When Jurassic Pack 18 was released in January 2021, there were a lot of praising words made by a lot of different Sceners. And rightly so!
Most were thrilled Jurassic Pack was back after 13,5 years. And almost everybody loved the fact that Ghandy and Selectanovel had put the disk back in diskmagazine. And let us be honest: what Ghandy and Selectanovel did, was a humongous task. They wrote many articles together and collected the intro- and endpicture, the cliparts, the new panel, the music and the other articles written by guest writers.
That was done in 2020, during the first year of the pandemic. A lot of people were utterly bored sitting indoors day in day out because of the various lock downs harassing Europe and the rest of the world. And maybe that even was one of the reasons why a new issue of Jurassic Pack could see the light of day, after so many years of Jurassic Pack being in a coma. Ghandy and Selectanovel revived Jurassic Pack and they did an outstanding job. Friend and foe agreed with that.
Of course doing all that was not an easy task, but because everyone loved Jurassic Pack so much and because the entire Scene was thrilled to see the release of a real diskmagazine once again one would think it would be easier to collect all the needed stuff for the next issue: issue 19. This issue. The issue you are now reading on a real Amiga or by means of a lame emulator. You would think getting support would be easier this time around. Unfortunately that is far from the truth.
About broken promises
Ghandy told yours truly a lot of promises were being broken. A lot of done deals turned out to be not so done in the end. Sceners just didn’t reply to his cries for help and some didn’t even answer at all. Yours truly finds that unimaginable. How can anyone react so extremely positive to the release of issue 18 and then play hide and seek when new support is needed for the upcoming issue. How can these Sceners live with themselves? And how can you expect people to release an actual diskmagazine for the Amiga Scene when you don’t contribute a single thing yourself, even though you are perfectly capable of doing just that?
Granted, in the old days things were not that different. Yours truly has been maineditor of a Dutch chartmagazine called Hokus Pokus which was produced by the Dutch group Mellow and I can tell you: it was extremely difficult to get support. Sceners didn’t even vote without being asked a thousand times. And that was back in the nineties of the past century.
I have also been a co-editor for Seenpoint, the Sardonyx – and later Scoopex magazine which then topped the charts. I felt so lucky Fishwave was the one in charge. As the maineditor Fishwave had to collect all the stuff needed to release another issue of Seenpoint. And that was a hard task. Even in the mid- and late 1990’s and even for a Scoopex magazine which was number one on the charts at that time and praised by almost every Scener, it was hard to get support. There were thousands of active Sceners back then and still it was hard for a maineditor of a super popular magazine of a super powerful crew to get the much needed support. Why is that?
Why has it always been hard for magazines to get support and why is that still so hard? The most easy and obvious explanation is that most Sceners are lazy. Are most Sceners people who want to enjoy their hobby, the Amiga Scene, without having to do much for it? Without having to put a real effort in that hobby? Well, if that is the case, it should stop. And it should stop now. Even the slightest support can make a real difference for the life of the maineditor of a diskmagazine. Write one article, draw one clipart, compose a tune. Make the life of the maineditor of a diskmagazine a little easier. Especially when that diskmagazine is the ONLY quality diskmagazine that is still being released in the Amiga Scene of today.
I have seen and heard people asking where Jurassic Pack 19 is and when it will finally be released. Well, you do not exactly make it easier and you do not speed things up when you do nothing constructive for Jurassic Pack. When you do not deliver yourself, how can you expect Ghandy to deliver? Why would he? Why should he?
Don’t you think he is busy with real life things? Do you think Ghandy is still in high school? That he has lots of free time to write articles? Do you think he is often bored because of all the spare time he has on his hands? Do you think Ghandy has countless hours to ask Sceners for support? The same Sceners over and over again? Do you think Ghandy can compose tunes and draw graphics? Do you think Ghandy can code an intro for an upcoming issue of Jurassic Pack? Are you sure Ghandy is a robot who does not care about broken promises? Why do you think Ghandy has to care about releasing another issue of Jurassic Pack when you do not? Because that is what I see: you do not seem to care, because you do not help at all.
The end of an era?
On Pouet Ghandy already suggested issue 19 could very well be the last issue of Jurassic Pack. Ever. He told me in a private chat he needs a serious break from Jurassic Pack after the release of issue 19. He needs a cool-down and he needs to recover from all the let downs. And I understand that. From what I see and hear I think Jurassic Pack 19 should maybe even be the last issue ever of this dinosaur among Amiga diskmagazines, the last one standing from the golden age of the Amiga diskmagazine era. How can we possibly ask Ghandy to put the maineditor helmet on his head again, when we do not help him? How can we ask him to run the gauntlet again, when we let him down everything time he runs?
There is only one answer possible: we cannot. And yet I fear that is exactly what will happen the next time around. We will let Ghandy down again. We will not help him again. And he will be close to a nervous breakdown again. Again and again we will silently tell him to bugger off when he asks for our support, when he pleas for that much needed support. And that is why the issue of Jurassic Pack you are now reading will probably, most likely, really be the last issue of this glorious magazine, the one that survived.
But then… The fantastic and glorious endpicture of Critikill hopefully is an omen. Let’s hope this issue of Jurassic Pack is not the end of the dinosaur among Amiga diskmagazines. I really hope Critikill has predictive gifts. This cannot be the end. And it should not be the end. I will make a deal with you now. As soon as you have read the last article of this issue of Jurassic Pack, you will start drawing, coding, composing or writing or whatever it is that you do. Because you will help Ghandy and you will deliver.
You will make promises to Ghandy and you will keep those promises. You will make a difference the next time around. And I promise you: you will be satisfied. You will feel much better than you are feeling right now. You will be proud of yourself. And you will make Ghandy happy. Very happy. And it will be worth your while. Trust me. I know the feeling as I am writing this article for Ghandy on my wife her 47th birthday.
And there are other reasons why we can be hopeful there will eventually be a next issue of Jurassic Pack released. For starters because it will be a jubilee issue. Issue 20! That is an issue that HAS to be released. No matter what! Ghandy will eventually release issue 20, I am sure about that. He cannot just stop at number 19, now can he? On the other hand, RAW never made it to the first jubilee issue, issue 10. Seenpoint did not reach that goal either. And ROM? Who knows how many issues of ROM were released? Well, also 9 to be exact.
Therefore Jurassic Pack has to make it to the 20th issue. It has to be the first serious Amiga diskmagazine that reaches the goal of releasing a real jubilee issue. And secondly we know Ghandy has thrown the towel a few times before. I already wrote earlier in this article there was a gap of no less than 13,5 years between issue 17 and 18 and already in 1997 Ghandy vowed issue 5 of Jurassic Pack would be the final issue. If you do not believe me, go and read the editorial and the file_id.diz of that specific issue.
So there really is hope for issue 20 of your most beloved diskmagazine on Amiga today, but you can speed things up by finally getting up from that couch you have been sitting on for way too long. Do something constructive for the Scene and make Ghandy AND yourself very happy. Just Like Lord Helmet, Critikill, Curt Cool, Ok3anos, Magic and a handful of others did when they helped Ghandy with compiling this issue. Thank you very much.
Written and complained by Sane.
