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^C^1Blue Notes

Gentlemen:

I am enclosing herewith my data file from the Movie Mogul game for including in
the Movie Mogul contest. I was pleased to see myself getting fairly high scores
and few overwhelmingly bad clunkers, as I am about to begin production on a REAL
movie, and I hope it will do as well as some of my fictional productions with
this game software!

I have bought a couple of issues of Big Blue Disk now, and generally find it to
be an interesting and informative "magazine," although frankly I do not see the
advantage to reading articles off the screen instead of off the printed page.
I would prefer to see more PROGRAMS and fewer text files if I am going to spend
the money to obtain the Big Blue Disk in this medium. Of course, I realize that
"publishing" a disk is a lot less expensive than publishing a magazine, and has
many other advantages from your point of view. Still, ten bucks seems like a lot
to spend on a few brief (by print medium standards) articles and a couple of
programs.

Perhaps you should think about something like Compute Publications and some
other Commodore magazines do--a printed magazine with extensive articles and a
separate disk with related programs.

Anyway, it's a thought for you.

As before, I did enjoy the Movie Mogul program very much, and hope to hear from
you soon telling me how wonderfully I did in the contest. And if "Venus
Flytrap," my soon-production is half as successful as some of the productions
documented in the enclosed file, I'll send you a free cassette!

Sincerely,
^RMarvin Jones
^RLos Angeles, CA

^1> Check this month's Diskovery to find out who won the Movie Mogul contest.
|5

To the Editors:

I have purchased several issues of Big Blue Disk and can see that it is
improving with each issue.  May I make a few assorted observations and
suggestions?

1. You have maintained a good mix of program types (utilities, games, and
applications).  I think that like many people, I use a personal computer for
work and at home (I'm a college professor).  Naturally, you cannot please
everyone, so something of a shotgun approach to program type may be best.

2. I've noticed that in the disks you offer for other computers, there are
sometimes programs that can be used in conjunction with commercial software,
such as additional artwork for Print Shop.  Nice idea!  How about some of the
same for us clone users, in my case Leading Edge?

3. Since I am only a mediocre programmer - and a lazy one at that - I'd sure
appreciate some of the following utilities: a memory-resident program to get
one back to the operating system after using games that don't; a simple to use
program that will print labels for floppy disk contents (a label to put right
on the disk or paper sleeve); some nice BASIC subroutines to be incorporated
into my own programs.

4. More graphics programs!

5. Finally, I enjoyed the memo writer program in issue number 7, but why on
earth must it print out a heading with the magazine's name each time?!  This
"feature" adds confusing clutter to a basically simple message.  Is there any
way to delete the heading?

                                 Sincerely,
^RMark B. Fineman, Ph. D.
^RHamden, CT

^1> We're working right now at converting our extensive library of Print Shop
^1> images for the Apple and Commodore computers to IBM format.  You should be
^1> seeing some of those here in a few months.
^1>
^1> Most of the programs we publish have been submitted by the authors, rather
^1> than created in-house.  If any hackers out there would like to create programs
^1> of the sort Mr. Fineman wants (or anything else, for that matter), you can
^1> submit them to us.  We pay cash for submissions we use, and have recently
^1> doubled our minimum payment to $100.  (If the program's really great, we can
^1> pay even more.)  So get hacking!
^1>
^1> We're sorry you're annoyed by the headers.  We usually include the name BIG
^1> BLUE DISK at various places in our programs, and in their printed output, to
^1> remind users of where they got the program; otherwise, once you've copied it
^1> to your own disk and used it for months, you might forget where it came from
^1> and think it's public-domain or something.  We'd like all your friends to
^1> notice that the great programs you're showing them came from BIG BLUE DISK, so
^1> maybe they subscribe too.  But, if enough of you are annoyed by this "crass
^1> commercialism," then maybe we'll tone it down a little.  How about it; do any
^1> other readers feel we go too far in having our programs "advertise" BIG BLUE
^1> DISK?
|5

Dear Editor:

   Enjoyed your Vol. 1, No. 1.  Took so long to get to it because of a hardware
problem; Tandy took 9 months to deliver my 256K board.  Now we know how they do
it!

   Only problem with "Big Blue" was my inability to print some of the nice
designs from STRNGART.  Would like to know if it's possible.

^CTruly yours,
^RLorenzo Cristaudo
^RCarbondale, IL

^1> It depends on whether your printer has graphics capability.  If it does, and
^1> you have a memory-resident program to do graphics dumps, then the PrtSc key
^1> will produce a printout of the picture while String Art is running.
|5

Big Blue,

   I like everything this magazine has to offer: good articles and software for
a reasonable price.  It's great to be able to run all the programs immediately
without having to key them in as in other magazines. Another advantage is that
there is no advertising, which allows for greater objectivity when reviewing
software or hardware products.  I say this hoping that -Blue Review- is
included in all issues so that your subscribers are well informed before
purchasing the many varied products available to the PC owner.  But best of
all, we subscribers can make up our own mind on software samples in the Blue
Plate Special section.

