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ZIP Magazine Volume 5 Issue 3
Ú-----------------------------------------------------------¿
| É------------------» |
| ±±±±±±±±± Editor: | Volume 5 Issue 3 | |
| ±± Terry West | August 1992 | |
| ±± È------------------¼ |
| ±± |
| ±±± Heres A Peek At What's Inside! |
| ±± ------------------------------- |
| ±± |
| ±± Editor's Comments .......... 2 |
| ±±±±±±±±± |
| Shareware Games ............ 3 |
| ±±±±±±±±±± |
| ±± The Dayton Hamvention ...... 6 |
| ±± |
| ±± PC-Rx Review ............... 8 |
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| ±± Computers in your library .. 10 |
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| ±± |
| ±± Ú¿ Ú-¿ Ú-¿ Ú-¿ Ú-¿ -Â- ¿  Ú-¿ |
| ±± | | Ã-´ | ¿ Ã-´ / | |À¿| Ã- |
| ±± Á Á Á Á À-Ù Á Á À-Ù -Á- Á ÀÁ À-Ù |
| ----------------------------------- |
| "For Home MS-DOS users" |
| |
| /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ |
| \ "Be sure to read every section in all issues!" / |
| / We hope you enjoy this issue a lot. Thank you! \ |
| \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ |
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| É-------------------------------------------------------» |
| | ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ Zip Magazine Direct Support BBS ® ® ® ® | |
| Ç-------------------------------------------------------¶ |
| | Strawberry Patch BBS "The new home of Zip Magazine!" | |
| | Call (606) 432-0879 24 hours daily HST 1440/v.32 | |
| È-------------------------------------------------------¼ |
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þþ Editor's Comments þþ
As you've probably noticed, this issue of the magazine was
a couple of weeks late. This was due to a lack of articles.
The promises keep coming, but not much more. Unless some
material starts coming in, this will be the final issue of
Zip Magazine.
Again, if you want to sumbit an article for the next issue,
upload it on my BBS at 606 432-0879 no later than the 30th.
of September. The next issue (if there is one) will be due
on October 15, 1992. This is YOUR magazine, support it.
Shareware Games: Alternatives to high prices
by: Carl Lafferty
Everyone I know plays some type of computer game. I know
people who are addicted to everything from Tetris to
Windows Solitare. Each time I go into a store to buy a
game, I am shocked at the prices. I can usually expect to
pay $35-$60 bucks of my hard earned cash for a decent game.
This makes me glad that I have an alternative source for
games that are just as good (better in some cases) as the
commercial games. I am going to discuss some of the games
here that I like enough to register. Due to space
limitations I am going to briefly touch on three games that
I (and my wife) play most often.
All of the games I am going to mention that are shareware
are brought to you by a person or group of people who have
opted to sell their programs and talent by a means that
requires trust. Trust that the people will obey the notices
in the game and register the software after an evaluation
period. I support this concept as you will see. I am not
always able to register all the games that I (and my wife)
play but I do register some of the ones that are of higher
quality. The rest must wait until I can get more money
together. Till then, I wait and do not play these games
since I have not bought them yet.
* Nethack 3.09 *
This game originated on mainframe computers as far back as
ten years ago. It was based on a game called Rogue that
used character graphics to represent a dungeon that is your
world. Many people are put off by the fact that this is a
text based graphics game. Do not let this turn you off! If
you try Nethack you will find that not having a a 256 color
graphic interface is not that much of a problem for a game
of this richness.
Nethack is a classical Dungeons and Dragons game. You
choose a character and enter a dungeon in search of fame
and glory. You can accomplish this goal by capturing the
amulet of Yendor from the Evil Wizard of Yendor and
returning to the surface. To accomplish this you can choose
from several character classes including Elf, Wizard,
Knight, Barbarian and Priest. Each class has its own
special advantages and disadvantages. For example you are
playing a Knight and run across a weapon in the game. You
would be told that it is a '+2 blessed longsword' while a
Wizard would be simply told 'a longsword'. This reflects
the fact that a Wizard would know little of weapons and
armor and that a Knight would have had years of training
and could identify a quality weapon.
