River's Edge Niezależne i niekomercyjne piśmiennictwo, muzyka, reportaże, wywiady, strefa retro i 8-bit.
Another, 3rd edition of Satellite party took place on 4th to 5th of November 2000 in Szczecin’s Slowianin club. I, H.M.Murdock had the honour to came on this multiplatform party, which can be a little surprise after that I didn’t arrived to North Party 6. This year edition of the party was co-organized by people from Norway, hence the name of the party got expanded into Satellite 2000 & Kindergarden. Polish side was represented by the group Appendix. Together the party was visited by more than 100 people, but the local media announced the exaggerated number of about 350 people. These one hundred people were represented by plenty of Amiga freaks, unknown amount of PC users and only few Commodore people, which as usual presented to a wider audience, what C64 can do.
Everything started on saturday’s morning. Spider came to my house with a ton (literally) of hardware, even I had to help him to carry the monitor. After him TKK arrived by his car and we packed up inside and went to the party place. After paying the entrance fee of 30 Polish zlotych and singing the idents, we went into a main haill, which was already a couple of Amiga people. After location of the proper place we started to connect the hardware which met with a lively interest from party peple. To satisfy their cravings we showed them some demos for the beginning. By the occasion Fenek/Arise welcomed us and he was also the first man from C64 scene on the party place (party at 8 AM and we came at 11 AM).
After some time Jackobe/Oxygen64 came and I had the opportunity to talk with him about bothering me themes. But we didn’t talked so long, because Jackobe wasn’t willing to chat. When the Amiga freaks dissipated from our place, Galy/Tropyx arrived and in the meanwhile the organizers arranged crazy compo for some song… They were shouting so much bringing the headache with this. We’ve been sitting, Jackobe was discussing with Fenek about coding and I talked with Galy. In the afternoon finally we’ve been able to show what C64 can do. We got the access to the big screen and Spider started to show the demos. By the way let me mention that the bigscreen was made from a big white hanged sheet and everything was displayed by the projector connected to PC (perhaps). On the first shot it came Deus Ex Machina! Amiga freaks naturally be admired and mostly the bodyguard which even has the C64 but he lost the source of stuff in 1998 and he didn’t saw the newest works. Everything was complemented with a really good system, which got confirmed by my friend TKK, who listens only to .sid files. Next came other demos: +H2k, Mathematica, Digital World and few more. The most ineresting was while showing Plush demo, when the guys from operating the audio and video equipment got joked with a effect of crashing the screen in the demo! We wanted yet to show also Pijak Potrafi, but I couldn’t find the disc with this demo. By the way I met Sebaloz/Lepsi De, who actually arrived to the party place. Finally one guy told, that we have to break up the projection, because there were neeed to make another crazy compo… Oh well. But what was happening during our „attack” was just a buzz!
Time was passing by, competitions got moved one hour later so being out of boredom I’ve joined to relocate one C64 zak. Operation got finished well. Next one I didn’t relocated. With such a big noise it’s not possible to work. By the way I’ve learned from Fenek about more interesting things, mainly about Pijak Potrafi demo. Somewhere around 6 PM (perhaps) arrived (slightly) delayed Data with his C64, which brought happiness not only for us, but also for the guys selling the entrances. But before Data came, one Amiga freak joined us with his hardware. Next Data barely connected his hardware, because there wasn’t free plugs anymore and even I turned out the power for everyone accidentally :). The last man from our scene was so-called c1t0z, who has both C64 and Amiga. I’ve quickly acquainted with him. With Data of course too.
