b3tThe Gathering triptGhandytfpf2s2c08 THE GATHERING TRIP f1c10 by Ghandy/Gods^Darkage c09Being asked by c10RokDaZone c09if I could write something interesting from the deep past of my Scenish life because of c10Generation's c09anniversary first I thought of writing about my experience with blue-boxing, my attempts to be a leader of an illegal group or 2CV-duckjetter "flying" to the next software company and delivering the latest Amiga, PC and Nintendo games to the illegal Amiga Scene. Attempts? Well.. for a while we were really successful, but as usual in the illegal Scene what we finally earned was a hell of enemies, envious people and a lot of costs to be paid. Guess things like that would not be really interesting for you, or am I wrong? But there was something else... something I will never forget. And now my story starts. Hey, it's time to zap to the next article! Still here? Cool! Anyway this is not again a fairytale with nothing inside then Scenish fantasy. Can we call it that way? Don`t know... But what`s coming right now really took place. To my own surprise it`s not another anti-c10Mop c09article... hehe! It was spring in the year of c081993c09 when c10Runt/Wizzcat c09asked me to drive to the c10Gathering c09that time. My first party experience was the c10Cebit-party c09in c081992c09 and that was mostly boring. I saw there a less good organized party held in a youth centre, where it was raining through the roof. And it was deadly cold. Maybe the halls were still under construction or maybe they were just in progress of being repaired. It was not only the temperature, also the atmosphere between the visitors can only be called "cold" or may we say cool? Many people were even to cool to open their mouths... f2c08 SO GATHERING. ANOTHER COUNTRY, ANOTHER TRY. f1c09Why not I thought? The German illegal Scene didn`t have anything attractive, why not focus on the other side. After some preparations c10Runtc09, c10Star of Absolute c09(both left the Scene a long time ago) and me jumped in my white & 27 PS "strong" Citroen 2CV "duck" and rushed through the night. Target: "Sketsmorehallen", 50 kilometres outside of Oslo, let us better say 50 miles outside of nowhere... Why I`m always doing the same mistake I asked myself(and I did that very often the following years)... All the time, c10Party 3c09, c10Sun `n Fun Conference IIc09, c10Party 4c09, I was always travelling with younger fellows not owning a driving-licence. It was my dirty job to bring us to the northern border of Denmark alone. We had to arrive sharp in time to be allowed to catch the ferry to Norway. After sleeping the whole time in the ferry I often enough had that deadlock, feeling to be not anylonger able to drive one single minute. My body had one big wish. Sleep! I want to sleep... Against all odds after 23 hours we found that nasty small basketball hall in "Sketsmorehallen". There were as usually no signs, no people we could have asked for the way. The only house near the partyplace was a closed armycamp, a military airport. We rushed in, paid our fee and quickly found tables of the leading groups of the Demo Scene. That was what we were searching for: c10Spaceballs c09were there. c10Andromeda c09was present, also c10Dual Crew Shining c09and a lot of other Sceners and groups we never heard of. The atmosphere was quite friendly. The only thing I diskliked was, that with us, there were only nine German people. So we talked a lot with the Sanity guys hanging around there. The second day after we had to sleep under our table (as usually there was no sleeping room offered as written in the invitation)we installed the Amiga 2000 and began to play c10"Desert Strike"c09, a real nice helicopter game which was released just a few minutes before we left to Norway. It was the first major release of the re-found crew c10Paradoxc09.. and at the c10Gatheringc09 f2nobody f1had it.. so after starting to play it.. every five minutes someone else disturbed us while fighting and asked f4c08"Hølle Smölle bergö??" c09f1or f4c08"Smoerebroed hansen brede?" f1c09Erm, or it was something which can be compared to this. Naturally we didn`t understand anything. Nobody of the visitors did expect we would f2not f1speak the Norwegian or Swedish language as 99% of all visitors came from Scandinavia. Too bad. So every single time we first had to explain they should speak in nothing else then in English language! The fourth or fifth time they asked us for the game we were really forced to shout f4c08"TRY IT IN ENGLISH!!" f1c09It's no fun to begin a game for some minutes