Relax 21
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Editorial
* EDITORIAL * ------------------------------------------------------------ R3L4X M4G4Z1N3* JULY 1997 edition (issue #21), the magazine for the generation with an eye for the FINER details in the CBM 64 scene, was brought to you by PHUTURE (Software & Marketing), your fa- vourite disk-magazine releasing game label. --------------------------- |... internal affairs ... | --------------------------- Changes can sometimes be useful, chances are some- times necessary and changes can bring improve- ments and upgrades. Starting from this issue there will be more chapters like used to known from former editions with more news coverage, reports and even scene-related en- tertainment chapters to return back to the original conception to release an infotainment magazine, a production providing more information combined with on a less degree entertaining sequences in form of a satirical and sarcastic chapter. On the other hand infotainment does surely not mean that the entertaining part has to expeed a specified percentage since the soap opera called scene and reports about it are for sure quite entertaining. Ne- vertheless some people lately seem to have lost the proportional between scene and real life, what is for for sure a serious problem when differences in the scene affects the real life of various sceners, too, and what is for sure more dangerous, what will hap- pen when those psychical time bombs once explode when they meet their so-called opponents face by face. A shocking but real existing example has been found on ANTIDOTE's sub #1 called The Forum, posted at June 23rd, 1997 at 4:39 PM by WALKER/F4CG as post #1625: Gained some action here. Nice ... Yeah, too bad that Ned didn't die in that car accident We truely hope that this policy won't be copied since NO concurence situtation in the scene can be a good reason to see someone dying, atleast not for educa- ted people knowing the term of MORALITY but not only in the scene the morality level goes rapidly down when people are heading for a desired goal. It should be taken into consideration that computer acitivities and the scene is supposed to be an exciting hobby only, definately NOT the center of someone's life. But it seems for some the situation is quite different and the scene is bringing them satisfaction and some kind of respect they don't find in real life, otherwise a be- haviour can't be undestood. We feel sorry for those persons and truely hope they won't become a physi- cal danger for scene related or even other persons just crossing their ways. Having a look closer on the votesheets and to see certain people still NOT knowing the correct defini- tion of terms like first release or self-voting we have decided to explain it word by word so that even be- ginners will understand the correct meaning as lots of sceners, even some of those who think to be ex- perienced and in the position to find an answer for all questions regarding the scene, thought it is a nice way to support group comrades by voting for them in all possible cathegories. We would suggest to read the introductions of the charts chapters carefully before peope start claiming to have a genuine first release or perform self-voting over and over again. This issue exactly 10 persons have tried to manipu- late the charts, starting with the next issue it will be for sure a pleasure to blame them for the failures in the public since after the extended guiding lines the- re shouldn't be an excuse left. We have decided to send all inactive editors and cor- respondants into holidays just to give new talents a chance to participate in an actual, informative and highly respected magazine production, one of very few still released on a regular level. ------------------- |WANTED: CO-EDITOR| As you have probably found ------------------- out already our good old friend and co-editor PRI did NOT find the time to edit his part of the demo reviews, namely judging the va- rious soundtracks, in the previous editions. He deep- ly regrets not being able to perform the job any lon- ger but his real life activities unfortunately does NOT leave sparetime for it. Actually we are looking for a qualified and competent replacement to take over the subject "music reviews" in order to work as a co- editor for Relax Magazine. If you are an EXPERIENCED CBM 64 music composer with a GOOD education in music, if you are capable to review and critisize on a COMPETENT level and in the position to return the reviews within a month after receipt of the productions feel free to contact us u- sing the official snail mail and Internet contact ad- dresses. INTERNET and/or BOARD access is advantageous but NOT neccessary if FAST snail mail communication is guaranted. -------------------------- |WANTED: CORRESPONDANT(S)| In order to EXPAND -------------------------- our news section we are looking out for correspondants in the areas MAIL and NTSC scene. You should be capable to deliver ACCURATE and COMPLETE information about certain groups containing the latest happenings, a COMPLETE and ACTUAL memberstatus and on default board num- bers:)and:)homepage URLs. INTERNET and BOARD ac- ccess is ONLY for NTSC correspondants recommen- ded. For Internet applications please use the official Internet contact addresses, REGULAR board callers can leave mail to Marc on EDGE OF MIDNIGHT or any other ELITE board like e.g. THE DUNGEON in the USA or THE ESCAPADE in Europe. --------------------- |WANTED: SOUNDTRACKS| Music composers are wel- --------------------- come to provide complete high quality soundtracks for both intro and main part. If you are interested in composing a complete and EXCLUSIVE soundtrack please note the following memory locations: Intro: $ 1000 - $ 1FFF Main: $ 0900 - $ 1FFF The main track should be around 4:30 mins long and without a break when the tune restarts (LOOP). --------------------- |WANTED: COVER PAGES| Graphic artists are wel- --------------------- come to draw exclusive Relax Magazine cover pages in the following formats: IFLI, FLI and multicolour bitmap (Koala). ------------------------------ |WANTED: VOTESHEET SPREADERS | To expand our ------------------------------ activities on the mail scene sector we are looking for people spread- ing our PAPER VOTESHEETS in WESTERN EUROPE/ USA/AUSTRALIA on an intense basis. You should mail trade on an ACTIVE basis and hold atleast 50+ con- tacts. Please apply at the Relax Magazine mail head- quarter to get your own copy of the Relax Magazine votesheet(s). ------------------------------------------------------------ | ... Votesheet Spreaders and News suppliers ... | ------------------------------------------------------------ The PAPER votesheets have been spread, as usual, by our very own ZAPOTEK, VIOLATOR and DR. SOFT, who all are serving as AUTHORIZED mail distributors, aswell as by RACOON. The DIGITAL VOTESHEET has been spread by using Motiv 8's mailing list. The NEWS have been supplied and confirmed by BURGLAR, DR. SOFT, Newscopy, Curlin, MR. WAX, Skid Row, Jazzcat, Metal Maniac, Jordan, NATAS, Axis, Garth, Viscid, 2ny, Westbam, CBA and all others who have supported us in any way. This edition's content looks like this: ------------------------------------------------------------ GLOBAL REPORT is once again THE host providing for reliable and independent scene news coverage. RELEASE CHARTS and 1997 RELEASE CHARTS are giving an overview about the releases made in the previous decade aswell as in the entire year. BOARD and MAIL CHARTS feel free to present the elected favourites of both parts in the scene. The INTERVIEW section is providing a quite interesting travel back in time together with YUP of Offence. DEMO REVIEWS cover this time productions released by Crest and Chromance. SOCIETY is a new social critcal chapter having regulary a look on more or less actual hap- penings and attitudes. The PARTY RADAR presents an invitation to one of the major scene happenings each year - Assembly '97. POINT HUNTERS is an article e- dited to explain the judgement for released having been discussed hot tempered and causing lots of en- tertaining "wars" on the boards. THE HUNT 97 intro- duces a quite interesting competition to prove your knowledge about the scene. LOST FILES is a satirical chapter having an homorous view on some happenings in the scene. Last but not least ADVERTISEMENTS is the place for those interested in all kind of addres- ses. * Credits for the July edition * ------------------------------------------------------------ Intro ---- PROGRAMMING RAYDEN/ALPHA FLIGHT 1970 ADDITIONAL THE IGNORANCE/ALPHA FLIGHT 1970 SOUNDTRACK GLENN RUNEGALLEFOSS/SHAPE)BM ARTWORK RAYDEN/ALPHA FLIGHT 1970 ARTWORK RRR/OXYRON CHARACTERSET RRR/OXYRON Main --- PROGRAMMING FUBEN/OXYRON ADDITIONAL THE IGNORANCE/ALPHA FLIGHT 1970 ADDITIONAL LYNCHBIT/ALPHA FLIGHT 1970 SOUNDTRACK GLENN RUNE GALLEFOSS/SHAPE)BM BITMAP GRAPHICS RRR/OXYRON CHARACTERSET SKID ROW/CHROMANCE Title Author ------------------------------------------------------------ "Nephritis" Glenn Rune Gallefoss/Shape)BM "The Quest" Glenn Rune Gallefoss/Shape)BM ------------------------------------------------------------ * How to contact the Relax Magazine staff? * ------------------------------------------------------------ Snail mail: XXXX XXXXXXXXX -------- XXXXXXXXXXXX XXX. XX XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX Internet: relaxmagazine^hotmail.com ------- sw0484^uni-essen.de marc1970^aol.com m4x^cww.de Boards: EDGE OF MIDNIGHT (WHQ) ------ THE ESCAPADE (EHQ) ------------------------------------------------------------ * Where to download the Relax Magazine? * ------------------------------------------------------------ EDGE OF MIDNIGHT ++1/609/631-8098 THE ESCAPADE ++49/5341-395697 THE DIGITAL DUNGEON ftp.scs-trc.net ------------------------------------------------------------ * RELAX (MAGAZINE) ONLINE * ------------------------------------------------------------ RELAX ONLINE http://home.sol.no/zapotek/ Zapotek/Alpha Flight 1970 zapotek^online.no RRR/Oxyron sw0484^uni-essen.de ------------------------------------------------------------ * The Relax Magazine staff consists of * ------------------------------------------------------------ MAIN EDITOR MARC/ALPHA FLIGHT 1970 MAIN EDITOR RRR/OXYRON MAIN EDITOR VIOLATOR/ALPHA FLIGHT 1970 CO-EDITOR FUBEN/OXYRON GUEST EDITOR SEVEN/HITMEN CORRESPONDANT DR. SOFT/ALBION ------------------------------------------------------------ * Authorized Mail Distribution * ------------------------------------------------------------ ZAPOTEK/ALPHA FLIGHT 1970 VIOLATOR/ALPHA FLIGHT 1970 DR. SOFT/ALBION ------------------------------------------------------------ * DISCLAIMER * ------------------------------------------------------------ RELAX MAGAZINE does not take any warranty for text sources supplied by freelancers or guest edi- tors. Articles, reports or any other submitted text sources must NEITHER represent the opinions NOR reflect the suspension of the Relax Magazine staff. * COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER * ------------------------------------------------------------ -. The binary CBM 64 version of the Relax Magazine /0 is PUBLIC DOMAIN and may be spread FREELY a- around the world as long as either the Relax archive or the unpacked production itself is getting spread AS-IS without any modifications. This production must NOT be sold in any form to gain profit without a written permission from the authors. Any parts of the binary and the HTML version, may it be articles, graphics or musics, may NOT be used without a written permission from the authors. ------------------------------------------------------------ Best regards in the name of the entire staff, RRR/Oxyron ---------- * R3L4X M4G4Z1N3* * EXPLOSIVE EVER, IMPULSIVE NEVER! PAST TO PRESENT, 1989 - 1997 July 31st, 1997 -------------
Global Report
* GLOBAL REPORT * ------------------------------------------------------------ Facts, facts, facts, ... Welcome to THE news journal you can care about because WE do care about the content. The seek for proven information has found its end as you have finally found your favourite and most RELI- ABLE HOST around the globe in this lonely universe. Fantasy stories, expections or own opinions about the latest happenings in the world we use to live in can be found in several wrong places, this is the pla- ce for getting PURE information, prepared and collected and proven by EXPERIENCED and QUALI- FIED reporters, always hunting for the latest in the CBM 64 scene, the place we still use to life in. * ALPHA FLIGHT 1970 * ------------------------------------------------------------ After an intense activity level shown in the past six- teen months Alpha Flight 1970 went into a more silent phase some could define as a sort of summer break. Nevertheless the flight was involved in some of the most hot tempered board based discussions since ages. Actually the demo section is going to finish their second production this year and after Marc's trip to Canada AFL is going to get more active relea- sewise again, too. With CHRYSAGON one of the best crackers of his de- cade returned to make his comeback in the flight. He has been a former member of well known groups like X-RAY, ENIGMA and TALENT. His latest scene station was Onslaught. LYNCHBIT has left WOW to strengthen the programming and fixing sections, aswell as ZATT who joined in as programmer only. Both, Lynchbit and Zatt, are remaining in Lepsi Developments as double members. THE HERETIC has found the time for some scene activities and returned into the active status again. He has been spotted calling the boards alrea- dy. Finally CHASH, who has left F4CG a while ago, re- quested the membership and got taken in to support the mail distribution. After leaving the scene a while ago REAM has decided to make a comeback and returned to his former crew Amnesia in order to have a re-union with his friends and to avoid the first release stress. Unlike printed elsewhere there have NOT been any problems bet- ween Ream and any current Alpha Flight pilot. MARC has shown interest in the PC and PSX scene and de- cided to join Hitmen's Playstation section. There has been some confusing when STYX posted that Marc has left for Hitmen, those who used to believe in did NOT take into consideration that without Marc there wouldn't be a CBM 64 based Alpha Flight anymore. The rumours spreading that MAX might return to take over or to support the organisation are UNTRUE and not based on facts. Meanwhile FLASH requested to be set on the inactive list due to the fact that he intents to concentrate on his school education and doesn't have the time to support three groups on an active basis any longer. Due to his inactivity BLAZE was mo- ved to the inactive status, too. RUG RAT has announced that EDGE OF MIDNIGHT will be back when he finds the time to replace the cor- rupt monitor. After an intense test period the on trial basis recruited FTP-site ACID NATURE has been dropped due to inacceptable speed limilations. Current Alpha Flight memberstatus looks like (= 24): ALG, Archangel, Argos, Baldhead, Caledonian, Calypso Chash, Chrysagon, Danzig, Goldhand, Ignorance, Lynchbit, Mad Hatter, Marc, Ned, Rayden, Rug Rat, Styx, The Heretic, Violator, Wizard, Xenox, Zapotek and Zatt Alpha Flight worldheadquarter(s)/board(s): EDGE OF MIDNIGHT (down) ++X/XXX/XXX-XXXX THE ESCAPADE ++XX/XXXX-XXXXXX ANTIDOTE ++XX/XX-XXXXX WWW http://www-studbo.hit.no/&u952487 * CARCASS CREATION SERVICE * ------------------------------------------------------------ With the growing up American demo scene Carcass has found a place in the spotlight of public interest, too. Actually CCS is working on a multipart demo cal- led "Plasmatica" and a trackmo entitled "Kiss my Carc-Ass II", both are supposed on PAL/NTSC. Carcass could proudly announce to have recruited two talented programmers and graphic artists with SURAKLIN/ex-Millenium and TMR/Cosine who joined in as double member. Both will participate in soon coming productions. CARCASS re-joined his former group, the lately by The Almighty (aka Moloch, Skyclad, ...) rebuilt Arma- geddon, as double member. FUNGUS has left Chro- mance after a few weeks only to team up with the fantastics. JOVAN and THOR have been kicked out for inactivity. Current Carcass memberstatus looks like (= 9): Aahz the Demon, Carcass, Deathangel's Shadow, Fun- gus, Natas, Necrophobic, Pinball Wizard, Suraklin and TMR Carcass worldheadquarter(s)/board(s): WWW http://carcass.c64.org * CHROMANCE * ------------------------------------------------------------ Next to be already since ages known activities in the cracking sector now the Hungarian based group in- creased their activity level in the legal sector, too, by providing an own demo production and an own mu- sic collection. Hopefully they will continue their sup- port on this basis. A lot of fresh blood has been taken in to become more competitive, starting with BINJINX, former mem- ber of ESI and Motiv 8, joining as tool coder and h/p related affairs, but got removed from the list after just a few weeks only as he got lost somewhere in the PC world instead of supporting the CBM 64. GARTH has left Arcoss to server as mail trader and for In- ternet purposes. Nevertheless it does NOT mean that either Arcoss and Mendip are dead as Gizmo/Arcoss is still working on a new outfit. After leaving Ons- laught GALLAND renamed back to his former handle MIDFIT and teamed up as coder and fixer while SKID ROW, former Alpha Flight 1970 member, returned into the scene to continue his work as programmer, gra- phic artist, modem trader and fixer. With JOYRIDE a With JOYRIDE a known face returned to the Hunga- rian posse along with the board "VIRTUAL LIGHT" be- ing the new European headquarter for Chromance. With BOLEE, WOZIO and XXL almost the complete Po- lish section has been moved to the inactive status. According to Mr. WAX HEAVYHEAD has been removed for good due to inactivity while his board "Westpoint" was down. Meanwhile Westpoint is back online under ++45/7521-1519 and serving as NetPhreakers head- quarter "only". Fixing talent FUNGUS has left in or- der to team up with the fantastics. Deviant's bord FINAL GENOCIDE went down for the summer and might be back in late August or Septem- ber 1997. The latest gossip reports that Final Geno- cide is one of the possible candidates to become the new F4CG headquarter. Current Chromance memberstatus looks like (= 26): Cubehead, Deviant, Druid, Garth, Jaydee, Jinx, Joy- ride, Lion, Macx, Midfit, Mr. Wax, Natas, Pete, Rough, Scratcher, Skid Row, Skud, Sphere, Spermbird, Stash, Syco, Zakk and Zar Chromance worldheadquarter(s)/board(s): BASS PLANET ++X/XXX/XXX-XXXX VIRTUAL LIGHT ++XX/XXX-XXXXX GANGSTA'S PARADISE ftp.inf.bme.hu WWW (HALL OF FAME) http://www.agt.bme.hu/hof * FANTASTIC 4 CRACKING GROUP * ------------------------------------------------------------ After a long period of inactivity the fantastics have returned to the active part of the scene, having re- started calling out on a regular basis and providing some interesting releases aswell as a demo part from the former Polish demo group "Skylight" presented as a game preview called "Skylight Preview". New in the team as cracker and coder for both Play- station and CBM 64 is DMC, former member of the cracking group Genetix. After leaving the CBM 64 scene behind Genetix has been active on Amiga and console platforms. SLIVER, former member of Triad, Success & TRC, Agony Design and Alpha Flight 1970 just to name a few has joined as graphic artists. Ac- cording to the F4CG organisation they are already started to produce a graphic collection for him which is sheduled for the summer of 1997. FUNGUS has left Chromance just after a few weeks to team up with the fantastics and to serve as NTSC fixer. Already be- fore he joined Chromance many have speculated that his way will lead into direction F4CG sooner or later. ANTITRACK and INTRUDER have been moved to the in- active status. Antitrack is rumoured to participate in the comeback of his former group Legend which are said to be back in action with lots of members of the old line-up. The most unexpected surprise was for sure DEFF restarting his scene related activity and leaving the fantastics for Hitmen, already home for other former Avantgarde members. Current F4CG memberstatus looks like (= 21): Bitman, Derbyshire Ram, Devil, DMC, Fungus, Goz, Maja, Motley, Mr. Alpha, Neotec, Newscopy, Playboy, Sixx, Skinhead, Sliver, Smasher, Sneaper, Solar, Sta- si, Walker and Zyron F4CG worldheadquarter(s)/board(s): WWW http://www.algonet.se/&motley/propa.htm * HITMEN * ------------------------------------------------------------ Hitmen has successfully recruited lots of well known profiles to present an upperclass line-up, now the time seems to come closer when the potentional has to be merged and converted into releases. Neverthe- less Hitmen could proudly announce to be the first cracking group in the Playstation scene to link an in- tro infront of their releases. This decade has been the decade of comebacks. The show started with the in the PC and PSX scene invol- ved CURLIN returned to the CBM 64 scene to take care about the organisation again. PEACEMAKER an- nounced in a phone call that he is going to restart his activities as NTSC fixer. Last but not least the biggest positive surprise was the rather unexpected comeback of DEFF leaving F4CG to restart his acti- vities in the reigns of Hitmen, contrary to F4CG's an- nouncement that Deff has left the CBM 64 scene be- hind. It was no secret that various former Avantgar- de members did not feel too comfortable in F4CG. Time will tell if after Cupid, Deff and Jack Alien more for- mer Avantgarde members will celebrate a reunion in Hitmen. The graphic artists BALANCE and ZORE got kicked out for inactivity! In the last edition we have reported about a certain TMP having joined. This information was given by Ty- ron in an IRC session and is unfortunately wrong. The correct handle of this new member is EROL who joi- ned in from the Tempest, abbreviate TMP. We bid your pardon. Current Hitmen memberstatus looks like (= 30): Alchemist, Banshee, Burn, Chaotic, Cupid, Curlin, Deff Diverse, Erol, Groepaz, Hi-Lite, Jack Alien, Jayce, Jinx, Kristian Rostoen, Luke, Marcus, Moonchild, Mo- tion, Peacemaker, Racoon, Rammy, Raze, Sabotage, Seven, Skud, Stan, Tranziie, Tyron and Vortex Hitmen worldheadquarter(s)/board(s): THE DUNGEON ++X/XXX/XXX-XXXX MYSTICAL PARADIZE ++XX/XXXX-XXXXX WAREZ AQUARIUM ++XX/XX-XXXXX WWW http://hitmen64.home.ml.org/ * MOTIV 8 * ------------------------------------------------------------ Next to a MINOR status clean-up nothing really spe- cial happening in the Danish cracking group. People are still waiting for the first results from the an- nounced demo section. Actually there is a NOT invited ghost in Motiv 8 spooking on the European boards. BIRD has left his second group WOW to concentrate on Motiv 8 only. Furthermore he founded an Internet group called THE SHADOWS, a name being known to CBM 64 sceners as an ancient and famous Norwegian demo group later on merged into the reigns of PANO- RAMIC DESIGNS. The motivated have sorted their rows and put KOSA, LYON, RIME and THE FRESH PRINCE on the inactive status, meaning that when they return to become ac- tive again they will return to the official membersta- tus again. The composer TMG (The Magical Garfield) has left for yet unknown reasons. A certain DASH has called some European boards, pretending to belong to the motivated ones. Cross- fire especially pointed out that this person is defina- tely NOT a member and not to have any idea who it might be. Current Motiv 8 memberstatus looks like (= 17): Bird, Clive, Crossfire, Eddie, Gerry, Greenfrog, Gre- go, Ibanez, Iceball, Larry, Lyon, Mason, Mendrake, Merlin, Misery, Nuke and Visby Motiv 8 worldheadquarter(s)/board(s): IN LIVING COLOUR ++X/XXX/XXX-XXXX THE DRAGON'S TOWER ++XX/XXXX-XXXXXX RAVEOLUTION ++XX/XXXX-XXXXXX FTP: MOUNT TOKAY woland.iit.uni-miskolc.hu WWWhttp://www.