interview with rOm/progress
by diver/4d






dvr: rOm, hello! We are glad to see you on stage and in our magazine! Right off the bat
The question is: what is the reason for such a rapid revival since 2010? Very
I was glad to see you return. Was this really a comeback?
you didn't leave? If you look closely at the release dates, it seems
was always there, but didn’t spoil him too much with his graphics
(2000-2002-2003-2006-...).

rOm: Hello, I didn’t go far, it’s just that something “pixel didn’t work” for me
time. And given the now widespread belief about pathological
conditionality of the phenomenon of creativity on the so-called old school platforms, to your question
the reasons for the “stormy revival” can be answered with the assumption of the end
remission.

dvr: A logical question that worries any Spectrumist who has seen the end
90s: what about Progress? Are you in contact? How is anyone doing? Who does what?

rOm: PGS hovered in eternity somewhere around the turn of the millennium, but theoretical
layouts that include its release in real time still exist. Contacts
happen, however, I can’t boast of their frequency. Fux programs his charges
Forex platform programmers. Mick deals with casual gaming, for example the website
"City of Games" He also pees on game soundtracks from time to time. With NevoSoftsnotorious cooperates. Seryoga has a son, and Mick has a son and daughter. In general,
completely harmonious, socially integrated men at the dawn of their strength and years.

dvr: I was always interested in this question: how was work on demos organized in
Progress? Who did what, were there any secrets to success in technology?
group work?

rOm: Since the days of Seamans, the code for individual Fux effects has been peeing in the rhythm of the pulse
inspiration over several years, sometimes with productivity,
causing concern. It happened suddenly, at some party, after drinking a little,
Seryoga switched to using only the ASMA z80 mnemonics when communicating with people.
But after a couple of days of being removed from coding, he made up for his adequacy
to society. Some of the code lost relevance along the way, some disintegrated
and self-destructed, and something was fished out for the current cracktro and giftro.
Sometimes I would throw one or two source codes into the bank, and during the development of sChb and
Mic. The art that I generated based on inspiration was accumulated according to a similar pattern.
(exacerbations), with the exception of those screenshots and logos that needed to be made under
specific screen layouts. Most often they worked with Fux at my home, less often at
Mic'a, often mixed with all sorts of violent actions far from
demoscenes. If not live, then connected through the telephone network using CDOS
modems for sharing best practices.Once there was a long session of painful
but the necessary multi-way remote manipulation of Fux's headstock (of course,
on the topic of zx and in general it was “not hello”). She turned on the Spectrum, inserted the necessary
floppy disks, steadfastly pressed the keys dictated to her by the unknown
enemy alphabet and did not know that she participated in the development. Then between us
there was quite a dense traffic of ideas and ideas constantly generated by us in
a very wide range of psycho-physiological conditions. Also gradually
The theme of the next demo itself was being formed. At some point the number of swarming
thoughts and sources reached a critical mass, and suddenly we felt
It’s clear that the project already exists, we just need to put everything together. We took a leaf
A4, sat down, and slowly built on it a scenario diagram from the sequence
parts-effects and associated visual mixes that were supposed to appear
to the viewer. Then we formed a table of draft time values for key
moments demo and arranged art. Then the pace of development accelerated significantly.
A sense of urgency and an inherently absurd curiosity appeared. I
started writing a core with mechanisms for loading, initialization and
switching parts, setting timings according to the script, trying to be more correct
pack up. Fux cleaned the code of parts before integration (we had a list
system requirements, which the code of any decent partour dems should have
satisfy (stack, sacred memory, etc., yes, and then, Fux was
I like to clean the screen and ROM once or twice in each frame). Well
Mic began the first draft of the soundtrack. Each time he wrote exclusively under
specific project. We didn’t burden him with recommendations or requests at all. And even
if at this stage he has not yet clearly seen the technical contours, then the theme, style and
The atmosphere was always captured clearly. There has never been a different situation, except for
in which Mick’s freshly baked track put us right away and seriously. So
Thus, his sound was the soundtrack not only to the demo, but also to his making.
A fair amount of repetitions, stretches and combinations for critical timings
Mic performed the demo as it emerged, and where it was impossible without killing
composition, dragging the music, shifting script blocks in time. It also happened
improvised, changing the script on the fly. The final stage began when I
I stitched all the content together and the demo gradually came to life. And bugs started to appear,
Bugs, Bugs! Sometimes we came across brutal specimens. On the E96, our first full-size
demo (also from seamans) was collected in a disciplined manner a week before the party, from BC to
in the final stage everything was quite dreary, but without hysteria, because the release was
free from strict time frames. But before E97 everything was very harsh. I don't
slept for more than 3 days in a row, being in a stateextreme stress. Excellent
I remember the moment (my brain didn’t index the rest of those 3 days at all) when it was severe
there was a real threat of not meeting the deadline! Fail could have been Epic.
Moreover, we wanted to go to St. Petersburg ahead of time through Novgorod, so as not to rush
stay with Digital Reality. Fux and Mic at this stage could do almost nothing for me
help, all the nuances and crutches were only in my memory. High tension
moment and deepening panic rejected the possibility of resorting to psychoactive
help more serious than caffeine and nicotine. As a result, there were nerve cells
burned immeasurably, the program for visiting Novgorod was curtailed almost completely,
but our new demo was still traveling with us to St. Petersburg and it worked without serious problems
bugs! That's how they did it, in general. And the secrets or “know-how” are in the schemes themselves
Perhaps there was no development. We worked smoothly thanks to good
mutual understanding and common similar motivation. Probably also because we were
only three. In most cases, it was possible to adhere to the planned schedules
pretty clear. I had to keep an eye on this, but nothing more cunning than reminders and
there were no requests to be made. Carelessness and sabotage were moderate =)

dvr: Thank you for such a detailed story. Practically "making of..."!. Don't want to
Should I go back to Spectrum? Some Western teams are coming back and giving
the heat is so hot that it doesn’t seem like enough. Ozone onAmiga with in demo Fetish 2, Offence on
c64 with Another Beginning, etc. How do you feel about such comebacks? After all
really, from the height of rethinking life experience, come back like that and
remember your youth? And if not as Progress, but as Cosmix?

