INTERNATIONAL CHRISTMAS CODING CONVENTION 2000
(10TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION)
THE REAL-TIME ARTICLE

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15TH 2000 - SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17TH 2000

 

Friday the 15th - Saturday the 16th - Sunday the 17th

 

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15 2000

 

Here it is, merry Crimble, ten years after the original STNICCC, the tenth anniversary returns, for the rematch of the evenge. At this point in time, it is CiH of Maggie, also of Alive! Diskmag, on the keys, and desperately trying to make things work.
We got here late yesterday, or very early this morning. A quick overnight stop at the residence of the Karsmakers later, and we are fit and ready for two and a half days of non-stop partying!!
We managed a visit to Amsterdam, city of heavy rain showers stepping smartly in at ten minute intervals, and funny little shops with drug-related memorabilia. We ended up at a microminaturised Dutch bar, which seats about a dozen people, and a few drinkies later, I am warmly glowing inside. Not horribly smashed you understand, just comfortable.
The rules, if any for this realtime, are as follows. Fingers are good for text-inputting, excellent, in fact. A time stamp, would be good, such as the one I've forgotten up to now, which is...

18.50 hrs, but I think this watch is a minute or so slow.

Also, this machine should be left absolutely alone, apart from the purposes of realtime writing.
Apart from that, happy text entering!!

CiH at 18.53 hrs...

Ok, I'm the first Synergy member in, and, I hate to say, I probably will be the last one. Nevertheless, I'm already feeling the fibes.... Ah yeah, let's have a bear.... Rapido signing off....

Yo!
It's 07:30pm, we just arrived Furyo, Dim,Yoko, Benoit and me,(MrBee)...
We meet some french guys...
Let's start with some foods... (Nice english isn't it? :()

John Hayward 19:36

Had a interesting wander around Amsterdam today, visiting all kinds of shops including the obvious ones we expected to find :o) As Chris mentioned earlier we relaxed for a while in a small but pleasant back street traditional Dutch bar. Horrified at the cost at parking (some distance away from Amsterdam) which necessitated a train ride into the city centre.
Back now at the venue, and its comfortable and warm in this IT training centre, plus we get free use of some PCs with permenantly plumbed in ADSL connection to the net. :o)
Only a small number of people here, but things are warming up. :o) /|\

Hotmailer 19:43

Well, finally...I've made it to Sassenheim...after 2,5 hours by car from Tilburg....stupid traffic jams...
Enough about that.....it's good to see (almost) everyone back again...a lot has changed since the 1st STNICCC, but the people still look just the same. LOL I hope this event can compete with the original STNICCC......Hotmailer signing off....

Alex Holland 19:50

Well I was the first here, and its just starting to take off. There are quite a few people here who speak english... Wow I feel like an idiot as I can only speak English.
Got to go for some more Free coca cola.

CiH - 19:58

I've eaten, it's more food in a bun style, but weirdness rules in the restaurant, as they insert the fillings, before they put the butter in? Overlanders scattered all around, set up in the next room. All the better to keep an eye on this lot!!

Mysteria 20:15

OK, this takes some getting used. I am talking about this spongy Atari ST keyboard. Though I have been using it for many years, I am now used to PC keyboards... I saw a demo from 10 years ago. That brought back some memories. It's fun to meet people I haven't seen for a while, which is what I am going to be doing again now.

Mysteria 20:21

I just read the whole text (up to this point) and Rapido is wrong. Synergy is now represented by two people!

CiH - 20:32

Damn.. got to go, someone else wants this..

20:36

Yeah and we want it now, mighty Mad Butscher / Foundation Two just arrive.

20:37

Yes, Yes, Yes, we finally arrived at STNICCC. And i just see lame PCs.

Mr.XY - GoreMaster of the GoreZone

20:43

It's been ages, literally (I am afraid) that I have touched an ST, or written anything in a real-time article, that kind of thing. Thankfully there is a regular ST here instead of the ST Book that I entering some, um, enterings in during summer of 1999's FUN-organised thing in Utrecht.
I have to say it feels really good to meet all these old friends as well as some of the new people that are still redefining borders on ST and Falcon.
No doubt I will write quite a few more times, so for now I'll stop.

Richard

21.00

Und nun ist die deutsche Elite wieder DA!!!!! Naja, ein aus England ausgewiesener Schwabe ist auch dabei, das heisst Daryl of TEX, Chris of TGE and Sammy Joe of The Lost Boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sammy Joe

21:01

I like this keyboard. It has a warm feeling of nostalgia *sigh*. So we finally arrived here, ran into people out of the old days. Great coffee btw.

tIn/absence./The Independent

21:08

Well, nice start this time... We`ll see what`s going on here...see you all...

mr.coke/absence(atari)/smash designs(PC)

20.58

This watch is slow, or there has been a time-slippage effect in STNICCC?!
Seeing all these old people gives me a warm runny feeling, or should I make an effort to find the toilets by now?
They seem to be all busy...... Web Browsing????
But seriously, Sammy Joe is here, less hair, which has been shaved off and used to make a small replica of himself. Or if he is to be believed, the normal biological processes that make a proud father!?! Scary thought, all these coding-literate babies running around the shambling decrepit wrecks of their famous fathers at the 20th anniversary STNICCC reunion!

CiH

21:01

The first (probably?) from Delta Force is there.... Chaos, Inc. is penetrating the keyboard again.... Will just look around to meet some guys and come back tomorrow morning. Lots of people here! Hang on!

Till

21:20

No idea if some folks from ULM have already written something here. So well, I can tell you that me and The Fate have arrived some hours ago. And also Chris is now here. Great to see people again after so long time.

