UCM23
.tHE .sIRIUS .cYBERNETICS .cORPORATION
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NARSIL MAGAZINE... R.I.P.?!
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This article was thought to be finished for the last issue of UCM but in the end
I fucked up in finishing it. Since I had a bit more time then, I decided to show
up what happened since the latest NARSIL reviews in UCM, and this was issue 4o
in UCM # 21...
Since then happened a lot... At first, there were 7 other issues released in
this time, and at second, the magazine seems to be dead! Yes, you've red right,
even if they announced they wanted to stop with issue 5o nothing happened on the
NARSIL front anymore. Issue 47, released last year in December was the last
issue. Since then the NARSIL homepage, maintained by EMPTY HEAD closed down and
also no czech FTP server is dealing with new issues, just storing issues up to
the 47... Since I knew that those FTP servers were updated regularly with the
release of a new issue, this is a sign that something is going wrong in the
czech ST scene.
But after all, EMPTY HEAD isn't responsible for the release of NARSIL alone, but
the czech team called FAEN. Their only release this year was a game, we already
mentioned in the last UCM, that is an adventure in czech language, created using
the STAC and called LEKTVAR... So they aren't vanished completely, but after
all it is a bit strange that they disappeared suddenly and unexpected.
Even if I still didn't learned the czech language, I'm a bit sad since those
magazines always came along with heavy grafix contents, often created by the
outstanding czech grafician JS, Jiri Sladovnic, who is responsible for the most
grafix in czech productions, just as in the most NARSIL Magazines, the game
POWER UP by MC SOFT and last but not least for the still unfinished and very
promising game project BLOUMA'S ADVENTURE... Btw, I have collected a bunch of
informations, mixed up with a lot of screenshots and grafix files of this game,
again, just to show up, that this game isn't just a little rumour, but that
there are a lot of works done within the last years. Just follow the link below:
>---> BLOUMA'S ADVENTURE <---<
But back to NARSIL... Anyway, here we go with short reviews of the last issues
that were released over the last 1,5 years.
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ISSUE 41
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This was the last release in 2ooo. This isse was again quite big, even if it all
was matching on one disk, but with a size of about 9oo KB it was of usual size
for the NARSIL one disk issues.
The mag itself starts with some scanned picture of mediocre quality, followed by
a short FAEN animation by JS and some quite nice menu grafix, showing some space
stuff. This issue contains just 29 articles and animations and as you remember,
NARSIL was a shareware magazine, so you had to pay a bill, receiving a key code
to make the issue fully accecable... I didn't and so this issue was in this fact
one of the worst ever since 11 articles were for payers only this time! What a
shit, sorry to say that, but with nearly every second article disabled, it was a
damn short view...
The issue featured the usual reviews of old games, like MOONSHINE RACERS, SUPER
SEYMOUR, CAVEMANIA, SKWEEK, ROBOKID, INSECT IN SPACE, DARIUS and HORROR ZOMBIES.
Furthermore there is a special about SHADOW OF THE BEAST and you get the game
solution for REALMS OF REALITY as well as the maps of POPIS (hu?).
Aside from the games corner, the magazine features the 5th part of a HTML guide
and the second part of an Internet guide, a report from the ATARI HODY 2ooo,
some comic pictures of the makers of the magazine, a survey of all reviewed
stuff so far and the usual adverts.
The goodies, that are coming along with the magazine aren't very brainblasting
this time since there are only the whole maps for REALMS OF REALITY in .SEQ
format.
What to say, not a very impressive issue, from the contents. I think I must not
mention that it is an even shorter view if you don't know one single czech word.
The presentation is quite ok, featuring several pictures and small animations as
well as a good menu grafic. Unfortunately the didn't changed the problem with
the music so far, and so you aren't able to listen to them, still, if you don't
own an Atari STE...
Overall? The big ammount of disabled articles knocks out this issue, even for
non czech people.
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ISSUE 42
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ISSUE 42 was their first release in 2oo1 and already showed up its drawback with
the shrinked filesize, since it only filled up 8oo KB this time, bringing us
only 25 articles and animations now... On the disc there were a few goodies like
the demo version of CADAVER, the MINES game that came along with DNT PAPER # 6
some years ago, as well as some animation sequence of an old game.
While the loader picture is quite, errr..., shit, the menu grafix are again of a
good quality. The contents weren't as much for pay-per-read this time, only 6 of
the articles and animations were disabled, unfortunately a few I really wanted
to see, since this issue was the first since long times (last time in the middle
of the 3o issues) that was dealing with informations about the secret game thing
known as BLOUMA'S ADVENTURE again, just bringing screenshots and animation
sequences again. But as said, the most were for pay readers only, too bad...
The mag itself brings only a few reviews this time, so there are HARLEQUIN,
WELLTRIS, RUBICON and TURN'N'BURN. A big special is this time the CADAVER thing,
with a review, solution with maps and a preview of a demo version.
Furthermore there is a hardware article included, that brings some very small
snippets of all the hardwares that are in development, such as MILAN 2, CT6o,
Phantom accelerator, Panther/2 board, Tempest card and DesTTiny board.
Other things to mention is another web guide and a little weird animation. The
rest is filled with the usual stuff like adverts and so on...
Overall? A bit smaller than the previous one but because of the quite new BLOUMA
snippets very interesting... Too bad that I couldn't read something :/
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ISSUE 43
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This was a record breaking issue! The presentation was quite ok, with a scanned
picture from the ALIEN movie as loader and another spacy menu grafix. The thing
that impressed me here, is the fact that the 911 KB on the disk are filled up
with more than 5o articles and animations, record as far as I know for the mag!
Even the fact that 16 articles and animations were disabled doesn't minimize the
massive release.
The magazine features as highlite, another big animation corner, dealing with a
lot of presentation animations for EMPTY HEAD, MC SOFT and DRAKONIS (Dunno). All
were done by JS again and partly very nice stuff!
On the articles side the mag features again a big bunch of game reviews, such as
SUPER SKWEEK, TERRAMEX, SPACE RACERS, TIME RACE and VIDEO KID, furthermore a
review of INDIANA JONES 3 as well as the solution and level maps of the game.
On the more serious side it goes on with the Internet guide, an article about
the XTOS project, a review of STEEM and some guide about the disk structures.
There are also different reports of the ATARIADA party included, coming along
with several pictures of the party, but unfortunately in bad quality.
Of lesser interest, esp. for not czech readers, is a literature experiment but I
really don't know what is it all about and so it doesn't matter to me that four
of them were disabled. The rest is filled up with the usual stuffs, that were
already mentioned before, so there are several adverts (for the new ATARIADA).
Last but not least, the goodies, that featuring a game called SKAMPY and a .SEQ
file containing a slideshow from the ATARIADA party.
Overall? From the contents it is one of the strongest issues and features also a
quite stunning ammount of new grafix and animations!
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ISSUE 44
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What issue 43 matched to build up, was issue 44 breaking down again. Not only
that the presentation lost a bit with the not so well done loader picture, nope
over all the contents were very disturbing, not even the half of issue 43... and
still a lot of articles disabled (8 this time). But after all the mag fills up
over 9oo KB again... maybe this belonged to the goodies, the game SQUARE OFF and
a small utility for N.AES.
The presentation of the menu is quite nice and so we have a screenshot here for
you...
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