Which took place from August 12th to 14th August 2022.
A very very very non-realtime report!
2025 heads-up!
CiH here,
I wrote a series of Sillyventure reports over some years, none of which have been published before now. There was an idea to revive Maggie for another one-off issue. This would need articles written for it, including party reports. That might still happen *sometime*. There was also an intent for SMFX Mag to take these articles instead, which didn’t happen.
Still, we have our chance now, as this and other reports a bit later on, stumble, blinking into the harsh 2025 daylight. I can confidently predict that there WILL be an SV Summer 2025 report. Possibly written in a half-realtime sense, maybe.
Anyway, I hand you over to my 2022 counterpart for his write-up of the only demo party that averted a 9/11 re-enactment by disgruntled Amiga sceners, the Sillyventure Summer 2022 Edition, in the tall building known as Olivia Star!
One more thing. There may be selective editing of some words and sentences that could have been done better the first time. Possibly.
Olivia Star, I see you, not too far.
Preamble.. (Back in 2022.)
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a demoparty, let alone tried to write a report about it.
There have been ‘reasons’ for this. Lots of reasons.
Sillyventure 2018 had the last 'live' report from me, displayed in the very long single page text displayer of SMFX Mag issue 2. The 2019 party failed to produce a report, even though I was attending. Events going on closer to home kept on intruding to steal my focus and kept me looking away, so I was only able to barely follow that party. Writing a report was a distant lonely dream, so that didn’t happen there.
2020 produced some even bigger issues, the word ‘Covid’ putting a deathly freeze on any sort of social activity. Demo parties, in the live and being able to cough all over one another sense, being ‘verboten’ for a long time. There were the online parties to fill a gap, with an exclusively sofa scening clientele which helped. Sillyventure returned in a blaze of streaming glory in August 2021, with a winter edition to follow in December. These were both fabulous, but only ever a fair to middling substitute for a real live attended party.
With one or two very brave exceptions, it was only at the end of 2021 and going into 2022 that there was a proper move back to traditional style attending in person parties. The dread Covid having eased back, with vaccines now being available, so not so much of a potential death sentence anymore.
Grey threw his organisers hat into the ring with their first post-Covid ‘live’ party included in the 2021 winter edition at a football stadium. This was equally divided between the live partygoers and a large contingent of sofa-sceners, this author included.
With the return to live events judged successful, Grey resolved to take steps for the ultimate party experience. He had a very special venue in mind. This was the Olivia Star skyscraper, the tallest building in Gdansk, at 34 floors and around 156 metres tall. This would be the first demoscene party venue to need warning lights for low-flying aircraft!
At some point in May 2022, discussions with Felice suggested that it would be very desirable if we could attend this new party. CiH takes a look at the expiry date on his passport and realises that this is too close to its end date to be useful for travelling. CiH is also aware of the long time it is taking to get a new passport issued, so resolves to deal with this right away. He is pleasantly surprised it only takes a month and not the ten plus weeks expected. Felice books our flights. It will be Wizzair doing the deed again.
(2025 note: There were a lot of delays in getting certain documents applied for. I sent off my passport renewal, anticipating months to wait, but still in time for the party. It turned out to be pleasingly quick and straightforward. I will return to the theme of ‘delays’ in the journey phase though.)
Further prompt action by Felice includes booking the rather four star looking Arkon Park Hotel, close to the venue. CiH has to organise someone to stay with his elderly mother who can’t be left completely on her own overnight, anymore (Physical rather than age related mental issues, just in case you were wondering.) He finds a local service provider called TuVida who are able to help out with respite care.
(2025 note: This is still very much a thing I have to do.)
Time ambles on, with a slowly growing sense of nervousness, (travelling with Covid still around, potential post-Brexit travel fuck-ups and other possible last minute issues that may stop travel taking place altogether) and anticipation (physically seeing scene friends for the first time in three years, enjoying a brief summer break of a geeky persuasion and taking in a live party atmosphere for the first time in three years.)
Day 1.
So it comes to pass, on the Thursday before, after all needed time has been booked, Nicky organised to go to Felice’s place to spend time with his spouse Paula, whilst we are gone. So she came along with me. Wizzair baggage restrictions were researched, potential airport delays worried about (based on gleefully reported disastrous early summer getaway delays at the Channel Tunnel and certain airports.) Currency obtained and laptop gotten ready, car parking booked, carer details confirmed, we are taking the first steps of our latest journey.
