
                   The PC Warez Magazine Review

                          (c) 1996  IPggi
                         21st October 1996

              Email me at ipggi@newton.dialix.com.au
               HTTP://WWW.GEOCITIES.COM/ATHENS/5526
                You can find TMR in colour in RCN.


                        Welcome to Issue #5


       What is this newsletter, The PC Warez Magazine Review?

This is a newsletter for the warez scene. This will not be about warez,
groups, couriers or releasing but about the magazines that cover the
scene in general. Currently there are four magazines in the scene including
Affinity, RCN, SSM and WAVE. My goal will be to give you the readers a review
on each magazine that comes out. I will be covering the good and bad points
of each magazine issue as well as giving details of what you can find inside
these magazines. My reviews will cover the magazine's quality, quantity of
reading material, presentation and weather I actually enjoy reading it. As
part of the review there will a section telling you the magazine's contact
Email Address, Web Page Address etc., as well as where you will be obtain
the latest issues.

               Who is this person reviewing these magazines?

My nick is IPggi. I once was the editor of a magazine called Defacto. Defacto
lasted nine issues before we decided to call it quits. Defacto gave me a lot
of experience and incite to the electronic magazine scene (yes I call it a
scene of it's own). These reviews are my opinion and are no-way bias towards
any particular magazine. If you don't agree with me well good for you, go
and do your own review if you care that much.


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                             News and updates!

I've been getting some slack from one magazine specifically, Affinity
about my reviews of their past issues. I must say this right now this
newsletter is only a guide of what you can find in the review magazines.
Sure I will express my opinions when I find something interesting or
something appalling. But these are only my opinions, don't threat them
like the bible. I know there are people who don't agree with me and
are openly willing to express their views. But come on, I do this for
fun. I don't need to be slanged off by everyone because I give out a
2 when you think you deserve a 3. I review magazines on their content
not on their coders ability.

I have now changed the rating system. I will now rate each magazine
using a percentage. This score will be based on content, atmosphere
presentation, quality and professionalism. And yes the scaling is
now different.

RCN 28 was delayed once again. RCN has restructured once again and is
apparently going to weekly. How can they go weekly when it takes them
5 weeks to release one issue?

Affinity 6 was delayed a day due to late submissions.

The Games Review has unfortunately called it quits for a few months. Lets
hope Ionizer and Path0 bring it back next year.


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                CHECK OUT THE NEW TMR WORLD WIDE WEB PAGE

    To find out the latest in the warez emag scene and the warez scene
         Links too warez group pages and links to warez magazines
     Not to forget this is the only place you can find all the issues
                   of The PC Electronic Magazine Review

                   HTTP://WWW.GEOCITIES.COM/ATHENS/5526

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  [AFt]  Affinty Electronic Magazine #6   [AFt]
              (October 14, 1996)
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  [*] --  YOUR #1 ALTERNATIVE MAGAZINE   -- [*]

Affinity is designed for DOS and is Windows 95 compatible.

* Well another week another Affinity to review. My complements to the artist
  who did the introduction graphic, very well done indeed. Unfortunately
  MrMister hasn't taken my advice about the music changer and we are still
  force to listen to the same song over and over. You can do it manually if
  want to do.

* 17 articles in this issue. But I find quite a few of these articles have
  nothing to do with warez, some have nothing to do with anything related to
  most of us. For example Mr. Phiggs "TV and the little ones" is about TV's
  effect on children. Am I reading my local newspaper? Or Affinity Electronic
  Magazine? Affinity maybe "Your #1 Alternative Magazine" but maybe they are
  going to far alternative for their own good, or maybe they just can't fill
  their pages with anything better?

  Affinity is the first you tell you of the resent Hybrid split. Dante does
  a good but brief report.

  Once again we find another report about the MP3 scene. This report is almost
  bias towards CDA which has got a bad reputation of late from some bully
  and ego tactics. I'm sure most people by now know what MP3's are by now.

  Speedball writes about how piracy can help software companies. Read this
  article then think about iD's Quake. I wonder how many people who had
  CoreDump's or Razor's Quake went and paid $50us so they could have the
  special Nine Inch Niles soundtrack because they had the pirate version and
  were not original going to buy it?

* 6 Interviews in Affinity 6.

  Dante interviews 'RCNHater'. Read this interview for a laugh as this
  'RCNHater' is quite pathetic and should spend his time on something more
  productive and worthwhile. Maybe a girlfriend could help or maybe he
  is too young :)

  Dante interviews a pirate's father. This had potential (like a lot of things)
  but fails to deliver, as unfortunate the parent had to cut the interview
  short and seemed reluctant to say anything interesting.

  Dante interviews some nobody who has a big attitude problem. Dante surely
  you can do better then this?

  Redhex interviews PWA about their recent changes. This is the type of
  interview I would like to see more of in Affinity.

* Speedball does a bit of investigating on a recent competition between
  Amnesia and Empire for the Ex-Everlast World HQ. Apparently there was some
  cheating going on. This investigation contains both sides of the story as
  well as the sysop's point of view. Congratulations Speedball on a good
  report.

* This issues reviews are mainly on utils. Games are slightly lacking but
  fortunately Fro explains why.

* Affinity Spotlights on Nemesis. In here you can find a copy of Nemesis's
  NFO and an interview with Con-Man. Does his nick stand true in this
  interview? Find out yourself.

* We have a new section in Affinity, called "Old NFOs". Not very extravagant
  title but anyway, here you will find NFO's from the old days. Back when
  BBS's used to list their numbers in NFO's and groups use to actually bother
  to write things. Most of the NFO's are dated 1993 and 1995 with the earliest
  being 1991 and all are only PC groups. How about some early PC NFO's from
  the late eighties?

