Interview with Zeus

Published in:	Zine #10
Interviewed by:	Chester of Brainstorm
Date:	9. August 1991

Interview


	
		Zine:
		A new group and a number one in the latest ZINE-demochart! Well, I think people want to know some personal data about you first: what are you doing in Shining, how old are you, do you have a girlfriend, are you still going to school and what about some future non-computer plans'n'aims?
	
	
		Zeus:
		Once upon a time there was a moment when the Tree held his breath, listening, waiting, when mother Sun suddenly stopped her furious, violent eruptions, gazing, waiting. Even the Wind put a hand around his long, swaying beard, making the air stand still, feeling, waiting. Silence filled the universe. Suddenly, all at once, it all happened: Tree heard a short cry of life, Wind felt the living body of the child and Sun saw that the boy was born well. They all smiled.
This was a quite special child, before he had reached the age of four, he had learned to read and ten years old, the boy had finished the high-school math. I would lie if I said he wasn't a genius.
Unfortunately that guy is in no way me, I'm just a silly jerk. (My behind is quite sweet though.) When I was born my mom was in a forest, picking berries. Just reaching out for that last nice blue berry, I dropped out and landed on a hard bed of elk-shit. Seeing my twisted face and my silly look, she though I was a mutant anteater, eating elk-shit and she walked quickly away. I then had to race through the whole forest, hunted by a hord of mutant anteaters, hating rivalry.
If someone STILL haven't forgotten what the question actually was all about, and STILL wants to know the answer, please read the letter which I sent to Chester, included in the "Letter to the Editor"-section on page 10. That letter is far more interesting than these answers of mine will ever be. Read it now.
	
	
		Zine:
		The fact is that most of your members have got experiences in the demo scene for years. Members of Shining were the people behind the old group "Public Enemies". Tell us a little bit more about your personal computer-story and the history of your group.
	
	
		Zeus:
		There are two ways of learning, call them Simple and Hard. If you go the hard way, you let others teach you almost everything and in a moment or two you know all that is now known. Good. Now try the Simple path and learn almost everything for yourself. It will take a long time, yes, but once you've learned it, it's no problem walking further, past the knowledge that others have earned. Therefore, no one in Shining knows anything. No one cares about who entered or left the group when, how and why, so I'll skip that. For further information about my computer history, please consult the Letter on page 10.
	
	
		Zine:
		Once upon a time "Top Swap" and "Public Enemies" formed "Adept"-Sweden. That's totally split up? What has happened to all those people?
	
	
		Zeus:
		Quite a few guys dropped out, others (Elite) wanted to join and none of the core had done much lately so we decided to start afresh: Shining.
	
	
		Zine:
		One year ago you've done a brilliant demo, too. It became the second place at a Phenomena-party. But it looked like nobody realized that there are some more very talented guys in Sweden. With your latest demo "Vector Exterminator" people noticed you now. Do you think that it's also because of different chart-systems like The EuroChart or the ZINE-democharts who reach almost thousands of Amiga-freaks?
	
	
		Zeus:
		The not-so-clever-and-wise people sure think a demo is a lot better if it's resting on the top of a chart or if it's released from a well known group (no names). Actually I don't think that it is very important though.
	
	
		Zine:
		How much time did you spend for the "Vector Exterminator" demo?
	
	
		Zeus:
		Following the Zeus-philosophy (Letter starting on page 10), the time passed between the first move.w and the last guru was simply very long. If I had coded seven days a week I suppose it would have taken a month (or two). Take twice as much work as you can imagine. Double it. Now you have half the amount of work needed to half the demo (or close to).
	
	
		Zine:
		Do you still have new ideas to create demos? You showed the scene that Vectors are out, what's up now?
	
	
		Zeus:
		The first time someone does something new and creative, it's in. The second time the same thing is done, it's bloody out.
	
	
		Zine:
		But do you still like some fast vector demos? Or must there be a little story behind the demo like in the "Virtual World" by Thomas Lanspurg?
	
	
		Zeus:
		Yes, a demo with an exciting story would be just GREAT. Writing something exciting is hard though, very hard.
Vectors... Da Vinci showed how you in a simple way simulate an eye view. Starglider on my 48K Spectrum six years ago was a delight, but... Well, you know what I'm going to say, so I won't.
	
	
		Zine:
		Another Swedish group, Phenomena, is for a lot of people the best group on Amiga. What do you think about this group? Do you know any members personally? What is your opinion about Azatoth, Celebrandil, Mr. Gurk, Tip and Terminator?
	
