..... ____ .:::::.::::::::. ___ /\ ____ ___ ______ _ ___\__ \_ :::::: :::::: .-¯ ¯-. _(__)_ __(_ \_ ) |____ _\_____// / _ ::::: .:::::· · _ Y Y l_____) | \_' ___/_____ \_ (/ _ _ :::::·::::::.. _ _/ \__ _ l _ | _ / \ _ _/ `--.__/// ::::: ·::::: (___))),`--._)))---.___)))---l__///`--///____) ·::::· :::::· . p)h. __________________ _ ·::::::· _ ____________________________________________ _ ,_ _|_ o _ o ,_ _ (_l |¬ l | ( L (- ( | |¬ ( L (- ¯ ¯ B Y ___ /::/ ___ ____ ___ _ ___ of /::/ ___ _____ __ __ __(_ ¬. _(____) ) |__ ((_) __(_ ¬. /:·__(_ ¬. __| /( \\ ¬. _/ l____)' ___)__( | ¬._' Y l____)· _/ (/ _/_' | _/_ \ _ \_ \ l _ \ _ | / _ l _) \ _ / _ / \ / / `---.____)---)____)---l___/`--.__)---.____) / `---(____\---(____\---\/---' . / /__/ INDEX 01. Defcon 4 in las Vegas 02. Reply to lisas Epilogue 03. Factsheet for MasterISO 04. New facts about da Walker Project 05. Invitation 2 somwhere in August 06. Malicious Crew join forces with Twilight 07. Trax Weekley #52 08. On the sony Take over 09. An article about Amiga in da Wall street Journal 10. Importand Info about Amiga 11. Soap City Busted 12. BUSTS WILL BE HAPPENING THE H&P SCENE -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ DEFCON 4 in las vegas plelimeinary list of events and speakers also confirmed dates and places and accomodation details. if anybodys going then mail me dudes. @END_FILE_ID.DIZ DEF CON IV Convention Update £1.0 (03.20.96) July 26-28th @ the Monte Carlo Resort in Las Vegas XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX DEF CON III Initial Convention Announcement XXXXXXXxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX DEF CON III Initial Convention Announcement XXXXXXxxxxxxXXXXXX X X DEF CON III Initial Convention Announcement XXXXXxxxxxxxxXXXXXXX X DEF CON III Initial Convention Announcement XXXXxxxxxxxxxxXXXX XXXXXXXXX DEF CON III Initial Convention Announcement XXXxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXX X DEF CON III Initial Convention Announcement XXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXX XX X DEF CON III Initial Convention Announcement XXXxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXX DEF CON III Initial Convention Announcement XXXXxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXX X XX DEF CON III Initial Convention Announcement XXXXXxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXX XX X DEF CON III Initial Convention Announcement XXXXXXxxxxxxXXXXXXXXX X DEF CON III Initial Convention Announcement XXXXXXXxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DEF CON III Initial Convention Announcement XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X DEF CON III Initial Convention Announcement READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE DEF CON IV Will be held for the fourth time in Las Vegas. Heck, they are building the hotels faster than we can use them up. If you don't know much about Def Con, please check out the web site and you will get an idea. IN SHORT:--------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT: Speakers and partying in vegas for all hackers WHEN: July 26 - 28th WHERE: Las Vegas, Nevada @ the Monte Carlo Hotel COSTS: $30 in advance, $40 at the door MORE INFO: http://www.defcon.org or email info@defcon.org IN LONG:---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey, it's time for DEF CON again. This is an initial announcement and invitation to DEF CON IV, a convention for the "underground" elements of the computer culture. We try to target the (Fill in your favorite word here): Hackers, Phreaks, Hammies, Virii Coders, Programmers, Crackers, Cyberpunk Wannabees, Civil Liberties Groups, CypherPunks, Futurists, Artists, Criminally Insane, Hearing Impaired. It seems that books about the culture are becoming more popular, so of course reporters are also welcome. You won't be hurt. I promise. SPEAKERS:--------------------------------------------------------------------- Speakers in the past have included Gail Thackeray, Phill Zimmermann, Bruce Schneier, Susan Thunder, Jim Settle, and many others. Who will we have this year? Well as usual the actual list is always changing, but below will be the current state of the speakers. There will be speaking all day Saturday and Sunday starting at about 10 a.m. and going to 6 p.m. with about two hours for lunch. Approx. 18 people will speak, plus smaller tech sessions. John Littman - Author of "The Fugitive Game" - Tales from the whole Kevin Mitnick saga. Spaceman Spiff - Linux hacking. A look at security and os hacking. Winn Schwartau - Information Warfare - Eric Hughes - Founder of Cypherpunks List - Dune - Lockpicking demonstration and Q&A - There will be various tools and locks demonstrated. This will be a smaller talk at table X at x:xx on Sunday. If you are interested in speaking, or know of someone who is is, please contact me. I am looking for a keynote speaker and technical and social issues (Privcay, Identity hacking, etc). EVENTS:----------------------------------------------------------------------- HACKER JEOPARDY: Winn is back, bigger and badder with Hacker Jeopardy. The Holy Cow will help supply the beer, you supply the answers. Extra sekret bonus round, and an elite challenge round make this year even better. The first round starts at 12 midnight o'clock on Friday and lasts until it is done. The second and sekret rounds will happen Saturday at midnight. 6 teams will be picked at random and compete for the final round. There can be only one! Strat's Team, the winners from last year will defend if all the members can be found. CAPTURE THE FLAG: Capture the Flag will have one network, with a Sidewinder firewall connecting the network to the internet. On the hacker network will be 5 to 9 different "flag" machines running a variety of operating systems. The object of the game is to get points by having your team's message be the last one on the console of a flag machine at specific times. Contestants are not allowed to use the keyboard or monitor of the flag machines. Any other method of getting the message to the screen is valid, as long as the console and/or network is not disabled for more than 3 minutes. VIRTUAL WORLD: We will have a discount at Virtual World, and you will be able to play the various Red Planet or Battle Mech games. Full pod emersion! Up to eight people/pods per group. More information to follow. T1 NET CONNECTION: There will be another T1 network connection this year. This time we will have it set up in time. If you want to connect to the network make sure to bring a computer with a 10 base T (10bt) ethernet card to plug into our hubs. Don't forget to bring wierd connectors and stuff, those always seem to come in handy. HOTELS:----------------------------------------------------------------------- There are many hotels nearby. Below are some close references to the primary hotel, and others that are close and less expensive. PRIMARY HOTEL: The Monte Carlo This hotel will be built one month before we show up. I am told it is a very nice, hence, ecplensive place. Phone: 800-311-8999, reference "DEF CON" for reservations Rates: Single & Double rooms $99, Tripple room $109 Other hotels near by: The MGM Grand (Across the street) The Tropicana 1-800-634-4000 (Also across the street) STUFF IN VEGAS:--------------------------------------------------------------- URLs MORE INFO:-------------------------------------------------------------------- DEF CON Voice Bridge (801) 855-3326 This is a multi-line voice bbs, VMB and voice conference system. There are 5 or so conference areas, with up to eight people on each one. Anyone can create a free VMB, and there are different voice bbs sections for seperate topics. This is a good neutral meeting place to hook up with others. MAILING LIST send emial to majordomo@fc.net and in the body of the message include the following on a seperate line each. subscribe dc-announce subscribe dc-stuff dc-announce is is used for convention updates and major announcements, dc-stuff is related to general conversation, planning rides and rooms, etc. WWW Site http://www.defcon.org/ Convention updates and archives from previous conventions are housed here. Past speakers, topics, and stuff for sale. Also a growing section of links to other places of interest and current events. EMAIL dtangent@defcon.org Send all email questions / comments to dtangent@defcon.org. It has been said that my email is monitored by various people. If you want to say something private, please do so with my pgp key (At the bottom of this announcement) I usually respond to everything, if not I'm swamped or had a system problem. SNAIL MAIL Send all written materials, pre-registrations, etc. to: DEF CON, 2709 E. Madison, Seattle WA, 98112 If you are pre-registering for $30 please make payable to DEF CON and include a name to which you want the registration to apply. I don't respond to registrations unless you request. DO YOU WANT TO HELP?---------------------------------------------------------- Here is what you can do if you want to help out or participate in some way: DONATE stuff for the continious give aways and the various contests. Got extra ancient stuff, or new cool stuff you don't use anymore? Donate it to a good cause! One person was very happy over winning an osbone "prtable" computer. ORGANIZE sharing a room or rides with other people in your area. Join the mailing list and let people know you have floor space or some extra seats in your car. Hey, what's the worst that can happen besides a trashed hotel room or a car-jacking? CREATE questions for hacker jeopardy (you know how the game is played) and email them to winn@infowar.com. No one helped out last year, so this year let's try. Everything from "Famous narks" to "unix bugs" is fair game. BRING a machine with a 10bt interface card, and get on the local network, trade pgp signatures, etc. MY PGP KEY:------------------------------------------------------------------- -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.1 mQCNAy6v5H8AAAEEAJ7xUzvdRFMtJW3CLRs2yXL0BC9dBiB6+hAPgBVqSWbHWVIT /5A38LPA4zqeGnGpmZjGev6rPeFEGxDfoV68voLOonRPcea9d/ow0Aq2V5I0nUrl LKU7gi3TgEXvhUmk04hjr8Wpr92cTEx4cIlvAeyGkoirb+cihstEqldGqClNAAUR tCZUaGUgRGFyayBUYW5nZW50IDxkdGFuZ2VudEBkZWZjb24ub3JnPg== =ngNC -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- :_________________________________|__| | _________ _________ : |64| | --> / /\ / /\. |r | | / /O-/--/ / / /o^/^^/ /--> | e| |^^^/__/__/__/ /^/__/__/__/ /^^^^ |w | |---\__\__\__\/--\__\__\__\/----- | l| |^><^><^><^><^><^><^><^><^><^><^> |z | |---------------------------------(--( |-*> REPLY TO LISA'S EPILOGUE....*-*>| |-*-> FROM A WANNABE SYSOP. FUCKOFF! | `------------------------------------: ___ ¦ ¦_______________ -------------------------| | | / __ \ \------------------------- | || | \___ \ / T L I S A | ||--| | \ ¯¯¯¯\ | || L I S A K O L E K T I V | ·| | ||. \ // ¯ || K O L E K T I V |:. | | ||::. / ·/ T. ·| -------------------------|::.. | ·|::::. \:.|::.\------------------------- `------¦ ¦---------^-^----· ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ «÷» L A M E R S · I N · S E R I O U S · A G O N Y «÷» ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EPILOGUE: Aren't you getting tired of all those crap wannabe sceners or sysops trying to be heard by us all? A few that spring to mind are Cobalt and Mirrorman. You do? Do us a favour, and start writing txtfiles as well, or if you think you aren't creative enough, then let us know in any other way (How about noting in the Location or Sentbyline that you support us? We will gladly take you up in a wall of fame some time lateron this year. Think about it. It is your scene as well afterall. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- **************************************************************************** They arn't scared of 'Ado' and yet 2 textfiles, way to go Ado! Answer from Mirrorman: I saw this stupid 'Epilogue' of you people, and what the crap do I have to do with this? And then you ask the people if they want to reply and say how good you are? Get real....Don't write Virusses then, you are the 'wannabe' and you know it. And I sayed in my textfile that if you ever replyed to me you'd show the world how lame you are. You only formatted one HardDisk and you think you're Krsna, imagening you are making Virusses and stuff, but you didn't do jack. If you are so though say who you really are, otherwise go away. You people make me sick, and the only thing you are doing now is irritate people with you're textfiles and big words. Now go home and cry out to mamma, puberic transvestites.... Signed: 'Wannabe' Mirrorman. In the C'64 and Amiga scene over 13 years now when mommy was still changing Gary & Wyatts dipers. **************************************************************************** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][* [*]                                       [* [*] Factsheet from Blittersoft for [* [*] Master-ISO : CD-R Control Software [* [*] (At last CD-R S/Ware for the Amiga!) [* [*] [* [*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][* {bLITTERsOFT} Product Information Sheet 6 Drakes Mews, Crownhill Industry, Milton Keynes Bucks, MK8 0ER. United Kingdom Orders: 01908-261466 Fax: 01908-261488 Technical: 01908-261477 BBS: 01908-261499 WWW: http://www.mag-net.co.uk/Bsoft E-Mail: bsoft@mag-net.co.uk Product: MasterISO Requirements Category: CD-R Control Software Amiga 1500/2000/3000/4000 Options: None Kickstart OS3.0 Or Better Memory: 16mb RAM Peripherals: 1.3Gb HD Space Compatible SCSI Controller (Warp, Z3, 4091) MasterISO is a professional program that allows the user to control a CD-ROM recorder in order to create custom CD-ROM and CD-Audio disks. MasterISO offers the power to meet all CD recording needs in an Amiga specific package. The MasterISO software package includes an advanced ISO 9660 build utility which allows the user to create a universally compatible CD-ROM volume. Options are provided to give the user control over every aspect of the ISO 9660 volume. Amiga specific support also allows for long filenames, special characters, CDTV and CD32 auto-booting. CD-Audio disks can be created with MasterISO. Digital audio data can be sourced from 16-bit CDDA, MAUD or AIFF audio files. CD-Audio disks are formatted to the red book standard and offer universal compatibility with standard CD players. All aspects of the MasterISO are controlled through a powerful graphic interface. MasterISO Technical Highlights . Creates ISO 9660 compatible volumes. . Handles ISO 9660 level 1 and level 2 filenames. . Files can be taken from multiple sources and combined into a single volume. . Generates volume image to a DOS file or direct to a SCSI hard drive. . Uses AIFF, MAUD and CDDA 16-bit audio files. MasterISO supports the following . Yamaha CDR-100. CDR-102 . Pinnacle RCD-202, RCD-1000 . Phillips CDD-521, CDD-522, CDD-2000 . Sony CDU-920 . HP 4020 . Pioneer DW-S114X Current prices . £129.95, or . £149.95 with AsimCDFS Typed: 21/03/96 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- .------------------------------------------. | | | AMIGA TECHNOLOGIES | | | | PLEASE READ THIS! IT CONCERNS ABOUT | | YOUR WALKER PROJECT! | | | `------------------------------------------' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- / \ \ / --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- hi enginiering staff at amiga technologies! i wanted to leave a few sentences to you in hope to get you guys start thinking about the garbage you produce. well at least it is not necessary for you to know who i am. i think it is more importand to know what i have to write. i don't know how many people will read this while this takes it's time to reach your hands but i think some reasonable guys would aggree with my words. i am realy afraid that you continue developing the fantastic machine called amiga and i am one of those who followed the steps of amiga since it started. i don't realy know what realy went on right now in your laboratories but, all i saw took me up a big puke. the reason why i am writing is that stuff called 'walker' you are going to produce. at least i don't know if this was a kinda april joke or something similar. anyhow if it was then stop reading, if this is realy a project of yours then continue reading. few days ago i saw several packages of the first snapshoots of the 'walker' project you made. and the first impression of mine was to search for the garbage can to make a big puke in it. the first words will be made for the design. is it realy a serious design you want to produce in for all the folx out in the world?? that's noting for the table? all the world will lough about something looking like that. the people on pc will starting with more jokes about amiga as they currently doing. it's always the same with you guys could you keep a norming standart? that design looks like an cutted of egg! what a fucking shit is this? are you going to produce realistic hardware or are you making jokes of an legendary machine? mc68030 / 40 is that serious? "commodore" and "factor five" went 5 steps forward and you at "at" are going 4 steps back! we are not at the middle ages we want to go steps forward and not backwards? the whole amiga scene heard rumours about something with power pc chips inside and converted amiga operating system. at least i am not so involved in the way "at" is going right now. i am a normal user and i react to that what i am getting at several boards. so you might forgive me if i am going to react a bit confuse. but thats the actuall thoughts of mine. motorola stopped with the mc68060 and went over to risc 88000 and cisc technology. who the fuck wants to have a cpu which has speed of an normal 386? well its terribly making comparisions with intel chips but thats the truth. be realistic. i would understand if you continue with 040 boards or 060 boards but 030? no matter how many mhz it has and how much asynchronous throughput you will add there, old shit stays old. well i don't want to write more about the other "new" specifications but i think you are a bit out of time! aren't you? should the "walker" become something equal as the other trash came out under commodore label? in my eyes the walker with its currently specifications is only a waste of manpower and a waste of money. who the hell would buy something like that if he could get an: amiga 4000 tower, factor five powerpc card, cyberstorm 060 card, cybervision, and a midicard, 32 mb ram, some hdd ploppies, some gigs on hd space, cdrom drive and a good monitor. the result about above configuration would be the pure power. i wouldn't reach the standarts a p90 processor would reach but who cares, the operating system is the best ever. i think that configuration will beat the ass up from your walker!!! amiga 1200 magic, surfer and other stuff you add? amiga 1200 stays amiga 1200 in my eyes. or am i wrong? what would you do if you are going to put cosmetics to the face of your grandma? would she change? nope she stays the same old melting down woman as she ever was. the first thoughts of mine as i saw that amiga 1200 got developed again under "at" was a shock of my lifetime. i saw the same old 1200 with the same roms (you had no time to change commodore in amiga technologies?) the only big change on this machine was the handbooks, the package and the plastic sign which used to label commodore.. nothing else.. the mainboard has no big changes. at least i am electronics specialist so i am able to make my own words about this part. i promise you this. your walker is something for the ass, and with your current marketing strategy you would win only slimy lough from an guy called bill gates. how could it be that macintosh is actualy in a better position as amiga?. it is an fact that amiga will get developed but under which conditions, after the buyup we saw still people and old cool scene dudes who leaves for pc this has to stop... the scene is the market for your machines, without scene, no amiga, no amiga no scene.. got it ??? cool marketing strategy would be to make some spots on tv! this would motivate lot of amiga users and would get in brain of these stupid folx out there. it's a waste of time making this theatre with "mc donalds" the people came there to eat and not to buy an amiga? it exactly came as i promised it over an year ago: - if commodore gets bought, then all went wrong, because the right engineering stuff is missing (at least the importand guy is missing ;) - the marketing strategy would be for the arse. who should be the ones to get informed about another cool machine in the computer business? not the amiga owners, they already have amiga's (at least i use more of them) you must reach the stupid folx. they must buy amiga!!!! you must reach these guys. and how would this happen? through mc donalds????. stupid lamers who never used to know a single bit about computers knows that pc has more power right now than amiga, they go to the way other idiots are going to. how would you turn their minds? spending them an hamburger??? - the new amigas they produce are getting the biggest joke of our meantime. am i right if i say as mentioned above that it is better buying an a4000t with above mentioned specifications than waiting about some serious news? i dont want to buy something like walker because my amiga 3000 has the same facilities!!! at least i can't deny to say that the walker might be better but for which reason should i buy an egg? the future should be clear, and i think you guys must know it to? we want some serious machines, the time you waste in an garbage can (or breadbox 2) is the time you could spent in serous machines. the draco and the amiga 4000t (with turbo card) is the much better workstation right now. what would you think if 20 lamers are going to speak about pcs and you the only amiga user under them are sitting and couldn't make a sentence. everytime you open your mouth the spitt into your face because as amiga user. well we "the amiga scene" want to stand up and tell them where they have to put their pc's (into their arses, where it belongs to) but we can't do this (but we still do because we belive in amiga, whilst we know that amiga is not fast enought to stay todays competition). the last words from me is to say: please start showing the real projects of yours and not that garbage currently going around. start making real spots on tv (as macintosh, intel and microsoft is going to do). go forward and not backwards (as the roumors producing c64 again, there is a scene with cultural memorials, please don't destroy its name, new folx wouldn't get a chance in this scene. there are legends present. leave it alone). money is not everything. a cool marketing strategy and a cool machine would be better. it is simple but open yer eyes.. you already wasted 120 mio dollars, why not wasting 1-2 mio more to ake tv spots.. the normal folx are missunderstanding the way amiga works, about few days ago i went to my local amiga store and waited till i am on. meanwhile i heard a dutch man talking to the store guy and asked how he could, if he buys the amiga, ms-dos to run? well we know that we could use a card or use pc-task but he doens't know because he is informed in a wrong way... i had to lough but shutted my mouth after a while. it's poor but not the fault of the man, nope its the fault of the amiga marketing (well millions of people says the same about amiga marketing, so there must be something right there..) that dutch man only heard about pc intel etc, he thinks that every computer (which has a keyboard and a low price) works the same way. i know there might be a big response from lot of other particular sceners, some of them claims themselves to be experts in the way amiga technologies will go in future, but they are all as i am, they wait and wait and wait.. change it or you loose a big couple of potential users... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- / \ \ / --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -sof---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ______ _____ __ __ __ ____ ______ _______ _____ _____ _______ ______\_/~-- ¬\_/ ¬\/ ¬\_/~¬\/" ¬\_/~ --¬\/~ --¬\/-- ¬\/-- ¬\_/_______ ¬\___ //~ / //" \__ //" _ //\ \____ __/\ \____/ / ¬ /\ ¯ // /¬ /// // /~¯¬7 ¬\/¬ \\/~¯¬7 ¬\ // ¯¯¯¯¯¯¬ / /// ¯ /// // !wC\_______________/\___/\____/\_______/\_______/\_____/\________/ A N D _______ ____ ____ _________ _____________ __\_.---:__\ ·--._.--.___._.--'¯¦ __\ __·--.__\ ___/-'__.- -.__/ \ ¦\ ¦ ¦\ ¦ ¦\___---.\ \| ¦\ __/ ¯¯\ ¦ \______¦ \___¦___¦ \______¦ \_____¦\_______¦ \_____¦!wC \________¦ A N D ______ ___ _____ _____ ______ ____ _____ ____ ____ l_ _ |_ | _ | _ | l_ _ | _ | _ | _ \| | . l____j | | | |_| | | | | l____j ||_| | | | | | | | __jc | ___j | | __j | | | | ___j __j | | | | | l___ |R . . | || |_| | | l_j | | | | | l_j | l_j | |k _ . . l__|l_____j__j\_j_____j l__| l__j\_l_____l_____l____j |_| : : ¦ `---------------- Maximum taste with no sugar ! ----------------' A N D · ___________________________/\ /\_______________________________ ./____________________________/ \______________ /\ ______________\ð _________\/_____ __________ ____________/\ /\______/ \ ___________\/__ \_____ __ | _/ / ___ \__\_____ \ \/ _ _/ \/ ______/ ___/ \_ _ | \/ \/ \ __/ ___/ \ / | \/\___ \ / /\___| \ /  / \ \_ \ / | \ \_ | / / | \__________/_____|\ / |\/|_____|__/\____/ | / \____________//_________________\ /____|_____________\\_________/ \/ \/ \/ \ / \ / \ / \/ (ZYMOSIS - INU-SOFT - PORO - JORMAS) ARE ORGANIZING PARTYS FOR YOU! Project Name: Somewhere In August (Final name not decided, send your suggest to organizers) Competitions: · AMIGA DEMO - Demo MUST be hd-installable and must NOT require assign to run it. - Max. lenght 4096kb. - Compo machine is going to be Amiga boosted with 68o6o! · AMIGA 4okb(?) INTRO - Max. lenght is usual 4okb or 64kb not decided yet! - Compo machine is going to be Amiga boosted with 68o6o! · c64 DEMO - C64 and 1541 diskdrive or similar. · GRAPHICS - Will be shown with Amiga or any machine you bring along. - Max resolution is 640*512 - IFF, GIF and JPEG allowed. - NO RAYTRACED PICTURES TO THIS COMPO! · MUSIC - PT / XM / S3M ... - Played with Amiga or PC we dunno yet.. Maybe XM and S3Ms with PC and so on. · WILD - As name says, limit is on your side! But this should not be VHS or only animation file. - CONTACT ORGANIZERS BEFORE IF YOU ARE GOING TO ATTEND. · VIDEO! - VHS / BETA films, we prefer something computer generated. · SURPRISE COMPOS - Who knows NOTE!: There is no(!) PC competitions and there seems to be lack of interest to organize them(at least at the moment). Reason: There is nothing on party scene on august -- so we thought that maybe we should fix this situation arranging partys featuring real 80s feeling. Features: · raves organized by local rave organizers called NIITTY! · da jorma5 live! · good audio equipment · relaxed athmosphere · we are going to fight for so called A-OIKEUDET! (that will cause a part of hall is over 18 only!) · a lot of surprises - features what you haven't EVER seen on any partys! · all girls and foreigners are free to come in!m · more to come! When: August 1996 [no exact dates known yet, planned to be on first weekend!] Where: Jyväskylä, In Central Finland [no exact party place decided yet] How Much: Estimated entrance fee is about 4o-6o Fim Contact Organizers: WWW: http://www.voima.jkl.fi/zymosis/ *NOT AVAILABLE AT DA MOMENT* EMAIL: zymosis@niitty.3l337.com BBS: - jUjU - dA mAGIC bOARD at +358-41-3782685 (node1) -eof---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________ _._ ___ ___ ____.tWiLiGHt._____ _ _/ | \_ // / \___/ ____ __| __ /__ /__|_ /\ | / | _/__! | _ \ _| _ / _/ \_/ \ | / \ |/ | \ \_ |_/___/ \_ / | |__\| /\ /___| _____/__|\_ \_ l_/ | .---- \_/--\/ ---------- - _ ___/nCo!___| | . | Malicious Crew join forces with Twilight | | Read about it! + WE ARE SEEKING MEMBERS! | | | `-/\\-----------[3o-mar-96]------------//\-' [SOF] ______________ ___: .___. : .________ ___._____________ \____ _______ /\ _/¦ ¦\_ |___¦ ¦\_ .___/_\_ | _/___ ____/ __/ \__ \_ | l \_ | l_ \_ \_ \__ \_____. |___/\ | |___. | |___. |___| |__. | wBr `---' `---' : `----' : `----'-u!`----' `---' Twilight + Malicious Crew -> Twilight ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Today [3o-Mar-96], Malicious Crew joined up with Twilight. We keep the name Twilight and now ready to kick to kick some ass with more members. But we need more, so this where you come in. If YOU is seeking for a new or just another group, Twilight is the answer. We are currently seeking all kinds of members, so contact any tL! member now! And he will make sure that you join the malicious Twilight 8) Twilight members: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ D-Tail - Darkwing - Dough - Dr. Chaos - Genius Madmardigan - Nicko - Nightwalker - Raper Skittle - Sqwala - Sticky - The Mighty Hamster Twilight boards: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Digital Conspiracy ... +45-328-4o-517 [WHq] Primal Rage .......... +45-396-38-o38 [ScHq] Synergy Denmark ...... +45-399-o2-992 [DkHq] X-Mortis ............. +45-PRi-VA-TE! [DkHq] FidoNet: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Nicko ................ 2:235/190.14 ... For joining! The Mighty Hamster ... 2:235/332.11 ... For joining! D-Tail ............... 2:235/190.12 ... For questions etc. Genius ............... 2:236/112.5 ... As above! Madmardigan .......... 2:236/25.15 ... The same goes here ... Voice: ¯¯¯¯¯¯ Catch Nicko at +45-2o2-26-17o. And another thing: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Ascii artists is welcome to create both Twilight logos and/or Twilight file_id diz's. - !!! Twilight - Who dares, WINS !!! - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- founded march 12, 1995 _| : _____ t r a x w e e k l y # 52 ______________ |___| _ _______/ /\___________________________ / ____________/ /\__\ _ _______/____/_____________________________ / / _________ \/__/ ______\ \_____________________________ / / / `_ . .~ \____\/ _ __ ___ / / / _____ . _ \ __ ___ _/__/\ / / / / /\ _ The Music Scene Newsletter __ __\__\/ _/__/ / ____/ /__\_________________________________ _____ ___ _ / /\/ /___ __________ _ ______ _ ___ \/ /\ / / /____/ \ \ / /\ / __/\ / /\ \ \ / \ /____/ / / \ / \/ /_ \___/___/ \ \_/___/ / \_/ / / \ ___\ / /_/ /______/\/ \ /______/\/ \ /_____/ // \ \ / / / \ / / \ \ \ \_\ \ \ \_\ \ //____/\____\/ / / / / / \______\/ \______\/ \_____\/ \ \ \ \ / / / / \____\/\____\ / / / / _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ / / / /__/ w /\___/ /\___/ e /\___/ /\__ / l /\___/ /\____/ / / __/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/________/ / __\ \____\ e \____\ \____\ k \ ___\ \____\ y \__________/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/WW ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - | TraxWeekly Issue #52 | Release date: 03-28-96 | Subscribers: 562 | - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Introduction]------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ _ _________________ /_\ \__ / ____ ______ \____ ____/____________ ______ _/ \ _/ \ \ww_/ \ _/ ________/_/ _ \ __/ \/ \ \/ \/ \ / | \__ ___ ___ _______ _/ \\ \ \\ \\ | \\/ | \_ ___ __ __ ____ /___________\__\_______\________\____|______\____________\ \__\ Welcome to TraxWeekly #52. As you can see, our number of subscribers is slowly increasing. We passed the 500 mark several issues ago, and we've gained another 18 subscribers since last week (544 to 562). Hopefully, as we refine the content of this publication and work on keeping consistent in reviews and articles (like our big brother, DN), we'll be able to expand to a much larger audience. Judging by the numbers of songs uploaded to HORNET each day, it's evident that there are still lots of musicians not linked up with TraxWeekly yet! This week, we're hoping to set a trend in TraxWeekly music reviews. Kal Zakath has redefined our ratings system, and he and Mick Rippon present us with not just one or two, but *seven* song reviews. A hand for their hard work and dedication! Faces in the Crowd features Daedalus and Ganja Man, interviewed by Zinc. Group columns don't seem to get too much attention, as Explizit, Noise, and occasionally STJ are the only contributors. If you or your group needs a billboard, all you need to do is ask. =) Enjoy the issue! Gene Wie (Psibelius) TraxWeekly Publishing gwie@owl.csusm.edu /-[Contents]---------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ ________ _________________________________________________________________ / ____/_/ __/ \ __/ / _____/ \ __/ __/ ___/_ < \____\ \ \\ \ \\____ __/ __/_\ \ \\____ \_____ \__ \ \ \ \\ \ \ww\ \\ \\ \ \ \ \ \_ _\________\________\\___\____\ \_____\\_______\\___\____\ \_____\_______\ General Articles 1. New Music Reviews.............................Kal Zakath Mick Rippon Faces in the Crowd 2. Interview with Daedalus.......................Zinc 3. Interview with Ganja Man......................Daedalus Group Columns 4. Explizit Advertisements 5. Grey Matter, Going Mental.....................AndrewM Closing Distribution Subscription/Contribution Information TraxWeekly Staff Sheet /-[General Articles]-------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ --[1. New Music Reviews]----------------------------------[TW Review Crew]-- Welcome back to TraxWeekly's Review Section. As always, we are doing our best to review quality tunes by lesser-known musicians, as well as trying to fulfill review requests. We have four reviews for you this week, which is more than we've had in a while. Hopefully, we'll continue to increase quantity without sacrificing quality... Joining us in reviewing this week is Darkwolf. I'd like to personally welcome him to the Review Crew, as I'm sure his contributions will help us greatly. :> Also this week, We're introducing some changes/additions to our rating categories. The old system (composition, samples, originality) worked well enough, but as we thought it over, we realized that not all aspects of a tune were included in those three (at least not the way we interpreted them). Therefore, we've made a switch over to the rating system used in MC3 (technique, samples, form, originality, and personal). Here's a brief explanation: TECHNICAL refers primarily to the tracking of the tune. how good is the composer at translating his musical ideas into tracked music? does he make leads interesting through portas, vibratos and vol. slides, or are they flat, cutting each other off? SAMPLES is fairly self-explanitory. were the instruments high quality? were they original, or samples that obviously have been ripped a hundred times? if there were extended samples, were they used well? ORIGINALITY might not mean exactly what you think it does. :> if you read my article in the last traxweekly, you'll understand what i mean. any song, imho, is 'original' if the tune sounds to me refreshing or different. i have no problem giving demo music or techno tunes high marks for originality, if they have their own style... FORM addresses the composition of the song itself. to balance out with 'technical', the 'form' refers to the musical structure of the song. does it flow well, or break from part to part? does it have variety, or does it get boring after 30 seconds? PERSONAL is just how much we liked the tune. maybe it was rough, but still catchy; maybe it was well-tracked and composed, but seemed to lack something special. i don't know. this is where we get subjective -- as if the whole rating process wasn't subjective enough. ;> Now a brief summary of the percentage-scale ratings... Don't think of them like grades, _please_. 