Gathering 1996 - The Contests 

Looking back at the past years, we would surely not have any big difficulties to set the Norwegian Gathering as one of the few scene events, able to attract foreign visitors and to guarantee a necessary dose of international character to the various competitions. In a time where most parties are potentially looking just like good local scene meetings, here, in the Viking lands, one still feels the rare opportunity of breathing some drops of an atmosphere, not exclusively homely. Despite of the partial failure of the latest two editions, especially under the releases profile, a very good reputation seems to surround this traditional spring scene appointment.

As an old scene sage said: Great releases can make, even the worst organized party ever, look as good. Average releases make look average, even the best arranged party ever.

It is undoubtful that a remarkable part of the Gathering's fame is mainly due to the numerous and superb productions of which the party itself has been crowded during these years. Legendary demos like Desert Dream or Wayfarer, only to mention some names, have simply done scene history and given their substantial contribution to make this party gain a stable place in the heart of many sceners. Yet another legendary page has been surely written this year by The Black Lotus, a relatively young Swedish team, that after reaching a third place at last year's demo competition, has finally managed to win the first prize with a wonderful demo like "Tint". Most sceners wondered how a group mainly known for productions of average level, could have suddenly improved the quality of their demos in such a drastic way, and many were probably the ones to consider the recent joining of well-known scene personalities as one of the possible reasons. One of these scene stars, the famous dutch graphician Danny, believes that his joining has not been such a decisive factor: 
"I guess that I and the others just joined at the right time. When I myself dropped in the group, I was instantly able to pop in two pictures in a demo like Tint. So there was already a major improvement going on without us graphicians. The current TBL coders like Offa, Equalizer and Rubberduck had already improved themselves very much and maybe we only contributed to boost their morale..."


Too many positive words have already been spent about this superb production, but still we simply invite you to read the relative article found in this same issue. With the only exception of "Dreamscape", the nice second place by Triumph, the rest of the contributions were just average. Spaceballs got an unexpected third place with "Pinch", a hurried demo by the Slummy & Vinnie duo.

Demo Competition Results


1. "Tint" by The Black Lotus with 458 points
2. "Dreamscape" by Triumph with 125 points
3. "Pinch" by Spaceballs with 98 points
4. "Mystiq" by Contraz with 53 points
5. "Sverige" by Bice Twice with 34 points
6. "Once upon a time" by Ward with 32 points
7. "Plump" by Session with 26 points
8. "Recycled" by Ephidrena with 15 points
9. "Kugalskap" by Ephidrena with 7 points
10. "D.U.M" by Syntax with 5 points
11. "The Rap Demo" by Virus with 3 points

As it is usual since a few years, two main Amiga intro contests were arranged by the organizers. The classic 40k challenge was honoured by the presence of Stellar and Essence, two of the most appreciated scene intro-groups, and not surprisingly, the first two prizes went in their hands. It was a beautiful duel, with Stellar getting the success only for gaining four more points than the German rivals. The 4k contest was instead dominated by The Black Lotus, which got respectively the first place with Gizmo's contribution and the second with Equalizer's one.

40k Intro Competition Results


1. "Lights" by Stellar with 209 points
2. "BrainBow" by Essence with 205 points
3. "Mixed Emotions" by C-Lous with 140 points
4. "Heat" by Stone Arts with 69 points
5. "Disaster" by Apathy with 52 points

4k Intro Competition


1. "Gizmo 4Kb" by The Black Lotus with 260 points
2. "EQ 4K" by The Black Lotus with 218 points
3. "DMA Design" by Rednex with 102 points
4. "Depth 4K" by Depth with 102 points
5. "4K Intro" by Contraz with 72 points
6. "Fade to Black" by Giants with 67 points
7. "ARRGH!" by Hoaxers with 62 points
With the passing of time, many things have changed and just like most other scene parties, even the Gathering had to adapt itself to the new times. For an instant, let us abandon ourselves to sweet memories such as when our beloved Amiga was the only undiscussed protagonist of the competitions scenario. How many would have thought that years later, a considerable PC scene movement would have done their overpowering appearance? How many of you would have thought that years later a nostalgic A500 contest would have been inserted in the main program? Many PC sceners complained about the fact that no 286 or 386 nostalgic compo was arranged, maybe insinuating how the organizers are still too much Amiga-tied. 
"The A500 has a history with a standard reference. It's not so on the PC, since it's difficult to do a standard reference frame. I would like to see a 386sx 16, vanilla vga (64k) compo though"
, say the organizers.

