Sillyventure 2012, the return of something or other..

13.09hrs - FRIDAY the 7th December 2012.

We're here! We're all excited, tingling with anticipation! Well, as excited as a mood flatteningly dour journey involving London Luton airport can leave us anyway.

CiH here, on the untrustworthy keys of a pretend Falcon once more. Unlike last year, where my main Falcon was too broken to consider bringing to SV2K12, this year, it's been replaced and is now too bulky and valuable to risk at airports and leave in the care of gorilla fisting baggage attendants. So it's Hatari on ye olde Dell laptop once more.

This Hatari installation has remained where and how it was, pretty much unchanged from last time around. Apart from the traumatised and sobbing in the corner by the end noises coming from it.

However, for the rest of my life since the last time, lots of things have happened. Mostly cloudy,but with some silvery linings included. I'd sum it up as something like "Three funerals and a job redundancy." None of the funerals were mine, just in case you weren't sure! The redundancy left me with sufficient funds for an exciting upgrade to my Atari collection as described before.

On the other hand, there seems to be lots of exciting stuff happening on the Atari scene since this time last year. New hardware, the promise of new software here at this very party, and we've even gone and done a new diskmag!

What! After you said "Never again!" once Maggie had quit? Well those weren't the exact words. A lot more swearing under my breath, mostly directed at tardy contributors would be more accurate!

The story is a fairly short one. An issue of the replacement 'Alive!' magazine was promised but never appeared. This was back in 2008. Several articles written for this were re-used, but several more were marooned as being unsuitable for the subsequent 'Low Res' blog-zine. By this time, there were several half-written texts piling up. Felice had the suggestion of creating a one-off issue of Maggie to resurrect these articles.

With a slight change of name, the idea was a good one. With a deadline target for this party to motivate me, eternally unfinished texts finally had a dignified conclusion to them. Furthermore, it was fatally easy to keep going and adding new texts, so the genesis of a fairly decent one-off was created.

It was decided to approach this one off from two different directions. Myself would be in charge of creating a hand-built pseudo HTML shell. This would offer universal portability across most systems. It would also offer some degree of enhancement to the article text displayed, including a decent provision for graphics within the text. The bonus is, that I managed an archive that could fit within the confines of a standard PeeCee high density floppy disk. So a 'disk magazine' it still is!

This part has been completed in good time and is ready to roll.

Felice is in charge of the other approach, namely a recreation of a classic Atari diskmag, Maggie style, using the old Atari ST menu shell.

This part is still under work currently....

I have been converting pictures to use in the shell, and hopefully we'll have something to see of that before too long. We actually arrived at the party about an hour before I managed to dip my fingers into the realtime reporting ink, as this picture converting was the first thing that caught my attention.

The journey over consisted of lots of sleepless movements in the dark, with a nice and easy transfer at the end. Lying in darkness at Felice's place, not quite sleeping and waiting for the inevitable waking hour to creep around! Something about arising at 03.30 got into the parts of my memories that have been properly suppressed!

The ride down is in the golden Corsa machine normally owned by Felice's spouse. This is quiet, as it should be, this early on!

Ahh, lovely Luton Airport, the happy holiday resort for all my dreams! It leaves at least one "great" memory, to add to my growing store of them. This time it was the very beginning, shuffling around at the long term car park like a colony of discarded penguins, where people are shrugging off the icy blasts as if put out to freeze-dry, whilst waiting for the oft-speculated on but never-sighted transfer bus to the terminal!

The overall Luton experience was less squalid than last time, apart from an initial issue with the security check, where the transparent plastic bags used for the toiletries were deemed 'too big', but they relented and put them through anyway. At least there was room to breathe and sit down, and the breakfast was a bit of a sausage fest, bacon being in short to non-existent supply at the cafe.

On our flight of Wizzair, it seemed, for a few minutes, that we weren't going to escape Luton's damp and gusty grip, getting as far as the main runway before being recalled to the taxiway. However, our Polish pilot was allowed another go, and we thundered away thankfully into the hostile clouds above.

Pre-party sleeplessness and post breakfast tiredness slammed into me like a hammer after the excitement of the take off, so a fair bit of the flight passed with minimal input on my part. However, the welcome part was that it was nearly over before I started to care too much. We even got an added treat in the final minutes of the flight. The cold clear conditions allowing us to enjoy a birds eye view of the Gdansk port and neighbourhoods before landing.

