˙˙00˙ ˙00˙01˙03˙01The Extra Terrestrial Disc-Jockey˙00 ˙ ˙ ˙03˙02PUH / AGONY ˙02˙01˙01˙00˙˙02 ˙- Can you imagine an extra terrestrial disc-jockey? You know, like listening to radio waves from outer space? ˙01 No, I could not, and the conversation definitively began to run towards its very end. I simply had to find something to talk about. Not, of course, that I was interested in him, but if you are to sit in the same room as someone for almost twenty two hours, hell, why not be friends? "He" was a maybe thirty-year-old man from Kiruna, and he was on his way to Gothenburg for the Home Office Exhibition (a rather big annual computer exhibition). He seemed to know his computers, so I took up talking a little about the Amiga and its future; after all, the Amiga is the only computer I have ever cared to learn anything about (and, then, I do not know much about either). He said it was a shame that Commodore had died, because he believed the Amiga to be "a fine machine". His twelve-year-younger brother possessed one of those, and in his youth (?) he had been Kiruna's Operation Wolf Master. We talked a little of the Amiga and its possibilities, but inside my head, another struggle took place: should I actually tell him about the scene? The Amiga conversation found its end in silence, and then I decided that hell, why not? To tell outsiders about the scene is a tough experience indeed, and I stood before a vast experience. First I told him that people that have an interest in common usually unite in some way, and he agreed. Then I continued, and this is what I said... Suppose a few people have an interest in common: the love of their Amiga. Some gather in someone's house in order to play Operation Wolf, while others are more interested in what they actually can produce with their computers. Precisely as in the music world, different groups were formed of interested people. The aim of the groups was, of course, different, just as the Beatles were interested in creation new music while the Swedish Jazz Orchestra only played covers. The computer groups produced things with their computers, like demonstrations, music or even games, and it did not take long before the groups wanted to see other groups in order to exchange experience, copy each other's productions and compete. These gatherings, referred to as copy parties, were arranged all over the world, but as only the groups plus some extra people were there, nobody else really got to know about them. What the groups actually had formed was a world of its own: the scene. Nobody else knew about it - nobody else was interested - and the scene grew. Laws, if you could call them that, were established, as well as annual copy parties, where the groups faced each other in fair and square competition. Many of the group members were extremely talented; they knew how to use their Amiga, and they knew it so well that their productions (demonstrations and all that) often were a great deal better than many commercial productions. The computer dealers and even Commodore itself knew that there was some kind of "underground movement", but they really did not bother to check it out or to use its resources. The scene grew, it consisted of thousands of people, most of them young males, and what it began to produce soon outclassed everything else. They pushed the Amiga closer and closer to its limits, revealing effects not even the commercial PC programmers would dream of. Disk magazines were established, and in them you could read about what happened on the scene ("and a little else, too", I added). Again, many normal paper magazines were outclassed by the ideas and conceptions of the disk magazines of the scene. The scene became a place for artists, too. Competitions were held in order to determine who could draw the best picture or compose the best computer tunes. Many of the sceners were really, really good, and they became famous, some even outside the world of the scene. There has, by the way, always been an "inside the scene" and one "outside the scene". Those outside did not get it at all. They could not understand the thrill of competing, they could not see that there were world beyond those created by commercial producers. Instead of being told what to do, the sceners did what they wanted to do. Call it the triumph of spontaneity, if you like. (It was a triumph: the sceners had something in common, something nobody else bothered to take part of as they did not understand, or they did not want to understand.) The sceners ruled their world of their own, a world with kings, laws, thieves, punishments, gatherings and festivals, and it was a world of their own. When they tried to tell others about it, the actual persons just smiled understandingly and said something to be nice, but they did not really care. The scene developed even more, and some groups were so talented that commercial companies noticed them and offered them work. Thus, some scene members began to make games or "Normal" Compact Disks, most of which were of astonishing quality (well, he actually had bought Pinball Fantasies for his PC) and took the rest of the world with storm. Many of those who had left the scene said something like "The scene, that was great fun. I really miss its spontaneity; its all business out here." The scene still is there today, maybe even stronger than ever. It is more or less related to the Amiga (and the 64!); there is a PC scene, but it's rather infested with games and commercial ideas, it simply lacks some of the real scene's ideas about friendship, truth and development. I made a break; I was all worn out. And what do you think he said? ˙02"Pal, what about that extra terrestrial disc-jockey now?" ˙01I had spoken to deaf ears. ˙01