Editorial: Scene+ #12

Editorial

SCENE+ is published by:
L.C.D.
Prager Str. 92/11/12
A-1210 Vienna, Austria
Tel: (02) 272 34 63 from Austria, or +43 1 272 34 63 from abroad.

All classifieds and adverts are free of charge as long as they are related to the Spectrum or SAM, and they can take any format: text, screen, animation, etc.

Hi folks, after I finally finished coding Indian Patience, I spent several days "testing" the game, and I must say it is my best and most well-programmed game so far. Since we are heading towards Christmas at Warp 5—the season of giving—all SCENE+ readers get the game for free, while everyone else can order it for just 5 DM. So: Merry Christmas to all and a successful New Year!

Speaking of Christmas: everywhere you look, title pictures are plastered with Christmas themes. I don't think that's all that great. Freedom of religion is all well and good, but I've long outgrown that era. There are plenty of great pictures in DTP collections that shouldn't go to waste, yet every year it's the exact same story: little fir trees, Santas, babies with halos, holiday decorations. Where are the familiar "unholy" motifs? Aren't you all fed up with all the Christmas decor? I certainly am, which is why, just like last year, there is no fir tree and no Santa as our cover image. Besides, Christmas is a time when people seem particularly prone to violence. Here in Vienna, for instance, a man was shot down just for pointing out to a driver that he was going the wrong way down a one-way street. Pure madness!

I would love to hear from you: what was the best program of the year in your opinion? What kind of software would you like to see more often? What new columns should I introduce, any suggestions for improvement? Send in whatever else comes to mind about SCENE+. After all, this disc magazine is made for you, and ideally, it should partly be made by you as well. Especially now during the cold winter season, I would expect more articles from your side.

Since this is the twelfth issue, a full year has passed! Issue 13 will once again feature an index giving an overview of the past 12 months. The "15 Years of Spectrum" anniversary is also approaching in giant leaps, and I am planning a meeting right on schedule for the birthday in April. Anyone who might be able to attend should please write in, because it's not worth hosting a gathering for just three or four users. The planned date is the last Saturday in April.

SPC and SUC have already kicked off their member directory campaigns, so I kindly ask all ASC members to introduce themselves briefly in an article: describe your hardware, opinions, visions, wishes, hopes, projects, and so on, and send it to the editorial address. Every single submission will be published!

In this issue, we tried an experiment: the CONTENTS section has been omitted; instead, SCHATTEN NEMESIS got its own separate column. Rather than having a dedicated table of contents, I altered the menu program so that it displays a brief info screen before loading an item. As I said, it's just an experiment. Exceptions, as always, are the editorial section, letters, and the image gallery, since I am already stretched thin compiling the gallery and writing descriptions. Just let yourselves be surprised by what kind of pictures are included. This is a direct implementation of an idea suggested by a Dutch friend (the person responsible knows who I mean). In any case, it brings me closer to the style of OUTLET. By the way, the info screen is displayed in German or English depending on your chosen language, so please, dear English readers, don't start shouting for an English table of contents again!

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a productive New Year, especially when it comes to the Spectrum.

NEWS

• Exciting news for SAM users: price cuts at Jupiter Software! AMALTHEA is now half price instead of £10, Blazing Tanks is £2 instead of £2.50, and many other games have had their prices reduced. The address for Jupiter Software:
  2 Oswald Road, Rushden, Northants, NN10 0LE, England.
• Reb of Technium 220, the founder of Impact PD (which contrary to the notice in PD Power is still very much alive), has coded a new +D Workbench system named IBIS (Icon Based Item Selector). I don't know yet what his plans for it are, but anyone interested can contact Impact Software. The address was published in one of the first issues of SCENE+, which practically everyone already has.
• New demos arriving soon: DEMO BEGINNING WITH R (no idea what that is supposed to mean, but demo names rarely make sense anyway) by UNITED MINDS, THE JOY OF SHIT by Fudgepacker and L.A. of Extacy 3, as well as NOT FOR CHILDREN II by yours truly.

To wrap things up, here is a little joke—this time, in the spirit of Christmas, free of sex, violence, drugs, and rock 'n' roll:

A man goes to his doctor in utter despair: "Doctor, I don't know what to do: whenever I press on my stomach, it hurts. When I press on my head, it hurts, and when I press on my knee, I almost pass out from the agony! What on earth could it be?"
"Quite simple," replies the doctor, "your finger is broken!"

Well, that's it once again. Bye!

Tiger's Claw