The Delight of Eternal Might: the history of Fairlight (part 2)
RECOLLECTION issue 3
Genesis*Project disliked Aaron/FairLight and when they had an opportunity to release the game and insult him, they seized it. SNACKY writes: "The turmoil around Rubicon arose when Tyger of Genesis*Project released a crack of the game. When I heard that Tyger got the game, I was shocked. I called Antichrist and asked him about the game. He told me that he got a non-protected version of it that Tyger would release. I tried to convince him that I would be in trouble if he released a version. As you know, Genesis released a version of the non-protected Rubicon, which was easy to release obviously". Digital Marketing had used Snacky to write protections for their games previously and had approached him with the Rubicon contract, Snacky used the Timex V3 system and modified it slightly for both the disk and tape versions of the game. There is still no 100% crack for this game in existence, even the so called 100% Genesis*Project version fails (in the section where the boulder comes from behind), nor is there ANY existing crack for the protected version of the game. The reason being more so that people did not do it rather than couldn't do it. Why? Well, the Genesis*Project versions with North East Importers (NEI) and Black Reign were released in October '91 and the protected release from 21st Century/Digital Marketing was not released until sometime in Spring of '92.
The relationship with Genesis*Project and FairLight was quite sour at this point, but despite this FairLight showed its creativity with a smashing game of promise, so much so that a sequel was on the cards. Rubicon 2 was in development in early 1992, initially for the Amiga, but consideration was also given for a C64 version. The game was to be coded on the C64 by a new set of programmers, while the first game's original coders would concentrate on the Amiga version.
THE SARGE: "After Rubicon we decided to move over to the Amiga. We hoped that the game we just had completed would sell truckloads and that the world would demand a sequel. Well, Rubicon was not a success as far as I know but we decided to try anyway. Game making was fun! We stopped developing Rubicon 2 right after all the planning was done. It was going to be another type of game. With a map, picking stuff up and using them to unlock different areas of the game. Much bigger. We made the C64 version too. The whole thing fell through because of lack of time I guess. Me joining the army and Gollum studying in Lund."
FairLight's adventure in the world of C64 games also had some less known feats. such as "Mega Thrusterball" and "Sword of Honour" - games that were created by others but improved for resale by Rowdy and Bacchus.
8. DISK MAGS, BUSTS AND COMMIE-KILLERS
(1992-1995)
The year is 1992 and the commercial scene on the Commodore 64 in Europe was on the decline. The big companies were pulling out in favour of 16 bit machines but there were still enough budget games coming out and the occasional full price title to keep most of the cracking scene busy. During this time the focus of the scene was leaning towards legal, (demos, magazines, tools), rather than illegal (cracking, boards, phreaking) - for years the scene had been dominated by the father of activities on the C64; cracking. Now it was time for the demo groups to blossom. When thinking of legal productions we must remain open minded. There were not just demos; but also the growing popularity of disk magazines, music/graphic collections and tools that made our 8-bit life easier.
One of the reasons FairLight survived for so long on the C64 was that the group had a willingness to evolve with the times. So a move from cracking to demo scene as a priority was a natural progression for the group, something that was to take several years before it came to fruition. This change truely started in 1992. To start the year off, the group released a small production in cooperation with Wrath Designs called "Policy of Truth". It was a tribute to the music group 'Depeche Mode' with a nice depiction of the album cover pixelled by Ogami.
Swedish sysop Sodapop was kicked from Flash Inc and joined FairLight together with his BBS 'Paradize' in February. Tronic (previously in Genesis Project) also joined the group; he was the first and only member to my knowledge that resided in Japan. The group expanded further with the induction of Ayatollah/TAT who joined as dual group. He brought with him his magazine "Emanuelle" which was formerly released under The Ancient Temple (TAT). Almost every group had a disk magazine, a trend which started with the Sex'n'Crime magazine back in 1989. This was the first real voyage into the world of magazines for FairLight and a major step really, as any group-magazine can be used as a public relations platform to enhance the group image. Four issues of Emanuelle came out under the FairLight brand in 1992 and they were well received. Issue #8 was the first, coming out in the month of March. Ayatollah not only brought his magazine to the group but also started releasing cracks under the FLT-label. A good example of his ability was his 9-trainer version of 'Hagar the Horrible' released later in the year. Also joining together with Tronic and Sodapop was a German coder called McQuade. Sometime early in 1992 Savage/Ancient 3 joined the group. His mother worked for a software company and because of this he supplied the group with a lot of floppy disks for free (both 5"25 and 3"5), he later the FairLighters in May for demo rivals Light.
During the Easter period the group attended the Light & Phenomena party in Alingsås, Sweden. Here they entered the sequel to Legoland, made by the same team as the first demo. It ranked number 5 out of 17 demos at the party (and should have ranked higher). To go along with the demo the group members were walking around with "Legoland" sweatshirts advertising the demo. The release contained some really cool ray tracing parts and a little game that you had to play to advance further in the demo. This little game was called "Linking Leroy". This was in fact a standalone concept by Bacchus before the demo came along. Bacchus did the joystick routine, the scroller, the editor and the basic detection of the environment. Harlekin took over the source and 'perfected' it further including the implementation of real graphics and so on. Why this Linking Leroy and why "Lego Land"? I asked BACCHUS: "We are into this LEGO thing. I had a connection with the marketing manager of LEGO and we got sweatshirts, bands and some other giveaways calling it LEGO. So we added 'Lego Linkers' to a few of the productions and added LEGO to the design".
