Propaganda 22 ch11
From C64 Diskmag Wiki
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|S | +------+
|SCENETOWN |Part 1|
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WELCOME TO SCENETOWN. A TALE ABOUT A
WORLD NOT FAR AWAY FROM OURS. IN SCENE
TOWN PROPAGANDA, DOMINATION, RELAX AND
VANDALISM ARE DAILY NEWSPAPERS. RELE-
ASES ARE THE INDUSTRY AND EMPLOYS SOME
1 MILLION PEOPLE. YOUR FAVORITE GROUPS
HAVE STREETS, CLUBS, BUILDINGS AND
MONUMENTS NAMED AFTER THEM, ROB HUBBARD
IS MOZART AND ELECTRIC, PICCASSO.
WELCOME TO SCENETOWN, THE CAPITAL OF
THE WORLD. YOUR 64 WILL NEVER BE
THE SAME AGAIN.
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|PROLOGUE|
|PROLOGUE|
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It was early Monday morning when the
phone rang in my house. Dozing out of
my sleep, I reluctantly picked the
phone up to find Scenepolice on the
other end of the line.
"There has been another one", said the
institutional voice.
"Another one?", I asked and quickly
reflected the tone of whiskey my voice
had this very morning.
"Yes, we are gathering up all leaders
from the topgroups to go over the
critical situation immediately.
You have to make it down to head-
quarters by 9. Press will be here,
so prepare a statement you can make
for them. Can you make it?"
I told the officer I would be down for
the meeting in time and got to my feet.
I was feeling slightly dizzy in my head,
and last night at AVANTGARDE'S new club
MAMBA made itself remembered. I tried
remembering the episodes over last night
but I helplessly lost track somwhere
when CROSSFIRE started buying them awful
Ikari on the rocks. However, as I got
in the shower I thought about the phone-
call, I thought about the situation we
had to deal with here in scenetown. Over
a period of 2 months, there had been 4
vicious murders that had shaken the
people by the foundations. We had no
tracks, no leads or clues. All we had,
was 4, no 5, dead ex.sceners. People
were horrified, and gossip-magazines
were selling crazy writing sleazy stor-
ies about the tragedy.
The first murder probably came as the
most shocking one. It was New Year's
eve, and the absolute top were cele-
brating the event at RASTERBARS, the
trendiest place in town. For once,
groups were getting along, and the
various awards had just been passed
out. I still remember the shock in my
eyes when I came into the mens room for
a leek, and saw STRIDER/FLT'S mutilated
body on the floor. His face wore a
revolting expression of shock and the
skin had been peeled of his fingers.
A SID-chip had been roughly stabbed in
his heart, and on the wall was a text,
most definately the one from the killer.
"FUCKING QUITTER!", written in STRIDER'S
own blood covered the clean, marblewall.
Quitters, people who left the scene, for
whatever the reason may be were not
thought of highly in scenetown. They
were jokes of the day, and you would
often see them cruising the streets with
a bottle of cheap, red wine in a paper-
bag. "QUITTERS SLOWLY DESTROY OUR IN-
DUSTRY. IT IS OUR JOB TO MAKE THEM CON-
TINUE THEIR WORK WITH THE 64, AND IF NOT
THEY SHALL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED AS BE-
TRAYERS", read the constitution.
Chapter 1
_________
The limousine was slowly turning up
TRIAD AVENUE and I saw that there was
already an intense crowd gathered in
front of the police headquarters. I
could see that SCS+TRC, ONSLAUGHT and
CHROMANCE had already arrived and they
were trying to find a way through the
annoying mediapeople up to the entrance
of the building. "Probably those fucking
people from Newsrippers TV, who do every
thing to get a goddamn scoop", I thought
to myself while I asked my driver to
pull over.
As I got out of the car, I saw the ent-
ire crowd moving towards me like batt-
ling unit, and I wished I was elswhere.
They were on me like bees to honey, and
I was feeling very uncomfortable with
the fact, that whatever I said could
cause a turbulent incident in scene-
town.
"What do you know so far?", said one of
the most annoying people in the media-
crowd, and I noticed the small M8-TV-
he carried on his suit. "Oh, one of
them Danes", I thought and answered
politely. "I think none of us here can
talk at this point, and I leave it up
to the police to handle the investig-
ation properly." I could see in their
dull scoop-hungry faces that they were
not pleased with my answer, but I knew
almost nothing more than what I had
heard on the phone earlier this morning.
