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.tHE .sIRIUS .cYBERNETICS .cORPORATION
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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? - PART ONE: CRUOR
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A short word before starting the article itself. If all things running fine I'll
present you in a more or less loosy series the history and current situation of
demo groups, but I will focuse on bands that are disappeared from the screen and
that are deleted from the most peoples mind or not known to "new generation"
sceners.
Furthermore I wont focuse on the "gods" of the scene only or something, but I
want to remember to people who tried to support this scene as well.
Ok, let's start the show...
In search for my Xmas present, a game for my damn PC, I discovered a game in
the boards called "KLOMANAGER" and I wondered a lot. I took the package out of
the board and red the text on the package. Man! That's the polished PC version
of the old Atari game "KLOMANAGER" (for the english ones: toilet manager)!
I searched the package for the people who created the game and found the logo of
ANVIL SOFT... ANVIL SOFT? Surely just a few people remember that team. So I have
to dig out a bit more. ANVIL SOFT was the label used by the demo group CRUOR for
their commercial game project "PAINIUM DISASTER" on Falcon.
Uuups, have I mixed up your brain completely now? If yes, just read the stuff
that follows now.
All started back in 1993 or something. There were two friends called MATTHIAS
HOFMANN and RONALD WENDT. On their vacations in France they had the idea to code
a utility to manage their stocks of toilet paper and their ideas were growing
and growing and finally they wanted to create a complete "KLOMANAGER".
So MATTHIAS started to code that game on an Amiga 5oo but he screwed up with the
code and to rescue that project RONALD decided to borrow him his Atari 52oSTfm.
The year passed by and in 1994 the game was finished but due to some problems in
compiling it, it was laying on some disk up to 1995.
1995, MATTHIAS vanished in that time, don't know anything about his destination.
And a PD game was released, called "KLOMANAGER", under the label WENDTWARE. So
it seems to me that RONALD was the one who survived the work on the game in the
end. It seemed to be the only release under that label. But...
...something new appeared on the scene, a new german coding team, called CRUOR.
This team consisted of ZWECKFORM (Ronald Wendt) and RAVING MAD (Ralf Zenker).
Both guys wanted to release their first Falcon intro on the FRIED BITS 3 PARTY
hold at Easter in Bremen but due to some bugs they fucked up and so the intro
was released a few days after the party. It consisted of a few different screens
such as a zoomer, "starfield", texture mapping and stuff. Not brainblasting but
surely better than several other entries on the party (such as .tnb.'s "hirntod"
demo)... And as it seems the band should never have much luck in their coding
work for the Falcon...
Anyway, it took some time and a massive game project was announced for the Fo3o,
a shot'em'up game in style of "Wings Of Death". The label was ANVIL SOFT and if
you had some knowledge about the scene in these times it was easy to find out
who were the people behind ANVIL SOFT.
The game was called "PAINIUM DISASTER" and was announced a lot earlier than the
same try of the INDEPENDENT posse, "XMOON". I still have an original preview
disk of the game that I got on some Atari fair called "PROTOS" back in 1995...
Anyway, the game looked good and was one of the most promising game projects for
the Falcon in my eyes. That was in November 1995 and they announced the release
of the game for March 1996 but nothing happened...
The time passed by and together with the german band THERAPY (they hold a very
close contact to them since their birth... just think, both bands coming from
the same city...) they appeared on the SYMPOSIUM 1996 and they were going to
release their second Falcon intro on this party.
There another strange thing happened. After they didn't finished or better they
didn't matched it to debug their former intro in time now they had it ready for
the competition but decided not to enter the compo because they thought it would
not be good enough to compete with the other entries!
If you can remember that party and the real bad Atari entries for the intro
compo you surely can imagine how they had must felt after the compo.
I still think their intro with the nice texture mapped tunnel and the few other
screens and effex could have ruled the compo... But as they wrote in the last
screen of the demo... life's a bitch... ;)
Unfortunately this was going to be their last contribution to the Falcon demo
scene, but they were going on to work for their game, "PAINIUM DISASTER". As you
all should remember on the SYMPOSIUM PARTY was the first (and only) preview of
the game "XMOON" released and the guys behind that game laughed about the guys
behind "PAINIUM DISASTER" and the technics in their game and slagged them off.
On another Atari fair also in 1996 they released a second preview of their game
(and I must say that I have lost the copy of it... :( ) and a complete silence
was surrounding our heroes from now on.