AdamK was in charge of the transfer from the airport to the party place. This was done awesomely quickly, so we were effectively getting off the plane and half an hour later, setting up the laptops at the party place itself!

Unlike last year, when an arrival at a similar time but a day earlier had revealed a bare and deserted venue. There were already twenty to thirty people set up with their hardware, as if they had been there all year since the last time.

Atari hardware of all shapes and shades is strongly playing its distinct and unique beat. From the Ancient eight bitters, through to Jaguar and CT60 Falcon playing the greatest hits of The Black Lotus.

14.09

An hour later, that is where this text has come to. A realtime article on a Mega STE is in the corner and awaits investigation. Felice is attempting some last minute code wrangling with the Maggie source and trying to remember how the link filer works. Maybe he shouldn't leave it to the last minute to sort these things out next time!

The folorn realtime article!

14.21

And here's our first bit of party name dropping. As we find Samurai of Inter wistfully looking back at the Obnoxious demo blasting out at the sort of volume levels commonly heard at Atari shows of the late nineties period.

14.55

Felice is encountering problems with his test build of ST Mag! Devpac seems to stride confidently through all the motions of assembling and creating a new file, but there is no trace of this in the specified directory. Or anywhere else for that matter. Hatari seems to be spinning its wheels helplessly right now, but if other people have coded successfully with it, so woss goin' on?

Felice has gone out to get some wine to regroup his thoughts. On a screen nearby, the Black Lotus demo 'Starstruck' loudly struts its stuff. We will also have to do something about making ourselves known to our accommodation, the Hostel BURSZTYNEK a little bit further on.

17.21

We've been to the Hostel BURSZTYNEK and sorted out our off-site sleeping accommodation. We've scored nicely this year, with a room for just the two of us, rather than the possible option of a sleeping area for six people! We've even test-driven it a little bit too, especially Felice, who was possibly more tired than he realised.

Arriving back at a busy party place, including new arrivals Chuck and Zerkman, also Emphii of Extream has said "Hi!" To bring us back up to normal levels of alertness or apathetic stupor, the Red Bull girls have made a return with their sponsored drinkies from last year.

18. 21

Intervening loss of one hour is due to a food-related outage....

The previous log entry probably still bears the scars of my fingernails dragging off the keyboard when the food was announced as being served.

It was the same team, or some members thereof, in the school canteen so fondly recalled from last year. The delivery was a little bit on the slow side, due to a lack of numbers involved in serving and a large demand for the meal. However, the meal itself was brilliant, with a starter course of noodle soup, with roast pork, potatoes and various pickled vegetable combinations. I hope someone comes up with the appropriate traditional name for it later on.

The serving guy remembered us from last year, which was nice. If there is one essential tip, above all other tips to get on in life, it's this one.

Always make friends with the guy serving the food!

The evening is expected to bring an opening ceremony at 20.00hrs, and some competitions from 22.00hrs.

Apart from locating the people so far shouted out to in this document, I've finally met Orion, he who gave the Atari world a rather nice CT60 demo, and more recently, the Elansar game. Some say that he has got an STE demo to show here too.

In the flesh, Orion is a friendly if shy dude, I'll try to avoid lazy stereotyping of the 'Reclusive coder' variety, as I'm sure we'll speak again some other time during the party.

18.55

I've actually been online! Intermittently, through the 'council wi-fi'. This is a connection offered by the municipality of Gdansk, which offers what appears to be a citywide, if fairly basic service. Still, beats local authorities we know and love closer to home, who still have problems with sorting out the bins!

19.37

So now we know that the ST 'classic' version of Mag! is a non-flyer for the duration of this party. The test build seems to assemble perfectly, but does not generate any executable binary from the source. This has been verified on both Felice's Hatari 1.6 super advanced Mac Powerbook version, and my rather less prestigious Hatari 1.4 and Winbox XP version.

This will need to wait for original hardware to investigate further. I can reassure you that the release of the HTML version is unaffected, as this is complete and ready to go for this weekend.

Again, I refer to my earlier comment, this could have been better off being picked up and resolved before the party. It's not as if there wasn't the time there. Party conditions are the enemy to a successful outcome, without a lot of pain and suffering being experienced first!

