JEAMIGA - Present Of Heaven? ʡϤ AMIGA - Present Of Heaven? ɠby Waterfox/Damian ǠYou are sitting now in front of your Amiga and read this article. Meanwhile, thousands other users around the globe are trading the newest software via modem. Faster and cheaper than trading via mail. You don`t have to invest a fortune into envelopes, postage and so on. With a 14.400bps modem, you get a 880KB file into 7-9 mins. To send a disk from Austria to USA with airmail it takes one week. Yes, you have many advantages if you trade your stuff with a modem. But you must pay for your calls around the globe. No problem, with blue boxing [dead. -ed], calling cards and all the other methods to call without paying for it. But trading with modem has also disadvantages. There exists no friendship or nearly no friendship if you want to trade for business. If you send your disk to another person, you often write a (long) letter to him. You write about you, how shitty the (Amiga)scene has become, and about other things. You remember your old time as a C64 freak, the groups, which were little and every member did his work as coder, cracker, musician, leader, gfx-artist or swapper and (nearly) nobody was lazy. There were no wars be- tween several groups or in the own group. Everybody helped everybody. And there were no modems (except some very slow 300 Baud modems). The C64 parties were well organized and there were showed REAL good productions. The party stuff were best quality and not bad like on some Amiga parties. I mean with this legal stuff like demos, pic`s, tunes or intros. No businessmakers or swindlers were there (except some exceptions). The crackers released their cracks without pressure and hectic. Many groups got into co-operation with another group. You could say that the old C64-scene was a big family. And now take a view to the local Amiga scene. Assholes and swindlers, the scene is full with them. Wars between groups aren`t seldom. The most parties are bad organized and there are often shown bad and quality low stuff. Quantity is more important than quality. That`s the bitter truth. All is fixed on money and business. Some sysops demand money if you want to download. It is really bad what happened with the Amiga- scene. I give the Amigascene no chance to survive. Many members leave their groups and the scene, because they have enough of the shit, which happens in the Amigascene. But I think the main reason why the Amigascene will die is, that all the software-companies stop to produce software on the Amiga, because of the illegal copies of games. The Amigascene will not die tomorrow, but maybe in one or two years, there is no more an Amigascene. Perhaps, the Amiga 1200 and 4000 will survive longer than the "normal" Amiga because the output is better than the of the other Amigas. Please stop the illegal copying of games. If you like a game, go into a softwareshop and buy it. And stop also producing shit onto such a wonderful machine like the Amiga. Stop the wars. Stop the dirty business with illegal software. Stop it or the Amiga will die. When the Amiga die, you maybe go to the IBM-PC. But the chaos will continue on the IBM-PC. And perhaps in some years, the IBM-PC will also die as a scene computer. Begin to think if it`s worth to do it, to trade with illegal stuff, doing illegal business. end. [I think this opinion is a pessimitic one, but a true one. A scene can only exist, if many people use a computer. If there aren`t any people to use the computer, who should make the demos? Who IS the scene? Don`t think that the whole bunch of people who are "the scene" right now, bought this wonderful machine to code demos! Yes, at the beginning they enjoyed the games and earlier or later they recognised that there`s another fun - the scene. They got into it and started to build groups. Now we have a big scene. Many people from the demoscene say that they don`t play games at all and that they don`t care about them. But if there are no games for the Amiga, also they will have to stop their work, because most of the people using an Amiga like to play games beside producing demos, ... They`ll buy another computer (now it`s the PC). For whom should the coders produce their demos, if there are hardly no users who look at it? I think you see the problem. THE SCENE IS ALWAYS LEADED BY THE GAMES AND WILL ALWAYS BE! Be quick, react NOW! -ed] JEBuild Up A Famous Group!ite!nce IIh ʤơ Build up a famous group! ɠby Terrorite of Zite ǠHere I'll put down some ways which I saw other groups using, to become a little more known. These are just some hints for beginning groups, and they will work for only a short time. After that you'll have to live from your produktions to stay famous, otherwise people will easely forget you, and you don't want that to happen. Good luck! 1. ǠPicking a name. This seems very difficult, but will come out to be easier then you thought. Find a very wellknown group, and see what's their name. For example 'The Silents'. Now get your English dictionary, and find the word Silent. Then you go down the page from that word off, untill you