This was originally published on July 1, 1995. By Craig W. Boyrsowich.

It certainly has not been a secret that International Business Machines has never had any faith in the personal computer. Even when it was first released in 1981, IBM felt that these machines would never overshadow the mainstream mainframe operations that IBM has always dominated. This would be only their first mistake.

The most basic PC in ‘81 would cost an average consumer $5000.00, which certainly didn't make Commodore and Apple nervous of loosing any market share.

Even though it was touted as being the revolution business was waiting for, IBM itself didn't buy in. It was created with old technology from Intel on the 8088/8086 processor, and a cryptic operating system produced by a then small basement operation known as Microsoft, although Bill Gates has not been seen sending any big thank you cards in IBM's direction. If IBM believed that the PC would become such a commodity then, as it is today, the industry would sure look different.

Abandoning the specifications of ISA to the public domain, IBM went on their merry way to release the AT computer among many sprouting competitors. The AT, based now on an Intel 80286 processor, was a service nightmare for IBM. Thousands of crashed CMS brand Hard Drives were dumped in the bay offshore from IBM's Boca Raton research centre by disgruntled customers.

The decline would continue with the release of IBM's PCjr. A novel concept in computing technology - design a hamstrung machine that expands like an AS/400. IBM would soon learn that their midrange concepts did not apply too well to the PC world (as infantile as it was). The concept of a cordless infra red keyboard was exciting enough if you liked to type at the proper angle to have the holes line up with the infra red receiver. This got harder as you moved further away from the machine. IBM's MCGA standard which was supported by maybe 3 or 4 software products and even found it's way into the windows operating system later on, never got recognized as an achievement. A full blown system would see the size of the box almost triple!  You could add side cars, top cars, even an undercar module. Of course, some could only be used if other modules were present, and even had to be stacked in a certain order which never seemed to get mentioned in the instructions or the advertising.

Now IBM had a surge of brilliance to redeem it's market from the Clones by releasing a brand new architecture know as MicroChannel. Again IBM applied it's mainframe background to design a more advanced architecture and forced us to look at the ugly blobs known and marketed as PS/2. But this architecture was closed and patented. The Cloners could not create a duplicate without paying licencing fees to Big Blue. Even third party add on manufacturers had to pay to produce upgrade cards for the MicroChannel architecture. This was a wonderful Idea other than they never took advantage of half of the great and exciting benefits in the MicroChannel architecture (not even with the OS/2 operating system!!). They also chose to use ESDI hard disk technology. This is after IDE was practically chosen as an industry standard for PC machines. With IDE on the Market, who wants a revamped MFM/RLL based hard disk?  The least they could have done if they were scrounging around for expensive non-standard equipment to justify charging the ridiculous prices, was to go with SCSI. SCSI was barely known to Macintosh users at this time. Even today the enormous benefits of MCA, and it's load balancing, and it's superior bandwidth continue to go untapped. The cloners were still smarter. They combated MCA with a new public standard which was EISA. That record didn't get much play either, though they proved time again that EISA could beat MCA hands down performing day to day tasks.

IBM gave the breath of life to the Monolith we call Microsoft today (sometimes Microsquish, Muckrosift, Microslop, etc.). Even when they had a chance to build a partnership to give IBM a share of the PC operating system market with OS/2, IBM blew that opportunity apart. They did however keep the rights to OS/2 and have managed to create more marketing literature, advertisements, brochures, and presentations than any other product marketed in history to achieve only a nominal amount of sales. And now IBM has it on the books to cancel the OS/2 operating system if major improvements in its market share are not seen soon. They are also trying to produce the Taligent operating system jointly with Apple Computer to run on the PowerPC Platform (but we won't see any of that until the end of ‘96). IBM originally released the PowerPC workstations in summer of ‘94 (as part of the Risc6000 family). In November of ‘94, it was said that they would hold back the release of their PC level PowerPCs until the availability of the PowerPC version of OS/2, which was called for Q1 ‘95. IBM really had egg on their faces when in late Q1, early Q2 ‘95, they released the higher end PC level PowerPC machines with no OS/2. The PowerPC version of OS/2 is now expected sometime in Q1 of ‘96. Apple ran away with the PowerPC market after moving close to 400,000 units in Q4 of ‘94. That is great for any PC manufacturer.
 

