# Post Mortem

- Y a-t-il une vie après l'Atari ??? -

Par The Beast

Un jour, QueST m'a suggéré de faire un best-of du Toxic Mag en reprenant les meilleurs interviews des anciens de la scène ST. Ca m'a donné l'idée de faire quelque chose de semblable mais sans faire de la repompe: j'ai carrément interviewé quelques dinosaures du ST ! Oh, certes, je n'ai malheureusement pas retrouvé des Dieux comme les Carebears ou TEX mais je ne désespère pas (si quelqu'un sait comment les contacter, faîtes-moi signe) !! Dans cet article, vous trouverez pas moins de 8 interviews. J'ai tout mis ensemble, il suffit de cliquer sur le nom de la personne qui vous intéresse pour lire son interview. Ah, j'ai oublié de vous signaler un truc : tout est en anglais ! 8-)

1. Big Alec/Delta Force
2. DBug II/NeXT
3. Flix/Delta Force
4. Iki/TSB
5. Lonewolf/NeXT
6. Ray/Delta Force
7. Redfox/Sync
8. Richard Karsmakers

Interview de Big Alec/Delta Force
par The Beast/Typhoon
pour le ToXiC MaG #15 et UCM #11

1. About yourself

- What's your name ?
- Gunnar Gaubatz, aka B.A./DeltaForce/The Union

- How old are you ?
- Currently 24, but that's changing every year... ;-)

- What (or who) do you look like ?
- Ordinary, boring, always fighting with my hair.

- What's your job ?
- Still studying electrical engineering in Munich, working for the students'board, working as a network admin in university, getting a life.

- Which kind(s) of music do you enjoy ?
- Mostly good music, I guess. Fave is "progressive" rock/metal, but also other styles. I'll better list some bands : Marillion, Dream Theater, Genesis, Faith No More, Queensryche, Art of Noise, M.Oldfield, JMJarre, Depeche Mode, Kate Bush, Kraftwerk, etc. Then I like that kind of 80's Pop, where synthies were actually distinguishable from other instruments :)

- What are you favorites movies ?
- StarWars trilogy, Alien quadrology, Monty Python's classics...

- When did you come into contact with computers for the first time, and what was your first machine ?
- Around 83, I guess, when I bought a couple of mags, that explained all the basics of computers. From then on I was hooked and spent days in homecomputer shops hacking my first Basic programs into Spectrums, CPCs and C64s. Around 87 we got our first Computer at home, an Atari 1040STF with monochrome monitor, as my father used that system at work, too.

- Which computers and/or video games systems have you got at home?
- 2 Atari 1040 STF, of which one has 4MB
  1 PC K6-200 running Linux and W95

- If you have got computers, what are you doing with them now ?
- One ST is rusting away, while the other one gets powered on sometimes due to nostalgia attacks :-)
  I mostly work with the PC nowadays, doing all kinds of things, eg. reading mail, writing papers, playing "xpat2", etc. Even a little coding in C/C++ sometimes, but nothing interesting (yet).

2. About your Atari computers & activities

- When and how did you enter into the Atari demo scene ?
- Around 88 there was this article by TEX on demos in a german ST-mag, which made me start coding in assembly. Then I met Flix and Ray, and we formed "Offbeat". Flix had some good contacts, which gave us a good start.

- When did you leave the scene and why ?
- Actually we never really "left" the scene, we just became inactive around 93, because studies became more important, and nobody really knew the direction where Atari would go. There was a lot of talk about the Falcon, but for me personally it was a bit too expensive for just a "fun" system. My father by then already had a PC, which I used more and more frequently. Soon I also discovered that the PC had an active demo scene, but I never got in touch with anybody there.

- In which crew(s) were you active ? What did you do in these crews ?
- My first tries at coding were done under the name of "Abacus Crew", I guess (I'm not sure!). After that came Offbeat, some time later we were swallowed by Delta Force :) and so all my "demo-dreams" fulfilled and I was a member of the megamighty UNION!

- How do you view the decrease of the Atari demo scene in the 90's? Do you think there will be a resurrection of the scene, or will it die out slowly ?
- No, I don't think it will be revived to its former "glory". There will be some nostalgia meetings like the "virtual ICC" held on IRC, or even some real meetings, but development will move on to bigger machines.

- Are you still active on ST ? Why ?
- No, I don't have the time.

- What is your best memory about the ST ?
- That it's been faster than the Amiga... hehe!

- What did the ST bring you in your life ?
- Well, some money earned from game soundtracks. :)

- Do you use ST emulators ? If so, which one(s) and why ?
- I tried some, but I don't really USE them. Well, two actually: STonX and PaCifiST. Oh, but I use another program: ST-Sound by Arnaud Carre. Great work here (Although it's not bugfree yet!)

3. Your vision of informatic & computers

- What do you think about the situation of Atari computers nowadays ?
- Is there a situation? =:^o

- And what do you think about PC computers ?
- Ok, although not the best platform. But comparativeley cheap nonetheless.

- Have you heard about Atari clones ? If so, what's your opinion about this ?
- Too late. They should have started, when Atari was big, in order to be an alternative to Atari's shitty product policy.

- Will you buy a new computer within next years ? Why ?
- Not within at least two years I hope. I've just spent a lot of money with hardware - hey I'm a poor student, ok? ;^)
  However, if I had money to spend, I certainly wouldn't reject a little O2, or Alpha...

OK, let's play a little game. I'm going to give you some subjects, you have to say way do you think about them. You can answer by giving a couple of words or a short paragraph.

- ATARI CORP.
- The greatest company that never was.

- COMMODORE AMIGA
- Why the hell, was it not upgraded to 16 bit sound ?!?

- CRACKING
- Has been, is, will always be there. People doing that have great skills. Why don't they code something useful?

- DEMOS
- Hooking. Great stuff.

- DEMO-SCENE
- Had a great time and a lot of fun.

