am a pretty active user of various retro computing forums.  I got   
   very useful tips from there, especially at the beginning when digging into   
   the technical specs of the CBM II machines.  There is not much   
   documentation around and therefore I was glad to find people who had   
   gathered the necessary pieces of information over time.  Especially the   
   members of the "Verein zum Erhalt klassischer Computer e.V." helped me a   
   lot.  Thanks guys!   
      
            - - - - - - - - - -   
      
   CF:  I don't judge pre-releases or betas as I feel it's unfair, but I have   
   already said that in its current form it would be an 8/10.  Did you feel   
   this was justified for your work?   
      
   CK:  This is a much better rating than I had expected!  Programming a game   
   is one thing.  Programming a game that is fun to play, especially on a   
   restricted machine like the CBM II, another thing.  Therefore I am very   
   happy that it is already fun although still unfinished.   
      
            - - - - - - - - - -   
      
   CF:  And finally, do you have any comments you would like to close with?   
      
   Thanks a lot for the opportunity to do this interview.  And many thanks   
   especially to my wife Petra and my children who have so much understanding   
   for my strange "playing around with electronics trash" hobby for many, many   
   hours.   
      
   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -   
      
   Just as I started finalising the interview I received an email message:   
      
   Hi Nigel,   
      
   just a quick update on Space Chase:  The new website has been online at   
   www.spacechase.de for a few weeks.  I will upload an updated beta at the   
   weekend with improved graphics and a few bugs fixed.   
      
   Also you will be excited to know Max Hall, (who is quite famous for his SID   
   music) has agreed to create the title music and sound effects for Space   
   Chase.  He has also agreed that we can mention this in the interview.  I   
   have already managed to port the SID player routines he's using to the CBM   
   II (another first btw) so technically this is a feasibility and already   
   proven.   
      
   COMMODORE FREE: It goes without saying there will be a full review   
   when the software is in a finished state. I don't do previews or   
   pre-release reviews as this is totally unfair on the game and   
   programmer. Once I am happy the game is in a stable form to review you   
   will see a review printed.   
      
      
   *************************************   
          GROWING PAINS PART QUAD   
      Continued Work On "The Ledger"   
            By Lenard R. Roach   
   *************************************   
      
   In this article I plan to go in depth on the youngest program in my   
   entourage called "The Ledger." It is one of my favorites to date and is a   
   "good friend" to me when I sit down to work on paying bills.   
      
   The idea of this program actually came from my ex-wife's method of how to   
   pay the bills and track how much is owed in order to pay the debt off.  I   
   sat down with her ledger book and tried to transpose the data and columns   
   from it into a working program for the Commodore 64.  Oh yes, many   
   bookkeeping programs already exist but I wanted one that actually emulated   
   her style.  My first attempt to create the ledger was called "Obligator   
   Coordinator," which I took the time and the $25 dollars to copyright with   
   the US Copyright Office in Washington, DC.  I was really hoping to make a   
   name for myself in the computer programming industry, but, as usual, my   
   problem was marketing, and, with many computer users heading their way to   
   PCs, a call for Commodore software was fading off into the sunset at the   
   time.   
      
   Usually when I code into existence a piece of software, I believe it the   
   most pimping thing ever to hit the Commodore market -- heck, why not the   
   entire computer universe!  Once word hits the boards of my amazing program,   
   users from all over the world will be blowing up my landline and stuffing   
   my mailbox with orders!  All I had to do was copy and mail.  I would be   
   making so many deposits at the bank that the tellers would not only know me   
   by my first name but also start complaining that they had to deal with   
   adding up all the checks I brought in.  I didn't have high aspirations, I   
   didn't have an inflated ego, I was a realist, knowing that this would   
   *really* happen.   
      
   When not even a curse word came back to me in any form of communications   
   that the 1990s had to offer, I curled up into a fetal position and cried.   
   After months of musing I sat down at my Commodore 64 with "Obligator   
   Coordinator" loaded into memory and started to use it myself.  After a few   
   minutes of inputting data there came the dreaded line no programmer wants   
   to see in their work:  SYNTAX ERROR IN ....  What the?  I ran this program   
   through with the finest of toothed combs I could before I sent it to the   
   copyright office.  I found the offending line and made a quick repair.   
   Running it again, "Obligator Coordinator" made it through the hump but a   
   few minutes later another evil message appeared:  TYPE MISMATCH ERROR IN   
   ...  I did what was natural, I called my Commodore every four and five   
   letter curse words I could think of and even made up a couple for good   
   measure.   
      
   My Commodore just sat there not giving a care of how I felt or what I   
   called it; the error message was still there on my screen.  I banged my   
   head on the computer desk wanting to know why.  On the 17th whack an   
   amazing thought came to me:  Did I realize that the Great Omnipotent Grand   
   Exalted Poobah Of The Universe And Other Surrounding Postal Codes just   
   saved my fat, flatulent, flabby backside from a fate worse than poverty?   
   By not allowing a single sale of "Obligator Coordinator" I was spared the   
   shame and humility of selling a defective product to the world at large,   
   and undertaking the task of either refunding monies gathered or giving   
   upgraded copies for free which would cost me more time and money in   
   envelopes and postage.   
      
   I took a big deep breath at the thought of this revelation and quickly gave   
   thanks for being spared this personal tragedy brought on by my ego, and,   
   with the program in my computer, I started making repairs.  But I'm giving   
   away too much information that would be best kept for a future issue of   
   "Commodore Free," but there is a lot of history behind the development of   
   "The Ledger" that, without it, this commentary may not make much sense --   
   like it makes any sense now.  Let's just say that "The Ledger" is a third   
   attempt at trying to make a viable working Commodore program out of a paper   
   system that worked well for years in the Roach household.  The other two   
   attempts were the aforementioned "Obligator Coordinator" and "Bill   
   Attack!", both of which will be discussed in the future.   
      
   At first glance, "The Ledger" is the most comprehensive work I have done so   
   far on making my ex-wife's paperwork into a Commodore reality, but one   
   thing I wanted to do was make the program more "push button" friendly.  The   
   hardest part of using the program is inputting all the data off your bill   
   statement into the Commodore and saving all that information under its own   
   file name.  This I don't think I can change much.  There is a lot of data   
   required for the files that little, or even nothing, to do with making the   
   program work, but it is a great database to hold information for   
   references.   
      
   When I looked at "The Ledger" after all this time (I think my last update   
   was two years ago) I'm thinking that a time stamp would be helpful for   
   future notes.  The time stamp could also be used to roll over the next   
   payment as a future reference.  For example, the program could make note   
   that you just made a house payment on 05/22/16 and your next payment won't   
   be due until 06/22/16.  This should be able to be done by assigning the   
   month as a separate variable (like M) and then telling the Commodore that   
   we are going to advance the M variable to the next month by using the   
   formula:  M=M+1.   
      
   Then, when all the data is to where the user likes it, just press something   
   like F1 and voila!  The data is saved in a simple sequential file onto   
   disk.  Right now as it stands, "The Ledger" allows the user something like   
   that, but it's the user that inputs that informatio   
      
   --- MBSE BBS v1.0.4 (GNU/Linux-i386)   
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