Propaganda 25 ch09
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|MEET THE PRESS |
|MEET THE PRESS BY DUKE|
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T
The scene media has profound power to be
a positive influence. It has the chance
to tie the link between the consumer
and the producer, but also the other
way around. It represents the voice of
the scene, and does therefore deserve
to be heard.
MEET THE PRESS is dedicated to the
people behind the magazines, who are
responsible for the scene being one,
a family - together.
M T P
MEETING THE PRESS
_________________
It has become somewhat of a pleasurable
routine of mine to check in on my
American friends, the creators behind
DRIVEN, once in a while.
I have always had great affection for
the ntsc scene, which probably is due
to my history of calling the American
boards in the past. Those days the
cracking/fixing part of the NTSC scene
ran with most of the attention, but
today the demo scene is pretty much all
that is left to keep the home of our
beloved computer alive and kicking in
the name of the C64 - and the scene.
DRIVEN is to me a great example of the
one true reason why I love the magazine
business, as it was created in an
attempt to motivate the scene. Working
hard to do just that, they have
successfully injected new energy into
the old NTSC demo scene, and as a
result, we see a more lively NTSC demo
scene.
In addition, they have also managed to
bring more attention to a part of the
scene, that has been starving for
attention since the dawn of time.
I met up with two of the front figures
of DRIVEN, COOLHAND and ELWIX, and we
spoke about the popular American
magazine, that has just released its
24th edition to the world.
(D) = DUKE/PROPAGANDA
(A) = THE AMERICANS, COOLHAND & ELWIX
IMPORTANT NOTICE: COOLHAND and ELWIX
decided to answer all questions together
as though they were one voice.
________________________________________
(D) Welcome COOLHAND and ELWIX. Thank
you both for granting us this
interview.
(A) No problem! It was nice and friendly
of PROPAGANDA to ask.
(D) Well, as you know, it is our
business to ask questions, and
luckily we work in a scene of
helpful people - which is the reason
why the scene is still going strong,
if you ask me. Anyway, let me begin
by commenting the great work you
guys have done to keep the world
informed on an otherwise unknown
part of the world. You have most
definitely brought the NTSC scene
back as a part of the scene, and
we all benefit from that.
(A) Thanks, and we certainly hope most
people agree with you - while it is
smaller and less active, the NTSC
scene can still make a great
contribution to the whole world
demo scene, in our opinion. It is
still "rebuilding" so the future
should be even better for it, if we
work hard to keep it alive and
growing.
THE POPULARITY
THE POPULARITY
(D) DRIVEN continues to amaze everyone.
Although a small magazine compared
to others, it is as stabile and
reliable as ever. What is the reason
for the success of DRIVEN, and do
you find it has grown to become,
what you had hoped in the starting
phase?
(A) Lets start with the second question
first. My hope at the start was just
to create some kind of regular
support and driving force to get the
NTSC demo scene back into some
respectable activity and growing
again. I set out to only cover the
kind of outfit with something
relatively new (a very flexible
color proportional engine).
But basically my primary desire was
to just do something that might
increase the size of the NTSC scene,
both in terms of demos released and
active sceners involved. getting
people involved - that was a major
goal for DRIVEN.
Why is DRIVEN successful? Of course
this begs the question of whether
DRIVEN IS successfull.. We would
like to think yes, but there is
still much left to be done to keep
the demo scene living and moving
forward.
There were some decisions I made
prior to the first issue that were
clearly good; some were made with
purpose, some were just lucky moves
that in retrospect were good ideas
but at the time did not seem of any
importance. I wanted to do something
interesting and somewhat different
with the outfit, to give it some
initial appeal (the color propor-
tional as I mentioned); I decided
to forgo the classic NTSC diskmag
approach of full disk issues packed
with submitted art, music, and
demo pages as well as text -
because I didn't want to have to
reply on anyone but myself initially
for material - otherwise the
magazine would have bogged and
slowed down; I wanted to release
extremely regularly so hopefully by
example the NTSC demo scene would
follow and start pumping up the
activity too.
Lucky choices were made when I asked
COOLHAND to help out on the first
issue with an Internet oriented
article. I ended up asking him to
be the co-editor, and only because
of this has DRIVEN lasted this far.
