-------------------------------------------------------------- Assembly'99 multimedia festival report ...written by Agemixer + Brite-Lite/Scallop -------------------------------------------------------------- Hi, this is a report of the Assembly'99 party held 6th-8th Aug.1999 in Helsinki, Finland. This time the party place was Hartwall Arena (also known as Jaffa-hall), not in Helsinki Fair Centre where the party is always been held since 1994. There were competitions for PC, Amiga and C-64 platforms. This year the advance tickets were all sold out early in a summer in few days since the tickets were printed and available. SOME DAYS BEFORE THE PARTY... We was planning to release a demo for Assembly held this year, a big one, but it turned to be too late to complete this demo for Assembly'99. Before this i didn't promised to visit this party again due to the lameness of the previous Assembly parties... but this time i did the exception because my other groupmates were about to show up there. So, we planned a little demo in one week, some graphics and music for the compo, with an idea we do not let the C-64 to leave aside on this old and well-known party! I bought a ticket for a train. I haven't bought the advance tickets for Assembly yet because i was sure the tickets are also sold at the party entrance. This was my first time when i didn't take any heavy equipment like the computers with me. But i took some video projector cables and audio cables and other kind of misc stuff with me, guessing if there may be any need of use for them. This year i wanted to arrive early at the party place, because the C-64 compo deadline was planned to be early in a friday at 19:00, and the doors will open at 10:00 at Friday. Friday, 6th August - THE TRIP ----------------------------- I wake up at 5:00 at night. I take a train which leaves 06:37 and arrives at Pasila at 09:51. Pasila is a part of Helsinki where the Assembly parties are held. The railway station, Helsinki Fair Centre and Hartwall Arena are placed near to others in 200-600 metres. I partially got some sleep in the train. THE ARRIVAL ----------- I arrive at Pasila at 09:52. It is cloudy, but not raining... I meet two party newbies in the railway station, and we are searching for the shortest way to walk to the party place. No map is needed, the Hartwall building complex is enough visible for a target. Suddenly it starts raining! Cold water. I have no umbrella, macintosh or anything water-proof... And i am only wearing a cap, t-shirt and a college shirt, farmers, socks, shoes and a bagpack... The rain is getting colder, and all of us are getting wet. This must be the first time ever it is not sunny during the Assembly party! We arrived the party place doors at 10:15. There is a 40 meters long queue at the door! The doors are not yet open, so we have to wait a long time... We have to open a styrox sleeping pad over our heads, but it is too small, and feels like it is raining louder and all the rain flows over the edges to the neck! I think it is just good i didn't take any moisture sensitive machinery with me. We were waiting the doors open about a hour, outside in the rain. The clock is 11:00 and the rain gets quieten... And now the doors are open! But the queue is quite slow... I can see an organizer inside looking at us, just like like he was watching an aquarium from a screen, eating sugar jam fritter and coffee... they do seem to know the 1000 different ways how to tease the party people. Finally we reach the hall inside, and it stops raining... But I am 100% wet through by now... I buy a ticket, its price is 240 fim. Quite an expensive for a party. And now a female organizer commands us for inspection of possible booze and drugs foundation. All the equipment and full-body inspection. I don't know how the foreigners react on that, but i also feel quite naked, in front of all of those unknown incomers, boys and girls, having all my wet backbag, clothes and all the stuff spread front of the entrance door in a floor for check. But this is just a routine made for everybody who come in, it is familiar for all the old party freaks, hopefully the foreigners understood this... Friday, 6th August - INSIDE THE PARTY ------------------------------------- I take a look at the partyhall. It feels like it is a little bit bigger hall than the latest Assembly party halls which were held in Fair Centre. Because this is an ice hockey trough, it has more space in the auditorium chair areas, but the trough itself is a little bit smaller than the Fair Centre areas when taken a look of it at the squaremetres. There is already some PC freaks adjusting their machines in the trough area... I take a call for our groupmate, our DJ mate Flex/Scallop and Brite-Lite/Scallop. They are on a way to come soon. Brite-Lite said he will arrive the party at 13:00. I spend some time looking around the hall, when the people are adjusting their machines... I call Flex again... he has arrived the place. I can visit him near at the entrance, and food service... There he is! Hmm.. Because i haven't seen Flex live before, i have got a view of his voice he is a lot bigger guy with big shoulders like some of those organizers. :) But