UCM23
.tHE .sIRIUS .cYBERNETICS .cORPORATION
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Interview with Stratagem of Animal Mine/Reservoir Gods
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UCM......... Hi Stratagem... it's quite a long time ago that you disappeared
with Animal Mine and now you're back with the Reservoir Gods...
What have you done in all those years?
Stratagem... Yeah, that's right - end of 1996/97 the activities at Animal Mine
going down very fast, MC moved to the Army, Sethos, Titan, Zaxx
continued study and I've worked for U.S.Robotics developing Modems
and ISDN Cards. Until I left USR in October 1998 there was no free
time left for doing much stuff...
UCM......... Since it is quite silent around Animal Mine since years now, just
tell us what happened to the band and if it is a closed chapter to
you or will you go on and feed the hype?
Stratagem... As I told you before - some of us keep on study, No More does
professional music and finally some of Animal Mine founded an own
Company. So, no-one really wanna do anything for A.M. - in this
case, A.M. is history now.
I changed the provider which was hosting our domain and and these
peoples are stupid as bread, they d idn't get it work. Somewhen if
it works again, there will be a Animal Mine-website on the net...
UCM......... Are there still some unfinished things around from Animal Mine that
will hit the streets somewhen? I just remember to MC's clean up
that brought us a bunch of nice screens.
Stratagem... Yes, Future Composer was one of these lost bits, MC also coded a
small game in the past (you won't see it!), Sid Sound Designer 4
and some demo stuff. I'm not sure if we ever released "Red Ears 2",
if not, it's also to put into this cathegory...
UCM......... Since the "Red Ears" demo from Animal Mine appeared on the PC as
well I wonder if there were movements in the band to change to the
PC?
Stratagem... Only MC moved to the PC to code, and "Red Ears PC" was done for
Cebit 1997, released on the USRobotics booth (very pure code in
pascal!). No other releases have been done on PC under the label
"Animal Mine". Who wanna code on a PC? This question sounds more
than pervert :-)
UCM......... Some bands around were resurrected, even if sometimes only a few
screens or one demo were the result, do you think the same could be
possible with Animal Mine too?
Stratagem... Sure, this would be a way for us too - but - who should code a
screen? I don't code - and I will not hire someone (like I've done
for GSC 66) from another crew to make a guest screen for us in a
demo. This doesn't make sense, don't you agree?
UCM......... Are you holding contact to the one or other or have you lost the
connections to them?
Stratagem... Some contacts are lost during the past, but with the others I'm
still in touch (like Sethos, Zaxx, No More).
UCM......... To close the Animal Mine part, what things are stuck in your
memories most, about your times in the band?
Stratagem... The performance. Everytime to kick the people doing some stuff -
it makes me mad!
UCM......... After some quiet years you're popping up as member of the Reservoir
Gods again... how it comes that you joined them?
Stratagem... After a long long time I installed my IRC client again and joined
the #atariscne channel and met some people from the past. I talked
to this crazy coder "Mr.Pink" of RG. We talked about several
things, also about the new upcoming game "GODPEY". He asked me to
join the testing group, so I joined and found lotsa bugs (he hates
me for doing this). Finally, the game has been released and I asked
them to join RG - they agreed. Now, I'm a god :-)
UCM......... What is your main job in RG and are there first fruits of your job
around there?
Stratagem... Mhm... major thing would be finding the bugs in our productions
before we release them, some graphical stuff too (if needed), maybe
some PR stuff, I think this will move in future, so nothing is
totally fixed atm.
UCM......... How runs the work with RG, since it isn't that easy to make some
meetings to work together on some production?
Stratagem... The contact is very good - some stuff comes by email, we have also
an own web-based development group and finally we have the IRC
where we can talk together (I talk, Mr.Pink has to code :-))
UCM......... Can you tell us some snippets about future projects of the
Reservoir Gods, just make a bit propaganda here! ;)
Stratagem... We're currently short before releasing the game "SuperFly", and
there are more than 10 projects in queue. One of these projects is
another conversion of a Dreamcast title - but I will not tell you
the name atm, we like to have secrets...
UCM......... Reservoir Gods have released a bunch of impressive Falcon stuff in
the past, nowadays the slogan "all machines go" seem to rule. Was
the Falcon a way that Animal Mine don't wanted to go?
Stratagem... Some of the last A.M. releases worked on Falcon as well, but one of
our problems was, not everyone at A.M. owns a Falcon. Sethos, Titan
and myself owning a Falcon, but MC doesn't. But MC together with
Sethos have been the main-coders and this doesn't make it easy at
all (pls don't ask me about coding stuff).
So, we wanted - but finally we can't - but Reservoir Gods can!
UCM......... What do you think about the nowadays Atari scene? Consists this
scene only of nerds that didn't matched it to change the system at
the right time? ;) What do you like on this scene that much that
you're still here?
Stratagem... The scene changed totally in my eyes. Only a bunch of old crews /
people are left, some new crews are around. Tell me one good reason
why you wanna buy a PC? You get "MS WindowsXP" - wow. You can write
letters with a PC? You can do this also with old Atari. Better
games? Right, but for better games I go and buy a console...
UCM......... You surely know our brainstorm area... So here we go with another
one, I'll give you a few words and you just write down the things
coming into your mind while reading them, just answer with a few
words or a short sentence...
A.tari - Cool company, leading technology, but years to early - badest
marketing ever.
B.lueboxing - Never seen a good working dialer software in the past, doesn't
work anymore.
C.racking - Is good for you (Union).
D.reamscape - My good old BBS - I still love it!
E.lite - After Sledge leaves, it goes down with, Faramir is captured by
some gay aliens...
F.alcon - Good machine, but not really pushed and supported at Atari. If
you haven't one, it's time to collect one.
G.SC - Sources are here to finish the final 66, somewhen I release all
sources and call it "lost bits".
H.ardcore - One of the coolest fun-projects ever.
I.nter - Questor did some coding of GSC 66, but he stoped (running out of
time).
J.MS - Good Gfx dude, he has done the Gfx of the game "Platonix".
K.eine Ahnung - Don't know :-)
L.amers - German politicans. They make promises and then they don't care
about.
M.unich - Place to be, place of the best beers.
N.o More - Doing music in a professional way as "Simon V".
O.riginality - You can find this everywhere - just take a look around, and you
will see it.
P.enguin - Founder of Animal Mine
Q.uality - Reservoir Gods
R.ipping - Lame
S.cene - Still alive!
T.RSI ;) - Still dead. Gone very fast on Atari, peoples of TRSI founding
later on "Vectronix"
U.ploads - Needed to keep your BBS alive. I still prefer BBS, but the
internet killed this culture.
V.ectronix! - I tried to merge Elite and Vectronix to one powerful crew, but
it doesn't work. Vex don't wanna do this finally.
W.WW - World Wide Waste
X.rated - Everything is welcome - take a look on my girl!
Y.ear After - Still having fun with old atari machines.
Z... Zocken! - I love games like Dynabuster+, Ikaruga, Sonic, Raiden, ...
UCM......... Stratagem, what do you think, is there a reason to call you a cool
sow? So please tell us why!
Stratagem... I am like I am - no reason to change anything - I don't spend much
time with thinking about this. There are more important things in
life...
UCM......... Hehe, and what could be the reason for the people to think that you
aren't a cool dude?
Stratagem... I don't care about!
UCM......... Another feature comes up here! Just answer a question you always
wanted to answer to but no one ever asked you! ;)
Stratagem... Q - Can I donate you with 1.000.000 US$?
A - Sure you can...
UCM......... Last but not least you will have the possibility now, to speak to
our readers now, greet someone or something like this, spread your
messages here!
Stratagem... First of all - I hope you have downloaded and played all our games,
keep an eye on our website (www.reservoir-gods.com). Greetings?
Greetings! Greetings flying to: All RG-Members, Animal Mine, TSCC,
Steem-Team, Equinox (Keops, got already the final UT2k3 version?),
Sector One (Edo, getting better?), Havoc, Bandit (Climatics), Daryl
(Tex), Tyrem (Respectables), Stimpy, Evl (DHS), Skinhead (ICS),
Marcer (Elite), Magicman (Imagitec), all the others I've forgotten
and YOU!
UCM......... Thanx a lot and sorry that we must do it in the traditional way
apart from the IRC... hope you aren't that bored now, hehe... stay
cool and take care!
interview done by moondog
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