''Scene World Magazine'' (abbreviated ''SWO'') is a

disk magazine A disk magazine, colloquially known as a diskmag or diskzine, is a magazine that is distributed in electronic form to be read using computers. These had some popularity in the 1980s and 1990s as periodicals distributed on floppy disk, hence ...

for the Commodore 64 home computer. The magazine has been released regularly since February 2001.

History

''Scene World'' was founded in November 2000 by several Commodore scene personalities under the organization of Joerg "Nafcom" Droege. The initial magazine presentation system was programmed by Robin Harbron, who would later find success as one of the developers of the

C64 Direct-to-TV The C64 Direct-to-TV, called C64DTV for short, is a single- chip implementation of the Commodore 64 computer, contained in a joystick (modeled after the mid-1980s Competition Pro joystick), with 30 built-in games. The design is similar to the At ...

game device. Harbron stopped actively supporting the magazine in 2001; the presentation system has since been documented, modified, and updated by various editors and staff members. Throughout ''Scene World''s history, it has attempted to style itself as both an

NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

(North America, Japan, and South Korea) and

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

(Europe, Oceania, and the Middle East) production, allowing it to court talent and reach audiences in largely disparate computer cultures. ''Scene World'' has also been one of the few disk magazines to actively seek individuals that do not fit into the specific

software cracking Software cracking (known as "breaking" mostly in the 1980s) is the modification of software to remove or disable features which are considered undesirable by the person cracking the software (software cracker), especially copy protection featur ...

demo scene The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual ...

subcultures A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

that most other disk magazines focus on. As a result, it has been able to conduct interviews with numerous non-Commodore-related computer industry pioneers. Additionally, ''Scene World'' partnered with fellow disk magazine '' Loadstar'' (ISSN 0886-4144) in 2003 for a "Wild West" cross-promotion. ''Scene World'' currently utilizes an all-volunteer editorial staff of 20, and produces two issues of the disk magazine per year, generally in summer and winter, with video interviews scheduled to coincide with the disk magazine releases. Podcasts and video reviews are released on a semi-monthly basis, and do not follow the release schedule of the magazine.

Magazine content

Issues of the magazine are delivered as downloadable

disk image A disk image, in computing, is a computer file containing the contents and structure of a disk volume or of an entire data storage device, such as a hard disk drive, tape drive, floppy disk, optical disc, or USB flash drive. A disk image is usu ...

files for use in

emulator In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peri ...

s or on actual Commodore hardware. Additionally, issues can be viewed online, via an embedded version of the

VICE A vice is a practice, behaviour, or Habit (psychology), habit generally considered immorality, immoral, sinful, crime, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refe ...

emulator. Text of the magazine is provided via presentation software. This software allows users to select and read articles and scroll through text, while also allowing them to change text and background color, switch between

fonts In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a " sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

, alternate between logos, and select either music or silence. Uniquely, support for the Commodore 1351

computer mouse A computer mouse (plural mice, sometimes mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows a smooth ...

is a feature of the presenter system; during initial planning, Droege felt that American users would be more inclined to view the magazine if it resembled

Berkeley Softworks Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer t ...

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operating environment. The text of the magazine is divided into articles or chapters, and covers topics ranging from news and updates, interviews (text-only or transcribed from video interviews), opinion and editorial content,

demo party The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual ...

reports, and release charts. In addition to Commodore-specific files, a

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined ...

sleeve image is also included with each issue. These "diskcovers" can be printed to create protective sleeves for people using physical floppy disks.

Further endeavors

In 2012, Droege expanded ''Scene World''s non-disk magazine activities to focus on video-based interviews, initially with Michael Tomczyk and

John Draper John Thomas Draper (born March 11, 1943), also known as Captain Crunch, Crunch, or Crunchman (after the Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal mascot), is an American computer programmer and former phone phreak. He is a widely known figure within the co ...

, and later with other technology pioneers such as Martin Cooper,

Jeroen Tel Jeroen Godfried Tel (born 19 May 1972), also known as WAVE, is a Dutch composer. He is best known for numerous computer game tunes he wrote in the 1980s and early 1990s for the Commodore 64. His most popular compositions appear in the following ...

