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c1* IRIS - THE WONDER YEARS!!! *
ac
c3BY ZEROX/GODS
as
c5Illi  Recentes  ImperatoreS:   c2IRIS  c5is  one of the oldest groups in the amiga
scene  today, and was infact founded by c2Chris and D.Traumer c5with Marco and Zorro
joining right after back in  c2August  1988.   c5Chris was at that time already a mega swapper, D.Traumer a
musician (later also graphician and coder), and both Marco & Zorro were coders.
IRIS (which is latin and means something like c2The New Masters) c5was started in France,
and the  first  slogan  was for a french crew in a french scene: "Montjoie Saint Denis".

c6THE BEGINNING

c5The 17th of January 1989 the c2first IRIS production c5got released, it was called c2IRIS 3Z
Demo c5and was infact just a 3d scroller with a road in the background.
It was released as a preview, but the final  version  never  got  out. In May Marco released the c2Marseillaise demo.
c5In  July the same year some of the most famous IRIS members
joined; like c2Mandrake and Ulrick. c5Ulrick which was a musician (later also coder) released a cli musicdisk.  In
August  some  other  known  IRIS members joined, like c5Lone Slonono and P1.
c2In September Zorro released his c2Workbench demo,  c5but  unfortunately  it only worked on K1.2.  In December 1989 the first
IRIS meeting was held.  IRIS worked on c2ARTEFACT c5- some demos  of  Artefact  was made before.  Artefact by the way, was the first mega
demo  of  IRIS,  and it contained a loader by Zorro, a demo by Marco (good), a
demo  by Zorro, a demo by Mandrake, a demo by Ulrick, a demo by Mlm, a demo by
Ncs and last a demo by Ace (the best, the rest were shit I think). Anyway, a demo in
those days wouldn't even be considered to be a complete intro nowadays.

In January 1990  two  other  of  the most known IRIS members ever joined, c2Ace c5(coder) and
c2Goofy  c5(graphician).   Also  Cobol  joined  but  he was more famous in Quartex.
In  March  1990  Artefact  was  released.   In May c2Olympia c5by Ace got
released.   Quite  a  cool demo at that time.  Years later other groups copied
the  idea. At the end of June, Mandrake released the c2Paradise demo. c5The last effect
of that demo is really cool, and could perhaps be used in todays intros.
In  July lots of members joined, and Flasher Jack released an intro. The month
later, Lore (musician), joined. She is the sister of Chris & D.Traumer. In September
many members left to create Defeat. If you read old mags from that time (like D.I.S.C.) you would
see  that there was a big quarrel between IRIS and Defeat.

c6THE SUCCESS

c5October 1990 was a very  important  month  for  IRIS in many ways.  Ace released the famous c2Space
Depth demo c5which got good critics in the leading mag at that time, Zine, and a
pretty good ranking at the c2EuroChart c5if I remember correctly.
I dont think IRIS have got a demo at the ranking list since then despite of all
the demos released during these 13 years. In  any case, I also joined IRIS then
with my own group c2Mega Menace c5and created the first foreign division of IRIS, as IRIS until then
had been a pure French crew.
When we joined the slogan got changed to Legal Power Is Still
Alive.   IRIS  fought  against piracy and had the opinion that too many cracks
would  destroy  the  amiga.  The philosophy was to have fun with the faboulous
amiga,  and  those  who worked for fame got kicked out.  Double membership was
never  allowed. Soon
after a division in Finland also was created by two members, I think they were
called  Titan  and  Daxer(?),  one of them I met at #amigascne by the way last
year.   In  October  Ulrick also released his first intro.  In November Defeat
and  Synergy  created  the team Symbiosis, and Lone Slonono rejoined IRIS.  In
December  1990  the  c2first IRIS party c5was held, it was together with Atlantis.
Slight joined IRIS.  And already in January 1991, Atlantis is dead, so Digital
Master  joined  IRIS.   In  any  case,  during  1990  IRIS  released  lots  of
productions.