	
		Zeus:
		Not only having the very best name of the scene, Mr. Gurk is very nice and I like his style. I remember a very good demo of his, about three years old, where he animated a couple of pictures, making EVERYONE belive he that he had made a HUGE amount of bobs. Simple, but way ahead everyone else. Perfect. Celebrandbil made nice pictures. I don't know much about Tip and I haven't even heard of Terminator (sorry but I'm sure you're great), but more about my silliness later.
	
	
		Zine:
		Your group is 100% Swedish?
	
	
		Zeus:
		No, NO WAY, SILLY!!! We have one Finnish member too.
	
	
		Zine:
		What do you think about foreign sections?
	
	
		Zeus:
		I sure like the Thai section.
	
	
		Zine:
		Who are your favorites in the whole scene? Groups, Coders, Graphicians, Musicians.
	
	
		Zeus:
		Let me describe my situation. I live in Sweden, in Mjölby - you knew that? Good. In Sweden it's cold and snowy. Four weeks ago I made a serious attempt to leave my igloo. I hope you understand that this was a very hard decision to take, but at 327 kg I simply HAD to go to the toilet. No sooner said than done, I started the dressing procedure and just a few hours later I had turned into a perfect sphere of clothes, ready to roll down to my skis (shoes won't make any use, you know) and start the struggle. Unfortunately I had forgotten something - to take my girlfriend off - so I had to repeat the procedure, but that isn't really important.
I opened the door one millimeter, peering out. I didn't hear a thing. Perhaps the wind didn't blow today! Two millimeters. Nothing, not a sound, total silence.
Three millimeters. Unfortunately, the boy was now born (remember?) and Wind slowly dropped his hand letting the beard sway softly again while he smiled beautifully. Of course the air then threw me across the room, smashing me into a wall and reducing me into a small puddle of slime. I was lucky that day; at the hospital I found a loo, so I could then happily head for home. I now hope that you understand why I don't know a shit about anyone or anything.
	
	
		Zine:
		What do you think about illegal activities, I think a part of Shining is also illegal, isn't it?
	
	
		Zeus:
		At present day, when a game reaches the shops one month after Mr. Copy-Floppy has already solved it and costs as much as 50 empty disks, I understand it. Sort of bad circle, eh?
	
	
		Zine:
		Talking about parties. You visited the ECES party? Was it good?
	
	
		Zeus:
		It was the worst party I've ever been on. Usually parties are just too funny, but this one was a complete disaster, a total failure, one of the worst times of my life; the fact is that I was very ill and the only thing I wanted to do was to get home and vomit. Too bad, since I think that the party was quite good and I didn't get the chance to enter the real time demo contest, which I had looked forward to do. Iridon, our top graphician won the graphics competition and Misty came on third place in the music contest, so at least we got some publicity.
	
	
		Zine:
		Are there any plans in Shining to do a party? And at all let us know some future projects of Shining.
	
	
		Zeus:
		We, or Chuck C, have plans for a party next summer here in Sweden. The Place that we will choose is the one offering the best hardware to perform the best graphics, music and coding competitions. In addition to other parties, we will also select the group of the groups as an overall winner. This competition will consist of many small and big competitions added together to be able to pick the winner. All competitions will be run under OS2.0. Musicians will have the opportunity to use 2Mb for their songs. That goes for the demo competition as well. Everything will be run on an A3000, with 25 MHz and a 68882 math processor. Of course we will boot the demos on an A500 if they won't work satisfyingly. We (Chuck C) are also thinking about having the gfx-c powered up! If possible it will be driven on an Amiga with a colorburst installed. All normal competitions will be found as well (real time demo, IQ etc.)
	
	
		Zine:
		Now it looks like we finally reached the end. And as usual you are also allowed to give some messages, statements and opinions about anything to anyone...
	
	
		Zeus:
		Shining is going to release a magazine called Shine. Or no, perhaps not Shine after all. Now I remember: "Playbyte" is the name! Now we need more volunteers; funny people, writing crazy, but good articles. Serious articles are banned, not saying they can be true and make sense.
We also require BBS'es willing to have an ad. for our magazine and in return we will include an ad. for your BBS in Playbyte. For further information, please write to this address: Stefan Scherling, Högklintavägen 19, 172 38 Sundbyberg, Sweden.
Finding a girl that you'd like to go to bed with is no problem, but there is only a girl in a million that you'd like to wake up with. Hi, Annika! I love you!
Everything has an end (except for a sausage, which has two) and finally I just want to give you all a tip: If you have a spare hour, not knowing what to do, write a short dirty story, with lots of filthy words and send it to a dirty magazine (not Playbyte). The competition is none, so the money will drop down into your mailbox in a few months. It works every time, I promise! Bye.
	
