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                                    Chosneck # 3
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system... Falcon, 14 MB RAM (or 4+8), RGB/VGA, avoid use of a TV set!

credits.. shell code - sqward of mystic bytes
          shell gfx  - moonwalker of mystic bytes
          shell msx  - revisq of anadune/floppy
                       supernao of the black lotus
                       5o5 of checkpoint

          articles   - grey, saulot, sh3, 5o5, felice, maska, havoc, paranoid,
                       piku, dracon, bewesoft, yerzmyey

release.. o2/o3

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Yes, Chosneck is back, the youngest scene mag at the Atari scene. We had to wait
over one year for this  third issue, that is the second stand alone issue at all
and a bit confusing numbered, as the last issue was number one... you understand
don't you? Ok, slowly, for you ;)

Issue  one that  was numbered "0" was  released together  with their  music demo
"On Edge Of The Abyss" back in 2oo1. So the  second issue  and first stand alone
issue was right numbered with "1". If we count the  released issues, this one is
the third, but  if we go after  the numbers it  has to be issue 2... I think the
next one will reveal all ;)

"Chosneck 3" is again a hardware killer. This time it isn't as big as before but
it still  needs nearly  6 MB on your  harddisk (the last one took 7,5...) and it
needs also a bit more RAM as  a standard Falcon  would offer. 14 MB are nice but
4+8 should do fine as well. It supports RGB and VGA monitors but later for this.
"Chosneck 3" comes interestingly  along with 2 (!) intros, one made by the chaps
of  Escape and one  by the newcomer  Mikro from Slovakia. So let's take a closer
look onto them...

...Escape Intro...

This one  starts with a  noisy music, ofcourse  by 5o5 and  a nice little Escape
logo by Moonwalker. It features very well  done delayed environment  mapped glas
vectors of different size and some  caleidoscope effects with environment mapped
vectors. Overall it is cool designed, the music is timed to the beat, the colors
are very well chosen, the logos are nice drawn and technically it belongs to the
best Falcon intros ever done for a diskmag on Falcon, no question.
I really would put this one in a  row with  the DBA Mag 14 intro  that was quite
outstanding at its time as well and that I still like very much today...
Unfortunately  it is quite  short :/ and so we  have to wait even longer for the
next Escape fulltime  demo. Anyway, alone this  intro should force  you to leech
the magazine, esp. because it needs just a  standard Falcy to run! Euh... I wont
lower the quality of the magazine in here ;)

...Mikro Intro...

Mikro should be known in the scene  now... At first  he appeared as guest writer
for UCM # 23 and  with loads of  technical discussions  and questions on the DHS
board. And after loads of 3D talks he now enters the demo coder range...
His intro starts with some bitmap  grafix effects to pumping technoing music and
brings as main effect some quite good texture mapping stuff in reasonable speed,
even though I just have  a non-accelerated Falcon. The intro features some logos
by Moonwalker of Mystic Bytes again but those don't reach the same quality as in
the Escape intro...

...the magazine...

The magazine  starts with  a selector  screen where  you can  chose  the monitor
settings and if you want to start the magazine with or without intro. Right here
I have to report  some drawbacks. So  Chosneck refused to run in 5o Hz on my RGB
monitor, everytime  I chosed this  option, the  machines hangs up. Ok, the 54 Hz
option does  its job on RGB, but then you have other problems in the mag itself,
but later more. The best solution is a VGA monitor, no doubt.

After the usual (...) long loading sequence we get  the extremely stylish shell!
Whooouw! This menu screen looks  marvellous in  its high resolution and state of
the art design, it surely can go in competition with  the usual PC scene mags in
its style. Nice  to see such  fresh attempts  on our "old" Atari scene. It comes
along  with 3 musix, one  by 5o5, one  by SuperNao of TBL and  one  by Revisq of
Anadune/Floopy. I have  to admit that the  music by  SuperNao does the  best job
this time  in a mag-reader-background-music as  it's not very dominant and plays
silently in the background. Unfortunately  the music selection  screen  seems to
offer  a game  as well, as  it isn't  that funny to  search the  buttons  with a
black mouse pointer on a  black screenpart. The  screen is surely  well designed
but this is doubtless a drawback without any need.

