The Scene What’s inside?
MONTHLY - ISSUE 14 October 2008 | WAREZ-BB.ORG
09
FIFA Review PG 07
PSP 3000
Apple: Snow Leopard PG 04
PG 06
Sega Dreamcast
PG 12 Puppy Love
PG 05
Linux and Gaming
Can it be done? PG 03
The Scene Contents ISSUE 14 | OCTOBER 2008
Technology 3 Can it be done? Linux and Gaming
4
Mac OS X Snow Leopard
5
Puppy Love
6
PSPS 3000
Mac OS X, without the bloat! he fastest linux distro. Sony’s new baby is here!
Games 7 Is the grass greener this time around? FIFA 09
10
The Best Retro Games That Marked Our Childhood
Kicking it old school.
12
The Rise and Fall of the Sega Dreamcast
13
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
he fall of a legend. Join the dark side.
General 17 Living with Autism.
My Daughter Has Autism
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21
Digital Audio Compression
28
Nonsense
29
Innocence, no more
Everything you need to know. Paranoid Delusions. A plea for Innocence. 1 CONTENTS
The Scene Editorial ISSUE 14 | OCTOBER 2008
Editor Enigma86 Co-Editor Yoghurt. Writer’s Team Leader Dark Elite Artist’s Team Leader chicodelperreo Proofreader’s Team Leader Daniel.Blaze
Hey everybody,
Magazine Team Compiler
It’s that time of the month again, when we release a new edition of theSCENE. he magazine crew is elated to announce that theSCENE 13 has received approximately 8K downloads over the past 30 days(stats as observed at the time of writing this Editorial). What follows is a progress report of what we have done over the past month, a list of things that you can expect from the team and our goals.
chicodelperreo Writer’s Team Assistant .:Nvidia:. Shifty Writers Chronus Dramamine kartnite LinuxTrance tomb08uk waltereegho Artists 211gfx Adrys
Over the past month, the Press Team has received tremendous support from a large number of low post count members. We are both thankful and overjoyed at the earnest participation of these new members in press team activities and we heartily welcome these members to the Press Family. With their participation, we’ve added a new MAC and Linux content to our magazine. In this edition of theSCENE, we’ve improved the presentation of content in the magazine and we have played with the layout. Internally, inside the Press Family, quality control guidelines are being enforced to make beter content available for all our readers in predictable format. he internal quality control guidelines documents will be posted soon as part of the main announcement, when they are inalized. hese will be posted as a part of the current announcement thread, which now calls for talented indesign artists to support press team. I hope that the Press Team will be a hundred strong unit of motivated members who strive to bring the best content to YOU quickly. To realize this goal, we require the participation and support of every talented member in Warez-BB who can help our cause, to help the community WE like so much.
CademiaX
Regards,
labonova
Enigma86
RedFlow xxpaigexx PZSniper Quality Assurance Team Clarinda Lochinvar Silly-Billy Cover Design Shifty
2 CONTENTS
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Linux and Gaming By LinuxTrance
?
Can it be done
O
ne of the major and unfounded complaints against Linux over the past few years is that it does not support gaming. It is true that Linux does not support gaming “out of the box”, but if you tweak your system a bit it can handle the games you want to play. Don't worry, the tweaking is rather easy and requires only one or two steps which we will discuss in this article. There are many emulators which will make “Windows-only” games work perfectly in Linux. Some emulators work better than others, which is why I will choose my favorite two and tell you how to set them up and have them work properly.
ly from the Add/Remove area within Ubuntu. If you do not use Ubuntu you can download WINE. ( www.winehq.org/site/download ) Once you have WINE installed, you really don't have to do any tweaking at all. Any .exe iles you now encounter can simply be double clicked and will run directly through WINE. here is no GUI involved; WINE simply handles .exe iles as you would expect Windows to handle them.
WINE under Ubuntu (C0D4)
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Browse the list of games supported by Crossover. ( www.codeweavers.com/products/cxgames )
WINE handles applications, games, and miscellaneous windows iles, so once you have it installed you should be able to make most standard program installations with ease. For a complete guide of what games work with WINE, please visit the link below. Please note that not all games will work perfectly and some games may have a minor defect whilst playing, which would not occur in the Windows environment. For example, when I installed Morrowind (Game of the Year Edition) everything worked perfectly, except for the fact that one of the menus was completely whited-out. his caused no issues in gameplay, but was a minor annoyance. List of games and applications that work in WINE. ( www.appdb.winehq.org )
he irst open-source alternative to the Windows environment is WINE (stands for WINE Is Not an Emulator). Using 100% non-Microsot code, this program allows you to install .exe iles, run games, open Microsot iles, and more. It has an easy-to-use interface and can be installed direct-
pricetag. Whilst WINE is free, Crossover costs $39.95. Choose wisely.
Another great Windows emulator is Crossover Games by Codemasters. Crossover Games is a great addition to your Linux OS, and integrates seamlessly within the Linux environment. What I really like about Crossover is the unparalleled game installs from CD's or DVD's. Once you have Crossover installed you simply insert the CD, open Crossover and it guides you through the install. Multiple CD installs are the same as they are in the Windows environment, and require no clicking out or reopening the application. Crossover installs most games more easily and lawlessly than WINE, but it comes with a
In my opinion I believe WINE, whilst slightly underpowered and with no GUI, is a beter choice for all but the most hardcore gamer. It is easy to use, lightweight, runs quickly and smoothly, and has a great support base and community support. No mater what you choose, you will now be able to play your favorite games in Linux. As an endnote: Some MMORPG's (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) use the anti-cheat/anti-hack system GameGuard. Please remember that no GameGuard bypass is available for Linux at this time. here are various suggestions online that suggest a modiication of the hex ile or similar extreme methods to “force” the game to work. My advice to you, dear reader, would be not to bother with these suggestions of force and modiication as they are unsupported, unfounded, and they actually null the TOS (Terms Of Service) of the game you wish to play.
3 TECHNOLOGY
Mac OS X Snow Leopard by Tomb08uk
“
”
Mac OS X, without the bloat!
Platform: Apple | Release: Mid 2009
Apple’s latest OS in development is OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard”, which is scheduled for release in mid 2009. “Snow Leopard” will not focus on new features, but on improving eiciency, performance and its overall footprint. Apple has released over a thousand new features in OS X in the last seven years and with the potential of Snow Leopard, lays the core foundation for many more; this is why Apple has made the decision to pause on the features and focus on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system – OS X. Current conirmations of changes and improvements to the OS are: Microsot Exchange out-of-the-box support that is primed to focus on business users. 16TB AM (theoretically) support, by further development with 64-bit kernel technology – Yes! Allowing you to run up to 16TB of AM! ‘Grand Central’, a parallel-programming technology that aims to have OSX take complete, full advantage of multi-core CPUs and GPU’s. Snow Leopard will use media technology that was developed for the iPhone. Snow Leopard also introduces QuickTime X, which optimizes support for modern audio and video formats, re-
4 TECHNOLOGY
sulting in highly eicient media playback. Developers will be able to develop core applications that run on code that uses the GPU for non-graphical purposes, allowing complete use of all processing power from both the CPU as well as the GPU with use of OpenCL (Open Computer Library). Snow Leopard will come combined with the latest version of Safari, with its fastest implementation of JavaScript ever, providing an increase in performance by 53 percent, making Web 2.0 applications more responsive. his is likely to be utilized with a new JavaScript engine known as SquirrelFish, but this hasn’t been oicially conirmed yet.
29
Automator
13
2
Snow Leopard will also be the irst MAC OS X build that fully supports ZFS ile system with read and write support for the new 128-bit ile system, which was originally designed by the well know Sun Microsystems. ZFS ofers advantages such as storage pooling, data redundancy, automatic error correction and dynamic volume expansion.
Snow Leopard 5
Chess
Application Size in MB
5 10
Dictionary
2 18
Font Book
4 89
iCalc
48 111
iChat
52 15
Image Capture
1 37
iSync
26 287
91 17
Photo Booth
3 70
Preview
11 29
QuickTime
8 64
Safari
61 9
Stickies
1 22
TextEdit
here are also some additional text processing features which are currently not on OS X Leopard, such as word auto correction, smart dash insertion and also replacement features, such as if you type TM, you get the ™ character.
