Where are your 'friends' from the Amiga scene?

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by mangemani

when i was a kid i had it all,had an amiga,had an neighbour with an amiga500+,had friends that sometimes visit and played some games and so on.
i spent almost all my time growing up at my neighbour,playing all sorts of game,especialy SWOS,played tournaments with him and 2 more friends,up all night,playing and playing,hired guns,battle squadron,premier manager,you name it,kept drinking trocadero(a swedish soda) and shouting and cheering each time a guy scored in some game,well,you get the picture,it was the best time of my life(the golden years)...BUT...when i was 15(i think) my neighbour decided to move away,it was one of the sadest thing that have ever happened to me,one of my best friends and the guy that i had played games with all my life,now moved away,sure,i had my other friends left,but it wasnt the same thing.
some years later me and my parents moved away to,lost contact with the most of my game mates and "the golden years" was over...today,i play all the games that i and my old gaming friends played,just to keep the memories alive(i never want to lose these memories),my new friends just shake their heads and say "but for the love of good,why dont you play the never games instead of playing those old ugly games",but they just dont get it how good and important these games are for me,they didnt grow up with an amiga so they will never get it i guess.

ah well,thats my "sad" story

Amiga time, ditto

I have the same feeling with all the old school arcade games as these were also a big part of my youth / growing up...

[Adderly]

Some friends/contacts i can remember more than just their handle/group:

Sceptic (Zacke) i had nice chats with him, sysop of the Bacardi House

Oxyron (Slide,Smirnoff, Axis and da rest!) I once meet some of the members on a meeting in northern Germany but can't remeber who was there. They coded some damn cool c64/amiga demos.

Shining 8 (Jazy) cool guy, we and Dragon of Vision spend once a nice weekend together with a lot of CC fraud & modem trading...

Mad Elks (Kopara) cool polish guy, nice contact & swap. Met him in Hamburg on the Complex/Sanity/Supplex party '93. Mad Elks' "Technological Death" is one of my favorite demos.

Principes (Mic) nice swap & talk. One of my favorite scene contact. Principes joined later as a part of Unlimited if i can remeber that right, but it was around the time as i left the scene.

Retire (Tanith, killtech) real elite swapper

Muffbustres (Pitcock) if he was from Sweden or Norway i had some cool illegal swapping with him, if not my memory just play tricks on me...

Scoopex (Mr. King) ok, who was a mail swapper and did not traded with him? His packdisk series is/was well known. Don't he was in Analog before SCX?

Vision (Dragon) we had a nice meeting once, he used to swap with my brother

Born to Booze (Megaman) cool cracker, he did some nice cracks for BTB and later joined Unlimited. I supplied some games that he cracked. He tried to teach me how to code assembler but i did not learned it very good. lol

Rhetor (UNL) a very talented person. He did some great pictures/logos for our group and worked for some commercial projects. The gfx/design for Xcopy TNG is from him.

Technoking (HTJ/UNL) my very best amiga friend. We traded like hell on dat-tapes coz we had both so much stuff that sendings with 20+ disks per week were not enough for us. He found a perfect solution for faking stamps. Cool guy.

Black Eagle of UNL France, world leader if UNL. I still have the nice print with the manga girls he once sended me.
Suicide/UNL from Belgian was a great contact/friend
Blockhead/UNL (Norway) and Deejay Jones/UNL (great musicians).
A big hello to Hysteric/UNL, i build up the German section of Unlimited together with him. Intercode & Murphy with their BBS and all the rest of the Unlimited team.

oh my so many more to mention and the memory already fades. I was mail swapper and had a lot of contacts in 1993/1994. Later i was modem trader and Co-sysop before the big bust wave killed most of the BBS scene in Germany. Anyway, if the name Adderly/Unlimited rings a bell for you drop a note!
All those contacts are long gone as i left the scene. But hey, i found some new buddies here on EAB! Thanks for reading...

