disc.font,8

ac
c1*** SPACEBALLS ***
- STILL AMONG THE STARS?
ac
c3BY ZEROX/GODS
as
c6THE BEGINNING

c5In 1989 when the scene was in its early stage and the first real demos got released,
Spaceballs got founded by a scener which called himself c2Dark Helmet! c5The name Spaceballs
was taken from Mel Brooks parody of c2Star Wars, c5and the handle Dark Helmet was of course a natural
consequence of this. At this time the scene was dominated by groups like The Kent Team,
Bamiga Sector 1, Crusaders, DOC, The Band, Ackerlight, Northstar, Fairlight, Link,
Quartex, Red Sector, Scoopex, Kefrens, Defjam, Paradox, Unique, Cryptoburners, Predators
IT and so on. The standard demo was of course a logo at the top and a scrolltext at the bottom
with some effects in the middle. And in those days the usual effects were equalizers,
coppers, sprites, big scrolls, sinus scrolls, bobs, melting effects, dots, plasma,
starfields and line vectors. And just before Spaceballs got founded, another norwegian
group called IT, had released the first demo with filled vectors. It was a very exciting
period in the scene history, and c2Spaceballs c5was a group which would set its deep marks.

To be a group, there must be more than one person, and Dark Helmet got another very
young scener to join. His name was c2Lone Starr. c5History has proven that he became one of
the most talented coders. Not very long after, more later-so-known-sceners joined too.
They were c2Major Asshole, President Screw, Yoghurt and Vinnie. c5All the members were
located in the same city, Halden/Norway.

c6THE FIRST RELEASES

c5All the new members were eager to make productions, and at the start they were all
willing to make almost everything. Dark Helmet made for instance graphics in some
productions even though he was a coder, and Yoghurt also did some graphics but was
actually a musician. And during the first year of productivity, all the coders participated
in various productions. First out was Major Asshole with his c2RGB demo. c5Then followed
President Screw with a Party 90 Intro. And Lone Starr released a multidemo. These first
productions weren't amazing. Infact they weren't up to the standard of the best
groups around at that time, but they weren't bad either for a new group. In 1991 the
quality improved, and Spaceballs managed to release some more productions. At the famous
Porsgrunn party Spaceballs got attention for the first time. Their c2Spasmolytic demo c5came 
4th and had some routines like inconvex vector inside an inconvex vector. Which was pretty
good considering c2LoneStarr c5was only a child when coding it. He shouldn't even be able to
know these vector mathematics at that age... and since he did it so good, people got
impressed. But the competition at the Porsgrunn party was too hard for the young
Lone Starr. Thomas Landsburg won the competition with his fabolous c2Virtual World c5demo.
Later that year Major Asshole released the Rubberdemo at The Party I. But it couldn't
match demos like c5Hardwired, Odessey and Voyage.

c6THE BREAKTHROUGH

c5It wasn't before 1992 Spaceballs got their real breakthrough with the legendary
c2Wayfarer demo c5which won the Gathering'92 party. Spaceballs had improved quite much
in all departments; graphics, code and music. And the productions began to get innovative,
especially their winner demo at the Party the same year, c2State Of The Art. c5Spaceballs
released quite many productions that year, infact it was their most active period ever.
In addition to the already mentioned productions, they also released a memberstro,
Made in the name of the Schwartz, SwappersIntro and their pack Shit Happens. And suddenly
Spaceballs were among the stars! They were at the top with groups like Kefrens, Sanity,
TRSI, Andromeda, Anarchy, Analog, Virtual Dreams, PMC, Shining, Melon Dezign and some others.
And Spaceballs were not only among the best, they were the c2best of the best!

c5The success continued in 1993 when Spaceballs managed to convince Lord Helmet to join with
the best mag of the scene, c2RAW! c5It got announced in the great introduction to issue 5.
And again Spaceballs created great demos, like c2Mobile Destination Unknown c5which came
third at the Gathering'93 and c29 Fingers c5which came third at the Party III the same year.
Both were coded by Lone Starr.

c6KEEPING UP APPEARANCES

c5Spaceballs continued to release productions in 1994, but not one single demo got
out. Instead they managed to come second with their 40k c2Funky Pixels c5intro at The Gathering'94.
And the famous c2Lemons members c5had joined (Dope, Danny, Facet, SuperNao, Lizard). They
released a couple of productions that year. But it was obvious that the old Spaceballs crew
weren't that active anymore. The reason was actually that the members
were so good that they were hired by the software company c2FunCom c5in Norway.
However, 1994 was definately the year of their old rivals in Norway, Andromeda.

Anyway, Spaceballs returned in 1995 with more good releases. They dominated the
various intro competitions at the Gathering for instance. A party they by the way
arranged for the first and last time. They won both with their 64k intro (by Jobbo)
and their 4k intro. The 4k intro c2Babenoise c5is really great and was again coded by Lone Starr.
They also came second in the 64k intro competition with Major Asshole's intro named
The Last Finger! In this intro Slummy did his debut too.

c6THE FALL

c5Even though everything still looked good, you could notice the internal frustration
in the Last Finger intro where Major Asshole thanked FunCom for destroying the scene.
The old members became c2inactive. c5Lord Helmet, President Screw, Lone Starr, Dark Helmet,
Scott and Sator. And after a short while, the former Lemons members left. Spaceballs
were ripped for good members!