Moving to the month of May, new members Sodapop and his close friend Tronic left to form a new group called Caladan (the group name was inspired by the novel 'Dune' and only managed a handful of releases). FairLight did however gain a talented young musician from Just Another Miracle (JAM) called Red Devil, who was to prove an active member in upcoming releases. Towards the end of July, Creeper/Death Sector joined as a graphician. He was only in the group for some weeks and left in September for demo rivals Flash Incorporated.
Throughout the year the group managed to release approximately 60 cracks, including some of the bigger full price titles on offer (usually handled by Bacchus). In December 1992 the Swedish demo group Wrath Designs folded, this created opportunities for recruitment with the intake of personalities such as Avalon (music), Stash (swap), Ed (code) and Oxidy (code/graphics). Also joining during this month was Enduro/Intruders as a swapper (and later as a diskmag editor) and Ranger/Noice (graphics). Stash later left to join the newly formed group Epic. The end of the year not only meant new members but also new releases. The platform for these releases was The Party 1992 held in Aars, Denmark. The group attended this event, visiting their Viking friends in the south. Red Devil and Mac/JAM powered through the music competition and attained the number one ranking. Also released at the party was a graphics entry by Ranger, a promotional demo for the Warez Aquarium BBS and a quick crack of a game called 'Slide' that many other groups had also cracked and released during the party.
The doors swung open to another new year in the world of C64. 1993 gave us "Mayhem In Monsterland" from APEX and Thalamus' last C64 game "Nobby the Aardvark" and an exciting new cracking group called 'Avantgarde'. A friend of FairLight, Natas/Horizon, who happened to be one of the organisers behind the Vårby Easter parties near Stockholm. Natas wanted to organise a gathering of sceners and decided the movie premiere of 'Sneakers' would be the right place. The idea grew and he dug through his old contact books and suddenly he had 170 names registered on his list for those who wanted to attend!
The 'Sneakers Reunion' took place on the 12th of February 1993. A lot of the really famous guys from the old days were there. Ixion (the former leader of Triad), Mr.Z and the guys from FairLight showed up which included Nobody (ex-WCC), Black Shadow, Bacchus, The Alchemist and Rowdy. Also in attendance was Karl XII and Elric of Agile, Natas, Zagor, Bagder, Sony, Mastermind and Kjer of Horizon, Mr. Big and fellow members of Swedish Hackers Association (SHA), Danko/Censor, Mr.Pinge/Relax, Janitor/Triad, Creeper/Flash Inc, Goblin, Flamingo and Spirou of Light, Motley/Genesis*Project, Necromancer/Paragon and more. After the movie some of the guys hooked up at a club called 'East' for an after party. Natas managed to get Denniz Pop (RIP) and The Snake to DJ for the night. Arriving at East were some of the FairLight clan, Mr.Z, Karl XII and the guys from Swedish Hackers Association (SHA) (the latter had become quite well known for their exploits at hacking, particularly their hack into the Swedish military defence system amongst other things). After the night had come to an end Danko was quite lucky to share a bus ride home with Mr.Z. During the ride he had a good conversation with him on the hour long journey back home (they lived close to each other).
Back in the late eighties and early nineties it was quite common place that people got busted for illegal activities. Either for hacking/phreaking or for stamp cheating. Hard to imagine that people would risk their freedom for their scene activities but it was part of the thrill, the excitement of being in the scene, to go against the mainstream and to be a bit different without even trying. Austrian member Ayatollah was no exception here; he got busted and spent about a week in jail before being released, he was involved in the SNES section of FairLight as well as the C64 and was narced on by a guy called Alligator (a friend of his). Most of his machines were taken by the police but they did leave a C64 and Amiga 2000 behind, as a result he left the scene to code on SNES, but later returned to crack only, his comeback release was 'Karamalz Cup'. This whole process killed off his magazine Emanuelle which released its 13th and final issue in early March. The bust was not totally sour, at least in regards to Ayatollah's input on the magazine-front for FairLight. The sequence of events continued with Black Priest/Cross joining the group as swapper and editor (World News). Both editors (Ayatollah and Black Priest) were tired of their magazines and they both wanted a new outfit. Enduro came up with the bright idea that the two magazines (Emanuelle/World News) should fuse and that they should combine their resources and share the work load to release issues more regularly. The result of this was the 'Reformation' magazine released in early April featuring a new outfit by Tron, Creeper and Red Devil. The magazine made a monthly appearance and was well received by the board and mail scenes alike.
Membership churn continued; the first change was the removal of Avalon who was to rejoin later in the year. The same happened with Lexi, joining and then leaving, only to rejoin later in the year together with his BBS 'Cyberdome'. German scener Mendrake joined in May with the promise of some first releases, but was immediately kicked the same month because he joined Bodycount as a second group (double membership was a sensitive issue for the group and was to be discussed with the leadership council first). Another member to go was Ranger, who jumped ship to join Noice on the Amiga.
Ogami released one of his better graphics shows aptly titled "Visual Orgasm". The slideshow featured unreleased artwork created between 1989 and 1992. A quick IRQ-IFFL routine was managed by Harlekin with the jingles by Red Devil. During this time Bacchus moved to the Swedish capital Stockholm and Strider made the journey to his new home in the USA.