- FALCON 030
- The greatest computer that never was :)

- INTERNET
- Yeah, it's nice to be "online", but it can be frustrating, when it's slow during prime-time.

- LAMERS
- People who trample on other people's nerves. Examples : German chancellor Kohl and his cabinet, Elton John and his recent "hit single", and - of course - Mr William Gates.

- JAGUAR
- A nice game console, which suffered from the aforementioned product policy of Atari.

- MICROSOFT
- Stealers, Lamers, EVIL EMPIRE.

- PC
- Program Counter? Yeah, relative addressing. Good for avoiding relocation.

- THE UNION 8-)
- We want more money! Or else we go on strike!
  Oops, you mean that Union? Ok, well - of course the coolest group in history.

- VIDEO GAMES COMPUTERS
- I don't play video games, because I'm too much of an idiot at gambling.

- Well, that's the end of this interview. You can add a message below if you want (even a huge one !) :
- I hope I didn't bore you. Anyway, mail to me at:
  gaubatz@lx-lbs.e-technik.fh-muenchen.de

  Thanx.

Interview de Dbug II/NeXT
par The Beast/Typhoon
pour le ToXiC MaG #15 et UCM #11

1. About yourself

- What's your name ?
- Hello. My name is Mickael Pointier, but I'm best know as Dbug from the french demo crew called "NeXT".

- How old are you ?
- 27 years old.

- What (or who) do you look like ?
- Oups. I'm 1.86m tall, dark hairs,... Nothing really original in fact. I'm looking tall compared to MIT, but dwarfish compared to Furyo. :)

- What's your job ?
- I'm programmer. I'm working on PlayStation(TM/(c):) for a game company somewhere in Lyon.

- Which kind(s) of music do you enjoy ?
- Various. I support techno and hip-hop, but I prefer stuff like Bjork, Smashing Pumkins, David Bowie, Vivaldi, and many movie soundtracks.

- What are you favorites movies ?
- Definitively not StarWars or Jurassik Park (don't kill me please!). Trouble with that question is about movie titles... Do you know "la couleur pourpre" from Steven Spielberg ? I like too MarsAttacks, TrueRomance, MIB, Predator, Terminator, Schindler's List, "Ghost Chineese Story".

- When did you come into contact with computers for the first time, and what was your first machine ?
- It was a ZX80 when I was in CM2 (around 9 years old ?) discovered at the local club. I will finaly buy an Oric Atmos 2 years after. Paid with my sweet and blood.

- Which computers and/or video games systems have you got at home?
- By order of obsoletism:
  1 Oric 1
  1 Oric Atmos
  1 Oric Telestrat
  1 Atari 520 ST (upgraded to 2.5 meg)
  1 Falcon 030 (standard)
  1 PC (Cyrix 166+,24 meg)

- If you have got computers, what are you doing with them now ?
- I'm programming demos on the Oric, for the Orics Users around the world.
  I use the ST only to watch demos.
  The Falcon is switched on sometimes for trying new stuff.

2. About your Atari computers & activities

- When and how did you enter into the Atari demo scene ?
- I release 2 intros in start 1988 under the name crew "T.T.Z.P. Inc.". Then I join NeXT in late 1988.

- When did you leave the scene and why ?
- I stop programming the ST in 1995 because my job at Adeline Software was taking too much time.

- In which crew(s) were you active ? What did you do in these crews ?
- In TTZP, I release an intro with a green dragon moving around the screen (this one was used by Axe of Delight for a cracked game), and a Dungeon Master like in left and right overscan that was the entry ticket for the scene. After the release of this intro we've been contacted (MIT and I) by the Overlanders and NeXT. We finaly join NeXT. In NeXT, I participate to Charts 2,3,5 and 6, as well as the "Official Charts Compilation" in 1991 and to the "Phaleon GigaDemo" in 1992. (I've done the intro screen, Dungeon menu, Fast menu, Fullball screen, Illusion STE screen, ...)

- How do you view the decrease of the Atari demo scene in the 90's? Do you think there will be a resurrection of the scene, or will it die out slowly ?
- As I'm still supporting 8 bits computers, I discovered that they were always users/developers on AppleII, Atari 800, Commodore 64, Vectrex (!), Oric :),...
  So I suppose that people will still supporting the ST. Perhaps the only difference will be that "Atari Demos" will appear in the "wild compo" category !
  For me, the die of Atari demo scene starts with the appearance of the Falcon. So many coders were waiting for a blazing fast computers, and when the Falcon finaly arrives... Gasp, snail... Ok, you have a DSP. Ok, you have HiColor... But 68030 is so slow! Memory is so slow ! Blitter is so slow ! Terrible.

- Are you still active on ST ? Why ?
- No. I'm not. I'm using the PC emulator PaCifiST for playing old games, and testing demos...

- What is your best memory about the ST ?
- Cool time while coding, Nice coding parties, Nice people, Nice fucking greets :)

- What did the ST bring you in your life ?
- The ability to code fullscreen intros (meaning cycle synchronized code) for many years teaches you to be efficient while programming ! And the Phaleon Demo was my entry ticket for my actual job (game programer).

- Do you use ST emulators ? If so, which one(s) and why ?
- I use PaCifist. I try to makes all our old code works under it, so people can see theses intros.

3. Your vision of informatic & computers

- What do you think about the situation of Atari computers nowadays ?
- "ST magazine" and "PARX" are still alive. Interesting. Perhaps "Jurassik Park" would be a reality ? (Some dinosaurs at the modern age).

- And what do you think about PC computers ?
- Since I'm obliged to use PC at work, I just have to say that a good PC with Windows 95,Direct X, great video card... Is really something great. The bottom line is that Windows is not very "stable" when you're a developper.

- Have you heard about Atari clones ? If so, what's your opinion about this ?
- Medusa, Hades, Milan... I buy ST mag every six month (or more). I think it's interesting for people still using Calamus or other GEM professional stuff.

