Scoopex on FocusRokDaZone                               Scoopex on Focus
                                 by RokDaZone


No  doubt, Scoopex the often said to be dead legendary group found in 1997 one
of  it's  strongest  years  in its long history.  Reason enough to meet one of
their  organisers  for an exclusive lineup.  We met Antibyte, who recently set
new standards for 40k intros with his The Party'97 winning 'Superautodrome'.

Roman Rath - his real name - is a 24 year old student who joined Scoopex after
being member in Energy and X15 Crew.  The austrian coding talent gave us quite
some  interesting insights in his ambitions and in past, present and future of
Scoopex.   A long interview surely but definately worth the while reading.  So
just hang on.


           We are a group with a young body and with an old soul

After quite a respectable amount of years, Scoopex finally has reached highest
heights  again.   A  tremendous  success  which resulted in the winning of two
Generation Awards for Superautodrome and Seenpoint plus a silver award for you
as  coder.   Tremendous  especially when seeing it all happend more or less in
one year.
Which members played the most important roles for that in your opinion?

 "We  all did in one way or an other.  Unfortunately not all of the results of
the  activities  of  our  members are as visible as an intro or a demo.  But I
simply  couldn't  say  that it would have been the same if this or that member
wouldn't have been part of us, because it wouldn't!"


What is your private goal for the group?

 "To  keep  on  going  and going, just like the 10 years we've already brought
behind us."


While  I  was  at  growth:  SCX lately has inhaled Seenpoint and with it SCX's
second  diskmag  after the often critizised 'World Charts'. We also heard that
the joining of Fishwave/Sane was not uncontroversial.
What was you first position about it?

 "Fishwave  already  was  a  member  of Scoopex before Seenpoint became an SCX
production.   The  additional  joining  of Sane and Syntax was uncontroversial
inside our crew.  I haven't heard any negative comments from outside the group
either."


Do you think that Seenpoint has the power to raise SCX glory or will Seenpoint
rather win from SCX's name?

 "I  don't know.  That wasn't the point in Seenpoint becoming a SCX production
anyways.   We always liked Seenpoint for creating a unique style and therefore
standing out of the line of other diskmags."


What  is  your  opinion the state of the Scenemedia overall, do they do a good
job  to  inform  their  readers  or  are  they in some kind of ratrace for the
wickedest stories?

 "In  my opinion it should be the task of a diskmag to bring information about
the  Scene  to  the  reader  and  nothing  else.  If I want to read stories or
lyrics,  I  grab  a  book.  Most annoying to me is that diskmags write a whole
bunch of stuff about other diskmags, with all their petty wars going on.  If I
read a newspaper, I want news, not to read about other newspapers."


So Seenpoint fits perfectly the line-up of SCX, ok. But back to yourself.
You are know to be some kind of conservative Scener, where conservative is not
meant  negativly.   When looking at the third generation Sceners:  Do you miss
the 'good old times'?  Why yes/why not?

 "I  don't really miss the 'good old times'.  Without doubt it was cool and
fun  back  in  the 80s, but if it hadn't been up to now, I would have quit.
It's  sad  that  so  many  people  have quit, and that the second and third
generation  Sceners  don't  know  the history of the Amiga Scene, like they
should.   But  then again this point of view is just the result of my age."
(smiles)


Which was in your opinion the most important release from SCX ever?

 "There's  no  argument  about  this, 'Mental Hangover' was the most important
release from Scoopex ever and of great importance for the whole Scene, because
of  introducing  the  concept  of  trackmos,  which  changed the look of demos
completely."


There  has been some kind of unnice 'warfare' between SCX and TRSI lately with
you  and  Uyanik!  seemingly as main antagonists.  Uyanik!/TRSI lately told me
that  in  start  it was not so important until Mop blew up the whole story and
both  of  you decided to make the story bigger, while being not in bad contact
to eachothers.
Can you verify this?

 "Yes,  it's  been some time now since we last talked to each other due to the
fact  that  Uyanik  is  very busy, but he has never said a bad word against me
(neither  personally  nor in public) as far as I can remember.  Not even after
my provocation in Zero-G 3."

Is there somekind of historical challenge against TRSI?

 "If  at  all,  it  must  have  been S!P joining Scoopex after leaving/getting
kicked out of TRSi back in 1992."


SCX  once  was  declared dead once in 1992 and then again after the desastrous
Cebit Party in 1993.  Not few declared the reformed SCX as plagiatrists.
Now with some years having passed:  Is the 'new' SCX really the 'old' SCX?

 "Trade  (the leader from 91-94), declared Scoopex dead some days before TP92.
Two  days before TP92, he started it again.  I wouldn't really call this being
dead.   This  'death'  didn't  even  last  a week, and it was exactly the same
people before and after this period.  A lot of members left after the Cebit'93
Party, but Scoopex wasn't dead then either, so this is simply false.

But  Scoopex  did  change  indeed  alot since it was started by Ranger back in
1988.   But  that's  natural for a group with the age of 10 years.  There have
been  three  eras  in  the life of Scoopex:  Ranger being in charge of it from
88-91,  Trade  from  91-94, and myself from 94-??.  But the difference to e.g.
TRSi  is  that I already was part of Scoopex in the first era!  There's no one
who has been longer in Scoopex than me.  Therefore I'd say that we are a group
with  a young body (not that young when I look at how long most of the members
are in the Scene already) with an old soul."



