/=- . . _
'|__ .~.~ /\ .~ || _ _ ' \
|| | | :: | in || | | \ |~ /
\=- ' ' \/ ' \==- ' ' ' '- /_.
..__--===>)>>--------------()--------------<<(<===--__..
CiH's massively tedious all points party report!
. . .
With a little help from his /-\SCII-|\|ation Friends!
(Who are also going to Dresden!)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The roaring gradually subsided into a throaty satisfied sounding purr, and
the pixelled line at the end of the screen skittered down in response, just
catching and flicking back the bright dot flying towards it. The screaming
that came when the dot reached the other side were just as impassioned, but
a lot less well controlled, as the blip skidded past the frantically
flickering pixelled bat. A mighty cheer went up from the assembled crowd,
Tam had won the Whip-Pong competition!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
So what is this 'Whip-Pong? I hear you ask. Just who is this Tam? You might
query. And are any of the above dangerous to my children?? Well, the answers
to those questions are variously, wait and see, I shouldn't worry about him,
he lives in Sweden which is a long way away, and quite probably yes, but
only if you foolishly disregard my advice from the last answer and insist on
travelling to Sweden...
But to really understand what went on in that crucial opening paragraph,
you'll have to read my bumper-sized Easter Error in Line part 2 report,
which tells the story of various blokes in a car, their adventures
travelling across the continent to Dresden, and what went on from there.
Annoying..
This replaces the normal pre-amble bit, which seems to put off some people
who don't like 'too many words', as long as those words are not their own?
February grated into March, and metal grated onto metal as the clutch
mechanism in my car started to fail through age and over-use. I contacted
the local friendly garage person, and was prepared for something on the
lines of teeth grindingly expensive already, when the phonecall came......
__.--'
_.------.______________---------' .
// ./'*'' .
// ./ ' /\ ' \____/
-- // ./ ' \_\ /____\ I said your clutch is
---- // ./ ' ' \ o_| | bolloxed pal! And the
------------// ./ .: /_ ...| / rest of it ain't looking
---_________/__/ \\||___/ too good either...
|_| \\ _| |_. .
. . | | . \:|[ ] /
| | . \|| | .
. | | . . .:__|| | .
| | . . ''-_-' \
| | . * '"""""' . . .
It was not good news at all, as the contagion had spread to include the
gearbox. Now this was getting into the realms of stupidly expensive! It was
looking like the EIL trip was in real danger of not happening. Still, endure
two hellish days without the car, pay up unsmilingly to get it back, and sit
down to work out very carefully, that by doing without little luxuries, such
as food, I could still make the trip...
Four days later..
One week grated into the next, and metal grated onto metal, as the starter
motor flipped its last and died... This was not as expensive a disaster as
the week before, but it meant I seriously had to consider taking up theft as
a hobby in order to be able to fund the EIL trip.
What I did was close enough, which was to take an extension on my credit
card in order to provide for spending money. Taking on extra debt in this
way is like a form of violent self-abuse, such as shooting your testicles
off for a very short term benefit, but it had to be done. As it turned out,
the effort was worth it in the end. (Also to mention Felice graciously
forgoing immediate payment of part of the ferry cost for the time being,
thanks mate!)
Weds 11th April..
So it is, we come to a sunny afternoon in the middle of April. Felice's car
awaits on his driveway. The choice of travelling companions has coagulated
down to myself and Felice. This means loads of room, even with Felice's
Elton-John like travelling requirements, as the muffled squeals from his
personal groom and trainer stashed away in the boot testified. Still, loaded
up and on our way, and it is a straightforward journey down to Harwich.
. . . _
. .____. . / \
Now can we try . _ ||_| | . / \_________.--._
that again with . | ||__._| . # :... '----'~_
a bit less . | || || | . ## \\\ -.__
stuff now !? . /\ ||__||_|O_ . \ /__\. __'-~'""
/ . |__|\ | | \ . \_/ | \ __' |
__________________|__|_\__|___|__|_____________|___'._'_____|______________
The first signs that things may not be quite alright are when some unwelcome
extras are included with the ferry company travel pack when we book in at
Harwich. Starkly written "FOOD SMUGGLING FORBIDDEN!" notices glare back at
us. I might remind you, that this was all taking place at the height of the
Foot and Mouth epidemic panic.
The understandably nervous Dutch customs are on the alert for any stray bars
of chocolate, beef joints, or packets of McVities digestive biscuits that
might threaten their own animal population. We are warned that the customs
are likely to confiscate these sort of items if found, and it is even
possible that they may search the whole car, as in unload all the equipment
that is sitting in the back of the car! (Or more likely, make US unload the
car, whilst they lounge around smoking a couple of their comedy herbal
cigarettes!) If this nightmare scenario were to be realised, this would be
seriously unfunny, not to mention very late for us arriving at Havoc's place
in Enschede.
Sitting in the late afternoon sunshine, in the Harwich cafe cum waiting
area, I wonder out loud if any of the food that Felice has brought might
just fall into the 'tricky' category. With an air of confidence of someone
used to driving around the Palestinian quarter of Jerusalem in a car with a
big star of david emblazoned on the side without quite realising why people
are throwing stones at it, Felice reasons that he'll be okay, probably.....
Afternoon wore into the evening and teeth grated upon teeth.....
Time drifts aimiably and aimlessly until we board the now intensely familiar
MV Stena Discovery. Soon the McDonalds is located, and we are sitting down
to take in the dubious delights of the video wall. It's the duel of the
battlin' mobile phones next,as a blur of SMS text messages with John Hayward
follows. He is at Heathrow this time, and due to fly out to the party soon.
This goes on for a while until the signal starts to b-r-e-a-k up.
Darkness says hello like an old friend by the time we dock at the Hoek van
Holland sometime later on. The chocolate smuggling misgivings lurking in our
gut resurface, as we are expecting to be kept waiting for a very long time
once we leave the safety of the ship.
As it turns out, disembarking takes about as long as usual, which is not
that long in fact. In addition to the normal customs people, a bunch of
bored looking eighteen year old army conscripts are doing part of their
national service here, going from car to car, asking if the occupants were
carrying any deadly infectious chocolate. It seems that they also served?
We almost get away with it, as Felice's positive answer to the fateful
question nearly gets missed, but a more senior customs bloke waves us to a
stop just in time.
Now if it wasn't for those meddling Khaki-clad kids, we would have gotten
clean away with it!
/\/\/\
()_() \HALT!\/\/\/\/\ : HOEK VAN HOLLAND>>>
/ -----(*) /HAND OVER YOUR\ |
(_____) \MCVITIES, / ||
|D|D|D| /OR FACE THE \ : \\\\||/ Uh-ohhh..
'_____' \CONSEQUENCES!!/ | |. .| It's the Dutch customs!
/O O---=C \/\/\/\/\/\/\/ | :@ @: We've been rumbled!
/ | C-6 | || { V } /
X |\/\/\| | [(_)]
/=======\ | __\___/__
We are co-operative and helpful, he is very apologetic, and there are no
harsh words on either side, which is as it should be! A couple of packets or
so of deadly food are lost forever, but that seems to satisfy the official
hordes, and we are soon on our way, without having to unload the skipful of
computer gear in the back, which is extremely gratifying! It also turns out
that they didn't get all of it either! I recall the Jammie Dodgers (oh those
Maggie 5th Birthday memories!) even made it all the way back home as well!
Thurs 12th April..
The route to Enschede, is straightforward, and the next couple of hours pass
easily. getting to Enschede city centre isn't too hard either, but
remembering where Havoc's place was, apart from a vague psychic impression
of a high place up in the sky, was less easy. We somehow manage to find our
way to more or less the same spot that the SV2000 travelling party got to
last year, before they admitted they were lost and called for help. This
time, we act a little cleverer, locating a handy big street guide, manage to
locate where Havoc's street is in relation to our own, and even plot a
course going there. We set off again, and at this point, manage to pick up a
police car on our tail..
We are almost at the turn-off to his part of the town, when flashing lights
signal us to stop. So we pull in, and a gorgeous babe-cop gets out,
unfortunately followed by a middle-aged male senior cop, and he is the one
asking the questions. We manage to produce enough paperwork and local
knowledge to satisfy them, and he decides that we are "reasonable people"
and can go on (If only he *really* knew what he was dealing with!!) When we
are there or thereabouts, we check out another street-map, fed up with
constant slight misdirections, and find out we are virtually on top of the
street in which Havoc lives. It is now very late, certainly past 2am! Havoc
has patiently waited up for us, and we soon set up sleeping gear for some
concentrated sleeping in his former front room.
_ _ . . .
/ \ / \ . .
| | . They thought we were . Even after they saw you
. /\| |/\ "Reasonable People" Greebo! I thought that
/ \ / \ / and let us go! * they must have
\@ / \ @/ \\\\\\ been blind!
\/ \/ \/ \_ .'. . a) ) / +
\ \\ // / __o___ . c ) . .
