Well, Radwar 2002 could have been announced ages ago, but it's only just appeared on Scenet. This, if you'll remember from previous years, is the non-computer party, supporting all platforms. Does that make sense? It's all done via video, methinks.
Anyway, the date listed is "Summer 2002", which is nice and precise.

A very interesting post has appeared over on c64.sk, from Tomcat\Greenroom. And yes, it does involve us, not just the C64 scene.
A book is being written, titled "Freax" about the history of the demoscene, covering all platforms including (and I quote) "smaller scenes like console, Sinclairs, ..." Huh? Smaller scenes? Check Demotopia to prove that wrong.
Either way it looks interesting, and you can check out progress at the Freax homepage. You can even check out some of the work that's already been done.

Also, fill in the survey, and remember to mark yourself as a ZX Spectrum-user... we'll show them... small scene indeed.
But... what's this anti-Netscape crap? Hmph. Perhaps I should switch to Mozilla -- confuse the hell, eh?!

Another couple emails from Ricsibu about the status of his ongoing project to document all of the Speccy's (current) hardware. A whole bunch of things happened over the last couple weeks with the Hotline team, so here's a quick (eheh) rundown:

• Ricsibu updated the main site with the image gallery.
• Also included in each update are several new items of hardware (see, the ZX isn't dead).
• In November, Ricsibu will be holding a seminar in Budapest, all about the Spectrum's history, at the ELTE University.
• Laszlo Nyitrai, has made English versions of his games, soon to appear on WOS. Do a search for "nyitrai".
• The team, led by Cozi, are to start work on a new ZX-Clone. Details aren't concrete yet, it could be a European Pentagon, or perhaps something brand-new.
• The founder and maintainter of Hotline, Balazs Kardos, has been working hard updating and improving the main site. It won't be long 'til it's available in full English.

Hmm, so a lot of stuff going on. Check out both the original Sinclair Hotline, and the latest version of the hardware page.

Well I got a mail from LaesQ that he's converted the rather massive "Exception" demo movie that I posted a little while back. He's converted it into two new formats, so you can pick size or quality. Alas I can't currently get to it. Hmph. I'll get something sorted out soon, and let you know when the bandwidth-friendly version is available.

Ay, it's late again, and I'm rather tired. Shock!
I've been away the last couple nights, so there's a bit of news to catch up on. I'll leave some of it for tomorrow (it almost is tomorrow), and for now I'll just put up a few nuggets:

• Phat1 : saw over at c64.sk that at least one of the entries in the compos had been altered (by the organisers?). You can grab the real version over there.
• Old Computers : I'm sure you've seen the site "Old-Computers", well they're currently looking for people to help out, mainly by writing articles. Heh, isn't everyone?
• UnrealSpeccy : Do SMT ever stop? According to DJH, they've released v0.12 of UnrealSpeccy, featuring speed optimisations and videofilters.
• ASC-ii v2 : Over on POS they've announced the rules to upcoming this upcoming party. Worth a look if you're thinking of going.
• ZpiXel : Noticed this on Scenergy -- it's a ZX Scene Graphics resource. Looks interesting, but I can't spot the link. Perhaps I'm missing something obvious. When I find it, I'll give it out here.
• Update : An update from the above... seems the C64-image that was "altered" in fact wasn't, and the correct version still appears in the archive.

There. Now I really need sleep.

POS have posted a new utility on their website, written I think by Himik himself. It's a tool to convert Advanced Sound Master modules into Pro-Tracker modules. I confess, not being a musician myself (I can prove this by pointing you to any demo that contains my music), I'm not familiar with ASM, tho' I do know a little about Pro-Tracker. So, if you're an AY-Scener, then check out the program.

As the headline says, the full results for Phat1 have been posted to Demotopia along with the downloads. There's also some preview screen$ of the winners in each class (apart from the AY-compos -- screen$ of music can be rather dull <g>).
I must say I'm disappointed with Gasman, as I was expecting him to make sarcastic comments about the early-ness of the results release <g>.

As some of you may know, FBI over at Sintech helps to produce a German ZX-based magazine over in, uhm, Germany. This has been going on for 7 years, and is rather popular it seems. Of coz I've never seen an issue, as I don't speak German. But that could be about to change. Here's the man himself:

" At present we are thinking about an English version of the magazine as well. In fact we want to produce the German mag as we do it now and when our work is finished we send the text to somebody to translate it and after translation we will print the English version. This just means the English version will take a little longer than the German, but on the other hand, German and English-speaking users have the same magazine.
We are just searching for somebody who do the translations. Maybe you can ask on raww.org. "

So that's what I'm doing. If you feel like contributing a little more to the scene, then get in touch with FBI over at Sintech, or send me a mail and I'll pass it on.
<font size="-1">[note: forgot to mention that the 'zine is titled "SUC-Session"]</font>

Thanks go to Hally for mailing me to tell me his site, VORC (the chiptune site), has moved to a new URL: vorc.org. In addition to this, the news is now coming out in English, making it much easier to follow for us monolingual Brits. And also for any other non-Japanese readers.
The site covers the chiptune-scene, which of coz includes the AY. Noice.
And hey look, we have a button for them, too.

Speccy4Ever has had an update containing a new, German version of the 48k ROM, written by Andrew Owen (he of ZXSE fame). My guess is the only change is the language.
There's also, apparently, a new photo of the Kay 1024 clone, so if pictures are your thing you should go look.