"God is dead."
Nietzsche
"Nietzsche is dead."
God
A FOURTH ATTEMPT AT THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE DISK MAGAZINE ROUNDUP!
PART 3: SCREAM BABY - Z*NET PC ONLINE MAGAZINE
by Richard Karsmakers
Scream Baby
This online magazine is best described by literally quoting some
stuff the editor (who goes by the name of Blade X) wrote about
it: "What do I want? Besides world peace, a sexy Mexican maid,
and someone to use their fucking brains around here, I want a
really good all-encompassing-sub-culture zine. Music, literature,
art, television, film, weird space-time kinks, events,
information, news, humour, interviews and reviews of 'Stuff I
Think Is Cool' Not all at once, of course. Each issue of 'Scream
Baby' will come out whenever I can scrape together 25-30 Kb of
really good stuff." On a whole it's unusual and interesting.
Status: Public Domain, online.
User interface: No.
Latest known issue: The May 4th 1994 one.
Address: Email bladex@wixer.bga.com.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Scriba Communis Responsi
This magazine is somewhat unique among ST disk magazines insofar
that it is slightly crazy, slightly religious (though it has
nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity or any other regular
religion) and slightly absurd. It used to revolve around an
assumed religion involving a Number. Lots of stuff about girls
and absurd bits about Everything about Life and the Universe.
Main writers are Gard Eggesbø Abrahamsen and Kai Holst - the
first is also editor. Old versions worked on colour monitors
only, but start '93 all older issues were also released with a
monochrome-and-colour-interface. Specifically Falcon-compatible,
something of which they're exceedingly proud. It probably has one
of the most user-friendly interfaces seen anywhere.
Current plans include the release of a final issue
(theoretically in summer 1995) using a hyperlink text system,
with re-release of all older issues using this system too.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes, a very neat custom one that doesn't change
every other issue.
Latest known issue: Volume 2 Issue 2 (November 11th 1993).
Address: P.O. Box 71, N-6092, Eggesbønes, Norway.
Health: Alive, but only just so.
Language: English.
Sixth Dragon, The
The Sixth Dragon is an independent litarary magazine devoted to
publishing original poetry, short fiction, drama, comments, and
artwork of all genres. It exists in ASCII and postscript
versions, but also has 3,000 paper copies per issue.
Status: Public Domain, on-line.
User interface: No.
Latest known issue: Not known.
Address: Email martind@student.msu.edu.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Skynet Times
A fairly new disk magazine edited by Jon Notts and Richard
Davies (a.k.a. Vogue and Requiem), and reported to be quite good
and a good promise for the future (though, again, it borrows
quite a lot of stuff from Internet sources). Started out using
the T.O.M.S. shell, but are designing one themselves now. It's
released once a month, and was originally a newsletter kind of
text in "Power" disk magazine (Cf.).
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. No custom one yet, but soon will be.
Latest known issue: Issue 6.
Address: Not known.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Sparks
An interesting poetry/fiction-only magazine for creative people,
available both in on-line and paper version and generally smaller
than contenders "Quanta", "InterText" and "Twilight World".
There's nothing more specific to say about it, other than that
it's edited by Jim Esch and Stacy Tartar and that it's quarterly.
A subscription to the paper version costs US$ 8 per year (4
issues).
Status: Public Domain, on-line.
User interface: No.
Latest known issue: Volume 4 Issue 1 (July 1995).
Address: 32 North Kingshighway, #616, St. Louis, MO 63108-1248,
USA, or email jim.esch@launchpad.unc.edu.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
STabloid
Fabulous-looking disk magazine made in Holland by Sewersoft and
Galtan Six. Very inspired, but never became available with
exception of one preview issue released at the 1991 Atari Messe
(or the month after?). Seemed to be the only serious competition
for the new type of "Maggie" (Cf.) at the time.
Status: Intended to be commercial, even though the preview issue
was Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A custom one that's rather brilliant.
Latest known issue: The preview one.
Address: Not applicable.
Health: Abortively dead for sure.
Language: English.
