Interview
Handle: Conqueror (Homepage under construction)
How did you come up with your alias ?
Actually, It was my brother who did, and not me. But that was ages ago.
City / Country:
Gothenburg, Sweden
Born year:
24-FEB-1972
What was your first computer, and when did you get it?
It was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, and I guess it was in 1981. Since then I have had quite a few.
How did you get into the scene and what groups have you been a member of ?
The first "scene"-group on Amiga I had contact with was Horizon, but I had been somewhat involved in the C64 scene before that (1986-87). I joined Horizon and started coding and cracking for them. Since then I have been a member of groups like Defjam, Fairlight (twice), M.A.D, Miracle, Agile, Quartex, Dragons(?) - at least they listed me as a member! I started in a group called Dark Sceptre, though. I coded a Musicdisk with ripped music, trackloaded, and was really impressed of myself.
What was the proudest moment in your career ?
Really hard to say, but it was really something when Antiaction and Gehenna from Defjam called me to say they were really impressed of my first crack, a game called Night Dawn by Magic Bytes. I converted the game from non-dos trackloading into Amiga files, which not many people did in those days (1988 I think it was).
For what specific reason(s) do you think that you are remembered ?
For cracking a few programs, I guess.
What would you like to be remembered for ?
For cracking, sure, but also for being a good programmer. I never saw a shorter track- or fileloader than mine, with all kinds of error checking. I made quite a few programming utilities, not many of which were released to a wider audience though. My SPC700-assembler on the SNES is cool!
What made you stop the scene activity ? (and do you remember when?)
Getting bored with the scene, lack of cards, military service, girlfriend, etc... I don't know when I released my last product, but I gradually left the scene in 1991-92.
Thinking back on the good old days, is there anything you regret?
I should have went to more parties, and maybe studied a bit harder in school.
What was your favorite
GAME(S)
Pirates!, Wizball, Commando (all C64), and Bruce Lee on Spectrum 48k
DEMO(S)
Mental Hangover by Scoopex (Amiga), The Larch by Bones (C64) (especially all the Vibrants music!)
PROGRAMMER(S) (OR PROGRAMMING TEAM(S))
Utopia/TSL (Excellent programmer! His CartMON is the _BEST_!), Sauron (Still going strong! 90+), Ted (How did it get into German TV?), and many others...
CRACKER(S) (OR CRACKING GROUP(S))
Ringo Star, Gaston (do you guys regret that I convinced you to start cracking?), PHS, Antiaction, Il Scuro, Sabbath (so you did understand the Rob Northen encryption eventually), Subway, Mr.Zeropage, Unit A, HQC, Hotline, BS1+TKT, Ackerlight, Onyx, etc...
COMPOSER(S)
Martin Galway, Rob Hubbard, Matt Gray, JCH+Vibrants, 20CC, Fred/Ackerlight-TDRS, Ziphoid/Razor 1911
BEST COMPOSED TRACK(S)
I really can't pinpoint it since I don't know too many titles or origins of the tunes. "Vissellåten" is an excellent example, though. (by FLT?)
BEST GRAPHICS
Havok / Ecstacy and Reward / Scoopex
EVENT(S) (E.G. COPYPARTY)
The best party I attended to must have been the Dominators-Trilogy-Upfront party in Randers, DK, 1989. I will never forget events like Digitech's Summer Conference, or our Easter Conference in Gothenburg, or the ECES in Eskilstuna. Too bad I was an organizer with "responsibility", which meant I couldn't party all the time. Another nice trip was visiting Vision Factory and Red Sector in Kiel, Germany. The CES shows in London could have been better, but the people there was cool! Also I won't forget the disco in Denmark (Odense??) where they offered free beer!
MEMORY(S)
The first time I called CCCS (020-795679) and got through...
DRINK ?
BÄSK, the official spiritus at Elektro-Chalmers. I am experimenting with making extracts from plants to add the right taste and fressness to booze.
What are you doing nowadays ?
Studying to (hopefully?) become a civil engineer of Compuer and Electronics at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. I also study Informatics at the University of Gothenburg. No spare time for scene business anymore.
What are you doing on your spare time?
Spare time? Can I eat that? Nah, I like to work out (bodybuilding), and party. Also I like science projects, right now me and a friend are planning to build a liquid-propellant rocket.
Is there anything you'd like to say to the public (read: admires)
I am still alive! All who I used to talk to, please send me some mail!
What is the meaning of life?
I'm still trying to find out...