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/&grfrog/ WWW http://home3.inet.tele.dk/bird-m8 * ONSLAUGHT * ------------------------------------------------------------ Onslaught has been quite active and well presented in the previous weeks, may it be on the boards, relea- sewise and even in the legal sector where Onslaught has coded a music collection for METAL/VIBRANTS. It got announced as interest in the legal scene but can be seen as PRESTIGE object, too, due to the fact that a brand like VIBRANTS was involved in. VENGEANCE has been put on the inactive list but just after this took place he returned to be back in action again. THE UNHOLY is current working on some homepage projects not leaving any time for CBM 64 activities so he got moved to the inactive list, too, as soon as he finds the time to get active on the CBM 64 again he is going to return into the official member- status. GALLAND has left Onslaught, but according to Jazz- cat's, Onslaught's spokesman, he would have been kicked out anyway for causing disruption within the group. Current Onslaught memberstatus looks like (= 26): Bizarre, B-Wyze, Carlos, Deekay, Digahole, DJ Kat, Donar, Doom, Grafee, Homeboy, Insane, Jason, Jazz- cat, Jolz, McByte, Meff, Morbid, Moses, Mr. Brain, Ra- mirez, Rap, Shocker, Sting, TBH, Trouble and Venge- ance Onslaught worldheadquarter(s)/board(s): DEADZONE ++X/XXX/XXX-XXXX SANITARIUM ++XX/XXX-XXXXXX FTP: GANGSTA'S PARADISE ftp.inf.bme.hu * OXYRON * ------------------------------------------------------------ After some months of silence a fresh breeze of life has hit the German demo factory. Next to another Graham solo-production planned to be released in autumn 1997 Fuben and Axis are working on a major title which is supposed to be released in late 1997. AXIS finally returned from his short trip to Arsenic restart working in full effect for the Amiga and CBM 64 sections of the German demo pride. His latest Ami- ga productions released at The Party 1996 (#7) and Symposium 1997 (#2) have been highly respected. Now in cooperation with Fuben he is currently working on a major CBM 64 demo title using the project name "Coma Light 13" which is supposed to be released at The Party 1997 in Denmark. Oxyron is currently working on a second homepage just for the purposes of the CBM 64 section. A pre- view version has already been made available for the public. Current Oxyron 64 memberstatus looks like (= 6): Axis, Fanta, Fuben, Graham, PRI and RRR Oxyron worldheadquarter(s)/board(s): WWW: CBM 64 http://www.hamburg.roses.de/&oxyron WWW: AMIGA http://www.amigasupport.com/oxyron * SUCCESS & THE RULING COMPANY * ------------------------------------------------------------ With the ruling cooperation another cracking group decided to get active in the legal sector, too, as good old BURGLAR decided to work on an oldstyle produc- tion with the interesting project name "Spankerz Heaven". Furthermore they have got an own domain name in the Internet but some negative news unfortu- nately have been made public, too. Finally a secret could have been solved. The long an- nounced secret new member is MR. AMMO, former member of Triad. With CBA one of the leading profiles has left the sce- ne. CBA expressed to have lost the interest in a scene getting more and more uninteresting. His futu- re plans are going to Israel for a year and after- wards to live and work in Denmark for a while. In case the stops the trip for any reason or after having fi- nished these plans Niels pointed out that it might be possible that could once return to look up what is going on. All the best for you in the future, Niels! After being a member of the ruling cooperation for a few weeks only THE ALMIGHTY got kicked out and brought the old American group Armageddon back in- to action. The comeback has NOT been very succes- full until now. COUNT ZERO has got uninvited visitors, the German police, bringing along some logs from his Amiga warez board "Forplay". They deported parts of his compu- ter equipment (Amiga/harddisk/modem) based on the suspect of courriering pirated software. The cooperation has now got with "scs-trc.net" its own domain address now covering the new homepage which is currently under production and the FTP-site "The Digital Dungeon", too. Below please find the new URLs to approach both services. Furthermore each member connected to the Internet has got an e-mail alias in the format <handle^scs-trc.net>. Current SCS&TRC memberstatus looks like (= 22): Action Jackson, Alchemist, Allitaice, Bacillus, Burglar, Coolhand, Count Zero, Credo, El Banditos, Funxilla, Gazza, Micron, Moren, Mr. Ammo, Nightshade, Replay, Spectator, Splatterhead, Stake, Superstition, Trax and Tristan SCS&TRC worldheadquarter(s)/board(s): THE DUNGEON ++X/XXX/XXX-XXXX MYSTICAL PARADISE ++XX/XXXX-XXXXX FTP: THE DIGITAL DUNGEON ftp.scs-trc.net FTP: MOUNT TOKAY woland.iit.uni-miskolc.hu Please find more news in GLOBAL REPORT part II. Best regards, RRR/Oxyron ----------
Global Report 2
* GLOBAL REPORT II * ------------------------------------------------------------ The news support continues. Following please find the single news and rumours. * SINGLE NEWS AND RUMOURS * ------------------------------------------------------------ * LEGEND seems to be back in action. Atleast they've brought back "Second To None" using the Internet, a complete new conception combined the elements of a board and a homepage. Currently the system is tested by a predefined amount of callers. In the fu- ture it will support both CBM 64 and PC when all transfer protocols have been fixed. Unlike printed elsewhere Westbam explained that they are due to the complexity of Second To None NOT in the need of any FTP-site. Actually Legend is negotiating with some NTSC groups to find a worthy partner to fix the releases still left in their diskboxes. Current Legend memberstatus looks like (= 08): Antitrack, Doc, Fletch, Goldfish, Powerplant, TDO, Uncle D and Westbam * WAVEFORM/Millenium (John Kaiser) died on Hodg- kin's disease * The official results from the ROLE logo competition are: Pos. Artist Title Points ------------------------------------------------------------ 01 Ant/Spiderboys SPB-flava 45 02 P/No Name Slash 1 33 03 Vip/Role Role Pointy 28 04 P/No Name Slash 2 27 05 Vip/Role Role Pure/Multi 23 06 Vip/Role Role 3D 22 07 Naphalm/Scorn Scorn 2 19 08 Celtic/No Name 150.No Name 15 09 Sebaloz/Lepsi Sebaloz/LD 12 10 Celtic/No Name 160.No Name 11 P/No Name Slash 4 11 Celtic/No Name 157.product 10 9 Naphalm/Scorn Scorn 3 12 Naphalm/Scorn Ascraues 8 Cat/Excess Logo2.Cat P/No Name Slash 3 13 Naphalm/Scorn Scorn 1 7 Cat/Excess Logo3.Cat 14 Cat/Excess Logo1.Cat 5 The jury consisted out of COMMANDER/Role, MACX/ Chromance)No Name, LADY SUNSHINE/Guardian Angels, EINSTEIN/WOW, EFFY/Guardian Angels and ROJ/Spiders Crew * The RAGE '97 party (July 04th to 06th, Budapest/ Hungary) results are: + Demo Competition -------------- Pos. Production Author ------------------------------------------------------------ 01 Nostalgia Coma 02 Beyond Recovery Singular 03 Tokeles Masolat 2 Pofik + Graphic Competition ---------------- Pos. Production Author ------------------------------------------------------------ 01 Wizard Poison/Singular 02 Ritual Splash/Therapy 03 <unnamed> Arnie/Amn + Music Competition -------------- Pos. Production Author ------------------------------------------------------------ 01 <unnamed> Carlos/Breeze 02 <unnamed> Da Blondie/Wish * ROLE have joined their website maintained by Low- life who renamed into LOW at: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Towers/ 6715 * EXCESS has got with FANTASTIC ZOOL/Civitas a new trial member while ALIEN PROPHET, BEAT UP and MASTER S have been moved to the inactive list. Current Excess memberstatus looks like (= 15): Black Duke, Cat, Creb, Eco, Ecsic, Fantastic Zool, Firelord, H-Bloxx, Red Rock, RHX, Scorpe, Senti- nel, Spinball, Stormfront and Sush Excess worldheadquarter(s)/board(s): COVERAGE ++XX/XXXX-XXXXX * Unlike printed elsewhere ANTIC is NOT dead yet. According to METAL MANIAC and JORDAN the Antic guys just have joined as double members following their comrades Creeper, Jordan and Probe who are already double members in DUAL CREW SHINING since ages. Nevertheless there won't be seen much activity from Antic anymore while DCS is going to release a production in a soon coming demo compe- tition. Furthermore the domain name dcs-rulez.com is going to get online soon. Current DCS memberstatus looks like (= 06): Creeper, Depeh, Elric, Jordan, Metal Maniac and Probe DCS worldheadquarter(s)/board(s): WWW http://www.algonet.se/&mm * L'Trimm/ex-Talent Technologies has joined WOW but remained in Cyberpunx as double member * The lazy bunch in PALACE has got a few comrade called COMA who came from the PC group TRAUMA to be lazy as music composer in the rows of the still inactive group. Their once great FTP-site LOSING CONTROL has gone for good already quite a while ago. Current Palace memberstatus looks like (= 12): 2ny, Ace, Artic, Coma, Delta, Flotsam, Hoffi, Kreator Oca, Page, Pain and Rockstar * LAXITY got hold of their own domain name, too. A homepage is supposed to set online after the Laxi- ty meeting under http://www.laxity.dk Their member TRUSS has once again stopped his CBM 64 activities. Current Laxity memberstatus looks like (= 10): Animalo, Blender, Calamity, Dan Dee, Didi, Goat, Hol- den, KBS, Mendrake and Vague Laxity worldheadquarter(s)/board(s): THE DRAGON'S TOWER ++XX/XXXX-XXXXXX WWW http://www.laxity.dk * The East German demo group NEOPLASIA explained that they are currently working on three different demo projects started by three different coders. One of these productions is supposed to be relea- sed at The Party 1997. Current Neoplasia memberstatus looks like (= 05): Ernie, Gourment, Stoff, Toxic and Viscid * X-TRO/ex-Talent and GREY EMINENCE/ex-TRSI are both interested in restarting their scene activities and are looking for groups to join in. X-tro intends to restart mail trading on an active and regular basis aswell as modem trading, furthermore the in- terest in setting up a board is given, too. Grey E- minence is interested in restarting as modem tra- der, too. That have been all news related to groups located in the western Europe, America and Australia. Make sure to check out the Polish news section aswell! Best regards, RRR/Oxyron ----------
Global Report 3
* GLOBAL REPORT POLAND * ------------------------------------------------------------ Facts, facts, facts, ... Welcome to the news chapter you can care about because WE do care about the content. As promised in the FREESTYLE chapter of the pre- vious edition we are going to keep an eye on the happenings in Eastern Europe and especially Poland, too, in order to provide a quite detailed report about the current situation. We would like to pay our respect to our correspon- dant DR. SOFT for the excellent coverage and sup- port. In order to keep out the comprehensive coverage please submit all newsaround your group(s), member- status, homepage URLs and e-mail address(es) to the following address: Mail: RELAX MAGAZINE POLAND --- ---------------------- XXXXXXXXX XXXXX XX. XXXXXXXXXX XX/XX XX-XXX XXXX XXXXXX Voice: ++XX/XXXXXXXX ----- E-mail: gothrek^vm.amu.edu.pl ----- * AGONY DESIGN * ------------------------------------------------------------ It has become silent around Agony Design when Druid started working for a PC company, nevertheless the group is still active and working on several produc- tions to prove their existance, such as "Cooltora", Roder's new graphic collection aswell as another mu- sic collection from Moog. MORRIS, who was a double member in F4CG, too, has left the scene for good, Agony's mail trader DR. KAOS aswell left the scene to look out for new shores in PC scene. GLUT is actually inactive. JETAN finally left to re-join his former comrades in Albion. Current Agony memberstatus looks like (= 13): Astaroth, Comanche, Druid, Explorer, Glut, Hornet, Inco, Moog, Owen, Roder, Shogoon, Skyle and Stone * ALBION * ------------------------------------------------------------ Next to their trackmos Albion is well known for pre- senting the most promising "English" magazine produ- ced in Poland, "VITALITY". Actually with "Excalibur" and "Extermity" two trackmos from Stilgar and Kmeg are in the pipeline, same goes for three graphic/logo collections entitled "Primitive" (Questor), "Babilon 3" (Jetan) and "Arte" (Lucky) aswell as further editions of "Vitality" in both Polish and English. JETAN, a talented graphic artist, finally returned from his trip to Agony Design. With the music compo- ser OLSEN another former member came back to en- strengthen the group, completed by WACEK, another talented music composer, who teamed up with Coma, too. CRIMSON joined in to serve as programmer and graphic artist. YAP, who has produced some handy tools, has bought a PC and left the scene while FROYD and SPIKE, both music composers, have been removed due to inacti- vity. Current Albion memberstatus looks like (= 18): Agoth, Cosmo, Crimson, Dr. Soft, Eclipse, Jetan, Kerk, Kmeg, Kotas, Lucky, Magic, Olsen, Quamus, Questor, Stilgar, Unlock, Wacek and Yans Albion worldheadquarter(s)/board(s): WWW http://biotop.umcs.lublin.pl/&ptracz/albion.html * ARISE * ------------------------------------------------------------ Arise does NOT fit into the drawer of groups seeing their existence to look out of fame and charts posi- tions, it's merely a group seeing the computer as an exciting hobby only. Planned productions are a music collection from Wacek and a trackmo. With FHM a mail trader enlarged the forces while SAPPER/Fraction joined in as double member just to leave the scene later on. LUKE teamedup from Camey double member, being a new member in the rows of Nipson, too, aswell as DUX/Fraction, who both will work as programmers. Their sympathic female Norwegian mail trader STAR- LIGHT has finally decided to leave the scene. Current Arise memberstatus looks like (= 10): Barman, Bimber, Browar, Dux, FHM, Gorzalek, Luke, Sensei, TSL and Wacek * FAITH * ------------------------------------------------------------ Faith is still quite unknown in western Europe as their productions aren't that well spread. Actually they are working on a huge trackmo using the pro- ject name "Cry!". A quite prominent returnee is the music composer PRAISER who came back to re-join as a double mem- ber. A while ago he left all groups announcing his membership to complete the forces of the East Ger- man demo group Reflex. OPHIS from Cenzure teamed up to work as programmer while SAHIR of Krecki Design and Miracles is going to serve as graphic ar- tist for Faith in the future. A setback is that some members like KAT, PENTOL and TROLL are actually inactive. Current Faith memberstatus looks like (= 10): Jones, Kat, Nylu, Ophis, Pajda, Pentol, Praiser, Sahir, Talbot and Troll * FATUM * ------------------------------------------------------------ It has been quite a while silent around the once quite active demo group. Nevertheless some excellent gra- phic tools for MCI and IFLI graphic modes have been introduced a while ago. Planned to be released are a trackmo called "Zero Gravity", issue 8 of their Po- lish magazine "Prawda" and "Experience 4", another music collection from Bax. MR. WEGI, mainly known for programming diskdrive routines, returned to the scene and rejoined the reigns of Fatum while LEMING/Scorn joined in to en- large the mail distribution. Finally PSYCHIK has left Kreciki Design in order to team up as cover artist. The well reputated and extremely skilled graphic ar- tist FAZEE, a double member in Taboo, has officially left the scene after releasing his very last graphic collection entitled "Mindriot". Current Fatum memberstatus looks like (= 13): Axon, Bax, Gopher, Grabba, Leming, Marco, Mr. Wegi, No True, Pablo, Psychik, Shaggy, Talbot and Wedlock * FRACTION * ------------------------------------------------------------ Fraction is one of those many Polish groups mainly existing of double and triple members having joined forces. A trackmo called "PATHOLOGY" is under pro- duction. Two music composers called MARTENS and SAGE have joined forces to fill the gap SIGNOR has left behind by leaving the scene. SAPPER, who joined Arise as a double member, too, got recruited to become the headquarter for their magazine "Sinister" has left the scene, now PASTHOR took over the organisation for the magazine. Both LATIN and PGR got kicked out of the group, the double member RAZOR RAMON/Ascraeus decided to leave Fraction while CHASH has left F4CG to team up with Alpha Flight 1970. Current Fraction memberstatus looks like (= 18): Alpha, Chash, Cobra, Cucumber, Djinn, Dux, Jurgen, Kordiakus, Martens, Pasthor, Quesar, Sage, Sarin, Sensei, Szikers, Vampire, Vigo and Wedlock * KRECIKI DESIGN * ------------------------------------------------------------ Kreciki already released lots of collections but finally with the release of an English edition of their maga- zine "Adwarp", released in both English and Polish, the name Kreciki got known in western Europe, too. Actually Kreciki are working on a one year celebra- tion trackmo, Kordiakus' music collection called "De- lirium Tremens" and Wedlock's ASCII demo entitled "I love ASCII 3". While WEDLOCK became the headquarter to take care about the organisation the programmer BLACK LIGHT has left the scene, cover painter PSYCHIK has left for Fatum and finally graphic artist SAHIR decided to seek his fate in Faith as triple member. Current Kreciki memberstatus looks like (= 13): Axon, B. M., Baldhead, Cancer, Dee Jay, Divine, Killof, Kordiakus, Raffi, Sahir, Sensei, Simone and Wedlock * LEPSI DEVELOPMENTS * ------------------------------------------------------------ Lepsi's product policy has been quantity about qua- lity in their earlier basis, but these days the quality level increases continously with an every single re- lease. Planned productions are two trackmos and new issues of the magazines "Magia" (Polish) and "Design" (English). After some time of inactivity and absense the pro- grammer BLENDER is back in action and working on a trackmo production. KATON/Scorn joined in as gra- phic artist while LEGO/Unreal joined in as mail trader to support the mail distribution of Lepsi. Finally WA- CEK got recruited to support future Lepsi produc- tions with quality soundtracks what is for sure a wise decision. LYNCHBIT and ZATT joined Alpha Flight 1970 as doub- le members, fullfilling the jobs of programmers while Lynchbit will support the NTSC fixing division of the flight, too. Current Lepsi memberstatus looks like (= 25): ALG, Bax, Blender, Brax, Csezso, Gawain, Gregfeel, JB, Katon, Lego, Leo, Levi, Lynchbit, Madrom, Mr. Ba- lon, Nazgul, Nemo, Phantom, Sebaloz, S.U.C.K., Valsa- ry, Wacek, Worm, Zatt and Zielok * NIPSON * ------------------------------------------------------------ Next to demo releases like "Burglary" and "Eiger" Nipson got known in western Europe by providing a quite interesting game preview called "RIGOR". Actu- ally they are working on a dentro to be released this summer. LUKE/ex-Camey, a programmer, joined in as double member to be in Arise, too. Former member DOLPH seems to have returned into the scene and claims to be back full in action again. The mail distribution has been decreased with the Austrian MAVERICK leaving for Samar and JAKEC ta- king a break. Current Nipson memberstatus looks like (= 5): Dolph, Jakec, Jepser Kyd, Luke and Rico * SAMAR * ------------------------------------------------------------ Samar already released some upperclass demos and intros aswell as lots of these days popular collec- tions. At the moment they are working on multiple trackmos such as "Air Power" and "Digital World", on Nylu's graphic collection called "Shatan", on Val- sary's graphic collection "Inverse Display 2", on a sample collection called "Rigid" and last but not least Scatee's logo collection entitled "Crusade 2". The mail trader MAVERICK has left Nipson to streng- then the mail distribution. TTL joined in as program- mer and BISCHOP is going to serve as cover artist in the future. CENTRAX got elected to be the co-or- ganisator while SCATMAN renamed into SCATEE. Current Samar memberstatus looks like (= 26): Aristo, Bischop, Butt-Man, Centrax, Daf, Dune, Falcor Glover, Goldhand, Gregfeel, Isildur, Levi, Maverick, Mr. Fiz, Neck, Isildur, June, Ramos, RMTL, Scarlet, Scatee, Stinger, Timix, TTL, Valsary and Zeor * STREET CHILDREN * ------------------------------------------------------------ Street Children is the home of some very talented persons, such as WIZARD who is for sure the audial surprise of 1997 aswell as FLASH who is an excellent cover and singlecolour hires artist. Actually they are working on "Comeback II", Flash's second graphic collection and a trackmo which is not sheduled yet. In order to concentrate himself on his school educa- tion FLASH requested to be set on the inactive mem- berstatus of Alpha Flight 1970 due to the fact that he actually did not find the time to support three groups on a active basis. Nevertheless he found to- gether with MICRO a new cover group called FAC- TORY. Street Children's female mail trader COBRA has de- creased her distribution activities lately. Current Schn memberstatus looks like (= 12): Archangel, Cobra, Everlast, Flash, Kitana, Mad Hatter, Micro, Noise, Oldguy, Simone, Wizard and Xe- nox * TENGU * ------------------------------------------------------------ After the release of "Electric Dreams" at the Sympo- sium 1997 the name Tengu has been heard in western Europe, too. They are currently working on a new is- sue of their Polish magazine "Pivo". In order to expand the mail distribution CORWIN and FANGORN were taken into the group. KILLER joined in to support the group with music samples. Current Tengu memberlist looks like (= 10): Astovel, Corwin, Fangorn, Killer, Kosa, Ksin, Lydon, Pardon, Provocator and Replay * SINGLE NEWS AND RUMOURS * ------------------------------------------------------------ * AUTHORITY is a new cover group built up by ALG, Human and Sniper. * SLIVER has left Triad to join F4CG * The demo group THE CODERS is dead! That have been all news and information we were able to collect for this edition which are related to the Polish scene. Best regards, RRR/Oxyron ----------
