by Jack Kincaid / jkinca1@cugkc.cjb.net
Since the November meeting was a week later in the month and Thanksgiving is this week and the Club's next meeting is on the 16th of December, I will try and get this article to Lenard as soon as I can. Usually I procrastinate until Lenard sends me his e-mail stating that it is time! However with all the things going on with Gabe and all the holidays coming up, I will emulate our great leader - Bush - and do a preemptive newsletter article!
As always, the Club wishes all a happy Thanksgiving with family and friends and a prayer for those that can not be with their families at this time. And thanks again for keeping us posted on Gabe's continuing progress.
Remember next month is goodie time - Bring your favorite little treat for all to eat! So far Scott is bringing his favorite - popcorn. You can go to our website and sign up.
There were 5 members at the November meeting. Lenard put in a surprise appearance. He brought several disks from another Club to be shared with our members. Tom continued his demo from last month on HyperLink 2.5. This time it worked and we had a disk for those that wanted one. Come to the next meeting to find out what it is all about. (hint, hint!)
I was checking the roster and saw that Vance, Tom, and myself need to pay our dues. Also in December - Bethyl, Scott, and Lenard are due. Mine is in the pot, I am just waiting until it is worthwhile going to the bank.
All right then - next meeting will be on December 16 at 5120 Cedar the Roeland Park library.
Go to our website at http://cugkc.cjb.net and leave messages at the forum!
I still have 64s and 128s with 1541 and 1571 drives. I also have monitors and printers just sitting in my basement doing nothing. For a small price they can be in your home doing something! Call or see me at the next meeting. My phone # is 816-761-4777 and I am home most days after 4 PM.
Financial Report
Balance Oct. 2004 ................... $305.15
Income: Nov. 2004 ....................$ 0.00
Expenses: Nov. 2004
Newsletter/stamps .................-$ 42.34
Closing Balance Nov. 2004............ $262.81
by Scott Heider / sheide1@cugkc.cjb.net
The Group meeting for November was held Thursday, November 18th at the Cedar Roe branch of the Johnson County Library. 5 members attended, including our long-lost Vice President, Mr. Lenard Roach. Lenard, long time no see!
As I mentioned in October's Ryte Bytes, the club's subscription to Loadstar is due to expire in a couple of months with LS #235. At September's meeting, there was a unanimous vote to renew our subscription for 6 more issues. On December 7th, Yours Truly renewed our subscription via the Commodore Central Market. Dave Moorman, keep those issues coming!
By popular demand, Yours Truly has updated the CUGKC Monthly Meetings web page. It now lists the meeting dates for 2005. Meetings are scheduled for the second Thursday of each month; i.e., January 13, February 10, March 10, April 14, May 12, June 9, July 14, August 11, September 8, October 13, November 10, and December 8, 2005.
In case you haven't heard, here is the biggest Commodore news of the year: The Commodore 64 DTV (Direct to TV) is now on sale! The DTV is basically a C=64 emulated on a chip. It's packaged into a joystick, and comes loaded with 30 classic games including Championship Wrestling, Cyberdyne Warrior, Cybernoid, Cybernoid II, Eliminator, Excelon, Firelord, Gateway to Apshai, Impossible Mission, Impossible Mission II, Jumpman Jr., Paradroid, Pitstop, Pitstop II, Ranarama, Silicon Warrior, Speedball, Summer Games, Supercycle, Sword of Fargoal, Tower Toppler, Uridium, Winter Games, World Karate Championship A, World Karate Championship B, and Zynaps. The DTV is hard-coded to run at 1 mhz. There is 128K RAM and 2 meg of ROM. 256 colors are available on-screen. Single SID sound with the 3 voices and "volume" mixed externally. Here's the best news: If you know how to solder, then a Commodore serial port (for disk drive) and PS2 keyboard can added! If you're interested in ordering a DTV in time for Christmas, then go to QVC's website at http://www.qvc.com/scripts/reference.pl?ref=L04&item=E22494. Currently, it's on sale for $30 + $5.22 S/H + $2.81 MO sales tax = $38.03 total. Do you think that this would be a fun demo at an upcoming CUGKC meeting?
Finally, a reminder about the next Group meeting. It will be held at our new place, the Cedar Roe branch of the Johnson County Library, on a special day, Thursday, December 16th at 6:30pm. For driving directions and a map to the library, go to http://www.jocolibrary.org/printerfriendly.asp?DisplayPageID=317. We will have our annual holiday party at the meeting, so if the spirit moves you, feel free to bring your favorite holiday munchies to share with your fellow members and families. As usual, I will bring my traditional holiday popcorn tin. If you intend to bring munchies, then please post what you plan to bring at the CUGKC web forum. That way, there won't be duplicate munchies. See you then!
by Lenard Roach / lroach1@cugkc.cjb.net
Well, another year has come to an end. It's been quite an eventful year for us personally as most of you know. We got to go to the LUCKI Commodore Expo over Memorial Day weekend and saw many inventions and improvements for the Commodore computer. I personally have been trying my best to create a battery pack for the SX64, but I'm not much of an inventor; I have rewritten the "Money Manager" from RUN magazine for the Commodore 64 and removed the Y2K glitch in it; and I have written a new program that allows a user to print on the face of a #10 envelope called the "Envelope Addressor". To be honest, this year hasn't stopped since Christmas of 2003 but now by the grace of Almighty God it looks like 2005 might (and I emphasize "might") start off with a lot less personal stress than 2004 did. I sure am looking forward to that.
