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                       ERROR IN LINE 2oo3 - PARTY REPORT
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The event we  all were waiting  for since months  finally came closer and in the
end it  happened faster  as many  of us  thought. So I didn't  had the chance to
prepare anything for competitions or  some stuff that  might have be released at
the party, lame sucker that I am...

...friday...

So I decided  to be as  early on  the party  as possible, but fucked up again...
After  getting up quite  early in the  morning, I  was finally  leaving my house
around 11 AM... Damn! So I  was tormenting  my car as  good as possible  to save
some time again... And thanx to the thick  oil I have filled  into my machine we
reached the  terminal velocity of 2oo+ km/h with my 12 years old hot rod without
bigger problems... to stuck into the next traffic jam some minutes later... arf!

Some old man tried to check out how stable my clutch is and I'm happy that I got
this one... so the hardware in my car survived without any damages. Some minutes
later I arrived at Dresden, drived around the blocks a bit and finally found the
location. Cool thing!

I entered the TUSCULUM, a  quite cool officers  mess, and  took a look around to
search  for the organizers. After I  got my name shield  I wandered around a bit
and found my place in the smokers area, arg! It was planned to put my place next
to FLASH's and FXL's, but FXL gave up smoking and so I changed the place as well
as I'm hanging on my  lung. In the  smokers room  the RESERVOIR GODS already had
occupied a long table and seemed to be quite active in coding and doing stuff.

This was the second biggest room, the biggest was the one, I took as destination
then. A very few people were already  around. There were two more rooms, such as
the entrance hall were 4 tables were build up for different reasons, one was for
the UCM REALTIME article (hint, hint), on another one the gaming competition was
running (this time with Quix), the  third offered  two  machines  installed  for
Internet  access and the fourth and last  one was  used later  on for laying out
some mags and stuff for free.

At last  there was the  third party  room that contains also the bar and a place
with some tables and chairs for eating and sitting around to make some smalltalk
as well. Later on the rooms were invaded by several countries then...

So the big room was mainly used by the frenchies and german guys, the second big
room by the UK gang, the 8bit guys and  the dutch  people, while  the third room
was occupied by the  skandinavian folks. So it  reminded a bit to  the old party
place where the little rooms mostly were occupied by single countries as well.

Ok, I started the hunt for some slaves to get all my  machines into the building
and found some honorous ones  in FXL, Flash and a few others. At  first I had to
build up the realtime article  machine and  it was the  first moment I wanted to
kick all into the next corner. As I was building up the equipement I checked out
that I got the false power supply for the diskdrive... Arg! So I wanted to check
out my new 52o ST that I got in February  and... shit. Happily I had  the Protar
harddrive taken to the  party, but  on this there  was no  editor. Arg! again...
After some troubles I matched it with NO's help to get an usable editor onto the
harddrive and was able to set up the whole thing... Gotcha!

The halls  were slowly filled up with people  but after  I had build up my other
machines I decided  to leave with FXL to  organize some food, ehem, to enter the
next Mc Donalds. We droved  around a bit in the city and found one quite near to
the center of Dresden. We used  this time for some  small talk about  old times,
our old group and friends, the things we did and are doing now...

As we came back to the TUSCULUM there were  already a lot  of people arrived and
slowly it was  going  to be crowded, cool! I saw  a lot of  old chaps  stumbling
around as well as some people I didn't met  in reality  before, such as Chuck of
Dune, C-Rem of MJJ, Stratagem of Reservoir Gods or  Nerve of Ephidrena. It seems
as nearly the whole active  Atari 16/32 bit  scene was  going to show up, but it
just seems like that as several  guys after all didn't showed up, but later more
about this.

Later the evening I droved  together with 5o5 to  the trainstation to  bring the
ONLY polish  Atarian  to the  party  place, Saulot. After  some  waiting  on the
station and over an half hour of delay of  the train, we finally found that tiny
little lonely polish Atarian alone on the platform and took him to the party.

Back on the party place you were able to see the first real attempts to work out
some stuff for the competitions and  so I started to think about an own entry as
well... but what to do? No idea, damn!

