Well here is our eighth edition of this warez publication.
Basically we are always looking for Artists and Writers. If you want to join, please send us a sample of your work or provide us a site/URL to view your work along with an E-mail address.
To state to the scene, we are a news publication here to bring you the lastest in the scene, whether good or bad. It's best to keep everyone informed even the lamers.
We still receive mail from far and wide - let it poor in with any complaint you might have or comment too.
This was a piece of mail from last week but our other reviewer, Avalon Blue had a comment.
Unfortunately - Jimmy Jamez ran into a few obstacles and was unable to get his report in on time. Nevertheless, you can pick up from where Jimmy left off with next week's issue.
* All complaints/questions send to: dod@ns.extech.msk.su *
---=[ 3. Games Warez Report - Ionizer ]=--------------------------------------
***** Since This Section Is Large, It Is Located here. *****
---=[ 4. Reviews ]------------------------------------------------------------
| PBA Bowling |
Reviewed by Avalon Blue |
|
This is a very nice bowling simulator for Windows From Bethesda Softworks. I had downloaded the demo quite some time ago was eagerly awaiting the full release, since I'm a bowling fan and there's so few bowling games available for the PC.
The graphics in the game are perfect. The main window shows the bowler and lane from behind, exactly as you would see if you were sitting behind him keeping score. This is where the animation takes place, and it too is top-notch, with a little window
popping up showing the bowler's reaction to a strike or gutter ball. An automatic scorecard occupies another window, and two more windows show the bowler's lane markings and a close up of the pins.
The entire effect is much like Links386 Pro even down to the way the ball is thrown, with the familiar power/spin wheel. The sound effects are entirely appropriate, with an audible difference between knocking down a pin or two and nearly getting a str
ike. The amount of power also has an effect on the sound, as gently rolling the ball down the lane produces a more muted sound than whipping the ball at full power. I really found this to be particularly well-done and it's a perfect compliment to the gr
eat visuals.
After a painless, hassle-free installation, you get to choose and name your bowler, his or her clothing color, ball weight and color, and the level of difficulty. The difficulty levels are beginner, intermediate, and pro. I always choose beginner lev
el for games like this until I get the hang of things but I quickly found that on this one, beginner is much too easy. I could literally stand in one spot and bowl strike after strike, so I bumped it up to pro. I soon found this setting to be a bit too
hard because in addition to the power I was putting on the ball, I also had to quickly set a spin level. Most of my balls were going into the gutter. I backed off to intermediate level and, like Goldilocks and The Three Bears, this proved to be just rig
ht. There's a little bit more time to adjust the power and spin before release, and controlling the ball was not nearly as difficult. It was exactly the right combination of challenge and ease of play to make the game enjoyable.
I highly recommend PBA Bowling to anyone who, like me, has been waiting for a good bowling game for their computer. I can't think of anything about it that I dislike and the great thing about bowling is that everyone knows how to play, so this is an e
specially good game for parties and get-togethers.
|
|
|
| Destruction Derby |
Reviewed by The Black Knight |
|
This latest Psygnosis title brings rock'em-sock'em fun to a scene filled with too many racing clones. Players can choose from three general modes of play: Stock Car Racing, Wreckin' Racing, and Destruction Derby.
Stock Car Racing and Wreckin' Racing provide a selection of up to six different tracks, ranging from the city streets to the ocean. Each track provides its own quirky twists and turns, along with appropriately designed scenery (look out for Lemmings s
tanding on the side of the road!). The visual presentation of the game rivals the style of Sega's "Rally Championship," complete with a camera which whirls around to give different perspectives of the track. Play was smooth on a P75, however, an option
menu allowed items such as trees and smoke to be toggled off to salvage processing speed at the expense of esthetics.
I found driving in Stock Car mode to be somewhat constricting, and downright frustrating at times. It seemed as though the cars weren't designed for doing much besides going straight, so drifting into the barriers at every turn became frustrating. Th
e real racing enthusiast won't find much solace in this mode. There's no tweaking of RPMs, the cars are provided as-is.
