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Xtravaganza Issue 01
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.xtravaganza 01
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issue 01 - 1st may 1998
edited by - storm
storm@simjohn.demon.co.uk
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
contents
1. introduction.................................. storm
2. thanks........................................ storm
3. news.......................................... storm
4. uk scene centre............................... storm
5. platforms..................................... storm
6. jobs section.................................. storm
7. about tesko................................... majic mushroom/tesko
8. who's storm?.................................. storm
9. wired 98 trip................................. spansh/dynamix s/w
10. uk scene mail-list............................ storm
11. finally....................................... storm
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
----+
1 .introduction (storm).
I`m sitting here just drumming my thumbs on my desk thinking of
something to write. I was never a person famous for a great
introduction, people remember a famous occasion in a few words. I
could say "bollocks to this, lets go to the pub." or go up to a girl and
say "Hiiii, my name's Slimey Simon" but that wouldn`t go down too well
with my current girlfriend. As this is a mag-like thingy-me-gig for
nurds, geeks and weirdo's (hey statix!), I suppose I should get down to
the boring stuff. By the way, I`m no way a computer nurd, I hate that
word... They called me that at school by taking the piss out of me!!
Ugh.. Sorry, I`ve finished sulking now..
The United Kingdom can be a pretty lonely place if you think about it,
there was always something missing between the UK and the rest of
Europe. Despite the fact that the internet is used so well and it
doesn't really matter where you live these days, but because of the
English Channel it can be difficult to be involved with the rest of the
scene.
There is a scene in the UK! I know it sounds stupid, but its true! We
just dont realise it and some of the top demos from the past and present
have come from the United Kingdom, but there seems to be this problem
with communication over here. No one seems to know what's going on and
if there's no communication, then nothing happens. I`m begging that
this emag will stop this problem from continuing, but I`m going to need
your help on this. I am open to ANY suggestions, comments or ideas so
please PLEASE let me know what you think.
So far, I`ve had a lot of responce from people and its very encouraging.
I plan to make a scene list of English people at some stage this month
so I`ll send out a form for you guys to return to me. One thing, when I
mean English people, I mean people based in the UK. I know that there
may be some forign people based in the UK (work or university) so they
are more than welcome to be part of this. If we have a demo party this
year, then it would be nice to see some forign people in the UK.
As for the scene, at the moment I`m just trying my best to get a UK
scene active from a very long long sleep. Hopefully, this mag will
become regular as clock work and will help get things rolling in the
United Kingdom. You should have also got a 2nd email from me with a
questionnaire form for you to fill in. If you can spare a minute (thats
all) just to answer the questions and send back to me then that would be
great!
The next issue of Xtravaganza will probably be out in a months time, but
that depends on the response, developments and news that come in. I
think the first of every month is a good release date, wouldn`t you say?
Cheers,
Simon (Storm) 1.may.98
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
2 .thanks (storm).
A big thankyou has to go to Barog who was able to setup the UK mailing
list, however, at the moment it seems to be taking a hammering by just
one topic. Platforms! - More about that later.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
3. .news (storm).
Not a lot of news really! :-)
Aquafresh (PC)
* Aquafresh (musician) came back to the scene and changed his
handle to Storm.
Tesko (Amiga/PC)
* Barog/nothing (coder) joined Tesko.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
4 .uk scene centre (storm).
At some stage this year, it would be nice if a UK scene www centre
was set-up. I have this so-called `vision' that people would only need
to point their browser to http://www.ukscene.org/index.html and would be
greeted by a 'Welcome to the UK scene' title page. From here, they
would be able to a wide varity of things. A few ideas that have sprung
to my mind are;
* access to issues of Xtravaganza to either download or read on-line.
* subscribe to the mailing list.
* a page of UK www links.
* a UK demoscene archive with UK demos, modules, gfx, ascii's etc
etc...
* a email directory of UK demo people specifying their roles, groups
and platform(s).
* demoparty information.
* bbs telephone directory (there are some, by the way!)
* any late-breaking news.
