Pre-amble Ramble.
We’re breathing hard on the exposed neck of an imminent departure for yet another Atari Party. A party report has been recklessly and publicly promised and will need to be delivered.
To get this ill-advised enterprise underway, I’m reviving a very old pre-party tradition. The collection of random, possibly party-related thoughts in the period before we set off. Yes, the stale nerdy stench of Maggie reports past erupts, with the latest Pre-amble Ramble!
It is Wednesday, 30th July 2025, the evening before departure. These things used to start days before, with breathless reportage of minor but party related events and chores. I’ve limited myself to the night before, so I’ll try to offer some random thoughts and insights.
This is the third of the ‘new’ format party expeditions. There’s four of us. Two of these being attached females. (Hello Paula, hello Nicky!) I don’t know about Felice, but this adds extra interest to the ‘getting things ready’ phase for me.
Nicky is in charge of packing the shared big case, cuddly toys and wardrobe management. This leads to some of my clothing choices being rejected, due to previously unseen holes found in some items of clothing. Replacements are requested. I’m supposed to look functional and hopefully deportation-proof. My job is documents (passports) and electronics, relatively simple in comparison.
Getting mother ready involves a flood of emails to different care agencies, pre-ordering of medical supplies, a forest of paperwork to provide instructions for the people coming to care for her. This is a big job with the constant possibility of missing something important. I’m looking forward to leaving this behind and the relaxation starting.
We’re not needing to be anywhere until the evening, so there is thankfully no super-early start. Lovely Luton Airport will be a late-ish flight, with an arrival in .PL at a very late or early hour on the Friday morning,
With the new ‘Gang of Four’, there is a longer time spent in Gdansk after party, which allows us to indulge in some stereotypical tourist behaviour, but no loud American voices. As one of our party (Paula) is recovering from illness, maybe we’re going a bit slower this time around?
Usually, I’m seeking out news of any party pre-release rumours like a gossip-seeking ferret. Maybe we’ve all been distracted, but things on that front have been really low key and unannounced. There are ‘some pearls’, according to one Michal Michalowski, but it seems the really big releases are being kept back for the follow up Sillyventure Winter Edition at the end of November. Still, we are prepared to be pleasantly surprised, whilst keeping expectations low key and realistic.
Anyway, I think we’ve managed to put together a sufficiently adequate Pre-amble Ramble. That’s it for now. The next time I’m picking up this text will be on Friday, at the party. Tomorrow will be consumed with thoughts and preparations for departure. See you all later!
Day Zero.. 31.7.25
CiH from the party place. We’ve just got here, having an active day in the old town beforehand. I’ll say something about this shortly, but a bit about the journey over first.
Well that was more interesting than it needed to be.
I’m setting off just before 16.00hrs, the first stage of the journey, to pick up Nicky from her home, then to speed off to lovely Luton Airport. The weather is sunny, the mood is carefree.
About a mile or so away from home, on the A45 main road through Northampton, three rows of stationary cars greet me with a mocking sarcastic stillness. It transpired that three cars in the overtaking lane were simulating the concept of motion transfer, instead of using the steel balls of a Newton Cradle, actual vehicles were involved. With much damage and injuries to the people involved.
Yes, this is what can happen!
Unfortunately, this leads to the favourite emergency services tedious game of ‘road closure’. With the A45, this can be a real gamble and on personally experienced past issues, no-one leaves the trap for several hours. There is some real concern and exchange of texts with the other travellers. It may even be the case that CiH does not make it to his evening Gdansk-bound flight if the closure drags on, as it might well. People are getting out of their vehicles and producing picnics and inflatable animals to enjoy in the sunny weather found in the central reservation.
Around an hour later, as hope is steadily draining through the car floor, the party enjoyers suddenly return to their vehicles, the chorus of engines starting leads to a slow but welcome resumption of movement. About five to ten minutes later, I pass by a cordoned-off overtaking lane filled with police vehicles and the remains of the three broken vehicles. As no-one had to be scraped off the carriageway and measurements taken of the disaster, the police took the pragmatic decision to release the pent-up Northampton rush-hour, building up behind the accident site as soon as possible. Which was fortunate for me.
I get to Nicky’s place quickly from there and at around 10 to 15 minutes later, we’re back on the road, (pre)packed and loaded for Sillyventure. There hasn’t been too much of a delay and this is taken from the expected waiting around time at the airport anyway. We soon pass the accident site, going in the opposite direction. Low loader recovery vehicles are about to remove the casualty cars. There is still quite a backlog of vehicles going back a couple of miles, slowly working through, as we speed past the other way.