only to be paused by someone, who wants to have it. And as I`m friendly and I was also at that time, for sure we made them a copy of it. But shouting was really necessary - this Scandinavian language-mixture was really getting on our nerves. And with only a few people speaking German you begin to feel quite lonesome with the time... Can you understand that? Hope so... f2c08 A COPYPARTY? A PARTYCOPY? f1c09Only two hours later nearly everybody was gambling around with the crack we brought with us. Hehe! Maybe we should have included a crackintro from my former crew, from c10Decadec09.. none of them would have noticed the difference. Yeah would have been a fine way to grab a lot of fame.. infact we would have cheated c10Paradox c09in a very unfair and cheap way, but who cares.. fame is fame! But as decent Sceners we dropped our plans. Decent and well amused about a complete hall of demo Sceners playing the same game. Nice feeling! At the third day we drove to Oslo. We already had invested most of our bucks to buy cold Cola and hot served pizza. What I didn`t know at that time was, that my bank in Germany had cancelled the contract with me. So as I tried to get money from the EC-automate something strange happened. We heard a deep noise, something was falling down and the only reaction the computer was willing to make, was to print out a sheet with a note f4c08"Your card has been captured". f2c09Uahhhhh!! f1Damn cool situation! Neither c10Runtc09, nor c10Starc09 had an eurocheque-valid bank account or any money with them... As it was easter and all banks and shops had closed. No chance to get the card again or to discuss this topic with anybody. Bad luck for us! What to do? We went to the next hotel and exchanged my last 100 German marks into Kronas. What could we do? We didn`t know anybody who could lend us something... we also could not wait until easter was over.. At least also a 2CV duck needs some benzene for the long, long way home btw. we would have had to eat something in the time inbetween. And it was also not sure we would be successful to convince the employers to give me my card back. I knew something went wrong with my bank account, but what? That everything didn`t help us... How to react? We were deadly disappointed. c10Runtc09, c10Starc09 and me drove back to the c10Gatheringc09 enjoying our "last" pizza at the partyplace. Prisoners who are waiting to be executed also have the right to get a final great meal before they loose their life... that`s how we were feeling. 48 hours later with the help of my last 10 Pfenning we approached my former hometown in Wuppertal/Germany. So no mindblasting demo releases, no great competition to watch! We leeched all the great stuff later from the boards, but that`s really not the same... And after being so long responsible for the steering wheel two days after being back home I also got a bad cold with high temperature. The next two weeks I was forced to stay in bed... Mop is doing the right stuff! If you never visit a party you also never risk anything.. no risk, no fun? No! The c10Gatheringc09 in c081993c09 was nothing else then just a dash to the ground for us three... And because of the big distance and the great Symposium party series in the following years, which are held during the the same time, I never tried my luck again. Humble greetings to the c10Gatheringc09 organizers at this point.. you are really doing a great job! And if I`m not wrong you are doing it the longest time... even without changing the team or some cancelled happenings inbetween as most of the others did. f2c08 GIVE ME A TIME MACHINE f1c09I would like to have a time-machine to enter this partyplace again. Not only to take a "bit" more money with me. Also all Norwegian f2godf1ly friends of me were present there. I`m sure me and my closest friends like c10Zeroxc09, c10Sixpackc09, c10Joint c09and the other c10Gods c09members crossed our ways a couple of times. But it was the wrong time.. It was c081993c09. I was "only" c10Gandalf of Decadec09. A modemtrader, a sysop, an original supplier.. any cheap arexx-door for c10Amiex- press c09was more common to me then the european Demo Scene. I want to go back there to the past with my knowledge of today... Please! So if anyone knows how to invent this machine.. just write me an email under lsobiraj@neuss.netsurf.de! You would really do me a favour... And don`t forget to do something for the outstanding great diskmag you are actually reading now. Maybe this way we`ll probably be able to see 25 more issues of c10Generationc09. I would enjoy it!