Also  in  1991  IRIS  released  many  productions,  like c2Tutine
Preview,  IRIS  Music  Disk c5by Skywolf, Lone Slonono and P1 (or was it in late
1990?)  an  intro  by Mandrake and Ace, c2Lovecraft c5by Ulrick & Deflector, Party
Invitation 1 by Ulrick & Deflector, Party Invitation 2 by Mandrake, c2Toon #1 c5by
P1  and  Mandrake,  TUC  (a  virus  utility),  and  above all, c2the Mix demo c5by
Skywolf,  Lone  Slonono & P1.  This was surely the c2best days c5of IRIS until the
strong  comeback  of IRIS the latest years.

c6THE FALL

c5The beginning of 1992 was not so promising.  Lone Slonono, P1 & Skywolf left IRIS at the New Year Party,
and  Zorro,  Steel  Hertz  and  Necrophagia  got  kicked out.  But not all was
depressive,  3  good  members that had joined right before, Coconuts, Sph and
Asko  were  about  to  release a demo and a music disk.  They had already made
some  of  the  IRIS  packs  at that time, like the Xanadu pack.  And two other
coders,  Exterminator  &  Paranormal  joined.  They released a c2new year report
intro  c5right  after  and  was  working on a slideshow and a musicdisk from the
norwegian  musicians.   Infact there were lots of plans, like Mandrake working
on  Lovecraft  2,  Ulrick working on a demo, Ace on an intro, D.Traumer on his
first  demo  etc.  And a new musician had joined called The Master.  The small
divisions  in  Finland  and USA were not able to come up with anything at all,
and  as  for  us  in  Norway,  we  didnt make much either the first years.  We
released lots of packs, like c2HitPack, c5Defect Pack, Mega Pack, Zerox Utilities,
Guano  City,  Six 69 Nine, Quelton, History Of IRIS, Mr.Pyrre Utilities, Music
History  of  IRIS  Norway  and  infact  many others.  But our first real coded
release  was  a  real bad music disk released in March 1991 with the help of a
friend  of mine in Cave (Logic from Denmark). In February 1992 the first intro
from IRIS Norway got released. It was very bad. Well, not much more happened in months.  IRIS were working on many
productions,  but  I  dont think many of them ever got released.  The famous diskmag
c2D.I.S.C.  c5which IRIS had taken over had some problems.

In  mid-92 I think everything went to h....  IRIS had been a good group, but I
fear we (and of course especially me) managed to destroy the reputation of the
past  with  all  our  crappy productions here, and there were many quarrels in
France,  and  suddenly  many people left/got kicked I think.  That is, many of
the  old  members,  like c2Ace, Ulrick, Goofy, Chris, D.Traumer c5were still on the
memberslist, but the coders weren't very active.  And then something that might
not  happen  that  often  did, everyone in Norway left the scene. I sold my
amiga,  the  same  did Mr.Pyrre, Dr.Muzak and the two graphicians (the rest we
had  more of less kicked at that time - the ones that didn't leave earlier,
like Blaze/Balance, T-Bone/Silents, Moxy/Andromeda, Calypso/Cytax), so
there  was  nothing  left  in  Norway, Finland nor USA.  But I didnt do as the
others, I didnt leave IRIS entirely.  I still wrote some articles on paper and
sent  them  to Chris for DISC (which never got released - all articles went to
Cemntary  News  by  Bronx).  Some months later I couldn't take it anymore, so I
bought  a  new  amiga...   this  one  I  have also kept today.  Anyway, when I
returned   things   were  not  going  very  well.   IRIS  managed  to  release
c2Contemplation  c5by  D.Traumer  I  think,  but that was about it.  The rest were
inactive.   D.I.S.C.  didnt  become reality, so a new mag was born...  c2E!ffel.
c5It was  also  coded  by  D.Traumer.  I continued to release my packs, Hitpack and
Zerox  Utilities  mainly.   But those were all IRIS productions in addition to
Chris'  pack.  Something had to be done, so we made some advertisements to get
members,  and  in  Norway  we  managed  to get some before the summer of 1993.
Infact, we got quite many cool members.  I went to the Rendezvous party at the
summer  93 to meet some of the new members, and there I met the new coder.  He
was infact only an AMOS coder, but I remember I was pleased anyway...  urk.  I
also met the great musician of the north, Coroner, and travelled together with
a  swapper  called  Spacehawk  which I infact met for the first time only some
hours  before  the  train  went to c2Rendezvous c5for the very first time.  At the
party  we  noticed one unbeliveable talented graphician.  This was c2Bridgeclaw.
c5His  first  picture  ever ended at third place, just behind famous graphicians
like  Fairfax/Andromeda  and  Bcr/Stone Arts.  We asked him to join us, and he
was  very  very  happy  and almost hounored, he he...  boy, we were lucky.  At
that party we managed to release an incredible bad amos intro, a slideshow and
another  Zerox  Utilities.

