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 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 ^^^^^^^^^^*by JACK SUGHRUE, Box
 459, East Douglas, MA 01516*

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^#11	

    THE LADY FROM LOWER BURRELL

 Mickey Schmitt, president of the West
 Penn 99ers, is a young lady with
 extraordinarily varied T.I.
 interests and talents. She is an
 ardent fairgoer, ranging along the
 eastern seaboard inland to Lima,
 Ohio, and north to Canada, visiting
 with her hundreds of TI friends and
 fans and oftentimes representing
 groups or companies who couldn't
 attend.

     Mickey is an author, programmer,
 tutor, collector, and adventure
 
aficionado whose great sense of
 humor shows through almost all her
 activities.  For example, in a very
 clever adventure she wrote for the TI
 Adventure Module (OLIVER'S TWIST -
 cassette or disk, Asgard, $7.95), she
 requires the player to PUT BACK
 treasures in order to win the game.
 Her latest Asgard adventure,
 RATTLESNAKE BEND, is like John Wayne
 playing Viva Zapata.  Wild, hilarious
 stuff.  But hidden beneath the
 jocularity is a mean adventure
 guaranteed to please, pardner.

     Adventuring seems to be in
 Mickey's blood.  She is THE expert in
 the field.  If there is an adventure
 for the TI she hasn't uncovered and
 played, it was probably written this
 morning.

     A few years ago we had a chance
 to talk for awhile at one of the
 computer fairs, and she felt there
 was a real need to compile a listing
 of all the various adventures
 available for the TI so that users
 could have some kind of idea what is
 out there.  I agreed but felt the
 task was formidable.  Mickey didn't,
 fortunately for the TI community.
 She began collecting, sorting, doing,
 evaluating, and compiling every
 available adventure for the TI.

     The result of this massive
 undertaking is THE ADVENTURE
 REFERENCE GUIDE, a 62-page, 8x11"
 commercially printed, easy to read
 book that not only gives a complete
 alphabetical listing of over 200
 adventures but breaks them down into
 different sections by language (XB,
 E/A, etc.) and type (INFOCOM,
 Educational, Role-playing, etc.).
 There are astute reviews of selected
 adventures and sections on sources,
 utilities, and adventuring history.
 There is also a checklist for solving
 and comments.  This is an
 indispensable guide for any
 adventuring TIer (from Asgard, Box
 10306, Rockville, MD 20848; $9.95 /
 $2 S&&H).  [Last I heard, Mickey was
 continuing to test new and new-found
 adventures for updating this magnum
 opus.

     If you own Scott Adams' ADVENTURE
 MODULE or the disk loader interpreter
 of this module available from user
 groups, I'd highly recommend
 investing in Mickey's two games.

     Life is strange.  At least the
 life that goes on inside my head.
 When I sat down to write this article
 I was planning a review of Mickey's
 newest book on cassette systems.  But
 I pulled out THE ADVENTURE REFERENCE
 GUIDE from the Mickey Schmitt section
 of my TI library by mistake and
 couldn't resist rereading it.  Then I
 couldn't resist playing SORCERER (an
 INFOCOM game reviewed in the book by
 Mickey which I had started but never
 finished).  Then I couldn't resist
 eating lunch, still thinking of the
 spells and magic items I needed to
 get out of the SORCERER.) Finally, I
 put all that stuff behind (more from
 frustration than feeling the noble
 urge to return to task) and got back
 to doing this review. But I couldn't
 resist writing about this woman's
 profound adventuring influence
 first.  Now, the "real" topic of this
 review: GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR
 CASSETTE SYSTEM.

     GETTING is based on the series of
 articles by the same name that
 appears in newsletters throughout the
 world.  This entirely rewritten work
 is a professionally published, 8x11",
 52-page, loose-leaf package,
 containing all the original (though
 updated and revised) articles that
 first appeared in her group
 newsletter.

     Not only is this book handy for
 what it does, but Mickey has provided
 a way for user groups to make a few
 kopeks on it.  She is offering this
 project for $9.95 plus $2.50 S&&H to
 any individual or user group.  User
 groups need only purchase a single
 copy.  She grants the rights for the
 group to reproduce it entirely for
 members of the group free or as a
 fundraiser, providing no copies are
 given or sold to persons outside the
 group.  Neat idea.  Hope it catches
 on.  The packages must be ordered
 directly from the author: Mickey
 Schmitt, 196 Broadway Avenue, Lower
 Burrell, PA 15068.

     Now, what does GETTING get you?

     First, a chance to rethink your
 group membership and future growth,
 because the cassette is still a
 powerful tool for a beginner or basic
 user.  This book might just show your
 group new ways to attract new (or
 old) members into the fold.

 Second, it opens one's eyes to lots
 of possibilities of cassetting
 previously unexplored.  One of my TIs
 at school is cassetted, for example,
 and this book proved to be an immense
 help in ways I never dreamed of.
 More on this later.

     Finally, this book made a
 multi-system user of me.  I really
 only need one disk drive system to do
 all the tasks I do, but many times
 the system is tied up with heavy-duty
 printing or converting graphics or
 any number of long-time chores.
 Rather than sit and wait or go watch
 TV or clean my wallaby's teeth, I
 just move over to my OTHER TI SYSTEM!
 That's right.  I have set my other
 console ($3 at a yard sale) onto a TV
 with a tape recorder hookup.  Many
 nights I now just use the SILENT tape
 recorder system for some utility or
 recreational use.  And I'm finding
 more and more uses, including lots of
 cartridge (MINIMEM, LOGO, etc.)
 activities I had forgotten were so
 exceptional, even with tape.  I have
 a sidecar 32K, though many people are
 putting the chip right in or making
 that chip part of a Zenoboard
 package.  Anyway, with 32K and Will
 McGovern's CASSTRANS I can load
 ASSEMBLY games and utilites into my
 computer from tape.  I can
 AUTOMATICALLY!!! locate and RUN
 programs from my tape recorder with
 Joseph Bartle's CS1*FINDEX.  I have
 my cassette boxes labeled and a
 catalog on each tape, thanks to
 Mickey's LABEL and CATALOG programs.
 All this stuff, by the way, is in the
 book in short, easy to type in,
 clever programs.  (Will's program is
 Fairware and in all group
 libraries.) No more being restricted
 to BASIC and XB files.  Now I can
 play FREDDY from my tape recorder.
 No more searching for programs.  I
 don't even need a tape recorder with
 a counter on it anymore.  Now, like
 the Timex/Sinclair user, I can
 automatically run a program anywhere
 on a C-60 tape after locating it in
 the FAST FORWARD speed mode! In
 short, tape recorders have come of
 age.  They can be powerful and fast
 and reasonably efficient and
 orderly.

     Mickey's book is extremely
 non-technical.  She explains
 everything about computer taping from
 the VERY beginnings to the state of
 the art.  And it really might get you
 into that SECOND system.

 [If you use NEW-AGE/99 please put
 me on your exchange list.]
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