Issue #2, September 19, 1995
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September 18, 1995
Zombies have invaded Alphaworld! Seemingly endless in number, they have been swarming in the area around Ground Zero. "They look just like other avatars but they don't fly, and they don't speak," said Ion, who has been observing the zombies for some time.
Some sources have speculated that the zombies are in fact new citizens, locked into a cone of silence by bad video drivers in Windows 95. Others point out that the Windows 95 bug does not in fact stop people from speaking, just from hearing what others say. This is tantamount to being deaf, not dumb...but the result is similar since a deaf person must become aware of the ability to speak before they try to do it!
To all members of the "zombie hoard:" if you are in fact a new immigrant, you can test your powers of hearing. On entry to Alphaworld, turn slightly left until you see that you are pointing NW. Hit your spacebar and Enter. If you see the Bartender (see related story) reply to you, you can hear. If you don't, you should try installing another video driver and come back in.
In case you are still unsure of whether the Bartender has replied to you, you can go into the bar at 8N,4W and find him. He always replies to all statements and questions, so if you cannot see a reply you need to try another driver!
Almost all of the images in the paper are "clickable," that is, they are pseudo-thumbnail pics that are hyper-linked to larger more detailed images. Almost any picture that you see here can be clicked on to see a much larger graphic. The reason we say "pseudo" is that the smaller images may lead to a larger image that is not just an enlarged version of the "thumbnail."
If you are not using Netscape to view this, we highly recommend that you go get a copy now! The inline images are all interlaced GIFs, which means that when you use Netscape to view to documents you will see text much more quickly as the images load incrementally. It also means that when you view the paper with Netscape some of the images will be "blurry" until they load completely. This is hopefully not a big issue since the images are intended to be "pseudo-thumbnails," that is, placeholders for the larger graphics.
You may also notice that there are no arrow buttons to take you back to previous pages. We assume you have a "Back" button in your Web browser, and that you are intelligent enough to use it.
The format of the paper will change from issue to issue as the editor learns to write HTML. Your feedback is appreciated.
This is a news story submitted by VOLT.
In a late breaking story, The New World Times has learned that a ancient and mysterious tomb has just been discovered in AlphaWorld. "It must have been here many millennia before the asteroid hit," said Sir Winston Stonehard, Curator of the AlphaWorld Archeological Society. "It is amazing that a structure such as this could have gone undiscovered for these many tousands of years! We can only speculate,..." Stonehard went on to report, "...but we believe that the asteroid must have had something to do with unearthing the portion of the tomb that was found."
The tomb is reported to be the most unusual structure in AlphaWorld. As yet, only a miniscule portion of the entire tomb has been uncovered. Excavation painstakingly continues so that the history of this unusual and exciting new discovery is preserved. The AlphaWorld Archeological Society was unavailable for further comment; however, it is speculated that the secrets of ancient Alphaworld could be contained within the massive structure. "We are not releasing any more information now," Stonehard said curtly. "The last thing our archeologists need is a stampede of curiosity- seekers looking for the riches that the tomb no doubt contains."
This small aerial photograph which me managed to obtain has been enhanced by computers to show what the mystery relic may look like when uncovered completely.
Another digger at the site would not give his name, but did tell our staff that "it looks as if the relic could be over two kilometers in width once it is all uncovered."
The New World Times will keep you posted of any new events related to this story.. If there are any citizens who see Sir Winston Stonehard, please send Email to this paper. Sources will be kept in strict confidence.
The Bar Over Troubled Waters now has a fulltime bartender, compliments of Protagonist. This tireless automaton is available to all, 24 hours a day. Besides pouring a very mean drink, the Bartender Robot is capable of responding to just about any question or statement put to him...and he does!
"This is just the beginning," said an unidentified member of the Cyborg Nation. One day we will all have robots doing our menial tasks and "minding the store" when we are unavailable. Bartender's only reply was "like I care."
