SharewareShareware SolutionsSolutions IIII An Exciting Apple II Journey Into The Future

Volume 4, Issue 2 Post-KansasFest, 1998 KansasFest ’98 Countdown To Kfest the act, borrowing Ewen’s group held for any previous Kfest in at of Spectrum testers to put least one very significant man- In the weeks and months that NiftySpell through its paces. ner. In prior years, no one aside led up to KansasFest ’98, the from the small Kfest Coordi- Apple II development communi- The Apple II development com- nating Committee had much in- ty literally worked around the munity’s hard work paid off for put into the planning of the clock preparing for the annual the 60 Kfest attendees who event, and certainly, no one out- Apple II midsummer conference were treated to more product side of the committee was in- that has been held each year demonstrations and previews of volved in setting up the sched- since 1989 in Kansas City. As upcoming releases than in any ule. But, in the Spring of 1998, July approached, many IIGS previous KansasFest. As con- the Kfest Coordinating Commit- programmers and developers firmed by the events at Kfest tee set up an Internet-based worked many long hours and ’98, the Apple II is alive and Kfest mailing list to which any- had many sleepless nights well and continues to flourish in one with the ability to receive e- while trying to complete their its third decade of service! mail could subscribe. And sub- many projects in time to stun scribe they did! the assembled masses at Avila There were basically two differ- College. Many of those program- ent types of sessions that were The Kfest mailing list not only mers succeeded beyond anyone’s conducted at Kfest ’98: demon- made it easier for those who wildest dreams or expectations. strations and/or hands-on tu- needed a ride from the KC Air- torials of already existing prod- port to Avila to become matched The pace of Apple II develop- ucts, and new product introduc- with those offering rides, but it ment has never before reached tions. The demonstration and provided an open forum in which quite such enthusiastic heights tutorial sessions of existing each and every participant’s as it did during the early Sum- products were conducted by pro- input was solicited and ulti- mer; beta test teams were as- grammers, electronic techni- mately valued. As an example, sembled and new versions of cians and “power users” who en- planning for the first ever Kfest software were compiled at a thusiastically shared their inti- programming contest, dubbed dizzying rate. The Internet was mate knowledge of the inner HackFest, was conducted via the abuzz with quite a few private workings of the products they Kfest mailing list and that and highly secretive mailing demoed. On the other hand, the proved to be participatory de- lists and listservs dedicated to many new product demos were mocracy at its finest. Addition- the testing of new or updated conducted by the actual pro- ally, many of those who con- Apple II software. While Ewen grammer or publisher of the ducted sessions at Kfest were Wannop directed a Spectrum new software, and it was these able to determine in advance update beta test, Richard Ben- sessions that were most respon- just what people were interested nett assembled a team to beta sible for setting the overall tone in learning, and were able to test an updated Marinetti, and of Kfest ’98 as a dazzling show- tailor their sessions in order to Geoff Weiss managed a Spec- case for new and exciting Apple meet the stated needs of the trum Internet Suite team of II software; at least a dozen Kfest attendees. beta testers. Mike Westerfield new IIGS products made their conducted field tests of GSoft debut at KansasFest ’98. The Kfest Coordinating Com- BASIC, while Eric Shepherd mittee – Cindy Adams, Jerry supervised a team to test his The Planning Committee Cline, Steve Gozdziewski, Max brand new WebWorks GS Jones, Stan Marks, and Ryan HTML editing program. Share- The planning sessions for Kfest Suenaga – acknowledged all the ware Solutions II even got into ’98 were different from those help they received by printing

Shareware Solutions II 1 Shareware Solutions II the following proclamation on thing quickly became abundant- the cover of the Kfest program ly clear: one of the true super- Volume 4, Issue 2 guide: “Special thanks to the stars of Kfest ’98 was Bernie ][ publishers, writers, and all The Rescue. Shareware Solutions II is pub- those who have worked so hard lished by Joe Kohn, 166 Alpine to make this year’s KansasFest As I strolled in and out of peo- Street, San Rafael, CA 94901- a reality, and to Syndicomm for ple’s dorm rooms, I was literally 1008. the use of their RTCs on Genie dumbstruck by the number of and Delphi. The Kfest ’98 mail- speedy Macintosh PowerBooks Publisher/Writer: Joe Kohn ing list was maintained by that were spotted in dozens of Proofreader: Jane Kos Devin Reade.” rooms. At first, it was more than slightly disconcerting to see all Entire contents of Shareware Preliminary Events those Macs at an Apple II event, Solutions II copyright (©) 1998 but it didn’t take long for it to by Joe Kohn. All rights are On Wednesday afternoon, July dawn on me that those PowerPC reserved. Nothing may be re- 22, 1998, Apple II owners from Macintosh systems were in printed or reproduced, in whole such far away places as Great reality, the next generation of or in part, in any media without Britain, Australia, the Nether- the Apple IIGS computer! the prior written consent of Joe lands, and Sweden joined their Kohn. American and Canadian breth- Bernie ][ The Rescue is the IIGS ren to check in at Avila College. emulator from the Swiss pro- Available by subscription only, Although an overwhelming ma- gramming team of Andre Horst- several options are available: jority of those checking in had mann, Henrik Gudat and Urs attended previous Kfest confer- (Cody) Hofstrasser and a month A) The first 24 issues: $75 for ences, first time attendees were before Kfest began, they had US/Canada; $100 elsewhere. treated as if they were visiting released the v1.3 update that dignitaries, especially in light of signaled Bernie’s transition into B) The next 6 issues/Renewal: the fact that several of them a nearly full-blown IIGS system $25 for US/Canada; $40 else- had traveled more than 5,000 whose capabilities and speed where. miles to attend the greatest surpassed those of a real IIGS Apple II event ever held. system. Watching Bernie boot Make all checks payable to Joe up into System 6.0.1 in 2 to 3 Kohn. US Funds Only. No That first night, almost 40 of us seconds was indeed a wondrous charge cards, purchase orders or attended the traditional, yet sight to behold! COD orders will be accepted. very informal and unofficial opening ceremonies at the world According to Henrik Gudat, run- This newsletter was created famous KC Masterpiece restau- ning Bernie ][ The Rescue on the entirely with an Apple IIGS. All rant. In addition to enjoying latest Macintosh G3 systems articles written in AppleWorks heaping platters of barbecue can result in IIGS system Classic. Page Layout prepared ribs, chicken and beef, many of speeds of up to 50 Mhz. Com- in AppleWorks GS. Printing us were simply delighted when pared to a stock IIGS running at was done on a Hewlett-Packard we were joined by one of those less than 3 Mhz, a standard LaserJet IIP Plus, connected to responsible for KansasFest be- TransWarp GS operating at 7 the IIGS courtesy of Harmonie. coming an Apple II institution: Mhz, or a souped up modified The use of TrueType fonts is the former editor of Resource Zip GS running at 14 Mhz, courtesy of WestCode Soft- Central’s beloved Open-Apple Bernie ][ The Rescue really has ware’s Pointless. publication, Dennis Doms. taken the IIGS to speeds that were simply unimaginable and E-mail Addresses: After dinner, we returned to the unattainable before. So, as dis- CIS: 76702,565 Avila dormitory to renew old concerting as it was at first to DELPHI: JOE_KOHN friendships, make new friends, see dozens of Apple IIGS fa- GENIE: JOE.KOHN and to see what Apple II natics running Macintoshes, it INTERNET: [email protected] goodies people had brought with was like a dream come true to them. Wandering through the see those computers running http://www.crl.com/~joko corridors that first evening, one GS/OS seven times faster than

2 Shareware Solutions II Post-KansasFest, 1998 even my “speedy” TransWarp he first became interested in 65816, the chip that is the heart GS equipped Apple IIGS. computers when he attended and soul of the IIGS computer, the Air Force Academy in the for use inside the human body, Bernie ][ The Rescue has be- mid-1970s. Although his pri- as its low power consumption come, according to many of mary tool at the time was a was ideal to use in medical de- those with whom I spoke at slide rule, and his first pro- vices such as Pacemakers. Kfest, so stable and so powerful gramming projects were created that it’s no wonder that a large using punch cards, his (and our) He told us that the first time he percentage of the hands-on ses- world changed with the intro- had ever seen an Apple IIGS sions offered during Kfest ’98 duction of the microcomputer. computer, it was merely a big were actually conducted using circuit board with wires sticking Mac computers running GS/OS, Mike’s introduction to micro- out everywhere. He was proud to courtesy of Bernie ][ The Rescue. computers was in the form of a point out that he did receive the Wang Computer, which he de- seventh IIGS that Apple built. Day One scribed as being essentially a He told stories of his early programmable calculator. Dur- dealings with Apple, and how Mike Westerfield of the Byte- ing his stint at the Air Force Apple discouraged him from Works has the unique distinc- Academy, Mike took one com- distributing a IIGS program tion of being the only person puter class, but apparently that switcher utility, because “Apple who has attended each and one class convinced him that IIs weren’t supposed to do that.” every KansasFest to date, and slide rules would eventually be he is also the only Apple II de- replaced by personal computers, Mike confided in us that by the veloper who has been honored and by 1978, Mike owned his early 1990s, sales of Apple II for his work with the Apple II by first Apple II computer. He development tools and program- being asked more than once to waxed nostalgic as he described ming languages had fallen to deliver the conference’s opening that state-of-the-art computer such a point that the situation Keynote Address. which had a whopping 48K of at the ByteWorks had become RAM memory, a cassette deck “very dark.” But, soon after that Since Mike really needed no for program storage and retriev- low point, Mike teamed up with introduction, Kfest organizer al, and he fondly reminisced Roger Wagner Publishing to cre- Cindy Adams instead offered how easy it was to connect to his ate the LOGO language for thanks during her brief opening black and white television set. HyperStudio, and the financial remarks to those individuals situation at ByteWorks has now who had been most responsible Soon after acquiring his first substantially improved. for envisioning and setting up Apple II, Mike decided that his an official KansasFest site on first serious programming proj- Mike admitted that it is the the World Wide Web at the ect would be to create an as- software he writes for other com- following URL: sembler, and by 1982, a DOS puter platforms that literally 3.3 version of ORCA/M was pays his salary, but in closing, http://www.kfest.org born. He described how he’d Mike assured us that as long as sent out evaluation copies to 20 that other programming work Cindy thanked David Kerwood or 30 different software publish- puts food on the table, he will for taking on the responsibility ers before deciding in 1984 to continue to produce Apple II of being the Kfest site’s web- self-publish ORCA/M; the Byte- products as a labor of love. master, Jawaid Bazyar for se- Works was off and running, and Before the day was over, Mike curing the Kfest domain name, it didn’t take too many more would have an opportunity to and Eric Shepherd for hosting years before the ByteWorks be- show us that his assurances the site on his Sheppyware ser- came the central clearing house were not just hollow promises. ver. Since this was the first pub- for Apple II programmers. lic announcement of the Kfest Spectrum Scripting web site, thunderous applause During the remainder of Mike’s greeted the announcement, and talk, he shared some fasci- During the past 18 months, I Kfest was officially underway. nating anecdotes with us. He have personally been involved in told us how Bill Mensch origi- quite a few Spectrum related Mike Westerfield described how nally designed and built the beta tests, so I was especially

