MossyCon 4 is go!

[RobertB]

That's right!  It nearly took a well-set neutomic charge but MossyCon 4 is on track as the first North American C=/Amiga event of 2008.  Here are the details --

Date: Sunday, March 16

Set-up time: 10 am

Official show time: 11 am to 3 pm

Unofficial show time: 3 pm to ?

Location: Fultano's Pizza
          620 Olney Ave. (just off of Highway 101/5th St.)
          Astoria, Oregon  97103
          Phone: 503 325-2855
http://216.151.27.205:8080/apache2-default/index.php

Admission: Chip in for pizza, sodas, beer, coffee, etc.

Raffle prizes: new-in-box GEOS 64 2.0, DTV stamps, and more

Presentations (tentative): JiffyDOSsed VIC-20 with CMD FD drives and hard drive, Lt. Kernal hard drive for the C64, Behr-Bonz VIC-20 Multicart, Beginner's walkthrough of the C64 User's Manual, Commodore/Amiga videos, Prophet 64 in a modded SX-64

On exhibit: Dave Haynie-autographed Amiga 4000, CommodoreOne, modded SX-64s

For nearby accomodations, go to http://www.hotels.com and input Astoria, OR

For more MossyCon 4 information, contact the chancellor of the Anything Commodore User Group (ACUG), David Mohr, at  lordronin(at)vcsweb.com

         Fab!
         Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group
         http://videocam.net.au/fcug
         The Other Group of Amigoids
         http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1

[lord ronin from q-link]

Hoi Chummers:

Yeah it took almost a scene of planetary bombardment to get MossyCon4 set this year. Some trouble with times, dates and places for this session.

Here at the Anything Commodore Users Group #447., We have some projects in prepartaion for the event. A demo of an AD&D adventure, printed out on a semi working Optra-40 in Post Script. Using Wheels and Post Print 3.8. Short demo page of our group. Both of these use the booklet format and the imported font WillagePlain. All done on a C= system.

Though not finished at the time of this msg. We are working on a game using QwestWriter from LoadStar #77, and an adventure using the Dungeon Creator from LoadStar. Plus our Chancellor is ready to talk off any ones ear on the greatness of the most holy and sacred Commodore system.

BCNU
Lord Ronin from Q-Link

[RobertB]

Date: Sunday, March 16

Set-up time: 10 am

Official show time: 11 am to 3 pm

Unofficial show time: 3 pm to ?

Location: Fultano's Pizza
          620 Olney Ave. (just off of Highway 101/5th St.)
          Astoria, Oregon  97103
          Phone: 503 325-2855

Just a few more days to MossyCon 4.  See you there in rainy Oregon.  :-)

            Truly,
            Robert Bernardo
            Fresno Commodore User Group
            http://videocam.net.au/fcug
            The Other Group of Amigoids
            http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

-------- Original Message ----------
From:    Andrew Wiskow
Date:    Fri, April 4, 2008 1:40 pm
------------------------------------
I've posted all the MossyCon 4 photos that Robert Bernardo sent me, as well as all of the photos that SMJ posted on his own page, on the ACUG website. There's a link to the page on the main ACUG webpage at http://www.acug0447.com ... Or, you can go directly to the MossyCon 4 photo page at

http://cottonwood.servebbs.com/acug0447/mc4

[snip]

OK!  The MossyCon 4 video is now available for viewing by everyone! It's been added to the page of MossyCon4 photos.  Again, there's a link to the video/photo page for MossyCon4 on the main ACUG website at http://www.acug0447.com ... Or, you can go directly to the page with the video and photos by going to

http://cottonwood.servebbs.com/acug0447/mc4

Enjoy! 