   Something that I think would be useful to all buyers of this magazine is an
index.  I am talking about a program that can search for any Big Blue article
by; Title, Author, or Type (Programming, Entertainment, Applications, Review,
etc.).  Quit often I read articles or see programs that are in magazines that I
currently see no use for, but later, usually much later, I recall having read
or seen something that I now could use.  I then proceed to look through all the
back issues of every computer magazine I have saved. Sometimes I am rewarded
for these efforts, most of the time I am not.  If all I had to do was load the
index program and data base, it would be a snap to find which issue contains
the article or program.  Each issue could have its own update to be added to
the data base to keep it current.  Well, it is just a thought.

   The only thing that I am tired of reading about in Blue Notes is all the cry
babies who bought clones and then do nothing but complain because something
does not work quite right on their PC.

   I am also including my entry to the Movie Mogul challenge which I still
enjoy playing.  Thanks for listening and keep up the good work.

^RM Burkhead
^RMarietta, GA

^1> This may not quite be what you want, but you can use the Disk Indexer program
^1> from BIG BLUE DISK #5 to prepare an index by filename of all the issues you
^1> have.
|5

Dear Big Blue Staff:

   I have all issues of the Big Blue Disk magazine and am very well pleased with
them.  Your menu interface is excellent.

   While I tend to agree with many of your recent letters asking for more
serious programs, I realize that you must offer a variety of programs to
satisfy the market you are after.

   For some time I have thought of writing to suggest that you might include a
special demo Big Blue Disk as your second disk so that a subscriber could share
it with others to introduce them to your magazine.  We had friends visit us
recently and they were so impressed when they saw the magazine that they took
the subscription form home with them.

   As they were not aware that your disk magazine existed, it would be good to
have a demo disk that could be shared with others to introduce them to your
product.

   Keep up the good work so that we can continue to look forward to the next
issue.

^RRobert V. Irons
^RJuliustown, NJ

^1> Doing a "demo" version of BIG BLUE DISK is a good idea; we'll think about
^1> doing something like that.
|5


Dear Editor:

   It mat not be one of the world's most useful programs, but from the start I
have been hooked on "Alfredo's adventures".

   I don't know who Mike Nuzzo had in mind when he thought up this poor soul,
but I felt he had myself in mind.  What I mean is, I believe I have the same
"born loser" syndrome that afflicts Alfredo!

   I hope this little fellow keeps appearing as a regular feature.  This way I
do not feel all alone in the world.

^CHANG IN THERE ALFREDO
^RK. McCarraher
^RPhoenixville PA

^1> We're glad you like Alfredo, and we are continuing to feature him regularly.
^1> However, Mike Nuzzo didn't create Alfredo; Matthew Heeschen did.  He authored
^1> "Alfredo's Lost Cause" (in BIG BLUE DISK #7), which introduced this computer-
^1> ized stickman.  Mike Nuzzo took over with the next installment, and has been
^1> furthering Alfredo's legend ever since.
|5

Greetings:

   I am writing to tell you that I enjoy your magazine more each month, the
KRAMDEN UTILITIES in particular.

   I am using a Tandy 1000 with 640K at present and all the programs work
great.

   To Bryan Higgins:

   The ECCO command [from BIG BLUE DISK #3] really works great with my
equipment.  I'm using a Tandy Ink Jet printer most of the time and find that
after changing all the codes to octal I use the following syntax:

^C^1ecco > prn \033\124\062

it changes the color to green.  All the other codes work using this syntax.

   With ANSI.SYS installed, and still using ECCO, I find that a mixture of ANSI
and ECCO codes will send screen color, etc., commands to the system.  The
syntax that I use is:

^C^1ecco \033[42m

for a green background.

   I use ECCO and LS [from BIG BLUE DISK #4] on all my DOS disks, no matter
what the configuration.

   Keep up the good work, and I must tell you that I have dropped most of my
computer magazines since I subscribed to BIG BLUE.

^RClayton G. Hess
^RSycamore, IL
|5

Dear Editor,

   Thank you for the very informative and wonderful disk magazine.  I have read
two of your magazines, and after the first I sent you a subscription for a
year.  I happen to like your magazine just as it is.  After reading the letters
from others in Issue 7, I decided to write.  I happen to like the games.  You
are correct in your assumption that more people are purchasing PC's and compat-
ibles for other reasons than business.  We purchased ours for personal finance,
word processing, data files, as well as education and entertainment.

^RCurryanne Hostetler
^RIndianapolis, IN

^1> You're welcome.
|5

Dear Sirs,

   I have a Tandy SX-1000.  I have purchased your issue #7 and EVERY program
worked perfectly.  I have problems with not being able to support IBM BASICA
programs.  Will I be compatible with the great majority of your magazine
programs?

^CRespectfully,
^RK. D. Mickelberry
^RMonterey, CA

^1> We compile our programs, so they should all work with no problem; you don't
^1> even need to have BASICA to run any of our programs.