Volume 4, Issue 2 Shareware Solutions II 3 interested in attending Ewen line service, knowing in advance trum envelope, I’m sure he’d be Wannop’s session entitled: what information is needed will thrilled to be sitting in the audi- “First Steps In Spectrum simplify the task at hand. ence at Kfest ’99, as a proficient Scripting – Spectrum Scripting and expert Spectrum program- For Dummies.” Unfortunately, After Ewen’s introductory re- mer described how he or she there were several other fasci- marks, he spent much of the created the next great Spectrum nating sessions being offered next hour describing the ele- “killer application.” during that first time slot, in- ments of a script and what cluding Geoff Weiss’s session on those various elements can con- Marinetti v2.0 “UNIX Shell Programming” and trol. At times, his descriptions Max Jones’s session on “Desk- were quite technical and de- After lunch, attendees had to top Publishing With Graphic- tailed. He talked about how choose whether to attend Dave Writer III.” But, considering scripts can alter Spectrum’s Carey’s session on “Print Shop that such sophisticated appli- basic appearance by adding, for and Print Shop Companion” or cations as Crock O’ Gold and example, new Pull Down menus to listen to Richard Bennett, Spectrum Internet Suite were and he described how scripts Ewen Wannop and Geoff Weiss both created using Spectrum’s can even alter various personal- during their three hour mara- built-in programming language, ized settings for such functions thon session: “IIGS Communi- I was more than just a little as file transfers, port settings cations – What’s New For 1998.” curious to learn what I could and online displays. Ewen about Spectrum Scripting from talked about how to alter on- The vast majority elected to at- the programmer who was re- screen displays through com- tend the telecommunications sponsible for both the Spectrum mands, defined the commands session, and almost all eyes telecommunications program it- which direct flow control, de- were on the programming won- self and the man who was the scribed using scripts to perform der from Down Under, Richard driving force behind those other GS/OS file functions, and Bennett, as the lights dimmed Spectrum add-on programs. related how to call up Spec- and the overhead projector trum’s External Commands. displayed the first public views “If you don’t use scripts, you the Apple II community had have only really seen the tip of Ewen offered his tutorial ses- ever seen of Marinetti v2.0. the Spectrum iceberg.” Ewen sion in hopes of demystifying said that scripting gives Spec- scripting and to motivate and The introduction of Marinetti trum users the power to create encourage even more Spectrum v1.0 at Kfest ’97 had caused what the Spectrum program users to create their own quite a commotion, as it gave itself doesn’t already provide. custom-made scripts. After all, people a glimpse of the future of He said that scripting within Ewen himself has become in- the Apple II on the Internet. Spectrum can help with repet- volved in every single major That initial version of Marinetti itive tasks, but because it is a Spectrum scripting project to allowed IIGS modem owners to powerful yet easy to master pro- date, as there just aren’t too make TCP/IP connections to the gramming language, it has been many other people who have Internet from dial-up SLIP ac- used to create a web browser mastered the programming lan- cess accounts, freeing them from and several offline readers. guage that Ewen has provided the constraint of needing an in- in Spectrum. creasingly difficult to find Unix Ewen delineated a three step Shell account. process that could aid those who Although many in the audience wanted to create their own would remain more than happy Marinetti v2.0, when released, Spectrum scripts: to let Ewen continue in his ca- will provide Apple IIGS owners pacity as the grand master of with even more Internet access 1) Define what is is you are try- Spectrum programming, it’s options than ever before. The ing to do. always possible that Ewen’s most prevalent method to access 2) Break it down into its ele- talk sparked some interest and the Internet is via a PPP (Point ments. motivated one or more Kfest at- to Point Protocol) dial-up con- 3) Get your data ready; if you tendees to create the next great nection, and Marinetti v2.0 will are going to create a script to Spectrum add-on. As much as greatly expand the horizons of automate logging on to an on- Ewen enjoys pushing the Spec- the Apple IIGS by providing

4 Shareware Solutions II Post-KansasFest, 1998 TCP/IP connections to the Inter- providing the building blocks any problems that had been net from a PPP dial-up account. upon which other programmers discovered in v2.1, and for that can base their work. reason, he requested that Spec- Richard stated that 70% to 80% trum users report any problems of the Marinetti code has been Although Richard stated that that they’ve encountered, be- completely rewritten since v1.0 he will be including a Telnet cause if he doesn’t know about a was released in 1997, and from program with Marinetti that problem, he can’t fix it. observing the Marinetti v2.0 will allow users to remotely log demo, it appears to be much on to any computer connected to He also said that v2.2 could easier to set up, configure and the Internet that permits in- store the Spectrum Preferences use than version 1.0, while at bound Telnet access, he really file within the Spectrum folder the same time providing many hopes that additional Internet instead of in the System folder, more connection options. applications will be created by and that would make it much others, using the new toolset easier for people to have multi- According to Richard, Marinetti provided with Marinetti v2.0. ple copies of Spectrum installed v2.0 will be supplied as an on their hard drives. He also Initialization file. Additionally, In passing, Richard mentioned said that support will be pro- there will be a Marinetti Con- that he has been working on a vided for the newer Hierarchic trol Panel Device and it will be Marinetti add-on application Control Panel. He additionally through that Cdev that users called Casper that would allow said that there would be some will be able to configure Marin- an Apple IIGS to perform as a built-in support for Babelfish, a etti. At the heart of Marinetti network server connected direct- freeware universal file transfer v2.0 lies a brand new GS/OS ly to the Internet. He also utility from Seven Hills that he Toolset: Tool054. dropped a hint that Geoff Weiss planned to demonstrate the fol- has been working on Marinetti lowing day. Marinetti 2.0 will not require v2.0 aware versions of Finger, any type of registration pass- FTP and Ping, but that all these It was then that Ewen finally word, as did v1.0, nor will it in- other add-on programs had a revealed the update option that clude any type of “annoying lower priority than completing would forever change the way in dialog box” as did v1.0. It will, Marinetti itself and the several which IIGS users use their however, remain freeware! commercial programs that will modems: Spectrum v2.2 will provide direct support for fully support Marinetti v2.0! It Among some of the many new Marinetti v2.0, such as the one will be possible, he said, to use features and/or options offered that was described and demoed Spectrum v2.2 to establish a in v2.0 are plug-in link layer by the next presenter, Ewen TCP/IP connection to the Inter- modules, a script debugging Wannop. net using PPP, and once that facility, new special variables in connection is established, to use both SLIP and PPP scripts, and Spectrum v2.2 Spectrum to institute up to 32 Domain Name Resolution. active TCP/IP sockets. He Since retiring as a college pro- explained how IIGS users will Richard also told us that there fessor, Ewen Wannop has been therefore be able to dial in to will be many new features in- working nearly nonstop on up- one system and access, via Tel- cluded that will make it easier dating the Spectrum telecom- net, up to 32 other systems at for other developers to create munications program and cre- once, all with just a single PPP software that will make use of ating new versions of Spectrum initiated phone call! Marinetti and TCP/IP. As Rich- add-on products. For many, ard reiterated, he is providing to many months before Kansas- He went on to state that v2.2 IIGS programmers the neces- Fest, Ewen devoted much of his will include 73 new Script com- sary tools that will enable them time to create Spectrum v2.2, mands, and that 35 of those to create Internet applications an update which he said he would be related directly to much faster and easier than if hopes to release by the end of TCP/IP and Marinetti v2.0. As they had to do everything on September. an aside, be said that because of their own. He is, in essence, all the new TCP/IP related com- laying the cornerstone for in- Ewen started out his session by mands and options, he would creased TCP/IP connectivity and saying that v2.2 would correct also be releasing an updated

Volume 4, Issue 2 Shareware Solutions II 5 version of Crock O’ Gold (COG) had been described in Share- into SIS v1.1, and it will include that would automate inbound ware Solutions II in such detail, a flexible Bookmark editor that Telnet sessions to Delphi that Geoff was one of the few Kfest will allow entries to be cut and were initiated by a PPP connec- presenters who was not able to pasted into it. It will also sup- tion to an Internet Service drop a bombshell on an unsus- port importing of Lynx, Net- Provider. pecting audience. Nonetheless, scape, and Internet Explorer there’s a big difference between Bookmark files. Although that was the most reading about a software prod- earth shattering news, Ewen uct and actually seeing it in Additionally, there will be a new went on to describe many other action, so even though there was toolbar button that takes you to improvements to Spectrum. The very little element of surprise a site which offers several editor will be able to load in present, Geoff dazzled the audi- search engines, and there will be Data as well as extended Re- ence with a demonstration and support to include a previously source forked files. He said that guided tour of the upcoming up- created signature as part of your the mouse would be supported date to the Spectrum Internet outgoing e-mail messages. in the Super Hi Res chatline. He Suite web browser. said that modem initialization Geoff also showed how double strings could be chosen from a Geoff started off by saying that clicking on selected elements in long list of modems displayed in although only those who had a the SIS browser window will a Popup menu. Ewen also said Genie account or a Unix Shell provide a new information win- that he added more support for account could use SIS v1.0, dow that will display, for exam- what are commonly known as there would be a greater num- ple, the full URL for a graphic “signature files” and for XCMD ber of network architectures icon, or the full URL for any files. He then went on to supported in v1.1, including use other link. describe many of the new Script of SIS from Vax/VMS systems commands and the new XCMDs and from the Delphi online net- Out of respect for my desire to that would be available in v2.2. work. drop a dramatic bombshell the following morning, Geoff did Although Ewen had no idea Geoff then explained that SIS mention that the e-mail editor what Seven Hills planned to v1.1 would incorporate several in v1.1 would contain a button charge for a Spectrum update, features that are available in whose function was still top- he did stress how critical it will Netscape, including support for secret. He did imply, however, be for all Spectrum owners to Netscape style cookie files. that the button’s function would update to v2.2 for at least three Cookies are small and unob- be revealed within 24 hours. reasons: trusive files that can contain any arbitrary information, but In conclusion, Geoff stated that • Older versions of Spectrum do that are generally used by web he hoped to have the Spectrum not have Marinetti support in- sites and web browsers to keep Internet Suite v1.1 upgrade tegrated into the program. track of whether you have available by the end of Septem- visited a site before. As an ex- ber, and that as much as he • All future versions of Crock O’ ample, when logging on to the would have liked to add support Gold will only work with v2.2. Delphi online system via the for Marinetti v2.0, it might just World Wide Web, Delphi stores have to wait until SIS v1.2. • If and when Marinetti support a cookie that contains your user is offered by Spectrum Internet ID and password, so that you do GSoft BASIC Suite, it would only work with not have to re-enter this data Spectrum v2.2. each and every time you access At Kfest ’97, Mike Westerfield Delphi. For those people who offered attendees a special Ewen then turned the floor over don’t want any information sneak peek preview of GSoft to Geoff Weiss. about them stored on any com- BASIC, the ByteWorks’ up- puter system, there will be an coming GS/OS implementation Spectrum Internet Suite v1.1 option to turn off Cookie sup- of the BASIC computer lan- port. guage. After dinner, Mike fol- Because the upcoming v1.1 up- lowed up on the earlier session date of Spectrum Internet Suite A Bookmark file will be built by hosting an exciting product