In July the demo legend Light broke up and FairLight seized the opportunity to recruit the remaining active talent from the group. Joining in on a trial basis was HCL, Vodka, Spirou and Bappalander. Spirou brought with him his BBS 'Future Zone' which also joined the FairLight BBS fleet. In August Lexi/Legend rejoined as sysop and cracker and Dishy/Dominators joined as original supplier and swapper (only to leave a bit later to rebuild the old group Vision). Also in the busy month of August, one of FairLight's old members, The Alchemist, returned to the scene for a brief time as cracker. Membership changes continued into September with Blackdroid/Wrath Designs (graphics) joining on trial and the group letting go of their long serving Dutch sysop Duvel due to no contact in a very long time. Also during this month Red Devil released volume 1 of his 'Devil Tracks' music collection. The collection was put together by Bacchus and Rowdy, with beautiful graphics by Ogami and Redstar.
The month of November arrived and old group Illusion from Norway was almost dead due to internal disruption between their Norwegian and US sections. Susieuzi/Illusion decided to leave the sinking ship and joined FairLight together with her board 'The Intersection'. During this period of Illusion dying and the group taking other paths in the scene, a heap of ex-members got busted. Amongst these were; Derbyshire Ram, who suddenly had Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) wanting to interview him and also his connections to UK Software Houses becoming obsolete. Grego/ex-Illusion got busted by AT&T for "950" abuse and shortly before that a raid took place in Susieuzi/FairLight's home in Texas. Susie's home was turned upside-down, the 7 federal agent's confiscated unrelated material such as a bible and even her underwear! No charges were laid but ultimately this whole event was to be the reason Susieuzi left not only FairLight but also the scene and her BBS 'The Intersection' was never seen again. Several people were quite suspicious during this period that it was more than a coincidence that three members of Illusion all got busted at the same time, but naturally there was no hard evidence to even begin to suggest names to the public.
Avalon, their former musician who had left to rejoin the rebuilt Wrath Designs team rejoined FairLight only after a short time in Wrath Designs, he immediately went to work on music for an upcoming demo. Around the same time as Avalon rejoining, the group lost HCL who left to join the forces of Censor Design. In early December, long time member Aaron and Ayatollah decided to call it a day and left the scene.
As usual, the end of the year meant that another trip to Denmark was called for, to visit the increasingly popular event known simply as 'The Party'. This year the group showed off another dominating performance. Sealing 4th place with "Legoland 3", coming first in the music compo (Red Devil, again) and first in the graphic compo (Oxidy). Some important trivia relating to this event is that some FairLight members collected a lot of the "vote-disks" and made mass-vote-cheat for the collected disks so that it favoured every FLT production in all compos. However, they got the entry-number for the C64 demo compo wrong and ended up voting for Focus instead. If they had the entry number right, "Legoland 3" would have achieved 3rd place rather than the Focus demo which was called "Visual Delight 2". LEXI recalls the party: "That Party was the bummer. 1st of all I was told to go back to Germany at the border as the officer saw that my passport has run out. I had to get a visa on the German side of the border and it was snowing like shit. Then at the party place I got my FLT jacket (the one in the FBI Style) and hung around with Bacchus, Vodka, Ogami and the rest trying to get the Legoland 3 parts together which Tron was still coding kilometres away in Sweden. We finally got 'em via Modem. Bacchus was running around mad as the time was short to the demo deadline. Vodka was the "Caffeine Pill" Man. I don't know how much of 'em he ate but at least he fell as well and went up again as the disk throwing contest started (or was it the burping contest?)."
The memberstatus of FairLight in December 1993 looked like this: Bacchus, Bappalander, Black Priest, Dino, Enduro, Gerwin, Grayhawk, Harlekin, Lexi, Ogami, Oxidy, Red Devil, Rowdy, Sledge, Spirou, Tron, Vodka, Watchman and The Alchemist.
1994 dawned on FairLight and the illegal scene was truly in decline. The American scene had died years ago and crackers were now relying purely on the budget game labels to create the competition between groups. A really sad state of affairs for crackers but an exciting change as the demo scene became increasingly prominent. Despite this, the old 8-bit beast continued to struggle and defy time itself - there were still the boards, there were still cracks - there was still a scene!
The membership shake-up that has been wedded to the group for several years continued. In January Black Priest was fired for his below average effort for issue 6 of Reformation released at the Camelot party in Denmark, he went on to join a group called Territory. Bappalander left FairLight and the scene for study as he felt he could not fulfil membership demands. In February Tabasco/JAM joined as a mega-swapper.
March was a busy month for the choice of an anti-communistic generation. FairLight released a trackmo-styled demo called "Skaaneland", which was coded by Oxidy and included over 1400 blocks of graphics (unpacked) by Ogami and Vodka. As well as "Devil Tracks Volume 2", the new music collection by Red Devil featured some pretty neat pixels by Ogami and code from Bacchus. During this month Mendrake was allowed back in the group, he left Sacred to rejoin. Snooze/Bronx renamed to Rage and joined on trial as cracker and coder, his good friend Volunteer/Bronx joined also on trial as original supplier. Not long after they left to form the new German cracking group Hardcore.
