»CL8:»SML:-------------------------------------- »CL9:»BIG:Get Yourselves Together »CL8:»SML:-------------------------------------- »CL4: by Coma/Absurd&Apathy »CL0:Having just flipped through the pages of Eurochart #38, it leaves me with pretty much the same feeling that every other mag I've read the last year (and before that too) - as usual everybody seem to think that everything concerning the scene is dead and nothing matters anymore. It's years since I exited a new diskmag with a smile on my face, filled with pro-scenish feelings... It's just all too damn depressive! Not that EC38 is more depressive than any other recent mag (it had some bright spots too!), it just follows the trend. "Swapping is out" articles, arselicking interviews with scene "legends" who don't give a shit about the scene, busy as they are with web designing and 3D game producing (isn't it always one of those two? Is there a retired scener with a normal job? Well...) and not to forget the endless small taunts here and there on how inferior the Amiga is to the PC, and how hopeless scene life is compared to "real" life (of course there absolutely can't be any way at all of combining these two lifestyles, can it?), and that it's just ridiculous to continue with scene activites after having passed a certain age. »CL1:We've been brainwashed with this stuff for at least 5-6 years by now, but still some of us just refuse to give up and quit. Why? Are we idiots because we for some reason choose to stick to an inferior technology? Or are we just like veteran car enthusiasts who spend days polishing their old beauties and occasionally go to a convention to meet likeminded people? I don't know... I just know that I love the scene (yes, still) and I hate to see it fall apart. If it's in such a bad state as some people want to think, at least we don't need to speed the deterioration by constantly repeating the same old theme: "My new PC is much better than any Amiga"... Thanks, I know! But it's irrelevant to me! It's like telling a car enthusiast that his beloved 2-ton Chevy from the 50's is highly ineffective compared to modern injection engines, and besides, I heard that Vector's new model easily reaches 250 mph, try that with your old junkpile, haha... Such a person would be an idiot, and still we Amiga sceners take shit like this every day, if not from the local 13-year-old Quake lamer, then from computer magazines or even from interviewed "legendary" sceners in diskmags. It's these interviews that made me write this sour article in the first place. A person who can't even pretend to have some respect for the scene just because he quit it, can never be a legend in my eyes. It's painfully obvious that most of these retired people don't care at all about the scene, so why should we care about them? Why should we have respect? I save my respect and admiration for people who really deserve it - people who stick to the scene and contribute to it, even in these utterly dark ages. »PIC:Malmis5.128x80» Let's be spared from the quitters! To avoid completely uninteresting and demoralizing interviews like this in the future, here you have a generic interview which you all can include in your mags: »CL8:Scener: "»CL9:So what are you doing nowadays?»" »CL7:Legend: "»CL8:Web design for my own company... and 3D stuff for some PC games»" »CL8:Scener: "»CL9:What do you remember best from your Amiga days?»" »CL7:Legend: "»CL8:I don't know... eh.. oyeah.. »CL7:State of the Art» was good I guess...»" »CL8:Scener: "»CL9:Any chance of getting any scene stuff made? Pixel, music, code?»" »CL7:Legend: "»CL8:Haha.. no way... it doesn't pay!»" »CL8:Scener: "»CL9:What will the future bring?»" »CL7:Legend: "»CL8:There will be much more 3D stuff and web design with many cool companies involved.»" »CL8:Scener: "»CL9:Do you still use Amiga?»" »CL7:Legend: "»CL8:Absolutely not... it's obsolete crap... I just got a new P3 and it's an extremely cool machine... Try 600 MHz on your old miggy, hahah... hehehh...»" »CL8:Scener: "»CL9:How about getting the old group together and make a comeback?»" »CL7:Legend: "»CL8:Hahaha... not bloody likely...»" »CL8:Scener: "»CL9:But maybe? Please?" »CL7:Legend: "»CL8:Yeah.. whatever... don't hold your breath though...»" »CL8:Scener: "»CL9:Ooooh! That will be very cool! Thank you very much for the interview!»" »PIC:EC39.128x64» »CL0:Do you feel like you've read this before? That's because you have, dozens of times... Maybe I'm just a relic from another age, but I happen to like my obsolete computer and what can be done with it. I like constructing weird beepy 4-channel tunes based on simple 8-bit waveforms - completely out of date. I also like the expensive and ineffective mail swapping - just think of it... copying a small amount of data onto deadly slow 880k disks and putting it in an envelope along with some other irrelevant stuff, then actually SEND the lot with OLD PAPER POST to a similarly old-fashioned contact! Who on earth could be that out of sync with reality? Well, I can, and I enjoy every damn oldschool second of it. It doesn't interest me one bit if you can understand that or not. To me swapping will always be an important part of this strange thing called the scene. Internet has already done too much damage to the scene. That's why I like to engage in non-net, pro-scene activities like this. I'm a scener... »CL1:This goes out not only, of course, to mag producers but to everyone who by action or inaction contribute to the deterioration of the scene. To coders who can't find motivation and energy to code new amazing demos, to graphicians who thinks there are more possibilities for their creativity in raytracing and 3D animation. To musicians who are easily seduced by lots of channels. To swappers who think they have sent their last letter... and all others who have given up. Get yourselves together! The scene isn't dead »PIC:OldPeasant.336x80» just because some money hungry quitters say so. No matter how hard your work is or how much you have to do with your spare time, you can find some time to devote in the scene, to participate with something creative, and to feel you are truly a part of a non-commercial underground digital movement. I want us to show to each other that the scene does not only have a great and impressive past, but also a brilliant future.