=============================================================================== =============================================================================== === i""""i === /""""/ == /"""""""""""""/ = /""""""""""""""""/ ========= /"""/ = === | | == / / == / ____ / = /_____ ______/ ========= / / == === | | = / / == / / = / / ======= / / =============== / / === === | | / / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= /"""""""" / ==== === | | / / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= / ____ / ===== === | "" / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= / / = / / ====== === | / == / """" / = /"""""" """""/ = / """" / ======= === |________/ == /_____________/ = /________________/ = /___________/ ======== =============================================================================== =============================================================================== ISSUE 7 Editor Phil Bird Submissions, comments and everything else to : se1pb@dmu.ac.uk Subscribers : 520 =============================================================================== ____ _ _ / ___|___ _ __ | |_ ___ _ __ | |_ ___ | | / _ \| '_ \| __/ _ \ '_ \| __/ __| | |__| (_) | | | | || __/ | | | |_\__ \ \____\___/|_| |_|\__\___|_| |_|\__|___/ 1......................................................................Editorial 2............................................................Net Top 10 PC games 3....................................................................MUSH to do? 4...................................................................Demo section 5..................................................................Games Reviews 6...............................I've Got a Deal You Just Gotta Hear... (Article) 7.............................................Testament of a Man.. (Short Story) 8...................................................................Nimbus sneak 9..............................................................CD ROM section 10..................................................The Journeyman Project 11....................................................Day of the tentacle 12......................................Cd-Rom scratching what can you do 13............................................................ASCII art gallery 14................................................................Parting words ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _____ _ _ _ _ _ | ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __(_) __ _| | | _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__| |/ _` | | | |__| (_| | | || (_) | | | | (_| | | |_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |_|\__,_|_| Hi Folks and a warm welcome to another issue of VOId, to me it dosn't seem more than a couple of days since Ish 6.. but heck it's been a busy couple of weeks one way or another. Firstly I must appologies for any dupilcate copies of mailings, I was testing out my super new invention for streamlining my massmailing system.. and to say the least I had problems! Hopefull this little bug in the works should be thoughrly cleared and, crossed fingers, you should only recieve one, perfectly formed, copy of VOId. . What else have I got to report, well the VOId team is in true turmoil at the mo, Perfectly Normal, who usually does our ShareWare Shope section has been tied up with lots of work, (although he tells me he'll be back in business for next issue), our kind ASCII art donator has kinda missed the deadline for this ish, so I myself have had to cobble together a mottly collection of ASCII art (which I hope you like).. whilst we're on the subject of doom and gloom, I appologies in advance of any spelling or gramatic errors contained in VOId, but the simple true is I am the worlds worst speller! You have been warned! Not everything which has happened over the last week or so has been bad, we have a new memember to the VOId team,Ken Corey, who will be casting his eye on a variety of software goodies, starting this week with a review of UNREAL a demo by future crew.. Not only that but we are also proud to present a short story in VOId, Testament of a Man, which I found rather well written and entertaining.. I'm glad to say VOId will now contain a short (or possibly long, but split into parts) story in every issue, I've already had some corking submissions for next ish so stick around. Oh and a warm welcome to David Smethurst who has also joined the VOId lot.. I'll let him introduce himself later on.. Well that about sums up all I want to say, however please feel free to mail me with your views on VOId. If I don't get feedback I can't make VOId a better mag for you to read.. As always, yes I have to say this, I always welcome submissions. :-) Thanks and enjoy VOId Phil se1pb@dmu.ac.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _____ _ ___ |_ _|__ _ __ / |/ _ \ | |/ _ \| '_ \ | | | | | | | (_) | |_) | | | |_| | |_|\___/| .__/ |_|\___/ |_| The top 10.. I kinda cheated to bring you this.. it is infact the Internet Top 10 games list (from alt.gaming?).. but I won't tell anyone if you don't? . ============================================================================== The Net PC Games Top 10 Edition 56 - Week 4 - January 24, 1994 ============================================================================== TW LW NW Title Developer/Publisher(s) Cat ID Points ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 ( 1) 6 Doom {S} Id AC [1386] 866 2 ( 2) 56 Civilization MicroProse ST [1002] 388 3 ( 3) 16 Master of Orion SimTex/MicroProse ST [1344] 340 4 ( 4) 47 X-Wing (+Imperial Purs.,B-Wing) LucasArts/US Gold AC [1169] 242 5 ( 5) 12 Epic Pinball (+Silverball retail v.) {S} Epic AC [1359] 227 6 ( 6) 55 Dune 2: Building of a Dynasty Westwood/Virgin ST [1110] 191 7 ( 7) 30 Day of the Tentacle LucasArts/US Gold AD [1268] 158 8 ( 8) 53 VGA Planets {S} Tim Wisseman ST [1131] 108 9 ( 10)^ 29 Syndicate (+add-on) Bullfrog/Electronic Arts AC [1271] 113 10 ( 11)^ 44 Nethack 3.1 {F} DevTeam RP [1186] 117 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- __ __ _ _ ____ _ _ _ _ ___ | \/ | | | / ___|| | | | | |_ ___ __| | ___|__ \ | |\/| | | | \___ \| |_| | | __/ _ \ / _` |/ _ \ / / | | | | |_| |___) | _ | | || (_) | | (_| | (_) |_| |_| |_|\___/|____/|_| |_| \__\___/ \__,_|\___/(_) Hi ho :) and a merry old crow... and all that. So, for the first ever proper mu* type thing in void lets have a simple look at writing a TinyMUSH who command shall we. I presume some knowledge of the commands there, if you need help on one, type the inbuilt help. Ive written this to show some people (I get asked about this kind of thing alot) some ways they may improve their code, or they can use it as an example. Its not a right way, its just another way. Now I presume everyone has used @dolist and lwho() before. If not... @dolist wille execute commands on a list of some sort and lwho() returns a list of everyone who is connected. Aha I hear you say! @dolist lwho()= will give a list of everyone connected and let us do an operation on them. Indeed it will, @dolist lwho()=@pemit %#=name(##) will return a list of everyone conencted to you. But will we do it like this? We will not! Two problems can arrise with the above method. 