Gunstick

Around 10 o clock, Perceval / Zuul

1st of all Richard did not learn from his mistake of 10 years ago and the keyboard is still an godamned qwerty one. What are we, us poor French,supposed to do?
Being one of the original of ten years ago, I gotta admit I didn't recognize anyone when coming here (except Richard, that goes without saying).

The ambiance is a bit cold, but it will warm up within the next 48 hrs. I have no idea what us, non computer freaks, are gonna do but I guess we will just have to find out. Holland has plenty of things to other to chill out!
Travelling from France was hell as our rental car broke. Not so sure we are gonna make it back to the hotel tonight!!!!
Wait and see. Stay tuned on STNICCC for further developments!

A tad later... Would probably mean 21:32...
(Perceval is definitely out of his time.)

I won't rant about the qwerty keyboard... I got used to loving it. But the feel! Spongy! Would you believe we could actually *do* something typing on small inanimate sea animals!
Well, so far we've had a pretty eventful day :
1 Lost his passport before leaving
1 Forgot his bag at his hotel
The second 1 had inadvertently taken first 1's passport
The car we rented has finally decided to die on us...
Nice checklist for a begining!!
As to the rest, feels nice meeting back all people I haven't seen in ages! Yet, it is true the ambience feels a little cool for now... Hopefully it won't stay that way long. It's the re-aquainting period of the STNICCC's 10th Anniversary Edition

Fury signing off...

21.47.

More people arriving, some of them with hardware other than PC's. Seems to be the odd 8-Bit in the building too. Very odd 8-Bits, these run hard drives... Not sure what is happening in the weird world of the competition entries yet, Tinker is roaming around the building, fingers champing aimlessly at empty air in search of a spare machine?
Not a lot now, more later...

CiH

22:06

Well we just arrived at the lanalyst place and will only be for some hours here, but we've been there and that's the most important thing. Oke signing off for now, just walk a little around and see what's happening.

Wingleader / Bonus

You know, that old feeling is starting to come back again. That real Atari feeling I mean. Good old times, but I am starting to sound like an old man (and I am). So lets talk to some other people, maybe later type something more...

Bonus / Wingleader

22.12.

Activity report. Looks like Overlanders are doing something hardcore coding related at the back of their room. Also DBug of NeXT is in the building, he has brought his Oric Atmos with him!!!
Falcon emulator in Oric???

CiH

22:21

Finally I made it to find some time to spread some thoughts about the wonderfull "bathroom" we`re having here throughout the world... *fg* well, in reality you would call it: a 2man toilett... but nevertheless it seems that we are havin` lotsa fun here, not to forget Amsterdam is really near ;-) I hope the frenchies like Fabrice will not to intend to behave here, remembering the mighty party in Marseille also nearly 10 Years ago... enough for now.

CHRIS of ULM *let me be your partyguide*

22.58.

What, no-one in all this time?
Saw DBug ripping the piss wickedly with his Oric Atmos stuff, and a revisit of the Atari 8-bit demos too. Everyone else realises they are lazy f*ckers by comparison!?

CiH

23:05

People playing music in this room now...

Done a bit of driving today down to Amsterdam with CiH and John, parked the car at the airport and got the train down to 'Dam itself. It was a bit rainy there some of the time today, nevertheless we certainly saw some eye-openers and were even offered some drugs by an Asian guy there too. We also walked past (maybe go in on Monday or sometime) 'Dams' infamous sex museum.... should be a laugh, particularly if it's anything like that sex shop we also toddled into this afternoon. Loads of copies of Teenage Sex available to look at (no buying this time) but compared to the sealed copies on sale at Harmony in London it's cool :)
Party is getting cooler by the minute, finally saw Bonus and Wingie again after I dunno how long...

Felice.

23:42

Well, finally arrived... fucking long trip to Holland, 12 hours and 30 minutes!

defjam/checkpoint

23.48

Alcohol fumes are building in this room, will float away before too long...
Havoc, Defjam and mOdmate are in the building. Havoc completes graphics to deadline shock, as the Maggie Intro stuff is ready. Just need Earx and a few last minute bits to complete it now.

CiH

 

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16 2000

 

00:07

A new day, a new face... New? Not really... TNS in da houze! RADICAAAL!! No, I haven't changed that much, it just the exuberance of being here that inspires me to write the dance to which my synapses are moving down into this electronic mega-brain, called... eeh... 520ST... Doh!
Anyways, It's cool to be here, it's nice to see friends and long-lost acquaintances, like the above-writing Felice!!! Hello, hello whereever you are...
***SHAMELESS PLUG***
http://www.buffybuffybuffy.net/forum.html
the only official STNICCC2000 forum!
WRITE THERE TOOOOOO!!!
***END OF PLUG***

TNS

Let's time warp!

It's 21:32... forget about it being cool... It's getting swell!
Everything is coming back, the why the how, the reason for all we did!
42.

Fury

Unwarping fo emit... it's 00:18

12:05

tSCc has arrived! a world class wreckin cru! L ;-)

Fury / Legacy

00:09

I don't really know what happened to me, but ever since about an hour I've been feeling really peaceful and resigned. I've installed all the rooms that need to be installed, and people seem to be finding their place here, settling in with ST systems, Falcons, old Atari XLs, and of course a couple of PC's.
It's just like the old days, only with different people. And quite a few of the old people have already arrived as well. You can see them being amazed at the fact that there are still people doing seriously hard coding on Atari!

