$faf|1-Phil!96 says...


$ffa|2-"Cheerio!"







$fff                           by Phil!96/Ex-NFA

$fafHello and to a greater extent, goodbye.  In case there's anyone left out
there who's in any doubt - I have officially quit the scene.  I've quite
a  few  reasons  for  calling it a day, but here's the main points:  (if
your're at all interested)..

$aff *  Work.   Its  the  curse  of  that  haunts  every  scener's  life and
    eventually I buckled under the pressure from the (D)SS.  There I was
    a  happy enough coder, scene veteran and dolite when I got forced on
    a  Training  For Work scheme.  This wouldnt have been too bad, I was
    expecting  a  nice doss for 6 months but sadly, my pretence of being
    just  another  dole  thickie  didnt last long and I was found a job.
    What could I do?  The job werent too bad (to begin with) but it soon
    became  apparent  that I wouldnt have sod all time for coding, which
    as  you'll  appreciate  is a real time and (mental) energy consuming
    pass-time..

$aaf *  The state of the Amiga.  I think everyone agrees its grim death time
    for  the  Amiga these days.  Commodore killed the Amiga, not by what
    they  did  but  what  they didnt do.  With its outdated hardware, it
    doesnt  seem  to  have  a  place  in  the market these days.  Want a
    machine  for  word  processing?  Get a cheap low-end PC.  Want a top
    games machine?  Get a Playstation..  The Amiga is now a cult machine
    (more  than ever) and developers see a dwindling user base.  If they
    want  to  continue making money they have no alternative but to pull
    the  plug  and  move onto products for other platforms.  Without new
    Amiga   specific   products,  theres  no  advertisers  to  fill  the
    Amiga-press  coffers  and  they  start  to  fade away too.  Downward
    spiral, reckons I.

$aff *  The state of the scene.  It was really going downhill since the fall
    of  the  massive groups like Anarchy..  But lately its been absolute
    pants.   The  air  of apathy and daft in-fighting between groups and
    their  instability  has  just  made the scene more and more tedious.
    Plus  I've  got  sick and tired of spending weeks on a project for a
    group  only  to  find them suddenly disinterested or even split up a
    week  before  release.  Most coders will be nodding their heads with
    the familiarity of this scenario, I'm sure..

$aaf *  Me.   I  suppose  I  must have got more and more cynical as I've got
    older.   But  now with the additional stress of work to cope with, I
    dont  need  any  more  hassle  in my life..  Coding for me is boring
    unless  its  just  for  a  hobby,  summat to fart about with..  Plus
    theres  a  tendancy to want to get paid for everything!  I think its
    time  to  quit when you cant even be assed to the read the new files
    list of a BBS let alone download anything!

$ffaWell, you get the idea!  I'm still keeping my Amiga stuff and I'll still
do  a bit of coding now and again but its very unlikely to be mainstream
scene  stuff!   But who knows, I might get totally pissed off with work,
pack it in and write Giddy 3 or summat..

$faaBut  for  now,  its  a big goodbye from me with massive salutes to these
guys, many of whom will have quit the scene long ago but it seemed right
to mention them all anyway:


$ffa> Matthew (Digit)          > Lee Bevin (Watts)      > Geoff (Horror)

$faa> Chris Horne (Hornesoft)  > Efex (Mark)            > Rob (Vegas Gunmen)

$ffa> Graham (Mars Bar)        > Neil (Devistor)        > Andi (Skuzzy)

$faa> Mark (IKE)               > TUC                    > Mic Flair 

$ffa> Kev+Rich / Mon PD        > Michael/Anathema       > Phil (Elric?)

$faa> Tetsuo                   > Jode (Zok/Phetamines)  > Freak / NFA


$afaGreat knowing you all! (no order implied by the way.)

$fffEnd