Mr.Spiv Of Complex interviewed by Zerox/IRIS



  Yup Yip Mr.Spiv and thanks for giving D.I.S.C. this exclusive interview!
  At least I hope I'm the first one who's interviewing you for quite some
  years. Anyway, introduce yourself... tell about your age, real name, 
  the colour of your hair, lenght, weight etc. etc.      
  Mr.Spiv: Right, my real name is Jouni and I'm about 22 years old. I look like
  an ordinary young Finnish male.. atleast I hope so. My hair is dark
  brown, blue eyes, height 176cm, weight around 65kg and I don't have 
  pimples anymore..
  I have already done my military service and I'm an ensign in reserve.
  Zerox: I know that you for the time being are stydying at a university. Which
  university and what are you studying there?
  Mr.Spiv: I'm studying at Helsinki university. My main subject is maths but I do
  spend a lot of time studying computer science (I wonder why ;)
  Zerox: Hmm... when do you plan to finish your education and what job are you
  Zerox: then searching for?
  Mr.Spiv: Huh... within n years, where 1/n gets closer and closer to zero.
  Actually I really don't know what I'll do for living in the future.
  Zerox: Could you please tell some words about your local sourroundings?
  Mr.Spiv: To live in Riihimaki is a misery.. and I do live in Riihimaki. A short
  interview to this town is as follows: there are a railway station and
  a highway to get out of Riihimaki, a prison, an army base, rifle
  factory, Alko and a hazardous waste disposal plant. What else do you
  need for a town?
  Zerox: A few days ago, the 12 of March, something wonderful happened in your
  life. Can you say a few lines about that fact? (By the way... I hope
  you liked the little present... he he..)
  Mr.Spiv: Yes, I got married with Hanna! and thanks for the present. Those
  little statues look really nice.
  Zerox: How does an ordinary day for you look like?  Maybe a bit different from
  before since you just moved to another apartmemt?
  Mr.Spiv: I get up at six o'clock in the morning, eat something and rush to the
  railway station. Hanna has left for work already an hour ago. Then I
  spend 45 minutes in train and rest of the day in extremely sleepy
  condition trying to get something out of the lessons. When I get back
  home around 5 o'clock I again eat something, try to do some homework
  Mr.Spiv: (yeah... try to ;) play some rounds with my fovourite arcade game
  AsmOne and the rest is none of your business...
  Zerox: After this little introduction I hope the readers know the famous 
  mastermind behind the Stone Cracker a bit better. Anyway we'll now go
  over to the scene-related stuff. Tell the D.I.S.C. readers your scene-
  history so far; including when you bought an Amiga for the first time,
  when you joined the scene, which groups you have been member of, why you
  left them, the story behind your handle and more...
  Mr.Spiv: Well, this is going to be a long story. It all began when I bought A500
  at Xmas -88 and I joined the scene after the new year. I just loved
  demos and wanted to get more of them. I decided to buy Amiga instead of
  Atari ST after I saw Thrust's Call me now - demo by Lord Performer.

  I and two of my neighbours formed a group called Red Thread. After few
  weeks we released one intro with a scroller, moving copperbar and a
  picture (no music). That was fun at that time, I just had DPaint II,
  Metacomco assembler (with 80Kb code limit) and RossiMonitor and one
  disk with non working sourcecodes.

  After that we (Red Thread) got an offer to join a new group called
  Panzerfaust (=PF). PF's HQ was in my hometown and it had real swapper
  Mr.Spiv: power and in that way I could feed my need to get the latest intros
  and demos (thanks Hot for being a superb swapper & friend).
  For PF I programmed three intros and two demos. Simple stuff with
  scrollers, start, moving logos, coppers, sinusscrollers and bobs.
  (ps: does anybody remember SummerDemo?) That was during the spring.
  PF had also got more members but the main power of the group was
  located in my hometown and I was responsible for all programming.

  Then we (PF) decided to change our name to Cave summer -89. For Cave I
  programmed one megademo, four bigger demos (Space Window, Vector Demo,
  MindDisaster and LaWeird) and dozen of intros. The last demo by me
  came out January -91. I also programmed intros for Paranoimia and
  some other groups.

  Time in Cave was FUN. We had internal meetings many times a year and
  atleast the Finnish members kept close connection to eachother. But
  then some thought Cave should be more serious scene group with a
  shining reputation. Some liked the 'I don't care' style where it
  wasn't that important what the others though about us. That was the
  the start for internal fights and finally Cave died to them after
  over 3 years existence... Sigh!
Mr.Spiv: 
  After Cave I have been in Morque (a good group) and Complex. I left
  Morque to be a Complex member. Nothing wrong in Morque, I just
  decided to go over to Complex. Every now and then I use StoneWare
  SoftWorks in my productions. It's not a group, more a name under
  what I want to release PD and maybe commercials later...

  My first handle was Rodador. When I was thinking a handle I happened
  to pass a factory and there read in huge neon lights Rotator. The
  rest is obvious.
  After six months I renamed (laame) to Mr. Spiv. I have always been a
  fan of Mr.Gurk of Phenomena or Triange in that time. So I wanted to
  have a name like him. Now my new handle had Mr. and the rest of the
  name I found from the English-Finnish dictionary. I opened the book
  and put my finger randomly on the page and there it was: Spiv.

