"Stop in the name of all that which does not suck!"
Beavis & Butthead
A SECOND ATTEMPT AT A RATHER COMPREHENSIVE DISK MAGAZINE ROUNDUP!
- or -
(INDEED)
THE PANULTIMATE DISK MAGAZINE ENCYCLOPAEDIA
PART 2
by Richard Karsmakers
Massive Mag
This is a magazine produced by the Admirables, the editor being
a chap called Claff Moron (let's pray this is not his real name -
no offense, Claff, if it is!). It was made in France, and four
issues have appeared before it died.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes.
Latest issue: Issue 4.
Address: Unknown.
Health: Dead.
Language: Unknown, but probably French or English.
MAST Newsdisk
In 1988, our ex-US distributor David Meile started his own disk
magazine with the MAST user group. It was called "MAST Newsdisk",
of which only two issues are known to have been released (the
last one in April 1988). It used the "Newsdisk" shell program.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. The "Newsdisk" shell.
Latest issue: Number 2.
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead.
Language: English.
NASA Mag
This disk magazine, of which little is known except for the
fact that at least one issue appeared, and that it is written in
French and English.
News Channel
A fellow Dutch disk magazine that arose somewhere in 1987, and
that survived a bit over 1 year. Somewhat notorious for its
mainly polemic battle with ST NEWS - mainly concerning them using
their authors, their music and their foreign distributor network.
For a while, some of the people behind "News Channel" seemed
to be getting back in the picture with "STabloid" (Cf.).
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A custom one.
Latest issue: Volume 2 Issue 1.
Address: No longer relevant.
Health: Dead.
Language: English.
Nutworks
Available through US networks, this is a multi-format on-line
disk magazine which concentrates on stories, jokes, songs and
everything you might care to think of. As they say, it's "a
virtual magazine for people who teeter on the precipe of
insanity". Not particularly computer-related. It started in
January 1985, and the last reported issue was May 1988's issue
23. Much of its material finds its way into the humorous bits of
other disk magazines today. It's moderated by Joe Desbonnet.
Status: Public Domain, on-line.
User interface: No.
Latest issue: Not known.
Address: Email phydesbonnet@vax1.ucg.ie (?).
Health: Not known.
Language: English.
ON-Disk
A British disk magazine by Paul Wilson. Last known issue is
number 3, that appeared spring 1988. The program had quite an
unintuitive and buggy user interface, but the editorial contents
were OK.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A custom one that was not too good.
Latest issue: Not certain, but probably number 3.
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead.
Language: English.
Pure Bollocks
A strictly underground magazine, with rather controversial
contents. Articles are peppered with obscenities (and the demos
with naughty piccies), and it's very coder-oriented. Among
others, this magazine features "how to" articles on cracking
digital locks, hacking answerphones and American Pirate BBS phone
numbers. It's Scottish.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes, a very flashy smooth one. Very original.
Latest issue: Issue 23 (which is their third issue).
Address: P.O. Box 1083, Glasgow G14 3DG, Scotland, United
Kingdom. Email an18359@anon.fenet.fi (may not be valid
anymore).
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Quanta
A multi-format on-line magazine that concentrates solely on the
publication of fiction. And quite excellent fiction, one might
want to add. It was founded in 1989 by editor Daniel K.
Appelquist.
Status: Public Domain, on-line.
User interface: No.
Latest issue: Volume 5 Issue 2 (July 1993).
Address: 3003 Van Ness St. NW #S919, Washington D.C. 20008,
United States of America, or email quanta@andrew.cmu.edu.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Quantum Underground Anarchic Reading Konspiracy (QUARK)
An English disk magazine available on ST, Amiga, PC and Amstrad
CPC formats. Basically it's made by Pete Binsley and two friends
across these formats. Concentrates on fiction only, but has a
user interface. Quite small - their debut issue took up only 150
Kb in space (the program plus about two dozen uncompressed short
stories and the like).
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A rather basic one.
Latest issue: One (September 1992).
Address: 52 Avis Road, Denton, Newhaven, East Sussex BN9 0PN,
England.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Quast
A Polish disk magazine put together by the Quast group, in
Poland. Nothing much is known about it, other than that it
exists.
Status: Not known.
User interface: Not known.
Latest issue: Not known, but one should guess at least 1.
Address: Ul. Niecala 3, 89-100 Naklo.
Health: Alive.
Language: Not known.
Remark: The 'l' in Niecala and Naklo is actually no 'l', but an
'l' with a capital 'L' written across it with the vertical bit
slanted to the right, so 'l' and 'L' written on top of each
other. That's Polish for you!
Scriba Communis Responsi
This magazine is somewhat unique among ST disk magazines insofar
that it is slightly crazy, slightly religious and slightly
absurd. All of it revolves 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.
Works on colour monitors only. Specifically Falcon-compatible,
something of which they're exceedingly proud.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes, a very neat custom one that doesn't change
every other issue.
Latest issue: Volume 2 Issue 2 (October 1993).
Address: P.O. Box 71, N-6092, Eggesbønes, Norway.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
Sixth Dragon, The
The Sixth Dragon is an independent litarary magazine devoted to
publishing original poetry, short fiction, drama, comment, 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 issue: Not known.
Address: Email martind@student.msu.edu.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
STabloid
Fabulous-looking disk magazine made in Holland by Sewersoft and
Galtan Six. Very inspired, but a bit slow at finally becoming
available (only a preview issue so far, that came out in
September 1991). Seemed to be the only serious competition for
the new type of "Maggie" (Cf.).
Status: Commercial.
User interface: Yes. A custom one that's rather brilliant.
Latest issue: The preview one.
Address: Houttuinen 6, NL-2611 AH Delft, The Netherlands.
Health: In the process of getting born properly. May be
abortive, though. The editorial staff refused to comment - and
when they do they're quite vague. Might actually be quite dead.
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 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.
Status: Commercial.
User interface: Not known.
Latest 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 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 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 issue: Not known. Might be Volume 1 Issue 1.
Address: Suite 299, 4431 Lehigh Road, College Park, MD 20740,
United States of America
Health: Dead? Alive?
Language: English.
ST Bulletin
The Dutch disk magazine, intended to be the reincarnation of "ST
Info" (Cf.) that quit end 1988. "ST Bulletin" never even
happened, unfortunately. You could say it got interrupted in
coito.
ST Digital
Quite an excellent disk magazine, but unfortunarely 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
works 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 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 issue: They made at least one.
Address: Unknown.
Health: Alive.
Language: Unknown, probably Polish.
Stellar
A magazine written by Mark Nobes using "STOS". The user
interface is not one of the best, quite limited and slow. Its aim
is to review Public Domain software and PD libraries. Colour
only.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A custom one written in STOS.
Latest issue: Winter issue (1991) has been seen. Any further?
Address: Newholme, Aston Road, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire
GL55 6HR, England.
Health: Probably still alive?
Language: English.
STench
A Norwegian disk magazine that used the SANDP shareware disk
magazine shell. It's fairly basic insofar that they still explain
some material in their articles that most people should know by
now. Unfortunately, it's in Norwegian so it cannot be advised as
a general easy mag for beginners all over the world.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. The SANDP shell.
Latest issue: Number 2 (June 1992).
Address: Storgt. 27 B, N-1704 Sarpsborg, Norway.
Health: Alive?
Language: Norwegian.
ST Enthusiasts Newsletter
One of the best quality disk magazines around, from editors Dave
Mooney and John Weller. Enthusiastic and very much alive. They
started at issue 0. A good disk magazine with in-depth material,
even though it's slanted ever so slightly towards British
interests.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A custom one.
Latest issue: Number 14.
Address: 14 School Road, Morningside, Newmains, Lanarkshire ML2
9QW, Scotland.
Health: 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 issue: January 1993.
Address: Not known.
Health: Alive?
Language: English.
ST Inc
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". Its name might not be "ST Inc" but "ST Ink" instead.
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 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 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
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 Ose and his
apprentice, Karl-Anders Øygard. After the fourth issue, early
1991, it ceased existing.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A good one.
Latest 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.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. And a rather nice one, actually (ahem).