Later then I  got in touch  with the  Error In Line bar girlies, namely Christin
and Antje and especially the last one should be responsible for some quite funny
moments  and  discussions later... And so  I used the  time to  search for known
people, hang around with them, observing the swedes  fighting with  party pizzas
(6o * 4o cm...) and trying to catch a look at things that are in preperation.

More and more people arrived  at the night, mainly  dutch and  british guys from
the rival magazine, hehe, and the rooms were filled more and more.

Somewhen in the night, it was  around 4 AM I finally decided to take part in the
grafix competition, since I found a nice picture  that should be "easy" to bring
onto the  screen in  the booklet  of a CD that  Scy gave me. He! Cool! I started
pixeling right away, the first bigger picture since... erm... hu? ...1995/1996?!
So I stumbled around  with my old  cool NeoChrome Master 2.28... the  best pixel
tool on ST, harhar! And, as I  was stumbling  to bed (car) in the  morning I had
the first pixels drawn and the picture  started to get the first objects... yes,
live-pixeling-hardcore-oldschool-rulars ;)...

...saturday...

I woke up somewhen around 1o:oo, not even 4 hours for sleep?! Arg, I knewed that
I'm too old  for  that shit. Anyway, I got a shower  and prepared some stuff for
breakfast, got  hot water from the  bar for  my  cappucino and sat down a while,
trying to reorganize my brain.
I checked that  even some more people arrived over the time I was sleeping in my
car, such  as  some more frenchies  and VIP's, namely  Edo who  wanted to do the
shell grafix for UCM 24... Btw... as I'm  speaking about grafix, with the time a
lot of graficians showed up and... many of them  were really pixeling some stuff
for different reasons, right on the party! Very impressive!

And so did I, again... After I  finished my breakfast I  started NeoChrome again
and  worked further  on my "comeback" as pixel  artist (can we call it so?!) and
development  was  quite ok, but  time was  running quite  too fast and the first
deadline for art/music was set for 4:oo PM! Around  lunch time I was on the hunt
for hot water again and was supplied by Antje, again, cool service btw... ;) and
so I found some more secs for painting... btw, right beside me and FXL was Flash
sitting, painting (converting, hehehe) again as well, so there will be no chance
for me in the compo?!

At the afternoon the YM ROCKERS used the bigscreen  in the main  hall to present
their latest  music demo, just  called "Popstars" with  MC Laser on the micro...
He, cool thing and cool musix! They announced to have  free copies placed at the
realtime machine and the people started to run after them, maybe to get the demo
or some empty disx for copying some stuff, harhar. The things  really runned out
of order as the britts started to hunt the rockers for autographs!

And it wasn't the only highlight, later on  Chuck of Dune jumped over to me with
two disx, Dune's "Illusions" demo! And  we were  able to see  it the first time,
just remember, the demo  was prepared for  the Place 2 Be Again party in France,
back in  1994, where  it took the first  place at  the demo  competition but was
never released because of several bugs, and now it was running on my machine!!!!
He even allowed me to make a copy of it, good thing I did, as  when Chuck wanted
to present the demo  on the big  screen to  the masses he  checked that his copy
finally was damaged and I had the only (?) running copy of that demo over all on
my disx! You  can check  the review of  the preview, as  it wasn't  released for
public so far, in this issue of UCM.

4:oo PM... deadline... I jumped to the orgas and they gave  all people some more
time... The next hours I did some hardcore  painting and didn't  stopped anymore
untill  I finished my picture  around 8:3o PM... after I missed another deadline
again. So the agonizing  pain in the  ass was falling from me and I got my brain
free for the party again.

The time  until the  competition was  used to do  different things, watching our
coders trying to fix some stuff for our forthcoming demo "Beams" (and the chance
wasn't that good  to see it finished on the party), playing  a bit around at the
Quix competition (esp. watching some hardcore players like Mr.XY...) and finally
somewhen in the night, the musix/grafix competitions took place...