* gallery with photos of uk scene members (probably drunk at demo
parties!)
There are a few sites worth checking out on the web such as:
http://ojuice.citeweb.net
http://www.error-404.com
Some people have offered their support to the idea of a www page which
is good, Statix/Pulse has offered web space on a server at his
university so that's a good start. All we need now is to get our
thinking caps on and start thinking about how we're going to construct
this site. Statix has also suggested that a web design group called
Titan could design a www page by June/July so that gives us a bit of
time to do some organising. More info about that later as development
happens.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
5 .platforms (storm).
As the UK scene is very small at the moment, I think it would be
good now platforms here as possible, although its not possible for me to
do that on my own as I`m only active on the PC side. (read the next
section about this)
The PC scene is probably the more active scene, but if there are any
groups on other platforms in the UK then I would love to hear from them.
This issue about platforms will also apply to music and ascii groups, if
there's any interest in getting coverage on the emag, then you only need
to send me some information.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
6 .jobs section (storm).
With the regard to different platforms, and from what I said earlier
about not being able to support a number of vacancies have risen within
the Xtravaganza organisation. I need representatives that use different
platforms to act as 'reporters' for the team. Such platforms and areas
of the scenes include:
* music scene (pc/amiga)
* amiga scene
* archimedies scene
* playstation scene (job really taken)
* ascii scene
If you can think of any other areas that we can get focused on, and you
might be able to help out, then please contact me.
Roles as a 'reporter' would include:
* representing your area of the scene and reporting to Xtravaganza
* collecting news, information, articles and maybe adverts
* keeping an eye on your scene archive (if we get one)
It wouldn't take much effort really although pay is pretty crap, but at
the end of the day it'll help us out a lot and you'd be greatly
appreciated and loved by me and others. If you're interested, then just
email me and I`ll give you more info.
Barog said that he`d support the Playstation side so hopefully we`ll be
hearing more about the Playstation within the next few months.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
7 .about tesko (majic mushroom/tesko).
Tesko Development derives itself from several demo group's over the
years. Way back in October 1991 a new Amiga demo group called Doom was
born. This group's talents were quite poor for a long while, until the
group underwent a name and style change in February 1993.
Out went the boring Doom name and serious wannabe demo group... in came
a new crazy (almost Melon like) style and the name... Voodoo Design!
Morale boosted somewhat and Voodoo put out a few demos and intros plus
the well known UK Charts. Until October 1993, when Voodoo disbanded
into separate groups (Tesko and Killer Zombie Dezines) for about a
month. After that, the 2 groups united as Tesko and the group started
to kick ass with some really funny and crazy demos.
During early 1996 Tesko made a move into the PC scene and finally
managed to release an intro. Until disaster struck! The group
disbanded in October 1996 when Majic Mushroom quit the scene....
MJM came back a short time later and Tesko Development was conceived.
MJM turned Tesko from a big demo group into a small utility/application
group for the PC with only 3 members.
In December 1997, Tesko was re-united and the legend continues!!!
Members list:
Addict (Coder/Graphician/Web Site Maintainer) [teskonw@aol.com]
Barog (Coder) [barog@barog.globalnet.co.uk]
Bronxy (Coder)
Frenzy (Coder) [p.adams@wlv.ac.uk]
Hotwire (Graphician) [dave.murphy@msmail.com]
Jim Bowen (Musician) [jimbowen@dcandy.demon.co.uk]
Majic Mushroom (Coder/Manager/Web Site) [mjm@scentral.demon.co.uk]
SilverFox (Coder/Graphician) [a.partington@lancaster.ac.uk]
Smash (Musician) [mah196@easynet.co.uk]
Sulphur (Coder) [cc6pwa@isis.sunderland.ac.uk]
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
8 .who's storm? (storm).
I guess this must be strange for someone to talk about themselves
for ten minutes, but hopefully some of you guys could spare a few mins
to write something about yourselves and then we`d all know a bit more
about you. I suppose I don't really have that many friends to be
honest, thats my problem.
