The Pulse 17
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Preface
+ WELCOME TO + + THE PULSE MAGAZINE - THE OCTOBER EDITION + -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the 17th edition of the worldwide distributed scripture THE PULSE MAGAZINE - released as an independent production on a monthly basis. This is your guide to the world of information within the Cracking, Demo and Modem-scene. We send our respect and greetings to our friends/colleagues; PROPAGANDA, SKYHIGH, VANDALISM NEWS, DOMINATION, RELAX, NITRO, SPLASH and IMMORTAL FLASH. Also a giant hello to all our friends and supporters worldwide. INSTRUCTIONS : Use JOYSTICK in PORT II and move LEFT/ RIGHT to switch between pages. Press FIRE to reach the menu. COMMENTS FROM THE EDITOR PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- "WE ACCEPT NO DELAY - NOR SHOULD YOU". I presume most of you remember this wellknown slogan, originally practised by THE PULSE MAGAZINE. But the last two months we had to put our slogan behind us, as we have had some problems getting our otherwise excellent staff settled in the new magazine environment. Therefore the market was left without THE PULSE MAGAZINE for the last two months, we hope you can forgive us for this. We were discussing the possibility of releasing on a 2 month basis, instead of the otherwise popular 1 month interval. But now we have agreed, that either we release monthly or we do not release at all. I hope this will bring some enjoyment in the minds of our most faithful readers, who have been wondering what was up with us. But now we are back, and hopefully with a staff working without any delay problems or writersblock. We are also able to present a brand new outfit, produced by SYNDROM and EARTHQUAKE. I think you would find we are now in the race of best looking outfit - thanks to them. Hopefully this will get some of the more superficial voters, to once again acknowledge us as a leading magazine. Although I have always been of the firm opinion, that it ought to be the text that matters. I would like to encourage all of you, to study this edition of MEET THE PRESS, as it holds some important information about the future of THE PULSE MAGAZINE. Also read all the informative and entertaining chapters presented. In short, I can honestly say; WE ARE BACK IN FULL EFFECT! General Editor, DUKE THE HOUSE STAFF PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL EDITOR DUKE ASSISTENT EDITOR CROSSFIRE/MOTIV 8 U.S. CORRESPONDENT CHOTAIRE/AFL+PANDORA INTERNET CORRESPONDENT PLAYBOY/F4CG LEGAL CORRESPONDENT TDJ/FOCUS EURO CORRESPONDENT KBS/ONSLAUGHT PROGRAMMING CRITIC MR.SEX/BYTERAPERS MUSICAL CRITIC THE SYNDROM/TIA/CREST GRAPHICAL CRITIC EARTHQUAKE/ANTIC/CS We are searching for a couple of fine editors to join our otherwise excellent staff. MONTHLY RELEASES editor WANTED. PHREAKERS calling overseas WANTED. THE CREDITS PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- PROGRAMMING THE SYNDROM/TIA/CREST GRAPHICS EARTHQUAKE/ANTIC/CS MUSIC METAL+DRAX/VIBRANTS THE INTERNET ADDRESSES PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- DUKE TRASH WWW.AALBORGES.DK CROSSFIRE PLAYBOY BBS.CC.UNIUD.IT TDJ TDJ BART.NL SYNDROM HARTUNG RMHS2.URZ.TU-DRESDEN.DE MR.SEX B150542 PROFFA.CC.TUT.FI EARTHQUAKE DSC INFORMATIK.TU-CHEMNITZ.DE It is also possible to meet us at the popular channel #C-64 on the IRC. This is also the place to communicate with sceners from all over the world - only on the internet ofcourse. HOW TO CONTACT PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- Incase you are not an owner of an internet account, you can reach us at the following two addresses for our editorial. We gladly accept News, Information, Reports, Statements, Reactions, Addresses or whatever that may be relevant to the readers of THE PULSE MAGAZINE. All material must be made available to us no later than the 28th of OCTOBER. Please notice the special address for the ADVERTISEMENTS. THE PULSE MAGAZINE WHQ ADVERTISEMENTS XXXX XXXXX XXX XXXX XXXXXXXXX XXX XXXXXXXXX XX XXXXXX X XXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXX XXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXX (Also use this address if you are a mag-editor - to swap) THE PROGRAM GUIDE PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- PREFACE INTRODUCTION/EDITORIAL NEWS JOURNAL NEWS/FACTS WORLD OF DEMOS DEMO REVIEWS SATIRICA SATIRIC STORIES/VIEWS PROFILE INTERVIEW/TALKSHOW SCENE ILLUSTRATED DEBATE/INFORMATION THE BOARD REPORT NEWS/REPORT MEET THE PRESS INTERACTION/MEDIA TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE DEMO DEBATE THE INTERNET REPORT INFORMATION/USERS OVERALL CHARTS VOTED CHARTS/ANALYSIS ADVERTISEMENTS SWAP ADVERTS We are still short of our MONTHLY RELEASES chapter. If you have experience within the cracking-scene, and call the American boards on a regular basis - you could join our staff! GENERAL INFORMATION PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- THE PULSE MAGAZINE is a complete C64 scene based magazine. As the only C64 magazine, we are dedicated to giving you an insight about all the corners of the scene - in short, we cover the world, because the C64's business is our business. The contents of this edition may not have to be the opinion of all editors in the staff of THE PULSE MAGAZINE. Each editor is of his own seperate opinion, but feels free to express that opinion without having to express the overall opinion of THE PULSE MAGAZINE. Thanks must go to those that helped us in the making of this edition. We depend on help from all sceners, therefore we urge everyone to take part in our many debates as well as sending us news and information. We appreciate the support!
News journal
+ NEWS JOURNAL - MONTHLY SCENE REPORT + -------------------------------------------------------------- We bring you another exclusive update of the current scene situation, as it looks in the eyes of the News Journal reporters. Join us every month, for an inside look at the news with competent views. In order for us to have the most complete news report, we need the help of our readers, to send us news and reports. If you are situated where the action happens, you could join us as a European Correspondent. We can be contacted using any of the addresses or numbers printed in our introduction chapter, PREFACE. NEWS JOURNAL is as always anchored by DUKE, assisted in the news gathering by CROSSFIRE and our new Correspondent CHOTAIRE/ALPHA FLIGHT. ALPHA FLIGHT (GER, HOL, USA) -------------------------------------------------------------- ALPHA FLIGHT has had a very uneasy fall transition, with major conflicts between SKINHEAD and the latest signing, CHOTAIRE. The conflict started with SKINHEAD being forced to leave, but he was later to return to the flight. According to SKINHEAD, his hostility towards CHOTAIRE will not have any effect with regards to his performance for ALPHA FLIGHT - therefore solving the problems for the other members. CHOTAIRE also joined up with the Germans in EXCESS, and will also stay with NEMESIS under the handle of IMPERATOR. ALPHA FLIGHT were also able to announce the signing of another new member, SPIDER (not the one known from SILICON LTD.) joined as a swapper. Two of the most prominent members of ALPHA FLIGHT, IGNORANCE and MARC, is put out of action for a while. (MORE) ALPHA FLIGHT (GER, HOL, USA) -------------------------------------------------------------- IGNORANCE is reportedly not able to call out for a while, and MARC joined the army, leaving the leadership to another member. BOARDS : THE EVIL ISLAND XXX - XXX - XXXX HOLIDAY INN CAMBODIA XXX - XXX - XXXX MEMBERS : ANCIENT MARINER, ARNE, CALYPSO, CHOTAIRE, IGNORANCE, MARC, MAX, MURPHY, POL POT, REAM, SHUZE, SKINHEAD, SPIDER, STYX, ZAPOTEK and XENON. AVANTGARDE (GER, USA, ENG, SWI, POL, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- Perhaps the biggest profile of AVANTGARDE, DEFF, is back from his stay at the hospital. This should also mean, that he resumed his work for PROPAGANDA and RELAX. Meanwhile AVANTGARDE decided to sign on the leader of AGONY, DRUID, who becomes the first member of a possible Polish section of AVANTGARDE. BOARDS : DREAMPARK XXX - XXX - XXXX MEMBERS : CHAMELEON, CYBORG, DEFF, DERBYSHIRE RAM, DRUID, FREESTYLE, INTRUDER, JACK ALIEN, JACK DANIELS, RAGE, RENEGADE, SKYWOLF, SUICIDE, THORN, TRICOM, TRIMONE and WEASEL. CHROMANCE (HUN, GER, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- CHROMANCE have started showing more sign of life, as JAZZY D was spotted calling out regulary again. Also the leader of CHROMANCE, MR.WAX, returned to boost the side, in its attempt to reach previous times status. Meanwhile the Swedish sysop of THE HIGHWAY, JOYRIDE, along with STAKE and HOMEBOY left CHROMANCE to boost their concentration on their membership of ONSLAUGHT. To balance their memberstatus, they signed on MOTION of DESTROY, and LION of CHAOS. MEMBERS : IMMORTAL, JAZZY D, LION, MEPHON, MOOSE, MOTION, MR.WAX, PAINKILLER, SCATMAN, SPERMBIRD, SYCO and T.L. F4CG (BEL, ITA, USA, GER, POL, SWE, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- The summer has been long for many, and especially for one of the oldest organisations in the scene, F4CG. But after a rather inactive period, the leader SOLAR decided to boost some life into the otherwise members-wise strong group. As a result, MAJA and HAIN were spotted calling out again, while the Swedes NEWSCOPY and MOTLEY also found their way back to their previous activities. In addition to the already strong modem equipped side of the group, the German trader NEOTEC is said to start calling out as well. Meanwhile they signed on a coder and cracker called ARISTO. <MORE> F4CG (BEL, ITA, USA, GER, POL, SWE, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- BOARDS : DREAMPARK XXX - XXX - XXXX SITES : BBS.CC.UNIUD.IT MEMBERS : ANTITRACK, ARISTO, BITMAN, CEREBUS, CYBERSURFER, CYBORG, DECODER, DEVIL, DRAZ, FEN1, HAIN, KING, MAJA, MORRIS, MOTLEY, MR.ALPHA, NEOTEC, PLAYBOY, SMASHER, SNEAPER, SOLAR, TC, THERION and WALKER. FAIRLIGHT (SWE) -------------------------------------------------------------- FAIRLIGHT is still a great mystery to many, atleast with what their ambitions with SHOUT is concerned. The long awaited follow-up release to the somewhat disappointing debute edition, is still to be expected on the market. It seems as if FAIRLIGHT have totally given up on SHOUT, for whatever reason we can only speculate about. Read an exclusive interview with BACCHUS about the current SHOUT situation in MEET THE PRESS. A lot of things are happening in FAIRLIGHT, with HARLEKIN and his wife happily expecting a baby. In addition to this, HARLEKIN has started working on a few things - and according to BACCHUS, a demo should appear in the future. The FAIRLIGHT coder, TRON, is out of the army again. This time it was due to astmatic symptoms, that could <MORE> FAIRLIGHT (SWE) -------------------------------------------------------------- lead to astma, so he was called off. He is currently working, and his BBS project (C*Base on PC) is again progressing. BACCHUS started coding C on the Amiga to produce utilities for the time when he will be porting his C64 collections to a CD. Meanwhile ROWDY quit work on a petrolstation, and is now back in school. He was bored, and wanted to go on in life. ROWDY can therefore be found on the internet, along with SPIROU - both joining a very active FAIRLIGHT mass on the internet. BOARDS : WARES AQUARIUM +XX - XXX - XXXX THE FISH BOWL +XX - XXXX - XXXX MEMBERS : BACCHUS, HARLEKIN, HIGHLANDER, OGAMI, RED DEVIL, ROWDY, SLEDGE, SPIROU, TABASCO and TRON. HARDCORE (GER, SWI, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- The most controversial and talked about co-operation this year, HARDCORE and ONSLAIGHT, has come to an end. ONSLAUGHT decided to stop the somewhat successful partnership, after conflicts with RAMIREZ of HARDCORE, who allegedly should have attempted to persuade ONSLAUGHT members into joining HARDCORE. His ambitions ended in the death of the co-operation, which is regreted by both groups. Although most of the scene did not seem to leave HARDCORE much of a chance on their own, they managed to sign on the leader of ATLANTIS, DR.DISK. He is supposed to boost some action into the proud side. Being without a board after the farewell to ONSLAUGHT, they were accepted onto the American BBS, IN LIVING COLOR. They will have to share the board for the moment <MORE> HARDCORE (GER, SWI, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- though, as it is already owned by MOTIV 8. Meanwhile they were able to add a couple of more names to their status, as BINGOBYTE of PADUA (formerly known as CREAT) and GORDON signed on for the HARDCORE team. BOARDS : IN LIVING COLOR XXX - XXX - XXXX MEMBERS : B-WYZE, BINGOBYTE, BLOCKBUSTER, CARLOS, DOOZE, DR.DISK, GORDON, LEEWAY, Q-TIP, RAMIREZ, RAP, SHOCKER, VOLUNTEER and ZORE. HITMEN (GER, SWE) -------------------------------------------------------------- The legendary German cracking-group, HITMEN, is back in the scene with some of its original profiles in the memberstatus. In addition to the already announced memberstatus, they managed to sign on the TRIAD trader from Sweden, TRANZIIE. A rumour spread, that THE MYSTICAL PARADISE is to return serving as the European HQ for HITMEN. Time will reveal the true nature of this rumour ofcourse. BOARDS : THE DUNGEON XXX - XXX - XXXX MEMBERS : CURLIN, CROEPAZ, HI-LITE, JIHAD, JINX, LAWNMOVER MAN, PEACEMAKER, RACOON, RAZE, TRANZIIE, TYROON and VORTEX. MOTIV 8 (DEN, GER, USA, NOR, HOL) -------------------------------------------------------------- The Danish based team, MOTIV 8, has launched a minor campaign, in order to clear any ongoing rumours staged by the sysop of WESTPOINT, HEAVY HEAD, that they were supposed to be NEO-NAZI's. According to the boss of MOTIV 8, CROSSFIRE, the rumours are ridiculous, especially when considering the fact that VORTEX (real name KADIR) a former member of MOTIV 8, and STONE (real name KHALED) proved the multicultural policy of MOTIV 8. This case shows how easy it is to some sceners, to take advantage at the rage built in the scene against racism and Nazism. All anyone has to do to "get rid off" or "create problems for" someone, is to spread rumours about them being either racists or Nazi's. It is a pityful situation the scene has to deal with, as this report shows evidence of innocent sceners being subject of cruel rumours and false allegations. <MORE> MOTIV 8 (DEN, GER, USA, NOR, HOL) -------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile on the more practical front of MOTIV 8, they claim to open a brand new site in Sweden. MASON/M8 is currently working fulltime on the configurations of the site, so it will obviously belong to MOTIV 8 completely. Rumours has it though, that RAZOR 1911 from the PC (old RAZOR EXPRESS from the 80ies on the C64) will return to the C64, and if this happens, the site will be shared amongst MOTIV 8 and RAZOR. Looking to gain a site, MOTIV 8 had to give up their popular European HQ, MOUNT OLYMPUS. The sysop, BIRD, decided to leave, due to conflicts between MOTIV 8 and both HEAVY HEAD and JASON of ONSLAUGHT. As a result of this, BIRD joined up with reformed PANDORA, and consequently his board, MOUNT OLUMPUS because the new Scandinavian PANDORA HQ. Rumours add to the story, how BIRD should be considering bringing his magazine EARTHSHAKE back <MORE> MOTIV 8 (DEN, GER, USA, NOR, HOL) -------------------------------------------------------------- on the market. However, knowing the market of today, he may face a hard journey to the top, as the magazine industry has progressed immensely since his last release of EARTHSHAKE. But regardless of the current situation, we wish him the best of luck with making it a success. MOTIV 8 still has IN LIVING COLOR running for them as their WHQ, and it is not blacklisted like the rumour claims. IN LIVING COLOR is back and running perfectly like before, therefore people are invited to call back at its usual number. In addition to bringing ILC back online again, the sysop GREGO/M8 even started calling out again. Another comeback was reported from MOTIV 8, as their shared Italian FTP-site with F4CG went online again. PLAYBOY/F4CG had to exchange the harddisk of the <MORE> MOTIV 8 (DEN, GER, USA, NOR, HOL) -------------------------------------------------------------- lineux, and ran into complicated problems. The site went online again in late July, and can now be reached again using the internet. Meanwhile rumours are spreading, that MIZAR/M8 should have been jailed, sentenced with his hacker-charges. All his phonelines has been disconnected, his personal line as well as the one he ran his board, INTERTRADE, on. More info will follow, as it is revealed. ICEBALL/M8 finally joined the internet, while STONE/M8 stopped swapping and started concentrating on an Amiga-career instead. He is still active on the C64 for some time though, as he wants to finish a few projects he started, amongst them, the co-op demo soon coming from M8 and PADUA. <MORE> MOTIV 8 (DEN, GER, USA, HOL, NOR) -------------------------------------------------------------- The whereabouts of the M8 trader, TG-ACME, is solved. According to SAURON/ILLUSION, TG-ACME is in the midst of serving the Norwegian army. But he is still reachable through the internet. MOTIV 8 were able to boast their very own homepages on the World Wide Web (WWW). The pages are handled by GREENFROG/M8 and can be reached on the following address : http://www.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/-grfrog/ BOARDS : IN LIVING COLOR XXX - XXX - XXXX (USA) SITES : BBS.CC.UNIUD.IT MEMBERS : BINJINX, CLIVE, CROSSFIRE, EDDIE, GREENFROG, GREGO, IBANEZ, ICEBALL, MASON, MERLIN, MIZAR, NATAS, STONE and TG-ACME. ONSLAUGHT (GER, AUS, USA, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- Despite the contriversial event, the break-up between ONSLAUGHT and HARDCORE, ONSLAUGHT remains to be very active, expanding on a universial basis. The American BBS, DEADZONE, therefore became the new WHQ for VANDALISM NEWS and ONSLAUGHT. The sysop of DEADZONE, TROUBLE, also joined up with ONSLAUGHT. Meanwhile the legal section of ONSLAUGHT, ONSLAUGHT DESIGN, signed on ASV (ex. ANTIC and OXYRON) who will operate as a musician, graphician and programmer. The talented PEET and CUBEHEAD of KAOS DESIGNS also joined up with ONSLAUGHT DESIGN, working as graphicians and musicians. In addition to the new signings, ONSLAUGHT DESIGN decided to kick out THE TWINS and TMM. <MORE> ONSLAUGHT (GER, DEN, AUS, POL, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- BOARDS : DOWN BY LAW XXX-XXX-XXXX DEAD ZONE XXX - XXX - XXXX WESTPOINT +XX - XXXX - XXXX THE HIGHWAY +XX - XXXX - XXXXX MEMBERS : ASV, BIZARRE, CUBEHEAD, DOOM, GRIZE, GOP, HARD SEQUENCER, HEAVY HEAD, HOMEBOY, JASON, JAZZCAT, JOLZ, KBS, MINISTRY, MORBID, MORRISEY, PETE, RAM JAM, SHADES, STAKE, TROUBLE, VENGEANCE and WITTY. PANDORA (GER, DEN, CAN, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- After what must be described as a somewhat unsuccessful comeback, PANDORA looks to be back in full effect with several first-releases. In addition to the success, they were able to add such prominent members as WEASEL from AVANTGARDE, who joined PANDORA as his second group. Another recent signing, was DEATHLOK, who joined PANDORA taking his well-known bot on the IRC - "F4CGLINK" - along with him. The bot will now be running for PANDORA ofcourse. The controversial NEMESIS does not have anything to do with the actual PANDORA. Apparently NEMESIS was merely a personal warfare held against ATTRACTION to bring him back to computing. Well, we must admit it worked. Also having added MOUNT OLYMPUS to their list of boards, they are now able to boast 3 worldwide boards. MOUNT OLYMPUS <MORE> PANDORA (GER, DEN, CAN, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- being their Scandinavian HQ, FINAL GENOCIDE operates as the Canadian HQ, and finally their European HQ, THE SANITARIUM. MEMBERS : AMPUTATOR, ATTRACTION, BIRD, DEATHLOK, DEVIANT, MEPHISTO, MOSES, PROTHEUS, SKY, THAGE, WEASEL and XENTOR. SCS*TRC (HOL, GER, POL, USA, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- Returning to the co-operation, SCS*TRC, they added the Polish cracker, TECHNO (ex. G*P). THE LOST EMPIRE should now be down for indefinately. Reportedly due to the lack and loss of almost all its previous callers. BOARDS : THE DUNGEON XXX - XXX - XXXX SITES : pitel-lnx.ibk.fnt.hvu.nl MEMBERS : ACTION JACKSON, ALCHEMIST, CAVRON, CBA, CREDO, CRUZE, DANNIE, JITY, JRC, LORD CRUCIFIER, MICRON, MOREN, MR.DISK, MYSTRI, REPLAY, SAILOR, SILVER, SPECTATOR, SPLATTERHEAD, TECHNO, TITANIC and TRAX. TALENT (UK, FIN, GER) -------------------------------------------------------------- The legendary cracking-group, TALENT, is still considered as one of the most popular labels in the scene today, despite its severe inactivity problems. But it was to be ROCKSTAR who stole the headlines, as he was introduced to the media as a new member of the Finnish group PALACE. We caught up with ROCKSTAR, and asked him about the contriversial move. "This was due to a very entertaining night at the Assembly 1995 in Helsinki. 