moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) (09/15/87)
Last week Charlie Jackson, president and founder of Silicon Beach Software
(makers of SuperPaint, Dark Castle and other Fine Products), spoke at the
Seattle dBUG (Downtown Business User's Group) Meeting. Jackson is one of
the most enjoyable speakers at user group meetings I know of, due to the
fact that a) he always brings impressive software and b) he never gives a
sales spiel -- he just shows what the product does, which is usually enough.
This meeting was no exception.
----
He began with Super3D on the groups 2Meg Mac+ (with LimeLiter). Super3D is
a program which runs on a Mac+ to a Mac II (maybe even a 512KE, I can't
remember) and creates 3D objects with shading. It then allows the user to
animate these images within the program, and save a sequence of "frames" on
disk for playback. I've been creating shaded figures in Pro3D and dumping
screens to MacMovies for about a year; this is similar, except it is much
easier since both tasks are done within one program. Jackson showed a 3D
chessboard being created, and then a point-of-view animation sequence
"flying" over the chessboard. It was very fast and very smooth (he had to
slow down the animation speed on the Mac+), and he pointed out that it was a
shame we couldn't see it in color (no Mac II to be had for the
presentation).
What is more impressive is the animation of objects within the screen,
instead of the animation being a product of only the moving point-of-view.
He had animated sequences of a helicopter and an egg beater where the POV
was static but the various parts moved in the frame. One particular
sequence, a ball bouncing against a "rubber" covering, was extremely
impressive -- the lighting and fluidity of the animation made it appear very
realistic (I would have loved to see this in color). Objects can be
animated in very detailed methods (point-by-point), but there are much
easier methods -- for the eggbeater and helicopter, he had defined
propellers, beaters and handles as objects, and then set up an axis and
instructed Super3D to rotate the particular part of the object around the
axis.
Although I only had a chance to monkey with Super3D for a second, the object
construction abilities seemed quite powerful -- I'd like to compare it to
Pro3D; there were a few features which made smooth line drawing MUCH easier
than Pro3D. He pointed out that it ran much faster on the Mac II with the
floating-point co-processor and (of course) the 68020. He also pointed out
that animated sequences could take up a lot of room, and that a hard disk
was almost required. It can use the full color capabilities of the Mac II
(you know, some humungous number of colors -- having only a Mac+, I didn't
listen to that very closely).
Audience response was extremely enthusiastic -- Jackson got audience
gasps, applause and cheers several times during the show. He says it will
be retailing for about $295 in December; his concluding statement was that
while a majority of people don't need this program, SB wanted to make this
the program of choice for the people who do.
----
He then went on to show two new games from SB. The name of the first game I
have forgotten -- it's named after an attack helicopter -- but it has about
the finest 3D animation I've ever seen in a game. You pilot a helicopter
through a war-torn city, blowing up tanks, other helicopters, and planes.
VERY smooth, very exciting, and very engrossing -- Jackson apologized that
he couldn't talk at several points "because I have to concentrate on getting
far enough into the game without getting shot down". I want it.
The other is BEYOND DARK CASTLE, which is just what you think it is. Even
more mazes (auto scrolling -- as you move off the side of the screen, the
screen scrolls with you, so you aren't stuck to rooms of a static size),
lots of new sounds. Sorry, I didn't find out if you can save games (stupid,
stupid, stupid). This will be on two double-sided disks.
Both games will go for $45 list and will have no copy protection -- Jackson
talked at some length on how good sales had been on DARK CASTLE, and that
Silicon Beach plans to continue on with no copy protection on any of their
products. Also, neither program will run on the Mac II; when asked why, I
believe he said that a) they had to write the code very specifically for the
68000 to get it to run so fast, and they would have to re-write it for the
68020 for the Mac II, and b) there isn't a market (yet) for games on the Mac
II (*I may be reading my own opinions into this -- there wasn't much fuss
about this at the meeting).
----
Finally, I asked him about the SuperPaint upgrade. He gave no firm date for
release (he said SB doesn't like to give out release dates unless they're
sure they'll meet it), but suspected in January. It will run on a Mac II
(he says it does now, if you switch color to 2 color mode). It will
probably not have color options; the program was developed two years ago,
when the Mac II was only a glimmer, and would not be easy to adapt to color.
It will have ~60 - 80 new features, including (this is what I wanted) text
rotation of at least 90 degrees in the Draw mode! I can toss out MacDraw
now... It will be called SuperPaint II.
----
Very enjoyable meeting, except to my pocketbook, because I'll certainly be
buying two (and maybe three) of the new programs, and upgrading to
SuperPaint II.
DISCLAIMER: I have no connection with Silicon Beach Software other than
as a satisfied customer and someone who lusts after their
new games.
----
Delta: A real man lands where he wants to.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, hplsla, lbl-csam}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>bill@ut-ngp.UUCP (Bill Jefferys) (09/17/87)
In article <1777@sputnik.COM> moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) writes:
=Finally, I asked him about the SuperPaint upgrade. He gave no firm date for
=release (he said SB doesn't like to give out release dates unless they're
=sure they'll meet it), but suspected in January. It will run on a Mac II
=(he says it does now, if you switch color to 2 color mode). It will
=probably not have color options; the program was developed two years ago,
=when the Mac II was only a glimmer, and would not be easy to adapt to color.
=It will have ~60 - 80 new features, including (this is what I wanted) text
=rotation of at least 90 degrees in the Draw mode! I can toss out MacDraw
=now... It will be called SuperPaint II.
I wonder if he said anything about smoothing of polygons. This is
the thing I miss the most.
Bill Jefferys