Richard (Cronos)

00.38

Damn, the Nemesis Falcy is suffering from heatstroke, and is taking a little lie-down right now. I think my decision to get the difficult scrungy bits of Maggie done before STNICC is paying off. I'll have to leave it switched off for a while before attempting the final archiving and copying.
Never mind that, here's a little distraction.
Let's play...
"WHO WANTS TO BE A LIRE MILLIONAIRE!"
(Fast forward to the final crucial question, for that one million Lire prize...)
Host - "And for the million lire question... How many legs does an antelope have?"
"Is it, one, two, two and a half, or four?"
"Now, contestant, take your time please!"
Contestant - "Erm, I think I'll have to go for the 50-50.."
(Answer board dissolves two of the four answers.)
Contestant - "Now, a choice between two and a half, and four.. I'll go for.... Two and a half!"
Host - "Are you REALLY sure that's your final answer!?"
Contestant (Crossly) - "Yes of course I am!"
Host (Slumped in his chair with the look of a man who has caved in totally to the manyfold pressures of life) - "Okay, let's see what it is.. (sigh)"
"Well, Mrs Figgis, You're not going home with half a million lire, but NOTHING AT ALL! It was four legs, you stupid no-brained tart!"
Contestant - "Suits me fine, the prize money was shit anyway!!"
Okay, that took us to 00.47, so let's leave it for now...

CiH

1:06 am

Host: "You are the weakest link! Goodbye..."
Contestant walks off in a huff....
hehe

Felice.

01:25

It seems like people are getting a little more quiet now. There's chip music playing all over the place, there might be some demo coding going on somewhere...
Signing off for the moment is...

Richard (I mean Cronos, obviously)

01.30

Looks real nice overhere, taken a place among the crowd. Trying to install some stuff.

D-Force / FUN

02.08

Took my Mega STe from the attic yesterday. After more than 6 years of inactivity the time and date settings were still ok! They don't make backup batteries like that anymore! Nostalgia galore from the moment I switched it on...

Homeboy from DDC.

02.36

It's oh so quiet in here. All the mad Germans are out of the room, out on the town, and out of their tiny little brains by now. The other Germans, tSCc, are at the back of our room, and seem to be up to... Something? The Overlanders have abandoned their posts, presumably the better to compete with the Schussler mob in old Amsterdam?

Havoc - Big air pumps rule!

This realtime is a little under seven hours old. Not breaking any textually based land speed records, but limping along quite well.

CiH

3.10.

I've just seen an video from the past. STINICCC 10 years ago. What fun!!! All the guys where there. Richard was doing his abstract thingy and he was fab!. I didn't grasp it then and I don't really dig it now: it's great!
Today, I met Ziggy Stardust personally, and I've alway wanted to. He's was my inspiration to do 3D. Although Nick from the Carebears was the promised hero, Ziggy from the Overlanders had my vote! If you l you can see what Ziggy (and Mcode and Mr. Bee) did way back at STINCCC 1990 - is very.... Great!!! I just copied it.....OVerlanders rulez..... They still do... In my humble opinion, I want to say 'thank you' to Richard because he made it happen. Ten years ago and now...... Thanx Richard, I'm having a great time because you did all the hard work!

03.42

And there the extract ends? Who was that man, who was he talking to, how much laughing juice had he consumed beforehand?

CiH

03.46

Time to sleep now. It is harder and harder to stay alive!

R.V.

03.50hrs..

We just had a lucky escape, somewhere, Ghost virus had got onto the realtime disks! Now, they've been cleaned up, and we've restarted the RTA.

CiH

03:55

I am not just tired at all. Saying that, I reckon, is probably the surest sign of denial. Well what the heck.
The number of competition entries is beginning to worry me somewhat. The way it looks now, every single entry, no matter how totally crap, will win the main prize! That's not what these competitions are for, is it?
I might have to do a lot more promotion for this stuff. Just imagine, having to actually go through trouble to get rid of yer prizes!
Right now the party is definitely settling down. I have discovered that there is a certain universality about parties like this. First there's a lot of intense fun, people going "hi" and "haven't seen you in a while", then firing up their computers accompanied by the blip-blop sounds we all know and love. There's a lot of laughter, and then after a while (sortof closer to 2 AM) things start to be a bit more silent. One or two people start to talk a lot, thick-tongued, and the rest do one of several things: a) go back home if they happen to live close enough to find their own bed quickly, b) go and find a relatively silent spot to sleep, c) sit down with some more determination and try to get rid of that last little bug or two.
My eyes are getting heavy, too, but I won't be beaten so easily, not by father time anyway.
I do hear my thin foamy mattress calling like the very sirens of the seas, though. Might check out my pillow up close soon.
I guess I'm not quite as strong-willed as I thought!

Cronos

04:15
The real-time article is much too far away from the entrance, where all the ppl can see and write to it. So we can't take it serious. Lets move it move it move it...

04:39

Bloody hell, it's d*mn late (or early?!?!). We didn't get younger the last ten years, so it's time to get to sleep. Almost for me.

Daryl/TEX

04.45

Might be time for bed, don't really feel that tired, but I'll regret it later for sure, if I don't make a pretence of getting some sleep.