Once you accomplish the goal of getting the amulet, you are
granted the status of Demi-God(ess). This can only be
accomplished by the most tried and true players of the
game. (I played it for 4 years before ever _seeing_ the
Wizard of Yendor!) The real richness of this game is that
so many people have devoted time and effort to it. If you
are interested enough you can obtain source code for it
yourself and modify the game to suit your needs or change
what you think needs to be changed. One note about the
source code: It is HUGE! I mean this thing is BIG! and
entirely written in C. You will need to have at least
Microsoft C 5.1 or better and a GOOD knowledge of C to even
start this, but it is possible.
Nethack can be obtained for a variety of platforms. AMIGA,
Atari, and MAC are available as well as the IBM flavor. If
you are lucky enough to have access to a networked account
you will most likely find Nethack floating around there
also in some form. Nethack in its current configuration
requires at least 640K and a hard disk. If you have more
than that the game will be more enjoyable but it can be
played with only that configuration with ANY type of
monitor. Because Nethack uses character graphics you must
also have ANSI.SYS included in your CONFIG.SYS to play the
game.
Overall, Nethack is the game I keep going back to. I can
play a lot of other games on my computer but Nethack is the
only one that I can play both on my CGA 286-12 (which I am
using now) as well as my VGA XT-10 with the same enjoyment.
Price did you say. Well I have never been able to find
one. Nethack seems to be a 'labor of love' for the people
who contribute to the project. If want information on
getting source or executables for Nethack, drop me a
message on the Strawberry Patch BBS (606 432 0879) or the
AdventureComm BBS (606 273 8785) and I will be glad to
answer your question or help in anyway I can.
* Apogee Software *
Rarely have I been as impressed with any set of games as
I have been with games from Apogee Software. These games
are of top quality and feature animation and effects found
previously only in Nintendo and Super Nintendo. Duke Nukem,
Crystal Caves and the one that got it all underway,
Commander Keen are games that I can look forward to seeing
again and again.
These games are distributed by the shareware concept but in
a unique way. The first game in the series is a trial game.
It sets the stage, tells you why you are supposed to be
doing what you are doing and gives you a feel for how to
play the game. The rest of the games in that series are
available only from Apogee Software or authorized sales
people. I am not in any implying that the first game in a
series is crippled because it is not. It displays the
shareware logo and asks you to register each time you exit
but it is a very playable game with none of the features
disabled like some crippleware (yuch) games that will allow
you to play only so far into the game.
I am going to concentrate on the games that have impressed
the player at home, my wife. Her favorite game is Crystal
Caves. This one pits you as a miner on a planet that must
collect crystals in each room you visit in order to
progress on to the next room. Sounds simple right.. WRONG!!
Crystal Caves has some sneaky points to it as some of the
monsters you kill can still hurt you after they are dead,
sort of like Toxic Corpses. You have several types of bad-
guys that would love nothing better than to prevent you
from collecting those crystals. The game offers a save
feature that will prove to be a lifesaver in a tight
situation.
The next game I will mention is Duke Nukem. This game
reminds me of my favorite Nintendo game, Metroid! You have
an epic goal and you are able to find various things in
your way to that goal to help defeat your enemy. Your enemy
in this case is the evil Dr. Proton. This guy looks like a
character from a B-Science Fiction Movie. Game play is very
smooth and the sound effects are pretty nice through my PC-
Speaker. Still basically only bleeps but well done bleeps.
If you are interested in these games you can download the
first volume of the game from most of the BBS's you
probably already call. If you can not find these games on
your BBS, then give the Strawberry Patch BBS a call at
(606) 432 0879. Remember that the rest of the series is
available only from Apogee after you register. Also
available from Apogee are 'cheat sheets' that contain
passwords and special key combinations that will give you
maximum power and all the special goodies in their games.
Summary of prices:
Nethack 3.09 Freeware
Crystal Caves from Apogee $35.00 registration*
Duke Nukem from Apogee $35.00 registration*
* Registration of these games also gives you the next two
in the set. A pretty good deal!! 3 games for $35.00 rather
than only one!
