Viator profiles RUSH — an association of demoscene groups from Ukraine and Belarus

HEY, VBI! I'm Viator from AVALON / RUSH. Thanks so much for your message. Sorry I didn't reply straight away, but let's take it one step at a time... ABOUT ME: REAL NAME: Viktor Onishchenko AGE: 18 (I'll be 19 on 10 December) SPECIALISATION: CODER, GFX-MAKER, AND MAIN ORGANISER OF AVALON MY FAVOURITE MUSIC: J.M. JARRE, CAMUFLAGE, D.M., SOME HARD ROCK LIKE FAITH NO MORE, SOME RAVE, ETC... I live in Chernihiv, but I study in Kyiv at the Academy of Arts, in the Faculty of Painting. Before that, I studied for 7 years at the State Art School, also in Kyiv. My studies are the main obstacle to my work on Speccy, as I don’t have a computer in Kyiv... ABOUT AVALON: The group was founded in the spring of 1996. It consists of five people, but three of them study in different cities (myself, SEM and FALCON in Kharkiv). Our band is part of RUSH. RUSH is an association of coder groups founded by the Dream Makers. Members of the association release joint projects... for example, ‘ECSTASY’, ‘VIBRATION’, ‘REPTILE 19’ and so on; if we need music, we can always get it from IMP or EVOLVER, and I, in turn, often create graphics for DMS and so on... RUSH includes, apart from DMS and AVALON, E.T.C. GROUP, NAVIGATOR and ELF of EX-TECHNOTIME, KAMIKAZE, M.CODER and others. We very often visit DMS (it’s less than 100 km from Chernihiv to Gomel). Sometimes they come to visit us in Chernihiv too. So, if you have any questions for the RUSH MEMBERS, please get in touch with me. I also know ROB F., DREAMER, JUNGAR and other ENTIRE members very well. I am acquainted (through correspondence) with COBR, MAD MAX, CRYSTALL DREAM, ETC. GROUP MAX, IWAMOTO and others. ABOUT PLANES: Nothing released by AVALON to date is particularly noteworthy. The most recent works were ‘REPTILE 19 GIFT’ and ‘CHRONOS 128’, but going forward I will endeavour to work at a professional level and avoid releasing ‘junk’ (except perhaps simple GIFTs). AVALON is currently working on two major projects — ROBOJOR 4 and a new graphics editor for the Speccy. These are intended to be programmes that are perfect in every respect. ROBOJOR 4 is a game in the style of TERRAMEX (or, more precisely, something halfway between TERRAMEX and MYTH). My main focus is on impressive code and high-quality graphics. Most of the code and a lot of the graphics are already ready. ‘REPTILE GIFT’ served as practice before writing R.J.4, although the two now have very little in common. Here are some specifications: — Memory: ONLY 128 (or more) — Speed: 1/2 interrupt — DIGITAL FX have been implemented on the Speccy for the first time, running in parallel with the programme. One AY channel will be dedicated entirely to them, whilst music will play on the other two. It may be possible to support QUADRA AY (three (!!!) additional music channels!) (If you’re not familiar with QUADRA AY, I can explain). Naturally, sprites will be rendered not in “TURBO mode” as in GIETE, but much more smoothly. I’m writing ROBOJOR 4 myself (with the exception of the music). BY THE WAY, ABOUT MY HARDWARE: PENTAGON 128 + ‘TEAC’ DISK DRIVE SINTEZ 4$ (VERY OLD) AMIGA 600 + FLOPPY + MOUSE + ... COLOUR TV + COLOUR MONITOR (NOT USED NOW) STEREO SYSTEM AND JOYSTICKS, DISKS, ETC... Now, about another project we’re working on as a whole AVALON team: A while back, PANDA of E.T.C. approached me with a request to revamp “ART-STUDIO”. By that point, I’d grown tired of the program’s shortcomings, flaws and glitches myself. Of course, for 1985 it was very cool, but more than 10 years have passed and the standards (as well as the needs) of modern users and GFX-makers have become much higher. After considering what needed to be reworked in ‘ARTSTUDIO’, we came to the conclusion that it would be easier to write a completely new... programme... To start with, we set about gathering information on what needed to be changed in ARTSTUDIO and what needed to be added. I wrote to all the best artists on the Speccy; besides, we’ll be taking a lot from the Amiga and PC. This idea found support among many artists from various groups, and a whole host of ideas came pouring in. At this stage, the window interface has been written, and the ‘MAGNIFY’, ‘SHAPES’ and several other modes