65% does not mean 'failing'. :> For clarity's sake, here they are: 100% - 95%: _excellent_ tune, awesome! 94% - 90%: very high-quality tune, one to keep in your collection 85% - 89%: nice tune, definitely stands out as better than average 80% - 84%: overall very good, may have a few rough spots 70% - 79%: composer has potential, but still needs work in places 50% - 69%: mediocre, like 95% of the stuff out there, nothing special Except in the case of a request where the composer _insists_ on having their tune reviewed in TW, we will refrain from publishing a review of any tune with a rating any lower than 50%. Instead, we will send the review to the person requesting it, as a sort of personal criticism on their music. There's no need for us to humiliate anyone. summary of tunes reviewed this week ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1) don't stop now - vegas/mystique [74%] 2) castaway - sikamikanico/mistery [85%] 3) maximalism - mick rippon [92%] (editors' tune of the week) 4) no truth - rage/jade [91%] 5)*hyperion - outrage and orc/ormicron [68%] 6)*the river eternal - vegas/mystique [60%] 7)*stepback - kitsune/oxygen [60%] * reviewed on OLD rating system tunes which will be reviewed next week ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ kanamon worms - lord blanka the black/terraformer jasmine tea - lord blanka the black/terraformer the ballad of romeo - doj/cubic team wasser - doj/cubic team ... and others! review - 'don't stop now' by vegas/mystique ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ style: jazzy duration: 2m09s patterns: 29 orders date of release: not yet released (for Mystique's upcoming musicdisk) where to get: the Mystique musicdisk composer's e-mail: vgs@loop.com - [ technical: 75% ] - - [ samples: 65% ] - - [ originality: 75% ] - -== [ OVERALL: 74% ] ==- - [ form: 75% ] - - [ personal: 77% ] - 'Don't Stop Now' is another nice tune from a relatively new tracker, Vegas. I reviewed one of his earlier tunes, 'Search for the Missing Link', in an earlier TW, and I noted then that Vegas had excellent potential. He has come quite a ways in developing that potential since then. 'Don't Stop Now' has excellent piano chords, a solid bassline, and nice drum work. It is overall a nice tune to listen to, but let me point out some flaws. The lead sample could have been better chosen, it is inappropriate for this type of song. Perhaps a sax sample would have suited this jazzy tune better? And leads in a tune like this should have some sort of effects use to make it more smooth and interesting. The tune is a bit repetitive, and transitions need a bit of work. Don't be too discouraged by these comments, however. Your music is coming along very nicely. If you address the sort of problems that I mention here, it will help you bring your compositions to the next level... I know that we can expect excellent work from Vegas in the future. - review by kal zakath review - 'castaway' by sikamikanico/mistery ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ style: guitar duration: 3m45s patterns: 39 orders date of release: march 1996 where to get: HORNET [/incoming/songs/xm/sik-cast.zip] composer's e-mail: johanl@dataphone.se - [ technical: 80% ] - - [ samples: 90% ] - - [ originality: 90% ] - -== [ OVERALL: 85% ] ==- - [ form: 80% ] - - [ personal: 85% ] - I don't know if you're familiar with Sikamikanico, but he has been the winner of quite a few of the Trackering music compos, and his music for those compos is excellent, especially considering the circumstances (i.e. pre-chosen sample sets). Therefore, I was very eager to listen to one of his regular releases. I was not at all disappointed when I heard 'Castaway', a superb guitar ballad with nice synthleads. Sikamikanico is obviously a very talented guitarist as well as an a skilled tracker. Combine these skills and you get this beautiful, mellow tune. Perhaps its only fault is that it's a bit repetitive, but it's certainly well-composed and very relaxing to listen to... - review by kal zakath review - 'maximalism' by mick rippon [Editor's Tune of the Week] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ style: various duration: 7m(+) patterns: 61 orders date of release: ? where to get: HORNET [/incoming/songs/xm/maxmlsm.zip] composer's e-mail: rip@hunterlink.net.au - [ technical: 90% ] - - [ samples: 93% ] - - [ originality: 95% ] - -== [ OVERALL: 92% ] ==- - [ form: 94% ] - - [ personal: 90% ] - Wow... 29 channels, over a meg in size (hence the name, I suppose :>), and excellent composition and tracking make this tune one of the most impressive I've seen. This song must have had much effort put into it and it shows. It combines so many styles of music that I'm not sure what to call it. :> Let me just say that this is my personal 'tune of the week', and everyone should hear it. :> Beautiful melodies, harmonies, samples, _everything_... Congratulations to Mick Rippon for another superb piece of music! - review by kal zakath review - 'no truth' by rage/jade ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ style: techno duration: 2m39s patterns: 35 orders / 34 unique patterns date of release: march 1, 1996 for GBP compo where to get: HORNET [/incoming/songs/xm/notruth.zip] composer's e-mail: hablom@lokki.edutec.pori.fi - [ technical: 93% ] - - [ samples: 95% ] - - [ originality: 91% ] - -== [ OVERALL: 91% ] ==- - [ form: 86% ] - - [ personal: 90% ] - Ahh... Another awesome Rage tune... 'No Truth' starts out nice and mellow, then develops into one of the most original techno pieces I've heard in a while. The whole style of this tune is excellent, and the tracking is superb. Everybody who enjoys techno music of any sort should definitely check this one out. - review by kal zakath review - "Hyperion" by Outrage/Omicron & Orc/Omicron ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Filename: HYPERION.ZIP [xm] Email: Not given. Presented to us by Outrage and Orc is a rhapsodic fusion of Trance, Ambient and Jungle. As expected with a trance-like intro, we are greeted with a minimalistic rapid multi-textured (farty) bassline, followed by differing but forceful percussion work overlaid on top. The prospect of witnessing another piece of music with this formula was enough to give me a headache, but before I reached for the earplugs, I was heedlessly greeted by the soft flowing melodical presence of Ambience. As you would expect from a piece where the whole philosophy is based on variation, the sound doesn't hang around for long before compulsively exposing the listener to another dose of 'farty bassline and drum rhythm'. A nice piece of execution however sees this dire combination engulfed by some great orchestration. The next section brings us to the Ambient Jungle genre, the combination of the jungle rhythm, strings, piano, and the standard gm, Eb, F progression is an attention grabber. We are then greeted by the Fartphony in gm again but the presence of a chordal based melody and nice chordal movement are a welcome feature. We say goodbye with a few moody chords. Nice ending. I think it would be more correct to describe this piece as a musical mind map more than an actual piece of music. The sections within themselves are well tracked, and the overall sound is very good. I couldn't help thinking that the desire to avoid repetition ruled supreme over the desire to exploit each section to it's potential. The way the sections were strung together were not very innovative, and there was not really a sense of unity between succeeding sections. Composition: 62% - Nice pleasant harmony, good rhythm, some lazy modulation great ideas but were not exploited and minimal compositional craftsmanship when dealing with a new section. Sound Quality: 81% - Good exploitation of the samples. Great Piano sample, Stereo effects were great and very noticeable. Good presence. Nice sound. Some tuning problems but too marginal to bother. Originality: 65% - nothing that really struck me as original. Overall: 68% - Nice implementation and refreshing orchestration, but let down by no development and poor linkage. -review by Mick Rippon review - "The River Eternal" by Vegas / Mystique ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Filename: V-RIVER.ZIP [s3m] Email: vgs@loop.com Composers Notes: "I based the entire mood of The River Eternal on that tranquil yet unsettling echoing drip instrument that plays throughout the song. The smooth base and 9th chords only serve to augment the feeling of eerieness. Even when I add the snare/base/hihat drumline, the ringing piano and the sad synth lead keep you focused on the main feeling. The first time I listened to it build up and boil back down to that final echoing droplet at the end, it sent a shiver down my spine. If my music can do that to anybody else out there, then I've accomplished something." One echoed 'drip' note per bar for an intro at a slow tempo concluded my suspicions that I was a true cynic. The next phrase saw the entrance of an absorbing sombre bass that complimented the 'drip' a 9th below - surprising to the ears, but it worked well. Tradition demanded the entrance of a strong sombre rhythm track. Expectationalist won't be disappointed with the next phrase as we then welcome a nice mellow easy piano melody. We then see the introduction of the main theme with the piano being arpeggiated and a new melody being given to a synth, including a slight change in the chord progression. The rest of the piece contains basic variations on the theme and a recapitulation of the progression and theme in a few modulated keys, two steps above and below the home key. The piece concludes with the sparse texture of the intro. Technically, there's nothing much to rave about. The harmonies, although very rarely dissonant could have been a bit more musical. The melodies, although mostly improvisational, needed a bit more melodical flair. Although the percussion track manages to hold everything together rather well, it really needed a tom to add to the sombre atmosphere, and the quick succession of the snare drum at then end of each phrase started to get repetitive. There could have been more done with the arppegiated piano as it never seemed to acknowledge the melody's existence, and it was too loud. The chord progression didn't really change, as there were only 2 characteristic progressions [fmin, DbMaj, gmin, cmin] and.