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Chris Crawford

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Chris Crawford last won the day on September 4 2013

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  1. I suggest that you read this piece that explains the meaning of the statement. It is something of a joke. https://notanothermusichistorycliche.blogspot.com/2018/10/did-stravinsky-say-vivaldi-wrote-same.html
  2. Not at all. At some level of abstraction, all concerti are the same: they all fit a standard definition. Every object to which we apply the word "tank" is similar to every other such object, and so we can treat them as "the same" at that level of abstraction. That's the basis for the saw "If you've seen one (insert object), you've seen 'em all." The professor's comment was based on the fact that, even as concerti go, Vivaldi's concerti hewed closely to a particularly narrow definition. And in fact, the games on that video to which I referred were all depressingly alike.
  3. Ironically, I just stumbled across a video on YouTube describing games on the Atari 8-bit machines, and they were all basically the same. Somebody once said that Vivaldi didn't write 465 concerti, he wrote one concerto 465 times. Well, these were all the same game written different ways. The fellow managed to ignore dozens of great games that didn't fit into his narrow perception of games. Yes, I'm convinced that's the best way. Most of my stuff is already up online at various locations.
  4. I almost spat out my tea reading this, because I am overwhelmed with more tasks than I can handle; it's so bad that I've had to sacrifice projects. My highest priority right now is Le Morte D'Arthur, a strange and difficult-to-describe piece of software. It looks like a text adventure game at first, but it's nowhere near that. Here's a description: http://www.erasmatazz.com/library/design-diaries/le-morte-darthur-fourth-try/may-15th-2022.html. There's also a tremendous amount of work required every year to prepare for wildfire season. I have 40 acres of forest land in southern Oregon and it is imperative that I remove floor fuel from the land around the house. We've had extensive rains all through spring, so this year's crop of grasses is bigger than anything I've ever seen -- hence much work. I must also patrol about ten acres that were infested 30 years ago by a previous owner with sulfur cinquefoil, an invasive weed that will completely take over any land if given the opportunity. I've been fighting it for twenty years, but the seeds can lay dormant for decades, then germinate, so they just keep popping up every year. I have a bunch of trees in pots that must be cared for; many need repotting and I'll try planting some if I get time. This is all part of my efforts to reforest the land after a previous owner logged part of it. I have to repair damage to the duck pen wrought by a huge snowstorm last December. There are also half a dozen trees that were felled by the snowstorm that must be cut up and turned into firewood. The ground squirrel population has exploded, and they're doing a lot of damage, so I have to do something about that. There's my teaching work on interactive storytelling, and my scheme to put together a research group -- that's on hold just now. And someday, someday, I really have to finish the model tank I started building ten years ago to patrol the area around the house at night and scare away wild animals, because the dogs just aren't up to the task in cold weather. It's four feet long, and the tread system has never been able to handle broken branches.
  5. Yes, thanks. I can't find my monitor cable, but if I dig deeper, I'm sure that I can find it.
  6. Wow! That's so nice to see! I've saved that comment in my folder of comments that I save for re-reading when I am tired of beating my head against the latest design brick wall. Thanks!
  7. One more thing: I discovered that somebody already uploaded the entire Eastern Front Source Code package. It's the scans of the document, but it's entirely readable: https://seriouscomputerist.atariverse.com/media/pdf/source/Eastern Front 1941 - Source.pdf
  8. I continue to discover just how bad my memory is. It turns out that almost all the problems I discuss here were solved in a discussion nine years ago right here in an AtariAge forum: I'm just going to pack everything away. "Never mind."
  9. Well, guys, I have bad news and I have good news. The bad news first: I now have proof that I have gone senile. The good news: all those Atari files are comfortably ensconced on my current Macintosh, buried in a folder inside a folder inside a folder, etc. I attach the Zipped collection. Please don't laugh too hard; my Mac contains over 2 million files, most of which I have no idea of. I still have no way to read any of those files; they're all in ATR format. I'll peruse this forum, as I'm sure that somewhere in here is a procedure for translating them into ASCII. All I have to do is find it hidden inside a folder inside a folder inside a folder... Atari Stuff.zip
  10. You know, in a speech at one of the early CGDCs, the speaker warned us that we write in sand, because the computers for which we write are always going obsolete. It's good to know that he wasn't quite right.
  11. As I mentioned earlier, there are a ton of old Macs in the attic, some of which I do not recall obtaining or using. Perhaps some of those attic Macs have begun breeding hybrids. Included in this was a PowerMac G3 running OS 9.2. Just for fun, I powered it up; it worked perfectly, except that the built-in display smeared the images. But it included a bunch of interesting folders, including one labelled "Atari Stuff" and containing 138 items, usually about 2 items for each title, one with extension .ATR and the other with extension .LOG. I strongly suspect that this is the result of Curt Vendel's work back in 2013, but I am shocked that I have no other backups of this material. So we can forget all that hassle about transferring the files; we're most of the way there. The whole thing fits in 10 MB, so I'll try to stuff it onto some 3.5" floppy disks, and from there port it over to my modern Mac, where I can ZIP it up and post it here.
  12. I just came down from the attic, covered in dust and sneezing. I found all sorts of strange and ancient stuff, including a bunch of Macs from over the years. In Atari stuff, I found lots of stuff: four 800s, some of which are labeled "broken". 810s. 850s. One acoustic coupler. Enough cables of various kinds to stretch from here to Portland. Lots of printouts of source code. Half a dozen 8K RAM modules -- whoop de doo! All with silver, not gold contacts. Joysticks galore, many of them the snazzy third-party joysticks. And not ONE NTSC television or monitor. Not one. It looks like I'm up the creek without a monitor. I used to have a really good Sony Trinitron TV that I used on my Atari 800, but now it is gone. The prices for these things on eBay are all above $100! I am determined to get rid of all this stuff, but just now I'm not sure how to proceed.
  13. I think it's important that we recover the data into formats that can be examined by non-Atari people. They won't be able to run any of the programs, but they should be able to read the source code. This is particularly tricky with Atari BASIC, which saves files in an almost unreadable format. Has anybody ever written a "clean up the source code for display" program for Atari BASIC? If not, I may have to. I'm off to the attic now.
  14. You know, there was once a time when I knew absolutely everything that could be known about the Atari computers: hardware, software, timings, capacities, etc. But that was forty years ago. Not only have I forgotten much, but the technology has progressed, and I am forced to admit that I don't know what an "SIO 2 PC usb cable set up" is, although I do recognize that "PC" is a computer I don't have. (I've been using Macs since April 1984.) Nor have I ever heard of kryoflux or a8rawconv or .ATX. You folks have been busy! It looks as if this task is best managed by somebody familiar with these technologies. My plan, as I mentioned earlier, was to ship files out of the Atari through the RS-232 box to an old Mac, then from there through floppies to a modern Mac. I may still end up doing that. I just recalled (oh, my fading memories) that about ten years ago I shipped my floppies to Curt Vendel, who read them and sent some of the files to me. However, I note that there are quite a few files on the floppies that he never sent to me. Perhaps he tired of slogging through 100+ floppies -- I certainly wouldn't blame him. I'm heading up to the attic later today to drag out EVERYTHING Atari that's up there. I'll start figuring it out from there.
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