IRC Live Interview
with
Marcer / Elite
cxt: Hi Marcer, you are a long time scene addict from the land
of Moose, Volvo and Ikea. You have already been interviewed some
years ago for Alive 3 and so we are aware of the fact that your
hobbies are partying and drinking, what else can you tell us
about yourself?
Marcer: Hi Cyclone, I'm soon becoming a father and beside that I
started to play around with chip trackers :) but your probably
know that already. Of course I am also working on several Atari
related projects. So a lot has changed since last interview :)
for example I have entered two new crews: Paradize, for my chip
music releases and Atari Legend, for doing similar things like
Elite but in a better way using the WWW :)
cxt: Does becoming a father comes with the full package (i.E.
marriage and such)?
Marcer: Nope no marriage (yet). The new Atari guy will probably
write his first "Hello World" program around March 07th 2007, if
everything goes like it should :).
cxt:You are known as the head of Elite, an Atari cracking group
that has become quite silent these days. Is Elite still kicking
or did all activities come to an end?
Marcer: Elite, has not vanished completely. We still have some
small releases here and there, Maybe you will see some more
Elite related stuff in the future!
cxt: That sounds a bit vague, can you render "more stuff" with a
bit more detail?
Marcer: Nothing is yet certain. It can be a lot of releases or
nothing. We got a huge pile of unreleased software, we just need
it fixed and launched :)
cxt: Ah good luck with that task then. How did you become head
of Elite? And who else is still upholding the group?
Marcer: Elite, was left in a fragmented state when Sledge left.
At first Stratagem was supposed to lead the crew. But instead
Faramir became the new leader, somehow. This caused some guys to
leave the crew. It got even worse when he started with his weird
Microsoft conspiracy stuff. It was enough for me to decide to
take over the crew. With people like Orby, who had just joined
Elite, Pervert, who rejoined us, and Scorpio in my back I kicked
him out and became the new boss. Well and referring to your 2nd
question, the suppliers are upholding the group, you will surely
understand that I can't give you any names or nicks. Perhaps
this will be disclosed in the future.
cxt: Sounds a bit like Paranoia, do you think software companies
still care about Atari warez?
Marcer: Yes they do for sure! I have experienced a lot of
trouble with the Atari Legend project. Believe me no company is
eager about other people putting their old ST games online.
cxt: Is that the reason why you use the account system at the AL
site, or is it simple to cut some traffic?
Marcer: I wasn't member of Atari Legend when the decision was
made so I can't really tell.
cxt: Do you think that warez groups like Elite helped to kill
the Atari ST or were there other reasons for the downfall in the
early 90s?
Marcer: I think they may have had some effect on the shareware
producers. But that's about it. The ST platform never was so big
in the game section. Lack of skills I believe.
cxt: Lack of skills?
Marcer: Just look in the whole ST game world. How much of those
games is well coded and has shiny graphics and well composed
sound? The Majority seems to be rushed crap.
cxt: Why did you decide to join Atari Legend and what's your
role inside the AL team?
Marcer: I quitted the Atari Scene in 2001. But I had the plan in
mind to setup a web page with screenshots of each and every
Atari game and of course to put the games online (that was
around 2003). I also started such a project but then I stumbled
upon the Atari Legend site by accident. I got a hook on it and
asked to become a member to help them with screenshots and such!
So from 2003-2005 I basically made a hell of a lot of
screenshots, and also uploaded tons of PD games to the site.
cxt: Your first machine was a C64 in 1984 and you mostly used it
for gaming. Why did you buy the Atari ST in 1988? Have you had
enough of gaming?
Marcer: Actually I bought the ST FOR gaming! The Superpack had
21 games! The Amiga package only had 4 games. :)
cxt: You mentioned that the Atari had a weaker Soundchip than
the Amiga in an earlier Interview. With all these new and shiny
Trackers like mYM and MM around do you still think the YM is a
weak chip?
