UCM24
.tHE .sIRIUS .cYBERNETICS .cORPORATION
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Feedback to UCM 23
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Here are again some more or less nice. Some are commented, some not...
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The latest Undercover ruled! Nice intro, cute title-pic ("subtle one,
great work" as my wife said :o)). Edo did his best, the
shell gfx also "rocks da house". Ufortunately I am not able to
listen to ANY chip-tune! :o(( Dunno wassup, I really miss it :o(
I like the content, esp. the 8-bit Atari demo-reviews! I will
send it over to the guys from this scene :o) They should enjoy
it as much as I did!
I think You really shouldn't care about anyone blaming You for
not being objective. You don't get any support from these ppl,
they are only complaining... In my opinion some of these releases
don't deserve any attention at all! Sometime I am wondering why
my best friends from UCM or Alive! loose their time on writing
such reviews... Anyway hold Your head up Eric! I admire Your
and ST Survior's support to the scene! We have a GREAT and STRONG
competition in both of You.
Maybe we'll join forces someday, who knows :o))
All the best for Your disk-mag! Keep the fight with
insects! :o)
respect!
Michal
Grey / MSB
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Hi Moondog!
Some comments to ucm23:
- absolutely cool MODule, best I ever heard in UCM !!!
- bug with chip msx: I can't switch to chip musics!! (1st try: no
effect. 2nd try: comp hangs up)
- and 3rd thing... it's clear you aren't home in 8bit scene :)))
You totally missed idea of Anim Komials' Too HArd. It's fake. From start
to end. Every "effect" you seen was ripped from another demos and maked
like animation. A.K. "codes" always this kind of demos... They always
parody some demos... 1st Too Hard parodies Konop/Shadows and his env torus
(he wrote it's realtime and isn't), 2nd part parodies Gumi's/Tight Total
Daze, and this part parodies Ergo Bibamus by Kroger/Quasimodos... yes,
that 3D polygons, that's ripped animation... again... only realtime FX is
that scroll at end :))
Ok, that's all, very nice work at all!
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MiKRO Atari XE/XL/Mega STE/Falcon030 http://mikro.atari.org
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moondogs note... Hi Mikro, unfortunately I really can't follow your chip music
bug but since Grazey has done another little patch this may
be solved now. You can even try to exchange the current shell
with the one in the older magazine to have a less buggy UCM 23
then... Yes, I'm no 8bit man... thanks for your lessons :)
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Hey Eric!
...das neue UCM ist ja wieder mal eine Meisterleistung! :-)
Es macht wirklich Spaß, darin rumzustöbern. Ich finde Deine
Reviews auch sehr human für Deine Verhältnisse - Man sieht:
Du wirst ält..erhm..reifer, hehe .-)
Vor allem die Interviews waren diesmal für mich besonders
interessant - will mehr!
Das ist wirklich cool, wie viele alt-Szener sich noch so
eng mit Atari verbunden fühlen.
Achja... der oppinion-poll. Du solltest nächstes Mal den
POLL-sheet einfach als ASCII-Datei ins Archiv packen - das
wäre einfacher. Vielen ist es wahrscheinlich zu umständlich,
den Text von UCM aus zu sichern (wenngleich dies ja einfach
geht).
Wegen der Diskussion auf dem DHS-board: Ich denke, Du solltest
Deinen kritischen und kontroversen Stil beibehalten - Du schaffst
es ja inzwischen, Deine Kritik recht sachlich rüberzubringen,
ohne wirklich verletzend zu sein. Die MJJ-Leute sollten mal ein
paar ältere UCMs lesen ,-) ...umso mehr freut man sich, wenn
man von Dir nicht in Grund und Boden gestampft wird. Auf jeden
Fall ist es besser, als alle releases unkritisch in die Höhe
zu loben - wenn man dafür 'gelobt' wird, daß man etwas released,
spornt es ja nicht an, etwas wirklich Gutes zu releasen.
