Happy birthday to me
	Well, it's not quite my birthday, but this is the Centenary post of raww.org. Yeah, post number 100. Frankly I'm surpised I've lasted this long, but it's been fun (mostly) so far. Anyway, I had an idea a while back about T-Shirts. I'm thinking, to celebrate the event I'll do a t-shirt. You know, design one and sell it off at zero profit. Sound good? Oh don't worry, it won't be one of those self-promoting "aren't I lovely" things (well, maybe... <g>). The idea is to just do a kewl (retro) t-shirt for anyone who wants one. Ya dig? Well, I've had a few ideas for designs, but being a lazy, slack sod, I've not put pen-to-paper (or mouse pointer-to-photoshop, to be precise). Which is why I'm saying this now... it'll hopefully encourage me to do something. So, that's the plan... I'll do a few designs, put them on the site, and you can all vote for the best one. Cost will be minimal - if the t-shirts cost me ten quid to produce, that's how much I'll sell them for (plus postage). There ya go, it wasn't so hard :]
	[icabod] - 07/07/2000 @850

	Mo' Blah!
	Well, there's been a few news-bits over the past couple days, so it's probably easiest to shove them into one post, a'la: Well, I've had more of this damned GMX-info from both Mac Buster and Random. I'm going to skip what they each said, as I'm getting bored of the subject! Suffice to say, the GMX is an add-on board for the Scorpion that [does/doesn't] [exactly/almost] emulate a Pentagon with [0..100%] of programs working [not at all/perfectly]. There, I hope that's cleared things up <g>. Mebbe I'll come back to the subject [if/when] I get the system myself. I've also had more information about the AY-file-formats. Of coz, the .VTX format is simply compressed, hence the small size. What can I say, I'm still learning ;] Had an email from Yerzmyey about the party Beerever. Seems it was held last weekend, and much beer was consumed (of coz). I'm going to skip the details for now as I'm tired, but if more information is required, maybe Hellboj will release some photos of the partyplace before and after... so we can see the devastation caused by Speccy-freaks! Yeah! Finally, there's a sad post over on speccy.scenews at Chaosite. Seems that due to some "conspicuous" (can we say dodgy?) files, Random has seen fit to pull the plug on Virtual TR DOS. Okay, so the exact reason isn't stated, but you can get clues by checking out the still-active mirror. Of coz, rather than just losing V-TRD, we've lost the files section. Damn shame. ... and the next post should be a special one. Do a bit of rooting around and you'll soon see why <g>
	[icabod] - 04/07/2000 @960

	Blerk!
	Due to a distinct lack of "major" news today, here's some bits'n'pieces cobbled together from what I have (mostly from an email I received from Mac Buster -- but not all): First off, Martijn van der Heide of WOS is disappearing for a few weeks, so I'm not expecting any updates for a while. Of coz, I could be surprised, and he may have found someone else to do the dirty work. We'll see. More GMX info... seems that the emulation isn't quite like a real Pentagon. As I mentioned earlier, it seems more robust, hehe. But I want to know why we can't all use standard grey-case +2's, eh? On that note, if anyone has one for sale... <g> About my suggestion for a .AZX-player for the Spectrum, MacB says that the final files would be just too damned big, and require mucho processor power (more than the 3.55MHz we have to play with). Of course, I was thinking of the .VTX format (nice and small). Checking out the specs for .AZX, I can see what he means. It's the quality/filesize compromise. Good for "desktop"-players, tho'. Hmm. Lastly, MacB also pointed me to a (hopefully better) Russian online-translator, over at Promt. If all goes well, there should be less gaps in the news. Failing that, I'll just ask a few people to translate for me... it'll enhance the "community spirit". So, there ya go.
	[icabod] - 01/07/2000 @930

	.it's all going crazy!
	As you'll know from a previous post, I've subbed myself to a mailing list (ZX_Spectrum@egroups.com - check it out over at egroups). Well, most of the posts on the list are in Italian (and we all know how good I am with non-English). However, through the power of Babel/Altavista, I can get the general gist of what's going on. It was while doing this that I found this site, mentioned by Davide Barlotti. Speccy4ever looks to be in the early stages, but the ROMs section has thousands of Spectrum ROMs to download (note: I may be exaggerating a little). They can be used in emulators, etc, and include "bug-fixed" classic ROMs, Russian and other clones, and even ROMs for addon boards. Worth checking out, but I just wonder why none of the sites that offers this kinda service (Sinclair-Hotline is another) have ROMs for 8bc's MB02+ disk interface?!? Maybe someone should start!!
	[icabod] - 30/06/2000 @870

