Interview with Devistator/Eltech

                       A n   I n t e r v i e w   w i t h 

Devistator/Eltech



by Tony Teacosy/Croydon Computer Centre



    Today I've decided to pick on someone who's well-known to many U.K. sceners
 as one of the most known swapper in  the  U.K. Devistator of eltech was one of
 those guys who willing to swap with  anyone,  anywhere to get well  known! And
 now he has made it nearly to the  top, Devistator has decided to take the time
 out for this little interview and give  us  some background detail's on how he
 has risen from being unknown to be well known!

                      TT = Tony Teacosy   DV = Devistator

{


 TT:     Hi Devistator, Lets get the easy part out of the way by telling people
 what you do for a living, Your Age, and what county you live in ???

 DV:     Hello Tony, right... My real name  is  Neil,  I'm 18 years of age from
 27/02/96 and I live in  Bristol/Avon...   I  actually  live in a small village
 called Whitchurch in South Bristol,  its  a  nice place.. Totally different to
 the industrial city of  Bristol!   I  am  currently  finishing a BTEC National
 diploma in Computer Studies, exams are this year too!

 TT:     Can you tell our readers out there how long you have been on the Amiga
 Scene, and what was your function  when  you  started off ??  And also mention
 your scene history...

 DV:     I firstly got onto the scene maybe  3 years ago,  I started by writing
 a load of letters to  various  sceners  such  as Mercenary/Perception, at this
 time I was a crap grafix artist and just making VERY lame ascii's.



{

    I was let into Perception from the  start  where I did some graphics for an
 intro, I look back at those graphics and  they  look so crap but at the time I
 was quite pleased with them.. Anyway,  after  Perception broke down because of
 Mercenary not replying to anyone and being  in-active for this reason I became
 very in-active too...

    I had time to make some graphics in  this time, I then started to swap with
 Watts/ex-Dual 4-Mat, we became very good  friends  and  I  used to send him my
 l8est gfx efforts, at this time I was still in PCT and Watts said to me that i
 was wasted in PCT and wanted me to join Neo which he had just formed after the
 DF split-up, both me and TUC left PCT for Neo.

    TUC was the only asm coder in PCT!   Me, TUC, Watts and Rebellion worked on
 a chip-tro full of kiddies tunes  appropriately named "CITV", we then released
 Digi-pix 1 and then a small slideshow  before  Rob,  Matt and Dug left to form
 TVG... I first started to swap  properly  when  i  joined Neo, Watts helped me
 alot and he deserves much respect  for  what  he  did.. many people will agree
 with me!


{

    Watts left the scene in about  April  95  which shocked the scene alot, and
 from then on Neo went downhill, we only  released a small bbstro and After the
 Digital Symposium party 95 we split,  the  other divisions went their own ways
 and with only really me and Spangly left  in  Neo we both excepted an offer to
 join Eltech, i have known the  main  swappers  for  quite  a long time now and
 we're good friends so that's why we joined.. At the moment I'm in two groups..
 Eltech (demo crew) and Twisted (Ascii crew), I  have also been a member of two
 other groups during this time  such  as  Digital Graffiti and Kinky!  Although
 Neo split up I am still in contact  with  all the members I was with before as
 they are such cool mates...

 TT:     Can you tell me and our readers  out  there,  what do you think of the
 U.K. style of demos that has been released ???

 DV:     What do I think of the standard and style?  Mmm, well there isn't many
 demos to choose from but most  demos  or  productions from the U.K. these days
 are crapply designed and there is  no  time  taken  over the code at all, most
 have old routines such as Maniacs demos...  I  think that if people would take
 more time over their  design/code  it  would  make  the productions much, much
 better!
{

 There are groups such as  Anathema,  Eltech  and  GHD  who really do something
 worth watching and take their time working out the design etc..

 TT:     How many people do you swap with, and also how much does it cost per a
 week in postage ??

 DV:     Erm, at the moment I've got about 70 contacts, I would like to make it
 to 100 sometime but then again I'm  too  busy  doing graphics etc.. And in the
 future being main-ed of the UK-Charts... My pack "Outcast" is dead and I'm not
 compiling them anymore so I've got  a  little  more  time, maybe in the future
 I'll start another pack...

    Although in the future we are  going  to be concentrating more on producing
 the UK Charts and demo/intro side of things.. Per week I would say it costs me
 about £10 for postage,  depends  really  because  every  week  isn't the same,
 depends if theres anything worth spreading around and provided that it is sent
 to me within a few days  of  release...   I  have some contacts though who are
 only friendship contacts and so only send once every couple of months, overall
 I've got about 80 contacts...

{

 TT:     What productions can we expect to see from Eltech in the near future ?

 DV:     Well you can expect:

         UK Charts - Disk-mag with both  UK  and  World charts, gallery, UK and
         world article  sections,  having  both  makes  it  interesting  for UK
         sceners and for other sceners in other countries!

         Lunch Paks- This is our world  recognised  pack series, it has been at
         number 13 in both Generation and Showtime, and at number 3 in Jurassic
         pack issue 1!  The newly  designed  pack  has  now been released, with
         issue 14 being the first with this new design.