Oki, das wars von mir,
Norman
moondogs note... Hi Norman! Vielen Dank für die Lorbeeren, tja, man wird
halt älter und gesitteter, mit 3o sollte das nun langsam mal
eintreten und die Kindereien kann man dem Nachwuchs lassen :)
und... wenn mich der Hafer sticht, kann ich immernoch böse
werden :)
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hello eric,
i just read the ucm #23 issue, it surprises me every time there's a new
issue, but every time it's just as fun to read some news or stories from
the good old atari scene. some new names, some more familiar ones still
going strong...
i try to watch the dhs bulletin every now and then and once in a while
pop into irc but that has been on quite rare occations lately... i
guess, even though my presence might not be that obvious you simply
don't forget where your heart belonged for so many years...
i recently bought myself a game console and realized i haven't had so
much fun since the nintendo 8-bit and early atari st days. i more or less
lost the interest of gaming after a while, but this got me to
remember...
anyway, keep it up!
cheers,
rikard a.k.a phx^vex ;)
moondogs note ... heja Rikard... I'm happy that you are still stumbling from
time to time over your old Atari times and that you like to
see us still active... what about you? ;)
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hi Moondog,
I just read the reviews you wrote about the little
"LCD simulators" I've created, and brought to
you on my website http://atari.games.free.fr...
Even if I find you're a bit hard in your review, I really
think you're right concerning the music, special
effects and playability...
Unfortunatly, (and perhaps a chance for the ST gamers)
a violent crash of my computer killed my hard disk, and I lost
all the GFA source code of the unfinished games (Parachute
and Pack Monster)... This last one already had some music,
a level editor and some special effects... but too late... all
has been definitively lost... The only things I still have about
them are the screenshots ...
I you're interested in, I decided to bring the GFA source
code of "Ball" and "Popeye" as open source ("Fire" source
code has disappeared too) -
So, if you know someone that wants to add music on such
boring games, just send me a mail... I'll send you the
source code...
see ya
florent
PS (forgive my poor english language.. I'm french you know...)
moondogs note... Hi Florent... I advertised a bit in the review for the last
LCD game, tested in this UCM... maybe someone mails you about
the sources?!
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Hello again!
I yet again "stumbled" across your UCM page, hopefully this time it will go
better. I saw the review of my game "Its great" which I guess overall is
good. One thing which I keep seeing though UCM is you always seem to
negative with your comments. Saying from the start "Preview of It's Great a
game that will never be finished" is a very negative start. If I had just 1
person to say thanks or great game or something then that would at least be
something. Why is the game not going to be finished is a very good question.
The game has been online since 1998 and to date 1 persion has not even
commented on it and we are almost out of 2002 now. So why would I finish a
game which has no interest ? well easy, becasue there is very little point
in finishing a game which no one will play. I know that it gets downloaded
about 5 times each week. I know this has been so for the past few months. If
all these people gave some support in the first place then the game would
have been released a long time ago. Its the sad old same story that Atari
users just can't be bothered which is again why such great disczines and
other things have faded away.
Your comments about myself " unfortunately, died with the other works of
Chris Swinson on Atari as well." is a little off track here. Yes I did stop
developing software. I had not only Mega Disczine going but I was also
writing sound software for the Falcon and some other simple games and other
stuff also. The fact remained that no matter what I did there was no
interest. If there was I didnt know about it! so I faded out of the software
side and just took up programming on the PC instead. I will say ive not done
any programming on the Atari for about 2 years or more. I did write a
formatting util a few weeks ago though that didn't take long. Since there
was no interest in my software projects ive moved onto hardware now. I take
it you have not seen my progress since you are under the impression that I
died out with other Atari users a long time ago. Well it ain't true. Just
last month I realeased a 1.44 floppy kit upgrade which is on my site in
various places. I also have almost compeated a 4meg expansion board and I
plan on doing a lot of other kits such as CPU booster and others aswell. So
why you think I have died out supporting I really don't know!?