	ZX-Party-page
	Just got an email from WiLL about ZX-Party. There's a new URL for the site, and it's been updated a fair bit. There's still the application form, but now there's also a map to the party-place (Virtual Internet Cafe in Wroclaw, Poland), and some more information. I'll leave you to figure out the details... jump to it!
	[icabod] - 30/06/2000 @860

	Hungary for more?
	Finally tonight (phew, I'm tired), I had a mail from Richard Tarjan about... the GMX-board (you may remember this from previous posts about Scorpion/Pentagon info). Richard has written a "*very* comprehensive Speccy-hardware review in a PC-mag. It contains all recent Speccy-hw in 2000". It's all available online, but only in Hungarian (natch). I've not been able to translate it, but I can at least look at the pictures and read up on some of the specs. And he's right, it does look very good -- maybe some of the people on CSS should check this out to prove the Speccy is still alive [private joke]. As I said, the mail was about the GMX Mainboard, and here's a brief translation that Richard provided: " - GMX: Graphic Memory eXpander: It is emulating Pentagon with 90+% of success (95%?, 99%?-who knows the deepest secrects of a Pentagon...) - also emulates 4 other Speccy variants and the pure Speccy also - it has 2MB of RAM (2*1mb blocks) - new color mode: 640*200*16 (graphics), 80*25 (text) - CPU: 3,5/7 MHz Z80B, and 14 MHz is being developed " The more I find out about this board, the more I like it. <homer>Mmmm, new gfx modes</homer>. I also checked out the rest of the site (Sinclair-Hotline), and would recommend it to any Spectrum-fan (despite the lack of an English interface). It's one of those "browse-around-and-you'll-find-something-nice" sites. While I was looking, I found around 60(!) ROMs to download. Should be good for any emulator-writers. Anyway, I think that's enough for tonight. Have fun.
	[icabod] - 29/06/2000 @980

	Scenic route
	Raww Arse's very own LaesQ pointed me to another speccy-based .da.ru-site, this time under the ownership of Scene Team. It's another Russian-language site, but the rest of us can at least browse around and check out the downloads. Tho' having said that, content seems a bit thin on the ground in the Speccy section (heh, like I can talk). But check out the "our works" section for some demos and such. Anyway, I'll add a link to the bar on the right, and you can do your part by checking the site. I like it :]
	[icabod] - 29/06/2000 @970

	Board silly
	There's been a couple updates on speccy.scenews over at Chaosite. The first is about Born Dead, posted by unbel!ever^x7m. But more than that I can't work out, as it's all in Russian. And frankly Altavista's Babelfish translator isn't much cop when it comes to Russian. The other post is from Random. Seems he's set up a CC000 discussion board. You can head on over there and "ask everything you've wanted to ask about CC000 :)". So go do it!!
	[icabod] - 29/06/2000 @965

	WAP the hell!??!
	Couple little globs of news to delight you: Saw an update to the .AZX music format over on WOS. Mac Buster has released v1.03 of the spec. In case you're wondering, this is a nice little file-format for storing AY-tunes, to be played by the various AY-Emulators out there (my personal faves being vbAY and AY-Emulator). Anyone know if there's a Spectrum-based player about? It'd be kinda sweet. While I was ill the other week, I got bored of daytime TV and so decided to play about with WML, the markup language used on WAP-phones (I got one, see). Well, there's some setting up needed on the server, but I can view it, which is a start. There's not much there now, but if enough people want, I may add a small headlines section. Or something. You can check what's there by pointing your WAP-browser at /index.wml. Like I say, this is just a test, so let me know if it screws up. And before anyone starts... I know it doesn't work in the Gelon browser. That's a server-problem. Hmm. Gonna go grab some food. Enjoy.
	[icabod] - 27/06/2000 @835

	realbad Demos
	After a few quiet days, we can usually rely on Gasman to pop out some news. And sure enough, he's not let us down. Spotted news of another demoparty over on Demotopia. It's being held in Riga, Latvia, (wasn't Riga a horrid fruit drink?) and is ingeniously titled Demo 2000. We find out about it at quite short notice, as it's being held on 29th and 30th of July, clashing with CAFe 2000. This actually looks like a good party, with the emphasis being on PeeCee and Speccy competitions, although there's a distinct lack of a Speccy-gfx compo. Unless anyone's found a way of forcing the little devil to produce images of 640*480*256. Alas, if you want to look at the site you'll need Internet Explorer, as my Netscape kindly displays a blank screen. And before anyone goes on about Netscape being crap, it's coz the <frameset> tags don't add up. Kinda funny coz the website is designed by "realbad team". Ahem. If all else fails, jump straight to the menu and work your way around.
	[icabod] - 27/06/2000 @830

