Darkage/Reviews
Drug Vanilla Syndrome (1997, 06.09, AGA File Demo)
Review by Glenn Lunder
DVS is not a very good demo, unfortunately, despite some good things here and there... Modem coded everything but one single part, which is the best one in the entire demo. First of all, Darkage need to get better graphicians, since the work in DVS is really inadequate... Just one fullscreen pic by DeciBel is any good here. FBY's music is... acceptable. I won't go into the other parts, but Washburn's envmap engine - represented here by a rock-like object over an animated background, all in the unusual color combination yellow/white - is pretty fast and good. And the drug promotion part was REALLY unnecessary, guys... If Ecstasy helps coding, then why aren't you making better demos?
tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1.
Crash (1997, 06.09, AGA 64k Intro)
Review by Glenn Lunder
"Crash" is an unusual intro, actually - in that its main effect is a a travel along a road with some roadside scenery... It's a showcase for a routine they intend to use in a future game, they say, though we'd recommend working a little more on it before releasing, 'cause hey - it's pretty ugly in its present state :) Don't mean to be critical, Darkage, but the routine looks unattractive in its present state. Perhaps some more work on the textures would help... Another problem with "Crash" is that it's too short - just the intro sequence and the road, and that's it - show over. I find it hard to recommend this intro, unfortunately. Nowhere does it mention any RAM requirements.
tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1.
Trip 98 Invitation (1997, late, Intro)
Review by Glenn Lunder
Another professionally presented invitation intro, this one opens with a euro logo (for some reason) rotated and stretched to the first bars of the cool music. Then the text 'WELCOME TO...' is overlaid. It then fades down before presenting a TRIP logo - which darkens and then the text is overlaid. The text is standard 80 column topaz, no borders or nothing, and is exactly the same as in the text invitation.
tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1.
Sublime (1997, 31.10, AGA 64k Intro)
Review by Glenn Lunder
"Sublime" is not all that bad actually, especially the shaded face-mask impressed me. It even features some excellent design, especially in the end where the text DARKAGE THE END floats from the corner of the eye of Decibel's artistically rendered lady... Possibly Modem's best intro ever!
tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1.
Spoletium 98 Invitation Intro (1998, .02, File)
Review by Glenn Lunder
A very basic invitation intro, but presented in a professional way, makes this small Darkage prod come out just above average. It opens with a Spoletium 98 logo, and then goes onto the invitation text reader itself. The text is presented on an animated, swirling background, but it doesn't retract from the reading experience. The intro is finished off with a Darkage logo by Nork.
tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.0.
Showtime #9 (1998, .02, AGA Diskmag)
Review by Glenn Lunder
The first thing that strikes you about the mag part of Showtime #9 is the nice music. It's a sort of sunny, happy reggae beat that sets the mood for some nice melodies. You can almost see the music video for this tune: the band all relaxed on a beach, drinking cool drinks from coconuts :) Orome's title picture is also a nicely done piece of art, and sets the mood nicely for the read ahead. Contentwise, I'm not so impressed with Showtime, they still have a little way to go before they're at the top of the heap. The most important thing they might consider is taking a little more time to delete some of the articles they're receiving. Right now it looks a little too much like they're publishing everything the cat drags in the door :) OK, that's harsh and perhaps a little unfair, but the focus of the mag could be greatly improved by removing a few of the more unnecessary articles.
Visually, Showtime looks pretty good - in most cases. While I'm a little unsatisfied with the graphics for the mag part - especially the unreadable icons irritated me a little - there are places where it really shines. The graphics for the excellent chart section of Showtime were done by Made, and are - as usual for him - of excellent quality. Very very nice! The same goes for MRK's (another favorite of mine!) graphics for the Gallery section. IMHO they should use that instead of the panel graphics for the main mag part they use now.
I will do things 'a little backwards' here, and review the gallery part of Showtime last :) Orome delivers another title picture, before we get to the gallery part itself. It reminded me a lot of the classic, original gallery - the one in the Crusaders' "EuroCharts". Nerve Axis' intro, "Sentient Ore", has been reviewed under Nerve Axis' own section of Scenery.
tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1.
Welcome To Our World (2000, 23.04, AGA File)
Review by Glenn Lunder
Ooooooooookay... This 'demo' is a very Monty Python-y kind of affair, recommended only if you care for that particular brand of humour. And we're talking OLD monthy Python here, the weird-animation-kind, complete with a blippy soundtrack with frequent dog barking on it =) I found this small exercise humorous and entertaining, and even though it's all done with tongue firmly planted in cheek, it seems competently enough put together. The demo runs smoothly and troublefree on my machine.
Please note that this review refers to the 'final' version, released a small while after the party.
tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1.
Showtime #16 (2001, 26.04, AGA File Diskmag)
Review by Glenn Lunder
Well, first impressions always come with the intro, and this time it's done by those productive guys from Ephidrena. It's a slightly gloomy lil' thing, with the best part of it being the one where shaded pieces of paper fall from the top of the screen and the backdrop looks like pages from a newspaper, nice.
