Short Reviews

Written by Adok

Cream/X
September 1998 release
rzaix340.rz.uni-leipzig.de/~wir91dsh
237,171 bytes RAR

This is the Linux interface for the disk magazine Cream, which is published in German language. This interface was coded by root/Obnoxious. More than a year has passed from the first announcement till the interface was ready to be released. In its current version you can use it with Cream #4 and future issues. You need to have the original mag archive, of course. Cream, which, in the past, was DOS-only, is now probably the first diskmag ever that runs under Linux, to be precise, X-Window.

Czarno Na Bialym #1
October 1998 release
Polish language
ftp://amber.bti.pl
9,074 bytes RAR

Czarno Na Bialym #1 (CZANABI1.TXT) is a new Polish text-only magazine by aGi. Featuring: "0% CHAMSTWA, 0% BLUZGOW, 0% PROSTACTWA, 0.1% SCENY" (whatever that means ;). This textfile with a length of exactly 20000 bytes starts with a song-text by The Cranberries and also seems to be partly music-related.

DefCoN Mag #2 Add-On
September 1998 release
defcon.citeweb.net
120,655 bytes RAR

Those of you who could not enjoy DefCoN because it did not run on their Windows NT systems can be relieved now: This add-on enchances DefCoN #2 with a native-win32 interface that, in theory, also tuns under Windows NT. At least on my Windows 95 computer it works without any problems. First you get into a small, nice-looking setup window where you can choose between display in a window or full screen and adjust your soundcard configuration (which isn't necessary most of the time because of Windows' control panel that stores all required soundcard informations). Of course full screen is to be prefered over window displaying because in a window, everything is much slower. Even in full screen scrolling is not as smooth as in the DOS version, but you can stand it. Everything else is like in the DOS interface: The music (music player is Midas v1.1) is in an okay quality, there are still the problems with parts of the background hiding text passages and background passages that are too bright or too dark in the standard so that you have to change the brightness with the '+' and '-' keys. Anyway, this Windows interface is useful, and in contrast to the DOS version it runs without any problems.

Diarrhea #5
October 1998 release
Polish language
ftp://amber.bti.pl
46,671 bytes RAR

Diarrhea is a text-only magazine that has been released since April 1997. This issue features 110 kbyte of articles, entirely in Polish. From what a non-Polish speaking person can guess, it deals mainly with the Polish local scene. After the editorial, there is a scene news section, furthermore there is a charts section with such weird sections like lamers or worst scene productions, some probably joke texts like contrasts (a table where good things are in the left, bad ones in the right column), an article called "save the lamer!" by roller of the Polish (not the German!) group black maiden, a review of Granat #2, things looking like weird poems, stories, unsigned messages with a, from what one can guess, vulgar content and at the end the usual "how to support us?". in general this seems to be a weird, non-serious magazine. There's also a votesheet with the same sections as in this issue's charts and space for messages where the "from" field is missing.

Hallucination Dream #1
September 1998 release
Polish language
ftp://amber.bti.pl
25,730 bytes RAR

Polish text-only magazine by Roller of Black Maiden and Diffusion, whom we have already met in the review of Diarrhea. This magazine firstly contains the current infofile of the Polish crew Black Maiden, secondly a textfile with a size of slightly more than 50 kbyte, which contains the actual magazine. As the file_id.diz says, HD#1 is a "Polish psycho magazine". Indeed, this zine, which consists of eight articles, covers topics like LSD or Viagra, publishes IRC logs, has the usual greetings, and a collection of Polish sceners' opinions about drugs (as far as I have understood).

Measure #6 textversion
September 1998 release
Polish language
ftp://amber.bti.pl
369,853 bytes RAR

Measure, originally a chartsmag, is one of Poland's largest and most popular disk magazines. After the tragedy with Measure #5, which first had a buggy interface with which you could not read all articles, so that the staff was forced to release a text-only version less than a week later, it has probably become a habit to release a text-only version of the mag before the real mag with the interface. This text-issue, Measure #6, mainly consists of a file called measure.txt sized 75 kbyte, which contains the general articles like editorial, greetings, messages, charts, reviews, and news, and several sub-directories containing articles from the sections "@bstr@ct", "Drugs", "R0zrywka", "Sc3na". Furthermore, there are 60 kbyte of adverts and many party results from 1998 in the BONUZ directory. All in all Measure #6 has more than 600 kbyte of articles. Most articles are, however, in Polish. This is quite disappointing after the start of a small but fine English corner in Measure #5, featuring 100 kbyte of articles.

As regards the charts, there are several serious scene-related sections split into Polish and Worldwide charts. The Polish charts feature more sections than the World charts, e.g. "Best Article Writer" or "Best Friendly Scener".

Hugi, by the way, got the 5th place of the international diskmag charts. Considering that a high number of people had probably submitted their votesheets before Hugi #11 was released, and considering that Hugi is spread almost exclusively by snailmail in Poland, that's quite an okay result. There are also two mag reviews of Hugi #11 - in Polish, of course.

Measure #6
November 1998 release
Polish language
ftp://amber.bti.pl
759,854 bytes RAR

In the end the final version of Measure #6 came out almost two months after the text-only preview. This time the interface is ansi-styled with a customized font and of course text-mode. There are some nice fading and scrolling effects, but nevertheless this is probably not everyone's taste. Besides, the votesheet for Fatum #4 is attached. The rest of the mag is identical to the text-only version.

