Amiga Plus 2004 #2

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»PIC:barclip.ilbm» »CL9: Interview With Strife Of Apathy »PIC:barclip.ilbm» »CL4: By Zerox of Gods »CL7: INTRODUCTION »CL1:Few sceners have been organizers of a production factory, but Apathy surely have released a flow of productions since the start back in the end of 1994/beginning of 1995, and the man behind it all is Strife. He's not only organizer of Apathy but also the main coder and writer. We in the EC staff decided to have a closer look at this scener. To read more about Apathy, look in the "Underrated groups"- article elsewhere in this mag. »CL0:As a short introduction, please tell the readers a few words about yourself, your function and what you want to achieve in the scene? »CL2:I am 24 years old, and have been active in the scene since 1994. Most people »CL2:probably know me as a swapper, coder, organizer, and compiler of different packs. I was a member of Neo for a short time, other than that I've only been a member of Apathy since the very beginning. »CL3:Apathy was started by me, people I knew through swapping quickly started to join along with some friends from my town. I have been the organizer since the start, except from 1998 to 1999 when Punisher took over because of my military service. If he hadn't done that I doubt the group would have survived, so I am forever thankful. He also brought in some new members, like Angeldust, who has been one of the most active members in the group and one of my best friends in the scene since I first met him. »CL2:I was also one of the biggest swappers in Norway from 1996 to 1998. I have done a lot of coding, but never had the time to develop my skills that much. Mostly I coded packs which I compiled myself, like Dreams, Feedback, and later maze's DigitalChips. I also released several intros, but mostly just quick poor intros so I had something fresh to send to my swappers. I have no high ambitions concerning own achivements in the scene any more, other than to release some stuff now and then and to keep Apathy alive. Of course it would be fun to release some real kick-ass demos, but since it hasn't happened so far I doubt it »CL2:ever will. »CL1:When did you enter the scene and how did you first get attracted to it? »CL2:I can't quite remember but I think I came up with my first handle back in 1994, I guess we can say that was when I started my scene activity. I made some tool-disks, slideshows and stuff like that before I had a look at coding with Amos. I'm not really sure what initially attracted me to the scene, I guess I just grew tired of copying games with x-copy. »CL7: GROUPS »CL1:What do you think are the good and bad sides of your group? »CL2:Well, the good thing is that if I count members we are one of the biggest groups in the Amiga scene. The bad thing is that probably more than half of the members haven't produced anything fresh for the Amiga scene in a long long time. Another bad side is that I am the only organizer and have too much to do, the good side is that people don't seem to complain too much anyway. Apathy was from the beginning a group where everyone were swappers. Back in 1995 and until »CL2:1998 I had contact with all members through swapping and the friendship was great. »CL3:Today there's only 1 member that hasn't got Internet I have to keep contact with through swapping. The rest I have contact with over Internet, but sadly Internet can't compare to the good old days of swapping. At least that's how I feel. I've never written an email anywhere close to the long swapletters I used to write. We have a lot of talent in the group, but not so much motivation and available time for the scene I'm afraid. »CL1:As you're the organizer of Apathy, how important do you think it is for a group to have a good organizing and real friendship between the members? Is it important at all? »CL2:I think I can say that I never really stressed the organizing part, if people wanted to make something I was happy and supported them, but I don't think I ever pushed people around to work for the group if they didn't have time or motivation. Today I am happy to support members with their work, but if they are members of other groups also and can get a better result by releasing their stuff there that is fine. I think it has always been like that, I just wait for »CL2:initiative from the members to make something and then support them. Or I just start a production from graphics and music people have sent me. Actually I almost never see or talk to any of the members in real life, all contact is still over mail and swapping. The only time we meet is at parties, some people in the group I have never met and wouldn't even recognize on the street. »CL1:What's your all-time favourite group? And why? »CL2:My all time