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In Konversation!
An informal chat with the makers of Elvis and other faketros..
You might remember the not at all shy and reclusive fake demo crew 'Dildo
Fatwa', from a special feature that we did in Alive 7. In fact, it is kind
of hard to get away from them, like it is hard to get away from a shard of
red hot metal puncturing your brain! Back in 2003, they were nervous newbies
to the Atari scene, fresh from their triumph at Error in Line 3. Now two
years later, quite a bit of water has flowed under the bridge, without going
over Pongo Snodgrass's body in a cleansing fashion first, unfortunately. So
we think now would be a suitable time to see how they are getting on with
things and ask a few pertinent questions.
Alive:- So here we are five releases later. It must have been quite an
eventful couple of years since we last talked to you..
Charcoal:- Yeh, wee ar amazed weev gone this long too! Pongo neerly had a
barf by acident when we reelized that. But he setled for wetting himself
insted! But yes, it has bene a kool cupple of years.
Ferlease:- Over the last couple of years, I've been learning all about
alcohol, so I got drunk! I had several glasses of red wine before attending
this interview, so watch out!
Pongo:- Yeah, and Ferlease got so drunk, he pushed me into the bath, and
taunted me, and played psychological mind games by fiddling with the taps!
Honestly you see another side to him when he's had a drink! After all that,
are you surprised I wet myself?! Still, that was a strangely enjoyable
feeling!
Alive:- So what did you think of the Outline '05 party?
Charcoal:- Teh Outlyne partie, it ruled! It passed in a blurr of wine,
chese, and Grolsh, over fart too quikcly in my humbel opinyon! Thanks to
Havuck, Earxwax, and Tinkerer for making the efort! Yo're the besst!
Ferlease:- The Outline party was cool, apart from the bits that got hot, but
quite what Pongo was doing smearing pizza on himself, I don't know?
Pongo:- It was for a wild compo entry, but Earx spoiled it all by running
out of the room and throwing up! But yeah, I enjoyed it, even in spite of
Ferlease trying to throw me onto the Easter fire after getting a little bit
tiddly!
Alive:- Could you tell us a bit about your latest demo, the unforgettably
titled "Elvis is still Dead!" ?
Charcoal:- Elvis came from a varietee of sources. Wee wer influensed by teh
talking heds on teh 'Beems' demmo, at EIL 3, now that was a kule demmo,
"Beems are gonna blindme!" Then wee saw soem of the mugshots on thee
Atarisceen IRC chanel website and deecided these wer well skarey! It dident
taek long for Ferlease to tweacke them a litle to maek their lips synck.
Thenn we opted for teh samppled sound musick, and from there, we hav the
commedy hit of the year!
Ferlease:- This time around, we went for a more 'multimedia' approach, and
mostly did without ascii. In fact, if we had included the intro which we
pruned from the final release, it could have been our 'Lost Blubb', but
without Martina, or anyone else jiggling about suggestively in leotards,
curses!
Pongo:- For 'Elvis', we went for a different audio approach with the DMA
sound add-on for comedic effect, and you can expect more from that direction
in the future. I won't entirely forget the ziktracking though.
Alive:- And could you tell us a bit more about some of the earlier releases
after 'Bud teh Chud?
Charcoal:- Shure! After 'Bud teh Chud', wee gradully aded new feetures to
our demmo engin. For 'Hilary Rosen', we got soem bitmaped pickies as wel as
the asci, also multipple ziks, and wee realy maed Pongo wurk on that demmo!
The 'Braekpoint' demmo went a steppe further, we put in a lowres assci mode,
and mixed pickies and ascci, and wee started the first bitemap anemations
too! Wee even managed to mix a liev asci efect with a picy at teh end.
Thee 'Charcoal Erly Yeres' intro dident add anything new, teknikally, appart
from seing how smal wee kould maek an asci demmo. Wee got it doewn to 36k!
Of kourse, Elvis demmo has addvanced lipsinking, a consiouslee multimeedia
aproach, and new DMA sampleed sound aswel!
Ferlease:- And Charcoal will be appearing soon in a live interview to tell
the rest of the world about how we did it, on the Demoscene channel in
Bangladesh!
Pongo:- Casual Dildo watchers may not have noticed much difference in
rancidness levels over the different productions for the audio aspects. I'm
still using the same zik engine from Bud teh Chud, but at least I've got DMA
sound to play with in future. Maybe we'll get something new for the ziktrack
part?
Do you find that it get easier or harder to come up with the next fake
masterpiece as time goes on?
Charcoal:- Deffinitly easier! 'Bud teh Chud' was the most dificcult relese,
as it was te first. Teh ammount of work in the bakground that went into it
was inkreddible. Sinse then, eech suceding demmo has bene eazier to make.
Ferlease:- Easier, each new succeeding demo seems to need less hand-drawn
material!
Pongo:- As for coming up with ideas, there are always two or three things
we'd like to do, which are in an early stage, but often the best ideas come
to us very quickly. Bud teh Chud was a long time in preparation, as was the
second demo, 'Hilary Rosen'. However, the 'Braekpoint invitro' literally
came to us in a flash, when I was the Atariscene IRC, and discussing what we
were doing that Easter, it only took a few weeks to complete. The early
years of Charcoal 96ktro was another quick production. By contrast, the
'Elvis' demo has been in gestation since the previous summer.
Are there any outstanding heroes or inspirational people on the demoscene
that you particularly admire?