c6THE RISE

c5Soon after, two real coders joined us; c2Zendar and  Zytrox.   c5We had finally managed to get a real team, an IRIS was stronger
than  ever  in  Norway,  but  still  pretty weak in France and the rest of the
globe.   We  got a real coded HitPack, we got the famous packmag c2A Pack Of Fun
c5and  for  the  first time a real coded internal mag. A c2Memberstro c5got released.
And we began to work on c2D.I.S.C. c5again. Suddenly  a  few members joined in France also, and
among  them one bad graphician and one talented coder.  We also opened lots of
divisions  worldwide  again,  and  among  them a good division in Turkey and a
promising  one  in Belgium.  Infact, IRIS had divisions in Australia, Belgium,
Denmark,  England,  Faroe  Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Holland,
Hungary,  Jordan,  Norway,  South  Africa,  Sweden,  Turkey  and  United  Arab
Emirates.   No  group  has  ever  had  so many divisions!  It almost become an
obsession to grow and expand, and IRIS had become so known that lots of people
asked  to  join.  I had taken over WHQ (together with Chris) as I was in
touch with everyone. I changed the slogan to c2IRIS - When It Comes To Friendship,
c5a slogan I still think is in use.
Something started to happen in the Danish division of IRIS also, Sanctum (now Ib/Depth)
had joined with a friend called Strafer and were planning various productions.
They managed to get a pretty famous dane called Bird join. And in the beginning of
1994, the entire group c2D-29 c5joined the ever expanding forces of IRIS.
Anyway, in the rest of IRIS many things got released, like many packs, packmags (A Pack Of Fun, Jurassic Pack),
mags  Connections,  c2E!ffel,  Inquire, Propagation, 
c5and  later,  D.I.S.C!  Also utilities and intros were released, like an
intro  from  Belgium,  BBStro  from France and more.  The best norwegian board
called  Hidden  Island  became  IRIS  WHQ  as the sysop joined us from a known
norwegian  group  called  Talent.   Things  were  going  great!   We  got high
positions  at  the  charts.   Nevertheless,  in the first months of 1994 I was
getting  burned  out.   IRIS  was beginning to get incredible c2HUGE, c5and I lost
control  in February/March or something as I was in touch with about 50 out of
c270 members.  c5I let alot of people join after seeing samples of their work.

c6THE SECOND FALL

c5Right  before  the  Gathering'94,  we released the
c2Doggy-Intro  c5and by  a  mistake  a preview of E!ffel 3.  And at the
Gathering, we released a special c2Gathering Pack, A Pack Of Fun, c5and a very bad
demo  which  we  removed  from the party net.  We also made a 40k intro to the
competition,  but it was 44k and had some bugs, so we never released it, but I
still have it.  18 IRIS members met at the Gathering 94, and we
kicked  5  of  those  at  the  party  in a rather bad way.  Like we kicked all
involved  in the bad demo, and people we thought were too bad.  We also kicked
alot  of  others  not  present,  which either we thought werent very active nor
especially  good.   70  members were too much, and actually Zytrox, Zendar and
Bridgeclaw  made  all productions more or less.  We got critics from everyone,
first  that  IRIS  was too big, so we reduced the memberslist, and then we got
critics  from  those  we kicked (and others too).  Two good members in Sweden,
left to join Defiance.  And suddenly Bridgeclaw joined TRSI!  Something had to
be  done.   The  comeback  of  D.I.S.C.   was  soon  a  reality, something was
beginning  to  happen in France, and Denmark had become the biggest division of
IRIS  if  I remember correctly.  I told Chris I wanted to leave as WHQ, but he
didn't  want  to continue on his own.  So I asked the Danish division to be WHQ
together  with  Chris.   I  tried to get Bird, but he had suddenly become very
hostile  and  wanted to leave with all members in Denmark, so I asked c2Darkhawk
c5instead, which by the way accepted.  I tried to get Bridgeclaw back from TRSI,
but that was hard.  I discussed it with the others what to do, and there was a
majority  in  Norway  for leaving IRIS to start a new group as it was the only
way  to  get  Brc back and  our other friends that had recently left.  On my
birthday  in  August  1994,  we released c2D.I.S.C. 9 c5and announced we had left
IRIS  to  create  c2Gods!   c5It  only  consisted of some of the members in Norway,
and Bridgeclaw joined us, the same did the two
Swedish  members  that  had  left  us.   Before  we left we had cleaned up all
divisions  in IRIS (to get rid of the more or less inactive members) except in
Denmark,  and  the  team was alot smaller...  infact less than 30 members were
left.  In September IRIS France joined Gods, and I got some very angry letters
from  a  certain  Darkhawk. 