are almost ready. I’ll try to give a general overview of what the result should be: the editor will bring together all the best features of ‘ARTSTUDIO’ and ‘ARTIST II’. I have paid a great deal of attention to the interface; you can change practically all parameters — cursor speed, acceleration factor... There will be well-designed hotkeys, so you can view the screen in ‘MAGNIFY’ mode simply by pressing ‘EXTEND MODE’. All changes can be saved to disc in ‘SET-UP’. Support for a resident program will be implemented, allowing you to attach music, a timer, etc., to the editor. In “MAGNIFY” mode, you can view a section of the image at actual size: The “WINDOWS” and “SHAPES” modes will be implemented directly in the magnified format. If SADMAN and FALCON (our mathematicians) don’t let me down, we’ll implement 3D window rotation, window morphing and a host of other exotic features. It will be possible to create animations directly within the screen editing mode. I could go on listing all the new features for a very long time; this single letter wouldn’t be enough... ...Although you're not an artist, you might still have some interesting ideas. If you do, please let me know — I'd really appreciate it. And now, let's talk about your work... Recently ROB F. gave me a disk with your progs, so there's no point in sending them to me. Well then... **STYLE** — not bad. The lack of graphics is pretty obvious, though. Try to solve that problem. I don't know about you, but I think it's much better to make a few truly cool programs than lots of mediocre ones. Less is more... As I said before, AVALON won't be releasing any more "crap." You wrote that you're busy with some big project, and I'd really like to hear more about it. Now about the music... Thanks a lot for your offer. Actually, we're quite happy with what the Dream Makers are providing, but a few extra tunes never hurt... The only thing is, the quality should be close to that of EVOLVER and IMP. I can also help you with graphics, but I'll only agree to work on a really strong project... There's too little time to do everything that comes along... !!! Pay attention to the quality of your programs!!! PLEASE, don't be offended by my criticism — I didn't mean to offend you, sorry!!! And you should criticize our programs too (it often helps). The only problem is, I don't know which of them you already have... Here's an incomplete list of what we've done: * REPTILE GIFT * CHRONOS 128 * ROBOJOR 3 * BORDER 1 — picture editor using the BORDER area * SPEED'ER — procedure speed benchmark (measured in CPU T-states) * SPR.GEN 1 — sprite generator * DIZZY 6.5 HELP (SHIT) * Some GFX in **EX-T-C MEGADEMO** * **CHAOS** and **RUSH** — pictures that won third place at ENLIGHT'96... I'd also like to know more about DELIRIUM GROUP. Who's in it? What are you guys working on? Well, it's time to square this letter off... :) ████████████████ — censored My phone number: (04622) 5-36-08. Consider your greetings in our scrolltexts guaranteed... **AMIGA RULES** (I got mine just two weeks ago)!!! **SPECCY LIVE FOREVER!!!** I hope I didn't skip classes at the Academy today for nothing just to write this letter. I hope we'll keep in touch and cooperate in the future!!! Say hello to your Speccy friends for me! I've never written such a messy letter before... **WITH BEST WISHES, VIATOR OF AVALON.** **November 25, 1996. Kyiv.** --- ### A small addition: Today's been a rather strange day. Early this morning I took the bus from Chernihiv back to Kyiv after the weekend. I got absolutely soaked in the rain and decided not to go to the Academy. Instead, I started writing letters, and eventually ended up writing a huge, enthusiastic, and very optimistic letter to the editors of **ZX-REVIEW UKRAINE**. In it, I suggested organizing a proper commercial market for Speccy software and promoting it as much as possible. I also offered to write promotional programs (something like the invitation intros for ENLIGHT). I think that if a large software distribution network is created — one that everyone knows and respects — programmers will finally have a chance to earn money from their own work. Actually, it's quite realistic. For example, Slava Mednonogov earned about **$2,000** during the first few weeks of distributing **UFO 2**.