ZX-Party photos
	Well, it's reached post 200, and to celebrate, I'm releasing my photos from ZX-Party 2000. Yeah, this way it'll seem that I was saving the photos for the 200th post, and not simply being lazy! Hoorah! Anyway, I'll leave the details, as you've probably already opened up the page and aren't paying any attention to my ramblings. If you want to use these photos anywhere, then please go ahead, but I'd like to know where they're being used, so that I can mention it on the page. Also, if anyone else has photos of any parties, or even just something interesting (Speccy-demo-related), then let me know too.
	[icabod] - 15/10/2000 @715

	Scenergy button
	In case you haven't noticed, I've added a button over there on the left. It points, as is suggested by the image, to Scenergy. I suggest you go over there and take a look... after checking out the next news article, that is. Thanks to Arty for the button.
	[icabod] - 15/10/2000 @705

	BGE v2.33
	Scenergy spotted that a new version of the Burial Graphics Editor has been released. v2.33 is mainly a bugfix, so I'll leave the details. Pop over to Scenergy to grab the file.
	[icabod] - 14/10/2000 @655

	CSS FAQ change
	Update your bookmarks, the CSS FAQ has moved. I guess it's a result of the old host "buggering around", resulting in some downtime. Mind you, it brought about a few new mirrors, which can't be a bad thing. The new URL of the FAQ is http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~pak21/cssfaq/. Stop over if you have a spare few minutes.
	[icabod] - 14/10/2000 @650

	Blah!
	Couple things, just to get them out of the way on this quiet day: I've finally added DJ Fist to the members list on the left. Hope everyone's there now. Note that changes to this list are only on the main page for now. I'll re-write the rest of the pages when "the change" goes ahead (ahem). Demotopia has put up details of the two forthcoming "events", Final Shoque and Spectrumania 2k. Scenergy has another update of the CC000 results, this time a clarification of the 4k intros. Now go upstairs wash your hands for lunch.
	[icabod] - 12/10/2000 @870

	RealSpectrum rumours
	I've heard from a number of places some rumours about uber-emulator RealSpectrum. I don't want to give any clues away as to things to expect in the forthcoming beta8 apart from saying that I've been informed it'll be released in a few days time. No, most of the information I have is relating to the not-even-thought-of beta9. First up, Davide Barlotti is minus a Scorpion right now, as he's lent it to the Ramsoft team to allow them to better emulate this machine. I've never seen any major problems with the Scorpion emulation, but then I've never had a real Scorpion to compare it with. The results of this could see themselves in either of the upcoming betas. The next rumour is of more interest to me, and perhaps a lot of the European scene. Work on Beta9 will commence right after Beta8 is released, and one of the items supposedly on the agenda is support for MB02. If you don't know this interface then pop over to Sintech for some tech-info. It really is a dream interface, with support for tape-emulation on disk, DMA, IM2-while-loading, ... and now it might be included in an emulator at last. Perhaps we'll see a few new users of it out there now. I should finally remind you that these are rumours... hopefully they're true, but maybe they're not. If this is the case... hassle Sanchez for the features you want <g>.
	[icabod] - 10/10/2000 @875

	Blah!
	In the middle of todays main posts, some gumption: Seems that ZXBN-guru Minisoft has had a slight accident. He's suffered from (now where was that translation?) dislocation and a fracture in his right hand. I'm making none of the obvious remarks (you're good at that yourselves), so I'll leave it by sending out a "Get Well Soon". Slight update of the CC000 results over at Scenergy. "Surely worth it's own post!!", I hear you cry, but it's just a slight update, clarifying the 14th place in the Alternative Music competition. You want to know who it was? Go find out, you know I usually only cover top-3's <g> Scenergy has also had a couple game-updates, which I'm only mentioning as one of them is called Pussy. It's not available for download on the site yet, as it's only an early beta version. Looks like, as of tomorrow, Eternity Industry, who wrote the winning demo at CC000 (Dogma for those who forgot), are 3 years old. Happy birthday. Ork of LFG has had a nick-change. He's now called Screamer. I would comment that this will just confuse people, but I'm guilty of the same thing a few years back. Those last two news-nuggets were courtesy of Scenergy. Never let it be said that I don't give credit where it's due. Virtual TR-DOS has had an update, again with a huge list of zine's for download. But there's also an MP3 of the track they released at CC000 (for the non-existant MP3-compo, it seems). Raww Arse is now joined by Namco. Actually, he's been a part of RA for a long time, but I'm slack, and have only just added him to the email list. It's done now. If you're wondering why him, Kolbeck and DJ Fist are not listed on the personnel page yet, it's because the site will soon be having a dramatic shift, and I want to wait until that's complete before updating old stuff. Good excuse? I think so. All of it newsworthy, but crammed into a tiny space to save time.
	[icabod] - 10/10/2000 @865