- Will you buy a new computer within next years ? Why ?
- I will upgrade my PC. Why ? It's a one year old PC ! (Other PC bottom line)

OK, let's play a little game. I'm going to give you some subjects, you have to say way do you think about them. You can answer by giving a couple of words or a short paragraph.

- ATARI CORP.
- They could have done great job if they were not so stupid/blind/...

- COMMODORE AMIGA
- A good machine, good OS, good chipset.

- CRACKING
- I've got many cracked games. But I've buy some of them I play a lot with (Dungeon Master, Populous, Chaos Strikes Back, ...)

- DEMOS
- The more interesting stuff to see on a ST/C64/Amiga/Oric/Apple2 now.
  The less interesting stuff to see on a PC now.

- DEMO-SCENE
- A mix of interesting people, and f.ck.ng as.h.les

- FALCON 030
- A good concept, a bad realisation.

- INTERNET
- Something really great !

- LAMERS
- See DEMO-SCENE, last part

- JAGUAR
- See FALCON 030

- MICROSOFT
- See LAMERS

- PC
- Powerfull Calculator ?

- THE UNION 8-)
- Union Rules ?

- VIDEO GAMES COMPUTERS
- hum... No Opinion !

- Well, that's the end of this interview. You can add a message below if you want (even a huge one !) :
- If you're interested in demos, just go on the internet. You can find plenty of interesting people (Carebears, Sync, Oxygene, ULM, NeXT (!),...), some ST emulators, FTP sites with demoes, pages with Demo History, etc... If you're a PC owner now, you can listen to all the old soundchip musics with the YM Emulator from Leonardo (Oxygene), etc...
  Ok, that's all for now.
  See ya NeXT time, Mike/Dbug.

Interview de Flix/Delta Force
par The Beast/Typhoon
pour le ToXiC MaG #15 et UCM #11

1. About yourself

- What's your name ?
- Felix Brandt.

- How old are you ?
- 24.

- What (or who) do you look like ?
- See: http://www.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/~brandtf/felixpage.gif

- What's your job ?
- Student (Computer Science and Math).

- Which kind(s) of music do you enjoy ?
- Queen, Jean-Michel Jarre, Whitney Houston, Eros Ramazotti, Survivor, Firehouse, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Lizardking, Jogeir Liljedahl.

- What are you favorites movies ?
- Blues Brothers, Once Upon A Time In The West.

- When did you come into contact with computers for the first time, and what was your first machine ?
- When I was 12 years old I got my first machine, of course an ATARI, an 800 XL to be precise.

- Which computers and/or video games systems have you got at home?
- Atari ST, PC (P133, 32Mb, 5.5 Gb HD, S128 3D 6Mb, AWE 32 8 Mb, 640 Mb MO Drive, 24x CD-ROM), ATARI 2600. I used to have an Amiga 1200 and an Atari Jaguar, but I sold both.

- If you have got computers, what are you doing with them now ?
- Music (MIDI), Surfing, Coding (my Diploma thesis in C), Homepage design, Watching good old ST stuff.

2. About your Atari computers & activities

- When and how did you enter into the Atari demo scene ?
- I think this was about 1987, when I founded the one-member crew THI (The Hijackers). Shortly after that, Offbeat (Big Alec, Flix, Ray, i) was born and we produced a couple of demos, beginning with lame stuff and finally releasing The Musical Wonder 91, which was good enough for Delta Force to decide to merge with Offbeat.

- When did you leave the scene and why ?
- Phew, I don't know. Somehow I am still in the scene (see my webpage :-). The last demo, that we released was "Alfons' Greatest Samples Part IV" in 1993, which is very rare.

- In which crew(s) were you active ? What did you do in these crews ?
- Offbeat (Coding, Graphix, Music)
  Delta Force (Coding)

- How do you view the decrease of the Atari demo scene in the 90's? Do you think there will be a resurrection of the scene, or will it die out slowly ?
- It already died a couple of years ago. Although there was a kind of revival when PaCifiST came up.

- Are you still active on ST ? Why ?
- No, not active. Only watching demos (you gotta see the Cuddly Demos once a day to believe the incredible coding).

- What is your best memory about the ST ?
- Hard to decide, there are several beautiful memories. Well, I will never forget the day I got the Cuddly Demos from Big Alec. The fullscreen really blasted me away. I also have sweet memories of Big Alec's coding cellar, where we produced several demos (and scrolltexts). The Day New Mode asked us to join Delta Force... Meeting Nick of TCB (he's a strange guy)...

- What did the ST bring you in your life ?
- Nothing.

- Do you use ST emulators ? If so, which one(s) and why ?
- PaCifiST (it's fantastic) WinSTon (great, hoping for a new and better version)

3. Your vision of informatic & computers

- What do you think about the situation of Atari computers nowadays ?
- There is no situation to think about. They are dead. I am glad, I still have my machine.

- And what do you think about PC computers ?
- I used to hate them, but now I think they're ok. Although, the ST is a way cooler machine.

- Have you heard about Atari clones ? If so, what's your opinion about this ?
- Not interested.

- Will you buy a new computer within next years ? Why ?
- I wanna buy a new Mainboard, a faster Processor and 64 Mb of SDRAM.

OK, let's play a little game. I'm going to give you some subjects, you have to say way do you think about them. You can answer by giving a couple of words or a short paragraph.

- ATARI CORP.
- Jack Tramiel.

- COMMODORE AMIGA
- Too many lamers.

- CRACKING
- is good for you (The Replicants).

- DEMOS
- were my first love.

- DEMO-SCENE
- is almost dead.

- FALCON 030
- I was so much looking forward to it, but then it sucked so much. Death Penalty for Atari.

- INTERNET
- I spend about 2-3 hours a day in the net.

- LAMERS
- are funny sometimes.

- JAGUAR
- was a cool machine, but lacking games.

- MICROSOFT
- The worst company always has the biggest sales.

- PC
- my current home machine.

- THE UNION 8-)
- rules forever!