Leopard
13
Calculator
2
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
10.5 was just falling short of 300MB. Also, complete removal of PowerPC support is planned, which will greatly improve installation time and free up space on the hard-disk. Evidence of this is that a clean install can be completed in about 13 minutes! he removal of PowerPC support means that Snow Leopard will only run on Intel CPU’s, leaving PowerPC to fend for themselves.
If you are running OS X 10.5 and like the features - and yet want better performance - then MAC OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is a requirement to be added to your Christmas stocking for 2009!
As mentioned earlier, the key aspects for OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” are to improve eiciency, performance and footprint. One way Apple is trying to achieve this is to dramatically reduce the size of core applications, such as Mail, which will be under 100MB, whereas Mail in OS X
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Puppy Love en Writ
e c n a r xT u n i L by
You may have read the index and wondered why a writer would choose to write an article about dogs in this issue. A bit out of place in this magazine, right? Well I quite agree, so let’s talk about Linux instead! Puppy Linux is an upcoming Linux distribution, known for its small size, ease of use, speed, and the ability to boot from AM. Small is an understatement in the case of Puppy, as the ISO ile is only 88 megabytes. Please do not let the size fool you, for this Puppy packs a huge punch for it’s minuscule size. Puppy is equipped with a wealth of programs preinstalled for your convenience and pleasure - word processors, media players, browsers, and so much more, are available immediately and require no tedious installation. In the world of Linux, Puppy is quite well known and well respected, but in the general world of Operating Systems, it is relatively unheard of as Ubuntu and it’s derivatives shadow some of the smaller, but no less powerful, Linux distributions.
because it can transform an old computer into a relatively fast system as booting from AM is so light and quick. Also, as I mentioned above, Puplets are an amazing alternative to the generic Puppy ISO. Puplets are user created variations of the Puppy OS. Amongst the most downloaded Puplets is the MacPup (Foxy) which transforms the original, drab Puppy OS into a clone of the Mac environment. To install a Puplet instead of the oicial Puppy ISO ile, simply ind the Puplet you want and download the ISO for the Puplet, and not the oicial ISO. To download Puppy, please visit the oicial link below: http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads
Notice how the oicial ISO is on the let-hand side, and the Puplets are on the right. he Puplets are slightly larger or smaller than the oicial ISO, depending on what has been added or taken out. I encourage you to try Puppy; download it and boot from your CD. You will lose nothing at all if you do not like Puppy as you are not installing it to your hard drive. While Puppy may not be as well known as its fellow Linux distribution Ubuntu it has already
“...gained a reputation as a stable, fast, easy to use Operating System...”
You may be apprehensive of installing an obscure Linux distribution that you have never heard of before. I heartily agree, you shouldn’t install this Operating System, and I’ll tell you why. Puppy Dog is meant to be played with, not owned. You can pet it and stroke it and what-not, but it is not meant to be your primary Operating System! It is designed to be an extremely fast, tiny, feature rich, Operating System that you can boot from AM. I am striving not to make Puppy sound overly complex or diicult to manage, as it is a rather easy system to use and requires litle to no efort on your part. Puppy has it’s quirks as all Operating Systems do; the installer is a bit over complicated, the generic Puppy desktop leaves much to the imagination, and the installation options (if you choose to install it to disk) are tedious at best, but don’t let those small issues discourage you. To remedy the ugly, generic desktop you can simply download a “Puplet” as opposed to the Puppy OS. he whole concept of Puppy is exciting. Booting from AM is an innovation that is as surprising as it is useful. he ability to boot from AM is important THE SCENE / WAREZ-BB.ORG
and should not be overlooked in your search for the perfect Linux system. Many schools are using Puppy in classrooms as it can transform older, hand-me-down PC’s into faster, more responsive machines. his is surprising as Ubuntu would be the irst Linux OS that would probably jump to most people’s minds when it comes to ease of use in a classroom environment, so this alone should tell you that Puppy is an easy system to learn. Ater you have downloaded the Puppy ISO, be it a Puplet or the oicial release, simply reboot your machine with the CD in the tray. he irst time you run Puppy it will take you through a series of GUI’s (Graphical User Interface) which will guide you step by step through the irst-boot process. Even on the irst-run you should be able to make it through the entire process in less than 10 minutes. Once you have inished the GUI’s you will see the Desktop. If all went well you should be able to access the Internet and post on Warez-BB about how awesome you think Puppy is, and what an asset it is to you! I encourage you to explore all that Puppy has to ofer. One of the exciting things about Puppy is that you really can’t damage anything as you aren’t using your hard drive. If you make some changes and cannot igure out how to revert Puppy back to it’s original state, simply reboot your machine and bypass the
save option. Upon reboot you will have the Puppy system again, unchanged and unharmed. It is very important to note this - if you wish to save any iles, setings, or options before you exit Puppy simply exit out of Puppy properly by clicking the “sign of ” buton. Once you click that buton you will have the option to save your setings to the hard drive. It is important to save every time you log out as Puppy will immediately recall your last setings, iles, and options, when you decide to reboot and play with Puppy again. he irst-run boot time is around ten minutes, as mentioned above, but once you have your setings saved it will boot very quickly. Remember, no mater what you do, you really can’t hurt Puppy or break the OS. I will warn you that the Install options should NOT be iddled with as they require various steps that, if not followed properly, will cause problems for Puppy and possibly other Operating Systems as well. An example would be: Puppy requires the Grub bootloader if you choose to install Puppy onto the hard drive. If you do not properly setup Grub then it is likely that none of your Operating Systems will boot at all. So please, if you do choose to install Puppy, make sure you are following proper documentation or at least know exactly what you are doing, and the ramiications if installed incorrectly.
“If you have an older PC, Puppy was made for you.” If you wish to try Linux in a fun, safe, and innovative environment, then you should try this as well.
PUPPY
LINUX 5 TECHNOLOGY
SONY’S NEW BABY IS HERE! Introduction Ater many rumors surrounding the new PSP-3000, Sony inally conirmed its existence during the Leipzig Games Convention 2008 last summer. Today we’re going to take a closer look at this new model and some of the new features (Both conirmed and rumored).
he Look As far as we know, the look of the new PSP model will be very similar, if not identical to the PSP-2000. he only diferences are the microphone, PS buton and slightly curvier edges .In addition, this new model is still a PSP Slim and Lite as shown on the retail package even though some might call it PSP Slim and Brite.
What’s New? he PSP-3000 will feature two main new functions. he irst one is the built in microphone located at the botom of the front view; this will allow you to use Skype directly on the PSP without the need of an external microphone. he other neat feature is the improved LCD screen: he PSP has always been characterized by its 16:9 high quality LCD screen. he new model will include a new, brighter screen with beter contrast ratio (5 times higher than the old one) and response time. he enhanced LCD screen will increase intensity, the number of colors displayed, and it will be easier to view in natural light, which was a big issue for me personally with the old fat PSP. he new model will also have the same batery life of the current PSP (4 to 6 hours for games and about 4 to 5 hours for UMD Videos) so the rumors surrounding short batery life are all false. he PSP-3000 also uses a smarter AC adapter unit instead which uses a direct cable like phone chargers.
New Firmware 4.20 Features he new PSP-3000 will come with the new 4.20 irmware, carrying some cool improvements for the PSP-3000. he new features include: •
• • •
New “Color Space” option under the system setings of the XMB: this allows you to swap between “Wide” which takes advantage of the new improved screen and “Normal” which sets the screen back to the PSP2000 level color. “USB Auto-Connect”: when this option is switched on, the PSP will go into USB mode automatically when a device is connected but this won’t interrupt game play. Noise Reduction: this reduces the noise level for video out when the PSP connects to a TV. he ability to play games on TV using a special adapter (sold separately) and composite cable.