find something that sounds cool, something like 'Simple'. Take care not to pick a name that already exists, or is simmilar to an already existing name. You'll see later why. 2. ǠNow make a long ASCII-file, full of news about your new group, like that you have formed that group, who are the members, what you are planning to do, and that you still need some new elite members from all over the world. This is one of the reasons why you had to pick a name that -in alphabetic order- comes just after a famous group, because your news will be directly behind that group. Not before, 'cause that famous group is one of the points where the readers of the mags start reading news, they skip the rest, but they might read on directly behind that group for a while, so they will see your name. Also start that file with a slang, like: "It's new, it's fresh, it's SIMPLE!". 3. ǠGet some swappers, and if possible a modemtrader. A swapper is someone who exchanges disks with new demo's, with people from all over Europe. A modemtrader does the same, but then with his telephone and something you call a modem. The swapper can get his contacts from diskmagazines like this one, they're probably all over the advert-section. 4. ǠDon't behave arrogant, people will see that, and as you're still not very wellknown, they'll ignore you forever after that. 5. ǠNow your coder should have finished 2 or 3 intro's, all coders start with intro's, so yours will probably too. Now the coder should start coding a pack. This is VERY important. Oh, and release the first intro NOW. Send it to all adresses you find in magazines where people ask for intro's for their pack. Also ask them to send you back the pack with your intro on it, that way you can provide your swappers with the latest stuff! 6. ǠAt this point, your coder should have completed the packmenu. Now set a lot of adverts in mags, that you have a pack, and that everybody should send his intro's to you. Put them on your pack, and add a new intro of your own. If there's still disk and menu space left, add your first intro too. If there's now still disk and menu space left, add some intro's from other packs, but be nice to those packmakers, and spread their pack almost as good as yours! Also, now is the time for your coder to start on a BIG project: a trackmo, or a megademo, or a slideshow, or anything, as long as it fills at least one disk. This project should look perfect, but follow the latest fassion. If in all the latest demo's there are a lot of bright coloured vectors, you should use them to, but be do something original with those vektors. Also all members should try to write in diskmags some times, it doesn't matter about what, but this way more people will see your name, and maybe you like writing so much, that you continue writing for a diskmag, and maybe you become friends with the other editors of the mag. And it's always good to have friends all over the scene, maybe they drop by sometime, then you could have more fun then you ever had! 7.ǠThis is the last point, now you should actually stay at number six: Making perfect demo's, and getting friends all over the scene. Then you will see that it is not important to be famous, then you have found out that FRIENDSHIP RULES all the time, whether famous or not. Still it gives you a kick if you see your demo on top of the Eurochart, but being on top isn't everything either. Just ask those guys up there how often they have falsely been accused of cheating, ripping, or whatever. It takes a lot of nerves to be up there, and I think I'm glad I'm not! Τend. JEMultitasking Demos - The Future? , ǡȤ MULTITASKING DEMOS - THE FUTURE? ɠby BliTTeR ǠMultitasking is a thing that made the AMIGA become that famous as it is today. While IBM users were looking into their boring monitors and tried to rape that DOS, the Amiga users where enjoying the great ability of multitasking to make the user`s life nice. Jumping around from window to window, from task to task, doing this and that. A big potential of fun. Especially when you have a HD you know what`s the big difference between shitty "Windows" on PC and the good old Intuition on the Amiga. But all you need to be happy is to make all programs multitask. Nearly 90% of the games available for our computer shit on the multitasking ability and join the fun with a trackload or something else. But due to the fact that most of the scene members who are involved in producing demos and stuff like that don`t pay much attention to the games, there is one big kind of software left. THE DEMOS! They are all taking over the control of the system and don`t use the multitasking ability. Sure, it isn`t possible to make most demos multitasking, because there is a too slow processor, timing problems, and many other things. But if you think what great thing it would be if all were made in order to work on the Workbench... Just dreaming? No, after I saw the demo from DCS for the ECC. It`s running on AGA-machines only to provide you with this new feature. You also let the scroller move over your Workbench without the other vectors! Sure, for a