Amiga Plus 2004 #2

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Wrap

Text File | 2004-01-31 | 16.8 KB | 503 lines

»PIC:barclip2.ilbm» »CL9: Diskmag Review »PIC:barclip2.ilbm» »CL4: By Darkhawk/IRIS »CL1:Since the last issue of the Eurochart, which was shortly after Breakpoint 2003, there have been 3 diskmags released. It is now up to me to review these diskmags, as I usually do here. »CL0:3 diskmags besides the 2 releases of the Eurochart during 3/4 of a year would usually be quite respectable, but the pure numbers are misleading. There has been one scenish diskmag release in this time, the two others are diskmags stemming from the scene, but with content that is not dealing much with scene matters as they are now. However, each of the releases are respectable in their own way, though I will not shy from critique where appropriate. Let's have a look at them then. »CL7:Jurassic Pack #12 by Scarab & Moods »CL1:Maybe this was the last issue of JP ever, or maybe me writing this will make them release another issue in order to spite me. In any case, I fear the future for this mag looks dark, just as the future for the EC and the scene in general does not look particularely bright. The maineditors work more on PC, supporting PC diskmags while supposedly waiting for the coder to fix something so that a new issue can get out. You can't blame everything on the coder though, I think there is a lack of motivation editorwise in releasing the JP too. This is as I wrote understandable; there hardly is a scene left to write about, or much less receive support from. I do hope JP will come through though, and keep its presence in the Amiga scene, no matter where that scene goes. Without JP, we loose the only direct competition the EC has, and that would be a shame for all. Indeed, who is to say that we can go on, if we are the only diskmag released? Everybody need stimulation, opposition and enemies, mhh? So, I sincerely hope Zito and Ghandy will pull themselves out of their respective chairs, and carry on, we all depend on eachother, you know. Oh, and don't focus too much on lack of support. Support is a luxury we editors do not have anymore. Hopefully we will get it back again when the scene grows bigger.. Hopefully the scene WILL grow bigger again. But until then, it is best to accept that there will be virtually no support, to still keep up and to save what can be saved. Hrmm, I digress from my review now, sorry. »CL0:Getting on with it, the code is the same, clearly and easily the best of the diskmags released nowadays, feature and stability wise. It runs on pretty much anything and after the last bugs have been ironed out, works like a charm. »CL1:As usual, there is a huge gallery (ok, with internetbandwidth the way it is now, 2mb is not really that huge a thing anymore. Time flies), with very good graphics, a funky, pleasing module and high quality scans of sceners. Zito's one group Moods might be overrepresented on these pictures, and there are no sensational pictures of Ghandy puking or Chaos getting throttled by angrey Amiga sceners wishing him back or anything, so that might be a little tame. Still, an impressive gallery, consisting of 12 pictures. The music was done by DocD of Moods, and the panels are the same as before done by Dan Dee of Scarab. »CL0:The intro graphics done by Darklight of Veezya look simple but beautiful to me, but the panels inside the mag are by contrast functionable, but not outstanding. What is outstanding, and that in a major way, is the 15 minutes long main magtune, done by X-ceed of Darkage and Floppy. This is one of the best magtunes, I have ever heard, and I have pretty much heard them all. It is damn impressive, beautiful and engaging. I didn't think anybody had the skill and will to do such an artistically outstanding and aesthetically pleasing module anymore, and sadly I was also right it seems, as he did this tune in 1995, though it has never been released until now. Well this alone makes it a very positive review, the module belongs in the player of every Amigan out there and is called Dual Personality. In contrast, the bonusmodule by Oddjobb (earlier known as Jester of Sanity) is kinda' crappy, although I'm sad to say so, Jester being one of my favourite oldtime musicians. »CL1:Now we move over to the articles. There are 40 of those, including editorial ones. As usual, all center around the scene and around news, investigation, interviews, partyreports and interviews. As such, they are informative and of a good quality in general. Grammar is ok and the articles are scenically diverse. For those who want more than scenish newsrelated articles, Gone manages to come up with several retrospective, introspective and debating articles, most centering on the scene. Some of the articles also clearly show that they were not written exclusively for JP, but instead intended for the PC mags Hugi & Pain, and then re-used or co-used in JP. I still think this is cheating, and demeaning the unique nature of the Amiga scene, using the same work for both scenes. Yes, at first it might be used in order to get a closer interaction between the scenes, which is good, but it is very tempting just to use it in order to do half the work and get double the credit, so to speak, while it at the same