The Pulse 18
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Preface
+ WELCOME TO + + THE PULSE MAGAZINE - THE NOVEMBER EDITION + -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the 18th edition of the worldwide distributed scripture THE PULSE MAGAZINE - released as an independent production on a monthly basis. This is your guide to the world of information within the Cracking, Demo and Modem-scene. We send our respect and greetings to our friends/colleagues; PROPAGANDA, SKYHIGH, VANDALISM NEWS, DOMINATION, RELAX, NITRO, SPLASH and IMMORTAL FLASH. Also a giant hello to all our friends and supporters worldwide. INSTRUCTIONS : Use JOYSTICK in PORT II and move LEFT/ RIGHT to switch between pages. Press FIRE to reach the menu. COMMENTS FROM THE EDITOR PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- STROLLING DOWN MEMORY LANE With the release of the November edition, dangerously close to Christmas, I will use the opportunity to tell a very odd story. Last night I was in town getting a few beers with my mates, when I stumbled upon the old and legendary coder, TRINITY of TRIANGLE. I was sitting at a table, enjoying the company with my friends - talking about the football game we had seen that night, when TRINITY approached me. He said HI, and we started talking about the C64. I had not seen him for ages, since I admitted him into VISUAL REALITY - at that time I was a member of DOMINATORS. It was a real treat to meet one of the old guys, especially at such a random place. Anyway, things were about to get even more interesting. TRINITY told me he had brought along some of his old friends from UPFRONT - a group he had been a member of himself. I was puzzled, how could this be. Well, he left for a moment, only to return with a second person. I thought, who could this be. The stranger then started talking about the C64, amazed about my comments, that it should still be around and alive. We talked for a while, but for some reason I forgot to ask him what his handle was - Hey, I was a little drunk, my brain tends to malfunction at that state! About 10 minutes past, when I finally got around to ask him - Who are you then? He shouted out a name, which I did not hear first, primarily due to the extreme loud music at the club. But after a second attempt, I got the name - and it was, EINSTEIN of UPFRONT. Wow, I was truly stunned. This guy had been a huge name in the scene, and one of the coders responsible for the discovery of several routines. Anyway, I conversed with him some more - talked to TRINITY, and then my mates dragged me away for some more beers. That was the C64 event of the night, and it really surprised me to meet these guys. Both TRINITY and EINSTEIN left the scene back in 1989, which was about the same time as I entered the scene. TRINITY made a short comeback 2 years later though, but their prime was most definitely in the 1980's. Anyway, it was a thrill to tell them about the scene, about the demos, about the boards - which they never saw grow into something major. In all, the scene they were part of making - had grown into something they never would have believed possible. Better yet, during our conversation, TRINITY and EINSTEIN started talking about a comeback for UPFRONT - with some of the other old guys from TRIANGLE and BONES. It may not happen though, but the idea was appealing, and these PC dudes still showed great love for the C64. On that happy note, I leave you to enjoy THE PULSE MAGAZINE. GENERAL EDITOR DUKE THE HOUSE STAFF PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL EDITOR DUKE ASSISTENT EDITOR CROSSFIRE/MOTIV 8 ILLEGAL EDITOR JAZZCAT/ONSLAUGHT NEWS CORRESPONDENT MR.WAX/CHROMANCE INTERNET CORRESPONDENT PLAYBOY/F4CG LEGAL EDITOR TDJ/FOCUS EURO CORRESPONDENT KBS PROGRAMMING CRITIC MR.SEX/BYTERAPERS INC. MUSICAL CRITIC SYNDROM/TIA/CREST GRAPHICAL CRITIC EARTHQUAKE/COSMIC STYLE We welcome JAZZCAT and MR.WAX to our staff, and with their assistance, we find our staff to be complete. We would still like to hear from people who are eager to work within the media, let us know if you have any interest. THE CREDITS PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- PROGRAMMING THE SYNDROM/TIA/CREST GRAPHICS EARTHQUAKE/ANTIC/CS MUSIC GLENN/BLUEZ'MUZ/SHAPE THE INTERNET ADDRESSES PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- DUKE TRASH WWW.AALBORGES.DK JAZZCAT JAZZCAT VISION.NET.AU TDJ TDJ BART.NL SYNDROM HARTUNG RMHS2.URZ.TU-DRESDEN.DE MR.SEX B150542 PROFFA.CC.TUT.FI EARTHQUAKE DSC INFORMATIK.TU-CHEMNITZ.DE It is also possible to meet us at the popular channel 'C64' on the IRC. This is also the place to communicate with sceners from all over the world - only on the internet ofcourse. HOW TO CONTACT PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- Incase you are not an owner of an internet account, you can reach us at the following two addresses for our editorial. We gladly accept News, Information, Reports, Statements, Reactions, Addresses or whatever that may be relevant to the readers of THE PULSE MAGAZINE. All material must be made available to us no later than the 28th of NOVEMBER. Please notice the special address for the ADVERTISEMENTS. THE PULSE MAGAZINE WHQ ADVERTISEMENTS XXXX XXXXX XXX XXXX XXXXXXXXX XXX XXXXXXXXX XX XXXXXX X XXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXX XXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXX (This address not for swapping, unless you are a mag-editor) THE PROGRAM GUIDE PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- PREFACE INTRODUCTION/EDITORIAL NEWS JOURNAL NEWS/FACTS MONTHLY RELEASES 1ST RELEASES WORLD OF DEMOS DEMO REVIEWS SATIRICA SATIRIC STORIES/VIEWS PROFILE INTERVIEW/TALKSHOW SCENE ILLUSTRATED DEBATE/INFORMATION THE BOARD REPORT NEWS/REPORT MEET THE PRESS INTERACTION/MEDIA TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE DEMO DEBATE THE INTERNET REPORT INFORMATION/USERS OVERALL CHARTS VOTED CHARTS/ANALYSIS ADVERTISEMENTS SWAP ADVERTS THE CONTENTS OF THE PULSE MAGAZINE GENERAL INFORMATION PREFACE -------------------------------------------------------------- THE PULSE MAGAZINE is a complete C64 scene based magazine. As the only C64 magazine, we are dedicated to giving you an insight about all the corners of the scene - in short, we cover the world, because the C64's business is our business. The contents of this edition may not have to be the opinion of all editors in the staff of THE PULSE MAGAZINE. Each editor is of his own seperate opinion, but feels free to express that opinion without having to express the overall opinion of THE PULSE MAGAZINE. Thanks must go to those that helped us in the making of this edition. We depend on help from all sceners, therefore we urge everyone to take part in our many debates as well as sending us news and information. We appreciate the support!
News journal
+ NEWS JOURNAL - MONTHLY SCENE REPORT + -------------------------------------------------------------- We bring you another exclusive update of the current scene situation, as it looks in the eyes of the News Journal reporters. Join us every month, for an inside look at the news with competent views. In order for us to present the most correct and complete news report we need the help of our readers. If you have any interesting things to report upon, let us know by contacting any of the staff members mentioned below. You can get a hold of us by using any of the addresses or numbers listed in PREFACE. NEWS JOURNAL is as always anchored by DUKE, assisted in the news gathering by CROSSFIRE and MR.WAX. ALPHA FLIGHT (GER, HOL, POL, USA) -------------------------------------------------------------- ALPHA FLIGHT looks to be on their way back to former great times. Although suffering from SKINHEAD's army duties and MAX's focus on his education, they gained in hope - as most members seem to be getting active for the winter period. IGNORANCE started calling out again, and their American board, THE EVIL ISLAND, is back and running for the flight. THE MERCENARY decided to leave the Canadian side EMPIRE to team up with ALPHA FLIGHT, which gives the German based group additional power, in their hopes to gain control of the fixing industry. Furthermore, a cracker and swapper, BLAZE/GALYCIA, joined up with the flight as his second group. Concluding news from ALPHA FLIGHT, tells a sad story of a legend putting an end to a successful career - but fortunately ALPHA FLIGHT (GER, HOL, POL, USA) -------------------------------------------------------------- only to pursue a new one. CALYPSO, the infamous trader, who had earlier expressed his desire to stop swapping, decided to end his swapping career. He made a name of himself as a swapper, figuring as the most popular swapper through the last couple of years. The reason for the sudden stop, although he keeps contact with a few close contacts, was a desire to concentrate on other jobs. BOARDS : HOLIDAY INN CAMBODIA XXX - XXX - XXXX THE EVIL ISLAND XXX - XXX - XXXX ESCAPADE +XX - XXXX - XXXXXX MEMBERS : ANCIENT MARINER, ARNE, BLAZE, CALYPSO, CHOTAIRE, IGNORANCE, MARC, MAX, MURPHY, MERCENARY, POL POT, REAM, SHUZE, SKINHEAD, SPIDER, STYX, XENOX and ZAPOTEK. AVANTGARDE (GER, USA, ENG, SWI, POL, DEN, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- The biggest power within the cracking industry, AVANTGARDE, praised themselves as creators of the C64 scene on the PC. Well, so is the rumour - one that should have revealed DEFF as the boaster, on behalf of AVANTGARDE attempting to integrate themselves on the PC as well. However, we will not attempt to look into this rumour, but rather give you the latest update of one of the - which is a fact though, top cracking group in the scene today. AVANTGARDE need not secure its position in the cracking industry, with some of the best members money can buy - instead they have decided to advance themselves within the demo scene, recently signing on Polish fame DRUID to set up a possible legal section. This addition followed a couple of new names, CUPID/EXTACY, a graphician, who decided to team up with the promising legal section. AVANTGARDE (GER, USA, ENG, SWI, POL, DEN, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- ASTAROTH/AGONY/ANTIC decided to leave ANTIC for AVANTGARDE, but will stay in AGONY as his second group. A final signing was to be the most spectacular one, as the Danish musician, METAL/VIBRANTS/CAMELOT, decided to team up with the German based group - but will remain in his famed Danish groups though. BOARDS : DREAM PARK XXX - XXX - XXXX MEMBERS : ASTAROTH, CHAMELEON, CYBORG, CUPID, DEFF, DERBYSHIRE RAM, DRUID, ELIMINATOR, FREESTYLE, INTRUDER, JACK ALIEN, JACK DANIELS, METAL, RAGE, RENEGADE, SKYWOLF, SUICIDE, THORN, TRICOM, TRIMONE and WEASEL. CHROMANCE (GER, HUN, SWE, USA, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- CHROMANCE is another group with a lot of movement this month. They signed a lot of members, and looks to be one of the teams to watch out for in the winter period, which we are standing before. They started off with the signing of MC BYTE/PARADOX, who joined as a supplier and swapper. TECHNO/SCS+TRC teamed up with the side as a coder and original supplier, while the Polish traders, B0LEE and IMMORTAL, joined up with CHROMANCE to secure their power in Eastern Europe - also on the original front. The well known German trader, SPERMBIRD/EXCESS, joined CHROMANCE as his second group. In addition to these fine members joining CHROMANCE, they also took on the Canadian board, FINAL GENOCIDE, after the sysop, DEVIANT, decided to leave PANDORA. Other board news told a tale of the Polish HQ, OVERDOSE, back and running - sysoped by IMMORTAL. CHROMANCE (GER, HUN, SWE, USA, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- In the midst of their returning to the board map, the Polish trader, WOZIO, returned to boost CHROMANCE, introducing a brand new Polish board. This one called, COUNTY JAIL, which is expected to run as the European HQ for CHROMANCE. BOARDS : FINAL GENOCIDE XXX - XXX - XXXX OVERDOSE +XX - XXXX - XXXX EDGE OF MIDNIGHT XXX - XXX - XXXX COUNTY JAIL +XX - XXXX - XXXX MEMBERS : AMC, ALIAS MEDRON, B0LEE, DEVIANT, GRIFF, IMMORTAL, JANEE, JAYDEE, JAZZY D, LION, MC BYTE, MOTION, MR.WAX, SCATMAN, SKUD, SKULL, SPERMBIRD, SYCO, TECHNO, VECTOR, WOZIO and ZAR. F4CG (BEL, ITA, USA, GER, POL, AUS, SWE, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- The Fantastic Four are having a bit of problems returning to former times state. A reason, could be the current success of their integration on the SNES. The members of their SNES division, should be : SOLAR, NEWSCOPY, ANTITRACK, HOBBIT, TYGER and others. But this should not stop the C64 section, atleast some of the prominent members seemed to think so. F4CG was able to announce the happy return to the German trader, SMASHER, who returns after a period missing in action. In addition, they signed on the American fixer, STABLIZER, who decided to leave DEMONIX and team up with the Fantastic Four. WORM, a Polish graphician, also joined up with F4CG - but will have to go through a set trial period before being fully admitted. He does figure on the current memberstatus though. F4CG (BEL, ITA, USA, GER, POL, AUS, SWE, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- Following the signing of STABLIZER, they lost MOLOCH, who decided to join up with the American demo-group, 9TH HELL. BOARDS : DREAM PARK XXX - XXX - XXXX FTP : BBS.CC.UNIUD.IT MEMBERS : ANTITRACK, ARISTO, BITMAN, CEREBUS, CYBORG, CYBERSURFER, DECODER, DEVIL, DRAX, FEN1, HAIN, KING, MAJA, MORRIS, MOTLEY, MR.ALPHA, NEOTEC, NEWSCOPY, PLAYBOY, SMASHER, SNEAPER, SOLAR, STABLIZER, THERION, TOTAL CHAOS, WALKER and WORM. HARDCORE (GER, USA, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- HARDCORE does not seem to have an easy time after the death of their co-operation with ONSLAUGHT. Apparently the members of SCS+TRC is angry with HARDCORE, because HARDCORE allegedly ripped an old SCS+TRC intro, changed the logo and used it for HARDCORE productions. The explanation made available by HARDCORE, states that RAP coded the intro for SCS+TRC while he was a member, but as he later joined HARDCORE, he claims the intro is his to use. This has opened a HARD-CORE debate about morality, but also raised a question about the actual necessity of trademarks in the scene today. While it is debatable whether HARDCORE is suffering or not, they seem to be boasting a rather strong and healthy group of members. They did have to bid farewell with one of the most prominent ones though, as DR.DISK left to team up with the HARDCORE (GER, USA, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- Swedish based group, TRIAD. HARDCORE did manage to make up for his position though, as they signed on ZOOMO/SCS+TRC and NEBULA/EXCESS. They also claimed CREAT/PADUA, who teamed up with HARDCORE and changed his name into BINGOBYTE. In addition to the latest signings, they were able to add GALACTUS to the group. He brought along his board, BLUE GALAXY, which will now serve as a second American board for HARDCORE. BOARDS : THE BLUE GALAXY XXX - XXX - XXXX IN LIVING COLOR XXX - XXX - XXXX MEMBERS : B-WYZE, BINGOBYTE, BLOCKBUSTER, CARLOS, COMMUNIST, DOOZE, GALACTUS, LEEWAY, NEBULA, RAMIREZ, RAP, SHOCKER, VOLUNTEER, Q'TIP, ZOOMO and ZORE. HITMEN (GER, SWE) -------------------------------------------------------------- The German based group, HITMEN, continue to grow, and look to be a team to rely on for the future development of the C64 scene. Atleast they have succeeded in staying alive for months now, a performance in itself when considering it is a new group. But what other new groups seem to have of problems, HITMEN certainly do not. This was proved by the signing of a couple of new members, who were reported to have teamed up with the HITMEN group. A trader, SABOTAGE, and a cracker DODGER/ONSLAUGHT, joined up. HITMEN also signed on the cracker, THE MINISTRY, who left ONSLAUGHT for HITMEN. SHOK'RAY however, was to be the only member leaving the crew - as he announced his farewell to the scene, looking for new adventure on the SNES. HITMEN (GER, SWE) -------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile HITMEN was able to announce the return of PEACEMAKER's board, MYSTICAL PARADIZE, which will run as the European HQ for HITMEN. BOARDS : THE DUNGEON XXX - XXX - XXXX MYSTICAL PARADISE +XX - XXX - XXX - XXX MEMBERS : ARROGANCE, CURLIN, DODGER, GROEPAZ, HI-LITE, JIHAD, JINX, LAWNMOVER MAN, PEACEMAKER, RAZE, RACOON, SABOTAGE, TYRON, TRANZIIE, THE MINISTRY and VORTEX. MOTIV 8 (DEN, GER, USA, NOR, HOL) -------------------------------------------------------------- After last months plea from MOTIV 8, warning the scene about false rumours allegedly staged by HEAVYHEAD/ONSLAUGHT who according to CROSSFIRE, claimed MOTIV 8 was a group of Nazis, we were able to talk to the controversial person in question - HEAVYHEAD. He called us regarding the statements made to us by CROSSFIRE, claiming MOTIV 8 to be wrong - insisting he was not guilty of making any rumours, certainly not anything related to Nazism or Racism. The statements from HEAVYHEAD, can possibly only make matters worse. Now this controversial war has turned into a credibility test, and it is therefore up to the public to figure out who they believe is telling the truth. However, we would like to make something very clear. We at NEWS JOURNAL accept the stories as they are told by the people involved, thereby taking no side - all part of being objective. We therefore recent certain remarks made against us (but not to us) that we are subjective. MOTIV 8 (DEN, GER, USA, NOR, HOL) -------------------------------------------------------------- Moving on to the actual news from MOTIV 8 front, we were once again covered with latest group additions and news from all corners of the team. As of November, MOUNT OLYMPUS has been taken back under the MOTIV 8 - flag. Due to different reasons the sysop, BIRD, left PANDORA to join MOTIV 8 again. There is some talk going around about a party in Germany next year. Organisers will be the top Amiga-groups in Berlin, and MOTIV 8 and PADUA has been offered to be C64 organisers. More information will be given as it comes out, but for now it is already sure, that PC's will be totally banned at this party. The trader, TG-ACME, joined the Norwegian army, and will therefore vanish for a time. He can still be reached on the internet though. But another member of MOTIV 8 appear to have a few problems with his Internet situation, atleast MOTIV 8 (DEN, GER, USA, NOR, HOL) -------------------------------------------------------------- for the moment. Boss of MOTIV 8, CROSSFIRE, will disappear from the internet, due to skipping the education he attended. He stated he had a change of heart, but will try to find other ways of attending the popular internet in the future. In closing, MOTIV 8 signed up LARRY who left PANDORA - while the American, NATAS, officially left the scene. BOARDS : IN LIVING COLOR XXX - XXX - XXXX MOUNT OLYMPUS +XX - XXXX - XXXX FTP : BBS.CC.UNIUD.IT WWW : HHTP://WWW.INFORMATIK.UNI-OLDENBURG.DE /-GRFROG/ MEMBERS : CROSSFIRE, MASON, ICEBALL, BIRD, GREGO, STONE, EDDIE, GREENFROG, MERLIN, CLIVE, IBANEZ, TG-ACME, MIZAR, NATAS, BINJINX and LARRY. ONSLAUGHT (AUS, DEN, GER, HUN, TUR, USA, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- ONSLAUGHT are in the midst of preparing for a major clean-up job. Having already kicked a lot of members, they decided to add THE TWINS, KBS, SMD and TLH of their legal section, ONSLAUGHT DESIGN, to the list of flushed members in late 1995. The illegal side, simply known as ONSLAUGHT, kicked out LA STYLE, MINISTRY and JOYRIDE. All of the before mentioned, should have been kicked due to inactivity, and sofar none has been claimed by other groups. Whether or not ONSLAUGHT is serious about cutting its memberstatus to a more appropriate size is debatable though, as they continued to sign on members. Their legal section, ONSLAUGHT DESIGN, made the headlines with the signings of the biggest profiles from the Turkish side, ACCURACY. The members in question, should be DIGAHOLE, MR.BRAIN and SHARP. In addition, RAP/JABOLE/NO NAME joined up with ONSLAUGHT (AUS, DEN, GER, HUN, TUR, USA, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- the section, which has promised demos as well as music collections for the future. The illegal section, ONSLAUGHT, announced the return of the former great trader, CODE 18, and DONAR/PDX/ARCOSS left to team up with ONSLAUGHT. And concluding a busy ONSLAUGHT period, they bid farewell to GRIZE, who left the scene for the PC. BOARDS : DOWN BY LAW XXX - XXX - XXXX DEAD ZONE XXX - XXX - XXXX WESTPOINT +XX - XXXX - XXXX MEMBERS : ASV, BIZARRE, CODE 18, DOOM, DIGAHOLE, DONAR, GOP, HARDSEQUENCER, HEAVYHEAD, HOMEBOY, JAZZCAT, JOLZ, MORBID, MORRISEY, MR.BRAIN, RAP, SHADES, SHARK, TMM, TROUBLE, VENGEANCE and WITTY. PANDORA (GER, CAN, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- PANDORA appears to already have severe problems, and are the talk of everybody's lips on the American boards, and throughout Europe. But they were not given the best of odds when they returned, basically because of the poor activity record throughout former scene appearances. After CHOTAIRE and BIRD left PANDORA, they have had trouble keeping an optimistic view about the future. With LARRY and DEVIANT among other possible names having left the side, they are desperately needing support from some of the original members and founders, ATTRACTION and SKY. But this could appear impossible, as SKY was rumoured to have left the scene - although other rumours claim he is back already. MEMBERS : AMPUTATOR, ATTRACTION, DEATHLOK, MEPHISTO, MOSES, PROTHEUS, SKY, THAGE, WEASEL and XENTOR. SCS+TRC (HOL, GER, POL, USA, UK, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- The leading co-operation in the 90's, SUCCESS and THE RULING COMPANY, was able to announce a happy return of COUNT ZERO, who decided to give the scene another try - operating as a fixer. The talented magazine editor of NITRO, H-BLOXX/EXCESS, joined up with TRC+SCS as his first group. He will remain a member of EXCESS though, and therefore also one of the leading editors of NITRO as well. BOARDS : THE DUNGEON XXX - XXX - XXXX STATE OF THE ART +XX - XXX - XXX - XXX FTP : PITEL-LNX.IBK.FNT.HVU.NL MEMBERS : ACTION JACKSON, ALCHEMIST, ARROGANCE, CAVRON, CBA, COOLHAND, COUNT ZERO, CREDO, CRUZE, DANNIE, H-BLOXX, JITY, JRC, LORD CRUCIFIER, MIRCON, MOREN, MR.DISK, MYSTRI, REPLAY, SAILOR, SLIVER, SPECTATOR, SPLATTERHEAD, TITANIC and TRAX. QUESTION MARK (GER, SWI, etc.) -------------------------------------------------------------- An old team from 1992 has announced its return to the C64 scene. The name of the reformed team is QUESTION MARK. Behind this name is three sceners, with the handles SPLASH, SPIRIT and CHRIS. Why this group decided to return remains a huge mystery, because according to our sources, all members are already members of other groups under different handles. We can therefore uncover the true identities of the members : CHRIS is JACK ALIEN/AVANTGARDE, SPIRIT is DR.DISK/TRIAD and SPLASH is DR.DISK's girlfriend, DANY. The group was originally a temporary group used as a stepping stone for DR.DISK and JACK ALIEN, when they were searching for a new group back in 1992 after they left LEGACY. But dispite discussions and rumours, QUESTION MARK is back. MEMBERS : CHRIS, SPIRIT and SPLASH. OTHER NEWS NEWS JOURNAL -------------------------------------------------------------- * The American phreaker, TRISTAN/EMPIRE and KICKBACK/ DEMONIX were spotted calling boards once again. * The German cracker, CONAN/TRSI, decided to leave the C64 for the SNES. * The scene was blessed with a brand new group, the only new team to hit the headlines this month. The name of this new foundation is RESOURCE, and is based in Eastern Europe, more precise in Hungary. According to members of RESOURCE, it should have been founded by former Hungarian members of ONSLAUGHT DESIGN - who left to form RESOURCE along with members of EXILE. They were assisted by PETE, who left CHROMANCE and ONSLAUGHT to sign up with the new side. NEWS JOURNAL CORRECTION -------------------------------------------------------------- BIZARRE/ONSLAUGHT did NOT join ACCEPT as was stated in the last edition of NEWS JOURNAL. We regret this false information, but that is the price for accepting all news given to us. Read about Magazine responsibility in MEET THE PRESS, which will discuss the importance of checking all news made available for the respective magazines. We encourage all of our readers to let us know, if any of the news or information presented in NEWS JOURNAL - or any other chapter of THE PULSE, is of a false nature. Let us know by using any of the addresses or numbers listed in PREFACE. We thank you in advance, and ask for tolerance in your judgement of our news presentation. We are but a scene establishment, and do not work 8 hours a day to check all news we get. We hope to see you next month, till then!
Monthly releases
+ Monthly Releases - The 1st release list + ---------------------------- Presented to you by Jazzcat of Onslaught. Welcome to the monthly release list, where a careful observation on the board calling crack groups is made. As per normal, i will try to explain the rules as understandable as possible. Each month we will cover the entire Usa first release uploads on the major boards. The controversies, the points and the thrill of the competition. We also re-introduce the original and traditional release rules and regulations, based upon those of PB/Red Sector. Lets take a closer look at the basic structure of this fascinating system, enjoy. The monthly release regulations v1.0 ------------------------ All first releases are 100% tested on Pal and Ntsc machines, and my decision will be final. The point system: 0.x points are awarded for previews (playable & nonplayable). 2.x points are awarded for low budget (Lk Avalon,P.D). 3.x points are awarded for budget (Cp Verlag,Loadstar,CF). 5.x points are awarded for full price (T.Prod,576kbyte,S.C). -1 point off the group total for a fix file of crack or fix. -5 points off the group total for a re-release. Bonus points: 1 point extra is given for a full translation of text to english, graphicial translations are not required. 2 points are added to the total of a first release that is Ntsc/Pal fixed 100% of a release not released on pal before. This also applies in a reversed state, where the game is pal fixed. Only 1 point is awarded to a game ntsc/pal fix on a game previously first released on pal only. To gain ntsc fix points in this category, the pal first release must be no older than 6 months. A ntsc fixed game is a ware which works on both pal and ntsc machines without any difference. Lamer group releases will not be counted and neither will games made using game creators such as Seuck,Gac and Quill. Incase a group first releases their ware on 2 major Usa boards only and another group puts their version of the same ware on the remainder of the major Usa boards. Then the first group gets the points if the time difference is at least 24 hours, less than that and the other group will recieve the points. C64 major Usa boards: -------------- The Dungeon X-XXX/XXX-XXXX Success*Trc,Hitmen,Dmx Whq. Dream Park X-XXX/XXX-XXXX Avantgarde and F4cg Whq. Down By Law X-XXX/XXX-XXXX Onslaught Whq. The Evil Island X-XXX/XXX-XXXX Alphaflight 1970 Whq. DeadZone X-XXX/XXX-XXXX Onslaught UsHq. If problems still occur, some other boards will be taken into consideration. These will be.. In Living Color X-XXX/XXX-XXXX Motiv8 & Hardcore Whq. Holiday Inn Cambodia X-XXX/XXX-XXXX Alphaflight UsHq. Fortress Of Doom X-XXX/XXX-XXXX Atlantis Whq. -1 is deducted if games are left untranslated, level packed or crunched. If a ntsc/pal fixed game is not 100%, the fixer group or group responasble for the fix recieves a -2 point deduction. Games made using game creators such as Gac,Seuck,Quill and others will not be counted at all. Basic and compiled basic games are not given any points at all, but are ofcourse mentioned as a release of the group. Fake group releases will not be counted at all, and only will be mentioned in the case of a re-release. The quality points range from 0.0 to 0.9 and are made up from the 'fun factor' the ware gives. The quality and design of the graphics,code and music are also taken into consideration. Please understand the pressures of trying to do the most fairest chart possible. With this original points system i believe we will see one of the most objective release lists to date. October begins.. ALPHAFLIGHT (Ger,Usa,Hol,Uk) Points:13.0 -------------------------------------------------------------- This frequently releasing group provided the scene with more this month. Firstly came PINFABALL (4.3) which was ntsc fixed. They then released a 100% ntsc/pal version of DIOROID (4.3) from Cybertech Labortories. After quite a break from releases, the flight put out BATTLE OF THURN (4.4) from Cp Verlag. Which was also fully translated from German to English. Earlier this month Afl first released Fred's In Trouble, but on pal only, Onslaught later released the ntsc/pal version. Worm 100% was released by them, but the Avantgarde version was still 100% and the bug in the high-score was in the original also. So no points for this release. Another consistant month for Alphaflight 1970. AVANTGARDE (Ger,Uk,Den,Swiz,Usa) Points:17.2 -------------------------------------------------------------- Another great month for Avt, as they rock the boards with the usual flood of wares. Firstly, CUSTER PRV (0.4) from Heagone Entertainment. Shortly after this came the a 99% ntsc/pal ware from Poland called MIECZE VALDGIRA 2 (3.7), from Inflexion Development which was dual released with F4cg. Unfortunatly as stated in a note, the game is not 100% fixed, so only pal points are awarded. After this game the German game COLORA 2 (3.4), from AHOY which already works ntsc/pal. WORM (4.3) made it to the boards, ntsc/pal fixed. Alphaflight released a version later, but the Avt version was already 100%. Towards the end of October, the group produced the full version of SPHEREBRAIN (5.4) from Magna Media, which was also ntsc/pal fixed. Another top month! CHROMANCE (Hun,Ger,Usa) Points:4.8 -------------------------------------------------------------- This Hungarian based group has shown recovery with leading figures returning from military services to manage the group. Firstly came TROOZE PRV v2 (0.5) which is a much updated version from the previous Ons+Hc release from Aps soft. Then came another updated version of DECENT STRIP POKER v2 (0.1) which is not much different from the Onslaught version except for a small intro file. As usual they provided another tool, BTLC V1.2x (-) from BIW. Getting into the month came MEGA BRAIN PRV (0.3) followed by the Hungarian game LUCKY EGG (4.5) from Artgame, which was fixed ntsc/pal. Unfortunatly, BOUNCY BALL PRV (-5) was re-released from them from the F4CG first release earlier this year. Pushing this aside though, the released MEMORY (4.4) from Oreal Production and was ntsc/pal fixed and translated from Dutch.. F4CG (Bel,Aus,Swe,Usa,Ita) Points:17.7 -------------------------------------------------------------- The pirates supplied a nice assortment of releases this month beginning at a late stage with DUMATO (4.3) which was also ntsc/pal fixed followed very soon by a low budget called BUSINESS MAN (2.2) from Biw with translations. Then came MIECZE VALDGIRA 2 (3.7) released with Avt but only 99% ntsc/pal fixed, so only pal points are awarded. Soon to follow on the boards was CRAZY MINE CHASER (3.2) already running ntsc/pal from Softdisk Publishing. To finish off a nice month CORE WARS PRO (4.3) from BIW plus ntsc/pal fix, rounding off a great month! -------------------------------------------------------------- Hardcore (Ger,Usa,Pol) Points: -5 -------------------------------------------------------------- Due to lack of organization the only ware they managed this month was FRED'S IN TROUBLE (-5) re-released on Down By Law from the earlier Alphaflight pal first. LAXITY (Ger,Hol) Points:0.4 -------------------------------------------------------------- For the first time they make an appearance in the world of first releases with BLOCK BUSTER PRV (0.4) a small ware from Panic Designs. -------------------------------------------------------------- MOTIV8 (Den,Ger,Usa,Nor) Points:-1.8 -------------------------------------------------------------- The Danish fame made some good activity this month, starting with SKYT (3.2) from Nogamas/Norway, released on pal only but later fixed by the fake lable of Afl, Rpk. After this came THE FINAL CONQUEST (0.0) which was in compiled basic, no points. Unfortunatly due not to calling out on a day to day basis they re-released NUMM (-5) previously released by Avt and uploaded onto Deadzone. To finish the month off came SOLITAIRE (0.0) a basic game from Loadstar and TIMEBOMB (0.0) from Logyk, a text game. ONSLAUGHT (Aust,Ger,Hun,Usa,Den) Points: 5.3 -------------------------------------------------------------- This widely based active group provided again some nice releases beginning with DIOROID (-) from Cybertech Lab. Which was not 100% fixed so (-2) for Hitmen, Alphaflight later released the 100% version. Then came a nice IN-ZANE PRV (0.5) from Everlasting Style. Towards the middle of the month they released probably the best game this month, FRED'S IN TROUBLE (4.8) from Cosmos Designs, ntsc/pal fixed after the Afl pal version. Another steady month once again. -------------------------------------------------------------- PALACE (Fin,Ger) Points: 0.3 -------------------------------------------------------------- The Finnish group released only one ware this month, that being MISFIRED PRV (0.3) Still nice to see them active. SUCCESS & TRC (Hol,Ger,Uk,Usa,Pol) Points:25.6 -------------------------------------------------------------- The ruling co-operation kept a good flow of releases in the month of October starting with ROLOID (3.2) a budget game from Softdisk Publishing. After this some delay, but then DROPPER (4.3) made it to the boards, which was ntsc/pal fixed also. Scs*Trc went into top gear and provided DORIS (5.4) from Cybertech Labortories, which was ntsc/pal fixed. On the same day came the cool COLONY PRV (0.7) from Parallel Logic. Towards the end of October came the New Entry game LAS VEGAS CASINO (4.6) from Magna Media and already running ntsc/pal except for the loader, which was removed and a ntsc/pal loader installed, so no actual fixing was done. Then came LOTTI (3.2) from Loadstar, already ntsc/pal. Followed soon by WESTBAM (4.2) also ntsc/pal fixed. A winning month for the co-op. XENON (Hol,Ger) Points: 0.2 -------------------------------------------------------------- This low profile Dutch based crew provided a small ware with WESTBAM PRV (0.2) and unfortunatly that was their only release. -------------------------------------------------------------- Again no support from the American ntsc scene fixing wise, the question keeps coming, why should we ntsc/pal fix wares if there is no support in return? Is it tradition? quality? maybe a bit of both. Good news is that Tristan/Empire and KickBack/Demonix are calling again so this may kick the Americans into some action. But I fail to see any likely full scale recovery. Regardless, lets examine the OCTOBER release charts.. + OCTOBER FIRST RELEASE CHART + -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos: Group: Releases: Points: #1 Success & Trc 7 25.6 #2 F4cg 5 17.7 #3 Avantgarde 5 17.2 #4 Alphaflight 3 13.0 #5 Onslaught 2 5.3 #6 Chromance 7 4.8 #7 Laxity 1 0.4 #8 Palace 1 0.3 #9 Xenon 1 0.2 -------------------------------------------------------------- Comments: Success * Trc take the crown once again with quality in all fields, well done. Other groups follow in the lead up to the Christmas bonanza, and lets prey it will be good. + OCTOBER NTSC/PAL FIXING CHART + -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos: Group: Fixes: Points: #1 Success & Trc 4 18.5 #2 F4cg 3 11.8 #3 Avantgarde 2 9.7 #4 Chromance 2 8.9 #5 Alphaflight 2 8.6 #6 Onslaught 1 4.8 -------------------------------------------------------------- Comments: Special note must be awarded to a new fixer who did the impossible in 10 hours, JOLZ of Onslaught for FRED'S IN TROUBLE, well done! To the usual, respect to Suicide,Ignorance,Jack Alien,Jaydee and Cerebus, who all provided the ntsc/pal scene with a support of ntsc/pal running wares. If you find any problems contact me: MAIL: XXXXX XXXXXXX XX XXXXX XXXXXX XX XXXXXX, XXXX XXXXXXXX,XXXXXXXXX. VMB: +XX/(X)XXXXXXXXX INTERNET: jazzcat vision.net.au BBS: Dbl X+XXX/XXX-XXXX (email #128) Providing quality releases is hard these late days of the scene, but providing an accurate release charts is even harder. This should be the most accurate results you'll find and I hope you enjoyed the monthly releases of October. A November rain is coming... Best Regards, JAZZCAT/ONSLAUGHT.