normal 680EC20 without a co-processor it`s a little bit hard to manage things that even the Workbench has it`s normal speed... It`s just enough to read some texts from RAM, move some windows, etc. But everything that needs a floppy-access is too much. The time isn`t enough for normal-loading - The floppy is scraching over your disks like it would like to destroy it and the loading time is more than 3 times higher than without the demo in the background. You see that the great multitasking can be used, but WHAT can you do? Not that much (oh...go to the nearest computer-shop and buy one of these nice A4000!:-) So where`s the use, if even a A1200 user cannot afford it to run such a program seriously? You will probably say that this is just a very good effect in a demo and nothing more, but I don`t agree. Just look at other computers! Have you ever used OS/2? Yes, it`s a little bit shitty, but it seems to work fine. So I think this first multitasking demo was certainly a shot to a big revolution (hopefully!) and this idea should this time be copied buy many guys out there, because it`s not a effect you copy, it`s a way of programming. I`m sure we will see more of such stuff in the future. Good luck and a good interrupt! Τend. JEProtracker eats X-Copy!esistance II PROTRACKER eats X-COPY! ɠby Khul/Nerve Axis/ASCII UNLIMITED ǠFirst, there was this strange sound tool called SoundTracker. It was a commercial product that let you create simpled sequenced music. When demo crews throughout Europe (and let's face it - the "demo" scene in the USA consists of utility, Ami-Express coders, and lots of modems) saw this tool they wanted it. And they got it. Soon, hacked copies were spread. Crackers changed the text, the colours to suit themselves. Soon enough, SoundTracker was so wide spread that every demo freak had a copy of it. Through varied forms Mahoney & Kaktus kicked SoundTracker into the modern age and gave it a new name, NoiseTracker. Along with this came the change to use 31 instruments and not just 15. Glorius sounds came from our Amigas. Slowly, everyone wanted to make a new version, to make it the best. StarTrekker appeared from Bjorn Wesen, the first soundtracker clone to offer Synthesised sounds and 8 tracks! Of course there was Oktalyzer, 8 track soundtracker, and a host of others but none became so popular... Other music formats appeared during the reign of SoundTracker. Slowly Future Composer, Delta, and various others made their mark on the scene due to their compact size - but Tracker is still the best because it is the most accessible to everyone. Until now. When Lars "ZAP" Hamre released the source (I'm not sure - I don't have it but I believe he did) to ProTracker 1.0 it gave birth to a new generation of Trackers. The last advancement I have seen made in the Tracker world was through ProTracker 2.2 by Crayon of Noxious. ProTracker 3 is almost a completely different program (and I'm sure Cryptoburners are going to make sure this point is taken!)... Yet there are so many clones of ProTracker released with this source. What does it take to assemble source and change the graphics?? Perhaps you have talent at hacking a program if you resourced it, but if the source was given away why are you reinventing the wheel. Let me show you, PARASITE TRACKER When I was sent this a long time ago by my Parasite contact I thought, WOW! This should be good... But it was just another Tracker clone, based on old source, and half promises. Promises that have NOT appeared. Why not? SHADES TRACKER Interesting, I like the graphics. But my modules sound the same for some reason, and oh! Look at the replay source! The same old version as before and I don't seem to see new features... Surely the "coders" of these programs should realise it is basically a very cheap clone. Why reinvent the wheel? Why not just design an original music format instead of taking ProTracker and changing the module format headers ever so slightly? Why not spend your energy on something that is not going to be labelled "Protracker clone!". When coders do this, change the header to save about 20 bytes and leave an option open for "future" updates do they think of the other half of the equation? Coders like myself who are updating our player utilities? How can we keep up with these clones? Do we include them or not? Is it worth the program size to include a 2 byte difference in modules? I think not - and I will not. It has reached the stage when X-Copy was little more than one bugged hack and change of graphics and text. Silly when you think about it isn't it? What's wrong the graphics in the REAL X-Copy? If you are going to release an update of FixDisk, make a clone of X-Copy or ProTracker make sure it is worth releasing by making it a new program with new features. Not old ones with the same old source masked in a new face. Are you thinking? Want some inspiration? Take a look at ICETRACKER which features a new pattern/track format that allows even easier sequencing. This is a new feature... this is worth releasing if it will be updated... This is something worth coding, an idea that is "Cool as ice!" Τend. JEStrange Chart-Rules? STRANGE CHART-RULES? by....... ǠThis article is dedicated to all chartmakers in the scene. There are quite some charts around, these days, and all have their rules. It's funny also, if you compare those rules: They're all the same! Let's put them down: 1. ǠYou may not vote your own group, a member of your group, or any of your group's productions. ʣ2. ɢYou may not vote for the producing group of the chart, a member of the group, or any of this group's productions. ʣ3. ŢYou needn't vote on every topic. Well, all I can say, is that I agree with the last rule, but I don't with the first two of them. Let's explain why: to1.