6 Shareware Solutions II Post-KansasFest, 1998 introduction session which able to efficiently track down GSoft BASIC. He declared that celebrated the greatly antici- the cause of each problem. most of the older Applesoft com- pated release of GSoft BASIC! mands were still available for Just before Kfest, one of the use in GSoft BASIC, but that Since the late 1970s, the beta testers shared his overall GSoft BASIC also sported many BASIC computer language has impressions of GSoft BASIC new commands, features and been one of the most widely with the rest of the team: data types. used and popular programming “GSoft BASIC feels like home languages available for the to anyone who knows Applesoft, Mike told us that GSoft BASIC Apple II computer. Ever since but it’s also an escalator that has all of the extensions you’d the Apple II was first released, carries you beyond anything expect in a modernized BASIC one BASIC variation or another that BASIC could do on a GS implementation, such as option- has been built into the ROM of before: larger, more elegant pro- al line numbers and structured every single Apple II model grams, Super Hi-Res graphics, statements. He also informed us sold. And over the years, Apple more accurate calculations, that GSoft works with other included various manuals with Toolbox programming, Desktop utilities that are part of the all new Apple II computers sold programs, and even the Inter- ByteWorks’ ORCA series of pro- that taught how to use, and pro- net. Wherever you want to go gramming tools, including de- gram in, BASIC. The original today, you can go with GSoft.” buggers and editors. He said Integer BASIC, written by that GSoft even supports user Steve Wozniak, was eventually Mike introduced GSoft BASIC tools for adding subroutines replaced by Applesoft BASIC. by saying that it is the first and written in other computer lan- Although Applesoft is built into only implementation of BASIC guages. Best of all, Mike told us the IIGS, aside from very minor for the IIGS that supports Tool- that you can turn your com- changes, it remains essentially box programming directly, with pleted GSoft programs into ap- unchanged from the implemen- records and pointers. Mike plications that launch from the tation of Applesoft BASIC that stated that all previous BASIC Finder, because GSoft includes a was first offered on the Apple implementations for the IIGS utility that adds a run-time II+. required programmers to use module to your program; this clumsy and error prone PEEK means that even those who do Mike had been working on his and POKE statements to access not yet own GSoft BASIC can GS/OS implementation of GSoft the Toolbox. By providing pro- run the software. BASIC for more than a year grammers with direct and com- when, in the Spring of 1998, he plete GS/OS Toolbox access, it Immediately after the session, was finally ready to assemble a will be possible, for example, to people started lining up to pur- group of accomplished Applesoft write GSoft-based word proces- chase GSoft BASIC at a special BASIC programmers to serve sing applications using Apple’s discounted Kfest price, and be- as the GSoft BASIC beta test TextEdit Tool, graphic-based fore Kfest was over, Mike team. Mike conducted the en- applications that use Quick- proudly proclaimed that 50% of suing beta test in a highly struc- Draw, or Internet applications those in attendance had pur- tured environment. He sent out that use the Marinetti v2.0 re- chased GSoft BASIC. drafts of the program manual lated Tool054. for proofreading, and he pro- Desktop Publishing & AWGS vided problem report forms that Mike stressed that, unlike Ap- required the team to furnish de- plesoft, GSoft BASIC has a full Due to a scheduling conflict with tailed, repeatable and verifiable screen editor that makes it so a session that I really wanted to bug report information. Gener- much more convenient than attend, the desktop publishing ally, when one team member Applesoft to make alterations session that I planned to pre- reported a potential problem, to the code being worked on. sent had to be rescheduled, and Mike asked the rest of the team it was sandwiched in between to confirm and reconfirm that Mike apprised us that GSoft the GSoft BASIC product intro- similar problems were encoun- BASIC can import programs duction and HackFest. tered on their systems. By de- created in Applesoft BASIC, manding such exactitude when and that these programs will Although I have conducted num- reporting problems, Mike was run nearly twice as fast under erous sessions at each of the

Volume 4, Issue 2 Shareware Solutions II 7 eight previous Kfests that I publishing program on any com- of the page layout document. I have attended, in recent years puter system, the very first then revealed that the easiest those sessions were primarily thing that has to be done does way to create the greeting card devoted to product introduc- not take place using the is to run the sheet of paper tions. As fun and rewarding as computer. Instead, the desktop through the printer twice. The introducing new Apple II prod- publisher has to fire up his or outside cover is printed first, ucts in front of a live audience her imagination and mentally and then the sheet of paper is can be, I yearned to once again anticipate exactly what it is he rotated 180 degrees, and the roll up my sleeves and show or she wants to accomplish and inside message is printed on the people how to do what sup- has to visualize what the com- second pass through the printer. posedly can’t be done on an Ap- pleted project will look like. ple II. Several years before, I Whether the creation is to be a At that point, I went to the com- had conducted a Kfest session greeting card, a newsletter, or a puter to demonstrate the sim- that was a buyer’s guide type of brochure, the entire process will plest and easiest way to create a session that discussed all as- be much more efficient and greeting card using the Apple- pects of purchasing an inkjet or tranquil if you know exactly Works GS Page Layout module. laser printer and using it with what it is you want to do and To assist those of you who didn’t an Apple II, and I was really have a good idea, in advance, of attend that session, it would be eager to offer a follow up session what steps will need to be taken educational to list the steps: during which I could show fellow to achieve the desired results. Kfest attendees how to produce 1) The first step to take is, un- some of the wondrous creations I also admitted that as often as fortunately, often the last step that can be output to those high I use a desktop publishing pro- that novice desktop publishers quality printers. gram, I am often unable to visu- take. It is critical to first go to alize the entire process in ad- the Page Setup menu and to My session had the fanciful title vance and have to rely on tools define the size of the page that “The IIGS As A Printing Press; and visual aids to assist me. In will be printed, and whether the Or Gutenberg Is Jealous Of My order to illustrate how to plan page will be printed vertically or IIGS” and it was planned as a out the creation of a Print Shop horizontally. hands-on session devoted to style greeting card, I folded a showing people how easy it is to blank sheet of paper into 2) The second step can be taken use a desktop publishing pro- fourths and then wrote “front within the same Page Setup gram to create such practical cover” on the front cover of the menu, and that is to set the and/or artistic items as greeting folded sheet, and “inside mes- Aspect Ratio. The Condensed cards, post cards, brochures, sage” where a message would option is, in my humble opinion, booklets, letterhead stationery, appear when the card was the best looking Aspect Ratio to mailing labels and disk labels. opened. use when text is involved; on the other hand, I further stated that Although AppleWorks GS has It was then that I opened the the Normal Aspect Ratio looks gotten somewhat of a bad repu- folded sheet, and all could see much better when printing tation from many Apple IIGS the four quadrants of the page. graphics. But, no matter which users, it is the Page Layout The bottom right quadrant Aspect Ratio is chosen, acces- module of this program that I showed “front cover” and the up- sing the Page Setup menu first use for all of my desktop pub- per left quadrant showed “in- is critical. lishing projects, so I hoped to side message” which, of course, show that the Page Layout was upside down. Rotating the 3) The next step is to click on the module of AppleWorks GS is as sheet 180 degrees, the previous- Master Page Icon and to set the capable of producing dazzling ly upside down message ap- guides that will be used on both creations on paper as any desk- peared right side up, and was pages of the desktop publishing top publishing program avail- conveniently located in the now document. For a greeting card, able for any computer platform. bottom right quadrant. Because choose .5" for left/right and of that positioning, I explained top/bottom margins, 1" for As I started out, I stated that that both the outside and inside column spacing and the final when using a desktop pub- messages could be created using option is to choose two columns. lishing program, any desktop only the bottom right quadrant With these settings, the greeting

8 Shareware Solutions II Post-KansasFest, 1998 card will be centered after DPI if using a DeskJet or Laser- the same amount of blank folding the completed sheet into Jet) and choose to print both sheets of paper, folded them in fourths. pages. After page 1 rolls out of half sideways, and ended up your printer, simply reposition with a 5.5" x 8.5" booklet. Just 4) Since we’ll be working in only the sheet in your paper tray, as I had with the greeting card, I the bottom half of the docu- making sure to first rotate the grabbed a pen and made visual ment, it is best to define the top sheet, and then sit back and cues to follow. The front sheet of the greeting card. Since an wait for your first greeting card was labeled “cover,” the inside 11" sheet of paper, when folded to be completed. front cover was marked “inside in quarters, is 5.5" high, drag a front cover,” the next sheet was horizontal guide from the ruler As I stated after that portion of labeled “Title page,” and the at the top of the document, and my demo, the steps taken to next sheet was marked “Page 1.” place it 6" from the top. We now print a greeting card are similar When all pages had been have our bottom right quadrant to the steps that are taken with marked, I then spread the pages outlined on screen, with a .5" any desktop publishing project. out flat, in order to illustrate a margin on all four edges. I further stated that once you’ve very important point: when gotten some experience, using using a desktop publishing pro- 5) Now that the Master Page is the desktop publishing program gram to create a booklet, four set up, we can access the Edit becomes quite routine and 5.5" x 8.5" mini-pages are Pull Down menu and choose the mechanical. What never be- printed on each sheet of 8.5" x Insert Page option. Add one comes routine, however, is the 11" paper; two on the front and page after the current page. planning and visualization proc- two on the back. However, the ess. mini-pages cannot be laid out in 6) With your mouse, click on the a sequential, linear fashion. In- Text Tool in the Tool Palette; To illustrate that point, I held stead, the front and back covers that’s symbolized by the letter up a booklet style 5.5" x 8.5" must be printed on the same “A.” Your cursor will change to program manual that I had just sheet of paper, and the first and the I-beam text insertion cursor. written, designed, laid out and last pages must similarly be Click anywhere in the bottom printed on my IIGS only days printed on the same sheet of right quadrant and a text box before Kfest. As impressive as paper, and so on. will appear that is perfectly that completed manual must sized to take up the entire have looked, I admitted that it Desktop Publishing programs quadrant. took quite a few attempts to get allow you to flow text from one it to look exactly the way I’d text box to another, and from 7) Go to the Font Pull Down wanted it to look. any one page to any other. When menu and choose your font, pick printing up a manual or booklet, the point size and indicate what Before I ever touched the Page the goal of course is to have the type of stylized text you prefer. Layout module in AppleWorks completed manual open up like Next, go to the Text Pull Down GS, the text content of the man- a book, with page 2 following menu and click on “Center” to ual was prepared in Apple- page 1, page 3 following page 2, center your text so that it will Works Classic, a program I joke and so on. But, in order to end be symmetrical and evenly about as being a writer’s best up with a manual whose num- spaced between the edges of the friend. After the text was writ- bered pages appear sequenti- folded sheet of paper. ten and edited, it was loaded ally, you really do have to plan it into the AppleWorks GS Word out so that you know in advance 8) Once you’ve finished with the Processing module, largely to into which text box on which cover of the card, click on the determine just how many 8.5" x page to place and flow your text. number 2 Page Icon and follow 11" sheets of paper would be When printing two mini-pages the same steps as above. When needed when the time came to on each desktop publishing you’re done entering your text, print the completed manual. screen, the page numbers that choose the Print command from are displayed within the the File Pull Down menu, and Still unable to visualize how desktop publishing program do when the print dialog box everything would work out, I not correspond to the actual appears, choose the highest noted how many sheets of paper page numbers in the printed resolution setting possible (300 would be needed and then took booklet. So, much more planning

