by Jack Kincaid / jkinca1@cugkc.cjb.net
A tagline found on the Internet: "Politicians and diapers have one thing in common; they should both be changed regularly and for the same reason". Get out and VOTE!
The July meeting was rather sparse. We only had five members show up. Must be that time of year again - vacation! When you have kids in school, July and August are the only time the family can get away together.
It saddens me to think that in June, Lenard told us of his trip to the Commodore Expo and then, a short month later, his son is in the hospital taking chemo for cancer. Something isn't right with this picture. Gabe is in our thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery!
Tom gave us a demo of GEOS Dual Top. If you use GEOS and have two drives, you can see what is on them both at the same time and transfer files between them. It's a real handy GEOS utility.
Be sure to visit our website at http://cugkc.cjb.net and post your opinions about Commodore in The Forum message base.
NEXT MONTH: August 12, 2004 at the Waldo Library. I hope to see you there.
I still have some Commodore 64s and Commodore 128s along with some Commodore 1541 and Commodore 1571 disk drives, with miscellaneous Commodore and Commodore compatible monitors and printers just sitting in my basement doing nothing. For a small price they can be sitting in your home doing something - anything - except sitting in my basement. Call or see me at the next meeting. My phone number is 816-761-4777 and I am home most days after 4:00 pm.
Financial
Report
Balance June 2004 ................... $349.17
Income: July 2004 ...................
$ 0.00
Expenses: July 2004
Newsletter copying ................-$ 8.97
Closing Balance July 2004 ........... $340.20
by Scott Heider / sheide1@cugkc.cjb.net
The Group meeting for July was held Thursday, July 8th at the Waldo branch of the Kansas City Public Library. 5 members attended.
Our VP / publisher Lenard Roach was unable to attend July's meeting due to his son Gabriel's hospitalization at Children's Mercy for AML leukemia. (For more information about this form of cancer, see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/print/ency/article/000542.htm.) The group signed a Get Well card provided by the Lacys. Lenard's most recent update (July 24) on Gabe's condition was very encouraging. To quote Lenard, "Gabe is doing great! His counts are up and climbing higher every day... Keep those cards, emails, and letters coming. He loves them. Try and visit sometime if you can. Be ready to get your butt slaughtered in any video game of your choosing, for Gabe can do it. If you can't visit, call him. Don't just call to talk to us, call to talk to him too. He ain't much of a conversationalist, but he won't learn without practice and practice comes by your calling. His email and phone is: bomberman87@hotmail.com (816) 460-1044 x4415 (9am to 9pm only)." All of our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the Roach family. Gabe, get well soon!
Here's the latest Loadstar news as of July 22, courtesy of Robert Bernardo via the Homestead message board: Last April, Loadstar disk magazine editor, Dave Moorman, announced he would stop production of LS at issue 240. In the current issue 231, Dave tells of how he has extended production to issue 246. This is what he had to say - "At the LUCKI Expo 2004, we announced that Loadstar is good through issue 246. That's right! Our subscriptions have actually gone up -- and we are seeing another surge of interest and enthusiasm for the C-64. Nine of the 64 attendees became Loadstarites at the Expo. Thanks!"
Speaking of Loadstar, I received Issue #229 in May, but nothing since... I hope that Mr. Moorman hasn't lost track of our subscription!
Commodore One developer Jeri Ellsworth graced Kansas City with her presence July 20 thru July 25, but unfortunately she wore her Apple hat rather than her Commodore hat. Jeri was in town to attend KansasFest 2004, an Apple II / Mac computing conference, at Avila University. To see the photographic proof of Jeri's visit, check out http://www.hal-pc.org/~bbaker/kfest2004-3.html. Jeri, the next time that you're in KC, please feel free to join us at a CUGKC meeting!
Finally, a reminder about the next Group meeting. It will be held at the usual place, the Waldo Library, on the usual day, Thursday, August 12th at 7:00pm. Hope to see you there!
by Lenard Roach / lroach1@cugkc.cjb.net
First of all, our thanks to the CUGKC for the well wishes for Gabriel's swift and permanent recovery. Thank you also for the nice card.