Release Charts
The Official Release Charts for the RELAX MAGAZINE ------------------------------------------------------------ Performed by the MASTER OF LAW... MARC ---- RELEASE CHARTS RULES v 1.51 -------------------------- * GENERAL INTRODUCTION ------------ |DEFINITION| A PREMIERE upload of a game or pre- ------------ view on the US boards is generally de- fined as FIRST RELEASE, may it be a PAL, NTSC or an already PAL/NTSC fixed 100% working production. In case a game has been released in either PAL or NTSC only the first PAL/NTSC fixed version will be the official first release (see: 6 months rule). --------------- |6 MONTHS RULE| If a production has been relea- --------------- sed either PAL or NTSC only the group presenting a PAL/NTSC fix within SIX months after the first release has been made is getting FULL points, for both GAME and FIX (see: point system) if just ONE group is responsible, if TWO groups are involved the points will be shared. --------------- |24 HOURS RULE| In case TWO groups upload a tit- --------------- le on different boards THE group having spread the release FIRST ON MOST BOARDS taken into consideration to create the release charts is receiving the points. If a group presents their version 24 hours after the FIRST RELEASE the release is getting handled as a re-release (see: re-release). ------------ |RE-RELEASE| A release already first released be- ------------ fore and having EXCEEDED the 24 hours rule is called a re-release. * RELAX MAGAZINE POINT SYSTEM ------------- |POINT SYSTEM:| The Relax Magazine* point system -------------- table contains the following cathe- gories: Fullprice Games 6.0 - 8.0 points Budget Games 4.0 - 6.0 points Low Budget 2.0 - 4.0 points PD/Shareware/Freeware 1.0 - 2.0 points Previews 0.0 - 1.0 points Due to the fact that the QUALITY of games in each cathegory VARIES the margin is ofcourse FLEXIBLE, too, as it would be UNFAIR to rate poor and good ga- mes with a similar amount of points. --------------- |PAL/NTSC FIX:| ONE bonus point can be gained by --------------- releasing a 100% (!) working PAL/ NTSC version. When a second group got involved with the PAL or NTSC fix the points will be SHARED! Games which were already PAL released HAVE to be fixed WITHIN 6 months after the official PAL release otherwise NO points will be given for the NTSC fix. ---------------- |MINUS POINTS: | are a punishment for failures which ---------------- don't accomplish to the standarts set for today's cracker generation and the philoso- phy of the Relax Magazine release charts. Re-releases - 7.0 points Re-release of a preview - 1.0 points NO levelpacking - 1.0 points NO trainer(s) - 1.0 points NO translation - 1.0 points ----------- |NO POINTS| will be given for the following produc- ----------- tions, not fitting into the traditional re- lease charts rulez. Unlike most other magazines we WON'T give points for tools. Those releases will get mentioned but that's all about them. SEUCK GAMES, BASIC GAMES, COMPILED BASIC GAMES and such games that were done using a GAME MAKER aswell as NON-PLAYABLE PREVIEWS will be IGNORED. --------------- |BONUS POINTS:| whenever WE think somebody did --------------- something SPECIAL or OUTSTAND- ING we will add ONE point to the NORMAL amount of points. This might be a complex translation or a com- plex translation of graphics. SPECIAL FEATURES just benefiting a MINOR or limited group of sceners, just as REU (Ram expansion unit) users, is still worth a HALF point. * WHERE TO UPLOAD FIRST RELEASES? -------- |BOARDS| While creating the Relax Magazine* re- -------- lease charts the following boards have been taken in to consideration. The Dungeon XXX-XXX-XXXX Dead Zone XXX-XXX-XXXX The Bass Planet XXX-XXX-XXXX And here we go... * ALPHA FLIGHT 1970 (8.8 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ The flight made a little summer break and released only the fixed versions of BLOODHAND (4.2 pts) and MAGICAL FORMULAR (4.6 pts). For further explaina- tions please look at Laxity's listing and read the ar- ticle "point hunters" in this edition. * ARMAGEDDON (2.1 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ The Americans have started a comeback and relea- sed two games, HYPERCARS (0.0 pts) which was NTSC only so Success & TRC released a proper fixed ver- sion. Their second strike was LAZER DUEL (2.1 pts). * CHROMANCE (0.2 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ The Hungarian based group only released an average American preview called NETHER (0.2 pts). * F4CG (15.6 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ They released the fixed versions of MANGANOID (3.7) and KNOORKIE (3.9 pts) followed by lots of previews called MR. ANT (0.4 pts), COLEE (0.3 pts) FROGS AND FLIES (0.0 pts) and PLASM (0.3 pts). Furthermore they released the Pal only version of ICE GUYS (6.0 pts) they have declared to be unfixable. The freeware game from MDG called RUNDES LEDER (1.0 pts) is nothing else but an updated version of an old fullprice game from STARBYTE called STARBYTE SUPER SOCCER. New components are ingame music, a new loading system and some other small improve- ments, so for the translation a point for something special has been given. F4CG has received a MINUS point in the yearly relea- se charts for the in the last issue counted preview called SKYLIGHT which got proven to be a ripped old demo part from the Polish demo group Skylight. * LAXITY (1.2 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ They started with SWEEPMINER (2.1 pts), TRAZZ pre- view (0.1 pts). MAP RACE (0.0 pts) and UTOPIA pre- view get no points because it is compiled basic. THE RUN preview (- 1 pts) is a re-release, Triad released it some months ago. The German based group has also released a cor- rupt version of MAGICAL FORMULAR fixed by Chro- mance on Deadzone so Alpha Flight 1970 decided to release a working and on NTSC computers 100% stab- le working version on the majority of the boards BE- FORE Laxity's fixfile u/l on Deadzone hit any other board (reference: 24h rule). * MOTIV 8 (0.4 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ The Danish cracking group released AFTERLIFE 2 (0.0 pts) and FOUR CORNERS (0.0 pts). Both are compiled Basic games. Later on the previews of IM- MORTALITY IN SPACE (0.1 pts), MICRO MACHINES (0.1 pts) and WORDS DON'T COME EASY (0.2 pts) fol- The 100% version of TRIC TRAC has been ignored due to the fact that the included game note was no part of the final sales version. F4CG's version already counted in the previous edition remains the official first release. * ONSLAUGHT (20.5 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ The Australian based group did start the warez rush with the fixed versions of GHOSTTRAP (4.0 pts), TROOZE (3.7 pts), CRAZY BUSINESS (3.0 pts). For Crazy Business one minus point must be given be- caus e the game intro file is corrupt. It does NOT de- crunch after starting! Next in the row has been the Hungarian fullprice game THE CASTLE (8.0 pts) which got PAL/NTSC fixed, translated and bug fixed so an extra point for something special have been given. The wares rush during this period has ended with the by the previews of PENNY (0.4), ICE GUYS (1.0 pts) ASSASIN V2 (0.4 pts). * SUCCESS & TRC (12.7 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ The ruling cooperation released the fixed version of HYPERCARS (3.6 pts) which was put out unfixed by Armageddon before. SQUARES (3.5 pts) and REMEM- BER (2.2 pts), here a minus point has been given be- cause a SECOND version was necessary. BLOX (2.6 pts) was already running PAL/NTSC. Last but not least the previews ALERT (0.4 pts) and ASSASIN (0.4 pts) have been released. * TRIAD (0.2 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ AAKE 2 (0.2 pts) preview hit the boards. Merged in to a table it looks like this: The official Release-Charts JULY 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------ Rank Last Group Points ------------------------------------------------------------ 01. (6) Onslaught 20.5 02. (/) F4CG 15.6 03. (3) Success & TRC 12.7 04. (1) Alpha Flight 1970 8.8 05. (/) Armageddon 2.1 06. (/) Laxity 1.2 07. (4) Motiv 8 0.4 08. (2) Chromance 0.2 (/) Triad 0.2 The official Fixing-Charts JULY 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------ Rank Last Group Releases ------------------------------------------------------------ 01. (/) Onslaught 4 02. (3) Success & TRC 3 03. (1) Alpha Flight 1970 2 (4) F4CG 2 Thanks for their help goes to: COUNT ZERO/SCS&TRC ------------------- DODGER/DYTEC ------------- IGNORANCE/AFL -------------- ULTIMATE HACKER --------------- Yours sincerly, Marc/Alpha Flight 1970 -------------------
Yearly Releases
* THE OFFICIAL 1997 RELEASE CHARTS * ------------------------------------------------------------ Feel welcomed to the chapter taking care about the releases made in 1996, being filled with statistics about the first release competition in 1997. The following lines will contain ALL releases made in 1997 from ALL groups taking part in the first relea- se competition. Still it is needless to say that this is the only source covering the release charts on a REGULAR level and basis, once again we are proud to provide the BEST coverage possible in the CBM 64 scene. Infact the idea behind this chapter is not that new but it's definately very informative and helpful for all persons who are interested in detailed information about the releases in 1997 as it will contain game tit- les, fixing or cooperating groups, the points and the status (PAL: PAL only, PAL/NTSC: game was already PAL/NTSC compatible and FIX: NTSC (PAL) fix in- stalled). This overview might be a useful documentation in or- der to avoid re-releases, only to give a short exam- ple. Furthermore it is the place to define your cur- rent position, and ofcourse the position of the con- curence who are all heading for the crown at the end of 1997. The rules that this charts are following can be found in the Release Charts chapter. Here we go... * ALPHA FLIGHT 1970 (63.9 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ Scortia 0.2 pts Pal Brave 4.7 pts Fix Remember 3.0 pts Fix Reversi 3.7 pts Fix Upsidedown 4.5 pts Fix Target 3.8 pts P/N Starmerchant 3.5 pts Fix Vision 4.1 pts Fix Merchant (w. Hitmen) 3.5 pts Fix Cannoncraze 3.8 pts Pal Fugitive 5.0 pts Fix Samber 7.0 pts Fix Mystery 4.6 pts Fix Savage Platform Preview 0.6 pts Pal Bloodhand 4.2 pts Fix Magical Formula 4.6 pts Fix * CHROMANCE (26.4 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ Picman Preview 0.0 pts Pal Undoroid Preview 0.2 pts Pal Interlaced Pairs 5.0 pts Fix Galleon 8.0 pts Fix Twin Terrors 3.3 pts Fix Chronic the Badger V2 0.6 pts Pal Undoroid 3.3 pts Fix Magic Land 0.0 pts P/N Buddha 0.0 pts P/N Legend of Kyril Preview 0.0 pts Pal Mr. Setam 3.0 pts Fix Horsekiller Preview 0.0 pts Pal Last G 3.0 pts Fix Nether Preview 0.2 pts Pal * DISORDER (2.0 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ Dump Preview 0.0 pts Pal Pac It Preview 0.0 pts Pal Extend 2.0 pts Pal * ENDLESS PIRACY (0.0 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ Babylon Preview - 1.0 pts Pal * EXCESS (1.0 pts) ------------------------------------------------------------ Mystic Mirrors Prv. 0.4 pts Pal 48 Hours Prv. 0.6 pts Pal Deep Void Prv. 0.0 pts Pal * F4CG (13.8 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ Wladca -7.0 pts Fix Powertris 3.6 pts Fix Skylight Preview -1.0 pts Pal Tric Trac 2.6 pts Fix Manganoid 3.7 pts Fix Knoorkie 3.9 pts Fix Mr. Ant Preview 0.4 pts Pal Colee Preview 0.3 pts Pal Rundes Leder 1.0 pts Fix Frogs and Flies 0.0 pts Pal Ice Guys 6.0 pts Pal Plasm Preview 0.3 pts Pal * HITMEN (4.7 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ James Fly Preview V2 0.7 pts Pal Tanks Preview 0.5 pts Pal Deep Void 0.0 pts Pal Merchant (w. Alpha Flight) 3.5 pts Fix * LAXITY (1.2 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ Outside Preview 0.0 pts Pal The Run Preview -1.0 pts Pal Map Race 0.0 pts P/N Trazz Preview 0.1 pts Pal Utopia Preview 0.0 pts Pal Sweepminer 2.1 pts P/N * MOTIV 8 (7.6 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ Jailbreak 3.0 pts P/N Ripp Off preview 0.2 pts Pal Gurdian 2.0 pts P/N X-Tris 2.1 pts Fix Afterlife 2 0.0 pts P/N Immortility in Space Preview 0.1 pts Pal Four Courners 0.0 pts P/N Micro Machines Preview 0.1 pts Pal Words don't come easy Prv 0.2 pts Pal * ONSLAUGHT (24.0 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ Space Tracker Preview -1.0 pts Pal Crazy Business Preview 0.5 pts Pal Shove Preview 0.1 pts Pal Dominoes 3.1 pts Fix Find the Pairs 0.8 pts Pal Ghosttrap 4.0 pts Fix Trooze 3.7 pts Fix Crazy Business 3.0 pts Fix Penny Preview 0.4 pts Pal The Castle 8.0 pts Fix Ice Guys Preview 1.0 pts Pal Assasin V2 Preview 0.4 pts Pal * SUCCESS & TRC (23.1 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ Blood Hand Preview 0.3 pts Pal Xiom 3.6 pts Fix Scortia 3.3 pts Fix Monster 3.0 pts Fix Grav Preview 0.2 pts Pal Remember 2.2 pts Fix Hypercars 3.6 pts Fix Blox 2.6 pts P/N Squares 3.5 pts Fix Alert Preview 0.4 pts Pal Assasin Preview 0.4 pts Pal * TRIAD (0.2 pts) * ------------------------------------------------------------ Aake 2 Preview 0.2 pts Pal Merged in to a table it looks like this: The official Release-Charts of 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------ Rank Last Group Points ------------------------------------------------------------ 01. (1) Alpha Flight 1970 63.9 02. (2) Chromance 26.6 03. (6) Onslaught 24.0 04. (3) Success & TRC 23.1 05. (/) F4CG 13.8 06. (4) Motiv 8 7.6 07. (5) Hitmen 4.7 08. (7) Disorder 2.0 09. (/) Laxity 1.2 10. (8) Excess 1.0 11. (/) Triad 0.2 The official Fixing-Charts of the year 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------ Rank Last Group Releases ------------------------------------------------------------ 01. (1) Alpha Flight 1970 13 02. (2) Chromance 6 (3) Success & TRC 6 03. (/) Onslaught 4 04. (4) F4CG 3 05. (4) Motiv 8 1 Yours sincerly, Marc/Alpha Flight 1970 -------------------
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Interview
* INTERVIEW * ------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome to the interview section of the Relax Maga- zine, a chapter being frequently visited by the lead- ing profiles of the past and present, persons people talk about and people who are interesting for the bright mass of CBM 64 sceners. Lately a lot of well known demo groups have sent life- signs to show that they are still alive and capable to deliver interesting productions to a stunning scene, Offence is one of them. For this issue we have met with the programmer YUP the leading profile of the group, an author being responsible for lots of excel- lent demo parts on multiple platforms all over the years. Here we go. ?: Hello Andreas! It is nice to welcome you in our interview section this time, a highly appreciated section being known as talkshow, too. Please intro- duce yourself, regarding the personal aspects of your real life. Thanks Timo. I feel honored to be your interview partner this time. My name is XXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX and I am born on February 22nd, 1997 in Nuertingen/Ger- many. Most of my time I hang around in discos, dancing until most of the people think that I am totally MAD. Besides that I am still one of the most SLEEPIEST persons in the world. ?: Ah, Nuertingen, the town where Germany's great talk master and entertainer HARALD SCHMIDT was born! After the personal facts usually the computer facts follow. So let's follow the traditions and continue with with that topic here, too. How and when did you start on this system and in the scene, how did you got your handle and what groups have you been in all over the years? In 1988 a friend of mine got a CBM 64 with 1531 (data- sette recorder). We have played some games such as ARTILLERY DUEL, and I knew that I was in the need of such a machine, too. So I have bought a CBM 128 D. In the beginning I have only played games but later on I have started to code and formed together with ZO- RAN the duo YUP & BURP. Then in the year 1989 a friend of us asked us to join STATIC. Later on THE SHARKS, WARRIORS OF TIME, SHAPE and finally OF- FENCE followed. While I was in Offence we also made a fun orientated group called NUTS (NO USUAL TAT- TY SUICIDERS) which was first a sub-group if NATO and later on TRAITORS. Behind the handles FAT RAT stood Yup & Burp and Red Wiz was THE MUTANT RE- FRIDGERATOR. It was just for fun and got much more than awaited. Now Offence also exists as scene group on the Amiga and maybe soon on the PC, too. To my handle YUP there is not much to say. Or let me better say, I say very often Yup, and so it became my handle. ?: Offence has been quite successful in the demo scene some years ago in a time when most present sceners were NOT around yet. Please introduce the history of the group to our readers. Most of the Offence members were already my team comrades in Warriors Of Time. When we left WOT most of us joined Shape. But after some time Shape grew up memberwise too fast, so that we weren't able to get an actual memberlist anymore and to find out who is in and who is not in the group. As we (Yup & Burp) loved to know EVERY member personally and to be good friends with them we left Shape and founded Of- Offence. I was VERY GLAD at that time that our BEST FRIENDS from Shape left, to join Offence, too. Fur- thermore some members from BEYOND FORCE, BON- ZAI, ... followed. And the best thing is that Offence still exists. Not very active, but we're still alive. ?: Next to Offence you have been a member of teams like Warriors Of Time, Shape and Traitors. What can you report about the time in those groups, as groups like Shape and WOT still have a great tradition and history in a to the negative side developing scene? It was a GREAT time. There was a good FRIENDSHIP inside the groups. We knew each other and we were in contact by phone very often, or we visited each other. PAL from Norway for example was at my place for some weeks. That was the time when we made "Slowpoke #6". I also think that at that time there were LESS group-wars and less flaming. Some days ago a friend of mine told me, that the guys on IRC- channel #c-64 were talking shit about CYCLEBURNER of Megastyle. He was around in the channel and they told him that he should GO and that he is NO real CBM 64 fan like they are and wrote a lot of flames. My o- pinion about that: "I AM HAPPY THAT I DON'T KNOW THESE SO-CALLED CBM 64 fans!" It seems the scene became VERY ARROGANT. That is NOT my way! ?: Unfortunately I have to agree. Most of the time newcommers or people who have NEVER done any- thing valueable for the scene are trying to gain res- pect and to produce themselves with desperate at- tacks like this one. Offence lately released a demo entitled "Flexible" on the CBM 64, some sort of comeback demo linked to- gether by Trasher containing lots of ancient parts. Are you still in touch with all the members, and if yes, what are profiles like "Pal", "Harmony Productions" or "Red Wiz", just to name a few, doing these days? And what about your former "twin" called Burp? Some of those people are still members in Offence, like PAL, formerly known as Rooster. He is working for a company as a painter and the moment he is drawing graphics for a demo which we will make in the near future. RED WIZ unfortunately stopped all his computer acti- vities. From time to time we phone but that has NO- THING to do with computers anymore. With HARMONY PRODUCTION I have lost contact at all. He moved houses and I don't know to which city he left. So if you have his new address, please send it to me!! BURP is NOT active anymore. He has left the scene in 1991/92, some time before I started with "Emotional Breakdown". I mean the demo, NOT my breakdown! :) At the moment he is running a company where is doing network-related things and he does some raytracing stuff, too. Finally TRASHER is still active and responsible for the lately released demo called "Flexible". ?: Lately you have released an Amiga demo called "Carpe Noctem", a CBM 64 styled demo containing CBM 64 Koala graphics and THX-soundtracks (for non-Amiga users: THX is SID-like tracker supporting four audio channels. Bartman/Abyss is already wor- king on a Windows conversation for PC users) com- composed by ARROGANCE and GEIR TJELTA. What was the inspiration for a traditional release like this one, as on most systems the trend is going into direction 4X4 chunky2planar effects? The main reason was that Arrogance wanted to compose and release some THX-modules. So we said okay, than let's do it all in the good old traditional way, starting with the musics, the style and every- thing else, too. The reason for it was that we LOVED the GOOD OLD time. If I could travel back in time I would do it for sure! There was more PERSONALITY in the demo productions and in the scene. 