myself) that when using the mouse in the texts, right after loading, a button is selected that will remain active throughout the entire page. When exiting the page to the intro screen and going back, the selection is made anew!!! However, for some reason this doesn't happen in the shell (intro) :(, I myself don't know how that could be...

So, how do you like the tunes? I struggled for a long time to get the tunes from PRO TRACKER 3.4 running (previously only music from PRO TRACKER 2.4 worked); for some reason the shell and the texts refused to work properly, but now everything seems to be fine!

Well, nothing to write about again... Oh, I almost forgot... Anyone whose computer has more than 128 kilos of memory and possesses the TR_DOS 5.12F add-on can have quite a bit of perverse fun copying the Sider onto a RAM_DISK and running it from there—I'm hooked on doing that myself...

The previous two Siders didn't turn out as monoblocks due to the new section (#4), the presence of sprites (#4, #5), and large tunes (#4, #5). The file with the .1 extension MUST go right after the BASIC file!!! Otherwise... Wait, here's another trick. I think there is some chance of using only a single file (for your info: the 2nd file only contains the music and sprites for the texts, while the 1st has the shell itself along with its music, picture, border, and the texts themselves). The trick to using a single file is as follows:

1. It is desirable that the .B file be placed at the end of the disk;
2. Immediately after the file, roughly speaking, there must be completely empty space! Up to approximately 150 sectors (the space must be as clean as after a format);
3. I haven't tested any of the above, so no complaints to me whatsoever!!!

Now then, what's in store today:

1. I think you already know...
2. Continuation of 'about the Beatles' and other news;
3. Some funny bits (don't know which ones yet);
4. Weeell...
5. I decided to continue the theme in this issue that was started in #4.

Probably only page 2 will be different—I'll use a 64-character font in it, because there's a ton of text and it has to be crammed somewhere!

Well, that's probably all I wanted to say for today—no, not all... I also made some changes in the play: I fixed the font (for those who didn't notice) so you wouldn't get confused by the letters, and neither would I.

P.S.:

This issue of the zine was supposed to come out almost a week earlier, but... You know how it is—holidays, this and that... Three days drinking, two days nursing a hangover, another day feeling sick and a day recovering, and so on. Also, the delay was due to the ending of the play turning out to be corrupted on the tape where I get everything from. I had to wait for it to be re-recorded.

P.P.S.:

In the funny bits, where the texts are from V. Skorodumov, the coloring might have some glitches, since I wasn't the one who colored them. Therefore, a request: please don't color the texts, or at least don't insert extra control codes that I then have to sit and kill!!!

Now that's all!

15.05.99

Mikhail (MIHEICH)