This was written for and appeared in the demo-diskmag MAYHEM.  It was released
late Summer 1993.  The magazine was a product of three groups--TSI, Phantom
Dezign, and the Toxic Zombies.


Title: Assembly Report--August 10th 1993
Final Version

At first this article started out as a pre-assembly report but since this demo
mag was delayed and I attended Assembly I felt I would sixth the "pre" and
make this a full fledged "Assembly '93" report.  Perhaps, thanks to this
delay, this magazine will be more of a treat to read then some of the other
more "serious" demo disk mags.  So, loosen up and enjoy a new flavor of demo
mags.

Pre-assembly writing:

I always like the "hype" for parties like Assembly.  Some people make them
sound extremely exciting, which makes we want to attend, while others present
an ordinary picture which could not possibly live up to the "hype."  If your
one of the people who do miss the party don't be upset.  There will be a lot
of people offering their interpretation of what happened--in demo mags and
over the networks among other information sources.  Then you can re-live the
party in your mind--invent an implant like Total Recall--and feel like you
were actually there without spending any money.  How convenient.  With any
luck a video tape will be made available for those who want to see the action
first hand.

Post assembly writing:

Most of the predictions I made in my pre-assembly report were wrong so maybe
it is a good thing you will not be seeing that report.  One thing I was
correct on is that quality demos were released at Assembly '93.

I will save my travels to and fro assembly for another time since what
happened at assembly is enough to report on for now.

Day 1: Friday

Upon arriving around 11:00am we noticed a line of people waiting to get into
the school to make claim on a room or table and drop off their stuff.  To
enter the building we paid about a $18 entrance fee, and signed our name,
handle and group we were a part of to a sign in sheet.  We were then given a
BLUE Assembly name tag which we were required to wear at all times--at the
same time so called V(ery) I(mportant) P(eople) had GREEN Assembly tags.  At
the same table they were also selling T-shirts for $11.  The front stated "I
need a shower" while the back contained a B/W robot/man inked drawing with the
words "ASSEMBLY" near the top.  I decided to skip on buying a T-shirt due to
what I felt was a stupid saying on the front and lack-luster logo on the back.
Certainly something much better could have been created.

Inside the school about 20 rooms were allowed to be occupied along with the
main cafeteria and gym area.  Considering all the people without rooms I
wished they had opened up a few more--especially for sleeping.  It seemed like
everyone entering had their own computer.  Most groups had shirts or posted
large banners to make themselves known.  PC groups like Avalanche, Extreme,
Epical, Virtual Vectors, EMF, Dust, and Imphobia were easy to spot due to
these banners/shirts.  The Future Crew hung out in an unmarked room when at
the party place.  Tran and White Shadow of ex-Renaissance hung out in the FC
room as well.  Besides members of FC and ex-Ren in the unmarked room there
were also sponsors of the PC demo competition which included:  Epic Megagames,
Gravis, and Phil S. who recently released a book with one chapter on demos.  I
was certainly impressed to meet with these and other "big shots," especially
considering they were also from the US (something of a rarity).

The first day was more of a "get settled" and meet people day.  Out of the
whole school the gym was the most active area with a hundred or so people
using computers while the big screen displayed demos and related videos.
Coding, hacking, trading, and shooting the breeze is about all that happened
that first day.

Day 2: Saturday

Many coders were now working at a fever pitch to get their demos ready for the
deadline.  I felt this was kind of strange since most of these groups had
plenty of "warning" to prepare for the competition before Assembly got
underway.  One of the strangest things was White Shadow of ex-Renaissance
claimed he was going to code an intro for the comp in one day.  Well, he never
got it finished but he did mention to me it would have placed had he entered.
Arrogant?  I think so.

Just after 5pm the PC Music (4 Channel) competition began.  There were 22
average tunes in all.  The music was so loud that by the 13th tune the left
tweeter on the tower speakers had blown.  Often the music was so loud that it
made the tunes less enjoyable.  The PC Music multichannels came next and there
was certainly a noticeable improvement the quality of music.