1) Your using a seperate @pemit for every entry. slow slow slow! 2) If you want to have a bit of text after the who info, it can cause problems... ala... ================ My who info!!! ================ names ================ x players are on ================ Using the @dolist method, (command;@dolist...;command ) timing problems mean it can shag up, to put it bluntly, like the end bit of text appearing before the names. We will use iter(). If youve never heard of it, its more or less like a dolist, except is used as a function call. in this way we can use @pemit %#=[iter(lwho,.......)] (the %# is the enactor of the command if you didnt know). Notice the side effect as well? Only one @pemit is needed. This speeds things up (especially if its a global command on a large mush on a small machine.) The only dissadvantage with @pemit is it can mess up if there are too many people logged on and the lwho() overloads the maximum buffer for the pemit. Ive only seen this happen with like 90 players logged on with a big informative who list so dont worry bout it. If youve created an object test to put it on, your who command would now look a bit like this..... &who test=$who:@pemit %#=[iter(lwho(),name(##)%r)] You'll probably want to add a bit of info to the start and end of the list now.. Easily done with a couple of extra pemity. Lets add some pretty lines and a title.... &who test=$who:@pemit %#=[repeat(-,79)]%rName%r[repeat(-,79)]; @pemit %#=[iter(lwho(),%r[name(##)])]; @pemit %#=[repeat(-,79)]%r[words(lwho())] players are connected %r[repeat(-,79)] (I presume you can work out what the extra bits do, and join the lines up, damb 80 char limit put on me :) Right, thats enough for this week, before it gets too long and I get told off. Try adding some extra info in there yourself, like idle times and peak players. Ill be adding some more stuff next week and hopefully doing something else interesting and usefully as well! Till then.... 146.227.102.4 6250 Was that a plug? Babbage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ____ ____ _ _ | _ \ ___ _ __ ___ ___ / ___| ___ ___| |_(_) ___ _ __ | | | |/ _ \ '_ ` _ \ / _ \ \___ \ / _ \/ __| __| |/ _ \| '_ \ | |_| | __/ | | | | | (_) | ___) | __/ (__| |_| | (_) | | | | |____/ \___|_| |_| |_|\___/ |____/ \___|\___|\__|_|\___/|_| |_| Hello all. In the last issue, you read that the previous games reviewer had left. Being the nice guy that I am, I bravely offered to fill the void... Ahem. Well, in any case, I agreed to review a few things. We'll see how it turns out. The program I'll be looking at this time is a "demo" rather than a game. It's where a bunch of PC gurus got together to see just what the PC is capable of. These demos require a lot from the hardware, but deliver astounding results. You gotta hand it to these people, they write incredible looking programs. The name of the program is "Unreal", and is available at the ftp site wuarchive.wustl.edu. The basic requirements are: + 2.5 MB of hard drive space. + 386 or 486. > 25Mhz, please. + 600K available lower memory, (You *can* use a memory manager) + Recommended: a SoundBlaster, SoundBlaster Pro or SoundMaster II sound card. Unreal was tested on a 486DX33, 8MB ram, an ET4000 SVGA card and a SoundBlaster Pro. Once you've unloaded unreal onto your system, all you have to do is run it. You'll see an opening screen that lets you pick the amount of sound processing you can afford (8,16 and 20 Mhz sound sampling, either sterieo or mono). The first demo is a scrolling star field. then the spinning logo for unreal is displayed, and the stars all fall down. The second demo has 4 sound bars that flash in time to the music with a schizophrenic sort of conversation scrolling through the bars. Excellent effect! The second demo shows a square asteroid with a small city on it. Some space ships fly around and land on this asteroid as it spins in 3d throughout this demo. The graphics, though blocky on a PC, would appear right at home in a sci-fi flick. The next demo is called "vectorballs". It features some balls that move in 3 space, rotating and gyrating and forming various patterns. The next affect is sinusbobs. They float behind translucent letters that read "Apparently this is possible". I guess it is... Next is the Wormhole. The whole screen is draining down this thing. Shadowbobs. Neat colors moving around on the screen in lisajous figures. With each pass of the "brush" the colors change. Colors. Showing real and simulated 24-bit (called real-color) colors. A slick demostration of how these machines can be pushed farther than the currently are. Real color plasma. This is a demo of how the "real color" can be used. Real Plasma. The plasma scrolls up the screen here showing some neat interactions. Something. This part of the demo is honestly called "something". Shows the scrolling characters, and a space background screen. This shows what looks to be a million dots. They are scrolling colors along their length, while slowly spinning in 3 space. Texture. Shows objects with texture on them, spinning in 3 space, and being distorted. One of the image appears to be a picture of one of the authors. Wild. Landscape. Shows a landscape using hundreds of small dots. Moves your over this landscape in various directions at high speed. Even the credits are impressive. It gives the member list, and who did what for all the code. Finally, the goodbye screen is one last chance to impress you. All in all, if you like wowing your friends, and have the machine to run it and the time to get it, it's a good download... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ____ ____ _ / ___| __ _ _ __ ___ ___ ___ | _ \ _____ _(_) _____ __ | | _ / _` | '_ ` _ \ / _ \/ __| | |_) / _ \ \ / / |/ _ \ \ /\ / / | |_| | (_| | | | | | | __/\__ \ | _ < __/\ V /| | __/\ V V / \____|\__,_|_| |_| |_|\___||___/ |_| \_\___| \_/ |_|\___| \_/\_/ Hi there, OK so at least I have written about 10 words now.Sorry to start like that but this is my first contribution to VOID so I am naturally a little nervous :)Anyway fist things first. I am Dave Smethurst a.k.a Smeg or Dave from various MUSH'es. If you wish to submit cheats or 'help' for other games players..or you need cheats or 'help' for those incredibly hard games I know you all mess around on please email me at se1ds1@dmu.ac.uk or if you happen to bump into me on a MUSH ask me then.Chow for now and on with the show..... 1)Arcade Reviews- I just could not resist this one.For this tasty selection I have :- Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat II. 2)Main Reviews - Ok this section is your PC through SNES machine reviews. (I just thought I might mention that I need some ideas for games to review in this section):- Cannon Fodder(Amiga,PC),X-Wing(PC) 3)Cheats - A couple of things that might help you here. Frontier:ELITE II,Lemmings 2,Cannon Fodder. (I NEED more ideas!!) 1)Arcade Reviews :- ----------------- Virtua Fighting 1 or 2 players Distributer:- SEGA Ok hands up those people who have seen Virtua Driving...those of you have not do not know what you are missing.This arcade machine is based around the same graphics as virtua racing.The eight characters differ quite alot in thier fighting style and so a very varied gameplay can be achived.The vector graphics combined with a smooth processing and variation in characters provides an exciting challenge for one or two player options. An added bonus is that there are no "magic" manuvers therefore it is a straight out close combat game.If you like to get in close and beat the bejabbers out off a friend or work out your strees from the day on a cmputer oponent go ahead you might like this one....the onl;y drawback I can consider with it is the price at around 1 pound a go it is likely to set you back quite a bit. A new addition is the instant playback of the final moments of the fight.When you manage to ontain a ring out or k.o. the last 5 seconds off the fight are repeated from various angles to show you how good, or bad ,you did.This can get tedious but if you get one of those really good moves in at the end it is rather satisfying to watch it all over again. The eight characters are mainly male so sorry girls you only get 2 characters to choose from...mind you one off those is pretty powerfull(but I am biased).The main combat takes place on an arena top it is not advisable to try leaping attacks as these can rarely be pulled off in time.The ground based attacks can be quite impressive though ranging from a devestating Roundhouse or Leg Sweep to throws. This is not an ordinary combat simulation..this is THE combat simulatro of the year and if SEGA can come up with a sequel to this you can bet it will be just as good. MARKS:- Graphics:-8 (not too bad graphics but ray traced is better!!) Game Play:-9 (great variation..) Sound:-5 (This is a WEAK point) Value:-7 (sorry 1 pound is a bit much) Overall:-7 (the lack of sound takes the mark down) 2)MAIN REVIEWS:- --------------- Cannon Fodder:- Amiga and PC formats 1 player Snsible Software Well what can I say about this one..not much but if you like alot of mindless violence and uter destruction go for it.Being made by Snsible Software it is everything you would expect...silly and totally pointless.(sorry!!)Nah I like this game it's a good stress relievr...you know..nothing to do feel like throwing a couple of rockets or grenades around..shoot a couple of bad guys and so on.Well this is a game to do that. The graphics could be a little better but then again cos it's such a large screen game with small characters you can excuse them...even for the size of the game I must say this..it's bloody good. One problem..if you don't like getting frustrated at games then i might advise you to stay away from this one..the levels get quite hard after about the 4th or 5th.Besides that it has a great variety of game plays. It is not allwats pointless shooting sometimes you may get objectives like rescuing a couple of stranded civie's or just blowing up buildings.The number of levels is enourmous..each level containg up to 4 stages each of which has it's own map. Another problem is though is that the bad guy's learn real fast and will start to retaliate with bazooka's and grenades and if you are really lucky a helicopter or two :) Besides that i can cresit the game quite well...oh and by the way Amiga owners if you want to know what sort of sound your amiga should be able to do check out the intro music!!! MARKS:- Graphics:-7 (Not too bad for this sort of game) Game Play:-9 (great variation..) Sound:-8 (Nowt to say :) ) Value:-7 (Could be a little cheaper) Overall:-7 X-Wing:- PC only at the moment 1 player Lucas Arts This is one of the best space Sim's I have seen.Obviously based around the star wars films(though none of the action from the film is included) this line of action movie conversion is not unheard of.The game play situates you as a pilot for the Rebellion, from there you pilot the three main rebellion ships the X-wing(of course),Y-Wing and the A-wing.Each has certain advantages and disadvantages.The missions range from the training ground to the Historical missions and the 3 main Tours of duty.If you complete everyone of the ..then you must be cheating somewhere. The graphics are what you would expect from Lucas Arts and if your PC's run fast enough then this is a pretty decent game.The ships look as though they are digitised images of the Star Wars toy range with a couple of computer modifications they look decent enough.The actual game play varies alot from straight kill the enemy to protecting a passing carrier. If you want a real challenge I dare you to try and take out a Star Destroyer..it is hard...but a good laugh. If your PC has a sound card then you will like the sound from it..excerpts from the film have been used to provide sound for the starships and laser fire which at times adds alot of realism to the game.Overall I like this game...but as I say I am biased in favour of Space Sims. MARKS:- Graphics:-7 (not too bad) Game Play:-8 (Very good...but what about a few more Death star misions!!) Sound:-7 (only good if you have SB pro or similar!) Value:-8 (good for the price) Overall:-8 3)CHEATS:- --------- Just a few this time round:- Frontieer:ELITE II Ok this one is easy..first off get an extra passenger cabin, then get a passenger or two to take somewhere,enter the ship upgrades menu and try to buy a lander..if it works properly you should start gaining money. For a better result also buy an escape capsule.Then when you leave the planet eject..that gets rid of the passenger and you still have all your money to SPEND SPEND SPEND. Lemmings II:The Tribes Ok on the main screen...you know the one with the village on...press in all four corners and you should hear a lemming go 'whoopeee'!! this should make all the levels available for you to try out. Cannon Fodder Try saving your game as Joolsa..this will promote your highest ranking character to general.