Reactions on Hugi 19
Here's some of the most interesting feedback I received about Hugi 19.
Diskhawk writes:
"Hm, okay, it's pretty early in the morning, the Knicks have just won game 4 against Indiana and I am somehow in the mood to type some words that without doubt will be without interest for most of you, hehe. Hey, I even got that old Q.EXE from the deep of one of my zipdisks again, along with a lot (not!) stuff that was supposed to be used in Autark issue 2 (hello? anyone remember?). Did I mention that this is going to be weird?
Oh, I attended Mekka not that long ago, it was a nice party, though it isn't called Mekka anymore, anyway, you know which one I mean. It was nice, me thinks. Quite some people there, most of them even nice. Well, except the security maybe, but heck, what's it all about, that security-hacking? No, I won't comment any further, enough people have done that. Party nice, beer nice, sleeping nice (at least in my car, that is), I got a flu though, because it was too warm inside the hall and too cold in my car during night time.
Checking the latest Hugi edition meanwhile. Nice mag, at least compared to the last issue I read, dunno must have been around issue ten or so. But I disklike the idea of having an interview with the maineditor in it (hehe, no one else wanted to interview you, Adok? :)), wrong attitude that is, but that's again your personality... me, myself and I... and no one else of course. :) Sorry, pal, but that's the way the mag appears to me. Argl, too much criticising. Done a good job otherways, I know what it means I guess.
Some things changed over the last years... where the heck are those addies in the mag? I am pretty much aware that mailswapping is dead, but heck, enough other things to advertise there must be... everybody complains about the scene turning more and more commercial, so there must be commercials, in other words addies! Come on, revive those. :) Advertise your party, production, your mother.
Oh, at Mekka, Amiga intros kicked pc's butt imho.
Nice tunes btw in Hugi, but the transition from one to the other isn't that smooth, better use any anti-spot fluid of your choice, well the transitions won't be better, but heck, you'll look jolly marvellous.
I would like to comment on a statement I just read: people don't release things between parties anymore. Right, do that again, thanks. Most of you do make enough money besides the scene, at least that's the impression I get being on irc, so do things for fun again, not just for money. Fame will come... regardless you released something at a party or not, ehm, it should be pretty good to become famous though. ;) Why does this article have this stupid font? Why can't I, the writer, choose my font? Hehe.
Adok: Hereby you are to reinstate the beer charts, thank you very much indeed.
Oh yeah: how to start a demogroup: get a bunch of people who own a computer, get several barrels of beer, make'em drunk, see which ones perform best while being drunk and make those slaves for your group, best way to the top.
What this is all about? I don't know, ehm, maybe: look somewhere else for guidance than here... and, no, I am not drunk, tired maybe... 42!"
DJefke writes:
"Ok, let's give some feedback. First of all the new interface. I love it! Excellent job, Chris!! (Still waiting for Linux or BeOS interface.) To the artists: nice gfx and music.
Now to the contents. I haven't read the whole issue yet, but if I don't write this feedback now, I won't do it at all.
Coding-corner: 4 articles by Brioche: yes finally! Linux-articles. Great job, Brioche! I want more, more, moooore!
Scene-forum: Quake, TP9: I totally agree, gamers are becoming a plague! But I don't think that invite-only is the solution. That way the scene will die for sure.
The newbie-articles: What tha fuck is wrong with all you 'eleets'? We have to be glad that there are still people that want to learn to code, track and pixel.
'In my eyes the scene is dead': It's true, the scene has changed, but doesn't everything change (evolve)? But is that a bad thing? I liked the scene in 94-95 and someway I regret that it will never be that way. But I also like the scene nowadays: it's different but also exciting.
'Trax trip report': What can I say: Those gestapos seem to be real dick-heads and the same applies to those braindead cops!!!"
Klotzi writes:
"hugi? isn't this the mag by this crazy editor, who wants to reign the world? bah, forget it, i don't need it. read wildmag! this el afghano-review. i read it! go away, you aren't god!"
Seven writes:
"Hi Adok (and the rest of the Hugi core),
After the thesis, the exams and the occasional demoparty, I've finally foundthe time to some feedback. :)
- The skins are great, but it's a waste to put 4 of them in every issue. I don't know how it is organized code-wise, but would it be possible to put each skin in a separate datafile so you can re-use them between issues, with a small config-file that lets you enter the name of your favourite skin? Then one new skin for each issue would be enough, no?
- JPG is great for the photos inside the articles, but not for the backgrounds and titles that you watch all the time. Especially the really detailed ones suffer a lot from compression artifacts. I understand you need to keep the size of the mag limited, but maybe you could keep a "high-quality" version for the people who don't mind the longer download time. Of course, a combination with separate skin-files would be even better. :)
- There are a few design thingies that could be improved, f.e. i think those pop-up buttons are too big, the scrollbar is almost invisible in skin 4 and I don't like the empty page that is added after an article, but these things are mostly personal taste.
