TCC '93 report

·The Computer Crossroad '93 report

Written by Wolfman / Balance

Here  is  the report of the lately held
Computer Crossroad Party '93 in Sweden.
We  were there and now we bring you the
report.

The place
The  party  was held in one of Sweden's
largest  exhibitions-halls.  To be more
exact:   Svenska  Messen located in the
center  of  the beautifull Swedish city
Gothenburg (Göteborg).
The  hall  was  QUITE huge.  A total of
7000  squaremetres  was  used  for  the
party  itself,  and  in  addition there
were  the  sleepinghall and other rooms
at the party.
The   floor   was of concrete,  in  the
sleeping-room   too,   not  carpets  as
promised in the invitation, too bad.

Having fun
Well,  as it has been mentioned several
times  before,  parties  are  not  only
computing, and with the huge amusement-
park  being just a 5 minutes walk away,
it  was  simply  ideal  to have a swell
time.   The  discos  of Gothenburg were
also  quite  nice as far as I have been
told.  If you didn't want to party, the
opportunities for doing something else,
were tremendous.

The people
This  party  is  without doubt the most
mixed  party I have ever been to.  Both
Atari's.   Pc's,  C64's  and Amiga's of
course  were  quite  heavily presented.
Kinda interesting maybe, but the number
of    people   who   might   had   been
interesting  to  talk to, was decreased
because of that.
Anyway,  the  Amiga-scene  was  not too
well  presented  in  my opinion.  There
were   not   any   of  the  big  groups
presented,  not even from Sweden.  Some
Danes  and  Norwegians  were there, but
that was just about it.
The  number  of  people  was told to be
about  1800,  and  I  don't  think that
there  were  many  guys  from the elite
Amiga-scene  among  them.  This was not
at  all  like previous big parties like
The  Party 2 and The Gathering '93, but
it  was  possible  having some fun with
the people present.
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It was possible to have fun with the
persons you knew. Like Kefrens here..

Certain elements disrupt parties
Sadly   enough,  also  this  party  was
embossed  by  a  number  neo-nazis  who
appearently  can't  figure  out  how to
keep  politics  and partying seperated.


It  was  quite annoying with these guys
asking  us  foreign people to touch the
Swedish  flag  and  take photoes of it.
Looking   at   these  guys  with  their
medales   while  listening  to  Hitler-
speaches,  really  makes  me  sick.   I
think     it's    about    time    that
party-organizers  begin to do something
about  the  rising  tendensy which have
infected the scene. The police actually
had  to move in a couple of times and I
hate  to see the day where it's getting
risky to attend parties just because of
some  jerks  who  can't understand what
the scene is all about.

The visual gear
The  big screen wasn't actully all that
big.  Only 2*3 metres, but to make that
up,  it was of a superb quality.  Quite
a   different  system  was  used.   The
demoes  etc.   was  simply projected on
the  back of the screen, thereby making
the  picture  very  sharp.  Actually it
was  possible to see the demoes quite a
distance away, without making it worse,
really nice.

The audio
Well,   this   was   clearly   a  major
drawback.  The two speakers wasn't very
big  and  couldn't  play very loud, and
they  were even of a very poor quality.
The only way to hear the sound properly
was  to  get close enough to the scene.

The graphics-competition
The  Amiga  graphics  competition, will
clearly  be remembered for a long time.
Many of the pictures had written a text
telling  that  this was not copied from
Boris or some other artist.  The winner
was  Serpent / Carnage.  The picture he
had drawn was simply of a VERY superior
quality  and  it  was self-made all the
way through.
The  second  prize  was given to R.W.O.
of  Kefrens.  A very nice picture which
was partly selfmade.
On  the  third  position  was  actually
Devilstar  of Silents, also with a very
nice  self-made picture.  Devilstar was
called  to  the  stage,  but  then  the
organizers said: "Well, congratulations
Devilstar,   but  you're  a  member  of
Silents,  and  as Silents members can't
compete, you're disqualified, bye!"...
Hmmm,   humoristic  maybe,   but  quite
idiotic to actually call the guy to the
stage and almost make a fool of him.  I
think  this  was  a silly stunt to pull
off.



