Altparty.INF Plain text version (no longer updated). Alternative Party Information The Story This was one of those funny ideas that keep annoying you when you're supposed to be having a normal day. Just when one more boring day is about to pass by unnoticed it hits you. There I was chatting on IRC with some strange people and before I could do anything about it I was already typing out something like "Why not have a really DIFFERENT computer party?". Oops! Fatal error $00F4. What made it even worse was the fact that people seemed to actually like that idea.. Something was definitely wrong here, and I still haven't figured out what that something was. The Idea Gather a whole bunch of computer freaks together. Filter out all the multimedia PC and AGA Amiga people. What's left? A bunch of total weirdos who think 'life' is a bunch of pixels moving across the screen occasionally colliding with each other. The name of this event? The Different Party? The Weirdo Party? The Pathetic Party? Nope, it's just a boring 'Alternative Party'. Maybe the name isn't terribly enlightening but we're geeks, we don't need good names. The Machines Just some of the computers you can take part with:

Altair
Amiga500-1000
Amstrad CPC464/6128
Apple I/II
Archimedes
Atari
BBC
Commodore PET/VIC/64/128
Cray
Digital Alpha
Dragon
IBM RS6000
PC (286 or less, no GUS/SB or modern gfxcards)
Silicon Graphics
Sinclair ZX80/ZX81/ZX Spectrum/QL
Sun Microsystems

...and the list goes on, use your imagination if you have any...

In fact, the weirder and rarer the machine, the better. We'll also try to bring a whole pile of really strange machines for everyone to try out and have fun with. The Place Turku, Finland in a large (3000m^2) building called "Palatsi" (http://www.turku.fi/nuorto/palatsi/). There are all the necessary party facilities in the building: showers, audio equipment, video equipment, cafe, internet connection etc. It is right in the center of the Turku city so it is practically surrounded by hamburger restaurants, shops and all other sources of Coke (there's even a Megazone nearby for those who love shooting at each other with laser beams). The Dimension Easter 1998, 10th-12th April. Doors (officially) open on Friday the 10th at 12:00 and close on Sunday the 12th at 18:00. The Price Your Soul plus: 100 Finnish marks (about 20 US dollars) if a reservation is made beforehand 130 Finnish marks (about 26 US dollars) if the entrance fee is paid at the door. 20 Finnish marks if you happen to be a female, regardless of whether you make a reservation beforehand or pay at the door. (this means we would prefer if people made reservations instead of paying at the door) Payment beforehand can be made by either sending cash to the contact address below in this text or directly to the following bank account in Finland: Merita 142850-45618 (Kristoffer Lawson). The Compos Any machine but new PCs (>286) and new Amigas (AGA) can take part in the compos. We will have a variety of machines to present the demos on but if you have a rare machine it doesn't matter, just bring it up to the compo stand! For this reason the compos might actually be spread out for a longer period of time. The machine must also be able to produce some standard kind of visual output for the demo compo. VGA, RGB (with correct cables) or TV are all OK. At this point in time we have planned a demo, chip music, ASCII graphics and rare computer compo.

Demo

- Must be under 5 MBs.
- PCs must not use any processor faster than a 286.
- No GUS/SB soundcards (or compatible) in PCs.
- No modern 3D cards in PCs.
- Amigas must be based on a pre-AGA chipset (although can be hacked and upgraded in any imaginable way)
- Machine must produce some standard graphics output.
- Should contain a screen explaining which machine it's being run on.

Chip Music

- Must contain no samples.
- Machine has to have an audio out to connect to the amplifier (TV out is OK).
- Music will be recorded to DAT or some other format before compo and played from it.

ASCII Graphics

- Resolution 80x25
- Only standard 7-bit ASCII supported.
- Will be shown with the 'cat' command or something similar.
- The terminal speed will be set to 19200 bps.
- The terminal will be set to vt100/vt102/vt220 so you can create special effects and animations!

Rarest Computer Compo

- There will be a prize given to the person who brings the weirdest and most obsolete computer to the party.
- The organizers will tour the place searching for interesting machines, but if you want to make sure your machine is considered, inform any of the organizers at the place about it.


Extra Bonuses On Saturday when Megazone is open, all party guests get a 10FIM reduction from the normal Megazone price, which makes 30FIM per game per person. We will possibly also organize a few special party games only for party guests. Megazone is a laser war game played indoors in teams. The aim of the game is basically to fire at members of all other teams except your own and to gain as many points as possible. The Gods Themselves Contact us for any extra information on the party, to suggest a good idea or if you want to become an official sponsor. It would also be nice to hear from you if you already know you'll definitely be there :-) Aggression and Friends

email: setok@fishpool.com
phone: +358-40-7312273
smail:

Kristoffer Lawson
Asemakuja 3C 53
02770 Espoo
Finland
Alternative Party list email: altparty@fishpool.com If you're interested you can join this list by emailing majordomo@fishpool.com with the text 'subscribe altparty' in the body. Disclaimer More compos and events might be added or the compo rules changed. This text file will be updated whenever necessary. Back to the Alternative Party homepage