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About Mushroom PDMushroom PD was set up ny myself, back in February 1994. The reason I set it up wa simple. I couldnt find any good quality AMOS public domain, as at this time, I was a fairly new programmer, and often required a few pieces of software to look at to show me how particular routines were done. Alas, there were not all that many AMOS public domain sites around, and the only real AMOS disks I could find were that in PD bins, and on certain CD collections in DMS format. PD in shops was around 2 to 3 pounds a disk, which was a little too expensive. Then along came Mushroom PD. I began collecting all the AMOS games and utilities I could find. Sources included the Amiga magazines, PD Bins, software sales, and writing to various AMOS programmers who had work published on the big Amiga magazines. This is how I got in touch with programmers like Paul Burkey and Asa Margetts. I met Paul Burkey for the first time in January of 1997, which was very exciting. Most of the programmers who I wrote to (over 250 address' in all) didnt write back, but the handfull who did were very helpful, and sent me several disks each packed full of their AMOS PD, and that of other people's who they had collectedover the past. Soon, my collection was growing by severl disks a month, and so treated myself to a HD just to store all the PD!! Altogether, I have well over 300 floppy disks of PD software for AMOS, all from various sources. The other main objective of Mushroom PD was to provide anyone with this PD for a very cheap price. The prices I charge were 80p per disk, and the more you bought, the cheaper it got. The main rule which I had (and is still supported) is that if you sent me a disk full of AMOS PD that I didnt already have in my library, then I would exchange it for a disk of your choice which was already in the library, and send it to you for free. This helped you programmers get the source and programs you wanted, and also benefitted me by increasing my collection. I was also distributing a small monthly disk-magazine, which just contained the lists of the PD which I had, and the odd AMOS article. It was nothing too spectacular, just ASCII lists mainly, which were viewed in an AMOS program I wrote. During this process of swapping PD, I was placing adverts in the local free advertiser, loot, asking for AMOS programmers to contact me, so I could exchange their PD etc. A student named Carl Drinkwater got in touch with me, about wanting to start a large AMOS disk magazine. I told him that I already distributed a rather small production of my library magazine, and thus sent him a copy. He also sent me a copy of his trial magazine engine which he had been working on, and used the articles from my edition. It was very bare, but it was the backbone of the soon-to-br-released Extreme AMOS! We both began writing AMOS articles, and Carl decided to program the main engine for the first edition. We also met at one point, and were sat in my room planning the first edition engine, and what we wanted it to do exactly. We never got much programming done, just messing with each others code. A month later, the first issue of Extreme AMOS was born. We had decided to use a Workbench-style layout for reading the articles, as it most easier to see all the articles with icons etc. It was released into the PD world, and ended up being reviewed in the November 95 issue of Amiga Computing. It was commented as being "Hihgly reccomended" and really made us feel great. Alas, the greatness was not to be kept for long. Whilst working on the articles for the second issue, Carl was supposed to be making updates to his original engine. He failed to get in touch with me at all, even with constant phonecalls, he still refused to get in touch with me. 5 days before the release of the issue, I had to program an engine from scratch to be released on time. The engine I wrote used a HIRES screen and background, and again with a WB feel, although not as good as the first, as I had only worked on it for a couple of days. The icons were like the traditional WB icons, where you could store 2 different images in the icon, and were rather large and untidy. The text reader however, was very fast, the fastest text reader I had programmed at the time. It used a large font, so it could easily be read aand followed. The directional buttons were easy to see, and also I implemented keyboard movement, so you didnt have to keep using the mouse. I also had to write ALL articles, which I managed to do in 2 weeks, making the release of the magazine later than that of the date in the first. One of the articles I included, was that if Carl didnt get off his ass and start workingon the issue, he would be officially "Sacked" from the team in the third issue. Im not afraid to admit it, but it was the worst release of Extreme AMOS ever. It was a lot slower GUI wise than the first, and I hadnt had much time to concentrate on the on-screen graphics, other than the icons for the articles. Immediately after this issue was released, I began working on extreme AMOS 3, which I