b1a0tScoopex on FocustRokDaZonetfpf2s2c01 Scoopex on Focus c03f1 by RokDaZone c02No doubt, c03Scoopex c03the often said to be dead legendary group found in 1997 one of it's strongest years in its long history. Reason enough to meet one of their organisers for an exclusive lineup. We met c02Antibytec03, who recently set new standards for 40k intros with his The Party'97 winning c03'Superautodrome'c02. Roman Rath - his real name - is a 24 year old student who joined Scoopex after being member in c03Energy c02and c03X15 Crewc02. The austrian coding talent gave us quite some interesting insights in his ambitions and in past, present and future of Scoopex. A long interview surely but definately worth the while reading. So just hang on. f2c01 We are a group with a young body and with an old soul f1c03After quite a respectable amount of years, Scoopex finally has reached highest heights again. A tremendous success which resulted in the winning of two c04Generation Awards c03for Superautodrome and Seenpoint plus a silver award for you as coder. Tremendous especially when seeing it all happend more or less in one year. Which members played the most important roles for that in your opinion? f4c02 "We all did in one way or an other. Unfortunately not all of the results of the activities of our members are as visible as an intro or a demo. But I simply couldn't say that it would have been the same if this or that member wouldn't have been part of us, because it wouldn't!" f1c03What is your private goal for the group? f4c02 "To keep on going and going, just like the 10 years we've already brought behind us." f1c03While I was at growth: SCX lately has inhaled Seenpoint and with it SCX's second diskmag after the often critizised c04'World Charts'c03. We also heard that the joining of Fishwave/Sane was not uncontroversial. What was you first position about it? f4c02 "Fishwave already was a member of Scoopex f2before f4Seenpoint became an SCX production. The additional joining of Sane and Syntax was uncontroversial inside our crew. I haven't heard any negative comments from outside the group either." f1c03Do you think that Seenpoint has the power to raise SCX glory or will Seenpoint rather win from SCX's name? f4c02 "I don't know. That wasn't the point in Seenpoint becoming a SCX production anyways. We always liked Seenpoint for creating a unique style and therefore standing out of the line of other diskmags." f1c03What is your opinion the state of the Scenemedia overall, do they do a good job to inform their readers or are they in some kind of ratrace for the wickedest stories? f4c02 "In my opinion it should be the task of a diskmag to bring information about the Scene to the reader and nothing else. If I want to read stories or lyrics, I grab a book. Most annoying to me is that diskmags write a whole bunch of stuff about other diskmags, with all their petty wars going on. If I read a newspaper, I want news, not to read about other newspapers." f1c03So Seenpoint fits perfectly the line-up of SCX, ok. But back to yourself. You are know to be some kind of conservative Scener, where conservative is not meant negativly. When looking at the third generation Sceners: Do you miss the 'good old times'? Why yes/why not? f4c02 "I don't really miss the 'good old times'. Without doubt it was cool and fun back in the 80s, but if it hadn't been up to now, I would have quit. It's sad that so many people have quit, and that the second and third generation Sceners don't know the history of the Amiga Scene, like they should. But then again this point of view is just the result of my age." (smiles) f1c03Which was in your opinion the most important release from SCX ever? f4c02 "There's f2no f4argument about this, 'Mental Hangover' was the most important release from Scoopex ever and of great importance for the whole Scene, because of introducing the concept of trackmos, which changed the look of demos completely." f1c03There has been some kind of unnice 'warfare' between SCX and TRSI lately with you and Uyanik! seemingly as main antagonists. Uyanik!/TRSI lately told me that in start it was not so important until Mop blew up the whole story and both of you decided to make the story bigger, while being not in bad contact to eachothers. Can you verify this? f4c02 "Yes, it's been some time now since we last talked to each other due to the fact that Uyanik is very busy, but he has never said a bad word against me (neither personally nor in public) as far as I can remember. Not even after my provocation in Zero-G 3." f1c03Is there somekind of historical challenge against TRSI? f4c02 "If at all, it must have been S!P joining Scoopex after leaving/getting kicked out of TRSi back in 1992." f1c03SCX once was declared dead once in 1992 and then again after the desastrous Cebit Party in 1993. Not few declared the reformed SCX as plagiatrists. Now with some years having passed: Is the 'new' SCX really the 'old' SCX? f4c02 "Trade (the leader from 91-94), declared Scoopex dead some days before TP92. Two days before TP92, he started it again. I wouldn't really call this being dead. This 'death' didn't even last a week, and it was exactly the same people before and after this period. A lot of members left after the Cebit'93 Party, but Scoopex wasn't dead then either, so this is simply false. But Scoopex did change indeed alot since it was started by Ranger back in 1988. But that's natural for a group with the age of 10 years. There have been three eras in the life of Scoopex: Ranger being in charge of it from 88-91, Trade from 91-94, and myself from 94-??. But the difference to