ISSUE 7

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ISSUE 7
Editor Phil Bird
Submissions, comments and everything else to : [email protected]
Subscribers : 520
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1......................................................................Editorial
2............................................................Net Top 10 PC games
3....................................................................MUSH to do?
4...................................................................Demo section
5..................................................................Games Reviews
6...............................I've Got a Deal You Just Gotta Hear... (Article)
7.............................................Testament of a Man.. (Short Story)
8...................................................................Nimbus sneak
9..............................................................CD ROM section
10..................................................The Journeyman Project
11....................................................Day of the tentacle
12......................................Cd-Rom scratching what can you do
13............................................................ASCII art gallery
14................................................................Parting words

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Hi Folks and a warm welcome to another issue of VOId, to me it dosn't seem more
than a couple of days since Ish 6.. but heck it's been a busy couple of weeks
one way or another. Firstly I must appologies for any dupilcate copies of
mailings, I was testing out my super new invention for streamlining my
massmailing system.. and to say the least I had problems! Hopefull this little
bug in the works should be thoughrly cleared and, crossed fingers, you should
only recieve one, perfectly formed, copy of VOId. <grin>. What else have I got
to report, well the VOId team is in true turmoil at the mo, Perfectly Normal,
who usually does our ShareWare Shope section has been tied up with lots of work,
(although he tells me he'll be back in business for next issue), our kind ASCII
art donator has kinda missed the deadline for this ish, so I myself have had to
cobble together a mottly collection of ASCII art (which I hope you like)..
whilst we're on the subject of doom and gloom, I appologies in advance of any
spelling or gramatic errors contained in VOId, but the simple true is I am the
worlds worst speller! You have been warned!

Not everything which has happened over the last week or so has been bad, we have
a new memember to the VOId team,Ken Corey, who will be casting his eye on a
variety of software goodies, starting this week with a review of UNREAL a demo
by future crew.. Not only that but we are also proud to present a short story in
VOId, Testament of a Man, which I found rather well written and entertaining..
I'm glad to say VOId will now contain a short (or possibly long, but split into
parts) story in every issue, I've already had some corking submissions for next
ish so stick around. Oh and a warm welcome to David Smethurst who has also
joined the VOId lot.. I'll let him introduce himself later on..

Well that about sums up all I want to say, however please feel free to mail me
with your views on VOId. If I don't get feedback I can't make VOId a better mag
for you to read..

As always, yes I have to say this, I always welcome submissions. :-)

Thanks and enjoy VOId

Phil

[email protected]
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The top 10.. I kinda cheated to bring you this.. it is infact the Internet Top
10 games list (from alt.gaming?).. but I won't tell anyone if you don't? <grin>.

==============================================================================
The Net PC Games Top 10 Edition 56 - Week 4 - January 24, 1994
==============================================================================
TW LW NW Title Developer/Publisher(s) Cat ID Points
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1 ( 1) 6 Doom {S} Id AC [1386] 866
2 ( 2) 56 Civilization MicroProse ST [1002] 388
3 ( 3) 16 Master of Orion SimTex/MicroProse ST [1344] 340
4 ( 4) 47 X-Wing (+Imperial Purs.,B-Wing) LucasArts/US Gold AC [1169] 242
5 ( 5) 12 Epic Pinball (+Silverball retail v.) {S} Epic AC [1359] 227
6 ( 6) 55 Dune 2: Building of a Dynasty Westwood/Virgin ST [1110] 191

7 ( 7) 30 Day of the Tentacle LucasArts/US Gold AD [1268] 158

8 ( 8) 53 VGA Planets {S} Tim Wisseman ST [1131] 108
9 ( 10)^ 29 Syndicate (+add-on) Bullfrog/Electronic Arts AC [1271] 113
10 ( 11)^ 44 Nethack 3.1 {F} DevTeam RP [1186] 117
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Hi ho :)
and a merry old crow... and all that.

So, for the first ever proper mu* type thing in void
lets have a simple look at writing a TinyMUSH who command shall we.
I presume some knowledge of the commands there, if
you need help on one, type the inbuilt help. Ive written this to
show some people (I get asked about this kind of thing alot)
some ways they may improve their code, or they can use it as an example.
Its not a right way, its just another way.
Now I presume everyone has used @dolist and lwho() before.
If not... @dolist wille execute commands on a list of some sort
and lwho() returns a list of everyone who is connected.
Aha I hear you say!
@dolist lwho()=
will give a list of everyone connected and let us do an operation on them.
Indeed it will, @dolist lwho()=@pemit %#=name(##) will return
a list of everyone conencted to you.
But will we do it like this? We will not!
Two problems can arrise with the above method.
1) Your using a seperate @pemit for every entry. slow slow slow!
2) If you want to have a bit of text after the who info, it can cause
problems... ala...

================
My who info!!!
================
names
================
x players are on
================

Using the @dolist method, (command;@dolist...;command )
timing problems mean it can shag up, to put it bluntly,
like the end bit of text appearing before the names.

We will use iter(). If youve never heard of it, its more or less like
a dolist, except is used as a function call.
in this way we can use @pemit %#=[iter(lwho,.......)]
(the %# is the enactor of the command if you didnt know).
Notice the side effect as well?
Only one @pemit is needed. This speeds things up
(especially if its a global command on a large mush on a small machine.)
The only dissadvantage with @pemit is it can mess up if there are too many
people logged on and the lwho() overloads the maximum buffer for the pemit.
Ive only seen this happen with like 90 players logged on with a big
informative who list so dont worry bout it.
If youve created an object test to put it on, your who command would now look
a bit like this.....

