CRACKER JOURNAL



Issue reviewed    -  #27

Produced by       -  Alpha Flight


PRESENTATION AND DESIGN
Cracker    Journal,    the    original
and...Well,  it's  far  from the best!
The  problem lies with the design, and
articles.   When  Cracker  Journal was
born  there was no competition.
It  was  just  regarded  as  the best.  
Other  magazines   began   to  appear,   
but    Cracker  Journal still reigned,
it    was     the     original     and
almost  everyone  still regarded it as
THE mag for the scene.  Then magazines

got serious, fabulous design and great
amounts of  articles  became  the  key
factor in a magazines success.  In the
present  day,  the  leading  magazines
boast  (more  or  less)  pure  English
articles.   Clever and polished layout
and  design,  great graphics, in depth
investigations,  and a strong sense of
the  thoughts  of  the editorial staff
intermingling  the  writers  articles.
Argument  provoking  in depth coverage
of  scene  events  and  characters are
what magazines of today offer, but C.J
offers  basicly  the  same  now  as it
always  did.  They promised and hinted
a  new  code  and design for some time,
but the changes  made  hardly the look 
of  the  magazine  at  all. The  music
is  awfull, the fonts look almost like
Spectrum  game  fonts,  the  intro  is
almost  a fossil, and the titletune is

incredibly infantile.           32/100

CONTENT
Well,  the  content  of  ths  issue is
believe it or not slightly better than
the  previous issue, but not that much
better.   The most interesting article
was written by Martin Brown of Team 17
complaining  about   software   piracy
killing   the  software  industry.   I
can't  understand  why Cracker Journal
includes game documents as articles, a
blatent  attempt  to fill the magazine 
at any cost maybe?              55/100

OVERALL              
Well, Cracker Journal seems to receive
a  lot  of  ill-coments these days.  I
almost  feel  guilty of 'following the
crowd'  when I critisise it.  It can't
be  helped  though.   Cracker  Journal

does  need  help.  Writing an article
for  it almost seems like a waste.  It
may  still have a hardcore readership,
but  C.J is not the future of diskmags
I'm  afraid, its firmly planted in the
past and like most antiques, will soon
be dust.                        46/100