favourite group would have to be TBL. The first party I ever attended was The Gathering 96, and I was completely stunned by TBL's Tint demo. At that time, my computer was a standard Amiga 1200 with no fast ram or accelerator card, so I had never seen demos with effects like those in Tint, I think my jaw dropped to the floor. I remember it gave me shivers, and I was extremely happy. After the demo was finished I rushed over to the closest Amiga hardware supplier at The Gathering and ordered myself a blizzard 1230-iv with 4mb fast ram. TBL dominated TG96 completely, and there were so many of them, I thought they were extremely cool. I remember Tint later was shown on Norways biggest commercial channel, and it is for sure the demo I have watched most times. I'm amazed how TBL managed to release all those quality productions during 1996, and what amazes me most is that they are still around. »CL1:What's the first release we'll see from Apathy in 2004? »CL2:Hmm, tricky. I think some kind of intro or dentro for The Gathering, but I haven't quite decided wether or not to go there yet so I don't know. I haven't been at TG since 1999, which I thought was awful because there wasn't a single production for the Amiga released by foreigners there. The next years I went to Mekka instead. Anyway we're hoping to finish Digital Chips#32 during 2004. »CL1:In 2003 I think I've only seen one Apathy production, and that was the cute intro Haakan, how come? Is it the fact that you're now working as a programmer which takes all the energy away from the scene? »CL2:Yes that is exactly the situation. I'm working as the only programmer for a small company, and there really is too much work. I often sit back and think, this isn't worth it, but oh well. I hope I will have some more spare time during 2004, in 2003 I didn't have summer vacation or any vacation at all. Haakan was supposed to be released much earlier than it was, but I never had time to finish it, until right before Kindergarden2003. Earlier Zeeball would release some small productions for us, but he hasn't got any spare time or even »CL2:a working Amiga right now. We have quite a lot of coders on our memberlist, but I haven't gotten the time or energy to motivate them to make productions any more. I just make stuff myself and if some of the other coders ever decide to make something again I consider it a bonus. »CL1:In the past Apathy released lots of musicpacks and more, like Feedback, Dreams, Implant and Digital Chips. As far as I know, only Digital Chips is left. However, DC 31 got released back in July 2002. So when will the next issue be out? »CL2:Well, we have gotten some support for it, like articles and some intropictures, and Maze sent me enough new chip modules to release it but I wanted some more chips to choose from. I need some really good motivating chip music to start all the work on the huge magpart. Actually I think that I will never be able to top the magpart from issue #31, I used ages on it, even if it might seem quite small compared to other diskmags. I just hope I will remember how to compile it when I first start again, it has after all been one and a half year since last time. »CL3:On the other hand, there might be more releases of Feedback and Dreams, if I »CL3:suddenly get lots of module support there will be another Feedback, and I might release another Dreams pack with intros or something again. Or maybe someone else wants to release Dreams. »CL1:In the last issue of Digital Chips, we also experienced your cool writing-skills, as DC also included a good magpart. How will future DCs look like? Will it include a big magpart, or will you instead focus on supporting other mag and magpacks with articles, like in this issue of EC? »CL2:Well I don't think I will write as many articles as I did in issue#31 for future issues, or if I do I don't think I can spend as much time on each article as I did. And there will be far less different font-colours and clipart in each article for sure, man that was time consuming. The first 10 articles were rather standard stuff like credits, help and so on, so the next issue should require less work. Maybe I can do another 10 ok articles for the magpart, you'll just have to check it when it gets released. »CL7: CODING / PRODUCTIONS »CL1:You've released quite some releases in the past. What's your favourite own-made »CL1:production? »CL2:My favourite production is without doubt DigitalChips#31, I worked on it for a whole year or more. It is the most professional thing I ever coded, there is lots of functionality in it that people probably never even noticed. Then there are the Feedback musicdisks, it is fun to look back at them because I got support from quite well known musicians back then, and I like the music in them. And I must also smile a bit at the