CiH

04.49

Hoi ladies & gentlemen!
This place is really special, just like the party itself. Maybe the STNICCC 2010 will happen in a submarine, or a spaceship. Who knows. I just really like it.
Zerkman^Sector One

05:08 am

Whaouuu, already the morning!
I've to find a location for sleepling :)
(Hum, forget to say that the STNICCC rules)

Dbug/NeXT

5:39

I was that guy that was giving the Overlanders the credits they deserve. I won't do it again. Still having a great time though. If you didn't guess already, I'm Rapido from Synergy. I'm trying to beat my record of being alive (not sleeping) for 58 hours, which happens to be my record at Fried Bits I. Still feel bad that I can't attend Fried Bits III. I met a lot of new Dutch groups which are really into ST/Falcon. I wish I could still have that mindset but I'm to narrow minded now.... OK, I think everyone is having a good time.... sleeping!!!!!
See ya later,

06.06.

CiH back again. Out for an hour, not proper sleep. I can see an Alt party situation coming up, where I start 'browning out' during the day. The realtime is running in a darkened and very quiet room. Let's go play Mr Axe Murderer in the dark for now!

6:15 am

Hi there! Well we, eg. chris of ULM and Mike, just came back from our trip to Amsterdam. Funny and even more funny stuff happend... ;-) Hm, maybe you should visit this town at least once in your life!

6:39 am

Hmm, it's quite quiet around the place now, most die hards are coding, making music or something alike, some are actualy sleeping under their computer tables :-) (u know who you are!) i'm gonna visit sector one as soon as i know where they are :P damn this building is massive... great party place :) credits go to cronos for making it posible, and i greet all who have come...

NUT - Fun Industries (one of the newer sceners)

7:42 am

Wow... its already in the morning and Im still not tired... hmmmm...must be the excitement ;-) Anyway I still miss some people here...

MC Laser/The Sirius Cybernetics Corp.

08.16

Hit my knee on the table leg, owww! Fuck!!
Off to learn to walk again....

CiH

8:??

It seems I've forgotten to get some sleep... I'm getting unable to think to anything else than a bed, what could it mean ??? There has been some strange YMCA vibes in the party place, I don't know where it came from but Zerkman was in that area it seems... ;)

stghost

Hmm, i think i'm not the only one that isn't getting any sleep here ;) Still having a great time and trying to finish some tunes.

D-Force

09.30

Breakfast rules! - I think we gatecrashed the wrong party, the quality of the catering is fantastic! Bacon butties made from hot fresh bread rolls rules even more! I'm waiting for someone to come along and throw us out, as this is really a conference for "Whither the future of the WAP phone?" - attended by various dull sods in suits!
Time for another digression...
Some Polish television people were cleaning out their cupboards of old communist era material, and guess what, they found the pilot episode of "WHO WANTS TO BE A ZLOTY MILLIONAIRE!"
Bear with me, it's early, and I'm still trying to get this one together properly...
Host - "What famous song, did the Polish Punk band, the Copulating Howitzers write in 1977?"
"Was it 'Anarchy in the UK?' or 'Monarchy in the Ukraine', or 'The proletariat march firmly behind our glorious president, or 'Anchovy in the U-bend?'"
Contestant - "Ermm, was it Anchovy in the U-bend?"
Host - "Now what made you go for that answer?"
Contestant - "I wrote the song myself, it's a tale of one man's trauma at losing his pet fish down the toilet, a heartbreaking ballad of love, loss, and gurgling watery noises, as Annie, the anchovy, disappears for ever!"
Host - "You are right, but wrong at the same time. You will be adjusted until the correct answer is forthcoming!"
Contestant - "But don't I get to be a Zloty millionaire, and be able to purchase the family automobile, made out of cardboard, with the spluttery two-stroke engine??"
Host - "Regrettably no, you lose some, then you lose some more!"
- End transmission -
By the beard of Jake Mulgrew, that was rubbish, wasn't it!

CiH

[ 10:11 ] PM

Hi... damn I still haven't found an ST to do some work on. I wonder if I can secretly nick this 520 STE I'm typing on atm. Naaah, I'm a true supporter of the real-time artice, so no worries, all who are yet to add to this precious piece of literature.
Oh yes and breakfast was great! Donuts, eggs, croissants. hmmmm... beer...

Phenomenon ^ Teenage

1o:4o

Hello people, I just wanted to shout a big "Hi!" to all people that made it to the STNICCC. You keep the spirit alive!

mOdmate/CPt

10:46

Hello! Mr Carbon has made it all the way from Manchester. I said I would be here, and I kept my promise. Hey! Where is everyone going? Don't leave!!

11:12

Stefan arrived just now, and that means the actual stuff is really beginning. It's not quite a cool convention if the original organiser isn't there...and now he is!

Cronos

11:30

Wow I haven't typed anything on a ST for many years. This is Stefan, I arrived last night from Vancouver and just drove out here from my parent's house in Den Bosch. My flight was overbooked so they put me in business class so | had a nice and comfy flight. Hhm I also can't get over the fact how small this SM125 monitor really is.
I am going to wander around the place a bit to see who is here.

Stefan

11:36

Wahhhh.....at last i'm awake!!......just after a couple of hours sleep..that certainly brings back memories! ;-) It's pretty funny to see that so many people still can work with the good ol' ST...

Hotmailer

11:55

This is not me. This cannot be me. I have not typed enough in this real-time article. I should overtake EVERYONE by typing the most inane stupidity in here... Well, I can tell you what I did last night. Sleep was certainly not one of them.
I started out by (finally) registering my own vanity-domain: crouzen.com (Crouzen being my surname). It took long enough for the DNS servers to propagate my domain, but it has been 'alive' since around 8 'o clock this morning.
Also, I got this brilliant idea for an open-source project: A very special jukebox. If you're a bit familiar with open source, and you want to help out, maybe you can find it on sourceforge.net shortly. I submitted my plan, and it should come through within the timespan of the convention. It will be called 'OfficePlay' and I'm also thinking about getting either officeplay.net or officeplay.org - I will update when I have more info.
I will be back soon!

