Amiga Plus 2004 #2

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Wrap

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»PIC:barclip2.ilbm» »CL9: GOODBYE TO THE PARTY »PIC:barclip2.ilbm» »CL4: By Darkhawk/IRIS »CL1:As you might know, The Party in Denmark, first and most influential of all sceneparties ever, is no more. Scene wise, TP's demise has not been felt too much, as most of the scene gave up on this party roughly 2 years ago. However, TP seen in perspective certainly deserves a fitting necrologue, and it is indeed sad that it is over, though the real end came years ago. »CL0:In this article, I will probably get a little nostalgic, and write about the various The Parties that have been arranged, of which I have been present at most myself. I will also share with you some views the organizers had, aswell as how they managed relations with the demoscene. »CL1:Since 1991, The Party had been a shining light for the scene, the main event of the year, THE way to end every scenish year, THE most definitive party, where you had to attend and release something. No party has yet managed to get the same status, and as all scenes grow smaller, no party probably ever will, although parties such as The Assembly and Mekka/Symposium have both come close at different times. Right now, the most influential party for all scenes is probably The Assembly, with the Breakpoint party an unsure contender. Time will have to tell which party comes out as the most important one of the year; were I to bet, I'd bet on those two parties. »CL0:But back to TP. It was started in 1991, were it was held on a school in the danish town of Aars (am Aars der Welt, as some Germans said back then). You might remember the school and the hall it was held in, if you were a TP visitor in later years, as the school was used for sleepingfacilities after the first TP. I am still a sad and bitter man for having missed TP1, but I guess many missed the first party, not knowing how good it was to be. It was also uncommon to place a party between christmas and new year back then. However, as we know, TP1 was a huge success, and releasewise, it is especially remembered for the three very good demos that were presented there: Odyssey by Alcatraz, Hardwired by Silents and 3DDemo by Anarchy. Thus began the tradition of releasing the worlds best Amiga demos on TP, a tradition that first stopped around TP 8-9. The year after, a flood of people wanted to visit Aars between christmas and new year. The school was abandoned, and instead hall 1-2 of the Aars Messecenter was used, while hall 3 was rented for sleeping. It was the biggest gathering of sceners ever, and probably the best party I have attended. There were close to 40 Amiga demos and intros released all in all, from all the groups worth their name. Releasewise, TP2 is most known for the winning demo State of the Art by Spaceballs, aswell as the winning 40k, Melon40 by Melon Design (the one with the raytracing and lego stuff. A classic). Naturally, I was somewhat young back then, in my scenish prime of 15 years, and having only been to much smaller copyparties, I was quite overwhelmed. TP2 set the standard for the demoparties that began to start in earnest back then (The Assembly and The Gathering). There were hundreds of C64 sceners, close to 1500 Amiga sceners, and maybe 100 or so PC sceners. All this began to change over time, naturally. »PIC:dl2» »CL1:My mouse was stolen at TP2, only time I have had anything at all stolen. At the same party, I remember watching all 3 Star Wars episodes, thus missing the musiccompetition featuring the amazing, winning module of Moby called Cortouchka. However, I did see the live concert with Tip and Mantronix, so I guess I was compensated. Naturally, the demo and introcompetition was memorable in the extreme, but what I will remember the most was the feeling of friendship, motivation and joy that virtually all attenders had. I talked with a great many people and groups, got to know a lot and met new contacts. This was big, this was good, and we all enjoyed it. Also, seeing the many people who had their own group t-shirt and banners was nice. These days these things are rare. »CL0:Next year, at TP3, the party moved to Herning, to the massive halls of Herning Messecenter. By now, TP was the party, famous above all others, and close to becoming a tradition for the sceners. However, the scenegroups behind TP were dissolving or loosing touch with the ones in the groups who organized TP, and so this was the last TP backed by a demogroup (TP1 and TP2 were officially held under Crystal, Silents and Anarchy, while TP3 was held under Silents, Lemon and Spaceballs. In reality though, the mainorganizers had never had any other function in the scene than to be party organizers). TP3 was a blend of old and new. While TP2 was a total scene party, arranged by sceners for sceners, TP3 was a bit more open, probably also due to its size. There were more and more arrangements that had nothing to do with the demoscene, but which were still computerrelated. I had the feeling that the Amigascene had already begun to dwindle around there, and I'd have to say that 1992 was probably the year were the Amiga scene was at its biggest. The demos released at this party were not the best, but still there were some true classics, especially Arte by Sanity, which only managed to get the 2nd price, due to the bigscreen oriented design of Origin by Complex. »CL1:TP3, while an overall great party, was the party where we got to see a frightening number of PC's, aswell as the new game Doom, which was played almost constantly there. TP started showing the amount of different computers present at the party this year, and TP3 was the last party where there were still some form of equality between Amigas and PC's. Compared with TP2, the change in the number of PC was quite staggering, which I guess can also be explained by TP3 being advertized as a party open for all, not just sceners. There were probably a mass of people interested in what was going on in such a big party, and they mostly had PC's. In any case, I remember this as somewhat worrying and frightening, that the PC could have gotten this big already. Also, I remember attending a seminar held by Commodore on gamesdevelopment, aswell as about the future plans of Commodore. In retrospect, this was a bit sad, as the speakers must have known that things were not well within Commodore. 2 months after TP3, Commodore went bankrupt, and the good times we'd had with both the scene and playing games on the Amiga changed forever. »CL0:TP4 continued the trend. Dwindling Amiga sceners, and for the first time, more PC's than Amiga's present. Things got muddier by then. New competitions were introduced, and the compact, scenish feel began to change, although we didn't notice it at the time, and although the scenish spirit was still there. The party was still located in Herning, and actually this location was the one I liked the best. A very good exhibitioncentre and a decently sized town. Still, such things are not terribly important. What was important, were the releases at TP4, and here 3 competitions stood out: the C64 democompo, the Amiga democompo and the wildcompo. The last compo was a newly invented one, and the entries there were very impressive back then. Dataworld by Infect aswell as Twisted by Polka Brothers were released in that compo. As for the Amiga democompo, I guess you all know about the Virtual Dreams demo, and especially about a certain Andromeda demo. Indeed, the scene reached new heights at TP4, and it took some years before the standard set there was reproduced. »CL1:At TP4, IRIS managed to win the only TP competition we have ever won. Ohh yes, we won the tug-of-war compo! Already back then, we had some heavyweight members. I won an original copy of Pirates! Ok, maybe not the most glorious moment in our life, but still.. I also remember seeing Nexus 7, standing next to Lord Helmet as he watched the scroller in the demo. The look of surprise on his face was quite priceless. It seemed to sap out his will to fight and his sharp tongue, because he never dared to attack Andromeda or its organizer after that. »CL0:I remember TP5 being the first TP that I had some misgivings about, and where I didn't feel it was all good and perfect. By then, the Amiga's decline had become apparent, and the scene had dwindled. It was at TP5 I was asked to become one of the organizers, in part because they were slowly realizing that they moved away from the scene, and hadn't any contacts in it. This was also quite visble in the way they presented the party and the way they handled the scenish things. Sceners were slowly beginning to understand that TP was not run by sceners, and this, combined with the ineffectiveness of those organizers to connect with sceners led to the downfall of TP later. I was not too interested in becoming TP organizer back then, but the lack of a scenish connection only grew worse and worse after that, until the scene severed itself totally from TP and went to parties arranged by fellow sceners. This was not to happen for some years yet though, and so TP was still the number one party. This party was held »PIC:drzulun1» in Fredericia, the first and only time this was the location. Nothing much to say about Fredericia, except that they had a McDonalds close by, and the organizers also had McD as a sponsor, meaning that they showed McD commercials and had a big McD banner hanging in the hall. Many sceners were angered at this example of commercialism in a place where it certainly did not belong, but that was to be the norm at parties after that, big sponsors wanting to get money out of the sceners. However, the use of McD might have been especially unwise, and after TP5, the organization of TP selected only ads from computerrelated firms. At this party, they also featured a lot of stands, where firms could hawk their wares. These were halfempty mostly, but again, the sceners did not like this development, and so it was toned down at future TP's. Closer by CNCD won the democompo, and was quite a cool demo. However, the general quality of the Amiga demos