For the rest, big kudos to Chris Dragan. Rewriting such an engine is reallysomething to have respect for. (Hmm, just got an idea for someone to put inthat "most underrated scener" chart.) Very, very good work.
And some articles that really interested me:
* Throwing random RGB pixels/TAD:Oh my god. In all my reviews, I'm trying to divide pictures in "hand-made" or"photoshopped", but I didn't know there were so many tools that are somewhat inbetween... Damn. This just shows that a coder's opinion about pictures is justto be ignored. :) Thanks for shining some light on the subject.
* The Anti Quake Campaign I and II/Ghandy: Personally, I like to play a game or two at a demoparty. After all, 2 or 3 daysof coding/tracking etc can become boring, and beating your friends in a gamecan be just as fun as discussing things with them. Therefore, I don't like the"all games strictly forbidden" attitude. I have two suggestions:
1) From the articles, I deduce that there exist programs that filter out packets from specific games. Just install those for the most popular games (Quake, Unreal,...) and announce this, and a lot of hard-core gamers will already stay home. This still allows people to play some oldskool games occasionally without being frown upon.
2) Give the party a real demoscene feeling. IMHO, one of the simplest and most efficient ways to do this is to play demos at the bigscreen. I find it a pity that it's almost always used only for the compos and maybe some movies. Since the compo machine is usually a powerful machine, this is also a way for people with less expensive hardware to watch the newest demos, or to watch demos from another platform. Also the leechers can pick up some demoscene culture (if the bigscreen is in the same hall) and maybe get the hang of it.
* Writers on Writers:Since I don't read Amiga mags, I can't really know how correct all this is, butI like the idea. Maybe someone (Hi Adok :)) could organize this for PC writerstoo?
* Pain 2/00 reviewed/Adok:You write that my article in Pain 2/00 was actually intended for DemoJournal.Sorry, but I've written it entirely after I read the message on CSIPD, and youcould have know this since I mention that message in the article. *Beep*, youwere wrong, go stand in the corner. :)
* The Wake Up Call/TAD:Well, I can see what you meant with a "maybe sad ending" (IIRC from your lastmail). It's a pity we'll never know what's inside
the case, and how all thosestrange events fit exactly together... (the bomb explosion, Mewco's disappearedbody,...). But we can all learn a lesson from The Wake Up Call: don't becomea small time criminal trying too make a lot of money fast. :) Anyway, thanksfor the story. It was really a joy to read.
OK, big thank's for this issue, and good luck with the next one!"
As usual, TAD also gives some extensive comments:
"Adok: Good presentation, each section nicely laid out. The two columns is a nice touch which makes finding an article in a specific section MUCH nicer. My only criticism is the sub-heading for each section. It would be nice if this was more different from the list of articles (i.e. use Bold and/or a bigger font).
Chris: No problems with the new interface, seemed a little quicker than Hugi #18 (which ran just fine on my PC). The cursors at the screen edges worked well. Liked the start-up menu screen too.
Bridgeclaw: VERY nice pixels!! Brilliantly drawn and had a nice 1950's B-movie theme ("The 50 foot dragon invades Hugi-land while screaming babes... er... scream". ;) It was a pity that your nice piccy was SO quickly followed by sub-standards ones... #;oP)
Toon1: diskmagic by Makke/Visuale: Nice, but perhaps a little too reliant on the panning to make one of the low frequency sounds more interesting (sorry, IMVHO a little effect or mix with another sound would have enhanced it). Don't get me wrong, I like it Makke!!
Toon2: medithor by p-rat/Access Denied: Far more rich in terms of instruments and 'dynamic emotion'. A good toon to chill out to. Ideal for reading diskmags.
Toon3: Lone Byte by JKL/CoS1: Hmmm.. FM sounds... A little short (or was that just the intro?). I'm still confused whether it is two distinct toons, or one with a FM intro.. Still, it's a nice chiller of a toon.
CODING: Paradox: Great work! Especially liked the OpenGL stuff. Interesting texture-gen article, good, (like Ile/Aardbei's article except lacking in the nice pics). You have both inspired me to try some gen techniques myself, thanks!!
Win32 asm tut: Yeap, T$ does it again. Continues to show us that you can Win with Asm, keep up the great work T$!
MMX and Mixing Samples by Chris Dragan: Nice. This is the first I've seen about using MMX to do something useful and something other than pixels. Well done Chris.
MMX Tutorial by Rawhed: Ah, another excellent tut. Well written, useful, clear, rich with examples (basically all the things tuts should be). I hope you write some more in the future Rawhed!!
DSP tut for the braindead!: Whoa, great title. Thankfully Yehar wasn't braindead when he wrote this, well worth reading, full of good info and classy ASCII diagrams. Nice job Yehar!
Heap sort by Dario Phong: Nice. It's really good to see coding articles using diagrams to help clarify an algorithm. ASCII or bitmaps - a picture speaks a thousand words.
