TG96INV.TXT Revision 1.00 This is a preliminary official invitation to The Gathering 1996 -------- Introduction ------------------------------------------------------ CRUSADERS Productions ARE BACK!!! AND THROUGH THE KANDU ORGANIZATION THEY ARE QUITE DETERMINED TO MAKE THE GATHERING 1996 INTO SOMETHING DIFFERENT ALTOGETHER. We have heard your complaints about bad choice of locations, loss of power, poor networking, expensive entry fees, prizes that were not paid until many months after the party and so forth... AND WE CORRECTED THEM ALL (well, most of them anyway). By using only professional companies instead of doing everything ourselves, everything you need for a great party will be there. IN TIME, IN PLACE and IN A WORKABLE ORDER ----------------------------------------- Together with some the largest companies around, we're going to make the THE GATHERING 1996 more fun, more non-stop action, more no-holds barred computer action than any other party! Just a pie in the sky? Read on... -------- hot spots --------------------------------------------------------- LOCATION: "VIKINGSKIPET" in Hamar, north of Oslo, Norway. The main hall from the '94 Olympics in Norway. (If you don't know what the Olympics are, you are just the guy we want at TG, and believe us, the hall is big!!!) 12.000 square meters of pure pleasure (the same size as 3 soccer fields or 3000 tabletennis tables. 3000+ seats, tables and SEPARATE poweroutlets available. Every person gets a seat, every person gets a tablespace and every person gets his own grounded poweroutlet. (1 outlet per person, bring your own grounded multiple power outlets to have more than one item connected at a time). More than 20 seperate wardrobes with 4-10 showers per wardrobe. Don't panic, bring your own towel. Catering will be provided. In our next info, prices and a day-to-day menu will be included. Junkfood and not-so-junk food will be served at your leisure. Silicone and methane lifeforms make special arrangments. PARKING: Big parking facilities available immediately outside the hall at no extra charge. Will take any kind of possible vehicle you can arrive in. Extraterrastials call ahead for separate reservations. Limousine service available. DATE: Easter'96 System Boot : Tuesday 2 April 1996 00:01am System Shutdown : Sunday 7 April 1996 11:59am PRICE: More than 130 hours of party for maximum 200 NOK! (About US$ 30) As usual, girls and non-Europeans are let in for *FREE*. ET's also have free entrance but have to provide their own phones. Prices MIGHT change for the lower, but no promises yet. NETWORK: 1500++ Ethernet connections with high speed internal and Internet party network from day 0 at NO EXTRA CHARGE!! 98% COAX connections, bring your HUB's for TP-connections. You just need a PC with an Ethernet-card, or buy one from us for 250 NOK (US$ 35) (16bits NE2000 cards for ISA-bus only). This is non-profit way for us get YOU onto the network if you don't already have a Ethernet card. You get to keep the card after the party. No rentals or credit plans available. Major body parts acceptable as a shortterm deposit. POWER: Seperate poweroutlet per person, 20 persons per breaker switch. 3000 Amps available instantly, and our special TECH task force will be monitoring the powergrid at all hours. The hall itself is providing this as a courtesy service, so it's not us spending the week putting the power up. It's in place the week BEFORE the party. COMPOS: Demo, intro, music, gfx and wild competitions will be held, plus a few surprises... See separate paragraph for more info. VIDEO: Hot new movies and all the old goodies will be shown at regular intervals, 24 hours a day, all week. A special auditorium with 200 quality seats and superb audiovisual equipment provides the quality experience for all of you moviebuffs. If it's good enough for Olympic hot-shots it's certainly good enough for you. SLEEPING: Special arrangements with the local fire department allow sleeping inside the hall. (No more sleeping outside in a tent, we're computer freaks and not Grizzly Adam's fans.) CONTACT: For more detailed ad updated information, you may: - see our web pages at http://www.coming.soon - call CRUSADERS BBS at # +47-22 10 46 46 - call Infolink BBS at # +47-22 57 16 00 or 04 conference name: Gathering96 - contact Vegard Skjefstad voice at # +47 90119966 - email vegards@infolink.no or via www.crb.oslo.no - or Geir Allstedt voice at # +47 90086488 Write to: Crusaders Productions Stasjonsvn. 