Amiga Plus 2003 #12/Amiga Plus CD - 2003 - No. 12.iso/AmigaPlus/Scene/Magazine/Saxonia2/articles/017

Text File | 2003-06-02 | 8KB | 138 lines

  PC CHARTSMAG FOR AMIGA?
  BY KEMPY/DCS&VEEZYA
[l

  Long  ago  all kinds of so-called chartsmag were so popular. Every huge
demo  group  tried  to  compile  its  own  charts magazine, just to prove
that...   To  prove  what?   Honestly, i don't know.  But it was funny to
read  all  of  them,  especially  when  in  fact  contents  of  all  were
paradoxically so different (in terms of top-leading productions/handles).
As you know, current situation on Amiga scene looks rather dissimilar, we
have  today only two active chartsmags, one called simply EuroChart (over
13  years  old  dinosuar)  and  second  named ShowTime (which seems to be
dead?).   But  there's  a pale light in the dark tunnel, just because few
guys  from  some  legend  groups  like  Scoopex,  Hoodlum and The Silents
decided  to  ressurect  their  own product - WorldCharts.  Originally, in
first  half  of  last  decade only 13 issues of WC were released on Amiga
(what's interesting that only one was edited by The Silents), but in 2002
issue #14 hit demo scene.  Acuratly - PC demo scene.  A bit puzzling!?

  New,  refreshed  WC  was  meant  to be multiplatform publication, which
should  bring  a  piece  of  fun  for  sceneres from following platforms:
Amiga,  C64  and  PC.   Sadly,  but  some  Scoopex  members  (which  were
responsible  for  porting  zine  to our platform) failed to compile miggy
version  of  14th  WC.   Time passed and next WC arrived on hard (floppy)
disks  of  PC/C64  sceners,  but  Amiga  freaks  were still disappointed.
Finally in March 2003, delayed issue #15 appeared.  Uff!

  I  was  really  curious  about this zine, i saw PC version and i didn't
like it - it was extremally slow on everything without 3d accelerator (!)
and  design  wasn't  nothing  astonishing in my opinion.  Anyway, back to
Amee.  I can't remember exactly my first feelings, so let me write down a
part of my scene diary.

  "21:04  -  being  excited i'm launching WC on my Amiga and first what i
can  see  is nice looking intro part made in old-school flavour.  Several
pretty  and smooth scrollers, rotating cubes (nightmares of past demos!),
lively  chip  tune  and  three logos presenting names of authors' groups.
But  hey, something is wrong!  All used logos are only rehashed stuff - i
saw  them  years  ago.   Maybe  it is too hard to nowadays graphicians to
paint  new low-res pictures in 32 colors only!?  Who knows?  Time to skip
this  introduction  so  i'm  pressing  mouse  button.   Oops!  Unexpected
reboot.   Seems  that  WC  doesn't like my patched system.  I'm trying to
launch  it  without s/s and everything works fine now.  Again intro, then
common  "two  female  persons" picture and finally it is:  main screen of
WorldCharts  Amiga.   And  still in old-school climate:  animation of two
vector  cogwheels  rotating  in  the  middle  (this effect reminds me old
Funzine's 4k intro), small sort of equalizer in a top corner and (another
recycled!)  vertical  logo  of  Scoopex on the right side.  I'm wondering
what's  going  on?   I'm  checking time and date on my clock - it's still
year 2003, but i have a strange feeling i was put back in 1993.  It's not
a dream it's reality.

  Cogs are rotating.

  I'm trying to check Amiga charts.  I'm astonished there only few points
in  cathegories  like best 4k, 64k intro or even best demo.  Strange.  In
PC sections things look much better.  I'm checking list of voters - to my
surprise  i  read  that  468  people have voted, but only 378 handles are
written  because "some of voters would to be incognito".  What!?  Is it a
symptom  of  total  paranoia  and  persecution  mania  or  maybe complete
stupidity!?  I'm returning to main screen.

