Rawhed interviews Viper/Serenity
Rawhed - Who are you and the other members of your group..and what are their jobs?
Viper - Well I'm Viper aka Marinus van Aswegen from the group eheem Serenity. The other
members are Scythe, Maverick + Caz. We're all coders but we have secret talents.
I'm a jack'o'trades. Caz is the gxf'rendering'wizzbo, and Scythe is the realistic
show us how its done CODER. Mav on the other hand is also a jack'o'trades. o yeah
their jobs is to make coffee and have fun :)
Rawhed - How did you first learn about the demo scene?
Viper - well a long time ago in a galaxy far far away..no no wrong story.
I've been in BBS'ing for a looooong time, and I've always been able to get hold of
those damm MOD files. Since there is some kewl adds in them I soon got some demos.
VECTDEMO being the 1st I got if memory serves. I also rem getting those cool crack
intros, remember those ?
Rawhed - How did you join Serenity?
Viper - mmmm come to think of it I never did join Serenity, I kinda got the idea to start
it :) Well since I was an avid coder and muzo and wanted to get better I decided
to start a group. At that stage I was solo doing weird and wonderfull things....I
was running a BBS called The BaudRoom BBS "those were the days" and we had this guy
come and interview us A very strange chap with a sharp mind. Can I mention his name
here will you protect me ? Paul Furber aka Maverick We soon got chatting and before
I knew it Serenity WAS BORN! We had to play lotsa Hockey though :)
Rawhed - Why "Serenity"?
Viper - Now thats a good question. I think a groups biggest problem is finding a name that
suits them. At that stage I was listening to a Band Culture Beat. They have a CD
out called Serenity.. Cha Ching! Since Mav + myself were rather on the mellow side
it suited us:)
Viper - Didnt you want to know what I got my nick from? you can calll me snake ;)
I used to host a programming chat on the baudroom, and this one guy started calling
me Viper and it stuck.
Rawhed - kewl! what programs and hardware do use to make music/code
Viper - heheh ok I'll try but this is not gonna be easy. programs for making the sound ( drum
roll ) was Scream Tracker v2 now Impulse TRacker. Sampling , other guys songs! well I
sampler every now and then, more then than now. COOLEDIT is nice I use that. for
Coding: GCC, WATCOM C++, NASM + Visual C++ I dont like VC but I have to use it every
now and again. I also use lots of little utils I've written over the years,
like Ftrack, Fpatch, Fcut, FMAKE_DEMO_THAT_ROQS. I for got to add to the music coding
part .. I also use copy con demo.arj hehe
Rawhed - Now why do you spend so much time playing quake?
Viper - Well liFe is Quake! oops
Rawhed - Briefly summarise your last party experience ;)
Viper - The last party well..That was Explosive 97. As per usual I left things till the last
moment I cant remeber why I couldnt do stuff before I think I was at OppiKoppi, but I
did manage to write a INTRO of a whommman doing all kinds of strange things it was
called Manaquin...I entered a picy and I had 3 songs to enter :) welll I lent Mav one
and entered the REST :) ( NOpe I wasnt cheeting ) Well as per usual I just finished
the demo on time and took it to the party place. AHHH we arrived there and we were met
by some of the old sceners. Well after the formalaties, we got down to it not a big
show of ppl but we had fun Poor Mav didnt have it so good He had Shocking 97 and not
Explosive since he was hit by lighting the previous evening while he was on the phone
with me. Needless to say he could not finish his stuff! Well at least he didnt give us
the excuse of "I wrote the cool demo but my hdd crashed last night". shame but he
recovered. We played some QUAKE 2. Halocaust from the Warloks got me and Mav to
play him. Well all I can say is he went Lava Diving!
Rawhed - Mav must have hated that lightening gun. ;)
Rawhed - What do you think of the SA scene?
Viper - The SA scene is a confused scene. Its gone through some bad patches but it producing
lots of new talents. I think in the past lost of guys didnt want to show their skills,
cause they thought ahhhh look at Second REality I cant do that blah blah blah. Well
since we have nice weather here and not SNOW most of the TIME like in Finland we tend
to do other things than CODE...But we must accept that it takes YEARS of fiddling and
testing to get anywhere. I think we should not compare ourselves with the world we
should build our own skills and do it our way. What does it matter anyway if we are
better or worse that the international scene I'm here to have fun :) If you remember
for years the european scene laughed at the USA scene but since they guys in the USA
started getting their own scene going, they're being noticed.
Rawhed - Now dude..you are involved in maintaining the sademoscene" website ...what plans do you
have for the site?
Viper - Well I'm only involved in the demo scene page cause I want the scene to have a home.
Well we need to have a place where we can get the info we need. In the past we use to
have BBSs, but we lost that. But we have big things planned Forums are kewl because its
where we chat about Coding, music + art. We want people to interact.
Rawhed - What happend to the "SA Demo Archive"?
Viper - I was waiting for that one. Well since we dont have a nice BEEEEEG site yet we can't put
all the files online...but, but Bain has offered to give us space :) as soon as we get a
nice DNS entry eg www.demos.co.za or www.demoscene.co.za or whatever we will put it on there
Rawhed - hehe, R200 for a domain
Viper - well 'm holding a hat here.... perhaps I should go stand at the robot with a cardboard
No money, not Site no DNS hehehe Well between me and Mav I think we have most SA demos
etc etc
Rawhed - Most SA demos? hmmm..what ever happened to the optimise97 demos? {g}
Viper - Well since I cant find them I think MAv's got them
Rawhed - Mav showed me his hd...their deleted :(
Viper - NOOOO! well I'm sure the guys still have their entries .. right Warloks ,
right Mr Bogus ...
Rawhed - On with the questions hehehe... What do you hope to do in the next 5 years?
Viper - 5 years is not such a long time. Well I would like to finish what I'm doing, get
married ( ooops where did that come from) settle down a bit ... I think above all
finish things I start :)
Rawhed - What do u like doing outside of demos+coding?
Viper - Now thats a personal question .... mmmm I'm a rather active person sports wise. I enjoy
the occasional party and l love the outdoors. Movies! lots and lots of Movies. YEah I
also play lots and lots of Quake
Rawhed - Whats ur favourite demo ever?
Viper - Now thats a hard one..FishTro no no. I would say the one thats changed and formed me
is( wait for it) Second Reality ( gasp now how did you know I was gonna say that).
Rawhed - What are your plans for optimise98?
Viper - Well Pinky you know, Take over the world (smack) Well to vote this time :) Since MAv +
Myself never voted or voted for out own productions. We might now loose again with err
2 votes :) We will dazzle and amaze you
Rawhed - What is it about the demo scene which keeps you here?
Viper - I stay cause I love doing what I love. I love art and DEMOS are the ultimate ART form.
Music with GFX + coding skill what more could you ask for ?
Rawhed - Tell us something funny about yourself.
Viper - mmmmm I drive a car without a roof :) I do! It's a MG replica so dont joke :)
Rawhed - And how can you be contacted?
Viper - How I can be contacted...Well since I'm in protective custody you will have to lett your
people talk to my peoples people. well vpr@global.co.za is prob the safest bet. Or you
could go to the scene page http://www.surf.to/demos
Rawhed - Is there anything else you'd like to say, or mention before we wrap this here chit-chat up?
Viper - Well get off your butts and get involved dont sit back and wait for everything to happen by itself.
Rawhed - Some wise words from Viper there! Thanks for the interview man, keep well.