The Party (demo party)
Encyclopedia
The Party was an annual demoscene
event held from 1991 to 2002 in Denmark
. It was one of the first events of its kind and set the trend for many other demoscene parties
in Europe.
, Denmark, on December 26, 1991. Only Amiga
demo groups were involved in organizing the party: Crystal (a cracking group which spun off Melon Dezign
), The Silents, and Anarchy. Attendance was near double what was expected. The top three winners in the Amiga demo competition were Hardwired, Voyage, and Odyssey.
In 1992, The Party 2, which was actually called "The Final" due to uncertainty of The Party's future, attracted an even more overwhelming number of demosceners. The Amiga organization remained the same, but PC
and C64
sceners started to attend and create their own compo
s. The Amiga demo compo winner was State of the Art. A 40k intro competition was held for the first time. Facts of Life won the PC demo competition in a ruling contested by Future Crew
, the runners-up and compo organizers, because no voting actually took place. Jesper Kyd
performed at The Party regularly.
. Lemon. and Spaceballs took over Amiga organizing. The PC side had a full, separate set of competitions. There were many arguments between the Amiga and PC organizers, with the PC side threatening to secede and start their own party in 1994. The threat became empty as The Party remained multi-platform. The Party moved again in 1995 to Fredericia
before returning to Aars from 1996 until its demise. The PC scene visitors gradually outnumbered the Amiga scene visitors who dominated the early years.
culture exploded in Denmark, and kids found The Party to be a fun place to dance and blast music. They mostly coincided peacefully with the demo sceners, but in 1995, a rave in the sleeping hall sparked numerous complaints.
With the release of Doom just weeks before The Party 3 in 1993, network gaming became an overnight sensation, transforming part of the event into the first major LAN party
. Through the 1990s, the gaming element of The Party steadily grew while the demoscene element remained stagnant.
from Farbrausch
, FR-08: .the .product, that briefly drew demoscene attention back to The Party and gave the organizers enough hope to declare the next party's motto "Back To The Roots". But that promise fell flat as demosceners saw little effort to back it. Sceners complained about constant harassment by both the local security people (who would constantly search their bags for alcohol) and gamers (who would complain about the compos being too loud). The competitions in 2002 were abandoned to the point where all demos and intros were combined into one compo. The Party was cancelled the following year, and to date, has not reopened.
Demoscene
The demoscene is a computer art subculture that specializes in producing demos, which are non-interactive audio-visual presentations that run in real-time on a computer...
event held from 1991 to 2002 in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. It was one of the first events of its kind and set the trend for many other demoscene parties
Demoparty
A demoparty is an event that gathers demosceners and other computer enthusiasts to compete in competitions. A typical demoparty is a non-stop event lasting over a weekend, providing the visitors a lot of time to socialize. The competing works, at least those in the most important competitions, are...
in Europe.
The early years
The first edition of The Party began at the MesseCenteret in AarsAars
Aars is a Danish town with a population of 8,010 in the Himmerland area on Jutland. Administratively, it is located in Region Nordjylland in the Vesthimmerland municipality...
, Denmark, on December 26, 1991. Only Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
demo groups were involved in organizing the party: Crystal (a cracking group which spun off Melon Dezign
Melon Dezign
Melon Dezign was an Amiga demo group founded in Denmark on October 21, 1991 by Seen and Paleface . Originally, they were a subgroup of Crystal, where they at first exclusively created intros for cracked games...
), The Silents, and Anarchy. Attendance was near double what was expected. The top three winners in the Amiga demo competition were Hardwired, Voyage, and Odyssey.
In 1992, The Party 2, which was actually called "The Final" due to uncertainty of The Party's future, attracted an even more overwhelming number of demosceners. The Amiga organization remained the same, but PC
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
and C64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
sceners started to attend and create their own compo
Compo
Compo may refer to:*A slang word in the demoscene for "competition".*A character from the British TV series Last of the Summer Wine named Compo Simmonite, played by Bill Owen.*British army field rations....
s. The Amiga demo compo winner was State of the Art. A 40k intro competition was held for the first time. Facts of Life won the PC demo competition in a ruling contested by Future Crew
Future Crew
Future Crew is a now-defunct Finnish demogroup who created PC demos and software, active mostly between 1992 and 1994.-History:The group was founded in 1986 by PSI as a Commodore 64 group, before moving to the PC demoscene in 1988; other members included, over time, Trug, Wildfire, Pixel, ICE,...
