DZ-Jay

Following the advice of my 12 years-old nephew, I sprinkled the first few chapters with some elfy characters with proper names. It wasn't too hard, there were a few elves making an appearance already and performing some actions; they were just anonymous. I just added names to give them life. You know what? I think it worked. The narrative feels more lively and the North Pole less impersonal. Santa doesn't just work with a bunch of elves, but with actual living helpers with real lives and vocations. Yes, that's right, lives and vocations. The name is just a start, but as soon as you put a name to a character, all of a sudden that name comes with a surge of baggage: why they named him like that, who is such a person destined to be, what motivated him or her to do whatever service they perform for the plot, etc. It's weird how much a name provides. I guess it's similar to when your mother buys you a pet fish as a kid: if you just have "fishy in a bowl," you'll probably never feed it and it'll just go belly-up in a couple of days -- but give it a name, and pretty soon you'll be so attached to little "Mr. Finns," that you'll cry when your mother finally flushes him down the toilet.* * Simulated re-enaction, not an actual event. Anyway, so we have elves with names. Below are the final names I settled in. Once again I have to thank my wife for some inspiration. Tobias Honeywood -- Tobias, or Toby as everyone calls him, is Santa's lead toy designer. He started as a regular toy engineer, working his way up the ranks and showing off his prowess at toy design which landed him at his current position. He is the one who discovered the Evil Snowman's wet puddles on the floor of the warehouse on that fateful night before Christmas, and rang the alarm. Krystle Clovermoon -- Krystle works as a professional and highly experienced gift-wrapper. As you can imagine, she is furiously busy on the night in question. She was born on a very clear night of the Harvest Moon, and so her parents, Timothy and Joy Clovermoon named her for the beautiful crystal-like stars which shone brightly that night. (Actually, the brightness of the full moon occluded all the stars that night, but they were inspired by it anyway, so let them be.) Mabel Dashington -- Mabel is Krystle's fellow gift-wrapper and best friend. They work together wrapping presents and teaching the others their best ribbon decorating techniques. Together with Krystle, Mabel went to check out what was causing the commotion when the alarm went off. Quick to wit and always an elf who speaks her mind, she asked Santa directly what was to happened after the Snowman's attack, and what could be done about the missing presents; thus, putting to words what all other elves were thinking. Patricia Dashington -- Little Patricia, or "Trish," is Mabel's younger sister. She's cute and adorable, and her main job is to go around Santa's Workshop delivering milk and cookies and other snacks to all the hard working elves during their busiest night of the year. She was walking by Santa's office when she overheard him talking about Finnley Elf to Carol and freaked out. Her comments on Finnley's scary Halloween stories about a creepy Ghost in a cave (which gave her "nightmares for weeks!") sparked Santa's memory about the legendary Ghost Of Christmas Presents -- a legend which he then related to Carol, setting in motion her adventure. As always, I do not know how the actual ending of the story will be written (I have apparently no control over such matters), but I have a deep feeling that some of these elves will make an appearance once Carol returns. Specifically, I have an idea of having Toby Honeywood volunteer as the look-out guarding the North Pole complex (now that security had to be enhanced), and announcing to everyone Carol Greenleaf's return. Then there's Mabel Dashington, who in my mind right now is the one who coins the title "Christmas Carol" as a cheer congratulating Carol for saving Christmas, and thus christening her with the honor. Well, at least as it stands right now. Who knows what the "writing me" will do. Sounds pretty good to me, though. *sigh* So that's it for now. Until the next update ... See ya'! -dZ. P.S. Once again I will reiterate that all the materials, characters, names, and story elements, and everything related to Christmas Carol are the sole property of myself, James Pujals, and I retain all copyrights. I post these entries for my own amusement and to entertain anybody crazy enough to follow my progress as I write this story. However, none of it is to be used in any other context or for any purpose without my explicit and written permission. You have been warned, so don't take anything without permission. If you do, and I ever get to publish this thing and become rich and famous, I'm sicking my lawyers on you. Copyright © 2018, James Pujals

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Thanks, but I got a few adult proofreaders, at least one of which is an English major. I also have a sister and a cousin who are themselves English teachers, so I will be calling on them too. Plus, I fancy myself as having a good command of the language too. I think that my biggest concern right now is the narrative construction itself: making sure it flows adequately. So far, it seems to, but it's something to keep an eye on. The vocabulary is not really a concern to me. I have plenty of people pointing out which words are too complex, and I have a very handy thesaurus. I think it's early days to start polishing, though. I'll wait until it's done. -dZ.