Amiga 500 Nostalgia Demo Results


1. "Dansktop 7 Intro" by Surf Smurf of Rednex with 98 points
2. "Guru Intro" by Blunt of Chaos with 38 points

Actually, evident traces of neutrality in the organization team can be also found in the arranging of a curious "PC vs AMIGA fast intro competition". A strange idea that, according to what the organizers told us, was quite appreciated by the public. 
"All in all, the Amiga-PC war IS over. None of them won (and couldn't). The quality of the entries were widely spread to say it diplomatically. The theme IS more important than the result. Fast intros are made AT the party FOR the party and not for spreading afterwards. All the inside jokes are lost"
 Needless to say, the two winning entries were Amiga intros!

PC/Amiga Fast Intro Compo Results

Theme: Why is PC/Amiga better than Amiga/PC?

1. "Trekant Med Eli Rygg" by Sorrox with 205 points
2. "Intel Outside" by Birra Bros with 102 points
3. "Pese" by TLS with 51 points
4. "Fintro" by Rectum Cauda with 49 points
5. "Kvikk Lunsj" by Penix with 41 points
6. "Amiga.exe" by Braindead with 40 points
7. "Choose your weapon" by Tek of Neoscientists with 36 points
8. "Fast Intro" by Rectum Cauda with 30 points
9. "Innostalgy" by Enq of Deadnex with 27 points
10. "Hungry" by Primitivos with 15 points
11. "Fast" by The Imp with 11 points
12. "Fast" by Efface with 11 points

Last year's graphic competition had been rather disappointing compared to the usual Gathering standards, with Bridgeclaw of Gods winning the trophy thanks to a rather average picture. But this time, the graphic contest would be remembered like one of the most positive things of this particular edition: loads of entries and many of a remarkable quality. The entries were so many that 10 pictures received no votes at all! All three places of the podium were occupied by pictures, also found in the demo "Tint", with all artists belonging to the same group! A party record, maybe?

"Me and my little sister" by Louie was the picture that got most of the votes. The title says it all about the subject of this picture, which incidentally resembles TOO MUCH a real photograph. The first, the second and the third impression is that, it is much probably scanned. Louie has surely worked out with his hands on some parts of this picture, but sincerely there are a lot of details leaving us perplexed of the fact that everything has been done without any hardware help. The opinion of Danny is also very doubtful; 
"My very personal opinion is a bit mixed. In the past Louie has done some things that an artist shouldn't be supposed to do. That's why I look at the picture with some sort of mixed feelings. I never doubt that a picture like that should be scanned. It's very possible that it's hand-drawn, because I know from my own personal experiences, but I have seen the original photo and it is almost the same... Though I think that Louie did a marvellous job, I would have liked to see some more of himself in the picture..."


Second came "Paradise", another 'a la Boris Vallejo' picture by Facet (supposedly in collaboration with Rubberduck). Amazing pixel work, a naked woman is always good to collect votes in a party contest, but we are sure that many sceners would like to see this scene legend, trying to release pictures with more original motifs. "Blitz" by the very talented Rodney did probably deserve something more than the third place, especially because here, we have no doubts that the whole picture was hand-drawn. The choice of the palette is very good and even amazing is the strong contrast between the lips and the face of the portrait woman. Another fine idea was the use of a shadow, to hide the hair and avoid some more working hours!
Graphics Competition Results