surprise, actually he is a standard size dude... The voice doesn't always seem to correlate the appearance.. :) There is a partynet registration for each party people who arrive in, so i have to go and queue a PC.. Again, what a system, i need to ask my 'Zepo number' from info desk first, then go to the PC with www-based registration form, write 15-20 lines of contact information, click ok, and then i get my 'Zepo ID', which i can use to upload my compo contributions to the party network to show them in the compos... Hmm? But how about this C-64 disk? I go and give the disk to the info desk, and ask for the C-64 compos, so i didn't need this Zepo ID anywhere... The clock is 13:00 now and Brite-Lite is coming. I am searching their table, (an advance table reservation system), and i find Brite-Lite with his C-64. We check out eachother's compo products to be released... I take a round at party hall, there were only Brite-Lite's C-64 and another one from a guy from BioProductions. Flex has found an old mate: Grendel/Byterapers. Flex is also an ex-member of Byterapers, but now he is a member of Artline Designs and also joined Scallop recently. They are chatting outside. I also go visit and greet Grendel. The clock is 17:00 and i heard the organizers didn't let Jer/Panic in! It was just because all the tickets are sold out. The organizers aren't allowed to print more tickets for the fire safety reasons... I meet Jer and the rest Panic crew at the door. Only Deetsay/Panic has the ticket, so he brings their demos for the compos. The other people were turned back from the entrance door and gone, but those C-64 guys were the only ones who still begged getting inside. It is real, think if you have travelled long way to visit this 'party'... AMJ/Byterapers, the organizer of the C-64 compos, is also waiting around the entrance door without ticket... Jer says this would be the first time if it reads in the big screen 'The C-64 compos are cancelled, the organizer was not let inside.' Back in the partyhall. We show some recent C-64 demos to some PC sceners around Brite-Lite's sixtyfour. Flex/Scallop came and says he visited a party sauna and they had some beer. Nice recreation while a party! Agemixer gets interviewed by a 'Multimedia' magazine. The organizers shows only some stupid advertisements, party rules (...in the series of: If you connect anything else to the power outlet but your computer equipment, you will be thrown from the party place) and AsmTV live at the bigscreen... And showed the Second Reality by Future Screw hundreds of times :) Back in showing the demos on sixtyfour. Let's show the C-64 Second Reality version... It seems the only C-64 by Brite-Lite gets the most of attention at the party place. :) The C-64 version should also be shown in the bigscreen in some time... Agemixer and Brite-Lite gets interviewed by AsmTV. Friday, 6th August - 23:00 C64 GRAPHICS COMPO --------------------------------------------- 'Kuva' Somewhat the name of this picture seems to be mistitled. It represents a very detailed, high resolution picture of a goddess by Debris/Panic. 'I can't play' This picture is also mistitled. It should read 'I can't fly' instead. It represents Tux, the Linux penguine, hanging on a twig which is grown on a precipice of a cliff. 'Lost Children' An interesting picture, representing a horrible face, a little girl and a black cross. 'Please Hurt Me' An SM-picture... The colours didn't look as they should in the graphic compo. The colours were distorted and the greyscales looked like more colourful than the other colours of the C-64! The organizers showed them on a video tape! (Please, throw the video recorder off between C-64 and video projector next time!!) Friday, 6th August - 23:30 C64 MUSIC COMPO --------------------------------------------- 'Starfall' A nice and compact tune by Brite-Lite Brite-Lites note: The tune wasn't even supposed to be in the compo. I was supposed to make another tune for the compo, but as I ran out of time I just took my tune from the Dekadence demo and put it in the compo... :) 'Desert Queen' A tune by Agemixer/Scl. Somehow it sounds like a Lizardking style. 'Jari Tyyli theme' An interesting tune by codehead. Very varying one, some interesting effects... 'Martinology' An awesome Galway-style tune by !Cube/Trm/Scs-Trc/Scl 'The Theme' A nice oldskool tune by Flex/ALD/Scl. 'music' A tune by Deetsay/Panic. Strange effects i say... 