Review: Trip #11

Written by Adok

Month of release: Apr'99
RAR-packed size: 431,503 bytes
Language(s): English
Related URL: http://www.webtrip.ch
Main editor: sweeper/excite/vantage
Co-editors: iquito, phred, stranger, dake, picard
Code: fairway, tash
Design: sid, sweeper
Music: the 7th son
Text: fester, unlock, the editors

General Information

Half a year has passed, and there's a new Trip issue with a new engine, new graphics, new music and of course new articles. Released at Mekka & Symposium 2k-1, this is the best issue the Swiss diskmag crew have made so far.

Interface, Design

Fairway replaced Genoz as the main interface coder. He was supported by Tash and the Midas Digital Audio system. As it is the case with most DOS-based mags nowadays, Trip #11 requires VBE 2.0 to run. After the usual sound setup, a nice picture showing a Trip logo, mountains and the Swiss flag is displayed. A keypress leads to the main menu which reminds of Hugi. On the top there is a Trip logo and on the bottom the name and author of the article the selection bar is currently over are displayed. The list of articles itself is in the center of the screen. Having selected an article, it is displayed in the window where the article-list was before. The article name and author are now displayed on the top in front of the Trip logo, and on the bottom you can see an indicator bar. The articles are in a well readable font and very colourful. As usual, the cursor keys and ESC control the mag. Before quitting, a nice closing picture is displayed.

This interface now meets international standards and, combined with the good soft music, makes reading more fun.

Content

Approximately 80 kbyte of text - very little but more than usual. The article headlines are as follows:

        Editoral
        A message to all unmotivated sceners
        What does it need to make a demo?
        Is the c64 demoscene going down?
        Turkish PC Scene Report
        The most famous I AM COOL article
        Our nicknames should be patented!
        Chord harmonies for trackers
        Worst Demo Compo
        The Credits

In the "Editoral" (sic!), Sweeper gives us a short description of the current atmosphere at Mekka while he was writing. The next two articles were also written by him. "A message to all unmotivated sceners" contains basic scene related personal questions which Sweeper answers himself in order to show discouraged sceners what makes the scene beneficial for them, while "What does it need to make a demo?" concerns organizing the creation process of a demo. The "Turkish PC Scene Report" by Stranger is quite interesting. The reader learns how the PC scene in this big country was founded, what groups are around now and what they produced. Unfortunately there are not any more details apart from this quick overview. "The most famous I AM COOL article" by Phred is also known to Pain readers. The title says everything. "Our nicknames should be patented!" was written by Dake of Calodox and contains web-site addresses of web-sites which accidentially contain the handles of Swiss sceners. Picard published some basic music theory in "Chord harmonies for trackers", namely a list of chords that sound good. Finally, "Worst Demo Compo" is the announcement of a childish contest for which you have to make a badly coded demo and enter it under your biggest enemy's name.

A poll form for Trip #12 is attached to the mag, containing ten questions about the mag itself and the scene in general. The questions are more serious and interesting than in Pain.

Overall Impression

With more and better articles, Trip could find its way into the international diskmag scene.

- adok^hugi