ST NEWS 4.4 Preview!

THE ST NEWS ENGLAND QUEST - VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4 PREVIEW
by Richard Karsmakers

With quite considerable pride, we think we're now finally ready
to announce a most smashing fact; a fact you'll probably only
believe when you've seen it; a fact that has never ever before
been seen in any other magazine (be it disk-or paper-based)
anywhere. Mind my words: Not a thing that will be said is
exaggerated!
For the last four months or so, Stefan and myself have
continuously tried to make all of you very curious. We have
received many reactions of people (as well as Norwegians) that
would really like to know what we were up to.
Yet we didn't tell anything. We only hinted - to increase the
grade of curiosity in those who inquired.
Now, the time has finally come. Read on, and you will see what
we're up to. Though you probably won't believe it until you've
seen it (to be honest, I sometimes wake up myself and find it
rather difficult to believe, too).

Okay now. What are we up to?

In July, Stefan and myself will pay a three weeks' visit to the
land of hope and glory, where half a year of careful and zealous
planning'n'arranging has assured visits to all major software
companies and interviews with every single well known programmer
on the Atari ST.
In ST NEWS Volume 4 Issue 4, the 25th (anniversary!!) issue of
our dearly beloved disk mag, we will therefore feature the
complete story behind this enormous quest that took half a year
of intensive correspondence and telephone calling as well as some
quite extensive scheduling: The preparations, the voyage reports,
complete 'real time' traveller's experiences, full-fledged
travelogues, quest statistics, comprehensive coverage of our
visits to the software houses, special articles on the living
legends of today's ST computing we will interview (including
Steve "Return to Genesis" Bak, Jeff "Yak the Hairy" Minter, Jez
"Starglider II" San, David Whittaker, Pete "Dreamy Graphics"
Lyon, John "Nebulus" Phillips, Ben Daglish, Pete "Arkanoid"
Johnston, Ian "Carrier Command" Oliver, The Lost Boys and Anita
"The Pawn and stuff" Sinclair), the hottest beta-testing software
previews, and everything else that might enter our minds in
England (which will, due to the inspiring environment, probably
be a lot). We are at the moment even actually negotiating with
the agency of Ms. Corinne "Vixen" Russell whether it is possible
to have an informal meeting with her as well.
Further, we will be flown with the Microprose company jet, we
will see how Magnetic Scrolls adventures are programmed and Steve
Bak will drive us around Central England assisting us with
visiting many of his colleagues for three days whereas he will
also show us at least THREE of his latest games to be published.
We will also get berzerk on a night out in a Welsh Pub with Yak
the Hairy, we will publish our experiences in the Paradise of
some of the world's largest record stores in London, and we will
do lots more that as of yet has to remain a surprise... Of
course, the 'real time' articles to be published in our
anniversary issue will contain many an entry of some of the
Greatest ST Programmers on this earth...

ST NEWS doesn't need any news....it CREATES it!

The actual ST NEWS program will feature the usual splendid
music. This time, Jochen has really outperformed himself and made
the ST version of the music contained in the Commodore 64 game
"Knuckle Buster". That's a quarter of an hour of the best music
ever composed by Rob Hubbard, previously said to be IMPOSSIBLE to
do on the Atari ST. But that's not the only thing Jochen will do.
He will also do either the "Hyper Sports Loader" or the
"Parallax" music, originally composed by Martin Galway, and
another piece of music for a separate demo screen! And that's not
even everything: Ben Daglish' ST version of the Commodore 64
music for "Trap" will be included, adding another ten minutes or
so of the best music he ever did, whereas David Whittaker's ST
version of the Commodore 64 music for "Panther" will also be
included (a digitized version of this was contained in the ST
version of "Sidewinder"). This means that the five best musical
compositions ever made by the five best music programmers in the
world will all be present in ONE single issue of ST NEWS!
And: All musical compositions featured in ST NEWS Volume 4 Issue
4 have never ever before been heard on the ST anywhere; they're
EXCLUSIVELY programmed for ST NEWS!
A border-torturing demo-screen by Stefan that takes up every
teenie weenie last bit of processor time as well as an exclusive
EXTRA demo screen by none other than a well known German hackin'
group will also be featured, whereas the monochrome scrolling
message will probably also feature stuff never ever before done
on the ST.
Ain't that something?

ST NEWS Volume 4 Issue 4 will thus be a TRUE world exclusive,
featuring something that - you'll have to agree - has never ever
before been achieved or even imagined in the computer world. Not
on ANY system. Not in ANY country. Not EVER. But that's not all
(Yes! There's even MORE to it!): There are certain limitations to
ST NEWS, such as the lack of the possibility to feature extensive
picture material. Therefore, one or two months after the launch
of the next ST NEWS, two of the biggest selling European
magazines will also feature the whole story - WITH PICTURES!
These magazines (German "ST Magazin/68000'er" and Dutch "Atari ST
Nieuws" - a total circulation of far over 60,000!!) will also
partly be sponsoring this quest.

Thus, you might understand our confidence and enthusiasm with
regard to the next ST NEWS issue. It will stun the world, no
doubt to that. You will all have to wait some time for this
'Dream Issue' to appear, though, since it will be finished in the
last week of July - the week after we come back from our great
but probably equally tiresome quest that brought us to the homes
of the major ST programmers, through the beautiful English
countryside and inside the world's leading software houses. We
have set the official ST NEWS Volume 4 Issue 4 launch date at
Saturday, July 29th, 1989 - although I wouldn't be too surprised
if it is to be postponed one week.

I hope to see you all in our forthcoming 'Dream Issue'. You'll
end up flat on your back!

P.S.: Most regular columns (Crimson's column, Forth Course, GfA
Tips, most software reviews, the adventure solutions and most
'regulars') will not be present in ST NEWS Volume 4 Issue 4 -
they will return, however, in Volume 4 Issue 5, that will
probably be ready somewhere in September.

P.P.S.: If you have any questions for the people we will be
visiting, please do not hesitate to send them to the ST NEWS
correspondence address - FAST! We will then try to ask them for
you, and get the required answers.

P.P.P.S.: Ronny, you have not been totally wrong with guessing
what we were up to in "ST Klubben". But I think you didn't guess
this , did you?