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Phoenix's "hidden" NAID '95 party report :)
(written in 1998)
OK, I figured as long as I can still remember some things, I might as well
give my recollection of NAID '95.
On Friday, Maelcum, Mosaic, Diablo, and CCCatch showed up at my
freshman dorm room at college. This was the first time I had ever seen
any sceners! (well, other than GD) Maelcum was the easiest to pick out :).
I showed them Flight on my 486-SX25 (ran fairly slowly), then we left.
The ride up to NAID wasn't quite as event-filled as my '96 convoy
trip, but it was interesting. I had to sit next to Maelcum the whole way,
who periodically let out Cornholio sayings. I brought a tape of the
new Orbus Terrarum CD to play, and they had Orbital 1 too, but a lot of
the way up the car music was a contemporary rock station..?! Mosaic
entertained us with games like name-a-food-starting-with-the-last-letter-
of-the-last-one-named, and stories like Trangolia. Diablo drove, and
CCCatch sat quietly in the back on the other side of Mael (yes, 3 in the
back, now you can understand the grief :). Well, Diablo rented a Taurus
wagon, so it wasn't too cramped. On the way, we stopped at a McDonalds
located in a barn setting, and were quite an unusual sight for the regular
customers, especially Ray (Mosaic) with his street-fighter-type outfit.
We made it through customs OK, although Maelcum threatened otherwise
with his Cornholio voice :). Diablo explained what a demo-party was and
talked about what was on Maelcum's HD. We made it to Montreal fairly easily,
without getting lost at all! I guess my simple instructions copied down
from way2naid.gif worked.
We got to the college while they were still setting up. We met
with Veritech Knight, one of the organizers, in the main area, who showed
us to our classroom and where we could pick up the key. Going back, we
met up with Necros, and no, I did not freak out :). Since the party wasn't
due to start till the next day, it was fairly slow, and soon we were forced
into the classroom-area while they blocked off the main area to finish
setting up.
Gradually people started filling up the Kosmic/Ren room, while
Mosaic drew some cool chalkboard art. Basehead, Daredevil, and Miss Saigon
showed up. Josh Rodman (who we knew from the Kosmic-Talk list) did too,
and once Maelcum saw him he instantly dubbed him "K8to" :). Well, Necros
led everyone off to a Montreal booze-fest. I stayed back though, unsure
of such a large city I hadn't been in before. Maelcum and K8to were the
only others who stayed, so there wasn't much to do for the next few hours.
Maelcum and I started an MTM which didn't get too far. I went out to the
classroom hall and found a few other groups settling in. One guy named
Synapse greeted me and introduced me to his group members in Sentience
and friends in Mazurka, both Ontario groups. We played some hackey-sack
in the hall for a while, which I wasn't all that great at :). In the
classroom halls, there were already some TV-screens scattered about,
providing a small bit of entertainment for the night.
People started coming back to the Kosmic room so things picked up.
They didn't seem too drunk, but were in a party mood at least. There
was a keyboard set up in the room which Basehead and CCCatch played with.
A couple hours later, Necros stumbled in the room. He did seem drunk.
This provided some amusement for the rest of us. But still, Ray was missing.
We wondered where he could be, or even if he could make it back. Surely
enough, a couple hours after that, Mosaic staggered in, barely able to walk.
He sure had his fill for the night! Most people in the room stayed up
past 4 or 5am. I tried getting some sleep, but Basehead, Miss Saigon, and
Necros started a pillow fight a few feet away.. and someone took my picture
(the one in Maelcum's pic directory? Can't remember). I think at this
point Basehead, not knowing Jackie very well, was a little.. flirty with
her :). Well, he did lay in her cot for a while waiting for her to find
him there (now you see why I put this in a hidden directory).
Saturday morning came along - and the party was now officially
on, long after many hangovers :). Maelcum and I went to get money exchanged
(a service they conveniently offered at the party) and we all got wrist
bands which weren't too elegant. The main area started filling up with PC's,
and the across area, with a Mediatrix table and a MIDI-music table,
started playing some music. Not that there were as many people, but
music volume in the main attendee area was not a problem at all compared
to the major Euro parties. I met up with GD, appearing in a tiedye shirt
and jean jacket - we were locals at home, so the greetings were simple.
I ran into the Hornet table in the main area, pretty much just White Noise's
PC and a sign taped onto the table end advertising the FTP site. By
midday Saturday everyone was wondering what would be in the compos. Well,
I knew about some demos already - Necros played PM's Eden demo in the Kosmic
room the night before. And of course, I knew all the big names would be
competing in the music compo. But what about the intro compo? Word spread
quickly that almost noone was entering. Since there were prizes offered
for top 3, some people frantically threw together some 100k things to enter.
Daredevil and Friar Tuck, inspired by their drunken adventures the night
before, went to work on Maelcum's PC with an invention called "Pisstro".
Once people saw the routine in action, they were amused. It actually
took them most of Saturday to finish it, which was hard to understand,
although they had a lot of distractions. Necros had the tune done in 15
minutes.
