INTERVIEW WITH PEINCEPS/DESASTER AREA BY PARANOID 1 TELL US YOUR NAME, AGE, GROUP. In the scene I'm known as PRINCEPS. I'm in the group called DESASTER AREA. In August I'll turn 17. 2 SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR GROUP PLEASE. I founded DESASTER AREA together with some friends in my home village in Switzerland (Sarnen). This was at the beginning of December '89. Our members are... SECRET SCIENCE (coder, swapper), HIGH JINX (coder), CPU (composer), METAL MANIAC (GFX-expert) and in South Africa ... CINCLANT (GFX-expert, swapper (VHS+software)), Foxx (composer, swapper), Baroque (modem trader, composer), Gargoyle (GFX-expert). 3 OK, WHAT ABOUT THE SOUTH AFRICAN SECTION OF YOUR GROUP, DID YOU FIND COOL GUYS THERE? Yes, very productive members, indeed. I met all of them at the weekly "copy-parties" which are normally hold at FOXX's house. Normally we have about three Amigas there which are occupied by about seven freaks. There everybody wants to show his new productions. Later in the day it becomes then a "SPEEDBALL"-competition, which is normally dominated by me... But it's actually always a problem to get there, because the public traffic is nearly inexistent and most of us live in a radius of about 20 kilometers from FOXX's house. Life without a car is not possible in South Africa. 4 WHAT'S YOUR FUNCTION IN YOUR GROUP, AND TELL US IF YOUR GROUP HAS SOME PLANS FOR THE FUTURE OR ARE YOU JUST WORKING ON SOMETHING? Well, I'm a coder and I like to swap demos. There are no specific plans I could talk about, because I don't really know what the guys in Switzerland are doing at the moment. I only know that a demo is to be released at the big ALCATRAZ copyparty in june. High Jinx is busy exploring the world of Vector-GFX and Secret Science is always good for a intro or something like that... And I'm planning to release a comic magazine called COMIC MANIA. Ah, by the way: We're planning to break the scrolltext record held by the CLONES (52KB). This won't be too difficult because Secret Science and I always bombard each other with 30KB letters... Anyway, you could describe it as "JUST WORKING ON SOMETHING". 5 DO YOU HAVE A BBS? IF YES, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOU? DON'T YOU PREFER MAIL-SWAPPING? Yes, we've got a BBS in South Africa, but it isn't from ANY importance for us. It's actually just for fun (as everything...). In case any modem traders are reading this, call: 0027-11-883-7478! This BBS (30MB) will run soon with a new, 9600 Baud modem. For swapping "new stuff" it is of course important, because you must consider that it takes for a letter from Europe to here quite a long time (best time:2 Days!) and because some degenerated swapper brains in Europe have ugly ideas about what a LAMER is (you know, the "to swap only 2 days old stuff, write to..." people). But anyway, I don't even want to swap with such "would like to be good" creatures. I personally prefer mail swapping. 6 HOW MANY CONTACTS DO YOU HAVE? WHAT KIND OF FEELING DO YOU LIKE BY SWAPPING WITH YOUR CONTACTS? I MEAN: JUST SWAPPING, OR SOME SORT OF FRIENDSHIP TOO? At the moment I'm swapping with 12 other people. It's difficult to call it friendship, because you don't even know your contacts personally in most cases. But I think that I know what you mean with friendship in the scene, and I fully agree with the idea. I really like to get LONG letters from my contacts and I'm now at the stage where "NEW STUFF" is just from secondary importance for me. 7 WHAT ABOUT THESE FUCKING STUPID SWAPPERS WHO HAVE A PRE-PRINTED LETTER, AND THE ONLY THING THEY DO, IS TO FIX IT LIKE A TEST? This question seems to be demanding agreement... I just want