TNS

12:09

You know, I actually slept pretty well, and woke up just in time to get some breakfast inserted in the particular bits of me that seem to want stuff that like that occasionally. Breakfast was better than I had expected, I feel more rested that I had expected, the weather is worse than I had expected. All in all, it's a pretty eventful day with all kinds of things happening that I hadn't expected.
Yesterday's cycle (lots of talking, lots of blip-blop) has started anew. I like this.

Cronos

12:15pm Stick - Ripped-Off

Wiz & I arrived here at the excellent MInd-IT facilities about 2 hours ago. We actually arrived in Amsterdam at 9am yesterday (Friday), but due to chain of events beyond our control, we arrived at the excellent Sassenheim Hotel (about 5mins walk from the event) at 9am last night.
By the time we'd had a shoer & a few beers it was sleep time.....
I've already met up with a few people that I knew or had met on the ST scene - Although everyone is now 10 years older, you can still recognise most people!
I've realised how bad the ST keyboard was...
Anyway, I hope to keep my typings here more sensible than those I made at Delta Force's #ICC2.
Bye fer now.

12:35pm

It seems my long hair is causing people not to recognise me. I get long stares followed by those typical facial expressions someone goes through during the process of slow memory retrieval. "aaahhh Stefan!" they finally enthuse and shake my hand.
Yep it's me.
Someone is playing some very strange music. I am also getting back into the old ST keyboard again since I have no trouble typing anymore. So much nostalgia here!

Stefan (Digital Insanity of ST NEWS and The Lost Boys)

12.56.

Earx has arrived in the building, intro for Maggie to follow. At least as soon as he has reacquainted himself with the joys of working with a low memory (4mb) Falcon!?
Shouldn't be too long now. Lunch in a couple of minutes..

CiH

13:56

Here is Slimer typing his last entry in an realtime article. I have been here for an hour or so and are about to depart again. The party is rather dull(for me at least)and I have no entention to hang about. I give my regards to the Maggie team(CiH and Felice), Richard K., Energizer(Laser), Havoc and people I forgot. This must be shortest visit to a party ever!
Oh, well maybe I have changed too much. Maybe it is my age or it is the timeframe I am in. God knows(I think).
Bye bye,

Slimer

14:06

Earx on this keyboard.. arrived about an hour ago. Must say, a fantastic location, certainly one of the beST I've seen! Phew. Just managed to get the last bits done for the maggie 29 intro. Now of give that to CiH. cya!

Time is unknown...

With that, I do not mean what it says, but just that I do not know what time it is. Mysteria here, returning from... Sleep. Yeah, I had a rough week and needed to get some sleep. 10 years ago, it was fun fun fun, now I actually have a job... and responsibility... How did it come to this? I may never know. I just read a leaflet from EA Canada. It does sound interesting, and programming games has always been fun. Perhaps I will go do something in that area... Now back to RL.

15.02

Well some clever bast removed the control panel from view, so how would you be able to get an inkling of the time!
Anyway, the Maggie 10th Anniversary issue, is finished, finito, all done, as far as the limits of paranoia and archiving allow. At the moment, Felice is trying to DCC to a waiting outside world. Could take a while, even with a high-speed connection, so no breath-holding, y'hear!
Even the Nemesis bodge-box dodgy keyboard Falcon behaved itself at this crucial time.
Providing it all doesn't stuff at this last hurdle, then time to really relax!
(Collapsing with relief sound effects...)

CiH

16:30

I'm getting sleepy. 9 hour time difference makes me want to sleep.
Yawn...

Stefan

16h35

Utterly scandalous!
Where is the beer?
We have about 4 PC per person but no beer?
Why do you think we drove all the way to Holland for?
Stop coding and get a life, damnit!!!!!!!!!!
If at least they where some Sts with games running...
Nostalgia SUCKS

Perceval / Season of Mist / Zuul / etc etc. Are you really reading this anyway?

16:41

New day... New car... A cursing snake in my back...Shiver!
Have to give up the keys fast or else die in the attempt!
Some more old heads have shown up... There have been some major changes on some of them since last beheld by my eyes... Stefan with *long* hair ! He can now headbang without the need of his faithful headbanging towel!!!
What more is there to be ?

Fabrice

17:00

AEnigmatica grows! Yes! Forsooth! Not only do I, The Nutty Snake, defend the honour and glory of the olden days, but I have been joined by Crush, ZoKathRa and even Relayer. I looked around, saw the Genesy 82-track remix, and decided that it was good... Forsooth!

TNS

17.05

Bunch of old scene blokes crowded around a blazing scrolltext. All work comes to a stop in the Overlanders room. Listen to that soundchip, hug yourself with glee at each new scrolly pixel. Okay, it wasn't too bad at all. My favourite screen from Genesys was the 'singing heads' screen.
Just spent the preceding half-hour totally horribly brain-crashed shit-faced shagged. Post-Maggie collapse, I think. Now trying to get back to some sort of normal.
Incidentally, Maggie 10th Anniversary now available for download at www.dhs.nu - Thanks to the nice people at Dead Hackers. Surf there right away to get your copy!

CiH

17:16

Great to have that party feeling back again. Best enjoyed without having to code ofcourse =;))) Damn, wish I could stay a while longer. In an hour or two I'll be gone. Shame really... ATARI rules!!
BTW issue 29 of maggie turned ou to be really good. Also nice to read something by mrpink again. Cheers mate!