'Carpe Noctem' is a hommage to the best computer system in the world: the CBM 64. Did you know that my first demo I have coded for Warriors Of Time was 'Carpe Noctam'? We did there a little spelling error (the a instead of the e) which we have now corrected on the Amiga. ?: Some time ago you have planned an ambitious pro- ject, namely the Amiga conversation of the platform orientated jump and run hitseller "Earthworm Jim". What did stop that project? It really is a pity what I was unfortunately NOT allo- wed to convert the game. The developer 'Shiny' has thought it would be GOOD idea, but much to my regret the publisher said NO. The Amiga-market was too small for them. ?: Well, TTS' game "Trapped", a roleplaying game with an excellent DOOM-engine, did sell that well that the sequal is already close to be released, what is for sure a sign that there is still great interest in Amiga computer technology and software. Now a PC belongs to your computer equipment, too. Are there already any commercial releases planned? It would be quite interesting for a lot of CBM 64 sceners having these days have a second and even third platform in their rooms, too, including hardware slowed down by Microsoft productions. YES, there is already a game I'm working on. But it'll take somewhere around 2 years to finish it I think. It's TOO EARLY to spread news about this game, but I think you'll like it and when the time has come I'll tell you more about it. ?: With your activity on several platforms you have had the change to sneak into all major and popular scenes these days. What are the differences between CBM 64, Amiga and PC scene, and what was/is your personal favourite? This is a question I can answer VERY FAST: the CBM 64 rules!!!!!!!! The CBM 64 was my first Computer and so he'll ever be SOMETHING SPECIAL. At the time, when the Amiga Amiga and especially the PC scene became bigger, it became very UNPERSONAL, because of the Internet! The big swapper times when you have had sometimes hundreds of contacts are OVER. You just download it from a FTP-site. In earlier days it was a bit like UNDERGROUND, a big FAMILY. Nowadays everybody has a PC and is in the Internet. That's NOT bad, but it is different. There is NO PERSONALITY. Also most de- mos nowaday look like every other demo, they have the SAME routines, the SAME style,.... Lets go back to past (sounds like a old man). ?: More like a wise man, that's given for sure! The Internet is a quite popular topic these days. What do you think about the IRC, the WWW, FTP-sites and all the other useful functions offered? Does it support scene life and culture in your opinion? Particularly answered in the last question. But I'm NO big fan from the IRC. Most of the time when I was in there was only NONSENSE on the screen. Maybe I was in a the wrong time? WWW and FTP is a GREAT thing. It gives the possibility to spread the products VERY FAST, cheap and easy. I like it, but I don't think that it supports scene life, because it's getting more UN- PERSONALLY. But like said before I like it. ?: No, only in the a few cases the public screen action is productive and valueable. Messaging is much better and useful for interesting communication. You have set up a homepage, too. This is your chance to introduce it to our readers. What can we find and expect there, putting the boards into the waves into direction of your shore? Hey, ALL you people out there, VISIT my homepage and INCREASE my counter. http://privat.swol.de/AndreasSchneider/ You'll find ALL my productions for the beloved CBM 64 and the Amiga here. Maybe soon some PC stuff will follow, too. LAST MINUTE NEWS: In August 1997 I'll make a MAJOR update for my homepage, like for example a new chapter about coding will be put online. ?: As everything has to come to an end we unfortu- nately have to stop here, too. Here we offer our in- terview partners to add some comments and greetings, feel free to add whatever you would like to add here. Many thanks for being our guest. Thanks to all my contacts I had all over the years and also to all these GREAT demo-makers, who did those fabolous demos in the past. Feel free to contact me, I am always happy about mail (ESPECIALLY from gra- phic artists). I won't write a greetingslist here because it would be by far TOO LONG and I think all my FRIENDS know they are greeted. Thanks to you, and Thanks to you, and much luck with your GREAT maga- zine. Go on with your work! ?: Many thanks! It was a pleasure to talk to you again and to read your points of view. All the best for you, too. We truely hope you enjoyed the travel back in time along with YUP and hope to meet you again in the next edition as we have again organised a well re- putated and interesting interview partner. Best regards, RRR/Oxyron ----------
Point Hunters
WHO ARE THE REAL POINT HUNTERS? ------------------------------------------------------------ Due to lots of discussions around mysterious and magical releases made in the previous period we decided to present a chapter offering the facts leading us to the decisions for certain releases in the actual May - July 1997 release charts, decisions which have been made after requesting facts at the addresses of certain involved persons. With the release of the game "Mystery" a lot of dis- cussions and hassles have started in the reigns of the board scene, actually it seems that a lot of groups and people allied in order to express their aversion against Alpha Flight 1970, but is the critism and are all the insults based on acceptable facts and justified or just a jealous reaction to AFL's domina- tion in the cracking scene and release charts of the past two years? Alpha Flight 1970 has released a lot of SALES VER- SIONS from games that have been already released before, may it only be documentary or introduction files being added by the distributor what have been the only detectable changes to the previously crak- ked versions. Marc has purchased the authentic and complete sales versions directly from the distributor instead of spreading incomplete pre-versions, and in case the sales version varies from the previously spread version a so-called 100% version is nothing else but the logical consequence, a normal behaviour shown by ALL cracking groups over the years, un- like other sources may report these days, and NOT only by Alpha Flight 1970. For For sure it can be either boring and annoying to see a group presenting from the distributor slightly up- dated releases, that is a fact nobody can deny, ne- vertheless the group presented a complete and ac- tual version next to the fact that this group suppor- ted the game market with BUYING originals, what is for sure worth to be mentioned these days where everyone complains about the decreasing commercial market while nobody is willing to pay for (quality) software. If people prejudice the policy of releasing COMPLETE games why don't they prejudice the policy of pre-re- leasing incomplete versions? Why are people relea- sing pre-versions? What is the correct definition for it? Point hunting? Furthermore Alpha Flight 1970 has released lots of so-called 100% versions of previously spread cor- rupt releases, too. Lately it sounds like they have released 100% versions when they have found a flickering pixel but if people have a closer look at the 100% and the corrupt versions people will find out that it were NOT small and pointless but HEAVY bugs that made playing and finishing the games impossible, just like non-working end-sequences or missing le- vels corrupting the gameplay. It's just curious to see that ONLY Alpha Flight is getting blamed for releasing 100% versions while groups like SCS & TRC ("Xiom") and other groups with skilled and competent crak- kers did it all over the years, too, without drifting in- to the spotlight of critism, and even Onslaught has released 100% versions already, such as e.g. "Bugaro Bugaro Ralley". It is no secret that in most cases the objectivity ends starting with the own territory, so lots of groups be- ing disappointed about their failures are starting to ignore them and prefer to attack the opponents as it is the more comfortable and satisfying solution. Asto- nishing is that a group like F4CG trying to hunt for points by presenting a in their opinion better trans- lated version of the game "Battle Of Thurn" or re- leasing demo parts as previews ("Skylight Prv.") seems to feel quite comfortable in the position of a public prosecutor. Why don't these groups test their versions carefully before releasing them? Just to be faster than the concurence? What is the correct de- nition for it? Point hunting? As far as it concerns the release "Mystery" made by Alpha Flight 1970 it seems like that this mysterious bug only appears on the computers of persons com- plaining about AFL's release policy and being inte- rested in taking over the position of the leading cracking group, to be more precise mainly on the computers of Chromance, F4CG and Onslaught mem- bers only. Some people claimed the NTSC fix spoiled the game play on PAL, a combination of flickering rasterbars and slowed down music. That a NTSC fix spoils the gameplay on PAL computers is almost im- possible since the routine identifies the specific com- puter type and in case PAL is getting detected the NTSC fix won't be executed. While requesting the facts at the addresses of persons named as refe- rence for the game bugging on PAL even more mys- terious answers followed, just like that the bug ap- pears on NTSC only or that the game works but the chance to rag against Alpha Flight has been quite attractive. Until now NO logical and clear proof could have been brought in clearly explaining that the AFL version does not work. Actually three independent release charts have been released, two magazines released by magazine edi- tors involved in the campaign against AFL and one magazine released by an objective staff. Propaganda 23 has continously condemned Alpha Flight for releasing a corrupt version while their release charts clearly state that the game is working FINE, a curiousity which could make the objective and interested reader stun. In The Crest #1 Alpha Flight got the points for a WORKING release, too, being the ONLY totally independent resource offering release charts. Finally Domination #9 has not given points to Alpha Flight, claiming that the game does not work with Jazzcat being the initiator of the campaign and his group-mate Donar being responsible for crack and fix of the Urine's "Mystery" version. It won't surprise the masses when Onslaught starts complai- ning about Relax Magazine's inobjectivity giving the points to AFL as many editors are current or former members of that group, nevertheless Relax Magazine has listened to almost all involved persons and re- quested proofs from crackers and fixers to get professional bug reports in order to find an objec- tive solution. In case OUR release charts are inobjective, what is the definition for the other release charts having gi- ven the points to AFL, too. "Magical Formular" has been another release making the people start complaining about AFL once again. Laxity and Chromance released a bugging version of "Magical Formular" on Deadzone and Alpha Flight 1970 has released a working version on the majority of the major US boards while Laxity and Chromance released a fixfile, once again on Deadzone only. According to the traditional release charts rules (reference: 24h rule) has the group spreading their version on the majority of the major boards to be taken into consideration to create release charts the official first-release, and in this case it was AFL. In order to clear the status of the NTSC release we have asked Ultimate Hacker in an IRC session, who is named in the Domination release charts as a refe- rence, for a short comment on it: [Ult-Hack(Bowes1^viking.concentric.net)]: The AFL version is better in my opinion, the Chromance ver- sion flickers on NTSC on 3 different levels, including one level which flickers VERY badly. On a different note there is a bug in the original which flickers on NTSC and PAL when you kill the real big enemies... There was a fixfile done but that was for a PAL bug not the NTSC flickering. However both version were very nicely done, <C> had the better crack. If you want it to run on a NTSC machine get the AFL version though... The case is quite clear not only that AFL placed their version on the MAJORITY of the boards to be taken into consideration for board release charts, so if people take the 24h rule into consideration there is no doubt that the flighters must get the points, not to forget about the playability which seems to be higher in AFL's fix, too, what seems to be the most important arguement when it comes around NTSC fixing, atleast in our definition. Many thanks for their help and sharing their infor- mation to find these solutions for the Relax Magazine release charts must go to Burglar, Count Zero, Jazzcat, Marc, Mr. Wax, Skinhead, The Ignorance and Ultimate Hacker. Best regards, RRR/Oxyron ----------
Society
* SOCIETY * ------------------------------------------------------------ The demo scene is in the eyes of many demo sceners the part keeping the CBM 64 scene ship into the winds, raising the sails to explore new shores. In many eyes is the positive pole, contrary to the per- manently negative seen cracking part. But is the CBM 64 demo scene still worth to be proud of? Is it truely the part of the scene keeping it alive and competi- tive, and what is more important, would there still be a scene without cracking groups? In the beginning there were the cracking groups in their endless battle versus commercialism, providing the scene with an infinitive flood of software. It were the cracking groups introducing intro screens, this source was coming up with music ripps and title screens combined with scrollers to present the first demos. All ways to handle the distribution of software in the scene were initiated or made popular by crak- king groups, starting with swapping, boards and later on FTP-sites. Evenso the magazine hype was started by cracking groups, too, may it be paper or disk ma- gazines. Many people seem to have forgotten that it was the cracking scene having built up the structures and popularity level of the system, providing the scene a past it still can be proud of, a pride without a CBM 64 scene today would NOT exist anymore. The history, the background, the traditions, all what made this computer system and its scene once so popular seem to be forgotten these days. These days parts of the demo scene, especially new- commers having entered the scene in the past three years, are having doubts about the sense of the cracking scene, doubts which are in some cases justified. Having a closer look into the demo scene there is no doubt that it is no perfect place these days, too, facts which seem to be ignored by many demo sceners. The demo scene generally presents their productions on huge parties, most groups concentrate their po- wer to contribute at one major party only. What does it mean for the scene? There are in western Europe just The Party, Assembly, the X-series and since two years the Symposium, in eastern Europe there is the Scenest and perhaps the North Party to provide the scene with releases. Between those parties there are a few releases only, mainly demos which did NOT qualify to compete at the competitions. The number of enthusiastic demo sceners presenting their demos not on parties is in fact too low to keep an active scene alive. A computer scene exists based on people releasing software, a scene can't exist with- out releases. No one can deny the fact that between parties either the meanwhile quite rare magazine productions as well as the efforts of the cracking scene keep the scene alive and busy. A sleeping scene might wake up at parties, but between those events without any kind of activity more people than most might expect would leave the scene, looking for more active plat- forms, just like PC, consoles and even the quite po- pular Amiga scene. Let's have a closer look at parties and their compe- titions to uncover what is going on there. Let's start with the demo contributions. Former active Reflex member Quiss has become the victim of the global scene press criticising his release strategy. Relea- ses like "Radio Napalm" released under Reflex (win- ner of X-95 demo competition) and "Centric Preview" under Cyance (winner of Sym96 demo competition) got brandmarked to consist out of recycled parts only. More interesting were the contributions to the Convention 96 in Berlin where Reflex ("Access De- nied II", The Party V) and Fuse ("Respect, 1995) in- troduced the term "re-release" to the disappointed demo scene by entering the competition with already shown and released productions. Another new fashion seems to be competiting with un- finished releases, releases which won't be spread af- ter the competition. Unfinished preview versions of demo/trackmo productions have already won compe- titions, still 3 months later no 100% release version followed. Wouldn't it be more useful if the rules on ALL parties would be quite similar, making sure that all contributions are going to be released at the par- ty place? A future party with lots of competition en- tries but no releases is not science fiction anymore. But the single competitions are a place to find myste- ries and paranormal activity, too. In former days it was a paragraph of the rules that those artists have to visit the party personally, these days it seems NOT to be required anymore. Furthermore there are people getting not known skills at parties, skills and knowledge being lost right after the party again. Those persons are contribu- ting for one of their group members and friends in the hope to receive one of the rare and low prizes. Isn't it what we exactly call CHEATING? Isn't it UNFAIR against other contributing people who visited the party? No, definately not in the demo scene, not in the so-called friendship scene. This is NOT meant as a reproach to either the con- tributors or party organisers as there is the strong belief left that both parties intended to do the best for the quality and quantity of the competitions, ne- vertheless the question comes up if an Internet or home competition wouldn't be a better solution? In- stead of meeting at a party all could visit an Internet cafe and submit their contributions, so nobody needs to be present at the party place as the final result would remain the same. Quite interesting is a movement of not so skilled and advanced coders presenting animation replayers in- stead of coming up with excellent routines. For sure animated and PRECALCULATED effects can run much faster and SIMULATE hardware and routine power to stun the PC audience, unfortunately it is turning out to become just an own goal. Coders and mathemati- cally talented persons have no problems to find out the differences between realtime and precalcula- tions. While raising the popularity and respect level in the reign of the newcommers the total opposite in reign of experts follows. People playing with the fire must be able to stand the heat. Nevertheless the target group filling in the countless votesheets is stunned, so some unexpected charts movements follow. Exactly the same situation can be found on parties were sceners from an every platform are in- vited to vote, once again lots of victims for those CHARLATANS have been found, people who are NOT predestinated to give a qualified rating to the pro- ductions. Real coders presenting realtime routines, running perhaps with just 75% of the speed from precalculated or animated equivalents don't receive the respect they really deserve, as the effect has been shown "faster" already, unfortunately not on the same basis. Design. What is CBM 64 demo design? An absolute answer can NOT be given here, but an answer how the current demo design looks like. One or two tech- no tracks, multiple Boris Vallejo pictures in FLI/IFLI format and 4X4, 8X4 or even 8X8 vector donut ef- fects, linked together with more or less compatible IRQ-loading systems. This trackmo style COPIED from Amiga/PC is what many newcommers use to define as original CBM 64 demo style, people surely not being NOT in the position to classify this topic. At The Party VI for the first time a strange phenomenon appea- red. Multiple demo entries were presenting similar ef- fects in almost the same sequence, taking out the mu- sics and graphics it will be rather impossible to de- fine who was responsible for what routine. Yes, in- deed, they were exchangeable, like TDJ explained al- ready a while ago. Lately an interesting question came up. "Who is in- terested in the fiftieth realtime bob-record?" has been asked. The reply is simple and effective, too, by answering while requesting "Who is interested to see the fiftieth copy of a vector donut in 8X8?" this can become an infinitive discussion. To be honest, both is boring! Innovation and creativity is what people are looking for, definately NOT for fakes, animations or lame copies of effects already seen dozens of times before. It's a fact that styles, techniques and fashions deve- lope over the years, regardless if those effects are positive or negative. The demo scene does not make an exception here. Lately lots of people never having done anything valueable for the demo industry and certain newcommers felt free to report about demo design guiding lines or even dared to define what's a CBM 64 demo and what's NO CBM 64 demo. It's quite interesting to notice that trackmos with techno tracks, 4X4 chunky 2 planar routine based effects and IFLI graphics seem to be elements for the typical demo role model these days. Design outclasses tech- nical power, good looking animations and fakes seem to be more welcome than realtime effects which can't be as fast as those animations/fakes due to the hardware limitations of the CBM 64. On