Board Report
+ THE BOARD-REPORT! + ---------------- Yes, another month has passed and it is yet again time for the monthly ritual, that being the monthly board report.. - -- --- ------ --- -- - A lot of things went down lately - Like most people know, THE EVIL ISLAND went back online under the ALPHA FLIGHT-flag. Learning this brings a lot of pleasure to yours truly, as it has always been one of my very favorite boards. It is very nice to see Brian, or Ancient Mariner as the majority would know him as, back in business. One wonders, if the board will be put on the list of major boards counting for the monthly releases-list, but there can't be much doubt. Either way, the board can be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX, which was also the old number. You people better call it, cause it surely is worth it. It WAS in the past, and it CERTAINLY still is worthy! Whilst on the topic of boards belonging the ALPHA FLIGHT, HOLIDAY INN CAMBODIA had a major crash and has been down for a LONG time. -MORE!- There will be more about HOLIDAY INN CAMBODIA later, as we go one-on-one with the sysop, POL POT/AFL who will give us quite a joyful insight in his board. It'll be a treat and actually is quite interesting as the oldest of C64-boards, as it recently turned 11 years old. Stick around, you'll see.. :-) - -- --- ----- --------------- ----- --- -- - DREAM PARK, the AVANTGARDE and F4CG hq has also been down for a considerable amount of time recently, as the sysop, CYBORG, moved houses. It should, however, be reach- able again at the following number: 619-452-9503.. - -- --- ----- --------------- ----- --- -- - It happened again... It is always sad to see boards go down, no matter WHICH board it is and for WHAT reason. Several boards went down lately, both in the states and in Europe. THE DUNGEON, the hq of SUCCESS*TRC, DEMONIX and the returned HITMEN, went offline as the sysop, THE ALCHEMIST, was not able to pay his phonebill. Things looked grim for a brief while, but recently the board returned under the same number! THE PIRATE ISLAND, european headquaters of ALPHA FLIGHT, sysoped by CHOTAIRE/AFL was taken offline after some lamer thought it would be amusing to format his system. Obviously he succeeded, and let's hope atleast HE is happy with himself, but all WE can say here is: GET A LIFE, CLOWN!! - -- --- ----- --------------- ----- --- -- - The European headquaters of PANDORA, THE SANITARIUM, reviewed very recently in The Pulse Magazine, went offline for reasons unknown and will not go back online before some time in December. Apparently, most german boards is having a crisis one way or the other lately, and the only board that seems to still be online there is THE ESCAPADE. - -- --- ----- -------------- ----- --- -- - Talking about PANDORA - This month they lost thier Scandina- vian hq. Ironically enough, it was gained by the same crew who lost it to PANDORA only few months earlier, namely MOTIV 8. The board still remains EHQ for DOMINATION aswell, though.. It can, as always, be reached at +XX/XXXXX-XXX.. -MORE!- There were confusion surrounding IN LIVING COLOR recently. More pricisely, the question was whether or not the board was still MOTIV 8 or HARDCORE hq, but the answer is quite simple as IN LIVING COLOR from now is SHARED between these two groups - Meaning, for the more heavy minded, the board is now BOTH MOTIV 8 and HARDCORE hq. Number remain unchanged and can be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX (as ever..). - -- --- ----- --------------- ----- --- -- - DOWN BY LAW was very discussed over the last half year - Was it gonna be online again or was it down to STAY down. Well, it's back online, so let's just hope that MORRISSEY is capable of keeping it like this. The number is 203-875-5454, like it's been from the early beginning.. - -- --- ----- --------------- ----- --- -- - WAREZ AQUARIUM - The without question #1 board in Sweden changed its number. This happened some few months ago, but apparently nobody ever managed to publish the new number, which is +XX/X-XXXXXX. Thomas awaits your call! :-) All in all, the only board running without something to report (..and you MAY consider that a good sign!) is the ONSLAUGHT and VANDALISM NEWS hq, DEAD ZONE. This board was said to be blacklisted, but I, for one, seriously doubt it. Why is my own personal thing, but I think it's safe to say that you can call it without killing your card..:) Either way, the number is XXX-XXX-XXXX... ..and is it ME, or did that board get a couple of ram smacked on lately..? ..Yes, I think SO! :) - -- --- ----- --------------- ----- --- -- - Rumours HAD been flying for some time, but not many people imagined it would ACTUALLY happen, but it DID!!! This month another old board returned, namely THE MYSTICAL PARADISE, sysop'ed by PEACEMAKER/HITMEN.. When it was still online last year and the first few months of this year, it was without doubt one of Germany's most popular boards, and let's see if it can re-claim that position - I quite enjoyed this board in the past, so its return brings a smile on my face! It is HITMEN ehq and reachable on its old number: +XX/XXXX-XXXXX, give it a call! ...and now, for.. ------ -- - # This month's specialty! # ------------------ ..that's right! Like previous issues we will also concentrate on one particular board and get an insight in it's history, in all its aspects, that is.. This month we go one-on-one with the sysop of the oldest board in the history of the C64 - That's right, who other than POL POT/ALPHA FLIGHT, the sysop of HOLIDAY INN CAMBODIA can we possibly be talking about..??? THE PULSE MAGAZINE now gives a few minutes of free speech for POL POT.. Kick it, Dave! :-) POL POT/AFL reporting for THE PULSE MAGAZINE; -------------------------------- The HIC-board has been up since October 1984. I got the name from the Dead Kennedy's song of the same name, where is also where I found my handle "POL POT".. -MORE!- I was also known as "THE DAK" for several years. The board has moved 8 times since I first put it up. I haven't checked the "total calls"-number, but it's well over 35.000. Back when the board first went up, friends from around south-western Ohio used to use "tele-phreak" to blue box calls to my board. Those days were a lot of fun. ------------ --- -- - I've run the following software over the years: 64Exchange V2 (mother of 6485, grandmother of UCBBS!), HAL BBS (until the Deblitzer scandal found the real backdoor!), The Keep BBS (great for its time!), ICE BBS (still my favorite! ..but no color! Still having 30 UD-areas with 30 libraries each was nice..), and finally and still, C-BASE (Radar Modded).. - -- --- -------- In 1987 HIC was mentioned on the front page of the New York Times in an article named "It takes a hacker to catch a hacker - and a thief!" which was an article about the very infamous "Captain Zap" who was a user on HIC back then.. -MORE!- Other users of note included the original MUTANT-X (from Texas), SILICON PIRATE and AGENT STEAL. And yes, our current MUTANT-X, Ed, who was then MR. CBM from Ohio. From about 1988 until 1991, the board was mostly used for political and philosophical debates in Fresno, California, and most of my users were non C64-types. It was fun to put the IBM-scene to shame with my C64, luring most of the good callers for discussion in town. I wasn't into the wares-scene then, but we both know who was ripping up the 209-area wares scene around 1988-89, right? :) ------------- --- -- - -- --- ------------- The board currently runs on a stock, light brown C64 with a CMD HD-100 for my hard drive controller. I have an external 210 meg hard drive attached as well. Most of this space is dedicated to HIC's "Wares Archive" which has libraries listed alphabetically. I also have a Turbomaster for the 4.09 mhz advantage. I run a generic v.32 9600 baud modem and an aprotek rs-232 adaptor. -MORE!- I also have a 20 meg Lt. Kernal, a RamLink with 16 megs and one of the first 50 SwiftLink cartridges produced sitting in my closet. - -- --- ----- --------------- ----- --- -- - The software-libraries on HIC contain assorted wares dating from 1982 to present. The collection is far from complete, but I'm going to add at least 500 megs soon which will allow me to allocate at least 16 megs for each letter of the alphabet. I then hope to get lots more of my oldies online, and hopefully a lot of oldies from friends of mine. - -- --- ----- --------------------------- Though I've been in and out of the scene since 1984, I never joined a group until about 1991 when the board was GARDEN OF EDEN/WEST - Yes, I admit it! The board was soon picked up my MOLOCH/ARMAGEDDON, and it wasn't long before ARCADE asked me to take them on. I made a lot of good friends in ARCADE, and that time in the board's life was a lot of fun. --------------------- ----- --- -- - -MORE!- After the death of ARCADE, I was independant for quite a while until I got too busy with work and my personal life, so I took on ALPHA FLIGHT and they help me support the board quite nicely. ------------------ ----- --- -- - In the near future, bid changes are coming. BEWARE! The board will be better than ever, and I hope to have enough disk space so that I will not only have an extensive Wares and Demo's- collection, but I would also like to have a ton of Text-Files online. I have a great collection of them. - -- --- ----- ------------------- I've been an anarchist for a long time, and try to run the board with a few rules as possible. I hope you'll find it interesting!!! Signed, POL POT/AFL - Trust all men, but cut the deck. - -- --- ----- --------------- ----- --- -- - HOLIDAY INN CAMBODIA - ALPHA FLIGHT World-Headquarters! ..+ Give it a ring on XXX-XXX-XXXX...Radar modded C*Base! +.. - -- --- ---- ----- ----------------------- Alrighty then, that was it for this time.. Don't forget, if you have anything to add or want to get in touch with the editor of this chapter for one reason or another, you can e-mail me on the internet via the following address: C01 DEC5102.AARHUES.DK.. Mail check several times a day! Other possibilities is leaving me e-mail on MOUNT OLYMPUS (usr #2) at +XX/XXXXXXXX, I check my mail every day here too! ----------------------- ----- ---- --- -- -
Satirica
+ SATIRICA - THE AUTOPSY OF THE SCENE + -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome back to the domains of SATIRICA. We take pride in basing out stories on lies and rumours. This means, if there is something contriversial being spread around about you - feel safe, that you will be able to read about it here, along with the rest of the world. Since the last edition, a lot of people have been sending us letters and post-cards, as well as notes through the internet. To those who took the time to write, we would just like to say "The same to YOU!". REGARDING SATIRICA, The stories included in SATIRICA are pure fiction, all of which are based on a satiric state of mind. We do not want to offend anyone, but rather pass on a smile in these trying times. We hope you will enjoy the read. General Editor, DUKE. THE TRIBUNE BREAKS OLD RECORD... -------------------------------------------------------------- THE TRIBUNE breaks an ancient record, set by ANTICHRIST - whoops, OMG, in SEX'n'CRIME (500.000 blocks of pure rags) by editing a scene version of the new testament. Having achieved their goal, THE TRIBUNE aims even higher, attempting to make an edition so large, that it would require all the C64 disks in the world to get a copy. However, they have met unexpected problems from a side not related to the scene directly. Spokesman for the federation of scene-hating mail-men, threatens to boycott THE TRIBUNE, if they do not cut their production down to the former size - one truck filled with disks for every copy. The last magazine to suffer from a boycutt was A-HEAD, which was famed for its charts - such as the "Top Million Best Swappers". THE SATIRIC TOP FIVE LIST -------------------------------------------------------------- TOPIC : Five ways indicating the C64 is a much better computer than any other on the market today. 5. Tons of great new games are released EVERY DAY! 4. Making a collection of games and demos can be easily surveyed. And the best thing is, when the disks obtain about 75% of your room - you know it is time to renew your collection. 3. The speed is simply fantastic. Just load Turbo-load, and watch your tape-recorder FLY!!! 2. When visited by a babe, claim it's a calculator from 1960! 1. It's cheap - and we can afford it! (ed. I've got a PC, BUUH) BOSS OF MOTIV 8 FOUND NEW CALLING IN LIFE... -------------------------------------------------------------- The head honcho of MOTIV 8, CROSSFIRE, claims to have found a brand new calling in life. Atleast so he states in a brand new book entitled "Me and my Hamsters". CROSSFIRE decided to give up on an academic career, and instead pursue Hamster farming, as he was learned in his former home village, Mundelstrup. He claimed to have been given tips by excellent farmers, such as BOD, NEWSCOPY and SOLAR. According to CROSSFIRE, he is going to become a big city farmer, just like the sceners mentioned previously. It may be difficult trying to grow potatoes in the centre of the city, but if I hand out free copies of my book near the future field, I bet people won't mind having to walk past my potatoes to shop in the stores. -- CONTINUED.. His parents however, are not at all pleased with his sudden career change. According to ALIEN-LIFE-FORM magazine, CROSSFIRE's parents claim he has always been different than the average Joe in town. "Back when he was little, he insisted on eating with fork and spoon, something we were surprised to see" stated a worried parent located in Mundelstrup. Other town people expressed their concern for CROSSFIRE's well-being, noticing how he may find it difficult to live outside the secure borders of Mundelstrup. "He may think food is to be handled with tools, freezers are used to freeze with and phone's are used to call with, but that's not that way things work in Mundelstrup. Here we approach things more realistically" stated the mayor of Mundelstrup City. DOMINATION TURNS SATIRIC.. -------------------------------------------------------------- The independent production, DOMINATION, lead by ONSLAUGHT member JAZZCAT, has moved towards the business of Satiric chapters. JAZZCAT stated on a conference, he wanted to expand on the already fine contents DOMINATION had to offer. Chapters such as DINGO SLAYING, DINGO RECIPE'S, DINGO STORIES and DINGO CHARTS have sofar proven to be a great success, and already copied by other magazines. But according to JAZZCAT, DOMINATION lacked a chapter less serious than the ones already listed in the program. "I was thinking something like MEANWHILE IN THE HOUSE, only changing it a bit into - MEANWHILE ON THE SOFA, MEANWHILE IN THE DISK-DRIVE OF or MEANWHILE AT THE TOILET" claimed JAZZCAT, who was real excited about the good reviews DOMINATION had received. -- CONTINUED.. But one magazine was not too keen on DOMINATION though, VANDALISM NEWS produced by VENGEANCE, stated it was lame of ONSLAUGHT to have two magazines - and that JAZZCAT should be thrown out of ONSLAUGHT. VENGEANCE did however also state, that JAZZCAT should not take any of his remarks personally - "Why would he do that?" asked VENGEANCE looking like a big question mark. :? JAZZCAT did not see much logic in that solution, "DOMINATION is not even released under the ONSLAUGHT label - it's put out UNDER THE SUN" stated JAZZCAT. VENGEANCE was firm on his views, "I still think JAZZCAT should be thrown out. Again, nothing personal. Even though he is kind of lame.. er... h..m..". HEAVYHEAD DENIES ALLEGATIONS... -------------------------------------------------------------- The Danish sysop, HEAVYHEAD, denies having accused MOTIV 8 of being a bunch of rookie Nazis. He had been getting a lot of angry calls from Nazis, wanting to clear their names. "I am so sorry about this whole episode, I was supposed to have called them SHOE SALESMEN, I had the two mixed up" stated HEAVYHEAD to COMMUNIST POST, while insisting he did not accuse MOTIV 8 - because, as he stated, he had no Motive. Haha.. BANG! He furthermore denies he will be busy discussing the controversial matter with MOTIV 8 members, stating on a conference "I am booked all year out. I still have to call HARDCORE a bunch of phone-boot users, AVANTGARDE a crew of tape-swappers and VIBRANTS a couple of casserole dummers". PANDORA WAITING TO BE RESCUED.. -------------------------------------------------------------- PANDORA has not had the perfect comeback, atleast they have been watching the members flock to other groups the last couple of months. But now the leader and founder, ATTRACTION, has put his mind on solving the groups problems. "I put a cool add in NBC SUGAR CHANNEL searching for crackers" claimed a hopeful group-leader. But the calls haven't exactly been raining in, sofar the only call, was made by AIRWOLF - requesting a large pizza with pepperoni. Later on however, ATTRACTION had to admit he may have aimed a little high on his requests for new crackers. "Okay, so it may be hard to find someone able to crack and code in Spanish and Swahili, but it is worth the try" stated ATTRACTION to DOWN-HILL magazine. F4CG DOES THE SUPER NINTENTO... -------------------------------------------------------------- Things are cooking on the Super Nintento for the Fantastic Freaks from F4CG, as they succeeded in integrating themselves in the complicated scene. "It was a tough road, but I am glad we finally made it" said an exhausted SOLAR infront of the Super Nintento building in Tokyo. "We have just spoken with some of the inside people at SNES, and they agreed to look us up for the latest cracks" stated an overjoyed SOLAR. But SOLAR was not permitted to keep the happy face for very long, as his house was bombed by secret service dudes, let by the old pirate GENE. "Great, finally got SOLAR. He was hard to get though, but when he taped a statement claiming to be a pirate, cracking games and inserting small chickens into the game SONY THE HEDGEHOG, we knew we had something solid on him" stated a proud GENE, who is finally done serving for CONTINUED.. FPOP (Former Phreakers On Parole). SOLAR is now serving time on a hedgehog ranch in cold Norway, while trying to get a breakthrough on the SNES machine. LIFE-STINKS Magazine caught up with him cuddling a small hedgehog, and asked him about his future plans for F4CG on the Super Nintento. "Okay, so cracking is out. Atleast I know how to handle a joystick - and lets see any of the other pirates beat me at STREETFIGHTER 2!!" stated SOLAR, the Hedgehog! MEANWHILE AT THE HOUSE OF PEACEMAKER/HITMEN "What are YA looking at? YAR should be minding YAR own business, damn it!". SCS+TRC SUED BY HARD-CORE DUDE.. -------------------------------------------------------------- A brand new and very interesting case has hit the scene, this one between two parties fighting over the rights to a blond girl called BLONDIE. It all started when RAP joined up with SCS+TRC. At that time he was still single, but later on he met BLONDIE, and they started going out. Later RAP decided to leave the co-operation, and team up with HARDCORE - when the problems started. RAP invited BLONDIE out for a drink, when BURGLAR and MOREN kidnapped BLONDIE, claiming she belonged to them. Confused? The court was set, and the judge - THE DARK JUDGE, was presiding. THE DARK JUDGE, situated in his best pair of light pyjamas, was able to open the trial. SCS+TRC first had a go at the very controversial case. MOREN was sent to the stand, and he gave the following explanation. CONTINUED.. "Listen man, RAP started going out with BLONDIE when he was still in SCS+TRC bench was appalled by his statement, they knew perfectly well, that nothing was real - unless it was on drugs and plenty of beers (read latest book published by MOREN for further details and hints!!). "ORDER" shouted TDJ, while pounding his table with a wiener. "I will not have this nonsense in my courtroom. That, and any demos from BLACKMAIL - damn it". TDJ saw no other alternative, than to award the court the rights to BLONDIE, which none of the parties involved seemed very pleased about. After the case was closed, TDJ was confronted by the press, wanting to know about his controversial decision. "I have made a final say in this case. Now I plan on putting my decision into the scene-rules-guide, making sure every girl friend of sceners leaving a group will be sent to me".
