Skyhigh 21 Mitch stopped by
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Mitch stopped by!! Yoho everybody. A good friend of mine has sent me a contribution for this, the last, issue. As you can see of the headline then this cool buddy is no-one else than MITCH of CyberZound Productions and Crest. I would like to show my grattitude towards you Michael. Thanx a lot for this nice chapter from you. Actually he sent me 3 pieces of paper with each a chapter, but I decided to put 'em all together into 1. So check it out. FRIENDSHIP TO THE EXTREMES FRIENDSHIP TO THE EXTREMES THE AIDS OF THE C64? THE AIDS OF THE C64 ! Once agian I'm puzzled over how the scene puts up with the way the charts look today. It's easy to see why many people quit the scene when they don't re- cieve the appreciation they very well deserve. If someone could explain the following things to me I would be more than thankful: a) WHY do musicians/grafixers who haven't made any- thing the last 2-3 years end up at the top 10 in the charts? b) WHY do people think friendship-voting leads 2 more popularity among those the vote for? c) WHY don't the mags sort out the OLD votes that're clearly out of date? A few examples to prove my point about the music- charts are these musicians who definately have been unactive for a looooooong time: Scortia, Jeroen Tel, Red Devil, A-Man, Edwin van Santen and many others. Also it's very doubtfull what the sceners actually vote for: quality combined with activity or old achie- vements? It's really frustrating to read the charts when all you can see is a list of unactive and in many cases untalented crap-coders, musicians and gra- fixers. What you mag-editors should do is to make a 'spring-cleaning' of you charts! The problem also is, that it takes too long for chan- ges to be noticed in the charts. That's probably the reason why some guys still are in the Top 10... I have no hopes of seeing my own name in the charts as I am confident that the friendship-voting is a wellrooted disease that won't be driven away that easy. Besides that I'm not keeping in touch with the scene in gene- ral (my friends are only other musicians on the C64 - (Well this doesn't really counts for me does it? - bk) and just by this I've given up to see my name in print. I'm just hoping that all the people around voting on the scene will be a bit more genorous and encourage innovative musicians,grafixers and coders. The scene will undoubtly be watered-down on REAL talents if this goes on any further. Let's Make Things BETTER! Nuff said - mITCH&dANE/CREST/CZP Dial: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX E-mail (Just for Dane); XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX INTERNET - FOR BETTER OR WORSE? INTERNET - FOR BETTER OR WORSE ! So, for the first time I've put myself in the hands of inspiration to write about what's bothering my tired head at the moment. Not the easiest task - I know - but there IS actually something that is slightly irri- tating regarding the scene and sceners of today. INTERNET. Sure it's a good idea, but aren't the draw- backs just as many as the advantages? First of all, let's ask ourselves this question: "What is the scene about?" I guess the most common answer would be: Friendship. Therefore I must ask you WHY the sceners of today alienate others by simply DEMANDING that EVERYONE should have Internet-access?! I've never in my life seen proof of such laziness and lack of tolerance. So, what reasons do you have for this behaviour? The cost of normal mailing?! Well, if you're not a mega- swapper you shouldn't use this for an excuse. The mailing-cost for a "normal" scener isn't that high, as you probably already know, and therefore why not stick to this a bit more "personal" way of trading and keeping in touch with. Internet has more become an excuse for not keeping in touch with old friends,than beeing the link between sceners. Ok, do you have any hints on what to do if you're NOT accessing Internet? Guess not! I, for one, don't have any friends nearby who has access,and because of that I'm not recieving ANY hot wares at all... Have got myself to blame. Well, so be it, but I'm also trying to preserve the old traditions that made this scene what it is (or maybe WAS) today. This has no- thing to do with me envying those who have access, but it DOES has to do with the fact that I'm seriously disturbed by the attitude on the scene. I have expe- rienced this myself, as a fact, as I haven't recieved any preview-parts of the KRESTOLOGY-demo, and this is because of the extreme laziness. I know several guys who share this opinion, and we actually feel a bit left out on the good stuff happening on the scene. As I pointed out quite clearly before, it has nothing to do with envy: it's the bottom-line and the old tra- dition of what this scene is based on that's been lost while the technology advances... Thanks for the word, and I'll appreciate any