Highlights and documents I have written

The history of software is a fascinating thing.   The following files were very exciting at one time just as the evolution of communication went from pen and paper to email, to chat, to text, to .......  software has also evolved.  Please understand that some of the downloadable files  now available to you are the original ideal of someone who is now much wiser and is probably not going to fix your computer for you IF you install it. 

_______ DOWNLOAD PAGE WARNING ____

EXPERIENCED USERS ONLY DO NOT download from this page unless you are able to uninstall an executable file _

At one time I would spend hours typing lines of code from Compute Magazine hoping that my computer and the power would stay on for another day so that I could recheck the code and eventually run the file I was creating.  A tape drive soon evolved and saving your work made it truly possible to have electronic ownership of your ideas. Reading lines of code became more exciting than just reading a book. Changing the settings on the Nuclear Simulator (SCRAM Atari) was fascinating.  My father was designing safety systems for a real nuclear reactor and above my feet sat a computer playing a game where I was altering code to make my own reactor with extra control rods on cooling towers.  The power to create has always been a temptation but the power to change is a gift. When then the floppy disk was invention of there was a secret only an industry exploited.  At the time a floppy disk and XCOPY was a very nice thing to have. "A simple hole punch allowed a single sided disk to become double sided."    The development of the Hard Drive by IBM at Building 21 was a spectacular change for computers.   Unfortunately IBM is gone the Stealth Building 51 torn down the street lights gone. 

Some BRAIN CANDY:

It is important to learn the basics and to study history.

timel100.zip   ÀBY THE FAMOUS DEMO & GAME PROGRAMMER TRAN!Ù

ÛÛßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßÛÛ
ÛÞ Tran & Data Connection Software                          ÝÛ
ÛÞ present                                                                    ÝÛ
ÛÞ TIMELESS for WINDOWS 3.1, v1.0                         ÝÛ
ÛÞÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÝÛ
ÛÞ The "MOST ADVANCED SCREENSAVER" for            ÝÛ
ÛÞ WINDOWS 3.1! The screensaver's display             ÝÛ
ÛÞ is an experience and a journey within                     ÝÛ
ÛÞ itself! Witness the full potential of                          ÝÛ
ÛÞ your 386+ computer and protect your                   ÝÛ
ÛÞ VGA monitor at the same time. Do not                    ÝÛ
ÛÞ miss this incredible display of                                   ÝÛ
ÛÞ graphics! We know you will enjoy it!                       ÝÛ
ÛÛÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÛÛ

pinwheel.zip Method of use: Run program and stare into the middle of the pinwheel for AT LEAST two minutes. Then look away at the world away from your computer, and you are
in for a surprise!

Ah, more History!!!!

mindwarp.zip  Requires a PC with a decent SVGA that does 1Kù768 by 256 colors.

This is not release-quality software. This is not beta-quality software. This is not even Microsoft-quality software. This is one particular mode that was easy to write (roll the palette by 48 bytes per tick...) of a currently-being-written program that's an offshoot
of an unwritten successor to an unreleased program. It is not robust, it does only one thing, and it may well bomb horribly, blow out your monitor, and slash your eyeballs with horrid glass shrapnel. I don't care, and there will never be a bugfix version. I just thought people might like to see this program, and in particular to see a particular visual effect it can induce.

Upon running the program, you will first be privileged to wait while it draws the screen. This takes about 20 seconds on my box; *please* tell me if it's intolerably slow on yours. The only code left to bum much time out of is the polygon routine -- I'm reluctant to
get into that, but might be convinced.
While you're waiting, look around and find something with a reasonably long straight edge a few feet away -- door, blinds, poster, whatever. A patterned ceiling works too. And put on some appropriate music, if you like.

OK, now we're at the cool part. Look steadily at the center of the thing for oh, thirty seconds. Less will work, but you want the first experience to be dramatic, right? After you've done that, look at your straight line. I won't tell you what to expect, but
suffice it to say that several people have made vocal expressions of, well, of noise I guess.

Warning, only somewhat facetious: I've been looking at this thing a fair bit while coding it, and now the wall keeps flashing giant fractal vortices at me. And I found one in my cup of water. Most likely they have crystallized in my brain.

Credits:
I'm using Jordan Hargrave's excellent SVGA bgi driver.
Bugs: Sometimes under Windows (why does this not surprise me?) the palette twiddling goes *much* too fast. It's supposed to be more like 20ø/sec.

(Vaporware plug: if this wigs you out, wait until you see the real thing, Synesthesia IIx (i.e. variant `x' of the on-paper-only Syn 2 (which will theoretically have real-time sound input (hence the name) like Syn 1 (which is unreleased).)!)

Q_plasma.zip  Well... This er was is a plasma effect... The programmer didn't even bother to port it to assembler... he was too lazy... coded in c++...

syn2x-v0.zip  Totally up to you.  Probably not a good idea to install to your primary machine.

Classic Games

• blocks3.exe
• checkers.exe
• codebrak.exe
• dots.exe
• hangman3.exe
• hyperoid.exe
• jacks2.exe
• mario.exe
• pacpc.exe
• pool.exe
• slot.exe
• squash.exe
• sticks.exe