Domination 08 Interview 5
From C64 Diskmag Wiki
---------------------------------------
* Interview - Motley/F4cg *
---------------------------------------
Welcome dear reader to the already mammoth interview
section of Domination.
The following interview has taken over two years to be
realised, having spoken with the 'victim' on a
conference, we arranged to have this interview done
quite some time ago, but it never became a reality,
until now atleast.
Presenting a good friend of mine, the one, the only..
>> MOTLEY of F4CG <<
An active member of the Fantastic Four Cracking
Group, responsible for their famous website on the
Internet and for his efforts in the long gone Genesis
Project.
Enjoy.
General Editor.
D - Domination
M - Motley/F4cg
D)
Welcome to the Domination magazine, firstly, as normal,
please introduce yourself to the readers.
M)
Well.. my name is XXXXXXXXXXXX, 23 years old, known by
the name Motley, a member of the oldest living family,
known as F4CG and the Internet manager of
PROPAGANDA.
D)
For sometime now you have been somewhat inactive on
the board/mail scene, although your Internet
activities as with most sceners these days, is quite
strong. Will you again return to previous activities?
What are your future plans on the C64?
And what are your current jobs for Fantastic Four
Cracking Group?
M)
My inactivities most strongly started when my best
friend Scope/F4cg died in a accident. For that reason
it has been quite difficult for me to get the old "click"
when it comes to activities on the C64 scene.
Slowly, but safely, i'm raising my activity on the scene
again.
When it comes to board activities, i'm not sure if i will
pick that up, as i already got caught for hacking and
carding a few years back and it kind of left it's traces
to the whole deal of making calls. I'm not planning to get
caught again. When it comes to the Internet, i see
myself more like a "senior" when it comes to sceners
on the net (and irc), except maybe for a few American
demo groups.
So i decided to stick to it, as an interesting counter
part for the boards. And suddenly the INTERNET
hysteria started.. And here we all are.
When it comes to my future plans concerning the C64
scene, i will continue my work with PROPAGANDA On-line,
the Internet version of PROPAGANDA magazine.
Putting Propaganda On-line seemed to create some
kind of trend on the C64 Internet community, seeing
more mags getting their way to the net in the form of
Homepages.
My activities concerning F4CG willincrease in near or
late future, probably some part on the "cracking"
field, aswell on the Intro-coding field.
We'll see...
D)
You have been around for quite sometime, i remember
when i first asked you for this interview several
years ago, but the vortex of time forced it to be
delayed until now.
Your scene career must be quite extensive, could you
please give the readers some background on what
groups you have been in, what jobs you have
performed and the basic highlights and history of
Motley.
M)
Well.. The first "known-for-it's-skills" group i joined
was ROYALTY (with members like Kingfisher/Triad and
Alfatech/Censor Design), DEATHSECTOR (remember the
demos, Budweiser 1-3, Heineken and Koff?), during my
time travelling a board, i met this boy who was quite sad
and destroyed that nobody called his board, so i
decided to give him a hand. I renamed the board to
Black Rain, and together with 2 other groups, we
managed to raise that board up, later the board
renamed and is in today's board history remembered
as a TOP-ELITE board, namely * Divine Ultimatum * with
the Sysop Chameleon.
After DSR i joined Vision with Scope, there i got to
know the boys Newscopy/F4CG and Jucke/GP that led
into a lifetime friendship.
After Vision i joined Genesis Project, after some
fuck ups from people (no names) i was forced to leave
it, i spent a year around hacking/phreaking, also
starting the H/P group * Phreakuenz * with friends.
I wasn't playing an active role in the C64 scene, more
like on the h/p scene, then i was asked to join
Red Sector Inc, and i did. After 7 hours Newscopy
asked me if i wanted to join Genesis Project and after
a little thinking i decided to rejoin them.
I stayed there 'till the end, when we decided to take
GP to the grave and most of us joined F4CG, my
current group. Under my time in various groups i did
mail trading, modem trading, intro coding, cracking,
hacking and phreaking, i also worked as one of the
staff members in a long forgotten magazine called
World News, after that i dedicated my "magazine" life
to Propaganda and have stayed there ever since.
D)
I'm not sure if you are aware, but the current C64
magazine industry has boomed in quality, with board
based magazines pushing joirnalism to a peak never
witnessed before in the C64 history.
What is your opinions on the magazines of today
compared with several years ago? is there room for
more improvements?
M)
The journalism in the magazine for sure has grown a
more professional touch to the magazine industry,
except for a few "magazine-wars" here and there
(hint) 8)
The past years i really haven't read that many
magazines, but comparing todays few top magazines
with the magazines 5-7 years back, a slight difference
could be noticed.
Few weeks back i was reading the first issue of
PROPAGANDA written ofcourse by the DUDE himself,
Antichrist/GP, i found it VERY entertaining, this guy
was pushing the other magazines to the ground with his
hard words. And i mean REALLY pushing and he made
one hell of a good job with it aswell.
