           >>>>> Cyber Angel's Totally Biased Warez Report <<<<<
                           Issue # 4 - April 1995

DISCLAIMER:  As the name clearly states, this report is Totally Biased.
             While I have done my best to be fair to all groups/games
	     reviewed, I can just see many people scream out the word
             "bias" and can also see many rag messages following this
             report.  Therefore, I decided to go with the flow and 
             declare this report TOTALLY BIASED.  Meaning, whatever
             is written below is my personal opinion.  If you don't 
             like it - don't read it, if you read it - don't bitch.

RULES:       Final/Retail version of every English playable game on
             diskettes (no CD rips!) will be reviewed.  First part of
             the review will be NON biased, as it contains only the
             MEGGAGE of the releases which cannot be argued over.
             However, this first part will also be often INACCURATE, 
             as a 500k game may be much better than many 10mb ones. 
             Now, the second part can be argued to be much more biased, 
             thats where I rate the games on a 1 to 10 scale.  My 
             rating will be based on multitude of factors - mainly the
             quality of the game, demand (how many people play it),
             quality of crack if one is needed, etc.  Add-ons, scenery
             disks, updates etc. will only receive HALF the points.
             Games that are in foreign language but fully English playable
             (like Chinese arcade games), US versions, newer versions of
             previously released games (Doom 1.8, etc) will also receive
             a much lower rating.  If two or more groups were to merge,
             their scores would be added together.  Since this will be the 
             most "biased" part of my report I would once again like to 
             state that I am only expressing my opinion and anyone unhappy 
             with the scores is welcome to release a Report of their own.

                                .JULY CHARTS.

      -KILOBYTES-              -POINTS AWARDED-         -NUMBER OF RELEASES-
Razor 1911        29125k | Tyranny                27 | Tyranny                8
Tyranny           21970k | Razor 1911             21 | Razor 1911             6
Eclipse           17060k | Eclipse                10 | Eclipse                3
Ritual            10190k | Ritual                  8 | Ritual                 2
Twilight           5370k | Twilight                5 | Twilight               1
Hoodlum            3460k | Hoodlum                 3 | Hoodlum                1
Source Of Reality   735k | Source Of Reality       2 | Source Of Reality      1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                    .ALLTIME CHARTS (SINCE JANUARY 1995).

      -KILOBYTES-              -POINTS AWARDED-         -NUMBER OF RELEASES-
Razor 1911       204200k | Razor 1911            233 | Razor 1911            47
Genesis          191185k | Genesis               219 | Genesis               42
Tyranny          107425k | Tyranny               159 | Tyranny               39
Eclipse           73515k | Eclipse                66 | Eclipse               14
Ritual            13225k | Ritual                 17 | Ritual                 5
Ymca               8075k | Ymca                   13 | The Sons Of Satan      5
The Sons Of Satan  7930k | The Sons Of Satan      12 | Ymca                   4
Twilight           5370k | Twilight                5 | Generation-X           3
Epitath            3730k | Inner Circle            5 | Twilight               1
Hoodlum            3460k | Generation-X            5 | Inner Circle           1
Quartex            2705k | Quartex                 4 | Quartex                1
Energy             2585k | Energy                  4 | Energy                 1
Generation-X       1705k | Empire Of Darkness      4 | Empire Of Darkness     1
The Humble Guys    1430k | Epitath                 3 | Epitath                1
Empire Of Darkness 1420k | Hoodlum                 3 | Hoodlum                1
TDU-JAM            1365k | TDU-JAM                 3 | TDU-JAM                1
Inner Circle       1130k | The Humble Guys         2 | The Humble Guys        1
Source Of Reality   735k | Source Of Reality       2 | Source Of Reality      1


July releases:

