Report

Written by Beb for Push'n'Pop

Vendredi 22.04.2011 : "5h00 du mat j'ai des frissons..." (Chagrin d'amour)
Il n'est pas dans mes habitudes de me lever aux aurores. Ni de me traîner lamentablement sur une patte jusqu'à la gare ferroviaire la plus proche pour chopper des TGV de 6h01... Une fois n'est pas coutume et c'est pour la bonne cause. Je dois assister à ce qui se fait de mieux en terme de demoparty, la Revision 2011. Saura-t-elle nous faire oublier la Breakpoint de l'année précédente ?

J'embarque en caressant l'espoir d'obtenir une double banquette bien légitime pour mon statut d'handicapé provisoire. Que nenni le TGV est bondé de monde à cette heure matinale. Cela ne m'empêchera pas de baver copieusement et en alternance, sur la vitre ainsi que sur ma voisine (Qui visiblement est hôtesse de l'air ou alors se rend à un meeting Cosplay).

9h00 Gare de Lyon. Sur place une marée inhumaine me tend les bras. "Vacances scolaires ?" Normalement Barjack, Tali & Grimmy doivent venir me chercher dès mon débarquement effectué. Je profite de leur ponctualité légendaire pour m'envoyer 2 cafés hors de prix en patientant.

10h00 la troupe est au complet, Eliot nous a rejoints. Les tasses terminées, on rejoint le parking, puis on essaie tant bien que mal d'entasser humains et bagages dans la Barjack Mobile. On démarre tranquillement avec de la musique de qualité pour masquer la défaillance de la climatisation.

11h00 : "Et je danse, oui je danse" (Lova Moor)
Je dois avouer que les voyages m'amusent toujours. Ils sont souvent au moins aussi intéressants que la destination même. Et nous avons pas été déçus, puisque Barjack a eu l'excellente idée de se passer du contrôle technique malgré un avertissement de la Police. La Gendarmerie Nationale nous "agresse" à 30 minutes du nirvana. Après quelques genuflexions et plusieurs larmes du propriétaire, on s'en tire avec une immobilisation du véhicule en différé... Magnifique !!! Le charme roumain opère à merveille.

Dire qu'on a trouvé la salle des réjouissances directement serait mentir. Grimmy qui a judicieusement imprimé les plans de Sarrebruck est resté suffisamment vague pour nous infliger un tour d'horizon de cette bien jolie ville... Tout ceci dans le but non-avoué de repérer divers lieux sordides, adéquats à ses vices...

15h00 : E-Werk "Oooohhhh You touch my Trala laaa" (Gunther)
Now, we'll speak english. My apologies to all french sceners who don't care about foreigners. The room is located in a full commercial zone, but it's very well frequented on week-ends. The building is quite beautiful. A mixture of iron and red bricks (someone suggested me to reconstruct this structure shortly, introducing bricks into "Iron"). Reminds me of the hall of the Main demoparty from the previous year. In any case, nothing to do with the ugly Breakpoint's structure (even if the room fulfilled its role).



Inside we first find "The Bar" with cheap drinks, beers and sodas, and 3 Pinballs... If you want to test your skills after some beers and win many extra-balls. On the right a custom T-shirts stand and a "dance floor" for people who want to shake their ass after midnight and try to catch a girl... Or maybe a drunken bearded coder.



And to access to the toilets, down, you must run for 5 minutes to go to heaven through small steps and a few doors... It would be barely more complicated if a giant rolling stone fell behind you, as in Rick Dangerous (with a lot of zombie Aztecs throwing poisoned needles in your eyes).

After having paid our entrance fee, we can finally come and greet Hicks and Ultrasyd. A beautiful Amstrad row on the end of the table are visible to all (all those blue screens... mmmmhhh). Wise choice for those who like to see some great demos. We don't know yet that near 50 people will harass us to watch Batman on the "real hardware".

Great organization. Giant screen. Breezy sound (slightly less than the Main demoparty). And padded chairs! Perfect.

17h00 : "C'est l'heure de l'apéro" (Fatal Manbo)
It's time to eat potato chips and peanuts. All washed down with some booze. While we drink, a giant bald calls us from beyond the grave (finally behind us). We'll meet friendly Britelite/Dekadence, a well known programmer on Amiga and C64. He wishes to speak to us about "Batman Forever" (damn) and his desire to come and do demos on Amstrad. "You need good demos on Amstrad", "I'll kick your ass", "Ha ha!!!" laughing out loud. "LOL" says Grimmy. It's a good news. Britelite/Dekadence and Reed/Fairlight on CPC... What else?


