Please wait.... Loading fonts............. Please wait.... Loading 'News.Muzak'...... Please wait.... Loading 'News.Graphics'... Please wait.... Loading 'News.Data'....... LOAD ERROR !!!! RESET YOUR COMPUTER!!!!!!!! Exceller_8_by_NS^FLT:news.data Exceller_8_by_NS^FLT:news.muzak Exceller_8_by_NS^FLT:news.graphics Exceller.font >>>>>> FUCK OFF ALL LAMERS <<<<<< Exceller 8 by North Star ^ Fairlight Issue 2 Feb 1989 Programming by Omega in 1988 ENTER PAGENR: (Two digits) Page Number to High. Please wait. Creating page.Please wait. Loading Picture Load error. File not found @H1"HELP PAGE"@FKEY:@N@L @L @KEsc@N - NTSC users @FONLY@N@L @KHelp@N - This page@L @KDel@N - Goto page 01@L @L @KCursor right@N - Add 1 page@L @KCursor left@N - Back 1 page@L @KCursor up@N - Add 3 pages@L @KCursor down@N - Back 3 pages@L @L @KF1@N - First page@L @KF2@N - Last page@L @L @KF3@N - Music on@L @KF4@N - Music off@L @L @KF5 to F10@N - Diffrent colors@L @L @KEnter@N - Goto a page@L @L After pressing enter. Type in your pagenumber. (You must enter two digits.) Press enter again to exit this mode.@C@KLeft mouse button@N - Add one page@L @KRight mouse button@N - Back one page@L @L @L Our address:@L @L @KEXCELLER 8@L @L HEIMDALSGATAN 37 @L 261 62 GLUMSLOV @L SWEDEN@L ----------------@L @N@L @L @L Press any key to return to last page.@P PRESS 'HELP' KEY FOR HELP MAGAZINE ROUTINE v2.00 ISSUE 2 FEB 1989 PROGRAMMED AND COMPOSED BY OMEGA OF NS GRAPHICS BY CRAB ^ MAGNUS PREDIKAKA MUSIC BY TITAN EDITOR FOETUS (C) 1988 NORTH STAR ^ FAIRLIGHT PRESS 'HELP' KEY FOR HELP IF YOU WANT TO CONTACT US. WRITE TO: EXCELLER 8 HEIMDALSGATAN 37 261 62 GLUMSLOV SWEDEN NORTH STAR, "ADVANCED, BUT NOT ALIEN" Exceller_8_by_NS^FLT:Pictures/Pic-xx @H1"Hello again." You are reading the second issue of Exceller 8. Hope you enjoyed the first.@L @L In this issue you will find more of everything (well almost...) and a couple of new writers. The story of @FFAIRLIGHT@N, the first part of Celebrandil's Raytrace and vectorgraphics article, @BMacron One's@N first article about DIY hardware, @FSAE@N's article about the CBM show in London and @FNORTH STAR@N's round-up of the year 1988.@L @L Another new thing is the new advertisement system that we introduce in this issue. Have a look at the ad page for more info.@L @L I would also like to thank all of you who sent us letters telling us what you think of this magazine. Keep sending 'em because we wan't more!@L @L This issue of Exceller 8 is dedicated to the memory of @KRoy Orbison@N (1936_-_1988).@L _________________(Ed.) @P @H1"Contents" 02.The History of Fairlight.@L 06.Raytracing part one.@L 13.Nov CBM-Show in London.@L 17.Famous Words.@L 18.About MegaDemo #3.@L 24.Brain Music.@L 27.Hardware Hazard.@L 33.Freestyle UK Report 2.@L 35.Round Up of '88.@L 42.Games, Games !!@L 47.Letters!@L 51.Arcades.@L 54.Warhammer Fantasy Rpg Review.@L 56.Useless move info!@L 58.Lights, Camera, Action.@L 63.MusicPix!@L 71.Tune in, Turn out, Drop out.@L 83.NS Horroscope.@L 86.How to make your own sampler.@L 88.The new ad system!!@L 89.ORDER!@L 90.The end is near!@L @C@F@Z"PRESS HELP KEY FOR HELP"@N@L @K@Z"Staff of Exceller 8"@N@L The Black Shadow (Flt).@L Celebrandil (NS).@L Atom (NS).@L Kaktus (Ns).@L Foetus (NS).@L Mahoney (NS).@L Godbrain (X8).@L MaCron One (X8).@L Starfire (NS).@L Azid (NS).@L Crab (NS).@L Luftwaffe (X8).@L Titan (NS).@L Omega (NS).@L Zigma (NS).@L Lord Vega (NS).@L Jazze (NS).@L Rex (NS).@L Slaine (NS).@L Twenty Minutes (X8).@L Techno (X8).@L Sword (X8).@L @P@K@Z"Contributers:"@N@L Comrade J and TIW/Share And Enjoy.@L Big Al/Freestyle UK^AlphaFlight.@L Foetus INC/Uggadunkers.@L @L @S0@L Editor: @FFoetus@N.@L Programmer and Co-Ed: @FOmega@N.@L @C@H1"The History of FairLight" @B@Z"By The Black Shadow"@N@L The story of @FFairLight@N is a very old and long tale, but i'll try to make it short...@L @L It begun in early 1983 when I (the Black Shadow) bought my Commodore 64! At those days I started to learn some machine-code, but it went very slow. Some months later I managed to crack Pharaos Curse from Synapse Software. Not very good, of course... 3 files with a total length of 230 blocks... I had to find a name so I called myself.... C.L.C.C. !!! That stands for:@L @L @Z"Christian Lindeberg Cracking" @Z"Company!!!!"@L Great name?? Eh?!?@L @L Well....@L In early 1984 when I got more sofisticated, i decide to form a group....I decided to call it:@L @L @Z"Saturn Cracking United"@L @Z"And I ,of course, called myself"@L @Z"Saturn of SCU"@L Well... Those were happy days... But we were only two members... And I the only one that did anything! I hacked quite a lot of games, and the last one ,before i changed name, was Blackwyche from Ultimate..@L @L My new name became Sir Galahad, and I became a member of W.A.S.P. "We Against Software Protection" That happend in mid summer 1985!! The other members were:@L King Arthur, Ivanhoe, Lancelot and FPC...@L We grew very big.. and got very famous...@L It was at that time I started to know Strider... But his current name was No.1!! Lancelot and I helped No.1 with the coding and soon he got to be a very good programmer too!!@L @L At the late summer of 1986 we, me, No.1, Lancelot and King Arthur, got an offer from W.C.C, West Coast Crackers, to join...@L And so we did!!!@L @L WCC got even more famous than WASP, and that was because of the good contact between the members.. We were 10 members.. Sir Galahad, Lancelot, No.1, King Arthur, Mr. Pinge, Nobody, HJ, Zeb, Nike and Marwin!!! We had a very good time and got to be very good friends with Triad...@L @L Until..@L @L Easter 1987 at the third WCC Party!! We had just taken some other members in WCC... They were Janitor,Sparrow and Crusader!!!@L No.1 and I got bored on some of the other members...Especially Nike!! So.. On the Train back to our home town we decided to form FAIRLIGHT!! I chose the name The Black Shadow and Strider wanted to keep his old name... He did for 3 weeks then he changed it to Strider!!! The rest of the WCC gang called themselves Relax, and a bit later they joined triad....@L @L Our first member was Gollum the best cracker on the 64!!! In the midst of that summer I bought an Amiga and started to program... Strider already had one since the Christmas Holiday, but he couldn't program..@L Soon we got some more members like: Lord Blitter and The Hobbit!!@L @L Everything was cool and I was pretty good at programing by late 1987!!@L @L At X-mas time we had a Copy-Party together with Triad and it was quite good... At the party I met Il Scuro of TOR and Yankee of TOR... And we became good friends... Later Il Scuro and Yankee joined DefJam...@L @L I got to know Atom of NS by late spring 1988 and we decided about the Joining!! At the same time we got three members. Excalibur,Sharp and 4042 joined FairLight!! Everything was OK, and we released lots of cracks and demos....@L @L In late summer we got two more members. X & Y....@L We found out that Y wasn't very good.. so we kicked him out... and at the same time 4042 and Sharp left... X changed his name to Exolon..@L @L By late Autumn Excalibur thought he needed to have some 'air' change so he left us and joined Abyss!!@L At almost the same time Doppelganger of Abyss left and joined FairLight!! And Griffith joined too...@L Strider decided to 'rebuild' FairLight and we divided the group into two parts... one 64 division and one Amiga division...@L @L And thats the story so far...@L @L The members in the Amiga division are:@L The Black Shadow, Strider, Exolon, The Hobbit, Doppelganger, Griffith and The Sarge!!@L @L We are also looking for some new Amiga members... so keep in touch!!@L @L @KFairLight@N@L Box 6@L 23600 Hollviken@L Sweden@L @C@Z"WORLD OF WONDERS" @Z"BUY THE LATEST STUFF" @Z"WRITE TO:" @Z"POSTBOX 22" @Z"B-4720 KELMIS" @Z"BELGIUM"@L @S0@L B^B seeks new FAST swappers around the universe (also aliens). Be FAST, or no swapping! Write to:@L @Z"B&B" @Z"P.B. 193" @Z"8610 GRUBHEI" @Z"NORWAY"@L @S0@L T,U,W is searching for a @FGOOD@N coder, graphic maker or musican.@L For swapping @FNEW@N VHS-films or new stuff write to: Claes, Enskiftesvagen 51, 145 60 Norsborg, Sweden. Or call 0753/85438 or 0753/86832 (Marko).@L @P@H1"Raytracing theories part one"@L @B@Z"By Celebrandil of NS/FLT"@N@L @L In this first part of my articles about Ray-Tracing I will only give you a basical description of the method and the mathematics around it. After you have read @Bthis@N piece I'm sorry to tell you that this isn't enough. But if I told you everything I know in just one part it would be too difficult to understand. I really hope you read this article and enjoy it. If you have questions and own ideas you are more than welcome to contact me. My address will be found below. Have a nice reading!@L @L @K@B@Z"A SHORT INTRODUCTION"@N@L You have probably heard about a technique to produce graphical images on computers called ray-tracing, but I'm sure that not many of you really know what it is. In this article I (Celebrandil) wish to give you a brief discription of ray-tracing.@L @L It's not a new method, the first algorithms were in fact presented as early as 1968 by Mathematical Applications Group inc. and A. Appel (AFIPS conference proceedings, SJCC 1968, pp 37-45).@L @L Later on new approaches have been implemented by different scientists. One of the persons who found good applications considering the division of the light (specular light, ambient light, mirror and transperency) was T. Whitted (Com. of the ACM, 23(6) June 1980, pp 343-349).@L @L Ray-tracing is a very time-cunsuming process and needs a decent resolution and number of colours, but as you know many prgrams have been coded even for the Amiga (DBW-Render, Sculpt 3D, Animate 3D, Silver and Turbo Silver).@L @L @B @K@Z"REPRESENTATIONS OF OBJECTS"@N@L Before I tell you how to calculate the images we better find out how to represent the objects you want to draw. The best way to build up objects is by using solid and simple geometric forms (Constructive Solid Geometry, CSG) such as spheres, cylindres, cones, blocks, etc. The easiest object to define is a sphere, since you only need to know the position of the centre, the radius and the surface-abilities.@L @L More irregular objects would be very difficult to represent by using solids. Then you can build up your objects with different polygonal faces instead. You usually use triangles because they are easiest to handle (if you want you can build up a quadrate with two triangles and so on). If you think for yourself a minute you will realize that objects constructed by triangles have a bit of a weird appearence.@L @L Along the edges the colour differences between two neigbours will seem to be a bit exaggerated and are very disturbing. This phenomenon was discovered as early as 1965 by E. Mach and is thus called the Mach band effect. There exist fortunately some methods to solve this pity problem and I will later in this article explain them as much as I know. Another way to define curved surfaces is by using an approximation-method such as Hermite, Bezier or B-Spline (..Beta-Splines, Springer-Verlag, 1987). It is though a bit comlicated to use these representation-forms in ray- tracing.@L @P@B@K@Z"REPRESENTATION OF THE WORLD"@N@L To produce an image, like a room filled with different objects, you need to define more than just the objects. To give some light to the room you have to add lightsources (intesity, position, size and maybe direction) so that the objects will appear. The objects themselves can't give light if they are not luminous, of course.@L @L To make the picture realistic you also have to include the light of the atmosphere. No such light will make the picture seem to be in the middle of the night.@L @L You also have to consider the observer and a window, which the observer is looking out of. The observer is defined by the following properties:@L @L 1) Position from where the observer is looking, EyePos.@L @L 2) Direction he is looking, ViewDir.@L @L 3) Position of the window (the centre). The observer is normally looking through this point, ScnPos.@L @L 4) Directions and lengths of the X- and Y- axis of the window, Xaxis and Yaxis.@L @L @P5) The screen on which you make your image is corresponding to the window and thus you need to know their properties, Kx and Ky.@L @L WindPos.X = Kx * ScnPos.X; (1)@L WindPos.Y = Ky * ScnPos.Y;@L @L The first four premisses EyePos, ViewDir, ScnPos, XaxisDir and YaxisDir are described by three different values, the X-, Y- and Z-value.@L @L @B @K@Z"THE PRINCIPLES OF THE METHOD"@N@L Now over to the principles of this strange, but efficient method. If I ask you how you would have done to make a graphical image you probably would have said: 'It's easy, just see how the objects look like on the screen and simply draw them' (like vector-graphics or Boundary Representation). Ray-Tracing is not like that. When you make a picture the normal way you can't find the real colours of the objects. But if you are using Ray-Tracing you can vary the colour due to shading and reflections to make a much more realistic scene.@L @L As you know, the picture you see on the screen is the collection of all the light-rays going from all around you, through the screen and right into the eye of the observer. Instead of following the rays @BTO@N the observer, you better follow the rays @BFROM@N the observer and see what object you reach. To determine the direction you are looking and want to trace, TraceRay, you use EyePos, ScnPos, Xaxis, Yaxis, Kx, Ky and the X- and Y-values for the screen-point you wish to display. More about that later on.@L @L The colour of the point you are working with depends upon what object you are seeing (i.e the nearest object you reach). The brightness depends on a lot of facts. If the object is transperent you will see the object behind the nearest object too. When you reach a mirrored object you have to bounce on the surface of the object to find another destination. If the object is shiny you have to consider the fact that you may see the light-sources on the surface (highlights). More about that later. First I have to tell you about the basic mathematics we will have to use in order to understand.