[f min, DbMaj, cmin, DbMaj]. Emotionally, the tune felt good. A great haunting sombre bass enriched by a powerful rhythm really added weight to the texture. The thing which grabbed me the most was the 'emotional shape' of the melody as the high notes and the low notes were in exactly the right places - very dramatic, and very inspiring. Although it took ages to come to terms with the melody. There's a common habit nowadays with so much music going around that you immediately dismiss a track if it doesn't capture you the first time. It's a sad reality that if you attempt to write anything that requires an acquired taste, then the implementation must to damned good, or you have the initial credibility for people to take your work seriously. There's a strong correlation between meeting new music and meeting new people. Some people you don't like at first, and they grow on you. Some people you don't like, and you never like again. Some people aren't that charismatic, nor intelligent, but for some abstract reason you're drawn towards them - "The River Eternal" in a nutshell. Composition: 60% - Mediocre implementation saved by a dramatic and emotional melody. Instruments suited the music pretty well. Sound Quality 66% - Great bass sample. Stereo effects would have enhanced it greatly. Samples are pretty generic. Originality 70% - Each element has been done before, but the overall feel of the tune has a unique feel. Overall 60% - Althought it's rather simple, it's still one of those pieces that you have to listen to a few times to come to terms with everything that's going on. Once you become used to the shape of the melody, the technically crude aspects of the piece become less and less apparent. No bells and whistles, but who needs them? Recommended. -reviewed by Mick Rippon review - "Stepback" by Kitsune / Oxygen ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Filename: STEPBACK.ZIP [s3m] Email: raphael@it.com.au This was the last song played out of the 25 played at Oz96 and I put it down as my 2nd favorite entry. [It ended up coming equal 7th] After hearing many endless tunes which took pleasure in caving in my head four times a bar, I welcomed this with open arms. What makes this one different is it's use of singing, and it's solidarity with the music. I won't reproduce the lyrics in full, but I'll quote this from the samplenames: "Sometimes, ya know, ya gotta stepback ... take a long hard look and make sure you know when you're bound ... " The piece is simple both musically and instrumentally, but this is necessary if you want to draw attention to the lyrics. Basically, the first section consists of a 'dig-dug' bassline swapping octaves every once in a while, a relevant static chord flowing underneath, and a sparse but tuneful vocal line drawing the attention. The next section sees a guitar solo happening, which we witness the entrance of the drums and a few more 'synthy' instruments adding to the overall texture of the sound. We then see the theme from the first section but with the medium tempo drum rhythm happening in the background. This section concludes the piece. I liked this piece. The sound was very pleasant and relaxing and the lyrical melody and the chords tied in together perfectly. It might have done with a bit of variation, and maybe some more instrumental solos. The lyrics weren't all that clear, but it was saved by it's melody. The percussion line could have been used far more effectively, maybe with some more samples as all I could hear was a kick and snare. Maybe a few little counter melodic lines in between the short lyrical phrases might have added to the interest of the sound. Composition 55% - Simple, but effective. Needed a little more. Nice lyrical melody well supplemented by a simple but effective chordal structure. Might have benefited with a solo in a contrasting key. Sound Quality 54% - Vocal samples "distorted so the listener can hear what I'm (he's) singing without straining" - I didn't understand the logic behind that. Stereo effects used. Nothing special. Samples could have been better. Originality 80% - The use of lyrics that actually were there not there for sake of 'just having lyrics'. The overall feel of the piece was unique. Overall 60% - Nice track which needed a little more. -reviewed by Mick Rippon _____ That's all of our reviews for this week... I hope that you all have the time to check out all four of these tunes, they're very nice indeed... Don't forget that _you_ can have your tunes reviewed in TraxWeekly, just contact us (at the below addresses). Next week we have some requested reviews of tunes by Lord Blanka the Black and Doj/CT. We'll see you then! If you want to discuss reviews, or the music scene in general, feel free to e-mail us at the addresses given below, or just chat with us on IRC. - kal zakath / inferno [jtownsen@sescva.esc.edu] - Mick Rippon [Rip@hunterlink.net.au] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Faces in the Crowd]------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ --[2. Interview with Daedalus]--------------------------------------[Zinc]-- Hello Daedalus.. We've been planning this interview for a while now. :) yeah, we have. a few months or so i guess? =) hehe yeah.. I've done about 3 interviews this week alone though already, so I'd better get to you :) Anyways we should begin now.. wow ok To start off, please tell us about about yourself. Real name (if you want), Age (if you want), Sex (you have no choice in this matter, I'm afraid!) pets, lawsuits, etc etc.. My real name is Brian Bennetts, I'm 28 (one of the oldest people in the scene i guess, ack, dunno if that's bad or good) I'm a Guy obviously, no pets, but may have some lawsuits pending a couple of web pages i'm writing at this time. =) So in all this time, what groups have you been in? well, i've been in Neophyte, epinicion, and a new one that's about to be introduced soon. =) Well, please explain how you got involved in tracking, and what musical interests led up to that. Well, after the earthquake in northridge in 94, i was introduced to modedit 1.0, played around a bit.... then i was introduced to malakai, thru a friend of ours, and he got me into st3... i had really no musical background before then... and just kind of emulated some music that i like, until i was able to develop a style that was similar, but my own. =) Okay, so did you have real-life friends who were also trackers? No, i had infact just recently purchased my PC, was on an apple //e before then...so didn't know anyone else with a pc, let alone any trackers. =( Okay then. Could you please describe the styles you were talking about a minute ago? Well, a lot of the music I liked was stuff by Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre, Amin Bhatia, and The Tubes (personal way cool fave)... Does it bother you that Bill Gates has a personal bias against the tracking scene? Tangerine Dream is an all electronic band out of Germany, and i sought very hard to emulate some of their types of sequences... wasn't too successful at first and ended up with music that sounded like a drunk monkey pounding on the keyboards.... :) later, i learned a little bit more, and was able to use somewhat of their technique, and mold it into something a little different. i've found that people either really like, or really despise my music. =) I wasn't aware that gates was against the tracking scene, is he really?? if he is, then heck yeah it would bother me... here's a guy who is one of the richest people on the planet, and all he has to do with his time is complain about the tracking scene? GET A LIFE BILL! hehe.. Actually it was a joke, but it seems like he is.. Anyways.. hahahah I think Bill Gates is opposed to anything, if he's not getting a percentage of any possible profits. especially when it involves computers. Okay, well, most people don't think about what trackers do outside of the scene, so I thought maybe it would be interesting to find out! :) What DO you do when you aren't at the keybord? Well, i spend most of my time at California State University Northridge, as a theatre major, acting in their productions, as well as designing lighting for the plays, and also designing sound.... Do you get paid for that? When i'm not there, or behind the computer, i spend time out with my friends, going to movies, eating out, going to parties, and doing things that normal people do. Nope, not yet. all the designs i do are usually to meet production requirements for the major. Okay. So then, what do you plan on doing over the next 5 years, in and out of the trakkin' scene? heh, i use the term 'normal people' very loosely. hehe Well, in the tracking scene, i'd love to do the same thing that every other tracker does, do some video games, and i'd LOVE to score a movie some day i'm also going to persue an educational background in music, to gain a little more knowledge about it it probably wouldn't be a BIG movie, i'd be happy scoring someone's budget film, just so i could say i've done it. Sounds neat. Have you ever done any computer game music? outside the tracking scene: i'd like to focus on my acting career, i've done a few commercials, and worked on a television series, and had a few smaller parts in films, but i'd like to make my mark as a character actor in film. re: computer game music: nothing released yet, but some negotiations in the works. Id also like to get more education as far as computers, learn some decent programming languages, and since acting is not a guaranteed career, have that to fall back on. movies? anything we could see you in? ("look! that's me in the back row!") hehe, well, yeah... if ya look real hard i guess. =) I did "Child's Play 3", "Shout" and "Grand Canyon" as far as TV goes, i did a smaller role in the TV series "The Flash" Do you like Grand Master Flash? (did I get that right, fans?) Grand Master Flash? the old rapper? yeah, i vaguely remember listening to some of his stuff when i roller skated when i was younger. =) hehehe :) Wow, you ARE old! j/k :P So then, back to the tracking scene business... actually, i guess Grand Master Flash was more funk, not rap. hey, i'm so old that i can remember when gas was a dime a gallon... ...oh wait, dinosaurs didn't use gas. What are your personal opinions on groups, and the pros + cons of having them? Well, there's definate pros and cons... i guess the pros would be that if everyone combines their talents correctly, you can have a terriffic result, as far as a song, or a demo goes, provided everyone is good at what they do cons: well, there can be a lot of arguements over what's good, bad, and what SHOULD be done, and that can cause a lot of tension among the members. Couldn't we all help each other out just as well without groups? Yeah, we could I guess, but just as there is something to be said for individual efforts, there is something to be said when a team comes together, and produces something that's astonishing, this doesn't always happen, but when it does, it's a pretty tremendous feeling to know that as a group, the members can function as a well oiled machine. Okay then. How about the age old debate of ft vs st? people are still arguing about this. Do you think this is getting all too silly? I think it's beyond silly. This arguement is one that has been going on forever (as you've pointed out) and will continue forever, and get worse as other people develop other tracking programs. Everyone has their personal preference of trackers to use, and most players support these formats. if someone chooses a different tracker, that's their choice. people should just accept it, and let that stupid old arguement DIE! yay! (Tho i would like to point out that my current choice IS screamtracker 3.21 :) Okay, being an old guy (relatively, of course!) :), what do you think of people's attitudes and maturity level in the scene these days? oh man... this is a tough one. I've only been in the scene for a little over a year now, but, sad to say, i've seen the attitudes of people slowly go downhill.... not necessarily people who've been around, but of the newer people coming in. there is such a sense, and need for them to feel "Elite", that instead of focusing on doing quality material, they seem to just try to 'fit in' and 'be cool' True. I don't know about you, but over the last few months, I've noticed that all the old buzzwords have all but dissapeared. ie. Woop :) hehe.. Have you noticed this? I still use werd and w00p, but yeah.. Okay.. now for the fun part.. hehe, uh oh If the sky was falling, and you only had 10 minutes left, what song would you listen to while you build yourself a little sky-fallout shelter? PC or commercial? =) pc PC: "Global Motion" by Purple Motion; Commercial ...well, since we're about to die..."Talk To Ya Later" by The Tubes. =) hehe. Actually, the sky falls every day, and nobody dies.. But that's called rain... (c: hehe, in that case...i'd listen to "Rainfall" by me. =) hehehe haha Okay, and now for another question.. this IS an interview.. ok <---- leave that out. =) haha, no :) If another group similiar to Epinicion formed, and you were the president, 1) what would you call the group? 2) what would you do to attract members? 