Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 09:46:09 -0400
From: "J. Weaver Jr." <jwjr@pobox.com>
To: af960@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca
Subject: Permission to make programs available for download

I am J. Weaver Jr., author of "Outhouse" and "Intercept 4". Please
consider this email as my permission to obtain and distribute complete
copies of both of these programs on your site. (Sadly, I don't have them
to _give_ you...)

FYI, a _lot_ of the work of converting my original "Outhouse" for the
TRS-80 I/III (distributed by Soft Sector Marketing of Garden City, MI)
to the CoCo was done by Larry Ashmun. The game was orignally going to be
an SSM release; when SSM started going belly-up just before its
completion, Larry insisted that I remove his name from the credits and
take the game cross-town to Computer Shack, where it became my first
release for them. So, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like you to modify the
"Author" listing on "Outhouse" to read:

  Author: J. Weaver Jr. (Factory Programming); Larry Ashmun (uncredited)

My last two I/III games for SSM, "Yield" and "Pulsar", got "stuck" in
the bankruptcy proceedings, and were only released _years_ later, as a
special double-disk. "Yield" I was very fond of - it was a race through
city street with a half-dozen enemies in pursuit, with the object being
to completely encircle selected "blocks" of the city. As you may have
guessed by now, the core of that then-unused code became the second
stage of "Intercept 4", wherein you hover over those same city streets
in double-joystick pursuit (one moving, one firing, a la "Robotron
2084") of the grounded enemies.

FYI, there's a _third_ stage of I4, involving the Big Red Mothership
from which all the Nasties previously encountered were launched.
Defeating the Mothership scored a massive bonus, based on the number of
colonies (and colonists) you managed to save in the previous two stages.
John and I may have made the game a bit too difficult overall, though -
of all the writeups and reviews I ever saw for I4, no one ever mentioned
the Mothership; I have the feeling no one ever made it that far.
<sheepish grin>

Thanks!  -JW

SECOND EMAIL:

Subject: Re: Catalyst
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 08:04:57 -0400
From: "J. Weaver Jr." <jwjr@pobox.com>
Organization: maybe we'll have some on Thursday, after the maids come
To: Curtis Boyle <curtisboyle@sasktel.net>

Curtis Boyle wrote:
>
>     I borrowed the Glenside Color Computer Club games collection at the
> last Fest, and discoverd another Computer Shack game with your name
> attached to it: Catalyst. Unfortunately, no directions. Do you 1)
> remember how to play the game, and 2) want it to be released for
> download like Outhouse and Intercept 4?

1. Sort of. As I remember, you're trying to form "molecules", if you
will, by catching the little bouncing "electrons" on the side of your
moveable "nucleus". (Obviously, I was going through a phrase of bizarre
inspirations.) I _think_ you start by needing only to catch one electron
to complete the level; I know it gets harder as it goes along, as far as
the number of electrons you need to catch.

2. Sure!  -JW