Hello freedos,

I've installed FreeDOS 1.3 on a Dell Inspiron 1150, A Windows XP-era laptop. This laptop has an Intel Celeron 2.6 GHZ CPU, and it had 256 MB of RAM when I pulled it out of a bin at the landfill.

The laptop will run FreeDOS in safe mode, but it will not run JEMMEX with no EMS, JEMMEX, or JEMM386. It will only run in safe mode or emergency mode. I upgraded the RAM to 256 MB, this made no difference.

For now, I'm able to run most of the DOS games, and I can use Vim, that's all I really care about. I just wanted to ask if this is normal functionality, or if something is not working right.

This article covers a rarely-seen but interesting arcade game: Wyvern F-0 by Taito. This game used a unique graphics system to produce a presudo-3D effect.

Has anyone else heard of this game?

I purchased this last week in Wellington, Colorado. The Model D Executive has an unusual feature for a typewriter: a proportionally-spaced font.

This typewriter still needs a lot of work, I plan to have it professionally serviced soon.

I look forward to using it for writing letters.

The typewriter is HEAVY. When you hit the carriage return and the platen snaps back, it shakes the whole desk.

I read a lot of Harlan Ellison (worked on The Outer Limits, 80's Twilight Zone, Babylon 5), and I was wondering what people thought of this quote from him:

[S]cience fiction is the only 100% hopeful fiction. That is to say, inherent in the form is, "There will be a tomorrow". If you read a science fiction story, it says, "This will happen tomorrow". Now that’s very positive, that’s very pragmatic, "We’ll be here tomorrow. We may be unhappy, we may be all living like maggots, but we’ll be here." So that means it’s 100% positive.

Ellison has even said that his short story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is optimistic, because in the climax, there is still room for self-sacrifice and defiance to authority.

I guess it comes down to whether you think a bleak future is better than no future at all.

Shameless plug for my work if you like Ellison or want to learn more: https://ndhfilms.com/ellison

I spotted these mountain goats today on the west side of Loveland Pass.

EDIT: Here's another photo:

This payphone may be found at the City Market gas station south of Granby. It is pretty close to the Ski Granby Ranch. The phone had dial tone, no broken buttons, and rings when called. I was able to call a friend with it.

The phone number is (970) 887-9907.

I read The Count of Monte Cristo some years ago, and it remains one of my favorite novels. This year, I committed to read The Three Musketeers. I chose a Librivox audiobook narrated by Mark Smith, since I had enjoyed his recording of Tarzan of the Apes.

The audiobook used a public-domain translation which apparently toned down or removed the more risque parts of the story. If you want to read or listen to an audiobook (which I recommend), I guess try to find a more modern translation, even if you have to pay for it. The Librivox recording is of high quality, with excellent narration.

I very much enjoyed the story. The true pleasure of the novel is the bond between D'Artagnan and the musketeers, and discovering their personalities. Much like Little Women, this is a novel that you remember for the characters. On top of that, you get to know the "lackeys" of the four. I had assumed the lackeys would be irrelevant to the plot, instead, they all manage to play a role in the larger story.

#Milady

The most interesting character for me was the villain Milady. My opinion of her swung wildly across the story.

(SPOILERS)

About a third of the way through the book, D'Artagnan becomes smitten with Milady. He disguises himself as Milady's lover, the Comte de Ward, to have sex with her. This is glossed over in the translation I listened to, but I was alarmed when I read about it in a separate summary. What D'Artagnan does would now be considered rape, and it's no wonder Milady flies into a rage when she discovers the truth.

In another chapter, D'Artagnan's melancholy friend and father-figure Athos confides his own dark past: years before, he was a count, and married a young girl from his village. He later discovered this girl had been branded on her shoulder as a felon. Athos cut her clothes off and had her hanged. Ashamed to his core by the scandal, he renounced his title, took on the name Athos, and joined the Musketeers. Later, it's revealed that Athos' wife survived the hanging, and became Milady.

I can accept the explanation that Athos, as a nobleman, was bound by duty to carry out the execution. Still, in the moment of reading, what he did felt pretty damn brutal. I suppose I was thinking of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, or the people who were sent to penal colonies for breaking a plate in a burglary.

All of that's to say that I started the second half of the book feeling like maybe Milady had been wronged a little bit, and may have had some reasons for seeking revenge on D'Artagnan and friends. I was accustomed to modern storytelling convention, which has no patience for purely evil characters. If the story were written today, the branding would have been treated as a tragic misunderstanding.

I hate to say it, but when Milady is captured in England on her way to assassinate the Duke of Buckingham, part of me was hoping she'd escape and get away with it.

I was sobered up by the end, when Milady has mercilessly poisoned Madame Bonacieux, and when we hear the Executioner's story. At that point, I was disabused of my notion that Milady was some victim of circumstance. If Athos had not discovered Milady's brand, she would have ruined him, too, if not killed him.

All I can do is give my compliments to Dumas' writing talents: just like the character Felton in the later chapters, I had been thoroughly seduced by the character of Milady. Milady's latest victim...was me!

#Conclusion

I'm glad to have finally read The Three Musketeers. I am encouraged to try to find some of Dumas' less-popular stories, including The Last Cavalier at some point.

I saw a giant, spiky yellow ball moving along the shoulder of the road near Montezuma, Colorado (east of Keystone Resort). They were kind enough to pose for this picture.

Sawmill Road is between Ward and Gold Hill in Boulder County. It's very steep, and connects to Lefthand Canyon Drive. I didn't have a date stamp on this picture, but I took it in 2023.

Hi @retrogaming,

Here's our Spring issue for 2024.

Retro Gaming articles in this issue:

• Coverage of ATG Expo 2024 in Waco, TX by AT Gonzalez. He saw an original Soviet-era Tetris computer.
• Grappling to New Heights: Roc’n Rope’s Unintentional Birth of the “Wire Action” Genre by Leland Tursi
• Views From the Road: Cricket's Draft House & Grill in Waco, TX
• Reader responses to last issue's article on the reverse-engineering of Sinistar.

Cover art by Chris Bordenca

These were my reflections on the Dark Horse Saloon in Boulder. Roger Ebert, a writer who I admire and who influenced my life in a big way, would hold court at the Dark Horse when he was in town for the Conference on World Affairs. I will be sad to see it go, so I thought I'd put down a few words while I still had time.