Longshot was a demo coder, founder and leader of the famous Logon System demo group. A pseudonym for Serge Querné, he was initially based in southern France but later moved to Paris.
Biography
Initially going under the pseudonym 'Logon 1' (the name Logon he explained in a scrolltext as "a Belgian idea"), he released a series of single-part demos, each of them showcasing a new technique he had learned ‒ or, in many cases, discovered. These included raster bars, overscan, and split modes in the earliest productions. The first demo was coded while he was working at Ubi Soft's "castle" headquarters. Though some of these demos seem fairly simple in retrospect, at the time, Serge's demo-coding skill was only equalled by perhaps Fefesse and NWC.
A stepchange came with the Longshot Demo, the first in which he adopted his new pseudonym. This included hardware splitting and combined more effects on screen at once. Revolog (or Revolution) followed in a similar vein but was a level more accomplished again. At the same time, Longshot participated in the Amazing Demo with Naminu and P007 of Malibu Crackers.
Naminu would soon become one of the members of the new, expanded Logon System. The "supergroup"'s first release was the stunning The Demo, where Longshot contributed three parts but, perhaps more significantly, oversaw the polished, coherent design that was unlike any CPC megademo previously released.
The Euromeeting Demo would turn out to be his last demo release, but a further innovation was the B-ASIC utility which enabled Plus programmers to use the new features of their machines from BASIC. Longshot went on to the PC in turn, but has recently participated in French CPC forums such as Phenix Informatique once again. His homepage contains screenshots from the Logon era, a brief history, and downloads of his personal disc collection.
Though most respected for his coding skills and innovations, Serge's main achievement was perhaps the creation and fostering of the Logon System supergroup, the like of which has not been seen since.
Longshot has written technical articles in some columns of the French magazine Amstrad Cent Pour Cent.