The Assassin

Written by Brume

1) Introduction
2) First Atari ST
3) Beginning
4) Birth of Adrenalin UK
5) Entering The British Alliance
6) Demos
7) JimB, SainT author
8) Favorite games and demos
9) Stopping ADR-UK
10) Activities
11) About the scene
12) Opinion about emulators
13) Current projects
14) Last words

Adrenalin UK CD 31 - The pic was digitized by Spaceman Spiff using Amiga

Northside CD 3

Out Of Order CD 35

Adrenalin UK Module Disk 1 - The main work was done by Mac Error of Adrenalin UK, but soundtrack routines were created by MSD of POV

Adrenalin UK CD 29

Mookie & The Assassin's favorite game is on Adrenalin UK CD 38.

That famous megademo by The Lost Boys features an awesome animation :)

This funny picture has never been used on any menu (unless it's coming from a PD disk?)

Adrenalin UK CD 42

Adrenalin UK CD 35a

Another unreleased picture. Take a look: the dragon is playing with an Atari machine!

Another unreleased picture.

1) Hello Adrenalin UK. Could you introduce yourself (job, passion,...)?
Mookie: I'm 28 and I'm unemployed (completed HND Computing in 2000) but not worked since. Currently medically sick with a step 3 dislocation of a clavical (mountain bike accident). When not playing with console stuff, my passion is mountain biking, but not ridden since accident in June.
The Assassin: Hi there! I am 26 years old and now work as a sound engineer for bands. My passions are music (nothing can beat that!) and recently, a renewed interest in the Atari ST and Amiga scenes.


2) When did you start in the world of the Atari ST?
Mookie: My school got Atari STs in for doing CAD etc. when I was about 12 years old so that first introduced me to the machine.
The Assassin: I first saw an Atari when I was about 14 years old (probably even younger) at our local youth club. A guy there was playing Xenon and it blew me away! At the time I had a Spectrum +3 and I just knew that I had to get my hands on an ST. A friend of mine bought an ST first and I followed later in the year. My machine was a half-meg STFM which I soon upgraded to 1mb!!


3) What was the first crew you entered in?
Mookie: I evvolved in Northside under the nick of Mani. This was set up by me and a mate who used to visit the local computer club. This is where we were first introduced to game menu compilations (Automation / Medway Boys) and demo compilations (Persistence Of Vision) by Mac System Data (POV). A few other local lads used to help with graphics whilst MSD gave us some basic menu code etc. in assembler to look over and learn from.
The Assassin: The first proper crew that I entered into was Out of Order. I had built up some good contacts around the world and I joined OOO as a spreader. Things fell apart in the group and I then joined ADR. I had also been in a couple of very small groups prior to OOO called The Bomb Squad and Wizards of Earthsea. We produced a few mods disks and a couple of utilities disks...... these are probably now long gone!!!


4) When did you create Adrenalin UK? Why?
The Assassin: Mookie is the best guy to answer this one as I didn't actually start ADR (actually, I'm not sure Mookie did either). Mookie asked me to join the group as a spreader, and we set up a PO Box together for all the mail from our contacts. This was around 1992 I guess, but by then we were up to around menu 30.
Mookie: I think it was 1992. The idea was to merge another group from Cheshire that we swapped our stuff with and work together rather than repeating packing same titles etc. Main members from the other group were The Monster Beetle and Mac Error but I can't remember their original group name or handles.


5) When did you join The British Alliance? How was the relationship with other crews?
Mookie: The idea was to work together, share ideas for menu code, packing routines and distribution. In reality I don't think it worked. I gave away much of Mac Sys Data menu code and my trap #1 pack routines and guides to packing etc. but received very little in return. I did like some of the work the TBA members did though, CID did some nice menu code and The Lemmings were always promising although they were releasing old stuff.


6) I know you produced some modules disks, but did you do some demos or take part in megademo?
The Assassin: As far as I'm aware we didn't create any demos or screens for megademos. Towards the end of the ST scene Mookie produced a few single game cracks and we did the module disks, but nothing more.
Mookie: We attended The Great British Coding Party organised by Ripped Off in Bradford along with other people like Delta Force, Ben from Chaos, Untouchables, Cynix, Andy The Arfling and Mug UK to name a few. Our intention was to produce a screen for the competition but due to computer problems etc. whilst at the show, we could not complete. I think I ended up ripping music for Fingerbobs to use in his screen, discussing ripping techniques with Mug UK and even doing a ADR comp whilst there.
The show was fun. Couldn't sleep for 3 days for noise but everyone was having a laugh and it was nice to put faces to handles etc. from right across Europe, not just the UK.


7) About JimB (SainT author). He was a member of ADR UK, but I wasn't able to see his name on your production. What did he do exactly?
Mookie: I never really knew much about JimB (Rogue I think was his handle). He joined ADR very late in the game, at the point where I had quit doing the game menus and was working on the PD menu packs instead. I moved house a few times and did not receive replies to my letters sent to Mac Error and The Monster Beetle. I believe he was meant to be a menu coder etc. I've chatted to JimB since then, and he's now busy writing commercial games on Gameboy Advance.