(2025 note: It’s a different story now. The last couple of parties have had the female contingent come to Gdansk with us. We also stayed a bit longer to do some of the actual tourist stuff as well. They’re coming back with us this summer too.)
We have allowed plenty of time, in case of massive queuing marathons at Luton Airport. The reality Is rather easier, with an underwhelming but incident free drive down from Cambridge to Luton, followed by an easy jaunt through the security check and a quick access to the departure lounge at the airport. As always, Luton is heaving with masses of people. It looks like a number of flights are taking longer than expected to leave. Ours looks as if it will be on time.
Pasting smug grins to our faces, it is a goodly while before we get a seat at the crowded restaurant, but once we do, we’re settled and comfortable and feel that we are properly on our way for the first time.
Some food of the fast persuasion crashes down with much drink of the soft and fizzy variety. It had been a hot day, it was needed. More time passes, we relocate to the departure area, keeping an uneasy eye on our expected departure time, surrounded as it is by a sea of delays. It does not change. Eventually our gate is called, we make our way over.
Clever Felice has got us priority boarding and extra legroom seats right at the front of the aircraft. That is, in the passenger cabin and not the cockpit! Boarding takes place, and it seems we are leaving on time, but an announcement from the captain dampens the earlier optimism. It seems due to air traffic congestion over the Amsterdam area, and delayed loading of baggage, we are not going to take off straight away. The muffled thumping of the cargo handlers below eases and stops presently, there are a few more minutes, then we are finally on the way.
As is common these days, I try dozing through the majority of the flight, with a few sudden startled waking up moments, with the seat not being optimised for sleeping and all the rest of it. In less time that I thought it would take, we are commencing our descent to Gdansk. The next mystery, not keenly anticipated by us, is what happens with a post-Brexit passport and immigration queue.
This also turns out easier than expected, the boarder guards being helpful and we gain entry into Poland without any awkward questions about potential geek terrorist activities with retro computers but with a fresh stamp on my new passport. It is a two minute formality to locate a taxi to take us from the terminal, to the Arkon Park Hotel (‘Neptun’ Taxis), and we arrive there at some godawful early/late hour in the morning. Checking in only takes a few minutes and we both wearily retire to our fifth floor rooms, with the promise of a hotel breakfast for the following morning.
I am checking out the business class accommodations, I am too strung out and a little bit excited to be able to go to sleep straight away, but eventually do so to conclude the first day, which is blurring into the second day somewhat.
Day 2.
Dawn has a feeling, a wonderful feeling, I gaze up at the ceiling..
Second attempt to reboot is more successful, so I check out the long and luxurious shower experience, the making a cup of coffee experience and by the time I’m dressed, an eager text from Felice summons me to breakfast.
Breakfast is a leisurely buffet browse and is accomplished in style. The next item on our day one agenda, is to make our way to our high rise party place. Slimming down my small backpack to 2012 vintage MacBook and power cables needed for it only, we set off on a self confident hike to the Olivia Star, through the residential back streets close by.
It is a warm sunny day, mid-twenties degrees Celsius, not the humid desperate mid-thirties we were getting back home. Still it was with some relief that the imposing bulk of Olivia Star hove into view a few minutes later. We gain entry to the massive business class building. Being directed to the correct reception helps and they know why we are here. We even manage to bypass the airport style security check and baggage scan, entering the lift that whisks us up to the 32nd floor restaurant. But you said it was 34 floors, I hear the readers cry! Yes, it is, there is an additional lift to take us the two remaining floors to the conference area at the top, from the bar/restaurant area.
We enter an imposing cathedral-like hall with dozens of tables and over a hundred chairs in it. Floor to ceiling glass panes give an uninterrupted magnificent panoramic view of the whole Gdansk and Tri-City area, including some distance out into the Baltic Sea and the shipping that sails across it.
The time for open-mouthed slack jawed wonderment is now. The time for photography will follow a little bit later, once we are settled in.
The majority of tables are unoccupied, it is still early, with just a few scattered people, mostly connected with the organiser team around. Still, we manage to locate Zerkman who has already set up. He is proudly showing off his ST recreated in FPGA. And so he should! We set up our modest haul of gear a couple of tables away and soon have MacOS desktops glowing.
