P. D. & Shareware Review (Abridged)
Doesn't time fly? It seems no time at all since I was sitting
here bashing out a review of Joe Straczynski's excellent book on
the joys and heartaches of scriptwriting, which was printed in
the last of Jim Hornby's excellent diskzenes. Now I find that
we've gone 'treeware'. What next - quill pens? Anyway, what you
see in front of you is some revised copy, taking into account the
different format.
I thought that we could take a look at a few of the disks that
have recently become available from the shareware libraries.
I usually get my disks from Floppyshop, so I will quote their
catalogue numbers but they are probably also available elsewhere.
Let's start with some diskzenes and see how they compare with our
own previous paragon of periodicals. The first one I looked at
was #22 of ST+(DMG6129C), This was a very well produced item with
a wealth of well written articles on various aspects of the
computer world and reports of recent (1997) developments and
products of interest to Atarians. The shell is a joy to use
apart from some naff chip muzak which fortunately can be
switched off. Recommended.
Both ST+ and Floppyshop gave good reports of the 'Maggie'
diskzenes, so I purchased a compilation 'The Best of Maggie 1 to
11' (DMG6210C). I was less than impressed, apart from some dated
technical stuff and some elderly reviews of some now virtually
unobtainable software, the entire disk appears to comprise of
badly written schoolboy humour, bung full of typo's and spelling
mistakes, which they haven't even bothered to correct for the
compilation. There seems to be a morbid compulsion to stick a
scatological or copulatory four letter word into the text at
frequent intervals. (at least these words are spelt correctly!)
Not recommended, my copy is top of the list for reformatting,
should I run out of blank disks.
From the same stable, but a horse of another colour is Maggie #17
'The Maggie Guide to a Classic Videogame Lifestyle' (DMG6240C).
Now this is a very interesting disk, and it should be of use to
those Wrinklies (Atari or otherwise) who have any of the old
eight-bit games machines from the 1970s and 80s at the back of
the cupboard under the stairs. Someone has gone to the trouble
of collating a number of articles, technical specifications, FAQs
and lists of cartridges for these increasing rare items.
The Atari 2600/5200/7800, The Coleco games machine, Vectrix and
Intellivision, these names from the past can still be picked up
quite cheaply in flea markets and car boot sales but not for much
longer, they are tomorrow's antiques and will soon be as sought
after as 1950s Japanese tin-plate toys are now.
Robin Baylis
Just a reminder that any reference to Floppyshop is now is now irrelevant.
(Roy - Editor)
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