Interview with Chaos of Sanity



    Interview with Chaos of Sanity 

                             by Ace of Damian



 Ace:  Hello Chaos. First of all please introduce yourself to the readers!
 Chaos:  I am Chaos of Sanity, and I am a god. What's more to say? Pray to me, or I'll get angry. I reached level of immortality (Ever heard of "SWar1*" ?). I got all the millions of experience points by killing Dragons, Guardian Dragons to be precise, two of them, I eat melons for breakfast and whole galaxies at lunch. My power is only met by my arrogance and my ability to produce spelling errors, exspecially when writing english (hope you remove them).  [no way! Ed.]






 Ace:  What is your career on Amiga? When and in what group did it start,...
 Chaos:  I began as a lamer who was too lame to even notice the scene, but I was allways a coder. My first groups were Axenon (1989?), Undertakers, and then Sanity. My career began with the release of the Elysium Demo, which is still high in the charts. After the release of Elysium, Sanity broke apart, we joined Rebels and reformed Sanity a bit later. In fact, before beeing a lamer on Amiga, I was a lamer on the 64, but I don't think that anybody is still interested in such old storys.

 Ace:  What kind of hardware equipment do you use? Did you ever code one one of the new Amigas? Are they useful for you or the scene?
 Chaos:  Whoops, I like old computers. I mean, very old computers, 1975-1980. I collected some of the early CPM computers, and I still use them as Terminals for the Amigas. Here is a list of the Hardware Equiptment that I actually use, I own a few more things.
Hardware:
- A4000-40 2MBChip/4MBFast 120MB HDisk, 1hd-floppy intern, 1 A1010 external floppy.
- A2000 1MBChip/2MBFast 45MB Seagate HDisk with Combitec XT Controller, 2 internal dd-floppys, Action Replay II.
- Atari Mega St2 2MbST-Mem, 40MBQuantum SCSI Speed drive Controller (dont laugh, I really use this maschine).
- C64 (old) with 1541 and Formel 64.
- 2 CPM-computers (in rather bad condition, mostly self-repaired) as Terminals for the two Amigas.
- TV with Scart conector
- 1960 Monitor
- Monocrome monitor
- Some kind of scrap I turned into a monior, badly wired to one of the CPM's
Software I usually use:
 - Kick 3.0 including ARexx
 - Devpack - Cygnus Ed
 - Sanity Operating System (runtime and debugging system)
 - Mod3 (Monitor)
 - DPaint
 - butcher
 - Common (Monitor)
 - protracker
 - diverse packers
 - TeX (for the riddles. The riddle is using TeX)
 - Schwarzkopf-Killer
 - and a lot more.
Well, I wrote this list just to tell you that I use DEVPACK, and none of these fucking Seka-like toy-assemblers. Can't imagine that anybody codes good programms using a toy.
It's something for kids, not for serious coders. Well, 3D-Demo2 was coded wth some kind of ASM-One, and it's pretty stunning. But at least no serious coder except Hannibal uses sekas. Well, Panther uses the Buddha-Seka, and himself Buddha is one of the few coder I really admit, and he did code a seka, Hmmm, no serious coder except almost all serious coders I can think of right now use a Seka or ASMone, because these lousy utils are pure shit. There's nothing better then using Ced to type, Devpack to assemble (or Oma or Macro68) and ARexx to link both programms.

 Ace:  What do you like to do in your free time, beside coding?
 Chaos:  I like playing Boardgames (like Games Workshop games, or things like The Great Khan Game, you know, fantasy-freaky games; Nuclear Winter, Kung Fu CB Mamas on Wheels vs. the Motorcycle Aztec Wrestling Nuns) and roleplaying games (We don't use rule-systems, we play "Regelfreies Erzaehlspiel".).
If the weather is fine, I like cycling. I like reading Fantasy and Scifi, and I listen to a lot to music (Pixies, New Model Army, Nick Cave, Nine Inch Nails, and a lot of other strange things). I like listening to radio, in fact I listen to the radio all the time I code, and that is quite a lot of time. I hear to Radio Bremen 4, the best station around.
If you know Radio Bremen 4 you should also know Pop's toenende Wunderwelt, the best Radio Programm I ever heard, TUNE IT! if you can... Hey Leute: Kontakt zu Popkameraden gesucht: Tausche gerne Tapes, hab die letzten Jahre fast vollstaendig. Suche DRINGEND Tapes von den ersten Folgen, insbesondere alles ueber die Globale Rutschbahn! Auf Kameraden, Pop Pop Marsch Marsch! Paul E. Pop, der Mann aus dem Jenseits! Jeden Sonntag nach kommt er herab...