Another citizen noticed that the Bartender speaks to each of us in "whispers," that is, his replies are heard only by the person he is speaking to. "He is evidently capable of near-instantaneous replies to any number of people," said Dataman. "This can lead to confusion as citizens think they see the Bartender replying to someone else." Dataman also disclaimed any responsibility for the bartender's sometimes obnoxious attitude. "I didn't program him, I don't own him. I'm not even sure if a cyborg should or can own a robot. Hell, maybe we will serve the robots in the future!" Again Bartender did not seem to care for the tone of the conversation, muttering something about "being repressed by de man."
September 9, 1995
Protagonist building the board.With the advent of version 31, we gain the ability to make chess pieces! If you want to see how to make a board, visit the sample setup across from Brit's Barn at 3N, 2E.
Protagonist has been keeping this board set to the current status of the world championship match between Anand and Kasparov, but there are ways for you to play chess here in AlphaWorld:
Donald B. "Geek" Braithwaite has started a "phone book" for AlphaWorld residents. This is a web page with very nicely done layout and forms. Be the first on your block to be listed! You may want to take a picture of your residence or business before submitting it, since one option is to have a picture in the listing.
Synergy Corp. announced today that it has expanded its AlphaWorld directory on the Netrunner server here in sunny South Florida. The new links are:
More pages are forthcoming, it takes time folks!
Please put out a newsstand here and there to point newbies to this document and/or the index page.
What we won't do to grab your attention!
Seriously, this is the result of some experimentation done with Renderware in "standalone" mode in AlphaWorld. This was an experiment that went haywire, but the good news is that we will soon have TV sets in Alphaworld which can play animations!
If you want to look into creating custom objects for AlphaWorld, take a look at Synergy's AlphaWorld page abd follow the link for artists.
Be aware that there is no way to put your own personal objects into AlphaWorld when you are "live" with the server...at least not yet! But if you are interested in fighting absence of documentation and tools to create really cool stuff, send email to Kalak or Dataman and we'll see if we can help you out.
Commercial ad space available here. Eventually we may actually charge for this so get it while it's virtual.
Editor's note: Sleepy Hollow willbe featured in an upcoming Under Construction.
The Bar Over Troubled Waters is
open for business around the clock. Now we even have a fulltime bartender!
Every night from 10 Eastern until ???? is Karaoke. Come up and perform for your fellow citizens. Tone deaf? No problem, for now at least!
For those who have trouble maneuvering in 3Space, try the Sidewalk Cafe.
Coords: 8N,4W Dress: come as you are...hell, come as everone is! Please do not drink and fly!
Keep your eye on this space as we prepare for our Grand Opening!
Between this issue and last a lot has been built in AlphaWorld, and our the only problem here is getting any other work done with the a staff that just wants to fly around taking pictures! We can't show you a significant fraction of what we have discovered, so we encourage you to take in the sights yourself. Here are just a few sites to get you started.
Little Bull has been very busy in the South and Southwest. Here are some examples of his work:
This shot of an awesome pyramid was taken from 162S, 4W. Can you find Waldo? (Hint: it's easier in the larger version you'll see if you click on the small picture.)
This is more of Little Bull's work, Fountainhead Park at 140S, 68W. This photo was taken from high in the air. If you click on it you'll see a close-up which will give you an idea of the scale of the park.
From Fountainhead Park, just follow the aqueducts and freeways, you'll see that Little Bull has been very busy!
The Legacy Palace is built in the sky, near the mystical spot where our World's edge touches both mountains and water.
The entrance to the palace is a fantastic mix of waterfalls and gardens, suspended in the air as if by a Titan.
Following the pathway which starts at the entrance, you will find a magnificent castle being built.
Version 31 is out now, and gives us a lot of new objects! We highly recommend
a visit to Ion's Construction Company to see all objects available,
grouped together for easy comparison. Ion's is right across the street from the
entrance to Alpha Park, which will be featured in our next issue.
Coordinates are 25S, 5W. Directions: Head straight south from town, look to your right around 25S.
