oN Thanks to those of you who filled in last issue's questionnaire and/orNcommented on what you liked in the mag. Here's hopefully most of your opinions.N The stars represent the number of people (not counting the editor) who haveNsaid they liked each contribution, with the question-marks representingNreaders with mixed views on the subject. The comments on the ends are by the
editor.* ~~~~~~. GENERAL STUFF.
[35m**** "Sheree." The front page picture by Rodney Entwisle.C
[34m"The picture with the mouse was good." (A phone conversation.)
"Cool as hell."
[35m***** "Welcome." The new picture on the Welcome page by Rodney Entwisle."
[34m"Yes, yes, very nice indeed."N"Who did that picture of the globe?" "The globe?" "Yeah, with the two peopleNhugging the globe." "Oh, on the Welcome page. Rodney Entwisle." "I liked
that." (A phone conversation.)N"I especially loved that cutesy cutesy logo at the front, very apt indeed, you
should keep it."S
[36mAnd indeed we will keep it, as it's now the official SW logo. This is the most%popular contribution from last issue.
[35m "Chopin18." This issue's music by Ted Jones.7
[34m"Where the fuck did you dig this weird shit up?!?"."Crap! Sorry Ted, not a patch on last issues."S
[36mHmmm. Ted's stuff sure does provoke strong reactions, but I notice none of his#critics are submitting THEIR music.
[35m*** "Editorial." By Carl Read.!
[34m"Nice n' Friendly. N' n' n'"
"Fiction - yeah cool."N"Not too sure about fiction being included in the mag. There's already diskNmags that cater for this, but perhaps on occasion - for instance. It wouldKhave been nice to have a story from `Dark Portal 3' along with the review."S
[36mWell we've got one from DP3 THIS issue. The fiction's staying anyway, for the"time being. But where's the poems?
[35m*** "Letters To The Editor." Various.$
[34m"Amusingly worthwhile reading!"N"Bring back those Editor's comments - they're an important part of ANY mag.NOkay, so maybe cut down a little, but by putting them in, it makes it obvious4said editor is reading/thinking about our articles."S
[36mI assure you, I do read everything, though I've not finished Deus Ex MachinaNyet. (That's not a criticism Ivan - I've a heap of unfinished books about aNmetre high beside my bed. Oh to be ill for about six months!) The editor'sHcomments are still in the mag anyway, but hopefully a bit less childish.
[35m** "Feedback." Various.7
[34m"YES. Very good to know what people thought. YES!"6
[36mSo fill in this issue's Questionnaire too people!
0
[34mARTICLES.
[35m** "Atmosphere." By Andrew Campbell.
[35m*** "Chunky Graphics." By Matthew Goode.$
[34m"Cool stuff. Enjoyed this one."*"Excellent - I learned something from it."2
[36mMatthew's a good technical writer, me thinks.
[35m*** "Correspondence." By Flick G-C & the Editor.)
[34m"Er.... er.... er, er... okay then."N"The letter-argument thing was quite funny, I admit. I visited a mate a weekNor two ago and we were trying to figure out who wrote what. We eventually!decided it was all Flick's work."S
[36mNope, not all Flick's work. I wrote Flick's letters, and she wrote mine. QuiteNsimple really - except if you're the one writing them. There was some editingNof each others work, with Flick generally taking out my best stuff andNreplacing it with total drivel. The plot though, for want of a better word,Nremained the same. The last letter however, by "Flick", was all my own work.NCan you tell? Anyway, you all go back and read it again properly now, you
hear?
[35m "The Grandmothers Strike Back!" By Various.
[34m"Mmm... nah..."
[35m*? "Harsh Languages." By Andrew Campbell.'
[34m"Blitz is shit! Blitz is shit! :)"
[35m* "Grimaldi's Curse." By Carl Read.*
[34m"Three cheers for the Ed! Hip-hip...",
[36mYeah, well, perhaps, perhaps not. Sigh.
[35m* "High Octane Diary." By Paul Cottage.
