🚀 go-pugleaf

Ah yes!  Beagle Bros., the company that consistantly produced high quality
software, but never took it seriously!  They are now producing nifty things
that run inside Appleworks (fonts, spellers, ect.) and, I'm told, they were
involved in producing Appleworks 3.0 for Claris.

In article <669@mmlai.UUCP> barash@mmlai.UUCP (Rev. Steve C. Barash) writes:
>Whatever happened to the Beagle Brothers (a.k.a. Bert Kersey) ?
>Back in the early 80's they put out a bunch of wild'n'crazy programs,
>tools, games, and other out-of-control hacks for the Apple ][.


  I didn't think anyone remembered them! I recall writting hacks in
thier "Beagle Basic" they put out. It was a customizable basic
for the Apple II. I still have my //e, and just recently convinced
my father that using 40 column Visicalc(tm) was not as easy as Lotus 1-2-3
on my 10MHz IBM clone. (slight grin)

  Another trick the bro's sold was a "copy-protect your program" program.
If you "protected" your program with it and then tried to load and
list it, nothing would appear. It was if the memory had been cleared. BUT!
if you typed in "run", sure enough... off it went. Never had time to check
this out, but it was a neat protection scheme... for Basic programs that
is. <grin>

   ..Remember Snake Byte?? :)

-- 
Steve Weinrich   -    Purdue University    -    Unix Group Support
E-Mail: a...@cc.purdue.edu

In article <669@mmlai.UUCP> barash@mmlai.UUCP (Rev. Steve C. Barash) writes:
>Whatever happened to the Beagle Brothers (a.k.a. Bert Kersey) ?
>Back in the early 80's they put out a bunch of wild'n'crazy programs,
>tools, games, and other out-of-control hacks for the Apple ][.
>
>They'd sell their software cheap, and un-copy-protected.
>      Anybody else remember the Beagle Brothers feats of
>hackerism, or know where Bert Kersey is now?

Yes! I remember their stuff and still have fun poke-ing around with it.
I believe they quit producing software for the Apple ][, ][+.  I also
heard that Beagle Bros. has a bulletin board that you can call and download
their old (][, ][+) software for free (except for the long distance phone
charge).  It is NOT in the public domain, nor can you get technical
support for it -- but the programs are there for the downloading and
enjoying.

I don't know the phone number of the BBS, but a call or letter to them
should net the number for you.

-Jeff
-- 
_______________________________________________________________________
 Jeffrey May   {seismo|cbosgd}!osu-cis!sppy00!jwm -or- jwm@sppy00.UUCP
 OCLC - Online Computer Library Center
        Dublin, Ohio          "Heavens they're tasty and expeditious."

In article <669@mmlai.UUCP> barash@mmlai.UUCP (Rev. Steve C. Barash) writes:
>Whatever happened to the Beagle Brothers (a.k.a. Bert Kersey) ?
>Back in the early 80's they put out a bunch of wild'n'crazy programs,
>tools, games, and other out-of-control hacks for the Apple ][.
>
>They'd sell their software cheap, and un-copy-protected.
>[lots of neat info deleted]
>Steve Barash @ Martin Marietta Labs
>ARPA: bar...@mmlai.uu.net
>UUCP: uunet!mmlai!barash

	I answered this question a few weeks ago in a much
lengthier fashion, if I remember correctly. So if your news server keeps
a big backlog of articles (I doubt any do that long), you could try to
look in past articles for this same general subject.
	But a few years ago they realized they could make lots of $$$
off of AppleWorks enhancements.. In fact, they are included in the 
copyright screen for AppleWorks 3.0 for writing part of it. [Or a few
people from Beagle Brothers.. I forget exactly]
	I just realized that now as I type this I have three posters in
front of me (among lots of others), "APPLE COMMANDS", "Peeks, Pokes and
Pointers", and "6502 Instructions", all three of which are Beagle Brothers
posters.
	Alas, just like Apple Computer [i.e. Woz leaving and their
virtual lack of support for the // series... although it seems to be 
a LOT better lately as they realize their cash cow will die soon if they
don't keep it alive], Beagle Brothers seems to have "gotten a little bluer"
after making lots of money. They no longer make new Applesoft (or DOS/
ProDOS) or programming enhancements, although they still sell a few of
them. The rest they let people download FOR FREE (I applaud that!) off
of their BBS.
	But I received their new catalog a few weeks ago, and it's a
LOT slicker, which is perfectly fine.. But it has no more of the little
BASIC programs in teeny print to type in and try.. It had a VERY few
humorous cartoons, but their style has changed considerably.
	Well, this ended up a lot longer than I thought it was gonna be. 
-- 
If you want info about a 20 meg "floptical" drive mail me. YOU CAN ALSO
GET ONE FOR --$440-- (NEW **LOWER** PRICE!) BY MAILING ME. [WE HAVE TO GET
ENOUGH PEOPLE THOUGH..Slightly higher for less people but not much]
unk...@ucscb.ucsc.edu    APPLE II FOREVER    APL24VR   GS tips? Mail me.
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In article <669@mmlai.UUCP> barash@mmlai.UUCP (Rev. Steve C. Barash) writes:
>Whatever happened to the Beagle Brothers (a.k.a. Bert Kersey) ?
>Back in the early 80's they put out a bunch of wild'n'crazy programs,
>tools, games, and other out-of-control hacks for the Apple ][.
...
>I wish I could remember more about their stuff - it's
>been ages.  Maybe I'll go did some of those old disks out of my Dad's
>attic.  Anybody else remember the Beagle Brothers feats of
>hackerism, or know where Bert Kersey is now?