	Old-Skool demos
	There's been a bit of a discussion of late over on X-Agon's board about "Old-Skool" demos. For those of you who are already lost, old-skool demos are the ones from "way-back-when", with scrollers, and raster-fx, and sprites, and... you get the idea. The discussion is scarily intelligent (it's not just "Old-Skool roxx" and "Old-Skool suxx"). A large amount of it focuses on the over-use of Chunks (you know, the grey-scale fx that were amazing when they first appeared), and that perhaps, Old-Skool demos had more heart to them. I'm not certain which side of the fence I'm on. I like Old-Skool demos (just check my entry to ZX-Party 2000, K-22 - Bobs... how much more old-skool do you want?). But I also can appreciate the direction demos are taking using chunk-fx. It's also good to see groups moving away from chunks, especially the Russian groups, who can do these fx nicely on their souped-up Spectrum clones. I've had ideas for demos using both Chunks and Old-Skool FX. Seems that I'm just going to have to balance precariously on the barbed-wire fence for now. Go have your say.
	[icabod] - 10/10/2000 @850

	Blahg!
	Finally for this afternoon, a couple little dollops of news: MacBuster pointed out to me that the previously-mentioned HRip is an archiver, not a compressor. Confused? It's simple, and archiver packs up a bunch of files, a compressor squashes a lump of memory. I blame it all on the translation-engine. Scenergy have full details of the results of CC000, but the only change I can find is the addition of PC and Amiga results. If this is your kinda thing then pop over there and grab them. And while you're there, you can check out the new stats page. No, it's not a place to find out Arty's bra-size, it's just a way to find out who's actually reading the page. YaSE has had an update to v0.8a, and I've also added it to my emu-list. There you go. I'm off to find some Flash work I did about a year ago. Go play.
	[icabod] - 08/10/2000 @630

	ZXBN Enhancement
	Well, after the downtime from last week (it didn't actually last very long), ZXBN is back up-n-running, and has had a few additions to the setup. Aside from some new buttons available for linking (you can see one on the left), there are now 3 supported sizes for buttons-and-banners. The standard banner (470x60) is still available, of coz, but now you can create banners of size 100x100, and buttons of 88x31. Looks like I may have to redo my buttons (they're a little "off"). Anyway, the members page has been split up into "size" categories, and each list is continuing to grow rapidly. If your site's not listed, go get designing!
	[icabod] - 08/10/2000 @605

	Spectrumania 2000
	Missed this one in CSS, so thanks to Gasman for pointing it out. These are some selected cuts from a post by FBI: " Welcome to the new century: Spectrumania 2000 in Germany 25.11.2000, Opening at 10.00 o´clock, Open End As there hadn't been so much meetings in Germany this year, some worried about the Spectrumania. Keep cool, guys, the Spectrumania will be like in all the last years!!! This time it is a little bit later the year, but we thought it is a very good date, as there seemed to be no other Spectrum-Shows worldwide in November and this will make it possible to everyone to visit the show. Again we will have no special Demo-Competition this year, but we plan to organise some other competitions to test your knowledge about Spectrum. But there could be also some spontaneous competitions like when some Game-Players like to compete against others, which is very usual at the Spectrumania. Also we will have a big special surprise, so be patient and come to the Spectrumania. " Well, although it's not a demoparty, it could be a good chance to meet up with some other Speccy-fans. It's a one-and-a-half-day event (if you include the evening before the meet) held in Sindelfingen, South-West Germany, near Stuttgart. There's a whole load on information about getting there in the full post (a copy of it is here). If I wasn't so busy at work, I'd consider going myself. You can mail FBI for more info.
	[icabod] - 08/10/2000 @590

	Demoscene and CC000 reports
	There's a post over on speccy.scenews from Unbel!ever\X7M regarding the demoscene and inparticular, CC000. You can download two reports on these subjects, in .PDF format, as printed in Russian 'zine, World of Internet (note: I think that's the correct name). The demoscene report serves as an introduction to the scene as a whole, followed by a special on Chaos Constructions. The full magazine is on sale in Russia now, for those who can get it. I should mention that the reports are probably in Russian too -- I'm about to find out when the downloads complete. Just a short note to mention that there's now a voter-stats section to Gas13's webpage. Not related to the demoscene reports, but it fits in here nicely, and yet again I'm too tired to do more work.
	[icabod] - 04/10/2000 @980

	Phat 0 update
	You've no doubt seen a few things about the recently finished Phat0 party. Well, pop over to the official post-party section of the site for the latest on the releases and results. Or rather not. Raver is keeping "hush-hush" about the results for now (as we've seen with CC000, it's a good idea to wait until the results are ready, before releasing them). And as for releases, "perhaps you'll have to wait a bit more for the releases. Or maybe we'll release everything together - let's see.". It's worth a read through the press-release, with even some comments on how the party could be heading next year. Time to roll up a phat-one!
	[icabod] - 02/10/2000 @990