com- ment on this. Signed: mITCH (Without dANE for the moment)/CREST. -------------------------------------------- INTERVIEW WITH BIZ KID/CAMELOT INTERVIEW WITH BIZ KID/CAMELOT Yes, I know - this is NOT my business, but I thought we should credit the author the only way we can, simply by a freaky interview. Here we go, Jesper! Q: Question A: Answer Q: What are your spontanious feelings when finishing the last issue of this leading mag? A: Well what can I say. Hmmm, you see it is with mixed emotions that I am ending the Skyhigh saga. I am sad that it is all over, but in the same time happy that I have choosen to drop all the hard work. I better try to explain what I mean. See as I started up this mag I had some ideas about how it should be. I had some visions about what I wanted to do and to achieve with Skyhigh. My plan (and hope ofcoz hope) was to reach the top. And as you all know then I reached my goal. There were a lot of non-believers when the 1st issue came out, but I guess I really showed them! It have costed me a lot of hard work in the time which has passed. But I don't want to complain about that, coz I really dug that. I don't know if you could call me a worka- holic, but I sure enjoyed spending hours in front of my dear C64. In the beginning it was fun!!!! But in the last few months (last year, I guess) the fun went away. See it is VERY hard to keep up the spirit when you have no goals to reach. Please understand me right.. When you have been the number 1 magazine for almost 1.5 year it is very difficult to keep up the in- spiration. You have reached your goal, and you can't keep comming up with new ones. To be a bit cynical; I was number one, what more could I be??? Someone maybe will see this as bragging, so what. As mentioned then my dream has come through and I had to come up with new ideas to keep track of the race. To tell you the truth then I believe that I did one hell of a job to keep the quality since Skyhigh was voted number one. But there is a lot more to it.. When you have more editors you will face a lot of new problems. (Especially when they are spread out all over Europe!!!). Deadlines become more and more flu- ent. You have to send out verbal slaps, in the shape of notes, to your co-editors to tell them to finish their contribution in time. When all the text, music, graphic and whatever was collected I had to edit all the chapters once again, to check out the layout and stuff like that. Then all the chapters had to be pack ed. The outfit had to be updated with the chapters + eventual modifications and improvements. The outfit then had to be packed and crunched. (Same goes for the tunes + extras!!). At this time everything has to be checked to see if it was working. Finally I had to make the directory look nice, and then test it all one more time. This takes time! A lot of time!!!!! Eventually I got fed up with all this. Combined with moving place, having a real life, (and now even loosing my job!) and all the above mentioned it was a quite clear decision to me. Did this answer your question, well I don't think so. Ok lemme try once more. I am glad to push all this slave job away, but I am a bit sad about burying my magazine. I haven't lost my interest in doing mags, I just didn't want to do all the hard work anymore.. It simply takes up too much of my time!!) It will all be so much simpler just to sit down and write and then send it away to another person who can do the slave job! So my feelings go something like this: I am a bit sad, but I think it is much better to stop on the top, than ruining Skyhigh with low quality issues in the future. Just like Take That I am stopping while beeing on the top - HEHEHEHE!!!! No serious I actually feel quite comfortable with my decision. As I have always said: Skyhigh is a Biz Kid mag!! There fore no-one else should take over the hard work for me. If I let this happend Skyhigh would not be Skyhigh anymore - period.. So I feel good! Q: Have you experienced any great drawbacks/pro- blems while being an editor? A: Well yeah, there have been some problems now and then. Ofcoz there was the problem with collecting my chapters in time, but I guess this is quite normal! Be- side this, there is this story with a former editor of mine. We had our stroggles back then, and we don't really talk that much today. Really silly I think, but I belive it is no more on my shoulders.. Nevermind. Another problem is that some people simply couldn't grasp why I was so nice. I am a firm believer in friend ship and in a friendly/polite attitude. Correct me if I am wrong, but I really do belive that it will lead you a lot longer than if you are an arrogant asshole!! But I guess this perhaps was not really my problem, but other peoples problem. But otherhand then No I don't really remember other problems. Q: What's the best thing about being an editor? A: Well I guess its depends on the person. I would be a liar if I