PIC:barclip.ilbm

CL8:                       Breakpoint 2003 Party Report
PIC:barclip.ilbm

CL8:                        Written by Darkhawk of IRIS

CL1:It's  FREEZING!   And  some people are
really  sad in their childish attempts
to  gain  some  attention..   But  ohh
well,  here  we  are..   Another party
report,  another  day  without  sleep,
another  loud party.  And yet, somehow
has changed, and something has gone in
order  for  this one to have come into
being around Easter 2003.

The  Breakpoint  2003 party is held in
the   Easter   days,  from  friday  to
monday,  at the same time as the quite







famous, and quite dead Mekka/Symposium
party  was  held.  The reasons for the
death   of  MS  are  (other  than  the
tidbits   offered  by  Steeler  in  an
interview   elsewhere   in  this  mag)
largely  kept  private, but Breakpoint
was the party to take over from the MS
series.   4 of the 6 mainorganizers of
the  MS have arranged this, along with
most  of  the  old  staff.   Only  the
location  has changed, some would say.
However, I have a feeling, which might
be  preliminary,  seeing  that this is
the  first  day,  that  more than that
might  have  changed.   In  any  case,
let's start with the boring beginning,
and go from there.

This time around, after our obligatory
internal slave meeting, we were only 3
IRIS'ers taking the trip southwards to
Germany.    Adonis,   Ransom   and  I,
Darkhawk.   With  us  we  had one Curt
Cool of Depth, and a lot of equipment.
It  was  a tight fit in Adonis' Suzuki
Alto,  as  usual.   And  as  usual, we
survived   the  trip,  though  it  had
suddenly   become   much   longer,  as
Bundeswehr  Depot Bingen, the location
of the party, is around 600 km farther
to  the  south than Fallingbostel was.
No matter, we drove through the night,
and  arrived, through a lot of twists,
turns  and  small rural cities, to the
partyplace,  situated  atop an idyllic
cliff,  with  a view towards even more
rural  cities,  aswell  as to a lot of
vineyards.    The   sun  was  shining,
people  were  arriving,  we  had a few
beers, everything was well..

The  party place is kinda' run down we
noticed,  infact the party hall is one
big,   old   hall  probably  used  for
vehivle  storage  once.   No isolation
here,  but it was a warm sunny day, so
that  was not on our minds.  We set up
our   computers,   noticed  the  small
bigscreen,  noticed  the massive audio
equipment,  and  went  around, meeting
people, boozing and doing the EC.  The
latter took most of our time, I assure
you..   Food  was  quite  diverse, the
prices  ok,  but  it  didn't satisfy a
hungry  stomach  all that well, and we
quickly  tired  of  German wurst in xx
variants.   The  organizers sold beers
and colas at affordable prices, so all
in  all,  you needn't take a trip into
town  to get supplies, which was good,
since 'town', as in 'Bingen' was 15 km
or  so  away,  and not a very big town
either.   We're  really  out  in  farm
country  here..   So  much  so infact,
that  the  only outbound internet line
here  is  ONE (!) ISDN line, which the
organizers  use.  Well, this created a
lot of problems for us, but more about
that later.

When   I   said  that  you  could  get
anything  you  wanted  here,  I sorta'
lied,  because  in  order  to  have  a
shower,   one   has  to  go  with  the
partybus  at  predetermined hours, not
including  the  first  day (today), to
some  sports centre around Bingen, and
bathe there.  Well ok, the partybus is
free  and  a nice idea, it drives each
hour,  and  goes  between  hotels, the
maintrainstation,  the showers and the
partyplace.

This  first  day,  the 3 things on the
timeschedule,  official  opening, live
jam  session  and  demoshow  have been
delayed some hours, and the organizers
are busy fixing..  THINGS..

Let's   talk   about  that  now.   The
partyplace  got  incredibly cold after
the  sun  had  gone,  and  the heating
provided  doesn't  do  much  to  help.
I've  never  been to a party with that
low  a temperature actually.  It's not
a  fun  thing,  nothing  you  can just
shrug  off; as I am typing this, I can
feel  my fingers beginning to grow too
cold  and sluggish, and Ransom sitting
beside   med,  must  curl  up  in  his
sleepingbag while coding, else it gets
too  cold  for him to move his fingers
properly.   I mean..  It's really bad,
and  lays a damper on the scene spirit
here,  since  we  all concentrate upon
staying  warm and ignoring the pain of
the cold.  And it IS that bad, really.
The  organizers try to cover the holes
here  and  there,  but  it  must be an
impossible  task,  and I don't want to
think  about  the sleepinghall at all,
which is just as big as the partyhall,
lying  next  to  it.   But, actually I
think I will go to bed and test it out
soon..   Impressions  from  the  first
day:

Nice view, nice landscape.