Wreckin' Racing is where the fun begins. It looks just like normal stock car racing, expect this time you better plan on creating a few fender benders if you plan on winning! An icon of your car appears in the lower right hand corner of the screen al
ong with six different sensitive points. As you continually get smashed, the icon turns from green to red - indicating you're close to biting the dust. Interestingly, you can drive around the track backwards if you like - but the head on collisions are
killer!
The Destruction Derby is one of the most innovating features I've seen in PC racing for years. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen any destruction derbies for the PC. You and about twenty other cars begin on the outer perimeter of a large bowl. As
soon as the flag is dropped everyone pumps the accelerator and sets their sights on the enemy. Terrific sound bites add to the enjoyment of pulling off a particularly crushing collision. You'll hear the announcer exclaim, "Whoa, what a hit!" on many oc
casions. You'll even hear the opposing racers retort when you hit them: "I'll get my revenge!" You race until your vehicle simply can't take any more punishment. The winner is chosen based on a point system - the better the hit, the greater the point v
alue.
Each of the three modes (stock car, wreckin', and derby) allow you to compete at difficulty settings ranging from rookie, amateur, and pro. In addition, when you've completed a race, the game allows for a playback of the previous match. You can save
replays of your favorite struggles to the finish line, or even save the smash which won you the derby. During the race the announceroffers a hardy "That will make a good replay!"
If you're tired of the same boring racing simulators, grab a copy of Psygnosis' "Destruction Derby" for a rush.
|
---=[ 5. Interview - Orion - PWA Founder ]------------------------------------
INQ
Why did you retire from PWA?
Orion
I retired because my work was done. With the help of the council and many other people, we got PWA to the top and remained there for quit some time. So they didn't need me to hang at the top anymore, they can make and have made thier own desisions o
n the group and what is best for the group for the last year. Let the council get the credit, not me for the work in PWA now
INQ
Did the awareness of the crackdown on NTA members influence your decision?
Orion
I decided a few weeks before the Mikeysoft incident. Just was coincedence the day after Mikey gets popped - Oh I meant to say he was in a coma, I retired. I spoke of the retirement with Rambone and Blackie before hand and against their better judgem
ent I retired. You get tired of doing something day in and day out for 8 years, need a break sometimes.
INQ
On the NTA subject, you mentioned that there was an internal narc in NTA, where is the truth to this?
Orion
Rumors are floating, yes. I need not say who the rumors point to, it has been all over the scene already. I meantioned it because of coincedence of the chain of events, that's all. If asked to be in a court of law and produce evidence, I can not.
Only gut feelings, and that is enough for me.
INQ
Back to PWA - Who runs PWA now?
Orion
The Council and the Sr Members do. The council has the final say but its a democracy as it has been since its founding almost 4 years now.I never ran it as a dictatorship. That's not my style.
INQ
On the SCuM merge, how did that affect PWA? Meaning - looking back before SCuM and after the merge.
Orion
Effect is - it only made PWA more of a force in the scene. Before SCUM PWA was on its full group hiatis. After Blackhawk's accident and bust we decided to take a well needed vacation. Then the chance came to me for a PWA/SCuM merger and I went with
it to get new blood and good people into PWA. I believe it worked out well.
INQ
Why does PWA allow people to idle in their group for a long time?
Orion
Laugh! Depending on the person. If a person has busted thier ass for a long time and has done enough things to make the group a better one, they are intitled for a vacation. This is only a hobby, not real life. The other ones are just passed over,
we don't catch them from lack of communication which is a problem with a large group at times... But that is up to the Council and Sr's now
INQ
As a retired member of such a respected group, is there still a threat to you although you do nothing but play Monopoly?
Orion
Threat as in Law - No not at all, and there never was. FBI has been to my house many times, they come and have coffee and we talk, they get frustrated and leave. Can't bust someone just for talking about piracy. That's all I did. I just pointed pe
ople in the right direction and offered my experience to those that wanted it, real simple. And for the record, Monopoly lost its flare after two weeks. :)
INQ
Do you still play a kingmaker in the scene although you are retired?