Photo Credit: ugur akdemir

This was originally published on July 1, 1995.

Microsoft has long been known for their prowess in operating systems and business applications, but they have also been a long time proponent of CDROM technology for the home. Cinemania '95 is one of their MICROSOFT HOME offerings which demonstrates this commitment.

Cinemania '95 is more than just a "look up the movie" CDROM. With film clips, audio sound bites and still photographs, you're immersed into the world of movies in true Hollywood fashion.

But, all isn't fluff and light. This CDROM is dead serious about the information supplied to you. Using Roger Ebert's Video Companion, Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide, Ephraim Katz's The Film and Pauline Kael's 5001 Nights at the Movies, you are surrounded by the best minds in the business when you look up a movie.

Looking up a movie couldn't be simpler using Microsoft's interface. You can search by File Name, Actor Name and many other methods. In fact, you can even have Cinemania '95 pick a movie for you based on your mood and the type of movie you want to see. Incredible!

With more than 19,000 reviews spanning over 80 years of file, there hasn't been a movie on cable that didn't make this disc! In addition to the reviews you may even see one of the 4000 actor biographies that accompany the films.

If you like have cable and watch movies, this CD is an absolute necessity. If you rent movies often, this CD is an absolute necessity. If you own a satellite dish, this CD should be part of your installation package!

Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 (800) 228-6270 CompuServe: GO MICROSOFT URL: http://www.microsoft.com

This was originally published on June 17, 1995. 

Telix is one of the older terminal programs available on the market. Once only known to hobbyists, it has burst onto the commercial software scene with strong sales of its Windows version.

Jeff Woods has been Mr. Telix for as long as I have noticed. In addition to his Mr. Telix hat, he is also a person with a strong vision of the telecommunication marketplace and how it relates to real people.

Enjoy the interview!

PG: You have been a long time Telix supporter. How did the situation where you could buy Telix come about? What kind of financing did you need to secure?

JW: For the entire time I worked for Colin Sampaleanu at Exis, Inc., I was the sole employee.  I did everything but write the program (and toward the end, I did that, too, for Telix for Windows).  For the amount of sales we had and the number of customers we had, I knew that we needed to expand, but Colin was (and is) a programmer at heart and not a business person.  I'm a fifth-generation entrepreneur, and only a half-hearted programmer, so it was really a match made in heaven.  Wehn Exis decided that we would not exhibit nor attend the first BBSCON in Denver in 1992, I went on my own, during my vacation time.  I paid for my own trip, lodging, and attendance.  When I came back, I left a carefully written report on Colin's desk for him to read over Labor Day weekend, about what I'd seen and what I felt he needed to do to compete. When he came back from his vacation to Europe, he read the report, and the crucial line which was to the effect that if he didn't adopt the Windows platform, hire more staff, and grow the company, that he may as well close up shop.  I was QUITE surprised when he decided to do exactly that, claiming he'd worked on Telix for six years, and was ready to move on to something else.  While he felt he'd done as much as he wanted to with Telix, I felt it had much more life left in it, and I wasn't ready to call it quits.  I don't really feel the need to discuss the financing of the buyout, other than to say that it would be a fair statement that both parties came out ahead and got what they wanted in the agreement.

PG: Telix is a great product, but what else deltaComm do to generate revenue?

JW: I don't want to tip our hand too greatly, but there are an awful lot of modems out there that don't get used due to fear of cyberspace.  Its estimated that eighty percent of modems are "shelf-ware" and we're working on a concept to bring these people online.

PG: No one can just "do computers" all the time. Do you hit the golf course? Play a little ping pong? What?

JW: I'm an avid whitewater rafter, taking four or five trips each season on the big waters of the Upper Gauley (WV), the Upper Yough (MD), and the Russell Fork (VA/KY) to name a few of my recent trips.  I also like to travel, and am a "concert junkie", seeing numerous shows in many different cities.  I saw maybe 40 concerts in 1994, in places ranging from my hometown of Raleigh (Eagles, Pink Floyd) to Las Vegas, Atlanta (Elton John and Billy Joel), Washington, DC, and as far away as London, England for my favorite band, Marillion.

