Home/Visitor Comments

From time to time, people happen upon my site and send me comments, which I've reproduced here. Since these emails are meant for me, personally, I remove the name of the sender, unless he or she explicitly states they don't mind their name being used (or if they exhibit a level of offensiveness or stupidity that gives me no choice but to reveal their identity).

I'd like to thank everyone that's taken the time to email me about the site. It's not much of a site, really, but I'm glad people can come away with something during their visit.

Hello,

I'm the author of RECOIL, a multi-platform viewer of pictures in native formats of classic home computers. See http://recoil.sourceforge.net/

Recently I've came across your page: http://www.schebek.ca/Envision/format.htm and I must say it's the coolest format info I've ever seen!

I've used it to add support for the MAP format to RECOIL. It works perfectly, see the attached screenshots.

Thank you!

Piotr

That is really cool. :)

Thanks for doing that. I'm surprised that one scrap of scanned notes was sufficient. I've updated my format page to state that you've verified the accuracy of the format as described there. I'll be sure to check out your RECOIL app. Great work!

Recently beat [Eurit on the SNES] and it just so happens that the game is missing a staff roll... the game was apparently a demo, presumably to get a publisher's attention. I would like to know who did the music for this game, please. I heard you were one of the programmers for this game, and I admire your work. That Radical Entertainment logo is impressive for a SNES game.

- Kung Fu Kirby

Thanks. I had a lot of fun writing that Radical logo screen. It uses all 8 HDMA channels. :)

Credits are usually done late in the project, so they probably weren't in yet at that point. The music was created by Paul Ruskay. one of the better audio guys there at the time. He later did the music for Homeworld.

ha - what a great site and piece of Atari history!

I've been toying with the idea of picking up an atari 800 on ebay and doing some 6502 coding (my first computer was a 400 back in 1982) and in my research on programming stumbled onto your site. Btw you stated that you dont know why you wrote your programs out in notebooks - I bet the reason u wrote out all the assembly code is that you didnt have a printer. Ive always had to have hardcopy of any program more than a few screen fulls in length. Well lets hope I pick up an 800 - if so i will be sure to try out Envison.

[Name omitted]

I did eventually manage to get a "printer" but it was an Epson MX-70, a total piece of garbage that jammed the moment you left the room. I eventually stopped writing code in notebooks and gradually started writing design notes instead, which is much more appropriate. :)

Now that I really think about it, I believe the reason I wrote all my code down was because there just wasn't enough room on the Atari's 40-column screen to see as much code as I wanted, plus the fact that SynAssembler only let you list lines of code; you couldn't scroll up and down as with more contemporary text editors. So you are essentially correct - I needed to have a hard copy of my code.

I just moved into a bigger place so I now have enough room to set up my 130XE and my C64. I'm looking forward to doing some coding on them when I feel the urge to do so. They're much more fun to play with than the more complex systems of today. Easier to write bug-free code. :)

Just finished browsing your Envision web page. Ahh, it brought back some really good memories. I just wanted to say thank you for authoring such an excellent Atari 8-bit game development tool! I used it extensively in the late 80s and early 90s to develop some games on my Atari 800 XL. I remember using it to build maps and character animations for a scrolling Ghosts-n-Goblins clone. Those were the good ol days. Anyways, just wanted to say thank you once again.

An avid Atarian

[Name omitted]

You're quite welcome. All my early Atari memories are good ones.

Dunno how I found your site. Wait, yes I do, it was looking for information on "caribbean time bomb", after a friend suggested I read it.

I don't know if you've been back since you wrote your chronicle eight years ago, but nothing has changed. I laughed so hard there were tears in my eyes at your recounting of St. John's (I just about broke a leg my first day here). 100% accurate. I feel like cutting and pasting the entire thing when people email me to ask me what its like to live in paradise.

Thanks for providing me with such amusement - and affirmation that I'm not completely out of my mind.

cheers

[Name omitted]

I still think I'm right about the drinking straws. :)

Thank you for putting Envision out there! I had it (still have it) and loved it, although my disk drives died, and my computer got sick (but still lives). Now if I could only find a way to read my old 5-1/4" diskettes and recover all the work I put into those screens, I might be able to use Atari800Win to finish the graphic RPG I was working on all those years ago! :-)

[Name omitted]

I know your pain. My disk drive and Atari 800 both died at exactly the same time. Good luck with your RPG. The best thing about writing stuff for the 8-bit Atari these days is that it's always a work of the heart and not the pocketbook.

Hi there, great to see the authors of the old 8-bit stuff still actually having an Atari even today. Great stuff...

I actually converted my envision disks several years ago when I first got an SIO2PC cable. But it's a lot better that the author releases the disks than some 3rd party.

Thanks!

[Name omitted]

I agree. Sorry it took so long. :)

Hi Darren,

I wanted a copy of your Envision program when Antic put it in their catalog but I could never get my parents to buy it. Thanks for releasing it to the public.

Question for you that I have had for a while. How did you get the Antic logo done in ANTIC 2? I know you redefined the character set using Envision but how did you get the shadow color on the logo?

I was trying to disassemble the binary but if you have the actual font file and wouldn’t mind sharing it that would be great.

Thanks again,

[Name omitted]

The shadow colour was obtained, I believe, by displaying the Antic logo in reverse video.

I liked the Envision pages on your website. You and I came to the Atari 800 about the same way although I didn't drop out (sometimes wish I did, it was not a good school).

I played games and read magazines and programmed stuff in BASIC. I got the Atari Assembler cartridge and manual but I couldn't really make heads or tails of it. I went on to something else.

I would encourage you as a final step in your Envision archive to post the source. I am not going to use it, but who knows, someone might. That kind of thing is what the Internet is all about.

Take it easy, and good luck on your current project.

[Name omitted]

Thanks. I'm still in the process of deciding whether or not I want to expose the public to the hell of code that is the Envision source.

Oh, and kids, stay in school. If you don't, then make sure you at least learn how to learn things before you go. You will eventually regret dropping out, but at least you won't be completely hung out to dry.