Orion
Kingmaker, no I wasn't when I was active why should I be now. I kept to my group and only my group, didn't nor did I care what others were doing. Played around with the other leaders of the groups telling them takeovers and things like that, but me
as a kingmaker, no. I get respect from the people that know what I have done and accomplished with PWA; that's all.
INQ
Do you think that an internal power struggle will bring down PWA? 5 Council people - there should be some conflict
Orion
No, I choose the people in Council because each one is good at a certain thing and together they complete a whole. They are adults not kids and all know this is a hobby.
INQ
PWA has been around for four years which has gone through it's worse and better times, what lies ahead for PWA?
Orion
Hopefully just alot of fun, that is what is was formed for and that is what it stands for. I would like to see it remain at the top, but if they go down to releasing 10 megs a month it wouldn't matter, as long as old pirates can have a place to call
home and get away from the blood thirsty competition then I will be happy.
This interview was conducted by Raptor on December 2, 1995.
---=[ 6. Articles ]=----------------------------------------------------------
Pixar Corporation
Pixar was originally a small computer animation based company, it was later bought from ex Apple Computer co-founder Steven Jobs. Jobs had originally paid well over 10 million dollars for the company, which is now as of November 29th, traded publicly
on the NASDAQ stock market. What does this mean? In a nutshell, Pixar is making over a billion dollars in revenues' thanks to their little wonder, "Toy Story." Many of you might realize that Pixar is thecomputer software company that releases mega hits
on the computer software graphics market such as Pixar Typestry, versions 1 through 2, in current release for Microsoft Windows.
The movie "Toy Story" was created on over hundreds of Sun Microstations incorporating the latest SPARChip Technology in the time span of 3 years. Many users of high-end graphics programs such as 3D Studio and Caligari trueSpace will see that there are
three axes to these images, which exist only as mathematical formulae. They have width, height, sides and backs. The animators have pinpoint control. The characters' lips are seamlessly matched to the actors' dialogue.
As the best fully computer animated feature length film created by Pixar studios, "Toy Story" fully exploits the power and potential of such computer power only rarely seen at the cinema (however there is a Saturday morning cartoon show that is also co
mputer animated called "Reboot", it airs on ABC at early Saturday mornings). It was ["Toy Story"] created by members of Pixarcorporation and with some creative help from Disney both teams were lead by director John Lassater. Lets find out a little bit m
ore of Pixar's billion dollar gold pot, "Toy Story".
"I'm Buzz Lightyear, - Space Ranger.", was what Tim Allen said for his character role "Buzz Lightyear" in the movie hit, "Toy Story". Besides Tim Allen, the movie also employs the talents of Tom Hanks, multi-Academy Award winner as the role of "Woody"
the leader of a small pack of toys in a little boys room. The movie scenario goes along as Buzz Lightyear is the new toy on the block, who thinks he is really human and a "Space- Ranger that can fly.Woody is greatly troubled by this as his position as l
eader might be usurped by Buzz. Towards the end of the film, Woody and Buzz become pals and try to end the evil ways of the neighborhood bully of toys - the average weird kid next door.
Mercury
Also , look out for disney's web page on www.toystory.com forsome awesome screen shots of the film!
Net vs. Boards - Write-In Reply
If I may I'd like to comment on the Net vs. Boards issue brought up in a previous INQ. Now I may be incredibly nieve and certainly don't claim to be an expert in all warez issues, but it seems to me that the scene (especially the Net scene) needs some
central body to deal with releases and eliminating dupes.
Now I know you maybe thinking "Just what we need another guy spouting the praises of centralizing/unifying the scene" but really that's not what I mean. On the contrary I think competition is the driving force behind the scene and I don't believe this
body/commitee should have any real power other than determining which group get's credit for a release. In reality this might help to reduce dupes if all the groups were aware of their competitiors releases. Perhaps this commitee could consist of the e
lders from all groups wishing to participate. The commitee (assuming those egos could co-exist) would keep each other apprasied of releases and hopefully create an official if not friendly lines of communication between groups. This way a release to the
Net has equal status to a release to some WHQ board. I'm sure many of the big races would still occur on major boards, but a Net release would carry equal weight assuming it was reported to and verified by the commitee.