Volume 4, Issue 2 Shareware Solutions II 9 is needed than when printing cause I’d run out of time, I had Works Pro Unplugged,” a utility out a one sheet greeting card. not had a chance to demon- which removes a promotional strate and release FontPimp, as display for Softdisk GS that is After I explained the planning I’d promised program author shown when quitting Softdisk’s process, I then displayed the Tom Larsen of Lysergic Soft- WordWorks Pro word processor. first draft of the manual and de- ware I would do. So, for much of scribed how I went through that the evening, I went from room to Pim Blokland worked on two manual, looking for obvious room, demoing the program and programs. One program tried to mistakes. Several visual prob- forcing a copy of FontPimp on find an easier-to-remember com- lems were spotted, such as a anyone and everyone who uses bination for the locked entry headline appearing at the bot- TrueType Fonts on a IIGS. door to the dormitory in which tom of a page. After the prob- we all stayed, and the second lems were fixed, yet another As described in the previous is- program would allow you to draft was printed. When that sue of the newsletter, FontPimp change the color of the startup one met with my approval, the is a IIGS utility program that splash screen in System 6.0. final manual was printed out. converts IBM Windows’ True- Type fonts to IIGS TrueType Ken Gagne bravely attempted to Just as I was gearing up to de- fonts. Originally released in a write a Boggled style word game scribe how to create other types semi-functional demo version, using GSoft BASIC, a program of designs and projects with a the completed 1.0 release ver- which he’d owned for all of an desktop publishing program, I sion is fully functional and was hour. Unfortunately, program- ran out of my allotted time. As released as CharityWare. A ming a complete game takes people were getting up to leave, counter has been added to much more than the allotted 12 I stressed again that many of FontPimp which counts the font hours of HackFest. the steps taken when creating a conversions in 10 cent incre- greeting card or booklet are the ments. Lysergic Software sug- Geoff Weiss worked on code that same steps that are taken when gests donating the amount would let you run Applesoft pro- designing a sales brochure, shown in the counter to a char- grams under a 16-bit environ- letterhead stationery or disk ity of your choice. What an ad- ment by copying the Applesoft labels. As long as you have mirable sentiment that is! ROM into another bank of mem- charted out the entire process in ory under GS/OS and running advance, the use of the desktop What Kfest attendees saw that Applesoft code under it, one line publishing program really does night was an easy-to-use pro- at a time, by directly calling become routine and easy. So gram that worked fast and ef- parts of Applesoft’s interpreter. easy, in fact, that if Gutenberg, ficiently and did an excellent job the inventor of the first printing of converting fonts from the PC And the grand prize winner was press, were alive today, he to the IIGS. They also got to Mike Hackett, who took home would be jealous of my IIGS. hear more than a few jokes $50 and a complimentary copy about the name of the software of GSoft BASIC. Other prizes That point was brought home to and the group that created it. awarded to other contestants me the following morning, when included all three volumes of the one of the Kfest attendees who’d HackFest IIGS Toolbox Reference Guide. never used a desktop publishing program before, handed me a Four programmers set up their NiftySpell greeting card that he’d designed, computers at a long table, and laid out and printed following pounded out computer code for After too few hours of sleep, Day my session. And, that greeting much of the night. The partici- 2 was upon us, and while some card alone made the long trip to pants were Mike Hackett, Ken Macintosh owners went to hear KansasFest worthwhile. Gagne, Pim Blokland and Geoff a representative from Apple Weiss. Of the four contestants, talk about the upcoming iMac FontPimp only Mike Hackett used a IIGS; computer, I braced myself for a the others used PowerBooks session that would forever As people started streaming in- running Bernie ][ The Rescue. change the IIGS world. to the room to take part in HackFest, I realized that be- Mike Hackett wrote “Word- Several weeks before Kfest was

10 Shareware Solutions II Post-KansasFest, 1998 to begin, Shareware Solutions II he was involved in an amazing ond beta tester was received, it contacted the KansasFest Coor- programming project and as it was decided that it would be dinating Committee, via the neared completion, I would also wise to demo the software at Kfest mailing list, to request become involved. He refused to Kfest, but it would be prudent to that a session be scheduled for answer any questions and pro- hold back the release until the a new product demonstration. vided no details. I just assumed cause of the problem, and a that he was involved in yet solution to it, had been found. At the time, I was incredibly another Spectrum related proj- vague about the new product ect; instead, he’d become in- Despite the small problem that and went as far as to admit, volved with Chris Vavruska as had been discovered, the demo of “it’s all under wraps because I a volunteer consultant, alpha the program went off without a want to experience the joy of tester, and programming ad- hitch, and my wish did come demoing it in front of an unsus- visor to Chris as Chris strived true: I got to watch a roomful of pecting audience. I want to to complete his first commercial astonished people as their jaws watch as 40 or 50 sets of jaws IIGS programming project. dropped. hit the floor. And, believe me, jaws are going to hit the floor!” Ewen finally told me in early I started off the session by men- Summer all the details of Chris tioning that Chris’s program That session was listed in the Vavruska’s project, and I was would forever change the way Kfest program guide simply as literally stunned beyond all that people used their IIGS. I “New From Shareware Solu- belief. I was invited to join said that although Chris’s soft- tions II.” Chris’s project, and we worked ware is revolutionary, he was out the arrangements whereby not the first IIGS programmer In the weeks leading up to Shareware Solutions II would to come up with the idea. As a Kfest, I was very well aware publish Chris’s work. matter of fact, I had spoken at that the software product I was previous Kfests with Mike West- going to demo would knock the A ListServ was set up, and for erfield of the ByteWorks and Joe IIGS world on its collective ear, the following several weeks, a Wankerl of GS+, and know that as nothing like it had ever been lot of testing of the software oc- both of them had started very seen before. But, in order to curred. A week before Kfest was similar projects that, for one achieve the maximum dramatic to start, in the middle of reason or another, had not borne effect, I started out my session printing up program manuals, any fruit. Likewise, Softdisk with the following introduction: we decided to assemble a small GS’s highest priority had been team of beta testers. Ewen placed on a program that would “Two years ago, Geoff Weiss at- offered to let us use the same perform the same function as tended Kfest for the first time. beta test team that he had as- Chris’s software, but that proj- Aside from a few people who sembled for Spectrum 2.2, and ect never got off the ground. knew Geoff from Usenet’s since they were all experienced comp.sys.apple2 newsgroup, he as quality assurance inspectors, Seeking as much dramatic effect was virtually unknown. A year my instructions to them were as possible, I finally said: “Chris later, when Spectrum Internet simple and to the point: “Ewen, Vavruska has created Nifty- Suite was announced, Geoff Chris and I feel that the soft- Spell, a Universal Spell Checker became an Apple II hero. Now, ware is stable; please try your that works with any standard at his third Kfest, everyone will hardest to find any problems.” GS/OS software! With Nifty- surely agree that Geoff is an Spell, you’ll be able to check your Apple II programming god. I’d The day before I was scheduled spelling while using GS/OS now like to tell you about the to leave for KansasFest, a re- based word processors like newest Apple II hero and soon port came in from one member Hermes, WriteIt, or WordWorks to be IIGS programming god: of the beta test team that de- Pro. You’ll also be able to spell Chris Vavruska.” scribed a very serious problem check the contents of a label that he had encountered. Sev- field while using Quick Click During the Spring of 1998, I had eral other people on the beta Calc, or you’ll be able to consult received a number of extremely test team tried but were unable an online digital dictionary cryptic e-mail messages from to recreate the problem, but while playing yet another round Ewen Wannop, telling me that when confirmation from a sec- of Freecell. If you can use a

