A
LONELY FRENCH
IN
LEGENFELD
------------------ another Unconventional view bu Stsurvivor -----------------
By now most of you must have read the Unconventional realtime article and/or
Paranoid and 505's reports. Therefore I won't bore you repeating the same facts
or stories, instead I'll tell you about the __only French__ guy who attended the
party, in other words : me :)
Though Legenfeld is about 650 kms far from my place, distance was not such a
problem especially since German highways are free ! The same ride, in France,
would have most probably implied an extra 50 euros charge... Yes French highways
are damm expensive and that highly reduces our chances to attract European
Atarians to our country :(
Driving alone was a bit boring tho... I tried to convince other Frenchies to
join but given that there was another party in France at the same time which was
co organized by Sector One, most of my fellows were already busy. So I got off,
alone in my red VW Polo :)
I left on Friday september 5th, in the morning and reached Legenfeld early
at night after surviving quite a number of traffic jams... I lost another hour
driving around in Legenfled, desperately looking for the party place. As my
hope to find it was getting close to zero, I spotted a small Atari sign on a
street... Yeah !
The party place was quite big especially compared to the few people expected
and was located on top of a hill, it offered a nice view on the small town. I
soon found out that 505 and No were already there, along with a bunch of
8-biters from Eastern countries. Later that night, Paranoid and MCL joined and
later again Moondog and Modmate arrived as well. That was what this party was
about :not about how many people there were but how friendly they were ! And I
can tell you that the atmosphere was really cool ! I talked quite a lot with the
people mentioned above and learnt about their projects and ideas. All of which
was really interesting and friendly.
Mad Butcher also did his best to entertain us and I even took part to the
hard disk throwing compo tho I thought it'd be a little stupid at first. I also
enjoyed playing Millipede tho my second attempt was a bit spoilt by the liters
of beer that were already in my stomach :)) I was a bit sad to see that neither
D-Force nor Havoc actually showed up...
I spent most of the time walking around, talking to nice people, smoking and
drinking beer, all of which proved pleasant enough :) Since I was the only
French most of my fellows spent their time speaking German which was surely the
only low point for me since I sometimes felt a bit isolated. Fortunately I had a
book with me and spent some time reading outside on a bench.
Late at night, on the second day, the competitions started : This time I was
to present our new LOud! gfa demo "Waiting for the Apocalypse" and... damm it,
things didn't get very well to start with ! First, my __French__ STe wouldn't be
connected to the video beamer because of some connector that doesn't exist on
French Ataris (lamerZ!!!). Then we found another ST but it wouldn't read my disk
erm... Gimme another minute to reformat it :) We managed to get the demo started
but then I would freeze on the third screen... Another try finally reassured me
since I managed to get things work out as planned. Now people could enjoy - or
dislike - our demo on the big screen ! Pfuuu time for another beer :)
I had another - funny ? - problem in Legenfeld. Earlier that day, I had
found out that I was quite hungry :) Therefore I drove back to the midtown to
realize that all shops were __already__ closed (on a Saturday afternoon ? That
sounded so weird to me !!). I needed some cash at least to buy pizzas and headed
for an ATM. The machine offered a French menu I chose to use. Oddly, the words
and respective buttons were not quite on the same line, so when I chose "other
amount" I was quite distressed to see the machine deliver... 800 DM instead !
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck ! I was rich but... It wasn't such good news, what would I do
with so much money ? Fortunately, we won the demo compo, and the extra cash
earned allowed me, once back in France, to convert this cash into my own
currency without losing too much into charges. What a story !!!
About the whole party : as said before the atmosphere was really cool and
the people very friendly ! The entertainment offered also did much in it and tho
I could feel a bit alone sometimes, my Atari fellows did their best, switching
to English whenever I came by :)
I was a bit surprised to see Moondog, Modmate and MCL spend hours watching
old demos and lament about "how the Scene had once been big and how small it was
now". That really made me laugh to see these guys, almost in tears in front of
the monitor, lament instead of doing things. I thought it was a pure lamer
attitude especially when I remember Moondog and Modmate complain about the way
UCM had changed. They should move their ass instead ! I can stand criticism but
not when it comes from people who do nothing BUT complain. After witnessing such
attitude, I knew that Moondog would surely never release his inSTabil and that I
shouldn't wait for anything from Modmate. I hope I'm wrong though...
To put it in a nutshell, the Unconventional Party Two was a bit small but
friendly enough to make it worth attend. Maybe another edition will see masses
of Frenchies cross the border to have a good time with their German and Eastern
European fellows. In the meantime, I have to address my deepest respect and
thanks to Mad Butcher for organizing such a cool party !
------------------------------------------------------------------------- STS --
|
