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Party Review for The Party 1999
| found in | Type | Author | Year |
  | Diskmagazine AGA Chipset required - interviews |     DarkageAdok - Ankh - Attack - ... | a3/00 added 2/09 |
THE PARTY 9 - REACT!
by Curt Cool/Depth (Amiga)
(this article should perhaps have been named: The Party 9 - Reactions, but
the above title seems more appropriate. Thanks to Ghandy, it has been
published in both Showtime on Amiga and Hugi on PC).
Intro.
I have recently returned from The Party 9 - my personal eighth The Party,
since I joined the scene in 1992 at The Party 2. And as some of you may know,
the quality of The Party has been going downhill ever since the first one
which saw the release of many Amiga demos, and The Party 2 which first
introduced the 40k intro concept - over those two parties more than 40 Amiga
demos and 25 Amiga intros were released - perhaps those of you who owns or
used to own an Amiga remember classics like Hardwired, Odyssey and Enigma from
The Party 1, or State of the Art and Tetris.exe from The Party 2.
Yet it is not the releases which counts here - the releases at The Party have
always been pretty decent, due to the great cash prizes, which have always
attracted a big amount of people, and due the fact that The Party have always
been regarded a traditional meeting place for many sceners across all
platforms. But during the last 2-3 years, the percentage of sceners has been
going downhill, whereas the amount of lamers (which pretty much includes
anyone who is not interested in demos and are not doing anything creative with
their computers) has grown - and this year, it had grown skyhigh. Of course,
some people would say: Okay, but they pay for the prizes - the far-to-high
entrance fee of 350 dkr. should ensure that. But it is a problem, as is the
fact that you have to pay 350 dkr. for about 52 hours of effective party time
- especially considering that The Party 2 costed only about 130 dkr. - as you
can easily deduct, the entrance fee has risen with about 175% in seven years
for a party which is not incredibly much better than the one seven years ago -
of course, the network costs money, not to forget the internet gateway, but as
far as I know, it was at least partly sponsored by Compaq which is why it
doesn't justify such a rise in the entrance fee. The amount of competitions
have risen as well, but again, that doesn't justify it either - considering
that a true scene party like the Symposium Mekka only costs about 150 dkr. or
so, regarding the entrance fee.
Anyhow, as you may know by now, The Party 9 was in many ways spoiled by
several organizerial problems, as it has been in the last few years: In 1997
there was a huge power breakdown where the partyhall was in the dark for
several hours, in 1998 the network did not work and the net votesystem made it
far too easy to cheat. In 1999 the organizers lost many contributions due to
a faulty net delivery system (lost contributions have also been a problem
during earlier years, but never as badly as this), and the voting system
hadn't been basically changed (though it had already been proven the year
before that cheating was too easy), which means that certain Finnish groups
had an easy time getting very high and pretty undeserved positions in several
competitions, especially on the Amiga (which means 40k intro, demo and
4channel music. None of the releases at this years The Party has been true
classics, not on the Amiga at least, and as far as I have heard from several
pc sceners, most of the PC releases weren't exactly top-notch either.
Blame the lame...
Of course, all these things have a reason. And I dare say that a great deal
of the problems goes back to the amount of non-creative pc-owners at The
Party. This means: The people who went there to use the network system to
leech pc warez, mp3's and porn. The people who went there to chat and use the
internet gateway. The people with no interest in the scene and in demos,
scene music and graphics whatsoever - the, I write and mean the word honestly,
LAMERS. And judging from the general look of things at The Party 9, these
people were indeed the majority: The amount of Windows screens running ftp
programs, jpg-viewers and netgames was indeed much higher than those screens
with an assembler, a tracker or a creative graphics package. The general
public seemed to think that the sceners were lame or plain stupid: Question
to Corial/Focus Design who didn't bring his machine: How come you didn't
bring your computer to a NET-party? The competitions which brought in the
biggest audience was the Coca-Cola drinking and Burger-eating competitions
which has nothing whatsoever to do with the scene at all. But why is this so
bad? The pay our prizes, right? Perhaps, but after all, we also pay a bit of
their prizes for the game competitions etc., and we pay for the internet
gateway and some of the net facilities which is of very little use to most of
the sceners at the party itself. But sure, they too are to blame for the
cheating in the competition - at The Party 9, the votesystem worked in such a
way that you got a votekey after paying the entrance fee which would make you
able to vote on the net once - but when 90% of the party people doesn't have
an interest in voting, it is very easy to obtain all the votekeys you like and
vote for yourself - they surely won't mind giving them to you. Also, the
atmosphere is spoiled when a party consists of 85-90% lamers - the feeling is
just not the same when you know that the guy next to you really thinks you're
some kind of a weirdo, bothering about something as antique as the Amiga,
bothering to make productions for free, for the fun of it, though that is what
being creative is all about - but he doesn't know, does he? Or care for that
matter? Or in other words: I felt like a stranger in my own home.
