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Creeper / Dual Crew,
Antic,
Death Sector,
Flash Inc.
Added on November 19th, 2003 (7344 views)
www.c64.com?type=3&id=60
Tell us something about yourself.
Hi! My name is Kim a.k.a. Creeper. Born 1975 in Sundbyberg (Sumpan Kixx!) Sweden. I work as a producer at a game-developing company in Malmö. I live in a house a couple of miles outside of Malmö with my girlfriend, two horses and one rat.
What handle(s) did you use and how did you come up with it/them?
He he… Moffe, we have had this discussion before you know. A long time before I choose Creeper as my name, I actually called myself The Running Man (taken from the Stephen King book). The handle Creeper came from the Disney movie The Black Cauldron.
What group(s) were you in?
The first group I was asked to join was Dual Crew. Somewhere between 1989 and 1990, I joined Antic where I stayed for a couple of years before I joined Flash Inc. Well, I spent a few months in the Finnish group Death Sector in between, but since I was one of only a few Swedes in the group, I moved on. During the first years in Flash, we released a lot of cool things. But many of the members of the group had been active in the scene longer than me and got more and more interested in doing other things instead of delivering high quality demos. I felt that I wanted to produce more stuff, I re-joined Antic. Antic became very inactive sometime around 1994-95, and we all more or less quit the scene.
What roles have you fulfilled?
Most of my time was spent on creating graphics, but I also did some coding and was a quite active swapper from time to time.
How long were you active for?
My best scene years were between 1989 and 1994. I did of course spend a lot of time before and after those years with my Commodore, but those were my best years.
Tell us about those years and how you got into the scene in the first place.
Playing all the games in the arcade halls made me want to do games and seeing some of the early demos from XAKK, Mahoney & Kaktus etc. inspired me to create my own effects. The whole world of computers made me feel that anything was possible.
Describe a typical day for you in front of the computer.
The two biggest differences between my life and 'normal' people's lives were that I constantly thought about logos, pictures, technical solutions, fonts and so on, and that I spent most of my nights and weekends in front of the computer. I actually tried to be a normal teenager, but I guess I failed.
Did you personally invent any special techniques or tools to make things easier for you?
I hacked some graphic tools to add features I needed. Some good and some quite lame.
When you look at what you did back then, what are you most proud of?
Being a part of the scene and being able to meet all the great people is something I rank very high. I guess I should be quite proud of the number one rankings in the graphic charts, but it's not one of the first things I think about.
Who were your heroes on the scene and why?
It's impossible to write a list because there were so many awesome people in the scene with various skills that came and went over the years. But I'd like to mention all the people in the Swedish groups Fairlight, Light, Antic, Flash Inc., Censor and Dual Crew that I spent a lot of time with. They inspired me personally.
What, for you, was the coolest thing ever invented on the C64?
That's a hard question. New and cool things were invented all the time. I really enjoyed FLI from Black Mail. At that time it was so cool!
Did you go to any copy-parties, meetings or tradeshows?
Yes, of course! I even arranged buses to help people to come to the parties. You (Morpheus) and me, we arranged the first bus together down to Denmark in 1990 or 1991.
In your opinion, what was the scene all about?
Like a real world except for the money. The groups had the hierarchy like a company, the prestige among people was the same as in the music industry and people had to constantly invent stuff and that made them better and better. It was quite easy; if you made something good, people admired you. If you made something bad like stealing code or behaving bad, you became a true lamer. I must also add that meeting all the people from all over the world was great! The scene was all about people wanting and believing in the same thing.
What were the particular highlights for you?
All highlights are of course personal. The first demo I had my graphics in was excellent. The demos was Lunacy 2 by Antic. I hade the same feeling when I joined Flash Inc. and Zodiac called me and said that he wanted a double screen image for the coming demo. There were so many highlights. The first time I logged on to a BBS, first time at a party, first time I won a graphic compo, first time I made a disk cover for a famous group, every time I met a famous scene personality that I admired… I could go on like this forever.
Any cool stories to share with us?
Yeah! Too many to mention here I guess. I would like to grab a beer with some old sceners and talk about the past. That would for sure bring back many memories.
Are you still in contact with any old C64 people today?
Not many enough. I do wonder sometimes what my old contacts are doing these days. I have a steady contact with some of them, but it's only a small percentage.
When did you get your C64 and do you still have it lying around somewhere?
I got my first C128 in 1987 I think. I had managed to save 1,500 SEK and my parents helped with the rest.
Was the C64 really as special as we like to think it was?
I don't know and I really don't care. For me, us and the rest of the active people, it was very special. If I look at everything that the C64 period gave me, I still feel that I am way ahead of many other professional computer people. We worked with 320x200 pixels, 16 fixed colours, 64 kB RAM and all in f**king Basic. That, my friend, is education that can't be learned in any school today.
When can we expect to see some new C64 output from you? :)
Sorry. I don't even have the time to work on C64.com anymore. There are days when I go: "Hey, it would be quite cool to draw a picture on my C64". It might happen but I doubt it.
Do you have a message for your old contacts and/or anyone reading this?
Yes! Everyone who used to know me, please send an e-mail to creeper@c64.org and say hello! It would be so nice to catch up.
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