Starring: Celebrandil/Northstar~Phenomena

Browallia: 
Hi Celebrandil, tell me about your scene-
history.. start-time, end-time, duration,
groups, people, the golden years!

Celebrandil: 
My history in the Scene started in 1987,
when I met a bunch of people from a group 
called Defiers at a local party in Furulund 
in southern Sweden. I had together with 
Boerni, a friend of mine, been working on a
game on the C64 for quite some time, but
from then on demos became more interesting.
Mahoney and Kaktus were in fact members of
the same group. Mahoney, then aged 13, was
bold enough to announce that he was 
probably the best programmer in the world 
on the C64. I didn't believe that, but I 
soon understood that he might have been 
right.

At that time North Star was probably the 
hottest demo-group on the Amiga after two 
full-disk mega-demos. Boerni already had an 
Amiga on which he had done some demos and 
sent to North Star. When I got my own 
machine, I did the same and on the third 
mega-demo we were able to release our first 
even demos. This was in 1988 and North Star 
was in cooperation with Fairlight.The first 
major party I went to was in Alvesta in 
November that year. I remember sharing room 
with the guys from The Silents, who already
then tried to make racing games.   When the 
North Star guys also started to concentrate 
on games, I instead joined Fairlight.  They 
later founded a company called Atod,  while 
The Silents started Digital Illusions.

The craziest and most amusing time for me 
in the Scene was together with the  
Fairlight guys. I remember one 
funny occasion at a small local 
party when we invited people to 
join the group. After a few hours 
everyone attending were proud members of 
the coolest group around.  However, by the 
end of the party,Strider (the leader of the 
group) announced  that  everyone was fired. 
Things were back to normal.
                 
Another crazy thing occurred on the way to
a party in Fredricia in Denmark.  Since we 
weren't old enough to drive,   we got some 
help from a North Star hang-around.    The 
problem was  that this guy  didn't like to 
drive  unless we provided him with a 
constant flow of beer.  The scariest 
point was when he  wanted to see  if 
he could drive through Odense on the 
wrong side of the road. He succeeded and we
survived. We only stayed in Fredricia while
it was still dark  and then drove the whole 
way back.  I never  managed to  release the 
demo I had prepared,  Interpol (guess why).

That demo was instead released and won the 
compo at a party in Karlstad in March 1989. 
Since each group was allowed to participate 
with one demo each and North Star and 
Fairlight were still in cooperation, I 
managed to enter with another demo. This 
was in fact just a raytraced animation 
called All Around and the demo came second 
in the same compo. At that time few people 
had ever seen anything raytraced at all. I 
had been working on a raytracer since 1987 
after reading about it in  Amiga World.  I 
also had the opportunity to live close to a 
university library  and spent a lot of time 
              there looking for algorithms.

Later that year I entered the navy and then 
there was little time for copy parties at 
all.  The officers found it strange that 
letters used to arrive to our boat every 
now and then,  from swappers who liked to 
promote their newest releases.  Especially 
those from eastern Europe required a bit of 
screening. I had brought my A500 and we 
used to sit and play in the galley. 
Since the power was generated from 
a diesel engine it was quite shaky and 
the screen used to vary in shape all the 
time. Under those conditions I wrote a demo
called My Room, that was released and won 
the compo on a party in Arboga in 
January 1990.The organizer was a guy called
Mr Gurk, who represented a group known as 
Phenomena.

A friend from that boat once asked me if it
was possible for his younger brother to 
call and ask about different coding issues,
especially that of raytracing.  The brother 
was trying to write his first  demo  and I 
was glad to assist. I remember saying some-
thing that seems to be true even today: 
 "It is not as hard as people think. 
  Aim high and you'll make a winner demo." 
This brother was called Azatoth and the 
demo was later released as Enigma. 