ST Age
After "STUNN" (Cf.) died, Dave Burns intended to start off with
"ST Age". Unfortunately, he switched to PC before it got off the
ground.
Status: None.
User interface: None.
Latest known issue: None.
Address: Not applicable.
Health: Miscarried.
Language: Not applicable.
STampede
Another mag I have never seen. From what I've heard of other
people, I should be well glad of this. It was commercial, made in
England, and largely filled with ads, lists of PD software and
'free games'. Basically a load of ballocks as far as I've heard.
It ceased to exist in 1990 or thereabouts. At least two (or
three?) issues have been sighted.
Status: Commercial.
User interface: Not known.
Latest known issue: Not known.
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead.
Language: English.
STanzine
Would have been called "ST World" but eventually wasn't. Its aim
is humorous coverage of ST and stuff. It costs £1.50 (or £1.00 if
you send your own disk). The editor is Martin Betts. So far, only
one issue seems to have been released.
Status: Commercial.
User interface: Yes. The S.A.N.D. shell.
Latest known issue: Not known, probably 1.
Address: 5, Hempsted Mews, Lakeview Park, Chapel Break,
Bowthorpe, Norwich, Norfolk, NR5 9NL, England.
Health: Alive?
Language: English.
ST Applications
Not to be mistaken with the British "ST Club" 'regular'
magazine nor its 'disk version' (which is a collection of PD
utilities on disk and can thus hardly be called a disk magazine
at all, and indeed it won't be here and is therefore omitted),
this is an American effort. Offers loads of programs with it.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Not known.
Latest known issue: Volume 1 Issue 7
Address: Not known.
Health: Not known.
Language: English.
STatus Disk Magazine
It's not known whether this disk magazine still exists. It may
be dead, but you can try out for yourself by writing them. They
are a document-on-disk effort from the United States, and they
are commercial. They offer high quality tips & tricks. The first
issue was released in 1989.
Status: Commercial.
User interface: None.
Latest known issue: Not known. Might be Volume 1 Issue 1.
Address: Suite 299, 4431 Lehigh Road, College Park, MD 20740,
USA.
Health: Dead? Alive?
Language: English.
ST Beermat
A latecomer in the ST disk magazine scene, but impressive
certainly. Editor Kev Davis shows us that there's more than just
"Maggie" (well, at least sortof). The interface looks slick and
the writing style is witty and personal. I shudder to think of
what some of today's older disk magazines (I shan't mention
names) would have been like if the virgin issues had been
anything like this.
Status: Shareware (£1).
User interface: Yes, a custom one.
Latest known issue: Issue 1 (July 24th 1994).
Address: Organised Chaos Licenceware, Chasewater House, Kings
Green, Berrow, Malvern, Worcestershire WR13 6AQ, England.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
ST Bulletin
The Dutch disk magazine, intended to be the reincarnation of "ST
Info" (Cf.) that quit at the end of 1988. "ST Bulletin" never
even happened, unfortunately. You could say it got interrupted in
coito.
ST Contact
A nice disk magazine, and a monthly one at that. The main menu
and page viewer are not the epitome of perfection - and
programmed in "STOS" - but they work and show everything at a
glance. The editor is Derek Payne. Believe it or not, it's
monthly.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes, a custom one.
Latest known issue: Issue 11 (September 1994).
Address: DMP Software, 89 Wolverhampton Road, Codsall,
Wolverhampton WV8 1PL, England.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
ST Digital
Quite an excellent disk magazine, but unfortunately written only
in German. Its editor and programmer, Christian Geltenpoth,
surely was one hell of a talented chap. In 1989, his shell
already offered pictures within the text and all that. It only
worked on old TOS versions and monochrome monitors. Last reported
issue is number 2.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes, a rather nifty custom one.
Latest known issue: Probably issue 2.
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead.
Language: German.
STEK
A Polish disk magazine made by a group of the same name.
Reportedly very good, with full-screen overscan with text in
medium res and graphics in low. Probably colour only. Uses
"Noisetracker" music on STE.
Status: Unknown.
User interface: Unknown, but probably a custom one.
Latest known issue: They made at least one.
Address: Unknown.