Somewhen in 1997 the rumour was spread that the game is finished and the guys
started to debug it... Some hopes rised again to see the final game but nothing
happened, you guessed that, eh?
Times passed by and a wave of silence swapped over CRUOR and ANVIL SOFT... And
up today nothing more was heard or seen of them...
Untill now. Because there was never a homepage of the band CRUOR or so on it
was a bit hard to follow their way. But now, as I found their game in the stores
I decided to search for the "KLOMANAGER" with ACOON (the best Inet searching
machine I used so far) and I found the firm that distributes the "KLOMANAGER",
the german budget and licence label RONDOMEDIA. I also found the private
homepage of RONALD WENDT, but the server was down.
Last but not least I decided to contact RONDOMEDIA for further informations and
to get the Email add of RONALD, if possible.
Nothing happened again, RONDOMEDIA ignored my mail and after a short time I
decided to check the internet again. This time I used another search machine and
bingo, I found them! The official ANVIL SOFT homepage and furthermore some
working Email address of RONALD.
Shortly I decided to make an interview with him, about his and CRUOR's ways and
last but not least ANVIL SOFT's ways and future...
This one follows now...
------- interview with Ronald Wendt, former known as Zweckform of Cruor --------
Q - Hi Ronald! Before we check up your ways and future, some questions that are
thought to enlight your personal abyss... How old are you? What are you
doing in your real life? When you have started computing and how?
A - Hi moondog, I'm 28 years old and I am doing game design and gfx for Anvil-
Soft. I started computing about 1983, when my classmates got their first
C64s for Christmas. In 1984 I got my first own computer also a C64. If it
matters, my first Atari was a 520 ST which I bought in 1989.
Q - Some words about CRUOR. This band suddenly appeared 1995 on the screen and
disappeared already 1996. When was it founded and why the story of the band
was so damn short? Was it maybe the fact that you missed the possibility to
get more fame with your Symposium96 intro you haven't given into competition
(I for myself still think that it was the best falcon 96k intro on the party
at all)? Or are there other reasons?
A - The reason why we did only release one more demo (which most people did not
realize) was Painium Disaster. After planning several small freeware games
we decided to try and get professional game producers. So almost directly
after the Fried Bits Party we started on planning the shooter.
We still wanted to do some demostuff but we soon found out that the game was
consuming our whole freetime (by that time I was Azubi at MAN, repairing
trucks...) so no time was left for Cruor.
Q - As we know there was a second member of CRUOR, Raving Mad, what happened to
him? As I could see he isn't involved in Anvil-Soft anymore.
A - Raving Mad left the company last october. He founded a new team which is
named Dragons Teeth.
Q - When you have decided to stop demo works on Atari and to concentrate on game
development only?
A - The decision to stop even thinking about demos was not our own, but was
taking by life! I finally had to earn money and wanted to get into game
development, so I had to concentrade on that aim. This was about the
beginning of 1997 (the game was graphically finished in November 1996).
Q - Why you have used two labels already in that time, Anvil-Soft for "Painium
Disaster" and Cruor for your demo activities? It is some kind of confusing.
A - Our aim from the very beginning was to get professional developers, so we
wanted to form to labels, one for fun and one for business.
Q - You had good contacts to the other Atari freaks in Nuernberg, esp. to the
guys of THERAPY. Have you ever thought about the fact to work closer
together with them?
A - There were several plans to work together, but each team had always a
project on which it was working, and after a while the relations were not as
good as in the beginning. So working together on a creative basement was not
anymore considerable.
Q - Next topic, "Painium Disaster". I got two demo versions of the game and even
if it was announced, nothing happened and nothing was released... even if
you have told me already why, please tell it to the crowd again...
A - After finishing the game we sent it to the german Atari mag ST-Computer.
Agent-T was doing the Falcon scene articles at this time, so he got the full
version of "Painium Disaster". All we know is that he had some problems when
he tried to run "PD" on his Falcon. Anyway he never mentioned anything about
the game in the scene or in a game test or something like that. Not a single
word. I asked the ST-Computer several times to test or mention "PD", but
without success. Why they did so - nobody told me....
Q - I remember some slaggs of the "Xmoon" makers, who always hyped their product
and kicked yours. Had you ever contact to them (for example to The Dragon of
NEW TREND)? What do you think about them, just remember, you had finished
your game (even if it was not spreaded) and they not...