20.08

Keeping one eye each on two classic Atari demos on different screens. On the big screen I am half-watching the Brain Damage demo from Aggression for the Atari STE. On a smaller screen, just off to my left, the 'Hmmm' demo, winner of Error in Line 2, is doing its thing. So two demos at the same time, and a third eye on this text! - Errm?!

21.29

An opening ceremony and much feature rich multimedia content has ensued. Among other things, we learned that the 'Jacktro' tribute by Paradox has been seen (in video form) by the Tramiel family and the sentiments contained within that intro were very much appreciated. We also had a presentation from Rodolphe Czuba who has pretty much publicly announced the PX60, the motherboard which would not need an ageing Falcon host machine. There was a message from Shiraz Shivji, the chief designer of the Atari ST, who was clearly flattered that people were still taking an interest in his creation.

An interruption follows, as a buffet is laid out for demolition by the hungry partygoers. This is enjoyed, but I get back to my workstation to find this...

21.33

Felice here for a short while no doubt ... a little cheesed off that Devpac for some reason is not working well on Hatari, will have to chase that up with some of the guys here to work out what the fuck is going on. Still, there's no point in being negative, we're in a good place right now, back here in Gdansk, Poland ... a lovely city to visit and I guess it will become as familiar to us as Helsinki and Los Angeles are to me right now. Will need to hop out and get my mother something special from the amber jewellery area tomorrow at some point .... she turns 70 on March 22nd so deserves something equally as special for that, I think. I finally also purchased a DivIDE device in order to get my old Spectrum running again, so it can load the games from a CF card, which will be a great help :) I hope also to buy a HxC device too, but I guess it'll depend on how much dosh I have left after getting my mother's present.

Sillyventure 2k12 has been a great party so far .... AdamK picked us up from the airport as no doubt CiH has already written. We got here a little before 12 noon Polish time and things have built up rather nicely. After a bit of nosing around I finally found a store which sold non-corked bottles of wine, the bottles in particular being Blossom Hill, which are 12% and seem to be doing their stuff.

Back to Atari matters though .... I really need to get hold of a decent 8bit rig as there's been a lot of stuff that I missed over the years which the guys are still working on. Demos are in the hundreds easily, particularly with the likes of Lotharek working on the SIO2SD (card) device along with others, means that finally anyone worldwide with an interest in the Atari scene can pick up an 8bit (or any cpu) based Atari machine, get an SDcard device that works with standard SD cards and get seeing the seriously fucking fantastic stuff that has been released over the years. Real humans have worked lots of hours to bring us some seriously classic material such as Numen and other works since (and before) then, it has been criminally ignored in the UK so far, thanks to our markets being skewed. This will probably not change, but that's the UK for you, going in completely the wrong direction.

As CiH wrote a little earlier, we have had the opening ceremony for Sillyventure 2k12. It has been different again from last year but still just as good. Central Europe is where it appears to be for hardcore Atari stuff, with the spirit and some of the people who were around for our first set of Atari parties back in the late 90s and early 2000s, Error in Line. The feeling is definitely here and being felt again. So many people, now quite a bit older than those halcyon days, but who still have the fucking passion for Atari systems, something that they hopefully will never lose until the day they pass on. We'll all be having a great time in Heaven but not too many people are waiting yet for that day, after all, we don't know when it'll be. We enjoy our lives here on Earth, though I would assume that most if not all Atari equipment will be there, in the next life up there with the Lord.

Well, better let CiH take over this text. Yes, I may be a little drunk at this time, but what the fuck, if we can't get a bit drunk and enjoy ourselves then what is the point. No saunas here, unlike in Finland, but that's not an issue. We hope to be back in good old Helsinki in 2013 for WARK:fest or whichever party is organised at that time. Things do depend though; on my side in particular, in terms of whether I have a full-time job by then or not; they've been hard to find in the UK thanks to the recession and other pressures on the economy. Still, chin up and all that ...

Felice over and out .... may be back later but you can stop hiding from behind the sofa now :)

22.00hrs

Erm, thanks.

No really, thanks...

We have found out from Ukko that a 96ktro from their side and a possible 4ktro are to be shown in the competitions here. The next highlights expected are the audio visual competitions, (music and graphics for those of you used to uncomplicated language.

