AU Competition winners
ct
In article <2LfJXBAf...@highmount.demon.co.uk>, Neil Brown
<URL:mailto:ne...@this.address.is.fake> wrote:
> The good news is that the AU IF competition winners are now available in
> the latest issue of Acorn User, on the cover CD Rom.
>
> The bad news is that you'll need an 8-16Mb Acorn machine to access them,
> apparently.
This sounds so unlikely as to be almost certainly wrong (but having not
seen this CD-ROM, i reserve the right to underestimate people's stupidity).
Perhaps Graham would know?
regards, ct
Neil Brown
Maybe I exaggerated - I imagine one would need a 2-4Mb Acorn with a CD
Rom drive in order to access them. They cannot be accessed by PCs or
Macs because they are in ArcFS format. (I don't understand why this is
so - the savings made by archiving z-code games using ArcFS are
negligible. ZIP format is better at compression and can be understood by
both Acorns and PCs.) Because the entire archive is 5Mb long, you can't
transfer it from a PC with a CD ROM to an Acorn without one (which I did
for the last CD), unless both machines have a Zip drive.
I wouldn't call this stupidity, but it is certainly shortsightedness.
- NJB
Graham Nelson
In article <2LfJXBAf...@highmount.demon.co.uk>, Neil Brown
<URL:mailto:ne...@this.address.is.fake> wrote:
>
> The good news is that the AU IF competition winners are now available in
> the latest issue of Acorn User, on the cover CD Rom.
>
> apparently.
That was _far_ from my intention. What's the difficulty? Are
you having trouble with de-archiving what's there?
If so, I can only apologise and say it isn't my fault (if that isn't
a contradiction). The CD people wouldn't allow my contribution to
be unarchived because they refused to have a directory tree more
than six directories deep -- I never understood why.
--
Graham Nelson | gra...@gnelson.demon.co.uk | Oxford, United Kingdom
David Dyte
St Graham of *** Backpatch Error *** wrote:
>
> If so, I can only apologise and say it isn't my fault (if that isn't
> a contradiction). The CD people wouldn't allow my contribution to
> be unarchived because they refused to have a directory tree more
> than six directories deep -- I never understood why.
Are these Inform games? If so, will they be uploaded to GMD so the rest
of us can get a look at them? If not, where in Australia can I buy an
Acorn?
- David Dyte
Who isn't really narked off but would appreciate a choice of computers
in this country
Scott Forbes
In article <ant281300345M+4%@gnelson.demon.co.uk>, Graham Nelson
<gra...@gnelson.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> If so, I can only apologise and say it isn't my fault (if that isn't
> a contradiction). The CD people wouldn't allow my contribution to
> be unarchived because they refused to have a directory tree more
> than six directories deep -- I never understood why.
The ISO 9660 CD-ROM standard has a "depth" limit of eight directories
(along with all sorts of archaic filename restrictions).
--
Scott Forbes for...@ravenna.com
Adrian Jackson
Neil Brown wrote:
> Because the entire archive is 5Mb long, you can't
> transfer it from a PC with a CD ROM to an Acorn without
> one (which I did for the last CD), unless both machines
> have a Zip drive.
Or you connect them by the serial port and transfer it
that way.
Or you zip the file across multiple floppies and use a
software PC emulator to run PKUNZIP.
Or you use some form of SPLIT program (there's at least
one available from HENSA and I've written several
myself) to split the file and put it on multiple
floppies.
Or you upload it to an FTP site somewhere from the PC
then download it on the Acorn (now *that* is a silly
way of doing things).
> I wouldn't call this stupidity, but it is certainly
> shortsightedness.
Not at all. It just encourages the sort of ingenuity
and lateral thinking that is required in a good player
of interactive fiction. :-)
Adrian
Neil Brown
At 14:18:28 on Wed, 29 Oct 1997, David Dyte wrote:
>Are these Inform games?
I believe that they are.
>If so, will they be uploaded to GMD so the rest
>of us can get a look at them?
