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  • Text / Magazine
  • Krazy8, Orm, Pug, writer credits
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| Welcome to the The iSO News (>> www.orm.nu <<) first installment of our PC Game iSO Charts. With | the new year, the ISO scene will most likely receive an influx of new people, new groups and more | competition. With this in mind, now is the time to develop an organized way to rate the various groups | that encompass the ISO scene. It will also help establish an acceptable set of rules. Rules that most of the | major groups <DVNiSO, Cife, etc..> have been following anyway. | Here is our point system... | | Games : 5 Points + 1 if an exceptional/major title. | | On the C-64 scene groups were rated on a flat scale. Each game received a point, and whoever got the | highest won. It was simple, unbiased and worked. The C-64 scene also didnt have trainers<at least | released seperately>, update patches, and 20 billion hunting titles to factor into the point system. Still a | flat rate works and prevents bias. One need only look at the rip scene's Just The Facts to see how a mag | without a flat rate can be turned into a totally biased propaganda machine for the group that releases it. | That will not happen here. | | Exceptional/Major Title : 1 Point. | | While we think a flat rate point system is the best way to go, we also think that truly exceptional titles | should get something extra. The logic behind this, is "Should the group that released Quake 2 get the | same amount of points as the group that did Grizzley Hunter Deluxe?" What qualifies as "Exceptional"? | From last year games like Thief, Halflife, Myth 2, Quake 2, etc.. This year? Only Sim-City 3000 thus far, | but future ones would be Alpha Centauri, Daikatana, etc... There should never be any dispute or | controversy surrounding what is classified "Exceptional". It should always be universally accepted. | | Trainers : 1 Point | | Trainers made specifically for ISO's will receive 1 point. | | Update Patches : 1 Point | | Games with protection, will often need the patch to be cracked before one can use it on there pirated copy. | If this is so, the cracked patch will recieve a point. Patches that do not require a crack, will receive | nothing and will be ignored by this chart. | | Kiddy Titles : 0 Points | | While we dont feel the need to penalize groups that release kiddy titles, we also will not support them in | any way. Kiddy titles will be ignored. What constitutes a kiddy title? Edutainment, Teletubbies, Games | made for the under-12 crowd. Use some common sense. We all know what kiddy titles are. | | Overburns : 5 or -5 points | | The reality of overburn's is that at least 40% of the intended audience cannot play them. Be it because they | dont have CDR's capable of overburning, or the lack of 80 minute cd's in there area. The other reality is, | since this is the ISO scene, games should at ALL times be complete. We feel the best way to handle this is | to simply use some common sense. If you can rip out direct-x, game demos or anything on the cd that does | not in ANY way affect the actual game, you should receive the same amount of points as any other game. | Likewise, IF after ripping direct-x, game demos, etc, off the cd. The group finds that the only thing to do | is either release it as an overburn or rip something that affects the game, the group should release it as an | overburn and receive full points. The thing that should never be tolerated in the ISO scene is the ripping | of game related elements. Thats what rips are for. 5 points will be deducted IF a group releases an | overburn that can be done under 74 minutes by ripping direct-x or any of the non game related items | listed above. 