Well that's just my 2 cents! Of course if everyone feels like Raptor ("As far as I am concerned, if I receive one groups' release before another then that "other" is the dupe") and doesn't really care about dupes, then a committee would be a waste of
time.
-Dazed
This possibly could work, but with all greta solutions that have been thrown at the scene - it just would not work properly. First, a committee of sorts would have to be outside leaders and group members due to bias conditions. Jimmy Jamez, not to rag
on him, is extremelt bias, so he would not qualify as a judge but he is one of the top leaders of the scene. Most games group now hardly get along. I like to see FanFan and The Renegade Chemist on the same committee.
Second, if groups are doing "devious" tricks to each other to get a release, what makes a person think that they could not fool a committee into believing their release is out and workable. This committee is almost a 24/7 day job along with much need
to test software. Can't forget about the fakes and non-workable releases.
Lastly, a good group will hardly ever dupe. Many groups have people who call two or three different places to dupe check. Then there is the art of ripping properly and cracking. All this is ran like clockwork and if a committee is an obstacle, then
it will definetly not work. Especially if you have to report to them.
---=[ 7. Internet ]=----------------------------------------------------------
INQUiSITION has a World Wide Web page site. Please come by and check it out. You can grab the Previous issues of INQUiSITION there plus the WWN archives.
INQUiSITION
http://www.hooked.net/users/tails/inq
Here is list of other excellent pages:
DOD
http://spl.co.il/zino
Razor 1911
http://ionet.net/~razor/razor1911.html
Pantera
http://grove.ufl.edu/~racjam/pnt.html
The Review Board Online
http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/~wdaddino/trb.html
If your group has a WWW page, please leave us a note and we'll advertise here.
---=[ 8. Announcements - TDUJam and Company Retire ]=-------------------------
Hello there,
Just wanted to drop a line to announce that TDU-JAM! officially retires from the Scene.
Why? Mainly because the leadership has to face up real life and think about what the future holds for them outside this dreamworld.
But also because we hoped that everybody would follow the example and mold their priorities on getting quality CD releases out there. All there is besides us is a bunch of obnoxious and frustrated characters who serve only their delusion of grandeur w
hen ripping games.
Our personnal goals (to be the best, and shut-up the pretences of our competition) were met years ago with the dominion of PENTAGRAM and GENESIS, and TDU-JAM just follows in the line of outstanding achievements. We have gone way beyond our wildest exp
ectations.
We've worked hard for your benefit, and in fact, way beyond the call of duty. We are sure that you have enjoyed our work. Good luck for the future, but we have to move on to other things now.
The Digital Underground ceases to exist as such as of now.
Fanfan la Tulipe & TDU-J! bid the Scene farewell. The handle and the Label are retired.
Fanfan la Tulipe,
Wayward,
Werner & Tardy.
We still like to announce that our good friend, Pieman needs support. Please contact his business if you have any hardware needs.
High Speed Tech
718-833-4949
Located in The Bayridge Section of Brooklyn New York
---=[ 9. Weekly Releases ]=---------------------------------------------------
Well, Lurch here again with yet another warez list. This is is not as complete, and done in a much shorter time. (Within 2 hours) So you can understand why the holes are there, and why its all screwed up. INQ has been having a few co-ordination pr
oblems lately, so unfortunately this part is pretty low on the priority scale compared to some others. Sorry about this, I can only promise you that we will improve.