P.S. She did offer some constructive feedback and a few suggestions, so it's not like I just wrote the most perfect story. It seems people like it, but it could be improved. dZ.

Intrigued by the excitement, my sister then decided to read the story. I could hear her giggling throughout it all. Then she declared that "it is very good," and added that the only criticism she has, and indeed the only thing wrong with the story, is that "it left me hanging! Go ahead and finish it already!!!" Carol earned a new fan. -dZ.

Your list does not comply with inclusion and diversity principles. For complete equal-opportunity, you must also add a section for those not attending.

Maybe at PRGE?

Yes, please. I just hooked up my Intellivision this week-end and played some games. I was wondering what happened to the HCS and if it's going to come back. -dZ.

Yes, but that's mostly because the lower score in 2015 was an outlier. Overall, your table reveals that most of the top games had a higher percentage of the maximum in 2015 than in 2018. -dZ.

So, you are saying that, on balance, the scores in 2018 were lower overall than in 2015? That could be because I did not judge in 2015. As I mentioned in my blog post on the topic, I did not judge "on a curve," so my scores were not too high. That's because my standard is that 425 (the perfect score) represents the best Intellivision game ever made, not the best of these bunch. I know that in 2015 I would have been pretty harsh on some of them too. Still, i don't want that to sound like I am some nasty judge that hates programmers -- on the contrary. That is precisely because I love the Intellivision and I admire all the contest participants, and I want to make sure they make the best games they can, and I know they can do great work. -dZ.

Judy who?

So my 12 year-old nephew read the still-in-progress Christmas Carol story in a single sitting. Well, actually in two, as he took a break when we left to go to the movies in the afternoon. In any case, he finished it. Then, with my heart in my throat and a great deal of apprehension I asked him what he thought and he said ... "It's good. It's really good." Phew! I could breath again. We were all standing in the kitchen, surrounding him: me, my wife, and his parents; and we all stared at him, each one asking more questions and drilling the poor child. I was mostly relieved and let the others asked the questions for me. I didn't want to seem too pushy, so I let them be it instead. Anyway, here are some constructive comments he offered in response to the heavy-handed interview -- all of which of exceedingly important value to me: His favorite part was when Carol found all the candy in the Candy Cove. He suggested that I give names to some of the other background characters, like the many random elves that have dialogue or take some action in the opening chapters of the story. His main criticism was that the story seemed much too heavy with complex words. I mentioned that I don't mind leaving a few (kids will do well to expand their vocabulary), but will definitely revise it if there are too many. He responded that there are too many. I mentioned that I will make illustrations of certain passages, and he requested specifically one for the candy hoard in the Candy Cove. I asked him if he could follow the story: "yes." I asked him if the plot made sense: "yes." I asked him if the structure of the story, its sequence of events and chapter organization made sense and were easy to follow: "yes." My wife asked if the characters were interesting: "oh yes!" My wife asked about Carol's character, if it was too ham-fisted either too superhumanly lucky, brave, strong, resourceful; or too lame, cowardly, stupid, or silly. He said she was "normal, but good normal. Just right." My wife also asked if he was able to follow the geography of the story, where each room and tunnel was located in space, in relation to each other; he said, "yes." Asked what he thought of the Ghost of Christmas Presents, he said, "he was very good." I asked him if my Santa Claus dialogue sounded like he would expect Santa Claus to talk, and he said "yes, very well." I asked him what he thought of the side character Finnley Elf, the cartographer who made the map; his eyes lit up and he said, "that was good!" When I mentioned that perhaps the Finnley Elf story could form part of a sequel book, he got very excited and said, "oh yes!" and added, "also about the Ghost, on Halloween or something like that!" When asked if he would imagine this book targeted at other 12 to 14 year-old children like himself, he hesitated a little, then said, " hmm ... maybe 7 to 9 year-old (as long as you clean up some of the complex words)." He got excited when I showed him I had a map of the caverns, and he started asking all sorts of questions about where some scenes took place. He was able to figure out the rest. At one point, my wife asked what did he think about the part when Carol gets so frightened and frustrated that she breaks down and cries, if it was too over-the-top; and he said, "let me review it quickly," and he knew just where to go, and went straight to the page where it happened! He then said about that part, "it was fine, and fits her." So there. Christmas Carol is now "wife-tested, nephew-approved," and it survived a great round of critique. My nephew promised now to go back to the manuscript and highlight any complex words and other parts that could use editing and to write down comments on the margins for improvements and suggestions. When pressed a little about the intended audience, he said he imagined older kids enjoying the story like he did, but would probably not pick it up out of the blue based solely on the title and theme. That perhaps if it gets published and buzz builds up around it, then they would try it and discover they like it. He suggested that he and others like him, typically choose books based either on an intrinsic topic of their interest, or on their covers; and he assumes that a cover for this title may not be that attractive to them based solely on its initial impression. Overall, all wonderful feedback. Now I can't wait to finish it! That's it for now. See ya'! -dZ.

