Domination 08 Magazine Reviews
From C64 Diskmag Wiki
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* Magazine reviews *
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Welcome once again to the recorded observations of
the scene media.
The magazine industry has taken quite a fall from
peaking times in 1995/96, but i'm sure with the
departure of magazines like The Pulse and Skyhigh it
will allow for new blood in the market.
In this edition I will review two new magazines, one that
is board/net based totally, and the other that is mainly
a mail based magazine. These are:
PROPAGANDA edition #22 by Newscopy/F4cg and staff.
and..
PALLADIUM edition #2 by Ascraeus.
If you wish your magazine or group's magazine judged
in the Domination, simply leave feedback to the email
or address published in the editorial, let us begin..
PROPAGANDA edition #22
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After a HUGE delay the magazine with an attitude is
back. I had personal doubts whether I would see this
magazine again, but a pleasant surprise to see NC and
staff take up the reins once more.
Upon loading the magazine you are presented with a
basic intro comprising of quotes from various
sceners and profiles on what they think of the mag.
After this the intro automatically fades off and the
main magazine depacks and is on the screen.
The first thing you notice with the magazine is the
improved size of text in the directory, instead of the
usual 400-500 blks the magazine takes up almost an
entire side, which is certainly promising.
There are 13 chapters in all, each chapter can be
selected using the joystick in port 2 and moving from
left to right where the chapters are depicted in
graphical icons.
Selecting a chapter, the magazine irq loads the text
into memory, which is in proportional font.
Lets examine the chapters a bit more closely.
Editorial -
The main editor Newscopy has a chat about the latest
developments within the magazine, reasons for the
big delay and the general credits. This time, unlike in
previous editions, the editorial is not consumed by
antaganisations, which gives a more presenting and
professional touch.
The List -
As with most board/net related magazines, there is
included a first release list of the latest games
cracked and presented to the C64 community as first.
This edition doesn't actually contain such a list but
instead presents, what they hope to be a revolution
in the general scene tradition of first releases.
Instead of the first releases being based on the major
American boards, they now introduce the FTP sites on
the Internet as the illegal focus point.
This boasts a whole new set of rules and point system
and they hope it will catch on to the leading cracking
groups in the scene.
This chapter is presented by Countzero/Scs*Trc.
Propa World -
This is a mixed chapter on Propaganda related works
and topics of interest to do with the magazine.
It contains news on the new 'Propaganda Express'
magazine which is emailed on the Internet every two
weeks, showing a new form of C64 related media.
They also discuss a 'Intro competition' with related
prizes and advertisments to recruit more staff into
the magazine.
News -
The news in the Propaganda is focued mainly on the
boards and the Internet. It is in typical A-Z format, with
some one liners for single news. Unfortunately quite
some people expressed disgust in some incorrect
news and member lists, but this ofcourse can be
judged by any individual, but I know that magazines
cannot be perfect so the public must allow for errors
from time to time.
Charts -
This editions charts are based on votesheets recieved
through the autumn of 1996. They contain the following
catagories.
Top 10 Cracking group, Demo group, Single cracker,
Single coder, Single graphician, Single musician and
Single swapper.
The thing I noticed a little wrong in one of the charts
was that Calypso/Alphaflight/Amnesia was in the
Swapper chart twice and two different placings.
Unfortunately no points are shown, so there is no way
of telling how close the competitive talents are in the
chart chapter.
Cool Groups - (divided over three chapters)
This new section in Propaganda is an overview on what
they consider to be the most famous illegal groups in
the past and present of the C64 scene.
This huge and nice coverage spans over three
chapters and is well written, a nice idea.
When In Holland -
This is sort of a party report on the X-96 party in
The Netherlands, with some satirical twists contained
throught it, a nice read.
Debate -
This chapter is hosted by ex-Newspress editor,
Neotec/F4cg/Atlantis and covers the topic of legal
scene versus illegal scene in an interesting way. Note
that this is only an opinion from Neotec and is not some
kind of official judgement. More chapters like this
in magazines, would do the media good.
Scenetown -
This is another new chapter in the Propaganda and is
a storyline style satirica chapter which is nicely
written and enjoyable to read.
Annual Awards -
This original chapter in Propaganda is probably one of
the most read throughout the magazine.
The staff give their own opinion on which group
production or scener deserves recognition for
achievement or quality.