	Blaaagh!
	Okay, I had the day off work today, due to feeling a bit ill (some would say I'm sick already, hehe). But I'm not letting that stand in the way of news. So here's a couple more nuggets of information... Just missed the deadline for the last Blah!, but Relict/Phantasy mailed me to say that K3L now have a new member... him! Looks like their recent "member-search" paid off. Over on WOS I see that there's been a new release of ZX-Spectrum Navigator, a Norton-Commander-style browser for various Spectrum disk-formats, making it easier to skoot through those crazy .TRD-files. Also on WOS, I see a fix for a FAR plugin. The plugin allows the viewing of Spectrum disk-formats in FAR (by Eugene Roshal, the author of RAR archiver). FAR is a Norton-Commander-style... uhm... am I the only one getting deja-vu? Enjoy your sweets.
	[icabod] - 22/06/2000 @830

	If AY be the food of love...
	...then get busy with this. Spotted an update at Demotopia following up on a little "argument" currently flying around comp.sys.sinclair. Seems there's some argument about which is better, music on the Spectrum, with it's lovely AY-chip, on the C64's SID. Of course, C64-freaks stand by the fact that the SID sounds better than the AY. Well, Gasman's helping to settle the score by posting a few "classic" AY-tracks on his site, among them some demo-tunes by X-Agon, TDM, and Raww Arse's very own LaesQ. When I checked there earlier, the "grab the lot" link was duff, but hopefully that'll be fixed by now.
	[icabod] - 22/06/2000 @825

	The saga continues
	Got an email from Random over at Chaosite regarding the "differences" between the Russian machines. Basically, he pointed out that the GMX is 100% compatible with a Pentagon 128, and when it was used at CC999, it ran all demos perfectly. Heh, it didn't even crash (unlike a real Pentagon ;]). So, seems like a good choice for demoparty's... assuming you have access to a Pentagon to start with, of coz. ... and there's the rest of us with just plain-old Spectrum's - aah, life can be hard. Anyway, I think that's all cleared up now.
	[icabod] - 21/06/2000 @900

	Ban this filth!
	Or rather Banner it. Just had a URL submission for the ZX-Spectrum Banner Network, a kind of banner exchange scheme. I had an idea about something like this a while back but hey, someone beat me to it <g>. I've added a link to the right, but alas the page is in Russian (natch!). However, via the skill of deduction, it's easy enough to get the information needed. I'll see about having a play when I'm more awake.
	[icabod] - 19/06/2000 @995

	SpeccyAL back on track?
	Just a short note to say that there's been a happening over at the SpeccyAL site. Richard Nash, who was going to continue work on the emulator, has given up the project in favour of his own. So Stephane has moved back onto SpeccyAL, and hopes to have a bug-free v0.75 released this summer.
	[icabod] - 19/06/2000 @990

	[Amusing Cafe Joke]
	Just noticed that, in the last hour-or-so, the homepage of the CAFe 2000 party has been updated. There's a couple new links added, a new upload email address (for competition entries I can only assume), and a change to the rules. Seems that they're not allowing the use of Java or Flash in the webpage compo. So, nothing really affecting us, then.
	[icabod] - 18/06/2000 @545

	ISA-bod?
	Got a mail from Davide Barlotti about a project to create an ISA-card with a Spectrum on it. Or rather, a spectrum clone. He found the news from the mailing list: ZX_Spectrum@egroups.com. I've subbed myself to the list, and I'll pass on more info as I find it. It seems like a good idea, but with emulators becoming so good, why is it really needed? And if I wanted to run a real spectrum in a window, I could use a TV-card. Hmm. I think a more useful add-in card for a PeeCee would be an AY-based soundcard. Yeah <g>! Davide also pointed me to a site I've noticed before, about the Spectrum +3e. Now this seems like fun. Replace the ROMs in a Spectrum +3, and after building a simple IDE interface, you can access standard hard-drives. This has been done before, but now, you can use them simply as extra +3 drives. Mmm, sweet.
	[icabod] - 17/06/2000 @595

	Room for a Phat one?
	Well, I got wind of this earlier this week, but have only been able to update today. Well, that's beer for ya. Phat0 now has an "official site". Well, there's a textfile available with info, anyway. The party's to be held in Liepaja, Latvia, although a firm location isn't yet decided. And neither is a date -- just sometime in August or September. Competitions will include the usual Intros, Demos, Music, and Graphics, on platforms including Speccy (yay!), C64, CPC, etc. There's a load more info on the page, so go check it out. Thanks to Egons for the news.
	[icabod] - 17/06/2000 @580