Health: Alive.
Language: Unknown, probably Polish.
Stellar
A magazine written by Mark Nobes using the "TOMS" shell, which
works on all Atari systems including the Falcon. The user
interface used not to be one of the best, quite limited and slow,
but has improved in the mean time. The first issue was released
on January 1st 1994, after which the magazine stayed monthly
until issue 14. As of issue 15 it's bi-monthly. Three issues were
released as early as 1992, but these didn't do well and are
probably no longer possible to get. "Stellar" has as aim to
review Public Domain software and PD libraries. Colour only.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A custom one written in STOS.
Latest known issue: Issue 16 (August/September 1995).
Address: Newholme, Aston Road, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire
GL55 6HR, England.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
STench
A Norwegian disk magazine that used the SANDP shareware disk
magazine shell. It was fairly basic insofar that they still
explained some material in their articles that most people should
already know. Unfortunately, it's in Norwegian so it could not be
advised as a general easy mag for beginners all over the world.
The first issue was released on March 5th 1992.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. The SANDP shell.
Latest known issue: Number 3 (October 25th 1992).
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead.
Language: Norwegian.
ST Enthusiasts Newsletter
Used to be one of the very best quality disk magazines around,
from editors Dave Mooney and John Weller. Enthusiastic and very
much alive. They started at issue 0. A good and serious disk
magazine with in-depth material, even though it was slanted ever
so slightly towards British interests.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A custom one.
Latest known issue: Number 15 (late November 1993).
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead (unfortunately).
Language: English.
STeve's AtariNOTES
This is not actually a disk magazine but as it used the Fair
Dinkum "Infodisk" disk magazine shell to disguise itself as one I
thought it appropriate to be included here.
Basically it's a catalogue filled with "what to get at STeve's
and how much to pay for it and how to order", i.e. a blatant
commercial thing and not at all a disk magazine. If you're
looking for stuff, I suppose you could check it out. I think
STeve is a U.S. company.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes, the "Infodisk" shell.
Latest known issue: Issue 2 (spring 1994?).
Address: Couldn't bother to check this out.
Health: Probably still alive.
Language: English.
ST Gaming Digest
An on-line magazine published by CyberSysTek and edited by Eric-
Alexander Bitton. It's a US magazine that concentrates solely on
forecasting games that will be released on the ST/STE/Falcon. If
you read this magazine you would think the ST market was
literally booming (if not exploding!) with games. Extremely up-
to-date with very hot information, though I suspect lots of
rumours are included as well. It's monthly.
Status: Public Domain, on-line.
User interface: No.
Latest known issue: May-June 1993.
Address: Not known.
Health: Alive?
Language: English.
STink
Little is known about this magazine, other than that at least 8
issues have been made and that it's been known to be referred to
as "exotic". This is believed to be an understatement for
"anarchist", as it is said to contain description on how to make
molotov cocktails and bombs and stuff. Hardly ready-to-swallow
material. It is rumoured that the police has looked into this
magazine and the people who write for it.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes, probably.
Latest known issue: Issue 8.
Address: Not known.
Health: Alive? Dead? Exploded?
Language: English.
ST Info
This mag appeared from Holland in 1987 and 1988, initiated by
Chun Wing Lai from The Hague. It was a good magazine, but did not
have a user interface and basically consisted of a large "1st
Word Plus" file like ST NEWS (Cf.) did in its first Volume. Was
supposed to fold and re-emerge in "ST Bulletin" (with user
interface, Cf.), which unfortunately never happened.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: No.
Latest known issue: Not known.
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead.
Language: English.
ST Klubben
This magazine was started, I believe, in 1988. It was initiated
by the infamous Nutty Norwegians. It was almost an exact ST NEWS
(Cf.) clone, founded by ex-editor Ronny Hatlemark. It was also a
bit of a mag for members of "ST Klubben" (a Norwegian ST club),
but a good one. It was later taken over by Torbjørn "Lord
HackBear" Ose and his apprentice, Karl-Anders "Wizzcat" Øygard.
After the fourth issue, early 1991, it ceased existing.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A good one.
