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- F A C E T O F A C E W I T H F A M O U S S C E N E R S
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- M R B Y T E / T E A M F R O M T H E E A S T
- the livin' legend of the polish ST scene interviewed!
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-
- Grey: Yo, Mr (kilo)Byte! the old scene-veteran! :o))
-
- Mr Byte: Peace, man :))
-
- Grey: Please throw some boring facts about your real-life at the beginning
- of this suffering ;o)) Geesus... I hate to start the interview ;o)
-
- Mr Byte: Know what you mean. I had the same problem when I was trying to
- compose some questions for The Overlanders and Richard Karsmakers.
- My real life... Well, I'm 28, I'm married and I'm happy.
-
- Grey: I am really happy to catch ya to this interview :o)) Don't call me
- a licker, buttmunch! ;o)) "Long long time ago..." there was a little
- group of big POLISH'ed bodies called TFTE. So please squeeze us some
- facts about the birth of your group, why did you choose this name,
- member-status and so on...
-
- Mr Byte: TFTE was founded in 1991 (if my memory serves me well). We were
- (and we still are, in fact) a bunch of friends fascinated about the
- scene and all that computer-stuff. Me and STRych founded Digital
- Trio,a group working on 8-bit Atari. Suddenly, in the middle of the
- work on our cruncher STRych bought an ST. I remember this day! We
- gathered in his house connected this fantastic machine to the 25''
- TV set and.. wow, that was it! The comp of our dreams! Soon we met a
- guy with Amiga 500. He showed us polish disk magazine called "Kebab"
- We were shocked! We then realised that there was no Polish disk mag
- for the ST at the time, so we've decided to make it happen. That's
- how "The Voice" was born. The first issue was the purest crap you've
- ever seen and we were on point of giving up this whole idea.
- Suddenly, "Quast Magazine" appeared - this stimulated us to continue
- with "The Voice". Continuation ended up on 7th issue. The name......
- "TFTE" is a short of "Team From The East" and the name of the group
- was invented by Lovespy (the guy with Amiga). We lived in Poland
- which in the early 90's was considered to be covered by snow with
- white bears running everywhere :)) Members of TFTE were: STRych
- (coder, gfx-man), Lovespy (gfx, txt-writer) and me (txt). We still
- live near each other and we still go to pubs.
-
- Grey: Try to search one's memory and dig out the names of all ST prods you
- managed to kick out under TFTE label? And let us to know about the
- place (if such exists) to lay our hands on these? :o))
-
- Mr Byte: Boy..... All the productions.... Our main product was of course "The
- Voice". STRych never was into demo-coding. He coded some screens
- (short demos) featuring mainly weird scrollers running all around
- the screen (he was first in Poland to code "circle-scroller"). As to
- the place to download them: I wish I knew it as well :) I've got
- all the STRych's disks and to be honest most of the screens
- disappeared. I'm preparing TFTE site at the moment and all the stuff
- that can be restored will be available on-line.
-
- Grey: TFTE being a bit silent decided to give us "The Voice". One of the
- coolest polish disk-mags, competition to the QuaST magazine at that
- time. Where did you find your motivation to create this magazine?
-
- Mr Byte: As I mentioned before our main goal was to have the best diskmag in
- Poland, with technical level of Amiga zines. Richard Karsmakers in
- his review of The Voice wrote something like "TV is one of the best
- coded magazines in the ST world", so it seems that we achieved our
- objective :) Our main motivation was Quast Mag. From the third issue
- we were chasing only with ourselves and for some time - with Magnum
- and STek magazines.
-
- Grey: What do you think about disk-mags in general? Is it a needed part of
- the scene? Or could we survive even without them?
-
- Mr Byte: Yes, scene can survive without disk-mags. It's the era of Internet -
- you need a modem and some money for telephone bills in order to get
- to the huge amount of information. On the other hand, mags became
- part of the scene - just like parties, compos and demos. You can
- live without the zine but will it be the same life? ;)
-
- Grey: Mr (mega)Byte, as the expert of disk-mags and experienced co-editor
- (vaseline ain't that bad) please try to find the right solution
- concerning the following subject (woah!): if support given from
- the readers is REALLY miserable then is there any sense to continue
- works on the mag? Or is it the sign that magazine is just a piece
- of shit? Or maybe editors of each magazine should continue their
- work pissing on the lack of feedback? What's your point of view?
- Maybe you could share your experiences editing The Voice? :o))
-
- Mr Byte: Vaseline rulez! :) We had the same problem with feedback and support
- mainly after the first issue of The Voice saw the light of a day. As
- I mentioned above we were even ready to drop the project. From the
- today's perspective I think that decision to continue with the mag
- or not depends on how desperate you are about your scene activity
- and how strong competition is puffing behind your back :)
-
- Grey: Be prepared, this question doesn't belong with the nicest ones! ;o)
- Taste the Grey's madness, it's gonna be fuckin' cruel! Unfortunately
- my memory isn't that good as the throat in alco drinking but
- probably the last sixth issue of The Voice quickly broke my mood
- when I was deeper and deeper reading the contents. I've just noticed
- that TFTE guys (Nemesis at least) wasn't too much enthusiasted about
- the Falcy's birth. Sometimes I even felt that you cherish something
- like a type of HATE towards this machine. Was it your expression of
- dissapointment? Could you explain this relation? I've been really
- frustrated...