Eclipse
~~~~~~~
solitdl1.zip 1425k 07/07/95  Solitaire Deluxe for Windows (c) Interplay       4
solitdl2.zip 1425k 07/07/95  [2/2]
fanfoot1.zip 1425k 07/10/95  Fantasy Football 95                              2
fanfoot2.zip 1280k 07/10/95  [2/2]         (c) Franchise Football League
sim2-1.zip   1415k 07/28/95  Simon The Sorcerer 2 (c) Adventuresoft         4/8
sim2-2.zip   1440k 07/28/95  [2/8]
sim2-3.zip   1440k 07/28/95  [3/8]
sim2-4.zip   1440k 07/28/95  [4/8]
sim2-5.zip   1440k 07/28/95  [5/8]
sim2-6.zip   1440k 07/28/95  [6/8]
sim2-7.zip   1450k 07/28/95  [7/8]
sim2-8.zip   1430k 07/28/95  [8/8]

Total:      17060k + 10

Hoodlum
~~~~~~~
hlm_pm21.zip 1430k 07/25/95  Player Manager 2 (c) Anco Software               3
hlm_pm22.zip 1445k 07/25/95  [2/3]
hlm_pm23.zip  585k 07/25/95  [3/3]
             
Total:       3460k + 3

Razor 1911
~~~~~~~~~~
atari2-1.zip  400k 07/13/95  Atari 2600 Action Pack 2 for Windows             4
atari2-2.zip 1270k 07/13/95  [2/3]                        (c) Activision
atari2-3.zip 1320k 07/13/95  [3/3]
kingspt1.zip 1230k 07/24/95  Kingspoint for Windows (c) Goldtree              4
kingspt2.zip 1435k 07/24/95  [2/8]
kingspt3.zip 1400k 07/24/95  [3/8]
kingspt4.zip 1210k 07/24/95  [4/8]
kingspt5.zip 1420k 07/24/95  [5/8]
kingspt6.zip 1340k 07/24/95  [6/8]
kingspt7.zip 1440k 07/24/95  [7/8]
kingspt8.zip 1090k 07/24/95  [8/8]
fliplus1.zip 1270k 07/26/95  Flight Light Plus f/DOS/WIN/WIN95 (c) Sublogic   4
fliplus2.zip  415k 07/26/95  [2/2]
simon2-1.zip 1415k 07/28/95  Simon The Sorcerer 2 (c) Adveturesoft          4/8
simon2-2.zip 1440k 07/28/95  [2/8]
simon2-3.zip 1440k 07/28/95  [3/8]
simon2-4.zip 1440k 07/28/95  [4/8]
simon2-5.zip 1440k 07/28/95  [5/8]
simon2-6.zip 1440k 07/28/95  [6/8]
simon2-7.zip 1450k 07/28/95  [7/8]
simon2-8.zip 1430k 07/28/95  [8/8]
scrabble.zip  770k 07/29/95  Scrabble for Windows (c) U.S.Gold                3
hyper-1.zip   640k 07/29/95  HyperCycles (c) Aclypse                          2
hyper-2.zip   970k 07/29/95  [2/2]

Total:      29125k + 21

Ritual
~~~~~~
bolz1.zip    1385k 07/07/95  Bolz registered (c) COGnition                    5
bolz2.zip    1325k 07/07/95  [2/6]
bolz3.zip    1225k 07/07/95  [3/6]
bolz4.zip    1380k 07/07/95  [4/6]
bolz5.zip    1345k 07/07/95  [5/6]
bolz6.zip    1295k 07/07/95  [6/6]
suprher1.zip 1380k 07/08/95  SuperHer for Windows registered (c) Homebrew     3
suprher2.zip  855k 07/08/95  [2/2]

Total:      10190k + 8

SOR
~~~
sor-ench.zip  735k 07/21/95  Enchantasy (c) Point Of View Computing           2

Total:        735k + 2

Twilight
~~~~~~~~
twl_mm21.zip 1340k 07/11/95  Micro Machines 2 (c) Codemasters                 5
twl_mm22.zip 1435k 07/11/95  [2/4]
twl_mm23.zip 1285k 07/11/95  [3/4]
twl_mm24.zip 1310k 07/11/95  [4/4]

