Survey submitted: Wed 10 Sep 2008

Handle, ex-handle(s):
current: Conrad
ex: CRD

Name, birthday, origin:
Owen, 2/October/86, up th' north of ye olde england!

Group, ex-group(s):
- Samar Productions (Januray 2007 to present)
- Onslaught (June 2007 to present)
in both groups I am a musician and coder.

What was your first group, your role in that group and what did that group produce?:
First C64 group I joined was Polish demo/music group Samar Productions in early 2007, after Ramos (leader) noticed my music releases on CSDB and asked me to join as a musician. So far I've only released music for them (including one for a game they released) but hopefully I want to try and code a demo or music-maker under their group, as well as my other group, Onslaught.

What motivates you to spend time on the scene?:
Usually to witness new releases of the C64 demo and cracking scene... and also taking part in SID music competitions when available.

What is your favorite color?:
Without being sexist, anything that isn't girly

On what platform(s) did you begin your computing journey, and when was this?:
My parents had a Vic-20 and C64 sometime between 1986-88 and also a BBC-Micro (a what?? hehe I know ), mainly just to play games on. A couple years later my dad gave me the C64 when he got an Amiga 500 and thanks to various programming manuals and external cartridges like Action Replay mark IV (my dad bought 5 boxes of cracked games, tools and demos from a bootsale in 1990, which was extremely lucky for me considering where I am in life now!), I started to learn programming in BASIC when I was around 9-10 years old (around 1996). This was my first steps in coding (as typical to many beginners) and is the main reason of where my education has directed to... software engineering!

Around 1998 I started to learn machine code using a monitor and made a couple of small oldskool demos (getting some ideas from past 80's demos on the C64) just for fun. At this time I didn't know the C64 scene was still alive after hearing all that news that CBM liquidated around 1993... automatically I thought... that's it... C64 scene is dead! But I was wrong, when I got an internet connection in 2004! I was dam lucky to keep the c64, otherwise I would of given up creativity completely and be a completely different person all-together (probably some nobody behind the bar pulling pints for punters, lol).

Music wise, I played with some old C64 music tools like Future Composer, RoMuzaK and Rockmonitor. This was around the same time in 1998. Later in 2005 I discovered Goat-Tracker - a cross-development C64 music tool on the PC, and I've been using that ever since. In the future me and another member of Samar are planning to write a new C64 composer. Once this is done I will probably use that from there on, if all goes well that is.

In conclusion to all this, I have had a huge gap from the demoscene and I'm amazed of how it has evoluted into a huge community over the years, compared to how it was back in the 80's.

What platform(s) do you use now?:
Usually I make my productions on a cross-development machine... in other words... a PC or laptop! But sometimes I still use a C64 for writing quick knock-ups where necessary (with the help of MMC Replay cartridge!)... and for final testing of code and music of course.

I also have a few Amigas, but I only play games on these to be frank.

What is/are your favorite piece(s) of music(s) - from a demo production or a scener (released outside of a demo)?:
I've liked a lot of musicians over the years, but my current active favorites are:

(C64):
DRAX/Maniacs of Noise
Laxity/Maniacs of Noise
Jeroen Tel
Hein Holt
Linus/ViruZ
Jeff/ViruZ
Jammer/Exon/MSL/Samar
Randall/MSL
Orcan/React
dalezy/Triad
A-Man/Xenon
Intensity/Gheymaid
Sidder/MSL/Samar
Rusty46
... and many more... there are lots!
not to forget the english legends Rob Hubbard, Ben Daglish, Martin Galway, Tim Follin, Mark Cooksey, Fred Gray, Matt Gray, Neil Baldwin, The Eggman, Adam Gilmore... etc.

(Amiga+PC):
Romeo Knight
Reed/Fairlight
Lizardking
Vogue/Triton
Aleksi Eeben
... and various others... unfortunately I don't know alot of Amiga/PC sceners, sorry.

What is/are your favorite picture(s) - from a demo production or a scener(released outside of a demo)?:
The almost full border picture of a mermaid at sea in the intro of Crest's demo "Deus Ex Machina" was mindblowing when I first saw it! I also liked a picture called "Face to Face" by Valsary/ex-Samar... that is a fine detailed work of art! I also like a lot of graphics drawn by Deev/Onslaught, Hein Holt, Mirage/Focus, Mermaid/Vision and others on the C64... not to forget the old timers from the Compunet days.

What music program are you using the most to express yourself? Why?:
Goat-Tracker
because:
a.) It was the first composer tool I tried after nearly 10 long years, and usually I stick with the first tool I try!
b.) Considering it's console based, it is a very nice interface and is quite easy to use. Improvments have obviously grown time by time for this tool.

The only downfall with GT is that the SID emulation (reSid) is not really 100% perfect emulation of a real SID chip... oh well, that's emulation for you! Sometimes I use the GoatTracker tweak-utility (native C64 tool) to make sure the sounds are perfect on the real SID, because 9.9/10 competition tunes will be tested on a real C64.