Latest issue: Volume 8 Issue 2.
Address: Looplantsoen 50, NL-3523 GV, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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 issue: Not known.
Address: Not known.
Health: Dead.
Language: German and English.
STOS Bits
A disk magazine aimed towards the "STOS" programmer. No further
details are known. It's probably English and it's probably dead,
as "HP Source" (Cf.) is mentioned to be its successor.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Unknown.
Latest issue: Not known. They did at least 1.
Address: Not known.
Health: Dead.
Language: English?
ST Plug
This one originated 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 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 color and with TOS 1.0
(at least not with my 1.4, which is probably due to it being
coded in STOS).
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A STOS one.
Latest issue: Three.
Address: 34 Austin Avenue, North Prospect, Plymouth, Devon PL2
2LD, England.
Health: Alive?
Language: English.
ST Report
A U.S. 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 issue: Volume 9 Issue 4 (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).
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 color.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes.
Latest 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 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 offers 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 issue: Volume 2 Issue 7.
Address: Not relevant.
Health: Dead.
Language: English.
Suomenkilieset Tieto-Sanomat
God knows what the name means, and I guess nobody outside
Finland will ever know. It's rumoured to have arisen somewhere
around the same time as ST NEWS (i.e. 1986) which might just make
it the oldest disk magazine on the ST! Unfortunately it's in
Finnish which kinda limits interest to people abroad. Its editor
is Seppo Loisa.
Status: Unknown.
User interface: Yes, a custom GEM one.
Latest issue: Not known.
Address: Ympyratie 13, 54800 Savitaipale, Finland.
Health: Alive. Might be dead, though.
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 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. Not much is
known about it. The editor (who is female!) is Sue Medley. As
it's coded in STOS it probably won't work on anything but old TOS
versions.
Status: Semi-commercial (costs £3.50 per issue).
User interface: Yes, a custom STOS one.
Latest issue: Not known.
Address: 9 Warwick Road, Sidcup, Kent, DA14 6LJ, 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.
Status: Public domain.
User interface: Said to be impressive.
Latest issue: Number 4.
Address: TSB, BP 66, F-59240, Mouvaux, France.
Health: Alive.
Language: French and English.
Twilight Zone
An all-format on-line 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 is Richard
Karsmakers. The first issue appeared in April 1993. The first
volume was quarterly, the next bi-monthly.
Status: Public domain.
User interface: None.
Latest issue: Volume 1 Issue 3 (October 1993).
Address: Looplantsoen 50, NL-3523 GV, Utrecht, The Netherlands,
email R.C.Karsmakers@stud.let.ruu.nl.
Health: Alive.
Language: English.
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 issue: Issue 3.
Address: Email kmg@esd.sgi.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. Nothing
much more is know about it.
Status: Public domain, on-line.
User interface: No.
Latest issue: Unknown.
Address: Email tibbetts@hsi.hsi.com.
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 are loaded upon booting, so
loading during reading is non-existent. All texts, unfortunately,
are 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 is 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. They are at the moment working on Issue 4, which
will be similar to Issue 3 with some small improvements like the
ability to have digitized pictures in the text.
Status: Public Domain.
User interface: Yes. A custom one that is getting ever better.
Latest issue: Issue 3.
Address: Ul. Reymonta 20c, 59-901 Zgorzelec, Poland.
Health: Alive.
Language: Polish.
Voice of Quast, The Voice
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 Issue: Issue 6.
Address: Unknown.
Health: Probably alive.
Language: Probably Polish.
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").
Z-Net
An oldie here. This weekly magazine started in 1986 and was
still very much alive until it became known that they had gone
defunct early summer 1993. It primarily focused on compiling
messages and documents found on BBS systems, and brought lots of
international news. This included Atari product information,
reader's comments and hardware and software reviews. Its editor
was 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 issue: Volume 8 Issue 20 (which is the 504th issue in
total!).
Address: Not known.
Health: Dead.
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, Looplantsoen 50, NL-3523 GV,
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).
Indeed, this isn't yet the final disk magazine roundup. No,
indeed!
Well. There. So. Bye.
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.