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                    "ON EDGE OF THE ABYSS" by THE MYSTIC BYTES
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system... Falcon, 14 MB STRAM or 4 MB STRAM + 8 MB FASTRAM, RGB/VGA, harddisk

size..... 7,9 MB

credits.. code - sqward
          grfx - moonwalker
          msx  - seabrush
               - energizer of lazer
               - mc laser of .tSCc.
               - 5o5 of checkpoint
               - tinker of teenage
               - mr future of paranoia
               - c-frog of nature
               - adamsky of echo core union
               - ice of depression

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After months  of excessive  propaganda postings  on the  DHS bulletin board from
GREY that  caused a lot of discussion again (that showed up that there are still
a lot of  freax around :) and interested  in the things  going on), the demo was
finally released at the end of January 2k1.

At first... the demo breaks a lot of limits. Without any doubt it is the biggest
music demo released on Falcon so far (and because it is  called V1 there will be
maybe a second and maybe bigger one?). Furthermore it is the  biggest scene demo
released on Falcon at all! It tops  the former  ruler "LOST BLUBB" that build up
the record in 1995 with more than a half MB.

Another limit  that was broken, again, is the "holy" standard  Falcon limit. The
MYSTIC BYTES freaks announced a 14 MB STRAM demo, but as  tests showing up, also
the 4ST/8FAST config runs fine. I still know  that there are enough users around
that using  FASTRAM cards and no 14 MB Falcons and  so this demo  will find more
watchers than a pure 14 MB release.

I don't want to start  any discussion again because that theme is rode to death,
but I still think  the best move for all would be a demo that  offers more stuff
for highend machines but will run on standard ones as well. I know that it would
mean that the makers would have a lot of more work but my point  of view is that
it is better to support a whole scene instead of a bunch of highend freaks only.

Ok, stop that  craptalk and  lets take  a closer look  to "OEOTA" (...). Since I
got a 14 MB RAM  card on  ERROR IN LINE (thanx to GREY) I'm  able now to  take a
much closer look onto the demo. Btw. GREY and SQWARD announced that parts of the
demo will run on 4 MB as well and so I checked it before I got the RAM card, too
but it was far from being a  whole impression, because just a small part, better
just the musix, were running. Anyway, this small view made me anxious to see the
whole thing and now I will check it out in full version.

The demo starts with a menu box where you can  chose the sampling  rate and type
of monitor  and screen frequencies. After  that the first  problems occured. The
demo fucks up about 3 of 4 times as I choosed RGB 5o Hz. The same  problems came
up with the 54 Hz frequency but not as  often. The fuck up  comes on screen with
a nasty 7o Hz flickering. Lately  I tried the demo on VGA then and there it runs
without problems. Who knows?

But as you  can see I  matched it to step through  this bugs and  after a lot of
tries I  reached the loading screen, featuring  some dark coloured  grafix stuff
and a line  saying loading  and depacking... A nice  soundtrack  starts to play,
some  minimal electronix  stuff  with breaking voices and stuff  as well as some
samples of an old 8o wave song, damn if I could remember who is singing it, Kate
Bush maybe? Dunno... Last but  not least I  must'nt tell you about the  composer
because the style reveals him, MC LASER, the Nasenmann!

Anyway, the  demo goes on  with the next screen, same dark style  and offering a
menu, saying "abyss planet" (that  leads you to  the music  selector screen) and
"chosneck planet". The second part was closed for 4 MB users since the demo will
fuck up while loading. This part is the new scene magazine, created by the force
from Poland, but I will check this out later...

I started with the music selector. A nice title logo appears on the screen, this
time broken up with some orange colours too... btw... all  that stuff is highres
stuff, but I doubt that it is pixeled. But that doesn't matter, because it looks
good, remembering hard to the nowadays PC demo style. All matches  together very
well even if I miss some transitions to speak of real cool design.

Ok, the  loader appears again and after short time the menu appears  that can be
scrolled up and down with the cursor keys. The screen is again  just filled with
greyscaled logo and background stuff, but on white background. On the right side
is standing a big Abyss logo and the musicians are spread over the whole screen.

Each musician  appears with  his song title and two buttons. One  starts to play
the music and the other opens another screen featuring a picture of the musician
(mostly), a few facts about him and some special feature for any musician...

Oki... so let's start  with MC LASER, because his music is the first one played.
The style is  mentioned above already... His facts screen features a DJ photo of
him (taken on  the UNCONVENTIONAL PARTY as  I remember right), some facts and as
special  a big scroller  in a window on  the bottom of the screen, giving a real
trashy sex story that comes straight out of LASER's mushroom distorted mind.
Fucking tree's.... uugh. Btw... the song was called "No Promises"...

"Fake" is the  title of MR FUTURE's song. This one is some fast technoing stuff,
that  reminds me hard  to some  music done by the GIANTS from holland... reminds
to some  old Prodigy releases then. His facts screen brings a distorted photo of
the maker and  a textured tunnel in the "specials" window on the bottom, as well
as the facts.

Next  song in the row  is "Disted Thoughts" by C-FROG. This module is different,
not only  composed on  Amiga (huuu! :) but features as well another  style, some
mellowing stuff with bass, strange synth samples and piano end... The facts site
offers an old photo, the facts again and a strange moving texture effect.

"Golden Shower" is the next song called, it's done by ENERGIZER, the last active
survivor  of the former ruler  band LAZER... And since coding is out nowadays he
started to create some music. This module leaves no big impression to me... some
trancy  stuff but boring with  the time... His facts site offers a  photo, facts
and another colour cycling effect.

