GS MAGAZINE
MR.FANTASTIC
Hey! guess what!!
I got a neat little subscription offer in the mail the other day. It was from
Softdisk. They are going to do a Softdisk GS. So we now will have a GS only
magazine (CALL APPLE is mostly GS). This will be a monthly magazine I think.
I left the flyer at home so I don't have all the details on hand, but I will
get them if anyone is interested (which I think lack of interest will not be
a problem).
They have a three month trial subscritpion, 6 month, and I think a year. I
will post the info ASAP. Let all subcribe or buy it, so they can see how many
of us GS owners there are. Every little bit of support helps.
Robert Brown
BITNET: RXBROWN@UALR
America Online: ROBPHD I.B.M = I've been mugged!
Amiga!? Just say no!
Josef W. Wankerl
> Hey! guess what!!
>I got a neat little subscription offer in the mail the other day. It was from
>Softdisk. They are going to do a Softdisk GS. So we now will have a GS only
>magazine (CALL APPLE is mostly GS). This will be a monthly magazine I think.
>I left the flyer at home so I don't have all the details on hand, but I will
>
>BITNET: RXBROWN@UALR
>America Online: ROBPHD I.B.M = I've been mugged!
> Amiga!? Just say no!
Well there is already a GS specific magazine and it's called GS+,
published right here in Chattanooga. For $8 you get a magazine and
a 3.5" disk. It's published bi-monthly and the latest issue had a
NDA text editor program in it. Not bad for $8. A year subscription
(6 issues) is $35 - $2 dollars off the cover price. (Do I sound like
a comercial or what!!) I don't have the address to send your
subscription request to, but if there is enough interest I'll look
it up.
/**********************************************************************\
|* Joe "Gonzo" Wankerl |*| The views expressed here are *|
|* BITNET => JWANKERL@UTCVM |*| not necessarily yours... *|
|* |*| ...but they should be. *|
\**********************************************************************/
Brian Greenstone
Yeah, I was called by the SoftDisk people to see if I wanted to write some
stuff for them. I might just do it, but it depends on how much I can make off
of shareware; it may be close. But those of you out there who are familiar
with my past freeware/shareware games (Grackel, Copy Killers, Quadronome,
Senseless Violence, & Orbizone) may be able to get my latest stuff through
SoftDisk if I decide to take them up on their offer.
-Brian
_____
UUCP: crash!pro-lep!orcus
ARPA: crash!pro-lep!or...@nosc.mil
INET: or...@pro-lep.cts.com
Jason Blochowiak
>I got a neat little subscription offer in the mail the other day. It was from
>Softdisk. They are going to do a Softdisk GS. So we now will have a GS only
>magazine (CALL APPLE is mostly GS). This will be a monthly magazine I think.
I'm not sure if it's been released yet to the general public, but I got
SoftDisk G-S (methinks the hyphen is legal self-defense) #1 about a week ago.
Looks like they'll be putting some interesting stuff out - primarily DAs and
small to medium-ish sized applications, with some clip-art and fonts thrown in
for good measure...
Disclaimer: I still consider myself fairly unbiased, even though I
wrote something for them (I would mention what it is, but 1) I'm not sure
about their nondisclosure policy and 2) I kinda doubt they'd like me to
mention it anyways).
>Robert Brown
>BITNET: RXBROWN@UALR
--
Jason Blochowiak - bloc...@garfield.cs.wisc.edu or ja...@madnix.uucp
"Education, like neurosis, begins at home." - Milton R. Sapirstein
Eric Hsu
I'm thinking of buying an accelerator, and the favorite of this group
seems to be the 10 MHz Rocket Chip. Can one of the lucky owners post a review
of some kind, preferably with features and benchmarks (whatever benchmarks are
worth). I'd ask Zip Chip owners to post also, but there none of them seem to
have received their chips yet.
Also: what magazines have reviewed the older Zip and Rocket Chips?
Eric Hsu
eh...@husc4.Bitnet
Evan
in a day or two. (I have the 10Mhz RC). If anyone has questions, feel free to
leave mail
Doug Reeder
I have had my Rocket for several weeks now and it is amazing! It speeds
up everything, including things you didn't realize could use more speed,
like the IIc utilities program. It can't accelerate the disk drive itself,
because of compatibility problems, but it DOES accelerate disk access, for
many programs. Programs like BinSCII and ShrinkIt read some data, process
it, then read some more. With the Rocket, processing goes so fast that the
drive hasn't slowed down by the time the program needs more data, and thus
the drive doesn't require the time to speed up. IIGIF takes about 5 seconds
to decode a picture. Programs that filter a text file, and things like my
BASIC.SYSTEM DIFF external command work about as fast as you could BLOAD
the file. GraFORTH is stunning: 3D shapes rotating at 20 RPM! Text on the
graphics screen scrolling faster than the text screen does normally! Even
my Applesoft Mandelbrot Set generator can generate a Mandelbrot set in under
an hour!
I ran some benchmarks with a hacked up version of Dhrystones, and it ran
ten times faster, within the limits of my stopwatch. I also compiled the
program on a Mac SE, and it was a little bit slower. (Note, however, the SE
is faster under many circumstances.) Most programs will not run ten times
faster, but most will run several times faster.
Compatability: All my programs work fine, including ShrinkIt, BinSCII,
IIGIF, Bolo, Mario Bros, Taxman, & ECP8. Some terminal programs and games
cannot use the extra speed. (If only the authors of Boing! could be induced to
write a version with a larger ball...)
My machine is a IIc (original), so I didn't even need the configuration
program, which is of no great difficulty to use. Setting the chip to run at
slower than 10MHz is a bit bizzare, but the occasion that requires this is
rare. (Standard apple speed is always available through reset-escape.
Returning to 10MHz or whatever the set speed is is as simple as
reset-return) It also recoginzes the Transwarp speed setting protocol, so
programs can change speed on the fly. I have only 5 1/4 inch drives, so I
couldn't time the interaction between other drives and the Rocket.
Installation: Anybody who's not afraid of computers can do it. IIc
people need a screwdriver to open the case (voids your warranty, but if your
machine is more than six months old, it doesn't make a hoot of difference.
Don't be afraid to do it. Take the opportuniy to clean your keyboard.)
Pull your old proccessor, pop in the Rocket.
Use an anti-static mat and chip puller if you can get access to them,
and be careful about static electricity. It's no big deal. There will be a
2 second pause after you turn the power on before your machine boots. Don't
panic.
Summary: probably the best $200 you ever spent on your Apple.
--
Doug Reeder USENET: ...!tektronix!reed!reeder
Box 722 Reed College BITNET: ree...@reed.BITNET
Portland, OR 97202 from ARPA: tektronix!reed!ree...@berkeley.EDU
"A blaster can point two ways." -Salvor Hardin