Software?

[oddbatt]

What software does Hero Games use to layout their books and character sheets?

Thanks!

[Ben Seeman]

Adobe InDesign.

[Steve Long]

Version 2.0 of InDesign, to be precise.

With some help from a couple of old Etch-A-Sketches we've got lying around. ;)

[Sketchpad]

Originally posted by Steve Long
Version 2.0 of InDesign, to be precise.

With some help from a couple of old Etch-A-Sketches we've got lying around. ;)

Wow! I never thought of Hero as being so hi-tech!! I mean .. In Design is one thing, but ETCH-A-SKETCH?! I mean ... damn! Graphic Designers everywhere must be in awe because, not only do you have an Etch-A-Sketch ... but a COUPLE of them ... I'm still saving up cash to get mine ;)

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by Sketchpad
Wow! I never thought of Hero as being so hi-tech!! I mean .. In Design is one thing, but ETCH-A-SKETCH?! I mean ... damn! Graphic Designers everywhere must be in awe because, not only do you have an Etch-A-Sketch ... but a COUPLE of them ... I'm still saving up cash to get mine ;)

Macintosh Users have, of course, been using Etch-A-Sketch Technology since 1986. They were built into the old Mac 128 KE's. There was only the distressing problem of losing all 128K of RAM when you upended the computer and shook it.

Keith "Desktop Revolutionary" Curtis

[TechnoViking]

True story: One of the last Apple computer released before the Macintosh (I think the Apple IIg) was design with a loose connection in the computer. The offical fix for the problem from Apple was to pick up your computer and drop it from a height of 3".

Mike

[Bazza]

Originally posted by Mike Basinger
True story: One of the last Apple computer released before the Macintosh (I think the Apple IIg) was design with a loose connection in the computer. The offical fix for the problem from Apple was to pick up your computer and drop it from a height of 3".

Mike Mike, that would be the abortive business computer -- the Apple III. If you were lucky it worked others were DOA.

Bazza "Mac Trivia" Clarke

[Bazza]

Originally posted by keithcurtis
Macintosh Users have, of course, been using Etch-A-Sketch Technology since 1986. They were built into the old Mac 128 KE's. There was only the distressing problem of losing all 128K of RAM when you upended the computer and shook it.

Keith "Desktop Revolutionary" Curtis Keith, are you joking or are you serious? Curious.

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by Bazza
Keith, are you joking or are you serious? Curious.

[Foghorn Leghorn]
It was a joke, I say, a <I>joke</i>, son.
[/Foghorn Leghorn]


Keith "let me get my tongue out of my cheek" Curtis



PS. but I really did start out doing newspaper work on the Mac 512 in 1986. And played around with Mac Paint in 1984. BTW, the programs of choice back in those days were either MacWrite or MS Word, either of which could fit on your 400K floppy (MacWrite could hold the OS, too). Graphics were done on the cutting edge Superpaint and the whole thing was composited in Aldus Pagemaker and printed on a a 300dpi Laserwriter (THE Laserwriter, as in the only one.) This was printed out and cut and pasted with hot wax onto tabloid sized flats, then sent to the printer every night at about 3 AM.
I remember when the newspaper switched to desktop. It meant we could no longer have office chair demolition derbies at midnight. Those Macs were expensive!

[Tom Carman]

Originally posted by Bazza
Keith, are you joking or are you serious? Curious.
Of course it was. But there was a Dilbert cartoon a few years ago in which the Pointy-Haired Boss complained that his laptop was locked up again. Dilbert reminded him that he had to turn it upsidedown and shake it to reboot.

[Blue]

Originally posted by keithcurtis
PS. but I really did start out doing newspaper work on the Mac 512 in 1986. And played around with Mac Paint in 1984. BTW, the programs of choice back in those days were either MacWrite or MS Word, either of which could fit on your 400K floppy (MacWrite could hold the OS, too). ...[snippage]... Those Macs were expensive!

Next you'll be telling us about them old hand-crank started Macs and the wood-burning TRS80 computers.

[Balok]

Originally posted by Blue
... and the wood-burning TRS80 computers.

I must have had a newer TRS80. Mine was coal-fired.

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by Balok
I must have had a newer TRS80. Mine was coal-fired.

Mine was constructed from stone knives and bear skins.

Keith "I am not Spock" Curtis

[Captain Obvious]

Originally posted by keithcurtis
Mine was constructed from stone knives and bear skins.

Keith "I am not Spock" Curtis

I remember those. You'd have to sacrifice a chicken to Tech Support to get it to boot up.