Prima Aprilis #3
September 1998 release
Polish language
111,594 bytes RAR

This is another Polish text-only magazine, existing since April 1998. It is released by the group Aion, which Variat formerly belonged to as a swapper. I got this issue, which is also called "Paranormal Activity #3" in the file_id.diz, via email by one of the staff members (LordB), who sent it to various Polish and international sceners spam-like. PA#3 features 120 kbyte of articles. Voteform and PLUS directory not included. Unlike Diarrhea, the PA text file starts with a table of content where there is also a field for the line numbers of the individual articles, like in Measure. However, only the line numbers of the first two articles are entered - the staff has probably forgotten to fill in the rest. Anyway, all in all there are 23 articles. After the usual editorial, a few messages come, then some articles about the Polish scene, girls, Polish diskmag reviews, texts that look like jokes, poetry or stories (e.g. Star Wars), IRC logs and also some apparently weird stuff like in Diarrhea follow (e.g. the pathetic "koderz korner"!). Finally there are some charts, also quite humorous ones. Lazur has made the second place at the graphicians charts. The first place is "Pikasso". The next article is an ASCII comic which is also attached to the mag in a separate text file (due to a mistake by the editors?), then a few adverts and remarks by the staff follow. After the official end of the magazine, there are some empty lines, and if you have passed them you get to something that looks like a poem.

In the PLUS directory, there is a text file called amiga.sux written by "Games", the guy who made the first place at the lamers charts in Diarrhea. The obligatory votesheet finally contains basically the usual charts sections.

As the name says, this magazine is probably meant to be humorous and is not something that is to be taken seriously either.

Static Line #3
September 1998 release
English language
www.ic.i7.net/statline
11,406 bytes RAR

This text-only mag has developed to a music zine, although it was intended to become a newsletter for the whole demoscene. This issue contains 33 kbyte of articles. Apart from the usual "Message From the Editor", the "In Tune" review section this time deals with Stote's "Days at a Time", the "Monthly Software Review" with ModPlug Tracker 1.00.beta2.1, and there is an article called "Beat me up, Scotty -- Percussion Tips, Part I". Being made by native English speakers, the texts have a high quality from the syntactical point of view. This issue was sent to 42 subscribers. If you want to subscribe, too, send a mail to majordomo@kosmic.org with the subject "subscribe static_line".

Static Line #4
October 1998 release
English language
www.ic.i7.net/statline
9,016 bytes RAR

51 subscribers, 22 kbyte of text. Content: "Message From the Editor", "Letters From Our Readers", "In Tune -- Obsidian Dream's 'Sorrow's Triumph'", "Monthly Software Review -- SoftSynths", "Tracking for the People [Dilvish]".

Static Line #5
November 1998 release
English language
www.ic.i7.net/statline
20,082 bytes RAR

53 subscribers, 52 kbyte of text. Content this time: "Message From the Editor", "Letters From Our Readers", "In Tune -- Ubik's 'Neophlox'", "A Little Column For Obscurity -- Axel F. Remixes", "Interview -- Hunz", "Tracking and Married Life", "The Quest to Expand", "Beat Me Up Scotty -- Percussion Tips, Part II".

The Utopians News #1
September 1998 release
English language
bigfoot.stones.com/~zippy
11,171 bytes RAR

The Utopians News is a newsletter that is produced by the demoscene organization The Utopians. It is planned to be released on a regular basis, but so far this is the only issue. Main Editor is Zippy/Hugi/Utopians. Every member of The Utopians can write for the newsletter. This issue comes along with The Utopians Infofile v3.0 and has 60 kbyte of text in total. There are 8 articles: "Editorial" (Zippy), "Current memberlist" (Zippy), "Utopian Database Project" (Blade), "Demos - Art of the 21st Century?" (Adok, from Hugi #11), "Coding Tutorial: Juliet and Mandelbrot fractals" (Sanity), "The Role of Diskmags in the PC Scene" (Adok, from Hugi #11), "Coding Tutorial: Triangle Filling" (MasterBoy), "Important Messages" (Zippy). They are hardly edited, but most of them already had a good spelling originally and hence are well readable. The layout of the newsletter is a bit messy, though.

United Trackers News 9/98
September 1998 release
English language
www.united-trackers.org
13,467 bytes RAR

This newsletter is released monthly by the organization United Trackers, which already has more than 2000 members, and is sent to all United Trackers members through a mailinglist. It covers the music scene and brings articles about tracking. This issue has 31 kbyte. Content: "A Note From the Editor", "Mod Scene News", "New Music Reviews", "Behind the Screen - Interview with Necros", "After Tracking - Part I" "Sample Twisting: Synthetic Scratching" "Tracker This, Tracker That", "Announcements / Ads", "Subscription Information", "Log-Out". Trackers will certainly find some good information. In addition to this, the spelling is excellent.

United Trackers News 10/98
October 1998 release
English language
www.united-trackers.org
11,171 bytes RAR

Less content than in the previous issue, namely 26 kbyte. Beside the regulars ("A Note From the Editor", "Mod Scene News", "New Music Reviews" "Announcements / Ads", "Subscription Information", "Log-Out") there are an interview with Gronda Gronda and the articles "After Tracking Part II" by Jeff Freeman and "Tracking Triplets" by Gulopine.

vymag -1
September 1998 release
Slovak language
ftp://ftp.mystique.sk
2,078,367 bytes RAR

A weird magazine made by the best Slovak coder, samael/MiST, who is, as other Slovak sceners told me, probably as strange as a person as he is good at coding. This magazine contains a 2-mbyte-large mp3 file which samael likes and an 80-kbyte textfile. The name of this magazine comes from Vyhen and U-Mag, the Czech and the Slovak local disk magazines. This "issue -1", featuring merak as a "guest star", contains several articles, some of which are strange, some of which are serious (e.g. the results of the Czech party Fiasko '98). They all either deal with the Slovak demoscene or such weird topics as Dallas or sex. The magazine closes with greetings to several .cz/.sk sceners.

- adok^hugi