Demo Party - a report from Minsk demopati Millennium'2000.

<b>Demo Party</b> - a report from Minsk demopati Millennium'2000.

                 Report - Millennium demoparty

                   May 12-13, Minsk, Belarus


                         Ivan Polyacov


 In this feature, I will tell you how held
demoparty. How were training on the so-called hidden party
here will not tell - is the theme for a separate
reportage.

 So, on May 11 (ie Thursday), we packed with equipment and
headed to the venue of the party - namely, in the auditorium
the main building at BSU. This is quite a decent enough premise
impressive size, it provided 600 seats
(About a third of the chairs was submitted in advance, but 
anyway it was it is obvious that the place has in abundance). 
The curtains on the windows missed a lot of light, but 
fortunately it did not prevent the projector.


 The image was projected onto the screen (about 2 m) using
Projector NEC, provided faculty Nyzhnyodvoretska BSU. By the way
Faculty gave us great assistance in carrying out party. Want
express special thanks to the deputy. Dean Zadvornov BV
thanks to the efforts which still managed to do everything on 
time. 


  Computer Hardware:

    PC (AMD K6-2 450, Voodoo-3)

    PC (AMD K6-2 300, ASUS V3000, SB PCI128, GUS Classic 1Mb)

    PC - Laptop (486 DX2-66)

    Amiga (A1200 68030)

    ZX (Pentagon-128)

    ZX (Profi)

    Something else that people brought their own ...

 For audio output amplifier and speaker were used
system of the hall. And then we got a nasty surprise - to 
connect to amplifier could only be in mono. In addition, one of 
the 8 columns wheezed and had to be turned off. All this leads 
to idea to bring and use a different amplifier and

column. However, to solve this problem for the remaining time 
is not failed (sound equipment suitable for the hall of this 
size not lying on the road) and had to be content with what

was. It is fair to note that in the middle part
hall sound all the same was better ...

 When the vehicle is folded at night, arrived first
visitors and expressed the wish to register. At this
preparatory day can be considered closed.



                          Day One

 On the morning of the hall began arriving visitors, although 
officially opening was scheduled at 12:00. For half an hour 
before the opening of profit guys from the student's group 
security and with their help all Visitors were asked in the 
hallway, where Woolf distributing tickets and votelist'y. 
Apparently by mistake took votelist'y from another pack, which 
was not the press, but this error was quickly detected and 
corrected. The ticket was valid for both days, and its value 
does not depend on time spent on the party. 

 A few words about the visitors. There were not many, 
apparently - 85-90 people. The main reason so many apparently 
was transfer date, which resulted in the two days were demoparty

workers. On the other hand it is also influenced by their 
composition: it there were people who were well where and why 
they were - Random people there almost was not. Most people

were from Belarus, is much less - from Russia, the 
representatives of other countries, I have not noticed. Maybe 
they were present, but questionnaires to reserve tickets are 
not sent. 

 At 12 o'clock it was announced on the opening party. According 
to scheduled until 14:00 the authors could still pass and 
register their work or check sent earlier works. None

at least most of the work anyway passed at the last moment,
which leads to confusion with the numbers and allowed many works
bypass preselekt. At this time, for other visitors
showed the best demos and 64K intro for the PC, and then on
Amiga. Began with a demonstration of Second Reality, then were 
shown Toasted, Verses, Drift, Paper, etc. (In chronological

order), but many are simply not enough time ... Interestingly,
Toys that turns out to be slow even on the AMD K6-2 450 with 
Voodoo-3! Therefore Toys decided to skip.



  Finally the contest. They took place in this order:

    4-channel music

    Hand-drawn graphics

    Multichannel music

    Rendered graphics

    Wild music (MP3, CD)

    ASCII / ANSI

    PC games

    ZX games

    Wild compo
 Trekernaya music played in ModPlug'e, MP3 - in WinAmp'e at
that the screen shows the number and the name of the compo.
Music competitions interspersed with graphics that do not strain
Visitors so many music. In ASCII / ANSI compo was to
one study that showed out of competition. Games
demonstrated by the authors themselves. Unfortunately, one of 
the games ever "Stuttered" and hung up the computer. In the 
Wild compo was demonstrated the game on an emulator Kolobok 
Zoom GameBoy and one intro.


 Upon completion of all compo first day, people quickly fled
room. Some went to the hidden party, organized
Psych'om, others - in their homes / hotels. We had to decide
one important task - to enter and process the results of the 
vote. Ratings were entered manually, but thanks to a convenient 
program and votelist'ov small number (only 74 pcs.) Input passed

fast enough. If the sheets were many, the input count
would be a serious problem.



                          Day Two

 May 13 (Saturday). Opening the second day was like opening
first, the only difference is that the contests were to begin
as early as 10:30. First on the list went ZX graphics compo and 
AY-music compo. Here and there was a delay caused by the first 
delivery works, and second disks, which stubbornly refuses to 
read ZX. In addition, spektrumisty brought work on the 3.5-inch

diskettes, which was simply nothing to read. As a result of day
started with PC intros.


  Thus, the second day of the competitions were in this order:

    512b intro (PC)

    4K intro (PC)

    16K intro (PC)

    64K intro (PC)

    4K intro (ZX)

    ZX graphicx

    AY-music

    Animation
 In addition, out of the competition was shown a ZX Demo (which 
is not was registered, so the results are not mentioned).


 By 14:00 it was necessary to free up room for other events
so that immediately after people began Animation compo
diverge. Announcement and awarding ceremony was scheduled
at 15:00 in one of lecture rooms.

 Summarizing, we note a good visitor behavior.
Security has never had to make comments and even more so
use force. If anyone broke the rules item ban
alcoholic beverages, it was rather the organizers,
and they tried to do it discreetly. In fact, to
completely collapse the equipment and release Hall took less 
than 20 min, and it already says that significant problems are 
not was.


 During the counting, there was confusion: the work
displayed not in the order in which they were
registered in the database. As a result, the report demanded
additional adjustments, which caused additional
delay. Another problem arose with the printing of diplomas.
Winchester, which kept the layout of the diploma is out of 
order, and the backup was not there. Had Woolf'u urgently

make a new layout. Diplomas printed on tverdochernilnom
Tektronix printer, then filled in manually. Perhaps
rewarding was that part of the party, which was
prepared and performed worse than others. However rewarding and
awarding prizes to all the same place, so I hope that
Winners do not take offense. Diplomas were given to authors of 
works occupied the first three places of each competition, and 
prizes - only those contests where exhibited at least 3 works.


 Thus, party came to an end, and the winners announced and 
awarded, people of divergent technique minimized and carried 
away. And although there is still much work it is already 
possible to give an assessment conducted by event. Organizers 
agreed: party passed more successful than expected. In fact, 
all planned events were held, the number of operations allowed 
for almost all the compo, the level of work quite a decent 
number of Visitors, though not large, but possible to reduce 
the balance to zero. Of course there were punctures and 
shortcomings: some of the I told him about others might better 
write more. But the main thing after all then, that we were the 
first in Belarus to demoparty, and without sponsorship. This is 
a good achievement! 

 Have we reached your goal? Most likely - yes. At the Millennium
demoparty we (and not only we) saw the situation and 
opportunities Belarusian demoscene. But more importantly, the 
party promotes development and expansion of our demoscene. What 
were the results of this lead? Time will tell ...


 I finished my story, and suggest you look for another
some pictures: people have the pleasure of participating in
demoparty and this is the highest award of the organizers.