Questions...
Hi heaven. =)
Hi slaves! :)
Dracon voted to have interview with you. Would you mind answering the
questions stated below by writing them in place signed by "Heaven:". Could
you send me file with your answers ? of course... :) Slaves: Could you
introduce yourself ? Heaven: Well, I am at the moment in "real" life (till
mid 1998) student of the "fachhochschule pforzheim" and study business-
administration/marketing, 10th semester. My name is Karolj Nadj and I am
26 years old, so one of the oldest in the crew... ;) --- Slaves: What's
your system configuration? Heaven: Depends on which system do you mean...
;) ok... let me start: 8-bit-systems: -Commodore VIC-20 with 32kb (but
lost somewhere... ) -Atari 800xl-64k (3x) -Atari 130xe-128k -Atari 800xe-1mb
(broken... :( ) -Atari 1050 (1x with turbo, 1x plain-1050) -Atari datasette
1010 (eh... does anyone use this crap??? ;) ) -Atari 7800-Videogame-system
-Atari 2600 (lost...same as vic-20) 16/32-bit-systems: -Atari 1040 ste-4mb,270mb
harddisk -Atari Jaguar-videgame-system -Amiga 1200-12mb,blizzard 1230-030
42mhz turbo-card, 1gb-harddisk,90mb intern harddisk, 2x cd-rom-drives -Epson
stylus 800-ink-printer -Super Nintendo-videogame-system -Sony playstation-videogamesystem
--- Slaves: What's your hobby besides computer stuff? Heaven: hmmm... coding,
coding, tv, videogames, music (mostly metal (metallica (ride the lightning),
all bands between 1980s till now...) --- Slaves: I've heard TAQUART is
not your first group... There was probably another one like "OVERLORDS"...
Can you say about it and your beginning in the Atari scene? Heaven: THERE
WAS NO CREW CALLED OVERLORDS!!! When I started to code (1987) demos I always
wanted to be in a crew but I have no selfconfidence to join one (actually,
where are the german crews?). So I built up my own "reality"... nothing
special... but... I was stupid to build up an illusion that there are more
people envolved in that project that really were... The only person involved
in OVERLORDS was Karolj Nadj aka Heaven... :( It was paranoid and stupid
to do such a thing and very lame...and a big lie...sorry for that but if
you getting older then you realize how stupid you were in the past... ---
Slaves: What about the "Decade demo" ? Did you want to code the best XE
DEMO from over 10 years ( according to its name ) ??? Heaven: Hej, from
which source do you know that I wanted to code a "decade"-demo? ;) ok,
let me explain from where I have the idea to call my demo "decade"- demo...on
that time my only demo-influence was my atari st which brilliant crews
like tex,tcb,ulm,inner circle,the lost boys,... And the crew inner circle
released a great st demo called "decade-demo" (if my memories are not cheating
me...) with one of the best chip- sound ever... (by Count 0. take a look
into Aminet for yamaha-chip-sound emulator!!!) so as i like the demo very
much i wanted to call my next and 1st megademo decade... thats all ;) ---
Slaves: What about other members of your former group OVERLORDS? Why have
you left them? Heaven: See above... there was no other member than me...
so all members are with me ;) --- Slaves: As for as I know, you have also
coded something on Atari ST. What wasit? Heaven: oh god... where have you
all that informations??? yes, i have started to code on st in 1991 (or
was it 1990?) just to learn 68000-assembler and i found that motorolla
has designed a nice chip-set...but i have nothing done really...ok...i
discovered my 1st disk-mag on st, the one and only "disk maggie" released
by The lost boys (tlb)...(now i have issue #23 but not released under tlb-flag
for a long time...) on that mag there was always a coding-corner included
with some sources... so i bought an assembler (devpac) and checked the
sources...but i dont like st or even ste very much because of the missing
of "real" custom-chips...on 8-bit the best chip is the antic with his display-list
and if you like it and start to code on one computer without then you are
missing something very usefull...back to that overlords-intro which just
worked on ste not on plain st... so... i ripped some fonts of an intro
on disk maggie, get a picture drew by ES (erik simon, grafician of tex
and thalion software (dragonflight,amberstar,ambermoon and other games),
get a ste-tracker-replay-routine from somewhere and coded (yes... there
is some code by me in that intro... about 5 - 10% is self coded) a lame
ste-vertical-text-scroller at the bottom of the screen...and some not stable
rasterinterrupts... but i used ste-features like seperate screens and hardware-scrolling...
