Grendel
Iisalmi
Founding member
Nowadays: Misc - organizing, leader, www-pages and stuff.
Earlier: same plus party arranging 1988-1992, mail- and modemtrading
Grendel is one of the original founding members of Byterapers. While Kasper was the creative genius, copyrighting the name and doing all early important work, Grendel was the workhorse managing membership-things, communications and trading, which quite soon were paying dividients in growing fame and status for the group.
In his most active times Grendel was swapping with about 150 contacts, which was absolutely huge job. Of course, it did a lot good for for (B) fame and spread the releases very well. That was though very time consuming, and for a time he was full-time swapper, in expense of real life. In same time a lot was leart about computers, and because Grendel was very literate person, this in long term led him into his even present job in computer industry.
Around 1989 he had minimized his mail contacts into the minimum, good friends & elite-contacts. Also his C-64 was joined by an Amiga, which in year or two replaced the C-64 as most important machine.
Till 1991 Grendel was also the most important party-arranger in Finland, arranging a regular big party every year from 1988 to 1991, plus a number of smaller miniparties or meetings. After co-working on Assembly'92 the decision to stop all party-arranging activities was made, though it got scrapped pretty soon because Grendel wandered into local happenings and finally 1994 stumbled back into party-arranging business.
Around 1992 Grendel faced some kind of crisis in Finnish scene, as one article in Finnish scenemagazine Maggy led a lot of people to think he was against 'newcomers' and people should bow and keep old sceners as gods. Actually this was quite a misunderstanding, though Grendel's badly chosen wording was greatest single reason for all that mess. As time passed wounds healed and people meeting G in parties found out he wasn't such a pisshead they'd imagined.
While Grendel has never been really talented scenedood, his rather big and even 'legendary' (as some may call) fame is based to real reason. Grendel hasn't been lazying in demoscene from 1986, but worked very hard both building Byterapers when the Finnish demoscene was forming up. His partyboozings during 1988-1990 were also very legendary stuff. Some kind of boozecomeback was seen in Skenery'96, though nothing much compared to those old boozeboozebooze days.
Memberform:5. 160770
6. Nowadays I do nothing serious. If something new turns up, I send it to my old friends, and the few swapping contacts I manage to keep up... I do some rpg/strategy-stuff trading, as well as collecting Amiga musicdisks. There's nothing I can do, can't draw, compose or anything. Only thing I can do is LEAD A GROUP. And that I can do well, unless I get drafted into army or driven over by car. When I have active mood, I can somehow get others with me and pump energy into them (hope this would happen ONCE with JTP - he's immune to me!). When I care I can organize things well, and as proof as my skills in leadership I can note Byterapers is STILL alive. from 86. If I won't watch after (B), it goes into spin and into nearest lake... This is work enough! No-one can imagine how hard is to lead a group. IT IS REAL WORK! HARD WORK! Believe of not.
7. Amiga 500, 2 X C-64, Spectrum 48K, 386 PC owned. (spectrum not so used....)
8. Amiga extra memory, 3.5" + 5.25" extra drives. C-64 2 drives, Final III 386 PC 25 MZH Super VGA 4 MB Ram 3.5" HD drive 5.25" HD drive Star NL-10 Printer (5 years old, won't last long.....)
9. Bought 64 at 85. At 86 came first intros having the name of Byterapers, but at spring 1987 formed (B) officially with Kasper and Professor Fate (both retired). Slowly rised and gained status, at craziest swapping times I had about 150 contacts at once. I made at summer 88 the (B) copyparty, and got an Amiga fever there (Empire game). Bought it winter 88. In 4months started swapping on it too, and after 3 months stopped on 64. Then stopped on Amiga and returned to 64. Then stopped on 64 (drive broke, couldn't afford to repair it) and soon stopped (B)'s 64-section.
A long pause followed and I did nothing. Gave leadership of (B) away with results well known. Finally I realized the situation, and after (B)/SCX/Extasy party started to re-organize things. Managed to get group working again, and gave leadership to Python/Turtle and went to army. Was kicked home after two months, and found my group in ruins. It took 3 months to recover from shock, but then started rebuilding group (once again) fast. Won't give leadership away ever now!