Total:       5370k + 5

Tyranny
~~~~~~~
trn-ed1.zip  1025k 07/03/95  Entertainment Digest Volume 1 for Windows        3
trn-ed2.zip  1180k 07/03/95  [2/4]                   (c) Argos Software
trn-ed3.zip  1200k 07/03/95  [3/4]
trn-ed4.zip  1120k 07/03/95  [4/4]
trn-aa1.zip  1010k 07/03/95  Art Apart for Windows - Collectors Edition       3
trn-aa2.zip  1185k 07/03/95  [2/3]                   (c) Argos Software
trn-aa3.zip  1080k 07/03/95  [3/3]
trn-th1.zip  1440k 07/08/95  Time Hunters registered (c) Homebrew Software    4
trn-th2.zip  1295k 07/08/95  [2/2]
trn-atf1.zip 1460k 07/15/95  DarkStrike: Advanced Tactical Fighter (c) Prisim 4
trn-atf2.zip 1460k 07/15/95  [2/5]
trn-atf3.zip 1460k 07/15/95  [3/5]
trn-atf4.zip 1460k 07/15/95  [4/5]
trn-atf5.zip  875k 07/15/95  [5/5]
trn-ovd1.zip 1390k 07/22/95  Overdrive (c) Team 17                            5
trn-ovd2.zip  955k 07/22/95  [2/2]
trn-1994.zip   20k 07/27/95  1994 Stats Disk for ML Football (c) Microleague  1 
trn-llgt.zip  610k 07/27/95  Laser Light (c) Pixel Painters                   4
trn-ric1.zip 1345k 07/30/95  Ricochet for Windows (c) Morgan Games            3
trn-ric2.zip  400k 07/30/95  [2/2]

Total:      21970k + 27 

And now for the totally biased part:

This month had very few REALLY good titles ot speak of, nevertheless there
was plenty of competition to talk about...  The biggest news of the month
is that Genesis, a group that managed to remain in 1st/2nd place every month
this year, is now officially gone.  Since they have lost their European 
suppliers to Razor, Genesis leaders decided to close down the shop.  They 
claim that all diskette games GNS guys get will from now on be released 
under the TDU-JAM label.  This month, the only diskette title from TDU-JAM
was the cracked version of Player Manager 3, released by Hoodlum a day before,
so they do not get to be listed in this report.  It is quite possible that
TDU-Jam will bring us some diskette games in the future, but it is unlikely
they will become a major competitor, as they are mainly concerned with the
CD Rom rips (and seem to be doing a great job on those).  

So, with Genesis gone and Eclipse joining back into the race, the scene again
has three major players.  Each of the three means business and will go to 
great lengths to beat the others.  This was proven quite well by both Razor
and Eclipse on their spreading war over the release of Simon The Sorcerer 2.
The release was very notable due to the fact that, apparently, nobody won.
Both groups did a great job cracking it, both groups spread it very well.
Razor managed to get it on slightly larger number of big boards than Eclipse, 
however Eclipse beat them to the worlds fastest BBS Park Central as well as
to the Razor Courier HQ, Tower Of Sorcery.  Razor won in Canada winning on
two out of three fastest Canadean boards, but Eclipse won on the majority
of boards in Europe.  Eclipse was the first to put it on most popular FTP 
sites on the Internet, but Razor's version was the one spread on IRC.  In a
word - it was pretty impossible to distinguish the winner in this case.
After spending some time, I have decided to simply split the credit.  In his
wares report, TRC prefers to give full credit to both groups in such case,
but my arguement is - since neither group managed to get it early enough to
CLEARLY beat the competition, neither should be awarded the full credit for 
the release.  The credit has been split 50/50, awarding each group 4 points 
out of the 8-point rating.  Both groups were awarded full BYTE credit as well
as each had this game counted in their monthly number of releases.
Ah well, now that the most controvertial rating on this month has been 
explained, let us move on, to the individual group reviews.

*Eclipse*  Eclipse has made a mildly successful comeback this month.  They
did manage to release 3 titles, even though one of them (Fan. Football) in
my opinion was WAY below their usual standart, and on the other one they had
a nice race with Razor.  Nevertheless, this clearly shows that they are here
to stay, they can get UK titles (as shown on STS2 race), and they can provide
plenty of competition and quality releases in the future.  (Hope they will be
higher quality than Fantasy Football, I am still having nightmares from its
ASCII interface).

*Hoodlum*  While this groups has some potential, European suppliers, and 