@L @L @B @K@Z"MATHEMATICS OF RAY-TRACING"@N@L To solve difficult geometrical problems in three dimensions you can use something called Vector Geometry. Now I want to give you a view of the most used functions. To speed up the calculations I have made the routines using Motorolas Fast Floating Point library (mathffp). Even though the results are less exact than the IEEE-standard they are more than enough to fullfill your needs. Another problem you have when you are using the mathffp library is that it is a bit more complicated to add a extra floating- point-processor, but as I already have told you it's much faster.@L @L A vector is, as you probably already know, a mathematical abstraction that both has size and direction e.g. acceleration, velocity and power. To denote positions in three-dimensional space we use a coordinate system and define the direction by three values, the x-, y- and z-values from the origin. The size is the length from the point to the origin.@L @L Length=SQR(dX^2+dY^2+dZ^2)); (2)@L @L The first function is as simple as vector addition. You simply add each coordinates to get a new vector. The pseudocode routine below describes. Dx, dy and dz are the direction values. First and Second are the two vectors you wish to add and SumVect is the Result.@L @L @B @KVector_Addition:@N@L @L SumVect.dX=First.dX+Second.dX; (3)@L SumVect.dY=First.dY+Second.dY;@L SumVect.dZ=First.dZ+Second.dZ;@L Next function is the vector subtraction function and is as simple as the first one. I'm sorry for being ridiculous, but we have to start easy so that all lamers have time enough to release their thumbs from their joysticks.@L @L @B@KVector_Subtraction:@N@L @L DifVect.dX=First.dX-Second.dX; (4)@L DifVect.dY=First.dY-Second.dY;@L DifVect.dZ=First.dZ-Second.dZ;@L @L There exist three types of multiplications as you are working with vectors. First we have the scalar multiplication and it means that you multiply a vector and a scalar, or even better the size of a vector and a scalar (the direction of the vector is the same).@L @L @B @KScalar_Multiplication:@N@L @L ProdVect.dX=First.dX*Scalar; (5)@L ProdVect.dY=First.dY*Scalar;@L ProdVect.dZ=First.dZ*Scalar;@L @L The second multiplication type is called scalar vector multiplication. The result is a scalar as the name is saying. You simply multiply the different X-, Y- and Z-values and add the products. The result of a scalar vector multiplication is commonly called dot product of two vectors. In reality a dot product is the same as the product of the lengths of the vectors and the cosine of the angle between them. That means that two vectors with a right angle between have a dot product equals zero. It's often a good way to test if the angle between two vectors is right. Note that a dot product of a vector with ifself is just it's size squared.@L @L @B @KScalar_Vector_Multiplication:@N@L @L DotProd=First.dX*Second.dX+ (6)@L ________+First.dY*Second.dY+@L ________+First.dZ*Second.dZ;@L @L The last multiplication function is called vectoral vector multiplication and the result is normally mentioned as vector product and it's a vector. The resulting vector is a new vector that is right angles to both of the other vectors. It's size is equal to the product of the sizes of the vectors and the sine of the angle between them. This function can be used to calculate the normal of a plane if you have two other vector on it.@L @L @B@KVectoral_Vector_Multiplication:@N@L @L VectProd.dX=First.dY*Second.dZ-(7)@L ____________-First.dZ*Second.dY;@L VectProd.dY=First.dZ*Second.dX-@L ____________-First.dX*Second.dZ;@L VectProd.dZ=First.dX*Second.dY-@L ____________-First.dY*Second.dX;@L @L I know that this function looks a bit weird, but it's fortunately very efficient. That was all about the basical theorems.@L @L Now it's time to finish this first part of the serie. As you already have understood more about Ray-Tracing will be presented in later issues. The real mathematics haven't been touched yet, so don't be sad if you realize that you can't make a proper program just out of this part. In next issues I will tell you how you do in the reality to construct your images.@L @L If you have questions, own ideas or just want to send me new disks (I'm always short of disks), please write to:@L @L @B @K@F @Z"Celebrandil"@N @Z"Hogviltsgrand 13" @Z"222 52 Lund" @Z"SWEDEN"@L Don't be mad if I answer your letters a bit too late, coz I've so many letters to answer every week and it's often easy to miss some.@L @L If the answer is urgent please write 'ISRIL' on the envelope. I would be glad if you also could tell me something about yourself (your age, interests, profession etc).@L @L Bye, bye, fans!@L @L @BBest wishes /@B @K@FCelebrandil@N @L @L @FLook on the disk (dir:Sources) for an assembler source.@N @C@H1"NOVEMBER CBM-SHOW LONDON REPORT"@B @Z"By Comrade J and TIW" @Z"Share and Enjoy"@N@L On the 18/19/20th of November, the 12th Official Commodore Show was held in London. The venue was the Novotel Centre in Hammersmith, the same place as the last show in June.@L @L In fact, it all seemed to look the same as the last show, with a lot of the stands being the same people in the same place as the last show (and selling the same games!).@L @L Commodore's black pyramid stand was identical to the stand at the last show, and they seemed to be running the same boring demos again, such as the ancient juggler, ANC Animations 2 and the old Kahnankas animation.@L @L The only new thing we saw on the Commodore stand was the new BBC Emulator from Ariadne Software. This runs BBC Basic programs up to five times faster than the BBC, it handles all BBC modes, and contains a 6502 emulator and support for some (but not all) BBC rom routines. It is obviously aimed at the educational market in Britain, which is dominated by the crappy BBC computers.@L @L There were few games companies there, Anco were there with "Maria's Christmas Box", yet another Strip Poker game. Microdeal were showing a demo of AIRBALL (The ST version was shit, so don't expect much from their Amiga version), Precision Software were demonstrating a demo of "Charon V", their new game (of course, Share and Enjoy 'liberated' the demo from their A2000).@L @L Mandarin Software were demonstrating Pioneer Plague, but we all had that three weeks before the show, and Tynesoft were there, but had nothing new except Circus Games, a shit simulation. There were no other games companies there, so was it a bad show for new releases?@L @L Yes it was. @PThe expected releases of ELITE, DUNGEON MASTER (1 MEG),SPEEDBALL (although that is out now), OPERATION WOLF, BARBARIAN II, etc did not happen. The only new releases were shit like VETERAN, MAFDET, HELLFIRE ATTACK and QUANTOX.@L @L The Commodore Arcade (which usually has playable versions of unreleased games) had nothing but old shit running in it (WIZBALL, XENON, etc). This was probably due to all the good stuff dissapearing from the cabinets at previous shows. The games enthusiast might well have been disappointed with the show. Although games freaks were disappointed, there was a lot of stuff around for those who use their Amigas for more than games.@L @L Hisoft released Version 2 of their DEVPAC assembler, Microdeal had their new Midi and Sampling package, AMAS, the software is good but the hardware is shit. The Midi has only ONE Midi-Out and the sampler is bad too, the quality is the same as my cheap home-built unit and sounds rough, even when sampled from CD. Several places were selling the new cheap genlock for just over 100pounds, but most had sold out by Sunday.@L @L Icon Paint,the new 16 colour workbench was for sale and looked nice, although it's next to useless unless you have a hard disk (the Icons on their own take up a full disk,there's no room for the applications to go with them!). Arnor were demonstrating Pro-Text, their new word processor, but after a quick look it is obviously a cheap piece of rubbish.@L The most stupid new program at the show had to be E-TYPE, a new program from DIGITA INTERNATIONAL, which is a typewriter emulator. It reads in from the keyboard and sends the output straight to your printer. Their advertising says "A revolutionary program to transform your computer into a fully featured typewriter"! Obviously, it's just a workbench disk with COPY * to PRT: in the startup-sequence!!!! People will try anything to get famous.@L @L The guys who were up there included (sorry if I miss you out, we did meet most people up there): @BSHARE AND ENJOY@N (all of us!), @BIAN & MIC@N (with some new demos), @BJCS@N (We saw Moto-X-Man, but he rushed off before we could speak to him).@L @L @BACCUMULATORS, QUORAM, WORLD OF WONDERS, BAMIGA SECTOR ONE, ALPHA FLIGHT (Freestyle U.K.), THE CULPRITS, THE LOST BOYS (X-Men), PUBLIC ENEMY No.1, RED SECTOR, THE DRUIDS@N and some new guys, @BNIETSNIE@N (EINSTEIN backwards!), and good friends of mine, @BTHE ELECTIC MENAGERIE@N (you'll be hearing a lot from them in the future).@L @L There was a copy party on the Saturday, held by Share and Enjoy and Freestyle U.K., but because Commodore's Security stopped a lot of people on the way out, we were delayed getting there. We also lost most of Quoram and the Accumulators on the way there, and because there was not much new stuff at the show it wasn't a very successful party.@L @L Overall, the Commodore Show was worth going to, but was not as good as the PC Show, and I think that especially people coming over to England from abroad would have been disapointed.@L @L Perhaps Commodore should concentrate on attracting more games companies to the show next time. @P@L 4 zwappin' n' buyin' newest Amiga warez, write to the Amiga section of Blaze:@L @Z"Blaze" @Z"PLK 106412 C" @Z"2400 Lubeck" @Z"West-Germany"@L @S0@L ----- THE INT. DIGITAL STUDIO ----@L are searching for some newContacts.@L If you are NO Lamer then write to:@L @Z"PLK 984280 C; 2360 BAD SEGEBERG" @Z"WEST-GERMANY" Handshakes to:The Web Inc. ; NNT !@L @L @S0@L TMD want's more contacts because heis capable of more (AND MY ADDI).@L @Z"TMD" @Z"TOMMERVEIEN 51" @Z"2006 LOVENSTAD" @Z"NORWAY"@L @C@H1"Famous words" @BFamous words by known and unknown programmers@N@L @L 1.__Strange.@L 2.__I don't know about that.@L 3.__It worked before.@L 4.__It's just a couple of things that has to be fixed.@L 5.__How could it become like that?@L 6.__It's got to be a hardware error.@L 7.__Maybe they have changed release.@L 8.__You must have done something wrong.@L 9.__You must have an error in the input material.@L 10__But I didn't change anything in that module.@L 11__Oh yes, it will be ready by then.@L 12__You must have got an old version.@L 13__It's only a flaw.@L 14__I'm almost ready.@L 15__Oh yes, just let me insert the last changes.@L 16__It won't take long.@L 17__We are just securing that function.@L 18__It probably just depends on a bad coincidence.@L 19__You can't test everything.@L 20__This thing can't affect that thing.@L 21__But I thought I had fixed that.@L 22__It's in there, it's just not tested.@L 23__It works well, although it doesn't seem so.@L 24__Although it doesn't work, what do you think about it?@L @L Ed. @C@H1"About Mega-Demo 3"@B @KThe Mega Demo 3 intro.@N@L @L Was coded by me (Atom). The picture was drawn by our new member Dagger. Music was composed by Jazze.@L @L I kind of like this intro, because of it's kind of originality. Most demos with a vertical scrolling picture usually just blends the colors in the middle of the screen, but instead of doing it the old way, I used 64 colors horizontaly where the bobs were placed. It turned out to look quite nice.......@L @L @L @K@B"Blue"@N@L @L Uugh! Look at it from this view: Two minutes after we had finished our 64 demo "SKRUV", (we were so happy, and we haven`t touched any 64/128 since that very day) we turned on our new Amigas... Eh? An awfully drawn hand holding a squared disk! Supercomputer? Well, we found a proggie called "SEKA assembler 1.0"! Workspace? Uh? How about 10kB? and then, the assembler... On our other Amiga, we ran something called "SEKA instructions". Aha! Wow! Simple, we thought, and opened our hot Hardware Manual..@L @L Three hours later, we got the copper running, and three days later, we made a scroll! (We already knew the 68000.) It was a very nice scroll, we thought, and then we played a little with the copper. Suddenly we had magically 34 scrolls! When Mahoney finished the scroll, Kaktus made a bouncing bitplane.@L @L That`s why we hate that demo!@L @L Everything could have been great, but, Atom, the one and only, got it into his hands! When we completed our other demos, we had `forgotten` Blue. But Atom hadn`t! That was the sad story of Blue!@L @L Kaktus^Mahoney.@L @L @K@BStars are 4-ever.@N@L @L Was coded by me (Atom) a long time ago. I made a nice sprite routine which could handle 48 sprites in less than 40 raster lines. So I thought it would look nice in a demo. Then I put in some more things on the screen. It didn't take very long time until it was finished. The result wasn't to splendid but still it was an average demo....@L @L @B @K"Scrolly (1)"@N@L @L This story is basicly the same as the one about Blue. We got a new idea, and we simply made a demo based on it. Later, when we`d learned to program, we made better versions of that idea, and that`s when Scrolly 2 enters!@L @L Kaktus^Mahoney.@L @L @B @K"Bobby"@N@L @L This demo came to earth while running our first BOB-test. In the first versions, we used a letter more than allowed, and everything went to shit, but this final version is working properly. This demo must be the most "quiet" of them all, there is just nothing more to write about it!@L @L Kaktus^Mahoney.@L @L @B @KEgoDemo/Atom demo 4.@N@L @L I (Atom) got this great tune composed by Titan which inspired me to code a demo. The first thing I coded was the bars behind the scroll which were controlled by the tune. Then I proceeded with the scroll, which were an old routine which scrolled a 4 bitplane 48*32 font in less than 12 raster lines.@L @L Dagger had drawn some great Ns^Flt logos in 32 colors which I used. Just to make it a bit more fun I did a line scroll routine to move the logos. To make the logos look a little bit better I did a copper routine which made a grey scale scroll through the logos. Then the Amiga crashed and destroyed the source disk.... Argggh !! As always when something like this happeneds I got a bit depressed... After a few hours of crying I coded the shit once again (this time using a back-up disk!).@L @L Foetus had written down a lot of ego boasting which I thought could be used in the second scroll which was a new scroll routine which scrolled a 32*32 3 bitplanes font in less than 4 raster lines.