Where there is a Sillyventure, a main organiser is never too far away, so we manage to quickly reacquaint ourselves with Grey, his wife Silwia and son Nathan. They are shuffling prizes and other items related to the party upstairs from the distant ground floor, and only have a limited deadline to do this. More detailed conversations can wait until later, but heartfelt greetings are exchanged.
The next arrivals that stick out in my mind are Samurai with his son, who is being introduced to the geeky family business? Samurai is bringing a graphics compo entry and spends a chunk of today finishing it. He sets up just in front of us.
The jaw-dropping view invites photographs to be taken, not just one or two, but lots. I wasn’t the only person tempted this way either. As well as the coastal panorama, there are closer views of the busy streets and railway tracks below, so a form of long distance train spotting is a possibility. Slightly later on, I discover rear-facing views of suburbs and forests, where spectacular sunsets take place. Did I mention the weather was lovely? We were luxuriating in air-conditioned splendour and were not bothered by any heat or stickiness at all.
The rest of this early pre-lunch period and quite a bit of the rest of day one were spent noodling around with Hatari, still version 2.3 for this Mac. I was catching up on some viewings of recent creations of the Atari demoscene, such as the releases from the recent Sommarhack party, and recent smashers such as the Overlanders ‘FirST Love’ demo.
To get me back into some sort of writing mood, I’m also re-reading the two issues of a previous venture I did, between proper writing gigs, namely the HTML-based sort of diskmag titled ‘Mag!’
If these started to flag, there is the possibility of further online distractions in the form of free venue-provided wifi, which held up pretty well over the weekend.
A little bit later, lunch intrudes into our thoughts. As part of the five star facilities, a buffet has been provided. This has been pre-paid and consists of a a number of delicate nibbles and chef-created versions of party favourites such as burgers and pizzas. There is an extensive selection of soft drinks to add ice to, with the promise of a booze bar later on.
Whilst we are browsing the food, we encounter fellow UK based attendees MUG UK, aka Mike Mee and another UK guy, Dave Rutherford. MUG is very well known by us old timey old school sceners. He has some kind of release planned. Dave has been interested in things Atari pretty much as long as we have, but never made it to any large shows or demo parties before now. He has no release planned, but is more than happy to take in the party atmosphere. We also meet up with Troed Sangberg, aka ‘Troed’ of SYNC. He too has a release planned and enjoyed talking about past exploits at parties such as STNICCC 2015. All of these people are fascinating to talk to, so we have a very enjoyable lunch catching up on things.
Back to the not so demanding routine, the next people that pop up in my faulty recollection banks is another long-lost and gladly returned Norwegian scener, Nerve. He has brought his wife and family with him. He seems to be hardly changed over the last few years and it is good to see him as such. He is here with some coding in mind, nothing for this party, but finishing the Ephidrena Sommerhack 2022 Atari ST Mono demo entry. (Which is still awaiting release at time of writing!)
(2025 note: The demo was ‘Halftron, released later in 2022.)
The afternoon passes, the bright sunshine outside is starting to mellow down, so it is time for some of the more official functions of the party to take place, namely queuing for registration to collect name badges, pre-ordered T-Shirts and an unexpected goody bag.
This contains a number of items of interest and varying utility. A notebook and pencil commemorating the city of Gdansk ranks highly. The Polish language edition of ABBUC magazine a bit less. There is also a CD of POKEY tunes, which needs further investigation, various stickers and leaflets for people and organisations and half a dozen Sillyventure branded wrapped fudge portions.
We spot a long time survivor of the Atari scene, genuinely pleased that he has survived the last couple of years in particular, Henryk, possibly the oldest member of the Atari scene.
The rest of the day drifts by pleasurably, the odd demo related big screen distraction aside. Felice and I decide to check out the food options on the 32nd floor. This venue is very much a high end destination, with the odd James Bond figure wandering in for a Dry Martini, shaken not stirred. Felice thinks the James Bond in question might be Roger Moore. I think it is more of a venue for the Pierce Brosnan era Bond.
A demoscener’s favourite ends up on our plates, it’s pizza time. Nerve and his spouse join us for a drink which pleasantly passes more time. There are no major events for the first day, with everything ‘official’, including the opening ceremony happening on the second day.
Evening dominates, with more pictures of the sunset, then several people taking photo’s of the lit up Tri-Cityscape, Blade-Runner out-takes and all.
