Interview with Jools Smyth (ExoticA) - Editor: Andreas Stürmer
All know them, many got them, a few played them... the good old
classic games like Gianna Sisters, Ilyad or Uridium. But where to
get infos, NI-icons, music or a high quality gamebox scan for all
the classics? ***ExoticA*** is the answer... How old are you and where do you live? I'm 25, and I live in Oxford, England. Since when are you involved in the Amiga scene and what was the
reason why you've chosen this fabulous computer system? Got my Amiga 500 in about 1990, after much saving. I had been
using friends Amigas for a couple of years previously, and I just
HAD to get one of my own. The incredible Music, Graphics, Demos,
Games, etc. It was a totally new experience. What is you private computer config? I currently have a little Amiga LAN including my
A500,A1200/030,A2000/060,A3000/060,A4000T/060 and some other
things. I suppose the A4000T is my main machine, and contains
most of the expansion cards (Cybervision64/3D, Toccata, X-Surf).
I am also actively using my C64, and have a collection of other
systems including some of the machines I used before Amiga
(Dragon 32, Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, Spectrum 48k+, Sinclair QL
and so on.) Your website ***ExoticA*** got very large the past years. How did
you get that large amount of gamebox scans, informations and
especially all the music files? Most of the game boxes belong to a couple of friends who
contribute to the site. Both of them have collections with over
1000 boxes. My own collectoin is somewhat smaller with currently
around 250 titles. Some of the information areas on ExoticA are
also from other people such as Scenery demo scene guide. There is
a credits page at exotica where you can see some information
about the various people who help. The music comes from my own
collection and others. Did you manage all the work alone or do you have some people how
help you? I started it with a friend from sweden who helped me with server
space and some of the earlier gfx (A few which are still used).
Since then many people have contacted me and contributed lots of
information, music, graphics and so on. Certainly without the
great support I have got, the site would never have been as big
as it is today. As I mentioned in the last answer most of the
people who help can be found on the credits page. Those who
contribute various small files and so on are normally credited on
the news page which has archives since 1997 when I started the
site. What exactly can we find on your website http://exotica.fix.no ? Information about Amiga games, music (Mostly the more exotic
audio formats - see site for more information), game box scans,
Amiga demo scene information and releases from groups, some old
utils, diskmags, and much more. Soon to be opened is another
music area which will contain all the Game Music not currently on
the site. This new area already contains about 170 meg of music. How much work, how many years of work are behind ***ExoticA*** ? So far 4 years. Started in October 1997. I don't have any plans
to stop working on it either :) What do you think of the current position of the Amiga? Well, it's still a very popular computer, with a good following
of users, developers and so on. Small market, but still much used
by hobbysts and people like me :) What's your oppinion about PPC hardware, PCI Boards and all that
stuff? Well I suppose PCI busboards enables access to cheap gfx
cards/ethernet etc. There is not that much in the way of Amiga
specific gfx cards being made anymore, and Ariadne-2 and X-surf
are not that cheap.. I can only say from my own personal opinion,
I have no need for PCI. Although I have considered a few times
getting a PPC coprocessor card, but the price normally changes my
mind :) Do you think the AmigaOne will make his way better than the
Amigas before? I dont think it will have the same impact as the Amiga first did
no. But I do not reflect the market in anyway, as I do my own
thing. Perhaps it will do very well, perhaps not. All I know, is
that currently I have no plans to get one. I think I have at
least 50 years worth of stuff to put on ExoticA, and perhaps
after that it will be time to retire :) Probably no time to get a
new machine :) You are on IRC too, please tell us where to find you... #amigaexotic on IRCNet How else can people get in contact with you? Email: buzz@totem.fix.no Thanks for answering! You are most welcome. Thanks for taking an interest in the
ExoticA project :) Regards buzz