won't admit that the popularity doesn't mat ter.. Sure I like the feeling of being a known scener. Well ofcoz there is quite a few socalled asslickers who think I am their friend just because they have seen my name in Skyhigh, but that never was a prob- lem. The good thing is that many people send you things to you before other sceners get it. A good example would be when I get a newsletter from F4CG. I have been sent insider news from different people; stuff that was for my eyes only. But this you doesn't get sent just beeing an editor. It takes time before people do so, and it depend on you aswell. The key- word here is trust!!!! Another essential thing is that it is quite easy to get friends and meet people when you are a bit known. And what is better to get you known that a magazine?? Another, quite different, thing is that I had the chan ce to sit down and write.. I love to write, and when you know that a lot of people even read your text it gives you a great feeling. Q: What do you think you've achieved with sKYHIGH? A: Personally I have fulfilled a project which I start ed long ago. In a wider aspect I believe that I have spread some joy and excitement within our little sub world for some years. Furthermore I think and hope that I might have put the art of magazines on a high- er level. Not that I say that I did it, but I sure help- ed a lot. I really believe that I fought a battle for the userfriendlyness magazines. With Raz at my side Skyhigh brought you the first ever proportional up- scroller combined with an easy to use outfit. I think that Skyhigh has influenced the style of magazines of today with its outfit.. The phrase 'Next generation' really has something to it!!! I also think that we showed that a multi culturel mag can kick ass. I'm thinking about the staff which come from many different countries. Q: What do you think about the scene of today? Pro- blems or whatever... A: The scene of today!! Hmmm, that is a hard one! Well I don't really know about the scene of today, I unfortunately think that more and more famous per- sons are leaving without getting replaced. I mean, the Eastern boom has more or less stopped for now. It brought a lot of new names, but now I guess it is all over. We still are a bunch of 'Old boys' in the biz, and we keep fighting. We have this kinda 'FEELING' for the scene which I don't think the newcommers have. In old days you made all the grafix, tunes and code your self, now you simply wire your stuff from the PC or Amiga. The result is marvellous but the spirit is gone!! I have fought a battle, but believe me its damn hard. The times with a new demo every week or month is long gone. I think there is no way to escape it, but the progress has slowly catched up with us. All the new platforms are slowly taking over. This is both good and bad and I could write a lot about that, but I won't do that right now! Anyway, I still love the c64 scene. I have made soo many cool friends around the globe; people who I meet now and then on different parties somewhere in Europe. This is a thing that we haven't lost: THE FRIENDSHIP. Believe me other com- puter scenes really envy us that!!! And therefore it makes me fight even stronger to keep the C64 alive. SO come on everybody. KEEP FIGHTING!!!! Q: What are your plans for the future? A: Well I will NOT leave the c64!!! But I'll concentrate on other things like organizing the Camels. Writing for another mag, which you know the name of!! And then I will start up some PC work aswell!! Q: Name your three favourites in these categories: 1. Coders: Raz/Cml - Graham/Oxy - Druid/Avantgarde 2. Grafixers: Electric/(E) - Cruise/Taboo - Deekay/C 3. Musicians: Jeff/Cml/CZP - Pri/Oxy - Metal/Cml A: Well these are just names, I like a lot more!! Q: Personally, do you think sex is best combined with: a) Peanut-butter b) S£ren Lund c) Whipped cream d) Kinky ladies e) Zyron f) All of the above? A: Hmm that's quite easy!!! I'ld like this combination: A kinky whipped S£ren Lund!! Q: Ok,so finally I must make you decide ONE thing that has been worrying me for some time now: Will Swedish beer EVER be able to compete with Danish beer? Doubtfull, or? A: Haha I knew it, a trick question!!! But I have seen thru' you... There is no such thing as Swedish beer!! So I can't answer this question.... Q: Well, here you have some space to make sum extra hellos to....(here was some norty Danish words!!) A: Well I would like to say thank to you for this cewl interview, I really dug it!! We will be talking to each- other in the phuture!! Second I would like to shout out hiho to all I know, and all who have been helping me in the time which has passed. (See Tha Biz-mix for more!!!) -------------------------------------------- Ok that was really all for now. I think you should be looking out for more text from bitch, erhm Mitch!!, in the future, coz rumours are saying the he has some- thing cooking. No say more.. BIZ KID