(dunno what that is supposed to achieve) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've Got a Deal You Just Gotta Hear... by Perfectly Normal Here's an interesting bet. How many of you would wager with me on whether or not I could fit two or three hours of spoken dialogue, say my sister's 60 page master's thesis, into two megs on my hard drive. Well, I'm no fool; I only bet on sure things. I'd just load up sis's year's worth of work into one of those corny programs that reads off text files in an annoying monotone, like Monologue for Windows, and collect my dough. However, despite being a great subject for a sucker bet, I see a lot of potential for these silly things that are currently little more than toys. Picture this, setting a bunch of variables like inflection, accent, timbre, sex, and then having your computer speak to you, sounding as lifelike as your next door neighbor. Load in a set of copyrighted parameters, maybe a few samples into your sound card's wavetable, and voila! Your computer sounds exactly like Cindy Crawford. (Hopefully, it won't sing like her though...) Such a break through would have endless repercussions, anything from revolutionizing computer music, to being an infinitely valuable tool for the visually impaired, to probably spelling the end for voice recognition security. One area that would certainly be affected would be computer gaming. Right now you can only compress sound so far, and I suspect we are pretty darn close to a theoretical limit. Turn my sound card's recording quality up to the highest level and all of a sudden it takes 200 KB per second of music! (16 bit, stereo, 44mhz) This is why the only true "talkies" can be on CD-ROM which has enough room to spare a few extra hundred megabytes just so that some psychotic rabbit named Max can quip in full voice. (The CD release of Lands of Lore with the voice of Patrick Stewart as King Richard boasts of 130 MB of Digitalized speech!) Those of us stuck with out limited 3 1/2" disk drives have to be satisfied with talking intros, after which the game must return us to the era of the silent film. True voice replication would shatter the barriers that are preventing true voice intensive games from becoming a reality. All that would be required would be the text synthesizer, the proper set of parameters for each character, and maybe a few hundred KB for the actual text of the speech. So what if the synthesizer program takes up 4 meg or more? In the long run it would save infinitely. Games by the same company could even make use of the same voice generator, requiring even less room on a crowded drive. Computer companies could license the voices of well known actors, perhaps without even requiring them to step inside a recording studio. The opportunities seem limitless. Certainly, in this day and age, this is little more than a dream. I know little about text synthesizing as a field, but the few offerings I have seen in the public market have been a far cry from hearing a reading by even the least talented of speakers. I'm sure more advanced text to speech tools exist, but I've yet to hear of anything that might pass for a human voice. (and I have been listening) Still, this is obviously an exciting field that may have yet to reach it's hey day. Lend me an ear for I'd bet even money that, within my lifetime, we will get to hear a dynamic speaker bellow out, "I FEEL AS IF I COULD TAKE ON...THE WORLD!" only to discover that it is your friend playing the 10 MB, full "talkie" version of Day of the Tentacle Part IV. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ____ _ _ ____ _ / ___|| |__ ___ _ __| |_ / ___|| |_ ___ _ __ _ _ \___ \| '_ \ / _ \| '__| __| \___ \| __/ _ \| '__| | | | ___) | | | | (_) | | | |_ ___) | || (_) | | | |_| | |____/|_| |_|\___/|_| \__| |____/ \__\___/|_| \__, | |___/ Testament of a Man There's a bridge, somewhere in the scrublands of California, a bridge exactly two hundred twenty feet high. Or, if you prefer the metric system that the grand old US of A has finally gotten around to implementing, a bridge approximately six point six six and a whole damn lot more sixes, all the way out to infinity, if the mathematicians are to be believed, or until you say to hell with it and round the last one up to a seven, metres high. Upon that bridge sits a tired, strung-out, worn out, cynical, despairing old man in a wheelchair. That's me, you see, finally an old man, just like my father became, and my father's father before him, and so on back 'till Adam, if you're a Bible believer, or back to Australopithecus, or Java man, or whichever set of old bones they've dug up most recently and named Lucy, if you're not. And I'll bet you a dollar to a doughnut that many of them have stood, or sat, upon a high bridge, or with a gun to their heads, a revolver with one bullet in one chamber, wondering what was to come next. Just like I am. Just looking down at the water, wondering if it's deep enough, or looking down the barrel, wondering if perhaps they'll get a glint of light off lead, down at the end of the barrel, contemplating what happens next. The water, down so far beneath my feet, is exactly eight feet deep. And under that eight feet of cool, rushing water, there is a one inch of soft, muddy gravel. And under that, limestone, with all its little craters and caves. I know, because I've planned all this, giving myself some slight chance to survive if I do jump; a miniscule chance, but a chance nonetheless. And surviving on chances is how I've managed so far, through thick, which there was precious little of, and thin, which