PIRANHA SPEAKS
by Piranha/ex-Predators
....Wish I knew where to start..! I'll briefly intro myself for those (many)
of you who haven't a clue as to who or what I am..
Back in circa 1987,there was a group called 'The Predators' which consisted
of 2 members,Ultrafox and Piranha (moi').. Amiga 1000's and 2000's with no HD's
(or very expensive ones) were pretty standard,so most coding was done onto
floppies.. Imagine how long a 300k demo took to make !
The Oz Scene then consisted of a ragged handful of dedicated amiga owners,
and weekend copy parties were frequent! Not only did you get to meet up with
the occasional new amigafreak,but catching up on new overseas demos and warez
was almost a fulltime job.... Coming over from the 64,the software was
amazing.. There were times when you wondered how the hell stuff like that
was coded...
But,the main thing was the friendship. Everyone knew everyone else. No one had
anything bad to say about other groups or individuals. People swapped groups
and there was little or no malice towards them. And everyone always benefited
from being in touch. Overseas groups started gaining Australian members and
mail swapping was all the rage....
The Demoscene was very basic compared to today. However it was FUN! A coder
didn't have the goal of trying to outdo the next person, but to perfect their
own techniques and ideas. Unreadable sinus scrollys,some real slow vectors and
most coders striving to see who could fit the most bobs into one frame (no
matter how ugly they were!) were the flavour of the day. The sheer discovery of
finding what the hardware was capable of was enough to inspire even the most
hardened 68000 programmer..
Anyway, after some solo efforts,UF and I released our MegaDemo, hot on the heels
of the acclaimed Red Sector MegaDemo. We made it to number 2 in the Amiga
Format DemoCharts with it,which surprised us. Of course after that we were
subjected to the Great Australian Tradition of the Tall Poppy Syndrome.
Some new struggling groups accused us of using source codes, and dissasembling
others work and it was amazing at how quickly rumours like these spread.
Seems like we were witness to when the rot started to set in. Friendship went
out the door in exchange for who could get the newest warez or get access to
the latest BBS. Instead of exchanging information, groups became paranoid and
secretive. The word LAMER was introduced which is now a cliche in its
own right! Simply because you didn't have the latest game or swapped or knew
someone important in the scene, you were looked down upon,and I personally
knew a lot of guys who character assasinated some of the nicest people I have
ever met.
Anyway, there were still a lot of great times even up until 1992 when I sold
my Amiga and left the 'scene'. The annual Conferences held around Australia
were a tribute to the people who could organise them. I'd like to take the
opportunity to thank all those who voted for my Summer'90 ConfDemo! Thanks!
Of course my opinion may mean little as I'm writing this. I hope everyone
reading this is enjoying the amiga as much as we did in the 'old' days..
Just remember, computers are only a hobby and not a lifestyle.....
Or in the immortal words of Mahoney & Kaktus " Life isn't all electric "
Regards... Piranha. 1987-1995 RIP :)