Have  you ever thought about convincing some of the old SCX-legends for having
a  final  demo together?  In case you would be in that situation, which people
would you ask first?

 "No,  because they are dead and burried.  Sad, but that's the way it is.  But
if, I would have liked to see a comeback by Crazy Typer, Vectrex and Slayer.


Tell  us  a  little  about  the  making of 'Superautodrome'.  Although being a
little in the class of Zero Gravity, it convinces with more complex Scenes and
stronger images.  Especially the Embryo:
How did you get the ideas it?

 "I  didn't get it at all.  The Embryo was done by Nomad, I just included it."
(smiles)

Why all these balls consisting of small 'spikes' in recent intros from you?
Any deeper meaning?

 "Not  really.  40k aren't really much.  Objects take more diskspace then most
might expect.  Therefore nearly all of the objects in my intros are calculated
at  runtime.   That's why they all look very similar.  And from time to time I
add some new things to it, like the 'spikes'."


You  are  known  for  anarchist  and demonic symbols in your demos.  Does this
reflect your livestyle or is it just for the athmosphere and associations they
create?

 "Primarily it is for the atmosphere and the continuity of our productions."


With   'Superautodrome'  and  'My  Kingdom'  SCX  has  released  two  breaking
productions, which stake out pathes until The Party 98.
What in your opinion made them that successful?

 "Maybe  because  'Superautodrome'  had  to  be shown 2 times." (smiles) "This
wasn't actually the organizers fault, the party version really did have a bug.
A fixed version was released two weeks later, so anyone who's got the old one,
please upgrade.

'My  Kingdom' was successful for obvious reasons:  The most advanced 3D engine
on  Amiga  by  Boogeyman  clearly  made  the demo stand out of the mass of its
competitors.  Together with the brilliant music and graphics it created a very
good atmosphere on the bigscreen."


What  do  people  need to care for if they want to release a succesful demo in
your opinion?  Any tips from the master?

 "The  most  important aspect in a demo is atmosphere in my humble opinion.
how you create it is of minor importance.

No  help  from  the  maestro,  accepted.   Anyway,  when  compared  to your
Symposium demo which failed with the audience then:
Do you think that this demo actually wasn't worth to be voted better or did
you simply put the wrong compositions?

 "The  problem  with  'TheSign' was that it didn't work on o6o at that time
and  had  to be shown on the o3o compo machine which made it of course look
slow  compared  to  the  demos  executed on the o6o compo machine.  Another
thing  was  that  the  speakers couldn't take Deck's music, it just sounded
horrible, so the desired atmosphere was not created.  Besides the demo only
took  three minutes, which is way too short.  Besides German Sceners aren't
especially  fond  of  us, although I can't think of any reason why.  But it
was  plain  to  see  that Boogeyman's engine was capable of doing much more
things  than  e.g.   Jamie's  engine  in  Thug Life (Phong, moving objects,
moving  lightsource,  flares, ...).  However it didn't manage to please the
audience for the above mentioned reasons."


When  compared  to Killer by CNCD:  Wouldn't you say that Killer looks much
more  innovative  than 'My Kingdom' like critics stated lately?  What is in
your opinion the factor that made 'My Kingdom' win?

 "Killer  is  indeed  much  more innovative in terms of concept and design.
However people seem to prefer 3D Scenes, which My Kingdom got plenty of.

My  Kingdom got applause three times while it was shown on the bigscreen at
TheParty97, while Killer got none!  Watching a demo for the first time on a
bigscreen  is  very  different  from  watching it several times on your own
monitor  at  home.   I've  heard quite some people complaining on IRC about
Killer's  music.   Maybe that's the factor that failed to create atmosphere
and  resulted  in  getting  only  half  of  the  points of My Kingdom.  But
generally  speaking  I  can't  say why people vote this or that thing, I'll
leave that up to the socio-Scenologists."


The Haujobb connection:
Where does this strong connection between your two groups result from?

 "It  resulted from getting to know each other on the IRC.  Owl was (as far
as I remember) the one who proposed a cooperation demo.  During the process
of making it and especially meeting at TP97 improved the bonds between us."

Haujobb  seemingly  didn't prove too much reliability when they delayed the
finishing touches for 'My Kingdom', many SCX members criticised this openly
on  the  IRC:  What do you think about this?  Is such an ignorant behaviour
towards the Scene respectable?

 "Well,  I  don't  think  it  is  ignorancy,  the  big problem was Fastjack
dropping  out  of  the  project  and  leaving  them  behind  with  no  help
whatsoever.   That's also the reason why the second part wasn't as improved
as  it  was planned to be.  But again, I can't really tell if that's how it
was, Jazz can surely tell you more."

No, thank you.  Then again, is there the danger that there might eventually
really be a merging of the two groups like you tipped on with 'Haupex'?

 "No,  we  will stay two seperate groups, but it could without doubt happen
that we'll be doing more coop productions."

Thank you for the interview.