Interview
Handle:
Strider
FairLight Homepage
How did you come up with your alias ?
I have always been a big fan of Tolkien, so I picked Strider.
City / Country:
I've left Sweden and Belgium behind, and now live in sunny San Diego, California, USA.
Born year:
1971
What was your first computer, and when did you get it?
A Commodore 64 of course. I think I got it in 1985 or so. I had been nagging my father for a whole year to get me a TI-99A, or a VIC-20, but my father one day surprised me with a C-64 with a tape unit. It cost a whole lot, and in today's $ value it was approx. $1000. Can you imagine!?
How did you get into the scene and what groups have you been a member of ?
Immediately I was interested in hacking, and started small. I even remember typing in Basic programs from magazines and soforth. But after a few "reset-cracks", I started getting a hang of it. So the first "group" was more like two buddies hacking, but we called ourselves "The Thieves". I started working in a computershop in my city, and met some new friends who turned out to be pirates. They called themselves WASP (We Against Software Protection). Among them was Lancelot, who was a very famous cracker at the time. I learned a lot from him, and soon began cracking on my own. At the time a big group was "West Coast Crackers" (WCC for short), and I joined them together with some of the members of WASP.
We were very famous, and everything went well for a year or two. But I noticed that I liked to be in charge, and wanted to make some changes. During an internal group meeting in Easter 1987 me and Black Shadow decided to leave WCC and make our own group. On the train back home we were looking for a name for our new group, and suddenly it came to us;
FAIRLIGHT
It was so simple... So ingenious! FairLight was also the name of a cult game on the C-64 (initially ported from the Spectrum), and also the name of the world's most powerful synthesizer company. Jean-Michel Jarre uses those for instance.
So the name was decided upon, and our initial theme-song became the intro- tune from the game with the same name; FairLight...
What was the proudest moment in your career ?
When FairLight totally dominated the C-64 and Amiga scene and was widely considered the best group in the world. Of course not all would agree, but in general we kicked some serious ass during some years! Currently we are in the process of "documenting" all the FairLight years, happenings, cracks, and other info. It will be available on our WWW-site, so we invite everyone to drop by and take a look. Join us at;
http://www.fairlight.com
For what specific reason(s) do you think that you are remembered ?
To never let quantity rule over quality. One of the most famous FairLight slogans says it all;
FairLight - Quality, Tradition, Pride...
What would you like to be remembered for ?
FairLight - Quality, Tradition, Pride...
What made you stop the scene activity ? (and do you remember when?)
Growing up times change, and priorities change. Life comes knocking on your door, and girlfriends, family, work, school etc
Thinking back on the good old days, is there anything you regret?
No.
What was your favorite
GAME(S)
M.U.L.E, Shamus, Fort Apocalypse, Archon, Elite, International Karate+
DEMO(S)
Shit, I don't remember that far back. There were so many. Basically I like all the demos we made in WCC, and of course the FairLight demos.
PROGRAMMER(S) (OR PROGRAMMING TEAM(S))
When 1001 Crew got rid of the borders on C-64, that was fucking impressive, I still remember standing in front of my computer, gasping and staring...
CRACKER(S) (OR CRACKING GROUP(S))
FairLight (Gollum), Triad (Mr. Z, Janitor), Ikari
COMPOSER(S)
Rob Hubbard
BEST COMPOSED TRACK(S)
Soundtrack to the game FairLight and the soundtrack to the game Druid II. Both were "adopted" as our intro-tunes, and we've stuck with them through all our years. Apart from those obvious ones I particularly like;
Commando, The Last V8, Thing on a Spring and Sanxion to mention only a few. All made by Rob Hubbard. Although there's lots more that are CULT!!!
EVENT(S) (E.G. COPYPARTY)
Without a doubt the Danish Gold party in Denmark in 198x?
MEMORY(S)
Cutting school short to run to the computershop to grab a new game, and then hurry home to crack the shit, train it, upload it to the USA, and copy it on 30-40 disks to mail the next day. Often I'd go straight to school the next day without sleeping.
I particularly remember a few releases that FairLight made that hardly anyone else released. Such as Boulder Dash Construction Kit, International Karate+, and the biggest Last Ninja of course! That was was pure hell! We had got the game in the computershop, and I cut school (of course he-he), to run home to ask my mother for a box of chocolates (be patient it will be explained!), and then dashed down to the trainstation. There I found some guy who worked on the train going to Gollum's home town, and I bribed him with the chocolates to take the casette tape with Last Ninja and give it to Gollum, who would be waiting when the train pulled in at his town.
So only a few hours after I had got the game, Gollum had it in his hands. The game was featuring some serious protection which I was not used to, or good at, so not to take any chances we got the game in Gollum's hands! Boy, talk about DEDICATION! Hehehe....
DRINK ?
I'm a "boring" beer-drinker, but sometimes I enjoy a drink called a "Black Russian" which is a mix of Kahlua and Vodka. Another favorite is my own creation; mixing a Southern Comfort and 7-Up, or Coca Cola. It's GREAT!
What are you doing nowadays ?
I live in San Diego, California, USA and own a trading company dealing in various products such as computerparts, cosmetics, etc, etc...
What are you doing on your spare time?
Spare time? What's that?
Is there anything you'd like to say to the public (read: admires)
"No Risk, No Fun!"
What is the meaning of life?
To have fun!
Greetings to all FairLight members, and I invite everyone to come by visit our www-site at;
http://www.fairlight.com