8/12/95 CompuNotes Issue #19 Patrick Grote, Publisher and Editor CompuNotes is a weekly publication available through an email distribution list and many fine on-line networks! We feature reviews, interviews and commentary concerning the PC industry. This is late ... Will explain in next issue which should be delivered in two days . . . Still looking for a listserv site, please help . . . This Week's Contents: ===================== NEWS ==== -=> Corel Draw Names Winners <=- -=> Novell Cracks an Alleged Pirate <=- REVIEWS ======= -=> Dark Forces Retrospect, By Doug Reed <=- WEB SITE OF THE WEEK ==================== -=> Virtual Radio Celebrates One Year <=- FTP FILE OF THE WEEK ==================== -=> Mortal Kombat Trailer <=- -=> New Web Site <=- INTERVIEW ========= -=> Michael Part, Writer behind a hit Disney Movie <=- To subscribe, send a message to subscribe@supportu.com with subscribe in body. To unsubscribe, send a message to unsubscribe@supportu.com with unsubscribe in body. Comments should be sent to feedback@supportu.com. Voice: (314) 984-9691 BBS : (314) 984-8387 FAX : (314) 984-9981 All old copies available from anonymous FTP at ftp.uu.net:/published/compunotes CD-ROM Online Magazine is another good resource. You can subscribe free by sending an email message to CDRMag@nsimultimedia.com with the word subscribe in the body of the text! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NEWS OF THE WEEK| This section is dedicated to verified news . . . All News (C)opyright Respective Owner - Will Only Reprint ------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Panel of Judges Honor Computer Artists From Europe, The United States and Canada OTTAWA, Canada, August 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Twelve international artists collected top honors in Corel's $2 million World Design Contest, held at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada on August 10, 1995. The sixth annual event drew more than 7843 entries (by 2803 individuals) from over 60 countries worldwide. The "Best of Show" prize was awarded to Radim Mojzis of the Czech Republic for his design entitled "The Drops of Life." The "Best of Show" prize package is valued at $150,000. It includes $50,000 in cash, a $70,000 color printer from Xerox, and a $30,000 color digital printing system from Summagraphics. "The Drops of Life" also won the Goodwill Poster Category. This poster was originally created for T-shirts to promote the Czech Red Cross organization and then reworked for Corel's contest. Throughout the year, Corel contributes $5 for every design contest entry and $1 for every CorelDRAW 5 registration card sent in to the following seven charitable organizations: Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth International, International Red Cross, UNICEF, B'nai B'rith, The Lung Association and the American Foundation for AIDS Research. In total, Corel contributed $150,000 to these charities. At the event, Corel presented a cheque to representatives from each of the six charitable organizations for their portion of the donation. "This gala awards night showcases some of the best digital artwork in the industry," said Dr. Michael Cowpland, president and chief executive officer of Corel Corporation. "With $2 million in cash and prizes and $150,000 awarded to the overall winner, the Corel World Design Contest is the largest of its kind in the world." Of the finalists, the following first place winners were selected in the following 12 categories: People, Plants and Animals Robert Travers, Canada Landscapes, Landmarks and Abstracts John M. Morris, USA Product Illustration Michael Koester, Germany Page Layout and Design Theodor Ushev, Bulgaria Corporate Identification Radim Mojzis, Czech Republic Specialty and Leisure Amedeo Gigli, Italy Goodwill Poster Category-Charity Radim Mojzis, Czech Republic Corel Professional Photos Matthias Gleirscher, Austria CorelMOVE (animation) Valerie Lennox, Canada Corel VENTURA (publishing) Jim Bisakowski/Lee Gabel, Canada Best of the Americas Silvio Martins Alegre, Brazil Best of Europe and the Rest of the World Alexandre Kojouchner, The Ukraine All 12 Grand Prize Winners receive a prize package valued at $21,000. All but one of the finalists attended the ceremony to accept their awards. Corel provides round-trip airfare and accommodation as part of the finalist prize package. Finalists received prizes contributed by Xerox, Canon, NEC, Summagraphics, Pixar, Kodak, Wacom, Hewlett Packard, Inset, Future Domain, Wacom, Visual Software, Diamond, Creative Labs. Corel will publish the designs from the 1995 $2 million World Design Contest in ArtShow(TM) 6, a full-color coffee-table book with a companion multimedia CD-ROM. Corel will donate $5 to the consumer's charity of choice for every ArtShow 6 book sold. Available early in 1996, ArtShow 6 will feature more than 3,000 designs from over 60 countries. ArtShow 6 will serve as a valuable reference tool for users as it allows them to view and learn techniques used by CorelDRAW experts worldwide. U.S. Marshals Seize And Impound Equipment PROVO, Utah, Aug. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) today announced that it has filed a civil suit against the operator of the Planet Gallifrey Bulletin Board System (BBS) of Salt Lake City, Utah. Novell filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Central Division, asserting that the BBS infringed on Novell's copyrights and trademarks by duplicating portions of Novell's network operating system, NetWare(R) and illegally distributing them over telephone lines to BBS subscribers and members. Novell is seeking injunctive relief, monetary damages and attorney fees from the defendant. Pursuant to a court order, U.S. Marshals and members of the Novell Anti-Piracy team entered Planet Gallifrey facilities on July 26 and seized and impounded the equipment used in the BBS. As part of Novell's anti-piracy program, pirate BBS are monitored world-wide. Novell's Senior Vice President and General Counsel, David Bradford said, "Bulletin Board Systems provide valuable services, however, in those cases where Novell copyrights and trademarks are violated, we will aggressively pursue the violators. Our customers can rely on us to ensure the integrity and serviceability of our products across our entire family of network operating systems, network applications, and information access software." Novell has established an anti-piracy group and telephone hotline for reporting illegal use of Novell software or making related inquiries. Call 1-800 PIRATES (801-747-2837) or direct E-Mail to pirates@novell.com. Novell, Inc. is in the business of connecting people with other people and the information they need, enabling them to act on it anytime, anyplace. The company's software products provide the distribution infrastructure, network services, advance network access and network applications required to make networked information and computing and integral part of everyone's daily life. NOTE: Novell is a trademark of Novell, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ REVIEWS OF THE WEEK | Interesting software/hardware you may need . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alert Rebel Forces! Dark Forces Have Besieged The Web! By Doug Reed (Jedi Master) So, young Rebel, did you think you had defeated the Dark Troopers? Did you complete the fourteen levels and defeat General Rom Mohc and Boba Fett? Did you think that was all there was? Guess again, young arrogant fool! Dark Forces is the hit from LucasArts that puts the player into the Star Wars universe in a Doom-style game. The original game (available only on CD-ROM) came with fourteen levels. Although these levels were longer, tougher, and better thought out than those in Doom or other first-person shooters, many have complained that the game was too short. If you are one of these people, the answer to your prayers is here. One of the big reasons that Doom was such a hit was the multitude of 'homebrew' levels that were made by gamers and that can be found posted all over the net. Fans of Dark Forces are trying to follow in this tradition. They have already founded a newsgroup (alt.games.darkforces), a FAQ, and several new web sites which have popped up on the Web. And some of these sites contained - you guessed it - homebrew levels that can be run with Dark Forces! This article will give you a brief rundown of the levels available and where to find them. The New Levels: 1) Jabba's Ship (revenge.zip). Investigate Jabba's ship, looking for advanced Imperial weapons technology. 2) ESCAPE FROM HOTH (escape.zip). Rescue Marcus Alliance, and kill everything that moves -- if you can on the planet Hoth 3) ESCAPE FROM SECBASE II (dons_df1.zip). You have been captured. Your mission: find the key that will get your ship back. 4) OPERATION DETHSTAR (don-df22.zip). Escape from the Detention Center and retrieve the Death Star Plans. 5) TIE DEFENDER BASE (paullev.zip). Infiltrate the Tie Defender factory. 6) SECBASE REVISITED (secrev01.zip). Redone mission to retrieve the Death Star plans. 