-Andrew

[RobertB]

I've posted all the MossyCon 4 photos that Robert Bernardo sent me, as well as all of the photos that SMJ posted on his own page, on the ACUG website. There's a link to the page on the main ACUG webpage at http://www.acug0447.com ... Or, you can go directly to the MossyCon 4 photo page at

http://cottonwood.servebbs.com/acug0447/mc4

On Fri, April 4, 2008 5:47 am, Andrew Wiskow wrote:

> I've posted all the MossyCon4 photos that Robert Bernardo sent me, as
> well as all of the photos that SMJ posted on his own page, on the ACUG
> website.  There's a link to the page on the main ACUG webpage at
> http://www.acug0447.com ...  Or, you can go directly to the MossyCon4
> photo page at http://cottonwood.servebbs.com/acug0447/mc4

     Dick Estel has mirrored my photos of the event at

http://www.dickestel.com/mossycon4.htm

except the photos also have descriptions attached to them.

        Enjoy,
        Robert Bernardo
        Fresno Commodore User Group
        http://videocam.net.au/fcug
        The Other Group of Amigoids
        http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[RobertB]

[two reports combined and edited]

From: Lord Ronin
Date: Mon Mar 17, 2008

***Disclaimer/Warning***
Da fullowin iz ritten da next murn and wth liddle sleep un nah coffeieeee yut.
----------------------------------------------------------

Sunday morn at 3 am. We are still on the phone with our dedicated #8 (weirdwolf) who through the mega-graces of the bus system in the Portland Metroplex missed the bus from there to Astoria. #8 will have his rants on that one I am certain. 'Cause I gots mine {EG}.

Expected here at 9 pm Saturday night. Was not a pleasant thing to see his nickname show up in the chat around that time, as we were to burn the CDs for MossyCon and he was going to show us how that was done, plus a few other computer related problems were to be rectified without Lord Ronin (myself) using the ever-present big and heavy hammer.

Between 9 pm-ish and 3 am, using Xchat for IRC switching between screens, creating a minute problem for #8's phone and having to recharge it, we did burn the 10 CDs for the Con.

A lot of thanks go to #8 (supercommodore-Destined!/weirdwolf...) for taking all that time to work with us on how to burn a smegging CD with this new Linux flavour. Finding out that the CD/DVD burner isn't working, and we had to replace it with the old one from the previous set-up. Then, files that were downloaded not installing for the burn, and I guess those that use non C=64/128s are familiar with this scenario a lot more than I.

Up at 10 am, or earlier. Coffee on the boil, cats demanding food. Set-up time was to be 10 am at the pizza place. Reminds me some or a few of us attendees should send some letter of thanks in some format to them. Well, at 12:10 pm, over an hour after the event was to start and 2 hours after the set-up time, no ride yet, and that was a bit worrisome, after last year's medical problem for Robert. Worries started to cross our minds. Nope, things were just running a bit late. I called the pizza place... yeah, me using a phone... hey, it was a real, rotary dial C= phone. Talked to Gene Woods, who told me Robert was on his way. Shortly after that, Robert was at the shop.

Couple of bags of things from us, along with #30 and myself, crammed into the boat of a car of Robert's. Well, compared to those Tonka toys that are on the road now, it has been called a boat, even if the backseat hadn't been stacked with items. Well, the interiour of that car is made for Robert. Not 6'2" me or 6'7" #30. And I hate seatbelts as well. Oregon mandates the use of them. Political rhetoric aside.

Stopping at the back door of the pizza place, I showed Robert the back way there (really, it is legally highway 30) to avoid the center of town traffic. We off-loaded ourselves and the bags. Now I must add here that through a misunderstanding, we had previously collected a supply of Amiga items. These were originally to be for Robert. They were put in the trunk and back seat. Want to thank Robert here for being so understanding about the mix-up and then seeing that many of the items were dupes for his group and allowing us to keep those items in order that we may start to rebuild the Amiga section after the sho-vah stole the club's stuff.