&who test=$who:@pemit %#=[iter(lwho(),name(##)%r)]

You'll probably want to add a bit of info to the start and end of the list now..
Easily done with a couple of extra pemity. Lets add some pretty lines
and a title....

&who test=$who:@pemit %#=[repeat(-,79)]%rName%r[repeat(-,79)];
@pemit %#=[iter(lwho(),%r[name(##)])];
@pemit %#=[repeat(-,79)]%r[words(lwho())] players are connected
%r[repeat(-,79)]

(I presume you can work out what the extra bits do, and join the lines up,
damb 80 char limit put on me :)
Right, thats enough for this week, before it gets too long and I get
told off. Try adding some extra info in there yourself,
like idle times and peak players. Ill be adding some more stuff next week
and hopefully doing something else interesting and usefully as well!
Till then.... 146.227.102.4 6250
Was that a plug?
Babbage.
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Hello all. In the last issue, you read that the previous
games reviewer had left. Being the nice guy that I am, I
bravely offered to fill the void... Ahem. Well, in any
case, I agreed to review a few things. We'll see how it
turns out.

The program I'll be looking at this time is a "demo" rather
than a game. It's where a bunch of PC gurus got together to
see just what the PC is capable of. These demos require a
lot from the hardware, but deliver astounding results. You
gotta hand it to these people, they write incredible looking
programs.

The name of the program is "Unreal", and is available at the
ftp site wuarchive.wustl.edu. The basic requirements are:

+ 2.5 MB of hard drive space.
+ 386 or 486. > 25Mhz, please.
+ 600K available lower memory, (You *can* use a
memory manager)
+ Recommended: a SoundBlaster, SoundBlaster Pro or
SoundMaster II sound card.

Unreal was tested on a 486DX33, 8MB ram, an ET4000 SVGA card
and a SoundBlaster Pro.

Once you've unloaded unreal onto your system, all you have to
do is run it. You'll see an opening screen that lets you
pick the amount of sound processing you can afford (8,16 and
20 Mhz sound sampling, either sterieo or mono).

The first demo is a scrolling star field. then the spinning
logo for unreal is displayed, and the stars all fall down.

The second demo has 4 sound bars that flash in time to the
music with a schizophrenic sort of conversation scrolling
through the bars. Excellent effect!

The second demo shows a square asteroid with a small city on
it. Some space ships fly around and land on this asteroid
as it spins in 3d throughout this demo. The graphics,
though blocky on a PC, would appear right at home in a
sci-fi flick.

The next demo is called "vectorballs". It features some
balls that move in 3 space, rotating and gyrating and forming
various patterns.

The next affect is sinusbobs. They float behind translucent
letters that read "Apparently this is possible". I guess it
is...

Next is the Wormhole. The whole screen is draining down this
thing.

Shadowbobs. Neat colors moving around on the screen in
lisajous figures. With each pass of the "brush" the colors
change.

Colors. Showing real and simulated 24-bit (called
real-color) colors. A slick demostration of how these
machines can be pushed farther than the currently are.

Real color plasma. This is a demo of how the "real color"
can be used.

Real Plasma. The plasma scrolls up the screen here showing
some neat interactions.

Something. This part of the demo is honestly called
"something". Shows the scrolling characters, and a space
background screen. This shows what looks to be a million
dots. They are scrolling colors along their length, while
slowly spinning in 3 space.

Texture. Shows objects with texture on them, spinning in 3
space, and being distorted. One of the image appears to be a
picture of one of the authors. Wild.

Landscape. Shows a landscape using hundreds of small
dots. Moves your over this landscape in various directions
at high speed.

Even the credits are impressive. It gives the member list,
and who did what for all the code.

Finally, the goodbye screen is one last chance to impress you.

All in all, if you like wowing your friends, and have the
machine to run it and the time to get it, it's a good download...

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Hi there, OK so at least I have written about 10 words now.Sorry
to start like that but this is my first contribution to VOID so I am
naturally a little nervous :)Anyway fist things first.
I am Dave Smethurst a.k.a Smeg or Dave from various MUSH'es.
If you wish to submit cheats or 'help' for other games players..or you
need cheats or 'help' for those incredibly hard games I know you all
mess around on please email me at [email protected] or if you happen to
bump into me on a MUSH ask me then.Chow for now and on with the show.....

1)Arcade Reviews- I just could not resist this one.For this tasty selection
I have :-
Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat II.

2)Main Reviews - Ok this section is your PC through SNES machine reviews.
(I just thought I might mention that I need some ideas for
games to review in this section):-
Cannon Fodder(Amiga,PC),X-Wing(PC)

3)Cheats - A couple of things that might help you here.
Frontier:ELITE II,Lemmings 2,Cannon Fodder.
(I NEED more ideas!!)

