disc.font,8

ac
c1*** THE SCENE OF TODAY ***
ac
c3BY ZEROX/GODS
as
c6WHAT'S c7HOT c6AND WHAT'S c7NOT...  c6IT'S TIME TO COMMENT SOME SCENE-TENDENCIES.

c5What's happening with our c2precious scene? c5Is it any different from earlier?
Well... yes, the latest years a lot of things have happened and the scene is
changing very rapidly. I'll write about some of the c2changes c5and what's going
on.
Some years ago you found hundreds of c2adverts... c5and the address you were
suppose to contact was more than often a c2po box. c5I've myself had a po box
up and running since 1990... first IRIS NHQ, then IRIS WHQ, D.I.S.C HQ and
Gods WHQ and now... not much... it was closed in July 2000 because the
post office was closed too. Well,
I guess there isn't much point in having a po box and the rest of the
scene have found this out a very long time ago. What's happening?

There are c2less software companies c5and therefore c2less new amiga games. c5There
are c2less crackers c5and the illegal scene is getting smaller and smaller.
There are c2less sceners c5and above all c2less swappers, c5less stampfakers and
less illegal activities in general... so what's the point in having a po box?
Why not use your own home address instead? It's really as simple as that.

Hmm... why are there less swappers? That got something to do with less
sceners as a lot of people have lost faith in the amiga because of the
lack in development during the last 7 years. The reduction of sceners have
especially hit the swappers very hard because it seems like they're not
as needed as before. Why? Well... it's pretty obvious. By modem you get
all the productions faster and the latest years c2internet c5have totally
taken over. I think approxiomately 80% of the sceners have internet access
and get all the productions they want via internet. We can communicate
via c2IRC c5through conferences... like c2#amigascne c5etc. It's faster and it's
cheaper! However, the traditional swapping is more c2fun.

c5The old c2pixel art c5is vanishing too. From 1996/97 c2photoshop c5and similar
programs have been used to develop high quality pictures. Sometimes they
are actually too good. There are some sites on internet which show some
original drawings and the copies from the sceners... and erm... some look
mysterious like c2scannings c5to me.

As for coders... personally I think the best moments of c2hard coding c5were
a few years ago. The 2-3 last years we have seen these boring 3d engines-
demos, and of course lots of c2p! The innovative hard-code effects are not
that important anymore. The same kind of routines have been c2recycled c5alot
lately.

The "latest" years c2less productions c5have been released, but they've been
far bigger and better than the productions "before". Another thing is that
the productions released usually get out at c2parties. c5It's probably because
the makers want to earn some bucks, perhaps spread their stuff better and
see it at the big screen. It's only natural when sceners spend so much more
time to create something than earlier. As for the parties themselves, they
have surely become c2more professional... c5some are more like money machines 
than parties arranged by dedicated sceners. Of course there are some exceptions
though, like c2TRSAC, the Scene Meeting and Kindergarden c5for instance.

Then there's the fact that the average c2scener is much older c5than 5 years
ago. I guess most sceners have participated in the scene for many many
years. It got something to do with the c2bad recruitation - c5low number of
new sceners. It's again very natural when the amiga is not known as THE
game machine anylonger. PC and other platforms like Playstation and
Nintendo 64 have taken over. The consoles.

We also have created a c2divided scene...  c5every time new equipment hit
the marked, some are left behind because they choose not to c2upgrade.
c5First it was the A500... but most people could afford the small amount
of extra memory. I don't think anybody quit the scene because of that
upgrade. However, when the c2AGA machines c5came a lot of sceners didn't
upgrade and time went by and most of them have left the scene completely.
No fun when you can't even read a mag without having an AGA machine.
Today it's these c2acceleators, extra memory and fpu. c5First you only needed
4 MB of extra memory... a small acc.card. Now you at least need a 1230-50Mhz
card to see some demos, a lot of extra memory and you probably need fpu too.
Where will this end? The scene will loose some more members soon... those
who still haven't upgraded and bought the latest acc.cards nor enough extra memory.
They still can't see demos that require fairly powerful computer equipment.
And now it's the c2PPC c5which is hitting the scene hard and will exclude even
more sceners. It's popular among sceners in the eastern Europe, but not
that popular in the western countries.
Nevertheless, the PPC was not such a success as first expected.

And right before Christmas, the c2OS 3.9 c5got launched. The new
software, c2AmigaDE,
c5is unique as you can run it on almost all machines available (yep, also PC),
but c2AmigaONE c5is also the first amiga hardware in years. It's a single-processor card
which you can upgrade the 1200s or A4000s to run the new software. This is definately 
a more revolutionary move than going from ECS to AGA! 
With this card, c2new opportunities for demo-making c5will appear. The entire concept
will change radically. As the host machine can be so different, the speed and timing
will be a challenge. And above all, we may get a c2joint scene! c5Perhaps the PC and
Amiga scene will join forces to produce the c2best demos c5ever? In any case, this will
be quite different from the current scene. And what happens then? Some stay behind
of course to create oldschool productions. I'm sure even more c2hardcore amiga
sceners c5will quit the scene then.

Ok, this was only a few of the c2scene-tendencies c5the latest years and a
vage prediction at the end. We'll hear a lot more about that in the
future.



e

