Dream 52/Amiga_Dream_52.iso/Amiga/Demos/Aga/SCX-Abd98Invit.lha/Abd98inv.txt

Text File | 1998-04-28 | 17KB | 508 lines

    Official Abduction'98 Invitation (v.1.0)
    ----------------------------------------

    This is the first official announcement to invite you all to
    attend Abduction'98 and celebrate the beginning of hot summer!
    Dates are set, the place has been reserved and it all looks
    great, just read on to find out all the fine details!

    This is the first public version of this text file. You can
    identify updates from the version number on the title.


    What, Where and When?
    ---------------------

    Abduction'98 is a scene party held in Oulun Urheilutalo in Oulu,
    Finland (yes, it's the same place as last year). The happening
    occupies the first weekend of June starting on Friday, 5th of
    June and ending on Sunday, 7th of June thus lasting for three
    sunny days. The detailed schedule is later in this text file.

    This annual happening is held for the fifth consecutive time, so
    it can be said that Abduction parties have became an important
    part of today's demoscene in Finland. We hope this will be a
    thing to last and thereby invite you all to attend this weekend
    of pure entertainment. Bring your PC, Amiga, C64, SGI/SUN/Cray
    workstation or VIC-20, the spirit of belonging together is
    truly more important than the hardware you are using.

    The party building is a comfortable sports center. It's main
    hall combined with the open space between the hall and the
    second floor cafeteria can easily hold 500 visitors and more.
    There are seats on both sides of the main hall where you can
    rest, meet your friends or get an unique view over the party
    hall. Or if you are more on the outdoor mood, we have these
    huge grass fields next to the building. A thing lot of people
    were happy about last year.

    We will arrange traditional demo and intro competitions for PC
    and Amiga groups to attend. Artistic competitions for skilled
    composers, pixel artists and 3D modellers are in schedule as
    well. These and the spectacular Wild! competition are open to
    everyone regardless of the platform the contributions were
    made on. There will be a powerful PA system set up and all the
    finalists will be shown using it and the *huge* big screen. For
    more information about the competitions read the rules later
    in this text file.

    Entrance fee is 120 FIM (~22 USD) for the whole weekend. Girls,
    foreigners and senior citizens get in for free! Foreigners:
    please bring your passport or some other id to prove your
    nationality.

    Abduction'98 is organized by Abduction Organizing ry which is
    a non-profit organization dedicated to work for the scene.
    None of us will get paid for what we are doing. By supporting
    Abduction'98 you're keeping the scene alive, not paying
    anyone's holiday trip to the Bahamas :)


    Party Facilities
    ----------------

    - Great place with lot of room, electricity for everyone,
      tables where to put your stuff, showers and quiet sleeping
      hall in the ground floor

    - Superb PA system with loudspeakers all around the main hall,
      not just in front of it

    - Big screen showing information services, competitions and
      favourite demos on multiple platforms -- all around the
      clock

    - Cafeteria / snack bar open 24 hours a day

    - Lovely outdoor recreation area next to the party place, ideal
      for hanging around and meeting soul mates

    - Competitions on two major platforms -- PC and Amiga -- plus
      many platform independent competitions

    - Diskette-based voting and realtime counting of votes on the
      big screen

    - Party network and 2 Mbps connection to the Internet (bring
      your own network cards)

    - Quake II tournament with prizes for the hardest killers
      (yeah, bring those bloody network cards!)

    - Special competitions on Saturday afternoon

    - Perhaps even live music

    - Much much more


    Rules to Remember
    -----------------

    These rules are not to bother you but to ensure the happiness
    of other people too. Visitors breaking any of these rules will
    be warned or removed from the party place when needed. Finnish
    and international laws do apply in Oulu as well <grin>, so we
    can call the cops to pick you up :)

    1. Absolutely *no* alcohol, drugs, smoking, vandalism or
    software piracy inside the party building.

    2. You are not allowed to sell hardware, software, food or
    something else without getting a permission from the organizers.

