Hello Mavey. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Hello, my name is Jarek Wojczakowski, but most people know me as mavey/potion. I live in Poland right now. I started my journey into the Demoscene in 1997 and ended it around 2002, when I switched my focus to games development. In 2006 I founded the mobile games development company Vivid Games together with my friend Remi. I am 38 years old, I have a wonderful family and focus on management in our company.
When did you get interested in computers, and what was your first computer?
I became interested in computers when I was 12 years old. I sold my motorbike to buy my first computer, a Commodore 64
. I started programming in basic when I was 13. In a magazine, I found an article about assembler and tried to learn it from 4 lines of code and a cartridge with a disassembler. I wrote numbers in hex and tried to understand how the CPU would handle it
. It was very hard to learn without the internet or tons of documentation, but I tought myself very quickly and fell in love with assembler
.
What Amiga(s) did you have in the past and if you remember, what were the(ir) configuration(s)?
My first Amiga was an A600 with an additional 1mb chip memory. I started programming on it, but it was too slow for c2p routines in 256 colors. That’s why my first intro was in 16 colours. After two years I finally bought an A1200 with an 8mb fast ram card. I was now able to create "normal" intros. Because Skipp had an A1200 with a 030 card, I could test our intros on his machine. After winning some demo compos I was finally able to buy myself an 030/40mHz Blizzard card and prepare Gush. My next card was 040/40 and finally after winning with Gift i could buy a PPC card. I came from a poor home, that’s why my only way to have a better machine was to prepare great intro(s) and win a price
.
Do you still have any Amiga(s) today? If yes, which ones and what configuration(s)
I still have my Amiga 1200 with PPC and a BVision card.
Can you tell us how you got involved with the demoscene?
My friend Sator from school told me about the demoscene. We started our first group called Victims, then changed to Potion.
Can you tell us how Potion was formed?
There is not a big story behind it. As I said I meet Sator. He introduced me to the Demoscene and showed me some intros and demos on his A1200. After a few weeks I meet Nelson and Skipp. We decided to rename the group from Victims to Potion. I spent a lot of time with Skipp, working on our first intros and music generator.
Do you remember any of the tools you used back then when creating productions, as well as the process you guys had behind creating a production?
Yes sure, the most important tool at the beginning was AsmOne
, Graphics artists used Deluxe Paint and Lightwave. After several months of development we created our own tools to generate sound / textures or even 3D objects. During the creation of Planet potion, Diamond made our own assembler for power pc
.
What would you consider your best production?
I’m proud of all my productions, but two of them are the best I think. First is Gift - it’s IMHO one of the best classic Amiga intros. We spent a lot of time and effort with Skipp to get generated music, textures and realtime raytracing. Second is of course Planet Potion. We spent more than one year to prepare all the tools to create this intro. It was an awesome journey. I learned a lot!
Can you tell us why you decided to leave the scene when you did?
Main reason was lack of time. I started working in the games industry and focused on that.
Can you tell us if you remember, what you considered the best Amiga demos back when you were active?
IMHO the best Amiga demos were from TBL (internationally) and Floppy in Poland. I also loved the demos from Ephidrena, their feeling and climate was awesome!
Are you still coding anything today? If so, what and on which platforms?
Yes sure, but not at Vivid Games. I started my journey with IoT devices. I am programming in C++ on ESP8266 and Javascript on the server side. I am developing a smart home system for my reef aquarium
.
Have you followed the Amiga or the demoscene at all since leaving? If yes, what do you think of the state of the scene today?
I’m watching demos from parties some times. We are still waiting for good competitors in 64kb
.
Have you ever considered doing any demoscene work again, either on Amiga or modern platforms?
Maybe, it depends of my free time… time is limited and I want to do different things; it means that I need to choose the right ones. Right now I’m not choosing the Demoscene but who knows...
Are there anyone from back then you would like to send some greetings to? Or perhaps you have some other last words?
I would like to thank you very much and all the guys I worked with in the demoscene, especially Skipp.
That is the end of this interview, thanks for taking the time to do it Mavey, I am sure our readers will appreciate it .
