Domination 01 ch12 Reviews

Reviews

...this is something I'm not quite used to as I believe in reviews being made by the people who act in that certain field themselves, but as a common witness I will try my best to give an accurate account of some of the new scene stuff of late. I was actually hoping to pick up some of the new Assembly '94 wares but unfortunately I haven't got it via mail or modem except for two gfx pics that were quite brilliant (Electric/Extend and Mike/Panic).

The spotlighted:


Best of Arne/AFL -:music collection
Skyhigh #12/Oxyron -:magazine
Newcomer Preview/Chromance -:game
Visual Obsession/SD -:demo
The Pulse August/Regina -:magazine


Kick it back.

Best of Arne by AFL, size: 230 blks approx.

Credits: intro coding by Skidrow/AFL, intro gfx by Ramirez and Murphy/AFL, all music by Arne/AFL, loader system by Murphy/AFL.

Comments: In this collection is a main menu select with an option of loading and listening to twenty tunes by Arne. The music is varies from average to above average quality and for some reason I foresee the musician as being a good contributor. The themes of each tune are generally that of a happy of powerful mood, he uses the bass quite a bit and has some scaling melodies that are quite enjoyable, but again there is that sense of 'game' styled music. Overall it's a nice little collection and it's worth a look, rating 82/100.

Skyhigh #12/Oxyron, size: 600 blks approx.

Credits: music exclusive by Echo/Comic Pirates, Parson/Equinoxe, Fanta/X-Live/Plush. Binary exhaustion by Raz/Camelot. Graphics by Biz Kid/Oxyron. Additional work: code by Mad/Padua, music by Mad/Padua, graphics by Electric/Extend.

Comments: Pressing space out of the cute but average intro the mag rolls into a windows type format, each chapter can be chosen from sub-windows in the chapter: Words - Editorial, Biz Mix, RRR about - Interviews with Cubehead/Chaos and Steve/SCS+TRC. Regulars - Oxyron (internal news), Scene - News, Charts, Birthdates, Boards, Addies - five address chapters in A-Z, Diz - Spread, Reaction, Thanx, Parties. Extras - interlace pic + music by Electric.

The music may be chosen on a separate panel of three exclusive tunes and another systems panel allows you to turn the music and flashing text on and off. About the text itself, well Skyhigh's main-editor, Biz Kid and co-ed RRR type some decent, friendly and sociable text. On the whole the mag has a lot of support from the entire scene and comes out on a regular basis of 1-2 months.

Incidentally they are searching for a new co-editor so if you think you are qualified send to the main editor. Overall the mag is well presented, this issue I give it 84/100.

Newcomer Preview/Chromance, size: 1200 blks approx.

Comments: After the Chromance intro, comes a small bi-menu which allows you to select either the start or game sequence, which are both unplayable. In the start sequence it depicts the story of a young man who committed a grievous crime and was captured and 'teleported' to a prison-island for his crimes, upon getting there he meets up with the other 'in-mates' and learns his predicament and the quest begins. This nice sequence takes up a whole side of a disk, but is well worth it with nice music, and brilliant storyline, animations and graphics. The game sequence is an automated depiction of the actual game, which is very similar to Wolfenstein or Doom on the PC. again brilliant gfx, animation and a great array of option menus and sheer curiosity, make this game a must. The only slight draw back on this action/adventure is that the full game will take up 12 sides of 40 tracked disks, equalling the largest (blocks) C64 game ever, grab it when you can and enjoy it as its worth the wait 96/100.

Visual Obsession/Sun Designs, size: 112 blks.

Credits: Music by PRI/TIA/Oxyron, Red Devil/FLT and The Syndrom/TIA/Crest. Code by Spy/Sun Designs. Graphics by Latifah and Spy/Sun Designs.

Comments: A great little dentro which starts off with a heavy beat from PRI which give the name and crew behind it, this fades off into some weird fast effects, among these are vertical raster bars, real-time bobs, and many more bopping with fresh techno tune from Red Devil. Eventually a starfield comes up showing the greeted ones and this fades off into a noter, which gives the credits and dentro info with a nice quadro tune by The Syndrom. These Amiga orientated dentros are becoming more and more popular on the C64, particularly with the eastern European countries, lets hope judging from the quality in this dentro that more will continue to start a trend, I give it 81/100.

The Pulse August/Regina, size: 600 blks approx.

This popular mag is provided to us once again with a spectacular issue.

Credits: Intro code by Dr. Zivago/Regina. Intro music by Drax/Vibrants. Intro graphics by Mercury/Regina. Outfit code by Dr. Zivago/Regina. Outfit and graphical graffiti by Kring/Camelot. Soundtrack by Drax/Vibrants. Loading system by Iceball/Motiv8. Main-editor is Duke/Regina. Co-editor is Crossfire/Motiv8.

Comments: Firstly it must be said that this mag has an "overall" scene outlook on its feel (the total package for mail, demo, bbs, crack scenes). People from groups such as M8, Chromance, Vibrants, Talent, Camelot and even myself write articles and are part of The Pulse staff, which because of its many walks of life has many different opinions and views and this is what makes the magazine even more interesting. The outfit itself has an IRQ loader with a vertical panel chapter selection. The table of contents looks like:

Preface
Editorial - Introduction
News Journal - News/Facts
Summer releases - First release charts
Satirical - Satirical stories/Views
Global Report - Scene report
Board Report - News/Reports
Profile - Interview/Portrait
Overall Charts - Voted charts/Comments
World of Demos - Demo + graphic reviews
Special Assignment 1+2 - Debate/Info
The blackboard - Advertisements
Meet the press - Reactions/Comments

The mag has two boards to its support, one being the Chromance WHQ, The Evil Island which serves as its WHQ and the other is the Danish Motiv8 board, Dominic, which serves as its European headquarters. Apart from the original and well written and current text, it has the originality of its very good satirical chapter which other magazines have tried to imitate without success. Overall a great read and well worth the time, 90/100.

As the hunter gets hunted I guess the reviewer will get reviewed, if you wish your group's productions targeted for the Domination touch leave your submissions in my mail box.