Paranoia was initially founded as Paranoia Programming in late 1997 by The Paranoid, former graphician of Solution Software with the main intention to release primarily freeware games, fun products and generally support alternative computer scenes, mainly Atari ST and Falcon.
The group was mainly known for a small but rather popular computer party named ParaCon, of which it organized 7 editions from 1999 to 2006, attracting a small number of Atari enthusiasts from all over europe regularly.
While the group has never been officially disbanded, it stopped all activity regarding demo- and game development in late 2003 when The Paranoid decided to team up with members of the Falcon group Cruor. While the group organized 3 more editions of the ParaCon, it is no longer active.
Members
The Paranoid
Graphician and initially a STOS programmer, a basic dialect that was being discussed controversively among Atari ST programmers. Started to also program in Assembly, shifting the main interest of the group from games to demos.
Luebke
Made a few (unused) tracks on the C64 and therefore agreed to join as musician. However, Luebke never really felt at home using the YM-trackers available back then and stopped after a handful of tracks.
Strange
Former member of the C64 groups Hurricane and Steel. Joined as a graphician and made prototype graphics of unreleased products.
Mr Future
Joined slightly later when the focus of the group had already shifted from games to demos. Donated a number of 4- and 8-channels MODs.
TNT
True-Colour Graphician, mainly using Cinema 4D on the Amiga. Also programmed some fun products under DOS (i.e. rotative Pong) later on.
MarcStar
As an x86-programmer, he contributed mainly tools and generators. After having lost basically all data in a harddisk crash, he stopped all demo-related activities.
Der Komtur
Crew binder and main organizer of the ParaCon parties.
Paranoia website (1998, still online but no longer maintained)
For a short while, the Paranoia website was considered one of the more informative sites when looking for Atari ST/STE and Falcon games, including Freeware, Shareware and commercial games available in the late nineties.
Legacy
The biggest impact the group had are likely to be the ParaCon party series and, potentially, the STE FAQ initially released under the Paranoia label. Otherwise, the number of projects having actually materialized is rather low and in the retrospective, the group lacked focus. Initial plans to expand the area of activities to 8-Bit systems ended up in terminating all activities.
