³¼LIFE IN MALTA!¼³ ² Hi! It's MOP of ALCATRAZ writing in MAJIC 12's excellent TOP SECRET! Well, the main reason why I'm writing this article is that my friend, ZOZO of MAJIC 12 has been asking me for it, for a very long time ! So here we go! ¹ Well, everyone who has ever heard about Malta, imagines it as a little sunny island in the middle of the Mediterranean. Well that is quite true. Malta is a small island with less than half a million habitants. As I've said, many imagine that the sun is shining all the year round, but unfortunately also we have our cold winter as in every other country! Sometimes it keeps raining for days, but fortunately enough it has never snowed, so Maltese dudes don't go skiing in winter, also because we haven't got any high mountains! Malta is very rich of historical places to visit, and that's why the island is full of tourists, mainly during summer time! Anyway, life in Malta is quite normal! Real fun takes place mainly on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, where most of the freaks from all over the island gather in Paceville! Paceville is the main place to go for, if you're looking for leisure, also because it is full of pubs and discoteques. As I've said, the real action starts after 22.00 or 23.00, because at that time, all kids are already sleeping at home! Unfortunately, I must admit that during the other week days, there's not very much action. I really don't know why, but I think that mainly all guys who go to school are at home, studying, and the ones who work, prefer to stay at home watching some TV! Let's talk about something else, I mean girls! So how are the Maltese chicks? Most of the Maltese girls are very good looking, but as always, there's also many old farty ones around!!! For me, over here, there's some of the sexiest and loveliest girls I've ever seen! for example, if some foreigner is looking for a good looking girl to fuck, without wanting to pay anything, he may find it quite difficult, because usually, Maltese girls don't want to make love with someone they don't know quite well. Maybe by now, some of you are waiting for some report of the Maltese scene. Well you might have already read something a long time ago. Unfortunately many things have changed in a very short period of time! At the moment, I can say that there is currently no active Maltese group! But, as you'll maybe know there a couple of guys who belong to foreign groups! In the beginning of 1991, some of the best Maltese groups, like Digital Gang, Black Rose Cult, Phaze 101 and Axis, were still around. But later, in mid 1991, they slowly died, one after the other. The reasons why these groups died were mainly because of inactivity and quarrels between members. In Malta, almost half the population has got a computer. Nowadays even farmers have got one. the Amiga is the most popular home computer also because one can get an A500+ for some Lm 300 (1500 DM). Most of the Amiga users are playing games all the time. others use their computer for video titling or DTP. But there is no real interest in demos or PD stuff, or the urge for building up a sort of scene. Actually, the reason for this is very simple. There is a very vicious circle, which I think will never be broken. This is because you must know, that being a very small island, there is very much competition over here. Students are very busy studying, and trying to get the best marks in their exams, all the time, so that they will find a good job in the future. so they have no time, to draw GFX, compose music or learn coding. On the other hand, Amiga users who already have a job, must find some scope to earn something or else they think that it's a waste of time for them. Yes, unfortunately most are business minded guys, who only know how to write the word friendship, without knowing it's REAL meaning! If I would ask you to name me a cool Maltese swapper, you will surely, or not know, or name two, or one or... Again, since having a number of contacts, takes up time and also costs too much, it isn't a good investment for the business freaks, so that's also why demo swappers are very few! And again, if you're a Maltese dude and you want to survive in the scene, you must have a considerable amount of contacts to get as much stuff as possible. How about the modem scene then? Well, I haven't got too much experience in this, only because I'm personally not too much interested in getting a modem. However, sometimes I go to a friend of mine (who has a modem!) to check out some boards. Most BBS only hold conferences and a message base. The stuff you can find is quite old and almost nobody is uploading anything. Some months ago I tried to upload a couple of small intros (that's because uploading large files with 1200bps is quite boring!). then, sometime after I noticed that the SysOp had deleted them. So asking him why, he said that nobody ever downloaded them, so they were actually useless. Over here, the main subject when holding a conference is IBM vs AMIGA! But overall, the modem scene is improving. Sometime ago, you could only work with 2400bps. Nowadays, because of the low prices and the new line systems everyone is upgrading to 9600! We have now reached the end of this small report from Malta. I tried to give you a good view of how life is over here, but I might have missed something or... At last, I hope that my friend ZOZO is happy now and I must send one final message. I have read some rumours about me in another disk magazine. As I have once promised that I'll not reply to any provocation, because wars are very stupid and childish, I'll just reply to this one and ignore any other provocation in the future. THE MALTESE SCENE IS DEAD! Why do you continue with stupid provocations? Only the future is important now! If you want to contact me, look in the Advertisements, where you can surely find my address! Greets to everyone! ³MOP of ALCATRAZ!¹