Latest known issue: Fourth (early 1991).
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead (may it RIP...).
Language: Norwegian.
ST News
Probably the oldest ST disk magazine, started July 1986.
Originates from Holland. In spring 1988, editorship was
transferred from Richard Karsmakers to Stefan Posthuma. With the
latter departing from the editorial staff late spring 1993,
editorship was handed back to Richard. It does not concentrate
solely on the computer side of things. Not at all actually. As of
Volume 9 Issue 1 it claims to be multi-media and spends quite
some time and space on music (including interviews with
musicians), books, films and whatever else may pop up or seem
interesting.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. And a basic but rather nice one, actually
(ahem).
Latest unknown issue: Volume 10 Issue 2 (November 25th 1995, the
40th issue).
Address: P.O. Box 67, NL-3500 AB, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Email r.c.karsmakers@stud.let.ruu.nl
Health: Alive and very much kickin'.
Language: English.
STOP
Never seen. It is firmly believed to be dead, too. All that is
known is that it once existed and that it was a German-based mag
of a "GfA Basic" users' group.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Not known.
Latest known issue: Not known.
Address: Not known.
Health: Dead.
Language: German and English.
STOS Bits
A disk magazine aimed towards the "STOS" programmer. It didn't
have a fancy user interface, was written in English and after the
first issue continued life as "HP Source" (Cf.). This first issue
was released in December 1990.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes, a custom one.
Latest known issue: Issue 1.
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead.
Language: English?
STOS Giga-Zine
There are quite a few disk magazines with shells programmed in
"STOS" and aimed at "STOS" users. This is another one, and a one-
off attempt at that. Said to be really good, actually, even
though the shell won't work on several modern system I reckon.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes, a custom one.
Latest known issue: Issue 1.
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead.
Language: English.
STOSSER
A disk magazine that serves the fraternity known as "STOS"
programmers (yes, that "games basic" that works only on old
TOSes). It also features reviews of the latest games and such.
Each issue usually has some sort of "theme" with graphics adapted
accordingly, quite an enormous amount of work I should think. The
user interface is quite nice, and I believe it's monthly. The
founder and ex-editor is a guy called Keefy. The user interface
is programmed in "STOS" and we all know what that means...not
compatible with Falcon or any TOS over 1.xx, and it doesn't work
on monochrome either. It's quite good, though (both the user
interface and the actual magazine).
Keefy wielded the editorial sceptre from the first issue
(released April 20th 1993) up to and including issue 18. As of
issue 19, the editorial duties were taken over by Bob Goodfellow.
He took it as far as issue 23, when he suddenly never got heard
of again. A chap called Deano (real name rumoured to be Tony
Greenwood) took over then (as recent as August 1995, actually),
and has continued ever since.
A compilation issue of "STOSSER" was also released.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes, and a nice one too!
Latest known issue: Issue 24 (summer 1995).
Address: 27 Turbary Walk, Milnrow, Rochdale, OL16 4JN, England.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
ST Plug
This one originates from Canada. Editor: Dan Panke. The last
issues are licenceware; at least up to issue 7 they were Public
Domain. In North America they may be distributed by User Groups
by purchasing "ST Plug" disk labels for US$ 2 a piece. User
interface allows pics to be shown through imbedded commands in
the text. Offers many programs on disk.
Status: Licenceware.
User interface: A custom one called "Peruser".
Latest known issue: At least 14 (August 1990).
Address: 1670 Heron Rd., Box 22026, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1V
0C2.
Health: Probably alive.
Language: English.
ST Programmer
This magazine, written by editors Terry Mancey and Richard Gale,
is aimed at the ST programming fraternity. Although one will not
find the hottest demo tricks here, it does offer lots of useful
information for the layman and averagely experienced programmer.
The mag even features some of the editors' own programming
things, like games and such. Only works in colour and with TOS
1.00 (at least not with 1.04 that I tested it on some time ago),
which is probably due to it being coded in STOS.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A STOS one.
Latest known issue: Three.
Address: 34 Austin Avenue, North Prospect, Plymouth, Devon PL2
2LD, England.