Also witnessed and got caught on the edge of a potentially nasty beer-tap incident. This was frothing and gushing out of control. Wildcat beer tap tamer, Red Adair was called in. Resplendent with his John Wayne and Marlborough Man all-American values, he put it out. Or was that a biopic of Red Adair, played by CHUCK NORRIS!?

23.00hrs

Okay, its all falling apart now!

The gothic lingerie front have returned, to make another of their so-called 'liberation manifestos' set to bump and grind dance music.

They didn't overdress either, a fair bit was disclosed through semi-transparent clothing. The first part of their act was set to the music of the 'Lost Blubb' demo, so it could had led to a likely outburst of 'Lost Blobs' on the part of any overexcited teenage boys in the audience!

The show ended with rapturous applause. We're waiting for the next set of events, presumably the graphics and sound compos.

23.16

Trevor McFurr and the Crescent Galaxy is running on the Jaguar Console set up next door to me. This may be the only game where you are attacked by demo effects. In this case, Glenz Vector polygons.

23.31

Word from 505 is that the compo's will all be run tomorrow night. So guess they either start at 15.00hrs, or be prepared for massive overruns and a very late finish!

SATURDAY

10.20

And reboot....

Shortly after that last log entry, it was decided that we should return to our place of rest. Both your heroic narrator and his trusty assistant were feeling the strain of a very early start and a rather prolonged day in exciting party vibe conditions. Other factors may have also played a part in our loss of interest in staying awake, (Blossom Hill! Blossom Hill! The sounds of corks popping!)

Upon departing, we were confronted with an icing-sugar snowy makeover for the battered but never boring face of Gdansk city. We also had the pleasure of this beginner level snowiness when we returned to the party hall this morning.

Sleep went to plan, as it should, with the lack of same from the night before. A quick headache-banishing coffee shot from the little cubbyhole shop in the school reception is helping to bring me back to normal sentience levels. The party hall is quiet and we're awaiting breakfast.

I'm managed to give Krupkaj a quick guided tour around the HTML version of Mag! Over my shoulder to the left, Samurai and another ex-Inter member are taking a nostalgic tour of remembrance for Falcon 030 demos, 'Beams' is currently playing.

11.07

Breakfast - Yum!

Also grabbed a picture of someone's "technological family heirloom". This is a 1963 manufactured television set. Definitely not high definition, or very flatscreen. Next to it, what looks like a very 1989-styled Atari XL and portable colour teevee of that era are playing the 'Numen' demo.

This monitor will only sync with 1963!

12.21

A gwEm has arrived, bearing tales of journeys delayed by snow and ice, with treasured personal effects being mislaid on the way. Hopefully his guitar hasn't really got lost, but is busily trying to thumb a ride from Berlin to Gdansk as we speak. We've been out to the local supermarket around the corner, taking in views of some of the previously war damaged semi-ruins on the way.

Now Felice has disappeared, presumably on a shopping trip to the centre, gwEm is chatting to 505.

14.06

Been away a while.

For some odd reason, I had the urge to read through Maggie issue 11. This was the strange ginger cousin of an issue, uneasily bestriding the period between Delta Force and their 'teen angst and alienation' approach, and the more upbeat Reservoir Gods assisted issues that followed thereafter.

I was struck by the similarities between that issue and the new one-off Mag! that we're releasing over this weekend. Not so much in the quality control department, as we've hopefully cracked that one by now, but in the circumstances that it was produced. Maggie 11 contained articles from several different writing periods, including a time where articles were supposed to go to the official Delta Force Maggie from late 1992. A batch from Spring 1993 after Sammy Joe had been and donated the source code to us sort of giving us a motivator to do this one for ourselves. There were even a couple of things supposed to go into a stillborn successor production, 'HP-Source', which actually became Maggie 12.

Now with Mag! We've got an even more chaotic situation with the geological strata of textfiles, starting with some that missed their chance for the aborted Alive issue 15. There were a few started for a never arrived Chosneck in 2011 or early 2012. Some things were written for, but not acceptable to the 'Low Res' guidelines. At least one party report was created with no clear idea at all where it was going to end up. Finally we have the batch of things recently made when Mag! was a firm proposition and had a proper deadline.

The other impression from issue 11, was the excitement and uncertainty of the times ahead, with the new wunder machine, the Atari Falcon being discussed and its agonisingly protracted 'reveal' and release process avidly charted, bit by bit in the electronic pages of Maggie 11. With Mag! We have exciting and uncertain times, with new software from the Sillyventure party and others elsewhere keenly awaited and new hardware too from Rodolphe Czuba and others.