6 GAMES
hese are some good additions, don’t you think? But that’s not all, the PSP-3000 will indeed ship with the 4.20 irmware but Sony is releasing a new irmware on October 14th in Japan (Will follow a few days later in US/EU) with even beter features: • PSN Access: You heard it, the PSP inally got it’s own PSN, you just need to sign up for an account or use your already existing PS3 one and you are ready to go, his will allow direct download of game trailers, demos and much more. • “Sleep timer option”: his option will allow you to set a sleep timer while listening to music. • Full screen keyboard: As it name suggest, you will have a full screen keyboard which should make typing easier for some of us. • Redesigned XMB Background: here isn’t a lot of information concerning this feature; we have to wait until the irmware gets released. hat’s it for now, but except more new additions Sony releases the full change log.
Hacking and Custom Firmware he new PSP model will be using a new motherboard (TA-088 v3), which makes installing custom irmware impossible for now, Despertar del Cementerio v7 has been conirmed not working with the new model, this is what Dark Alex, the mastermind behind the custom irmware:
“Basically, all security of newest psp CPU’s rely on the secrecy of the calculation of those 0x20 bytes. If pre-ipl were dumped somehow, the security would go down TOTALLY.” Dark aLeX htp://www.dark-alex.org
Price, availability and Bundles Sony has conirmed that the new PSP-3000 model will be available in Europe on October 15 with a price at EUR 199 (US$ 288 / GBP 149.99), there will be bundle including the game Ratchet & Clank: Size Maters, a new bundle with 4 GB MS will follow later, in November. he US will get the same bundles as of now but the release date is October 14. he new PSP is already available in some stores like Best Buy before the oicial release date.
.:Nvidia:. THE SCENE / WAREZ-BB.ORG
FIFA
09
Publisher Electronic Arts
Developer EA Canada
Release Date UK October 02, 2008 US October 14, 2008
Genre Sports
Platforms XBOX 360 | PS3 | Wii | PC | PSP | NDS | PS2
I
By Shifty
t’s 11.59pm, October 2nd. I’m standing in a 50 strong line of avid gamers at the local Wallmart, awaiting the release of the most eagerly anticipated football game of the year, Fifa 09. After handing over my well earned cash, I make the journey home to see if the game really lives up to the hype. So after 4 days of non-stop play I finally have the fuel I need to review this fantastic soccer simulation, exclusively for TheScene 14. With a new redesigned graphics engine and all the Fifa registered national teams to choose from, this was the soccer simulation game to beat. Back in the 20th century and Fifa 09 is by far the most realistic football game to ever hit the shelves. he installment delivers solid, lowing football. Along with countless new features and tweaks here and there, 09' is certainly a big step up from 08' and as I sat back and played for the irst time, I couldn't help but smile; for the irst time in years I was playing a Fifa game that I could believe in.
FIFA 09 - Character Model
Looking back over the years, football games have rapidly progressed, Fifa being one of them. he irst Fifa game I ever played was the Road to World Cup where the hot shots on the cover were David Beckham, Roy Lassiter and David Ginola. his game redesigned console football and is looked back on as the deining game in the Fifa series. THE SCENE / WAREZ-BB.ORG
One of the new features in the game that you come across irst is Adidas Live Season. his genius new addition allows you to download weekly form updates for your chosen league. hese form updates can then be used in online matches, exhibition games and in interactive leagues. So when your favourite player is enjoying the form of his life, you'll be able to beneit from this in game, however when he isn't playing well you may have to drop him from your team until he inds his form. With up to 250 improvements made to the already successful engine that ran last year’s in-
stallment, you can only expect the best from Fifa 09. he irst thing you notice when playing the new game is that animations have been vastly improved and are more life-like. You no longer take half an hour to turn with the ball and collisions
with other players can oten make you cringe. Fouls are more natural and you can trigger a free kick by just clipping the heel of one of your opposition, heck, you can even trip up your own team-mates. he one thing I noticed though was the ref's willingness to pull out a Yellow card, as most slide tackles were answered with a booking and at the end of the irst half you end up walking down the tunnel with 6 booked players, though 7 GAMES
this is probably inspired by our lovely present day referees. Along with the new hety yet agile animations, players will now raise their hands if an atacking player runs into an ofside position, or they will call for the ball when they run into space. Converting the perfect through ball to a player who's just created his own space can be just as pleasurable as scoring a 30 yard screamer, which is also possible in Fifa 09. Gone are the horrendous shooting dynamics where a goal from outside the box was impossible. Players like Rooney, Gerrard and Ballack can score screamers from most parts of the pitch. You can choose whether to precisely top-corner the shot or hammer it and hope for the best, each are as gratifying as each other when successfully hit. he ability to use tricks to embarrass your opponent has also been enhanced. Players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Henry can leave players on their behind if you execute the perfect trick. You can also use your trick stick to do certain new celebrations. Once you score you can
run around with your player doing various hand signals and gestures and if executed properly you can make your goal scorer slide on his knees, point to the sky and even do the robot dance! his can really annoy your opponent if you’re playing online, as the option to skip through an opponent’s reply or celebration is no longer available. his time you can choose whether to watch your own goal reply or celebration, and this can oten infuriates your opponent. One very noticeable thing is the enhanced graphics. Although the crowd looks as horrible as ever, the players have all had makeovers, with much more realistic facial expressions and resemblance you really feel as if you’re controlling the real life counterparts. Even the hair is much more realistic and you can even see the player’s veins! his year the tactical side of Fifa has had an overhaul. he old confusing D-Pad options have been redesigned for much easier use. Press let twice and you will tell your team to defend, press it three times and you will tell your team to extremely defend. Same thing goes for the right buton but the
tactic is for atack. Up and Down give you a range of options from Ofside Traps to Wing Atacks. If used correctly all these new tactical options can be worked to turn the game around. In its atempt to become much more realistic, Fifa 09' is all about tactics and thought out play. Gone are the days when you win games with a score of 20 - 3, this year you really have to be physical and test the boundaries of most players. You have to exploit your opposition by sending genius through balls to your wingman or using brute force to get through a solid defense. he game is much more physical, and most batles will usually be fought out in midield where it's much harder to exploit players. You can hold up the ball and wait for your key man to make a darting run in which you'll feed him a peach of a ball, leaving you with so much satisfaction that you decide to hit the ball 5 meters yard of the post, never mind, back to the drawing board as there are countless other ways to create the perfect chance. Don't try slide tackling an opponent unless you’re directly in front of them. his year you'll cause a foul with 80% of your slide tackles. It's much easier to use your strength and jostle the opponent from the ball, unless he's heo Walcot and you have no choice but to knock him down to size, otherwise he'll zip past your defense before you can say 'What the hell!?' he biggest let down however are set pieces. Corners fail almost every time, and heading in a goal is indeed very rare, so many balls in from the wing will probably fail. Instead, try passing it to a striker from the wing, I found scoring this way was much more common than from a set piece. Possibly the most common game mode in Fifa games is the Manager Mode, in which you manage and play with your chosen club, aiming for THE SCENE / WAREZ-BB.ORG
The Verdict GRAPHICS | 9.0 The graphics are much improved this time around. Each player has his own unique look and they aren’t far from their real life counterparts at all. The stadiums look awesome and overall the graphics really deliver, as you’d expect from a new next-gen EA release.
9.5
SOUND | Fantastic as ever, one of the greatest factors in the game. Faultless commentary and the crowd are as real as ever.
9.0
GAMEPLAY | Much more realistic gameplay on top of countless new additions makes this the best Fifa game to ever play. Tweaked physics and improved tactical mechanisms make succeeding in the game all the more gratifying. LAST WORD Fantastic overall. Great fun when you know how to play properly. The online mode is probably the most outstanding feature. A must buy for any sports fan.
Overall Score:
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9.2
league domination. he fact that you can use any team from all the English leagues is an achievement in itself as Konami's PES doesn't have the license that Fifa boasts. Manager mode is the old school 'storyline' feature in Fifa, however with all the new additions 09' holds, Manager Mode becomes rather overshadowed this year.
the best player in the league and captain your club and country. You have to really perform during games in this mode as a meter determines your form. If you miss a few passes, stray from your position or hit more balls over the bar than on target the bar will show more red than green and you'll be given a poor match rating. However, do the
he commentary from Sky Sport's Martin Tyler and Andy Gray is as brilliant as ever; you may as well be listening to a Premier League game on the TV. Commentary in Fifa games has always been of high standard, so we weren’t expecting to be let down this year. All the big teams also have their own speciic fan chants when playing at home, which give the realism of each match an extra edge.
opposite and play well and you'll notice the bar ill with green, giving you a high match rating and possibly man of the match. Succeeding in this mode isn't too hard and at times I found it rather easy.
