Dire of Darkage

12 years are a long time for the short-winded computer demoscene. Nevertheless 12 years are past since the first RADWAR Party was held by MWS and ARND / RADWAR Enterprises 1941 in January 1988 - too much to be still attractive to the scene, or is it still giving an impulse for the old oldskoolers and newbies? We visited the RADWAR 2000 party - the 9th edition - being held on May 27th, 2000, and tried to find out ourselves.

Born as an event for the Commodore 64, it developed more and more into a multi-platform, multi-age, multi-scene multi-party. However, the concept has not been changed since then. Instead of turning to a more commercial event like many parties of today the RADWAR Party has always been an important part of the living demoscene. Choosing the slogan "Pleasure is our Business" the RADWAR organizers expressed their opinion of the scene from the beginning: having fun. But "having fun" doesn't at all mean "playing games at parties". Over the years MWS and ARND made clear that Quake- and Doom-sessions are banned for the purpose of a real meeting with REAL visitors. On their website the organizers claimed: "We have shown that the scene is held together by friendship and not by the fact who offers the newest stuff!" So in general at RADWAR parties you meet partying people talking to each other, drinking a beer and chatting about the good old times and up-to-date-stories.

Not by chance is this party supposed to be the biggest oldskool-parties worldwide. Many old sceners and those who are even not in the scene anymore, often working for well-known companies in the computer business such as software and hardware developers, distributors or the media or even independent, take the opportunity to meet the old friends again at RADWAR events. Even this year more prominent people were found in one place on a scene party than ever, such as employees of Factor 5, Rainbow Arts, Commodore / Amiga, Blue Byte, UBI Soft, Phenomedia, Computec, CDV, Activision, Sunflowers and many, many more. Günni Gravenreuth, Germany's once most feared pirate-hunter, took part in the football and paintball tournaments.

Looking at the RADWAR 2000, where the organizers expected about 2000 visitors, just about 500 party-people found their way to the party place in Heinsberg near the German/Dutch border. This disappointing number was yet strengthened by the fact that the main party hall was mostly half-empty, creating the feeling of a small party. Most of the guests came from Germany itself, making so many famous European sceners miss a lot. Especially the Amiga scene was not represented in the way it should be, mainly because it consisted of the "new", noisy scene generation instead of oldskool members from really legendary groups. Well, noise was produced due to the boozing which was allowed as always, and a good buffet meal was installed for free for all guests.

When all those live music-acts and go-go-girls attractions were to be watched at the show stage, one was still missing the demo competition a bit, which was cancelled due to a too small number of competitors and moved to the Evoke Party in Langerwehe, Germany, in August 2000. Here are the results:

1st prize (1500 EURO) - Haujobb vs. Calodox
2nd prize (1000 EURO) - Farb-Rausch
3rd prize (500 EURO) - Witchcraft

RADWAR 2000 did not turn out to be the big success we all expected. It was a very well organized party with an unexplainable mysterious atmosphere which split the visitors into two sections, one loving the event, the other hating it. As myself is standing between these two groups, I hope that the statement of MWS and ARND won't become true. They told us: "This time it will be the last time." But on the other side, they told this after each RADWAR party - so "never say never" ...

Dire of Darkage

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