My life in the scene started way back in 1991 when I got a free copy of
SoundTracker from the cover disk of CU Amiga. I was a fan of amiga
music, and was sad enough to even record some stuff onto a tape to
listen to on my walkman (I shouldn`t have really admitted that!). Since
1991, I`ve always been a musician - I was popular on the Amiga for
writing a few nice chip tunes, although I probably made about 250 chip
tunes from 1991 to 1996. I dont really make them these days, but I
still love the sounds and music from the days of the C64.
I first joined the Amiga scene when the world looked up to a group based
in Bradford, England (or somewhere else up North, maybe Leeds?) called
Anarchy (Majic Mushroom was around them days too, so maybe he could take
us down memory lane sometime?).
Anyway, back to the point, I joined a small demo group called Dynanetix
under the handle of 'MCX' - not much happened, the manager was heavily
under the influence of `Vics Vapour' and Hardcore music (enuff said!).
Then I started a group called Hipnotics with a friend, we did some crap
stuff and spent far too much time on the phone chatting about the latest
warez. Then I joined Futura after changing my handle to Aquafresh who
were the first productive releasing demo group I`d been. I did some
music for disk-packs (demo menus with intros on them, so you could check
out warez) and odds and sods. Then before long, I was asked to join
Defekt managed by a very cool bloke from Southport called Tango. He was
a swapper and a modem trader (uploaded loads of amiga warez onto BBS's
and spreaded the Defekt label around), he managed to get loads of
talented people from the UK under one label and with a lot of
communications within the group, managed to get some demos released. He
even hosted a demo party in Southport in a Scout Hut, but people didn`t
mind the fact that it was freezing cold! And at 1am, people came out of
the kitchen with Cornish pasties and started having a pasty fight with
other people! Disk throwing competition was good too, in the middle of
the road in a crammed housing estate (see how many cars you could hit at
a long distance!)
Defekt died after a year and then I started Surprise! Productions UK
(Amiga) with Image (a graphic artist) and some old Defekt members that
we managed to poach. A few small intros were released and things
started happening, but after hearing some rumours from the Amiga mags
Eurocharts and Raw that S!P's managers were caught by the police for
being Nazi supporters, we decided to swiftly leave. Divine was then
born (Image couldn`t spell I think, he pixeled a logo and forgot to put
an 'e' after 'D' in Divine). Divine became a little famous with a small
mag that we released, although the code was buggy and the design could
have been a bit better if the coder did something about it. Then Divine
died as Image went to University, Mdma (our coder) was caught by the
police with drugs in his car and went inside and Dreamfish (a famous UK
musician) joined TRSI UK.
By then, I decided that I wasn`t having much luck and then at the last
minute before flogging my Amiga A1200, Fish/LSD asked me to join LSD
after hearing some mods of mine and I managed to get a few tunes
released on LSD's BIGG diskmag called 'Grapevine'. Then after doing a
bit of music for computer games such as (here goes....): Thomas the
Tank Engine and Friends Pinball, Brutal - Paws of Fury and Pinball Mania
2 (WOW!!! Famous games eh?) I decided to sell my amiga and go across to
the PC. It seemed that the PC scene was starting to pick up a bit more
so I sold my Amiga A1200 and brought a P100.
When I first joined the PC Scene, I got into Surprise! Productions as I
knew Reebok from the Amiga days. Not a lot happened in S!P so I left
and was asked to join Dolphin (TMK/Dolphin came 1st at the TG98's gfx
compo) and I think they released some demo with a tune of mine, I`m not
sure. I managed to help Optix/Valhalla come 3rd with his intro Molejo
at Wired'96 which was a buzz to watch on the big screen as we were
developing it on a p100 and I think they were using a P200.... Kinda
messed up on the compo pc, but no one knew then! The demo should have
lasted about 3 mins, but on the demo compo it all speeded up to a minute
and a half.. :-)
Then I managed (although dont quote me on it) to join the famous
Halcyon. I met Shrine on IRC one day, and we chatted for ages.. I sent
him some of my mods and he really liked it, later on he asked me to join
after saying that Croaker liked the tune I did for Optix/Valhalla's
Molejo intro. So in a way, I managed to join Halcyon, but then after a
month or so I never heurd from Shrine again. Weird.