only became thinner as the years went by. Survive. And never let the bastards get you down. Our family credo in this godforsaken day and age. I feel my cynicism and pessimism is reasonably justified, but for those unfamiliar with my unremarkable life story, I suppose I had best explain a bit. Capsule summay of life before becoming old: born 1974, public school for twelve years, one year at a real school, Loyola University at New Orleans. Just one year there, because in my brief stay in that great city I met Mssrs. Jack Daniels, Austin Nichols, and the famous corporate entity Anheuser & Busch. Four years at a community college in Prince George's County, Maryland. Graduated with honors, which doesn't mean a whole lot on a degree from a community college. Went to the University of Texas at Austin for graduate work in chemistry. Reconciled with an old flame from high school, Amy, and eventually fell in love with her again. Married in the year 2000. End of life as a young man. That part went well enough. In 2003, Amy and I had a son. We named him Roger Kenneth McManus, after our fathers. Settled down in a small house on the outskirts of San Antonio. I was working as an analytical chemist in the laborotories of DuPont Chemicals, which had recently opened a factory/reasearch center outside Fredricksburg, about an hour's drive from where we lived, and I finally convinced my wife to go to college. Two years later, our daughter was born. She was named Colleen Marie McManus, for various family political reasons, and, I like to think, a lot because I liked the name. Those were the good days. On November 19th, 2011, my only son died. Leukemia. Begin chapter three in my life: Downhill. But the bastards didn't get me down. Our life went on, because we were still a family. On May 11th, 2020, my daughter's life was claimed by complications resulting from the latest strain of HIV. I think it was a couple of Roman numerals less than the HIV X that's going around now, but that doesn't matter. She fell in love with a boy she trusted, and at fifteen years old, died. The condom didn't help. The boy she had fallen in love with, a sultry romance lasting almost a year, moved to another part of the country. I hope the lying bastard rots in hell for what he did to my daughter. Losing Roger couldn't have been avoided, although God knows we tried. Colleen, though, dear sweet Colleen, only fifteen years old... But I had Amy. The bastards didn't get us down. We survived, with each other. Having nothing left to keep us in Texas except a few old friends and acquaintances, I dragged myself and my wife to California. The cutting edge of biochemistry, my field of specialty, was located there, in LA. We sold nealry everything and moved, lock, stock and barrel, to a small, two-bedroom condo on the shore. Amy had started keeping more and more to herself, and I had renewed old ties with Jameson's fine Irish whiskey and Wild Turkey, on the rocks, please bartend, no, just one more for the road, really, it's all right, I walked here, and all the other excuses you'll hear from beginning alcoholics in fancy bars while they still have the money to spend on drinks. The job was going well, and I was more or less making money hand over fist. One of the molecular structures I helped develop in the lab was found to be remarkably effective in treating certain forms of cancer, and especially leukemia. I could almost hear the Fates laughing at me as they spun their threads. DuPont got the Nobel prize, I recieved a good deal of money, and even a half percent of overall profits. I kept myself in bourbon and scotch, and occasional bags of mary jane, when in the mood, and kept up the payments on the Mercedes, and Amy's Valium(IV) prescriptions. I don't know who was worse off then, me or her. But we survived. The bastards didn't get us down. My lovely wife and I, both aged fifty-one, were walking away from the little MG I had gotten her for her last birthday, on some nameless little street in LA, heading to some nameless cafe in LA, on December 24th. I was waiting for the right moment to spring the hideosly expensive hand-wrought gold chain on her. It would've been our 25th Christmas together. I was fidgeting the whole time, fiddling with the case in my pocket, trying to figure out when I should nonchalantly mention that I had her Christmas present tonight, here, with me. We had just rounded a corner, when three gangster-wannabes stepped around us, dressed in black and wearing skimasks, and holding pistols with insanely large bores.. We both froze, hands up, and while two of them covered us, the third patted us down, very profesionally, removing money clip, car keys, etc. I thought we were in the clear, when he finished, but they shot us anyway. Just young toughs out for a thrill, I suppose. And, being the gangsters they were, they shot Amy first. I caught her, blood soaking my suit and my hands, tears streaming from my eyes, fighting back the urge to scream. Whatever happened next must have been an adrenalin OD, or somesuch. I remeber looking up at the grinning tough with the smoking gun, and getting mad, and madder, and then it's a blank. I woke three days later in a hospital, paralyzed from the waist down. They told my I had killed all three, tooth and nail and fist and anger, and gotten shot twice for my trouble. They told me the cops had found me crying over Amy's corpse, while three young men bled to death from various wounds I had inflicted. Good. I hope they suffered. That day marked the end of my life, and the beginning for my quest for death. I went on a drinking jag that evidently lasted three weeks, and cost me four thousand dollars, a car, and a broken arm. I don't rememeber any of it. After I recovered from that, I started looking into other, more serious drugs. Starting with weed, and working my way up, I've tried most all. Cocaine was good for a while, with serious downers to take the edge off. Heroin I enjoyed, but I thought it lost something smoked, and I could never get used to needles. Crack was a good high, but coming down was a real bitch, even for me, and it just wasn't quality stuff. Acid, 'shrooms, peyote, and some other things that haven't been translated into English yet I tried, watched all the pretty colors, watched all the maggots and spiders, became one with the Universe, sometimes 24 hours a day. More booze, some more downers. When I came within a hair of seriously