Interviews

Interview with Shine

Published in Vandalism News #67
Performed by Jazzcat


You all have seen his graphics; one of the friendliest and active graphic artists on the humble C64 is here to give you, dear reader, some further insight into his life and hobby.



V) 
Welcome to Vandalism News, please introduce yourself to the audience.

S) 
Hello ladies and gentlemen! My name is Andy AKA Shine. I live in a small town near Hamburg in Germany. My hobby is creating graphics mainly for the C64.



V) 
You have become quite well known and are perhaps one of the more productive sceners these days! Could you try and re-account your C64 history, when and how did it all start and what have been the highlights and changing points up until the present day?

S) 
At first... thank you for your kind words!
Well, I got my very first C64II with a 1541-II on the 24th of December 1988. Before that I had a C16 with datasette only. I was always fascinated by all this stuff like games and demos.

My very first handle was "Snake-Byte" and later I founded (lame) local groups like "Nightmare" and "Angels". After a few months I started creating logos and cracking. Assembler was a very hardboiled egg for me without any knowledge or references except Basic. I can promise here, I cracked and trained up to 50 full price games under the group label "Seldom Designs" between 1989 and 1993. The protections weren't hard though.

But I have to be honest and say, that I also did some mega lame ripping of intros. So I hope they will never find the path to CSDb.

In 1993 I had tears in my eyes, because of decreasing full price games and I felt this is the end of C64. Even big groups started to "crack" Game On & Magic Disk games...

On the 12th of July 2012, I created an account on CSDb to upload my old logos from the golden days for nostalgic reasons. Over 5 years now, meh. I restarted creating (really bad!) logos for Fairlight. Some of you dudes will remember.

I used Paint Magic and FLI-Designer in the emulator. Ok... if I look back, I did a lot of crap. But I usually don't look back often. I concentrate and focus myself on future projects. I now use, more or less, only PIXCEN by CRT and PETSCII by MARQ basically. I really love these tools! Without them I would not do anything for the C64 anymore.

My highlights are: "Genetic DNA" (PETSCII), "A Touch of Glass" (MULTICOLOR), "Vega" (Demo by Delysid) and some other work.





V) 
Is there anyone or any group you looked up to? Did anyone in the scene motivate you and why?

S) 
Hmm... too many people inspire me to get motivated. The first group I joined after my comeback was Delysid and I am still a member since the 4th of January 2013. A couple of other groups followed. My very favourite group back then was "FairLight". I watched the legendary intro and Legoland so many times. It was always a dream to get in contact with them. In 1996 I was in Canada for a couple of months and got in contact with Strider/FLT over the internet. I made one FLT logo for him for the PC section. It was never used afaik.

Other favourite groups were: Cosmos Designs, Lords, Oneway, Weird Science, Camelot, Finnish Gold, X-Ample Architectures, Beyond Force, Cosmos, Light, Genesis Project, Ash & Dave, Crest, Black Mail, Seven Eleven, Horizon, Hotline, Strike Force & The Movers, Paramount, Shining 8, Sphinx, The Papillions, Ikari + Talent, Triad...

Favourite composers who I am listening until today are: Jeroen Tel (Thanks for the hours of Skype conversations!), Rock (A true legend with a big heart), Linus ("A man - a word" and a real nice guy and outstanding composer!), Edwin van Santen, Johannes Bjerregaard, Tomas Danko, Thomas Detert, Rob Hubbard, Chris Huelsbeck, Jens-Christian Huus, Markus Mueller, Reyn Ouwehand, Markus Schneider. SID music is totally fascinating to me since my first day.

A lot of graphicians who I adore are: Mermaid (she is a true friend and helps me a lot!), Joe (has always nice useful hints), Veto (one of the most skilled and nicest people around), Jailbird (my very talented buddy), Elko (we stay in contact mate...), Ptoing (very professional and trustful artist) Duce, Electric, Mirage, Yazoo (somehow my soul brother), Nexus (aka Death), Pal, Carrion, iLKke, Valsary, Oys, Redcrab, DeeKay, Gotcha, Bizzmo, ilesj, Goblin, Ogami.

Other nice guys are: Conjuror (powerful coder and my buddy), Dano (he is a really good coder and has also big knowledge about design of graphics), The Phantom (my special and really nice friend and supporter), Jesder (a very talented coder with a brilliant feeling for design), Arcadestation (hardware guru and retro artist), Jazzcat, Magic, Hermit, CRT (a lot of nice Facebook chats), Dr. Science (waiting for the next collaboration), Se7en (a brilliant logo designer), iAN CooG, Motion (extraordinary designer), Hedning, Nomistake, Dr.j, TheRyk. A lot of works and dudes motivate me! Thanks to all who support me!