plenty of experience from the Amiga scene, they have not performed well at
all this month.  First, they have released the CD rip of Hi Octane (or was it
last month?).  Either way, the 10 disk release had NO mentioning of the fact
that it was a CD rip anywhere in DIZ or NFO file.  That is either sloppy or
unprofessional, hopefully HLM (and other CD groups as well) will pay more 
attention to pointing out the media their release comes from.  And, the only
diskette release from HLM this month, was not cracked.  I really think that
Hoodlum has experience and resources to perform better, and hope they will do
so in the future.

*Razor 1911*  Things did not look good at all for Razor during the first
2/3 of the month.  All they managed to release is one small Windows game.
However, Blade made a huge leap towards victory in the last week, coming
back with a variety of titles.  They still came in second, but I must say
they did damn good at the end.  My only complaint lies with their last two
releases - Scrabble for Windows and HyperCycles.  Come on!!!  700k Scrabble
game that they had no competition on whatsoever came out uncracked, and when
they did release a crack later that day, it was an unprofessional patch the 
size of half the game itself.  And HyperCycles... What can I say - I had the
reg'ed version of it for over a week and did not even consider releasing it
under Tyranny.  Ah well, it matches the fine standarts of Fantasy Football :)

*Ritual* Two reg'ed shareware games, not much to say.  Bolz was a great 
release though, one of the better games of the month.

*Source Of Reality* SOR is the name of my board, and I just release some demos
under it every once in a while.  Enchantasy is a full commercial game, but
its quality was way below Tyranny's standarts, so I released it under SOR.
I was about to release HyperCycles under SOR too, but it was almost as much
fun watching our most formidable competition discredit themselves by releasing
it instead. 

*Twilight* Shame on all the bigger groups.  MicroMachines 2 was the second
biggest game of the month, and this small European group snatched it right
from under the noses of all the big guys.  They did not crack it though, shame.
But IL has released a crack very quickly, and it works fine.

*Tyranny* Great show from my group this month, if I do say so myself.  We were
steadily in the lead during the whole month, and even though Razor came pretty
close in the end, we won by a pretty decent margin - even if they would have
beaten Eclipse to the STS2 release, we had enough of the lead to stay on top
anyway.  We also finally released a game from Europe (Overdrive from Team 17)
showing that we can finally compete there too, and it looks like it will be 
anything BUT easy to beat us in August as well.  Since this seems to be a 
"release a small piece of shit along with a bunch of good games" month, we had
a little budget release of our own to "combat" Fantasy Football and 
HyperCycles.  It was a 1994 Football add-on from Microleague, that ziped down
to 20k.  But, it IS from a major company, and it DOES cost $15 to get, so we
decided that it would be worthwhile to release - whoever plays ML Football
will surely find it useful...  Other than that, we won.  Does it make me happy?
You bet.  Will we do it again in August?  Of course we will! :)

*The Dream Team*  Apparently some incompetent fools are trying to bring back
this great groups, but they simply end up giving it a bad name.  The two 
releases they had at the end of the month were: Funball from Impulse, a dupe
of Razor release from a few months back, and what they call "Galactix '95".
It is a cool game, but there is NO diffirence from a version I played in 1993,
and it will not be rated.  Shame, shame, shame.

Welp, what seems like the longest commentary in the history of this Ware
Report is finally done.  Enjoy the games, enjoy the ratings, and make sure
to grab RaJ!'s Ware Report (K&E-001.ZIP).  Hopefully, TRC will release his
report this month as well, although I cannot be sure.
Special note to RaJ!: You forgot to rate one of Tyranny's releases!!!
                      trn-ric*.zip (look above in this report).  Fix it!!! :) 
Signing off, 
                                        Cyber Angel / Biased Warez Report '95

P.S. For any additional info, contact me on my BBS - 718-934-0558.
