Amiga Survivor Review
"Colour, bi-monthly A4 size commercial magazine available at over 200 independent retailers. Cover CD featuring full games and playable demos. New games reviews every month guaranteed. Fanzine style, professionally produced from the makers of Commodore Faction"
Well that's a short description taken from the Magazine its self, Sounds good ...But as the proof of the "Pudding is in the Eating" ...So the proof of the "Magazine is in the Reading."
Read on:
Amiga Survivor Issue 10
To some of the Amiga Users, The Amiga Survivor will need little introduction ..It has been available for some time, however changes have been aplenty ... First a NEW Publisher and then a New Editor.
When David Connolly (The Publisher) mailed me and asked if I would like a free copy to do a review, I of course said yes please ... However I must admit to certain reservations. I have seen plenty "Amiga Fanzines" most produced on poor quality paper, Printed on a dot matrix printer... Poorly written and full of inaccurate information, terrible grammar and thousands of spelling mistakes. Would the Survivor be any different?
Well the fact that the Publisher ASKED us to do a review, suggested that he must have some confidence in his end product, so perhaps it would prove the exception to the "Fanzine" rule.
Meet the Team:
Editor: Dirk Harlaar
Publisher: Crystal Software & Electronics Ltd.
Layout Design: d-tronic (Design) Studio
Contributors:
Well certainly anyone who has been around the Amiga Scene for any length of time, will recognise several names on the list. Dirk as Editor has had several tutorials featured in AmigActive and Chris and Ross are certainly no strangers to the Amiga User.
First impressions on looking at the Survivor cover, good, a decent size (A4) and an interesting colour cover that was pleasing on the eye. The one noticeable point was the omission of a price on the cover! ... Strange if it is available from "Over 200 Independent retailers". Still that is a small point. On with the rest of the magazine.
Upon opening the Amiga Survivor, you might be a little disappointed, although the cover is in full colour, the internal pages are all in black and white.
However when you consider the printing costs involved, I suppose it is understandable. Perhaps we have been "Spoiled" In the past by having high quality printed magazines like Amiga Format and CU Amiga Magazine ... We have to remember that those days have passed us by, and we are left with enthusiastic users to continue the support for the platform.
Right! Having recovered from our disappointment of no colour, let's look at the overall presentation.
Well in general the pages are clear and pleasing to the eye of the reader. There is a wealth of screenshots most of which are clear and easy to see the information presented. There are a few pictures that are a little blurred, but in general they are high quality. What is even more impressive is that this was all done on an Amiga using Pagestream and Arteffect.
The text on Page 7 (A Review of Earth 2140) is a little difficult to read. The white text has been superimposed over a background graphic shot. The Editor assures me that the reason for this was that the magazine was designed and formatted for Colour Pages, And the choice of black and white came at the last minute, due to the printing costs.
OK! This is where The Amiga Survivor comes to life! ...Forget your disappointment with the lack of colour, the presentation and quality of the written articles are second to none.
Most of the Amiga magazines are written by people who have some professional journalistic background. I really don't know about the team at the Survivor, Only that the quality of the writing is certainly on par with AmigActive.
This is the first edition under the guidance of Dirk Harlaar, And although there was a couple of small points that I felt could have been improved upon ...These were very minor things.
An example would have to be my old gripe with a lot of magazines, To use the printed Order/Subscription forms you have either to cut up the magazine or find a photocopier.
At 24 pages (Including Front and Back Cover) the Amiga Survivor is a little thin for the price ( �3.99 for one issue). However this will change as people hopefully support the magazine and start to write letters to the Editor etc..
Dirk and his team have done a superb job of producing a high quality fanzine, that in all honesty should be in EVERY Amiga users collection.
I have put pen to paper now and sent off my cheque for my subscription ...And so should you.