2NY/PALACE kept asking me to join, so I finally accepted. Seemed a good idea at the time" ROCKSTAR explained. But despite joining a new group, ROCKSTAR was still reluctant about the possibility that he should become more active in the scene. "Not likely. I just like to hang out with some of the guys in PALACE. What my membership actually means <MORE> TALENT (UK, FIN, GER) -------------------------------------------------------------- remains largely unspecified at the moment". But the biggest and most interesting question, was what this move would mean for his involvement with TALENT. "I never left TALENT. I am sure BOD would have told me if he had decided to kill the group off. I guess it is still a possibility that TALENT will get active one time or another. In any case, my involvement with PALACE will not mean any conflict of interests for me. There are actually a couple of pet projects on my mind, that I would like to finish some time - but for which group, that will not be a problem" ROCKSTAR explained. Having established the current situation of ROCKSTAR, our reporter CROSSFIRE took on the group as a whole, led by one of the most infamous sceners through time, BOD. The story follows on the next page. <MORE> TALENT (UK, FIN, GER) -------------------------------------------------------------- TALENT is NOT dead. True, they lost a lot of members to ONSLAUGHT and MOTIV 8, while some of them quit (like COUNT ZERO who joined FAIRLIGHT SNES). But BOD, old time leader and still in the group, never declared the group dead, meaning they are still active, only not very active. On the topic of BOD, he is preparing to follow up his success a few months back with the C64-CD-ROM with a second CD, containing more C64-stuff. Supporting him is CROSSFIRE/M8 who is currently collecting a bunch of stuff for him. Most likely, all older issues of THE PULSE MAGAZINE will be available on the CD, so getting a hold of it should be a true bargain. Date of release is not sure yet, but we will ofcourse keep you posted. MEMBERS : BOD, ROCKSTAR, SORCERER. THE PULSE MAGAZINE (DK, GER, FIN, HOL, ITA) -------------------------------------------------------------- The independant production, THE PULSE MAGAZINE, remains independant for the time being. According to the General Editor, DUKE, he was still not sure about what group would be the best choice for THE PULSE - therefore postponing a possible move to a brand new label. He denies rumours that THE PULSE should move back to one of its former labels, PANDORA. DUKE explains - "I have not had any talks with ATTRACTION of PANDORA since the return of the group, so the rumours are obviously based on pure speculations". THE PULSE MAGAZINE is searching for a respectable label, that is able to assist in the quest to bring the former number one magazine back into the top of the charts. TRSI (Ger) -------------------------------------------------------------- The former great, TRSI, are having severe problems holding on to their members at the moment. Not having released much lately, they saw STAN, MOUSTAINE and DANZIG leave to put the old group X-RATED back together. According to our sources, X-RATED should also be back on the streets with their old magazine SANFORIZED. Meanwhile MIDFIT quit the C64-scene, in hope of a new career on the SNES. The legendary RADWAR party, is once again to be held by TRSI. The event was supposed to be held in September, but according to IRATA, it will take place on October 21st through 22nd. MEMBERS : IRATA, CONAN, MWS, CRISP, UYANILE and THE BREAKER. WORLD NEWS UPDATES -------------------------------------------------------------- * The German co-editor of VANDALISM NEWS, BIZARRE, joined up with ACCEPT. He is also well-known for his efforts as a mega-trader through the past years. * The ATLANTIS board, POWER ENGINE, is down and recieving a brand new number. It is schedualed to be back in mid September, running on CyberMod with promising graphics. * OXYRON is back in the headlines, as they signed on FANTA from PLUSH. He was apparently displeased with the inactivity of PLUSH, and therefore his ambitions took him to OXYRON. * PALACE was able to introduce themselves to the prestigious list of groups integrated on the internet. They did so, by launching a brand new FTP-site - put online for C64 users. The site can be reached at the following address : dhp.com.
MARI ROSALINE ife. I'm financially secure," he CAMELIA FLOY
Scene Illustrated
+ SCENE ILLUSTRATED - DEBATE AND INFORMATION + -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to SCENE ILLUSTRATED, our debate and information section with guaranteed entertainment. As always, your host is General Editor, DUKE. This is what is in store for you. SCENE ILLUSTRATED will give you the best of news, debate and scene information on a monthly basis. We will keep your blood boiling with the profound SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT topics. In addition to our debates, we offer independent articles written by various sceners about various issues. We will also keep your knowledge about scene history intact, with the MONTHLY TIMELINE - see if you remember the happenings. If you have any sorts of information suitable for a larger audience or an article with a scene-related topic, please send it to us before the 28th of October. But first, we bring you this months OPINION-POLLS! + THE SCENE ILLUSTRATED OPINION POLLS + ------------------------------- OPINION POLL # 1 ------------ Which way of communicating would you prefer the scene to concentrate on in the future? 1. The scene is best off sticking to the good old and traditional mail-trading. 2. We need the edge the American board-scene gives us, therefore we should keep on meeting overseas. 3. The internet is the way to go, let's take on the challenge of integrating ourselves on the market. 4. Although it may seem a bit messy, then using all forms of communication would be most preferable. OPINION POLL # 2 ------------ What is your opinion about magazines, which are announced several months before release - blown out of proportion in excellence, and then only manages to release ONE edition? 1. I like it fine, that's why I vote for them. 2. I feel cheated. Don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk. 3. They can do what they want, as long as I get entertained. 4. The people responsible for this should be punished. Doing a magazine is a commitment to the scene, who look towards the magazines to keep them long-term informed. 5. If they manage to pull one good edition off, then that is good enough for me. Be it number 1 or 10. OPINION POLL # 3 ------------ Situation check. How do you think the C64 is doing after the summer of 1995 - is its PULSE still beating? 1. The scene is dead, it has been for a long time. The few users don't make up for a scene - it's pathetic. 2. The scene has never been better. It is kicking like never before - I haven't ever had so much fun in my scene career! 3. It is going down hill for the scene, it has been for the last couple of years. But there is still life on earth. 4. For a moment things looked grim, but now the scene is doing better. Let's keep up the good work. That's all the polls for this months.. Read on, more to come! + SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT - THE INTERNET AND THE C64 + -------------------------------------------------------------- The Internet is an exciting new addition to the scene, with a world of communication possibilities. A lot of sceners have already integrated themselves on the internet, and also respected magazines such as PROPAGANDA and THE PULSE have used the new market for commercial and communication purposes. But recently there has been a lot of talks, about how important a role the internet should play in the future of the C64 scene. Many people claim it will destroy the traditional mail- and board-scene. While others say it is simply a matter of survival - claiming we must evolve in order to secure the existance of the C64-scene in the years to come. It is without a doubt the same debate, which there has always been between the mail- and modem-scene. <CONT> People with access to modem and calling-cards praised this communication form, while those with only the mail-trading possibility wanted a scene based on pure mail-communication. Therefore we can draw parallels to the internet versus the other communication options. Those for the internet, is those who have access - and obviously those against it has not. It may appear selfish of people to stand in the way of others using the internet, simply because they have no access to it. But considering the very commercial scene we have today, some will loose in the battle of the voters. An example would be the magazines SKYHIGH, VANDALISM NEWS and DOMINATION - all of which has no access to the internet. But like it or not, the internet is here to stay. And many C64 sceners have already integrated themselves, making new territory for the C64 to rule. We caught up with one of the pilgrims established on the Internet, CBA, known as the co-founder of the site, THE DIGITAL DUNGEON! <CONT> <D> DUKE <C> CBA/TRC+SCS -------------------------------------------------------------- <D> Greetings CBA! <C> Yoo DUKE :) <D> THE DIGITAL DUNGEON is now considered, by far I presume, the best site available on the internet for c64-sceners. Who came up with the idea to start a site on this exciting new territory? <C> The idea was already in my head for a long time, and when I met up with VIKING <DIMITRI> things started to role very quickly for us. He was owner of a little test computer and had no problems with me running a ftp site on there. The next day the pitel was born and the response was huge, mainly because all the illegal games were on-line. I got a lot of reactions from Americans claiming it was illegal and that we are going to get arrested. <D> Well, I most certainly hope not. But I would think going after C64 pirates is a joke anyway. The popular site is controlled and maintained by four sceners, could you please tell us who they are - and describe for us their duties as far as the site goes. <C> Sure, here we go: COOLHAND - Supplier of C64 stuff he leeches off boards or gets through other ways. VIKING - Root, pitel maintainer. BURGLAR - Pitel maintainer. CBA - Pitel maintainer, new stuff supplier. <D> You have earlier spoken negative about the board-scene, claiming it was dead, and that we ought to look towards the internet as a future solution to the scene communi- cation problems. Could you please explain those opinions. <C> Well, the main reason behind that is the lack of codes to to call out for most groups. Internet however can be called in your own countru, and allows you to get stuff for cheap phone-rates. I know myself that board atmosphere is something special, and it can never be the same on the internet. But as I see right now that after the pitel site came on, a lot of other sides popped out of the ground and a lot of sceners found their ways to internet, so basicly the scene is already building their ways on internet. <D> How do you predict the future, in terms of internet usage from the C64-sceners? <C> Well, I think that time will tell, but as far as I can see right now, more and more people get interested and also because of the media paying a lot of attention to internet nowadays. The C64 scene will surely follow soon, especially when people are running out of codes! <D> Thank you very much for joining us. <C> You're welcome, hope to see you again at the PARTY 95 in Denmark. That concludes this months edition of SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT. This months topic, the internet, was requested by a mail-trader - who wanted to know more about the internet - as well as its advantages. Having had the opportunity of using the internet, I can absolutely recommend it to all of you. It does not only provide you the possibility of pulling information about anything in the world, it leaves room for you to communicate with hundreds of C64 enthusiasts. Coming up next, the MONTHLY TIMELINE! THE MONTHLY TIMELINE ---------------- What year did the following events occour? 1. The infamous Danish cracking-group, THE DOMINATORS, announced its final farewell to the C64 and moved for the PC-scene. 2. The American legends from ROWDY AMERICAN DISTRIBUTORS <RAD> announced their return to the C64-scene. 3. RED SECTOR INC. ruled the cracking-charts, as the first group to knock off LEGEND from the prestigious number one spot in the cracking-group charts. The answers to this months TIMELINE events, can be found later in this edition of SCENE ILLUSTRATED. QUALITY OF RELEASES by CROSSFIRE/MOTIV 8 -------------------------------------------------------------- As you could have read in a magazine recently, apparently we in MOTIV 8 "shocked" the scene by putting out, quote, "wares no other groups would bother to touch", unquote, and because of this statement we feel an urgent need to tell OUR point of view aswell. Fair is fair, and that is the way it HAS to be. As the games-interested part of the scene will have noticed by now, the amount released these days is decreasing tremen- dously, when you compare it to the amount of wares being released only 3 years ago. This is ofcourse due to the all the time decreasing interest on the market for the C64, these days where even the Amiga is history and the PC seems to be the only computer with the capacity to make it out there, in the "real world". Well, OBVIOUSLY, people doesn't bother to code anything for the C64, and why is that? Well, the question is quite irrelevent, since everybody can see the sense and logic in it - Ofcourse, what point is there to code software when chances that you will ever get any cash out of it is slim? THAT brings me to the stand I've taken! Let me quote a guy who will remain anonymous for now, who posted a message on a board recently - a message I can only see SENSE in, and I quote "We should forget budget-labels, and start appreciating every game that gets released in the scene today!". EXACTLY! who really CARES, if the game is in poor quality - you probably won't play it anyway, and if you dislike the single games you'll probably even format the disk anyway, so who would give a damn whether the games was released by MOTIV 8 or by THE BINGO TEAM anyway? People might think we do it for the points, but again here is a seriously big misunderstanding. As you've realized if you usjd your brain and not your running mouth to think with, <MORE> ..we don't GET any points for these games, we barely even get a mention of it, but we STILL fullfill our goals and THAT alone gives us the satisfaction we want - To KNOW we made our point and that we don't really CARE what people has to say about it. In my eyes, the people complaining about the quality of wares released by other groups is REALLY the ones who only release for the points and their reason for complaining is only their own fear of losing their precious points, the ONLY thing they fight for - Now, let's discuss what is REALLY the shocking part, in my eyes THAT is what is so poor about it all these days! If you wish to react to this, you can give your own point of view for publishment in THE PULSE or if you wish to discuss this with me personally, feel free to e-mail me on the internet on the following address : c01 dec5102.aarhues.dk CROSSFIRE/MOTIV 8, September 9th 1995. THE ASSEMBLY '95 COMPETITIONS ----------------------- As a special feature, with help from MR.SEX/THE PULSE, we are able to present you with the results from the ASSEMBLY 1995 party held in Finland. Although I was presented with all of the results from PC and AMIGA as well, I will only list the top results - but ofcourse the C64 results will be fully covered. C64 DEMO COMPETITION ---------------- 1. EXTREMES by BYTERAPERS INC. 2. BREAK THROUGH II by PANIC. 3. 7 YEARS by BEYOND FORCE. 4. IT'S COMING by CREST. 5. BIZARRE by SYMPTOM C64 SECTION. 6. TRIBUTE TO ALBERT HOFMANN by CHAOS C64 DIVISION. <CONT> C64 MUSIC COMPETITION ----------------- 1. ZARDAX/ORIGO DREAMLINE with MARTINISM. 2. THOR/EXTEND with KIRTA. 3. DR.VOICE/PANIC with COMPOMUSIC. 4. AMJ/SIDE B with SYS 4096. 5. WARLOCK/PANIC with COMPOTUNE. 6. BARRACUDA/EXTEND with BRAINSCANALOOP. C64 GRAPHICS COMPETITION ------------------- 1. DR.DICK/BYTERAPERS INC. with DRAGON. 2. DEBRIS/PANIC/EXTACY with COMPOPICTURE. 3. VOTKA/PULLO with ANIMAALI. That's all the results we got from the C64 competitions held at the ASSEMBLY 1995 party. A big event especially for BYTERAPERS INC., who were able to boast 2 titles! Here follows some of the results from the PC- and AMIGA competitions. We will only show the TOP 3 though. PC DEMO COMPETITION ---------------- 1. STARS : WONDERS OF THE WORLD by NOON. 2. PSYCHIC LINK by JUICE. 3. DX PROJECT by REALTECH. AMIGA DEMO COMPETITION ------------------ 1. ZIF by PARALLAX. 2. LOGIC by PYGMY PROJECTS. 3. MIRACLES by STELLAR. That's about all we can handle with what information from other systems are concerned. But it was nice to know though, that the ASSEMBLY proved successful for the C64-sceners. + THE SCENE ILLUSTRATED OPINION POLL - ANSWERS + -------------------------------------------------------------- Here follows the answers to the last editions opinion polls. We start off with the first poll. OPINION POLL # 1 ------------ 1. I would like for them to be released on a monthly basis. 2. They can release whenever they want, I do not care. 3. I would like to see them released faster than a month. 4. Two months in between every edition is the best. 5. It depends on the magazine, therefore I do not care. 1=56% - 2=9% - 3=0% - 4=22% - 5=13%. Answers = 23 people. OPINION POLL # 2 ------------ What is your opinion of the demo-scene's interaction with the magazines, in terms of making them aware of the happenings within? 1. The demo-scene has always been good at letting the mags know what is going on. 2. The demo-scene is terrible at working with the media. 3. The magazines are to blame for not printing enough news and reports from the demo-scene. 4. This is a tricky question. I do not know. 1=9% - 2=70% - 3=17% - 4=4%. Answers = 23 people. OPINION POLL # 3 ------------ What is your opinion of the competition that goes on between the available magazines in the scene today? 1. I think sometimes it can get pretty tough. 2. What competition? 3. The magazines are good at coming up with new things all the time to make them more competetive. 4. They should not compete this much, we do not need it to make the scene better. 5. I do not know and do not care. 1=9% - 2=0% - 3=91% - 4=0%. Answers = 23 people. -------------------------------------------------------------- We are running out of space, therefore we'll get right to the MONTHLY TIMELINE. The events described occoured in July 1993. Source: THE PULSE issue 2, released in August 1993.