    3. You are legally responsible for your actions and their
    consequences: you pay what you break.

    4. The organizers have the right to remove a person from the
    party place and not let him (or her) in again if this person
    has broken any of these rules, Finnish or international laws.

    5. The organizers of Abduction'98 have the right to add, modify
    or otherwise change these rules.

    6. You as a visitor acknowledge these rules and promise to
    have a fun filled weekend!


    Competitions
    ------------

    Want to make money fast and legally? By contributing to one
    of the many competitions we are offering you get the chance
    to win! Prizes are mainly cash (paid after the party) but
    there might be some cool hardware prizes as well. All the
    profit from ticket sales will be used as prizes; thus the
    more visitors we have, the better the prizes will be.

    Every visitor will get a PC-formatted diskette with voting
    programs for both PC and Amiga. With these programs you can
    vote for the top five in each competition category. Returned
    votes are counted in real time on the big screen.

    In the PC Demo and PC 64 kB Intro competitions two different
    setups are available to choose from, namely DOS and Win95/98.
    If you are programming for the Windows, keep in mind that also
    the special DLLs must fit in the size limit. We strongly
    advise you to contact Ws/Nv in advance if you are planning to
    support Win32 in your production. Other operating systems
    (Linux?) might be supported if there are enough demand for
    them.

    There have been questions about additional main competitions,
    for example Commodore 64 Demo competition. We will add support
    for them if we get enough response from the scene.

    The maximum playing times listed below are *guidelines* only.
    Most probably we don't cut the modules at 3'00 sharp but
    you should at least *try* to obey them.

    ** General rules for all the competitions **

    - At least one of the authors has to be present at the party
      place to take part in the competition.

    - An almighty jury will review all the entries and decide the
      amount and the names of the finalists which will be shown on
      the big screen.

    - Organizers reserve the right to disqualify entries because of
      bad taste (f.i. racial or explicit sexual content).

    - Entries with copyrighted or illegal material will be
      automatically disqualified.

    - All entries will be distributed immediately after the party.
      They will be available at our ftp site and from other sources
      as well.

    - Organizers reserve the right to make a low-cost CD-ROM and
      put all or selected entries from Abduction'98 on it.

    - All the entries (except for the Wild! competition) must be
      delivered on normal-size diskettes, either in PC or Amiga
      format. These diskettes will *not* be returned.

    - By contributing your production, you are acknowledging these
      rules.

    Deadlines on Friday are *final* but on Saturday you can
    bring updated versions to your work also after the deadline.
    Read the schedule for more information.

    Competition machine for PC Demo and PC 64 kB Intro is:

        Intel Pentium MMX 200 MHz
        32 MB RAM
        Gravis Ultrasound 1 MB
        Sound Blaster Pro (or compatible sound card)
        Regular display adapter with VESA 2.0 support
        580 kB available base memory in DOS mode
        Windows 95/98 with latest DirectX drivers in Win95 mode
        Optionally available: latest version of Scitech Display
        Doctor (for univbe)

    Competition machine for Amiga Demo and Amiga 64 kB Intro is:

        Amiga 1200T
        Cyberstorm MK-3 with Motorola 68060-50MHz
        2 MB CHIP, 32 MB FAST RAM
        Standard sound output
        Cybervision 64/3D, 4 MB VRAM, Z3, S3 VIRGE chip
        CybergraphX installed
        AmigaOS 3.1

    These are the preliminary setups *only* and are subject to
    change without prior note from the organizers! We will try to
    keep the changes as minimal as possible though.

    And here are the main competition categories with their specific
    rules. The general competition rules listed above apply to all
    of these.