5 points will also be deducted if a group releases a game with anything game-related ripped | just to fit it on a 74 minute CD. Notable examples from the past include the shortening of an audio track, | the removable of an intro movie, the removal of an in-game .wav file, etc.. | This is probably the most controversial aspect of these charts, but we think this is simply the most fair and | the most sensible way to handle overburns. | | Dupes : -5 Points | | If someone release a dupe, they will have 5 points deducted from there total. | | Repacks/Fixes/Fuckups | releases the first WORKING version of the game gets the points. If someone releases a game, only for it | not to work.. Whoever releases the working repack, fix, etc.. Will receive full points for it. We wont | penalize a group for making a mistake, but they will get 0 points for there fucked up release. | | Beta : -5 Points | | Beta's are lame. And 5 points will be deducted for releasing one. If we find out at a later date that | someone released a beta, the points they received for the release will be removed, along with the | additional 5 points for putting out a beta. | Old Games : 0 Points | | Much like kiddy games, we dont feel the need to penalize those who release older games. Especially since | many games released during the era of the rip scene were never done as an ISO. We also will not give any | points for them. More often then not they are nukes, and should have no effect on this list. | | Addons : 5 Points | | Addons will receive the same amount of points as games. This includes Official or Unofficial addons. | | Compilations : 0 Points | | A compilation is when a company takes a group of older games, slaps it into a spiffy package and chucks | it out as a retail package. Some examples include Wizardry Gold, Prince of Persia Collection, Heroes of | Might and Magic gold, etc... Theres nothing "new" added, just old games released as a collection. While | some completist collectors may want these, most folks do not. Groups will not be penalized for releasing | them, but they will not receive any points either. | | Races | | What is a "Race"? A race is when 2 groups release a title around the same time, and then rush to see who | can spread it around first. In this situation the "winner" is the group who can get it on the most sites first,| especially the rival group's they are racing against. Heres how we will deal with this situation... If there is| a winner, he will get full points for the release. If it comes down to an exact tie.. the points will be split.| Usually there is always a winner, and ties will be rare.. But they do happen. | | | If anyone has any questions, complaints, or other problems with our ratings system or how we score titles, | feel free to e-mail us at [email protected]. On with the ratings.. | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------┤ | | DVNiSO | | ▀▀▀▀▓ █████ | ─ ─ ─── ████▓ ───── ░░ █████ ───────── █▀███ ──────────────────[dVNiSO]──┐ | ▄███▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀██ █████▀▀▀▀▀▀▀███▄ ▀▀▀▀▓ ▄███▀▀▀▀▀████▓ ▄███▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ | ████ ░░ ░░░░░ ███ ████▓ ▄█ ████ ████▓ ████ ░░ ▀▀▀▀▀ ████ ░░ ░░░░░ | █░██ ▒▒▒▒▒ ████ █████ ▄██ ███▓ ████▓▄████▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▓ █░██ ▒▒▒▒▒ | █░██ ▓▓▓▓▓ ▓████ █████ ▄███ ████ ████▓ ████▓ █░██ ▓▓▓▓▓ | █▒██ █████ ▓███████▓ ▄▓▓▓▓ ░░ ███▓ █████r▒▒▒▒ ░ ████▓ █▒██ █████ | █▓██ ████▓ ▓██████ ▒▒▒▒▒ ███▓ ████▓e▓▓▓▓ █████ █▓██ ████▓ | ░▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀████▓ ▀▀▀▓███▀▀▀▀░░░░░▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀████▓c▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀████▓▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ | | Simcity 3000 (c) Maxis/Electronic Arts : 6 Points | Extreme Tennis (c) Head Games/Activision : 5 Points | Elite Darts (c) Take 2 Interactive : 5 Points | Close Combat 3 (c) Microsoft : 5 points | Tellurian Defense (c) Psygnosis : 5 Points | Worms Armageddon (c) Team 17 : 5 Points | Total : 31 Points | | In the year of 1998 DVNiSO emerged as the undisputed king of the ISO scene. They had more total | releases then any of there rivals. For January though, they are only able to secure the #2 spot. With that | said, they still had the top 3 releases of the month in Simcity 3000<which we consider good enough to | warrant an exceptional rating> Close Combat 3, and Worms Armageddon. | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------┤ | CiFE | | .