As it was mentioned in July's issue of "Ryte Bytes", I was going to describe some of the things we saw at the LUCKI Spring Commodore Expo. Unfortunately with all that happened to us while we were there (see July's issue), we saw very little. But what we did see was a demo of a little invention created by a Mr. Nu that he called the "IDEE-C64". This little device, which looks like a playing card, plugs into the user port of the C64. At the top of this card you can insert a memory card like Compaq Flashcard with whatever memory size you need. Mr. Nu suggests that a 512 meg card flashcard is adequate for whatever Commodore need you may have, and it costs $8.00 at the local computer store. Once inserted, you can upload dozens of Commodore programs into the flashcard and subdirectory the flashcard into separate categories (word processing, utilities, games, etc.). In summary, the IDEE-C64 works similiar to a RAMLink. The only difference is the IDEE-C64 will retain whatever you upload to it, even after you power down your machine. This device will work with either the SuperCPU or JiffyDOS accelerators, but from my understanding it will also work on a stock unit as well. The cost for Expo attendees for the IDEE-C64 was $139.99.
On a more "closer to home" note, I have been trying to locate the new owners of the "Money Manager" and "Check It Out" type in programs originally published in RUN magazine. As most members of the CUGKC know, I have written updates to both programs, but copyright laws prohibit me from releasing them to the Commodore public. The last report I got some time ago, all the RUN programs were bought from Creative Micro Designs by Commodore Country, but so far my attempts to contact Commodore Country to validate this claim have proven futile. If anyone who reads this article knows how to contact Commodore Country, or if I am "chasing after the wind" and knows who does have the rights to these programs, then please contact me by way of the email address listed at the beginning of this article, or post something about it at our website (http://cugkc.cjb.net). I would appreciate the leg up.
I appreciate everyone's patience over the last few months of late newsletters and botched deadlines. It's no secret to the readers of "Ryte Bytes" that this been a tough year for the Roach bunch and the year is only half over. It makes one wonder what lies ahead for the rest of 2004. Thanks again for everyone's understanding.
by Jon Searle / jsearl1@cugkc.cjb.net
Many games have been created based around the subject of exploration. Electronics Arts came up with this fine program. In "Seven Cities Of Gold" the player finds himself playing the part of a 15th and 16th century Spanish explorer. Trying to make a name for himself, the player sets out to discover the New World.
To accomplish this, the intrepid explorer first has to raise some cash by visiting the queen; that gives him a start. Next comes hiring a crew and purchasing and provisioning a ship.
Depending on the level of difficulty selected, the voyage may be very perilous or just a jaunt. Lives, and even ships, may be lost. When the New World is found, the next step is exploration, some of which can be done by ship. There are vast undiscovered resources in this New World which must be found and reported to the "Crown". Savage tribes and strange civilizations must also be found, contacted, and, if possible, converted (yes, religion plays a part, too). Sometimes the natives will be helpful, and sometimes only strong force of arms will subdue them. A return to the "Crown" with gold and information will gain the player a promotion and the monies necessary to crew more ships for the difficult task of taming the New World.
The larger crews are needed. Besides unfriendly natives and storms, the player may lose men to starvation as supplies as supplies run short. Native bearers will be useful, too. The player may also choose to build and garrison forts, or missions, or caches of food and goods to allow deeper explorations and for trade.
To make the game more challenging, it also includes a world generator for creating fresh "New Worlds" to explore. Please try the map generator; it's fascinating! Who knows? You just might be lucky enough to find one of the "Lost Cities Of Gold". I did!
The Commodore Users Group of Kansas City is a not-for-profit educational support group for persons using Commodore computers.
Membership benefits include a monthly newsletter as well as access to CUGKC's library of over 1000 public domain and shareware disks.
Dues are $15 the first year, $10 annually thereafter. Disks of the month and library disks cost $3 each for members.
Meetings are held on the second Thursday of every month at the Waldo branch of the Kansas City Public Library, located at the corner of 75th and Oak Streets, Kansas City, Missouri. Visitors are welcome to attend any meeting. For more information, contact any officer:
Email us at cugkc@cugkc.cjb.net
or visit our web site at http://cugkc.cjb.net.
Our snail-mail address is:
CUGKC
6025 Corona Avenue
Kansas City, KS 66102