So, Maggie 11 and Mag! A strange, almost twenty years bookending of a very significant period of my life. What happens next? That's still to be decided. On current form, it DOES look like the word 'Atari' will continue to feature strongly there.

15.00

Lolling around, but have spotted bits of Emphii's entry for the Falcon. It looks like a demo or intro in the vein of something cutesy, so possibly a 'Gloop!' demo for the 2010's?

16.00

Time for drinkies as gwEm returns from his cultural freezing tour of Gdansk city centre. Now that's the missing ingredient from this part of the party. Beer!

Also Red Bull, as their pleasing to the eye sponsors have made a return,

Next door to us, is the Jaguar fan playing a session with Kobayashu Maru, the Reboot game made with the Raptor game creator, running off a Skunk board.

16.30

I have now played the Reboot game, with the interestingly modified rotary Jaguar controller. This works rather well with the game, but tends to 'pull' easier in a clockwise than anti-clockwise direction. Other people's playing mileage may vary? gwEm's lack of sleep before the party is now catching up with hims, as he is practising the ancient art of deskbound slumber.

17.14

Food arrived on the scene rather suddenly. A close variation of last night but still pretty decent. Two courses has definitely turned into three with the addition of some kind of chocolate cake, with whipped cream.

In other news Wiztom and Partycle have been spotted and acknowledged. I'm sure that a major tale regarding their journey here awaits.

However, the first wave of competitions starts shortly.

Ah, it's lit up again..

17.45

Setok is definitely in the building and wanting to make some noise!

Very usefully,there is a potential ride back to the airport inside the Travelling Salesman landrover, which seats seven, very cosily as I recall.

Still no sign of competitions but there is a lot of activity in the stage area. Also, vote sheets have been issued.

18.14

The moon is over the yardarm, the bar has opened, it's wine o'clock and all other things of that nature. A big screen has also been awakened. It looks like various invitros are being test-run here.

21.01 - Power Outage Special Report!

We've been in the dark for the last few hours!

Shortly after the previous extract was saved, a loud 'Whummp!' from the big speakers to the left of us and a sudden plunging into darkness announced the abrupt termination of the power supply to the party location in the school gym.

A number of laptop screens glowed bravely in the darkness. This was not one of those, having had its dead weight battery removed a few weeks beforehand. Confusion turned to resignation and wanderings to various locations. Eventually someone with a bag of tools and a pissed off expression was seen to be wandering around the school with Grey and a small retinue of people attempting to fix the power loss conundrum.

For a long time, nothing seemed to help. We had lots of nice chats with Samurai of Inter and Front 6. We sympathised and speculated with gwEm. We even enjoyed a demo of Orion's Android phone version of Elansar. This has had its graphics adapted to the different screen size and the UI appears to have been well implemented for a touch screen device too. It has sold around 100 units in the first few days of appearing, which is also good. Most crucially, it didn't need a mains supply! We then exchanged anecdotes of past exploits and rueful expressions with Wiztom and Setok.

The laptop screens started to fade and die one by one, their stored power being given up. The darkness in the hall assumed a quality of swallowing any light that dared to come near it, along with hope. Random lights in the rest of the school flickered on and off as different switches were tried.

No success. The darkness clung ever more tightly to the doomed party place.

Eventually, I was privileged to witness the resolution of the outage, when the electrician bloke swapped some of the fuses around in a circuit box in main reception. A loud cheer announced his success.

So we've now quickly run through both VCS demo entries, with a smasher by Noice, and are taking enjoyment from the Atari Pokey music competition.

21.23

A final disclosure by AdamK advises of three full ST demos, two ST intros, two Falcon games, one of which is 'rather good' according to Felice, and two Falcon intros, which seem to be quite lengthy.

We've had a couple of VCS intros of course. The tally for Atari 8-bit remains unknown, and there's no word yet of the TT demo that was mentioned in a previous conversation before the party.

22.47

We've had a funkadelik set of 8-bit competitions. These seem to be more strongly represented on the 16k intro category, with their last but one being especially impressive managing to combine rasters and girls in high colour, and other effects later on. As a point of interest, 505 seems to be all over the Atari 8-bit music scene like a rash as his name came up in at least two of the credits.

