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- <f1><c000> The pole is back! <f0>
- <f1><c000> EIL #3 REPORT <f0>
-
- by Saulot/ Nokturnal /Chosneck TEAM 23.11.2003-26.11.2003
-
-
- The beginning of my journey wasn't very lucky because I supposed to travel with
- a bunch of people, but it turned out that I had to organise everything
- by myself. I packed my old trusty STE, ancient, brick-like hard disk, monitor
- and threw myself on the street. Honestly speaking the worst part of my trip
- was in Warsaw, all the way to central station. A small and old tram (we
- call them "cucumbers") filled with too many people... Yuck!
-
- But I arrived at <link=eil1.scr>place</l> something about 9 o'clock and had enough time to buy
- my two-way ticket to Dresden (much cheaper solution, if train tickets can
- be cheap). I jumped on the train to Wroclaw Glowny, and sat and waited. I have
- to confess that I hardly remember anything now, so I cannot be very accurate at
- moment (it was long time ago and I can have problems with for example .....
- chronology), especially about those stupid train time-tables.
-
- The fact was that, when I arrived in Wroclaw, I had to wait several hours for
- the train to <link=eil2.scr>Dresden.</l> I tried to do almost everything to kill some time,
- especially useful was my Atari monitor which in moments of despair was used
- as a stool (the true meaning of Atari flexibility and multitasking). I
- visited the local internet cafe (with nice skinhead as a personnel ) to
- send my cry for help, because the party was going to be in quite a new
- place, I was feeling the pressure a lot - I hadn't learned by heart the
- whole Dresden city map (and was trying to find something in the middle of the
- night, lucky me ;-]).
-
- When the time was right I headed for the correct platform, sat, hanged, lied
- about and once again waited. There was some kind of train, but it wasn't very
- special for me, so I ignored it and I looked after another one (which was
- nonsense as you will read on). As I have nearsightedness (not very
- painful, but not in all cases), I hadn't noticed the small door sign with
- "Dresden" written on it. I waited for some time, but this train didn't seem
- to move at all to clear the space for MY train. I was getting
- suspicious, left all the bags (risky business), read the sign on the train
- door, asked the man with nice hat to be 100% sure and jumped into the wagon.
- Seems to be complicated? It was!
-
- The next part of the trip was easy. After crossing the border I had a
- whole compartment to myself. The train as always was too late (22.00-23.00 i
- don't remember). Even the German customs officers were kind enough to not
- turn out all my bags which were enormous this year (I was really surprised that
- I wasn't treated like smuggler or something worse).
-
- On <link=eil3.scr>Dresden</l> Hauptbahnhof I literally dumped out of the wagon, because one of my
- bags, just in time, broke up and while I was very busy with putting it
- all back together, Moondog and 505 arrived (thanks for picking me up!).
- We threw everything in Moondogs' car and we headed directly to the party
- place. It was rainy and the back seat was wet a little (car wasn't very water
- resistant). But I was glad that I was in the vehicle when I travelled to the
- Tusculum club. I certainly could not get through with all those bags. When we
- arrived there was many people already, three rooms filled with Atari
- computers and some other weird things. I left the bags to take look, greet
- several people and find a place for me and my equipment. I liked the former
- partyplace and firstly thought that the change would be no good. But when I
- saw the whole club, I've changed my mind.
-
- The new location was not only better, but bigger and very atmospheric. In
- the main hall there was 24h free internet access, good old quix gaming corner
- (I don't know how many days this poor, old Atari was switched on) and a table
- for writing real-time article.
-
- As there wasn't free space left, I took the place reserved for Adam K. (prosze,
- nie zabijaj mnie, i tak jest juz po herbacie ;))) ) near the one and only
- representative of Spain -> Elmaraka (hi !). But I had no luck, I sat in front
- of the ill famed PARANOIA team (just kidding with this ill famed....). I think
- I know now how Paranoid earned his nickname, one his look explained
- everything ( it was, how to say, very paranoid ha, ha ;-) ) I will remember it
- to the end of my life! No offence dr.! ).
-
- After a moment of rest with a bottle of beer I started to assemble my hardware.