	
		Zine:
		And now at the end a big "Thank You!" to Zeus for those excellent, almost literary answers.

Zine:	A new group and a number one in the latest ZINE-demochart! Well, I think people want to know some personal data about you first: what are you doing in Shining, how old are you, do you have a girlfriend, are you still going to school and what about some future non-computer plans'n'aims?
Zeus:	Once upon a time there was a moment when the Tree held his breath, listening, waiting, when mother Sun suddenly stopped her furious, violent eruptions, gazing, waiting. Even the Wind put a hand around his long, swaying beard, making the air stand still, feeling, waiting. Silence filled the universe. Suddenly, all at once, it all happened: Tree heard a short cry of life, Wind felt the living body of the child and Sun saw that the boy was born well. They all smiled. This was a quite special child, before he had reached the age of four, he had learned to read and ten years old, the boy had finished the high-school math. I would lie if I said he wasn't a genius. Unfortunately that guy is in no way me, I'm just a silly jerk. (My behind is quite sweet though.) When I was born my mom was in a forest, picking berries. Just reaching out for that last nice blue berry, I dropped out and landed on a hard bed of elk-shit. Seeing my twisted face and my silly look, she though I was a mutant anteater, eating elk-shit and she walked quickly away. I then had to race through the whole forest, hunted by a hord of mutant anteaters, hating rivalry. If someone STILL haven't forgotten what the question actually was all about, and STILL wants to know the answer, please read the letter which I sent to Chester, included in the "Letter to the Editor"-section on page 10. That letter is far more interesting than these answers of mine will ever be. Read it now.
Zine:	The fact is that most of your members have got experiences in the demo scene for years. Members of Shining were the people behind the old group "Public Enemies". Tell us a little bit more about your personal computer-story and the history of your group.
Zeus:	There are two ways of learning, call them Simple and Hard. If you go the hard way, you let others teach you almost everything and in a moment or two you know all that is now known. Good. Now try the Simple path and learn almost everything for yourself. It will take a long time, yes, but once you've learned it, it's no problem walking further, past the knowledge that others have earned. Therefore, no one in Shining knows anything. No one cares about who entered or left the group when, how and why, so I'll skip that. For further information about my computer history, please consult the Letter on page 10.
Zine:	Once upon a time "Top Swap" and "Public Enemies" formed "Adept"-Sweden. That's totally split up? What has happened to all those people?
Zeus:	Quite a few guys dropped out, others (Elite) wanted to join and none of the core had done much lately so we decided to start afresh: Shining.
Zine:	One year ago you've done a brilliant demo, too. It became the second place at a Phenomena-party. But it looked like nobody realized that there are some more very talented guys in Sweden. With your latest demo "Vector Exterminator" people noticed you now. Do you think that it's also because of different chart-systems like The EuroChart or the ZINE-democharts who reach almost thousands of Amiga-freaks?
Zeus:	The not-so-clever-and-wise people sure think a demo is a lot better if it's resting on the top of a chart or if it's released from a well known group (no names). Actually I don't think that it is very important though.
Zine:	How much time did you spend for the "Vector Exterminator" demo?
Zeus:	Following the Zeus-philosophy (Letter starting on page 10), the time passed between the first move.w and the last guru was simply very long. If I had coded seven days a week I suppose it would have taken a month (or two). Take twice as much work as you can imagine. Double it. Now you have half the amount of work needed to half the demo (or close to).
Zine:	Do you still have new ideas to create demos? You showed the scene that Vectors are out, what's up now?
Zeus:	The first time someone does something new and creative, it's in. The second time the same thing is done, it's bloody out.
Zine:	But do you still like some fast vector demos? Or must there be a little story behind the demo like in the "Virtual World" by Thomas Lanspurg?
Zeus:	Yes, a demo with an exciting story would be just GREAT. Writing something exciting is hard though, very hard. Vectors... Da Vinci showed how you in a simple way simulate an eye view. Starglider on my 48K Spectrum six years ago was a delight, but... Well, you know what I'm going to say, so I won't.
Zine:	Another Swedish group, Phenomena, is for a lot of people the best group on Amiga. What do you think about this group? Do you know any members personally? What is your opinion about Azatoth, Celebrandil, Mr. Gurk, Tip and Terminator?
