''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 t ...

for the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 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 ...

home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...

. 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 NTSC (from National Television System Committee) is the first American standard for analog television, published and adopted in 1941. In 1961, it was assigned the designation System M. It is also known as EIA standard 170. In 1953, a second ...

(North America, Japan, and South Korea) and

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog 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 an act of removing copy protection from a software. Copy protection can be removed by applying a specific ''crack''. A ''crack'' can mean any tool that enables breaking software p ...

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, visu ...

subcultures A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...

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 is a snapshot of a storage device's content typically stored in a file on another storage device. Traditionally, a disk image was relatively large because it was a bit-by-bit copy of every storage location of a device (i.e. every ...

files for use in

emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, 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 sof ...

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, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...

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 movable type, metal typesetting, a font is a particular #Characteristics, size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) inclu ...

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

computer mouse A computer mouse (plural mice; also mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of the Cursor (user interface)#Po ...

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 Softworks, Inc., later GeoWorks Corporation, was an American software-development company founded by American computing engineer and former Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufact ...

' GEOS 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 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 Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a 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 with a ...

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 Michael S. Tomczyk is best known for his role in guiding the development and launch of the first microcomputer to sell one million units, as Product Manager of the VIC-20 from Commodore. His contributions are described in detail in his 1984 book ...

and

John Draper John Thomas Draper (born March 11, 1943), also known as Captain Crunch, Crunch, or Crunchman after a toy boatswain's call whistle once given away in boxes of Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal that for some years could be used to make free long d ...

, 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 C ...

, 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 Jr. (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 Walter Aldro Day ...

James Bach James Marcus Bach (born ) 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 progr ...

Alexey Pajitnov Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov (born April 16, 1955) is a Russian-American computer engineer and video game designer. He is best known for creating, designing, and developing ''Tetris'' in 1985 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre un ...

Stewart Cheifet Stewart Cheifet (; born September 24, 1938) is an American television presenter, best known for his work presenting and producing ''Computer Chronicles'' and '' Net Cafe''. He has also worked in other reporting positions for PBS and ABC, and othe ...

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. Caree ...

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 Ralph Henry Baer (born Rudolf Heinrich Baer; March 8, 1922 – December 6, 2014) was a German-born American inventor, game developer, and engineer. Baer's Jewish family fled Germany just before World War II and Baer served the American war ...

. 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 Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

, 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 founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game '' Kingdom of Kroz''. In the ...

; Matt Falcus and Sven Vößing of

Cinemaware Cinemaware was a video game developer and publisher. It had 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 co ...

; 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 '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

Frag Dolls The Frag Dolls were a group of girl gamers recruited and employed by Ubisoft with the aim of promoting games made by Ubisoft, including through the participation in esports tournaments. The term refers to three different teams, one each in th ...

professional gaming team; game music pioneers David Lowe and

Rob Hubbard Rob Hubbard (born 1955) is a British composer best known for his musical and programming work for microcomputers of the 1980s, such as the Commodore 64. Biography Early life and career Hubbard was born in 1955 in Kingston upon Hull, England. Hu ...

;

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 ma ...

voice actor

Charles Martinet Charles Andre Martinet (born September 17, 1955) is an American actor. He is best known for voicing Mario in the ''Super Mario'' franchise, portraying him from 1991 to 2023. He also voiced other characters in the series such as Luigi, Wario, W ...

;

Vanessa Arteaga Vanessa Arteaga, also known as just Vanessa, is a former professional video game player who plays fighting games. She is from California. Arteaga was the first pick in the draft of the Championship Gaming Series video game league list of players, ...

; David Fox;

Ron Gilbert Ronald David Gilbert 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, including '' Man ...

; 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 programmer ...

"-based costume, known as the

Tron Guy Jay Maynard (born July 27, 1960) is an American computer programmer, system administrator and the project maintainer, volunteer project maintainer for Hercules (emulator), Hercules, a free emulator of IBM mainframe hardware. He is known for his ...

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

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

platform

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

. 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 A video game or computer game is an electronic game 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 generate visual fe ...

trade fair A trade show, also known as trade fair, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific Industry (economics), industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest Product (business), products and se ...

Gamescom Gamescom (stylized as ''gamescom'') is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Gamescom is the world's largest gaming event, with 370,000 visitors and 1,037 exhibitors from 56 ...

, 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 Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...

and C64

s with Hans Hiscore. In December 2015, ''Scene World''s

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel began hosting video reviews of new

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 Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

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

Twin Galaxies Twin Galaxies is a social media platform and video game database. Twin Galaxies is the official supplier of video game records to ''Guinness World Records''. History In mid-1981, Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies, Inc., visited more than 1 ...

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

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

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

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

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 ...

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 has joined ''Scene World'' as PR Assistant.

In popular culture

''Scene World'' has received media attention on several occasions. In March, 2001, Droege was interviewed by the German Radio channel Bayern 3 of

Bayerischer Rundfunk (; "Bavarian Broadcasting"), shortened to BR (), is a public broadcasting, public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Bavaria, Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD (b ...

. 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 (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

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 ...

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

Breakfast television Breakfast television (Europe and Australia) or morning show (Canada and the United States) is a type of news broadcasting, news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts Live television, live in the morning (typically broadcast pro ...

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 '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

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 lympho ...

charity organization. The two raised money for the Illuminate team (former

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 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. These languages have since fallen into disuse in favor of the standard F ...

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

References

{{Reflist, 33em

External links

''Scene World'' Magazine - Official Website

''Scene World'' on the Commodore 64 Scene Database

''Scene World'' on Pouet

''Scene World'' Podcast

''Scene World'' Podcast Collection in the Internet Archive

''Scene World'' Scene World Tech History Interviews - MP3 Format
Computer magazines published in the United States Commodore 8-bit computer magazines Commodore 64 Disk magazines Magazines established in 2000