	CSS FAQ down
	Seems that everyone is experiencing some downtime tonight, with the next contender being CSS FAQ, possibly the most useful resource for anyone interested in the techie-side of the Spectrum. I'm not entirely certain what the cause is this time, although I've read a post-or-two on CSS from Philip Kendall, the FAQ maintainer, and he's not best pleased with the situation. Anyway, if you're suddenly desparate for a quick techie-fix, then you can check out any of these mirror servers (note: they're not all listed here): http://www.void.jump.org/faq/index.html http://www.tjornov.dk/spectrum/faq/index.html http://www.phys.uni.torun.pl/~jacek/zx/faq/index.html http://www.kcsu.org.uk/~pak21/cssfaq/index.html http://www.thespian.demon.co.uk/cssfaq/index.html http://retro.zensoft.net/cssfaq/ Hopefully the main site will be operational soon.
	[icabod] - 03/10/2000 @970

	Notes
	I don't really like filling up posts with a bunch of "Blah!"s, but sometimes it's the only way to post news without taking up a massive amount of space. Some things just wouldn't seem right unless bunched with other news-bits. So, on that note: The wonderful guys over at Scenergy spotted a new Spectrum emulator available for that popular gaming platform, the Dreamcast. So now you can use the overpriced doorstop to play Manic Miner, as well as check email, play games, and look at internet porn. The linked site (Emulatronia) is in Italian or something, but there will surely be another emu site with the download on, and easier to find. Also reported is a demo of compression program HRip 4. Not sure how it compares to other compressors, as it's stuck at the bottom of my vast download queue. So you can do the hard work and check it out for yourself, over at Scenergy. Another slightly Scenergy-related thing is that Gasman pointed out that K3L actually beat them to using one of my buttons. Why didn't I notice? Well, I have WSW set to hide images. Heh, I really should pay more attention. Zikes, who you may recognise from #z80, has mentioned his website to me a number of times, so it's about time I added a link. It's in the PC Demoscene section for now, for want of somewhere better to put it. Check it out. A final note to say that changes are afoot at raww.org. I'd tell you all now, but that will spoil the surprise. Suffice to say, things will be changing for the better. Hmm. Now onto slightly bigger posts.
	[icabod] - 03/10/2000 @945

	ZXBN down
	Quick post to mention why I've removed the banner from my page (it was just below the news). ZXBN is down in a big way. The proxy is currently broken, meaning that any page displaying a ZXBanner will not show. Instead you'll be treated to a lovely ZXBN Error page. I'm fairly certain it's not just an error on my side, so I've removed the banner. I'll let you know when the situation is rectified. I guess the problem stems from using a redirection URL for the network, but I could be wrong. Certainly a proxy error indicates something like this, and I don't use a proxy so I doubt it's affecting just me. Anyway, I'll post more news later.
	[icabod] - 03/10/2000 @850

	Buttons
	Lastly tonight (phew! I was planning on going to bed about 2 hours ago), I notice that Scenergy have been sporting a very fetching link-button. Yeah, it's the first known use of one of my link-buttons! Suit's you sir! It fits in nicely with a competition they have set up for scene artists to design buttons for the Scenergy site. As soon as a winner is decided, I'll plop the button on my page. And who knows, I could try and slip one of mine into the compo, to see if anyone notices <g>. So, get out your easels (oo-er) and get painting for scene kudos!
	[icabod] - 03/10/2000 @020

	Final Shoque competition
	A new competition has been announced, named Final Shoque, organised by Triumph. It's a graphics-competition, with two main categories: Technics - technically stunning. The category for pictures to make you go "oooohh". Visualize - in a nutshell, sweetness. This is the category for pictures that make you go "aaaahh". Okay, I hope you followed that. I'll put up some more details when I get a chance.
	[icabod] - 03/10/2000 @010