Zeus:	Not only having the very best name of the scene, Mr. Gurk is very nice and I like his style. I remember a very good demo of his, about three years old, where he animated a couple of pictures, making EVERYONE belive he that he had made a HUGE amount of bobs. Simple, but way ahead everyone else. Perfect. Celebrandbil made nice pictures. I don't know much about Tip and I haven't even heard of Terminator (sorry but I'm sure you're great), but more about my silliness later.
Zine:	Your group is 100% Swedish?
Zeus:	No, NO WAY, SILLY!!! We have one Finnish member too.
Zine:	What do you think about foreign sections?
Zeus:	I sure like the Thai section.
Zine:	Who are your favorites in the whole scene? Groups, Coders, Graphicians, Musicians.
Zeus:	Let me describe my situation. I live in Sweden, in Mjölby - you knew that? Good. In Sweden it's cold and snowy. Four weeks ago I made a serious attempt to leave my igloo. I hope you understand that this was a very hard decision to take, but at 327 kg I simply HAD to go to the toilet. No sooner said than done, I started the dressing procedure and just a few hours later I had turned into a perfect sphere of clothes, ready to roll down to my skis (shoes won't make any use, you know) and start the struggle. Unfortunately I had forgotten something - to take my girlfriend off - so I had to repeat the procedure, but that isn't really important. I opened the door one millimeter, peering out. I didn't hear a thing. Perhaps the wind didn't blow today! Two millimeters. Nothing, not a sound, total silence. Three millimeters. Unfortunately, the boy was now born (remember?) and Wind slowly dropped his hand letting the beard sway softly again while he smiled beautifully. Of course the air then threw me across the room, smashing me into a wall and reducing me into a small puddle of slime. I was lucky that day; at the hospital I found a loo, so I could then happily head for home. I now hope that you understand why I don't know a shit about anyone or anything.
Zine:	What do you think about illegal activities, I think a part of Shining is also illegal, isn't it?
Zeus:	At present day, when a game reaches the shops one month after Mr. Copy-Floppy has already solved it and costs as much as 50 empty disks, I understand it. Sort of bad circle, eh?
Zine:	Talking about parties. You visited the ECES party? Was it good?
Zeus:	It was the worst party I've ever been on. Usually parties are just too funny, but this one was a complete disaster, a total failure, one of the worst times of my life; the fact is that I was very ill and the only thing I wanted to do was to get home and vomit. Too bad, since I think that the party was quite good and I didn't get the chance to enter the real time demo contest, which I had looked forward to do. Iridon, our top graphician won the graphics competition and Misty came on third place in the music contest, so at least we got some publicity.
Zine:	Are there any plans in Shining to do a party? And at all let us know some future projects of Shining.
Zeus:	We, or Chuck C, have plans for a party next summer here in Sweden. The Place that we will choose is the one offering the best hardware to perform the best graphics, music and coding competitions. In addition to other parties, we will also select the group of the groups as an overall winner. This competition will consist of many small and big competitions added together to be able to pick the winner. All competitions will be run under OS2.0. Musicians will have the opportunity to use 2Mb for their songs. That goes for the demo competition as well. Everything will be run on an A3000, with 25 MHz and a 68882 math processor. Of course we will boot the demos on an A500 if they won't work satisfyingly. We (Chuck C) are also thinking about having the gfx-c powered up! If possible it will be driven on an Amiga with a colorburst installed. All normal competitions will be found as well (real time demo, IQ etc.)
Zine:	Now it looks like we finally reached the end. And as usual you are also allowed to give some messages, statements and opinions about anything to anyone...
Zeus:	Shining is going to release a magazine called Shine. Or no, perhaps not Shine after all. Now I remember: "Playbyte" is the name! Now we need more volunteers; funny people, writing crazy, but good articles. Serious articles are banned, not saying they can be true and make sense. We also require BBS'es willing to have an ad. for our magazine and in return we will include an ad. for your BBS in Playbyte. For further information, please write to this address: Stefan Scherling, Högklintavägen 19, 172 38 Sundbyberg, Sweden. Finding a girl that you'd like to go to bed with is no problem, but there is only a girl in a million that you'd like to wake up with. Hi, Annika! I love you! Everything has an end (except for a sausage, which has two) and finally I just want to give you all a tip: If you have a spare hour, not knowing what to do, write a short dirty story, with lots of filthy words and send it to a dirty magazine (not Playbyte). The competition is none, so the money will drop down into your mailbox in a few months. It works every time, I promise! Bye.
Zine:	And now at the end a big "Thank You!" to Zeus for those excellent, almost literary answers.