3) what would you do to make it the most interesting group? (you have unlimited $$$ remember :) Hmm, it'd be called "A Million and One" 2.) i'd say that that name was our goal, as far as how many members we wanted on the roster, 3.) unlimited money? wow, i'd buy everyone incredible setups, make an entirely new sample set, hire someone to write the ultimate tracker (exclusive to all 1,000,001 of us) and pay people to listen to our music. =) wow! I like the name :) I think there should be a tracker college, don't you? well, kind of a pun on how many members were in epinicion. a tracker college? sure, but we'd have to screen out the people applying who thought it was a model railroading development class. change class to school. I think I'll make a group called xM like Five Musicians but the x can be any number at all. No problems! hehe m heh Anyways, this interview has taken a turn for the worse.. hehe.. we better end it :) I just have a couple of standard questions now.. heheheh...ok What is your email address where we can send ansi-bombs? like i say, hope i'm not too boring...just been a really long day. hahahha, daedalus@westworld.com okay, and where can we find your s3ms? right now, a few of them are on ftp.cdrom.com, but coming soon, there will be an ftp site set up where everything will be. or, people can email me, and i can send them whatever they want. Okay, and finally, anybody you wish to thank or spank at this time? well, i could think of a few girls i'd like to spank... but they'll never read this article. I'd like to thank all the old members of Neophyte for a really great time, Basehead, Necros, Maelcum, Purple Motion, Skaven, and other old schoolers for the musical encouragement they've given us all, with the music they've produced, and everyone out there who listens to my music, and the music of others, as well as the people who help to keep the scene alive...best wishes Oh, I just wanna say to the readers that this interview was conducted very very late (or early, depending how you look at it) at night.. so any craziness or nonsensicalness or idiocies etc can be attributed to what I just said. yeah, it's like 2:00am here. Oh, wanna say that infamous daed line? hehe .. re the lemonade? ya know, after seeing it 100+ times, i'm not sure how it goes. hehe haha err still not sure... Okay, well if anyone is interested, they can ask me in #trax.. i guess :) Anyways, good night :) g'nite. well, how do ya think that went? heh hehe that bad? hehe fine, and this is still on! oops. err.. recording :P Okay, I'm turning it off now :D ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --[3. Interview with Ganja Man]-------------------------------------[Zinc]-- OK Hey Ganja Man Hi Can we get on with the interview?? My breakfast is almost ready.. :) Okay, well, first off, the boring, repetitive, monotonous stuff.. Like your name, age, vital stats, group affils, etc OK.. real name = Sam Bashton, I'm 15 (!), member of LOK, and I'm currently doing the music for a game.. Cool, Sam, so what kind of music do you track? Well, basically all UK club styles. I love to listen to Happy Hardcore and Jungle, but I'm not too great at tracking them. I prefer tracking handbag house, 'cos it lets me experiment with pianos a lot.. So what exactly is LOK all about? Well, in the UK (where I live) there weren't really any demo/music groups (at least not that I knew of). So I decided to set one up. I also wanted to educate people about Jungle a bit (I remember the days I used to offer Jungle, and people used to ask what it was.. :)). Yeah, Jungle seems to be one of the last underground styles.. At least in North America, anyways. Do people listen to jungle much outside of cyberspace where you live? Yeah, Jungle has a HUGE club following. We also have a LOT of pirate radio stations blasting out Jungle. But we try to stop the BBC from finding out about it, 'cos it'd get included in the Eurovision song contest or summink.. ;) What are your musical influences? As in trackers, as well as real-life musicians. (Should trackers be considered 'real-life' musicians?) Well, Maelcum was a big inspiration to me early on. Sonic Ectasy, a little-known Candian house group were another great tracking inspiration. In real life I get inspiration from the Happy Clappers, LTJ Bukham, Goldie & Photek mainly. A bit of a Jungle bias really... :) Are you impressed with anyone in the tracking scene? Not only in the talent respect, but also as regards to their attitudes. I was sort of surprised by the tracking scene when I first logged onto IRC almost a year ago, actually. It was like 'oh my god! It's Maelcum!!', 'cos I had all their stuff, but I thought they were like gods or summink. OK, well perhaps not that far. But I was quite impressed by their "we're no anybody" attitude. Then I found out they *weren't* anybody.. :) haha :) We've probably all felt like that at some time or another Yeah, s'pose Is there anybody, or anything that really bugs you about the scene? Well, I know a LOT of people are going to say this, but the reviewers on Hornet. What bugs you about them? They do a good job if you like demo-style music, but for us 'normal' people the ratings are no good at all. To be honest, I wouldn't care if they kept the rating as they were, as long as they sorted the music according to style. Okay, well I'm going to ask you a couple of off-the-wall questions, just to try and throw you a bit :) kool You have the choice of registering FT2 for _free_, or getting an African Elephant fed-ex'd to you in the mail.. which would you do, and why not? I'd have to go for the free FT2, 'cos I'd have no space for the Elephant, and London Zoo is almost bankrupt as it is.. :) Good point :) Okay, OTW question number two: You are locked in a room with your cat, and your computer. You hypnotize yourself by watching the rotating Bill Gates in 'Verses' over and over. When you come to, there is a masterpeice composed on your computer. Your cat is the only one who could have done it, unless you did it by automation. Do you credit the cat? Assume you did it? What? How do you handle the situation, without the use of bell-bottoms or eggbeaters. Well, I'm always hitting the wrong key when I'm tracking stuff, play it back and find it sounds kool. I'd record it onto cassette and send it away to a record company, 'cos I don't mind telling the general public I made something I didn't, but lieing to the music scene is different. :) Aha! Kind of like a milli-vanilli Yeah, only at least the cat can't expose me... :) good thing for that! Okay, now for the final question. (This is an easy one) What are you, nuts? I am the only sane person around here. So thought I. The voices told me what to say :) Okay, well enough foolishness... :) Since you are only 15, what do you plan on doing by the time you are 20? Does this include sex?? :) Naw, man.. I don't have all night. This only includes scene related stuff (and other music schtuff) OK, well, being discovered as the next Liam Howlett (of the prodigy), earning tons of money, and inventing my own style of music Good plan :) Thanks When you are tracking, how do you come up with inspiration, and ideas for your music? Well, usually I'll be listening to a CD, hear a sample I like, sample it, then I just go in to a trance at the cat does the rest! :) Actually, my inspiration usually comes when I get back from clubbing What format do you use? XM, because I can't stand the text interface of ST3. I started with TCB tracker on the ST, so using a tracker without mouse support is alien territory. Okay, well since we now know what style you track, where can we find your tunes? http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/square/ad021/index.html Or ftp://tillbm.rpi.stu.edu/LoK/ Okay, and would you like to thank or spank anyone at this time? Erm, Snakey7 for giving me all those great music samples.. (That's a THANK BTW) Okay, dude, now is your chance to say anything you wish to all the sceners around the world... Remember however good you are at tracking, there will always be someone who thinks someone else is better.. Okay, one more thing. If you so desire, please state your email address so we know where to send all that fan-mail! Oh yeah, ad021@dial.pipex.com Okay! Well that wraps it up. Cya later Cheers.. l8r ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Group Columns]----------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ --[4. Explizit]------------------------------------------------------------- .____. .....______________.____________________________________________| |__... :::::\__ _____ | ______ \ \______) \_____)_ _____/::: :::::::/ __>/\/ . __/| __/ / /__ \_____ \ \| |:::::: ::::::/ | / \ : \| \_____/ / \ \_ _____/ \ |:::::: :::::/ \__| \_ :::\ / / / | \ / |:::::: :::::\__________/::|______/____|:::\_______/_____/________/_____/___::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::[sYNOPTiC]::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Explizit TraxWeekly column issue #13 - March 28, 1996 Hi there! What about us ... we're explizit and we make techno music. That's all =) If you want to contact us for any reason, write to explizit@dds.nl. You can receive our modules thru internet e-mail if you want by subscribing to the explizit e-mail distro list. New releases in the past week: E-RIDE2R Ride To Da Rhythm by Jay, 100% german rave E-FLY2 Are You Ready To Fly - The Do-Re-Mi-Mix by batjo, happyHC E-WORLDS Worlds Apart by KoM'AH, Mellowtrance I got some feedback! -whow- .. Thankx to Szazm (i think was his name) for the email. He asked if i could talk less and say more :) Well i'll try. Anyone heard Heretic's new song? It's a remix of Robert Miles' "Children"! I guess you ALL know children, even if you don't know the title. The song gets played all the time on the radio (at least over here) and it's in the top-10 at the moment. Heretic's remix really is great, a not too big XM file. I could talk about Coolio with his "It's too damn hot" or that new song of his that 1-2-3-4 ripoff...not that ANY of coolio's songs are original but who cares. I've never heard a Coolio remix on MOD ... volunteers? Did anyone say "why don't you give it a try Ch:ilm"? You must be joking! The best remix i ever made was Zig & Zag's "Them Girls" (them girls them love me, them girls them luuuvvme). I'm not much of a tracking-talent. I know some people who are, though. Jay for instance. 