My site has been dug out of the grave many times as you stated in UCM23.
Surly this is a BIG indication that I am still active. My site downloads
section has closed a little while ago. I couldn't afford to host near 1gig
of files so I just put them onto CD instead. anyone who wants them can
obtain the CD from me. I dont mind supporting Atari users though when you
don't get any thanks whatsoever than its just time to stop. So the downloads
section went. saves me a fortune in webspace and keeping down on broken
links saves me hours of work.
Since then Ive been working very hard on Atari upgrade kits. I dont plan to
build anything to much just yet until I find out what interest there is.
going by the shooting down of my in comp.sys.atari.st a few months ago it
would seem very doubtfull that I will carry on with the hardware projects.
Atari users are more than happy to sit and complain than to actually do
anything. then when a site closes they just moan even more and it just goes
on and on. If I get some support for my efforts, I.E. some sales of my first
kit then I will put the profets ( which are almost nothing ) back into more
hardware development. So its upto the Atari people. Either they support or
they don't. I guess they won't as always though I plan to keep my site going
until 2004. its even on the bottom of the main index page when the site
closes. Atari users have 2 years to decide if they want support or not. It
really is a very simple and logical offer.
I will carry on to offer support as I have been doing to anyone who E-mails
me. I get a few Atari mails now and then, mostely about my hardware kits at
the moment. I am happy to help them out as much as I can. Though Atari
people have to realise that my pocket is only so deep. I can't afford to
spend 100's out of hardware to develop kits and run my website. If they want
support then they will have to help me support them by making a small
purchase from my site. Its so simple. Buy something then I can fund other
projects and keep my site open. If people don't want to do this then its a
great shame. In this case I will abandon Atari totally in terms of support.
I really don't want to do this but its not really my choice. Its upto the
Atari users to support others.
I sure don't support as much as I used to. I stopped producing MEGA disczine
becasue I had been a bum or as long as I could and I like evryone else have
to pay the bills! so now I am in fulltime work I am left with very little
time. Even so I think keeping my site going and getting some Hardware kits
out is bloody good going! As you rightly state I am doing a PC version of
"its great". It is 99% done though I need to spend a lot of time Beta
testing it before it can be released. It has had more support than the ST
version ever had. And yes its got more than 2 sounds in there, title music
and great graphics and all the other bollox which people like to see. I
actually did a title screen and intro to the ST game. I even had a lot of
other backdrops done, not just the one in the Beta which is on my site. I
never did a menu simply becasue I didn't have time and not many were even
bothered anyway so I made it just text selection for the menu. I'm sure that
was better than not releasing the Beta demo at all!
I did this in a attept to gain some interest in the full version, which not
1 persion even asked when it was going to be released. so thats why I
stopped the development. if it was 2 years ago and I had a few people
E-mail me asking for it then I probably would have done a final version and
carried on developing it. Though I stopped in 1999 and just uploaded the
Beta and left it at that. everyone seems not to care so why should I? I
would love it if a lot of people suddenly E-mailed me saying PLEASE finish
the game, though after almost 5 years I really doubt that would happen. If
they did then I might feel more inclined to finish it though it would really
have to be a lot of people. I've not dont any Falcon programming for a long
time. The guy who wrote the Falcon extensions I use has also long since
vanished from lack of support.
Its the same old story again and again and again! I've been trying my upmost
for years as you and others know to support Atari. Though the same soty is
people can't be bothered. this really does annoy me a hell of a lot since I
really love my ST and I don't want it to die out. So many others have done
so and the only people which are left of the moaning gits. If these people
spent more time helping people than moaning then support would be a whole
lot better. I will support as much as I can for another 2 years. After that
then Im gone aswell! it will be a very sad day but thats life.
As for anyone else who I am still in contact with. They are more than
willing to support Atari still. Even the old MEGA crew are still active in
some form. I am still in contact with them all. Times change and myself and
others don't have the time as we all used to but we are not dead. FAR FAR
from it! So please in future get your facts correct before you write
anything! It really is annoying to be labled as "not supporting Atari
anymore" when its just not true. The same goes for the other people I know.