	Time for a Blah!
	Here's just a couple things I thought I'd fit in before bed (oo-er): Congratulations to WOS on winning yet another award, this time a "Critical Mass Award" for the "...talent and effort required to construct and maintain an entertaining, useful Website". Well, WOS is definately both of those things. Tho' looking at the past winners of the award, maybe it's not as prestigious as I first thought ;] After the weekends "events" on #z80, it seems that things are back to normal, including getting kicked off the channel for using a pound-sign twice (really -- it's illegal, you know). I'm about to get an MB02 disk interface, oh yes. Not heard of it? It works kinda like a +D, but with the advantage of emulating the tape-loader, and so much more besides. Check it out over at Sintech (there's another link to add...) In a chat I had with Relict of Phantasy, he asked if there was any chance of me starting a mailing list, with details of news and updates. At the moment I don't have the time... after running this site for a few months, I have a lot of respect for people like Blue, Redwood, and Billy 'Wicked' Wilson, who run PeeCee-Gaming sites. It's a difficult job (but ultimately fulfilling). However, while the mailing list isn't going to happen just yet, I can always try to make your stay here easier. So, I want some feedback. If there's anything that you'd like to see, mail me. One idea I've had is to highlight anything that's new since your last visit, making it easier to see what's changed. And does anyone actually like the little "@123" below the updates? Or would you prefer me to put the real time, a-la "21:00 GMT+0100"? Let me know. You could even hassle me more for the mailing-list ;] Well, that's it. I need sleep. Have fun surfing.
	[icabod] - 13/06/2000 @955

	Spectrum SE(xy)
	The homepage of Spectrum SE (codename:Chloe) has just been updated. Not a huge amount seems to have changed that's really worth noting, tho' you can now go and check out the various new screen resolutions. And there's also a photo of the circuit board on which the whole thing will be based. Anyone who's ever opened their Spectrum should recognise it. Nostalgia? My arse!! The Speccy is alive and well! Hoorah!
	[icabod] - 13/06/2000 @935

	Oops, correction...
	Yesterday's update missed out on a mail from Mac Buster. I updated before I had read all of my email (I know, but we live-and-learn). It was relating to the fact that at CC 000 they'll be "emulating" a Pentagon on a Scorpion. MacB sent me some info about it that I thought I'd pass on to you (non-techies, look away): " Well, about 'emulating' a Pentagon ROM. This is not correct. The Scorpion is not a very good machine for demomaking for some reasons. One of them is strange CPU instructions timing - all instructions are rounded to next even t-state (11 to 12, etc). And this makes less t-states per video frame, so all demos written for Pentagon will look 'a little strange' on that machine - everything will be played twice as slow. Scorpion authors, after a years of scream that Scorpion is the best machine in the world and it is "much" better than any Pentagon, released a small board called "GMX" which turns your Scorpion into... 'Pentagon 128' =) However it is not 100% compatible with a Pentagon, there are some restrictions which do not allow some programs to work properly. I think they did it to show 'how bad is Pentagon, and how good is Scorpion' in its native slow mode (w/o GMX). Btw - Pentagon has 71680 t-state per frame and there are no any memory contention mechanism (all memory is always in FAST mode). " Okay, you can come back now. Basically what MacB was saying is that the Scorpion isn't quite emulating a Pentagon. It's more a case of semi-converting it into a Pentagon. Confused? I wouldn't worry about it. He agrees with me about the oddness of using BAC stereo, tho'!!
	[icabod] - 13/06/2000 @930

	More?!
	Spotted an update over at Virtual TR-DOS relating to emu-updates. They're a bit behind with news on RealSpectrum, but they've brought to light yet another Spectrum emulator called, uhm, Yet Another Spectrum Emulator (catchy name). Seems like it's upped to version 0.7 (back around May 22nd, according to WOS). At some point I'll get around to adding this, and other emulators, to Emu-Watchtm. Tired of waiting? Then mail me and tell me to get my arse in gear! V-TRD also reported on a couple more Speccy fanzines, so go check it out. [Note - any mistakes in this post are the result of me not speaking Russian]
	[icabod] - 12/06/2000 @835

