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CL9:        GOODBYE TO THE PARTY
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CL4:          By Darkhawk/IRIS

CL1:As   you  might  know,  The  Party  in
Denmark, first and most influential of
all  sceneparties  ever,  is  no more.
Scene  wise,  TP's demise has not been
felt  too  much,  as most of the scene
gave  up on this party roughly 2 years
ago.   However, TP seen in perspective
certainly     deserves    a    fitting
necrologue,  and it is indeed sad that
it  is  over, though the real end came
years ago.

CL0:In this article, I will probably get a
little  nostalgic, and write about the
various  The  Parties  that  have been
arranged, of which I have been present
at  most  myself.   I  will also share
with  you  some  views  the organizers
had,   aswell   as  how  they  managed
relations with the demoscene.

CL1:Since  1991,  The  Party  had  been  a
shining  light for the scene, the main
event  of  the  year,  THE  way to end
every    scenish    year,   THE   most
definitive  party,  where  you  had to
attend   and  release  something.   No
party  has yet managed to get the same
status,   and   as   all  scenes  grow
smaller,  no party probably ever will,
although  parties such as The Assembly
and  Mekka/Symposium  have  both  come
close  at different times.  Right now,
the  most  influential  party  for all
scenes  is probably The Assembly, with
the   Breakpoint   party   an   unsure
contender.   Time  will  have  to tell
which  party  comes  out  as  the most
important  one  of the year; were I to
bet, I'd bet on those two parties.

CL0:But  back  to  TP.   It was started in
1991,  were it was held on a school in
the  danish  town of Aars (am Aars der
Welt, as some Germans said back then).
You  might remember the school and the
hall  it was held in, if you were a TP
visitor  in later years, as the school
was  used for sleepingfacilities after
the  first  TP.   I am still a sad and
bitter  man for having missed TP1, but
I  guess  many missed the first party,
not knowing how good it was to be.  It
was  also  uncommon  to  place a party
between  christmas  and  new year back
then.   However, as we know, TP1 was a
huge  success,  and releasewise, it is
especially  remembered  for  the three
very  good  demos  that were presented
there:  Odyssey by Alcatraz, Hardwired
by  Silents  and  3DDemo  by  Anarchy.
Thus  began the tradition of releasing
the  worlds  best Amiga demos on TP, a
tradition that first stopped around TP
8-9.   The  year  after,  a  flood  of
people  wanted  to  visit Aars between
christmas  and  new  year.  The school
was abandoned, and instead hall 1-2 of
the  Aars  Messecenter was used, while
hall  3  was  rented for sleeping.  It
was  the  biggest gathering of sceners
ever,  and  probably  the best party I
have attended.  There were close to 40
Amiga demos and intros released all in
all,  from  all the groups worth their
name.   Releasewise, TP2 is most known
for  the winning demo State of the Art
by  Spaceballs,  aswell as the winning
40k,  Melon40 by Melon Design (the one
with the raytracing and lego stuff.  A
classic).   Naturally,  I was somewhat
young  back  then, in my scenish prime
of  15  years, and having only been to
much  smaller copyparties, I was quite
overwhelmed.  TP2 set the standard for
the demoparties that began to start in
earnest  back  then  (The Assembly and
The  Gathering).   There were hundreds
of  C64  sceners,  close to 1500 Amiga
sceners,   and  maybe  100  or  so  PC
sceners.   All  this  began  to change
over time, naturally.


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CL1:My  mouse was stolen at TP2, only time
I have had anything at all stolen.  At
the  same  party,  I remember watching
all 3 Star Wars episodes, thus missing
the   musiccompetition  featuring  the
amazing, winning module of Moby called
Cortouchka.   However,  I  did see the
live  concert  with Tip and Mantronix,
so   I   guess   I   was  compensated.
Naturally,      the      demo      and
introcompetition  was memorable in the
extreme,  but what I will remember the
most  was  the  feeling of friendship,
motivation  and joy that virtually all
attenders  had.  I talked with a great
many  people and groups, got to know a
lot  and  met  new contacts.  This was
big, this was good, and we all enjoyed
it.   Also, seeing the many people who
had   their   own  group  t-shirt  and
banners  was  nice.   These days these
things are rare.