1)Arcade Reviews :-
-----------------

Virtua Fighting
1 or 2 players
Distributer:- SEGA

Ok hands up those people who have seen Virtua Driving...those of you have not do
not know what you are missing.This arcade machine is based around the same graphics
as virtua racing.The eight characters differ quite alot in thier fighting style and
so a very varied gameplay can be achived.The vector graphics combined with a smooth
processing and variation in characters provides an exciting challenge for one or
two player options.
An added bonus is that there are no "magic" manuvers therefore it is a straight out
close combat game.If you like to get in close and beat the bejabbers out off a friend
or work out your strees from the day on a cmputer oponent go ahead you might like
this one....the onl;y drawback I can consider with it is the price at around 1 pound
a go it is likely to set you back quite a bit.
A new addition is the instant playback of the final moments of the fight.When you
manage to ontain a ring out or k.o. the last 5 seconds off the fight are repeated
from various angles to show you how good, or bad ,you did.This can get tedious but
if you get one of those really good moves in at the end it is rather satisfying to
watch it all over again.
The eight characters are mainly male so sorry girls you only get 2 characters to
choose from...mind you one off those is pretty powerfull(but I am biased).The
main combat takes place on an arena top it is not advisable to try leaping attacks
as these can rarely be pulled off in time.The ground based attacks can be quite
impressive though ranging from a devestating Roundhouse or Leg Sweep to throws.
This is not an ordinary combat simulation..this is THE combat simulatro of the year
and if SEGA can come up with a sequel to this you can bet it will be just as good.

MARKS:-
Graphics:-8 (not too bad graphics but ray traced is better!!)
Game Play:-9 (great variation..)
Sound:-5 (This is a WEAK point)
Value:-7 (sorry 1 pound is a bit much)
Overall:-7 (the lack of sound takes the mark down)

2)MAIN REVIEWS:-
---------------

Cannon Fodder:-
Amiga and PC formats
1 player
Snsible Software

Well what can I say about this one..not much but if you like alot of mindless
violence and uter destruction go for it.Being made by Snsible Software it is
everything you would expect...silly and totally pointless.(sorry!!)Nah I like
this game it's a good stress relievr...you know..nothing to do feel like
throwing a couple of rockets or grenades around..shoot a couple of bad guys and
so on.Well this is a game to do that.
The graphics could be a little better but then again cos it's such a large
screen game with small characters you can excuse them...even for the size of the
game I must say this..it's bloody good.
One problem..if you don't like getting frustrated at games then i might advise
you to stay away from this one..the levels get quite hard after about the 4th or
5th.Besides that it has a great variety of game plays.
It is not allwats pointless shooting sometimes you may get objectives like
rescuing a couple of stranded civie's or just blowing up buildings.The number of
levels is enourmous..each level containg up to 4 stages each of which has it's
own map.
Another problem is though is that the bad guy's learn real fast and will start to
retaliate with bazooka's and grenades and if you are really lucky a helicopter
or two :)
Besides that i can cresit the game quite well...oh and by the way Amiga owners
if you want to know what sort of sound your amiga should be able to do check out
the intro music!!!

MARKS:-
Graphics:-7 (Not too bad for this sort of game)
Game Play:-9 (great variation..)
Sound:-8 (Nowt to say :) )
Value:-7 (Could be a little cheaper)
Overall:-7

X-Wing:-
PC only at the moment
1 player
Lucas Arts

This is one of the best space Sim's I have seen.Obviously based around the star
wars films(though none of the action from the film is included) this line of
action movie conversion is not unheard of.The game play situates you as a pilot
for the Rebellion, from there you pilot the three main rebellion ships the
X-wing(of course),Y-Wing and the A-wing.Each has certain advantages and
disadvantages.The missions range from the training ground to the Historical
missions and the 3 main Tours of duty.If you complete everyone of the ..then you
must be cheating somewhere.
The graphics are what you would expect from Lucas Arts and if your PC's run fast
enough then this is a pretty decent game.The ships look as though they are
digitised images of the Star Wars toy range with a couple of computer
modifications they look decent enough.The actual game play varies alot from
straight kill the enemy to protecting a passing carrier.
If you want a real challenge I dare you to try and take out a Star Destroyer..it
is hard...but a good laugh.
If your PC has a sound card then you will like the sound from it..excerpts from
the film have been used to provide sound for the starships and laser fire which
at times adds alot of realism to the game.Overall I like this game...but as I
say I am biased in favour of Space Sims.

MARKS:-
Graphics:-7 (not too bad)
Game Play:-8 (Very good...but what about a few more Death star misions!!)
Sound:-7 (only good if you have SB pro or similar!)
Value:-8 (good for the price)
Overall:-8

3)CHEATS:-
---------

Just a few this time round:-

Frontieer:ELITE II
Ok this one is easy..first off get an extra passenger cabin, then get a
passenger or two to take somewhere,enter the ship upgrades menu and try
to buy a lander..if it works properly you should start gaining money.
For a better result also buy an escape capsule.Then when you leave the planet
eject..that gets rid of the passenger and you still have all your money to SPEND
SPEND SPEND.

Lemmings II:The Tribes
Ok on the main screen...you know the one with the village on...press in all four
corners and you should hear a lemming go 'whoopeee'!! this should make all the
levels available for you to try out.

