Looking Back By Bird of VISAGE Looking back is a part of your life. Good or bad? It's not up to me to decide, but looking back can sometimes cause some serious damage. In my opinion you should lay the past be the past and live the way you are. The same goes for our Scene. Looking back can really make you miss some things, but on the other hand looking back makes you happy when you see old releases - Development. 1988 - Amiga!? I entered the Scene in late 1988. Back then the A500 was launched as the ULTIMATIVE multimedia machine, which could be used for both games and office use. Some serious firms belived in the AMIGA and started developing hardware for it. The same happened in the software buisness. The AMIGA started a revoulution in game making. I don't know anything about the Scene before 1988, but I think that this was the year when the AMIGA Scene exploded. A lot of new freaks interested in the possibilities of this machine showed up. Like me though I was MORE than a lamer. I "remixed" FAB modules in protracker not knowing ANYTHING about music. I started contacting other people. At almost the same time a GOOD friend of mine bought an A500 too. This friend is today one of the best coders on the Scene - Boogeyman. Bamiga Sector One is one of the names which I see most clearly today, but don't forget Trilogy, WOW, Danish Gold, Silents, Kefrens, Flash Productions, Alpha Flight, Vision, Red Sector Inc. and not to forget TROUBLE BROS, which had several known members of the Scene today: NIGHTHAWK, BOOGEYMAN, BIRD and some other dudes which has left us. Intros was demos in our opinion, but when seeing the latest MEGADEMOS from various groups we were ALLWAYS stoned by the graphics, code and music. All of it was still on a developing state. 1989 - Still developing. A period in the Scene which was the most developing in the entire Scene history. The AMIGA had it's name among young users like me, but also music studios and film studios saw the possibilities in the AMIGA. A lot of software came to this computer, most of it was still games. We left the LAMER status (I think so!) and started focusing on the different activities in the Scene. I think we split up in Trouble Bros. I joined BRAIN WAVE, but later I left this French group for Majic 12 where I teamed up with NIGHTHAWK again. Majic 12 - What is there to say than: MUD and TFG were the Danish HQ and I never contacted any of the foreigners. I stayed in this group for quite a while. Diskmags, messageboxes, intros, demos, pack menus etc. was developed through 1989 and still is if you ask me. What we all know from the comes from this period. Design was also an ingridient in demos then. Some of the so called legends had their PRIME TIME this period. MENTAL HANGOVER, RSI MEGADEMO and KEFRENS MEGADEMO - this is HISTORY! Only to mention the most famous, do not forget: Alpha Flight, Acme, Brainstorm, Unique etc. 1990 - A new period. The PC was coming just around the corner, but still too expensive for the normal user. The AMIGA sold more and more. AMIGA magazines popped up every week or so. AMIGA IS THE FUTURE - We thought. Scene personalities started leaving the Scene for game companies, because of the explotion in the software buisness. Majic 12 was still a part of my life until I joined a rather unknown group called Inzzest. Which had some really cool members - even then! I started on a new school where I met a nice dude who also had AMIGA. This guy was a coder and we started doing other things than COMPUTING! We started this little crew called VIXEN. I spoke with Boogeyman about joining (his handle was at this time Dr.Snow). He joined and so did one of the best swappers EVER - Photon/Drain/Morten. We became bigger and bigger and at The Party 1990 we offered TUSC (ex-Crionics) to join so he did. Later followed Trap and Wiz. A period with a lot good releases. The revolutiounary point was the Design from Melon Dezign, Hardwired from Crionics and ofcourse New techniuqes developed in art (music and graphics). 1991 - Getting better. Software and Hardware boom this year. The prices were rather low on both the hardware and software side. NEW AMIGA rumours started this year, talking about a new chip set etc. (A1200/A4000). Legends in the Scene were born, we lost A LOT of the first amiga freaks this year. the word legend got used more and more by sceners. VIXEN was still alive! not many releases, but still known. The fall of VIXEN started when I decided to join another group. I think I owe an apology to the members of VIXEN (at that tine!). We splitted up, I left to join Majic 12 (again!). Drain and Razta joined Orient. Boogeyman became independent (later on he started OBLIVION together with Kefner). Some other members decided to call their group VIXEN. Again THE PARTY was being held and AGAIN it was a huge success. The demos were getting better and better - code, music, garphics and DESIGN! The year 1991 showed us that the days of Silents, Rebels, TRSI, Quartex etc. were over, new leading demo groups popped up like: Spaceballs, Lemon., Melon Dezign and Andromeda (just to mention a few). 1992 - Farewell Still improving the hardware for Amigas, HD's was now available for a cheap price. The "NEW" AMIGA rumours came closer and closer, but was it real? I was fed up with Scene. I couldn't see the difference in being at the TOP or at the BOTTOM. So I got more and more inactive. I only made music, bu I couldn't see the purpose anymore. In the winter (November/December) I left the Scene for good - I thought. I think that my inactivity in 1992 has left me with an empty hole inside. Sure there were some good releases. But nothing inovating. It all seemed to have an OFF period. 1993 - Hello AGAIN? The new AMIGA was a reality, first some beta versions but late in 1993 they were on the market (correct me if I'm wrong). This new machine showed us new possibilties. Still fooling around on other computers. I moved together with Boogeyman in an apartment and I started getting interested in the Scene again. This was in November 1993. So i've been away from the Scene almost an year. It wa hard for me to get back, because most of the dudes I knew had left the Scene. The real knwon Sceners were almost the same, but I wanted to start swapping and I didn't know any! I joined Oblivion without having an AMIGA. Then I bought an A1200 and I was back for good (sounds like Take That!?). I started composing music again. GREAT FUN!!!!! WOW! The A1200 really showed us that computers were more than just a toy. Some really astounding things were released. Digitized graphics, blasting Techno modules, funky tunes, HARDCORE design, Melon "Design" etc. What a year. Looking forward to 1994. 1994 - THE YEAR? The PC was cheap and much faster than an ordinary A1200. People started seeing a future in th PC and NOT the AMIGA!? I wonder why. the hardware prices were so low, that there was no excuse for not buing a HD or extra memory. I decided to leave Oblivion. I joined another group (no names), but after a short time there I started a new group together with Kefner from Oblivion called NOISE. After a few months we were forced to change our name because of some Swedish group called Noice - so we did. We changed to EDGE. Ohh... In June Razta and I released VOICES for the first time. Jahoo! Hmm.. This means that we have made this FAB? diskmag. for more than a year. The Party '94 showed us that the AMIGA wasn't dead. "Thank God!". Demos like "Nexus 7" from Andromeda and "Big Time Sensuality" is worth remebering in my opinion together with a lot of other releases from: Virtual Dreams, Sanity, Polka Brothers, CNCD, Stellar etc. 1995 - ???? Hmmmm.... Let's see... This article is dedicated to the Sceners who has a place in my Scene history. You know who you are, but to make you happy I will mention you ALL by name/Handle. (In absolutely NO ORDER!). Boogeyman, Kefner, Drain/Morten, Razta, Pride, Quarterman, Mud, Nighthawk, TFG, TUSC, Trap, Wiz, Zac, Wildcat, Scarface, Trickster I would like to say goodbye to one of my best friends in the Scene ever. His name is known by you all - PRIDE. Not just a swapping machine, no a person with roots from the mid/late eighties. A guy whom I will remember. I wish you good luck in the future!