14 years old and one of the best whappie composers i know. I think we'll be hearing a lot of Jay in the future. There's Thunderbass, not too old as well. Wants to release his S3Ms on vinyl (but hasn't got the right connections). There's Mad Max, making german rave-music. But that's all techno and house. I know some other composers as well, like VooDoo/MTB who doesn't exactely make techno. There's Sturm / ZODSoft, there's Mairsil and Dark, there's Mindcrime. All make demo/rock/metal/ambient/progressive/alternative music. All are great. Whenever one of them releases a great song i'll let you know. Bear in mind that i like techno myself (i could write a big story on techno as well, but it wouldn't be in the right mag would it, since TW is pc-music oriented). Lately i wrote a nice article on a public radio-station here, radio 3 FM. Unfortunately it's in Dutch and even if i wanted to publish it, it's on the school server right now (i'll attach it to an email to myself ok). I've been setting up the impulse tracker European HQ lately. European readers should be able to download the latest version directly off http://huizen.dds.nl/~im-pulse mind the "-" .... Everybody is free to visit this site offcourse, but European visitors will have faster transfer speeds. Well that's about all i can think of right now. If you want to receive all our modules from us, subscribe yourself to our e-mail distro list! It's so easy, just write an email message with keyword SUBSCRIBE in it. Thank you for reading, you can ftp all our releases from: ftp://tillbm.stu.rpi.edu/explizit/ For feedback, info and more, visit our homepage: http://huizen.dds.nl/~explizit Ch:ilm/Explizit explizit@dds.nl (Like the short one better? ;-) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Advertisements]---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ --[5. Grey Matter, Going Mental, and other things]-------------------------- Hey all. I've been reading TW since issue one, and have been in #trax for. uh.. well... a long time. So chances are if you hang out in #trax, you've probably met and talked to me.. and if you haven't.. well... Hiya! ;) Anyhoo, I just wanted to just wanted to let people know of a couple of things. Grey Matter: First off, I finished my first album, Grey Matter, a couple of months ago. This is the same ablum I've been talking about doing for the past 3 years, but I eventually got my ass in gear and put it all together, re-mastered the songs, etc. This tape contains a lot of songs that have been released already, however most have been improved on somewhat (either by post-production sound enhancement, or I've remixed them). This tape was aimed at the non-tracker market (ie, people who haven't heard my stuff, or very little of it), but a number of people involved in the tracker scene have bought copies and are very happy with it, and I'm pretty sure they're not just being nice. ;) The song list is.. SIDE A White Sands, My Place in Space, T2 (A trance remix of GooRoo's The Terrorist), ... what the?, Real, World Wide Slack Remix, Alterraid (this is a live mix using the samples from Dune's song of the same name) SIDE B Slow Groove, Razz, Razz Remix, Ultrasubmarine, Dino (remix of the song in the demo of the same name), They Came from Above, Earthtones (slightly extended), The Return of Cornholio!@ (slightly funkafied) Anyhoo, I should make this message short, so I'll just close this part off by saying that the whole tape is about 90 minutes long, and only $8 Canadian. You can get a copy by sending $10.50 (that's tape + SH) to Andrew McCallum 101 Centre St. West. Richmond Hill, Ontario L4C-3P6 Go-Mental email list: I've set up an email list to distribute my songs right to people's mailbox. The songs (about one every 2.5 months) are emailed MIME encoded, and are decoded automatically by most mail software. If you want to get on the email list, email andrewm@io.org, with the subject "subscribe go-mental", and you're on. If you want to find out more information on any of the things I've disussed, you can find them on my web site, http://www.io.org/~andrewm . You'll probably be hearing more from me.... --- .oOo. Andrew McCallum = Mental Floss [KFMF] .oOo. .oOo http://www.io.org/andrewm oOo. K o s m i c F r e e M u s i c F o u n d a t i o n *NEW!* album Grey Matter @ http://www.io.org/~andrewm/greymatter ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Closing]----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ TraxWeekly is available via FTP from: ftp.cdrom.com /demos/incoming/news (new issues) ftp.cdrom.com /demos/info/traxw/ (back issues) A WWW project featuring TraxWeekly will be featured sometime in late Summer, 1996. To subscribe, send mail to: listserver@unseen.aztec.co.za and put in the message body: subscribe trax-weekly [name] (NOT address) To unsubscribe, mail same and: unsubscribe trax-weekly (in message body) Contributions for TraxWeekly must be formatted for *76* columns, must have a space preceding each line, and must be readable and understandable. NO HIGH ASCII IS ALLOWED. Different country code pages cause major problems in international distribution, so we must stay with regular text. Profanities and other derogatory subjects should be avoided if possible. Contributions should be mailed as plain ascii text or filemailed (MIME/UUE only) to: gwie@owl.csusm.edu before 6:00pm EST (North America) every Wednesday. TraxWeekly does not discriminate based on age, gender, race, political preferences, religious preferences, or eliteness. ALL COMMENTS GOOD/BAD AND SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME! Please contact the TraxWeekly staff at the following addresses: Editor: Psibelius (Gene Wie).................gwie@owl.csusm.edu Staff: Atlantic (Barry Freeman).............as566@torfree.net DennisC (Dennis Courtney)............dennisc@community.net Kal Zakath (John Townsend)...........jtownsen@sescva.esc.edu Master of Darkness (Todd Andlar).....as566@torfree.net Mhoram (John Niespodzianski).........niespodj@neonramp.com Mick Rippon..........................rip@hunterlink.net.au Populus (Nicolas Roberge)............nr@qbc.clic.net Trifixion (Tyler Vagle)..............trifix@northernnet.com Zinc (Justin Ray)....................rays@direct.ca Reporter: Island of Reil (Jesse Rothenberg)....jroth@owl.csusm.edu Graphics: Squidgalator2 (...)..................sq2@sv.net.au White Wizard (...)...................aac348@agora.ulaval.ca WWW Page: Dragunov (Nicholas St-Pierre)........dragunov@info.polymtl.ca TraxWeekly is a HORNET affiliation. Copyright (c)1995,1996 - TraxWeekly Publishing, All Rights Reserved. /-[END]--------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \ | | | | | | / **** ** ******* ** ******* ** ** ****** **** ** **** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** - ** ** ** ** ** ** **** ** - ** ** **** **** **** **** ** ** ********** ** ****** ** ****** ** ** ********** ** ** ** ** ** - ** ** ** ** ** ** ** - ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **** ********** - - ********** ******* ******* ** ******* ********* ** ** ** ** ** ******* ** ** ** ** ** ** ***** - ** ** ** ** ** ** ***** - ******* ** ** ** ** ** ***** ****** ** ** ** ** ** *** ** ** ** ** ** ** *** - ** ** ** ** ** ** *** - ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ******* ******* ********** * / | | | | | | \ Yes Klein Duimpje (He wrote the H^O-SONY.TXT file) was right offcourse it was an april fools joke. What else did you expect around this date... :) But next time would you wait untill it is the first of april before telling everyone about it. You spoiled my little joke :'-( . I just wanted to see how well these kinds of texts are read, as i know a couple of guys who believe about anything they read. Remember last years news txt about Workbench 4.0 and its 'handy' MS-windows like installer? I actualy know some guys who believed it!!!! Well here is my reaction to his text file: (text between "" original text. >> before text indicates Klein duimpjes reaction) "wegens de pas uitgevoerde reorganisaties. Ik kan echter het Amiga publiek gerust stellen, hun favoriete computer is in goede handen." >>No speaker of ESCOM, would try to ease the Amiga user, NEVER! And although >>this COULD happen... he would NEVER user this kind of straightforward >>sentences. Well i'm not so sure about that. The head of Commodore UK did so why wouldn't someone of Escom? After all they would like to keep selling stuff to the Amiga publik. "De heer Eno lirpa hoofd van het Nederlandse distributie centrum van Sony had het volgende te zeggen over de overname:" >>Head of the Dutch Distribution Centre? Yeah right, nor the name of the head >>there, nor the chairman are called Eno Lirpa... Jeez man, get lost.... I >>checked... I just HAD to know. You really CHECKED those names ?!? Well seems like i fooled you at least a little bit hehe..... " leached from USENET, newsgroup: comp.sys.amiga.news" >>leached?? Should not it be: LEECHED?!? And HOW can you leech MAIL?? HAHAHA Allright a slip of the finger okai. And how you can leech mail ? Well IMHO Leeching = downloading Without uploading. So mail you get from the net (send by ftp/ip so it is dloaded to you) can be considered as beeing leeched. " Translated by PhoeniX of .T.R.I.B.E." >>Mmm, nice joke :) I have to hand it to you... have any more?? :) Well who knows what i'll think of next year. So you are warned......!! :) PS: You missed a few clues. Namely: -"De middle en High end modellen zullen standaard uitgerust worden met mini disk loopwerken ter vervanging van de verouderde disk drives." Hehe so anyone could toss away their old amiga software on disk. :) -"Verder staan er ook uitbreidingen voor de oudere modellen zoals de A500 en A2000 op stapel. Wegens de grote gebruikers groep zullen er uitbreidingen uitgebracht worden om deze machines op te halen naar het huidige technologische niveau van de aga serie. Deze uitbreidingen zullen dus uitgerust worden met de nieuwe 'Custom Chips' die de AGA serie zo populair gemaakt hebben." This is totaly imposible as the custom chips on the main board can't be turned off or rerouted.... Well that's all.. Hope you all have a nice April fools day and Prank 'em all. Greetz from, PhoeniX of .T.R.I.B.E. * Comment of the day: "Just keep on smiling" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WALL STREET JOURNAL TECHNOLOGY SELECTIONS 18 Mar 96 ----------------------------------------------------- Full-text articles: 1. Business Brief -- ATARI CORP.: Net Loss of $27.7 Million Is Posted For 4th Quarter Atari Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif., the struggling maker of the Jaguar videogame player, reported a net loss of $27.7 million, or 43 cents a share, for the fourth quarter, against net income of $17.6 million, or 30 cents a share, a year earlier. The loss resulted from sagging sales, which fell to $2.8 million from $14.9 million, and the write-off of inventory and development costs. Atari has agreed to merge into JTS Corp., a disk-drive maker, and plans to expand the production of video games for personal computers. For all of 1995, Atari posted a net loss of $49.6 million, or 78 cents a share, against net income of $9.4 million, or 16 cents share. Sales dropped to $14.6 million from $38.7 million. Atari closed at $3.875, down 12.5 cents, in trading Friday on the American Stock Exchange. 4. Escom AG Tries To Resuscitate Its Amiga PC --- Remembrance of Glory Lends Certain Mystique To Model With a Past By Silvia Ascarelli, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal HANOVER, Germany -- Can a computer be jinxed? Ask the three successive owners of the Amiga home computer. First, the quirky little machine burned through the $7 million put up by its initial backers, three Florida dentists, before the first model hit the stores in the mid-1980s. After it became a cult brand in the U.S. and Europe, Amiga's second owner, Commodore International Ltd., went bankrupt in 1994. The brand's new owner, German personal computer-maker Escom AG, is experiencing the unlucky tradition. Only months after it bought the Amiga and Commodore names and patents for $10 million, Escom slid deep into the red, largely because of slowing conventional-PC sales. But Escom is betting that Amiga's luck has finally changed. Amiga fans -- an unusually loyal band of diehards from Berlin to Boston -- contend that the current wave of multimedia computing and Internet surfing plays to Amiga's strength: a fast, efficient circuitry and software that are good at showing pictures and playing video. "Technologically, it's a great computer," says Asha DeVelder, 48 years old, a Northern California graphic artist who walked out of a store in 1986 with an Amiga instead of the typewriter she was shopping for. "The bottom line is the technology is still there; it's still graceful, it still works. There's no reason to leave." Industry experts give it impossible odds of ever being a big force in the market; after all, IBM-compatible PCs hold nearly 90% of the PC market, and the Amiga last Christmas represented less than 1% of industry sales in Europe. Even Manfred Schmitt, chairman of Escom's management board, describes it as a niche entry. But despite its financial woes, Escom is starting to roll out new Amiga models. "We definitely don't want to see Amiga fail," Mr. Schmitt says. Here at Cebit, Europe's biggest computer trade show, Escom is displaying perhaps its most promising product, Amiga Surfer -- a microcomputer that plugs into a