breakpoint 2004 report

after a more or less pleasant car trip from berlin to bingen (another car touched us when it tried to pass us on the left, but nothing visible happened) we (rob, dualtrax and me) arrived shortly after 17:00 at the party location, again the old military depot. luckily the weather here was atleast a bit better than in berlin, but it's far away from 'fun in the sun'. the heating in the hall is better than last year, but also the temperature outside is lower. i began to sell my assembly and mindcandy dvd's. on the later evening at around 21:00 the opening ceremony began with a short speech by steeler and scamp. in the name of the main sponsor ati they offered helicopter flights on the next day. i believe that many sceners won't have a chance to take the short flight (only 3 persons on one flight, but 100s of visitors). rob supported me again with amiga demos in my demoshow and it seems that the crowd was very pleased with both parts of the show. even the people at the campfire could watch the show on a second big screen. the announced 'surprise demo' had to be kicked for now because i simply forgot to take it with me. maybe tomorrow when the internet connection will (hopefully) work again.

after some hours of sleep under the table it was time for a shower in the swimming hall (connected by the free bus service). at around noon the helicopter flights began just a few meters from the party hall. the tickets are of course already sold out. the first compo was the tracked music compo with some quite good entries. on the afternoon the buenzli organizers offered free swiss fondue in the tent in front of the hall. after that it was time for the 4k compos. the c64 compo had some quite good entries. the best stuff in the pc compo came imo from byteam, reptile & gargaj and from frenetic & kb. the last one came with kickass 3d scenery, partly inspired by conspiracy's 'project genesis'. an internet worm has infected several unpatched windows machines, as a result some table rows were disconnected for some time. the delayed amiga 4k compo was clearly dominated by loonies, their 'ikanim' set new standards for amiga 4k intros - a must have! the amiga 64k compo on the early evening wasn't that stunning, but scoopex and rno made quite good intros. later after hanging around at a second (temporary) campfire there was an ati presentation on the big screen. the following animation/video compo contained mostly video stuff and one kickass live performance to the michael jackson hit 'billie jean' by mjfn (=bronix!). jco made a long and good music video while farbrausch competed with some demolike stuff.

with some delay it was time for the scene.org awards 2003, again held as part of the breakpoint party. the big winner this year was moppi productions with their demo 'ix' (best demo, best direction and most original concept). kewlers won this year the 'best soundtrack' award while farbrausch's 'popular demo' won the public choice award. conspiracy's 'project genesis' won the category breakthrough performance. after this it was time for the c64 democompo, but there was no real stunning entry. nice demos came from k2 and the dreams. the 96k game compo had some very good entries. the john trapolka memorial krew released 'b-clopd 3d - adventures in platformworld', again a funny jump 'n run game. '.the produkkt' (guess who is behind this name) came with a technical brilliant shooter called '.kkrieger'. after this it was time for the 2nd part of my demoshow, the scene.org awards special. some chit-chat later it was time for some sleep.

sunday began with a missed compo because i was at the swimming hall again for a shower. it was the mac democompo and rob told me that the demo 'space invaders' by spöntz was pretty good. back from the swimming hall i had some chat with digisnap (he arrived yesterday) and later with unlock, robocop and other swiss sceners. maybe we'll see some small party in berlin sometime in the future (bsm 2 or so, definitly nothing big). the afternoon began with the sid music compo. still not my favorite music style, but quite ok also for my ears ;). actually i have not really watched any of the graphics compos. the afternoon continued the traditional way: real party is outside and even the weather is better now with plenty of sunshine. again you could listen to the streaming music compo outside on the grass. i had some more chat with nordbourgh and some of the organizers. breakpoint 2004 seems to be an even bigger success than last year. some more time outside at the campfire followed, one time the drunk bronix walked just through the fire and nothing happened, later he was just laying on a bench or on the ground at the campfire. i had some interesting political talk with paralax/speckdrumm, but also about the state of pouet. at around 20:00 the pc 64k-compo began without to much notice, so we missed the beginning. and the compo was in several ways totally fucked up (the live handdrawn info screens were somehow original though). due to technical problems the compo was splitted into several parts, but also the intros weren't that stunning this year. probably conspiracy will have a good chance with their fr-025 parody 'saturday night sceners'. the following console/real wild compo had several very nice entries for different platforms. for example some nice xbox demos and a great mobile phone demo by matt current.

got the message? amiga rules! that's what you can say after this stunning amiga democompo. the best chance to win will have tbl with their kickass 'silkcut', probably followed by madwizards & suspend (fluffy digital snowflakes) and ephidrena (respirator stories). also creative minds and iris released very good stuff. the pc compo was all in all not as good as the amiga one and lacked some really kicking stuff. but there are of course some very good demos like 'fr-035: deleted scenes' by visualice, nightshift by delight, 'in crapula veritas' by fairlight or the assembly 2004 invi demo by moppi productions. during the pc compo it was pretty cold in front of the big screen, probably some heater isn't working well. now after the end of the official part it's party time at the campfire. now at this late time even yoda has arrived at breakpoint and made some music in the tent. i can already say that breakpoint 2004 was a really great party with the right atmosphere, just the weather wasn't that perfect like last year. during the night hours i had some interesting chat about the scene with poti. after several hours of sleep it was at around 13:00 time for the pricegiving. spöntz won the mac demo compo. the 96k game compo was won by .theprodukkt, followed by jtmk. the animation/video compo was won by neuro.concept, followed by farbrausch (collage faction) and abho. in the console/real wild compo matt current won with his mobile phone demo, followed by ainc and doomsday. plush won the c64 4k compo (bar4kode). first price in the amiga 4k compo goes of course to loonies, followed by nature and boozoholics. the pc 4k compo was won by frenetic & kb, followed by byteam and reptile & gargaj. the amiga 64k compo was won by scoopex, followed by rno and dodge. the pc 64k compo was won by conspiracy, followed by brain control and bypass. the c64 democompo was won by camelot (you know the routine 2), followed by smash designs and k2. the amiga democompo was won by tbl, followed by madwizards and ephidrena. metalvotze won surprisingly the pc democompo (winnerdemo), followed by moppi productions and calodox.