AN
INTERVIEW WITH
REMO
REMO is one of the nicest surprise the year 2001 brouhgt us : first we were
given a nice gfa coded Falcon demo that was quite impressive and he lately
coded the intro to Chosneck which was another nice surprise !! Time to unveil
mysteries and learn more about this single man crew.
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First of all, let us know who you are : name, occupation, releases and
stuff. Remember that readers WANT to know about you.
- Hia Guys! I'm Remo, realname Simon Lindauer, 24 years old, living in south
Germany/Augsburg. I'm an unemployed mechanic - but I don't want to go back into
this business because it's quite a boring job. You know, I've learned for about
4 years, how to program robots, how to construct & build Hi-precision machines.
But after finishing this apprenticeship I only had to push 2 buttons for 8-10
Hours a day... a very exciting job, isn't it? After that I went back to school
and did a lot of several things. I worked at a Hospital, at a local Youth
Center, at a school for Kidīs with "speaking-problems" and some other
"social-jobs"... atm I'm unemployed again. Ok, somtimes I work for some local
musicans here (driving them to their gigs, build up and operate the audio
equipement and so on).
-= BTW: If anyone knows a good Job for me... please drop me a line ;) =-
My releases... My first release was "NetBeat", a Swatch-Beats clock for
Atari. This wasn't good stuff, but it was my first release, at all. (Maybe I'll
code a new version this year... ) Then followed "Vertigo" - my first Demo. This
was a 128KByte-Falcon-Intro with (pure GFA-Code, of course ;) )
Afer this I "felt to sleep" for 1-2 years. But after reciving a cool postcard
from NO, 505 and Spion I decided to do something again ;) - I've coded the
"Coffeine Overdose" and after getting a LOT of great & motivating comments I
wrote the Intro for "Chosneck #1". After doing the "Chosneck #1" Intro I've
joined .tSCc. Hmmm,... I think this all so far...
When did you start doing things with your Atari ? Did you release other
things on other platforms ? Do you gather all skills at once ? Actually you
seem to code but also make gfx and compose soundtracks hey that's impressive.
No, I don't do everything by my self... I do coding and sometimes I play a
bit around with APEX Media, CyberSculpt or somthing like that. I love painting,
but I'm not good in making GFX on Computer... I prefer doing GFX "by hand",
with pens, brushes, text markers, airbrush and so on...
Music: I wish, I could do some music... but no, I don't have ANY music skills.
My dad is a professional church musican, my brother is a professional
musican, too. But not me!!! I'm happy to find the "middle-C" on a piano ;)
(BTW: My brother did the "Coffeine Overdose" Soundtrack - watch out for the
"original-version", released with one of the "Fading Twilight CD's" - I had
to make a poor "remix" of the track, because the original Track was to long
and I want it to fit on a single HD-Disk.)
I've startet with my 800XL (I was about 6-7 Years old). You know, at that
time it was very neccesary to learn a bit basic coding ;)...
In 91 I've got an ST... and I've got my first GFA-Basic copy... that was the
moment for me to start "real" coding. The first years I only wrote things for
personal use, some GFX-proggys, simple databases and so on... you know, like
this low-quality-crap that can be found on hundreds of disks in old PD
collections.
I also tried to code my first effect-screens at that time. But nothing was
released. In 1992 or 93 I've got my Falcon, I've bought my first modem at that
time, too...
But I've paused for some years with coding. In 1998 I've started again and
had my first (offical) atari release. It was (AFAIK) the very first NetBeat
clock for Atari's...
On other Platforms I didn't release something, yet. Well, sometimes I play
a bit around with C on my PC... but I hate coding on PC and my C-skills are
very VERY low atm, so there will be no PC releases from me in the next
time... ;))
You've been unknown to us so far : is there a reason to that ? Didn't you
know other Sceners ? As far as I know we've never met you either on IRC or in
parties but can we hope for a change here ?
Well,... yes, as you guessed, I didn't know any sceners (a year ago). But one
day a postcard arrived me. It was from Spion, 505 and NO. They saw "VERTIGO"
and decided to drop me some lines... This was a damn happy day for me...
A postcard from "REAL-DEMO-CODERS"!!! You couldn't Imagine how proud I was!!!
After this positive resonance I've decided to do someting for the EIL 2k2.
And on EIL#2 I explored, that newcomers are VERY welcome!
Since that my scene-activity increases!
BTW: IRC is now installed on my I-Net machine, too :)
Of course now I'm wondering what opinion you may have developed about the
ATARI world. Come on we're not nasty people, just a bit loony I guess :)
Who said Atarians were nasty people??? ATARI-Scene is a small but a VERY COOL
and friendly scene!
I was in contact to some mailboxusers before my "scene-join", this was a cool
time, too! But the number of mailboxusers decreased and many mailboxes closed
due to the of the enormus grow of Internet at that time.
So, I was allways sure, that ATARI Scene is a cool and friendly one! (This was
always a reason for me to stay ATARI).
But this was a "other" World - you know, contacts were very local at that time.
Now, my number of scene-contacts is growing and is also very international.
-=And this is GREAT!!!=-
But it seems, some ATARI'ans (not sceners) are a bit too shy. Ok, I'm a shy
person, too. But I belong to this kind of ATARIans who telling everybody that
I'm a Atari-User..... and it's quite impressive, how many people you can find
"out there" who having a ATARI, but didn't tell anybody until someone like me
is coming and telling them, that having a ATARI is cool ;) Many of them also
don't know that there are good Sites for ATARIans at the net... That's the
reason why I claim that there are MUCH MORE ATARIans out there, than we all
believe!!! (Sounds a bit like a X-File, or? ;) )
So, and now let's open our windows... and let's scream out: "I'm an
ATARI-Coder/User, and I'm proud of it!!!"