1996 arrived, and Spaceballs with the new coder talent c2Slummy c5released their first
demo for years. Its called Pinch and made the third place at the Gathering'96. But apart
from that, the once so great Spaceballs didn't manage to release anything at all.

c6THE COMEBACK

c51997 began as the previous year ended; not very good. Many people that had great
expectations towards Spaceballs at the Gathering'97, got disappointed. It seemed
like Slummy had to do everything by himself. But Spaceballs never gave up, and
Slummy was hyper active that year. He released lots of productions like Snack
at TG'97, The October Session demo and the FastLoff intro at Scenius'97 earlier that year. Things started
to happen. The old member Yoghurt decided to re-organize the group, and new members
were let in. Only the more or less active members from the past were kept. Which ment
that old members like Dark Helmet, Lone Starr, President Screw, Sator and Scott had
retired and were removed from the memberslist. Some of the new names were Boo, Duckhunter,
Hardfire, Psalt, Useless, Wipe and Zack.
c2Spaceballs won 3 demo-competitions in a row c5at parties such as The Zone'97
with LoFi, The Convention'97 with Art by coincidence and Kindergarden'97 with
Smurph. The Wayfarer 2 demo by Major Asshole and Slummy for the Party'97 got
disqualified. But Slummy also made some other productions that year, as Funky Sheep
and the intro for Norsktoppen called Torskfloppen.

In 1998 the c2rebirth c5of Spaceballs was a fact. The new members started to participate
in the new productions. But still Slummy was the real coder force behind the new
success. As the TG'97 ended in disaster, it got to have been a great revenge
at the TG'98 when Spaceballs came first in the 4k-intro competition with their
c2Happy Machinery. c5They also won the fast intro competition with Quakeroo. In addition
to that they came second in the 64k intro with Total Dominance and
one of the new coders, Wipe, with one of the new musicians, Hardfire, came
4th in the 64k intro with Stars of another sky. And again c2Slummy and Spaceballs
did great c5at the Kindergarden party. They won the 64k intro competition with N20
and came second in the demo competition with The Family Robot.

c6THE LATEST YEARS

c5Some members left, and a few new ones apperead. In 1999 Slummy was the only
coder left, but the success continued. Spaceballs won the Distance'99 party
with the Distortion demo. And they won the Gathering'99 demo compo with
c2Supermonster c5and intro compo with Fusion is no good for me. They also won
the 64k intro competition at the Remedy party with c2Popjunkie c5and the 40k intro
competition with Sci-fi at the Deja-Vu II party. And of course they won the
demo competition also at the same party with BetaMax. At other parties they
also did pretty good, with a third place at the Assembly intro competition
with Sparklingbluearticlight, and second in the demo competition at The Convention'99
with Spaceballs vs The Mad Hatter. And they released a few other productions.

Last year, 2000, Spaceballs were active as always. They managed to win the
Gathering again. And Spaceballs is the group that have won the demo-competition
most times - c2with 3 wins. c5This time it was with the c2Hypnopolis demo. c5They also
won the LTP 4 party with their 64k Chiller intro. And at the same party they
came third in the oldschool demo compo with Psycho Killer. Another version of
that demo came 5th at Assembly the same year. But the other winning demo this
year came at the Kindergarden party with Smurphine - Another O.D.
Of course Spaceballs also won the oldschool demo competition at TRAC2.
In addition to
that, Spaceballs competed at the Mekka Symposium 2000 with the Supah Hero intro.
It came 6th. Spaceballs also made the intro for issue 40th of the most popular
chartmag ever, the EuroChart. And the last releases of last year, the intro
c2Willy Bogner c5came 4th at The Party and more surprising, the A500 4k intro
c2Noisejesus c5came third in the DEMO competition!
 
c6Current memberslist:
c4
Bo          Graphician & Musician
Dominei     Musician
Duck-hunter Musician
Hardfire    Musician & Graphician
Loverbee    Musician
Slummy      Coder & Organizer
Teis        Musician
Thor        Graphician
Useless     Musician
Yoghurt     Musician
Zack        Graphician



c6THE FUTURE

c5Spaceballs have been one of the most active scene-groups ever with lots of
stunning productions over a decade. But what will the future bring?

Slummy tells us that Spaceballs as usual haven't got many concrete plans
for  releases. But it wouldn't surprise me much if they turn up with
something for the c2Mekka-Symposium party. c5Anyway, much depends
on Slummy as he's the only coder. Spaceballs are c2searching for new members
c5by the way. So if you're a coder you should send Slummy an e-mail. Also
graphicians could be needed to strenghten the team.

In any case, c2The D.I.S.C. Team. c5can't see any reason why Spaceballs
shouldn't continue to be among the stars.



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