- VIDEO GAMES COMPUTERS
- My fave games are: Need For Speed II SE, Grand Theft Auto, Command & Conquer, Red Alert, Jagged Alliance, Deadly Games.

- Well, that's the end of this interview. You can add a message below if you want (even a huge one !) :
- I'd like to include a good old scrolltext here, but I am too lazy. Ok guys, take care and don't forget to visit the "Atari ST Demo History":
  http://www.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/~brandtf/ataridemos.html

Interview de Iki/TSB
par The Beast/Typhoon
pour le ToXiC MaG #15 et UCM #11

1. About yourself

- What's your name ?
- René-Gilles Deberdt. My nickname is Naoki Haga, and as a ST-programmer I was known as IKI.

- How old are you ?
- 23 (03/21/75)

- What (or who) do you look like ?
- Blond hair, not short, not long, glasses...

- What's your job ?
- I used to work as a journalist for a Japanese-animation related magazine. Now I prefer to be living on the sales of my shareware programs, but I still write articles as free-lance.

- Which kind(s) of music do you enjoy ?
- I like most music styles, especially electronica (Jean-Michel Jarre, Kitaro..), instrumental (Mike Oldfield...), rock (Noir Desir, Radiohead...), and everything that comes from Asia (Jacky Cheung from Hong Kong, Luna Sea from Japan, etc.)

- What are you favorites movies ?
- Face/Off
  Bullet in the head
  Twelve Monkeys
  Contact
  Leon (The Professional)

- When did you come into contact with computers for the first time, and what was your first machine ?
- A Thomson TO7/70, in march 1987. I was fascinated by the idea of being able to program a machine extensively. I had even learned Basic before touching my first keyboard...

- Which computers and/or video games systems have you got at home?
- TO7/70
  Atari ST (doesn't work anymore, but I don't want to throw it away...)
  PC (K6-200)

- If you have got computers, what are you doing with them now ?
- Programming, web-surfing, playing with emulators (ST, Super NES...)

2. About your Atari computers & activities

- When and how did you enter into the Atari demo scene ?
- Around 1989. I had bought an ST on christmas '88 and started learning GfA Basic. I created a ST-band with friends in my city (Bugbusters, later renamed Firehawks) and we started to release some GfA screens. Later I left them and joined an incredibly high number of bands (Scanners (the only band I created), Confederation, Future Minds, Zuul, Vortex, Hysteria, and so on.... the last one being The Storm Brothers).

- When did you leave the scene and why ?
- I left the scene in late september '91, when my mother passed away. I wanted to get rid of all my past. That's also when I started to learn Japanese.

- In which crew(s) were you active ? What did you do in these crews ?
- I've been active in all the crews I've been in.
  Some works I'd released :
  - a demo with the Bugbusters (I can't remember its name at all... I'd done most of the screens but all of them were cool, at least for beginners)
  - the Axia Demo, in Scanners. My last GfA demo, though I've still written some GfA screens later, including a big bouncing scroller that filled the whole screen...
    Actually it was easier to do that what my friends believed (it was a simple palette trick.....)
  - many asm screens, for various bands. Can't remember which ones though. Includes : a Spreadpoint-like screen (I liked that one), a full plasma (nice colors), a very nice screen with generated- code sprites and vertical rasters (it was released in the Phaleon Demo, as far as I know), a starfield with distorted scrolltext (it was my pride : it had dozens of musics packed into a 512kb-memory AND a 242kb scrolltext, that was never recognized officially as a record-breaking scrolltext since I never released that screen... but actually I don't care), and a simple X-Y-distorted scrolltext screen. I may have made many other screens but since I haven't kept track of them, I may be wrong - or right.
  - I also released in '91 an anti-virus that was quite popular, Exorcist. The third version was never officially released (because I'd sold my ST before), but it had a nice disassembler, and a boot-anti-virus I was quite proud of. Some people around may still have the original source for this version (8000 lines of pure asm :))...

- How do you view the decrease of the Atari demo scene in the 90's? Do you think there will be a resurrection of the scene, or will it die out slowly ?
- Unfortunately I'm quite pessimistic about the ST future. I would have loved it to keep its nature, but it was mostly killed by the PC. But I bet no one would forget their ST, even fifty years after.

- Are you still active on ST ? Why ?
- Not really. Because my unit is broken down....
  I'm still excited by the ST emulator "PaCifiST", and I wish I'd find some time to write some new screens with it, but I guess it's too late now...

- What is your best memory about the ST ?
- Mad Max's musics.
  And the scene. Especially at the STNICCC, in december 1990, where I had the opportunity to meet Mad Max and TCB, my ST idols. I couldn't dare to speak to them, but it was great though, to see Mad Max playing on his Gameboy :)

- What did the ST bring you in your life ?
- It was there when I was a teenager and when I needed to grow up. It helped me find out that there were people outside my house, and that they could be quite cool.

- Do you use ST emulators ? If so, which one(s) and why ?
- PaCifiST. Because my ST is broken, as I said earlier :)

3. Your vision of informatic & computers

- What do you think about the situation of Atari computers nowadays ?
- *sob*

- And what do you think about PC computers ?
- It's not a "real" machine. It's a gathering (?) of various periphericals without a soul. Every PC is a different machine. It complicates much the programmers' work ! ;)

- Have you heard about Atari clones ? If so, what's your opinion about this ?
- Everybody can dream....

- Will you buy a new computer within next years ? Why ?
- I just bought it two days ago ;) (actually just switched from a P90 to a K6-200...)

OK, let's play a little game. I'm going to give you some subjects, you have to say way do you think about them. You can answer by giving a couple of words or a short paragraph.

- ATARI CORP.
- Jack Tramiel, I miss you !!!

- COMMODORE AMIGA
- Cool machine. Too bad it was so easy to code on it ! At least, the ST was a real challenge...

- CRACKING
- Sucks.

- DEMOS
- They rock ! You can feel love in these creations.....

- DEMO-SCENE
- It was cool. Even if not much people actually liked me, I really liked them, at least.