[Aroooo]

Originally posted by keithcurtis
PS. but I really did start out doing newspaper work on the Mac 512 in 1986. And played around with Mac Paint in 1984. BTW, the programs of choice back in those days were either MacWrite or MS Word, either of which could fit on your 400K floppy (MacWrite could hold the OS, too). Graphics were done on the cutting edge Superpaint and the whole thing was composited in Aldus Pagemaker and printed on a a 300dpi Laserwriter (THE Laserwriter, as in the only one.) This was printed out and cut and pasted with hot wax onto tabloid sized flats, then sent to the printer every night at about 3 AM.
I remember when the newspaper switched to desktop. It meant we could no longer have office chair demolition derbies at midnight. Those Macs were expensive!

Man, does THAT bring back memories for me :) Amazing how far we've come in so few years.

Aroooo

[Thag13]

Try reminding folks about the Ameiga computer.

Remember the video toaster??????

it did all the effects for Babylyon 5 the first season....


weird.....

[badger3k]

What about the vic-20? The kid brother of the commodore 64?

Or what was probably the first really cheap personal computer - can't remember what it was called but it was small, had that solid-plastic type bubble keyboard (IIRC). Only had 1K or something like it...

[Blue]

My parents were too poor to afford a computer. But my dad worked in a grocery store and on occasion he would get 'inducements' for buying large quantities of stuff for the store. So he ordered a pallet of some frozen food of some kind and they gave him one of those old Atari units that came out right after the 2600 became popular. It was an atari with a keyboard, but not as glamorous as the 5200. Anyway, I could program on it with my tiny little bit of programming knowledge, but we could never afford a tape drive, so all my work was fleeting. It would be "mom, come look at this". Then afteward off it went. Suddenly I'm nostalgic for BASIC programming.

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by badger3k
What about the vic-20? The kid brother of the commodore 64?

Or what was probably the first really cheap personal computer - can't remember what it was called but it was small, had that solid-plastic type bubble keyboard (IIRC). Only had 1K or something like it...

The Timex-Sinclair-80
I had a friend who bought one when they were new. It was horrible. He bought the +4k expansion module. (I think it was that much). You plugged it into the back and if you so much as breathed wrong the connection dropped and the computer crashed.

My first computer was the Radio Shack CoCo (Color Computer). 16K pals n gals (I talked my dad into springing for the advanced model. The basic one only had 4k). When the CoCo3 with 64K and a real keyboard showed up, I bought that too.

Then I bought a Macintosh SE-30. Ahhhh....

Keith "But we LIKED it!" Curtis

[Dr. Anomaly]

My first computer was the C-64, though I eventually moved on to the Amiga (and yes, I remember the Video Toaster...the failed multimedia business of which I was half-owner relied on it for a lot of stuff we did).

I recently had a real bout of nostalgia for my old C-64 system, and began digging it out. I haven't found all the parts yet, but I'm getting there. Heh. At big "computer fests" with dozens of C-64s around, I could always pick mine out easily...it had over a half-dozen extra toggle switches wired into the case, and more than that number of extra LEDs. They all did something, and something useful, too...they weren't there just for looks...but it sure made mine easy to pick out. Come to think of it, my 1541 disk drive was in the same condition...:)

I recently discovered there's a couple of EXCELLENT C-64 emulators available as freeware, and a HUGE collection of the old software and games available as "virtual disks" or "virtual tapes" that are used with the emulator.

Anyone else remember M.U.L.E., Archon, Racing Destruction Set, Impossible Mission, Lode Runner, or Elite? (sigh) Playing those games again has brought back *such* memories...

[Sketchpad]

Originally posted by Dr. Anomaly
Anyone else remember M.U.L.E., Archon, Racing Destruction Set, Impossible Mission, Lode Runner, or Elite? (sigh) Playing those games again has brought back *such* memories...

Oh yeah ... I remember those :) I also used to love playing the old Text based games like the original Zork and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy :D

[Vurbal]

Originally posted by keithcurtis
The Timex-Sinclair-80
I had a friend who bought one when they were new. It was horrible. He bought the +4k expansion module. (I think it was that much). You plugged it into the back and if you so much as breathed wrong the connection dropped and the computer crashed.

A friend of mine who got into computers at a young age (his first computer was a TRS-80 Model 1 at 12 years old) had a Sinclair that he used as a printer buffer. It wasn't good for much else.

[Blue]

Anyone mentioned the TI-99 yet? Just had to throw that in there. A good friend of mine had one, which for the time made him the Motherf'n P.I.M.P.

[DoctorItron]

I don't think anyone mentioned the Atari 400 and 800 computers yet. IIRC, they had roughly the same specs expect the 400 had a flat panel soda-spill-safe keyboard while the 800 had a "real" keyboard and a extra expansion options.

And, before that, there was the BASIC cartridge for the Atari game console.