time alienates Amiga sceners, if it is used too extensively. Oh well, this is my opinion, but nothing »PIC:scream» serious, the articles are mostly well done and interesting enough. This issue might be a little small, compared to other JP's, but it is also at least in part a party issue, and it is still of a fine quality, so this is no problem. What might be a problem, is that this might have been the last JP. We shall see about that. »CL0:Summing it up, this is a worthwhile read, the main module is outstanding and the graphics range from good to passable. Like the EC, this is a kind of must-have release for any scener, and the only real scene diskmag left apart from the EC. »CL1:There are however other comers to the title of scene diskmag, and we shall look at two others who have also been released in the meantime now. Before we are done, we shall find that these also show promise in different fields. »CL7:Saxonia #2 by Void »CL1:As I write this, the release of Saxonia 3 should draw near, but I do not think it will get released before we release the EC. In any case, issue 2 was released the 4th July with updated code, 3 modules, clipart and 53 articles. The panels are the same as last time I reviewed the mag. »CL0:So, codewise, Saxonia is still simple, but functional. However, the mag now features support for clipart and modulechanging, which might be the biggest visible improvement. It still lacks a point and click article selection, the lack of it really makes the mag suffer in regards to user friendliness and overall 'beauty'. »CL1:The cliparts by Da Freak are varied, mostly in a relaxed style, and they fit in well enough. The panels are simple, but not ugly. That's all there is to it, speaking of graphics. »CL0:The mag features 3 modules, the first, entitled Purple Squirrel is also the best module by far. I am not too sure about who made it though, as the credits does not list a modulename together with the musicians, so my guess is that it was made by Powerslave who is listed first, it being the first module. The other two modules are too monotonous and cold for my taste. »CL1:But now over to the articles. There are indeed a lot, even when you discount the editorial ones. They are also quite varied. However, depending on whether or not I wanted to be diplomatic, I could either say that the editorial of Saxonia brilliantly demonstrates that the concerns of Rumrunner spawn different fields, and that this is not just a scene mag, but a general mag, where everything can be discussed with and told to, the reader. Or I could write that it is boring, amateurish and besides the point to waste words on how military service sucks, aswell as calling government officials dickheads unworthy of life. This is quite childish and has no place in any serious publication, much less in an editorial. Looking beyond that, this issue of Saxonia is indeed much improved in all aspects, compared to the 1st issue. A respectable amount of guest writers appear (Zerox, Zito, Magic, Powerslave, Kempy, Ghandy, Optimus, Bregade11 and myself), and Rumrunner himself deals with many topics, most scenerelated, himself. Yes, indeed, this is not a bad second issue articlewise, looking at the current standards of the scene. Most articles are still written in a relaxed, easygoing manner, that might not appeal to more 'serious' sceners, and the various articles are more or less dumped down, with not much to bind them together in regard to topic. There are also more speculating and olden times focused articles than there are investigative and newsminded articles, but whether that is good or bad is up to personal tastes. »CL0:As for the grammar in this mag, it is not too bad, an improvement on the first issue. If I had to remark on something particularely negative in that regard, it would be the grammatically ugly and messy (though otherwise brilliant, naturally) article by Darkhawk which is included in the mag. He should really take his time and actually LOOK at what he is writing, before rushing his articles off via email, because he feels arrogantly above such trivial matters as writing a grammatically pleasing article. And his (mis)use of the comma!? Aargh, this is ugly beyond belief, I expected better of him. Oh well, these things happen, but I hope he has red ears now, and will do better in the future (I will try.. Sorry - DH). »CL1:Concluding this review, I must say that Saxonia is still a small mag, in regards to the goals of the editor. Although he has managed to collect and write 53 articles, they are not related too much, there is no overall theme, and the presentation due to the magengine is poor. Modulewise, it is also somewhat poor this time. Beneath that however, it is hard to ignore the fact that Rumrunner has managed to put together a respectable amount of articles, many quite fresh and with different perspectives than usual. It is worth your time to read through these articles. Now, after the soon to come release of Saxonia 3, it might be an idea for Rumrunner to set his goals a bit higher, it seems he might be able to pull it off. My suggestion would be to improve upon the code and especially upon the graphics and interface. The articles do not need much improvement; they are mostly able to stand on their own now. »CL7:Cows and