, Bil Herd,

Chuck Peddle Charles Ingerham Peddle (November 25, 1937 – December 15, 2019) was an American electrical engineer best known as the main designer of the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, the single-board computer, and its successor, the Commodore PET per ...

, Yash Terakura,

Walter Day Walter Aldro Day (born May 14, 1949) is an American businessman and the founder of Twin Galaxies, an organization that tracks world records for video games and conducts a program of electronic-gaming promotions. Biography Day was born in Oakl ...

James Bach James Marcus Bach is an American software tester, author, trainer, and consultant. Career In his autobiography, Bach wrote that he worked as a software testing manager for Apple and Borland after dropping out of high school. He also programmed A ...

Alexey Pajitnov Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov. (born 16 April 1955) is a Russian-born American computer engineer and video game designer. He is best-known for designing and developing ''Tetris'' in 1984 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre under the ...

, Stewart Cheifet,

Chris Huelsbeck Christopher Hülsbeck (born 2 March 1968), known internationally as Chris Huelsbeck, is a German video game music composer. He gained popularity for his work on game soundtracks for '' The Great Giana Sisters'' and the '' Turrican'' series. Car ...

Jeri Ellsworth Jeri Janet Ellsworth (born August 14, 1974) is an American entrepreneur, computer chip designer and inventor. She gained fame in 2004 for creating a complete Commodore 64 emulator system on a chip housed within a joystick, called Commodore 30 ...

, and Ralph H. Baer. Baer's interview, in particular, garnered significant attention, it being the final—and longest—interview he gave prior to his death in December 2014. In July 2014, ''Scene World'' again expanded with an audio

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

, hosted by associate editor AJ Heller (with Droege as co-host), to focus primarily on technology personalities and newsmakers that are currently active and promoting products or services. Guests to date have included Tarnkappe.info's Lars Sobiraj; Frederik Schreiber and Mike Nielsen of

3D Realms 3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller (entrepreneur), Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game ' ...

; Matt Falcus and Sven Vößing of

Cinemaware Cinemaware was a video game developer and publisher that released several titles in the 1980s based on various film themes. The company was resurrected in 2000, before being acquired by eGames in 2005. Cinemaware Corp. (1986–1991) The compa ...

; SiREN and Esper from

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include ''Assassin's Creed'', '' Far Cry'', ...

's Frag Dolls professional gaming team; game music pioneers David Lowe and Rob Hubbard;

Super Mario (also known as and ) is a platform game series created by Nintendo starring their mascot, Mario. It is the central series of the greater Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise. At least one ''Super Mario'' game has been released for every m ...

voice actor

Charles Martinet Charles Martinet (, ; born September 17, 1955) is an American actor and voice actor, known for his portrayal of both Mario and Luigi in the ''Super Mario'' video game series since 1992. He is also the voice of other characters in the series suc ...

; Vanessa Arteaga; David Fox;

Ron Gilbert Ron Gilbert (born January 1, 1964) is an American video-game designer, programmer, and producer. His games are generally focused on interactive story-telling, and he is arguably best known for his work on several LucasArts adventure games, inclu ...

; Dan Wood; and Jay Maynard, a cosplayer famous for his "

Tron ''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action-adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programme ...

"-based costume, known as the

Tron Guy ''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action-adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer ...

. In June 2015, Droege further expanded ''Scene World''s online presence with a channel on the

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...

platform

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. This channel currently hosts live interviews, conducted by the staff, and aims to create original programming, as well as stream the staff's participation in live and charity events. Since August 2015, ''Scene World'' has been a part of the retro area at the

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

trade fair A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and ...

Gamescom Gamescom (stylized as gamescom) is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Since 2018, it has been organised by ''game – Verband der deutschen Games-Branche'' (English: Assoc ...