  Zerox: At the present moment I guess you are most know because of your faboulous
  cruncher: Stone Cracker! Tell us why you decided to code a cruncher and
  a little bit about the cruncher itself...
  Zerox: When I saw that everybody used crunchers made by AntiAction of
  Tetragon and later of DefJam, I thought it would be really cool to
  Mr.Spiv: have your own cruncher and I was curious if I was able to program
  one myself. First version came out late -90. Since that Stc have done
  a long journey from a sloooow democruncher to a slow filecruncher with
  an exception of version 4.01 which had an acceptable speed.
  Zerox: You told me some time ago what STC needs more memory to relocate the
  decruncher file correctly. In what way will you solve this problem in
  the future?
  Mr.Spiv: Using overlay decruncher a'la Titanics.
  Zerox: The latest months you have released new versions of the Stone Cracker
  with improved stc.libraries etc. How should new versions of STC look
  like?
  Mr.Spiv: Quite same...
  Zerox: Could you please tell about your computer equipment?
  Mr.Spiv: A2000c + 030/25/FPU/MMU + 5Megs (soon 9 ;) + 370MegsHD and 4 years old
  Speedking joystick. I had to sell my HST modem & printer to pay some
  bills... aargh!
  Zerox: Tell about your future projects... I have heard something about you
  coding a musicdisk for Complex, some new games and other utilities???
  Mr.Spiv: Ok.. ok.. slow progress.. You can also find some of my work in
  Elf-Mania and one other game (not published yet).
  Zerox: For those of us who still remember your great demos and intros from
  Zerox: the Cave era, have wondered why you haven't been programming more
  new stunning demo routines for the past 2 and a half years. Why have
  you not coded new demos?
  Mr.Spiv: Total lost of inspiration. You need good ideas, good design, good
  deal of time, good routines and inspiration.. And I don't have any
  of those. (Coding by Mr.Spiv, Design by Mr.Spiv... Hah ha haaa ;)
  Zerox: Well... at least we expect a new demo from you soon or not? 
  Mr.Spiv: You can always wait ;^)
  Zerox: Which production you have made are you most pleased with?
  Mr.Spiv: Hmmm.. LaWeird, intro for Infect and Stc4.10.3. But the greatest
  moment I had when I first time managed to get filled vectors
  March -90.
  Zerox: After being in the scene many years, what is the most important
  thing for you? Fame or fun as I usually ask?
  Mr.Spiv: I would lie if I say I did everything just for fun. But generally I
  like to program and I always program something for fun.
  Zerox: Now the most serious question of them all, which diskmags do you
  consider as the best of all time?
  Mr.Spiv: Cracker Journal was the first one but the absolutely best was Zine!
  McDisk & D.I.S.C weren't bad too. D.I.S.C had always nice programming
  stuff.     
  Zerox: Now it is  time to find out what is the rest of your favorites...
  What's your favorite demo, slogan, slideshow, intro, musicdisk, movie,
  girl (not too hard or what?) Which is the worst organized group,  most
  friendly team?
      
  Mr.Spiv: Demo: Voyager - Razor
        3DII - Anarchy
        High Wired - Crionics & Silents
        All Thomas Landsburg demos
        Thrust's Call me now & Ottifanten
        Knight Hawks demo by Mordillo
        and many many more..

  Slogan: with a rubberduck no one is never alone
  SlideShow: ??
  Intro: WOW's crack intro to Dugger (lotsa coppers)
  MusicDisk: Yesterday (not because of the music though)
  Movie: Disney's Aladdin (Finnish version)
  Girl: Hanna
  Worst org. group: ??
  Most friendly group: Morque

  Zerox: Eh? I'm now going to ask you the last question when it comes to scene-
  releated affairs. Quite many groups have during the years tried hard
  to get you as a member (At least I've tried the past 4-5 years to
  convince you to join my team... he he), anyway... only one group have
  succeded. So will you stay in Complex for a LONG time, or will you soon
  leave them?
  Mr.Spiv: As long as they can stand me... 
  Zerox: One last quetion before I test you in some brainstorming techniques...
  What's the most important thing in your life?
  Mr.Spiv: Well, as I'm a christian most important in my life is to obey God's
  will...
  Zerox: Ok... it's time for my standard brainstorming part (sounds like pure
  fun...HA!). Just answer the first thing that comes into your mind when
  I say a word (the answer must be short, 1 word for example... )   
 
  Zerox: PC                Mr.Spiv: Arrgh! (have to use anyway..)
  Zerox: Life              Mr.Spiv: must live
  Zerox: Video             Mr.Spiv: Wayne's World
  Zerox: School            Mr.Spiv: sleep
  Zerox: Pollution         Mr.Spiv: price to pay
  Zerox: War               Mr.Spiv: peace - not
  Zerox: Monty Python      Mr.Spiv: puke
  Zerox: 1994              Mr.Spiv: crazy
  Zerox: Friendship        Mr.Spiv: big words
  Zerox: Fashion           Mr.Spiv: needs money
  Zerox: Coca-cola         Mr.Spiv: don't like
  Zerox: Pain              Mr.Spiv: I know..
  Zerox: Love              Mr.Spiv: I recommend
  Zerox: Fun               Mr.Spiv: hmmmm...
  Zerox: Drugs             Mr.Spiv: mafia
  Zerox: Hope              Mr.Spiv: still there
  Zerox: Vote-Sheets       Mr.Spiv: crap
  Zerox: Mickey Mouse      Mr.Spiv: oldies rule
  Zerox: God               Mr.Spiv: Number One
  Zerox: Interviews        Mr.Spiv: just did one
 
  Zerox: Thanks for spending alot of your time answering these questions.
  I sure know you have been very busy lately with wedding, school
  and everything. So thank you very much for answering in such a
  short period of time. Good luck with the rest of your life... the
  same goes for Hanna. Now you can write whatever you would like.

  Mr.Spiv: Have a pancake...