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CL9:                      Interview With Strife Of Apathy
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CL4:                              By Zerox of Gods

CL7:                                INTRODUCTION

CL1:Few sceners have been organizers of a production factory, but Apathy surely have
released a flow of productions since the start back in the end of 1994/beginning
of 1995, and the man behind it all is Strife.  He's not only organizer of Apathy
but also the main coder and writer.  We in the EC staff decided to have a closer
look  at  this  scener.   To  read  more  about  Apathy, look in the "Underrated
groups"- article elsewhere in this mag.

CL0:As  a  short  introduction,  please tell the readers a few words about yourself,
your function and what you want to achieve in the scene?

CL2:I  am  24  years old, and have been active in the scene since 1994.  Most people




















CL2:probably  know  me  as  a  swapper,  coder, organizer, and compiler of different
packs.  I was a member of Neo for a short time, other than that I've only been a
member of Apathy since the very beginning.

CL3:Apathy was started by me, people I knew through swapping quickly started to join
along  with  some  friends  from  my  town.  I have been the organizer since the
start,  except  from 1998 to 1999 when Punisher took over because of my military
service.   If he hadn't done that I doubt the group would have survived, so I am
forever  thankful.  He also brought in some new members, like Angeldust, who has
been  one  of the most active members in the group and one of my best friends in
the scene since I first met him.

CL2:I was also one of the biggest swappers in Norway from 1996 to 1998.  I have done
a  lot of coding, but never had the time to develop my skills that much.  Mostly
I  coded  packs which I compiled myself, like Dreams, Feedback, and later maze's
DigitalChips.  I also released several intros, but mostly just quick poor intros
so  I  had  something  fresh  to  send to my swappers.  I have no high ambitions
concerning  own  achivements  in  the scene any more, other than to release some
stuff  now  and  then  and  to  keep Apathy alive.  Of course it would be fun to
release some real kick-ass demos, but since it hasn't happened so far I doubt it




















CL2:ever will.

CL1:When did you enter the scene and how did you first get attracted to it?

CL2:I  can't quite remember but I think I came up with my first handle back in 1994,
I  guess  we  can  say  that  was when I started my scene activity.  I made some
tool-disks,  slideshows  and  stuff like that before I had a look at coding with
Amos.   I'm  not really sure what initially attracted me to the scene, I guess I
just grew tired of copying games with x-copy.

CL7:                                    GROUPS

CL1:What do you think are the good and bad sides of your group?

CL2:Well, the good thing is that if I count members we are one of the biggest groups
in  the  Amiga  scene.   The  bad  thing  is that probably more than half of the
members haven't produced anything fresh for the Amiga scene in a long long time.
Another  bad  side  is that I am the only organizer and have too much to do, the
good  side  is  that  people don't seem to complain too much anyway.  Apathy was
from the beginning a group where everyone were swappers.  Back in 1995 and until




















CL2:1998  I  had  contact  with  all members through swapping and the friendship was
great.

CL3:Today there's only 1 member that hasn't got Internet I have to keep contact with
through  swapping.   The  rest  I  have  contact  with  over Internet, but sadly
Internet  can't compare to the good old days of swapping.  At least that's how I
feel.  I've never written an email anywhere close to the long swapletters I used
to  write.  We have a lot of talent in the group, but not so much motivation and
available time for the scene I'm afraid.

CL1:As  you're the organizer of Apathy, how important do you think it is for a group
to  have  a  good  organizing  and  real  friendship between the members?  Is it
important at all?

CL2:I  think  I  can say that I never really stressed the organizing part, if people
wanted  to  make  something  I was happy and supported them, but I don't think I
ever  pushed  people  around  to  work for the group if they didn't have time or
motivation.   Today  I  am happy to support members with their work, but if they
are  members of other groups also and can get a better result by releasing their
stuff there that is fine.  I think it has always been like that, I just wait for




















CL2:initiative  from the members to make something and then support them.  Or I just
start  a  production  from  graphics  and music people have sent me.  Actually I
almost  never  see  or  talk  to any of the members in real life, all contact is
still  over mail and swapping.  The only time we meet is at parties, some people
in the group I have never met and wouldn't even recognize on the street.