'Jensomania' A nice tune too! The music compo quality was quite good this year. But the sound quality was quite bad, because of the big hall, the echo was awfully loud. That also made an irritating 'ha-ha' sounding side-effect on sound peaks...and also some distortion. I think the Brite-Lite's tune was probably the only one that sounded quite clearly even though the inside-hall echo interference... A note for assembly organizing: Next time use two or few less decibels, so you get rid off the speaker distortion but it still sounds like it is equally loud. Just to avoid those side-effects... Saturday, 7th August - 00:30 C64 DEMO COMPO ------------------------------------------- Speedway 3 by Panic A long demo coded by Jer. Graphics by Debris and music by Deetsay. A vote-catcher demo, with ugly 8x8 effects and coded with a less effort, a poor design and some crappy animations which i can't get my eye with, what the animations are about to represent... It also included a vote-catching duck-animation... again.. The musics of this demo are quite strange... J.A.Q. by Scallop A short demo, Code, music and graphics by Agemixer (with very little coding-assistance from Brite-Lite), some graphics by Rooster. Another vote catcher demo, but with a better design and all the effects are synchronized. Quake logos everywhere... Woznak's jazz experience by Visac Hmm, interesting... A video animation demo of a orchestra playing jazz :) Beertime by Dekadence Probably a short greyscale demo from Brite-Lite, very fast effects, but too bad the projector doesn't show the colours correctly... Old Skool by BioProduction A very oldskool 'demo'... having 2 logos and a scrolltext below them. Hmm... it seems that was all about the C-64 compos...personally i am not satisfied with the bigscreen picture quality. They seemed to playback the C-64 compos from a video tape...! And the quality was not any good! Brite-Lite also wants to point out that the Dekadence demo was totally fucked up because of the crappy video-tapes... Saturday, 7th August - OTHER COMPOS ----------------------------------- The Amiga intros were shown twice, just for some minor bugging effects... Too bad they didn't do the same for C-64 with a better luck... Trauma was greeted in every PC-demos, it is not a miracle because Trauma did their winning demo last year... The average quality of PC demos was quite bad this year. They were simply out of ideas, and nothing revolutionary with the code anymore. There were some exellent and funny schemes at some animation and wild compos. Nothing big is happening at the party place... DRC is drawing his first logo at the party with C-64 at sixtyfour with Artstudio and a mouse. Agemixer and Brite-Lite are coding some oldskool demo effects at the party place. This is the first Assembly ever the compos seem to follow the schedule! I also noticed that all those PC demos worked 100% in the compos. Maybe a first time in the Assembly history... The live invitation of the side-happening, called Boozembly'99 is shown at AsmTV in the bigscreen. A huge amount of beer bottles... Agemixer takes some rounds in a partyhall, checking if there is some fellows around. Not much really, some younger in ages of 14-22, but not that young ones like the last year... Most of the people are leeching porn, adjusting their machines and cursing why the party network is down... In an order of amount: listening some today's hit music, irc'ing and chatting, browsing web, leeching porn, playing some quake clone games, and also playing the quake game... And just watching their 'empty' screens waiting for a network brings up again. I meet a few guys, who are composing music with a tracker and making some graphics at the party place. It is possible to compose music at the party place this year, because the organizers has set a noise limit. It is mentioned in the party rules, if you made some loudness, you were thrown out from a party place. I can't imagine how many people were really thrown out.. :) It was really a nice surprise that the soundlevel was this low. We only had a pair of "multimedia-speakers" attached to Brite-Lite's c-64 and we were still able to enjoy the demos with sound. Something that wouldn't have been possible last year! The todays hit song, 'Freestyler' by Bomfunk MC's ruled the party... hmm, i almost start composing an 8-speed 'Ass99 live' compo tune for C-64 of all those mixed Assembly noises... We noticed only 2 Amigas and 2 C-64's at the place! The other ones were clearly hundreds of PC machines, filling the whole party area. It seems there is about 4000 visitors this year, or something like that. The air in a party hall got more worse, hour by hour. It wasn't that bad we couldn't breathe it, but i felt very tired all the time... Sometimes we had to eat, though... There is no any orange juices, rusks, youghurt or anything that healthy sold in Carrolls at the party place, just some junk food like french potatoes and little hamburgers with coke... It really didn't leave my hunger and when i asked for milk, there were not any left. So i had to take coke... Drinking only a coke whole the party time made me almost ill! So we decided to visite a foodstuffs market nearby to buy some juices, fruits, and that kind of refreshing food, ahh! Another time, we go to a kebab restaurant at the railway station. I am the only who is buying an expensive Wien's cut (Brite-Lites note: I believe it's called Wienerschnitzel) of meat with 40 FIM, as the others bought portions in just 25 FIM.. We gone to sit and wait for the food. Ok, the portions came... Hmm, i am the only who haven't got the portion yet... maybe the keepers staying in the kitchen scratching their heads, what the heck did i mean with "Wien's cut of meat..!" :) But finally i got my portion, the others are already completed eating their meal... but FUCK, this is a BIG ONE! The food plate is large itself, but the Wien's hangs over the EDGES of the plate :)) The friends got envious... They believe this meal will really fulfill my stomach for the rest of the weekend! Sunday, 8th August - 15:00 PRIZE CEREMONY ----------------------------------------- I am a bit excited, we are waiting for the compo results... First the outdoor compos... and now the C-64 compos. First the C-64 music. Jari Tyyli theme got the 3rd place.. I got the 2nd place with the old 'Desert Queen' tune and 'Starfall' tune by Brite-Lite won the music compo. And now the graphics.. 