Marcer: Things have changed for sure. The YM has finally got
support by mighty timer FX. It has for sure proven that it
belongs at the top of the world of chip music!
cxt: You were playing around with real sound hardware like
synthesisers a lot and also had a record contract. Why did you
decide to create chip tunes instead? Did you get bored by the
mighty studio equipment? Or do you just ride the chip tune wave
because it's en vogue?
Marcer: Unfortunately signed the wrong papers at a very bad
record company, and had lots of trouble to get out of this
contract. So currently I don't have much of a choice. I quitted
the "real" music thing and got hooked with chip music when
MusicMon 2.0SID was released :)
cxt: In the meantime you made lots of tracks on the two most
important trackers for Atari, which one is your all time
favourite tracker and why?
Marcer: That's an evil question, because my favourite trackers
are maxYMiser and Music Mon 2.5.
cxt: Which one would you pick if you had to decide for one only?
Marcer: That basically depends on what I compose for.:) Let's
put it like this: For demos and cpu and timer control as well as
for effect tunes I use maxYMiser. When it comes to tunes which
are build on my own sounds or which are made for non demo
purposes I usually use MusicMon.
cxt: Ok, let's make it a bit harder then. Imagine you are in a
burning building, which is about to collapse. For some strange
reason there are the two only remaining copies of maxYMiser and
MusicMon inside this building. And to make things even worse,
they are stored on two different disks which are kept in
opposite directions of the building. Given that you got only
time to collect one disk before the whole building comes down on
you. Which one would you run for ;)?
Marcer: I'll probably pick maxYMiser.
cxt: Some people said maxYMiser was superfluous, since MM2.5
came out almost at the same time, what do you think about that?
Marcer: I don't agree, they are both good but in different ways.
maxYMiser is very flexible but a bit hard to get into for
newbie's since the sound is really "advanced". MusicMon is easy
to use and comes with a powerful and intuitive Sound editor, but
it lacks a track FX column.
cxt: Would you pay money for maxYMiser?
Marcer: I would pay for both of them, if it includes all future
updates. :)
cxt: Hehe, sounds like someone who has never coded anything
himself. Well I know better since you also tried to code a bit
in GFA and other basic dialects, did you ever gave Assembler a
try?
Marcer: Yes, I did some weak tries. But I didn't get much
further than to show some rasters on screen plus a text.
cxt: What's the best program you ever wrote? "Hello World"
doesn't count here :)
Marcer: For demos that would probably be the Everest demo which
contained 16*3 colours, upper/lower border gone and some other
crap :). When it comes to utilities, I would name a simple
computer learning tool, I coded for my little sister. It
included a keyboard piano, spelling tests, a math test etc... :)
cxt: Woah, impressive :) Have you ever cracked a game yourself?
Marcer: Not yet, I only hacked a couple of serials and did some
patching here and there, but still it's not too late for that :)
cxt: I heard you got a free ct60 from Art. What's your opinion
on accelerators like the ct60? Does it split the already small
scene or do you think it’s a good thing which just allows better
demos and games?
Marcer: It was a great gift and I guess I have to thank to him
once again! The ct60 boosts the Falcon far beyond anything else,
it's TEH SHIT. However I don't think it will split the scene.
Since many sceners still have their ST(E) within reach and if
not, the ct60 has a switch to get back to a plain Falcon mode if
necessary. Apart from that it's extremely nice to watch the
great demos which have been released for this setup; I hope
there will be some games in the future as well!
cxt: Which other hardware could we possibly steal from your
place?
Marcer: 7 St/Stf/STe's, 1 Mega ST, 1 Mega STe, 3*Amiga 500's, 2
* C64, Atari Jaguar + CD, Snes and Nes, P4-3.2ghz, AMD 1.8ghz,
and some crap PCs and also a lot of extra gear for my Ataris.
cxt: So, what happened to your PSX then?
Marcer I sold it due to lack of money.
cxt: Ouch, so which is your favourite System amongst all these
consoles and computers and why is that?