the one hand there are the hardliners refering to the the traditions of CBM 64 demo making, these days reflected by the quite popular productions of Crest, Graffity and Oxyron (Graham), on the other hand there are there are the ones refering to the refor- mers and the first production of its kind, "Coma Light 12" by Oxyron, presenting a trackmo-like con- ception, 4X4 routines and techno-influenced sound- tracks. Groups like Byterapers (Mr. Sex) and Reflex (Quiss) have copied and improved the on the 4X4 routine based effects all over the years, combined with the typical trackmo style elements. Next to the 4X4 routine itself it's still quite impressive to see most groups re-coding effects presented by Oxyron three years ago, it's more an understatement to pretend that about 60% of all effects shown in to- day's "new generation/school" demos have been in- troduced and first released by Oxyron. Old-school demo parts consisted out of a logo, scrolltext and the effect, combined with the notorious "press space to leave" function loading the next part afterwards. New-school trackmos show the ef- fects for a short, predefined time limit only, in a time you can't study the routine and its class too exactly, timed to techno music and weird loader systems which often don't work on all different disk drives. Crest lately combined old-school demo effects and design with the these days so popular trackmo con- cept, the result was one of the most stunning relea- ses made in 1997, a good compromise pleasing old- and new-school demo fans in the same way. But what is the perfect way to create a demo? Un- fortunately there is none! Unfortunately? NO! Fortu- nately is for sure more fitting here. In case all people would share the same taste our planet in the real world and our scene would be boring, so the variety ios a good method to suit the different needs of all target groups. But what is left from the variety? Is there still a variety? Yes, but only the group and de- mo names are the only detectable variety, just have a look back at THE PARTY VI and its CBM 64 demo contributions. Similar to the presentation of the demo competition at The Party many people not visiting this scene gathering leeched the archive(s) from FTP-si- tes or homepages and dared to watch them all in a row, one entry after the other. Some hours later back in the Internet, discussing the contributions, the effects and the general quality it was hard to tell what effect from what demo has been the most impressive one. The difficulty was simply that most demos were looking very similar if you have a closer look at the presentation, and, what was indeed more stunning, the appearance of the effects has been al- most similar. When people have a look back at The Party IV, the only SERIOUS party contribution being quite different and spoiling into the brains is the Graffity demo, and that is sad but true, just one out of about ten releases! The special features of all the different demos MADE the contributions once inte- resting and worth to be remembered, in the past there have been always two, three or even four re- markable productions at the major events, but taking a look at the party contributions in 1996 and 1997 makes it quite clear, this seems to be history. Ano- ther nice feature to be added to the endless list of traditions and former events worth to be remem- bered, one of the already too much things reflecting the true reflecting the true spirit of the scene, once again it's just the remembrance left. It is rather pointless to discuss about the perfect demo style as there is NONE! It is just a matter of personal taste, as taste is different from each indi- vidual person to the next, so there are NO good arguments or facts to CREATE opinions! Atleast this is the ONLY promising aspect left here, something what people should keep in mind. Activity is a quite important factor, too. The frontier between an active and an inactive person/group is VERY thin and quite HARD to define, nevertheless some people without an overview about what is going on feel free to comment the issue and show their in- competence in an impressive way. Why is it that a group having released ONE demo in the past twelve months is MORE active than a group having released TWO demos in the same period? While commenting the activity level the range shouldn't be shrinked to the past few weeks and what is more important, quality should always outclass quantity. For sure active supporters of the scene should be taken into consi- deration while filling those various votesheets, ne- vertheless people should always keep in mind that the charts are NOT meant to celebrate the most active scene members, that idea could be taken into consi- deration for a new charts topic, it is merely to pre- sent the most skilled and ADVANCED ones beyond the active scene population. Other sources expand the range and celebrate productions and efforts made in 1995 in 1996 awards, what is for sure NOT the ulti- mate solution, too. Wouldn't it be more clever to re- search before adding unqualified comments like this? Performed by some, perfected by others?!? May magazine editors define the activity range of scene related persons, groups or productions? La- tely there has come a magazine explaining that gra- phic artists have to draw fullscreen pictures only to qualify for top ten chart entries. What is the next step? Only coders supporting or ignoring the 4X4 chunky2planar based routines are allowed to enter the programmer's top ten or that music composers have to compose techno tracks to enter the charts? Wasn't it the variety that makes the scene so inte- resting as it used to be some years ago? Isn't it a DEGRADE to put people into different drawers? Pro- grammers could be taken into demo, game and tool coder drawers, tool coders into graphic, music, disk and misc tool coders, game coders into adventure, shoot'em up, jump'n run and puzzle game coders or demo coders into 4X4 and classical demo effect co- ders just to name A FEW of all possible combinations. More examples could be created and given for the reigns of graphic artists, music composers, demo groups, cracking groups and magazines, too, where the variety of different styles and formats could easily bring an every scene related person, produc- tion and group into one top ten list to please anyone. Those top ten lists could easily fill complete disk si- des in case people feel qualified and in the mood to fill votebooks instead of simple votesheets. Would it make the scene more transparent and better? Su- rely NOT, but some people would feel better to find themselves in one of those top ten lists, too. When will people recognize that NO chart position can re- place the FUN and ENTHUSIASM needed to be active and creative when even newcommer productions are containing annoying messages where they DEMAND votes to climb the charts ladder? Charts, charts, charts! Is that all what people DESIRE these days? Is it the FATE of the friendship scene? While complaining about the cracking scene the acti- vity level and the DAILY scene life should not be for- gotten, too. There is a permanent member fluctuation in the reigns of the cracking groups but there are only a few changes in the reigns of demo groups. In case the cracking scene disappears the rest will follow sooner or later, too. The original meaning of scene magazines was delive- ring news and information, not spreading personal or group propaganda or even creating opinions for the readers. News journals have kept the magazine's content up to date and interesting, providing the impression that there is atleast some movement and life left in the scene. Surely articles are highly ap- preciated, too, but on the other hand once there will come a point of no return when all interesting and important topics have been covered and the final en- joyment will be missing. Many magazines will disappear due to the fact that they are of NO NEED anymore, some because of the fact that members of cracking groups belong to the staff, the few out-of-date mail magazines won't be able to fill the HUGE gap left be- hind. Surely the mail magazines won't disappear and will SUIT the needs of their fellow readers, but will they be able to ATTRACT readers using to know the quality shown by the board scene related market lea- ders? It should be always kept in mind that the VA- RIETY makes the scene interesting, monopoles usually stop the desired progress which increases the qua- lity of all participating contributors. Without the board magazines as media many mail tra- ders or mail scene related persons are going to lose fast and actual information sources, important com- munication structures and finally the identification, as without information the scene will be an anonymous and uninteresting place to be. The would NOT benefit the interest of the legal groups. Sure, then there are still boards and the Internet left, but without the cracking scene boards will definately lose their sta- tus and place in the scene, without the cracking scene the callers will decrease by atleast 92%. In the Internet the legal groups have missed to built up own structures yet, starting with ftp-sites and mailing lists, all IMPORTANT addresses are currently hosted by cracking groups only. Internet access is western Europe still can be an expensive hobby, containing costs for telecommunication and providers, ofcourse it still an important factor avoiding people to enter this field to get information, as calling cards and hacking belong to the illegal sector legal groups do NOT even dare to accept. Once again it would not be- nefit the interests of demo groups. What is left now? After having cleared the market the scen life will more and more become boring with an every day passing, more and more people will leave the scene by heading for more interesting and living scene. The spirit and the fire can't be hold up by watching old demos day in day out, it can't be hold by by the promise that in four months at a big party two or three demos might be released. This is definately not what we'd like to see as the future for the CBM 64 scene, unfortunately many new faces in the demo scene are looking for a future like this by attacking the cracking scene continously. NO computer scene can kept alive by a demo scene only! Why do people declare the CBM 64 and its scene to be dead? Be- cause the MAJOR software houses have stopped to produce MAJOR titles based on the fact that the ma- chine has NO future in the commercial sense! Why do many persons declare the Amiga and its scene to be dead? Because many software houses decreased their amount of MAJOR titles for this system due to the uncertain situation all over the years! Why is it that on all MAJOR scene platforms, in chronological order CBM 64, Amiga and PC scene, originated from the boom of the software industry and cracking groups creating the structures of a scene? Why is it that platforms with only a few demo sceners left do NOT belong to the MAJOR platforms (Atari ST and Plus 4)? It is not hard to guess that the majority of those demo scene revolutionaries NEVER thought about it. Please load "Society II" to continue reading. Best regards, RRR/Oxyron ----------
Society 2
* SOCIETY II * ------------------------------------------------------------ Surely the cracking scene is definately not what it used to be years ago, that is a fact nobody can deny. There are many people looking for fast fame discre- diting the cracking scene and its members aswell as the term "elite", a title being proudly worn all over the years by leading and legendary groups. Every person prefers a different definition to the terms "elite", "lame" or "cool" just to name a few of them all, this personal freedom seems to have caused the problems with the term "elite" these days. Unlike some might believe in being an owner of a functionable modem, being a member of a top (cracking) crew or freshmen taking the charts by storm does NOT auto- matically make an elite scener. Fact is that the behaviour of some wanna-be elite members lowered the general reputation of elite sceners but that should not mean it is turning to the negative, dark side of the scene just because a few average men and some newcommers, never having done anything valueable for the scene and never were worthy to take the final step of scene hierachy, jealously claim that these days elite is nothing else but another definition for lame. It is no surprise that members of the "legal" scene are interested in changing the hierachy and the unwritten laws as the system working well over the years does not suits their interests. Not in real life nor in the scene people start at the top of the hierachy. It's a long and hard way starting as a traineee upgrading all over the years to reach the desired status, unfortu- nately the majority now thinks a revolution can bring them faster to the top. It is really sad to see some people destroying the structures and disregarding laws and having built up to guarantee that scene life worked well for about 14 years already. The question is what is more important, the well working system or rebellious individual? Anarchy destroys more than most might take into consideration. When people discuss about the sense of the cracking scene it is no secret that most of today's single cracker entries never removed a protection or have been forced to remove a protection with the first release pressure. Nevertheless some are still doing brilliant job with jewel versions or other useful en- hancements like REU support. People continously complain about the tricks of cracking groups to get their hands on original and previews before those productions have been sold to companies. To be honest, those men are just doing their job by supporting their group. It's nothing per- sonal, it's just business, that should not be forgot- ten. No, this is no cruel sarcasm, and if the game au- thors would follow the scene press and especially check out the advertisements chapter more carefully it wouldn't be a problem to see the differences bet- ween a contact letter and serious offer sent by a genuine company or just a promising try from a mem- ber of a cracking group. It's no secret that one can order information material or chan check things out at several addresses before sending a complete or a preview production to a suspicious address. CLEVER scene related game authors should be aware of this fact. Today it's a fashion to be a member of multiple groups, so it might happen that members of game labels or game producing groups are members in cracking groups, too. In case the author spreads the game within the group or to some so-called friends it might happen that the game can get into the hands of crackers, too, even if the author's group member or friend is not getting credited for providing the game. When the author does not know what is going on his own group/label he can't blame the cracking scene for the disaster! Especially newcommers looking for fast fame and respect or people who want to impress the upperclass cracking groups are providing those insider releases, looking for new "friends" and a better reputation in the reigns of the established scene. But that kind of problem was brought in with the multiple memberships being introduced to the scene in the past three to four years. Selling games by mail order on royalty basis is the usual way of distributing games these days. The in- come is surely NOT very attractive when it has to be shared with the distributor and the involved per- sons, too. But is there really a need for such a dis- distributor? Definately NOT! It should NOT be too hard to submit previews or copies of the full game to the few existing commercial magazines or the fanzi- nes which will be rather happy to support game au- thors by giving rather good reviews attracting po- tentional customers. Another important problem with those distributors is that they have the freedom to change the prize for the game, leading to the fact that the income can vary from what has been promi- sed. If you want to believe in what most distributors promise the CBM 64 market must still be rather at- tractive, on the other hand they can't even grant you a guaranted income covering atleast the sum of e.g. 100 sold copies? Companies like Cherry Software have published income tables providing information up to 10.000 sold copies what looks for sure quite pro- mising, so where is the problem to work with a system benefiting the authors, too? Authors should be cle- ver enough not getting trapped by suspicious offers which seem to be unrealistic in today's commercial sector as it is no secret that an attractive market is getting covered by major companies. The time has come not to blame others for personal mistakes, the time has come to accept that only the author is responsible for previously spread game backups or previews as no one else expect for the developing team normally needs a copy. In some cases the authors even put their unsold productions on spread disks and did wonder that cracking groups released it. No need to argue anymore. There is one secure method to prevent previously spread copies. Send in your productions to companies with a fine reputation, you can be sure that you will receive your money in advance and that you won't get ripped off. Proven to be reliable companies are CSW Verlag (Go64!), Magna Media (64'er) and Loadstar. Surely the reputation of cracking groups and its members in the rows of the legal population is not the best, but what about the attitudes of the demo scene and its members? There aren't any big differences! No doubt, it is not a question of facts and arguments to convince persons changing their opinion, never- theless these days it is quite interesting to see many groups after two or three successful demo releases celebrating themselves as the best ever happening to the scene and genuine alltime leaders not having any concurence left in the scene, a phenomenon to be found extremely often within the rows of cracking groups and mail traders, too. There are lots of exam- ples proving that taking the charts by storm is no problem these days, what is not the question of skills and knowledge anymore but the missing concurence and activity level. In the opinion of most newcommers the charts posi- tion is more important than scene affliation when it comes up to define the skills and knowledge level. No points in any charts can compile the experience made over the years. Mail traders are a quite good example here. What do mail trader charts express? Their skill level, their knowledge, their activity in votesheet spreading or their popularity level? Many mail traders made it to be top by spreading tons of votesheets, after rea- ching the top they usually feel to be something spe- cial and decrease their activity level when they find out that the effort is not worth the result, especially in these days with the rare amount of new warez. Does this charts entry define the status in the scene? Is an actual mega swapper a better swapper than a former mega swapper who decreased his acti- vity level and the number of contacts? Does the high- er entry in the charts now mean he really is better? Definately NOT! Here it is quite interesting to see who generally fills in the votesheets as in nine of ten cases unknown newcommers fill them, giving their votes to support their friends or they simply copy charts which have been seen elsewhere. Polish people unfortunately have the affliction to support fellow-countrymen only, so if those charts would be taken too serious there would be NO scene life outside Poland. People gene- rally spreading votesheets can be aware of the fact that in nine of ten filled and returned votesheets their handle and their group will appear for sure! When a person or a groups belongs to the circle of established entries nobody really needs to care about votesheets spreading anymore, as a quite high numberof votes follows automatically and can be seen as a part of the scene evolution, a matter of the fact the mail charts almost need half a year to react on actual happenings and changes. Due to the fact that charts can be influenced in any way (self-voting, friendship votes, ...) it is not a se- cure barometer to define the actual status in the scene but it is for sure a good way to define the po- pularity level and the acceptance within the scene. It seems that no one of the legal part of the scene has already found out that the demo scene is bene- fitting from the work of cracking groups, too. Many useful tools making the scene job more easy for pro- grammers, graphic artists, composers and even mail traders were originally distributed by companies, especially to be found on German programm disks like Input 64, 64'er, Magic Disk and Game On have been cracked and released by cracking groups, not to talk about any improvements or translations or are there any freaks out there just working with original soft- ware they have paid for? Furthermore there are the rare games being offered and sold these days aswell the combined magazine and programm disk packages, who are the potentional customers? Some non-scene related persons and crackers aswell as members of cracking groups, supporting that original to their group in the hope to get a release, and just on the third level in a quite weak percentage members of le- gal teams! But what went wrong here that those who want to keep the spirit of the CBM 64 scene alive do do not support the commercial aspect of the compu- ter system at all? When a good game is getting relea- sed just have a look into the disk boxes of legal sceners, it is not too hard to imagine what can be found in there! Correct, it is NOT the original but a crack. Why does the legal scene not support its fellow members? An every sold copy could convince game authors to continue and creating another piece of software for this machine! People continously demand high quality games and complain about the general shown quality these days, on the other hand they are not willing to pay for the delivered quality, so what do those people expect? Not even enthusiastic authors will create games when the income does not cover the costs for its development, that's a fact ALL scene related persons should be