DT 01 en 15

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<pre>
 
  
 
                                   
 
+__________________________________  __+
 
| XX IN REVIEW: x-dome #09            |
 
| XX IN REVIEW: x-dome #09            |
 
|              __________            |
 
|                                      |
 
| _ released by: ROLE                  |
 
| _ releasedate: 99-07-01              |
 
| _ runs under : YES                  |
 
|  emulator?                          |
 
+________________________________    __+
 
                                 
 
 
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
Arman/Role  recently released the second
 
issue  of  his  mag  X-DOME  in  English
 
language  and  as the old X-DOME fanatic
 
I  still  am I couldn't hold myself back
 
from  taking a closer look at this issue
 
of course. So let's start!
 
........................................
 
 
_ TECHNICAL REMARKS
 
___________________
 
Hm,  does  X-DOME  work  together  with
 
cartridges    or  not?  Good  question!
 
Sometimes  it  indeed does and sometimes
 
it  does  not!  But  in  order  to  read
 
through  the whole magazine in one flash
 
without  reseting  your c64 all the time
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
you  really  should  follow Arman's hint
 
mentioned  in the directory and turn off
 
all  your  cartridges,  REU  expansions,
 
SCPU's and so on.
 
The  magsystem  features  a  quite  fast
 
build    in  software  speeder  however.
 
 
In  contrast  to former (german) issues,
 
both the keyboard- and joystick controls
 
are now working 100%.
 
 
_ THE INTRO
 
___________
 
There  is no intro this time, so nothing
 
more to tell here.
 
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
_ THE INTERFACE
 
_______________
 
The  main  menu  picture pixeled by VIP/
 
ROLE  looks  a  bit  strange in my eyes,
 
it  seems  to  me, gold old VIP mixed up
 
a  bit  too  many  different styles this
 
time.    However  the  big  "X  D"  Logo
 
underlayed  by  a  stone-like background
 
pattern  looks quite great, the contrast
 
in colours was well chosen.
 
The  really  "strange"  part  of  VIP's
 
picture  are  the icons representing the
 
four  main  groups  of  chapters the mag
 
is  divided in, because you really can't
 
recognize  which  icon  is  representing
 
what!  Of  course  you  can  find it out
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
quite  easily  with  one  single  click,
 
but  I  guess  creating some maybe a bit
 
more  suitable  icons wouldn't have been
 
such    a    great  afford,  would  it?
 
Would  you  e.g.  imagine  a girl with a
 
vibrator  standing  for the "Editorial"?
 
I guess not!
 
 
The  text  viewer  comes with a huge and
 
colourful  "X-Dome" logo in great shapes
 
pixeled  by  TMR/ONSLAUGHT/COSINE,  its
 
background  is  kept  in  dark gray, the
 
chars  in  light  grey, so a rather good
 
reading      comfort    is    guaranted.
 
The  status  bar  placed  directly under
 
the  logo  is  rather  useless  I'd say,
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
but of course my opinion must not always
 
be right! Just see for yourself.
 
 
All in all the outfit deserves a rating
 
of 06/15 points, I'd say.
 
 
_ THE CHAPTERS
 
______________
 
These  are  naturally the most important
 
part  of  every  discmag,  so let's take
 
a closer look at them:
 
 
As  already  mentioned  some lines above
 
the  chapters  are  divided in four main
 
cathegories.
 
Let us call them "Editorial", "Demoscene
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
Forum", "Miscellaneous" and last but not
 
least "Party Tales".
 
 
The  EDITORIAL  Section  comes up with a
 
long  Leading  Article written by Arman,
 
in  which  he mainly tries giving people
 
some  more or less important tips in how
 
enjoying  reading almighty X-DOME and so
 
on. Yeah, very intereresting...
 
The  second part of this text deals with
 
gerneral  information  about  the X-DOME
 
Staff, Credits and so on.
 
Altogether this is not what I would call
 
a  good  preface  for  a  c64  magazine,
 
unless you're a ROLE-Member of course!
 
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
Reactions    contains    two  individual
 
reactions  on  issue  #8  by  RORSCHACH/
 
PADUA/NO-NAME  and  a  guy called TUISKO
 
STEINHOFF  (never  heard  of  him)  and
 
several  answers  on  general  questions
 
to  the  editors.  Nothing special here,
 
just a chapter nearly every mag nowadays
 
has, I believe.
 
 
The Adress List has become quite a small
 
one  this  time,  this surely depends on
 
the low annount of snail sheets that got
 
spread with issue #8.
 
 
OK, so much for the EDITORIAL.
 