I *think* that they're all freeware, so they might eventually find their
way to GMD.
> If not, where in Australia can I buy an
>Acorn?
That's a bit drastic, isn't it? There are only three games we haven't
seen before on the CD.
- NJB, who has recently returned from the Acorn World exhibition and was frankly
worried at the number of acne-covered/ponytailed teenagers, thirty-ish men with
seventies haircuts and middle-aged men with beards he saw while there. And there
were far too many pairs of corduroy trousers on display for his liking. :)
Graham Nelson
In article <OYS3DCAk...@highmount.demon.co.uk>, Neil Brown
<URL:mailto:ne...@this.address.is.fake> wrote:
> At 14:18:28 on Wed, 29 Oct 1997, David Dyte wrote:
> >If so, will they be uploaded to GMD so the rest
> >of us can get a look at them?
>
> I *think* that they're all freeware, so they might eventually find their
> way to GMD.
Quite a lot of the 48 games on the disc came from GMD, in one way or another.
> - NJB, who has recently returned from the Acorn World exhibition and was frankly
> worried at the number of acne-covered/ponytailed teenagers, thirty-ish men with
> seventies haircuts and middle-aged men with beards he saw while there. And there
> were far too many pairs of corduroy trousers on display for his liking. :)
Hmm. Last year it was full of Acorn employees in combat pyjamas,
looking like refugees from the ski-show next door. And there was
an hourly competition to smash a PC to bits with a sledgehammer,
which was just a little bit Hitler Youth for my taste. I can't
imagine this year wasn't an improvement somewhere along the line...
Matthew T. Russotto
In article <Pine.GSO.3.96.97110...@bohr.phy.duke.edu>,
Stephen Granade <sgra...@bohr.phy.duke.edu> wrote:
}On Mon, 3 Nov 1997, Neil K. wrote:
}
}> Just in case any puzzled North Americans ask, I might add that a boiler
}> suit is a worker's jumpsuit sort of thing. Overalls with long sleeves,
}> worn in grubby environments to protect clothing worn underneath. Monkey
}> suit is another name.
}
}Those are called monkey suits? Hm, you can count me as a puzzled North
}American: I was under the impression that a monkey suit was a tuxedo.
I thought a tuxedo was a penguin suit?
--
Matthew T. Russotto russ...@pond.com
"Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in pursuit
of justice is no virtue."
Stephen Granade
On 5 Nov 1997, Matthew T. Russotto wrote:
> In article <Pine.GSO.3.96.97110...@bohr.phy.duke.edu>,
> Stephen Granade <sgra...@bohr.phy.duke.edu> wrote:
> }On Mon, 3 Nov 1997, Neil K. wrote:
> }
> }> Just in case any puzzled North Americans ask, I might add that a boiler
> }> suit is a worker's jumpsuit sort of thing. Overalls with long sleeves,
> }> worn in grubby environments to protect clothing worn underneath. Monkey
> }> suit is another name.
> }
> }Those are called monkey suits? Hm, you can count me as a puzzled North
> }American: I was under the impression that a monkey suit was a tuxedo.
>
> I thought a tuxedo was a penguin suit?
That, too.
Stephen
--
Stephen Granade | Interested in adventure games?
sgra...@phy.duke.edu | Check out
Duke University, Physics Dept | http://interactfiction.miningco.com
Andrew Plotkin
John Francis (jfra...@dungeon.engr.sgi.com) wrote:
> Oooh!! We hav a three-way confusion here, apparently.
> MonkeySuit.ca = business suit
> MonkeySuit.uk = overalls
> MonkeySuit.us = Tuxedo (which, for the UK folks, = Dinner Jacket).
Now I feel all out-of-date, sitting here in my orange hairy orangutan
costume.
Fashion marches on.
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
Matthew Amster-Burton
erky...@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin) wrote:
>Now I feel all out-of-date, sitting here in my orange hairy orangutan
>costume.
If I can go even further off-topic (and you know I can)...
