Jari Saukkonen |
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 InterestsMy personal computer-related interests are real-time 3D graphics, procedural systems, on-line communities, software engineering and sound synthesis. Apart from computers, I've been playing piano since the age of four. Though I had a longish pause after comprehensive school, I still play actively and recently started to take lessons again. In the mid 90's I used to compose lots of music with bad loop but I haven't done much compositions since then. As an example for something more recent here is the Majik3D theme (2.4M) that I have composed and performed. Contact information
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Current projectsAmbientia LtdAmbientia is my current employer where I'm working as a software architect.Trix Games LtdAt Trix Games we are selling machine dance -related products in Finland and developing our own dance game for the PC, Dance Tricks.University of HelsinkiI'm currently studying computer science at the University of Helsinki. By continuing at this pace I'll be receiving my M.Sc. during2010Alternative Party 2010This time the "yearly gig" was at Alternative Party where I was presenting visuals for bad loop. I've been pretty busy with other things lately so the visuals have had only a few visual improvements in the last couple of years, so I took the time and implemented some make-everything-look-better -stuff in the days preceding the event.Machine Dance European ChampionshipsAgain, I was at Zwanenburg, Netherlands helping to organize the Machine Dance European/World Championships, tasked with running my tournament software and taking care of lots of miscellaneous things from network setup to cloning ITG harddrives :). Apart from organizing, this year I also dared to enter in the competitions, placing 22th in the overall tournament.2009Machine Dance Finnish ChampionshipsI placed on a shared 7th place in the Machine Dance Finnish Championships. Whee! :)Machine Dance European ChampionshipsLately I've been building a small tournament software for use in dance gaming tournaments. This time it went into good use as I participated in organizing the machine dance EC(/WC) in Zwanenburg, The Netherlands. Using the software we were able to easily collect the scores from judges on four different cabinets, show real-time score display to the audience and also broadcast the scores over the internet for even wider audience. Everything went well (I managed to work around all glitches I encountered in the software), although I must admit that it was insanely hectic at times. And fun.2008KonemetsäThe Konemetsä open air forest festival is an interesting event, as it is organized practically in the middle of nowhere. I was there with Recue and Jolea, running visuals for them in the chillout tent. Despite the event suffering a couple of blackouts the chillout tent wasn't affected by any of the problems, so everything went pretty much as planned, and a small rain didn't seem to have any effect on the partygoers.2007Klusa Daba, LatviaAgain, on the run with bad loop and Recue, this time at Riga, Latvia performing at the Klusa Daba ambient festival. Although our slots were a tad late, everything went well and the gig was a blast. There are a few clips online on Youtube.Invasion of BritainI travelled for the first time to the UK with bad loop and recue to perform in two gigs, Glitchnight in Bristol on 23rd and Ginglik in London on 24th of February. This was the first attempt on using Reaktor to control the visuals, and so far I've been very satisfied with it. Unfortunately we didn't have too much time to wander around between travelling, preparing for the gigs and (sometimes) sleeping, but we all had a really good time. And yes, hauling a desktop computer (although small) in a plane has its own complications. We also recorded some of the Glitchnight on video, check out a small compilation on Youtube.2006VisualsDuring the year I've been programming a visuals engine and some effects for bad loop and recue. The visuals debuted at House Nation X, and after that we've used them at the Sun Dance Music Festival in July and Assembly 2006 in August. The main difference to traditional VJ systems is that all effects are real-time (no prerendered videos) and the design is very MIDI-centric so that live MIDI input from the musicians is an integral part of the system.Beatmania IIDXYes, the rhythm addict in me has managed to take control again, this time addicting me to Beatmania IIDX. I keep my scores online at VJ Army.Live jam with bad loop and recueIn January we did a small tongue-in-cheek live jam with bad loop and recue. Considering the amount of preparations (none) it turned out surprisingly good, at least for the first hour. Download back2back2back deathmatch (185M, .mp3) or a small video clip (6M).More piano!After a long pause, I started taking piano lessons again!2005Too much rhythm gamesI've been playing way too much rhythm games lately, mostly Stepmania (with keyboard). They're just too addictive for such a hopeless rhythm addict as myself. Maybe I'll put some scores online someday!Small concertsDuring 2005 I broadcasted a couple of mp3 streams where I played some nice music with my stage piano. The first concert (150M, .mp3, info) was broadcasted during the summer, and the xmas concert (120M, .mp3, info) just before christmas. I hope people enjoyed listening them as much as I enjoyed playing! Note that these are unedited full captures of the streams, so the actual playing starts around 15 - 20 minutes into the files.2004Amon & MagiAt taika.fi we developed some code based on our experiences at Taika Technologies. Amon is a (yet another) base library for building cross-platform applications, licensed under the MIT license which I've been using for a couple of my own projects.Majik3D ProjectMajik3D was an ambitious project to create a free multi-user role-playing environment. It originally started around 1997-1998 as an ordinary MUD, then evolved into a multiplayer roguelike, and finally into a full 3D game. Unfortunately creating a 3D MMORPG requires huge effort, and with many developers now having their own daytime jobs it just couldn't realize itself in practice. However, the core concepts from original Majik MUDs (persistent, player-run and evolving world) still live in our discussions at #majik.2003
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A 64kb intro by Kaita that was done in quite a hurry, which shows. It competed at
Assembly 2002 and placed 4th. I was responsible for the sound synthesizer and a couple of effects.
A 64kb intro by Coral, Symptom, Inapt and CNCD. A hurried production that was released
at Assembly 2002 where it placed 11th. Some effects were coded by me. 
A demo by CNCD that participated at Assembly 2000. Originally the production was quite huge as it wasn't
designed as release-material, so I helped Destop to fit everything to the 10MB limit of the compo.
Unfortunately it was disqualified due to not including the C++ runtime .dll that is not present on a
clean Win98 install.
A sweet 46kb intro released under Nah-Kolor's name. It participated at Assembly 1999 and placed second.
Code by me and music by Daze/Nah-Kolor. Still my favourite production that I've been participating in.
Presented in ultra-wide 1:3.2 aspect ratio. Originally the wide-screen effect was more tolerable
but due to hardware compatibility it had to be pushed into such an extreme to make it more compatible
just before the deadline.
My first demo, released under Coral. Positive is a 128kb intro for Aggressive Party 2 where it
won the combined 128kb competition. Code and music by me, graphics by Slimy Devil/TDC.