| Flame: |
I'm 19 old and studying electronics & computers at Oulu University. First production 1990 (I think) was called SMK-musicdisk, one selector for TFF in 1991, an intro for TFF in 1991, musicdisk for TFF in 1991 (these were coded by me only), Voyage for TFF released at 1991 Byterapers gathering (summer) (2nd place), Maximum Velocity for TSL in 1992 released at some party in Sweden (1st place), Extension released at Assembly'93 (1st place), G-force released at Assembly'94 (1st place) ('20 music player only). |
| Silver Eagle: |
I'm 17 years old currently studying second year in the sixth form. I have no real scene career, except very little participation in Maximum Velocity and Extension. |
| The Charts: |
You won the first prize in the 40K intro competition at the Assembly '94 with G-Force. Could you please tell us something about the making of this intro? |
| Silver Eagle: |
It was coded on a A1200 without fastmem, at first as a Gouraud vecroutine only. Maybe 8 weeks before the party I thought about making an intro out of it. Project was lazy, small optimizing. 4 weeks before the party I snapped and started coding, and 2 weeks before the party I got Branch to "move in" into our house for designing objects. Those two weeks were pure work, morning to evening. Lot of design errors are because of this last week rush.. Some objects are also missing, like a pretty neat 200-surface snail..:).. Well, I can't resist the temptation.. The face had 196 visible surfaces, the SGI sequence had more than 350 visible surfaces each frame.. (no more, promise :) |
| The Charts: |
After one year, Pygmy Projects striked back again at Assembly to win again. It seems like this party is becoming a 'family affair'... |
| Silver Eagle: |
Hehe ... Next year we'll win C64 compo ;) |
| The Charts: |
What do you think of the overall intro-competition at The Assembly '94 and of the demos by Stellar, Virtual Dreams and Parallax? |
| Flame: |
I haven't seen these demos and intros since the party, because I don't have 4megs of fast (yet!). These all seemed cool at the partyplace, but I dont like purely animation based demos. Stellar demo was the best and I wouldn't vote differently (Hi's to Nose & Zuikki). |
| Silver Eagle: |
I think the organizers should have shown less intros in the compo, because the audience was getting tired of them. It may sound weird, but I prefer intros to demos, mostly, since demos are nowadays mostly precalc and animation. Of course that's visually -great-.. but when it comes to coding, I'm sure my vote to Stellar went to right address. |
| The Charts: |
Was in your opinion a good idea to introduce the possibility to use the fast memory in the productions? |
| Silver Eagle: |
I think it was a very good idea, since nowadays a lot of optimization bases on big tables (not precalc necessarily) that need quick fetches. G-Force relies a lot on speedup tables also, but the routine still has no movement/rotation limitations. I.e. not precalc. Keep in mind that PC compo machines are 10-20 times faster than A1200, so coders really need the extra memory. I suggest everybody out there go buy at least A1200 with 4 megs fastmem :) |
| Flame: |
I agree and I think it was great idea to go straight to 4Mb of fast. But I think we shouldn't go any further (like to A4000), because most people can't afford A4000/40 (yet, but maybe in few years time). |
| The Charts: |
What do you think of charts in general? Do you think they are necessary for the scene? Can they really give a view of the real valours of the people/productions? |
| Flame: |
I'm not really sure if these charts are necessary anymore, because "The Scene" nowadays seems to be party-oriented (and you have the results of compos as "charts"). |
| Silver Eagle: |
I agree, and also the charts can be a bit oriented sometimes, if for example 10% of the voters belong to some group. Naturally they vote for their group everywhere. I think the problem has become smaller nowadays though. |
| The Charts: |
Tell us the names of some coders you admire (if there are any) and why? |
| Flame: |
In no order: Chaos (some good routines), Promax (asmone and old Kefrens stuff) and David Braben for elite I (!). |
| Silver Eagle: |
In no order: David Braben for the work and dedication he puts into his products, and C64 coders for their incredible demos and will to keep the machine alive. They are really doing incredible things.. |
| The Charts: |
After glenz vectors and bitmap rotations, now the new fashion seems to be to code gourad-shaded vectors, and voxel and doom-like effects. What will be the next? |
| Flame: |
We'll have to wait for the next gfx/raytracing book to arrive 8). |
| Silver Eagle: |
Don't know.. It will probably be some traditionally high-end oriented method that suddenly becomes possible with low-end machines. Just look at Gouraud, first only possible on 486, and suddenly possible on C64! |
| The Charts: |
Who's the best coder in family? Any other promising brothers or sisters? |
| Flame: |
Based on amount of crap produced ... Me! ... No promising brothers / sisters ... |
| Silver Eagle: |
Based on quality, and code never released ;).. Me! :) |
| The Charts: |
What will you do now? Anything new coming out soon? |
| Silver Eagle: |
*shrug*. If some promising idea pops up soon, I will start coding on it. IF I will do something, it will probably be an intro, because they, in my opinion, are good challenge. |
| The Charts: |
What about your announced 4 disk demo with music by Jester/Sanity? |
| Flame: |
We were coding a demo also for Assembly'94, but because time was working against us, we decided to stop doing it. I'm thinking of releasing a demo coded by me only (maybe for Assembly'95?). We (me & Seg) are going to start a company called Pygmy Brothers (how ideal :), because we have some commercial coming (Assembly '95?). |
| The Charts: |
Well, thanks a lot for the nice interview, we are really looking forward to see something new from you, hopefully before the next Assembly time... |