after coded that intro it was lying on my harddisk but when i got my modem
i have uploaded it to a bbs...the funny story about that intro (veeeery
lllaaaaaammme) is that after years i have bought an atari st-demo-cd-rom
and found the intro on it!!! :) that was my only attempt in coding 16-bit...(ok...
on amiga 500 i tried the copper-list out and found out that its similar
to the display-list...). i had continued coding on ste but the ste has
too many bugs... f.e. the hardware-scrolling... if you dont set the hardwarescroll-register
in a special time in the vbi then the whole scroller is flickering like
on xl if you dont do it right... --- Slaves: Is being a coder in a group
as fun as watching made demos by that group?? Heaven: did taquart made
a lot demos??? ;) when we get in touch i have nothing saw from taquart...the
only productions which i know are "back2life","taquart"- intro,"intro1+2","energy#1","invitro","recycle"
but back to your question...its of course more fun to be in a crew and
watch their demos... boy, i was upset when i have send "really unreal"
to you before rush hours-party and i couldnt wait for the result... and
being in a crew is even more fun because you have more guys to share experiences
with and you can get your own music, grafix and ... design questions...
do you know our email-war concerning the design of unreal? --- Slaves:
Atari seems to be a firm without luck. At least releasing JAGUAR and FALCON
wasn't a very big commercial success. There are few publishers writing
e.g. games for these platforms nowadays. What's your opinion ? Heaven:
i was always an atari-fanatic but atari was stupid and has no idea/money
how to make successfull marketing for their great products... but unfortunatly
i dont use any atari hardware for serious stuff... on 8-bit i am coding
demos... 16-bit is just for transfering files between amiga and xl via
stxformer...64-bit jaguar does nothing... maybe i can buy (if i am there)
a cheap jag-atari st-server... maybe then i will try to code demos on jaguar...
i have all dokuments of jaguar found on the net... and the chips build
in are great... --- Slaves: A special questio must be asked now. Why 8-bit
nowadays? Isn't it a time to code on bigger machines ? Especially on PC...
Heaven: no... why are people driving old cars??? why are coders NOW code
demos on vic-20? its just fun to show some kind of great code on a machine
build 1979... --- Slaves: How long are you going to write stuff for Atari
8-bit? Heaven: i dont know really... but as far as i can do it and have
the time for that...its a hobby... ok... till 2050...or further... ---
Slaves: What's your attitude to some effects from 32-bits like tunnels,
phong shading, goraud, bump mapping...? Aren't you fed up with them? Is
all these ones possible to code on XL/XE? Heaven: 32-bits fx are really
cool... but why? because you have no idea how the fx are made... but if
you search the net and get infos how the fx work then you may realize that
mostly all fx are possible on atari xl... but mostly in mode9+ because
easly handling of pixels and most shades avaible... slaves, you know this,
too... tunnels,phong,gouraud,bump-mapping... all is possible on xl of course...
if you do it clever... hey every computer (even 32-bits) are the same...0101010111010101
bits are bits... on 8bit or 32-bit... what i think what would be difficult
to code on xl is calculation demos for real heavy 3d-stuff (komplex vector-objects
with texture-mapping, envmapped and bumped...) on amiga i am fed up with
this all tunnels and thori... i have a demo which starts "this demo contains
no thorus!!!"... hahahahaha.... this was really funny... there is a danger...
that all coders are adapting 32-bit fx and forget the xl-features...we
must combine all possibility of the xl... not just adapting 32-bit fx...
