Party Review for The Party 1993

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THE PARTY III - REPORT

The mother of all parties!


Once again it happend: Thousands of freaks gathered in Denmark to one
of the biggest happening in the scene: THE PARTY 3.

By Wolfman & Cesium

This  year  in strict opposite to known
traditions, the party was not placed in
Aars,  but  in the bigger town Herning.
For    53   hours,   Denmarks   biggest
exhibition   centre  was  housing  2800
computer freaks gathered from all parts
of the world.

A merry bunch
As   said   people   were   practically
gathered  from  all  over the world and
the   mixture   of   people  was  quite
interesting.

Nearly  every  more or less known group
on  the  Amiga-scene  had  shown up and
the  same went for both the PC and C64.
As  always  there were the usual people
sitting around playing games constantly
and  actually not having anything to do
with  the  scene,  but  quite different
from  other  parties  those people were
harder  to  notice  in  the  masses  of
actual scene-people.

Best party place ever!
The  hall  was located just outside the
town  of  Herning, in a industrial zone
of  some  kind.  The number of shopping


facilities  outside the party place was
more  than  limited.   But who actually
needs  to  have  any shops outside when
the  party place had a LOT to offer the
party attenders.
Cafeteria  facilities  were  more  than
satisfactory  and there were TWO bigger
main-cafeterias.   Besides  those there
were  a  kiosk,  a little snack-bar and
the ice-cream stand. Said in short, you
didn't have to walk around hungry...
The  main  party hall was EXTREMELY big
and  80% of the party was placed there.
On top of that, there was the secondary
hall  where  there  as in the main-hall
was  placed  a  big  screen.   When the
second  hall  got  full  the organizers
simply  opened  a  third hall and there
were  no  more problems.  The space was
somewhere close to  unlimited  and  was
generally is was a perfect party place.
 Herning Hallerne was placed quite far
 away from everything,  but  the place
 itself offered almost  everything one
 could desire.

Zzzzzzz....
If  you wanted to sleep (And we suppose
some  did)  the  space  was  more  than
sufficiant,  in opposion to THE PARTY 1
and  2  the  sleeping HALLS were so big
that  one  had  plenty of room to sleep
at.
Some  intermistic  walls  made it kinda
"intimate" and the carpet made it a lot
more compfortable. 

Pretty baaaaby!
There  were  actually  more  girls than
ever  before  on  a  party!  There were
some   very   cute   female  organizers
(actually   hired  on  basis  of  their
looks,  not  on their capability!).  In
the  kiosks  around  the  center, there
were  some good looking chicks too - no
wonder  why Wolfman kept walking to and
forth  between the halls...  (the kiosk
was situated in the middle :-))
(Hrmmmmm! -Wolfie)
   Besides,  the  *only*  (as far as we
know)  girl  in the scene, Christine De
La   Queen,   was   present   too,  but
unfortunately  we never got a chance to
meet her.
The text in the invitation spoke of the
female   organizers   as  "facilities".
When  we asked Stripe if the girls knew
that, the answer was quite clear:
"Gee, I sure hope not!", but apart from
that,  Stripe actually claimed that the
girls  were really good workers and did
a good job...

A long way from home...
One  of  the  most significant examples
(if  not  THE  most) of how long people
were   willing   to   go  in  order  to
participate  in this event, was Megazap
of Paralax, from Australia!!
He  had taken a bank loan on about 2000
pounds to travel to Herning.
Also    other    examples   of   "party
extremists"   were   people   who  were
actually  willing  to  sit in a car for
over  24  hours or more, and there were
lots of their kind.

Party outside...
Even  though the travelling distance to
the  nearest  discos and pubs was quite
big,  people  still  felt like partying
outside the party (?).
The  city  of Herning did have pubs and
discos  to  match  the needs of the the
party people anxious to party (?!)...
One    of   the   party's   unfortunate
want-to-party-outside-this-party people
was  Lone  Starr  /  Spaceballs who was
unfortunately not able to prove that he
was   actually  18  years  old.   Those
guards were SO stupid...

Commodore invaders...
The   party  was  partly  sponsored  by
Commodore and the number of people from
Commodore present was also quite large.
We   asked   Jesper   Christensen  from
Commodore  DK  what  he  thought of the
arrangement   and  his  comment  surely
speaks for itself...
"This  was  the  first  time  for us to
support  such an arrangement in Denmark
but  certainly not the last.  We had so
much  fun and of course hope that there
will be a Party 1994.  Right now we are
working   on   a   CD   with  the  best
productions   which  should  be  spread
along  with all Amiga CD-ROM drives and
the  CD  might be sold in shops as well
to give attention."
Great  positivity amongst the people in
Commodore  and  this  should  certainly
give  motivation  for the organizers to
make a sequel to the success.