Earx

17:32

I am probably going to leave soon. I need sleeeeep.
Just had a look at the 'oh crickey wot a scorcher' demo. Wow that is some seriously old stuff. Brings back memory of a humid summer in Trier and crashing display cases full of Swatch watches. That Zonk screen's music is still etched in my brain. Someone asked me about the screen I did and | found I couldn't speak proper Dutch anymore.
Goodbye everyone, this is probably the last time in my life I actually work on a ST. A 520STe that is.

Stefan

18:27

Milhouse finally made it to the "STNICCC OFFICIAL REALTIME ARTICLE". Really nice location and free food, free drinks. I may also announce that the public transport to the location worked out well, except the usual Deutsche Bahn delay. Anyway, more time to enjoy the luxury ICE toillets, the bistro etc.;-)

19:47

Oh boy, this really is a time travelling experience. I am sitting down writing on this old 520STe, with its crappy keyboard (no offense to Jack T. and Shiraz S.) and bloody screen with huge borders (no offense to the two aforementioned people - I wonder why nobody ever tried to do a fullscreen on an SM124/125 monitor by the way, but then, I am not a programmer and never was). I guess my memory is failing me, but I remembered my monochrome monitor as state-of-the-art in terms of quality and size. Well, it probably was at the time, but things have moved quite a bit since the 80's!
Anyway, it's a pleasure being here, although I have nothing to do with IT in any way in my current life. 10 years have passed since the first edition of the STNICCC and my aspirations and ambitions have changed. I now work for the largest consumer packaged goods company in the world (turnover bigger than Nestle and Coca-Cola combined), in charge of four Duty Free markets in Northern Europe. I live in Stockholm, Sweden (does it sound weird to you? Well keep in mind that although STCNX was based in France, it was the most international group of the whole ST scene: one half-brazilian, one US citizen, one Dane, one Brit, one German...actually, Frenchies were a minority!). But it's so great to meet all these people from "the past". Some have changed, some not too much, some are still 100% involved in IT, some not anymore (eg. Sammy Joe and myself).
It's probably been mentioned before, but on behalf of the three STCNX guys present here, I want to express our gratitude to Richard for putting all these efforts in organizing this. I am currently TRYING to organize a "13 years after" highschool reunion, so I know what kind of effort is needed. Well done.
Finally, one big piece of news: STCNX, the one and only crew that nearly never managed to finish its demos because of lazy programmers and, to be fair, demanding studies, actually put something together for this event. Krazy Rex (currently working in Brazil for the biggest South American TV network) did an amazing 27-second animation specially for the STNICCC2000, Richard has already told me that it's going to be put on the after-convention web-site, so keep your eyes open and tell us what you think. Pity that Patrick couldn't come today, but we are chatting with him courtesy of ULM's chat site.
Signing off for now...

Klaus Berg aka. Vantage / ST Connexion

20.18

Time for the next hourly update (grin!)
As I predicted, the increasing tiredness is catching up with me. I've lately been experiencing all states of consciousness and semi-consciousness, including understanding Dutch!
Hopefully getting over that one by now?

CiH

20.30

I`m the king of collectors! Mr.XY you lamer, it took me one and a half day to realize, that I could get something for my collection, but I was the first!!!!

Mad Butscher / Foundation Two

20.32

The new issue of Maggie was released today, been browsing thru it. John and Carbon have been playing about with the WavHounds Fart Machine - to amusing effect, particularly from Rich Karsmakers - who couldn't stop laughing! He's been given the URL now of that site, so he'll be visiting fairly often :)

Felice.

20:55

I'm very excited at the moment. I have spotted the most talented musician I have heard, Mr Jochen Hippel!!
And could someone explain why the Frenchies are hiding downstairs?

Carbon

21:03

Spoke to many of the old guys... Unfortunately there seems to be no entry for the c64 compettion. Should have made the Super-Sprint Java-Client/Server game... Too bad, no PS2.
Steffen, If you ever read this: we should meet with all the "old" guys and speak about good old times. Take care!

Till (aka Chaos, Inc of Delta Force, member of the UNION)

21:10

Quote of the party: Tinker/Teenage
"I like Bottom"

21.06

Carbon, the Frenchies are downstairs, and in the furthest corner of the building to get away from you?

CiH

22.09

Hourly update, buggerall happened on this RTA from anyone else. We're mainly relaxing and playing with peverted double meanings for a certain cult 1970's preschool children's television programme! UK'ers will know of the programme called 'Rainbow'!

CiH

23.18

Another time travelling exercise for me, but this time even further back, to the beginning of the 80's in fact, with the Atari 800 XL. The Atari 800 XL was my first computer, I got it in June 84, and reluctantly sold it in October 86, to buy my Atari ST. I have just seen some software (hard drive utilities, demos, etc) developed during the 90s for it, talk about hacking!

Klaus Berg

23.17

We've got to do something about people looking at their watches and using their own time, instead of the official 'STNICCC time' on the screen!
A chill wind blows in, as we settle in for an amiable pleasant night of arsing about...

CiH

 

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17 2000

 

00.35

STCNX is off now, back to Amsterdam for some bar hopping. Thank you all for making this possible and see you in 2010 somewhere in the land of Gouda and tulips.

Klaus
berg.klaus@pmintl.ch
(And of course Thierry and Fabien).

00.55

Wheew!!
No one seems to have much idea what time it is. I ended up going to bed at 4am and waking up at 2pm. Weird. :o)
There's no more tea or coke, so trying out weird fruity teas which is a strange experience.
Currently playing around with various ST emus. It certainly nice to have the ultra fast net connection here to grab lots and lots of MP3s.

