- Blackbox Symposium 95 -
rare partysucces in Germany
by Decca


HAMBURG, GERMANY - A small and decent party
turned into a stunning event with many great and surprising releases.


It feels different As  we  entered  the Symposium-place we
were welcomed  by  a totally different
atmosphere  compared  to other party's.
The air was fresh, the room was bright
and it wasn't very noisy. Hm, this
seemed to be the right place for about
15 hours of fun and entertainment.
We occupied a table and some chairs
right beside the brilliant 5*3 meter
screen, which was used for informations
and the later competitons. While
seeking for a link to the absolutely
stable power supply, which we found very
fast, we also recognized the two big
boxes of the soundsystem. But what was
that? Were they on duty? Hm, no
nerving 130 bpm or similar things, only
some quiet rock music. Was this for
real? Yes, the 2*400 watt were only
turned up for the competitions. So it
was possible to chat without shouting.

Interesting things and facts
Back on our table, we were quite
surprised to see somebody working on a
good, old C64. It was marvelous what
came to our eyes as we moved a bit
closer. Graham/Oxyron showed his new
demo wich includes many, many stunning
effects, like a fullscreen, 4 color,
distortion-zoomer in only one frame for
example. Too  bad, that he didn't
show it on the big screen. It would also have
shocked the 300 people of
audience which showed up.
The  organizers  told us later that it
should  have been about 400 guests but
registrations arent't a guarantee.  We
have also to admit, that we were a bit
surprised, that it was so peacefull.
On many other German parties mostly
more than just a window gets damaged.
While walking trough the tables with
the more or less active German dudes,
seeking for interesting people, we met
also a guy from Poland.

Surprise, surprise
It was remarkable that on this decent
party so many famous people contributed
in the various competitions. So the
music and graphic competition was very
enjoyable to us. Also the 60K intro
compo featured some great entries, too
bad the intro from Bizarre Arts didn't
work. But the democompetition was the
ultimate blockbuster. Nobody had expected a new
version of Sanity's Roots nor such a
great production from Artwork on this
party. Another addition to these great
releases were the sponsored prizes. The
winners could choose between nice hardware
like a Retina Z2 graphiccard, a VLab
Y/C digitizer or programs like Real 3D
and Image FX.

Right voting
After the  competitions, everybody
grapped pen and paper to fill in the
votes. And as on every party, we all
had to bring our votesheet to the infodesk.
To prevent any cheating everybody
had got a paperbutton with his name on,
to mark if he has payed. So just in
the moment you handed your sheet over,
the friendly organizer cut off one corner
of the button. Now you were also marked
as voter. This system seems to be
one of the best, hopefully this
idea will be used again.

Back next year
As a full success, especially for a
German party, there is a new Symposium
for 1996 under development, with many
improvements and new ideas. Keep an
eye on it, things can only get better.



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- Blackbox Symposium 95 -
RESULTS


DEMO COMPETITION
1._Greenday Artwork
2._Roots_2.0 Sanity
3._Temple_of_Decease Oxyron
4._Cronos Retire

INTRO COMPETITION

1._Boom Lego
2._Florx Bizarre_Arts
3._Zwidula Shrimps_Design
4._FutterDatFresse Nordsee

GRAPHIC COMPETITION

1._Sand_Dragon Ben.E/Shrimps
2._Green_Trash Fiver/TRSI
3._Bild Jms/Artwork
4._Castle Sire/Lego
5._Face Cthulhu/Sanity

MUSIC COMPETITION

1._Funky_4 Noodles/Phantasm
2._Tango_Sisters Chromag/Polka B.
3._No_Name Raw_Style/Lego
4._Enjoy_the_Silence Jarre&Jazy/Incal
5._Slowdown Ayege

ANIM COMPETITION

1._(no_name) Redwolf
2._Equal Zabel
3._Points_so_both_are_2 Interceptor
4._(no_name) Takeoff/PHB