Besides   from   enjoying   the  party,
Commodore  also  advertised for some of
their  products,  amongst them the CD32
which attracted the most attention.
They  also  made  a SCALA presentation,
but  that  didn't quite interest anyone
and  the  poor  guy from Commodore must
have  felt like talking to a wall while
standing on the stage.
Commodore    also    held   a   smaller
conference  so  the  public  could  ask
about various things.

Long fingers
Just  before  Cola, D'fence, Loop and I
(Cesium) were leaving the partyplace, a
guy was running towards us and asked if
we  had  seen  anyone carrying an A1200
(w/80MB  HD),  with  his  handle, TBM /
Limited  Edition,  signed  on.  I don't
know  if he ever saw his dearest again.


It  was  also  reported to us that some
external diskdrives were stolen.
It  just  seems  like  there can't be a
party  without someone who has to spoil
the   joy  totally  for  other  people.
Obviously  the  dork brains behind such
thefts   have   lost   any   sense   of
conscience   and   perhaps  one  should
really  feel  sorry  for such miserable
twats.

The PARTY of changes
During the party, the whole division of
The  Silents  Sweden  decided to leave.
Lizardking  teamed  up  with the reborn
Razor  1911,  a  group  which  has been
expanding   with   a  lot  of  talented
members  through  the last months.
Read   more   about   THAT  it  in  the
Highlight-section!



Lemon.   DIED  and  there was a chaotic
headhunting  on  the  members after the
news had been spread.

Big brother is watching you
Okay,  it  wasn't that bad...  Actually
not  at  all,  but a thing which nobody
could  have  helped  noticing,  was the
fact that the organizers seemed to have
everything under complete control.
The  organizers  seemed  to  be able to
handle  ANYTHING (yeah well) and as far
as    yours    truely   remembers   it,
everything  promised  in the invitation
was kept.
Obviously  the  organizers  have gained
maximum   experience   from   the   two
previous parties and that was certainly
noticeable here.

Continues in next article...



THE PARTY III - REPORT PART 2

People meet...
Given  the  fact that over 2800 persons
were represented at  the  party, it was
actually  a  bit surprising to feel the
very  nice  and  friendly atmosphere at
the  place.   One could have expected a
stressed  and  rushed  atmosphere,  but
everybody  was  calm  and  generally it
seemed  like  people  had a really nice
time.
This is seen in relation to THE PARTY 2
where  many people felt that the number
of  people  present  was too big.  This
certainly  wasn't  the  case this time,
but  on  the  other  hand  it  was hard
finding  time  to  meet all the persons
you  knew,  so  perhaps  next  time the
organizers  should  consider making the
party one day longer....

Bus wrecks and egg throwing
SKID  ROW Sweden had troubles with some
TRSI  members at the party because they
wanted to stand in a TRSI bus which was
already  full.   So these idiots ripped
all  the tires and crushed the ..  TRSI
bus!   Damage:   About  1000-2000$!


Besides from this incident there was no
actual vandalism.
Some  PC-owners   threw   eggs  at  the
technic-room   next  to  the  stage  in
protest  of  the music competition, but
otherwise   people  behaved  like  they
should   and   the   organizers   could
concentrate  mostly at making the party
run smoothly.

Best party ever?
Well,  not  much  to  say there..  YES!
The Party 3 was without doubt THE party
and I don't see any significant reasons
why  people  should  be less satisfied.
Just about everything went smoothly and
the atmosphere was perfect.
The  Party  "series"  has  now become a
kind  of  tradition which one certainly
can hope will last for many years.
Finally  a big thanks to the organizers
who  worked hard to make this fantastic
arrangement a reality, nice work guys!

NOTE:   People  are  perhaps rightfully
wondering  what  a  report from a party
held 4 months ago is doing here.  Well,
the reason is simple:  We have received
several  request  from people asking us
to  publish  the report in spite of the
significant delay.  Simply because they
felt  that a party couldn't be complete
without  a report in Upstream...  Well,
Upstream  is  not the one to disappoint
people and we hope you enjoyed both the
party and this report.

And as always for the one who dared not
to be present: SHAME ON YOU!



THE PARTY III

Origin - A deserved winner?


Complex France were the ones who pulled home the 1st prize in the demo-
competition. But did they really deserve it? We've gotten comments from
A couple of people around.