An old (from 1994) and 4 sure not complete contact list i found on one of my Unlimited disks, so greetings fly out to the following guys:

Abyss (Duke), Ahhh (Metal Puppy), Alcatraz (Sting), Alchemy (Backfire), Anthrox (Exocet, Mr. Do), Arise (Virus), Avandgarde (TSI), Black Jack (Janitor, Splatterhead), Bronx (Kazz), Byte Limit Systems (Silicon), Cadaver (Slayer), Clique (Deatil, Ravel), Cobs (BlackSnake), Complex (Skyclad), DEFEKT (Animal, Insider), Desire (Chaos), Diffusion (Beholder), Duplo (Drago), Effect (Radavi), Energy (Action), EPILOGUE (Vadium), Eremation (Blaster, Skull), Essence (Mop, Andy), Fear (Trid.K., Rave), Flying Cows (Carlo), High Tech Team (Frankenstein, Solarsystems, Prince), Illusion (Axxis, Pinki), Intense (Double R, Fiction), Interactive (Ali, Walker), Investation (Alex Empire), Iris DK (JFK, Zerox), Isch Crew (Rapper, Morpheus), Kefrens & Polka Bros. (Zinko), Ladybirds (Ranger), Mad Elks (Redman, Kopara), Massacre (Cannibal), Muffbustres (Pitcock), Mystic (Swift), Neanderthal Men (Thor), Neoplasia (Cyborg, Horra), Netzwerk (WDS), Nightfall (Benjo), ORION (2DD, Reval, Monsum), Outlaws (Fate, Flynn), Oxyron (Slide,Smirnoff, Axis & all others), Principes (Mic, Tiger), Razor 1911 (Limbo), Ram Jam (ACBS), Rebels (Exciter), Retire (Axel F., Mephisto, Tanith, Peacemaker), Saints (Nop, Victory), Sanity (Trasher), Sardonyx (Candyman, Pinup), Sceptic (Zacke), Scoopex (Mr. King, Darren, Chris), Scubage (Iron, Lopez, Dr. Link, Yoshi), Shining 8 (Jazy), Shrimps (DJ Mellow Noise, Cr8y, Eager-Beager), Simplex (Paperboy), Silicon (Tos), Speedy (Steffen), Technology (Sonic Flash, Lucifer), TFD (Clever), The Fun Factory (Illusionist), Tilt (Exolon), TRSI (Norby, TSM, Bald Horse, QBA, Mr. King), Unlimited (all around the World), Vision (Dragon, Zodak), X-TREME (Sir Jinx, Floppy Man), Zenon (Duq), Zig Zag Corp. (Dust, Avatar)

[alewis]

Originally Posted by Methanoid

That'd be Dominic Clifton aka Hydra.

Yes, the very man! Good old Dom. I helped him out a bit on a couple of scene boards, we got chatting, when he said he was from Bournemouth (my original home town) that was it, we had to get together. So a fe months later he caught thwe train over to Kent, and we shot up to the Digital Copy Party that Galahad mentioned. And for first time I met Dangermouse, Jester and a few others. And, oh heck, what was his name... one of the "Combat 18" lads. Give him credit, he turned up. And I have a strong feeling of deja vu as I type this. Possibly because I've already replied ages ago, forgot, and am reading the thread due to an email out of the blue from Gary Bews of this parish. :-)

I wonder how well you knew James.... the board wasn't a Faglight board although the link to Faglight was that JBM grassed James to get his Centersoft account closed as Faglight struggled to beat James's supply and if you can't beat them then you cheat....

Funny but NOMAD and Splatt from FLT even rang to apologise about how bad that was....

James was sysop of Arcadia, a small 5 node BBS which at the time it was busted was the UK's largest warez BBS

I'd argue the toss about that <with a grin on me face> as Freeze and I had a dozen or so CD-ROMs on line on The Fridge. But who's counting. Especially TF was an indie board, and not fast at all.

I didn't know James too well at all, I got a heads-up about the bust, and gave him a call to pass on the name and number of a ruddy good lawyer, and some legal advice. Did he ever go to court? ISTR that as there were few - if any - laws the CPS stood a good chance of getting a conviction under, the usual tactic was to seize the equipment under an Anton Pillar order, and then never go to trial. Wait a year or four, and then drop charges once the equioment was beyond obsolete...

[alewis]

Originally Posted by dangermouse

jeez i was sat here bored !!! so i did a search on google for my old nick "danGerMouSe" i found you guys lol, mouse@xtra.co.nz

Now had I seen this, I wouldnt have sent that PM! DOH! I must have been blind 2 years ago...
PiLGRi/\/\

[alewis]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

there was also a program on Channel 4 in the UK where two idiots showed with Roxbox, an Amiga, a pair of headphones how to phreak.

