Magic Disk 64 was two years old when this issue came out, and it still used the same metallic logo from the very first installment. Unlike the airbrushed cover image, the logo was created with a graphics program. The resolution wasn't quite high enough for print, though, and there are visible dark fringe pixels where the letters meet the blue backdrop. Back then I thought it was kind of cool that the logo was made with a computer.
This issue sports one of Magic Disk 64's better cover images. The artist likely took some inspiration from the sci-fi movie TRON (1982), in particular the "solar sailer" sequence.
Most of the time, each issue's cover art was meant to illustrate one of the games on the disk. In this case, Electra was chosen, as it features a spaceship that flies over futuristic platforms. The actual game looks totally different, but at the time it was pretty common for the cover art of any game to be an artist's loose interpretation and not an accurate representation.
I remember being fascinated with the cover picture's cool colors and the mysterious futuristic world it conveyed. It was probably the main reason why I bought this issue. The overall perspective might be rather dodgy, but I still like this one.
Cover Lines
It's hard to write cover lines that don't make the author sound like an overexcited teenager, so let's see how this issue fares:
- Electra's merits are based purely on the fact that its programmer created another game. What do you mean you haven't played Diamond Fever?
- Timezone is supposed to be a "MAGIC DISK Hit", which strikes me as a somewhat vague point of reference. In their defense, the game is actually pretty great.
- The writing unexpectedly shifts to a calmer tone for Patience, which is advertised as "an interesting card game". Sounds about right for something as thrilling as electronic solitaire.
- The bottom strip mentions a funny Christmas program which is a pretty accurate description.
Magazine
Now to the diskmag itself. First of all, I have to mention how starting up Magic Disk 64's menu for the first time blew my eleven-year-old mind:
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| Look at all these graphics! |
Up to this point, I was used to sights and sounds of a more "primitive" nature from games like Bruce Lee, H.E.R.O., or Donkey Kong. This is not a knock on these games, it's just that they were showing their age in 1989. With its use of fancy color gradients and an awesome background tune, the diskmag's presentation stood in stark contrast to what I had thought the C64 was capable of. To this day, these early demoscene aesthetics have stayed with me. Sometimes to a fault, when I find myself applying them to subjects where eighties metallic gradients don't really fit.
Certain articles were prefaced by pictures which had been specifically made for the magazine. For example, the first article on the disk, a brief introductory text by the chief editor, opens with this somewhat baffling image:
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| An accurate depiction of what CRT monitors from 30 years ago could do to your eyes |
Most of the pixel art found in the magazine was done by the same artist who went by the handle MB. It took me quite a while to track down the artist's name, as I misread the signature in the top right as THS. MB stands for Markus Blaeser who also contributed his pixel talent to several C64 games, among them Fly Harder, Jump Out and Winzer. Markus Blaeser has a recognizable dithering style which made me realize Fly Harder's title screen was his work.
Many of Markus Blaeser's contributions show an affection for space-themed motifs and fancy font logos. He also had a knack for dithering, as I already mentioned, though the excessive pillow shading evident in this piece rather hampers the overall impression.
The reader mail section also received an intro picture:
Despite this being a purely electronic magazine, readers still had to submit physical letters. Though I somehow doubt that the ones sent in were quite as archaic as depicted here. That ink bottle totally should've had a feather in it rather than a pen.
The only other section with a custom image is the preview for the next Magic Disk 64 issue:
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| Vorschau means preview, you see! |
This look into the stars made the concept of a preview seem much more grandiose than it actually was. Still, it's quite amazing how long in advance they had to lock in the content for the next issue so they could include a reliable list in the current magazine.
Articles
I won't go into great detail about the various articles on the disk. Instead, I have listed some interesting bits here:
- According to the reader mail in this issue, quite a few Magic Disk 64 subscribers were wrangling with their local post office because they received their copies in a folded state, which pretty much destroyed the 5.25'' floppy disk inside.
- There is a section advertising various software tools produced by Digital Marketing, among them the hilariously named PROFESSIONAL ASS and COP SHOCKER.
- Full price games reviewed in this issue include Cabal, Strider, and Laser Squad. The reviewer of Cabal laments the killing of people depicted in the game while at the same time there is a playable preview of No Mercy, an Operation Wolf clone, on this very disk. Whoops!
- This issue also includes an announcement for the Radwar Party 4, a cracker- and demoparty, which took place on January 6, 1990, in Heinsberg, Germany. There is a short clip of the event on YouTube in which a German journalist awkwardly interviews a gentleman whose only reason for being there apparently is to look out for software piracy.
Notable Games
Timezone
No Mercy (Preview)
Electra
Other Notable Software
Merry Christmas!
Summary
This was the first issue of Magic Disk 64 I ever bought, and it turned out to be quite a great starting point. While the tools on the disk aren't much to shout about, I consider Timezone one of my favorite games that ever got released on this magazine, and Merry Christmas! is quite a well-made seasonal greeting card.
I'd soon discover that the quality of the magazine's content could vary rather wildly from issue to issue.
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