  Cogs are still rotating.  I'm going dizzy.

  I  want to check list of voters again.  I'm looking through neverending
columns  of unknown people and i'm noticing less than 30 people connected
with present Amiga demo scene.  And what does it mean!?  Seems that miggy
charts  were  performed  by  PC sceners.  Excellent!  I have a unpleasant
feeling  that somebody made Amiga version of PC chartsmag.  I can't stand
it - so i'm coming back to main menu.

  These  fucking cogwheels.  No, somebody must stop them!  I have to take
a deep breath.

  I'm trying to check other stuff from main menu.  I'm skipping relations
from  PC  Radwar party right after two readed paragraphs - they're rather
boring.   And  texts  aren't formated and look messy.  In adverts section
only  three  positions, additionally The Silents ascii logo was massacred
by  editor.   It's  nice that right mouse button brings you back to menu,
but  i'm  pressing  it  again  and...  Damn!  I quitted magazine!  What a
stupid idea!  I'm starting zine again.

  And,  these  irritating cogs are still there!  Grrrr.  Calm down Kempy,
calm down!

  I'm  noticing  there  two  modules,  so  i'm  choosing another music by
Laxical/TSL  instead  Reed's/FLT  starting  one.   All  i can hear now is
silence.   Hey!  My spekaers went down or something!?  No, seems it's bug
in WC engine.  I'm going to leave this zine for sure, when i'm spotting a
bonus  part with Scoopex cractros!  As i know that Stingray (coder behind
WC)  is  o/s  lover  and  he's hobby is to patching old intros for newest
Amigas,  i'm  trying  to  launch  them.   First  one is running well, but
second,  third  and  following are sooooo slow.  This is too much for me!
I'm  saying  >Fuck  Off<  to  "Lethal  Cogs  from  Outer  Space of Vector
Animations" and i'm going to leave WorldCharts #15!.

  But  cogwheels  are hypnotizing me.  I can't force myself to press this
fucking  mouse  button.   I'm  so weak, everything is going dark, and i'm
loosing my consciousness.  Heeeelp..."

  That's  all  i  found in my diary, highest time to some updates.  After
few  days,  Stingray  released  fixed  version  of  this zine, where f.e.
Laxical's stuff is played correctly and have to say i like this agressive
tune  more  than  slow  and  standard  module  from  Reed.   Besides this
improvement  i  haven't  noticed any others, i have still to run WC after
clean  boot  without  s-s, and SCX craktros don't work good when launched
from  main  menu.   Fortunately  these cool small pirate executables work
great when started separately from your file manager (FM or Dopus).

  Summing  up  -  Amiga  WorldCharts looks like were made only to display
some old recycled logos in old school flavour.  Anyway, cute design, good
bonus  in  form of cracktros but rest!?  Poor charts, lack of interesting
or  funny  articles  to  read.   Also have to add there no file-votesheet
inside  archive,  just  because you're only allowed to vote on-line!  Say
what you want, but for me it's a significant disadvantage.

  Although,  thanks  for Stingray/SCX for his o/s engine, all effects and
rest  of  technical  details.   Also  thanks  for not mindless copying PC
version of WC, but that what is most important in this sort of production
is  just  charts,  their  quality  etc.  Unfortunately WorldCharts#15 are
nothing  special  in  this  matter for Amiga scene community.  Noticeable
shortage  of  competent  voters  causes  that  charts  look  so  poor and
hopeless.  Time will show it will change or not.  All you have to improve
this  situation is to direct your browser to http://www.theworldcharts.de
and vote.

  Kempy/DC-S+VEEZYA
  April 2003

[1 Rumrunner's comment

It was interesting to see another persons view on this production, as I
have reviewed it myself.  And  Kempy  is right that we should try to do
something that could increase the number of  real  Amigasceners  voting
for the Amiga part of the charts.[0