The Dayton HamVention
by: Carl Lafferty
On the weekend of April 26, 1992 I was treated to the
largest computer show that I have ever been to in my life.
Let me explain first what the HamVention is. Amatur Radio
or "Ham radio" has been around for a long time. People have
been using it ever since radios have been common to talk to
other people. I have personally witnessed my brother
talking to someone in Austrailia using Morse Code a few
years back. Even then I could see a good use for computers
in Amateur Radio. Naturally someone could build some type
of interface to the radio equipment that would allow a
computer to send and receive Morse Code. Well since I was
fairly young at the time I did not know that people had
been doing just that. They had been meeting with people who
knew computers and radios for a LONG time.
Shortly after this I heard of the Dayton Hamfest. My first
thought was, "What could interest me at a Hamfest since I
do not want to interface to a Radio yet?" All I thought the
Hamfest would be is lots of people selling radio equipment.
Then I started hearing that people who advertize in
Computer Shopper would be there. I heard that you could buy
whole computer systems there so I decided that this was a
place I needed to be.
If you know anyone who is passionate about their ham radio
then you can imagine what it is like to have 50000 people
just like them around you at the same time. I saw every
type of head gear that could pass for a radio transmitter.
I even saw several people who had them mounted on their
head for personal communications in the crowd. Not a bad
idea really just sort of funny looking. If I can get the
license I may go with a hand held radio next year or the
year after so I will not feel so out of place.
The computers to be had were of descent quality. A friend
of mine was able to find a good deal on a motherboard the
year before so was trying this year to find a better deal
on a 486-50. I think he did find one for $849.00 with 4 meg
of ram already installed. This was a pretty good deal since
he already had a case, keyboard, video and powersupply.
This was all held indoors at Hara Arena in Dayton. Dealers
such as JDR Microdevices were on hand as well as several
Ohio based computer stores. If you wanted to trek outside
to the Flea Market you could find some people who had some
used items to sell as well as some of the smaller dealers
who had prices as good as what you found inside. I found
one guy selling 70ns 1 meg sims for $29.00 each in lots
of four. The best price up to this point I had found in
Computer Shopper was $35.00. I bought 4 meg and my friend
bought 4 meg. (Now he has a 486-50 with 8 meg of ram. He is
completely unbearable and will hate me as soon as he reads
this!! Oh well..)
Also in the flea market you could find things for the
computer you have and did not think you could ever upgrade.
I saw items for the Radio Shack Color Computer, the
Commodore 64 and even one place that had PC-Jr parts like
keyboards and monitors. All of these seemed in pretty nice
shape considering their age. I made one good deal out of
the whole affair. I was looking for a 16 bit RLL controller
that I could use because I have not yet made the migration
to IDE. I had known that they are about has hard to find as
hen's teeth but if I would find any at a reasonable price
it would be at Dayton. It took 3 hours of walking and
enjoying the scenery but I finally found one. The salesman
had sold it to someone and they had returned it saying that
it would not work with their drive. The salesman took it
back and told me about this. It seemed to him that since
the drive was new when he got it that it should not have
gone bad that quickly. Well, I was willing to risk it.
The guy priced it to me for $10.00 with me assuming all
the risk. I figured that it could not be that bad if the
guy was not lying. Then again, it is only $10.00 for a
$60-$70 dollar combination HD-FD controller from Western
Digital if it did work. Otherwise it was a 10 buck floppy
controller. I got it working about 15 minutes before I
started typing this! The Hard Drive Bible gives me one
means of formating using DEBUG and DOS but this controller
will not take it. I got it going using Seagate Disk Manager
that a friend had. So far it is working fine!! If you read
this and you think you sold me that controller I want you
to know that it was possibly the best deal I made while in
Dayton. Not even the 1280x1024 SVGA card for only $73.00
beat this one.
Do I reccommend you go to Dayton? If you want the best
prices and are not afraid to make a deal or spend some time
in the Flea Market then the answer is YES! If you are still
afraid to buy a whole system or even parts there you should
go anyway because it is truly an educational experience.
