Preview
Little Computer People 25-27 july 2003, Linköping, Sweden
The Place
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LCP 2003 took place in Linköping, in some kind of studio for artists who are beginning to
grow big (which could be quite appropriate for the people participating at LCP). It was a
nice ride from Malmö, but after some time and 2 short stops we made it. After having
stretched our legs in the parking lot, we hauled out the gear that our fellow travellers
had brought with them, then got inside where we signed in, sort to speak. I was
completely brought back into time upon entering the facilities. There were, among the
cool old C64's, also some PC's scattered about and some amigas, but it was easy to see
that they were outnumbered by the C64 computer. Some folks even had the good old brown
box still (like I had!). What a wonderful feeling to see the place with these machines.
People were wandering about talking with other people from the different groups, just
like in the old days, asking for stuff or getting help on some unfinished demo-parts.
It would come to my knowledge soon that there would be quite an amount of compos at the
place.
The surroundings
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As mentioned the partyplace had nice facilities and was situated quite close to the
train station. So you would be able to travel there easy with train. There were parking
possibilites too, but the flipside was that you had to pay for the car being there all
the time. A tunnel that goes just outside from the party- place and under the station
would lead you directly in to the center of town, where, among other stores you would
find the most visited Systembolaget. There was McDonald's, Pizza, Kebab, grocery stores
.. every thing a heart could desire. I was told after all that Linköping was the 5th
biggest city in Sweden. And in town, at night, there were some real nice swedish women
to look at too. Speaking about Systembolaget again one must remember that in order to
get beer or wine - this is the place to go. You won't find any wine or beer (at least
not above 3.5%) in the supermarkets.
Compos like in the good old days
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Besides from the obvious demo-compos there were msx, gfx and wild compos. The latter is
a new phenomenom and has to do with, well, new machines and technologies. Who would
have thought to make gameboy music and even to make demos on it too? My last party was
an Amiga party in 1991 in Nykoebing Falster, Denmark. Before that the Daniax party in
Middelfart, Denmark in 1990. On the Daniax party there were C64 and Amiga both, and with
the Falster party I had thought that the C64 had completely been taken over by Amiga
interests. To my knowledge after having participated at LCP that is not quite the fact.
The toughest guys are the ones from the C64 time. It was great also to see that LCP 2003
has the same underground environment like at the parties before they became too big. After
1992 the parties simply grew too big (thinking of The Party) in Denmark and too lame with
sponsors and all. Parties can be about gaming too, but only gaming? Naa, where's the
spirit? To keep exploring and showing off what the good old 8-bit machine still does and
can do (or never was supposed to do) must be a trademark of these parties. Only within the
boundaries of 8-bit lives creativity. To emphasize that fact it must be mentioned that
cool stuff like a C64 Os (The Contiki) released by Active, and a 100% emulation of a tape
loader by Jeckbuzz/Hack'n Trade and GC-113 was demonstrated at the party. Nice. The compos
were divided into some major categories like:
C64 demo compo (of course!!)
C64 Graphics Compo
C64 Music Compo
Other Platforms Demo Compo
Other Platforms Graphics Compo
Other Platforms Music Compo
Besides these there were some cool retro-gaming compos like an IK+ compo and a Hat Trick
compo. Who would have thought ever to bring life to 5 joysticks at the same time on the
C64? Well Hack'n'Trade has brought that to life with the Shake'em game. If you can recall
Winter Games, Track & Field and games like that you would know how it is to wiggle a
joystick from side to side. Well this game was about just that. A great deal of wiggling
was done at the party place. And besides that you'd be able to remember how it was like
to play these games. A little different from parties back in time were the prizes of the
compos. The prizes were either golden or silver floppy disks. No money prizes this time.
The C64 scene is alive
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... and kicking! There I said it. When it came to my knowledge that CSDb existed I have
been using pretty much all of my spare time in there in seach for old friends. I have
come to realize that many of the biggest groups still are alive, but with fewer members.
Some groups have simply been thinned out with regards to members (like for instance, The
Dominators). People have gone other ways and found other interests, which is understandable.
But it is a joy to be able to watch a Fairlight demo with the good old intro and hear the
good old song as the very first demo part. That really brought joy to my heart. Together
with Fairlight - Triad - the legendary crackers from the 80's were well represented and a
solid demo and crackergroup which was born in the 90's - Onslaught was there too. Time has
been rough to C64 people because of the development of other technologies, but it has always
been the trademark of C64 people to keep exploring boundaries and test out the limitations
of the technologies around them - be it hardware or software. For instance at the party Doc
Bacardi / The Dreams had brought new hardware gimmicks like networking cards and 4 player
adapters. Who would ever have known the C64 to find itself in a LAN? An interesting part of
the party was the story told by Iopop + Twoflower / Triad, but unfortunately for us foreigners
who don't even know how to pronounce Systembolaget - it would have been a great service to
hear the lecture in English.. even though the focus was on the smaller, lesser known groups.
It would have been interesting also to hear stories about the scene as a whole, the
development in the 90's with focus on the bigger groups too. Again maybe in English too.
Recommended for anybody !
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For a scener like me who was away for 11 years, now sort of "back", it is easy to see what
has changed and then again on the other hand, everything is just like before. Maybe a little
smaller, but nonetheless more cozier and with the same sense of "there is a deadline" over
it. For me the hardest part was how to tell my girlfriend where I was going for the weekend
from 25th of July - 27th of July. When I came back, I was asked if I wanted to go again
another time .. this is where I officially hesitated and said no. But unofficially I'd be
at the next party, and I will without a doubt recommend LCP to anyone who once was a member
of a group on the C64 and thus in the scene. Get a production going and keep the history of
the scene alive! Once you're at LCP you'll know what I am talking about. Z ya next time.
Yaemon / dmd
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Party archive @ ftp.scene.org