Rebirth of Alcatraz by s7ing/Alcatraz
Start of Breakpoint - Start of Alcatraz
Yes, Alcatraz the legendary Amiga group is back in scene life. This time on the PC platform. We have been imprisoned since 1988, tried to escape and lapsed back into crime in 2007.
Some of you will think now: Wow.. great to see them back... Some of you maybe don't even know who that guys are and finally many of you will think now: Oh my god why the hell once again revive an old legendary group. Why did they not start a new group and let the glory of the old times rest in peace?
I am here trying to tell you... Not that I am used to doing this, but I felt to do this. Some sceners also tried to reactivate some old groups on PC like Anarchy or The Silents and failed... Hopefully we will have some more success.. But nobody could guarantee us this.
The scene changed and we have a lot respect to those groups which managed to give us awesome new demos like ASD, Farbrausch, Kewlers, Conspiracy, MFX and so on... Respect to all new groups that are trying to find their place in the scene...
But for me, a scener who has been involved for more than 20 years in the demo scene right now, there are only few groups left which I would like to be in such as Scoopex, Fairlight, TRSI or Nuance.
My heart always beats for Alcatraz. The group in which I was in the middle of the 90's the WHQ organizer up to its end, when our ways split and the Swiss part (founders of ATZ) decided to close down ATZ. Except some years after 1997, I always followed what was going in the demo scene, trying to restart with some smaller groups or being part of the Scoopex & Deviance cooperation which sadly didn't work.
Call me sentimental but Alcatraz is my personal top of the pop groups with real friendsip and fun and seeing the scene as it is. No work or no commercial. It is for sharing the same hobby with sceners wolrdwide, being creative, meeting friends and having fun.
So I tried to talk with PGCS the founder of Alcatraz if I could do a rebirth of my so beloved Alcatraz. And thankfully he allowed (short qoutation of PGCS):
"..We stopped almost everything after Amiga's death and we do not keep to do anything on PC. If you want to release some production on the PC demo scene under the Alcatraz name, as you were a member in the 'great' years, there's no problem for me. I will be happy to see anything that you will release."
As the Swiss members are not making demos on PC, we will try to keep the Alcatraz name. Alcatraz will be a mixture of old ATZ members, old sceners and new motivated and talented people.
Respecting the work all others sceners have done and not to discuss what way it should be. If offline mags are necessary? It is a pleasure for me seeing every kind of production which has been done with love and hard work.
Hopefully we in Alcatraz could hold this spirit and continue having fun with our hobby. We hope that we could be once again productive and not only beeing just part of the scene. Trying to release one or two productions at the Breakpoint 2007, our official start. If it did not work to manage that in time.. Who cares? I know that we are working on some things and that we have reached a lot in this short time. If it will not be BP there will be surely a time where some Alcatraz releases will come up.
It is great to see many new productive groups in the scene but in my opionion groups like TRSI, Scoopex, Andromeda or Fairlight would have to be in the scene even if they produced nothing at all, they are the roots of the scene. And I think Alcatraz has therefore also its place being part of this demo culture. The fascinating thing is that the scene goes on and on. And that is good. We need this mixture of old and new.
What can you expect of Alcatraz in the future? Surely we try to reach our goal realeasing a demo and Mudia Art at the Breakpoint Party 2007. (Sadly we did not manage that in time, but we think we better release a finised version instead of a half finished one. Mudia Art is nearly finished and will find its way to the demo scene after BP.)
And also further productions were planed. But be sure that it would not give an Oddeyssey 2 or an next Compass issue. These productions will still belong to the glory of our past members. Time goes by and probably we could not hold the high standard you maybe wish. But the main reason is to be active, creative and having fun. To this topic some words of Archmage and Hyde / Andromeda (which was published in PAIN #58) could fit here:
"Archmage: ... if we were ever to release a demo on PC or frigging mobile phone for that matter, this would NOT represent the next evolutionary step from Nexus 7. Too many years have passed for that, demos have changed (luckily) and the people who expected Nexus 8 will be disappointed. We are pretty much starting from scratch as a group..."
"Hyde: ...Anyone hoping to relive the days of their youths are living a false hope. What can be done is to take the spirit of the old days and pushing new ground. Consider any successful demo group at its peak: Take their most famous demo and compare it to the one that came after it. It is very likely that they will be different. The lesson to learn from this is that if you like a particular demo, you should watch this demo and not ask for sequel...."
Wise words of respected sceners followed up by:
Axel of Brainstorm about restarting Brainstorm:
"..We know many people outthere don't like ressurrected groups, but we don't care. We are in it for the fun..."
So welcome back Alcatraz! Imprisoned since 1988 with following members so far:
- T$ (Code)
- Chris Dragan (Code)
- Noogman (Gfx)
- H2O (Gfx)
- Lunatique (Gfx)
- Jogeir (Music)
- Powl (Music)
- Virgill (Music)
- Keito (Music)
- s7ing (Editor, Organizing)
Some of them you will find already in other members lists, as actual double members. As Alcatraz worked unofficially in the begining of October 2006 you might think that they have only been in one group.... You went wrong. We try to keep ATZ secret as long as we could to start with two productions for the rebirth.
To high aims, but nevertheless we keep the rebirth date of ATZ for the Breakpoint 2007 and the releases will come - for sure!