Guru Magic _________ ___ _________________ ___ ____ / ______/___/ | | ._________ \ / | | \ / | / / | | \ / |__> > | | \ / |__\ / |__| / |\ < |__| \ \____________\_____________\___| \_____>____________/ ________ ______ ________|. : _______._.. . / \ / __ \ / _______. |/ ______._.. . / . . \/ __ \/ |<_ \| | | ___ / : : / / | \ |_| | | |_| \ \___/|__| \___/ | /_________| |_________/ dd! |___/ |__/ : : . . F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � How did you get to form a crew? � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 Guru Magic first started out in 1991, When I (Duend�) met Avatar when we were studying Computer Science at Pretoria Technikon. I was in school with Abacus, who after much threats of physical violence was finally convinced to code some sort of graphic engine NOT using Borlands lame BGI. We did one or two minor productions which were never released. Due to the course run at the Technikon, Avatar and myself soon dropped out because of boredom and the fact that all our lectures where on financial programming (and were in Afrikaans!). Avatar and I lost contact for a while during which he co-founded a group called Xcalico Crew. Around the middle of 1993, while studying for my exams I got extremely bored and decided to see what Avatar was up to (not much it seemed :) We reformed the group and after much debate decided on Guru Magic, which was derived from The Handsome Guru's ;) Most of our time was spent engineering what we considered really decent demo engines. At ICON 1993, we by absolute chance run into Baroque, who was demonstrating some of his music, Avatar and I counldn't miss the chance and after a while asked him to write a MOD for 'The Party 94' an early name for what developed into Dexterity 94 demo compo ! We soon became good friends and Baroque merged with GM as his new PC demo crew, while still maintaining his Amiga crew - Freelance. It wasn't until early 1994, whilst planning for Dexterity, that we met Pyramid Software. Pyramid Software developed an internal conflict and two of their members joined GM (Dac & Deacon). This didn't leave much time for fine planning as far as Shrine was concerned, but we managed to pull off something almost satisfactory. At the Explosive demo competition at the end of 1994, we were watching some raytraces on the Amiga. That's where we found RTFact who we promptly grabbed. Hey, now we have two artists! 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � Where do your ideas come from? � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� This is probably one of the most difficult aspects of demo coding. Music videos, books, various trips we take :), dreams and of course, other demos. We try to be as original as possible. Mostly we sit around at bars or at my place and throw around ideas. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � What do you program in? � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 Almost anything and everything, we use any language that does what we want it to do. We mainly code in Pascal and Assembly though. We use various graphic programs and our own 3D modelers (which are 3D Studio compatible). RTFact lives by Imagine on the Amiga. Music is either composed using ProTracker (on the Amiga - Baroque) or PyraTracker (on the PC - Deacon). 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � So what have you done with you lives? � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 To summarize into one line : We all try to be creative. We have released the following &EERU ARJ 16911 - Demo for EERU BBS &GMDEX ARJ 131580 - Invite to DEX '94 &DIGITAL ARJ 88856 - Self displaying piccy from DEX '94 &FFALL3 ARJ 144990 - Music from DEX '94 &SHRINE ZIP 662823 - Mega Demo from DEX '94 &ACEOBAZ ARJ 66268 - Demo for Ace of Base BBS &SCO-BLU ARJ 84647 - Demo for software connection BBS &SYMETRY ARJ 67177 - 64Kb Intro which won Explosive &INSIDE2 ARJ 242179 - Won Explosive multichannel (13 channel) Who's the crew? Well, here's the member list: 旼컴컴컴컴쩡컴컴쩡컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴쩡컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컫컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � Handle 쿌ge � Occupation � Tasks in GM � Real Name � 쳐컴컴컴컴탠컴컴탠컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴탠컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컵컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � Abacus � 22 � Student � Coder � Brad Kronson � � Avatar � 23 � Student � Artist/Coder � Holden Morris � � Baroque � 22 � Runs own business � Musician � Quinton Davie � � DAC � 18 � Matric � Coder � Shane Greyvenstein � � Deacon � 18 � Matric � Musician � David Buekes � � Duende � 21 � Student � Coder/PR � Jaycen Dale � � RTFact � 21 � Bum � Artist/Rayman � Jaco Gerber � 읕컴컴컴컴좔컴컴좔컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴좔컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컨컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� Oh, yeah ... RTFact just mentioned that this is not in any particular order. That might be true if the Alphabet didn't exist. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � Favorite pastimes are? � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 We all enjoy listening to music and our taste varies from ambient to hardcore techno, metal to hindu-Afro to Jazz fusion to classical and the not so classical. Books too keep us entertained, and we have wider range of reading material then we do music. From Hustler to Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to Advanced Calculus to Fantasy and everything in between from fact to fiction. (Books are Knowledge - A wise Guru once said). Movies, videos, parties, clubs, sports and bars also play an important role in alleviating boredom. Girlfriends, no we don't have these to alleviate boredom, but it is nice to run your fingers over something a little more responsive than our keyboards ;) Besides that, we enjoy more than just a PC and a cold beer (Black Label :-) for companionship. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � What demo crew/s have inspired Guru Magic? � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 The first demo that really made an impression on GM was the Vector Demo by Ultra Force. Of course Renaissance and Future Crew, played a major influence. More recently Dust, Triton and EMF have been our inspiration. Hey, SpaceBalls too, but they're on the competition-platform. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � What do you think of the South African Demo scene? � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 Firstly we are very pleased that there is a demo scene in SA. A lot of work still has to be done, however, there are a few crews that do stand out namely: HAiDS, FreeLance and MeltDown. Our advise to all demo crews is to keep trying and to experiment. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � Do you think that the whole demo scene is just a flash in the � � proverbial pan? � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� Unlike Glam Rock, Afros and plaid jackets, the demo scene is here to stay. Demo coding is the first plane in the strive towards total MultiMedia nirvana. As far as flashes are concerned, in particular great white ones, this question should rather be directed to HAiDS ;) We could go on to answer this question for the next 50KB, but don't just take our word for it, stick around. Text by Duend� and Avatar. Further corruption/improvement by Abacus and DAC Contact info : � EMail - jaycen.dale@softconn.iaccess.za - jaycen.dale@leclub.co.za - brad.kronson@digitec.co.za - dac@catpe.alt.za - rtf@leclub.co.za � BBS - Post me a message at SCO (address to Jaycen Dale) or drop it in our conference area. - Message me (Duend�) at Ace Of Base - Also message us in RsaPROG or ILink-Pascal � SnailMail - Guru Magic P.O. Box 586 Wierdapark 0149 Virtually Yours Guru Magic