Interviews
Interview with Stirf
Published in Vandalism News #36
Performed by Jazzcat
For a change I decided to interview one of the newer sceners, as we need to also take care of present times as well as remember the golden years too.
This issue it is Stirf, editor of the ArachnoPhobia magazine. Enjoy!
J)
Welcome to the magazine! Please introduce yourself to the readers.
S)
Hello there!
My name is Frits Koudijs and some of you might know me as Stirf/SPD/ROLE. I am 24 years of age, I live in Holland in a city called Ede. This city lies in the centre of the Netherlands, ROJ and Lizart also live here. I'm mainly the only coder in Spiders-Crew and I edit for ArachnoPhobia. I work only on real C64s, I hate PCs.
J)
Could you tell us your scene history?
S)
I bought my first Commodore 64 in 1990 (maybe a little late but hey!: 399, - Dutch Guilders is quite much money to accumulate when you are only 14!) and I liked it a lot, many of my friends also had one.
At first I only used the wonderful machine for games and stuff like that. Later on (1995) I discovered I could do much more, that's when the fun started! I have been in U-Turn, Role and in Spiders-Crew, these last two groups I am still active for.
I've coded a lot, did a little cracking, swapping, organise and I did it for my two group's magazine (ArachnoPhobia).
The highlight of my scene career is really The Party 8 in Denmark, there my and my group's first demo was shown, it reached place 5 of 9 entries. I stood there with a few hundred others watching the main screen while a lot of people started clapping that was very cool!
Of course the intros I made for U-Turn and Spiders-Crew were nice and not to forget that ArachnoPhobia still is nice, some of my other work for ROLE was also cool!
J)
The ArachnoPhobia magazine is the most regularly released English disk mag in the scene, what is the secret to this success?
S)
The actual "secret to the success" is that it has been released regularly and it will continue doing that if all keeps on going well. The beginning was a bit hard, getting known was also important to our success. I took quite long before people understood, it was Arachnophobia instead of Arachnophobia ;-) !
J)
I know the feeling, people thought my magazine was the official Legend magazine, and some still think it is an Onslaught zone too (Domination). What do you think of disk magazines on the C64 in the past and present, and what do you think should be their purposes?
S)
I think many of the older magazines (which are now mostly gone) were more to show off and sometimes even to start wars (some magazines however have always stood for quality and fairness). Today most of the magazines give much (scene-related) information and some are also quite professional.
Giving information in a nice way is the main purpose of magazines in my eyes.
J)
What is your opinion on the current demo scene compared to that of the late 80s and early 90s?
S)
I like the new demos much, the older ones were present in a bigger quantity, but some really lacked quality (aum... in other words they were lame sometimes :-))
J)
There was a discussion about demos at scene parties, if they should be completed 100% and spread at the party or still allow demos to be entered into a compo even though they were not completed and not spread until well after the party. What is your view on this?
S)
A demo should be complete for 100%Whether groups want to keep the demos in their own possession is up to them, as long as those demos have been shown (on a screen) and everyone present could have taken a look at it.
J)
Been to many scene parties? Which ones did you attend?
S)
I have been to quite some parties now, my first was the X'96, then X'97 Takeover, The Party 8, Mecca Symposium '99/'00/'01 (the best party) and in between these scene-related parties I also visited some Peace parties and meet some friends like Faith, Black star, Notice, Dark Omen, Am freak, Hawk tower, Bud, Koki, Thunder, Smurf and even AEG and Sonic.
These parties are all in the Netherlands and are called Ambience, Bizarre and Takeover.
J)
Do you like the current trend of most people releasing new wares only at parties and not in-between events?
S)
New wares only at parties is just a way that things have become, I don't really like it, but it is better than no releases at all!
J)
What could be improved in the scene?
S)
An improvement for the C64 scene? perhaps more people should buy new the new hardware for the C64 that might really improve the wares-quality and give some people some new energy?!
J)
What is your opinion on the cracking scene, and the personality differences between a legal and illegal scener?
S)
The cracking scene should be the people that crack stuff, but there is not much to be cracked, so it has become a bit hard to actually crack. I like the good re-releases, this is a nice way to still be able to crack.
An illegal scene puts little work in sometimes big releases and legal scener puts sometimes much work into a little release. The illegal scener mostly profits from the legal scener while he doesn't care much about that. The legal scener sometimes tries to make some money while the illegal does never.
The most accurate personal differences I don't know, these may vary.
J)
What are your all time favourites on the C64:
Coders: Crossbow, AEG, Graham
Musicians: AMJ, Mitch & Dane, Sonic
Graphicians: Joe, Sander, Sebaloz
Demo groups: Crest, Xenon, Samar, Booze, Elysium, +H
Demo: +H2k
Cracking groups: Remember, Laxity, Excess
Game: Penquin Towers (too bad it was never finished)
Disk magazine: Domination, Vandalism News
C64 webpage: Cocos
J)
If you had the choice to create an all time C64 scene group, which people would be your members and why?