Since 1993 Horizon and FairLight were organising The Computer Crossroad 1994 party for the second time. Sadly the event could not be held due to a budgeting problem (more money was needed). The sponsors couldn't fill the gap so the party was cancelled. The gap for this party was filled by the Tribute 1994 party in Gothenburg organised by the duo Avantgarde and Genesis*Project. BACCHUS: "At the Tribute party, the group had a serious discussion. After a long time running the group, I felt it was time to leave the leadership to someone else. My wife was expecting our first kid and I had to focus a bit more on work than I had been able to so far. The successor was actually two - Sledge and Tabasco, but rather soon it showed that Sledge was the only one doing the job as requested so he was left alone at the post."
With Sledge in control of the group all further changes were under his watch, in occasional consultations with Bacchus. Sledge did move to Stockholm and for a short while their world headquarters Warez Aquarium was offline due to the number change. Generally speaking, 1994 was a slow year for the group as were the following years until the crew settled back down into a regular team again with less membership changes. Mid-year some of the FairLight power was lost with Oxidy leaving for his old group Wrath Designs and Tron joining the army in mid-June (meaning his PC program called colourBBS was never released, which would allow PC boards to use C64 graphics). An Australian scener Highlander joined on trial and brought with him his BBS 'Fishbowl'. This Australian BBS was on PC, running on something called 64NET to communicate between the C64 and the PC. In August Swedish cracker and sysop Lexi released the "The SidPlay Collection" as his farewell to the C64 scene, which he was leaving for the SNES scene.
Bacchus did do one more first release for the group on December 15th, this release required a lot of hard work and was his finest and proudest production thus far - he became a father to a baby girl he named Matilda!
Their magazine Reformation had been quite successful, giving serious competition to other top magazines during that time. Enduro had taken over as main editor and in 1994 the group released five issues of the mag, finishing in November with their special final edition called 'Reformation Recycletion'. Issue 10 showed the magazine's potential with its best issue yet, however sadly to be the last under this title.
During March of 1995 their magazine "Reformation" and the Equinoxe magazine "Ingenious Brain" merged into one big magazine called "Shout!". The first and only issue was released in March. The magazine was something quite special with hires graphics amongst the pages and a huge amount of text. The reason for the merge from FairLight's point of view was to fill the coding gap of Tron (in the army) and Bacchus (stepping down due to fatherhood) by getting the guys in Equinoxe to handle the binary, thus allowing Enduro to be creative without restrictions. After the debut issue the mag faded, partially due to the moving around of Enduro and the size of the project becoming difficult to manage. The guys in Equinoxe moved on to their new mag project called "Passion" which was eventually released in August independently. Despite this setback, FairLight would return to the world of magazines in dramatic style a couple of years later.
Stasi/Noice and Sledge/FairLight organised a mini gathering of sceners called The "Ekerö Meeting", which was held in the countryside outside of Stockholm, Sweden. Originally it was supposed to be a Noice, FairLight and Triad meeting only but in order to drum up some interest for the scene it was converted into an official C64 party. Around 30 sceners turned up including guys from Genesis*Project, Censor, Flash Inc and Booze Design. Some fun trivia for this mini-event is the fact that Jerry/Triad showed up about 30 minutes before the party ended on the Sunday. :D
After two weeks, trial member Iceball announced his return to Motiv8 as they were showing a sign of life again. Around this time Bungalow/JAM renamed to Pharao and joined on trial as swapper taking over most of Tabasco's contacts who slowed his swapping down due to study. Moonchild, a well reputed cracker from Poland, left Fatum to focus his cracking ability for the commie-killers.
Not much else happened in 1995, a shift in power from Bacchus to Sledge, some minor membership changes and just over 40 cracks. The group was truly going through a rebuilding period and Sledge wanted the group to have more focus on the legal scene than ever before. The impact this had on the group was less activity which more or less continued into the following couple of years.
9. THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
(1996-1997)
In 1996 Sledge tried to get some sleepy heads active again (not an easy task in the scene). Rumours circulated around the scene that FairLight were planning several productions which was an obvious sign of activity from an organisational level. Amongst these were a third Red Devil music collection, a sequel to Ogami's Visual Orgasm and the return of the Reformation magazine albeit in an online format with Enduro at the helm. It was also rumoured that Tron and Rowdy were working on a demo called "Legolize It - A Decade of Glory". The latter was cancelled due to missing the anniversary deadline.
Some new members were recruited to try get some activity happening in the sleepy group. Firstly the Polish section expanded with Diverse/Fugazi joining as cracker and original supplier and not long after that he joined Hitmen as second group. He was to support Moonchild as a fellow Polish member. After a little while Diverse left the scene and Moonchild left FairLight to team up with the guys in Hitmen. Lexi rejoined the group and brought back his BBS, this time under the name of 'Legoland', the group also signed on MacGyver/Airwolf-Team as a swapper. During this period of recruitment the group employed many trial members who would have to prove themselves before full membership was attained. Amongst those were Big User, Headhunter and Petrus from FLP-Group and Delta, Lightside and Phantom from Airwolf-Team (AWT). The guys were mainly trialled due to their knowledge on the Flash8 (8 MHz accelerator card for the C64) and it was hoped this technology would take off and the group could be on the forefront of it as far as productivity and experience.
Things were slow throughout the year. Highlander, the Australian scener was no longer on trial and helped FairLight enter the 4K compo held by the American Driven magazine in July. In September Spirou closed down the Future Zone BBS after 5 or more years of operation and together with Grayhawk left the scene. In November Vectrocon joined as coder. His first release for the group was "Ultraflash Noter V2.0" and also a modded version of "Supersorter III". These tools fitted in with Bacchus' vision of FairLight maintaining a prominent tool section. Before the end of the year Vectrocon changed handle into Thunderblade.