	Another long weekend
	Well, I've been away for the weekend again, so I've got some catching up to do. Seems that everything went crazy from Friday morning, so here's a few nibbles before the main posts of the day: A couple links have been added. The first is for the Anestis World, the Greek Spectrum Fan Club. Here you can find various downloads, and information on the long-going Sonic the Hedgehog project. The next link is to DJ Hooligan's download page. It's another of the many Russian pages, this time with... uhm... downloads! You can find there party results, a few demos, some tools... Go check it. On the subject of Russian pages, I notice that Scenergy has added an English section. I'll still continue to monitor both news pages, just to make sure we don't miss out <g>. The first post on the new page is about Phat0, the full details of which can be found in another post. Over on ZX Banner Network you can now take part in a vote over whether ZXBN is necessary or not. A kinda strange concept. The vote-sheet isn't on the english page, but it's worth checking out the vote options simply for a laugh at computer-translation. This should be food for a bigger post, but the updates to Sergey's Micro Speccy .AY-player are only few. That's not to say they're not appreciated, with a Z80-emulation fix and added beeper-mode. A new alpha-version is available for download. "Don't hurt me!!!" - just spotted this mentioned a couple minutes ago on #z80. It's some photos from CC000. Go look at some scary people <g>. Soon I'll put up my photos from ZX-Party 2000, along with a write-up (if you're lucky). Then you can laugh at how funny we all look! Hurrah!! A couple additions to X-Agon's page. First up is a section for conversion tools, easing your transition between Spectrum and Emulator. And a search-engine has been added to the message-board. Also, a post mentioned a player for SQT music. Additions to normal players are effects like fades, etc. Getting serious for a moment, over on Brutal Creators webpage, they have posted a tribute to Ded Smirnoff, who died recently. Last for this section is an update from V-TRD. Click on the "press" link at the top of the page, and you can download a whole host of new 'zine's for your reading pleasure.
	[icabod] - 02/10/2000 @955

	CC000 at Scenergy
	More updates from CC000 over at Scenergy. Looks like the gaps in the production-list have nearly all been filled, and with that the gallery has been updated with this information, too. Not much else to report on tonight, it seems, so I'll leave you all to it.
	[icabod] - 27/09/2000 @925

	Blah!
	It's "icabod-be-slack" time again, as I squish a bunch of news into a small space: Sergey 'AY-Emulator' Bulba has produced a new player, entitled Micro Speccy. It plays the .AY files that AY-Emu doesn't handle, and this early alpha version sounds great to me so far. The 180K player can be downloaded from the AY-Emu page. After a long time resting, Virtual TR-DOS has been updated. Nothing much of interest yet, tho' you can download a photo of people getting drunk. Hurrah! (note: I also fixed the link to VTRD) I confess to not closely watching Samara, but I just happened upon some news relating to ProTracker, or rather to a new editor named "Minimal Tracker". My translation of Russian is both crap and computerised, but the basics are this... you can download new PT v3.5, and there's a heap of info about MT, but I couldn't spot a download. Get in there if it's your thing. Finally, I got an email from illegal about the results of the recent competition... PHART0. Here's a quick rundown (cut'n'paste job): 1) our swedish fruinde!; 2) depredator; 3) gf of the owner of 1st place; 4) relict; 5) me; 6) hazard who took part remotely. Heh. I kinda hope this is a joke ;] That's it, I really have to get some sleep.
	[icabod] - 26/09/2000 @965

	Party Reviews
	Just a short update for now, tho' I expect as soon as I post this all the Phat0 releases will come flying out (a side-note... Yerzmyey has sent out a couple releases already (by Gasman and Yerz, which you can grab here and here). Anyway, back to this post. SS\Anubis has updated his reviews section with some releases from ZX-Party 2000 and CC 000. There's a couple controversial comments in there, so it's well-worth a quick read, especially if you've yet to grab these demos and intros. Pop over to Anubis' page here.
	[icabod] - 24/09/2000 @970

	SpeccY SourcE Library
	Started recentky is the SpeccY SourcE Library (SYSEL for short) by Dron of demogroup K3L. It's an idea that was going around back in July. Remember the post on High Technologies? Well, that site hasn't appeared (at least I can't find it), but this is much the same thing. It's basically a point to grab source for various Speccy-relating things. There are routines for disk-access, FX, maths routines, etc. It's currently only in Czech, but it's fairly easy to grasp what's going on. Worth a check (Czech!?).
	[icabod] - 23/09/2000 @875

	Pre-pub notes
	Here's a few things before I shoot off to the pub. Demotopia has posted the results of CC000, along with the releases and some shots. On the subject of CC000, I noticed on Chaosite's message board that there are alledgedly some photos from the party available. But I can't seem to access the messages themselves, so I'll leave you figure it out. I've finally joined the ZX Banner Network, with a couple (nice?) banners for raww.org. If you want to see them without continuously reloading a member-page, you can look at them here and here. I decided to go for two approaches, "classic" and "ambient". Hope they work! Chatting on #z80 the last couple days, and got a few details on Phat0 from people who are there. Something I thought was funny is that it's being held upstairs from Arsenals, an International Movie Festival. So if the sceners want some culture, not only can they go watch kinky Belgian films, but they can make amusing jokes about the building being a PHAT-ARSE (make the most of this, the jokes don't get any better from me <g>). Compos are being held tonight. X-Agon posted a message on his board asking for information regarding the DOS disk-format (you know, the FAT used on peecee's). He doesn't give a reason, but I'm hoping for some Speccy tool to come out of it. I'll check my Uni notes, but in the meantime if you have the info he wants, let him know. There ya go. One more post, and I'm outta here for the evening.
	[icabod] - 23/09/2000 @870