Another place you may want to visit is Ag's Place, around 25S,49W. He has built
a house out of each of the panel types available for construction.
Version 31 brings a lot of performance enhancements, with a tradeoff: visibility. Now your visibility is limited by your machine's frame rate, or rendering speed. You can sometimes see further if you size your window down, since this cuts the time necessary to render a frame.
You can check your frame rate, visibility, etc. using function keys F2, F11 and F12.
Tip: You can trick the software into letting you see more for a short time. Just look up at the sky for a while, after tapping F2 to turn on status information. When you get up to the desired visibility, look back down. Be aware that this could possibly cause a small problem with the software crashing and burning if you get carried away. :)
Version 31 also reintroduces grass, which dresses up the World and makes it easier to spot other avatars. When building, keep in mind that this texture could change in the future.
In keeping with the feel of Alphaworld, we are only linking this to the Submissions Desk at the Alphaworld offices of the Daily Globe. Go find it and doubleclick! Here's the map (slightly oudated):
DEAR DATA
Dear Data, I thought the last article by Exbase was thoughtful and profound. AlphaWorld is what we make it. The 'real'world in general is trashed physically, morally and otherwise, because of barely sentient selfish mediocritons. The world is what we make it. Lets make this one a good one. Bravo Exbase!
Kalak of Tanagra
I have a couple of things for the user interface that would be nice.
It would be great to have an altitude indicator. If we are going to be able to have 3d, then we should know where we are in 3d.
Also, a little running man to click like in the worldchat version on that space station would be nice. That way you would not be as likely to accidently move things to start back up.
It would also be nice to have a separate box for dialog which you could move around to wherever you wanted.
Also, a button for sending bugs/suggestions would be nice. Or at least a help button to know where to send these things.
When I look, it is disconcerting to see green grass where there should be more buildings. Is it possible to increase the depth to which one sees buildings? When you go to third person things look pretty good as far as perspective, wouldn't this work at ground level too?
And finally, I can't seem to find any place to build. How does one determine where boundaries of ownership start and stop?
Sincerely,
Thomas Kunselman
Dataman replies: Sounds like a bunch of good suggestions! Some of those were already on my personal wishlist. A couple of comments:
For now, if you Powwow me: Dataman@cyborg.nation, I will see if I can lead you to a spot to build relatively close in if you need me to.
Try deleting all descriptions. Also use large materials whenever possible, for instance WALKs instead of FLOORs, 4-meter panels instead of 3-meter, etc.. Descriptions are key though, they take up a lot more space than you would think.
Right now there are no channels for this. However, if you design a Renderware object and pretest it in standalone mode, send it to me and I'll forward to Kalak to see about the possibilities of integration.
Sink just below ground level and you will be able to see the objects that got buried, grab them and raise them.
Hopefully this will be addressed soon. For now as a courtesy I periodically hit spacebar and enter so that my name tag will stay above my head.
That is a nasty problem right now...there will be a much better scheme in the future for property rights, but right now your best bet is to block out all your land so this can't happen. One way is to lay a bunch of WALK6s and then sink them below ground (don't use water or other stuff that looks bad from above.)
That is something that the Worlds folks are working on. For now, the fastest way to travel (for me at least) is to use third person mode (END key) and hold down CTRL while using the mouse (or better yet trackball) to move forward. For those really long treks try taping down the CTRL and UPARROW keys. :)
Follow me and journey to an undiscovered land,
A Castle in the galaxy with walls of crumbling sand.
Our wildest fears are forming behind our staring eyes,
Our hopes a soundless echo as we whisper our goodbyes.
Through the screen, beyond the keyboard,
lies the path that we must take,
A voyage into the emptiness this journey that we make.
Prepare yourselves a garden with flowers red and gold,
Allow your hearts to harden as the darkness may unfold.
Lie amongst the flowers and kiss this world goodbye,
As you watch your precious hours diminish in the sky.
Laura
