He asked for beta testers for V18

[niallquinn]

Those you have been around a long time, may be aware, that earlier versions of 9.4.9.9 10.1a were leaked, I was given them, I passed them out.  Earlier versions were leaked by others.

Chris knew this.

So when he asked for beta testers I thought he's going to still think we're cunts and ignore me.

But he didn't, he seamed this new MFME as a rebirth and everything under the bridge.  Big man to say that.

This were the first build with the new DX draw code, so I stuck to one tech only to test.  SC5.  My playing showed, with a help from the debug sysyem load, that it was way too high, causing slowdowns on SC5 and especially SC5 Adder video.  Leave it with him, day later, try this.  All fixed.

Other than a few coding chats about reverse engineering, never got to know him.  Some of us are vocal about what we do, where we're from, jobs, kids or whatever.  He nenver seemed to boast or want the limelight.   He seemed to be a very private man, and I respect that.

That's my little write up, not a great believer myself, but if we ever do meet up again, just make sure you've lots of £4.80 tokens..or are the machines up there also have unemptiable hoppers and tubes!? ..

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by niallquinn

[bungle]

It's nice to admit one's faults,Anyone who has never made a mistake is a liar,simple as that really.Wizard was indeed a very special man.Not a believer either,but you never know.  

[wearecity]

Nice post, very true, I too was asked to beta tester and we had a lot of communication between us from then on in particular.

I think, although it took a while to realise, those who were perhaps seen as just troublemaking in the past, were actually amongst the most enthusiastic for the FME scene. The trouble was, we just had different ideas of how things should move forwards and got off on the wrong foot and kept on tripping up. I see many of us now some 18 years + in the scene, a bit like the youngsters now only wanting the £70 or later machines only and impossible machines such as machines driven by their own PC's. Us seen troublemakers, just wanted the latest £10/ £15 machines and just didn't get the bigger picture of patience in a virtue.

I'm sure there was regret on both sides (I know I have several), but the main thing is we got there in the end and I think due to Chris working on the emulator privately for a number of years, those years weren't a loss.  It was just several years without an emulator update, but when it came, boy was it the best update ever.

[Danno]

Chris gave me a copy of v19.9 before it was released, in fact i think it went on to be v20 before he actually released it. It was at the the time I was doing Pool Play (Electro) and had found some bugs in the current version.

For a tech that nobody seemed to bother with he fixed the bugs and incorporated a whole raft of other improvements to the EM Editor. Sure we had some arguments about how some manufactures in the real world switched the 0v, often being a little sulky and refusing to believe me but next day the bugs were fixed and all was good. He could at times be a little short with you but deep down took on board what you had said. He cared and was passionate about what he did, and it had to be right.

I asked him lots of times for a peek into the source code so that I could have a nose around to see how he actually achieved what he did with the EM side but that request was always firmly ignored. 

 

[Zippy]

He was an acquired taste, he knew what he wanted and what he had to do.

I'll tell you this for free, if you was let in you was damn well lucky!