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CC04 -- What To Do Without a Coder? As a fan of soundchip music and an active Atari ST YM2149 composer i was looking forward very much to visit the CC04. Language and different hardware still seperate eastern and western europe in the home computer scene. For example ZX Spectrum as a platform or the OPL synthesizer chips of the Adlib and Soundblaster cards are largely unused over here. Instead e.g. Atari machines or the C64 are very popular. So i finally wanted to see and hear the eastern scene, especially the one active on the ZX Spectrum clones. Coming from germany to St.Petersburg and witnessing the productions of the scene i was naturally impressed with the high-skilled coders, graphic artists and musicians that work on the Spectrum. Some productions even had traces of high art, my favorites being the demos "Inmost Sun" and "Nature Rules". The overall quality and freshness of "solo" tunes and graphics was simply very good. However, the low interest the audience at the CC04 expressed towards Spectrum music and 8Bit graphics seemed quite strange, even impolite. Everybody was in general chatty and unattentive while ANSI and Spectrum graphics where shown. The presentation itself was very sloppy and inappropriate. During the Spectrum music competition many people even went to Amigas and turned on loud music, really disturbing the process. On the other hand Spectrum demos were well received and even got applause. It seems like a structural problem. Graphic artists and musicians are by rules of the CC04 competition not allowed to include their names in any work. During the voting process their names are not announced, too. -- But complete demos or intros are full of names and crew credits. People can cheer and vote for the crew they like. This is good, after all personality is a big factor in a healthy scene. Musicians and graphic artists are denied this possibility.So at present, the rules of the competition are very advantageous for coders. As a graphic artist or musician alone you cannot make a demo or intro and your name will be invisible. But a work without at least a name is completely out of context. And the bad presentation, showing or playing the works only once, without pauses for discussions or any other arrangement, made it even worse. Of course with demos or intros something like this is not needed, they contain and present their own context. It should be clear though that other categories must be treated differently. So without a coder you are nothing? This is unjust, the rules should be changed: Either every competition must be going with at least full names or only complete demos and intros should be allowed. -- Though complete demos and intros don't give the full image of the scene's output. I already see, at least in the western scene, that many musicians and graphic artists started to lead independent lives because they felt limited by such rules and traditions. MOD labels, chiptune labels or graphic compos started without being embedded into a full scene-backed event. To organize a competition solely on the internet, like Antique Toy, seems very sensible. It makes sure that pictures or music (which sometimes took weeks to finish) will not be skipped through in some seconds. Also the votings will have more value in the end. Generally accessible formats like GIF, MP3 or OGG are worth to consider as well. They are unnatural to the medium Spectrum musicians and graphic artists work on, but can generate a bigger audience for 8Bit productions and are a good compromise. Through this i want to encourage participation in international projects like http://www.pixelgala.org/ or the excellent http://www.micromusic.net/ ... ... because how do you think i got interested in anything Spectrum? I didn't install a Spectrum emulator, i listened to the MP3 files of the AY Riders. And now i want a real Spectrum myself. drx // Bodenstandig 2000 |