Survey submitted: Wed 04 Feb 2009

Handle, ex-handle(s):
Manwe

Name, birthday, origin:
Alexander Matchugovsky, 3 april 1975, Moscow, Russia.

Group, ex-group(s):
the SandS, SPC (Strogino Programming Company).

What was your first group, your role in that group and what did that group produce?:
SPC (Strogino Programming Company), we worked on BK-0010 home computers. I made an assembler code for intros and games and tracker music on self-made tracker. Releases can be found on pouet.net by searching for "Strogino PC".

What motivates you to spend time on the scene?:
May be the joy of collaborate work and progress of my scene friends.

What is your favorite color?:
azure in general, white in clothes.

On what platform(s) did you begin your computing journey, and when was this?:
IBM PC XT in 1985 or so. Just rarely played a games on uncle's office. Next, I meet BK-0010 (rusian DEC PDP based computer with some multimedia possibilities) in school in 1987-1988 and dive to the Scene soon.

What platform(s) do you use now?:
Mac and Wii (very rare).

What is/are your favorite piece(s) of music(s) - from a demo production or a scener (released outside of a demo)?:
A lot of tracker music. I love a hundreds of modules from the middle 90s. I still love the "tracker sound" (not chip-tunes), may be because of its "obviousness" and "understandability" of creation process - it's like I not just listening, but also seeing the musician's hands on his PC keyboard
So, I can note Future Crew, Five Musicians, Orange and many others. I especially like the musicdisks.

What is/are your favorite picture(s) - from a demo production or a scener(released outside of a demo)?:
I like Amiga artists like Facet, Lazur, etc.

What music program are you using the most to express yourself? Why?:
Schism Tracker. Because it has Scream (Impulse) Tracker interface and hot keys.
Also I use Garage Band, because it is simple and clear.

Which composer, artist or group of the real life did inspire you most?:
The Beatles inspires with their melodies, sincerity, drive and variety. Some "electronic" artists (like Vangelis) inpires with their talent in sound and atmosphere design.

Do you play any instrument? Which?:
Piano, guitar, bass. Sometimes I play baglama, sing into a microphone, etc.

Which project that you worked on was the most exciting and interesting for you? And why?:
"Skale Romantics" musicdisk, because it was the first musicdisk ever utilize Sk@le Tracker realtime engine.
Also, I remember good old times when I worked on "Night Tales" musicdisk and "We'll See You Soon" demo.

What is your favorite demo, intro, megademo, retrogame, slideshow, musicdisk, diskmag, wilddemo?:
"Second Reality", of course. Seriously, I like a lot of demos and intros by Orange, Retro A.C., Blasphemy and Purple, Future Crew and many others. On Amiga, I like demos by Mystic, Artwork, TBL.
The game... It should be one of the first game I played - the "Alley Cat". Seriously, I like tactic games like Reversi, Hexagon and may be Warlords 1 and Civilization 1.
"Ambrosia" was one of my favorite musicdisks, "Blur Green" by Mellow-D was another one. Today i like "reTracked" project.
Diskmag... There were a lot of good emags like Shine, Hugi, Hacker and many others.
Wilddemo... I like Maxon's render, remakes and parodies on classic demos like "Second Reality" and so on.

Discuss: minimalistic demos, cracktros, fucktros, joke demos, lamers, compo winners at big parties, demotools, diskmags, chiptunes, glenz vectors, programming languages, photoshop, textmode:
Minimalistic demos are good, I like Replay's intros, "Life on a grid" by Ada (Amiga) and even "1d demo".
Demotools are good if you can (and will) add your own code while making a new demo/intro. Why not, especially if you is the author of this demotool?
Chiptunes suxx because that's goes over all limits! Too often people devotee every piece of shit just because "it sounds like chiptune!" Seriously, I like some genius chiptunes very much... The same about textmode.

What percentage of modern demos are 3d flybys?:
95% ?

What percentage of older demos are the same effects recycled?:
99% ?

What platform(s) needs more demos?:
see the answer № 5

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:
Assembly 2001 was the great party (10th anniversary).
I visited a lot of russian parties (almost every party almost every year). Enlight 96 was the first for me, so it makes the stronger impression on me. Today, I like DiHalt and Chaos Constructions because our group (demogroup!) played live concerts there.

How did the scene alter since you are taking an active part in it? Can you explain why?:
People became more lazy. Not on the Scene only - I guess, it is a problem of all industrially advanced countries.

What are your dreams/goals in life, did scene help you and have you achieved them yet?:
Objectives are changing... I reached the goals in the "civilized society way of life" such as art-director in famous advertising agency - art school and demoscene helps me a lot. But it's all a background.
I still want to break the limits in real life, like we did it in demoscene. Guess, the next field of fight would be... an "generally acknowledged" theories in history, linguistics, etc.

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.:
Greets to all tracker musicians I met in real life, like Stereoman, Necros, Euggie and many russian sceners!

Here is a link


www.thesands.ru