Survey submitted: Mon 10 Sep 2007 - 18:43:17

Handle, ex-handle(s):
rc55

Name, birthday, origin:
Ruairi Fullam, 30th May 1982, Ireland

Group, ex-group(s):
I'm not in a group, but I suppose I could say I was a UKScene Allstar.

What was your first group, your role in that group and what did that group produce?:
UKScene Allstars (Sundown Party Organiser) - they've produced a few PC and speccy demos, generally social invites. This year however, Smash and DVS have made a great demo which won Sundown 2007 demo competition.

What motivates you to spend time on the scene?:
The productions and dedication of others primarily, and the social feel and the fact that the UKScene is very friendly indeed.

What is your favorite color?:
Probably dark blue.

On what platform(s) did you begin your computing journey, and when was this?:
My mum bought the family a ZX Spectrum 48k in 1989. We didn't have a lot of money and couldn't afford an Amiga or anything like that, but I still have a lot of love for the Speccy.

What platform(s) do you use now?:
PC primarily, but I do have some Amiga's, a c64 and hopefully another spectrum soon to go with my DivIDE interface that LaEsq provided me with.

What is/are your favorite piece(s) of music(s) - from a demo production or a scener (released outside of a demo)?:
The soundtrack to Tesla/Sunflower (I think it was by radix + lluvia). I also really like E.T. by Paniq/KB, and almost anything by Little Bitchard, Wayfinder, Reed and JCO. Still, there are more musicians that I forget the name of that I like, it's just taking time to discover and listen to them.

What is/are your favorite picture(s) - from a demo production or a scener(released outside of a demo)?:
I like Louie, Wade and Dr. Doom's work. I love 2d artwork done for the scene, and I hope to spend more time discoving that also.

What music program are you using the most to express yourself? Why?:
Renoise. It's just the best tracker out there that both pushes towards the future with its insane innovations, stability and features. It's a dream to work with, and as a tracker user who struggles with other ribbon / piano roll based production software, its great, and the mixdowns can be pushed to professional quality easily.

Which composer, artist or group of the real life did inspire you most?:
BT (Brian Transeau) is my most signficant creative influence although I admit I don't spend nearly enough effort working on his level of technical refinement. I also like a lot of UK Hardcore acts like Cube::Hard and Darren Styles.

Do you play any instrument? Which?:
I used to play the drums, I'm not that good. I have a keyboard and guitar but cannot really play in realtime, I just use them to bash out ideas at a staggeringly abysmal pace.

Which project that you worked on was the most exciting and interesting for you? And why?:
Sundown Demoparty - the first year I hadn't even been to a demoparty, the second year we had Mark Shuttleworth turn up and this year was amazing for its atmosphere and our huge screen. That and we had a small fire with the amplifier blowing up!

What is your favorite demo, intro, megademo, retrogame, slideshow, musicdisk, diskmag, wilddemo?: demo: probably farb-rausch - debris or byterapers - sexadelic but I love almost all fairlight, orb, equinox prods.
intro:
farb-rausch - candytron and erm, that fairlight one with the street theme.
megademo: erm, dunno. megademo? I'm not that old school.
retrogame: dune by cryo, easily.
slideshow: none comes to mind.
musicdisk: bitjam 1.1, rebels latest disk, ouch i and ii by tequila, the farb rausch music collection. There is another one, but its name escapes me.
diskmag: zine was great (the interface was a little irksome), pain is always good and I think hugi is pretty decent, as long as Adok doesn't talk politics too much (but his efforts are well appreciated!).
wilddemo: lol internet by jco. lols indeed!

Discuss: minimalistic demos, cracktros, fucktros, joke demos, lamers, compo winners at big parties, demotools, diskmags, chiptunes, glenz vectors, programming languages, photoshop, textmode :
minimalistic demos - some ok like "bookprint and a broken heart".
cracktros - always good when done with oldskool grace and dynamite chiptunes.
fucktros - no opinion really.
joke demos - shouldn't be voted highly unless the content / fx are really that good.
lamers - I only know one, Dazzaboy who is useless at taking any criticisms for shit output.
compo winners - there is a distinct premier league in the scene... encourage those below you to keep working and pushing themselves.
demotools - are necessary these days for certain workflows. i dont disagree with them.
diskmags - great fun, if a little inflexible at times.
chiptunes - lovely charismatic and stylistic expression via music, an art form that should never die.
glenz vectors - were cool in the 90's
programming languages - i think ms do a great job with visual studio, i just hope that openGL also keeps a steady and relevant presence.
photoshop - great tool, often abused. it's fucking hard to use properly though.
textmode - s'ok, nothing really impresses me much with it now because often it's just a low resolution render and cpu power renders it to have no technical challenge, so it would have to win on style really.

What percentage of modern demos are 3d flybys?:
I couldn't honestly say. Nothing is wrong with 3d objects without dynamics but I think what with shader coding and the like, it pushes pure flyby's back a bit. Depends on whether it was lazy or not. Some things are great as they are.

What percentage of older demos are the same effects recycled?:
A fair bit, but that's fine. It's the differences that count like soundtracks, direction and art.

What platform(s) needs more demos?:
I personally think the Atari scene could do with more. There's some great Atari coders out there and the falcon / 060 style platforms are pretty cool imo, I just hope that scene can pick itself up and keep going.

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.:
I've organised Sundown 05,06,07 and hope to continue in 08. I have been to Breakpoint 06 and 07 and hope to go to 08. As I have only been two two parties I didn't organise, I think my favourite was probably Breakpoint 07, but 06 was very close. In fact, I think they were the same, but different...

How did the scene alter since you are taking an active part in it?
Can you explain why?: Well, (modest mode), I think I helped the UKScene greatly by giving them Sundown once a year. I also help with ukdemoscene.org (due for a redesign!) and the ukscene blog and some YouTube postings.

What are your dreams/goals in life, did scene help you and have you achieved them yet?:
My dreams / goals are probably to get driving and earn more money and be more independant and happy work wise. The scene helps subtely in many ways, it makes me very happy because of the friendships I've made and how much my work is appreciated, and also the guys in UKScene have helped me in crunch times with some technical support and financially with Sundown when it was really needed.

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.:
I'd like to greet the following:
xwize, leblane, blokey, smash, truck, keops, equinox, gasman, trace, sole, ne7, glittermouse, buzz, dr. doom, navman, soops, stavs, 3dave, parapete, syphus, white_shadow, rawhed, nathan lance, evilpaul, 4mat, benny, spenot, dvs, axl, m0d, reed, tcm, vampy, vespa, trx, zeb, codeman, dotwaffle, justinas, elfh, forestcre, hikey, deltafire, cle, bonkers, 71m, alfcoke, dark, meaty, jupiter909, velo, artlace and of course Alien of Bitfellas! (plus anyone I forgot). Fuckings to Dazzaboy, the UK's biggest twat.