. . . O N E D G E O F T H E . . .
ABYSS
Here comes the latest production by Mystic Bytes and this time *only* 14 Mb
Falcons users will be able to enjoy it. A double click on the prg takes you to
a control panel from which you can select the screen configuration. Then a very
stylish black and white menu lets you choose between the Abyss part (a module
compilation) and the Chosneck section which is a full diskmagazine.
The Abyss part, we'll call it so, features a vertical scrolled black and
white menu of real great quality. Lots of efforts have been put onto design and
the result is in my opinion of incredibely high quality. All screens feature
black and white motives and are arranged in a very stylish way. You'll be able
to listen to tracks from musicians such as MC Laser, Mr Future, C-Frog, Tinker,
Adamsky, Energizer, D-Force, Seabrush, Ice and 505. I hope I haven't forgotten
anyone here... Once you've made up your mind, you're presented with another page
that gives you information about the musician you picked up. the usual stuff is
here like name and crew, owned computers, greetings... On the upper left corner
a photo is shown while a small window set in the lower left corner displays
some cool fx like texture distortion, mapped tunnel most of them reminding us
of fx seen in Breath (and surely the same routines :). Again everything is in
black and white.
All in one the musics I listened to were great, fx are cool tho trapped
into a small window and rendered in grey scales. You are offered enough to read
while enjoying music and design is definitely of top quality ! There are few
gfx as we know them but all piccies and pieces of design are perfect as long as
black and white is your thing. I would have liked some colors at least in the
fx window but hey this is design :) A minor point goes to the confusing use of
very basic icons you can click on either to load another tune or to view info
about one musician. Very often you'll end up loading a new tune while you only
wanted to read something about its composer but I guess you'll grow used to
that after a while.
We exit to the bonus part which is a new diskmag called Chosneck (ie
"garlic" in Polish as we are explained). Once again the overall design is great
tho a bit confusing to, opting for four main sections that lead to separate
articles. Nothing special as you'll find the usual headings with scene news and
interviews, opinions and ads...
Texts are displayed with the regular font, a bit small tho, and you can
scroll down either with your mouse or via arrow keys. Only 'undo' will lead you
out back to main menu, unless you click on the 'back' link at the bottom of
every page. Also there are absolutely no options available and I'm not sure you
can change music in the middle of your reading. Most articles are simply
displayed on a textured background with thumbnailed piccies on the left. You
can enlarge these pictures by clicking right on them. So far most articles are
written by Grey but we can expect more collaborators as a new issue has already
been heard of.
Bottom line : two in one is a good summary : The msx compilation is really
well designed and msx are cool. The diskmag part is cool too though it terribly
lacks options and writers. Also it's a bit sad we *cannot* get back to the msx
part without quitting the mag. A sort of "link" between the two parts would
have been perfect but maybe that will come up with next issue. Last but not
least I'm not sure I understand why the whole thing requires 14 Mb of ram...
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