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- 1
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- 9[........................................................]
- Ç
- ü Maggie interview with Richard Karsmakers..Ç
-
- Producer of the 'Ultimate Virus Killer'
- Ex-editor of the legendary diskmag 'ST News'!!
-
- äThere's an interview of sorts in a really early issue of Maggie, but
- this fills in with a lot of later info not seen there, so whattheheck!Ç
-
-
- > Can you give us a brief run-down of your life so far (where you were
- > born, which schools you attended, etc) ?
-
- I was born in a town in the South of the Netherlands by the name of
- Helmond, which literally means "mouth of hell" as it is due west of
- what used to be a swampy area in the Netherlands. Shitloads of people
- drowned there in the early middle ages or thereabouts, so it became a
- settlement to cater for people who wanted a good night's sleep and a
- beer or two before setting out on what was then certainly a journey
- fraught with danger. The town has a pretty bad reputation, which it
- gained in the last 10 or 15 years, insofar that it's sometimes
- considered to have an crime rate that's even higher than that of
- Amsterdam.
-
- I went to four schools in Helmond, first primary school and then,
- after a two-and-a-half year's stay in a child's home because my mom
- didn't like me and eventually my parents divorced, I went through
- three levels of secondary education, the lowest through to the
- highest. This is pretty unusual, because my primary school tests had
- proven that I was capable of tackling the highest level right away, but
- what with my parents being divorced people (social workers, whatever)
- didn't reckon I could handle all these changes. So I crawled up the
- ladder of our secondary education system for two extra years. Like
- "Red Dwarf"'s Arnold J. Rimmer, I was the oldest in just about every
- group I was in. This was particularly burdensome for me, as I usually
- got along better with people a bit older than me and I tended to be
- bossy over ones that were younger.
-
- In 1988 I went to University in Utrecht, my choice having been
- prompted by the nearness of the infamous Willeke's domicile. I did a
- year of Biology until I found out it was no sirree a step onto
- becoming a paleontologist (I'd wanted to dig up dinosaurs ever since I
- was six or thereabouts). Too much physics and chemistry, and
- eventually my being forced to tackle integral calculus, made me throw
- the towel in the ring with some force. That was March 1989, a time when
- "ST NEWS" was blooming like never before due to Stefan's efforts
- combined with mine, and when the "UVK" was selling in seriously
- interesting quantities.
-
- Around that time, Stefan and I visited Thalion software and I decided
- I'd really like working there. Jochen "Mad Max" Hippel was one of my
- heroes, and the other people were really good at their thing, too. I
- wanted to be part of that young and budding company, never mind it
- being in Germany. So, after the summer holiday, I went to work for
- them. I did some game design, translations, correspondence with the
- press, Public Relations abroad, and gaping at our gorgeous secretary,
- Manuela. It was one of the most interesting periods of my life, though
- at a certain moment - summer 1990 - the future of Thalion was not at
- all certain so I set into motion the cogwheels that eventually got me
- back to Utrecht and starting to study English in September 1991.
-
- Apart for the occurrence of my second (and hopefully final)
- girlfriend, in August 1994, my life has been pretty inconspicuous ever
- since. I've been going through the various years and courses of my
- English studies at Utrecht University, I specialised in Celtic
- Language and Culture, and graduated in December 1995.
-
- Realising that there's no dry bread to be earned as a simple Master of
- Arts, I enrolled into a course to get me qualified as a teacher in
- secondary education, something that I would have laughed hilariously
- if anyone had predicted it a mere year or two earlier.
-
- I am right in the middle of the final segment about now, meaning that I
- have 10 hours per week to teach kids varying from 12 to 16 years of
- age. It's tiresome and at times rather unthankful work, but I think
- it's the thing for which I was born. I should get my certificate at the
- end of December, after which I hope out to eek a living as a teacher
- whilst trying to get discovered as a writer of fiction.
-
-
- > Prior to you owning an Atari computer, which previous systems
- > have you owned?
-
- When I went from the lowest to the intermediate level of secondary
- education (for the Dutch among you: MAVO to HAVO), my dad thought I
- ought to get a computer. Although mention was made of a Sinclair QL at
- the moment, eventually I ended up requesting a Commodore 64. I spent
- the next two years spending rather more time playing games and ripping
- music than doing school stuff. Around Easter 1986 I switched to the
- Atari ST, back then a 512 Kb system with TOS on disk, an SF354 single-
- sided disk drive and a monochrome monitor.