Britelite: "I'll kick your ass!!!"

19h00 : "La peinture à l'huile" (Bobby LaPointe)
Barjack and I decided that it would be good to use time spent in front of the CPC to design a nice drawing. Then I draw a funny Rhinoceros, with a curious bird "pic-beef" on his back. With a lot of sweat. Perhaps we will be competing in the oldskool graphics. But after a while I perceive that I'll finish alone this pictorial composition :)



Tali tries to tame OCP Art Studio. And it's not so easy to draw a picture with a keyboard. Hicks starts a new hardware technic. The awesome diagonal splitscreen. And takes the opportunity to directly file a patent "ruptouille diagonouille". What a pleasure to see a plasma undulating... and another thing to the right of the screen.

We see the usual clique Rouquemoute / Rez / Made, and in front of us Exin. Rez comes to talk with us about our prods. And take a glass. Rouquemoute comes too. And Made stays away (obviously he did nothing to fuck the Amstrad... shame).

21h00: "Opening Ceremony" followed by "Scene.org Awards" (nothing on CPC... beuh !!!)

23h00: "Let's go to bed" (The Cure). Barjack left us... Ha ha ha!!! Happy little Jester.

The Willbe show starts with a small time lag. And the fun remains the same as at the Main 2010. We try to continue to deal with our machine until 6:00 am. But Eliot, Grimmy, Hicks and I (especially I) failed to do a sleepless night.

Game Over.

Saturday 23.04.2011
11h00: Many of us have woken up (%80). I'm still in the mist. Today, we will have competitions to watch and to listen. Ultrasyd made an oldschool music and a streaming music.

Lunch time. Here, you can find food for few bucks at any time. Waffles and pancakes, meat and fried potatoes, pizza, etc... Now we have to try the german food speciality. French fries (Grimmy says "Poms") and sausage. Barjack and Tali will make an orgy of chocolate banana waffles. And Hicks eats his own grass. Without any smile ;) "Burps!!!"

In the afternoon, UltraSyd is back with his familly. The Tracked music competition will start soon. It's always a bit difficult to listen to a music at a party. And it's hard to have a good sense. Sorry but, I don't remember all the music heard in the different categories. A little advice for anyone who would be interested to compete. Make a music without nuance and strongly paced :)

15h00: Toms arrived. The Praline team is now complete. Grimmy continues to code his trackloader with track-decruncher. Barjack continues to do nothing. Tali and I try to continue to paint with Art Studio. The Oldskool Graphics competition is running and I'm glad for not participating. Some drawings are really excellent.


Toms, Barjack and Beb

Some people interrupt Eliot and Hicks (ASM coders are so rare, in the hall) for explanations about the Amstrad... And for watching some good demos. "Batman Forever?" beuh :) Grimmy made many copies of good demos, ready for distribution... Some underground coders recover these floppies (JAC!).

Many pepole are interested by our Amstrad and the HxCfloppy emulator. And our two famous stars, "Eliot and Hicks", are well interviewed by TV-Saar. Impressive. I don't understand anything to what they are talking about. I hope Eliot answered correctly. Hicks tries to smile at the camera... The interview is quite long. But the result at TV is so short... Sad (Probably David's fault). I stay behind. Cause I don't speak english very well (as you can see). Scanning the room to see exotic computers or girls with big tits (a thought for MacDeath). But it's difficult for me to move.


Eliot and Hicks, the famous Amstrad coders

In this kind of place, we lose track of time quickly. I missed the Animation/video competition. I was looking for a coffee, outdoor. 21h00: With a little delay, we are seeing the benefit of DJ Hoffman. And Eliot rebelled again ;) (Wooots Woooots !!! Humpf humpf !!!)

I'm waiting for the 4K PC, amiga intro and Commodre 64 competitions. Everybody takes a chair and come close to the big screen. You can enjoy the show, with few break, for 2 hours. Fractal objects, synthesis speech... Outch!!! I don't know what kind of PC you must have at home, for watching these 4K...