7) STAR BASE (starbase.exe). Escape from a star base under attack by the Empire. 8) Terminate (terminat.zip). Penetrate Boba Fett's lair and terminate him. Adds a lightsabre to your weapons arsenal. Most of these homebrew levels come with *.bat files that load darkforces for you with the new levels. Where to find the FAQ and the homebrew levels: http://deepthought.armory.com/~tdalton/Dark Forces http://www.princeton.edu/`pjcreathx/df.html (for Mac Users) ftp://ftp.wpi.edu/starwars/Computer_Games/Dark_Forces/Levels Go forth young Jedi, and may the Force be with you! dreed@panda.uchc.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WEBSITE OF THE WEEK! | This section is devoted to a cool WebSite . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Virtual Radio SILICON VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--August 11, 1995-- Celebrating its One Year Anniversary on the World-Wide Web Today, Virtual Radio(TM) is clearly an International Hit! Featuring Music and Videos from bands around the world, Virtual Radio is tuned in by 86 countries regularly as well as the United States. Virtual Radio is enjoyed on the Internet by using a World Wide Web Browser with the URL address of http://www.microserve.net/vradio/. Talented Virtual Radio DJ, Vicious Rumors is excited about his new bands from Russia. From within the most prominent continent on the globe come two fascinating and talented bands -- Karsoway and Traviata. Karsoway is a female a'cappella group singing forgotten folk songs of yesteryear. The melodies are somber and the lyrics are filled with emotion. You will witness this in a song about a tragic letter received by a family during the war. As the song plays through, you'll feel centuries disappear as the revelation of pain being a historical constant while the no-frills recording emulates this traditional troubadour event. Current popularity of 200+ year-old music among Russia's youth is a testament of their historic past and its role in their present culture. On the other side of the spectrum futuristic-industrial-machine-core is also a Russian staple among the youth. Traviata is a carefully composed movement of sound which will question and haunt your ears. As you listen, you'll forget the fact that this is from Russia and begin to swim in the rolls of the fusion-noise while the neighbors try to figure out what you're up to. Traviata has all the instinct and ability to be one of "New York's finest" grind-core bands; but, without the stereotype of copying everyone else's effects. They truly are original "NOISE-DUB." Traviata's popularity in Russia has put them on the television circuit in Moscow several times. Music is entering a new phase of exposure. From Eastern Canada, comes a Video from Fire Rooster. Vicious Rumors says, "Fire Rooster shows the rest of Canada what a band from Nova Scotia has to offer in the way of rock and roll. From "The Trees", members Dave Robert and Bruce Nelson are the front men. Tom Bona and Paul O'Brien take care of the rhythm. After many engagements in battles of the bands, these talented individuals beat twenty-two other countries at the Budokan in Tokyo. Not to be out-done, Japan brings us the Blue Hearts. Forget Godzilla! The biggest Japanese export is The Blue Hearts, the post-punk powerhouse rock 'n roll quartet from Tokyo. Check out the cybertune "A Boy's Song" from "Blast Off!", The Blue Hearts' new 12-song LP on Juggler Records. Singer Hiroto Kohmoto commented, "We grew up listening to bands like the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, who all sing in English, and we couldn't understand them either. So, we think it can work." Since 1985, they have been called "Japanese Beatles", or the result of taking the Ramones, giving them a lot of sugar-heavy food! --Vicious Rumors Of course, the United States brings us a slew of talented bands. Tortilla Records, brings us New Texicans and the Moon Festival, Bob Blumenfeld, producer, states "It's a great way to spread our bands' name to a wide audience. It's great exposure. We are receiving name recognition and contacts from around the World." For more information about Cyberspace Promotions, Inc. and Virtual Radio contact us at 4546 B10 El Camino Real, Suite 322, Los Altos, CA 94022, 800/674-8460 ext 3555, E-mail vradio@ugly.microserve.net, Web Site http://www.microserve.net/vradio/. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ COOL FTP FILE OF THE WEEK | You may need this file . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ OK, remember the trailer for Mortal Kombat that ran full screen in Windows95 at the Windows World Tour? Remember the crowd going nuts? Remember my search for it? Well, I found it. I found the trailer and many other .MOV files from http://www.directnet.com/kombatbegins/. I have zipped the file up I liked and here it is. This is a complete movie trailer in .MOV (QuickTime) format. If you use Windows 3.1 you'll need a driver; Windows95 ships with one. You can find this as TRAILER1.ZIP on the following FTP site: WUARCHIVE.WUSTL.EDU:/pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/misc/trailer1.zip Due to popular demand we now have a new FTP site. Some folks had no luck getting into Wash U.'s ftp site, so I have set up a weekly site on my provider. The only files that will remain on this FTP site are the week's current offerings. New and older files will always be on Wash U.'s site. For this week only, if there is an older file you wanted, but could never get from Wash U. send me an email message and I will put it up on the new site. You can find this as TRAILER1.ZIP on the following FTP site: FTP.CRL.COM:/users/su/supportu/trailer1.zip ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK | Interesting people you should know about . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Just in case you haven't seen the movie A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, rush out and buy a ticket today! Our interviewee is the person responsible for bringing you this movie from Disney! MIchael Part is his name and writing is his game! Our interview highlights what it takes to get the movie from birth to screeening! Enjoy! PG: Tell us a little bit about your movie that is now appearing across the country . . . MP: Well, two years ago Tapestry Films called me into their offices and said they wanted to do a new update on A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT with a kid going back this time. They had read some of my earlier scripts and believed I was a good writing match for what they had in mind. I agreed to do it and went to work. A month later, I turned in a very rough draft of A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT and both Tapestry Films and Trimark Pictures read it and agreed to make a film based on it. Twenty-five drafts later I found myself in Budapest Hungary sitting around a table with Thomas Ian Nicholas (Calvin), Joss Ackland (King Arthur), and Paloma Baeza (Princess Katey), reading the script and making it better! A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT is a true international production. We shot most of it in Budapest, Hungary. We shot the baseball sequences in London, England and Sherman Oaks, California. We shot a bunch of the exterior castle shots in Wales. We scored the music in Prague, Chech Republic, and did the final sound mix in Melbourne, Australia. Also, what most newspapers and magazines do not know... it was a real low budget production. After we were finished, the film only cost $2.3 million dollars! After we were done shooting, we put together a 20-minute promo film. Walt Disney Pictures saw this reel and immediately offered to distribute our film in the US, Canada, England, Australia, and Germany! We were thrilled! Our little film we made for our kids was going to be a Disney movie! Six months later, two years to the month after I was originally hired to write A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, our movie opened, and is doing great in the theaters. The best thing about A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT is that the audiences like it. We made this movie to entertain children and adults and so far we have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. PG: Do the words Pearl Jam mean anything to you? What type of music are you in to? ³ MP: I have probably heard everything recorded by Pearl Jam and tried very hard to get their music into our movie, actually! Unfortunately, none of the newer bands wanted to make a deal with us at the time... remember, this was before Disney came aboard... We also tried to get Crash Test Dummies too. And, I remember, Thomas turning us on to Offspring... we wanted Offspring for the rock-and-roll sequence in King Arthur's Court. Unfortunately, they were just coming off doing a bit for BATMAN III and wanted almost as much money as our movie cost, so obviously, we passed. However, I like to listen to all music. I surf the radio channels constantly switching between 60s and 70s oldies