But we're here to review a mag not an intro, and I'm rearing to go, so: doubleclicking that file we go! =) Impressions of the title picture and the first page of text are generally good, though the main font bothers me a little... Can't explain why, just don't give me the right vibe =) Anyhow this, the 16th issue, is the first with Zito as main editor. Browsing the articles first, I find a lot of the interesting things here are of the 'retro' variety - Allister Brimble has some music on mp3.com, Jester/Pygmy Projects working with 100% Prophets! Diskmags used to tell you the entire story in the old days, whereas now they explain the general situation and give you a link to paste into your webbrowser... But with the internet gaining strength, I guess this is the future, like it or not. I found the articles concerning the ShaneTheWolfTheDog (now THERE'S an original nickname!) affair highly amusing, and it pleases me to see the Showtime staff brave enough to present both sides of the story, even when one blatantly opposes Darkage. The main editorial problem with this issue, the way I see it, is that it's been so long since the last issue that this one has too much material to cover... There are LOTS of party reports and results here, for most parties that took place since the last issue, and some of these are like 6 months old, but that's not the point. In the old days, a mag like ROM would cover a big event like The Party over MANY pages - not just a short report and results, but pictures from the event, interviews with the winners (and losers), etc. These reports only scratch the surface of what could be done =( The 'diary' (news) and 'charts' sections are fair, nothing special about them. I see little point in the diary section, which could just as well have been a part of the mag.
The 'Gallery' is a separate file, and opens with a VERY stylish "Showtime" title picture by Asarhad/Reason. The gallery is nicely done, and was coded completely anew for this issue by Stingray. For the secret part he mentions in the scroller, type 'WADE'! =)
The birth of the 16th issue of Showtime was a somewhat troubled one... Just before this issue, long-time coder of the mag Modem finally decided to leave the scene - which left the mag without a coder! Luckily some solace was found in ex-Secretly member Stingray who said he would undertake the coding responsibilities. He was sent the ShowTime sources, and was immediately taken aback by the fact that it was A MESS! He totally recoded the gallery, and fixed what he could on the mag itself. All this is explained in an accompanying note, where he also promises to recode the entire mag and give it a new outfit for the next issue!
Jurassic Pack #8 (2001, 24.11, AGA Multifile Diskmag)
Review by Glenn Lunder
After the humorous cartoon-style intro was rounded off with an excellent logo, we can double-click the icon for the 'pack' itself... I must say expectations from this mag was high, partly because I knew it was using Mr.Tickle's magengine (previously used for two issues of "Devotion" from Nah-Kolor and Haujobb), and partly because I had been party to the enthusiasm Zito and Ghandy had shown for the project in the weeks and months prior to its release. And the result of their efforts, to be frank, is actually quite good. It seems as if being freed from the reins of making a pure 'news' mag (like Showtime), the two editors have been allowed to let their creativity blossom without the burdens of a definite deadline. There are still a lot of 'news' related material here, with a lot of stuff about the controversy surrounding 3Amigos and the 'TG incident', which dates back to april. Actually, the tone of this mag reminds me very much of ROM (a mag Ghandy does not exactly share my views on.... :), with a lot of topical articles spotlighting recent important productions. And speaking of ROM, even that mag's old editor Mop gets spotlighted here!
The amiga and pc scenes are forever bridging the gap between them, and this mag is another step in that direction. It's been a trend recently in pc scene mags that they are now showing increased respect towards the c64 and amiga scenes (where in the past they had none), and this especially manifests itself in mags like Pain and Hugi on that scene. Ghandy has had articles in both those magazines, and the editors of both (Unlock/Vantage and Adok/Hugi) also write for this mag. This means some 'crossposting' of articles - slightly irritating for those of us who read mags on both platforms :) - but also means articles of a general interest to the scene reach more readers and hopefully cause more awareness of each other. This is, officially, a GOOD THING! :)
Audio-visually speaking, then. Like the "Devotion" engine has always done, it has two title pictures, and you only get to see one each time. So in order to see both, start the mag twice =) This time both are actually great, done as they are by respected oldskool graphicians Noogman/Scoopex and Bridgeclaw/Darkage^Gods. The all-new panels were done by Budgie/100% Prophets^Layout, and though they are mainly texture-based, and made in a lovely shade of sickening green, they are also clean and word reasonably well. Only the 'index' button bothers me slightly, but perhaps that's just me. The backgrounds also work reasonably well for once, which has certainly not been the case with all mags that have attempted this approach... No less than five modules are provided, with some by scene personalities that I actually never had thought I would hear from on the amiga again... like SuperNao and Chris Meland! I don't know if these are real comebacks or just old, unused tunes but either way I welcome the chance to hear these! Of the five, I would have to say Chris Meland's sits the best in my ears.
So, to sum it up then? I must admit I haven't had the time to read this mag 'cover to cover' yet, though I plan to do so later tonight or early tomorrow. First impressions after 45 minutes of browsing the articles, though, are very very good. Interesting articles that I look forward to reading completely through, and an appealing user interface... What more can you ask for? The mag engine is a tried and tested one that works great, looks great and performs great. The 'new' JP is a force to be reckoned with, now and in the future.
Please note that I myself had articles published in this mag, and that I as a result perhaps disqualify myself from doing a non-partial review. I just write this, so that noone will misunderstand and say that I had alterior motives for giving the mag a good review. I gave it a good review because I liked it, and for no other reason.
tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1.