e.g. TRSi is that I already was part of Scoopex in the first era! There's no one who has been longer in Scoopex than me. Therefore I'd say that we are a group with a young body (not that young when I look at how long most of the members are in the Scene already) with an old soul." f1c03Have you ever thought about convincing some of the old SCX-legends for having a final demo together? In case you would be in that situation, which people would you ask first? f4c02 "No, because they are dead and burried. Sad, but that's the way it is. But if, I would have liked to see a comeback by Crazy Typer, Vectrex and Slayer. f1c03Tell us a little about the making of 'Superautodrome'. Although being a little in the class of Zero Gravity, it convinces with more complex Scenes and stronger images. Especially the Embryo: How did you get the ideas it? f4c02 "I didn't get it at all. The Embryo was done by Nomad, I just included it." f1(smiles) c03Why all these balls consisting of small 'spikes' in recent intros from you? Any deeper meaning? f4c02 "Not really. 40k aren't really much. Objects take more diskspace then most might expect. Therefore nearly all of the objects in my intros are calculated at runtime. That's why they all look very similar. And from time to time I add some new things to it, like the 'spikes'." f1c03You are known for anarchist and demonic symbols in your demos. Does this reflect your livestyle or is it just for the athmosphere and associations they create? f4c02 "Primarily it is for the atmosphere and the continuity of our productions." f1c03With 'Superautodrome' and 'My Kingdom' SCX has released two breaking productions, which stake out pathes until The Party 98. What in your opinion made them that successful? f4c02 "Maybe because 'Superautodrome' had to be shown 2 times." f1(smiles)f4c02 "This wasn't actually the organizers fault, the party version really did have a bug. A fixed version was released two weeks later, so anyone who's got the old one, please upgrade. 'My Kingdom' was successful for obvious reasons: The most advanced 3D engine on Amiga by Boogeyman clearly made the demo stand out of the mass of its competitors. Together with the brilliant music and graphics it created a very good atmosphere on the bigscreen." f1c03What do people need to care for if they want to release a succesful demo in your opinion? Any tips from the master? f4c02 "The most important aspect in a demo is atmosphere in my humble opinion. f2how f1you create it is of minor importance. f1c03No help from the maestro, accepted. Anyway, when compared to your Symposium demo which failed with the audience then: Do you think that this demo actually wasn't worth to be voted better or did you simply put the wrong compositions? f4c02 "The problem with 'TheSign' was that it didn't work on o6o at that time and had to be shown on the o3o compo machine which made it of course look slow compared to the demos executed on the o6o compo machine. Another thing was that the speakers couldn't take Deck's music, it just sounded horrible, so the desired atmosphere was not created. Besides the demo only took three minutes, which is way too short. Besides German Sceners aren't especially fond of us, although I can't think of any reason why. But it was plain to see that Boogeyman's engine was capable of doing much more things than e.g. Jamie's engine in Thug Life (Phong, moving objects, moving lightsource, flares, ...). However it didn't manage to please the audience for the above mentioned reasons." f1c03When compared to Killer by CNCD: Wouldn't you say that Killer looks much more innovative than 'My Kingdom' like critics stated lately? What is in your opinion the factor that made 'My Kingdom' win? f4c02 "Killer is indeed much more innovative in terms of concept and design. However people seem to prefer 3D Scenes, which My Kingdom got plenty of. My Kingdom got applause three times while it was shown on the bigscreen at TheParty97, while Killer got none! Watching a demo for the first time on a bigscreen is very different from watching it several times on your own monitor at home. I've heard quite some people complaining on IRC about Killer's music. Maybe that's the factor that failed to create atmosphere and resulted in getting only half of the points of My Kingdom. But generally speaking I can't say why people vote this or that thing, I'll leave that up to the socio-Scenologists." f1c03The Haujobb connection: Where does this strong connection between your two groups result from? f4c02 "It resulted from getting to know each other on the IRC. Owl was (as far as I remember) the one who proposed a cooperation demo. During the process of making it and especially meeting at TP97 improved the bonds between us." f1c03Haujobb seemingly didn't prove too much reliability when they delayed the finishing touches for 'My Kingdom', many SCX members criticised this openly on the IRC: What do you think about this? Is such an ignorant behaviour towards the Scene respectable? f4c02 "Well, I don't think it is ignorancy, the big problem was Fastjack dropping out of the project and leaving them behind with no help whatsoever. That's also the reason why the second part wasn't as improved as it was planned to be. But again, I can't really tell if that's how it was, Jazz can surely tell you more." f1c03No, thank you. Then again, is there the danger that there might eventually really be a merging of the two groups like you tipped on with 'Haupex'? f4c02 "No, we will stay two seperate groups, but it could without doubt happen that we'll be doing more coop productions." f1c03Thank you for the interview.