PG: Do the words Pearl Jam mean anything to you? What type of music are you in to?

JW: Looks like I got a little ahead of you there. <grin>  The music I listen to has been described by some as "neo-progressive".  The artists range from those you'd recognize, like pre-Collins' Genesis, Yes, ELP, and Tori Amos, to those you probably wouldn't, like Marillion, Iluvatar, Castanarc, Pendragon, Il Trono Dei Ricordi, and the new sound out of San Francisco, Enchant.

PG: How did you get involved with PCs? What about your first modem?

JW: I sincerely hope he's reading this, because I've never really told this story in print.  I was a TRS-80 person, one of the original owners of the Model 1 in 1977.  It had a 300 bps acoustic coupler, and I wrote my own BBS program for it in 1983, without really knowing what I was doing. It was crash-prone, interpretted BASIC, but it worked. My first IBM-clone was a Tandy laptop with an internal 1200 bps modem.  I was living in San Diego at the time, and was just starting to discover the online world when a sysop there named John Dwulet, who ran San Diego PCBoard, cut me up hard on an echo when he claimed something to the effect of "I couldn't tell a UART from a CPU to save my life", which was most likely true at the time.  I felt the guy was arrogant and full of hate after I heard that he'd come into the Radio Shack where I worked at the time, to check out who I was and such, without telling me who I was. He pretended to be interested in a computer, and grilled me pretty hard, and later related the incident on his BBS putting me in a very bad light.  I then decided that I was going to learn as much as I could about this subject, so that this couldn't happen again.  I guess it worked, as the last time I looked at a San Diego BBS list, his board was down, and I was now the author and owner of Telix.  I don't know what ever became of John, but he was the catalyst, and probably never knew it.

PG: Ok. Just like everyone asks a car reviewer or mechanic what kind of car they drive, what is the configuration and type of your primary PC?

JW: Its likely to change shortly.  Right now its a 486-66 with 16 MB of RAM, a Diamond Viper VLB, and a Creative Labs Discovery Multimedia pack (4x CD, Sound Blaster 16).  The modems are a PPI v.34 and a USR Courier v.32bis Dual Standard, and the hard drive is 340 MB.  I'm about to upgrade for the first time in a long time, to a Pentium 120, 32 MB of RAM, and an STB Powergraph 64 video card, but the rest will stay the same.

PG: Define the Information Superhighway in your own words.

JW: Its really too broad to define in just a few sentences, and it means many different things to many different people.  I think its probably misnamed by the trade press as a "superhighway".  I see it more as the next logical extension of the telephone system.  Almost every home in America and perhaps the world is interconnected by what the telcos rightly call their "networks", and the interface to that is the telephone.  The so-called "Information Superhighway" is the interconnecting of the computers of the world so that they can share information in much the same way, only faster and electronically.  I don't think the idea has really taken its final form, nor will we see its true benefits until it is as pervasive as the telephone is today, perhaps in about 10-20 years.

PG: Why did you choose PCBoard as BBS software? What are the pitfalls you see with it? What are the benefits?

JW: I started with PCBoard when I was student sysop at Arizona State University.  That was the BBS they had in place, and as part of my drive to learn, I volunteered to run their PCBoard BBS, which was languishing unattended.  That was PCBoard 11.0, serial number below 100, one of the first purchased commercially.  I'll leave a direct comparison of the BBS products to their respective authors, as I'm really not an unbiased person when it comes to most of their author-companies.

PG: What's your favorite joke?

JW: It's called the smushed dead frog on a leash, and it's unprintable in this article.  Ask me privately sometime.

PG: If the Presidential election were held tomorrow and President Clinton was running against Senator Dole, which would you vote for and why?

JW: Patrick, trust me, you don't want to get me started here on politics. You'll never shut me up (ask any of my employees).  Lets just leave it with the notion that I named my dog "Dittohead" shall we?  ;-)

This interview was first published on June 10, 1995.

This week we talk with Robert Vostreys. Never heard of him? That's ok. He is the reason that QWK based networks exist in the PCBoard world. With his program RNET, more than a thousand PCBoard sysops can share messages among themselves without worry of bugs, dupes or crashes.