Cannon Fodder
Try saving your game as Joolsa..this will promote your highest ranking character
to general.(dunno what that is supposed to achieve)

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I've Got a Deal You Just Gotta Hear...

by

Perfectly Normal

Here's an interesting bet. How many of you would wager with me
on whether or not I could fit two or three hours of spoken dialogue, say
my sister's 60 page master's thesis, into two megs on my hard drive.
Well, I'm no fool; I only bet on sure things. I'd just load up sis's
year's worth of work into one of those corny programs that reads off
text files in an annoying monotone, like Monologue for Windows, and
collect my dough. However, despite being a great subject for a sucker
bet, I see a lot of potential for these silly things that are
currently little more than toys.
Picture this, setting a bunch of variables like inflection,
accent, timbre, sex, and then having your computer speak to you,
sounding as lifelike as your next door neighbor. Load in a set of
copyrighted parameters, maybe a few samples into your sound card's
wavetable, and voila! Your computer sounds exactly like Cindy
Crawford. (Hopefully, it won't sing like her though...) Such a break
through would have endless repercussions, anything from revolutionizing
computer music, to being an infinitely valuable tool for the visually
impaired, to probably spelling the end for voice recognition
security.
One area that would certainly be affected would be computer gaming.
Right now you can only compress sound so far, and I suspect we are
pretty darn close to a theoretical limit. Turn my sound card's
recording quality up to the highest level and all of a sudden it takes
200 KB per second of music! (16 bit, stereo, 44mhz) This is why the
only true "talkies" can be on CD-ROM which has enough room to spare a
few extra hundred megabytes just so that some psychotic rabbit named Max
can quip in full voice. (The CD release of Lands of Lore with the
voice of Patrick Stewart as King Richard boasts of 130 MB of
Digitalized speech!) Those of us stuck with out limited 3 1/2" disk
drives have to be satisfied with talking intros, after which the game
must return us to the era of the silent film.
True voice replication would shatter the barriers that are preventing
true voice intensive games from becoming a reality. All that would
be required would be the text synthesizer, the proper set of
parameters for each character, and maybe a few hundred KB for the
actual text of the speech. So what if the synthesizer program
takes up 4 meg or more? In the long run it would save infinitely.
Games by the same company could even make use of the same voice
generator, requiring even less room on a crowded drive. Computer
companies could license the voices of well known actors, perhaps
without even requiring them to step inside a recording studio. The
opportunities seem limitless.
Certainly, in this day and age, this is little more than a
dream. I know little about text synthesizing as a field, but the few
offerings I have seen in the public market have been a far cry from
hearing a reading by even the least talented of speakers. I'm sure
more advanced text to speech tools exist, but I've yet to hear of
anything that might pass for a human voice. (and I have been
listening) Still, this is obviously an exciting field that may have
yet to reach it's hey day. Lend me an ear for I'd bet even money
that, within my lifetime, we will get to hear a dynamic speaker
bellow out, "I FEEL AS IF I COULD TAKE ON...THE WORLD!" only to
discover that it is your friend playing the 10 MB, full "talkie"
version of Day of the Tentacle Part IV.
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|___/
Testament of a Man

