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The Assembly demoparty is a demoscene and gaming event in Finland. It is the biggest demoscene party. [1] The main organizers of the event are Pekka Aakko (Pehu of Accession) and Jussi Laakkonen (Abyss of Future Crew). The Summer event takes place every year between late July and early August, and lasts three to four days, and the Winter event is held in January or February. Edition 2020 was online. The most recent Assembly was held from 3 to 6 of August 2023 at Messukeskus in Helsinki. [2]
Assembly Winter was announced in early 2007. The winter party is a more gaming-oriented LAN party–type event, whereas the summer events continues the traditions of the original demoparty under the name Assembly Summer. Both events are held once a year.
The first Assembly was held from July 24 to July 26, 1992, in Kauniainen. It was organized by the Amiga demo groups Complex and Rebels, and the PC demo group Future Crew. The staff grew into a large non-profit group of individuals known as Assembly Organizing. Through the 1990s, Assembly grew so large that even exposition halls no longer sufficed, and only the largest of sports arenas met the partygoers' needs. In 1999, they rented the largest sports arena in the country, Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, with over 5000 visitors and 3500 computers on the ice rink.
The 2004 edition of the party also set a record: in July 2004, QuakeCon announced it was holding the world's first Doom 3 competitions on the event starting on August 12–14, roughly a week after the game's release on August 3. [3] Assembly, however, managed to snatch the first place after acquiring copies of the game via FedEx with the help of some contacts in the United States and holding the competition during August 5–8. [4]
In 2022, the party celebrated 30 years of continuous operation. [5]
Since 1995, an event called Boozembly has been organized in a nearby forest. It is officially unrelated to Assembly but serves as a meeting point for Assembly attendees as well as for other computer hobbyists and their friends. In Boozembly it is possible to use intoxicants which is not allowed in Assembly. Later IT corporations started to sponsor free beer for Boozembly. Like Assembly, Boozembly itself has become an important part of Finnish demoscene culture. [6]
The party includes multiple competitions, or compos including but not limited to:
For the first eight years of Assembly, the demo and intro competitions were split into separate IBM PC compatible and Amiga categories. Starting in 2000, the platforms have been combined, with PC (Windows or Linux), Amiga, Mac and even high-end consoles competing in the same demo and intro competitions. Similarly, Commodore 64 competitions were replaced with "oldskool" competitions that also allow entries for some other old platforms, such as various 8-bit systems and older Amigas.
Entries are submitted by demogroups and individual artists and are rated by judges. All demos which are deemed to be of a high-enough standard are then shown on a big screen. Entries which break the competition rules (e.g. use copyrighted material, or aren't suitable for the category to which they are entered) are disqualified. People who are present at the arena vote for the entries, and the results are published on the Assembly website. The entries are usually made available by the artists at scene.org or on the artists own website.
Assembly's demo competitions generally hold a very high level, especially for a party that is not specific to the demoscene. Notable winners include Lifeforce by ASD, Panic Room by Fairlight and Frameranger by Fairlight, CNCD and Orange.