-
- I got upgraded, traded in for a MEGA ST2 extended to 4 Mb in 1990, and
- traded in in October 1993 for a Falcon. Hard-disk wise, I started off
- with an SH204 (20 Mb), which at the time seemed like reams and reams
- of space, and super speed. Via a Megafile 60 in the MEGA ST I
- eventually ended up with a more satisfactory 340 Mb IDE thing in the
- Falcon.
-
- Somewhere in 1989 I purchased a Cambridge Z88, a really nice piece of
- machinery, that I haven't used for a bit now as the cable to port
- stuff from/to it wasn't Falcon compatible. In a cupboard I also have a
- Commodore 128D to play the really old classics, and for a month or so
- I've owned a second-hand Sinclair QL, and for about 3 hours I owned a
- VIC 20.
-
-
- > What do you think of the Atari scene in general??
-
- With the risk of sounding sentimental, the scene the way it was when
- Stefan and I did the "ST NEWS International Christmas Coding
- Convention" in December 1990. This was the coolest, friendliest,
- weirdest, most talented and craziest scene I've ever seen. Even though
- I was never a programmer, I was proud to be part of it in some
- insignificant, fleeting way. Things won't be like that, never again,
- certainly not on the PC. People like TCB's Nic and Tanis, TLB's
- Manikin, those crazy Frenchies of Overlanders and ST Connexion, and
- those absurdly talented people like TEX' Mad Max, ES and -me-, they
- were the icing that made the scene a great one. Obliterating borders,
- sync scrolling, getting good sound of the crappy YM 2149 chip...those
- were the days.
-
- Today, the scene is one that I can hardly identify with. Too many
- Germans, too many Frenchies, a lack of cool friendship (TCB <> TLB
- comes to mind), no sense of humour, too much house music, and parties
- that, from what I've read and heard, are just too big, not cosy. I
- have basked in the glow of coding gods, and with me a great multitude
- of others. Nic, in my eyes, was the best coder ever. The day he left
- the old scene, it died.
-
-
- > Which demo, in your opinion, is the best you've seen on either the
- > Falcon or ST??
-
- I was never much into Falcon demos, though Chris sent me a few that
- were quite impressive. No doubt, awesome stuff is being done, but I
- can't judge it properly because I don't really know what the Falcon
- can and can't do. Having been in Thalion, and designing games that
- would take a regular ST pretty close to what it could do (and seeing
- games designed that took it even a bit closer and further, like the
- amazing "Enchanted Land", programmed by Nic), I think I can judge ST
- demos better.
-
- The "Union Demo", without a shadow of an inkling of a scintilla of a
- doubt, was the best-designed demo ever, featuring some incredible
- coding by the best people from the scene. The most enjoyable demo,
- however, will forever be "B.I.G. Demo", which was exactly my kind of
- thing. Later demos, such as "Mindbomb" and "Ooh Crikey Wot a
- Scorcher", will also have a fond place in my Atari heart, whereas the
- Last Of The Great Megademos, "Froggies over the Fence", was another
- major achievement!
-
-
- > What is your local Atari scene like??? (user groups, shops, etc)
-
- It doesn't exist. PCs have taken over the place. There hasn't been a
- good Atari user club ever since ST Club Eindhoven turned to Apples in
- 1988 or 1989, just after Frank and I had left it. I have never seen a
- Falcon anywhere except my own, and those in shelves at Atari Benelux
- and the current Atari wholesaler, ACN (maybe that's a bit of an
- exaggeration, but not too much of one).
-
-
- > Which computer show(s) or parties do you have fond memories of?
-
- I've only really been to two: The "STNICCC" and the Delta Force "ICC
- #2". The first one was, sorry of this sounds conceited or arrogant or
- whatever, the best ever, at least to me. Catering was excellent, the
- location was excellent, and every single person in the scene was
- there, except Oxygene (then of TLB, a.k.a. In Flagranti) and -ME- of
- TEX (who has an exam the Monday afterwards). It was super.
-
- I should like to mention the "party" that happened when the Lost Boys
- came down to Thalion to program "A Prehistoric Tale". Dave (Spaz) and
- Manikin (Tim) had come down for the summer, Jochen was doing the
- music, and Steffen "New Mode" Fischer and Fabian "Oxygene" Hammer were
- doing stuff, and Stefan was there to do a bonus screen, and we all
- slept on the old Thalion office balcony, outside in the summer night,
- until the street cleaners below would wake us up. We'd get drunk many
- times, going to beer-gardens and get shit-faced. Although it wasn't
- actually a "party", I certainly experienced most of it like one.
-
-
- > What is your opinion of diskzines on the Atari scene??