The rest of the journey, motorway, with its possibilities for travelling hell and all, is remarkably smooth, as if to make up for the earlier inconvenience. We arrive at lovely Luton Airport an hour later, speeding through the checking in and security, meeting with a comfortably settled Felice and Paula in the airport lounge. Many greetings, some food and drink and much conversation ensues.
The airport gods are with us, at least until the time to board our flight to Gdansk is due to take place. We’re assembled in the pleasantly cool evening air, waiting for the go-ahead to get on board, but there is another strange event going on in the background that is delaying matters. An anonymous airport van is at the rear of the aircraft. Several hi-viz jacketed airport officials appear to be manhandling something or someone? to the ground from it. They/it are bundled on via the rear door on the aircraft. A couple of heavily armed airport security people are wandering around, which is also unexpected. We eventually board a maxed-out flight with numerous passengers with awkward cabin bags, including one gentleman with something body-bag sized which resolutely refused to fit in already packed out overhead lockers.
Our Sky-Chariot Awaits!
Spoiler alert:- The cabin crew managed in the end.
The flight itself is departure delayed around half an hour but proceeds smoothly enough. There is another slight delay unloading, as the police at the Gdansk end need to attend the aircraft. A ‘Tacti-cool’ member of airport security boards, with special forces costumery and firepower to remove the problematic mystery passenger. I’ve no information, but on pure speculation I’m assuming a deportation from the UK and prompt re-arrest at the destination. Absolutely no pictures were taken of this event. The author of this text enjoying a continuous happy relationship with not having his head and torso punctured by high-velocity gunshots and wishing to carry on in this manner.
It is with some relief and tiredness, including the flight crew, that we depart the airport and bundle ourselves into a waiting taxi. The night manager at the hotel was the same pleasant person that did the honours last year. We are getting close to our beds at around 02.00hrs on the Friday morning. Sleep arrives with the suddenness of a Ninja, with a tax bill.
Day One.. 1.8.25..
Sleep, deep, death-like sleep, until 05.30hrs. Our narrator wakes up feeling fine, performs bladder relaxation rituals, does not go back to sleep immediately. Some time later, a dream, something I was trying to sort out with Felice, is interrupted by an 08.30 alarm, and our humble narrator wakes up feeling crippled and dehydrated.
After a slow and steady awakening and refreshing process with water, breakfast is a sensible option, enthusiastically embraced by all four of us. A trip with intent and shopping bags follows to the Biedronka supermarket for room drink supplies. We’ve even managed a preliminary reconnaissance session of the St Dominics ‘Retro’ market. It is ‘retro’ in the sense of general antiques rather than specific computing, although a lone and immaculate condition Commodore 64 has been spotted. There is pictorial evidence, which will be included here. We’re happy to advise the owner of the stall that we’re attending an Atari party this weekend.
No, this is not a wild compo entry!
Speaking of ‘party’, we manage to avoid going there for some time. We’ve managed to complete an ambitious Sunday afternoon style post-party programme instead. So there is an awesome ‘early supper’ (Felice) or late lunch completed in the old town. There is a meander around some of the other parts of St Dominics market, the craft version, rather than the retro version. Some souvenirs are purchased by the female party members. We’re caught in a rain shower whilst we’re out, which is refreshing rather than miserable. Eventually getting back to the hotel.
Balloon Escape Attempt from the Old Town?
We only got to the party place a short time after 18.00hrs. There is quite a high activity level, with several interesting old school hardware items set up. We’ve made contact with Grey and got our registration done in record time. We’ve even managed to settle in the upstairs comfortable and quiet room, where we were last summer. It’s in semi-darkness, but I’m able to update this report. An opening ceremony awaits, but the major activity will take place tomorrow, when the competitions are running.
At the Party.
There is an exuberant opening ceremony. It’s the 25th Anniversary of the party. Yes that long ago, since we drove across continental Europe to get to the first one. There are a lot of awards, so the normally brief opening ceremony turns into something of an Oscars ceremony. Without the mind-blowingly awful acceptance speeches from low-wattage celebrities thanking their producers and small pets. Amazingly, the author gets included in the participation prizes, for ongoing support of the Sillyventure brand. Thanks, you’re welcome! I’m taking a very nice looking certificate home. Which could be hung on the wall?
The return of Atari-Cake!