- FALCON 030
- Previous name for Pentium II.

- INTERNET
- My third hand. My second brain. My memory.

- LAMERS
- They suck hard. But they are so funny :)

- JAGUAR
- A joke, I suppose ;-) (I've never been much into console machines, except for the Japanese RPG games)

- MICROSOFT
- Bill Gates, younger : cool geek. Older : he forgot everything about programming and prefers to kill the market. Poor guy.

- PC
- Too bad it's still supposed to be compatible with an old 8086...

- THE UNION 8-)
- Rules :) And will rule forever !

- VIDEO GAMES COMPUTERS
- Monkey Island, Chrono Quest 2, Captain Blood, some ST games really brought me so much ! And let's think of Final Fantasy as well (on Super NES). Very close to the "spirit" of Japanese culture (sacrifice, ...). You know why I'm a Saint Seiya fan :)

- Well, that's the end of this interview. You can add a message below if you want (even a huge one !) :
- If you remember me or my works, if you still have a copy of my productions, please contact me !! Thanks !!
  naoki@animanga.com

Interview de Lonewolf/NeXT
par The Beast/Typhoon
pour le ToXiC MaG #15 et UCM #11

1. About yourself

- What's your name ?
- Dugast Xavier

- How old are you ?
- 31

- What (or who) do you look like ?
- ?

- What's your job ?
- Engineer

- Which kind(s) of music do you enjoy ?
- Rock, Disco, techno

- What are you favorites movies ?
- Terminator 2, Star War, Demolition Man, Dance with wolves, Leon

- When did you come into contact with computers for the first time, and what was your first machine ?
- Zx81 (in 1982)

- Which computers and/or video games systems have you got at home?
- PC

- If you have got computers, what are you doing with them now ?
- Games and few programming

2. About your Atari computers & activities

- When and how did you enter into the Atari demo scene ?
- 1984

- When did you leave the scene and why ?
- 1993. Because the ST was unable to keep on with amiga. And after because both were outpowered by the PC. Finaly, the ST was giving not much value (or power) for money.

- In which crew(s) were you active ? What did you do in these crews ?
- NEXT. but i'm sorry to say that I was not really active. I was already in professional life and just assist Mit and DbugII.

- How do you view the decrease of the Atari demo scene in the 90's? Do you think there will be a resurrection of the scene, or will it die out slowly ?
- The Atari demo scene is long since dead. I'm too much out of bussiness to have a valuable opinion, but I think the demo stuff is now a bit too complicated. It is very hard for a beginner and that slows down the vocation.

- Are you still active on ST ? Why ?
- No. Because I haven't got the time, even for my PC.

- What is your best memory about the ST ?
- Midi maze : up to 14 players (theorically 16)
  Colonial conquest : great game
  Stunt car racer.
  The Phaleon Demo : Mit and Dbug's master piece. They put my name in the greetings.

- What did the ST bring you in your life ?
- I'm really happy to have discovered at that time the world of demo makers. I really enjoyed myself at that time. We were exchanging tricks, playing great game and I will always remember how excited I was to discover new demo screens.

- Do you use ST emulators ? If so, which one(s) and why ?
- I try pacifist once and just try to launch my favorit games. Of course, I would be very interested to see the Phaleon once more.

3. Your vision of informatic & computers

- What do you think about the situation of Atari computers nowadays ?
- RIP

- And what do you think about PC computers ?
- Microsoft is a bunch of SOB, Windows 95 is a piece of junk but there is nothing else. I mean, no computer is more powerfull than PC for the same price.

- Have you heard about Atari clones ? If so, what's your opinion about this ?
- Yes. I used ST for programming and games. From what I heard, the compatibility is not that good with games. I prefer to use Pacifist for the price.

- Will you buy a new computer within next years ? Why ?
- I will probably buy a pentium II next year or more. I just want to keep a middle range machine, and PC change very fast. The strong point is now 3D card and sound enhancement. I think the 3D market need a little time to settle down.

OK, let's play a little game. I'm going to give you some subjects, you have to say way do you think about them. You can answer by giving a couple of words or a short paragraph.

- ATARI CORP.
- loosers

- COMMODORE AMIGA
- Great machine but horrible file system. Red Sector Mega Demo is still one of my favourites.

- CRACKING
- I try once

- DEMOS
- GREAT. I always like to see such pieces of creativity. At that time, I discover incredible graphism, music and programming skill. I'm still very impress by the talent of the Atari and amiga demo makers. Remenber "Master of magic" theme, Axel Foley and so on.

- DEMO-SCENE
- The Replicants and The Carebears. And of course TEX (The Exceptions)

- FALCON 030
- Not enough compatibility

- INTERNET
- Yeah

- LAMERS
- I am one, but a silent one.

- JAGUAR
- too bad

- MICROSOFT
- too bad (but not for the same reason)
  It's really one of the worst software maker and they always pissed me off with all their license agreement and so on.

- PC
- perhap it will improve ?

- THE UNION 8-)
- hooop I forgot

- VIDEO GAMES COMPUTERS
- /

- Well, that's the end of this interview. You can add a message below if you want (even a huge one !) :
- /

Interview de Ray/Delta Force
par The Beast/Typhoon
pour le ToXiC MaG #15 et UCM #11

1. About yourself

- What's your name ?
- Rainer Froemming, aka Ray/Delta Force

- How old are you ?
- 25

- What (or who) do you look like ?
- Hmm, well about 178cm in height ca. 75 in weight, blond hair and that's it. If you visit my very old and outdated homepage, you can view a picture of me.

- What's your job ?
- Hehe, of course I am studying Computer Science at the Technical University in Munich. I will be finished in early 1998.

- Which kind(s) of music do you enjoy ?
- Nearly everything, except Boygroups, Girlgroups, Mariah Carey and other stuff I consider as commercial bullshit.

- What are you favorites movies ?
- Clockwork Orange, Pulp Fiction, The Killer (John Woo), all Ennio Moricone Films and more.