Snakefights #5 by Nukleus »CL1:This is a somewhat old, and not particularely well-known mag. I have never reviewed it before, as the last issue was released in 2000 (the first one was released in 1999), and back then people kinda' ignored this mag, focusing on the bigger scenemags instead. I have been guilty of this too, I admit. The release of this issue came as a bit of a surprise, though it was announced a month or so before, there even was promotion intro for it, released at fYANICA 10. I thought the mag was dead, and was intrigued at seeing it released. What I remember of this mag were awful graphics, simple code, and awful grammar. Yes, sorry to be blunt, but that was how the previous issues seemed to me. To be fair, the staff did manage to include some interesting articles now and then, some with interesting twists. »CL0:With this issue, I will be more thorough in my reviewing, since I've never reviewed it before. First off, codewise the mag is simple but fully functional. There is a screenmode selector popping up at the start, and the mag multitasks. Apart from that, not much is happening code-wise. It can show pictures, fonts and animations, and it can play music. However, it works well enough. There is a bar in the left side of the screen displaying all the articles. Only the first 9 letters of the names can be read though, which is a bit confusing. From that bar, you select articles, although you can also use the arrowbuttons. »CL1:The music is old, or sounds old and I guess there are some of the (in)famous ST samples in them. However, being the old git that I am, I actually like this. Overall the modules are a bit massive and not really background music. This is no big deal, as it is rather well made, in a simple, oldsk00l sort of way, which I find very attractive myself. I am infact impressed with 3 of the modules, Blindlight by DJExtreme, H2so4 by Gunrider, and especially CnS by dIS. It has not been often in the last 5 years, if at all, that I have found 3 good modules inside a diskmag. They are oldskoolish, and will not be for the taste of everybody. I myself would like to congratulate the musicians for this though, especially Gunrider and dIS. All in all there are 6 modules (although 7 are listed in the credits), and there is something very pleasing in the fact that you can make the diskmag play them one after another automatically, which is seldom seen. »CL0:However, I had a hard time figuring out HOW this was achieved through the controls (I still don't get it), and it also took me some time to locate the controls for the music on the mainscreen, which brings us right over to the graphics. I know Browalia is an oldskool pixelartist, and that does count for something, but the intropictures are still quite primitive and ehrm.. Ugly infact. More than that, the mainscreen is a confusing mess, controlwise. It is hard to know where to click with your mouse, and the DOWN button seems to have been left out altogether on the screen, while the DOWN buttons is there. Weird! However, the rain in the background, while simple, does lift up the overall impression of the graphics, and is a nice touch. »CL1:Browalia of Nukleus has been the maineditor of the mag for all of the issues, and this is true now. Text wise, CnS issue 5 can muster 24 articles, counting editorial articles too. This is usually rather poor, quantity wise, but I am not so sure that even the EC has a much higher number than that this time, so I guess I have to say that the number of articles is befitting of our current scene. »CL0:Some of the articles are actually rather good, offering an interesting read, though the english is somewhat poor in most of them. Still, it is better than in previous issues, and it is usually easy enough to get to the meaning of the text. The content is mainly about parties and interviews with sceners. There are a lot of old and reused party reports in the mag, which is not very interesting. However, there is also a general article about parties from 1993 and until now. While the writing style takes some time getting used to, it is rather enjoyable reading. Of note is also the interview that has been done with Celebrandil of Phenomena. Again, this might be me being nostalgic, but it was very entartaining and interesting reading about his views on the scene, his small anecdotes, aswell as getting an insight into his current life. Indeed, as interviews go, this one was something of a scoop, I'd say. The other interviews are also worth a read. »CL1:There is a guestwriter in this issue of CnS too, and that is none other than the maineditor of JP, Zito, who sounds even more defeatistic than I feel, in an article where he states that nobody cares about diskmags or editors anymore, and that basically, everything is over for diskmags. Well, that certainly doesn't bode well for JP issue 13 one might say, but then again, 13 is an unlucky number they say. »CL0:To sum it up, there are not too many articles, some are reused, while others are quite interesting and worth a read. This is quite normal of course. »CL1:Overall, Cows and Snakefights is a mixed bag, but still manages to be interesting enough to warrant a download and some positive remarks. Kudos to Nukleus for releasing it, and I hope this issue wasn't the last! »PIC:shade1»