Interviews
Interview with Depeh
Published in Vandalism News #28
Performed by Jazzcat
Well its Vengeance here for the second time typing up this INTERVIEW (yeah that’s right a text slave in my own mag). This is the 3rd interview in this issue of VANDALISM NEWS. And it was conducted by JAZZCAT in 1996, we however felt the need to run it due to lack of text in this issue. The interview is with the infamous Swedish coder known as DEPEH from ANTIC.

J)
Hello and welcome to the magazine and the media, As normal with most magazine interviews please introduce yourself to the audience...
D)
Well my name is Göran Johansson, I live in a small town called Sk0vde situated in the middle of SWEDEN. I work as a programmer right now but I will soon start my own company AWE DESIGN. I was born the 25th of January 1975. I have brown hair and blue eyes. Hmmm... That’s it.
J)
You are quite well known in this fabulous little scene for your activities in ANTIC and the LUNACY demos. But some out there would like to hear a bit more about you. If possible, could you give the readers a history from when you first entered the C64 scene up until present day. What groups did you join? Put some light onto the highlights of your 64 career...
D)
Gooooosh! well, my first "REAL" group I joined was CICEN and this was back in 1989 I think. Before that I had several groups with me as the only active member and my local sk0vde friends as the only members.. Other members in CICEN was BOM, THE LORD, ACTY(now known s PROBE), XOR and some others. Our leader then, THE LORD was so fucking lame so we had to do a "REVOLT" and start a new group without him. This group was first named THE MOB but then renamed to ANTIC. The first demo we released was ETHIC, then came the LUNACY series - the rest is history.

J)
I remember you as a programmer, but because of my house burning down and losing all my c64 disks, I cannot refresh my memory on any ANTIC demo to see what other talents you may have. What jobs do you do on the c64? and have you had any jobs in the past that you no longer perform? music? graphics?
D)
I mainly do the coding and when its needed and nobody else did the gfx, I do some graphics too. I do cool music on the Amiga also... (Hmm... do I?)
J)
What in your opinion should a demo contain to make it appeal to the public and make its standard above average? Are trackmos the way to go, 'separate part' style or maybe a mixture of both?
D)
The thing that I like in a demo is that you should NOT do anything that have been done before on the C64. You should take your new ideas and build on them. The lamest thing ever is parts like : "Yeah! Mega group did 3480 pixels and now we are so cool that we do 3495 pixels!!!". No offence but that is so fucking lame. Trackmos are the coolest way of displaying a demo. I hope that I have the time to do a trackmo for The Party ‘96.

J)
What would you say would be your greatest achievement on the C64 personally? What have you done that you hold the most pride for? Is there also a routine you want to programme but haven't yet done so?
D)
My greatest achievement ??? Well... I can tell you of these routines that I think I was the first to do on the C64: THE DOOM CLONE (Dein Zycrex), THE PICTURE ROTATOR + TWISTER (Lunacy 6), THE SHADE VECTOR (Lunacy 6), THE FLI CHANGER DYCP (Yes UNIFER, I was before you) and plenty of others.
J)
What are you all time favourite...
Cracking group.... IKARI
Cracker.... DOC and BOD
Demo group.... HORIZON
Demo.... EXPERTELIGENSE by HORIZON
Programmer.... KJER of HORIZON
Musician.... ZYRON
Graphician.... CREEPER
Disk mag.... EXPLORER (no just kidding, MAMBA was very good).
Scene party.... TCC 93
BBS.... Don't care (BBS'es are out INTERET RULEZ).
Sexual position.... Can't explain it really. But its so fucking lovely!
Food.... real nice steak.
Drink.... alcohol: HOOCH, Non alcoholic: APPLE JUICE.
Woman.... My girlfriend NINA.
Movie.... Independence day.
Political party.... (democrat, communist etc...) - do I care?

J)
If you had the opportunity to get ANY scener from past or present, and disk magazine, and any BBS for your own ultimate group, who would be in the group and why? and what would you call it?
D)
Don't know, sorry but I don't.
J)
Which programmers do you respect and why?
D)
I respect ALL programmers on the C64, except for those who thinks they are so fucking good and fabulous.

J)
The scene is in a somewhat slump at the moment, the commercial game industry is riddled with low budget and budget games and the scene is generally not as big as in the glory days. What would be the best thing to rejuvenate the scene? What should we do to bring back old sceners? and create further interest in this machine?
D)
Well, sadly I think the battle is lost already as the PC is so fucking cheap nowadays I suspect almost everybody will purchase a PC in a near future. The only thing to do is to keep releasing demos that shows off at all the big parties and to do things that shouldn't be possible on the C64.
J)
What has ANTIC got install for the c64 in the future? Will there be any gfx or music collections? a new edition of EXPLORER perhaps?
D)
The situation is this the two only "active" members is me and CREEPER, I may be touch my computer like a month a year to create some demo for some party and that’s is it. CREEPER is just like me in activity. Everybody else is INACTIVE.

J)
Have you ever been in serious disagreement with any other scener or group?
D)
Well, the only incident was with a group called JAM and they accused us to have stolen some things from them at a party but we didn't care to much about them. It was fun to bug them for a while... But that is already forgiven and forgotten.
J)
What are your goals in life? is there anything you wish to achieve, how do you want things to be, say in 10 years time?
D)
My goals from the beginning was to have: An own company, a beautiful woman, kids, a nice place to live, and good friends. Now I: Just started my own company, engaged myself to a beautiful woman, made my woman pregnant, due in JUNE 97, am looking for a nice 3-room apartment or house. Have made some good friends. So I'm enjoying life real much now. (ED - I guess you had that kid now, congrats. /Vengeance)

J)
Have you ever been involved in any commercial project such as a game on any computer/console format? Or do you have the desire to make something such as, for example what BOB/CENSOR has done with his coming game Bouncy Balls or Quiss/Reflex's recently released title CENTRIC.
D)
Yes I was involved with a game called MEMO some years ago. The object was like MEMORY but here you have two players and the object is to STEAL pairs from the opponent. We didn't have the will to make this game come true. I think I have it somewhere. Maybe I will release it.
J)
ZYRON has left for F4CG, where does that leave ANTIC musically, someone outside the group? or will you be recruiting a new member to fill this vacant position?
D)
ZYRON will still do music for us. He is such a good friend now, so there is no question about it. No we won't recruit anyone else.
J)
Well I’m quite sure you have a few greetings to give out, so here’s the perfect opportunity...
D)
Hmmm... I have a really bad memory: Creeper, Zyron, Exalt, Incubus, Probe, Jason, Jordan, Spirou, Xor, Stormlord, Bob, Alfatech, King Fisher, Joe, Ed, Blackdroid, Everybody on the irc #c-64, Zardax, Danko, Goblin, Flamingo, Vaco, Unifer, Morpheus, All my former contacts, Tron, Sledge, Bacchus, Geggin, Slaygon, All former ANTIC members except those we kicked, Everybody I have ever met at parties. And all I forgot.
J)
Thanks for your time and I hope you enjoy the magazine, any last words to leave a final impression on
the audience?
D)
Well ,its nice to see that me and ANTIC still is interesting to someone. Expect a new release from us at The Party ‘96...
J)
Thanks once again pal, enjoy life and prosper,
D)
Thanks, I will.