ǠThis rule makes people who want to be on top very badly cheat. How? Well, they just send a votingsheet under another name. And sometimes even more then one. And what's so bad about thinking that your has made something cool? It happens at parties all the time, people yelling and clapping only for their own productions. And then there is even money involved, but I don't think there is a mag that gives prizes to their number one and two. to2.ǠIf it happens that you find, let's say, Equinox a very good group, and you want to support them by sending your votingsheet. Then you are not allowed to express that feeling by putting them in their chart because they once made an intro with a cool eye in it. Then you should send your votes to another chart, but you don't want another chart, you want to support Equinox, as they are short of voters. I would say that it would be more fair, if you may only vote for ONE production of a group on every topic. This way you don't have people who only vote for Silents, or Phenomena stuff, but people who first look into their diskbox, to see what demo's they found soo cool that they still have it, and didn't format. Now you also get more equal votes for old and new stuff. And if you want to give unknown or new groups a chance too, add a topic in your charts called 'Promissing Newcomers' or something, and maybe you can also divide some charts between 'Older then 6 months' and 'Newer then 6 months' or something like that. Then you can push for example the Crystal Symphonies from their throne, but still give them all the honour they deserve. (And they do!!!) People who want to react on this article still should do that in this magazine, because this magazine published it, and probably wants to publish all points of view on this topic. Don't be such a coward to publish your thoughts about this in another magazine, being afraid that this one won't publish it, 'cause I promise you that it will! [ Yep, I agree to continue this topic here! Your proposal is a good attempt, but certainly not the solution. Rule 2 has one big purpose: To avoid that the producers vote for their own chart or production! If group X releases a chart with the topic DEMOS and they have also released a demo in the past, it`s certainly sure that they`ll vote for theirselves! The biggest problem is not the voting for yourself, it`s the votefaking! Example: 56 dudes (included their members) voted for their demo, which is on place 4. The demo on place 3 has got 70 votes. What could they do? Yes, they`ll just say that 71 dudes voted for THEIR demo, which is now on place 3 - Nobody is able to check this out! Do you see the problem? Concerning rule 1: It`s similar to rule 2, but with a big difference: The place in the charts would depend on the amount of members of a group! Could you imagine a member of TSL voting for Lemon. production? It should be that fair, but the reality shows that everybody wants to see his group on the top of the charts. All in all I think that the cause why all have the same rules is that they are actually the best! At last you mentioned a chart for newcomers. Generally ok, but how can you check out whether a group is younger than six month or not? I think something similar was discussed in the Eurochart #20 and ended like herein. How? -ed] Τend. JEAll Graphicans Digitizer?- Party Report ALL GRAPHICANS DIGITIZER? ɠby Friendly/Damian ǠThis article is a sort of reaction to an article a Bronx-member published in 'Cemetery News'. The writer thought that an unnamed popular graphician was nothing else but a digitizer, because this graphician published some ISBN-numbers of books from which he took his motives. I guess it was Facet, because he did that in RAW. Apart from that I know that Facet is not a digitizer, I want to explain some general things: Almost all good or bad gfx-artists take some good motives from books, journals etc. and converte them onto Amiga by using a mouse, not a scanner. While doing this a lot of guys change some things, add own ideas to the pictures or combinate it with another picture (That's something Facet always said in the interviews!). Of course some artists have got the skill to imagine pictures and to draw motives without an original (Mack). But they are an absolutely minority and you won't find a lot of them in the Eurochart. So you might notice that there is nothing unusual in drawing pictures from books. Another