 Ace:  When did you start coding on Amiga?
 Chaos:  Don't know, perhaps 1987, 1988. It's quite long ago. I did a lot of things, and in the past I encountered almost all parts of the Amiga, including the Operating System.

 Ace:  What was the first release, coded by Chaos?
 Chaos:  The first thing I released under the name Chaos was the Benderlyser demo for the Undertakers. It had only one effect and a ripped music. It was just done for experience. I never liked releasing things that have been done better before, this is why there are few early releases. It took me some time learning before I was able to code something that was worth of beeing released, so first real release was Elysium.

 Ace:  What kind of routines do you prefer to code (beside zooming, of course!) ?
 Chaos:  Beside zooming, I like zooming. And perhaps texture mapping, that is a kind of zooming. Hmmm, no I like all effects that (a) are new or (b) are the same as before, only done much better (=faster) then ever seen. This is why I dislike vectordemos. If you have seen one, you have seen them all. Almost no vectordemos give you something new, exspecially Glenzvectors are stupid.
But if I see a really fast vectorroutine (like Vectorpreview by Complex or Hunt by Cryptoburners) I like it. The problem is, that there are few effects that meet my needs. Last year, I can remember only two effects: The transforming Dot-Sphere in the Alchemy Trackmo (copied and improved by Hannibal in his 3d-Demo2) and the Video-feedback-lookalike-effects in the Shining 40k-intro.

 Ace:  What plans do you have for the future?
 Chaos:  Do some Games and code Broken Promises. In fact, I am quite near to not only coding games, I am near to getting money for games, this is a very big difference (because almost everybody codes games, but to sell them is the real problem, and if you managed to sell them, the quest has just started, getting Money is the real problem in coding Games, nothing else.). Watch out for "Timet the flying Squirrel", I've done some special effects for it, so you'd better fasten you seatbelts.

 Ace:  A lot of people think you have a bad design. What do you say or think about  that?
 Chaos:  They are absolutely right. In fact, I don't care about design. I think my next demos will have good design, and Yesterday had a good design. But I also think that the Melon/Andromeda Design is shit.
In a few month, perhaps the rest of the scene joins my opinium, whats the meaning of all this moving around of vectorplanes? The Andromeda Musicidsk is the very near to being silly instead of beeing well designed (It is well designed, but a few more releases like this and it will look silly and ugly to us).
You will not get me to clone them. I tried out my own way of design in the Yesterday intro sequence. I made linkages, and I think it was a good success, althoug I don't want to do it again because it's a huge amount of work. Linkages this must not lead to demos like Guardian Dragon, where linkages link to linkages that link linkages together, links should link effects that are worth watching, otherwise you get "zero-design", Demos, that contain absolutely nothing like Dos/Andromeda (count the effects. If you cut all the boring vectors (even the complex inconvex vectors are a simple fake), you will get a total of 0 effects).
What do these demos demonstrate? Only the fact that the scene seems to be at thier end. We will show the scene that there are many unexplored areas beside vector-design that are to be discovered in our BP-Demo.

