Real name: Andreas Falkenhahn DAD: Please introduce yourself first to our readers. Who are
you when you're not writing programs for Amiga? What are your
main hobbies and interests? AF: Well, of course my main hobby and interest is everything
that deals with computers, preferrably Commodore ones :-) But I
also have some other hobbies like performing classical music on
my piano or on the organ (in church!). I'm also very much
interested in watching cool movies and TV shows, Married...
with children, Talespin and Jesse to name but three. DAD: Developing shareware and freeware programs for Amiga is
probably only your hobby. What do you do for living? AF: Well, luckily I'm still a student so I have kinda much time
to code and don't have to work full time to get around. But to
answer your question: the money I earn with my shareware
programs are far away from the wage of a steel worker, so if I
would not be a student, I would have to work somewhere to get
around in life... DAD: Which was your first Amiga and when did you get it? Was it
your first computer? When did you start programming? AF: I got my first Amiga kinda late, it was in 1993 and it was
only an A500. As there were a lot of jump'n'run games for it I
spent a whole year playing them and as Aladdin was released, I
bought an A1200 in early 1995. Then games became rare so I
started to do something else with my Amiga. And that was...
programming. DAD: Which Amigas and other computers do you currently own? AF: Luckily I own a lot of Amigas: One A1200 with a Blizzard
1230/IV and 8 MB RAM in the original case, one A1200 with a
Blizzard 1240 in a Micronik tower, an A2000, a CD32, a CDTV and
an A600. The A1200 in the tower is my fastest Amiga so I use it
for the programming stuff. Unfortunately I don't have an Amiga
with a graphics board or PPC card; this would be too expensive
for the A1200 so my Workbench actually runs in 640x256 with 16
colors all the time :-) I also own a Pentium II with 400 MHz
and some extra boards and unfortunately also with Windows 98.
Finally I got some consoles which I really like, namely the
Super Nintendo and the Sega Mega Drive. DAD: Many of your programs are installer tools. What where main
reasons behind your decision to write such programs? AF: The main reason was, that I got a CD32 with a SX-1 in early
1996 and I wanted to play some games on harddisk from my A1200
or from the CD32's harddisk. So I tried a bit and figured out
some specifics of the CD32 which then made me to create my
first, serious program: the CD32 Games Install Kit. This tool
is still in development and let me say, it's better than ever. DAD: There are many other installer tools available which do
similar job. Which are in your opinion the main advantages of
your programs in comparison to other solutions, i.e. why should
someone decide to use your tools? AF: As I always state in the docs, my installers aren't meant
to be challengers for WHDLoad or JST. Those programs are really
great and I also use them! But you have to work very hard to
get an installer up and running and it often patches your
system very hard. My installers are mostly just small patches
and modifications to run a game on every Amiga. Of course this
is only possible because the games are designed to run from
DOS. There's no possibility to do this with an NDOS game!
Furthermore, my installers can analyse games and install them
even if I didn't create an installer for them! This doesn't
work for just every game, but for a lot it does. DAD: Your most famous program is probably Rainboot. Please
describe its features shortly and tell us where you got the
ideas for everything the program is capable of. AF: Well, first of all I have to say that it was Kimmo Pekkola
who had the idea for Rainboot and who coded it until version
2.2. Unfortunately, he ran out of money and had to sell his
Amiga because he needed a PC for studying. I was a big fan of
Rainboot and was very disappointed that it was cancelled by
him, so I asked him if I can have the sources to continue the
development. When I got them in autumn '97 I tried to implement
new features and stuff but I didn't understand anything at all,
because Rainboot is kind of complicated in some things and
partly also bangs the hardware a lot. So it was in spring 98
when the first Rainboot version under my direction appeared.
Starting in summer 98 I added a lot of features and I also
decided to release it as very cheap shareware (10 DM). I do not
mean this fee really serious because it's just a shame compared
to the effort I put into this program, it's much more to see if
the program is used and liked. 10 DM is a fee that everyone can
pay. I cannot describe all Rainboot features because they're
just too much, but I can say that, basically, Rainboot is a
multimedia picture viewer for the bootup. In the meantime, it's
also a multimedia viewer for the Workbench but it was
originally meant to be a boot pic viewer and that's also still
the priority. DAD: Many people think that it is quite complicated to
configure Rainboot. Why did you decide not to write a
comfortable configuration editor as it is usual for such
programs? What is your advice for those who have problems
configuring it? AF: Unfortunately I started to code the RCC, Rainboot
Configuration Creator, but I started it the totally wrong way.
It's now a big fat program with a lots of bugs and I'm afraid
of looking in the sources because it's so messy. If I had
started it in a modular way everything would be so easy now, so
I'm kind of disappointed of myself. I would really start to
reprogram the whole program but the lack of support prevents me
from doing so. I hardly get any registration for Rainboot and
cracked versions are all around. I even get no bug report at
all, for example the Rainboot 3.0 on Aminet has a real serious
bug in it which noone has discovered yet, although you will
discover it if you use the program. So what tells this to me?
It tells to me: man, noone is using your program so why put any
further effort in it? I would really like to expand Rainboot
very much if I would get only a bit of support from the users.