Health: Alive?
Language: English.
ST Report
A USA-based on-line magazine. One issue is made per week (just
about). It was founded in 1987, and its editor is Ralph F.
Mariano. They offer a wide variety of news, also with regard to
other Atari computers (such as Falcon and, indeed, the Lynx).
It's primary advertising vehicle for its editor's ABCO Mail Order
Company (which, according to British "ST Applications" Issue 27,
is completely untrustworthy!).
Status: Public Domain, on-line.
User interface: No.
Latest known issue: Volume 10 Issue 34 (it's not clear which
volumes fit to which year, though, as Volume 9 was started in
1993 even though the magazine then only entered its sixth year
of publication. Anyway, Volume 10 Issue 34 was released on
August 19th 1994).
Address: Not known.
Health: Alive?
Language: English.
ST SIG
Quoted to be "the first US disk-based magazine for the ST".
Well, that would be true only if the first issue would have come
out before mid July 1986, which may be doubted. Anyway, nothing
much is known about this as it was only mentioned in a PD disk
catalog.
Status: Probably Public Domain.
User interface: Not known.
Latest known issue: At least Volume 1 Issue 3.
Address: Not known.
Health: Probably dead. Maybe not.
Language: English.
STuff
A new disk magazine that appeared early 1994. No hands-on
experience, but a review about it said that it had a nice
atmosphere and the writers are enthusiastic Atari people. It
works on the Falcon too, but only in high resolution. Issue 1 is
the pilot issue, which has yet to grow in the article department.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes, an OK one with 3D dialog boxes and pop-up
menus.
Latest known issue: Issue 1.
Address: Not known.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
STuffed
The disk magazine by Steve Delaney's "Floppyshop". A rather nice
one, based around a picture of a desk top where clicking on
relevant items resulted in the loading of submenus from which
articles could be selected. Pictures could be loaded with the
articles, which was altogether a good thing. Unfortunately it
only worked on colour.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes.
Latest known issue: At least 8.
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead.
Language: English.
STUNN
This is the "ST UNemployed Newsletter", which is principally
free if you join the group (which cost £1). The magazine was
quite slow and didn't offer lots of articles, but the user
interface constantly played some digi music - all docs are loaded
at booting. It was founded in 1989, but in 1992 it switched to
PC, called "PC STUNN". It's still pretty much alive there, so
I've heard, and ST issues have been released on disk as well
(?!). It's all pretty vague.
Status: Public Domain (sortof).
User interface: Yes. The DiskZine shell.
Latest known issue: Number 15.
Address: Is it relevant?
Health: Dead or alive? After issue 12, perhaps PC copies have
been ported to ST disks?
Language: English.
ST XPress
An American disk magazine that offered lots of Public Domain
software. It was made by Rich Decowski, editor of the regular
American magazine "ST XPress". Its custom shell could de-ARC
programs and was quite OK.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A custom one called "Diskmate".
Latest known issue: Volume 2 Issue 7.
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead.
Language: English.
Suomenkilieset Tieto-Sanomat
God knows what the name means (if he's Finnish he might say
"The Atari News in Finnish"), and I guess nobody outside Finland
will ever know. It started way back in December 1986 and seems to
be the oldest Atari disk magazine but for ST NEWS (Cf.), though
the current editor also once claimed it didn't start until 1989.
Its user interface uses hypertext links and all that kind of
fancy stuff so basically the user interface is like "ST Guide".
Unfortunately it's in Finnish which kinda limits interest to
people abroad. The shell is programmed by Seppo Loisa and the
editor is Lasse Sundström, who also intends to reprogram the
shell so that it works in resolution other than ST medium and ST
high. Like "ST Clubben" (Cf.) is was basically a disk magazine
for an ST Club. It is released quarterly, though 1994 has only
seen one issue.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes, a custom GEM one with a Hypertext system.
Latest known issue: The late summer 1995 issue.
Address: ST-klubi ry, Pohjoiskaari 26 A, FIN-00200 Helsinki,
Finland. Email lsundstr@snakemail.hut.fi.
Health: Alive.