So, are you ready to attend the next party ? :) I know you're German and
most parties are held in Germany.
I'll try to be at the next parties, of course! But you know, sometimes it's
hard to go there... I don't have a own car, so I need somebody, to go with me
(or lending me his car for some days). Go there by train is very stressing and
expensive. And I don't have a Job, so money is often a problem, too.
Back to your releases : do you want to move to ASM or keep exploring GFA to
its maximum ? I have to admit that your gfa only demos really looked great !
GFA/ASM: Well, I'm already moving to ASS. At the moment I write everything
in GFA, optimize it and then I translate the innerloops to ASS.
I think, this is a good way (for a unexpierienced ASS-Coder, like me)...
In GFA it's easy to get a first prototype of a effect. It's also easy to try a
lot of modifications in a very short time. If everything works fine you can
speed it up by factor 3-5 by translating it to ASS.
Next I have to ask about your projects as I hope we'll see even more from
you ! What about an intro for alive ? Could you also code stuff on the ST ?
Maybe you have unreleased stuff at hand.
Be sure, that there will be more from me :)... Currently I'm exploring some
basics of signal-processing (audio&video), "new-school" efx and GEM
programming.
There are also some BIG project's for bigger TOS-machines like CT60/XTOS in
progress. But this stuff will took quite a long time, because there are some
important things to learn/explore before.
An ALIVE Intro? Hmmm... why not? But atm I'm quite busy with an actual
project. Depends on the deadline... But I only code for Falcon atm. It's hard
(for me) to get back to ST again.
What if people want to reach you ? Do you have an homepage and/or email ?
My own Homepage isn't online yet. I'm simply to lazy to do this I-net stuff.
But I don't know when these lines will be released... so you can take a look
on http://www.remo.gmxhome.de maybe I manage it till the ALIVE release to put
something there.
But you can take also a look on tscc.atari.org (I'm a .tSCc. member now).
If someone want to get in contact with me via e-mail: remo.williams@gmx.de
What are your all time favourites on ATARI machines ? Think of demos of
course but also games, magazines, utils, whatever.
There are so much... I don't know where to start... Hmmm...
Ok, let's start with the "serious" Software:
Well of course there is GFA, T-ASS, ScreensPain and Devpac my favourite
coding tools.
APEXmedia on Falcon is a damn good proggy... same goes for CyberPaint on ST.
WinRec's DSP-Modules are alwas good to have some fun, of course.
Whip! - Always a good choice, this ran quite often (but now my Falcon's
samplingunit is damaged :(( )
Games:
"RETURN TO GENESIS" (ST) The first game I know which showed a 2-Layer
horisontal parallax scrolling in 50Hz on a plain ST... and it was fast!
(Steve Bak became one of my first "coder-idols" at that time)
"IK+" (ST) - there were so much funny things in this game! (Watch the
background!)
"Sapiens" (ST) - this ran quite often on my old ST. I didn't had a Idea what
to do in this game, but I loved its sound!
"Operation Jupiter/Hostages" - I've played this for hours and hours and...
"KAISER" (XL) - a REAL ALL TIME FAVOURITE (only in the original 8-bit
versions) -=REAL "MULTIPLAYER" FUN=-
("Landgraf REMO von Preussen, sie sind leider verstorben" ;) )
"BALLBLAZER" (XL) - Silly game, I know - but I love silly games ;)
...and much more!
Demos:
On Falcon: "Hmmm", "Sonolumineszenz", "Wait", "Don't break the oath", the DHS
Stuff. The EKO stuff, like "Are you experienced" or "Papa was a Bladerunner",
Lazer's "Autowaschen verboten" - Ahhh... I like them all!!!
ST:
All the TEX-Stuff, of course (this were the very first demos I saw).
Leonard's ultracool 3 minutes 3D-Flight-Demo is def. a all time favourite of
mine too. I can watch this flight a hundred times without boring me!
"Froggies over the fence" - all of you know it...
Ohhh, damn... I could list Megabytes of cool productions here... But I guess,
these were the most "important" ;)
Let's explore your mind now with our customized brainstorming : please fill
in the blank with whatever comes to you
S : Simon's
I : Improvement of
M : Maincode
O : Operation
N : Narcosis
R : Remotecontrolled
E : Engine
M : Movement
O : on demand
Uhh, quite poor, I know...
Do you have a final message you want to give away ? Use this space to
promote stuff, send greetings or say what you have inside of you
1. To all unknown Coders out there:
Don't be afarid of Framerates and such stuff, just release your stuff...
Noone will call you a lamer when you release your first Demo!!!
2. To all shy ATARIans out there:
Don't be shy to tell that you're a ATARI-User! The next ATARI-User may be
nearer, than you beleve! Maybe you neighbor is a shy ATARI User, too...
3. Don't care about all the PC-Lamers, who tell you PC's can do much more...
Just ask them, what THEY do with their machine (and have a happy laugh ;))!
Most PC-Users (not all) I know having very big machines, and the only things
they do with it is playing Solitare and sometimes writing a letter/Mail...
Hahaha,... what cool things they do.. You really need a 1.8GHz / P4 machine
to write a letter... ;O)
4. -=STAY ATARI=-
Thanks for the time spent with us. I really hope we can see new stuff from
you in a near future.
It was a pleasure for me...
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