Profile
+ THE NOVEMBER PROFILE - SAURON /ex.ILLUSION + -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to another edition of PROFILE, the place to be for an inside look at some of the names that helped shape the scene into what it is today. This month I decided to reach into the past, and bring out one of the people I myself find as a personal idol. He proved as a true original, standing out in his field from the very beginning. He managed to make a name for himself both in Europe, but also throughout the world where his name was spread in the many games he put behind him. Today he is nolonger figuring in the charts he ruled in the past, but he tells in an exclusive interview, about the happy days, of when he lived the life of the C64 dream. Without further ado, please welcome, SAURON of ILLUSION. <D> DUKE <S> SAURON -------------------------------------------------------------- <D> Welcome back to the spotlight SAURON. We all remember you as the skilled cracker, and great provider of games through many years, up to the early 90's where you decided to leave the scene. But for those of us who never had the chance to meet you in person, perhaps you could describe what type of an individual you are today? <S> OK. To start with some personal fact, I am now 24 years old, born 27-2-71, same date as GARFIELD, also in ILS. I am about 180 cm and weigh about 85 kg. (Yeah just muscles! :) ) In the past I liked to get known and be a friend with everyone in the scene. Not easy to be neutral when the group had two of the worst raggers, GENE and HERO (HARRY). But it's in my nature to try to see both sides and not take side. Even though sometimes I could get a little upset over some people in LEGEND, especially false rumours. As for today I have only two months left of my education as a civil engineer in computer science and telemathics. Work should be quite easy to get so finally some money will come back :) Yeah, in a students life most money go out (high beer prices might have something to say here). <D> I know, beer and cigarettes are hard to enjoy in Norway with the heavy tax rates. Having established the person behind the handle, we move onto the major achievements for the scene, you are able to boast today. Please share with us, the events that shaped your glorious career in the C64 scene. <S> I started off in 1984/85 with a group called THE LORDS, I was kind of fan of the TOLKIEN series so I chose the name SAURON, the evil one. After working in a computer shop I started to transfer the games there to disk, and then THE LAST SCIENCE wanted me as a cracker for them in 1987 I guess. At 8/8-88 FUTURE was formed with only people from my hometown, some excellent demo coders and myself. From there we started to crack real much, but the whole thing really started with ILLUSION in 1989. From there we got real known, and we got members in UK (DEAN & RICHIE and later some more like DERBYSHIRE RAM). Now also the modem and trading deal started, and GENE who was a real known dude at that time joined in as "Public Relations" guy! Since I was the one that had done most cracking, I continued to do so also since I was nearly the only one with a modem (and could crack). I remember making tape transfer over the phone with RICHIE so he could rip out data from tape and send them to me. We got quite good at it in the end, but there was many frustrating moments when RICHIE didn't really know what he was doing, and I had to tell him bit by bit what to do. <D> What can you expect from a roofer like RICHIE, heh :) You had most of your success at a time, where the scene was most popular and populated. What was it like, to be one of the main stars at that period of time? What did it do to you as a person? <S> Well, I finally realised that this was something I was good at. Seeing myself at the top 3 cracker chart every month did not go to my head, but it pushed me forward to stay there. There was much attention to what I did, and I got phoned up on all those conferences who were runned at that time. The persons who did not like my glory must have been my parents. <D> I have an answer for that one. Just run their phone-bill to a 7 figure number, and they will know they are dealing with a true genius :). Being involved with the C64 requires a lot of time and energy, atleast if you have ambitions towards reaching the very top of the charts. What was your experience like, having to compete with the best in the business, such as IKARI+TALENT at their best, and other groups such as GENESIS PROJECT? <S> I+T was sure good crackers, and it was some days when we both got the game the same day, and we had to go for it during the night. There were many sleepless nights, many boring levelpacking moments, but in the end when your product was first up on the boards, you got kind of proud (atleast in the beginning), but then it got much routine. I started engineer school when I was at my most active time, but it was kind of easy and relaxing so it did not do me much. <D> I remember those infamous nights - working like GENE at Public Relations for DOMINATIONS. I had my fair share of nervous board calls, to see if the evil ILLUSION had a fixed version released before us. Shame on you :) The cracking-scene is quite different today, and the competition is not as intense as it was when you were active. What motivated you as a cracker, and what do you think is the main difference between the crackers of 1995, those of 1990 and the pilgrims who started out in the early 1980's? <S> The pilgrims in 1980 was sort of my heroes, TRIAD, DYNAMIC DUO and GCC. They started it all for a challenge I guess, so did I in the beginning, then it became sort of fun, competing for the #1 spot. But today I really do not know about why people do so. The fun must be over when NO good games come out. It become boring at the end when only German budget games came out, and I refused to do them. No challenge in running a program into a cruncher and perhaps put on a few trainers. <D> That is true. But the scene has a great gift of being able to adapt itself to certain situations, and so the cracking scene continued with good competition. You decided to leave the scene at a time, where most other famous sceners also made their farewell. Why did you decide to leave the scene, and why do you think other prominent sceners left? <S> Well, I realised that the scene was going to a standstill. From having 7 - 10 games a week, there were 2 or 3 games a month, but I went to the army after college of engineering in 1992 - 1993. I tried to keep up since I was quite often at home, but nothing really exciting happened and at Easter time 1993 GENE and HARRY had a visit from the police about AT&T calling card abuse so I realised this was coming to an end. Most people got bored when no games came out, the thrill and the competition was not there when so few games came out, so most people got bored and they also grew up I guess. <D> Most good things come to an end, that is the cruel reality of life I suppose. Cracking was not your only C64 interest, you also enjoyed calling overseas boards, as well as conversing with people on conferences and making American friends. How do you remember those days, meeting people over the phone beyond far away borders? <S> The first REAL cool American I got to know were JOEL, THE EXECUTIONER of EXODUS. He called me nearly every day in the beginning and we had some really good times. As a matter of fact EXODUS were a very cool group to trade with. Conferences were OK as well, but being waked up at 3am wasn't always fun (still parent problem). Then I got to know PUDWERX (JASON) of ATC who ran his board THE FORUM, the # 1 board in USA. He was the nicest guy I met and I got to know him real well. If ANYONE know his whereabouts, phone number or address, please let me know. Address at the end of this interview. I called a few boards, but mainly to check on if a ware had reached out. I was transferring enough already between our supplier in England and PUDWERX (the NTSC fixer). <D> What do you think was your most memorable performance as a cracker? <S> Our first release of FLIMBOS QUEST was something I remember, also CREATURES 1&2 and some other THALAMUS and SYSTEM 3 games was OK. Yes, I know people will still bug me for THE LAST NINJA 3, but the packer screwed it up somehow and depacked a few bytes wrong so I had to patch it. <D> There were plenty more, but being the modest guy you are, I did not expect you to mention more than a few anyway :) As stated before, you made a name of yourself as a cracker at a time, where competition was perhaps the most important ingredient for motivation. What was the mentality like then, did it bring you good or bad memories? <S> I guess I have answered this already, competition is good for all causes, if you can't handle it you have lost in the first place. I look at the scene as 99% good memories. Today's PC scene can't be compared. <D> The PC is for hard-core demos and games, while the C64 is for a cool scene experience. Which people did you have the most respect for in the scene, and why? <S> The people I respected, DOC and POWERPLANT for being good crackers. Also the elite groups they were in, IKARI and LEGEND. Some of the old legends like TRIAD I also respect. STORMBRINGER and PUDWERX for their NTSC fixing abilities, especially when I heard STORMBRINGER helped a Euro guy PAL fix a NTSC game by hearing what the game looked and telling him what to fix! <D> They are all great sceners, too bad we do not have a hall of fame to remember them by - among many other prominent names (perhaps an idea for THE PULSE?). Most people probably do not know what you actually went on doing after you dropped your activities for the C64. Did you take on the challenge of starting on other systems? <S> Well, after I finished the army, I had little contact with the C64 scene, and when I continued my education for civil engineer degree, I read that Commodore went bankrupt. But I tried some of the C64 emulators on PC and try to hang out someones on #c-64 on IRC (nick SAURON1). But mostly I hang out on the #malice channel which I am in now. It is a couriering group in Internet and BBS. I cracked a few games on PC for myself which was uncracked, but that's it. It's hard to get originals for me now, and I do not have the time. I just play and see how lame some "crackers" are now. <D> It is almost impossible accepting another scene, especially after having been part of such a great one on the C64. People who believe they can find someone as genuine and pure as the C64 on another system, will be very disappointed. But atleast the games are cool :) How would you compare the C64 scene to the PC of today? <S> The C64 scene were much better than it is now. There were much better contact and one saw more releases from several groups. On PC only ONE group can release a game, and if they fuck up you might not see a 100% working version. Much ragging on such things are going on. As I am not involved directly in any PC cracking group, I cannot say much, but on IRC or Internet our group keep good contact which I appreciate. <D> Has your involvement in the scene given you some qualities, that has proven useful in your life? <S> Hmm.. Not that I can think of, except for turning me into the computer business in which I will start working in after Christmas. Perhaps leader decision, but that's just bullshit most will say :) <D> Do not sell yourself short MR. MODEST, I also think you have developed an excellent English - which otherwise probably would have been ordinary, had it not been for your C64 engagement. What do you miss the most from your scene adventures, if anything? <S> I sometimes miss the nights when I listened to cool music, cracking, training and get a first releease. I miss some of the talks I had with various people. <D> Heard. The C64 is special because of the people. Do you still own a C64, and if so, do you ever get new stuff from the scene? <S> Yep, my C64 is at my parents home. Right now I live 500 km north of my home and use my PC. I use it for game playing, Internet and some C64 testing. I tried some C64 tunes converting to midi format, they were quite good!! <D> It is quite odd really. The PC provides music at such a high quality, you would think it could easily be sold in the record stores - while the C64, with its 3 tunes, seems to have much more style and class. But that is looking through my own subjective C64 glasses ofcourse :). Have you ever thought about returning to the c64 scene? <S> I think the c64 is dead and I can do nothing for it now. It could be OK to return, but most of my friends are gone now. <D> Make new ones then. I will send you a copy of THE PULSE, just to prove to you how the scene is still "happening". It will take more than time to kills us off :) Being a user of Internet, have you made contact with some of your old friends from the scene? <S> Sure, just at my university some of the Norwegian elite are/have been. MATCHAM (MR. LEVELPACK), STORM- SHADOW (who I write my diploma thesis with) and some others. On IRC I have met a few guys on #c-64 like MOTLEY, SCOPE (a real good friend of mine), some F4CG guys, MASON+TG-ACME/MOTIV 8. Also seen BOD of TALENT posting a few posts on News, also seen a few others posting on the news groups. I am sure I have missed a few people, but.. <D> We are moving towards the end of this interview. Therefore I would like to offer you the chance, to give a greeting to some of the people you may not have talked to in ages - or atleast to friends of yours. <S> I would like to say hi to RICHIE (Nice talking with you again, too bad I won't come this x-mas), DERBYSHIRE RAM (the grandpa of C64! Miss your talks BARRY). The guys in IKARI+TALENT and LEGEND, PUDWERX (Where are you "Saddam"? I miss you!). Also HI to the rest of ILLUSION like GARFIELD and ROCKY (I will see you guys when I return at x-mas time), GENE (where the hell are you!). -------------------------------------------------------------- How to get in touch with SAURON/ILLUSION: Internet : olegr pvv.unit.no (now and after x-mas). WWW : http://www.idt.unit.no/-olegr http://www.pvv.unit.no/-olegr (after x-mas) Mail : XXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXXXX. Mail before x-mas 1995: XXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXX.
