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AMProSoft was born out of a Computer Math class at Lafayette High School
in Buffalo, NY during the 1987-88 school year. A wise (and benificent)
Computer Math teacher, Mr. Alderdice, handed me the programming manual
for the BASIC programing language one day --after I had gotten very far
ahead in class. He encouraged me to teach myself (which I did). It wasn't
much later that I discovered the joys of computer graphics. Oh sure they
were 4 color 320x200 resolution graphics, but they WERE graphics, and as
the programs grew in sophistication, I began adding a banner on the end
which read "Alex Mead Producshunz" --later shortened to AMPro.
For the next couple years I made very simple graphical programs. I tried
giving them out on floppy disks but people needed to know how to use BASIC in order to
load and run them, so that didn't go very far. Then in August of 1991
I discovered QuickBASIC and learned how to compile programs. I got so
excited over it all that I cobbled some of my graphics programs into games,
got myself a P.O. Box, wrote the very first AMProSoft newsletter, tha AMProGram
(one page long), and declared myself "in business".
I came out with some pretty good shareware games for the time period. I
was getting better and better at programming and designing computer
graphics. I was starting to get noticed. I made it into a few
national shareware catalogs, and onto some good shareware CDs and such.
But the world began to evolve away from me, as Microsoft picked up the
Earth and hijacked it over to some strange plane of existence called
Windows. My games had all kinds of compatability issues trying to run
under Windows. Various programming libraries that I had spent all of the
money I had on ground to a screaching halt and steadfastly refused to
work under windows.
Rather than bash my head against the wall trying to work with
GRaphical User Interfaces, I decided to begin work on my long time
dream of creating comic books. Tha AMProGram --the AMProSoft
newsletter-- was several years along, getting better and better, and
so as I neared issue #50 (in 1995), the AMProSoft Newsletter switched
from being an email and Bulletin Board newsletter and became a print
publication instead (complete with it's own 8 page black and
white comic).
In 1996, I officially registered AMProSoft as a business,
purchased the domain name AMProSoft.com and began studying web
design in earnest. Some friends of mine had designed a website
for AMProSoft, but as the web began to take off I figured I could
justify the $70 it cost to register a domain name at the time.
I begun composing computer music years earlier for my video game
releases, but even with video game production on hiatus, my
compositions continued. During the 90s I composed some 300 songs
and released two 120 minute AMProSoft Music casette tapes called
"AMProJamz" and "AMProJamz 2: Return of tha Noize". These were
followed by a shorter 90 minute casette of Dance Music called "I
Thought I Told You to Dance".
After a 3 year run of creating a monthly comic for tha AMProGram --and
an evolution from an 8 page black and white into a 12 page full
color comic-- tha AMProGram ceased production in 1998 with issue #83,
and I went into a different branch of web design. In 2000 there was a
redesign of the AMProSoft website but very little activity other than
that.
In 2001 I dedicated a little time to design a new AMProSoft website
called 716BBS.com as a hang out spot for Western New Yorkers from
the BBSing culture.
In 2003 I wrote an Autobiography called "How To Care About Humans" and
released it as an ebook on another new AMProSoft website called
OnlineAutobiographies.com. In 2004 and 2005, inspired by the
political climate in the U.S. at the time, I released two more
AMProSoft books (on paper this time): A two part series of
novels called Relations: Book 1 - McEmpire and Book 2 - SMASH YOUR TV!.
I completed another redesign of AMProSoft.com to coincide with the
release of book 2.
In 2009 I recorded and released a CD called My Real Name is Alex. It
is quite good.
I am presently in the process of writing more books, recording more music
(with the most funnest band in the universe, BloodThirsty Vegans) and
converting lots of old web code into PHP for the 2010 relaunch of
AMProSoft.com
-Alex Mead
owner, AMProSoft
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