My most sincerest congratulations to artrag, atariland2600, and emerson for their well-deserved wins; and a heartfelt "thank you" to all the competitors for putting up a great show. I enjoyed all the games, some more than others, but still all of them. It was a very pleasant and fun experience to try out such varied themes and mechanics, and I think that perhaps with a bit more polish, each and every one of these titles can aspire to be a flagship title on the Intellivision.* Thus, I urge you all to heed the judges' comments, which were all offered in earnest sincerity for our appreciation of their potential, and to continue working on your games. I want to see these games finished and published. In the end, it is the Intellivision community as a whole who wins! -dZ. * Well, maybe with the exception of mINTY, which will take an exceptionally hardcore collector to put on a shelf!

Thanks, that helps.

Well, I don't know if the bundles have any extras. I was just curious because I don't have Boulder Dash either.

LOL! It's on its way.

Tim, I have a question about the bundles. When it says above, for instance, "Miner 2049er (Serials 11+ only)/Boulder Dash bundle is $130 ea."; does it mean that the bundle of both games is $130, or that each game in the bundle is $130? -dZ.

Last night my granddaughter spent the night at our house. I took the advice from carlsson and decided that, rather than read her another Peppa Pig booklet, I would just tell her the Christmas Carol story. Only that instead of reading it from my book-in-progress, I decided to make it up and give her the abridged "short-short" version, made up on the spot. And it went ... not too bad. Phew! Putting aside the newly acknowledged fact that I suck at making up stories on the spot -- I rambled and stammered, and jumped all over the place; and even almost forgot the ending, which my wife had to point out! -- she seemed interested and excited throughout the tale, and you could tell that she was enjoying it very much. Even my wife noticed it and told me, which made me unclench a little once we tucked the kid in and left the room. She did go right to sleep in no time flat, which at the very least means that Christmas Carol as a bedtime story, does its job with aplomb. I started by showing her an illustration of the main characters. I thought it would be important to give her an idea of how they looked -- especially since she's just four years-old, and her experience and immersion in popular culture icons such as Christmas elves and Evil Snowmen is exceedingly limited. For that I used the artwork I commissioned for the CvW Winner's marquee, which I think so perfectly captures the characters, that I will probably declare them the de facto and definitive likenesses. She was immediately captured by the images. I tried to explain what a Christmas elf is, and how they help Santa Claus make and deliver presents, and she seemed to get it -- but when I showed her the illustration of Carol she went, "aaaaaah," which made me smile. Then I mentioned the scaaaaaary "Ghost of Christmas Presents," and when I showed her the image with both the Ghost and the Snowman, her eyes got really big and she shouted "and the scaaaaary snowman!" which made me smile even more. :) :) Anyway, I'm thinking I'll do this from now on: just give her little vignettes of Carol's adventure whenever she spends the night again. I need to practice more next time, though. I did ramble quite a bit. I'll try to keep her interested in Carol and build up the magical world in her imagination. That way, she can grow up with the myth and magic of the story, and eventually (and hopefully) appreciate the book more, enough to want to read it when she learns how. It's all part of my master plan to gain readers and become rich and famous. LOL! Well, that's all I have right now. The entire experience was very educational for me, and it turned out not to be such a scary thing at all. See ya'! -dZ.