___________________. | | | | ( cD iMAGES .____. F o R the E L i T E ) | _____|__|. |___________|_______ | _ ____ / _____|| | ______________/____ __ _ | \\\_\\__ / \_|__| | ____/ ____/__. __//_/// | ........\__________ :____|.\____\| |........ | . .....:::::::::::::|::|____|:::::::::::\______|::::::..... . | | | | | <e> | | |___________________| | | Natural Fawn Killers (c) The Gameplay Company : 5 Points | Beavis and Butthead - Do U (c) GT Interactive : 5 Points | Solitaire for Win98 (c) Interplay : 5 Points | Battlecruiser 3000AD 2.0 (c) Interplay : 5 Points | Damage Incorporated (c) Wizardworkds : 5 Points | African Safari Hunter (c) GT Interactive :5 Points | Trophy Buck (c) Sierra : 5 Points | Extreme-G 2 (c) Acclaim : 5 Points | | Total : 40 Points | | If someone had to pick a #2 for 1998, it was CiFE. This month they manage to upset DVNiSO and claim | the #1 spot. Although only one game broke $20, they still deserve credit for claiming #1. A great month | for CiFE. | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------┤ | Quartex | | _____ /| ___ ________________________________ _____ | / \ / |___ / \ \ __ \_____ ___ _____/\ V / | / í \/ | |/ : \|\/ ! \Z!/ | /\/ __) \ ! / | / |/\ \ | | \ _/ / |/ \_ > < | \ \_ \ / ! | í \ \ \/ |\ / / í \ | \______ /______ |___| ___/___|\ /____ | \_____ / / |____\ | =============\/=======\|===|/=========\_/=====\|======\/==\____|============= | | Liath (c) Project 2 Interactive : 5 Points | UFO's - 0 Points : OLD | Total 5 Points | | Quartex is a new ISO games group for 1999, and released the very first title of the new year. It was a very | good debut release, and a nice game. They also released UFO's, which is easily over 6 months old, and | thus a nuke. Since its not a dupe, points will not be removed, but it is old so it will be given 0 points. In | the future, look for Quartex to compete on some of the European titles. | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------┤ | EvilISO | | ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄ | ▐████▀▀▀▀██▓▒▌ ▐███▌ ▐███░▐████░▌ ▐████▀ ▐████░▌ ██████▐▌ ██████▐▌ | █████ ░ ▀▀▌░ ▐███░ ▐███▌ ▀▀▀▀▀ █████ ░ ▀▀▀▀▀ ▐▐█▒▀ ██ ▐▐█▒▀ ██ | ▐████▒░ ████▒ ████ ▐████▒░ ▐▐█▒ ▐▐█▒▀ ██▌ | ▐████▓░ ████░ ███▓ ▄█████▄ ▐████▓░ ▄█████▄ ███▓ ▐▐▒▀ ▐█▌ | ▐█████████░ ▐███▒ ▐███░ ▐█████▌ ▐▐████ ▐█████▌ ▐███▌▄ ▐▐▒▀ ▐█▌ | ▐████▌▀▀▀▓░ ▐███▌ ▐▐██▌ █████ ▐▐███▌▀ █████ ▀████▌ ▐▐▒▀ ▐█▌ | ▐████▌▒ ▀ ████▒ ▐▐██ ███▒▐ ▐▐███▌▒ ███▒▐ ▀███ ▐▐▒▀ ▐█▌ | ▐▓███▌▒ ████░ ▌██▓ ███▒▐ ▐▓███▌▒ ███▒▐ ▐██▌▐▐█▒▀ ██▌ | ▐▓███▓░ ▄▄▄░ ▐▓███████▌ ███▒▐ ▐▓███▓░ ▄▄▄░ ███▒▐ ██▄ ▄███ ▐▐█▒▀ ▐██ | ▐▓██████████▌ ▐▓███████▌ ▐█████▌ ▐▓██████████▌ ▐█████▌ █████▐▌ █████▐█▌ | ▐▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀██ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▐▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀██ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀ | | Concorde SST (c) Interactive Magic : 5 Points | Total 5 Points | | EViLiSO is mainly a VCD group, and they do well in that area. They also release the occasional game, | even scoring Fallout 2 in 1998. They only had 1 title for January. | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------┤ | Fairlight | | ▄▄▄████▄▄▄ ▄▄▄█ | ▄████████████████▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄█████ | █████▀▀▀████████████████████████████ | ███▀ ▀▀██████████████████████▀ | ██ ▄█▄ ▀▀██████████████▀▀ | █ ▀█▌ ▄█ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ | ▀▄▄ ▄█▀▄▄███ ▄ ▄█ ▄ ▄█ ▄█ | ▀▀▀ ████ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄█ ▄██ ▄███ ▄██ ▄███ ▄███ | ▄▄████▄████████▀ ▀ ███ ▀ ███ ▄ ███ | ▄▀▀██████▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▄▄ ▄ ▄█ ▄█ ▄█▄▀██ ▄█ ▄▄ ▄ ███ ▄▄ ████████▄ | ▄▄████ ▄█▀ ▀█▄█ ▄███ ▄████▀▀█▀▄█ ▄███ ▄█▀ ▀█▄█ ███▄█▀██ ▀▀███▀▀█ | ▄▀▀█████ ▐██ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ▐██ ███ ███▀ ██ ███ | ████ ▐██ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ▐██ ███ ███ ██ ███ | ▄▄████ ▐██▌ ███ ▄███ ███ ███ ███ ▐██▌ ███ ███ ██ ███ | ▄▀▀█████▌ ▀██▄█▀███▀███ ███ ███ ███ ▀██▄████ ███ ██ ███ | █████▄ ▀ ▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀ ███▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀ | ▄███▄ ████████▄▄▄ ▐██▌ ANSi·JED<ACiD> | ▐█▀██▀▄ ▄███████▀▀ ▄██▀ | ▀█▄ ▄▄████▀▀ ▄▄███▄▄▄ ▄▄▀▀ | ▀▀██▀▀▀ ▀█▀ █▀ ▀▀▀ | ▀ | | Simon The Sorceror Pinball (c) Adventuresoft : 5 Points | Close Combat 3 : Dupe -5 Points | Rainbow 6 - Eagle Watch Addon (c) Red Storm : 5 Points | Football World Manager (c) Ubisoft : 5 Points | Simcity 3000 : Dupe -5 Points | Battleground 9 - Chicamauga (c) Talonsoft : 5 Points | Ultimate Soccer Manager 98/99 (c) Sierra : 5 Points | Total : 15 Points | | Fairlight has seen better days.... First they start off the month with a valid title. Then they ruin it by | releasing a very blatant and obvious dupe. The man listed as the supplier in that NFO<youngblood> came | onto IRC and stated that it was a mistake, and acknowledged Fairlights error. Every group makes | mistakes, so not a big deal. They follow it up with a decent addon and a soccer manager. Then release | another blatant dupe. | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------┤ | ADSL256 | | Slingo : Dupe -5 Points | Total : -5 Points | | This was there debut release, and a blatant dupe of game released by DVNiSO in October of 1998. A very | lame debut, and i cant imagine them releasing anything in the future, even budget stuff. Most likely this | will be there first and last title, and they will fade into obscurity. | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------┤ | PDMiSO | | ▄ ■ | ▄███▀ ▀▓▄ ▄▓▄▄ | ▄▓▄ ▄████▌ ▄▄██▓▀ ▄▄▀ ▀▓██▄▄▄ | ▀▀ ▄▄▄▄██▄▐██████ ▀▓████▌▄██▌ ██████▀■ ▄▄ ▄ ■ | ▄██▄▄ ▀▀████████▓███▄ ▀▓▄ ▐████▓▀███▄ ▐████▌ ▄▄███▌ ▀ ▄▄ | ▐████▀▀▀■▄████████▌ ▀███▄ ▀ █████ ▀███▄ ▀████ ▀██████▀ ▄▓███▄ | ▄▄███▓▀ ▀███████▌ ████▄ ▐████▌ ████▄ ███▌ ▄████▌ ▄■▀ ▀▀ | ▀██▀ ▄█▄ ▐██████▌ ▐████▌ ▄████▌ ▐████▌▐▌▐█▄██████▌ ▄█▀▀▀■▄▄ | ▄█████▄ ███████ ▄████▀ ▀▀█▓ ▄████▀ ▓ ▀███▀ ▐███ ▀█▄ | ▄██████▀ ▐██████▄███▀▀ ▄▄▄▓▄▄▄▄███▀▀ ▄█▓▀ ▀ ▄▄███▓▌ ▐▓▀ | ▀▀███▓▓▄▄▄▄█▓█████▌ ▄██▓▀ ▄ ▀█▀ ▄█████▀▀▀ ▄ | ▀▀ ▀▀█▓▌ ▐███▌ ■▄▄ ▀▓██▀▀ ▀▓▄▄ | ▀ ▀█▓▓▄▄███▄▄▄ ▀▓█▄ ▐█▓█▄ | cH!SAC/PDM ▀▀▀█▓▀▀ ▀▀█▄▄▄▄▄▄██████▀ | ▀ ▀▀▀█████▀▀ | | Tunguska (c) Project 2 : 5 points | Total : 5 Points | | PDMiSO did 1 title this month, and it was a good one. PDM's performance in the ISO side was mixed in | 1998. They did a decent amount of top quality titles, but marred there name by also doing some beta's and | even a dupe. They are off to a good start thus far in 1999, and if they keep to there current path, they | could even challenge for the top spot later in the year. The potential is definately there. | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------┤ | NWW | | Eat This (c) Image Line : 5 Points | | NWW Is obviously a fake lable. A simple look at the nfo<quite funny to read> confirms that. Eat This is | an overburn, which is probably why it went under the NWW lable. Many groups have been very vocal | about overburns being "lame" etc... But regardless, the game is quite playable and good. The game also | cannot be ripped to fit under 74 minutes without removing any items that affect the game. Thus in | accordance with our rules, it gets full points. | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------┤ | Isoz | | Grizzley Hunter : 5 Points | | Isoz is a small and pretty much unknown group. They did manage to release a valid title this month | though, and thus receive points for it. We dont know much about them, so we really dont know exactly | what to expect from them in the future. | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------┤ | Overview. | | Overall it was a very slow month, which is normal for January. Still there were 2 major titles released, | Simcity 3000 and Close Combat 3. Both done by DVNiSO. There was also major controversy surrounding | both. With the huge propaganda