CL0:Next  year, at TP3, the party moved to
Herning,   to  the  massive  halls  of
Herning  Messecenter.   By now, TP was
the  party,  famous  above all others,
and  close to becoming a tradition for
the sceners.  However, the scenegroups
behind  TP  were dissolving or loosing
touch  with the ones in the groups who
organized TP, and so this was the last
TP  backed by a demogroup (TP1 and TP2
were  officially  held  under Crystal,
Silents  and  Anarchy,  while  TP3 was
held    under   Silents,   Lemon   and
Spaceballs.   In  reality  though, the
mainorganizers had never had any other
function in the scene than to be party
organizers).   TP3  was a blend of old
and  new.  While TP2 was a total scene
party,   arranged   by   sceners   for
sceners,  TP3  was  a  bit  more open,
probably  also due to its size.  There
were  more  and more arrangements that
had  nothing to do with the demoscene,
but  which were still computerrelated.
I  had the feeling that the Amigascene
had  already  begun  to dwindle around
there,  and  I'd have to say that 1992
was  probably  the year were the Amiga
scene  was  at its biggest.  The demos
released  at  this  party were not the
best,  but  still there were some true
classics,  especially  Arte by Sanity,
which  only  managed  to  get  the 2nd
price,  due  to the bigscreen oriented
design of Origin by Complex.

CL1:TP3, while an overall great party, was
the  party  where  we  got  to  see  a
frightening  number of PC's, aswell as
the  new  game  Doom, which was played
almost  constantly  there.  TP started
showing   the   amount   of  different
computers  present  at  the party this
year, and TP3 was the last party where
there were still some form of equality
between  Amigas  and  PC's.   Compared
with  TP2, the change in the number of
PC was quite staggering, which I guess
can  also  be  explained  by TP3 being
advertized  as  a  party open for all,
not just sceners.  There were probably
a  mass  of  people interested in what
was  going on in such a big party, and
they  mostly had PC's.  In any case, I
remember this as somewhat worrying and
frightening,  that  the  PC could have
gotten  this  big  already.   Also,  I
remember  attending  a seminar held by
Commodore  on gamesdevelopment, aswell
as   about   the   future   plans   of
Commodore.   In retrospect, this was a
bit  sad,  as  the  speakers must have
known that things were not well within
Commodore.    2   months   after  TP3,
Commodore  went bankrupt, and the good
times we'd had with both the scene and
playing  games  on  the  Amiga changed
forever.

CL0:TP4  continued  the  trend.  Dwindling
Amiga sceners, and for the first time,
more   PC's   than   Amiga's  present.
Things   got  muddier  by  then.   New
competitions  were introduced, and the
compact, scenish feel began to change,
although  we  didn't  notice it at the
time,  and although the scenish spirit
was  still there.  The party was still
located  in Herning, and actually this
location was the one I liked the best.
A  very  good  exhibitioncentre  and a
decently   sized  town.   Still,  such
things  are  not  terribly  important.
What  was important, were the releases
at  TP4, and here 3 competitions stood
out:   the  C64  democompo,  the Amiga
democompo and the wildcompo.  The last
compo  was  a  newly invented one, and
the entries there were very impressive
back then.  Dataworld by Infect aswell
as  Twisted  by  Polka  Brothers  were
released  in  that  compo.  As for the
Amiga  democompo, I guess you all know
about  the  Virtual  Dreams  demo, and
especially  about  a certain Andromeda
demo.   Indeed,  the scene reached new
heights at TP4, and it took some years
before  the  standard  set  there  was
reproduced.

CL1:At  TP4,  IRIS managed to win the only
TP  competition we have ever won.  Ohh
yes,  we  won  the  tug-of-war  compo!
Already   back   then,   we  had  some
heavyweight   members.    I   won   an
original  copy  of Pirates!  Ok, maybe
not  the  most  glorious moment in our
life,  but  still..   I  also remember
seeing  Nexus 7, standing next to Lord
Helmet  as  he watched the scroller in
the demo.  The look of surprise on his
face  was  quite priceless.  It seemed
to  sap  out his will to fight and his
sharp  tongue,  because he never dared
to  attack  Andromeda or its organizer
after that.