There's a bridge, somewhere in the scrublands of California,
a bridge exactly two hundred twenty feet high. Or, if you prefer
the metric system that the grand old US of A has finally gotten
around to implementing, a bridge approximately six point six six
and a whole damn lot more sixes, all the way out to infinity, if
the mathematicians are to be believed, or until you say to hell
with it and round the last one up to a seven, metres high. Upon
that bridge sits a tired, strung-out, worn out, cynical,
despairing old man in a wheelchair. That's me, you see, finally
an old man, just like my father became, and my father's father
before him, and so on back 'till Adam, if you're a Bible
believer, or back to Australopithecus, or Java man, or whichever
set of old bones they've dug up most recently and named Lucy, if
you're not. And I'll bet you a dollar to a doughnut that many of
them have stood, or sat, upon a high bridge, or with a gun to
their heads, a revolver with one bullet in one chamber, wondering
what was to come next. Just like I am. Just looking down at the
water, wondering if it's deep enough, or looking down the barrel,
wondering if perhaps they'll get a glint of light off lead, down
at the end of the barrel, contemplating what happens next.
The water, down so far beneath my feet, is exactly eight
feet deep. And under that eight feet of cool, rushing water,
there is a one inch of soft, muddy gravel. And under that,
limestone, with all its little craters and caves. I know, because
I've planned all this, giving myself some slight chance to
survive if I do jump; a miniscule chance, but a chance
nonetheless. And surviving on chances is how I've managed so far,
through thick, which there was precious little of, and thin,
which only became thinner as the years went by. Survive. And
never let the bastards get you down. Our family credo in this
godforsaken day and age.
I feel my cynicism and pessimism is reasonably justified,
but for those unfamiliar with my unremarkable life story, I
suppose I had best explain a bit. Capsule summay of life before
becoming old: born 1974, public school for twelve years, one year
at a real school, Loyola University at New Orleans. Just one year
there, because in my brief stay in that great city I met Mssrs.
Jack Daniels, Austin Nichols, and the famous corporate entity
Anheuser & Busch. Four years at a community college in Prince
George's County, Maryland. Graduated with honors, which
doesn't mean a whole lot on a degree from a community college.
Went to the University of Texas at Austin for graduate work in
chemistry. Reconciled with an old flame from high school, Amy,
and eventually fell in love with her again. Married in the year
2000. End of life as a young man. That part went well enough.
In 2003, Amy and I had a son. We named him Roger Kenneth
McManus, after our fathers. Settled down in a small house on the
outskirts of San Antonio. I was working as an analytical chemist
in the laborotories of DuPont Chemicals, which had recently
opened a factory/reasearch center outside Fredricksburg, about an
hour's drive from where we lived, and I finally convinced my wife
to go to college. Two years later, our daughter was born. She was
named Colleen Marie McManus, for various family political
reasons, and, I like to think, a lot because I liked the name.
Those were the good days.
On November 19th, 2011, my only son died. Leukemia. Begin
chapter three in my life: Downhill. But the bastards didn't get
me down. Our life went on, because we were still a family.
On May 11th, 2020, my daughter's life was claimed by
complications resulting from the latest strain of HIV. I think it was a
couple of Roman numerals less than the HIV X that's going around now,
but that doesn't matter. She fell in love with a boy she trusted,
and at fifteen years old, died. The condom didn't help. The boy
she had fallen in love with, a sultry romance lasting almost a
year, moved to another part of the country. I hope the lying
bastard rots in hell for what he did to my daughter. Losing Roger
couldn't have been avoided, although God knows we tried. Colleen,
though, dear sweet Colleen, only fifteen years old... But I had
Amy. The bastards didn't get us down. We survived, with each
other.
Having nothing left to keep us in Texas except a few old
friends and acquaintances, I dragged myself and my wife to
California. The cutting edge of biochemistry, my field of
specialty, was located there, in LA. We sold nealry everything
and moved, lock, stock and barrel, to a small, two-bedroom condo
on the shore. Amy had started keeping more and more to herself,
and I had renewed old ties with Jameson's fine Irish whiskey and
Wild Turkey, on the rocks, please bartend, no, just one more for
the road, really, it's all right, I walked here, and all the
other excuses you'll hear from beginning alcoholics in fancy bars
while they still have the money to spend on drinks. The job was
going well, and I was more or less making money hand over fist.
One of the molecular structures I helped develop in the lab was
found to be remarkably effective in treating certain forms of
cancer, and especially leukemia. I could almost hear the Fates
laughing at me as they spun their threads. DuPont got the Nobel
prize, I recieved a good deal of money, and even a half percent
of overall profits. I kept myself in bourbon and scotch, and
occasional bags of mary jane, when in the mood, and kept up the
payments on the Mercedes, and Amy's Valium(IV) prescriptions. I
don't know who was worse off then, me or her. But we survived.
The bastards didn't get us down.
My lovely wife and I, both aged fifty-one, were walking away
from the little MG I had gotten her for her last birthday, on
some nameless little street in LA, heading to some nameless cafe
in LA, on December 24th. I was waiting for the right moment to
spring the hideosly expensive hand-wrought gold chain on her. It
would've been our 25th Christmas together. I was fidgeting the
whole time, fiddling with the case in my pocket, trying to figure
out when I should nonchalantly mention that I had her Christmas
present tonight, here, with me. We had just rounded a corner,
when three gangster-wannabes stepped around us, dressed in black
and wearing skimasks, and holding pistols with insanely large
bores.. We both froze, hands up, and while two of them covered
us, the third patted us down, very profesionally, removing money
clip, car keys, etc. I thought we were in the clear, when he
finished, but they shot us anyway. Just young toughs out for a
thrill, I suppose. And, being the gangsters they were, they shot
Amy first. I caught her, blood soaking my suit and my hands,
tears streaming from my eyes, fighting back the urge to scream.
Whatever happened next must have been an adrenalin OD, or
somesuch. I remeber looking up at the grinning tough with the
smoking gun, and getting mad, and madder, and then it's a blank.
I woke three days later in a hospital, paralyzed from the waist
down. They told my I had killed all three, tooth and nail and
fist and anger, and gotten shot twice for my trouble. They told
me the cops had found me crying over Amy's corpse, while three
young men bled to death from various wounds I had inflicted.
Good. I hope they suffered.
That day marked the end of my life, and the beginning for my
quest for death. I went on a drinking jag that evidently lasted
three weeks, and cost me four thousand dollars, a car, and a
broken arm. I don't rememeber any of it. After I recovered from
that, I started looking into other, more serious drugs. Starting
with weed, and working my way up, I've tried most all. Cocaine
was good for a while, with serious downers to take the edge off.
Heroin I enjoyed, but I thought it lost something smoked, and I
could never get used to needles. Crack was a good high, but
coming down was a real bitch, even for me, and it just wasn't
quality stuff. Acid, 'shrooms, peyote, and some other things that
haven't been translated into English yet I tried, watched all the
pretty colors, watched all the maggots and spiders, became one
with the Universe, sometimes 24 hours a day. More booze, some
more downers. When I came within a hair of seriously overdosing, and
flatlining myself, the Dupont execs took me aside and quietly
informed me that I had either shape up, or ship out. Period.
I shipped out. The bastards got me down.
Liquidating my assets, I started to invest in other,
chemical quality drugs. Synth-coke, serious mescaline, CAT, more
booze, lab-made stuff without even a street name yet, animal,
vegetable, mineral, and something bizarre a buddy of mine in
South America cooked up, involving several plants known only to
natives, some really strange gravel and pebbles, and god knows
what else. If it could be dropped, smoked, drunk, or otherwise
ingested, I had it. And then, one day, I rolled out of bed, and
found I was broke. Fine. Nada. No more. The big nothing at the
bank. Insufficient funds. They even repossesed the house.
And so here I sit, in my wheelchair, on a bridge, watching
the fish swim below me and the birds soar above. There's a small
crowd off to one side, waiting to see what I do. I stare hard at
the river, and if I strain, I can make out the little eddies and
whirlpools forming and dissipating in the crystal water. I
watched the perch and the bass play, two hundred feet below me, a
game of life and death, just like I'm playing up here. A breeze
ruffled my thinning hair, bringing with it the scents of the
coast: salt water, garbage, rotting fish. Looking around, I could
see that the crowd was getting restless. Best to get on with the
freak show, I suppose. Now, this time, I vow to myself, it's for
real. If I survive, I live, and maybe I can get on with a life.
Death is death. I close my eyes and stretch, feeling the creases
of the old flannel shirt I'm wearing catch on the scars on my
back and belly, feel a little twinge in the arm that I broke in a
deep amber haze of whiskey. I make up my mind. Lean forward a
bit, tensing arm muscles, hands resting on armrests, ready to go.
Snap my eyes open and push, hard. Almost gracefully, I begin my
long journey to the water. Time slows, now, and images of my life
click through my mind's eye, crisp and clear, better even than
Memorex. My mother's face, my father's face, all the aunts and
uncles and cousins. The wind is snatching at my shirt and pants
with greedy fingers. I spread my arms wide to embrace it all. I
see the river drawing closer, little waves cresting and breaking
against the banks. I'm spinning now, my entire world the river,
my entire morld gently revolving. I remember. Scents of my
mother's perfume, the tatoos on my father's arms, fuzzed by the
thin layer of fine black hair growing over them. Classroom at
school, faces of teachers, now long dead. My first solo, my first
band competition, strains of melodies from a thousand different
songs float through my head. I remember. My daughter's dark red
hair, my daughter laying in a sterile oxygen tent, her lungs
broken and bleeding, coughing her lifeblood out, all from the
common cold and HIV VI. The first brush of Amy's lips against
mine, her blood on my hands, my son tortured by a hundred
different shots, machines, and chemicals, his small casket given
to the uncaring earth. I see the water, rising, I wonder why the
world is upside down, why the fish are in the sky and the clouds
at my feet. I remember. Test tubes and cyclotrons in the lab,
cooking up my own witches' brew of coke, strychnine, Cuban cigar
tobacco and Colombian gold, wishing for death. Hoping, fearing,
loving, hating, giving, taking. I can almost smell the river now.
Fishing with my father, crying with my mother, tears falling on
my wife's shattered body, the throat of the punk between my
hands. Sights and sounds and smells and feels. Making love for
the first time, the last time I made love. Seeing two children
born, two children die, they're mine, mine, I can't save them, I
could've saved them, I loved them. The bastards got me down. The
water is only a few feet away, and I can see the minnows
scattering from the hungry bass. And I scream, at last, all at
once, I release everything, just before my death, I get it out, I
will die free of guilt, a scream tearing through my vocal chords,
through my smoke-weakened throat, from my soul. I spit out the
hatred and the fear and the death I have become. And then slow,
and then I am jerked back, and as I rise in the tangles of the
understrength bungee cord that could've broken, should've broken, I
scream again in joy, and life, and joy of life. The bastards
didn't get me down.