You will learn more just by walking around and asking
questions than you ever thought possible. Even with out
those reasons, did I mention the girls in bikinis?
PC-Rx from Trend Micro Devices
By W.H. Lambdin
PC-Rx has a lot of things going for it.
Two different scanners.
PCRX the full screen program has a virus scanner PCRXSCAN
is a command line virus scanner.
Both virus scanners misses some of the 469 viruses I have
on file.
I am beta testing version 2.0 of PC-Rx and it inclused
another virus scanner that runs under the Windows
Environment. This scanner missed some of the viruses I have
on file too. I supplied the viruses to Trend Micro Devices.
All three scanners should be improoved becore version 2.0
is sold to the public.
In the PCRXUTIL sub directory, it has several other
utilities. These are prodiced by another person, so I won't
go into them.
There is another anti-viral utility PCRXVT
PCRXVT is the most important part of the entire package.
It is a 10-11K watchdog. It is an entire series of virus
traps.
PCRXVT doesn't detect viruses by checking for virus
signatures. Instead it looks for the following things. A
true generic virus detector.
hooked interrupts
programs loading as TSRs
writing to the boot sector or partition table
direct disk writes
direct disk reads
This and much more
If you have upper memory and use DOS 5.0 or QEMM, you can
have PCRXVT to load into these high memory areas.
PCRXVT will copy the boot sector and partition table of
your hard drive to a file on a floppy diskette as well as
into a file on the hard drive.
On bootup, PCRXVT will compare the original boot sector and
partition table against the copy it has on file. If they
don't match exactly, PCRX will give you the opportunity to
copy the boot sector and partition table over the
infected system areas of your hard drive. All boot sector
viruses stop here period. Then PCRXVT will reboot your
computer in order to get rid of the memory part of the
virus before it infects your hard drive again.
PCRXVT automatically checks floppy diskettes for boot
sector viruses when you try to log onto a floppy with the
A: command.
If your hard drive is infected and will not boot, you can
use the rescue diskette to copy the boot sector and
partition table information over the infected ones.
I would suggest for you to format a high density diskette,
and transfer the system to that diskette before you install
PCRX because the current version doesn't warn you about
that before hand. Because the current version doesn't warn
that you will need a formatted diskette before PCRXVT tries
to copy the data to the rescue diskette.
The reason I suggest for a high density diskette 720K,
1.2M, 1.44M etc is because it would be a good idea to copy
useful files like McAfee's Scan, Clean, PCRX, etc to the
diskette.
One important note about the rescue diskette. If you
install PC-Rx on more than one computer, you will have to
make a rescue diskette for every computer. The reason for
this is because no two computers are ever an exact match.
The boot sector and partition table may be thought of as an
individual thumb print. If you don't like the idea of
messing with several rescue diskettes, take a look at
PC-cillin made by Trend Micro Devices. Instead of using a
floppy diskette, PC-cillin comes with a black box that
plugs into the printer port. It has non volatile RAM to
keep the boot sector and partition table information.
PC-Rx, and PC-cilin is identical except for the fact that
PCRX uses a floppy diskette for this information.
PCRXVT for detecting viruses.
Since PCRXVT doesn't use virus signitures like Scan, CPAV,
NAV, etc, PCRXVT will detect unknown viruses as easily as it
detects the 1300+ known viruses.
Most people do not like virus detectors such as this because
it is possible to go around a TSR such as PCRXVT.
As I have said before, I have a lot of viruses that infect
files. I have ran 100+ viruses on my machine to see if any
of them could get around PCRXVT. PCRXVT has detected every
single virus I have tried. A perfect score!
In these tests, I tried a wide mixture like Jerusalem,
Friday 13th, Green catepillar, 4096 (stealth), SBC 1024
(Stealth), Pogue (Polymorphic can encrypt into 4.3 billion
signatures), and the list goes on.
PCRXVT detected them all, and was fast enough to stop the
virus infection down to a minimum. usually the infected file
and the file the virus was trying to infect.
The pop up screen gives you this information when a virus is
detected.
PCRX is not the perfect virus solution and when I find
something better, I will switch.