\__/\ / \__/ /__:___'._ (__/ ) _.__.___.___.___.
| V | [ Politzi `. '....' | Havuck's Place :
| | 0 ------ 0'= / / \| : <------ - - |
No-one is in too much of a hurry the following day. One of the first things
we do is to decide on a manner of getting to the party. This second stage of
the journey involves some pooling of resources, as in addition to the three
of us, various combinations of other people, some of which still undecided
may be going as well. One thing that is sorted out early is the fact that we
have a whole spare day to spend here in Enschede, so no overnight autobahn
madness to enjoy! The rest of it crucially depends what is happening in
Germany tomorrow, as we are scheduled to make a pick up of one person in
Hannover, with the possibility of Ray of tSCc to go with us to,if he can get
himself to Hannover as well, a rather crucial "if" as it is turning out!
Still, that is for later, as we head in the direction of the town centre, to
take a look around. Havoc kindly drives us in, and he usefully gives us
directions for the bus home, so we drop off around the bus station. The
rest of the afternoon passes as we amble around the place, taking in various
sex and drugs and expensive hi-fi equipment emporiums. After a beer stop in
the latter part of the afternoon, we decide to head back. Waiting around at
the bus station for just a short time, as the bus with the magic destination
number appears. We get on quickly, to get out of the cold and piercing
breeze. But it seems that some Dutch buses tell lies as this one isn't going
where we want to go AND WHERE IT SAID IT WAS GOING!! Of course it takes some
minutes before we realise that it is going to quite another part of the
town, which all seem to look pretty similar to one another anyway!
We spot a likely looking shopping centre that looks a bit more distinctive
than the rest and dive off rapidly. Next thing is to find a call-box and
report in to Havoc. After a minute's two-way confusion, Havoc is pretty sure
he knows where we are and sets off in his car to look. In the meantime, that
just leaves a chill breeze, and some threats of rain showers to contend with.
Some little time later, when I am seriously wondering what the Dutch word
for "hypothermia" is, Havoc appears at last. The inside of a car has never
been more welcoming. We get back to Havoc's high-altitude GHQ where it is
time for tea. This is pizza, with decisions as to who is travelling tomorrow
garnishing the crusts! Ray is unable to get to Hannover after all, which is
a tragedy, especially for him. But we are picking up Creature XL from a
service station close to the motorway exit, whilst taking NUT (Barry) of Fun
with us too. Havoc is bringing up the rear with two other dutchies, and the
bulk of the freight carrying. Even taking this into hand, it is still going
to be something of a squeeze-in for the Hannover to Dresden leg of the trip.
Nothing else too drastic happens for the rest of the evening, the pizza
arrives, and the coroner pronounces it both dead and delicious! Eventually
another night of floor-bound 'bed-surfing' beckons. Night-night, sleep
tight, busy day tomorrow!
Fri 13th April.. (Unlucky for some??)
As we've decided on a late morning departure (with a view to arriving at
Dresden sometime in the evening), no-one is in too much of a hurry to get
up. Soon after we do, NUT turns up. From there, Felice retrieves his car
from its corner kerb parking place, in order to load up for the journey to
Dresden. NUT notices that one of the tyres is lower profile and sportier
looking than it should be, it seems that the slow puncture gremlin has been
at work here!
______.| \_____/ --____-- --____-- -______--_- --___--- --___-- __
KWEEK || /_ _\
FIT! || |o| |o| Bloody hell! _ SPLUTTT!!
------:| | v | more work for . / \
######|| \|[_]|/ me, I suppose! ':: / \__________.--._
# ####| / | | / : # :... '----.~_
## ###|| / _[]---[]_ ## \\\ -.___
## ##||/ |==|\\\|==| \ /__\. __'-.-~'"
### #|| || W W || \_/ | \ __' |
______/ || || \ '._' |
A garage just across the road takes a look, a Dutch Kwik-Fitter dunks the
offending wheel in a tyre-bath, all the better to see where the air bubbles
are coming from. We sense that something not quite usual is happening when
he excitedly points to one of his collegues to come and take a look. It
seems like that this is an unusually cunning and underhand puncture, as only
the inner tube is leaking, whilst the outer tyre wall is stil intact!
Fortunately for Felice, this is the most straightforward and lowest cost
failure it could be. Still it adds an hour or so's delay to our planned
departure time whilst the garage get it sorted.
We retreat back to Havoc's place, out of the cold blowing winds, for more
tea and conversation. The timescale for tyre rectification turns out to be
on the right side of optimistic, as we set off finally, a little before
midday.
With NUT folded into the back, we make good time, A slight twinge of
nervousness takes hold when we get near the German border, just in case any
of the customs related paranoia seen at the Hoek van Holland has seeped its
way here. But we whisk through,scarcely slowing down as we go! It looks like
it is going to be a lucky Friday the 13th after all? The only thing which
makes the long drive interesting, is the rather chilly and very
changeable weather, which goes from a brave but blustery sort of sunshine
one minute, steeply declining into rain and even snow blizzards a short time
later!
We even manage to regain some of the lost minutes from the tyre change
delay, and the occasional stop to allow NUT to top up his nicotine levels
aside, get to the Hannover junction with the 'Aral' service station, where
we are to rendevous with Creature XL, with plenty of time to spare. There
are eating facilities on the site, which is a popular move, and NUT
surprises Creature XL with a phonecall to announce our early arrival. Sounds
of things being frantically thrown into boxes and bags filter faintly back
to us down the phone!
After coffee and croissants, and about fifteen minutes later, a likely
looking car turns up. It decants someone who might well fit the description
of a typical Atari fanatic, with a perpetually worried expression, and with
a large quantity of computer equipment and personal effects clustered around
his feet. This confirms my initial suspicions. Soon, we are all gathered
around Felice's car, trying to make it all fit in the remaining storage
space, which is about enough for a small rabbit, if the rabbit were run over
and flattened to a bloodstained full stop by a steamroller initially?
Much of Creature's equipment goes into the middle part of the back seat. The
rest squashes into the rear hatchback area, with his girlfriend frantically
jumping up and down on it. Or perhaps not? We now have two origami people in
the back, with unheard of miracles of compression, Zip filing, and old-style
folding taking place. At this point in time,a change of drivers takes place,
with Felice sitting back for a well deserved rest in the front passenger
seat, as yours truly takes over.
Set the controls for, erm, the heart of Germany!
More driving follows, with only the one *slight* near-miss as my brain
interprets a "no" from Felice to overtake as a "yes"! But last moment
periperal vision saves the day, so there is no death and injury on this
trip... As I said slightly earlier, the weather was a much bigger factor on
this trip than it was last year, going from bright but breezy, to downright
dire in, like, no time at all... A mid-trip blizzard goes on and on, and the
temperature outside the car is dropping close to freezing, with the snow
starting to lie on the ground. We seriously wonder if we are going to get to
Dresden without the help of a snowplough, but then we suddenly plunge out of
the other side, back into sunshine!
' / / / . Are we nearly . - - . -. .- --- . .-
.-----------------. / / there yet?? ( ( ) )( ) (
|Dresden 90 KM--> | ' / / \ / (( ()(( ( ))(( ( ) )) ())
'-----------------' .___/_/\/\_\___. (____)((_____)(________)(__)
/ || / / || / / ./##\\ \__/ //##\. //// ///// /////// //
' |: / / :| ' //___\_\ /_/___\\ ' / / / ' / / ' /
/ || ' ' || / \__/ / / ' / / / ' /
|: . / || ' / '' ' / / ' . / . /
.\|||, _____ ,.||/. ' SHUT UP GREEBO!! . / ' / .' . / ' /
/ / / . / / ' / ' /
Once we turn south, the furious traffic panic of the mid-section is soon
forgotten as the traffic levels drop right away. For an eerie thirty
minutes, nothing passes me by and the road is clear for miles in front, huge
rolling cloudscapes are lit up by bursts of sunlight,the wind turbines twirl
uneasily in the teeth of the next gathering spring storm. Which we pile
into, right around the time we hit Leipzig. This storm doesn't seem to want
to go away, I am getting tired, with a pit-stop overdue by around three-
quarters of an hour, according to my internal clock. Of course, there don't
seem to be that many service stations in the Eastern part of Germany?
Just as my weary right foot starts to lose the battle against the harsh
return spring on the accelerator pedal, we finally struggle free from the
worst of the storm, and find a 'rest-area', which merely translates to doing
a shit in a bucket, in the corner of a cow-pasture. But under the presently
strained circumstances, this is good enough. The smoking passengers, NUT and
Creature XL light up with shaking fingers, which turn into shivering fingers
whilst we huddle against the cold ever-present wind, spitting rain and hail
drops as the trailing edge of the storm glides past.
Felice grabs the steering wheel for the last thirty miles or so, and the
city limits of Dresden loom large. so selecting a turn-off, we aim for the
city centre, and then quickly find out that the cobbles which rattled our
backsides a couple of years ago, are still very much there! Which Felice,
concerned for his pale but interesting car suspension, isn't so happy about.