this year was rather poor, though I also liked the Alcatraz demo. »CL1:What everyone remembers from TP5 is likely to be the technoconcert held in the sleepinghall. I was one of the unfortunates, who tried to sleep during the concert, a feat that was only partly successful for me. I remember waking drowsy and disoriented to the sound of the pumping bigdrum and people dancing. "This can't be, is this not the sleepinghall?" I remember thinking. This was also the year where a snowstorm immobilized our poor orange party Lada. »CL0:After the detour to Fredericia, TP returned once again to Aars. TP6 was quite engaging, though it was also the party where I hallucinated due to lack of sleep. Back then, it was something of a ritual only to sleep 30-45 minutes during the 3 days of partying, though I guess I have gotten too old and feeble to practice this anymore. Likewise, it was customary NOT to bring any sleepingbag or blanket, just to encourage not sleeping. When you finally had to give up and get some minutes of sleep, you slept under tables or on tables, thinking them quite soft. Nowadays I prefer getting my 8 hours of sleep in my sleepingbag though. I'm a wuss, I know. Apart from that, I remember the amazing 'Rofly' animation done by Gandalf in the wildcompo. This one, together with the 2nd Reality remake on C64 was amongst the most memorable productions from this party. This year, Shaft7 won the Amiga compo. This party was also better than TP5 I felt, and with this, and the next TP, I felt that TP had stabilized and managed to get the best out of a difficult situation, arising because of its (misplaced maybe) aim of being a multimedia party, a party for all people, not only sceners. Not that I liked the decision to evolve into this though, I suggested that they tone down the size of the party, only accepting sceners. There was no way they would do that though, partly because most organizers of TP by now were danish gamers who did not know anything at all about the scene, nor cared for it. However, the scene itself kept the spirit at TP going for a few years yet. »CL1:TP7 was memorable because of many things actually. Our members Dascon and Nutman managed to get 3rd and 4th place in the musiccompo (this was a feat, because back then, hundreds of mods were delivered and also had to get preselected before being played, so just getting your module played was something to be proud of). Naturally, this was also the party with the famous powerfailure, that blew 25000 fuses and blacked out 1/4 of the city of Aars for 4 hours! Actually it was quite fun, with people singing and performing spontaneous live acts, or just going out and boozing. Ahh, I miss the good old TP. One last memorable event happened when Ransom's computer was within 10 minutes close to finishing rendering the final output for his picture. I think it had been running for 12 hours or so (yes, no wonder 3D graphicians were usually among the first to quit the Amiga), but then Nutman came along and tripped over a powercable. Uuups! »CL0:It was after TP7, that a new team of organizers once again tried to reconnect with the scene, and this time they were a bit more desperate and KNEW that if they didn't succeed, TP would go exactly the same way as The Gathering, becoming a gamers party only. Something needed to be done, and they were willing to do it. However, not being sceners, they did not know what they could do. There was one main-organizer, who was a C64 scener, and who was the leading force in trying to get something done. He attended other parties and talked with sceners, investigating how they felt, and taking their suggestions. Again, I told him what I thought of the matter, and gathered some articles written about the matter by sceners and gave him. At TP8 and 9, the organizers tried to make the demoscene feel welcome and wanted, but ironically they failed even more than before at those parties. »CL1:I'm afraid that TP8 and 9 were not really all that fantastic after all, as the special TP atmosphere, created by the help of so many sceners, and the feeling that TP was a scene event, began to disappear. It was however memorable when the car of Adonis landed out in the mud beside the road, and Dr. Doom and myself had to get it free while Adonis sat in the car. I managed to dextrously avoid most of the resulting mudsplash as Adonis with no warning turned on the car, but Dr. Doom was not so fortunate, and at that time, the handle 'mudman' would have been very fitting, hehe. I also remember getting interviewed for the biggest newspaper in Denmark, while Nutman was interviewed for the eveningnews on the most popular TV channel. At that time, the media were beginning to get quite interested in this phenomenon in Denmark, but sadly they came too late, as did many gamedevelopers looking for new talent. By TP8, it was clear that the remaining scenish, artistic atmosphere was only maintained by an ever-dwindling number of sceners. However, I remember that we released Swift and I-Surf on these two parties, and were cheated out of a 3rd place at TP9 due to votecheating. At