Hugi


Hugi is one of the longest lasting, frequently released demoscene and underground disk magazines for IBM-PC.

History

The first issues were in German language and were released in 1996. From issue 11 on the magazine issued in German and English. With issue 18 the German part became a separate magazine called Hugi.GER. Moreover, in the years 1998 to 2000 there was a weekly newsletter which continued the tradition of similar publications such as Demonews.
Hugi developed from a kind of electronic school magazine to one of the most successful and long-living demoscene and underground magazines. The contents are mainly based on contributions from the readers and only proofread and formatted by the editors. Topics include graphics, demos, demoparties, programming, other diskmags, reports, politics and literature. Each issue also features graphics and background music.
Articles from Hugi have been cited in all three doctoral theses about the demoscene that have been published in the years 2011 to 2017. The book Hacking Europe - From Computer Cultures to Demoscenes, from 2014, mentions Hugi as well in one of its chapters.

Issues

38 issues were released until June 2014, 17 of which were partially or completely in German. 12 issues were also translated to the Russian language. Moreover, five issues of the German language offspring Hugi.GER, 38 newsletters and 4 special editions were released. The main editor of
Hugi, Claus D. Volko, is also known as “Adok” in the demoscene.
Hugi was one of the first diskmags that was released as a Windows executable. Moreover, it was a dual DOS and Windows diskmag for 6 issues. Both facts were strongly notable at this time and caused a lot of discussion. The magazine uses the engine "Panorama", which was created for Hugi by the Polish programmer Chris Dragan. Many other electronical magazines are nowadays also based on it.
IssueRelease monthText amountCode byGraphics byMusic byRemarks
HDE #1May 1996420 kBAdokAdok-Music in the early issues was taken from freeware MOD collections
HDE #2August 1996460 kBAdokAdok-
HDE #3November 1996340 kBAdokKaktus-
HDE #4January 1997450 kBAdokKaktus-
Hugi #5March 1997430 kBAdokAdok-New text viewer with smooth scrolling in text mode
Hugi #6May 1997680 kBAdokAdok-Completely new engine in SVGA
Hugi #7August 1997530 kBAdokDr. Brain, Adok-
Hugi #8October 1997620 kBAdokDr. Brain, Adok-
Hugi #9December 1997880 kBAdokMr. SEQMr. SEQAgain a new engine, with various new features; includes an English corner
Hugi #10April 1998850 kBAdokMr. SEQMr. SEQLast regular issue with mostly German articles
Hugi #11June 19981.0 MBAdok, SalamiAntony, Hellfire, DendriteSmashFirst issue with mostly English articles
Hugi #12September 19981.8 MBStreet RaiderWill Be, Hellfire, Mr. SEQMakkeNew engine, now for both DOS and Windows
Hugi #13November 19981.2 MBStreet RaiderCerealMasterBoy, CoaXCable, Steffo
Hugi #14February 19991.4 MBStreet RaiderHellfire, LuminosBenJam, Laxical, Makke
Hugi #15May 19991.4 MBStreet RaiderHellfire, ScapeNightbeat, Dawnstar
Hugi #16July 19992.1 MBStreet RaiderFloOd, TADBacter, Echo
Hugi #17August 19991.4 MBStreet RaiderRaven of Defacto 2, HellfireAvalanche, P-rat, Spin
Hugi #18December 19990.9 MBChris DraganDinesAcumen, Andromeda, Traymuss, Ciccilleju, KenedyNew engine with many new features, more professional looks than before
Hugi #19April 20001.3 MBChris DraganBridgeclaw, TADMakke, P-rat, JKL
Hugi #20August 2000864 kBChris DraganCoaXCable, Mali, TADCiccilleju, Stanley
Hugi #21December 2000867 kBChris DraganKthulu, Mali, TADYero, Acumen, Exodus
Hugi #22April 2001852 kBChris DraganKthulu, nldsrIliks, Chavez, JKL, Smirk, Rieha, CiccillejuFeatures mostly chiptunes as background music
Hugi #23August 20011.3 MBChris DraganPartikle, nldsrSteffo, Gopher, CoaXCableContains a Bachelor thesis about the demoscene
Hugi #24January 2002880 kBChris DraganCritikill, Fjrb, TomaesJosSs, Daike, Substance, Peal Hunter, Iliks
Hugi #25July 2002967 kBChris DraganFusko, Fjrb, TADIliks, Bozo, Zalza, Look
Hugi #26February 20031023 kBChris DraganRaven of Nuance, LoneStar, Fjrb, TADGargoyle, JDruid, JosSs, Qumran, Chavez, Arel Frost, Iliks, ZalzaContains a special corner about Winamp skinning
Hugi #27July 2003630 kBChris DraganSeven 11, TAD, Steve BianMy Voice, Gloom, Merlin, Teller
Hugi #28December 2003630 kBChris DraganRaven, TAD, SunchildEterman, Luke, Impulse
Hugi #29August 2004520 kBChris DraganRaven, LoneStar, AdokMelcom, Dynamite, Valzihjken, Kenedy, CoaXCable
Hugi #30February 2005906 kBChris DraganLoneStarJDruid, SpiiKKi, Converse, LoneStar, JosSs, Stanley
Hugi #31November 2005620 kBChris DraganBridgeclaw, nldsr, LoneStarrzs, Stanley, Pearl Hunter, Anarkimedes
Hugi #32August 2006930 kBChris DraganCritikill, Mantraz, BridgeclawSlashy, Dafunk, Lex, Lesnik, Nightbeat, Rieha, Aquafresh10-year-anniversary issue; first issue with a higher resolution
Hugi #33April 2007800 kBChris DraganBridgeclaw, NoogmanSiatek, Buzzer, Mice, ChromagFirst issue to use music in MP3 format
Hugi #34February 20081080 kBChris DraganTascha, BridgeclawChromag, Traymuss, Siatek
Hugi #35November 2008780 kBChris DraganFabian, RaJogeir Liljedahl, Siatek, Buzzer, Mice, Traymuss
Hugi #36April 2010900 kBChris DraganAlena Lazareva, Anthony Gargasz, Dzordan, Fabian, Ra, Bridgeclaw, RorkMoby, Romeo Knight, Siatek, Traymuss, pOWL, MagnarContains the full "International Diskmag Encyclopedia"
Hugi #37April 2012850 kBChris DraganBridgeclaw, Dzordan, Forcer, Rork, FabianMagnar, Traymuss, Romeo Knight, CONS, Chaser, Chromag, Siatek
Hugi #38June 20141.1 MBChris DraganForcer, Slayer, PrinceMagnar, Wiklund, Mantronix, Traymuss, Hoffman, Chaser, Siatek, Xerxes, Revisq