There were only two demos, the second entry more obviously with a 'wow' factor, but the first entry showing a lot of artistry and hard work too, if not quite to my personal taste.

I've compared my votesheet with gwEm and we've come out fairly similarly with how points (from 1 to 10) have been awarded. If anything, I seem to be slightly meaner on some of the categories?

No announcements about what is happening next, especially as there is the entire 16-bit competitions to get through.

gwEm's off to 'imbibe in alcohol'. Good move. Mine's been a pint of wine!

gWEm is offering serious wine imbibing competition to Felice!

SUNDAY

00.47

We've endured a bum-numbing series of game competitions with one or two highlights. The main one being a decent Falcon beat-em-up in the style of Mortal Kombat or Double Dragon but with decently drawn sprites. This was very much in the style of a console game, not a common thing on the Falcy.

Unfortunately, either the material or presentation tended to lack something for the Atari 8-bit games. However, we did get a 50% version of the Jaguar version of Elansar too. The two Falcon games forecast was correct.

Almost on the final lap, Atari ST is being connected for their share of the competitions, so who knows how much longer we have to go?

02.10

Update on the Atari ST intros.

Live are owning both 4k and 96k categories. The latter entry was 'Terrorise Your Soul' on an ST, with up to date effects. So far, the 'wow!' entry of the evening.

ST Demo's due now....

02.35

ST Demos have been, the Cerebral Vortex category pretty much won that one. We had a last minute intervention from ISO who wanted to introduce their brand of Finnish demo scene culture to Poland.

Now awaiting the Falcon category.

In other news, gwEm has just died, again, playing Degz on our tame Jaguar.

Falcon music, Ace Tracker screen is being presented...

03.27

End of the compos?

Falcon had two entries, one from Paradox taking the twentieth anniversary tribute theme very seriously. The other being a taster for something much better in the future from the CT60 by revived people such as Samurai in conjunction with 505. We also had a nice intro from Extream as well,

Not quite the end. there's a couple of wild compo entries to follow.

03.40

Wild compo provided a nice little surprise at the end with a music disk released under the Aggression label on the STE.

We are getting very close to breaking point. I think the last entry is PeeCee based, so not a big loss if missed?

Back laters, I think this is signing off time for tonight.

10.00hrs

I'm very conscious of the following.

People are packing up around us, and this connection to the power supply may be tenuous.

This laptop has no battery in it, so a sudden termination of text might be a distinct possibility!

So I'm not sure how much in the way of 'after party reflections' will get in here until after I've got home.

So overall, and moving quickly just in case, it was another classic set of compos, even in spite of the yawning chasm with no power in it at the start. Or perhaps because of this, people pulling together and all that goes with it? The entries weren't quite on the same level as last year, but there were some goodies, and at least one smasher, with the 96ktro from Live! completely dominating there.

Come to think, the best work on the 8-bitters came in their intro category too.

The Falcon was duly celebrated by Paradox with their tribute demo. We had something of a taster for a CT60 music disk, but that was a preview state only. Out of a pile of disordered and sleep deprived memories, Cerebral Vortex showed a very nice demo for the STE as well. Oh yes, there was that cute intro from Emphii for the Falcon as well, and a 4ktro, also from Live! is tugging at my trouser leg and demanding that I acknowledge its excellence as well. There were others, some nice ones and funny ones, but my brain is really shot to hell right now!

It's also worth spending a moment or two on what wasn't seen at this year's party too. We didn't get any follow-up from Cyg to the sensual 'STreetart' this time around. He still seems to be coding actively, but nothing for any demo at the moment. We also missed out on the TT demo that was discussed briefly, so whether that was a real intention let down by circumstances and bad luck, or vapourware, I couldn't tell? We also seem to have lost Visy and a big VCS 2600 demo that was mentioned to me some time before the party. At least we've seen what is hopefully the final version of the Dune and Sector One demo 'UFO'. Will this now be properly released? As gwEm loudly queried across the party hall! (Post party note:- Happily, the answer there is 'yes'.)

This edition of Sillyventure may have suffered more from the pressure of passing time, as a three day program was crammed into two days. Not too much was lost, and as always, the only cost at the end was sleep! And we can all sleep as much as we like when we're dead!