John H

01:23

Just received an email from Peter Kunath, author of DeliPlayer. DeliPlayer can now play SID synthesis! Well, sounds funny, but it's a start. http://www.deliplayer.com for people who didn't know.

Carbon

01.29

I get a feeling of deja-vu, as in the fact I've been here last night. Came across a bum-burningly funny spoof 'Rainbow' site (as in 'Rainbow', the 1970's children's tele program)
Sample strip - "What's long, yellow and brown, and slippery?"
"Oh dear Zippy, is that a snake, I don't like snakes."
"No you fool, it's a puddle of poo and wee!"
Okay, this might be enough for me for tonight?

CiH

01:44

Whoaaa....I'm getting a bit tired....hey Richard, you thought about everything, except for some Red Bull or Jolt.. LOL Well, at last I saw a lot of people doing some real nice shit....hope the competition will be a succes...
Well, gotta go....
Peace.

Hotmailer

01:53 Stick - Ripped-Off

Had a nice time. met lots of old ST buddies!
Time for sleep.....zzzzzz.

04:06

Dma-Sc writing on... I hope that our demo will be finish until 11:00 (deadline for st demo compo)... i really hope! ;) Lots of "old" and mytic sceners here, that's great. By the way, the frenchies aren't hiding at all, but as we're a pretty big crew (also are Mic & Chuck from Dune with us) and have to prepare a demo, it was the only big and calm room we could found for our coders to concentrate (and believe me, they need to!). But everyone is invited to visite our hideout!! ;)

04:18

Chuck / Dune zrite on it... So happy to be here and very glad to give a bif thanks to Richard to have done this two days of perfect paradise, thanks at all to have take the time to come amd to give at all new freaks to meet you... Happy christmas and swedish new year...

04:55

Lo there, Tyrem just told me he was in the netherlands today ;)
Via the Internet ;)

04:56

Hehe, what time is it? No idea, got woken by someone so decided to get-up anyway.

05:19

What a late time! My ghod! I need artificial caffeine and sustenance supplies! Coffee and 'Gevulde Koek'! Munch munch! yum!

TNS

08.02

Awake, but only just, consciousness resumed literally one minute ago. Got to stop seeing two of everything and get some breakfast!

CiH

08.10

Erm, breakfast not quite yet :)
This has been the first sleep since friday morning, about 4-5 hours worth, keep this short, as I'm still flirting with those weird Dutch understanding states of semi-consciousness, I described about twelve hours earlier. Not to mentin (ha bloody haa!) the billions of typos per line that crtop up!

CiH

08.25

And another thing. It seems a lot of www stuff is down at the minute, as Internet Explorer can't get onto its default home page, or has Moneysoft finally gone bust??

CiH

10:13

I must say that a certain ashamedness (or is it just shame?) takes hold of me, wrestles my pride to the ground viciously. I, He who is known as the Writer Of Much Text, have so far written preciously little in this Hallowed Article. Which is a disgrace worthy of an epic in itself (my lack of written burblings, not this Article).

Cronos

10:19

I was disturbed in my sprouting forth of demi-Holy Script by Leonard and Mon of Oxygene coming in, who appear to have arrived somewhere during the night (I must confess I was away from 23:30 to 8:00 to go home for a bit, I know, it's terrible, but there is a certain age a Man reaches and after that, well, his acheing bones, um, ache for a good and possibly pre-warmed mattress and a long hot shower, and that was way too long a sentence especially within brackets). I think it's great that the Godfather of YM Sound (on the PC, anyway), and let's not forget his Nostalgia project for which he brought a new special edition here, is here! I seem to recall that he also did a "Doom" kind of thing for the Falcon but in fact that may have been a completely different person altogether.
It's what age does to ya.
The competition deadline, relocated to 11:00 AM, is crawling closer surreptitiously. Downstairs, the silence and gloom of room 1.06 ("The Dune and Sector One Haunt") is crescendoing. We still don't have too many competition entries, but it's no disgrace at least. We have over a dozen entries now.
I have to get the prizes downstairs now, Prepare My Thing as it were.

Cronos

10:40

Good bye, Atari. It was a good time, but I think it's over now. I'll never forget you and all the other guys...!

Till

Logging off the realtime for a while, as we need to use this machine for viewing the competition entries..
Time is 11.01.
Back later..

CiH

 

Big gap where competition entries were viewed on a big screen, and judgements pronounced. Also, from the point of one of the judging panel, myself, CiH, lunch was missed too, which was a real tragedy!

 

(Sometime later...)

Realtime Returns.........

It is 14.13 hrs

After I was roped into the jury, and this machine was roped into the competition viewings, we've been away for a fair bit.
The demo competitions were entered in greater numbers than I initially thought. Something like 6-7 full-sized entries, plus a couple of smaller intros.
The winner was a fantastic STe 3-D entry from Oxygene, which was an expanded version of the brilliant beginning of the Nostalgic-O demo. Also had the music from the Amiga demo 'Desert Dreams' in there. It could have been beaten by a totally awesome combined production from Dune and Sector One, only the latter just wasn't finished in time. This also went against the tSCc intro, where not-quite-finishing counted against it, when going up against DBug's crazy Oric demo.
A lot of other stuff happened, including a 3-D engine in a bootsector, from the Overlanders, and the Ultimate Music Demo, of course! There was also a Sonic-type game engine, which bears a resemblance to something Tony Greenwood of Stosser Soft did? Probably just a surface resemblance?
It looked like there was even going to be an entry from Checkpoint, but they declined in the end, due to unfinishedness and bugginess claimed by them.
I hope that the two unfinished demos in particular, follow shortly. STNICCC has managed to successfully live down its "PC-Dad" image, that it got with some people on the current scene.

