CompuServe Messages

The reason that Dpaint has to be loaded from the CLI in AMIGADOS is that there is no room in the machine for Workbench (fur surre on a 256k machine). I don't like CP programs either, but in spite of all the kvetching I think people WILL buy Dpaint just because it's so good! Without question the most gangbusters graphic program to appear on ANY micro ANYwhere ANYtime so far! It is interesting how most of the disk is not in the directory; it is my understanding that EA whumped up their own OS which attaches to the KickStart innards. Setting just one bit in a file will not overcome that! A friend who works as a consultant to EA said that cracking this CP will essentially require a complete disassembly of this internal OS and noodling out how it works. It'll be interesting to see how soon someone with enough persistence (perverseness?) does this for an $80 program that you can get an authorized backup for for $10. If one considers Dpaint to be a "Productivity tool" rather than just a game (I do), then you could argue that CP is even more objectionable-except for the fact that if it's so important to you, you could buy 4 originals and 4 backups ($360 at full retail) for less than a SINGLE copy of 1-2-3 at the most deeply discounted prices I've seen around. If you mulch up 8 copies of the program, you got other problems….. Also, the work you do can (must) be stored off on other non-CP disks, including a HD if there is room in RAM for the HD driver….. I have found that you CAN crash Dpaint occasionally. One way seems to be to do a right click on one of the pre-defined brushes and while the "SIZE" message is up carefully set the brush size to 0 with the mouse. There are other disks of paintings floating around from EA which are easily in the Tut and Mandrill league; EA has been letting people copy them at Amiga User group meets. A likely DL upload candidate…..