point: Haven't you realised that all the very good graphicians in the charts are also the ones who do the best logos, fonts and other stuff? Don't you think that a guy like Peachy, who made the perfect TRSI-Credits logo, is able to do a graphic like Sheril Lee or the Party2-competition pic? How should they digitize the logos, from books? In general it is a big problem in the scene, that so many dudes call so many artists digitizers, though there is no fact to proof it. I don't know why it is so popular, perhaps they are just jelous or they find that it is 'cool' to spread shit in a group of friends. The wellknown freaks don't have to care about such rumours, but the talented newcomers often get depressed or bored by all that bullshit. So you can see that it is really hard to be accepted as a talented graphician. In most cases the reactions to a good newcomer-picture is the word 'digitized' (Which often happened to my titlepic for Jungle 3). Final words: When you listen to such rumours, don't care about them, try to built your own opinion and drop your anti-newcomer thoughts... end. JEASCII-Designer - A New Profession?  ʤơ ASCII DESIGNER - A NEW PROFESSION? ɠby BliTTeR The releases of ASCII-collections are increasing day by day. The BBS`s are filled up with this work, you can say that nearly every 10th release belongs to this kind, sometimes it`s even worse. If I see these masses of ASCII-collections and look at the signs of the makers, I can notice that not every trader, swapper or sysop does this work beside his original job. There are only a few guys, who really know how to design an ASCII, and their main profession is to "draw" such things. Nearly hundred percent of the work is put into group logos, signs and headlines. Sure, there are some other bigger projects like some wanna-be-pictures, but they aren`t very good, if you compare them with pixelled pictures. But you can`t complain about this, because the ASCII designers can`t do it better, because they are only able to use the normal Topaz-8 font chars. Many "real" graphicans think that this kind of work is just a loss of time, because you can`t be really creative, because the source is limited and one result looks like the other. In my opinion it`s really a pitty, that the work of the ASCII-designers often remains in silence, although everyone needs them. Just think of a BBS where the differences between the boards are very small. Beside the stuff only the design counts and no BBS can use shitty ASCII`s, not even the ones with the latest stuff. Another good example are the Swappers searching for new contacts in various mags with their ASCII`s. How do you decide if you are looking for some new friends and see a clean and nice designed logo with some fresh text and a boring 08/15 addy? I bet you choose the first one. dff I bet you choose the first one. Yes, the ASCII designers are getting more important day by day, because more and more DOS productions are coming up and a nice ASCII is everytime a nice impression. But who are the real designers like Skin or RedSkin? Nearly everybody wants to have a nice logo from them, because they are everytime able to squeeze new styles out of the old topaz font. They are famous and everybody knows that they really know how to do such ASCII`s and having a logo from the ASCII-elite is cool. Everybody knows them, everybody needs them, everybody loves them - but why does anybody notice them? They are designing more hours a day than most of the graficans spend time in fron of their machines. Shouldn`t we accept this kind of job as a profession for a scene freak? Including them into the charts would be a big step in this idea. What do you think? Is this just a nice idea or really able to get executed? end. "J.@ s bQA0   DPH ` 8@ # P?J%x8F :xj"'!;\OL8_PwdMhz 򱠃x@n%FA` D'` HO`P%ɝ(@Q|xB )8~ʰ%G@0@ D d ȡ0 8T`3 MP;:Dd{RjetqS }% L xI3S?@`(D %=ȟ/\"0Tܚ~?pEG!Ox0Ut,B_@wHł'P@HRG{@RR LB@ 9 bA$ BHP سcܰ p !Np 0 T ?@n<0ƀC@Q !0 B(6@j; C  $ ?@<<9#t95]   (( p `! ! $¸? ?=8)@ D ϐPS'?Np|` c0'}ؘ#`? PO@z(aN@rxfEH$@   vxIp 1b0D|&,% \DD0DL$LJ % $ro @d6,П>% @<$@`O@pxD= +`A_@E$œx@ ϋ @ . ! *c`? g!@0 ?,,P@  ??? ?1?)7????? g/7h7?ｈx'C`>@0!_ @?1_o8t%?S7_q?@/O'/^?x/~Y?? r?apC@@vǹ@c~'?uN@{~j`ow@vW@P64`V8_T@"9wh:0p_8/ ??<   < 8 8   >78P?@`?`8?@? h  008_xO 8?8` ` `$   O`p/< 8%€p@ Ͽ0`xb<>]0H@80a0"@@ B@8` p#g@GO@ O a_ @u~@@|?`~@/xo}|`>y?>??