Inteview with Skidz

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Handle:     Andy Gibson aka Skidz/Area 51
Group(s):   AGAS Productions & AREA 51

Age:        DOH! 29
Occupation: Coder, BTF Disk Mag Writer etc...


What utilities do you use the most? (Name 3 of them!)
  - Dopus
  - Too many utils!!!
  - Net Packages

How long have you been on the scene?
-  Hmmm....I've  been  using  the  Amiga since 1990...  As for being `on the
scene'  well,  I'm  not  really  on  the scene as such, but I do code games,
utils,  disk mag engines etc.  I'm not what you would term as `Elite'!  I do
know  the  Amiga  and how it works, but I've never been one to call myself a
scene dude!

Although,  I  did  once  supply  Pazza/LSD  with some dox for his dox disks.
(Star  Trek  25th  Anniversary)  and had planned to do more with LSD on this
side  of  things,  but I decided against it due to copyright reasons.  I was
lame  and  easily  lead  in those days ;) The only other scene type things I
really  did  was  code  a few disk mags for peeps.  Moviezone, Byond Sanit-E
etc.

Now  I'm  one  of the coders with AREA 51 and I'm currently developing a new
disk mag engine for the next issue of da mag.

What do you think of the scene today?
-  It's  cerainly not as good as it used to be.  What with LSD giving up and
the  other big ones also.  When i say, not as good, I should just maybe say,
it's lost a lot of flavour.

There  are some kewl groups out there, but I really wish all the demos being
released  used  new  features!   There's  no  point in copying someone elses
shading, render tech's etc.

Look  at  the old scene stuff, Puggs In Space, Budbrain etc.  Every demo was
sorta  original and new.  Now we get the same old spinning cubes and scrolly
crap!  Something has to be done.

As  for  the  pirate  groups!  Phuk!  They don't even need to crack half the
titles  anymore!   Mostly Licenceware and PD, Shareware etc is appearing now
:( There's just nothing they have to do.  Lost influences etc.  They want to
bang  their  heads  and  come  up  with  new ideas for the Amiga.  Give us a
breathtaking demo which really rocks our system.

Do you think the scene has a future at all?
-  Yeah.   Don't  see why not.  Some great new demos doing the rounds still,
but they don't seem to have as much of an influence on the Amiga as the past
demos  of  yesteryear :( It was mainly demos which helped to sell the Amiga.
I know they influenced me into buying one (and DPaint 2 also :)

What do you think will become of the Amiga?
(What do you think of it's future?)
- Hmmm....I personally think the Amiga never died, just had a break.  As for
the future, well, there is one with power systems just around the corner.  I
bet the Amiga becomes another great seller in about 1 to 2 years from now.

If you were the boss of Amiga International, what would you do?
- Send out a hitman after Bill Gates ;þ

I'd  make  it a standard that all new Amiga's must have a HD and CD and some
kinda fast mem too.  I'd also be contacting software houses and letting them
know  the  new specs of the systems to be released.  Developers stuff should
be given to author free also so they can get to work on new software for the
power Amiga's too.

If you were the boss of Microsoft, what would you do?
- Kill myself TWICE :)

Either that or team up with Amiga tech and teach 'em about advertising.  The
Amiga needs good advertising, Without it, no ones gonna listen :(

Commodore anyone?  They had one good ad on TV for the CD³² whih kinda worked
for a short while, but their marketing left a lot to be desired.

Look  at  what  Commodore  did  not tell us...  I myself now use loads of PC
hardware on my A1200, such as Modem, HD, Simms etc.  the Big C never told us
we  could  buy  cheap  PC  parts  for  our  Amiga.   We had to learn this by
ourselves.   When  I  tell  a PC owner that I use the same simms, cd drives,
scanners (scsi, ide etc), they don't believe me!

If you had a gun in your hand, and Bill Gates was standing next to you,
what the HELL would you do?
-  Make  him  buy  an Amiga, or simply, err, shoot him in the legs.  If that
didn't work, the arms...

Name three sceners you think will become BIG soon:
- AREA 51 of course :)

And finally; what do you think of Retro? :)
-  Ahem!   I've  yet to see it believe it or not!  I was sent this interview
before reading the damn mag!!!  Lame or what???

Here you can add adverts, messages, comments, and similar:
-  Well,  I'll  leave that to the other A51 memebers who may be filling this
in.  I'm sure zYLAX will have a lot to tell you, so why repeat it all here.

However,  I  would like to tell you of a game which I'm currently developing
with  another  A51  member  (Hi  Shezzor).  It's a graphic adventure (Monkey
Island type) based on the Roswell Incident.

It's  still  in  early  development  as I type this, but a demo will be made
available  soon.   We  are  hoping to get this released as commercial.  I'll
give  you details at a later date with progress, or simply get issues of BTF
(Beyond The Frontier) disk mag from A51.

cya!