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
The  DEMOSCENE  FORUM  covers  a  large
 
annount    of    different    kinds  of
 
information about the latest happenings
 
in our scene.
 
 
The  News  Part  has  become quite a big
 
one  this  time,  most  of  the  really
 
actual  and  varied  news  on the latest
 
incidents  in nearly all active nowadays
 
scene  groups  got supplied by MacGyver/
 
DMAGIC,  a  name that stands for nothing
 
than quality for sure.
 
 
Next  is  Charts, with just 17 votesheet
 
fillers  this  time, due to some mistake
 
the  staff made by spreading the sheets.
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
Yeah,  things  can  only  get  better...
 
No further comment here.
 
 
This  issues  Scene  Poll deals with the
 
situation    of    todays    mag  scene.
 
It  got  spread  by  Arman via E-Mail to
 
some  chosen  guys  (what  about  making
 
public  scene  polls,  dude?)  and  the
 
majority  of  its  fillers  still regard
 
the  mag  scene  as  mega-active and are
 
more  than  satisfied  with  the annount
 
of  mags  getting  released  these days.
 
Well,  I  guess  you  don't  have  to be
 
Albert  Einstein  to  realize  that this
 
cannot  be  the case, but if you look at
 
the  fillers names you might understand.
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
What  the  heck  do people like MR. SEX,
 
FUNGUS,    FANGORN,  etc.,  whose  only
 
activity  seems  to  be  hanging  around
 
in  #C-64  IRC  know about the situation
 
of  todays  mag  scene? Nothing, because
 
they're  simply  not  involved  in  this
 
field!  Sorry  Arman,  but you asked the
 
wrong    guys  about  the  wrong  topic!
 
You    can't  just  surf  through  #C-64
 
picking  some  guys  you think are known
 
enough  for  you  and your mag profiling
 
yourself    and  leaving  the  entirely
 
topic  behind!  It  really  seems  to me
 
that  Arman  just  wanted  to  have some
 
popular  names  in  his  magazine,  his
 
attitude should be clear...
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
The  Profile of Nastiness, Inc. I guess,
 
there  nobody who does not know the name
 
of    the  former  main  editor  of  the
 
legendary  Tribune  Magazine. Although I
 
really    cannot    see  much  sense  in
 
interviewing persons who left scene long
 
time  ago  and  have  no  connection  to
 
todays  scene  any  more, this interview
 
really  contains  some  very interesting
 
thoughts  not only about scene business.
 
So  it's really worth reading after all.
 
 
Magreview Number 1 starts with a list of
 
all(?)  magazines that got released from
 
November  of '98 till July of '99. Quite
 
an  unusual way to start such a chapter,
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
why  not  simply  putting this list into
 
the  Newsflash? At least one mag, namely
 
Dimension  Issue#2  with  the releasdate
 
of  June  29th  1999  is missing in this
 
list,  so  be careful with the phrase of
 
"all".  After  Arman is finally finished
 
with  his  blabla about active mailscene
 
(yeah,  maybe back in 1998, but...) once
 
again, he decides that it's now time for
 
starting  with  the  first review of non
 
other  mag  than  Dimension  Issue#1  by
 
Tempest.
 
The  review itself could have been a bit
 
more  detailed  in some ways, also style
 
and use of language cannot be classified
 
as originla or brilliant.
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
Just  look  at  phrases like "(...)under
 
the  lead  of the maineditor Floyd(...)"
 
or  "(...)during  the  whole  magazine a
 
nice Dimension Logo by JB is filling the
 
right  side  of  the screen (...)" which
 
are neither grammatically correct nor do
 
they    represent    a  good  piece  of
 
journalistic style.
 
Objectivity  is  surely  given  in  this
 
review,  but it's quality and style that
 
are missing!
 
 
Magreview Number 2 deals with Xenoglossy
 
Issue  #2 by Banshee. No further comment
 
here,  just  look  at  my remarks above,
 
because here it's just the same...
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
Mags  Today  happenes to be some sort of
 
"Arman's  Guide  to  Magazine  Galaxy".
 
It comes up with a list of all magazines
 
"alive"  today.  Well, I don't think you
 
can  call  mags  like "Driven", "Nitro",
 
"Propaganda",    "Relax"    (hahahaha!),
 
"Vandalism  News", etc. "alive" any more
 
better  phrases  would  be "delayed like
 
hell"    or  even  "dead"  (in  case  of
 
"Driven"  and  "Relax"  (which  got  NOT
 
released under the label of Oxyron, dear
 
Arman,  but  PHUTURE) this one surely is
 
the right choise.
 