@L @L After that I did the vertical scroll which were compressed both horizontal and vertical. Now it was just some empty space left in the middle of the screen. First I made a 3-D star field, but it's so usual so I changed the stars to animated asteroids. By this time the demo used so much memory that I couldn't run it from Seka without 1meg.@L @L Some animated bobs was inserted in the middle screen which were changeable in both animation look as well as sinus/cosinus tracks. Still having some bitplanes left in the middle I made the bumping AtomDemo4 logo.@L @L After crunching it for several hours I noticed when I executed the demo on a friends computer that the second scroll flickered each 16th frame... But it looked nice on everybody elses computer so I thought it didn't matter, but when writing this I have heard that it flickers on nearly 1/3 of the amiga's but who cares ??!?!?!?@L @L The routines used in Ego demo was very fast indeed, but now when coding my game I have discovered severals ways to improve the routines......@L @L @B @K"Flummy + Intro + Intro"@N@L @L @BIntroIntro first:@N@L @L This one was built up from our new little nice boot (9kB), filled up with some music. Yes, the `music` is called "Blajback", and it`s rather booring. @P@BIntro@N@L @L This one was done just to show nothing. The Crap-scroll wasn`t orginally our idea, and the music is insane... But the logo is nice! Rex says that he loves the "flt", and someone asked us if we liked to zoom the Rom-font 4 times! Well, life IS hard!@L @L @C@BMain@N@L @L There is something missing! And the music, I think we are the first who plays with a $24 bytes long sample in the soundtracker! From the beginning, there WERE a logo, but it must have been lost somewere in the copperlist, and with it, the filtereffects. Never mind, life is more than a logo and some lowpass-passes. (Anyway, the logo wasn`t good at all!)@L @L Kaktus^Mahoney.@L @L @B @K"Scrolly 2 + Intro"@N@L @L This neat little piece of code is pretty nice in our point of view. The music to the intro is Rob Hubbards "BMX Kidz"; On our meeting, we rewrote his replayroutine, in a way that it played the sounds one at a time! (Oops, then we must have touched the 64/128 again, you say! Nooo, it was a 128d! Ha ha haa) When we had modified the routine, we simply sampled the sounds to the Amiga. Then we made a copy of the original tune! Mogwai was the one who made the most work (Yes, we had to mention HIM!)...@L @L When Mogwai was finished with his masterpiece, we destroyed it with some other samples: "The Landing Of Hundreds Of Unidentified Objects Has Now Been Oficially Comfirmed As A FullScale Invasion Of The Earth By Marsians".. Very funny indeed.@L @L Kaktus^Mahoney.@L @L @B @KPROGRESS@N was created by me, Celebrandil, at a small lamer meeting in Hoor/Sweden in the summer of 1988. At that time I didn't own this machine. My head was though filled with strange fancy ideas I wanted to use in reality. At my friend Boerni's place I had read all the hardware and at that meeting I was glad to find an Amiga among all the 64's. I worked as fast as possible on a machine I borrowed from Gusten, a nice lad I met there. I completed the routine that calculates the balls and the routine that calculates the grid. Since it was my very first demo on the Amiga it took a lot of sleepless hours to finish the work. You see, only the program that calculates the balls was nearly as long as a standard demo. I thank all you strangers I met at that meeting in Hoor/Sweden!@L @L @L @B @KTHEEND@N demo was also created by me, Celebrandil. During the last four months I have been working on a Ray-Tracing program called 'Synthetic Views'. In this small demo I just wanted to show a bit of what I have managed to do. Since it's only a testpic you mustn't think that this is the best pic I can create. Later versions also include planes, transperancy, multiple lightsources. They are also sped up more than 60 percent and will be even faster. Look out for new images by me! You are more than welcome to contact me or read more about the method in this issue of Exceller 8.@L @L @C@H1"BRAIN MUSIC"@B @KBy Godbrain@N@L @L This is a new section of Exceller 8. It will mainly deal with MIDI and sampling on your Amiga. At first I'd like to clear out a few things:@L @L @K@B@Z"MIDI"@N@L (Musical Instruments Digital Interface)@L @L MIDI is a way for drum machines, synthesizers, samplers etc to communicate. It is actually a 32.5 kbaud serial interface with 1 start bit, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit. When using MIDI you transmit information and not audio signals.@L @L If you have an instrument that is compatible with MIDI and want to use your Amiga as a Sequencer or Editor/Librarian then you need an interface.@L @L My advice to you is: Do not buy any of the cheap MIDI-interfaces that is available. The best thing to do is to buy or build an interface with at least 3 MIDI-Outs, 1 MIDI-Thru and 1 MIDI-In. At first you may not be needing this, but later on you will feel that you did the right thing.@L @L The 3 MIDI-Outs are very good to have when you hook up more than two instruments to your interface, especially older ones, because all the instruments will receive the MIDI information at the same time. That helps your music to be more precise and "tight".@L @L @K@B@Z"Sampling"@N@L If you don't have any MIDI instruments you still can produce good- quality music with the aid of your Amiga. I'm thinking about the internal capabilities of the computer. If you want to get anything decent out of your Amiga be sure to use samples that has been sampled at a high sampling rate and disconnect the low-pass filter either by software or hardware.@L @L If you don't want to buy a sampler then a cheap and easy way is to get in touch with someone who is into sampling and try to borrow and swap disks until you have built your own sound library. And, please, do not use any of the early Soundtracker disks. Those sounds are getting to familiar and boring.@L @L If you consider buying a sampler be sure not to buy any of the cheap models. Buy one that has a variable low-pass filter or at least 4-5 preset ones.@L @L Also, make sure that the sampler plugs into the parallel port and not anywhere else.@L @L When it comes to sampling by yourself you should always try to sample your sound at different sample rates and with different filters and then compare the results. Different sounds may need different settings.@L @L From my own experience I can say that the Dolby filter on the cassette deck is not so good to have on when you are sampling. Instead try to set the tape selector to Chrome if you are using a a normal tape and Metal if you are using a chrome tape.@L @L Personally I feel that the lowest sampling rate you should use is the highest possible. My own favourite is 28184 Hz, because this is also the tone A. If you want to sample speech from television or radio (a la Front 242) then it is suitable with a sampling rate of 14092 Hz, this is also an A, or perhaps even lower. CD disks are especially good to sample from because they are in fact sampled at a rate of 442000 Hz. If you want to get a good result then sample a half that rate and you will avoid different distortion effects.@L @L If you have any questions about MIDI, sampling, music software and MIDI instruments then feel free to send them to Exceller 8 and I will be happy to answer them in this column.@L @L In the next issue I will write more about MIDI and I will test different MIDI programs.@L @L That is all from me for this time.@L @L @P@C@H1"Hardware Hazard" @BBy MaCron One/X8@N@L @L @KFigure 1 is placed on page 31.@L Figure 2 is places on page 32.@L The pictures are also included on this disk in IFF. (Ohm)@N@L @L Oups, seams that I missed the first issue. Well - never mind, this way I don't have to construct a new thing for this issue but I'll use the one that should have been in the first, a Musical Instrument Digital Interface - perhaps better known as MIDI.@L @L Why a MIDI? Well, it's one of the easiest things you can do for an Amiga, and it's really a Low-Cost, Easy-to-Build, State-of-the-Art, Add-on, and since nobody came with any another suggestion (how could you?) (don't brag -Ed.). I thought this would be a good start.@L @PEver though the MIDI specificationes were made public early in 1983 I think I'll take the liberty to present some of them. The interface operates in asyncronous mode at 31250 baud with a start bit, 8 data bits, no parity and one stop bit giving a total of 10 bits per serial byte. The result of this is that MIDI can receive/ transmit 3125 bytes/second which is fair enough for most applications.@L @L Since the Amiga already has a asyncronous receiver/transmitter - if you haven't guessed it yet - the serial port, which can be programmed to operate at the parameters above, the only thing we have to do is to transform the RS232C output TxD into a MIDI out signal, and the MIDI in signal to an RS232C RxD.@L @L To make the interface more 'user-able' it will have five MIDI connectors. Three MIDI out, one MIDI in and one MIDI thru. Of course you don't have to connect all of them if you don't want to. The interface will work fine with only one connector, except MIDI thru which require MIDI in to work.@L @L Figure 1 shows the circuit diagram for the A500 MIDI, and Figure 2 shows it for the A1000 MIDI.@L @L If you take a look you will see that they are almost identical, only the power connections are different. But rather than making one diagram with lots of jumpers and notes I took the easy way and made two copies of the same diagram, changing one a bit (Hmm, one shall not work to hard in the afternoon).@L @L Logical one in RS232C is represented by a negativ voltage between -3V and -15V, and logical zero is represented by a positive voltage between +3V and +15V. (these are standard recomendations. On the Amiga logical zero is 8V to 13V. Logical one is -2.5V to -12V but it doesn't matter in this application).@L @L Logical one in MIDI is represented by +5V and logical zero is represented by 0V.@L @L The A500 lacks a +5V on the serial port and I'm to lazy to make more changes than necessary so both versiones get +5V from R1 and D1, feed from the +12V.@L @L D2 cuts off all negativ voltages on the TxD line and R2/R3 divides the remaining signal to TTL level. Now logical one is 0V and logical zero is +5V. N1 thru N3 is used to buffer the signal and invert it to fit MIDI. So much for the MIDI transmitter section.@L @L The receiver is a little more tricky, but nothing to worry about. The MIDI specifications clearly states that the receiver shall be electricaly isolated from the transmitter. The easiest way to implement that is to use a optic isolator, IC2 in the diagram. D3 cuts off any negative spikes to protect IC2.@L @L The output signal from IC2 is logical right but needs to be buffered and N5/N6 takes care of that. Since the signal got inverted in the process N4 inverts in again to make MIDI thru logical right.@L @L N6 drives an OP, IC1, which acts as an comparator and drives the RxD input. R12/R13 supplies a reference voltage, 2.5V, to the inverting input. When the non-inverting input is low (MIDI one inverted by N6) the output goes negativ (RS232C one) and when the non-inverting input is high (MIDI zero inverted by N6) the output goes positive (RS232C zero). Thats that. It should be noted that the MIDI specifications states that the opto-isolators fall/rise time should be max 2uS, such as the Sharp PC-900 and HP 6N138. Ironically I could not get any of them to this project so I used the CNY 17-2 which is slower, 4uS.@L @L The prototype was tested on an A500 together with a Roland MT32 and a Korg Poly 800-II using Sonix 2.0, Dr.T Keyboard Controlled Sequencer and Dr.T Caged Editor and it worked terrific even though the opto is slower. However, should any problems arise - they might if you have very long chains - change the opto to a faster one.@L @L The complete MIDI specifications - they are not listed here, it's quite a bit - are available from the International MIDI Association (IMA), and the MIDI Manufacturers' Association (MMA).@L @L Thats all in this issue, if anyone has any ideas on projects, or computer hardware problems in general (this also includes assembler language programming problems connected to hardware constructions, but definitively not spelling) - send a letter to:@L @L @FHardware Hazard@N, Exceller 8, Heimdalsgatan 37, S-261 62 Glumslov, Sweden.@L @L If nobody has a better idea next issue's project will, hopefully, be a music sampler that fits in the parallel-port and works with f.ex AudioMaster.@L @L @BThis is MaCron One, signing off!@N@L @P@P@P@H1"Freestyle U.K. report 2" @BBy Big Al of Freestyle U.K./@L Alphaflight@N@L @L Here in England there has been a lot of things going on. First of all there was the split of @BQuoram@N from@B Bamiga Sector One@N due to Quoram not releasing any software. One of their programmers @BX-rayz@N had to do a game so Quoram did not have anybody to program any demos. Also Quorams leader recently joined Bamiga so they have become quite small as a group.@L @L I think Quoram went downhill as soon as @BTEW/NATO@N joined up with them.@L @L The main occasion was the Commodore Show in London but the only good thing was that quite a lot of groups were there. The hall were too crowded and hardly any new stuff was released which was a pain. At the show was@B Accumalators, Public Enemy, Sub-Zero, X-Men UK, Share & Enjoy,@N Bamiga Sector One (Nice chatting to you Ermida) and of course @BFreestyle U.K.@N At the show Public Enemy tried to slag us down (jealous!) but we just slagged him out which was timid compared to what @BFrostbyte@N was going to do to him.@L @L After the crap show was the Freestyle U.K/SAE copyparty. It was going to be a Freestyle copy-party but we felt that it would be better to have a big one. It was an average copy-party with @BWorld Of Wonders@N coming from abroad. Many people got lost trying to find it but we all had a great time. At the copy-party was a demo done by SAE and everybody put some words in which in some cases was funny.@L @L Since we gave Public Enemy a slagging @BQuartex@N has also given them a slag which shows how lame they are. It has been rumoured that they have split up due to arguments and quarrels.