	Some sad news
	I read today a sad post on both Scenergy and speccy.scenews. Ded Smirnoff (Andrey Smirnov), musician from Power Of Sound, has died. I won't pretend to be familiar with every piece of work he ever produced, but it's sad to lose anyone from the scene, especially when it's so permanent. The POS team are organising a memorial program, and if you're interested in information, send a mail off to Himiks. Our best wishes go to his family and friends.
	[icabod] - 21/09/2000 @910

	Notes...
	Couple "little" things for this post, I think. Scenergy mentioned that a new version of the Burial Gfx Editor from Delirium Tremens^Freedom has been released. You can grab v2.22 from the Scenergy download page. Phat0 starts today/tomorrow/sometime this weekend. Hope everything goes well, people. Slowly reading through the latest issue of PCGamer, and I spotted another Spectrum-mention. This time, it's comparing the new game from Shiny (named Sacrifice) with the classic Chaos. The game's all about warring wizards. Kewl. Right, on with the show...
	[icabod] - 21/09/2000 @900

	CC000 final results
	Spotted a post over on Scenergy that the final results from CC000 have been released. I'd not normally put up a summary (I did one a while back), but... there's been a change! SHOCK!!! Seems that the supposed first-place isn't the first-place. I'll put up the usual top3 in each category. If you want the full results, then pop over to Scenergy. Oddly, the results still aren't on the CC000 site. 512bytes intro compo 1 - Kishkoid - Mad Cat/TPML 2 - Matrix - Extreme 3 - PHF on CC - drv53b6/PhF 4K intro compo 1 - Smile - Sage 2 - Dwish 4k - Serzh+Phantom Lord/Accept 3 - Road - Ivan Roshin demo compo 1 - Dogma - Eternity Industry 2 - Tryptomine Dream - Brainwave/X-Project 3 - RiZC - Extreme AY no copy compo 1 - Rescue Me - Mmcm/Sage 2 - -Labyrnth- - Dj Soundliner/MiU/CTL 3 - popsa must die - Fatal Snipe/Fenomen AY copy compo 1 - One Nation-Trance Nation - Dj_Serg/Acl 2 - uCKA/!a - Nik-O/TNL 3 - Generals of Sand Fullgellobs - Davos/HS/CPU graphics compo 1 - -F1- - ZSV Soft/MIU/Constellation 2 - Havin' Fun - Paracels/Eternity Industry 3 - Two Sights - PheeL/Antares Changes from the preresults (top3's only) are a 3rd-place in the 512b intro compo, the 2nd and 3rd places in the 4k intro compo swapping, a new 1st place in the Demo compo, and results for music and graphics.
	[icabod] - 21/09/2000 @890

	ZX Banner Network
	Looks like Minisoft has been playing. ZX Banner Network has had a makeover, and is looking decidedly sweeter than the previous version. If you don't know, ZXBN is simply a banner-exchange program. You simply call a piece of javascript from the ZXBN-Server, and it'll do all the hard work. And in case you're wondering why there's no banner on raww.org, and why we're not listed in the network, rest assured that we'll be there soon. I've designed a couple banners, and they're in the stage of "internal-voting". Basically, I can't decide which is the kewlest (they're all so good <g>). As soon as the decision is made, I'll get my side of the deal done, and send off the banners for inclusion. Now, it's midnight, and I have an early start, so I'll leave you to surf.
	[icabod] - 21/09/2000 @000

	Crashed fanzine final issue
	For those who know Crashed fanzine, run by Dave Fountain, it'll be missed now that Dave has decided to stop production. However, there's some good news. The last, lost issue (number #31) is currently being sent out to everyone he knows via email. He's scanned in the pages, and is sending a couple a day. I've checked with Dave, and he's happy for me to upload the images onto raww.org, for everyone to read-and-enjoy. I'll get something sorted out for you all this coming weekend, when I'll hopefully have a bit more time on my hands.
	[icabod] - 20/09/2000 @890

	RealSpectrum beta8 news
	Hmm. Decided to move away from "strange" headlines for a number of reasons, not least of which is I'm running out of ideas. Also, movements are afoot at raww.org... but I'll leave you to guess what's going on. Should be good, tho'. But I digress. As mentioned yesterday (actually, early this morning, but...) RealSpectrum has had a status-update, with a list of new features for the forthcoming beta8. Here's a quick rundown of what we can expect Real tape support through the soundcard. Sound emulation for Covox, Stereo Covox, Soundrive, and Music Machine. Improved disk support. Disk/Cartridge creation (as opposed to requiring an image). Improved Scorpion emulation. Looking good. This emu never ceases to surprise me. Also, the ROMs package on the RS site has been updated with versions of the DISCiPLE and +D ROMs.
	[icabod] - 20/09/2000 @885