As we’ve got a busy day, with everything happening tomorrow, and bearing in mind our incomplete nights sleep from the early hours of this morning, we decide to retire to the hotel for an earlyish bedtime. We are back there some time before midnight, walking past the business district, an electricity sub-station and school next to the sub-station.
After a last look around online, sleep!
Day 3.
More morning..
I have slept the sleep of the gods, in anticipation of this sleepy stuff being in less supply tonight. As events turned out, this was a wise precaution! Meet up with Felice and breakfast at the buffet of the gods. Once stuffed and watered, take ourselves back to the Olivia Star pretty soon afterwards.
Repeat as for this time yesterday.
There are quite a few more people here today. Whilst not in danger of bursting the venue out of its seams, there were rather more tables set up with random assortments of new and retro gear compared with earlier on yesterday. Of course, Atari kit has a high priority here, but there is the odd Amiga in there as well. We have been informed that there will be other platform entries, even including such novelties as the ZX Spectrum unofficial younger brother, the SAM Coupe.
Random productions play on the big screen. I remember some kind of vague promise to the makers of SFMX Mag to submit some articles which stirs a long dormant productive instinct, buried years ago. Rather than starting from scratch, I dig into an obscure forgotten folder marked ‘Brexit Bollox’.
This was intended to be a Maggie response to the 2016 Brexit referendum, where billionaire newspaper owners desperately seek to bend an entire countries fortunes to their wishes and whims, particularly to avoid outside scrutiny of their tax affairs. Quite a bit of material had been collected, to provide ‘inspiration’. Some articles had even been started. The whole project went on indefinite hiatus for various reasons, uppermost being a collapse of motivation to address an utterly depressing topic generally.
(2025 note: It’s got worse, hasn’t it?)
Still, the archeology of textual remains is not at all unproductive. A film review from 2018 can be salvaged, as can the fifty percent completed ‘Brexit Mini-Mag’ article. There were also a couple of completed party reports for Sillyventure editions 2016 and 2017 worthy of releasing. Adding this report, written after the party would be a decent contribution. I spend a bit of time adding to the Brexit Mini-Mag, coaxing it to completion and finessing the film review.
Lunchtime intervenes, which is a repeat of the buffet style goodness we enjoyed yesterday.
There is then the business of an official opening ceremony for the party, which coincides with the 50th Anniversary of Atari in general. A video, with the CEO of current Atari is shown, who appears to be enthusiastic and considers the ‘old’ part of Atari to be valid. There are drinkies, with champagne served and an ice-cold sort of ice-cream cake as an aperitif.
More official parts of the schedule appear. We have lost the ‘Whip-Pong! Competition’ and other ‘Crazy Competitions’ without too much sadness expressed, but a pre-recorded DJ set from Lotek Style ‘Preparing for the Madness’ takes place. It is set sometime in the future. It is on the big screen, very well received and is the last item on the schedule to run according to the official timetable.
Oh yes, at around 16.00hrs, a bar opened, so it was drinkies time! There is an alcohol theme, Felice orders red wine for both of us, which is nice.
The schedule informs us that the competitions are starting at the optimistic time of 6pm or 18.00hrs There is a take away option for the 32nd floor restaurant. In spite of Felice bravely trying to stretch the concept to include a pasta dish, this basically works out as more pizza, which is ordered and appears in boxes for us to take back upstairs. This goes down nicely with the bar-served wine.
The competitions have a start time boldly stated on the big screen, six o’clock! we gleefully shout. The appointed hour comes, passes by, then a new caption appears, the competitions are expected to start after seven o’clock. Oh well, we think. How many of these parties have we been to, and when did any of the competitions start on time? That would be none of them. Still, we’re not expecting a repeat of the power outage from Sillyventure years ago, that threw the whole party into darkness, shortly after the compo’s had started.
Seven o’clock looms up, goes past, the caption changes again, now after eight o’clock!
The same thing happens an hour later. There is a hint of frustration breaking through. Grey does assemble the gathered party people in the other conference room for a mass photo-shoot.
Some intelligence and rumours ‘rumint’ are forthcoming. The delays appear to be due to last minute entries being received and recorded. What are deadlines for?
Yes, it was approaching darkness!
It is approaching 10 o’clock or 22.00hrs before paper and electronic voting sheets appear. There seem to be a fair few entries, some more populated than others, but no categories really missing out.
Finally we start the competitions.
