AN
INTERVIEW WITH
MORGAN OF FANTASY
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Foreword of STS : this interview was first done in French and I translated it.
The original interview was carried by ST Cooperand was done in 2000. It was
meant to be published in ToXic Maglatest issue, yep issue 19 that never saw
the light of day :( Maybe the names Morgan and Fantasy don't sound really
familiar to you, especially if you're not French, so let's introduce the band
now. Their main releases were two 'fake' demos of a very original style. They
were a collection of really funny (but accompanied with lots of French texts)
screens with famous French references such as GARCIMORE who was a famous
magician seen on French TV in the 70s and maybe 80s. He used to present tricks
that wouldn't work and it always made the guy and TV viewers have a great deal
of laugh !
Then, when you thought he was just a poor magician, he would amaze us with a
greatest (and successful !) trick. He became very famous, known for making
people almost laugh to death ! Too bad their demos were never translated to
English but I am not sure it would have sounded that fun in the wrong
language... Anyway let's focus on the interview of Morgan, once member of
Fantasy AND Dune, two memorable ST crews.
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1. Hi Morgan. Please tell us about you (name, age, status...)
My name is Morgan Roussel, I'm 28 years old and currently live in Paris. Morgan
ins't a nick, since it's my first name I thought it would be easier to keep it.
However I used to bear other nicknames before joining Fantasy.
2. Are there still active members in Fantasy ? what about the ones who left the
crew ?
Alas, the crew has been dead since 1996. We were only three but that was far
enough. Before joining Fantasy, I was a member of Dune. But then things were
different as the band counted more than twenty members !!)
3. Why demos telling us of mussels and Garcimore ? What actually draw you to
the demo scene ? Why did you choose to emphasize design over technique ?
One of Fantasy's goal has always been fun and we wanted to bring something
different to the ST Scene of that time. I think everyone was getting fed up
with scrollings, 3D, fractals, etc. We didn't want to focus on technique (even
tho some of our demos implied lots of work and efforts). That's why we chose
to dedicate our prods to Garcimore who had really nothing to do with demos. It
was just for fun and we enjoyed that period a lot. It was just about launching
crazy ideas. Btw we also liked Patrick Topaloff a lot ;-) (note of STS : that
name doesn't remind me of anyone).
As far as technique is concerned, I used to code 68000 above all and GFA a bit
too. Since Deneb was really good at GFA (just check old issues of ST MAG to
check it out) and he was responsible for most of coding. I had coded some
really technical routs but they didn't fit our ideas so that we preferred to
focus on design, the overall feeling more than putting scrolls all over the
screen.
4. How did you feel when your 'idol' just vanished away ?
A bit sad for sure tho I don't like the word "idol". I think we liked it a
lot and nothing more.
5. How did you work on demos collaborating with the others members of Fantasy
Dis you meet, mail each other, phone them ?
It was pure hell :) We used to meet and keep in touch via phone. We swapped
disks via snail mail too. Our thoughest job was to get Garcimore 2 completed as
we all had less spare time for demos.
6. Who was doing what then ? Did you all have specific tasks for coding for
instance or did it depend more on current mood ?
Well -Deneb- used to code, paint gfx and compose music, then -Remalon- coded
funny GFA screens and added funny sounds. Last but not least I handled 68000,
GFA and music. We - all - had ideas when we stayed at Deneb's place or mine.
Sometimes we even recorded our own voices, used them as samples and remixed
them in soundtracks.
Here comes a funny story : it took me three months to work on the reset screen
included in Garcimore 2, mixing 68000 and Gfa. don't know why, but depending
on the machine (1040, 520 and so on) it worked... or not. I finally managed to
include some ASM : a 8x8 scroller, a picture using the STE and a sid-voice.
Remember that we mainly used GFA basic in our demos.
7. What feedback did you receive to your demos (nice or bad comments, contacts
and so on ??). What did other sceners - who coded technical stuff - thought of
your demos ?
To speak the truth, I've never really been interested in people's comments.
Surely some liked our demos while others disliked them.
8. What's the best ST demo for you ?
Erm, hard to say. For a long time my fave demos were the BIG demo and UNION.
Today I would say that the demo I like most is Garcimore 2 Rire ;-) Besides I
think it's the only demo that runs 100% at random. Had you noticed it btw ?
9. What's your opinion regarding the current Atari world ? What do you think
of the supremacy of the PC ? Do you still use your STe ?
Yes, I still have my STe. I use some emulators on PC (Pacifist, Winston) to
watch good old demos. Demos on PC are surely very impressive but I don't like
too much. They just look like commercial games. Things were different before.
It was a golden age...
10. Any chances to see another from Fantasy in the future, regardless of the
machine ??
Sure, why not ? You never know. You should ask the others. We tried to convert
the Garcimore 2 demo to PC but it never went any further...
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