- When did you come into contact with computers for the first time, and what was your first machine ?
- My first contact was in the Computer-Lab in our school. My first machine was a Commodore 64. I bought it a long time ago, I think it was in 1983 or 1984.

- Which computers and/or video games systems have you got at home?
- After the C64 I bought an Atari 1040 Stf. Later I bought an Amiga 1200 and now I am working with a Intel based PC (of course).
  I sold both Commodore Computers some years ago.
  I do not posess any Video-Game-Systems, because I consider them as boring. Only exception is an Atari VCS, which I bought for about 6 Dollars including 3 Games a long time ago (beacuse of its "Cult-Status").

- If you have got computers, what are you doing with them now ?
- I still turn on the ST for watching some classic Demos, as the UNION-Demo, or Cuddly-Demo, but not very often. Most of the time, I am working with my PC, where I code for the University or play Quakeworld in the Internet :).

2. About your Atari computers & activities

- When and how did you enter into the Atari demo scene ?
- It started when I bought GFA-Basic and tried to do some funny things with it. There was always some kind of competition with my friend Flix (owned an ST as well), about who could code better and so on. Once I decided to blow his GFA-Stuff away and began to code some Assembler Screens, motivated by the first TEX-Screens I downloaded with my 300 Baud modem from a BBS. Of course it didn't take long and he discovered the 68000-Language as well. One glorious day, we sat down together and joined our forces to call ourselves "OFFBEAT". From now on, we seriously started coding some bigger projects. Two other people joined; Big Alec (Music) and "i" (Coding & Gfx). Our first One-Disk-Demo was the "What Time is it"-Demo, which was a Party-Demo that featured some very ugly Screens :). Beside some other productions, we released the "Musical-Wonder 1990" and the "Musical-Wonder 1991", which were the best Demos we did for "Offbeat" so far. Shortly after the 1990-Edition was released, New Mode of the Delta Force contacted us, to organize a little meeting with him. He and Slime (also a DF-Member), drove down from Stuttgart to Munich and met with us at Flix's Home. After we showed him some previews of the MW 1991, he asked us if we would like to join the Delta Force. I and Flix didn't hesitate and joined instantly.
  That's the story.

- When did you leave the scene and why ?
- Hmm, I don't think I or most of the other people left the Scene. The whole Scene simply died some time ago, because the ST had gotten too old and crappy :).

- In which crew(s) were you active ? What did you do in these crews ?
- Crews: Offbeat, Delta Force. Activity: Coding and Graphics.

- How do you view the decrease of the Atari demo scene in the 90's? Do you think there will be a resurrection of the scene, or will it die out slowly ?
- I am sorry, but I don't know anyone who thinks there will be ever a "resurrection" of the ST-Scene. What do you mean by "it will die out slowly" ? Isn't it dead ? Did I miss something ? :)

- Are you still active on ST ? Why ?
- No, not at all.

- What is your best memory about the ST ?
- Hmm, very difficult. There is so much, I can't tell everything here. I'll try these : the ICC2 Convention in Stuttgart was very cool, as well as out visit at Spaz of the Lost-Boys near London.

- What did the ST bring you in your life ?
- Intelligence, Money, Coolness. In fact, it was part of my youth, so I will never forget these "golden years". Nowadays, some of the stuff I learned from assembler-coding are still very useful for me.

- Do you use ST emulators ? If so, which one(s) and why ?
- Oh yes. I tried Pacifist some times and converted a lot of Demos. I used it, because it was (and still is, I think) the only emulator that runs many demos and games nearly perfect.

3. Your vision of informatic & computers

- What do you think about the situation of Atari computers nowadays ?
- What situation ? Atari is dead and nobody cares about them anymore.

- And what do you think about PC computers ?
- They have no "spirit", as the C64, ST and Amiga had. Sad but true.

- Have you heard about Atari clones ? If so, what's your opinion about this ?
- I can't remember about such things, sorry.

- Will you buy a new computer within next years ? Why ?
- Sure, when the new Windows-Version will slow my computer down again.

OK, let's play a little game. I'm going to give you some subjects, you have to say way do you think about them. You can answer by giving a couple of words or a short paragraph.

- ATARI CORP.
- Jack; TOS; power without the price and support; ruined themselves.

- COMMODORE AMIGA
- games; demos; games; great music.

- CRACKING
- illegal; will never die;.

- DEMOS
- TCB rules; fun to watch, but waste of time.

- DEMO-SCENE
- dead?

- FALCON 030
- nice, but came to late.

- INTERNET
- will change our lives.

- LAMERS
- are everywhere.

- JAGUAR
- luckily I never bought one.

- MICROSOFT
- too mighty.

- PC
- there's no alternative.

- THE UNION 8-)
- is dead; will never rise again.

- VIDEO GAMES COMPUTERS
- boring.

- Well, that's the end of this interview. You can add a message below if you want (even a huge one !) :
- If you want to contact me for any reason, try one of these:
  - Email: froemmin@informatik.tu-muenchen.de
  - Homepage: www.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/~froemmin/index.html
  - ICQ UIN: 2665326
  - Quakeworld:
    - Master-Server: Minos UK,
    - Server: medusa.swt.tuwien.ac.at
    - Name: UrbanDiscipline

  Thank you for these golden Years and may the ST-Spirit never die... :)

  Ray/Delta Force/UNION.

Interview de Red Fox/Sync
par The Beast/Typhoon
pour le ToXiC MaG #15 et UCM #11

1. About yourself

- What's your name ?
- Rickard Troedsson (Though everyone calls me Troed)

- How old are you ?
- 23

- What (or who) do you look like ?
- An escaped prisoner :)

- What's your job ?
- Studying Software Engineering and working in a company I own together with my fiancée.