Special thanks have to go to StudSter who provided us with the release list on such a short notice. Though the list is not complete, I can assure you that the major releases of the days are listed and accounted.
| GAMES |
APPS |
| [ 2nd ] |
[ 2nd ] |
| Carmen Sandiego Deluxe Edition |
|
Romance Of The 3 Kingdoms Pt4 RCD |
|
| [ 3rd ] |
[ 3rd ] |
| Hooves Of Thunder TDU |
|
| Shannara RCD |
|
| Riddles |
|
| MW2 Ghostbear Legacy TDU |
|
| Bermuda Syndrome |
|
| Battles in time RZR |
|
| [ 4th ] |
[ 4th ] |
| Flight Sim Toolkit Update |
CDR Publisher v3.61 PWA |
| Civnet Update |
Dr Solomons AntiVirus v7.54 |
| Pressure Drop for Win95 CD |
HeapAgent for NT Cracked PWA |
| War Craft 2 HYBRID |
Fund Manager v1.0 win95 |
| Hi OCtaNE CD uPdated New Tracks |
Master VB4 2nd Edition |
| Planet Siege ROR |
ORCAD PCB 386 CRACKED |
|
Ray Dream Studio Release |
|
VisualBasic 4.0 |
| [ 5th ] |
[ 5th ] |
| IceBreaker for Win RCD |
Jump Kids Kindergarden |
| IceBreaker Full Resolution HBD |
PagMaker v6.0 Full Rip 95 |
| 360 Points |
Dec DCE WinNT |
| Intel Proshare 95 |
Pmaker 6.0 Final Cd |
| Studio Audio Workshop v5.1 |
Groupworks v1.0a |
| Agent v.99c PWA |
Digital Dead SS |
| ACAD Library #2 |
Family Online Guide 95 |
|
Hallmark Card Maker Win95 Win |
|
MS ODBC |
|
Tech Data Catalog December |
|
Tech Data Catalog November |
| [ 6th ] |
[ 6th ] |
| Tel Aviv Scenery for FS 5.0 |
Visual Voice 32bit TAPI Win PNT |
| Jack The Ripper HBD |
Word Secuirity |
| Haifa Scenery for FS 5.0 |
Lotus word pro 96 RBS WORKING |
| Island Casino RCD |
ACAD Library #2 |
| Virgin WorldOne Atlus Interactive |
Asymetrix Web 3D v1.0 |
| Trophy Bass Outdoor Sportsmen Win |
Caddy 11 |
| Hodji N Podji |
Ray Dream Studio Textures |
| DiME CiTY CD DESiGN |
Rhinocom for os2 |
|
Software Compatibility Test NT |
|
Ray Dream Studio Models EIRG |
|
Partition Magic for OS2 PNT |
|
Microsoft Backoffice SDK Final |
|
Nashville Build 999 |
|
December NAV 95 update |
|
Lan Workplace 5.0 DOD |
|
Lan Workplace 5 Floppy DOD |
|
Hodji N Podji |
---=[ 10. Top 5 Boards ]=-----------------------------------------------------
These Boards were rated by their peers. The number is comprised of LD traders who frequent boards. If you believe this rating to be incorrect, send in your ratings or give them to a trader that can get them to me. Please, do not submit ratings in if
you do not frequent boards.
Scores are based on percentile up to 120
Top 5 Boards
| Park Central |
109 |
| Beyond Akira |
59 |
| The Wall |
47 |
| The Digital Underground |
19 |
| Street Spydrs |
15 |
Others: 2112 (13), X-Factor (12), State Of Devolution (10), Southern Comfort (9), Snake's Place (8), Last Rights (3), Warp Zone (1)
---=[ 11. Closing ]=-----------------------------------------------------------
Another issue is produced to the masses.
Hopefully you enjoyed this issue of INQUiSITION. We have plenty of interviews to cover and other other topics to touch. If you wish to join INQ - please send us your EMAIL address and a SAMPLE.
If you want a subscription to INQ, E-Mail: lurch1@intac.com
INQUiSITION will have weekly meetings on Wednesday's at 9p Central.
| The INQUiSITION Newsletter Staff: |
| Raptor [Editor] |
Lester [Editor] |
| Other Members |
| Avalon Blue |
Cyberphreak |
Darwin |
GFK |
Ionizer |
Jimmy Jamez |
| LoTuG |
Lurch |
Mercury
| Mr. ZigZag |
Operator |
Riot |
Letters to the Editor.....Raptor & Lester
Games Warez Report........Ionizer
Reviews...................Various Writers
Interview.................Raptor - "Orion - PWA Founder"