S)
Exile: good hardware supplier
Joe: quality graphics
Lizart: always nearby, nice brother
Commander: very nice, good memory
ROJ: reliable
Funxilla: speed swap (even those same day replies)
Cactus: coding
XL: very nice music, good game coding
Shake: cool logos
Carnage: enthusiastic
Almighty God: paper art, nice friend
JSL: very active, quite experienced
J)
Do you have any scene/commercial related activities on any other computer/console formats and what is your opinion on the internet?
S)
I am only in the C64-scene, I don't have much knowledge of other systems (how to code&stuff). Internet is really the future but potentially also the end of it?!
J)
What are Spider-Crew up to in the future and what are the members doing in and out of the scene?
S)
We'll try to continue with ArachnoPhobia as good as we can. There will be a nice Spiders-Crew demo, hopefully next year. Mr. Chaos is studying and tries to still swap a little. Swayze writes for Tertium Quid and ArachnoPhobia. ROJ is working for Spiders-Crew and his boss. Shake is doing great graphics and works. Lizart is studying at school and writes for ArachnoPhobia.
J)
Spiders-Crew are working on a game, can you tell us about it?
S)
Sorry but I am not actually working on a game, but watch out, you might be surprised in the faraway future! Quattro was abandoned.
J)
George W Bush and Osama bin Laden, what do these names mean to you?
S)
Two little boys fighting, which by doing so, are harming many others. The situation has become quite a mess. Many people got killed already.
J)
Please send some greetings...
S)
I greet all the people that I have swapped with, the ones that support Spiders-Crew, ROLE or the C64 scene in general. Some names: JSL, ROJ, Shake, Commander & Icegirl, Faith, Bud, Joe, Lizart, Yogibear, Mr.Chaos, Checky, Lizart, Sonic, Drake, Silver Bullet, Firefox, Thornchild, Ceti, Almighty God, Torsoft, Cactus, Swayze, Exile, the ones I forgot and the rest of the C64 scene!
J)
Thanks for your time, do you have any last comments?
S)
No matter how fast/powerful/good looking/east a system besides a C64 is, it will never be better and/or more fun than the real thing: Commodore 64 number one!
Published in Vandalism News #36
Performed by Jazzcat
For a change I decided to interview one of the newer sceners, as we need to also take care of present times as well as remember the golden years too.
This issue it is Stirf, editor of the ArachnoPhobia magazine. Enjoy!
J)
Welcome to the magazine! Please introduce yourself to the readers.
S)
Hello there!
My name is Frits Koudijs and some of you might know me as Stirf/SPD/ROLE. I am 24 years of age, I live in Holland in a city called Ede. This city lies in the centre of the Netherlands, ROJ and Lizart also live here. I'm mainly the only coder in Spiders-Crew and I edit for ArachnoPhobia. I work only on real C64s, I hate PCs.
J)
Could you tell us your scene history?
S)
I bought my first Commodore 64 in 1990 (maybe a little late but hey!: 399, - Dutch Guilders is quite much money to accumulate when you are only 14!) and I liked it a lot, many of my friends also had one.
At first I only used the wonderful machine for games and stuff like that. Later on (1995) I discovered I could do much more, that's when the fun started! I have been in U-Turn, Role and in Spiders-Crew, these last two groups I am still active for.
I've coded a lot, did a little cracking, swapping, organise and I did it for my two group's magazine (ArachnoPhobia).
The highlight of my scene career is really The Party 8 in Denmark, there my and my group's first demo was shown, it reached place 5 of 9 entries. I stood there with a few hundred others watching the main screen while a lot of people started clapping that was very cool!
Of course the intros I made for U-Turn and Spiders-Crew were nice and not to forget that ArachnoPhobia still is nice, some of my other work for ROLE was also cool!
J)
The ArachnoPhobia magazine is the most regularly released English disk mag in the scene, what is the secret to this success?
S)
The actual "secret to the success" is that it has been released regularly and it will continue doing that if all keeps on going well. The beginning was a bit hard, getting known was also important to our success. I took quite long before people understood, it was Arachnophobia instead of Arachnophobia ;-) !
J)
I know the feeling, people thought my magazine was the official Legend magazine, and some still think it is an Onslaught zone too (Domination). What do you think of disk magazines on the C64 in the past and present, and what do you think should be their purposes?
S)
I think many of the older magazines (which are now mostly gone) were more to show off and sometimes even to start wars (some magazines however have always stood for quality and fairness). Today most of the magazines give much (scene-related) information and some are also quite professional.