[34m"A bit dull."N"Crap! Sorry guys, isn't the problem over there somewhere? Lots of originalNideas though - which weren't disclosed because they wouldn't be original
anymore.... oh."S
[36mHmmm. Perhaps work-in-progress diaries shouldn't be released till the softwareNis - and then release them as sort of an advert. This should prevent the7giving away of secrets before the software's available.
[35m* "Is Carl Right?" By Ted Jones.
[34m"Of course not."
[35m* "Licenceware Future." By Thomas Lancaster.(
[34m"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha... say WHAT?"H
[36mBut it got an asterisk - and he's now got a column if he wants one!
[35m*? "MAC vs AMY." By Thomas Scovell.4
[34m"Hohum, here we go again. If it ain't the PC.."N"Crap! How Boring! Please, Please, Please, someone do an AMY VS PC, or I'll
just die."S
[36mWell it did some good, as it convinced me not to think about getting a Mac,N(not that I was mind), and produced a response article too. That's what
debates are for, people.
[35m "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" By Somebody or other.(
[34m"A load of old bollocks, probably."
[35m** "On Disk Novels." By Andrew Campbell.
[35m* "Paul Overy Interview." By Steve Bye.
[35m* "Phil!94 Interview." By James Dearie.
[35m* "Presentation." By Andrew Campbell.
[35m* "Show Report." By Matthew Goode.
[35m*** "The Amiga's Only Future?" By Carl Read.S
[34m"It's good to see it being discussed as I'm worried too about us becoming just-consumers and users." (A phone conversation.).
[35m* "Unfair Ware." By Andrew Campbell.
[35m "Paul Gumsley Interview." By Andrew Campbell.
5
[34mA WORLD OF HORROR.
[35m* "Gore Effects." By Andrew Campbell.
[35m "An Obsession With Horror." By Thomas Lancaster.S
[34m"Ahhh... the Horror Obsession interview was conducted by Thomas of MAG.E fameN- but wasn't INCLUDED in his 'zine. I was lacking an interview for theNDragonFinder mag I coded (and Mike of PPD said it would be nice to have one onNME (again) but about my horror obsession) - so I asked various people to come$up with one... Tom got there first."
[35m "Magnetic Fiction." By Andrew Campbell.
[35m* "Age Certificates." By Andrew Campbell.
[34m"Crap!"%"Have you renamed this or WHAT Carl?"S
[36mErr, yes. I think it was originally called Nice Sex and Violence or somethingMlike that, but I thought this title fitted in better with the other articles.
[35m*** "Censorship." By Carl Read.
[34m"Yup, jolly cool stuff."
"Crap!"
[35m** "Censorship Response." By Andrew Campbell.
[34m"Crap!"+"Well the Ed's comments got me thinking..."0
[36mCensorship's real difficult to write about.
0
[34mCOLUMNS.
[35m*** "Animation Tutorial." By Rodney Entwisle.S
[34m"I found that animation tutorial interesting too." (A telephone conversation.)N"Oh yeh, by Rodney "Biro is shit even though I have at least 30 years on him"
Hentwhistler. :-)"
[35m*? "Deus Ex Machina By Chapter One." By Ivan Millett.%
[34m"Excellent! A story!! YES! YES!"
[35m? "Blitztified." By Carl Read and Andrew Kreibich.-
[34m"What a load of steaming bowel innards."S
[36mErr, yes, perhaps. The Blitztified this issue is a little bit more tradition-
[35m**? "Advanced Programming in C - aka Flick's Column." By Flick G-C & Mr. F.S
[34m"I thought iNsAnE people weren't allowed to contribute? Shit... that's theNEditor out, too then. Yeah right, okay... quite interesting. Nice picture ofBFlick by Mr. F... though her hair isn't quite that bright yellow!"+
[36mYellow? Orange? Any advance on orange?