And the organizers...
Of course the organizers can be blamed for some things as well: It IS their
fault that the contribution system, which worked via www and ftp at the party
(thus not available to anyone outside the party), did not work. Surely they
can be blamed for not testing it 100% before using it. This is simply a CRIME
towards the demo scene. It is partly their fault that The Party 9 was flooded
with game/quake/porn/ net-lamers - The Party tickets should NOT be available
from every post office in Northern Europe and The Party 9 should not be
announced on a public television computer game/cartoon/film program several
months before if it should stay a subcultural demoscene event. It is also the
fault of the organizers that somebody did cheat, since the voting system
easily allowed it without anyone being able to detect it - though it was not
possible to vote more than once per net account, it was very easy to open
multiple accounts which means that, in principle, anyone could have cheated to
grab the indeed rather great cash prizes. Needless to say, the rising
entrance fee is also partly the fault of the organizers - what do we need
fireworks (which are pretty expensive if to be used indoors) for the intro and
prize ceremonies for? Why do we need prizes this big? How come it is so
expensive when, after all, there are other parties with just as good prizes
which are not?
Suggestions to the blamed:
First of all, I suggest that DCS, LOVEBOAT and KURE who benefited from
cheating in the competitions, probably much to their own surprise due to the
probably low amount of voters, should apologize in public for their behaviour
- they are not the first ones to fake votes, and probably not the last either
- and if they don't, the scene should simply stop voting for them - this is
not ment too offensively, DCS, LOVEBOAT and KURE, but hey, you can see what
happened, right? This would be a good sign to send out: The scene does not
accept votefaking at parties - it's lame, and the scene today is such a small
community, that cheating eachother for prizes seems vety stupid - after all we
all have to exist together, and hopefully for a long time yet.
I suggest that The Party organizers concentrate on making The Party a
subcultural scene event instead of a public lamer event. It is possible to
do, and can be done by taking several steps away from the present direction
which indeed is towards the latter kind of event:
Do not announce the party to public media - instead, let the news flow through
the usual scene channels - IRC, swapping, friends emailing, invitation on the
www.
Do not have game competitions (forbid Quake like they do on SymMekka).
Cut people's armband when they have voted manually - that way it is virtually
impossible to cheat - use votedisks which can be counted with some program, or
a group of voting computers of which you can only access one once with a code
printed on the armband which is cutted off afterwards if you don't bother to
count the votes manually.
Make a delivery system which works a hundred percent and make sure that any
kind of jurys needed to select which contributions to be shown are competent
enough for the job - the multichannel competition was a travesty this year,
and I assume the modules played were not the only delivered ones.
Generally, make sure that people who only attend in order to play games, leech
warez, porn and mp3's and be on the net for free does not feel welcome at all.
If you are afraid that there aren't enough sceners to fill up three halls,
well, don't rent all three halls - suppose this will show in the entrance fee
as well then.
Suggestions to the lame:
If you fit my above description of a lamer, and got hold of this article by
some magic spell or whatever, don't attend. Yes, you read it: STAY AWAY!
Suggestions to the sceners:
Stay away from The Party next year unless they offer a full refund if you are
not satisfied with the way the above problems have been handled - this means,
no more contributions thrown away, no more votefaking and no more commercial
shit, basically. Do attend the Symposium Mekka, because it is the ultimate
demoscene event. Or just stay away from The Party next year - it's pretty
cosy to be there and meet friends (to the ones I met I say: Lovely time we
had, pity it hadn't anything to do with The Party itself) - but the chance
that they will change their direction seems like a snowballs chance in hell.