However the guide also features a second
 
list  with  so-called  "important"  mags
 
that  died  in  the  course  of the last
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
couple  of  years.  Hm, the question is,
 
do  magazines  like  "Adwarp English" or
 
"Necropsy"    really    fit    in  here?
 
I  and  also  many  other  people do not
 
think they ever played such an important
 
role    in  the  mag  scene  after  all!
 
 
The last article in this forum is called
 
The  Party 8-Music Review (hm, was there
 
just  one  tune  released  in Aars?) and
 
it's    supplied    by  ABBADON/DAMAGE.
 
All  in  all  his  reviews  are  nothing
 
special.  The only critical remarks that
 
could  be  mentioned here are that he in
 
some  (not  all!)  of  his reviews could
 
have  gotten  a  bit  more  into detail,
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
also  it  would  have been a rather nice
 
idea  playing  the tunes both on old and
 
new  SID  in  order  to  point  out  the
 
differences  in quality, e.g. concerning
 
RAYDEN's  tune!  These  things meanwhile
 
should  be standard in every party music
 
reviews, shouldn't they?
 
 
MISCELLANEOUS  features articles dealing
 
with  topics  from  in-  and outside the
 
scene.
 
 
The  C64  XXX  Report  is supposed to be
 
some  kind  of  "review"  of several C64
 
Erotics  GFX  Collections.  This article
 
is simply pure trash with no sense in it
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
at  all  and  a pure catastrophe both in
 
language  and  style!  It  reminds  the
 
reader  of  the  good  old  XDOME german
 
times  immediately,  when  such articles
 
were  published  in  every single issue!
 
 
#C64  Everyday  Life  just  contains  a
 
(platin    old)    logfile  from  #C-64.
 
Well, better check out the IRC yourself!
 
But  anyway  you  get  here  some really
 
good  tips on what you should definately
 
NOT  do  in  #C-64, unless you'd like to
 
be    kicked    and  banned  of  course!
 
Arman  however  seems to have confounded
 
#C-64  with  #Erotic somehow, hasn't he?
 
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
Role  Diaries  is  surely  one  of  the
 
biggest  articles  in  the  entire  mag,
 
telling  the  complete  group history of
 
the  known  belgium  crew  from its very
 
beginning  till  today,  written  in the
 
form of a diary. It's really interesting
 
to  read  such a detailed profile of one
 
of  the  oldest  and still active groups
 
in  our  scene.  The  article would have
 
been  even  more  perfect  without  the
 
catastrophal  English  in  some passages
 
and the strange change of point of views
 
(although  it is supposed to be a diary,
 
there  are  several  passages written in
 
the  third person point of view and then
 
suddenly COMMANDER, the author, suddenly
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
becomes  a  first person narrator again.
 
There    are  also  several  remarks  by
 
OCHRANA placed in brackets in the course
 
of  whole  article  which are are little
 
bit disturbing, I'd say.
 
 
Next  is  an  Advertisement  on  the new
 
SID COLLECTION CD by XENOX/AFL'70, taken
 
from    the    internet,    followed  by
 
an  article  by  OCHRANA  dealing  with
 
different  aspects  of  the  Millennium
 
problem.  Although the article itself is
 
quite  detailed,  it  does not bring any
 
new  aspects the majority of the readers
 
did  not  know so before already anyway!
 
The  article  (or  at least parts of it)
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
are  seemingly copied from some computer
 
magazine,  at  least  there  are  a  few
 
indicators for this supposition.
 
 
In  the  second  edition  of  his column
 
Taxes  or  what?  COMMANDER compares car
 
taxes  in  different european countries,
 
coming    to  the  conclusion  that  car
 
drivers  from  the Benelux States should
 
better move to Luxemburg.
 
Does    this    article  really  feature
 
anything  new?  Well,  that's  also  the
 
question here!
 
 
OK, so much about this section.
 
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
PARTY  TALES!  Yeah,  this one is really
 
great!    It  features  loads  of  party
 
results,    reports    and    of  course
 
invitations. Party on!
 
Hopefully  the  staff will keep on their
 
good  work  with this section in further
 
issues.
 
The only funny thing here is (of course)
 
COMMANDER's  Mekka+Symposium  2k-1 party
 
report in really "perfect and brilliant"
 
English.  Well  Serge,  I  really cannot
 
remember myself having taken an airplane
 
to  get  home  (as you mentioned in your
 
report).    Always  remember:  It's  not
 
"to  flee, flight, flight" but "to flee,
 
fled, fled", dude!
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
If  you  haven't  found  out  already, a
 
click  on  the  grey  and  sick  looking
 
lady  in  the middle of the right border
 
leads    you    into  the  music  menu,
 
featuring    four  exclusive  tunes  by
 
AGEMIXER,  GLENN  RUNE  GALLEFOS  and DA
 
BLONDIE  and  some  three additonal ones
 
by TRIDENT and TAKI.
 