aware of. The more easy and comfortable way is to blame cracking groups for the situation and waiting for someone else to get ac- tive here by changing the current situation. Instead of waiting for a change or complaining about the situation people should better getting active themselves. There are many ways for active persons to improve the situation step by step, but remaining passive and complaining can not be the ultimate solu- tion, not in the scene and not in the commercial sector. Everyone is talking about a friendship scene these days with friendship to be the engine keeping the scene activities alive but the days presenting a fair, respectful competition seem to have been gone for good. Actually the scene consists of wanna-be num- ber one groups and individuals with the only interest in ruling the ruins of the CBM 64 scene, respect to- wards more advanced competitors is gone, as these competitors already archieved the DESIRED position in the charts and status in the scene. Never before the scene has been the immense number of mobbing, lies to save questionable reputations of groups and persons, brainless and jealous attacks against com- petitors without any background just to reflect the spotlight away from own failures and incompetence. Friendship does not mean that the friends have to come up with compliments and positive critism all the time, a genuine friendship should allow controversial discussions without declaring war later on or to re- move members from the memberstatus for causing disruption and disorder within the group. If a so-called friendship does not stand the truth and different opinions where else to find internal and ex- ternal credibility or honesty? No, a genuine friend- ship should be something completely different than filling the friends', groups' and productions' name on the top of the votesheet subjects or supplying the so-called friends with originals or whateveer else is benefitting him. The term "friendship" is very often abused these days, the correct definition for the scene should better be community of interests instead of friend- ship scene. Each part of the scene was its advantages and dis- advantages, both the demo and the cracking scene. Nevertheless no one can deny the fact that BOTH parts are benefitting from each other, so the discus- sion about the right of existence in any part of the scene is worthless as it was and still is the symbiosis that designs the variety in the scene to be an inte- resting place to be, a place having lost most of its very own magic all over the years. Isn't it a quite good example of racism? Isn't it the CBM 64 scene having made demos against racism? Isn't it especially the "liberal" and "open-minded" demo scene claiming to be against racism? Why is that part of the scene practising racism in this case? What is the current status? The scene still claims to be a friendship scene but can't afford to miss an every single chance to corrupt potentional competi- tors. The scene discussed about the sense of its single parts and does not recognize that it will destroy itself with unforced trench wars much faster than some might expect. Sure, if there are five per- sons left in the scene it still can be defined as scene but will that remain the scene built up and kept alive all over the years? Is it that important for certain individuals and groups in various fields to rule the ruins and to destroy the remaining strcutrues for fast fame, a questionable fame in an almost dead scene? Farewell, oh scene, we have had a nice time, a long time before almost all of today's rulers have known about the existance of this beautiful place and un- derground ressort, unfortunately that time is long gone for good! Best regards, RRR/Oxyron ----------
Party Radar
* PARTY RADAR * ------------------------------------------------------------ A S S E M B L Y ' 9 7 Helsinki Fair Center, 8th - 10th of August 1997 1. Opening words To state the obvious, you are reading the official AS- SEMBLY '97 party invitation info file. Some facts pre- sented in this information file might change prior to the party and the best way of keeping informed is to regularly check out web site at www.assembly.org. 2. Facts 2.1 Where and When Date & Time The party will start at 10.00 (am) on Friday 8th of August and end at 20.00 on Sunday 10th of August. Check out the preliminary schedule for more detailed info. Helsinki Fair Center (the place). For the third consecutive time the party is held in the largest con- ference centrum in Finland - the Helsinki Fair Center So there will enough room for everybody - if you've some special requirements contact us prior to the event. We wouldn't like a tent in the girls WC, but we might actually feel good about it in the corner of the party area. This year the hall is different from the previous years, so the door used for loading and unloading during Friday morning and Sunday afternoon is not used this year. The new door is located around the corner (about 100 meters away). Some facts about the hall - the address: Rautatielaisenkatu 3 in Pasila (the name of the part of the city) - how to get there: 1. Take any local train from the central Helsinki rail way station (in Finnish: "Rautatieasema", in German: "Hauptbahnhof", in swahili... well who cares) 2. Get out at Pasila 3. Look around until you see a -giant- red block of buildings. head there. 4. Join the party. 2.2. Getting there Getting there by air Flying to Helsinki is easy, but it ain't cheap. Finnair (www.finnair.fi), Lufthansa (www.lufthansa.com) and SAS (www.sas.se) fly regularly to Helsinki and with luck you might find a plane that takes you to Helsinki early on Friday morning. If/when you arrive at the Helsinki Airport (Helsenki- Vantaa) there are three options to take: 1. take a cab (fast but expensive) (costs about 100- 150 FIM) 2. take a group taxi (yellow line). a bit more unexpen- sive (about 60-100 FIM) 3. take a bus to the center of Helsinki. The buses leave regularly approx. 30 minutes apart. Getting there by sea A short cruise from Stockholm to Helsinki always (!) results in definite fun. A lot of good looking girls, great weather and luxirious ships guarantee a lot of good time. Check out Viking Line and Silja Line (www.silja.fi). When you arrive in the harbour you can either 1) walk to the central railway station (not advised with a lot of hardware) 2) take the tram to the central railway station 3) take a cab to the Helsinki Fair Center (costs about 60-100 FIM) Getting there by car If you are coming by car you should find the trip easy once you get inside Finlands borders. Head on to Helsinki, the capital. Once you are in Helsinki, do not drive to actual center, but find your way to Pasila. Check out the maps for central Helsinki and Pasila more details. There is plenty of parking space at the Helsinki Fair Center. General about Helsinki You can find more info about Helsinki City at www.hel.fi (maps, tourist info, etc.). (maps, tourist info etc). Local area bus tickets in Finland vary from around $2 to $4 US. The taxi is of course more expensive. For example to take a normal taxi from the airport to the party place will cost one person around $30-40 US. But if you take the Airport Taxi, it will be a lot lot cheaper (about half the price). 2.3 Party features Audio and video The main hall will once again feature a (too) powerful sound system. We will have (wow) stereo output and kicking base at 10 000 watts of pure sound power. And naturally we will give out free earplugs. The big screen is over 8 meters wide and and supports the 640 x 480 resolution. Definitely the way to see the demos. Network The kick ass network is once again at ASSEMBLY. Provided by Telecom Finland we have over 30 mega- bytes/sec ATM cable and a reliable local area net- work. Voting and party information will be done in the party intranet. We will also provide extremely good service to people not able to come to ASM. Using Telecom Finlands Me- diaLab technology we will able to send streaming au- dio & video from all competitions (!), party events, re- ports, interviews and gallups. In addition to the cool webTV we will also have a four person reporter team working on a ASM eZINE publi- shed at the website. So you can expect very good coverage of all events. Halls The party area this year is a little bit bigger hall in the different part of the Helsinki Fair Center than in previous years. The hall is the B4 hall (if that means anything to anybody =)). We got about 4500 square meters of party area with 1500 computer places. The sleeping hall is situated in a near by computer scien- ce institute (ATK-instituutti) for perfect sleeping peace. No noise, no hassle. Remember to bring your own sleeping bag. The main party area doesn't have windows so the video screens will look absolutely fa- bulous at the competitions. Services The party place is the biggest fair centre in Finland. It will feature 24h food service (yes, we have Coke!), 24h security personnel, 24h professional electri- cian, 24h luggage preservation service and cleaning personnel. Also 24h help desk with friendly personell will be available to help you out with any problems you might encounter. Plenty of toilets and some showers will be available. Cool party t-shirts will be sold for low prices. FREE earplugs! Parking We got the biggest parking lot in Helsinki City =). We don't yet know the Fair Center's policy towards par- king but we presume that parking will be free or cost cost only 20-40 FIM for the duration of the event. 3. Competitions The organizers reserve the right to make any chan- ges to the competition rules, and to disqualify any entry if it is not suitable to attend the competitions for some reason. So don't include any explicit sexual, racist or disturbing material. Atleast one of the au- thors of a competiting product has to be present at the party place in order to attend the competitions and to receive possible prizes. In solo competitions music, graphics, 4kb) the author has to be present. In the Java demo compo, you don't need to be pre- sent to enter the compo. Read more details the Java demo compo rules. Only contributions delivered be- fore the deadline will participate in the competitions. A jury composed of known scene people (maybe even you!) will select an amount of 15 entries in each com- petition to the finals (to be shown on the big screen to the audience). There will be different people in the PC and Amiga jurys. "Maximum running length" below is only the amount of time we will show a particular piece of art on the big screen. The demos/intros will have to run without ANY user interaction once started (although there can be a setup screen). The filenames of the produc- tions have to comply with the ISO-9660 standard. This means that the only characters allowed in filena- mes are "A-Z" and "0-9". The maximum length of the filename is 8+3 characters as in MS-DOS standard. The productions MUST NOT save any files (for exam- ple configuration files) on the harddisk or the disk. In the music, graphics, raytracing and 4kb intro compe- titions only one of the authors (if there are more than one) can be the official author of the competing piece of art. For example, if two coders work on the same 4kb intro, only one of them can receive the pri- ze and his name in the party results. After all, these three competitions are meant to be solo competitions The authors have to have all copyrights to their pro- duction. If you are dumb enough to rip graphics from Quake we won't be dumb enough to show it on the screen. All entries will be distributed immediately af- ter ASSEMBLY. If you wish to release a bugfixed ver- sion, submit that to the info crew before the end of the party. All entries will be included on the Erave 3 CD-ROM, which will be released approx. one month af- ter the party. PROJECTOR "FEATURES" We will use the same projector as in ASSEMBLY '96. This means that we have to load a special driver be- fore showing anything on the screen. This driver en- ables the video convertor to work correctly. Unfortunately it has the side effect of slowing down demos using a specific timing routine. To counter this the driver will be available from our web site as soon as possible so you can test your demo or intro with that driver to see if it affects your code. In ASM '96 only couple of demos suffered from the timing problem but it is better to be safe than sorry. We don't know yet how the driver will influence Windows Direct-X demos. But it is safe to assume that if your timing code has problems with it in DOS it will most probably continue behaving badly also in Windows. You should note that the picture produced by a video projector is not as good as a monitor picture. The video projec tor does not show pale colors well and in some cases can even lose them completely. Also the contrast can be different. These are common problems will all video problems with all video projectors and simply can't be corrected. Please try to understand these restric- tions. If you have any questions about the rules, con- tact ASSEMBLY Organizing. 3.1 Voting information We will use a WWW based voting system. You will recei- ve a badge stating your user number and a password This combination will enable you to vote on our Intra- net server. You can vote for the five best in each categories. The production placed in your vote in the first place will receive 5 points, the second 4 points and so on. 3.2 Jury information Before you can give your opinion, a jury composed of known scene people will qualify the products to the finals. The members of the jury will give points from 1 to 10 for each product and the average of the points will be its final score. 15 best scoring products will qualify to finals. If there is more than one product that qualified as 15th the jury will commonly decide which one of them will quali- fy. 3.3 PC COMPETITION GENERAL RULES The name of any file has to comply to the ISO-9960 standard (i.e. NO special or "SuP3r k3wl" characters are allowed). The maximum length of the file name is 8+3 characters. The production must NOT save any- thing on the harddisk/disk. If you are having trouble adding Sound Blaster support to your production, check out the Midas sound system. Competition machines DEMO, 64k INTRO & 4k INTRO: Pentium 133 MHz with 16 MB of RAM, MS-DOS 7.0, the competition machine will be booted up with HIMEM and EMM386, so make sure your productions runs with them, 2 MB PCI SVGA graphics card (a S3 964 acce- lerated card), Gravis UltraSound with 1 MB of on- board memory and/or Sound Blaster AWE 32 with 1MB of onboard memory, 550 kb of free base memory, hi- ghest allowed screen resolution is 640 X 480. All productions have to support 256 color mode but can also use any high color use ( we will use the best possible mode when showing the productions) WIN '95 DIRECT X DEMO Pentium 133 MHz with 16 MB of RAM & 20 MB of swap, Windows 95, Direct X 3.0, Matrox Millenium with 4 MB of onboard memory GENERAL RULES (demo, 64k & 4k intro) The user has to be able to exit at any time by press- ing ESC. PC demos and intro have to check for sound card enviroments variables. If found they must be u- sed! The formats of the enviromental variables are: GUS ULTRASND=220,1,1,11,7 (address, dma, dma, gus irq, sb irq) SB BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T1 (a=address, i=irq, d=dma) If the enviromental variables are found, your pro- duction has to use them and should not show the u- sual setup screen. This will eliminate a great deal of hassle during the competitions and it will also be user friendly (wow..). The DOS4GW.EXE is located in the path, so you don't have to include it with your pro- duction. If you use SVGA modes, be sure that your production uses the standard VESA modes. We will use UNIVBE for the VESA compability. GENERAL RULES (Win'95) The user has to be able to exit at any time by press- ing ESC. You have to use Windows 95 sound interface to actually play the music, so no direct fiddling around with the hardware. We will run Windows in 640 X 480 X 24 bit mode. The production will be shown in We will run Windows in 640 x 480 x 24 bit mode. The fullscreen mode but a windowed mode support is a definite bonus! 3.4 PC DEMO COMPETITION Maximum size in executable form is 6144 kb (6 MB). Maximum showing time is 8 minutes, the demo itself can be longer. Maximum base memory requirement is 550 kb. 100% VGA register level compatible graphic modes and SVGA modes up to 640*480 are accepted. You are free to use any number of colors but the demo has to work also with only 256 colors. Pure animation files are not accepted. Also executables only inclu- ding an animation and an animation player will not be accepted, this is not an animation competition. Gravis Ultrasound (512kb) and SB PRO/SB 16 support requi- red. The demo has to have also a "no sound" option. 3.5 WIN'95 DIRECT-X DEMO COMPETITION Maximum size in executable form is 4096 kb (4 MB). Maximum showing time is 5 minutes, the demo itself can be longer. The demo has to run ona machine with 16MB of physical memory and 20MB of swap space, but can use all memory available in larger machines. The demo must use and comply to Direct X 3.0. The music system must support and use either Direct Sound or the standard Win32 audio functions, direct hardware access it not allowed. We will use a well est- ablished sound card for sound output (SB Awe 32, SB Awe 64 or some other). Make sure that your sound routines support also wave table cards with only 512 kb on board memory. The maximum screen size of the is 640 x 480. You're free to use up to 24 bit colors but the demo must work also in 256 color mode. You can support other screen modes too, but the production will be run in 640 X 480 resolution in 24 bit color mode. We will display all demos in full screen mode. A windowed ver- sion is definitely a bonus. Pure animation files aren't accepted. Also executables only including an anima- mation and an animation player will not be accepted, this is not an animation competition 3.6 PC 64k INTRO COMPETITION Maximum size in executable form is 64 KB (65536 by- tes). Maximum showing time is 5 minutes. Maximum base memory requirement is 550 kb. 100% VGA register le- vel compatible graphics modes and SVGA modes up to 640 X 480 are accepted. You are free to use any number of colors but the demo has to work also with demo has to work also with only 256 colors. Pure ani mation files are not accepted. On the release version Gravis Ultrasound (1024kb) and SB PRO/SB 16 sup- port required. This version can be over 65536 bytes long. Also a no sound option is required. On the com- petition version either Gravis Ultrasound or SB PRO/ SB 16 support required In PC 64kb intro competition 2 versions of the intro can be submitted. The competing version which is un- der 65536 bytes long and supports either GUS or SB and the release version which supports both. Relea- se version can be over 65536 bytes long. Competing 64kb intros cannot be in any case longer than 65536 bytes. Both release and competition version has to submitted to the organizers before the deadline. 3.7 PC 4k INTRO COMPETITION Maximum size in executable form in 4096 bytes. Maxi- mum showing time is 3 minutes. Maximum base memory requirement is 550 kb. NO MUSIC or other sound is (because this is a coders competition, not musicians) Only 100% VGA register level compatible graphics mo- des are accepted (no SVGA/VESA). Only one intro by one coder. You must submit two versions: a compo version and a release version. The compo version may not display the name of the author or his group. 3.8 AMIGA GENERAL RULES As the competition machine we will use: A1200, 2mb chip memory, 8 mb fast memory, 68030 at 50 Mhz. We are still considering a Blizzard 68060 turbocard for the machine and a possibility to use some 24 bit gra- phics card. If you have opinions about this, please send us comments. The user has to be able to exit at any time by press- ing the left mouse button. The name of the file has to comply to the ISO-9660 standart (i.e. NO special or "SuP3r k3wl" characters are allowed9. The maximum characters are allowed). The maximum length of the file names is 8+3 characters. The production must NOT save anything on the harddisk/disk. 3.9 AMIGA DEMO COMPETITION Maximum size in executable form is 6144 kb (6 MB). Must be harddisk installable. Maximum running length is 8 minutes, the demo itself can be longer. 3.10 AMIGA 64k INTRO COMPETITION Maximum size in executable form is 64 kb (65536 by- tes). Maximum showing time is 5 minutes. 3.11 MUSIC COMPETITION GENERAL RULES The name of the files have to comply to the ISO-9660 = no special characters are allowed! The maximum length of the file names is 8 + 3 (the MS-DOS stan- dard file format). We will display the patterns of the tune on the screen while playing it. We will not display We will not display the name of the author on the screen while playing it. Make sure your tune doesn't contain hints about the identity of the author or we'll forced to display something like "tune 2" as the title. 3.12 MULTICHANNEL MUSIC COMPETITION Maximum amount of channels is 32. Maximum size of the song is 1024 kb in a playable format (including all samples, pattern data, etc.). Maximum running length is 3 minutes. We will accept: - FastTracker 2 modules (.XM) with up to 32 channels - ScreamTracker 3 modules (.S3M) with up to 32 channels - Basic Protracker modules (.MOD) with 4 channels, also extended PT-like formats with up to 32 chan- nels are supported All songs will be played with PC compatible player u- sing a 1MB Gravis UltraSound. One one song by one musician. 3.13 4 CHANNEL MUSIC COMPETITION Maximum size is 880kb (=one Amiga disk). Maximum a- mount of channels is 4. Maximum running lenght is 3 Maximum running length is 3 minutes. All songs will be played with the Amiga ProTracker (not renamed, no powerpacked). Only one song by one musician. The fi- les have to comply to the ISO-9660 standard = no special characters are allowed! The maximum length of the file names in 8+3. 3.15 ANIMATION COMPETITION The maximum running length is 2 minutes. The frame rate of the animation has to be 15 pics/sec. Anima- tion format will be AVI (Intel Indeo) with sound track. Please continue reading in Party Radar II.