We at the "Roach Motel" would like to thank all the folks who sent prayers, good wishes, cards, and emails to us during all of our hard times we faced during 2004 as my Mom passed in February and my son came down with AML leukemia in June, especially those of the Commodore computing world. The CUGKC has been nice enough to send cards and well wishes to my son, my wife, and myself throughout this whole L-O-N-G ordeal. Even though some of the members have been facing personal battles of their own, they still took time out to think of us long enough to send a card or an email to us just to let us know they are "battling" along with us. The CUGKC has been a great bunch of guys and gals and I am thankful to have been your vice president for the last year, even though events have kept me away from the monthly meetings for most of 2004. We at the "Roach Motel" are looking at more chances to come to more Commodore meetings in 2005 and be more of a participent than a spectator.
On a brighter note, our 2004 push for members bore some fruit as we added Charles Beis of Texas and Dan Fisher of Peculiar, MO to our ranks as long distance members. During that push we also added to our list a total of 19 Commodore clubs that receive a copy of Ryte Bytes on a monthly basis that currently weren't receiving it. Some clubs like the Clark County Commodore Users Group of North Las Vegas, NV and the Madison Commodore Users Group of Madison, WI have been gracious enough to send us a newsletter in exchange for ours which have been shared with the rest of the CUGKC membership with rapt anticipation. If you are a club receiving a CUGKC Ryte Bytes newsletter, we sure would like to hear from your club in a newsletter exchange. Just pop a 37 cent stamp on your letter and send it to our address found at the end of this newsletter and join in on all the Commodore fun and information that we can all glean from as a universal group. If you are getting this newsletter as a "copy" from another club, then please send us your address along with your newsletter so we can add you to our mailing database. If your newsletter is web based, then send us the URL of the website where all can enjoy your work in the world of Commodore via the World Wide Web. We look forward to hearing from clubs like The Muskegon Commodore Users Group, TPUG, and The Fresno Commodore Users Group, just for starters. The CUGKC is still looking for Commodore clubs to hook up with so if you know of any then please let us know. Your efforts would be appreciated in this endeavor.
I don't know what is in store for the CUGKC or the Commodore in 2005. But what I do know is that the CUGKC is not going anywhere! We will still be here working on our Commodores and aiding those who wish to do the same, exchanging ideas and information with whoever wishes it. We may not know everything about the Commodore at the CUGKC but we do know what we like and that's our beloved 8 bit machines! A little memory can go a long way in these days and we as Commodore users have proven that time and time again both on a small and a grandiose scale.
We will be looking forward to your participation in both the Commodore world and the CUGKC in the future. Don't be bashful or backwards about contacting us or posting anything to our website. Any comment, whether negative or positive, is welcome. Let's rock the computer world in 2005 with our 64K and 128K of memory! Can you dig it? I certainly can!
by Dan Fisher / dan051975@gmail.com
You start off crash-landed on the war-torn planet of Targ. Your ship is damaged beyond repair, so you are going to have to find another way to get off the planet.
The Palyars, peaceful native inhabitants of Targ, are fighting for their very existence against the invading Mechanoids, a race of robots invading the planet. You have fallen right into the middle of their war. As a 21st Century soldier of fortune, this can be used to your advantage. You can choose to take a side in the war on Targ, or remain neutral and carry out missions for both sides (which can be tricky).
The fun thing about this game is exploring. Targ is a large place, with lots of places above ground, below ground, and in the orbiting Colony Craft to explore. There is no set way to play; there are lots of decisions to be made that will affect how the entire game is played. The three-dimensional vector graphics are also refreshing and very advanced for the time (impressive on a stock C64). Just remember, while your ultimate goal is to find an interstellar ship and escape from Targ, a true Mercenary won't leave without first acquiring many riches!
by Dan Fisher / dan051975@gmail.com
Just in time for Christmas... The "C64 Direct To TV" mini game console is now available exclusively through the QVC Home Shopping Channel. I believe the units are priced around $25 each, so very affordable.
The specs are as follows:
According to Tulip (owner of the Commodore brand), this is the first "official" Commodore release in over 10 years. If you want to read the official spec sheet that has a list of all the games, point your browser to the following link: http://www.commodore.net/site/pdf/C64_direct_to_TV.pdf. You will need Adobe Reader to view the pdf file. On a side note, I want to wish everyone reading a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Hope Santa brings everyone want they want!
(EDITOR's NOTE: Thanks again, Dan, for your contributions to Ryte Bytes. Your input is greatly appreciated. Readers, if you have something to contribute like Mr. Fisher did, then please email it to Lenard Roach at lroach1@cugkc.cjb.net.)
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 Cedar Roe branch of the Johnson County Library, located at 5120 Cedar Street in Roeland Park, Kansas. 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, Kansas 66102