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STS WANTS TO BORE YOU BEFORE YOU GET TO READ THAT ISSUE, SO READ THIS :)
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Hello there !
What should I start with ? Well ALIVE! has reached its second full year of
activity and we wish there are still some years ahead. I need to send greetings
to the many people who made these SEVEN issues possible, well you know who you
are, setting a listing would be too long :) Best regards are addressed to Chris
and Oliver, the other two forces in our trio. Happy Birthday to us then !
Btw if you wondered about that name, ALIVESX, here come explanations : as
you may (or may not) have noticed), some issues already had odd names, such as
aliveCUBE or aliveEIL. Well I don't like things that go repeating endlessly and
tastelessly so I thought about original names when it was possible. Then of
course AliveSX is our sixth issue (not counting the EIL one). Still you can see
things differently : AliveSEX ? AliveSUX ? AliveSOX ? Whatever :) I like having
loony ideas, being myself totally insane, so I hope you like it too.
As we enter this month of December, I think it's high time we strongly get
motivated to do things again : we have gone thru a terrible vacuum, summer time
has seldom seen so little activity... Fortunately there are still some people
who wish to do things and, most importantly, release what they have started
even tho it was long ago. I'm thinking of Grazey's impressive UMD8730 of course
but also of long delayed HEFTIG and CHECKPOINT demos :( I don't see the point
starting things if they never get completed but we have different visions on
things. Anyway I know Error In Line 3 will bring us some sweeties and I still
hope these two demos will be a part of it (esp as Ultra seems quite motivated
these days !!)
Then what ? Well this issue is packed with lots of articles you will
hopefully like. Enough crap from me, here's Chris turn :)
STS
EDITORIALLY
SPEAKING
CiH's Bit!
Reasons to be cheerful - at last!
Sometimes, even demos that are two years late finally get released.
Eventually, even the longest summer of inactivity comes to an end, and this
being a "summer" which felt like it started sometime in February? And just
occasionally, people stir themselves back to life!
It is thanks to the efforts of Grazey and Evil, and certain others, that I
am writing this editorial in an upbeat mood. Finally one long-awaited epic,
the Ultimate Music Demo, which we always joke about as never released, has
finally seen daylight. I'm just down to making jokes about the impending
arrival of Willies Adventures and the CT60 now. The list slowly shortens ;-)
The other reason to be cheerful, the biggie as far as I'm concerned, is that
the third Error in Line party is no longer a rumour, but barring meteor
strikes and World War 3, will definitely take place next Easter. We've
already had the invite intro, which was a fantastic piece of work from our
favourite Dead Hacker. We've just got to hold on for another 5-6 months now!
I will also be conducting my first in-depth study of the 'Yak-man' Jeff
Minter, in an unusual habitat at the Alt Party in Helsinki next January.
Will he survive the binbag wearing nocturnal pissheads? Will there actually
be anywhere to doss down properly this time? What is the Finnish translation
for "Unnatural acts with animals"?! The answers to these mysteries will be
forthcoming in next issue's party report for sure!
At the same time as all this cheerfulness is going on, there is a hint of
tragedy in this issue too, and a warning for us all. I'm sure most of you
consider that a demo scene referred to exclusively in the past tense, with
no new horizons to look to, as a tragedy. We have a distinguished guest
writer from the Acorn scene, Alain Brobecker, or Baah of Arms Tech
contributing a neat history of that small, dedicated, but disappeared group
of people. The Acorn scene burned itself out, effectively ceasing to exist
in 1998. We've managed to last way beyond then, but that is no reason to
be smug. What happened to them could have very easily befallen us too..
Atari People keep on going! That is both a statement, and a heartfelt plea!
I'm sure Seb will have his own words on the subject, but I think we have
managed a masterly stretching of our diskmag making talents to cover a thin
period. I've got this pleasant feeling that the next issue of Alive! may be
quite a bit fatter. Especially if we wait until just after Easter!
Okay, I'm off, just a little time left for the traditional greeting of "See
you all at Easter!" (And some of you in January too?)
CiH, In the merry tupperware-grey month of October!
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