to say that it doesn't say too much about the person who is "writing". One of my best contacts contacted me with such a "joke". Some swappers just lost their common sense and swap with 60 contacts. And when you have that many letters to write, it makes it obviously easier for you. But I hate people who mean that this is COOL!!!! 8 WHAT KIND OF MUSIC, SPORT, BOOKS DO YOU LIKE? I like HEAVY METAL music (METALLICA, MEGADETH, JUDAS PRIEST, ANTHRAX), but I can also listen to various other kinds of music such as RONDO VENEZIANO other some sort of pop music (DEPECHE MODE BILLY IDOL, DEF LEPPARD...). Even ACID (Amiga Club In Dueren!) has sometimes a chance (but seldom...). To keep the balance to my hobby COMPUTER, I play squash and do some jogging. Some books I'll never forget: IT (STEPHEN KING), THE STAND (STEPHEN KING), THE TALISMAN (STEPHEN KING/PETER STRAUB), THE HITCH-HIKER TRILOGY (DOUGLAS ADAMS), RED STORM RISING (TOM CLANCY), RED PHOENIX (LARRY BOND), 2001 (ARTHUR C. CLARKE), 2010 (ARTHUR C. CLARKE) and lots of others... I just can't think of them. And I read many good books in German, so I don't even know their english original titles... 9 YOUR FAVOURITE: CRACKER, CODER, GFXMAN, MUSICIAN AND YOUR BEST FRIEND IN THE SCENE? Best Cracker: IL SCURO/DEFJAM CCS Best coder: After watching the BABBNAASEN-DEMO, this should be obvious: DELTA/RSI Best GFXMAN: Gargoyle/Desaster Area (He draws the most amazing cartoons ever seen!). Best musician: Fred (this french guy who composed the ancient SOUNDBOX trilogy and was last sighted in the group THREAT, which is now split up too) and Romeo Knight/RSI. Does anybody know what Rob Hubbard is doing?! Best friend in the scene: There are many, and I don't want to distinguish between them... 10 OH, BY THE WAY... YESTERDAY I HEARD ABOUT MANDELA'S SPEECH AT AN ANC MEETING. HE HAD MANY HARD WORDS AGAINST SOUTH AFRICA'S POLITICIANS. ARE YOU STILL CONVINCED OF WHAT YOU WROTE IN YOUR S.A. REPORT? I can't really remember what I wrote in this article (4 months ago), but MANDELA has now obviously changed his mind... (6.5.90). South Africa seems to be on the right way... 11 HOW IS LIFE IN SOUTH AFRICA? WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES TO SWITZERLAND? Life in South Africa is GREAT! I really consider living here later on... The landscape is very different. On a drive from the east coast to Johannesburg I managed to compare it to the USA, Italy, Switzerland and many other countries... Also it seems to be the country of the sport, you can find like thousands of different sports (even skiing!). The youth is also more active (lots of parties every weekend). As differences to Switzerland I could mention the poor public traffic (so you need a car), the nice weather, the schools (Though they're on the same educational standard as the swiss ones, I HATE my school!!! -> Bryanston High School -> NOTE THIS NAME AND BE CAREFUL... they're terribly strict, and you better don't walk around with YOUR HANDS IN YOUR POCKETS!!) For further information you better visit this country yourself or contact me. 12 MESSAGES? Contact us for swapping VHS, DEMOS, TOOLS (or just for a chat): Mike Imfeld, P.O.Box 781606, Sandton 2146, South Africa. Or call our BBS: 0027-11-883-7478. If you're interested in contacting our swiss section for whatever reason, write to: Pascal Mueller, Cher, 6060 Sarnen, Switzerland. GOOD LUCK WITH "FUNZINE"!!! I LIKE THIS MAG AS I LIKE ALL THE OTHERS AS WELL. I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE PEOPLE WHO SAY THAT THERE ARE TOO MANY MAGS ON THE MARKET! HAS EVER ANYBODY CRITICISED THE FACT THAT THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF NEWSPAPERS ON THIS WORLD?!