About the grafix  competition... what  to say, many  pictures of  many different
graficians in the 16 colours compo and... the video beamer  helped some of them,
such as mine  that didn't looked  like 16 colours  anymore (hehe) as well  as it
destroyed some others, such as STS' that looked  quite strange. Very interesting
was  the fact  that even  mOdmate took  part in  the competition! After  all the
quality of the pictures was  quite different, besides some fun pictures and some
mediocre ones, Flash's  picture was a mess... it took 5 or 6 screens and must be
scrolled over the screen! Unfortunately, as mentioned  somewhere above, again he
converted/reworked  motives  from  other in  parts  well  known graficians to 16
colours.

The truecolour compo offered just  4 pictures of  different quality. After all I
wondered about some other graficians on the party that didn't entered the compo,
too bad... but maybe better chances for me?! ;)

The music competition was  cool as well, very different kinds of music, from the
usual boom-boom-teckno stuff to guitar stuff and the first modules done with the
ACE Tracker by New Beat. Furthermore  a lot of chip musix  entered the YM compo,
very cool stuff in parts!

After the competition it was time for bed, again... really time!

...sunday...

I woke up quite tormented again... I stumbled out of my car and entered the hall
again, same procedure as yesterday, get a shower, something to eat and stuff.
Then I decided to start the works  on UCM again, that was planned to be released
at the party, but... you know what happened in the end ;) But I just needed some
stuff to do and so I did. Btw, the  people seemed to  slow down a bit on Sunday,
esp. since the  graficians and musicians had done  their main  jobs and only the
coders were  busy in  working on  their stuffs  now. So  enough time for hanging
around, speaking with cool chaps, playing Quix and making nonsense.

At the afternoon the organizers had some special event  prepared, they just took
Antje from  the bar and  decided that  she had to do  a city round trip with the
interested people... or did she decided  it by herself?! Dunno, but as I'm quite
familar with Dresden  already as some friends  of me studied here some years ago
and I was often over there, I  decided to stay at the  Tusculum, the only things
I had wanted to see were the flood damages, catastrophes tourism! Yeah!

Another  special was the  repeating of the competitions from the night before as
many  people went  to their sleeping  bags as the compos  were hold. At the same
time there was a realtime barbecue hold outside on  the terasse... nice idea but
I wonder if they used original thuringian sausages?!

Since article editing  didn't wanted to run fine I spent my time in playing some
rounds Quix with Scy, surfed around at the internet, did some smalltalk, ordered
my first pizza (...yes, I survived without so far) and waited for the compos.
Very interesting was the fact that  mOdmate showed  up at the party place, so we
had time for some smalltalk, too.

As the tourism-crowd went back to the Tusculum the next competition was prepared
and it was... Whip!Pong... hehe, the organizers  were running around asking many
people "Do  you want  to take part?" - "Ehem...dunno" - "So  yes... ok!". And so
they catched me too and it was  a funny event... The yelling, shouting, laughing
and roaring filled the hall and  rooms over long  time and there were some quite
hard fights on the big screen, unfortunately I lost in the first round...

The demo deadlines were long time gone as we reached monday, the .tSCc. demo was
still  not finished, again  and again  new bugs  appeared  on the screen and the
coders  weren't satisfied  anymore, in the end they  didn't matched it to finish
the demo and gave a preview to the competition... as some others did as well :)

On the bar I had some quite  hot discussions with  Antje as she seemed to suffer
under heavy wine misuse, harhar, and you know, alcohol (esp. wine and champagner
or sekt) and woman aren't always a cool combination.. While Christin was sitting
there with a slightly grin in  her face while watching Antje's fight against the
chauvinistic (?!) computer freaks, Antje  himself  was  loosing  more  and  more
ground... every  word  resulted  another one... hehe... it was  going to be time
for the competition, or nobody could avoid a massacre here! Naaaaa, just kiddin,
in the end it was  a fine  idea to  have some  women on the  party, a completely
different feeling, esp. since they didn't stood  around silently but were really
searching the  contact to  the computer  freaks and  cared for  their health and
tried to make the event as comfortable for them as possible... Well done!