fact that Loaderror made the gfx for the first 4 issues, he isn't really known as a graphician any more is he? »CL1:Tell us about your favorite production made by others? »CL2:Well, I did talk a lot about Tint when we talked about TBL didn't I? It is however a bit hard to choose just one favourite production, I always have trouble when voting for Eurochart. I have to mention several, like Tint, Captured Dreams, The Gate, Rise, ... It all really depens on my mood. »CL1:Is there an effect you've seen from other coders which you know you would never manage to make? »CL2:Ouch don't ask me that question, most effects I see I know I would never manage to make, at least not as good on the same hardware. Well, if I had the time and motivation for it maybe, but it would take me years. I think I'll stick to diskmag-coding and easy 2d effects. The screen is 2d, no need to fool people into believing something else. »CL1:What's the most impressive routine you've ever seen? And what's your favourite coder? »CL2:I remember a rabbit and some really huge objects from a Skarla demo, that was impressive on my 030. And of course the jumping lamp in Nexus7. The bumpmapped fish and hand in Tint, the wobbly thing in the Lola/Cola intro from tp4, the dinosaur in Captured Dreams, oh you said most impressive? Again, I can't decide, there are too many great effects, and I usually like stuff as a whole, especially effects that are timed to fit the music and design. »CL1:You've used animations in several productions in the past, do you think it's always ok to include animations in demos/intros that compete in compos? »CL2:Well, I've just used cartoon animations, I've never used animations for effects, »CL2:which I of course don't like that much. If someone tells me some great routine was just an animation I'd be a bit sad, but it is ok as long as you never find out it actually was an animation. Oh, I forgot, I did use an effect-animation in aha, I guess that wasn't ok but aha was made during two days, I didn't have time for any heavy code. »CL1:What do you think about nowadays demos compared to demos released for example 5 years ago? Has anything changed at all during these years after your opinion? »CL2:What? Only 5 years? Considering how much things changed from 1990 to 1995 I don't think much has changed from 1998 to 2003 no. The few times my cyberstorm604@233mhz actually works I can see that things have changed a lot, but it works so seldom that I'm stuck with my a1200/040. It seems to me like several groups have been influenced by the 'Ephidrena-style' but maybe Ephidrena in their time were influenced by others, I don't know. I guess the most obvious is that there isn't so much pixeled graphics in AGA demos any more, and the music has changed quite much. »CL1:How do you create a demo/intro? Is there a special way you prefer to produce it? Like first getting a module/gfx, then create an effect, get an idea etc., or the opposite? »CL2:Yes I prefer to get a module first and then design an intro/demo to fit it. Or rather, I don't see any other way to do it, I would need close cooperation with a musician on the design then, and I never had that luxury. »CL1:With the Aha-intro and the Aha-remix intro released at the Mekka & Symposium 2000 and Gathering 2001, you managed to get very high rankings. What do you like the most about those productions? »CL2:I like the music and how it fits the scroller at the end. I think that was what turned out best in the whole intro. But of course the Aha-chip by Coma is always fun to listen to, and the dancing figure is funny. I actually didn't invent those dancemoves, I found the source somewhere and just improved it slightly. Shame on me, hehe. »CL1:At the Kindergarden party 2003 you released the 64k intro Haakan, together with Up Rough. Who came up with the idea for the cooperation? Are you currently working on more coop productions? »CL2:I think Spot just caught me on #amigascne one day and told me he needed some assistance from a coder. That's how it started, it wasn't supposed to be much but I did some extra code and designstuff on it and added some more gfx to make it just a tiny bit better. We actually started two co-operation intros at the same time, but Haakan is the only one released so far, the other one is still in progress. »CL7: THE SCENE »CL1:Do you remember the first demo you saw and mag you read? »CL2:The first demo I saw was probably Budbrain or Wayfarer, but I can't remember which one. I saw them both on an Amiga belonging to a guy in my class at school. I first thought Kefrens Desert Dream was one of the first demos I saw, but I think it really must have been Wayfarer by Spaceballs, they both have some desert scenes etc, must have made me confused. »CL3:The first mag I read was R.A.W#6, I got it when I bought my