The Party (demo party)
The Party (or "TP", for short) was an annual
demoscene event held from
1991 to
2002 in
Denmark. It was one of the first events of its kind and set the trend for many other
demoscene parties in Europe.
The first edition of The Party began at the MesseCenteret in
Aars, Denmark, on
December 26, 1991. Only
Amiga demo groups were involved in organizing the party: Crystal (a cracking group which spun off
Melon Dezign),
The Silents, and
Anarchy. Attendance was near double what was expected. The first demo competition produced several legendary releases, such as
Hardwired,
Voyage, and
Odyssey.
In 1992, The Party 2, which was actually called "The Final" due to uncertainty of The Party's future, attracted an even more overwhelming number of demosceners. The Amiga organization remained the same, but
PC and
C64 sceners started to attend and create their own
compos. The Amiga demo compo winner was the legendary
State of the Art. A 40k intro competition was held for the first time.
Facts of Life won the PC demo competition in a ruling contested by
Future Crew, the runners-up and compo organizers, because no voting actually took place.
Shift in platforms
In 1993, The Party moved to the Herning Messecenter in
Herning. Lemon. and Spaceballs took over Amiga organizing. The PC side had a full, separate set of competitions. There were many arguments between the Amiga and PC organizers, with the PC side threatening to secede and start their own party in 1994. The threat became empty as The Party remained multi-platform. The Party moved again in 1995 to
Fredericia before returning to Aars from 1996 until its demise.
Shift in scenes
With 3000 visitors and rising, The Party started attracting elements outside of the demo scene. In the early 1990s,
rave culture exploded in Denmark, and kids found The Party to be a fun place to dance and blast music. They mostly coincided peacefully with the demo sceners, but in 1995, a rave in the sleeping hall sparked numerous complaints.
With the release of
Doom just weeks before The Party 3 in 1993, network gaming became an overnight sensation, transforming part of the event into the first major
LAN party. Through the 1990s, the gaming element of The Party steadily grew while the demoscene element remained stagnant. The PC scene visitors gradually outnumbered the Amiga scene visitors who dominated the early years.
By 2000, much of the demo scene had abandoned The Party in favor of other demo parties taking place around the same time. Amiga sceners formed a smaller alternative called TRSAC ("The Real Scene After Christmas"), while PC sceners started TUM ("The Ultimate Meeting") in Germany. It was the winning 64k intro from
Farbrausch,
FR-08: .the .product, that briefly drew demoscene attention back to The Party and gave the organizers enough hope to declare the next party's motto "Back To The Roots". But that promise fell flat as demosceners saw little effort to back it. Sceners complained about constant harassment by both the local security people (who would constantly search their bags for alcohol) and gamers (who would complain about the compos being too loud). The competitions in 2002 were abandoned to the point where all demos and intros were combined into one compo. The Party was cancelled the following year, and as of 2006, has not reopened.
The Party demo/intro compo winners, 1991-2002| Year | Amiga demo | PC demo | C64 demo | Amiga intro | PC intro | | 1991 | Odyssey (Alcatraz) | N/A | Brutality (Light) | N/A | N/A |
| 1992 | State of the Art (Spaceballs) | Facts of Life (Witan) | Coma Light 8 (Oxyron) | Tetris (Melon Dezign) | N/A |
| 1993 | Origin (Complex) | Dust (Untitled) | Tower Power (Camelot) | Chaosland (Virtual Dreams) | CyboMan (Gazebo) |
| 1994 | Nexus 7 (Andromeda) | Project Angel (Impact Studios) | Access Denied (Reflex) | 4k0 (Polka Brothers) | Cyboman 2 (Complex) |
| 1995 | Closer (CNCD) | Caero (Plant & EMF) | Mathematica (Reflex) | Creep (Artwork & Polka Brothers) | Lasse Reinbong (Cubic Team & $een) |
| 1996 | Shaft 7 (Bomb) | Alto Knallo (Free Electric Band) | Nine (Reflex) | Phongfree (Oxyron) | Deesbab (Orange) |
| 1997 | My Kingdom (Haujobb & Scoopex) | Tribes (Pulse & Melon Dezign) | Second Reality (Smash Designs) | Superautodrome (Scoopex) | Stash (The Black Lotus) |
| 1998 | Alien 2 (Scoopex) | MOAI (NOMAD) | Triage III (Smash Designs) | 1000% (Scoopex) | Alien Sex Clone (fudGe) |
| 1999 | Concrete (Ephidrena) | Non-3DMelrose Space (3Space) | Y2K (Duck & Cover) (No Name) | Nonstop (Dual Crew - Shining) | Fukwit Daddy (Haujobb) |
| 3DKasparov (Elitegroup) |
| 2000 | Megademo 2000 (Haujobb) | Love Creation MAX (INF) | Starburst 96 (Padua) | qrid (Nature) | FR-08: The Product (Farbrausch) |
| Year | Combined demo | colspan=2>Combined 64K intro |
|---|
| 2001 | Elements (Haujobb) | Decade 100 % (Smash Designs) | FR-014: Garbage Collection (Farbrausch) |
| 2002 | CloseGL (Jesper & Sharky) |
* Scenery Amiga at Exotica [
1]
*
The Party - official (ex-)site*
The Party on
Pouët*
Better HAVE a life after Christmas - an article about The Party 1998's failures
(not to be taken entirely seriously, as it was written under the guise of a "fake group" infamous for its arrogance)*
Partyreport of The Party 2001 by Sobec /
Speckdrumm at
Slengpung (also features a lot of criticism to the party)