And then, finally, the  demo competitions  were held... Some  4k stuff was shown
(with a very incredible 4ktro by Defjam), and then  the intro competitions, with
some cool Lynx intro  as well  as a nice  Falcon intro by Evolution/New Beat/DHS
and... ST demos!!!! 6 (!) ST demos! One  better as the other  but... one guy has
stolen the show... Defjam... After nearly 3 years of  work he presented  his new
demo, "Posh" and... you know  what?! It rocked, screens  that  forced the people
to say "wow!" and "boah"... It was quite known at the compo who  would win, even
if the DHS demo was very cool as well, only a bit short in comparison.

The Falcon competition  had only  3 competitors, by Escape, .tSCc. and Cruor and
Escape rocked the place with their "_" demo, that may  slightly top "Hmm..." and
offered  a lot  of  DSP stuffs (3d routines), while  the .tSCc. demo "Beams" was
a quite designish thing and one of the few concept demos on Falcon at all... The
Cruor attempt seemed very Falcon-oldschoolish in comparison...

Another cool thing was the only Fake demo, "Dildo Fatwa" by CiH that rocked very
well with cool ascii screens... and the wild  competition, with its crazy stuff,
such like a reality demo... (I liked those  washbasin environment mapper and the
dancing girl, hehehe)

After collecting all the vote sheets the people went  to bed while the orga crew
started to count  the votes... I trolled myself  to my car as well, sleeping for
the results...

...monday...

I got up around 9:3o and  refreshed my  tormented body  a bit with shower and of
course something to eat... Several people didn't waited for the results and left
the building quite early, such as the swedes and the britts and even Remo had to
go with Stratagem quite early... Btw... it  was a strange scene, seeing Strata's
Porsche  standing in  front  of the  building on  two (!) parking  places... how
decadent the scene is... harhar!

The presentation  of the  results  painted a grin into  my face as my bar didn't
stopped  too early and in  the end I got  the  second  place! Yeah! Thanx to the
voters and the beamer! :) Realtime pixeling  with NeoChrome rocks! Thanx for the
nice Tshirt and the game, even  if I don't have  a PS2... maybe we  can win some
on another party?! :)

Ofcourse  the most  results were  known before  the presentation, so Escape got,
again, the 1st place at the Falcon demo competition, Defjam the 1st place at the
ST Demo and 4K competition as well as a price  for his Wild Compo entry, so if I
counted right he has won 3 Tshirts?! ;) ... As I have seen it right, all winners
got  a  Tshirt... some might think "bah... only a Tshirt...", but  isn't  it the
thing to have taken part, that  counts?! I know, I know, we do  it for the money
and the chicks... as mOdmate told us once... but, be serious :)

So the party started to dissolves itself slowly, I started  to pack all my stuff
together as I wanted to try to be at home for lunch :) I made a series with very
strange pictures with FXL that weren't released  so far, call them just "Extreme
Disk Eating" or something, you  will see somewhen :) and  then I  started to say
good bye to the ones that were still over there, took Chemmad, a lonely dutch to
the trainstation and speeded up in home direction...

So what?! Again, what a cool party! Very cool  atmosphere, friendly people, many
productions (shows that we're still alive), cool  organisation, to say the truth
the best party I remember, beats the other EIL's and even the Fried Bits 2/3 and
any other event I remember... The only drawback  was, and this wasn't related to
the  organisers, that some  people didn't  showed up, such as  the active polish
scene as well as CREAM (Where the hell do you were?!)... So maybe next time?!

Greetings and thanx are sent to...

Norman & Nils - Sehr geile Party! Hoffe, wir sehen uns in Lengenfeld?!

Christin & Antje - Die tollen Bardamen! Vielleicht sieht man sich mal wieder?!

.tSCc. - Haut rein!

Chuck and Edo - Thanx for your support and help :)

FXL - Du alter Sockerich! Hoffe wir laufen uns wieder übern Wech!

Flash - Kopiststyla!

...and all I met at the party! See ya somewhere, somewhen!


_.tSCc.__________________________________________________________moondog_o5/2k3_