8) What's your favorite(s) game(s)? And which demo(s) do you prefer on the Atari?
Mookie: Games - most of them bored me, hence I preferred to pack them etc. but back in its day Dyna Blaster (now known as Bomberman on consoles was good), the old Sensible Soccer had me playing a lot too, as did Dungeon Master, Chaos Strikes Back, Wings Of Death (great digi drum music), Elite and Lemmings (2D worked so much better than 3D).
Demos - I think The Lost Boys - Ooh Crikey, Wot A Scorcher had some nice screens in it. Also the one demo they did featuring The CareBears that gets cut up with a chainsaw. What group was Griff from? Did he not do a 'Things Not To Do Demo' featuring the Interntional Karate guys? Thought it was very funny. Delta Force and Chaos did some nice things too towards end of the ST's life, no names that I can remember though.
The Assassin: Oooh..... my favourite games have got to be....... this is a hard one!!....... Lethal Xcess, Goblins, Lure of the Temptress, Dyna Blaster and F15 Strike Eagle II. My favourite demos are the BIG Demo (so many tunes!), The Union Demo, Froggies Over The Fence and Ooh Crikey Wot A Scorcher.


9) When did you stop coding on the Atari ST? Why?
Mookie: ST was just about dead in 1994. The Japanese had invaded with Super Nintendo / Mega Drive and ST just didn't have the games or interest left any more. Couple that with moving house a lot etc. the ST never came out the box except for a few years later when I was working on finishing off some packs I'd started, but then my HDD failed and I lost all my hacking tools and code so I just totally quit and sold STs at that point to friends wanting them for Midi and Cubase.
The Assassin: Never coded on the ST, but I stopped doing spreading etc. around 1994. All my contacts seemed to leave the scene at the same time, and the only guys who were there at the end were Hektik of Supremacy, and DBug doing menus and Cynix doing cracks. I knew it was all over when I first started seeing the Cynix cracks with Taz at the start saying "Is This The End?"......... When this happened I bought an Amiga (I still kept my ST!!) and then a SNES. However, I found the Amiga scene to be totally obsessed with "0 day warez" as they called it, and also very selfish. The ST scene wanted to help everybody.... the Amiga scene did not. I, along with others such as The Caffeine Kid of Neon Lights (Hi, Andy!!) used to go along to a local computer club every Wednesday evening to get the latest software. The club was great until about 1993, when the number of Amigas there seemed to outnumber the ST's by quite a lot. In the end, there were only about 3 STs there each week. The club finally got raided by the police for piracy............. All these things, and the general demise of the ST scene just made me quit and lose interest.


10) Are you still active in the Atari scene?
Mookie: NO, moved onto PS2 console now. Hoping to do a PS2 Demo Screen.
The Assassin: I'm not active on the ST scene anymore although I always download new menus, doc disks etc. from websites to add to my collection. I have the usual collection of menus etc. at home on my PC. I'm also getting very much into eBay where people auction all their old computer equipment etc. I've bought a few ST games on there recently, the latest of which was Operation Stealth (it cost be £2 !!!).


11) What do you think of the current scene?
Mookie: I know nothing about current ST scene if there is one. I only know about console scene as I help administrate / moderate console-news
The Assassin: The current scene is fantastic. I think that people of my age and slightly older always want to relate back to their childhood or teenage years, and the current ST scene helps us do that!! I feel really strange when I write on message boards as The Assassin, but it also brings back memories of some great days and some great characters. It's also great to see people such as D-Bug creating new menus compils.


12) What's your opinion about emulators?
Mookie: Great things, if someone converts SainT to the Xbox then I'll probably compile an Adrenalin UK collection DVD. Would be nice to look at them again.
The Assassin: Well, what can I say! Emulators are fantastic, cheap and very efficient!! 10 years ago I had hundreds of disks taking up lots of room on my shelves...... now I have a hard drive and a few CDs with the same amount of data on them!! I use emulators quite a lot, but if there's a game that I am really going to play a lot I'll take the time to put it back onto an ST floppy using Makedisk and play it the proper way.


13) What's your current project? You seem to be really active on the Internet.
Mookie: $ony Play Station 2 Console
1st Project : was the ADR Patcher a simple tool to search and replace HEX in images. Specific job was to remove EA checks from games to allow people to make backups to play on NEO-based mod chips.
2nd Project : was a video mode change routine to convert PAL games to NTSC in order to run on USA / Jap machines.
New project : recruited a new demo coder who is currently working on a PS2 Demo Screen using PS2 Linux.
The Assassin: I don't have any computer projects at the moment, as most of my time is spent with bands doing music stuff. I also run my own small record label, so that takes up a lot of time too.


14) Some last words to add?
Mookie: I apologise to any ex-Adrenalin member or old contact if they'd tried writing to me and not had a response. I must have moved about 6 times since 1994 if not more and would not want them to think I'm ignoring them.
Luckily we now have e-mail so anyone from the old days can contact me at: mookie@adr-uk.com
I wish all the old crews and contacts all the best.
The Assassin: I'd just like to say "Hi" to all my old friends and contacts on the ST scene especially Mookie (ADR) and The Caffeine Kid (Neon Lights). Also, there must be SO MANY STs up there in people's attics..... get them out and see what disks you all have!! There must be loads of Shaolin Masters menus, for example, in the North of England as I personally spread lots of them!! Also, many thanks to Brume for this great website and everyone else who contributes to the scene in whatever way.........

Thanks for all. Hope to see you soon