	Bad Form
	Okay, this is a bad thing to do, but there's a heap o'news out there, and it's 0:40am. I have to be outta the house in 6 hours time, so a quick "blah!" will cover the short notes, and I'll do another full update tomorrow night... that last post took longer than I expected! Over on S4E you can find new ROMs for the Sprinter board. Gas13 (you've surely seen his work) has a new website. Here you can vote for which image you think is best, and also download all the work from this master of the Speccy artform. There's been an update on the RealSpectrum page. It's not a new release, but here you can find news about the forthcoming Beta8. I'll leave the summary of new features 'til tomorrow, but it's looking sweet. Phew. Done. Tired. Bed.
	[icabod] - 20/09/2000 @040

	Not dead, only sleeping
	I've had a long day at work, and after a quick trip to the pub (to relax, of coz), I'm only in the mood for a cut-n-paste. This is a snippet from Andrew Owen about Spectrum SE, as noted to me by Gasman and Davide Barlotti. It was posted on CSS, so I guess it's okay to post it here... " I just got back from up North (where I was stranded owing to the petrol shortage) to find I have been granted a 12 month working holiday visa by the Aussies. This means all my projects are now on hold until I get back from down under. The SE *will* resurface on my return. I'm handing all my Sonic stuff over to Anestis. My Speccy software developments are also on hold and some may not be restarted. In the mean time I am having fun with my ZX Spectrum +2C project. I have now managed to rewire a standard grey +2 so that the monitor port drives an Amstrad CM14 colour monitor with ACB stereo sound. It's lovely. Once I get the ROM I've done for it burned I'll be trying to get hold of a Beta Disk interface and converting the joystick ports to use Mega Drive pads. I'll try and answer any questions while I'm still in the country. My aowen@mail.ru address will still get checked while I'm in Oz if anyone has any pressing questions but I'll be off the ng after October. " So, there you go. Seems that the ZXSE will be on hold for a while, but I'm interested in this +2C. Could be just what the scene needs, a Speccy with a few more features. Of coz, there's the chance it could cause another (3rd) faction of the scene, but it remains to be, uh, seen. Spotted some info from Andrew in CSS myself, this time covering ZXSE Emulation. The emulator ZXSP (not listed in my collection, so I'll check it out) was apparently going to provide ZXSE emulation, but Andrew has requested that this be replaced with +2C. New ROMs have been flying about the place, and it'll hopefully be not long before they appear on one of the ROM-sites. The post covers a lot of details about the changes to ROM0, and if you don't have CSS, you can grab the full post here.
	[icabod] - 20/09/2000 @025

	Too damned special
	At some point, the page for ZX Spectrum SE, the pumped-up Speccy clone-system which was under development, disappeared. I've not heard any news on this project, so if anyone knows what happened, mail me.
	[icabod] - 17/09/2000 @535

	You, at the back of the class...
	Well, I missed this one. Partly my own fault, but partly... well, it was all my own fault really. The ROM section Speccy4ever was altered a while back, but because the structure of it was changed, I missed out on any updates. So, here's a quick rundown of what's in store if you pop over there. The ROMs section has been split into separate parts: 48k; 128k; scorpion; pentagon; other clone; disk-systems; and "miscellaneous" (tho' this currently gathers everything into one section). Checking through the lists, there's a huge number of ROMs for download, including all the bug-fixed versions of the 48k ROM, and so on. But, there's still no MB02 mentioned. Hmm.
	[icabod] - 17/09/2000 @530

	Call the Scenergist
	Seems that Scenergy is the place to be if you fancy hard-work. There's been thousands of updates in the past couple days. Okay, maybe it's more like 6-or-7, but you get the idea. Of worthy note are updates on the downloads, with full releases from ZX-Party 2000, and additions to the CC000 section. The Gallery has been updated, with a bunch of graphics from CC000, available in both .SCR and handy .GIF format. The Links page has been updated (created?) with raww.org taking pride of place... uhm... half-way down the list. Well, it's a start. Lastly, there's a new game available for download, but as it's not demo-related I won't mention it here... DOH!
	[icabod] - 16/09/2000 @785

	Mag-Tastic
	Two Scene-zines have been updated. First up is Izhnews #9 from Brutal Creators. Then there's Insanity #7 by LFG. You can download the latter of these from Scenergy. This news was from speccy.scenews and Scenergy.
	[icabod] - 16/09/2000 @780

