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+__________________________________  __+
| XX IN REVIEW: premium #2             |
| XX IN REVIEW: premium #2             |
|               __________             |
|                                      |
| _ released by: AXICON                |
| _ releasedate: 99-07-03              |
| _ runs under : YES                   |
|   emulator?                          |
+________________________________    __+
                                  


-  AXICON  suprised  everyone  with  the
release  of their first issue of PREMIUM
released in May, which brought more than
just fresh wind into our magazine scene!
Now  without  any  further  delays  they
kicked out issue number two.
Time  to  take a closer look at this new
magazine!
........................................

_ TECHNICAL REMARKS
___________________
The    magsystem  features  a  build  in
software  speeder  which  (according  to
FIREFOX/AXICON)  may  cause  problems in
connection    with  some  C64-Emulators.
Under CCS64 the loader worked perfectly
without any crashes or something like
that.

Cartridges  and  other expansions are no
problem,    so   you  needn't  turn  off
anything :).


_ THE INTRO
___________
It comes up with an "AXICON" fullscreen
logo pixeled in different blue shapes
by BRAINSMASHER/CIVITAS/AXICON in his
typical dark and groovy style. I like
it. Second item is a 1x1 sinus scroller
containing  greetings, credits and these
things.  Everything is underlined by one
of    SIDEWINDER/TMD's   stylish  groove
tracks    creating    just    the  right
atmospheare.  Code  is by CHECKY/AXICON/
ROLE/CENTRIC/PANIC.
All  in  all  this  intro  is  certainly
nothing    special,   but  nice  to  see
anyway.

_ THE INTERFACE
_______________
This  time  the  crew went away from the
lowres    outfit    in  the  main  menu,
replacing it by a graffiti styled multi-
colour  logo  at the top and some moving
"axicon!"  sprites  at the bottom of the
screen,    both  made  by  BRAINSMASHER.
The  borders  are  kept  in  dark  gray,
background  and  chars  are  still  left
in lightgray on black.
I  personally  would  have  prefered  to
leave  the borders in black colour, too,
but  on  the  other hand this fits quite
well  the  colours of the logo which are
light  gray,  gray and orange, while the
sprites    are   kept  in  gray  scales.
Sumed  up  I  would say that the annount
of  used  colours is maybe a bit too low
with  too  many  gray  coloured parts in
it,  but  realization  and  style on the
other  hand  realization  and  style are
really well done.
The  selection  bar  makes  sure  you'll
always  catch  the right chapter without
getting  into  any  trouble  with either
too  slow  or much too fast joy pointers
as  it  is  still the case in some other
mags.

There  is a nice fading effect displayed
afer   having  chosen  a  chapter  which
reminds  a  bit  of  good old TIMENOTER.
The  blue  shaped 2x2 multicolor font of
the  jumping  "LOADING"  Message looks a
bit funny, reminding me a bit of some of
my old logos :).

The   Textviewer  is  working  pagewise,
looking  a  bit  like  OCTANOTER  or the
textviewer    in    good  old  UNPLUGGED
magazine  by U-TURN (still remember this
one?),  but  works a lot of quicker than
that one :).

Sumed  up,  a  solid and perfect working
interface  with  a nearly 100% no crash-
guarantee (check this out X-Dome Staff!)
and this gives it a rating of 11/15.

_ THE CHAPTERS
______________
As every good discmag also Premium heats
things up with the Editorial.
Nextby to general Information about this
issues  FIREFOX gives the latest news on
improvements  in  the  magsystem and the
latest happenings in the staff.
Another  important  point is that AXICON
is  still  in  the need of more members,
namely  composers,  graphicians  and  of
course  mageditors.  Firefox  is sending
out  this  message  espcially to members
of    inactive  or  even  dying  groups.
Well, maybe it will work...
Of  course  the  Editorial also features
the standard stuff like credits and last
but  not  least  infos on how to contact
the staff.

All  in all a solid informatic editorial
containing    all  the  information  the
reader needs.

News    &  Rumours  has  undergone  some
important  changes so far. It's now much
better  sorted  and  also the quality of
news  could  be  improved, thanks to the
help  of  MAC  GYVER/DMAGIC,  their  new
news  supplier.  However  there are also
some  false rumors and outdated stuff to
be found here, but fortinately that does
not concern the entire part.