Janne "Tempest" Suni—who is a Finnish demoscener, pixel artist, tracker musician, and a member of the demogroup Fairlight—is best known for his song "Acidjazzed Evening". "Acidjazzed Evening" originally won the oldskool music competition at the 2000 Assembly demoparty. [9] Suni and his award-winning song came to mainstream prominence after the melody was unlawfully co-opted by hip-hop producer Timbaland in the 2006 song "Do It" by Nelly Furtado. During Assembly demoparty 2013 an electronic music concert was performed on stage by Sabastian Teir alias „Kebu”. [10]
Year | Amiga demo | PC demo | C64 demo | Amiga intro | PC 64K intro |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1992 | Sound Vision (Reflect) | Unreal (Future Crew) | Gunnar 2 (Dual Crew) | Repo (Vectra) | N/A |
1993 | Extension (Pygmy Projects) | Second Reality (Future Crew) | Four years (Origo Dreamline) | Bananamen (Stellar) | Eclipse (EMF) |
1994 | Mindflow (Stellar) | Verses (EMF) | Attack of Stubidos 3 (Beyond Force) | G-Force (Pygmy Projects) | Airframe (Prime) |
1995 | ZIF (Parallax) | Stars (NoooN) | Extremes (Byterapers) | Fad (Sonik Clique) | Drift (Wild Light) |
1996 | Sumea (Virtual Dreams) | Machines of Madness (Dubius) | Follow the Sign 3 (Byterapers) | Pure (Sonik Clique) | Blind (Eufrosyne) |
1997 | Pulse (Nerve Axis) | Boost (Doomsday) | Speedway (Panic) | 911 (Limbo) | Mainstream (Moottori) |
1998 | Relic (Nerve Axis) | Gateways (Trauma) | Speedway 2 (Panic) | Edit 0.5 (Haujobb) | Oxygen (Coral) |
1999 | Beats (Loveboat) | Non-3D:Gasoline (Recreation) | Speedway 3 (Panic) | älä ota sitä vakavasti (Da Jormas) | Viagra (Mewlers) |
3D:Virhe (Maturefurk) | |||||
Year | Combined demo | Oldskool demo | Combined 64K intro | ||
2000 | Spot (Exceed) | Oldskool Trippin (Haujobb) | Dead Flowers (Haujobb) | ||
2001 | Lapsuus (Maturefurk) | Riyadh (Bandwagon) | Sonnet (Threestate) | ||
2002 | Liquid... Wen? (Haujobb) | Impossiblator 2 (PWP) | Squish (AND) | ||
2003 | Legomania (Doomsday) | Robotic Liberation (PWP) | Zoom 3 (AND) | ||
2004 | Obsoleet (Unreal Voodoo) | Halfway There (Dekadence) | The Prophecy — Project Nemesis (Conspiracy) | ||
2005 | Iconoclast (ASD) | Boogie Factor (Fairlight) | Che Guevara (Fairlight) | ||
2006 | Starstruck (The Black Lotus) | Fruitcake (RNO) | Dead Ringer (Fairlight) | ||
2007 | Lifeforce (ASD) | High Hopes (Aspekt) | Basic Facts About Design (Immersion) | ||
2008 | Within Epsilon (Pyrotech) | Renaissance (Byterapers) | Panic Room (Fairlight) | ||
2009 | Frameranger (Fairlight, CNCD, & Orange) | 3½ Inches Is Enough (Unreal Voodoo) | Transform (Ate Bit) | ||
2010 | Happiness is around the bend (ASD) | Grind (Dekadence & Accession) | x marks the spot, Function-X invitation (Portal Process) | ||
2011 | Spin (ASD) | Chaotic (Dekadence) | Cancelled due to lack of entries [11] | ||
Year | Combined demo | Oldskool demo | Combined 4k Intro | Combined 1k Intro | |
2012 | Spacecut (CNCD) | Conservative Megademo (PWP) | Fireflies (Blobtrox) | Embers (TDA) | |
2013 | return (Pyrotech) | Norwegian Pillow (Dekadence) | Highway 4k (HBC) | Tendrils (Traction + Fit) | |
2014 | Black And White Lies (One Studio Off) | Sliced & Diced (Dekadence) | Splash (Unknown Artists) | Superstructure (TDA) | |
2015 | Monolith (ASD) | Carbon Based (Dekadence) | Hydrokinetics (Prismbeings) | BLCK4777 (p01 / ribbon) | |
2016 | Gestalt (Quite vs T-Rex) | Malf*cktion (Byterapers) | Outcast (Unknown Artists) | Escape through subspace 1K (Seven/Fulcrum) | |
Year | Demo | Oldskool demo | 64k Intro | 4k Intro | 1k Intro |
2017 | Zoomin (Adapt) | My Summer Demo (Byterapers) | Down the Drain (Ivory Labs) | Primordial Soup (Faemiyah) | VOLTRA (Ribbon) |
2018 | Number One/Another One (CNCD & Fairlight) | Shattered Minds (Byterapers) | Out of the Box (Adapt) | Core Critical (HBC) | geelimanipulaatio (gib3, tix0) |
2019 | Chroma Space (Adapt) | PYO PYO (Rustbloom) | 1989 by Graphics & Direction : Metoikos / Music : Keen / Toolcode : BoyC & Gargaj | Stormriders (Unknown Artists & XZM) | Searching for the silver lining (Seven) |
2020 | ember dream (Adapt) | Fantomas (Siesta) | N/A | VIRGO 1302 (HBC) | MONOSPACE (RIBBON) |