-
- Mr Byte: Nemesis was the member of Illusions! It was his point of view. The
- Voice always tried to portray as much alternative points of view as
- possible. We even had articles from Amiga users. TFTE as a whole was
- really mad about Falcon's possibilities, we were delighted with the
- first demos we saw at Atari Cracow Conference. So don't worry, we
- were real Atarians! :)
-
- Grey: ACC. Naaah...... This isn't the well-known *.ACC extension folx! But
- short for the party's name organized by TFTE called "Atari Cracow
- Conference". Quite a brave step to make a party dedicated to Polish
- ST/Falcon scene, respect. At that time I was too young to travel
- that far away, hehe ;o)) (being young has pluses and minuses) So I
- couldn't bring my butt there. How many ppl came at "Atari Cracow
- Conference" and was it really worth your toil?
-
- Mr Byte: First of all: ACC wasn't _our_ party. It was Illusions' meeting. We
- were invited (all-night long travel by train) and I remember my cap
- with "TFTE" sign on the front. I still remember myself when doing
- interviews for our mag (I was a little bit drunk, so interviews were
- kinda weird). In fifth issue of The Voice you can find a list of all
- the people who attended the party. Geez, golden years!
-
- Grey: What's your funniest and the worst remembrances from Atari parties?
-
- Mr Byte: When I was trying to find Van Eijk, the main organizer of the Orneta
- Party '95. We had travelled from the other side of the country
- (about 600 km) and to our surprise no one was waiting for the mighty
- TFTE! :) The day before I was talking to Van Eijk and he told me he
- would wait for us at the train station. We were confused - Orneta is
- a small city but we were extremely tired. Finally we have found the
- party-place but - to our surprise - there was no party in there!
- Instead we found... a bride and a groom! Yes, THE WEDDING! The worst
- memory is again related to the Orneta Party :) People at the party
- used to use some powerful (and I mean POWERFUL) amplifiers. You
- could not hear your own thoughts, not to mention hear yourself speak
-
- Grey: Do you know what's up with the rest of TFTE these days?
-
- Mr Byte: Sure. STRych doesn't code anymore :) He's an e-marketing specialist
- and works in poland.com, one of the polish Internet portals. Lovespy
- works there too as a newsroom editor. You can find his articles at
- chip.pl - the Internet version of the best edited and best selling
- computer magazine in Poland - "Chip". Seems like practice in THE
- VOICE helps them in their careers :))
-
- Grey: Is it possible to see the resurrection of TFTE? Any chance to see
- the new issue of The Voice mag after that many years for example?
- Would be so cool, don't ya think? :o))
-
- Mr Byte: The last resurrection I've seen was an "Alien 4 - The Resurrection"
- movie. A little bit crappy IMO, lacks of "Alien mood". As to TFTE:
- no, we do not think about coming back. No one waits :)) We're not
- at the proper age, I suppose. Some time ago I tried to watch some
- PC demos and read some polish disk-mags like "Budy±" and "Legend".
- I don't feel this mood anymore. The scene is a closed period of our
- lives. Important but gone :( Wait.. I must say that I'm a member of
- the PC group Marsmellow. Not really active, but well.. The group is
- a fresh meat on the scene, so I suppose we will release a demo soon
- ;) I have one idea how the demo should looklike. I dream of a demo
- that will consist of the old effects taken from ST and Amiga demos
- with huuuuuge "love and respect" section with such names as The Lost
- Boys, The Exceptions, Level 16, Unlimited Matrix, TRSI, Scoopex,
- Kefrens, Melon Design and so on. So wait for it, it's worth some
- patience!
-
- Grey: Are you collecting the latest ST releases? What do you think about
- their technical level since you left the scene? :o)) Do you remember
- the first impression after watching the "new" demo since your
- disappearing? The one which put you in the ground? ;o))
-
- Mr Byte: Yes, I've downloaded all the demos from Pacidemo and I'm going to do
- the do the same with Megatari and Ripped-Off archives. I want to
- collect all the ST demos ever released and review them for my site
- - DemonSTracja (http://demonstracja.scene.pl, "DemonSTration" in
- English). Some years passed since I've quit the scene, so when I saw
- the "new" ST demos I was really shocked. Is this the same machine?
- ;) Frankly I don't remember what was the first demo I've seen after
- all these years, but I remember the "ST-NICCC 2000" demo by Leonard.
- WOW! 3D engine is great! Did he find a hidden blitter in the STFM?
-
- Grey: Wasn't it the surprise for you seeing as many things still happen
- on the Atari scene? New releases, parties, new Atari clones and
- so on? Any tear appeared in the eye? :o))
-
- Mr Byte: YES! I thought ST is dead and only musicians use it from time to
- time. Big changes! The technical level of new production is realy
- surprising. It's funny, but the biggest ST's rival - Amiga 500 -
- is now dead (in the sense of making new demos for this machine).
- As to the idea of new computers compatible with Atari I'm a bit
- sceptical. I don't think it will work. Do not get me wrong, I still
- love this machine, but it is part of a past - as "Titanic" for
- example :)
-
- Grey: What would you like to say to the chaps who build the current
- image of Atari scene?
-
- Mr Byte: Keep the spirit. Keep the faith. And - first of all - keep coding!
-
- Grey: The suffering reached the end... :o)) Thanx for being that patient!
- May TOS never leave your mind! :o))
-
- Mr Byte: "Your mind is my ashtray"? :)) Thanks and good luck with Chosneck!
-
- -- -- -- --- --- --------------------------------------------------------------
- CHOSNECK team contact us:
- people faithful 2 da roots! atarimsb@wp.pl
- ---------------------------------------------------- ------- --- -- ----- ----
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