A slow year for the group, again no demos and only a dozen or so cracks released.
A new year and a new page turned in the book of eternal delight - the year is 1997 and the tenth year on the C64 for the Legolanders. In March SILIconvention 1997 took place in Bremen, Germany. Officially a Plush & FairLight organised event, it was mainly made possible through Thunderblade and MacGyver. The party was held on an unfortunate date as it took place the same time as the bigger MekkaSymposium (also in Germany). Still, lots of people showed up including people from the Atari and Acorn scenes. In May, Thunderblade got tired of the inactivity within the group and left to start up a new group called DMAgic. MacGyver followed not long after and joined DMAgic also as well as most of the guys on trial that were recruited earlier in the year.
Mid-year Harlekin showed a sign of life with the release of a HTML viewer with REU support. "FairLightML" was the first HTML viewer for the C64 and was sold earlier to Magna Media under the name "64erHTMLviewer".
The situation of the group was bad to say the least, with the memberlist in July looking like: Sledge, Bacchus, Rowdy, Harlekin, Vodka and Red Devil. All that was left was the core of the group, what can be done when members are in a coma and refuse to seek inspiration?
10. HOWDY HACKERS - PART II
(1997-1998)
...and then something big took place, towards the end of the year, Bacchus took a big step towards a real comeback for FairLight. Seeing no real future in a cracking section, he focused instead on forming a powerful demo group, and recruited several members towards this end. In November Gum, Logger, Wiggen, Hollowman and Rooster from the Swedish group Alter were allowed in on trial, providing they deliver a demo for The Party 1997 to prove themselves worthy of membership. Then two weeks before The Party, established disk magazine editors Duke and Sun Dancer/Success*TRC joined, bringing with them a new diskmag project, "Scene+". Bacchus made Duke the new main organiser of the C64 section, replacing Sledge who was more focused on his other group Hitmen. Duke quickly recruited Crossfire (crack) and L.A. Style (sysop of 'The Hidden') from Motiv8, also Mendrake (again), Goat and Animalo of Laxity joined as double members.
The revitalised group was once again buzzing with activity, the magazine by Duke "Scene+" was to be the first major group release in quite sometime. The entire diskmag (using existing code) was then put together in just 10 days, and "Scene+ #1" was released live on an unsuspecting audience at The Party 1997, rounding off what was perhaps the most important month in FairLight history for some years.
BACCHUS: "On the 16th September 1997 Sledge claimed that he no longer wanted to be a part of the group. He joined "Hitmen" but we actually discussed this thought and we agreed that Warez Aquarium would be a shared Hitmen/FairLight board, and that Sledge should have dual membership! This meant that I was back in control of the group... however in December, the hard part about leaving someone else the group is feeling confident about the fact that the one taking over is up to the job! I can then say that I'm fully confident that Duke is up to the job. Under Duke's leadership a cracking section was recreated and he's also gathering a demo section!"
SLEDGE recalls those days of doubt: "This was a strange time really. I was somewhat irritated and bored about the laziness in FairLight when it came to BBS support at that time. Hitmen were more active on Warez Aquarium at that time, and I had some really good friends in Hitmen. They asked me to join, and I felt that it could be a fresh restart for me personally. But Bacchus and I talked, and for that I'm glad :)"
Duke had quite a lot of scene experience, with a background in The Dominators and Ikari, as well as his world leading 'The Pulse' magazine. He seemed to be a good choice and someone that had what it takes to lead a big name group like FairLight. Duke now lives in Canada and is still around in the scene, I asked him for a statement of this time in his scene career.
DUKE, ex-leader:
"It's 1997, and the history of FairLight continues. 1997 was a bittersweet year for many of us - and for many reasons. It was now pretty official that the scene was dying, and at an escalating rate. Now, don't get me wrong, I've never subscribed to the idea that the scene is dead, or was dead - or that it is only alive if new games are released weekly. But the mid-90's was pretty sad just the same.
I left the scene in the mid-90's after a long run of releasing The Pulse, and I only returned to the scene because I wanted to work once again with some of the great people that made me love the scene in the first place. The thing I wanted to bring back to the scene was Scene+. A brand new magazine, pretty much like The Pulse, but just under a different name and outfit. Now, the idea was there, and I had my partners: Crossfire (involved from pretty much the very beginning of The Pulse) and local side-kick Sun Dancer - graphician and early, as well as integral, contributor to The Pulse as well. However, we had no label. Sure, we could go ahead and simply release it as a no name magazine. I'm all for that. But this time around I would get involved with more than I bargained for - and at the same time fulfil an old C64 dream of mine as well.