A - We never had any contact to the Xmoon team, we really were not in the mood
to quarrel with them. I do not know any of them, I think most of the things
they said were a matter of age. Back in 1996 (I think they released "Xmoon"
demo with a readme text) we were a little stired by the tone of their text
file. Some sentences were some kind of aggressive. I still do not know for
what reason.
Q - What do you think, what game would have ruled, if both were released at that
time? Please answer without any "local patriotism". Hehehe...
A - Well lets take look in the coffee pot...IF they really had worked on their
game as hard as we did on ours, and IF they had managed to coordinate game
design/ideas and work flow, "Xmoon" would have been the hell of a game,
especially because the gfx men were very talented and had some experience
due to demo making. I was a beginner in gfx and Raving Mad never made a
project that big before. "Xmoon" would have been the better game, I am sure
about that.
Q - I still respect your decision to finish "Painium", esp. because it was done
by just 2 guys at all, when you remember how many people were involved into
"Xmoon". Have you ever thought to skip "Painium", because of the "Xmoon"
project?
A - No, never. We were motivated by the fact that some others were competing us.
In the first place we also were glad that the Falcon had one more game to
come. At that time we were fanatic Falcon fans...we would have killed for
that bird...:-)
Q - As known, "Painium" wasn't released at all. Please tell me why you don't
tried to distribute it by yourself or don't released earlier for free...
Don't you think the game wouldn't have found its lovers and buyers?
A - I was struggling for survival in real life and the fate of the game made me
sad, but did not have the highest priority. We always hoped to sell the
game. We printed the boxes and the manual and wanted to sell the game but
the game was very time critical and crashed on some Falcons. So we decided
to release a Shareware version of "PD", which we also offered ST-Computer to
sell in their Public Domain section. We also uploaded the version to several
mail boxes. But we only got one customer...
Q - When you have decided to leave the Atari sector and why? Are you still
following the things going on on Atari?
A - I was very disappointed by the Atari Mag ST-Computer so I broke up my
subscription of that mag that was in 1999. Since then I did not look for the
scene in an active way. But some way it is still moving that there are still
fans of that cool machine who never give up ...
Q - For example, Therapy firmed under the label Therapy Seriouz Software. Why
you haven't chosen a similar way and given up instead of trying it out?
A - After I finished "PD", I only worked on improving my gfx quality. Anvil-Soft
did not exist in reallity that time. I soon got a job as an 2D/3D artist in
Hannover and was developing professional games for the pc.
Q - Topic "Klomanager"... this game was born on the ST many years back. Why you
decided to take this title for your start on the PC gaming scene?
A - During I was working on the PC game "Thandor" (3D realtime strategy) I
wanted to form a team with the coder of the ST-Klomanger Matthias Hofmann
from Nuernberg. But he could not code on PC, so we decided to convert the
old game to the PC. At least some parts were similar, and a concept was also
very easy to create, as we had the old version for many ideas. When the game
was finnished (I only worked on weekends for it) Matthias sent the game to
several distributers. Many of them said it was real creative stuff, but were
afraid of their companies image because of the game content. But some also
wanted the game because they saw a good chance in it. We were really
surprised, that the game was seen in that many ways.
Q - Have you ever thought about a Falcon remake too?
A - Yes. But the time for Matthias to get into Falcon code would not be worth
the result. But if anyone outhere is still crazy enough to do some stuff for
the bird, let us know, we would welcome a Falcon version of "Klomanager"!
Q - How runs the business on PC? Are the sells of your game ok?
A - For the amount of time we invested in "Klomanager", the sells are very
satisfying. Still we cannot exist only by the sells of this game.
Q - What are your future plans with Anvil-Soft? I red something about a game
called "Kartoffelbrei" on your homepage, tell me more about it.
A - The name of the game is "Kartoffelpueree"(= mashed potatoes)..:-) But anyway
we are currently working on "Klomanager II" for PC. "Kartoffelpueree" is
finished and hopefully you soon hear about it.
Q - Btw... I mentioned your homepage. Why you decided to mention your Atari
roots there?
A - Why should we hide our roots? As we are not working with comanies like BMW
etc. like e.g. advertising companies we do not have to sell an image. All we
have to do is to produce games that make fun. Our roots show, we made it for
fun and we still do.
Q - Your distributor on PC was or is Rondomedia. I tried to get in touch with
you over Rondomedia, but got no response. Are they still your distributors
or have no further contact to them?
A - Rondomedia only got the license for "Klomanager". In business you mostly
only have contact when you want to sell, or buy something. As soon as we
have new stuff we think they are the right company to distribute, they get a
call...
Q - Before we run too much into PC stuff, that isn't of too big interest here,
back to Atari... do you still have your Atari? Are you still following whats
going on there or isn't it of any interest anymore for you?
A - I still got an 1040 ST and the Falcon. My interest is increasing, as in the
last few month more and more Atari folks came up with questions etc.
Q - Have you still contact to the Nuernberger Atari posse?
A - I meet Carnera of NPG from time to time. He used to live in Nuernberg, but
moved to Frankfurt/Main to work for Sunflowers. So meeting him is not easy.
Most folks of Therapy live in other cities. One even moved to the United
States. So the old scene here is almost dead.
Q - Let us make some brainstorming... I'll give you some words and you just
write down what comes straight into your mind while reading them...
A-tari - biggest love, biggest disappointment.
B-avaria - is south of Franconia (Franken) were I live...:-)
C-rackers - I sometimes love them (when I get a programm to test before I
spend thousands of Marks for shit) an sometimes hate them (when our game is
faster avaiable on warez-sites than in Saturn Hansa-stores)
D-emoscene - Often cool guys with high potential, origin of may talented
artists and coders
F-ried Bits - Always much fun, cool guys, fantastic gfx and code - loved it!
G-ames - My one and (almost) only passion. Can one survive more than two days
without???
H-ighscores - Important to motivate me playing a game real often. To get in is
a reward and we all want some reward (even for nonsense stuff like games..)
:-)
I-nternet - Very important thing. I would die without e-mail....
J-aguar - Still got that cat, cool machine, but Atari did not manage to place
it on the market the way a game console should be placed.
K-lomanager - Funny game - every one should have bought it..:-)
L-ethal Xcess - Cool game, but I liked "Wings of Death" better. The music and
gfx was cooler.
M-icrosoft - is not the answer. Microsoft is the question - no is the answer.
(well copied that one, but it says everything necessary..)
N-intendo - produced card games in the 16th century - that impressed me!
O-riginality - the key to successfull games and demos
P-ainium - a mixture of pain and pentium, created to demonstrate our love for
Intel....
Q-uake - nice game, but I am not addicted....
R-alf Zenker - is a good coder and I hope we see some cool games made by him.
S-ymposium - was nice but if I remember it the right way, was not as exciting
as Fried Bits.
T-herapy - Made cool demos
U-ser - Drugs suck.
W-endtware - Was my first label on the C64....I do not want to go into any
details...:-)
X-moon - was never finished
Y-ak - Jeff Minter
Z-ero - Five Zero, cool on Jaguar, sucked on Falcon.
Q - Oki... I think I have bored you to death with my questions now... if you
want to say something to the crowd, wanna greet someone or something like
that you can do so now...
A - I like to greet mum, dad and...just kidding. Well all I got to say is keep
on doing some stuff. Just learn to do gfx or code somthing. To create is the
key to contentment.
Q - Last but not least, a new feature... here you can add a question you always
wanted to answer but no one ever asked you:
A - Why the hell didn't you buy Painium Disaster???
Q - Ok, thanx for spending your time (I think you could have designed a whole
game while answering those questions :) ...) and I and the .tSCc. posse
wish you much luck in your future...
A - Thanks, same to you!
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Ok, what's left to say? RONALD recided to release the "PAINIUM DISASTER" game
for free. He wants to release it on the PLACE2BE page for free download. Funnily
right while writing on that article the "REMINDTRO" by ESCAPE was released,
featuring a bunch of ZWECKFORM's grafix... and maybe he will come over to the
ERROR IN LINE party as well. And, to speak some nonsense here, maybe he will be
infected by the ATARI scene virus again...
Yop... that's it for now. "PAINIUM" wasn't released so far and because of this
there is no review included in here. I really hope to get my hands on it for the
next issue of UNDERCOVER.
Last but not least I hope that I have refreshed your memories about CRUOR, a
small but very promising team that vanished before it was able to reach a higher
position in the Falcon scene.
Unfortunately I didn't matched it to dig out RALF ZENKER (aka RAVING MA) as well
and so his views must stay out of this article. Maybe we can give an afterburner
next time? Who knows?
.tSCc. - no promises - no demands! moondog
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