 There will be many intros and  hopefully  a  demo released this year, it isn't
 quantity which were really after..  its  the  quality  of our productions!  UK
 Charts is currently being coded, and  it  will  NOT  be a useless attempt like
 Maniacs did only getting 10 or so votes..  I have spreaders all over the globe
 and also overseas dudes can vote too  with  the  help of a text file.. like in
 No-Sense Swedish charts!

{

 TT:     Would you class yourself as a elite person (Seriously) ??

 DV:     Nope, that word really  pisses  me  off...  Elite  to  me  means - Un-
 personal letters.. I would absolutely hate it  if I got no personal letters in
 my packages, yeh, maybe I advertise on my adverts - OVERSEAS ONLY - but that's
 just to deter those in the U.K.

    Lamers who write many times to me not to write, they still do but only when
 some lame mag such as The Word uses  my  adverts, they used my adverts in Word
 issue 9, from that I got many people  writing to me saying... "Oh I swap games
 10 disks at a time, heres my games list.. bye!" I mean if that isn't lame then
 I don't know what is!  When your  writing  to someone new your always taking a
 risk of losing your disks, when I  write  overseas only on my adds some decent
 swappers in the UK will send to  me  anyway  and its whether I think its worth
 the trouble and time to swap with them,  these days I haven't got the money to
 waste on anyone's postage, in the old days I had loadsa money but now I'm just
 struggling to swap with the  contacts  I've  got..  if you think your attitude
 towards the scene is the same as me then  why not write.. it all boils down to
 whether your the type of person I'd swap  with and whether we have anything in
 common...
{

 TT:     Have you ever come  across  any  lamers  or  F***ing arseholes who you
 think should be kept out of the scene (and give the reasons why) ??

 DV:     Nah, I won't pick on anyone  unless  I  have a good reason to... There
 was one incident when I was asked to join Neo and at the same time I was asked
 to join Carnage (oh dear!), I was asked by Slate/Carnage and I said NO because
 I was joining Neo.. he took it  the  wrong  way  and stole my disks and a tape
 that I sent him.. eventually he  got  kicked  from Carnage.. He must have been
 some "Jekyll and Hyde" type of person  because  before I'd told him I'd joined
 Neo we were pretty good friends, I remember I was gonna stay up his house when
 there was meant to be the Digital party in 94 in Sheffield... Weird eh?

 TT:     Michael/Anathema has just  given  me  your  latest  intro  you did for
 Fairlight, Can you tell us how  you  went  about  designing this intro and how
 long did it take you to do the Gfx ???

 DV:     Well it all started in  Neo  actually... Spangly/ex-Neo (Eltech member
 now!) was talking to Galahad/Fairlight on  the  boards and Galahad told him we
 could do a cracktro for them...  I  did  the  graphics just before the Digital
 party, it took me about a week to  do..  long  time eh, but that's how I work,
 take my time about it... {

    If you rush an artist  then  the  design  comes out terrible...  I actually
 really like that logo... Its the design to  it, really nice!  I did some quite
 nice Neo logos but they never got  used...  Because  of the state that Neo was
 in!

 TT:     Do you feel that the U.K.  charts  will  get people motivated again to
 produce high quality demos in the  united  kingdom,  or are you just doing the
 charts to show who's good and who's lame ???

 DV:     The main motive of the UK Charts  is  to  get  the UK scene a bit more
 active again, I think that if there  were  more U.K. productions to get people
 more motivated that people will follow with example, it will interest more out
 of scene people coders/graficians/musicians to  get  involved in the scene and
 bring new talent into the UK, groups  such  as  Carnage and NFA are giving the
 outside talent the wrong impression  of  the  scene...   Yep and also will see
 who's lame in the UK and who's  the  best of course, obvious who's the  lamest
 though eh??!

 TT:     So how long have you been doing gfx for ???

                          {

 DV:     I have been doing graphics since the start of my scene career although
 I've been doing it seriously since the  start  of  the Neo days!  I'm no mega-
 active graphician as I've got other interests  in  the scene such as ascii and
 swapping as you know but I try my best to do as much as possible!

 TT:     Would you consider buying a PC and joining the scene ??

 DV:     Nope I would not buy a PC as  I've  already got one already BUT I will
 never use it  for  scene  activities,  I  only  use  my  PC  for doing college
 assignments on, PC scene suxx!  The Amiga may  be outdated a bit with the lack
 of developments by Escom but it  is  still  the  best  platform in my eyes for
 personal use.. Some PC demos are quite  cool but they have no design, harmony,
 the graphics are usually made on  an  Amiga  and converted over because of the
 lack of decent graphics packages  around  for  PC  users,  there are some nice
 music programs around such as Fast-tracker but thats about it!

 TT:     If you got kicked out  of  Eltech  for  some strange reason, What U.K.
 group would you join and Why ???


