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Unconventional 2004 Party Report
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So it was September again, time for the Unconventional party to take place. This
year no one of the other Dresden-Atarians had the time or motivation to go there
for various reasons. Personally, I was accidently only an half an hour trainride
away from the partyplace - so going there was easily possible to me also without
having a car.
As in the former years since 2000 it took place in Lengenfeld, Germany again.
The party place is suitable for a computerparty (a big hall, a kitchen and
toilets plus a big green meadow outside to put up your tents).
This year only about 25 people found their way to the party. This may be the
result of the little promotion for the party, that has been done in the world of
Atari 16/32 bit computers. Most of the visitors were attached to the Atari XE/XL
system and brought anything from simple setups up to incredible powerful systems
with every extension you can imagine.
Regarding the ST/Falcon scene there weren't many fans around, only Bewesoft from
Czech Republic brought an Atari Falcon. Several STs were set up here and there
but mostly only used for gaming and the realtime article.
Another clear different to the usual demoparties was that the convention more
triggers on games and development than on demos, so as the years before a demo
competition was neither planned nor presented.
The organization of the party was done by several members of the ABBUC, the
Atari-(8)Bit-Byter-User-Club. Mad Butscher of Foundation Two was not involved in
the organisation anymore and was also not present (too bad.. it's always fun for
me to meet him at parties). The main part of the organisation was therefore done
by Carsten Strotmann and Helmut Weidner (members of the ABBUC). Thanks a lot for
all!
As I came without a computer to the party I was a bit scared that I could get
bored easily. But as Atari-people are nice folks it came to happen that I sat
before a running ST-system as well a running Atari XL-system on Friday night,
just a couple of hours after my arrival. RIK/F2 lend me his Atari 600 with
floppy drive, Carsten Strotmann gave me an STf with colourmonitor to use and so
my stay was much more pleasant. The following days the ST was mostly used for
gaming (why did nobody tell me that Speedball is such an awesome game!). The
Atari 600 XL was occupied in the following days to finish some pokeysongs I
wanted to work on since a long time. Yeah!
So who was actually here? In one corner four people from Czech Republic had set
up a Falcon system (Milan Bohdar was busy converting Net-BSD to the Falcon). The
others, Zdenek, Jaysoft as well as Raster/CPU did not bring any computer with
them.
Another corner was taken by the organisers. Here was a long table with stuff
that was for sale as well as various Atari systems set up.
In the middle of the hall all existing Atari game systems were put for anyone
who felt like playing one or other game. This was also the gaming competion, as
there were sheets with a table where you could write in your maximum score.
The other side of the hall was taken by several Atari 8-bit people who worked on
their software.
All in all one can say, that this party was not full of computers. Actually most
of the people seemed not to have brought their computer system with them -
therefore the ones who brought their Ataris usually brought also several
systems.
The days passed with the usual pizza-cola-beer mixture but also had some special
events. First there was the legendary barbeque outside in the evening as well as
a funny outdoor-competition. This time no harddisk had to be thrown - instead
the visitors were divided in four teams. Each person of each team got the chance
to shoot an arrow into a target using a crossbow. This wasn't so easy!
The target was a big Unconventional-logo in the typical circled-style. Every
circle had a different colour. Depending on the colour you hit with the arrow, a
question your team had to answer was choosen.
(There were as many colours on the target as there were categories of questions
(hardware, software...). Well, this was pretty funny and different. Honestly I
was unable to answer any of the questions (Which color has a computer I have
never heard of? What game did someone I never heard of work on? ... ;) but my
teammates were experts enough to press us on second place anyway.
Another interesting issue was the presentation of the programms that were
released for the ABBUC software contest this year. So 13 different programms
were presented on the beamer. There was a math programm, several smaller games,
a new version of the RMT-player and some more or less interesting tools.
The best programm was in my opinion the conversion of Dynablasters to the Atari
XL/XE. This one was just outstanding - good musics, graphics that can be
described as better than the original (a bit exaggerated maybe) and everything
from the orginal version. Wow.. that's something someone really has put love
into. However, the entries were voted by the visitors. As every ABBUC-Member is
allowed to vote, the results will be published after the voting in the internet
is finished.
Carsten Strotmann, one of the organizers, finally presented his latest
development to anyone interested. If I remember clearly it was in the night from
saturday to sunday when someone suddenly shouted: it is ready! Yeah, Carsten
just had finished the driver for his new USB-interface. It can be plugged in the
cartridgeslot of the XL/XE and you can connect an USB-device.
The driver finished at the party was supporting an USB-keyboard, so it was now
possible to type on that external keyboard. More devices may follow.
Carsten Strotmann (3rd from left) showing is interface
This was an unexpected surprise to me.. once again the 8-Bit-people were faster
than the 16/32 ones (as far as I remember there is no USB for ST and Falcon yet
(?)). Carsten later on also did a workshop for the interested people with the
topic "reverse engineering in assembler" or similiar.
So.. the Unconventional went over. I cannot say it was like every year, as
several things have been really special. The organisation was good again and the
special events made it much more interesting to stay here. A bit sad was that
only so few people appeared, which does not mean it was not fun. However, with a
bit better advertising especially for the ST/Falcon-users maybe it can get
bigger next time. I mean, I am quite sure most of the ST/Falcon-people did not
even know about the party taking place.
Although Unconventional is more a general Atariparty of three days, and demos
are definatly not the central aspect, it was once again fun to share the time
with other Atarians with talking, gaming and doing stuff on the Ataris.
Actually I hope that next time more of us will appear there. On previous parties
the one or other always managed to come. And as it is with the people, if one
comes, then another one suddenly decides to come, too, and so on.
Actually when I regard the party surrounding (organisation, partyplace, free
entrance, ...) nothing is missing for a big party.
Ok, that's it for my party report. You can see some pictures of the party when
you follow the Unconventional link on http://www.abbuc.de.
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