Giving information in a nice way is the main purpose of magazines in my eyes.
J)
What is your opinion on the current demo scene compared to that of the late 80s and early 90s?
S)
I like the new demos much, the older ones were present in a bigger quantity, but some really lacked quality (aum... in other words they were lame sometimes :-))
J)
There was a discussion about demos at scene parties, if they should be completed 100% and spread at the party or still allow demos to be entered into a compo even though they were not completed and not spread until well after the party. What is your view on this?
S)
A demo should be complete for 100%Whether groups want to keep the demos in their own possession is up to them, as long as those demos have been shown (on a screen) and everyone present could have taken a look at it.
J)
Been to many scene parties? Which ones did you attend?
S)
I have been to quite some parties now, my first was the X'96, then X'97 Takeover, The Party 8, Mecca Symposium '99/'00/'01 (the best party) and in between these scene-related parties I also visited some Peace parties and meet some friends like Faith, Black star, Notice, Dark Omen, Am freak, Hawk tower, Bud, Koki, Thunder, Smurf and even AEG and Sonic.
These parties are all in the Netherlands and are called Ambience, Bizarre and Takeover.
J)
Do you like the current trend of most people releasing new wares only at parties and not in-between events?
S)
New wares only at parties is just a way that things have become, I don't really like it, but it is better than no releases at all!
J)
What could be improved in the scene?
S)
An improvement for the C64 scene? perhaps more people should buy new the new hardware for the C64 that might really improve the wares-quality and give some people some new energy?!
J)
What is your opinion on the cracking scene, and the personality differences between a legal and illegal scener?
S)
The cracking scene should be the people that crack stuff, but there is not much to be cracked, so it has become a bit hard to actually crack. I like the good re-releases, this is a nice way to still be able to crack.
An illegal scene puts little work in sometimes big releases and legal scener puts sometimes much work into a little release. The illegal scener mostly profits from the legal scener while he doesn't care much about that. The legal scener sometimes tries to make some money while the illegal does never.
The most accurate personal differences I don't know, these may vary.
J)
What are your all time favourites on the C64:
Coders: Crossbow, AEG, Graham
Musicians: AMJ, Mitch & Dane, Sonic
Graphicians: Joe, Sander, Sebaloz
Demo groups: Crest, Xenon, Samar, Booze, Elysium, +H
Demo: +H2k
Cracking groups: Remember, Laxity, Excess
Game: Penquin Towers (too bad it was never finished)
Disk magazine: Domination, Vandalism News
C64 webpage: Cocos
J)
If you had the choice to create an all time C64 scene group, which people would be your members and why?
S)
Exile: good hardware supplier
Joe: quality graphics
Lizart: always nearby, nice brother
Commander: very nice, good memory
ROJ: reliable
Funxilla: speed swap (even those same day replies)
Cactus: coding
XL: very nice music, good game coding
Shake: cool logos
Carnage: enthusiastic
Almighty God: paper art, nice friend
JSL: very active, quite experienced
J)
Do you have any scene/commercial related activities on any other computer/console formats and what is your opinion on the internet?
S)
I am only in the C64-scene, I don't have much knowledge of other systems (how to code&stuff). Internet is really the future but potentially also the end of it?!
J)
What are Spider-Crew up to in the future and what are the members doing in and out of the scene?
S)
We'll try to continue with ArachnoPhobia as good as we can. There will be a nice Spiders-Crew demo, hopefully next year. Mr. Chaos is studying and tries to still swap a little. Swayze writes for Tertium Quid and ArachnoPhobia. ROJ is working for Spiders-Crew and his boss. Shake is doing great graphics and works. Lizart is studying at school and writes for ArachnoPhobia.
J)
Spiders-Crew are working on a game, can you tell us about it?
S)
Sorry but I am not actually working on a game, but watch out, you might be surprised in the faraway future! Quattro was abandoned.
J)
George W Bush and Osama bin Laden, what do these names mean to you?
S)
Two little boys fighting, which by doing so, are harming many others. The situation has become quite a mess. Many people got killed already.
J)
Please send some greetings...
S)
I greet all the people that I have swapped with, the ones that support Spiders-Crew, ROLE or the C64 scene in general. Some names: JSL, ROJ, Shake, Commander & Icegirl, Faith, Bud, Joe, Lizart, Yogibear, Mr.Chaos, Checky, Lizart, Sonic, Drake, Silver Bullet, Firefox, Thornchild, Ceti, Almighty God, Torsoft, Cactus, Swayze, Exile, the ones I forgot and the rest of the C64 scene!
J)
Thanks for your time, do you have any last comments?
S)
No matter how fast/powerful/good looking/east a system besides a C64 is, it will never be better and/or more fun than the real thing: Commodore 64 number one!