These are the voyages issues of the Starship Enterprise magazine Drag ‘n Drop…1
The latest issue of on-off-on-off-under-new-management PDF magazine Drag ‘n Drop hit the virtual shelves a couple of weeks ago, in the form of volume five, issue four – aka issue 5i4 – marking the completion of its fifth volume.
The magazine first appeared, in 2009, the brainchild of long-time RISC OS fan Paul Stewart, who went on to publish three volumes (twelve issues) of the quarterly magazine, each priced at £3.00, until he decided to cease publication in 2012. Christopher Dewhurst took up the mantle, not wanting to see the magazine disappear, and published volume four issue one, his first, shortly after that year’s London Show.
The latest 64-page issue has a cover depicting a UFO-esque Raspberry Pi, shining a light on a map of a place called Risca (which, it turns out, is near Newport) and, according to the editor, features “an eclectic mix” of articles, which include reviews of RiscOSM (Sine Nomine’s mapping application) and Pico (RISC OS Open Ltd’s BBC Basic release for the Raspberry Pi), features on game design and programming RISC OS in Basic, using a Sky box with a Raspberry Pi, a number of type-in listings, and much more.
Drag ‘n Drop is available from its website in exchange for £3.00, for which you need to be able to use Paypal. If you are using NetSurf, Paypal can be made to work by disabling Javascript (call up its icon bar menu, and choose “Choices”, then “Content”, then “Disable Javascript”). Alternatively, each issue can be purchased via R-Comp’s !Store application for £4.00 – but for that higher price, the “type-in listings” don’t need to be typed in; they’re provided in a ready-to-run format.
From the next issue, the price will increase from £3.00 to £3.50 – the first time it has been increased in the five years since the magazine was first published, and reflects the rising costs of the world at large. While the magazine doesn’t have any printing costs, explains Chris in the news pages, there are costs he does incur in publishing and promoting it (for example when attending shows). Along with the increased price, however, a new subscription option is being punted, with an annual subscription (four issues) costing £14.00 – full details and an order form can be found in the magazine.
£14.00 including postage also happens to be the price Chris is charging for the newly updated back issues collection, which now covers the first five complete volumes, with the magazines supplied in both in PDF format and the original Ovation/EasiWriter files, along with all the programs and original clip-art. The collection is now supplied on 4GB USB flash drives which, says Chris, provides ample space for the same memory stick to be used to hold future issues as well as the twenty already supplied.
!ReadMe
- With five volumes now in the bag, my thoughts turned to the original series of Star Trek and the opening monologue, which proudly proclaimed that Enterprise had a five year mission. The show was almost cancelled during its second season, but (thanks to fan persuasion, by way of a letter writing campaign) was given a temporary reprieve, and one more season was made. This (very loosely) parallel’s Paul’s time with Drag ‘n Drop; when he announced that he was ceasing publication the first time, it more or less coincided with the publication of the final issue of volume two, and (thanks to persuasion) gave it a temporary reprieve, publishing one more volume.What happened next, however, is where the parallel ends – publishing of Drag ‘n Drop didn’t actually stop, thanks to Christopher Dewhurst taking it over, so we’ve (so far) seen volume four and five, whereas there has never been a season four (or five) of the original Star Trek, unless you count the two seasons of the animated series, which were made some years after the original series ended.