Table Of ContentShareware Solutions II
Shareware Solutions II
An Exciting Apple II Journey Into The Future
Volume 2, Issue 6 Winter, 1996
From The Publisher’s Desktop
The Shareware Solutions II roll-over subscription will be ap- been chosen by the National
Worldwide Headquarters has plied to this and future issues, AppleWorks User Group to be
been a beehive of activity these but please note that our 11 back the exclusive distributor of the
past few months. A number of issues are still available. The entire library of nearly 500
new Apple II oriented projects cost of the back issue package is AppleWorks related resource
have been started, and sub- $30 for US or Canada delivery; disks that were developed by,
scribers will soon be benefiting $40 elsewhere. and previously available from,
from the incredible expansion of that excellent yet recently de-
our Apple II operations. In this As this issue represents the ceased organization.
and in future issues, you will be final issue of Volume 2, for
reading about new Apple II many of you this will be the last Shareware Solutions II has also
products, and older Apple II issue of your current subscrip- been chosen to be the exclusive
products that have been rescued tion and you will have to renew distributor of Studio City, the
from obscurity. Much of the if you wish to continue to receive HyperStudio-based publication
planning and negotiations that Shareware Solutions II. Check that had been published by
have taken place have been your mailing label and if it says: Resource-Central and ICON.
quite time consuming and have “EXP:V2,#6” then your sub-
resulted in the delay of this scription has just lapsed. Perhaps the most exciting devel-
issue. For that, I wish to apolo- opment concerns the recently ac-
gize. I do, however, think that As an incentive for you to renew quired IIGS prototype computer
you will be very pleased when your subscription now, Alltech that was never released by
you read what plans we have in Electronics has graciously do- Apple. The fabled Mark Twain
store for you. nated an 80 Megabyte internal prototype, dubbed by the Apple
Focus hard drive for use on IIGS community as the ROM4
In this our 12th issue, Cynthia either a IIe or IIGS. That Focus and GS+, is depicted on the back
Field and I are joined by a new hard drive will be given away to page of this issue and I plan to
staff member, Steve Disbrow, a lucky subscriber who will be lift the lid on “the computer that
the former publisher of GS+ chosen on February 29, 1996. If could have changed the world” in
Magazine. Steve’s unique and your subscription is current as the next issue.
sometimes irreverent perspec- of that date, you could be the
tive on the Apple II will be winner! Shareware Solutions II is cur-
found in this and in all future rently negotiating with Big Red
issues. Since the demise of GS+ If that isn’t incentive enough to Computer Club to acquire all or
Magazine came as such a shock renew your subscription, let’s part of their software inventory
to everyone, he offers us an ex- take a look at some of the recent that remained unsold when Big
clusive explanation of what developments that have taken Red officially closed their doors
transpired and contributed to place at Shareware Solutions II at the end of 1995.
the demise of his excellent pub- along with a hint of what is to
lication, and he ties up some come in the future. In 1993, when Shareware Solu-
GS+ loose ends. tions II was first published, you
Shareware Solutions II has were promised an “exciting
Steve has brought along with been chosen by Brutal Deluxe to Apple II journey into the future.”
him a number of former GS+ be the worldwide distributor for These past 2.5 years have cer-
subscribers who are seeing this their brand new Convert 3200 tainly been exciting, and I hope
newsletter for the first time. I graphics conversion program. that you will continue with us as
welcome you and hope that you we advance into the next millen-
appreciate our efforts. Your GS+ Shareware Solutions II has also nium of Apple II computing! (cid:246)
Shareware Solutions II 1
Grapevine
Shareware Solutions II KansasFest ’96 3200 that was posted online
was written by II Alive’s Review
Volume 2, Issue 6 The same group of Apple II Editor Jeff Hurlburt, and it
users that organized Kansas- concluded: “Over the years IIGS
Shareware Solutions II is pub- Fest ’95 are busy finalizing users have employed combina-
lished bi-monthly by Joe Kohn, plans for the 1996 edition of tions of various pic converters
166 Alpine Street, San Rafael, KansasFest, which is scheduled and paint utilities to handle
CA 94901-1008. to be held, once again, at Avila missions the Brutal Deluxe util-
College in Kansas City, MO in ity seems to perform effortless-
Publisher/Writer: Joe Kohn mid-July. ly. Add Convert 3200’s powerful
Roving Reporter: Cynthia Field new capabilities and there’s
Contrib. Writer: Steve Disbrow Although absolutely no details really no contest. For smooth,
Proofreader: Jane Kos are available at this early date, fast, high quality PC-GS con-
mark your calendars now for versions, “Convert 3200” is THE
Entire contents of Shareware July 17-21, 1996. Although the way to go!”
