Symposium and Mekka 1998 party report...
                    ...hosted by Dow Jones/Plush.
                    ..kindly typed by Jazzcat/Onslaught.


On Friday midday I caught Brix/Plush and Macgyver/DMAgic, and together we
started our journey to Fallingbostel, the small town where the
Mekka Symposium 98 takes place. When we drove on the highway suddenly a guy
leant out of a car-window and started to shake a beer-can - it was Rayden and
Cyclone of Alphaflight 1970, which cheers to us - probably coz of the
Plush-sign I put in the window of my car. But they had a faster engine, so
soon they were out of sight of us..

When we entered the hall we were welcomed by Chaotic/Smash Designs, who made
the 64-side of the party. He had an extra guestbook for the friends of the
little commodore, so you could easily see who was there and who not.
The party-place was already full of people, and the only space left was on
the end of the hall - no wonder, as you couldn't see the stage from there...
Anyway, we take place and connect the few computers we bring with us.
The most useful machine we had was a little oven from Seba - always hot food,
that's the way a party should be.. :)

The food supply on the party was quite good. Beside the normal sources
(like shops and pizza-services) they sell fresh sandwiches some times a day,
and in front of the hall a fish and chips guy had his stand. I can't say
anything about the sandwiches, because we brought our own food with us, but
they seem to be yumyum - so thumbs up for this!

During the party they show classic demos on the huge screen, first on 64'er,
later on Amiga and PC, or other things, like a video with state-of-the-art
animations, taken from games or calculated on big machines.

On Saturday the fun-compos started. Have you ever tried to rebuild a keyboard
only with your brain ? It's not that easy it seems...
Then they asked us to go out of the hall, to a big green where they
installed a little swimming-pool. Two volunteers were needed for that game,
but nobody would, as it was pretty cold that day. Finallyy two guys came up
and earned a big applause from the audience. The task sound not that easy:
fish a disc out the water without using your hands. Sadly you couldn't see
the disc, coz the organisers put some dish-wash-stuff that causes lotsa white
fluffies on the water, first the two guys tried to be careful not to become
wet, but then one of them lost his balance and fell in the pool... The other
one jumps along, to be the first who got the disc, but in the end both fished
their disc at the same time, so they both got a prize.

The definitive top-act among the fun-compos was the sid-tune-guessing.
Last year they played some tunes on a C64, and the canditates had to write
down the name of the game or composer but this year they had an acapella-band
that plays the tunes!!!
4 guys in black and white climbed the stage and were introduced as
"Maybebop". Then they started with the old Commando-Tune, with nothing else
than their voices - that was really rocking..! And they came damn close to
the original. Then they "played" Wizardry, Mule, and some other I can't
remember. This compo was won by Fanta/Oxyron, followed by Mac Gyver/DMAgic.
After the compo they played some own songs, but they were not that kicking,
so the audience lost its interest in it, what must be quite disappointing to
them...

Meanwhile the party-place was completely full (850 ppl I've heard - also the
space behind the screen was filled up), so I went along to meet some
64-related guys. That was not easy, as they were spread around the hall.
A 64-only-corner would be a useful idea.
Later that night, after a Plush-intern Soulblade competition, I lay down to
sleep under our tables. There were two big, heated sleeping tents behind the
hall, but as mentioned it was cold outside, and I had not that much trust in
their ovens. On the other hand it was quite in the tents, while in the hall
the big speakers stay active...

On Sunday the competition starts. The PC-demos were partly impressive, as
they show much calculated stuff and funky animations. One demo consist of
vectorized parts of the Captain Future series, along with all soundtracks.
There were lotsa other competitions, i.e. the 32-kb-game compo, in which a
complete rebuild of Giana Sisters takes place! Well, at least it seems to be
a complete rebuild, they show not the whole game.

In the 64'er graphics competition Rayden/Alphaflight 1970 wins with his
picture: "Du gemeiner Moerder", which seems to be very colorful hifli.
The winner of the music-compo was a guy called Baxter (if I remember right),
but later on some people complained that he used digis in his tune and stuff
like that. Anyway, I liked this tune most and voted for it, nevertheless if
there are digis in it or not.
Before the 64er-demo competition started Anonym and Hoogo of Padua spread
some sheets with a song text among the 64-guys. In their demo "Splishsplash"
they had a singalong-part, playing the music of "Yellow Submarine", but with
a little different text: "We all live in the sixtyfour-scene...", and when
this demo was shown we all sang along - a really funny idea! :)

More surprising was the coop-demo from Crest and Oxyron (which had - of
course - also a new gfx-mode included..). Further more demos from Hitmen,
Smash Designs, Cascade, Metalvotze and some more I can't remember were
released - but try to catch them!! The winners were - not surprising -
Smash Designs. But, and that was surprising, in the endpart-upscroller of the
demo AEG/SDS asked his girlfriend to marry him! After the demo was faded out
she climbed on the stage and said - yes!! Those smashers are some pretty
folks... :)

On Monday midday we start our way back, with a little stop at the petrol-
station. Well - you know the days after these parties, the petrol-stations
are overloaded with sceners.. In the car beside us was Sputnik, the guy
coding on the SCPU-assembler, and we had a nice chat from car to car.
Meanwhile the first version of this assembler is out, by the way.

When I arrived at home again the first thing I did was eating a pizza during
a much needed shower, I fall onto my bed and slept (even more needed) 16
hours - the normal behaviour after a party..

Hope to see y'all on X'98 this summer!

Dow Jones/Plush