- > (ie Maggie, ST Plus, etc)
-
- I am only really familiar, I have to confess, with "Maggie" and "DBA
- Magazine". It's a damn shame that the latter seems to have stopped;
- even with Bonus wanting to release a final issue, I am not sure
- whether they'll pull it off, as Sietse "Slimer" Postma was better at
- the whole editorial thing, English spelling, the whole lark. It takes
- more than just "an inclination" to finish a disk magazine issue, every
- time again, it takes a kind of quiet desperation, a lot of stamina,
- maybe sheer bloody-minded stubbornness. "Maggie", right now, is the
- one thing that keeps the scene going, kindof like a central nerve
- system, or maybe just glue. It's good at being the drive of the Atari
- scene, thankfully.
-
-
- > What is your favourite TV show ??
-
- Multiple. Because I am doing this secondary school teacher course, I
- tend to watch the odd episode of "Heartbreak High" of late. I like
- some American cliche police stuff ("Nash Bridges" comes to mind), and
- a lot of the British humour ("Red Dwarf", of course, the "Air Scotia"
- thing, loads more), "The Muppets Tonight", and a Dutch soap called
- "Good Times, Bad Times", which features what I think might be the most
- delectable Dutch female, a girl called Katja Schuurman (your Dutch
- readers are probably splitting their sides now but, hey, taste is
- something personal). I really dig all those American talkshows that
- portray silly or downright annoyingly stupid people, broken families,
- druggies, teenage pregnancy, etc. (Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Jenny
- Jones). Makes me really appreciate my own life, it does!
-
-
- > And your worst TV programme ??
-
- I am not aware of anything like it in Britain, but it's something
- called "Reality TV". This basically means that a bunch of cameramen
- listen to the police and fire brigade frequencies and then film all
- the shit that happens. Fucking outrageous, very annoying, and on TV in
- some or other guise on the various commercial Dutch challenge as if
- the TV-viewing audiences want nothing else.
-
-
- > What is your favourite movie of all time??
-
- Very difficult, as there have been so many masterpieces, in various
- different genres. In serious genres, a film like "The Crying Game" or
- "Out of Africa" would score high, but when I go to the cinema I want
- to see some really spectacular stuff, and there "Jurassic Park",
- "Twister" and "ID4" are the top three. Never mind the story, suspend
- your disbelief, and let yourself flow along with the film as long as
- it lasts, then leave the cinema awed and with a feeling that, if
- nothing else, you've been entertained thoroughly.
-
-
- > What, in your opinion, is the worst movie you've seen??
-
- I don't even want to get into the tripe that's on TV most of the time,
- so I'll limit this to stuff I've actually gone to the cinema for. I'll
- be stepping on the toes of artsy-fartsy people here, but it would have
- to be "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", which I saw on my birthday
- in 1988, with (the infamous) Willeke. It was an exceedingly boring and
- overly long film that I might have been too young for to actually
- understand. Maybe it was my mood, I don't know.
-
-
- > Who is your favourite actor & actress in the movies??
-
- Fave actor is Robert de Niro, although I also like Arnold and
- Sylvester in the rather more empty-headed action film genre. Jack
- Nicholson, though he seems to end up playing similar roles all the
- time, is cool too. I know I am a sexist pig of a man, but I rate
- actresses not by their acting capabilities but, rather, for the way
- they look and the size of the chance of my not kicking them out of my
- bed if ever they turned out to land up in it. Kelly Preston ("Twins")
- and Imogen Stubbs ("Eric the Viking") are awesome, and Famke Janssen
- too (though not in "Goldeneye", but the ST:TNG episode where she
- plays). Cliche answers like Julia Roberts and Sharon Stone don't got
- for me; Julia's mouth is way too big and Sharon's too dominant and
- aggressive-looking, though she was OK in "Total Recall".
-
- If I had to pick an actress for her acting merits, I think it would be
- someone like Meryl Streep, who can do anything but humour. She's
- amazing.
-
- > Who or what do you find everyone else seems to like, but which you
- > personally loathe intensely ?? (this can include the Spice Girls!)
-
- Spice Girls? I hate their music, but when there video clips are on I
- just can't tear away my eyes (especially the one with red hair in the
- clip that is a bit like "Power Rangers"...and have you noticed the
- other clip is *one* giant shot?)! Possibly the male pig of a man angle
- again... But no, seriously, especially since I am teaching, I notice
- that simply every secondary school pupil seems to get off on house
- music of some kind of other. And the girls all like "BoyZone" and that
- crap. I hate that kind of more fervently even than I hate
- Country'n'Western!
