Last updated 20th June 2000

Background

Continuing in the tradition of its first incarnation, the 2 Alternative Party is an event that strives to be the black sheep of computer parties. The people who arrive at this party do not believe in the mindless mainstream. We exist so we can show our backsides at the many boring individuals who have now inherited the legacy of some of the best coders ever.

This is a chance for machines with personality, and their owners, to shake their proverbial middle fingers at the grey world outside. At the 2 Alternative Party every machine is a celebrity — the obscurer the make, the better.

Alternative Parties aren't just events, they're a lifestyle.

History

The first Alternative Party was organized in Turku, Finland inside the very suitable Palatsi youth center. Although we didn't have quite as many visitors as we might have liked, it could be considered a success. Everyone, including the organizers, seemed to have a truely enjoyable weekend. Some even pointed out that it was one of the best, if not the best, party they had ever been to.

Just some of the machines that were there: Amigas, Atari Falcons, a Commodore 8496, MSXes, an SGI, Sun workstations and a Vic-20 or two. The winner of the "Most Obscure Computer" prize was a Motorola 6800 Evaluation Kit II — which even presented us with a demo built using its wonderful LED display.

The party was covered in the large local newspaper Turun Sanomat. The article (titled "Off to Finland with an Atari") also features a picture of two British guys with their beloved Coke bottles.

The Dimensions (or irrelevant information)

Place

In the lowest floor of a student building called Domus Academica in the center of Helsinki, Finland. For the people with especially long memories: opposite the building where the Agressive Party II took place. The party place is marked with a red circle on this map.

Facilities

• Sleeping room which is acoustically sealed from the rest of the party area (sleeping bags and other luxuries not included).
• Student restaurant upstairs with cheap prices.
• Clubs and restaurants nearby.
• Access to sauna and showers at some point during the party.

Address

The Time

7th-9th July 2000

Doors open at 12:00 in Friday and close at 18:00 on Sunday.

Price

100 FIM, if paid beforehand
150 FIM, if paid at the door
20 FIM, if you happen to have XX chromosomes. This will most likely be paid by a boyfriend or wannabe boyfriend at the party.

TKO Äly members get a 20% reduction!

You can either send the money directly to the account: 142850-45618 (Kristoffer Lawson, Merita) or send it in an envelope to the main contact address.

You may also wish to contact your local contact person. Some may wish to gather a larger sum of money locally before then transferring it all to the main account.

If you send your payment directly to the account then remember to email the main contact with your name and a password to use at the door. If you send the payment in an envelope then include your name, password and email address inside the envelope. When the payment arrives a confirmation will be emailed back.

All money will be directed straight to expenses and prize money. The organizers are not trying to profit from this venture...

Compos

Descriptions and rules of the competitions. Note that at least one member of the crew leaving in the entry must be present at the party!

ST-01 Music Competition

1. The entry is a ProTracker 2.2 (Amiga) compatible song (or mod) file.
2. Samples cannot be modified in any way, except: REPEAT, REPLEN, LENGTH and PITCH can be altered, like they could in any song.
3. All ordinary PT song restrictions apply, of course.
4. All samples must be original ST-01 samples and even if you submitted your entry as a mod, sample names must not be touched (in order to get your song working with the original ST-01 sample disk). If you want to, you can distribute your entry as a mod with different sample names (for example "MADE BY JOHN DOE" instead of "ST-01:BASSDRUM3").
5. Songs will be played with an Amiga. PC and Amiga DD disks are allowed.
6. The original ST-01 sample disk can be downloaded from here

Obscure Music Competition

1. Music can be created with absolutely anything and in any form. Doorbells, phones, broken amplifiers etc.
2. Some obscure method must be used. Music that sounds like Britney Spears, created with a wambam top-of-the-line synthesizer will be disqualified.
3. Entries can be played with any equipment that is possible to connect to the amplifier, or they can be handed in as an MP3 or audio CD.
4. Maximum length: about 5 minutes (a full version can be released after the party).
5. All entries will be initially listened to by a jury to confirm their obscurity.
6. If possible, it should still be recognizeable as music.
7. A description of how the music was made should be given to the organizers.

Source Code Graphics Competition

1. The source code of a working program is used to make some nice graphics.
2. Valid languages: ANSI C, ANSI C++, ANSI Pascal, Common Lisp, Java, Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk.
3. C code must conform to the C89 (ISO 9899) standard (the compiler is not specified, but will be an ANSI compliant one).
4. Java code will be executed with Java 1.1.*.
5. Perl code will be executed with Perl 5.00.5.
6. Python will be executed with version 1.5.2.
7. Tcl/Tk code executed in a Tcl8.3 environment with wish.
8. The emphasis is on the look of the source code, but the program must also do something. A do-nothing program with nice-looking data is not enough.
9. Source code will be displayed with the UNIX more command in a console of size 80x50, one page at a time.
10. The code must be in just one file.
11. Maximum length of source code is 2000 lines.

Obscure Computer Competition

1. The rarer and weirder the machine the more chance of winning.
2. The organizers will tour the place searching for interesting machines, but if you want to make sure your machine is considered, inform any of the organizers at the place about it.

Demo Competition

1. Any machine on this planet can take part except PCs better than a 386.
2. Must be under 5MBs
3. Details should be provided to the organizers about the machine it is running on.

Other events

• Tero Mäyränen will be giving us a live music performance with his C64!
• Classic game compo.
• Megazone (laser war game)!
• Table ice-hockey.

Organizers

The 2 Alternative Party is a collaborative effort between members of Aggression and the University of Helsinki computer science department's student organization, TKO-Äly.

Contact

To receive more party information, to ask questions or find out about travel or payment, contact your local contact person or the main address. If you wish to keep up to date with developments you can also join one of the mailing lists.

Main Contact

Email: Setok / Aggression <setok@fishpool.com>
Phone: +358-40-7312273

Mailing lists

altparty@fishpool.com
Discussion and announcements

altparty-announce@fishpool.com
Announcements only

To join, mail Fishpool's majordomo service <majordomo@fishpool.com> with subscribe <listname> in the body, where <listname> is either altparty or altparty-announce.

IRC

Channel #altparty, on IRCnet

TKO Äly Contact

Email: Joonas Muhonen <jtmuhone@cc.helsinki.fi>
Phone: +358-50-5428830

General Travel Contact

Email: Q-Funk <q-funk@pp.fishpool.fi>
Phone: +358-40-7534713
WWW: http://pp.fishpool.fi/~q-funk/alt-party/alt-travel.htm

Dutch Contact

Email: Havoc / Fun Industries <havoc@fun-industries.nl>
Phone: +31-53-4339152

Norwegian Contact

Email: NervE <nerve@powertech.no>
Phone: +47-98-408739

Swedish Contact

Email: Baggio / Wildfire <baggio@canit.se>
Phone: +46-70-9397556

UK Contact

Email: Chris / Maggie <cih@atari.org>
Phone: +44 1933 412988
WWW: http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/cih_hq/altparty.htm

Current Sponsors

DataClub

Fishpool Creations Ltd

If you wish to become a sponsor please contact.