It was also fortuitous that DRIVEN
was single filed. At the time it
was just logical to make it one
filed for the smaller amount of
material, but as it happens, I
believe this is the reason DRIVEN
managed to catch on so well in PAL
lands - 1 file is so damn easy for
swappers to copy and fit onto their
swap disks. DRIVEN ended up being
spread fairly well from what we
can tell, with almost no
intervention from us (our gratitude
to all the swappers who spread
DRIVEN in the early days as well as
in the present!). Seeing this occur
was why we devoted ourselves to also
cover the PAL demo scene from about
issue #7 onwards, and we've gotten
excellent support from many PAL
sceners submitting their work.
But apart from the beginning our
success is pretty simple. We try
hard to deliver quality content; we
we continually trying to involve all
sceners in DRIVEN by asking for
articles from almost anyone; we try
not to repeat too much of the same
"regular articles" and push hard for
variety: we've covered the
commercial scene to some extend;
we don't engage in quarrels. We're
here for the scene and not for the
magazine, because what good would
it do having ourselves trying to
look like gods in front of an
audience of 3? What we want is to
be a small role in a giant active
scene playing itself to an audience
of thousands of interested demo
fans.
THE STAFF
THE STAFF
(D) Please tell us about the current
status of DRIVEN, and describe the
people behind it.
(A) As we answer these questions #24
was just released. We had our
longest break yet (3 months) over
summer, but we're back on track to
finish this year and kick off the
next. People currently taking an
active role in the mag: ELWIX,
COOLHAND, CYBERNOID, DOKKEN,
ZKYCLAD, DR. SOFT, STASH, FALCON,
and EL BANDITOS.
The first two of these are the main
editors of course. The next two are
contributing with their demo
reviews, the next provides some news
and commercial scene coverage, and
the last 4 make up the legal
release list helpers, tho school
and other things kept them too busy
recently.
We would like to find a dedicated
PAL demoscener with a desire to take
an active role in driven. In the
past we've had great help from a
few different PAL friends, but what
we really need is someone to take on
a role of PAL co-editor and really
work on the PAL demo scene coverage
with us. Someone with a level of
control over the PAL content nearly
equal to ELWIX and COOLHAND. This
person should ideally be on the
inet.
We're basically offering the chance
to help shape the content and
even to some extend the direction
of driven, if this person would be
willing to put in the same amount
of work and effort as the current
co-editors. (Any takers? Heh).
(D) JAZZCAT is a former member of the
DRIVEN staff. What is your opinion
of this extremely involved C64
scener and his work for DRIVEN?
(A) JAZZCAT (if we recall right) had
actually offered himself to help out
with the magazine, which is quite
cool. We accepted and he started
supplying some demo scene news and
2 or 3 articles over the course of
a few issues. Lately his help
dropped off as, we imagine, he is
mostly focused back on his own
machine. So we're in fact basically
let him go off the staff, of course
*not* on bad terms. Our impression
of him is similar to all the staff
who've helped with DRIVEN over its
life, that is to say we really
appreciate their help and support,
and we'd be quite happy for them
to come back and be more involved
if they so desire. But anyway, our
search for a PAL co-editor was
mentioned before.
(D) A while back, COOLHAND revealed
plans for driven to switch to an
IFFL-type file format. As we know,
this obviously never happened. What
is the reason for this?
(A) After lots of struggling and getting
opinions and trying to make up our
minds, we finally decided driven
cannot be made much better overall,
currently, from being beigger. That
sounds odd, but knowing the full
picture: the time our lives allow
us to work on each issue, the
already mentioned advantages for us
in being single filed, and the
general feeling of most sceners we
asked that driven was good as it
is, we backed off from making any
radical change in format.
We currently get just about the
perfect amount of articles submitted
or written by ourselves every month
or so to keep up regular releases
(1-2 months apart) without getting
too much backlog or running too low.
DRIVEN issues contain essentially
31O-33O blocks of equ-packed text.
For now, once again considering the
big picture, this feels "right" for
us. In the future we might
re-evaluate this - if activity in
the scene keeps growing, if we take
on additional reliable help, etc.