Other notable early computers, in no particular order:

Altair - no CRT display, just blinking lights.

PDP teletype terminals - Great fun getting the dot-matrix head to play songs. I can only imagine how many trees had to be felled as I pursued my budding music synthesizer hobby.

Commodore PET - This was the machine with the "Killer Poke" - you could enter a command that would allegedly fry the video display circuitry.

Apple LISA - Precursor to the Mac. Amazing machine for its time, but a wee bit expensive (around $10k).

[Dr. Anomaly]

Actually, the TI-99/4a also had a "Killer" poke...one of the locations in low memory controlled the processor cycle speed. Put in a high value and that sucker would FLY...until it slagged down.

I used to make my Commodore 1541 disk drive play music by altering the speed of the stepper motor...my favorite attempt was "A Bicycle Built For Two". I could also make it "walk" back and forth across the desk using carefully timed rapid slamming of the read/write head against the stops. Hey, I never said it was GOOD for the drive... :)

[badger3k]

Originally posted by Dr. Anomaly
My first computer was the C-64, though I eventually moved on to the Amiga (and yes, I remember the Video Toaster...the failed multimedia business of which I was half-owner relied on it for a lot of stuff we did).

I recently had a real bout of nostalgia for my old C-64 system, and began digging it out. I haven't found all the parts yet, but I'm getting there. Heh. At big "computer fests" with dozens of C-64s around, I could always pick mine out easily...it had over a half-dozen extra toggle switches wired into the case, and more than that number of extra LEDs. They all did something, and something useful, too...they weren't there just for looks...but it sure made mine easy to pick out. Come to think of it, my 1541 disk drive was in the same condition...:)

I recently discovered there's a couple of EXCELLENT C-64 emulators available as freeware, and a HUGE collection of the old software and games available as "virtual disks" or "virtual tapes" that are used with the emulator.

Anyone else remember M.U.L.E., Archon, Racing Destruction Set, Impossible Mission, Lode Runner, or Elite? (sigh) Playing those games again has brought back *such* memories...

Ahh - the smell of nostalgia - I wish I still had my old one - loved hitchiker (even had tellengard on tape - loved it) and the old ultima series....

(feeling old)

You wouldn't happen to know where the emulators were, do you - I'd love to see whats out there, for old times sake.

[Dr. Anomaly]

I'll try to dig up the websites. Failing that, I can always find a way to get them to you directly (email attachment, file transfer, something). They're all freeware (the emulators, I mean). The collection of software (the virtual disks) take a little more effort to come by, though there are Usenet newsgroups devoted to the TOSEC sets for out-of-date computers; that's where I got my collection. These aren't complete by any means...there's lots of stuff I (theoretically) still have on original Commodore disks that aren't in these collections. I say "theoretically" because I haven't located my old disk box yet. I will persevere!

Edit:

Okay, I found it; go to

http://viceteam.bei.t-online.de/

The latest version is 1.12, and is available in versions that run on Unix, MS-DOS, Win95/NT, OS/2, Acorn RISC OS or BeOS machines. They don't mention WinXP, but I'm running it on XP with zero problems. The current version emulates the C64, the C128, the VIC20, all the PET models (except the SuperPET 9000, which is out of line anyway), the PLUS4 and the CBM-II (aka C610).

The download of the Windows executable package (as a Zip file) is about 3.3 megs, and this thing is frickin' unbelievable...it's so close to perfect it's not funny!

The documentation on the site is fairly extensive, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting it up and running in no time.

You can PM me for details about the TOSEC sets, and/or some good c64 links (to sites that archive c64 software, etc.) There are a lot of good sites that maintain archives of "abandonware" -- software on which the original copyright is no longer valid, or has officially been released into the public domain by the original copyright holders. You'd be surprised at what's legally available!

While I'm on the topic, there's another emulator people may be interested in: MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator). It's a freeware engine that emulates the hardware of the old arcade video games, and executes core dumps of the old ROMs. Want to play the *original* Pac-Man, Joust, or Asteroids, bugs and all? This thing will do it. Since I don't want to clutter the board up any more than I already have, anyone interested in MAME should PM me and I'll send them a link to the site. It's good stuff! :cool:

[Crimson-Hawk]

Originally posted by keithcurtis
The Timex-Sinclair-80
I had a friend who bought one when they were new. It was horrible. He bought the +4k expansion module. (I think it was that much). You plugged it into the back and if you so much as breathed wrong the connection dropped and the computer crashed.