@L @L This would leave the No.1 spot in the U.K very open. There are many groups here that are big and famous but most of them don't swap hot software. Some of the big groups in the U.K are FREESTYLE U.K, ACCUMALATORS, QUORAM, BAMIGA UK.@L @L Just recently there has been a big surge in software being released. Over 20 new titles a week was released. Most of the stuff (Double Dragon, Arkanoid II, Return of the Jedi, Elite, Lombard etc) had either protection or password and as since there is not many crackers in the U.K not much of it is spread. So any big group who needs hot originals straight from the day it is released get in contact with us.@L @L Just recently we have done 3 good intros/demos even though some of them uses BOBS there are, I reckon, no other group in the U.K that can handle bobs so we are catching up. We have 2 mega coders which are programming the masterpieces and a brilliant soundmaster (W.O.W's musician was impressed with his music) The 3 demos should be released at the W.O.W copy-party in Holland which Freestyle are going to (I think we are the only English group going to this copy-party).@L @L Well, we will see you at the copy-party (If you are going to it).@L @L Read my next article to see what happens next.@L @L BYE!!!@L @L @P@H1"Round-up of '88" The editor of this publication decided that he wanted some kind of ending of the year 1988. So he wrote down some questions for the Exceller 8 crew to answer.@L @L The following pages show you the result of his inquiry.@L @L @L @B@K@Z"Starfire"@N@L @KBest_Joystick@N: Wico Redball@L @KBest_Computer@N: Amiga! What else is there!@L @KBest_Game@N: Isn't one. Maybe Falcon.@L @KBest_Demo@N: Demos are a waste of CPU time.@L @KBest_Disk_brand@N: Isn't one@L @KBest_Record@N: T'Pau - Rage@L @KBest_Soap Opera@N: Rambo show or 1001 ways of killing.@L @KBest_Movie@N: At the present - Willow.@L @KBest_Utility@N: Starfire official hackdisk - it's just cool! It contains SEKA and more.@L @KNicest_Girl@N: Well, you really want to know, don't you.@L @KBest_Hamburgerbar@N: Starfire Starburgers! None have complained yet. May they rest in pieces.@L @KBest_Book@N: The Dragonlance series.@L @KFavourite_waste_of_time@N: Well, if I write that it will be censored!@L @KMost_hated_game,_demo,_virus_etc._@N: Bionic commando, Demo creators, Argh! All viruses.@L @L @L @B@K@Z"Celebrandil"@N@L @KBest_Joystick@N: Speedking@L @KBest_Computer@N: CRAY@L @KBest_Game@N: Gyruss (C64)@L @KBest_Demo@N: The Champs first demo@L @KBest_Disk_brand@N: Verbatim. Datalife@L @KBest_Record@N: Upstairs at Eric's (Yazoo)@L @KBest_Soap Opera@N: Cosby show@L @KBest_Movie@N: The lord of the rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)@L @KBest_Utility@N: SEKA@L @KNicest_Girl@N: Catrin@L @KBest_Hamburgerbar@N: Garby's (London)@L @KBest_Book@N: The Belgariad (David Eddings)@L @KFavourite_waste_of_time@N: Partying@L @KMost_hated_game,_demo,_virus_etc._@N: Outrun, The Band "Snakes", Starfire's Antivirus@L @C@B@K@Z"Foetus"@N@L @KBest_Joystick@N: Tac-2@L @KBest_Computer@N: Sinclair Spectrum@L @KBest_Game@N: Quazatron (Spectrum)@L @KBest_Demo@N: Wild Copper@L @KBest_Disk_brand@N: Noname@L @KBest_Record@N: The justified ancients of Mu-Mu: Who killed the JAM's, House music, Clint Ruin@L @KBest_Soap Opera@N: The News on TV@L @KBest_Movie@N: Arizona Junior on Video@L @KBest_Utility@N: Tx-ed@L @KNicest_Girl@N: Sabrina (Who else!)@L @KBest_Hamburgerbar@N: The one on the corner@L @KBest_Book@N: Richard (King) Bachman: The long walk@L @KFavourite_waste_of_time@N: MTV@L @KMost_hated_game,_demo,_virus_etc._@N: Chubby Gristle, The Band "Snake intro", Dasa 0.2@L @P@B@K@Z"Azid"@N@L @KBest_Joystick@N: Tac-2@L @KBest_Computer@N: Amiga 500@L @KBest_Game@N: Sword of sodan@L @KBest_Demo@N: Megademo 3@L @KBest_Disk_brand@N: Scotch@L @KBest_Record@N: Rush - 2112@L @KBest_Soap Opera@N: Dallas@L @KBest_Movie@N: Midnight Run@L @KBest_Utility@N: Text-ed@L @KNicest_Girl@N: Sabrina@L @KBest_Hamburgerbar@N: Clock@L @KBest_Book@N: Phantoms - Dean R. Koontz@L @KFavourite_waste_of_time@N:Drumplaying@L @KMost_hated_game,_demo,_virus_etc._@N: Caverns of Palle, Abigail demo, Dasa 0.2@L @L @L @B@K@Z"Crab"@N@L @KBest_Joystick@N: Tac-2@L @KBest_Computer@N: Amiga 500@L @KBest_Game@N: Interceptor@L @KBest_Demo@N: My next@L @KBest_Disk_brand@N: Noname@L @KBest_Record@N: My frisbee@L @KBest_Soap Opera@N: Soap@L @KBest_Movie@N: Star wars@L @KBest_Utility@N: Seka@L @KNicest_Girl@N: Brooke Shields@L @KBest_Hamburgerbar@N: Can you eat that?@L @KBest_Book@N: Cook book@L @KFavourite_waste_of_time@N: Watching movies@L @KMost_hated_game,_demo,_virus_etc._@N: Jupiter probe, The Band "Snake", all viruses!@L @L @L @B@K@Z"MaCron One"@N@L @KBest_Joystick@N: Tac 2@L @KBest_Computer@N: Sinclair QL@L @KBest_Game@N: Interceptor@L @KBest_Demo@N: All those intros that are not enclosed on disks@L @KBest_Disk_brand@N: Basf@L @KBest_Record@N: Pet Shop Boys - Introspective@L @KBest_Soap Opera@N: Robotech@L @KBest_Movie@N: Moon walker@L @KBest_Utility@N: Disk editor@L @KNicest_Girl@N: Knut@L @KBest_Hamburgerbar@N: The one on the corner behind the cinema.@L @KBest_Book@N: Stephen King - The Stand@L @KFavourite_waste_of_time@N: Watching MTV@L @KMost_hated_game,_demo,_virus_etc._@N: Mega Demo 2, 3 and all others following@L @L @L @B@K@Z"Mahoney ^ Kaktus"@N@L @KBest_Joystick@N: Tac 2@L @KBest_Computer@N: @L @KBest_Game@N: Drelbs ^ Lacey Jones_-_Mahoney@L @KBest_Demo@N: We haven't done it yet.@L @KBest_Disk_brand@N: Mahoney: No-name. Kaktus: Maxell.@L @KBest_Record@N: Everything by The Art of Noise@L @KBest_Soap Opera@N: The story of North Star@L @KBest_Movie@N: Mahoney: Downtown in Malmoe/Sweden. Kaktus: A good anti-bug biocid@L @KBest_Utility@N: Seka@L @KNicest_Girl@N: Mahoney: Girls? Girls! In my life, there are nobody except Paula, Denise and Fat Agnus. Kaktus: J.S. You don't know her anyway...@L @KBest_Hamburgerbar@N: We don't eat such shit, we prefer real @BHOT@N chinese food! (Bleurgh! -Ed.)@L @KBest_Book@N: The fellowship of the ring_-_Mahoney@L @KFavourite_waste_of_time@N: Mahoney: Resting. Kaktus: Sleeping.@L @KMost_hated_game,_demo,_virus_etc._@N: Game: Mahoney: Chess, intelligent people do something productive! Kaktus: Drelbs and Lacey Jones. Demo:_-_. Virus: Mahoney: Nothing beats my virus-killer! Kaktus: Virus? I use Mahoney's virus-killer!@L @P@B@K@Z"Luftwaffe"@N@L @KBest_Joystick@N: The gear lever in my car.@L @KBest_Computer@N: VAX@L @KBest_Game@N: Apache Strike on Macintosh@L @KBest_Demo@N: No idea@L @KBest_Disk_brand@N: Swedisc@L @KBest_Record@N: Simple Minds, Sparkle in the rain.@L @KBest_Soap Opera@N: Dallas@L @KBest_Movie@N: Fawlty Towers on TV@L @KBest_Utility@N: My hands and my brain.@L @KNicest_Girl@N: Zabrina@L @KBest_Hamburgerbar@N: Mc Donalds@L @KBest_Book@N: The day of the Jackal and the history of Mercedes-Benz in three parts.@L @KFavourite_waste_of_time@N: Sleeping@L @KMost_hated_game,_demo,_virus_etc._@N: Aarrrgggghhhh!!@L @L @L @B@K@Z"Titan"@N@L @KBest_Joystick@N: My homemade arcade joystick@L @KBest_Computer@N: Amiga@L @KBest_Game@N: (Arcade) Ghouls' n Ghosts (Amiga) Obliterator.@L @KBest_Demo@N: I don't know@L @KBest_Disk_brand@N: Maxell@L @KBest_Record@N: Beatbox "Popcorn"@L @KBest_Soap Opera@N: Airwolf@L @KBest_Movie@N: Day of the dead@L @KBest_Utility@N: Soundtracker@L @KNicest_Girl@N: Vanity@L @KBest_Hamburgerbar@N: Mc Donalds@L @KBest_Book@N: Dynamic Kicks_-_Chong Lee.@L @KFavourite_waste_of_time@N: Tae kwon do.@L @KMost_hated_game,_demo,_virus_etc._@N: Mission Elevator, The Band_-_Snake, SCA Virus.@L @L @L @B@K@Z"Omega ^ Zigma"@N@L @KBest_Joystick@N: Tac2/ Wico@L @KBest_Computer@N: EDSAC/ Amiga@L @KBest_Game@N: Elite/ Falcon/ Omegas Game(Under Construction).@L @KBest_Demo@N: Megademo I,II,III@L @KBest_Disk_brand@N: Sony@L @KBest_Record@N: Top Gun@L @KBest_Soap Opera@N: _-_.@L @KBest_Movie@N: Die Hard/ Shoot to kill.@L @KBest_Utility@N: Seka@L @KNicest_Girl@N: Maria Whittaker(Great tits).@L @KBest_Hamburgerbar@N: Mc Donalds@L @KBest_Book@N: Hardware manual.@L @KFavourite_waste_of_time@N: Amiga@L @KMost_hated_game,_demo,_virus_etc._@N: Titus games, Lamer Demos, Dasa.@L @L @L @B@K@Z"Atom"@N@L @KBest_Joystick@N: Wico/pro 5000@L @KBest_Computer@N: My HP-Calculator@L @KBest_Game@N: Wizmo/Katakis/Sword of Sodan@L @KBest_Demo@N: Atom Demo 1@L @KBest_Disk_brand@N: Sony@L @KBest_Record@N: Koto@L @KBest_Soap Opera@N: Death Wish@L @KBest_Movie@N: @L @KBest_Utility@N: NS Music ripper/Seka@L @KNicest_Girl@N: My sister?@L @KBest_Hamburgerbar@N: Burger King@L @KBest_Book@N: Amiga hardware manual/ Dragonlance@L @KFavourite_waste_of_time@N: Girls/ Making money/ Parties@L @KMost_hated_game,_demo,_virus_etc._@N: Curtex (C@KO@NRTEX! -Ed.), Omega (crew) demo, Virus X.@L @L @L @B@K@Z"Lord Vega"@N@L @KBest_Joystick@N: Wico@L @KBest_Computer@N: Cray-2@L @KBest_Game@N: Delta (64)@L @KBest_Demo@N: Wild Copper@L @KBest_Disk_brand@N: 3M@L @KBest_Record@N: Revolution (Jean Michael Jarre), Computerworld (Kraftwerk).@L @KBest_Soap Opera@N: Lassie@L @KBest_Movie@N: Roger Rabbit@L @KBest_Utility@N: Amon 2@L @KNicest_Girl@N: None of your business!@L @KBest_Hamburgerbar@N: What is a hamburger?@L @KBest_Book@N: Musashi (Eji Yoshikawa)@L @KFavourite_waste_of_time@N: Karate, Computers, Girls@L @KMost_hated_game,_demo,_virus_etc._@N: Mutant Camels 2, Snakeintro by The Band, I hate them all and their imbecill creators.@L @L @L @B@K@Z"Jazze"@N@L @KBest_Joystick@N: Pro competition@L @KBest_Computer@N: Spectrum (Good choice! -Ed.)@L @KBest_Game@N: Sword of sodan@L @KBest_Demo@N: Dragon's lair@L @KBest_Disk_brand@N: Maxell@L @KBest_Record@N: The best of the Art of Noise@L @KBest_Soap Opera@N: Falcon crest@L @KBest_Movie@N: Die hard (Bad taste!! -Ed.)@L @KBest_Utility@N: Disksalv@L @KNicest_Girl@N: Brooke Shields@L @KBest_Hamburgerbar@N: Burger King@L @KBest_Book@N: DragonLance@L @KFavourite_waste_of_time@N: Sleep (long)@L @KMost_hated_game,_demo,_virus_etc._@N: Rocket attack, Omega crew demos, Byte bandit@L @P@H1"Games, Games!!" @K@B@Z"THUNDERBLADE"@N@L @K@Z"* *"@N@L @BUS GOLD@N presents a new game called Thunderblade. In this game you have to fly a fighting helicopter through diffrent levels and scenarios. For exampel cities and canyons and so on. On the ground are tanks which you can blow away by dropping bombs on them. You are also equiped with a machine gun that you can use on aircrafts. I must say that this is a very difficult game to play because it is very easy to crash into buildings and it is also very hard to avoid enemy fire.@L @L The graphics is quite good but far from the arcade original, but what do you expect from US GOLD? I really liked the titel-tune especially the drums because they had a nice and real sound which you do not hear to often in the Amiga-demos. This game could have been a hit instead it was a disapointment to see the conversion.@L @L Azid gives "Thunderblade" a ratingof 2.@L @L @Z"THE STRONGEST NAME IN DRUMS"@Z"<<>>"@L @L @K@B@Z"HOSTAGES"@N@L @K@Z"* * *"@N@L Hostages, a new game from Infogrames in which you and your men have to free hostages from some bad terrorists. On stage one you have to get your snipers in position in three different places around the Embassy. That part of the game is quite easy.@L @L Then you will be dropped on the roof of the embassy and from there on you have to guide your man into the building through a window. Then the fun starts when you have to find the terrorists and kill them. You have to be careful so you dont kill any hostages because that is very easy to do (I'm trigger happy).@L @L This game is very fun to play and it has also got some very good graphics and sounds, especially the music during the game.@L @L From my opinion this game is different to all other games but the lastability on this game is quite low because it is low on variation. All in all this is a very playable game, but for how long?@L @L @BAzid@N gives @BHostages@N 3 snipers. @C@K@B@Z"SWORD OF SODAN"@N@L @K@Z"* * * * *"@N@L Now this a game we'we all been waiting for. This game has it all, graphics gameplay and of the music. This is my type of game, that's why I'll have to give it such a good rating_-_of course it's worth it.@L @L There are 12 levels of enemy executions to play, so I can understand that Sodan had a busy time working on this game. Well, if you want to cheat on Sword of Sodan then simply type in 'YODA' on the highscore list, and then you are able to cheat with infinitive lives! Belive me, you're gonna need it, because it's a hard job, fighting off those weird strangers.@L @L The game never gets dull I think, because of it's graphics and very good gameplay. If you ever considering buying an original this has to be it...at the final screen you meet the wizard, an evil wizard indeed. He charges several hits to be executed, but then if you do execute him, you are allowed to see the end screen, which is absolutly great! I can't wait too see what Sodan is up to next!@L @L Rating 5 evil wizards out of 5.@L @L @BREX@N@L @L @K@B@Z"Maria Whittaker's X-mas box"@N@L @K@Z"* *"@N@L At the time when I tested this geem I damned myself for beeing such a lousy poker-player (You're a born loser! -Ed.). The geem consists of a couple of pictures showing a pretty lady. You are supposed to play poker against her and when you start botrh of you have got the same amount of money and all your clothes on. If you are losing and run out of money you have to start selling your clothes to get more money.@L @L Of course the meaning with the geem is not that you are going to lose, on the contrary. When she is losing the computer will choose another picture to show you, a much better picture than the last one. And if you continue to play well you will see better and better pictures. Unfortunately I can't tell you how many pictures there are and not what the last one's look like, but I can imagine.@L @L But it is not fair that Maria is wearing a hat and that I can't choose my clothes on my own. If this was permitted I would be dressed like a participant of a polar-expedition.@L @L Though the fact is that the pictures are not that fantastic, the Amiga is better than that, but in spite of that I spent one hour and a half trying to get all her clothes off, but failed (ha ha ha -Ed.).@L @L The geem is quite simply constructed and when you have reached the goal (the last picture) once, then it is not so funny anymore. Therefor I score the game low, two out of five (three if you are very fond of naked girls). Contributing to this low score is the fact that the computer doesn't play very logical, so a smart guy like me can't beat it.