Splash 14 ch10 Derbyshire Ram Said

    hey guy! you have choised this
interview part and i am sure you
wish to read a cool interview.you
can be sure that you  are in  the
right corner of the right magazine
this month i am very pleased  to
publish the long awaited interview
done with the mega cool oldie bet-
ter known as DERBYSHIRE RAM/ILLU-
SION.i planned to make an intervi-
ew with him in the previous issues
but lots of problems happened.but
at the end here you got it.let's
start with this really cool inter-
view.

    -:falcon   +:derbyshire ram


   -yo barry!please introduce yo-
urself to us.

   +:hi ali! well i'm 53 years old
by the time i complete this inter-
view i could even be 54.i am five
feet,eleven inches tall and over-
weight.mainly due to eating junk-
food while working on the 64.

   -:you are one of the oldies in
this scene.narrate us your scene-
life from the beginning up to now.

   +:well i got my 64 in the late
82 but did not really get into the
scene until 1984.then  this  was
only cracking and swapping  in  a
very small circle.i cracked stuff
from tape for my own purposes to
transfer it to tape turbo.i didn't
get a floppy until 1985.this con-
tinued  until  1987  when someone
sent me a  small  intro which i
started to use casually  on  some
new games.these naturally got sp-
read around the scene more widely
and in late 1989 i was asked if i
would like to join dominators.at
first i said no,(having said  no
previously to ikari because they
only really wanted me as a mail-
trader) then eventually in march
1990 i joined dom and stayed actu-
ally in that group until november
1991.i then left dom and a week
later joined the newly formed de-
adline.this group lasted just six
months,we killed off the group and
i joined illusion along with rebel
and nme on june 1st.1992.

   -huh!what a story.now another
point.you are also the second ol-
dest guy in this scene.how it fe-
els?

   +:wow,who is the oldest guy?
well to me it makes no difference.
i'm doing what i like to do and i
have to say here and  now that  i
appear to be accepted by most of
the guys on the scene,i do take a
bit of ragging occasionally but
most of them goes over my head.as
a matter of interest i have five
contacts in the u.k.who are older
than myself but they did a low pro
file and get their wares from me.

   +:what is your favourite crac-
king group,demo group,best group
ever and why?

   -:that is an extremely diffi-
cult question  to answer.in  the
present so few good groups exsist
nowadays but there are a lot of
good crackers,coders,musicians etc
around in different groups so i
would rather not comment.i think
the best group ever was possibly
triad when they were in their pri-
me.i don't ever remember seeing a
bad crack from them in the late
1980's.

   -:now let's turn to back in ti-
me.once a time you were a member
of dominators.why did you leave?

   +:two reasons really.first not
longer after i joined no danish
members did much at all for almost
a full year,all the cracking was
left to rebel,nme and myself and
there was no co-ordination.second-
ly i got ragged from a group of
australians who had been aproached
by the danish members to join the
group at 20 dollars each.i was al-
ready fed up and this was the fi-
nal straw.do not approve of paying
to join a group.ability should be
enough so i quit.

   -:then you built deadline.it
was going like hell but then you
killed it and joined illusion.why?

   +:i didn't build deadline.it
was built by nme and i joined one
week after it had started.it was
killed off for numerous reasons.

   1)we could not get a fixer in
the states.
   2)we went into coop with arcade
to solve the problem.
   3)we felt that certain members
of arcade didn't fulfill the pro-
mises they made to us.we didn't
ask for the coop,it was proposed
to us by some arcade members.
   because of these and other in-
ternal problems with arcade we
killed off deadline after we got
an invitation to join illusion.we
did this because the prosplets
looked much better.

   +:you were the leader of dead-
line but you are now a member of
illusion.can you tell about the
difference?

   -:as i said i joined deadline,
i was never the leader of the gro-
up.it was more of a democratic set
up.illusion work on the same basis
so technically there is no diffe-
rence so i am very happy to be a
member of this group.

   +:you are a cool advanced crac-
ker.in a cracking group according
to you which is more important.the
speed or the quality? there is no
doubt the best is both but...

   -:oh come on,that has to be a
laugh,i don't rate myself  as  a
good cracker at all.infact quite
often i scratch my crack to put a
better version into my collection.
to  answer  the second part  will
speed is important for a first re-
lease.but quality is the key.90%
of first releases are by far the
worst versions.look at the versi-
ons on the boards then wait a week
or so and you will get a far bet-
ter version in your mail.

   +:what is your opinion about
your previous coop group arcade?

   -:arcade are a good group with
some great guys as members.i have
many friends in the group and i
wish them all the best.

   +:now there are lots of crac-
king groups but too less originals
come out.cracking much destroys
the scene or not? what is your o-
pinion?

   -:if it was not for cracking
groups,for me there wold not me a
scene.yes it is very frustrating
but it gives you time to compare
the quality of the cracks.but yes
it would be far better if more
stuff was being released.

   +:do you use another compy dif-
ferent from c64?also what are your
future plans?

   -:nope!only the good old 64.i
have no plans what so ever to up-
grade.if and when the 64 dies then
i will leave the scene.

   +:do you agree to the thoughts
that our scene is dying or not?

   -:not necessarialy.the quality
of games along with the quantity's
very poor but there're thousands
of 64's around the world and they
are still making and selling them
so i see no reason why it cannot
survive for a few years yet.

   +:england is one of the coun-
tries that copyright is quite ef-
fective.did you ever had any expe-
riences with police?

   -:i have personally no experi-
ances yet with the police or any-
one connected to f.a.s.t.at pre-
sent in th u.k. it is the amiga u-
sers who keep getting bust.mainly
because they are selling cracked
software.

   +:tell us about your family.i
think you have a big family.also
what are their reactions with your
hobby?

   -:yes,i do have a big family,my
wife ann still works for the bri-
tish postal service while i stay
home and do the housework and co-
oking.i have 5 grown up children 3
daughters and 2 sons.amongst them
they also have 9 children.well my
wife trowns on computing if i do
it while she is at home naturally.
the rest of the family just think
it is another hobby but i have to
say they don't know really i do,
they think i am playing games all
day.

   +:as far as i know you also ha-
ve another hobby releated with ra-
ilways and locomotion.please tell
about it.

   -:well yes.i have always been a
railway fanatic.i collect railway
items i can get them.things like
number and nameplates,builders
plates,almost everything that is
not too big.my big thing is rail-
way photography.i don't travel too
good but i'm only 1km from the ma-
in line.here so on good days i ta-
ke my video cameras out to give me
a blow of fresh air.

   +:if you have a chance to chan-
ge something in this scene,what'll
it be?

   -:i would 1)limit or ban disc-
magazines,there are too many for
the good of the scene.
   2)encourage more young guys in
up and coming groups instead of
calling them lamers.we were all
beginners once.
   3)cut out all group warring.

   +:last thing to say or advice
to the new sceners.

   -:don't give up too easily.your
time will come but learn to walk
before you run or someone somewhe-
re will trip you up.

   +:thank you very much for the
interview my friend.

   yes,the end of this chapter has
also come.i hope you liked the in-
terview.see you in another corner.

                   signed:falcon