Another new feature is the ‘10v10 Be A Pro’ online mode. Although BAP was an option in 08', 10v10 is new and a lot more fun. BAP is a fun mechanic but can oten be annoying as most players you’re playing with think they are Cristiano Ronaldo and never pass the ball. It can be especially infuriating when you just made a beautiful of the ball run into space and they decide to shoot from 30 yards out hiting a fan in the second tier. However the banter online is great and when you have the right mix of competitive players, BAP online is an awesome feature. Be A Pro isn't only available online though, you can play oline exhibitions or you can even try the all new Be A Pro season mode, in which you have to rise through the ranks from the reserve squad of your chosen team. he aim in this mode is to become
here isn't much wrong with Fifa 09 at all. here are certain litle things here and there but on a whole the game is almost perfect. While using the core gameplay from 08', Fifa 09 boasts a polished version of last year’s game with hundreds of new features and additions to enjoy. Gone are the days when PES was the dominant, 'real' football game. he new generation of Fifa makes it the number one football simulator out there. he games used to look great, but ferociously lacked on the pitch, however this time it delivers in both aspects. he game looks immense on and of the pitch and delivers extremely realistic gameplay. So if you want to play a football game that has everything, then this year, Fifa 09 gives you that. Polished and perfected to lead a new era of soccer simulation, EA Sports have created the deinitive football title. If you’re the ultimate football fan then tempt yourself away from PES this year and try out the all new Fifa 09; you'll be impressed, I can assure you.
There are a lot of classic games that marked our childhood, games that introduced us to the passions of gaming and entertainment. Of course, compared to modern 3D Games, these retro games look very old and outdated, but, as they say, “Old is Gold”. I’m sure a lot of you, including myself, still play those epic games. Today we are going to take a closer look a few legendary games, let’s go! Introduction
Pong
here are a lot of classic games that marked our childhood, games that introduced us to the passions of gaming and entertainment. Of course, compared to modern 3D Games, these retro games look very old and outdated, but, as they say, “Old is Gold”. I’m sure a lot of you, including myself, still play those epic games.
Pong is a very simple yet addictive game, made by Atari and irst released on November 29, 1972. he game is based on the game ‘Ping Pong’, table tennis, that is. It was ported to many recent platforms such as the PSP.
Today we are going to take a closer look a few legendary games, let’s go!
Pacman Pacman is one of the most classic and popular games of all time, you all probably know it, the game was irst released in Japan on May 22, 1980, and the game was developed by Namco: Toru Iwatani is the designer, Mokajima San is the programmer. he game is widely played today all over the world, the game was later ported to various consoles…
Super Mario Bros I don’t think I have to say a lot about this game, this was the irst game I ever played; SMB was developed by Nintendo and made its appearance on many gaming platforms. It was irst launched in 1985. You play as Mario, whose mission is to rescue the princess from the mushroom kingdom. Super Mario Bros is the best selling game of all time.
Street Fighter Street Fighter is a very popular ighting game, released for the irst time in august 1987 by Capcom as an arcade game. Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto designed it and the game includes popular gaming characters such as Ryu. SF was released on many platforms and is still a very enjoyable
Space Invaders his game is also very popular. It was one of the irst shooting games and was developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. Due to its popularity, Space Invaders caused a shortage of 100-yen coin in Japan at the time. he goal of the game is to defeat multiple rows of alien enemies. Space Invaders was also ported to many newer platforms. 10 GAMES
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game. Many sequels followed this epic game.
Mortal Kombat MK is a ighting game, best known for its violence and high level of gore and blood. Created by Ed Boon and John Tobias, released to arcades in 1992. he game was a response from Midway Games to the extremely successful Street Fighter, developed by Capcom. he game was later ported to many other gaming platforms due to its huge success and continues to be a hit even today.
here isn’t really much I need to say about Pokémon, we all know the Pokémon creatures. he game was created by Satoshi Tajiri around 1995 and is owned by Nintendo. he game started as a role-playing game. Since its release, the game has become the second most successful game media based ater Super Mario Bros; total game sales reached 175 million copies. Due to the original game’s success, newer versions were developed on various platforms.
Sonic The Hedgehog Sonic is a prety well known game series, the irst game called Sonic: he Hedgehog was irst released in 1991 by Sega on the Sega Mega Drive system, the irst game was developed by the Sonic Team, more than 50 million copies have been sold worldwide. Ater the big success of the irst game, newer sequels were released on various systems.
Sirmick’s top 5 retro chart: I have put together a small section of what I think are the best of the best in retro gaming for each genre. I have done some hardcore research and just from my experience of playing games for many years, I have come up with some classic games and I am sure you will appreciate them as much as I do. I hope this list will inspire some of you to go back to your old consoles, give them a dust of, and become addicted to them. It’s not all about sexy looking 3D Games, amazing renders and the games which will push even the highest end gaming PC’s to the limit. So go back to your roots and get “retroing”. Retro gaming has become a bit of a big thing in the early millennium with many mods, which would let you play your favorite retro games online with, or against your friends, and players all over the world. Moreover, to this day, they is a big online underground community, which still uses emulators to play old retro games such as Mario, King of Fighters etc. Do you think the list could have beter or harder games? Well, why not contact us and let us know your thoughts?
Top 5 hardest games of all time 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Contra: Hard Corps Ghouls N’ Goblins Megaman Castlevania Bart vs. he Space Mutants
Top 5 beat ‘em up’s: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Street Fighter Series Mortal Kombat Series King Of Fighters Fatal Fury Killer Instinct
Top 5 graphic adventures 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Monkey Island Broken sword Discworld Flashback Myst
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Finally… As you can see, many titles made it into the history of gaming, after 30 years, many games are still played by millions worldwide; the list is still very long. And one thing is for sure; these gold titles will keep on rocking future generations forever!!! Article By .:Nvidia:. And sirmick (Special Thanks To Banjax for the Idea)
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The Rise & Fall of the Sega Dreamcast eading volumes of he Scene inspired me to want to be a part of this revolutionary E-magazine. Hi, I’m DarkStryder93; you may have seen me around the forum but I want to be a bit more known than that. I wish to present you with all my gaming knowledge and whatnot: I will start with the glorious life of the Sega Dreamcast.
R
Codenamed Katana, this system was later known as the Sega Dreamcast. Sega Saturn was a miserable failure for Sega and they really wanted to get back into the race, so they produced the Dreamcast a long time before any of the nextgeneration systems came out. he question remained, ‘would consumers trust Sega ater the failure of the Sega Saturn?’ On November 27th 1998, the Dreamcast was made a reality to the Japanese gaming public. Gamers in Japan loved the graphics at that time and everyone was excited about it. he launch, however, was not without its problems. Due to manufacturing glitches, Sega failed to meet shipping goals for the console. With the Dreamcast, Sega missed their irst window of opportunity; NEC were making their graphics chip and there weren’t enough available for a full launch, so a lot of people let stores empty handed. he image at the time of the launch of the Sega Dreamcast was almost as if they had turned over a new leaf: it was a new feeling for Sega and it really did a successful job of arousing interest in the public. Whilst Sega were poised to take the US by storm, Sony was set to shake up the video gaming world. Every moment of the Dreamcast’s life was threatened by the looming shadows of this thing... the shadow of the PlayStation-2. At the beginning, everyone was excited and backing the Sega Dreamcast but as time passed, more and more of the consumers focus shited over to the PlayStation-2. As early as March 1999, Ken Kutaragi unveiled the Playstation-2 and it was much more powerful than the Dreamcast. However, the Dreamcast excited American gamers much more with pre-orders of the console reaching 300,000 units, shatering the record of 100,000 set by the PlayStation in 1995.