Then I quit the scene as I left my parents house and moved to Reading to
concentrate on my job. When I decided to move back to my parents 8
months later, I switched on my PC and started playing a few unfinished
tunes of mine and started to enjoy composing on Fast Tracker 2 again. I
now plan to build my own home studio with a few synths, a sampler and
all sorts of equipment and perhaps one day, I might release some
commercial music into the packed-music world. We can all dream.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
9 .wired 98 trip (spansh/dynamix software).
The Wired organisers are organising a party in Belgium from the 18th
to the 19th of July. Storm (formally known as Aquafresh) organised a
trip from Waterloo, London to Brussels, Belgium and then to the party
place in 1996 and about 15 people went. It was good because we were
able to finally meet up as a bunch of English larger-lads and spend 3
hours in the Eurostar bar! Statix and Optix both released their 64k
intros coming coming 1st and 3rd and some of the musicians took part in
the music competition and some made it in the top ten.
At the moment, there's about 30+ people interested in going so if you're
interested then email me ASAP at: gareth.harper@onyxnet.co.uk
It is expected to be a popular and famous event so dont miss out. In
1996, it cost about 70 pounds return on the Eurostar, providing that you
also bring your passport. Liam The Lemming (lemm@kosmic.org) forgot his
passport when we got to Brussels, but they let him through with the only
form of IDs he had. His NUS and also probably a Blockbuster card! This
year, DONT forget your passport!
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
10 .uk scene mail-list (storm).
We have a maillist where you can send an email to a host of UK scene
people. To subscribe to the mailing list:
1. send an email to: ukscene-subscribe@makelist.com
2. leave the subject line blank.
3. in the main body put: subscribe your@email.address.in.here
4. when you get a reply from makelist.com, just send a reply to confirm
that you are who you are.
5. from this point, you`ll get emails from the mail-list.
6. to write an email to the UK scene mail-list, email:
ukscene@makelist.com
To un-subscribe to the mailing list.
1. send an email to ukscene-unsubscribe@makelist.com
2. leave the subject line blank.
3. in the main body put: unsubscribe (althought I`m not 100% sure on
that!)
I said this in an email to the mail-list so I`ll just quote what I said:
"From now on, can we NOT send 2 line replys to the mailing list. I got
25 emails in 20 hrs and they were from the mailing list. It'll fuck the
whole operation up if people get pissed off with it. If you can, can
you just please reply to the original sender. I know it defeats the
object of having a mailing list, but at the moment people are telling me
that they are getting cheeesed off with a mailbag full of junk emails.
And its only been going for about a week. If I wanted, I would have
resubscribed to comp.demo.pc.demos (or what ever its called these days).
This was NOT what I wanted the mailing list to be like, I`m sorry if it
pissed some people off, but we have to think of the majority of people
here."
Please dont also send attachments such as large zip files of gfx/mods or
demos. That would not go down too well either.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
11 .email address list (storm).
Here is an email list of the people mentioned in this issue of
Xtravanganza so please dont bog them down with too many emails.
Barog: barog@barog.globalnet.co.uk
Majic Mushroom/Tesko: mjm@scentral.demon.co.uk
Spansh/Dynamix Software: gareth.harper@onyxnet.co.uk
Statix/Pulse/Acme: ajbe2@cam.ac.uk
Storm: storm@simjohn.demon.co.uk
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
.finally (storm).
I hope this ezine was ok, I`m sure that it'll get better as things
start to happen. Sorry if it was a bit boring, but within the next few
months we`ll be getting some more news and it`ll might be a bit more
intersting to read. Thanks to those who helps with getting this off the
ground, I owe you all one!
Now I can continue with this tune I`ve been meaning to get on with !!
:-)
Regards,
Simon (Storm)
