Interview
Handle: The Leader - Homepage
later changed to 'T.L.R' (I'm called 'Leader' by most other scene people who know me.)
How did you come up with your alias ?
In the 'V' TV-series (1985 or 1986) there was a guy called 'The Leader' who you never got a look at. I named myself after him. It seemed really cool at the time. Later I shorted it to 'T.L.R'.
City / Country:
Stockholm / SWEDEN
Born year:
1972 (August)
What was your first computer, and when did you get it?
Fall 1981 (when I had just turned 9 years old) me and a friend learned programming basic on an HP computer. (my friends father worked as a service engineer at HP so he borrowed computers now and then)
Spring 1983 I got my first computer: a Commodore C64. It cost 6000 Swedish crowns. (about $1000)
How did you get into the scene and what groups have you been a member of ?
When I first programmed on my C64 I didn't know what to code. When a friend gave me a bunch of cracks and I saw some cool routines I thought, they could do it, so why shouldn't I be able to do it. At this time most demo code where intros to cracks. I made some intros, and got them spread through some friends. And then I made some more...
The groups I've been in:
C.C.T (Computer Cracking Team) / 1986
With a bunch of local guys in Huddinge where I lived at the time. I coded about 10 demos/intros with support (mostly moral) from my friends in the group.
Alpha Range 89 / 1987
Me and Karl XII joined forces and started this group doing mostly demo coding.
Science 451 / 1987-1988
I joined S451 together with Karl XII (actually Alpha Range 89 joined as a sub group, but not too many remember this) In this period I coded one of my favorites of my own production, 'Syncronize' which was released at the Triad copyparty in Huddinge. (the demo featured code by Karl XII and Galleon too, but I did most of the work.)
Sometime in 1988 I bought my A500. I actually coded one Amiga intro for Science 451, but it was never released.
Sphinx / 1988
This was weird. Science 451 seemed to split up, most members joined Sphinx. A big group, I didn't know half the people in it. Made an intro for the C64, maybe. At this time I spent most time learning coding on the A500.
Agile / 1988
Later that year Agile was formed by Elric, K12 and I joined up.
LYNX (Amiga) / 1989-
This year I founded LYNX together with 3 other local people that I had known for some time. The idea was to be able to hack together every night. And we did too! During the school strike in 1990 I and 'The Ninja' hacked at my place for about six weeks in a row, just for fun!
What was the proudest moment in your career ?
It must have been in the spring of 1986 when I got the hang of how the TV scanlines and the computer work together. (i e raster interrupts)
This led to the coding of my raster routine some weeks later. The raster routine was used in all my demos and intros later on. (very much revised of course)
For what specific reason(s) do you think that you are remembered ?
I don't know really. You tell me.
What would you like to be remembered for ?
For being the one you could ask if you had coding and hardware problems, and for some real innovative ideas in the early demo scene.
What made you stop the scene activity ? (and do you remember when?)
It faded out a bit as soon as school needed a bit of studying.
Thinking back on the good old days, is there anything you regret?
I regret not releasing more of the routines I made. When I checked my old work disks there where a lot of cool things on them which could have resulted in good intros and demos. But then again I would probably have flunked school if I did!
What was your favorite
GAME(S)
Paradroid by Andrew Braybrook
Lode Runner by Broderbound
Space taxi by M.U.S.E. software
DEMO(S)
'We have come' by The Highlanders
Demo from 1986 featuring a real nice vector animation in 80*50 resolution.
'crackintro' by ABC crackings
The one with big letters on the screen and timed colors scrolling upwards, changing every 5 seconds or so.
'boing boom triad' by 3D
One minute of Kraftwerk's 'Boing boom tschak' sampled in 1-bit quality. (using only a transistor :)
'UFO DEMO' by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson
Looks like a trailer for a pretty weird SF tv-show. Real nice music by Barry Grey.
PROGRAMMER(S) (OR PROGRAMMING TEAM(S))
There where so many!
CRACKER(S) (OR CRACKING GROUP(S))
Mr.Z / Triad, Section 8
COMPOSER(S)
Richard Joseph / PALACE SOFTWARE
Russell Lieblich / Activision
BEST COMPOSED TRACK(S)
Fifth dream (reprise) by YIP / PUREBYTE
BEST GRAPHICS
EVENT(S) (E.G. COPYPARTY)
Alvesta 1 & 3
MEMORY(S)
The sickness called 'hacker foot' which I saw two people get, and heard about one more.
On two separate copyparties I saw people get this illness. In Eskilstuna/Sweden one of Karl XII's feet (don't know if it was the eft or right) got bigger and bigger and hurt a lot. Nobody knew what it was until SONY/TRIAD came by and told us that he had gotten this symptom at another party. When the party ended I had to call my mother, who drove all the way from Stockholm to Eskilstuna to get us. (about 200 km) The doctor concluded that Karl XII had gotten a cold... in the foot! Two weeks in hospital.
At Samso/Denmark Pernod/Horizon got the same symptom. One of his feet (don't know which) grew bigger and bigger. He was really concerned about this, but we told him that is was no problem, and that K12 had experienced it already. That was a relief of course, but only until he got to know that K12 had spent two weeks in hospital.
DRINK ?
It depends of course. A glass of cold milk, A big glass of water, a nice cup of hot tea, A Guinness draught. Sometimes I drink coffee too, but then it's mostly for medical purposes. (i.e keeping awake at school)
What are you doing nowadays ?
Studying at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) here in Stockholm since 1992. I'm on my fourth year. Hopefully I will get a master of science in Electrical Enginering soon.
What are you doing on your spare time?
Building weird electronic stuff and hacking away on the C64 and the Amiga. Maybe even some Unix now and then. My latest project is 'Over5' a program for transferring files/data between an Amiga and the c64/vic-20 using a only a serial cable. check: http://www.stacken.kth.se/~tlr/computing/over5.html
Is there anything you'd like to say to the public (read: admires)
If I really have admires, I am flattered. But don't just admire. Do something. If you really put the effort into it, and have the motivation you can probably do it better than anyone. It doesn't just apply to computers and electronics.
What is the meaning of life?
Tricky... Life, the Universe and Everything. There is an answer. But... I'll have to think about it... For seven and a half million years. (freely quoted from the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams)