^C^1Blue Notes

To: Editors, Big Blue Disk

     Just a note to say I'm not impressed by the 3D Plane.  First of all both
images came up white,  which gave no 3D effect. I have a BASIC-TIME HR31 350
High resolution color monitor and enhanced graphics card also from BASIC-TIME.
All the graphics in the other programs work fine.

     The following routine is one I use when in BASIC to periodically save my
programs, and also print them.

         1 GOTO 10
         2 SAVE"progname":END
         3 LPRINT CHR$(15)chr$(27)"N"CHR$(8);DATE$;" ";TIME$:WIDTH "LPT1:",136:
           LIST ,"LPT1:":END
         10 'program follows here

     To save program type RUN 2 <ENTER>; Replace `progname' with your name, the
BAS extension is automatic.

     To list program on printer type RUN 3 <ENTER> .  I use this variation to
print programs on 8.5 x 11 inch forms in compressed type on an IBM Proprinter
XL.  It also skips over the perf between pages and prints the DATE and TIME
from the system.  This is very helpful when 2 print-outs of the same program
are in hand; you know which is the latest version.

     Crtl R will type RUN, and F2 will run program in normal way.

     I just noticed that when I get near the end of the line this program beeps
if F3 is toggled to Silence but doesn't make a peep when toggled to Sound.
Seems backwards to me!
^RJohn T. Sargent
^RChattanooga, TN

> Plane 3-D can display two types of images, Orthogonal and Perspective.  Only
> the Perspective kind comes up in 3-D; the Orthogonal images are just in white.
> Make sure you select Perspective (or just say Yes when asked if you wish to
> see the default plane) to see the 3-D effect.
>
> Also, make sure you answer the questions about your graphics card correctly.
> There are three different modes:  standard CGA, EGA, and Plantronics.  Any 
> of these is likely to look bad on a different kind of adapter, so be sure you
> find out which one your board emulates and answer accordingly.
>
> If you have done all of this, and the 3-D effects still don't work, let us
> know; there's probably some incompatibility between this program and your
> graphic adapter.  We're trying to make our product compatible with every
> system, but we're not always perfect.
>
> I think you misunderstood the prompts regarding "Sound" and "Silence."  When 
> you are in Sound mode, the help line at the bottom of the screen says "F3: 
> Silence" to indicate that the F3 key will switch you into silent mode.  
> Conversely, when you are in silent mode, that line will say "F3: Sound."
> This line is intended as a summary of the effects of the function keys,
> rather than an indication of the status you have set.
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     Dear People at Big Blue Disk;

     First of all let me wish you all a very "Happy New Year !" I just 
recently took a 25 month subscription with BBD and could not be more pleased. 
I find your publication to be informative, interesting, and enjoyable. As a 
matter of fact, I had taken out a subscription with your competitors just 
prior to finding Big Blue at the local bookshop. 

     Needless to say, BBD has it over all others when it comes to PC software 
entertainment. The format you have is much better than the IB*Magazette as it 
is much easier to access the various programs with the contents set up the way 
you do. It seems to speed things up quite a "bit", and that's important to 
those of us who are using the dinosaur PC's with 8088 processors. 

     Another thing I really liked was the idea of getting the two disks for one 
every once in a while. The idea is good, however I feel you could improve on 
it by separating the two. Switching from one to the other can be quite a 
nuisance when you only have one floppy drive. 

     And, before I forget; Why do you call it Big Blue Disk when it is really 
black? It would be nice if you could produce BBD on blue disks, as most of us 
buy the black disks for everyday use. It would help from getting them mixed up 
with others we have for everyday use. Well, it's just a couple of suggestions. 

     Once again I would like to say how pleased I am with your work. The price 
is more than reasonable for the service provided. Keep up the outstanding 
efforts!!! 

                                  Here's Disking At You,

^RRick Rickel
^RColumbia, SC

P.S. How do I go about getting a copy of the first issue of BBD? I
     missed it at the news stand. I almost forgot the most important
     item. PLEASE DO NOT STOP listing the various files that are need-
     ed to run the programs on separate disks !!! This is probably the
     best idea you have !!!!!!