As always, people make a party, and it was a pleasure to meet so many again.

Grey was the genial host as always, AdamK our awesomely swift and efficient driver and the compo organiser. Once the power issue had been settled. The compos were run through without any undue delays, which was a definite improvement on a lot of parties!

We met a lot of nice Polish people who's name elude me, There was the chap who is involved with Lotharek and his hardware operation, who works in Dublin, who had a very pleasant chat with me on the Friday night outside in the clear coldness.

A "thing" belonging to Lotharek!

Of the international contingent, there was a fair sprinkling. Emphii of Extream was eventually joined by fellow Finns Wiztom, Partycle and a trilby hat with Setok parked underneath it. The travelling salesman made it to Gdansk after all!

We had an enhanced froggie contingent, including usual suspects Chuck and Zerkman, joined by another Dune member (name here) and Orion, who is a really nice chap to finally meet in the flesh. He brought with him a preview of the Jaguar version of Elansar as well as the Cerebral Vortex demo.

The Germans had some interesting representation, with 505's reliable presence being further enhanced by old Falcon scene veterans Samurai and Front 6 of Inter! It looks like a revival of sorts is underway there too, as that CT60 might be Samurai's? Paradox didn't make it this time, but did send an entry, which was appreciated.

The Czech republic was ably represented by the ever friendly Krupkaj.

Okay, I think I can leave this unattended for a minute, see if there is any chance of breakfast?

10.32

Breakfast, not quite yet...

No breakfast currently. But this will be available later, so we haven't missed anything there. There isn't even a cup of coffee from the cubby hole shop in reception to be had, as that place is closed and locked up.

So we're awaiting the results now.

Another thankful mention needs to go to Reboot for their excellent Jaguar games, 'Degz' and 'Kobayashi Maru', both of which successfully whiled away the intervals between competitions, and in one or two cases, intervals between compo entries!

10.44

I'm inclined to draw a wobbly line under this part of the text for now, to let Felice, who has returned, to be able to pack up his power adaptor.

CiH - Back later, with the final part of this report!

Wednesday the 12th December - Lessons learned about leaving things for too long!

Events trickled along in the slow aftermath manner that they often do at these sort of occasions. We did get breakfast shortly after the last text was written. I took the opportunity to speak to the friendly catering organiser, found out that he was a returning Yankee, of Polish descent, coming from California to Gdansk! He feels that his chances for a good life are actually better here than in the USA. He may have a point?

The slow dissolution follows. Precious retro computery is packed away, desks and chairs gradually start to move out the hall too. Travelling light and only having rucksacks with us, means that it only takes a handful of seconds to slot our laptops in the available space, zip up and put everything to one side when done.

The French team return, with a potentially massive demo scene drama, as Chuck appears to have mislaid his passport! Noxious flashbacks to Mekka Symposium 2002 assail my brain as Chuck frantically ferrets through all his pockets, including some that he didn't realise he had before.

To hopefully avert getting ever deeper into the Merde, Chuck with a search party makes his way back to the Hostel to see if the errant document has got stuck there.

Happily for everyone, especially Chuck. the passport was located at the back of a wardrobe, where it had fallen when it was placed there.

A prize-giving ceremony gets in there too. Expected winners are expected and called to the front of the hall, so the first place winners follow.

Not unexpectedly, 'Liquid Candy', the excellent VCS 2600 demo from Noice. A stunning Jack Tramiel tribute picture won the Atari 8-bit graphics. "Rasters, Girls, Beer, Atari' took a 16k intro category by storm, with 'Boogie Nights' winning the big demo compo for the Atari XL/XE series.

For their 16-bit cousins, 505 gets a deserved first place for his sound chip music entry, Fujiyama wins a strong Atari ST graphics competition. 'Skit' turns out to the the sole 4ktro for the ST, but it is a good 'un! 'Muda' by Live! smashes the 96ktro category, and is probably the outstanding smasher for the whole party.

'C++ is Forbidden' provides Cerebral Vortex's winner for the ST demo comp.

The Atari Falcon is less well represented in the demo arena, but with a nostalgic tribute from Paradox wrapping the main demo comp up, Extream released a cute intro for the 96k. Where the Falcon scored best was in the combined games compo, with 'Beats of Rage', Dune's successful attempt to provide a Neo-Geo style gaming experience on the Falcon 030 with a decent beat-em up.