It was interesting to see demoscene life in North America other
than the groups we heard of before and knew from IRC. For example, there
were the Surrounders to the right of the Kosmic room. They seemed very
mysterious, mainly because they spent much of their time working on their
demo and not meeting people. In fact, they kept their door closed most
of the time. I got to watch their demo being tested on the compo PC the
day before the demo compo. Even though it had some poor Second Reality
wannabe parts, it impressed me, because I didn't know what to expect,
if anything at all, as competition to our Flight demo. I remember talking
about it to some people in the Kosmic/Ren room, and Daredevil peeking in
the Surrounders room saying "ha hah, we saw your demo!" and them quickly
shutting the door on his face :).
I walked back and forth a lot between the classroom and main area,
looking for people to meet. What a workout! Along the way, some TV screens
played demos, including Amiga demos which I had never seen before, such as
Nine Fingers and Nexus 7. Going back to the main area at one point midday
Saturday, I saw a bunch of people gathered around the main screen. A
spiked torus-like object spun on the screen with the words "Bump Glow"
in the corner. It was unlike what I had regularly seen in a demo. I
commented to an onlooker "this is a pretty cool animation". He then
replied "oh no, it's not an animation". I stood silent. I had just seen Dope.
After it finished, a smaller group quickly rushed over to Hornet's
PC, and I joined them. I watched it from the beginning this time. I think
from a North American standpoint, it was everything we could hope for in a
demo. But, bear in mind most NA sceners were still worshipping Second Reality
at this point :). Moby Disk/3some's tshirt is an example, and they actually
announced the demo on the loudspeaker system when they showed it on the big
screen, and I saw people running down the hall. But in my mind, Dope was
the start of a "new generation" of demos. Soonafter, I managed to get
a copy off Balrog's PC in the Kosmic room. The Dope theme was played at
the Mediatrix table, using Iplay I believe. This thing was a 28-channel MOD!
Of course, it only really needed half those channels, but the odd
format managed to impress everybody even more. :)
Early Saturday afternoon, the music compo was the first to start.
As you know by now, there were (too) many entries played. Thankfully,
most of the well-known musician's entries were among the first, but not
all before such things as:
- playing "Sub Rosa" a 2nd time, and I didn't really enjoy it the first time
- having Floss's entry crash Capamod 3 times in a row
- playing one of the Mazurka entries with a light show - it was really
annoying and temporarily blinding
- Maelcum's entry knocking out the surround sound speakers
- CCCatch's entry being announced as by "Kenny.. Choo?" (silence)
"sorry, Chou" (pause) "(audience member) hey, that's CCCatch!" (applause)
BTW, I remember some partygoers visiting our classroom, and one pointing
at Kenny and saying "look.. it's CCCatch!" and the other took a picture.
It was like he was a museum exhibit. :)
After 20 tunes or so, there was an intermission. Most people, including
myself, just got up and left :).
For food, I went with Diablo, CCCatch, Krystall and a bunch of
other Quebecers to the nearby "Harvey's". Diablo conned me into trying
the poutine. It was basically cheese curds and fries dipped in WD40
(actually, something more like gravy). I guess Quebecers don't mind clogged
arteries so much.
I don't recall many other significant events that day - I checked
out the "space-out" room, but didn't stay long. To me it just seemed like
some weird French art exhibit. I heard some Quebecers managed to have some
more fun in there - notably in M/F pairs.
Well, I'm just gonna skip all the way to the demo compo on Sunday
afternoon. It was fairly entertaining. People, not seeing live demos
for the most part, were applauding even the simple effects. I didn't
hear as much applause to Flight as I'd expected, but maybe it was my
location, or they were speechless :). Verhot's demo got some laughs
and Maelcum seemed to like it the most. Eden's animations ran a little
too fast, but people still applauded them like they were realtime.
The DDD Megademo had problems with the projector changing gfx modes, so
we managed to see about 2/3ds the actual demo, which was still very long.
People applauded the most when the "The End" pic came up.
Snowman's speech sent everyone home happy they were there, and sad
to leave (note the ass-scratching during talk on "professionalism").
We left the building on time, but stayed around the parking lot for hours.
Maelcum sat in the car, in a fairly poopy mood. Eventually (~10-11pm)
we took off. We decided to find someplace to eat. Epeius led 3 or so
cars along a wild goose chase around downtown Montreal, seeming to cover
every block, until we finally landed at "Mike's", a somewhat upscale place
which was still open. We of course had pizza :). There were around 12-15
sceners there, I sat with Mental Floss and some Sentience members.
One of them sat alone, It was either Aahz (or am I remembering Trixter's
NAID '96 log?), or Daredevil, more likely the latter. Oh, BTW, all the time,
Maelcum was sleeping in the car, and when we got back to it he was in a
better mood, I guess he just needed an hour of sleep :).
So, around midnight, we finally headed back. At customs, we were
given little trouble, except when Mosaic had to prove his nationality
(leave it to American customs). I arrived back at college (Troy, NY, btw)
around 5am. Diablo drove us back too and was dead tired by this point. He
almost crashed at my college, but Kenny (CCCatch) agreed to drive the rest
of the way back. So, I said a quick goodbye.
Badabing, that's it. Check out my shorter, mag-friendly '96 report
in \1996\reports.