CL1:What's your all-time favourite group?  And why?

CL2:My  all  time  favourite  group  would  have  to be TBL.  The first party I ever
attended  was The Gathering 96, and I was completely stunned by TBL's Tint demo.
At  that  time,  my  computer  was  a  standard  Amiga  1200 with no fast ram or
accelerator  card,  so I had never seen demos with effects like those in Tint, I
think  my  jaw  dropped  to the floor.  I remember it gave me shivers, and I was
extremely happy.  After the demo was finished I rushed over to the closest Amiga
hardware  supplier  at  The Gathering and ordered myself a blizzard 1230-iv with
4mb  fast ram.  TBL dominated TG96 completely, and there were so many of them, I
thought  they  were  extremely cool.  I remember Tint later was shown on Norways
biggest  commercial  channel,  and  it  is for sure the demo I have watched most
times.   I'm  amazed  how  TBL  managed to release all those quality productions
during 1996, and what amazes me most is that they are still around.





















CL1:What's the first release we'll see from Apathy in 2004?

CL2:Hmm,  tricky.   I  think  some  kind of intro or dentro for The Gathering, but I
haven't  quite decided wether or not to go there yet so I don't know.  I haven't
been  at  TG since 1999, which I thought was awful because there wasn't a single
production for the Amiga released by foreigners there.  The next years I went to
Mekka instead.  Anyway we're hoping to finish Digital Chips#32 during 2004.

CL1:In  2003  I  think  I've  only seen one Apathy production, and that was the cute
intro  Haakan, how come?  Is it the fact that you're now working as a programmer
which takes all the energy away from the scene?

CL2:Yes  that  is  exactly  the situation.  I'm working as the only programmer for a
small  company,  and there really is too much work.  I often sit back and think,
this  isn't  worth  it,  but  oh  well.  I hope I will have some more spare time
during  2004,  in  2003  I  didn't  have summer vacation or any vacation at all.
Haakan  was  supposed  to  be released much earlier than it was, but I never had
time  to  finish it, until right before Kindergarden2003.  Earlier Zeeball would
release  some small productions for us, but he hasn't got any spare time or even




















CL2:a working Amiga right now.  We have quite a lot of coders on our memberlist, but
I  haven't  gotten  the  time or energy to motivate them to make productions any
more.   I  just make stuff myself and if some of the other coders ever decide to
make something again I consider it a bonus.

CL1:In  the past Apathy released lots of musicpacks and more, like Feedback, Dreams,
Implant  and  Digital  Chips.   As  far  as  I know, only Digital Chips is left.
However,  DC  31 got released back in July 2002.  So when will the next issue be
out?

CL2:Well,  we have gotten some support for it, like articles and some intropictures,
and  Maze  sent  me enough new chip modules to release it but I wanted some more
chips  to  choose  from.  I need some really good motivating chip music to start
all the work on the huge magpart.  Actually I think that I will never be able to
top  the  magpart from issue #31, I used ages on it, even if it might seem quite
small compared to other diskmags.  I just hope I will remember how to compile it
when  I  first start again, it has after all been one and a half year since last
time.

CL3:On  the  other  hand,  there might be more releases of Feedback and Dreams, if I




















CL3:suddenly  get lots of module support there will be another Feedback, and I might
release  another  Dreams  pack with intros or something again.  Or maybe someone
else wants to release Dreams.

CL1:In   the   last   issue   of  Digital  Chips,  we  also  experienced  your  cool
writing-skills,  as  DC  also included a good magpart.  How will future DCs look
like?   Will  it  include a big magpart, or will you instead focus on supporting
other mag and magpacks with articles, like in this issue of EC?

CL2:Well I don't think I will write as many articles as I did in issue#31 for future
issues,  or  if I do I don't think I can spend as much time on each article as I
did.   And  there  will  be  far less different font-colours and clipart in each
article  for  sure,  man  that  was  time consuming.  The first 10 articles were
rather  standard  stuff  like  credits, help and so on, so the next issue should
require  less  work.   Maybe  I  can  do another 10 ok articles for the magpart,
you'll just have to check it when it gets released.