	X-Agonal
	There's a couple things over on X-Agon's page. First up is some techy info about SQ-Tracker. I guess it's of use to musicians, but frankly "Here are the values of HW waves for appropriate tones (SQ-Tracker)" means nothing to me. Also available to download is a 6.5Mb mp3 from BeerEver 2e3. I grabbed it, and if 27 minutes of drunk Czech chatter is your bag, I suggest you go grab it too.
	[icabod] - 16/09/2000 @770

	neeeed sleeeeeep
	Well, I'm tired and there's nothing particularly ground-breaking today, so it's another let's-bunch-it-all-into-one-post post: I've finally added a link to Scenergy in the right column. Chaosite is back up'n'running. Seems that the ISP got sold, causing some downtime. Damn these high-powered types, not caring about us little people!! Demotopia has had an update, with a full 15 additions to the archive. It's the last few demos from CC000 in .TAP format. Grab 'em. Saw a post on ZX_Spectrum@egroups.com (go to egroups to join the list, tho' it's not in English much) pointing to a site where you can buy the Sprinter board. This is like a motherboard, but for a Spectrum clone (and much more besides). Pop on over to PETERS for information. Job done.
	[icabod] - 14/09/2000 @915

	A large slice of chaos pie
	No, I don't know what I'm on about half the time either. Anyway, over on Scenergy there's some new downloads from CC000. I'll save you the trouble of translating the Russian text, and tell you what's what 44 artworks 19 add-on AY tracks (not passed preselect) 10 demos 11 no-copy AY tracks 8 copy AY tracks 7 4k intros 6 512 byte intros So there you go, some unshown (unplayed?) music from the party, along with the rest. They can all be grabbed from the Scenergy download section. Just a quick note about another news site... Chaosite appears to be down right now. And I don't mean down in a good way (hell, I ain't Shaft). If I hear anything about it, I'll pass the news on.
	[icabod] - 12/09/2000 @870

	Dribs'n'Drabs
	Just a couple little notes tonight: The AY-Emulator page has been updated. No, not with a new version of this nice little app, but with archive updates. 12 new tunes added to the Nostalgia archive, and the tracker-tunes now reaches over the 2400 mark! Scenergy has been updated with a .TAP version of show-stopper Tryptomine Dream, the winner of CC000. Their contacts section has also been updated, so if you send me any news, remember to CC-it to them too, eh? And vice-versa, of coz <g> 'Nite.
	[icabod] - 11/09/2000 @830

	How to be l33t!
	Okay, I know this is a demo-scene page, but I found this mentioned in PCGamer, and thought it was worth a mention here, as it's about as "classic" as you'll get regarding Spectrums. Everyone has played Ian Bell's Elite, the game to which all new space-traders are compared. Well, it turns out that Ian's brother, Aiden (a man with scarily hovering ears), once wrote a musical based on the game. Pop over to Elite: The Musical and you can download the story and some lyrics, so that you can sing along to the .mp3's. I've not read through the entire thing, but think "Cats in Space". Andrew Lloyd Webber would be proud <g>. Sadly, the only place I could find mention of Elite on Aiden's page was in a hidden "this'll boost my search-engine placing" bit at the bottom of the page. Like I said, not demo-related, but it could be "fun". Anyway, that's this update finished with, so I'm off to play more Deus Ex. Yeah, it's a PC game, and I should really be writing something for Phat0, but... but... it's just soooooo gooooood! C'ya.
	[icabod] - 10/09/2000 @765

	Healthy Competition
	News seems a little quite for the last couple days. Parties are over, results are out, and productions have been downloaded-and-laughed-at (at least in the case of my work, hehe). Gasps of amazement at the winners of the various competitions have died down, and the people who aren't in the previous categories are adding the finishing touches to their entries for Phat0. But it's amidst this news-lull that I receive an email about a new website. You've all heard of the famous scene-zine Scenergy, and now it has website. Produced by the lovely people at Concern Chaos, it's currently only available in Russian, although it looks like an English version is on the cards soon. I've checked it through, and it's looking to be quite a nice site, complete with a history of the 'zine, party information, and various scene-and-'zine-related downloads. Also, check the news archive for a list of reports on CC000 (most in Russian, again). So, it's another site to keep an eye on, i just hope that the English version doesn't take too long.
	[icabod] - 10/09/2000 @750

	Ooh, you tease!
	There's been another release of the CC000 results, this time it's version 4 of the pre-results. Well, I doubt that the results will change much from the list, so I won't bother putting up a summary here, as I did that a while back. If you want to check out the full details, then pop over to Demotopia, where I first read about this release. Also, you can go grab the official releases (including some TAP versions) at this site or this one. That's all. Time for bed.
	[icabod] - 07/09/2000 @980

	Mo' results
	Well, I can't understand most of the text, but if I'm not mistaken, these are competition results... perhaps from kaplicon!? Well, the post was on X-Agon's board, so if you wanna make sure, pop over and find it. For now... Music 1 - Illegal / Jonny-X/NC 2 - Happy Summer / Pat 3 - Melbourny / Starsoft 4 - Mortal Combat / DiHalt 5 - Aeby Tygr / Pat 4k Intros 1 - Lame / +Gama 2 - Xtro / Jonny-X/NC 3 - NClog / Aragorn/NC I've not actually seen/heard the productions yet, so I can't really comment on them. I'll go hunt them down, and add them to my collection. I've not checked, but they're prolly already on Demotopia... that Gasman is damned quick!
	[icabod] - 07/09/2000 @820

