Bill Buckels wrote:
> "martin.doherty{at}undisclosed.com"
 wrote in 
> message 
> news:c4e0186f-8f3b-4c9f-8634-a7f7e0730339{at}f36g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...
> 
>> Bill, I just reviewed the manual.  This is an amazing new free
>> software release, on a par with a commercial quality product.
> 
> The trick here Martin, my man, is the fact that this IS a commercial quality 
> product:) Thanks very much for the compliment and also for making me smile.
> 
>> I'm glad you love documentation, it is usually the weak link but not in 
>> this case.
> 
> Now I am LOL:) The fact is that I hate documentation which is why I do it so 
> well so I don't need to do it again. This pales by comparison to the 
> business documentation that we need to provide these days.
> 
> You should have heard me groan when I added the mouse. I had already made 
> all sorts of deals with myself that since I didn't have enough memory I 
> could skip the mouse. So the documents were already done. Then while writing 
> the programmer's documentation and reviewing the project I found a very 
> serious memory wasting error. Well a deal's a deal:) So I rewrote the 
> documentations after correcting the error and adding the mouse to the 
> program(groan). Amen, I hope!
> 
>> Now I have the strongest motive in years to haul my //e out of the 
>> basement so my kids can play your game.
> 
> That comment was GREAT to hear! BTW there are several more I think you might 
> like. I guess I'll need to provide better documentation than the text files 
> that I originally provided when I dusted these old programs off. Some are at 
> the following link:
> 
> http://www.clipshop.ca/DiskImages/index.htm
> 
> I have a secret to share with the readers in this list. MeToo! is only
"the 
> tip of the iceberg" when it comes to this type of program. I was rather 
> prolific when my kids were young and have a boneyard of these types of 
> programs that I have been digging through.
> 
> I have a math game for kids called "Bingo The Number Dog" which I am 
> currently working on and which I have an IBM-PC MS-DOS version that was long 
> ago made obsolete  when Windows 3.1 came in to use as a guideline. Bingo had 
> an Apple version at one time too, but it got lost years back.
> 
> I was thinking about writing it in a more modern programming tool called 
> CC65 but no matter how I write the Apple //e version, I am going to "raise 
> the bar" even higher on Bingo than I did on MeToo!
> 
> Writing this type of program with manuals by taking an MS-DOS program as a 
> starting point is a maximum of 2 months of spare time for me with life 
> thrown-in.
> 
> Feedback like yours is very much appreciated. The venue for these was lost 
> in the early 1990's when the big companies and large educatational software 
> groups took over. Before that a guy could write for his local school market 
> and find a local publisher who had a niche market. It was a cottage industry 
> and a good way to make money on the side when I had a young family.
> 
> I sold copies of my programs at bake-sales in shopping malls to raise money 
> ny son's boy scout troops in those years, and gave copies away to my kids' 
> schools. Being a professional musician off and on I also visited the 
> kindergarten etc. and played all the children's songs with the teacher (and 
> so on). Very old-hippie and artsy-fartsy y'know.
> 
> Well, anyway, the Apple II community being small but lively is rather 
> reminiscent of those years for me, and lots of you guys who grew-up with the 
> apple have young kids and we old farts have grandchildren so I assure you 
> that there is some selfishness involved in my efforts. The notoriety alone 
> is worth it! The satisfaction that folks like you get a kick out of these is 
> a bonus!
> 
> Cheers yerself:) They don't make 'em like we used to. It has all got so 
> complicated that simple kids' games with a vintage feel provide a pure 
> alternative I think.
> 
> Have Fun with your old Apple and your kids!.
> 
> Bill 
> 
> 

Hi Bill-

I gotta tell you, the Apple II educational market isn't dead, just not 
very lucrative :-)  I actually got back into the Apple II when the local 
elementary school cleaned out a crawl-space and had a bunch of IIs and a 
III sitting outside in the rain (I rescued them). In doing so, I met the 
computer lab teacher who still had a gs sitting in the corner.  Although 
the school district insisted on PCs, she still keeps the gs along with a 
slew of MECC titles and a couple of others for the ELS (English as 
Second Language) students.  In payment for her letting me take the old 
hardware, I cut her a cd with AppleWin and DSK files of most the MECC 
titles (I still have a pile to work through) to use on the PCs.

Next month, my son starts kindergarten, and I promise I will round up 
more titles to add to the cd - all of yours included.  I'll take them to 
the lab and see how they go over.  I'm sure they will be a hit.

Keep 'em coming!

Dave...
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32