British Telecom up to that point didn't give a fuck as it wasn't money coming from their pockets and they didn't want to modify all the exchanges to stop it, but that program signalled the end of phreaking in the UK.

"Walk On The Wild Side" was the programme, can't remember the episode title. I have it on VHS around here somewhere. Will see if I can find, and post on usenet or somewhere. A matey, Chris Bird, knew one of the people (from Raxor 1911 if memory serves me right, it was 13+ years ago!) featured, and later sent me a tape that they had made after BT changed the low level routing codes post-transmission of that programme. (hey, Galahad, you ought to know a TV programme is spelt with an mme )

Basically, <egg suck mode on> AT&T were picking up the cost, which was not a problem for BT, but too many shareholders were also shareholders in BT's only UK rival, C&W. Added to that, after that broadcast the TA lines were clogged - literally swamped - by peeps trying to box out. There were only 8 satellites at the time, and not a lot of trans-atlantic cable, so limited capacity...

It also signalled the end for another reason. Although BT were not losing revenue on calls that remained stateside (or international) they were losing revenue on calls that came back to the UK, in the sense that they were losing the profit from a national call. After the codes changed, BT swooped on a lot of boxers. I never found out the numbers, but I know a few hundred people were given bills for the national calls they *would* have made.. mine was around six or seven hundred quid.

edit: thinking about it, over the last 13 years, this is probably my most oft-repeated story from those days. It obviously sticks, as I've heard it repeated - at times verbatim - from other people.. and more often that not I can trace the source back to me! :edit

Oddly enough, call-fraud is still big business in the UK. My previous employer had the distinction of having the industrys' only dedicated phone fraud team. When they came over to Crewe from York, they looked like a bunch of criminals (bloody good guys tho), and between the four of them saved the company millions in toll-fraud, clawed back hundred of thousands in revenue from "cheeky customers" (for example, customers who claimed - as a fault report - that they didn't have level-9 or dial-out access; the reality was they didn't order it and were trying it on) and led the industry in software design and process. I wont go into details, but railway stations featured quite heavily the fraud... ;-)

Remember quite fondly good old Roxbox, dialling a hotel in Hawaii, then boxing off it. We were lucky, we had another means of doing it, although we limited to UK national calls. And the drop-back/emergency level 9 facility on the exchanges in certain large organisational installations was useful, too. Thinking about that program, there was an awful lot of padding in it, extended cut scenes for example. Be interesting doing a follow up, looking at mobile fraud, wireless piggybacking, bluetooth snarfing, hot-spot/AP masquerades, if only to raise public awareness of the potential problems.

[alewis]

memories, memories

[Methanoid]

Originally Posted by alewis

[It also signalled the end for another reason. Although BT were not losing revenue on calls that remained stateside (or international) they were losing revenue on calls that came back to the UK, in the sense that they were losing the profit from a national call. After the codes changed, BT swooped on a lot of boxers. I never found out the numbers, but I know a few hundred people were given bills for the national calls they *would* have made.. mine was around six or seven hundred quid.

0800 890055 ---- Bleeep Bleep... Kerchunk

[Methanoid]

Originally Posted by alewis

I didn't know James too well at all, I got a heads-up about the bust, and gave him a call to pass on the name and number of a ruddy good lawyer, and some legal advice. Did he ever go to court? ISTR that as there were few - if any - laws the CPS stood a good chance of getting a conviction under, the usual tactic was to seize the equipment under an Anton Pillar order, and then never go to trial. Wait a year or four, and then drop charges once the equioment was beyond obsolete...

Alistair Kelman? Why don't you PM James

[alewis]

Let me guess... it isn't, is it... surely not you!

[Tim Janssen]

For anyone who is interested, someone had the guts to put their videocam recordings of the monthly Venlo Netherlands copyparty in "De Staay" on Youtube.
It gives a good idea how these Amiga/C64 copy parties were like in 1992/1993. If you were there maybe you can catch a glimpse of your younger self. I've managed to spot myself in the background for a mere five seconds.

Link: [ Show youtube player ]

[cosmiq]

Hah Venlo, that's about 15 minutes from here
I live in Venray
cool video btw

[Zetr0]

I still see a couple of old-school amiga nuts from my youth from time to time, alas they dont have miggies anymore (lamers *hehe*)

I got a close m8 from yorkshire thats into amigas, helping him build a couple (desktop and elbox tower conv.)

