Party report: ZX Party 2000; Wroclaw, Poland; 25-27 August 2000

Party report: ZX Party 2000; Wroclaw, Poland; 25-27 August 2000
                         By Gasman / RA

After  the  airport  antics  and  adventures  I  had  getting to
Slovakia for the  Forever party back  in March, I  decided to go
for the  simple (and  cheap) option  this time:  all the  way to
Poland on a 22-hour coach  journey. Well, after the coach  broke
down, it ended  up being a  25-hour coach journey.  Phileas Fogg
never had this trouble.

In some ways this party was  in the shadow of a bigger  event on
the  Spectrum  calendar, Chaos  Constructions,  which had  taken
place a week previously. Nevertheless,  it did mean that we  had
the chance to see some of the latest hot-off-the-keyboards demos
from Russia before they were on general release.

In  fact,  ZX Party  was  worlds away  from  the huge  sprawling
multiformat  parties  common in  Russia.  This was  a  much more
friendly,  close-knit affair,  restricted to  Spectrum fans  and
consequently  having  more  alcohol available  with  no  risk of
large-scale riots. At one point  Yerzmyey handed me a bottle  of
cherry  liquor,  announcing  that  it  was  the  most disgusting
alcoholic drink available in Poland. It was gorgeous.

Not that  drinking was  the only  thing going  on, of  course. A
select few stayed sober to put the finishing touches to their 1K
intros. And,  since the  party was  based in  an internet  cafe,
there was  a fair  bit of  Quake Deathmatch  playing and surfing
going on. You know you're  a real computer geek when  you travel
thousands of miles  to meet people,  and then end  up talking to
them in  an internet  chat room.  It did  help with the language
barrier, though...

The music  competition was  brought to  us courtesy  of a bit of
hardware  wizardry, namely  the ZXVGS  system created  by Yarek
Adamski. The entries were stored as emulator files on a PC,  and
instantly loaded on a real Spectrum via an RS232 connection  for
authentic AY-chip sound. Unfortunately, hardware problems  meant
that we could only  get the setup running  on a black and  white
telly, so the other competitions had to take place with the  aid
of an emulator.

Although there  weren't a  great deal  of entries  for the music
competition,  we were  treated to  a striking  range of  musical
styles,  a refreshing  change from  the usual  fare of  non-stop
euro-techno tracks. We had  jazz from LA Esq,  electro-rock from
X-Agon and a new-age melodic piece  from TDM. In the end it  was
Yerzmyey who used  the AY chip  to its utmost  and claimed first
place.

This  party  also  saw the  first  competition  win for  Hannah,
graphic artist for Crazytronic.  Crazytronic's work is always  a
visual feast, and the entry this time, a countryside scene,  was
no exception.  But the  award for  bravery must  go to Exin, who
usually  works  on  the  C64  but  grappled  with  the  Speccy's
attribute system especially for the party.

The  intros continued  to show  off the  ingenuity that  can be
squeezed into 1024 bytes of code. Icabod, Mike and SS brought us
dancing stars, swirling pixels and floating tunnels, but it  was
a head-to-head contest for first place. The eventual winner  was
my entry 'Quattro Formaggio', based on a trick borrowed from one
of the Atari demos I saw on my last trip, along with a splash of
music,  which  seems  to  have  become  my  trademark  now. Baze
followed closely behind with some nifty 3D choreography entitled
'Dig-It'.

The demo  competition was  a real  pleasure to  watch, not  only
because very few parties this year have attracted enough entries
to hold a full competition, but also because it raised a defiant
two-fingered salute to that section of the scene who are  intent
on getting their  name in lights  as an 'El1T3  5cEnЗR'. Hellboj
and Factorб earned quite a  few cheers (and the lion's  share of
the votes) with  their portrayal of,  er, a certain  part of the
human anatomy flying through space. No, we weren't drunk at all,
honest...  Other  contributions  were  Zabhmo  from  Plonba Inc,
eulogising  the   simple  pleasures   of  smoking   tobacco  (or
something), Cassiopeia's return from  a 6 year absence  from the
Speccy with a massive music collection named Power Of Love,  and
Sputnik's  eponymous  first  demo making  the  most  of the  48K
beeper.

So there you have it... not  the biggest event of its kind,  but
great fun, and a clear sign that the Spectrum is alive and  well
across Europe.  Beer, internet  and Spectrums:  it's a  surefire
recipe for a good time.

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