Journey to
H.A.T.Z.
Friday, May 25th 2005
We start our trip at 15:30 MET, its about 28 C and we are soon
sweating in RA's car. After 2 1/2 hours we take our first break
to make sure we are still on the right track. A bit later we
recognized that we missed the right Autobahn !
Lets do some extra 100 Km just for fun and for we are stupid
nerds. Talking about programming STs should be restricted to the
party zone if we really want to arrive today. The good thing
about this : we could see the miracles of this part of Germany.
The beautiful Westerwald, a big Rhinebridge we crossed and the
silouette of Koblenz.
When we finally arrived at least two hours later than planned,
we meet the first people outside, preparing to grill some
sausages. We are welcomed friendly and get our stuff out of the
car, up in the first level were the party rooms are. The
location has a size between the rooms of Outline 2004 and
Outline 2005. A kitchen with refridgerator and stuff. Toiletts
are downstairs, no showers anywhere so sensitive noses will get
a hard time soon here.
What is very cool about this party is that there is no real
entrance fee. Its up to you how much donations you give for the
party. And you can get anything you want from the drinking stuff
and the organized food. You always pay the amount into a
donation cup you feel it deserves.
Back to the party itself: behind us is an STE owner from Erfurt,
who also got a Jaguar with him. All others have XLs and XEs as
far as I can judge from a fast glance. Back to the sausages
outside, waiting in a hungry mood a surprise guest appears:
Charon/Escape shows up, bringing his selfmade FPGA computer
along. Now I realize Mad Butscher with his Falcon030 is here,
with RAs Faclon and my Mega/STE 16/32bit will be represented
well as long as Havoc and Earx get here, too. The guy with the
STE has some spare parts to sell so I get a TT HD drive, a TT
mouse and a cable for a good price. The main idea of this whole
event is more gaming on any Atari you get and its something new
for me as all other parties I went to were demoparties. Many of
those old XL/XE games still have the ability to tie you up until
you get a highscore. I find Gyruss on one of these machines and
remember it from the days when I was young *sniff*.
Its already Saturday May 26, about 4 o'clock am and I get tired.
RA went to sleep some hours ago and I am thinking to do so, too,
when some dutch guys (not "our" dutchies) arrive. Talking to one
of them keeps me wake till around 6 o'clock. Then I fall into a
dreamless sleep till noise wakes me at 8:30 am. Next thing to
organize is some food and drinking stuff. Yesterday everything
was already closed. We get our stuff from an Aldi some
kilometers away and are ready to face the rest of the time here.
Now the challanges do not end, highscores to be beaten are
everywhere. On VCS its "Dragster" on Jaguar Tempest 2000, on
XL/XE Miner 2047 and much more. The dutch guy I was talking to
seems to be a demo fan, too so we can watch soem XL/XE
masterpieces of demoart. Some effects on that machines look even
ST-like. Great stuff. Also some new efforts in developing new
grafic modes with special tricks can be admired.
As the XL guys are also interested in demos we show them some
STE stuff and we exchange impressions. Time is running here and
its already 12:30 pm and Havoc and earx are not here yet and
they have to hurry if they want to join the party - the last 24
hours have begun. Some visitors arrive at the HATZ, friends from
the organizer it seems, but RA and I decided to make a trip to
the near castle of Dauhn, so we cannot get to know them. The
castle is on top of a little mountain and you got a great survey
over the beautiful area. The building itself is romantic and its
architecture very inspiring for a graphician. Sadly RA forgot
his camera so there is no proof of all that beauty.
Back again many are still trying to break other peoples records
and RA meets his fate in form of the XL/XE game called "Quiks".
After a few tries he is addicted and is only able to let it be
when he is forced to.
This happens when the big contest in "Cervis" - a Tron like game
- on XL (up to eight players) and "Checkered Flag" on Lynx (up
to 6 player at one time) take place.
Just a short time before this, at 18:30 the two long awaited
guys from Holland arrive. Havoc and Earx are finally there when
we already had lost all hope to see them this weekend.
Everybody is now participating in the multiplayer contests and
the 16/32bit guys did not bad with Charon winning the "Checkered
Flag" and Mad Butcher winning "Cervis" competition.
We continue with more gaming, drinking some beer and chatting. I
find another great XL/XE game, also technically impressive,
called "Encounter". A 3D game with fast grafics and lot of fun.
On my Mega/STE I start "Zero 5" and Earx is trying to solve some
missions but we both fail to succeed. So beer and more talking
is rather welcome. But everybody seems to be quite tired this
eve, the dutch for travelling about 8-9 hours, the rest for
little sleep and much gaming. Also the heat is doing everything
to get people tired and at about 12:00 almost all are already
off to bed. I fall into a long refreshing sleep until about 7:30
am. So now I talk to some XL guys again, some more demos are
shown or tried to be shown. Again interest in 16-Bit demos and
stuff is noticed and talking about nearly everthing takes place,
some still cannot stand the records others made, but most people
now pack their stuff and talk about hardware, software, politics
and whatever. So its time to prepare out journey home and we
start to get our things to the car. Last talkings and friendly
good byes finish the H.A.T.Z 2005 for us. In the end, it was an
Atari party for all kinds of Atari fans. No matter if you liked
demos, games or hardware. Friendly open minded people there,
though most are rather gamers than developers. For those who
like relaxed atmosphere, lots of different Atari hardware and
also some gaming fun should risk a trip the next H.A.T.Z. !
Zweckform/Paradox for Alive,2005-05-31
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