V) 
What was the scene all about in your opinion?

S) 
Scene is a more or less small community with one target. To keep the scene alive with all kind of productions. Fun, motivation and inspiration are my personal goals. Besides the usual dramas now and then, CSDb is a really nice place with all different kind of people. I respect all (especially productive) people. Not that I like all works, but I know how much time and heart blood you need to create art.


V) 
What makes the C64 so special? And is it the computer or the scene?

S) 
The C64 is the most used home computer to test different kinds of restrictions. I love MultiColour and Petscii very much. Time to try some HiRes stuff in near future. To be honest, the C64 was and is a big part of my life. I spend every free minute to be creative and I like to experiment very much.





V) 
Do the limitations of the C64 make you unhappy?

S) 
NO!!! I really like less defined but restricted rules anyway!



V) 
What is your recipe for creating good graphics in your view? And will you experiment with other formats more or are you super glued to MultiColour?

S) 
Well, I don't really have a recipe for success. I can only say that I try to improve while watching other works and playing around with my own stuff. Imagination is very useful though. There are a lot of artworks outside which are useful as well for me. I get my impressions from a lot of things. The only way to improve is to work hard and never give up. If you get critics then don't take it personally and try to understand what can be improved.



V) 
Is MultiColour the most genuine expression of the C64 palette?

S) 
Definitely! MultiColour is the standard in every case... at least for me. But I also lost my heart to Petscii. I really dislike interlaced modes BTW. MEH





V) 
Why don't you like interlace so much?

S) 
Well, one of the first interlaced games i saw, was the game "Soul Crystal" (a very good adventure, sadly only in German). I loved the graphics back then, except interlace. I really don't like how the picture wobbles so strong. It looks usual bad in my eyes.



V) 
What are you working on at the moment and what is the status of your groups?

S) 
Oh... I get offers from time to time. I am gonna prepare some Petscii's and MultiColour's currently. I am now in Arsenic and Delysid. And i see no other groups in this moment which i would like to join. There is only one other group which I am interested, but I won't tell.



V) 
Will we see it end? I mean, if the commercial aspect of our culture has not killed "it", will time be the true nemesis?

S) 
The time will always succeed in every meaning! But I hope the true scene will stay alive as long as possible.




V) 
What would you like to see improved on CSDb?

S) 
Especially as a graphician I would like to see the graphics in the overview sections. It's hard to find some pieces without deeper knowledge. Jailbird made a webpage "www.thepixelingcow.com", but for some reasons, this project got closed. It was the best graphic reference for the C64 based on CSDb entries imho and I am still sad about its closing. Maybe in (near) future JB makes surprises us again.



V) 
Also, focusing on the C64 events in recent times and the part they play in the scene, what could be done better?

S) 
With SceneSat it is all nearly perfect. Maybe the recruiting of new blood could be a bit improved here and there.



V) 
What C64 games do you like and what could be improved on the C64 gaming front?

S) 
These are my favourite oldschool games:
The Last Ninja 1 & 2 & 3, Creatures 1 & 2, Turrican 1 & 2, Katakis (Denaris), The Great Giana Sisters & Hard'n'Heavy, Ghost'n'Goblins, International Karate +, Flimbo's Quest, Platoon, Cybernoid 1 & 2, Spherical, Soul Crystal, Barbarian, Rainbow Islands, World Games, California Games, Montezuma's Revenge, Crillion, Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo, Flaschbier (Werner), Mayhem in Monsterland

New excellent games are: Caren and the Tangled Tentacles, Ghosts'n Goblins Arcade, Spaceman Splorf: Planet of Doom, Goblin, Bomberland, Awakening, Fire to Jump.





V) 
Are you involved in much game development on the C64?

S) 
I am involved in some games. Mainly for logos and documentation embedded graphics. I collaborated with "MegaStyle", "The New Dimension" and "Software of Sweden". I will never do anything for SEUCK again for some reasons. I simply don't like it.



V) 
In the C64 scene you have quite a few colleagues, some doing very different things compared to your work (e.g. Veto, Mermaid, Joe etc.). Are there any pixelers whose work you feel has a strong relation to your own, and whose least connected to your own? Please explain why and how you feel about their work.

S) 
Well, this is a hard question for me. I may repeat myself and say that I have some details in my works which were usually inspired by other works. Some less some more. I still try to find my own style. This is not as easy as it seems though.



V) 
There are a lot of readers - so, take a deep breath and say some words to those you know and those you do not know!...

S) 
Hey people outside and inside the C64 community. Please get productive in many meanings. This is what keeps the true scene alive! But I have to say to some of you... this is a very time consuming hobby. At least for me.





V) 
Thanks for your time. Any final words for our audience?

S) 
HUGS to all of you!!! <3

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