	Op-Wars
	Well, got back last night from a weekend visiting some of the other Raww Arse guys. During my stay at Bogie's house, I observed what I can only call Op-Wars on the usually placid #z80. It started off as a slag-match between a few "old friends", and ended with the takeover of the channel by Zilog and Tick. Of course, it was all in good fun (ahem), with everything eventually just going... kinda dead'n'quiet. Aside from almost getting my entire ISP banned from #z80 (when I wasn't even on the channel), it was uneventful, but funny. If all goes well, we may even have a transcript of it in the forthcoming SE#3. I just wonder if we'll ever see Tick'n'Zilog on the channel again, after Dep/Pht gets hold of 'em!!
	[icabod] - 12/06/2000 @830

	Collapsing Buildings
	The problem with using a web-checker is that you only see changes on the pages you check. There's something to be said for the occasional "surf". I was just skimming around Chaosite when I happened upon an English version of the rules for CC000. You can jump straight to them here, and luckily I only missed this version by a few days. Well, at least I can still blame my "time-off", eh? No? Oh well. There's not really much to point out, but anyone wanting to enter into the multitude of Speccy competitions should bear in mind that they'll be running on a Scorpion, which will be emulating a Pentagon ROM. Also, it seems that music will be in BAC-stereo, as opposed to, hmm, ACB. Anyway, fly on over and check it out.
	[icabod] - 07/06/2000 @900

	Just my luck
	It's typical. The day after I post news about ZX Spectrum SE, the site gets updated, and vast amounts of info changes. I'll leave you to figure out what's new, but suffice to say the CPU spec has changed, now defaulting to 3.5469MHz. Hmm, you think they heard me? <g>
	[icabod] - 05/06/2000 @850

	Pentagon-beater?
	I was looking through CSS when I saw a post about the ZX Spectrum SE, and decided to finally check it out. It's basically a project to create a new Spectrum. Highlights of the list of features include: software-setable CPU speed (4MHz or 8MHz set by an output to port xxFDh) new video modes via a ULA-replacement built-in ACB stereo PS-2 keyboard support bug-fixed ROMs It's based around a standard grey +2 circuit-board, but still, I have a couple problems with it. The main one is that it doesn't appear to be backwardly compatible in terms of speed. Shouldn't we have a 3.55MHz option in there? Or am I missing the point? Either way, if I can use my ergo-keyboard with a spectrum, it's gotta be a good thing!
	[icabod] - 04/06/2000 @600

	Oops
	Lesson 1 in keeping a news site is simple : if you're going away, let people know beforehand. Well, I've just returned from a week away, but luckily (!?) there hasn't been much to report on anyway. So I'll fit what there is into a single news-shot. I'd do more, but I'm off out to a stag-night soon. Hoorah! Beer-a-plenty! So first things first, Gasman over at Demotopia reported that the recently finished Radwar 2000 party, well... isn't. Seems that there weren't enough entries for the competition to take place, but hell, you can read about all that on the party-page, right? Also, on the subject of Demotopia, the host, UK Online, had a hardware failure so the site may be a bit "odd". Right now, it jumps straight to the party-page when I go there. Hope Gasman doesn't have too much work to do uploading all those demos again. I also got an email from TDM of demogroup K3L. The cybernet.cz url to access the K3L site won't be updated soon, as the team are moving over to a newer, faster server. You can find the site at http://perseus.zlin.vutbr.cz/~tdm_k3l/. That's it I think. In case anyone cares, I was up in London all week, with the focal point of my trip being a Porcupine Tree concert. And damned fine it was too. Hmm. C'ya.
	[icabod] - 03/06/2000 @720

	All change at the Cafe
	Well, not quite all change, but there's been an update to the rules of the CAFe 2000 party being held in July. Frankly I'm not too certain what the actual changes are, but you can check them out at the official party-site. There's also the addition of a guestbook to the site, where you can go and, uhm... sign it!
	[icabod] - 28/05/2000 @585

	Al's revenge
	Some good news regarding the SpeccyAL project. Seems that a guy by the name of Richard Nash has stepped forward to continue work on the emulator. There's no extra details yet on the homepage, but I'll keep and eye on it and let you all know of developments.
	[icabod] - 28/05/2000 @580

	Fits in nicely, thanks
	Thanks go to Gasman over at Demotopia for pointing me to a post on X-Agon's Message Board regarding the replacement for this years missing Doxycon. Alas, the post is all in Czech (natch!) but the details we can make out are that Kaplicon 00/2, as it's called, will be held from the 4th to the 6th of August, nicely overlapping uber-party, Assembly 2000. Looks to be 100% Speccy-based, much like ZX-Party 2000 being held later that month in Poland. Hmm, August looks like being a damned busy month. My only/main concern is, with all these parties, the entries into the competitions will probably "thin out", and Spectrum-based attendance could well be low. Surely it'd be better to have, say, two BIG parties a year, about 6 months apart. Just my opinion.
	[icabod] - 27/05/2000 @735

