The Tricky Freak 1571 / The Damn Crackers, Rad Zone, The Flash Point Boys, Weird Science 2662, Tridon, Ideal
Added on April 11th, 2004 (6272 views)

Tell us something about yourself.
My name is Stig Norre. I was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in early October 1971. I grew up in a suburb to Copenhagen called Greve and moved to the central part of Copenhagen in 1991. From that period up until now, I've been working as a PC hardware technician and from 1995 as an IBM eServer iSeries (formerly know as AS/400) System Consultant.

What handle(s) did you use and how did you come up with it/them?
My first handle was Rubber Duck (from the movie Convoy and I only had it for a short period of time) and then The Tricky Freak (TTF). I added 1571 shortly after because everyone started adding numbers to their names, and as I loved my 1571 disk drive, it was an obvious choice. ;-)

What group(s) were you in?
The Damn Crackers (TDC), Rad Zone, The Flash Point Boys (TFPB), Weird Science 2662 (WS2662), Tridon and Ideal.

What roles have you fulfilled?
I started out as a swapper and as a organizer, but after a while, Mozart and I replaced the BASIC-programs with some assembler-code. "Let the fun begin!" As we both developed our skills, we started making demos and I also did graphics for my parts (mostly character-sets and sprites as I wasn't very good at drawing). As we expanded our social circle and as we started being a real group with more resources, I gave up swapping to spend all my time on cracking games and programming demos.

How long were you active for?
Gee, I can't remember that in detail. I remember games like Little Computer People and Ghostbusters which was followed by simpler games like Burning Rubber. I think I started programming Assembler in 1986 and quickly developed a taste for it. It all stopped in 1991 when education and stuff like that became a priority.

Tell us about those years and how you got into the scene in the first place.
I guess it all started having asked my parents for a computer too many times. At first I had my eyes set on an Amstrad, but I quickly found out that everyone else bought Commodore. As we didn't have much money, my mom bought me a VIC 20 with a tape device for Christmas in 1983. Later on I bought a Commodore 128 with a1571 disk-drive and a 1581 monitor. From that point on, I quickly learned Assembler programming together with Mozart (as mentioned before).

Describe a typical day for you in front of the computer.
10 REM Got up early to program a little before going to school.
20 GOTO School later than planned.
30 REM Got home and started coding some more, maybe prepare some floppies for some people.
40 REM Eat dinner.
50 RETURN to the computer to resume the work on the demo/tool/whatever I had started programming earlier.
60 GOTO Went to bed to get some sleep (usually rather late).
70 REM Maybe get up in the middle of the night to try a solution to a problem I had thought about since line 50.
80 GOTO Bed again to get some sleep.
90 GOTO 10

Did you personally invent any special techniques or tools to make things easier for you?
None that I can think of.

When you look at what you did back then, what are you most proud of?
Some of the demos. I can't be more exact. :-)

Who were your heroes on the scene and why?
The Judges didn't make that many demos but the ones they did had both a great sense of humour and superb code. ACE Crackings made some nice demos after adding Sodan to the team.

What, for you, was the coolest thing ever invented on the C64?
Tough question. I think I might say Flexible Line Distance (FLD (by The Judges)) because of the possibilities it gave. Opening of the side-border was pretty nice as well (don't remember who did that first).

Did you go to any copy-parties, meetings or tradeshows?
Yes, but I only went to the Dexion party in June 1988. I should have attended the Horizon and Equinoxe party in Eskilstuna, Sweden, but for some unknown reason I wasn't able to attend.

In your opinion, what was the scene all about?
Exploring the possibilities with computers and to push the limits of the machines' capacity. You just didn't went out and bought a new computer like you do today when the hard drive has been filled up and starts running slow. You tried to push the capabilities for that specific computer and yourself a little further. To sum it all up, I think the scene was all about exploring the technology, your own limits and try to push them.

What were the particular highlights for you?
The Dexion copy-party and all the late hours of coding, I think. I still remember most of our group (including No Ordinary Programmer) being sick, maybe because of too much Danish junkfood?!? :-)

Any cool stories to share with us?
I'm afraid not. At least none that I can think of right now.

Are you still in contact with any old C64 people today?
I'm still friends with Ozone of Rebels and Max of Ideal and I've recently been contacted by some old group members from both Weird Science and Ideal. In the past years I've been in contact with the following old group members: Hogan, Max, Mozart, Mr. Mad, No Ordinary Programmer, Ozone and Yaemon.

When did you get your C64 and do you still have it lying around somewhere?
Actually I've never owned a C64. I bought my C128 in 1986 together with the 1571 disk drive. I still have all my 5.25" floppies and a C128D, a VIC20, an Amiga 500 and a 1581 monitor. All of them are not powered up though. ;-)

Was the C64 really as special as we like to think it was?
I don't think the C64 was alone, as much as I feel it was the combination of the machine and the pioneering spirit that ruled back then. Today people are so focused on money that they withhold a lot of information.

When can we expect to see some new C64 output from you? :)
Never again I'm afraid. I coded parts of a goodbye demo by Ideal in 1991 (including the loader which plays music while loading the different demo parts :-)). That was my definitive goodbye to the C64 scene. I later on started coding a little Assembler on the Amiga (with help from Ozone who in the meantime had joined Rebels), but it never came to anything serious. It was a farewell to the platform and a special time.

Do you have a message for your old contacts and/or anyone reading this?
We sure had fun. Having missed the 60's it sure was nice to be part of that special era. Take care out there. Catch me at!

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