旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� 컴� This text comes from IMPHOBIA Issue XII - July 1996 쳐컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� NAID 96 PARTY REPORT (Yet Another Insanity Trip) by Phoenix[Hornet] Here we go again! Well, okay, this isn't Dan Wright talking about his journeys up the North American east coast, but I hope it's just as captivating :). NAID (North American Internation Demo-competition) 1996 took place in Longueuil, Quebec, Canada on May 31st through June 2nd. They promised more, and more we did get! The four-car convoy that I became a part of started in Virginia, USA on Wednesday, the 29th. I can't make an account of what experiences everyone had there, but it sure was a surprise to see 12 demoscene people in my front yard Thursday evening! They consisted mostly of the Threesome and Terraformer groups. After a night of fine dining at the local Taco Bell, everyone crashed at a nearby Econo- Lodge except for a couple people I managed to fit in my tiny house. Friday morning, we left the Syracuse NY area for Montreal. Armed with CB radios, we kept in contact with each other's cars in a manner not much unlike IRC. After a stop or two at gas stations, always accompanied by playing German techno on a boombox, we hit the Canadian border. Unfortunately, the car I was in (Miss Saigon/3Some's '90 Ford Escort) overheated. So it had to be PUSHED across the border and we were given a large jug of water coolant (who said our trip would be flawless?). After miles and miles of Ontario smiles, we made it into the Montreal area. Here is a tip, when in Montreal, and you're taking Highway 20, never EVER exit it if you are going through. My two most regrettable words of the trip were "exit here", which took us into some hectic streets downtown in a city of one million people. Thanks to maps and the team effort of 13 people, we made it out and to the College Edouard-Montpetit in Longueuil, the site of NAID! We were expecting to arrive early but our city wanderings made us get to the party just in time for opening. :) I had not been in the partyplace for over 13 months, but when I stepped inside it seemed like yesterday I was there. People met up with MEd, one of the organizers. I went to get a room key for the Kosmic classroom. However, they changed the system on us. While it only cost $2 to get a "room ticket" now, we couldn't get keys; rather at first we had to find a person who had our keys and they would open it. Eventually they figured to leave all the keys with some people at a table, but still having our own keys would've been much more handy. Anyway, we met up with the Hornet crew, who got there Friday morning. They had cool black tshirts with an H and a ring on the back that faintly resembled an anarchy symbol. Their room would be eventually filled with FM, Psychic Monks, and a couple DDD guys as well, who were making a cool 360deg shooter game. I also met up with Mellow-D and Lemm, who had travelled all the way from Belgium and England to get to NAID. Many other classrooms filled up fast Friday night, with such groups as The Surrounders, Terraformer/ 3Some, Craw Prod., Hallucination, and Guild, some of which many people had never heard of before. Of course, for most people Friday night at NAID meant bar-hopping! I stayed around to look for people and sign the #trax banner, but went to a local pub with Snowman, Rimbo, Lemm, and others later on. The music and intro deadlines were set Friday at midnight, so people were rushing to get them in. There was almost no time to make intros at the party like last year. While filling out my compo entry forms in the main area, I noticed that the room next to the big screen with tables for people w/o classrooms was almost empty. I was expecting to see it packed, although more people had moved to the classrooms. Saturday started with the 100k intro compo around noon. They made the fatal mistake of not testing out the entries beforehand, so the first three crashed in some way! This made the crowd laugh but no doubt didn't make the entrant's days. The two most notable entries (out of 7 or so) were The Humanoid's second NAID intro, with a nice lightsourced picture (see korso100 or clxsperm for an idea what I'm talking about) but poor music. The other was Threesome's last minute entry called "Dyslexia", an intro that ran backwards! This had the crowd roaring and should be seen at least once by everyone just to believe. Following a barbeque outside Saturday afternoon, and an excellent ST3 tracking seminar/lecture put on by Necros/FM, the music compo started. There were around 75 entries this year, but learning from last year, there was a pre-selection of 20 to play. So with a few exceptions, the entries were extremely high quality! They couldn't get FT2 to run, though, so most of the entries were played in Cubic except the IT's which were of course played in Impulse Tracker. My entry didn't make the cut, but I can't complain compared to the tunes that were played, great stuff. Saturday night at NAID'96 featured many live acts on stage. It started with a local rock band, Wicked Access, and a guy playing Toccatta in D on his electric guitar, werd :). The tracked music group Force Ten then played their modules live on stage! Of course accompanied with the rhythm and bass parts. :) Zapper/F10 jammed along to the Dope demo on the big screen with his Ensoniq. After this, Mental Floss/Kosmic "mixed" some tracks using 2 PC's with Inertia player, and Balrog/Kosmic, Jaydee, and others DJ'd until their set was taken over. Unfortunately, whoever that was played music straight through the 4k intro and new effect compos which took place around 3-4am. There were only around 5-6 entries in each. I fell asleep before the chipmusic compo (around 5am). Sunday morning started with some Tim Horton's muffins and the graphics compo. The first few entries were goofed up a bit, but after Ara/Satire learned how to run CShow it went well :). Thankfully nothing was scanned this year, though a couple pics were rendered (one was a joke by LK/PM). The pic which would have won didn't because one of it's artists wasn't there, but after the party the organizers decided to give Visigoth/ Lintec/iCE's entry share of first place. After a little IRC'ing on the party network, I went to the free-for-all compo at around 6, which was probably the most interesting one. Many entrants showed off talents, like singing, rapping, humor, or magic, while others entered things they couldn't otherwise, like Amiga demos and animations, two of which tied for first place. After this came the finale: the demo competition. After seeing the mediocre (for the most part) intro entries, I'm sure almost no-one was expecting nearly 20 demo entries! But it happened. The first three were laughable, but then some very impressive entries were shown! You can read my NAID'96 demo review article for the scoop on all this. The large number of demos delayed the final judging, which was filled by IOR asking the crowd questions from the trivia compo (which was cancelled due to lack of time and interest) and showing things like the ASM'95 animation "Pulp" which turned out to be the biggest hit at NAID, like "Dope" was last year. Following the awards ceremony, everyone packed up for the sad trip home, knowing this was the best demo party they've seen (except Jaakko or IOR maybe :). I was asked by Snowman in the parking lot outside to join Hornet, after the 212 or so intros/demos I've rated for them. :) Our four-car-trip home was less eventful, but for the better since we were all tired. What can I say? It was a "mad phat crackhead" event! :) Sadly, the organizers are unable to put together another NAID party themselves. Let's hope that the North American scene is now strong enough so that we can make NAID'97 a reality with our own work.