1997, still, and I'm at "The Party" in Denmark. For those of you who have never attended The Party I can tell you that it used to be a pretty big party indeed. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people would gather in major halls and completely give in to scene life - be it the C64, Amiga, or PC scene. It was scene culture, and it was hardcore on all levels. I arrived with Crossfire and Sun Dancer, and we wanted to inspire the scene with a brand new magazine: Scene+. Now, please keep in mind this is 12 years ago, so the details are VERY fuzzy, but at one point during the party (which lasted a couple of days) I found myself with a cell phone (at the time it was more like a huge brick, hehe) in my hand and Bacchus, boss of FairLight, on the other line. Pontus (Bacchus) was an old friend of mine, and I always had a tremendous amount of respect for him - and not only for his accomplishments, but also for his personality and integrity. He truly is one of the finest sceners I have ever met. The event that was "The Party" now turned into a recruiting event for me, personally. Bacchus wanted to work with me on Scene+, and at the same time wanted me to join FairLight and lead the group. I was hesitant at first, but at the same time I was very flattered to be considered for such a great opportunity. FairLight is without a doubt one of the finest groups ever, and at the time it had hit a bit of a slump, so I saw it as a great opportunity to perhaps help FairLight boost its profile in the scene, and bring it back to its former glory. The initial idea, however, was to release Scene+ under the FairLight label, and then later figure out a way to revitalize the group as a force in the cracking and demo-scene as well.
Now, the months following are more than a little fuzzy, so please excuse my lack of details. Now, looking back, I admit my leadership of FairLight at the time was very weak. I was too busy in my personal life with building a business, and as a result Scene+ was shut down after only two issues. Crossfire managed to release quite a few first-releases, though, and really worked hard to make the group competitive in the cracking scene once again. I never really had a chance to assemble and inspire the legal section, but since then FairLight has truly brought itself back to the forefront of the scene. All told, these were a fun couple of years, and I remember them fondly. It's a shame that real life gets in the way of our C64 activities - but that's the way it goes.
Now, in closing, a fun little story to share with you before I wrap up my FairLight experience is one of my personal conversation with FairLight founder, Strider, only days after I had been selected by Bacchus as leader of FairLight. Strider wanted to talk to me personally to find out more about me, and to make sure that I was indeed FairLight material. He asked me many questions, and I tried at best to answer every single one of them. One question stood out, however: what is your political affiliation. My answer: liberal. Now, this was a huge problem, and Strider was not happy. You can imagine this was a very sensitive issue and at the time I thought my days as FairLight leader had ended right there. However, it had all been a huge misunderstanding. Liberal, in Denmark, is basically Libertarian. But in America, where Strider lives, it means left-wing. Please understand that through time FairLight has been notoriously known as a right-wing group. Needless to say this was a rather humorous misunderstanding. When, however, Strider understood that indeed I was right-wing as well, and that we shared similar political views, he was very supportive of my candidacy as leader of FairLight. Unfortunately, though, it was going to be short-lived. Less than two year's total, but I enjoyed every minute of it."
Early in 1998 the ex-Alter guys were removed from the group, with the exception of Logger who later followed them to Triad anyway. After having left the group behind a few months ago Sledge/Hitmen (sysop) was convinced to return as double member thus bringing back the Warez Aquarium BBS under the FairLight flag. Duke continued to employ the services of additional members to bolster the reborn group, to help spread the wares Clive/Motiv8 joined as a mail trader. Soon following was Nostalgia, who changed handle to Mindflow and joined in as swapper.
The legal section expanded with Druid/Agony Design (code) leaving his second group Chromance to join as a double member and DeeKay/Crest (graphics) leaving his second group Onslaught and joining as a double member. DeeKay was only in FairLight for a very short time as he started to miss his friends in Onslaught so he decided to rejoin them. Also joining in was Oswald/Coma/Pulse (code) who joined in as a triple member.
Bacchus wanted to move further with his idea of FairLight being the dominant tool supplier to the world of C64. He created a "Tools Section"; a platform independent section with the aim of creating the coolest tools around! Bacchus and Highlander were the main members of this section but soon other people joined in also. Inside FairLight itself there was a small cleanup of existing members, Tabasco and Lightside were removed due to inactivity. Enduro, a former member who was the editor of their old magazine Reformation, expressed some interest in helping the reformed group in the way of developing a web BBS. Legend and later Success&TRC were the first scene groups to develop "web boards", as the move from traditional BBS went to the internet. However, for unknown reasons Enduro did not finish his BBS and for that reason did not regain membership inside the group.
FairLight faced harsh criticism for Crossfire's activity in the cracking scene, with the amount of 'basic'-code games that were obtained from the Loadstar magazine as well as some re-releases. Regardless, they were in a good position to show other qualities with their magazine Scene+ (continuing the trend of the old The Pulse magazine) and a demo section consisting of names that could possibly deliver remarkable titles.
In March, the group expanded with members from Norway like GRG/Shape (ex-Shark, music) as double member and GHD/Impulse (code). Bob/Nostalgia joined to serve as a cracker, he would operate under the new handle of Paranoid. Skinhead, former member of groups like Alpha Flight 1970, Avantgarde, F4CG and Hysteric, offered his services as cracker as well as magazine editor to celebrate a re-union with his former comrades from The Pulse magazine staff.
During this period of high activity, quite a few people left the group also. Sun Dancer decided to quit the scene, Goat, LA*Style and Mendrake left to focus on the German based cracking group called Laxity followed by Mindflow a few days later (thus the group lost both their German boards The Dragon's Tower and The Hidden). Later on Clive decided to leave the scene completely and Red Devil decided to leave the scene also, as he felt it was time to move on.
Early in May, the second issue of Scene+ came out, with a beautiful new outfit by Oswald, Sander and GRG. The issue was very well received and was the best 8-bit publication by the group so far. It featured articles by The Dark Judge, Strider, AMJ and Shuze and interviews with Burglar and The Dark Judge.