TRM
10/24/93

Any and all questions aand comments are gratefully accepted, and should
be mailed to:
[email protected]
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NIMBUS the way of the sneak.
By Babbage

Hello again children!

If your in the uk & your still
at school (its possible) you may well have a network
of Nimbus machines. *grimace*
I know I did, and of course there were those times the
staff would forget the netmgr password or whatnot
and would call on my help to find them again. (Even though
I did end up running the things for a few years).
So, just out of interest, I thought id pass you on some info.
on some methods on how to break into these networks and grab
anything you want from them :) Including all the passwords.
Some of these methods might well work on other networks as well.
Not that I would know of course. This is for information purposes only,
for those staff interested in protecting themselves from the naught people,
or finding their own passwords out again.
(It is, really!)
so I except no reponsibility for anyone mucking things up with this
or anything whatsoever.

Ok, there are a few ways to do it, different ones working
on different versions of the network.

1)
Nice and simple this, find a program that lets you operate a dos command.
With any luck it will run with manager level access.
We had Word, and when we executes command.com
it dropped us out into a shell with full manager clearance :)
The program you run that lets you execute the command has to be running
with manager clearance for this to work. (I think)

2)
A bit more envolved this one... and envoles you getting hold of
the boot disk on the server.
(Which at our place was as easy as picking your nose. Just pop it out the drive)
SO, edit the autoexec.bat (make a backup first)
and insert a line that copies the password file into your home
directory every time the server is booted. (It was done everyday at our place).
Log in and find that netmgr password.

3)
Later versions encrypted the password file so...
make it copy the netmgr program to you as well so you can run that
and decrypted the passwords :)

4)
You might not be able to copy the files into your home dir.
So copy them to the boot disk instead and then copy them off that :)

5)
Of course you could use this to get at any files you want, or put in
safe guards so if they change things you will still have access to
your extra facilities :)

6)
They probably wont notice if you set yourself with netmgr access
or create extra users (with extra access) with the same sort of name
as a load of other people.

These are just a few ways that we worked out/tried/and worked.
Dont go messing everything up now!
Babs.
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SECTION

The Journeyman Project

System Requirements
------------------
386 DX-33
Windows 3.1
4Mb RAM Min.
Card capable of displaying 640 * 480 256 Colours
512k of video Ram.
SoundBoard Soundblaster, Pro audio spectrum.
MPC Compatible CD ROM Drive.