Marcer: The Falcon, is my favourite machine. . It's simply the
best one, nothing more to say. However I do use my PC with STEem
as well and of course it was a very happy day when I received my
Mega STE.
cxt: Since you mention STEem, what's your general opinion on
emulators and Do you use other emulators as well?
Marcer: Emulators are a good thing for sure. However you never
get the real thing feeling while using them.
cxt: Since you own quite a few computers and gaming devices, one
might think that you are still into games. Can you name your top
three games for each platform you own?
Marcer: This might take a while…
Falcon Running, Ishar Trioligy, Conquest of Elysium
Atari ST Dungeon Master, Wings of Death/Lethal Xcess,
Lotus Turbo 2
Amiga Sword of Sodan
C64 Kung Fu master, Who Dares Wins, Rambo 2
Jaguar Alien vs Predator, Sensible Soccer, Wolfenstein 3D
Snes Zelda3
Nes Zelda 1, Zelda 2
cxt: Most games have already been cracked and released. So there
aren't much top titles remaining to be released in the future.
What's in the pipeline concerning Atari Legend stuff?
Marcer: There are many games out there which are still
uncracked, especially rare ones. Besides bringing those rare
titles, we also track down bad cracks from the past and do them
properly. To make it short expect a lot more from this crew! As
noticed we also started to translate non-English games to
English! And we currently have one big title and several others
in work; they will be released very soon. We just need to finish
the beta testing :).
cxt: Atari Legend states it’s the No 1 Atari Resource on the
Web. Is that really the case?
Marcer: When it comes to games, it surely is.
cxt: Well it looks a bit thin on the demo department :)
Marcer: Maybe we are working on that, right in this moment.
cxt: Well with brume onboard I wouldn't wonder about that. :)
But let's get back to games and cracking. What do you think
about other cracking or menu groups?
Marcer: Cracking is great fun, and honestly I like competition.
We don't know what the other crew has got or is working on, so
it's always good for a surprise. In the past we had the race was
Elite vs Vectronix, nowadays its DBug vs Atari Legend ;)
cxt: Doesn't it feel odd to be member of a crew whose leader
admires your rival and in addition to that another member is
also part of your competitor's crew?
Marcer: Well, just need to watch my tongue. The same goes for
ggn. But hey Paradize supports Atari Legend as well; we got a
couple of intros etc. from Paradize. There is really no big deal
about it. We mainly speak about Crew internal stuff anyway.
cxt: Ok let's get to something completely different then. You
probably know the Alive brainstorming test from previous issues,
so just type whatever comes to your mind for each of the
following letters.
Marcer: It's rather a brain killing test, eh?
M: MultiTOS
A: Atari STE
R: RAM
C: Chaos Strikes back
E: Elite
R: Rulez
O: Operation Wolf
F: Fear the Power of ct60
A: Afterburner sucks on Atari
T: TOS 1.02 the most compatible one
A: Alien Thing DC release I did as my first release under
Atari Legend / Elite :)
R: Rocking Trackers
I: Impact, an old Compact Crew
L: Legends still Alive
E: Express yourself with YM Rockerz
G: Ghost'N'Goblins
E: Ecstasy Demo
N: Night Breed had dual releases Action and Adventure
D: DBug Menu Crew…
cxt: Wow, you didn't mention maxYMiser, MusicMon nor Atari
Legend, how comes?
Marcer: It's between the lines :)
cxt: And again its time to leave, so if you want to greet your
little sister or want to get rid of some special message for our
beloved readers, shout it out now!
Marcer: I want to send greetings to the people reading this mag,
which means they show interest in Atari releases and products.
Keep up! And finish your own projects asap! I want more stuff to
play with!!! :D
cxt: Thanks for this nice interview and for all the tracks you
supplied to us, see you with next Alive
Marcer: Thanks to you! I was happy to help!
cxt for Alive, 2006-08-07
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