overdosing, and flatlining myself, the Dupont execs took me aside and quietly informed me that I had either shape up, or ship out. Period. I shipped out. The bastards got me down. Liquidating my assets, I started to invest in other, chemical quality drugs. Synth-coke, serious mescaline, CAT, more booze, lab-made stuff without even a street name yet, animal, vegetable, mineral, and something bizarre a buddy of mine in South America cooked up, involving several plants known only to natives, some really strange gravel and pebbles, and god knows what else. If it could be dropped, smoked, drunk, or otherwise ingested, I had it. And then, one day, I rolled out of bed, and found I was broke. Fine. Nada. No more. The big nothing at the bank. Insufficient funds. They even repossesed the house. And so here I sit, in my wheelchair, on a bridge, watching the fish swim below me and the birds soar above. There's a small crowd off to one side, waiting to see what I do. I stare hard at the river, and if I strain, I can make out the little eddies and whirlpools forming and dissipating in the crystal water. I watched the perch and the bass play, two hundred feet below me, a game of life and death, just like I'm playing up here. A breeze ruffled my thinning hair, bringing with it the scents of the coast: salt water, garbage, rotting fish. Looking around, I could see that the crowd was getting restless. Best to get on with the freak show, I suppose. Now, this time, I vow to myself, it's for real. If I survive, I live, and maybe I can get on with a life. Death is death. I close my eyes and stretch, feeling the creases of the old flannel shirt I'm wearing catch on the scars on my back and belly, feel a little twinge in the arm that I broke in a deep amber haze of whiskey. I make up my mind. Lean forward a bit, tensing arm muscles, hands resting on armrests, ready to go. Snap my eyes open and push, hard. Almost gracefully, I begin my long journey to the water. Time slows, now, and images of my life click through my mind's eye, crisp and clear, better even than Memorex. My mother's face, my father's face, all the aunts and uncles and cousins. The wind is snatching at my shirt and pants with greedy fingers. I spread my arms wide to embrace it all. I see the river drawing closer, little waves cresting and breaking against the banks. I'm spinning now, my entire world the river, my entire morld gently revolving. I remember. Scents of my mother's perfume, the tatoos on my father's arms, fuzzed by the thin layer of fine black hair growing over them. Classroom at school, faces of teachers, now long dead. My first solo, my first band competition, strains of melodies from a thousand different songs float through my head. I remember. My daughter's dark red hair, my daughter laying in a sterile oxygen tent, her lungs broken and bleeding, coughing her lifeblood out, all from the common cold and HIV VI. The first brush of Amy's lips against mine, her blood on my hands, my son tortured by a hundred different shots, machines, and chemicals, his small casket given to the uncaring earth. I see the water, rising, I wonder why the world is upside down, why the fish are in the sky and the clouds at my feet. I remember. Test tubes and cyclotrons in the lab, cooking up my own witches' brew of coke, strychnine, Cuban cigar tobacco and Colombian gold, wishing for death. Hoping, fearing, loving, hating, giving, taking. I can almost smell the river now. Fishing with my father, crying with my mother, tears falling on my wife's shattered body, the throat of the punk between my hands. Sights and sounds and smells and feels. Making love for the first time, the last time I made love. Seeing two children born, two children die, they're mine, mine, I can't save them, I could've saved them, I loved them. The bastards got me down. The water is only a few feet away, and I can see the minnows scattering from the hungry bass. And I scream, at last, all at once, I release everything, just before my death, I get it out, I will die free of guilt, a scream tearing through my vocal chords, through my smoke-weakened throat, from my soul. I spit out the hatred and the fear and the death I have become. And then slow, and then I am jerked back, and as I rise in the tangles of the understrength bungee cord that could've broken, should've broken, I scream again in joy, and life, and joy of life. The bastards didn't get me down. TRM 10/24/93 Any and all questions aand comments are gratefully accepted, and should be mailed to: wanderer@access.digex.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _ _ _ _ ____ _ | \ | (_)_ __ ___ | |__ _ _ ___ / ___| _ __ ___ __ _| | __ | \| | | '_ ` _ \| '_ \| | | / __| \___ \| '_ \ / _ \/ _` | |/ / | |\ | | | | | | | |_) | |_| \__ \ ___) | | | | __/ (_| | < |_| \_|_|_| |_| |_|_.__/ \__,_|___/ |____/|_| |_|\___|\__,_|_|\_\ NIMBUS the way of the sneak. By Babbage Hello again children! If your in the uk & your still at school (its possible) you may well have a network of Nimbus machines. *grimace* I know I did, and of course there were those times the staff would forget the netmgr password or whatnot and would call on my help to find them again. (Even though I did end up running the things for a few years). So, just out of interest, I thought id pass you on some info. on some methods on how to break into these networks and grab anything you want from them :) Including all the passwords. Some of these methods might well work on other networks as well. Not that I would know of course. This is for information purposes only, for those staff interested in protecting themselves from the naught people, or finding their own passwords out again. (It is, really!) so I except no reponsibility for anyone mucking things up with this or anything whatsoever. Ok, there are a few ways to do it, different ones working on different versions of the network. 1) Nice and simple this, find a program that lets you operate a dos command. With any luck it will run with manager level access. We had Word, and when we executes command.com it dropped us out into a shell with full manager clearance :) The program you run that lets you execute the command has to be running with manager clearance for this to work. (I think) 2) A bit more envolved this one... and envoles you getting hold of the boot disk on the server. (Which at our place was as easy as picking your nose. Just pop it out the drive) SO, edit the autoexec.bat (make a backup first) and insert a line that copies the password file into your home directory every time the server is booted. (It was done everyday at our place). Log in and find that netmgr password. 