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Murphy / Lore of Arts,
Trance,
Alpha Flight 1970
Added on November 26th, 2010 (4649 views)
www.c64.com?type=3&id=239
Tell us something about yourself.
Hi, my name is Klaus Leopold. I was born in Austria and I studied computer science and received a PhD in technical science. Currently I'm the CTO of a Web 2.0 company and I'm living in Vienna, Austria.
What handle(s) did you use and how did you come up with it/them?
I only had one handle which was Murphy. Later I was referred to as The Murphy. The story behind my handle? I loved Eddie Murphy movies and I simply liked "Murphy".
What group(s) were you in?
Lore of Arts (LOA), Trance, and Alpha Flight 1970 (AFL).
What roles have you fulfilled?
I'd call myself a passionate intro coder. I really enjoyed watching and coding intros. Furthermore, I was a cracker and NTSC fixer.
How long were you active for?
I believe it was from 1990 to 1996. I can't fixate the dates because it was a slow start and a slow end.
Tell us about those years and how you got into the scene in the first place.
I joined Lore of Arts as a rookie. I was about 13 years and I was really into improving my coding skills writing simple stuff like scrollers. With time, I got into coding intros, small games and tools. When I got my Action Replay cartridge, things got much easier. I started to train games and when I got hold of originals, I became a cracker. After joining Alpha Flight 1970, Marc gave me a NTSC chip and I started fixing games.
Describe a typical day for you in front of the computer.
I went to my P.O. Box after school with hope of finding new mail from my friends. I had lunch, turned on the computer and did some weird computer stuff like cracking games, watching and coding intros as well as reading/writing messages from/to my fellows until late at night.
Did you personally invent any special techniques or tools to make things easier for you?
Well, nothing exciting really. I coded some tools like a charset animator (which puts nice animation effects into a simple charset), a char expander (that expands 1x1 charsets into 1x2 or 2x1) and a sinus maker (which creates nice sinus curves that can be used for DYCP’s and so on).
When you look at what you did back then, what are you most proud of?
When I studied computer science, I had a lecture in operating systems. It was at this point I realized that what I did when I was 14 years old was pretty advanced. That made me proud indeed.
Who were your heroes on the scene and why?
I really liked the stuff from Antitrack. I think he was one of the best crackers in the scene.
What, for you, was the coolest thing ever invented on the C64?
Difficult question... Hmm... Turbo Assembler kicked ass. :)
Did you go to any copy-parties, meetings or tradeshows?
I visited some local meetings but I have no good memories from going to parties. When I travelled to The Computer Crossroad with Sneaper/F4CG, Mr. Alpha/F4CG, Charlie/Varsity and his girlfriend, we had a horrible car accident. Charlie died and Mr. Alpha was badly injured.
In your opinion, what was the scene all about?
I think it was basically having fun and playing around with technology in a creative way.
What were the particular highlights for you?
There were a lot of cool groups I couldn’t wait to see new stuff from! I remember that Crest’s demos always were ass-kicking cool!
Any cool stories to share with us?
Well, probably not so cool but when I held a lecture in operating systems, I noticed that my students didn't have real understanding of what an OS is all about. I brought my trusty C64 to class and showed them what a computer with a, let's say, minimalistic OS looks like. With wide eyes, the students watched me type a code snippet that got a beep sound out of this historical machine. And suddenly I felt very, very old. :) For the next semester, I decided to leave the C64 at home.
Are you still in contact with any old C64 people today?
Yes, I have some friends on Facebook but unfortunately that’s about it.
When did you get your C64 and do you still have it lying around somewhere?
I got my first C64 when I was 10 years old, and yes, it's still lying around somewhere.
Was the C64 really as special as we like to think it was?
I think it was a real "competition computer" in the sense that there was just one piece of hardware that everyone had access to. On modern machines, you can always upgrade hardware. Also, I think that we the people made the C64 special, so in that sense, it was very special. ;)
When can we expect to see some new C64 output from you? :)
Oh my goodness... I'd really like to but I think I’ve unlearnt everything!
Do you have a message for your old contacts and/or anyone reading this?
This Flight Will Never Stop!
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