We soon make our way past several historic looking bridges, into the centre,
which is where we start to recognise where we are from our previous if
limited travelling experiences. The Hauptbahnhof comes and goes, the Conrad
Electronics store on the right hand side is duly noted, then we spot a big
'EIL' banner, we've made it! First time of looking too, are we cool or what!
Just a little matter of finding a right turn past the long stretch of dug-up
road next. But five minutes later, we are at the rear of the building, where
a barrier blocks our way in, and a car with French number plates blocks any
escape route behind! Some of the French contingent including ST Survivor
greet us enthusiastically, and we crash into the party place from there.
John Hayward meets us as we step down into the party-cellar. There have
been a few changes from the last time, but everyone is more or less where
they were before, apart from the people who aren't here this time of course.
For example, the massed bodies of the Swedish contingent have taken over the
room with the bar in it once more, virtually seat-perfect from the last time
too! Evil and co once more adopting a 'backs to the wall' mode. TNB, with
Moondog have taken over their adopted home from last time too, unfortunately
leaving no space for a Maggie realtime mark 2. The organisers, and various
others such as the 8-bit fans are in the main hall. Where the forces of
Cream and Firesoft dwelt the last time, the Polski's, the Lunatic Asylum,
and the Frenchies have rushed in. I hope they asked first!
The available space is rapidly disappearing, so we grab the corridor spaces
where Earx and the other Dutchies had their 'FUN' last time, close by the
Reservoir Gods grotto....
How many Reservoir Gods does it take to change a lightbulb? - Sorry, can we
get back to you on that one, we're all too busy at the moment!
We catch our first sighting of Mr Pink in over a year. He seems to be alive,
possibly well, and half-hidden behind a smarty-pants ultra-hip Sony Vaio
Laptop. (But this is running an STe emulator on which he is working on his
latest production, the Atari STe and Falcon version of 'Chu Chu Rocket'!)
MSG is there too, sweating at a copy of Sid Tracker, and the best surprise
is left to last, with Sh3, whom everyone assumed was extinct, sitting there
waiting for his twitching graphical fingers to take their turn on MSG's
Falcon. But more on these fine people later, as we head back to the car to
unload our stuff.
It is a long, long walk back, but a lot of people are helping out, ducking
between storm fronts to unload us and the Frenchies. We soon set up with
some interesting deficits in our gear. For instance, my Falcon, with monitor
is there, so is my STe, but without the mono monitor it was going to have
for the party realtime. There is also a notable lack of sleeping gear, which
is expected to follow when Havoc turns up, sometime in the very early hours
of Saturday morning! Still, a lot of this isn't going to matter too much, as
we've found Grey, and he gleefully points out to us the bottles of vodka
that he's brought with him for consumption tonight. One of these was
apparently smuggled into the fatherland in his sock!
* It was a big sock,
o O .^----^. for a big bottle!
o *o / \ /
___ /_ ~ _ \
.'___'. //_\ /-\ \
|___| |\__\ /__/ | ## .. ##
| | |\ <v> /| || :: /\
.' '. ||\ /|| _ | |__.' ' ._.._. |/\|
|_-----_| |||\ .\/. /||| |\||==|oo||##| |^||^| |\/|
| Wodka | \| '.__.' |/ |\||--|oo||##| | || | | |
|-_____-| | | =============================
|#######| | | || Polski Party Table! ||
Also, the idea of an official Maggie/Alive! realtime, in some danger since
the prospect of our later than usual arrival with incomplete equipment, has
been killed off by the resurgent Undercover realtime text. This turns out to
be one of the major surprises of the party, as Moondog has decided to make a
comeback with his famous or notorious Undercover Diskmag. This was an
interesting contrast to the last Error in Line, where he was on the point of
chucking it all in! He reckons that the personal matters that kept him away
from the Atari scene, have all been sorted out, so he has more free time
than previously. Also, it turns out there was another sort of motivation for
restarting UCM, which made one or two people less happy with what he said
about the subject!
Still, never mind. Of further interest is an ongoing Missile Command
tournament, a bit further down from us in the main hallway. In keeping with
the overall 'Atari-ness' of the occasion, this is running on a VCS console,
(one of the later models). Also nearby, some unknown dude with the German
contingent is setting up an Acorn Risc PC, and we are promised Oliver's
(Paranoid) slightly controversial 'best of C64 demos' tape on the big screen
at some stage.
The organisers catch up with us at this point, and help themselves to our
registration fee, but their identity badges have been 'promoted' from last
time's featureless "Here's a medal for turning up" bronze communistic
celebration, to some smart enamelled Olympic (Moscow 1980 edition)
commemoration badges, I kept mine after the party this time, praising the
overall smartness of this concept!
Athletic training camp roll-call chant - "God damn the pusher-man! But
doesn't he look rather a lot like my coach?!"
Back with the Polski's, we find them sheltering behind a big customised
'Mystic Bytes' Polish flag. It is their tea-time, which seems like a good
idea, so we go out with them, that is, Felice, John Hayward and I. Dresden
seems to be undergoing some sort of reconstruction work, or perhaps
destruction prior to the reconstruction, as the huge number of busker-
infested temporary wooden walkways over massive bottomless pits in the
ground seems to testify.
We fetch up at the premises of Burger King, where superior sized portions
over Mcdonalds rule the day. But their bigger-sized burgers tend to fall
apart in your hand halfway through eating, and the toilets are locked up!
Anyway, we finish our meal without looking too much like we got into a food-
fight on the way, and start back. Grey suggests a detour via the shop in the
Hauptbahnhof, to stock up on chocolate and various other munchies, all the
better to cope with the promised drinking session tonight!
Back at the party, and we prod our Falcy's to reluctant life. Felice has
sensibly left his PeeCee at home, but brought his mutant self-modified
Falcon, with the 14 meg RAM upgrade, and a bulging at the seams and out of
the top replacement 3.5 inch IDE drive, and not forgetting the Frankenstein
GM-modified power supply! Amazingly, this lot manages to somehow work! His
stereo, for the production of satisfying loud noises has also come along
too, and to be eventually revealed, an extra screen for the Playstation,
various other audio and video equipment, kettles, tea, and the smuggled foot
and mouth causing food which the Dutch customs DIDN'T find!
Which is just enough to substain him over the three days at the party, I
think!
I've got my own Falcy, the Nemesis bodge with the iffy keyboard, which is
here for the purposes of spreading the newly completed 'ASCII-Nation' one-
off diskmag. Unlike its slightly unfortunate predecessor, the 'Psycho-Babble
Project', this one worked perfectly, first time off, and so it should have
as well, being properly tested and all! (This has its own story, more of
which when we come to discuss the competitions!) Meanwhile, my STe sits and
sulks, unused, as it has become superfluous for realtime article hosting.
Fortunately, as it turned out... I manage to get hold of Havoc to tell him
not to bring Felice's mono screen as it won't be needed anymore.
This doesn't really keep us worried for too long, as the much heralded and
hyped Polski-style vodka drinking session is soon upon us! An interesting
approach to the otherwise mundane business of cabling the power supply to
their computers is seen, or rather, gingerly stepped over, as their power
leads trail across the top of the bench seating! This acts as a crude
sobriety or drunkeness test, as missing your footing stepping over these,
and UP onto the seat, in order to be able to sit down again, is certain to
lead to some wonderfully graphic facial injuries, when the alcohol levels
start to peak later on!
For this session, Grey is opting for mixers with the vodka, apple juice in
particular, a combination which works rather too well! There is a small
gathering which attracts one or two interested parties, such as ST Survivor,
who is initially reluctant, but alcohol cravings overcome his better
judgement and he stays. Felice isn't so keen on this unabashed booze
consumption, and soon disappears. A previously unknown french guy by the
name of 'Sygne' has also joined us, and after the vodka has gone down,
he has an interesting contribution of his own to make to the party. This is
a large litre bottle of some worrying Macedonian red wine, which seems to be
famous for two things. 1. It is very local, and 2. It is very cheap.
It has a sweet and coarse taste, redolent of people in East European
traditional peasant costume violently celebrating a wedding, drinking
toasts, throwing the glasses into the fireplace, and I look around for a
Kalashnikov to fire into the air whilst shouting "Hoi hup laaa!", just
getting into the spirit of the thing! There seems to be an awful lot of this
stuff to go around, and we consume several cupfuls each before the bottle
looks hopefully empty, we are turning the corner. Just then, Sygne
produces another full bottle, and our hearts sink into our boots! In
mitigation, it did tend to appeal more when the numbing effects of the
alcohol sank in properly!
Sat 14th April..
This goes on for a very long time. We spend quite a bit of time drunkenly
tapping text into the forthcoming Chosneck realtime article. (And some very
much more drunkenly than others!) ST Survivor makes his excuses to leave,
and very nearly makes a face-shaped imprint on the floor as he stumbles back
to ground level!