I liked:
- States United - Bauknecht & Tek (low end hardware... with great effects)
- Fourskin / Rno (Many neat littles effects... oldschool)
- Spring Onion / Rebels & Neural (Design and colours, nothing special)
- Electronenmultiplizierer / Akronyme Analogiker (great fractal objects)
- D-four / Ctrl-Alt-Test (original concept... Bouncing text with music)

The end of the night continues with massive dance music, until 4h00 am (what's the fuck with techno music???). We try to continue painting and coding for hours. Drinking booze and coffee.

RRrrzzzzZZzz.

Sunday 24.04.2011 : "Elles sont diiingues de mon slip !!!" (Stephano Mariano)
11h00: Sleeping on chairs is unfair. Atch!!! Today's big day. Once again I wake up too late. Toms talks to me about the NUFLI/MUIFLI seminar. Obviously the C64 has very interesting and also ultra-binding graphic modes. Eliot must go home. We cry together. "We hope to see you at the next meeting". David, Nico and Cyril led him to the station. Today we should see some wonderful competitions. PC demos, games, PC 64K and Amiga Demos.

A guy comes to talk with me and Toms about his work. He wants to sell us his last production, probably a so cool techno music. After some negociations, I didn't buy anything and I forced him to watch Moody 4k. The guy walked away happy ;) Another guy will come talk to me about his desire to code on CPC. The "Batman Group" and "Vanity" demos impressed him. His name is Sorex/Warriors of the Wasteland and he comes from C64. Welcome guy!

Here, I would like to thank Rhino, Benediction and ourselves for the reactions we attracted from the Demoscene. Doing demos and participate in meeting (demoparty) is the best way to emancipate our microcosm. Obviously it's a bit obligatory to speak English. But this opening spirit is legitimate.

After having discussed again with Britelite, we try to convince him to learn to manipulate the CRTC. Because it's the only way to render fullscreen effects on our old machine (Hicks was talking about "poor ugly and slow demos from Targhan/Arkos"). He continued to laugh at us (is he drunk? :) Wait and see...

18h00: Game competition. We admire a traiblazzer 2011, revamped for the occasion. Adapted to the Wii console hardware. You tilt the pad to direct the ball. It's funny to see, and it didn't seem highly ergonomic. And another shooter on gelatin candy. Perhaps the programmer has a grudge against Haribo? (Barjack has the same problem)


Try to find Captain Jones!

Outside, the lawn looks like a gigantic barbecue party. After a double waffle with Nutella and 4 Aberlours (and Poms for Grimmy), we seat comfortably, the nose glued to the screen to fully enjoy the evening. 23h00: The big competition starts. I will only speak about what caught my attention. I know it is anti-democratic. You just have to come :)



Pandora / Brain Control
It's a 64K PC demo. And you can see beautiful textures and a complex calculated world. It looks like Zoom3/AND withtout the speech synthesis. Barjack loved the pipes. Great good...

We Have Accidently Borrowed Your Votedisk / Razor1911
Rez is a very clever boy. He conscientiously applied his method "oldschool". He reused the same theme for a "bubblegum" demo... Fun to watch


Rez with his award

Fr080 - Pacemaker / Farbrausch & Stroboholics
Just for the gummy bears.

Human Traffic / Ghostown & Loonies
From the start, we quickly understand the winks to "Elude". The tone is set. We have a well designed production without taking any risks. A nice upbeat music. And common speed effects.

Shake off the dust / Elude
Many more complex effects. But palet is dark, so dark... We must, at times, guess what happens.

Massive / Skarla
I waited years for a new Skarla demo (since "Ride On Our Enemy"). 12 Years of waiting, I'm inevitably a little disappointed. All routines are really solid. But the overall design is not the height... The music is unusual, but I'm not convinced.

Sorry for the fans but for PC demos this year, none found favor in my eyes. This is the end... Don't forget to vote for your favorit production. Like at Breakpoint or Main Party, you just have to go to the infodesk and get a serial number. It's party time!!! Music for everyone. Very late at night, you hear (tali / grimmy / I) singing "crazy about my underpants" accapela. Alongside a german group improvises lyrics of "jumping music" :) "The show must go on". Hicks and Toms seem dismayed. Not fun...

Monday 25.04.2011
But what (what? what?) is this excitement in the early morning ??? Mfff, fuck !!! It's already 11:00 am. "Time for the pastis" says Barjack and time for the awards of the week-end for normal people.

Concerning the results, I shall say that with rare exceptions, they are little surprising. The public didn't make a mistake there, it voted according to the order of broadcasting of the productions. We often keep the best for the end, but we forget to say that in these cases it's also the last one who speaks who's right... I let you consult the classification on the Pouet link.

