Propaganda 24 ch02

+-------------------+
|THE INTERNET CHARTS|
|THE INTERNET CHARTS| hosted by
+-------------------+
                      COUNT ZERO/SCS*TRC
 O
 Once upon in time there was a quarrel.
 It didn't stay alone for too long
 though and quickly a community of
 problems, quarrels and ignorance was
 formed. Many people like to call that
 community  a  'SCENE'.  Others joined
 this 'scene' to become immortals.
 Most of them failed ...
 The list is back to punish.
 We are here to honor the good and
 damn the bad.
 Follow the rules and become immortal.
 Ignore them and be damned.



+---------+
|THE RULES| based on Psychobilly's Pulse
|THE RULES| rules. Revised for the net.
+---------+

 Your release has to be uploaded to
 either one or both ftp sites which
 are currently taken into consideration
 for the list.

 These are:

 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  Gangstar's Paradise
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  The Digital Dungeon

 Uploads go into  pub/c64/incoming/
 The files are moved to the appropriate
 directories by the maintainers later
 on.


 Whenever the upload has happened you
 HAVE to mail us.

 Either mail me, Count Zero at:

 countO(at)scs-trc.net    or Newscopy at

 newscopy(at)algonet.se


 If you do NOT send us a mail, we will
 ignore the release.
 For example, I ignored this time:

 ALL Motiv8 releases,the Laxity release
 'WORDS DON'T COME EASY' along with
 Armageddon's 'LAZER DUEL'.

 No Mail - No Points ... Period


 Your mail doesn't have to include the
 release again. Just the name of the
 release is fine ... additional comments
 are welcome, but not needed.
 Incase you release is a 1OO% version of
 a game, please state whatever was
 corrupt on a previous version.

 Your mail is taken as a timestamp.
 It is quite impossible to fake the
 time on my mailserver, so this is
 a very secure method to get a release's
 time.

 We will NOT accept mails from anonymous
 remailers if your original address is
 not known to us. Use your ISP's
 mailserver or let someone else handle
 your internet relations.


 We are not spending points on releases
 written in Basic (even if it contains
 some ML instructions) or if the
 program was created using any of the
 known construction kits, game-makers
 or seucks.

 Points are given on english games ONLY.
 Multilanguage is welcome aswell.
 Game graphics don't need to be
 translated, incase they are not
 elementary to the game or it's
 playability.

 The general 6 months rule and the
 known 24 hours rule apply to this list
 aswell. They are known from the Pulse
 Magazine and are not repeated here.



 Points are spent like this:

 O.O - 3.O For the QUALITY of the GAME.

 O.O - 2.O For the QUALITY of the CRACK.

 + 2.O     For a PAL/NTSC FIXED release.

 + 1.O     For an already PAL/NTSC
           working release or if the
           game was released on one of
           these systems before.

 O.1 - 1.O For something special

 - 1.O     For ANY cracking bugs, 2nd
           versions or things we simply
           dislike (No Trainers, No
           Levelpacking, etc.)


 O.O - 3.O For TOOLS!

 O.O - 1.O For Previews

 - 5.O     For ANY re-release

Comments:

 Previews HAVE to be playable. So-called
 V2 previews will be mentioned, but will
 get no points.

 PAL/NTSC seems to be a topic lasting
 forever. A game is considered fixed
 whenever it looks like the PAL version.
 It is allowed to move sprites from the
 upper to the lower border to make them
 more visible, BUT slowing down music
 and game play is NOT needed.

 I am not going to discuss whether that
 particular game requires a special
 fix-byte to slow down the timer or not.
 There are enough people out there who
 can lead a serious discussion. I mostly
 stick to what opinion I made up myself,
 but aswell I do listen to what people
 tell me. So if you think that YOU are
 right, prove it to me.


 +-------------------------------------+
 |The list in this issue was started at|
 |                                     |
 |  the 6th of June and closed on the  |
 |                                     |
 |       28th of August in 1997.       |
 +-------------------------------------+




 Before we start off, I would like to
 introduce you to Count Zero's
 discussion cemetary.

