Racter Rocks

Boundary Institute Home Page
Shareware version of Racter called Claude can be downloaded here.
We used to sell an AI program written in DOS, MAC or Amiga called Racter.

Racter is like the well known Eliza talking therapist program but with a bizarre twist. i received an oddly interring email at the beginning of the day

Hi,
My name is Imraan, I hope you can help me.
I have an idea for an application like something you sell.
I'm looking for the person who wrote Racter.
Even the persons responsible for it. Can you look on the back of the
box?
Silly question?
I've never used it or read the book it made, but it might be the right
place to go.
Bit stuck.

From: I Osman [mailto:osmanim@dircon.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 4:38 PM
To: bruce@mindmedia.com
Subject: Racter Writer info
Hello Bruce,
Thanks for the info there.
I have just received an interesting reply from the co-writer of Racter.
Mr Thomas Etter (www.boundaryinstitute.org/people.htm) a busy man:

I wrote the Visual Basic version of Racter on a DOS computer. As I vaguely
recall (this was a long time ago), the company that sold it also came out
with a Mac disk, presumably with the same VB code. My partner Bill
Chamberlain, who is also responsible for Racter's book "The Policeman's
Beard is Half- Constructed", is still going strong with a new Racter-like
project; you can reach him at [chamberbill@sprintmail.com].

I'm afraid I don't have the time or energy for any more Racter projects
myself, but if you have any thoughts you would like to share I'd be glad to
hear them.

Tom Etter

That gives me the all clear.

The idea is best summed up like this...
"Atari Tempest type game with words instead of aliens."
The Racter bit comes in for the word generator.
I hope this is feasible.
I'm no programmer, but I will talk to some soon.
With Mr Etters blessings.
I'll keep you posted on progress.
Thanks
Imraan

Thanks
Imraan

I responded by typing in an address of a box created for me by the original authors of Ractor, who had originally marketed the program through Mindscape before selling it though my Mindware Catalog.

His message received tonigh follows

Later today, the author of the email had found some answers hence the message at the beginning.