@L @L @BLuftwaffe@N@L @L @K@B@Z"Operation Wolf"@N@L @K@Z"* * * *"@N@L Yet another arcade hit has come out on Amiga. I have always been a fan of Operation Wolf, that goes for the Amiga version too. There are very small differences regarding to the graphics and the sound.@L @L You are a soldier who's mission is to save a hostage and destroy and kill as many of the enemies as possible. There are six different levels in the game all basically the same. They get harder and harder as you progress further into the game. There are a lot of shooting in this game, but you haven't got all that many grenades or an endless amount of ammunition that you wish you would have had. On the other hand you can pick up more "hardware" as you go along killing your off your foes.@L @L I think this is a good game and I give it four out of five.@L @L @BSlaine@N@L @L @K@B@Z"Double Dragon"@N@L @K@Z"* * * *"@N@L Now this old arcade hit has come out on Amiga too. It's very much like the arcade version even the graphics and the sound are almost the same.@L @L You have the possibility to choose whether to play a one or two player game. The meaning of the game is to rescue your girlfriend who has been taken away by a gang of hooligans. On the way to her rescue you meet a lot of people, for example, negros, women and giants.@L @L I think the game is a little bit to easy, but it's fun to play. So I give it four out of five.@L @L @BSlaine@N @CSend all your demos/intros to:@L Belgalive/Killerman@L Allerheiligenberg 20@L 3290 Diest (Belgium)@L To make a compact!@L Disks send back guaranteed!@L @S0@L CONTACT FIRST WAVE FOR NEW STUFF:@L @Z"EQUALIZER" @Z"JUHANNUSTIE 21 H 16" @Z"00750 HKI" @Z"FINLAND" @Z"ALL ANSWERED!!"@L @S0@L If you want to swap hot stuff, send a few disks to:@L @Z"B&B"@N @Z"Box 2"@N @Z"N-8612 Andfiska"@N @Z"Norway" @N P.S. We won't steal your disks,even if you are lamers!@L @P@H1"Letters" If you want to write to Exceller 8, this is the address:@L Exceller 8@L Heimdalsgatan 37@L S-261 62 Glumslov@L Sweden@L @L Don't hide it provide it! @L @L @L @B@K@Z"Where's Elm Street?"@N@L Hello Atom and all other members.@L @L After reading the Exceller 8 disc, I was shocked. How come that you don't have reviews of @BNightmare on Elmstreet@N part I,II,III, and I couldn't find them on the top ten horror movies chart. Part III is extremely good, or should I say cool.@L @L Exceller 8 is a good idea. In Denmark we have just started something similar, we have been operating since August 88, unfortunately the text in our magazine is in Danish. It's called @BBrainBox@N, and we deliver every month. It includes all reviews, news, test, hitlist, serious things as programming. Maybe you have seen it, because some LAMERS copied the disks, and distributed them to Sweden and Norway. The disc isn't free, it costs 35 danish crowns, included is the disc and the stamps.@L @L Keep up your good work.@L @L @KLord Helmet@L Middelfart@L Denmark@N@L @L @BElm Street? Not enough gore!!@N@L @L @L @B@K@Z"Hot beeps!"@N@L Dear North Star and Fairlight,@L @L I am writing to congratulate you on your first issue of Exceller 8. Gee-wiz, what a cool mag. Who wrote the music, it was great!@L @L How about some coin-op and book reviews? Longer game reviews and more would be good. Some artistic pictures would also be great. I look forward to the next issue.@L @L Merry Christmas to you all.@L @L @KJamie Grisetti (? -Ed)@L Sydenham@L London@L England@N@L @L @BTitan (NS) wrote the music for issue one of the mag. Somewhere in this issue there should be some coin-op reviews also written by Titan. We have considered book reviews but we don't know what books to review and it is also hard to get people to read books.@L @L Artistic pictures? Well maybe, but we are a little short on memory.@N@L @B@K@Z"Issue 2?"@N@L Hello North Star and Fairlight,@L @L This letter was typed by Ascot from Int. Digital Studio and today we got the Exceller 8 issue 1. I think this Disk-Magazine is the best I ever saw. It contains a not so boring sound like in the CJ from AFL and the comic-strips are better than in SN 5.@L @L Question: When will Exceller 8 Issue 2 be released?@L @L That's all.@L Bye Bye,@L @L @KAscot from I.D.S.@N@L @L @BIssue 2? You're reading it! What's CJ?@L @P@B@K@Z"Not King?"@N@L Dear Folks (or something likethat)@L @L This is @BLOKI@N of @BALPHAFLIGHT@N and I just got u're first issue of Exceller 8.@L @L I read it and then I came to the article where @BFoetus@N wrote something about the @BRunning Man@N movie. The movie is OK - as he said, but the movie has nothin' except the title from the "@BKING@N" story.@L @L I read the story an' about 5 others of the same kind. F.X "@BRunning Man@N" from @BJohn W. Campell@N, an' let me say ya that @Bnobody@N is able to make a movie out of @BStephen Kings@N original stories.@L @L Lot's of producers tried it but none is able to do it well. F. X."@BChristine@N"...@L @L The movie is OK but only if you haven't read the book before.@L @L I hope you consider to print this letter in your next issue.....@L @L Greetinx@L @KLOKI@N@L @KALPHAFLIGHT@N@L @L @BIn the presentation of the movie "The Running Man" it says "Based on a novel by Richard Bachman". I interpret that as a "King" movie. I think you also misunderstood me when I wrote "Well made". "Rambo 3" and the "Superman" series is also well made, but they are not particulary good movies. The only really good "King" movie is "The Shining" by Stanley Kubrick. But on the other hand that is a matter of personal taste.@L Foetus@N @P@K@B@Z"FOETUS INC.!!"@N@L Hi there! Exceller 8 + North Star + Fairlight@L @L I've just read the first number of your magazine and I saw that you wanted some comments so here's a letter from me.@L @L But I got a real reason to write this letter when I read the article about @BSTARFIRE INC.@N At the end I saw that @BFOETUS@N wondered if there were any groups called @BFOETUS INC.@N out here in the real world. Well, the answer is yes!!@L @L The fact is that FOETUS INC. consists of me and my little bugs. I got the name before I heard anything about a group called North Star (I hope there's no copyright on the name). I'm a member of the group @BUGGADUNKERS (V3.0)@N. We haven't realeased anything yet (apart from a great music-disk by one of our members @BZKOBA@N)@L @L Enough bullshit about me now the magazine. I found it very interesting even if the layout was a bit boring (more pictures and perhaps some more interesting muzak). The contents was better, but I would like to see more about useful programs instead of all these booooooring games. But I found the part with music, film and video very interesting. It would also be interesting to read about hardware such as harddisks, samplers, midi and so on. But it's a very interesting magazine and I'm looking forward to the next number.@L @L Greetings from FOETUS INC. of the UGGADUNKERS alias@L @L Ulf Svensson@L Karlstad@L Sweden@L @P@BWhat do you do when you get a@N@Bletter like that?@N@L @L @BRight! You hire him on.@N@L @L @BHave a look at the Lp and CD reviews later on in this issue.@N@L @L @L @C@H1"Arcades"@BBy Titan@N@L @L Hello, everybody!@L @L In this text I'm going to tell you some simple things about arcade-games. People in Japan has got another interest for video-games than people in the U.S. That's not surprising because the Japanese are 'fed up' with nice graphics. They like games that are more entertaing and funny. In other words 'they don't give a shit about graphics'. At least that is my impression of what I have seen on the top-ten-lists.@L @L Here are the December-88 top-ten-lists for Japan and USA.@L @L @K@B@Z"Japan"@N@L 1.Final lap@L 2.Chase HQ@L 3.Top landing@L 4.Metal hawk@L 5.Power drift@L 6.Final lap standard "Don't ask me..."@L 7.Out run@L 8.Continental circus@L 9.Galaxy force@L 10.Afterburner@L @L @L @K@B@Z"USA"@N@L 1.Cabal@L 2.Shinobi@L 3.Altered beast___"Very niceg raphics indeed"@L 4.V-ball@L 5.P 47@L 6.Roadblaster@L 7.Bowling "Boring"@L 8.Twin eagle@L 9.Championship sprint@L 10.Twin cobra "THAT'S what I call a game"@L @CAnd now for what I think is the best game of the year, the return of the classic "Ghosts'n Goblins"..."GHOULS'N GHOSTS"!!!@L @L I'm happy to say that I have been through the whole game and put Lucifer down where he belongs.@L @L It's a most fantastic game that tells us what has happened since Lucifer created his evil empire three years ago.@L @L The whole thing starts with Lucifer coming back from retirement to a peaceful little world somewhere in the faerietales. He is more powerful than ever and his evil demons are attacking the royal palace to get the princess' soul. The little village is filled with panic. Women with thier children are running in fear, the men are too yellow to stay and fight. But there is one, a hero full of courage and stupidity enough to enter the deep shit and save the princess. "He can't be thinking with his brain, if you know what I mean..."@L @L Arthur, the knight in shining armour, is the one I'm talking about. He rides on a white charger in the opposite direction right through the running crowd to fight Lucifer. As he enters the castle all he can see is death. Servants, maids, and other people are lying on the ground killed by Lucifers demons. Suddenly he sees the Princess running straight for him screaming. As she's running something hits her and she falls to the ground, dead. Arthur hurry's to help her but it's too late. All Arthur has in mind now is revenge and looks up into the dark and cloudy sky.@L @L Now the fun begins!@L @L It's quite the same game as "Ghosts'n Goblins" but the landscape has been changed and the graphics improved. Another finess is that Arthur is able to fire not only left and right but also up and down. You also have a wider choice of fire power like the golden sword, the star etc. The best weapon is still the knife.@L @L Then there is a third armour, if you keep the old armour on long enough you can get the magic armour. The good thing about this armour is that if you hold down the firebutton patiently, Arthur gathers power for the "ultimate weapon". When you release the button something nice always happens, depending on what weapon Arthur has got at the moment. There is not much more I can tell you now except that "Ghouls'n Ghosts" is a lot easier than "Ghosts'n Goblins".@L @L @BTitan@N gives it a 4.5 of 5. @P@H1"Warhammer Fantasy RPG Review." The Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay book is huge. It's 366 page A4 size hardbacked and is very good to use if you are going to smash some lamers head.@L @L WFRP is set in the Old World. The maps are slightly different from our world but The Old World covers Germany. The southpole is called The Southern Chaos Wastes, whatever they mean by that. Perhaps it's a very cold and very nasty place to be if you're not a chaos mutant.@L @L WFRP wasn't first. @BGames Workshop@N made Warhammer Fantasy Battle before they even thought of making the RPG. WFB is a tabletop skirmish game that also is set in the Old World. After the success with WFB then WFRP saw the light. This book is very complete. It contains everything that you need to play except dice. You need 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 20 sided. It's good to have two 10 sided because this game uses percentage rolls to determine your success.@L @L The character system uses skills. If you don't have a skill, say swimming, then you have a penalty on your die roll. If you make it, good. If you don't...... The combat and magic systems are very good. The combat section contains a very funny table. The critical hits tables. With these you can see what happens to your enemy when you have managed to score a nice blow.@L @L Ex: Your blow smashes your opponent's spine and abdomen, tearing muscle and scattering bone so that your opponent falls to the ground in two separate places. Nice touch. The magic section contains over 150 spells spread over seven types of magic. Each spell has a fixed cost in magic points and your character has points up to a certain value. After they are used up, he needs sleep.@L @L This book also contains a section on religion and belief. It describes the different Gods, their alignment, temples and much more. Monsters! I can hear you scream. You asked for it! In the Bestiary you can find just about every monster you ever wanted not to meet. And some you really want to meet. These are no monsters, of course. What about a horse?@L @L Following the bestiary, we find the Guide to The World. Here you have descriptions of different places, languages and more. The last section contains a complete adventure for you to start you off in WFRP. The Oldenhaller Contract is very simple but it is good for beginners.@L @L In the last pages of the book you will find different tables showing combat modifiers and the like. You also have a look at typical buildings, complete with floorplans. For ex. a Coaching Inn.@L @L To round this off you can say that WFRP is a good purchase. The only thing that prevents this product from getting the highest rating is that it contains a fair amount of misprints. One can't blame them though. With a big book like this there is always mistakes to be made, but mistaking a bear for a giant bat is not all that easy now is it?@L @L Games Workshop have printed an errata in their magazine White Dwarf. Counting 72 errors. However, they have managed to make a good game, and me and my pals have played it a lot. The back up is also very good. The campaign The Enemy Within seems as neverending - and very deadly. My Druid has managed to get his right hand cut off. Well so much for being right handed. Wait until I gain Magic. Then Chaos will pay. Well. Better a hand than a head. Games Workshop has also managed to put Warhammer in the future. Warhammer 40'000. They also made an expansion of the chaos gods. A two book series - Realm of Chaos. Really gory. But more about that later. Stay tuned - Same StarChannel - Same StarTime.@L @L The Rating for Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy RolePlay is: Four Scimitars out of Five. Outstanding.@L @L Yours Sincerely, in Battle or Bout. @BStarfire@N for Exceller8. @C@H1"Useless movie info!" Michael Keaton, last seen in "Beetlejuice", is right now taking part in the making of the movie version of the fab Tv series "Batman". -Holy broken bones, Batman!!!@L @L @S1@L @L Madonna has signed a contract with Columbia pics. to make the comedy "Bloodhounds of Broadway" -Holy Sean Penn, Batman!!