Satirica
+ SATIRICA - THE AUTOPSY OF THE SCENE + -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome back to the domains of SATIRICA. We take pride in basing out stories on lies and rumours. This means, if there is something contriversial being spread around about you - feel safe, that you will be able to read about it here, along with the rest of the world. Since the last edition, a lot of people have been sending us letters and post-cards, as well as notes through the internet. To those who took the time to write, we would just like to say "The same to YOU!". REGARDING SATIRICA, The stories included in SATIRICA are pure fiction, all of which are based on a satiric state of mind. We do not want to offend anyone, but rather pass on a smile in these trying times. We hope you will enjoy the read. General Editor, DUKE. PLAYBOY EMBARKS UPON THE FOOTBALL SCENE.. -------------------------------------------------------------- The Italian phreaker, PLAYBOY/F4CG, has taken on a new hobby. Apparently he was spotted at a football game, running out on the field in the nude. He was obviously carried away by the police, but according to a recent rumour, he should have signed a lucrative 4 year contract with the SERIE A club, INTER MILAN. According to the president of INTER MILAN, PLAYBOY was hired as their new mascot. "He made such a positive impression on me at our last game, that I decided to sign him before AC MILAN would" stated the controversial INTER boss. PLAYBOY is overjoyed with the contract, stating he always wanted to get into football - but he had not dreamt in his wildest dreams, that he would enter like this. PLAYBOY can be seen naked at the next home game against PARMA, who is said to bring along a naked impressionist of NEWSCOPY. THE SATIRIC TOP FIVE LIST -------------------------------------------------------------- TOPIC : Five possible ways TALENT could actually become active again. 5. BOD gets a calling-card. 4. BOD allows 20 newcommers to join TALENT, forcing them to spread his old cracks. 3. ROCKSTAR gets his modem and phone-wire untangled, and finds his way back to the boards. 2. BOD beats up ANTICHRIST in a regular streetfight in NEW YORK, for thereafter to marry SORCERESS - and force her to reopen MYSTIC CAVERN as TALENT WHQ. 1. The TALENT members buys a C64! BIZ KID TIRED OF "NICE GUY" REPUTATION -------------------------------------------------------------- The editor of SKYHIGH, BIZ KID, explained to THE PULSE in an interview, how he was annoyed with constantly being put out to be such a nice guy. "I am really not a nice guy, I once stole a SNICKERS from the local candy store" claimed an embarrased BIZ KID. Having had problems with his otherwise clean conscience after the armed robbery, he visited the church every Sunday for two years. "I hope that I will be able to forgive myself, with time I guess I will be able to think of myself as a nice guy again" said a modest BIZ KID. But according to NICEGUY MAGAZINE, BIZ KID was seen telling off an old lady in the street to go stick her head in the toilet, and flush. Expert on good behavour, JAZZCAT, claims BIZ KID was acting this way because of his new membership with CAMELOT. "We all know what those Danes in CAMELOT are like, they are a bad influence" claimed JAZZCAT. TRUTH ABOUT MAJOR SHOUT DELAY REVEALED -------------------------------------------------------------- The FAIRLIGHT magazine, SHOUT, is still expected to put out its follow-up release to the debute edition put out many months ago. According to SHOUT editors, ENDURO should have lost the guide HOW TO DO A MAGAZINE, and since then he has had constant writers-block. According to BACCHUS, this may explain why ENDURO has been moving around so much lately "He must have been out searching for the book!?!". Another problem appeared, as ENDURO complained that he had forgotten how to start the SHOUT editor. "It's been so long since the debute edition, that I have forgotten completely how to start the bloddy editor" stated ENDURO. A friendly person told ENDURO to try and RUN the editor, but ENDURO denied this - "Just because that was the same problem for the REFORMATION editor, it doesn't mean it's the same for the SHOUT editor" stated ENDURO. + NATURES CORNER - WATCHING OLD PWP R.I.P + -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome dear readers, to another episode of Natures Corner - this one sadly the last, as we bid farewell to our good friend and mentor, POWERPLANT of LEGEND. The 1st of October 1995, POWERPLANT of LEGEND sadly faded away, as he accidently tied his foot to the top of a lightpost in the middle of the desert in the USA. POWERPLANT was found - not looking good, an estimated 28 days after the actual accident. His body was brought back to his home country Belgium, where a local burger joint held a huge reception in honour of his memory. Owner of the burger joint, ABDUL SPRINGSTEEN, claimed he did not know POWERPLANT very well, but had him to thank for the success of his burger bar. "He is responsible for 50% of my profits the last 8 years, this was the least I could do" stated a clearly touched ABDUL SPRINGSTEEN. The reception was a huge success, except for perhaps the embarrasing fact, that MOREN/SCS had stolen the huge crucifix from the church earlier the same day. "I'll simply slap on some cool paint, and then this cool cross will look good in my room" stated a very drunk MOREN to the shocked masses. JACK DANIELS also brought to himself a bit of bad attention, as he told an old lady to bend infront of him, so he had something to rest his feet on. The old lady however, did not seem to mind. Atleast she was on the ground face-down most of the time - probably because of shock, when POWERPLANT jumped out of his coffin to order a huge milkshake with fries. We will miss POWERPLANT, he was only 10.950 days old. * Meanwhile at the house of BOD/TALENT "Who says NOTHING is impossible? I have been doing NOTHING for years!!". FINNISH ROCKSTAR TO MAKE SHOCKING MOVE -------------------------------------------------------------- The infamous Finnish cracker and fixer, ROCKSTAR of TALENT, stole the headlines this month, as he made an unexpected move to the Finnish group PALACE. ROCKSTAR explained in an interview to IGLOS AND C64'ERS, that he did not recall joining PALACE - and that he did not even remember being asked to join. However, a well known C64 detective, SHERLOCK SMUCK, reported that PALACE should be planning to build a major Finnish group syndicate, getting known sceners drunk, for thereafter to persuade them into joining PALACE - securing a signed signature from the victims. <MORE> CONT.. PALACE denies this, claiming they have never heard such a ridiculous accusation. 2NY/PALACE did however state "It was a good idea though.." followed by a smart smile. The latest member to sign on for PALACE, was the AVANTGARDE member JACK DANIELS. But that one did not really count, as he previously stated to the German magazine, DRUNK'R'US, that he would join any group - as long as he was guaranteed an unlimited supply of free beers. -------------------------------------------------------------- SATIRICA THE LEADING TABLOID MAGAZINE -------------------------------------------------------------- MOTIV 8 ATTEMPTS TO DISARM FALSE ACCUSATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------- The boss and joystick-controller of MOTIV 8, CROSSFIRE, has converted to ISLAM as well as renaming himself into "ALI ALI AND SOME MORE ALI'S". This was due to some very nasty rumours spreading, that he was supposed to be a NAZI. "Those rumours are ridiculous, everyone knows I am not a German" stated CROSSFIRE to SIEG STALIN. It appears many people are not aware of the fact, that CROSSFIRE is infact the leader of the infamous anti-nazi party NAZIN (sponsored by NIZAN). Last week he organised an operation on the HQ of the Danish neo-nazi's, in which he spraypainted 'ADOLF WAS A HAMSTER' and 'EVA BRAUN LIKES WIENERS' all over their house. CROSSFIRE is confident, that with this information being brought out to the public, he will nolonger be accused of being something as silly as a Nazi. But everything has its price, now CROSSFIRE is being overrun with Nazi's, wanting his Islamic head on a silver plate. SOLAR CHARGED FOR HERRASEMENT OF HOST -------------------------------------------------------------- Next months guest of PROFILE, SOLAR/F4CG, was today sentenced to 4 years of community service for herrasement of the interviewer, DUKE. Apparently SOLAR had forced DUKE to keep a constant flow of questions coming his way, eventhough the interview had pretty much covered his whole life - from when he was a young kid running around the local park, ingraving his name on the trees - till present date, where he successfully runs a larger company importing goods from various nations. DUKE was so exhausted at the end of the interview, that he tried to make a run for it - when SOLAR took out a chicken-laser, and blasted DUKE to pieces. SOLAR explained to the police, how he was provoked by DUKE, when he suggested SOLAR was at fault for the money flow problems in his company. DUKE furthermore asked, maybe it would be a good idea to actually sell the imported goods - SOLAR shouted "Sell them? What kind of a stupid idea is that?". TASMANIAN BOXING EVENT A HUGE SUCCESS -------------------------------------------------------------- The biggest highlight of the month to take place in the sporting part of the scene, was the long awaited boxing title-match between the champion JAZZ "THE DINGO SLAYER" CAT and the contenter DINGO McNEALEY. The match inked by the Scene Boxing Federation (SBF) was to be held in the home country of the champion, TASMANIA. A huge crowd of 328 met up, half of them expecting it to be a good old fashion dog-fight - leaving after they were told it was not. Well, not really!?! The champion, JAZZCAT, having served 3 months in jail for smoking hash in the backseat of a police-car (?), was happy to be out of prison once again. He had gained weight in prison, and looked set for a good fight. A reporter asked him before the match about his chances, and about his secret <MORE> CONT.. that made him gain 290 pounds in jail. A modest JAZZCAT replied, "Oye, it all came from spanking my wiener. Check out my right arm.. Wooouuuwww". The reporter was impressed, and so was the home crowd who was ready for a good fight. The game was set to go off, and when the bell rang, DINGO McNEALEY charged JAZZCAT in hope for an early winning punch. But luck was with JAZZAT, as he managed to swing his right arm into a perfectly placed uppercut - that saw DINGO McNEALEY fly out of the ring face-first, while JAZZCAT lost his shorts due to his slight weight-problem. The crowd cheered, content with both events. JAZZCAT managed to keep his title, although it was a hard fight. The fight lasted an amazing 2 seconds, and that makes a record for JAZZCAT, who has 58 knock-outs on his record, 57 of them in the 17th second of round 10. BOD CLAIMS THERE IS STILL SOME TALENT LEFT -------------------------------------------------------------- The lord of the British royal family, BOD of TALENT, announced on CNN during the summer holidays, that TALENT was not at all dead as most of the press had predicted, it was still alive and kicking. "Sure there are no members in the group, and we're not releasing anything. But that doesn't mean the group is dead, does it?" stated BOD to the interviewing king, LARRY SING. During the show, BOD was able to show pictures of a lady he once met in a train - that apparently had seen someone, that could have been a member of TALENT. "There ya go, hardcore evidence that TALENT is around and kicking" said BOD in a joyfull mood, as he corrected his tie in the back of his head. BOD is expected to fly to TASMANIA in September, to do a movie with JAZZCAT about a new form of marcial arts, called DINGO'RATE.