standard television and comes with a modem and special software for "surfing" the global Internet. Priced at 1,199 marks ($815), the machine also handles conventional computing tasks such as word processing, games and graphics. Aside from the modem and accompanying communications software, it is similar to an earlier model, Amiga Magic, now sold for 998 marks. Also at Cebit, Escom is unveiling a prototype of a new Amiga model that should be in stores in September and will include a Pentium-speed processor and CD-ROM drive. Depending on cost, a modem may be added. Amiga Technologies President Petro Tyschtschenko says he wants to price the model below 1,000 marks, or less than half the price of a similarly equipped PC. But company officials maintain their biggest splash will be a PowerAmiga, using Motorola Inc.'s PowerPC chip, expected to be introduced at next year's Cebit trade show and to reach stores in May 1997. When it was first launched a decade ago, the Amiga, with its fat keyboard and no stand-alone hard drive, was considered ahead of its time. Back when PCs could only beep and screens were monochrome, Amiga was dazzling users with sound and video cards, sharp color screens and plug-and-play technology. If a PC were likened to a sober numbercruncher, then the Amiga, originally conceived as a game-playing machine, was the vibrant animation designer. And it was cheap. After a few million models were sold during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the computer became a cult item. Fan magazines proliferated in almost every language. User groups kept meeting, even when most had relegated the computer to the scrap heap. Recently, 70,000 fans swarmed into Cologne for a three-day Amiga trade show, clamoring for autographs and entrance tickets. Grateful letters still arrive daily at Amiga Technologies GmbH headquarters, thanking company officials for bringing the computer back from the dead. Steve Pond, a computer network designer in a London suburb, boasts that he can simultaneously format two disks, print from his screen and go online on his nine-year-old Amiga 2000. "If you spend any amount of time working on an Amiga, when you switch to a PC or a Macintosh, everything feels so slow." He says he wants to hold out for a PowerAmiga but admits that "at the moment, I'm teetering. I do need a new computer." Persuading the rest of the computing world to switch systems won't be easy. Escom's financial woes are likely to spill over to the Amiga division, which lost about five million marks last year. Even Mr. Schmitt admits that he can't be as free-spending as he might like. The Escom group must be more conservative in developing new products; in fact, it's hoping Motorola will pick up some of the tab for developing the PowerAmiga. "We must avoid at all costs making any risky maneuvers," says Mr. Schmitt, Escom's chairman. One glaring weakness is the absence of Amiga software in computer stores. At one of Escom's Frankfurt stores, colorful Amiga boxes are stacked by the cash register, and one is set up for demonstrations. But prospective buyers won't find boxes of software to go along with it. "I can get what I need for it," says Ms. DeVelder, the graphic artist. She relies on mail-order firms for most programs and says her software collection already fills two 75-disk wooden boxes, a 50- and 100-disk box and several 30-disk boxes, in addition to "various piles of disks scattered about" her office. "I consider myself extremely blessed that I stumbled across Amiga when I did," she adds. "I'm just wondering whether Amiga Technologies can really [bring back the brand.]" . ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ --------------------------- INFO RELEASED 1ST APRIL 96 --------------------------- DIRECT FROM AMIGA TECH!!!! PRESS INFORMATION FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 1st 1996 AMIGA Technologies GmbH New AMIGA Prototype Information with important changes In an attempt to satisfy a larger portion of the existing Amiga market, and in preperation for the PowerAmiga's, AMIGA Technologies are proud to announce a new AMIGA. A prototype of the new AMIGA will be shown for the first time worldwide at a trade fair to be hold in late April this year. AMIGA Technologies GmBH will hereby expand the AMIGA product line for the advanced home user and the semi-professional market even more than it did until this day. What will differ this from the AMIGA Technologies Walker project is that its graphics abilities will be a vast improvement over existing Amiga graphics architecture. This product will have modularity, a professional design, and expansion capability to satisfy even the most demanding AMIGA user. This new AMIGA will have many similaritys to the Walker project machine. The motherboard features two SIMM sockets, on which the memory can be increased up to 128 MB. This AMIGA comes standard with a quad-speed CD-ROM drive. But unlike the walker the main processor used will be the 68060/50Mhz. It will come with 4 of the new 64bit ZorroIV slots, and 8 ZorroIII slots, of which 3 of those slots can also be used as video slots. Like all of the AMIGA's current range a PowerPC upgrade will be easily installable when it becomes available. The ZorroIV slot will allow for the use of real-time video to be sent to and from any ZorroIV device instantly. Providing this AMIGA as an ideal MPEG Video Player. It will also be able to handle the usual variety of multi-serial cards, sound cards, etc. This design concept will be the base of the coming AMIGA Generation. Like all Next Generation AMIGA's including Project Walker, the new AMIGA will be shipped with a new version of AMIGA-OS. But unlike the Project Walker's AMIGA-OS 3.2, it will have AMIGA-OS 3.5. New features and many enhancements will give the system more power and flexibility. This OS will also support most of the new additional hardware the system is getting added. A new and welcome addition to the new AMIGA will be the scrapping of the AGA Chipset and the replacement of it with the much-rumoured AAA chipset. Amiga Technologies GmBH developers have been quietly working on this chipset to complete it since it first aquired the rights to the AMIGA. Features include 24bit Screens, Quad Density Disk Drives, Faster Blitter, full RTG Support, to name a few of its features. The PowerPC project is continuing to move forward. Thanks to the close cooperation with Motorola and Phase 5, the porting of the AMIGA-OS 3.5 will be achieved within the announced schedule. The first Power AMIGA will be available early in 1997, as planned. Until then, it is also foreseeable that Phase 5 will release the first PowerPC cards for existing AMIGAs. The development of the OS is led by former top AMIGA engineers. Info: Gilles Bourdin / Public Relations AMIGA Technologies - Berliner Ring 89 - D-64625 Bensheim Tel +49 6252 709 195 - Fax +49 6252 709 520 Email: gbo@amiga.de Copyright 1996 by AMIGA Technologies GmbH -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ^^ BBS ADS ^^ ************************************ SOAP CITY BBS BUSTED 03-APRIL-1996 ************************************ Today -SOAP CITY BBS- was busted. John Loader and 5 CID officers arrived at 2PM with a warrant to search the premises. They confiscated all of his equipment including a topend A4000, A1200 & P-60. DONT CALL -SOAP CITY BBS- ANYMORE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A WARNING TO ANYBODY WHO IS PHREAKING AT THE MOMENT - A REPLY.. DON'T BE FOOLED BY THE PARANOIA CRAP!! This is ø-LiNE, i just read 'watch-it.txt', and thought i might add somethings to it as it in the whole seems like pure speculation: This file is in its original form apart from the additions by me seperated by [ ]'s. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I wish to remain anon for this file as it may jeopadise my accounts on some of the following bbs`s ect also I am alledgly on the so called HIT LIST. Yesterday a very involved member of the H&P scene was busted by adrian gorham from bt security at a very inconvienient hour of the night. Floowing him being interviewed he learnt some very interesting information that confirms the thoery that bt know more that what we think they know. these thing include the following. --- ONE --- BT Security have accounts on the following BBS`s. DUK & COVER (RIP) Permanent Vacation Switch Board and probably more. --- TWO --- Premere World Link was a trap from the start. The company was set up by MCI as a trap to catch everybody who use cc`s to call fraudulently. If it was not a trap then why is it still running. Surely if it was a real company they would have boycotted setting cards up so easily like the other cc`s companies. [Where is your proof? it is unlikely that such an operation would be set up purely for the reasons of catching carders! If there was then would be expecting a LOT more busts than have been happening! I doubt there is much MCI could do about the situation anyway being an American-born company - they would have a lot of problems regarding international laws etc, also they would have to coordinate with BT!] --- THREE --- BT are logging calls from people being busted and cross refferencing this information to see who knows who and to plan their next busts. --- FOUR --- DEF CON VOICE BRIDGE - This is set up by the feds and is used to gather information on telephone fraudsters. Think about it, A person is given over 16 thousand dollars worth of hardware and telephone lines for free to run a free voicebridge for hackers and phreakers. Get Real the thing is paid for by the major telephone companies from around the world and is used and monitored by them. I have proof because BT have information on an associate of the berson who got busted and the only way they could have got that information is by monitoring either defcon or the persons in questions line. Which is against there policies (YEAH RIGHT). [HAHAHA! Although it is totally feasible that DEFCON is monitored by police etc, there is no way they would have set the bloody thing up! You say that BT have got infomation.. fine, so what? They could have got the evidence by monitoring his line! This would definatly not require the extremly unlikely scenerio of the major telecommunications companys of the world combining and setting up a voice-bridge in America to catch hackers!] --- FIVE --- Adrian Groham and associates read every TXT file on the H&P scene and have access to every message sent by grabbing datapackets by monitoring lines. [ This is equally ssttuuppiidd... i really don't think BT would bother with such a big operation to catch phreaks who only account for a small percentage of their loss due to fraud... and Adrian Gorham would NOT have the authority to set such a thing up! Think of the man-power involved in pulling together all the H&P BBSs - lame and otherwise, and setting up equiptment to monitor every single one of their lines! For the main part, datapackets are not used as packet-switching is not needed when calling locally - and it would require special circumstances to redivert the phone call! I do not deny the possibility that they have access to BBSs and can get the files like this, but they would not be able to read private mail and they could not set up accounts on EVERY bbs.. ] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- OK well I hope this has made you think twice and i can tell you now I do not work for BT but I am a person who cares and does not want fellow associates busted for their uncarefulness. [- be careful - not paranoid - discover - don't speculate -] [ well, i don't think that the file actually does anything for anybody - being based on pure speculation and no proof.. and we can do without stuff like it.. anyway, you can make up your own mind.. ø-LiNE ] Greets to SEMTEX. Signing Off -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THATS ALL