Review: Fleur #3

Written by Adok

Month of release: May'99
RAR-packed size: 3,016,880 bytes
Language(s): English
Related URL: http://fleur.scene-hu.com
Main editor: d-lee/exceed/haujobb
Co-editors: coctail/numb, dfj/dinasty, ezah/dilemma, inferno/exceed/quad, szum/cryogen
Code: nap/dilemma
Design: xtro/rhyme, ludwig/dinasty
Music: optic/trsi, atx/chrome
Text: aron/contract, inopia, nap, maxwell, orion, poison/singular, psychic symphony, rod/mandula, sagacity/quad, sarix/quad, sed/dilemma, teo/kangooroo/exceed, towerx/astral + editors

The news section of Fleur #3 stated that Hugi #15 would be released one or two weeks after Fleur #3.

The news section of Hugi #15 stated that Fleur #3 would be released a few days after Hugi #15.

Which diskmag is right?

If anyone were right, it would be us of course. In fact, neither is right. The period between the reincarnations of Fleur and Hugi was only a few hours. The two diskmags were released on the same day, May 11th. You can call it the D-Day - diskmag-day.

Had D-Lee of Exceed and Haujobb not taken over the main editor job for this issue, Fleur would in fact have been released after Hugi, namely in July - if ever. That was the planned release month because former main editor Ezah had been busy with his real life. When D-Lee learned that, he was shocked and quickly decided to put the mag together. Fearing that Fleur would not contain any interesting information if it was released shortly after Hugi, he struggled to finish the mag before Hugi #15 came out. He had already announced that if he did not manage to do that, Fleur would be stopped. Lucky for Fleur and the variety of diskmags in our scene, however, he succeeded, by doing the same work in one and a half days for which Ezah would have needed at least ten days. That's what Ezah told him after seeing the result.

Unfortunately, the level of English is poorer than ever before. It was best in Fleur #1 when a guy called Jabberwock proofread the articles. He does not belong on the staff any more.

There are also some tiny but irritating mistakes. For example, the votesheet for Fleur #4 still contains the deadline for Fleur #3.

But in all other regards, Fleur #3 is a decent ScenZine. And more: After the technically disappointing second number Fleur #3 contains graphics which suit a state-of-the-art diskmag, plus a quality gallery.

The code has not been altered a lot. The only obvious changes include fade-in and fade-out of the music and a more logical handling. In issue two you had to navigate through the mag using the left and right cursor keys in the main menu while in the articles the up and down cursor keys had to be used. Now you consistently scroll using left and right.

When starting Fleur in DOS, my soundcard is not detected. That is a common problem with some sound systems and my SB 16 PnP. However, D-Lee announced that the next Fleur issue would come along with a new Windows-based interface, so there will no longer be any problems of this kind.

Fleur #3 features 320 kbytes of fresh scene-related information. Although the previous issue was released in November 1998, most texts have apparently been written after last year's The Party. Fleur spoils the reader with some long, personal and therefore interesting interviews with grands personnages of the scene such as Hellfire, Danny, and Lluvia, various insiders' opinions on the latest party-releases, and up-to-date charts.

For the first time the Fleur staff got enough votesheets to open a Dutch and a German charts section apart from the Hungarian, Polish and international charts that have been hosting since the beginning. The minimum number of voters for a country to have its own charts is 10. Germany just reached this number.

Instead of party reports, Fleur #3 includes a list of upcoming events and some photos. In the section "articles" we can find a lot of crap but also a novelty for Fleur: coding tutorials. They were written by the Dutch fellows from Quad.

The exact table of contents looks as follows:

        Our Corner
                Editorial
                Why couldn't I do my best for Fleur 3?
                Credits
                Contacting
                First Fleur coding compo Results
                The usage of da mag
                News and rumors
        Charts
                Foreword to the charts
                World charts
                Demo of the Year 1998
                Intro of the Year 1998
                Dutch charts
                German charts
                Hungarian charts
                Polish charts
                Voter's list
        Articles
                Foreword to the article
                Fxfighter fun
                Tunnel optimizing
                The Brazilian demoscene
                About the quality of the releases in '98
                About 3D Demos... again
                Meaning of life
                Voting phobia
                C64 scene -> PC
                Demo Hidden Parts, Revision 18 for Fleur 3.
                Perspective correction
                Vesa 2.0 Lfb - The Secret
                Vesa 16,24,32 Bit Modes
                The hungarian Amiga scene in 1999
                Some words about composing music
                The most effective hungarian groups in 1998
                Demo impression
                How does real art influence Demoscene?
                Computer revolution
                One game, one pain.
                Background picture :)
        Reviews
                Foreword to the reviews
                The Party 1998 [aron]
                The Party 1998 [dlee]
                The Party 1998 [orion]
                Contest 1999
                The Gathering vs. Mekka/Symposium 1999
                Mekka/Symposium 1999
                The Gathering 1999
                Mfx: the world was yours...
                Re: Mfx: the world was yours...
                My favourites from some little parties 1999.
                Best Polish magazines
        Interviews
                Danny
                Eft/Kangooroo/Skarla/A*******a :)
                Fred/Calodox
                Hellfire/Haujobb
                Krafton/Nomad/Calodox
                Lluvia/Bomb
                Mrock/Hellcore
                Mrz
                Nitro/Trauma
                Rodney
        Party-Side
                Upcoming events
                Ambiance party picture one
                Ambiance party picture two
                Ambiance party picture three
                Ambiance party picture four
                NOMAD at The Party - picture one
                NOMAD at The Party - picture two

Also available: two hidden parts, made for two very important persons, namely Rod of Mandula and me. Mine is pretty easy to find whereas you need some knowledge of Hungarian (or cracking, or social engineering) to get to the other one. However, it's worth the effort: After entering Rod's hidden part, a file called fleurx.zip will be created, which contains the original program used to format the articles for Fleur. Nice idea! You Fleur guys are pretty creative.

So what will the reader of Fleur #3 get? Some fresh news, some hardly known facts, some interesting opinions and some useless craptalk in bad English. And some nice artwork, unless you've already seen it somewhere else. The last picture, Fractal by Xtro, is especially worth seeing.

D-Lee has managed to introduce a happy, cheerful atmosphere to the mag. It is somewhat different from Ezah's constant grievances and his emphasizing that it had seemed for a long time that the Fleur issue you were reading would have never been released.

The editor team of Fleur know the scene well, they can rate what is good and what is bad. This distinguishes them from some other wannabe diskmags' staffs. A good basis for a scene magazine.

While Fleur #3 has been a "fast made issue", Fleur #4, which is scheduled for September/October 1999, is going to "make some revolution". At least that's what D-Lee says. Will they succeed? In any case they will have to find someone who corrects the spelling and grammar of the articles.

- ashkenasadok^hugi