The best thing about PCRXVT is that it will not nag you to
death when you use your computer. If PCRX beeps, it has
found a virus or illegal activity (writing to the boot
sector, etc).
Computers in your Library
by: Carl Lafferty
Many people are becoming more and more involved in computers
today. Most college and university libraries now have some
system setup so that you can access their card catalog
on-line. This is a very good thing. This tells you not only
what the holdings for your library are but also if they do
not carry what you are looking for you can find out who
does. This is a good example of information sharing across a
BIG network.
In this type of system we have several college libraries
tied into one database that has every book that the
collective owns already stored. This book information is
stored one time with a series of flags that will tell what
library has a particular book. For example: if I want to
look up _The Lord of the Rings_ by J.R.R. Tolkien and see if
my local community college has it. I was able to find out
that they have it as well as several of the community
colleges and even M.I. King Library at the University of
Kentucky. Had this been a book I could not have found in the
stacks (and I didn't own 3 complete volumes myself) I could
get it through an inter-library loan.
The process of an inter-library loan used to be done on
paper and mailed to the college that had the materials you
requested. This caused delays because US-Snail can be
erratic at times. Now these can be filled out by the library
personnel while on-line with the library in question and the
book can be mailed to you as soon as possible. If you only
need magazine articles these can be FAXed to your library if
you have a fax machine handy as most libraries do. Many of
the processes in a library have been greatly reduced thanks
to the computer.
I would like to focus on the Floyd County Library for a
while. This is a place that is in the process of having
these wonderful upgrades take place. This library had very
little exposure to computers until about three years ago.
One of the people working there was able to persuade them
to get a computer to help with storing all their patron
records and with the hope of storing their holdings in the
future. The computer they received was an Epson Equity II
from the local Abacus (Now Inacomp) store. This computer,
with the printer, was the subject of many ambitious
projects. Most worked to some degree or another. The
biggest contribution that this old computer made was that
it provided something for the people here to get used to.
Now that they are used to it a little, it makes it easier
for them to work on the computers they have now that are
more suited for what they do.
The library staff are not afraid of computers like they
used to be. Now they are able to use the computers they
have to do all sorts of tasks. Not the least of which is
keeping a folder of their patrons so that they have easy
access in case someone fails to bring back a book or a
video. The software in use is still the same that they had
on the old Epson Equity II but it is on an IBM Model 55sx.
They now own two Model 55sx's and are able to use them on a
daily basis. The third machine they own is a Memorex Telix
machine that is in all the public libraries in this area.
This machine is specifically used to allow the staff to
check for and make inter-library loans.
There are two of the model 55sx's in the library. The first
one is out front where the Library Technicians work so they
will have easy access to the patrons folder. The other one
is in the head librarians work room. This machine is the
one that I am most familiar with since I have to work
pretty closely on it. This machine has a Hitachi CD-Rom
drive attached. Using this machine the people here can help
patrons look up information on a number of CD's that they
own. These informational CD's contain information on
subjects such as great literature, The US Constitution and
The Sporting News. Other titles are available and will be
made available as time goes on.
The software that is used in the library varies greatly.
The most commonly used is PFS: First Choice. This is an
integrated package that is not very powerful in any one
area but does offer quite a few areas in one place. For
instance it is what they use to keep the patron folder as
well as do some of their minor word processing needs. The
Database of First Choice is pretty limiting for big
applications but the ease of use is unmatched. Once you
learn how to use the Database (and most here have) using
the wordprocessor becomes that much easier.
I would like to get them to use something a little more
powerful in each different area. For a wordprocessor I have
been recommending the use of WordPerfect for DOS. I have
always thought that this package is bulky, slow and not
very easy to learn. That may have been true for some of the
older versions of the product but the 5.0 and 5.1 releases
have vastly improved in my opinion. I still do not use it
for what word processing that I do but I don't _need_ the
ability to import graphics, do Formula Tables and a
multitude of fonts either. (They wouldn't show in ASCII
any way now would they??)
