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Profi / The Paco Crew,
Beastie Boys
Added on June 13th, 2007 (7228 views)
www.c64.com?type=3&id=203
Tell us something about yourself.
Steven S., born on July 2nd in 1971 in a very small town close to Hamburg. I'm right now working as lawyer, and I'm interested in sports.
What handle(s) did you use and how did you come up with it/them?
The name Profi was chosen by accident. In the 80's, there was an English TV-series here in Germany called Die Profis (the professionals, don't know the exact English name of the series). For some reason I can't remember now, I took the singular of the term 'The Profis'; Profi.
What group(s) were you in?
First there was The Paco Crew (TPC) which was a tiny group I started with my friend HBU in 1986/87. We were only doing some trainers and demos. It was all just for fun, and we were just learning how to code. Then, I think in 1987, we joined Beastie Boys and stayed there until 1988/89. My C64 career had to stop because a lamer gave the police a hint about my activities. I don't want to say more about that. :-(
What roles have you fulfilled?
We coded some demos for BB, and we did some trainers, too.
How long were you active for?
Well, Beastie Boys had their glory days in Germany between 1987 and 1989 (if I remember correctly).
Tell us about those years and how you got into the scene in the first place.
All things in life happen by accident... so it was. I loved this machine called the C64 when I was 11 years old. The first games were wonderful, and they had wonderful crack intros; and sometimes they were better than the actual game. I remember the great Dynamic Duo, ECA, Radwar Enterprises, and Jabba. How did they do this? I was swapping with some lamers, and then when I was 12 or 13 years old, I met the great HBU. He had no software but he was able to write machine code. He told me how to code – of course looking at other peoples' code – but he was trying to make the code even better and faster. He wrote our first own demos using the group name The Paco Crew.
We were driving to copy-parties in Venlo and Frankfurt. In Frankfurt, we met The Syndicate, and we decided to start Beastie Boys. The Syndicate, I think, was in contact with some guys in Munich called Yeti Factories. They always had the newest games and the best contacts, at that time it was groups like Fairlight, Triad, and Eagle Soft. We asked the guys in Munich if they wanted to join BB, and they said OK. I think BB was quite famous, and we got greets from the hottest and best groups around (it was all we lived for... the greetings :-)). We (Profi, HBU, The Syndicate) wrote the demos for BB and sent them to Munich. In return, we got the newest software around. My C64 career ended when the police searched my appartment on March 17th in 1988, because they found my address in a lamers house. What later happened with BB, I really don't know. I haven't been in contact with the guys since then.
Describe a typical day for you in front of the computer.
Coming back from school, getting the post, starting to copy, copy, copy, going to the post office to drop off the sendings, coming home again, looking at the stuff, the games, the demos, thinking how great other people are, coding, coding, and coding until 22:00 o'clock. At that time I was as pale as cheese.
Did you personally invent any special techniques or tools to make things easier for you?
Yeah, we made something, but I can't remember was it was. I think it was the first demo-makers.
When you look at what you did back then, what are you most proud of?
That we did what our hearts told us to do. We lived our dream.
Who were your heroes on the scene and why?
I met a lot of super heroes. The greatest groups at this times for me were Fairlight, Triad, Eagle Soft, Danish Gold, 1001 Crew, Radwar, Hotline, etc. (I can't remember all those great groups!)
What, for you, was the coolest thing ever invented on the C64?
The C64 cartridge.
Did you go to any copy-parties, meetings or tradeshows?
Yeah, Venlo and Frankfurt (look above).
In your opinion, what was the scene all about?
To have a first-release of a game no one else had cracked, and getting famous for being good at it.
What were the particular highlights for you?
The C64 itself was a highlight! And the Anti Scholz Demo Pack (in my view a 192 kB demo, and quite huge for that time). We made this demo hating a person for stealing the customers ROMs from C64's without telling them.
Any cool stories to share with us?
No, not really, sorry.
Are you still in contact with any old C64 people today?
I haven't been in contact with anyone since the thing happened mentioned above.
When did you get your C64 and do you still have it lying around somewhere?
See above. No, I don't have a C64 today, just a C64 emulator on my PC. Seeing my demos today, I do wonder myself what I was doing.
Was the C64 really as special as we like to think it was?
Yes it was, for sure! SEI, LDA#00, STA#0800...
When can we expect to see some new C64 output from you? :)
You're kidding me!
Do you have a message for your old contacts and/or anyone reading this?
Yeah, if you read this, try to contact me! Tell me your stories! And here is a link to our demos: http://noname.c64.org/csdb/group/?id=686.
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