Solutions II copyright (©) 1996 actual dates of the conference
by Joe Kohn. All rights are will be July 18-20, the Avila The primary purpose of Convert
reserved. Nothing may be re- dormitories will be open for our 3200 is to allow IIGS users to
printed or reproduced, in whole use the day before the confer- acquire a variety of high resolu-
or in part, in any media without ence starts and the day after tion graphics that were created
the prior written consent of Joe the conference ends. on other computer systems, and
Kohn. to convert them to a format that
If you have never attended a is best suited for viewing on the
Available by subscription only, KansasFest before, you ought to IIGS. Convert 3200 accom-
several options are available: consider attending this year. It plishes that by converting all
will be The Apple II Event Of graphics to the 320 * 200 Super
A) The first 12 issues: $35 for The Year! Hi Res mode, and it can convert
US/Canada; $50 elsewhere. them as graphics that contain
B) The first 18 issues: $55 for For additional information, con- the standard 16 colors allowed
US/Canada; $75 elsewhere. tact: in that mode, or it can save
C) The next 6 issues/Renewal: them with 256 colors or as 3200
$25 for US/Canada; $40 else- KFest96 color format graphics.
where. c/o Kellers
PO Box 391 Convert 3200 is a speed demon!!
Make all checks payable to Joe Brielle, NJ 08730 Generally, it can convert a for-
Kohn. US Funds Only. No eign format graphic in as little
charge cards, purchase orders or Or direct an e-mail to: as 10 seconds. Convert 3200
COD orders will be accepted. also contains a unique “Convert
[email protected] All” option that makes it possi-
This newsletter was created [email protected] ble to quickly convert an entire
entirely with an Apple IIGS. All [email protected] subdirectory of graphics to IIGS
articles written in AppleWorks format with just a single mouse
Classic. Page Layout prepared Convert 3200 click.
in AppleWorks GS. Printing
was done on a Hewlett-Packard In mid-December, 1995, Brutal As an experiment, I used Con-
LaserJet IIP Plus, connected to Deluxe’s first commercial soft- vert 3200’s “Convert All” option
the IIGS courtesy of Vitesse’s ware product – Convert 3200 – to convert 75 GIF format graph-
Harmonie. The use of TrueType started shipping. This program ics to Apple Preferred Format,
fonts is courtesy of WestCode is the latest in a long line of and actually used a stop-watch
Software’s Pointless. IIGS graphics conversion pro- to time the conversion process.
grams, and its release was The results were astounding.
E-mail Addresses: received with great fanfare and The experiment actually con-
CIS: 76702,565 rave reviews. sisted of three separately timed
GENIE: JOE.KOHN tests that loaded in the 75 GIF
INTERNET: [email protected] The very first review of Convert graphics, converted them, and
2 Shareware Solutions II
then saved them back to disk as requires System 6.0.1. Although brary currently offers the two
16 color graphics, 256 color not required, a hard disk drive disk Symbolix program and
graphics and 3200 color format and an accelerator card are manual for $8. There is also the
graphics. recommended. two disk Symbolix Demo pro-
gram available for $8.
It took Convert 3200 only 8 To purchase Convert 3200, send
minutes and 41 seconds to con- checks or money orders, in US Henrik Gudat has authorized
vert and save the 75 graphics as Funds only, in the amount of Shareware Solutions II to offer
16 color Apple Preferred Format $15 (or $20 for the program and readers a special “$25 Symbolix
320 * 200 graphics! To load, the source code), to: Shareware Bundle” that in-
convert and save them all as cludes the Symbolix program
256 color graphics took 9 min- Joe Kohn disk, the Symbolix manual disk,
utes and 52 seconds! To load, Shareware Solutions II and the Symbolix demo disks. In
convert and save them all as 166 Alpine St addition to receiving the disks
3200 color format graphics took San Rafael, CA 94901-1008 by mail, those who order this
10 minutes and 55 seconds! special bundle will also be auto-
Sorry, but no credit cards or matically registered as having
Convert 3200 can load in and school purchase orders can be paid the $15 shareware regis-
convert all the standard IIGS accepted. Please make all check tration fee.
graphic formats and can work payable to Joe Kohn.
with such foreign format graph- Under this new arrangement,
ics as Windows BMP, GIF, Share The Wealth not only do you get to save some
Amiga IFF, PC LBM, Paint- money, but since a large propor-
brush PCX, Binary PC, and Shareware Solutions II strongly tion of the proceeds of the
some TIFF graphics. In addition believes in “supporting those bundle will be turned over to
to having the ability to convert who support the Apple II.” In Bright Software, the author of
and save those graphics in the the last issue, a pledge was Symbolix will also receive much
IIGS standard Apple Preferred made to share with the pro- more money for his efforts.