I think todays magazine may not quite share the same
humorous journalistic approaches of that time, but i
guess times change.
Ofcourse magazines of today have finally realised
what Antichrist realised back in the old days when he
created the first Disk Based magazine in the world
Sex'n'Crime, that media is power.
Ofcourse there will always be magazines that may use
that advantage for their own private purposes, but i
think that with todays journalism, you all Scene-
journalists have to think twice before you cross the
line, b'coz the journalism today is more dedicated to
research than ever before.
So a word of wisdom to all C64 Scene journalists out
there: "Think before you write, or regret it infront of
the whole scene for the rest of your career" 8)
Other than that i think it's really good to have all these
magazines still running and i'm hoping that more will
show up, especially on the demo side. One very positive
sign i saw on the scene thepast year(s) was a new born
magazine on the American market, namely DRIVEN (keep
up the good work boys) giving a small boost to the
American demo industry and also giving more of an
inside view of NTSC coding demo groups of today.
D)
If you had a choice to create the ALL TIME C64 SCENE
GROUP and had the chance to grab any scener from
current times as member, who would you take in and
why? and what would you call the group (Motley Crew 8)
M)
An interesting though. Really hard to say about
CURRENT TIME scneers..
Well.. first of all iwould take Electric/Extend for his
excellent graphics, MrSex/Byterapers and
Bob/Censor Design for their excellent coding skills,
Walker/F4cg for his swapping skills, Pri/Oxyron,
Drax/Vibrants and Amj/SideB/Byterapers for their
creative music styles and Newscopy/F4cg for his
good leader characteristics.
This would make a perfect DEMO group. But for a
PERFECT cracking group i would really need some
people from the old scene, but that's another story :)
Name of the group? Dream Team? :) Neeext....
D)
What are your favourites of ALL-TIME:
Crack Group: Ikari + Talent
Cracker: Snacky/GP
Bbs: Mystic Cavern/GP
H/P: (what? group? person?) this is actually an
ANTI-HERO, CLIFFSTOLL (who caught the german CCC and
wrote the book - The Cuckoo's Egg)
Painter: Electric/Extend
Coder: MrSex/Byterapers
Musician: Martin Galway (game music), Drax/Vibrants
(demo music)
Swapper: Charlie/Varsity (R.I.P.)
Magazine: Propaganda
NTSC fixer: Vizz/Empire
Game: Bounty Bob Strikes Back (Miner 2049'er Part 2)
Demo: Suburbia/1001 Crew
Scene Party: Horizon '90
Scene Year: 1989
Food: Pasta
Drink: a cold bottle of (Finnish) [Gin - Long Drink]
Woman: Marilyn Monroe
Movie: Star Wars Trilogy & Apocalypse Now
Hobby: Mixing music and designing graphics
D)
Your handle MOTLEY, where did you get it from?
What is the reason for you to choose this handle, and
is it your only one?
M)
My handle originally comes from MOTLEY CRUE, hahaha..
not that hard to guess, back in the old times i liked the
group quite much and i really needed to comeup with a
handle, my other frinds had stupid handles like MrEvil
and shit like that so after awhile i decided to take that
as my handle after checking the dictionary what it
meant :) Check yourself :)
Once on my scene career i decided to support a semi
small German group called Extacy (yes, i know, there
were atleast 3 of them), as i didn't want people to know
that it was me, Chameleon came up with the name
Pyromancer for me.
D)
The illegal scene has gone through changes for the
worse over the last couple of years. English
companies have sold out to go Amiga and Console
crazy and only strong believers have stayed with the
C64.
What do you think is the best way for the scene to
thrive once again, games? Internet? Market in other
countries?
M)
Ironically the game market has been converted in to a
form where SCENERS produce the games. But i think
that is only a positive sign.
More games for the people! The Internet has for sure
given anew more flexible BOOST to the scene itself.
Slowly the cracking market is converting more and
more into the Internet, Propaganda introducing the
idea of counting first releases from the Net than from
the boards.
Giving wider perspective. This is only a natural
evolution for the cracking market and the only thing
that will save the competition of 1st releases.
D)
When GENESIS PROJECT died, were you at all reluctant
to join F4CG? Was there any other group you and your
Swedish counterparts had in mind?
M)
There was no "empty" time between the death of GP and
us joining F4CG. After some time of thinking we decided
to put GP to it's everlasting sleep and at the same time
join F4CG. It was quite natural that the Swedish part of
GP "the family" would join F4CG together, except for
Jucke who didn't really like the whole idea of taking GP
down.
I wasn't really sure what i felt about it, as GP was very
close to my heart. But after some time, the feeling of a
family came back in a form of F4CG.
When we "the family" joined F4CG, we brought our GP
way-of-thinking with us and adapted it to the core of
F4CG.
So we made F4CG "shine" even more brightly like GP
did. Others can ofcourse have a different view about
this matter, but this is my perspective about the whole
deal. Very positive.
D)
Rumours about our lost friend Scope/F4cg say that
he was murdered, could you clear this up and tell the
readers any further news that may put the
curiousness to rest.