3) Later versions encrypted the password file so... make it copy the netmgr program to you as well so you can run that and decrypted the passwords :) 4) You might not be able to copy the files into your home dir. So copy them to the boot disk instead and then copy them off that :) 5) Of course you could use this to get at any files you want, or put in safe guards so if they change things you will still have access to your extra facilities :) 6) They probably wont notice if you set yourself with netmgr access or create extra users (with extra access) with the same sort of name as a load of other people. These are just a few ways that we worked out/tried/and worked. Dont go messing everything up now! Babs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ____ ____ ____ ___ __ __ / ___| _ \ | _ \ / _ \| \/ | | | | | | |_____| |_) | | | | |\/| | | |___| |_| |_____| _ <| |_| | | | | \____|____/ |_| \_\\___/|_| |_| SECTION The Journeyman Project System Requirements ------------------ 386 DX-33 Windows 3.1 4Mb RAM Min. Card capable of displaying 640 * 480 256 Colours 512k of video Ram. SoundBoard Soundblaster, Pro audio spectrum. MPC Compatible CD ROM Drive. You are agent 5 of the Temporal Security Annex, you live in Caldoria Heights. Caldoria one of the worlds first skyborne cities. The year is 2318 the earth has been at peace since 2117. The great wars of the twenty-first century left a bitter taste in the mouths of those involved. The self destructive nature of Humans was quelled and one by one, dictatorial regimes fell across the world until a unified world was realized. In the following years a felling of security emerged throughout the world, money that was once spent on war and killing was spent on the needy. Humanity has flourished for the past two centuries, crime has diminished, and the tools of war are left unused. But all that is threathed now. In 2185 an event occurred that changed the awareness of the people of the world, the pilot of a Shuttle on the Morimoto Mars Colony spotted an alien craft. This was confirmed by the landing bays scanners, this was the first contact with another intelligent life. In 2308 the aliens returned and announced they extended an offer to all of humanity to join "The Symbiotry of Peaceful Beings", They said they would let us have 10 years to decide. On the eve of their return it's your job to protect time, the Temporal Annex was setup to protect time, after the first time experiments were successful the Government setup the Annex to protect time from anyone who might try to damage it. You begin the game in bed ALONE, you are awaked by a brilliant view out of your window overlooking Caldoria. The game is played through the BioTech interface this is an eye piece that is sectioned off to display different stats in the game, inventory, computer advice (AI), energy, view window etc... You put this on first thing in the morning, you are then ready to go to work. However this is no Linear Tunnel Game, there is no a...b...c....z run of the game, your in your apartment building so why not look around! Everything in the apartment has it's correct function with sound, light switches door, shower, taps, even the toilet. The graphics are Windows 480*640*256 colors. It runs on a Mac or Windows, and it installs QuickTime onto your PC. This is not surprising considering this game was ported from a Mac. Going into your living room revels a lot more functions, for those of you who like Star Trek the next generation, their is a 'Holo Chair' you sit down on your couch and you have the functions of a 4-d theater, you can choice mountain, sea shore, space... After you pick the setting the room changes to display your choice, you can then alter the music Funk, orchestral etc... The music is Excellent, it is all original work, it's not tinny or tecno. I spent a good half an hour playing with the 4-d Theater, the music is great and the Orchestral piece of music is fantastic. The ultimate futuristic relaxation. The game play is a little slow, That is probably the amount of information that has to be added each time, the graphics are excellent there is only live video when reading the historical log. This is a cd which has been placed in 200million bc which contains the True history of the planet ( Obviously compression tecniques have improved in the 24th century) When a temporal rip in time occurs the player has to travel back to 200million bc and collect the log bring it back and compare it to the current CD in time this will show up the differences in the time lines. The player then has to travel back and fix the rips, this involves skill and a lot of cunning, deciding which tim rip to fix first etc... You use a bio suit and bio chips to protect yourself from what ever harse climates you may encounter. You run into all assortment of beings during time travel, I have just meant a Droid 6 ft 4" on the Morimoto Mars Colony, the graphics and fluid movement of this droid are truely impressive. No jerky movement, gliding and acurate. Also on Mars you get a fly by, An old idea but excelently done in this game. Once you fix all the rips in time you have to return to the present day and ensure the Aliens receive a warm welcome. This is a very lonely game, you can't interact with others humans as this disturbs the space time continum. You can't leave items from different time zones in other ones. Over all the good game and excellent value. Graphics - Excellent. (Photo Realistic) Sound - Excellent ( Original Score) Animations - Very Good (Fluid and novel) Video seq. - Fair ( Uninteresting use of Video) Speed - Good ( Could be a higher paced game ) Game Play - Good (Smart puzzles) Overall - 90% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day of the tentacle... A rave review/lover of the game. Written By dcole@ua.d.umn.edu Yes, this is a great game. Reading the praise for it here reminded me I was sent two copied by Free Spirit software. The second was sent instead of what I ordered, namely Mavis Beacon teaches typing and Laura Bow II: The Dagger of Amon Ra. I will gladly trade the unopened copy for these two, or one plus cash. Otherwise, I will sell it for less than what I pa plus shipping. I pa 2). I have had one session of