Format, it can also save graph- grammers a portion of the pro-
ics in Print Shop GS format, ceeds generated by the library Laureate Learning Systems
and in the following foreign for- sales of both Eric Shepherd’s
mats: Windows BMP, Paint- SheppyWare ’95 and Bright Laureate Learning Systems spe-
brush PCX, TIFF, and Binary Software’s Symbolix. cializes in special education and
PC. early intervention linguistic
In an effort to hopefully encour- software geared towards chil-
Convert 3200 also distinguishes age the further development of dren and adults with disabili-
itself by being the lowest priced high quality Apple II and IIGS ties. Laureate’s extensive collec-
graphics conversion program shareware, Shareware Solu- tion of award winning talking
ever released for the IIGS. Its tions II is pleased to announce software titles for Apple IIe/IIc
cost is only $15, and that price that $72 has been presented to and IIGS systems help to teach
includes shipping to anywhere Eric Shepherd and that Henrik critical language, reading and
in the world! Additionally, pro- Gudat has received $120 from thinking skills.
grammers who purchase Con- Shareware Solutions II.
vert 3200 can receive the Merlin In 1994, Laureate started to
16+ Source Code for only $5. Thank you all for making those offer all of their IIe/IIc software
That is simply unprecedented! endowments possible. titles for an unprecedented 50%
discount. They have just recently
Convert 3200 requires a IIGS Bright Software has been so extended a similar 50% discount
with at least 2 megabytes of pleased with its informal alli- for all of their Apple IIGS soft-
RAM; 4 megabytes of RAM is ance with Shareware Solutions ware titles.
recommended to convert large II that Henrik Gudat would like
1280 * 800 graphics. Convert to extend yet another special If you are a parent or teacher of
3200 has been tested and works and exclusive offer on Symbolix. children with disabilities, con-
with both Apple IIGS ROM 01 tact Laureate to request their
and ROM 03 versions, and it The Shareware Solutions II li- 42 page free catalog.
Shareware Solutions II 3
Laureate Learning Systems art, amusing digitized sounds, Shareware Solutions II would be
110 East Spring St custom XCMDs and much more. interested in distributing all of
Winooski, VT 05404-1898 Each hypermedia stack in- the back issues. I didn’t hesitate
1-800-562-6801 cluded on Studio City includes for even a second!
802-655-4755 detailed descriptions about how
802-655-4757 (fax) it was created, and each pro- Effective immediately, all 30
vides information on how you back issues of Studio City are
Studio City can use similar techniques in available once again.
your own HyperStudio projects.
Stack-Central, a HyperStudio- If you’ve never experienced the
based magazine on disk, was Although Studio City holds wonders of HyperStudio or seen
first published by Resource- great interest to those who Studio City before, you’ll be
Central in February, 1990. design their own HyperStudio pleased to learn that Shareware
After a change of Editors, it was stacks, there are a lot of won- Solutions II is offering a three
re-named Studio City in Decem- derfully creative stacks included disk Sampler Pack for only $6.
ber, 1991 and it continued to be that will be of interest to teach-
published bi-monthly until ers, students and even small During its lifetime, Studio City
ICON, Resource-Central’s suc- children. In other words, you had three editors (Tom Baker,
cessor, went out of business in don’t need to be a hypermedia Dean Esmay and Bill Lynn), and
early 1995. There were a total of designer to appreciate Studio each one offered a unique per-
30 issues, each comprised of two City. In my biased opinion, I spective and different brand of
3.5" disks, published during feel that HyperStudio is just wacky humor, and each trans-
that time. about the best program ever formed the look and feel of the
released for the IIGS, and that publication to represent his own
Studio City remains to this day Studio City contains some of hypermedia vision. Each of the
the premiere example of what the very best HyperStudio proj- three Sampler disks was cre-
can be created on a IIGS using ects ever created. If you create ated by a different editor, and by
Roger Wagner Publishing’s pop- HyperStudio stacks, Studio experiencing all three, you can
ular HyperStudio program. City will teach you how to “push really sample all the wonders of
HyperStudio is a multimedia the envelope.” If you enjoy using Studio City.
construction kit that allows HyperStudio to sample other
non-programmers to easily cre- people’s work, some of the best You do not even need to own the
ate non-linear interactive IIGS examples ever are included on HyperStudio program to run the
software that can contain any Studio City. If you’ve never seen Sampler disks, as a Hyper-
combination of text, digitized an example of hypermedia on Studio “player” is included on
sounds, animations, or graphics. the IIGS, Studio City is bound all three disks.
to impress you.
