Improving On The Engine.
                                 By Widowmaker.


After the last issue of the charts I thought that I would relax for a while
but I am a sucker for punishment maybe ;-) Or perhaps not a sucker for
punishment but I could not help noticing some things that I wanted to
improve to make the charts interface better to use for everyone.


I knew that I had rushed the bootblock style intro and that the charts
deserve a much more fitting intro so I had to improve on that, that was the
first thing to get changed and hopefully this one fits better, for now the
Sid songs are hard coded into it but I will be changing this by the time
that the next issue is released so that the songs can be changed more
easily, but for now enjoy those songs by Rob Hubbard. I would like to say
thank you to Stormbringer for his Tinysid replay routine which I used.


Some tools in the content management system have been upgraded, hopefully
this will mean that the editor of the charts can colour and format the
articles more easily to make them all more pleasant for you to read.


The biggest major change I guess is the inclusion of two skins.
I was not really happy with the skin that was in the last one, we went with
it just because we never had a better one at the time, now we have two.
The grunge skin was put together from graphics out of W.O.W and the other
one called Carbon was drawn by N.A.T.O of The Anti Nowhere League, thanks
for that. Press F1 and F2 to switch skins.


These changes have happened because you guys have asked for them, please
do keep on passing your feedback over to the editor of the charts. I hope
to keep on adding nice things to this chart engine and the editor is totally
dedicated to making it interesting to read.


The other thing that is of course now added into this engine is the ability
to have articles. A lot of people have asked for more interviews and
articles so please consider this..


Back in the old days there were a lot of magazines like Stolen Data, The
Eurochart, and many more. They were really very necessary to keep the scene
in contact. With the rise of the internet, maybe the need for these mags
was made less by the many forums, scene portals and IM programs.


Arguably this is a reason why only a few mags have survived. The warez
scene can still benefit from a mag/chart like this, it is a private way
that people can air their views and check how they are doing against the
competition.


It needs your feedback and articles to flourish. We will happily protect
your identity, please provide some material and we will keep on adding
improvements to the engine and producing new issues... Believe it or not
there are already things on the to do list for the next version of the
charts!!

Thanks!



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