>>> AmigaTrek - The Next Generation 3.0 <<< Tonight's episode : Revenge of the Marketroids, part 3 - The Final Battle - ----------------------------------------------------------- In our last neuron numbing episode our (mostly) fearless crew had been captured by the evil Lord of marketroids, Generalissimo Akers, ruler of Businesslandia. Here they learned of his low- level plan to convert the entire universe into minions of "Oh-Oh-S-2", the "Operating System of the BrainDead". Next he created clones of Captain Dale and entire crew, (complete with Look and Feel of the originals), and quickly dispatched them in real-time to the DevCon being held at MouseFleet Academy. . . ========================================================== Chapter 0 It was a gala event, glitter, excitement and M&Ms were in abundance. Searchlights pierced the sky, scanf-ing back and forth playing hide-and-fseek with each other. The official MouseFleet punk band ("The Trashed Registers" playing their hit single "You May Have Misaligned Words, but I Have an Offset for You") welcomed bank after bank of delegates from here and abroad. Eager journalists from Blazing Computing, Amiga Whirl and other such rags jostled each other for the best posture behind the barricades. Then there was the frenzied throng of groupies, curiosity seekers and autograph hunters hoping for the chance to catch a mere glimpse of greatness. One by one the stretch limos pulled up at the entrance and one by one the celebrities stepped out to be greeted by a blinding explosion of flashes from the paparazzi. "There's Joan Dow!!" screamed an excited software groupie. Flashes from the cameras followed the enigmatic Wizardess as she darted into the hall. "Oh! Look! It can't be! Fred Fish?", shouted one feverish groupie, Paula. Her harried friend, Denise, jumped up and down, clapping her hands together, "Oh, he's soooo cute!". Fred waved cheerfully to the mob. Still more limos DMAed people to the palace. Finally, after what seemed like forever, appeared the one many had come to see. "Oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THERE HE IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", shouted Paula hysterically. "THERE'S MIKE SMITHWICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". They jumped, frantically waving their hands to catch his attention. "Wow, what a bod!!" Denise said. "Yeah, and isn't his Distant Suns program rad!". "I'll say, and I hear it won an award at the Chicago Consumer Electronics Show, too." Mike, never one to spurn the recognition he so richly deserved, swept into the crowd to shake hands, sign copies of his award-winning, rad program, kiss babies, and debug code people had brought. Hands thrust out from the crowd, from spectators wanting only to touch him. Beautiful women fainted at his feet. Ah, but he was used to this. Once they recovered the young women turned their attention back to the rest of the activity. "Who's that?" asked Denise. "Uh, I think it's Randy Spencer". "Oh". And still the pantheon of immortality continued to scroll through the evening. There was Jim Goodnow the 7.2x10^23th, Guy "I'm always" Wright and Tim Geniusson Lord of NewTekia with his band of cool guys. Next came the delegation from C-(un)Ltd, followed by groups from Nerd Perfect (the one's who brought you the combination Word-Food Processor), A-Cubed, MicroDellusions and many others. And the rabble nearly went Berserk. Finally, the real stars arrived, the crew of the StarChip EnterBoing. . . Out stepped Captain Dale, and all hell broke loose forcing the riot police to call for reinforcements and fresh guard dogs. Immediately behind him was Ensigns Jimm, Dave, Bryce, followed by Lord Leo. But wait!! All was not right in Amiga-land. They were all wearing, gulp, >>> T I E S <<< ! All at once a murmur rippled through the crowd like the shock- wave from a small nuclear.device. ==================================================== Chapter 1 Even as the delegates were seg-loading up on the conference documentation, disks and Commodore Toy secret decoder rings, roomers began to spreadsheet around of an impending announcement. Some new vaporous-ware perhaps? The release of the long awaited 6502 daughter board? Would Manx announce their support for double-precision characters needed for those pesky extraterrestrial alphabets? Quickly enough the technical sessions began and everyone scatter- loaded into different meeting rooms. Topics such as "You and the BlitterCritter","Assembly Made Easy in 1598 single-Steps","How to Market your Bad Ideas", "Crappy Software: The Ultimate Copy Protection!", and "Effective Use of the Trashdisk.device". However, the highest priority event was expected to be at the general sessions, where all eagerly awaited to see Leo's "Latest Screen Hack". "What would it be" they eagerly asked themselves. "A ball juggling unicycles? A unicycle juggling balls?, A unicycle juggling unicycles?". A hush wafted through the room when the Leo clone entered. "That red tie, it still didn't look right on him" they all thought synchronously at the same time. It made him seem like a picture which was just slightly tilted. Leo took his seat. "Hey! Let's see a screen hack! We're die'n back here!" The Leo-clone looked up. "Huh? Screen wha. . . Oops, ahh, so sorry sir, I'm just too busy working on important stuff like 'office solutions'". A collective gasp of horror went up from the gathering. Later that nite a couple of representative from RSN Software and Regressive Peripherals were chatting at a classy nearby restaurant about unusual events. "So anyway, I saw Captain Dale playing with SuperDeluxe Paint-by- Numbers and the Flicker FixerUpper. . ." "Your pull-down menu sir" interrupted the waiter, double-clicking his shoes. "Thanks" replied the RSN delegate, nibbling on a roll, Byte-by- Byte. "Well, anyway, the system GURU'ed, and Dale said to himself 'What's a GURU?'. I tell ya, I sense a parity error here. . ." ==================================================== Chapter 2 In the darkness of their cell-block, Captain Dale and his crew remained Locked up in hash-chains. Stripped of their hacker- blasters there was little they could do. "Oh darn!" said Leo, "if only there as a way to call DisplayAlert() to tell people we're here". An agitated Jimm jumped in, "Pipe: down you dipswitch! They'll never find us!" All of a sudden, a blinding light appeared in the room. There stood a powerfully built figure, hands on hips, wearing blue tights. A brilliant cape danced behind him. On his chest was a handsome ray-traced "R". "Oh my!" Dale burst out. "It's >>> RENDERMAN <<