geoSpecific

The GEOS PD/Shareware CD V1.6

Welcome to the geoSpecific GEOS PD/Shareware CD.

The inspiration for this CD came from the 2 CD's that Gaelyne Gasson offers on the VideoCam Web Site (http://cbm.videocam.net.au/). When I ordered these CD's from Gaelyne I was surprised that the GeoManiacs Collection of disks, created by Gaelyne and marketed by Commodore CEE, weren't on either of the CD's.

Initially, I thought that I would make the GeoManiacs Collection available on the download page here on the CUE web site (http://members.shaw.ca/cue64) but I don't have enough available space for that. Gaelyne asked if I could create a CD with the GeoManiacs files so she could have the disks in that format. So I set about creating D64 images of the 16 double-sided 1541 disks I had in my possession.

It turned out that I am a GeoManiac myself. The V1.6 CD is over 85 MBs in size.

With the hardware and software advances that keep occurring for the Commodore 64, and in particular for GEOS users, I felt it was time to take my collection of software and put it onto a CD. I am expecting the next version of Wheels will be able to read files directly from the CD-ROM drive. I also expect that The Wave will be able to browse the files on a CD the same way a PC user can with a browser. For that reason I have created the main Index System in HTML (although, for the most part, the same files are available as text files). CD-ROM Commander 128 can read both the HTML and TXT files so there are many options to view the files on the CD and navigate through the information.

What, Why and How

I have been using GEOS since March, 1988 and have amassed a fair number of programs since that time - many of these are now hard to find. The collections on this CD came from many sources. Some were once commercial offerings that have since been released to the Public Domain. Some of the disks accompanied magazines or came as part of a User Group membership. Other, more recent creations, have been downloaded from the Internet.

My own GEOS programming contributions on this CD include a Game and a Lottery Number Picker in the Games section (both programs were written in GeoBASIC), a patch for the BSW Calendar program (in the Y2k section) to make it Y2K compatible and a Metric Converter in the Various Section. This should tell you that my forte' is not in the programming arena of the GEOS world. Rather, my main contribution has been writing articles and columns for a variety of publications. Initially I did not have my articles included on the CD but Todd Elliott suggested that these articles would enhance the material on the CD by providing insight into uses of GEOS and some of the many programs included here. I took Todd's suggestion to heart and dug out articles that have appeared in publications such as The Underground, The LoadStar Letter, Commodore World, GO64!, and The LUCKY Report, to name a few, as well as some other articles that have never been published anywhere.

I have included the tools necessary to take the files on the CD and turn them back into usable GEOS disks. Most of the D64 and D81 images on this CD were created using Bo Zimmerman's GeoBEAP and then transferred to a PC using GeoDOS and an FD-2000 disk drive. Some of the D64 images were created using Joe Forster's Star Commander software (http://sta.c64.org/sc.html) and a 1541 disk drive hooked directly to a PC with an X1541 cable.

The file structure on the CD is as follows. Each major author or collection has been put into its own main folder. The main folder for each holds the HTML Index file and an HTML file for each disk image in that collection. A sub-folder called Files holds the actual disk images along with text files containing the same info as the HTML files in the root folder. The text files are directory listings created with John F. Howard's GeoList 2.0. These files (GeoWrite 1.0 format) were opened with GeoWrite V2.0 and then converted to PC format .TXT files with GeoDOS as the files were copied to a PC formatted floppy (this conversion will not work on the original GeoWrite files as created by GeoList). The text files were then turned into HTML files using Sun MicroSystems OpenOffice.Org HTML Editor.

Order Your Copy

The geoSpecific V1.6 CD is available for US$20.00.

This price includes shipping charges in North America.
For shipping outside of North America add US$1.50 to the price.

Payment Options

I prefer PayPal but am flexible. If you wish to pay by Cheque or International Money Order made out in US Funds I have to charge US$2.00 more as my bank charges me a substantial processing fee to cash these items. If paying by PayPal or International Money Order I will be mailing all items on the Saturday of the week I receive payment. If paying by Cheque the shipment will be held for 6 weeks to ensure the payment clears the bank.

Please e-mail me at Bruce Thomas to arrange your purchase.

enGEOy this CD!

June 2, 2004
Bruce Thomas

The table below indicates what is found on the CD. While it is not possible to put all of the files and disk listings on the web site you can browse the links below and get a good idea of what you will find on the CD.

Table of Contents

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