(2025 note: It has to be said that the whole business of running the competitions to an actual schedule, was looked at hard as a result of this party. Subsequent events have managed to avoid extended delay stuff-ups. Which is much better.)
First off are the graphics categories, with some excellent graphics, especially on Atari ST. Nothing in truecolour for the Falcon, but we’re pleased enough with the sixteen colour material shown in place. There are several strong entries with a fantasy theme and an almost photorealistic picture of ‘Daddy’ Nolan Bushnell from Samurai. There is a high input from parts of the French scene, which is never a bad thing.
Musically, things are a very mixed bag. The Atari 8-Bit POKEY comes across convincingly. For the ST YM 2149 recordings, these do not sound right. I’m unsure at the time if there are new techniques being attempted or if there is just a fault with the recording. It turns out there was an issue with the recording. What to do about this category is the subject of some considerable after-party debate, which may be finally addressed at the Winter Edition.
The four channel module compo is completely unmemorable. I think tiredness, not helped by wine, is looming in the distance.
With all the delays and repeat showing of the Atari 8-bit graphics compo, time is getting on. There is a party stream running, to cater for the still large sofa-scener audience. Felice* is conspicuously flagging and decides to call it a day some time after midnight. I’m strongly thinking of following, if only to pick up the competitions from the stream in the comfort of my hotel bed, as long as consciousness permits.
* - This also puts an end to the appearance of ‘DJ Felice’, who was scheduled after the competitions had completed.
At the point there there are some XL games being viewed, I decide to return to hotel and resume watching from the stream, when I get back there ten minutes or so later. So I quit Olivia Star, not for the last time, wander back the deserted streets to my hotel, go to bed and log onto the party stream.
Following the party stream was partially successful. I tended to drift in and out of consciousness, which was not a reliable witness. I could doze at the start of a single screen production with a long scroll text, wake up some time later and it is still going on. On the other hand there were times when I checked out and had missed a couple of entries when I woke up again!
(2025 note: We’re all getting older, so tire out quicker.)
On the positive side, I did manage to rally enough to properly follow the ST and Falcon categories.
The 128 byte category for Atari ST did produce some little pocket gems such as ‘Venturo’ from Marquee Design. The 4KB category fielding a couple of worthy entries from Sedma and the AtariKlang powered, completely owning and redefining the 4KB genre 4KB MegaScroller from Leonard of Oxygene. He only went and recreated an entire Cuddly Demo screen, including a looping sound sample!
The all-important (to me personally) Atari ST/STE demo category has a strong selection for this edition.
Pepe presents an isometric adventure, ‘The Party’, which is a heartwarming tribute to the whole concept of demo parties and their summer editions. Genesis Project returns with a short and very polished single screener ‘Greenbeard’. SYNC proudly presents the ‘what.if.game’, a sideways scrolling arcade game style demo engine to show off how close the Atari ST designers actually came close to producing arcade-worthy hardware, by accident. According to Troed, it will evolve further, but not necessarily as a completed game. His son, enrolled as a level designer, may have something else to say about that!
There is a return to Atari hardware from Polish Falcon scene veterans, Cobra, with the latest of their spectacular if slow 3-D object fests, Retrospection. This is a faithful almost-recreation of their earlier Falcon demo effects on a humble STE.
The best comes from another long-absent crew, New Generation Crew. Their STE demo ‘Atari Loves Bombs’ , which has a strong and unusual design, totally unlike anything I’ve seen from an Atari crew before, including some of the best 3-D star field and dot effects ever.
The Falcon 030 has a sparser selection, including a couple of keen 256 byte entries, including a whole ray-caster in 256 bytes from atariBDSM. The two demo entries are invitro’s for other parties, featuring ‘Downtempo Dalarna’ an incredibly polished single screen with high resolution dots from DHS and SMFX and an ‘060 friendly party invite for the Winter Edition of Sillyventure.
Of other categories, affected more by sleepiness, the outstanding parts include Atari 8-Bit demos ‘R:Epilogue’ and ‘Unstable’.
There is also going to be a clear winner for the wlld competition. This is ‘UltraBooST’, a searingly colourful extravaganza of 3D goodness from Cream. They’ve only gone and created an FPGA graphics chip for a stock STE, which provides many more colours, in layers and also additional help with some 3D processing. It is not clear if any more of these marvels are going to be created, apart from Ultra’s own individual example due to the price/availability of sourcing suitable hardware. There has been a special edition of the ’STEEM’ emulator which includes these new screen modes made, giving other developers a chance to code for this system as well.