first Amiga1200 from a guy in my town who told me he was a member of IRIS. He had tears in his eyes when I gave him the money for his Amiga and carried it with me. He didn't have »CL3:room for it any more, which was good for me, it was not easy to get hold of an A1200 those days. I was completely stunned when I noticed there was an underground scene of swappers all over Europe sending disks to eachother. I never knew such a thing existed before that, and sent 3 blank disks along with my first swapper-ad which appeared in Raw#7. It looked quite lame, and I don?t think I got a single answer because of it. But I started to contact a lot of people myself, and some of them actually answered. »CL1:What do you think are the good and bad sides of the scene? »CL2:The Amiga scene has many talented people and great legends, it is nice to have been a part of it. The bad thing is that I have spent almost all my time on it, I hope I never will feel like it was a waste of time. And of course it is always a bit sad when old scenefriends just disappear, and you loose contact with them completely. »CL1:How should we manage to get more people attracted to the scene? »CL2:Well, I don't really want lots of newcomers, but if we could attract some people which already are sceners on other platforms over to the Amiga, or get some old »CL2:Amiga sceners back into the scene, that would be very nice. I keep dreaming of a comeback by Andromeda, it's been 10 years now, maybe this is the year they return? »CL1:Do you have any special scene memory you want to share with the readers? »CL2:One of my best memories is from the Kindergarden7 party from 1997. It was during the summer in a school in oslo. The weather was extremely nice and all of my closest scene friends were there, I don't think we were more than 100 people but it was very nice. Apathy had a battle going against Instinct, the group started by Punisher. There were Apathy and Instinct banners everywhere as far as I can remember. But we were all sitting together, and I don't think people were quite sure who were members of Instinct and who were Apathy members, infact most people were members of both groups. The funny part was when Punisher met some guys from England or something at the party, which told him that they already had started a group with the name Instinct some time ago. Some time after that I think Instinct became Mantra. »CL1:I know you're also a member of certain fun-groups under other handles. Will these groups release something in the near future? ;-) »CL2:Hehe, how do you know that? Well I have several fungroups and handles which I planned to make productions with some time, but I never got around to it. I think I have the responsibility for some of the handles in Specter also. If Punisher returns it would be fun to do another Specter production, even though it was my sister who started the whole group. Quite a silly but fun story, which is far too long to tell now. »CL1:Well, it's time to find out what's your taste. What's your favorite: »CL1:SLOGAN : »CL2:Eltech - More balls »CL1: »CL2:than a snooker table »CL1:SLIDESHOW : »CL2:Andromeda - 7 Seas »CL1:INTRO : »CL2:Scoopex - 1000% »CL1:DEMO : »CL2:TBL - Tint »CL1:MUSICDISK : »CL2:Feedback :) »CL1:MAG : »CL2:Eurochart »CL1:EDITOR : »CL2:Lord Helmet »CL1:Please tell your opinion about the future of the scene: »CL1:OPTIMISTIC: »CL2:Andromeda, Stellar, Polka Brothers, Virtual Dreams, Kefrens all make comebacks! »CL1:REALISTIC: »CL2:Maybe just one or two of those groups make comebacks. »CL1:PESIMISTIC: »CL2:TBL release their last demo in 2004, all Amiga hardware stops working. »CL1:And what do you think about the latest Amiga plans? »CL2:I think they are too late. Almost 10 years too late. But hey, if the Amiga scene moves on to new hardware, I will most likely move along as well, although I of course will continue to support the 68k AGA Amigas as well. The worst thing about the new Amiga stuff is all this Quake and shit on it, I hate Quake, Doom and Wolfenstein! All 3d games should be banned from the amiga! »CL1:Do you picture yourself in the scene many many years from now? »CL2:Yes I do. Maybe only to chat about the good old days, but if there is an »CL2:oldskool Amigascene party in 2050 I will attend! »CL6:(we'll meet there then! »CL8:- DH»CL6:) »CL7:MAGS »CL1:What do you think about mags and packs these days? Do you miss something? »CL2:I think the magscene has been extremely good the last years, we have almost been spoiled. Of course I miss old packs like Kickdown by Syndrome, but Whelpz are doing a good job on their pack. If people stop to release packs, I'll just have to start compiling our Dreams pack again. »CL1:Are there too few mags and packs around after your opinion? »CL2:Hmm, well now that we have lost Disc, and Eurochart and Jurassick Pack