(Named after the, erm, classic 1970's rock n roll band. The first single I ever bought was "Under The Moon Of Love" by Showaddywaddy in 1978!).

How old are you?
31.

When did you join D-Bug?
Early 1992.

When (and why) did you leave D-Bug?
Still active (or sad) as I maintain our web site.

Did you crack anything for D-Bug, or was it just intro code?
I did a bit of both really. I joined at the same time that Cyrano Jones hibernated! I coded some intros plus I hacked the odd game (Elite 2, Patrician and Obsession, to name three). Infact I did contribute to D-Bug from around menu 29 when I became their music ripper under my demo handle of Grazey.

What computers/consoles have/do you own?
I still have my trusty C-64 which I bought in 1983 for £240! (one of the legs off my VIC chip snapped off, so that has been replaced with a paper clip!!), I also have a 1040STFM, Amiga 1200 50mhz and a 233 PC bit of a hoarder! All computers are linked to my PC but I still use my A1200 and STFM every week.

Do you still own your ST, and if so what do you use it for?
Yes it's still on my desk gathering dust. I like to dabble in 68000 now and again and I am also still ripping ST sound chip music for inclusion in my "Zak Hacks" series #19. I also convert ST tunes to the Amiga to work with Nicolas Pomarede's excellent YM emulator. It's not as easy as it sounds as you have to work out how each individual music driver works then pass the soundchip registers to his emulator. He also coded a 100% conversion of the B.I.G. demo for the Amiga which is astounding. Plus we are compiling a D-Bug CD.

Where do you think Atari went wrong, and would you buy a disk-drive from them?
Not sure really, even when the Falcon came out it was too late. My first ST (an STM 1.08 with no internal disk drive) had an external Atari half meg drive, it was damn ugly and useless.

What do you think of the various Atari ST emulators?
PaCifiST: Really cool, can't wait for 0.50!
STonX: Never seen it.
TOSbox: - ditto -
GEMulator: - ditto -
WinSTon: - ditto -

What feature(s) would you like to see implemented in future versions of these emulators?
Decent SID voice emulation and border busting/sync scrolling capabilities. Improved monitor.

Did you ever get a scroller to yourself?
Yes! I wrote nearly all scrollers from 120-165! (Sorry NJ Zapp, you should have asked!)

Did you ever slag anyone off you wish you hadn't?
Not really because at that time all the in-fighting and crew wars had died down (excluding Elite/ICS/Vectronix). Basically anyone still going post 1990 deserved commending.

Did you ever not slag anyone off you wish you had?
Yes, I would have slagged Sewer Rat who kept lots of my disks I sent. He did this to so many people.

What was the most innovative thing (at the time) you saw on the ST?
It had to be the Demo, the Whole Lotta More screen is a classic. Also the digi-department in the B.I.G. demo was ground breaking. Gameswise I would say Enchanted Land as it was the first game that used sync-scrolling (update! : Supernova of Cynix informed me that Chambers Of Shaolin was the first game!) , I think the only other game to use it was Eclipse's No Buddies Land.

What's your fave ST game?
Great Giana Sisters by Rainbow Arts (before it got banned by Nintendo!). Oh and Hostages by Infogrames.




What do you think is the best (technically speaking) ST game?
Probably Thalion's No Second Prize for the super fast 3D polygon engine.

What's the worst ST game you have seen?
So many, any game by Tiertex (Rolling Thunder springs to mind). Also Peter Johnson did a pathetic "conversion" of the C-64 classic "Wizball" which would make the Sensi boys sob.

What's the best job of a game crack (ST) you have ever seen?
Probably Vapour's crack of Dungeon Master as it gave joy to so many people at the time.

What's the worst job of a game crack (ST) you have ever seen?
So many crews from the past like FOFT who often just packed the program files and didn't realise that the protection occurred later in the game.

What's the best protection system you have ever seen?
I only started game hacking in the twilight of my scene days so I probably missed all the best ones but I heard Cubase had a pretty decent dongle protection. Also games written in interpreter languages ( eg. STOS and Simarils own game environment ) are tricky. I'm yet to find anyone who removed the code check from the *shareware* game Grandad 2...any offers?

What's your fave demo?
The Demo.

What's your fave group?
& Ziggy Stardust/OVR.

What's your fave TV show?
Babylon 5 and

What's your fave movie?
Fritz Lang's - Metropolis



What's your fave cheese?
Mouldy cheddar from the back of the fridge mmmh yummy.

What's your fave food?
I love Cadbury's but they seem to dissolve my teeth. For "proper" food it would be haddock and chips.

Can you name 10 ST Hackers?
Yes. Members of the Bladerunners, will that do?

Can you also name 10 PC Hackers?
Not one.

What does that tell you?
I chose the right side of the fence.

If you could travel back to 1988, would you do anything differently?
Yes, I would have persevered and not got my hair chopped.

Who did you most admire?
Hacking wise it's got to be Vapour/Hot-Knife/Was(Not Was) he cracked just about every game ever released on the ST and inspired alot of would be crackers. Coding wise it would be Nick/ and Tim/ .

What music do you like?
I love Indie music - Spiritualized, Mansun, Seahorses. Red Snapper, Black Grape and Prodigy. I also like more mainstream acts such as The Corrs (corr!), Alanis Morissette and Fleetwood Mac. Also heavy vibes like Vest and Dogmuck. At the moment I'm really into anything on the Pork label like Baby Mammoth and Fila Brazilia. Bit of a festival goer too (what no Phoenix 98 ;-( ).

What tools did you use to crack most games?
MonST and the Pompey flavoured version by Col.

What Pseudonym's did you have?
Showaddywaddy, Grazey (for my demo activities), Tomsk, Wellington, Orinocho & Zero Nine.

What's your fave software house?
Graftgold and Thalamus.

Why was D-Bug formed?
I suppose it was to continue the tradition of a crew who cracked and packed all their own stuff from originals, unlike so many other groups who simply packed other peoples cracks and bunged them on a menu.

Do you think your activities helped to kill off the ST?
No, when I joined D-Bug the die had already been cast, infact it was cast many years before.