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Yip / Pure-Byte
Added on September 24th, 2004 (17276 views)
www.c64.com?type=3&id=146
Tell us something about yourself.
Petrik Salovaara, formerly known as Jori Olkkonen, age 35. Birth place: Helsinki, Finland and I currently live in Espoo (also Finland). Birth date: October 23, 1968. I'm currently working as a Software Developer and Project Manager in a company making software for managing employee resources (www.solotes.fi). Interests: computer games, rock and metal music, tennis/squash/badminton and raising my kid.
What handle(s) did you use and how did you come up with it/them?
Back in the good old days my handle was Yip. I have no idea how I came up with it! In the mid 1990's, my Quake-scene handle was Lemon, derived from a U2 song. My current handle on the IRC-scene is Trikki, derived from my new first name Petrik.
What group(s) were you in?
Pure-Byte.
What roles have you fulfilled?
I was a musician, coder and swapper.
How long were you active for?
From 1983 to 1990.
Tell us about those years and how you got into the scene in the first place.
Back in the beginning of the 80's, I lived with my mother in a small town called Hämeenlinna. She bought me a VIC20 for my 13th birthday, but soon after, I realised that the C64 was much better and begged and begged until I got one. I then started swapping games with a few pen-pals, one being Timppa from Pure-Byte. He lived in Helsinki some 100 kilometres away. One weekend my dad took me to visit him, which resulted in me joining Pure-Byte. Soon after I started to make music and code my own demos. My first release was called Fifth Dream About Happiness, which contains my own composition and some knight-rider lights in the middle of the screen.
Describe a typical day for you in front of the computer.
Playing games, copying floppies, making music, coding demos... In fact, a typical day in front of the computer looks quite the same these days. No floppy disks though.
Did you personally invent any special techniques or tools to make things easier for you?
I coded my own music routine and editor called Mega Sound. It was published in the Finnish C64 magazine C=Lehti.
When you look at what you did back then, what are you most proud of?
That would have to be the music in Jukka Tapanimäki's game Netherworld. I coded a new music routine especially for that game. I believe it was the first C64 music routine in the whole world that was capable of playing four sampled sounds simultaneously. I made it because I wanted to introduce heavy metal sounds in C64 tunes. The song featured two sampled channels for distorted guitars, one channel for bass and one for drums. Later when the game was ported to the Amiga, some idiot ported my masterpiece and totally ruined the heavy metal ideology. Why, oh why didn't they ask me to do the job? Well, a few weeks after the game was released on the Amiga, I ported the song myself and released it on the scene.
Who were your heroes on the scene and why?
Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway and Jeroen Tel were of course the best composers. I also admired brilliant coders like Stavros Fasoulas, Jukka Tapanimäki and Mario Van Zeist.
What, for you, was the coolest thing ever invented on the C64?
No doubt, borderless scrolling introduced by 1001 Crew.
Did you go to any copy-parties, meetings or tradeshows?
Yes. The most memorable trip was to London with Boys Without Brains. We always had fun at the Byterapers parties!
In your opinion, what was the scene all about?
Hanging with friends, having fun, playing games, learning how to make use of a computer. I believe that many of us old-timers are now making a good living out of working in the computer industry. For me, it would not have been possible without the scene and the C64, it kind of bred me into the programming business.
What were the particular highlights for you?
Oooh, there were so many brilliant demos and cool events. It's really hard to pick just one.
Any cool stories to share with us?
As I told you earlier, I travelled to the PCW show in 1987 together with Boys Without Brains. I had a brand new music routine and editor with me that I'd been working on for several months. My plan was to show it to important persons and hope that they'd get interested (and in the end, hire me). The problem was that I hadn't made any backups of the diskette before I started my trip, so the floppy lying in my bag was the only copy. Brilliant thinking! Anyways, I put the box containing the disk in a plastic bag and went to the show. At some point I had to go to the toilet so I gave the bag to Mario Van Zeist. When I came back a few minutes later, Mario had lost the bag somehow. He was very sorry about what had happened, and when we got back to Mario's home in Holland, we coded a new music routine together. :)
Are you still in contact with any old C64 people today?
Nowadays I hang around with people from 777-team (http://777-team.org) and Cute Ry (www.cutery.fi/cutery/history.html). I have visited the Assembly party (www.assembly.org) several times where I usually hang around with old-timers like Grendel/Byterapers.
When did you get your C64 and do you still have it lying around somewhere?
I got my first one in 1983. I still have three C64's and two 1541's lying somewhere, but they're all broken. Maybe I'll fix a working set out of them some day.
Was the C64 really as special as we like to think it was?
Yes it was. Well, to me at least.
When can we expect to see some new C64 output from you? :)
No hope there.
Do you have a message for your old contacts and/or anyone reading this?
I've always wanted to know what happened to Arthur van Jole/Boys Without Brains, so drop me a line if you're still alive. We spent some great time together in the late 80's, playing the guitar and sharing the same interests in heavy metal music.
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