Contents of Issue #2

The Contents of Issue #2 (2/96):

In this SCENE+, as usual, there are several interesting things that cater to almost every taste, with very few exceptions.

A. Editorial

As always, I report on what I've been doing over the past few weeks and what I plan to do next. It will likely remain a regular section.

B. Contents

What you are reading right now; not overly exciting, but necessary nonetheless.

C. Letters

Excerpts from various letters I receive, including some from non-members (yet).

D. Articles

Jaxon Hollis gets worked up (and rightly so) about people who "crack" using a Multiface or copy with snapshots. Then there is another article on cracking: "Cracking Workshop Part 4", where I describe how to turn SU password-protected games into disk versions without password prompts. The final article covers the new mouse driver, which is freeware and can be incorporated into your own programs. Special thanks go to Thomas Eberle of SUC for sending Jaxon Hollis's article as a text file.

E. Addresses

Almost all key scene addresses, mostly gathered from SUC-SESSION. If you'd like your service listed too, just send me a letter. Later, addresses will be merged with advertising and classifieds under a single menu option.

F. News

Some of the most important news; this section will be expanded even further in the future.

G. Gallery

Once again, the finest pictures for DTP and your own games. This time, Texturer4 from my Amiga converter was used extensively, ensuring the pictures look great even in bright colors. It's completely understandable that after only three weeks I cannot present pictures from other people yet; there simply wasn't enough time. This issue has significantly fewer images than issue #1 because I had far too many other projects to take care of.

H. Game + Util

The game Pyramid Patience is a world premiere here in SCENE+; nobody else has it yet. I really coded almost to total exhaustion just to finish the game on time. As a bonus, instructions are included in both German and English, so I don't need to give any further explanations here, except: this game is exclusive to SCENE+ readers, hence not (yet) freeware!

Tape Label Master is a utility for creating inlay cards for cassette cases. You can make up to ten entries per side along with counter positions; levels can also be documented with the counter. The program contains only English instructions.

I. Animations

Oh, how I labored just to digitize a few frames from Star Trek and Deep Space Nine, convert them, and assemble them into animation sequences! It was very time-consuming, but I think the result is well worth all the effort. Since two animations run only on 128K machines and are controlled from BASIC, you can learn not only how to make such things yourself, but also how to page the 128K banks. To create them, I used the Screencompressor +D and modified it so that only the last two compression methods are used. Explanation: Texturer16 produces images that pack most effectively with those two methods anyway, and besides, these unpack the fastest. I needed uniform decompression speed to avoid spoiling the animation effect.

J. Demos

Two demos created by F.B.I. together with his friends during his visit to the Czech Republic. I think "To je jedno" is quite a funny demo. Thanks to Thomas for sending it!

K. Freeware

As always, the latest freeware lists! There are some interesting novelties; for instance, I was informed from England that Gremlin is releasing its Spectrum products as Public Domain, so I've experimentally included one of their games: Trailblazer. It was cracked and packed by me—let's see how it is received.

L. Extras

Here you'll find the uncompiled new mouse drivers that you may incorporate into your own programs, as well as the BASIC version of Tape Label Master, should you want to modify it for another printer. The files "TL64Chars" and "TL-LDIRS" belong to it: they are simply the font (288 bytes, 3×8 pixels!) and code to copy the screen into memory and back, because otherwise any INPUT would ruin the screen. It is certainly easier than writing a custom input routine with scrolling, especially since up to 42 characters fit in a single field!

There are no other menus. In any case, I wish you lots of fun with SCENE+!

L.C.D.