stations, the alternative rock station out here, KROQ, and a classical music station. Most of my music at home is classical, but when I was on the road making A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, I spent a lot of time in London and got to buy some great CDs... I even bought a Junglistic CD! PG: Were you actually involved in the shooting of the movie? If not, why not? If so, describe the experience. MP: I was involved in all aspects of production of A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT. As I said, I wrote the script for Tapestry as a labor of love. In other words, I didn't make a whole lot of money doing it. In exchange for this, and the fact that Tapestry was very happy with the results, they brought me aboard to help make the entire film! I spent a month in Budapest, Hungary, rewriting the script up until and during the shooting. I was there for the 1st week of shooting, then I had to return to the States to fulfill another writing committment. After Budapest, I went to London and spent a month there writing ADR lines for the actors. ADR stands for Automatic Dialogue Replacement. Basically, we assembled our film and then filled in the story gaps with new gags and story points. Also in London we shot the Merlin sequences with the wonderful actor Ron Moody (Oliver!). After London we all flew to Prague in the Chech Republic where J.A.C. Redford conducted the score he wrote for our film. On the way back from Prague, we stopped in London for VE-Day and re-recorded some stuff with Ron Moody. Then we flew to Melbourne, Australia where we mixed the movie. Our mixer was Roger Savage, who also mixed THE ROAD WARRIOR, RETURN OF THE JEDI, and BABE. PG: Ok. Just like everyone asks a car reviewer or mechanic what kind of car they drive, what is the configuration and type of your primary PC? MP: My writing PC is a dx2-80 486 (AMD cpu) nestled in a 3-volt motherboard with 16mb of RAM, an ATI Graphics Pro Turbo video card (2 mb vram), a Promise EIDE 2300+ enhanced ide controller, a Maxtor 1.26gig hard drive, a Soundblaster 16 sound card, a Conner 420mb tape backup and a Mitsumi Quad CD-ROM. I run the whole thing in Windows 95 and have been for the last 10 months. I plan on upgrading to a 133MHz Pentium when the prices drop. I also have a Gateway Colorbook DX4-75 notebook computer, which I take on the road with me. I also run a writers BBS called The Wicked Scherzo, which I have done for the last 9 years. The BBS is connected to my other computers via Windows 95 and NE2000 compatible ethernet cards. PG: With this soon to be success all over the place, has your door been knocking with other offers? What is on the horizin for you? MP: Ever since I wrote A KID IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, Tapestry Films has kept me busy with various other projects. Right now my partner, Robert L. Levy, is on the road in Tunisia and Morocco scouting locations for the sequel... A KID IN THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, which will be out next Summer. I am currently writing a Christmas movie which will start shooting in January and February. PG: Describe your perfect vacation . . . MP: My perfect vacation would be in London with my family and my computer. (grin). PG: What is the neatest computer program you have used in the last month? Why? MP: Well, not to make this an infomercial for Microsoft, but I would say Windows 95. I have it installed on all my computers and it works great. Some programs that weren't stable before, like my dos-based BBS software, is now running beautifully in the background with no problems whatsoever. I am also very happy with the new 32-bit Microsoft Word 7.0, which runs in Windows 95. It is a whole lot quicker than Word 6.0x and makes my writing job a lot easier. PG: Do you have a home office you work out of? If so, what are the challenges you face? If not, why not? MP: I have a guest house in my backyard and that is my home office. I have 5 computers out here, a bathroom, TV, and a yellow-naped Amazon parrot named Burrita. It is also situated right next to the swing set, so my two children, Elizabeth and Nicholas, are frequently at my office door wanting to use the bathroom. PG: What toppings do you like on your pizza? For that matter what type of pizza is your favorite? MP: My favorite pizza is the Garbage Special from Del-Cor on the beach in Venice, California. When I can't have that I'll take a thin-crusted pizza with mushroom and sausage. --END ISSUE -- ** WE NEED A LISTSERV SITE, PLEASE HELP **