'Lost children' by Brite-Lite got the 3rd place, Debris' picture got the second (this picture must have won in my opinion) and i got the first place. And again i am going to get the prize.. And the demo compo... 'Woznak's jazz experience' by Visac got the 3rd place.. our 'JAQ' contribution got the second.. and again we gone to bring the prizes. Abyss / Future Crew says "It seems the same guys won a prize of all the sixtyfour compos..." 'Speedway 3' by Panic won the first place in demo compo. The prize ceremony was shown live at AsmTV. It was shown live at bigscreen and Internet. Brite-Lite brought also 2 Amiga intros from a Russian group 'Extremes' with him to the Assembly, because the coders had no possibility to come... The another intro got the 2nd place and another one won the first place! Brite-lite is wearing a funny looking rubbish hot-weather hat... Brite-Lite: "Cuckoo there!" Abyss/FC: "Oh no... it seems to be the same guy again..." Aakko,the prize giver: "Here you are... take all the rest.. :)" So, Brite-Lite has brought a prize from 5 different competitions together now... So, we got some prices for now... but what kind of? The saldo of those C-64 compo prizes are like: a PC analogue joystick, some IBM internal software modems, an assembly t-shirt and that kind of stuff... Well... the sponsors doesn't seem to understand if there is a need for such a stuff in C-64 compos! Amiga mouse, a C-64 joystick, SCPU or that kind of stuff would be more useful.. Or then they could give plain hard cash as in the Amiga compos... So i have to try selling the unnecessary compo stuff i don't need there. Sunday, 8th August - LEAVING ASSEMBLY'99 AT 17:00 ------------------------------------------------- Some C-64 stuff could have been shown in the bigscreen, but they didn't... The compo machine were carried out quite early, either if there were any because the compos were shown in a video tape. The C-64 organizers was gone near to Boozembly. So, no other C-64 demos were shown.. What a pity, if it only was any question of the cables, i had all the possibly needed cables with me to show demos on the bigscreen. I have never visited the Boozembly side happening before, i think it is a worth to visit... Maybe next time at Boozembly'00! I start packing all my luggage. Everybody are about to leave the building. I walk to the Pasila railway station. It is not raining anymore, it is cloudy and sunny. But the weather has become colder. Assembly'99 is over now...and a way to go home. The firsties at Assembly has gained a lot of experience by now i guess. Everybody who visited the Assembly'99 before knows the feeling now. Quite exhausted, tired and dirty, and although there were a noise limit, the party noices still sound between my ears, as the traffic and railway noises got to sound quite melodical... --- The Assembly organizers waited for only 3000 people to visit, but almost 5000 people visited the party place. --- Jer and the guys were allowed to visit the compos and prize ceremony, because they participated the compos. --- C-64 compo results: C64 demo 1. 6299pt. Speedway 3 by Panic 2. 4073pt. J.A.Q. by Scallop 3. 2162pt. Woznak's jazz experience by Visac 4. 1979pt. Beertime by Dekadence 5. 989pt. OLD SKOOL by BioProduction 6. 0pt. Possu by Kommander Mausemann / Juhannus 99 Org C64 graphics 1. 6483pt. I cant fly by Agemixer / Scallop 2. 5323pt. Lorelei by Debris / Panic 3. 2742pt. Lost children by Brite-Lite / Dekadence+Scallop 4. 2472pt. Please Hurt Me by Statik 5. 0pt. testfest by Da Root! C64 music 1. 4345pt. Starfall by Brite-Lite / DKD+Scl 2. 2557pt. Desert queen by Agemixer / Scl 3. 2457pt. Jari Tyyli theme by codehead 4. 1787pt. Martinology by !Cube / Trm/Scs-Trc/Scl 5. 1730pt. The Theme by Flex / Scl+Ald 6. 1371pt. music by deetsay / panic! 7. 1163pt. Jensomania by AMJ / (B)+Side B For more information about the party, check out the offical Assembly www sites at www.assembly99.net and www.assembly.org The Assembly'99 C-64 products can be found at The Digital Dungeon at: ftp://ftp.scs-trc.net/pub/c64/parties/Assembly99/ ( For now there is some of the collected compo products uploaded into: http://www.scallop.c64.org/assembly99 ) List of all people known as C-64 sceners who visited at Assembly'99: AMJ/Byterapers TBB/Extend Grendel/Byterapers Dr.Dick/Byterapers Agemixer/Scallop Flex/Scallop Brite-Lite/Scallop+Dekadence Chaj/Dekadence Player One/Dekadence Jaffa/Dekadence Maza/Dekadence VDG/Vandals Alltiaice/Scs-Trc Visac/??? ???/Bio Productions Jer/Panic Debris/Panic Deetsay/Panic -------------------------------------------------------------- Assembly'99 multimedia festival report ...written by Agemixer + Brite-Lite/Scallop --------------------------------------------------------------