Further membership changes took place with Gene, the notorious board caller with backgrounds in Illusion and Legend was recruited to the forces of FLT. Norwegian musician GRG/Shape left his second group FairLight and joined up with Onslaught. Along with these membership changes Duke announced his retirement from the scene as he wanted to focus his energy on building his own business. With Duke gone, other members that he had brought into the group started to dwindle away also. The group had refound old heights in the scene, was it now just a distant dream?
11. THE DELIGHT OF ETERNAL MIGHT
(1999-CURRENT)
The group was once again commanded by Bacchus, who was quite busy in real life but found some time to continue working in the tool section of the crew.
1999 was the year that FairLight's final crack on the C64 appeared, which was "Double+3" by Crossfire. This closed the door on FairLight's decade long affair with cracking C64 games and renewed the attention towards the demo scene. The only other release this year was a graphic entry from Vodka at the Remedy party which came in third. Around this time Oswald left to join the forces of a local Hungarian group called Resource. This year was the slowest year on record and one that the group would rather forget.
The new millennium dawned on the world of C64, a magical feat within itself as the old machine should have expired long ago but continued to defy. This same will to survive existed in FairLight also, as it struggled to come to terms with the fact that another leader had left the group and again there was no direction. Bacchus knew something had to change and appointed a new leader to govern and shape the group towards glory, the person who took this task was Vodka. VDK as he is otherwise known was another good candidate, he had good credentials with loads of experience within the group and most importantly he was entirely from the demo scene; which was the direction the group had to take. I conducted a small interview with Vodka to capture his impressions during the handover of leadership.
VODKA, current leader:
J)
What were you doing before FairLight?
V)
After the success with "Totally Stoned 2" on TCC, HCL and I left Booze Design to join Light. Some weeks/month later I got a call from Bacchus with "a offer we could not resist". After some time HCL changed school and ended up in the same school as guys from Censor. He swapped team but I have stayed in FLT since then.
J)
What was the impression of the group before joining and how did you feel when being involved?
V)
Just play the game "Korvjakt" by Judas Design. Try to fly as high as possible. After a while you see the message "You have joined FairLight". I think that pretty much explains it all. :-)
The first graphic I did for FLT was used in the end part of Legoland 3, and that was really nice to be part of. At that time, FLT already had at least two other very talented and active artists (Ogami & Oxidy), so the expected standard was high.
J)
How did you become management of the group?
V)
Some time after Duke left, I was pretty much the only active guy in FLT, and my main problem was to get my graphic used somewhere. I checked with Bacchus if it was okay for me to join Onslaught as a second group (something that normally never was allowed), and I did some logos and stuff for them (my gfx-collection "VodkART" was released jointly under the FLT/Onslaught-labels).
Around year 2000 I got in contact with a old C64-coder (Dwangi) who wanted to start up again, and I saw his potential, and he was very motivated and active. I then saw the possibility to get FLT more active as a group again, and I called Bacchus and asked if it was ok for Dwangi to join. He then told me that all kind of decisions like that were up to me now, and I was free to run FLT-C64 as I liked (we agreed to keep in close contact over the phone though, so Pontus was still up to date with major changes).
J)
Do you still have to pass things by Bacchus or Strider if they are awkward?
V)
No, not really. I speak to Pontus on the phone from time to time and over the net, and offer him to show up at meetings / parties (last time he accepted that offer was when you showed up at Datahelg 5. ;-)
J)
The group is now totally legal on C64. The demos really started to pick up from around 2000/2001 onwards. Can you tell us about those demos, the likes of Wok Zombie and the whole concept based productions by Hollowman etc...
V)
Wok Zombie was one of the funniest project I have ever been involved in on the C64. Everyone was highly motivated at the time, and the project was progressing very fast. The concept was from a I conversation on IRC with Jucke if I remember right. He was very tired one Monday morning and wanted to say Zombie@work but missed the "r". Rest is legend. :-)
J)
Axis of Evil and even to a smaller degree the Datahelg party are some of the events you have helped organise. In the last 10 years it seems FairLight has thrived on the party scene in Scanda, in particular the Axis events and of course stuff like Floppy and LCP. Can you give us some insight on how these events have shaped the group, and FairLight's involvement in organising etc.
V)
Axis of Evil is/was really special, that deserves some explanation. In 2003 it came to my attention that my old pal Oxidy from FLT (who I had not seen for over 10 years) was coming from "Skaaneland" to my hometown to attend a big car show. He and his family had rented a cottage near a beach, so me and my fiancé went over to visit them. It turned out that we still got along well, and I'm happy to say that so did our girlfriends. We agreed to invite some C64-friends to come over from Stockholm for a BBQ. The fun side note was that the meeting had visitors from the major active groups back then (FLT, Triad & WD), so we made a joke to divide what parties/compos we should participate in/win. "Cartel" is the English word for it, I think. ;-)
And this is a tradition we have kept since then. Oxidy and his family still come up once a year and we still BBQ.
J)
What does the future hold for the group on C64?
V)
Wok Zombie 2? The revenge of Linking Leroy? Legoland 4? Who knows? But make no mistake: Legends may sleep, but they NEVER die.
In 2001 the demo scene was still alive and well, particularly in Scandinavia. This was largely due to well organised events such as Floppy and Little Computer People, these events stirred the bellies of those in slumber and kindled competition between the old and the new generations. Infact over the following years FairLight focused almost exclusively on demo competition and really began to fill their trophy cupboard with well-deserved awards.