Whilst this is going on, I’m observing the owner of an opened Falcon, motherboard exposed. It looks like he’s trying to get a dual IDE hard drive adaptor working. The CF-Card seems to be coping fine, the SD-Card adaptor seems to be needing a lot of persuasion, but he gets there eventually, prodding the SD Adaptor and fiddling with HD Driver. There is pictorial evidence of this machine too, which is below.
At least two devices off the IDE port. Not sure what else inside?
An episode of epic cream cake, wine and pizza later, not all at the same time thank you, all bodily needs have been catered for. So we’re leaving this first day with a very loud sound chip concert being beamed in upstairs.
An earlyish night is on the cards, as we’re still trying to catch up with co-existing with several hours of missing sleep and knob-end inflicted stress related issues. So I’ll pick up again tomorrow.
Day Two.. 2.8.25..
The peak party day, competitions, talks, free Red Bull, beckon. The last of these happens first. The can in question is drunk swiftly before it loses its chill factor and the actual awful taste reasserts itself.
I’m getting better at this continual sleeping lark. Don’t wake up until 05.30 hours, self-inflicted leg cramp this time, so hobble around the spacious room, much hobbling space provided which helps. Get back to sleep. I’m more disappointed that sleep stopped at the 07.30 alarm, but less maimed than at yesterdays awakening.
Today is the more hardcore party attending day. Nothing much happens before the afternoon, so we’re able to fit in a leisurely buffet browsing hotel breakfast and some downtime to recover from it in.
We’re getting to the party sometime around 12.00hrs and settling in our upstairs retreat. A cooling breeze enters the room. There is something going on with the big screen, but the competitions are still some time away.
This week’s ear-worm. ‘Annie, I’m not your daddy’ by a very 1980’s Kid Creole and the Coconuts.
“Mother, baby, father, maybe?”
With that, I’ll step away from this text until something happens.
Hamish, helping me with the report!
17.33hrs.
We’ve passed through the afternoon and the first compo block.
There was a lot of music, one Protracker four channel tune I’m definitely going to make the effort to download. There were a couple of better than usual videos in the wild compo, including someone’s fantasy tropical paradise vacation, including the authentically tired and grubby bits.
The ST graphics will probably by won by the entry ‘Pixel Crush’, a perfectly captured moment of a Xmas morning in 1985 or thereabouts. There were also standout graphics entries from Nytrik on both ST and Falcon. The Atari 8-Bit ASCII compo gave us the subtle ‘The Jury Will Decide’ from Adam.
Looking ahead to the much anticipated demo compo’s, there doesn’t seem to be that much to anticipate?
Most categories are sparsely populated. Many of the demo compo’s have a single entry only. Some of this is down to the Summer Edition not being the main release showcase. I have been told there are a number of ‘big’ releases due in November for the winter edition, for categories as diverse as Lynx and Falcon, taking in the Atari 800 and STE on the way. I’ve been refreshing the voting screen periodically, in case something else has been added, but nope, this is what we’re going to get.
It could be that quality trumps quantity today, but I’m not even sure if that is going to be the case here? The sole ST full demo release is an extended version of a recent single screen intro, leveraging off the back of a controversial Amiga single screen intro from Gotham City. Does ‘extended’ mean more effects, a better looking single screener than before, or just a longer scroll text? I’m not expecting an Overlanders ‘FirST Love’ smasher tonight, that’s for sure.
The Main hall, downstairs.
There is a talk about the early years of the Atari ST and its rivals in 1985 going on in the downstairs main hall. The talk is in Polish but I’m following the gist of it somehow.
We’ve had an amazingly keen meal in the party venue (Arche Hotel) restaurant, to buffer myself against future disappointment, so I’m reasonably happy and in good company. We’ll find out more after 18.45hrs anyway.
Elsewhere, Assembly Party has been running. Their old school compo has at least one ST/STE demo entry from Extream. We could have done with it here, but I’ll guess I’ll get to see it later on.
There should be a picture of a very modded Atari 8-bit, about here. Transparent rear case and probably some nice goodies inside.
Wonder what is going on inside here then?
Gaming compo’s have been and done.
Highlights, yes there were some, a nifty Nintendo Game and Watch homage ‘Wolf and Eggs’ coded by Mayonez of Cobra for the ST. There was also a neat low resolution Lynx shooter ‘Nishiyama’, made in the style of a pretend retro modern console, with a somewhat cynically amusing ending.
The demo compo’s are a fairly lightweight affair, with a few small ‘pearls’ as previously advised. At least one of these, intended for the Falcon, didn’t show. Maybe it will be seen in November, or has it been lost for good?