Quite a lot of Reactions from different
sceneguys made their way into this issue
and  FIREFOX  really  did  his  best  in
answering  everybody  on  his  questions
and/or  suggestions in detail. It's good
to  see  somebody  moving away from this
"Thanx  for  your  reaction  & So long!"
style  other  mageditors  still  have in
mind.

Next are some infos on Radwar Party 2000
by MWS/RADWAR, fetched from the Internet
followed  by an Interview RHOBA Q/AXICON
led  with  his pal TSD/ANUBIS, a cracker
from  Poland.  Hm,  I  have already read
lots  of  different interviews during my
scene   career  for  sure,  but  somehow
never one like this.
Unfortinately  this  is  not  ment  in a
posetive  way! First of all any order in
this text is missing, all text is simply
written in one flash without leaving any
space  between  the  different  passages
or  at  least  some  outlets. A bit more
of  survey and maybe a "little bit" less
craptalk   during  the  whole  interview
would have been nice. Sure the interview
does  contain  some interesting thoughts
and aspects but also lots of stuff which
is  maybe  interesting  for polish scene
dudes  but  not  for the entirely scene!

BARACUDA/SMASH  tells  the readers about
The Stock History.
For  the  ones  who  still  do not know,
"The  Stock" is a software service build
up  by  him  and  some  of  his friends.
The  article starts with the latest news
updates  concerning  The  Stock and then
continues    with  the  groups  history,
connected   with  BARACUDA's  own  scene
career  story.  The  article  is  really
full  of  interesting  facts not only on
The  Stock and their founder himself but
also  on  the  entire  scene  in the old
days,  so  it's more than worth reading.
In  some  passages BARACUDA maybe gets a
bit  too  much  into detail however, but
without  making the article becoming too
boring in any way.
The  next  chapter  is  called  Red Rose
(full  name  "Not  a  normal Red Rose").
Heheh,    this    one   is  really  fun!
It  deals  with  girls  and disappointed
love.  The author JONNY VAGO really sees
parallels  between  his  own experiences
in  this  field  and  certain structures
in  our  c64 scene. Quite an interesting
comparision...  Vago also critizises the
media    which   are,  in  his  opinion,
painting    a  wrong  picture  of  toays
computer scene in some ways.
Sometimes  it's a bit hard to follow his
thoughts,  sometimes  he  gets a bit too
emotional.
The  comparision  between  Love  and the
modern  Wrestling  Industrie  maybe does
not  fit  into a c64 magazine, but is on
the  other  hand quite an excellent one.

In  C64 & Internet JONNY VAGO introduces
different  possibilities  the net offers
also  to  c64  sceners  in brief. Vago's
conclusion  that  c64 scene cannot leave
the Internet completely behind (although
some  dudes  seemingly  want  to...)  is
surely  right.  Well,  time will show...
Anyway,   this  article  gives  Internet
newcomers  some interesting hints on how
to    spend   their  time  in  the  net.
But  be  careful  with your phone bills,
heheh!
Euroenglish  is  another  article  taken
from   the  Internet  and  rewritten  by
RHOBA  Q.  It's a satire on the European
Community   and  the  English  language.
Just  check  out for yourself and enjoy!

FIREFOX  has  some information For Cable
Guys,  here  he shows the readers how to
copy  games originals via parallel copy,
featuring  lots  of  copy parameters for
various  games  for  use  with the Burst
Nibbler.  Quite  helpful for people with
a    huge  games  collection  for  sure.
It's  good to see at least one mag still
dealing    with    the    games  sector.

In    Homepages    and    Emails  CHECKY
introduces     the    coders    homepage
"The   Fridge"  by  presenting  all  the
different  possibilities  this  page  is
offering  to  coders,  each  section  is
described  in  brief.  So why not taking
a     look    at    sss.{{l2.|yg/{rbleq?
The      FTP-List    (featuring    short
decriptions  of  each)  as well as EMail
Adresses  by  quite  a  large variety of
sceners    are    included   here,  too.
Well,  this  chapter  really  derves its
name,  differing from the mass of crappy
so-called  "Email"  Chapters  in certain
other publications...