With just a little imagination In addition to the Sampler
and HyperStudio, even grade During its lifetime, I was a Stu- Disks, Shareware Solutions II is
school children can create so- dio City subscriber and can eas- making Studio City available as
phisticated software. Yet, com- ily remember the excitement I single issues or multiple issue
bine an Apple IIGS Hyper- felt whenever a new issue ar- sets. Following are all appli-
Studio expert with a profes- rived; I dropped everything in cable pricing options:
sional artist, add the contri- order to spend an enjoyable
butions of a myriad of IIGS hour or three going through each Single issues are available for
hypermedia specialists, and you issue and discovering fun new $7 each.
have the work of art that is uses for HyperStudio. I, like
Studio City. many other fans of Hyper- A six issue combo pack (choose
Studio, really miss Studio City. any six issues) is available for
Each of the 30 issues of Studio $36. Shipping charges are $3 for
City shows off the amazing Shareware Solutions II was US destinations or $5 else-
capabilities of HyperStudio and recently contacted by Bill Lynn, where.
they are filled with useful arti- the final editor of Studio City
cles about HyperStudio, sample and holder of the copyrights to You can purchase all 30 issues
stacks, tutorials, beautiful clip Studio City. He wondered if for $120. Due to the weight in-
4 Shareware Solutions II
volved, shipping charges are $6 about AppleWorks and Apple- ware, features on existing com-
for US delivery, $10 for delivery Works GS and one focusing on mercial products, up-to-date
to Canada and Mexico, and $20 cross-platform computing. Also reports from the software and
for Air Mail anywhere else. scheduled are articles about hardware development front,
Apple II desktop publishing, in- and assessments on the latest
Included with all orders is a one terviews and product reviews. shareware and freeware.
disk version of the HyperStudio
“run-time module” that will The cost of a subscription is Each quarterly issue of
allow you use Studio City, but $12/year for delivery to US or Juiced.GS will contain 20 pages
in order to use HyperStudio to Canada; $18/year elsewhere. and the first issue is scheduled
create your own stacks, you will For additional information, con- for mid-February. Subscriptions
need to purchase the complete tact: cost $14/year for delivery to US
HyperStudio program package or Canada; $20/year elsewhere.
from your friendly Apple II mail Steve Cavanaugh
order vendor. The Apple Blossom For additional information, con-
1117 Maple St tact:
Neither HyperStudio nor Studio Wilmington, DE 19805
City requires a hard drive or Max Jones
massive amounts of RAM. All Juiced.GS will be published by Juiced.GS
that’s required to run Studio Max Jones, the editorial page 2217 Lakeview Drive
City is a IIGS with a single 3.5" editor of the Terre Haute Trib- Sullivan, IN 47882
disk drive, 1.125 megabytes of une-Star, who has 20+ years ex-
RAM, and System 5.0.2 or later. perience in all phases of jour- ZIP Drive Collections
nalism. Max had created a pro-
Note: Look for a detailed index, totype version of Juiced.GS for Soon after Iomega introduced
in the next issue, of all that submission to the Shareware the 100 megabyte removable Zip
Studio City has to offer. Solutions II desktop publishing Drive storage system, Russell
program, and I was stunned Nielson purchased one, and
Two New Newsletters when I first laid eyes on the went on an Internet down-
prototype. He had created it loading spree in an effort to fill
Two new subscription-based with AppleWorks GS. I took one up his 100 megabyte disks with
Apple II oriented newsletters look at Juiced.GS and thought IIGS music and graphics. Russ
are scheduled to debut in the to myself, “I didn’t know you soon filled up three 100 mega-
very near future. The Apple could do that with AppleWorks byte disks with MOD music
Blossom plans to be a general GS.” As an AppleWorks GS files, and one disk with graphics.
interest Apple II newsletter desktop publisher myself, I was
while Juiced.GS will focus even a little envious of Max’s If you own a Zip Drive, you
exclusively on the Apple IIGS. design abilities. This prototype already know that blank disks
issue is available for you to pre- cost $20, yet that is exactly
For the past year, Steve view on the AppleWorks GS what Russ is charging for each
Cavanaugh has actually pub- Desktop Publishing Disk, avail- Zip disk which is already filled
lished a freeware version of The able from the Shareware Solu- with files! Russ is obviously not
Apple Blossom which he has tions II library. offering this service to make
made available online for Apple money, so how can you possibly
II modem owners to download, Planned for Juiced.GS are col- lose?
and at his own expense, he has umns and feature articles that
mailed out paper-based copies tout the strengths of the IIGS For additional information, con-
to hundreds of educators in his and the software needed to push tact:
home state. it to its limits. It will explore
topics ranging from desktop Russell Nielson
A number of regular columns publishing and graphics to 2303 Greve Avenue
are slated to appear in The systems management and tele- Spring Lake Hts, NJ 07762
Apple Blossom, including one communications. Juiced.GS will
about HyperCard stack design also present reviews of new [email protected] (cid:246)
and script writing, another one commercial software and hard-
Shareware Solutions II 5
Modem Madness
Home Page Update ported that they have been un- may contain. What is particu-
able to successfully enter the larly useful is that Weblint will
If it’s been a while since you last Shareware Solutions II site. If display the proper and correct
visited the Shareware Solutions you are one of those who has syntax that is expected and
II home page on the World Wide had problems, please note that required. So without even having
Web, you might be surprised at there is an alternate URL that to understand anything about
what you see when you next you can use. That is: html document creation, an in-
point your favorite web browser dustrious web designer can sim-
at the following URL: http://www.crl.net/~joko ply cut and paste Weblint’s sug-
gested corrections into his or her
http://www.crl.com/~joko Help With HTML Documents own html documents.