bringing in over $132 million. he Dreamcast was successful, and it gained the conidence of the retail community, as well as the consumer. Sega really pulled out all the stops ater the failure of the Sega Saturn and it was a hit. However, would it be good enough to hold of the PlayStation-2? On October 26th 2000, the heavily hyped PlayStation-2 was unleashed on the masses. Ater the irst year of the PlayStation-2’s launch, the biggest hit on the system was ‘he Matrix’: people were actually watching the movie and not playing the games, which sparked the DVD market of Japan. he Dreamcast would have been a bigger player if it had had a DVD player installed from the start. Sega looked over its shoulder and realised that they had lost Japan, and that there was no reclaiming it. If they had installed a DVD player into the Dreamcast, they might’ve been able to hold Japan because in the early days, the PlayStation-2 was the cheapest DVD player over there. PlayStation-2 sales hit $165 million in its irst 3 days and the Dreamcast sufered. Dreamcast sat on store shelves and games, even good games were not sold; it was as if somebody just turned of the Dreamcast’s power. Another problem was that it was very easy for pirates to burn games and play them without the use of any sotmod or hardmod. A simple process lowered the sales of Dreamcast games and stopped the production of the apps. he Dreamcast was a system ahead of its time: people who owned a Dreamcast in 2000 and 2001 were probably a lot happier than people who owned a PlayStation-2 at the same time, as there were many great games such as Shenmue, Shenmue II and Resident Evil Code Veronica available. he Dreamcast went down as one of the more desirable consoles in history and will never be forgoten. If you have never had one of these, I suggest you go and buy one. Since you can get one cheaply of eBay and are able to burn backups, it’s worth every bit of cash you have!
DARKSTRYDER93
“I think what made the Dreamcast so great was the games.” From the beginning, it had amazing games such as Soul Calibur, NFL 2K and Sonic Adventure, which were popular. One of the other things that made the Dreamcast so great was the online feature it had. Included in the box came a modem - meaning you could immediately connect to the net and play with other people across the country: that was a real novelty back then. Four days ater the US launch, Sega reported that they had sold 372,000 units, 12 GAMES
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Star Wars:
The Force Unleashed By Shifty
Publisher Lucas Arts
Developer Lucas Arts
Release Date September 16, 2008
Genre Action
Platforms XBOX 360 | PS3 | Wii | Nintendo DS
A
long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... there might have been a decent action-based Star Wars game for the console. Sadly, it seems that it is not in our lifetime. Lucas Arts have continuously failed to impress us console fanboys with poor Star Wars releases. So does ‘The Force Unleashed’ renew our faith in the franchise? Find out now in my review, a Scene-14 exclusive by Shifty.
Packed with NaturalMotion’s Euphoria engine and Digital Molecular Mater, this installment can really talk the talk, but whether it can walk the walk is something that really nagged me. he game delivers in plenty of aspects but also lets you down as equally. he tutorial level at the start of the game in which I played as a fully powered Darth Vader let me wanting more and I was very keen to continue. he game is set between “Revenge of the Sith” and “A New Hope.” It does a sublime job in bridging the gap between the old trilogy and the new. he franchise needed a new
approach this time round and that’s what it got. Gone are the full line ups of popular characters and locations. In this installment, Lucas Arts introduces a new range of refreshingly new characters including our protagonist, Galen Marek aka Starkiller. Starkiller is a young but wise Jedi secretly under the wing of Darth Vader. You really get a feel for the Dark Side in this installment - it’s grity, edgy and nothing at all like the previous games. As mentioned before, plenty of new characters have been introduced including the Rodian Scavengers and the Sabre-lancing Royal Guards.
Which in efect, won’t cause you harm at all as levitating them, clobbering them into any nearby object then frying them with your Force Lightning is the easiest of your powers. You’ll interact with Vader, however you spend more time with your closest companions PROXY the Android and it’s sexy female pilot, Juno Eclipse. he trio stick together through a lot of heavy batles which in most cases will have you using storm troopers as bowling pins. You will also eventually warm up to Starkiller’s counterparts, which is usually a bonus in any console game. Being able to obliterate enemies so
easily gives you a real sense of satisfaction and knowing that you’re a ‘baddie’ makes it all the more hardcore. Gaining experience and leveling up is your main key to unlocking more interesting atacks and powers and to do so you must kill with elegance, mixing up your moves and defeating your many foes with style which can be a challenge at times. Each level will give you three upgrade points to use on three diferent facets - one for Force powers, one for combos and one for health or defense abilities. Each level has a number of Jedi Holocrons to ind; some will give you more experience points and others will give you another full point to spend on a
chosen ability. he Digital Molecular Mater makes using your force levitation so much fun as almost everything in your immediate environment breaks, smashes and bends just as it’s real life counterpart. Efects such as the bending of metal or the cracking of a piece of wood are almost lifelike. his makes you feel a litle too powerful at times and brings out the dark side of yourself. he graphical side of things brinks above average but does the job well. However the amazing potential this real world environment gives isn’t used to it’s full extent and is merely just target practice for you. However
practicing to target things may be something you’ll need to do as the aiming system is very rusty indeed and you’ll oten ind yourself choosing the wrong thing to pick up and throw. his can be frustrating at the least. It also doesn’t help when you’re in an stufed and clustered area and you need to aim for something speciic. You’re most likely to pick several diferent things up before inally nailing your target. he game can become very easy at times, which isn’t hard to believe when given such obliterating powers. At times you can be linging over 20 Storm-troopers out of the way with ease and if the game doesn’t 14 SPORTS AND GAMES
challenge you at all the end-of-level Jedi will be placed in front of you in no time, making up for the walk-inthe-park level you just snowplowed through. hese bosses are a litle more tricky and can be terribly frustrating as most of the Jedi’s seem a lot more tougher than you. All you can do is hope some lucky atacks get through to hit your opponent and eventually your brute force will win you the batle as a tactical approach is almost impossible. During missions, you’ll also ind out that enemies will beat you when you’re down, which can be highly annoying when you’re low on health. Not only this, but they’ll knock you down and do it all again! Geting out of these situations THE SCENE / WAREZ-BB.ORG
isn’t too tricky and oten requires you to beat on that jump buton. Strangely enough, the game’s highest sense of satisfaction comes from the most easy enemies, which are usually the Storm-troopers. hey can boost your dark ego and make you feel almighty, just as a young dark Jedi should. he game’s title speaks for itself and ighting these minuscule enemies is what deines what the game is all about - force, power and giving you a real insight into the Dark side of the Force. he story takes you to various new locations that you wouldn’t have seen before in Star Wars. However most of these locations can become very tedious once studied, and you will soon realize that most sections in each level are repeated over and over again. It seems that functionality was chosen over design for most levels. Inevitably there was a plethora of technical problems with the game such as the common frame rate drops, visual bugs and lag spikes. From a distance it looks ine but when your knee high in full ledged action, cracks start to appear. However games such as Grand het Auto are notorious for glitches and tech faults like these so only nit pickers such as myself will be able to notice these instances.
On the other hand there is a huge plus side to the installment. Star Wars in the past has been brilliant for it’s great sound, such as the shooting of various blasters and the whooshing of ones light sabre or the smashing of daft pointless sci-i objects. Not to
mention the excellent orchestral soundtrack that graced most previous console versions of the franchise. This time around, the sound is second to none as expected from Lucas Arts and perfectly suits every aspect of the game that it is brought into. One of the most outstanding problems with the game is the way the camera works. his is also probably the most complained-about problem. When you jump the camera spasms upwards, preventing you from seeing where you are going to land and can oten leave you standing in front of an ever-alert enemy. he frustration this brings is inevitable and why Lucas Arts didn’t bother to ix or tweak this is beyond me. It’s not the most thought out game you will ever play and it makes me wonder if ‘he Force Unleashed’ was made solely to test out next generation Star Wars. Although Lucas Arts created the best Star Wars game in years, it has to many negative things to pinpoint. Overall, ‘he Force Unleashed’ is a 100 times beter than any of its previous console ancestors and is a typical nextgen virgin. It promises so much and gives only half. Some would say the game was uninspired and rushed and most would agree, however the game gave enough to clench my need for fun and at times, I couldn’t get enough of the intense and very powerful gameplay. Tedious it might eventually become, but fans will enjoy playing the game due to it’s storyline and the way it bridges the gap between old and new. It has to be said ‘he Force Unleashed’ does exactly what it says on the tin.
