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ALIVE - ISSUE 4
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system .... ST, STe, Falcon, several emulators, RGB, VGA
credits ... grafix by Edo and Exocet
musix by Tao, DMA SC, 5o5 and Toodeloo
articles & support by STS, CiH, Paranoid, Marss, Deez, Mr Pink, 5o5,
released .. o2/2k2
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Here it is again, ALIVE as hell. With the time the posse behind STS and CiH
seems to have found some way to release the issues in regular time. Since the
EIL issue they matched it to release the followers in steps of 4 months adding
maybe a few weeks more and so ALIVE matched it to be some steady part of the
nowadays Atari scene.
Unfortunately the current issue comes along without a new intro since the coder
of the intro didn't matched it to finish it in time and so a release of a ready
magazine was better as to wait some weeks more, even if I really would like to
know what intro we missed now.
Anyway, this issue is again a fairly big one, expanding over the 7o articles
level and filling up a DD disk untill its last edge. The support comes from ppl
that are known for their state-of-the-art work and so right after loading you'll
be impressed by a nice loaderpicture by EXOCET, made in the style of the so
called "Gründerzeit" (founding time, the time around 19oo). It is followed by
the also magnificent menu grafix by EDO, reminding a bit to Leonardo da Vinci
with the two hands on top of the screen... On Falcon you can hear a nice tracker
music by TOODELOO while ST owners only (?) can enjoy the works of 5o5, DMA SC
and last but not least TAO. As known you can enjoy those soundtracks on Falcon
as well but still their use makes the Falcon a bit unstable but that is a known
problem...
Ok, enough of the forewords... let's browse through the magazine. It contains
again a various collection of articles, just as a huge scene corner with very
intersting party reports from Alternative Party (CiH has put a lot of work into
that adventure!) and Paracon 3 (nice read of 5o5's Limburg adventures...) as
well as other party informations. A special thing to mention is the "minimag"
article by CiH, making some nonsense headlines from real news and happenings,
that was an origin of the old DBA magazine.
Another big part is filled with tech-specs of several hardware stuff for the
Falcon, just as the Eclipse PCI adaptor and its sense or nonsense for Falcon
users, written by Deez, stuff about the CT6o, Paranoid's view onto an announced
new Falcon compatible computer (that seems to be a hoak, even it's name TOSter
reminds me more to Toaster ;)...) just for example.
Other parts are filled with the news (that turned out to be more a collection of
rumours since you mostly can't get real deep informations) and interviews that
feature our new coder REMO, the makers of the new Highwire webbrowser project,
Matt Us Alem from XTROLL and another newcomer from France, just for example.
Later on STsurvivor is telling stories from the french scene in past and present
as well as some things he remembers from all the Atari parties he joined and CiH
takes an Atari related look back onto the last year.
The reviews corner is filled with reviews of the most recent scene releases, as
demos and games and so you can read about "Illusion" from PARANOIA, the releases
of SATANTRONIC, "ChuChu Rocket" and "Mem", just to mention a few. Also CHOSNECK
magazine got a closer look.
Ofcourse MARSS' internet ripps aren't missing and he offers another bunch of
NUON related articles but as you maybe already checked in other ALIVE reviews I
am not so interested in that stuff, but maybe it finds some interested readers,
even if I think that in times as the most people are connected via Internet, the
reason to ripp off articles from the Internet is turning to nonsense. Esp. since
you're interested in that NUON stuff you will be faster informed by searching
for the related homepages, esp. since on the consoles market the development is
damn fast.
So what else... there is the known bunch of all-over articles, featuring a big
bunch of CiH brain meltdowns, so he invents the comeback of ASCII Nation, gives
hints about having fun with PC's and so on. STsurvivor itself offers another
Internet ripp about dull ways to die and last but not least there are some DVD
reviews and a lot more.
Finito... Hu? A nice read at, no question, even if the magazine didn't features
any sensations or reported hypes, but we have to admit that there weren't much
actions on the Scene in the times as the magazine was created, such as big
parties or history writing releases...
Final words... -ALIVE 4- shows that the team behind the magazine has found some
well running way in working together and since it matched it to
establish a wellknown name in the Atari world with its presence
it got some more support again by several other freaks using it
to express their thoughts. The work that is sticking in the texts
is differing from author to author and I must admit that I have
enjoyed CiH's work most since he really puts a lot of work into
his very long and detailed articles and furthermore he uses the
possibilities of the shell as good as possible while others often
don't care too much about them.
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contents........ 8o % - over 7o articles, a good mix, but again some inet ripps
shell........... ------- what to say, the same as ours ;) no rating!
shell grafix.... 85 % - cool stuff in typical edo style
shell musix..... 85 % - very nice module, great chippies
loader pic...... 8o % - nice picture in a strange style, quite original
intro........... ------- no intro - no rating
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overall......... 83 % - the best ALIVE issue so far...
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Is there something more to say? With CHOSNECK and UCM there is enough compo now
and the hunt is opened... We will see what it brings...
.tSCc. - no pr0mises - no demands! moondog . o2/2k2
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UCM22