We did get the Dead Hackers remix of the Django the Bastard screen, ‘Joker is a Knobhead’ with more colours, full width rotate and zoom with overscan, STE soundtrack, blitter assistance and a more artsy Joker, with the usual Dead Hackers finishing skills. A selection of small intros on various platforms, A nice looking invitro for the Jaguar for SV2025 Winter Edition, a very slow, but definitely done in realtime ‘Starpath’ intro for the Lynx.
We finished at around 20.00hrs, still daylight, a record for a demo party. Not sure if this a good record mind you? The competitions ran smoothly enough, the sole technical issue was sorted out in five minutes. The party has been well run generally and we’re grateful for the timely and efficient running. We’re just lacking a little excitement about the entries this time around, even taking the lower expectations for the summer party into account. Bearing in mind there has been an ST entry for the concurrently running Assembly summer party which could have been entered to good effect here, and a recent Sommarhack, perhaps there are too many summer parties vying for a small selection of entries?
21.34hrs.
And back at the hotel.
The early finishing motivated our travelling party to find their way back, whilst there was still some degree of twilight. So we did. We’re wrapped around cups of tea and snack sized fried carbohydrates, which is as high life as this is going to get.
There will be a brief day three’ added, as the prize-giving has got to be completed and the party wound down. There will be some final thoughts. We’re staying a few extra days, but I’ll draw the line under this report, as I’m sure you don’t want to hear about our tediously touristy browsing and wandering.
Day 3, 3.8.24 (Sunday)
The sleeping thing goes brilliantly. Wake up around 06.30hrs, come to, naturally, slowly, no alarm needed. Excellent!
Morning has broken!
We’re up with a view to winding down at the party and then see where our feet take us from there. Felice and I are at the venue shortly before 11.00hrs. Amazingly, the prize-giving ceremonial parts start more or less at the scheduled time, and not an hour or so later.
Prizes are given, applause is applauded. The people I was expecting to get first place in the various graphics compo’s did get first place. There wasn’t that much competition with most of the demo categories, alas!
We do find out that the November SV 2025 Winter Edition will reconvene at this location. Presumably the organisers being quick enough to avoid the Xmas rush. So Felice has managed the feat of pre-booking our hotel places at Arche Dwor before anything has been officially confirmed and we’ve left. Other people are already doing so apparently.
We’re back off to our Marina Club refuge shortly afterwards, to where the women have been indulging with soft fruit and cups of tea, the sounds of people leaving the party are reaching a roaring crescendo. Which gradually fades into the background as we walk our way back.
Hamish is back!
So the party is technically over, but we still have the to four more days in sunny, showery Gdansk to enjoy.
Much as I’d love to share the journey of the journey home, I’m going to draw a firm red line at this point under this report. Maybe a few final thoughts to share first.
Firstly the gremlin in the works, the uninvited guest to the reunion, the solicitation for money at the orgy entrance, for a 25th Anniversary, the release side of things suffered a deep lack from what you might expect for such a significant anniversary.
From what I’ve been told, there is going to be a big push on releases for the Winter Edition, so if that counts as ‘25th Anniversary’ as well, maybe this can be pulled back from the depths.
Looking again, all the smaller categories held up well enough. There were plenty of graphics and musical entries, just a demo famine. The organisers at the prize giving and closing did state that the strict deadlines were respected by those folk that did submit entries, so I assume it isn’t an issue with demoscener comedy last minute time-management skills at least? But I’m left with the very sobering thought that the only ST demo entry was very much a last minute ultra-topical affair from the Dead Hackers Society, otherwise we would have been left with nothing at all! I have no insights to any possible backstage issues and traumas preventing potential released works appearing. If anyone wants to add some missing context, please feel free to do so in the comments.
The party itself was very well run, there was a minimal delay to the competitions, the one ‘technical issue’ was soon resolved. The other party activities, seminars, talks, game competitions, all happened more or less when they were supposed to.
The ‘Atari cake’ tradition was well-maintained. I even managed to have a go at the free beer. The Party Oscar ceremony was a pleasant surprise. Yes, we will go on supporting you!
The Arche Dwor venue is one of the more high end and pleasant venues apart from Olivia Star, which would be impossible to beat. We’ve got this place back for the November party. It’s only just over three months to go, so please be there, in body, sofa-surfing spirit, or even with entries!
CiH - 3.8.25 for Atariscne.org
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