[35m* "Angry Of Mayfair." By Carl Read.S
[34m"Standards for disk-novels: No screen blank outs, faster page turning. (I'm a9v.r.r. fast reader. eg- Lord of the Rings - 17 hours...)"N"You cheeky bugger! Sob... sniff... Hey, the Dark Portal series were allNdifferent experiments to tackle stories-on-your-screen, you know! I could haveNleft all the code engines the same, but people would have been bored of it!#Besides, it's all to learn from..."S
[36mPeople don't get bored with standard interfaces - they get to know them.NThere's HEAPS of things coders can do with the presentation of a magazineNwithout changing the basics of article selection and page turning. EndlessNvariations on how to turn a page is hardly white-hot excitement. Yes, speed'sNimportant. Sorry I can't do anything about it while SW's a Magnetic Pages 1.3
[35m*? "Machine Language Tutorial." By Matthew Goode.*
[34m"Digital toilet paper for me. Sorry!"
"Excellent."
[35m* "Well Umm." By Rodney Entwisle.*
[34m"Well fucking um indeed... deary me."S
[36mRodney, it has to be said, made someone a bit irate over his Chris Wells'
Animation reviews.
[35m**? "The ShareWorld Diary." By Carl Read.+
[34m"Pointless but good fun. You sad git!"N"But I don't -want- to read/write two things at once on the same comp. When I5say `at the same time', I mean `at the -same- time'."N"*bold*, /italics/, -underline-, SHOUT. That's basic net.speak, not just PC users..."N"While I was reading through issue 3 I came across a few mentions of "Diary ofNa Long Distance Editor" in issue 2, which for some stupid reason I seemed toNhave missed reading - even though you pointed it out in one of your letters!NSo sorry for not letting you know what I thought of it. I have read it now ofNcourse, along with your Diary in issue 3 and found them both to be most.enjoyable, one of the best things in the mag!"S
[36mI like the net.speak for *bold* etc., so use it people, if you wish.NWell come on - either the Diary's pointless or it's the best thing in the mag,Nbut it can't be both! Well actually, I guess it could be, but we won't thinkNabout that. I wouldn't mind giving it up, but sometime's it's the only thing INdo on the mag in a week. I know, if it ever gets no astericks, then I'll stop
0
[34mREVIEWS.
[35m*? "Turbo Plus." By Paul Overy.
[34m"Cool."
[35m*** "The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Stirling." By Kevin Murphy.
[36mMust finish it!
[35m* "Illusions by Andrew Campbell." By Rodney Entwisle.
[35m* "CY-Art by Cyril H. Bates." By Rodney Entwisle.)
[34m"Great read-up. Cy's a cool artist."
[35m** "Operation Firestone by Phil Ruston." By James Dearie.+
[34m"Yes, a very good review & cool game."
[35m*** "Excellent Cards by Tower Software." By Sheree Crump.,
[34m"Great review! Most enjoyable reading."
[35m*** "MAG.E #4." By Carl Read.
[34m"Not bad to say the least."
[35m*** "Dark Portal 3 by Andrew Campbell - Review 1." By Ivan Millett.
[35m*** "Dark Portal 3 by Andrew Campbell - Review 2." By Sheree Crump.
[36mNo winner! How boring.4
[35m* "Chris Wells Anims." By Rodney Entwisle.S
[34m"Not very nice at all! Roddy you're as tight as a polar bear's arse in a
snowstorm! Give Biro a BREAK!"C
[36mBut it got an asterisk though! Hmm, by who? Oh yes, of course.
[35m*? "Liberator by T-Soft." By Paul Overy.$
[34m"Excellent review, good stuff."
[35m "Mancalla by Tower Software." By Rodney Entwisle./
[34m"Hang on... I don't remember seeing this!"
[36mJust checked - it IS there!
[35m** "Night Math Attack by Chris Evans." By Carl Read.
[34m"Hmmm, interesting..."
[36mBut why?
.
[34mART.
[35m** "Boomewrong." By Mr. F."
[34m"Now this guy's art is cool."
[35m*** "Sunscape." By Tristan Campbell..
[34m"Me? Like my brother's art? Get REAL! :)"S
[36mPerhaps little bro should fill in a questionnaire too - just to even things
[35m** "Inky." By Marc Dionne.
[34m"Cool! Ha!"#
[36mWish he'd write to me again...
[35m** "Flick & A Fish." By Flick G-C & Mr. F.0
[34m"Awwwwww, such a cutie! The fish I mean..."G
[36mIt would seem that the "By Flick G-C" bit is not totally accurate.
