Domination 04 ch09 Mag Reviews
Magazine Reviews
This is the second chapter I edited for the 4th issue of Domination. Bizarre here, by the way.... Well, what could a chapter called "mag review” be about? I don't know... hehe..!
Let's better get serious... unless a few exceptions, most of today's mag reviews just consist of a chapter list and a strange percentage, whose amount isn't checkable at all. Further more, certain people use mag reviews to slag a group with that they got trouble... that means the review is a totally unobjective piece of poodle turd... pretty lame in my opinion. As I said... some mags DO have decent reviews... I won't name them here, you know who you are, don't you? I think it would be nice to have a kind of mag-release charts... I know that it is impossible, because most mags get released only 4-5 times a year with exceptions of course, but I think you agree with me in general... I still want to review every mag I get, though, and will take everything into consideration. At the end of the year, I plan to reveal the best mags of 1995... I really regret that I haven't returned to the scene earlier... so I could have covered all mag released this year. I think you do understand that I'm not willing to read them all over again, besides the fact that I almost didn't get any mag back in January, when I came back.
I have thought of a system that tries to consider everything, a mag can offer, such as the text of course, the outfit, extras, the way of editing the mag, the graphics, etc, etc... On the next page(s), I'll show you what the system is like up to know. I do personally like it as I think it is an objective way to review. I would really appreciate your comments on that. Especially if you have ideas how to improve it, coz it is NOT perfect of course... First, I should say that a mag can score points in 6 different "categories". The maximum amount of points per category is 10... It can go down until 0, with steps of 0.1 points. Well... the first thing is the OUTFIT. You can get a high amount of points by having a good menu, proportional text, nice graphics, IRQ-Loader, easy handling, a fast and good text display, short loading times... etc... You can get 0-1, 0 Points for the Outfit... any outstanding sensations, such as proportional upscroller (ED. you Jesper...) gets extra points, these extra points are explained later. Of course the TEXT plays an important role in a mag. Every chapter is rated 0-10 P. The result, divided by the amount of chapters, is your score concerning the text! Of course it is important, how much text your mag offers. It would be easy to get 10 points by having one great chapter... 10 divided by 1 is 10... So there will be 0-10 points for the amount of text in general. But (hehe)... it's easy to have 31713 Blocks of text, when your mag had a one year delay... that means, 0-10 points will be given for the time that has passed since the previous issue has been released. Ok... but... it would be easy (yes... again... hehe) to write down uninteresting bullcrap just to increase the amount of chapters and text... so a 3rd score for the 3rd category gets counted... I judge the text' interest in general... 0-10 Points can be scored... These 3 scores divided by 3; result in 0-10 points. That is your score for category 3!
Pheew... but that's not all... the 4th categories consists of 4 small extra things that can easily in-/decrease the fun reading your mag.
Point 1 : The INTRO, if there is none, P1 will be ignored!
Point 2 : Spelling mistakes. If there are too many, the points go down dramatically...
Point 3 : The amount of zax. One gets 0.1 points (I doubt, anyone would dare to release a mag without music. that would be 0.0!)
If every chapter has got a different zak, you get 9-10 points... (depends on the zaks' quality)
Point 4 : ENGLISH, such as grammar and your choice of words. I don't wanna "play" a teacher or something...but I can judge if it's bad or not. I know that my English isn't the best... hmm. I would judge myself with 7.8 points... (out of 10 of coz'). The 4 scores divided by 4 results in your score for the 4th category. The next one is my general impression of the mag.. 0-10 points can be scored.. Ok... the 6th and last real category has got to be explained a bit.. I think, and most of you will agree that the most liked, most read and most important chapters of a diskmag are the NEWS and the CHARTS. So I take the 2 scores for the News and the Chart- section, divide it by 2 and add that score to the current result of categories 1-5 . These 2 chapters are so important, that's why I think I have to do it that way.
Well... that can be the final score for your mag. But wait.. as I announced earlier that final score can be higher or lower, after having considered any SPECIALS.. These specials ca be everything that hasn't yet been counted. I will give you a detailed report about those specials things every time. It may of course also be possible not to have any specials. Well... Now I show you a small list, how to handle the final score:
60 points: You must be god
50 + points: A fantastic mag
40 + points: A good mag
30 + points: Nothing special
20 + points: Should be improved
under 20 points: Fuck off lamer !