@L @L @S1@L @L The Steven Spielberg extravaganza "Roger Rabbit" has now grossed 148 million dollars in the USA. The movie has made 2 million dollars in Sweden, 2 in Italy, 17 in West-Germany, 3 in Spain, 24 in France and 4 million dollars in Japan. This means that "Roger Rabbit" will be one of the greatest movie rabbits in the history of moviemaking. -Holy Bugs Bunny, Batman!!@L @L @S1@L @L Disney, by the way, will during the coming year launch a new label beside their present Two labels, "Disney" and "Touchstone". Last year the Disney companies earned 25 percent of the total amount made at the box offices. -Holy Piggy-bank, Batman!!@L @L @S1@L @L The new and 16th James Bond movie, originally named "License Revoked" now changed to the more Bondish (?) "License to Kill", features for the second time Timothy Dalton as our hero 007. The movie is scheduled for premiere this Summer. -Holy Moneypenny, Batman!!@L @L @S1@L @L The cinemas in Europe have been occupied by "Roger Rabbit" and his friends. In Australia on the other hand, "Cocktail" is the main "drink" at the moment. While the Americans are lining up for the movie "Twins". -Holy Blackn' decker, Batman!!@L @L @BTwenty Minutes@N @P@H1"Lights, camera, action" @B@Z"MANIAC COP"@N@L @K@Z"*"@N@L Keystone cops? No!@L @L Police academy 8? No!@L @L Massmurdering cop? Yes!!@L @L Maniac Cop, a @BJames (Exterminator) Glickenhaus@N production of a @BWilliam (Maniac, Vigilante) Lustig@N film. Ok, what's all this about then? Quite simple, a Friday the 13th ripoff. This is @BJason@N in a police uniform!@L @L The story is ofcourse very simple and leaks like a sieve. A man (Monster?) walks the streets at night killing anyone who comes in his way. After a few moodsetting killings - he uses a long knife hidden in the blackjack - an innocent cop played by Evil Dead hero @BBruce Campbell@N is accused of doing the killings. He and his mistress @B(Laurene Landon)@N desperately tries to find the real killer.@L @L After a while the story gets a little spicy when the detective in charge of the case, finds out that the killer is a "Dirty Harry" kind of cop that was put in jail for beeing to rude to his clients. The violent cop was (almost) killed by some ungrateful inmates but brought back to life by the post-mortem dissector at the prison hospital. The poor cop suffered severe brain damage during the period he was half dead and only one thing dominates his distorted brain.@L @L Revenge on the men who put him in the penitentiary!@L @L Does this sound like a good story? Maybe, but director Lustig isn't the man for detail and finess. Maybe Maniac Cop could have been a good movie if they hadn't tried so hard to copy the Jason series (He is even indestructable!). The end of the movie is ofcourse made so that it will be easy to make a follow-up.@L @L Bye the way, Bruce Campbell is good from the neck and up and Laurene Landon is good from the neck and down.@L @L To put it short: Maniac Cop is a lousy movie. I'll give it 1 blackjack@L @L @BFoetus@N@L @L @L @B@Z"COP"@L @K@Z"*_*_*"@N@L Lot's of cops in this issue. @BCop@N directed by the - for me - unknown@B James B. Harris@N. This is a "one cop against a mad killer" type of movie. @BJames (Salvador, The Onion Field) Woods@N plays the obsessed cop who is trying to find the also obsessed killer.@L @L While investigating the brutal murder of a young woman, the cop Lloyd Hopkins receives an anonymous letter written in human blood. Beeing written by the killer, Hopkins thinks that the letter proofs that the killer has killed before. Because of Hopkins obsession with his work and criminality he runs into problems with almost everyone.@L @L His wife leaves him taking their daughter with her, his partner/superior officer has problems collaborating with him because he is to fiery trying to make things go his way. Finally he is on a collision course with the police captain for not giving him the resources he thinks he needs to solve the case.@L @L James Woods is definitely one of Americas best character actors at the moment. Although in this movie I get the feeling that he is not all that concentrated on his character, the cop Lloyd Hopkins. But it is also possible that it is the directors fault that the movie doesn't touch me as much as it should have. The Woods character doesn't go through much development as the movie rolls on. He is disturbed in the beginning of the movie and he stays the same all through the end.@L @L The good things about the movie is that it is quite thrilling with good supporting acts (Randi Brooks is (as Laurene Landon) very good from the neck and down!).@L @L Recommended. 3 lieutenants.@L @L @BFoetus@N @C@B@Z"RED HEAT"@N@L @K@Z"*_*_*"@N@L Cops everywhere! And Soviet ones too.@L Arnold is back! Yes @BArnold Schwarzenegger@N is back in a new cop movie together with @BJames Belushi@N. This time Arnold takes on the role of the Soviet policeman Ivan Danko. Directed by the very competent action maker @BWalter Hill@N, well known for movies like Southern Comfort (My personal favourite), The Warriors, The Driver and 48 hrs. With movies like that you know you are in for some good action. You could say that Walter Hill is the @BSam Peckinpah@N of the 80's.@L @L One odd thing about Red Heat is that some scenes were shot on location in Moscow. I don't think anyone has done that before, at least not for an American action movie. The scenes shot in Moscow gives the movie a good feeling of authenticity. Also the fact that the "Soviets" speaks russian (Yes, even Arnold) makes a lot for the whole feeling of the movie.@L @L The story is - as all action movies - quite simple. During a raid against Soviet cocain dealers, Dankos brother (also a policeman) is killed by Viktor Rosta the leader of the drug organization. Rosta manages to get away and escapes to America to set up a new organisation. Danko is sent to Chicago to get him before he gets a chance to send a big load of cocain back to Soviet.@L @L Red Heat reminds me of another Hill movie, namely 48 Hrs. The plot is very similar and the setup of the movie is more or less the same. We have the two men, put together by fate, that have to find a dangerous criminal within a limited amount of time (Danko has to get back to Soviet). They don't get along very well in the beginning, but after a while they start to respect eachother. In 48 Hrs. @BNick Nolte@N was sleazy but dedicated to his case and @BEddie Murphy@N had style and wit. In Red Heat James Belushi is sleazy and witty and Arnold Schwarzenegger is stylish and very dedicated to his assignment. The end is also almost identical with 48 hrs.@L @L Personally I find 48 Hrs. a better and most of all a funnier movie, mainly because of Eddie Murphy. Also a thing that is a bit irritating is the way the russians are portrayed. They are still very "commie" whitch means that they are quite "stiff" and empty on feelings. They are also very keen on bureaucracy.@L @L All in all, not too bad though. The action is good and the story convinceable I'll give it 3 red stars.@L @BFoetus@N@L @K@B@Z"Willow"@N@L @K@Z"* * * * *"@N@L Willow or 1001 ways to (mis)use a love potion.@L @L @KBavmorda@N, an evil witch, is keeping the world in a tight leash. Her happiness would have been complete if it hadn't been for a vision in wich she saw herself destroyed by a small child. She hunts the kingdom for pregnant women and transports them to her castle where their children will be born and if one bears the sign, the child will be killed.@L @L The child is born. But a nursemaid succeeds in sneaking the child out but hunted by hounds of death and warriors she meets her death at the riverside. But not before she had built a small raft and placed the child on it. The raft speeds down the river and is later found by two children of a race called nelwyns. Small people (Like Atom? -Ed.). They call for their father @BWillow Ufgood@N. And then the race is on. There is some funny parts in which a lovepotion plays a major part. That explains the title.@L @L This is a good movie. But I think that it will only appeal to fantasy freaks. I am one as you know. It is filled with magic, monsters and the other stuff that fantasy pictures are made of.@L @L The SFX in this movie are really good. Especially when magic is on the screen. And mind that sword. It is sharp. The producer @BGeorge Lucas@N (famed of @KSTAR WARS@N) has once more pited Good against Evil. A golden thread that goes through most fantasy movies. A theme that is never used up. If you are a Fantasy freak, roleplayer or you just like this kind of movies, then you may safely go and watch it. It is worth the money.@L @L I hear that Willow has come out in a boardgame of some sort. I wonder what it looks like. I wonder if it contains a lifesize poster of the fab @BSorcha@N?@L @L Anyway, I give Willow Five lovepotions out of Five. Perhaps a little bit generous, you may say. I have given away another fiver in this ish. But alas, isn't that what they are for. Jokes aside, this one is also worth it.@L @L Yours truly, in caverns and dungeons, @BStarfire@N for Exceller8. @C@H1"Musicpix!" The Man With No Name_-_Yet! has now got a name and it is @BTECHNO@N.@L @L @B@K@Z"Techno"@N@L @KBest_Concerts@N: Hunters and Collectors in Malmoe/Sweden, Sugarcubes in Roskilde/Denmark@L @KBest_Comix@N: Batman (Frank Miller)@L @KBest_Game@N: Wizmo (Ha ha)@L @KBest_Demo@N: Godbrains House disk@L @KBest_Magazine@N: I-D@L @KBest_Record@N: Pet Shop Boys: Introspective, Hunters and Collectors: Fate, Cocteau Twins: Blue bell knoll, Skin: Shame Humility Revenge, JAM's: Who Killedthe JAM's@L @KBest_Movie@N: Hope and Glory@L @KNicest_Girl@N: Bjork from Sugarcubes@L @L @KThe Funky Worm@N@L "Hustle to the music"@L Some videos are ridiculous. This is one. @P@KTom Tom Club@N@L "Suboceana"@L A bit strange this one. Is this the first underwater video? Why is Tina Weymouth wearing an umbrella on her head?@L @L @KThe Highliners@N@L "Henry the Wasp"@L I didn't know they made 'em like this anymore. Stump on a bad day?@L @L @KNew Grass Revival@N@L "Can't stop now"@L You've heard of Speed Metal? This is Speed Country and Western!@L @L @KEllis, Beggs and Howard@N@L "Where Did Tomorrow Go"@L They borrowed my car for the video. I promise! Let us hope they continue to go round in circles!@L @L @KYello@N@L "Tied Up"@L Is there someone like me, that doesn't like that deep voice. Urghh. I hate it. Where do they buy their suits?@L @L @KThe Mighty Lemon Drops@N@L "Inside out"@L They'll wipe the floor with any other band.@L @L @KThe Darling Buds@N@L "It's all up to you"@L Sounds like a Blondie hit played on a buzz-saw.@L @L @KSabrina@N@L "My Chico"@L Good close-ups. Now we've got all of you!@L @L @KStatus Quo@N@L "Burning Bridges"@L I'm getting dizzy! Rock and @BROLL@N.@L @L @KInnercity@N@L "Good Life"@L Is the cameraman high on Ecstacy?@L @L @KGeorge Michael@N@L "Kissing a Fool"@L Not much going on here.@L @KOfra Haza@N@L "Im nin' Alu"@L A real hit. What's next? Arabian House?@L @L @KBest Commercial_-_@NLevis 501 "Rolling Stone"@L @L @KEric B and Rakim@N@L "The Microphone Fiend"@L Supposed to be @BTHE@N best of the hip-hop boom. Myself, I am bored stiff with fat goldchains.@L @L @KBon Jovi@N@L "Born To Be My Baby"@L Bruce does this much better.@L @L @KSigue Sigue Sputnik@N@L "Success"@L Will they get away with it? Probably!@L @L @L @KAnnie Lennox and Al Green@N@L "Put a Little Love In Your Heart"@L Cheap.@L @L @KNorthern Pikes@N@L "One Good Reason"@L This is one good reason to switch on to MTV. A real drummer. A favourite.@L @L @KSam Fox@N@L "Love House"@L Burning down the house.@L @L @KTil Tuesday@N@L "Belive You Were Lucky"@L A couple of good ideas here.@L @L @K2 Brave@N@L "Stop That Girl"@L Another druged cameraman. Shot from the hip.@L @L @KBreathe@N@L "How Can I Fall"@L Is it a Coca-cola commercial?@L @L @L @KMost Thilted VJ_-_@NMarcel Van Thilt.@L @L @L @KThe Stranglers@N@L "Big In America"@L Nice hats. Great fun. Have a nice day@L @L @KThe Timelords@N@L "Doctor In The Tardis"@L Best car video ever! A true hit (JAM's!)@L @L @KEdelwiess@N@L "Bring Me Edelweiss"@L Bumsen.@L @L @KAl Jarreu@N@L "So Good"@L Disgusting.@L @L @KPet Shop Boys@N@L "Left To My Own Devices"@L A view from below. Not bad. Good groove. They are actually dancing to their music, or at least moving.@L @L @KGail Ann Dorsey@N@L "Where Is Your Love"@L Question: Can she actually play the guitar?@L @L @KRun Dmc@N@L "Christmas in Hollies"@L How do they manage to play two gigs at the same time. Truly amazing.@L @L @KU2@N@L "New Years Day"@L Brrrr. Swedish winter (shot in Dalarna,Sweden). Just keep moving those feets boys. Stay warm. Clear as ice this one!@L @L @KSkin Games@N@L "Brilliant Shining"@L What do you do when you don't have a good idea? Let the camera circle around the band! Not that bad though. Looks like where I live.@L @L @L @KDuran Duran@N@L "All She Want Is"@L Chopped to pieces. Fascinating!!@L @L @L @L @KUB 40@N@L "Come Out And Play"@L ZZZZZZZZZZ@L @L @KFreda@N@L "I En Annan Del Av Varlden"@L Probably the best Swedish video around at the moment. Recorded not so far away from where I live! The car? A Volvo!@L @L @KMost hated commercial_-_@NM^M "Movingin".@L @L @KPhil Collins@N@L "Two Hearts"@L One Phil Collins is a pain in the ass. What do you think four is?@L @L @KVan Halen@N@L "Finish What Ya Started"@L Cut it and keep the best parts. Forget the band. Was it always this fun in the west. Woohaa, crack that whip!@L @L @L @L @KA-ha@N@L "You Are The One"@L Manhattan skyline.@L @L @KEnya@N@L "Evening Falls"@L Celestial.@L @L @KKitaro@N@L "Theme From The Silk Road"@L Like beeing hit by a five ton truck of boredom.@L @L @KNeneh Cherry@N@L "Buffalo Stance"@L Ha! Sucker!! Don't get fresh with me. Great.@L @L @KLevel 42@N@L "Tracie"@L Wasn't there a hurricane called Tracie?@L @L @KRobin Beck@N@L "The First Time"@L This @BIS@N a Coca-cola commercial. Coke is it?@L @L @KErasure@N@L "Stop"@L Descent into the stroboscope inferno.@L @L @KSinead O'Connor@N@L "? (the latest)"@L Edit me out.@L @L @KSteve (B)lame_-_@NWot, another hat?@N@L @L @KLittle Feat@N@L "Let It Roll"@L What happened? Did they run out of decent videos?@L @L @KPrefab Sprouts@N@L "Appetite"@L Straight.@L @L @KSheena Easton@N@L "The Lover In Me"@L I don't know what Prince sees in her. Totally without any trace of talent. Bimbo!@L @L @L @L @KR.E.M.@N@L "Orange Crush"@L This issues best black and white video. Style!