CL7:                             CODING / PRODUCTIONS

CL1:You've released quite some releases in the past.  What's your favourite own-made




















CL1:production?

CL2:My  favourite  production is without doubt DigitalChips#31, I worked on it for a
whole  year  or  more.  It is the most professional thing I ever coded, there is
lots of functionality in it that people probably never even noticed.  Then there
are  the  Feedback  musicdisks,  it  is  fun  to look back at them because I got
support from quite well known musicians back then, and I like the music in them.
And  I  must  also  smile  a bit at the fact that Loaderror made the gfx for the
first 4 issues, he isn't really known as a graphician any more is he?

CL1:Tell us about your favorite production made by others?

CL2:Well,  I  did  talk  a  lot about Tint when we talked about TBL didn't I?  It is
however  a  bit  hard  to  choose  just  one favourite production, I always have
trouble  when  voting  for  Eurochart.   I  have  to mention several, like Tint,
Captured Dreams, The Gate, Rise, ...  It all really depens on my mood.

CL1:Is  there an effect you've seen from other coders which you know you would never
manage to make?





















CL2:Ouch  don't ask me that question, most effects I see I know I would never manage
to make, at least not as good on the same hardware.  Well, if I had the time and
motivation  for  it  maybe,  but  it would take me years.  I think I'll stick to
diskmag-coding  and  easy  2d effects.  The screen is 2d, no need to fool people
into believing something else.

CL1:What's  the most impressive routine you've ever seen?  And what's your favourite
coder?

CL2:I  remember  a  rabbit and some really huge objects from a Skarla demo, that was
impressive on my 030.  And of course the jumping lamp in Nexus7.  The bumpmapped
fish  and  hand  in  Tint, the wobbly thing in the Lola/Cola intro from tp4, the
dinosaur  in  Captured  Dreams,  oh  you  said  most impressive?  Again, I can't
decide,  there  are too many great effects, and I usually like stuff as a whole,
especially effects that are timed to fit the music and design.

CL1:You've  used  animations  in  several productions in the past, do you think it's
always ok to include animations in demos/intros that compete in compos?

CL2:Well, I've just used cartoon animations, I've never used animations for effects,




















CL2:which  I of course don't like that much.  If someone tells me some great routine
was  just  an animation I'd be a bit sad, but it is ok as long as you never find
out  it  actually was an animation.  Oh, I forgot, I did use an effect-animation
in  aha,  I guess that wasn't ok but aha was made during two days, I didn't have
time for any heavy code.

CL1:What  do you think about nowadays demos compared to demos released for example 5
years ago?  Has anything changed at all during these years after your opinion?

CL2:What?   Only  5  years?  Considering how much things changed from 1990 to 1995 I
don't  think  much  has  changed  from  1998  to  2003  no.   The  few  times my
cyberstorm604@233mhz  actually  works  I can see that things have changed a lot,
but  it  works  so seldom that I'm stuck with my a1200/040.  It seems to me like
several groups have been influenced by the 'Ephidrena-style' but maybe Ephidrena
in their time were influenced by others, I don't know.  I guess the most obvious
is  that  there  isn't  so  much pixeled graphics in AGA demos any more, and the
music has changed quite much.

CL1:How  do  you  create a demo/intro?  Is there a special way you prefer to produce
it?   Like  first getting a module/gfx, then create an effect, get an idea etc.,




















or the opposite?

CL2:Yes  I prefer to get a module first and then design an intro/demo to fit it.  Or
rather,  I don't see any other way to do it, I would need close cooperation with
a musician on the design then, and I never had that luxury.

CL1:With  the  Aha-intro  and  the Aha-remix intro released at the Mekka & Symposium
2000  and  Gathering  2001,  you managed to get very high rankings.  What do you
like the most about those productions?