                           {

 DV:     Erm, if I got kicked out of Eltech?  Why?  If we split up or something
 then I might be forced to join  an  overseas  group,  if I had to join another
 U.K. group it would be  Anathema...  Same  attitude,  nice design, nice prods,
 productivity and overall Michael seems like a very nice person! :)

 TT:     Can you give us a list of  members  that are currently in Eltech U.K.,
 and their functions as well ???

 DV:     See news section! [????? !!!!! -Mike/Anathema]

 TT:     I would now like you to  give  me  the  top  people from this list, in
 which you think is trying their best to  make the U.K. scene a better place ??
 Coder, Graphics, Music, Design, Demo crew, (U.K. only please!)

 DV:

 Coder - Orion/Eltech, he is in my opinion the most dedicated and  active coder
         in the UK today, not just because  he's in Eltech because his attitude
         towards coding is amazing!  Look out  for  a demo/dentro in the future
         from him!
                            {

 Music - Hollywood/Axis, he makes the  nicest  of  chip and proper mellow tunes
         for various things although he's in Axis  which is based in Holland he
         is still one of the most active and productive musicians in the UK and
         contributes to many productions... [What  ????? !!!!! -Mike/Anathema]


 GFX   - Wade/Eltech, he is becoming  one  of  the best graphicians in the U.K.
         (check out some of his l8est pics in the U.K. charts!), his dedication
         to the scene is shown by his  cool  attitude  and is the reason why me
         and him are the main people behind  the UK Charts project, he is, like
         me trying hard to get this U.K. scene  back up on it's feet and active
         again...  [What about Dark of Dcs ???? -Mike/Anathema] 

 Design- This has to be Anathema, although  they  seem to be getting many free-
         lancers to contribute  graphics,  the  design  is  always really nice,
         Michael has many friends who are  willing  to help Anathema to get the
         UK scene going... He also knows many people in high places!
         [Your damn right I do -Mike/Anathema]


                             {

 DemoCrew -
         Eltech, nah, apart from Eltech  it  would  be Anathema too... although
         they could do with some good graphicians in the UK!  

         [But who is willing to help or  join Anathema! Thats the big question!
 ???? -Mike/Anathema]

 TT:     From the sources I have gathered, You  was  one of the people that was
 degrading all the productions  that  maniacs  did,  You  released  a text file
 having your say about their production?? What made you prompt such actions and
 why ??
 
 DV:     I dunno?  hehe, nah first of  all  it  started on the boards when some
 members of Maniacs started to  slag  off  Neo  saying that we haven't released
 much and I thought this was too rich  coming from such a lame group as Maniacs
 releasing 3 year old routines  in  their  productions!   I  wrote that text in
 Outcast which was a spare of  the  moment  thing...  them ripping into Neo was
 such an insult..


                              {

 TT:     I see that Eltech members  has  written  quite  a  lot about the group
 called carnage and about Nfa, What  started  all  this trouble up in the first
 place ??

 DV:     I'm nothing to do with  this  really,  I've  only  heard about it, the
 reason being because at the moment I cant use my modem which suxx!  I have the
 same views though, I ain't gonna say anything about how it was started because
 I'm not involved too  much  at  the  moment  and  I  might  not have the right
 facts...  although I might be involved in the future because these two groups
 are killing what is left in the UK scene off...

 TT:     If a new Amiga was to be launched, What enhancement features would you
 like too see on it, and why ???

 DV:     Erm, dunno, RISC chip,  higher  standard  processor  speed, be able to
 compete and beat the fuck out of a P120...  HD drives as standard..

 TT:     If anyone wants to  contact  you  for  any  reason, concerning Gfx and
 Swapping where should they write to ??

                    {

 DV:     Yep, right.... for swapping purposes  and  if  your a grafician in the
 U.K. to swap ideas etc.. You can contact me here..

                           Devistator/Eltech^Twisted
                               9 Leaholme Gardens
                                   Whitchurch
                                    Bristol
                                   BS14  OLQ
                                    ENGLAND

    Overseas only, if your in the U.K. and  are willing to give a proper try at
 swapping, write here also, you  know  whether  your  a swapper or not!!  LEGAL
 only, no lamers!  I would also like to  hear from Uk sceners who have the same
 attitude towards the scene whether  its  for  swapping or letters and whatever
 you do in the scene, BTW we're  looking  for  editors for the UK Charts editor
 team!

 TT:     Were coming near the end of your  interview,  if you would like to say
 thanks to anyone, or say F**k off to anyone please do it now ????

                     {

 DV:     Mmm, no direct fuckings to anyone.

 TT:     Thank you for taking the time out  in doing this interview text, and I
 hope you can still support Deadlock and the Amiga scene ???

 DV:     Sure dude, who are you anyway??   I've  not even heard of you  before?
 Everyone - support Deadlock and the UK Charts!

         You can mail Me about anything on Digital Candy, Permanent Vacation or
 13th Hour bbs, also e-mail me at:

                        `Devistator@Dcandy.demon.co.uk'

         Send articles and  other  stuff  for  the  UK  charts  to  this e-mail
 address!  L8ers!


                                    The End
 
                      }