So stay away too, and let them have their net party to themselves. I'm
perfectly sure that a scene event COULD be organized in Denmark at the same
time, and I would definitely like to participate in organizing eg.
competitions if some of you happen to have the motivation to find a place.
I was terribly angry when I returned from The Party, but this was written
about two weeks later, which means that though it portrays some of my feelings
at the time, it is not as if I am angry now - just disappointed in the
direction The Party have taken. This is something I have given a lot of
thought, and some people might say that my opinions may hurt some people -
both the organizers, they may hurt DCS, LOVEBOAT or KURE, they may hurt the
ones I portray as LAMERS which indeed is a harsh word in scene-speak. Yet
this is my opinion, and if we want a proper discussion, a proper dialogue
about this, it is necessary that we express our opinions in the clear instead
of being frightened that some people may be hurt or annoyed by it.
Thus, all I have yet to say is, by all means:
DON'T GO! THE PARTY 10 WILL JUST DISAPPOINT YOU!
Do complain: curtcool@worldonline.dk
------------------------------------
THE PARTY9 - FINAL official results
taken from the TP homepage - http://www.theparty.dk/
Amiga Demo
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
1 6 Concrete EPHIDRENA 2919
2 3 Spellbound LOVEBOAT 2291
3 5 Rain THE BLACK LOTUS 1993
4 7 I-Surf IRIS 1269
5 4 We love you REPLAY 948
6 2 Bong CONTRAZ 914
7 1 Pleased Work DDSH 306
Wild Demo
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
01 16 "SOUTH PARTY" beyond and zonk of hybris/NEMESIS 7970
02 *FAKED!11 *FAKED* Pawlov gott - usa - herr weltschaft**FAKED5150
*FAKED* *FAKED* super of eLiTEgRoUp
03 17 no37 dental headache of cromatics 1780
04 06 [sphagnum] Cheesy;Dwarf;Fitnak;Killasheep;
Orange;Tulle of TBC & Ostebulen 1610
05 13 EPOS Trifox, Hesequil of EPOS 880
05 02 C64 Nostalgy CyberHead97, The Slayer of Velo 880
07 18 no name Proton,vaniljus,jev,ximenos, 730
Dipbuoc,steven,da jyrg of Flare
08 10 SID MisFit, MrsCarrot of d4rkn3ss 640
09 01 Fkin Wilddemo Phosphor & Ego5 of GabbaCommando 560
10 15 Wonderful World MIS of 3Difference 500
11 03 Lyngris Aviator of Random Number Visuals 480
12 05 My first compa YenCen, Valarauka & Miq of RCF 450
13 09 Love Parade `99 JD Michael JD Iver DJ Lisa of XTV 410
14 14 ANIMATORS - 2k TazZ of ANIMATORS 310
15 12 Brahamatra Sturm, Marq, Garvin of Hervanta 260
Falcon group
16 04 AntiStatic ivan^lwx & kim^lwx of \\\ LiteWerx. 220
17 08 The Arrival Shamran of Alive 110
18 07 Placebo Python of [Nice:98:Dezigns 80
Amiga Intro
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
01 02 Nonstop Dual Crew Shining 1386
02 06 Offbeat Loveboat 1048
03 05 Impossible Loonies 0822
04 01 Revision Extreme 0746
05 03 Temperamental Focus Design 0644
06 04 Dive Final Nah-Kolor 0532
C64 Graphics
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
01 05 Another evilman Choke 328
02 06 Bells jingle Zinc 191
03 04 Smoke it ! cori of DAL 121
04 03 Ode to BV Jailbird of Tempest & Padua 109
05 07 Renegade Sentinentel 107
06 01 mad chicken Drake of Anubis+Tempest 079
07 02 Reincarnated Exile of Anubis 078
08 08 Petrolized Crusader 064
09 09 Nintendoh Eyesee 059
C64 Music
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
01 03 Love Vip of Role, WoW & Padua 463
02 01 Morbital Rayden of Breeze/Cyberpunx 203
03 02 bloch-zet Welli of Anubis/Axelerate 185
04 04 MarioLand Cover JamBen and Toaster of Seminar 172
05 05 Roc-Musik Heinmueck of TUM 158