aren't getting released as often as they used to, maybe. I also miss Showtime, with all the swapper ads and nice interface. Anyway, if it continues like this maybe there will be room for our Cocktail diskmag sometime, I haven't given it up completely. As for packs, I guess if there were more fresh productions there would be more packs. I like packs, I'm used to the idea that fresh stuff gets gathered into a pack, it reminds me of the old days. »CL1:Do mags have any influence in the scene? »CL2:Indeed, probably a great influence. It's almost like I regret that I made such a bad review of the oldskool edition of Jurassick Pack in dc#31, it really made Zito angry for a while. Write positive stuff in the mags, and the scene will be positive, write negative stuff and everyone gets negative. Although it is quite fun to read old diskmags now and see people complaining about the poor state of the scene even back in the early nineties. »CL1:What do you think about the chart in the EuroChart? Do you think those charts reflect the best productions and best sceners? »CL2:Hmm, well to some point I guess they do. Anyway I think they are fun to check out, and mostly I think the chart reflects the scene in a good way. »CL7: REAL LIFE »CL1:What's your occupation? »CL2:I'm a computer programmer working for a company called Nextsys, located in Kongsberg, Norway. »CL1:Tell us about one of your normal days... »CL2:Struggle for at least an hour to get out of bed, drive to work, eat breakfast, check mailbox, check buglists, fix bugs, add new functionality, do customer support, eat lunch, fix bugs, add more functionality, drive home, eat dinner, drive back to work, fix bugs, add functionality, do you get the picture? It can get quite boring now and then.. »CL1:Do you have any other hobbies than computing? In that case, which? »CL2:I watch all games with the local basketball team, yell at the referees so my throath is soar for several days, and even play some basketball myself to stay in shape. I also collect all kinds of crap like Sega Mega Drives, Snes's, Macintosh'es and games for all of these. I'm running out of room. I also collect old Amiga magazines, I have more than 500 now with all coverdisks/cd's. Not to mention Amiga hardware, I have lots of amiga hardware, most of it doesn't even work. »CL1:What kind of music and movies do you enjoy? »CL2:I have no special favourite-music to listen to, I listen to mostly everything, except rap and heavy metal. But I guess I prefer technoish stuff and pop over rock stuff. I like all kind of science fiction movies. »CL1:Thanks for spending alot of your time here answering these questions. Good luck with future plans... Now you can write whatever you would like, like greetings etc. »CL2:Ok, then I must greet all the people I got to know through swapping! (All people listed with the group they were in when I first started swapping with them) »CL3:Greets from strife/apathy to the following: »CL6: accede/apathy adonis/iris allanon/depth amos/stonearts angeldust/apathy aztec/sector7 blaze/floppy blunt/grasshopper bon/neo boo/talent bucko/void budgie/apathy byllbo/ind carp/apathy case78/scoopex cavit/ind chriz/apathy chunky/rno celius/ind. coma/apathy condor/ind cook/9design coolio/smellon cope/apathy curtcool/depth cyberstorm/astra syntex daniel/ind. darkhawk/iris death/apathy deejay silosaft/ind dr.death/eltech drac/ambrosia dt214/void duckhunter/spaceballs dweeb/apathy elektro/apathy evan/apathy exl/megahead felix/kinky fidgety/ind firestarter/instinct fisherking/massive flapjack/eroticdesign genetix/vortex gone/void growl/apathy hakon/whelpz harv/lsd hawk/darkage haze/apathy hellrazor/apathy hexorcist/almagest hurricane/apathy hyper/apathy iceman/sector5 inssomniak/redline jackobe/oxygene jay/ultima kempy/veezya kestrel/syndrome korball/apathy lahve/scoopex leia/apathy lekman/hemoraiders lithium/gods loaderror/ephidrena makak/mawi malakai/giants malison/contraz maze/apathy melon/mystic mj/iris moonchild/halfmoon mosquito/hemoraiders mr.c/almagest mr.keel/? mr.vain/secretly mr.x/apathy mystra/? nemechek/apathy nork/network notman/iris paplo/? phantom/syndicate pinx/eternal pix/darkage peejay/vegas point/apathy pow/sunshineprods preacher/eltech psalt/donut fetish psycho/apathy punisher/apathy purple haze/saints rabl/void rage/apathy raptor/sector5 raze/ambrosia repoman/massive rolex/apathy romeo/astra syntex sh1/apathy shatterhand/saviour sixpack/gods skinner/eltech soda/scoopex speeddevil/giants spindizzy/astra syntex splatterhead/scoopex styles/s2 sunscream/apathy tentacle/apathy tft/rno thehooligan/dcs thorr/welpz thrym/giants tracky/apathy trump/apathy u-nik/massive wise/apathy wiseguy/apathy wizzball/apathy zapotek zappo/animax zeeball/apathy zerox/gods zevz/ind zito/scarab zorro/ind »CL7:[ sorry to all forgotten ones!]