    ** PC Demo **

    - The maximum size in executable form is 6 MB (6,291,456 bytes)
    - Pure animations are not allowed
    - Demo can be a DOS program or a Win32 executable
    - VESA 2.0 modes are allowed but not all are guaranteed to
      work; try to make your production support alternative bit
      depths if you are using high or true color modes
    - Demo must not save anything to the hard disk (there may be
      an optional switch to write configuration file or extract
      internal data though)
    - Demo must run without any kind of user interaction (except
      for optional setup screen at the beginning)
    - Demo must work also without a sound card
    - One must be able to quit anytime by pressing Esc
    - Only the first 8 minutes are guaranteed to be shown

    ** PC 64 kB Intro **

    - The maximum size in executable form is 64 kB (65,536 bytes)
    - Pure animations with player are allowed :)
    - Intro can be a DOS program or a Win32 executable
    - VESA 2.0 modes are allowed
    - Intro must not save anything to the hard disk
    - Intro must run without any kind of user interaction (except
      for optional setup screen at the beginning)
    - Intro must work also without a sound card
    - One must be able to quit anytime by pressing Esc
    - Only one intro per coder
    - Only the first 5 minutes are guaranteed to be shown

    ** Amiga Demo **

    - The maximum size in executable form is 6 MB (6,291,456 bytes)
    - Pure animations are not allowed
    - Demo *must* run on A1200 / 030 / 2 MB CHIP + 16 MB FAST / AGA
      setup, but it can *optionally* utilize the advantages of
      the competition setup
    - Demo must be hard disk installable
    - Demo must not save anything to the hard disk (there may be
      an optional switch to write configuration file or extract
      internal data though)
    - Demo must run without any kind of user interaction (except
      for optional setup screen at the beginning)
    - One must be able to quit anytime by clicking the left mouse
      button
    - Only the first 8 minutes are guaranteed to be shown

    ** Amiga 64 kB Intro **

    - The maximum size in executable form is 64 kB (65,536 bytes)
    - Pure animations with player are allowed :)
    - Intro *must* run on A1200 / 030 / 2 MB CHIP + 16 MB FAST / AGA
      setup, but it can *optionally* utilize the advantages of
      the competition setup
    - Intro must run from the hard disk
    - Intro must not save anything to the hard disk
    - Intro must run without any kind of user interaction (except
      for optional setup screen at the beginning)
    - One must be able to quit anytime by clicking the left mouse
      button
    - Only one intro per coder
    - Only the first 5 minutes are guaranteed to be shown

    ** Hand-made Graphics **

    - The maximum screen resolution is 640x512 with 24 bits of color
    - Any format supported by the most often used viewers will do
    - Scanned, ripped or raytraced pictures are not allowed
    - Pictures with registered trademarks or logos are not allowed
    - You *must* submit a competition version *without* signature
    - You *may* submit a release version *with* signature
    - Only one picture per artist
    - Pictures will be shown with the same machine (PC, Amiga)
      they were made on

    ** Raytraced Graphics **

    - The maximum screen resolution is 640x512 with 24 bits of color
    - Any format supported by the most often used viewers will do
    - Pictures with registered trademarks or logos are not allowed
    - You *must* submit a competition version *without* signature
    - You *may* submit a release version *with* signature
    - Only one picture per artist
    - Pictures will be shown with the same machine (PC, Amiga)
      they were made on

    ** Music Multichannel **

    - The maximum number of channels is 32
    - The maximum size for the module is 1 MB (1,048,576 bytes)
    - All standard module formats (S3M, XM, IT, MOD are ok; contact
      Ws/Nv for others) will do
    - There will be a pre-selected list of players (st3, ft2, cubic,
      it, midp at least) to choose from; you don't need to bring
      your own player
    - *No* MIDI songs
    - Only one song per artist
    - Only the first 3 minutes are guaranteed to be played; your
      song can be longer though
    - Modules will be played on PC

    ** Music 4-channel **

    - The maximum number of channels is 4
    - The module must fit uncompressed on one Amiga formatted DD
      diskette (880 kB)
    - Only Protracker compatible MOD format is allowed
    - Only one song per artist
    - Only the first 3 minutes are guaranteed to be played; your
      song can be longer though
    - Modules will be played on Amiga

    ** Wild! **

    - Only limit is your imagination!
    - Your production can be delivered on a VHS tape (european PAL
      format) or you can bring the hardware by yourself (we supply
      you with normal cables to audio and video subsystems)
    - Just to repeat: try to not use any copyrighted or illegal
      material; both international and Finnish laws apply also at
      the party place :)
    - All the material delivered for this compo will be returned
    - Only the first 8 minutes are guaranteed to be shown


    Schedule
    --------

    One of the most unpleasant things to do when organizing a party
    is to make public promises about the schedule. Anyway, here it
    is as it's planned *right now*. Additions and modifications are
    likely to happen!