You are agent 5 of the Temporal Security Annex, you live in Caldoria Heights.
Caldoria one of the worlds first skyborne cities.
The year is 2318 the earth has been at peace since 2117. The great wars of
the twenty-first century left a bitter taste in the mouths of those involved.
The self destructive nature of Humans was quelled and one by one,
dictatorial regimes fell across the world until a unified world was realized.

In the following years a felling of security emerged throughout the world,
money that was once spent on war and killing was spent on the needy.
Humanity has flourished for the past two centuries, crime has diminished,
and the tools of war are left unused. But all that is threathed now.

In 2185 an event occurred that changed the awareness of the people of the world,
the pilot of a Shuttle on the Morimoto Mars Colony spotted an alien craft.
This was confirmed by the landing bays scanners, this was the first contact
with another intelligent life.

In 2308 the aliens returned and announced they extended an offer to all
of humanity to join "The Symbiotry of Peaceful Beings", They said they would
let us have 10 years to decide.

On the eve of their return it's your job to protect time, the Temporal Annex
was setup to protect time, after the first time experiments were successful
the Government setup the Annex to protect time from anyone who might try
to damage it.

You begin the game in bed ALONE, you are awaked by a brilliant view out of
your window overlooking Caldoria. The game is played through the BioTech
interface this is an eye piece that is sectioned off to display different
stats in the game, inventory, computer advice (AI), energy, view window
etc... You put this on first thing in the morning, you are then ready to
go to work.

However this is no Linear Tunnel Game, there is no a...b...c....z run of the
game, your in your apartment building so why not look around!
Everything in the apartment has it's correct function with sound, light switches
door, shower, taps, even the toilet.
The graphics are Windows 480*640*256 colors.

It runs on a Mac or Windows, and it installs QuickTime onto your PC.
This is not surprising considering this game was ported from a Mac.
Going into your living room revels a lot more functions, for those
of you who like Star Trek the next generation, their is a 'Holo Chair'
you sit down on your couch and you have the functions of a 4-d theater,
you can choice mountain, sea shore, space...
After you pick the setting the room changes to display your choice, you can
then alter the music Funk, orchestral etc...
The music is Excellent, it is all original work, it's not tinny or tecno.

I spent a good half an hour playing with the 4-d Theater, the music is
great and the Orchestral piece of music is fantastic.
The ultimate futuristic relaxation.

The game play is a little slow, That is probably the amount of
information that has to be added each time, the graphics are excellent
there is only live video when reading the historical log. This is a cd
which has been placed in 200million bc which contains the True history of the
planet ( Obviously compression tecniques have improved in the 24th century)
When a temporal rip in time occurs the player has to travel back to
200million bc and collect the log bring it back and compare it to the current CD
in time this will show up the differences in the time lines.

The player then has to travel back and fix the rips, this involves skill
and a lot of cunning, deciding which tim rip to fix first etc...
You use a bio suit and bio chips to protect yourself from what ever
harse climates you may encounter. You run into all assortment of
beings during time travel, I have just meant a Droid 6 ft 4" on the
Morimoto Mars Colony, the graphics and fluid movement of this droid are
truely impressive. No jerky movement, gliding and acurate.
Also on Mars you get a fly by, An old idea but excelently done in this
game.

Once you fix all the rips in time you have to return to the present day
and ensure the Aliens receive a warm welcome.

This is a very lonely game, you can't interact with others humans as this
disturbs the space time continum. You can't leave items from different
time zones in other ones.

Over all the good game and excellent value.

Graphics - Excellent. (Photo Realistic)
Sound - Excellent ( Original Score)
Animations - Very Good (Fluid and novel)
Video seq. - Fair ( Uninteresting use of Video)
Speed - Good ( Could be a higher paced game )
Game Play - Good (Smart puzzles)
Overall - 90%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day of the tentacle... A rave review/lover of the game.

Written By [email protected]

Yes, this is a great game. Reading the praise for it here reminded me I was
sent two copied by Free Spirit software. The second was sent instead of what
I ordered, namely Mavis Beacon teaches typing and Laura Bow II: The Dagger of
Amon Ra. I will gladly trade the unopened copy for these two, or one plus
cash. Otherwise, I will sell it for less than what I pa
plus shipping. I pa
2). I have had one session of broken promises from Free Spirit to ship the
right disks, so thought I would try this.
I can guarantee I am more reliable than Free Spirit
software.

It is a great game. I haven't quite finished the first copy I got, but all
of us (me and kids 6 and 9) have enjoyed it immensely, better than any Sierra
game I have played.

Here are a few bits from the recent thread on this by way of testimonial:

Having the proverbial Xmas CD-ROM player, I was standing in the local
Egghead outlet with my 10 year old daughter and five possible
CD-ROM's. Unsolicited, another customer (a mom with two kids, she
said) came up and evangelically endorsed DOTT as the Best CD-ROM her
family had ever had. Convinced me, but not my daughter. Made deal
that if DOTT was a bust, we could come back and try something else.

In Short: DOTT is still on this desk. Holiday Guest Kids monopolized
computer/CD-ROM for DOTT. Far as I can figure there's no downside
on this one....

Brief description: It's a cartoon like adventure. Three main characters are
a nerdy character, a rocknroll roady, and a spacy coed. They end up in
different perieds in time trying to save the world from domination by mutant
tentacles. Lots of humor. Includes hint book. Good soundcard support.

email me if interested:

Dave Cole [email protected]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cd-Rom scratching what can you do....