 Burying the public discussions which
 might have been there since the last
 issue seems to be a needed topic.

 Since the beginning of June there have
 been 4 releases which got into public
 discussion.

 Ordered by release date they are:

  - Magical Formula
  - Castles
  - Ice Guyz
  - Plasm



 Magical Formula:

 This game was definately first-released
 on the net by ALPHAFLIGHT.
 I got their mail a few hours before
 the mail concerning the Laxity and
 Chromance version. Their version was
 fixed fine, although the crack could
 have been better.


 Castles:

 The discussion about this game needing
 a fix or not raged for about 4 weeks.
 The ONSLAUGHT version which was spread
 only contained a silly fix for the
 joystickbutton and for the loader they
 implemented.

 From my side only 1 point for an
 already PAL/NTSC game will be added,
 as nobody from ONS was able to provide
 me ON THE NET with an original of the
 game.
 Also Mr.Wax of Chromance was asked for
 an original, but he replied that
 he doesn't have it.
 If it takes a group 4 weeks and longer
 to prove something like this with a
 single upload, I am sorry.
 Everybody is fast on the release
 itself, but seems to fear to prove
 things.
 I would STILL like to get the full
 original of this game, so mail it to
 me whenever you are one of the 3
 peoples on this planet owning a copy
 of it.



 Ice Guyz:

 This one was simple. Skinhead fucked
 up this brilliant game and it was just
 a matter of time until a 1OO% version
 would be released.

 Plasm:

 Hitmen returned with a bang and some
 people didn't seem to like it.
 Deff might have backstabbed F4CG by
 giving quite some games to Hitmen, but
 still F4CG does not need to change
 their fixing and release philosophy
 from one day to the next.
 An unfixed music does NOT mean that
 a 1OO% version is needed.



 My exhausting statements about
 cracking, fixing and 1OO% versions can
 be found on 2ND TO NONE - Legend's
 World Wide Wait Headquarter ... :)


 Now, finally, it's

 ... time to give points
 ... time to deduct points
 ... time to finish off some heads

 ... time for the UNIQUE Internet

                        Release List.

     +----------------------------+
     |The World's Insane - So Am I|
     +----------------------------+

+----------------+
|ALPHAFLIGHT     |            5.O Points
|ALPHAFLIGHT 197O|
+----------------+
 The Flight was on vacation it seems.
 They did a quickie on MAGICAL FORMULA
 (c) Magna/Media and Electric Brains
 which gave them 5.O points,
 including the 2.O for the fix.

+---------+
|CHROMANCE|                   O.O Points
|CHROMANCE|
+---------+
 Just a BASIC preview named NETHER (0.0)
 made it through the net. What happened
 to last time's number two ?

 And last time's number one seems to be
 asleep aswell.

+----+
|F CG|                       -O.5 Points
|F4CG|
+----+
 F4CG obviously had a bad time.
 They had quite some games on the run,
 but it looks like  they lost in the
 very end.
 First of all I have to apologize for
 leaving out ESCAPE WHILE YOU CAN PRV.
 (O.1) last time.
 They started off with 'RUNDES LEDER'
 (O.O) which was written in Basic and
 afterall is a revised edition of
 STARBYTE SUPER SOCCER.
 Nevertheless the Fantastics continued
 with MR.ANT PRV (O.2), COLEE PRV. (O.4)
 and FROGS AND FLIES PRV. (O.5).
 All this was followed by PLASM PRV.
 (O.4) which set a sign for Hitmen to

 release the full version.
 PLASM 100% FIX was considered a
 re-release violating the 24-hours rule
 (-5.O).

 Still they didn't give up and released
 MR.ANT (2.9) which didn't need a fix
 at all. The music in this release was
 fixed aswell, but obviously the game
 itself didn't need it.
 The rest of the release was well done
 though.