Profile
+ THE OCTOBER PROFILE - BIZ KID/CAMELOT + -------------------------------------------------------------- This edition of PROFILE, we will take a deeper look, at what we feel is one of the biggest success-stories in the new generation of magazines. There have been many tales of greatness in the past many years, but this unsong hero we are about to meet, have inspirated others in his field on how he feels a real scene(magazine should be done. Although he seems to have a somewhat exaggerated modest attitude towards the scene, and his own achievement, there is no denying, he is on his way to reach the C64-scene hall of fame. With an almost unstopable determination to fight for the scene, as well as human rights, he has consolidated his magazine as a top of the chart production. But I better bring out my guest for you to know more. Please welcome, the editor of SKYHIGH, BIZ KID of CAMELOT. <D> DUKE <B> BIZ KID/CAMELOT -------------------------------------------------------------- <D> Welcome Jesper, and congratulations on the success you you are having with SKYHIGH. I have really enjoyed the last many editions. First of all, what inspired you to become a magazine editor? <B> Well, actually it is quite a surprise that you picked me as a victim for your magazine, but still I feel flattered. In other words; thanks a lot for doing this interview with me. Secondly, I would like to say, that it is nice to hear from another editor, that he or she appreciates my magazine. It gives you this extra kick - right? What inspired me? Hmm, I think that I saw an opportunity to reach far if I did my own magazine. As I entered the scene in 1992 (I think) I started doing graphics, but I felt I had the flair for something more, something regular, so to speak. <B> CONT.. I entered the scene for real after the legendary scene magazines like MAMBA and SEX'n'CRIME had left. So I actually never grew up with any magazine. SCRIPT died soon after, and I never saw many issues. Only one magazine I can remember a bit is BRUTAL RECALL, but I believed I could fill in; don't really know. I have always enjoyed reading a lot, and the same goes for writing, so it seemed like a natural thing to do for me. Another essential thing was that, in this way I could reach quite a lot of sceners with my products, and in the same way get to be a bit known. I think you can compare it to graffity - a thing I did a lot 8-9 years back. When it came to the point, maybe it is all about showing off. Nothing negative in that. What it means is; show the people what you can do. Just like graffity; when you had made something new, it is a thrill to show it to someone. <B> CONT.. Pride is a good word to end this question with I guess. <D> Additing to your list the fact, that doing a magazine is the easiest way to become known - thus gaining a lot of new friends, and you have the opportunity to be center of all the action. If anyone claims the scene is dead, just try and start a magazine - you will quickly change your mind. Your latest decision to sign for CAMELOT may have surprised a great deal of sceners. What made CAMELOT the perfect choice for you, and what do they have to offer you as a group? <B> Leaving OXYRON for CAMELOT was not an easy thing to do. I believe that everyone knows the story, but in short: I had the feeling that OXYRON was dying, and I had to find another group to continue my work. Finding a new <B> CONT.. group really wasn't that hard. I have had a close friendship with RAZ for quite some time, and he asked me if I would like to be a Camel. He asked the other members, who took a vote, and then suddenly I was in. Opposite you, then I don't think that it surprised a lot of sceners. I believe that most of them saw it coming. What makes CAMELOT the perfect choice? Well, I don't know if it is the perfect choice, but they sure have the advantages for me. They are a legendary group with some top-notch coders/ graphicians/composers. They are all Danish, which makes the phonebill quite smaller. And I have some good friends here too. Actually I compare CAMELOT very much to OXYRON. Somehow they look quite the same, and I have a great time with both of these groups. Actually I still visit some of the OXYRON-meetings now and then. In a way you can <B> CONT.. say that my mind haven't really left OXYRON at all. I really enjoyed being together with my true friends down there to mention a few : TTS, AXIS, SCRAPPER, DANTE, GRAHAM, PYTHAGORAS and some more. And who knows, if OXYRON had shown a bit more lifesigns, if there hadn't been all these 'misunderstandings', if CAMELOT hadn't asked me to join, and so on, then I would for 100% sure still be in OXYRON. OXYRON is the 1st real group I was in, besides BLAZE ofcourse, and it will always have a place in my mind. What can CAMELOT offer me? Hmm, what could OXYRON offer me? I guess a thing both offers me is friendship and fun. They both have some great coders and musicians. Well, I don't know what to answer! Somehow I don't think that I have left OXYRON for real yet. <D> Have you spoken to KRING about SKYHIGH becoming the new CAMELOT magazine? He must be disturbed about REVEALED being pushed aside? <B> Honestly, I have never spoken to KRING, so I don't really know what he thinks about SKYHIGH, and about being 'pushed aside'. Personally I think that he has ruined REVEALED with all that cyber shit, not that I don't like cyber, but not in the way it was presented in REVEALED. Enough said! <D> SKYHIGH has never had an interest in the board-market, although that appears to be one of the key-areas a magazine needs to get to the elite sceners. Howcome you have not included more cracking-scene related text, and instead concentrated primarily on the demo- and mail- scene? <B> Well, this is easy to answer. I never have had a modem; never tried to call out to boards. Never even seen someone do it. I simply don't know jack shit about these things. This certainly should explain the lack of board orientated stuff in my mag. Actually I would love to have some BBS orientated stuff in my magazine, but sofar I haven't succeeded in finding an editor to edit such chapters. So if there is someone out there who would like to do a BBS chapter for SKYHIGH, they should contact me as soon as possible. The address comes later. Saying that the board-market appears to be one of the key-areas in a magazine today isn't exactly right to me. SKYHIGH never really have had something about boards, and see how it is doing in the charts. So according to what you say, then my magazine will not reach the elite- sceners, so what? I never wanted to reach any socalled 'elite-sceners', as a matter of fact then I don't like the term 'elite'. This term brings a lot of bad attitudes and <B> CONT.. vibes with it, I think. Cracking-scene related stuff? Well, everybody who knows me, should know that I hate cracks. I am 100% legal. Playing games doesn't really mean much to me. Sure, I sometimes load up TURRICAN II and have some hours of fun, but I don't play that much. Concerning the cracker-scene, then I don't know much about that either, but I guess that is natural, as most of the crackers have contact on the boards and so on. This doesn't mean that I do not like the cracking-scene. As a matter of fact, then it often annoys me that I don't know more about it. Sometimes some of my friends and contacts call me up. But when they start chatting about the latest inside the cracker-scene, I don't know what to answer, because I simply don't know much about the handles. So this is the reason why I concentrate on the mail- and demo-scene. I just write about the things which interest <B> CONT.. me and which I know a bit. Then again, this doesn't mean that the cracker scene is abandoned from SKYHIGH. Honestly, then I don't see any problem in having this in my mag, but it will have to be hosted by someone else than me. Someone who knows, and is involved in the entire thing. Actually I could see this coming in a future issue of SKYHIGH. <D> Reading SKYHIGH it is notable that you make an extra effort to be as friendly as possible, trying to please everyone, without stepping on somebody's toes. How would you describe that approach to your readers, and has it been hard keeping a calm attitude in what would be described as a real rough business? <B> Oh no, here we go again. The always oh so nice BIZ KID. Damn I don't think I am more friendly than most others. But I don't believe that being friendly will lead you much longer than being the opposite. Trying to please everybody! Well, I don't know, maybe. I don't put any effort into being as friendly as possible. I just try to be myself; nothing more, nothing less. I think many have got the wrong interpretation of me. I will not try to be friendly no matter what. If I don't agree with something, I will step forward and say it, or I will maybe not comment it at all. Always looking for confrontations is not a wise move. It sure can cause a lot of problems. And why have these problems if it can be avoided. You also know, that I can get nasty and tell people what I really mean. Often there is no use to do so, so I simply don't. But hey, this is a funny question to get from a person who has a reputation for being arrogant and confrontation seeking. Sure it isn't always easy to keep your temper down. But I think I have <B> CONT.. improved a lot, and is able to control it quite good. Ten years back or so, I would get very irritated and nasty, but now it is a part of growing up. See, I am almost an oldtimer in this "world" with my 25 years. To me it is just a hobby, nothing more than fun. I leave the rough business to all the others, and simply do it my way. <D> You are most certainly in your rights to do so. I would like to add to my socalled reputation, that I am really a nice guy if you get to know me. And most importantly, I care about the scene, and pull my weight in the quest to make the scene a better place to be. Therefore, I guess my type of editing originates from my era as a phreaker, calling the boards and debating with people who had very strong and firm opinions. Those were the days when IKARI, TALENT, DOMINATORS, EXCALIBUR, LEGEND and <D> CONT.. others roamed the boards - and if you know them, you also know that being nice will get you nowhere in a discussion. Anyway, let us get the spotlight back on you, please :) How great do you think the difference is between the top magazines in the scene today, and which magazines do you prefer? <B> The difference in the magazine top? Well, I don't really know what to say. There is no magazine which is the absolute number one at the moment - eventhough SKYHIGH has taken the 1st position in most magazines the last year. In the old times mags like MAMBA or SCRIPT would dominate the mag charts all over. Today the top magazines are more alike. The big gap between the top rank and the others simply doesn't exist. It is a bit difficult to explain, but the magazines have improved <B> CONT.. a lot lately. One year ago the scene was bombed with new mags every week. Most of these magazines were of a very poor quality, and couldn't reach the readers. Many groups tried to get some cheap points by having their own mag. They never thought about the hard job doing them. You yourself know how much work there has to be put into an issue. It isn't something you just do. Not everybody can do it properly. Sure, everybody can do a mag, so what. If the contents is boring or hasn't got much to do with the scene at all, it won't survive very long. Today the magazines are of a more equal quality. Unfortunately this often results in a kind of mainstream magazines. In other words, the mags start to look very alike, and that is not good. This is also why we - RAZ and I, are trying to come up with new ideas all the time; new concepts, new areas, new improvements. A good example <B> CONT.. could be: The extras SKYHIGH have. <D> I follow your point. I actually attempted to do THE PULSE back in 1990, but after doing only a mere 3 editions, I had to realise I needed much more experience about the subjects I was supposed to be writing "wisely" about. But later I returned, having learned the ways of the scene, and for good or bad, this is what I am able to present. What in your opinion should be the ingredients for an ideal scene magazine? <B> This is impossible to answer, because it depends on what kind of magazine it will be, or for who it is directed. Just take THE PULSE and SKYHIGH. Two very different magazines. Yours for the BBS scene, and mine for the mail/demo scene - to put it simplistic. <B> CONT.. What I think a C64 scene magazine should never content is non-scene stuff. Copying the latest music-charts from MTV or some music-paper-mahgazine is nonsense. Reviewing the newest CD's is pure crap too. If people wants to read about this, they should buy the respective magazines or go to the right channels. Recently I saw in RELAX that "they don't have to use material from other systems to fill their magazine". End of quote. Bullshit, the C64, the Amiga and the PC all have something in common; the scenes, groups and releases. No matter what TIMO (RRR) says, then I do believe that getting input from other scenes is a great way to keep our scene alive. Just take a look at all these routines invented on the Amiga or PC which is converted to the C64. News like the ESCOM buying Commodore is a very important thing to bring. <B> CONT.. In short : C64 based stuff has 1st priority and then computer orientated stuff. NO non-computer stuff. <D> I agree with your point of view, and it is a mentality I have tried to spread in THE PULSE as well. There is absolutely no future in spreading music-charts, especially when there is a world of subjects to discuss about the C64-scene. About THE PULSE, I disagree with your analysis. We have but a few board-related chapters, if not only our BOARD-REPORT. The rest is demo and mail-scene orientated, and ofcourse basic information for everyone. Anyway, if people keep saying we are a board-related magazine long enough, everyone will start to believe it. Eventhough fact is another. Anyway, SKYHIGH has done real well, it is a well balanced magazine. What are your future plans with SKYHIGH? <B> Hmm, this is quite a delicate matter. I don't really want to reveal too much. But to mention a few things : I will try to get it back on track by releasing more regulary again. Eventhough this isn't easy. Then I will try to find new ideas, new concepts all the time. SKYHIGH should be known for new ideas, trendsetting. About the co-editors; yes I too think I have got some great ones in my team. And I would like to thank each and one of them right here and right now. You are doing a great job buddies. Keep up the good work. That's all I will reveal, sorry. <D> I welcome all new ideas within the magazine-industry, we at THE PULSE has also had to live with other magazines immitating our chapters and writing-methods. It is nice to see our colleagues working towards new and better solutions to making a better magazine. What in you opinion is the biggest responsibilities for a scene-magazine? <B> I don't know if you can call it responsibility, but I believe that releasing the magazine almost regularily is the least you can do. I also see it as a kind of responsibility to inform the readers about the up-coming parties. You know bringing the invitations, so they know where to go. Finally you should ofcourse try not to bring lies. Unfortunately this sometimes does happen, because you can't check out everything. But bringing lies deliberately is wrong. Otherwise I don't see any responsibilities. <D> You are correct, that checking all information that we as a media receives is very much near impossible. But then there is ofcourse the responsibility of having good and solid sources, but even they can be mislead. Anyway, would you describe yourself as a modern scene loyalist? <B> Scene-loyalist? Isn't that your term for 'elite'? To tell you the truth I've never understood that term. But one <B> CONT.. thing is for sure : I do not see myself as elite. This term always sounds bad in my ears, I always compared it with nasty attitudes, arrogance and stupid wars. But maybe I have misunderstood your definition? <D> Yes you did Jesper, I was refering to you as loyal towards the scene - as in you would work hard, and stick around to see it become better. Anyway, we are running out of time, so I would like to thank you for this interesting conversation. Good luck with SKYHIGH in the future, I look forward to following your work - as good colleagues in the magazine-business should do :) <B> It is me thanking - oh my god, there is that friendly gesture again, heheh. Well, I have something on my mind, which I would like to say before ending. Eventhough I <B> CONT.. never have been really keen on THE PULSE, I admire the success it has got. I too, admire the way THE PULSE is produced, by more editors who know what they are doing. I am sorry to say it, but I find THE PULSE a bit boring. Don't take it personal, because this is just natural I think. I don't interest me for, or know much about the board-scene. And as THE PULSE is very board-orientated it is natural that it doesn't appeal to me. If I was into BBS, then our mags probably wouldn't be that different at all. Finally I would like to credit you for your English, that trip to the states has definately paid off. Respect! After this, I would like to greet all my true friends in OXYRON and CAMELOT. A hi to the angry posse, and to all my contacts. And as promised my address: <B> CONT.. BIZ KID of CAMELOT XXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XX, X.XXXXX XXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXX Okay, that was all from the BIZ MAN. I will wrap this up by once again thanking you for doing this interview, and good luck to you too. Don't give a damn about my words onto THE PULSE. Just keep up the great work. <D> No problem, I admire people who speaks their mind - I am a supporter of that myself. About THE PULSE once being more of a board-related magazine, I would like for everyone to look through our new altered program. We actually do have many chapters for someone like you <D> CONT.. BIZ KID, and actually we have declined dramatically in our cracking-scene reporting - something we hope to improve in the future editions. Anyway, hopefully in the future you too can enjoy THE PULSE, as a family magazine :) -------------------------------------------------------------- Well, there you go. Eventhough we are competitors in the charts and on the market, it is actually possible to both respect and credit eachother. That is in my opinion the way to go for a more harmonic scene - the truth will always take you much further. That about does it for another edition of PROFILE. We will return next month, with a superfamous guest. Furthermore we are fortunate enough to be the first to get a real interview with this person. The November guest is non other than the leader of F4CG and editor of PIRATES, SOLAR. See you then!