In February Vodka released a graphic entry at the Floppy 2001 party in Helsingborg in which he won the 4th place. In 2001 he also left his friends in Onslaught to focus totally on rebuilding the demo power of FairLight. Perhaps the biggest move of this rebuild was the recruitment of Hollowman, a coder who had left Triad after some internal disagreements and rejoined. Hollowman had made quite a name for himself under the Triad label with a fresh style in demo creation, stirring the mind were titles such as "Manhood", "Manhood 2" and "Feedback". The X'2001 party in Gelderland, Netherlands was announced so Hollowman (code) teamed up with the guys in Damage (graphics) to make the cooperation demo "Drop The Basics". This outstanding demo obtained 3rd place at the party and it featured some refreshing animations based on some funny ideas. This demo was hardly about hardcore code, but more about fresh screens encased with beautiful graphics - a fitting debut under the FairLight label and a prelude of what was to come.
In the following year the Floppy 2002 party arrived in late February. FairLight had been busy again on another demo, this time something of a conceptual nature. The party arrived and Hollowman conquered all with his "Pretending To See The Light" which came in 1st place at the demo competition. The demo is definitely one of those entertainment packages that gets you thinking about modern society. Also quite significant is that it is the first time the FairLight team reached number one in a demo competition. They had come close many times previously and had always ranked as a top contender at any party. With "Pretending To See The Light" the importance of new key members was very obviously illustrated. Later in April, Vodka entered a graphic entry at the Mainframe party in Norrköping and got first place also!
Expanding the memberstatus in July the group recruited two musicians, firstly Finnish musician Reed/Damage followed by the Swedish scener Maktone. Also in July the group participated in the "Singles Collection Volume 1", which was a multi-group contribution demo featuring a single part from each group. FairLight's submission was coded once again by Hollowman.
In 2003 things got a bit busier with multiple productions and new members joining in. Strangely during this year there were a lot of rumours spread that the group was dead or dying. They were all proven to be mere ramblings of the uninformed, if anything the group was as active as any in the scene to the point where other teams could be envious. BACCHUS made a statement during this time to allay fears that the group had folded:
"Howdy hackers!
I'd like to add to what's been said here by quoting a document I recently produced for serving as a scroller for an upcoming demo:
During the long years, since the group FairLight first saw its dusk, we have seen lots of time phases. We've created a reputation by our activities on C64, Amiga, Super Nintendo and PC. It's in the news that 'FairLight is dead and that 16 years is enough due to the dangers involved in the business'. Let me point out a few things; One of the mottos of FairLight was 'Built stronger to last longer' and this is ever more true today than ever, so let me be very clear - WE ARE NOT DEAD!
The holder of the name is the council trio, Strider (founder), JBM (Amiga and PC) and Bacchus (Commodore 64). The group FairLight is then made up of independent sections on different platforms. Some people know each other across the section borders but this is a limited few. No member is entitled to kill the group, but their section might be closed. This happened to the PC ISO section recently but this is nothing new. It has happened with the SNES section once and the PC section once before. The latter, due to the bust of the "Not So Humble Babe", in case anyone around has a recollection that reaches that far back. The group is stronger than the sections - the group is an organism with more than one cell. If a dedicated team of crackers looked us up and wanted to continue where the last ISO section left, we might consider the offer to work under the FairLight brand. For now our activities are limited to demos on the C64 and PC, kindly supervised by VDK and Pantaloon respectively. So we are in the somewhat unfamilar position of not having a cracking section, but it is a girlfriend in a coma - not rigor mortis.
So until you see a statement by Strider, JBM and Bacchus declaring our death, don't believe what you read. And perhaps you shouldn't anyway, as both Strider and myself have ensured that there is a new generation of FairLighters ready to take over from their fathers when that day comes.
Remember that FairLight was built stronger to last longer. Remember that legends never die. Remember that FairLight is like space - if we have an outter border, its well beyond human grasp. Remember that we'll give you reasons not to forget again and again."
On that note, the group expanded their position a bit further with Puterman/Civitas (coder) and Chromag (musician) joining to re-enforce the legal section further. Earlier in the year the Floppy 2003 party arrived once again to Helsingborg. It was the third time that FairLight was to show their warez in front of an enthusiastic crowd of demo sceners. This time they submitted not one, but two demos into the competition. The first one is called "Loaded" which ranked 2nd, another triumph from the winning combination of Hollowman and Goto80. The second demo was called "We/Laser" which ranked 4th and was the FairLight debut for Puterman together with graphical assistance from Hollowman and Vodka and a soundtrack by Maktone.
In mid-March FairLight dominated the Deadline 2003 party with two demos. Coming first at the compo was their demo in cooperation with Crest called "Anyone" (Hollowman, Puterman and Dane) and coming second was "14 and Life" (Dwangi and Vodka). Both were smaller productions, particularly in light of the fact that they had only released two demos the month before! FairLight dead? far from it, during that time they were the most active demo group on the C64. In July, they ventured down the 8-bit highway to a place called Linköping where the LCP 2003 party was held. Here they released "Emanation Machine" which took first place (psychadelic input by Hollowman, Puterman, Vodka and Goto80) and "Legends Never Die!" which took 3rd place (Hollowman, Puterman, Abaddon, Maktone and Vodka). LCP 2003 had over ten demos in the competition, when the results were announced the group could not ask for much more.
