Participants: Fallen Angel, Mine GO BOOM
Description: Mine GO BOOM Interview
Created On: April, 2002


Fallen Angel: How, why, and when did you get involved with Subspace?

Mine GO BOOM: How?  Because my brother did :)

Why? Because a friend of his (Mike Cermak, www.cermak.com) sent him a url for VIE's Subspace
web site, saying it was a fun game.

When? In December, 1996, I forget the exact date/time, but it is in the history section of
shanky.com's news script somewhere.

Back to how. When my brother (Chris Murphy, aka Shanky, http://www.shanky.com) started
SubSpace, he played in Chaos a lot. Since we were new at the game, records meant little to
us... and we had 1 computer with just a 28k, we took turns.

Shanky played Chaos and turreted with people and I played Warzone, flanked bases, and got
good at it. Then about a month later, someone entered Warzone with a "mine plowing name"...
forget the exact name, but he spammed public chat asking where mines are so he could plow
them. I thought that was fun, and helped him. We were owning mines like no tomorrow...
constant 0 bounty deaths. So every so often in Warzone, I would mine plow like that.

A month or so later, Shanky was doing good in Chaos, and he was invited to elite squads and
such, but they questioned him constantly about why the web site scores showed like 300-20 in
Chaos, and 20-300 in Warzone. So, he forced me into getting my own name. Since I was plowing
mines, I figured I would go with a new name, thus, in February 1997, the name "Mine GO BOOM"
was made because I made mines go boom. The reason the "Mine" has a first case is you always
case first letters. The "GO BOOM" was cased to stress what mines did. Mines GO BOOM sounded
stupid, so dropped the 's' before I made the name. So the first name I personally used was
Mine GO BOOM.  That is the beginning.


Fallen Angel: What zones do you fly now?

Mine GO BOOM: Fly... define fly? As in now? So you mean zones I'm currently in?


Fallen Angel: What zones do you visit if any, and do you fly?

Mine GO BOOM: As for what zones i would play in... ASWZ has always been fun to help around
in, Chaos, and Pro League. Rarely, do I play in Warzone much anymore.


Fallen Angel: What initially inspired you to start doing work for the Subspace community?

Mine GO BOOM: Ghost Ship. The Pro League bots sucked, so I offered to help him. He sent me
source, I added stuff, sent it back to him (I currently didn't have a compiler, nor did I
know C at the time), and had like 500 errors.


Fallen Angel: lol, Well you've improved. =)

Mine GO BOOM: So after a while of him compiling, and me fixing my own errors, he sent me
Microsoft Visual Studios... so I learned C from compiling lots of errors, fixing, and
repeating till it worked. But that is for bots. I continued to work with Eris on the bot
core he made till I made my own (CEBot) core, which I use now.

The beginning of me helping zones is when SubSpace sent the CD's out. They including server
software. I enjoyed making my own test games before (Back in 1.25 I was playing with
local.cfg/local.lvl to make my own settings. Now, currently the settings have evolved to
SPEED! settings in SCF's ?go speed.) so I made a web site to help assist others in their
zones. Currently that web site is at http://www.shanky.com still with original images and
web design. So after a while of helping newbies with servers, I was invited by Einexile to
be with SCF while on VIE servers.

When VIE servers died, I went on helping every small zone out. Just hopping around helping
zones at random. I'm surprised no one ever got my old password. It had to have been spread
around to around 500 different billing server's data. So that's how I got around to being
the only helper for servers pretty much. Now I have staff members. :)


Fallen Angel: How long did it take you to get pretty good at using C coding?

Mine GO BOOM: I'm still, in my mind, not good with it. I never took a class for it, never
read a book for it, I learned from other's sources, and from MSVC's error outputs and
debugging.


Fallen Angel: Well it seems you taught yourself pretty good Mine. =)

Mine GO BOOM: Of course, MSDN owns... I'm getting good at searching for stuff. I taught
myself Qbasic, Dialect, Perl, C, Smalltalk, PHP, and a bunch of other stuff. I'm good with
math/science but I suck in spoken languages. I can't spell and I can't do Spanish (I barely
got B's in the class). As for C? I'm decent, but I still have lots of stuff to learn.

Oh, as a pointless input, I learned 99% of SubSpace's protocol without any external help.
The only help I got was every so often, something like the encryption stuff from Eris, or
some things dealing with Time Data from Ekted, or whenever Priitk felt like it, he'd post
some Continuum stuff. But some of it still doesn't work. :)


Fallen Angel: What positions do you hold in Subspace/Continuum?

Mine GO BOOM: I'm in the SubSpace Council and I represent SCF or the whole non-SSC server
community, or something like that. I have mod/smod/sysop powers in lots of random zones when
needed. Every so often, like just 5 mins ago, a zone sysop asked questions, and I helped
answer/fix things.