Theres always something in the pipeline and I for one am very much here to
stay.
If I had time to do another issue of MEGA with some support from some people
then I would gladly produce other issues. Its a bit late now though being
how long MEGA and others have been dead now though to consider another
issue. Though with the right support who knows what we could come out with
next. I loved the game, I am sure others did also. You yourself seemd to
like it going on what you said. So if people liked it why did no one support
and push for the full version ?????????
Well to finish up I WILL support until 2004! my web contract runs out then
so if I renew all depends on what happens over the next 2 years. I think 2
years is a long time. I will hate to leave the platform after this time
though if its what it comes to then so be it.
Chris
...the following is my email to chris...
hello chris
thanx for your fairly long letter and remarks, but let me point out a few
things, again...
my review of "it's great" can stay as feedback i think since the reviews and
reports i made for ucm are my feedback to the authors... you don't like the
negative headline but for me i just wrote what your homepage said and be sure, i
really doubt that you will go on working for the game, that is what i read on
your page and i must read in your last letter to ucm 21 where you wrote a lot
about your disappointment about the atari scene, there you have pointed out a
lot about your feelings and thoughts and also that you aren't going to support
it anymore... so what i have done wrong here? is it my fault that you're stating
out such things in a letter to me/ucm and now that you're saying that what i
wrote after your letter and in context to this one, is wrong again?!
when i called you inactive on atari just remember that the main content of ucm
was, is and will be new software and as your software projects died, your
activities in this direction died as well.
it's cool to see you working on several hardware upgrades, but as stated above,
this isn't the main interest on ucm and on me, and as ucm is a publication run
by me and used to express my own thoughts about new software and the movements
in the scene it wont content other stuffs as long as no other is writing about..
for example i know of those cool hardware makers in poland, like paskud who is
creating that cheap 14mb boards for the falcon or the czech makers of the
phantom acceleration board... but since those aren't active in the software
business their work doesn't affect me that much, even if i got one of paskud's
memory boards for my falcon, but since i got it paskud got its money, i my card
and then the deal is finished, there isn't more to tell about nor more interest
in paskuds work for me...
hardware business is coming always close to an end very fast, if you created
something and the market is fullfilled, there isn't more to do, while on the
software business there is always more to do....
that's my humble opinion about this point.
another thing i want to point out is that you're complaining about missing
support but i wonder that you, knowing of the bad feedback use of the atari
scene, aren't going a bit straighter forward to announce your productions?!
in fact your spreading is very bad, maybe you announced it on several places but
as it seems not on the right ones... in fact i found "it's great" only on your
site and this only because of an accident, it wasn't spreaded over ftp servers
nor announced on bbs boards as on dhs or atari org for example and so i miss
announcements on the atari.org for your hardware for example.
today you only gain feedback if you're offensive, it doesn't brings anything to
create something, putting it on its own page and wait that something will
happen... if you're doing so, you will fail for sure... have you ever tried to
sell some of your boards of the dhs buy/sell bbs?!
is it the fault of the others that their links are leading to nowhere? just for
example, several german pages had listed "it's great" and you in their game
development link lists... but since you moved your page, there is no chance to
find back to your page... the ones that are going to download something on your
page or are setting up contacts are stumbled by accident over it or know it from
another source, dunno, but isn't it strange that not even the search machine
"google" is able to find your page?! just think that not all of the nowadays
atarians are turned into webcrawlers, i'm just doing it since i know not only
the bad support of the atari scene, but also the bad way to announce something,
to spread own productions... so i digged out for every issue of ucm software
that was silently released, set on a homepage, but nobody announced it
somewhere... is this the way the atari scene has to be supported?
doing something is one thing, spreading it real is another and at least as much
important...