Internet Report
The Internet Chapter -------------- Hi there everybody! The Playboy here again for the monthly issue of The Pulse Magazine!!!!!!... What you are about to read is (as you may have noticed... :-D) the Internet-related chapter... As a lot has been already said on the ways to use the Cyber Highway (and still is being said by some other Magazines) I am taking care of telling you what is worthy a visit and what is not.... In the previous Issue we talked about some cool F.T.P. sites... and I promised you to review some more in this Issue... -- ...word has it that many sites have seen dark times being closed by the Shadow of 'ESCOM', which published a NET article saying something like they are gonna sell the C64 again and so every site containing games should erase all the illegal stuff fom their directories otherwise the maintainers could risk some problems with the copyrights laws... SHIT!!! This stuff makes me puke.... in fact we realized later that on the list of the new products from ESCOM there is NO C64 or not even C64 clone mentioned.. Anyways... believe me, many sites have been closed due to this lame reason... sites as the frodo archive and the lennon archive (the biggest sites containing games for the C64s EMUlator) and the Delta System site in Hungary aswell (a nice site full of old demoes, also home of the Chorus demos...) -- Well... the world is BRUTAL (as the LIGHT'ers may say :-D)... so only the strongest survive.... Luckily all the F.T.P. sites I mentioned last issue still survived and another F.T.P. site was born and this is the site we are gonna take a look at in this issue... I am talking about the Palace F.T.P. site. ftp://dhp.com/pub/c64 This site is a new wares site maintained by 2ny/Palace and some more of his friends. It basicly is an U.S. mirror of the Pitel site. but it also contains some nice other stuff. The site is quite ok. Full of help files and hints on where to find what you are looking for. -- As mentioned before the sites that survived had to take pre-cautions against the risk of being persecuted, so they also made a hidden directory for the scene stuff: /pub/c64/scene/.scene.txt When you switch to this directory you get an help screen telling you which directory contains what. You get a directory for the new stuff, a directory for the old stuff and two directories for the oldies games (which is almost the same as on pitel - the TRC+SCS F.T.P. site - also known as the digital dungeon). Plus you get a ./otherstuff directory which contains stuff that does not fit in the other directories. Last time I visited it I found a nice registered version of the C64s and a registered version of the Trans-64 (which is a tool to transfer stuff from your PC to your 1541 and -- Vice-versa with the famous X-1541 cable). The First cracked by BONZAI Internet and the second by JiSM and FaST. Never heard of this, anyway... cool stuff indeed! All in all it's a nice site... I suppose it is very useful for the guys that use cards to call the internet, connecting to some U.S. servers. Actually it takes very long time to transfer from between The States and Europe, especially during the daylight hours, due to much traffic on both sides of the Ocean. Apart from this it contains all the usual stuff, so it does not add anything special to the Panorama... Enough about this F.T.P. site. Now I am gonna tell you the most important hidden directories of the biggest sites containing illegal stuff... -- Here we go... The InterParc (F4CG+Motiv8+Propaganda+The Pulse): ftp://bbs.cc.uniud.it/pub/c64/games/0-7 ../8-30 ../oldies The Digital Dungeon (TRC+SCS): ftp://pitel-lnx.ibk.fnt.hvu.nl/pub/c64/Scene/New ../Old ../Oldies1 ../Oldies2 Ofcourse I won't mention here the palace directories as I already mentioned them in the previos pages. Ok. I think there is nothing more to add for this issue, except -- for a little mention of what you will read on the next Issue. I will hopefully review some I.R.C. roBOTS (as told before you are supposed to know what such stuff is...). Just to mention some: Sharkbite (The Sharks) PAL-FTP (Palace) Pitel (The Ruling Company & Success) (GEEZ!!!! looks like I am the only one here that has no bot for this site... :-/ ) Last chapter I wrote that ofcourse reactions are welcome... I didn't get any so far... so I will repeate my advertise here: Feel free to contact me for any suggestion or opinion about this chapter and what you would like to see here... -- I think it is unnecessary to mention that I will be glad to publish worthy reactions... anyway... here is my contact address: Snail Mail: XXXXXX XXXXXXX (Please no handles on the envelope :-D) XXX XXX XXXXXX' XXX XXXXX XXXXXXXX (XX) XXXXX E-Mail: playboy bbs.cc.uniud.it Phone: +XX.XXX.XXX.XXX Otherwise look for me on the I.R.C. on channel #c-64 or drop me local mail in my very own internet related bbs: telnet://bbs.cc.uniud.it -- Login: bbs User ID: guest Password: guest or even try 'NEW' on the User ID request and fill the form... OK. This is all. Hope you have enjoyed reading this few lines as much as I enjoyed writing them (?????)... catch you all on the next issue of this great magazine... Playboy/F4CG Co-Editor of The Pulse --------------------------------------------------------------
Scene Illustrated
+ SCENE ILLUSTRATED - DEBATE AND INFORMATION + -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to SCENE ILLUSTRATED, our debate and information section with guaranteed entertainment. As always, your host is General Editor, DUKE. This is what is in store for you. SCENE ILLUSTRATED will give you the best of news, debate and scene information on a monthly basis. We will keep your blood boiling with the profound SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT topics. In addition to our debates, we offer independent articles written by various sceners about various issues. We will also keep your knowledge about scene history intact, with the MONTHLY TIMELINE - see if you remember the happenings. If you have any sorts of information suitable for a larger audience or an article with a scene-related topic, please send it to us before the 28th of November. But first, we bring you this months OPINION-POLLS! + THE SCENE ILLUSTRATED OPINION POLLS + ------------------------------- OPINION POLL # 1 ------------ What type of scene mentality would you prefer to see integrated? 1. The strongest rule - be it fair or not. 2. The people who are in the charts deserves respect from other sceners. They should therefore be called Elite, which is a title given to productive sceners. 3. Every scener should have an equal respect for eachother. It should not matter if you are an old scener or now. 4. I do not care for any particular scene mentality. Let it go! OPINION POLL # 2 ------------ We are moving closer towards Christmas, and there is a few parties ahead in the scene schedual. Do you plan on attending any of these parties? 1. I do not like Computer parties. 2. I have already made plans to visit one, my bags are packed and ready to go. 3. I have not decided whether I will go to one or not. 4. I simply cannot afford to go. I would like to though, but that is life! OPINION POLL # 3 ------------ Most of the Magazines released today on the c64 have huge news sections. What is your opinion about their responsibility in terms of handling these news? 1. I hate when magazines accept news that are incorrect. They ought to check all the news they get, even if that means a delay period. 2. I support all magazines that makes an effort to bring good news. They are not to blame if they do admit a couple of incorrect news. 3. Magazines that has any or few false news should not be voted for, they are a disgrace. 4. We should not expect too much from the magazines. + SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT - SCENE MORAL AND RULES + -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to another edition of SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT, this time touching the more sensitive area of the scene - the moral and unwritten rules and laws. Instead of debating the issue by myself this month, I have decided to invite one of the true legends in the scene, BOD of TALENT. He will be asked a lot of various questions serving this months topic right. But before we begin the debate, let me encourage all of you readers to take part in our debates. We would be pleased to hear what your views are - let them be heard, write to us! <D> DUKE <B> BOD/TALENT <D> Thank you for joining this debate. We all know you as one of the very few remaining profiles the scene has left to boast. How long have you been in the c64-scene? <B> Well, I got my 64 back in early 1986 but did not start doing anything on it scene-related until 1987 when I joined HOTLINE. In 1990 I left HOTLINE and formed TALENT where I have been ever since :) <D> During those many years of engagement with the c64, what do you see as the biggest change in the scene? <B> The biggest change in the scene from my point of view was the change from being involved in the mail trading scene into the modem scene. So much more competition and pressure on you to finish your releases. <D> The 80's were known as the years when the elite groups practically ruled the scene. What was the prime difference between the status of a newcomer, a scener and the absolute elite like then? <B> Well back when virtually everything was taken care of via mail, this really didn't become too apparent apart from in Magazines. On the boards on the other hand you would only see the people that were real elites, but that soon changed. Boards then allowed everybody a chance. <D> Today the scene has changed, and growing parts of the scene - whereas most are beginners or not positioned in any charts, claim the scene does not have or want an elite part in the scene. What are your comments to that? <B> I don't feel the scene will ever be the same as a few years back. This makes it harder for newcomers to get fame. <D> You have been considered a top elite c64 handle in the scene for many years, primarily due to your efforts as a cracker. What do you feel about being considered elite? <B> Well I was born to be well known, what more can I say! Hahaha! Honestly, every thing I ever did on the c64 in time was for fun. We never really did it for competition, mostly for fun. And to think what we achieved over the years is incredible. I often sit on IRC in the c64 channel and have people ask me "Are you the BOD from HOTLINE/ TALENT?", it makes me feel real good to have been a big influence on the scene. <D> Do you think perhaps the scene has become much more "Politically correct" in its moral today, as opposed to the more conservative "dog-eat-dog" mentality in the more productive years in the scene? <B> I don't really think so, there just aren't as many groups doing as many things these days so it doesn't seem quite the same anymore. <D> Today a lot of very skilled and important c64 names have left the scene. Do you think it is a possibility, that they left due to the lack - or decreasing, amount of respect and acknowledgement from the general sceners? <B> Not really. I think it is more because of the lack of interest in the 64 from the software companies, etc. Everyone apart from the actual sceners rate the 64 as a dead machine, there isn't any challenge left anymore without any software to release. I feel most of the old sceners have just moved onto other platforms. <D> I find it is a challenge in itself being able to simply survey the scene, and the people in it. I always say, if you really think the scene is dead - simply try and do a magazine. I bet you would change your mind very quickly, and also agree there are plenty of possibilities for new ambitions to be met on this machine. What type of rules do you think should be practised in the scene, and what kind of moral ought to come with it? <B> Well, that is a hard question because the scene today is nothing like it used to be. Everything is so more relaxed these days without the interest of the big companies. People should just remember that the scene is supposed to be fun, and take it from there. <D> Thanks a lot for taking part in this debate Darren! <B> No problem Alex, I look forward to seeing it in THE PULSE! - Up next, THE MONTHLY TIMELINE! THE MONTHLY TIMELINE ---------------- What year and month did the following events occour? 1. The cracking group VICTIMS died, and most members joined GENESIS PROJECT, while other decided to form a new group, which was called EXTREME. 2. The infamous graphician, GOTCHA, teamed up with COSMOS DESIGN. 3. The Danish demo group, CONIC, died. 4. Former German members of NATO formed the demo and cracking group, TRAITORS. The answers to this months TIMELINE events, can be found later in this edition of SCENE ILLUSTRATED. + THE SCENE ILLUSTRATED OPINION POLL - ANSWERS + -------------------------------------------------------------- OPINION POLL # 1 ------------ Which way of communicating would you prefer the scene to concentrate on in the future? 1. The scene is best off sticking to the good old and traditional mail-trading. 2. We need the edge the American board-scene gives us, therefore we should keep on meeting overseas. 3. The internet is the way to go, let us take the challenge of integrating ourselves on the market. 4. Although it may seem a bit messy, then using all forms of communicating would be most preferable. 1=0% - 2=5% - 3=33% - 4=62%. Answers = 21 people. OPINION POLL # 2 ------------ What is your opinion about magazines, which are announced several months before release - blown out of proportion in excellence, and then only manages to release ONE edition? 1. I like it fine. Do not talk the talk, if you cannot walk the walk. 2. I feel cheated. Do not talk the talk, if you cannot walk the walk. 3. They can do what they want, as long as I get entertained. 4. The people responsible for this should be punished. Doing a magazine is a commitment to the sceme. who look towards the magazines to keep them long-term informed. 5. If they manage to pull one good edition off, then that is good enough for me. Be it number 1 or 10. 1=0% - 2=26% - 3=11% - 4=21% - 5=42%. Answers = 19 people. OPINION POLL # 3 ------------ Situation check. How do you think the c64 is doing after the summer of 1995 - is it's PULSE still beating? 1. The scene is dead, it has been for a long time. The few users do not make up for a scene - it is pathetic. 2. The scene has never been better. It is kicking like never before - I have not ever had so much fun in my scene career. 3. It is going down hill for the scene, it has been for the last couple of years. But there is still life on earth. 4. For the moment things looked grim, but now the scene is doing better. Let us keep up the good work. 1=5% - 2=10% - 3=30% - 4=55%. Answers = 20 people. Coming up next, the answer to THE MONTHLY TIMELINE! THE MONTHLY TIMELINE ---------------- The events previous described happend in the month of October 1991. Source : INDEPENDENT, issue 7. Released on the 30th of October 1991. -------------------------------------------------------------- This concludes another edition of SCENE ILLUSTRATED. We hope you enjoyed reading through the text we presented, and will join us next month for more entertainment and information. If you have an idea for a debate or a good subject on an article you would like to write, simply let us know by using any of the listed addresses in PREFACE. /DUKE
World of Demos 1
WORLD OF DEMOS -------------------------------------------------------------- Another month, another Pulse, another World of Demos. Here is your chapter about the SID, VIC and the CPU. We cover the legal side of the Scene to give you a honest view of what we decided to look at. Remember that we express OUR thoughts, meaning we are subjective. Ofcourse we try to give fair reviews, but if we don't like something, we simply tell you the truth... The staff remains unchanged, as there are: MR.SEX/BYTERAPERS............................as Programming Critic EARTHQUAKE/COSMIC STYLE........................as Graphical Critic THE SYNDROM/TIA/CREST..............................as Music Critic If you want us to review your demo, it's as simply as sending it to us on one of the adresses given in the Preface.... THE NOVEMBER PROGRAM might look a bit outdated, but we want to make sure that all major demos get reviewed and due to some misunderstandings and bugged disks some of this month's demos just didn't make it earlier... 1. WE CAN'T CODE/STUDIO STYLE 2. KOLAPS/CULT 3. DESERT DOTS/SMASH DESIGNS 4. 7 YEARS/BEYOND FORCE 5. BREAKTHROUGH 2/PANIC 6. EXTREMES/BYTERAPERS 7. TRIIOD3/HTD+ACP and no more... turn page WE CAN'T CODE by STUDIO STYLE ---------------------- MR.SEX about the coding, Well, this demo is quite an old one, but because it was the winning contribution at DEMOBIT'95 we will review it anyway. The demo starts classically with a textflasher showing who did what and stuff. Soon the screen goes black and the first part is being loaded with quite slow speed. A logo comes in and zoomlenses start to move over it. First there are four of them and a bit later only one, though this is bigger. Those lenses are made of expanded sprites of 4 colors. So nothing special, but still good looking. Okay, next part is only some hirespictures, so I won't comment about it. But after it there is a flame-effect made with dithered characters. It's lacking some colors and size, but still quite ok. Yep, that was all about it....only one upscroller after this one. Hmm... this small demo was codewise nothing special and left quite empty feelings. Especially the slow "blackscreen" loader and almost no design at all ruined the overall feeling a lot. So I will give 34 % for the coding... EARTHQUAKE about the graphics, After introducing the production team of this demo in a charset of average quality we have to look at a very ugly Studio Style logo in grey color. The outlines and fillings are not what I would call nice. Disappointed by the logo, let's have a look on the next part. The logo used here is better, but it is still not the way I like it - atleast the Code-Effect works well with the filling. In the Tic Tac part first a mammoth gets displayed and after it a fantasy motiv with a magican infront of some hills. Both pictures bounce out of the right border too much. Sumarising this part up - the graphics look way too dark and not very professional. The best artwork of this demonstration is the spaceship showed in the end-part. Somehow it reminds me of the painting-style of the game-graphic gurus in the late 80's and in general the whole part looks nostalgic. However, this demo was the first production by Studio Style and they promised that their second will be much better... Ratings for the graphics: 35 % SYNDROM about the music, Well, this demo features 2 tunes by CMD (not the company, stupido :). The first tunes is quite interesting. The main theme is a slow bassline which plays unisono the whole time. Then some drums and effects are added, and a lead-voice is there too. Though I think the leadsound ($41-wave) 's pulse-values are quite underproportioned compared to the volume of the other voices, but anyway - nice work... All of a sudden the end tune starts (what about fading, huh?). Well, I got the impression that it is quite unfinished... The first part only lasts for about half a minute or so, though it has some nice filter-effects... Then again the music gets switched and now it's some kind of house-rythm... Peformed quite well on the technical side, but after the tunes is just about to start for real - it gets faded out and nothing happens anymore... 58 % for the music... KOLAPS/CULT --------- MR.SEX about the coding, Hmm.. Another part release from DEMOBIT'95. And if I said that the first effect in Plazmolytic (ed. remember last month's WOD) reminded me about old demos of Topaz, I have to admit that the first one in here does it even more. Okey, this one is quite big and looks nice. But the bad thing about this demo is the loader. Yep, you guessed it right. It's far too slow, especially when the screen is just blank. The second routine is ZOOM LENS. Or actually there are even two of them in sprites and bouncing. Quite small, but ok. Third routine is SIDEBORDER SCROLLER with y-stretching. Not that impressive, but serves it's purpose. And after a megalong loading you are able to see some MANDELBROT fractals. First there are a few frames of zooming and then it's showed on a ballsphere rotating left - and finally with x-mirrored image. This could be animated aswell, as there are only a few frames. Well, the last part of the demo are LINE VECTORS with some simple objects moving left/right and zooming. This routine seems to be a bit outdated after all. 42% for coding... EARTHQUAKE about the graphics, After the name of the demo got shown in screenfilling letters, the first thing I want to comment about is a CULT-signature of a small size, but still it looks quite ok. The multicolor-logo in the Zoom-part is simple, but the painting was performed well... No mistakes and stuff... The next thing to come is a "mandelworld" logo, which is made of a nice charset. The filling is not very original though, but the outline got anti-aliased, which makes the whole thing look ok... The last thing left to come is a CULT-logo which reminds me of the Lemmings-logo in style, but again it was performed quite well... Galland and Sam know for sure, how to paint, too bad it were just logos... Rating for the graphic: 59% SYNDROM about the music, There's only one tune in this demo, which restarts for two times, which is quite a shame for a demo of the 90's. Anyway, TOP SECRET, who composed this tune, is a quite known composer and he did a good job once more. People who know his tunes know that he (and most other czech composers) use quite loud and rude instruments, but this doesn't have to mean the music sounds bad. It just gives it a very own shape... Well, about the music in detail. The whole thing is quite slow and mystical. First some bass notes get played and some terminator-like drums get added aswell... After a break the percussions come in, and after another break we got the loud but fitting melody to replace the drums... And then the whole thing gets restarted... After all, a very own style which is nice to listen to... 64 % for the music... turn page for more... DESERT DOTS/SMASH DESIGNS --------------------- MR.SEX about the coding, Phew, this was one of the very rare releases made during the summer. The demo starts with some graphics and soon the credits are being displayed over it with a nice pixelfader in sprites. Soon there comes a picture showing "3D world" on it and the first effect is in. That one is a vectorcube with some kind of plasma being textured on it. The cube is in character resolution and the size is about 20*20 chars, so it's not a very big cube, but the speed is enough fast, though. The next routine is also in the same 8*8 resolution and shows you some linescaling. Due to only one color per character it looks very blocky. That doesn't last a long, because a Smash Designs logo starts to move upwards (in the same resolution) and is also being sclaed and moved horizontally... this time with better chosen colors though. Then there are some balls in sprites. Hmm... I think I