Domination 03 ch17 Reviews
Reviews
Production brings result, but the final result? Is it good? Well this is the right chapter to find out... the latest scene products in the form of game cracks, demos, dentros, magazines and graphics/music collections are put under the microscope and tested for the public and the group behind the production.
Over the past two months since last issue things are starting to pick up, especially with the releases at the Denmark Christmas party. Let’s take a look at what some scene crews had to offer...
Lameness Rules by Oxyron. (demo)
Upon loading some music from their master, PRI, begins before some text appears introducing the demo. After this a full screen of logos by Caprice Design/Plush and Sinister/Extacy appear giving the demo title and group name to the audience. The graphics disperse and the next part is automatically loaded. Some music from Fanta/Plush begins the next part which features a realtime 3D texture tunnel in 16 colours. The tunnel goes down and down with a display of varied colours until it eventually descends to the bottom before fading into nothingness. After a short load some familiar PRI music begins the texture mapped cube in 16 colours. The portrait of a smiling girl is featured on the 6 faces of the cube as it rotates in almost every direction at a reasonable rate. This effect looks very nice even though it's only at 3/4 of its maximum speed. By pressing space the cube slides away to the left, allowing the final part to load into memory. This next part is a 'voxel space' in 16 colours, which depicts moving landscapes and oceans which move in 3-dimensional fashion from the viewer. Below this is a nice logo from RRR/Oxyron.
Comments: featured on the disk is a disk note explaining the lack of real time at the party to release a styled demo. Whilst the coding is of average to above average quality, the whole demo really does lack any form of style. But some nice routines are included in the demo so it earns: 51/100
Demo credits:
Binary manipulation: TTS, Axis, Graham.
Graphical splendour: Caprice Design/Plush, RRR/Oxyron, Sinister/Extacy.
Musical melodies: PRI, Fanta/Plush.
World of Code 3 by Byterapers Inc. (demo)
The trackmo 'Tribute' competition winner begins with it some familiar Rob Hubbard music and some introductory text which in some parts zooms through the borders before being displayed at normal size on the screen. Then some part information text loads in whilst another masterpiece from Rob Hubbard hits the SID channels. The first part contains a simple Byterapers logo on top of the screen. Then a Pac-Man style pattern appears and regenerates into some very colourful spiral type manipulating effects. After several different 'swirl' patterns a face portrait of a man is presented in still fashion, before it too is warped, spun and morphed in/out and around. This is a nice effect, especially if you are in the condition I was when I first had seen this part! This routine dispatches presenting a quite large mandelbrot zoomer in fli. It takes a colourful inward rotating glide before finally fading to darkness. Above this is a plain Byterapers logo. The next routine begins with some shade vectors rotating. The first object is the simple cube; this disappears before a multi-sided diamond object rotates quite fast. The objects are done in shades of blue. All this time a plain, but well styled vertical Byterapers logo is seen on the right of the screen. Next, something really sexy (?) is loaded in. an attractive picture of a semi-naked female is shown. The picture incidentally was ported down from the internet. After a short time the large breasted beauty disappears and some colour spirals wind in towards the audience. More effects begin, including a colour texture tube. All of this fades out and a four side box rotates and zooms into the viewer whilst being on a chessboard base, which also zooms in with its above object. On the four sides of the box is a lo-res pic of Elliot Ness from the untouchables this is probably my favourite routine in the whole demo. The final part fills the memory. Some fire type effects burn the bottom part of the screen (similar to Comalight 12) which introduces the end. This fades out displaying an ifli pic of a mapped planet and a nice styled but again plain "world of code iii" logo in the centre of the screen. Also on the disk is small note which gives contact information, this note also has some sampled music.
Comments: the main Rob Hubbard track fits perfectly with the routines in this demo. Whilst the coding is brilliant this doesn't let down the style which is also superb. Just better English is needed in the information texts!! Another great Byterapers product: 91/100
Demo credits:
Binary manipulation: Mr. Sex/Byterapers
Classic music: Rob Hubbard (Spellbound & Rasputin)
Note sample: Grendel/Byterapers
Stone gfx collection #3 by Agony. (collection)
Firstly all pictures IRQ load and automatically fade out. the first picture to see is of a woman with un-natural "moose" style antlers and a nice vertical agony logo on the right of the pic. very nice. the next IFLI piece is of a vampire creature and a small boy looking out at you. both are face portraits. the vampire has an expression of natural anger, whilst the boy appears to have a grin, but somehow looks to be one not to under estimate. a quite nice use of the blues and whites in this pic. the next pic is displayed showing a laughing full shown man with a musical instrument which resembles a harpsichord. in the background of this main part of the picture are some stars and planets. which seem to make the person stand out mystically? after this pic the Crystal Sheep 3 pic appears. this contains a large bust of a man with a gun who's seen on a diagonal, side-on pose. a "Crystal Sheep 3" logo surrounds the top right of the screen. quite nice, although the face could have been a little better. next part is a pic containing to green coloured beings, which both contain an expression of anger. nothing original but of nice quality. after this one picture number six is loaded. this features a knight riding a horse with his sword out-swung. a good picture with the appropriate choice of colours for that particular setting. a close examination of the sword arm sees it could be improved, but still quite nice. next is one of the better paintings in the collection. it depicts a church entrance with the doors swung open letting light from within cover a dark outside floor. at the front of the church there is a graveyard, and on one of the headstones a gargoyle is hunched. very nice. next is another person, a shoulder upwards man waring small glasses which sit below the eyes, a black top-hat and has dark shoulder length hair. he is looking away from the viewer in a paranoid state. finally "the end" logo appears on the top of the screen whilst a proportional fonted upscroller gives the credits and greetings from underneath.