, the runners-up and compo organizers, because no voting actually took place. Jesper Kyd
Jesper Kyd
Jesper Jakobson Kyd is a Danish video game and film score composer.Kyd combines sounds of dark ambient, electronic and symphonic music and has won many awards. He is also notable for his early work in the Amiga demoscene, where he composed a large amount of music in his teenage years, in...
performed at The Party regularly.
Shift in platforms
In 1993, The Party moved to the Herning Messecenter in HerningHerning
Herning Municipality is a municipality in Region Midtjylland on the Jutland peninsula in western Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 1,336 km² and a total population of 84,208...
. Lemon. and Spaceballs took over Amiga organizing. The PC side had a full, separate set of competitions. There were many arguments between the Amiga and PC organizers, with the PC side threatening to secede and start their own party in 1994. The threat became empty as The Party remained multi-platform. The Party moved again in 1995 to Fredericia
Fredericia
Fredericia is a town located in Fredericia municipality in the eastern part of the Jutland peninsula in Denmark, in a sub-region known locally as Trekanten, or The Triangle...
before returning to Aars from 1996 until its demise. The PC scene visitors gradually outnumbered the Amiga scene visitors who dominated the early years.
Shift in scenes
With 3000 visitors and rising, The Party started attracting elements outside of the demo scene. In the early 1990s, raveRave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
culture exploded in Denmark, and kids found The Party to be a fun place to dance and blast music. They mostly coincided peacefully with the demo sceners, but in 1995, a rave in the sleeping hall sparked numerous complaints.
With the release of Doom just weeks before The Party 3 in 1993, network gaming became an overnight sensation, transforming part of the event into the first major LAN party
LAN party
A LAN party is a temporary, sometimes spontaneous, gathering of people with computers, between which they establish a local area network , primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games. The size of these networks may vary from the very small to very large installations...
. Through the 1990s, the gaming element of The Party steadily grew while the demoscene element remained stagnant.
The final years
By 2000, much of the demo scene had abandoned The Party in favor of other demo parties taking place around the same time. Amiga sceners formed a smaller alternative called TRSAC ("The Real Scene After Christmas"), while C64 and PC sceners started tUM ("the Ultimate Meeting") in Germany. It was the winning 64k intro64k intro
A 64k intro is a demo where the size of the executable file is limited to 65536 bytes. At demo parties there is a category for this kind of demos, where the one that gives the best impression wins....
from Farbrausch
Farbrausch
Farbrausch, or Farb-rausch, is a German group of demomakers who made themselves particularly famous in the demoscene in December 2000 with a 64k intro called "fr-08: .the .product". "Farbrausch" literally translates to "rave of color", "color rush" or "color frenzy" in English...
, FR-08: .the .product, that briefly drew demoscene attention back to The Party and gave the organizers enough hope to declare the next party's motto "Back To The Roots". But that promise fell flat as demosceners saw little effort to back it. Sceners complained about constant harassment by both the local security people (who would constantly search their bags for alcohol) and gamers (who would complain about the compos being too loud). The competitions in 2002 were abandoned to the point where all demos and intros were combined into one compo. The Party was cancelled the following year, and to date, has not reopened.