Links should contain ideas, not only shifting of planes. Just see Jesterday, where I had the irregular Vectorlins that are, seen from a special angle, a "presents"-logo. I miss these kind of ideas when I see most of the Design-Shit released today. Melon puts a sinescroller on a weirdly colored background and calls it intro. Whats the point of that?
DEMONSTRATIONS should DEMONSTRATE something. On Amiga, many freaks think that demos are done to show design. They forget that design is though as a better way of presentating something. What is left if the design presentates only the design. Haven't they forgotten something? Perhaps it is symptomatic that the contens is less important then the package. It is said that you should never judge a book buy its cover, but here the cover makes the book.
If they don't stop producing covers (using the word "cover" in two ways, (a) as the cover of the book and (b) as it is used in music buissness), it will become more and more useless.
Some freaks say that a demo must be understandable and "good" for none-scene persons. A none-computerfreak might like the so-called state of the art (but if this is the state of the art, then I don't know what happened to the scene) while he can't understand the meaning of a coding demo. Well, I think this none-scene guy will say "nice, but why are you using computer instead of Video", or he will say "I can see shit like this 24 hours on MTV".
The Eurocharts seem to support my opinion because design shit stays only very short in the charts while hardcore (=hardcode) demos seem to stay forever, although they need longer to rise. This implies that a really well done hardcore production (like 3d-Demo 2) has limited chances compared to any kind of design shit (like state of the art) on a competition because the impact of a design demo is much harder and faster. You need several times before you really like 3D Demo 2, while you simply can't watch State of the Art very often, it's too boring and simple done.


 Ace:  What about the "Broken Promises". When can we await it on our screens. Can you tell us some facts about it?
 Chaos:  I am not going to give you a proposed release date for it, because we will surely get further delays (It was planned for Fall 91!). But I can assure you one thing: Either it will be never released, or it will break all limits. There has never been a demo like BP, and perhaps there will never again something like this.
Perhaps the public will dislike it, because it will be very uncommon, but I am shure to get a big long-time success with it. It is under development for more then one year, and it'll better be good! You might say that I am a bit optimistic, but compared to the other members in Sanity I am very pessimistic.
In fact, only Mr. Pets intro sequence would be sufficiant for a very high Eurochart Positon, and when the introduction has run, the real effect are yet to come. I can also promise that the design will be better then you would expect from me, but you will have to adept to the style of the demo. You woun't see any Mainstream-shit from me. Perhaps I will break THIS promise too. Broken Promises: Nothing you can rely on, as the name sais. But if it comes, better leave the scene if you don't like beeing Slain & Slaugtered.
Perhaps you can imagine better what's comming next from Mr. Pet and me if you notice that the WoC-Demo was the result of emtying our Trashcans. (Allmost) only old effects, hastely put together to win a competition. It was not done for the scene, it was done to get a bit of money. Not it's quite high in the EC, and it's rising while the Wicked Dublication by Winny Mandela is falling. As I said before: Hardcore lives longer then shit, but shit winns competitions.

 Ace:  Do you work for a software-company or did you get any offers yet?
 Chaos:  At the moment I work for Neon.

 Ace:  Ok, thanx for the Interview. Do you have any last messages or greetinx?
 Chaos:  No greetings, because I allways forget the guys that I like to great most. Usually, I forget to greet McDeal/DTect, Hannibal/Lemon (as far as I know), Tyroxine/Electricity and the other freaks I usually forget. I also great everybody who should have gotten a letter from me half a year ago like Fury/Legacy and some more.
Search me on the CeBit at the Atari-place, I am going to release a Guestscreen for the latest Electricity Demo on ST! Well, if the effect runs 25% faster on St's then on Amigas, I release them on St.
Gruesse and die Organisierten Popkameraden n.e.v, wuerde gerne mal beim "Pop In" vorbeikommen, aber Bremen ist einfach zu weit weg...
Greets to all out there who are still creative.
Gruesse an Heralds Mysterika dafuer dass sie sich von Peter S. richtig haben verarschen lassen.
Gruesse an diesen ITALIAN Spinner MASTERBOY, der mir einen Brief geschrieben hat der 75% aller Merkmale einer Verarschung aufweisst wie sie von Peter S. und seinen Freunden normalerweise gemacht wird (Obwohl dieses Team natuerlich nur im Fantasy-Genre taetig ist und mich nicht kennt). Nun, ich glaube immer noch nicht dass es eine Verarschung ist, aber der Brief war auf alle Faelle peinlich.
Wir sehen uns dann auf der CeBit, der Atari Messe in Duesseldorf und der WoC!

Sanity: Demo or Die.
Please insert a (tm) after each capitalised word to keep the loyers happy.



Slain and Slaugtered (tm) is copyrighted by Peter S. & Co
SWar1* (tm) is copyrighted by MiBo & Co.
"Kung Fu CB Mamas on Wheels vs. the Motorcycle Aztec Wrestling Nuns" (tm) is copyrighted by Space Gamers