River's Edge Niezależne i niekomercyjne piśmiennictwo, muzyka, reportaże, wywiady, strefa retro i 8-bit.
Even oldest highlanders nor any fairy with David Copperfield on top, wouldn’t being able to predict events which occurred during 5th edition of Stary Piernik – Polish Commodore 64 scene meeting organized by Arise group. This event got planned for weekend 23-25th of April 2010 and met with quite big interest from sceners who presented themselves in a total number of eighteen persons. Few persons were missed, for example famous Turbosnail or Kordiaukis, who got stopped from a travel by damage of his car.
I’ve started my journey to Torun on Sunday morning at 6:15 AM, going firstly by a bus at Szczecin Dabie. There I bought some food in a Spolem shop and went to nearby train station. Punctually at 7:19 AM arrived 3-carriage TLK train from Szczecin to Przemysl which luckily wasn’t too much crowded. I got to him and I located in one of compartments of an 0ldsk00l carriage dated for 1988 year.
Second train in which was traveling Data/De-Koder/Tropyx got connected to mine in Krzyz. However because of locked doors between two carriages we had to welcome us at station in Trzcianka. Onward journey was fulfilled with traditional stories and memories, during which we’ve also exchanged by new ideas about further Tropyx productions :).
We came to Torun close before 1 PM and directly from a train station we went to “Tramp” camping direction. When we came to the target place, to our eyes appeared heavily “tired” Black Light accompanied with Barman and Gorzalek Ochlalek. It looked like planned for Friday Russian roulette with a high percentage alcohol was carried out with an unique effect :). Interesting was also the fact, that on the meeting appeared for a moment Leming, who came to Poland perhaps for someone’s wedding and he was one and only person which I couldn’t meet this weekend.
Inside of house at which our conversation took place, morning review of demos with Luke, Fenek, Bimber and Wacek was going on. We looked inside and therefore welcomed the team. Bimber gave us a cardboard where were located idents to choose in a form of… tie with printed logo of meeting! I must say that it was another unique solution, unprecedented in any of other Commodore parties (for those ones, who doesn’t remember – one year ago idents were C64 keyboard dust covers :).
I chose one along with Data and next we took the decision of going to nearby pizzeria. When we came back to campground we welcomed other sceners (eLBAN, Provee, Kisiel, V0yager and Willy) and in the background were doing works to prepare the location to watch demos in the fresh air. Sheet was used as a big screen and it was connected by a pins to the beams supporting the roof of one of camping houses 🙂 and the sound system was a 5.1 speakers system provided by Luke.
At the campground even Police came and made one circle which met with interest from sceners. Wacek soon launched his laptop and made available to everyone who wanted to write some text in real time. In meantime Black Light organized small cars on batteries race. To the fight stood eight persons who competed in the first round in pairs and they had to pass the distance of several meters. The route resembled a slalom on which the end was located dustbin which we had to circle and return back to the start line.
As the first in the battle stood Bimber and Kisiel. We had a lot of fun! Bimber finally won the first round. Second pair was Fenek (who during the race took a proud poses and he was drinking beer ostentatiously) and Provee (future winner). When on the start stood Wacek and Willy, unexpectedly joined to the battle… eLBAN with his limited two-wheeled vehicle! Race turned on into one great comedy, which is too hard to describe with the words :). The winner of this battle was Willy, however first on the finish line came two-wheeled car :). Last pair was me and V0yager which was slightly better than me. In meantime eLBAN was trying to make a slip of my car on the road by simulate spilled oil on the track, which role played beer :).
In final fight the winners of all semifinals took the part for which joined owner of field two-wheeled vehicle :). In meantime at meeting appeared Grabba accompanied with wife and daughter Maja. Race was going on very well and it was so fierce that in the final relapse eLBAN’s car lost the wire of engine power :). At the finish line first came Bimber, slightly being ahead of V0yager at the end of the race. Both were awarded with special wireless toy cars for which unfortunately 9-volts batteries were missed.
Another interesting event was presentation of opportunities of Sound Expander on Commodore 64 which brought with himself V0yager. Also Kaossilator was turned on (a modern toy for making music in real time), which sample of ability was presented by Willy. I sat behind the wheel of C64 and started to operate Sound Expander. By the way we tested with Willy possibility of playing together using Kaossilator and it was really an interesting experience.
Despite the relatively sunny weather, the cold began to scorch us more. When the sun came out on the horizon on the big screen the demos started to be played (firstly they were productions from Amiga played live from Youtube) and in meantime behind the wheel of Commodore 64 sat Maja. Writting various texts went her very well which ended up with my declaration that after some years she will be able to join my group :).