Robert also runs a very successful BBS, Father Than Light, and has brought some neat ideas on sysoping to the tables!

PG:  No one can just "do computers" all the time. Do you hit the golf course? Play a little ping pong? What?

RV: Actually, I do "do computers" all the time.  Ok, I do go out to the movies occasionally, I read science fiction when I make the time, and about once a month I drive a long haul truck route.  I have a nice telescope, but haven't used it in years (sigh).  I'm kinda like Scotty from Star Trek -- for a vacation I read technical manuals.

PG: What other shareware products do you offer? Commercial programs?

RV: While 90% of what I've put out for Sysops is in the public domain, there are two shareware programs (two that I ask for registrations for): RNET and TXT2MSG.

As for commercial software, I have a number of serious utilities for PCBoard/Sysops including: UUFTL File Decoder, Email MX processor, Ping/Finger/Telnet/etc (TCP/IP service doors), NNTP Poller, WWW/FTP Server, AutoFTP, and SLIP/PPP doors.  As you can see, the direction lately has been toward Internet TCP/IP and Usenet based packages.

In the non-BBSing realm, I write commercial database applications (usually for mailorder and inventory systems) and finance company accounting/database software.  Accounting software was the primary focus for several years but has given way to running the BBS full time for the past two years.

PG: Do the words Pearl Jam mean anything to you? What type of music are you in to?

RV: Er, is that anything like Grape Jam?  I don't think grinding up pearls would be very tasty.  Based on your second question, I'll assume it's a music group of some type.

I like Classic Rock and usually loud when driving.  Cream, Floyd, Zepplin, etc. I also like classical and folk music.  I don't like anything with a 3/4 beat.

PG: How is RNET selling? Well enough to live off of? If not, what do you do for a living?

RV: It has been dropping off (as expected).  It is a VERY limited market product -- only used by PCBoard/Prodoor Sysops who want to be part of a QWK based echo network.  While it has many useful features beyond its echo abilities, nobody but that small market has any excuse to look at it.

It was originally written to get around the problems with the only other existing tosser at the time.  The author was very unresponsive to getting things fixed so I had to write something.  Roger Sligar also had the same problems with his board so I gave it to him.  He convinced me to put it out as shareware to provide Sysops with a solution to the problems they were facing.  I expected to get maybe a dozen or so registrations in a year.  However, it had a dozen registrations in the first week and went from there.

All the registrations have gone directly into the board and its expansion.  It was due mostly to RNET that the board remained a free access system for seven years.

What do I do for a living?  I "do computers" <heh>.  I do contract programming / consulting, sell hardware, and drive the occasional long haul truck route to get away from it all.

However, things are changing.  I and several others are in the middle of putting together a corporation to act as an Internet Service Provider and software development company.  And you can be assured that it'll be very "Sysop Friendly" since I, being a Sysop, have a good idea what pains Sysops have to go through.

PG: Ok. Just like everyone asks a car reviewer or mechanic what kind of car they drive, what is the configuration and type of your primary PC?

RV: My personal machine is a 386/40, 8mb RAM, 260mb HD, SVGA.

If you are asking what the BBS runs on, it varies from a 286/12 that just won't die up to a pair of 486/100's running OS2 Warp.  It drives some folks crasy that I have mostly 486's here and yet still use a 386/40 that doesn't even have a power switch (it has never been turned off since being put together).

PG: Are you afraid that Clark Development will incorporate the functionality of RNET into PCB at any time? They have done that with Fido technology.

RV: Nope, not at all.  If PCBoard (or another product) did what RNET does, then RNET wouldn't be needed anymore.  I didn't write it to sell, and I don't keep writing it to make anything.  It continues to exist and expand soley for the benefit of the Sysops who need it.  If it wasn't for habit and my liking to know folks are still getting use of it, it would be freeware.

Clark Development has implemented many of RNET's features specifically because of RNET Sysops asking for them.  A perfect example is the PCBPACK /THreashold command.

PG: Your also a pretty insightful sysop, define the Information Superhighway in your own words.

RV: It's a toll road that leads into a hay stack looking for a needle.