56 N-2010 Stroemmen Norway -------- competitions ------------------------------------------------------ Competitions: As this is only a preliminary invitation, most of the details have not been "nailed down" yet. More detailed info will be made available as soon as possible, so keep in touch. General rules: All entries will be presented in the best true form available. To allow us to do this, please follow the written rules or provide us with the hardware/software to show the entry in it's best form. All entries will be put on a (or more) CDROM and run from here. Contributions will be awarded royalty from this based upon contribution. PC DEMO - 486 DX2-66 or above (Pentium support recommended) - 8Mb RAM - SVGA by VESA 2.0 support or similar - Must run under standard Win-95 DOS-shell - Max 550K conventional memory requirement - Standalone executable with or without data files - Max 10 minutes shown - Max 5 Mbytes packed - Loopable only by choice (-loop parameter) - Exits demo by pressing ESC-key at any time - Exits demo at end automatically - Must run from harddisk - Must run from CD-ROM - Soundblaster or above supported - Gravis Ultrasound supported optionally - Silent mode supported (-nosound parameter) AMIGA DEMO - Amiga 1200/4000 - AGA - 2Mb Chip - 2Mb Fast - Standalone executable with or without data files - Max 10 minutes - Max 5 Mbytes packed - Harddisk , floppydisk and CDROM installable/runnable. - Exits demo at end - Exits demo by mouseclick - Loopable only by choice (-loop parameter) - Should pass Enforcer-test PC 4K INTRO - 486 DX2-66 or above (Pentium support recommended) - 8Mb RAM - SVGA by VESA 2.0 support or similar - Must run under standard Win-95 DOS-shell - Max 550K conventional memory requirement - Standalone executable with or without data files - Max 10 minutes shown - Max 4096 bytes packed - Loopable only by choice (-loop parameter) - Exits demo by pressing ESC-key at any time - Exits demo at end automatically - Must run from harddisk - Must run from CD-ROM - Soundblaster or above may be supported - Gravis Ultrasound may be supported optionally - Silent mode supported (-nosound parameter) PC 64K INTRO - 486 DX2-66 or above (Pentium support recommended) - 8Mb RAM - SVGA by VESA 2.0 support or similar - Must run under standard Win-95 DOS-shell - Max 550K conventional memory requirement - Standalone executable with or without data files - Max 10 minutes shown - Max 65536 bytes - Loopable only by choice (-loop parameter) - Exits demo by pressing ESC-key at any time - Exits demo at end automatically - Must run from harddisk - Must run from CD-ROM - Soundblaster or above supported - Gravis Ultrasound supported optionally - Silent mode supported (-nosound parameter) AMIGA 40K INTRO - Amiga 1200/4000 - AGA - 2Mb Chip - 2Mb Fast - Standalone executable with or without data files - Max 10 minutes - Max 40960 bytes - Harddisk , floppydisk and CDROM installable/runnable. - Exits demo at end - Exits demo by mouseclick - Loopable only by choice (-loop parameter) - Should pass Enforcer-test GRAPHICS - Image will be shown for 60 seconds - TIFF or IFF formats allowed - Max 24 bit color depth (16.7 M colors) - Max 1024x768 resolution allowed - Any technique(s) allowed, must be stated - Machine format unlimited - No colourcycling effects allowed ANIMATION - Max 15 minutes - Contribution must be provided on a harddisk or VHS-tape (Harddisk media will be returned) - FLI, FLC, MOV or AVI formats allowed Other formats supported by contributors at time of entry into the competition - Max 24 bit color depth (16.7 M colors) - Max 800x600 resolution allowed - Any technique(s) allowed, must be stated on competition entry form - Contributions may be presented with a commercially available soundtrack chosen by the author(s) 4 CHANNEL MUSIC - Max 3 minutes - Max 4 channels - S3M, MOD, PAC, XM and MID formats allowed - Entries will be played on an AWE32 using SB Studio 3.0 MULTICHANNEL MUSIC - Max 3 minutes - Max 32 channels - S3M, MOD, PAC, XM and MID formats allowed - Entries will be played on an AWE32 using SB Studio 3.0 WILD!! - Max 15 minutes - Bring your own hardware and *contact us* SCREENSAVE COMPO - Windows or Windows 95 *.SCR format - Amiga Garschnev blanker or similar - Macintosh After Dark-format - Other formats by providing similar support MACHINE DESIGN - External design (Colours, art, features or similar) - Internal design (Colours, art, features or similar) USELESS UTILTY COMPO - Well, the name is enuff!!! CODER-HAT COMPO - Design - Features - Wearability - Power-consumption GROUP T-SHIRT COMPO - Slogan - Design - Wearability - WET T-shirt allowed Soccer-compo, Frogger-compo, C-Robot AI Compo (PC/Amiga/Unix/SGI/HP/SUN) Poetry/limerick computer compo Descent/Doom/Worms/Deadly Skies/Command & Conquer/Netgames competitions -------- transport --------------------------------------------------------- How to get there: From