And of course we welcome the scene's
opinion on what they'd like to see!
(D) DRIVEN is a perfect example of a
magazine acting as flag-bearer to
boost a scene, that is sufferinng
from lack of activity. How do you
keep America and Canada interested
in the C64?
(A) Interestingly, by just being what we
are. To clarify, we don't go under
the assumption that DRIVEN is the
sole force keeping the NTSC scene
alive; we are one of several
"factors" helping to do that, others
being the active demo groups
themselves, CMD with their huge
product lines and fine magazine,
LOADSTAR, etc.
DRIVEN offers a varied but
consistent range of articles and
information on many aspects of the
C64. Editorials and articles on
demo scene issues and timely reviews
of new NTSC demo releases are key
areas which driven maintains.
The interest is there; as you say,
driven is just a "flag-bearer" or
central point of information to keep
that interest focused on the demo
scene, our main purpose for being.
THE RESPONSIBILIES
THE RESPONSIBILIES
(D) How do you maintain a critical tone
towards the developments of the NTSC
scene, when at the same time, you
try to encourage optimism?
(A) Balanced reporting is probably the
best way to describe our formula,
both in our editorials and in our
demo reviews. In the reviews, for
instance, we do tend to emphasize
(but not exaggerate) the positive
values we see in a demo. But at the
same time we try to offer
constructive comments and
suggestions as to how the demo
being reviewed, and future releases,
might be improved. Ragging or
unproductive comparisons to other
demos do not have a place in driven.
Optimism is in the eyes of the
beholder, or driven reader in this
case. We may try to plan the seeds
of optimism for those who read
DRIVEN, but we do so by being honest
and accurate. So far, many people
have takenn those seeds and
produced a fairly healthy and
growing demo scene.
THE PAL AND NTSC SCENE
THE PAL AND NTSC SCENE
(D) What is the difference between the
driven coverage of PAL activities
and the coverage served by PAL
magazines, if any?
(A) DRIVEN is focused primarily on the
demo scene. We generally do not
cover any news or events unless it
is linked somehow with the demo
scene. The expectations are
occasional commercial scene articles
and coverage of Internet related
topics, though we see the latter as
as clearly beneficial to the demo
scene.
Of course, DRIVEN carries less text
per issue than other magazines, but
we try and make it up with regular
releases. Due to the space limits
we filter out some "plainer" news
and leave the room for interviews,
group stories, party results/reports
and the PAL legal release list. In
summary we try and get the most
important PAL demo news out to the
demo scene fast and accurately, and
in our opinion we often accomplish
this, but it's up to the PAL
readers to be the real judge of our
effectiveness.
Finally, and obviously, we cover
the NTSC scene to a high degree, as
the fundamental purpose of the
magazine is keeping the NTSC demo
scene pushing forward. Our hope is
by covering both the ntsc and pal
demo scene, we will do three things:
provide PAL readers with timely
material directed straight to them
at the same time as getting them
interested and informed that there
really is a demo scene in North
America, and has been since the late
8O's; get NTSC readers interested
and informed about the overseas
scene so they realize just how huge
and active the worldwide C64 demo
scene is; and to bridge these gaps
between the demoscenes and hopefully
start communicating and working
together in whatever ways are
possible and that will extend the
life of the C64.
(D) What PAL magazines are available to
the NTSC-market today - referring to
the fixing problem, most PAL
magazines have remained unsolved.
(A) Refer to DRIVEN #2O which had an
article answering just this question
in a little more detail... But
generally a quick list from memory
looks like: ADWARP, CONTRAST,
DOMINATION, EMPHATIC, PROPAGANDA,
RELAX, TRIBUNE, VANDALISM NEWS,
and a couple others; they've all
released issues normally working
well enough in NTSC.
The biggest trouble in NTSC when it
comes to diskmags is *loaders*. So
hopefully more PAL diskmags will
start using known NTSC/PAL loaders -
a lot of NTSC sceners are interested
just as much in the PAL demo scene
so it can only help you!
THE FUTURE
THE FUTURE
(D) Please let us in on the future plans
of DRIVEN.