 
Well,  it's  surely not easy judging the
 
chapter's  quality  of  the  entire mag.
 
On  the  one  hand we have the brilliant
 
News  Part  and  Party  Coverage, but on
 
the  other hand there is the rest of the
 
articles,  whose  quality  differs  from
 
rather  good  (Role  Diaries),  average
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
(Music  Reviews)  down  to lowest pieces
 
of  crap  (Commodore  XXX  Report, #C-64
 
Everyday life e.g.).
 
 
One  aspect which was disturbing me most
 
while  reading  through  the  different
 
chapters  was  the  lack  of  affort the
 
maineditors  ARMAN  and COMMANDER put on
 
style and language. OK, you judge X-DOME
 
as  a  second  XENOGLOSSY  (the  mag  by
 
Banshee)    with  spelling  mistakes  in
 
every  second  line, BUT if there is one
 
thing  that  needs  to  be  improved  in
 
furher  issues than it is definately the
 
use of the English language!
 
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
The  annount of crap texts also could be
 
reduced    a  bit,  replacing  these  by
 
quality  articles  dealing  with  topics
 
the  sceners  are  really interested in!
 
 
Sorry dudes, but any rating of more than
 
07/15 would have been a rather bad joke!
 
 
 
_ TEXT LAYOUT
 
_____________
 
The mag features a 1x1 characterset done
 
by  my  old  buddy SHRI SADHU/EX-WILLOW.
 
Everyone  who  knows  Michael's charsets
 
knows  that  they  stand for quality and
 
readable  chars  and  lots  of  special
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
characters    and  so  does  this  one.
 
Although  it's  surely  not the best one
 
Michael  ever  did  and  the  fact  that
 
(especially  in  the  bold  mode)  some
 
letters  are  sometimes  a  bit  hard to
 
read  due  to  the  fact  that the chars
 
are  maybe  a bit too small, it is still
 
absolutely  readable  and  fits into the
 
whole    magazine  (which  is  quite  an
 
important aspect in my mind).
 
 
The quality of the layout itself differs
 
from  chapter  to  chapter.  On  the one
 
hand  we've  got  well  structured  and
 
sorted  News and Party Coverages, but on
 
the  other  hand  also very unstructured
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
articles  with loads of layout errors in
 
it  such  as  some of the reviews or the
 
Mekka+Symposium    2k-1  partyreport  by
 
Commander/Role for example.
 
 
All in all I think that the editors made
 
much  too  less  use  of all the special
 
characters  their  character  set offers
 
them in order to pop up the whole layout
 
a bit.
 
Sumed  up  you  can  say  that  the text
 
layout  surely  is  not  bad  but  also
 
nothing special indeed.
 
So just an average rating of 07/15.
 
 
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
_ SO WHAT...?
 
_____________
 
X-DOME  #9  features some highlights but
 
also  lots  of  crap  that better should
 
have been left out.
 
Also the mag is a bit too much Internet-
 
orientated  in  my  eyes.  Leaving  the
 
snailmail  scene  out nearly completely,
 
time  will  show  how long this is gonna
 
work properly (I guess you all remember
 
the spreading mistake in connection with
 
with the last issue, don't you??)
 
 
Talking  about  Internet,  that's  also
 
the  source most of the quality chapters
 
in  this  issue  came  from! The editors
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
afford  of  writing  quality articles by
 
themselves  at  least  can't be rated as
 
extremely high after all.
 
 
To  put  it  in  simple words, X-DOME on
 
this  level  is  an  average mag, mainly
 
ment  to  be  a forum for #C-64 Visitors
 
and  other  Netsurfers  who like strange
 
textstyles  and  giving  not more than a
 
cent  on  quality language and style, as
 
these  two  things  definately cannot be
 
found  in  this mag, at least not in the
 
two  english issues that got released so
 
far.  The  future  however  is  open for
 
everything of course!
 
 
</pre>
 
<pre>
 
_ FINAL RATING
 
______________
 
Intro..............................+++++
 
Interface..........................06/15
 
Chapters...........................07/15
 
Text Layout........................07/15
 
OVERALL............................07/15
 
========================================
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
_______________________________SCORPE___
 
</pre>
 

Latest revision as of 23:50, 17 January 2011

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