Competition winners
| Year | Amiga demo | PC demo | C64 demo | Amiga intro | PC intro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Odyssey (Alcatraz) | N/A | Brutality (Light) | N/A | N/A |
| 1992 | State of the Art (Spaceballs Spaceballs (demogroup) Spaceballs is an Amiga demo group from Norway, originally based around the city of Halden. It was formed in 1987, but did not make its first release until 1989.The group has released many demos, including State of the Art and Nine Fingers... ) |
Facts of Life (Witan) | Coma Light 8 (Oxyron) | Tetris (Melon Dezign Melon Dezign Melon Dezign was an Amiga demo group founded in Denmark on October 21, 1991 by Seen and Paleface . Originally, they were a subgroup of Crystal, where they at first exclusively created intros for cracked games... ) |
N/A |
| 1993 | Origin (Complex) | Untitled (Dust) | Tower Power (Camelot) | Chaosland (Virtual Dreams) | CyboMan (Gazebo) |
| 1994 | Nexus 7 (Andromeda) | Project Angel (Impact Studios) | Access Denied (Reflex) | 4k0 (Polka Brothers) | Cyboman 2 (Complex) |
| 1995 | Closer (CNCD) | Caero (Plant & EMF) | Mathematica (Reflex) | Creep (Artwork & Polka Brothers) | Lasse Reinbong (Cubic Team & $een) |
| 1996 | Shaft 7 (Bomb) | Alto Knallo (Free Electric Band) | Nine (Reflex) | Phongfree (Oxyron) | Deesbab (Orange) |
| 1997 | My Kingdom (Haujobb & Scoopex) | Tribes (Pulse & Melon Dezign) | Second Reality (Smash Designs) | Superautodrome (Scoopex) | Stash (The Black Lotus) |
| 1998 | Alien 2 (Scoopex) | MOAI (NOMAD) | Triage III (Smash Designs) | 1000% (Scoopex) | Alien Sex Clone (fudGe) |
| 1999 | Concrete (Ephidrena) | Non-3D:Melrose Space (Threestate) | Y2K (Duck & Cover) (No Name) | Nonstop (Dual Crew - Shining) | Fukwit Daddy (Haujobb) |
| 3D:Kasparov (Elitegroup) | |||||
| 2000 | Megademo 2000 (Haujobb) | Love Creation MAX (INF) | Starburst 96 (Padua) | qrid (Nature) | FR-08: The Product (Farbrausch Farbrausch Farbrausch, or Farb-rausch, is a German group of demomakers who made themselves particularly famous in the demoscene in December 2000 with a 64k intro called "fr-08: .the .product". "Farbrausch" literally translates to "rave of color", "color rush" or "color frenzy" in English... ) |
| Year | |Combined demo | C64 demo | |Combined 64K intro | ||
| 2001 | Elements (Haujobb) | Decade 100 % (Smash Designs) | FR-014: Garbage Collection (Farbrausch) | ||
| 2002 | CloseGL (Jesper & Sharky) | ||||
| Year | 4-channel music | multi-channel music | pixel graphic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Overload (Mantronix / Tip ) | N/A | Maximum overscan (Iridon of Shinida) |
| 1992 | Cortouchka (Moby of DRD) | N/A | Womsnake (Peachy / TRSI) |
| 1993 | Elektrik Funk (Moby of Sanity Sanity (demogroup) Sanity was an all-German demo group, formed in March 1990 by Panther and Hawk. The group quickly took in Vindicator and Cruiser as well. Their first production was the musicdisk Best Game Music Monthly #1, which announced the birth of the group.-History:After forming Sanity in 1990, German... ) |
Cloudscape (Zodiak) | Dragon Sun (Cougar / Sanity) & Alex (Movement) |
| 1994 | Electric Church (Hithansen / Rednex) | Reflecter (Zodiak of Cascada) | Helge Schneider (Peachy / Masque) |
| 1995 | Fountain Of Sighs (Unreal of Pulse) | The Morning After (Fby Fabio Barzagli of Soft One) | Spacetits (Danny) |
| 1996 | Salsa Con Carne (Mystical of Purple) | Close to god (Croaker / Halcyon / Tpolm) | Multi Doodle (Mazor / Paragon) |
| 1997 | Sassy Notion (Pink of Abyss) | Follow the star (KB of TOM / Purge) | Cannibal (Seth of Fudge) |
| 1998 | Junk Freaks (Moby of Sanity Sanity (demogroup) Sanity was an all-German demo group, formed in March 1990 by Panther and Hawk. The group quickly took in Vindicator and Cruiser as well. Their first production was the musicdisk Best Game Music Monthly #1, which announced the birth of the group.-History:After forming Sanity in 1990, German... ) |
Ratzbatzfatzfatz (Salt of KOLABORE) | Hina (TMK of INF) |
| 1999 | Blue trippy yellow (Jazz of Haujobb) | In times of war (oRaNGe of Ostebulen) | Color of Autumn (Fashion of Smash Designs) |
External links
- The Party - official (ex-)site
- The Party on Pouët
- Better HAVE a life after Christmas - an article about The Party 1998's failures (not to be taken entirely seriously, as it was written under the guise of a "fake group" infamous for its arrogance)
- Partyreport of The Party 2001 by Sobec / Speckdrumm at Slengpung (also features a lot of criticism to the party)
- A demo from 1991 Jesper KydJesper KydJesper Jakobson Kyd is a Danish video game and film score composer.Kyd combines sounds of dark ambient, electronic and symphonic music and has won many awards. He is also notable for his early work in the Amiga demoscene, where he composed a large amount of music in his teenage years, in...
did the music for - The Party '99 - Orga opening video and history