I maintain a website (Server Help) that is not directly under anyone's control. Unlike some
websites, I do not attempt to restrict people based on my own feelings towards them. People
in the council flamed me when i gave Catid special red-colored name on my server help board.


Fallen Angel: I noticed that.

Mine GO BOOM: Even though I do not trust him 100%, he does only help there, and he does it
correctly, and even though I disapprove of some of the stuff he does, he is helping non-SSC
zones a lot. That's what server help is for.


Fallen Angel: Well Catid is very talented, but he has his good and bad sides as we all know.
=)

Mine GO BOOM: Catid only shows his good side on the server help board, so he is accepted.


Fallen Angel: I think it's a good thing. He can contribute so much good if he chooses.

Mine GO BOOM: For a last thing I'm helping with. I'm working with Grelminar on a new server
software. It's fun. He making most of it and I'm working on the windows port and adding
pointless extras.


Fallen Angel: LOL... Pointless extras.. I doubt that Mine. =)

Mine GO BOOM: Yeah, it is. Ever played Pacman? In SubSpace?


Fallen Angel: Um... nope?

Mine GO BOOM: Okay, ?go pacman. (SSCX SCF West)


Fallen Angel: Thanks for showing me ?go pacman and ?go speed. (SSCX SCF West) They rock! =)

Mine GO BOOM: :)

I have a bunch of others.


Fallen Angel: Good work!

Mine GO BOOM: Whenever you feel like making fun of "All your bases belong to us", just try
?go zerowing. You can see the animation then.


Fallen Angel: Cool. On the screenshot you can't see the animation. =)

What are your thoughts regarding the new 0.37 & 0.38?

Mine GO BOOM: Thoughts? Well, since I've always supported Priitk, there isn't much about it.
So no real opinions... It is better than VIE client's alt-tab is about all I can say. :)


Fallen Angel: What is the toughest job for you regarding your role in Subspace and what is
your most rewarding accomplishment?

Mine GO BOOM: The toughest job... hmm... I can't say I had any. They were all fun. As for
most rewarding... my CEBot core. It helped me learn so much about SubSpace that now I can
chat from my Windows CE computer :)  while waiting for Priitk to make Continuum work for
windows CE. :)


Fallen Angel: LoL... Well get on him!  =)

Mine GO BOOM: If someone sent me a Palm with wireless internet for free (I'll pay for the
internet part.), I'll make a Palm SubSpace Chat. :)


Fallen Angel: What is the most important thing you've learned by working within the
Subspace/Continuum community?

Mine GO BOOM: The most important thing I learned? Whenever you need something done fast,
everyone is either asleep or at work. Stupid that everyone is not living in EST...

My motto; "If it isn't broken, fix it till it is".


Fallen Angel: ROFLMAO $$

Mine GO BOOM: I'm not kidding.


Fallen Angel: Ohh... I know your not... LoL

Mine GO BOOM: That's how I got the speed settings in ?go speed.

I set things to max values to find when they break server/client.


Fallen Angel: Give us your words of wisdom for the benefit of our younger members in the
community that are interested in becoming staff and doing more for SS or their zones.

Mine GO BOOM: Learn commands. All too often people have no idea what they do. Learn mod,
smod, and sysop commands. Even if you don't use them. Also, here is a good quote I got not
long ago, "The only thing that can ruin this game is the player community." -BD Vine, Sonera
Corporation.


Fallen Angel: Well what is your inference regarding that quote Mine?

Mine GO BOOM: The players that create cheats, abuse bugs, and attempt to DoS servers.
Something that's been happening for last few days...


Fallen Angel: Well I guess there will always be those people who intend to destroy a good
thing.
=(

Where do you see the Subspace/Continuum community in the future?

Mine GO BOOM: Hopefully not like Infantry. I greatly dislike 50meg downloads for a game that
the original files are only 10meg. But the .lvz are nice. If Grelminar's subgame does get
Continuum support, I see Subspace/Continuum growing a LOT. Linux subgame with Continuum will
help save Subspace in so many ways. Plus, having user made server, client, and billing
server is very nice in any legal battle.


Fallen Angel: I understand from Snrrrub that he's got the linux project on hold right now.

Mine GO BOOM: Yeah, his linux client. Priitk doesn't care much for the guy. I doubt it would
ever lift off much. At least Grelminar is accepted by priitk. So, it will at some point get
Continuum support. As a little side note... new servers will accept custom clients for
chatting only so people can make their own chatting clients.


Fallen Angel: That sounds really cool.

Is there anything else you want to say Mine? =P

Mine GO BOOM: hmm.. LIVE FROM NEW YORK, ITS SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE!!!


Fallen Angel: !!! W00T $$ You nut! =)

Thanks so much for spending time with me today to talk about your role in our community. =)