[35m** "BBLillies3." By Carl Read."
[34m"Well it's a bit good innit?"S
[36mBut not enough lillies in it - due to running out of memory - due to only
having 1mb when it was created.
[35m* "Black Dawn 2 Titlescreen Test." By James Dearie.
[34m"Yeah, groovy."
[35m**** "Kiwi." By Rodney Entwisle.3
[34m"Heh heh heh, fuckin' B-grade material, mate."N"I thought that drawing of the stoned Kiwi in ShareWorld was wet-your-pants-hilarious by the way. Just hadda mention it."N"...ta for the Rodney Entwisle slideshow. The pictures are great, but I haveNto admit that my favourite is still the Kiwi picture from SW3. It's just got
so much character."S
[36mHmmm. Perhaps Rodney should start a "NED" the kiwi series? Well "STO NED"'sNalready done and there could be a "MAROO NED" and a "HARPOO NED" and a "LAMPOO
NED" and a...
[35m**** "Do You See What I See?" By Andrew Campbell.S
[34m"I liked that `Do You See What I See?' picture by Andrew Read." "Eh?!? Andrew?Read???" "Oh, ha, ha. Andrew Campbell." (A phone conversation.)N"Andrew Campbell's picture's good - very atmospheric." (Another phone conver-
sation.)
"Well, DO you?"S
[36mNo, not always - sometimes we look the other way. Oh yes, and that picture's7from Andrew's EdgeWorld slideshow, reviewed this issue.
[34m0 GENERAL COMMENTS.
*"Where's all the `____TED' pictures gone?"
NWell, there were two in issue three, there's two in this issue and there'sNstill another six that haven't been used yet. It's a case of waiting till anNarticle matches one of the TEDs. So it remains to be seen, for instance, howNlong it'll be before you're blessed with the chance to see FAR-TED. AnywayNRodney, seems they're popular so more of them wouldn't go amiss. Where's
EDI-TED, for instance?* ------N"...some articles I have read before, like the AJC stuff and reprinted-articles, but that's not a bad point really."
NIt's not a good point though. Hopefully we'll soon be getting enough cont-4ributions to be able to ask for original stuff only.* ------N"The feeling I get from the mag as a whole is that it's perhaps a little tooNfar removed from the serious PD "scene". At least I presume it is, as a lot ofJthe submissions seem to come from members of the TQE team and associates."
NI'm sure the TQE team consider their PD to be serious, but to a certainNextent, (40% with issue three, perhaps?), you're right. This is mainly becauseNthey submit stuff. Quite simple, really. Perhaps they do this because they'reNwriters and tend to have more to say for themselves. ShareWorld isn't a sceneNmag though, but it is about "Serious PD", (and shareware of course), so allNyou who qualify as being interested in that then please get submitting. ThenNyou'll be part of the ShareWorld team. This isn't quite as chic as being part,of the TQE team of course, but it's a start.* ------N"...an atmosphere of community really comes through, which is why I willJcontinue to support it, despite not being a programmer as such currently."
NIf that's true, then it's nice. I'm too close to notice this, as I neverNsuddenly see the magazine all at once in it's finished state. It's an open%community though. Everyone's welcome.* ------N"I think the general scheme is first-rate as it is. All that is necessary is
to attract more contributors."
NA suggestion on HOW to attract more contributors wouldn't have gone amiss. Any
ideas, readers?* ------N"I too dislike the use of really bright background colours (being prone toNmigraine) and agree with the chap who said the pale brown/purple etc.. were
quite relaxing."
NHmmm. I've been usually choosing colours taken from any pictures or screen-Nshots used in the articles. With only sixteen to play with, it's hard to findNjust the right colours for text and backgrounds. Anyway, how about all youNpeople who aren't too happy with some of the colour schemes looking throughNall your ShareWorlds (and Amy PDs too if you have any) and sending in a listNof the articles in them that used colours you DID like. (Just cursor up toNlook at the first page of each article.) I'll then select from these forNfuture articles. Ideally, I should have twenty to thirty to choose from - just
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