What would be VERY useful is for people to try to tackle finding non-English authors, as I haven't really tried finding those in the past - I found it hard enough to try to explain about permissions to some UK authors! :)
What Martijn has said is basically how I've located the people I have - by searching Google/Facebook/LinkedIn etc, and sending messages asking if they are the person who wrote a program for the Spectrum.
The few permissions I obtained was through extensive use of Google. But if I was in the U.K. or Spain I would try to do something something else besides internet searches and e-mails.
I'm tremendously impressed that you're able to track people down like this. I've been trying for a couple of weeks now for the book I'm working on, and it's incredibly difficult!
I'm tremendously impressed that you're able to track people down like this. I've been trying for a couple of weeks now for the book I'm working on, and it's incredibly difficult!
It's rather time consuming, to put it mildly. I'm just glad I can plod away at it on the laptop while the TV is on.
As you might tell from the burst of permissions today, I spent a fair chunk of last night and today sending out polite reminder emails to about 120-odd authors that I've located over the last few years who have confirmed they are who I'm looking for, but have not as yet answered about permissions.
There's still another 100-odd that I need to send out, so fingers crossed :)
If Virgin ever start charging per outgoing email, I'll need to remortgage my house!!
WOOT! Good job and I'm happy to have been involved at some capacity. Pat on the back to the others who obviously contributed far more than I did, they are the ones who deserve the real credit.
I wrote a few freeware utilities over the years that I passed onto people if they wanted them, but I can't remember exactly what there was (I don't have any of them any more, at least not on PC, I might still have them on +D discs, but even if they still exist (I lost some stuff because of an electrical fire a couple of years ago) then they might not work (they haven't been used in ten years or so) or what I finished or passed around.
I hope you found them. Dunno about you but for me it's almost heartbreaking losing old work, which I have. Just right now found some old C64 work files I thought I had lost forever.
I'll scan through this topic and see if any of your stuff was recovered.
Well, I've looked, but I can't find any +D discs (I had several plastic 50 or a 100 (or whatever) disc rack/boxes full of Spectrum stuff), but since I've not found my +D and 3.5" drive either (which I would definately have kept) then I think I might have left them at someones house, as after the fire, the house had to be gutted for the wiring to be completely replaced (not an experience you want to go through, believe me), and I stored stuff at varous mates' houses. I can't find my +2 either (I found one, but the one I used had an external tape socket added, so I could use an external recorder), I'll have to check the loft, but I don't think I've ever stored anything there.
Incidentally, I've found a DVD player I didn't know I had, if it works it'll do as a spare. Didn't find any money though :evil:
Anyway, I can't see how they've got left at someone's house, but then I lost some stuff when I moved house about ten years ago (by which time I'd stopped using a real Spectrum, but I'm sure I'd have checked that my beloved Spectrum collection was intact when I moved my stuff in), including a lot of books, despite clearing out the old house and the removal van. There really is a black hole that only appears when moving property from house to house.
Anyway, what did I write? Nothing of any real value, to be honest. The biggest was the Chess program, which (from what I remember) played a fair game, but even if it was a good player it did nothing that any other Chess program didn't offer. And it probably didn't offer a good challenge, I made up the evaluation routines as I went along, based on a simple Chess points system I read somewhere. It was fast at making moves compared to Psion Chess, which looking back wasn't a good sign, as it no doubt shows that the AI wasn't too detailed. I don't even think it understood Castle-ing, and it certainly wouldn't have understood En Passent (spelling?) as neither I nor anyone I knew ever used (or understood) that move. The main reason for me writing it was that I'd been trying to find a game called Go!, which was aparently older and more complicated than Chess, but no-one I knew had heard of it. So I wanted to write my own (I later learnt that the reason no good version existed on the 8-bits was that the game was too complicated for good AI routines to exist on such limited platforms, although it would be nice to see this proven wrong), but since I couldn't find any instructions of Go!, I decided to write a Chess program and modify it when I found out how to play Go!. Which never happened; by the time I found anything out about Go!, which would have probably been on the Internet , I'd long lost interest in even my limited programming skills.