For starters, you’ll notice that I wish that I could take sole If you’re an aspiring web site
the URL itself is shorter than it credit for getting the Shareware designer, visit the Weblint home
was and to access the site now Solutions II home page up and page (which also includes links
requires typing fewer characters running, but I received a lot of to many other html validation
than before. advice and assistance from a checkers) by pointing your favor-
new breed of Internet-based ite web browser at the following
Once you’ve arrived at Share- automated computer programs URL:
ware Solutions II online, you’ll know as html (hypertext mark-
immediately notice that the up language) validation check- http://www.khoral.com/staff/neilb
home page has been greatly re- ers. The best known validation
vamped and now contains much checker is called Weblint and it Alta Vista
more information than ever be- is virtually guaranteed to help
fore. You’ll also notice some up- struggling home page designers Recent estimates indicate that
dated and new Apple II oriented and aspiring web masters to there are now more than 16 mil-
links to other sites. quickly locate any mistakes lion web pages on the World
that they have made while cre- Wide Web. With so many differ-
Now included on the home page ating html documents. ent web sites available and with
are complete descriptions of all thousands of new ones coming
the various products available All html documents start out as online each and every day, it’s
from Shareware Solutions II. standard ASCII text files. Once sometimes difficult to find the
Thanks to the efforts of sub- the text file contains the in- exact information on the web
scriber Steve Cavanaugh, you’ll formation you want, it must that you are seeking.
find a new link that displays a then be translated into html
complete catalog of Script-Cen- format – a format that contains Over the past two years, a num-
tral disks. Thanks to the efforts embedded commands that con- ber of different World Wide Web
of subscriber Josh Calvin, you’ll trol how the file will be dis- “search engines” have been de-
also find a complete catalog of played on screen. veloped that allow web users to
every disk available from the search for information by en-
Shareware Solutions II library. When first dabbling in html, it tering keywords and/or keyword
can be quite confusing and dif- phrases. In a recent issue of this
Now that I am finally comfort- ficult to master, and that’s why newsletter, one such search
able with creating and editing Weblint can really help the nov- engine – WebCrawler – was
the basic building blocks that ice web master. Weblint is ac- described as being a hypertext-
regulate and control what World cessed through the World Wide based database that would
Wide Web browsers see – html Web, and once you’ve gotten to display a list of home pages that
documents – look for many more the Weblint home page, you are corresponded to your keyword
changes and enhancements to prompted to enter the complete and that would allow you easy
come online in the coming weeks URL for the html document you access to any of those World
and months. want to validate. Type that in Wide Web sites.
and within 30-60 seconds, Web-
Unfortunately, some people who lint will read your html docu- WebCrawler, and most of the
use computers other than the ment, analyze it, and display on other World Wide Web based
venerable Apple II have re- screen any syntax errors that it search engines are now obsolete,
6 Shareware Solutions II
thanks to Alta Vista, a free tion, the staff of GEnie’s A2 will run and you’ll be trans-
service offered by Digital Equip- RoundTable have gathered to- ported to the Apple II Launch
ment Corporation. It was intro- gether an indexed listing of Pad.
duced on December 15, 1995 Apple II related sites on the
and within only three weeks, World Wide Web, and have If you’re on GEnie and have an
Alta Vista was conducting over made it available from A2’s Apple II, you’re going to love
two million successful searches main menu as item #14. When the Apple II Launch Pad! (cid:246)
per day! you choose that menu item, lynx
Alta Vista is capable of quickly
Loose Ends
searching through all 8 billion
words found in over 16 million
web pages, and it can even
By Steven W. Disbrow
conduct a full-text search of over
13,000 Usenet news groups.
