Interview
Handle:
Mr. Pinge
How did you come up with your alias ?
I got my name from my friends in school. I had a watch with melody-alarms and one day the batteries went low and the watch started a melody sounding like: Pling-plong-pling. I first got the name "Plinge" and then they called me "Pinge". And when I started computing I put a "Mr." in front. Don´t ask me why. But all my friends nowadays still call me "Pinge".
City / Country:
I live in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Born year:
I was coming out of my mother´s ........ 7 th April 1970.
What was your first computer, and when did you get it?
My first computer was a Commodore 20 (VIC 20) and I think I got it back in 1984.
How did you get into the scene and what groups have you been a member of ?
I started to swap games with some local friends at home and then I met a guy (calling himself Nobody) with a lot of games and we started to swap a lot. After a while we were thinking of starting a copygroup. He had some contact with a guy called "Sir Galahad of WASP" (later on Black Shadow of Fairlight). We and WASP were founding a new group called "WCC - West Coast Crackers". We became pretty famous around in Sweden. But after a few problems in the group when we were expanding with members, "WCC" splitted up into two new groups. "RELAX" & "FAIRLIGHT". Both "RELAX" and "FAIRLIGHT" became very big in Sweden. I was now a member of "RELAX" and after a while competing with "TRIAD" and "FAIRLIGHT", me and "Janitor" joined "TRIAD". And there I stayed till I ended my career in 1988.
What was the proudest moment in your career ?
A very hard question to answer, but one proud moment was when RELAX released a version of "The last Ninja I" in only one side of a diskette. This was of course cracked by "Janitor". Not even "Mr.Z" in "TRIAD" released a version in one disk-side. We even got a "special hello" from the "1001 Crew" for making that good version. And they were at that time a GOD in our minds. So I will always remember that.
For what specific reason(s) do you think that you are remembered ?
Am I remembered ?! Well, I was holding a pretty low profile during my years at the scene, so there´s a lot of people not knowing me. But I think I can have been remembered for beeing one of "TRIAD"´s biggest swapper. I also tried to be a good friend to all my swappers. Solving problems as much as I could, to make all my swappers feeling alright with swapping with "TRIAD". I was proud of beeing a memer of "TRIAD".
What made you stop the scene activity ? (and do you remember when?)
It was two things ! First I was caught by the police for cheating with the stamps. I used old stamps with tape on so I could remove the postmark from th stamp. This was in 1987. I now had to pay full price for all my packages and that went too expensive.
The second thing why I stopped was that I became bored of sending all this packages, copying all these disks without having the time to watch the games I was copying. And this went on everyday all week. So finally I almost throw up one day, when I was sitting in front of my computer copying the disks. Then I was also very dissappointed at the whole scene at this time. Speed was the only thing mattering, and as we in "TRIAD" stand for quality we didn´t have the chance to release the best version before the game already was in all homes. Modems started to take over and that wasn´t my stuff, so I dropped out.
Thinking back on the good old days, is there anything you regret?
I regret that I spent so much days & nights in front of my computer. I didn´t have time to get together with all my schoolfriends, but anyway I still don´t regret I started up with the swapping cause it was a very happy and nice time. I learned a lot from it.
What was your favorite
GAME(S)
The old game Blue Max on C-64.
DEMO(S)
Impossible to say, but there were a few great demos from "The Judge Team", I remember. It´s so many years. My memory is weak !
PROGRAMMER(S) (OR PROGRAMMING TEAM(S))
1001 Crew. They invented "Side border"
CRACKER(S) (OR CRACKING GROUP(S))
Mr.Z & Janitor in TRIAD and Scouse Cracking Group (SCG) and IKARI
COMPOSER(S)
Rob Hubbard
BEST COMPOSED TRACK(S)
No idea, too many good !
EVENT(S) (E.G. COPYPARTY)
1986 in Denmark. Don´t remember the town but all great groups were there including 1001 Crew.
MEMORY(S)
When 1001 Crew gave us in RELAX a big hello for releasing the shortest version of "The Last Ninja 1"
DRINK ?
I love Falcon Export Beer.
What are you doing nowadays ?
I live with my girlfriend since 3 years back in a big apartment in Gothenburg. For the moment I´m doing a course in computing ?!?. Believe it or not. More specalized computing. And usually I work at a newspaper. At my spare time I´m playing a sport called "Floorball" or as in Swedish "Innebandy". (Playing with plastic-clubs and a ball in a Sport-arena). I´m doing a lot of work for our floorball-club and I really enjoy it. The rest of the time I spend with my friends or my girlfriend.
Is there anything you'd like to say to the public (read: admires)
Well, I´m very proud of beeing interviewed and I only want to say a big hello to all my old friends. No named no forgotten. Thanx all for the good old time, and I wish you all good luck in the future !!!
What is the meaning of life?
I feel that the most important thing is to wake up every new morning and feel that a new day has started. And be glad for every day I can live till the life is over. See you in heaven in 100 years. Bye, bye !!!