ST FORMAT REVIEW
~BALLS.FIL~
                      'Don't hunt for high positions but
                       for the knowledge to occupy them'
                       
                       Confucius
                                                ~FALCON.BLK~
-----------------------------------------     ~FALCON.BLK~
ST FORMAT (SEPTEMBER ISSUE 1994) REVIEWED
-----------------------------------------
           by Slimer
    
The Atari community begins to run thin on papermagazines these 
days as many have folded. Some of the bigger and more 
successful onces are left, and among them is the English 'ST 
Format'. This particularly magazine is much criticized by many 
participants of the 'scene' (i.e. democrews and the like) on 
account of their dubious way of reviewing. It's ofcourse 
logical that coders who receive a bad review of their 
program will not display a burst of mirth, or any other 
symptoms of joy. It's not only the reviewing part that 
causes irritation, it are also the topics and articles as a
whole who call upon the dark side of the human spirit ! All 
this makes 'ST Format' ripe for a close examination by yours 
truly.....

CONTENTS,

Before I start to sum up the contents of this issue, I 
wanted to ask your attention first for a small piece of text 
in the lower right corner at page 5. It reads,

'YOUR GUARANTEE OF VALUE' 

BETTER ADVICE: Our titles are packed with tips, suggestions 
and explanatory features, written by the best in the 
business.

STRONGER REVIEWS: He have a cast-iron policy of editorial 
independence and reviews give clear recommendations.

CLEARER DESIGN: You need solid information fast. So our 
designers highlight key elements by using charts, diagrams, 
summary boxes, annotated photographs, and so on...

GREATER RELEVANCE: At Future, Editors operate under two 
golden rules: Understand your readers' needs, Satisfy them.

MORE READER INTERACTION: We draw on reader's contributions, 
resulting in the liveliest letters pages and the best reader 
tips. Buying one of our magazines is like joining a 
nationwide user group. More pages, more intelligent staff, 
better quality-magazines you can trust.

Ahum<Grin>, eehh, this almost seems perfect, a bit to 
perfect for my taste, so, even greater cause for some healty 
suspicion. Don't expect a full review on every article 
though, as I'm much to lazy to do them all, just some 
highlights. Well here comes the contents in a nutshell,

A couple of REVIEWS on mostly art/graphics related stuff.
The FEATURES include some articles about custom computing, 
3DIY(how to create a 3D world), Classified Bargain (a guide 
to classified ads), DIY video port(How to add video and 
stereo ports to your STE or FM) and some stuff about TOS 2 
and Midi. Some of the REGULARS: the (take)Cover disk, News, 
American show report, Public Sector and Feed Back.

Time to enter the exciting world of 'ST Format' as we turn 
the first page. We stumble upon the Coverdisk contents and 
one (professional) glance at the titles and pictures 
quickly underlines what I already feared..... 8 programs 
on offer and 5 of them are totally and utterly CRAP !! I'm 
talking about a Chessprogram, 'Fastcopy 3','Albion'(rename 
your files and disks), 'Synth Sounds'(10 samples), 'TUC'
(an WP file converter), A Digit song, 1 Mb. (switches a
higher Mb. machine back to one) and the 'Cover Disk Backup'.

I could be wrong here, but the already ancient 'Fcopy 3' has 
been around the world for at least a thousand times. 'Albion'
gives you the possibility to rename files and give them 
abnormal long names. What the hell do I need 10 samples for, 
I can easily get 10 disks full of them. A Digit song, how 
wonderful, the Atari community is virtually drowning in 
modules and other sampled or sequenced stuff. Who needs a 
Cover disk backup program, ofcourse I will be the only one 
who can live without it, or am I ? Yes, I'm criticizing the 
Coverdisk because there is much better quality software 
available on the Atari. Just take a look in our review 
corners to see the prove. Why not put 'Everest' on a 
Coverdisk, I think that the author would kindly give
permission for it (hey just an example) !

Turn page,

Headline: ELSPA prove they're rock hard 

I never figured that ELSPA was actually a hard rockband !? 
Anyway, the ST, STE series are going down the drain and 
that's not because of the piracy. They are just outdated 
after 9 years of success and they get wiped out by better 
computers. What's the point of filling every issue with 
articles about piracy, 90% of all the pirate crews have left 
the ST/STE ! 'ST Format' is at least 4 years overdue with 
their pirate articles. I get the impression that 'ST Format' 
has trouble filling their magazine, this is not that strange 
as the Atari community is shrinking quite fast. There is 
almost no real news on these pages....

Turning multiple pages....

Aahh, the regular 'How to upgrade my old ST' article that 
somehow always seems to manage to slip by the editor(s). It 
must have appeared in hundreds of different disguises. They 
are quite inventive at the editorial office and have absolutely 
brilliant ideas ! Just put your ST in a tower, add 25 Mb. of 
memory, a 2 Gig. Harddrive, connect a multisync monitor to 
it and paint the whole lot purple ! I can buy a 16 Mb. 
Falcon and a Jaguar for that kind of money !! Your in 
serious need of a brain transplant when you upgrade your old 
ST for a couple hundred pounds !

Turning half of the magazines pages....

What do we have here.... It's the infamous 'Public Sector', 
the reason that I bought this particularly issue. There is 
this simply gorgeous screenshot in it that shows a big 
D.B.A. logo ! The intelligent comments underneath the 
picture made me almost choke laughing in the shop ! I 
decided to buy the issue immediately and laughed all the way 
home. I never realized that 'ST Format' was that funny, 
my neighbours were close to calling an ambulance when I 
read the small review part of our 'Rave the Christmas Demo'!
A small demo that was ment to be a electronic christmas-card 
gets a review in the middle of the summer ! The reviewer 
'Simon Forrester'(who sounds like something from the BOLD 
and the Beautiful) is quite a funny character. I'm not going 
to say anything about the review as I fully agree with the 
verdict. But he sure missed the clue ! 

The prove that this guy can't be taken serious comes with
some dubious reviews on demo's that were converted, straight
from the P.C. ! 'The Hands' demo from 'Brainstorm' got the
highest possible rating !! They also contradict each-other;
Simon comments on 'Music Compilation', as I quote,

'Sorry, Did someone say music? I can't quite 
 hear due to this monotonous whining' 

Just guess what they offer on the Coverdisk (10 samples and
a digitune) ! Well, I decided to confront the man by sending
this magazine to the him and see what he's got to say about
it (If he's up to it, that is) ! It would force me to buy 
that particular (and expensive) issue, lets not make a habit
out of it....

Wait, a good and interesting article, Ohh uuhh, sorry its an 
advert for the Jaguar....


Now for the serious part, 

'ST Format' isn't actually that bad but needs some re-tuning 
here and there. The layout and articles of the magazine are 
clear and well written. However, I would advice to hire some 
people from the demoscene to do the reviews. This concept is 
not entirely new as many other papermagazines (ST Computer, 
ST Magazine etc.) make use of the 'expertise' of well-known 
names of the scene ! These people are taken seriously by 
their fellow coder/painters/musicians as they speak from 
their own experience ! That's all I like to say about it 
really ....
~GREEN.PAL~