The Verdict GRAPHICS | 7.0 From a distance it looks great, but when you study it, cracks appear. Framerate drops and other technical diiculties give it a solid seven.
9.5
SOUND | Fantastic as ever, one of the greatest factors in the game.
7.5
GAMEPLAY | Unleashing the Dark side of the Force is great fun but lack of creativity in level design puts a downer on things. Overall gameplay is just about satisfying, but could be much more enjoyable if certain things were taken back to the drawing board.
Overall Score:
7.2
LAST WORD Unfortunately I would say the game has no lasting appeal whatsoever. Once you complete it there isn’t much to go back for and it will probably end up sitting in your games collection until the next installment comes out. As much fun as it may be when playing, you will most likely be glad to see the back of it once completed.
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My Daughter Has Autism!
By Tagied
As far as I know, in every ten thousand births, there is one child diagnosed with autism. In every four of them, one is a female. I could go on and on talking about this lifelong disability, but I am not in a position to do that. here are experts in this ield and I am not one of them. What I am is what falls short of being an expert in dealing with my daughter and her disability. No mater how much research I bury myself in, I still can never be fully equipped to handle this disability. he botom line: I am a mother of a PWA - Person with Autism.
Today I take it one step at a time. Mine has been a life made whole and so enriched beyond my wildest dreams, and still there is no stopping!!
Every single day, I ind a reason to smile without even bothering to look for one. here are times I get the bonus of laughing from the heart, as I cannot contain the laughter anymore. At times, I need a good cry too, but more times now from joy than desperation and fear of uncertainty of what lies ahead. However, I did not get here waking up one morning in a moment of ìEureka!î It has been a long and painful journey of confusion, sacriice and desperation. Let me tell you about it. It is all about my daughter and autism. Eunice - she is my only daughter, now 13 years of age. Her special talent is what catches her fancy from music, crat and needlework to computers. I purposely do not atend to her every need hand and foot, and now she is very independent. Very functional, she does chores without being told. Like her brother, she is not exempt from punishment when she misbehaves, and she knows that. here isnít a mean bone in her body. Eunice is such a good kid!
18 GENERAL
She has grown into a tall and beautiful (objectively) young lady who loves almost everything a girl does - jewellery, clothes, bags and shoes. Yet, we are still teaching her how to comb her hair properly. Everyone she meets loves her. hey surround her all the time with heartwarming smiles. Still, she cannot properly brush her teeth unsupervised. She loves going to (special) school, but she cannot talk, as of now only starting to verbalize. (How I pity the mother who ignores her child calling her for taking such things for granted!) Eunice is also very afectionate and so loving, but she has no emotional
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atachment. You should see how males look at her and how she sometimes basks in their atention. Yet she remains pure and innocent, I guess for all of her life. All of these make Eunice just so vulnerable! Looking back, I kept wondering for years if she ever dreams of what she would like to be. For even more years, I did wish she were this and that, and at the back of my mind wonder what kind of life she will lead when she is on her own. Will she ever be My mind races next from the real, the ridiculous even to fantasy. We have to face it ñ Eunice’s parents wonít be around all her life to protect her from the rest of the world. She has to be on her own. Nevertheless, with autism alicting her, how would that be possible? For years, my husband and I did not know how to deal with the disability. Instead, we both panicked and took it out on each other. here was so much hate I hated that autism alicting my daughter! He resorted to his work, and I isolated myself from the rest of the world and took on addictive behavior. Ater eight long years of not smoking anymore, I lit my irst cigarete and took on the ilthy habit again. I remember staring repeatedly at that bomb for hours - that piece of paper signed by the developmental pediatrician that said she has mild autism. My daughter is a child with special needs! Numbness was all there was, yet that piece of paper was wet with my tears each time I held it. I had been in denial for years and still refused to accept it! We were both so busy protecting our pain, we didn’t realize that the marriage was breaking apart! My extremely intelligent son whom we have neglected stopped going to school twice during the irst grade! We did nothing but atend to ourselves, nursing the guilt.
One night I found myself staring at the both of them asleep. Goodness, look at how much they have grown! She was 8 and he was 10. I never noticed the years go by. hen it dawned on me that it does not mater how much time I have let, these kids will grow and become their own person! My brother passed away when his children were younger than mine were and yet their lives went on! My kids are no diferent from his. Didnít we all come from the same Creator All this time; I had the mistaken notion that these 2 children before me are mine. hen the truth hit me hard in the face. hese are not my childrenÖ God, they are yours! I did not remember anything except crying my eyes of, not knowing for how long. I had never prayed so hard in all my life! For the very irst time, I took an actual step in real motherhood.
I LET GO.
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19 GENERAL
How could I underestimate such great accountability instead of thanking my Creator for such beautiful lives He put under my care, I have made crutches out of them and played God! hat was my point of no return. From then on, I knew I had to turn our lives around and start over again. What a huge and diicult task I had before me! What an even bigger mess we have made! What a long and this time, exciting healing journey ahead! Some things may never be undone. Until now, all of us are still reeling from the efect of years of desperation, hostility and neglect. his is certainly not the life I have ever dreamt of. Yet I have never been as thankful. I still have my permanent self-esteem issues. Yes, they still bother me at times, but they donít afect me anymore. I see my classmates from long ago successful doctors, one Editor-In-Chief, one infrastructure consultant, one producer of a multi-awarded ilm, executives, and more. Me? I am one fulilled and contented slave with nothing but litle domestic concerns to atend to. hatís all right, several of them came up to say how they envy me for being able to spend as much time with my kids. I did not know exactly where from, but I sensed an admiration that they all had. One even told me that I am the only person best equipped to handle my daughterís disability. here is no price tag for that!
Yes, autism
did make me see the world with a diferent set of eyes. It is my humbling experience, my learning ground, and reality biting me in the face. First, it opened my mind and made me see. Next, it opened my eyes and I understood. hen it opened my heart and made me forgive. I still may not see my imperfections nor realize them yet, but I know that there is more unfolding every single day that we can work on
Today patience the virtue is now a grain of sand in a beach called my being. Now I know how small I am and how big my Creator is. My God is with me every step of the way, and I will never ever be lonely. I must be worth His time. his is the greatest lesson I have ever learned! What I have now is more than enough to never make me stop. Believe me, there still is a world or two to discover! It did not take long for me to ind out that motherhood and autism is my potent formula for power that stays. Such combination, so far, is the best weapon to transform my being into what my God and I would like me to be. Yes, obedience. It has so far been the most diicult to come by, taking the longest time to acquire. Why, my toughest foe is me! I could go incessantly describing how fortunate I am now, but experience still is the best way to know that. I would never wish autism on anyone, but through it, I have discovered the how in inding power even in a most detested disability - Autism. here is power even in aliction! Now I wish for everyone who reads this to discover theirs as I did mine, hoping that what will be found will prove to be even more powerful. I may never know what this may be worth to you, but if this, to say at the very least would somehow start to stimulate intrapersonal debates in you, then we both know that I would be successful in my journey to heal. here is only one truth in all of these. High and proud, I am happy to tell the world that I still am being educated in the best school of all - he School of Hard Knocks. With autism for a tool, I get up more oten and quicker than the last time. In this school, I get higher grades than most people. Autism is not my world and certainly not that of my daughter’s! But with this new set of eyes that I have now, I have known the person under my own skin. With this same set of eyes, I now see a mother on top of the world - me. Now who says it is lonely up here? 20 GENERAL
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“do you know what all of this is about? Perhaps it’s time to broaden your horizon”.