Actually, they were the Beagle Bros, but I pick nits.

Bert Kersey is now retired.  Beagle Bros was purchased by Mark Simonsen (sp?),
who was himself a Brother (Bros?).

Unfortunately, they now specialize only in end-user type applications, and
have a very successful line of add-on AppleWorks products.  They no longer
sell anything in the line of utilities (other than their Triple-Dump
graphics printing package).

All, however, is not lost, as Beagle Bros now has a bboard where they have
placed nearly all of their "classic" programs.  They're "nearly freeware;"
that is to say, you may download them and give them to friends, but not
upload them anywhere.

Unfortunately, I don't think I want some of these old programs badly enough
to spend a couple of hours on the phone to San Diego.

-- 
Mike Jetzer
"Hack first, ask questions later."

In article <669@mmlai.UUCP> barash@mmlai.UUCP (Rev. Steve C. Barash) writes:
>Whatever happened to the Beagle Brothers (a.k.a. Bert Kersey) ?
>Back in the early 80's they put out a bunch of wild'n'crazy programs,
>tools, games, and other out-of-control hacks for the Apple ][.

Ah yes, those were the good ol' days...

Beagle started getting off the track when they put out MacroWorks, an
enhancement for AppleWorks.  Now, they are toe-to-toe with (I believe)
Pinpoint publishing for the title of best AppleWorks enhancements.
(appointment book, telecommunications, desktop publishing, and so on)

Alas, the old programs are as dead as the DOS 3.3 they were written under.
Too bad.  I'd have loved to have seen what they could make ProDOS do.

Better yet, I'd REALLY like to see what they could've done on a Mac.

Kevin Podsiadlik				    g...@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Imagine what kind of poke-and-peek chart they might've done for the Mac...

   I learned about Beagle Bros. from Apple background.  However, they also
did a lot of Trash-80 stuff, even had a column in the now-defunct 80-Micro
magazine.

-- 
David L. Newton                 |           uunet!marque!carroll1!dnewton 
(414) 524-7343 (work)           |              dne...@carroll1.cc.edu   
(414) 524-6809 (home)           |           100 NE Ave, Waukesha WI 53186

In article <669@mmlai.UUCP> barash@mmlai.UUCP (Rev. Steve C. Barash) writes:
>Whatever happened to the Beagle Brothers (a.k.a. Bert Kersey) ?
>  Anybody else remember the Beagle Brothers feats of
>hackerism, or know where Bert Kersey is now?
>

  These guys were great! All of their stuff came with a flock on
one-liner basic programs that didi various weird things, plauy a little
game, do a funny graphic, etc. They did a little demo of the basic
shape-animation ( anybody still remember - SHAPE TABLES?)that still cracks 
me up, for some reason. ( A guy walks out of a house and points his finger 
away from the house and a cat runs out and falls off the end of the screen. 
Guess you had to be there)

  Anyway, my first recognition of their weirdness came after I had run a
graphic-test pattern program of theirs. You got the prompt back, but no
matter what you typed, a different message showed up:

"This is your computer. I am in control. Get up and go the computer
store and buy a big bag of memory chips. Whatever you do, do not turn of
the power!"

 (one letter appeared every time you hit a key on the keyboard...)

  Brian Bishop
  br...@grebyn.com

a...@expert.cc.purdue.edu (Steve Weinrich) writes:
>  Another trick the bro's sold was a "copy-protect your program" program.
>If you "protected" your program with it and then tried to load and
>list it, nothing would appear. It was if the memory had been cleared. BUT!
>if you typed in "run", sure enough... off it went. Never had time to check
>this out, but it was a neat protection scheme... for Basic programs that
>is. <grin>

This was pretty simple with any Microsoft Basic. MS Basic consisted of
a linked list of line numbers and tokens. There was a place in the zero page
of the 6502 that provided the starting and ending locations of a BASIC 
program. If you set the ending address equal to the start address, the
program would run, but not list.

This trick worked on Commodore PETs and CompuThink Minimaxs as well.
Anyone remember the Minimax?

-- 
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| uunet!futures!scott | there is only opportunity!  | Woodside, California    |
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