Internet Report
The Internet Chapter -------------- Hi there everybody and welcome to the one and only (luckily for you!!!!!!) INTERNET dedicated chapter in the reviving PULSE!!!!!... A lot has already been said about this matter, which is becoming a more and more popular way to communicate, therefore I am not willing to teach you anything about how to use the NET; I would simply like to give you -month by month- some hints, which will tell you where to find the most interesting things of the Cyberspace. Ofcourse any comment or feedback is warmly welcome just as any suggenstion is. So, please, feel free to contact me both on the NET at: playboy bbs.cc.uniud.it -- ...or by SNAIL-MAIL at: XXXXXX XXXXXXX XXX XXX XXXXXX' XXX XXXXX XXXXXXXX -XX- XXXXX (NO HANDLES ON THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE!!!!!!) ...or even by phone: +XX.XXX.XXX.XXX OK. I think this should be enough for introducing this new chapter, so let's lead to the body of the Article (finally!!!!)... This month I will examine some of the best C=64 related FTP sites (as said before you ARE supposed to know what does FTP site mean!!!!)... -- First of all I think YOU ought to know that a detailed list of all the C=64 related sites is being released on the Commodore 8 bit machines NewsGroup (COMP.SYS.CBM that is :-) around the 15th of each month... nevertheless this list is not 100% complete as the person who cares about it (I am very sorry, but I don't remember neither his name nor his E-mail address) does not check the sites personally and therefore only the INFO that the maintainers E-mail him is included, which means that on some sites NO info is given, just the ADDRESS. As another US Diskmag may treat the US FTP sites matter I better will concentrate my attention on the European side of the stuff. I will start by mentioning my very own FTP site (advert ? :-D): BBS.CC.UNIUD.IT -- This is the official F4CG+MOTIV8 FTP site. Being maintained by me with a strong support from a close friend of mine: Crossfire/M8, right. Due to this you can always find some nice stuff in the WAREZ directory (/pub/c64/games/0-7). This site is also in CO-OP with the T'Pau FTP site: ERIS.GIGA.OR.AT which is maintained by Mr.Spock/T'PAU (which is an old but cool demogroup which is planning to make it's comeback demo in the near future after 3 years of absence... - Lazyness rules Guenther, or?:-/). This means that you can find most stuff on both sites... but only concerning the legal side of it. In fact the T'PAU FTP site is only containing Demos and Tools... My site is mainly legal aswell... but I am reinforcing it by the game side aswell... brick by brick :-) -- Well, the next site to be mentioned is for sure the TRC+SCS FTP site: PITEL-LNX.IBK.FNT.HVU.NL ...which is situated in the Netherlands (smart, eh?...:). It is maintained by many guys: CBA and Burglar of TRC+SCS C=64 section, Viking of TRC+SCS PC section, Coolhand (a cool american trader) and BOD (does it ring a bell? and ILLUSION? not? bah... turn the computer off LAMER!). All in all to be honest I have to admit that this is for sure the very best C=64 FTP site concerning the illegal stuff. Ofcourse a big part in this is done by the fact that many people maintain it... On the other hand it lacks a lot on the legal side, but this is just their AIM as it started, so we don't care about this (right Dimitri? :-D)... -- Only one thing I don't understand about this FTP site. They have a welcome.msg in 40 columns (which is ofcourse cool!) and they state: "WE USE REAL C=64'S, WE DON'T NEED TO EMULATE!!!"... and then when you check the games dir you find out that most of the old games are in the -.D64- EMULATOR format.... a bit weird, isn't it? This is not my business though, I believe, so I will just leave this to you to check it out yourself. OK. Next one please... FTP.FUNET.FI ...is being maintained by Mysti+Deadbeat/The Sharks, Marko Makela (which is a real C=64 hardware wizard!!!) and some more people. -- The site is one of the biggest in the whole Europe (not containing ONLY C=64 Stuff). The area contains software for all Commodore 8 bit Platforms (only legal stuff ofcourse) and also some very useful documents such as the Disassembled ROM of 1541 or C=64 and many documents on how to build cool hardware by yourself (In Example adding a second SID chip to have the C=64 working Stereo, or Connecting a Western Digital Hard Disk Drive directly to your C=64 or even building an RS-232 interface with a related software to use it... COOL I SAY). They really have a big area... but they lack one thing: organization. Mainly you can see the /incoming area full with one month old stuff. The site is big and very few people care about the uploads of the users. All in all it still is a cool site, just needs some more attention from it's parents (right Jarkko and Timo? :-).... -- Ok. This is all for this month. Take care to get the next *GREAT* edition of the *PULSE* magazine from your local PULSE dealer. In the next edition I will talk about the other most important FTP sites concerning CBM 64 software in Europe. Till that time be sure to (E-)Mail me anything you may want to see printed in here.... I will also print reactions if worthy... Yours, Playboy/F4CG The Pulse Magazine CO-Editor --------------------------------------------------------------
World of Demos 1
W O R L D O F D E M O S -------------------------------------------------------------- There you have it - your favourite chapter is back for good. After last issue not having WOD included, I might enlight you how this could happen. We ofcourse finished the chapter in time, but due to problems with transfering the text back down to the c64 after emailing it to Duke he did not make it in time... Tough luck! Anyway, things are settled now - so there should not be any droppings in the future anymore... We will take a closer look on the demos released recently to enlight you what is hot and what is not... Programming Critic: MR.SEX/BYTERAPERS Graphical Critic: EARTHQUAKE/CS/ANTIC Musical Critic: THE SYNDROM/TIA/CREST W O R L D O F D E M O S -------------------------------------------------------------- The Program: --------- 1. Fantasy by Chromance 2. Nergezo Anyagil by Profik 3. Lilith by Aspheron 4. Love by Agony 5. Defect Failure by The Coders 6. Plazmolytic by React We feel sorry about some of the reviews being rather old, but you know the reasons... Further we got several unfinished reviews being prepared for next month's edition, so we may promise an even larger WORLD OF DEMOS next month... <MORE> FANTASY by CHROMANCE ----------------- MR.SEX about the coding, Well, once again we have got a demo made by a cracking group. And now it's again time to start making reviews, Eventhough the weather is so hot that I would rather like to go and grab a few or more bottles of beer. Well, it has to wait - now for the business... The demo starts with very typical fadings etc., and then comes a bitmaplogo using FLD. In the bottom of the screen there is a bitmapscroller which infact has already been invented in the last decade. So the coding of the first part is far from being hard to do, but serves it's purpose though. The next part fades in and a PLOT TUNNEL becomes visible to the center of the screen. It consists of a few dotted circles only, which do not even zoom in, but atleast move with xy- sines. Then some letters start to zoom in from the tunnel, but again they are made with a few dots only. After loading there comes the end part where you see line- crunched bitmapmovement with some text poked into sprites, which are layed over that picture. Nothing very special again. All in all this demo has been designed quite nicely, as all parts fade in and out, but it was a bit too short. There even could have been a bug in the loader, because it didn't work with my 1541, but luckily I was able to load all parts manually. 33% for the coding... EARTHQUAKE about the graphic, The nice intropicture, showing a warrior holding a big axe, looks as it is an own creation, because there is a small error in the proportion of the head (the forehead is a bit too small). Nevertheless this picture is nice and impressed me quite a lot. Even better is the great Chromance-logo. This one is actually devided into two blocks of stone. The devilish head in profile on the left side has been pixeled extremely good. On the right side you are able to see the fragment "romanc". In the black space between thes two stones the letters "c" and "h" appear, while the "c" influences the surface of the left stone. I like the small 3D-Effect very much and I think that this logo belongs to the best ever painted on the C-64. Moving to the graphic of the next part you have to admire a well-pixeled warrior again. This time he owns a skull as head and lifts his arm with a sword. Unfortunately the same image has been mirrored to the right - another picture would have been a better solution. The last part contains a clipart of a dog wearing a ring in his ear. The quality of this picture is not as good as the ones previously seen. But at all, LORD RED did an excellent job with his graphics. Rating for the graphics: 85% turn page... SYNDROM about the music, Ok, the beginning of the intromusic fits the intro very well. SKULL, who also made all other tunes used in that demo, did a good job on the maintheme, on thing I disliked though, he (ab)used an enormous glide in the melody. But at all, this tune is ok and you won't forget it so fast. Over to the next part we hear a conversion of fxrtyszc... (geez, forgot the names). Well, everybody I saw listening to that tune recognized it to be a conversion, so I think Skull did it very well. Ok, the melody is going strange every now and then, but hey - it is not easy to convert singing, especially if it is such slow-rap like in this music. The end-music starts with some chords and a kinda "asking" lead thrown into the silence. After a while the real tune starts which is pretty ok, it even reminds me on the legendary tunes MOON used to compose back in the good old times. I think everybody should keep that Skull-dude in mind and watch out for his future-releases... 73% for the music... NERGEZO ANYAGIL by PROFIK -------------------- MR.SEX about the coding, Okay, here it comes - COMA LIGHT 13 from OXYRON ... not ? Yep, this was the fake CL13 demo which turns out to be released under the PROFIK label. After some fake texts they start with a PROFIK logo and a STARWARS-scroller. That scroller is made with dots which isn't really the best way to do that, because you can't make it really big and fast then. And there even have been some HOLES in the letters. They SHOULD have made it with bitrotating (by calculating positions correctly you will get a really fast and nice looking routine). Ok, let's go to the next part, which is a ZOOMING CHESSBOARD. Uhh... I'm wondering why there seem to be so many of those in recent demos. Well, there were ugly rasters behind the board, but it didn't make that effect any better. Well, they said it wasn't any record or extremely code, but the next thing was supposed to be WORLD RECORD. It's a CIRCLE SCROLLER consisting of 4080 DOTS. Hmm... in fact I think I have seen a demo with such an amount of dots already. Actually there probably are not even 4080 dots, but dot positions. And to make an effect like this you don't have to plot 4080 dots in each frame. It's enough to plot only the first dot of each characterline and to erase the last of that line. Well, I hope you understood what I ment. After long loading some more dots come in. This time they are made with double sinus movement. Nothing really amazing, but the TRANSFORMING is done very nicely. Ok, next to come are even more dots. Now they are in the shape of a spiral scroller, which is made of 640 dots. Well, this kind of scroll is not good to make with pure dots, as the same effect can be done faster with other routines. But all in all it's ok , just too small. The chessboard strikes back again in the shape of a turn-disk part. This is just a normal chessboard with sprites over it. There seems to be a bug in that routine, as it some- times flicker before the sprites get visible. After turning the disk there comes a VECTOR-CITY which is presented with expanded sprites. It is similar to those in WOC2 & A.O.S. 3, but this one has a nice picture as background, which makes it pleasant to watch. Next thing is just a simple PLASMA made by charcolors and then it's all over and the upscroller comes to tell you the credits. Well, this was quite an average demo with even some nice parts. The fake in the intro wasn't good and so I will give: 54% for the coding... EARTHQUAKE about the graphic, Well, the fake-intro-logo is nothing special at all. But I was quite surprised about the first PROFIK-logo, as it was made using a very interesting charset. The next one looks ok, but it is without any doubt, that the letters have been all made by copying one shape... And I find it lame to use converted pictures even without retouching them. The logo in the vector city part only shows, that PROFI2 did not put much effort in painting it, as it was made by copying again. But one thing which is quite remarkable is, that all charsets were of a very high quality. Not too much graphic in that demo, too bad. 46% for the graphic... SYNDROM about the music, Well, time for an easy job, as all music in this demo has been used before, and, as I said last time, won't be reviewed. I will only rate the choice of the tunes and how they fit the demo. Ok, it's always clever to use music by JEROEN TEL, as there is no one disliking his music, is there ? The other music used there was made by AUDIAL ARTS and PRI, and does not fit the demo too well. 11% for the music... LILITH by ASPHERON -------------- MR.SEX about the coding, Okay, this is the last demo to review this time and it starts with some bouncing fade-in texts. Then comes an Aspheron- logo and the credits are shown using STRETCHING SPRITES. Nice idea and looks quite good, but nothing hard to code. After a picture some FILLED VECTOR objects appear. Yeah, everyone is doing these nowadays. In this demo the objects are simple, but atleast one GLENZ object is included to prove that they can do it. Well, this routine is not slow, but neither the fastest of today. Next one is a logo with FPP. The logo is stretched and multiplyed nicely with $d011 and $d018 code. Each line has it's own $d016 value to move it horizontally by 0-7 pixels. Well, this effect is very old and familiar from older demos. Argh... then come INTERLACED SHADEBOBS which look really ugly at first. I personally didn't like that flickering due to interlace, but after the colors got removed and some blue bobs came in and started to fade it looked a lot better. Still nothing new or brilliant. Then comes the worst part of this demo. They call it CYCLEMORA. Well, it's just some circles and dots drawn to a small area and the black holes in between do make the interference effect. This part is totally lame and reminds me on my first experience with coding (almost 15 years ago with some lame CPM-computers). I think you all know those tutorial languages like LOCO where you were supposed to make pictures like this with simple loops. Yep, the next part is called SLOPING RASTERS. They said it's more original to make rasters than bars. Uhh.. proper bars could have been much better looking than this. Finally you reach the end after one more picture. And the end part is nothing special again... Just an upscroller and some bobs & dots drawn to the screen. Well, atleast there was a quite nice design-effect on the logo, which comes in line by line. Hmm, there were some above average parts in that demo, but then some weaker parts drop down the overall rating of this demo. Too bad, as if they would have replaced some parts by some fresher routines, it could have been a good demo, but now it drops down somewhere we call land of average demos... 45% for the coding... EARTHQUAKE about the graphic, The first graphic you see on your screen may give you a small shock. The "Aspheron" logo appears in an awefull resolution and strange colors not common for a non-fake production. Next XPO, the graphician, shows an IFLI-picture with not more than 6 colors I guess. The girl image does not look bad at all, but the hair looks strange and everything else was painted too simple for my taste. XPO also did the Apheron-logo shown in the vector-part. The outlines and the copied colors were seen in many logos before - so nothing innovative. PETER's 3- color logo used in his FPP-part features the old style of multi- colorlogos used way back in the early 90's. His next logo is an example for noncreative logo-massproduction, but looks not as good as XPO's performance. The creator copied the fillings and just connected these blocks in order to get characters - I really don't like that. The next graphic was done by WORM, who called his FLI-picture "Meeting". It shows a classical fantasy-scene with a powerful hero fighting against a monster. This, something of a mixture between a gorilla and a droll, holds a spikeclub. WORM was able to paint the monster with some nice light-effects, The person in the lower left border can not be recognized as male/female clearly. All in all this picture is good, but it could be much better if WORM would have concentrated on pixeling more. There are some strange colors for example on the legs of the hero and on the other person that simply doesn't look good. The next picture called "Ladies" by WORM too uses IFLI and shows two nice women. One more conversion of a picture by BORIS VALLEJO, but it looks good at all. Though there are lots of pixels that flicker too much. Antialiasing would have given a better result. Because of the flickering I first didn't notice the cut-off head the woman with the colorful sword is holding. So, even in this good picture some things could have done better. The end-logo by PETER is not worth being mentioned - remember what I said about logo-massproduction. Just watch all the small sprites of the Aspheron members :) Rating for the graphic: 65% SYNDROM about the music, Another demo starting with a ripped music, though with the extremely good PARADISE'91-tune by DEEK. Next to come is a nice tune by FANTA, but even this tune has been used before. Space we press and I wonder if there will ever come some unreleased music. Ahh, the FPP-part is it, which has got music by AKADEM, whether it is an exclusive tune or not - who knows ? Atleast I didn't hear it before. The music itself is quite good with some fancy rythm and some nice breaks, though the instruments have been made by PRI I presume. Next music was done by DRAX a long time ago and has also been used before. And this one even lasts until the endpart, so I give, thinking that AKADEM's tune was exclusive, 45% for the music... LOVE by AGONY ---------- MR.SEX about the coding, Well, time to review Agony's latest demo. And this time they came up with a two sider full of routines, graphics and music. But let's come to the business... The demo starts with a nice STAR TUNNEL ANIMATION (converted from amiga) and is followed by various design effects and text until a huge VOXEL SCAPE suddenly comes in. It is displayed in 4*4 FLI mode, but unfortunately it's just an animation of 79 frames. Looks cool though. The next effect is supposed to be world's first LINE TUNNEL, but I'm sure that it has been done ages ago. Just take a look at some old games. After all this one doesn't even look good enough, because of the bug in the movement. Ok, next one is a Plot-effect... just some dots falling down as a design effect while loading... After some nice gfx there comes a ROTATE TWISTER, which unfortunately is in 8*8 resolution and looks quite ugly in my opinion. It runs in every frame though, but there have been several better ones in other demos. The show goes on and after some gfx and simple CHESSBOARD effects Agony presents a nice part where you can see a part of a picture through an ELASTIC BALL. This is very easy to make with some sprites bordering that circle area and switching everything to black elsewhere... Well, next one is nothing else but a PLOT CYCLONE. Nothing really amazing, but it's an original part compared to usual double sine dots. Ok, again gfx and then SIERPINSKI fractal triangle is about to fade in. Simple, but not bad at all. After those dot effects they show their line routines in the form of SPIRAL effects, which looks ok too. It is updated with quite reasonable speed as there are a lot of lines. Next one to be mentioned is a kind of INTERFERENCE FPP effect and then more nice pictures are being displayed before reaching TRANSPARENTLY filled lines. It looks nice and is quite fast, but could be bigger. Infact this was the last realtime routine in this demo, because the next effect to come is a RAYTRACING ANIMATION and then credits and some ANIMATIONS converted from the STARWARS movie. Those animations are displayed in 4*4 resolutions in 4 colors, which makes them quite rough, but after all they look better than you possibly would think. Hmm... Overally this demo was good. Mainly because of excellent gfx, animation and design, but it lacks a bit of code which will result in: 62% for coding... EARTHQUAKE about the graphic, The demo starts with a nice startunnel - done by a non-Agony member named Tom/TPD. Everything is precalculated (ofcourse). After fading out this animation the screen is filled by a moving square, which is a nice idea in my opinion. Now an Agony-logo (without the "o") moves in and a yellow square flies on the place of the expected "o" while it turns around like hell. The logo itself consists of lines mostly and fits well to the effect. After a "presents" using an Amiga-charset a Love-logo also done by Astaroth appears. I don't like it, as the fillings are quite strange... Now we jump over another square filling part, the precalculated 79 pictures animation of a flight over a landscape (with a very similar to the Love-demo on the amiga looking hires-logo) and the Vectortunnel, which is very ugly in my opinion. Astaroth presents another hires artwork after that cool fade-in effect (bouncing dots). This time he painted a dragon, which looks quite good. The following IFLI-picture by Roder is fantasy-orientated too. He called it "Conan" and it looks fantastic. A warrior swings his sword to hit a caveman with a stone-axe while there are more of them in the hills in the background. He made it to paint rather detailed - only the dark lines around most objects leave a bad impression. The graphic by Astaroth showed in the rot-twister part tends to be surrealistic. His IFLI-picture looks better. He uses read and brown colors to display a fantasy scene warrior, armed with an axe and riding a dragon... Now let's have a look on the "Flip Disk" picture by Astaroth. This one is great! A very well pixeled dragon on the right side proves, that he paints the best hires-pictures at the moment. The "s" letter of the logo on the left side is actually a lense and it magnifies the chessboard under it (plus a face in a white area). The IFLI-logo-picture by Skyle who painted a blond girl features nice style combined with extremely good pixeling. I hope to see more of his work as his following koala-logo is cool, too. This time he painted a man's eye before the characters. The 1.5 screens wide hires-picture by hires-maniac Astaroth is quite impressive. He seems to like chessboards and eyes, which are to be found here aswell. Anyway, good work - maybe not the right motiv for using hires. Astaroth gives us a surrealistic imagae again, which is a vision of horror. The man with the eye... Infront of the raytraced animation sequence the most active Agony-graphician shows his ability to produce stuff in FLI, too. It is quite good for my taste as it doesn't look as usual. Coming to the very last screen we find (again!) hires art. The citadel (looking comic-like) has a nice gadget, in detail the lighted yellow window and is in contrast to the right side, which reminds me of the style of Felidae/Reflex - two dimensions and different. When I first watched this demo I was very impressed by this flood of graphics, ideas and it's great design and liking, but somehow there is a bad aftertaste, as the Agony guys included so many precalculations and effects that are only possible using an Amiga/PC. I missed the original C64-spirit - but drawing a conclusion this demo is state of the art! Rating for the graphics: 90% ...to be continued in WORLD OF DEMOS 2 ...