- Then my problems started. My cables didn't like German plug sockets, but
- thankfully the organisers lent me "more socket compatible" ones. As usuall,
- the journey for my STE was a real shock and it had some problems with memory
- (damn simms!). Ancient harddisk had problems with aclimatisation as well and
- refused to work, but I convinced it to my way of thinking (some shorts, several
- strong kicks, one blow from the head and voila ! ;) ). The rest of the
- evening was spent on looking at the ceiling (I was very tired) and after
- awhile I went to the second building to take a shower (the same place had also
- the gym functioning as a sleeping room).
-
- The first contact with the gym was a very funny experience: dark as in the
- ...., a lot of free space (who knows in what direction to go) and this awful
- snoring ;)) ! As I had no real idea, I took the safest position (near
- exit route, in the middle of the whole room) in opposite to other sceners who
- preferred rather sleeping under the gyms' ladders.
-
- I woke up quite refreshed the next morning, took a shower and went out to
- the city to hunt for some food in company of Elmaraka. Dresden after the
- last flood wasn't nice on the eye (if it comes about the modern part).
- Everything under construction, fences, hole upon a hole, cars and you had to
- watch out for every step. Even simple walking through the street was no
- mean feat (mainly in forbidden places). After breaking through to the town
- centre, we bought bread + some meat to put onto it and returned to the party
- place. In Tusculum I annoyed some people, molested coders, abused graphists
- and other disk mag writers not to mention squeezed musicians ;). I also
- performed some kind of field inspection about Chosneck magazine and came to
- the horrific conclusion that most sceners had heard about our mag, but
- actually few had a chance to read it. Great! In my free time I tried to
- force obedience from my STE, but it's a very stubborn machine, so immediate
- retreat from my side was inevitable. (I have some special things in the hat
- so be warned! 8-# "Yes, we are afraid" - small reminder from the rest of
- Chosneck TEAM ;])
-
- In the meantime the new YM Rockerz music menu was presented by Mc
- Laser/TSCC. Interested persons could get their own copy signed by
- musicians involved in this project. Someone threw piles of several issues of
- ST-computer magazine, which disappeared very quickly. (it seems that
- continuing of this nice tradition is now impossible).
-
- As usual the competitions were delayed (the most exciting demo competitions
- which should have begun on Sunday were actually on Monday). Side effect was
- that I had to beat myself periodically and struggle with sleep (very stupid
- feeling, it's very dark, you catch yourself asleep with voting people
- around, terrible). For me music compo was real torture. I don't mean overall
- quality of entries (which was quite good this year), but I think that it
- could moved to the morning. The audience could be in better mood and
- more focused on rehearsal. For the first time ACE tracker competition was
- introduced and it simply rocked. (BTW when the replay routines will be
- available? I feel very big potential in including ACE modules in falcon games
- and demos.) The ST graphicans had also their five minutes. The real
- brainblasting gfx was made by Flash and was drawn on several virtual
- screens (this entry was most problematic to display, he, he, wonder why?).
-
- If it comes about TC gfx, photoshop ruled and there was hardly any pictures
- made in oldschool way. Uhm, maybe with few exceptions.
-
- On Sunday morning there was the barbeque. Some French people protested:
- "What? Sausage for breakfast? No, thanks...". :) Well, for me no problem
- at all, I could eat kilotons of sausages on breakfast, 2nd breakfast, dinner
- and supper. Maybe that was the main reason for classifying me as a
- German guy . Even several people from Germany were confused. The example was
- strange guy who, one time started to talk to me something and after awhile
- he spotted that I hardly understood anything. Top stuff!
-
- Dune also tried to show as a small preview, announced aeons ago -"Fantasia"
- demo, but problems occurred and after seeing the very nice intro part
- (with gorgeous comic-like graphics) several random jams sabotaged everything.
-
- Next attraction was trip to the Dresden's old town with Silke as a guide (one
- of few women on the party). At EIL#2 I sat in a basement full of computers
- forgetting about the world outside and I regretted that I hadn't seen
- Dresden and it was great opportunity to change the matter of things. Silke had
- told us everything beautifully and showed us the nicest parts of the city.
- There was of course a lot of laughs, because some people had small problems
- with proper movement (side effect of sitting all day chained to computer). The
- final was in beer garden (I don't have other word for that). Sitting in the
- fresh air with beer in one hand and sausage in the other. 8-#
-
- When we came back the Whip-Pong competition started, if you don't know what
- that is then I would rather redirect you to my EIL#2 report. For this year
- there were very nice prizes, the winner of this very controversial discipline
- was awarded with a special, experimental, limited edition of SuperFly
- manipulator constructed by Stimpy. If you have played SuperFly you can
- imagine what this could look like :).