Language: Finnish.
Superguy
A rather vague on-line sortof magazine, or rather, a collection
of individual stories that you get sent interactively as they are
written. Basically when you subscribe to it you get about a dozen
stories per week (or more) featuring illustrious characters such
as "Andy Awesome and the Awesome Force" and "Ramrod and Highjinx"
in apparently endless sequence form.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: None.
Latest known issue: Not applicable, really.
Address: Email listserv@ucf1vm.cc.ucf.edu.
Health: Very much alive.
Language: English.
SynTax
A semi-commercial disk magazine for adventurers. It has a user
interface written in "STOS" and it's multi-format (also on Amiga
and PC). It is published every other month, ever since it started
in July 1989. It also has a very large adventure-related library.
The magazine itself offers hints, maps, solutions, interviews as
well as a lively letters section. The editor is Sue Medley. As
it's coded in "STOS" it probably won't work on anything but old
TOS 1.00 versions.
Status: Semi-commercial (costs £3.50 per issue or £20.00 per
year).
User interface: Yes, a custom "STOS" one.
Latest known issue: Issue 38 (September 1995).
Address: 9 Warwick Road, Sidcup, Kent, DA14 6LJ, England.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Temptation of Saint Anthony, The
A collection of poems, observations, ruminations, short stories
and rants. The focus is on the seven deadly sins. Recurring
themes are piking fun at religion, dada, heresy, surrealism,
fundamentalism, cannibalism, insomnia, epistemological
nightmares, reinterpretations of folklore, sex, time travel,
reincarnation and vice. It's edited by Mark-Jason Dominus. Sounds
very interesting indeed!
Status: Public Domain, on-line.
User interface: None.
Latest known issue: Not known.
Address: Martin Bormann's Cranial Splints, P.O. Box 8166,
Philadelphia, PA 19101-8166, USA; the email address is
mbcs@gradient.cis.upenn.edu.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Third Dimension, The
This is a multi-format monthly disk magazine for ST, PC and
Amiga. It's basiocally a gathering of ASCII text files (about a
dozen or more) with various sound files, pictures and machine-
specific programs thrown in. It comes across rather chaotic, and
I'm not sure it's got a big market other than people who own
several systems. Its editor of Tony Hartley, who I seem to think
is an ST owner at least. It's monthly, and aimed primarily at
people who are into the "3D Construction Kit" and Virtual
Reality.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: No.
Latest known issue: Issue 17 (September 1995).
Address: 19 Kipling Close, Lockwood, Huddersfield, Yorkshire HD4
5HA, England.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Toxic Mag
A disk magazine from France that supports both the English and
French languages. No further details known. User interface is
said to be great, with articles loaded upon booting reducing
loading times to nill.
Status: Public domain.
User interface: Said to be impressive, though some say it isn't,
really.
Latest known issue: Number 4.
Address: No valid one known.
Health: Alive, though might very well be dead.
Language: French and English.
Trannies
This disk magazine, of which Simon Osbourne seems to be the
editor, belongs to the Stench User Group. Nothing much is known
about it other than that it exists.
Status: Probably Public Domain.
User interface: Not known.
Latest known issue: Not known. Must've been 1 at least.
Address: 59 Renton Road, Wythenshawe, Manchester M22 9TQ,
England.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Twilight World
This is, basically, the sequel to "Twilight Zone" (Cf.), which
had its name changed to "Twilight World" to avoid potential
problems involving trademarks. It's a bi-monthly all-format on-
line fiction-only disk magazine, with the first issue (Volume 2
Issue 1) released in January 1994. It's edited by Richard
Karsmakers. Most of the material comes from ST NEWS (Cf.), though
especially the somewhat older stories are checked over, rehashed,
updated and generally improved.
Status: Public domain.
User interface: None.
Latest known issue: Volume 3 Issue 5 (September 16th 1995, the
14th issue including the "Twilight Zone" ones).