Browsing  through the  contents you  can see  that  the Chosneck posse  tries to
reflect all  movements of  the todays scene. Every happening  gets analysed in a
very special way  and it is always  a cool thing to read especially Grey's views
in his very authentic slang :)
Unfortunately  also Chosneck seems  to suffer a bit under the low support of the
scene and the low activity  of the scene over the past year as this issue needed
that long to be  finished. But Grey  did very well  in trying to create a steady
team of writers, I don't know  how steady it  will be in the future, but he even
matched it to gather a bigger band  of helping  hands for  this current issue as
for the last Alive that traditionally has the most writers nowadays..
And so Chosneck 3 is filled with nearly 7o articles of all topics.

Those articles  can easily  be chosen  by the mouse as always, but after a quite
long loading  sequence (I really  don't know why  it needs always that long) the
viewer appears  and offers a big drawback for RGB users. But before I write more
about it  let me remark  another thing, the  mag loads  always something, if you
want to read  an article  you have to  wait some secs, if you want to go back to
the menu you have  to wait another 1o secs, the loading sequence is awfully slow
and kills  quite a lot of motivation. I  can't understand this point, as I think
if you need a 14 MB machine to run the mag, why can't be hold essential parts of
it in the RAM, such as the mainmenu?! Those breaks of about 1o seconds (!) every
time aren't that nice :/ I doubt it is the fault of a slow harddisk or something
but the use of a ZIP archive for the datas...
And... very uncomfortable  is the lack of the  first one or  even two letters of
the articles  in every  line on RGB! The  reading of  the articles suffers a lot
under this error. So if you have a VGA monitor, use it!

I just  hope they  will work  further on  the shell, while  the main menu really
kicks ass  in its style, the viewer  isn't  that rocking  anymore, you  just can
scroll up and  down with  grafix in the  background  that are scrolling with the
text, little links to pictures and photos are marked in the text and that's more
or less all.

Ok, after  so much  stuff  to  mourn about, let's  take  a deeper  look into the
contents. Besides  the usual stuff like party reports and party informations and
a lot of  interviews  with several  people (some  of them  were  stolen from the
internet...), Chosnecks' main  view belongs to the things happening in the scene
and the  writers  are  squeezing  their  brains  out  to  comment  every  single
discussion and viewpoint of several people over the past months.
This part is very interesting to read. Nice views and stories! And this big part
makes Chosneck someway different to the usual mags in the scene.

We go on with... reviews! A thing that shouldn't appear in Chosneck at first, as
we remember that  they don't wanted to do  reviews in the past. Now we have some
round up of  the latest Reservoir Gods games  and Nethack and last but not least
Sh3 gave us a story-embedded guide to successful Superflying.

The rest  of the mag  features  various  things, like hints and  tips to various
problems and some homework jobs for little  solder fans  that want to burn their
8bit machines. Some  other  interesting  things  coming  up when  Grey starts to
enlight  some Atari specific things  from Poland, such as  he writes about Atari
magazines  over there in  the past and  today as  well  as views onto non-scene-
related  Atari topics. Last but not least we have the usual "cocktail" part with
some non-computer-related topics and... tataaa... even a little adult story!
Yummy...

In fact you have  quite a lot to  read and  you will  need your time  to make it
through all the articles, not only because of the slow loading, no, also because
there is really some numerous stuff to  explore... So if  you have a Falcon with
more than just 4 MB RAM you just  have to get this magazine, as there is nothing
comparable around on the Falcy nowadays.

Final words... Chosneck is going to establish itself in the small Atari magazine
               scene with this issue very well. Apart from  the drawback that we
               had to wait over  one year for  this issue  it impresses with its
               design, the intros and overall the many  interesting articles. It
               really would  be a  hard competitor  for the  existing magazines,
               Alive and UCM, if  it wouldn't  brake out  itself because  of the
               needed hardware, just  face the  fact, it doesn't matter what the
               hardcore  sceners  say, 4 MB machines are still  very wide spread
               and all those people are wasted as readers and possible supporter
               staff. I believe that many people really  like the idea of a Fo3o
               only magazine  and would try  to help out, but  only if they have
               something from it as well...

___ratings______________________________________________________________________

contents......  85 % - slightly different with a load of scene talk
shell.........  65 % - menu - good, viewer - mediocre, loader - painful
shell grafix..  95 % - the menu is damn stylish in hires...
shell musix...  75 % - quite different styles for any taste
loader grafix.  8o % - another hires stuff...

___Overall______81_%____________________________________________________________

Chosneck unfortunately failes  in taking the crown on Atari diskmags as the high
hardware settings leaving out a lot of possible readers and I don't mean all the
ST users... The contents are  impressive and  it is a little  shame that not all
can get their eyes on them...

_.tSCc.__________________________________________________________moondog_o3/2k3_