swore to myself and others, would be the best issue to be released so far by a longshot!! I began writing once more to all the AMOS coders who had written back to me, asking if they had any articles that they wished to be included. I had a few people send me articles, and a few new articles came from readers of previous issues, which was nice to see. I also began coding the new engine, which took me 2 months in all. It was a full-colour LOWRES display, again with icons, and an attractive background, which was designed for me on Imagine by Gary Hoyles, an AMOs coder who wrote back to me, and the first member of Mushroom PD might I add! All the windows use DRAW commands to appear on the screen, using a procedure I created that just need the top X and Y coords, and the X and Y size of the window in pixels. I also assigned it with a block value, so it would remember what was underneath the window when it came to hitting the close gadget. My greatest acheivement in this issue, has to be the reader that I programmed. It allowed the user to look at text and graphics, in the form of pages. The program would display the number of pages in the article, and you could scroll through them all with either the mouse, ot the cursor keys. Graphics were full IFF screenshots, which were crunched unbelievably well, thanks to Paul Burkey, as he wrote a series of compressors for AMOS, which read a screen into memory, and "Squidged" it into a data file. Sometimes, these files were bigger than the Spack version, but when they were crunched with a cruncher such as powerpacker of CrunchMainia (cruncher I used for issue 3 floppy version) they would go down to an unbelievable small size, than if they were crunched in .Abk or IFF form! Thanks to these routines, I was able to cramm over 300K of images to the disk, ranging from IFF adverts, to screenshots from AMOS game reviews, and other bits and pieces!! The text in the reader also supported colours, by looking for an ASCII control code. This made the pages stand out from the boring old text. The issue was due to be released at the "World of Amiga Show" in Hammersmith, London, where I was supposed to meet up with Gaz Hoyles, Paul Gumsley, and a few other computer people. Unfortunately, they were unable to go at the last minute, so I decided to stay at thome too. What a waste of a 27 quid bus ticket. Hehe. I marked the release date of Extreme AMOS 3 as 22 April, 1996. I mailed it to every AMOS user I knew, and a few who I hadn't written to yet. At the time of releasing, I had a notebook with 200+ address' of AMOS people I had found in various files, who I hadn't yet written too. Issue 3 also held the official "Sacking" of Carl Drinkwater, and I reamed him "Asshole of the Month" in the issue. Within days of it being released, I was reciving letters and phone calls telling me what a great job I had done on the magazine, and how much better it was from the previous issues. Unfortunately, there weren't many articles coming in with these letters, so I wasnt really progressing much. The mag also started appearing in some magazine PD adverts, listed in the small lists of titles, and best-sellers, which I was proud of. And there you have it, the complete history of Extreme AMOS and Mushroom PD. Issue 4 of EA is still under construction, and is lacking articles. If you want to see Extreme AMOS closer, click on the EXTREME AMOS button, and you will be taken to the page directly!! Thank-you for taking the time to read this rather long text. Andrew "Mushroom" Kellett Editor of Extreme AMOS, and Mushroom PD manager/operator Thank-you's and Hello'sI must say a quick hello and thank-you to the following people, as Extreme AMOS might not be where it is without them... Paul Burkey - Without Paul, I certainly wouldnt have been able to cramm as much GFX into the third edition. Many thanks for your encouraging comments and suggestions towards the magazine, as well as the use of an Email account for a short amount of time. I hope we meet in person very soon, and you agree to be my best man!! Asa Margetts - Asa provided me with lots of support during the coding of Extreme AMOS, and also provided me with lots of source code and articles. I also must thank him for advertising me in his doc files, on games he released as licencseware. Hope you cam make it to my wedding! Paul Gumsley - Author of WAC (Whitby AMOS Club), another AMOS disk magazine which had a lot more readers than Extreme AMOS. He advertised my library, and also published several of my games on his magazine disks. I will definately get in touch soon!! Gary Hoyles - A large thank-you goes out to you for providing me with lots of rendered GFX for Extreme AMOS. I have the last lot you sent me waiting here to be implemented into Issue 4. I hope ZZG-PD is going well, and as soon as you are online, you must send me an email!! Last, but not least, I must say thanks to Carl Drinkwater as I wouldn't have had the persistance to create a disk magazine any further, if it hadnt have been for him. Shame you had to leave the magazine on such crap terms. |
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