The music-competition
Well,  I'm  really  sorry, but I simply
can't   remember   anything  from  this
competition.   Well, I CAN remember the
competition itself, and I must say that
this  was  a BIG disappointment.  First
of all, the quality of the speakers was
VERY  low  and second, the music itself
was  disappointing.   At  one  time,  I
actually  thought that it was the Atari
competition,   but  when  the  tune  by
Lizardking   was  played,  I  was  very
surprised.     This    is   the   music
competition  with the lowest quality, I
have EVER seen.





                  Next article for more


TCC '93 REPORT PART 2

The demo-competition
Only  a  few  famous groups competed in
this one.  Actually a lot of new groups
were presented in the demo-competition.
Some looked promising, some didn't.
The  winner  was  Rage  with their demo
"Alchemy".   Rage  reached  the  second
place  at  last  years Phenomena/Light-
party with a similar animation demo.  I
think  this was not the right place for
this  demo.  The winner should probably
have  been Illusion by Virtual Dreams /
Fairlight   which  reached  the  second
place.   The  third  prize was given to
Slammer  /  Melon  Dezign  for his demo
"How  To  Skin  A  Cat".   This  should
probably have been on the second place.
Generally  I  think  this  was  a  demo
competition  of  poor  quality,  or  at
least   with  some  poor  results,  but
that's how things go.
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Due to the very small screen, people
was sitting close during the
competitions (Perverted?)...

The voting-system
The  voting-system  was  actually quite
okay.   Four  computers  were set up so
that  people  could  vote on them.  One


was  supposed to type in the name which
one  had  filled in at the entrance.  I
don't know how many people voted, but I
don't think it was a lot.
During  the Amiga-demo voting, a lot of
guys  from  Virtual Dreams were hanging
around   at  the  voting-stand  telling
people:   "Vote  for  our demo, we know
your  real  name!".  Very scary indeed,
but it didn't seem to work very well.

Presenting the winners
The  presentation  of  the  winners was
actually  quite okay.  The guy with the
microphone had everything under control
and  his  English   was  actually  easy
understandable. Unfortunatly, the Amiga
guys were the last ones to be presented
and  with  Atari's,  C-64's and PC's it
took  a  LOT  of time before it was the
Amiga's turn.  By that time people knew
the words:  "AND A SHIRT/BAG/WATCH FROM
COCA-COLAAAAAA!!!"...    Well,  it  was
better  than  most other presentations.
It's   nice  to  see  that  people  are
actually   paying   attention  to  such
details.

The organization in general
Actually   the   number  of  organizers
didn't  seem    to be very big.  Unlike
events  like  The  Gathering  '93,  the
organizers  were  not  present a lot in
the hall itself.
The entrance-system was quite okay, and
nobody  had  to  stand  in overwhelming
ques for too long.

How was it then
I  have to say that this lived up to my
expectations.    That   is:   I  didn't
really  expect  too  much.  I think the
nice  location  really made the party a
great deal nicer to be at, well, for me
at least.
A thing which could have made the party
a  lot better, was if the prizes in the
Amiga   demo   competition   had   been
considerable higher.  In that case more
Amiga  groups  would  come,  more  good
demoes.   That  should  be  the  recipe
guys, remember.
                              - Wolfman












Following are the results of the
competitions:


Amiga demo-competition:
1. Rage - "Alchemy"                   
2. Virtual Dreams / FLT - "Illusion"
3. Melon Dezign - "How To Skin A Cat" 

Amiga graphics-competition:
1. Serpent / Carnage
2. R.W.O. / Kefrens
3. (Devilstar / Silents) (disqualified)

Amiga music-competiton:
1. ???? / Razor?
2. ??? / Shining
3. Alf / Virutal

(We're sorry about these uncomplete
results, but...)