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1989-04-05
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227 lines
*******************************************
* *
* THE LAST ROUND-UP - DAVE MOONEY *
* ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ *
* A review of what has been available *
* on Menzies shelves over the last *
* few months. *
* *
*******************************************
This will be my final look at what monthly rags are still available and if
they are delivering the goods ST wise. I know that I have been a little
critical their contents in the past, but I did continue to buy them as
they were a 'source' of information.
Over the months the quality has been dropping despite the editors saying
otherwise. A day came when I had to clear my loft of junk and I realised
just how much money was being spent and how (ir)relevant the information
was after a couple of months.
As an alternative source of news, help and articles I have turned to
bulletin boards, the money saved from not buying the comics is more than
it costs to go online a couple of hours per week. One hour costs under £1
for a local board after 6pm and during that time it is possible to ask
questions, read replies, download discussions and text files plus the news
is always up to date (sometimes only hours old!).
If that wasn't enough there is more... DISC MAGS. There are dozens of
different disc magazines available and a few are even readable. Inside
Info always has the latest news downloaded from BBSs all over America,
Europe and Australia. ST News is an excellent source for games reviews,
solutions and technical articles as well great fiction. There are lots
more 'zines for special interest applications... The lists go on and on.
What's more, they are all FREE!!!! If you don't like one simply reformat
it and use the disc for something else. You know it makes sense.
PUBLIC DOMAIN
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
This magazine made it to issue #9 before being wound up. Just before
Christmas 1991 it and another magazine, Shareware Shopper, set up as tri-
format magazines covering the PD & shareware scene for the ST, PC and
Amiga. Each had cover discs and retailed at just under £3.
From the outset they claimed to bring us the 'best in PD and shareware',
but what they didn't seem to realise was that PD libraries up and down the
country had been doing this for years and were a good bit cheaper too.
For £2.95 you effectively got one third of a magazine and cover disc
unless you were lucky enough to own another of the computers supported.
The cover disc was 'Tri-format' which means that one side is formatted for
the Amiga and the PC and ST shared the other. Let us assume that the
magazines would have retailed at £1.95 without the disc.
This meant that the customer was being asked to pay £1 for half of one
side of ST programs... about 360K worth. Would you have bought discs from
a PD library if you only got this amount of software and had no choice as
to what was on it?
Around spring Shareware Shopper disappeared from the ST and Amiga scene to
concentrate on the PC. Perhaps they thought the owner of contemptibles
were a bit more gullible. Shortly afterwards Public Domain decided to drop
the cover disc which would have been a blow as it must have been a nice
little earner. A quid a go and a doddle to throw together compared to
producing a magazine.
The articles suffered from trying to cover too much ground across the
three formats and tended to be a bit brief, sensational (remember how the
NCW went before going under?) or contradictory. Classics from the 'last
days' were:
JUNE #7 An article on pornography warned how the youth of today was being
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ corrupted and turned into dirty old men before their time through
the actions of PD suppliers in dirty raincoats and plain brown envelopes.
To reinforce the point there was an abundance of deviant acts mentioned so
that anyone who wasn't in the 'know' could have a fresh source of enquiry
when they got to school the next day.
In case the reader was too lazy to read articles more than a couple of
hundred words long, numerous censored pictures were used. These tended to
be a bit grainy and the censors stamp just missed the 'naughty bits' at
times. Which was all a bit pointless since an uncensored colour version
was printed on the index page.
JULY #8 This time the 'happening' article concerened breach of copyright
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ in the public domain. The bad boys this time were the demo makers
and rippers who digitise other peoples music and pictures for their own
purposes.
An interesting snippet from the article was: '... What is certain,
however, is that if someone infringes copyright and it can be shown they
have no reason to believe the work was subject to copyright, the copyright
holder is not entitled to damages for the infringement. The entitlement
would only be for any money made as a result of the infringement - an
interesting test of the integrity of a non-profit making PD library
perhaps...'
Why interesting? Well the demo section went on to review demos which
contained complete tracks of commercialy available records images from the
media, a copy of a commercial game was reviewed (Asteroids) and numerous
images from the entertainment media used as illustrations. As the magazine
was put together to *MAKE* its publishers money is it not therefore
infringing copyright?