--- Slaves: What do you think about converting data (ripping) and using
them in Atari demos? BY "data". I mean gfx, msx and even some code. This
is favourite HARD's technique... ;-) Heaven: tamas bene of hard is really
cool guy and very polite... he is a brilliant coder and does mostly coding
on its own... but look... if you have no grafix-man... where to get cool
grafix for demos? or if you have no musician? so... for me its no problem
stealing/ripping grafix... better a copy of grafix/musix then no demo at
all... if hard werent using this "technique" (in buisness administraion
we call this "reverse engineering" ;)) we would not have demos like "veronika"
and "joyride"... maybe their next demo will be more "unique" (as far as
i know...it will...) but in unreal i have used the amiga-picture called
"outspace.gif" and cut the face out for using as texture... so this is
a copy, too...dont you think so? in my opinion everybody could use every
source he can found... if an artist makes pictures by mixing stuff from
others together then he created something new... even if its build up by
older stuff... thats art... (or prodigy uses some sampels from other guys...)
this is the same as in demo-coding...but the best crews are doing all together
and creating 90%-99% all on their own... for ripping code... well, if i
use the multab-trick mentioned in one C= hacking issue, do i steal code?
why developing always the wheel twice? --- Slaves: What do you like about
small Atari scene (8bit) and what do you think about it? Heaven: here in
germany (and rest of wester countries (usa)) there is no scene at all...
i have the feelings that i am the only coder here... noone codes anything
more...and i am always trying to get some people coding some stuff... even
if its crap and lame... but we all started at the same level...the scene
in poland and other easter countries is unknown for me because i can not
read the diskmags...they are all in non-english languages which i dont
understand...but i found that all guys i met on irc and via email are friendly
and great! its good that there are some guys out there who dont give up
and share the same feelings... --- Slaves: What's the future of demos?
Do you think simulating an environment (nature) processes like water etc.
is the right choice instead of Phongs and so on? Heaven: well, its an evolutionary
process... you can not use always the same fx... its boring... but what
you can do is to put a demo together by using puzzle-elements (scrollers,bump,tunnel,3d-stuff,...)
and create something new... but as the pcs getting more and more cpu-power...
coders try to simulate reality...but a demo should always be like a video-clip...
fun to watch... btw. phong is a natural process, too... simulating and
approximation of real light... --- Slaves: According to you what's the
most important in demos ( which demos are better - those with morse design
than real code or vice versa ) ? Heaven: a good demo consists of a) good
design b) average coding c) great music d) through the whole demo there
is a "red" line, a guide-line... e) great grafix... these all parts should
be in an optimum mix...as i mentioned before... like a videoclip...so it
doesnt matter if the code is lame... but if the demo is fun to watch then
its ok... on st-demos there was a time when all coders started to make
demos like "i can display 2 more 32x32x16 sprites in a vbi then coder xxxx"...but
for non-coders its not fun watching the 1024-dots world-record...so the
amiga-scene turned into styled demos... and nowadays artwork and design
is the most important thing... --- Slaves: Do you know any good joke? Could
you tell us it ? Heaven: i am not really good in jokes... --- Slaves: How
do you comment your ABBUC-Intros ? Heaven: lame... but i am proud of them
all... they are my children...most demos were coded without possibility
of transfering grafic-files from amiga... it was a great step forward when
i managed to connect my 1050 to st and transfer files to xl... so if you
compare the intros with carpe-demo (which is my decade-demo... but i decided
to rename the demo to carpe..."carpe diem"--> "carpe demo") you realize
that carpe is more professional... but i run out of time, so th design
is getting worther later in the demo... most abbuctros are coded fast and
the fx are mostly older ones... but for abbuc they are ok... ;))) Thanx
for your time.
This interview was done via email in 1996... some facts are now updated
because we have now 1998... the whole interview was published in our diskmag
called "energy #2" but was unfortunatly translated into polish... so i
decided to throw this english version on the net...
Last changes: 08 Jul 1998
Feel free to contact me for any legal reason!
HeAvEn, Member of TaquarT