I wrote it about 1989, I probably did pass it on to anyone who was interested, just to show off (yes, I'm James Bond :evil: ), although it wasn't exactly a finished product. It would have had no loading screen (just a BASIC loader and the code), awful graphics (the 2D staunton set as drawn by me), probably no sound (maybe the odd beep), and no options at all, not even play against the computer or play as Black - it was just a work in progress, until I found out the rules of Go!. I do remember that it had a green background (green's my favourite colour), used the standard font, and had "(C) Carl Murray 1988" (or whatever year) at the top of the screen. Come to think of it, I might have started writing it when I was using a Microdrive (yep, I was an early Speccy adopter), but I definately remember working on it when I had a +D (the +D made loading and saving so convenient).
I also did that screen saver (which I think Dave Fountain took the trouble to review in a fanzine somewhere). It worked, and didn't cause any crashes or instabilities, which I suppose was a plus. Due to the limited +D's spare RAM, it just turned the screen black (it didn't even gradually fade the screen, as the Spectrum's pallette couldn't support that). The only problems were that it didn't always activate (it depended on the state of the Spectrum's interrupts at the time), though it did work (i.e. activate when no key had been pressed for a user defined period of time) with many games, and that it stopped the Spectrum dead when the screen wen black, until the user pressed a key and then the screen was restored and the Spectrum went on as usual. Actually, the stopping dead wasn't really a problem, as the Spectrum was probably just running a game, and so if it stopped dead when the user wasn't playing, then so what? Now if you were crunching lots of data, such as ray-tracing or converting an audio file, then you'd want the computer to continue even when the screen saver kicked in, but then who did these things on a Speccy?
I think I did try to keep the Spectrum program running, by storing any newly altered attribute information (I think I remember trying to), but I probably ran up against a lack of either +D RAM, will-power, or programing skill.
The only useful thing I did was actually very small. I wrote the frontend and added a few options to a program that loaded .SNA snapshot files (from PC/Atari ST computers etc) onto real Spectrums via the +D. I don't remember where I got the original program from (I didn't write it, it might have been a magazine, or maybe a Spectrum contact sent it to me), but I mentioned it to Miles Kinlock (THE +D expert, and a really nice bloke who I used to swap Specccy programs with by post), and he asked for it, so I sent it to him, and he improved it (I think it originally crashed with many snapshots). He sent me the fixed version, and I added a front end with instructions and a few simple options. I remember this (though I can't remember it's name) as I spent ages with my Atari ST converting .Z80 files to .SNA files, using a .ttp ST program, that couldn't do batch jobs... Took ages.
There was other stuff, but certainly nothing important, and probably little enough finished. I'll try to find the +D discs, I know I wouldn't have thrown them out.
Y'know what? It's doing my head in now, I know I've heard of you before, I know I have seen your name before - I just don't for the life of me, remember where.
It's just not fair (stamps feet) :(
Well, I was around in the AlchNews years, so if you were part of the Speccy-underground in the '90s then we might well have spoken, or met at the NSSS. I don't recognise your pseudenym though, what's your real name?
Edit: I remember sending a +2 and the Spectrum video digitiser (what was that called) to a bloke in Greece, as I wasn't using them any more. I'm sure that wasn't the modded (a cassette port, MAJOR mod!) +2. I really don't remember sending the +D or giving it away, and even if I did send the +D, I doubt I'd have sent all of the discs, the postage would have been horrendous.
Sorry for answering to such an old thread, but I couldn't resist! I JUST COULDN'T!!!:
Yes!!! It is still working Carl! I remember Miles Kinloch had brought us in touch! And as you can read in your letter you had only sent me the VIDI-ZX, the Multiface 128 and SLOMO.
After that, we agreed, so a 2nd parcel came with the +2, the Lightpen and an Interface 2!!!
Never got your +D or any discs though...
Yes, someone who'd admit to knowing me! Actually, I'm just about to reply to his pm to me, so he'll probably now claim he's mistaken, then log off from WOS, and stay away from the internet so as to avoid me!
HAHA!! Avoid you? Why? I was so surprised when I saw your old post!! I was just searching for "Kinloch" looking for my very good pen-friend Miles (I'll make a new post asking the forum friends if anyone knows anything about him).