Oslo: - Drive E6 north (towards Trondheim) from Oslo for about 75 minutes, and follow the signs to "Vikingskipet Olympic Arena". If you miss it, make your driver wear larger glasses! If you miss it twice, make your driver wear dark sunglasses and white cane. - Trains for Hamar depart from Oslo Central station every hour, the hall is located about 500 meters from the station. - Bus transports will be scheduled, contact us for booking information. - If you arrive by plane or boat in Norway, follow the above directions from Oslo or call us for further instructions. From Trondheim or northern Norway: - Drive E6 South (towards Oslo) and follow the signs again. From Sweden or Finland: - Drive until you hit E6 in Norway and turn either South or North depending on your location. Ask the nearest gas station. As several hundred thousand people made it during the Olympics, and nearly every person in Norway know where Hamar/Vikingskipet is, ASK!!! Map will be available at a later date at WEB-site and in the written invitation. -------- Rules ------------------------------------------------------------- General rules that really should be obvious... - Political, racist and religious activities will not be tolerated. The organizers reserve EXCLUSIVE right to determine what will be tolerated or not. - Commercial activity or trading will not be allowed without prior written permission from the organizers. (And a proper bribe of course). - Alcohol, drugs, firearms, projectile weapons, fireworks and nuclear devices not intended for transportation are not allowed inside or immediately outside the hall. - We will not be held responsible for damaged or stolen property. - Software piracy, hacking and illegal swapping will not be tolerated. Hacking the network is probably fun, but so is living the rest of your life without any testicles!! Remember!! Norwegians eat Rudolf's testicles for X-mas. -------- Technical Stuff --------------------------------------------------- - All electrical equipment must be properly put together following normal electrical regulations. Equipment not following this easy rule will not be allowed to hook up to the power grid. - Microwave ovens, grills, toasters, refridgerators, electric chairs and other equipment that may cause electrical noise, power surges or electrocutive experiences will not be allowed inside the party hall. - The party network will be based upon a 100 Mbit backbone. However, we will only be able to connect you to it via standard 10 Mbit COAX BNC connections at each table. IPX/SPX and IP protocols are the only protocols supported. - ANY AND ALL network connections are to be made by TECHNET crew personell. The only thing you should do yourself is installling your own networkclient at your workstation. The Tech Crew will be provide assistance for those who need it to get you onto he network. - Tampering with the network or power system will not be accepted!! Time and technical restrictions makes this a FRIENDSHIP rule. -------- Alternative Easter -------------------------------------------------- Why not combine THE GATHERING with your normal Easter holiday? About two hours of driving from Hamar, you find HAFJELL and KVITFJELL, the arenas that hosted the alpine diciplines during the 1994 Winter Olympics. These are two of Scandinavia's most modern alpine centers today, well suited for those family members who don't want to spend the entire week indoor. As well is Hamar a tourist site in itself. Olympics arenas and scenic nature is just part of what makes Hamar interesting. For those of you above 18, Hamar also provides a semi-interesting nightlife. Remember that drunken bastards will not be let into the hall, so behave yourself a bit. -------- KANDU ------------------------------------------------------------- KANDU (Kreativ Aktiv Norsk Data Ungdom) would translate into "Creative Active Norwegian Computer Youth" was formed by Crusaders, Cryptoburners, ATC and a few other groups in order to show people outside the scene what we are capable of, a vital step in the process of getting economical support for a project of this magnitude. You may join KANDU through our web site, or by contacting us directly. -------- Last but not least ------------------------------------------------ Remember, this is only a preliminary invitation file, and all information stated above may be subject to change without notice. If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to contact us as stated elsewhere in this document. No warranties are expressed or implied...or something like that. Andy Floyd of ATC, Board member of KANDU, December 1995 ============================================================================