World of Demos 2
LOVE by AGONY (continued...) SYNDROM about the music, All music in this demo was composed by SHOGOON - that should tell you something about what to expect! Jazz & funk on a top-level! The intro tune starts with some film-like harmonies and some ringmodulated effect-sounds. Then it turns up the speed - sounding techno-like, which seems to be very popular these days, especially in poland. But to point it out - SHOGOON does very well know about how to do proper instruments and stuff.. When the Rot-twister comes in, a new music starts, which is quite experimental in style, but still high-speeded... After some time the style changes again into some normal demo-music... After turning the disk there it is - a jazz tune by him! He really knows how to do it, groovy rythm and still good harmonies... But I think this tune is a bit too short, it just lasts about 1 minute and then restarts... The next music is typical SHOGOON-style too, I'm not even sure what style of music it is... By the way, one thing has to be mentioned... The whole demo contains a minor bug, but is still of importance, atleast for musicians... When switching from one effect to another, they don't keep track of the right raster-distance while playing the music... I mean, it happens that the music gets played 2 times a frame while switching - it gives an ugly "jump"... Anyway, the last tune is somewhat slower, too short in my opinion though, but it contains some VERY interesting breaks and harmony-changes... To sum it all up - SHOGOON is a very talented composer with a lot of original ideas and the ability to perform it very well on the SID... 90 % for the music... PLAZMOLYTIC by REACT ---------------- MR.SEX about the coding, Yep, as you may guess, this demo will include quite a lot of different plasmas. First one after a nice introduction is a kind of silence-bars like the one in old TOPAZ demos, but this time there are lot's of nice patterns and rasters. Looks quite nice. Next part is 128 FLI SPLITS, which you have most likely seen before. And then comes a new plasma, which is done with 4 colors and looks like to be bars with different x&y-patterns. Okey, after next loading, it's time for a CHESSBOARD ZOOMER (familiar eh?). Well, nothing new again, but nicely presented as the whole demo is. Finally there is one more plasma before reaching the end part with a DYCP scroller and greetings... Overally this demo was very nice looking and I was positively surprised about what those Slovakian dudes in REACT can make. After all, those routines aren't very new or hardcore, but if you like even a bit about plasmas, this is just for you. 65 % for coding... EARTHQUAKE about the graphic, This time the show starts with a low quality REACT-logo in hires, which looks like done in 10 minutes, while the charset, presenting the team behind the production, is much better. Appearing in sync with the music is the next graphic - a Plazmolytic Koala picture. The letters of the logo were done a dozen times before and the bubble-plasma-background is not very impressive, but I know that there isn't much more possible in this graphic mode. The logo casts a shadow on the background which gives a slight 3-dimensional effect. The next graphic is a cyan "react" logo with bent outlines, which reminded me immedeatly of the "WOM" logo (a chain of record-shops here in Germany). Now we turn over to a very well done plazmolytic logo. The characters are different from the normal outlines used in koala-logos. The colors turn from blue to grey and cyan. The interlace FLI picture shows a feared face. It looks really impressive and I just asked myself, why did the graphician paint so ugly looking bubbles around it ? In my opinion this doesn't fit right to the picture's message. Next we have a react logo again. It is not as good as the multicolor logos before. The outlines of the characters are very simple in contrast to the filling, which uses the graphicmode as good as possible - but still it doesn't look nice. Ratings for the graphic: 65% SYNDROM about the music, The intro music starts with some simple harmonies and some standard accords, but all of a sudden it gets faded away... Next one sounds quite nice, though the instruments leave something to be desired. But the composer did a good job on the melody, it's quite impressing and you can easily keep it in mind. The next music is just some simple bassline combined with some fast drums - not really worth mentioning... Arrrgh! The following tune makes my OLD sidchip doing things you all know as Filter-CLICKS. Do people never learn ??? Beside this, the tune itself is (again) nothing outstanding at all - but after some time it atleast has got some sort of nice melody. To be honest, this demo bores me quite a lot (music- wise), as the next tune is of the same standart like the two before... Wow! The last part features some cool groovy music with high-quality sounds, BUT it was made by Geir Tjelta and ofcourse used before... Too bad! 43 % for the music.... DEFECT FAILURE by THE CODERS ---------------------- MR.SEX about the coding, This demo starts with nice VECTOR DOTS, which are displayed on expanded sprites and gives it a stylish start. If we got one plasma-demo to review we got one DOT demo too, as the next effect is SINE-DOTS. It's quite nice, but too ordinary as it's made just with different y-position. More and more and more dots :) Even SHADE DOTS, like in the next part. They were made with 6 colors (3 of them put into sprites). Again an old idea. Then The Coders show you more vectors. First with some vector dots and then with "fat lines", which looks good. And finally some rubber vectors (wire frame though). This "little" trackmo was very nicely designed and enjoyable, so I will give... ... 60 % for coding ... EARTHQUAKE about the graphic, The hires-logos included in the intro look a bit boring and were probably done with a charset from Amiga or PC. After a "presents" falling out (cool) of the screen the graphician gives us a "Defect Failure" logo, which is a 3-colored hires construcion with strange characters. Finally the first multi- color logo hits you screen saying "The Coders loading...". The "sine dots" logo is not as good as the effect beside it. Atleast they have a good sense of humour, as they dar to quote Scooter :/ . After presenting their 6-color shadeplot routine, they display a "Coders" logo... again. The FLI-picture following up is called "Sexparty" - just a copy that looks okay, but in FLI there is more possible. I remember seeing the image in the Gfx compo on the Party 3 (on Amiga...). Sadly this is supposed to be the only real artwork in this demo. After that there is on more coders logo. I start to dislike tht, because the artists could have spent their time painting more creative things like small pictures or things like that. The only graphic in the next part are some sprites. And afterwards we have again a logo showing who made this demo. In a way it looks like the previous one - now there's no way to forget the name of this group anymore... The end is close and so it's time to present the credits. Here they included some original effects. The different jobs (like music) are "written" onto the screen and get erased later, which I did like quite much. After all the final end screen assembles very well on the screen at remains there until you reset your machine... Rating for the graphic: 55 % SYNDROM about the music, Well, another polish demo, so it's nothing new if I tell you that the music is mainly techno-styled. Though this time it's performed quite well. The credits say it was done by some member of IDLERS (Haldor?). Who ever it was, he did the job quite well - the music is by far not boring and also technically without any bugs... Maybe just some of the instruments could have been done better... Especially the snare-drum is getting wrapped too early every time - but that could be a bug in the player aswell (like in JCH's old players)... The tune in the end-part is double-speeded, featuring some of the infamous multispeed instruments... There are different opinions about using multispeed for music or not. I personally think that you don't make much profit in using it if you can't do it perfectly like f.e. Jeroen Tel or JEFF, but anyway.... 72 % for the music... These were all reviews for this edition... If you want your demo reviewed or want to comment on anything, feel free to contact us on the usual adresses... Still to come is the compiled result of all the reviews so far, so you better go on reading and turn the page... BEST DEMOS IN 1995 -------------------------------------------------------------- 1. LOVE by Agony 76.0 2. RADIO NAPALM by REFLEX 71.6 3. PLAZMOLYTIC by REACT 61.3 4. DEFECT FAILURE by THE CODERS 60.3 5. FANTASY by CHROMANCE 57.0 PARTS By OXYRON 57.0 7. LILITH by ASPHERON 51.2 8. TECHNET 2 by SAMAR 49.3 9. THE GREAT KLOAKKMAN... by MSP 48.5 10.NERGEZO ANYAGIL by PROFIK 44.2 11.W.O.T.T.I.F.T.D. by F4CG 42.0 -------------------------------------------------------------- Regards, /WOD-Staff
Overall charts
O V E R A L L C H A R T S -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome! For some time now, on the first place. 9 points to it has been uncertain what number 2, 8 to number 3 and will happen to the Release- so on... If a chart has equal charts, but as always you can places, I'll have to give out be sure to get an updated look equal amount of points to at the current charts, with those. I end with giving out 1 this, THE OVERALL CHARTS... point to the last one(s). So, when I've collected all the I'm KBS/ONSLAUGHT and I've datas, I count for each been looking through some of catagory how many there are, the latest magazines released, how many that qualified, how to make this list. Now, here's many new entries, how many how I do it: left the chart, how many charts that was used to make If a chart has 10 names, it's 10 this chart and finally all the pts. to the group/scener/mag points and votes. So, as you can see, I have to it, no doubts about that! But, put a lot of effort into this, in order for me to keep doing before you, the reader, can this, I need all the support I finally have a look at this... can get. So, if you get some But, nevertheless, I gladly do mags, please send them to: KBS - Dalvej 8 - Vester Nebel - 6040 Egtved - Denmark This month thanks goes to: Raiders Of (the) Lost Empire...... for ROCK'N'ROLE #19 The Propaganda-staff............ for PROPAGANDA #17+18 Onslaught Design............... for VANDALISM NEWS #23 Camelot............................... for SKYHIGH #18 Excess.................................. for NITRO #19 Now, onto the charts... BEST DEMOGROUPS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 1-7 -------------------------------------------------------------- Demogroups counted : 17 Demogroups qualified : 11 New entries : 1 Demogroups left : 1 Charts counted : 6 Pos. L.pos. Demogroup... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 1 01. (01) Oxyron Germany 57 6 02. (02) Byterapers Finland 48 6 02. (02) Camelot Denmark 48 5 03. (08) Reflex Germany 35 5 04. (03) Fairlight Sweden,OZ 32 5 05. (07) Taboo Poland,Germany 21 5 06. (05) Censor Sweden 19 5 07. (06) Antic Productions Sweden 17 5 BEST DEMOGROUPS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 8-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Demogroup... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 08. (10) Agony Design Poland,Hun,Ger 14 3 09. (04) Crest Germany,Denmark 10 3 10. ( - ) Nipson Poland 9 4 * OXYRON still manages to rule * REFLEX upped themselves the charts, being on 1st for again, moving from 8th up to quite some time now. 3rd...! Some move! * BYTERAPERS and CAMELOT * By the looks of it, the guys still seems to be facing the in the eversofamous same situation as last issue, CENSOR, are on their way where both also got in on an down the chart, while equal 2nd place. TRIAD already was flushed out this issue. BEST CODERS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 1-8 -------------------------------------------------------------- Coders counted : 19 Coders qualified : 10 New entries : 1 Coders left : 2 Charts counted : 6 Pos. L.pos. Coder... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (02) Mr. Sex/Byterapers Finland 57 6 02. (01) TTS/Oxyron Germany 55 6 03. (04) Slammer/Camelot Denmark 41 5 04. (06) Graham/Oxyron Germany 38 6 05. (07) Axis/Oxyron Germany 23 4 06. (06) Tron/Fairlight Sweden 16 4 07. (08) Bob/Censor Sweden 14 4 08. (05) MMS/Taboo Poland 13 2 BEST CODERS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 9-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Coder... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 09. ( - ) Quiss/Reflex Germany 12 2 10. (09) Druid/Agony Design Poland 9 4 * A rather unknown talent has * CROSSBOW/CREST has been hit the coder-chart. I'm doing some diving since the ofcourse speaking of the last edition. Apparently, he quizmaster himself, QUISS forgot to check if there was of REFLEX. Surely, he knows any water in the pool, before what coding is, but his group he jumped out. KM/TABOO is obviously better known to dropped out aswell, while the scene, than he is. Well, MR. SEX/BYTERAPERS went it should be exciting to see past TTS/OXYRON. Finally, if he manages to climb into one might say. the top 5... BEST GRAPHICIANS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 1-8 -------------------------------------------------------------- Graphicians counted : 16 Graphicians qualified : 10 New entries : 0 Graphicians left : 2 Charts counted : 6 Pos. L.pos. Graphician... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (02) Creeper/Antic Prod. Sweden 55 6 02. (01) Electric Finland 54 6 03. (05) Joe/Wrath Design Sweden 45 6 04. (03) Cruise/Taboo Poland 41 5 05. (04) Ogami/Fairlight Sweden 32 5 06. (06) Fazee/Taboo Poland 22 5 07. (08) RRR/Oxyron/B.B. Germany 18 5 08. (09) Hein/Focus Holland 14 3 BEST GRAPHICIANS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 9-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Graphician... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 09. (09) Biz Kid/Camelot Denmark 13 3 10. (07) Carrion/Elysium Poland 8 1 * In the world of graphics we * Bubblers for this catagory find that the massive are: CUPID/XTC/EQX+FLT & changes has completely RODER/AGONY DESIGN who vanished for some reason. I both showed us some nice & can only point out one awesome gfx, lately. rather strange happening, namely JOE/WRATH, who * Last issue I wrote that was sent up from 5th place EXTEND was dead, but I'm to 3rd! Honestly, how much not so sure anymore. Can did you see from him during anybody verify this, please? the summer??? I just ask! BEST MUSICIANS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 1-7 -------------------------------------------------------------- Musicians counted : 16 Musicians qualified : 14 New entries : 1 Musicians left : 2 Charts counted : 6 Pos. L.pos. Musician... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (01) P.R.I./Oxyron/Tia Germany 59 6 02. (02) Syndrom/Tia/Crest Germany 55 6 03. (03) Fanta/Oxyron Germany 30 5 04. (04) Compod/Fatum Poland 29 5 04. (03) Jeff/Camelot/CZP Denmark 29 5 05. (07) PVCF/Reflex Germany 23 4 06. (02) Zyron/(A)/Swemix Sweden 20 5 07. (06) Red Devil/Fairlight Sweden 19 5 BEST MUSICIANS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 8-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Musician... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 08. (02) Drax/Vibr./Crest Denmark 12 3 08. (03) Jeroen Tel/Focus Holland 12 3 09. (05) Shogoon/TBO/AGY Poland 11 3 10. (08) E.V. Santen/20CC Holland 7 1 10. ( - ) J.V. Dongen/Focus Holland 7 1 * As always, if there are new * Germany's domain as the ones entering, some has to best musicians is now even loose some positions. And harder to beat, with FANTA that was just the case for starting to interfear with dudes like ZYRON, DRAX, the top 3. There's a whole JT, RED DEVIL & SHOGOON, new breed of German musi- who all went down this time, cians, only PVCF and FANTA although it's not over yet! reached the chart though. BEST CRACKERGROUPS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 1-8 -------------------------------------------------------------- Crackergroups counted : 15 Crackergroups qualified : 12 New entries : 3 Crackergroups left : 2 Charts counted : 6 Pos. L.pos. Crackergroup... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (01) Avantgarde Germany,US,UK 59 6 02. (02) Success+TRC Holland,Germany 52 6 03. (04) F4CG Belgium,Sweden 48 6 04. (03) Chromance Hungary,Germany 40 6 05. (04) Alpha Flight 1970 Germany,Norway 38 6 06. ( - ) Hardcore Germany 23 5 07. (10) Atlantis Switz.,Germany 19 6 08. ( - ) Onslaught OZ,Ger,Den,Hun 17 4 BEST CRACKERGROUPS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 9-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.Pos. Crackergroup... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 09. (08) Motiv 8 Denmark,US,Ger 12 4 10. (06) Dytec Germany 10 4 10. ( - ) Fairlight Sweden,Germany 10 4 * With the loss of several key- * ONSLAUGHT & HARDCORE members, EXCESS is now finally arrived the charts, without doubt a sinking although not being together ship, as they didn't manage from now on... to get enough points to stay. * The delight of the eternal * It's easy to spot who's the might, FAIRLIGHT, might elite on this chart, just look come as a surprise to some, at the pointdifference due to the usual slow period between position 5 and 6! the summer is. BEST CRACKERS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 1-8 -------------------------------------------------------------- Crackers counted : 21 Crackers qualified : 10 New entries : 2 Crackers left : 3 Charts counted : 6 Pos. L.pos. Cracker... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (01) Jack Alien/AVT Germany 60 6 02. (03) Burglar/SCS+TRC Holland 54 6 03. (02) Hain/F4CG Poland 46 6 04. (06) CBA/Success+TRC Holland 40 6 05. (04) Derbyshire/AVT England 33 5 06. (05) Bacchus/Fairlight Sweden 28 5 07. ( - ) Ignorance/AFL Germany 15 3 08. (06) Mr.Wax/Chromance Hungary 12 4 BEST CRACKERS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 9-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Cracker... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 09. (10) Moonchild/Fairlight Poland 11 2 10. ( - ) Skinhead/AFL Germany 10 3 * The first thing that comes to * JACK, the ALIEN mindbender my mind, is the fact that the in AVANTGARDE, scored top previous page still contains grade in every crackerchart, the same salted crackers, as this month, namely 10 points usual. Ok, some are atleast out of 10 possible in as much active, but there's certainly 6 charts! Also BURGLAR of some that are NOT! SCS+TRC should be noted for always being on the second * IGNORANCE will no longer be spot in the same 6 charts! IGNORED, as he figured out That's 9 out of 10 possible, how get among the best... if you're into maths. BEST MAGAZINES - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 1-8 -------------------------------------------------------------- Magazines counted : 17 Magazines qualified : 10 New entries : 1 Magazines left : 4 Charts counted : 6 Pos. L.pos. Magazine... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (02) Skyhigh/Camelot Denmark 50 5 02. (01) Nitro/Excess Germany 45 5 03. (10) Shout/EQX+FLT Germany,Sweden 42 6 04. (05) Vandalism/ONS OZ,Germany 37 5 05. (07) Domination OZ 33 6 06. (09) The Tribune/Angry Holland,UK 31 5 07. (08) Mendip/Arcoss Holland 23 5 08. (08) Insider/Reflex Germany 17 4 BEST MAGAZINES - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 9-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Magazine... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 09. (03) +Jamaica/Jam Sweden 12 3 10. ( - ) Relax/Bad Bytes Germany 7 2 * FINALLY! We managed to get * The first issue of SHOUT rid of the dead bodies... I'm could very well be described ofcourse talking about the 4 as the magazine of the year, magazines by the names of: but now, after half a year, REFORMATION, REVEALED, there's still no sign of life on NEWS PRESS & INGENIOUS the planet SHOUT. Anyway, BRAIN. Altough I mentioned I find it very peculiar that REVEALED, I haven't got any they jumped from 10th pos. information saying that they all the way up to 3rd pos. & died. But, I doubt that we'll that's without releasing ever see another issue...! fucking anything... Hmm. BEST SWAPPERS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 1-8 -------------------------------------------------------------- Swappers counted : 29 Swappers qualified : 12 New entries : 3 Swappers left : 2 Charts counted : 6 Pos. L.pos. Swapper... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (02) Intruder/AVT Germany 56 6 02. (01) CLS/Amnesia/AFL Holland 55 6 03. (04) SPH./SCS+TRC Holland 40 6 04. (03) Derbyshire/AVT England 38 5 05. (05) Spermbird/EX/Chr. Germany 25 4 06. (07) Sebaloz/Lepsi Dev. Poland 18 3 07. (08) Starlight/Therapy Norway 15 4 08. (10) Dr. Kaos/Agony Germany 14 3 BEST SWAPPERS - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 8-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Swapper... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 08. ( - ) H-Bloxx/Excess Germany 14 3 08. ( - ) Syco/Chromance Holland 14 2 09. ( - ) Gigabyte/No Name Denmark 7 2 10. (06) Tabasco/Fairlight Sweden 6 2 * INTRUDER/AVANTGARDE * GIGABYTE/NO NAME's takes over the top spot! I goodbye to the scene has had the feeling that it would apparently not affected his happen & now it did! Calypso voters as of yet, but atleast is still close though, since if he should ever return, it's his second place is only 1 save to say that he ended in point lower... the top. BEST OVERALL GROUP - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 1-8 -------------------------------------------------------------- Groups counted : 39 Groups qualified : 10 New entries : 3 Groups left : 3 Charts counted : 48 Pos. L.pos. Group... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (02) Oxyron Germany 250 6 02. (01) Avantgarde Germany,US,UK 246 5 03. (03) Fairlight Sweden,Germany 196 9 04. (05) Success+TRC Holland,US,Ger 186 4 05. (04) Camelot Denmark 181 5 06. (08) Alpha Flight 1970 Germany,Norway 118 4 07. ( - ) The Imperium Arts Germany,Swe,Hun 114 2 08. (06) Taboo Poland,Germany 108 5 BEST OVERALL GROUP - OCTOBER 1995 Pos. 8-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Group... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 09. ( - ) Byterapers Finland 105 2 10. ( - ) F4CG Belgium,Sweden 94 2 * THE IMPERIUM ARTS seems * Bubblers for this chart is as like a rather good group to be follows: ANTIC, EXCESS and in, and it's funny that a little CHROMANCE. Both ANTIC & group as this one are able to EXCESS left the chart this compete with all the big time, but still they're very groups. But, it's ofcourse close to the chart though. because of the big names as: PANORAMA INCORPORATED * AVANTGARDE, this summers and SYNDROM who made TIA number one group, was what it is today. beated by OXYRON by 4 pts.
