Report by Ecsic/Dytec/Acsore
As published in "The Crest" Magazine #11

As in 1997 also this year the organizers of MekkaSymposium-Party managed it
to realize this event for C64, Amiga and PC in Fallingbostel in northern
Germany. I for myself got in the situation to go there, as in cause of
Hardsequencer´s mother having a rather bad disease he decided to stay at home
and so I simply could take his seat in the car for the return journey. Not
the best circumstance, but i just used this lastminute-opportunity. I also
put up with the long way by train in incredible anticipation for the biggest
german sceneparty. As I arrived in Fallingbostel I actually wasn´t in the
mood to deal with the exhausting way to the Heidmarkhalle where the party
took place, but what was left for me? So I took my stuff and went to the
partyplace. Arrived there (with some help of a friendly Pcfreak.. Hi!).
I firstly was incredibly overwhelmed by the impression that was offered to
my eyes: sooo many guys! No! I guess at all there were 900-1000 visitors
and I have to admit that because of this being my first BIG sceneparty, that
was a deeply moving moment and I surely won´t ban it out of my mind (like 
some people ban others on IRC.. Hi Mendrake!)! Now, I put my thoughts on the
important matters and quickly payed the foolish entrance-fee of 50 DM and
started my seeking for Dodger and Fatman, ´cause we had arranged to meet there
and to be frank I had my problems to find them in this swarm at least at the
beginning. But why should it be in another way, I found what I searched and
even if I only knew Dodger from some telephone-calls, we recognized ourselves
quite fast (...a yellow t-shirt and braces! Ts, ts, ts!) and from now on I
wasn´t alone anymore in the wide, wild and wicked partyworld of the
computerscene! Well, at first I thought it just was a pure mistake by our
beloved mother earth, that so many guys spent their time by playing Quake or
PSX and by swapping some enchanting Triple X´s, but as I had to see, they
really were seriousely willing to make the long journey and pay the entrance
for this great delight. Hmm, quite admirable I think. Really. But what should
I -a real Party-greenhorn- demand a lot from these overtired but nevertheless
party-hungry visitors, that´s not my right.. Watch and learn was my motto.
And so I did also with the Accept and Metalvotze-guys when I saw how they came
out. Envy and jealousy penetrated my body as I saw how fantastic the guys
around Friese and Syntax enjoyed themselves! I tried to copy their partystyle
but curiousely didn´t (in difference to them..) find any satisfaction in
running on the stage and crying 'Ficken!' all the time or going around the
place very funny and simply to party! Either this was caused by much too less
THC or alcohol in my blood or I am just not a party-lion; but that´s life,
some have the special thing and some not... It´s also sometimes very
surprising, which person stands behind a handle. So it can surely happen that
the cute, nice boy from the house in the neighbourhood transforms into an
icecold maneater as quick as a flash! Really! But as we all know, the only
reason for visiting such a party are the releases, and ONLY the releases and
so I won´t embezzle the warezyield of the Symmek 98. The first compo that was
helt was the musiccompetition and I was astonished a lot when I saw which
sceners developed into musicians in that short time. Not that bad when the
scene gets new talents from time to time in this section, if this pays or
not... In my eyes, and I don´t have any doubt, there were four or five tracks
which sounded really nice, but the rest was quite low and so we had no other
way (at this noiselevel) than that which lead out of the hall, but maybe we
just missed the best ones right in that time. Could be.. The next climax was
the Graphic-compo! Not only that Rayden spoiled us with a new pic made by
Cyclone, no, there was even more. Great artworks for sure, but it became a
real problem to distinguish the real graphics from the fake-ones so I felt
a little bit unsure in my skin, but maybe I just was a little bit puzzled
by the fact that this was my first GfxCompo on a big screen, that´s possible.
As last competition the demos appeared on the screen. Hitmen showed their new
demo Reanim8ed for the demanding eyes of the visitors and also Cascade,
Willow and WOW impressed the whole partyplace with their new productions.
Even the PC- and Amigaguys nod agreeing and respectful at the sight of those
real fireworks of style, art and code. But also Padua wasn´t sleeping and
implemented the really funny idea to let the audience sing a karaoke-like
song (ofcause written by Cupid) during their demo and so Yellow Submarine
from the Beatles became the C64-scene-hymn on the spot. Another nice one was
produced with a fusion of Crest and Oxyron. The style and the code in this
demo was really nice and kicked some butt in my op´. Props to Oxy, Crest and
Pda for keeping the level on a good standard!! Thanks a lot! But there was
one question for the competitors that still were left: How could you as coder
get the attention from the guys in front of the big screen after such a flood
of quality?! Yeah, damn difficult, I have to admit, but AEG from Smash got an
inspiration or something else like this. The first part of his plan was to
let two demos compete at the compo, but that´s not all as you might guess.
He also fascinated all the present people with stunning 4x4-Pixel-Code and
as this wouldn´t have brought him all the votes he needed he went on to the
final blow: he asked his girlfriend (or fiancée?) in the romantic
end-upscroller if she feels like to marry him!! To the surprising of everyone
she afterwards went onto the stage and said Yes! That is love! We tried to
find out, if this all wasn´t just directed by him, simply to catch all the
remaining votes by the pure warmth of his heart, but seemingly this wasn´t
the case. So AEG, the whole Crest-staff wishes you and your wife to be all 
the best for the future! May your marriage will last forever.
And with these words I´m hardly at the end of this report, but I still want
to use the last lines to say something about this party in general. At all
the partyplace seemed relatively clean and also the toilets were at a good
condition in relation to this bunch of people. Unfortunately the food was
quite expensive in my opinion and so I was very lucky that I took some
provisions to this party and I also could take some advantages out of these
cute sausages (Bautzner Senf!) Dodger has brought with him. I´ll thank you
on the usual way... you know what I mean, Lars. ;) Also the attempt to build
up a quiet sleeping-tent was ok, because in this one there really was silence.
But either we haven´t realized this in that night or it just was the pure
reality: it was damn fucking cold in there!! So we came to the conclusion to
prefer a sleeping-place under the tables and yes, it was noisy... Another
thing we recognized especially was that the Sound-PA wasn´t the very best
and so we haven´t had any interest to follow the advises or the other crap
that came out of the speakers introduced by this well-known Playstation-jingle
after three or four times. Maybe we better wouldn´t have placed that near
to the speakers, but ok. The last point I have to take into consideration
was the lame Gfx-compo. I can´t understand how some of these pics could be
voted that high and others (e.g. the really nice pic from Hogan/Reflex!)
were at so low places, really confusing a little bit. This also applies
for the Music-Compo, but in that case I didn´t care a lot. Some things
possibly can´t be understood or something... Well, what´s left? At all the
party was really cool and in view of the funny time we had there, we surely
will be at MekkaSymposium next year again. I hope you gained some impressions
of this one, even if they were only with my personal point of view. 
..yours, [ecsic of DyTec and Acsore]--====================987654321_0==_