Interview


Handle: Unknown of D.O.C.

How did you come up with your alias ?
Did see a Clint Eastwood western on TV, there was a tomb-stone with 'Unknown' on it. I liked it.

City / Country:
Darmstadt / Germany

Born year:
1971

What was your first computer, and when did you get it?
C-64 / Christmas 1984

How did you get into the scene and what groups have you been a member of ?
In my early Amiga days (October 1987) I simply met a guy in a computer store, who turned out to be Doctor Mabuse (who was rather famous on C-64 for ripping cracks) and who was eager to find an Amiga programmer who could do demos / intros to take his fame (chuckle, chuckle) further to the Amiga. We formed D.O.C and Esteban (who was a class-mate from me) joined on the same day as graphic artist. When a friend of mine and myself took Doctor Mabuse to his first Disco-visit one day, he met his first girlfriend there. That was the end of D.O.C since Doctor Mabuse was occopied with new friends, and his girl-friend. It took really 100% of his time, so outer world contact was lost to D.O.C.

Since then I've written 1 or 2 intros / demos for D-TECT, but have not been in any group.

What was the proudest moment in your career ?
When I saw that my initiales (M.K.) were still in the Pro-Tracker format description after more than 5 years, and was published in a book !!! That made me immortal (somehow).
The romour that Mahony and Kaktus put their handles in is simply ridiculous. They would have used M&K or something similar.

For what specific reason(s) do you think that you are remembered ?
Good, robust coding when nobody could (or would) do better in the early Amiga days. Silly scrolltexts in our products. Pro-Tracker enhancement to 31 instruments (instead of 15).

What would you like to be remembered for ?
Good, robust coding. Honesty. Friendship, not scene-managment.

What made you stop the scene activity ? (and do you remember when?)
Lack of good contacts, had to earn money to live.

Thinking back on the good old days, is there anything you regret?
Not having been on too many copy-parties which were fun (well, at least 20% of them, the other 80% were filled with arogant coders who wouldn't share their knowledge)

What was your favorite
GAME(S)
Commando (C-64), DarkMere (Amiga / CoreDesign) (would like to have DarkMere crack with working Amiga emulator)

DEMO(S)
Can't remember any names, sorry

PROGRAMMER(S) (OR PROGRAMMING TEAM(S))
The Light-Circle (earliest Amiga days, known now as Factor 5 (at least some of them)), HQC

CRACKER(S) (OR CRACKING GROUP(S))
HQC (working cracks), TRSI (fast, and almost every time working)

OVERALL GROUPS :
TRSI

COMPOSER(S)
Rob Hubbard (games), Romeo Knight (TRSI)

BEST COMPOSED TRACK(S)
Can't remember any more, too long ago now.

BEST GRAPHICS
Can't remember any names, but I think Coughar was good.

EVENT(S) (E.G. COPYPARTY)
CeBit in Hannover / Germany, where hundreds of Coders met, and gave away invitations to copy-parties

DRINK ?
Peach-Ice-Tea (non alcoholic) / Blind Cow (candy liquer (10%) with milk (90%))

What are you doing nowadays ?
Programming games for a small german company (Sunflowers)

What are you doing on your spare time?
Playing computer games, having a good time with my girlfriend, making music (Synthesizers, not computer sound card shit)

Is there anything you'd like to say to the public (read: admires)
Have a good time, share knowledge, pentium optimize your code (with VTune from Intel), do 32bit code please

What is the meaning of life?
To have fun.