Inteview with Falcon
found in | Type | Author | Year |
Diskmagazine interviews | Miracle 911 - Alex - Blue Nun - ... | t10/93 added 12/97 |
Interview a C-64 Elite: FALCON OF ACCURACY by Kris/Miracle Some guys in the amiga scene think that the C-64 scene is dead. But it's not true at all. The 64 is still alive and kickin'. A lot of demos and diskmags are still being released. Here I would like to introduce one of the well known guys in the 64 scene. He's the main-editor of a chart-topper diskmag called "Splash". Here we go... K: Dear Falcon, please could you introduce yourself to our readers? F: Hello! Eh, What to say? I think I must start my age and go on. I'm 20 years old, about 1,70 tall and around 66 kilograms. I'm living with my family and I'm still going on my education in the university. K: When did you buy your C-64 and how did you begin your scene activities? F: Well, I bought my C-64, if I'm not mistaken it was in late 1984. As you know there is no copyright in Turkiye so games can easily be copied and sold here. When I bought my computer I also started help the guys in the shop so I began to work there (He means computer shop Ed.). I continued my work until the last year. I had some bad discussions with them then I left them. Now, here's the story of mine, how I started with the scene. First I started with putting some intros to the front of the games that I'm selling. These intros was of'coz lame as I used intro-makers or ripped other intros. Then with my three friends I build up Alfa Crew in 1989. This was also a lame group as we don't have coders. Then in 1990 I realized that me and FIX (an old friend of mine) was working so we left and let the crew die. Then in very late 1990 I started my first non-lame group The Sample Boys with my friend ZULL (now AXL/Accuracy). We started to release a one-filled mag called 'Garfield News' which is the first issues of today's SPLASH. After some time I've got an offer from The Boss/Dualis to join and we joined. But I couldn't find the support from Dualis as we were far from the main group so we left and joined Accuracy in 1991. I'm still in Accuracy and I'm very happy with being in. K: Are you active in another scene except C-64 scene? F: Now, I'm still in active in C-64 scene. In 1990 I also bought an A500 bu it didn't interest me although it was mine for 3 years. I used it too few and in january'93 I sold it Sleepwalker/Accuracy and bought myself a 386-DX-40. Now I'm using it and I started to swap on PC, too. Also I have some friends doing modem-trading in the group so I can follow the stuff. We started coding on 80x86 too. K: As an old and experienced C-64'er, what do you think about Amiga Scene? What are the differences between 64 and Amiga scene in your opinion? F: Oh! The Amiga Scene! Well, to tell the truth I don't like Amiga. Sorry for this but I think it's because that when I bought it, not much of my friends helped me in this machine so as I couldn't do much on this computer I couldn't love it. We can see cool demos on Amiga but I think when compared to C64 scene there are to less groups on Amiga both in coding and cracking. It's nice that there are not much cracking groups although lots of originals released. In C64 Scene we have lots of cracking groups although too less originals. But I think that C64 scene is more friendlier than Amiga Scene. Well, this is not an easy thing to say better say that you can understand it when you are living on it. Perhaps it's because that swapping is more effective on C64 as it costs much more cheaper by the discs and postage. I totally agree that swapping increases friendship. But in Amiga, modem-trading is more ruling and I don't think that everybody can trade although blue-boxing or etc. In C64 Scene modem users are very few compared to Amiga. As a result of this there are not boards as much as Amiga. K: How is the current situation of C-64 scene? F: I'm happy with the current position of the C64 scene. New cool demos are still released in 64 that I like to watch. But the cracking-scene which caused to develop all of the C64 scene is not in such a good position as the companies are not releasing much quality games and there are too less originals. But there are lots of cracking groups and to go on the activity these games are cracked several and several times by different cracking groups. I think it's not so bad as you can have the advantage of who's the best but I'll be very happy if the quality of the games increases. As I have said before, swapping is more popular than modem-trading in C64 scene. And the disc-mags... There are more than 80 different mags in C64 and I'm also editing one, heh he! Most of the people think that there are too many and they don't like to get