-
-
- Some words, people and places to react to ...
- (please be as frank as you like)
-
- Canada
-
- A serious possibility for future exploits, at least potentially, as
- far as both Karin and me are concerned. Mark "666" van den Boer,
- Stefan and Gard "Nutty Tiny One" Abrahamsen have gone before me
- already.
-
- Piracy
-
- A blessing and a curse. None of the old 8-bit systems would have been
- anywhere near the success they were if it weren't for the "I can get a
- lot of games from my friend who has one too" phenomenon. I think this
- is also what makes the PC attractive to many people nowadays. However,
- I think there should definitely be a big "no-no" plastered on those
- commercial ventures like Pirate CD ROMs or generally everybody SELLING
- illegal software. I can understand people copying software, but I
- can't understand people SELLING the stuff, SELLING other people's
- labour. And back when I was working at Thalion I could get very worked
- up when people cracked Thalion titles (such as Empire, Hotline and
- Replicants did), what with Thalion consisted just about consisting
- only of people who were highly respected and esteemed in the Atari
- fraternity.
-
- Censorship
-
- My guts cry out: Never ever! Censorship is bad! However, sometimes I
- think censorship is good, especially on the Internet. Especially
- people of average (or even below that) mental capacity are capable of
- the utmost horrific things if they get access to all that there is to
- know in the world. I can't think of an actual example off the top of
- my head. Closely related to censorship, especially on the Internet, is
- "youth and pornography". For starters I think regular pornography
- (without tying up, defecation, extreme fetishism and physical abuse)
- is something that people are way too hung up about. ä(Ed note:- I think
- we might have hit upon Richard K's major area of expertise here!!!)Ç
-
- Probably one of those inherently hypocritical American things, and
- unfortunately most people on the Net are American. This "password ID
- whatever check" scheme on sites containing adult material is a good
- one, I think. The power of the Internet should not be underestimated.
- I am convinced it can cause the downfall of people, or even whole
- nations, in due time.
-
- Stefan Posthuma
-
- Great guy, great friend, inhabitant of Canada, co-singer of "One" on
- the "ST NEWS Home Vid'", important person in the development of "ST
- NEWS", The Lost Boys and the entire old ST Scene.
-
- Infamous tabloid newspapers
-
- I wish we had them here. I don't want all that seriously depressive
- shit on my breakfast table, or at least not that stuff *exclusively*.
- Some spectacular 'news' stories and a pair of big whoppers on Page 3,
- I am certain, would brighten a person's outlook on the day ahead, and
- make the world a marginally more witty place.
-
- Independence Day (the movie)
-
- A story that has as many holes as the movie has explosions.
- Nonetheless, a definite must-see, and in the cinema at that, not on
- video. I had successfully managed to suspend my disbelief for the
- entire film, right up to the moment when this guy writes a virus (in
- what seem like minutes) and then infects the alien mothership, as if
- whatever his processor/machine code was is actually compatible with
- the alien thing. Me being the sexist pig bastard I am, I have to say
- that the Prince of Bell-Air's girlfriend was pretty much of an
- attracting factor in keeping my eyes glued to the screen :-)
-
-
- > What is your most favourite book of all time ??
-
- Right now I would say "Birdsong" by Sebastian Faulks, a "book of love
- and war", a disturbingly realistic account of life just before and
- during World War I. I have never read a book that discomforted me this
- much, and it's written in a way I would like to be able to write. The
- guy's a natural. Having said this, I would definitely want to put in
- Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" and everything ever written by Terry
- Pratchett and Douglas Adams, as well as Stephen Donaldson's
- "Unbeliever" chronicles. And Stephen King, of course, whose "The
- Stand", "Needful Things" and "It" are definitely somewhere in my over-
- sized top 10.
-
-
- > If we were ever to visit you (ie, myself and Chris Holland), where
- would you take us for a night out??
-
- Never thought I'd ever be on the *replying* side of this question :-)
-
- Utrecht is a pretty old, scenic and *compact* city. At 20 minutes'
- cycling from my place is located the city centre, where you'll find
- all the decent record shops (for a day out) and cinemas and bars (for
- the night). There's a hard rock cafe called "The Boot Hill Saloon"
- which I find quite enjoyable, where they play Motorhead and Van Halen
- and that kind of thing, and there's "Stairway to Heaven", which is a
- "rock cafe" although the loudest thing they play is U2. Their walls
- are lined with golden records (Beatles, Aerosmith, lot more) and
- signed electric guitars (Van Halen, Megadeth, Sepultura, U2, and
- dozens of more). Really nice place to gawk at the walls, but then we'd
- quickly run off because it is definitely "average Utrecht people"
- domain after 9 PM. Not a "rock cafe" at all, apart from the ornaments.