Too  far  away  from  better food/etc.
facilities.

Around 700 sceners the first day.

Massive  sound,  that's  nice, a good,
sharp  projector,  but  sadly  a small
(relatively speaking) bigscreen.

Toilet  facilities consist of 2 mobile
WC-wagons,  that quickly became..  Not
so   hygiejnic,   but  which  will  be
cleaned each day or so.

Some pathetic poles (not everyone, I'm
sure),   going  around  shouting  into
megaphones   to   be  heard,  shouting
rubbish  to eachother and being drunk.
This  irritates  me now, it seems like
some   in   the   polish   scene  have
developed    this    braindead   party
'culture',  where they must go around,
making  a  mess of things, shouting to
make  sure  people  notice  them, etc.
Heh,    how    simple    to    analyze
psychologically.   But  this infantile
display  of  'please,  notice  me, I'm
somewhat  cool?'  is actually not only
pathetic, but also a bit sad for those
involved,  their  lifes  can't  be too
happy,  if they need to resort to such
things.    It   might  also  end  with
violence   later  on,  if  people  are
irritated  enough  by  them.   In  any
case,  it's  a  poor  way to profilate
both  your  country  and  your groups.
And  yes, I think it's been worse than
it  usually  is on the MekkaSymposium,
although  the  urge  to do things like
that  isn't  new  to  that  clique  of
sceners.

Anyway,   now   I  can't  really  type
anymore,  my  fingers  are  numb, so I
will   check  out  the  sleepinghall..
Shudder..

Back  from the para-elemental plane of
ice...   Ok,  I  haven't  been in that
cold  a  sleepingspace  at  any  party
since  The  Gathering 94', where there
was  water,  snow  and  ice flowing in
rivers  inside  the tent.  Oh well, it
wasn't  quite  on  that  level, but it
wasn't  pleasant.   Coming back to the
partyhall,  it is still bitterly cold,
and  people  have started making jokes
about  this, and calling this Freezing
Point,  hehe.   The  things  you do to
survive..   Anyway, today we hitched a
ride  with  the party bus to the town,
looking  for  surplies.  This bus is a
rather nice, and free thing, at least.
I  think  the  plan  is to do a little
work  on  the EC, but focus on boozing
(yesterday   it   was  the  other  way
around..    really).    Our  96k  game
couldn't get finished in time, and now
we  put  our  hopes on our rather nice
demo,  that  has  at  least  been  50%
finished by now..  I see a trend here.
Oh well.

Now  the  4k  competitions have ended,
and the theme graphics compo is coming
up.   There  were  4k's for C64, Amiga
and     PC,    Tulou,    Scarab    and
Spaceballs+Ephidrena  released intros.
The latter one will win, I'm sure, but
the Scarab one was great too.  Anyway,
most impressive of all was the last PC
4k   being   shown.    It   was  quite
fantastic,  and  I have very seldomly,
or   never,   used   that  word  about
anything  PC  scenish, so..  It'll win
for  sure, so check it out if you can,
it's  sure  to  become  a classic (and
then  it's  allowed  to  see it, as an
Amiga owner, hehe).

Actually,  while  we  wanted  to booze
today,   we're   still  sitting  here,
working  on  the EC, but it looks like
we can wrap things up somewhat quickly
today.   Also, while the first day was
a  cold  and somewhat boring affair, I
can  feel  the  scene-spirit  begin to
sneak in now, after the first compo's.
It  also looks like the C64 scene will
deliver  a  lot of productions.  Sadly
things are more dire in regards to our
own  scene.   3  4k's, but rumours say
not  very  many  64k's  or  demos.  We
shall see..

And  now the heating in the partyplace
is  getting  better, they stopped some
holes   and  turned  the  heat  up  or
something.   So if this continues like
this,  it's  actually  fine, hope they
have   done  the  same  thing  in  the
sleepinghall,  because it was terrible
in there.

Well,  no,  there is still a portal to
the para-elemental plane of ice inside
the  sleepinghall.   But  I  took some
precautions,  and brought extra socks.
For  feet and hands.  Yes, it actually
is  that  bad.   Oh  well,  nothing to
whimper about, heh..