As CBA's bodyguards were making way for
me up to the entrance I waved to the
others who were already standing on top
of the stairs waiting for me. Neither
of them seemed pleased, but we were all
delighted we were sharing the problem
together
"Have you heard anything about it?",
said JAZZACT as we were all shaking
hands.
"Probably not more than you, what about
you other guys?"
"No, all we were told, by the media-
people down there is that somebody
from RED SECTOR was the one.", JAZZ-
CAT continued, "..the story was all in
the morningedition of RELAX but we have
not been able to reach RRR'S people
about their sources as of yet."
"I had no time to check on THE FORUM
this morning, but my driver told me
there was a minor riot in the main-
sub last night. Apperently the news
were out by midnight, as there were
some 5O.OOO logons to the boards
during the night.", DEFF said.
THE FORUM was THE board. 1O.OOO nodes,
and the ultimate source for discussions,
news and wares. A lot of the top-groups
often complained it had become a com-
mercialized part in scenetown, but we
needed a spot where everybody could
communicate properly.
We stood in silence for a few seconds
finishing of the last few zipps from
our cigarrettes before we decided to
enter the building. I was thinking of
IRATA, if it was him, and what a loss
it would be. IRATA had always been a
good friend in the past, but he had been
seduced by the Amiga and PC at an early
stage and thus considered as scum. He
had been doing some very appreciated
seminars down at FAIRLIGHT COLLEGE in
the early 9O's, but had since then not
made much noise. I was hoping, no,
praying it wasn't him.
GRAHAM from OXYRONPOLICE met us at the
door. At that point we all knew it was
another difficult task we had ahead of
us. OXYRONPOLICE were called in when
cases were totally out of control, no
clues, no nothing. He was looking sur-
prisingly fresh and healthy this morn-
ing and greeted us cheerfully. His dark
hair was held up in a ponytail and he
was wearing the fearful COMALIGHT-uni
form, the most respected outfit in our
community.
"Good morning people, apologies for
gathering you on such short notice,
but we are having a problem that must
be dealt with immediately. Let's go
in to my office to go over the details"
he said and we followed, bombarding him
with questions.
"Yes, I know we have not been doing
a good enough job, but what we're
dealing with here, is very talented
and skillful assasin",
GRAHAM replied DEFF. DEFF was very un-
happy with the situation. Running for
mayor second year in a row, it couldn't
be worse for the AVANTGARDE-party having
a killer on the prowl. Polls were drop-
ping and experts estimated a new era in
scene-politics. A loss would be cruicial
for DEFF'S career in politics, and with
CHROMANCE steadily sniffing their tail,
we would definately experience a tax-
raise if there would be a change in
line of political values. I was listen-
ing to GRAHAM'S words as I poured down
some hot coffee with delicious sugar-
dipped sprites. My stomach was screaming
as I hadn't had time for breakfast, and
apperently neither had NIGHTSHADE as we
shared the entire plate.
"The issue is gentlemen, last night,
at 23OO hours, we found what we expect
to be the leftovers of IRATA by the
riverbank of STRIKE FORCE BAY. Our
experts have been searching the area
for several hours, but we have not
found anything but a message from what
must be the killer. It's another one
of those "fucking-quitter"-assisnati-
tions. I wish they could leave them
poor souls alone.", GRAHAM continued
and frowned deeply with his forehead. It
was obvious this was one of the worst-
case scenarios he could confront.
"I remember when we had this lamer-
case a couple of years ago. This lame
bloke who sent out disks to everybody
went raving mad over the people who
never bothered to send back to him.
It was crucial, but I remember that
many diskstealers were afraid back
then. Could it be the same guy we're
dealing with here?", MR.WAX asked.
"No, by far we are on different terms
here", NIGHTSHADE replied as he licked
the last drafts of sugar from his fin-
gers. We all nodded and agreed.
We discussed the issue a while further,
but all had several duties to fullfil
this hazy morning and decided to call
it a day. As we split up, we decided
CROSSFIRE would be holding the press-
conference and we would meet up as soon
as GRAHAM and friends called us back.