If you’ve read the last (and I do how many subscribers GS+ Mag-
As an experiment to determine mean last) issue of GS+ Maga- azine had. The cut off number
the usefulness of various web- zine, you’ve probably come to was 1,500 subscribers and after
based search engines, I chose a the conclusion that the decision V7.N1 shipped, we dropped be-
unique Apple II related word – to shut down GS+ Magazine low it. During the entire run of
KansasFest – and entered that was made at the last minute. GS+ Magazine, I was harping on
as a keyword into three of the After all, we announced a new the fact that there seemed to be
most popular World Wide Web contest (finish HyperReporter), more people reading borrowed
search engines. WebCrawler we announced a new product copies of GS+ Magazine than
found no references at all. Info- (AutoArk v1.1) and we pub- there were subscribing to it, and
Seek found six references to lished several letters asking that’s probably what finally
KansasFest. Alta Vista quickly questions that I just didn’t killed us. (Trivia point: GS+
located 81 unique references. know the answers to. So in this, Magazine actually reached its
my first article for Shareware peak number of subscribers
Whether you are looking for Solutions II, I thought I should [just above 2,100] about three
Apple II related information or tie up some of those loose ends. years ago. It was all downhill
old friends, you owe it to (By the way, if you were a GS+ after that.) Over the last year,
yourself to add Alta Vista to Magazine subscriber, and you the number of new subscriptions
your Bookmark file. Just point don’t have a clue as to what I’m and renewals went way down.
your favorite web browser at the talking about, pick your jaw up While V7.N1 was at the printer,
following URL: off the floor, go get your copy of I realized that if the trend con-
GS+ V7.N1 and read the tinued over the next two months,
http://www.altavista.digital.com “Writer’s Block” article.) there was no way we’d be able to
climb back up to 1,500 sub-
GEnie Launch Pad Yes, I Am Dirt scriptions after V7.N1 shipped.
In fact, it looked like we’d be
A growing number of Apple II First, let’s look at the “sudden- lucky if we brought in over
users are now using the GEnie ness” of the decision to shut $3,000 in renewals and new sub-
online network to access the down GS+ Magazine. Actually, scriptions. That money would
World Wide Web. Until quite it wasn’t a sudden decision at have to pay for the production of
recently, Apple II users used all. I had been considering what the next year’s worth (six issues)
lynx by visiting the general In- I’d have to do to close down the of GS+ Magazine. While $3,000
ternet access area (M5000), but magazine almost from the day sounds like a lot of money, it
now they no longer have to leave that I started it. (That’s just isn’t. In fact, it cost just under
the comfortable confines of A2, smart business folks.) I’d also $4,000 to produce and mail each
thanks to the new Apple II set some conditions that, when issue of GS+ Magazine. (And
Launch Pad menu option. they were met, would force me that cost doesn’t include the
to stop publication of the maga- money I had to pay Joe or Rob.)
To assist those in search of zine. As you might expect, those
Apple II software and informa- conditions had a lot to do with So, I had to make a decision: Do
Shareware Solutions II 7
I send out renewal notices, and anyone at KansasFest. If I ap- to know if I knew of any way to
take money for six more issues peared upbeat at KansasFest, patch AppleWorks 5 so that it
that I know I won’t be able to well, it’s kind of hard to act de- would use European-style A4
print, or do I bow out now while pressed when you’re surrounded paper as its default paper size. I
I’ve still got a chance to stay in by such supportive people.) didn’t, but Bernard Huber of
business and give folks their France did. Bernard informed
money’s worth? Frankly, while it The bottom line is that the de- me that a patch program called
was a painful decision to make, cision to end production of GS+ “Free Patcher” is available to
the only way I could go was to Magazine has allowed EGO folks who subscribe to the
fold the magazine and try to Systems to stay in business and AppleWorks-oriented newsletter
give folks their money back in to continue to support the IIGS called Texas II. According to
the form of back issues and for a while to come. The alter- Bernard, Free Patcher allows
merchandise credit. I would native was eventual personal you to change scads of settings
have liked to give all of the actu- bankruptcy which, if you’ll for- in both AppleWorks 5 and 5.1.
al money back, but since I owed give me for being selfish, I For more information on Free
a total of almost $33,000 to thought might not be in the best Patcher and Texas II, contact:
everybody, it was a bit imprac- interest of myself or my family.
tical. Beverly Cadieux
(I apologize for the tiny amount Kingwood Micro Software
(Tangential item: Since the de- of sarcasm, but I’ve recently 2018 Oak Dew
mise of GS+ Magazine, I’ve been accused of killing the IIGS, San Antonio, TX 78232-5471
come under attack for two and a few disgruntled readers
things: Not raising the price of have actually threatened me Marc also asked if I knew of any
the magazine, and for mis- with legal action over this mess. way to up/download information
leading people at KansasFest. So, I’ve had days where I’m just to/from a Casio digital diary. I
In the first place, we did raise a tad bitter about everything. didn’t, but David Empson of
the price of magazine-only To be fair, these nut jobs have New Zealand wrote to inform me
subscriptions twice. The result? been few and far between, and that he had created “rudimen-
Magazine-only subscriptions 99.9% of former GS+ Magazine tary” software for the IIGS that
went through the floor. [Actual- subscribers have been incred- allows him to perform simple
ly, we had lost so many mag- ibly nice. But being threatened data backup and restoration for
azine-only subscriptions, I had with a lawsuit over $36 [usually his Casio calculator. David isn’t
planned to discontinue them less] is a bit depressing.) sure that the data formats or
completely after V7.N2 was protocols are similar, but if
mailed.] This made me sort of OK, that’s enough of that. Let’s someone contacts him via e-mail
reluctant to raise the price of move on to something a bit at [email protected] he’s
the magazine and disk sub- more cheerful. Let’s move on to willing to look into it.