Address: P.O. Box 67, NL-3500 AB, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Email r.c.karsmakers@stud.let.ruu.nl.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Twilight Zone
A quarterly all-format on-line fiction-only disk magazine spread
as a straight ASCII file. The idea originally started autumn 1992
because the ST NEWS (Cf.) editorial staff wanted its fiction to
be read all over the globe by all different computer users. The
editor was Richard Karsmakers. The first issue appeared in April
1993, the last in October 1993 (the third issue), after which the
name changed to "Twilight World" (Cf.) because of potential
trademark implications.
Status: Public domain.
User interface: None.
Latest known issue: Volume 1 Issue 3 (October 1993).
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead, but sortof went on anyway.
Language: English.
Undercover Mag
A magazine from Germany that was done by Moondog (Eric
Henschler) of the TNB Crew (The Naughty Bytes) and of which the
use interface was perhaps a bit too blatant a "DBA Magazine"
(Cf.) rip-off. The first issue was released on October 1st 1993.
Separate versions of the shell existed for ST and Falcon. The
magazine was entirely in German with a few articles in English,
at least up to issue 4, at which time they were also thinking of
doing an English parallel kind of thing. However, with the
release of May 1995's Issue 5 it found an unexpected death.
Although issues 6 and 7 were planned, only Eric was left to work
on it. Consequently, he pronounced the magazine "dead". It is not
entirely unlikely that, eventually, a sixth issue might be
released.
Status: Public domain.
User interface: Yes. One, let's say, inspired by the older one
of "DBA Magazine", though not without a few bugs.
Latest known issue: Issue 5 (May 1995).
Address: Weichau 1a, D-06618 Weichau, Germany.
Health: Dead, although Eric might make a sixth issue some day.
Language: German.
Unit Circle
This is an underground magazine, spiritual child of Kevin
Goldsmith. It is published electronically as well as on paper,
the latter strictly for underground purposes. It covers varying
topics the likes of new music, radical politics and rage in the
1990's. The electronic version is available in Postscript only,
because it also contains art which is reckoned to be just as
important as the text. The aim of the magazine is to distribute
the words of people who would not normall be heard, and art which
would not normally be seen. It also has reviews.
The Unit Circle organization itself started around 1986, it
began as a street theatre group, became a band, and then a loose
arts organization. The magazine started early 1993 when Kevin
needed something to send out the mailing list. The aim is to have
one issue every three months, the online version being just minor
a few comics taken from alternative sources.
Status: Public domain, on-line (a paper version exists too).
User interface: No.
Latest known issue: Issue 5 (April or May 1995).
Address: The Unit Circle, P.O. Box 640 885, San Francisco, CA
94164, USA, email kmg@colossal.com.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Unplastic News
This is an online magazine, a collection of quotes, anecdotes
and just about anything. Its editor is Todd Tibbetts (a.k.a.
Thaloneus Platypus). Each issue tackles a specific issue
reflected in names such as "The Freedom Issue", "The Ugly Issue",
"Psychic Net Godmother" and "The Democracy-Makes-Me-Sing-With-Joy
Issue". It might strike you as incoherent (and it is!), but it's
generally humorous in a zany way, sometimes shocking, sometimes
plain hilarious, and has a strange touch of intellect about it.
Status: Public domain, on-line.
User interface: No.
Latest known issue: Issue #12 (January 1994).
Address: Email tt2@well.sf.ca.us.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Untouchables Disk Magazine, The
See "Ledgers Magazine".
Voice, The
Quite an OK Polish disk magazine, colour only, made by the Team
From The East (TFTE). All texts were loaded upon booting, so
loading during reading was non-existent. All texts,
unfortunately, were in Polish. The first issue was released in
1991, but wasn't particularly good - low res only, no music and
bad articles (these are their own words!). Issue 2 was already
better, using medium res, Mad Max music and a mouse-controlled
user interface. Issue 3 was claimed by them to be a "small step
for a people, a giant leap for a mankind" (?!) - both medium and
low resolution on screen simultaneously, no lower border,
scroller, and TCB tracker music. The interface was further
improved until, with issue 7, it ceased publication. There is a
small chance of it being brought back to life bny a new team,
called X-Ray.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A custom one that constantly got better.
Latest known issue: Issue 7.