This is under close threat from MUG UK’s unexpected entry, namely an Atari ‘Fuji’ tattoo on MUG with the caption, ‘Never forget your roots.’
The wild category comes to a stop, as does the party stream as a whole, it is around 3.30hrs. The author of this text leaves the consciousness building, bailing out hastily around ten to fifteen seconds later, thank you very much!
Day 4.
09.00 hours-ish
So I have slept pretty intensely since the last time I was (barely) awake, but for what feels like way too short a time, like so many post competition mornings.
Attend to getting up, ensuring all my scattered kit and clothing is gathered closely together for the moment of departure, head down to breakfast, as fast as tired brain allows.
Breakfast is a sociable occasion, as well as travelling companion Felice, we also enjoy the company of Troed and Sqward at the breakfast table. Tried is returning home today as well, Sqward is in .PL for a bit longer. Amongst other topics of conversation, there are thoughts about the party. There is some discussion that the Atari ST soundchip competition seemed to be a bit ‘off’ and wondering if there could be a resolution.
Breakfast is done in a leisurely fashion. The prize-giving is stated as happening at 10.30hrs, but based on past experience, other people will still be sleeping off at that time.
So it is back to Olivia Star for the last time, leaving the hotel and its top notch accommodations and breakfast behind. Upstairs to our 34th floor refuge. It is quiet, there are a fair number of people, but there is a general sleepy low energy vibe about the place
Eventually, there is activity at the front of the hall, there are some substantial prizes, including whole Atari VCS (the new edition) consoles, donated by Atari themselves, who are an official sponsor of the party. Votes have been counted, even my half-asleep ones, thus winners and runners up declared.
The entries I expected to take first place more or less did. So the Wolfenmarcher intro for the Falcon, Leonard’s Megascroller for the 4ktro and the dot-tastic ‘Atari Loves Bombs’ for the main ST/STE demo compo. Of course Ultra smashes the wild compo with his combined hardware and software entry ‘ultraBooST’. MUG UK manages a decent second place with an armful of Atari Fuji logo.
After the prizes have been given, there is not much left to do as people leave. In amongst the torrent of farewells and ‘see you next times’ I get to chat with Mayonez of Cobra. He of the second placed ‘Retrospection’ STE demo. It turns out that he is coding on emulator, having sold his Falcon some time ago. Getting another one is problematic, with the crazy prices being asked. He is also currently favouring coding for ST/STE. The current demo pretty much reusing 3-D objects from some of their earlier Falcon work. Further productions have not been ruled out, but these are not likely to be Falcon, unless someone is very lucky. But never say never, eh!
For the return journey, we toyed with the idea of going by train but dismissed this. Instead, a return to the airport with Troed is mooted and agreed, so not too long after, we are waiting outside Olivia Star, waiting for our taxi of return.
This swiftly turns out, Tried very kindly picks up the tab for our journey back to the airport. We go to check in, Troed through the priority service, we mere mortals through the normal queue for security.
This only takes about ten minutes, so we reunite with Troed on the airside of the departure lounge, locate a restaurant for relaxed consumption of food and drink, our respective flights are not until the evening, there is plenty of time and the restaurant has some of the most comfortable seats in the house. This eventually gives way to a slow exploration of the many shops, mainly tourist goods retailers and some more generalised waiting around.
Eventually, Troed has a flight to catch, our departure time is closer, we part ways and trudge over the non-Schengen part of the airport. Customs is quickly negotiated and we try to find a place to sit in the insanely crowded departure area. A lot of flights are waiting to leave, many of them delayed. This soon includes ours, as a 19.55 departure extends itself out by an hour, then the best part of two hours! Unwelcome flashbacks of competition delays from the previous night surge up like a curry belch of unwelcome recollection.
To add to the ominous atmosphere, some promised rain and thunder, starts to turn to actual rain and thunder at the airport. Thunder and lighting, isn’t very very frightening, as aircraft still come and go. Our delayed flight still seems to be holding steady, without any further increases in the waiting time. Adding to the niggle factor is the Gdansk airport ‘free wifi’ which kicks you off after an hour, meaning you have to log back in, several times. A Ryan Air’s worth of people disappear from the terminal so the place is a lot quieter, a bit later on, our flight is called.
