Krion/CDN Interview       Infinity            


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                       A Interview With A Coder                                 
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                       --------------------------- BY .:iNFiNiTY:. CYdONiA      
Krion as come a long way to become known as one of the best coders in Oz.It's   
production demos like Red Planet and Capricorn One that only shows a small      
percentage of what this man can do.Everytime he releases something new          
through either by demos/Intros or by PD utilities, you know you've downloaded   
something good.                                                                 
                                                                                
ProFile                                                                         
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  HANDLE: Krion                                                                 
     AGE: 18                                                                    
COMPUTER: A1200 for myself and A2000 for my BBS                                 
   GROUP: Cydonia                                                               
    ROLE: Coder                                                                 
WHEN DID YOU START CODING?                                                      
I  guess  it depends on what you mean by "coding".  I was mucking around in     
BASIC on the C64 for years, but I didn't REALLY start coding until 1991.        
                                                                                
WHY DID YOU GET INTO CODING?                                                    
Initially  it  was just something that somewhat interested me.  What really     
got  me  into it though, was seeing my first demos (Enigma by Phenomena and     
Global Trash by Silents DK) in 1991.  I was hooked straight away and I knew     
that  I wanted to code 'something like that'.  I could already program in C     
and I knew a little bit of assembler, but I wasn't "into" it until then.        
                                                                                
WHAT MOTIVATE'S YOU TO CODE SOMETHING?                                          
Seeing a routine in another demo, especially if I think I can do it better.     
                                                                                
WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS FROM?                                               
Other demos as well as suggestions from other people.                           
                                                                                
WHAT'S THE HARDEST THING YOU'VE HAD TO CODE?                                    
Probably the wolfenstein effect.                                                
                                                                                
WHAT OTHER GROUPS HAVE YOU BEEN IN BEFORE FORMING CYDONIA?                      
My  first  demo  was released under the 'group' name "Purple Vortex".  This     
wasn't  really a group though because it was formed for the sole purpose of     
producing  one  demo.   Once  I had that one production under my belt I got     
into  Digital Access where I stayed for around 18 months, before leaving to     
form Cydonia.                                                                   
                                                                                
SOME PEOPLE SAY YOU LEFT DIGITAL ACCESS WITH SOURI BECAUSE YOU WERE FIGHTING    
WITH JOHNNY TURBO OVER IDEAS AND STUFF, WHILE OTHERS SAY YOU JUST SIMPLY        
WANTED TO START SOMETHING NEW.WHAT'S THE REAL REASON BEHIND THE SPLIT?          
It  is  true that we had differing opinions from time to time, but I always     
coded  the  routines  that  I  wanted  to  code, and we never had any major     
problems  in  that  area.   Souri and I simply didn't like the fact that we     
couldn't  rely  on  the  other members.  After being let down time and time     
again  with  music  for  Models Inc.  we were getting very annoyed.  It was     
also around this time that Digital Access Records was gaining momentum, and     
so the focus was taken away from what we were there for - Amiga demos.  Put     
that  together  with the fact that Souri and I were keen on making a change     
and  starting  something  new, and we had a lot of reasons for leaving, and     
I've  got no regrets.  I'm very happy with what Cydonia has produced in the     
year and a bit that we've been around.                                          
                                                                                
NAME 3 CODERS IN AUSTRALIA THAT YOU THINK ARE GOOD.                             
This  is  a tough one because I'm gonna have to leave some off that I don't     
really want to, but 3 it is:                                                    
                    Netrunner / Pearl, Tachyon / Pearl and Storm / Cydonia.     
                                                                                
                                                                                
NAME 3 OVERSEAS CODERS THAT MAKE AN IMPACT ON YOU.                              
Doctor Skull / Virtual Dreams,  Mr Pet / Sanity, and Chaos / Sanity (before     
he started going on about doing rotators in intuition screens that is :-) )     
                                                                                
WHAT'S YOUR LATEST PROJECT?                                                     
I'm  writing  routines  for  a new AGA production called Deimos, which will     
also contain routines from Storm.                                               
                                                                                
