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Saxonia Issue 02 Part 017
PC CHARTSMAG FOR AMIGA?
BY KEMPY/DCS&VEEZYA
[l
Long ago all kinds of so-called chartsmag were so popular. Every huge
demo group tried to compile its own charts magazine, just to prove
that... To prove what? Honestly, i don't know. But it was funny to
read all of them, especially when in fact contents of all were
paradoxically so different (in terms of top-leading productions/handles).
As you know, current situation on Amiga scene looks rather dissimilar, we
have today only two active chartsmags, one called simply EuroChart (over
13 years old dinosuar) and second named ShowTime (which seems to be
dead?). But there's a pale light in the dark tunnel, just because few
guys from some legend groups like Scoopex, Hoodlum and The Silents
decided to ressurect their own product - WorldCharts. Originally, in
first half of last decade only 13 issues of WC were released on Amiga
(what's interesting that only one was edited by The Silents), but in 2002
issue #14 hit demo scene. Acuratly - PC demo scene. A bit puzzling!?
New, refreshed WC was meant to be multiplatform publication, which
should bring a piece of fun for sceneres from following platforms:
Amiga, C64 and PC. Sadly, but some Scoopex members (which were
responsible for porting zine to our platform) failed to compile miggy
version of 14th WC. Time passed and next WC arrived on hard (floppy)
disks of PC/C64 sceners, but Amiga freaks were still disappointed.
Finally in March 2003, delayed issue #15 appeared. Uff!
I was really curious about this zine, i saw PC version and i didn't
like it - it was extremally slow on everything without 3d accelerator (!)
and design wasn't nothing astonishing in my opinion. Anyway, back to
Amee. I can't remember exactly my first feelings, so let me write down a
part of my scene diary.
"21:04 - being excited i'm launching WC on my Amiga and first what i
can see is nice looking intro part made in old-school flavour. Several
pretty and smooth scrollers, rotating cubes (nightmares of past demos!),
lively chip tune and three logos presenting names of authors' groups.
But hey, something is wrong! All used logos are only rehashed stuff - i
saw them years ago. Maybe it is too hard to nowadays graphicians to
paint new low-res pictures in 32 colors only!? Who knows? Time to skip
this introduction so i'm pressing mouse button. Oops! Unexpected
reboot. Seems that WC doesn't like my patched system. I'm trying to
launch it without s/s and everything works fine now. Again intro, then
common "two female persons" picture and finally it is: main screen of
WorldCharts Amiga. And still in old-school climate: animation of two
vector cogwheels rotating in the middle (this effect reminds me old
Funzine's 4k intro), small sort of equalizer in a top corner and (another
recycled!) vertical logo of Scoopex on the right side. I'm wondering
what's going on? I'm checking time and date on my clock - it's still
year 2003, but i have a strange feeling i was put back in 1993. It's not
a dream it's reality.
Cogs are rotating.
I'm trying to check Amiga charts. I'm astonished there only few points
in cathegories like best 4k, 64k intro or even best demo. Strange. In
PC sections things look much better. I'm checking list of voters - to my
surprise i read that 468 people have voted, but only 378 handles are
written because "some of voters would to be incognito". What!? Is it a
symptom of total paranoia and persecution mania or maybe complete
stupidity!? I'm returning to main screen.
Cogs are still rotating. I'm going dizzy.
I want to check list of voters again. I'm looking through neverending
columns of unknown people and i'm noticing less than 30 people connected
with present Amiga demo scene. And what does it mean!? Seems that miggy
charts were performed by PC sceners. Excellent! I have a unpleasant
feeling that somebody made Amiga version of PC chartsmag. I can't stand
it - so i'm coming back to main menu.
These fucking cogwheels. No, somebody must stop them! I have to take
a deep breath.
I'm trying to check other stuff from main menu. I'm skipping relations
from PC Radwar party right after two readed paragraphs - they're rather
boring. And texts aren't formated and look messy. In adverts section
only three positions, additionally The Silents ascii logo was massacred
by editor. It's nice that right mouse button brings you back to menu,
but i'm pressing it again and... Damn! I quitted magazine! What a
stupid idea! I'm starting zine again.
And, these irritating cogs are still there! Grrrr. Calm down Kempy,
calm down!
I'm noticing there two modules, so i'm choosing another music by
Laxical/TSL instead Reed's/FLT starting one. All i can hear now is
silence. Hey! My spekaers went down or something!? No, seems it's bug
in WC engine. I'm going to leave this zine for sure, when i'm spotting a
bonus part with Scoopex cractros! As i know that Stingray (coder behind
WC) is o/s lover and he's hobby is to patching old intros for newest
Amigas, i'm trying to launch them. First one is running well, but
second, third and following are sooooo slow. This is too much for me!
I'm saying >Fuck Off< to "Lethal Cogs from Outer Space of Vector
Animations" and i'm going to leave WorldCharts #15!.
But cogwheels are hypnotizing me. I can't force myself to press this
fucking mouse button. I'm so weak, everything is going dark, and i'm
loosing my consciousness. Heeeelp..."
That's all i found in my diary, highest time to some updates. After
few days, Stingray released fixed version of this zine, where f.e.
Laxical's stuff is played correctly and have to say i like this agressive
tune more than slow and standard module from Reed. Besides this
improvement i haven't noticed any others, i have still to run WC after
clean boot without s-s, and SCX craktros don't work good when launched
from main menu. Fortunately these cool small pirate executables work
great when started separately from your file manager (FM or Dopus).
Summing up - Amiga WorldCharts looks like were made only to display
some old recycled logos in old school flavour. Anyway, cute design, good
bonus in form of cracktros but rest!? Poor charts, lack of interesting
or funny articles to read. Also have to add there no file-votesheet
inside archive, just because you're only allowed to vote on-line! Say
what you want, but for me it's a significant disadvantage.
Although, thanks for Stingray/SCX for his o/s engine, all effects and
rest of technical details. Also thanks for not mindless copying PC
version of WC, but that what is most important in this sort of production
is just charts, their quality etc. Unfortunately WorldCharts#15 are
nothing special in this matter for Amiga scene community. Noticeable
shortage of competent voters causes that charts look so poor and
hopeless. Time will show it will change or not. All you have to improve
this situation is to direct your browser to http://www.theworldcharts.de
and vote.
Kempy/DC-S+VEEZYA
April 2003
[1 Rumrunner's comment
It was interesting to see another persons view on this production, as I
have reviewed it myself. And Kempy is right that we should try to do
something that could increase the number of real Amigasceners voting
for the Amiga part of the charts.[0
