³¼THE RETURN OF¼³ ³¼THE EUROCHART¼³ ¹ Some months ago the Eurochart was reborn. It was the danish group who was willing to take the chance by overtake a succesful production like the Eurochart was. I think that the scene was looking forward to the first issue by Static Bytes to see if they could keep the standard from the former issues and to see what they would do about t he design. And luckily the two first issues released by Static Bytes have proved that they were able to continue the great production Crusaders started. The design have not changed and the chart is with no doubt the best at the moment. So I think that the scene is satisfied with the job Static Bytes have done so far. Atleast I am. But what about Static Bytes themselves. Are they satisfied ? And how is actually to produce one of the major releases in the scene. We decided to talk with the main-editor, Estrup, to get some answers...... ²Hi Estrup ! You have released two issues of the Eurochart so far. Is the work as you expected or is/it harder/ easier ?¹ I think it's a bit harder. For example, I spent about 7 hours counting votes the last days before the release of issue 16! Anyway, I guess we were prepared for it, so it wasn't that much of a surprise. ²What has been the hardest so far and what has been your worst experience with the work ?¹ VOTE-COUNTING, definitely! I think the worst experience was NOT to develop a vote-counting-program immediately. The last couple of days before the Hurricane Party, we worked with the Eurochart about 20h a day. ²Then, what do you like most about doing the Eurochart and what has been your best experience ?¹ I like the many nice letters we get. Most people seem to like our Eurocharts, and it's always nice to know that people like your work. I think the best experience was when we showed our first issue on the screen at the Hurricane party. This can't be described, watching the result of weeks of hard work. The only thing beating this was Denmark winning the Championships. Deutschland, Deutschland, alles ist vorbei! The fact that the Eurochart proved to work on almost every configuration is also VERY nice, especially for me. It works perfectly with 1 Mb chip, slow fast, real fast, A500, A600, A2000, A3000, run from RAM, run from harddisk etc. etc. Not exactly something you can say about most productions these days, unfortunately! ²Could you describe the time from the release of an issue till the next issue's release ?¹ The first couple of weeks, the incoming votes are just piled in a corner of my room. I DO answer a few letters during this time, though. Around 3 weeks before the next release, we start working a lot with it, and I talk to Playboy and Quackbuster on the phone almost every day. Telefonregninger forever! Around 10 days before the release, all pictures are scanned, and after some days, I get them, in order to finish the Gallery. A couple of days before the release, I start merging the votes counted by each of the editors (Playboy, Quackbuster and yours truly), and when the votes are counted and edited, I start finishing the Euronews-articles, inserting clip-arts etc. These articles are written throughout the entire 2 month period between 2 releases. Then, when the issue is finished, I send it to Playboy and Quackbuster for testing ( why shouldn't it work? Anyway...), and the day after that, tadaaa: Another issue hits the streets. ²As said before you have released two issues so far. Try to compare them with each other and to the Eurocharts released by Crusaders !¹ I think the two issues are a lot alike. Perhaps less spelling mistakes in issue 16 :-) Of course I like issue 16 best, because it's a LOT more well-prepared, and I started to understand my own code! It also has more varied pictures in the Gallery, and more cliparts. The fact that the number of voters tripled also increased the credability of the charts in issue 16, compared to issue 15. Comparing our Eurocharts with the ones by Crusaders is a bit hard. I honestly think ours is as good as Crusaders' in many ways, but I'm not the most objective guy around, so... ²You have said that you will make some great improvments for issue 17. Will you reveal some of them (More charts or..) ?¹ Nope... Wait and see for yourself. But it's something never seen before. I will say, though, that the number of charts will NOT increase. ²How does the charts fit your own opinion about who are the best ?¹ Very well, actually. Well, I don't understand why people keep voting for a certain coder and his demo, which was released several years ago (no names mentioned!), but hey... it's a free country. Of course the three of us (still Quackbuster, Playboy and yours truly) each have our favourites, but I think almost all the charts reflect all of our opinions quite well, though especially the musician-chart has caused some discussions among us... ²In issue 16 you indicate that someone have cheated their way to the chart. Is there anything new about this matter ?¹ No. They haven't written to us again, and I take this as their way to admit that they DID cheat. We have actually been told about another case of cheating which sounds VERY weird, but we're checking that out. ²Recently a lot of new charts have been pumping up, and more seems to be coming. What do you think about that ? Is it good for the quality to have some competition ?¹ I think the best would be to have two or three BIG charts, as this would give each chart a LOT of votes, without losing competition. Anyway, it seems that almost everyone is starting to produce their own chart these days, and that's definitely too much. ²Please give your opinion about:¹ ³Nordic Scene Report:¹ The last issue I saw was issue 2, and that wasn't very nice. If they could find out who's going to release it in the future, it could probably be very good. ( I know I've written something else in RAW, but I've changed my mind!) ³European Top 20 - Equinox:¹ A total Eurochart-rip! Even the fonts look as if they're ripped from the Crusaders Eurochart! Nice graphics and music, though. If they get more than 10 votes next time, and try to develop their OWN style, this one could be nice, too. ³World Charts - Scoopex:¹ No comment, I haven't seen this. ²Have you at any point regret that your took the job as main-editor ?¹ Well, at 4 AM the last day before we went to the Hurricane party, I did regret it, but now... No. When properly organized, producing the Eurocharts isn't such a hard job after all. ²Do you understand why Kefrens quit the job as editors ?¹ Let me put it this way: If a guy thinks, the meaning of life is to be no. 1 in the Eurocharts, of course he doesn't want to start producing it, thus losing the chance of entering the charts himself! No further comments! ²Anything to add ?¹ Sure. Thanks a lot to all the people sending us votes, letters etc. Remember to vote in THE OFFICIAL EUROCHART, either by mail: THE OFFICIAL EUROCHART Tornevangsvej 5 B 3460 Birkeroed DENMARK - or by e-mail (Internet): dsestr@hp1.cbs.dk - or via BBS: The TOWN of TUNES at (+45) 31 51 31 87, 2400-14400 baud. 240 Mb HD space. There has been some problems with this, but it SHOULD be running 100 % when you read this. ³TFG/MAJIC 12¹