SCENE: Interview: Adok on the rack: Great to finally to delve into that twisted, evil, strange and very silly mind (hey, wait.. no, that's MY doctor's report). Seriously, the long word count wasn't a problem, it hopefully shows the entire world that the Thor-meister is indeed useful to the scene (even if he is/isn't in the scene). Thank you Adok for those kind words.
Photoshop by hexxon/mdl: I recently played around with Pshop and agree that it is not the most user-friendly package and considering it's price that is very, very BAD. Hexxon, keep on pixelling and drawing, have faith that some of us still respect pixellers.
Interview: Bridgeclaw: Good (or should that be God) artist. (TAD pauses to turn green with envy. ;)).. I can't wait to see more of your fine work Bridgeclaw.
Anti-Quake campaign: Hmm.. These two articles persuaded me to change my view about Quakers, or Gammers-at-parties. I'm sure that some kinda solution can be found, like setting a limit/isolated area aside for non-scener activities (i.e. a "Chill/Kill zone").
Young, new 2 the scene... by fLow & RIeHA: I guess there is only one way into the scene, lots of hard work and experimentations!! Great blue-screen photo btw. Good luck and don't give up learning.
MISC: The Amiga's Greatest Failures: I don't think piracy was the only factor in the Amiggy decline. The, then, already widespread use of the PC both at work and home was a major factor. The PC is a nice package (HD, monitor, good keyboard, vast software base and cheap hardware) so newbies found it an ideal starter kit. The US played a huge part in the Amiga downfall, where almost everyone had a PC, but few had an Amiga.
Everyone else: Keep on writing, coding, drawing and dreaming. Sorry that you haven't been mentioned, but I think is this enough feedback already. Be happy, still active."
From an email from Mikko Heliölä:
"As not contributing anything to the demoscene, I like to see what's happening in there and for that purpose a proper diskmag is the best newsreel I can ever have. So as I for a change downloaded some of your latest issues, I was amazed that they were still "adequate" in their size and that they actually worked onmy MMX 187,5 with 32 megs of ram! So lots of thanks to the lot of you and when talking of Hugi in general, it has devloped in many ways, while translating to different languages isn't the only point. And the panels, the controls, everything functioned properly! So it's good to know, that there's still people who make new programs for good 'ol pentiums like mine and there is such an organized and well designed diskmag available!"
Metalbrain's feedback:
"Hey Adok, don't try to lie us. We all know that the TRUE reason why you want the Nobel Prize is to appear in history books, so all encyclopedias have your biography inside them. Of course, your biography will mention Hugi as the most successful Diskmag of your time: that way, Hugi's glory will remain forever...
About Hugi #19: many articles left to be read after my exams (once again), nice graphs, nice music and very nice speedup, but still: why do you say that the minimum requirements are 32 megs? I could run Hugi #18 with my P133 with only 16Mb of RAM and 1Mb of VRAM (although takes ages to load), and I can run Hugi #19 just fine (I miss the DOS version, though. What about a DJGPP port besides BeOS and Linux?). BTW: I really hate the sound effects (when I move the through the text). Couldn't they be toggled just as visual effects? (I also hate them, but I've got F4)."
You can toggle off the sound effects in the configuration window displayed when starting Hugi.
Dogbomb writes:
"I just had to write to tell you how much you may change my life. (again?)
I just got hold of a copy of HUGI #19 and I was in awe of the work. I think I'd better tell you a little about myself.
When I was younger, and smarter, I used to be a big(ish) voice in the Amiga Scene, and I fondly recall my favorite part of the scene as being the wonderful diskmags and music compilations. I used to wait with baited breath every morning to see if my latest copy of (insert-name-of-diskmag-here) had arrived. Those days faded out as the amiga scene did, and lo, my old Amiga finally gave up and died.
Anyway, years on.. I find you.. and fall in love. This is a wonderful example of what I used to have, and I've just downloaded #18 and I'll probably be downloading #17 tomorrow. Next week I'll be down to #1 and thirsty for more.
I'd like to know more about PC Diskmags, I really had NO idea that there was such a scene on the PC too.
Thank You for opening my eyes."
Lycium suggests:
"Please start a series on 'how to compile demos', i.e. what you do when you have a 'critical mass' of coherent effects, music, graphics, etc. How to do timing, syncing, and some tips from experts would be cool. :)"
Great idea - so, the coders among you who want to write an article and haven't had a topic in mind before now have one. :)
Also SunmaN has some article ideas:
"I'd like to read about some old-school effects, which now not everybody remembers how to create, however on a powerful CPU, maybe, they could have a new life.
Maybe about some nice 2D effects. For example, why doesn't anybody write about 2D effects with bilinear interpolation, as in freedirectional tunnels, but rather 3D-calculations, we have some function here?
Maybe about design - not those articles about "smooth effects transition and a main idea" - if someone wants, he will do this whithout advice. Rather about some optical illusions, color selections, composition, etc..."
Please also send me your thoughts about Hugi 20 and its articles.