06 06 Moonfire Brite-Lite & Chaj of Dekadence 083
C64 Demo
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
01 04 Y2K(Duck&Cover) Perff & Ghostrider of No Name 673
02 05 REA-M Scala productions 487
03 02 Rastertime Cyberbrain of Noname 295
04 03 BRAK 3 MZ1453 & Copy-Dan of GFB64 129
05 01 noname-v anonymous-bastard of Flare 080
4 Channel Music
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
01 09 blue trippy Jazz of Haujobb 430
03**FAKED!03 *FAKED* Right To Be Kure of RNO **FAKED** 307
03 02 yuye Muffler of Loveboat 302
04 01 Shamantra Moods Curt Cool of Depth 169
05 13 Dosk till dawn Yogi of IRIS 143
06 08 The Mutant Hazel of Static 121
07 06 Westhammer Reed of Damage 114
08 04 Fading kkkolors Spectra of Mawi 112
09 14 Digitality Frequent of Ephidrena 098
10 07 The Downtown Smash, Zipp of Razor1911, KFMF 083
Pornostore & Beam
11 11 Twisted origins Puryx of Unique/Maximum 059
12 05 Eggnog Boogie Tempest & DB of Damage 050
Oogie
13 12 Walk with me 2 dIS of Nukleus 039
14 10 In Media res Tecon of Planet Jazz 034
PC Intro
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
01 02 Fukwit Daddy of Haujobb 1598
02 10 ismet delic Whisker, Adam/DCS,Chavez/Funktion 0594
of Replay
03 09 Burra Oxygener of Aardbei 0390
04 08 Rubicon II Crossbone, A-move of Suburban 0384
- Enlightment
05 06 Bewahren Sie Macaw and P-rat of Razor1911 0328
Ruhe and Access Denied
06 03 Addicted to Khamoon of Nah-Kolor 0322
Code 4k
07 01 Stroganoff Brite-Lite & Chaj of Alpha Design 0264
08 04 B-SHOCK peenut,zipp,kry of shame 0162
09 07 The Final Clock Xar, Kamikaze, Thufir of Synoduz 0124
Cycle
10 05 plural bazz Chaosdeathmasta of [tbl]turbo 0122
Java Demo
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
01 01 Notion Tarnow of Digital Nerds 1784
02 02 .RGB. commy, skringer 0812
Raytraced Graphics
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
01 16 Houston we Adam/Dual Crew - Shining 238
have an alcohol problem
02**FAKED!17 *FAKED* Mumin og Neger Kure of RNO **FAKED** 218
03 02 eye rob of camelot 216
04 15 Butt with ears MIS of 3Difference 184
/ R°v med °re
04 04 Rebel fighters 3D Addict of Digital Nerds 184
06 18 Kennot Naapuri 182
07 07 SeaDome Trenox of Junk 132
08 08 Metropolis WiDDY of Genesis*Project 122
09 06 Urban Decay Imperator of Party-tion 112
10 11 Outer Space SomeOne of HedegÕrdens Dataklub 110
10 03 J°rgen Klevin Pulsar of Dark-Prisoners 110
12 05 1st wave Flunkium 104
13 09 Spice It Up Opedion of Random Number Visuals 078
13 01 Base Phosphor of GabbaCommando 078
15 14 Centrian_v1 Liaram of Istari 074
16 22 The Eagle Thumanji of Xtreme 062
17 20 y1k FirimaR of SynoduZ 044
18 10 Happy New Year DreadFred 042
19 13 Roomy artitl 040
20 21 tHE probe Ego 5 of GabbaCommando 026
21 19 RIP deLagoni 022
22 12 Fugitive Dreamer 018
PC Accel Demo
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
01**FAKED!07 *FAKED* Kasparov Dr. Detroit of ELITEGROUP **FAKED** 6895
02 02 The Great Virne, Deetsay of HiRMU 2573
HiRMU Sisters
03 04 alpha ii arpi, strepto, immortal rat, nogsf, 2368
- the sequel towerx of astral
04 01 produkt47 baloo+sushibrother of replay 1204
05 06 katastro.fi of codename chinadoll 0917
06 03 xtal jmagic, jugi, damaq of Komplex 0534
elektronik brain revitalization
07 05 Millenium Croaton, Foz, Cosmo of Twilight 0483
ends
Pixel Graphics
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
01 24 Color Fashion of Smash Designs 744
of Autumn
02 21 ahne Cyclone of Abyss 234
pappa
03 18 Bee Fasix of Cromatics 232
04 13 Connectin Bifrost of Loonies 156
05 26 I always Baloo of Replay 148
read Shine..