Finally the time has come for competitions, which like one year earlier, was performed in one shared category. As first one was played Surgeon’s tune and next one was from V0yager who actually went to the toilet :). Next the audience (being in complete at big screen) could watch 3 graphics by Wacek, Bimber and JSL. After them graphics collection Anomaly/Draco was showed, which personally I’ve been coding and brought to meeting. Stylistically and thematically different fullscreens and logos by Lobo attracted the eye of sceners for another few minutes.
At the end unexpectedly was presented new demo by Arise group, titled Pro Memoria 3 (96%). Main theme of this production was slogan „The Demo That Wasn’t There” which meaning we came to understand just after the presentation. Production was kept in dynamic, classic Arise style: unpredictable effects, great design and electrifying Wacek music. Telling about this in one sentence it was something which was missed on Polish C64 scene since many years. Whole thing was crowned with picture by TSL with leading theme taken from Thunderdome (man in a red dress, holding his hands drawn up) and signature “ave, c64 scene”.
Demo got a thunderous applause and just after him came Bimber hidden after the big screen, holding 5’25 disc in his hand. Then feel memorable and historical words from his side: “I would like to say something. This is one and only copy of this demo. This demo wasn’t here.” After which he went to… campfire. Nobody was in the time to stop him and soon demo was burned in flames and audience was filled with different mood. Some of them applauded, others couldn’t believe in what happened…. One of most surprised persons was Fenek who was wondering, from where Wacek and Bimber got his old, not published effects. For a long time after competitions people discussed about this unusual event which Commodore 64 scene previously never seen. Explaining the doubts Bimber said that demo was made for all people who just came for meeting and with a pleasure could see something which was done only for them. More sceners was telling the words of admiration, for example V0yager who said that it was worth to come here and see something which will never see again.
When the emotions felt down, most of us gathered around campfire to warm, also eating dubious quality of sausage. Next mini-tournament of playing with International Soccer was organized in which took part Bimber, me and eLBAN. The last one mentioned was beating us without an obedience and Bimber lost his battle with score 1:3 and me with 0:2 :). First fight was really funny, because thanks to inefficient joystick one of players was moving like he got convulsions and being also paralyzed :).
I’ve played with Fenek also with Bombmania and Creatures II and at the end I recalled good old times at Flimbo’s Quest game :). In meantime most of people went to their camp houses, also main organizers did the same (Bimber got carried by a barrow), leaving for me and Black Light some works related with hiding all hardware to our house. The last event which is worth to mention was coding fractal by Fenek which looked like he was dressed in nightdress :). It happen quite for an eLBAN’s calling who few minutes earlier said that meeting without puking is not a meeting ;). Until 2 AM took different discussions near campfire and finally being very tired we went to the houses for a well deserved rest. The night was terribly cold and I had the desire to fall asleep by the fire :).
On the morning Wacek woke me up who came to pick up the hardware to his car. Further attempts of taking a nap didn’t succeed well so after 9 AM I got out of bed and decided to take pictures of a mess and still hanging big screen. Since everyone was still sleeping I couldn’t say goodbye to anyone and went to the lonely trip back. In front of me was a few hours travel by 2 local trains to Szczecin direction with a change in Poznan.
At the end I would like to thanks to everyone for amazing climate and mood, to Black Light for organize car racing, to Bimber and Wacek for prepared surprise in a form of a great demo, to Willy and V0yager for sharing with Sound Expander and Kaossilator for some tests and to Data for a joint trip at meeting. By the way I would like to send greetings to Maja, which I wish of further development of talent in writing on Commodore 64. Stary Piernik 5 will remain in my memory as the event on which I was one of few witness of something which I will never experience for a second time.
Stary Piernik 5 – photo gallery:
Thanx to Data, Bimber, V0yager and Willy for taking some pictures 🙂
V-12/Tropyx
Szczecin, 26.04.2010
tary Piernik 5 – Open Compo Results:
01. Starmate – Surgeon/Vulture Design/Tropyx /zak
01. Old Fogey Tramp Camp – V0yager/Tropyx /zak
01. Chix Dig Dat – Wacek/Arise /graphics
01. Dirty Hardkor Pixels – Bimber/Arise /graphics
01. The Last Samurai – JSL/Covenant/Protovision/Tropyx/ROLE /graphics
01. Anomaly/Draco /graphics collection
01. Pro Memoria 3 (96%)/Arise /demo (trackmo)
Party people decided that every entry took ex-aequo first place.
Stuff from Stary Piernik 5 you can find zipped here.