	...or, alternatively...
	Well, after another quiet period, we have some news. Spotted an update over at Demotopia talking about a (new) demoparty, the upcoming 2 Alternative. 2 Alternative claims to be the "black sheep of computer parties", and the first seems to have been a haven of obscure and retro machines, and this will probably be no different. It's basically anti-PC. Hell, the demo competition has only two rules... size must be less than 5Mb, and it can run on any machine - except a PC above a 386! Other competitions include the "Source Code Graphics" compo, where working source-code must, essentially, look nice (!!). It's certainly an interesting idea, and I think it's ideal for lovers of Speccies (and other retro machines -- hehe, should spark off some wars - "waddya mean the C64 is better than the Speccy???" <g>). The party's to be held in Helsinki, Finland from the 7th to 9th of July, and there's a list of international contacts on the party-page. As an aside, and not totally speccy-oriented, if you're interested in retro-machines and gaming, then I heartilly advise a purchase of the latest issue (83) of PC Gamer. It'll set you back a fiver (or whatever it costs elsewhere), but is worth the money for the free book by Jon Smith, "Contruction Complete?", a complete history of gaming. It includes references to, among others, the humble Speccy, and the parts it/they played in making PC gaming what it is today. Makes for enthralling reading if you're a geek like me. (for non-UK people, check that you actually will get the book before you part with your cash, eh?!).
	[icabod] - 25/05/2000 @880

	Hmm... Blah!
	Couple little news-chunks tonight. First, I've added a link to the homepage of Extreme demogroup (thanks Mac Buster). ... and there's an update over at Demotopia. Gasman has added another 8 demos, mainly party-releases, tho' there's a release from way back in 1998. Seems that there are still demos lurking under rocks that Gasman doesn't have yet <g>. He's also updated his party-pages with info on the recently held Paradox 2000 and Millennium. Finally, as a break from demo-land, I've included a link in my parties list (to your right) to the brainchild of Hellboj, BeerEver 2e3. Basically, it's a chance for regulars (and irregulars, eh?!) to #z80 to meet up and, well, get very drunk! Alas the page in all in Czech, but if you contact Hellboj, I'm sure he can help you out.
	[icabod] - 17/05/2000 @855

	3.. 2.. 1..
	Ops, mebbe there's more news this evening after all. I've just seen a post on X-Agon's Message Board that ZeroTeam now have a new website. Nice, simple design, go check it out.
	[icabod] - 16/05/2000 @890

	Al Gone
	Only a small bit of (sad) news this evening. Just seen this update over at the SpeccyAL site: "I have some bad news for you, Speccyal lovers ... I have decided to focus on my social life instead of programming, for many reasons. [snip] My wish would be that someone would continue my project. Any candidate (if you do so, drop me a line) ?" Well, it's a shame that this project isn't being directly continued, but the source code is there for people to grab, so maybe someone will take up the gauntlet. I'm tempted to myself, but with all my other projects... hmm...
	[icabod] - 16/05/2000 @885

	Millennium Results
	Damn. I was just about to go to bed when in my final check, the results for the Millenium party appeared over at Virtual TRD. So here's a quick rundown: ZX Game Compo 1 - Stagger - Fenomen 2 - Hamon IV - Minisoft ZX Graphics 1 - Butterfly - RMG / RMG 2 - !!! - !!! (check the file) 3 - Girl at Work - Jorg / Selected Realms AY Music 1 - Light Future - DJ-SerG / ACL 2 - Still Alive - Flyer/R-Age/Psycho 3 - Zemphira - Mast / FreeArt ZX 4k Intro 1 - Frost - Fenomen 2 - Mylene - Demiurge Ash 3 - Fatal Error - Serious Ravers You can check out the full results by clicking here. Time for bed.
	[icabod] - 16/05/2000 @015

	Chicken-Egg-Chicken
	Well, Paradox 2000 finished a while ago, but checking the offifial site, there's been no releases of Speccy demos (or have I missed something). So, with a little of my help, Gasman set about finding and converting some of the demos. I've not noticed an update on Demotopia, so instead I'll put up some files here: Zool 4k Intro/FS/DHG Whim 16k/Accept and Nature 16k/FS/DHG So far, this is all we've converted to friendly .TAP files, although I have the music in some obscure Russian-clone-format (well, it's obscure to me <g>). If anyone wants it, I'll be happy to send it on, tho' it's probably safer to wait until it's been converted. Enjoy.
	[icabod] - 15/05/2000 @940

