History ( English )

1985 – The first steps – The K.G.B Crew from Wuppertal :

1986 bis 1987 – I´m the One – Orgasmatron :

1987 – O.G.M + K.G.B + M.C.P = Tristar :

In 1987, at the beginning of December, a first demo was released which became known in the scene as the „TRISTAR – Stars“ demo. Tristar was very active on the Amiga and the Commodore C-64 and could already fall back on a well-developed network of contacts, which had already been built up in the years from 1985 to 1987 by the K.G.B Crew and, to a lesser extent, the O.G.M Crew.

Merchandising in Tristar : The Boulder demo was the most expensive production so far. But what was at least as costly were the mass-produced stickers that Delaware had financed and commissioned. The year 1988 also brought some visits from the police and corresponding house searches. Frankie and CCO therefore went into hiding in 1988. For a short time, Tristar also ran as Paramount but quickly continued successfully under the label „TRISTAR“.

In 1989, the Alien Woman demo was released at the Paranoimia Demo Party. Grandmaster „Terminator“ once again outdid himself and his skills earned him, among other things, a job at the then company „Starbyte Software“.

Tristar was doing well, one might even say too well. There were BBS systems in 1990 and they were at the peak of success. But the activities around the cracker industry and other even more problematic things caused the mega bust and this brought the central „business“ to a standstill.

In the spring of 1990, Delaware, then the leader alongside Frankie, CCO, Flynn and Terminator, experienced his last day. The activity in Tristar but also other offences brought Delaware into jail in the end. The C-64 division continued for another 1 to 2 years, mainly led by T.M.A., who later founded the group Abyss Connection.

Under the table, Tristar continued to run on a local basis, but the so-called distribution network had largely collapsed with Delaware and its connections.

In the summer of 1990, Flynn merged TRISTAR with Irata’s RED-SECTOR to form the demoscene group TRSi. However, this was to cause trouble for many years afterwards, as this solo effort had neither been discussed with nor approved by the other leaders.

In 1998 Delaware got back into the business. Things had changed since the Amiga and Commodore C-64 days, but they still knew their business and TRISTAR was continued with a motivated crew who knew the FXP business inside out. Gandalf took care of the „strategy“ while Delaware took care of the „day-to-day business“. TRISTAR was soon ( again ) on the road to success in this area, but what was still missing was the flair of those days with graphics, design and someone who knew enough about PHP and SQL. A professional was needed.

In 2000, Gandalf met up with a former old faithful from the Tristar years, a then simple insignificant „courier“ or simply put. „Copy Negro“ who had delivered floppy disks on his bicycle.

This person called himself AMItac at that time and together with a RaMiReZ had the project Netacs – NET_work mani_ACS running, which dealt with the topic of „Amiga emulation“. Both had basic and valuable experience in web and network administration.

Gandalf poached the two and the Netacs project came to a standstill as TRISTAR simply demanded everything that was available in terms of time and knowledge. RaMiReZ and AMI quickly became board admins and also took care of the maintenance of the board, which was based on VBulletin 2.x at the time.

AMItac was appointed leader of Delaware at the end of 2001, but due to family and work commitments he could no longer devote the necessary time to lead the team. AMI was also confirmed in this role by the founders, Frankie and CCO.

AMI was responsible for the organisation and technology, but also set up a small Demo Scene Crew in parallel to the Tristar BBS, which was all about hacking.

In 2004, FXP activities were discontinued, and shortly afterwards the FBI launched Operation Fastlink, which hit the warez scene like a storm and brought many sites and FXP activities to a halt.

At the end of 2006, the WareZ server activities that had continued for 2 years from 2004 were also terminated. It had simply become too time-consuming and with the advent of 1-click hosters such as „Rapidshare“ – new, more convenient ways of accessing data emerged.

In 2007, a server was purchased for the first time and numerous services were realised on it, such as Internet radio, online gaming and later, in 2011, I.R.C and X.M.P.P. These were the years of learning and trying out new technology, which only became possible with a „root server“.

In 2012, an agreement was reached with the demoscene group TRSi that TRISTAR would not release any more demoscene or warez productions. This should finally put an end to the long-standing dispute about who is allowed to do what.

However, TRISTAR itself still continues its activities in other areas such as networking and server technology and is also a FIXED part of the DevLab Hackerspace facility.

on 15-09-2012 T.S.A = The Solaris Agency was founded by members of the following groups.

• TRISTAR
• Abyss Connection
• Flash Arts

15-09-2012 – The Solaris Agency ( T.S.A ) :

2020 – Die T.S.A and DevLab e.V :

On 15 July 2020, the hackerspace group, which was still known as ProtoLabs until the end of 2018, moved into a physical location together with T.S.A and TRISTAR. Now known as DevLab, the joint decision was made to operate their own hackerspace where engineering, everything to do with digital art and creative work in general are put in the foreground.

One of the goals of Hackerspace is to offer interested people the opportunity to realise ideas themselves, ALSO based on recycling and upcycling, in the spirit of sustainability and non-profit. Our goal is to act in an environmentally friendly way and to further advance the idea of „urban self production“.

2020 to 2021 – A strong new beginning :

Another highlight of 2020 was, as already mentioned, the release of T.S.A. at NoVoque. There, the now legendary game „AMI Run 1“ was released. A jump n run game that has hardly seen the demoscene on such a scale before. In one fell swoop, T.S.A was not only where TRISTAR had left off, with this release we have surpassed ourselves as a team.

In the Makerspace, the recycling of plastic granules from a wide variety of sources, such as the plastic lids of beverage bottles, started. For this purpose, a square mold was created in which the granules could be filled in order to be „baked“ into a plastic blank in this square shape for upcycling.

2021 to 2022 – The vision is increasingly becoming reality :

A few more milestones from the field of digital art could also be admired again in late summer 2021. AMI Run 1 has received a sequel that tops the sequel through and through.

We continue with a project for which one can also only have the greatest respect. A self-developed CNC machine with a machine bed of a size that is definitely very impressive. This project was to take a few more labour-intensive months until its completion.

The „RETRO“ project was further advanced with new replicas ́ such as the Commodore C-64 MAXI, a quasi new C-64 computer that has modernized ports such as USB and HDMI instead of the connectors of the original Commodore C-64 computers from Commodore. By the way, this was joined by a MEGADRIVE MINI system, which has already installed over 40 games and where the original controllers are also available, as with the C-64 MAXI.

Much of what you see in the DevLab T.S.A Makerspace has been paid for by the members of this association out of their own pockets. A hobby or rather a passion that costs quite a bit of money. Fortunately, it happens from time to time that we also receive donations in kind. In this case, a large collection of tools.

2023 to 2024 – New allies :

The year 2023 at DevLab T.S.A began with a large-scale renovation. The walls were to shine in a new splendour. Optimizations were also made in the layout of the makerspace, in which the front social area was spatially and visually separated from the rear machinery.