At some point, we break out the chocolate, and slices of Polish bread, which
turn out to be a very sensible idea. The drinking continues, and time passes
by in a strange slo-mo blur. My brain recalls a group photo session in the
middle of the corridor, and Grey ravelling toilet paper around us in some
parody of hype-priced modern art, then taking more photos of the end result,
which are hanging over us to reappear like some great angry shadow of
scandal as of the time of writing!?
-There are no fat people in Poland! -
I have a secret weapon to help me survive the night though, as I am twice
the size of the average Polski, I can soak up more alcohol than they can
before it starts to hurt! So yes, I am nicely under the influence, but no, I
am not crashing through the incoherence barrier! The survivors peel off to
try to find a sleeping place for the rest of the night, and there isn't that
much of it left. Somehow, my sleeping bag, sans airbed has made it here, so
we stagger up several flights of stairs, right to the top floor of the
building. What follows is a strange form of suspended animation on the
floor, not so much proper sleep, but more of a pleasant drunken stupor,
where the immediate surroundings hardly intrude.
_ _
|_) | \
|_)ed |_/runk! O . o
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= * . Z
___ ___ _n___\/_ z
( )) ( )) ____________.|\ *: ==
| ||--| ||--------\. / \ == .____.
\__//__\__//________/_ _\-----' /.____== (_((__() .::..
==/_______/ ':::::'
'''
With the cold grey light of dawn putting its first tentative fingers through
the window, some sense of stiffness returns, and a desire to get up and away
arrives too. Leaving the corpses in the sleeping room for dead, I head back
down to the rather quiet and subdued party cellar scene.
There is not a lot doing first thing, as the majority of people are still
sleeping, or running at a very low activity level. Memory is unclear even on
what I had for breakfast. I think I missed out on the free breakfast service
that the organisers provided, when I got there, only stale remnants were
left?
I was able to sort out some tepid coffee and Jammie Dodgers, as Havoc and
the remaining Dutchies had finally arrived, very early in the morning (but
after we had gone to bed from our little party!) Which meant that the rest
of our stuff, such as the other half of Felice's gear was there, and he
turned up presently to set it all up properly. Also, more crucially, my
airbed had arrived, so no more floor-bound sleep disasters! A couple of
hours of non-specific fiddling around with the dodgy keyboard Falcy follows,
including quite a large amount of brow-clutching as the mouse pointer
skittered across the screen in a random and uncontrollable fashion, whenever
the hell it felt like it!
This goes on until the Polski's start to appear, somewhat the worse for
wear! It is clear that there will be no early repeat of the previous nights
events. Some fresh air and a change of scene is needed urgently, and so we
go out into the all-too-fresh air of the Dresden city centre! Some recently
fallen snow is lying around, but the sunshine bravely battles the cold winds
and looming clouds.
Breakfast, or lunch at Burger King again, and we end up posing by a fountain
in the 1960's built neo-Stalinist shopping plaza, remembering not to stand
downwind of it, as quite a bit of the contents were blowing over on the
pavement. More photos are taken of various Polski and Maggie people in that
concrete communist paradise assuming the most stupid poses! We wander on
quite a bit further than before, and manage to go right through the old part
of the city centre. By the time we get to the carefully ruined and partially
reconstructed cathedral, it is snowing again, heavily.. The walk back
largely consists of trying to take cover, ducking under any old scrap of
shop awning. Taking in a couple of cake shops on the way (really too much
for me after the Burger King (foot and mouth free?) cowburger bonanza.
We dare to venture into the world famous* Conrad Electronics store. A major
sponsor of the party from the last time, when they were reputed to keep
stocks of Commodore 64 stuff. Unfortunately, none of this is to hand, and we
are confronted with a wide range of gear, but it is conventional gear. Apart
from the occasional bit of mind-wrenchingly odd gadgetry that they kept in
stock. Such as a three dimensional digitiser, that scanned a real solid
object, spun it round, read in the co-ordinates and dimensions, and
represented it in graphical form on a PeeCee screen. Great for instant 3-D
objects for those new forthcoming demos?
*In Dresden at least!
Shortly afterwards, get back to the party to find that the people who ought
to be working, are working....
And what about the new forthcoming wave of ST and Falcon demos that we were
awaiting? Which was the whole point of the party? Well by this stage, some
things were becoming clearer. Great things were expected from the Dead
Hackers Society on the Falcon, as it had been two full years since their
last major demo releases, coincidentally, at the first Error in Line party.
What we thought was the breaking news of the party, was the return to active
production, of the enigmatic Swedish group T.O.Y.S. They were putting the
finishing touches to a major Falcon demo too. Some commentators grimaced in
resignation when they described these two contenders as being "very
accelerator friendly". Which actually suited me fine! Also, Mind Design were
working along similar lines.
\ / /||||\ Farewell Tunnels, you were so good to me..
----_. . / ( , , ) But now it is time for something new....
|| . s-Q--Q-s (SNIF!)
|| . - [ / ] /
|| . { (__) } .----------------------.
|| . \ /''''''_/\/\/\/\/\ | /\/\eanwhile, at the |
===--' ____.____ {( )\ | DHS coding table, a |
|_|- -|____|)___\ (_._._._._._._._._ )\_. _____ | strange thing stirs. |
\__ \ '______________________'
\/
Of more general interest, Escape were said to be working on a Falcon
release, which by taking the pre-party 'remindtro' as a good guide what to
expect, was going to be worth seeing, if not quite as heavy weight as the
Swedish entries. Escape had done a remarkably good job of downplaying
expectations, as it turned out! Also, from the French side, the long-awaited
Sector One and Dune combined ST demo 'Odd Stuff', seen in partial form at
the Xmas STNICCC party by myself, was due for release here. ST Survivor, who
was intimately connected with the producers of the demo was very excited by
it. Unusually, for a disk-booting ST demo, it was fully Falcon compatible,
and promised loads of good stuff. Oliver 'Paranoid' Heun had also promised a
Falcon demo, but ruefully concluded that it was likely to be around fourth
or fifth place when compared with the rest.
We also knew who wasn't bringing anything to the party by then. Mystic
Bytes, who would surely have put in something very high quality, decided
they weren't ready to release anything as yet. Also, the shortage of ST
contenders was exacerbated by the total absence of Defjam of Checkpoint, who
was working on a demo as far back as STNICCC, but who seemed to be in hiding
for this event? The organisers were holding out hopes for his late arrival,
right to the last minute, but it wasn't to be. One of the major highlights
of the last time was not to be repeated!
Also missing were the boys and girls of musically fanatical demo gods
'Cream'. Expectations of the surprise release of the very much awaited
'Heftig' weren't too high, but it was nice to hope there as well?
Back on the good news trail, an anonymous Swedish coder told me to look out
for a new Spice Boys release, which would be "Better than anything they did
before!" after which, he told me "You didn't hear me say that, alright!?"
(In Swedish..)
We wind up back in the Polski corner for a fair while. One of the things
that Grey has been organising pre-party, are several very cheap 14 megabyte
memory upgrades for those people who are still convinced that 4 meg is best.
At the prices on offer, these prove to be very very popular, even among the
diehard 1993-era retro fans! One of the people who presents his Falcy for
upgrading, is none other than the fabulously green-haired Norman 'No' of
Escape. Now if we knew what was stored on the hard drive of that particular
machine, Grey would have surely put off opening it up before the demo
competitions had been completed! Norman half-jokingly says that he would
need to take the upgrade out again when he is demo coding! This way, a lot
of people get their first sighting of the combined Abyss music
compilation/Chosneck diskmag.
Elsewhere, things are stirring in the main hall, with the first of Felice's
contributions to the video wall. Another episode of "Police, camera, Road-
Kill!" flashes up onscreen, WITH THE POLICE CAR IN HOT PURSUIT!! The party
organisers were also looking forward to seeing Felice's Symposium '96
camcordered video highlights, described in certain quarters as "legendary"!
Back with the Reservoir Gods, and Kev (Sh3) is getting frustrated with the
lack of machine availability. They have temporarily stopped work on Chu Chu
Rocket, instead throwing together a quick adaption of a handheld game called
'Godpee'(!) This needs a whole new bunch of graphics doing, with a
bottleneck thrown up by having to share one Falcon between two people. My
unused STe comes to the rescue, combined with a spare RGB screen that Felice
brought with him. This is enough to keep Kev happy, once an annoying fault
which develops in the power supply is sorted out. John Hayward, with his
magic soldering iron comes to the rescue, a dry solder joint is diagnosed,
and the STe is restored to rude and fully functioning condition.
Elsewhere in the party, new issues of a couple of disk magazines, Alive! on
issue 2, and the revived Undercover mag, on issue 21, are in the final
stages of preparation. The pre-release Alive! That I checked out, on ST
Survivors machine, was very large indeed, and ended up being split into two,
including a post-party special issue. Undercover 21, when I get around to
reading it after the party, is quite a formidable concept. It contains all
the accumulated writings of Moondog from the past year, ever since he
decided to make a comeback under the 'Instabil' label, which was aborted,
and all the writings included in here as well. As always, Moondog's strong
and forthright viewpoint predominates. Maybe I'll review this issue in more
detail in another textfile, but a thumbs-up is due to him for making the
effort in the first place!