(A) We're currently running the second
year of the "NTSC 4K Compo" with
events in 4K demo, 4K art, and 4K
music this time (*anyone* is welcome
to enter, entries are judged on NTSC
machines, deadline is December 11th,
send your entries to COOLHAND or
ELWIX).
We'll release another issue this
year and then hiatus for about 2
months until January of 98. We're
pretty happy with 1997, the scene
was slower during summertime but
recently got extremely active again.
Several new guys got active and
some old NTSC legends even returned.
We hope 1998 keeps the trend of a
growing, more active demo scene.
What it means for DRIVEN is that we
need to keep trying hard to push for
quantity and quality demo releases,
get new sceners involved, and set an
example by keeping ourselves coming
out regular as well. Expect another
year of at least bimonthly issues.
Future content should include a
series of articles coveringng the
history of diskmagazines in NTSC,
increased interviews with NTSC and
PAL demo sceners, improved quality
of our PAL demo scene coverage (by
finding a PAL co-editor, ummm, did
we say that yet? heh), continued
coverage of C64-and-Internet
related topics, and maybe some cool
surprises. We're going to work on
the DRIVEN Homepage as well and try
to make it a bigger central
information/gathering place for
demo scene freaks worldwide.
(D) Thank you both for taking part in
this interview and keep up the
great work as a positive media
institution!
(A) We thank you very much for asking
us. Our final words to our readers
can only be: just keep up the
activity, keep up the quality, and
help us keep building up the demo
scene, both in NTSC and in PAL!
Contact DRIVEN with your comments,
ideas, suggestions, criticism, or
entries for the 4K Compo:
EMAIL : sakers@ai.org or
coolhand@kaiwan.com
POSTAL : 22 Cottonwood Ct,
Greencastle, IN 46135
USA
+T---M--------R------+
|THE MAGAZINE REVIEWS|
+--------------------+
Welcome to the obligatory magazine
reviews, which has always been a popular
part of meet the press.
I have made myself the owner of the
latest c64 magazines to have reached the
internet, and will now serve you my
humble opinion, on the experience of
reading them.
The point-system on which the magazines
are rated should be obvious once it
appears. They will appear after all of
the reviews. Hope they are taken as a
sign, that improvement is always a
possibility in the world. Remember that!
SUBJECT : NITRO, 24TH EDITION.
LABEL : EXCESS.
RELEASED ON : OCTOBER, 1997.
________________________________________
Well, blimey! Nitro is back on the
magascene stage with another edition,
and what a powerful return it was as
well. According to the editors, it took
them more than 6 months to put together
this edition, so that certainly puts a
lot of expectations on this comeback -
of sorts - issue.
NITRO is notorious for its lengthy
issues, usually taking up whole disks.
The main reason for this, was the
extensive none-scene related chapters,
which - according to the editors - were
best left cut out. I salute this
decision with a loud sounding cheer!
In addition to a renovated program of
the magazine, the editors behind nitro
also proclaimed the desire to release on
a more permanent - reliable, if you
will - basis. Another reason to salute
the creators with a thumbs up.
But the editors seemed to have tired of
quantity and therefore taken upon
themselves the challenge of creating a
more quality based magazine. Whether or
not they will be successful at this,
this review will draw a picture.
Now having covered the stories behind
the magazines, I will turn my attention
towards the edition at hand. The 24th
of its kind.
nitro is fairly well written. The
editorial consists of SENTINEL, H-BLOXX,
RED ROCK, CAT and SPINBALL of EXCESS,
among others. They appear to have a
good head on their shoulders, and know
their way around the scene - or at least
enough to qualify for the gig as editor
of a much celebrated magazine.
The news coverage is more of a re-cap
on the major stories since the last
edition of NITRO, and considering its
been a long while since that date, it
certainly took its toll on the news
chapter. What a pity!
The charts were based on old sheets,
which has been laying on the editors
desk since the last edition as well.
That gave a picture of who was on top
of the scene over half a year ago - and
not a accurate picture of today's
popular names. This chapter was best
left out!
NITRO has not created any of its own
chapters. All are based on the ideas
and works of others, and therefore
leaves nitro with nothing but a
hardworking ideology. Not one chapter
is exclusive to NITRO!