10. I can get different hardware from several places with reasonable prices.. Amiga things, PC-things etc.
11. I expect (B) to rise again! There's lot to do, and I want to see (B) as top 3 group once again! Coders could do more than before (FOR YOU, JTP) and things could really roll from this on. Promises kept, things sent when told so and keeping in time-tables!!! And regural TOUCH with other members, and sending news to me!
12. YES I PREFER BYTERAPERS OVER EVERYTHING!!! Would never change group at any cost any group offered. Ahh it was lame at beginning. I've done such much work for (B) from 86 that I won't throw it away.
13. Main objective to resurrect and comeback (B) ONCE AGAIN!
Today Grendel is still active, though no more central piece, in scene. He still has his old C-64s, alongside a Spectrum, Amiga 500, Amiga 1200 and two PCs. He is usually seen in most Finnish parties, and can be recognized easily of long black hair, long black coat and all black clothing. He works in MikroBitti, Scandinavia's largest computer magazine and sometimes even has time to enjoy life.
See also:
Old self-presentations in magazines
Grendel's interview in In Medias Res about himself, his scenecareer and old Finnish Scene.
Grendel in 1991.
E-Mail: grendel@byterapers.com
During my career I've visited a few parties in Finland and abroad. This is a incomplete and useless list of them to refresh even my own memory:1987
1st. Finnish Gold/The Jezebels Union party, Vaajakosti, dec. 19871988
2nd. TSL and Stage 3, Alvesta Sweden, spring 1988.
3rd DDG Digiparty'88, Hartola, spring 1988.
4th Byterapers Grendelparty, Iisalmi, 08-14.08.19881989
5th The Silents & Horizon-party, Alvesta Sweden, 29.10-01.11.1989.
The Gang/Triangle/Amigalord party, Karlstad Sweden, 02-05.02.1989.
Ikari & Dominators & Zargon, Slagelse Denmark, 23-25.03.1989.
Horizon & Equinoxe party, Sweden, end of summer 1989.
Byterapers Voodoo-party, Tampere, 18-20.08.1989
Overlord/X-Men/Phalanx/Deathstar Lahtiparty, lahti, 07-09.04.1989
Contex miniparty, Oulunsalo, summer 1989.1990
Byterapers Grendelparty 2, Iisalmi, 10-13.08.1990.
Digitize Design Group Digiparty'90, Joutsa, 06-08.07.19901991
Society-party, Kajaani, 07-09.06.1991
Byterapers/Scoopex Gathering'91, Parikkala, 25-28.07.19911992
Assembly'92, Kauniainen, summer 1992.
The Party 2, Denmark, dec. 1992
Society party, Kajaani, ????1993
Assembly'93, Kerava, summer 1993.
FantaParty, Kajaani, summer 1993 (?)1994
Byterapers/???? CompuCamp'94, Iisalmi, winter 1994.
Abduction'94, Rovanniemi, summer 1994.
Assembly'94, Helsinki, summer 1994.
The Party 4, Denmark, dec. 19941995
Byterapers/@/? Juhla'95 Kaks ja Pual, Iisalmi, autumm 1995.
Assembly'95, Helsinki, summer 1995.
The Party 5, Denmark, dec. 19951996
Byterapers/???? Juhla'96 III, Iisalmi, winter 1996.
Assembly'96, Helsinki, summer 1996.
Skenery'96, Jyvaskyla, winter 1996.
The Party 6, Denmark, dec. 19961997
COC & Mooze Democrazy'97, Siilinj„rvi, 31.1-02.02.1997.
Byterapers 10 Years party, Iisalmi, 21-23.02.1997.
Byterapers Juhla IVb, Raahe, 07-09.03.1997
Abduction'97, Oulu, 06-08.06.1997
Assembly'97, Helsinki, 08-10.08.19971998
Abduction'98, 05-07.06.1998, Oulu.
Scenery'98, 24-26.07.1998, Jyväskylä.
Assembly'98, 07-09.08.1998, Helsinki.
Juhla V, 22-24.05.1998, Kajaani.1999
Byterapers 12 1/2 Years Birthday Party, 19-21.02.1999, Tampere.
Assembly'99, 06-08.08.1999, Helsinki.2000
Assembly'2K, 03-06.08.1999, Helsinki.2001
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