Criticism

Hugi has attracted a large amount of controversy itself roughly after its 26th issue; many sceners complained that a large portion of articles were uninteresting and not related to the demoscene itself. This problem was further emphasized by the fact that Hugi editors were accused by spamming demoscene forums by requests for articles, even though a considerable portion of the scene had denounced Hugi by this time. Interest has been since rekindled for the latest issues, as the editor crew has announced to apply more intense quality control over their articles.
The 30th issue of Hugi was a subject of confusion when it appeared that the 'demoscene' section of the magazine could only be accessed through a self-confessed 'IQ-test'. The test was viewed by most demoscener readers as gratuitous and not serving any practical purpose, especially because it was relatively easily bypassable with e.g. trial and error.
The 35th issue of Hugi raised a yet unseen backlash, when it was discovered that the mag contained an article opposing immigration to Europe from Islamic and African countries because of the immigrants' religion and their allegedly low IQ. While the article was removed within 6 hours, questions were raised whether the article slipped through quality control, was included because of simply of the yellow journalistic value, or whether main editor Adok simply included the article because he agreed with the content, after he initially did not apologize or comment on the issue. The article was later revealed by the author to be a complete ruse - a copy-paste from Wikipedia and a text written by a Finnish philologist, aimed to test whether the article of such content could get in the final magazine. The diskmag was near-universally condemned, amid additional accusations of "jumping the bandwagon" started by diskmag ZINE of having a "headlines" demo to increase anticipation, copying ZINE's unique 3-by-2 thumbnailed layout and "roundtable" interviews.
The 36th issue of Hugi, from April 2010, garnered mostly positive feedback.

Hugi Size Coding Competition

The Hugi staff also hosts a popular series of online Assembler programming and size-optimizing contests called “Hugi Size Coding Competition”. The objective is to implement a given program using as little space as possible. This results in executable files with a size of far less than one kilobyte. Since 1998, 29 competitions have been held so far. The number of participants per contest is usually 20 - 80. Participants come from virtually all over the world. Every contestant gets points depending on the size of their entry. After each competition, the entries are released together with source codes, and a discussion in a mailing list occurs in which objections regarding the validity of the entries can be made. The authors of invalid entries will get penalty. Once a year, a "world league table" is generated in which the points from all contests held in that year have been added together.