CL0:I remember TP5 being the first TP that
I had some misgivings about, and where
I  didn't  feel  it  was  all good and
perfect.  By then, the Amiga's decline
had become apparent, and the scene had
dwindled.   It  was at TP5 I was asked
to  become  one  of the organizers, in
part    because   they   were   slowly
realizing  that  they  moved away from
the  scene, and hadn't any contacts in
it.  This was also quite visble in the
way  they  presented the party and the
way  they  handled the scenish things.
Sceners   were   slowly  beginning  to
understand  that  TP  was  not  run by
sceners,  and  this, combined with the
ineffectiveness of those organizers to
connect   with   sceners  led  to  the
downfall  of  TP later.  I was not too
interested  in  becoming  TP organizer
back  then,  but the lack of a scenish
connection  only  grew worse and worse
after  that,  until  the scene severed
itself  totally  from  TP  and went to
parties  arranged  by  fellow sceners.
This  was not to happen for some years
yet  though,  and  so TP was still the
number one party.  This party was held
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in Fredericia, the first and only time
this  was  the location.  Nothing much
to  say  about Fredericia, except that
they had a McDonalds close by, and the
organizers  also had McD as a sponsor,
meaning    that    they   showed   McD
commercials  and  had a big McD banner
hanging  in  the  hall.   Many sceners
were   angered   at  this  example  of
commercialism  in  a  place  where  it
certainly did not belong, but that was
to  be the norm at parties after that,
big  sponsors wanting to get money out
of  the  sceners.  However, the use of
McD might have been especially unwise,
and  after TP5, the organization of TP
selected only ads from computerrelated
firms.    At  this  party,  they  also
featured  a lot of stands, where firms
could  hawk  their  wares.  These were
halfempty   mostly,   but  again,  the
sceners did not like this development,
and  so  it  was  toned down at future
TP's.    Closer   by   CNCD   won  the
democompo,  and was quite a cool demo.
However,  the  general  quality of the
Amiga demos this year was rather poor,
though I also liked the Alcatraz demo.

CL1:What  everyone  remembers  from TP5 is
likely to be the technoconcert held in
the  sleepinghall.   I  was one of the
unfortunates,   who   tried  to  sleep
during  the  concert,  a feat that was
only  partly  successful  for  me.   I
remember waking drowsy and disoriented
to  the  sound  of the pumping bigdrum
and  people  dancing.  "This can't be,
is   this  not  the  sleepinghall?"  I
remember  thinking.  This was also the
year where a snowstorm immobilized our
poor orange party Lada.

CL0:After  the  detour  to  Fredericia, TP
returned  once again to Aars.  TP6 was
quite engaging, though it was also the
party where I hallucinated due to lack
of sleep.  Back then, it was something
of   a  ritual  only  to  sleep  30-45
minutes during the 3 days of partying,
though  I  guess I have gotten too old
and  feeble  to practice this anymore.
Likewise,  it  was  customary  NOT  to
bring any sleepingbag or blanket, just
to  encourage  not sleeping.  When you
finally  had  to  give up and get some
minutes  of  sleep,  you  slept  under
tables  or  on  tables,  thinking them
quite soft.  Nowadays I prefer getting
my  8 hours of sleep in my sleepingbag
though.   I'm  a  wuss, I know.  Apart
from  that,  I  remember  the  amazing
'Rofly'  animation  done by Gandalf in
the  wildcompo.   This  one,  together
with the 2nd Reality remake on C64 was
amongst the most memorable productions
from  this  party.   This year, Shaft7
won  the  Amiga compo.  This party was
also  better than TP5 I felt, and with
this,  and the next TP, I felt that TP
had  stabilized and managed to get the
best  out  of  a  difficult situation,
arising   because  of  its  (misplaced
maybe)   aim  of  being  a  multimedia
party,  a  party  for  all people, not
only  sceners.   Not  that I liked the
decision to evolve into this though, I
suggested that they tone down the size
of  the party, only accepting sceners.
There  was  no  way they would do that
though, partly because most organizers
of  TP  by  now were danish gamers who
did not know anything at all about the
scene, nor cared for it.  However, the
scene  itself  kept  the  spirit at TP
going for a few years yet.