It was not until I released my last demo,
Animotion, in December 1990, that I joined
Phenomena.  The  Fairlight  guys were  not 
happy. The problem was that for most people 
in Fairlight  cracking was still more 
important than making demos. Phenomena, on
the other hand, was a pure demo-group.  We 
tried to keep the group small, in order to 
facilitate cooperation between members and 
not let the group explode.    There was no 
leader and all decisions had to be  agreed 
on by everyone. This led to a very friendly 
                                atmosphere. 

I still have the Phenomena phonelist in my 
wallet  and from that I read the following 
names: Azatoth, Celebrandil, Color, Danko, 
Dream Warrior, Firefox, Jas, Karon, 
Mantronix, Mace, Mr Gurk, Terminator, Tip, 
Twins, Uno and Vouge. We stuck together for 
a number  of years.    The last time we all 
(nearly)  went to a  party  together was to 
The Assembly in 1994.  Even if some members 
left for other groups, the group has 
officially never broken up. It has never 
been possible to reach an unanimous 
decision. :)

Browallia:
Your handle is taken from the Book 
"Simarillion" by Tolkien. Which Im by 
coincidence read right now. Any other PHA- 
-members who took the Tolkien world? 

Celebrandil: 
I don't think there were any other such 
names in Phenomena, but some of the 
Fairlight names come from Tolkien, like 
Strider and Gollum. Black Shadow was 
possibly also inspired by the same author.

Browallia:
What are you doing nowadays? Anybody 
recognizing your handle? 
(selling autographs :-))

Celebrandil:
I'm a researcher at the Royal Institute of 
Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden  and 
try to make robots see.  I can promise you 
one thing: it is difficult.   In fact, the 
work is much like coding demos, even if the 
systems are a little  (read: a lot)  more 
complex. It's still about applied maths and 
optimization.Yes, from time to time some of 
my students recognize the handle I have 
used since 1984. I never use the handle in 
class though,  but my email is a shortened 
version of it. On the web people ask me 
about it quite often. I've even been 
harassed by people for using someone else's 
name.
That's most amusing.

Browallia:
Changing subject to Discmags.. Northstar's 
mag Exceller 8  showed up in the late 80s. 
Do you still follow some Scene-related 
news, from Discmags nowadays?

Celebrandil: 
Yes, from time to time I download mags like 
Hugi (sorry), for example.   I don't really 
understand all the groups and people, why 
people change groups and why that is so 
important, but I try to stay up-to-date 
with recent innovations and demos, even 
if it's hard. However, it seems that people 
basically have the same problems 
mathematics wise and little has changed. 
The hardware and environments have changed, 
but not the problems the coders face in 
practise. 

Browallia:
Due to earlier HardWare-limitation, people
were motivated for breaking records for 
signing in the scene history book. The HW-
limit is not gone today,  but harder to 
determine what a good 3D-scene is so to 
say.. Still, people are motivated for 
creating demos today. 
But only a few groups would entitle their 
demos to "420 Bobs" today. What is in your 
opinion, giving people energy in creating 
demos nowadays? 

Celebrandil: 
It makes me a little sad that people hardly 
concentrate on optimization anymore, but it 
is understandable.  Back in the early days, 
everyone knew  exactly  how much you  could 
typically squeeze out of an A500. I believe 
the reason why you create a demo is two-
fold. To prove to yourself that you were 
actually able to and increase your coding 
skills. And to impress others. The way you 
do the latter has changed. In the beginning 
it was about optimization  and  faking the 
impossible. People still fake, of course, 
but it's more about design,  theme and 
general impression.I don't think that 
is wrong, since that had led demos to a 
wider audience,  but for an optimization 
freak myself, it is a little sad.

Browallia:
You won with the Demo "Animotion". A very 
personal moment I guess..?   Anything you 
can share with us?