Charcoal:- Ok, Ill taek my top twosoem. Teh first guy isnt eeven an Atarien
dude, but his demmos realy kik the arse of teh basic Vic 20, my favvourit
person wuld bee Vizznut of PWP. His 'Robbotik Warior' shuld be taugt as a
textbok exampple if they evver ofer Demosene studiez at unniversitie (rettro
studdies module)! If wee evver kome klose to his standurd, I'l be wel
pleesed! For soeone kloser to hoem, I'd nomminate The Serious Cybernettiks
Korp, esp for their outstanding 'Beems' demmo! Gaev us some neato ideas, I
cann tel yu!
Ferlease:- Wasn't it Al Gore who invented the first borderless fullscreen
demo on the ST, shortly before he invented the internet?
Pongo:- I think that scene musicians all rule. I'm in awe of gwEm, whose hot
new zik routines and phat sounds, put me in mind of onions frying in garlic
sauce for some reason.
Alive:- It is clear that you have been taking inspiration from famous Atari
demos in the past at some points, could you tell us a bit more about that?
Charcoal:- Wel 'Bud teh Chud' was pepered with refferences to past demmos.
Teh two that spryng to mind ar furstly the 'Shadoe of teh Chud' screne,
which is a parrody of 'Shaddow of teh Beest' style Parrallaxative
multiskrollers. Then ther is teh afectionat tribbute to Lazer's 'Lost Blub',
witely titled "Lost Chud"!
Ferlease:- For the 'Hilary Rozen' demo, we managed to get our version of the
Lost Boys Cebit 90 intro, the Sammy Joe hair-loss moment near the start. I'd
also consider that the mid-part 'Is this Ebola?' section was our take on the
"Things not to do" demo.
Pongo:- You might like to spot in the Elvis demo, that the 'Dildo-TV' logo
at the beginning, was partially borrowed from the Senior Dads Monomental
demo. Also I think the 'Beams' demo, shown at previous Easter parties, but
not released yet, had an influence with the singing heads thing. At one
stage, we even thought of doing a straight parody with parts of the Beams
soundtrack, before the Elvis influence kicked in.
What are your thoughts about the various results and competition placings
that your productions have attracted? To say they are a real mixed bag
understates the matter a bit!
Charcoal:- Wel wee do seme to hav a luv/hate relationchip from some peeple,
don't wee! The furst demmo, 'Bud teh Chud' was first plaiced, but in a field
of one! Teh Alt Partie kame up with this stupid rool about dinammic demmos
when we'ed neerly dun ours, so it wos tu late, and wee thort, 'Wot teh
Hell!' So in it goes, and getes disqwlified. Teh Outlien partie '04 was kool
for teh first prise. Teh 96k kompo laste plaice was a bitte of a shockre, I
thort we'ed be a cupple of plaices higher. But it semes ther is soem
natturel justise after all, as wee got third in Outliene '05, out of a
combinned kompo with severral good entrys in it!
Nott that weer kompettitive, mind you!
Ferlease:- As a personal friend of Stephen Hawking, he would agree with me
that these results are wildly imbalanced, which may be a good thing, or not,
hmmm?
Pongo:- But maybe the role of a fake demo crew is to get up the nostrils of
the scene? And I certainly do!
What do you think of the Badger badger competition? Do you think you
achieved your stated aim of kicking the fake demo scene back to life?
Charcoal:- Weev' got to hande it to the Frenchiez, teh Bagder badger thing
rules!
Ferlease:- Where is Colostomy Bag of the Senior Dads?
Pongo:- It seems to be a two (pantomime) horse race, between us and various
French guys, who may be connected with MJJ Productions. I see that none of
the old famous names of fake demo-dom, such as the Senior Dads, Atari Spice
Boys, or Reservoir Frogs seem to have taken up the challenge as yet? Still,
between us, at least there is an active fake scene on Atari, where there was
none for a while previously.
Alive:- How do you handle the group dynamics, where are are three strongly
creative people with differing methods and aims?
Charcoal:- Thee olde fashioned metthods ar best! I'm spending al my monee on
upgraeding my CT60, so I'm using stickes and boots aplied to backsides, to
kepe peopl motivaeted. I hoep to get a whip and elektroshoc goads a bit
laeter, after i've got my supervidell!
Ferlease:- That's what he thinks! Just a little while longer, and we'll see
who's name gets first billing in the credits in future!
Pongo:- Of course, none of this might be real, and it all could be the
deranged product of one person's over-caffeinated and over-stressed
imagination!?
Could you tell us about your plans for the future? For example, are you
staying Atari, or might you be going off in any other directions too?
Charcoal:- Wel for the imediate short term, wee stil have an entier front
part to teh Elvis demo, that we cut out and dident use. This is going to bee
develloped and xpanded into a whol new demmo, whic wil bee releesed at soem
point this year. Weer not necesarily even going to waite for a partey, just
wach out, as and whenn!
Wee do have some ideas for furhter proddys in their erly stage, but we wil
also be loeking at reevamping some of the core routeens and maeking beter
products from taht in teh futur! Dont wory, teh name of Dildo Fatwa wil be
herd loude and long for a whiel yett!
Ferlease:- We are still predominantly Atari, but we're not ruling out other
things to go alongside in the future. I'm sure I heard some mutterings about
a Sun Sparc intro at the last group meeting! Or was it something else?
Pongo:- I quite like the idea of investigating some of the other trackers
out there, for doing some standalone musics. My fishy fingers could be
stroking the new Maxymiser suggestively before too long? Alternatively, I
wonder how good Ace Tracker sounds from inside my dustbin studio?
And finally, do you have any special words of greeting or advice to the
readers of Alive?
Charcoal:- Yeh, don't giv up! The sceen needs sunlite and larrfter!
Ferlease:- Robbie Williams is a load of poo, and he owns an Amiga!
Pongo:- Save the planet, listen to cool tunes and avoid washing!
Alive:- Ermm, thank you all very much!
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Recorded by CiH - April '05- for Alive Mag!
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