Generally the 24th edition was quite a
boring edition with no real intelligent
reports, no scoops or interesting
subjects or thoughts to leave the
reader even a little satisfied. This is
not what the editors had in mind, when
they set out to do this issue - or at
least so I hope!
SUBJECT : RELAX, 22ND EDITION.
LABEL : PHUTURE.
RELEASED ON : 31ST OCTOBER, 1997.
________________________________________
Ah, yes. Another edition of relax, one
of the oldest and most popular media
institutions in the scene - or so the
editor eagerly reminds us.
Very well, RELAX is an old magazine, but
age is not important, health is what
matters. That being said, I have to
admit, RELAX is showing no sign of old
age - unless it is in terms of routine
and experience, which more or less
oozes out of this fine magazine.
Editor of RELAX, RRR, is one of the most
gifted editors the scene has today. He
has a strong, well documented opinion
about the scene; a colourful vision of
the path he would like to see the scene
take - and on top of that, he masters
the queens English quite well, which
ought to be expected of all editors -
but sadly is not.
RELAX is RRR's baby. RELAX may have been
born by other parents, but lately it has
grown to become more or less a creation
of RRR. He is an experienced scener
with knowledge about most corners of the
scene, which is obvious and to the
benefit of the RELAX readers. To make a
long story short, I am of the opinion,
that RELAX is a definite top magazine.
It is written by top editors and
supported by top sceners. The news is
covered and edited in a professional
manor, while the material is collected
by reliable, trustworthy and respectable
sceners. Everything appears fine and
dandy on the surface.
Although RELAX has a lot of fine
features, and serves the sceners with a
qualified scene coverage, there seems to
be lacking something. I had difficulty
trying to pinpoint, what I was missing -
till I took another look at the program.
Relax does not master the art of
creating its own chapters - having taken
the easiest road, and borrowed the best
of others.
GLOBAL REPORT and YEARLY RELEASES are
chapters, which were first founded by
THE PULSE MAGAZINE - in fact of the
same names. The demo reviews are a world
of demos invention. THE LOST FILES is
inspired off the old SATIRICA - which
is now known as THE SCENE SHOW, and I
could probably go on and on.
All right, there are no copyright laws
in the magazine industry on the C64 -
if there were, we would all be going to
jail - but I do think RELAX should find
ways to distance themselves from other
magazines by covering the scene in a
more unique way, instead of just trying
to beat its competitors in the same
events - or chapters if you will.
However, RELAX is top of the class when
it comes to getting the news and serving
the articles in an interesting and
attractive way. Perhaps RRR has decided
to spend his energy on the writing
process, instead of taking the magazine
into uncharted lands. The writing itself
is important, but it does not make a
magazine champion by itself - in my
humble opinion at least.
A full coverage of the latest scene
events, a list of the illegal and legal
releases, the various charts and a guide
to the internet is pretty much a full
program for a magazine - and will leave
any potential reader satisfied. In
addition RELAX serves a lot of opinions,
which makes for an interesting read,
although much of it hardly is of the
interest to the scene. Three chapters
called GAMES PEOPLE PLAY is basically
RRR defending RELAX against all its
competitors in the magazine industry.
I find that to be a gross misinterpre-
tation of what a top magazine should use
its resources on.
RRR is a bit stubborn, and he is willing
to walk the extra mile to get his
opinion across - which is certainly not
to the benefit of the reader. RELAX is
much too proud for its own good, and
hopefully this will decrease in volume
in the coming editions.
A magazine should not only be casting
light on itself, but instead on others!
PROPAGANDA
- In it for the money -
_________________________
SUBJECT : THE CREST, 4TH EDITION.
LABEL : INDEPENDENT.
RELEASED ON : OCTOBER, 1997.
________________________________________
THE CREST is the best thing to have hit
the magazine industry this year, and
they have surprised us all. Following a
hefty debate about the name, they have
proven true to their goal of releasing
on a monthly basis - as the only mag
today.
However, the scene has changed since the
days of THE PULSE MAGAZINE, and due to
the decreasing activity level, it must
be difficult for the editors to put
together an exciting edition every
month. And it shows!