scriptions. The sad fact is that the...
very few Apple IIGS owners AppleWorks GS Problem
were willing to pay for GS+ Unanswered Letters!
Magazine at the $36 price point, Another reader, Bill Abate, had
and the evidence suggested that In the last issue of GS+ Maga- written in to say that since he
even fewer would pay for it at a zine, there were several letters had installed System Software
higher price. As for KansasFest, that asked questions that I just 6.0.1, he was having problems
all I can say is that I didn’t try didn’t know the answers to. with AppleWorks GS not re-
to mislead anyone as to the Since that issue was published, membering where to save his
future of GS+ Magazine. In fact, I’ve received answers to almost files. I replied that I thought
I’m pretty sure that I was a bit all of those questions which I’ll that Softdisk G-S had published
of a “downer” with all the folks share with you now. a patch program to fix this prob-
who spoke with me about the lem, but that I couldn’t find any
magazine’s future. I’ve always TEXAS II indication of which issue of Soft-
said that GS+ Magazine would disk G-S it appeared on. Fortu-
be published as long as I could First up is an answer to a ques- nately, a vigilant reader named
afford to do so, and I don’t think tion asked by Marc Eskenazi of Rose Wall knew exactly which
I said anything different to Surrey, England. Marc wanted issue of Softdisk G-S this pro-
8 Shareware Solutions II
gram was on – issue number 53. installed. The reason? In almost A Moving Experience
(Contact Softdisk Publishing at every case, these folks also own
800-831-2694 or 318-221-8718 DiscQuest or the DiscQuest Oh, one last thing, EGO Sys-
to order this back issue.) Encyclopedia. Apparently, when tems has moved again, so I need
you install either of these prod- to make sure that everyone out
Well, that about wraps up all of ucts, it installs a copy of the there knows our new contact
the unanswered letters from the System 6.0 High Sierra FST on information. So, here it is!
last issue of GS+ Magazine. your boot disk. So, the solution
But, there have been a few other is to simply reinstall the High EGO Systems
questions that have popped up... Sierra FST from your System 7918 Cove Ridge Rd.
6.0.1 master disks. Dr. Bazyar Hixson, TN 37343
System 6.0.1? should then work as advertised.
Tech Support: 423-843-1775
Lots of folks have asked if EGO Boot Time Problems? FAX: 423-843-0661
Systems is still distributing Orders Only: 800-662-3634
IIGS System Software 6.0.1. Still other folks have reported
Well, we do have to pay a li- that the Boot Time control pan- (Note: If you have any trouble
censing fee to distribute parts of el (which tells you how long your getting a FAX through, call the
the System Software on our IIGS was “up” and how many FAX number, let the phone ring
GS+ Magazine back issues, so I times it has crashed) was not four times, and then press #11*.
guess that we can still distrib- working properly with the IIGS That will activate the FAX ma-
ute the entire five disk set to clock set to display 24-hour chine and your FAX should then
anyone buying GS+ Magazine time. The author of Boot Time, go through.)
back issues. But, you have to Chris Vavruska, heard about
buy magazines and disks (not this problem and promptly of- And, of course, you can still
just magazines) for us to be fered to write a patch program contact us via e-mail at either of
able to send you the System to fix it. At this point, the patch our addresses: [email protected] or
Software. And you still need to program is still undergoing [email protected]. If you have
send us five blank and for- testing, but when it’s ready, it’ll access to the World Wide Web,
matted disks for us to copy the be available on all of the better you can also visit our web pages
System Software onto. (Don’t online services. at http://www.hypermall.com
send those disks to Joe Kohn!
Send them, along with your GS+ Misperception Correction Not the End!
Magazine and disk back issue
order, to EGO Systems, 7918 Finally, I need to take a few So, that about wraps up the
Cove Ridge Rd., Hixson, TN sentences to set the record burial shroud of GS+ Magazine.