A bit later on, find out that the top floor sleeping area has been closed
off. The people in the student hall of residence are a bit concerned about
the strange people wandering up and down its corridors, muttering in
hexadecimal, and trying out new sixteen colour dithering techniques on the
walls. So I have to move my bedding downstairs into one of the very crowded
'official' sleeping rooms and clear just enough space to set up my bed, but
it is apparent it is going to be a tight squeeze tonight.
In the Godlike grotto, MSG is pondering the mystery of his Falcon. It
performs fine as a 68030-based computer, the sound sub-system works as far
as letting Sid Sound Designer operate. However, when it comes to the DSP,
arguably the most interesting bit of silicon on the machine, this isn't
playing at the moment. You might care to remember this was Sh3's original
Falcy, which suffered a mysterious DSP death a long time ago, then it came
back to life! Now it has died temporarily again. A passing hardware guru
drops by,looks at it knowledgeably, and reckons that there is an overheating
problem with the machine. He then proceeds to take apart and strip down the
errant electronic beast more naked than it has ever been since it left
the factory! We all boggle at the small mountain of dust that has clogged up
the internal fan. MSG energetically purges all traces of dust from the bare
motherboard with my airbed pump, then puts the machine back together, less
the rather hefty metal shielding. (Atari ST's and Falcons, made out of war-
surplus Iraqi tanks?!)
The DSP still doesn't work.....
In the main "hall", I accost that well known star of stage, screen, and
emulator coding, Draco of the slightly simmering 'YesCrew'. He is the
creator of the interesting but incomplete Atari 8-bit emulator 'EmuXL'. This
turns out to be on the backburner, or in the freezer, or whatever. He feels
that he had got as far as he could go, whilst keeping performance
'reasonable' on a standard 16 mhz Falcon. The major work, such as a more
complete graphics system emulation would slow things right down. Still, if
any of the new wave of high-performance Falcon accelerators, such as the
CT60 or Tempest were to come out, then it was likely that EmuXL would be
restarted.
A rather shapeless and featureless feel smothers the rest of the day, apart
from when the subject of food came up. This goes to the replacement for the
(in)famous and deceased Amigo Pizza, and is, of course, PIZZA! Otherwise
known as "Fat vitamins" (C) Baggio.
An audience gathers for the first wave of competitions, for entries into the
graphics and sound compo's. The music competitions are pretty well
supported, but the graphics competition has suffered a huge drop in
interest, with only a handful of entries across the three separate
categories being combined, by necessity, into just the one competition!
Notable from the music competitions, a 'joke' entry from MSG, which puported
to be the soundtrack from the long missing 'Republic' game. Some appealing
material from the multichannel competition produced on Flex Track. And lots
of Sid Sound composed material. These are politely received and voted on.
The main wave of excitement will be when the big demo competitions take
place tomorrow.
I don't really remember a lot else from that Saturday evening. It got into
the early part of Sunday before I went to bed though....
Sun 15th April..
Sleep comes in a more natural form than the previous nights alcohol assisted
slumber, but in an even more tightly packed space than before. I end up next
to someone who grew a couple of extra elbows in his sleep, and who twisted
and turned in his sleep with the frequency of an epileptic on the 'fast
spin' cycle!
Some time later, I tentatively climb awake, to tiptoe around the still-
sleeping bodies, whilst making the smallest amount of noise possible. This
covert exit seems to work well enough, as I struggle gratefully back into
the main partyplace, where there isn't too much doing at the moment.
There is more around by way of breakfast this morning, and I construct some
satisfactory sandwiches. There is even some charmingly weak tea floating a
tea bag in it! From there, contemplate my Falcy once again, switch on and
play around with Ascii-Nation for a while. (After adding to things like
the Undercover Mag realtime text, which actually managed to not lose any
text overnight for once, well done!)
A lot of people have been coding overnight, including a presently silent set
of Reservoir Gods, so it stays quiet for a while. Eventually there are more
signs of life, and Felice reappears, when it is deemed safe to indulge in
some very loud sounds, such as a repeat of the Stafford Show outrage, the H-
IV demo at full volume, drawing in a few of the original participants!? The
Res Gods are awake by now, and desperately looking around for something
capable of recording audio samples. MSG's DSP-less Falcon, and Mr Pinks Sony
Laptop are quickly rejected. Felice's Falcon is a better bet, but doesn't
have any tracker software (apart from Protracker?) on it. My bodge keyboard
machine with Graoumf tracker on it,is pressed into service, and it amazingly
stays working, even with me fearing a total collapse of keyboard control at
any second!
The fact that it was stripped down for summer, like a lot of other hardware
in here, with its winter coat removed, might have helped?
Another filler, by way of distraction from the rather dull progress of this
part of the story, is a hair update. People had opted for a number of more
or less alarming hair-do's (or hair-don'ts!) according to how silly they
were feeling. The great days of Sh3's alarming hair colours seemed to have
passed, now Kev has a proper job, and he's buying a house with his
girlfriend. To make up for this distressing outbreak of sensibleness, No
(Norman) of Escape has stoutly maintained his green colouring, whilst his
girlfriend Christin, goes for a primary shade of red! In something of a
pre-ordained(?) hair reversal from the last EIL, Joe Cool, with hair at the
last party, has shaved it off, swapping baldness with Moondog, who has grown
his hair back.. Mr Pink has had a sleek 'power haircut', to show what a
mover and shaker he is in the corporate world of entertainment software.
Yours truly is overdue a six-monthly visit to the barbers!
HAIR ANALYSIS - Principal Character results...
Buzz Cut gone awry
Chrome Dome \\\\||/ Antennae for hair!?!
\____/ |. | ___ Don't ask!!
/____\ @ | sSSSss \\
o_| | \\\\\\ /_ } @) sSss \\
/_ ...| a) ) |_/ | < }Sss /\|
||___/ c ) \__/ | > :Sss /@/\
| | > ) :__' \__/ ss /_/ /
'....' I bet she / _/
Buzz Cut, uses shampoo // /||
forward slope AND conditioner /__/ ||
Another distraction is the internet "cafe" upstairs, which translates to a
handful of elderly Netscape/Linux boxes, and checking out the bulletin
boards reveal a shedful of last minute messages from people trying to
organise themselves to get to EIL, or plaintive noises from Carbon who
couldn't make it!
Something called 'lunch' demands attention, and more food is ordered from
the successor outfit to Amigo Pizza. They must be on very slow Sunday
working, as it takes a very long time, only just this side of forever to
arrive.
This takes us well into the afternoon, and Baggio quietly suggests that this
would be a good time for Paranoid's 'Greatest hits of C64' compilation video
tape to be shown on the big screen. This is good, drawing only one adverse
reaction from the Mad Butcher, a confirmed Atari 8-Bit fan, who apparently
withdrew from the room when the tape was shown! (I didn't really see this,
for a very good reason which I'll tell about in a moment..)
The demo's are cool, but tiredness accumulated from the past few days, is
catching up with me precisely at the wrong time. I am sitting down, not
really watching the C64 demos, but I'm more vaguely aware of them, and
drifting back and forth between the parallel worlds of sleep and
wakefulness. In the end, it gets so bad, I have to regretfully withdraw to
the sleeping room for a time..
The sleeping room is almost totally unoccupied, so I am able to make a
little more room for my sleeping accomodation, inching it away from 'Mr
Elbows', who made the last night so intermittent in sleep quality. Crash for
a while...
A bit later on, and back in the big screen room, or misnomered 'main hall',
another Felice inspired movie 'Chucky' is playing. Gosh, we were so
excited.. Some people left at that point, not being able to take the
excitement!
In amongst all the coding and demo finishing going on, there was quite a bit
of hardware fiddling taking place, as various people had brought sick or
lame Falcons, in a Lourdes like bid to seek a miracle cure. One unlikely
angel with a healing touch, is Tam, shortly to be famous for another reason,
who takes apart my dodgy keyboard inputting Falcy. After seeing the fault in
vivid action for himself, he prods and presses on a number of obvious
things, none of which seem to help. In the end he diagnoses a faulty
keyboard connecting chip, but gives the less bad news that it is a cheap and
standard component to replace. A new mishap is discovered, only when I get
the machine home again, as the RGB Nemesis Videl switch comes apart in my
hands! (I was able to reassemble it though!)
Although there is a lot of hard work in evidence, with exciting competition
entries promised, it appears that some competitions are still struggling for
entries. In this spirit, 505 approaches me with a view to the ASCII-Nation
diskmag being entered as a Wild Competition entry! The idea being to
videotape one of the chapters whilst I slowly scroll down the page. I had
toyed with the idea of putting it in the competition beforehand, but didn't
mention it to anyone. By then, most people were aware of the existence of
the ASCII-Nation concept, even if they hadn't studied it close up yet.
