AN
INTERVIEW WITH
EARX OF LINE OUT
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Of course we ALL know Earx as the main (and only ?) coder of famous Dutch
crew FUN INDUSTRIES but strangly his latest release - and not the smallest -
bore another label, namely LINE OUT. Uh ? Yeah, I was surprised too and since I
wanted to know more about the genesis of DELTA and that -LINE OUT- thing, I
simply decided to address him a few questions :)
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STS : Hiya Pieter ! Will you be kind enough to recall us some info about
yourself such as real name, age, crew status, occupation and so on ?
EARX : my name is Pieter Van der Meer. I am 24 years old now. my crew
(lineout) is alive. at least we seemed not completely zombified at eil3 ;) I
currently am trying to graduate from my study in electric engineering at
philips labs.
STS : To be honest, I only remember FUN from the ALIVE demo. Can you list
the productions you have been involved into ? Don't forget to mention stuff you
may have worked on but under another label if there are some :) Also use this
occasion to sum up your status in the Fuji Scene :)
EARX : oki, I started coding quite some time before the ALIVE demo. I
released my first game neurobotix in 96. was really proud of it back then, but
now I think it's crap. except for the good memories of course :) after that I
joined fun thanx to bonus. And I released a small 4ktro ICERAIN. It was maybe
the first one with sound, but well not great in any way ;) only in '98 did I
release my first demo called FUNGLE BEATS, based on some music by comp7 and
some fx I did during that year. after that came the alive demo. then some music
compilation for PMP. Then an intro for Maggie. And the Sector One and FUN
meeting in 2001 spawned an intro called "sct1&fun" (okay, a bit obvious ;)).
for the delta demo I decided to make a new label. Just to make it fit to the
demo a bit better, and to maybe revive the fun crew a bit.
STS : Now back to the real topic : first what is LINE OUT about ? If I
remember well, you said FUN wasn't quite dead, then why change label ??? Will
you use it in your -hopefully- future prods or can we expect to see more from
FUN ? Btw where the hell are the other funners ??
EARX : well, if there are any prods made that fit the name 'fun' better, we
will release under that label. It's more of a thing that (music)bands do with
sideprojects. but I can say however that the old part of fun (the founders) are
not very active anymore. I am very grateful for bonus bringing me into FUN
though. however: bonus, wingleader and otm are now inactive.
STS : I visited you and Havoc (who should be thanked for his kindness one
again here !) about 2 years ago. I remember having the chance to enjoy some
screens, were these used in DELTA ? My memory isn't so good so that I cannot
make sure, except that you already said your next prod would be "something" and
not necessarily a demo :) What do you mean ?
EARX : hehehehe. yes, all of a sudden two strange and scary ppl came over
to my house. Threatening to steal my falcon and cd's ;) I remember that :) The
screens you saw were some ugly demonstrations of an earlier version of my
'human fly' engine. indeed, a later version of that engine is used in DELTA.
yes, I also told that the things I had back then weren't very demo like. just
basicly a couple of screens that didn't have much in common. and the ideas that
I had at the time weren't very traditional demo stuff. Like for instance many
ppl think that the beta part of the demo has no music, only fucked up sounds ;)
so not very "demo"-esque material, but something that defies catagorisation.
STS : now that DELTA is finally out, after two years of work, are you happy
with the result and the feedback you got ? Tell us everything !
EARX : hhhm, I don't know about the feedback... some people were really
positive, some others were really negative. but I told myself a lot of times
before that it's just my own things I want to do. and I did them they way I
like. I'm even content about some parts of the demo. I really can't say that of
my other prods.
The reactions of ppl just made me laugh. Some anonymous guy on a web
bulletin thought it was pure crap (no gfx, crap msx, too much repetition). I
think Mikro worshipped DELTA, maybe he built his own shrine for it ;) some
others just missed the whole point and said stuff like: nice length. just shows
how different my views are on demos than most other ppl.
