Date   : Mon, 20 Sep 1993 10:33:09 EDT
From   : Bonfield "James./Staden" <jkb@...>
Subject: Newbie on the list ;-)

Hello,

       As my first post to the list I think I'll describe my system and my
interests. I currently have a BBC B issue 7, twin 40/80 track drives, solidisk
128K sideways ram board (does somewhat iffy things to the user port :-() and
SideAID 128 (rom utility to go with the above board).

       I've been writing, together with Stephen Youell, what we have called
the Hackers ROM. Basically it's lots of useful utlities all bunged into a
single ROM. Currently written things include disk editor (can handle lots of
nastily formatted disks), scrollable memory editor and 65C02 disassembler,
printer buffer, lots of {search, copy, fill, swap, read, write} utils for
sideways ram or disk. I shouldn't really be explaining too much about it now
as no doubt we won't ever get the thing finished! We 'hope' to get something
stable by the end of the year. (It's taken 4-5 years so far as it's very much
a spare time project).

       Other interests involve protection - the best part of any game has got
to be the wonderful protection ;-) (I learnt most of my 6502 from deprotecting
Exile.) In case you're frowning on this - I'm not really a pirate (who wants
to copy and play the games anyway? only a few are really worth it) - I just
enjoy the challenge *grin*. Currently, there is only one game that's ever
beaten me; Red Arrows. (I've got it all loaded into memory and can save it, I
just haven't managed to save the configuration of the 6522 etc.)

       I've got a DES (Data Encryption Standard) encryption program that I
should be able to get onto UNIX and hence on the ftp site. If people want such
a beast then it'll be interesting to know. It supports both ECB and CBC cipher
methods.

       Anyway, I shouldn't waste too much band width with idle chatter. I
look forward to joining in the list and it's discussions.

Cheerio for now,

       James 'Rince' Bonfield