fight between DVNiSO and Fairlight, some people still have no idea | what to believe. With that in mind we will address them here. Close Combat 3 was resolved very quickly. | It ended with a member of Fairlight<Youngblood> coming into the #dvniso channel and admitted that | there release was a mistake and that they never should have released it. His full and exact quotes were | pasted on our site<www.orm.nu> as one of our staff was there to view them as it happened. We still | compared both titles side by side to see what the deal was, and found them to be byte by byte the exact | same game. The only difference was the inclusion of a scanned in manual on the FLT release. So the | question was "Is the inclusion of a small scanned in manual, justification for re-releasing a whole CD and | labeling it a 'Final'?" We dont think so, and neither did anyone else, including Fairlight. So there version | was nuked and labled a dupe. Sim City 3000 was a different story. The SC3K scandal started on the rip | scene, and then somehow ended up polluting the ISO scene. It became a large propaganda war between | the DVNiSO/Origin team and the Fairlight/Class squad. Rather then reprint all the propaganda here, we | will just report our own findings and conclusion. If anyone truly cares, you can read both sides NFO's, | statements, and comments on www.orm.nu. The whole fight boils down to one significant fact - If you hit | cntrl-alt-v in the DVNiSO release the version information says Beta. For the record both versions say | "Prerelease beta" in the code. With that said, its also not uncommon for store finals to say "Beta" in the | code or version. Heart of Darkness was an example we used on our page of this occurence. So what we did | was a bin compare. We also compared file sizes, file dates, actual gameplay and we even had 2 seperate | crackers/coders actually look inside them. Our conclusion is this - Both releases are exactly the same. | Aside from that one string listed above, the games are 100% identical. Even FLT members were not able | to name us a difference between the two<and we did ask>. With that said, its obvious that DVNiSO did | release the Final version of SC3k. Fairlight also did the same, just a week after Dvn. That makes the FLT | version a dupe, and thus it gets -5 points in our charts. The single worst aspect of the whole Sc3k | controversy is the lengths that Fairlight went to mislead the public. While we attempt to remain impartial | and non-biased, its very hard to not call Fairlights actions lame. Aside from the Flt/Dvniso fight, there | were a couple of other notable releases this month.. Including "Worms Armageddon" which featured the | new years first "race". While it was definately close, DVNiSO managed to beat Cife on the release, and | get the points for it. Still, in the end it didnt matter, as Cife re-emerged as a major force in the ISO scene,| claiming the #1 spot and defeating DVNiSO. An amazing accomplishment considering the stranglehold | that the Deviance team had on the iso scene during all of 1998. Congratulations Cife! Some of the other | notable releases that are worth downloading include The Rainbow Six Addon - Eagle Watch released by | Fairlight, Liath released by Quartex, Tunguska by PDMiSO, Tellurian Defense from DVNiSO, and finally | Eat This from NWW. | | If anyone has any questions, comments, disagreements, etc.. Please e-mail us at [email protected] - | We attempt to make these charts as fair and unbiased as we can. And appreciate any feedback, be it | negative or positive.... Also make sure to check out our site at www.orm.nu - Updated daily with all the | latest ISO Scene news, and group releases and NFO's, presently covering PC Games, PC Utils, VCD and | PSX. | | Krazy8, Orm, and Pug | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------┤ | January Totals Year To Date Totals | | Cife 40 | DVNiSO 31 | Fairlight 15 | PDMiSO 05 | EViLiSO 05 | QUaRTeX 05 | NWW 05 | Isoz 05 | ADSL256 -05 | | |
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