.
. . _______ We're a Wild Compo . . .
. . ( ) entry?! Pah! They . .
'O' | _____) must be desperate! It's not winning it that .
' | ( |._| / . matters, it's the pizza
. | > . \\\\||/ consumption that's
\ ## |, ,| important!
. ____| # ~ __ . . :@ @: / +
(--- '.._ ## --). . { V } . \\\\\\ . .
/===/ . \ | [\_/] a) )
. | S | . | | . . ._\___/__. . . c )
|===| . | | + / \ / \ > ) .
\ \ . / / . | | \ / | | '....' .
. \ \ . / / | | || | | . / / \\
\___\~~~~/___/ \ \ '' | | | | ||
__---_- |\\\ /\\\ ---____--__- \_\-----|_|___----_ | | ||-___--_
_______ | || | ____________ /||\ . ///\ _______ |_|_||_______
| || | | | | |/\\|
You all should know what ASCII-Nation is by now, but for those people who
might be unfamiliar with the Atari scene, it is a parody cartoon-strip,
created from ASCII keyboard characters, loosely based on a cross between the
original 1977 Star Wars movie, and the much more recent 'Phantom Menace'.
The 'loosely based' becomes very loose, when some of the characters are
based on well-known Atari scene personalities! This was my personal project
for Error in Line, which represented about a couple of months of fairly
constant work.
Hunger pangs start to appear, and I submit myself to the very long waiting
pizza ordering procedure for tea. My fears are realised, as it seems to take
even longer than before. I spend some of the time watching the solitary
Acorn RISC PC in action, as its owner is showing off some of the more
interesting demos on that machine.Food eventually arrives, a continent drift
or two later..
As I am starting to eat it, 505 approaches me with a view to getting ASCII-
Nation onto tape. I wave him away for ten minutes, which is all the time
that I need! (Pizza note:- In addition to the over-large 'family' pizza size
familiar from the first EIL, there was also an even bigger 'party' size
rectangular pizza, which several of the Swedes ordered, but none dared to
try to eat it on his own!) There is a JPEG floating around, of a wistful
looking Evil confronting such a monster pizza, in the precious moment that
he had it to itself, before someone else came to share it!
C'mon, hand it
........ /||||\ over!
/o*o*o* / ( . . ) Mmmm! Yummm! Hmmmm! .^^^^.
/*O*O*O*/ s-Q--Q-s Errrmmmm..... /\ ( \ / ) /\
/o*o_/\ / [ / ] / _/ \( {@}{@} )/ \_
/*O*/ .`/ { \/\/ } ,, ( ' ' )
/o*o*\_ ':, /''''''_/\/\/\/\ : ( /~~~\ )
/.......\ o { \: (. .)
' . (_________________/ /|\--/|\
Upstairs, in the internet 'cafe' or cabin, and most of the entries have been
handed in by then. A VCR sits waiting, connected to a Falcon, and we boot
with ASCII-Nation in the disk drive. I have three minutes to record my spot.
I select chapter nine, arguably some of the best work there, and we start
recording. Afterwards, I find out a bit more about the expected running
order for tonight. Pretty much everyone discussed earlier is there, apart
from Mind Design, who have pulled out with an incomplete demo. There is also
a surprise entry from a German GFA Basic crew for the Falcon, with a demo
which had already been released but not widely distributed.
Back downstairs, and I find Grey again. He is in a cubbyhole, off the main
hall, where MC Laser and Sygne, of first night Macedonian Red wine infamy,
are set up. Grey is running what looks like part 2 of the Chosneck realtime
from Sygne's machine, a very nicely specified MagiC O/S Falcon set-up. MC
Laser is in a good mood, showing off some 'lost' or not yet seen(?) tSCc
stuff, and bundling copies of the first release of the scene music
compilation 'Fading Twilight' together. This looks rather like an essential
party souvenir, so I ask about purchasing a copy, but I'll have to wait
until after the competitions.
Time drags on as the main viewing room gradually fills up. There is an air
of expectancy about the place, and eventually the organisers stir into life.
No. it's not the competitions just yet, but something else, arguably just as
compelling. This is the 'Whip Pong' competition that I mentioned in that
dramatic opening paragraph!
What is Whip-Pong? Well it's almost like the classic Atari retro-70's game,
but with one big difference. Instead of using simple things like hands and
fingers to move the bat or paddle, Whip-Pong is activated by voice control,
the louder or more substained the voice, the further down the screen the bat
goes! There is quite a large field, about thirty-odd people, who have
entered themselves for this trial by shouting. Soon, the room is filled with
an assortment of screams and yells, these people are of voting age
apparently! Well the thought scares me!
Notable screamers, include Havoc, who screamed like a girl! Felice, who
sounded like he was choking, and crashed out in the first round. MSG and
Sh3, teamed up against each other, came up with an impromptu acapello 'Drum
n Bass' soundtrack, which seemed to work for a time! It gradually emerged,
there was one player who could well go all the way to win this thing, and he
was the Swedish maniac sometimes known as 'Tam'! He had learnt the art of
successful Whip-Pong bat control, which was that substainability counted
more than sheer volume. His yells subsided into pornographically menacing
soft moans, but this resulted in perfect bat control, which disposed of
opponent after opponent!
.-----------------. /\/\/\/\/\/\\ ___O __
| 8 6 | /YEeeAAaaghh!/ \ / \
| | \Get off my/\\ :--'""'--: O
:| '''''* : /foot!/\/\/ \ .-' \____/ '-.
| || \/\/\/ (,. ((_[]_)) ,.)
| | BIP! \_. << >> ._/
'---------------' -__ \,______,/
| ) (
A tightly fought final with D-Force, who had learned the same trick,
resulted in Tam being declared the winner. Prizes of throat lubricant and
beer (surely both the same thing? -Ed) are dished out liberally. It only
remains to say that the Whip-Pong event was the single most hilarious moment
of the party! Laugh? We did until our lungs ruptured!
This filled the time nicely, until it was very late, and the main event of
the party, the demo competitions were ready to run...
The lights dim once more, and the competition is upon us. The first part
consists of a two-entry Whip! plugin competition, with Earx and Charon
of Escape coming up with a pair of interesting high quality entries
Following these, are the appetisers to the main event, the 4k intro
category. Just a couple of entries, possibly afterthoughts to weightier
productions from Ray of tSCc, who came up with an ST-based texture tunnel,
and a funny little thing from Escape which had a brief 'atomic' theme to it.
The intro category, in the past the stage for such epic Falcon-busters
as the Fried Bits 3 tSCc combined production 'Terrorise Your Soul!', doesn't
threaten to break any new boundaries either. Exocet showcases some more cute
graphics and easy code, whilst the absent from the party Ray puts in a more
heavyweight ST intro, which also happens to be the intro for the Fading
Twilight scene music CD-ROM.
When the Wild competition (anything goes!) approaches, my stomach tightens
into a ball, as ASCII-Nation gets its first (ahem!) showing to the wider
Atariscene public. One thing which is apparent is that a lot of the impact
is lost, owing to the crap videotape quality. The first Error in Line used a
superior quality Betamax tape. This didn't affect the other competition
entries quite as badly, just anything that used a 1st Word textual
interface. Still, the 'Princess Orangeboom chained to a kinky torture
machine' illustration raised a laugh. Outstanding was a very good video
entry from Havoc, combining a Pokemon spoof, with a James Bond theme, or
something...
There was something about an Atari 8-Bit competition, but that didn't really
produce any excitement, just a couple of low intensity intros with a last
minute 'throw-together' air about them....
As stated before, there is just a single entry for the ST demo category, the
long awaited French made 'Odd Stuff' combined production from Sector One and
Dune. This matches my ST News International Christmas Coding Convention
memories as looking rather special, in an oldschool design sense. It is also
rather better for being completed and running for a natural length, rather
than cutting off suddenly. The highlight of the demo is a twisty textured
polygonal pillar, but this only just sticks out of a work of overall high
quality. There are hints of more to come in the extended information and
greetings text right at the end.
Of course, this is only the prequel to the main act, the new wave of Falcon
demos, much awaited, with great things expected of them. Would they be able
to live up to the hype, or would it all crash and burn in a funeral pyre of
disappointment?
They start quietly, the first entry (you may shoot me later if I've got the
running order wrong!) is the only "fake" demo in the whole competition,
'Pizza', by the Spice Boys. This details a brief but effective one minute
history of the life of a Pizza Slice, and is one of those Swedish demos
using 'new' techniques, such as MP2 replay and advanced 3-D state of the
artness shiny environment mapping!
A strange little demo by Remo, a previously unknown German crew, comes up
next. This goes under the name of 'Coffeine Overdose' and it is written in
GFA Basic, showing up quite well, even taking that limitation into account.
It's haunting insistent soundtrack made us all aware we were living in a
Biosphere, or was that a 'demosphere'!?