Zarf seems to have adopted my patented method to avoid doing any work.
Show up at work one day in a gorilla suit. When everyone asks why
you're wearing it, just tell them you're exercising every free
person's right to sport a gorilla suit, and as long as it doesn't
affect how you do your job. Continue wearing the gorilla suit every
day for a few weeks.
In the meantime, hire a gorilla at a ridiculously low wage. After
everyone gets used to your showing up to work in a gorilla suit, send
the gorilla to work in your stead.
How's the implementation going, Zarf?
Matthew
Andrew Plotkin
> >Now I feel all out-of-date, sitting here in my orange hairy orangutan
> >costume.
> Zarf seems to have adopted my patented method to avoid doing any work.
> Show up at work one day in a gorilla suit. When everyone asks why
> you're wearing it, just tell them you're exercising every free
> person's right to sport a gorilla suit, and as long as it doesn't
> affect how you do your job. Continue wearing the gorilla suit every
> day for a few weeks.
>
> In the meantime, hire a gorilla at a ridiculously low wage. After
> everyone gets used to your showing up to work in a gorilla suit, send
> the gorilla to work in your stead.
Wow, that's a brilliant idea.
Unfortunately, I'm unemployed. I was sitting here at *home* wearing the
orangutan costume.
(Not any more, of course. Today's *Thursday!*)
> How's the implementation going, Zarf?
Well, I reimplemented my status window code from scratch, and it didn't
work -- not on the first compile, I mean. Certainly a minor problem.
Andrew Plotkin
Den of Iniquity (dms...@york.ac.uk) wrote:
> Matthew Amster-Burton (mam...@u.washington.edu) wrote:
> > Show up at work one day in a gorilla suit... Continue wearing the
> > In the meantime, hire a gorilla at a ridiculously low wage. After
> > everyone gets used to your showing up to work in a gorilla suit, send
> > the gorilla to work in your stead.
> > How's the implementation going, Zarf?
> [to which Zarf replied:]
> >Well, I reimplemented my status window code from scratch, and it didn't
> >work...
> And the _beautiful_ thing about Matthew's system is that the gorilla would
> have achieved _exactly_the_same_thing_.
Hey! Hey!
When I did it, the code was capable of being brought to functionality in
a couple of hours of work. And indeed I so brought it. All happy now.
Last time I hired a gorilla to write software, it made such a mess that I
had to spend the whole next week untangling its code logic.
And it just *couldn't* get the hang of a consistent indentation style.
Daniel Giaimo
Andrew Plotkin wrote in message ...
>Hey! Hey!
>
>When I did it, the code was capable of being brought to functionality in
>a couple of hours of work. And indeed I so brought it. All happy now.
>
>Last time I hired a gorilla to write software, it made such a mess that I
>had to spend the whole next week untangling its code logic.
>
>And it just *couldn't* get the hang of a consistent indentation style.
I just couldn't get that last gorilla I hired to stop using those damn goto
statements
And have you ever tried to figure out what those function names they use mean?
Goaaagaaa(int aigagoo){
....
}
--
--Daniel Giaimo
Remove nospam. from my address to e-mail me. | rgiaimo@(nospam.)ix.netcom.com
^^^^^^^^^<-(Remove)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"In a race between a rock and a pig, don't varnish your clams."
--A Wise Elbonian
Den of Iniquity
Matthew Amster-Burton (mam...@u.washington.edu) wrote:
> Show up at work one day in a gorilla suit... Continue wearing the
> gorilla suit every day for a few weeks.
> In the meantime, hire a gorilla at a ridiculously low wage. After
> everyone gets used to your showing up to work in a gorilla suit, send
> the gorilla to work in your stead.
> How's the implementation going, Zarf?
[to which Zarf replied:]
>Well, I reimplemented my status window code from scratch, and it didn't
>work...
And the _beautiful_ thing about Matthew's system is that the gorilla would
have achieved _exactly_the_same_thing_.
--
Den