The Truth Be Told

by Adam Trionfo

(February 1997)

This article was originally intended as the editorial in a special edition of OC&GS  -- an anthology-style reprint of Issues #1-3 that was never completed. Not wanting the material to go completely to waste, I cannibalized some of it for a later editorial; but here it is now, in its entirety.

Writing a newsletter is difficult. There is not really more to say about it. I published three issues of this one about three years ago. It was well received, but for various reasons, I let it slip.

In the past three years, so much has changed in the way that I collect, and in the way that others view collecting. When I began the newsletter, it was difficult to find others with the same hobby. Most people looked at what I had done as some kind of joke. There was little information available for my reference, outside of a few other newsletters and the Internet (which had not yet seen the huge explosion of the Web).

I plan to publish this newsletter as both a web page and mailed paper edition. They both have advantages and disadvantages. The cost of the mailing is the biggest drawback of the conventional newsletter. On the other hand, not everyone has access to the Web. Ideally, the web is a much better place for what I would like to do. I have learned so much from its pages. I came across a web page called the Blue Sky Rangers, made by a group of people who had programmed games for the Intellivision. It related the history of the system, and offered many other interesting facts. I never would have known about this history, from the point of view of the programmers, if it had not been for the Web.

Not only have the ways in which people gather information changed, but also the ways it can be presented. When I published the first issue of my newsletter, I typed and printed it using an Amiga 1200 with 2 megs of memory, no hard drive and a ten-year-old printer! Now I will be using my Pentium, Word and my old HP DeskJet 540. Not only can I prepare the newsletter faster, but this printer agrees much more with an IBM-compatible than it did with my Amiga.

Something that must be stressed, however, is that it isn't the appearance of the print that's important, but what the newsletter contains. I have always felt this way. It doesn't matter if someone makes a newsletter using a typewriter and tape or the newest chip from Intel; it is the content that is important. I hope that I can present information that people find interesting.

The biggest news in the classic world has concerned the release of the Starpath Supercharger CD. I waited for over a year for mine, and never did I expect it to be as great as it has turned out to be. This isn't meant to be a review; I'm sure everyone has heard how great it is. I would just like to point out how much can be done when people pull together with a common goal in mind. As the CD proves, great things can happen.

One last item: Although some of these articles could be rewritten and improved, I have chosen to keep them as they were. I would like this compilation to be a history of what was done, not an update. I am not out to change the past. I was proud of the newsletter three years ago, and I am now, as well. Whether this is the first time you have seen OC&GS or it is a revisiting, enjoy!