Written By [email protected] (Adrie Koolen)

CD-Roms, (scratch running from center towards edge). In fact, there
have been discussions in cdrom-l about actually drilling a hole thru
and still be able read without errors! (Don't know what size drill bit
was used ...:))

I think this discussion applies to Audio CDs, where the players built in
error recovery circuitry can gloss over a hole drilled in a CD so that
many folks won't notice the missing information. Even though data CDs
have much more error correction information built-in, a single bit of
incorrect data can ruin your whole day, so scratches are a more critical
problem with data CDs...

Data are written on a CD with lots of redundancy. There are two levels of
Reed-Solomon (de)coders and for data sectors, even a third level of RS
coding is added. The first two RS decoders are well enough to recover
from a burst of a couple of hundred faulty bits and still reproduce the
correct data. On the CD, those couple of hundred bits are a few millimeters
on the CD, so a scratch perpendicular to the groove need not be disastrous.
However, the laser might loose tracking when encountering a scratch (jump
to the next or previous track/groove).

So treat your CDs well and try to avo
scratches on a CD, the drive will most probably be able to correct
read faults. If it doesn't, the drive/software will tell you, as there
are enough checks in each frame.

Adrie Koolen ([email protected])
Philips Consumer Electronics, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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| _ |___) | |___ | | | | | (_| | | | |_
|_| |_|____/ \____|___|___| \__,_|_| \__|
GALLERY

As I said earlier.. the ASCII art gallery has this ish, been created by myself
(Phil Bird) so you know where to send money, complaints, houses, cars, furry
bunnies and the like.. enjoy... BOB will be back next ish..

=====================================================================
= o \ o / _ o __| \ / |__ o _ \ o / o =
= /|\ | /\ ___\o \o | o/ o/__ /\ | /|\ =
= / \ / \ | \ /) | ( \ /o\ / ) | (\ / | / \ / \ =
=====================================================================
= Exercise? I think not! =
=====================================================================

. .
/ `. .' \
.---. < > < > .---.
| \ \ - ~ ~ - / / |
~-..-~ ~-..-~
\~~~\.' `./~~~/
.-~~^-. \__/ \__/
.' O \ / / \ \
(_____, `._.' | } \/~~~/
`----. / } | / \__/
`-. | / | / `. ,~~|
~-.__| /_ - ~ ^| /- _ `..-' f: f:
| / | / ~-. `-. _||_||_
|_____| |_____| ~ - . _ _ _ _ _>

__ __
/ \./ \/\_
__{^\_ _}_ ) }/^\
/ /\_/^\._}_/ // /
( (__{(@)}\__}.//_/__,____,_______,________.________,_____.___.___,______
\__/{/(_)\_} )\\ \\----,----,-----.---,-----.----,------,-----,-----.---
( (__)_)_/ )\ \>
\__/ \__/\/\/
\__,--'

\__/ \__/ \__/ \__/ \__/ \__/ \__/
(oo) (o-) (@@) (xx) (--) ( ) (OO)
//||\\ //||\\ //||\\ //||\\ //||\\ //||\\ //||\\
bug bug bug/w dead bug blind bug after
winking hangover bug sleeping bug seeing a
female
bug

.
.:.
.:::.
.:::::.
***.:::::::.***
*******.:::::::::.*******
********.:::::::::::.********
********.:::::::::::::.********
*******.::::::'***`::::.*******
******.::::'*********`::.******
****.:::'*************`:.****
*.::'*****************`.*
.:' *************** .
.
_________________________
/| /| | |
||__|| | |
/ O O\__ |
/ \ |
/ \ \ |
/ _ \ \ ---------------------
/ |\____\ \ ||
/ | | | |\____/ ||
/ \|_|_|/ | __||
/ / \ |____| ||
/ | | /| | --|
| | |// |____ --|
* _ | |_|_|_| | \-/
*-- _--\ _ \ // |
/ _ \\ _ // | /
* / \_ /- | - | |
* ___ c_c_c_C/ \C_c_c_c____________ _________

__________________
_/ || ~-_
,/ // /~- / ~-_ ________---------------//
-----------------------------------\-------------------____________ __//
O-------------- ~~^ | | ~|
}======{--------\____________________|______________________________ | |
\===== / /~~~\ \ \ | ________________________|-~
\----| \___/ ||--------------------'----------| \____/ //
`______'' `_______'

I've tried to keep this section pretty small this ish.. hope you like it.. BTW
please feel free to send me your .sig's, ASCII art work and the like for
publication.. You never know it might just make you famous?! :)

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| __/ (_| | | | |_| | | | | (_| |_ _ _ _ _ _ _
|_| \__,_|_| \__|_|_| |_|\__, (_|_|_|_|_|_|_)
|___/ Words...

Tis the end of another issue, I do hope you enjoyed it once more, I know it was
a pleasure to create. I love to reiceve any form of mail from you, the readers,
as comments can only make the ish's better and erm.. well I'm sure you get
my drift.. Look forward to seeing you all again in Ish 8 (due out two weeks on
friday).. have a nice day,

Phil

Thankyous go out to:-

ALL the contributes to VOId, both big and small
Stuart Beale (Your hair cut gets better every day)
Andy Hart (The best beer drinker in the west)
Perfectly Normal
Babbage
Teresa (*hug*)
And anyone else I know.