There was a line of tables that held many items that were just for the show. Robert had the one that Jack Tramiel signed at the CMH event in December. Really, that C=64 should have been under glass and with an alarm system. An Amiga 4000 with several autographs as well as a 128DCR keyboard also autographed by some of the engineers. A lovely presentation of a collage of the late Jim Butterfield. Going past that to the right was a collection of electronic controls that reminded me of my homebrew days in electronics, though cleaner and neater. This was connected to a SX-64. Along in that area was a Lt. Kernal system that as I understand has a few additives and is working. At the end of the line past a FD-2000 was a VIC-20, for which #30 and Steve Jones had to return to the shop in order to replace the PS that went out on it.

But at the start of the line, right next to the back door was a Commodore PET 2001. Not working and was slated for Ray Carlsen for repair. Neither #30 or myself had ever seen a real PET 2001 in real life before. Now I understand the reason for the term that was used to describe the keyboard. But hey for us lefties, the cassette thing is on the left side of the keyboard.

Met Steve Jones and a man whose name escapes me, but I think it was Bilud, and his handle is Nightlord. Wasn't his accent that tossed me as his English is very good. But that it just had to happen that day. Sinus problems blinded my left eye (I'm left-eyed dominant), and the ear infection returned so I was deaf in the right ear. Plus I am horrible at remembering names. There was also Gene Woods, who has popped by the shop from time to time seeing how things are going with us, even though it is a few hundred miles and several hour drive for him. Good that he could come to the event, as originally that wasn't in the plans for his schedule. Bad that he could come to the event, because his main schedule got frelled.

Robert had set up a tab at the pizza place for us. Didn't know that at the start. At the first, since most of us had not met each other at least in real life, we sort of just talked about ourselves and C= related things. Had some pizza and drinks, mainly soda pop for the group. Of course, I had to be different and have beer, but as the oldest one there, I can be eccentric at times (most of the time). Talked to Nightlord about role-playing games. He had played some in the past, 2nd Edition AD&D, and IIRC he had done that in college with friends in his native Turkey. I think that I went overboard on the desires we have to create C= RPG games and tools on the C= for RPG games, but he did seem interested in the idea.

Wildstar arrived, having to walk over the hill, and it is a mean hill; I can't do it anymore. Plus it was a nice cool day with drizzle. OK, people from Southern California may call it a rain, but those of us in the Northwest would call it a light drizzle.

Did have the enjoyment of a couple of deer going past the windows, as they came up from the bay and back into the woods on the hill. Nice touch for the day.

Eventually, we had to settle down some time around 2-ish. Nightlord (hope I have his handle correct) did the first presentation. Now I couldn't hear well so some others should go into this one. Also the tech level was not the same as mine. In essence, he created some demos in the scene which he had shown earlier on a non C= laptop with the emulator. Looked very good, and the speed was smooth. At that time he was explaining many points of how it was done. I caught the part of using the cpu and mem in the 1541 at the same time things are being done in the 64.

But that wasn't his main presentation. This was his compiler thinggy; I can't do the name justice. So basically, I can say that he has created a Commodore C++ compiler. Does only work in emulation for creation. But as I understand, the work can be placed on stock 1541 disks. He knows his tech and was presenting it well to those other hardware people who asked some poignant questions. MossyCon was honoured with the display of a Tetris clone that runs at a good speed. Created with this new compiler for us. Sadly, he could not release it yet. Still working on the documentation first. He wishes that to be done before the item is released.

Next up was the fat, old, hippy freak. My presentation was on the use of Geos, such as GeoWrite, GeoPaint, GeoPub, PostPrint and GeoDos. In the creation of the items that I was able to convert into .pdf files and burn onto the CD. Only the burning and the converting was done on the Linux system. The rest, even the zipped .D64s, were done on the C= with the SCPU. Passed out most of the CDs we had made. Few games and a lot of the writings that I have done for the group. Showed off the actual raw 96-page copy of a 1st ed AD&D adventure completely created and printed on the C=.

