Eeeek A Bug!
by "Cajun" David Richard


Do you ever watch "Wheel of Fortune?" Do you know that little tune that's played when Pat announces a new puzzle? The camera cuts to a shot of the lovely Vanna and the puzzle lights up? "A place," Pat will say. Well right before that, they play a little tune. Hector is now singing that little tune. Where do you suppose he picked that up? Does he watch TV? And if he does, where does he go to watch it? We don't have a television in the office, and if we did, I doubt we would be watching "Wheel of Fortune."

But enough of what keeps me awake at night...

This months Eeeek A Bug will be a little different. We will still mention the bugs that have been reported over the last two months, but I would like to take this opportunity to look back at 1995. A lot has happened here, and much of it was behind the scenes. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you our experiences in 1995.

The year began with the angry mob. Yes, there was a mob scene in Cyberspace. You see, we were working on a product. Maybe you are familiar with it: Apeiron? Well, we thought Apeiron might have been released a little earlier than it was, and we made statements to that affect when we were working on the game. But, with more creative suggestions from the lab rats (the faithful employees), the project was a little delayed. But we got it released in early February, and it has been well received ever since. The end result was a policy of not announcing release dates (all release dates are now ASAP).

Just after that, Andrew shaved his head, "because I felt like it." Now this has absolutely no significance, but I though you may be interested. He looked pretty funny, actually. Maybe you saw a glimpse of it in a past issue of the AT.

Soon after this, we hired our lovely office manager, Gayle. She has done a wonderful job thus far, and has been extremely productive despite the glare from Andrew's head (it sometimes makes it hard to see the monitor). Although Gayle is slightly accident prone (we didn't know she would have such problems with the three steps in the office, so much for the split level), when it comes to money matters, she's the best!

1995 was also the year Ambrosia took it's first leap towards working with outside developers. The other game released last year, Swoop, was written by a gentleman from Australia. We have spoken with him on the phone, and exchanged a great deal of eMail, but if I bumped into him in a shopping mall, I wouldn't know who he was (unless he has a pet kangaroo, then I'd wonder how he got the creature to the states: "We hopped a plane, mate!"). Swoop has also done well, and has helped us develop a working relationship with other developers in the Macintosh community. We hope to combine our strengths with the abilities of others to continue to offer top rate programs to our customers.

We also saw the birth of the color brochure in 1995. This little pamphlet has helped folks who were not online get a glimpse of the other offerings from Ambrosia. We were very excited to get them, and although we will not continue to use them for too much longer, they have been a great help. Besides, they looked fantastic!

In the Summer, Ambrosia moved the home office. We found a little space that was perfect for us, and allowed us easy access to our favorite eatery, "Nick Tahoe's," (those who are in, or who have visited Rochester, NY should know about this place). But that's not why we moved. The office was more economical, it allowed us to yell to each other without getting up, and is was decorated in a nice Greek motif (complete with columns). Hector even got his own sun lamp out of the deal. Now he thinks he's in the Bahamas. The only downside to the move was that our phone and fax numbers in all of the brochures, in all of the forums, and in all of the products were rendered incorrect. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

The other behind the scenes addition to the office was a brand new Silicon Graphics Indy. This computer was destined to be our Internet server. By having a server (and the Internet itself) in the office, we are able to provide complete Internet access to Ambrosia. By loading up a World Wide Web site, an ftp site, and more recently a list server, we are able to better serve the entire online community. We are very happy with it, and hope to use it in more ways to better serve you, the customer.

As we plow into the new year (you have to plow in Rochester), we look forward to an exciting 12 months. Currently, we have four products in beta, Andrew and I have several new projects that we wish to work on, and we all have colds! And when were not sitting around coughing and sneezing or torturing the cat (with little Kitty Booties), we're thinking of new ways we can better serve our clientele. We hope 1996 will be as exciting as 1995.

Have a Happy New Year!