WHAT DEMO/INTRO ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?                                          
That's  a  hard  choice  between Red Planet and Capricorn One.  If I had to     
choose  between  the two, I'd say Capricorn One.  The routines were better,     
and  it  was more refined.  I have no regrets about it.  I still regret the     
choice of pictures for the dual rotator in Red Planet.                          
                                                                                
WHICH OVERSEAS GROUP DO YOU THINK IS THE BEST?                                  
Virtual Dreams.  I havn't heard much about them recently, but in my opinion     
they  were the true pioneers of AGA coding.  Full Moon and Love were great,     
and they were truely AGA, and not just ECS routines running in 8 bit planes     
and  an 020 like those in many AGA demos at the time.  Add to that Jogeir's     
music and you've got THE group.                                                 
                                                                                
DO YOU THINK THAT THE OZ SCENE WILL EVER BECOME MORE ACTIVE THEN EVER BEFORE    
ONE DAY?                                                                        
It's  hard  to say.  With the difficulty of getting 1200's at this point in     
time,  things  don't  look  good, but that could all change with production     
starting  up again.  Who's going to be selling them and advertising them in     
Australia  is another issue though.  And of course, it's hard to guess what     
the new scener is going to want to do.  Chances are they'll pick up a cheap     
and fast modem and become a modem trader, and live their 'scene life' under     
the  impression  that  shuffling a few games and a lot of 5 line text files     
carrying 20KB's of BBS ads between boards will get them some respect.           
                                                                                
THERE'S A NEW SYDNEY GROUP THAT AS JUST BEEN FORMED.DO THEY POSES ANY THREAT    
TO CYDONIA?                                                                     
I've  only ever heard of 2 of the members.  A bad sign?  I think it's a bit     
unfair  to  judge  on  that basis.  As for the 2 members I've heard of, the     
prospects  look  very  mixed.   Reload  is  a  pretty good graphics artist.     
Slayer on the other hand is a bad BAD sign (Why is his board called "Phobia     
WHQ" when the group's name is not Phobia!?!).  In any case, based purely on     
a  scan  on  their member list, they don't appear to have enough productive     
members to be a "threat" to Cydonia, even if these members are talented.        
                                                                                
HOW FAR DO YOU THINK THE AMIGA CAN GO, REGARDING CODING WISE?                   
You  can  always  push it a little bit further, but it's getting harder and     
harder,  and  big  improvements are getting rare.  There's only so much you     
can  optimise,  and after all these years there isn't as much left as there     
used  to be.  That's not to say that the limit has been reached - just that     
improvements  arn't  happening as often as they used to, but I really can't     
say how long it can continue for and where it will lead.                        
                                                                                
YOU'RE ALSO A SYSOP ON LUCID DREAMS.IS THAT HARD WORK ASWELL?                   
Not  really.  Lucid Dreams is a small system, and it doesn't really require     
a  lot  of  time from me.  I've been very fortunate in my career as a sysop     
because  people  have contributed a lot to the board, making my job easier.     
All  those  kick-arse  ANSI screens were done by Souri, so apart from being     
infinitly  better then anything I could've done, it saved me from having to     
do  them.   (A  fact that annoys other local sysops no end.  :-) ).  And of     
course  it's the users that make a BBS great, and again I've been fortunate     
in that area too with many active users who make the board what it is.          
                                                                                
DO YOU HAVE ANY FUNNY STORIES TO TELL US?                                       
I  suppose  I  could  write about that time we made a certain sysop wait in     
chat  while  we  finihed  our  pizzas, or that guy I rang up and abused for     
uploading  a  startup sequence to Twisted Dreams, but this isn't really the     
place.  :-)                                                                     
                                                                                
WAS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAY BEFORE WE END THIS INTERVIEW?     
Just  a  quick complaint about the lack of people in the productive side of     
the  scene.   We've  got  too  many  damn traders and other such talentless     
losers.   There's  nothing wrong with trading in itself, as long as you can     
do something useful too...