CiH

14:20

Time to be going... Sun's up and shiny, Amsterdam calls!
It's been swell seeing you all guys, hope we'll actually keep in touch this time!!!

Fury - fab@sashipa.com

It is over!!! let s hit Amsterdam!!!

Perceval / Zuul / Season of Mist...........

2:44

After tree lovely days and two even more nights *fg* in Amsterdam we are leaving now.... thanx to all, especially to Richard!!! Looking foreward to the next convention in 2015.... (*-*)

Chris of UlM

2:48

Even for the old garde it's time to leave. Six hours to drive. Tschuess von Kimmi (Tyrem/Respectables), sagt der Michael (Daryl/TEX).

2:54

ULM is leaving now too. Bye, bye.

15.25

Some clumsy git left their final calling card on the realtime, as whoever opened the window nearby, managed to knock the plug out and disconnect the realtime.
I don't suppose we've lost too much though, at the rate things are going down here.
DHS are onto the situation quickly, as the Oxygene demo is already downloadable. I've helped myself, as a 54kbyte/second transfer rate, WHICH IS FREE OF CHARGE, pisses all over a 4kbyte/second rate, which costs money! Let's see what else turns up!

CiH - Mind the door, yes you!

15:47

The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation is going to leave planet STNICCC. Rockerz from Sirius! No Promises! No demands! Keep your eyes open for "CENTAURI".

MC Laser & Llama /.tSCc.

16:08

Going home! See you next time...

TiNKer^TNH...

17:22

Well, it's nearly the end. Most people already have packed, but it's still cool to talk with organization team :) Basicaly, this party rocks! Great organisation, great food, lots of freely available hardware for those who needs it, multiple rooms to allow sleeping and preparation of demoes, and great prizes too :)))
It's a kind of funny that I win the PS2 after having bashed this machine all the day long...
See you for STNICCC #3.

Dbug/NeXT ( dbug@defence-force.org )

17:34

Oh damnit!...the show is almost over...well. what can I say...it's been a great time with ya'll and Richard, thanx very much for bringing back the memories and for the great organisation!! You certainly keep the spirit of Atari alive!! So long everyone and thanx for the great time!!
Hope to see ya'll somewhere, sometime......but for now, Hotmailer is packing up and will be leaving in an hour or something...
And last but definitly not least a big hug and kiss to Melanie! I'm sorry I couldn't be with you, but as you may have know, I really looked forward to this party for a long while and I really enjoyed it.
Peaze......

Hotmailer ( hotmailer@xs4all.nl )

P.S. CIA, where were you man????? ;-)

17:46

Well, most people are gone now (and missed the great catering this evening), so do we. Had a great time. Typed the first 680xx-Code in years. Richard did a very great job organizing this event. It was (if that is possible) even better than the first STNICCC. I'm looking forward to the next one. See you all in ten (or fifteen?) years. Or at K2k.
Bye

tIn (tin@absencehq.de)

17:56

If I say that the Convention is just about over that's really covered it. Most of the guys have left, indeed most of them left prior to the rather exquisite Chinese meal (which was actually adorned by two genuine palm trees, would you believe it, I saw them lugging them in!). Thankfully we managed to tell the caterer that there'd be less people than the original 100+ we'd expected. There were about 15 or 20 left, in fact. The rest had planes to catch, places to see, people to meet, ferries to board, things like that.
I am really glad that every attendant seems to be pretty happy with the way things went. I liked the way the Convention suddenly seemed to run from its own energy, how people spontaneously started to distribute the demo screens and stuff on IRC and the DHS board, without me having to ask them to!

Cronos

18:45

This party was so great! It's only the second time I go to a coding party but I consider it as the "century" ST coding party. I was really amazed to see all the famous people who were there. I could speak to everyone I knew the name when I was watching hours and hours ST demos for years ;-) and I think it's really cool!
Sometimes I felt like an "alien" amongst all those famous people (I'll call them ST stars :-)
I'm really glad I could come. It was a real pleasure to talk with them, even sometimes I couldn't understand all because of the technical speaking ;-) The organization was perfect. Already I found the entry fee cheap, but I didn't know the food and beverage were free! I think Richard Karsmakers found really good sponsors. And to thanks the sponsors, I'm ready to work for them if they want to (just kidding:)
The location was just great, very easy to find, and confortable. Richard was very professional and helpfull. I can still hear him : "If you have any questions, just ask!" :)
What a pleasure!

ALDN aka Alain Derpin, ST demos and musics collector

19.05

CiH on the keys, possibly for the final time, depending on whether the cleaning lady lets this realtime continue living until the last possible moment?
The party is in its final stages of closing downedness. A few FUN people, and the odd Frenchie are still around, but these are only a few. Felice and John H. have gone into town, Amsterdam city, that is, and are expected back before 20.00hrs? That, or they'll have to leave Felice's PC gear behind??
I might be back later, but we'll have to see?

CiH

19.10

Okay, this looks like it is going to be the end for now..
It was a great party, responsible for a lot of things, all of them wonderful! But a detailed report will have to wait just a little while longer.
Bye for now, until the 25th Anniversary of STNICCC!?!!?

CiH

 

A brief note from the STNICCC webmaster: The above was more or less exactly how it went down that weekend. No text (including typos, multiple exclamation marks, irrregular sequences of periods..) was altered at all, this is as authentic as it gets. All I did was change the layout so it looked more uniform within the rest of the site.

 

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