Comments: some nice pictures in this small slideshow, some of the face portraits are quite well painted. Stone seems to know pretty much which colour combination to use with each IFLI picture: 83/100
Collection credits:
Programming: Druid.
Graphics: Stone. (vote for him!)
Additional graphics: Cruise/Elysium/Taboo and Astaroth.
Music: Compod (two compositions).
Loaders/picture packer: KM/Taboo, MMS/Taboo.
The Tribune Issue #48 by Entropy. (diskmag)
This quite large magazine comes out regularly. let's have a closer look. upon loading there is an average introduction, with an Entropy logo and some scroll text introducing the mag. quickly pressing space out of this you will notice that the entire magazine is using an IFFL. this is small and fast but it also doesn't give the NTSC users the privilege to read the magazine in perfectly working order, which is a minor point. the outfit revolves around a large disk which contains the vertical menu from within, the disk jacket upwards. there is a vast selection of 25 chapters to choose from. which is pushed to the limit as it would seem as many things can all fit in a mixed chapter or such. the chapters are as follows:
Editorial - editors talk
News section - some news
Average nasty and mean - Nastiness's talk
The Mistress talks - Mistress's talk
Special report - party information
Interview- with Antitrack/F4CG
Mixed emotions- "everything"
Arcade halls - arcade news+review
Demo corner - demo reviews
Magazines - Diskmag reviews
Guest room - guest contributions
Editors - how to edit mags
Pixels - for learning painters
Forum - debates
Appeal - some public notes
Lightside - stories
Opinion poll - scener's choices
Wanted Netherlands - Addies
Wanted Germany - Addies
Wanted Scandinavia - Addies
Wanted Rest - Addies
Charts 1 - who's the #1
Charts 2 - and who's #2
Boards - BBS info
Thank god that they have changed from that very ugly outfit from last issue into this more user friendly one from Steiger. the magazine covers some good texts and there is a wide lot to choose from ensuring something for almost everyone. although somethings that were over mentioned very much so was "we're the oldest disk magazine" and some texts in reference to Duke/Regina and The Pulse magazine, which nearly consume every chapter throughout the magazine. this bad relationship with Duke should have been let out through one chapter instead of the entire mag. the main editors seem to write text in a sometimes arrogant and antagonizing way. if they show a particular disliking to anyone or anything they'll "over" mention things about it. this is not very good if you don't want a one sided mag. its just that some of the text is quite provoking and its no wonder some of the editors get into hassles with some other sceners or groups. the text is written in good easy to read English, average outfit, good music but some texts bring down the average quality of it all: 70/100
Intro credits:
Code: Danny Boy/Entropy
Graphics: Blow/Slash
Music: Nastiness Inc/Avantgarde/Entropy
Magazine credits:
Code: Steiger/Entropy
Charset: Nastiness Inc/Avantgarde/Entropy
Menu graphics: Wile Coyote/Entropy
Menu music: exclusive by The Syndrom/TIA/Crest
Chapter music: exclusive by Compod/Fatum
Editorial staff: The Mistress, Nastiness Inc and Otaku.
With assistance from: Wile Coyote, Nephelim, Intruder and Deff.
Brutal Comeback by Light. (demo)
3 years after their last production and they're back. a demo which I believe should have stole third place instead of second (Wrath deserved 2nd). Firstly upon loading in some nice "Hotel California" music plays whilst a logo from Goblin appears at the top of screen. a DYCP scroll rolls along the bottom introducing the demo. next part is coded by Yabba which is quite nice. a chessboard scrolls vertically from the viewer with a large sphere in the middle, which bends the scroll text and chessboard within the sphere. some small gfx from Goblin arise in the top left and right corners. after pressing space large texts appear at the top explaining the credits for the next part. then a light logo from Goblin appears below. some Rob Hubbard music from the game "Mega Apocalypse" plays and some binary brilliance by Flamingo begin. Some shapes metamorph in the middle, spelling light and doing various other patterns, which at the time of programming would have been quite difficult to do, it looks nice just the same. after pressing space, some familiar Martin Galway music plays and a light logo by Scooby appears. the next thing that happens is made possible by Yabba. it's a doom style clone, except much faster than most versions I've seen before and looks nice in multicolour resolution. a simple 1x1 scroll explains the part and future plans below.
Comments: a nice demo and its worth getting, good to see light back and with their mentioned "Brutality IV" we can expect more from them in the future. a long deserved: 76/100
Well that's it for this issue, over the Christmas/New Year period there has been a large amount of products released, more so than some believe. for example, Torture 5/Padua, Visual Delight 2/Focus, Revealed #4/Camelot, Insider #4/Reflex and much more.
If you wish your productions reviewed under fair eyes, send them to the Editorial address (gift wrapped!)...
Jazzcat/Legend.