`?JECompatibility - A Joke?! 3 COMPATIBLITY - A JOKE?! ɠby BliTTeR ǠI thought that nowadays every group would like that their productions are able to work properly on all machines, from the A500, 1MB, KS1.2 up to the A4000/040. Sure, only if you can provide a code, which runs on all these Amigas, you have the maximum of possible viewers. Ok, I thought this until I saw (or better don`t saw) Lemon`s new trackmo. After I got it I was looking forward to watching it, but what the fuck should the message mean that pops up right after loading? ʢ"NO FAST PROCESSORS OR AGA CHIPS ALLOWED." Hmm...this is really the shittiest reason for a demo to fuck up I have ever saw in my life! I tried to disable CPU caches and to switch to the old chipset emulation, but it failed, too. Hmm... this probably cool demo won`t work on my A1200...really nice feeling to have bought a new computer for hundreds of dollars and then get such a message! If this continues, it`s certainly the dead for all new machines. For Heaven`s Sake I found after some days a fix for Lemon`s Demo on a local BBS done by Wreko/ Balance - It really worked without any problem! After I had watched this demo I think it would really be a loss for all A1200 users to haven`t seen this nice demo! But I really wonder why they have included such a lame chipset check?! This is a very silly reason, but there are also other ways for demos to fuck up! The worst thing that could happen is a trackmo. You can`t start any patcher programs before and have no chance to get it working. In the last time there have been a bunch of nice patches to disable the A1200`s features and to give not working demos a kick. These can be used and most of the intros/demos work, but the sadest thing are the older trackmos like Hardwired, Voyage, etc. This is understandable, because they didn`t know anything about a new Amiga in this time, but every new production should also be able to run at least on an A1200 with standard configuration! I think it should really be a new rule for all demos taking part in an A500 demo competition to have to work also on an A1200! Does the demo fail this test, it shouldn`t be allowed to compete. It would be an important thing for all owners of an A1200...you can`t imagine how disappointing it is to come home from a paddy and want to test your copied stuff and only 40 percent works like it should. $%#$%$^%^@$! Ok, I understand coders, who can`t test their demo on every machine, because they don`t own or have access to all types of Amigas, but it should be possible to let programs work on all machines, if you have a clean style of coding and don`t mess around with the computer`s hardware. Please don`t expect some extra-hardware like (fake)fastmem or a slow processor! Coders should really care about the new machines, even if they don`t own one...they should at least have a look at the new features, what is new and what`s different. Please make your demos work on every machine! I can`t stand it anymore to be fooled by some productions just because I own a faster machine (I`m not talking about ancient demos!). Or where do you think is the motivation to buy a new computer, if everybody says and experiences that nearly no good demos or games work on the advanced machine? end. JEScanning - The ArteatElite!nce II SCANNING - The Art ǡ ɠby Khul/Nerve Axis/ASCII Unlimited ǠWhy do people moan about graphicians and accuse them of scanning? The first thing you have to note is: What is wrong with scanning? Most graphicians are probably better at "real" art, painting and drawing on paper and canvas. Why, when they have drawn a picture on paper can they not transfer their own work onto the computer screen? It is their own work and it saves a lot of time as you don't have to copy the picture! I have many pencil drawings that I would like transferred to the computer screen, but I don't have time to load up TV Paint and draw it again in 24 bit colour or AGA. No, I only have ECS mode, and I don't have a scanner so it means my art is just going to stay in my art folders. This is why scanners should be allowed to be used in the scene and not criticised. Look at the Anti-Fascist demo from ATZ/INT, they clearly digitised or scanned in the victims of violence. Don't tell me that those pictures were hand drawn because they were not, they were scanned from a photo in the newspaper, or digitised from a video and then touched up. Yet nobody accuses these crews of being lame. Too right! ATZ/INT are wise and see that it is pointless to reinvent the wheel. If you going to use a picture and it is there, why spend them redrawing it again? Too bad! The bad news is when people do scanning of other people's work, retouch them, and claim they are their own work. Now this is not very honest is it? If you scan in a picture of a dragon, just change the palette, add your handle to the bottom of it, it is NOT your own work. You would be respected if you credited the original, something like "Scanned by HANDLE, original by XXXX". Remember, it is not your work so you should credit the original artist. Why? There are people like myself who enjoy copying the odd picture. I don't have a scanner and I have to pixel each dot myself, so it is all my own work in COPYING, an original by someone else. I can credit myself like this, "Original by XXXX". People then know that I have spent time converting a picture to the Amiga by hand. Now, if someone just scans a picture and claims they COPIED the picture - they're right! Shame the scanner did all the work eh?... Τend. JECritics On Charts N ǡʠ CRITICS ON CHARTS ɠby Zorc/Orgasm ǠThere are not too many different charts in the scene and the competiton seems to be very hard! Every chart wants to be the best, the most reliable one and the most famous chart for scene productions. Mainly the amount of voters counts and nothing