	Blip! Blip!
	Oki, here's a couple little nuggets: Got a mail from Jan Werner who runs 128k Museum. It's basically an archive of programs for the 128k Spectrum. There's a demo section, but there's not many there right now, so I've put it into the "generic" spectrum links in the right column. Hellboj has made available a write-up of the BeerEver 2e3 party. It's all in Czech (natch), but I'm sure someone out there can understand it. On a side-note, Hellboj's fears of having to serve in the Army are gone, and he can stay "in-edu" for another year. Sweet, it means he'll be making more demos like Popierdolone <g> The URL for the #z80 stats page has changed to http://www.hot.ee/z80/ There ya go.
	[icabod] - 07/09/2000 @800

	ReeeelSpectrum
	Finally for tonight, there's been some changes over at WWR. For a start it's moved to a new url, and also... there's a new version of uber-emulator RealSpectrum. Beta 7 brings forth a whole host of new-and-improved features, the better of them scraped from the documentation and pasted here for your viewing pleasure: Tokenizer - this allows you to type 48k keywords as you would in the 128k editor. Useful for USR0 mode <g> Interface 1 emulation (requiring a new ROMs pack) including (oh, this is niiiice) network emulation over TCP/IP. Meaning you can virtually-network two RealSpectrums on opposite sides of the world! Integrated chat client - could this spell the end of #z80? I doubt it, but it's a nice feature File-exchange - again a networking thing, allowing easy spreading of your files Demo-mode - for playing AY-tunes OSD - kinda like the HUD in many games, it's for showing messages (in the chat client), but will also be used to show emulator-status, etc. Memory-block save/load - like in x128 Mucho bug-fixo. Ooooh, this baby looks gooood. I recommend a quick jaunt over there to grab the download now. Well, what are you waiting for?!?!
	[icabod] - 05/09/2000 @810

	Demotastic
	There was another update on Demotopia a few days ago, with the full results of ZX Party, along with a couple more demos, namely the freshly-tapped Rizc from CC000, and an old demo called Ice MC. I've not yet checked DT for an update on ZXP (doncha just love acronyms!?), but I expect it'll be along shortly. And I'll be doing a report on the party too, although I may leave the interesting stuff for an article for the forthcoming Subliminal Extacy disk-zine from Raww Arse.
	[icabod] - 05/09/2000 @805

	Crash! Bang!
	Sad news for people who knew about it... Crashed fanzine has ceased to be. Dave Fountain decided to stop production because... well, in an effort to make it look like I've done some work, here's a cut-n-paste from his email: " I've taken the decision to cease production. This is due to a new job, a new house, a new location etc. and it's just not possible to donate the time and resources as I used to. The kitty is empty again, its just not working as it should, which is a shame as I enjoyed it. Good luck to everyone else still running fanzines etc. I'm still around keeping an eye out and still have my Speccy set up and ready to go. Look out for... something on the internet... probably. " So, we can at least look forward to something like crashed.org then. Perhaps. I should take this moment to apologise to Dave as I have a problem getting my arse into gear, and hence never got around to sending that 10ukp subscription fee. Sometimes, I hope I'm not the one who has the effect!!!
	[icabod] - 05/09/2000 @800

	Chaotic thingies
	Well, while Random continues his little rand-blings (!?!?) about his trip to Russia (kinda funny to read in places), you can go and check out the releases from CC000. They're now all available, from two main sites. These are from Virtual (the Cafe where ZXP was held), and from ZX Museum. The releases are kinda nice on the whole, tho' I personally am not quite sure about the final results. If you want to have your input on the best demo, then pop over to the #z80 Stats-page, where there's an online vote. Note that most places you can find the releases are in .TRD format. If you want .TAP-files, keep an eye on Demotopia.
	[icabod] - 05/09/2000 @790

	Welcome one, and welcome all
	Well, where to start on the updates front? I think with some Raww Arse-related news. We have a new member, who you may have seen on #z80 now-and-again. His name's Kolbeck, and in the coming few weeks I'll be adding him to the personnel area (as soon as I get my arse in gear). For now, he's added to the member-list on the left, and will be soon working on coding some work for us all to enjoy. On a slightly related note, Yerzmyey pointed out, when you count the fact that Hooy Program are a sub-division of Raww Arse, we actually won (almost) every competition at ZX Party 2000!! We lost the GFX, but you can't win them all. Heh! I'm sure it wasn't rigged, of coz <g> As another little side-note which doesn't quite warrant it's own post (sorry), I've added a link to a new website for K3L - check it out... in the early stages when I first saw it, but a nice addition to the web. Both links will stay for now, as I'm writing this offline, until I work out the preferred site.
	[icabod] - 05/09/2000 @775