Volume 4, Issue 2 Shareware Solutions II 11 mouse, you can spell correctly!” used in a spell checker environ- you can simply highlight the ment. The US dictionary con- word in your document, and It was then that I finally got tains over 47,000 words and can NiftySpell’s Check Word option around to revealing all the de- be used on a system with 512K will automatically show you if tails of NiftySpell! of free and available RAM that word is spelled correctly or memory. The UK dictionary has not. If the word is misspelled, NiftySpell is a flexible and more than 125,000 words and click on the Suggest button, and easy-to-use New Desk Accessory requires a system with 1.25 NiftySpell will display a list of (NDA) that automatically loads megabytes of free and available possible alternative words. If whenever your system starts up. RAM memory. one of the suggested words is the Once installed, NiftySpell adds one you want to use in your docu- a new menu item to the Apple A user dictionary is a set of ment, NiftySpell will graciously Pull Down menu, allowing you words that the NiftySpell user offer to paste the correctly to spell check documents from can build to his or her liking as spelled word back into your doc- any standard Apple IIGS pro- words are encountered that are ument, replacing the word which gram that supports New Desk not found in the currently se- was spelled incorrectly. Accessories. With NiftySpell lected main dictionary. It is very installed, you can spell check important to remember that NiftySpell can also spell check documents right from your Find- words which are added to the ASCII text files which are saved er Desktop or from within such user dictionary are case sensi- on disk. When the Check File diverse programs as WebWorks tive. A custom dictionary will be button is clicked, the standard GS, Teach, Hermes, Freecell, or included with NiftySpell that GS/OS file dialog box appears, HyperStudio. includes hundreds of Apple II and you can choose which file related words. But, NiftySpell you want to spell check. Once In addition to the NDA, there is allows you to create as many NiftySpell loads in the file, the also a special Spectrum XCMD custom dictionaries as you spell check interface appears in included that seamlessly inte- want, and you can swap which a window, and when NiftySpell grates NiftySpell into the Spec- one you want to use with a sim- encounters a word that it does trum telecommunications pro- ple click on your mouse. With not recognize, it can offer gram, making it very convenient NiftySpell’s ability to use mul- suggested alternate spellings. to spell check your outgoing e- tiple custom dictionaries, you When a suggestion is clicked, mail and forum messages while can have one custom dictionary the Suggest button changes to using Spectrum. It is that that, for example, includes only the Replace button, and by XCMD, I finally revealed, that words related to your occu- clicking on it, NiftySpell will re- powers the new “Spell Check” pation, and a second one that place the misspelled word with button that will be an integral includes only the names of your a correctly spelled word. part of the e-mail editor of Spec- family members. trum Internet Suite v1.1. NiftySpell can also spell check NiftySpell is an incredibly ver- the contents of an open TextEdit NiftySpell includes two main satile program that offers sev- Window. Apple’s Tool034 is the dictionary files: the US diction- eral different spell checking TextEdit control tool and it is ary is for use by those who use methods or options. When this Toolset upon which many the variety of English spoken in NiftySpell is accessed, you’ll im- IIGS programs that provide a the US; the UK dictionary is for mediately notice four different multiple line text input field use by those who speak The spell checking buttons: Check most probably use. A TextEdit Queen’s English. Word, Check File, Check Clip- control is merely a simple text board, and Check Window. Each editor that too many to list The main dictionary files, only button, when clicked with a GS/OS programs make use of to one of which can be used at any mouse, performs a different display text in a window. So, if one time, contain a standard set spell check function or method. you are using a program that of words that cannot be changed relies on Tool034, you can easily by the user. While these dic- The Check Word method per- spell check documents as you tionaries in no-way reflect the mits you to determine if a single are working on them. complete English language, they word is spelled correctly. You are more than sufficient to be can manually type in a word, or The last spell check method of-

12 Shareware Solutions II Post-KansasFest, 1998 fered by NiftySpell is Check from Shareware Solutions II. one-of-a-kind hardware projects. Clipboard. GS/OS reserves a Furthermore, attendees were At the past few Kfests, Tony has special part of the system mem- told that they could pre-order offered numerous hardware ses- ory to temporarily store text or NiftySpell, and when it was sions during which he has other items that have been cut released, they would be assured exhibited an Apple II Ethernet or copied from one application of being among the first people card, a Mark Twain ROM4 IIGS, to another. When using cut and on the planet to be able to spell an Apple IIx computer, and he paste or copy and paste pro- check documents on a IIGS has shown us how to build our cedures in GS/OS software, the while playing Mah Jongg or own Apple IIGS portable com- information that is cut or copied Freecell. More than 25% of puters. What could he possibly is automatically and invisibly those in attendance expressed do at Kfest ’98 to outdo his pre- copied to the System Clipboard. support in Shareware Solutions vious sessions? II and in Chris Vavruska by Not all GS/OS programs sup- pre-ordering NiftySpell. This year, during “Tony’s Hard- port the TextEdit control tool, ware and Software Emporium” and not all programs save data Marinetti Programming session, Tony taught us some- as ASCII text files, so by pro- thing practical! He taught us viding the ability to spell check At the same time that Gina how to completely disassemble, words found in the System Saikin of Scantron Quality clean, and reassemble an Apple Clipboard, you can spell check a Computers conducted a session 3.5" disk drive! wide variety of files. For exam- on Macintosh fundamentals, ple, you might use this method Richard Bennett and Geoff Tony speculated that up to 90% if you are using the Quick Click Weiss offered information, hints of all problems encountered with Calc spreadsheet program and and tips to assist programmers malfunctioning 3.5" disk drives you want to spell check the who were eager to create appli- can be traced to dirt, and that contents of a label field within cations that could be used over only 10% of serious problems Quick Click Calc. In that case, the Internet using Marinetti. can be attributed to actual me- you would simply highlight a chanical misalignment or out- word with your mouse, copy it to Richard explained that techni- right failure. Tony did not at- the System Clipboard using cal documentation for Marinetti tempt to show us how to fix me- Open Apple-C and then access would become available at some chanical problems, as he said NiftySpell’s Check Clipboard point in the near future, and that replacement 3.5" drive method of spell checking. If cor- mentioned that on-going techni- mechanisms can be found for as rections are made, you can then cal support would also be avail- little as a few dollars each. He paste (Open Apple-V) the cor- able to programmers via an In- advised that the best place to lo- ected word from the System ternet mailing list. cate replacement 3.5" drive Clipboard back into the Quick mechanisms is from a Macin- Click Calc label field. For the next hour, Richard ex- tosh “for sale” online forum, as plained in detail all of the com- most Mac users have long since In addition to the four spell mands used by Marinetti v2.0 abandoned 800K drives in favor check methods available from and its associated Tool054. of the higher capacity Super- NiftySpell, there’s a fifth button Drives, and so 800K drive mech- found in NiftySpell: Edit User Afterwards, Geoff explained the anisms are both plentiful and Dictionary. By clicking this but- inner workings of his Marinetti inexpensive. ton, you can view the contents of compatible version of a Finger your custom dictionary, add new utility that he was able to write Equipped with just a Phillips words, or delete words that are in one hour, thanks to the tools head screwdriver and a spray no longer needed. provided by Richard Bennett. can of residue free cleaning solu- tion such as Liquid Wrench, it’s Upon conclusion of the Nifty- Tony’s Hardware Emporium possible for anyone to perform a Spell demo, Kfest attendees complete internal cleaning op- were informed that NiftySpell’s For the past several years, Tony eration in 30 minutes or less. To retail price would be $20, Diaz has dazzled the Kfest au- prove his point, he completely including postage, and that it dience with his vast collection of disassembled a 3.5" disk drive, would be available exclusively rare Apple II prototypes and cleaned up every single part, and

Volume 4, Issue 2 Shareware Solutions II 13 reassembled it in less than 30 game player to reassemble the the ability to save IIGS graphics minutes. original graphic pattern. as GIF format graphics.

Although Tony made it seem so We learned from Tony that the In recent years however, the easy to disassemble and clean a Return of Cogito, like the origi- newer JPEG graphic format has disk drive, he realized that it nal Cogito, was created by Bru- gained in popularity, and many would really help everyone if he tal Deluxe as freeware. Thanks sites on the World Wide Web made available some instruc- to Olivier Zardini and Antoine now employ JPEG graphics. Un- tional materials and photo- Vignau and their Return of Cog- fortunately, JPEG graphics have graphs that could guide people ito, the Second Sight owners of only been supported by two IIGS through the entire process, in a the world have one more reason programs, one of which displays step-by-step fashion. So, prior to be thrilled with their pur- JPEGs in grayscale only, and to leaving for Kfest, Tony took chase. the other one takes up to 12 photographs and typed up in- hours to process and display a structions, and made those a- New From Seven Hills JPEG graphic on the IIGS. vailable on his World Wide Web site, which can be found at the Although neither of the owners SuperConvert v4 supports JPEG following URL: of Seven Hills Software at- graphics! It can display them on tended Kfest ’98, several of the the IIGS screen, in color, in as http://www.apple2.org programmers whose work is little as a few minutes. That published by Seven Hills con- feature alone makes Super- Since Tony had so much time to ducted a session to discuss and Convert v4.0 a must-have utility spare, he used the remaining demo new software that had for every Apple IIGS user who time to officially debut a newly been released or updated by uses an Apple IIGS to access the updated IIGS game: Brutal De- Seven Hills during 1998. During World Wide Web. luxe’s Return of Cogito. this session, Ewen Wannop and Richard Bennett talked briefly • GraphicWriter III v2.1 was re- Cogito itself is not a new game, about the SuperConvert v4 up- leased at KansasFest ’98. Ac- having been released originally date issued earlier in the year, cording to Richard Bennett, v2.1 by Brutal Deluxe back in 1994. informed us of some of the par- was essentially a bug-fix release The original release displayed ticulars in the just released that corrected a number of prob- the game board in grayscale; GraphicWriter III update, and lems that had been encountered Return of Cogito displays the offered demos and detailed in- by users of v2.0. He told us that game board in 256 beautiful col- formation about Disk Access II the latest version runs much ors. The original Cogito works and Babelfish. faster than the previous one. on any IIGS; Return of Cogito only works on a IIGS equipped • SuperConvert has been, for • Almost seven years before with a Second Sight video card. many years, one of the most Kfest ’98, Dave Hecker of Seven popular graphic conversion util- Hills Software came up with an Cogito, like many of Brutal De- ity programs available for the idea to create a program that luxe’s other games, is a thinking Apple IIGS, and the upgrade to would be a universal file import person’s strategic puzzle solving version 4.0 that was released and export utility. He envisioned game. As the game begins, 81 early in 1998 should make the a utility that could allow IIGS tiles, appearing on a 9 x 9 grid, program more popular than ever users to load almost any type of are displayed. Superimposed on before. foreign format file into any IIGS top of the tiles is a geometric program. He also envisioned a pattern. Cogito gives you a few SuperConvert has the ability to tool that would be flexible and seconds to study that pattern, convert graphics to the Apple expandable, so that it could, at and then it scrambles the pat- IIGS from Apple II, Mac, IBM, some point in the future, sup- tern, in sliding number puzzle Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore port filetypes that don’t even fashion. By clicking on arrows 64/128, and even computer inde- exist yet. that appear at the top and bot- pendent electronic formats such tom of each of the nine columns as GIF. GIF format graphics can In 1992, Seven Hills hired Bill and at the sides of each of the be viewed on any computer, and Tudor to program the nucleus of nine rows, it’s the goal of the SuperConvert has always had the Babelfish utility. Bill began