- Which kind(s) of music do you enjoy ?
- Almost everything from Depeche Mode to Megadeth. Current favourite is Rammstein :)

- What are you favorites movies ?
- Natural Born Killers
  The Ususal Suspects
  Seven

- When did you come into contact with computers for the first time, and what was your first machine ?
- 1985 or maybe -86. I was planning to buy a C-64 when the dealer told me about this "incredible new machine with 512 colours and 512+384Kb memory". A 520ST :). I had no games or programs except ST-Basic for the first few months, and that's how I got into programming.

- Which computers and/or video games systems have you got at home?
- P200/64Mb RAM/4.2Gb SCSI-II Wide/17" ADI/12X CD-Rom/ET6000
  Sony Playstation

- If you have got computers, what are you doing with them now ?
- Answering you questions and programming everything from JavaScript to C++/Java :)

2. About your Atari computers & activities

- When and how did you enter into the Atari demo scene ?
- A dealer put me in contact with Thomas Abrahamsson (BlueSTar), before that I only knew one Atari-owner, and he used it primarily for music. Nevertheless, we started up a group called "PWC" (ProWare Crew) and released a demo! (StarDemo) .. Written in GFA-Basic and a few small asm-routines, it wasn't -that- revolutionary. We formatted the disk to 83 tracks 11 sectors to fit everything in, and I don't think anyone ever copied it .. ;)

- When did you leave the scene and why ?
- I bought myself a PC. I had a Falcon, but no programs did ever appear, and to stay in touch with the rest of the world I had to do something. Since then I haven't done any demo-programming at all, except for some recent Java-applets. The PC wasn't as fun as the Ataris.

- In which crew(s) were you active ? What did you do in these crews ?
- RTS - only existed by it's name.
  PWC - see above. I programmed and did awful graphics for my own screens :)
  SMILE - joint venture by PWC and AAC (AntiAmiga Crew), existed for about a week. I programmed my first fullscreen at that time, and it was one of the first.
  SYNC - most members of SMILE were taken up by Sync (the rest followed after a while), but things got more chaotic now. It's hard to be a good programmer when RedHead could do -anything- better than yourself! :) At least I tried.
  I.C.S - I did a few intros and cracked a few games.
  Elite - see I.C.S :)

- How do you view the decrease of the Atari demo scene in the 90's? Do you think there will be a resurrection of the scene, or will it die out slowly ?
- Hasn't it been dead for a long time?

- Are you still active on ST ? Why ?
- I sold my last Atari, a 520ST, 2 weeks ago.

- What is your best memory about the ST ?
- The copy-parties (ok ok, conventions). Everything was just extremely crazy :)

- What did the ST bring you in your life ?
- Programming. The ST got me started, and now I've got job-offerings all over the place :)

- Do you use ST emulators ? If so, which one(s) and why ?
- PaCifiST - plain nostalgia.

3. Your vision of informatic & computers

- What do you think about the situation of Atari computers nowadays ?
- Do they exist?

- And what do you think about PC computers ?
- People should stop trying to make incompatible systems, since the PC structure can handle everything that's needed (supercomputers excepted :). I wouldn't touch a system today that can't run Microsoft programs, since such a system would have no future. NC excepted.

- Have you heard about Atari clones ? If so, what's your opinion about this ?
- Nope. I do hope no one is trying to actually sell such things.

- Will you buy a new computer within next years ? Why ?
- A Pentium II 450? My P200 is just too slow .. :) (Hey, it's over a year old with nothing upgraded :)

OK, let's play a little game. I'm going to give you some subjects, you have to say way do you think about them. You can answer by giving a couple of words or a short paragraph.

- ATARI CORP.
- They tried, and they propably had some fun.

- COMMODORE AMIGA
- It was the better system, but lacked the fun stuff (hack the hardware to do overscan, etc.)

- CRACKING
- A challenge. Too long a subject to discuss here, but a well known company making games for the PC said (and this is almost a quote :) "We don't care about piracy on the PC, it's hardly noticeable". Cracking did not kill the Atari. The lack of development and PC-compatability did.

- DEMOS
- I liked a good demo better than a good game. No one can understand that today :)

- DEMO-SCENE
- Cool guys. We're making money today :)

- FALCON 030
- A complete failure. I cannot understand why I ever bought one.

- INTERNET
- I've got a T1 connection - I like it! :)

- LAMERS
- Today we call them "customers", and we do what they want.

- JAGUAR
- Tempest 2000 *RULES*. I'm trying to get TempestX3 for my PlayStation :)

- MICROSOFT
- Great products - people who complain are most of the time just jealous. I don't like what MS is trying to do with Java though.

- PC
- The only computer worth mentioning today, and soon to be the only system.

- THE UNION 8-)
- Did nothing I couldn't do ... a few years later :)

- VIDEO GAMES COMPUTERS
- Quake is the best game ever, it's on the PC :)

- Well, that's the end of this interview. You can add a message below if you want (even a huge one !) :
- Greetz to all c00l dudes that I know or knew me :)

  NoMercy Productions / +46-(0)705-560137 / www.nomercy.com

Interview de Richard Karsmakers
par The Beast/Typhoon
pour le ToXiC MaG #15 et UCM #11

1. About yourself

- What's your name ?
- Richard Karsmakers

- How old are you ?
- 30

- What (or who) do you look like ?
- Glasses, balding, kindof tall. About ten years ago I had a physical and it said I was of "athletic" build.

- What's your job ?
- I am an office automation teacher; I teach people the joys of working with Windoze 95, Word, Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Lotus Notes, the Internet and, possibly in the future, Visual Basic and VBA.

- Which kind(s) of music do you enjoy ?
- Hardrock, heavy metal, synthesizer, black metal, Bjork.

- What are you favorites movies ?
- Anything that has Aliens in it, or Schwarzenegger, or made by Spielberg, Cameron, (Mc?)Tiernan or Disney (as long as it's about animals, not humans like "Hercules").

- When did you come into contact with computers for the first time, and what was your first machine ?
- Summer 1984, a Commodore 64.

- Which computers and/or video games systems have you got at home?
- I've got a Cambridge Computer Z88 somewhere in a cupboard, and a Commodore 128D, and a PC (running GEMulator for ST stuff).