@L @L @KThe Escape Club@N@L "Shake For The Sheik"@L Doesn't this sound exactely like their previous hit? Or at least a Xerox copy of INXS.@L @L @KKissing The Pink@N@L "Stand Up"@L I remember one of their old hits "The last film I ever saw" or something like that. Nice.@L @L @KKim Wilde@N@L "Four Letter Word"@L Is she getting fat? Kinky! Nice dress.@L @L @KFrazier Chorus@N@L "Dream Kitchen"@L Serious? Boring! Competitor for lamest video.@L @L @L @KTanita Tikaram@N@L "Cathedral song"@L She does it again! Beautiful sadness. A hard competitor for best Black and white video.@L @L @KJulian Cope@N@L "5 O'Clock World"@L A designer microphone stand. Not convincing.@L @L @KWee Papa girl Rappers@N@L "Soulmate"@L A slow-speed Milli-vanilli rip-off. Yawn!@L @L @KNik Kershaw@N@L "One Step Ahead"@L Didn't he know that he was a one-hit-wonder? Three steps behind!@L @L @KKylie ^ Jason@N@L "Especially For You"@L Who the F**K is Jason? And does anybody care? -Kylie, stick to your own stuff!@L @L @KVixen@N@L "Edge Of A Broken Heart"@L Come on lads!@L @L @KMichael Jackson@N@L "Smooth Criminal vers #2"@L When people get tired of the first one, go for this. $$$$$$$, violence and machine gun totin'.@L @L And last but not least:@L @L @K@B@FMilli Vanilli@N@L "Baby Don't Forget My Number"@L Let's give'em a handkerchief. Don't use your hands lads. Same quality stuff. Choreography by Roger Rabbit? Jump to the beat, stomp your feet. Were they to sick or to lazy to re-program the drum machine?@L @L Acting improved. Best heavy metal drummer of -89. Good headbanging. Entrance the dynamic duo -_Follow that car! Keep it up, keep it up. Watch out lads, icy roads ahead! Beat him up it's his fault. More gore! Aaaah happy ending. Couldn't be better. Almost as good as the last video, or is it the same?@L @L Hang in there lads. A true mega hit.@L @L @BTechno and Foetus@N @C@L @BXOR@N are looking for new swapping-contacts worldwide. Just call :46/46/142902 (in Sweden) and ask for "Figge". If you're a lamer, don't bother.@L @L @S0@L THE MAFFIA! A newly started group from Sweden is looking for new contacts. All letters answered. Write to: Christer Nilsson, Nackrosvagen 2, S-194 60, UpplandsVasby, Sweden.@L @L @S0@L Contact Writing Force, Write to Mattias Andersson, Biologigrand 31, 902 41, Umea, Sweden. No lamers!@L @L @P@H1"Tune in , turn on, drop out" @B@K@Z"Pet Shop Boys"@N@L @Z"Introspective"@N@L @K@Z"* * * * *"@N@L The Pet Shop Boys has been feeding us a steady flow of good pop songs and with this longplayer thay have made their hitherto best release.@L @L Like the "Disco" album it contains remixes of their old songs and some new ones as well. All in full length versions (rang. 7_-_9 min.). It's amazing how they manage to make those long tracks sound so good. They could go on and on forever. They never bore you like remixes usually do. All six tracks fit together like hand in glove.@L @L Either you just sit back and listen to it or, preferably, dance. You just can't sit still, I promise. Swirl around to "Domino dancing", jack your body to the house version of "Always on my mind", or just dance your life away to "It's alright", the best track on the album. 9 minutes and 24 seconds of pure brilliance.@L @L It is a milestone in pop production, from the guys who know how to make hits. One of this decades finer products. This one will be remembered.@L @L 5 parallel lines@L @L @BTechno@N@L @L @L @K@B@Z"The house sound of London vol IV"@N@L @Z"The jackin' zone"@N@L @K@Z"* * * *"@N@L This is the fourth album in the "House sound..." series (and the best I have heard). This one takes us to England and it's House and Acid House scene. If you want to be introduced to House music it's a good platform to start from.@L @L It contains some very good songs. Jamie Principle's "Rebels", a real House sermon. The very up beat Acid House track with Houseaddicts. D-mob's "We call it Aciieed", very good if you can stand the shouting (ha ha).@L @L Some other views is found in "Salsahouse" with Ricki Rich and in the smooth "I have a dream" by The Speech.@L @L It's well worth checking out if you like to get into the House groove jungle. Just pump up the volume and jack your body.@L @L Four smile's@L @L @BTechno@N @C@K@B@Z"Todd Terry"@N@L @Z"To the batmobile, let's go"@N@L @K@Z"* * *"@N@L Todd Terry is back with his latest House/sampling extravaganza.@L @L The record is built up around a few different sounds which he use in almost every song, this makes it a bit monotonous at times. But do not play the record in one go. Play the tracks loud one at a time so to speak. This one is not for easy listening, it's for the dancefloors.@L @L You can find samples from Kraftwerk, Beatmasters and of course Adam West from the Batman TV series. Todd Terry sounds the best in "Weekday", when he let's the bassline through thouroghly.@L @L Not that good at first but it grows.@L @L Three smiling Batmans@L @L @BTechno@N@L @L @L @K@B@Z"Front 242 + Nitzer Ebb" @N@Z"Front by front + Belief"@N@L @K@Z"* * * *"@N@L These two bands has taken the lead in, what finally got itself a name, "Electronic Body Music". Although they have been doing this sort of music for a long time, nobody really paid any attention. In Belgium they have been playing Front in the clubs for a long time. But with the aid of House and Acidhouse it really saw it's light. They have spawned many bands such as @BCassandra Complex, Ministry, A split second, A grumh, Manufacture, Skinny Puppy@N and many more.@L @L With Front's "Front by front" and Nitzer's "Belief" they have made their best albums to date. Nitzer keeping to purer sound while Front keep on using samples.@L @L And they do it good.@L @L With the rythm going straight into your body. Two very fine products both earning four stars. "Let your body learn"@L @L @BTechno@N@L @L @B@K@Z"The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu"@N@L The JAMs, Justified..., Disco 2000, Timelords. They are all the same. Infact they are Rockman rock and King boy D alias James Cauty and William Drummond.@L @L A band that created a great deal of fuss in 87-88 with their unusual way of making records_-_Taking sampling to the limit. Also by mixing together many different styles of music like Hip hop, House, Eurodisco, Seventies disco and much more. Creating their music by sampling all sorts of things, like someone said:@L @L "You might even find your own voice on the records".@L @L They (ofcourse) also ran into a load of copyright problems. Their first single "All you need is love", contained samples from Sam Fox, MC5, Hall and Oates and AIDS advertisements plus a lot more. They immeditely (?) caused a stir. Some major labels refused to distribute it, but a few records got out to the press, radio and clubs and other stray copies got sold for round 30 pounds under the counter.@L @L They had to change their samples and master tapes to get the record into the shops. The copyright problems were a hint on what to expect when they released their LP "1987 What the F... is going on".@L @L The record got good reviews and everything was fine until they were sued for stealing @BABBA@N's "Dancing Queen" and using it in the song" The Queen and I" mixed together with @BSex Pistols@N "God save the Queen". The JAMs were instructed to withdraw all copies of the album and to destroy the master tapes.@L @L The JAMs tried to set up a meeting with the boys from ABBA, and this led to their fabled trip to Sweden. This was also the time when they bought their car, an old Ford policecar, said to be a prop from Superman IV.@L @L On their way from Gothenburg to Stockholm, they had just begun to laugh at the road signs "Beware of moose" when they managed to hit one, killing the poor animal. The trip continued and they arrived in Stockholm at 3am, driving around playing ABBA's greatest hits at maximum volume through the external speakers.@L @L They also managed to make a blond girl pose for them, reciving a gold disc with the inscription of: "Presented to Bjorn, Benny and Stig to celebrate sales in excess of 0 copies of the LP '1987 What the F... is going on'". They thought they could pass this woman of as Agnetha Faltskog.@L @L Later they found Polarstudios, and here they performed their only gig ever. Blasting out "The Queen and I" through the public announce system of the police car.@L @L They decided to return to Britain and on the way back They decided to hold a ritual burning of the remaining copys of their LP "1987...". But unfortunately Rockman took the wrong turn somewhere and they ended up in a farmyard. The problem with the ritual burning was that the farmer didn't approve of the burning so he chased them out of the field swinging a big shotgun over his head.@L @L Rockman managed to run over their camera equipment (destroying all pictures of King boy D grappling the dead moose) while escaping from @BSven Rambo@N. When they finally managed to get back on the highway, they hear three loud cracks and the engine starts smoking. The farmer, @BSven Rambo@N, is standing by the road holding a big shotgun in his hands.@L @L "-He tried to kill us!"@L @L Finally back in Britain, they release a version of Petula Clark's "Downtown" featuring The London Gospel Choir. This was supposed to be sample-free at first but it isn't. As King Boy D puts it: "As the dog returneth to his vomit so a fool return to his folly". King boy D: "It was definitely to be unsampled." Rockman rock: "But we couldn't really help it, could we."@L @L They then release their second and final album "Who killed the JAMs". On this record we find Shang-ri-las, Sly stone, Jimi Hendrix, a version of Donna Summer's "Sunset people" and many other things. It's like their "1987.." album an orgy of sampling and sound theft.@L @L This album was the end of the JAMs (They did appear later, in the magazine "The Face", with an ad where they were trying to sell the last five copies of the album "1987...". The price was set at 1000 pounds.)@L @L Later The JAMs returned under the name The Timelords (actually it's the car!). They made it to the number one spot on the charts in England, with "Doctor in the tardis". The Gary Glitter_-_Dr Who mix.@L @L You never know what to expect from these boys. One thing is certain though. They made it into the rock history with their two albums. For the full story of the JAMs check out their LP "Shag Times" (Parts of this text is taken from that album). They have also released an edited version of "1987..." with all samples withdrawn. There are gaps where you can insert the samples by yourself. If you got the equipment. Haha!@L @L @BTechno@N@L @L @L @K@B@Z"FOETUS INTERRUPTUS"@N @Z"THAW"@L @K@Z"* * *"@N@L So, here he is again, at last. Mr J.G. Thirlwell alias Clint Ruin alias @FFOETUS@N with a new record and a new 'name'. After the two latest records which in my view is masterpieces FOETUS has retired a bit from the throne (of agony). There's no question about that this record is good, but if you're used to the high standard of his latest records (especially the singles) this one is a bit of a disappointment.@L @L Mr. Thirlwell continues to exploit the other side of music in his own strange way. This record (like the others) contains music(!) without any kind of compromises. If you're inte raw and hard rock (no heavy or speed-metal) (Hardcore! -Ed.) you'll love this record.@L @L In my point of view the music isn't as great as it used to be, FOETUS has missed a bit of the melody he used to have in his older songs and replaced it with just noise. But the lyrics is still good enough to kill every member of the Moral Majority, and he's still one of the few guys in the world that knows how to use a Fairlight!@L @BFOETUS INC.@N of the @KUGGADUNKERS@N gives 'THAW' 3 corpses out of 5.@L @L @K@B@Z"THE ART OF NOISE LIVE"@N@L @Z"In Visible Silence (12"CDV)"@L @K@Z"* * * * *"@N@L Well, @BThe Art Of Noise@N Live (and with picture) could that be anything? The answer is obvious (of course yes!). Who could believe that a group that uses so much High Tech could be so great live. There's not much to say about this record except that if you have a CDV-player (or the possibility to buy one) buy the record and you will be saved. 60 minutes of great music (every song is better than the original version) and even better picture.@L @L @BFOETUS INC.@N of the @KUGGADUNKERS@N gives @B'ART OF NOISE LIVE'@N 5 CDV-players out of 5.@L @L @L @K@B@Z"T'Pau"@N@L @Z"Rage"@L @L @K@Z"* * * * *"@N@L A smash! This is incredible! They have managed to make another smash. I thought that their first album, Bridge of Spies, was as good as music can get, but Rage exceeds even that! The album starts off with Arms of Love and then goes over to Only the Lonely which is one of the better ones. (If one can say that, when they are all super!)@L @L Running Away follows and then Between the Lines, which is the only track that @BRoy Thomas Baker@N did not produce. This one was made by @BRon Rogers@N playing guitar, @BCarol Decker@N vocals and @BTim Burgess@N at the Drums. The others are: @BDean Howard@N - Lead Guitar, @BMike Chetwood@N - Keyboards and @BPaul Jackson@N on Bass Guitar.@L @L The Disk (CD version reviewed) continues with Road to our Dreams, and this one says very plainly - whatever you do - @BNEVER GIVE UP@N.@L @L Next up is my favorite. Island. In this track Carol Decker really shows off her voice. In Bridge of Spies they made a song, Heart and Soul, in which Carol had two different lyrics. One that she sang as usual, and then one that she talked. This one was mixed behind the first and that gave a neat sound. They have repeated this in Island but this time with the same lyrics and I tell you - It sounds great! This song alone is reason to buy this record.@L @L Heaven is a song of a lost love. A slow and beautiful melody backed with Carols great voice. A sure card in a good hand. In Taking time Out they explain that you can become what you want if you only can learn the alphabet? Well that alone is one reason for you out there who can't read.......why do I bother, you can't read this anyway.@L @L Catchy. Secret Garden is very catchy. First time I heard it I could not forget it even if I wanted to. (I didn't want to.) Time will Tell when someone tells lies and eventually they will sneak around and hit you in the back. As true as it is said. Stay to the truth. It is easier.