Party Radar 2
* PARTY RADAR II * ------------------------------------------------------------ The sound track should be 22 kHz, 8 bit. The maxi- mum resolution is 320 X 200. The animation must be delivered on a CD-ROM or an Iomega ZIP drive. No hard disks or floppy disks. 3.16 GRAPHIC COMPETITION The maximum resolution allowed is 640 X 480. The maximum amount of simultaneous onscreen colors is 24 bit. The palette is the standart 24 bit true color palette. Pictures drawn with Amiga will be shown with Amiga Brilliance (no executables!). Pictures drawn with PC will be shown with CSHOW (or some other good picture viewer). PC pictures will have to be in TGA, LBM or IFF format. Scanned, ripped and raytraced pictures will be disqualified. We will have jury of esta- blished graphicians disqualifying copied pictures. Do NOT copy original work of art. You must submit at least three versions of the unfinished pictures that show the process of creating the picture. In addition you must submit a version of the final picture which doesn't have your signature on it (which will be shown on the big screen). Only one picture by one graphic artist. 3.17 RAYTRACE COMPO The maximum resolution allowed in 640X480. The ma- ximum amount of simultaneous onscreen colors is 24 bit. The palette is the standart 24 bit true color pa- lette. Pictures will be shown on PC with true color palette. Pictures have to be in JPG or TARGA format. We will have jury of established graphicians disquali- fing copied pictures. Do NOT copy original work of art. You must submit atleast three versions of the unfi- nished picture that show that the process of creat- ing the picture. In addition, you must submit a version of the final picture which doesn't have your signa- ture on it (which will be shown on the big screen). On- ly one picture by one graphics artist. 3.18 Commodore 64 general rules As the competition machine we will use: - a standard C64 - original 1541 floppy drive - Action Replay MK6 cartridge Please note that this is preliminary info on the compo machine. Only one contribution from each group/ar- tist is accepted for each competition series. Contri- butions must be 100% finished before the deadline, because we will copy and spread all of them at the party. This is just to avoid final versions being relea- sed months or possibly even years after the party. The deadlines aren't too flexible so please deliver your contributions in time (read: EARLY ENOUGH) to avoid hassle. Your contribution disks won't be retur- ned (doing so would cause an enormous hassle, just use your imagination and guess why!). imagination and guess why!). 3.19 C64 DEMO COMPETITION Each demo will be shown for a maximum of 15 minutes. Coding your demos in such a manner that pressing space is not required is highly recommended. If, how- ever, your demo should require any user interaction we want a person from the contributing group to run the demo. After all, there's no way we could possibly know which effects the coder would like to be shown a bit longer than the others... At least one person must be present from the contri- buting group (If it's not a group release (which is ex- tremely unlikely), then the coder must be present him/herself). 3.20 C64 GRAPHICS COMPETITION The picture must be an executable file. ALL graphic formats are accepted. Only the picture must be seen on the screen; no scrollers or other moving things are allowed. Background musics are acceptable (not recommended though) but during the competition no one will hear it, as the audio equipment will be turned off. Please try to give your picture some (sensible) name to avoid too many "unnamed" pictures compe- ting. The artist must be present at the party. 3.21 C64 music compo The tune must be an executable file. Only your imagi- nation's the limit; samples are of course accepted. Each tune will be played for max. 3 minutes (this does not mean you'd have to cut the tune at 3:00 sharp though! Even if your tune won't be played for more than three minutes at the party, people will play it lon ger at home). Please try to give your tune some (sen sible) name to avoid too many "unnamed" tunes com- peting. The artist must be present at the party. 3.22 Java demo compo The maximum size of the production (including all gra- phics, sound files, class files, HTML files) is 100 kb (unpacked). Maximum showing time is 5 minutes (the demo itself can be longer). The demo has to be an ap- plet. Maximum applet size is 320 x 200 pixels. The ap- plet will be run inside Netscape Navigator (exact version will be announced later). You must supply a HTML page and the necessary files in which to run the applet. The HTML pages maximum width is 600 pi- xels, max height is 400 pixels and it must use only le- gal Netscape palette colors. You may not open any network connections from the applet (the compo ma- chine won't be connected to Internet). You may not o- pen new browser/applet windows. The applet has to run on the HTML page you supply. The java code has to comply to the API version 1.0.2 (official release). You may not use JAR/ZIP archives. There can be only one actual applet (= you can have only one ap- plet tag in your HTML code), but it can use several class files. The max. sampling frequency of sound samples is 11 kHz. You don't need to be present at the party place to take part in the Java demo competi- tion. The competition will be international. All produc- tions that are submitted in before hand have to be uploaded to a ASSEMBLY Organizings ftp-site (an- nounced later). Last date for uploading a production will be 4.8.1997 at 00:00 am More details will be publi- shed later at www.assembly.org/asm97. 3.23 WILD COMPETITION The productions can be anything from computer ge- generated animations, demos on ancient or exotic computers to plain video art. The only requirement is that the productions are cool. Maximum showing time is 5 minutes, the production itself can be longer (thank you guys from the last years wild compo =)). The production has to be delivered on a SVHS or VHS cassette (European PAL format). The cassette will not be returned. No copyrighted material or material that violates Finnish or international laws is allowed in the production. 4. Prizes The total value of all the prizes in US dollars will be over US$ 23.000 (not including software). The ac- tual prizes may be software, hardware or pure cash. This depends on our sponsors. The following list in- cludes only the preliminary list of the prizes (the fi- nal lists will be published at the party place). Also keep in mind that the money exchange rates also af- fect this list (at the time of writing of this file one US was 5.1 Finnish marks). All damages to the Fair cent- re, other surroundings and other damages caused by party visitors will be REDUCED from the prizes be- fore any prizes are paid. This is because of previous trouble with people breaking up places, furniture and spraying the walls and thus causing damage of many thousand dollars. All prizes will be paid at the party place. We will try to give cash prizes in the PC and A- miga demo competitions. The prizes in the other com- petitions may be more or less various hardware and software. All the cash prizes will be paid in Finnish currency. PC competition prize values (in US dollars) demo win'95 64k intro 4k intro 1. 2750 1000 1000 500 2. 1250 500 500 250 3. 750 250 250 250 4. 500 5. 250 Amiga competition prize values (in US dollars) demo 64k intro 1. 1750 1000 2. 750 500 3. 500 250 Music competition prize values (in US dollars) multich 4 ch 1. 500 500 2. 250 250 3. 150 150 Graphics competition prize values (in US dollars) Animation Graphics Raytrace 1. 1000 500 500 2. 500 250 250 3. 250 150 150 C64 competition prize values (in US dollars) demo graphics music 1. 400 200 200 2. 150 100 100 3. 50 50 50 Java & wild compo prize values (in US dollars) Java demo Wild 1. 500 500 2. 250 250 3. 150 150 5. Tickets We have lowered the ticket prize! This year there is only one ticket (NO computer place reservation fee), and the prize is 220 fim (apprx. 45 USD) The compu- ter place reservations can only be made by buying tickets in advance from ASSEMBLY Organizing. We'll not have any "one-day" tickets. The sale of reserva- tion tickets will end at 4th of August. 5.1 Buying in advance You can buy your advance ticket from ASSEMBLY Organizing. Groups that want to get the group dis- count and computerplace reservations have to be bought in advance from Assembly Organizing. If your group buys 10 or more tickets at the same time you'll receive the 10% group discount from the ticket prizes To order a ticket you have to pay directly to the ac- account of ASSEMBLY Organizing (see contact info). Make sure, when you pay directly to the account that Assembly Organizing doesn't get any additional costs and the amount of money covers the costs of the or- dered ticket. Also make sure that we get the infor- mation who has sent the money and where we can send the tickets. After making the payment, please please make an official order at our WWW-site (http://www.assembly.org/asm97). Groups in Finland can order their tickets directly from our WWW-site http://www.assembly.org/asm97). The tickets will be shipped as COD ("postiennakko"). Please allow 20 FIM for postage costs. If you buy your ticket in advance you have the possi- bility to use group discount of 10%. You have the pos- sibility for group discount if you buy more than 10 tickets at a time. Also the table reservation is possi- ble only by buying reservation ticket. You don't have to reserve table for yourself, but the best places near the videoprojector screen go to the reser- vers. The earlier you reserve your place the better place you get. We will organize special door in the first day of As- sembly '97 where you can get your computer in most most conviniently. 5.2 At the partyplace Tickets will be sold at the party place for the same fee of 220 FIM. All computer place reservations tik- kets have to be bought in advance. There is no group discount when you buy tickets from the door. 6. Party network All participants will be offered a chance to join the party network. The purpose of this network is to al- low the users to surf the web, use the IRC, telnet (ssh), MediaNet and the NetRadio. The official infor- tionsite during the event will be www.assembly97.net, which will tell you what services are available and what software and which drivers are required. The NetInfo will be open 24h/day at the event to help you in case you run into problems. What you will need: Ethernet Adapter Card with either a Twisted Pair or Coaxial interface: Cable (about 5-10m), either twisted pair or coaxial. For twisted pair (10BaseT, UTP) you will need RJ-45 connectors. For coaxial cable (10Ba- se2, thinnet) you will need BNC-connectros and a T- T-connector. Software: The supported protocols are TCP/IP and IPX Drivers: TCP/IP Stack, Ethernet adapter drivers (can be found at the sites listed below.) Drivers for Ethernet Adapter Cards:Allied Telesyn, 3COM, D-Link Metropoli files How to connect to the network Having found your place at the party place you will need to connect to the network. If the cabletype you are using is Twisted Pair, plug one end of the cable in the adapter card and the other in the hub that you'll find at your table. It is strongly recommended to use twisted pair, since it caused less problems than coa- xial cable. If you are using coaxial cable, start by making sure there are one or two cables connected to your T- connector. In case of only one, you will need to at- tach a terminator to the unused end of the T-con- nector. Then plug the T-connector in the adapter card and the BNC-connectors (or one BNC-connec- tor and one terminator) to your T-connector. The coaxial cable should be a 50 ohm cable - RG58C/U is a good cable type. If possible do not use homemade cables since they of- ten cause problems. Cables will be sold at the event. The IP-adresses will be distributed using DHCP (Dy- namic Host Configuration Protocol). When you come up on the network for the first time you will need to issue a broadcast that will seek the DCHP server, which when found will respond by giving you an IP-ad- dress and other information needed (subnet mask, DNS-server, default gateway etc). If your machine supports DHCP it will automatically do this for you, o- therwise you can get your IP-address etc at the NetInfo during the event. Operating systems that support DHCP directly are Windows95 and WindowsNT It is forbidden to use the network for distributing material that is under copyright or is illegal in any way. If you wish to maintain a server of your own, please contact the NetCrew at netcrew^net.assembly.org in advance. 7. Preliminary schedule FRIDAY, 8th of August 10.00 ASSEMBLY doors open - the party may begin! 13.00 Sign-up for out door compos begins (not yet confirmed) 15.00 Outdoor compos (not yet confirmed) 19.00 C64 competition deadline - all C64 contributions must be entered 22.00 Deadline for all competitions 23.00 C64 competitions start SATURDAY, 9th of August 12.00 4 channel music competition 13.00 Graphics competition 13.30 32 channel music competition 15.00 PC 4k intro competition 16.00 Amiga 64k intro competition 17.30 PC 64k intro competition 20.00 Java demo competition 21.30 Win'95 demo competition 23.30 Wild competition SUNDAY, 10th of August 09.00 Amiga demo competition 11.30 Animation competition 12.30 PC demo competition 15.00 Vote counting 16.00 Announcement of winners and prize ceremony 20.00 Doors close - ASM'97 is over! 8. Disclaimer We don't take any responsibility on the safety of the equipment people bring to the party place. We sug- gest you take an insurance for your equipment from some insurance company. And remember, you can store your equipment by using the luggage preser- vation service which will be available at the party party place. If you have ANY suggestions or ideas about anything written in this text file, don't hesitate to contact us! While you are visiting Finland you have to follow Fin- nish laws. If you break laws at the Fair Centre we will call the police to take care of you. You will also have to answer for anything you break at the party place. All damages to the fair centre, other surroundings and other damages will be reduced from the total prize money. NO ALCOHOL/DRUGS/SMOKING NOR SOFTWARE PIRATISM ALLOWED IN THE PARTY PLACE 9. Contact info You can reach us by many means according to the following list: Voice: ASSEMBLY Org. +XXX-X-XXXX XXXX Fax: ASSEMBLY Org. +XXX-X-XXXX XXXX WWW: http://www.assembly.org/asm97 E-mail: assembly^assembly.org iRC: #asm97 Normal mail: ASSEMBLY Organizing c/o Oy Eworks Finland Ab XXXXXXXXXXX XX XXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX Bank account for international money transfers: Oy Eworks Finland Ab Handelsbanken XXXXXX-XXXXXXX Swift code: HANDFIHH Please include your address with the payment, where you want the tickets to be sent. Also make sure that there are no additional expenses for the receiver of the payment. Best regards, RRR/Oxyron ----------
The Hunt 97
T H E H U N T 9 7 ------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome to the first ever Commodore 64 scene sca- venger hunt, brought to you by Digital Excess, Fair- Light, Relax Magazine and the coordinators of the highly acclaimed High Voltage SID collection. This is YOUR chance to prove that you KNOW the scene and aren't one of so many imposters and wanna-bes who claim to be the scene nowadays. The Hunt consists of 40 questions and tasks, for each fullfilled task or right answer you'll be awarded with points, naturally the one with the most points wins. Deadline is September 26th, 1997. Send your ans- wers and resources to hunt^crypt.ruhr.de, but please note the following: if you know of an FTP or WEB site you got a special demo or game from that we ask for, please send the complete URL of the same demo so that we simply can check the URL in- stead. Of course make sure to include a contact address, your handle and group with your answers so that the fame of winning goes to the right guy. We'll keep you informed about the progress and the standings on our webpage at http://hunt97.ml.org. Have fun.... - 01 - Provide photos of the following people a) Charles Deenen b) Jonathan Dunn c) Fred Gray d) Jeroen Kimmel e) Mitch/ESI f) Jeroen Tel & Charles Deenen on ONE(!) photo - 02 - Who wrote the book "Mapping the C64"? - 03 - The game "Bamboo" was never finished because the programmer could not keep the VSP from trashing the memory. He'd been very famous for a scrolling platform game he did before that. What's his name? Provide a version of the game. - 04 - What is the real name of the programmer of FunPaint II? - 05 - The copy-protection "Timex System" was invented and programmed by a German cracker. What's his real name and what was his group? - 06 - Who invented FLD, what is the programmers real name, what does FLD stand for and in what demo was it first shown? When was the demo released? - 07 - Deejay of the original United Artists later program- med a lot of games with a well-known German demo and game group. What is his real name and what's the name of the group? - 08 - What graphic artist became well-known for his C64 conversations of several heavy metal group LP co- vers? - 09 - Before he joined Maniacs of Noise Reyn Ouwehand was a member of another NL group. What group and what was his handle in that time? - 10 - Before he joined 711 Sebastian Broghammer program- med legendary demo-, intro- and lettermakers with the group he was in before. What was that group's name? Provide one of these programms? - 11 - What group was the infamous Excell in before he joi- ned Ikari? - 12 - The group Network did make a huge impact on the scene, as one of the tools of their production was the thing to have but was rather hard to get at first. What was the name of the tool, and who was the author? - 13 - Some people in the C64 scene join and leave groups like other people change their underwear. Name a scener that was in all of the groups listed below. a) Alpha Flight 1970, Avantgarde, F4CG b) Genesis Project, Amok, Vibrants c) Trans-X, Science 451, Beastie Boys d) Vision, Action, Hitmen e) Weird Science, Contex, Megastyle - 14 - What well-known German cracker group emerged from the ashes of the Xades Society? - 15 - The late Strike Force was in permanent cooperation with another group. Name the group and all of its members. - 16 - Every group has its abbreviation to put it in the file- name of their releases or just to have short short way to show their affiliation. Name the groups that belong to the following abbreviations. One was even used by two groups, name both. a) FIG b) FS c) RWE d) SCS e) TLC f) TLI g) UCF h) WWE i) YF j) ZEN - 17 - With 1989 came the time of the disk magazines, lots of poeple saw on "easy" way to have regular relea- ses and so a lot of mags flooded the scene. Name the groups that STARTED the following disk mags and provide the first issues. a) Cocoon b) Endemic c) Exploding d) Magic News/Scene Press e) Mamba f) Magnetic Dreams g) Propaganda h) Sex'n'Crime i) The Times j) Vinews - 18 - One magazine once reported that Jeroen Tel had been kicked out of Maniacs of Noise. Name the mag and issue. - 19 - The guy who invented "System 4" also did a famous paper mag. Name the mag and the guy. - 20 - What group did the Digital Jukebox series and how many have been done? - 21 - A group, which was also responsible for a famous graphic programm, released a REU demo on the Ikari/ Zargon party. What is the name of the demo and group? Provide the demo. - 22 - Reluctant of finding new names for their demos at some time people started to do demo series with the same name, just changing an index number. Name the groups that did the following demo series. How many parts have been released of each series? Provide the last demo of each series. - 23 - With differences between groups and antisympathy for some guys a special form of demos came into existance, the so-called anti-demos. Provide the following: a) "Eat me Raw (Shits of ESI)" (against ESI) b) "Shut your moutn" (against Steve/Zenith) c) "Greco's Nightmare" (against Greco/Zenobits) d) "Censor Logo destruct" (against Censor) e) "Die Hard Agile" (against Agile) - 24 - A game released in 1997 featured a title picture that was ripped from a 1992 Digital Excess game. Name both games. - 25 - Which German cracking group released "legal" cracks of some Magic Bytes games for it's members and close friends? - 26 - The game "Summix" was released by only one group. What group and for what reason? - 27 - FairLight released 3 versions of a certain karate game, the final one was done by The Alchemist. mist. Name the game and provide the last version. - 28 - The original of the game "Rocket Ranger" contained a personal message from the production crew to Mitch/ESI. What was the message in it's entirety? - 29 - Provide a text adventure game with the objective of having sexual intercourse with a female mentioned in the title. (6 points for frozen, 9 points for unfrozen version). - 30 - One of the most popular BBS's in the USA in 1988/89 was the board Warez Galore. Provide it's number. - 31 - Why is the soundtrack of the game "Spy vs. Spy II" missing in HVSC? - 32 - Who composed the loader tune of the game "Myth"? - 33 - Provide any SID tune done by Thomas Detert of X-Ample that is not in HVSC yet. - 34 - The sound composers nowadays well-known as F.A.M.E. originally were part of another group. What was that group's name and what does the abreviation F.A.M.E. stand for? - 35 - Charles Deenen of Maniacs Of Noise contacted the Finish police in 1989. What was the reason? - 36 - Rob Hubbard was such a big well known composer that his name appeared in nearly every game in which he made the music for. In one game, however, Rob Hubbard used an alias since he didn't want to be as- sociated with the game. Name the game and the alias used. - 37 - At Ikari/Zargon Party in Slagelse a lot of demo groups got angry. Why? - 38 - Ikari/Zargon party was "visited" by the police, which caused lots of distress and people trying to eat their disks :-), although this was not the reason they came but a disease that had been discovered. What disease and who was the guy causing all that trouble? - 39 - What was so special about the 1st place demo at Raw- head/Bros/Suppliers party in 1989 and what was the programmers new handle when he joined Contex some time later? - 40 - Years ago a German group started a cult party se- ries in Heinsberg/Germany. What was the party called and when was the first one held. Much fun while solving the questions/tasks on behalf on THE HUNT 97 staff, XXXXX XXXXXXXX/Digital Excess (aka Seven/Hitmen)