> All back issues are available from us at $9.95 each.  Use the enclosed
> postpaid envelope to send your order, or call in your credit card orders
> to our toll-free number; see the SNAKE OIL section for our address and
> phone number.
>
> As we remarked last issue, those colored disks are still too expensive to
> be economical.  However, if we can get a good deal on them, we will consider
> using them.
>
> If you liked the list of files to copy, you'll probably love the new feature
> added this issue:  In addition to "Read It" and "Run It," for each program,
> you can select "Copy It" from the menu; this will cause all files required for
> that program to be copied to your own disk.  You simply have to specify the 
> drive and path name of the destination disk (for example, ^1A:^0) in the 
> standard MS-DOS syntax.  Single-drive users should specify ^1B:^0, and will be 
> prompted to swap back and forth between the disk for drive A (BIG BLUE DISK) 
> and the disk for drive B (your own disk). 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Sirs/Madams

     Hurray for a long awaited "publication". Enclosed under separate cover per
your request is my subscription information. I unfortunately missed #1 and would
like information as to how to obtain it if possible. Although a little more
depth would be appreciated for the dollars spent as opposed to your written
counterparts I believe you are on the right path. The applications are great,
the games are fun and a great diversion, and the educational programs are a
welcome sight as they are by far the most difficult to find. Many companies
can benefit by running at least demo versions of their programs thru you as one
of the biggest problems is determining which of the many available entries suits
the needs of the end user.
     I hope to be able to contribute to your publication on a regular basis in
the future and would like to start with a note you fail to mention to hard disk
users-the entire BIG BLUE disk can be copied to a separate directory on your
hard drive and run from there. The only problem I encountered so far and have
not explored it further to solve it is the conflicting files in your dual disk-
ette issues. Perhaps your expert staff can eliminate this problem by having the
program search to find the proper files before it determines that disk #2 is not
in "Drive A".
     Once again thanks for a long awaited entry to to the MS-DOS world.

^RJohn J. Costic
^RBushkill, PA

P.S. Good luck trying to conform to the albatross that even the mother couldn't
love the PC Jr. Also for your readers information You run just fine on the
Tandy 1000.

> A "fix" for hard-disk users was described in detail last issue.  To 
> summarize, once you have copied all files from both disks onto a single
> directory of your hard disk, edit the file STATUS.DAT so that the number on
> the line right below the date (e.g., "April, 1987") is a zero instead of the
> 1 or 2 that appears there on the original disk.  This editing can be done
> with any text editor program, including our BlueLine editor.  Once this is
> done, BIG BLUE DISK will run fine on your hard disk.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear BIG BLUE DISK,

I am a former user of your C-64 Loadstar disk and I was quite impressed
with parts of it.  In fact some of the graphic and music programs really
blew me away.  I have now bought an MS-DOS compatible with Hercules graphics
because my interest in computing has moved more to productivity.  Don't
think however that I don't still enjoy a good computer game.  I especially
like games that put me against the computer's programmed intelligence.

I was glad to see that the third issue of the Big Blue Disk was not
completely banned for a monochrome PC.  I do think however that your word-
ing lead people to think that more of it was useable on mono than what
actually was.  Well now for the good stuff:

After enjoying what I could of the magazine and reading about your contin-
ueing efforts to improve mono compatibility I decided to go ahead and
subscribe.

The following is what I think would make a good magazine for the PC:

    1. Applications that do something different and useful like the
       weather programs on the 3rd issue.  Educational programs etc.
    2. Utility programs.
    3. All games, Except: arcade and the done too many times conversions:
       Mastermind, Concentration, Checkers, etc.
    4. Reader feedback, product reviews, Q & A and PC news.
    5. More monochrome compatibility.  After all the vast majority of PCs are
       mono.  Would asking for Herc graphics be too much??

One complaint. On the third issue when I was returning to the menu after
running a program from the 2nd disk I was asked to insert disk 1 for
the menu.  This is very tedious especially if your next menu selection is on
disk 2.  I have two floppy drives.

Well keep up the good efforts, all front-end improvements are appreciated!!

^RSteve Combe
^RShawnee, OK

> We have had several requests for Hercules compatibility, and will look into
> this when doing future graphics programs.  However, Hercules graphics are
> completely incompatible with either CGA or EGA graphics, and thus it is
> quite a trick to get one piece of software to work with all.  We'll work on
> it, though.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear BIG BLUE DISK,

     First, I would like to congratulate BIG BLUE DISK for your fantastic
magazine on disk.  So far, I have all your issues and will continue buying
future issues.  Eventually, I will be able to save money and order a sub-
scription.  Funny how we must tighten our belts around Christmas.  Have you
thought about allowing 3 monthly payments like other magazine companies?