  +---------------------------------+
  |To Fix or Not To Fix, That IS the|
  |                                 |
  |        the question here.       |
  +---------------------------------+



+------+
|HITMEN|                     1O.2 Points
|HITMEN|
+------+
 The german based group had a great
 comeback with two warez rushes, which
 outlasted most groups around.
 Out of a sudden they released
 BARREL BUNGER PRV. (O.2), CROSS INVERT
 PRV. (O.4), the very nicely done
 MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE PRV. (O.7) and the
 full version of PLASM +FIX (3.1).
 On the Plasm release a -1.O was done,
 as the HiScore-Saver was still on when
 the trainers were selected (We had that
 last time aswell).

 The release of PIC RECOLOURATOR got
 1.1 points. This simple but handy tool
 was done by Bob/Censor.

 Their second rush started with the full
 version of COLEE +FIX (4.3) and was
 finished off with LABE ME PRV. and
 ON TABLE PRV. (both O.2).

 Even when looking at the quarrels they
 had with F4CG they did a nice comeback.
 Let's hope they will stay a little
 longer and bring some competition with
 them.

+------+
|LAXITY|                      2.2 Points
|LAXITY|
+------+
 They had SWEEPMINER (2.2) and UTOPIA
 PRV. (O.O). A nice preview, but german
 and in BASIC. Anyways it's worth a
 check for sure.


+---------+
|ONSLAUGHT|                   6.7 Points
|ONSLAUGHT|
+---------+
 The australian lead group had a good
 bunch of previews and a nice full
 game this time. PENNY PRV. (O.4) and
 TERRITORY PRV. (O.3) went through
 without problems. The V2 preview of
 MICRO ASSASSINS got no points
 afterall.
 The great and rather complete preview
 of ICE GUYZ (O.8) could have been
 cracked better.
 Finally CASTLES (5.2) made it to the
 FTP's. The last one is a well done game
 with nice graphics. Only the quarrels
 about the game made it worth a much
 closer look. Nevertheless a full point
 was added for the translation.

+------------------------------+
|SUCCESS     THE RULING COMPANY|    19.1
|SUCCESS AND THE RULING COMPANY|  Points
+------------------------------+
 The ruling COOP had a nice time during
 summer. Lazyness and vactions didn't
 seem to stop the releases of
 ALERT PRV. (O.3) and ASSASSINS PRV.
 (O.4).
 Just when it came to full games there
 were some nice ones. BLOX (2.9), a
 reversi typo-game was already working
 PAL/NTSC. HYPERCARS (3.5) was released
 by Armageddon before, but the TRC*SCS
 version contained a complete and fixed
 intro, while the Armageddon version was
 just a rip-off.
 The fixed SQUARES (4.2) was another
 slapstick release, just like
 REMEMBER (3.5). On REMEMBER a -1.O was

 accomplished as a second version was
 needed to make the release perfect.
 Although the bug on this game was in
 the original aswell, I stick to what
 I say ... In this particular case I
 wrote 'debugged' on the game.
 Wasn't true in the first place and had
 to become reality.

 Burglar's hunt for points wasn't over
 until then though. A well done crack
 of ICE GUYZ (4.3) had to follow.
 The game remained PAL though it's
 a 1OO% version.



        AND THE WINNER IS
        AND THE WINNER IS ....




 d=b SUCCESS AND THE RULING COMPANY d=b
 'o' SUCCESS AND THE RULING COMPANY 'o'
 /_\                                /_\
              19.1 POINTS

 **   HITMEN                        ..
 \/   HITMEN ........ 1O.2 Points   \/

 ..   ONSLAUGHT                     ..
 \/   ONSLAUGHT ...... 6.7 Points   \/

 ..                                 ..
 --   ALPHAFLIGHT .... 5.O Points   --
      LAXITY ......... 2.2 Points
      CHROMANCE ...... O.O Points

 ..   F4CG .......... -O.5 Points   ..
 /\                                 /\