M)
Scope's death of today is still a mystery that never
will be solved. There are only 2 possibilities. He fell on
the tracks on the subway or he was pushed when he
was under heavy influence of alcohol. We will never
know the truth, but only carry the hurting memory in
our hearts.
D)
For new sceners entering the scene, what words of
advice could you give them so that they could more
easily achieve what they wish, should a scener go
legal or illegal? and what is your definition of "LAME"
and "ELITE"?
M)
Word of advice to the newbies: Check who you are
talking with/about, think before you act, know the
history of the C64 scene, don't try to act cocky
before you are worth doing that, respect elders.
Definition of LAME and ELITE. The lame part suites well
on Mr.Brain(less)/Onslaught when i met him on IRC.
After his failing attempts to loud-mouth at me the
whole channel decided to jump at him. It's not really any
news, if the people on the channel see a pure lame
wanna-be they will for sure react.
The most hilarious part of it was when he was trying to
rag on Shark/INC, if you boys know your scene
history then you know Shark will more or less win.
Checking Mr.Brain's scene knowledge showed his very
little knowabouts of the scene personalities on this
specific channel, making a total fool out of himself
(teach your people, David :)
Then again he probably is just another nice guy
"trying" to protect something he doesn't have. Let's
just say that he made an ass out of himself that time.
Ever since i haven't had any debates with him. That is
ONE definition of a lamer, or a LAME act.
The whole perspective of lameness is quite wide and we
could spend a whole night discussing it, but i think you
all get the picture. ELITE, also an interesting subject
to talk about, like LAMENESS is about perception.
What makes one elite and why? Elitism is most of the
time about attitude. Some have it, some don't.
Usually the ones who don't have it and are still
searching for it will never find it and automatically fall
into the opposite catogory. These words may sound
cocky and not that positive, but that's the way the
scene works, accept it or leave.
About the legal and illegal issues concerning the part
of newbies, i think that the choice shall be totally
personal. The two scenes, crack-scene and
demo-scene are quite different from each other and
follow a bit different guidelines.
If you are new and don't know what to choose, i think
you should try'em both. You will most likely survive
longer on the demo scene.
Go for it, support the scene, give it a try, be a hero or
fool, the choice is yours. Good luck.
D)
Definately agree with you concerning attitude with
elite and lameness, i also believe that a persons action
and releases count also. Moving on, do you have any
scene/commercial related activities on any other
computer/console format? and what are your
ventures on the Internet these days? is it the future?
M)
Around '88 i spent a few years simultaneously being a
part of the ATARI ST scene, after that i really haven't
had that much interest joining other scenes.
Well i could add that i spent some glorious years on the
hack/phreak scene though (ed: same), and almost
started even two PC-Demo groups, but they really
didn't make me "click".
C64 scene will always be my scene, always and forever.
Concerning Internet, today i work professionally with
developing Internet applications and systems aswell as
working as a Webmaster and a Webdesigner at a small
company here in Stockholm City.
On the scene side i will continue adapting the C64 to the
net in any possible best way with working with the
[Propaganda Magazine] On-Line and creating few C64
related sites on the side. When it comes to the question
if the Net is the future? No, it's not the future, it's the
PRESENT and it will grow and grow 'till a perfect
harmony will be found concerning the issues
C64 vs. The Net.
But i still believe in a strong mail-scene activity.
Thoughit will decrease drastically in the past coming
5 years and transform into a pure Net-Courier deal.
Something of an interest about the net is when old
ex-sceners are taking an interesting approach to
todays scene and even returning in a sense.
Suddenly when everyone hit the net, the past and
present scene emerged in a way. You find yourself
meeting someone who was your "hero" way back on
the scene and really interact with him, learn to know
him and even perhaps brainwash him to re-join the
wonderful life of the scene.
So Internet definitely gave a NEW life for the scene
itself.
D)
Over the years there must be quite a few people you
have befriended and made association with, here is
the time to send some international greetings..
M)
I send my golden handshakes to these people/groups:
Cycleburner/Msp, Qed/Triangle, Kingfisher and
Arrow/Triad, Bob+Geggin+Pyscho+Alfatech/Censor
Design, Tgd/Camelot, DeathSector, Sledge/Flt, Gene
and Freestyle/Illusion, The old GP clan, Shark/Inc,
Dd/Fbr, Bod/Talent, Majesty/Onslaught, Scs+Trc,
Byterapers, Hitmen, Scat and Psychobilly/Trsi, Wow,
Case/Rmj, Cc, Witty/Onslaught, The NTSC-sceners
and ofcourse to everyone in my group and probably
a few hundred more that i don't remember...
It's been fun, dudes :)
D)
Thanks for your time Tony, are there any last words
to leave a final impression on the audience?
M)
If you never had it, you never will.. The Scene'96.
Dear reader hope you've enjoyed this very long
and interesting interview.
It was conducted over the Internet.
Check out the Propaganda homepage at:
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Sincere Regards;
Jazzcat/Onslaught