- If you have got computers, what are you doing with them now ?
- I never use the Z88 anymore, and I only used the 128D to listen to the old Rob Hubbard and Martin Galway tunes. Now they've appeared on the ST using SIDplay so I rarely use it these days. I use the PC for programming (under GEMulator I still update my "Ultimate Virus Killer 2000", now 10 years underway!) and serious stuff involving "Word" and "Access".

2. About your Atari computers & activities

- When and how did you enter into the Atari demo scene ?
- In 1987 somewhere, I had a contact called Markus Herfort (a.k.a. The Bitstopper, BST). He got me in touch with TEX, and from there on I started writing scroll texts. I never programmed anything, I just came up with some ideas and wrote scroll texts.

- When did you leave the scene and why ?
- In 1991 or 1992, when I no longer had the energy and the time to collect games and when I was getting really out of touch with the people.

- In which crew(s) were you active ? What did you do in these crews ?
- Em...mid 1986 I was member of the Desaster Area for a while, after that Flash Cracking Group (originally a Commodore 64 outfit). Later I joined the Dutch Muggers Association for a while, that was early 1988. But throughout that time I have always been Cronos of the Amazing Cracking Conspiracy. I haven't done any cracking for about 10 years now. In 1991 I joined the Quartermass Xperiment, a virtual Dutch crew consisting of Jurie "Relayer" Horneman (now working at Blue Byte), Eloy "Apache", Laurens "The Mind" van der Klis and Alex "The Nutty Snake" Crouzen. We haven't seen each other in years, which is probably why we're virtual.

- How do you view the decrease of the Atari demo scene in the 90's? Do you think there will be a resurrection of the scene, or will it die out slowly ?
- I think the Internet will keep it active to some extent, but it won't live forever. But there's still hope...the Commodore 64 scene is still alive 11 years after the machine died...

- Are you still active on ST ? Why ?
- Not much, I only still do "Ultimate Virus Killer", and I am currently setting up an "ST NEWS Lamentation Page" on the Web with the aid of Richard "Felice of Maggie Team" Spowart and Gard "Nutty Norwegian" Abrahamsen.

- What is your best memory about the ST ?
- The ST News International Christmas Coding Convention, where the whole ST scene attended with the exception of Udo "-ME- of TEX" Fischer and Fabian "Oxygene of TLB" Hammer.

- What did the ST bring you in your life ?
- Joy, happiness, a lot of contacts and friends, a job at Thalion, and my best friend Stefan "Digital Insanity of TLB" Posthuma, with whom I also did ST News for quite a few years.

- Do you use ST emulators ? If so, which one(s) and why ?
- Yes, GEMulator. PacifiST is OK but I use it a lot for typing and the keyboard driver sucks so I never really use it.

3. Your vision of informatic & computers

- What do you think about the situation of Atari computers nowadays ?
- They're only kept alive by a very small and very enthusiastic scene. I think that's really cool. I don't like the company Atari, though. They never supported the scene and all those rumours about the MicroBox several years ago were all fake.

- And what do you think about PC computers ?
- They suck dino cock. Programs on it are written clumsily and are way too big. But if your computer is fast enough (P166 or more) and you have 2 Gb or more hard disk, you can do really cool things. I really dig some PC games, like "Carmageddon" and "Duke 3D".

- Have you heard about Atari clones ? If so, what's your opinion about this ?
- They're usually too expensive, and I don't understand why companies bother.

- Will you buy a new computer within next years ? Why ?
- I should, because I only have a P60 and can't even run "Carmageddon" decently. But I'm extending it from 16 to 32 Mb internal and maybe a processor speeder or something.

OK, let's play a little game. I'm going to give you some subjects, you have to say way do you think about them. You can answer by giving a couple of words or a short paragraph.

- ATARI CORP.
- Great computers, but they managed to fuck up every single thing they did, including Lynx and Jaguar and Falcon.

- COMMODORE AMIGA
- Great for playing games. Everybody went nuts about the soundchip, but I personally still think the C-64's SID chip was the best ever.

- CRACKING
- Well, I used to do it, too, but you shouldn't forget to *buy* really good games just because you want *more* games like that. Cracking killed off the ST, partly, but on the PC there are so many suckers who buy bad games that the cracking scene will not cause any companies to go bankrupt soon.

- DEMOS
- The heart of every computer scene. The ST scene was, to me, interesting primarily because TEX and TLB and TCB were there.

- DEMO-SCENE
- See above.

- FALCON 030
- Cool. Should have had a faster processor. Should have been supported better by Atari.

- INTERNET
- A good way to stay in touch with people, and do things cheaply (like publishing a magazine), and get all kinds of stuff (programs, MODs, JPEGs, etc.).

- LAMERS
- They're as old as computers. Just think about it: If there weren't any lamers, the True Scene People would not seem to damn brilliant.

- JAGUAR
- A big damn shame. Best games thing ever for a few years until Nintendo 64 and Playstation came around. Should have done a *lot* better than it did.

- MICROSOFT
- As I've heard, this applies to Bill Gates' dick. Anyway, I don't like their marketing strategies, the way they try to knock Netscape off the market, and the way they try to fragmentize Java standards.

- PC
- A necessary evil, held down by ancient architecture, allowing bad programmers to make halfway decent programs because those new ones are so damn fast. If you see what TEX and the like could do with 8 Mhz, just imagine what could be done in machine code on a P166 or faster. But it doesn't happen because people write in C or some other high level language.

- THE UNION 8-)
- Gods!

- VIDEO GAMES COMPUTERS
- Pretty OK. I still have a Lynx.

- Well, that's the end of this interview. You can add a message below if you want (even a huge one !) :
- Um...if people want to get their hands on "Ultimate Virus Killer 2000", the definitive virus killer for the ST, they should contact me. Also, if they want to be told first when the ST NEWS Lamentation pages are up on the Web, they should contact me. I can be reached at karies@wxs.nl.

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