Included is awards in Group of the year, Board of the
year, Demo group of the year, Surprise of the year,
Comeback of the year, Cracker of the year, Coder of
the year, Artist of the year, Musician of the year,
Swapper of the year, Magazine of the year, Demo of
the year, Game of the year, Disappointment of the
year and Party of the year.
This is a quite nice chapter and should be incorporated
into all good magazines.
Advertisments -
This is the address section hosted by mail trader,
Intruder/F4cg, outdated addies and for swappers
it has always been on the small side.
What the mail scene enjoys and thrives on is a large
address section. Magazines such as 'Skyhigh' owe
some of their success to the huge mail import into the
magazine. But taken into consideration, Propaganda
is a board/net based magazine after all.
WHO DID WHAT?
C64 coding is performed by Devil + Goz.
Internet by Motley. (ed: Interview this edition!)
Fonts by Ses.
Graphics by Scope (R.I.P.)
Music by Zyron.
General Editing by Newscopy.
Co-Editing by Count Zero.
Public Affairs and news gathering by Sixx,Walker and
Tranziie.
Addresses by Inruder.
OVERALL:
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Propaganda #22 offers a lot of good reading, with
generally good english and grammar throughout.
This edition is somewhat of a let down in comparison to
previous issues, but they still manage to deliver some
good chapters above the average quality.
Propaganda is also available in an online format on the
Internet which allows the staff to appeal to a wide
audience in the net and board scenes respectively.
Some down parts are that their attitude is directed in
the wrong way on some occassions.
It is fine to have one, and demonstrate it also, but if
you are retaliating on someone or something it is often
best to have your facts right. The problem in the mag
is that they get their personal opinions mixed up with
the realities in the scene.
Consistancy is a problem with this magazine also (as
with this magazine I truly admit!!) it would be nice to
see it on a regular basis, but the Propaganda Express
looks promising and we can only wait.
The music in each edition is always pleasant to read to,
it always has a nostalgic feel to it, instead of the new
techno/fast way a lot of musicians have adapted to in
today's scene.
The outfit is simple and to the point, but maybe the
presentation could be improved a small bit, the actual
Propaganda logo is quite basic, but then again a
magazine should be looked at for its text content but
presentation always helps.
Hopefully we will see Propaganda again soon, they are
always seeking new ways to appeal to readers which is
nice to see.
An above average magazine that has a good foundation
to become even better.
82/100
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PALLADIUM edition #2 by Ascraeus
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Its always nice to recieve a new magazine, a breath of
fresh air in the media scene.
When I read the first edition of Palladium I thought
there is definately room for improvement, and with
edition number two the guys in Asc have done just that.
To begin with, the magazine takes up more than a single
side of a disk. The intro file and magazine outfit are
located on one side and the chapters,music plus outfit
fill up the other side of the disk.
Loading up the intro you are presented by an
Ascraeus logo by Ksin/Tengu/Asc, this fades away
and then you are presented with some text lines which
introduce the magazine.
After this the Palladium logo and picture are nicely
presented on the screen, this time painted by
Algemaj/Tridam/Censure. The intro music is composed
my the magazines main editor, Moloch.
After the intro I am rather surprised.
A totally new outfit is presented, not only for the
magazine itself, but in a scene history perspective
also.
With this edition brings the first disk magazine in
IFLI mode ever!!
In the main menu is a nice IFLI picture of a grim reaper
with other presentation graphics. The chapter titles
are located on the right of the screen, and can be
selected with a joystick in port two.
Choosing a chapter and the outfit irq loads the text
and this decrunches and comes onto the screen.
Each chapter has an IFLI logo on the bottom section of
the screen, the text itself is in a proportional font
done by Madhead/Ascraeus.
Once reading the chapter you can press fire to get
back the the chapter menu. This part seems to be the
bad point of the magazine as the menu has to be
reloaded due to memory restrictions because of the
IFLI format. Maybe this could be avoided someway, as
the menu contains it's own seperate music, which is not
necessary, as the mag could work with the current
chapter music always in memory.
Each chapter has it's own individual music and the
magazine has a total of 18 musics, none of which are
exclusive, but a fine choice of musicians none the less.
There are 16 chapters in total and they cover a good
range of topics.
Editorial -
Here is located the credits for the magazine, general
editor chit chat from main editor Moloch and the coder
Madhead.
News -
The news section is located in two chapters and is
edited by Digahole/Onslaught. The news has been
gathered from the boards, Internet and mail.