Demo Reviews
* DEMO REVIEWS * ------------------------------------------------------------ The demo season seems to have gone into the well deserved summer break. With the RAGE '97 in Hunga- ry and WIRED '97 in Belgium two parties have been hold not providing enough releases to be counted as true days of the season. ASSEMBLY 1997 seems to be the only possible candidate capable to quality to become an official demo season day in the next few months. It is quite interesting to observe that the release strategy of some groups seems to have changed into direction back to the roots and to present demos NOT on (major) parties only. The ancient Swedish group ACTIVE remembered the meanwhile of their group's name and presented a quite promising pre- view of their planned trackmo release entitled JAZZ- GOSSEN. It would be nice to see them enlarging the activity on this field and to support the legal sector with further demo releases. CHROMANCE did come up with another demo release called DUMPSTER while CREST released the sequal to KRESTAGE. Please find expanded reviews later on in this chapter. FOCUS has sent with YESTERDAYS a lifesign, too, containing a quite interesting seight on the demo scene. Instead of preaching only it would be by far more entertain- ing and impressive to see The Dark Judge bringing his style closer to the scene with some more stunning Focus productions, atleast it would be more effective and for sure an outstanding gift for the fans of old- style demonstrations. The guys in LAXITY have hold a meeting and presented with FICKEN F"R NE MARK a traditional partyscroll production, nothing more, no- thing less. MEGASTYLE PRODUCTIONS struck back with "AAAARGH!", a fine singlefile demo production for fans of oldstyle demos, giving the hope that MSP will intensify their efforts into the demo scene again. Seeing other old groups getting active again OFFEN- CE could not wait to releae "FLEXIBLE", a production consisting out of old but unreleased demo parts. This production let hope for further Offence demo relea- ses on this computer system. TABOO did spread after almost three years of delay their constributions to the planned Elysium and Taboo cooperation release ALTERED STATES 50%. The shown effects are similar to the ones seen on the YEARS AGO illegally spread preview disk containing routines, effects and art- work from Taboo. What a pity that the final version never got released back in time. THERAPY came along with the release version of their trackmo CASTLE OF DREAMIN', a production having competed in the demo competition of the Scenest 1997 party. At the RAGE '97 in Hungary two serious demo pro- ductions have been released. COMA, who have been quite active lately, has won the comptetition with a demo entitled NOSTALGIA and tried to fade away from the 4X4 chunky2planar hype. SINGULAR has released a dentro called BEYOND RECOVERY and got ranked on the second spot. Three demos have been released at the WIRED '97 in Belgium. SMASH DESIGNS once again won a competi- tion of a party where they were in the organising staff, the trackmo shown is the sequal to TRIAGE and following the popular conception - trackmo - 4X4 chunky2planar effects - techno music. WOW did come up with a dentro called FULL MOON and got ranked second. Third in the competition is an EXCESS relea- se called SHIZO, a production completely looking just like another AEG release if you have a look closer on the routines and the artwork. ------------------------------------------------------------ Unfortunately FUBEN was NOT able to deliver his re- views right in time to the twice exceeded deadline, so this time there won't be any demo reviews in the CBM 64 version. Visitors of RELAX ONLINE will find the complete edi- tion including COMPLETE demo reviews five days af- ter the initial release on THE DIGITAL DUNGEON. ------------------------------------------------------------ Best regards, RRR/Oxyron ----------
Lost Files
* THE LOST FILES * ------------------------------------------------------------ It is no secret that Relax Magazine has built up a secret police and a unique network of countless in- formers reporting about the last TRENDS, HAPPEN- INGS, internal SECRETS and STRATEGIES. No doubt that all those secret agents have already infiltrated group/magazine headquarters and have installed monitors for telephones and backdoors for Internet and board accounts. There is no step a sce- ne related person can do without surveillance of Re- lax Magazine agents. Some protocols and files of the "Relax Archive" have found the way out of the secret headquarter, provi- ding the scene with stunning and unbelievable infor- mation, facts which should NOT have been made public yet. Therefore countless agents are hunting for the stolen documents in order to prevent non-authorized usage. Always remember, the truth is out there! WALKER has found a SMART way to revolutionize andt REPLACE what people use to call "ragging on the boards" these days. "It's quite simple" he starts explaining, "people who are against us may DIE in traffic accidents, people who are realistic and think we are average only have to LOOSE atleast an arm or leg in a traffic accident and people who behave friendly may survive with a bad coldness to make sure that F4CG will rule the board, Internet and the mail scene!". Downunder JAZZCAT seems starting to accept and adapt this conception. "I could invite the complete Re- lax staff for a boat tour on the Great Barrier reef, maybe ALL will become fishfood for the sharks over there," he starts thinking, "that will decrease the number of competitors in the magazine and cracking scene with just a single accident. That's what I call a perfect crime!". DIGAHOLE, Jazzcat's marionette and faithful butler, more and more starts liking the idea, as it's more effective than ragging against RRR in a private sub at Deadzone or on channel #c-64 in the IRC when he is NOT around. "He did NOT pay respect for me clearly stating that I have copied most news from either the Relax and AFL homepages so he must die! As he does not adore me and Onslaught he surely is the biggest asshole on this planet!" have been the latest thoughts directly recorded from an internal Onslaught conference. Games named 'Mystery' seem to be scene mysteries. A completely shocked Alpha Flight 1970 calls the Re- lax Magazine bureau "Hey RRR, did you read the la- test Propaganda?". "Yes, I did, why?". "I have NEVER posted it!". "Wait a moment, I'll check it out. 'Again I was caused to make mistakes due to crapcode by F4CG.' what sounds MYSTERIOUS. When you claim in the public that the game works why do you admit offi- cially that YOU made mistakes AGAIN?". "You see, I'd NEVER do it!". "Furthermore, why did YOU made mis- takes again? Did YOU crack the game?". "Even that stunned me as IGNORANCE cracked it, NOT me!". "Hmh what really made me wonder is that the discotheque is calling you! YOU haven't been in a disco since... ahh ... that must have been ... before .... ". "1994! It was in Bochum in a disco called 'Prater'." explained Marc. "Yes, I remember, along with Max and me." confirmed RRR and continued "too bad that NOBODY could come along with a buffer in order to prove the existance of it!". Marc replied "something what does NOT exist can't be brought along! And the best is that I was in- sulted to be drunken while typing it!". "Ha ha ha, that is the proof for the fake, compared with you I am with my one bottle of beer per week an alcoholic," said a still confused RRR "I really don't know what to believe in anymore!". "For sure Alpha Flight 1970's version of MYSTERY does not work on my computer!" explains MR. WAX as an instructor for a CBM 64 scene rookie course. "Why?" has been a question out of the course. "Why? Wait a minute....." said Mr. Wax before taking his handy and calling up Jazzcat. "Jazzcat, why does MYSTERY cracked by AFL does not work?". "The NTSC fix overwrites parts of the code on PAL!" said Jazz- cat and Mr. Wax closed the communication "Thank you very much! I'll restart to lecture. Bye!". "Dear au- dience," he continued, "the NTSC fix overwrites parts of the code on PAL and spoils the gameplay!". Someone from the audience requested "So on what system the bug appears now, PAL or NTSC?". Mr. Wax started to smile and answered "Hey, the bug appears on NTSC!" in order to avoid any misunderstandings. Meanwhile in a lonely telephone booth located in Braunschweig/Germany a disappointed SKINHEAD philosophizes about the sense of ragging. "I have been editing some of the longest rags ever written on a CBM 64, and what happened? A one-liner claiming that a game does NOT work properly is my MOST successful rag ever, and what really makes me stun, the FIRST people do believe in. Life is so unfair!". Somewhere in an editor's office of a Polish written magazine which could NOT be identified due to techni- cal problems. "Is it possible that the scene outside Poland does NOT understand our native language?" asks the editor-in-chief his co-editor. "Yes, this can be true", he replied. "So attacking famous and esta- blished sceners is NOT that brave and cool as we al- ways thought?". "Unfortunately not, I presume!". "No big deal, Polish has to become the dominating langua- ge in the scene! Who cares about the origin, who ca- res about the rest of the world, only the Polish scene made this all possible. Vote Polish, release Polish!" have been the last words transmitted by our Polish informer, before getting blamed for speaking English and being deported to a concentration camp. "In case we spread a new set of Propaganda and F4CG lighters, especially in Poland as people there can't vote (quote from Propaganda 23, charts sec- tion), will that bring us to the desired top positions in all single, group and production charts" asked an eu- phorical ZYRON an about the current charts situa- tion disappointed WALKER, who replied "I wish both, voters and concurence, would die in a traffic acci- dent!" just to end the initiated discussion. "Free-thinking and intelligent journalism is the new Propaganda conception." reports NEWSCOPY to SO- LAR. "We are free to think that F4CG is the domina- ting group on all systems in past, present and future and is it for sure very intelligent to put a DANISH coder called PERFF/No Name into the DUTCH all-star team of the Propagand 23 charts section, isn't it?". Jazzcat, joining the conference, starts smiling "And therefore I made ANTITRACK to be an old Belgian Le- gend member, because I am free-thinking, too, who cares that he is Austrian?" while commenting Domina- tion #9. "No, nobody taught me how to use modems and calling out", posted JAZZCAT, who is rumoured having intro- duced the board scene to the CBM 64 community, "it was definately NOT Max who told me how to use CCGMS and modems, it WAS me who taught it to AFL and everyone else back in the eighties..." before the line broke down and a system crash resetted all settings Since that time in the northern part of Gelsenkirchen strange phonecalls appear from time to time "Hey Max dude, it's Jazz.... erhm, someone from Australia, can you please re-send me the settings you gave me three years ago when I started calling out?" and "What does ATD mean? Why doesn't it work correctly? What to do now?" has filled his answering machine by far too often so that Max immediately changed his phone number. Nevertheless he did not believe in the skills of Net*Phreakers who have hacked into the Telekom resources and spread several secret num- bers, incl. Max's, in Germany's renowned news maga- zine "Der Spiegel". "So after two days of silence the telephone terror continued" reported a rather dis- appointed Max, who is willing to close his line for good now. Somewhere around the frontier between Europe and Asia DIGAHOLE is calling Jazzcat in Tasmania "Hey David, in case I will rag against AFL, RRR and Relax Magazine on the boards will I get two cards per post as you promised me a while ago?". "Yes, ofcurse." answered David. "And when I will edit a complete chapter attacking RRR with fantasy insults and of- fences? Will I get five cards for it?" offered Mert. "Calm down! Edit that article, but I can only grant you two cards for it as I have to support all people at- tacking AFL at the moment, otherwise they will stop their effort and supporting us," explained David, "and you know what it means, they'll restart laughing about us!" continued David, "Therefore you only can receive a few cards only." Later on The Escapade Digahole continued his desperate attacks "... Bah, my chapter was by far BETTER than his... I am turkish elite! ...". RRR commented the issue "Turkish elite? Yes, I guess we have turkish elite in Germany, too. We are respectfull calling them '2 Big Macs, Pommes Fri- tes and a Coke. What? DM 7,95? Here are 8,-- DM. The rest is for you! Don't give it out at once.'". During his Interrail tour across Europe from one mu- sic festival to the next CBA decided to visit MAX's place. "Hey RRR, come along and join us to the trip to Buer.". "I have a terrible headache!" replied RRR. La- ter on having met at Max's place with a single expec- tion they started to empty some bottles. CBA decla- red "Vodka and apple juice tastes awful!", Max found out "Vodka with orange juice tastes much better!" while RRR added "I have a terrible headache!". Chan- ging places to the pub "M. Peyer's" the boozing con- test continued. "My beer tastes fine!" explained Max, CBA seemed to like his vodka orange while RRR com- plained "My Alka Seltzer* tastes bad! :(". Changing locations once again to the world famous and Relax Magazine's favourite discotheque "Hugo" Max re- started the communication when three lovely ladies approached their table "I haven't had sex with my girl-friend since Niels joined my house.". Niels found out "I haven't had a shower since a week when I was in Berlin. Flies do like me!" and Max stated "yeah, Berlin is a lovely COUNTRY!" RRR woke up from dreaming of those lovely ladies and requested "ehrm, Berlin is a country? I will note it down to publish it in Relax Magazine!". CBA completed "when Berlin is a country, what passport do I need to enter Gelsen- kirchen? And what language do you guys speak here? In case you tell me you can print my story ex- clusively in Relax Magazine!". To be continued... "To be or not to be, that is here the question. Am I a fake or has RRR cracked 'Powertris' and called out using my handle?" has been requested by CHRYSA- GON after many sleepless nights because some WELL informed claimed he is a fake only. Finally in Gothenburg/Sweden NEWSCOPY and WAL- KER discuss the future strategy for F4CG's CBM 64 section. "Killing ALL our opponents is surely more effective instead of hoping them to die in traffic acci- dents", explains a confident Walker and continues, "after having cleared the scene according to our interests will we receive a similar status like on PSX, PC, SNES and MAC, and if yes, is the status WE think to have received or is it the status we gained in the opinion of EXPERIENCED SCENERS on other plat- forms?" now again in a more depressed mood. News- copy replies "It is as usual, we define our status ourselves, so we will always be the leading force, not depending on releases and activity." to see Walker smiling again. SATIRE?! SARCASM?! PARODY?! Even if it looks like a NEWS CHAPTER in concurence publications this is just a SATIRICAL chapter, offering humorous com- ments on more or less actual scene happenings. Or is more truth in here than most might expect? Afterall it's just HUMOR and if you can't have a good laugh here we can't help you anyway. Whoever feels offended may keep that mind. The lost files - the perfect view on the scene Best regards, RRR/Oxyron ----------
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XXXXXX XXX, XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXX XXXXXXXX GAXAR/Role: XXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XX XXXXXXX XXXX, XXX XXXXXXXX XXX XXXX, XXXXXXXXX FREEZE/Dark Crystal: XXXX XX XXXXX, XXXXXXXX XXX, XXXX XX XXXXX, XXXXXXX NOCTOPHIL/Undying: XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXX HOOTIE/Nitros:XXXXXXX XXX,XXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XX, XXXXXX XXX XXXX, XXXXXXXXX NAPHALM/Scorn: XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXX XXX/X, XX-XXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX ERZIKA/Unreal/Wow: XXXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXX XXX, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXX XXXXXXXX FLARE/Noname: XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX THRONE/Panic: XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXX XX/XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX FLOYD/Willow/Ascraeus: XXXX XXXXX,XX XXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX SLAVE/Estate/Mad+Bad: XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX XX, XX-XXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXX GHOST/Disorder: 'DISORDER', XXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX POISON/Singular: XXXXXXX XXXXXX, XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX XXXX, XXXXXX X. XX, XXXXXXX CA$H/Triad: XXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX X]XXXXX, XXXXXX JUMBO/Unreal: 'UNREAL', XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXX XXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXXX GREY EMINENCE/ex-TRSI GreyEminence^Hotmail.Com X-TRO/ex-Talent: XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXX. X, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX ++XX/XXXX-XXXX * looking for a group to join, old and new, ... VISCID/Neoplasia: XXXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXX£X XX, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX * contact me for mailswap to keep the spirit alive ZNY/Palace: XXXX X., XXXXXXXXXXX XX X XX, XXXXX XXX- XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX /ZNY^CUTE.FI * After many years I restart swapping, 100% answer If you have submitted an advertisement and you have NOT found it in this edition it might have been deli- vered after the deadline or the memory has been al- ready filled to the limits. As we do NOT intend to pre- sent multiple advertisement chapters in just one is- sue we will MAKE SURE that your advertisements will be included in the forthcoming edition. Best Regards Violator/ALPHA FLIGHT 1970 ------------------------