@L @L This Girl ain't for sale! is the chorus of the last song. Money can't buy love. (Not @BREAL@N Love.) But if in the right amount it can buy everything else. Perhaps that is why the trumpet squeaks the theme from Dallas at the very end. This wraps it up I think. If you have the money, a record player or CD player, then you just have to have this album. It is just great. Bridge of Spies was Great! Rage is even Greater! Here comes the verdict. Standing ovations!@L @L T'Pau - Rage gets Five Goldbars out of five. It is a record you can't miss.@L @L @BStarfire@N for Exceller8.@L @L @L @K@B@Z"Pink Floyd"@N@L @Z"Delicate Sound of Thunder (Live)"@L @L @K@Z"* * * *"@N@L Summer 1988. @BPink Floyd@N entered the stage to prove that they are still Pink Floyd, with or without @BRoger Waters@N. Their world-tour, containing the spectacular stage-show and special-effects which are typical for Pink Floyd, resulted in this double-album released later that year.@L @L For those of us who were there (Personally I saw them in Copenhagen, Denmark) this is a perfect way to, for a moment, return to the extraordinary experience that it actually was. To all you others the 36-pages booklet that goes with the CD might give you a clue to the visual wonder Pink Floyd are on stage.@L @L The music on the other hand speaks for itself and even if it's a live recording the sound quality is very good. The first part of the album (as well as the concert) consists mostly of songs from the album "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" while you find all the old classics on the second one. And if you're still one of those who think that Pink Floyd and Roger Waters is the same thing, I'm quite sure these songs will convince you that such is not the case. Just listen to David Gilmour's versions of "Wish You Were Here", "Comfortably Numb" and "Us and Them" and you will surrender. In other words. For beeing a live album, this is rather a good one. @KTwenty Minutes@N gives Pink Floyd "Delicate Sound of Thunder" 4 flying pigs out of 5.@L @L PS. Whatever "The Man With No Brain_-_Yet?" wrote in the last issue of this magazine, The Waterboys album "Fishermans Blues" was the best one in 1988! DS.@L @L @BTwenty minutes@N@L @L @L @K@B@Z"Kiss"@N@L @Z"Smashes, trashes and hits"@L @K@Z"* * *"@N@L Kiss did recently release their third compilation album, an album that I think contains a selection of songs that shows how strong Kiss have been over the last 15 years. The remix of songs like "Love Gun", "Strutter" and "Rock n' roll all nite" have brought new life into them.@L @L One big surprise is a song called "Beth", (Kiss biggest hit ever) which were sung by the original drummer Peter Criss but now has the vocals of drummer Eric Carr. His voice has always been a mystery to the fans of kiss, but now we all now what a wonderful voice he's got. I really hope he gets a chance to sing on the forthcoming album.@L @L "Smashes, trashes and hits" also contains two new tracks "(You make me) rock hard" and the latest single "Let's put the X in sex" which proves that their song writing capability is still among the best in the world.@L @L @BSword@N @C@H1"More Quotes!"@L Peace might sell, but who's buying?@L @BJoan Baez@N@L @L A cult figure is a guy who hasn't got the musical ability to make it onto the charts.@L @BJohn Cale@N@L @L The only thing that stands up is whether you've got it or not. The only thing that counts is if you're still around. And I'm still around.@L @BVan Morrison@N@L @L Everybody I like is either dead or not feeling very well.@L @BTom Waits@N@L @L I like sound-effect records. Sometimes late at night I get a mint julep and just sit there and listen to sound effects. I'm surprised more of them aren't on the charts.@L @BBob Dylan@N@L @L The governors of the music branch of the Academy are arseholes.@L @BRobert Stigwood, when his disco movie "Saturday Night Fever" justifiably failed to win an Academy Award.@N@L @L A thoruogh survey may prove that it is impossible to buy a plain white or decently tasteful shirt in the whole of Las Vegas.@L @BJann Wenner, editor "Rolling Stone" magazine@N@L @L I think it's great because @KWho's who@N is an American institution and I believe in anything that is an American institution, such as Hugh Hefner, Walt Disney, the Boy Scouts and Budweiser.@L @BAlice cooper, ne Vincent Furnier, on his inclusion in "Who's who in America" 1974/5.@N@L @L @L Living in New York is like coming all the time.@L @BGene Simmons, Kiss@N@L @L The singer'll have to go, the BBC won't like him.@L @BEric Easton, on beeing shown The Rolling Stones by Andrew Loog Oldham.@N@L @L They may be world famous, but four shrieking monkeys are not going to use a privileged family name without permission.@L @BFrau Eva von Zeppelin@N@L @L I'll take today's teenagers any day to the ruckus rousers and souvenir scalpers who made our lives miserable during the heyday of Goodman and Sinatra. The worst thing these kids do is feed sugar to the horses.@L @BNew York City cop, 1959@N@L @L @BAll quotes from the book of rock quotes 1982.@N @P@H1"NS HORRORSCOPE" @BBy Jazze@N@L @L @KARIES@N@L (Mar 21 - Apr 20)@L @L This month you'll invent the wheel, but the planet Thalumus-5 moving into your third ascendant means you'll have a few probs at the Patent office. Thanks to the appearance of Neptune in your sign, this month is going to be a disastrous one for doing anything that begins with the letter "P". "P"laying computer games is out, as is "P"assing the salt to Aunty Beryl. You'd better avoid fluids. Your lucky number is 23,457.6.@L @L @KTAURUS@N@L (Apr 21 - May 21)@L @L Mars shifts back a few million miles into the asteroid belt later this month. However, this shouldn't concern you because your lucky colour is orange and your lucky vegetable is the swede. Lucky you!!@L @L @KGEMINI@N@L (May 22 - Jun 21)@L @L You'll be having a lot of trouble getting your bath or shower water to the right temperature. No amount of fiddling will get the result you want, so don't bother. In fact it's probably for the best to give personal hygiene a miss for the month. Lucky gardening utensil - the trowel.@L @L @KCANCER@N@L (Jun 22 - Jul 22)@L @L Oh dear, you 'crab' folks are in for a bit of a rum time this month. It seems that the free gift in your breakfast cereal is a large gold ingot stamped with the legend 'Brinks Matt'. The mystery of why the carrier-bag handels snapped at the super-market is solved. Unlucky people to find at your front (or back) door - CID officers. (C.I.D. - Criminal Investigation Department (Scotland Yard)) Lucky writing paper - Basildon Bond 4 gram.@L @L @KLEO@N@L (Jul 23 - Aug 23)@L @L An absolutely brilliant month for being absolutely brilliant on everything (as usual). Lucky motorbike - the Benelli 6-cylinder 750.@L @L @KVIRGO@N@L (Aug 24 - Sep 23)@L @L This month's lucky colour is quite a complicated one and hasn't actually got a name. It's the sort of colour only primary school children can manage to create (when mixing powder paint). It's a sort of mixture of everything that doesn't go together. It's a sort of ...er, blleeeaarfffgghhhh!!! Lucky boomerang shaped yellow fruit - the banana.@L @L @KLIBRA@N@L (Sep 24 - Oct 23)@L @L You'll suddenly realise that McDonald's hamburgers aren't actually 'fast' food at all, but that each burger is individually hand-crafted by one of McDonald's 'food sculptors'. These chefs pour their very souls into each creation, and often include a little 'joke' (such as a missing piece of gherkin, or too much tomato relish). Your lucky medical company boss - Refaat el Sayed.@L @L @KSCORPIO@N@L (Oct 24 - Nov 22)@L @L Pluto will be moving into your first house, closely followed by Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck's irritating little nephews, Huey, Duey and Luey. Your lucky cement/sand mix ratio (for hard weather pointing) - four to one.@L @L @KSAGITTARIUS@N@L (Nov 23 - Dec 21)@L @L Romance is in the air. Unfortunately you haven't got a helicopter, so you can't get it. Your lucky item which is produced from trees is cardboard.@L @L @KCAPRICORN@N@L (Dec 22 - Jan 20)@L @L You Capricorns are still at the trying to break into the world of advertising lark. Your zippy slogan this week (for fish fingers) is 'It's not just fish, it's an eye-less, tail-less rectangle!' Unlucky marine animal - anything vaguely cod-like.@L @L @KAQUARIUS@N@L (Jan 21 - Feb 19)@L @L This month you Aquarians will be jumping on the Capricorn bandwagon: attemting to get into the advertising world. Your concept of a product to rival fish fingers which you call 'Fish Toes' will not be received with cries of ecstasy. Lucky sub-atomic particle - the quark.@L @L @KPISCES@N@L (Feb 20 - Mar 20)@L @L Thanks to the appearance of Mars (the crap-moons planet) in your sign, this month is going to be a brilliant one for accidentally tipping your toast and marmalade onto the carpet. All toast/carpet encounters will result in the marmalade side pointing upwards, saving you the bother of picking out all the hairs, pieces of fluff and discarded toe-nail clippings. Lucky insect - the bee.@L @L @KARACHNIUS@N@L (Mar 47 - Mar 92)@L @L You don't exist. Go away! @PContact one of the best in Sweden.@L Wings of tomorrow@L Send some disks:@L Carrion, Persuddsvagen 1@L 831 52 Ostersund, Sweden.@L Do it write now.@L @S0Contact Destiny ^ Zigag finnishHQ!@L @Z"P.O.B Box 620" @Z"20301 Turku" @Z"Finland" Specials to: Quartex, Mad Monks, MFC, WOW, BS1, D.O.C, AFL, RED SECTOR, TST!@L @S0TUC ^ TMC are still searching for members and contacts to swap best stuff. Write to:@L @Z"PLK 038544 B or PLK 047652 D" @Z"Both in 6630 SAARLOUIS!" @Z"W.Germany" If you want to swap send some disks with hottest stuff at once!@L @C@H1"HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN SAMPLER!" This one is very simple. Just follow the instructions. At first, take an old milkbox, empty it (important!) and open it in both edges. Then, get a piece of cardboard (about 10*10 cm) and find five resistors with the following impedances:@L @L 1843 Ohm@L 4712 MOhm@L 1 mOhm@L .17 kOhm@L 5 Watts@L @L Then find a transistor named NPN(PNP) 18-43.3. You also need a 60W light bulb and a car accumulator. Go and ask your grandmother if she has got one oscillator P-2. And... at last, an oscilloscope with diffrential multipartsync. Oh, I almost forgot the A/D converter, get an A/D conv with 17 bits static ROM (then I mean a ROM with 17 bits, stupid!)@L @L Simply put the resistors together. Any problems yet? No, ofcourse not... Now put the branch of resistors together with the utter left edge of the oscilloscope. Beware of witch way you are holding the bunch!@L @L @F"WARNING"@N@L @L Beware of virus!@L @L Now connect the bottom back side of the first left pin of the oscillator, and try not to burn yourself! Now throw lots of components into the milkbox and then the A/D on the top. close the milkbox silently (preferably whilst praying) and put it into the place where the extra 512 kB should be located (if you own an Amiga 2000, just open the box and throw it in. If you own an Amiga 1000, sorry!). If the hole already is filled up with candys (IC's) or love-letters (!), you have to clean up in there!@L @L That's all folks, and good luck with your new sampler!@L @L Oh, if you've got any problems, call Germany 110!@L @L Kaktus!@L @P@H1"New advertisements system" From the next issue Exceller 8 will have a new advertisements system. It will be possible for you to design and write your own ad's. To be able to do that all you need is Deluxe paint 1, 2 or 3.@L @L Design your picture in Medium resolution 300 pixels wide and 200 pixels high. You are limited to 16 colors minus the @Ffour@N first ones. We use these four colors in the main program.@L @L If you want to put an ad in Exceller 8 send your picture/ad to us on one of your own disks plus four new, error free and Double sided/Double density 3.5" disks from the following brands:@L @L @KSONY@L Maxell@L TDK@L 3M@L FUJI@L FJK@L HOST@L GOLDSTAR@L Verbatim@N@L @L We will return your disk together with a copy of Exceller 8 containing your ad as soon as it is released.@L @L If these conditions are not fulfilled then we will eat your disks alive!!! (and your ad won't get printed!).@L @L If you don't own four high-quality branded disks you can instead insert a small ad of six lines of 35 characters each, including your address, for only one 3.5" branded disk! (PS. We will not return your disk!!). All ad's will be randomly dispersed through the issue.@L @L We chose disks as payment because they are good galactic currency in the whole universe.@L @P@L THE INNER CIRCLE. In Australia Would Like Some Hot Amiga Contacts From All Over The World. Only The Latest Will Do Write To:@L @L @Z"G.P.O. Box 2812 Canberra ACT"@L @Z"2601 Australia"@L @Z"No Lamers. We Keep Lame Disks."@L @C@H1"ORDER!!" You can order a copy of our magazine directly from us. (If you think your contacts are to slow or you want to order an old issue.)@L Just send two branded (error free) 3.5" disks (One disk as payment for postage.) to the following adress:@L @L @L Exceller 8@L @L Heimdalsgatan 37@L @L S-261 62 Glumslov@L @L Sweden@L @L @L @KFor accepted brands see the article on the new ad system.(Page 88.)@L If you don't send accepted brands you won't see your disks again.@N@L (Ohm)@L @P@H1"The End is near..." OK, the end of another issue of Exceller 8. Hope you enjoyed this one as well as the first issue. We try to make our best you know.@L @L I would just like to say that Exceller 8 does @FNOT@N take any responsibility what so ever for the seriousness of the advertisments in this issue. We also do not take any responsibility for you burning your fingers or blowing up your Amiga while trying to build your own MIDI interface or your own MILK-sampler.@L @L The next issue of Exceller 8 will be a big @KUS-SPECIAL@N with a lot of material from the major American crews.@L @L In the next issue you will also find the second part of Celebrandil's raytrace and vectorgraphics article, MaCron One's DIY guide to making your own MONO-sampler (complete with a drawing). And of course a lot of articles around and about USA.@L @L Deadline for issue #3 of Exceller 8 is March the 23th 1989.@L @L Releaseplan for 1989:@L Issue #3: first week of April.@L Issue #4: first week of June.@L Issue #5: first week of August.@L Issue #6: first week of October.@L Issue #7: second week of December.@L @L Bye, and remember:@L @K@Z"This" @Z"is" @Z"the" @Z"day" @Z"your" @Z"life" @Z"will" @Z"surely" @Z"change"@N@L @BThe editor.@N