14 Shareware Solutions II Post-KansasFest, 1998 the project in June, 1993 and in stack and at the same time, Ewen’s demo clearly showed a few months, he delivered the converting a HyperStudio sound that Disk Access II is one of core of the Babelfish code, a file to an rSound format file. those programs that, once in- conversion NDA, a testing ap- stalled, you wonder how you plication, and several trans- Provided with Babelfish are a lived without it. It’s definitely a lators. Unfortunately, Babelfish number of translators that work must-have GS/OS utility! was never completed, and so it with various graphic, text, font just languished in the Seven and sound files. And, as time The Roast Hills vaults for many years. goes by, more translators are expected to become available. After a buffet in the Avila cafe- However, when work began in teria, it was time to roast yet earnest on the SuperConvert v4 • Ewen Wannop took everyone another Apple II celebrity. The upgrade, contract programmer by surprise when he announced object of good natured ridicule Ian Brumby quietly added sup- that he had completed an up- was Tony Diaz. port for importing graphics date to Disk Access II. Long a through Babelfish into Super- staple of Seven Hills’ catalog, As the master of ceremonies, I Convert v4 and he wrote a num- Disk Access II is a New Desk first thanked Tony for all he has ber of Babelfish graphic add-on Accessory that provides a num- contributed to our Apple II translators. Then with the de- ber of sophisticated and power- world through all his hard work velopment of Spectrum Internet ful disk and file utility functions at Alltech Electronics. Then I Suite, a need arose for a utility that can be performed from pulled out a prop; an advertise- that could export HTML files, so within standard GS/OS soft- ment that I had received in the Richard Bennett wrote a Ba- ware programs which display mail just a few days before. The belfish add-on translator for the Apple Pull Down menu. ad was for All-Tech Termite HTML. Finally, Ewen Wannop Services, and I satirically ex- decided to finish Babelfish, and With Disk Access II installed, plained how Tony’s company had he was able to convince Seven you can perform disk functions fallen on hard times and had to Hills to release it at Kfest ’98 from within programs such as branch out. I jokingly explained as freeware! AppleWorks GS which were that because of Tony’s “bug previously impossible. As an ex- busting” of Apple II software, he Babelfish provides software ap- ample, you can format, verify, was a natural to head up the plications with a standard way erase, or catalog a disk. You can new termite extermination divi- to import data from and export create new folders on that or sion of Alltech. data to a variety of file formats. any other disk. By supporting a single import/ The other roasters included Eric export format, applications can Once a disk has been formatted Shepherd, Geoff Weiss, Richard instantly support many file for- you can copy files to it without Bennett and Paul Zaleski. Most mats, and any application’s im- being forced to return to the of the jokes had to do with the port/export capabilities will be Finder. Files on any disk can fact that Tony had recently got- increased whenever a new add- easily be renamed, locked or ten a pilot’s license and had on translator is released. Babel- hidden. You can even change flown a small plane from Cali- fish isn’t useful all by itself; filetypes and AuxTypes, or alter fornia to Kfest. Before landing applications must be written to the creation and/or modification at a local airport, Tony’s air- use it. Seven Hills has provided date of any file. plane, dubbed the Apple II one application with Babelfish: Airlines, actually buzzed the a New Desk Accessory named There’s a sophisticated Find Avila campus and that was Convert File. You can use this File function included. Disk Ac- cause for endless jokes. Richard NDA from any desktop appli- cess II also has the ability to Bennett was a passenger on Ap- cation to select a file for con- display the contents of any file. ple II Airlines, and he jokingly version, then save the file in any Disk Access II is quite flexible, described the flight as terror compatible format. As an exam- and there are several user pref- filled. ple, you could be playing a game erences available that control of Freecell while also converting how data is displayed in the Tony’s roast ended on a slightly a IIGS font to a Print Shop GS various windows employed by off-beat note. Paul Zaleski, font, or creating a HyperCard Disk Access II. aware of an inside joke that no

Volume 4, Issue 2 Shareware Solutions II 15 one else was privy to, dumped a about a photo processing com- PC, and inserted it into a CD- box of hundreds of golf balls pany named Seattle FilmWorks ROM disk drive attached to the onto Tony’s lap. Although no one that offered a new and unique IIGS. On that disk were thou- really understand why, it was a option; for just a few dollars sands upon thousands of GIF hilarious sight to behold. more than it cost to get film format clip art images. After developed and printed, they converting a single graphic and Day 3 would also supply 3.5" disks saving it to disk, he then clicked with digital images created on Convert 3200’s Convert All For the past several years, the from the processed film. Seattle option. Convert 3200 sprang in- final day of Kfest has been like FilmWorks offers only two types to action, and every 10 seconds a mini AppleFest trade show, of disk formats – Macintosh and or so, Convert 3200 saved a new- with new product demonstra- PC – but that didn’t deter Mar- ly converted IIGS clip art image tions held during the morning tin from sending in a roll of film to the IIGS hard drive. Since the and a Vendor’s Fair conducted to be developed. Convert All option needs no hu- in the afternoon. Without fur- man intervention, Martin con- ther ado, let’s watch the caval- Supplied on the Seattle Film- tinued to talk as one beautiful cade of products, both old and Works 3.5" photo disk is graphic image after another was saved new, that were demonstrated. conversion software for the Mac to disk on the IIGS. or PC. Martin got access to an Convert 3200 IBM PC, and noticed that As the publisher of Convert several of the available graphic 3200, I had been using the pro- One day, while reading the formats were the same graphic gram for at least a year before it Kfest mailing list, I did a dou- formats that are supported by was officially released, and al- ble take when I saw a message Convert 3200. So, he tried an though I never questioned that from Martin Landhage offering experiment that turned out to it offered superior conversion to lead a Kfest tutorial session have glorious results. He used capabilities or that it was a true about Brutal Deluxe’s Convert the supplied PC PhotoWorks speed demon, watching Martin’s 3200 graphic conversion pro- software to convert all of the demo was truly awe inspiring. gram. After all, as the publisher graphics to PCX format. He of that software, my first then took the PC formatted Based on the large number of thought was that it would be disk, inserted it into the Super- copies of Convert 3200 that I only proper for me to lead such a Drive connected to his IIGS via sold during Kfest, it’s clear that demo. But, I remembered the a SuperDrive Controller card I wasn’t the only one to be im- several disks that Martin had and launched Convert 3200, in pressed by Martin’s demo. sent to me a year or two before, order to load and convert the and quickly realized that he graphics into 3200 color format. WebWorks GS was the perfect person to teach As he showed those 3200 color about using Convert 3200. After IIGS graphics, audible “ooohs In the early summer, Eric all, he had accomplished some- and aaahs” were heard from the (Sheppy) Shepherd started work thing I hadn’t even dreamed audience. Martin’s travel photos on a GS/OS program whose about; Martin figured out how to were one of the highlights of original working title was Ap- convert photographs taken with Kfest ’98. pleWorks Web Publisher (AWP). a standard 35mm camera into a Sheppy’s plan was to provide a IIGS graphic format. As Martin explained, the proc- tool that allowed IIGS users ess is incredibly simple. All it who maintain sites on the World Martin had traveled all the way takes to convert the graphics is Wide Web to create, prepare and from Sweden to attend his first a few mouse clicks. He simply format within AppleWorks Kfest, and I have a feeling that loaded the PCX graphics into Classic all of the files that it won’t be his last. Martin likes Convert 3200, clicked on the would eventually constitute the to travel, and wherever he goes, Convert button, and that was it! contents of an entire web site. whether it’s to Moscow, Estonia or the Netherlands, he brings But, to show off the true power But, from those original aspira- along his camera. of Convert 3200, Martin then tions, many new ideas sprouted, took a CD-ROM disk that was and many more features and At one point, Martin heard formatted for use on an IBM options were added before Shep-

16 Shareware Solutions II Post-KansasFest, 1998 py eventually unveiled his ture or option, and within hours, WebWorks GS is to use, and to masterpiece at KansasFest. Sheppy would have a new bug- illustrate the sheer power that free version of the program the program delivers to users, As first envisioned, AWP was available for testing. Sheppy essentially gave a long simply going to be a utility pro- guided tour of the program, ex- gram whose sole function was to Several of the beta testers sug- plaining the finer points of each convert AppleWorks Classic gested that AppleWorks Web of the many options that can be word processing files into Publisher would be even more chosen from each Pull Down HTML format. The earliest ver- helpful if it could load in menu. sion of AWP that Sheppy pro- straight ASCII text files and grammed displayed a Standard Teach word processing files. So, Sheppy demonstrated how Pull File dialog box that let a user after Sheppy added those im- Down hierarchical menus make pick an AppleWorks Word Proc- port capabilities, AppleWorks it easy to apply stylized format- essing file, then a second dialog Web Publisher was renamed ting of text by simply high- box was displayed which WebWorks GS. lighting portions of the text and prompted the user to choose a choosing options such as Bold- location where he or she would The beta test team stayed in face or Italics from a menu. He save the converted HTML file. touch with each other via a showed how WebWorks GS sup- AWP would then convert the file mailing list, and it was stressed ports such sophisticated HTML and save it to disk. to everyone on the list that options as Tables, and he guided WebWorks GS was top secret. us through the process of using From those humble beginnings, Sheppy was determined to Tables and Lists, both Ordered Sheppy decided to expand upon complete WebWorks GS so that and Unordered, to line up text his original concept. He first it could be demoed and released on the screen so that it would added to AWP a GS/OS based at KansasFest, and he wanted appear orderly when viewed in a text editor/word processor into more than anything to take the web browser. He showed how which the formatted Apple- IIGS world by total surprise. It easy it is to apply color to a web Works Classic word processing was for this very reason that page by typing in the name of files would be imported and all Sheppy’s demo was imprecisely the color you’d like to use for of the special AppleWorks for- listed in the Kfest program text, backgrounds, and links. He matting commands would auto- guide as “Product Demonstra- demonstrated how to add GIF matically be converted into tion – Mystery A2 Demo.” graphics to a page. He showed HyperText Markup Language how to add simple yet artistic (HTML) commands (commonly “WebWorks GS is an easy to flourishes to a web page by referred to as tags). The re- use HTML editor for Apple IIGS adding thick or thin horizontal sulting HTML document could users. Using the wide assort- lines. He pointed out just how then be further manipulated or ment of HTML-specific editing easy it is to set up e-mail links edited in the word processor be- commands provided, you can and links to other sites. fore being uploaded to the Inter- quickly and easily design web net, where the HTML document sites, directly editing the HTML In short, Sheppy demonstrated would be used as a page on a code that represents your web how WebWorks GS can be used World Wide Web site. site while at the same time by both novice and experienced saving you time. Instead of webmasters to set up and main- In June, Sheppy assembled a hunting through an HTML tain a site on the World Wide small team of beta testers, but reference manual, simply choose Web using only an Apple IIGS because AppleWorks Web Pub- menu options which insert the computer. As if that alone lisher was remarkably bug-free HTML tags that make up your wasn’t good enough news, Shep- and worked so well from the web site.” py ended up his demonstration outset, the beta test team took by announcing that WebWorks it upon themselves to offer sug- For much of the next hour, Shep- GS was completed, and that it gestions about how to make the py demonstrated how Web- would go on sale after lunch at program even better. As hap- Works GS automates the proc- the Vendor’s Fair. He then pened many times during the ess of setting up and maintain- turned the podium over to the development cycle, a beta tester ing a site on the World Wide publisher of WebWorks GS, for would suggest adding a new fea- Web. To stress just how easy some concluding remarks.