SMJ (Steve) was up next. He described his Prophet 64 thing. Now I could follow some of this, because I do have an ancient background in electronics and once could play musical instruments. But there was that hearing problem, and most of his presentation had a crying baby and an irate child screaming in the other part of the pizza joint. What I could see, and the screen was on a SX-64, was a bit small for my eyes. Well, the screen showed a lot of items that were to me impressive. But the sounds that he was able to create with his homebrew box and some other modded electronics equipment, well, I have never heard SID sound so clean... as if it was one of those megabuck synthesizers. True, he had modded the SX to be a stereo with two sid chips. Started off his presentation with his laptop, where he had documented in pix the different steps and alterations of the SX-64. I could follow that part. But even deaf in one ear, that sound was fantastic.

Robert followed with showing the different units that he had brought. Starting with the PET and going through the different autographed C= items. Now if I had my own transport and could run fast enough, he would have had less to take back with him {VBG}.

I left out that there was a framed set of stamps. Robert had sent a pic of Jeri to a place that places the image on a real, usable, 41-cent USPS stamp. This one is framed for display. He donated one sheet for the raffle, and I understand another will be for another con/expo raffle.

But for the actual hands-on work, we had to borrow my SCPU in order to see the Metal Dust game. This was placed on Robert's SX-64, the one that I would like to liberate for the ACUG. I mean it does have in the second drive bay a FD-4000. But I am addicted to C=. By using a cord, this was able to be connected to the 1702 monitor at the VIC-20. Not sure about the entire game. Around three 1581 disks in a nice box. Robert did state that it has a tendency to try to save the high score, but when it does that, it smegs up a file on the disk, and the game is dead. What I saw with a couple of volunteers was a multi-colourful, fast, sideways scroller. Spaceship shooting at the asteroids and planetoids that race from the right side of the screen. My working eye had trouble with the background and the foreground. There is just so much on the screen, at least seen about 7' away, that I couldn't tell what was what. But I'll accept that the eye problem was to blame.

Another hands on display was a set of finger joysticks in a box. This is an actual C= game, from about 1984 IIRC what was on the paperwork. Does use a disk, and one cannot use regular joysticks. I was struck at the sight on the table of how the box and joysticks reminded me of a RC plane set-up. Good thing I did, as that is what this game is about. You are flying a RC model plane. Well, the testers did give it a try. High marks for innovative crashing all around. {LOL}

Last in that demo presentation was the VIC-20. There was one cart that had IIRC 38kb or ram, but a switch out of the three broke off, cancelling that one. But we did see and play with the 100+ games in one cart for the VIC-20. Ah, no one got even close to finishing the first level of Donkey Kong, and playing Congo Bongo with the keyboard was a bit hard, though there is a joystick options.

One last thing, and it is out of place in the demo part. Robert showed off the new MMC2IEC IIRC it is called. He had both sets, but lost his PS unit for the display. I was impressed at not only the fact that here is another new piece of C= related Hardware, but looking at what appeared to be a micronised DreamCast memory cart and finding it was at least a gig in size. Then learning that one can place 1541s onto it and use it like a 1541 drive. I think that I will learn more and save up.

Well, a lot more happened, but this is very long. We left the place around 8 pm. Later, Robert & SMJ arrived at the commune, where, yes, they did see and Robert had some of the Kittybox cake. More pix were taken. Talked on games and the like. Went to the shop, the ACUG GHQ. Spent time there talking about C= things and looking at the items in the shop. Eventually, at some point past 2 am, the guys headed back to the motel. I crashed, and for some inane reason, was up early in the morning. Oh, yeah, I am up. as Robert was bringing some Amiga things for us. Great time, met new C= friends IRL, and hope we will be doing this next year.

BCNU
Lord Ronin from Q-Link
(Feel Free to repost if it is worth it)


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------

1b. Re: MossyCon4
    Posted by: "Nightlord" bilgem cakir
    Date: Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:43 pm ((PDT))

Hi everyone, here is my report of MossyCon.

