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-
-
- 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:
-
- abduction98-request@dot.tcm.hut.fi
-
- This is an automated service and thus cannot help if something
- goes wrong. Comments and questions concerning this mailing list
- should be mailed to:
-
- dot@dot.tcm.hut.fi
-
- 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 kurvinen@hotmail.com
- Sudentie 3 a 13
- FIN-96500 Rovaniemi, Finland +358-40-586 6260
-
- PC competitions, general compo stuff:
-
- Johannes "Ws/Nv" Heinonen hieronymus@iki.fi
- Jamerantaival 7 B 251 +358-9-468 2099 (home)
- FIN-02150 Espoo, Finland +358-9-3486 4483 (work)
-
- Amiga competitions, things related to Amiga:
-
- Seppo "Karpow/Scoopex" Seppala karpow@kauhajoki.fi
- Korpikylantie 245
- FIN-61980 Pantane, Finland +358-6-232 4183
-
- Or to contact all of us, use the abd-org@dot.tcm.hut.fi 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, <hieronymus@iki.fi>
-
-