Celebrandil: 
Yes, that was quite special. That was on 
Dexions X-mas party in Odense late 1990. 
The  Kefrens guys really seemed to enjoy 
the pink jumpsuit I was wearing. Through 
experience I had learnt one thing. If you 
want to win a compo you better try to stick
out.  Wear weird clothes and let as many as 
possible see the demo,  while you trying to 
finish it in time. Is that cheating? Maybe! 
I also remember  that Promax thought it was 
old-fashioned to use the SEKA assembler, so 
he happily installed  AsmOne on my machine. 
He probably thought that my monochrome 
screen was old-fashioned too, but he never 
said so. So, if you found the colours of
the demo weird, you should remember that 
the demo was coded on a screen without 
colours at all. 
To me red is 0x0f00, and always will be.

Browallia:
Some rumors told me, that at the Party 
ECC'93, Phenomena tried to smuggle beer 
inside.. (any comments? :-))    Anyhow, 
which was the last party you visit? 
(I dont mean the synth-clubs :-))

Celebrandil: 
Smuggle beer? No, I would never have done 
such a bad thing. We smuggled vodka. We 
picked up some Finns in Stockholm and got 
a bottle of vodka in return. However, there 
was this guy (won't mention any names)  who 
approached me  and asked to  taste my  non-
alcohol cider. He concluded,  with a bit of 
authority,  that it was beer  and stole the 
bottle. In order to avoid further confusion 
we emptied the  vodka  on the roof  and let 
the kids happily play downstairs.

The last party I went to was in fact Remedy 
in 1998,in order to meet the new Phenomena, 
The  Black Lotus.  My impression  was that 
they  had a  similar  good  atmosphere  as 
Phenomena  used to have, even if The Black 
Lotus is a  totally different group.   The 
organizers probably  thought I  was  some 
grown-up gamer and I only stayed there for 
a few hours. Synth-clubs? You should visit 
Tech Noir in Stockholm.That is a good club!

Browallia:
Whats making a good demoparty to you?

Celebrandil: 
First of all you need to have something to 
release in order to get a reaction from 
those who see the product for the first 
time. Then you have to win the compo. Try 
wearing a pink jumpsuit, if you believe you 
might otherwise fail. A good party should 
also mean that you meet a lot of new 
friends, maybe people that you have talked 
to, but never actually met. After hours of 
coding you better take a break, leave the 
place and go out for some partying.The best 
party I've been to was probably in 
Slagelse, Denmark in March 1989. I was out 
partying with Zike and Grendel from 
Byterapers. Grendel fell in love, not with 
a girl, but with a flowerpot. I don't know 
what doctors call that. Zike might know. 
After all, he's currently working as a 
shrink.

Browallia:
Any contact with Azatoth or other people or
groups?

Celebrandil: 
The only guy I meet from time to time is in 
fact Azatoth. His brother  (yes, the one on 
the boat) got married and we had a nice 
party out in Stockholm archipelago. Azatoth 
is currently a PhD student in mathematics 
and will hopefully finish within a year or 
so. I rarely meet anyone else. However, on 
the web I have a whole bunch of contacts 
from a number of groups. When I was active 
Internet was hardly used at all, but I'm 
glad to see that things have changed.

Browallia:
Okey, doing a shift-subject-command, to 
Music, indeed, I like the tune from ENIGMA, 
but are you listening to anything else?

Celebrandil: 
Isn't www.scenemusic.net the only thing you 
need? Maybe not.  On my CD player I usually 
have music like Apoptygma Berzerk,Covenant, 
De/Vision,  Mobile Homes,  Funker Vogt and 
Das Ich. For laughs I might even play Welle 
Erdball or Spock, but not very often.

Browallia:
last comments?

Celebrandil: 
It surprises me that the Scene is alive and
kicking,  even if things have changed a bit 
during the years.   On the other hand,  the 
Scene is the  perfect place for people  who 
like to be creative. After all, in order 
for people to see a point in life, 
creativity has always been 
important and will always be. The Scene is 
probably the only world-wide cultural 
phenomenon that is based on creativity and 
friendship, rather than commercialism. 
So, keep coding!

Browallia:
Thanks for participating,
I still owe you one beer! 
/Browallia