Volume 4, Issue 2 Shareware Solutions II 17 As the programmer, Sheppy’s ceived by Kfest attendees, as members after the demise of the demo went into quite a lot of de- evidenced by what happened board, he realized that quite a tail, and lots of technical web during the Vendor’s Fair. Al- bit of the software on his CD terminology was used. So, as though I’d planned ahead and had never before been seen out- the publisher of WebWorks, and thought that I had brought with side of the UK, and so it was an end-user of the program, I me more than enough packages with that realization that Ewen directed my remarks to those of WebWorks GS to meet the decided to make the TABBS aspiring webmasters who might demand, I ran out of WebWorks CD-ROM available to a world- have been overwhelmed by the GS during the Vendor’s Fair. wide audience. multitude of options available in WebWorks GS, or confused by So, it is safe to assume that Ewen reserved a time slot, and all the technical terminology Sheppy did get his wish ful- on Saturday morning, he re- and jargon used by Sheppy. filled; with WebWorks GS, he vealed the existence of the did take the IIGS world by total TABBS CD-ROM, and offered I reiterated that WebWorks GS surprise. And, judging from the an overview of the contents. provided a simple yet elegant reaction of those who attended and sophisticated method for the WebWorks GS demo, it was He told us that there are nearly IIGS owners to set up and a very pleasant surprise indeed. 6000 different files and pro- maintain sites on the World grams on the TABBS CD-ROM, Wide Web without having to The TABBS CD-ROM and that the disk is filled with become an expert on the HTML more than 630 megabytes of programming language. I rein- The Apple BBS (TABBS), a compressed files. All of the files forced Sheppy’s claims that British based electronic Bul- must be uncompressed before WebWorks GS is an aid for letin Board System, ran for they can be run, and once they those IIGS users who maintain nearly 18 years, and Spectrum are, they represent more than 1 sites on the World Wide Web, author Ewen Wannop operated Gigabyte of software. The util- and that it could be used by it for the last nine years. Ewen ities to uncompress all of the experienced webmasters to save told us that during many of files are also included on the lots of time, and by novice those years, he was also in- CD-ROM. webmasters to spare them from volved with several Apple II having to learn how to become user groups, and that TABBS In addition to the massive of- proficient in the HTML pro- was operated primarily to bene- fering of Apple II and IIGS files, gramming language. I pro- fit the members of the two there is also some historical claimed that using WebWorks largest Apple II user groups in Macintosh and IBM PC software GS took all of the drudgery out the United Kingdom – the on this disk. All told, there are of routine web site creation and British Apple IIGS Club and 918 files for the Apple IIe/IIc maintenance, and that Web- the Apple 2000 User Group which total 39 megabytes. There Works GS was a great time (formerly BASUG). are 1,277 files for the Apple saver and a joy to use. I even IIGS which total 136 mega- acknowledged that WebWorks After Ewen shut down his BBS, bytes. There are 2,907 files for GS had made the routine main- he decided to archive onto a CD- the Macintosh which total 356 tenance of the Shareware Solu- ROM every file that was ever megabytes. There are 165 files tions II web site fun, rather uploaded to his BBS during its for MS-DOS which total 9 mega- than the ongoing challenge that long life. After he copied all of bytes. Additionally, there are it had previously been. those thousands of files to CD- 532 Apple II and IIGS related ROM, he still had so much free files that were collected by the I concluded by describing the 50 space remaining on the disk Apple 2000 User Group. page WebWorks GS program that he was able to add every manual as a tutorial that edu- single library disk that was ever Quite a few of the files that are cates anyone to set up a good created for both of the British listed as being for the Macintosh looking, visually pleasing web based Apple II User Groups. can also be used on the IIGS, site in a very short period of including GIF graphics, True- time. Although Ewen’s original in- Type fonts, and sound files. tention had been to merely have WebWorks GS was very well re- an archive on CD-ROM for BBS As a mild warning of sorts,

18 Shareware Solutions II Post-KansasFest, 1998 Ewen did point out that because that the types of sound formats Unfortunately for me, by the the TABBS CD-ROM is in- supported will grow. Once a time I was finished, all of the tended as a complete archive of sound file has been digitized other software vendors had com- all the files that were ever up- directly with a sound card or pletely sold out all of their prod- loaded to the BBS, the disk loaded in from disk, the editor ucts, so I was unable to pur- does contain some graphic files allows for a number of special chase a number of new software that are not suitable for young- effects to be applied, including products that I really wanted to sters. Although there is nothing sweep, amplify, fade-in, fade- have. of an X-rated nature found on out and echo. There are even fil- the CD, there are some Playboy ters provided that can smooth Post-Kfest Activities style nude graphics on the disk. out the sound. Soon after the Vendor’s Fair was Ewen offered the TABBS CD- Tony intends to complete Digi- over, some people started to ROM to Kfest attendees for $25, tal Session at some point in the pack up and leave, and half of and it didn’t take very long future, and plans to re-release it those remaining went to dinner before he sold all the CD-ROMs as freeware. at an Italian restaurant and the he had brought with him, except other half went to Jess and for one. That one unsold disk Vendor’s Fair Jim’s, a steak house located was given to Shareware Solu- close to the Avila campus. tions II to be used as a master After lunch, those vendors who for the duplication of additional had Apple II products to sell set After dinner, we returned to the TABBS CD-ROMs. up their sales booths in a large dorm, and had yet another late room, and for the next several night of fun and games. We were Digital Session hours, sold their products to serenaded by those who knew eager purchasers. how to play the guitar and sat When ECON Technology went for many group photos. out of business several years In all of my years attending ago, Alltech Electronics pur- KansasFest as a software pub- At one point, I found myself in a chased the rights to the Sound- lisher, I had never before seen room with about 15 or 20 others Meister stereo sound card. Soft- anything quite like what hap- who were trying to see how many ware entitled Digital Session pened at this year’s Vendor’s consecutive Telnet sessions we was included with the Sound- Fair. Because I traveled to could complete before crashing Meister card that permitted it Kfest by plane, I was somewhat the Avila network. The final to record, playback and edit limited in how many different night, as always, was a night for digitized sounds in full stereo. products I could carry with me, unwinding and for some com- ECON referred to Digital Ses- but I did have at least several puter fun and games. sion as the “ultimate waveform copies of most of the commercial capture and editing program for software sold by Shareware So- After sharing a small dorm with the Apple IIGS.” lutions II. 60 other people who all share a common interest, friendships Since then, Tony Diaz has been Soon after the Vendor’s Fair develop, yet because the Apple slowly but surely updating Digi- started, I looked up from my II community is spread across tal Session, and on Saturday table and was stunned to count the globe, the last night would morning, the IIGS world got the 30 people patiently standing in be the last time we’d see our first glimpse of Tony’s as-yet line, waiting to purchase soft- friends in person for another unfinished update. ware from me. After just a few year. KansasFest may come just hours, I had a hoarse voice, once a year, but fortunately for Digital Session works with all several empty cartons, and a those of us who are connected to of the popular IIGS sound dig- bulging wallet. The outpouring the Apple II online forums on itizing cards, and can load in of support was just fabulous, CompuServe, Delphi and Genie, raw binary sound files (wave- and it was most gratifying to the KansasFest spirit lasts all forms), rSounds and Hyper- know that people were leaving year long! Studio sounds. Digital Session with the fruits of my labor, and also includes support for drop-in with some truly useful and By noon on Sunday, the dorm- translators, so it is possible wonderful software. itory was empty. But the mem-

Volume 4, Issue 2 Shareware Solutions II 19 ories of another fabulous Kan- July 21, 1999 when the 11th conference will be held, once sasFest will last until at least annual midsummer Apple II again, at Avila College. ö Beyond Kfest ’98: Product Availability Babelfish hours after Kfest concluded. Convert 3200 Rounding out the informational You can order the “Extras & files are all recent issues of the Convert 3200 is available ex- Freeware” disk (which contains Delphi A2 “Lamp” publication. lusively from Shareware Solu- Babelfish) directly from Seven tions II for $15. Hills Software for $5, which in- Kfest related software in this cludes postage to anywhere. collection includes Mike Hack- The complete Merlin source code ett’s Word Works Pro Unplug- for Convert 3200 is available for Bernie ][ The Rescue ged and Lysergic Software’s an additional $5 to those who FontPimp. Also included are have purchased Convert 3200. In October, Bernie v2.0p3 was programs which update Web- released. The most significant Works GS v1.0 and v1.1 to the As a special offer to subscribers improvement in the latest ver- current v1.2. of Shareware Solutions II, men- sion is that the serial ports tion Kfest ’98 when you order have been updated to fully sup- Soon after Kfest concluded, Eric Convert 3200, and you’ll receive port 56k modems. Shepherd updated three of his the 3 disk set of Brutal Deluxe’s programs, and the latest ver- LemminGS for free! If you have access to the World sions of Cleaner Clean Up, Pro- Wide Web, you can always Boot and Lotsa Tools are also Desktop Publishing & AWGS download the latest version of included in the collection. Bernie ][ The Rescue from the During my desktop publishing following URL: Finally, there are also three pro- session at Kfest ’98, I made re- grams from Kelvin W. Sherlock. peated references to the artistic http://www.magnet.ch/emutech One is a translator for Babel- inspiration I had received from fish which converts Applesoft fellow AppleWorks GS users If you would prefer to get Bernie BASIC programs into ASCII who had submitted prize win- ][ The Rescue sent to you on text. LILAN (Launch It Like A ning entries to the 1995 Share- disk, it is available from Share- Nerd) is a IIGS Finder Extra ware Solutions II desktop pub- ware Solutions II for $5. which allows you to easily re- lishing contest. launch any of the last five Beyond Kfest ’98 programs you’ve run. Lastly is All of those winning contest en- GShisen, one of the most fabu- tries are still available on the Beyond Kfest ’98 is a two 3.5" lous, incredible, amazing, chal- two 3.5" AWGS Contest disks, disk collection that is available lenging, fun, and addictive free- available exclusively from from the Shareware Solutions ware games ever released for Shareware Solutions II for $5. II Library for $5. The collection the Apple IIGS computer! consists of Kfest ’98 related GShisen is a colorful strategy Digital Session freeware, shareware and infor- game that is similar to Mah mational files. Jongg or Shanghai, but so much Digitial Session has not yet more enjoyable than either of been released, and no firm ship- Included in the collection are those older board games. ping date has been announced. company Press Releases that GShisen is so wonderful that describe the vast majority of Eric Shepherd, the author of Disk Access II software that was demoed at Wolfenstein 3-D, conceded that Kfest. There is also a transcript GShisen is by far the best game Disk Access II is available ex- included from the multi-system that was released for the Apple clusively from Seven Hills Soft- online chat that took place 36 IIGS in 1998! ware for $20, plus shipping.

