Brief history of TERA AUSTRALIA from MATT's perspective http://matthewgream.net/Professional/Commodore64/tera_shorthistory.txt July 2004 It's hard to remember details from 15 years ago, even when scroll-texts are around to help. The following may contain errors and biased memories, so I apologise in advance and ask that you point them out so that I can produce updates. Around 1986 to 1987, in Cabramatta -- a suburb in south western Sydney -- a couple of teenage friends had usual, but sometimes unhealthy, interests in rap music, graffiti, and Commodore 64 game playing. They were swapping games locally, but developing an interest in the growing C64 scene. One of them (MATT') was experimenting with the machine, and by mid to late 1987, they had named themselves TOUR DE FUTURE (TDF) and produced their first intro. TDF was to make a name for itself across 1988. MATT' produced better intros and demos and a number of tools, while both he and XLR8 developed a trading network with national and international contacts. The TDF reputation in Australia began to grow, and some of its early members fell away, while others joined (notably MISTIC). In late 1988, TDF entered the QUEENSLAND CRACKING FORCE (QCF) aussie demo comp with BACK FROM BEYOND, and did quite well. This, along with other intros, demos, and tools including the now famous NOTEMAKER, boosted TDF's reputation in late 1988 and early 1989. Its trading networks also grew to include top name European contacts. Other wholly Australian grown groups were making a name for themselves on the scene at the time, including TEC, QCF, IKON VISUAL and REFLEX, yet other individuals had chosen to buy into international groups (such as THE FORCE and WARRIORS OF TIME). TDF also had good friends on the local Sydney scene, especially HEX-HACKER and SNOOP of THE SOFT SMASHERS 6802 (TSS6802). Somewhere in early 1989, TDF and REFLEX decided to merge. The name TDF+RFX was used during a transition period, until a better name was worked out. The merger was a good one: RFX had good coders, but more strength in traders, whereas TDF had an experienced coder, but weaker traders. TDF was then MATT', XLR8 and MISTIC, while RFX was BOSS, BULLET, ELIMINATOR and STOREMAN. TDF could also count TSS6802 as an extended family. Soon, KILENEMY of QCF joined TDF+RFX. These events were reported in the May 1989 and July 1989 issues of SEX'N'CRIME. In June 1989, TEC organised the TEC-Illegal party in Sydney, and MATT' entered OHH MATE!! into the competition. It's not clear whether this demo won, as there was controversy, but it was given favourable reporting in the July 1989 issue of SEX'N'CRIME, which also ranked TDF+RFX as number two on the Australian scene. BOSS, BULLET and ELIMINATOR had also released products under the TDF+RFX label around this time. TDF+RFX was a solid, national group. It had grown from various roots, but offered a united front, with solid coders and traders. The group was conscious of the need to only accept worthy members, who represented the team and contributed to its progress, while existing members became more focused on their roles, for example, MATT' concentrated on coding and passed many of his contacts over to XLR8 and MISTIC as focused traders. The group was also venturing onto international bulletin boards and conferences, as shown in the OHH MATE!! demo. TERA was officially formed between June and September 1989. The name was inspired by a graffiti piece in Sydney, but had strong connotations of Australia (which was originally named TERRA AUSTRALIS). SNOOP and HEX- HACKER from TSS6802 were admitted to the group at this time. TERA began releasing a wider variety of products. The successful note- maker series was continued with NOTEMAKER V2.0, STUBBY-NOTER and 4 BLOCK NOTER! The ECONOVAN magazine began, ultimately lasting for at least 5 issues under two different engines. The RLE world-record was broken with BEEFTRUCKER. Numerous demos, intros and tools, were produced under the TERA label, for TERA itself and for other groups as gifts. In return, other groups produced works for TERA, such as disk covers. The non-coding members were actively plying the trading scene and building a high quality network. TERA was on the scene in a big way. In December 1989, THE FORCE held a copy-party in Adelaide. TERA guys from Sydney attended, and were hosted by MADHACKER of IKON VISUAL. MATT' put together most of the DAMNABLE demo in Sydney, but finalised the parts in Adelaide with party text, linking and crunching. BOSS and BULLET contributed RIPP-OFF, but were not able to attend. DAMNABLE won the competition, and TERA was excited to be Australia's leading group -- it topped off a fantastic six months. After returning to Sydney, MATT' continued to code, and HEX-HACKER began a period of prolific output for TERA. The group continued its foray into the world of international boards, amongst other teenage antics. MISTIC secured a US board in 212, called THE JUNGLE, and worked hard to cultivate European members. However, by mid 1990, MATT' had turned away from the C64, because of other life and computing interests -- this was coding loss, but the group continued to trade hard. The European members, by then at least SLIDE, CHRIS, TRAX, JACE, INDY, DANCE and possibly others, held a German TERA/FRESH copy-party in July 1990, around which time the SOLICITUDE demo was released. It had started out under MATT', but was later finalised by the rest of the group to include contributions from many members. The history of TERA after this is unclear. HEX-HACKER's GANGSTA demo of late 1990 was not released until 1992, and ECONOVAN #5 of August 1990 reports that TERA had been quiet on the scene with HEX-HACKER leaving for WOW while BOSS and ELIMINATOR had given up the C64 scene altogether. What happened to other members is not known. TDF, TDF+RFX and TERA productions can be found at Gangsta's Paradise (ftp://c64.rulez.org/), CSDB (http://noname.c64.org/csdb) and Spook's C64 Tribute CD (http://www.c64demos.com/). MATT' has a history of his activities and works on the scene at http://matthewgream.net.