Thanks guys, for the comments.
I think I understand why they wanted a built-in playback device. When I ran AMv7 on a windows 95 machine I had to generate avi files, because I could only create one mov file per session. If I wanted another mov file, I had to exit and restart the program. From my brother Hans, I’ve learned to expect that problems of this nature are probably not Hash’s fault. This is the sort of PC vs. Mac glitch that Apple and Microsoft are both guilty of. Hans, who works with both macs and PCs, swears at both of them. The Hash team probably got fed up with handling service calls to fix other people’s players. My main quibble with the new Hash player is the lack of an outer box; I really want to see how I’ve framed the model. But, like I said, the program’s realtime playback is so screamingly fast, I find I’m not even making test renders anymore. I can live with that. 
I can’t seem to finish Gaty, either. His head was created in version 4. His body is an edited version of Joe Cosman’s take on Putty Dude. This is kind of embarrassing to admit, actually. 
Yeah, it was keyframed from a video reference that I had lying about on my hard disc. One thing about working from video: I HAVE to punch it up, afterwards. Gaty just lumbers around, heavily, in the straight animation. Luckily AM is so good with NLA that it’s a simple matter to lacquer on another action, and make him spring up higher and farther, like a proper cartoon character.
Thank you, everyone, for kindly overlooking the twitch in his shoulder when he does the cartwheel. Bum IK/FK switch, right there! 
The timeline must a chore for the programmers to work with. Those screws and thumbtacks never really worked. I get the impression computers are lousy at keeping tabs on two or more things at the same time. They like taking tasks in succession, one at a time. They can do that fast … but that’s how they like to work. “Just show me all the bones I need to keep an eye on!” is a confusing request, for a computer. “Which bone is selected?” is a soothing question, for a computer. Imagine selecting a bone that was not previously pinned in the timeline. Should the timeline show it? Should it not? A computer’s small feverish mind is easy overwhelmed by such decisions. Someday the Hash team will devise an intuitive timeline, but, to paraphrase Aragorn:“Today is not that day.” My workaround is to add a number in front of all my control bones. Body parts share the same numerical prefix. This isolates the bones into little blocks; I manually adjust the hieght of the timeline to crop what I want to focus on.
Okay.The caffeine is wearing off.
Sincerely,
Carl Raillard