The Paranoid is back, with an all-new effort, largely based on some past
bits of Dead Hackers in their tunnel heyday, but not needing an FPU. 'Rock
Solid' lives up to its name, proving to be reliable, dependent, accelerator
friendly, if not especially flashy. Still, it is a big improvement over
previous efforts, and the time is surely coming when Oliver is going to be
as much a force to be reckoned with, as the current good and great of Atari
demo coding!
Now things are getting seriously good. T.O.Y.S entry 'Wait' struts out onto
the screen. This has promised some spectacular effects, and succeeds in
delivering a frantically paced 3-D morph-o-rama set against a sea of heaving
textures. This demo sets out to impersonate a common PC or high-end Amiga
type of demo, and does it brilliantly! Several stunning 3-D set-pieces
included, all without a DSP, which was used for the MP2 audio streaming!
Last but one, and the dark horse entry by Escape is up for viewing. It goes
under the unassuming name of 'Hmmm'. This takes everyone by surprise.
Expectations were high, but they were higher for the Dead Hackers
forthcoming production. To say this was the best kept secret of the Atari
scene would be true. The demo starts and blasts from one spectacular 3-D
morphing polygon into another! The soundtrack pounds at full speed, DSP-
generated effect follows effect, then suddenly it stops. Then starts again,
quieter, the demo hasn't stopped. Indeed, it goes on for some time, taking
in a huge range of alien sea creatures, transparent wormlike torus's (yes!)
spiny growing things, blurry impressions of shapes within shapes, and the
best to the end, a transparent spiral staircase with dozens of little balls
cascading down it!
This is without so far mentioning the fact that this demo has got some of
the best synched music to go with it, and the blending of effects with
soundtrack is top-notch, each taking the other to greater heights of overall
impact. The gathered crowd are silent for a moment, and then a torrent of
wild cheering bursts out! Many people are moved to claim that this demo
finally topples the 1997 era 'Sonoluminescenz' from its crown, as the best
Falcon demo ever! And they may just be right! Oh, and I almost forgot to
mention this production could run perfectly on a 1993 era 4MB unexpanded 16
mhz Falcy! \ : /
\_|_/ <OWW!>
.-----. Careful with that ._ _ ____|Hmm|____ _ _.
/_____/ ' cube, or it'll |___|
|Escape| | poke your eyes / | \
| |/ out! / : \
'------' / / | \ Told you so!
' ' '
From being the expected top dog in this competition, Dead Hackers suddenly
have a very very hard act to follow indeed! To their credit, they do their
best, as their entry 'Don't Break the Oath' thunders onscreen. This features
a lot of leading edge 3-D, a slightly more conventional design than the
T.O.Y.S demo, but with the 3-D running in a higher resolution, with lots of
shiny things onscreen. Also, the Dead Hackers reputation for the best
finishing quality on the Atari scene is maintained and enhanced with this
production. This demo is more accelerator dependent than any of the previous
entries, developed on a Centurbo 2 accelerated machine, and played back on
an even more powerful Afterburnered '040 based Falcon for the competition
(if my hearing is correct?) My favourite feature of this demo is the superb
MP2 soundtrack by Candyman, a sadly missed (temporarily, one hopes?)
multi-talented dude!
When the last end credit has faded, another cheer! It is clear that the new
generation of Atari Falcon demos has arrived at last!
Mon 16th April...
A few people have early departures and start to pack, no-one is in a hurry
to go to bed we filter back to the Reservoir Gods grotto. They aren't going
to bed either, as an early morning airport departure awaits. In the
meantime, we are all killing time. MSG comments on the 'Hmmm' demo, as
cunningly using the illusions of objects, rather than everyday mundane solid
polygons. Is this the way forward for future demos?
MC Laser emerges with the first completed editions of 'Fading Twilight', so
I grab my copy (after paying for it of course!) Meanwhile, Sh3 has taken a
shine to my grey Jagpad, apparently a very rare piece of Atari
collectorabilia (CiH in new made-up work shocker!) We agree a swap for one
of his normal black models, and a reasonable amount of cash, not dissimilar
to the price paid for the Fading Twilight CD in fact.
Elsewhere, there is a certain amount of votesheet completing and counting
activity going on, it looks like the Swedes are recognising the awesome
'Hmmm' demo as an all-time classic. The smart money, and even most of the
stupid money is now on this demo to win the competition. Eventually, those
people not setting off early filter their way back to the sleeping rooms,
and at some late hour, it could have easily been three or four am, I joined
them. Tense up in anticipation of another elbow-fest, but there is enough
room tonight, so I sleep soundly for the short time, about ten minutes or so
(subjective internal clock values!) until someone from the organisers knocks
on the door to announce the presentation of the results and prizes.
A fair few brave early risers await the outcome.
505 dominates both Protracker and Multichannel music competitions. However,
MSG manages to pull a winner out of the soundchip music compo. Flash from
TNB wins a sparser than normal graphics competition.
No-one is surprised with tSCc winning the 64k intro category, or with Escape
taking the 4ktro event. And the big Falcon demo winner, is of course the
world-beating 'Hmmm' demo with Dead Hackers in second place. An initial
miscounting of votes put the natural third place winner 'Wait' by T.O.Y.S,
a place lower than it should have been! this mistake lasts a few days until
after I've got back from the trip. Paranoid is pleased and embarrassed at
making third place at that point in time.
.------------. /||||\
:ESCAPE WIN : ( \ / ) I hate coming second!
:FALCON DEMO : s-Q--Q-s / Damn that green-haired
:COMPETITION!: [ / ] coding genius!!
'------------' { ~~~~ }
############ /''''''_/\/\/\/\/\
## ## { \
---##--------##----------------(_._._._._._._._. \---------------
\_/-'
As for the wild competition, there weren't any surprises there either! As
Havoc and friends stormed first place by quite a margin. At the same time, I
didn't seem to do too badly for prizes, coming away with free registrations
for the Luna text editor, and a fistful of CD-ROM's, which was extremely
nice (grin!)
There is not a lot left of the party now, more people leave, others get up,
and we gradually disassemble our kit. Breakfast goes marvellously to plan
today, as loads of fresh supplies, including warm fresh-baked breadrolls
whizz in. We eat until we are stupidly stuffed.
Meanwhile, other disturbing developments outside the party sanctuary have
been discovered, as Moondog has found his car broken into and damaged, with
evidence that the people concerned may have tried to force entry into
Havoc's car first? Moondog has to leave his car behind to get it repaired,
and is understandably not too happy with this unwelcome development.
Meanwhile, I attempt to use the outside call box which can make
international calls, or rather, would have done, if the clown sitting in it
forever in a smug haze of reversed call charges, didn't block it all
morning! I have to forgo making a phone call back home because of this
selfish idiot!
Only a few people left now.. The last significant departures come from the
french contingent including ST Survivor, and the Polski's. Moondog is there
until the end, constantly adding to the UCM realtime. In the end, apart from
the organisers, who are starting to clear tables back upstairs, only Havoc
and ourselves are left. Creature XL has managed to make other arrangements
back for the journey home (was it something we said!) So only NUT has to
come back with us. This allows for more breathing space, and crucially,
proper rear vision in the car.
The journey starts back straightforwardly enough. Apart from an initial
burst of confusion of the "Well we know exactly where we are on the map, but
we're still lost!" variety. The weather starts off as bright, and traffic
conditions fair, and with Felice at the controls, we make good progress.
We carry on in this vein until we rejoin the main cross-country East-West
route, which has a lot more traffic, and something else even less welcome to
a dense horde of returning Easter holiday travellers, road works which arise
at the slightest provocation! It seems like we are kept waiting for an hour
whilst the authorities attempt to deal with a pine cone that has fallen into
the road or something! At the same time, the weather deteriorates,
eventually it gets dark, and the journey back to Havoc's place takes too
damn long! NUT spends quite a long time on his mobile, at expensive
international call rates, trying to convince a sceptical girlfriend that he
can't help being late (this scenario sounds TOO familiar for my liking!)
Eventually, we cross the Dutch border with NUT cheering wildly. And not too
long after that, eventually get back to Havoc's place.
Tea, party post-mortems, and plans for tomorrow follow. The tea is without
milk, but quite sweet, the post-party consensus is that it was a worthy
successor to the first Error in Line party, and that there were several
demos contending for all-time greatness coming from it. The plan for
tomorrow, which was a free day before we went back to the UK, was for a
return visit to the bright lights of Amsterdam, possibly including some with
a reddish tint?!
After that, time to drink deeply at the bathroom tap of sleep.
Tues 17th April...
No-one is in a hurry to get up, so we don't.
Havoc isn't going with us, he has sensible things he needs to get on with,
such as his university work, so he gives us a lift into the centre of town,
dropping us off at the main railway station. A train and tickets are easy to
sort out. The journey to Amsterdam takes about a couple of hours. We arrive
at the Central Station, urgently seeking food and substenance, and find
Mcdonalds instead.