Estrup / Static Bytes
In   my   humble  opinion,  the  'moral
winner',             and            the
'should-have-been-winner'  of  the demo
competition at The Party 3 is obviously
Arte  by  Sanity.   Now,  why  is that?
First  of all, I have never seen a demo
with  that  high  quality in both code,
graphics,  music and last but not least
design  -  the demo fits the music even
better than Desert Dream!  Furthermore,
Arte  runs  on non-AGA machines which I
find extremely impressive.  The winning
demo,  Origin by Complex, requires AGA,
without   -  in  my  opinion  -  taking
satisfactory     advantage    of    the
possibilities  when  it  comes  to i.e.
number   of  colours  (apart  from  the
end-picture, that is).  To me, it seems
more   like   a   68020-demo   than  an
AGA-demo.  Not that I don't like Origin
-     I     find     especially     the
Wolfenstein-routine    to    be    very
impressive,  though  the  high level of
detail  has it's costs when it comes to
speed.      Also    the    introductory
animations  and  the  mapped dragonball
are nice.  However, Origin quite simply
doesn't  have  the  great  graphics and
music which Arte has.
Concerning   Full   Moon  from  Virtual
Dreams,  I  really  like  this  demo as
well, and I would surely rank it second
or third, after Arte.  Spaceballs' Nine
Fingers  was  a  lot  more  varied than
State of the Art, but probably too much
like it after all to win 'again'.

Coca / Balance
The  first  time  I saw this demo I was
really  impressed.   Great  code, great
music  and  great graphics.  But I soon
realised  that  I  had  been  fooled by
Cesium's  million-dollar  hi-fi.   When
watched on a standard 1084 monitor with
internal  speaker  sound, the demo is a
drag  to  watch.   In  fact, almost the
only  thing  I  really  liked about the
whole  demo  was  the music.  True, the
demo  has several good routines, but it
looks  like  Gengis  finished this demo
under  pressure.   The  design isn't as
good as neither Arte nor Full Moon, and
the  ending simply SUCKS!  Which way is
that  to  end  a demo? I guess I should
complain  a  bit about Gengis choice of
routines  for  this  demo, but as I'm a
coder myself, I know how hard it can be
to fill up demo space with non-existant
routines.   I  don't  think he used the
routines   he   used   to   their  full
potential,  though.  If he had put them
in  a  better  design,  and with better
transitions,   then   maybe..
In  my  opinion, the best demo was Arte
by  Sanity,  and second comes Full Moon
by  Virtual  Dreams.  The only reason I
can  think of that this demo was placed
so  high  is the music, because neither
the coding nor graphics are better than


Arte and Full Moon.

Mr.Hyde / Andromeda
So,  once  more  it  is proved that the
demo containing the best animation wins
the democompetition.  It's a shame, but
history seems to repeat itself.  When I
first  saw the demo at the Party, I had
a  certain  feeling  that it would win.
But  I  must say that it didn't deserve
the first place.  In my opinion, a demo
(especially   an   A1200-demo)   should
contain  much  more than a great intro.
In  Origin's  case  it seems to me like
the  rest  is just an 'appendix' to the
great   introduction.   From  a  coders
point  of  view,  the  demo  is  not  a
winnerdemo  compared  with  FullMoOn or
Arte.   Both  Arte and FullMoOn contain
better  code.   For example, the tunnel
in Origin was just a precalculated one,
just    as    the   Mobile-movie   from
Spaceballs.    (Rumour  though,  but  I
believe   in  it!).   To  summarize  my
opinions,  here's my suggestion for the
resultlist:  1.FullMoOn 2.Arte 3.Origin
...  (But:  I was very pleased with the
fact  that 9finGers didn't beat Origin.
At least the best animation won!)

Gargoyle / Polka Brothers
As many others I think that Arte should
have won at The Party III.  Arte is one
piece of work!  It contains nice coding
and   design   and  some  really  great
graphics. Full Moon from Virtual Dreams
is  also  an  example of a good demo, I
think it maybe is the one with the best
code  -  it  have  some really stunning
effects  To  tell the truth I have some
doubts   about   what   demo,  Arte  or
Full Moon, which    should   have  won.
Spaceballs gave it another try with one
of   their   "movie"   demos,  I  think
Lone Starr had  done  a good job on the
routine in the demo.  But in these days
a demo with only one great routine have
its     difficulties    with    winning
competitions.   I  guess  it  was  even
harder   for  Lone Starr   because  the
routine  was not a totally new one - it
looked alot like the one in Mobile.