TP9 almost no one bothered to vote, but everyone got a paperstrip of code handed out, which they needed in order to log in and vote. As 95% were non-sceners, they just discarded these strips, so by going around and collecting them, which was easy, you could amass the right to vote many times. This, combined with the low amount of voters made for some quite unscrupulous votefaking both by people who needed it, and by people who didn't, hrmm. When I realized what was going on during the last hours, I scoured the 3 halls and could only find 2 strips of paper with code, so I was much too late for votefaking, hehe. »CL0:At TP8 and TP9 you got the feeling that none of the many organizers cared for or knew the scene. There was only 1 mainorganizer interested in working to keep us there, but when confronted with masses of gamers, childish competitions, gamecompetitions, events centered around gamers and the general computerpopulation, etc., the scenish atmosphere fled, and so did the sceners. Instead, the many organizers celebrated themselves, holding parties with free food and beer, getting merchandise and goods for free, buying tickets to foreign and domestic travels for TP's money, and generally thinking highly of themselves. Not an attitude that further endeared them to sceners. TP really tried to be many things all in one, but it just wasn't feasible if they didn't hold on to the core, the sceners. They knew this, but being who they were, they had no way or real will to change sufficiently in time. The result was obvious: the sceners, no matter which platform they were on left for other, more scenish parties. Meanwhile, the democrew at TP, consisting of a great many organizers, did not know how to handle machines other than PC's, did not know the names of the groups (thus e.g. Ephidrena was called Erhidrena on the bigscreen), and did not care much either. When looking at what Amiga demos won TP 8 and 9 on their homepage, you get to know the following: Aliens2 won TP8 and Oncrete won in TP9. This says it all I guess, but looking even closer at the History section, I uncovered clear evidence that the organizers of today know nothing of the past or any scene. They admit it under their text about TP1: "Not much has survived from 1991, but we do know that it was held in Aars, and had a staggering 1200 guests (quite a record for a new party indeed). We have however been able to find the results of the competitions and some of the contributions. Have a look in the downloads area." Heh, they have been able to find some of the results and contributions, but otherwise this seems to be ancient history, the ancient history of somebody else infact. On the same page, below the title of the winning picture (a Boris Vallejo copy, apropos the Copycat article in this EC), the following is written: "This picture by Iridon of Shinida won the Graphics competition in 1991". If you do not remember an Amiga group called Shinida, you might remember one calling itself Shining (yes, Dual Crew and Shining merged a year later, and became DCS). This is not just unprofessional and careless, it also shows that the organizers really have no clue at all concerning the scene, while they still use the scene in their advertizing and promoting of themselves. »CL1:I remember one of the mainorganizers telling me that they really wanted to be there for the sceners, but they had no connection with the scene. Who deserted who? The sceners by not supporting TP and becoming TP organizers, or The Party by not keeping its focus on the sceners, and recruiting them in 1994/1995, at the earliest possible time? As always, the answer is around the middle, though I think TP bears the most responsibility for all of this. It is true that the sceners could have helped out more, but it was decisions and indecisions by the TP staff that made the scenish spirit disappear, and thus no scener really wanted to help when things got really bad. »CL0:I tried to get an interview with Stripe, the mainorganizer of TP throughout most years, but perhaps unsurprisingly, all I did get in return for my email was silence. Thus, I am not sure why The Party was cancelled this year. Perhaps they have finally worn themselves out organizing, perhaps they got demotivated by the lack of the scene, or perhaps there is some other reason. I hope to be able to find out, but it seems like all people have trouble contacting the organizers these days. At their homepage, you can only read words to the effect that TP is cancelled and that more info will be available soon. Naturally, this text has stood there for over 4 months now. Whether that means it is cancelled for all time, or only cancelled this time, is not clear. The future will show us, but I for one think that it is finally over for this party series. What I mourn is the way things were before, when both the scene and TP made eachother stronger. However, the spirit at TP went away for good around TP8, and never returned. I think the organizers, though not sceners themselves, know this, and do not want to continue without this spirit present.