mostly mag stuff. But I like to get them as believe that a mag editor must follow the other mags as much as he can. K: C-64 is in the market since more than 11 years. In your opinion, how C-64 managed to stay alive during this long period? F: According to me, it has many reasons. One of them is that C64 is the best machine of its time. It showed its quality when it was compared to Sinclair, Amstrad or Atari. Also the Commodore firm was very succesful in marketing. They managed to sell it in a very huge amount and the software companies followed this by producing quality stuff. But the other computers couldn't manage to do this. Furthermore C-64 is the first computer that started a scene. Someones can say that C-64 is a small machine but it has a very high capacity of doing most of the things that the advanced computers can manage. Today you can see all of the effects of Amiga-PC demos on C-64. Another important fact is that C-64 scene is more friendlier scene as a result of big amount of swapping. All the guys love C-64 and could not easily left it. Lastly I want to say that C64 is the most long-lived computer and probably the only one as the technologie of todays is much more advanced than the 1980's. Everyday new models are coming out. K: I think that the C-64 scene is builded up in around 1984's. Do you know somebody who is active since the first days of C-64 scene, who are your oldest friends in the C-64 scene? F: I've some contacts which are very old in the scene but I don't think if they were active in 1984 or 1985. If you want some names they are JERRY/TRIAD, AIRWOLF/GENESIS PROJECT, D.RAM/ILLUSION. K: How many groups are active in the C-64 Scene at the mo? F: I can't say an exact number but it's very much more than Amiga groups. K: You certainly must have seen some demos on Amiga. Could you tell us some names right now? ( Name of the crew or demo ). F: I of'coz saw some but long time passed so I couldn't remember the name of the demos. I saw some demos from RED SECTOR, REBELS, CRUSADERS and some more. K: One of the strange situations that I can't understand in C-64 Scene is that there are too less released games but there are a hell of cracker crews. Could you give us some info about this event and could you make a criticism of the latest games of C-64? F: Well, this is the problem of today's scene. As C-64 is approaching to its end slowly, the software firms don't go on producing games on this machine or they release easy&simple that don't cost too much. This causes the lose of both quality and quantity in new coming games. Also as there are too much groups that wants to be active. To produce some own stuff, these groups are forced to do cracking because it's not possible to release a demo every month. There's not much games released so several versions of the same games come out. Most of the games have a bad quality, generally mind games are released which are total shit. But although those bad facts, there are also some quality new games in not very big amount. K: What are the demo effects which are used in the latest C-64 demos? F: I don't want to sort all the effects here but I want to say shortly that you can see all the routines of Amiga-PC in C64, like all kind of vectors, plasmas, ray-tracing etc. K: Could you say something about your discmag; Splash? F: Splash! Well this means perhaps the half of my life as I'm very busy with it. I really do a very hard work with this magazine. In April I released a mega issue of Splash which is two disc sides including some special chapters like scene puzzle, comics, Guns'n Roses special part. Splash is now in top 5 magazines of C64 (Mostly at top 3). My aim is to rise to number 1. This month I wanted to release an issue but I couldn't manage this as I had some some problems caused by a girl. I really interested in a girl and I wanted to go out with her. But she refused me and said that she wants to be only close friend but not lover with me. So I'm still having depressions, sorrons etc. My physical situation is not good for doing a mag. Next week I'll start my holiday so I hope to release the new issue in next month. K: What are you plans for future? F: I'll finish the university then I wanna attend a good job. I'll continue my scene activities on C64 and try to get a place in PC scene too. By the way if I find my dream girl then I'll leave the scene and start living my life! hehe! K: Dear Falcon, thank you very much for your great contribution, last words to say to our fine readers? F: At last I want to thank you for the interview and I want to demand all amiga sceneguys not to see C64'ers as loosers. Never forget that every scene has a speciality inside itself. I wish happiness and success to sceners. Thank you.