I have Commodore 64 disks 7, 11, and Japan still in he shrink wrap. I once had a copy of every disk.
I am "Dr Scenery" from subLOGIC.
Mike Woodley
Hey Michael! Thank you so much for popping in. I was a big fan of SubLOGIC back in the day, doing my best to fly (and sometimes successfully land) in FS2 and JET on my Apple II, and I remember your name well from the couple of scenery disks I could afford as a teenager.
Since then I’ve tried to collect all of the Apple II scenery disks and research more about them and some of the SubLOGIC ephemera. If you know the answers to any of these questions, or have further leads to share, I’d greatly appreciate anything you can remember from the 1980s…
(1) Was Scenery Disk 12 released as a stand-alone product, on any platform?
From my research, the Apple II saw A2-SD #1-6, 7 and 11, plus STAR San Francisco (A2-SDS1) Japan (A2-SD13) and Western Europe (A2-SD14). SD #9 and Hawaii were released for other platforms but not the Apple II. So far as I can tell, SD #8 and #10 never made it out as separate products for any platform before SubLOGIC moved to the updated US East/West “big box” packages. SD #12 is mentioned in the ATP manual: “Scenery Disk #12 incorporates the very latest ATP scenery technologies, and covers the New York, Montreal and Halifax sectional areas in incredible detail. This disk provides the most advanced and spectacular scenery available on any Scenery Disk to date.”
But I’ve yet to turn up any images of the packaging in online museums or auction listings. I’ve seen an eBay listing for just the 3.5” floppy disk for SD# 12, and the scenery files have been posted online. But maybe you recall if it got a proper release in one of the iconic folders, even if it was at the end of the product line?
(2) Were you involved in any of the magazine marketing materials?
I really enjoyed (and collected!) SubLOGIC’s advertising for the scenery, which really told a compelling story in the pages of COMPUTE! and other magazines in the 1980s. “Fly to Florida!”, “Tokyo for $19.95”, and the 5-part “Western European Tour” ads culminating in “Find Red Square” all done with glorious 80s color blocking.
One intriguing addition were the “Flight Notes”, a series of ads that gave updates about the products and sales, which I ate up. They started in 1988 and ran in various magazines with variations depending on the audience (e.g. #7A about Commodore, #7B about Apple II, and #7C generic?). Through modern archives I’ve tracked down as many as I could; I think I’m missing #2C and maybe #3C. I also found a mailer advertising Thunderchopper and featuring #8. But after #8 there’s a gap until #11, which I think is the last. My wild speculation is that SubLOGIC had some budget issues and #9 and #10 never made it out to magazines - I don’t suppose you recall?
And now an even bigger stretch…
(3) Did you have anything to do with the “Computer Flight Newsbriefs” ?
SubLOGIC sent out “New Briefs” as advertising mailers. I’ve managed to track down #1 (March 1987) and #29-#34 (Spring/Summer 1991 - Fall 1993). They talk quite a bit about scenery development, e.g. #31 talks about the updated coordinate system used in “...all Scenery Disks prior to SD#12…” so I thought you might be involved. (And that particular text hints more at the mystery around SD#12). If you were involved - thank you! And do you have any thoughts about the creation of these?
Regardless - thank you for jumping into this group, providing so much entertainment to us back in the 8-bit days, and for leaving some interesting historical breadcrumbs for us to dig through.
– Josh