GETTING OLD...
~DROPS.FIL~
                        *** Age and the Scene ***

Peacefully smoking a Marlboro just a few seconds ago, a strange thought 
crossed my mind. We're getting old. Yeah, ofcourse, it's a natural thing to 
happen, but it struck me that I've been the youngest in our cosy Dutch 
scene for over three years now. (Throwing in another CD, please wait a 
minute...) (Just threw in 'Voodoo People', the latest masterpiece by the 
Prodigy, is that okay with you?) In the old days (getting a bit senile, 
indeed) it seemed perfectly normal to me that I was the youngest, because I 
always was the youngest at almost all things I did. But as I come near to 
adult age, I see younger people at everything I do, except in the computer 
scene. I see younger people in the discos, younger people in the soccer 
stadium, younger peoples at vacation in Spain, even at the DJ's shop (not 
that I am a DJ, but I like hanging around there). Is this a definitive sign 
the scene is dying, or is it pure coincidence?


As I come to think of it, practically nobody new has entered the scene for 
a year or two now. We've had great times the last two years, and probably 
will see some more good times the next decade or so, but it's relying on 
the massive input from a few guys, who will inevitably get less and less 
time to do their under-valued work, because they will get a job to do, a 
girl to look after, or anything else they'll value higher than their 
computers.


This means that the fundamental part of the scene (the freaks) is getting 
smaller, and thus weaker. And everyone knows what the problem is with weak 
fundaments, the building upon them will collapse one day or another. Unless 
the people living in the building come down to do something about it. Who 
is living on our shoulders? I guess it's Atari Corp. But knowing how little 
interest they have shown regarding the scene, I don't think they'll bother 
to take the elevator down and help us. The users? Without the scene, a lot 
of applications for the Atari wouldn't have existed, and practically none 
would be developed today. But the nature of users is to consume, in order 
to receive short-term satisfaction. The long-term effect of their behaviour 
(demo's are stupid games you can't even play) doesn't concern them, they 
don't want to see what kind of hard work is being done voluntarily. Just a 
very small amount of people changes from being a user into being a freak, 
and, as I've pointed out before, this group is utterly small at the moment.


Writing this text makes me feel sad, realizing that the Atari scene is 
going to die. Atari Corp is only interested in the Jaguar, and has left the 
opportunity to get a share of the exploding home computer market to others, 
mostly to that awful conspiracy of companies who are building business 
machines, which everyone will use as a games machine, and therefore have to 
pay twice as much to convert their business machine into a games machine.


I shouldn't drink any more vodka now. Ah, whatta fuck, just a few hours to 
go and I should do something useful in the time between now and then, now 
shouldn't I?

I must add here that I hate:

-Atari Corp (for being so ignorant)
-Atari users (for being arrogant and consumptive)
-PC companies (for making everyone believe that compatibility is important)
-Commodore (for having success in a market which should've been for Atari)
-Atari Corp (for building a great machine and then abandoning it)
-Atari Corp (for building a games machine, even though I don't wanna play)
-Atari Corp (for being stupid in general)
-PC users (for believing that compatibility is important)
-Atari users (for starting to believe that compatibility is important)
-PC users (for trying to make me believe the compatibility bit)


Because all of the Smirnoff has now left the bottle, and I'm tired of 
writing this text, I will now leave and socialise with non-computer 
friends, who are good friends to me because of their incompatibility.


(three days later remark: I found this text on my harddisk, although I 
thought that I had deleted it, or at least did not save it. The Tempus 
auto-save seems to be drunken-idiot-proof, though, and I've been busy for 
over an hour now, trying to correct the spelling mistakes and style errors 
I made while being drunk. I include a copy of the last alinea to show you 
what I mean:


Bcaus the botle is now empty of Smirnoff, and I'm tyred of writig this 
tekst, I will now leeve and sociaalyse with no-computer friend, who are 
good friends becaus of their incomptibility.


Who ever said that the drunk and the French speak the same language?
Sorry, no offence meant.)

Have a break, have a Glue Dog.


HAVOC IN 1994.

WRITE TO:
HAVOC/GIANTS
RAVENSTRAAT 4
6909 DV BABBERICH
THE NETHERLANDS

~BLEU.PAL~