RV: The problem is that there is no intelligent filtering of the vast amounts of information available.  Information overload.  The next big step in software technology will be the software ability to search, analyze, and filter information of any and all types to find what someone is looking for without swamping them.

As binary indexed databases made a difference, followed by GUI interfaces and applications generators, the next leap will be filter technology.  All this information is just great -- but it takes forever on to impossible to find the best answers to your questions.  You may find an answer somewhere (manually searching), but is that the best answer?  Is there a better, more complete, more up to date answer somewhere else you haven't looked?  Software search and filtering technology will be required before the true value of the "Information Superhighway" is seen.

I believe that with the development of the software technology to search and filter the information available, the "Information Superhighway" will change definition to mean those tools themselves.

PG: The QWK format has undergone very little changes over the years. Do you think it is ready for an overhaul? If so, in what areas? If not, why not?

RV: QWK not changing isn't for the lack of need.  The only real reason QWK hasn't changed is due to the originator of the QWK format (which is simply the PCBoard 12 message base format with a few extra fields) dragging his heels and being unresponsive to suggested changes.

QWK needs to die.  It no longer suit the needs of Sysops nor of Users. However, it has mass and momentum.  Various other formats and systems have come out, but none have taken hold as well as QWK.  It's advantage was it's timing on the market.  The BBS community (that which was not on Fido technology already) was ready for echonetworks.  It provided the means of accomplishing that.  That's where it stopped. While better mouse traps (including RNET) have come along, they're still mouse traps.

As for reader technology, QWK is in even worse shape than network wise.

PG: I'm a sysop of a BBS. What are the top five things I can do to attract paying callers?

RV: I've run a free (donation) system for the last 8 years so I don't really know the answer to that one.  I'll make some common sense guesses:

1. Support your customers (users).  Use voice support lines, be professional, answer all questions in a timely manner.  Listen very carefully to what your customers tell you.

2. Know your market.  You need to know what the users in your area are in need/want of and try to provide it.  If your users are mostly into games, provide games.  If your users are mostly into files, get lots of files.

3. Advertize.  Doesn't matter if you have the best system in the world if nobody knows about it.

4. Have a style or a primary purpose.  A "general, do everything" system is undefined and just like any other.  Have a unique system style or focus without losing compatibility with the general marketplace.

5. Price your services well.  Pricing too low or too high will discourage users.  If your system was $1/year, folks will not feel there is anything worthwhile or you are not serious.  If you price at $500/year, you'll have very little in the way of customers and/or have a very limited nitch market.

This review originally appeared on May 21, 1995 by Chip Cox. It's funny to look at how the personal information market (PIM) shook out through the 1990s. At this point most people use Outlook. 

Organizer 2 is a computerized scheduling system.  It incorporates multiple calendars, project schedules, an address book, anniversary schedule, call history section , notepad and a to-do list into a easy to manage system.  Since I started working with Organizer I have become increasingly dependent on it for organizing my week.  Schedules can be viewed in a variety of formats.  These include different levels of detail depending on the time span displayed on a page.  The to-do list is the section I use most.

Activities are separated by due date (Future, Current, Overdue, and Completed).  Within each category they are sorted by date and priority. The Notepad section provides a categorized set of notepad pages to write down quick notes and updates on projects or any other task.  I keep notes concerning development projects I am working on in my notepad. This allows me to review the status on each project without having to place large amounts of text in my to-do list.  The planner section displays either a quart quarterly or yearly calendar with up to 4 projects tracked on each day.  Mine shows days I will be in training and days I will be on vacation.  Meetings scheduled in my calendar also are displayed on the project plan.  The Address section provides a phone and address list for both business and home contacts.  The anniversary section is one of the default calendars. Other calendars can be created and loaded. A Holiday calendar is shipped with Organizer.  Organizer 2 has a very nice section for tracking calls.  Th is section includes the name of the person called.  The time of the call.  The duration of the call is tracked as well as the result of the call (busy, completed). All of these features work together to help busy executives plan their schedules.