Me and my little sister by Louie of TBL (114 points)
Paradise by Facet & Rubber Duck of TBL (76 points)
Blitz by Rodney of TBL (67 points)
Knock-out by Nero of GRT (47 points)
Joachim IFF/LBM? by Joachim of Melon (39 points)
Frankie.lbm by Kowtow of Orange (38 points)
Vrfl! by TMK of INF (34 points)
Scorupco by TmX of C-Lous (29 points)
Ballerina.AGA by Boo of Talent (28 points)
Genialt Bilde by Sauron of Scoop (27 points)
The Inder by Jogeir of Pornos (23 points)
Sunface by Nirvana of Contraz (22 points)
"Defeat of Doubt" by Vic (21 points)
X-Files2.jpg by Kjelke of Sensation (20 points)
Goahoene by Kaiowa of Sorrox (17 points)
Ideal Attribut by Frame of C-Lous (16 points)
Snowman by Curler of Promotion (13 points)
Vikingskip by Castor Fiber Pri'mas of Digital Angels (13 points)
Nine Tongues by PIX of Iris (12 points)
Pool of Glory by Twaddler of Proxima (12 points)
Hjemme hos Kjell Magne by Samson of Spaceballs (11 points)
Ugly As Hell by Cpt. Chaos of Digital (11 points)
Pendor by Accipiter & Feline of YiffNet On Tour (10 points)
Leguana by Bridgeclaw of Gods (10 points)
Born In Anarchy by Psycho of di^cAL^fUN^HMR^ORG (9 points)
Maxwec.gif by LEKRIST of Dr. Dyregod & Kompani (8 points)
Dust by Mental of Overflow (8 points)
Hidden Faces by Mr. Phoenix (8 points)
Conan_Selfcolorization by TWB-BIT of Giants (8 points)
Miika Tysonen by Zack of Giants & X (7 points)
Boba by Rzb of Xenogenesis (6 points)
House of Usher by Chrono of Surprise (6 points)
Elg Abstract by Bakerman of 28-GXR-MIG-BANGE! (6 points)
Fisken Frode by Cheetah of Ephidrena (6 points)
Kylling by Credex of Proxima & Sublogic (6 points)
Loudspeaker by Castor Fiber Pri'mas of Digital Angels (5 points)
Modern Art by Duanc Divel (5 points)
Sunchild by Atom of Salmon Design (5 points)
Room with a View by Wangar of Sub-DNA (4 points)
Cap by Moho of CapCore Graphics (4 points)
Demon by Lord Redrom of Necro Coitus (3 points)
"Bare For E Delta" by Candyman of Necro Coitus (3 points)
Greta the Cyborg by Stardust of C-Lous (3 points)
Hedgehog 2 by Xzemercziz & Xonik of LED (3 points)
Yig by Leon (3 points)
Soundwaves by Isaac of Banana Dezign (3 points)
The Gargs by Thomas Kjeldahl Nilsson (3 points)
Meneformxrkelse by Curr Cool of 28-GXR-MIG-BANGE! (2 points)
Ghost by Quak of Overflow (2 points)
Blues by Not (2 points)
Passage by Phase of Spaceballs (1 point)
Isolation by Superted of Grotesticle (1 point)
Drill by Dran of Contraz (1 point)

A separate music competition was arranged by the organizers for both the main musical formats, but unluckily, the complete results of the four channel contest were lost by the organizers because of a HD crash! As one should imagine, it is difficult to comment something when the various ranks are not at disposition, and especially when most of the modules were not spread fully after the end of the party. However, it seemed to our ears that the overall quality has been slightly better than last year's competition, where the first prize went in the hands of an average ex-aequo duo, Syntex of Stone Arts and Superted of Grotesticle. Entries by Some1 & Morrow of C-Lous, Isak & Kristian of Banana Dezign were of a remarkable quality, but still the general tendency by most of the musicians was to take advantage of the generous size limit of 800K and present big sampled-tunes with no melody at all. To underline the participation of Jogeir of Scoop: there have been voices about his departure from the Amiga scene and instead, the Norwegian wizard entered both music competitions, maybe giving us, one of his very last four-channel tunes.