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Little Computer People, 30/7-1/8 2004

A personal party report by macx.

The summerparty was coming up and was the most discussed topic at Antidote and rumours
were talking about this and that in various other scene forums. Plans were made in order to
get each and everyone to Linkoping. Everybody’s gut-feeling was set on Little Computer
People.

I first had planned to go with Oxidy like last year, but as there was a big need for more seats
heading to the party from down south I decided to get my old 1986 VW working. My
carstereo however, for some reason, seemed to become a goner the weekend preceding the big
weekend making my decision a bit alarming. In any way the stereo returned to normal just in
time for the long carride. And Dino brought a cassettedeck with sids as a backup plan.

From Malmo me and Vinzi drove to pick up Dino in Helltown then making it to (after a little
detour) Vaxjo to get Zzap69 into the fourwheeled sauna. The entire summer it had been
pissing down, creating floods in the surroundings of Zzap69. Just in time for LCP though, the
sun set in, scorching. This was ofcourse welcomed, but with an old car lacking A/C in the
summer heat, things could easily have become a bit homo erotical.

After finding a nice parkingplace just infront of the entrance of the partyplace “skylten” I
went to sit with some of my fellow sceners who were ut getting some evening sun at the
parkinglot. The rest went in rummaging around in the computer hall. I remember someone
coming out from the partyplace telling me that there seemed to lack c64:s. LCP being a
multiplatform party for machines like Amiga, Atari, Spectrum and Nintendo aswell, one
perhaps could not expect a murdering majority of the good old breadbox and it’s younger
facelifted sibling. My impression however was that the first glance was proven wrong,. It
really was One C64 to Rule Them All.

The scene bonanza was now at large. Meeting up old friends and discussing a nice topic over
a couple of beers is perhaps the essens of an active contemporary scene up here in Sweden.
The social aspect of a community devoted to creating art should not be underestimated. There
is not only a need for openness and tolerance, but also of friendship and laid back
conversation. With the ragging attitude dead, group boundraries diminishing and social
forums like LCP and Floppy I really believe we have got a strong scene for the future.
Especially on events like these, when people from other platforms show up. I remember an
old friend of mine, who is an Amiga-guy, coming up to me at the party with a smile on his
face telling me he had never before visited such a PARTYdemoparty. With a positive
atmosphere people not only become interested, the ones involved sure gets a burst of
creativity. The scene evolves and that is a necessity in order to keep people active. A possible
proof for my thesis could be the recent discussions about the LCP releases at CSDB. People
have strong feelings about these matters. Strong feelings are harder to let go. But then,
ofcourse, I could be all wrong :-).

In any way, the party procedured. Some were sitting in the DMz corner reading the pages of
oldskool eightbit pr0n (DMz, short for Datormagazin, is a legendary swedish
computermagazine with renowned writers like Bacchus and Christer Rindeblad). Some were
doing the “mongo quiz”, an open-air walking combined with a quiz competition with scene-
related questions. Some were watching an ancient informationfilm from Kopparbergs
Electronik shown on the bigscreen. The part I got a glimpse of were of how to take care of
mini-diskettes and how they manufactured them, really educational!

Others were preparing for the upcoming shake’em game compo. This year it was called tour
the france and had gone through some changes, the major one making it a competition of how
long one had the energy to endure wiggling the tac2:s. I had a sore body after my tough
encounter of Finland’s finest: Phase1. The person whom probably got the hardest
trainingaches though, was the winner of the compo: RaveGuru, who bet Fix after a long and
hard game (get rid of those sexual insinuations).

I myself was working on some graphics, amongst other things the logotype of Tekniska
Verken for the “Postcard from LCP”, released a week after the party. The scrolltext in the
demo is in fact parts of the authentic scrolling text from Tekniska Verken, visible and
inspiring for all people in central Linkoping.

Slator from Germany has become a regular visitor to the swedish demoparties, cheering us up
with his penis cheese-beer. This year LCP attracted not only him though. Mermaid from
Norway showed up together with Dbug from France. And together with Finlands Phase1 and
Hollands DCMP the event became quite international.

Soon came Saturday evening and night, and the democompo got started. Everybody settled
with their eyes set on the big screen, ready to indulge in their fellow sceners creative output.
The biggest surprise, atleast to me, was probably “Hammarkullen” by Afrika. After a faky
intro the fast braincrunching effects got started, loads smoother than chicks on speed. Perhaps
not as revolutionary and pioneering as Triads “Borderline” or thought-provoking as Fairlights
“Postcards from Stockholm”, but certanly a big and positive surprise was audible and visible
from the otherwise so mellow (lots of laugh) faces of the partypeople. Another really
interesting release in my mind was ChristopherJams “Effluvium”. In short, the democompo at
LCP was a kicker and gave the lot of us, after the voting-procedure and the handing out of the
prices had been taken care of, a good night (or rather morning) of sleep.

Waking up, the party was over. Many had already left and most were preparing to do so.
Zzap69 made sure to drink a few beers so he wouldn’t have to drive the car on the way home
:-). All props to Dino for staying awake the whole carride home, I guess I could have fallen
asleep aswell otherwise. And to the organizer of the event, Frantic (a.k.a Autoboy): Thank
you for a party well done and major congrats to becoming a father. Keep it up!

Jonatan “macx” Forsberg, august 24th 2004

LCP 2004 OFFICIAL c64 RESULTS:

c64 demo:

1. Postcards from Stockholm by Fairlight
2. Borderline by Triad
3. Hammarkullen by Afrika
4. Ultragui by Fairlight
5. Effluvium by ChristopherJam
6. Goa Brudbilder 1 by Hack ‘n’ Trade
7. Pride by Triad
8. Walking Man by Macx
9. Sequel by The Gang
10. Zyron est Fart by Coders with Attitude
11. Dataapan tar dig

c64 music:

1. LCP2005 by Zyron
2. Assid by RaveGuru
3. Tune by Mermaid
4. Fuck the System by Maktone
5. I Won’t Get Away With This by Kjell Nordbo
6. Myllrets Magi by Zzap69
7. Elastik Elektronik

c64 graphics:

1. Doktor Lasers Modala Experiment by Twoflower
2. Bad Dream by DCMP
3. Admiral by Mermaid and Phase1
4. Power-Flower by Vodka
5. Scarlett by Wiggen
6. Badmoon by CMP
7. Bambino by Oxidy
8. Faces by Blackdroid
9. Compopic by Hollowman
10. A World at War by Univerz
11. Evil by Asfar
12. Graffiti by Poison
13. Skane by Dino
14. LCP2007 by Zyron
15. LCP04 by Fred
16. Compopic by Skyhawk

c64 releases outside the compo:

Minimal Jungle Experience by Civitas
Ultragui by Obsession
Ultraman by Wrath Designs
We/Knutby by Fairlight