ADAMSKY, the lonely fighter from Poland, who brought us a bunch  of primitive ST
games lately, is the next one, with his song "Game Over". This is, as it is  the
most  liked  style by  the  musicians, technoing stuff again, featuring  driving
beats, synth  and acid bleeps... The thing to  mention on his facts site is  the
strange effect, offered in the window again... Nice colour cycling stuff...

Of course a MYSTIC BYTES musician  has to offer a module as well and so SEABRUSH
did with "Keep'n da fight", a break  beat module  of mediocre  quality. Not very
spectacular stuff, sorry. The facts site therefore offers a prollo photo :P with
a smoking  Seabrush and a nice textured tunnel flight, but with a very low frame
rate...

TINKYwinky is  the next one  and the  TEENIE brings us with "XLR8" as known very
strange  technoing beats  with cruel  noises  and samples. Ugh... His facts site
offers a kiddie picture and another colour cycling effect in the window.

"Panic On The Dancefloor" offers  ICE of DEPRESSION  with a very  old  fashioned
module, reminding  me hard to  some techno modules from the very early nineties.
So what? I understand  the title then, because if all will  leave the dancefloor
because of  those old sounds panic will break out... hehe. His facts site brings
us a pixeled "portrait" of the maker and some antz war as special effect.

Finally we  reached the end of the music  section, with Nilsi of  CHECKPOINT and
his "Straight" module, typical 5o5 style, samples that were copied from anywhere
and smashed together in a funny way, mixed with very strange noises... funny.
His facts site is showing a sleeping 5o5 and another tunnel effect.

Oki... that's  it for  the music part of "OEOTA". A short overview?! Nice styled
menu and  idea with  the single  info  parts, esp. I like the idea to offer some
demo effects on  every screen. Last but not least all matches together very well
in the design, even the effects that all were presented in grey scales. A little
drawback is the musical side... sorry to say this. Not that the modules are bad,
no, but except  two or maybe three  they aren't burning any memory into my mind,
too mediocre... in  this point I  must say that several other music  collections
offering more impressive stuff. Ok... I don't want to go into details here, just
because there is still a lot more to discover here...

CHOSNECK PLANET...

After coming  back to  the selection  menu I clicked on CHOSNECK and for seconds
there is  a nice CHOSNECK logo (photoshoped eh, but still nice) displayed. Short
after this on the left side there is a grey scaled CHOSNECK logo displayed, with
saying "issue number zero" (?!). On the  right side  there is a  menu offering 5
topics, featuring  informations about "Chosneck", views on the scene, interviews
and other stuffs. Overall there are about 2o articles ready to enjoy, most of
them were written  by GREY. He matched it to drag the half polish (...) scene on
the interview  couch, wrote some statements about some quarrels in the scene, he
even created a polish scene report, as he did for older issues of UCM.

Other contributors are  STsurvivor, who  was making  some  promotion  for ALIVE!
magazine, PARANOID, who  wrote a very interesting  article about  MP3 players on
Atari, MATT SMITH (known as NEO from  RESERVOIR GODS now) who wrotes a report of
the SILLYVENTURE party last year. CIH offers his views about the todays computer
scene... and so it goes on...

The articles are  presented in  a nice way, so  the text is  put onto a textured
background and comes along with a view small pictures. The shell isn't of a kind
known  before on Atari and seems  to have its routs copied from PC diskmags that
are presented in a similar way, but that's no drawback because it brings another
style to the Atari scene and makes it a bit more colourful.

The  magazine is accompanied by  music as well, but the problem is that you have
to select the  music via the  music part of "OEOTA" and you need a lot of clicks
to change it. A small menu for the magazine party would have beed a better idea.
Another small  drawback is the  fact that the loading times are quiet long and I
don't see the reason why. To  see steady the loading screen nerves with the time
and I wonder  why the magazine  must reload anything, even if it uses 14 MB, why
it doesn't hold parts in the memory? But that are the only points to mourn about
(except the  14 MB problem  at all, but  as it  seems its depended to the  music
colly, because I don't think the CHOSNECK really needs 14 MB as magazine alone).

Oki.. time to end this long review here... with the usual final words...

"ON EDGE OF THE ABYSS" (fully  written again, eeek!), is a nice production, that
ports some nowadays PC style to the Atari. The idea  to mix up a music colly and
a magazine is nice, no question, but has its drawbacks, as written above, 'coz a
magazine for 14 MB machines will have a hard stand. The design is quite ok but I
wonder why there are  no real  transitions or  something, it  seems more to be a
very big slideshow. The  musix are of an ok quality but most of them don't leave
a big impression  to me. So  what is left? A  good music colly that has its good
sides more  on the design and a good attempt to create a new scene oriented disk
magazine on Atari, but with the difference that this first issue was only of use
for 14 MB or FastRAM owners.

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originality...  55 % - to mix up magazine and music disk... but nothing real new
effex.........  5o % - already seen before, tunnels and colour cycling stuff
grafix........  9o % - even if not pixeled they have style...
musix.........  7o % - 9 modules, different styles and qualities...
design........  75 % - straight style, but I miss real transitions
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all in one....  72 % - not bad but I would prefer stand alone mag and msx disk
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The new CHOSNECK issue  is already in the pipeline and I hope to get my hands on
it soon, because it is a real promising magazine, and maybe the best part of the
production at all...

.tSCc.                                                                   moondog
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