more - who has the most voters claims to be the best. In the last time I have seen many issues of some charts and wanted to know, who is really the best demo in the opinion of many scene freaks. Ok, this was really easy to find out, but now I had some problems to find out, who is under the top 3 GFX-artists or musicians. If I look into The Official Eurochart, musician X is on rank 2 and in the next issue he only got half of the votes and is now on place 8 without having released something bad. Hmm...this is really a strange thing you can watch in EVERY chart. Without having released something for months in the time from one issue of a chart to the next he improved his ranking! Are the voters just jumping from one dude to the other, no matter whether someone has released anything? It seems that the top 10 graficans are all equal with exception of Facet and they change their ranking like their pants without having done something for it! Another point is that The Official Eurochart is in a kind of war with The European Top 20, which have taken over the title as "Official Mc Disk Chart". I really wonder why they are now the "Official Mc Disk Chart" when Mc Disk seems to be dead now - I think they just want to have at least also an "OFFICIAL". Ok, but beside the war in the way of anti-articles there are also the places in the charts of their mags. In the Eurochart you will find The European Top 20 with just some lousy points and in the other mag you can see The Official Eurochart also far in the lower part with just 25 points (ET20 has 95 and is on place 3!). Yes, you have read right, you can vote for the ET20 in THEIR OWN chart!!! I really don`t want to say more words about chart faking, because I think everybody can think his part... But imagine the ET20 really on place three as a mag! It would really be a fool for all other zines which have over hundred long and interesting articles! By the way: Not only the diskmag charts seem to be not too secure for faking, because it`s also very suspicious that their is nearly NO chart section in which no Equinox member is ranked very high! Ok, the percentage of Indepenent voters is also very high in comparison to The Official Eurocharts, but that could only be one point...You might think that I really hate the ET20 and love the Eurocharts, but you`re not right. The Eurocharts also have some disappointing things (Nearly no articles, sometimes no Kent stories, not too good design,...), but this is not the main reason to judge a mag. Beside this two big charts there is also a nice newcomer called The Charts by the italian boys of Ram Jam. For me this is a good example for a nice chart - they have nice articles and are really friendly and don`t see the charts as a competition! Ok, it can`t reach the others in voters or reliability, but it`s nice. I don`t want to find any winner, everybody can judge himself...But stop this shit "We are the best chart and the other is worse"-texts! end. JEDiskmag Reviews Unfair?  ɡ̤ DISKMAG REVIEWS UNFAIR? ɠby BliTTeR ǠIn nearly every mag there are beside the demo-, slideshow- and musicdisk-reviews also often diskmag-reviews. Certainly I`m looking forward to see also THE JUNGLE or other mags there in order to get an impression how the people think of these mags. It could happen that the testing crew thinks that the colors are really bad choosen and if one of the producers reads it, he will certainly try to change it to improve the mag. This also happend to THE JUNGLE, when we noticed that the index` colorcycling in issue #1 was disliked by most of the readers. I think such reactions are really an important point for improving a mag, but finally it`s only useful for the crew producing the tested mag. For the other readers it`s just an impression, whether the other mag is better than the one they are just reading and that`s the point annoying me. I have nearly never read a diskmag review, which tells really serious that an other mag is better than the one which tested it. Ok, often they don`t want to be better than RaW or The Official Eurocharts, but all others are somehow their enemies in a competition. What competition you may ask? The fight for higher rankings in the diskmag charts, readers and supporters. When I`m thinking about it, the diskmag reviews seem to change in a kind of propaganda. Be honest and face the things - which group would say that their mag is worse than all the others? If you read some diskmag reviews some of them are really stinking of total arrogancy, others are really MEANT objective, but in fact they aren`t. Ok, but what`s objective, if everybody has an other impression and opinion of different mags? The main problem is certainly the variety of meanings which don`t let us create a objective standard, it`s all based on the PERSONAL IMPRESSION. When we got reactions concerning former issues of THE JUNGLE, there was a really big split in the opinions! Some really loved the index, some hated it like hell. Now think of a tester, who hates one think really much. He will certainly judge the mag as a shitty & buggy one and the readers