Digital Audio Compression Text by waltereegho/Layout by Labonova
Imagine the size of your digital music library in vinyl format. How large would it be? One room, perhaps two? Imagine what it would be like to organize your collection, ind a single song and play it… and what about portability? Imagine pushing around a shopping cart with a record player and 20 of your favourite albums, not to mention the car batery that powers your “portable” audio system. No, that doesn’t look very elegant. How about listening to music whilst jogging… well, you’d lose a lot of calories, that’s for sure. Now back to your digital music collection: a few external harddisk drives, iting in a shoe box all together. A good looking interface to organize and play your alTHE SCENE / WAREZ-BB.ORG
bums with automatic scanning, searching, copying and deleting… it takes only a few clicks. You also won’t need that caddy anymore; just put a few weeks of music on your portable (yes, this one’s portable) music player, get yourself some nice earphones and start burning those calories. Sound very atractive, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not that simple. Of course, most people know what a MP3 ile is, but there is more than just this most used format. FLAC, OGG, AAC, MP3, MPC, WAV, APE, WMA; bitrates, sample rates, replay gain, codecs and containers… do you know what all of this is about? Perhaps it’s time to broaden your horizon. 21 GENERAL
Contents of this article: 1 What is audio compression, and why use it? • Uncompressed, lossless and lossy audio compression
2 Codecs, audio formats and containers • Uncompressed
3 audio terms, the basics • Lossless
4 Common audio formats • Lossy
So, what now? What is audio compression, and why use it? It’s quite simple: compressing something means making it smaller. Imagine having a box with lego blocks in it, and you need to make it smaller. There are several ways to do this: 1) Do nothing. Your lego box will be the same size as ever. Pro: you don’t lose any lego, you don’t have any work (you lazybones!) Contra: there is no compression: this method is very inefective. 2) Take it to the car dump, put the box in the machine used to compact cars into blocks of metal. Push the yellow buton. Wait. Your box will be compressed, great results guaranteed. Pro: excellent “compression ratio”: the box will be incredibly small. Contra: try to decompress it, restoring it to its original size and content: it’s not possible. 3) hrow some stuf out. For example, take all the red lego blocks out and throw them away. What you have let will it into a smaller box, thus the lego will be “compressed”. 22 GENERAL
Pro: you compress efectively. Contra: you inevitably lose lego blocks (information) that cannot be restored. 4) Rearrange the lego blocks: empty the box on the loor and put all the stuf back in, one by one. here will be less empty space between the lego blocks, so in the end you have the same contents, but compacted to a consolidated big block. Pro: you don’t lose any of your favourite lego toys (Yes! You can keep all Star Wars Lego igures!) Contra: the compression is not as efective as in the previous examples. he irst method can be compared to uncompressed audio. he audio ile will be huge, as there is no loss of data meaning your computer does not have to do any work compressing/decompressing the audio. If you copy (rip) an audio CD to your hard drive, the CD will take about 600mb of space, which is quite a lot. Uncompressed audio is fast because it requires minimum processing power, however it does mean that the iles will be very large because. Needless to say, this is a waste of storage capacity. THE SCENE / WAREZ-BB.ORG
“Yes! You can keep all Star Wars Lego igures!”
About the second one: don’t do it. Just don’t. What you get is just scrambled plastic, and even though it’s very efective in terms of compression ratio, your lego, aka information, will be destroyed. You need something else, a way to compress and decompress again. he third example is a much beter technique, and this is exactly what lossy audio compression does: cuting out the frequencies that most people can’t hear anyway. his means that information is irrepealably lost, but the audio ile will be reduced to a fraction of the original size. Quality is sacriiced in order to make the audio ile smaller. On a side note: re-encoding lossy audio to another lossy format will make it lose even more quality. NEVER do that. he last example is what lossless compression is about: the audio ile is compressed using complicated algorithms, but there is no loss of quality. If you convert a CD to a lossless audio format and then back to the CD format, the iles will be exactly the same (the md5 hash is the same). Converting from one lossless format to another will keep the ile lossless as well. he ile size will be smaller than uncompressed audio (about 50% smaller), but larger than lossy audio. If you have a good audio system, you can hear a clear diference between lossless and lossy audio, and this is why audiophiles exclusively use lossless compression in order to get the best sound quality. Lossless audio compression is also used for archiving reasons: unlike WinZip or WinAR, these compression algorithms were especially designed for audio iles, thus delivering much beter results. Summary: here are three diferent ways to store digital audio: uncompressed, lossless and lossy. he irst one is the least efective in terms of hard disk space usage, the second one is much more efective and keeps the original quality, and the last one is highly efective regarding compression ratio, but quality is lost.
Codecs, audio formats and containers First of all: a codec and an audio ile format are NOT the same. It’s a very common mistake to mix up the two. A codec (compressor/decompressor) is a litle program on your computer that is needed to open a speciic ile. If you want to read a pdf ile, you’ll need (for THE SCENE / WAREZ-BB.ORG
example) Adobe Reader to open it. If you want to open an MP3 ile, you’ll need a program that is able to read it: one with the MP3 codec. When you download an MP3 ile, you do not download a ile in the MP3 codec, you download a ile that was made (encoded) using the MP3 codec. In order to decompress (read) the ile, you will need this codec, or a similar one with the same capabilities to do so. he audio format is the way information is stored in a ile. Basically, the format is the structure of the audio ile. Let’s pull out our Lego box again: in this case, you are the codec, because you are the one who compresses the box, aka audio ile. he audio format would be the box itself; it contains the actual Lego blocks (the audio sample), which are packed by you, the codec, in a speciic way that depends on what codec you are. he container is a wrapper the audio format is put into. A container format is just a format, structured in a way that allows it to contain other data inside, as if it was a folder and not a ile. he container combines the multiple parts that make up the complete audio ile: the actual audio stream and metadata such as embedded art, CD covers for example. Just imagine puting that ugly cardboard Lego box inside a bigger box that looks much beter, along with some pictures of your favourite Lego igures and an index list that mentions the exact contents of the Lego box. Sampling rates, bitrates, bit depth and other stuf you probably don’t know about here are a few technical terms you need to understand when dealing with audio compression. What follows here is a basic vocabulary list with some of the most common terms related to audio comp ression. 1 Sampling rate: If you want to convert an analog signal to a digital signal, you have to measure it. he sampling rate deines the number of samples you take per second. he higher the sampling rate (measured in Hz, kHz or MHz), the beter the audio quality. he most common sampling rate is 44.1kHz. 2 Bit rate: this is the amount of data processed per second. he higher the bitrate value (for audio expressed in kbps, kilobit per second), the more data is pro23 GENERAL
cessed per second. An audio CD has default bitrates of 1411.2 kbps, an MP3 ile can have bitrates as low as 128kpbs, and most people wouldn’t even hear the diference. A higher bitrate does not necessarily mean beter audio quality; it depends on the quality of the original source used in encoding. You cannot go from lower to higher quality by raising the bitrate. By multiplying the bit depth, the number of channels and the sampling rate of the audio, you get the bitrate. It’s primarily used to give people a brief summary of the quality of a particular ile Bitrates can be constant (CBR: same bitrate throughout the whole audio ile) or variable (VBR: the bitrate varies depending on the audio ile. Silence will have much lower bitrates than parts with music). 3 Bit depth: measures the accuracy of the recording/processing. he higher the bit depth, the beter the quality. Normal audio CD’s use a 16bit depth. 4 Metadata: information about a ile, included in the ile itself. Example: tags (Author, Album, Year etc.), lyrics, replay gain tags (technique to achieve the same playback volume for speciic audio iles) etc. 5 More audio-related terms can be found here: htp://wiki.hydrogenaudio. org/index.php?title=Glossary_Of_Audio_Terms
Common audio formats Alright, time for some tangible information now. Keep what you already know in the back of your head, it will be useful to understand what comes now: the actual audio formats with some of their pros and cons. Never used anything but the popular MP3 format? his might change your mind. 24 GENERAL