So in September 1994 IRIS were without the latest years productive members and
didn't have many members left at all in the previous main-countries; France and
Norway. c2Darkhawk c5had to build up an entirely c2new team c5by himself.

The first releases by their coder c2Chivaz c5weren't very good to say the least.
The routines of productions like Excusetro were very old. And at TP4 the intro
Table48 by a new coder called Nash, was even worse. The c2Alien Music disk c5was ok
though. I got to mention that Chivaz saved me at that party when my harddisk
crashed, and I guess I wouldn't be a part of the scene if it wasn't for that.

IRIS didn't give up, and more productions got released, like the c2Beware intro c5in
1995. But 1995 was probably not a very good year for IRIS. Things started to
get better in 1996 I think, with several releases, like the slideshow c2Exposure
c5which I enjoy. And many intros got released; a Infotro, a 2k for KG'96, Partymania
for the Mulleparty and the demo c5Hotair.

c6THE RESURRECTION

c5In 1997 I guess the c2real comeback c5of this old group was a fact. IRIS was very
active this year with intros for TCP and Deep Bass Nine. They made a c2Delaytro, 
a Christmas intro (Juletro) c5and the demo c2Kilkenny. c5And some good members got
attracted to the team. In 1998 IRIS continued to release lots of productions
such as c23rd Dimension, Woobo Intro, Scorn intro, BSE intro, Buack c5for the Gravity 3
party and last, but not least, the cool c2Tinnitus c5intro from TP8. They also released
a musicdisk named c2DanskPop c5that year and the demo c2Swift c5at TP8.
During all these years IRIS have also released their packs; c5Avatar, Scream Pack,
World Of Chips and A Pack Of Fun.

c5The last two years IRIS have showed to be one of the better groups at the scene
by releasing many c2quality productions. c5Some of these productions were a FastIntro,
c2Poem c5(no fancy routines, but a divine message), and the demo c2Quest c5which both got
released at the Symposium'99. The same year a oldschool intro called c2Jointro c5got out,
and the Brutal demo got released also in the summer at the Scene Meeting. Another
production released just before, was a great intro called c2Flash c5released at the
Xenium party. But the best production so far, got to be the very cool c2I-Surf c5demo
released at The Party 9.

Last year IRIS have recruited some very talented members from various countries
which I'm sure will release much in the future. One of them, is the coder of
c2this mag c5by the way. Other releases from IRIS last year, was
the c2Symp-slide. c5At the Scene Meeting they also made
a demo, and showed it at the bigscreen. However, they didn't release it.
At TRSAC 2 in November last year they released the demo c2Abecedarian c5which came second, 2
points after the winning demo from Loonies. Late in December they released
the oldschool intro called c2Vivid. c5And the first release of IRIS this year
is the c2short intro c5for this issue of D.I.S.C.
And of course, IRIS have become the co-publisher of the c2EuroChart c5with Depth
now. And very soon they'll also become co-publisher of a certain other mag... ;)
So there's no indication that c2IRIS c5won't continue to release quality productions in the future
either.

It has been a tradition to arrange various parties in IRIS. It began with the
c2New Year Conferance c5in 1991 and 1992 in France, and continued with parties in
Jordan, Turkey and Norway I think. Nowadays IRIS is yearly arranging the Scene Meeting in Denmark -
a pure amiga party. IRIS has not always been "against" PC. Infact in late 1992/
beginning of 1993 there were 4 coders and 1 graphician in France, and two swappers in
Norway on PC in IRIS.

However, nowadays IRIS have no PC members. Here's the c2current memberslist:
al
c4Adonis    (Swapper)
Bandy     (Graphician)
Cupid     (Coder, Gfx & Msx)
Darkhawk  (Org, Ed. & Swapper)
Dascon    (Musician)
Digger    (Coder)
Flower    (Musician)
Judas     (Graphician)
Matarazzo (Graphician)
Nutman    (Musician)
Ransom    (Coder, 3D Gfx)
Shadow    (Coder)
Thrym     (3D Graphician)
TrickTrax (Coder, Musician)
Yon       (Graphician)
as
c5If you want to get old  c3IRIS  c5productions, then just contact me... or
download them from c2www.IRIShq.dk. c5I've sent
Darkhawk  most of the productions I have kept.  What else to say...  oh yes, I
wrote an article years ago hoping that IRIS would last 5 more years, and it
did. Now I hope it will last for 10 more...  have FUN!

If you wish to get ALOT more detailed text about IRIS, then just contact me and
I'll give it to you!

c1IRIS - When It Comes To Friendship!



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