LE'VZ 200/300 OOP

Summary

This newsletter was one of the first to be published and was started in June 1984 by John D'Alton of Toowong, Queensland. It ran for 6 years and finished up in May 1990 after 27 issues. There was a variety of BASIC program listings, machine code (usually done via BASIC), hardware mods, tips, VZ lists (including magazine indexes and software lists) and, of course, VSoftwareZ ads. It started out as a one-page A4 sheet and then moved to 10 pages, and later to as many as 18 pages. It was published roughly every three months.

As one of the earliest newsletters it definitely filled a gap and quickly attracted subscribers who were eager to find out more about the VZ200.

VSoftwareZ Part I

John ran an electronics business specializing in sound equipment (D'Alton Sound Service) and became interested in computers when his son (also called John) purchased an SC/MP kit in 1977. John junior did most of the hard work of putting the kit together, but John senior became quite interested and learned to program in machine language.

When the VZ-200 came along in 1983, John jumped aboard. It wasn't long before he realized that there was a need for two things – information and more software. Being a businessman he recognized the opportunity and launched what was to become VSoftwareZ in 1984.

The success of LE'VZ and VSoftwareZ was no doubt in part due to the entrepreneurship of John. He made the effort of contacting both his local DSE store and DSE head office (and in particular, Jamie Perry), and was able to garner support for LE'VZ. This led to the opportunity of being able to provide both a poster advertising LE'VZ and also a demo disk showcasing VSoftwareZ products to all DSE stores. He also advertised in various magazines. As a result, LE'VZ became quite well known and at one stage had nearly 200 subscribers.

LE'VZ also attracted many contributors, and there were some who became regulars. Names such as Bob Kitch and Scott Le Brun were to become familiar to LE'VZ readers. John even managed to come up with a list of contacts for various VZ areas of interest, no doubt to take some of the load off himself in answering questions.

The Get-Togethers

With the success of LE'VZ, John decided to run an annual get-together for interested OOPs. The first was held in his home in December 1985. I (User:Andrew Laird) was able to attend the meeting. While I don't actually recall too many of the details - apart from being in awe of someone who published a VZ newsletter - the report in the following LE'VZ shows that a number of programs and hardware items were demonstrated, including the DSE Sprite Generator, DSE Word Processor, some Larry Taylor educational software, the Load XX-80 tapes program, and the Laser Light Pen system.

The second meeting, labelled a mini-expo, was held in December 1986 at Milton Primary School, close to where John lived. Besides the event being mentioned in LE'VZ, it was also advertised in the Courier Mail. This strategy proved successful with around 40 people attending the talks and demonstrations of various programs and hardware items.

In 1987 the mini-expo was held in conjunction with the Brisbane VZ Users' Workshop at Capalaba State High School. [The BVZUW held regular monthly meetings which John attended and supported with donated software.] The December 1987 mini-expo was a great success with around 100 people attending. A number of exhibitors and attendees travelled from interstate. Two key figures from NSW, Gavin Williamson of LaserLink and Mark Harwood of VZ USER, showed off their products and the VZ USER newsletter. As usual, there was a number of interesting talks and both software and hardware demonstrations.

The December 1988 mini-expo was a BVZUW only affair rather than a joint effort by VSoftwareZ and BZVUW. John still turned up as an exhibitor but didn't help organize the event as in previous years. By this time interest in the VZ had begun to wane and only 25 people turned up to the mini-expo including the organizers. This was a disappointment given the amount of work that was put in to these events and so proved to be the last one.

VSoftwareZ Part II

After launching VSoftwareZ, John was able to attract the interest of a number of software authors, and was able to distribute their programs for a number of years under the VSoftwareZ label. John also wrote and distributed his own programs. When DSE stopped selling VZ-200/300 software John was even able to gain the distribution rights of a couple of the titles.

Some of the more recognized software authors included Larry Taylor and Scott Le Brun.

John was also able to publish a book (VProgrammeZ-VHintZ-VHardwareZ) containing some original material but mostly based on previously published articles from the LE'VZ newsletters. After November 1988, VSoftwareZ scaled back their operation and sold only the most popular titles. A number of titles and also hardware items were sold off at reduced prices as interest in the VZ began to fade.

By the start of 1990 interest in the VZ had diminished to such a point that there were only about 30 LE'VZ subscribers, and so John decided to call it quits as an editor. He announced his intentions in issue #26 (February 1990) and published his last issue #27 in May 1990, rounding out 6 years of LE'VZ.

Source: LE'VZ 200/300 OOP

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