I would like to recommend a good database that I can
translate the First Choice data to and set it up similar to
what they use now. The database that I would choose is Dbxl
and Quicksilver to compile it with. (I know that this
product has been upgraded but I do not remember the name of
the new product) This has two problems. The first is price.
The development kit for this package is around the $900
mark for street prices. This is a bit too high priced for
the application in question. If I go this route, I will
probably get just the Dbxl package and let that be it.
These machines have 4 meg of ram and I can use DRDOS 6.0 to
cache so that will be an improvement in speed with a DBXL
.PRG file. The second problem is that this will not allow
the staff easy access to the type of folders they like.
I can show them how to create different types of fields but
these fields are not going to be placed nice on the screen
unless a little bit of programming is done behind the
scenes.
Spreadsheets are another function of First Choice that
the head librarian uses. He uses it to keep track of all
his accounts. Now I have seen some worse spreadsheets but
only those that were written in classes by data structures
students. Instead of having the normal (Lotus Like) row/col
notation it used R##/C## where you have to have the R and C
present along with a number. This makes entering formulas
confusing to me since I have to use 6 characters to
represent what most other spread sheets do in 3 characters.
This spreadsheet does have problems and since Lotus is such
a widely accepted standard, I would like to go to a version
of that. But then we meet the problem of re-learning. Going
from First Choice to Lotus is not that big of a jump so I
do not anticipate that this would be that big of a concern
in this area.
Another idea would be to get them to a more viable
integrated package. Of the ones that I have seen, none of
the offer the versatility of First Choice or the ease of
use. At a previous job I had a little contact with
Microsoft Works and Lotus Works. I have to say that I would
not want to change horses on people mid stream and go to
something that radically different. The best idea that I
can see would be to offer some of the features of the other
packages point out that First Choice can not do these. Sort
of like baiting a hook with some real nice bait then
reeling them in.
The long range plan for the Floyd County Library is to have
a small network running so that the information on the CD's
will be available to the public but from small work
stations out front that they can use on their own. I would
like to be here when that happens. Things have been
happening pretty fast in the library recently. I expect
this to happen sooner than they expect.
All of these machines are menu driven. Each with a
different menu according to who set them up. I would not
have used any menu had I originally set them up. I firmly
believe in the DOS C:\> prompt. Since they have been using
this menu for about 3 years, breaking them from it would be
a very hard thing to do. I have been doing just that with
some new applications. I install them on the hard drive and
create a batch file to start it but I do not put it in the
menu. I then tell them to start the new package they have
to exit the menu and run the program from DOS. At first I
got a lot of blank stares but when I demonstrated how easy
this was and you only had to remember a few keystrokes, it
is now second nature.
You will notice that I have not mentioned Microsoft
Windows. This is on purpose. While according to the flyers,
they do have the computing power to run windows, I know
from experience that running Microsoft Windows 3.1 on
anything less than a full blown 386DX chip is asking for
serious slowdowns in performance. A windows wordprocessor,
while more attractive due to the bit maps you can have as a
background and the ease of inserting graphics, is 4-5 times
bigger than a DOS equivalent. For instance, I can install
the full blown copy of WordPerfect for DOS into about 2.5
megabytes of hard drive space. Just to install Microsoft
Word for Windows requires about 13-15 megabytes on top of
what you have to have for Microsoft Windows. We are talking
about 23 megabytes for windows and the wordprocessor for
it. Stick a Spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel 4.0 for instance)
and you have ANOTHER 11 megabytes and then we are back
where we started from. Might as well have an old 8088
running this as a 386.
Well as it happens, I have been persuaded to get a copy of
Microsoft Windows as well as Microsoft Excel for Windows.
This will take some of the load off of First Choice as well
as open up a little more flexability. The choice for
Windows was not made on Excel alone however. The library
had purchased a CD that required Windows so in installing
the CD one thing lead to another and now we are using
Windows on one machine. This machine does not use windows
exclusively since only two applications require it. We will
have to see how this works out in the future.
My advice to everyone is to check out your local library
and see if you can help them. Do not make a pain out of
yourself but if you can point them in the direction of good
software or provide some time to help out for some of the
things they need then they can be most appreciative.