The magazine still failed to attract readers in significant numbers and as
a result the advertisers index was like the Zundapp Owners Club - few in
number and most of them unknown. Lack of revenue was what finally killed
of the mag. Few will mourn its passing.
ST USER
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
ST User is one of the oldest monthly magazines around and still the only
one to 'only' have one cover disc. A while back it lost its way and
readership migrated to ST Format. A couple of things were tried to revive
sales but they only lasted a couple of issues.
The first was the re-introduction of ST World. This could have been a good
move but it was handled so ineptly that the idea lasted about three issues
before being dropped.
Next came dinky little 'HAK PAK' inserts with an option of being able to
buy a filofax binder to stick them in and build up your colection. These
were stopped after three months because they were too expensive. Obviously
the guys don't bother planning things ahead and confirming prices.
The articles are split roughly evenly between games and serious stuff, the
cover discs have been getting a bit better, but as there are so many
adverts and pictures used that the readable material is finished so
quickly the overall impression is of poor value.
ATARI ST REVIEW
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
This was the one everybody expected to rise from nothing, challenge and
thrash the other mags blind. Has it happened? Not by issue 4!
The first issue was absolutely abissmal, one of the cover discs had
corrupted files on it and the remaining programs were rubbish. Articles
were cobbled together in the loosest sense and should never have been
accepted for a magazine that had time to prepare a launch issue.
Number two again had a dodgy cover disc and weak articles. It appeared no
lessons had been learned after the first issue. This is the magazine I've
been most annoyed at wasting money on *EVER!!!*.
A change in contributers saw #3 becoming a bit more coherent. There were
probably too many reviews of one sort or another to take this issue out of
the average class. Another interesting snippet was a letter from Tom
Nicolson stating the obvious, ie the first issue was cr&p and that they
would need to improve otherwise they could go under. The editor, Garth
Sumpter went totally overboard in his reply and missed the point entirely,
he even went as far as to bet Tom £50 that they would make it to issue 12.
Issue #4 had three big articles: a music section, comparison tests on
printers and trackballs. If we ignore the games reviews there wasn't a lot
left... apart from one little gem in the letters page where the bold
Garth? had to defend his exclusive to the new Atari machine with the 80030
and 80040 processors. He was thinking about PC chips (sic) while writing
about ST ones. Says it all really.
ST FORMAT
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
ST Format has probably been the top ST magazine available in the
newsagents for quite a while now. This is not to say it is good, just
better than all the rest. Although this does push it into the readable
category.
Prior to May they started including a commercial program on one of the
cover discs and the quality of the articles improved greatly. This was
seen as an attempt to keep readers when, the yet unknown Atari ST Review
was launched. Who was I to complain the cover discs had good software and
the mag was readable.
As the dust settled and it was seen that 'Review' was not going to be the
threat it had promised to be ST Format noticeably wound down. The software
was not quite as good, the articles got lighter and alarmingly the
magazine slowly turned into a mail order catalogue.
I commented on the number of pages that were being devoted to special
offers in the last issue of STEN. It is getting worse and when reviews are
discounted there is little else to hold the attention.
ST Applications
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
This is a magazine that you won't find on any newsagents self (that I know
of). It is compiled and published by Paul Glover who runs the ST Club PD
library and is the cheapest around at £1.50.
STA is a mere 60 pages, but with almost no advertising it gives the best
article to page ratio around. All of the articles are provided by ST
enthusiasts and therefore tend to be fairly technical which could be a bit
off-putting (dry?) for novices.
The letters pages are the largest of any magazine. Any replies by the
editor are generally helpful and informative. If anyone gets something
wrong then they are put right, no big deal is made of it. Often
discussions will be carried over many issues giving everyone a chance to
put their point forward.
Game reviews are handled in a couple of pages and normally only covers one
game is in depth. The types reviewed are generally adventure, role playing
or strategy which benefit from in depth discussion.
Other feature include up to date news, a large 'readers ads' section and
hardware projects. STA may not be perfect, but they are willing to listen
to critisism and will act on it if it is valid. Something none of the
others seem prepared to do no matter how much they protest otherwise.
~~~ eof ~~~
DAVE MOONEY