	Aaaay! For Real!
	My setup is simple, see... NetDetect monitors my connection, and as soon as it see's me go online, it fires up a heap of apps. ICQ, EzPOP, and Wake-Up. Oh, and my newschecking app, Website-Watcher. And lo-and-behold, WSW notified me that super-emu RealSpectrum has had an update. So, without further ado, here's a few choice details... Includes new support for 16K, +2A, +3, and Scorpion 256. Great speed improvement, over 30% faster. Heavy Z80 core changes. 48K multicolor timings. Ability to disable contended memory. Screenshot saving in BMP, SCR, PCX and TGA format. AZX and YM music recording. Tons of bugfixes. Note that, because extra models of Speccy are supported, it's important that you go and download the new ROM files, too. Also, there's a note in the update info highlighting the fact that only original speccies (ie, not clones) have contended memory. Gah! Did you have to bring that up?! All in all, it's a nice-looking update. I'm just off to queue it up now.
	[icabod] - 15/05/2000 @935

	Utter Chaos
	Small note to mention that Random over at our affiliate Chaosite has been "playing around" with the site, and has made a couple nice changes. These include allowing users to set preferences of how they view news item. Or if you don't set preferences, you get random colours, etc. Nice... but I just hope it doesn't play havok with my news-checker. Looks like I may have to spend even more time surfing <g>.
	[icabod] - 11/05/2000 @900

	Jim Morrison?
	Spotted a post over on X-Agon's Message Board, relating to a new file-system for the Spectrum, MS Doors. Although it's not really demo-related, I've been skimming through the site, and this little system by Ascendancy Creative Labs looks kinda nice. Of coz, as with so many Speccy sites today, it's all in Russian, so I can't really tell many of the details. Looks like it's TRDOS-only, tho'.
	[icabod] - 10/05/2000 @920

	Strong, black, one sugar...
	Thanks go to Gasman for this link to the homepage of CAFe 2000 Demoparty (and yes I know the link says Cafe 99). Although there's no location for the party yet, it's to be held on the 29th and 30th of July, and the party-plans are already drawn up. The only parts of the party relating to the Speccy are the Demo and 4k Intro competitions, tho' I'm sure entries on the Spectrum will be accepted into the Wild demo compo. Surprising to see no Spectrum-specific music and/or graphics competitions, as they're usually the ones with the most entries for our humble 8bit machine (which in this case will be a Pentagon). You can check the full rules on the official site.
	[icabod] - 10/05/2000 @915

	...
	So much for a party-day. Just seen an update on the homepage of SpeccyAL. If you downloaded the source earlier, it may be worth re-getting it due to a missing file. The binary release has been made slightly more stable, too. So go get it!
	[icabod] - 08/05/2000 @925

	Which came first?
	The party or the results? Of coz, it's the party, don't be stupid! And to prove it, the results of Paradox 2000 have been released, very soon after the party itself. Spotted it over on both Demotopia and Chaosite, but just for the sake of it, here's a listing of the first few places, too... ZX Graphics 1 - S51 - KASik / Sinclair Club 2 - pivbar - Disabler / DPL 3 - bimbos - FS/DHG/PZS ZX 16k Intro 1 - Whim - Accept Corp 2 - Nature - FS/DHG/PZ ZX 4k Intro 1 - Zool - FS/DHG/PZ ZX AY Music 1 - Disco - Cj Leo / Coders'Academy 2 - Autumn - Kenotron / Scene 3 - Cuber - FS/DHG/PZS There are a bunch of other results too, including PeeCee demos and the like. You can view the entire list over at Demotopia or grab them from the official website, here. It's just a shame that there weren't more entries in the ZX Competitions. Ho-hum. On the subject of parties, you may notice that Millenium has changed dates, to the coming weekend. I didn't really notice, as the only news I've seen regarding the party has been in Russian. Well, you know now. Just hope you didn't rely on my little calendar to plan your parties <g>. And in an effort to make today completely party oriented, it's my duty to mention this post on X-Agons Message Board from Factor6 : "Doxycon 2000 will NOT held. If somebody make it, we all will be happy. Don't expect anything from me (and ex-ESA)." So. If anyone's looking to go to Doxycon this year, get organising! From the reports I've heard, Doxy is one of the better parties to visit. But then, what would I know, eh?
	[icabod] - 08/05/2000 @920

