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Saxonia Issue 02 Part 031
Worldcharts 15 review
By Rumrunner/VOID
[l
After some small problems, I have now got hold of the Amiga version of
Worldcharts #15 by Scoopex. Well, I cannot call it a problem really, it
was the big datafile that had some error in the lha archive, so while I
was at school, I downloaded it again and copied just the datafile. Enough
about that, let's move on to the review.
First when you load the chart, an intro presents the whole thing, and what
an intro. No crappy chunky2planar or something like that, just pure Amiga
effects, like scrollers, copper effects on the scroller, textwriters,
rotating boxes and so on. The chiptune played immediately sets you in the
mood.
A little press on left mousebutton, and we are greeted with in
intropicture. It is a good quality one, but I'm unsure that it is pixeled.
But let's leave it there, since I'm no graphician.
Next, the chart comes up, along with some articles and also a
moduleselector and you can also load a couple of old Scoopex intros that
have been fixed for AGA and bigger processors
The outlook of the chartengine is overall very good, however the effect
in the background (spinning cogwheels) is a little disturbing if you try
to read for some time. However, I like them, as they remind me of the old
Andromeda intro entitled Lost In Legoland.
There are two scrollers in the bottom as well, reminding me of the early
issues of the Deadlock mag, first by Rapier and Dimension X and later on
by Anathema (at that time it hadn't a scroller anymore I think).
The font used (the normal textfont, that is) is completely different from
anyone I have seen in another production, be it diskmag or chart. I like
it. Perhaps more people have gotten tired of the common "standardisation"
that has taken place in out community over the last few years. It makes me
think that it is time for us in Saxonia to get another font than the
regular topaz one. Graphicians interested in undertaking this task can
contact me, by the way.
The charts are what they are supposed to be, and they are not only looking
at the Amiga scene, as there are also charts for the Commodore 64 and the
pc scene. The list of voters was impressive considering the size of the
scene now in comparison to the good old days, there were over 400 voters.
As expected, since the Worldcharts is now mainly a pc production, there
were few names I recognised in the voters list, however I managed to find
a few, like Malmis/Nature and Punisher/Nah-Kolor, and some more. I also
notices something that was a little interesting to somebody like me, who
think that the old scene was better than the present one, namely some old
groupnames that I though was long gone and forgotten, like Danish Gold and
Paradox. I don't know if they have moved onto the pc or whatever is going
on, but I enjoyed seeing the names again. In the messages section, I even
found a message from an old Paranoimia member. Do you remember them?
Overall, I think that this is a really good production, it has even
managed to change my opinion about cooperating with pc-sceners a little.
It has, afterall turned out good here. I am also very happy to see that
there are still people who dare to make something interesting. As Stingray
writes (not quoted word by word) :[1
The engine was running, but doing so slow. So I chose to rewrite it, using
real Amiga coding (no chunky2planar) this time.[0
It's exactly this attitude I want to see more of. What is the point doing
everything exactly like everybody else does? That's just boring in the
end. By doing like Stingray has done here, he has managed to make a
product that's entertaining and informative, but also has a deeper value,
it's made the way he wanted to do it, not in the way he thought other
people would like it. Very good work, I look forward to the next issue.
I must also congratulate Stingray, at least it seems that he has done
all the work converting this into a real Amiga production by himself.
It must have been some workload. He deserves credit for this.