It was not your mention about a guy in Greece (me) that you had sent the Rombo VIDI-ZX that cought my eye! It was your name! When I saw "Carl Murray", I immediately recognized your name!!!
You see, I have two big binders full of letters from my pen-friends from England (Miles Kinloch, Bernadette Dowsland, you, Kevin Gourd, Andy Wright, Bob Brenchley - yes, I had also written some articles in FORMAT - and many more...). I sometimes browse them, mostly for the Miles' valuable notes on the Plus D's BetaDOS disassembly (which he did himself and then bugfixed!).
As for you my friend, I still have your box which you packed your +2 in, believe it or not!!! It was not a nice box, but I had to keep it somewhere, didn't I? LOL!! (I have a very big Spectrum and interfaces collection after all these years).
As I PMed you, it made my heart so happy to read in WOS forums our story! Aren't WOS forums wonderful or what?
P.S. I'll prepare a few other photos from your stuff you had sent me and our letters! Mine are in my Plus D disks in WordMaster format and I'll re-print them with real hardware of course in my Canon BJ-30 inkjet printer via Plus D's printer port. Wait for my next PM!!! :-)
Comments
What Martijn has said is basically how I've located the people I have - by searching Google/Facebook/LinkedIn etc, and sending messages asking if they are the person who wrote a program for the Spectrum.
Toodle-pip!
Gerard
oh no... we'd all have to go to 'Lemon64' and discuss how great the Spectrum and Spectrum games are, and really piss off the C64 users on there.... ;)
Leave the brown breadbox boys be!
We're getting close to 900 now, but the request for help firmly remains...
And today, I'm proud to announce, we crossed the magical barrier of statements from 1,000 individuals!
It's rather time consuming, to put it mildly. I'm just glad I can plod away at it on the laptop while the TV is on.
As you might tell from the burst of permissions today, I spent a fair chunk of last night and today sending out polite reminder emails to about 120-odd authors that I've located over the last few years who have confirmed they are who I'm looking for, but have not as yet answered about permissions.
There's still another 100-odd that I need to send out, so fingers crossed :)
If Virgin ever start charging per outgoing email, I'll need to remortgage my house!!
Toodle-pip!
Gerard
I hope you found them. Dunno about you but for me it's almost heartbreaking losing old work, which I have. Just right now found some old C64 work files I thought I had lost forever.
I'll scan through this topic and see if any of your stuff was recovered.
Sorry for answering to such an old thread, but I couldn't resist! I JUST COULDN'T!!!:
Yes!!! It is still working Carl! I remember Miles Kinloch had brought us in touch! And as you can read in your letter you had only sent me the VIDI-ZX, the Multiface 128 and SLOMO.
After that, we agreed, so a 2nd parcel came with the +2, the Lightpen and an Interface 2!!!
Never got your +D or any discs though...
I'm so happy I find here a friend from the past!
Yes, someone who'd admit to knowing me! Actually, I'm just about to reply to his pm to me, so he'll probably now claim he's mistaken, then log off from WOS, and stay away from the internet so as to avoid me!
Still, I was popular for a minute ;o)
It was not your mention about a guy in Greece (me) that you had sent the Rombo VIDI-ZX that cought my eye! It was your name! When I saw "Carl Murray", I immediately recognized your name!!!
You see, I have two big binders full of letters from my pen-friends from England (Miles Kinloch, Bernadette Dowsland, you, Kevin Gourd, Andy Wright, Bob Brenchley - yes, I had also written some articles in FORMAT - and many more...). I sometimes browse them, mostly for the Miles' valuable notes on the Plus D's BetaDOS disassembly (which he did himself and then bugfixed!).
As for you my friend, I still have your box which you packed your +2 in, believe it or not!!! It was not a nice box, but I had to keep it somewhere, didn't I? LOL!! (I have a very big Spectrum and interfaces collection after all these years).
As I PMed you, it made my heart so happy to read in WOS forums our story! Aren't WOS forums wonderful or what?
P.S. I'll prepare a few other photos from your stuff you had sent me and our letters! Mine are in my Plus D disks in WordMaster format and I'll re-print them with real hardware of course in my Canon BJ-30 inkjet printer via Plus D's printer port. Wait for my next PM!!! :-)