Jerry Stratton's Blog, page 32

Smashwords Post-Christmas Sale

Smashwords is having a sale starting Christmas day, and both Astounding Scripts and The Dream of Poor Bazin are 75% off.

Sparkling lights for Christmas

This POV-Ray scene file will animate sparkling lights against a green background. If you want to make three dimensional images with lots of similar objects and then animate them, this will show you how to do it.

8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 0 (Go Tell It On the CoCo!)

Day 0 of the 8 (bit) days of Christmas. Christmas Eve, and the cattle are lowing.

8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 1 (Do You Hear What I Hear?)

For day 1 of the 8 (bit) days of Christmas, John Mosley’s “Do You Hear What I Hear?” from the December, 1987, Rainbow Magazine. Mosley coaxes four-voice music out of the CoCo 1 and 2 using a machine-language program.

The Immaculate Deception: The Navarro Report 2.0

“This report assesses the fairness and integrity of the 2020 Presidential Election by examining six dimensions of alleged election irregularities across six key battleground states. Evidence used to conduct this assessment includes more than 50 lawsuits and judicial rulings, thousands of affidavits and declarations, testimony in a variety of state venues, published analyses by think tanks and legal centers, videos and photos, public comments, and extensive press coverage.”

8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 10 (Up on the Rooftop)

In the December 1986 Rainbow, J. D. German presented us with this game, involving flying and landing Santa to deliver presents!

8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 11 (O Christmas Tree)

Day 11 of the 8 (bit) days of Christmas is the graphic accompaniment to “O Tannenbaum” from Robert T. Rogers “Holly Jolly Holidays”, from December 1984.

8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 100 (Hearth)

Lower resolution graphics were more appropriate for animation, because you could page through up to eight screens like a flip book. This is Eugene Vasconi’s Holiday Hearth from December 1986.

8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 101 (Rudolph)

An early form of musical ebook, without scenes illustrating the progress of the song—in this case, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Along with the secret world of POKE.

8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 110 (Snowman)

Day 110 of the 8 (bit) days of Christmas is Arron Branigan’s snowman, from December 1986. One of the strangest features of home computers of the era, including the TRS-80 Color Computer, was the use of “artifact colors” to produce more colors than were supposedly possible on the machine.