he formats mentioned here are just selections of the most used ones, categorized by their type: uncompressed, lossless or lossy. Uncompressed his article is about audio compression, so I can be short on this. Uncompressed audio comes mainly as PCM, stored as WAV on a Windows computer and AIFF on a Mac. What you need to do is to compress these iles, so they take less space on your hard drive. Lossless FLaC FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, wrapping all the advantages of this format into just four words. First of all, it’s free and open-source. hat’s right, no royalties with full access to the source code. It doesn’t get any beter, does it? Second: it’s lossless. No loss of quality at fair compression rates of about 40-60%, thus serving its purpose very well. he fact that it’s for audio and that the C stands for codec is not really an advantage, but hey, my opening sentence sounded so good. FLAC is more than just a codec, to be precise. Of course, as the name indicates it is primarily a codec, but it is also a stream format (called FLAC as well), a container format (named FLAC, surprise!), a library the codec is based on (bearing the very original name libFLAC) and a few more things I will not discuss here. his means that you use the FLAC codec, based on the libFLAC library, to encode a piece of sound to a FLAC format, which is then wrapped into the FLAC container. Maybe the guys at Xiphophorus (developer) should hire someone to invent some more interesting names next time. Anyway, besides its free nature, FLAC has some other positive sides as well. Fast encoding/decoding, great lexibility, tagging, multichannel support… the list is longer than this. It is the most used lossless format. THE SCENE / WAREZ-BB.ORG
aPe Once the guy at Xiphophorus has inished changing the names over there, he should come and have a look at APE, because this is an emergency. Monkey’s Audio, that’s what APE stands for. It is a prety stupid name, although the format itself is OK. Fast encoding, excellent compression ratio (beter than FLAC) and tag support, are a few of its advantages. Its negative aspects include lack of multichannel support and slow encoding and seeking. Monkey’s Audio is released under a custom license: you can do whatever you want with the source code, as long as you have the permission of the author. Wavpack Wavpack has been a high quality format ever since David Bryant started development back in 1998. Very fast compression/decompression, a good ratio, support for many important features, and above all: free and open source. One of its biggest advantages over other formats is the so called hybrid mode: as the name suggests, this is a mix of both lossless and lossy encoding which provides high quality audio iles at superb compression. Never used Wavpack? his is reason enough to begin with it. OptimFrOG According to HydrogenAudio, OptimFROG has a compression ratio of 54.70%, beter than any of the formats mentioned so far. hat, plus the support of hybrid encoding and a few other features, makes OptimFROG a prety decent format, but the downsides are noticeable as well: very slow encoding/decoding, no source code available and lack of hardware support. Other lossless formats ALAC ( Apple Lossless Audio Codec): fair ratio, average speed, lack of important features. THE SCENE / WAREZ-BB.ORG
WMA Lossless: by Microsot, proprietary, average speed, good ratio, limited features. TAK (Tom’s lossless Audio Kompressor): high compression, excellent speed, no hardware support and litle sotware support (relatively new). LA (LossLess Audio): highest compression available, very slow, lack of features. SHN (Shorten): Fast but bad compression, outdated, no features. Lossy formats MP3 MP3 is probably the most popular audio format ever. Developed in 1987 and patented in 1989, it rapidly became the standard for digital audio compression, mainly because of its high compression ratio and CPU-eiciency. However, the real cause of the popularity of the MP3 format is simply… the Internet. MP3 compression inally made audio ile sharing possible, an opportunity that has not been passed by: MP3 became the boat that pirates sailed on. Ever since, MP3 has been the standard lossy format, regardless of its many limitations. MP3 bitrates vary from 8 to 320 kbps and can be constant or variable. It supports sample rates from 16 to 48kHz, 44.1kHz being the most used one. So what’s so good about MP3? First and foremost, this format is supported by every music player that exists. It’s not for nothing that they call those things “MP3 Players”. Secondly, the encoding/decoding is prety fast because MP3 is less complex than other formats. It also features a good tagging system and supports most of the extra features that are required now-a-days. he MP3 format has a lot of cons too. Compared to modern formats, MP3 is simply outdated. Listening tests have shown that other formats outshine this 25 GENERAL
old “pirate granny” by far. For example, 96kbps Vorbis delivers beter quality (pop music) than MP3 at 128kbps (using the LAME encoder). Ogg Vorbis his format was initially created to topple mp3 from its pedestal, but so far it hasn’t been able to compete with the reign of this pirate granny. Perhaps one day, who knows…? he best thing about Ogg Vorbis is, like all projects from the Xiph.Org Foundation (the same guys that made FLAC), that it’s completely free and open source. Apart from that, several listening tests have announced Ogg Vorbis to be superior to any other format when it comes to encoding between 80 an 96kbps, and equals other codecs in higher bitrates. Alike FLAC, Ogg Vorbis is not just a codec. he name can be split in two, the irst part (Ogg) referring to the container and the second to the actual stream format, encoded by one of the several Vorbis codecs. Both the container and the audio format are very lexible, meaning that you can combine them in other ways as well. For example, a Vorbis audio stream perfectly its into a Matroska container, and you wouldn’t experience any problems puting a FLAC audio stream into the Ogg container. Since most of the time Ogg and Vorbis are used together, the whole thing is called… Ogg Vorbis. he format is widely supported: even an iPod can play ogg iles (with the help of an adapted irmware called RockBox). Oh, and in case you think that you’ve never heard a Vorbis encoded sound: 18 Wheels of Steel, Halo, Unreal Tournament, Maia: he City of Lost Heaven, Grand het Auto: San Andreas, and Guitar Hero: On Tour… all these - and more - games use the Vorbis format. aaC Yet another competitor of the old pirate granny, although partially from the same developers, Advanced Audio Coding was created to be its successor, featuring many improvements over the outdated but immensely popular MP3 format. hese improvements include: 1 more sample frequencies than MP3 (from 8 kHz to 96 kHz instead of 16 kHz to 48 kHz) 2 Support of up to 48 channels (MP3 has a maximum of 5.1) 3 Higher coding eiciency and accuracy 4 Frequencies above 16kHz are much beter handled by AAC 5 he lower the bitrate, the greater the performance gap between AAC and MP3. At high bitrates, MP3 equals AAC more or less in terms of sound quality.
pa rental format, featuring advanced options such as variable bitrates between 3 and 1300 kbps. Musepack, along with Ogg Vorbis, is considered to be the best format for 128kbps compression, beating MP3, AAC and WMA. Negative sides of this format include no support for sampling rates above 48khz and lack of multichannel support (But that’s being worked on). WMa You probably know this one. Windows Medio Audio is the Microsot answer to the all-around MP3. here are multiple versions of this format, ranging from Standard over Professional and Voice to Lossless. In this section, only Standard and Professional are important. he verdict about WMA-S can be cropped to the basic: it’s crap. Microsot used aggressive marketing strategies to promote this format, and that’s the only reason behind its popularity. Even MP3 beat it in a listening test, go igure.
AAC audio streams can be packed into various containers: ile extensions include .M4A, .M4B, .M4P, .M4V, .M4R, .3GP, .MP4 and .AAC. It’s the default format for iTunes, one of the biggest online music shops on the Internet.
WMA-Pro, the successor of the WMA format, is superior to its predecessor in every way: quality, eiciency and features. It supports audio frequencies of up to 96 kHz and 24-bit resolution, for up to eight channels. Unfortunately, this format has only a very limited support so far, in spite of its superiority over the standard format.
MPC Musepack, formerly known as MPEGplus, MPEG+ or MP+, is an open source audio format based on the MP3 format. MPC has been greatly improved over its
Other lossy formats here are some other lossy formats that are not mentioned here, but they are so marginally supported that, to be quite rude, they are not worth talking about.
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So, what now? I did not come to a conclusion; that is up to you. It’s prety much impossible to say which format is the best, which sotware is the most advanced or which is the most eicient. If you try here and there, you’ll ind a suitable way to store your digital audio, no doubt. Enjoying music is not a privilege of the audiophiles. If you like your 128kbps WMA audio iles, well, that’s cool. Time to turn the volume knob to the right. THE SCENE / WAREZ-BB.ORG
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-Waltereegho
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Innocence, no more I ne’er breathed ‘til I irst cried; And cry, I now; since humanity has died. Yes, the world is dead! D-E-A-D! Yet, I still pray for my daily bread… D-E-A-D? Is that what you heard me squeal? Oh yes! Isn’t it the dead who do not feel?
I am an object of your desire- amorous; To you, I’m “raven-haired”, I’m “glamorous!” But was that a boon? Or was that MY bane! I unknowingly trudged the Devil’s lane… You penetrated my innocence, for your delight! In God-knows-how-many houses of the night. “Godparent” has since been given a new meaning; Something shamefully demeaning! This “(gl)amorous one” has been grounded, Ever since the leur-de-lis was upon me, branded! As I await her Ladyship to remove her famous blindfold, I can only but feel life ebb, and cease to hold…
KARTZ Dedicated to ‘innocence’ that has been torn away from the many innocents worldwide. Please… Let us join hands to stop child traficking and abuse/pornography.
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