To see:
64K: Pandora / Brain Control
Amiga: Massive / Skarla
4K: Code is my pron / Nuance and D-Four / Crtl-Alt-Test

The congratulated prize-winners and the distributed awards, the room seems empty already. Still one good beautiful demoparty, full of opening and nice meetings. Far from the misleading explanations of some people who have spoken about the apocalyptic conditions from germans demoparties. We all keep a positive souvenir of this week-end. Only downside recurring music "garage-electro-my balls". To think that everybody listens more than that... It's definitely sad.

Back to France!
Nous franchissons, avec un certain brio, la frontière française, dès lors l'air me semble plus pur et le soleil brille indubitablement mieux. Nous nous laissons bercer gentiment par la conduite toute en souplesse de Barjack, qui passe son temps à bouffer des Mentos et fustiger les automobilistes, en distillant ses conseils avisés sur "les connards qui ralentissent avant d'etre sur la voie appropriée", et c'est bien légitime, me dis-je...


Barjack's car

Rentrer sur Paris un lundi de pâques devrait être une formalité, c'est sans compter sur nos amis douaniers. Cyril a vraiment le don pour attirer "les autorités compétentes". Après avoir subi un interrogatoire en règle sur notre itinéraire, nos intentions et nos appétances cannabiques (hein Mat !), nous continuons joyeusement jusqu'au lieu touristique Parisien que tout demomaker digne de ce nom doit un jour visiter...

L'antre d'OVerLanders (fredonnez le générique des contes de la Crypte)
C'est avec une certaine réserve que nous grimpons les étages jusque chez Shap. Parce que personnellement avec des béquilles ce n'est pas simple, mais j'ai tout de même l'impression d'avancer plus rapidement que Barjack qui marche carrément à reculons. Probablement dû a une fatigue pédalière. Grimmy à la traine en profite pour marquer son territoire à l'urine.

Nous faisons la connaissance d'un nouveau membre codeur d'Overlanders (tremblez bourgeois) qui écoute religieusement les conseils avisés de Shap et Madram. Oui Madram. La grande carcasse barbue et fantasque qui a su coder de belles demos durant une période s'étalant de 2000 à fin 2002. Après sa longue absence injustifiée de plus de 4 ans, nous apprenons, sous mon interrogatoire frénétique mais cordial, qu'Overlanders compte :
- Finaliser "Points Barres" (c) Candy et Shap
- Sortir des routines FDC ainsi qu'une version améliorée du cruncher CPCT.
- Ecraser "From Scratch" en réunissant tous les effets sur un écran.
- Coder des effets neufs et non pas bêtement adapter des idées PC. Et cela grâce à la RVI notamment, matinée d'une déformation dynamique sur l'effet d'Odiesoft (WishingWell).

Personnellement j'en reste sur le cul et c'est bien normal j'étais déjà assis :)

Madram devait venir au meeting d'Eliot, mais finalement "non" (à la surprise générale de ses deux comparses). A cause d'un problème d'alignement entre Saturne, son nombril et les mouettes rieuses à marée basse. Aussi peu probable que de gagner à Euromillions selon l'intéressé.

Mais tout a une fin, Madram et moi devons partir. Le syndrome du lâche éclipse celui du clown ;) Je regagne péniblement la gare de Lyon avec près de 30 minutes d'avance. Je caresse (j'aime caresser en TGV) à nouveau l'espoir de pouvoir baver copieusement sur mon siège en roupillant du sommeil du juste. C'était sans compter une bande de jeunes qui m'ont tenu le crachoir sur 3h00 de trajet. Ce qui n'était pas pour me déplaire...

>Beb/vanity<

Merci à :

Barjack pour nous avoir supportés en voiture.
Hicks pour les CPC sur place et m'avoir supporté 3 jours.
Eliot pour son échange standard sur les T-shirts et son acharnement à faire des meetings.
Toms pour m'avoir apporté mon T-shirt Push'n'Pop. Maintenant je suis encore plus beau.
Tali & Grimmy pour le support moral chanté :)
UltraSyd pour être toujours aussi présent et patient "avec nous" ;) La famille au complet en demoparty fallait oser.
Shap pour avoir accueilli notre bande (de singes) comme d'habitude au retour.

Aux organisateurs de cette demoparty qui a ravi tout le monde. Les nouveaux venus comme les anciens.