I had a Timex/Sinclair 1000 (I think the 80 was simply Sinclair... somehow Timex wasn't involved). For someone who couldn't get a computer otherwise at the time, it was a hoot. It was as Keith describes it (1K base RAM with an upgrade to 16K with the expansion on the back). Plus programs loaded via an audio cassette "drive"... I could never get that to work. But there were some fun games I could play if I had to patience to type in the BASIC code. (Imagine typing on that membrane keyboard... ouch!) And let's not forget the need for a TV for use as a monitor...

Since then, I've had a Commodore 64, an 8088, a 486DX2-50 (which I upgraded later to a 486DX4-100), a Celeron 333 MHz, several Frankenstein's Monster-esque machines (the Celeron went up in smoke in a power spike), and finally this Celeron 1.2GHz laptop I currently use.

To look fondly at those days, to remember the machines I played on (I remember playing those classic Dragonlance SSI games on my Commodore...) brings back memories.

Would I go back?

*snicker* NOPE!!! :)

[misterdeath]

Originally posted by Crimson-Hawk
I had a Timex/Sinclair 1000 (I think the 80 was simply Sinclair... somehow Timex wasn't involved). For someone who couldn't get a computer otherwise at the time, it was a hoot. It was as Keith describes it (1K base RAM with an upgrade to 16K with the expansion on the back). Plus programs loaded via an audio cassette "drive"... I could never get that to work. But there were some fun games I could play if I had to patience to type in the BASIC code. (Imagine typing on that membrane keyboard... ouch!) And let's not forget the need for a TV for use as a monitor...



Ah, yes the Sinclair. My first computer. Got it from my Uncle, who had put it together from the kit (20 dollars cheaper that way, IIRC)

Fortunately, my dad had a sweet cassette tape player, and we got a leftover black and white tv from a garage sale, so I got to play the neat games on it. I got reasonably good at Frogger, at least on the low levels.

Text based adventure games.

Cool.

D

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by Crimson-Hawk
But there were some fun games I could play if I had to patience to type in the BASIC code. (Imagine typing on that membrane keyboard... ouch!)

And the BASIC language was tokenized. You could't type "GOTO", for example. You had to type a combination of keystrokes to get a command. All the BASIC commands were printed on the keys.

Keith "Basic All-Purpose Instruction Code" Curtis

[Dr. Anomaly]

Originally posted by keithcurtis
Keith "Basic All-Purpose Instruction Code" Curtis

Actually, Keith, BASIC stood for "Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code." Close, but no banana!

[keithcurtis]

Ah shoot!
So much for my faulty... whatsis...

Keith "uh..." Curtis

[Dr. Anomaly]

:) !

[Ben Seeman]

The first computer I ever coded on was an Apple IIe. The first game I ever completed coding was on my 80-88 PC clone using GW-BASIC. Tyrant's Towers used state-of-the-art RGB color and high-defintition PC speaker sound (where I had to code in each note one at a time... and this is before I understood music theory) and it was the bast damn game that was ever written twice.

Ya see, F3 was the Load function key and F4 was the Save function key. One day, after entering the GW-BASIC programming environment, I went to load my program but mistakingly hit F4. The command ended up being SAVE"TOWERS.BAS", which in essence saved NOTHING over my code.

It was then that I learned to make back-ups. :( But I still miss GW-BASIC. *sigh*

[lemming]

The first computer I ever programmed on was a PDP-7 at my high school. It had been donated. We even had a paper tape attached! woo! I learned Fortran on that sucker. Everytime you'd access the disk it would sound like an unbalanced washing machine.

Though before that I got to play on a computer that a friend's father had in his study. I'm not sure what it was, but he worked for Lawrence Livermore and my friend and I would play Trek. (This was in late 70s...) It could of been Unix since the same programs were at UCSC on their BSD Vaxen.

In between those, I got to play with Commodore Pets. There it was feasible to program in Basic.

Once I got to college, I got to play on Unix.

My first job, I did work on DOS and Apple. Preferred the Apple, less flaky and in the off time I could play Dark Castle. :)

Second job, PrimeOS and AT&T Unix. Then I got to see how fractured Unix was at the time: Interactive, AIX, SCO, and Convergent were just a few. Also got subjected to VMS.

After I left that job, I decided to finally buy a computer. A pentium-75 (with the DIV error!). After a bit, wound up loading Linux on it. After that I always had at least a Linux partition. Now I've got five computers at home, none running Windows. (Though one is scheduled to have Windows for a couple tests I need to do with IE and a website...)

[DoctorItron]

I just flashed back to one of my favorite Apple II games.

Sea Dragon
Sea Dragon!
SEA DRAGON!

Jonh "If you ever played Sea Dragon, you'll know why I wrote it 3 times" Speroni

[Enforcer84]

Wow I feel better. Our first computer was an IBM PCjr. Then we "upgraded" to a Tandy 2000(?) it was a 640k computer.