It is a relief to be off again, post-party fatigue catches up yelling loudly, so I attempt a crazed half-sleep for most of the return flight back.
Landing at Luton is mostly straightforward, with a ten minute delay for someone to let us off the aircraft. Apparently, these sort of staff shortages all over Europe are not helping with delays, Felice also mutters the ‘B’ (Brexit) word. Getting out of the airport is also mostly straightforward, the electronic entry gates fail to recognise my passport, but once we are done, it is only a matter of minutes to collect my car for the last part of the journey back.
This is pretty easy, collecting Nicky from Felice’s place for the darkened homeward journey. She’s had an enjoyable time with Paula, the spouse of Felice, a lot of shopping in Cambridge city centre got in there over the weekend. Dropping her off, with suitable souvenirs of the trip over, then back to my place thereafter.
Everything is fine there, it turns out that TuVida have done a great job of looking after mother in my absence, so at around 02.30 hours, everything is calm and quiet there and their carer leaves early as I have returned. We can finally wrap this one up. Good job I don’t have to work today as I am shattered and my bed beckons!
Thoughts at the end.
Well this is the first demo party attended in person since those holy pre-covid days of 2019, what did we think?
Firstly it’s simply great to be back, to be able to go abroad, to enjoy much Atari demo scene related goodness in the company of valued friends.
There have been obstacles to overcome. One of which was human-error created (Brexit) and the other completely unpredictable, the ‘Black Swan’ event known as Covid. Both of these raised a raft of potential extra travel issues, apart from the normal effort of travelling abroad. This turned out easier than expected on both counts. The power of Covid to disrupt and completely halt all movements has faded down, so that hardly featured as an issue. The second matter of Brexit added an extra thirty seconds and a passport stamp at the border control. Still, Polish border control ever since we started coming over in the year 2000 has been pretty decent about letting us in.
There is the additional third issue, specific to myself, an indirect result of Covid. Elderly mother who was coping with the help of a network of friends pre-Covid, worsens with lockdown. Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease (recent diagnosis) masked by other matters and friends network struggling to cope with own situation. Therefore CiH has to ensure elderly mother can be left safely. Fortunately, there were people able to help, both formally and informally. A big shout-out goes to TuVida for stepping in to provide night time cover and day time help as well. Also mum’s friend Denise had helped too. I may well be able to do something similar for the December winter edition.
These things don’t get any cheaper, like the cost of living generally. Still I’ve not had to pay for one of these for a while. The costs, for things like flights and accommodation were not cheap but not excessive either. Poland is still reasonably priced. Our choice of accommodation was suitably high end. As we had pre-paid most things connected with the party weeks or months beforehand, it didn’t feel painful.
(2025 note: Which is how we do it now. Most things are pre-paid over the months beforehand. Apart from the hotel, which is paid on arrival.)
Coming on to the party itself, the venue at Olivia Star was the most spectacular ever. Hard to see if this can be surpassed. I’m not too worried if it isn’t but we’ll see what Grey can come up with next time.
The catering and general facilities were nothing to criticise and were suitably movie star in their level of luxury.
Of course, a major part of these occasions is to re-meet with with scene friends we rarely see, so people such as Zerkman, Nerve, Samurai, Troed, Sqward, Mayonez and some of their families, not to mention Grey and family. It seems that everyone has worn well even with the pandemic. It was good to see the great survivor, Henryk, alive and kicking.
There was room for improvement and the topic of ‘Competitions’ is where we are headed next. These started late, which could have been too late for many people. There are more people with younger family members, not to mention tired old farts like me who find it too easy to fall asleep at the click of a finger when it gets very late. With the four hour delay, I only just managed to watch these myself by the extreme measure of going back to the hotel to bed, to watch it from the stream. Also there were some issues raised with sound quality for some entries. I understand this is being resolved elsewhere. Competitions is clearly an area needing improvement in execution. I am happy to say there were no issues with the quantity or quality of the entries themselves.
At Sillyventure, there is always something going ‘wow’. This time around it was Leonard with his 4k intro, Ultra with his STE-busting hardware add-on and the New Generation Crew with their demo ‘ST Loves Bombs’.
We may well get another chance for a winter edition in December, do I fancy going, of course I do!
CiH - Originally for SMFX Mag - Aug 2022 - Released on atariscne.org in 2025
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