--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   Alive # 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

system... ST, STe, Falcon, STeem 2.4, 512 KB RAM, RGB/VGA

credits.. intro - code  - strider of mjj prod
                  gfx   - c-rem & wilfried of mjj prod
                  msx   - dma sc of sector one
          mag   - shell - earx of fun/lineout
                  gfx   - exocet of jff
                          paranoid of paranoia
                  msx   - tinker of teenage (fo3o)
                          5o5 of checkpoint/creators
                          dma sc of sector one
                          tao of cream
                  texts - cih, sts, strider, paranoid, marss, deez, dma sc,
                          exocet, earx, baah

release.. 12/o2

url...... http://alive.atari.org

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Alive Team needed quite a little more time to release this issue and starts
to suffer under the same problems as the whole diskmag  scene (errr... at least
of that what is left of it). I wont start to write always  the same bullshit as
before, that  the  shrinking  scene  has  not  enough  output  to make the fast
releases of diskmags possible as well as the shrinking support, blabla...

In fact  the team  around STsurvivor  and CiH needed  a half year  now to bring
their new  issue out, but in the end they matched it at all and overall in such
weak times  even to  release  3 issues in 2oo2  at all, a thing  we (I)  didn't
matched, arf...

This  time  the  magazine  comes as  single  version  again, after  issue 5 was
splitted  into  ST and Falcon version  because  of  different  intros  and size
reasons.
Alive 6  comes  interestingly  with an  intro  by MJJ PROD, a  move  nobody had
thought of  before, after  the big quarrels around some reviews of MJJ stuff in
the former issues  of Alive  and UCM. And  this little  intro, coded by STrider
with grafix  by C-Rem and  Wilfried does its job. It isn't an effect burner but
shows off that MJJ can do more  than just slideshows and musicdisx nowadays. It
features nice grafix and a neat chiptune by DMA SC.

The mag itself  starts with  a cool picture by  their main  grafix collaborator
Exocet  that  shows  a "living shit" that  steps out  of  the  toilet, that  is
obviously "alive". The shell  grafix are  done by Paranoid this time, his first
pixel appearance since  longer time  now and assembles parts of ST machines for
the shell, such as  the backside  with the connections for the menu bar... Nice
idea but I wonder where the scroll buttons are on my ST?!

The included musix are on the chip level very nice, the involved  musicians are
doing -always- a great  job. A bit  weak is the tracker music on Falcon, Tinker
is  known  for technoing stuff  but this one  loops that  much that  the steady
boom-boom breaks every single nerve while reading.

Browsing through the contents this issue offers around 6o articles at the menu,
while  some  of the  articles offer  the  possibility  to dive  into  different
chapters using the linksystem as well that makes about 8o textfiles to read.

Ofcourse the contents offer a widespread mix of the usual Atari talk, the usual
news and party  informations as well as a big range of party reports this time.
STsurvivor finds  again something  in UCM to make  his jokes about, such as the
"dead scene" article, grin :) Also  some other  views  onto  the  scene and the
things going  on in it, are  nice to  read, even  if they dig out some stuff we
were happy that those discussions belonged to the past... but here you can see,
diskmags reflect the scenes where they belong to, that is there job.

There is a bunch  of interviews included and here we get STsurvivor interviewed
for his own magazine... eh! I'm already thinking about making an interview with
myself, as this should be a real rarity, harhar.
Very nice to  read the  interviews  with  Defjam of Checkpoint, Mic of Dune and
Grazey of  PHF, while  the  CoolGirls  thing, erf... you  know, I  still  don't
believe that  they're existing as coders, as real persons, sure, but surely not
as Atari coders. But I  think this  story will  belong to  the mysteries of the
later Atari scene now...

The mag goes on with  a mixed bunch  of reviews but  since there wasn't much to
review in  the past months, this  corner is  quite small  these days. So we can
read some stuff  about the latest demos and intros, some GEM-stuff reviews such
as the PDF viewer  Porthos or  the ST-guide  document viewer "Hyp View", not to
forget we can  read a  review of UCM # 23  as well, hui... even  if it leaves a
quite  bitter taste somehow as  Paranoid surely  is right  at some points but I
can't slapp anyone to write for me and article writer slaves are a rarity today
as you can see in the current issue of UCM as well...

Then we  have a bunch  of coding  and hardware  tutorials/faqs where especially
Paranoid  did a hell  of a job  with his  big  STE and TT faqs (those  are  the
articles with all the crosslinks to check!).

Yeps, and  the rest of  the mag  offers a story about the Archimedes Demoscene,
some music and  movie bits  and, a huuuge craptalk corner where CiH lives on in
new form  especially when  he digs out his ascii madness again. A slightly grin
was painted onto my face while reading the internet snippet "plastic teen love"
hurharhar...

Hum, there  is quite a  lot to read as you can see. The main works are done, as
always by STS and CiH, who  carry the  biggest  part on their shoulders but the
help with articles by many others coloures up the whole scenery a lot. To round
it up the  Alive Team  matches it  still to  get about  a third  part  of their
articles  by "foreign" writers  that obviously  takes a  lot of burden from the
both main editors shoulders, too.
There are  several  interesting  articles, I  enjoyed  CiH's pseudy d iary of a
magazine editor (from apathy to angst...) as it reminds me a lot to my own
works for UCM in some way...

So what to  say more? If you still haven't got that issue you really should get
it now...

Final words... Alive # 6 is again a good issue with quite a lot  stuff to read.
               The artwork and musix are  nice even though  the Falcon music is
               surely a matter  of taste and not that suitable for a background
               music. Because of the  quite many different writers the articles
               are very  mixed and  there should  be something  to read for any
               taste... unfortunately the  slowdown of  the scene over the past
               months avoided the writers to bring us some special highlight in
               the articles. Sure, they're mostly well written  and hold a good
               standard, but aren't able to  top the last  issue that still was
               the best Alive issue so far even if the development needed quite
               a little  more  time... Maybe  things will  change with  the EIL
               stuffed next issue?!

___ratings______________________________________________________________________

contents......  8o % - a good read at all but some real highlight is missing
shell.........  .. % - no rating as it's the same as ours'
shell grafix..  8o % - still wonder about the strange connections ;)
shell musix...  8o % - the chippers are cool but the module... read above
loader grafix.  85 % - real funny thing by Exocet...

___Overall______81_%____________________________________________________________

A good issue at all and finally something to read for the diskmag lovers again.

_.tSCc.__________________________________________________________moondog_o1/2k3_