37343.) straight regarding compatibility What’s next for me personally?
between the program Animasia Well, as I said earlier, EGO Sys-
Dr. Bazyar Rx 3-D and the Second Sight video tems is still in business sup-
board. In a reply to a letter from porting the IIGS, and I plan on
Some folks have reported that Rodney Avilla, I pointed out keeping it that way for as long
after installing Dr. Bazyar that the Second Sight video card as possible. I plan on publishing
(from GS+ V7.N1), it doesn’t does not currently support the a catalog every couple of months,
work. (Dr. Bazyar is a tempo- IIGS graphics mode known as and mailing it out to all of the
rary Init that patches the Sys- “Fill Mode.” I also pointed out old GS+ Magazine subscribers,
tem 6.0.1 High Sierra FST so that Animasia 3-D uses this but that’s still in the planning
that it will recognize ISO 9660 graphics mode in the creation of stages.
CD-ROMs with illegal charac- movies. What I neglected to
ters in their volume and folder point out is that Animasia 3-D I’ve also got a standing offer
names.) The problem is that Dr. allows you to turn this feature from Joe Kohn to contribute
Bazyar only works with the off, so that the movies you something to each issue of
High Sierra FST from System create with it will not use Fill Shareware Solutions II, so you’ll
6.0.1 and unbeknownst to all of Mode, and will therefore be be seeing more of me in these
these folks, they have the High completely compatible with the pages as well. (I hear that Joe’s
Sierra FST from System 6.0 Second Sight video card. also negotiating with Professor
Shareware Solutions II 9
G. S. Gumby to come up with mark as a freelance writer, edi- my own cable network in the
some more rumors about the tor, programmer or comedian. next five years or so! (cid:246)
IIGS market...) Beyond that, I’m Heck, if Jeff Foxworthy can get
going to be trying to make my his own TV show, I should have
AppleWorks ’96
Long Live NAUG dwindling number of NAUG has left behind is enormous.
members were informed that When NAUG went out of busi-
For more than a decade, Apple- The National AppleWorks User ness, its AppleWorks related
Works has been meeting the in- Group would cease to exist after library disks numbered more
creasingly sophisticated needs December 31, 1995. than 400, and there were 65
of Apple II users by providing complete issues of NAUG-On-
an integrated environment that In the November, 1995 issue of Disk. Due to the enormity of the
provides word processing, data- the AppleWorks Forum, NAUG NAUG AppleWorks’ library, it’s
base and spreadsheet capabil- founder Warren Williams tried simply impossible to even at-
ities. As each new version of to ease the sense of loss felt by tempt to describe all those disks
AppleWorks has been released, NAUG members. Regarding the within the pages of this news-
more and more capabilities voluminous amount of Apple- letter.
have been added to the pro- Works related disks that would
gram, and more and more com- no longer be available from Instead, Shareware Solutions II
puting power has been bestowed NAUG, Warren Williams wrote: has acquired all of the re-
upon Apple II users. “We will archive and protect maining catalogs that describe
those disks in case they are of the hundreds of NAUG disks
For the past decade, the Nation- historical interest to future gen- available. The catalog is more
al AppleWorks User Group erations. We will also try to than 60 pages in length, yet it
(NAUG) has been one of Apple- identify a library or other insti- only goes to 1994. For that rea-
Works’ staunchest proponents tution that will care for the son, we have created a supple-
by providing superb technical disks and make them available mental catalog on disk that con-
support for tens of thousands of to researchers and others with a tains information about the con-
loyal AppleWorks’ users. NAUG legitimate interest in their tents of all disks produced and/
published an informative news- contents.” or distributed by NAUG since
letter, maintained a huge li- then. Additionally, we have
brary of AppleWorks related Shareware Solutions II is proud added an AppleWorks database
materials, published books, op- to announce that it has been to that disk which lists every
erated a BBS, and maintained chosen by the National Apple- article that ever appeared in the
an active presence on all of the Works User Group as the offi- AppleWorks Forum newsletter,
major online services. cial repository for the massive and have added a smaller data-
AppleWorks related NAUG li- base that describes all the arti-
Throughout the past decade, brary. Shareware Solutions II cles which appear on all 65 is-
NAUG has been a phenomenal will continue to distribute sues of NAUG-On-Disk. That
source of AppleWorks support NAUG’s disk library and back catalog plus disk is currently
and an integral part of the Ap- issues of the disk-based elec- available for $5, which includes
ple II community. NAUG has tronic edition of the Apple- postage.
educated AppleWorks users and Works Forum NAUG-On-Disk
taught them how to do what newsletter. As you look through the NAUG-
can’t be done with an Apple II. On-Disk database, keep in mind
NAUG has helped users to push NAUG Resources that not only do the disks con-
AppleWorks into performing tain the full text of all the arti-
tasks undreamed of by the au- Although NAUG has already cles that appeared in the news-
thor of the program. ceased to exist, its legacy will letter, but also the templates
live on well into the next cen- and TimeOut modules that were
Sadly, in November, 1995, the tury, as the body of work that it described in the newsletter and
10 Shareware Solutions II