STS : Let's play it nasty :) After the release of DELTA, some rumours were
heard, saying that you had partly used the HMM sources given away by NO/Esc. I
don't want to start a riot but since there were such words, I guess you deserve
the right to clear things up.
EARX : Again these rumours.. about FUNGLE BEATS it was said that I just
reused inter's code. the fact was I used only 1 modified effect (out of 10!).
and no.. it wasn't the voxel, it was the persp. rotozoom. and no, I did not use
the hmmm sources. if you check the sources given with the demo, you can see
that this is true. ofcourse I used (stole) some ideas from norman's great demo.
but the ideas were implemented 100% by myself.
STS : we could have thought you would use some time off the scene after
such a big release but we know you're working on another demo ! Ah ah ! So, did
this demo act as a scene fever trigger or what ? What about other Fun/Line Out
members ? You seem quite alone on these projects :(
EARX : yes, I seem a bit alone sometimes. the other lineout guys were a bit
silent. however I think this is different now. Havoc is painting and Dforce is
making music. at this moment it seems like we want to release the demo
somewhere at another atari party this year. indeed it seemed to have worked a
little as somekind of trigger. I noticed havoc working on gfx again especially.
anyway, I don't intend on taking a break. Atari coding is fun and I don't see
demomaking directly as something compulsory. mostly I just code on some stuff
I think is funny and after a while it gets more and more visually pleasing.
and then some new fx are born. And it's just fun to see them move to music.
STS : Btw why didn't you release that tower intro due to be used with
UCM15 ? Yeah yeah I know you've had nightmares with it, but I can't believe you
have given up such a sweet intro :( I promise I won't ask you anymore :P
EARX : damn ;) maybe when I get interested in ST stuff again I will do
this. but that could be many many years. Actually I now know some more about
oldschool stuff such as syncscrolling and such and it fascinates me. I'd
actually love to write such screens, but indeed first I would have to complete
something a bit more simple like that intro. but I'm not promising anything =)
STS : At EIL3 Havoc hinted at a possible PMP party next summer or maybe
next year. Is it more than a dream ? Tho nothing is official, maybe you want to
use this space to promote such event ? I missed the first PMP but I'd love to
attend the next one !
EARX : hhhm, I don't know.. other dutch guys are organising an atari party
in February. but in this time of year not many ppl have free time. And people
from abroad would want more than 2 days of party I think cos of their long
yourneys. if we would do one, Easter time or the summer hollidays sound better.
I'll talk with havoc about this. actually there is alot of interest, especially
from English and French guys.
STS : hmm then what ? I think you are among the - many- Atarians who have
been waiting for CT060 for years now. What is your current opinion on that hot
topic ? Are you tired with waiting or still expecting wonders ?
EARX : I dunno, I will try to make my stuff more compatible with 040/060 in
the future. but in the first place I code for the standard setup. I've gotten a
bit pissed off about ct60. A normal company would have been sued a long time
ago. I've paid for one as have many others. The ct60 would be interesting to
code. as deez and evl pointed out to me it might be interesting to see how it
stands up to a 060 amiga. Also I think a ct60 Falcon plus a supervidel is a
good alternative to the current pc's, mac's and amigaone's. except in video
applications it might not be super fast, but fast enough for internet
applications, 3d editing and modern dtp stuff.
STS : don't stay in the sunlight coz here comes the brainstorming part !!
Ready ? Set, go ! Feel free to add missing letters in your formely incredibly
long nickname :-)
E : eil1
A : add
R : reset
X : addx
L : line-a
I : illegal
N : nop
E : shit, I missed eil2
O : or, yes, that's an instruction too ;)
U : damn, can't think of this one. hUman fly?
T : clr.w -(sp) ; Trap #1
STS : Is there anything you would like to add ? Maybe some message after
the great Error In Line Party ?
EARX : it ruled! I really tried not to sit behind my falc the whole time,
but it seemed there were soo many cool people. impossible to talk to all :)
STS : thanks for giving us some of your time to answer these questions !
DELTA is - in my humble opinion - a great demo I'll watch again and again !
EARX : thanx seb. good luck with alive =)
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