rOm: I love good demos, and good demo makers too. And therefore, comebacks
they are a positive phenomenon for me. PGS, as I already noted, is hibernated. On
near future the possibility of his comeback with old characters I am considering
critical. The movements associated with CMX have always been difficult to fit into my picture
world, so I am not able to say anything intelligible here.

dvr: If not, then maybe there is a desire/idea to collaborate with someone from
modern demo coders/musicians in terms of creating demos?

rOm: I am doing something in this direction, but so far there are no definite results
no. Personally, I am open to cooperation. If there is an interesting project, then quite
I can take part in it as much as I can. It would be great to establish cooperation with
a coder who can slowly write several complex visual effects,
competently using mathematics on the z80. There's a problem with the sound, I hope.
solvable. And I can easily do the rest myself.

dvr: Do you follow the modern demoscene? (ZX/C64). If yes, what do you think about
state of the modern Spectrum scene as a whole? Demoscene, graphic scene?

rOm: I'm watching the stage. I have some impressions on 8bit lately
some, although not too many. Batman nicely shook off the dust from the CPC
Spanish, from the first demo for the platform. On Commodore, as for me, that’s it
quite elegant. On plusH they burn, I liked States United for its severity, on c64
the video was just crazy, it was under 1bmb of memory, albeit fake in the historical
reliability. Pleased with a series of large and high-quality dems from those who returned
veterans. Archmage's pixels have a stable hypnotic effect on me
effect. On the Spectrum I see the situation as a local rise against the backdrop of a global
omissions. But this is also a plus. There is visible development in some
old school groups. At the last DH there was a decent demo. ZAParty
I was pleasantly surprised by the pack of works. Although the last one was a truly vivid impression
- mescaline synesthesia. I also hope to see something from 4D+tbk and Demarche. B
graphics on the ZX there is strong art - Prof, Riskej, Piesiu (damn it,
undermines our national dominance), Kacuk, Bfox - although not much, but
yes. I would like to see more from Diver and Pheel. Noticeable development and
some artists who appeared somewhere in the mid-2000s. But everywhere
proliferating nyan cats only emphasize the deep pathology of everything
what's happening.

dvr: Thanks to recent events in the form of open air computers(thanks bfox and
Unbeliever), we seem to have unfrozen a little. And there is hope to see and
graphics from me and demos from all of us. Pheel is planning to exhibit very soon
at cc'2011. By the way, do you go to parties and do you plan to attend upcoming ones?

rOm: I plan more than I happen. Perhaps I’ll have time to go to the SS in the future.

dvr: What is your attitude to the development of new graphics modes on the Spectrum? Behind them
the whole future or are they just one of the promising areas of development?

rOm: For me, the very concept of old-school movements is more relevant, the tougher it is
limitations, but taking into account the link to historically established standards.
Therefore, I’m more in favor of 6912. But objectively, the fake modes are more beautiful than usual,
of course, but because they are displayed on all ZX models, then completely ignore them
them would be strange. Therefore, I am for a variety of modes, there would be quality. For
For me, when drawing in a gigascreen, the problem is the transition barrier to
automatic manipulation of the palette in the head, taking into account its synthesis by addition.
If you act step by step, honestly calculating each transition between colors, then
The speed of the process is starting to depress me.

dvr: What is your attitude towards Internet resources dedicated to Spectrum graphics?
Artcity, ZX-Art. And to resources dedicated to graphic creativity in general?
Deviantart, PixelJoint, etc.

rOm: Artcity is kind andmassive, but something has begun to calm down, or is it just me?
ZX-Art is quite valid, if only the domain is simpler, it will attract turnover from non-core
viewers will help, otherwise the narrowness of the circle of voters/commenters creates
a feeling of dissonance with the breadth of topics covered by the project. By the way, there is a website zx-art.ru
with a similar theme, but poor content. Need to merge with
absorption. Deviantart and Pixeljoint are also good in their genre, and above all
by its volume.

dvr: What inspires you to create new works?

rOm: Demospiritual sessions. Or in any way, I don’t know how, in any other way, from
rushing past me at every step.

dvr: Your attitude to copy/nocopy in graphics. To exhibit such works at parties.
To copying scene pictures, conversions? Only honestly.

rOm: The relationship to copy-gfx is direct. On the Spectrum, graphics inspired
Scripting an image from other platforms can be done very elegantly. Often
I sometimes find technical aspects in transferring some details of the original pleasing
more than the composition itself is complex. Technology can also be skillful.
There are also copy works that are more complex than the original. The main thing is quality, if
worked subtly, then why not at the party. Well, conversions are “nothing”, so
Moreover, due to the graphical features of the ZX, mathematical conversion is always
looks dead and miserable.

dvr:And finally, what would you like to wish for the modern ZX scene?

rOm: High-quality releases and unselfish motives. Well, may the spirit be with you
scenes!