CL1:TP7  was  memorable  because  of  many
things  actually.   Our members Dascon
and  Nutman managed to get 3rd and 4th
place  in  the  musiccompo (this was a
feat,  because  back then, hundreds of
mods  were  delivered  and also had to
get  preselected  before being played,
so just getting your module played was
something to be proud of).  Naturally,
this  was  also  the  party  with  the
famous  powerfailure,  that blew 25000
fuses  and blacked out 1/4 of the city
of  Aars for 4 hours!  Actually it was
quite  fun,  with  people  singing and
performing  spontaneous  live acts, or
just  going  out  and boozing.  Ahh, I
miss   the  good  old  TP.   One  last
memorable event happened when Ransom's
computer  was  within 10 minutes close
to   finishing   rendering  the  final
output  for  his  picture.  I think it
had  been  running  for 12 hours or so
(yes,  no  wonder  3D graphicians were
usually  among  the  first to quit the
Amiga), but then Nutman came along and
tripped over a powercable.  Uuups!

CL0:It  was  after TP7, that a new team of
organizers   once   again   tried   to
reconnect  with  the  scene,  and this
time  they  were  a bit more desperate
and  KNEW that if they didn't succeed,
TP  would  go  exactly the same way as
The Gathering, becoming a gamers party
only.   Something  needed  to be done,
and   they  were  willing  to  do  it.
However,  not  being sceners, they did
not  know  what  they could do.  There
was  one main-organizer, who was a C64
scener,  and who was the leading force
in  trying  to get something done.  He
attended other parties and talked with
sceners,  investigating how they felt,
and  taking their suggestions.  Again,
I  told  him  what  I  thought  of the
matter,  and  gathered  some  articles
written  about  the  matter by sceners
and  gave  him.   At  TP8  and  9, the
organizers tried to make the demoscene
feel    welcome    and   wanted,   but
ironically  they failed even more than
before at those parties.

CL1:I'm  afraid  that  TP8  and 9 were not
really  all  that fantastic after all,
as  the special TP atmosphere, created
by  the  help  of so many sceners, and
the feeling that TP was a scene event,
began  to  disappear.   It was however
memorable   when  the  car  of  Adonis
landed out in the mud beside the road,
and Dr.  Doom and myself had to get it
free  while  Adonis sat in the car.  I
managed  to  dextrously  avoid most of
the resulting mudsplash as Adonis with
no  warning turned on the car, but Dr.
Doom was not so fortunate, and at that
time,  the  handle 'mudman' would have
been   very  fitting,  hehe.   I  also
remember  getting  interviewed for the
biggest  newspaper  in  Denmark, while
Nutman   was   interviewed   for   the
eveningnews  on  the  most  popular TV
channel.  At that time, the media were
beginning  to  get quite interested in
this  phenomenon in Denmark, but sadly
they   came  too  late,  as  did  many
gamedevelopers looking for new talent.
By   TP8,   it   was  clear  that  the
remaining scenish, artistic atmosphere
was     only    maintained    by    an
ever-dwindling   number   of  sceners.
However,  I  remember that we released
Swift and I-Surf on these two parties,
and were cheated out of a 3rd place at
TP9   due  to  votecheating.   At  TP9
almost  no  one  bothered to vote, but
everyone  got  a  paperstrip  of  code
handed out, which they needed in order
to  log  in  and  vote.   As  95% were
non-sceners, they just discarded these
strips,   so   by   going  around  and
collecting  them,  which was easy, you
could  amass  the  right  to vote many
times.   This,  combined  with the low
amount  of  voters made for some quite
unscrupulous votefaking both by people
who  needed  it,  and  by  people  who
didn't,  hrmm.   When  I realized what
was  going on during the last hours, I
scoured  the  3  halls  and could only
find 2 strips of paper with code, so I
was  much  too  late  for  votefaking,
hehe.

