Interview with Stefan Fuhrman
by Steve 3003/SILICON DESIGNS


ST: Hello Stephan!
    Are you member of a Scene-Group? If yes, please tell us your
    Handle/Group ?

SF: No, I am not.

ST: When did you get into computing ?

SF: I don't know exactly. My brother bought a C-64 several years ago and I was
    really amazed by this grafix and this sound ;-), so I bought one for
    me, too.

ST: How did you learn Assembler ?

SF: I _REALLY_ wanted to learn assembler, so I buyed a ASM book from Data
Becker.  This didn't help me much - the only thing I could extract from
this book were all MC68000 mnemonics, but the authors didn't like the OS
too much. I had to experiment very much to learn the whole stuff and to
find out about the things that were not described in this book. I can tell
you, it took a long time to learn the cool style I'm coding today.

ST: Are you speaking other languages beside Assembler ?

SF: Yep.  I'm currently learning 'C' and I think that I am soon as good in 'C'
    as in ASM.  I speak a little Turbo-Pascal I learned in school, but I hate
    it - it's a PC-language and it's concept is really bad:  you can't do what
    you want, it has got very narrow limits.  I speak BASIC, but I didn't use
    it for a long time.

ST: What Hardware are you using ?

SF: I developed PowerPlayer on my A500, 0.5 MB Chip/0.5 MB Ranger/2.0 MB Fast
    Mem, OS 1.3 (with OS 2.0 zkicked), MultiSync 3D, Quantum 105 LPS.

    After a long delay I finally received my A4000 (hey, CBM, thanx for this 2
    months delay, I really enjoyed hacking on my lame A500 all the time). I
    had to save my money for 2 years until I could afford an advanced AMIGA.

ST: When did you start coding the PowerPlayer ?

SF: I started it in 1991 when I couldn't see NoisePlayer anymore. The first
    versions were only clones of NoisePlayer, but I rewrote PowerPlayer to
    become better and more flexible.

ST: Do you have any hobbies, except Computer ?

SF: Really serious hobbies? No.

ST: Please tell us your favourite Game, Demo, Movie, Drink,
    Musican, Gfx-dude, Coder, Magazine and Tool.

SF:
    GAME:		Power Monger
    DEMO:		Wicked Sensation/TRSI
    MOVIE:		Terminator 2
    DRINK:		Coffee
    MUSICIAN:		Romeo Knight / TRSI - THE NUMBER ONE !
    GFX-DUDE:		UNO
    CODER:		DELTA
    MAGAZINE:		DISK: ZINE
			PAPER: *NONE* (not professional enough)
    TOOL:		PowerPlayer (no joke, I'm using it every day)
			DevPac (aargh! it doesn't work on my A4000)

ST: The PowerPlayer is now Shareware, have the users payed well ??
    Or do you think that it's better to do the PowerPlayer as a
    commercial Programm, because of the fact that you can't earn
    much money with the Shareware stuff ?

SF: I didn't ask for money upto version 3.8, so the users didn't send too much.

    Well, I did not yet finish version 3.9, but it will be Shareware.  I hope
    that the users will be clever enough to keep PowerPlayer alive -  otherwise I
    won't continue developing PowerPlayer and I will have more time to develop
    commercial products.

    I don't want to earn money, I just want the users to pay my expenses for
    developing software like PowerPlayer - this is fair, isn't it?

ST: Have you any Plans for the future ?

SF: I am working on a really fantastic sample editor in 'C'. It will be
commercial and I have planned to port it to other systems (PC, etc.).

    It will be some kind of AdPro for Samples.

ST: Are there any funtions left, which will be included in a
    forthcoming update of the Powerplayer ?

SF: I think that I've removed all Enforcer-Hits of previous versions in v3.9,
    but I'm currently in the ß-testing phase. If there are no more errors left,
    I'll be satisfied with PowerPlayer.

    If nobody will pay the shareware fee and tell me
    any new features he/she wants me to add to PowerPlayer I'll leave it as
    it is. If the users support me I will include nice optional OS 3.0
    features, a better looking GUI, and maybe a nice spectrum-analyzer. I have
    thought about a big full-screen HAM-effect that changes with the music.

    The users of PowerPlayer should think about buying an AA-Amiga, too, I'll
    support it if they ask for it. Some of the effects mentioned above can't be
    realized without a PMMU. Don't panic: all this stuff will be optional.

ST: Ever had Problems with the cops ??

SF: No, I'm not a bad boy :-), and PowerPlayer is not so bad that they would
    arrest me for coding it and throw the key away :-).

ST: Is there anything left to say?

SF: Hmmm... yes, people, pay the shareware fee & send good modules to me
    (I am always powerplaying modules while coding, so you can support me
    by sending modules (especially those by Romeo Knight 8-)).

ST: Thx for this, we wish you much luck in the Future, and keep
    up the good work!…