you're telling me that atari users tend to sit there and complain, don't you
check that you're falling more and more into the same state... you gave up your
software projects and now you think about giving up your hardware projects as
well, coming along with mourning and complaining as well... so you're turning
into someone you obviously don't like, isn't that strange?
as stated above, it surely wont help you to set a date on your page where your
account ends up and the page will closed down, you have to be far more offensive
and i still believe there is some market for your hardware kits as well as there
surely would be a market for your old megadisczine, isn't it strange that the
uk, where about 1o diskmags were based a few years ago, is going to be left out
without any magazine at all nowadays? do you think all the readers and writers
passed away? i hardly doubt that, it doesn't helps to sit around and complain,
in the first place you have something to do, if others see you going strong,
they'll surely come back, maybe they have to be kicked, but it is possible...
so i wondered about the feedback letters by you, lee round and james (asshole)
alexander... three guys, complaining about the bad bad atari scene and my bad
bad review of the st offline... but three guys that aren't able to kick
themselves to make the own diskmag going... in fact i'm working the most time
alone on ucm over the past years, but i still do it, since it's my hobby and my
passion, i'm in love with it and this is the point... i couldn't quit a thing i
really love, this is halfhearted and simpleminded since then you have to define
the words love and passion if you're really quitting...
i surely understand your point about the lack of support while buying stuff from
your page but face the truth that a hobby, and you defined your work as hobby,
will always cost money. and if you like your hobby, you have to invest in it...
ok, it's a slighty bit other with the hardware kits you're producing, and i
would only produce them by demand (and i think you're doing so), but about the
web account, yes, it costs money and not anyone is in the happy state to have
free or cheap webspace nowadays, but if you like what you do and you love what
you do, you have to pay it, you can't always complain about the money you're
investing and you don't get back...
what should i do with undercover magazine then? should i sell the following
issues to get back the money i wasted in the internet for my researches and
webcrawling to discover rare softwares? since this is the main thing for me to
surf around in the internet i could sum up the costs for every issue with at
least 1oo euros... money that is lost since i wont get anything back, but money
i really want to invest since it is my hobby and my passion and my support for
the atari scene...
furthermore you're saying that you've a fulltime job... but do you really think,
the rest of the atari community doesn't know what you're speaking about? the
most of us are hardly involved into the real life, family, job and studies, the
fewest have no problems with time and the fewest with money... but if we aren't
able anymore to save us a few hours for our hobby and passion, for atari, then
we're surely lost... the nowadays scene isn't that "young" anymore, there aren't
much atarians around that are still going to school and have atari in their mind
alone as it was about 1o years back... but isn't it a challenge to go on even
without those "problems", even if i would call the real life a "problem" at all?
you're saying in your mail that the day you will quit will be a very sad day
"but that's life"... arf... this sounds as you've already given up, so why
complaining and mourning around? it seems as you already have made your choice
and i have the bad feeling that all what i wrote here is lost anyway... i don't
know if and how the people may react on your letter when i publish it with ucm
24 that is coming around xmas... for this purpose i will include your email add
and current url to it, maybe some more people will get in touch with you then,
maybe not, as the main mood of your letter is very pessimistic and it seems as
you have already concreted your decision...
ofcourse it's your choice and in my eyes it is useless for the atari scene as
well to stay there if you really don't like it as there are enough people around
that are only complaining and mourning without giving real support...
so to run down this letter and to pack it up in a few short words... if you
really want to support the atari scene and you want to supported as well, then
you have to be more offensive, you have to kick yourself and to drag onto your
own noose at first, if this works fine, there isn't all lost... it isn't easy to
stay active nowadays, esp. without big support, but it's possible at all and i
still believe that if you're going strong long enough, more people will join
your forces to show that they're interested in the things you do and they want
you to go on...
that's in short lines all i wanted to say... huuuhhh...
greetings, eric
moondogs note... yes... a few more mails in that way were exchanged and then
chris suddenly decided to get his old mate james into the ring.
read more about this in the celebrity deathmatch...
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