Skyhigh 21 The Cupid Corner

Fasten your seatbelts-The Cupid Corner

It's time for some action once again, time to share
some opinions with you out there, time to get rid of
some nuisances and generally to give you some in-
sight into my mind's eye, in other words, time for the

CUPID CORNER
CUPID CORNER

Let's start the easy way:

WHO THE FUCK NEEDS BIG HEADLINES?
WHO THE FUCK NEEDS BIG HEADLINES
(This one for you, Per :))

Now,let's start over with something that came as a
shock for me lately, as it turned out to be an ava-
lanche-like thing more than a small change:

THE END OF MEGASWAPPING?
-----------------------

First in a row was Calypso dropping   contacts, follow-
ed by Spermbird, Intruder and Derbyshire Ram. Now,
Splatterhead is also considering strongly to drop
most of his contacts, and what does this leave us
with? It seems the big aera of megaswapping ceased
to exist lately, gone are the times where people did
struggle through hundreds of packs per year just to
keep the flow streaming. Sure, some facts may be ri-
sing porto costs, job-related changes, growing up,
and post-busts, but sometimes it is also nothing but
mere boredom. I personally never intended to be a
megaswapper, I never considered it a good time for
me spending ages answering sendings, writing ad-
resses and even more copying and assembling the
spreaddiscs, and yet I do really appreciate guys
doing so. Being a megaswapper does not only mean
answering your sendings, it also aquires some sort
of correct timing I do not bear, to be open. What do I
mean by this? Now, just imagine having 150 contacts
where approximately 70 cheat their stamps, just try
to keep track of the correct stamp for your contact
to send back. Or try to find a wanted tool on this
huge heap of disks. There you go...
So, next time some people should better consider for
a slight period more before they claim to be a mega-
swapper...

Well, of course there are still some guys that amaze
me with their efforts, like Shuze. He does have some
contacts over 100 and yet he does not claim himself
to be a megaswapper. He writes long personal notes,
tries to send quality stuff rather than speed-warez,
works as an orrie-supplier, and even works as an
overactive editor for the mag you're just reading!

Well, nevertheless megaswapping these days lost all
the glory it had some years back, having more and
more guys just pretending to be megaswappers, while
they just do nothing but contact guys and wait for
an answer to put them into their contact list...

All in all it seems as if the old concept of  megaswap-
ping fails to work in these days, and more and more
guys realise this and draw their own consequences...

Old Legends recruiting new blood...!
------------------------------

Well, one thing, that really got on my nerves lately
was, that a lot of old and legendary groups take in
rather new and strange members, just because they
met them on the net or alikes. Take for example   Fair-
light, one of my all time favourite groups, and their
recent sign-ups. I do not mumble about Moonchild
(Check -SILENT STARS for details), but about Diverse
and McGyver(!). What do guys like this ex-Nephilim
and an ex-Airwolf Team member have to be  conside-
red good enough to join forces of one of the might-
iest group in the old days? It seems as if the  leaders
of FLT lost their correct viewpoint due to their ab-
scence of the scene. Other examples of this pheno-
mena may be DR.Doom joining Hitmen and Macx/Ambush
becoming Co-Leader of Equinoxe, though he's just 14
years old and about 1 year in the scene,if I recover
correctly...

Taking in new members with no and/or bad reputation
means some self-mutilation, a cut of their fame, but
for the sake of appearing active, more and more old
legends do so, a sad movement, for my taste, that
make me once more look back in time with a feeling of
pity...

REFLEX
------

Well, let me talk a bit about Reflex. Being the hype
of the year, some mags called them the #1   Demogroup
not realising, that most of their fame was gained due
to inactivity of the other famous ones, like my #1
Camelot,Focus,Taboo,Chorus,Fairlight,Antic,Equinoxe,
Crest,Flash inc.,Padua and lots more. You may now
say,that I am just envious, but I am not, as some
guys in Reflex act so arrogant these days, that I
cannot keep calm there.
Just let me give you an excerpt of a note spread by
Quiss lately...

THIS IS THE  THIRD REFLEX DEMO IN A ROW TO WIN THE
1 ST PLACE AT A DEMO COMPO . WE DON'T THINK THAT
THERE IS ANY CONKURRENCE ON THE C 64  ANYMORE  SO
THIS WILL BE OFFICIALLY THE LAST REFLEX DEMO.

TRY TO BEAT US WE ARE OFF

GO TO PC  LIKE WE DID  64    BITS RULE

Now,could you believe it? Winning a Democompo in my
point of view does not mean being the best around,as
for example at the Party 4 and 5 also system-alien
sceners vote and lots of C64 guys didn't, due to the
lack of a C64 VOTEDISK and I do not think it's cool to
ask any PC or Amiga guy to vote on his machine!
Showing a lot of PC-related effects in the demo
surely gets you some votes, but style is the thing,
that makes your fame,and be fair, where's the style
in Radio Napalm??? Actually counting the X'95 compo
winning is nothing but a big laugh, as most of the
demos released there where for fun only, so having
no real concurrence surely makes an easy win!

