Interview
Handle: AntiAction
How did you come up with your alias ?
Well, here's a silly story to suit the silly alias: Back in the good old days when the C64 was young (and I, too), there was a group of crackers who cracked cartridge and tape/floppy games. These guys called themselves ANTI-ROM on the cartridge games, and ANTI-RAM on tape/floppy games. I thought this was so cool that I eventually came up with my own (silly) version: Anti-Action when I cracked action games, and Anti-Adventure for - you guessed it - adventure games. Eventually I settled for AntiAction only.
City / Country:
Back in the scene days, I lived on the island of Gotland, in Sweden. At the moment I live in dreary Ossett, England. And 'The JAMMS' were right; it IS *grim* up north.
Born year:
1972 (getting old now...)
What was your first computer, and when did you get it?
A VIC-20. My brother and I got it for christmas back in.. 1982, I think. I've only owned Commodore computers (C64,C128,A500,A3000,A4000) up to 1995, when I moved to PCs.
How did you get into the scene and what groups have you been a member of ?
I dunno really.. I sort of slipped into it somehow. I formed my own small pseudo-groups on the C64, not really releasing anything from out of my bedroom (apart for some cracks for a group I fail to recall the name of). When I moved on to the Amiga I also formed some one-man teams, but eventually joined a group called Tetragon - I really don't remember quite how that came about! For some reason or another, after two years or something, I moved on to Vortex 42, and Phenomena (don't remember the order, really). Then one day, Gehenna and Il Scuro of DefJam called and wondered if I was interested in joining them - and I was. As some sort of test, they sent me a game to crack ('Digger', I think). I cracked it in an afternoon or so (I was quite proud of that actually, because it had long-tracks and loads of checksums, and I had to compress loads of stuff to fit it on one floppy), and that was it. I never really left the group - it just sort of dissolved by itself.
What was the proudest moment in your career ?
'Career'?!? Well, I don't really recall anything. I'm not really proud of anything. I suppose I'm proud of the fact that everybody seemed to be using my cruncher (TetraPack/DefPack) for about two years. That was cool. Other than that, nothing, really. It seems a bit pointless, in retrospect. Nice nevertheless.
For what specific reason(s) do you think that you are remembered ?
No idea. I really haven't thought about that. My ego is quite small (for a God anyway. No - kidding, really :-) I don't really think I'm 'remembered'.
What would you like to be remembered for ?
This is *really* cheesy :-) But here goes:
For being a nice, humble bloke who knew what he was talking about. For being a good coder.
What made you stop the scene activity ? (and do you remember when?)
I think it was sometime in 1991. When I had done a few cracks for DefJam it started to dawn on me that the games I was cracking were actually made by people, and that I was messing things up for them (honestly, this was the reason - it is not a construction I made up because of my current position). Also, I sort of lost interest in cracking, because the games had more or less the same protections. It wasn't very difficult either. I was more interested in writing useful things, such as a monitors - ResetMon I think it was called - crunchers and whatever else.
Thinking back on the good old days, is there anything you regret?
Yeah, I _sort_of_ regret the cracks. I'm not sure what harm I did, but I really didn't think about it that way - the protections were there for me to remove. A challenge. That was how the computer culture worked in Sweden. Cracking was cool.
What was your favorite
GAME(S)
Commando
DEMO(S)
Wild Copper was ... eeeh... Wild? (oh dear)
PROGRAMMER(S) (OR PROGRAMMING TEAM(S))
Dave Collier was my idol (Ocean/C64: Green Beret, Yie-Ar Kung Fu and loads of others)
CRACKER(S) (OR CRACKING GROUP(S))
Mr.Z is #1 on any list. A *true* legend! So cool.
COMPOSER(S)
Martin Galway, without doubt.
BEST COMPOSED TRACK(S)
Parallax, Rambo title-screen (love those sweeping sounds), Mutants, Yie-Ar Kung Fu II (especially the West-Coast Crackers crack with screwed-up, but great, beginning) and all the other classics.
MEMORY(S)
No distinct memories. But thinking back, those were truly great times. I feel warm inside (I know! It's cheesy, but it's bloody true!)
DRINK ?
I don't think I have one. I prefer water really. I've got terrible teeth, so I try to avoid sweet stuff.
What music do you like?
Anything that's good, is good.
At the moment:
Spooky, Billie Ray Martin, Lucky People Center, Cygnus X, S.C.O.P.E. (my graphic artist's new album - it's great), Dubstar, Man With No Name, Björk, PSB, Saint Etienne, Curve, Recoil, DM, Tricky, Leftfield, Massive Attack, Portishead, Harthouse, Eye-Q and loads more.
In general:
Anything that is well-produced, has truckloads of layered sounds, strings, and intelligent (or at least semi-intelligent) lyrics. Just as long as it's not _too_ weird.
I hate FM rock and euro-cheese passionately.
What are you doing nowadays ?
I'm a video games programmer (PC,PS/X,Saturn). It's quite cool, because that's what I always wanted to be when I was young. "I never thought I would get to be / the creature that I always meant to be" are two lines from 'Being Boring' that keep popping up in my mind. ("This must be the place I waited years to leave" from the thus titled track also pops up once in a while :-)
What are you doing on your spare time?
Spare time? I don't really have any. But when I do, I try to spend some cash (the ultimate high :-). Maybe when I get older, I too can have a life :-)
Is there anything you'd like to say to the public (read: admires)
Is it, like, time to say something profound now? Alright: Just do what you feel. Have opinions of your own. Don't follow the herd. Think.
What is the meaning of life?
To get as much fluff in the belly button as possible. Or to annoy you. Something along those lines.