saw that routine in their older demo aswell. Anyway, after it there is a common shadebob-routine with overlaid sprites to get more colors. Original thing is that the bobs aren't balls but moving triangles. But now over to the next effect which is in my opinion the best looking one in this demo. First there is a "hypnotic" colorcycler in circles while loading, but soon a Smash Designs logo comes behind and starts zooming & moving. The logo is made by altering the videoramcolors and the cycler using the screencolors. Looks nice until the logo starts to rotate slowly. Next to come is another colorcycler, but now it gives an impression of a kind of incoming tunnel which is being stretched both vertically and horizontally. Also this time the 8*8 resolution was used. So, this was all about this demo, just the end part is left which gives out some more exact credits, greetings etc... All in all, this demo is not a bad one and has some nice design with plenty of effects. Quite a lot of those routines could have been done faster and with better resolution, but I will give: 49 % for the coding... EARTHQUAKE about the graphics, The first logo appearing in this production is a comic-styled "Smash Designs"-logo using the common white to brown color palette. The "m" and "h" are kinda bended in their ends, which looks quite strange for my taste. After "Presents" flashed in, an image of a rock gets displayed. I was impressed bu the nice and fast fade-effects and the whole design of the intro, just the credits are a bit slow. The sky of the credits-picture is painted lousy, as there are so many unordered pixels on blue background causing the whole sky looking dirty... Afterwards the name of the demonstration is shown together with an image of a C64-II. The logo's outlines look miserable and the Commodore way too dark. The next picture introduces the vector part (3D-World). The characters of the logo look familiar to the one previously seen. Below it there is a sunset landscape of normal quality. Watching the part itself, a Smash-logo bounces beside the 8*8-vectorcube. As it only contains three colors I judge it to be average. The fullscreen logo with so many colors amazed me, as it was painted in the normal multicolor mode. Unfortunately the outlines are not as good as the color usage. It seems that the artist wanted to create a graffiti styled logo, as the characters end up in arrows and the fillings give an impression of that style. Pumbaa from Disney's Lion King gives a guest performance aswell. He was painted okay, I just miss some more colors and another music... Well, the Smash Designs logo following next is the best one of this production. The letters have a 3-dimensional effect and are well designed. Everything including the colors fits together. In the end-part a similar styled logo is to be seen over a scrolling three-color-skyline. It was well-painted, but the skyscrapers were copied a bit too often... Except of 2 or 3 artworks, the graphician concentrated too much on the quantity of the graphics, quite sad. Ratings for the graphic: 55 % SYNDROM about the music, Well, another demo containing old or ripped music, this time one tune by EMAX, which contains a lot of those nice (not!) clicking filtersounds, and one long tune by PRI... After all the music was well chosen, but it would have been a better solution to use more tunes, as it starts to become boring in the end... 13 % for the music... ...turn page... 7 YEARS/BEYOND FORCE ----------------- MR.SEX about the coding, Yes, Beyond Force is back again with a contribution for Assembly '95. The demo is again fully coded by Gremlin (who is in the army now) and got the 3rd prize in the competition. Okey, after an old Beyond logo the credits are being displayed with dots which move out nicely. Then the loader starts and more text is being flooded on the screen. There is a little annoying bug on that routine, because before and after loading the music is being played faster. Not a big deal though. The first part is a texturemapper in 4*4 fli resolution. Unfortunately those textures are being rotated only over Y-axis and the speed of the routine is quite slow. The same texture is back in the next part, which is Gremlin's doom imitation. Well, this is again quite slow and could easily be even precalculated, because the movement is so simple. After another loading a thing called "bobtwister" comes in and "bobs" begin to fall over an animated sprite-star in very nice patterns. Eventhough the routine may not be a very special it really looks just great! Especially after those slower ones. The last effect is a gouraud vector routine in 4*4 resolution. First a few simple objects come in and out. And finally they both come back with a space cut effect. Especially this is too slow. But as it says in the end upscroller, Gremlin didn't have time to optimize those routines. Well, it was nice to see another demo from Beyond Force, but Gremlin has surely got the skill to make a better one. Let's see what he brings with him next year... 63 % for coding... EARTHQUAKE about the graphics, Hmm, an easy job for me, as this demonstration contains only 2 graphics. The first one hits your screen at the very beginning. It is a Beyond logo in only 4 colors - blue, light blue, cyan and black. This one looks really nostalgic and when I watched this logo I felt set back some years. No wonder, as this logo is quite old, from '90 or earlier, I think. All the characters have the same filling - just the typical style of the late 80's. Now let's have a look on the Endpicture, which is also the last one in this demo. The letters of this image, which is a fullscreen one btw., feature a very old style. Two candles burn beside the logo. These candles were just mirrored what I personaaly don't like. Between the letters a spider produced a cobweb - a bit less for 7 years... ;) Well, the filling is good and underline the general impression of a non-fast production.... made by Dominators Design in '91 if I'm right. Hopefully Gremlin gets some more graphics for his next annual demo. Ratings for the graphic: 57 % SYNDROM about the music, Hmm, this demo contains two tunes, unfortunately both of them have been used before...The first one was made by PROSONICS and is nothing but great! I wish more of today's composers would be able to do music of that quality... The music in the end-part is an ancient piece by Danko and fits perfectly to the part, as it spreads pure nostalgia... 19 % for the music... BREAKTHROUGH/PANIC ---------------- MR.SEX about the coding, Another Assembly release to review. This one won BF by a few points and came second in the competition. But now about the demo itself: After some presentation info the first routine comes in and brings an 8*8 resolution effect. There are two layers moving across the screen, made in dithered bitmap by altering the screencolors. Well, the thing which makes this to look good (especially on a big screen) is that it also does some more dithering by altering $d016. Soon it goes away and a few dots start to bounce on the screen before some simple fractals are being drawn. Because there are so many of those fractals (in hires bitmap) in this demo I won't mention them anymore. The next part are interference circles which are being eored to the bitmap. It's quite slow, but seems to use c128's 2Mhz mode in the border to gain some extra speed. The show goes on and a plasma comes in by using the same technique as in the first effect. This time there is a big woman moving in expanded sprites under the plasma. This also looked very nice on the big screen at the party. Next to come is a picture with x&y-sine movements. The 8*8 mode is used again, but it does make a kind of interlace effect by moving the screen with both horizontal & vertical scroll- register in every frame. The picture of a head isn't that good though. Okey, after a loading you will see some plasmas using the same resolution and lacing. Next to come is a simple letterzoomer in the same resolution again. After this you will see a familiar routine from PC/Amiga demos: a flamer. This one was made with dithered multicolor- chars and looks nice... in fact it's the best looking flamer I have seen so far on the c64, but still quite simple. Next one is nothing else than a dotscroller like in the old BF and FHI demos. There even is "Finland #1" (in hockey) included :-) Well, only one effect left until the end. It's a rotzoomer in 8*8 resolution using that lacing. Looks quite jerky though. This was overally a quite nice demo. The routines vary from quite bad to good, but it shows that the young dudes in Panic have the potential to make real good demos in the future... 58 % for coding... EARTHQUAKE about the graphics, Good old Lenin starts the demo with holding a softdisk - in hires and nothing special except of the original idea. As a next graphic we are able to see a "Break Through"-logo in a kind of wannabe graffiti-style, looking real stupid. Don't get me wrong, but when I watched the following parts with it's ugly 8*8 effects I was very disappointed. The next graphicial thing is a strange Panic logo included in the interference circle part. Because the letters consist of bubbles connected with each other it gives a peculiar appearance. When I saw that this logo was done by Mike I was quite surprised, as I expected something better from him. Debris' IFLI-pictures are much better and so his first one shows a smoking woman lying on a bed together with a dog. Not bad at all but not very impressive, too. "Finland no.1 in hockey" is to be read in the next logo. It looks the same, although not as good as the original logo in Prometheus Unbound from Flash Inc. like the whole part does (good idea)... Debris shows another IFLI logo which's scene plays in china or japan and is of some better quality than his first one. On a rock two persons watch some asian temples/houses burn. Debris did a good job using Gunpaint as the pixels are set very well. His third and last picture is the end screen. This is an own creation by him, I guess, as there is a very oldfashioned kind of graffiti bombing "The End" in the background, while the style of the amazed and very narrow female face is comic like. Ratings for the graphic: 75 % SYNDROM about the music, Well, all music in this demo was made by Dr.Voice and from what I heard by him before I had quite some expectations... But after watching the demo I was really disappointed. Anyway, the intro starts without (!) any music and the first sound that comes out of my Tv is some boring pseudo-techno music. The instruments are quite ok, though, but the tune itself is nothing but boring... The second music is technostyled again, though it's even more simple than the first one, as it's of the same style the music is when you look at the disco-charts... Anyway, at all Dr.Voice shows us that he is able to do real good music too, as the 3rd tune is somewhat better than the ones before... This time some fast bass combined with some filtered chords, and to make the whole thing more interesting, the leader uses a scale which can be heard in most of the music which comes from Asia... Anyway, a real good tune... The next one is below any level, just some trash tune... Very fast drums and some fast bass-noise as well, lets hope it's over fast... ok, finally the end-upscroll- music comes in, and it's one of his better works again. The whole tune is reggea-styled and reminds me about a song I heard in the radio before, but it's definately not a conversion... Too bad they fade it out after 20 seconds already... So we enter the final end-screen and here an oldie-like music is waiting for us... No drums, just 1 voice for the bass and 2 polyphone voices for the melody... Nice to listen to, a bit short though... All in all this demo had some good tunes, but some crappy aswell, which makes me give... 49 % for the music... Well, now go and load "World of Demos 2"...
World of Demos 2
WORLD OF DEMOS (continued) -------------------- EXTREMES/BYTERAPERS ----------------- SYNDROM about the code, Yes, you are right, I took over the codereview this time, as it would be rather funny if Tatu (Mr.Sex) would have to review his own demo, and I could hear several dudes complaining about cheating the reviews then... so here we go... The intro starts with a bitmap-picture coming in by FLD and then getting moved aside using a HSP-routine... Then a vector-X is turning around the screen and suddenly becomes part of an Extremes-logo... The first real effect is made using the 4*4-resolution, as many in this demo are. It's another Zoom-Lens-part, but this time it is not just as simple as doubling the resolution but it zooms almost real. Next effect is some shaking, turning, whatever stuff already seen in former World of Codes...After some logos there comes another 4*4 effect, this time a picture is being squeezed and stretched all around, looks cool, especially as there are real multicolor graphics beside the 16*16 big effect window... Ok, next to come is a nice plasma routine made of dithered chars...this time even made by Dr.Dick...After showing an IFLI-picture using a nice fade-routine the topic is gouraud- shading, but Mr.Sex didn't dare to use 8*8-resolution, though interlaced using $d011 and $d016 and an additional pattern layed over it... There are two objects, one is even shaded, which are quite fast, but at all you don't have to count much when using 8*8... Ok, finally the end-screen is there, which is just a simple sprite-upscroller over an interlace bitmap- picture, again coded by Dr.Dick. Worth mentioning is the loader, which is really fast. It uses 2-bit technique and only loads in several rasterlines, just as the effects enable it to... Ok, after all this was the most styled (B)-demo so far, but the effects were not very new... What about dropping the 4*4-shit and doing some more $d011-code ? :) 73 % for coding... EARTHQUAKE about the graphic, The 2-screens wide scrolling Byterapers logo looks cool and is a very good start for a demo. The background is a landscape with not many details. The plants look a bit thick for my taste but in general this is a cool intro which continues with a flying "X" taking it's place in an Extremes-logo. The name of the demo features a rather non-spectacular charset but a nice color-mixing. I can't say much about the following 4*4 picture than that it is pretty colorful. The next logo of this show is again a Byterapers logo which I like very much. It uses the normal multicolor-mode at it's best. So there is a ball behind the "B" which contains loads of colors and I can imagine that it took quite much time to pixel the whole logo. The two (mirrored) dragons which appear next are also good examples of the high level of artistical artwork used in this production, but the best picture is still to come. Mike/Panic did an extremely good job with doing this fantasy IFLI-picture. A naked woman, chained to a rock, and an awesome dragon, flying right above her. Everything in this image is very detailed (just look at the dragon's skin), so technically almost perfect (a bit too 2D?)... The end-picture (interlaced mc) has got a mystical touch. A hard light lets the eyes of the face hide under dark shadows and the turned cross on the forehead may provoke some religious dudes. The logo of the production group below this portrait features also less colors but a decoration of the characters with bent lines. Stating a poing of view I like the artwork in this presentation very much. There is no "fast-food" stuff and everything has been nice assembled - good work. Ratings for the graphic: 88 % SYNDROM about the music, Zardax of Origo composed the music for this demo, 2 pieces that is. The first and main tune starts on a very low volume and builds up with chords and a groovy bassline... Later a new theme comes in, which first is quite quiet and then gets repeated a lot louder, this is almost classic music-theory and not many of today's composers use it, though Zardax' roots are years back... And he is one of the few who do perfect (!) and great instruments... One more thing which is nice, that the demo is synchronized to the music (and not the music to the demo, right PRI ? :)... Well, the other tune is the end tune, which is quite of moderate style, just associating the right mood for this part... A nice melody, with some fitting (ofcourse) and balanced chords, maybe just the bass is too simple, but on the other hand, if it would be more complicated it possibly would destroy the character of the tune... Well done! 91 % for the music... TRIIOD 3/HIS TEAM DESIGN + ACCEPT ------------------------- MR.SEX about the coding, Well, this is coded by Fuben/Oxyron, so it was quite a surprise to see it under that label. But it's explained in the demo and the note coming along with it... Okey, after the fake "system error" start some graphics and information are thrown out and the demo begins. After the usual textwriter the loader has finished it's job, then a sierpinski fractal is being drawn and immedeatly after it there comes a 2 screens wide picture. But now to the first real effect in this demo. It's a hires Mandelbrot fractal. It's made with 2 colors and it's far too slow to give any entertainment. Maybe the amount of iterations has been misjudged... Anyway, after waiting until it finishs the calculation you will see some more Mandelbrot fractals. This time in 4*4 fli resolution with a quite reasonable speed. After pressing the space, more pictures are being shown and then comes another 4*4 fli routine. This one is the familiar shaderoutine but instead of typical balls there is a linedraw routine, which shades the colors. Nothing impressive though. The end part appears after some pictures and for a surprise it isn't a scroller but a game! In the game you have to shoot a moving vectorobject to see congratulation graphics & music. Nice, huh ? :-) Well, this was quite a disappointment for me as I expected a lot more from Fuben/Oxyron. Anyway, this demo was based more on graphics than code. Hopefully the next Oxyron demo will be out soon, because he has been saving his better routines for it. 37 % for coding... EARTHQUAKE about the graphics, The first graphic worth mentioning is a His-Design/Accept Design logo in Koala-mode. It seems to be a bit old, because the paper role (just remember Dutch Breeze - The End) became really boring after extensive usage during the last years. The graphician didn't touch the limit of this mode and wasn't very creative, too. A fullscreen - picture showing a woman which looks a bit familiar to the one from the DSA2- cover, gives us the name of the demo. The image was done in IFLI and looks quite ok. Just the eyes point in different directions which looks funny :). The face could belong to a male and the hair appears just outlined which stands opposite to the general quality of this picture. Next the cool Earthworm Jim appears in a 2 screen wide image. This character of the Shiny Entertainment game (MD/SNES) earned a lot of honour especially in the version for Mega CD. The background with the colormixing (brown/purple) doesn't cause a good effect at all. The worm in his special suite has been painted very well, but I'm not sure whether the graphic was completely done by the C-64 painter... The following picture shows a Mortal Combat character in FLI (don't know it's name). On the one hand his head is too big for my taste, but on the other hand the colors are well used. Next picture shows a gate to the universe or whatever. It looks like the entrance to a temple. Some stairs lead to the door between two columns, where another dimension begins. The ground is a chessboard actually, what gives a small 3D- effect. But what's wrong with the next artwork ? First I thought of a bad joke by Fuben. He really managed to destroy a complete picture with setting the wrong background/fore- ground colors. The background HAS to be lighter than the foreground otherwies it stinks... Everybody, who is able to freeze and turn the colors of this hires-picture should do that and he is going to see how well pixeled the warrior is (white background should be enough). The graphician did a very good job - the coder failed in this part. The next picture is again in IFLI. It shows a female fighter, I guess it's from Mortal Kombat too? Well, this image is only of average quality. Although it is IFLI it only uses few colors. The anatomy seems to be wrong... The last graphics of this demo appear in the little game at the end. I have nothing more to say than that they are as colorful as bad. Ratings for the graphic: 65 % SYNDROM about the music, Well, this is one of the few demos, which feature a complete NEW soundtrack. That's the way it should be...! The music used in the intro was made by Fuben (!) and is quite old and simple, but was just used to have something to use anyway I bet. The first real tune was composed exclusively by Peace/Noice. It's quite funky and contains a lot of interesting sounds and rhythms... He learned quite a lot the past years. I hope you'll keep being active, Thomas! One thing is annoying though, when the tune gets faded, $d418 makes terrible sounds - caused by faulty coding... ok, next tune was done by DRAX exclusively and is quite old. It is quite short too, too bad it gets looped several times until the demo goes on... Anyway, it's kinda "oldstyled" like tunes by Galway and stuff. Ok, the next music was done by Drax too and it's also one of his older tunes, but still used exclusively. And as I said it's old it features the style Drax used to compose in a few years ago... Discolike with some great solos and proper use of vibrato in the lead... The next (and last) music is a coop-music between Metal and Drax and has been used without permission, but that's another story... As the names should let it expect you, both composers have assembled their musical knowledge and talents to compose a real kicker-tune. The rhythm is quite similar to bossanova (remember your dancing-lessons in school ? :0 ), and the chords, bass and melody are just as great as we are used to hear from Vibrants. Keep up the good work, dudes! ok, there is another music in this demo, as there is in the end- part, but this music, which was composed by Prosonix, is ofcourse great, but unfortunately old and was used many times before... So all in all 81 % for the music... So, that was all about we had in mind when watching those demos. If you want to comment on what we said or just want us to review YOUR demo, don't hesitate and send it to us on the usual adresses... Ofcourse we will also compile the ratings of all participating demos this month and link them to the chart we use to do to find out, what demo was best in 1995... So, without further redo - let's turn the page.... Best Demos in 1995 ------------- 1. EXTREMES by BYTERAPERS 81.0 2. LOVE by AGONY 76.0 3. RADIO NAPALM by REFLEX 71.6 4. BREAKTHROUGH 2 by PANIC 62.2 5. PLAZMOLYTIC by REACT 61.3 6. DEFECT FAILURE by THE CODERS 60.3 7. FANTASY by CHROMANCE 57.0 PARTS by OXYRON 57.0 9. 7 YEARS by BEYOND FORCE 53.7 TRIIOD 3 by HTD+ACP 53.7 On the following places are: Lilith/Aspheron, Technet2/Samar, The great Kloakkman.../Msp, Desert Dots/Smash Designs, Nergezo Anyagil/Profik, W.o.t.t.i.f.t.d./F4cg and We can't code/Studio Style... /The Staff...