And that doesn't mean that I want registrations! Of course I
also want them, but if you don't want to register, send me at
least a mail and state: "Yeah, I'm using your program....keep
it updated" or so. Another thing that gets onto my nerves is
that some people are always critizing Rainboot and writing
wrong stuff about it. Some are too stupid to get it running
properly and then just write: "The shit does not work. Smash it
away." For example in a German news magazine (AMIGA aktuell) my
CD-ROM was reviewed and the person who wrote the test was
shouting: Rainboot does not work on my high super duper Amiga,
it was written for low-end Amigas and will only run properly
there. It does not run on graphics boards either. Well, nearly
every user runs Rainboot on graphics boards and so I know it
runs although I haven't got of such a setup. So I contacted
that person and wanted to help him to get Rainboot running. I
asked him for a bug report now more then four times over a
period of two months and he keeps saying: "I will send it
later, no time bla bla bla". Well, he doesn't seem to be
interested in this at all but he wrote that Rainboot does not
run properly. He also wrote that "he wouldn't mind me coming to
him and seeing what's wrong there". Bad humor that is, he
doesn't help me in any way and I'm really willing to help him! DAD: You have just released a CD which contains most of your
Amiga work. Why did you decide to release such a compilation? AF: To be honest: of course to make money. The CD is such a
bargain for only 30 DM while all the full versions would cost
over 80 DM but the CD doesn't do so well. I mean I sold some
copies but not what I had expected. Maybe this will change in
the future but unfortunately the biggest magazines refuse to
review my CD-ROM although they reviewed many many bull shit
which is shame compared to my CD. Again, this tells me: your
work is more or less superfluous. I can only promote the CD on
the internet. I cannot reach the Amiga user without access to
the internet if those magazines refuse to print a test about
the CD. DAD: The list of your Amiga software is really huge. Which are
your programs you are most proud of and why? AF: I am not really proud of any of my programs any more
because in my opinion not much people are using them. Of course
I wrote hell a lot programs and spent so much time with them
but I didn't get much back from the community so I'm currently
rather retired from coding for the Amiga. The only thing I can
tell you is, that my favourite program is the CD32 Games
Install Kit because it was my first real program and I like it
very much. This is mainly because I am a big fan of the CD32
and also the CDTV. DAD: How many registered users of your software are there
approximately? Are you satisfied with this number? What are the
recent trends: are you receiving more or less registrations
than you did in the past? AF: No, I am not satisfied at all. Currently I'm receiving
hardly any registrations. To give you a straight example: you
might remember the "The Best Of Airsoft Softwair" CD-ROM, the
first one published by APC&TCP. Well, there were around 250
copies sold that are 7500 DM. From this money I got only 500
DM. This is three times the daily wage of a steel worker. And I
spent so much time into this CD. It's just a whole cry. DAD: Which of your programs are you still developing? Do you
have plans for any new products? AF: I'm trying to keep my programs updated a bit, especially
for the few owners of my CD-ROM, because I want to support them
because they supported me. But I also have to say that I'm
currently working on a Rainboot for the Windows platform which
will have a slightly different function than it has on the
Amiga of course. I have plans for new Amiga products but the
actual situation with the lack of support prevents me from
starting anything new. My latest and maybe last program for the
Amiga were the CDTVTools. This was a very nice set of programs
and I'm sure many people liked it but I got only one or two
mails from users. This is far too less, I need feedback... I
cannot work without it. DAD: Do you plan to keep supporting Amiga and developing for
it? How do you like other computer platforms available today?
Have you ever thought about developing for them? AF: I'm already developing on Windows because the Amiga doesn't
satisfy me enough. I need feedback to see that my work is
appreciated and if I do not get it, I think that all is
senseless and so I move to another platform. Again, feedback
doesn't mean registrations! I do not program to make money. I
program because it's fun and I want to do something useful for
the community. DAD: What do you think about AmigaDE and about the future of
Amiga in general? AF: I think that it has no chance of being successful. You just
cannot compete with Windows any more. It's all over. Commodore
has lost the war. They were just too stupid, because they had
the greatest product ever with the undoubtedly greatest OS ever
and what did they do with it: market it as a game
machine...They were just too stupid! Amiga could be there where
Windows now is: at the top. Commodore had so much money due to
the success of the C64, A500 and so on. But the managers had
better things to do than support the development of new
technologies. Unfortunately, Escom didn't make it better and
what followed after that: it's only a joke. I cannot think
about or I will get very angry. We were always told from 1996
until now that there will be new Amigas bla bla bla: I give a
fuck about that! Forget it guys! You aren't able to do
anything! Five years of doing nothing and then a new OS from
scratch. What a bull shit! Sorry to use this language but as I
said, I get real angry when thinking about those things. They
always made us hope but they did nothing nothing nothing! DAD: Would you like to say anything to our readers at the
conclusion? AF: Keep the faith, but more in new projects like MorphOS or
new PPC cards for the classic AmigaOS than in the AmigaDE from
the 'Amiga, Inc' which has nothing to do with the classic
Amiga, with our Amiga. The classic Amiga is the only Amiga. DAD: Thank you very much for your answers and good luck with
the CD sales. AF: I will really need good luck but I'm not very positive as
you can see from this interview. Everything is getting a bit on
my nerves. I'm doing and I did so much and I get so small
support.