I went to dinner at the time the Amiga Graphics & Intros were shown luckily
missing none of the PC excitement.  When I got back to the gym I caught the
last of the Amiga intros--very impressive.  Next came the PC intros--16 of
them.  There were some crappy ones, average ones, and decent ones.
Considering they were all under 100K made these entries more impressive.
Often during the showing the Amiga Freaks clapped, yelled, whistled, and
mocked the PC intros.  This was a immature thing to do considering some of the
Amiga stuff I saw was not as good as the PC intros shown.  Nonetheless, the
Amiga people only wanted to heckle and cause problems.

Day 3: Sunday

At midnight came the Amiga demos.  I was very intrigued by two of the demos,
one of which was a 5-10 minute video that fit on one disk.  From then on I
understood why many of the Amiga people laughed when the PC intros were shown.
Considering most of the audience was of high school age I wrote off their
mockery as immaturity from then on.

Finally just after 2:00am the big show was ready to begin--The PC demo
competition.  Nine demos were shown with four of them being extremely good--
comparable to the UNREAL demo released one year ago.  Only one, Dust's Saga,
contained anything outside the "seriousness" realm; perhaps that is why I
enjoyed it so much.  Other standouts were Xography's Elements, Silents' Optic
Nerve and of course Future Crew's Second Reality.  The quality of PC demos set
a new standard at this Competition.  New and interesting features included
realistic landscapes, an amazing city virtual reality fly by, and interesting
things done with vectors (of course).  Due to my tiredness I can not recall
all that I would like to about the demos shown.

Around 3:00am the PC demo competition ended and some game demo was shown
before the PC graphics began at 3:30am.  By that time I was so tired I had to
go to sleep so I missed most of the PC graphics, all the C-64 demos, Amiga
realtime demos and Amiga music.  I was quite upset I missed the above but tend
to value sleep above above shoddy scheduling.

By the time I woke up around 9:30am I noticed most people packing and leaving
now that the competition was over.  By this time the PC results were tabulated-
-you should be able to find the results somewhere with the pages of this demo
mag.  Except for the PC music the results were similar to what I predicted.
After grabbing copies of all the PC stuff released and eating lunch our Toxic
Zombie crew took off for our return trip around 2:30pm.

And that my friends is an overview Assembly '93 as seen through the eyes of a
Toxic Zombie from the United States.  At this point I would like to send
thanks and greets to some of the people I met at Assembly.  They include:
Lenaid and the whole Avalanche crew, Extreme, Epical, Otto of Virtual Vectors,
Darkness of Imphobia, Gore of Future Crew, White Shadow of ex-Renaissance,
Extend & Topaz (C-64 groups), DDT of Accession for help with our car problems,
Phil S. for including a chapter on demos in his book, Xography, and all those
I missed but wanted to talk to.  Be sure to remember us.

Some strange things happened at assembly--these happenings surprised me,
caused disappointment, and often made me wonder "what the hell?"

1.  Most people disliked the fact that Future Crew was a sponsor and won all
the competitions they entered.

2.  The best part of the demo competition took place between midnight and 6 in
the morning.

3.  Quite a few people got smashed the first day of Assembly and stayed that
way throughout the "party."  From what I learned drinking seems to be a
Finnish trademark.

4.  The Program was changed twice and still not followed!

5.  Leinad's Teaspoon 4 channel MOD winning 2nd place in the PC music.

6.  All Future Crew members placed in the multi-channel PC music!

7.  I wanted to buy a T-shirt till I saw what was being offered--yuck!

Before I go and possibly vanish from the PC demo scene altogether I will leave
you with a word from one of my favorite musicians--Henry Rollins.

-If you could see the you that I see
-When I see you seeing me
-You'd see yourself so differently
-Believe Me

Bless the Beasts and Children,

Pallbearer / Toxic Zombies