CL0:At  TP8  and  TP9  you got the feeling
that none of the many organizers cared
for or knew the scene.  There was only
1  mainorganizer interested in working
to  keep us there, but when confronted
with   masses   of   gamers,  childish
competitions, gamecompetitions, events
centered around gamers and the general
computerpopulation,  etc., the scenish
atmosphere   fled,   and  so  did  the
sceners.  Instead, the many organizers
celebrated themselves, holding parties
with   free  food  and  beer,  getting
merchandise and goods for free, buying
tickets   to   foreign   and  domestic
travels  for TP's money, and generally
thinking highly of themselves.  Not an
attitude that further endeared them to
sceners.   TP  really tried to be many
things  all in one, but it just wasn't
feasible if they didn't hold on to the
core,  the  sceners.   They knew this,
but  being  who they were, they had no
way    or    real   will   to   change
sufficiently  in time.  The result was
obvious:  the sceners, no matter which
platform  they were on left for other,
more  scenish parties.  Meanwhile, the
democrew  at TP, consisting of a great
many  organizers,  did not know how to
handle  machines  other than PC's, did
not know the names of the groups (thus
e.g.   Ephidrena  was called Erhidrena
on  the  bigscreen),  and did not care
much  either.   When  looking  at what
Amiga  demos  won  TP 8 and 9 on their
homepage,   you   get   to   know  the
following:    Aliens2   won   TP8  and
Oncrete  won in TP9.  This says it all
I  guess,  but  looking even closer at
the History section, I uncovered clear
evidence  that the organizers of today
know nothing of the past or any scene.
They  admit  it under their text about
TP1:   "Not  much  has  survived  from
1991,  but we do know that it was held
in  Aars,  and  had  a staggering 1200
guests (quite a record for a new party
indeed).  We have however been able to
find  the  results of the competitions
and some of the contributions.  Have a
look in the downloads area." Heh, they
have  been  able  to  find some of the
results    and    contributions,   but
otherwise  this  seems  to  be ancient
history,   the   ancient   history  of
somebody  else  infact.   On  the same
page,  below  the title of the winning
picture (a Boris Vallejo copy, apropos
the  Copycat  article in this EC), the
following  is  written:  "This picture
by  Iridon of Shinida won the Graphics
competition  in  1991".  If you do not
remember   an   Amiga   group   called
Shinida,   you   might   remember  one
calling itself Shining (yes, Dual Crew
and  Shining  merged a year later, and
became   DCS).    This   is  not  just
unprofessional  and  careless, it also
shows  that the organizers really have
no  clue  at all concerning the scene,
while  they  still  use  the  scene in
their  advertizing  and  promoting  of
themselves.

CL1:I  remember  one of the mainorganizers
telling  me that they really wanted to
be there for the sceners, but they had
no  connection  with  the  scene.  Who
deserted  who?   The  sceners  by  not
supporting    TP   and   becoming   TP
organizers,   or   The  Party  by  not
keeping  its focus on the sceners, and
recruiting  them  in 1994/1995, at the
earliest  possible  time?   As always,
the   answer  is  around  the  middle,
though  I  think  TP  bears  the  most
responsibility for all of this.  It is
true   that  the  sceners  could  have
helped  out more, but it was decisions
and  indecisions  by the TP staff that
made the scenish spirit disappear, and
thus  no  scener really wanted to help
when things got really bad.

CL0:I  tried  to  get  an  interview  with
Stripe,   the   mainorganizer   of  TP
throughout  most  years,  but  perhaps
unsurprisingly,   all  I  did  get  in
return   for  my  email  was  silence.
Thus,  I am not sure why The Party was
cancelled  this  year.   Perhaps  they
have   finally   worn  themselves  out
organizing,     perhaps    they    got
demotivated  by the lack of the scene,
or perhaps there is some other reason.
I  hope to be able to find out, but it
seems  like  all  people  have trouble
contacting  the organizers these days.
At  their  homepage, you can only read
words   to   the  effect  that  TP  is
cancelled  and  that more info will be
available  soon.  Naturally, this text
has stood there for over 4 months now.
Whether that means it is cancelled for
all time, or only cancelled this time,
is  not  clear.   The future will show
us,  but  I  for  one think that it is
finally  over  for  this party series.
What  I  mourn  is the way things were
before,  when  both  the  scene and TP
made eachother stronger.  However, the
spirit at TP went away for good around
TP8,  and never returned.  I think the
organizers,    though    not   sceners
themselves, know this, and do not want
to   continue   without   this  spirit
present.