06 19 A Fairy Satchmo 146
tale
07 01 Mario Matarazzo of IRIS 136
08 08 CHEM-WAR Imperator of Party-tion 134
09 03 Zonk Python of NICE DEZIGNS 120
10 14 jenni Horus 118
11 16 washing Sunday of Tpolm 110
machine ordinare
11 02 johnny weird[oz] of the dope team 110
Hazard
13 11 Gandhara Snarling of Anakata 084
14 06 WiredHead Zthee of Secretly 074
14 04 Sniffer Defekt of Junk 074
16 12 you_can¦t MrsCarrot of d4rkn3ss 064
_beat_the_feeling
17 05 Mythical Gusia & Eidolon of ? & insomnia2k 054
Mood
18 09 Manga Eye FirimaR of SynoduZ 050
19 27 PenQuiN Griebel of Team Tux 048
P0weR
19 07 Dream Trenox of Junk 048
Dance
21 25 bright KTHULU of NEXTEMPIRE 032
eyes
22 15 gLiGhT Ragnarok 022
23 23 Skin Deep Armitage 374 of ABC Warriors 018
24 17 Need we BigBen, HaPPy & Arvad of Keep Smiling 014
do more?
24 10 Art Canis Vulpes of independent 014
of Kanly
26 22 Usagi Slayer of Appendix 010
Yoimbo
26 20 TheTreaty Angeldust and Punisher of Apathy 010
Multi Channel Music
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
01 11 In times oRaNGe of Ostebulen 175
of war
02 07 Emerald Skyrunner 172
World
03 04 Gherkins Oxygener of Aardbei & superstars 139
and a rhubarb
04 01 We'reHere Chaj of Alpha Design 137
05 02 rush hour KENSHI of NEXTEMPIRE 117
06 05 Forbidden Frequent of Ephidrena 104
Soundscape
07 14 Tre Nox S0bEC of Hellfire 098
Part II
08 13 in mary Highfly of Kahvila&Ihana 093
09 06 Coder goa LoadError of Ephidrena 088
10 03 DANCEMX99 CHLA of Team tux 083
11 09 Instant Reflex of Projection 074
Adrenaline
12 12 Beyond Zixaq of Ephidrena 064
The Galaxy
13 08 fast duck-hunter of spaceballs 062
noise
14 10 booze Cicilleju of Apocalypse Design 039
& cola
PC Non-Accel Demo
Rank Entry Title Made by Points
01 16 melrose vic,stevie,sarix,sagacity,Inopia 692
space of 3 State
02 02 Fall baloo, piglet, radix, whisker, roger 680
Equals Winter of Replay
03 06 Higherg Damage 644
ground
04 08 Shingles Damaq, Heatbeat, MRI of Doomsday 438
05 05 trem muls Retro a.c. feat mellow-d 376
06 13 EGO Toxic Child, Master S, YenZen of RSP 322
Production
07 14 WHAT? Gosub, Glazer, Bizze, Cyc, Ion, 214
Obsolete of TMB
08 12 noia Storm, Int19h, DJyan of Kamelite 162
09 03 the NEXTEMPIRE 142
horror
10 10 Fuck the Gospel Fraggerz 140
millenium
11 07 &be happy Turbo, HereBit, Ska, Cicilleju of 122
Apocalypse Design
12 09 Juhan Emanta of Kahvila 118
12 G Tietaa kaiken avaruudesta
13 01 X-mas1900 Toastbrot, Tomatensuppe of Seminar 116
14 04 blush VLD vs. BOO of 10k Productions 098
15 15 Phantas- Woody, Loop of Fadeout 054
tique
16 11 WBATBP Bamse, znoez, Hugge of Huggy Bros. 048
The entries with the note "**FAKED**" in their row were proven that their
authors got hold of various votes by unfair methods, f.e. by votekey
counting etc. Read more about the TP9 FAKERS in Curt Cool`s TP9 React! }