As  the  party  progresses, and we now
are   some   hours  before  the  Amiga
democompetition,  it  seems  like  the
fine  intentions  of  having a relaxed
party  and  take  it  easy with the EC
have been put to shame.  Actually I've
been  working  with  the  EC  and  the
problem  of  getting  and  testing our
demo  via  the  one outgoing ISDN line
they  have  here  for quite some time.
But  it has to be said, the organizers
are  really  friendly  and forthcoming
people,   especially   so  Scamp,  the
network  manager.   So,  we managed to
deliver  our  demo  via  the  net.  It
disappeared  mysteriously however, but
resubmitted via disk, they finally got
hold of it.  Sadly, I also got to know
how  many demos there will be released
for  the Amiga.  Only TBL, MAWI and we
will release a demo.  Top groups to be
sure, but there's a long way to the 20
or so demos of MS2k1, or the around 11
(?   embarrassing..)  at last year.  I
hope  this  is no trend, but I think I
know  better.   At  least 2 demos were
released  at TG I know (Ephidrena came
2nd   in  the  multi  platform  compo,
Spaceballs  third),  but even then, we
have  a  total  of  5  (probably 6, if
Contraz  also  released  a demo at TG,
but  I  do not know this) demos.  This
is indeed poor, since this time of the
year  traditionally is where the whole
Amiga scene tries to band together and
release something.  But well, at least
the  3  demos  will  be pretty good, I
hope  (and  hey,  we will at least get
3rd place, hehe).

During  this  sunday,  the sun entered
Bingen  and  surroundings, so a lot of
sceners  were  outside  partying.  The
organizers  supplied a place to have a
fire  going, and I think they are also
maintaining  it.   There is also a DJ,
who  is  playing  for  people  outside
(aswell as inside usually, since there
is a separate boozing/chill out tent.

The  compos today were, as usual, of a
good overall quality, but sadly, there
was   no   Amiga  64k  compo;  it  was
cancelled  because  only one entry had
been delivered, an intro by Veezya.  I
tried  to  magically  produce  an  OCS
intro  too, but the organizers told me
2  weren't enough either..  Heh, so no
egoistical   looting   of   prizemoney
there.  Still, a shame on many levels,
that there were no intros.

The  PC  64k intros I didn't see, with
the  exception of the one Chaos coded,
but well, nothing as amazing as in the
4k  compo, so I needn't write anything
about that.  However, the party really
started  flowing better yesterday, and
today the temperature is fine, and the
compos  run without problems, although
they  are  all a bit delayed.  Nothing
irritating  though.   This is really a
huge   gathering   of   creative   and
hardworking  sceners, coupled with the
lazy, alcohol imbibing kind of sceners
too,  naturally,  hehe..   I  wish I..
Ahh well, later maybe..  Moan, moan..

Ok,  beer in hand now, and the PC demo
compo  is running, which enables me to
do  some  work  again, after the Amiga
and  Console  demo  compos.  As I knew
(mwaha?),  there  were  only  3  Amiga
demos.   Light  2  by  IRIS, Fate fits
Karma  by  MAWI,  and  Magia  by  TBL.
Actually it was a very nice democompo,
for  as  long  as it did last.  People
were very much in the mood, and it was
very uplifting watching the crowd.  Of
course  it was nice watching the demos
too, hehe.  People were sad that there
weren't  more  demos,  but  still very
impressed  with those that were there.
I plan on doing my usual MS Production
Review,  this time slightly changed to
the BP Production Review, hehe.  But I
won't have time for that in this EC, I
think.    Personally,   I  think  IRIS
should  win  it  all..  But apart from
that, objectively looking, it will end
up   with   TBL  winning  easily,  and
probably  MAWI  will  win  less easily
over  us..   Hrmm,  one  can  hope for
another outcome, but let's see..

In  any  case, if we want to wrap this
mag  up  and  be done with the rest of
the  work, I will have to end my party
report  here.   This party started out
rather  flat  I  think,  but it became
much  better,  luckily.   A comparison
with  MS  might be unfair, but I still
feel  the  MS parties have been better
than   this   one   in  most  aspects.
However, this doesn't at all mean that
Breakpoint  is  not  a  good  party, I
think    it    is.     However,   poor
facilities,  not  too  many happenings
arranged by the organizers (as opposed
to MS), and organizers, that are a bit
too  lenient  with  irritating people,
are  somewhat negative points.  But on
the  other  hand, this is a real scene
party,  with  lots  of  sceners,  very
friendly  and  helpful organizers, and
the  right atmosphere (now, at least),
so  still,  thumbs  up, and I hope you
manage  to finetune the party for next
year.  I'll be there in any case

(if  we  win  the  democompo,  I might
rewrite the last part a bit, hehe).