Finally, from last night, at almost at the last minute before we went to bed, the long delayed 'UFO' demo from Dune finally achieved escape velocity from Chuck's hard drive!

The prize-giving is over. Even more of the cluttered party infrastructure has gone. The realtime article was seemingly there one minute, then removed whilst my back was turned and gone in a slow blink. The remaining people disappear in the next hour or so, the clean-up crew are working with a vengeance. For our travel arrangements for the return trip to the airport, it has been pre-arranged that a party of us will travel in Setok's famous 'Travelling Salesman' Landrover. However, there is no sign of Setok, having had a very late night, he has disappeared in the direction of his rented bed. Attempts by Partycle to get information from Setok about his current status result in extracts from the lyrics of 'Fairytale of New York' being repeated back to him on a very sleep-slurred basis.

Partycle, no doubt disconcerted about being called an 'Old slut on junk' and a 'Cheap lousy faggot' by a sleepy Setok wisely decides to leave him alone for a bit.

We are left alone with a bare gym-hall and our recollections of the party. That is, myself, Felice, gwEm, Wiztom and Partycle, as well as 505 and fellow Germans Samurai and Front 6.

Eventually, whilst gwEm and I are unfondly recalling P.E. lessons of school history in the now oppressively school gym-like former party hall, the head pogue himself, enters the hall and collapses onto the matting.

The journey back starts soon after. I recall from the final Alt Party that travelling in the Travelling Salesman Landrover was, interesting. An epic feat of adding seven people to the vehicle, already loaded with 'stuff' and adding our possessions in there too took place this time. It was like travelling under a motorised landslide. The suspension was especially keen to address tough questions to the unevenness of the Gdansk old town roads.

This rough and ready but fun journey terminates into an icy blast at Lech Walenska Airport and we hurry into the cocooning warmth of the new terminal building. Apart from gwEm, who undertakes a lonely journey to the other building to find out if there is any news from his missing guitar. He rejoins us presently. There isn't. (There is a happy ending, as it was located with 500 other pieces of mislaid baggage in the end!)

Having a bit of time to relax, we do so, taking on essential food and beverage supplies from a nicer than average airport cafe. There is an opportunity for group photos, and also a problem for Front 6 and Samurai to deal with, as their Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt has been cancelled without apparent explanation.

An attempt to get an alternative flight back with LOT was not successful, but overnight accommodation was provided for an extra day in Gdansk and an eventual safe return to the Fatherland followed on Monday.

Meanwhile, time trickles pleasantly by, 505 checks in for his Berlin-bound flight, and we then have to meet with our flight of destiny to lovely Luton airport. The approach to security s made in a slow motion blur. Funnily enough, no issues with our 'too big' plastic toiletry bags at this end. In fact we're able to get through without incident or issue.

Making our way to the gate, we bid farewell to 505 and join the shuffling queue waiting to get onto our Wizzair flight. At this point, we reunite with Sqward and another Polski scenes who is making his way back to the UK, who is un-named for the minute. It may even be the chap I spoke to outside on Friday night?

Due to a nice accident of timing, boarding has started and we are soon boarding the funkily painted purple aircraft, shrugging off more icy blasts as we do so. Felice and I find seats next to Sqward, gwEm gets himself separated.

The captain is speaking and announcing a "Swissair" flight in slightly imperfect English! A momentary stab of panic until the Polski accent recognition filters kick in, and I recall that my bum is correctly placed in the seat that was booked for it earlier!

There is not much to add. Sqward opts for a table tray down and slumped unconsciousness approach pretty much all the way back. No-one else is speaking too much. The arrival is on time and we gratefully exit. Even lovely Luton airport is on its best behaviour tonight, the E-passport gates allow me through, the facial recognition software not being crappy about my overall appearance after all. We reunite and say farewell to gwEm in the baggage reclaim area.

Even the car park transfer bus is zooming away awesomely quickly, and after driving like a maniac, in a good way, Felice gets us back to Bar Hill in record time. An awesome chilli prepared by Paula, which was almost inhaled by me, provided a welcome break before the last part of my journey home. This features nice calm conditions at night, some easy late night soul music on the car radio, and even that rarest of things, a parking space available very late in my street at home!

And that draws a line under Sillyventure 2012..

CiH for Mag! in 2012..

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