North Party 8 – 1-3.08.2003 in Warsaw [report]

Eight edition of Polish Commodore 64 party took place at the Student’s House held in Warsaw on the first three days of September. The party place was simply a discotheque room with separated bar, where the people could buy the beer etc, which was opened from 6 PM till 3 AM. There wasn’t special sleeping room, but we can hired an extra rooms for sleep for some bunch of money. The loudspeakers was the worst part of the party hardware. The bigscreen looks nice, but they arrived on the party few hours after the start.

Party started on the 1. September exactly on the midday. Me, Kyno, Blemish, Data, Cobra and MacArthur was the first persons, who arrived on the party place, we were before the organizers! One day earlier Data arrived into my place, and we together with Kyno & Blemish traveled in the night by the train. At 6 AM we was in the Warsaw, where Cobra was waiting for us. She got us into the MacDonald and she gave to us the identificators and she started “Fractal Meaeting #2”.

We had some things to do, first was the gfx compo, where we had to paint some graphics on the little part of the paper. That first compo won Kyno, I was third. Second compo was about running inside the MacDonald, where cameras was available :). That competition won Blemish. Third compo was the demo compo where only I and Data took part. We had to show the demo. The winner was me. Fourth compo was about building the tower from the matches. The winner was Kyno. Another compo was the game compo where we had to show some heroes from the C64 games. Once again I was the winner. Next MacArthur joined us with his photo camera and 4 plates (he used 3 from them) and he showed beer with the label “Elysium”.

Next we left the MacDonald’s place and went into the park with the fountains, where Cobra started with the last compo: music compo. All the others except MacArthur took part with it. I was the winner and I’ve got the special price: harmonica! We decided to go into the station, because Galy had to arrive from his town. In the middle of our trip MacArthur took picture of Data jumping into the fountain. That was the special compo, for which Data got extra price – some western bill. Galy didn’t arrived at that time, so we decided to go into the party place.

It was about one hour before the start. So we had to wait for the organizers. Finally Elban arrived with some bunch of hardware and with Fenek of course. After entering the discotheque room the organization of the whole party was started. The first one, who arrived after us was Reiter. Cobra, Kyno, Blemish, Reiter connected theirs C64, Data connected his Commy. Another persons arrived on the party: V0yager, Navigator, Asterion (new musician on the scene), Aristo with which I had great talking. After some hours some next sceners arrived, another organizers too (Prezes, Black Light). And finally the big screen was installed.

The organizers released their first issue of polish papermag called “Jad Kielbasiany” (The Sausage’s Venom), but the price for them was to taste the little part of the Polish sausage. I met some cool guys like Volcano & Bedrich. And still I was coding the greetings part for my trackmo, which I wanted to release on that party. On the party arrived famous Longhair with his 2 little childs! That childs wasted his C64, so he now uses the laptop :).

In the late evening the crazy compos was carried on. The first compo was the music compo where Prezes played 20 different C64 tunes and rest of the sceners had to write the correct author on the votesheet. I was close the bigscreen and I listened the tunes and I tried to realize the correct authors. First tune was bugged (without one channel), so I reported this for Prezes. Third song was mine, so I was so wonder :). The price for this compo was the one special red cartridge for C64 called “Power Cartridge”. I won this compo with the 10 correct answers!

Second crazy compo was called “losowka compo” (random compo). Elban held the digital photo camera, which was connected into PC and the sceners was getting the photo but they had to shake their heads, so the photos was very random and they looks so funny! Whole room had more fun! I was the first one, who have got the random photo after the Prezes test photo. Both crazy compos was very cool, great compos! It was very late and I was so tired so I went to sleep. I tried to sleep embracing with the loud sounds from the C64 demos and sceners talking.

 

Next day I woke up very early. So I decided to prepare the stuff for the party. I showed some tricks in Basic for Cobra. Next I came back to sleep. When I raised, I decided to continue my work with Data on our trackmo. In the free time I was talking for example with the Warlock about Hardcore music. It was very stuffily on the party place. Some of the sceners went into theirs places, because some of them was from the Warsaw. They came back on the party. On the big screen was showed more C64 demos of course from the real commy. Sometimes Prezes played some songs from PC, but it was very rarely. Elban was completing the squad for the soccer compo, and after some hours, when the stuffily wasn’t so hard like earlier, some group of sceners went into the special sports field, where they played two matchs. I was coding the stuff on the C64, so I wasn’t able to being there.

In the evening I met Rabbi, who found the special price (100 Euro) for msx compo. Finally the whole C64 competitions was started. While all the compos I was coding and that was very tired for me… First was msx compo where was presented 19 from 22 tunes. 3 of them didn’t worked due of Prezes unskillfully of using Action Replay. All of the tunes wasn’t so extra like in the past. My favourite tune was the CreamD’s tune (which of course I’ve met on the party!). He got from me extra 10 points, because his tune sounds for me very similarly to Arman tunes :). Next was 4K intro compo. Nothing special. Fairlight work was nice to see but it wasn’t so great. We had more laugh from the two Logan’s works. One of them was disqualified, that second should be too because of the large amount of bytes.

Next was the graphic compo (only 9 pictures). Whole works wasn’t so special. The Spider’s gfx was very impressive, but they look good on the bigscreen only… After this we had Reflextracker compo. My work was played very quiet and it sounded very bad. Next was the demo compo. Viper of Lasser released his trackmo, where most of the work was done on the emulator. Before showing this demo I was running with my unfinished trackmo for the Prezes. I was in the time! Prezes showed firstly D.N.A. demo by Lasser. Demo wasn’t bad at all but it had some bugs and wasn’t with the special design and it had one part used earlier in the 2 first demos by Lasser.

Next it was showed my trackmo. Sadly the demo crashed up on the one gfx :(((. Prezes asked the sceners for play the demo once again. And he started to show my trackmo second time when I arrived with the first trackmo version. Prezes gave to me the microphone and I told about my trackmo, that they are without greetings part and end part. Demo works properly, but it was unfinished. I’ve got back my discs and I told to Prezes, that my trackmo will be soon release in the full version. I was so tired and sweaty cause of my work… And especially psychically tired…

The last compo was the VHS compo, where was showed one work by Bumelant (one guy out of scene). Second VHS by Warlock didn’t worked cause of problems with the Video. After this was presented 2-SID music by Data and our little demo – fake :). I’ve forgot about this, that in the middle of the competitions was presented old but fresh gfx editor called Pentel Paint. The graphics looked very impressive! After all the organizers (Elban and Prezes) started to count the votes. They gave some votesheets to us for count. I counted 7 votes together with the Navigator.

Next the results was presented on the bigscreen using Excel. Most of the sceners were sleep or wasn’t there. The results was very wonder, the winner of the msx compo was Bzyk, 4K won Fairlight, Reflextracker compo won Reiter who presented non Reflextracker digitalization. Demo compo won Lasser and finally Gfx compo won one guy from the western scene, which work was the only signed in the competitions. I received the price for the crazy compo and the party was simply over…

After some time I met guys from Arise playing very loud on the Piano! So I joined them and it was very nice. Data had horrible wake up :(. After that event I stayed lonely upon the piano and I played some melody. Next Browar joined me and we played together some cool sounds! When the most sceners left the party scene, me and Data helped with the cleaning the party place. The organizers needed to pay for the 4 wasted chairs. I came back to my home together with the Data by the train where we had some nice talking and watching some nice girls :).

North Party 8 – photo gallery:

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Whole party was very cool for me, all the readers must know that the scene is not only computer… Greetings to all C64 sceners, which I’ve met on that party! Thanx for cool meeting!

Murdock/Tropyx/Draco