CL2:I like the music and how it fits the scroller at the end.  I think that was what
turned  out  best  in  the  whole  intro.  But of course the Aha-chip by Coma is
always  fun  to  listen  to, and the dancing figure is funny.  I actually didn't
invent  those  dancemoves,  I  found  the  source somewhere and just improved it
slightly.  Shame on me, hehe.

CL1:At  the Kindergarden party 2003 you released the 64k intro Haakan, together with
Up  Rough.   Who  came  up with the idea for the cooperation?  Are you currently
working on more coop productions?





















CL2:I  think  Spot  just  caught me on #amigascne one day and told me he needed some
assistance  from  a coder.  That's how it started, it wasn't supposed to be much
but  I did some extra code and designstuff on it and added some more gfx to make
it  just  a tiny bit better.  We actually started two co-operation intros at the
same time, but Haakan is the only one released so far, the other one is still in
progress.

CL7:                                   THE SCENE

CL1:Do you remember the first demo you saw and mag you read?

CL2:The  first  demo  I  saw was probably Budbrain or Wayfarer, but I can't remember
which  one.   I  saw  them  both  on  an Amiga belonging to a guy in my class at
school.   I first thought Kefrens Desert Dream was one of the first demos I saw,
but I think it really must have been Wayfarer by Spaceballs, they both have some
desert scenes etc, must have made me confused.

CL3:The first mag I read was R.A.W#6, I got it when I bought my first Amiga1200 from
a  guy in my town who told me he was a member of IRIS.  He had tears in his eyes
when  I gave him the money for his Amiga and carried it with me.  He didn't have




















CL3:room  for  it any more, which was good for me, it was not easy to get hold of an
A1200  those  days.   I  was  completely  stunned  when  I  noticed there was an
underground  scene  of  swappers  all over Europe sending disks to eachother.  I
never  knew  such a thing existed before that, and sent 3 blank disks along with
my  first swapper-ad which appeared in Raw#7.  It looked quite lame, and I don?t
think  I  got  a single answer because of it.  But I started to contact a lot of
people myself, and some of them actually answered.

CL1:What do you think are the good and bad sides of the scene?

CL2:The  Amiga  scene has many talented people and great legends, it is nice to have
been a part of it.  The bad thing is that I have spent almost all my time on it,
I  hope  I  never  will  feel  like it was a waste of time.  And of course it is
always  a  bit  sad  when old scenefriends just disappear, and you loose contact
with them completely.

CL1:How should we manage to get more people attracted to the scene?

CL2:Well, I don't really want lots of newcomers, but if we could attract some people
which  already are sceners on other platforms over to the Amiga, or get some old




















CL2:Amiga  sceners back into the scene, that would be very nice.  I keep dreaming of
a  comeback  by  Andromeda,  it's been 10 years now, maybe this is the year they
return?

CL1:Do you have any special scene memory you want to share with the readers?

CL2:One  of  my  best  memories  is  from the Kindergarden7 party from 1997.  It was
during  the  summer in a school in oslo.  The weather was extremely nice and all
of  my  closest  scene  friends  were there, I don't think we were more than 100
people  but  it  was very nice.  Apathy had a battle going against Instinct, the
group started by Punisher.  There were Apathy and Instinct banners everywhere as
far  as  I  can  remember.   But we were all sitting together, and I don't think
people were quite sure who were members of Instinct and who were Apathy members,
infact  most  people  were  members  of  both  groups.   The funny part was when
Punisher  met  some  guys from England or something at the party, which told him
that  they  already  had  started  a group with the name Instinct some time ago.
Some time after that I think Instinct became Mantra.

CL1:I  know  you're  also  a member of certain fun-groups under other handles.  Will
these groups release something in the near future?  ;-)





















CL2:Hehe,  how  do you know that?  Well I have several fungroups and handles which I
planned  to  make  productions  with some time, but I never got around to it.  I
think  I  have  the  responsibility for some of the handles in Specter also.  If
Punisher  returns  it would be fun to do another Specter production, even though
it  was  my  sister  who  started the whole group.  Quite a silly but fun story,
which is far too long to tell now.