Some of the features of organizer mentioned above deserve to be covered in greater detail.  The calendar functions allow scheduled events to be repeated.  Organizer provides a wide range of choices to describe when an event should be repeated.  These choices range from daily to every tenth year unless it is on a weekend and then it should be moved to the nearest week day.  Organizer also will find time in your schedule for a meeting and warn you if a scheduled time conflicts with another commitment.  The all section includes an auto dialer if you have a modem attached to your system.  This is one of those tools I never had much use for but I can see where it would be very useful to a sales person or a telemarketing representative who spends their day on the phone.

A couple of nice features I was not able to test out on my configuration at my home but that we use with Organizer at work, are the calendar sharing and appointment scheduling features.  When installed on a LAN Organizer will allow users on the same fileserver to view each others calendars and actually schedule meetings for each other.  The recipient of the meeting has the right to decline to attend and reschedule the meeting.  At work, my coworkers and I use this feature primarily to keep up with what h other will be doing during the day.  I can see their calendars reflected on my calendar.  Users who are not on the same fileserver are not out of luck.  Lotus uses several popular e-Mail programs to exchange appointment requests between users on different file servers.  My experience has been with cc:Mail and after a slightly tedious setup procedure in cc:Mail for the users, the process works wonderfully from organizer.

Organizer also supports printing schedules in a variety of formats. Many of these formats conform to popular daily scheduling books.  Since organizer runs in Microsoft Windows no special setup is needed to work with most printers.

In conclusion, Organizer 2 is a giant step forward for Lotus organizer. As with any product it takes a little time to get used to but is well worth the effort.  If you are upgrading from a previous version of Organizer, you will find Organizer 2 faster and easier to use with many more options than previous versions.  If you are new to Organizer you will be happy with the options offered and the flexibility of the product.  One final note, There is one downside to using organizer at home.  My wife has d discovered Organizer. My to do list now shows that I have to cut the grass, finish building the patio, and wash the car this weekend.

Lotus Corporation 55 Cambridge Pky Cambridge, MA 02142 (800) TRADE-UP CompuServe: GO LOTUS WWW: http://www.lotus.com

This interview appeared on May 21, 1995 during the time that Doom was sweeping the world. 

OK, I know most of you have become hooked at one time or another on Doom! Admit it. That is the first step to becoming cured!

You have probably run to the Doom FAQ for help or highlights on getting through the various levels. Were you aware the FAQ is pretty much considered the bible of Doom? In that case the high priest must be Hank Leukart.

Hank Who? Look at the author of your Doom guidebook you just bought at the store. That Hank!

As close as an expert as one can get without actually have written the game, Hank's involvement with Doom has been skyward since the beginning. Here's our chat with him . . .

PG: Do the words Pearl Jam mean anything to you? What type of music are you in to?

HL: Yes, I have heard Pearl Jam, but I don't listen to them to often.  I enjoy music like Sting, Boyz II Men, Liz Phair, and Hoodi and the Blowfish, as well as come classical; in other words, a pretty big variety.  I don't care what kind of music it is, as long as it sounds good!

PG: Ok. Just like everyone asks a car reviewer or mechanic what kind of car they drive, what is the configuration and type of your primary PC?

HL: I recently purchased (in January) a Micron Pentium 90 with 16mb of RAM, a 1gb hard drive, a 17" monitor, a 2mb Diamond Stealth video card, a Sound Blaster AWE32 (and I use a Gravis Ultrasound sometimes as well), and 4x CD-ROM drive.  I connect to the Internet using a 28.8k GVX Maxtech FAX Modem (alas, I don't have a T1 connection), use a mouse for DOOM and a Gravis Gamepad for One Must Fall.  I run Windows NT in addition to DOS.

PG: Define the Information Superhighway in your own words.

HL: The Information Superhighway is an annoying phrase that the public and media have picked up to describe the Internet.  It is overhyped and overused.  The Internet is very cool when people know how to use it. The REAL Information Superhighway (the one Gore talks about) has not been (and may never be) built yet.

PG: When did your involvement with PCs begin? How?

HL: Our family had their first computer when I was about 2 years old: an Apple II+.  I remember playing Olympic Decathalon day in and day out with my sisters.  I first started using a modem about four years ago and came on the Internet about two years ago.