Confused? Well I am... hehe... but it will look easier after having seen some reviews... The first one will be:
SKYHIGH ISSUE 16
The OUTFIT:
No need to give you detailed information, because this is one of the most spread mags around. I don't like 2 sided mags so much, but that doesn't affect the score. The fact that the menu has been the same for ages now, decreases the score a bit (0.5)... Score: 8.9
TEXT:
Editorial: Information about this issue's chapters and other facts about the mag... Score: 7.9 Biz-mix: A really good chapter, we learn about his point of view on the "RRR-Saga", new supporters like Caprice Design, who has become Biz Kid's new Chart-slave (hehe..). Intruder had a good idea in supplying the mag with old legendary demos... which got spread with the mag. This time it's an old X-Ample Demo from 1989. We also learn that Quadro-speed tunes have already been used since 1986 by Martin Galway. Well... Biz Kid wants our opinion about his great big addy chapter... he always publishes the same addies every issue, so there are more than 200 I think (not counted...). As long as they get updated every time, it's great. My opinion, Jesper: Keep it up like that, but remove addies of people who have quitted the scene. Various dudes who have done it, were still in. If you are unsure about some dudes, ask around, because it sucks to contact someone, who ain't available anymore, eh? Another aspect he mentions is a phenomenon that I have also noticed. Some people just don't get the correct spelling of certain people or groups, you can often see Jeroen Tel, Success, or whatever... you forgot to mention Bizzare, Bizzarre, etc... I am Bizarre.... Also funny is Choitare, Choitaire instead of Chotaire! Well... a great chapter... with a great score : Score: 9.2
Cupid: .......... This is a chapter written by Cupid...where he is stating his point of view on various themes....I agree with his opinions... yep... Score: 7.6
Mad on: .............. Mad/Padua explains some changes in England's phone-system, plus he slags Shout... oh well... I also expected far more of Shout... but on the other hand, it looks like Ingenious Brain and I loved that one. The Reformation part is too weak, I think.... Score: 7.1
Interview with Decoy/Excess/Natural Beat:.............. Just a normal interview, normal questions, normal answers... Score: 7.8
Interview with The Mistress/Angry:............... Next page... This is one off the most outstanding interviews, I ever read. Good questions, great answers. We learn a lot about the Mistress... For example, she admits to being bi-sexual. She likes trio sex and also sado-masochism... great interview... really good, Jesper.. Score:9.1
Interview with Spermbird/Excess:.............. Hmm... I think, he has been interviewed a million times or so until now. This one though doesn't provide any new facts... so it is nothing special... Score: 7.5
Demo Reviews:............. Mad/Padua reviews some demos in a good way, I personally like the Megastyle demo though... the only problem is that only very few demos got reviewed, so that chapter is too short... Score: 6.1
Vision:............. Cupid repeats his great thoughts about people who can't code but have good ideas, well. we could already read that in Mendip 7... Score:6.8
Demo of the year (D.O.T.Y):.............. Yes, people... a shame that only a few groups contributed to that anti-Nazi demo! Think about it, people, it's really worth to release it, to show our strength against the Nazis' small minded crap ! Score:7.0
Pirate:............. A definition of Pirate BBS'. Good idea, but all they wrote just counted for PC-boards... Score: 7.7
News:.......... I'm afraid, but the News-chapter seems to be the weakest one of the whole issue. Many important incidents were missing. Others were old... far too less for the current No.1 Mail related disk mag. Score:4.1
Charts:.............. Cool. Long lists. Many votes, really objective. Unless the news, THIS is what to expect of THE No 1 mag.! Cool! I hope Caprice Design, the new chart-editor, can keep it up... Score:9.2
Birthday:............. A birthday list of most sceners! Really long and cool! Score: 7.7
Boards:............. Just some board numbers... some of ‘em are already down... a bit more research would have been necessary, but still a good list if you lost some board numbers and maybe want to call more unknown boards... Score:6.8
Addies:............. The biggest addy chapter of all mags I think... at least I haven't yet seen a bigger one this year. Well... they publish the same addies in every issue, so the chapter just gets updated, in case some people moved, or changed their handle/group. A good idea, because 80% of every issue's addies are the same! So a lot of work can be saved. The chapter could be improved by removing addies of sceners who have quitted the scene... maybe here a bit more research would be useful, too..?! Score:9.5 (!)
Spread the word:............... Yes, spread it! Score:7.4
Reactions:................ Well... Score:7.5
Thanks:............... A list of all voters... is that really necessary? I don't think so... Score:4.0
How to use Skyhigh:.................. Some information about how to use it... Score:5.1
Well... that concludes the chapter list... The average score and the final result for section 2, text, is: 7.3
The 3rd section follows next..
Amount of text: 9.0, a lot of chapters... cool! Delay: 7.9, it's been quite some time since the last issue. All chapters, such as articles, are really interesting, definitely NO BULLCRAP to increase the text amount. Great! 9.6 Points.
That means, the 3rd section gets judged with 8.8 (All 3 points divided by 3 )
Next one... The 4th source of points consists of 4 sub-sections:
The Intro: Cool, but I prefer coloured ones. 8.1
Spelling mistakes: Almost NONE. GREAT job! 9.8
Amount of zaks: Only 3, so only 3.8
English: All editors know how to edit a mag! 8.9
The final score for this section is 7.7
Hmm... the next points are given for the News and Chart section, as they are the most important ones in most mags. (According to those, who only read these 2 chapters! There are lot of people, who do so!)