     I have one problem.  When I press my softkey F3 for Silence/Sound, the
opposite occurs.  Silence gives me sound and of course Sound gives me silence.

     How does a person go about getting a publisher for a program or sell a
copyright?  I have written a program in basic called "The Personal Checking
Account".  The computer displays bank, debit (outstanding checks), and the
actual balance.  This program does balance the account correctly 100% of the
time.  The program may be used for business or home as long as the balance
doesn't exceed $99,999.99.  What makes my program different and useful to the
user, is the QUICK INPUTS.  The user gives the program information, such as:
the year, checks written often, common methods of deposit, and etc.  This gives
you a little information about my program, I hope you can help.

^RRussell L. Goodale
^RSeattle, WA

> See the above comments re Sound vs. Silence.
>
> Sounds like an interesting program... have you thought about submitting it
> to BIG BLUE DISK?  We pay for programs we publish.

To whom it may concern:

  I recently purchased the first three volumes of the Big Blue disks.  The 
second two volumes work just fine, while the first disk (vol I) won't even 
load.

  I am using a Tandy 3000HL and have no problems with the machine loading any 
other program, including other volumes of Big Blue.  I have to conclude that 
there is something wrong with the disk.

  I am including a directory of the disk, since I was able to at least get 
that from the program.

  Please let me know if there is a way that this problem can be solved.

^RGene Dorrough
^RTampa, FL

[A directory listing, ending with a "General Failure" error message and the 
infamous "Abort, Retry, Ignore?" prompt, was included.]

> It sounds like you got a bad copy.  No matter how hard we try to ensure 
> consistent quality, Murphy's Law dictates that a few bad disks will slip 
> through.  Don't panic if this should happen to you; simply send the disk back 
> to us, and we will replace it immediately at no charge.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear BLUE:

Please find enclosed some screen samples and notes from my attempt to use your 
Issue 3 on my IDS computer with 2 disk drives, 640K of memory, CGA card, and 
with a C. ITOH C315/XP printer attached and running in IBM Pro-Printer 
emulation mode.  I was unable to get the BIG BLUE DISK to work in the two 
floppy disk drive mode.  It always functioned as if it were running on a 
single drive system.

Can you tell me if I am having trouble with my system, my reading, or your 
instructions?

I am undecided as to the value of your product to me.  I will probably 
purchase one or more issue from the book store before deciding whether or not 
to order.  It would certainly be much more convenient to be able to ^1really^0 use
two disk drives.

^RGene Hughes
^RPell City, AL

> It looks from your printouts like you followed our instructions correctly,
> but that DOS still insisted on looking for the COMMAND.COM file on drive B
> instead of the boot drive A.  We have received a call from another customer
> who had a similar problem; however, all our inhouse systems, and those of
> the majority of our customers, work correctly as shown in our instructions.
> The cause is apparently some incompatibility between your system and other
> "IBM-compatible" machines, specifically in how DOS handles the "ComSpec."
> (This is the internal parameter which specifies where COMMAND.COM is to be
> reloaded from; it can be set using the SET COMSPEC= command, or viewed by
> typing SET with no parameters.)  We will research it further, as part of our
> continuing quest for complete compatibility with all systems.  Until then,
> it looks like you'll have to run BIG BLUE DISK in drive A, as if you had
> only a single drive.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Editors,

   My name is Nikki Wetter (age 11).  I live in McDonough, Georgia.  Right now 
I'm typing you this letter on the Blueline Text Editor.  My dad bought your 
magazine, and I'm really enjoying it.  Most of all I like your games.  I'm 
still trying to figure out Triangle Trouble.  I also play your Hopalong 
Hangman a lot.  My dad loves your String Art.  I think your Gallerie d'Art is 
really funny.

   Oh, I almost forgot about the time I sat down for about an hour doing your 
Logical Choice.  My dad says that the Hurricane Tracker is real interesting.  
He told me that next time we have a hurricane he was going to track it.  I 
like Yahtzee a lot, so I play your game a lot.  My dad says he thinks that 
your Plane 3-D was awesome!  My friend likes your Bingo and we play it all the 
time.  I also like your Phone Words.  Someday that will come in handy.

   My mom is calling me.  BYE!!
^RNikki Wetter
^RMcDonough, GA