Quite nicely written and a good amount also, the news
is printed in group format and also single. Considering
this is a mainly mail orientated magazine, the news is
quite fresh compared to magazines like Nitro or
Internal, which have older news due to their
foundation being in the mail based scene.
Addies -
Here is the advertisment section which is quite good in
size, the good thing about this is that there is a good
amount of addresses of sceners located in Turkiye,
Poland and other Eastern european countries.
Most magazines released in these countries generally
are in a non-english format, so this chapter is helpful
if your trying to locate an Eastern european scener.
Interview -
The interview in this edition is conducted by
Arcane/Ascraeus and is with Onslaught member
Digahole.
Quite a nice little read, more questions could of been
asked though, but still nice.
Demo Reviews -
The demo reviews are conducted by Madhead and
reviewed in this edition is Daze by Resource and
Design Overdose by Xenon.
Mag Reviews -
Only one magazine reviewed this time and that is
Emphatic issue #4 by Nitros Development.
A good review I thought, as they analyze everything
carefully and objectively.
Gfx Reviews -
In this chapter they review nine of the twenty graphics
entries of The Party 6 in Denmark.
Charts -
The mail charts are quite nice and updated. The
catagories included are; Demo groups, Coders,
Graphicians, Musicians, Magazines, Swappers and
Crack group. I believe they should have included the
top cracker also, as this is time consuming job.
Tool Reviews -
Something a bit different than most othr magazines is
the tool reviews chapter.
Observed and evaluated in this edition is the good old
Turbo Assembler and the new Underlay Fli Editor v1.0
by Crest.
Fantastic -
This chapter is written by Arcane/Asc and is basically
his say on anything and everything. Some parts are
interesting whilst others are amusing. This type of
chapter would have better fitted in a more serious
sense in the editorial section though.
Dr. Razor -
This is the satirical/joke chapter written by Razor
Ramon. It is good, but needs improvement in some areas
he should try and keep on a general theme with each
issues, as it seems it is written in a 'what ever comes
to the mind' type style.
Groups -
Located in this chapter is the latest member lists of
groups, in some cases showing what each member's
job is also.
This chapter should just be included in the news
section, as it is basically news anyway.
Spread -
This type of chapter has been seen before in other
magazines. It is a kind of message base, where the
scener can publish a note to the scene or individual
scener. A nice idea, but only if it gets good support,
otherwise the chapter should be emitted.
Reactions -
The readers feedback on the first edition to the
editorial.
Heavy Metal World -
This is a non-scene related chapter that is based on
the music industry. It contains a review and the latest
news on heavy metal.
I really enjoyed this chapter because metal music is
the style I like, but I can imagine that this chapter only
appeals to a group of people.
They should discuss other types of music also, as
the more people a magazine can appeal to, the more
readers it will gain.
Final Words -
General thanks you and regards to the people that
helped produce and make the magazine possible.
WHO DID WHAT?
Intro logos by Ksin and Algemaj.
Intro music by Moloch.
Intro coding by Madhead.
Chapter music by Mhd, Fuben, Praiser, Drax and more.
Menu music by Snap.
Menu graphics by Ksin.
Chapter graphics by Arcane and Madhead.
Proportional font by Madhead.
Magazine coding by Madhead.
General editing by Moloch.
Co-editing by Razor Ramon, Madhead, Arcane, Digahole.
OVERALL
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Firstly the magazine is the only Turkish magazine left,
after the demise of the popular Splash magazine by
Accuracy.
Generally the text is of good standard, with a few
grammar and spelling errors here and there.
The magazine offers a good read and compared to
other mail based magazines rates quite highly.
The presentation is superb, and admiration goes to
the original concept of the IFLI routine included, this
allows for more better defined graphics, but in turn
slows things down a bit, naturally.
The only real problem is, that the main outfit needs to
be reloaded all the time. If they can find away around
this and clean up the chapters just a little, the mag
would improve dramatically.
It certainly was a surprise when I recieved this mag
and I can see it has a bright future has they have some
good editors and the magazine isn't totally mail based,
especially with the presense of Digahole in the staff.
Keep up the fine work Ascraeus, sky is the limit!
80/100
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Well thats all we have to offer in the media department
for this edition, for further enjoyment have a browse
of the MEDIA JUDGEMENT chapter for further
opinions and discussion on scene disk magazines.
Kind regards
General Editor
