InérciaDemoparty 2003

Held from July 25th to 28th in V.N.Gaia, Portugal

Report by Jeenio

Update (10.12.2003):

Ps: would be nice if you finish the report, the next pAIN issue is coming up.
Jeenio: ah, ok, I'll do it tonight.

Update (11.12.2003):

Well - Hugi is coming up first, why not send it to them also?

What to say about the third edition of InérciaDemoparty2003? So many mixed feelings about it! From an organizer's point of view, it was much better than any of the previous editions, but had also much more flaws. Seems impossible, but read on and see if you agree with me...

Friday

We didn't even notice that the time for the opening of the doors had passed. Between organising and being interviewed for the newspaper, the time just flew by. With not so much delay, doors were open, the first sceners and wannabes entered the hall with their computers and magic started to happen. We met some new faces, many old faces and out of a sudden the demoparty was there.

Everything was ok, until after some time two power sources blew up. We still don't know what exactly had happened, but the fact is that those two guys were the only ones, so let's hold on our horses about pointing out the marvellous electrical installation... ;)

I had some fun with ps while showing off Renoise during the workshop on that afternoon, I'm sure lot of people enjoyed. In the end, we even had someone working on the track for his demo in Renoise. A proof that workshops are really one of the best ways to pay back your sponsors, as a mean of publicity works perfectly.

The opening ceremony - the "official" one - was around 22:00, and in the audience there were Joaquim Teixeira, from Junta de Freguesia de Mafamude, who kindly activated all the necessary mechanisms that made id2003 possible, José Ferreira from Ginásio Clube de Mafamude, who gave us almost immediately authorisation to use the Ginásio for id2003, Paulo Tavares, who was fundamental for id2003 to happen, and other important people without whom id2003 wouldn't happen.

The concert by Evil was great. It was just what we needed for finally chilling a bit, after all that work of preparing and running the party. Yet, the worse part was about to come... :)

Saturday

Overtired and overworked, we kept on going. Or at least tried. ps was flawlessly running all those amiga and c=64 demos and intros, while I managed to keep at least some of the gamers in the theatre hall to watch them, before they would go back and practice their Quake and Counter Strike manoeuvres.

We just had to go on, running the party. Not that it needed - it was running like crazy... - but to be sure that the deadlines would be respected and announced at the proper time. We managed to be loyal to our (worse) expectations regarding schedule times, so this is a "plus" for this year's edition.

Saturday was the day of the best workshops: graphics and 3d code. Already enchanting the girls with his charming smile, Marco Vale aka Kazuya put the boys under his spell with some kick ass explanations and demonstrations of 3dsmax, PhotoShop and other very valuable programs for demomaking.

Did I mention the girls already? I didn't? Ok, so there you have it: girls. YES, there were girls at our demoparty. And who were they? Girlfriends, sisters, mothers, grandmothers (oh yes) or simply friends of demosceners, but also complete strangers that heard from the event via the internet or the radio. Advertising pays back - well not really, the event was free for girls, but you know what I mean :)

Somewhere during the afternoon the organisation members couldn't see each others, like it has been tradition in organising InérciaDemoparty. :) Hey, guys, don't forget, we are all friends, but stress makes us uncontrollable beasts and then you see those fights that would never happen in a non-party-organization-mode situation.

With all the stress, I didn't have time to participate in any compo except the fast chiptune one. And I did because I was told that there were not enough entries to make a compo. What they DID forget to mention was that there were NO entries at all. C'mon guys, with so many talented musicians out there, why didn't you produced one single tune? I know garlick was not there, but he isn't the only one! KammutierSpule, dextrose, luissk8, where the heck were you?

Between dinner and the next compo, I had time to send a quick kiss to my girlfriend, and she even made it better by showing up! Well, if she lives 10 minutes from the party place that was the least she could do. :) The intro compos were quite good, nothing compared with previous editions of InérciaDemoparty. Later on, people found it hard to choose a winner. Amongst the participants, who ruled, la crème de la crème of the Portuguese demoscene made clear that it's on an upbringing tie of quality. The time will tell...

Sunday

The oh-so-long-waited nostalgic trip had place through the night. Z80 emulators made the participants go back in time and run against themselves while playing Chuckie Egg. The last man alive with the highest score would crash to sleep with a satisfaction feeling. Of course, and being the demoscene a sort of cousin of the hacking scene, some people decided to hack the print screens of the scores... Well, at least they didn't lie about it. "All your print screens are belong to us."

When the sun decided to get up, some of us were still talking and drinking in the outside terrain next to the party hall. I always enjoyed these spontaneous talks about how the scene is dead and how can we make it move without turning it to a zombie. In one side you have the optimists that believe in the prophecy of a new generation of 15-year-old sceners that would program in D+++, and in the other side the pessimists that continue saying that the scene had died with the birth of OpenGL. Well... It's fun!

After we convinced the people sleeping in the theatre-hall that there was a sun shining for them outside, we cleaned it up a bit and got ready for the following events. The "Live Act" by ps and me turned out to be ps putting some amiga demos and chiptunes while I crashed on the stage. LITERALLY. Never a wooden floor seemed so confortable to me. :)

A nice sleep always brings good energy. The "also oh so waited and who knows even more waited than the nostalgic trip" Throwing Olympics had to be put together. And I had the privilege and honour to organise and conduct them. Throwing monitors, hard drives, CD-ROM drives, disks and CDs, it was all too funny not to be remembered. Be sure you check the videos out! They will speak a thousand times better than I could right here :)

The night came down, setting the right mood for the last two compos: professional music and demo. Again, great contributions, and a beginner's luck winner - volumetric illusions, on their first production, took the prize and left the losers crying. We are expecting an answer from the other groups in 2004!

Monday

Pens, pins, t-shirts and other small souvenirs were the main prizes that we could afford. Unfortunately, we're still a poor organisation, unsupported by any major hardware or software company. But hey, we managed to give away some nice video cards, music software and loads of fun!

Once again, thanks to our sponsors, Junta de Freguesia de Mafamude, Fermaster, Jardine Computers, Renoise and Genesi Pegasus. Without you, InérciaDemoparty wouldn't have happened.

And thanks to all the participants, that give us energy and motivation to go through all this again next year! See you at InérciaDemoparty 2004!

Signing off,

Jeenio