PG: In this text medium its hard to visualize a person. Describe yourself so we get a good picture of your physical presence.

HL: I'm a white, 16-year old male with curly brown hair, blue eyes, six feet tall, and a longish face.  Of course, you can check out my picture at my home page (http://www.portal.com/~hleukart).

PG: We know you have written one book. How is it doing? What have you blown the money on?

HL: The book is doing quite well and is already in its second reprint. With the additional amount of publicity that will appear in the upcoming months, the book should do very well!  All of the E-mail I have gotten about the book is ALL positive, which is rare considering that most people prefer to complain about things then to complement people on them! I bought my new Pentium with a small portion of the advance and have thrown everything else in the bank to gain interest.

PG: Any future plans for a book? Any more Doom merchandising involvement?

HL: I don't have any more plans for "DOOM merchandising," but I do hope to write more books!  No definite plans as yet.

PG: Why do you think Doom became as popular as it is? Explain . . .

HL: I'm asked this question a lot by interviewers.  Here are the four major reasons why DOOM is so incredibly popular:

(1) The violence.  The public is attracted to sex and violence, and DOOM definitely has violence.  Blood is thrown everywhere and living things explode all over the place! (2) The realism.  People are fascinated by the reproduction of reality on a computer screen.  The game seems so real and so life-like. (3) The ability to edit.  After you've played the standard DOOM levels, you're not done with the game.  People love making their own enemies, maps, and sounds to actually CUSTOMIZE and already great game. (4) Multiplayer ability.  After you've beaten the computer 100 times over, computer games tend to be a little boring. DOOM changes all that by allowing you to compete with other human players anytime you wish by allowing modem and network support.

PG: Has ID Software ever formally contacted you concerning your involvement as a FAQ and book author? What was it like?

HL: I have E-mailed id on many occasions discussing the FAQ and the like.  What was it like?  On the Internet, everyone is behind a computer screen--it was no different E-mailing id than it was E-mailing a stranger. ;)

PG: Where do think games on the PC are going? Describe your perfect game

HL: There are so many types of different PC games that it is hard to make a generalization about where they "are going."  Definitely, we're going to see a lot more realistic games in the future with better graphics, sounds, and gameplay.  Hopefully, virtual virtual reality will become mainstream.  The best type of games are definitely what the kind of games that id strives to create: games with "complete immersion" capabilities.
 

This interview was first published on May 14, 1995.

The ASP is probably the most influential organizations in the consumer computer world today? Don't know what ASP stands for? Try Association of Shareware Professionals. This organization, sporting thousands of members, is banded together to promote shareware as a viable distribution method. Don't know what shareware is? Basically, the way you purchase the software is to try it before you buy it.

Rich Harper has been president of the organization during the most turbulent time the organization has faced. Through this his patient, guiding hand has lead to greater growth and expansion. Here is what he has to say . . .

PG: No one can just "do computers" all the time. Do you hit the golf course? Play a little ping pong? What?

RH: My "real job" is working as a paramedic for a rural ambulance service. When I find time between that and my Presidential duties, I bicycle and canoe.

PG: Do the words Pearl Jam mean anything to you? What type of music are you in to?

RH: Pearl Jam - isn't that what happens when you drop your wife's necklace into the garbage disposal? :-) I tend to listen to mostly 70's and 80's rock, with emphasis on groups like Genesis and Electric Light Orchestra, and just enough recent music thrown in to keep it from getting stale.

PG: Ok. Just like everyone asks a car reviewer or mechanic what kind of car they drive, what is the configuration and type of your primary PC?

RH: My bread and butter system is a 486SX2/66 with eight megs of RAM, SVGA and a 15" monitor, double speed CD-ROM, SoundMan WAVE card, 850 megs of HD space, tape backup, internal 28.8 modem, and a lovely cordless mouse. I also have a 486DLC-40 with 4 megs RAM, SVGA and a 14" monitor, single speed CD-ROM drive and a ProAudio16 sound card - but my son has dibs on that one.

PG: Define the Information Superhighway in your own words.

RH: Avoiding all the marketing hype and allowing for the fact that some people wouldn't recognize it if they ran into it - it seems to me that whatever path you can find from your computer to the information you need qualifies.