Who is Mavey of Potion ?
Interview, additional writings and english corrections
done by Magic of Nah-kolor
Proloque
One of the best and active coder's on the Amiga scene today is Mavey of
Potion. Especially his two intro's Gush and Gift are really scene pearls
and very high rated in the chart's.. Mavey, in real life going by the name
of Jarek Wojczakowski (20) lives in Maksymilianowo a small town near
Bydgoszcz in Poland. He study's telecomunication. "I appeared on scene in
1997. It all begon in an Amiga group called Victims where I had coded two
intro's called Dysentery I & II under the nickname Tim. In 1998 we merged
with RedBullz. Lateron I met Skip, and changed my nick to Mavey. I've been
fascinated by his approach towards the Amiga scene, especially when we were
making our first intro called Spleen. It was the beginning. In time Potion
evolved and has grown up and we hope to make great productions for the
Amiga scene. Now the main crew from Potion lives close to eachother, which
makes this alot easier to do." Mavey comments..
Mavey has coded alot of thing's already on Amiga.. Intro's, Demo's and
two music disks! "It begon with Spleen at Quast 1998, than the intro
Outgrowing at Gravity1998 (1st place) Later, we attended Astrosyn1999 where
Gush and Vertus won. A short time later at RushHours 1999 Exodus was
released. Later on Xenium we released an intro called Raos in cooperation
with Weeds. Our 'pearl' Gift won at MS 2000. At the same party we released
the demo Estadiol. After Mekka I'm a happy PPC owner as I moved to this
processor. Because I hate C, C++ I decided to write in pure assembly as on
68k. And the result is the intro Suicidal, wich won Satellite2000. (Read
the review of Suicidal in Devotion's Party Zone -Ed) I must say, that my
collaboration with our new coder Diamond from the time I got my ppc card
(he's ppc owner too) is going great!" Mavey comments.. Also Shizofrenia and
Despair were coded by Mavey. Both are a musicdisk with modules by TZX.
- How do u see yourself as a coder and what do you
think about Amiga coding in general ?
Hmm.. I think that I am in the correct place, because coding is a thing
that I really like. I'm glad that my life has gone this way, because now
I can hack my C teacher And about scene coders: I've got mixed feelings.
There are alot of clever people, but they can't really show this. In my
opinion being a good coder is not enough, you must know how to show your
abilities on the screen. On the PC you may watch a lot of good productions,
but the coder abilities are not importand, because writing in C for
accelerator is not the same as diggin' in Assembly. Amiga coders haven't
got such a big acces to algorithm's as on pc.. But they're doing well
without it.
- Criticism has rizen that compared to the Western scene Poland is
alway's using better and upgraded hardware like PPC. Any comments ?
The person who told you that was wrong, because in Poland only Noe and Elf
have coded for ppc. On the one side I do understand people who can't watch
new demos because they haven't got ppc. But they must go foward. In A500
times people were coming at a party to watch AGA productions.
Now it's different, and it makes me wonder why ? I'm going to show Amiga
power and I hope that PTN productions will astonish PC users too If you
havent got ppc buy it immediatly!!! On the western scene unfortunatly,
there aren't to many new productions, but a few of them are great. On 68k
Ephidrena rulez. On ppc something had moved too (Mankind). I hope that it
will change, and ppc will help to make new productions "
Mavey about Potion and the Amiga Scene..
Anno domini 2001 Potion consist's of 10 people. Diamond and Mavey for the
code, Skip and Tzx for the music, Konus,Randy and Rem for the raytracing
and Lothar and Sobol as Swappers and packmakers.. "We joined few new
members but 10 people is ok. I'm very glad about it, as we don't want to be
a big group. We want to give you nice things, and a good team is needed
for this. A lot of PTN members (Diamond, Nelson, Skip, Tzx, Rem and me
of course:) live in the same area in Poland. Which makes everything much
easier.." Mavey comments.
- What do you think of the amiga scene these days ?
That's not an easy question. There are some new faces. A lot of sceners
buy new hardware so new, more advanced productions might appear. I think
that the scene won't dissapear in short time, because Amiga is a great
computer!
- What demo's did u see recently ? What do u like of the scene
these day's and what don't you like ?
I've seen a lot of productions. I realy like to watch them. I like good
design, without it a demo is just a piece of junk. I like the way people
see me on the scene, everyone is nice for me. And sceners are very relaxed
they are doing demos just for fun, and that's it. I like alot of productions.
At the moment i'm non stop watching Life by Tulou. Old demo, with great
feeling and music. From the latest productions I like the last Eph demo
from Assembly and IWTM/Appendix. It was done by a new polish coder
called Kierownik. In some parts it looks like Rain by TBL, but still is great.
- What do you think of Zig, Klod, Noxis, Schlott and Antibyte ?
I know 3 of them, so I'll start with them. Zig is a nice guy, But he doesn't
know whats going on with Amiga I have visited him in my last holiday, and
I saw his system.. He is a great coder, and he know what he is doing. He
is the master of 060. Klod is a different guy, he can make killer effects,
but without this small thing that makes me astonish. I talked with him at
satellite 2000 He said that he sold his amiga, and he is starting to code
on PC. (his choice:) Noxis is allright but he still has got problems with
his HD:) I hope he won't stop as Klod did. About Schlott and Antibyte they
are VERY great. Waiting for new productions.
- What is your relationship with SKip, next to the fact he is a musician
which modules you use in your productions..
Hmmmm... Skip... I knew you would ask about him. He is my second part:) As
I told before we live close to eachother, it makes developing intro's
easier. He introduced me to GOA music, and im glad he did IT!!! He had
some fights, but it doesn't matter. When he's talking about new effects,
I'm coding it, and that's it When I want new music Skip makes it in the
correct way. He also created an algorithm for sample generation in C. I
rewritten it to asm. I'm really glad that I know Skip !
Potion's Gift to Amiga..
In 2000 Potion won the intro competition at the best Amiga party these
day's: Mekka/Symposium. Gift was the name of the intro and is currently the
no.1 intro in all charts.. Mavey: "I'm happy that we won!! A pitty that I
wasn't at the party but I know that the reaction for Gift was great. When
Skip came home from Mekka/Symposium he said to me that Gift was disqualified
and only the next day he said truth that we won!! ) I'm proud of it. I hope
that we can make it once again." Devotion know's that Gift was an intro that
took alot of time to make.. So we asked Mavey something about the making off:
"The music in Gift was coded on for about 2 months, later working over the
effects and packing into 64k was about 7 months of hard work..
Some procedures were designed to use them in several places. I'm not sure
that I can do it on PPC, but I'll try anyway." Mavey comments..
Epiloque
And here end's the interview with one of the best coder's on the Amiga
Scene today.. Mavey told me that they are making a new, splashing PPC
demo and intro for Mekka/Symposium so the forecast is that they will win
both compo's To end this article Mavey gives his last words and
messages: "First I would like to thank Sator and Math (my first 2 contacts).
without them I would not be a scener. Next to all the people that support
me right now: Diamond (who is making a new ppc assembler!), Nelson, Rem
and Skip ofcourse. Others greetings to Caro, Zig, Klod, Rork, Dûez, Far,
Glutten (podaj mi swoj adres!!) Madd, Mustafa, Oczek, Hakon, MDW, Frequent,
Loaderror, RubberDuck, Payday, Luk, Tzx, Quantor, Sobol, Lothar, Azzaro,
Photon and all Fluctuation, Lahve, Holdys, Wouter (sorry, buy PPC!
and ofcourse Magic And all I have forgotten.. sorry "