Sweet candy canes! I just wrote four paragraphs describing the Snowflake Gardens, and I am running out of superlatives! Eek! It seems that every time Carol discovers a new area, it's even more majestic than the previous ones. However, I'm drawing the line on this one. This is it, this is The One. Ever since I drew it in the center of the map, I always intended the Snowflake Gardens to be the most magical place in the entire Ice Cube Caverns. It is indeed magical. It turned out to be the only part of the caverns which was not hand-built by ... someone, I don't know, whoever ancient folk built the caverns. The Snowflake Gardens grew organically from the core of the mountain, and it's the source of all its mysticism and supernatural glow. Uh-huh, who knew, right? I certainly wasn't expecting that. The Snowflake Gardens are so called -- actually, Carol will eventually name them that -- because it holds the ancient magical snowflakes, which keep the spirit of the caverns alive. Of course, whoever has played the game also knows that the magical snowflakes have an extra special secondary power: they can stun your enemies and allow you to escape. Before the end of this chapter Carol will find that out first hand. Speaking of chapters, guess what happened? I decided to split the earlier Chapter 7 into two. It always bothered me that, even though it's called "Sweet Candy Canes!" to describe Carol's discovery of the Candy Cove, the first half of the chapter is spent describing Carol's introduction to the Ghost Of Christmas Presents. To me, the chapter name sets up an expectation which, due to the order of events, diminishes both the initial meeting with the Ghost and the later discovery of the candy hoard. This was especially distressing to me, since the part where Carol meets the Ghost is written in such a tender and lovely fashion, it is my very favourite part of the story. So, I decided to split the two at an appropriate spot and call the earlier part "Dancing Spirit," a suggestion from a friend. The new title is very fitting because it all starts with Carol observing the Ghost frolicking around the chamber tending his presents. All this means that the Snowflake Gardens chapter was moved yet again to the next spot: it now comprises Chapter 10. However, since I was already working on that chapter and Carol had finally made it to the eponymous room, it really didn't bother me this time. It just means that my outline now reflects 12 chapters plus an epilogue. Good times! Anyway, that's it for now. Carol is deep in the Snowflake Gardens and she's about to have an encounter with the Bad Toy. It's time to find out what those magical snowflakes can do. Until then ... See ya'! -dZ.

Ah! No worries. I was afraid of that. In the Intellivision I have a lot more ROM to play with, so I traded it off rather than having to compute the diagonal positions, which would have been another option. I'm glad you got it working, though. To me, cornering is one of the definitive characteristics of the real Pac-Man game, so implementing it goes a long way in retaining the feel of the original. -dZ.

Well, the NTSC version was definitely designed first. It was intended originally for the USAian market. Ah! I guess Mexico is not in Europe..? In any case, I guess I've been very lucky with my Intellivision consoles so far. I wasn't as lucky with the C=64, though. I burnt through three of those, including one from my neighbor, who lend it to me. He got in trouble with is parent and never let me play with his toys again. -dZ.

Are they PAL versions? It appears that the inside layout of the components is different in the PAL console, affecting heat dissipation.

I thought so. After you confirmed that it was a patch, I wasn't fast enough to post before intvsteve, so I just posted any other patch just in case. Congrats to intvsteve, and congrats to you on your find!

I believe we covered this in another topic, but just to be sure: pausing probably will not cool it down. The CPU just enters a busy loop waiting for input. About the only thing that's alleviated is the STIC (i.e., the video chip), because the active display is disabled, and the screen is just left to render entirely with pixels of the border colour. However, I don't think that helps that much. It was intended mostly to prevent "burn in" on the old CRT TVs of the day. Personally, I've never encountered any of the heating problems described here -- not in the 1980s when I tended to forget about the unit and left it on for days; and not recently with my few original units. However, I do know that they tend to overheat, especially since they are over 30 years old by now. I've never tried the laptop cooling stand you posted, but it looks neat. I guess if overheating is a problem for you, it may help. Ah! Nice to know. It does look very slick. -dZ.