    ** Friday, June 5th **

    10:00    Doors open! Party on!

    17:00    DEADLINE for following competitions: Hand-made Graphics,
        Raytraced Graphics, Music Multichannel, Music 4-channel.

        The early time is due the huge number of entries at
        previous parties. Having the deadline earlier will help
        us to keep up with the rest of this schedule!

    23:00    Hand-made Graphics competition

    23:30    Raytraced Graphics competition

    ** Saturday, June 6th **

    00:00    Music Multichannel competition

    01:00    Music 4-channel competition

     ...    Some sleep in the *quiet* sleeping hall.

    10:00    First TestLab(tm) session begins. This is an almost
        unique opportunity to see your upcoming production
        crashing the compo machine :)

    12:00    TestLab(tm) session ends.

     ...    Special events and competitions.

    16:00    Second TestLab(tm) session begins. Another two hours
        for testing and hunting the last bugs in your code.

    18:00    TestLab(tm) session ends.

    18:00    DEADLINE for following competitions: PC Demo, PC 64 kB
        Intro, Amiga Demo, Amiga 64 kB Intro, Wild!.

        You have to submit at least a *working preview* and the
        filled registration form by now. You can bring new
        updates, but selection for the finals will be based on
        the preview versions. Abduction organizers -- flexible
        as always!

     ...    More special events and competitions.

    21:00    Wild! competition

    22:30    Amiga 64 kB Intro competition

    23:15    PC 64 kB Intro competition

    ** Sunday, June 7th **

    00:00    Amiga Demo competition

    01:00    PC Demo competition

     ...    Time to vote!

     ...    Real time counting of votes.

     ...    Announcement of the winners!

     ...    Re-runs of the best productions.

     ...    More sleep in the *still quiet* sleeping hall.

    12:00    Doors close! Time to leave and enjoy the rest of
        the summer!


    Keeping up to date
    ------------------

    Information in this text file might change and the latest copy
    is always available at Abduction'98 home page:

        http://dot.tcm.hut.fi/abduction/

    We have an open mailing list to inform you in the first hand
    about the latest changes and coolest events. To join, send email
    with the word "subscribe" (without the quotation marks) on the
    first line to:

        [e-mail]

    This is an automated service and thus cannot help if something
    goes wrong. Comments and questions concerning this mailing list
    should be mailed to:

        [e-mail]

    Oh, and don't forget to download the cool invitation intros,
    available for both PC and Amiga!


    Contact us!
    -----------

    Main organizer, representative for Abduction Organizing ry:

        Ari "Ari Kurvinen" Kurvinen    [e-mail]
        Sudentie 3 a 13
        FIN-96500 Rovaniemi, Finland    [phone]

    PC competitions, general compo stuff:

        Johannes "Ws/Nv" Heinonen    [e-mail]
        Jamerantaival 7 B 251        [phone] (home)
        FIN-02150 Espoo, Finland    [phone] (work)

    Amiga competitions, things related to Amiga:

        Seppo "Karpow/Scoopex" Seppala    [e-mail]
        Korpikylantie 245
        FIN-61980 Pantane, Finland    [phone]

    Or to contact all of us, use the [e-mail] mail
    address!


    Sponsors
    ---------

    We'd like to take few moments to thank the following companies
    without who it would have been a lot harder (if even possible)
    to make Abduction'98 as great as it will be!

        Los Oy
        Telecom Finland Oy
        Zoo-lo-disk

    If you work in a company willing to co-operate with Abduction
    Organizing ry, you can contact us in ways listed above (see
    the section "Contact us!").


    Final Words
    -----------

    See you all at Abduction'98!


    Yours,

    Johannes "Ws/Nv" Heinonen, <[e-mail]>