of this test, who haven`t seen it so far, will also think bad about it. It`s really a big problem for a mag, if it`s judged in this way or if the test is really faked in order to win this "fight in the hard diskmag business". Due to the fact that there can`t be a really objective opinion, because there is everytime a personal influence, we compare a mag with the most popular at the moment: RaW. But why do we have to compare everything with the best and not with the average? In the comparison with Hardwired is Global Trash also worse, but Global Trash is probably much better than a new production. It`s the same with the diskmag reviews! Why don`t we say mag X is also good, and not mag X is much worse than mag Y? In my opinion mag reviews are just an useless spacefiller, because they can never be objective, because everybody has a personal impression. Due to this fact we won`t review other diskmags here in THE JUNGLE - we don`t wont do discredit our friends in "business". end. `$ , Uw` o ??~?,1?~?o{k8ks++w yO}??>?9{s????3?g?;8?q#???~???ߧ?s?s?w???q??v?ǟ<;O?#p0pϻsϹ9~@?ϙy<ϙϙ??߻??c;q0!`?|_>|a?>?#ǟ?A#{?|??Ϗcc?>~y?????# ????ߟ?@;DŽ ?9g<\\?3x #?7|3dG?xx0!x><@@"?1><2ϑ/C>0x>c9t>9p|| ?8 `?H?qa?|p||s#>8?3/χ?y<|||8?8|߇~|??|o<>???߿3FǞ~ ?p?8 ??x@?f&?~o??x~?o???!?G.'n??F3D0?Gp`#<`xG! @< ??! <|c1~EF?>818f181?=> ??c??#g??B28???Ϙ81???͎???p1? <y>8??0<q?|?|?>?>?? ?`~?p#' . @,~?o{k@k++p x@|? > ?????? q?@/v@<@p@y@ D|>@@  H ?x>|x0f3@@@?&@ @  @ @@@ > |@80~@`??o????@?`?`0p `?<<|o~= @?@~>>@?????@?p8p?p?88p#' .  @???????,1~?o{k@8ks++w y@}? >9{s ?? ?3g? ????9ss? q?@/v@<Opp8~@y?@? D|>|>! @@?  xH| ??>~x???# ???ߟ@`pp| `||>0@>N||@?8?@???C|~?|??0ǀ 8 x!<?@ `@`@/ p?00f`"0<0|8`0 ??~{@0`|o~@? 0"=`x>  @?x<O|1F0<>@???g????π0???? ?0?Ox8?s;<pr?>?p?89  `?%w?H?4H?lƏ?6lv>|x0f3G@? y d>?^ 00` @C><A>99??? |8|~|߿F~?p??x@?~`??` `?<<'3o< ?~>>????JEThose Were The Days Of Elite!nce II I ɤá THOSE WERE THE DAYS OF THE ELITE! ɠby Khul/Nerve Axis Who remembers 1991? The year of HardWired, the year of the Glenz, the year of Substance, and the year of Kick Off 2. Those were the days! We were original then. Design didn't matter, it was coding power that mattered. Glenz and more glenz, vector bobs and cracking groups, and of course games... But in 1991, anything seemed possible with the Amiga. New ideas were born, new crews made their mark, and the scene slowly got some recognition from the paper magazines. Now, in 1993, it seems that the scene has received too much coverage. Anyone joins the scene, writes an article, gets it published, and bang! They're Elite. Yes, as Elite as Hannibal or Azatoth. As good as Facet and Uno because they've managed to trash together a Dpaint and that says, "Yo! We're Elite! **** the rest coz we're the best!". The best swapper, fastest, because they give you a 100% reply if you send disks and no lists. Of course, new members have to join the scene, but everybody? It's reaching a stage of overkill where there are lamers and Elite egotistical fiends running around. Hold on! Who is a lamer? Who is Elite? I don't know anymore because everybody seems to be Elite. Oh, sorry! I know who an Elite person is. It's somebody who slags off everyone else, won't help beginners and at the top of the charts. What a load of rubbish. Why don't you find out what the word Elite means! Don't keep on using it! Elite is the best, the cream of perfection. Oh, those were the days when crews knew if they were Elite or not and wouldn't go around devaluing the word. Teams like Unit-A, Amiga Industries, Anarchy, Fairlight, Bamiga Sector One and Quartex are some of the REAL Elite - and thankfully they know it! Who are all these fakes? Pretenders to the throne? For example a new group like Megadeth Imitators appears, and all they can say is, "Yo! (Cue abusive swearing) We are Elite! We are cool! So (swear again) Hell, we're so cool we don't accept lamers!" One month later they advertise all over in the disk magazines, "... Yo! We're still COOL! We're STILL elite, but hey, you know, if you're a coder we really need you, really do! Don't worry, we're no lamers, we're just really cool...." Fine Megadeth Imitators, but if you are really Elite then you would have no problems finding new members. In fact, you wouldn't have to beg for new members because they would find you! I'm not insinuating that the scene should not welcome new members. Of course we need new blood to keep the scene going, but it lowers the level of the scene if we are all Elite doesn't it? Elite used to mean the best, the best demo crew, the best crackers, now it means anybody who isn't a lamer. It's evolved so that people can write articles to disk magazines slamming the attitude of the real Elite for not helping the other "Elite". Hmmm. I thought there was only one group of Elite people? Strange. I wonder if I can call myself Elite now? I mean, I've just typed up an article haven't I? No, because I have a brain and know that I am not Elite. It's not a god given gift to be Elite - it's earned through hard work. If you want to learn how to code, do exactly that. LEARN. Others can only help you if you help yourself. Τend.