X-Trade/Reviews

Review by Glenn Lunder
If I was astounded by the lack of change from issue 8 to issue 9, I'm AMAZED by the fact that this issue is - you guessed it - graphically identical to the two next issues! The intro picture (a dragon this time) seems to be only thing that's different... Contentwise, I found this issue to be a bit more SCENE than the next two, with a real news section and other related articles. Some interesting stuff here, especially I would imagine, if you're a coder! The whole thing seems a little 'thin' though, and you read through it in a jiffy. There is one quite serious bug, though: It doesn't make a sound! On my machine, it seems unable to play a single note... The intro is really worth a mention. It doesn't require AGA, but seems to benefit from extra machine power. What it is, essentially, is a series of graphics twirl effects, with an upscroller overlaid. There are some great effects here, and the intro doesn't occupy more than 64k! tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.0 -- Note: See review.

Review by Glenn Lunder
When reading this review, remember that I read this issue immediately AFTER reading #9 :) What strikes me the most is the fact that these two issues - though separated by a full year - are graphically 100% the same. No new panel, no new code. What's changed is a different intro picture, and some different background tiles. Still, I found this issue to be better, actually. Having read both of them, I feel like maybe Blitter wasn't in as much contact with the scene during 1996 as he was in 1995. Either way, I find the articles in this issue a lot more interesting to read. Quality is excellent, so there's not much else to say. You know what you're getting! tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.0.

Review by Glenn Lunder
Having just read the entire TJ9, from beginning to end, I have a few observations to share. TJ seems like the minimalist's approach to a diskmag; not much flashy stuff, but what's there works well. Graphically it looks a little like Upstream, with its tiled background. The multi-tasking code should be optimized, I think - it's slightly unresponsive, even on the 030. Marc's mag tune deserves special mention, as it's one of the best guitar tunes I've heard in a long while. Really realistic sound! Article design in TJ is nice, with good contrast between letters and the background. The TJ homepage is announced, at (dead link) Contentwise, what strikes me is that there's not a lot of articles about the scene as such here, are there? Many of the articles are more or less totally scene-unrelated, and the ones that are seem to launch into endless dialogues with themselves over seemingly trivial issues. There's no traditional demo reviews, 'making of' articles, interviews... not even real news! In one way, this is good, since it means The Jungle has a distinct style of its own. Ofcourse, you can't do anything but respect Blitter for trying to be different in a diskmag scene that's all too often stagnant! Because TJ is released as seldomly as it is (once a year), you can forgive Blitter for not concentrating on things like news. After all, there are enough magazines out there to deal with things like that. TJ seems to concentrate more on the philosophy of the scene than on hard facts. Originality is its strength! Don't change a thing, Blitter. It's highly doubtful if Wolf was still a member when this mag was released; he was a member of Wrath Designs at Assembly '96, and worked on their demo "Gyrate" [08/96]... tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.0.