I have a lot of friends that are into retro-gamming so its like home from home for me... especially when I got gauntlet on the PS2 4 player mayhem!!!!

but yeah... I got friends that we LAN crew with PC's and online games and love the retro-gammage, and I get alteast 2 retro-gamming nights a month ( this includes beers / curry and reto-gamming action like worms DC / alien breed or something like that)

I used to hang out on BBS's like SkullMonkey and Wizzards but I havent spoke to skullmonky in like ages!!! and the gnome at home... wow donkeys ago..

I used be opp in a irc chan into amigas back in the day #hyper on dal. but I would also be on efnet #gas and a couple others i cant remember lol miss it though a lot a fun...

I even met my wife on IRC married onto 5years now..... (eys gots me on of thems american foriegn import models )

sigh... do miss the scene though, knocking out med tune after med tune and coding, smoking and caffine intaking! generall all at the same time...

never really got into boxing, even though it would of saved me £1,500 over the spate of 4 months LOL but cracked a few games, yet was never part of any cracking crew or distro house. I might even still have some of the cracked disk images I made.... i did a few.... UFO, Realms, Dune2, ClueAGA spring to mind.....

ahhhh loong ago......

[Hobbe]

Most everyone I knew back in the "Amiga days" (actually everyday is an Amiga day, but you know what I mean ), had either PC or Mac, but fortunately I managed to intoruduce my cousins to the Amiga world and we've been sharing disks and info ever since. They're both married and we often joke about naming their soon-to-be-born kids Gary or Paula

[Soul_scientist]

The guy i bought my amiga off 15 years ago was a complete idiot, i was only mates with him for about 6 months. Saw him a few weeks ago while i was waiting for a train, no words were spoken........

[Mike UK]

I used to go to a computer club ages back only seen one of them since he`s a bus driver bit of a tool never spoke to him

Just found this board! Brings back a lot of memories of the amiga scene! I still have a few amiga's and only last week I booted one up for the first time in ages to have a look at some old source code of mine from wayyyy back!

I have made some good freinds via the amiga scene but only a few I am still in contact with some 17 years later! I still see Candy Man of Prestige aka Wizoid of Animate, and Skitzo of Choas/Damage/Destiny both really solid mates..

The People who I havent seen or heard of for years are Golum(the brummie one) Rotox(as mentioned in this thread), A lot of the old LSD lads, the amiga guys and gals who used to hang out on the 1-515-945-6000 partylines and the people who used to pull me into amiga scene Alliance conferences, The guys that was in Chaos/Damage Uk when I was. Hopefully some might read this and drop me a message.. all welcome..

As for the UK blueboxing and the walk on the wildside documentary, I remember that very well, I remember being pretty angry about the two ego trippers on that show, and on the 14th March 1994 boxing suddenly disappeared, actually it reloctated it died in 2003..

Great days and good people!

Number 6

Still good friends with a few of blokes from back in the dayz of Chrome/Toons/Devious Designs/Broken/Trip.. we've kinda evolved into a PC group Affinity but have become pretty inactive these dayz, the PC scene bores the shit out of me
might go back to ami/c64 by the end of the year

neway went off topic.. Greetz to The Heavywieght, Bhodi-Li, King Guppy, Terminator, Neurosis & The Great Sage

Oh and what happened to Pink Panther/Parallax!?!? I miss you... NOT, lol..

hmm actually while Im at it - if anyone's interested in doing some demoscene stuff for amiga or c64 give us a shout! (If you interested in PC we need coders only..)
vermillion@teamaffinity.org

[Quill2007]

You guys are lucky in one way at least.. I was late onto the Amiga scene (1993) and I only had one mate with an amiga, ever.... That said, we still get togather at least once a month to play amiga games like kickoff, turrican 2 etc. I am even getting my 15 month old daughter into it, with such classics as Superfrog. There are days I think i will never get that tune away.

[Raid27]

I never had any Amiga-friends.

[Graham Humphrey]

Same here.... when I was in first school I was the only one with an Amiga, as far as I remember. Most people had Mega Drives and SNESs, and in a couple of rare cases, even Atari STs...