CL1:Well, it's time to find out what's your taste.  What's your favorite:

CL1:SLOGAN          : CL2:Eltech - More balls
CL1:                  CL2:than a snooker table
CL1:SLIDESHOW       : CL2:Andromeda - 7 Seas
CL1:INTRO           : CL2:Scoopex - 1000%
CL1:DEMO            : CL2:TBL - Tint
CL1:MUSICDISK       : CL2:Feedback :)
CL1:MAG             : CL2:Eurochart
CL1:EDITOR          : CL2:Lord Helmet

CL1:Please tell your opinion about the future of the scene:





















CL1:OPTIMISTIC: CL2:Andromeda,   Stellar,  Polka  Brothers,  Virtual Dreams, Kefrens all
make comebacks!

CL1:REALISTIC:  CL2:Maybe just one or two of those groups make comebacks.

CL1:PESIMISTIC: CL2:TBL  release  their  last  demo  in  2004, all  Amiga hardware stops
working.

CL1:And what do you think about the latest Amiga plans?

CL2:I  think  they  are  too late.  Almost 10 years too late.  But hey, if the Amiga
scene  moves on to new hardware, I will most likely move along as well, although
I  of  course  will  continue  to support the 68k AGA Amigas as well.  The worst
thing  about the new Amiga stuff is all this Quake and shit on it, I hate Quake,
Doom and Wolfenstein!  All 3d games should be banned from the amiga!

CL1:Do you picture yourself in the scene many many years from now?

CL2:Yes  I  do.   Maybe  only  to  chat  about the good old days, but if there is an




















CL2:oldskool Amigascene party in 2050 I will attend! CL6:(we'll meet there then! CL8:- DHCL6:)

                                     CL7:MAGS

CL1:What do you think about mags and packs these days?  Do you miss something?

CL2:I think the magscene has been extremely good the last years, we have almost been
spoiled.   Of  course I miss old packs like Kickdown by Syndrome, but Whelpz are
doing a good job on their pack.  If people stop to release packs, I'll just have
to start compiling our Dreams pack again.

CL1:Are there too few mags and packs around after your opinion?

CL2:Hmm,  well  now  that we have lost Disc, and Eurochart and Jurassick Pack aren't
getting  released  as  often as they used to, maybe.  I also miss Showtime, with
all the swapper ads and nice interface.  Anyway, if it continues like this maybe
there  will  be  room  for  our Cocktail diskmag sometime, I haven't given it up
completely.   As  for  packs, I guess if there were more fresh productions there
would  be  more packs.  I like packs, I'm used to the idea that fresh stuff gets
gathered into a pack, it reminds me of the old days.





















CL1:Do mags have any influence in the scene?

CL2:Indeed,  probably a great influence.  It's almost like I regret that I made such
a  bad review of the oldskool edition of Jurassick Pack in dc#31, it really made
Zito angry for a while.  Write positive stuff in the mags, and the scene will be
positive, write negative stuff and everyone gets negative.  Although it is quite
fun  to read old diskmags now and see people complaining about the poor state of
the scene even back in the early nineties.

CL1:What  do  you think about the chart in the EuroChart?  Do you think those charts
reflect the best productions and best sceners?

CL2:Hmm,  well  to some point I guess they do.  Anyway I think they are fun to check
out, and mostly I think the chart reflects the scene in a good way.

CL7:                                   REAL LIFE

CL1:What's your occupation?





















CL2:I'm  a  computer  programmer  working  for  a company called Nextsys, located in
Kongsberg, Norway.

CL1:Tell us about one of your normal days...

CL2:Struggle  for  at least an hour to get out of bed, drive to work, eat breakfast,
check  mailbox,  check  buglists,  fix  bugs, add new functionality, do customer
support,  eat  lunch,  fix bugs, add more functionality, drive home, eat dinner,
drive back to work, fix bugs, add functionality, do you get the picture?  It can
get quite boring now and then..

CL1:Do you have any other hobbies than computing?  In that case, which?

CL2:I  watch  all  games  with the local basketball team, yell at the referees so my
throath  is  soar for several days, and even play some basketball myself to stay
in  shape.   I  also  collect  all  kinds of crap like Sega Mega Drives, Snes's,
Macintosh'es  and  games  for  all  of  these.  I'm running out of room.  I also
collect  old Amiga magazines, I have more than 500 now with all coverdisks/cd's.
Not to mention Amiga hardware, I have lots of amiga hardware, most of it doesn't
even work.





















CL1:What kind of music and movies do you enjoy?

CL2:I  have  no special favourite-music to listen to, I listen to mostly everything,
except  rap  and heavy metal.  But I guess I prefer technoish stuff and pop over
rock stuff.  I like all kind of science fiction movies.

CL1:Thanks for spending alot of your time here answering these questions.  Good luck
with  future plans...  Now you can write whatever you would like, like greetings
etc.

CL2:Ok,  then  I  must  greet  all  the people I got to know through swapping!  (All
people  listed  with  the  group they were in when I first started swapping with
them)

CL3:Greets from strife/apathy to the following:

CL6:            accede/apathy
             adonis/iris
            allanon/depth

















           amos/stonearts
          angeldust/apathy
           aztec/sector7
            blaze/floppy
         blunt/grasshopper
               bon/neo
             boo/talent
             bucko/void
           budgie/apathy
            byllbo/ind
            carp/apathy
          case78/scoopex
             cavit/ind
           chriz/apathy
            chunky/rno
           celius/ind.
           coma/apathy
           condor/ind
          cook/9design
         coolio/smellon
          cope/apathy
         curtcool/depth
    cyberstorm/astra syntex
           daniel/ind.
          darkhawk/iris
          death/apathy
      deejay silosaft/ind
          dr.death/eltech
           drac/ambrosia
            dt214/void
       duckhunter/spaceballs
           dweeb/apathy
         elektro/apathy
          evan/apathy
         exl/megahead
         felix/kinky
         fidgety/ind
      firestarter/instinct
       fisherking/massive
     flapjack/eroticdesign
        genetix/vortex
          gone/void
         growl/apathy
         hakon/whelpz
           harv/lsd
         hawk/darkage
         haze/apathy
      hellrazor/apathy
     hexorcist/almagest
      hurricane/apathy
       hyper/apathy
      iceman/sector5
    inssomniak/redline
      jackobe/oxygene
         jay/ultima
        kempy/veezya
      kestrel/syndrome
       korball/apathy
       lahve/scoopex
        leia/apathy
      lekman/hemoraiders
         lithium/gods
      loaderror/ephidrena
           makak/mawi
         malakai/giants
        malison/contraz
          maze/apathy
         melon/mystic
           mj/iris
       moonchild/halfmoon
      mosquito/hemoraiders
         mr.c/almagest
           mr.keel/?
       mr.vain/secretly
          mr.x/apathy
           mystra/?
        nemechek/apathy
         nork/network
         notman/iris
           paplo/?
      phantom/syndicate
         pinx/eternal
          pix/darkage
         peejay/vegas
         point/apathy
       pow/sunshineprods
        preacher/eltech
      psalt/donut fetish
        psycho/apathy
      punisher/apathy
     purple haze/saints
          rabl/void
         rage/apathy
       raptor/sector5
        raze/ambrosia
       repoman/massive
        rolex/apathy
      romeo/astra syntex
          sh1/apathy
      shatterhand/saviour
         sixpack/gods
       skinner/eltech
        soda/scoopex
      speeddevil/giants
    spindizzy/astra syntex
     splatterhead/scoopex
         styles/s2
      sunscream/apathy
       tentacle/apathy
           tft/rno
        thehooligan/dcs
          thorr/welpz
         thrym/giants
        tracky/apathy
         trump/apathy
        u-nik/massive
         wise/apathy
        wiseguy/apathy
       wizzball/apathy
          zapotek
       zappo/animax
      zeeball/apathy
        zerox/gods
         zevz/ind
       zito/scarab
        zorro/ind

CL7:[ sorry to all forgotten ones!]
