Miracle by IRIS in all its glory. Here is the main menu. Stylish and elegant interface (screenshot done by Old School Game Blog for Classicamiga.com)

Review of Miracle by IRIS for Amiga 1200/4000

Miracle was created by IRIS, a group with a long history on the Amiga. The crew came to life in the 1980′s and continued their activities up until the year 2009. They have been quiet since, but one never knows if they suddenly pops into the spotlight again with a new demo or not.

This diskmag, Miracle, was released in the year of 1996. The main editor of the magazine was MJ of IRIS, who had been active as a swapper for many years. It is therefore not strange that Miracle was aimed at this particular group of people, namely swappers. If we look at the content, it is clear that a lot of the stuff is of particular interest to that group. Still, it is an interesting read for everyone, as there is a wide variety of articles available for reading.

A ranking of the best swappers! (screenshot by Old School Game Blog for Classicamiga.com)

When looking at this magazine today, I’m amazed by the vast amount of swapper adverts and regular news that was included in the magazine. Hundreds and hundreds of people are present and this really shows how active the Scene was back in the middle of the 90′s. The section covering recent news about groups on the Scene is gigantic and it can be interesting to browse through to get a glimpse of what was going on back then. For those interested in the history of this sub-culture, you’ll find a ton of helpful information there. I enjoy browsing these sections for that, but also for nostalgic reasons.

The magazine does also contains charts/rankings of the best swappers at that time. People could send in votes and place their vote on their favorites.

As for the design of the magazine, I think it is quite nice. The panel/interface is both functional and good-looking. That makes it easy for the user to browse through the different sections and articles. The music playing in the background is atmospheric and cosy and fits the “image” of the magazine well. Not much can be said about the coding from a users standpoint, other than that the engine seems to be working as it should, and that is of course the most important thing.

Party report from The Gathering 1996 in Norway (screenshot by Old School Game Blog for Classicamiga.com)

All in all Miracle brings you back in time to the days where Amiga still was the most popular machine on the Scene. It has a lot of content which is fun to browse through, and the production is also stylish and elegant. It’s a shame  IRIS never managed to release more issues of this mag. I remember there were plans for a second edition and that they worked their fingers to the bone to get it released. Sadly, issue two never saw the light of day. If it ever hits the street, it would be a miracle for sure.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day! You’ll find the download-link below.

Download

ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/mags/miracle/irs-mir1.lha

Note: This review is based on an old one I did for Classicamiga.com many years ago. It was back in 2006 I believe.