Finally the time has come for the competitions. For the first fire came stuff from Amiga people, perhaps in 4-channel Amiga Music compo. Now I don’t remember exactly because I’m writting this report 1 month after the party. But this is not important now. I can only say that it was only a crap. Time has come for C64 Music Compo. Here Zak Compo and Reflextracker Compo wasn’t separated, like it happens on North Party. Simply everything fits into one category. I had the honor to bring 2 works from Hank. Because the organizers owned C128D, hence Data got his C64 and he played the tunes on him. Total 5 works got issued. In Graphics C64 Compo only Spider gave his two works, but they got not classified, because for the rank there were needed minimum amount of 3 works for one compo. Here comes the results of Msx Compo:
2. Reiter „Dusty Vinyl”
3. Hank „Exit”
4. Data „Blow2”
5. Data „Contrast Zak”
Mostly I liked zak from Hank „Exit”, but this is not so important. Next probably came some Intro Compos. Our group left soon Sebaloz. Good, that I was in time to talk with him. He turned out as a nice person (like Fenek). I was planning to go back to my home and come back on the morning, but I’ve decided to sleep on the party place. My sister (as I was with her) decided finally to come back to home, so I, Data and c1t0z went to see off her for the bus. Earlier, around midnight came one poor DJ and started to play pseudo techno music, from which we together with Data laughed alot. Whole night belonged to us which we spent on talking. I’ve learned a little bit Data how to code and even Jackobe joined us, who around 6 AM said goodbye to us. Spider and Fenek slept well. After DJ performance long awaited Demo Compo has started, which they didn’t surprised me with anything. All demos were less natural, dull in one word.
On the morning awarded a prize for Amiga guys in one competition, which was… 286 main board with the little hammer for destruction! The desctrucion went really blocky, which got confirmed by the broken hammer. By the way I got hit with a chip in my leg (exactly it was a Cache memory). After breaking the hammer, Amiga people was trying to break up the mainboard using legs, but it was going very hard and after some attempt they finally made it. After 8 AM I, Data and c1t0z went out from the party place to visit Shapie (Hi!). Next Data came to the train station and I together with c1t0z went to my place, where appeared next presentation of opportunities from C64, by which c1t0z stated that there is no such a music on Amiga, like there is done on C64! Especially it was about Taxim music. I’ve even opened my C64 to show him the sample booster.
And that would be the end of the report from Satellite 3.0. About the results I got known few days later from Spider, who left on the party place till the end (no matter one hour in this on that direction). The price for C64 Music Compo was Amiga 500! But Spider sold her to Galy, because he wasn’t able to get her to the home. I don’t want to speak about it publicly, but I think that Hank should get that prize. Moreover I will note, that Reiter’s sampling made the greatest sensation among Amiga people, which they every moment was comming to us and asking, where they will get it in .d64 format! We even borrowed a disk with this sampling to one of them! Actually I can’t accept this report as completely full. Sorry for any mistakes. It’s not possible to remember everything. Now only left the opinion. I judge this party (actually first in my life) on the average, for sure it wasn’t bad at all. Maybe if there would be more people… (local persons failed about that).
For the party arrived: Fenek, H.M.Murdock, Spider, TKK, Gały, Jackobe, Sebaloz, Data, c1t0z and my sister. Hardware: 2 x C64 (Spider & Data) + 1x 1541 from TKK. Also C128D from organizers, few Amigas and some PC…
I hope that this report reflected a little view of the party for the people who didn’t came on it.
H.M.Murdock/Tx/Oxg64/Draco/Lsr
This is my first computer party report. I wrote it in December 2000 using a Commodore 64 and an article editor for Hot Style disc magazine that was to be published by Draco group. The report was not released until the launch of this website. Years later, it finally appeared in the first issue of Hot Style, published since 2014 by Tropyx Draco groups. I treated the original content with minor punctuation corrections and also added two photos by Bloodman and Emers.
While trying to recall Satellite 2000, I remember that I was overwhelmed by the fact of being at a party related to the computer scene for the first time and at the same time terrified by the general view of the drunken crowd of sceners wandering around Słowianin Club. An interesting fact is that only after 6 years I got access to the photo archive and this way I could see how many people were present at this party that I had the honor to meet at subsequent parties. Flannel shirts, lush bangs, young faces… The tear now turns into the eye. An Amiga fan fascinated with Reiter’s sample was Quantor, who then came to us asking for a copy of the file. I have the most pleasant memories of a sleepless night full of coders’ disputes and at the same time I regret that I did not participate in the previous editions of the Satellite party.
English translation of this report I made on 16th of January 2010.