Afterwards, we wander around for a while, taking in some familiar music and
souvenir shops visited last time last Xmas. Inevitably, Felice's eager
footsteps take him ever closer to a certain scarlet glowing part of the
city, where neon signs flicker reflectively in the turgid canals.
That Felice is one | ----------------
LUCKY dude!!! |' .--. '
_ || (._=.\ | Sorry, I'm just an
\ _ / |: `a a j) | ASCII wet-dream!
// \ || \v / | /
// |; ._| |__ |
/\ || (/ \ | /|-----------|\
/\@\ |: (_ (. j \| / Two-Lips in \
\ \/\ || .__)| " /\,\ \ Amsterdam! /
\_ \ SLUUURP!! |; // _/ , (_/ / \|-----------|/
||\ \\ || /" / ('
|| \__\ |: \ \___\/ \\` |
/ \ || \ | \| |^,
|\ |'--< || \ | \ |) |
| '---< || ) \ ._/ |
------\__/ ---------------- || / ) |
| \ || `-' |
| \ | ----------------
| \_
\
We spend a fair bit of time there, and it is pretty much as I described it
in the STNICCC report. Some girls are pretty, others pretty scary. After a
while, I switch off a little bit, and come up with a list of several
(almost) non-controversial things to look at whilst going around the
Amsterdam Red Light district with Felice!
1. Gosh, doesn't that plastic bag floating in the canal look a bit like a
swan if you glance at it very quickly from a certain angle!
2. Just how does a painting and decorating place manage to make a living
here!?
3. There's a suspicious bulge in that Thai girl's pants which makes her look
like a.....!!!!
4. I wonder when those two groups of Chinese Triads are going to stop
shouting at each other in the street, and start on the meat cleavers!?
5. What is a school party doing being taken on a guided tour!?!
And what was a school party doing there, perched on the centre of a canal
bridge, in the Red Light district of old Amsterdam? "Now boys, when you're a
bit older, those of you without girlfriends will be coming back here, in a
furtive manner, desperately hoping not to be recognised by people who know
your parents well!"
With Felice, there was a fairly poorly hidden agenda, over which he had
undergone some considerable soul-searching over the past few days. He had
been following the life and times of the red-lighters through a bulletin
board, and was seeking out someone described as a 'brunette Britney Spears
lookalike'. Whether anything further on from there was being considered,
remains unknown, as in the end, nothing even slightly suggestive happened...
Was this the intended real 'climax' of the party? We shall never know....
After that tense session of dangling toes in the acid bath of lust, a nice
chinese meal seems to be a good idea. We hit lucky first time with a
reasonably priced place, which has a clientele about fifty percent Chinese
people. So they must know this place is alright? We aren't disappointed, as
a spicy hot chicken dish appears, then disappears as fast as my teeth can
carry it to my gut!
There isn't much more to add here. We get back to Havoc's place, after a
very sophorific two hour train journey, the bus is straightforward this
time, and we are back without any trouble.
Zonk....
Weds 18th April...
A day of returning, of final departure from the lands where the music and
colour of the Atari-Scene still chime brightly, back to a place where the
PeeCee box-shifter, and his superficial commercial values rule.
Shortly before midday, after a slow awakening and breakfasting process chez
Havoc, we make our way for the long road journey back to the Hook of
Holland. The journey passes straightforwardly, we get there with loads of
time to spare. We get out of the car for a while to enjoy the magically
reappeared spring weather, admiring the marine traffic as it sails past.
There is still a stiff breeze, which is going to make life interesting, a
bit later on.
On the ferry, the weather forecast flashes up on the monitors, 'STORM
FORCE!', well the lower end of that actually, but the captain comes onto the
intercom to add weight to that bold statement, by saying that sailing
conditions were going to get rough about twenty minutes out! And this in the
middle of me burning up my final Deutschmarks on the biggest Big Mac meal
ever!
We ride out the choppy seas by sitting in the video wall/bar area, which is
close to the centre-line of the ship. The wind and waves were blowing at the
side of the Stena Discovery rolling the ship, which meant those people
sitting at the sides got the worst of it! And that is where we stayed, apart
from one memorably hazardous up and downhill trip to the tax-free shop.
Eventually, the East coast of England extends a protective arm, whilst we
are still an hour or so out, and the seas calm down. I find out near the end
of the trip that not everyone got away unscathed, as the sinkful of vomit
in the toilets bore a mute but extremely smelly witness to that failure!
Disembarking and the drive home was unmemorable, apart from a mega-downpour
near Cambridge, which was a last minute reminder of the conditions of the
trip up to Dresden. I eventually get myself and my stuff home, and after
dragging it upstairs, snap online to check out the masses of activity on the
DHS site, and my modem shivers gently in its black plastic casing, in
anticipation of the huge amount of demo downloading awaiting it in the
following days!
Conclusions..
A sequel is never as good as the original, right?
WRONG! - This sequel managed to live up to the unforgettable original, and
may even have been a better party in a lot of respects!
Considering it solely in terms of crude numbers, it was a slightly smaller
party than before, with a few important and sadly missed omissions. I cannot
pass by without reflecting on what might have been, with a second Defjam
brainblaster on the ST (And what might hopefully still be someday?) It would
have been cool to see the extra-talented Creamies in the house too, they
were greatly missed. Also some people at the party, such as Mystic Bytes
held back this time.
However, putting the negative stuff behind us, we did get some releases that
were genuinely groundbreaking, and giving us new heights of quality. Escape
did for us this time, what Defjam and Checkpoint did the last, which was to
provide a 'demo to beat all other demos' (for now at least?), with their
DSP-tastic brain-bursting 'Hmmm' demo for the good old Falcy. And this still
possible on an unexpanded 1993-era machine. A message to the over-vocal but
strangely unproductive 'Mr Angry' tendency, now THAT is the way to win the
argument for unexpanded Falcons to rule the day!
And for those people who went to the trouble and expense to upgrade their
birdy-box, they were superbly catered for by the Swedish hardcore, with very
highly professional demo's from Dead Hackers Society, and T.O.Y.S. They
showed their dedication and care for the fuji platform, and deserved all the
prizes and praises that came their way!
For the ST, there wasn't a lot around, apart from a long-quiescent part of
the old French scene, who suddenly emerged from the dark depths, clutching
their 'Odd Stuff', like some supposedly mythical sea-creature!
And what of the also-rans? Even these offered some interesting and
worthwhile productions, hinting at possible future greatness! Step forward,
Paranoid, and the coder of Remo!
And the Spice Boys? A grateful world thanks them for introducing the
concepts of pizza digestion and shiny enviro-mapped poo to the demo
community!
ASCII-Nation, mumble, errrm.... I won those prizes fair and square, and
you're not getting them back now!
The hospitality went off, as if it just ran off the smoothest of production
lines, as before. Escape and Checkpoint looked after us as well as they did
last time, and managed to score something of a coup by rebooking the same
place as before, which was in an easy to find by road location!
From a personal point of view, I found this party even more satisfying than
the first one. The friendship element gets better and closer with each
successive visit to an Atari event, and EIL part 2 was certainly the coolest
yet in those terms.
Old friendships carried on, as if a two-year hiatus since I last properly
saw the people concerned, simply hadn't happened. So it was with the
Reservoir Gods, and especially Sh3. Glad to see you're all there, unbowed,
undefeated, always yourselves!
Other friendships reached new heights, as the Polski crowd went to the
trouble of making us extra-welcome. We spent quite a lot of time with them,
and not just for the vodka! Big hi there's go to Grey and Sqward especially!
We also have the efficiency and helpfulness of Havoc and the Dutch guys who
made our journey there and back a lot easier than it could have been. You
were great!
In fact, everyone was fantastic. This is a complete reversal of the
situation at our first coding party, the Symposium '96 (I told you I would
be name-dropping it for evermore!) where we felt cast adrift in a sea of
strangers, desperately seeking out small islands of familiarity and
companionship. Nowadays, no-one is a stranger, and everyone is a friend!
I would go as far as saying that even if the Atari element were to
disappear completely, these gatherings are worth maintaining for the
friendship aspect alone! Not that I'm suggesting the Atari element is lost,
as we are all creative people who like to stretch the boundaries ever more,
and if we stopped doing that, then something inside us would die a little?
I would be very happy if another Error in Line party was held in the future,
even if it isn't next year. The organisers deserve a rest for their efforts
on behalf of the rest of us, and the biggest vote of thanks goes to them,
for proving there is still life in the Fuji!
And may it go on for some time yet!
Epilogue...
The Saturday evening after the party, a third floor location in Northampton.
Two people sit close together...
A female voice speaks....
sSsSsSs I've just had a crazy idea Chris,
SS{@ @}SS why don't we get back together...
S( v )S /
'\<_>/' (So I said "yes!")
_.'-'._
/ Nicky \
So getting to the next Easter party might not be that easy after all!? Well,
we'll see!!
CiH for Alive! - June/July and bits in August '01
Don't ask where I got the time to do this lot, just don't, okay!
|