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead, or at least severely comatose.
Language: Polish.
Voice of Quast, The
A disk magazine published by the biggest Polish user group,
"Quast Club" with over 100 members. The first issue was released
in 1991. Topics vary from non-computing articles and education
to reviews and party reports. No hands-on-experience.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes.
Latest known issue: Issue 6.
Address: Unknown.
Health: Probably alive.
Language: Probably Polish.
Voices
Inspired by the name of a good Dream Theater song (?), this is a
multi-format disk magazine for ST, Amiga and PC. The ST version
uses the TOMS shell. Its editor is Dave Cobbledick of Dunces Cap
Software, and it features a mixture of non-run-of-the-mill
computer topics and Internet borrowings. Interaction is one of
its key driving forces.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes (TOMS).
Latest known issue: Issue 1.
Address: Unknown.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Warp
When Keefy stopped doing "STOSSER" (Cf.) he started doing a
"Star Trek" kind of STOS-programmed shell disk magazine. Not seen
in person. It features graphics in the text and a really neat
shell. The first three issues were quarterly.
In autumn 1995 it ran into considerable problems with regards to
article donors as it were.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes (STOS one, so no Falcon compatibility). Each
issue has a different one.
Latest known issue: Issue 3, "Warp Three".
Address: 57 Hearsall Lane, Earlsdon, Coventry, CV5 6HF,
England.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Way Station
A disk magazine that was yet in the stages of being born when it
died. It intended, like "Quanta" (Cf.), to focus on fiction. Its
editor was to be Bryan H. Joyce, quite a talented writer of
fiction himself. Unfortunately he switched to the PC (where, on
the good side of things, he's doing things together with the
people that do "PC STUNN").
We Magazine
The description of this magazine, which hasn't actually been
seen yet, is encompassed in one word.
Poetry.
Its editors are too many to be mentioned, so they won't. It's
pretty hard to digest, as opposed to "Core" (Cf.).
Status: Public Domain, online.
User interface: No.
Latest known issue: Issue 17.
Address: We Press, P.O. Box 1503, Santa Cruz, CA 95061, USA.
Email cf2785@albnyvms.bitnet.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Wired
See "HotWired".
Z*Net PC Online Magazine
An oldie here. This bi-weekly magazine started in 1986 and was
still very much alive until it became known that they had gone
defunct early summer 1993. It seems they started again early 1994
with the 1994 issue 1 being released on February 12th. It
primarily focuses on compiling messages and documents found on
BBS systems, and brings lots of international news. This includes
Atari product information, reader's comments and hardware and
software reviews. Its editor is Ron Kovacs. Early 1992 it merged
with "Atari Explorer On-Line" (Cf.), only to resume publication
independently around New Year 1992/1993.
Status: Public Domain, on-line.
User interface: No.
Latest known issue: 1994 (Volume 9) Issue 2 (March 5th 1994).
Address: Syndicate Publishing, P.O. Box 59. Middlesex, New
Jersey, USA.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
In case you're the editor of a disk magazine not mentioned here,
or in case you're the editor of one that's mentioned here
incorrectly or incompletely, please feel free to send information
to ST NEWS, Richard Karsmakers, P.O. Box 67, NL-3500 AB,
Utrecht, The Netherlands (or perhaps you'd care to send info at
email address r.c.karsmakers@stud.let.ruu.nl). Your latest issue
would be highly appreciated (you will then get the latest issue
of ST NEWS returned to you on disk if you supply a few IRCs).
Again, this isn't yet the final disk magazine roundup. No,
indeed!
Disclaimer
The text of the articles is identical to the originals like they appeared
in old ST NEWS issues. Please take into consideration that the author(s)
was (were) a lot younger and less responsible back then. So bad jokes,
bad English, youthful arrogance, insults, bravura, over-crediting and
tastelessness should be taken with at least a grain of salt. Any contact
and/or payment information, as well as deadlines/release dates of any
kind should be regarded as outdated. Due to the fact that these pages are
not actually contained in an Atari executable here, references to scroll
texts, featured demo screens and hidden articles may also be irrelevant.