-
- For the most exciting part, the ST(E) & Falcon demo / intro competition
- the attendants had to watch it with a huge delay. Entries were presented at
- 3 or 4 o'clock a.m. At first more "light" arsenal were presented: wild compo
- with two movies: "Atari-man" RG production with new-born star of alternative
- movies MSG / RG and "real-life" demo by Baggio / Wildfire (Evolution?)
- (sorry for my ignorance, but those shape-changing member lists were always
- confusing for me).
-
- ST(e) 128ktros, 4ktros and intros were all great. My favourite one entry was
- fully hardware accelerated 3D donut in ASCII showed what ST is really capable
- of ;) (We wait for a full demo!). RG released a lot: two demos, some smaller
- things. At last someone cared about STE range of computers). For the
- first time, new RG coder/musican - Damo presented his skills. The effect of
- this is Grimey demo, which is quite unusual in comparison to "oridinary"
- ST(e) demos (51mPly W31rD!). The intro named "Mind Rewind" (STE only) was
- quite stunning. After showing of all the effects, everything is plainly
- rewound like in a good old video player.
-
- "Darkness" by DHS was really nice, that's because of really stunning graphics
- by C-Rem and overall "technical correctness". Design was also good, the 3d
- objects were nicely composed with 2d graphics which in most cases filled the
- whole screen area (with borders! but i know how this dirty trick was
- performed....).
-
- The falcon demos were a different story. Cruor falcon demo had a nice
- introduction (nicely rendered falcon030 emerging from the snow). Escape
- presented their nicely designed "_"(underscore) with moody music. For the
- first time busy bee(well known from the ST desktop) had a very successful
- debut in full 3D environment.
-
- TSCC also presented their demo, although unfinished, and I must say that it
- will be the real hit if it will be officially released. McLaser put a lot of
- energy to motivate the main coder(Ray) to do more efficient work. He
- suceeded, because the demo was shown. All I can say that it contained an
- original soundtrack (by McLaser I suppose), modern design and animated 3d
- objects (like talking heads). For sure some hi-tech technology was used to
- create this entry.
-
- As I don't intend to steal the whole job from professional demo reviewers, I
- will speak no more, go to DHS site (www.dhs.nu) to leech everything and watch
- all those wonders by yourself! (it's too late I think... so you can watch it
- all once again...). There you should find all compo results and pictures (EIL#3
- was real digital camera heaven).
-
- On the Monday morning the compo results were announced and prizes passed to
- the winners. After that all the people started to pack their equipment, a
- few had left earlier before compo results were known. The time for getting back
- was near, so I packed everything and headed towards Dresden Central
- Station, where the train to Poland awaited. The travel was quick, but polish
- customs officers had to inspect everything in my bags. And I thought that
- I could avoid it....
- [BLAM!]
-
- As usual organisers had their hands full of work with keeping everyone
- happy, managing all the place for 24 hours without sleep and constantly
- fighting with unexpected matters to make everything run smoothly. As Grey
- always says: "Maximum respect!". The good thing was also that EIL#3 wasn't a
- financial loss, over 100 people attended and maybe organisers had some sort of
- income? Who knows... If yes, then I must congratulate them, because it's a
- very rare phenomenon for non-commercial event.
-
- So, this was a true story of really great <link=eil4.scr>Atari party.</l> Goethe or Chopin I am
- not, but agree with me that greatest mag writer ever I am, booohahaha ;].
- [storm + lightning please ......] And sorry to all, because all those Chosneck
- delays were caused by me. I hope that the overall effect was worth it.
-
- At the end I would like to thank: blonde maiden (sorry I don't remember your
- name) who gave me the blue bag, so my equipment could return safely home, No/
- 505/ Moondog for a really warm welcome, Elmaraka for lifting me up back to
- Central Station, Zweckform/Cruor for showing me some STE demos, Felice for
- financial insurance :) and to the other fellow Atarians I've talked to.
-
-
- -- - --- -- -------------------------------------------------------------------
- CHOSNECK 4th appearance contact us:
- done by the dream survivors greymsb@poczta.fm
- ----------------------------------------------------------------- -- - --- ----
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