We left the meeting, confused and
worried about our scenetown.
Chapter2
________
I told my driver to head for the Uni-
versity of DemoScience up in 8bit Hills
and as we rode on the highway, I glanced
through the morningissue of DOMINATION.
The IRATA-affair covered almost 1O pages
and I grew nostalgic when they presented
some memorable pictures from the past.
I thought back of the days when we were
kids and played in lamer-kindergarten.
Those were funny days. We all used to
laugh at IRATA who used to stand scream-
ing at the playground. "This is the
Red Sector, nobody is allowed here". And
as he made his first scroll in first
grade, little did we know an entire part
of scenetown would be named after his
group. The RED SECTOR DISTRICT was at
an early point a lovable part of our
community, where most restaurants, bars
and pubs were gathered. Years after the
demise of RED SECTOR, smaller groups had
started to run the district and it had
become a heart for crime, prostitution
and narcotics. Personally, I hadn't set
my foot in the distrcit since I heard
that MAJESTY and friends were running
the pace down there. "Fucking Quitters",
I thought to myself as the car pulled
up towards the university. Yes, the
quitters really were the scum of the
world.
It was a big day at the University. Both
REFLEX and CENSOR DESIGN were press-
releasing their demos, and the event had
been much hyped in both magazines and
sceneTV the past few weeks. BOB from
CENSOR DESIGN had been making an appear-
ance on the David Letterscene-Show the
other night, and promised to beat the
hell out of everything we had ever seen.
Should be so, taking in consideration
that their entire staff of 4OO people
had been working fulltime on it the past
9 months. REFLEX on their behalf have
been very productive and released more
than 1O demos so far this year, and from
what rumours say, QUISS is working on
a movie going up somewhere next year.
There was a strange sensation as I went
out of the car. Several people from all
of the city had gathered, and I noticed
people from almost every TV-station were
there to get the latest productions out
for broadcast. In a way, it was a thea-
trical commercial stunt, where one could
buy CENSOR and REFLEX-pins, posters and
balloons. Not far away from a concert,
actually.
"There you are, I have been looking
all over the place for you. Let me
show the way in to the official hall",
I heard a voice from my back, only to
realize quickly BOB had spotted me.
He looked happy, but tired, and with
all rights. Releasing a demo was nothing
like in the old days. He'd been on the
road across the globe on a public-rel-
ations-tour the past weeks, on an in-
tense schedule, and the trip was not yet
over. After the demo has been released,
there are the release-parties, the eve-
ents, the seminars at all our universi-
ties - the list is endless.
I went into the big hall myself, and it
was quite a place. Much like a cinema
really, but without seats. There were
already some 1OO people in the place,
and I accepted a cocktail from one of
the waitresses that approached me. I
really wasn't much for public appearanc-
es like these, but me and BOB go way
back and to be honest I was really cur-
ious at what they had set together. We
needed some inspiration for our intro-
division, and this could become a rather
good oppurtunity to get some. I noticed
some of our people already up by the
stage already talking thrilled like
enthused scientists about code, before
I saw h e r. She walked through the
hall with such grace that I could only
gasp. Her body was God's gift to man,
and she wore her colorbars-dress like
nobody I had ever seen.
"Do I know you?", I stuttered like a
lamer as I approached her. I felt like
a dork, but I knew I had to talk to her.
She looked at me from top to bottom,
examining me in a rather unpleasant way,
but it was better than nothing I said
to myself.
"Hardly", she said with a slight chill
in her voice, and I felt our chance of
a conversation was running away, but
then her face turned into a wonderful
smile. "I'm Mrs.Z, Mr.Z's wife", she
said, and I kissed the top of her hand
gently - as the true gentleman I am.
"Charmed.", I said and made way for a
laidback conversation while waiting for
the release on stage. It was an intere-
sting conversation, and little did I
know that Mr.Z had retired not because
of lack of faith, but because of a hand-
cap that enabled him to type the keys
with his hands. I informed her that
both BURGLAR and JACK ALIEN had had the
same problems the past years, but people
at Scene-Hospital had developed special
keyboards recently. She seemed thrilled,
and I was pleased the way our first me-
eting had passed.
