Seenpoint Issue #10 Contents The last Bytes Click this! Copyright Notice - Seenpoint - Get your handkerchiefs out (now) Seenpoint Issue #10 Sound Menu Seenpoint Soundmenu No Music Music Currently Playing: Alpha & Omega by Fishwave Seenpoint #10 Hello dear Amiga sceners! For long you've been expecting the release of Seenpoint #10. A couple of months passed since March 1999 (the ninth issue). I am sorry to say that eventhough you got Seenpoint #10 running now, it isn't Seenpoint #10 afterall!? Actually we had planned to make this a great jubilee issue with a huge "best of" part and the usual scene articles dealing with current topics. To make it short, all members of the Seenpoint staff lost big interest in the scene around mid 1999 for various reasons. Sane finished studying and started to work as lawyer which stole most of his time. Soda and Wade are still busy with studying. And that Fishwave-thing (I, myself and me) finished school and started civilian service in lieu of military service. Besides those "real life elements" we must admit that the scene in general has changed a lot, changed to the worse from our very personal point view. The most important thing, from my personal point of view, is that our hardware is not capable running the latest demos. I would have loved to check them all out and by this stay up to date informed. But you need more memory, a FPU or a better processor. Certainly there are many demos that would run on a 68030, but when I cannot see TBL's Rain because I do not have the memory, there is no point in watching any demos. You cannot run a mag when you know only half of what is happening in the scene. Believe me, it is no fun anymore to make a magazine writing about things you don't get really to see (demos). It's always been like this: demo - group (people) - story - magazine. That's the way scene magazines fill their pages. We aren't able to. Secondly: Where are the other magazines giving us competition? Except for the marvellous Eurochart (respect Depth & Iris!) and some Polish releases (but mostly in Polish language and therefore less interesting, ehmm) - there is NOTHING left, is it? There have been many articles in the recent Eurochart 39 about the downfall of Amiga magazines. I've been on the #1 article writer chart as well as making it to #1 with Seenpoint, so I can say something with experience backing up my words. I do not think that there is much hope for that subthingy "magscene". There isn't the quantity nor quality of writers left that's needed to make sure you at least stay on the level Amiga scener's have been used to. The Eurochart is the #1, no doubt, but the articles are far from a #1's magazines standard. I think Trashcan should be the most interesting mag that's left, in case it is still alive that is. Jurassic Pack is on the same level as the EC, but it's released once a year... so no comment. If all active magsceners joined forces and e.g. support the EC, I am sure it would be a great mag, but as I know how the scene works (or better: how it doesn't work), this is plain utopia. It's really hard to continue in the history of the Cracker Journal - Zine - RAW - ROM - Upstream - Generation and Seenpoint, those mags that have proved to be #1 on the scene. Please do not get me wrong, I do not speak about the demoscene in general but the mags. A good editor always gets the stories he needs to fill his mag. For example the comeback of TBL is worth a dozens of articles. Make a feature story, interview the people, go on thinking about consequences for the other groups, make some speculations (more releases etc.). Writing is so easy if you just know how. The writer makes the story. To come back to this "issue"... Of course there've been some articles written, most of them by Sane who, afterall, was the most active guy in the end. I started many stories, too, about Sonik Clique (we got very interesting comments from all the members), Mellow Chips, Scoopex, reviews of some demos and many more - but due to the low motivation nothing is finished for 100%. That's the reason why there are no articles at all in this "issue". Firstly there would have been so few stuff it's better to let it out completely and secondly most of the articles are way out of date (meanwhile). And for new stories Seenpoint is too "weak": Sane and Wade retired, Soda is inactive and I am lazy plus not well informed. Do I need to say more? Seenpoint #10, that's our very last sign of life on the Amiga scene. We got that fantastic titelpicture from Titan of Bomb, and this marvellous module from Racoon of C-Lous - we had to use it (sorry to all the other musicians for not using their work!). This is no regular issue, of course, but if things (especially in the scene) would have turned out to be more inspiring we would have been capable of making a real issue - that's what we want to show by kicking this out. I cannot remember any magazine to bring up the energy to announce their departure from the scene in a proper way as we're doing. Usually it's that "the next issue is soon to come" until you realize that it won't come. That's not our idea of waving goodbye. So is Seenpoint dead, you might ask? No, definitely not. Sane and Wade left the staff and the scene, but that was only in regard to the "Amiga magazine" Seenpoint. We're in close contact to each other and as soon as we get some new ideas we'll start co-operating again. We got our Internet presence www.seenpoint.de. Who knows, perhaps we make some information available online? Or release Seenpoint #11 - on the IBM compatibles!? There are many options. Seenpoint is NOT dead! It's simply that there won't be anymore Amiga issues. I really do not know what scene can offer us, perhaps it's also depending on the developments in Scoopex (by the way: Antibyte has not left the scene and Scoopex are alive! No doubt about that!). I think that the whole Seenpoint Staff had a great time on the Amiga scene and we like to thank all of you. Starting from zero and moving high up the chart to ranking #1 was a great experience. We hope to have delivered you several hours of entertainment. Never ever we'll forget those days putting our nose deep into scene scoops and stuff - the memories remain always in our mind. I don't want to lose more words here. I have written megabytes of articles the past years, enough is said. Hopefully the Amiga scene lives on and I wish there'd be some guys investing their time and energy in a magazine of extraordinary standard again - the Amiga scene deserves it! Goodbye Amiga scene! Fishwave, founder of Seenpoint Syntax, coder and backbone Sane, the most dedicated editor Wade, the "native speaker" Soda, coming too late (hehe) + Alhazred and Ghandy, the ex-members