The biggest laugh is "Try to beat our standarts",
well,how about Reflex beating the standart Black
Mail, Topaz, Fairlight, Triad, Spirit ... left us with?

I just could not bear a wanna-be like Quiss talking
such a heap of bullshit! I do remember driving with
Intruder to the Tribute 1994, and taking Quiss with
us. Now,if you wanted to have a talk with him,   you had
to talk coding-orientated with him, otherwise he was
unable to communicate! Arriving at the party, the
first thing to do for him was to build up his compi and
start showing his routines to the other sceners!
Now,what does this show? Go to PC, yeah,you bet!
There you fit a lot better, with all these spotty
children acting out as geniouses...

But Reflex is not Quiss,so to say. It seems as if this
group is split in between, as the Insider staff feat-
uring the old members Felidae,Happymaker,   Hogan and
others are still working in the scene, and get some
credit for me for doing so and bringing Reflex from
the first noter-collections up to the higher spots...

So,people,please listen up and THINK before calling
Reflex the best,unbeatable group, as it is nothing
but a sad thing to do,to hold back finished demos,
just to release them at compos to earn some bucks!


Two Tribes?
----------

Well, another thing that I found out lately, is that
the scene these days seems to be divided in two dif-
ferent ones: The Board/Self-considering Elite scene
and the Mail/Lower(?) Scene. Being in Avantgarde, I
should feel more comfortable in the first one and
should follow interested it's moving along. But, to be
fair, reading PROPAGANDA or THE PULSE gives me next
to nothing, as both of them contain such a heap of
self- righteous information, that I get sick of it!
I mean, who needs this semi-journalistic language in
a scene mag? Working for a newspaper gives me some
insight into this business and believe me, that a
scene-mag is still far from a newspaper, so it also
should stick to more common language than boasting
with words and idioms noone actually would use in a
chat on a scene-party! THIS IS THE SCENE,AND THE
MAGS PUBLISHED HERE SHOULD ENTERTAIN!
Also most of these mags give out annual polls and
awards, that are far from displaying the scene, just
see Joe/Wrath Design being the best graphician,
though he did nothing since his  scanned-picture-orgy
courtesy of soviet! Also Propaganda's Scope is not
what I consider the best graphician 1995. Scope is
dead. that's a fact, he was a good graphician with his
very own style, that's also a fact, but you cannot
call him an active graphician one year after his de-
parture!  Surely his comrades want to pay him the
credit he deserves in their eye, but please try to
face the facts...

So much for the elite-scene and their Blackboards,
but there is also another "scene", meaning them
newer small groups like U-turn, Ascareus, Nofx...
The mags there seem to be as ignorant to normal
scene life like the ones mentioned above. I mean,
check for example Unplugged#2, the news contained
the death of Scope/F4CG one year too late as news!
Same with Shuze/Chromance joining Alpha Flight!
Now,where's the research there? This scene seems
to be putting out whatever it gets just to seem ac-
tive, no matter how crappy it is, same for the gfx/
outfits. This is no real new thing to me,as there has
already been a german semi-"Computer Flohmarkt"
scene, with mags not spread withing the "real" scene
and groups/guys never being heard of in the common
scene mags like Skyhigh,Nitro or Vandalism News...
I remember  an interview in such a mag with Gonzo/AWT
where they asked him, how he can handle being both
active for the "Computer-Flohmarkt" and being in an
ELITE(!!!) group!

As a sum-up, I feel a bit as if the scene splits up
and some guys do their works no matter what it's go-
ing on outside...

STYLE
-----
Some of you may remember me asking for demogroups
to bring some of the old style back rather than re-
leasing a string of fx, and looking around a bit, I
found some. AGONY for example shocked me totally
with their release of PAIN and Skyle's Game Preview
Apollo 14. This assured me,that there is a lot of
style still possible, especially in the eastern scene!
Just check one thing: Graphic formats. In Polish re-
leases superhires interlace is a common thing, even
in the smaller groups' warez, while you get seldomly
some SHI pictures in a German/Dutch/Swedish re-
lease! I really look forward to more releases from
AGONY and alikes...

Me and my Amiga...
---------------

I'm sick of it, yes I am! I am sick of "graphicians"
using wired/scanned/digitally converted Gfx and
claiming to have done something cool! And yet, they
get a lot of applause for that, as most spectators
are too lazy to take a closer look at the works. So,
if wiring from Amiga is the art in doing C64 Gfx, I will
quit immediately, wake up, for heavens sake! Well,I
will now endanger my role of the good boy, and will
release a list of "graphicians" using wired gfx! If   you
are in this list and feel offended, proof me wrong!
Stop voting for these guys, as graphicians!

Rayden/Chalice/Alpha Flight
Joe/Wrath Design
Earthquake/Cosmic Style
Hi lite/Hitmen


I talked to a lot of other real graphicians for re-
search reasons, so I am sure, that these guys did
release wired Gfx, an exception is Earthquake, as
only his graf-styled logos in the BASS collections
were wired from Amiga...
The list will be updated/erased each issue from now
on...   Don't believe in everything you see!



Cup!d./.Avantgarde