Overall charts
OVERALL CHARTS - NOVEMBER 1995 -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to THE OVERALL CHARTS. As, you know, this chapters' charts are based on the charts of the magazines that are available to us, during the month. But, that might be for the last time, as we're considering introducing votesheet- calculated charts. So, in that case, I need the readers opinion: What do you think? 1. Should we make a votesheet, send you a copy every month which you have to fill in and send back to us? 2. Should we continue making this chapter by compiling the results from the other available magazines? Anyway, this month the results was compiled from: Vandalism News #24..................by Onslaught Design Propaganda #19..................by the Propaganda-staff Skyhigh #19..................................by Camelot Smash #11.....................................by System BEST DEMOGROUPS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 1-8 -------------------------------------------------------------- Demogroups counted : 17 Demogroups qualified : 11 New entries : 1 Demogroups out : 1 Charts counted : 4 Pos. L.Pos. Demogroup... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (01) Oxyron Germany 39 4 02. (03) Reflex Germany 36 4 03. (02) Byterapers Finland 29 4 04. (02) Camelot Denmark 24 3 05. (05) Taboo Poland,Germany 20 4 06. (07) Antic Sweden,Germany 17 4 07. (08) Agony Design Poland,Hungary 15 3 08. (04) Fairlight Sweden 12 3 BEST DEMOGROUPS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 9-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Demogroup... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 09. (06) Censor Sweden 11 3 09. (10) Nipson Poland 11 3 10. ( - ) Wrath Design Sweden 5 1 * CREST finally lost their status as top-10 demogroup, atleast when it comes to the charts! Come to think of it, I can't remember having seen a demogroup-chart ever, without this worldfamous group. It always used to be CREST and the REST! We will await their comeback after The Party '95. * While CREST dropped out they left room for a new entry, namely WRATH DESIGN, but other than that, there were only some minor changes. BEST CODERS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 1-6 -------------------------------------------------------------- Coders counted : 16 Coders qualified : 14 New entries : 4 Coders out : 0 Charts counted : 4 Pos. L.pos. Coder... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (01) Mr. Sex/Byterapers Finland 37 4 02. (02) TTS/Oxyron Germany 33 4 03. (04) Graham/Oxyron Germany 28 4 03. (03) Slammer/Camelot Denmark 28 3 04. (09) Quiss/Reflex Germany 22 4 05. (08) MMS/Taboo Poland 21 4 06. ( - ) Crossbow/Crest Germany 10 3 06. (06) Tron/Fairlight Sweden 10 3 BEST CODERS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 7-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Coder... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 07. ( - ) Depeh/Antic Sweden 9 3 08. (10) Druid/AGY/AVT Poland 8 2 08. ( - ) KM/Taboo Poland 8 2 09. (07) Bob/Censor Sweden 5 1 10. (05) Axis/Oxyron Germany 4 2 10. ( - ) Glasnost/Camelot Denmark 4 1 * QUISS/REFLEX on a major jump from being on just pos. 9 to pos. 4, while AXIS/OXYRON lost as much as FIVE positions! * It's no secret, that the latest trend is, that major cracking groups are building up demosections. We see for instance, that DRUID/AGONY are now also in AVANTGARDE. That might have been what gave him the 2 pos. better placement! BEST GRAPHICIANS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 1-7 -------------------------------------------------------------- Graphicians counted : 17 Graphicians qualified : 12 New entries : 4 Graphicians out : 2 Charts counted : 4 Pos. L.pos. Graphician... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (04) Cruise/Taboo Poland 37 4 02. (01) Creeper/Antic Sweden 35 4 02. (02) Electric/Extend Finland 35 4 03. (03) Joe/Wrath Design Sweden 29 4 04. (06) Fazee/Taboo Poland 21 3 05. (05) Ogami/Fairlight Sweden 19 4 06. (07) RRR/Oxyron Germany 12 4 07. (10) Carrion/Elysium Poland 10 3 BEST GRAPHICIANS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 8-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Graphician... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 08. ( - ) Rob/Camelot Denmark 9 3 09. ( - ) Mirage/Focus Holland 6 2 10. ( - ) Cupid/Avantgarde Germany 5 2 10. ( - ) Lord Red/Creators Norway 5 1 Well, I'll be damned! There are several changes this time! I never thought the day would come! To mention a few: * CRUISE/TABOO tops the chart for the very first time! * CARRION/ELYSIUM carries on his tour de chart. He's 3 times higher in this issue compared to last issue! * HEIN/FOCUS and BIZ KID/CAMELOT are out of the chart! BEST MUSICIANS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 1-7 -------------------------------------------------------------- Musicians counted : 24 Musicians qualified : 11 New entries : 0 Musicians out : 2 Charts counted : 4 Pos. L.pos. Musician... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (01) P.R.I./Tia/Oxyron Germany 38 4 02. (05) PVCF/Reflex Germany 36 4 03. (02) Syndrom/Tia/Crest Germany 34 4 04. (04) Compod/Fatum Poland 22 4 05. (03) Fanta/Oxyron Germany 19 4 05. (04) Jeff/Camelot Denmark 19 3 06. (09) Shogoon/TBO/AGY Poland 18 4 07. (08) Drax/Vibr./Crest Denmark 14 3 BEST MUSICIANS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 8-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Musician... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 08. (06) Zyron/Swemix/(A) Sweden 13 3 09. (08) Jeroen Tel/Focus Holland 9 2 10. (07) Red Devil/Fairlight Sweden 7 1 * Seems the audience finally was fed up with FANTA/OXYRON and therefore he retired to a 5th place. On the other hand we have PVCF/REFLEX, who came in on 2nd place, from a 5th place in the last issue. * SHOGOON/TABOO/AGONY DESIGN's style seems to match the overall taste of the scene. Although he went down to a 9th place last time, he managed to get a 6th place this time. Anyway, it shouldn't be a problem for him to get even higher, I mean, he has been holding 5th places before and so on... BEST CRACKERGROUPS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 1-6 -------------------------------------------------------------- Crackergroups counted : 16 Crackergroups qualified : 13 New entries : 2 Crackergroups out : 0 Charts counted : 3 Pos. L.pos. Crackergroup... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (01) Avantgarde Ger,US,UK,Pol 29 3 02. (02) Success+TRC Hol,Ger,US,Pol,OZ 26 3 03. (05) Alpha Flight 1970 Ger,US,Hol,Nor 22 3 03. (03) F4CG Bel,Swe,Ita,Pol 22 3 04. (04) Chromance Hun,Pol,Ger,Hol 19 3 05. (06) Hardcore Germany 14 3 06. (07) Atlantis Swi,Ger,US 10 3 06. ( - ) Excess Ger,Den,Hol 10 3 BEST CRACKERGROUPS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 7-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Crackergroup... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 07. (09) Motiv 8 Den,US,Ger,Hol 8 2 08. (08) Onslaught OZ,Ger,Den,Turk 7 1 09. (10) Fairlight Sweden 5 3 10. (10) Dytec Germany 4 1 10. ( - ) Faith Sweden? 4 1 * EXCESS, the name of the sinking ship, re-enter the charts with a miraculous 6th place! * There seem to be a new group, by the name of FAITH, who found it's way to the charts. I have heard the name before... Isn't it some swedish group, often seen on those BODEN meetings? Well, I don't know, but let's see if they can keep their placement on the charts in these trying times! BEST CRACKERS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 1-6 -------------------------------------------------------------- Crackers counted : 16 Crackers qualified : 16 New entries : 6 Crackers out : 0 Charts counted : 3 Pos. L.pos. Cracker... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (02) Burglar/SCS+TRC Holland 27 3 02. (03) Hain/F4CG Poland 26 3 03. (04) CBA/SCS+TRC Holland 21 3 04. (01) Jack Alien/AVT Germany 20 2 05. (05) Derbyshire/AVT England 16 3 05. (07) Ignorance/AFL Germany 16 3 06. (06) Bacchus/Fairlight Sweden 9 2 06. (09) Moonchild/Fairlight Poland 9 2 BEST CRACKERS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 7-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Crackers... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 07. (08) Mr.Wax/Chromance Hungary 8 2 07. (10) Skinhead/AFL Germany 8 3 08. ( - ) Kirby/Atlantis Switzerland? 2 1 08. ( - ) Pajda/Faith Sweden? 2 1 08. ( - ) Techno/Chromance Poland 2 1 09. ( - ) Bolee/Chromance Poland 1 1 09. ( - ) CLS/Amnesia/AFL Holland 1 1 09. ( - ) Ream/Alpha Flight Germany 1 1 * What we're witnessing here, is a dieing race, namely the crackers. Where are those really good stylish crackers? On the other hand, where are those good stylish games? This chart in not very believable. Why should JACK ALIEN/AVT suddenly move to a 4th place? This chart lacks votes as hell! BEST MAGAZINES - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 1-7 -------------------------------------------------------------- Magazines counted : 18 Magazines qualified : 11 New entries : 3 Magazines out : 2 Charts counted : 4 Pos. L.pos. Magazine... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (02) Nitro/Excess Germany 33 4 02. (03) Shout/FLT+EQX Germany,Sweden 32 4 03. (01) Skyhigh/Camelot Denmark 29 3 04. (05) Domination OZ 27 4 05. (04) Vandal./Onslaught OZ,Germany 21 3 06. (07) Mendip/Arcoss Holland 17 4 07. ( - ) Revealed/Camelot Denmark 13 3 07. (06) The Tribune/Angry Holland,UK 13 4 BEST MAGAZINES - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 8-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Magazine... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 08. ( - ) The Pulse Magazine DK,Ger,Ita,Hol 12 3 09. (10) Relax/Phuture Germany 11 3 10. ( - ) Propaganda Sweden 7 2 * Argh! SHOUT now on the second spot! I just can't believe it! FLT; get your finger out and SHOUT some more, will you?! * Nice to see that there are some decent magazines on the chart once again (!?!)... Especially REVEALED did a major comeback. They haven't released anything lately though!? * As RRR/OXYRON decided to leave BAD BYTES for good, he built up a new group by the name of PHUTURE. PHUTURE will therefore operate as the new publisher of RELAX magazine! BEST SWAPPERS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 1-7 -------------------------------------------------------------- Swappers counted : 34 Swappers qualified : 12 New entries : 3 Swappers out : 3 Charts counted : 4 Pos. L.pos. Swapper... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (01) Intruder/AVT Germany 38 4 02. (05) Spermbird/EX/<C> Germany 31 4 03. (02) CLS/Amnesia/AFL Holland 29 4 04. (03) SPH/SCS+TRC Holland 27 4 05. (04) Derbyshire/AVT England 24 4 06. (07) Starlight/Therapy Norway 20 4 07. ( - ) Dr. Soft/? Poland? 9 2 07. (06) Sebaloz/Lepsi Dev. Poland 9 2 BEST SWAPPERS - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 8-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Swapper... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 08. ( - ) Avalanche/Atlantis Switzerland 8 1 09. (08) Syco/Chromance Holland 6 1 09. (10) Tabasco/Fairlight Sweden 6 1 10. ( - ) Seytan/Arcoss Holland 4 1 * SPERMBIRD/EXCESS/CHROMANCE on a move towards the top, as we see him landing on a 2nd place this time! * Well, it seems quite easy to split the elite from the rest, when you look at this chart. Notice what a few more votes can do! There are so many participants for this catagory, but they're only receiving a couple of points or so. I guess the competition is real hard, when it comes to swapping. BEST OVERALL GROUP - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 1-8 -------------------------------------------------------------- Groups counted : 63 Groups qualified : 12 New entries : 4 Groups out : 2 Charts counted : 30 Pos. L.pos. Group... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 01. (01) Oxyron Germany 173 7 02. (02) Avantgarde Ger,US,UK,Pol 140 7 03. (05) Camelot Denmark 128 8 04. (04) Success+TRC Hol,Ger,US,Pol,OZ 110 8 05. (03) Fairlight Sweden 109 9 06. (08) Taboo Poland,Germany 107 5 07. ( - ) Reflex Germany 97 4 08. (06) Alpha Flight 1970 Ger,US,Hol,Nor 82 8 BEST OVERALL GROUP - NOVEMBER 1995 Pos. 9-10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Pos. L.pos. Group... Location Pts. Votes -------------------------------------------------------------- 09. ( - ) Antic Productions Sweden 74 4 09. ( - ) Excess Germany,Den,Hol 74 3 10. ( - ) Agony Design Poland,Hun,Ger 73 6 10. (07) The Imperium Arts Germany,Swe,Hun 73 3 * Gee, 63 different groups altogether competing against each other! And I'm not even sure that's it. Several people are members of more than one group, and I simply can't seem to remember all these, I just took those I COULD remember. What's the point of being in all of these groups at the same time? You definately make my job more complicated by that! * I can't help noticing the group OXYRON for always being in the top-3! Let's see if they can keep that up in the future... If you would like to support this chapter, send all the mags you can, to this address: KBS XXXXXX X XXXXXX XXXXX XX-XXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXX Till next month... KBS/ex.ONSLAUGHT
Meet the press
+ MEET THE PRESS - A WORLD OF MAGAZINES + -------------------------------------------------------------- The media in the scene has profound power to be a positive influence. This is where we come in, welcome to another edition of MEET THE PRESS. The section dedicated to take on the media - the organisers in the C64-scene. MEET THE PRESS also operates as the official reaction section of THE PULSE MAGAZINE. We invite you to send us your thoughts and views, be they positive or negative, about this magazine. We will print your letters in the next edition, if they reach us before the 28th of November. This edition we have a great program for you. We discuss the news credibility in our latest feature, THE MEDIA TODAY. We also bring you a review of a very successful magazine, as well as articles and much more. All this and more, hope you will enjoy the read. General Editor, DUKE, bids you welcome. THE MEDIA TODAY NEWS CREDIBILITY -------------------------------------------------------------- The news media has a great burdon. The burdon of true and false. A misunderstanding can have severe consequences, a law suit, and millions in damages. This is another industry, another world, very distant from the scene are all a part of today. But how different is the real media from ours - or should we say, how different is the readers and the critics of the magazines? That is what we plan to debate for this months THE MEDIA TODAY report, which we decided to entitle; News Credibility. The scene has had magazines to rely on for news and information for a very long time. In the beginning, there were not a lot of magazines though, and of the few that were, you were not given a decent picture of the scene - and the reports were far from complete. Today we have reached a higher standard, and most of the magazines today are able to present news from all over the world - and about possibly all the groups active. This is an amazing improvement, one I doubt many would have believed when the first magazine had its debut to the market. But the amount of people times the amount of news had its price, the chance for false news was much greater. But is it fair to judge magazines today for having one or two wrong news? According to BIZARRE/ONSLAUGHT, the news section of THE PULSE should be complete rubbish because we accepted the news that he should have joined ACCEPT as a second group. This was ofcourse false news, which we were later to find out - but at that time too late, as we have deadlines to follow. I predict magazines such as DOMINATION does not meet these problems, as they have enough time to check the news. A fast paced production such as THE PULSE do not have the time or the people to check up on all news, and we therefore rely on the people from whom the news comes from. What else is there to do to prevent false news from coming in between the stack of all the good ones? We could ofcourse catagorise the complaints from BIZARRE as complete hysteria, especially since all other approaches are normally settled - simply trying to make the magazines aware of the error, making sure it is corrected. We ought to respect our scene magazines more, they offer a good service to all of us - making sure the scene is kept together and structured. Another magazine problem as stated earlier, is the many delays. When a magazines tries to return to the spotlight, it often has a lot of false and old news mixed together with the new. The only way to really know if all of the news you have is old, is to check your former issues - to see if they were printed there. But it helps to have a good staff, that can assist you in providing the news. Collecting news through the back of vote-sheets can sometimes give huge problems, as most of the news you get from the people on these - are news that has gone past sometimes 10 people. And we all know how a story can change, if told too many times through too many people. It also helps to add, that misunderstandings can also cause false news to be admitted in magazines. We cannot expect all magazine editors know everyone in the scene, and the groups they are in. This means the editor has to write using the information he has been given - in good faith it is good news and not false. I hope this article will give room for debate, as I see it as an impossible task to avoid false information in magazines these days. Especially considering the deadlines that keeps putting pressure on us editors, and news collectors. It is time for support, instead of pointing out the