Month: September 2009

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Volume 14, Issue 3 now shipping

Volume 14, Issue 3 (September 2009)

The September 2009 issue of Juiced.GS was mailed this morning to all domestic and international subscribers. This 20-page issue features coverage of not one but two Apple II conventions: KansasFest and Mt. Keira Fest, held the same week in July but a half a world apart. KansasFest also led to two other of this issue’s articles. Peter Neubauer looks at how and why he wrote his HackFest entry, with judge Eric Shepherd offering his insight into what made Peter’s program win the competition; while Ivan Drucker reviews his favorite model of Apple II, which isn’t an Apple II at all.

In the time since our last issue, Juiced.GS announced it would be publishing another four issues in 2010. The September issue usually follows that announcement with a half-page subscription renewal form on the back cover. But who wants to rip that out and mail it in, thus defiling the issue? No need face such a conundrum this year, as the renewal form is now a separate flyer inserted into the issue. This separation also means none of Juiced.GS‘s 20 pages are used up by the subscription form. It’s a winning combo!

As always, every Web site and product mentioned in this issue is linked to from this site’s issue links.

If you have any questions or comments about this issue or Juiced.GS, please email me, or leave a comment below.

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Stamp of approval

A typical issue of Microzine.
A typical issue of Microzine. Image courtesy NeighborhoodValues.com.

I grew up with an Apple II in the classroom, where I regularly enjoyed Scholastic’s Microzine, a sort of edutainment version of Softdisk. One Microzine game (perhaps Math Mall on issue #22) put players in the role of the proprietor of a a galactic pet store, where they needed to fulfill customers’ orders. Shoppers weren’t picky about how many or even what kind of pets they wanted — as long as they collectively had the exactly right number of eyes, feet, tails, and other appendages. It might take three space monkeys, two Martian blowfish, and a cosmic coonhound to accommodate their expectations.

Though I haven’t seen an issue of Microzine in decades, I don’t have to miss this particular game, as I play it every year with the United States Postal Service. With each postage rate increase, I have to determine what stamps to buy to mail an issue of Juiced.GS. For example, it costs $2.92 to send an issue to Australia, but there’s no single stamp with that value. What lesser stamps can I combine to come closest to that number? It can’t be less than $2.92, but the greater the total is, the more cents are lost. It’s an inexact but demanding science.

There are enterprise alternatives to this chore: both Stamps.com and a Pitney Bowes mail meter would let me purchase and apply postage from my own home office. But both require a monthly fee, making them more suitable to companies that mail products regularly. That describes Juiced.GS‘s former publisher, Syndicomm, which markets a variety of Apple II hardware, software, and publications. But for Gamebits, whose sole product is Juiced.GS, paying monthly for something I’d use quarterly is not economical.

And besides, it’s not a great burden to manually address and stamp envelopes four times a year. But it does explain why your issues will be arriving this month featuring lauded authors and wedding cakes. It’s not a hidden message so much as it’s a manifestation of skills I learned on an Apple II.