Hello Cocy, could you please do a small introduction of yourself to our readers?
Hi, back in the early nineties I was known as Cocy, the main coder and organizer in Pure Metal Coders. I spent most of my spare time coding on the Amiga, this also turned out some demos. Today I work with programming 3D graphics which is pretty much an extension of what I did in the good old days.
When did you get interested in computers, and what was your first computer?
Oh, it was at such an early age that it is difficult to pin point, but probably from the moment I saw computers, probably on TV. So I would say at least from 5-6 years old. I was way into coding by 3rd grade. My first computer was a Commodore 64.
What Amiga(s) did you have in the past and if you remember, what were the(ir) configuration(s)?I had an Amiga 500 almost from the day it was released. And later on an Amiga 1200. I think I had a 33MB harddrive hooked up to the Amiga 500, then a 120MB and then later on a 1GB HD in the Amiga 1200.
Do you still have any Amiga(s) today or did you get rid of them?
The Amiga 1200 is still in attic.
Can you tell us how you got involved with the demoscene?
That's a tough one, there was no single moment, but it must have been related to seeing demos on the Commodore 64 at an early age and having an unstoppable craving for coding, so I just had to make them myself.
Do you remember any of the tools you used back then when creating demos, as well as process you guys had behind creating a production?
Seka, Devpac and Asm-One come the to mind. Seka in the ealy days and later on devpac was used for the larger productions. I'm sure there were other tools for graphics and such, but can't remember what that was. As for the process, not very structured I think. Spaghetti code comes to mind, but we got a lot of experience doing it from an early age which came very handy later in professional life. Something I think the current generation of programmers completely lack.
You are known in the scene as the coder behind the legendary Alpha & Omega demo. Could you tell us a bit about the story behind this demo? as well as nr 2.
At the time we were experimenting a lot with math, fractals and 3D graphics, and I wanted to put everything in there so we could show the world what we had accomplished, and I also felt others were beating us to the game, especially the "The Hunt for 7th October" demo from Cryptoburners. It was really nagging me, and I felt my own people didn't think we were capable of such things. So I wanted to make these demos with the sole purpose to win competitions and show that we could do the same and even more than others. Oh I should also mention I made my very own 3D editor to generate the 3D models and camera animations. At the end of nr.1 there is a fractal zooming into a PMC logo that repeats itself, I never saw that in any other demo at the time, and I'm not sure anyone understood how that was made. I think that was the greatest accomplishment, and it was certainly brand new. Maybe we should have put that at the start and not the end of the demo :-)
You also did several other productions back then, what do you consider your best work?
Mesmerized is the one that I think brought us into the limelight and made us known. It also contained some interference patterns that was new, at least not exploited in this manner before. And it was directly a result of learning about light interference at high school, and realizing this could be used with the way bitmap layers were organised on the Amiga. By simply manipulating some registers on the copper and setting up the colors right.
Is there any production you wish you had not created or perhaps there is a production you wish you had done differently?
Certainly nothing I regret creating and can't really remember anything I would do differently.
Can you tell us why you decide to leave the scene when you did?
I never made a decision to actively leave the scene. I made the A&O II demo just before going to the army, so that forced me off the scene for almost a year. Two days after leaving the army I started at the university, and was exposed to the Unix terminals and the internet, and found it intriguingly interesting. I may have had thoughts of creating something, but the big motivation were gone. I still used the Amiga for some years, but after Commodore went bankrupt which was a true shock, there was no going back for me.
Can you tell us if you remember, what you considered the best Amiga demos back when you were active?
Judging from the time they were released and what was the standard at the time and the impact it had on me I would say, as mentioned "The Hunt for 7th October" by Cryptoburners as it nagged me and motivated me to go up and above with my own productions. "Phenomena" by Enigma as it had superb music and 3D graphics I thought was great and wanted to have in my own demos. And "State of the Art" from Spaceballs which had something new which I really admired.
Are you still coding anything today? if so, what and on which platforms?
I'm not coding much in my spare time, it is difficult to get the time with 4 kids and motivation when you program all day at work. At work it is Windows
and OpenGL/vulkan.
Have you followed the Amiga or the demoscene at all since leaving the scene when you did? If yes, what do you think of the state of the scene today?
No, not at all. I was hardly aware that there was a scene still going on until you asked me about this interview :-).
Have you ever consider doing any demoscene work again, either on Amiga or modern platforms?
Not for many years, I would like to make a free game though and I probably will one of these days.. :-).
What do you feel you got out of the whole experience of being active in the Amiga demoscene? for example, did it lead you to code professionally in any way?
Oh yes, it had an overall impact on my later life. I would not even be the same person. You can't spend all those countless hours behind your monitor coding and claim it had no impact on you. I am a professional programmer/coder today and I probably would have been regardless of the scene years, but I came with years of experience at an early age that you can never make up for later in life. At least that is my claim.
Is 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 greet Zorax, Lord Helmet, Zapper, Vanguard, Ramjet, Peter, Silmarillion, Onar, Metalking, Designer and the late Flush bless his memory.
Also some last words, I must say it is a bit emotional for me to talk about this period as it was quite all consuming at the time and then it was quite suddenly all gone and I put it all behind me and have not really talked about it afterwards.
That is the end of this interview, thanks for taking the time to do it Cocy, I am sure our readers will appreciate it 
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