Tales from TDJ
* Tales From The Darkside * -------------------------------------------------------------- Those who have read my article in the pre-previous (watch that stuttering now Judge) edition of the Pulse may remember that I was in a somewhat optimistic mood. With Assembly '95 coming up, lots of groups had expressed interest in releasing a demo there. Finally the future of the 64 seemed bright again. As we know now, my optimism was left unrewarded. Only six demo's were released, which is just one more than on X-95, a party way smaller than the 'biggest scene event ever'. Also, the quality of those demo's wasn't as high as I had hoped for. Ofcourse BYTERAPERS came up with a fine piece of work once more, even though I did not like 'EXTREMES' as much as their W.O.C. series. BEYOND FORCE's '7 YEARS' was 'okay-ish', but bearing in mind the 'groundbreakers' the group is wellknown for I had hoped for something better. CREST's 'coming-soon- tro' was funny but should not be seen as a serious product. The other half of the releases weren't worth much. SYMPTOM and CHAOS had better stayed on the pc and as for the PANIC demo .. well, I admit it had some nice coding but am I the only one who thought it was UGLY as hell ?? This brings me to the main subject of my article: WHY ?? Why did I (and with me, many others) believe there actually would be a whole bunch of good c64 demo's on Assembly ?? It's not like that particular party is known for the large number of top c64 demo's released there throughout the years. Plus it is a well-known fact that most groups (on ANY machine) may aim to give out a demo on a party, but usually fail in doing just that. So once more I ask you, WHY ?? The easy answer here is WISHFUL THINKING: all of us are ofcourse hoping the c64 demo scene will survice, and every time we see a new demo, we can imagine that yes, it actually might stand a chance in doing so. Better still: maybe, just maybe, things will become as good as in the golden days of the late 80's: new exciting productions almost everyday, top groups living up to their reputation, new legends being born as yet another world record is broken, fast changing charts instead of today's static affairs .. HEAVEN !! This answer brings up yet another question though: why do we want things to become like that ?? Wasn't one time enough ?? Shouldn't we just be thankful for those happy days and GO ON with our lives ?? In the eyes of the outsider we most certainly should. So, why don't we ?? To answer that question, I think it is necessary to split up the group of people on the c64 today. A large part of our present scene-population has never really experienced those golden days like they wish they had. Either they weren't into c64 demo's back then, or they were in some small (lame) group whose biggest effort was being mentioned in the SEX & CRIME or greeted by a group that DID matter. And while such people may have reached a bit of fame in 1995, it can never be compared to being one of the 'elite' back when things still were cool. Chances are that people belonging to this group will claim that today's scene in fact IS as good as it was in the late eighties, only to satisfy their own personal need for acknowledgement. As for the considerable smaller amount of sceners which were part of the top back then, why do they long back ?? Probably because they realise that they will never reach the same level on another machine. It's a well-known fact that my teammate JEROEN TEL for example, may have done some great tunes on the NES, the SNES and the PC, but none of them as good as the wonderful stuff he did on the c64. And where are all those super-coders who declared the c64 beaten and wanted to test their luck on more powerful machines ?? Ofcourse, a few guys managed to make the transition succesfully, but their number is rather small compared to those that tried and failed. Also, at best such guys ended up in the sub-top. Example: the SILENTS DK on amiga, a team consisting of several ex Bonzai members (such as Ricky & Dize). While their last demo's were quite cool, they're nothing compared to the products of groups like SANITY or ANDROMEDA. Taking things a step further, there is the subject of 'fame' .. Being famous on one computer (c64) and then having to start over fighting for that fame on another (amiga, pc) might prove too big a challenge for most people. So instead they decide to let things be and either return to their safe haven, or quit in total. Some of them try for a while, seeking the company of fellow ex-c64'rs, and protecting themselves by claiming that 'they just want to have a little fun, no need to become as big as we once were anymore'. But then, after a while, when this scenario really takes place and they suddenly find themselves not belonging to 'the chosen ones' anymore they throw the towel in the ring, giving up after all .. The best example I can give you here is BONZAI PC. Trap, Walt, Metal, Xerox, Tiger and several others tried their best to bring some c64 flavor into the world of pc demo's. Later on some more c64'rs joined, such as Mirage, Unifier and myself. Things didn't work out however, and nowadays Bonzai pc is no longer. Trap decided to pull the plug, as the group would never reach the same status as on the c64. Case closed .. So, the c64 veteran decides to stay where he is, afraid he may lose his position. After all, history has shown that there really isn't much hope .. Better than to become just another face in another scene, he choses to retain his status in the one scene that does matter, that of the c64. But that's not all !! The sceners also want the ex-sceners to return. Come back to the c64, bring us your magic like you used to do in the past, make things good again !! Cycleburner, holy master of the sample-mixes, come and bring us joy !! Maduplec, genius coder who brought us so much pleasure in the past, return to us and give us more !! Let us become a happy nation of c64 users, work together, fuck the pc & amiga scene !! Fuck real life for that matter !! Fuck real life ?? What's got real life to do with the c64 ?? Time to play the psycho-analysist here. Let us take a random scener. When the golden days of the c64 took place he was 17 or 18 years old, just as many others playing a pivotal role back then. He still lived with his parents and all that mattered to him were demo's and having fun with his friends. No problems with money, no responsibilities other than sending out some packs now and then, and doing a demo whenever, however he liked it. Nowadays he's about 24, living on his own or with a girlfriend/wife maybe, and faces huge problems. He probably has debts, things at work or in school are not working out, life in general sucks. Thus he longs back to the past .. Time for some escapism, time for the c64. The beloved commy becomes a link to better days .. He plays the role of war-hero with great pride, boasting about the days when the c64 scene really was the best imaginable. And for a brief moment he just might succeed in breaking free from the cold realism of today's world .. Ofcourse this doesn't go for YOU. YOU stay on the c64 because you like it, all your scene-mates are here and the amiga & pc scenes aren't as nice, as friendly as that of the c64. This may be true, in fact I think it is true for most of us but look beyond that, be honest .. aren't you just afraid to lose your innocence, your joy, like the others .. like me ?? Yes, like me. There, I said it. No need to keep on hiding myself behind the mirror I have been holding before you. God knows, I love the c64, more than any of my other computers and I could not imagine life without it but still, shouldn't I at least try ?? Naah, did that, didn't like it so I returned .. What about other scenes then ?? Well, I managed to form a new pc group which may very well be the strongest in Holland and could play a big role in the global demo scene as well. So yes, I do feel I have a chance in becoming a 'well-known' face once again, but yet I cannot let go of my c64 history either. Fact: out of the 9 guys in that group (Analogue, in case you're interested), 5 hail from the c64, 4 of which even are Focus members !! So am I making the same mistake as several others did before me ?? No, don't think so, because those other 4 c64'rs are all true masters in their field and were asked not out of friendship alone, but also because of their qualities as well. For the pc scene differs too much from that of the c64, and a more professional attitude is necessary to survive, friendship groups just don't work most of the time. Yes indeed, I do think our group stands a chance of making it to the top, and with it, the 5 c64'rs that are in it. For those who want to know: Metal, MCA, Hein, Mirage, Tdj. Whoops, there it is. The truth, or at least the dark side of it. So now we know this, shouldn't we all grow up and leave the c64, trying our luck on another machine (this time not making the same mistakes our predecessors did), or acting really adult and leave demo's alone once and for all ?? Ofcourse not, don't be silly. No matter what I said, no matter how bad I may have made you feel, it all boils down to the fact that we are still having fun, or at least pretend we are. And so we keep hoping for better times to come by. After all, if those demo's promised for Assembly weren't released there, they might as well be on Wired, or The Party 5 .. And maybe, just maybe, things WILL become as they once were. All our heroes will return and the c64 demo-scene will reach great heights once more. Fools for hoping ?? Yes we most certainly are .. And so help me God, I hope we will never change. C64, I love you ..
Meet the press
+ MEET THE PRESS - A WORLD OF MAGAZINES + -------------------------------------------------------------- The media in the scene has profound power to be a positive influence. This is where we come in, welcome to another edition of MEET THE PRESS. The section dedicated to take on the media - the organisers in the C64-scene. MEET THE PRESS also operates as the official reaction section of THE PULSE MAGAZINE. We invite you to send us your thoughts and views, be they positive or negative, about this magazine. We will print your letters in the next edition, if they reach us before the 28th of October. This edition we have a huge program for you. We have taken a look at the whereabouts of SHOUT, and come up with some very surprising news. We also bring interesting media-related articles with news and views, as well as the obligatory magazine reviews. General Editor, DUKE, bids you welcome. FUTURE AMBITIONS THE PULSE MAGAZINE -------------------------------------------------------------- THE PULSE MAGAZINE has not been given the best of reactions since its comeback in June 1995. Most of the media and its otherwise loyal readers, agree that THE PULSE is not living up to earlier standard, and in general is missing something of its old glow and style. We at THE PULSE have considered those reactions seriously, and we would therefore like to share with our readers the future plans for THE PULSE, which hopefully will be realised within the next couple of months. If not sooner. Since the very start of this magazine, we have always looked towards our readers to get new inspiration and ideas for what could become a good and popular addition to this magazine. This was what brought us to the top within this industry in the past, and what we hope will bring us even higher <MORE> as we embark upon the future with even greater ambitions than before. We have learned to live with the fact, that the average reader of THE PULSE expects a lot, and he is in his good right, because we set the standard ourselves - and should be able to live up to it as well. But the actual problem is, what should be the standard of a top magazine in the scene today? We have many good offers on the market today, but very few (if any) address all of the needs requested by the average scener. This is where we come into the picture, we want to serve all sceners with quality information and entertainment - in a manor that is neccessary to keep all sceners satisfied and active in the time to come. It is our ambition to serve all the corners of the scene, and report on them in detail as well. This requires a wide and experienced staff, one we have had severe problems <MORE> putting together. We have been blessed with the finding of some very skilled and popular editors, but we are still in great need of editors - especially within the game scene and industry which seems to be a common problem within the C64 media these days. THE PULSE MAGAZINE offers probably the very best of demo reviews and analysis in the history, and we have been able to boast this since the start of our chapter, WORLD OF DEMOS. The latest signings of SYNDROM, EARTHQUAKE and MR.SEX has kept on our tradition, and we are very proud of this part THE PULSE has to offer. The actual mail- and modem-scene has been merged in an expanded news section, covering the part of the scene that is in demand, with what news reporting is concerned. We realise that certain newcommer groups and sceners may pass our newsdesk by, but we are of the firm opinion, that our <MORE> readers want to be informed about the known parts of the scene - so the new additions to the C64 may have to make a little noise before they get heard, atleast by our news department. I think there is a mutual understandment about this policy, atleast throughout the world of respected magazines. Entertainment must be described as a new addition to magazine, although we at THE PULSE has held entertainment very high in our priorities since the beginning. I think it is safe to say, that news, charts and advertisements do not go under this cathegory - which leaves half of the scene magazines out of the entertainment industry. No, entertainment must be debates, interviews or in general enjoyable chapters that cannot be associated or compared with heavy and solid statistics and charts. <MORE> We at THE PULSE has tried to broaden our program, bringing our readers more entertainment, instead of more statistics. The scene is supposed to have a fund side, as well as a serious side. I would like to think, that anyone spending a lot of time on something, would hold it somewhat serious to a certain degree. Personally I do not spend that much time on the C64 these days as I would like to - but still enough for me to keep an edge required to do an information magazine. Dispite the small amount of time, I still hold the C64 as serious - because it is something I have had so much enjoyment from. That should be obvious to anyone. Anyway, returning to the subject of entertainment in the media, we have had great success with our additions SATIRICA and the debate section SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT. We have also acknowledged the media as an important part of the scene, and therefore created an actual debate and information chapter to treat the magazine industry. It all comes <MORE> down to one thing, serving all parts of the scene, pushing for growth in all corners of the world. Although we have had somewhat bad reviews, there was some good ones I admit, then I still think we are on the right track. In our effort to prove our existance, we have yet again released another packed edition of material suitable to be catagorised as quality entertainment and information. But please remember, a magazine is only as strong as the interaction it recieves from its readers. This should be a strong hint to all of you passive magazine readers out there. It is time the magazine readers did their fair share of work, and supported the scene magazines. This way, we can all benefit with fast news, information and entertainment. General Editor, DUKE SHOUT UNDER SPOTLIGHT MEET THE PRESS -------------------------------------------------------------- The FAIRLIGHT magazine, SHOUT, remains unreleased for another month, and questions have started being raised by the majority of the scene about its current whereabouts. But the reactions of the SHOUT disappearance have not been as negative as you would think, this is proved by the current chart situation of SHOUT. It seems as if a magazine is better off not releasing to get votes - as crackers and coders are. CROSSBOW for instance has never been given more votes in his career as active, as in the last 3 inactive years. But enough about the somewhat biased charts, we turn our focus towards the SHOUT leadership. We wanted to get an interview with main editor, ENDURO, but although approached by us twice, we have not heard from him. Therefore we talked to former leader of FAIRLIGHT, BACCHUS, who was asked about the current SHOUT situation. <D> DUKE/MEET THE PRESS <B> BACCHUS/FAIRLIGHT -------------------------------------------------------------- <D> Welcome BACCHUS. It has now been a while since the first edition of SHOUT was released. One question: What's up? <B> Well, I guess I am not the right person to answer. MARTIN (ENDURO) has been moving around a LOT since he moved to Gothenburg, and without a steady place in space, it is hard to be creative. I have not heard from him in quite some time. <D> Do you think it was a mistake for you to merge the two magazines, REFORMATION and INGENIOUS BRAIN. I mean, perhaps the project just got too large for anyone to handle. <B> Saying yes would be patronizing the attempt, which I wouldn't do for the world. We though (and still think) the IB team were (and still are) great coders, and as TRON had joined the army, we had a substancial lack of coding resources. With ENDURO as a creative writer, IB was an excellent choice as a partner in this situation. I had done the code modifications in the last couple of issues, and it was mainly to lift this burdon off me (to poke around in TRON's code), that we took the step. I still think it was right at the time, and even with the information I have at hand today, I feel we couldn't really have done anything else. <D> What can we expect in the future, in terms of a magazine released under the label of FAIRLIGHT? <B> I hope ENDURO is done moving, so he can start working again. Looking for an explanation about the status and whereabouts of SHOUT, we were given a rather shocking statement from SLEDGE of FAIRLIGHT. According to him, SHOUT is now officially dead and forgotten. Furthermore, he did not think the main editor of SHOUT, ENDURO, would ever produce another magazine again in the future. However, SLEDGE claimed FAIRLIGHT was not to be considered as gone from the media spotlight. They have currently plans to put out a brand new magazine, according to SLEDGE this one with a different concept. The new concept should be a wide coverage of the demo-scene with programming tips and debate. But as the past has taught us, we should not believe in anything - before we see it. This should therefore mean, that SHOUT can be considered as dead and gone. I hope this also means the end of the ridiculous amount of votes it got in all the charts. PROPAGANDA HOLDS ANNIVERSARY MEET THE PRESS -------------------------------------------------------------- The latest edition of PROPAGANDA, issue number 19, was able to proclaim special features in the upcoming anniversary release, the 20th edition. It is with great anticipation, that we look forward to that occation, especially considering the fact, that PROPAGANDA seems to get better and better by every release. The 19th edition proved even more stylish, and a well-prepared staff of excellent editors makes PROPAGANDA a delight to read. It may not be directed towards the whole market, but