, running a booth in tandem with retro game music group "Hans Hiscore". Visitors to the booth can interact with the staff and read the magazine live on a real Commodore 64, as well as play music on Atari and C64 home computers with Hans Hiscore. In December 2015, ''Scene World''s

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

channel began hosting video reviews of new Commodore 64 hardware and software, beginning with a review of a new C64

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...

adapter, designed by Leif Bloomquist, which gained some coverage in both international and German press. In July 2018, Droege also spoke about the magazine's involvement in video game preservation in an interview - surrounding the

C64 Mini The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness Wo ...

and other retro gamig topics - conducted by the gaming scorekeeping institution

Twin Galaxies Twin Galaxies is an organization and social media platform for people involved in the culture and activity of playing video games. It facilitates their interaction as well as their competition and recognizes their achievements. Twin Galaxi ...

. In August 2018, ''Scene World'' released its first

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and sign ...

issue of Scene World #28. In November 2018, the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music ...

added a collection page for the ''Scene World Podcast'' to preserve its episodes. In December 2018, ''Scene World'' decided to release all video interviews with technology pioneers also as audio versions to make it possible to listen to each interviews rather than watching it on

. For this, a ''Scene World Tech Interviews''

RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...

feed in

format has been created with each interview listed on a dedicated webpage. To help preservation, all interviews are on a dedicated collection page at the

as well. In February 2021, in order to focus on better social media presence and public awareness, the musician and DJ

Remute Denis Karimani (born 1983 in Belgrad),Bayerischer Rundfunk Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadca ...

. In October 2005, Droege was interviewed in the German magazine ''Lotek64'' and in 2013 in German magazine ''LOAD #2''. On November 11, 2016, Droege was interviewed about the topic of retro gaming as part of a news item in the

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

news program

Heute ''heute'' (; German for ''today'') is a television news program on the German channel ZDF. The main program is broadcast at 19:00, and includes news, with an emphasis on political news from Germany, Europe and the world, plus 'mixed' news from c ...

. On December, 8th 2016, the same news item - containing different quotes from participating interviewees - was aired as part of

Breakfast television Breakfast television (Europe, Canada, and Australia) or morning show (United States) is a type of news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts live in the morning (typically scheduled between 5:00 and 10:00a.m., or if it is a l ...

program. In 2015, Droege was recognized for his work on ''Scene World'' with a trading card (#2296) in The Walter Day Collection. Excerpts of ''The Scene World Podcast'' featuring Heller, David Lowe, and Holly Jazz Lowe were featured in the documentary ''Uncle Art: The Film'' in late 2018. A scientific approach of the floppy disk and what ''Scene World'' offers to the storage media, has been taken in an interview with Heller and Droege by a group of Dutch researchers for the book ''Floppy Disk Fever'' which went on pre-order in July 2022 and is due to release in September 2022.

Charity and fundraising

Following the podcast with

UbiSoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include ''Assassin's Creed'', '' Far Cry'', ...

's Frag Dolls professional gaming team, ''Scene World'' staff members Droege and Heller committed to participating in the

Extra Life (fundraiser) Extra Life is a fundraising event, the proceeds of which go to branches of the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. 100% of all donations go directly to the hospitals. Extra Life was formed in 2008 to honor Victoria , who died of acute lymph ...

charity organization. The two raised money for the Illuminate team (former Frag Dolls team) in 2015 and currently participate with their own team, "Scene World," since 2016. In August 2016, ''Scene World'' also committed to participate in fundraising for

The AbleGamers Foundation The AbleGamers Foundation (also known as The AbleGamers Charity) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to improving accessibility in the video game space, enabling more people with disabilities to be able to play video games. The chari ...

as Team Scene World. In May 2017, ''Scene World'' helped the Swiss computer museum

Musée Bolo The Musée Bolo or Swiss Museum of Computer Science, Digital Culture and Video Games is a private museum dedicated to the digital revolution. Its exhibition space is located on the site of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in ...

by creating awareness about their fundraising to reach beyond the

French Swiss Romands are a Gallo-Romance ethnic group native to Romandy, in western Switzerland. Traditionally they spoke Franco-Provençal, as well as Frainc-Comtou in Canton of Jura. Today these languages fell in disuse in favor of the standard French lan ...

community in order to ensure the museum's future existence. .

References

{{Reflist, 33em

External links