News: 4.1
Charts: 9.2
in all: 6.7
My overall impression of Skyhigh 16: 8.9
That's almost all... but we got a few extras that have to be appreciated... I simply have to reward the use of a proportional up-scroller with 5.0 points. Further more, Skyhigh offers to spread a search-advertisement for you, a good idea, 0.5 points. The same (0.5) is given for the spread of old demos. Really nice. One bad thing though is the use of the slogan "The next generation". The mag INTERNAL has already used that one back in 1991 (or even earlier, but I read my first Internal that year). I don't accuse Jesper of ripping it, I just inform you... I still have to "steal" 2.0 points.
THE RESULT:
Outfit 8.9
Text 7.3
Section 3 8.8
Section 4 7.7
Charts/News 6.7
Overall Impression 8.9
Extras (+) 6.0
Extras (-) 2.0
In all: 52.3 Points!
Congratulations for that great diskmag!
The next magazine is the first issue of the mag Viewture by Mental.
Well... it should be considered as a preview only, so don't judge it too hard. But I'm afraid. I have got a lot of negative things to say... I do not intend to slag them in anyway... but I just can't deny what I have seen... Well... let's start.
Outfit:
Well... it looks like a mag from 1991 or so... no proportional text, no IRQ loader. That’s not a big problem at all. The main problem is a) that the Menu has to be reloaded (loading time !!!!) every time and b) you can't flip the pages with the Joystick. You have to press "+" and "-". Well, the chapters have to be chosen with that joystick... so very unhandy ...hmm sorry... I can only give 1.8 Points...
The text:
Editorial:.............. Some introduction words, as usual, just a bit too short. Score: 5.1
News:............. I think, that chapter was edited back in March or February... it's not bad, just outdated. The problem is that News should be really new not old... Score: 3.4
Charts:.............. A very short list... but it's always hard to get support for a "not-yet existing" mag... so quite understandable. But where were the best Musicians and Coders? And Top 5 Mags and Swappers is far too less... The amount of points is also missing.... hmm... improve that please... Score: 3.9
Interview with the former leader of Shadow:.................. Pretty good, but only the usual questions, so I can only give an average score: Score: 5.0
Did you know:.............. Bah... a very short chapter, some of the "did you know" were good, though.. Score: 3.4
Report:.............. The text was lost, so no report was included... oh well...
Mixed:.............. Maybe the biggest fake. This chapter included the party-invitation for the X-95. It has already been held before the mag got released... Ok... I understand that there was a big delay, but it was simply a M U S T to remove that chapter. Nothing can be more useless than this chapter.... Score: 0.0 (!)
It's enough:.............. Hey... this one is a good chapter. Some more facts about that strange HUNTER dude are given... yeah! Try to reach that chapter's standard with every chapter... Score: 7.8
Addies:............... 12 addies or so..... Score: 2.0
Last words:................. Well... nothing special... last words... the name tells it all... Score: 4.3
The final rating for section 2, TEXT is: 3.7
What about the amount of text: 3.9 As it's just the preview issue, there is no release-delay... But I think, the editors really tried to write some interesting chapters, they all are just far too short... I think 7.0 is appropriate for the texts general interest. So... the final rating for section 3 is: 5.5
Now over to the 4th section that consists of 4 sub-sections:
Intro: 2.3
Spelling mistakes: 7.0
Amount of zax: 1.3 (only one tune)
English: 1.9 (Hardly any correct sentence can be found)
Final rating for section 4: 3.1
The next part of the review is just the average score of News and Charts: 3.75
My overall impression is: 2.9
Well... there were neither positive nor negative specials to be added here... which now concludes the review of Viewture 1: 20.75
Hmm... a really low score... but remember that it was just the preview. I think, there is some potential. The editors should try hard to improve the text. The outfit also needs some "updates" but the text is more important. Try to get hotter news. Or simply edit this chapter as last and release the mag immediately after having finished the news-section. It's a must to install a joystick control for the text display! Just improve the mag from issue to issue... Let's see what the first "real" issue will be like...
One more mag to go for this issue. Well I am really sorry. But my copies of the new Relax and Tribune bug...so a complete review is not possible... shit... maybe I'll put them into the next issue of Vandalism News, that's if I get 100 % versions... Anyway... the mag that is going to be reviewed next is the return issue of SPLASH... only a couple of issue were released within 12 months... they promised to release it on a 5 week basis from now on... I doubt that, to be honest... but I wouldn't mind being wrong on that, hehe! As always the review is divided into 6 sections, each of them consists of some sub-sections... look onto the 2nd chapter to see the review...