"I will tell him", she said and as we
decided to go closer to the stage, I
sensed attraction in the air. This was
not supposed to happen.
"And now, ladies and getlemen, the
moment we have all been waiting for,
the official showing of REFLEX awaited
production - MATHEMATICA 2OO3. The demo
is a 9O-disk production and runs around
5 minutes. Please do not take any pic-
tures during the show. We will be pas-
sing out pictures at the conference
later", a voice from the speakers said
and lights faded. For a moment, there
was utter silence. And excitement.
"They serve great floppys with cheese
down at Mystic Cavern. Do you want to
meet up with me there after the show?",
I whispered to Mrs.Z and she nodded
without a word. So there, I thought and
looked at the screen. Before everything
turned black.
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| TO BE CONTINUED. |
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BURGLAR DISAPPEARS. TRC*SCS
EXPECT THE WORST AND DECLARE
A WEEK OF SORROW.
MRS.Z, THE MYSTERIOUS LADY
CAUSES A STORM. WHAT WAS TRANZIIE
DOING AT HER PLACE THAT NIGHT?
PEOPLE FROM ONSLAUGHT ARRESTED
FOR STEALING RELEASES AT THE
CHROMANCE-BUILDING.
AND MUCH MORE IN - SCENETOWN.
THE SOAP OF THE SCENE.
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|SCENETOWN| QUICK FACTS ABOUT THE SOAP
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+--------------------------------------+
|PEOPLE: 2 MILLION (ALL SCENERELATED) |
|REIGN: SCENETOWN IS RUN BY PEOPLE |
| FROM THE TOP GROUPS AND HEAD |
| OF THE SWAPPERASSOCIATION, |
| AS WELL AS ACADEMY OF DEMOS. |
+--------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------+
|DISTRICTS: 8BIT HILLS (UPPER CLASS) |
| RED SECTOR DISTRICT (POOR) |
| SID ANGELES (SUBURBS) |
| |
| THE CENTER OF THE CITY IS A COMPLEX |
| OF HUGE BUILDINGS. ALL GROUPS AND |
| GAMECOMPANIES ARE GATHERED HERE. |
+--------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------+
|EDUCATION:FAIRLIGHT COLLEGE (PRIVATE) |
| UNIVERSITY OF DEMOSCIENCE |
| UNIVERSITY OF CRACKERSCIENCE|
| ROYAL ACADEMY OF PHREAKING |
| LAMER KINDERGARTEN |
| SCHOOL OF CODE |
| SWAPPER-HIGHSCHOOL |
| UNIVESITY OF SID |
+--------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------+
|FAMOUS : COURTHOUSE |
|BUILDINGS PIXELOUVRE (ARTMUSEUM) |
|& PLACES. SID-DOMAIN (SIDMUSEUM) |
| MUSEUM OF DEMOS |
| IKARI PARK (AMUSEMENTS) |
| THE COMMODORE (ARENA) |
+--------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------+
|FAMOUS |
|STREETS: TRIAD AVENUE |
| SID STREET |
| BEASTIE BOYS-BLOCK |
| EFFEQUATTRO HEIGHTS |
| HUBBARD STREET |
| OCEAN MARKETPLACE |
| LEGEND AVENUE |
| ONEWAY STREET |
+--------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------+
|CLUBS: RASTERBARS |
| MYSTIC CAVERN |
| THE RED SECTOR |
| BURGER SCENE |
| JACK ALIEN'S |
| CHEZ PROFIK |
| EFFEQUATTRO |
+--------------------------------------+
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|NEWSPAPERS:PROPAGANDA (DAILY) |
| DOMINATION (DAILY) |
| VANDALISM (DAILY) |
| PULSE (DAILY) |
| SKYHIGH (MONTHLY) |
| ROLLING SID (MUSICMAGAZINE)|
| SCENEBOY (EROTIC) |
| DAILY BOARDS(DAILY) |
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|BOARDS: THE FORUM (400000 USERS) |
| 2ND TO NONE (300000 USERS) |
| DREAMPARK (300000 USERS) |
| DOWN BY LAW (300000 USERS) |
| + AROUND 10000 SMALLER. |
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| DAILY RELEASES: 40 ILLEGAL/35 LEGAL |
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SCENETOWN WILL NOT CEASE
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