No let's jump into the Active Mailscene.
This    list  contains  the  handles  of
various   scners  and  their  status  of
activity     in    swapping    business.
Hm,  there  must  be  some  misprints in
this  list, e.g. I don't think MANIK/EX-
REM   is  a  "fast"  swapper  any  more!
OK,  of  course it's hard to keep such a
list  100%  objective,  because what are
terms like "fast" or "slow" swap anwyay?
FIREFOX  complains  the  support  by the
readers  for  this list still being on a
low  level.  Maybe the majority of their
readers    do  not  need  such  a  list?
Time will show...

Sceners  Voice  is  supposed  to be some
kind of communication forum for sceners,
according  to  the  staff  there  are no
rules  for this chapter, everything will
be  published.  In  a  mag released on a
weekly  or  monrhly basis such a chapter
surely  would  make  sense,  but Premium
"only" gets released every second month,
so  the  danger of having outdated mails
here is rather high.
This  times chapter is not that big, but
of  course this may differ from issue to
issue.  Scner's Voice is quite practical
if  you  wanna buy or sell hardware, for
for  Lost  Contacts and stuff like this.

For  coummunication  with  other sceners
you  should  better  use  standard  ways
(Email, phone, etc.).

Guess  what  The  Charts are about? This
time  twice  as  much  sheets as for the
first  issue  could  be  evaluated, this
makes  40  sheets.  OK, still no hammer,
but  anway spreaders and fillers seem to
be on the right way...:).
Also  the  layout  has  been improved by
adding more postions and a better order.

You're looking for the Adresspart?
Well, then you'd better check out the
Mediation Office.
The  annount  of  addies  has  been,  in
contrast  to  the last issue, improved a
lot,  this  surely depends of the larger
annount    of    votesheets  this  time.
The  addies are clearly arranged, so you
don't    need  a  magnifying  glass  for
reading through.

The Music Corner features tunes by MOOG,
ECO,  DRAX,  SYNDROM  and  ECLIPSE,  but
unfortinately no exclusive ones.

OK, let's sum it up. The only chapter
which is really distubring the posetive
impression of the chapters is surely the
TSD-Interview, but everything else can
only  be  rated  as  good  quality scene
journalism.  Maybe  "Sceners  Voice" and
"Active Mailscene" are a bit discussable
but  tastes  are different, aren't they?
Good quality journalism gets a good
quality rating of 11/15.

_ TEXT LAYOUT
_____________
The  magsystem  just  features  one  1x1
magfont,    made   by  CODE18/ONSLAUGHT.
Some  may  claim  that some of the quite
small  chars  are  a bit hard to read at
least  on  TV  sets. I personally had no
problems  in reading everything properly
on  my SHARP TV monitor, but this may be
different on others.
Of  course  using just one font does not
give   you  loads  of  possibilities  of
creative  layouting,  but  on  the other
hand  the  danger  of  making any stupid
mistakes  in  layout  gets  reduced to a
minimum.
Apart  from  some typing errors, e.g. in
"Red   Rose"  and  that  badly  arranged
Interview  there  is nothing to complain
concerning    the   layout,  nearly  all
chapters  feature  a  good  general view
and    that's    what    makes   reading
comfortable.
The  staff  made the best of on what the
magsys  offers,  so  09/15 should be it.
_ SO WHAT...?
_____________
Premium#1  was followed by many posetive
reactions  from the scene and with issue
two  it  will  be  the  same. AXICON are
really  on  the  right  way to establish
their  magazine  as  one you don't wanna
miss  any  more  in  the magazine scene.
The  regular  two months releasing basis
is probably their best weapon which will
hopefully  stay  loaded  in  the future.
The lack of support by the readers in
some  ways  may  be still a problem, but
this  seems  to  be  just  a question of
time!  "We'll  never  give  up!", that's
what   FIREFOX  said  again  and  again.
_ FINAL RATING
______________
Intro..............................07/15
Interface..........................11/15
Chapters...........................11/15
Text Layout........................09/15
OVERALL............................10/15
========================================







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