20 Shareware Solutions II Post-KansasFest, 1998 The cost to upgrade from the Shareware Solutions II for $5. If you would prefer to get Return previous version is $11.50, plus of Cogito sent to you on disk, it shipping. Marinetti v2.0 is available from Shareware Solutions II for $5. FontPimp If you are already connected to the Internet, you can download Spectrum 2.2 FontPimp can be downloaded Marinetti v2.0 from the fol- from all of the commercial on- lowing URL: Spectrum 2.2 started to ship at line services and from all of the the end of September. It is popular Apple II ftp sites on the http://www.apple2.org/ available exclusively from Seven Internet. marinetti/ Hills Software.

If you would prefer to have Font- If you would prefer to get At least one very significant fea- Pimp sent to you on disk, it is Marinetti v2.0 sent to you on ture was added to v2.2 after it available from Shareware Solu- disk, it is available from Share- was demoed at Kfest; the editor tions II on the Beyond Kfest ’98 ware Solutions II for $5. now has the ability to display a collection. rendered HTML document so Marinetti v2.0 is included on a that you can preview what the GraphicWriter III v2.1 3.5" Library disk entitled “Tele- HTML code will look like when comm ’98” which also includes viewed with the Spectrum Inter- GraphicWriter III v2.1 is avail- the Marinetti-aware version of net Suite web browser. able exclusively from Seven Crock O’ Gold v2.7 which runs Hills Software for $65, plus only under Spectrum v2.2, in- The complete Spectrum v2.2 shipping. formation about Spectrum 2.2, package costs $85, plus ship- a Marinetti-aware TimeZone ping. The cost to upgrade from Graph- Control Panel, and a Desktop icWriter II v1.x is $15, plus Alarm NDA which shuts off An upgrade to v2.2 from any pre- shipping. automatically when Spectrum vious version of Spectrum costs is launched. $25, plus shipping. The cost to upgrade from Graph- icWriter II v2.0 is $6.50, plus Martin’s Travel Photos Spectrum Internet Suite v1.1 shipping. Many of the 3200 color con- Spectrum Internet Suite v1.1 GSoft BASIC verted photographs that Martin has not yet been released. Langhage displayed at Kfest ’98 GSoft BASIC is available from are included on this disk, avail- SuperConvert v4.0 the ByteWorks for $60, plus able from Shareware Solutions shipping. II for $5. SuperConvert v4.0 is available exclusively from Seven Hills GSoft BASIC is also available NiftySpell Software for $40, plus shipping. from Shareware Solutions II for $55, which includes shipping! NiftySpell was released in early The cost to upgrade from a pre- Such a Deal! October, 1998, and it is avail- vious version of SuperConvert is able exclusively from Shareware $20, plus shipping. Any subscriber who orders any Solutions II for $20. IIGS software from Shareware The TABBS CD-ROM Solutions II that is listed in Return of Cogito this issue will also receive, free The TABBS CD-ROM is avail- of charge, a very special disk Return of Cogito is freeware, able exclusively from Share- containing GSoft BASIC – The and can be downloaded from ware Solutions II for $25. FREE Version! Brutal Deluxe’s World Wide Web site at the following URL: WebWorks GS If you would like to order only GSoft BASIC – The FREE http://www.cyberstation.fr/ WebWorks GS has been up- Version! it is available from ~zardini dated twice since KansasFest.

Volume 4, Issue 2 Shareware Solutions II 21 The current version has the [email protected] handling. Shareware Solutions added option to view a rendered II can accept payment by checks HTML document from right http://www.sevenhills.com/ or money orders in US Funds. within WebWorks GS. Using applesoftware/ Sorry, but no charge cards, pur- the new “View Page” option, you chase orders or COD orders will can see exactly what your Seven Hills Software can accept be accepted. HTML code will look like when payment by VISA, MasterCard viewed with the Spectrum In- or Discover credit cards, money • The Byte Works, Inc. ternet Suite web browser. orders, and checks drawn on a 8000 Wagon Mound Dr NW US bank. Albuquerque, NM 87120 WebWorks GS is available ex- clusively from Shareware Solu- For all orders sent to the US 505-898-8183 (voice) tions II for $20. (excluding the “Extras & Free- 505-898-4092 (fax) ware” disk), add $3.50 shipping If you purchased WebWorks GS and handling per order (not per mikew50@aol.com v1.0 or v1.1, free updater pro- item). grams can be downloaded from http://www.hypermall.com/ the following URL: Foreign shipping is the actual byteworks/ airmail cost, minimum of http://www.sheppyware.net/ $3.50, charged to a credit card The ByteWorks can accept pay- software/webworks_gs/ unless otherwise arranged. ment by VISA, MasterCard, or American Express credit cards, If you would prefer to get the Florida residents add 7% tax. money orders, and checks drawn WebWorks GS updater pro- on a US bank. grams sent to you on disk, they • Shareware Solutions II are both included on the Beyond 166 Alpine St For all orders sent to the US or Kfest ’98 collection. San Rafael, CA 94901-1008 Canada, add $5 shipping and handling per order (not per Because Shareware Solutions II [email protected] item). is unable to accept payment via credit card, Shappy has made http://www.crl.com/~joko Foreign shipping is the actual other arrangements for those of airmail cost, charged to a credit you who would prefer to pay for All prices include shipping and card unless otherwise arranged. WebWorks GS with a credit ö card. In order to pay by credit card, you must have access to the World Wide Web! If you do, visit the Sheppyware Online Order Page at the following Formerly Commercial URL:

http://order.kagi.com/?QGC IIGS Freeware

Ordering Information The Gate And Spacefox Long before Switzerland-based FE Systems created Bernie ][ • Seven Hills Software Shareware Solutions II, in as- The Rescue, they were known as 1254 Ocala Road sociation with Seven Hills Soft- Bright Software, and their first Tallahassee, FL 32304-1548 ware and FE Systems, is very two commercial products were pleased to announce that The IIGS games which were pub- 850-575-0566 (voice) Gate and Spacefox have both lished by Seven Hills Software. If no one is available to take been reclassified as copyrighted your order, press 7 to leave your freeware. Both programs are The Gate, supplied on two non order via a voicemail message. now available from Shareware copy-protected 3.5" disks, is a Solutions II, on 3.5" disk, for $5 fast action arcade game that 850-575-9445 (fax) each! borrows many elements from

22 Shareware Solutions II Post-KansasFest, 1998 role playing adventure games shield capacity, some can add on their costly hard drives. and from strategy games. The new weapons to your arsenal, HardPressed, programmed by Gate is filled with word puzzles and some can make your old Andy McFadden and published that must be solved, and it’s weapons more deadly. With ene- by WestCode Software, is one filled with hidden dangers and mies constantly scrambling such popular utility program. enemies galore. Every room in through the unfriendly skies, the castle that you’re trying to you may lose quite a few ships Due to the plummeting prices of escape from holds some type of trying to steer towards those hard drives, sales of Hard- monster to battle, objects to bonuses, but with the added fire Pressed have declined so much pick up, hidden objects that are power you’ll attain, it’ll be worth that Andy McFadden was easily necessary for you to find, and it when you’re successful. able to secure permission from perils galore. WestCode Software to reclassify Included with each game is an HardPressed as freeware! Some objects that you may find, insert which briefly describes if you’re persistent, will allow the various commands avail- HardPressed is a IIGS utility you to complete the game. Oth- able in the game. program that will effectively al- ers will allow you to elude an in- low you to nearly double the ca- vading horde; the lightning bolt The actual program manuals pacity of your hard disk drive. It weapon will destroy all the ene- that Seven Hills Software ship- is compression software that mies in a room. Pick your weap- ped with these games can be works behind the scenes to give ons carefully and don’t waste purchased directly from Seven you up to twice as much disk the powers they grant you. If you Hills for $2 each if sent to a US space on all of your IIGS hard play strategically and wisely, address, or $4 each if sent to a drive partitions! HardPressed you’ll be doubling your score foreign address; no additional will transparently compress and with each new game. Play fool- shipping or handling fees are expand files as you use them. ishly, and you’ll be left won- requested. Purchasing these low Open a file and HardPressed ex- dering what you could have been cost manuals will greatly en- pands it automatically. Save a doing differently. If you want to hance your enjoyment of each file and HardPressed automati- succeed, you’ll need to think and game! cally compresses it. you’ll need to learn from your mistakes. HardPressed Although it takes a new Hard- Pressed user a while to learn Space Fox, supplied on two non Until just a few years ago, it which of the various compres- copy-protected 3.5" disks, is an was simply inconceivable that a sion methods will work best for old fashioned fast action, outer 20 megabyte internal hard drive him or her, once HardPressed is space shoot ’em up arcade game, for the Apple II, such as All- in operation, you’ll barely notice designed to take advantage of tech’s Focus20 hard drive, would that it’s there. When launching the superior graphic and sound cost as little as $59, or that the programs that have been com- capabilities of the IIGS. Unlike smallest capacity SCSI exter- pressed with HardPressed, it The Gate, all that counts in nal hard drive available would will add, at most, just a few sec- Space Fox is a steady trigger store a gigabyte or more of data onds to the startup process, as finger and the ability to dodge and cost as little as $100-$200. HardPressed uncompresses the alien spacecraft, space worms, Fortunately, in the past several programs “on the fly.” meteor showers, and The Brain. years, the prices for hard drives have dropped so dramatically HardPressed is compatible with As the game starts, you have that they are now mostly af- all hard disk drives, and re- five ships to complete your mis- fordable to anyone who con- quires that you have System 6.0 sion and destroy The Brain. tinues to use an Apple II com- or 6.0.1 installed. Those ships are barely ade- puter. quate. As you zoom across star HardPressed is now available fields at warp speeds, you’ll see In the days when hard drives from Shareware Solutions II, on various bonus objects that you’ll were prohibitively expensive, two 3.5" disks, for $5. Disk 1 try to steer over. Some of the several IIGS utility programs contains the program files; disk bonus objects can increase your were developed to help users 2 contains the author’s docu- fuel capacity, some can increase eke out just a little more space mentation. ö

Volume 4, Issue 2 Shareware Solutions II 23 Joe Kohn Shareware Solutions II 166 Alpine Street San Rafael, CA 94901-1008

FIRST CLASS – AIR MAIL