broken promises from Free Spirit to ship the right disks, so thought I would try this. I can guarantee I am more reliable than Free Spirit software. It is a great game. I haven't quite finished the first copy I got, but all of us (me and kids 6 and 9) have enjoyed it immensely, better than any Sierra game I have played. Here are a few bits from the recent thread on this by way of testimonial: Having the proverbial Xmas CD-ROM player, I was standing in the local Egghead outlet with my 10 year old daughter and five possible CD-ROM's. Unsolicited, another customer (a mom with two kids, she said) came up and evangelically endorsed DOTT as the Best CD-ROM her family had ever had. Convinced me, but not my daughter. Made deal that if DOTT was a bust, we could come back and try something else. In Short: DOTT is still on this desk. Holiday Guest Kids monopolized computer/CD-ROM for DOTT. Far as I can figure there's no downside on this one.... Brief description: It's a cartoon like adventure. Three main characters are a nerdy character, a rocknroll roady, and a spacy coed. They end up in different perieds in time trying to save the world from domination by mutant tentacles. Lots of humor. Includes hint book. Good soundcard support. email me if interested: Dave Cole dcole@ua.d.umn.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cd-Rom scratching what can you do.... Written By adrie@ica.philips.nl (Adrie Koolen) CD-Roms, (scratch running from center towards edge). In fact, there have been discussions in cdrom-l about actually drilling a hole thru and still be able read without errors! (Don't know what size drill bit was used ...:)) I think this discussion applies to Audio CDs, where the players built in error recovery circuitry can gloss over a hole drilled in a CD so that many folks won't notice the missing information. Even though data CDs have much more error correction information built-in, a single bit of incorrect data can ruin your whole day, so scratches are a more critical problem with data CDs... Data are written on a CD with lots of redundancy. There are two levels of Reed-Solomon (de)coders and for data sectors, even a third level of RS coding is added. The first two RS decoders are well enough to recover from a burst of a couple of hundred faulty bits and still reproduce the correct data. On the CD, those couple of hundred bits are a few millimeters on the CD, so a scratch perpendicular to the groove need not be disastrous. However, the laser might loose tracking when encountering a scratch (jump to the next or previous track/groove). So treat your CDs well and try to avo scratches on a CD, the drive will most probably be able to correct read faults. If it doesn't, the drive/software will tell you, as there are enough checks in each frame. Adrie Koolen (adrie@ica.philips.nl) Philips Consumer Electronics, Eindhoven, the Netherlands -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ___ ____ ____ ___ ___ _ / _ \/ ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| __ _ _ __| |_ | |_| \___ \| | | | | | / _` | '__| __| | _ |___) | |___ | | | | | (_| | | | |_ |_| |_|____/ \____|___|___| \__,_|_| \__| GALLERY As I said earlier.. the ASCII art gallery has this ish, been created by myself (Phil Bird) so you know where to send money, complaints, houses, cars, furry bunnies and the like.. enjoy... BOB will be back next ish.. ===================================================================== = o \ o / _ o __| \ / |__ o _ \ o / o = = /|\ | /\ ___\o \o | o/ o/__ /\ | /|\ = = / \ / \ | \ /) | ( \ /o\ / ) | (\ / | / \ / \ = ===================================================================== = Exercise? I think not! = ===================================================================== . . / `. .' \ .---. < > < > .---. | \ \ - ~ ~ - / / | ~-..-~ ~-..-~ \~~~\.' `./~~~/ .-~~^-. \__/ \__/ .' O \ / / \ \ (_____, `._.' | } \/~~~/ `----. / } | / \__/ `-. | / | / `. ,~~| ~-.__| /_ - ~ ^| /- _ `..-' f: f: | / | / ~-. `-. _||_||_ |_____| |_____| ~ - . _ _ _ _ _> __ __ / \./ \/\_ __{^\_ _}_ ) }/^\ / /\_/^\._}_/ // / ( (__{(@)}\__}.//_/__,____,_______,________.________,_____.___.___,______ \__/{/(_)\_} )\\ \\----,----,-----.---,-----.----,------,-----,-----.--- ( (__)_)_/ )\ \> \__/ \__/\/\/ \__,--' \__/ \__/ \__/ \__/ \__/ \__/ \__/ (oo) (o-) (@@) (xx) (--) ( ) (OO) //||\\ //||\\ //||\\ //||\\ //||\\ //||\\ //||\\ bug bug bug/w dead bug blind bug after winking hangover bug sleeping bug seeing a female bug . .:. .:::. .:::::. ***.:::::::.*** *******.:::::::::.******* ********.:::::::::::.******** ********.:::::::::::::.******** *******.::::::'***`::::.******* ******.::::'*********`::.****** ****.:::'*************`:.**** *.::'*****************`.* .:' *************** . . _________________________ /| /| | | ||__|| | | / O O\__ | / \ | / \ \ | / _ \ \ --------------------- / |\____\ \ || / | | | |\____/ || / \|_|_|/ | __|| / / \ |____| || / | | /| | --| | | |// |____ --| * _ | |_|_|_| | \-/ *-- _--\ _ \ // | / _ \\ _ // | / * / \_ /- | - | | * ___ c_c_c_C/ \C_c_c_c____________ _________ __________________ _/ || ~-_ ,/ // /~- / ~-_ ________---------------// -----------------------------------\-------------------____________ __// O-------------- ~~^ | | ~| }======{--------\____________________|______________________________ | | \===== / /~~~\ \ \ | ________________________|-~ \----| \___/ ||--------------------'----------| \____/ // `______'' `_______' I've tried to keep this section pretty small this ish.. hope you like it.. BTW please feel free to send me your .sig's, ASCII art work and the like for publication.. You never know it might just make you famous?! :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ____ _ _ | _ \ __ _ _ __| |_(_)_ __ __ _ | |_) / _` | '__| __| | '_ \ / _` | | __/ (_| | | | |_| | | | | (_| |_ _ _ _ _ _ _ |_| \__,_|_| \__|_|_| |_|\__, (_|_|_|_|_|_|_) |___/ Words... Tis the end of another issue, I do hope you enjoyed it once more, I know it was a pleasure to create. I love to reiceve any form of mail from you, the readers, as comments can only make the ish's better and erm.. well I'm sure you get my drift.. Look forward to seeing you all again in Ish 8 (due out two weeks on friday).. have a nice day, Phil Thankyous go out to:- ALL the contributes to VOId, both big and small Stuart Beale (Your hair cut gets better every day) Andy Hart (The best beer drinker in the west) Perfectly Normal Babbage Teresa (*hug*) And anyone else I know.