one bad apple among the thousands of good ones. Up next, interesting facts about THE TRIBUNE! TRUE FACTS ABOUT THE TRIBUNE MEET THE PRESS -------------------------------------------------------------- As we are eagerly awaiting the anniversary editions of PROPAGANDA and SKYHIGH, another magazine was able to announce an anniversary - a huge one as well. THE TRIBUNE released its 5 year anniversary edition in September, also known as the 53rd issue. Due to this glorious event, we decided to put THE TRIBUNE under our spotlight, and came up with some rather shocking facts. Many people may know our campaign against acclaimed scene magazines putting too many efforts into producing real life chapters, and THE TRIBUNE is one of the magazines known for their boasting of having the most text in the media. But the actual quality was questioned, as we counted the blocks of the chapters - coming to the following conclusion. -- Counting the 42 uncrunched chapters, we made the following statistics. Scene related text - 342 blocks (46%) Non-scene related text - 405 blocks (54%) We may have misplaced one or two chapters in its proper catagory, but counting the chapters that had obvious scene relevance, we feel this is the correct result. This will most definitely add to the debate, why THE TRIBUNE has difficulties reaching a fair position in the charts. We most certainly do not appreciate magazines being admitted to the charts, because of bringing news from the real world - especially when released in an underground scene, such as the one on the C64. Recently top magazines has expressed their discontent with magazines earning votes on such chapters. EARTHSHAKE SET FOR A COMEBACK MEET THE PRESS -------------------------------------------------------------- The Danish sysop of MOUNT OLYMPUS, BIRD, who recently returned to MOTIV 8, is expected to return to the media as well. His former production, EARTHSHAKE, has been away from the market for about a year, but according to BIRD, he is interested in trying out the editing job once again. EARTHSHAKE, if released again, will not be put out under the MOTIV 8 label though, but released as an independent magazine. But whether EARTHSHAKE will return to our screens again is still not certain, atleast BIRD claims he needs to sort out various practical things before EARTHSHAKE can become actual for release. But support is needed, and interested can therefore contact BIRD on his board, MOUNT OLYMPUS, or on his mail address printed in this months advertisements. RELAX IS ON A ROLE MEET THE PRESS -------------------------------------------------------------- 1995 has been a succesful year for the magazine production, RELAX. It was first released many years ago by the original editors, but since it returned by the hands of the current ALPHA FLIGHT members - assisted by other editors, it has had many difficulties in trying to find a way to release it on a regular basis. But in 1995 RELAX has been released very regularly, and now they are able to foresee the dates of the coming editions as well. This means we can expect the 13th edition on the 20th of November, followed by the 14th edition on the 5th of January in 1996. This is a remarkable improvement, and especially RRR is to be complemented on its current stability. RELAX furthermore changed onto a brand new label, this one called PHUTURE. Up next, the Magazine Reviews! MAGAZINE REVIEWS MEET THE PRESS -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the popular MAGAZINE REVIEWS section. The part of MEET THE PRESS where we take a deeper look at a few selected magazines, released recently on the C64. This edition we have decided to concentrate on one magazine in particular, the 5th edition of DOMINATION. This magazine has suffered delay problems, but is back in the spotlight. Explanations for the point-system. * : Awful * : Bad *** : Acceptable **** : Good ***** : Great ****** : Excellent SUBJECT : DOMINATION, 5th edition. LABEL : INDEPENDENT. -------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION It has been a while since JAZZCAT last thrilled the scene with his independent production, DOMINATION. But as he returned to the spotlight, following the signing as new editor of THE PULSE MAGAZINE, the 5th edition became known to the general sceners. This will be our very first look at this magazine, therefore we will do a proper job of bringing you the delays of this production. THE OUTFIT DOMINATION has a fantastic outfit, one that could lift any production into the top of the charts. The graphics, performed by DANE/TRIAD and LATIFAH/SD, is absolutely beautiful. The coding of DOMINATION is equally stunning, done by HAIN/F4CG and SHADES/ONSLAUGHT. The musical performances were done by several people, FANTA/OXYRON, MOOG/KEEN ACID, ORCAN/REACT, GLENN/BLUES MUZ, RAGMAN/COMIC PIRATES, MORBID/ONSLAUGHT/BASS and CUBEHEAD/RESOURCE. The proportional fonts were created by BRUSH/ex.TALENT. Those were the credits, but what does it look like? The menu has an excellent design, proportional fonts are used to display the selection of chapters. Moving around your joystick an arrow will appear as your object - which is to be directed above the chapters you would like to read. When pressing the joystick button, the selected chapter will be loaded - using an IRQ-loader. The buttom of the screen represents a DOMINATION logo, which is simple, but also stunning. When having loaded a chapter, you enter the text-display. This section represents the same type of design as the menu, using the top 70% of the screen for the proportional text, and the buttom space for graphics. The graphics displayed here, is in the form of selection squares - looks a lot like a VCR, with buttons representing the different options for the text section. You can choose to load the next/previous chapter, next/previous page, next/previous music or simply return to the menu. These buttons are selected using the same arrow as seen in the menu. A fresh and fine idea by the inventors of the outfit. THE EDITORIAL The editorial of DOMINATION primarily consists of JAZZCAT, who is the General Editor with the responsibility of editing the most text and chapters. He is assisted by MASON and CROSSFIRE of MOTIV 8, FREESTYLE/AVANTGARDE, HOMEBOY, VENGEANCE and BIZARRE of ONSLAUGHT. THE CONTENTS DOMINATION was formerly known as a board-based magazine, but today it has expanded into a demo, internet, entertainment type of magazine. This puts it in the same category as THE PULSE, reporting on all the corners of the C64 scene. The actual quality of the text can be judged by reading the respective chapters, which is situated under 4 different categories. PREFACE - Editorial This chapter gives you all the important informations needed to read DOMINATION. This includes the list of editors, addresses, etc. Also a fine introduction by the General Editor, JAZZCAT. REGULARS - News & Rumours, The Charts, USA Scene, The List, Demo Reviews and Mag Reviews. DOMINATION offers the absolute best in news and information about the scene, this is due to the active role JAZZCAT plays on the American boards - which is a haven for magazine editors. This also means DOMINATION stands strong in its reports from the American scene, and with its support from the Amercian magazine DRIVEN, it is the most informative non-American magazine about U.S. happenings. JAZZCAT has great interest in the illegal scene, thus making him a fine critic on the games released. The List is a perfect addition to this category, but the fact that DOMINATION is not regular - up to now, could prevent people from noticing it as the official chart. If there is any such thing these days? As talented as JAZZCAT may be, he is not a coder, musician or graphician. Therefore I think he ought to let people within the demo-industry do the honours of reviewing the demos. But complements go to JAZZCAT for the hard work he put into this, and all the other chapters. He must be exhausted, hopefully not to the extend, that we will not see another edition of DOMINATION. That would be a shame! MISCELLANEOUS - Party time, Game scene, In the net, Slag back, H/P Anarchy, Interview, Introducing, Dumb & Dumber, Reactions, The awards, Advertisements. We cruise towards the mixed area, packed with chapters about everything the scene has to offer. Party reports and information, Game scene reports, Internet information, Hack and Phreak, Satiric stories, Reactions and Advertisements all proves that DOMINATION is a production, that offers a a more than full plate. The new features, Slag Back, Introducing and The Awards all adds to the excitement of the reader, who is more than happy with what he has been offered by now. The Slag Back chapter is reserved for war-reports in the classic sense - DOMINATION actually goes out and covers a war, all the nasty little details can be read right here. Oh my, very impressive. INTRODUCING is another new addition to this magazine, and the idea for this chapter basically means inviting a new group every month - offering them the chance to tell the world how they got started up to today. Also information about the members, etc. This month ONSLAUGHT was presented, due to it being a new feature and all, JAZZCAT explained. Moving onto the final new feature, THE AWARDS. This chapter was up to present time only featured in PROPAGANDA, but as JAZZCAT thought DOMINATION could serve the scene just as well handing out awards - we were given another fine round- trip to meet some of the successful sceners of today. That concludes our look at DOMINATION. We wanted to focus on one magazine this month, therefore we left no room for other reviews - probably due to the lack of new features within the media these days. Except for our own ofcourse :) DOMINATION was a real surprise to me, as I missed out on the last edition due to various problems. But I have faith in JAZZCAT and DOMINATION becoming great, but only if he decides to put it out regularly. I personally do not like delayed magazines, I know how much I hate when we at THE PULSE are delayed, but I guess JAZZCAT has come around - and we should be impressed with another edition very soon. All there is left to say is - Great work David! JUDGEMENT : ****** (FULL HOUSE)
Advertisements
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XXXXXXXXXXX XX/X, XX-XXX XXXX, XXXXXX * DOMEY/PANIC CREATIONS, XXXXX XXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * DOOM/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XXXXXX XX, XXXXXXX * DOXX/NOICE/SWEMIX, XXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * DR. DOOM/DLE, XXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XXXX, XXXX XX XXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX * FRANK/LEPSI DEVELOPMENT, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXX XX/X, XX-XXX XXXXX, XXXXXX * FREDDIE/ATLANTIS, XXXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XXXXXXX X, XXXXXXX * FUNNY/REPLAY, XXXXX XXXXX XX., XXXXXXX XXX. XX, XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * GARTH/ARCOSS, X. XXX XXXX, XXX. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * GLUT/AGONY DESIGN, XXXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XX. XXXXXXXXXXX XX, XX-XXX XXXXXX, XXXXXX * GOP/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXX XXXX, XXX XXXXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXXXXX, XXX XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXX * GRAFEE/FENIKS, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX X/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXX * GRIMLOCK/ACCURACY, XXXXX XXXXXX, XX XXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * HEAVY HEAD/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXX X, XXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXX * IBANEZ/MOTIV 8, XXXXX X. XXXXX, XXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * ICE/LEPSI DEVELOPMENT, XXXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX XX/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * ICEBALL/MOTIV 8, XXXXX XXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * INTRUDER/AVANTGARDE, XXX XXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX * JASON/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXXXXX * JAYCE/ex.ONSLAUGHT, XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * JAZZCAT/ONSLAUGHT, X/X XXXXX XXXXXXX, XX XXXXX XX., XXXX XX. XXXXXX, XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX * JER/PANIC CREATIONS, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX X-X X, XXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * JUNKIE/PALACE/DOOM PATROL, XXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX X-XXXXX, XXXXXXX * LIGHT, XXXX XXXXXXXX, X. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XX XXXXX, XXXXXXX * MAJA/F4CG, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX X/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXX, XXXXXX * MARCUS/ex.ONSLAUGHT, XXXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * MAVERICK, XXXXXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXX XX, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * MERLIN/MOTIV 8, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XX XXXXX, XXXXXXX * MORBID/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XX XXXXXX XXXXXX, XXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXX XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXX * MR. WAX/CHROMANCE, XXXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXXX XXXXXX XX, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * NEOTEC/ATLANTIS/F4CG, XXXXXXX XXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * NIGHTSHADE/SCS+TRC, XXXXXXX XXX XXX XXXX, XXXXXXXXXX X, XXXX XX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * PHARAOH/FAIRLIGHT, XXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * PHOENIX/DESERT NOMADS/CASCADE, X.X. XXX XXX, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXX * R.B./LEPSI DEVELOPMENT/EQUINOXE, XXXXXX XXXXXXX, XX. XXXXXXXXX XXX/X/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXXX XX., XXXXXX * RAMBO/THERAPY, XXXXX XXXX, XXXX X. XX/X, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * RAMJAM/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXX-XXXXX, XXXXXXX * RAP/ONSLAUGHT, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX, XX. XXXXXXXX X/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * RAVE/TRIAD, X/X XXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * ROBOCOP/ATLANTIS, X.X. XXX XX, XXXX XXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXX * RRR/OXYRON, XXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SAILOR/SCS+TRC/TABOO, XXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXX X, XX-XXX XXXXX, XXXXXX * SCARE/LEPSI DEVELOPMENT/NEOPLASIA, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SEBALOZ/LEPSI DEVELOPMENT/KEEN ACID, XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX XX/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXX + SHARK/SHAPE/BLUES MUZ', XXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXX * SHOCKER/HARDCORE, XXXXXXXX XXXXXX, XX XXXXXX XXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SHUZE/ALPHA FLIGHT, XXXX, XX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXX, XXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX, XXX XXX, XXXXXXX * SONOR/AGONY DESIGN, XXXXXX XXXXX, XXXXX XXX. XX, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SPARK/ELYSIUM/TABOO, XXXXXXX XXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXX XX/X, XX-XXX XXXXXX, XXXXXX * SPECTATOR/SCS+TRC, XXXXXX XXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXX X, XXXX XX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SPERMBIRD/EXCESS/CHROMANCE, XXX XXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SPIDER/ALPHA FLIGHT, XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXX XX/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXX, XXXXXX * SPLATTERHEAD/SCS+TRC, XXXX' XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXX XX XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * STONE/MOTIV 8, XXXXXX XX-XXXXX, XX XXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXX * SYCO/CHROMANCE, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * TALE/MENTAL, XXX XXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * TG-ACME/MOTIV 8, XXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX XX X, XXXX XXXX, XXXXXX + THE AUTHENTIC/EXCESS, XXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XX. XX, XXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * TITANIC/SCS+TRC, XXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX XX/XX, XX-XXX XXXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * TRANZIIE/HITMEN, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXX * TROOP/ATLANTIS, XXXXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXX XX XXXX, XXXXXXX * TRUSS/ACRISE, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XX. XX, XXXX XXX. XX, XXXXXXX * VENGEANCE/ONSLAUGHT/MEGASTYLE PRODUCTIONS, X XXXXXX XXXXXX, XXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX * VIOLATOR/NOFX, XXXXXX XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X X, XXXXX XXXX, XXXXXX * VOLUNTEER/HARDCORE, XXXX XXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X, XXXXX XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX * WALKER/F4CG, XXXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXXXXX XX, XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXX * ZAPOTEK/ALPHA FLIGHT, X.X. XXX XXX, XXXX XXX, XXXXXX As you can see, there hasn't been a lot of changes in this chapter since last issue. Unfortunately, it's due to the fact that only a few returned the address-sheet I introduced earlier on. But, nevertheless, I'll see to it that it gets a 2nd spreading. So, PLEASE... USE IT! KBS/ex.ONSLAUGHT