	Where in the World?
	The other major change today is that WOS has moved. You can now find it at http://www.void.jump.org/. As a part of this, the pages for X128 and Warajevo have changed, but seeing as they haven't been updated for yonks, it's of no concern to us, right? So, time to change the links... damn! As an aside, I apologise in advance for any mis-typings here. I've been out on the piss today, and it doesn't help to have a "natural keyboard". Send any corrections to the usual address and I'll get right on it <g>
	[icabod] - 07/05/2000 @915

	Amusing SpeccyAL joke
	First off today is the release of a new version of SpeccyAL. It's "just a WORK IN PROGRESS, it's just a taste of things to come", so I'm expecting a few errors within the code. But for the sake of filling up some space, here's the major updates Support for Neil Breadley's excellent MZ80 cpu core Added AY-3-8910 sound directly taken from MAME Beeper sound code has been recoded Added a sound preferences dialog box tested on a NT 2000 box Released the source code So, I'm happy to see the source released, since I'm a bit of a code-monkey myself. And it's working on Win2k, too, which is nice. Depsite a previous post, it's kinda nice to see two Z80-cores available in this emulator. Gives the user the choice, and so on. There are a couple small problems with this release, but frankly, I can't be bothered to detail them here (see above).
	[icabod] - 07/05/2000 @915

	If in doubt, BLAHG! it...
	Yep, it's "Blah!" time again, simply coz I can't be arsed to write several news items. So here goes... AY-Emulator has had another update, with the release of the second 1.5beta. Sergey has also updated his archive of Tracker Music, bringing the total to a staggering 2170 songs. Not bad for just under a 2Mb download. On the subject of tracks, Project-AY has had an update, with mo' music. Currently the demo-tunes account for 231 tracks in the archive, according to the site. To find out if this is true, we'll just have to download it! Not demo-related, but it's kinda interesting -- seems that Capcom have refused distribution of their games (among them Trantor, Bedlam, etc). Oh, because they make so much money from the Spectrum market now!!! Suxx! Ho-hum. I think that'll do for now.
	[icabod] - 05/05/2000 @935

	Reflections in A flat
	Quick note to say that I've just spotted that WOS have mirrored the DemoTunes from Project-AY on their FTP-site. Of coz, Project-AY is already on the WOS servers, but now the tunes are sorted alphabetically, making it easier to find the classics. Axel-F anyone???
	[icabod] - 03/05/2000 @930

	insert amusing "FAQ" joke
	Well, the first update of May appears to be a happy one. I just spotted an update to the css Sinclair ZX Spectrum FAQ. There's a few changes been made, some of which we're expected to find out for ourselves. But of the ones we are being told about, it's the updates to the list of emulators that matters to demosceners. Other than that, it's worth a download even if only to keep the latest version on disk (thinks... "I must remember to go through the FAQ and steal/borrow their list of emulators")
	[icabod] - 02/05/2000 @870

	Back with a vengeance
	... and a new demo! Seems that Denis of Cassiopeia, who released Eye of the Beholder way back in 1993, was surfing the web and came across a bunch of demo sites. Shocking as it seems, he discovered that the demoscene is alive-and-well, and proceeded to make a new music demo called Power of Love. This little bit of news comes from one of the "inspiring" sites, Demotopia, where you can go to grab the demo. On another note, I've had a mail about last nights update regarding the AY Emulator. Seems I got the URL wrong (hell, I just did a cut-n-paste from WOS -- mebbe i screwed it up <g>). The article has been updated, but if you can't be bothered to search for it, then just click here for the correct link.
	[icabod] - 29/04/2000 @075

	Never saw it coming
	Today also brings with it a new release of the sneaky emulator, Z80Stealth. There's a stupid number of updates in this new version, so I'm just gonna highlight a few of them here: Updated AY-3-8910/YM2149F emulation - very near 100% quality ABC and BAC stereo modes added Sound engine (for SoundBlasters) updated up to 4 Betadisk/TRDOS drives are now supported various z80 core rewrites opcode timings corrected fixed .TAP and .z80 loading There's a load more, so pop on over and find them out.
	[icabod] - 27/04/2000 @920

	Blah!
	There's a few news-items today, so first the smaller of them: AY-Emulator has been updated according to WOS. The new version is 1.5b, but I can't tell you what's changed coz the official site appears to be dead (or rather... disappeared!). But grab it from WOS-Utils anyway. On the subject of "down sites", WW-Ramsoft is giving a "403 Forbidden" (zero access rights), meaning we get no news on RealSpectrum. Let's just hope this is only a temporary set-back as well. And on a happier note, May 11th brings with it the birthday of Chaosite, one of the raww.org affiliates. Nice... I wonder if we'll reach a birthday!?!? There, that wasn't so bad, was it!?
	[icabod] - 27/04/2000 @920