  Overall a okay issue. An improvement over the past two and you can see they
  have put a lot of work into this issue.

  Percentage Score:  60%

**************************************************************************

    
   ۲  ۲۲ ۲  
    ۲  ۲ ۲ ۲  
   ۲ݰ۲۲     ݰ 
   ۲       ۲ݰ۲ 
   ۲   ޲۲ݰ 
   ۰ ۲۰ 
   ݰܰܰ߰  ݰ 
   ۰ܲ۲  
                 
    REALITY CHECK NETWORK [28]  
      
           20 OCTOBER 1996          
    COVER : Rebel Chicken No More?  
  

        RCN is designed for DOS
           MadRCN P/W: MOJO

* Well here it is, RCN number 28. But was it worth the five week wait?
  No! I was in total shock upon entering the main menu, even though I had
  prior warning from Odysseus. This would have to be the worse issue since
  issue two or three. I am still trying to work out how RCN can go weekly
  again after this effort.

* This issues cover story is a letter from Odysseus AKA Rebel Chicken telling
  us what has happened to Reality Check Network. This gives us some explanation
  on why RCN was delayed for so long, and why this issue is so small in
  content.

* Only one interview in RCN 28. Very disappointing indeed especially seeing
  I was the person who conducted it. I talk to Katz who is on the Sodom
  council about her group. Unfortunately I did this interview over a month
  and a half ago and it is in parts quite out dated.

* Four articles in this issue.

  A Electronic Arts person visits the #RCN channel. This article was done
  by myself so I won't comment on it any further.

  Park Central closes down. This is not an article just two emails
  Rebel Chicken got about PC calling it quits.

  There is an update on anon.penet.fi unfortunately this is just an article
  taken from a professional magazine or a newspaper.

  Dictator writes about an idea for a Universal Install program for all
  groups. I personally don't see how hard it is to do a ...

  pkunzip -d GAME01.ZIP C:\TEMP
  CD\TEMP
  arj x -y -v GAME.ARJ C:\

  Now is that so hard ? :)

* Two articles in the Hacking Section. Usual unoriginal stuff, but maybe
  the kiddies who are new to the scene may enjoy blowing their arms off.

* Well as I said before I am greatly disappointed with this issue. I spent
  more time playing the Tetris game then reading this issue. Two months ago
  RCN was the best warez magazine in the world. Now I must thing differently.

  Percentage Score:  25%

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  ----------ĳ
         
             
               
                 
               
               
               
               
              
           We rock your fr0         
  [SSM] Scoobie Snack Magazine [SSM]
              Issue #3              
  -----------

     Windows 3.1* (Win95 Compatble)


* SSM starts of with their usual flickering start up picture which will
  only look good if you have your windows graphic resolution set to 640*480.
  The music is acceptable and if you don't like it you can always use your
  own music CD.

* 3 articles and 2 interviews in this issue of SSM.

  Speed gets interviewed by Dark Ripper about the Union / Pentax merger.

  Dark Ripper rights about how hard different positions are in groups. I
  personally think his scoring is wrong but read it for yourself.
  (Dark Ripper stop using the slang "Welp" it is "Well" !)

  Speedball gets interviewed again, but this time by Kanedy about the return
  of Rise.

* There is a section in SSM called "Slags". This week we have an apparent log
  of RebelChicken being a dick in #RCN, though I find this log inconclusive.
  Firstly there was no ident check on RebelChicken (/WHOIS) and secondly the
  person in the log was using the nick RblChicn not RblChickn which is his
  real nick. So what's not to say some idiot just didn't change their nick to
  RblChicn to pretend they where him?

* 4 hacking sections but as usual there is nothing new here. These are just
  regurgitated articles.

* Finally before I finish take a look at the Mystery Snack section, notice
  how their are more articles in there then in the main warez section?

  Disappointing, boring, and a very quick read.

  Percentage Score:  20%

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HOW DO I CONTACT THESE MAGAZINES REVIEWED?
Affinity:    dante@iinet.com
RCN:         hitex@netcom.com
WAVE:        chuglee@ccnux.utm.my
TGR:         ionizer@ns2.clever.net
SSM:         SMURF2@Juno.com

WHAT ARE THE MAGAZINES WWW PAGES?
Affinity:    http://sun.abac.com/home/teklord/affinity.html
RCN:         http://www.rcn.org (Page Is Closed)
WAVE:        http://www.fh-wilhelmshaven.de/~dessi
TGR:         http://ns2.clever.net/~ionizer
SSM:         http://www.cris.com/~shadowkn  (Old Page)

WHAT ARE THE MAGAZINES IRC CHANNELS (EFFNET)?
Affinity:    #AFT  
RCN:         #RCN 
WAVE:        #WAVE 
SSM:         #SSM

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO GET A MAGAZINE?
Affinity:    Join #AFT and type !AFT<Issue Number> or try their Web page.
RCN:         Try joining #RCN and asking.
WAVE:        Try joining #WAVE and asking.
SSM:         Try the SSM WWW page.

WHEN ARE THE NEXT ISSUES DUE?
Affinity is released every second week on early monday morning (GMT).    
RCN      is release weekly on early monday morning (GMT)
WAVE     is released every 2nd Saturday of the month.
TGR      will not be released for the rest of the year.
SSM      is released every 2nd Saturday of the month.

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Well that's it for this issue. Next issue will come out when I have a few
more magazines to review. Hopefully that wont be too long.