MossyCon took place in beautiful town of Astoria, Oregon. I took off early in the morning and picked up my new friend and fellow UPCHUG member Gene Woods from Tacoma. Then we drove south towards Astoria.

The drive was fun because of the nice chat we had and also because of the lovely scenery. Especially after we took off of I-5, the scenery became really beautiful. After about 3 hours, we reached Astoria and the pizza place that MossyCon was going to take place around 11.30 am.

When we arrived, a familiar face, Robert Bernardo from FCUG, was there and he had already unloaded a large number of exhibition items onto a long table. Among them, there were a Jack Tramiel-signed C64, a Bill Herd-signed C128, a Dave Haynie-signed Amiga 4000, and a PET (which does not need to be signed to be special ).

It took a long time for everyone to come in, but eventually everyone did, and we ordered pizza and started hanging out. During that time, I tried to prepare for my demonstration of my new C++ compiler for 6502 called "Cepp". I did not have the latest version of the compiler binary on Windows. I had transferred the sources from Linux to the machine that I was going to use to demo. I worked on compiling them for the Windows machine for about half an hour, and then finally got it working. I also made sure that I can compile a C64 program with Cepp. All was well, so I went on to chat with others. Later on, I was the first to do a demonstration. I tried to briefly introduce the Cepp compiler and showed a proof of concept game that I wrote in C++ and compiled with Cepp. The game is called Cepptris, obviously a Tetris clone.

One of the visitors was Steve from Seattle, who came with a modified SX-64 and some audio equipment. After a while, it turned out Steve was a musician, and he was using his equipment together with Prophet 64 program to make authentic SID sound in fusion with his music. Later on, he demonstrated the modifications he had made to his SX-64 and also demonstrated different parts of Prophet 64. I was very impressed by the quality of sound he gets out of his stereo SID-modified SX plus some effects hardware he adds. The capabilities of the Prophet software were also quite impressive. I was also amazed by Steve's knowledge about the different sound equipment that Prophet64 software was borrowing ideas from. I would love to see him on stage one day. He is a great guy with lots of knowledge and creativity. I will try to hijack and bring him to our UPCHUG meetings 

Lord Ronin was another very interesting character; the type of guy that I would like to hang out with for a long time for the rest of my life. Very intelligent with resident sarcasm and sometimes hard to follow for me as he generously uses so many references to TV shows and books that I have not been exposed to, coming from a different culture. But I felt just listening to him and constantly making mental notes of what to go investigate later was very refreshing and challenging in a very fun way.

Lord Ronin has also prepared a whole host of role-playing game scenarios and tools as well as a few text-based games for the meeting that he handed out to us. As I have not had a chance to check those out yet, I can not report on them, but I am sincerely looking forward to trying out those games. I would also be very interested to see what kind of games/projects we can come up with together. Another host of mental notes for me right there.

I also met with two more ACUG members, David and Rick (Wildstar). We had a lot of nice chat with Rick about the demoscene graphics and coding. We watched a number of demos on the emulator. It is always fun to meet someone so demoscene-aware in US as the fellow C64 users in US are generally slightly disconnected from the demoscene (mostly due to most demoscene products being in PAL)

Later on Robert demonstrated a group of things. Metal Dust on Super CPU, some VIC-20 cartridges, and an interesting model plane simulation that came with its own analog controller hardware. The amount of niche software and equipment that people produced for these computers that sometimes never made its way over to Europe simply amazes me. The types of business software, weird hardware etc. makes me realize how dominant the machine really was and what a wide range of application areas it was used on.

Around 7:00 pm, we took off, as we had a 3-hour drive. It was a very good day, and I would like to encourage everyone around the area to take the time and visit the next MossyCon.

I can see a nice symbiosis of all of us there, and I can see potential interesting projects that can span out of the group of people at MossyCon. Additionally, as UPCHUG becomes more active again, I am excited to see the level of support and productivity we can muster together here in the Northwest in the days ahead.