Which composer, artist or group of the real life did inspire you most?:
To be honest I don't have any as I'm not heavily into real life artists. As for genres however, my music is mainly based on rock, metal, electric, techno and dance. I might try other genres, but that depends on what I listen to

Do you play any instrument? Which?:
I did play a couple of cheap and nasty keyboards when I was around 4 and did actually have a drum-set when I was a teenager, but that was all really.

Which project that you worked on was the most exciting and interesting for you? And why?:
I haven't really been involved with any exciting productions in the past as I wasn't around then. I did however enjoy making the music for Bomberman C64 (released by Samar in February 2007). Many people liked the game and music, but there were a few that critisised that the music was not based on the original scores. The reason they were'nt original was because I never really played Bomberman in the past and didn't own a lot of games consoles (Only a Sega Megadrive and a PSOne). I did play Dynablaster on the Amiga, but that was it... not knowing that the music was original or not.

What is your favorite demo, intro, megademo, retrogame, slideshow, musicdisk, diskmag, wilddemo?:
Favorite demo (C64): "+H2K by Plush"
... although 8 years old, it is the BEST C64 demo I have ever watched! It includes a lot of great graphics, music and coder pr0n, on two complete sides of a disk! What really amazed me though, is that it was all coded by a teenage Krill/+H ... I could never have skills like him at such a young age! That's what I call amazing!

Favorite Mega-demo (Amiga):
(although it is obviously old now): "North Star + Fairlight Megademo III (1988-89)"
... this aparently was the very first demo I ever watched when I was 4 years old... and is still my favorite today!

Retrogame:
(Amiga) Supaplex - very challenging!
(C64) Boulderdash ... I like puzzle games!

Musicdisk:
"10 Years HVSC" (C64, 2006) - a great collection of SID tunes contributed by many of my favorite C64 musicians!

Diskmag (C64):
Vandalism News
Attitude (when they were active)
Recollection #1 and #2 (#3 is coming soon!)

Discuss: minimalistic demos, cracktros, fucktros, joke demos, lamers, compo winners at big parties, demotools, diskmags, chiptunes, glenz vectors, programming languages, photoshop, textmode:
Minimalistic demos: I take those are 4K, 64K, 96K demos, right ?

Cracktros: Anything that says "Cracked by" and includes a trainer menu

Fucktros: Anything that says "Fucking to all lamers!"

Joke demos: Both funny, but sometimes retarded if it's for a particular reason (e.g. trolling on CSDB forums!)

Lamers: Pretty obvious what these are... either guys with little skills and don't improve (the ORIGINAL term of "lamer")... or guys who do fuck all and think that CSDB is the scene!

Demotools: Useful programs to help reach your goals in demo-making! (I guess)

Diskmags: Electronic copies of the scene news, internet-free-zone!

Chiptunes: A beautifull combination of simple waveforms that creates the best kind music I have ever heard in my lifetime! Simple and enjoyable! Normal people should listen to these more often if you ask me... guys, stop listening to boring Ibiza/gangsta shit and listen to some SID shit!

What percentage of modern demos are 3d flybys?:
Not sure, I haven't been around that long.

What percentage of older demos are the same effects recycled?:
around 75%, mainly those including vector effects and plasmas.

What platform(s) needs more demos?:
C64 !!!!!!! I keep dreading C64 scene is slowly dying, me and a lot of other 64'ers don't want that to happen! Please keep the C64 alive, otherwise I'll have no-where to got to replace my primary hobby!

Which parties do you intend to go to, and which parties would you like to go to? Please describe your personal experiences with your most favourite or impressive party you have ever been at:
At the moment I can't get anywhere (not even South of England!!!) due to little cash and no car (and also in the middle of a career as of 2008-09)... but in the future I would like to try and visit:

X parties in the Netherlands (the primary C64-only party to visit!)
Breakpoint parties in Germany
Forever parties in Slovakia
Silesia parties in Poland (C64 only)

How did the scene alter since you are taking an active part in it? Can you explain why?:
Nothing really happened when I joined... except for "WOW! Another young C64 musician from the UK appearing... yay for fresh blood!"

What are your dreams/goals in life, did scene help you and have you achieved them yet?:
I'm not really interested in being famous in the scene, but I would like to give some credit to the scene in my lifetime... at least for the C64 section anyway.

Finally, do you have some special greetings? Feel free to add links to your graphics, screenshots of effects, modules or other pieces of your work:
Hello to everyone on #c-64 IRCnet and all my C64 contacts... I really hope to have a beer with you guys some day at a demoparty! cheerio!

Many of you never heard/ talked to me before, but you can check out my stuff at CSDB (search for "Conrad/Onslaught/Samar" I'm also on #c-64 IRCnet if you like to chat. l8r