it covers the games-industry and cracking-scene so well, that anyone keen on scene success must love this one too. We at THE PULSE, would therefore like to extend out congratulations on reaching the 20th edition, of what has been a glorious magazine history. Here's to 20 more! GAMERS GUIDE IS "THE BEST" MEET THE PRESS -------------------------------------------------------------- It is known to everyone, that the infamous collectors magazine, THE GAMERS GUIDE, is gone and dead. This mean the end of a long era of magazines to keep record of the games released - comparing them, coming to a conclusion about what versions were best, ultimately granting certain groups glory in the field of blockbusting. But now the scene is introduced to a brand new magazine, that could easily be described as the ultimate successor of the Gamers Guide. Atleast this newcomer, THE BEST, takes on the same market and subject - the games. As the introduction edition so elegantly explained, the rules are the same as those of the GAMERS GUIDE. Thus comparing and granting the GAMERS GUIDE the deserved respect, thank you for that. The editors do also appear to be very <MORE> respectable, in the shape of REAM of ALPHA FLIGHT, and the known trader, CALYPSO of ALPHA FLIGHT and the Dutch side AMNESIA. By providing two excellent chapters : the futurewatch type chapter looking at games to come, as well as the game of the month chapter, they have left the readers with a hunger and lust for more. What is to be expected in the future from THE BEST is yet to be seen. But we predict they will take the scene serious enough, to grant us another look at the best of THE BEST. The games that is! -------------------------------------------------------------- JUMP ON THE BANDWAGON, We all like to follow a winner, the same seems to work in the scene. With GAMERS GUIDE came many copies of the well known concept, but as they died out the scene was left with no alternative. Now we have one again - and then, 2, 3, 4, etc. MAGAZINE REVIEWS MEET THE PRESS -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the popular MAGAZINE REVIEWS section. The part of MEET THE PRESS where we take a deeper look at a few selected magazines, released recently on the C64. This edition we have looked at the 19th edition of NITRO, but also the 18the edition of SKYHIGH. Make sure to read this months PROFILE - our guest, editor of SKYHIGH, BIZ KID. Explanations for the point-system. * : Aweful ** : Bad *** : Acceptable **** : Good ***** : Great ****** : Excellent SUBJECT : NITRO, 19th edition. LABEL : EXCESS. -------------------------------------------------------------- It's been a while since we looked at the last edition of NITRO, and the same goes for the general audience, as NITRO returns after a delay. This edition was released on the 29th of August. Being accostomed with the usual two disk-sides filled with text, this edition must have been somewhat of a disappointment to the average NITRO reader. But having a wide range of scene-related text, they quality as a magazine, that is well worth the reading. The NITRO outfit is not very reader-friendly in my opinion. The choice of colours in the text-area is simply annoying, and the MAMBA type animated sprites really leaves a huge question-mark about the actual originality of NITRO. But enough about the superficial part. In general we have to agree with NITRO as a magazine, that is able to keep its readers well supplied about global happenings within the scene. The odd detail about NITRO, is the fact that they have always been considered as among the best within the business by the voters. But looking through the magazine, it is quite hard to see a certain area, in which they qualify themselves as superior. But considering that most of the voters are from the mail-scene, a magazine such as NITRO - which is primarily directed towards the mail-scene, is destined to do well in the charts. Their actual program for this issue, comprised of the typical news, charts, interview and reaction section. In addition they had excellent demo- and magazine-reviews. Their special report about all the current active magazines in the scene, was simply a blockbuster. I definately rate H-BLOXX as one of the most talented editors in NITRO - which is otherwise known as a magazine with low quality in terms of <MORE> the English and editing. The idea for this chapter was bold, as I predict H-BLOXX would have needed a huge amount of hours to come to a conclusion about more than 30 magazines. Well done. It is quite hard to rate a magazine such as NITRO. I guess the average scener is well supplied by NITRO, and would rate it a lot higher than I probably would. But then again, maybe it is a question of magazine-mentality - we all have our own preferences, and thank god for that. I personally prefer a more conservative type of editing, with a touch of class and originality to top it off. But hopefully NITRO will join the league of those, who has practised those areas of editing, in the near future. JUDGEMENT : ***. SUBJECT : SKYHIGH, 18th edition. LABEL : CAMELOT. -------------------------------------------------------------- We follow up on this months PROFILE, BIZ KID of CAMELOT, by giving his magazine SKYHIGH, a full body examination. This magazine is also boasting the chart position, as the worlds current number one. Atleast, that is what the voters have made it - but now, let us have a closer look at the magazine, SKYHIGH. This edition was released on the 1st of September by CAMELOT. SKYHIGH has primarily made a name of itself providing a lot of text. The magazine is normally released on two disk-sides, putting it in the lenght catagory with magazines such as NITRO and SPLASH. But that would also be where the comparison stops. <MORE> SKYHIGH has a nice calmness to it. The attempt to create a nice atmosphere around it was a success. It's maybe the good looking outfit which is responsible for that, but also the text is nice and does not give you any contriversial subjects to wonder about. It is debatable whether that is good or not - depends on the reader. Speaking of the outfit. I think it would be obvious to anyone, that a magazine produced by CAMELOT, would be destined to have a nice outfit. This one is no exception. The menu presents the chapters via a type of window-system, although not like the one you would find in the otherwise splendid REVEALED outfit - but close enough. The magazine offers 3 types of music, with fine graphics by the editor, BIZ KID. SKYHIGH does not offer anything for the cracking-scene or board-minded sceners. It is not a policy of SKYHIGH though, but probably the result of the environment it comes around to. Eventhough SKYHIGH may be situated at a comfortable number one spot in the charts, it really hurts me to see such large parts of the scene left out. BIZ KID may be of the opinion, that if SKYHIGH is number one in the charts, then the market must be totally satisfied. But I strongly disagree with that, as I would predict only some 30% of the sceners actually vote - and only 5% of those are active in the cracking-scene. If you made a total poll of all sceners, SKYHIGH would be placed much lower in the charts - which I think should be considered. It is not always a matter of votes, it is more a matter of serving the scene the best you can - and that means all corners of the scene, atleast if you want to claim the title as a top SCENE (as a whole) magazine. But I will not hassle BIZ KID about the lack of market- coverage, rather than comment on what is presented. SKYHIGH offers a good selection of chapters - something for everyone in the legal mail-scene. Looking at the chapters, the news section first spring to my mind. It is horrible short - and contains a lot of information, about groups I have never heard of before - and probably never will again. It is a good initiative of BIZ KID to extend a helping hand to the newcommers and unknown, but it is terrible boring for me as a reader, to read about some new Polish group who released a note of some sort. Just to make a crazy example. The news department of SKYHIGH can easily be described, by looking at its coverage of the major scene events, such as the breakup of HARDCORE and ONSLAUGHT. SKYHIGH had 4 lines of text about the event, which really makes me wonder about SKYHIGH's skill at covering the scene or atleast reporting about major happenings. The excuse that HARDCORE and ONSLAUGHT should be a cracking-group and therefore not interesting to SKYHIGH is not valid, as both groups are active in the demo-scene as well. I realise I have been awefully negative, but in good right I might add, therefore I will turn my eyes to the best part of SKYHIGH - the Advertisement section. It seems to me, the thing SKYHIGH is best at, is getting the high rate of readerinteraction. They have bundles of addresses, huge CHART statistics, several interviews (but with somewhat unknown people. Am I really the only one who wants to read about famous people in the scene?). SKYHIGH also has a nice editorial, with BIZ KID in full effect. He is definately best as an editor, when he can comment on issues that concerns him, and talk about various subjects he is familiar with. It is as hard to rate SKYHIGH, as it is to find any demoreviews in it (should a demo-magazine not have demo-reviews?). If I give it a bad rating, I would be called a jerk - because that would be going against the will of the voters. But as the charts mean less and less to me - especially since SHOUT appeared in the TOP 3 several months back, I'll ignore it. SKYHIGH is a steady released magazine, and that really speaks in its favour. It has a lot of interesting text, but lacks in the two major areas it OUGHT to be good in - the News coverage, and the Demo-Reviews areas. It has some fine features, but they really seem too simple for me to give them a top grade - the new ideas really seemed far away in my mind. Therefore I will take a chance, giving the current number one magazine the following rating - considering that just because a music piece is the number one in the charts, it does not necessarily mean it is the best around. JUDGEMENT : **** -------------------------------------------------------------- With those final words, another edition of MEET THE PRESS has come to an end. I hope you have enjoyed the reading, and will support all of the fine magazines the scene has to offer. We will see you next month with more MAGAZINE gossip, see you then. /DUKE!
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X., XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * BIRD/PANDORA, XXXXX XXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX X, XX.XX., XXXX XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * BIZARRE/ONSLAUGHT, X/X XXXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX * CALYPSO/AMNESIA/ALPHA FLIGHT, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXX XX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX * CHAOTIC/ATLANTIS, XXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX XX X, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * CHASH/LEPSI DEVELOPMENT/CAUTION, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX X, XX-XXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * CLIVE/MOTIV 8, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX X, XXXX XXXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXX * CODA/DYNAMIC TECHNOLOGIES, XXXXXXXXXXX "XXXX", XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * CRUZE/SCS+TRC/LITHIUM, XXXXXXX XXXXX, X XXXXXXXX XX., XXXX XXXXXXXXXXX, XXX XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXX * CYKE/MEGAUNIT, XXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * DEREK/ASPHERON/ANTI, XXXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XX. XXXXXXXXXXX XX/X, XX-XXX XXXX, XXXXXX * DOMEY/PANIC DESIGNS, XXXXX XXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * DOOM/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XXXXXX XX, XXXXXXX * DOXX/NOICE/SWEMIX, XXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * DUKE, XXXX XXXXX, XXX XXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * FRANK/LEPSI DEVELOPMENT, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXX XX/X, XX-XXX XXXXX, XXXXXX * FREDDIE/ATLANTIS, XXXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XXXXXXX X, XXXXXXX * FUNNY/REPLAY, XXXXX XXXXX XX., XXXXXXX XXX. XX, XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * GLUT/AGONY, XXXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XX. XXXXXXXXXXX XX, XX-XXX XXXXXX, XXXXXX * GOP/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXX XXXX, XXX XXXXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXXXXX, XXX XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXX * GRAFEE/FENIKS, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX X/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXX * GRIMLOCK/ACCURACY, XXXXX XXXXXX, XX XXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * HEAVY HEAD/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXX X, XXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXX * IBANEZ/MOTIV X, XXXXX X. XXXXX, XXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * ICE/LEPSI DEVELOPMENT, XXXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX XX/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * ICEBALL/MOTIV 8, XXXXX XXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * INTRUDER/AVANTGARDE, XXX XXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX * JASON/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXXXXX * JAYCE/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXX * JAZZCAT/ONSLAUGHT, X/X XXXXX XXXXXXX, XX XXXXX XX., XXXX XX. XXXXXX, XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX * JER/PANIC DESIGNS, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX X-X X, XXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * JUNKIE/PALACE/DOOM PATROL, XXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX X-XXXXX, XXXXXXX * LIGHT, XXXX XXXXXXXX, X. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XX XXXXX, XXXXXXX * MAJA/FANTASTIC 4 CRACKING GROUP, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX X/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXX, XXXXXX * MARCUS/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXX * MAVERICK/NIPSON, XXXXXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXX XX, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * MERLIN/MOTIV 8, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XX XXXXX, XXXXXXX * MORBID/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XX XXXXXX XXXXXX, XXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXX XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXX * MR. WAX/CHROMANCE, XXXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX XXXXXX XX, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * NEOTEC/ATLANTIS/FANTASTIC FOUR CRACKING GROUP, XXXXXXX XXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * NIGHTSHADE/SUCCESS+THE RULING COMPANY, XXXXXXX X.X. XXXX, XXXXXXXXXX X, XXXX XX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * PHARAOH/FAIRLIGHT, XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * PLATOON/DIGITAL EXORCISM/INZANE/GOTHIC DESIGNS, X.X. XXX XXXXX, XXXX XX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * PROPHET, XXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * R.B./LEPSI DEVELOPMENT/EQUINOXE, XXXXXX XXXXXXX, XX. XXXXXXXXX XXX/X/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXXX XX., XXXXXX * RAMBO/THERAPY, XXXXX XXXX, XXXX X. XX/X, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * RAMJAM/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXX-XXXXX, XXXXXXX * RANZ/MEGAUNIT, XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * RAP/JABOLE/LEPSI DEVELOPMENT, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX, XX. XXXXXXXX X/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXX + REEKOL/REACT, XXXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXX * ROBOCOP/ATLANTIS, X.X. XXX XX, XXXX XXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX * RRR/OXYRON/BAD BYTES, XXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SAILOR/TABOO/SUCCESS+THE RULING COMPANY, XXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXX X, XX-XXX XXXXX, XXXXXX * SCARE/LEPSI DEVELOPMENT/NEOPLASIA, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SEBALOZ/LEPSI DEVELOPMENT/KEEN ACID, XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX XX/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX + SHARK/SHAPE/BLUES MUZ', XXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXX, XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * SHOCKER/HARDCORE, XXXXXXXX XXXXXX, XX XXXXXX XXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SHUZE/ALPHA FLIGHT, XXXX, XX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX, XXX XXX, XXXXXXX * SONOR/AGONY, XXXXXX XXXXX, XXXXX XXX. XX, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SPARK/ELYSIUM/TABOO, XXXXXX XXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXX XX/X, XX-XXX XXXXXX, XXXXXX * SPECTATOR/SUCCESS+THE RULING COMPANY, X.X. XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XXX. X, XXXX XX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SPERMBIRD/EXCESS/CHROMANCE, XXX XXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SPIDER/ATLANTIS/ALPHA FLIGHT, XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXX XX/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXX, XXXXXX * SPLATTERHEAD/SUCCESS+THE RULING COMPANY, XXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX. X, XXXX XX XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * STEREO/DYNAMIC TECHNOLOGIES, XXXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * STONE/MOTIV 8, XXXXXX XX-XXXXX, XX XXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SYCO/CHROMANCE, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * TALE/MENTAL, XXX XXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * TG-ACME/MOTIV 8, XXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX XX X, XXXX XXXX, XXXXXX + THE AUTHENTIC/EXCESS, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXXX XXXXX, XXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX * TITANIC/SUCCESS+THE RULING COMPANY, X. XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX XX/XX, XX-XXX, XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * TRANZIIE/HITMEN, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXX * TROOP/ATLANTIS, XXXXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XX XXXX, XXXXXXX * TRUSS/ACRISE, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XX.XX., XXXX XXX. XX, XXXXXXX * VENGEANCE/ONSLAUGHT/MEGASTYLE, XXXX, X XXXXXX XXX., XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX * VIOLATOR/NOFX, XXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X X, XXXXX XXXX, XXXXXX * VOLUNTEER/HARDCORE, XXXX XXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * WALKER/FANTASTIC FOUR CRACKING GROUP, X. XXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * ZAPOTEK/ALPHA FLIGHT, XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX, X.X. XXX XXX, XXXX XXX, XXXXXX + ZZAP/NOICE, XXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXX Before ending this chapter, I 4. Try to include some kinda would like you to remember disk-protection for a change. some of the following things It keeps the stuff intact... concerning the use of the addresses: Now, when that is said, my business here is done. 1. Never write the handle or groupname on the envelope. Till next month... 2. Always use enough stamps. 3. Never use tape or glue on the first sending. KBS/ONSLAUGHT