-
- I am not sure if you'd like any of these cafes, by the way. But we
- have a really cheap Greek/Italian restaurant called "Mr. Jack's" where
- all pizzas are about 3,25 pound sterling and the food is good, though
- the service can be lousy, especially if you're there with a group of
- people. This was the place, formerly called "Zorba the Greek" where
- Stefan and I got enchanted by Agapi, the Greek Goddess, so which a
- Volume 3 issue of "ST NEWS" was dedicated. Yesterday I ate there with
- Karin, as a matter of fact, and there was a similarly pretty waitress
- walking around.
-
-
- > Who is your favourite musical group?
-
- Various, but Dream Theater would have to rank as number one. For me to
- really like a band, they have to make good music and, preferably, be
- able to play their instruments really well (on both accounts, bands
- like Blur, Pulp and fuckin' Oasis go out the window straight away).
- Dream Theater is made up solely of people who are among the very best
- of playing their respective instruments, and some of their songs are
- just pure classics. Yesterday I emailed my Top 10 Albums of all times
- to some guy who was doing a survey, which will also give you a glance
- across my musical taste:
-
- Albums:
- 1. And Justice for All - Metallica
- 2. Made in Japan - Deep Purple
- 3. Awake - Dream Theater
- 4. Perspective - Jason Becker
- 5. Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
- 6. Passion and Warfare - Steve Vai
- 7. Alive II - Kiss
- 8. Exit Stage Left - Rush
- 9. Live after Death - Iron Maiden
- 10. Rust in Peace - Megadeth
-
-
- > Who, in your opinion, is the worst musical group on this planet??
-
- OASIS! The way the guy sings "Wonderwall" is like he's not having a
- good time... try replacing the words with "I wanna go home...I am
- having a lousy time..." ('WeirdAl'alreadyhas...ED)and see how they
- fit! The fact that they're so huge all around the world and people
- seem to find it all the rage to seriously dig this band just makes me
- get angrier and more incredulous. The world is not what it used to be.
- People used to like the Beatles a lot, or Abba, but it's been nothing
- ever since...
-
-
- > Who is your favourite music singer ??
-
- Male: Geoff Tate (of Queensryche) and old Ronnie James Dio (when he
- was in Rainbow and Black Sabbath). Female: Bjork (who also looks
- frightfully cute for a 30-odd-year-old, and I simply *adore* her
- Icelandic accent!). And when Mariah Carey gets those high notes so
- flawlessly, my gonads contract in ecstasy!
-
-
- > Whose albums do you normally listen to from your own collection?
-
- Er...I usually buy a CD when I intend to listen to it more than once,
- though my music collection (over 600 CDs and over 100 CD singles)
- sometimes makes that a bit difficult. But the CDs that I have listened
- to most in the last few months are Orphanage's "By Time Alone" (groovy
- doom metal with grunt and soprano vocals), Therion's "Theli"
- (symphonic doom metal with church choires and grunt vocals), Theatre
- of Tragedy's debut (doom metal with grunt and soprano vocals), Steve
- Vai's "Fire Garden" (new excellent and long CD, with half instrumental
- guitar music and half with vocals) and The Gathering's "Mandylion"
- (groovy metal with soprano, who is lovely too). A CD I would like to
- listen to more often but that always affects me emotionally is Jason
- Becker's second solo CD (made after his disease started),
- "Perspective". It's simply beautiful and very, very touching.
-
-
- > Thanks for your replies, Rich - hope everything goes to plan.
-
- You're welcome. I had expected some more unusual questions (although
- not quite like the ones I sometimes asked, like "what do you think
- when you look at the moon?"), so if you get some more inspiration,
- feel free to ask some more! All the beST,
- --
- /--------------------------------------------------------------\
- | Richard Karsmakers cronos@worldaccess.nl |
- \--------------------------------------------------------------/
- C.R.I.M.E. Development; "Twilight World" Magazine; WWW-MMM
- "ST NEWS" ST/TT/Falcon disk magazine; "Ultimate Virus Killer"
- alt.music.gwar FUQ II maintainer
- P.O. Box 67, 3500 AB, Utrecht, Netherlands
- /--------------------------------------------------------------\
- | "Who is General Failure and why is he reading my disk?" |
- \--------------------------------------------------------------/
-
-
