The Alternative Party 2003

mkoskimi writes "The fourth consecutive Alternative Party is arranged this weekend (Friday to Sunday) in Helsinki, Finland. As before, we expect up to 300 people joining this round-the-clock event, bringing along all kinds of weird machines (previous times have seen a Magnavox Odyssey, a M6800 Evaluation Kit II and the Vectrex). It's not yet another retro computer show though; there will be Competitions, artists and our guest of honour, Jeff Minter! There be llamas here..."

Comments

Demo Scene

[KDan]

I'm always amazed at the skill displayed in all those demos. I used to try my hand at some assembler programming back in the days, but boy, those people have genius. Recently I even went to a small rave and they had lots of big plasma screens in the club with what was clearly demo stuff running... it was really, really cool :-) .

I wonder how they do it now, anyone know? Do they still run DOS to have access to all the intricacies of the hardware?

Respects to them, in any case.

Daniel

Re:Demo Scene

[Anonymous Coward]

My favorite was when a C64 demo-group "ported" the PC demo "second reality" by future crew to the commodore C64. That was amazing!

I think it's downloadable at www.scene.org under C64, think it was in 1995-1998 somewhere. Of cause you also need a good C64 emulator like CCS64.

Demos

[Noodlenose]

I remember downloading and running a 3 minute demo on my Amiga 2000 that wasn't only mindbogglingly beautiful to look at but also had the coolest EBM-soundtrack you could imagine. Size of the file: 16kb

Bloody amazing...

Will there be a return of the mutant camels?

Demo Scene DVD

[Duds]

No, I'm not connected with these guys.

But this is just such an obviously cool product I had to flag it. A load of guys have done a 4 hour plus DVD-Video of Demos running on the machines that ran them best. Everything from 1990-2001, including (of course) 2nd reality.

I got it on release day and it's superb, even with easter eggs and original music from demo artists for the menu.

http://www.mindcandydvd.com

For corporate use

[Dexter77]

The company I work for ordered a demo from one of the demogroups. It was displayed on a wide screen plasma-tv with hifi speakers at popular trade show. It was like a magnet for the customers. Most of the customers had never seen anything like it before and they stood there for minutes just staring and blinking their eyes.

The demo cost only few hundred euros because it was made by teenagers. But the quality was way above anything what we would've got from a design office for thousands of euros. I sincerely recommend everyone in a management position to use the skills of these democoders.

going there.

[gl4ss]

though my hardware that i'm taking isn't exactly computer related, i'm just taking my(i'm supposed to be fixing it, which i guess i did already but i can't know for sure since i don't have tapes for it) grundig tape player(NOT c tape player, this one has tubes and all, and jury rigged line in, for hooking up to c64/lpt-dac whatever). pics are at here

and then i'm taking my camera, 'canon still video camera', that saves the stills on a video floppy disk(kinda hard to find them, the video is afaik saved in straight analog form on the disks too.). 50 bad or 25 better(interlaced) pics per disc.
a piece of totally pointless technology :P.

one irc-friend is bringing an alpha..

still, the more important thing is the people.. as this doesn't lure 14y cs 'vets'... too bad it's a little too cold for the right style scene bonfire outside(i don't know though if theres even proper forest near enough for it, no sense making it somewhere where you can drive because coppers are sure to come and put it out.)

Jeff Minter

[oliverthered]

Jeff Minter used to live just around the corner from me(when I was about 5!), I still at the same place, I don't think he does any more (haven't seen him down the pub?)

Talley is a small town right, out in the countryside , next to the Aldermaston Nuclear establishment (The reactors probably less than a mile from my house, he says radiantly). I should imagine the radiation contributed to the llama fetish.
well that's my claim to fame.

Jeff Minter

[Cally]

Jeff's a rather strange chap. There's a reason why his blog used to be called "Yak's Zoo"... that said, I've been reading his ramblings since the late 80s (when he first got an Apple and started producing a newsletter - I especially remember his lengthy description of hiking up Machu Pichu at dawn *soley* to watch the sun rise whilst listening to Pink Floyd on his Discman...

A shame that the relaunch of Llamasoft doesn't seem to have taken off. Anyone else remember Psychedelia? I was into that long before I even *saw* a spliff...