Winter 2021 | Argon (Wide Load) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Summer 2022 (30 years of assembly competition) | Second Reality (Future Crew) | Porridgy (hedelmae) | N/A | Thir(s)ty (First) (oo) | Vivid pixels (Digimind) |
Summer 2023 | The Legend of Sisyphus (Andromeda Software Development) | The Scroll of Antonius (Fairlight) | N/A | monoscan (McBurrobit) | EXPI (p01 / ribbon + pestis / brainlez Coders!) |
In recent years, Assembly has broadcast content from its in-house media effort AssemblyTV to local and national TV networks, as well as producing web streams for people to watch live over the internet [12] — spots for hundreds, if not thousands of viewers are catered for, and these streams have been watched all over the world, not just in Finland.[ citation needed ] In addition to the opening and closing ceremonies, [13] the competitions and party reports, the educational sessions that are being held during the party are broadcast via AssemblyTV.
ARTtech seminars are free-to-attend educational seminar sessions that are being held during the party at the venue location. The sessions cover various subjects that are usually related to the main party theme and idea, including sessions about programming (coding), graphic design, music composition, game development, hardware hacks, scene history and more.
Amiga demos are demos created for the Amiga home computer.
Demogroups are teams of demosceners, who make computer based audio-visual works of art known as demos. Demogroups form a subculture collectively known as the demoscene.
The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual art, and musical skills. Demos and other demoscene productions are shared at festivals known as demoparties, voted on by those who attend and released online.
Future Crew was a Finnish demogroup that created PC demos and software, active mostly between 1987 and 1994.
A LAN party is a social gathering of participants with personal computers or compatible game consoles, where a local area network (LAN) connection is established between the devices using a router or switch, primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer video games together. LAN party events differ significantly from LAN gaming centers and Internet cafes in that LAN parties generally require participants to bring your own computer (BYOC) and are not permanent installations, often taking place in general-use venues or residences.
The Gathering is the second largest computer party in the world. It is held annually in Vikingskipet Olympic Arena in Hamar, Norway, and lasts for five consecutive days. Each year, TG attracts more than 5200 people, with attendance increasing every year.
Breakpoint was a German demoscene party. From 2003 to 2010, it took place annually at Easter in Bingen.
Pilgrimage was a demoparty which took place annually in Salt Lake City, Utah each summer between 2003 and 2006. The event was founded by Rich "Legalize" Thompson of the demoscene group Polygony. Pilgrimage was, at the time, the only active demoscene event of its kind in all of North America, while many demoparties take place annually throughout Europe.
keWlers is a Finnish demogroup, formed in the early 1990s, originally called Mewlers. After smaller releases such as Tripfish 2 or Another High-Caliber Mechanical Complication, their breakthrough came in 2002 when they released their critically acclaimed demo Variform at Assembly 2002. Despite only achieving third place, the demo became one of the most widely known and top rated demos ever released, winning three Scene.org awards. Further major demos to be released later included Protozoa and A Significant Deformation Near The Cranium, released at Assembly 2003. Kewlers have been nominated for at least one Scene.org Award every year, except for 2004. The group disbanded for a while in 2006 directly after the release of their final demo, 1995. But since 2010 Kewlers have returned from their hiatus, with possibly Variform 2, released at Revision 2012, as their most influential demo since their comeback.
Andromeda Software Development is a Greek demogroup that was formed in 1992. They produced a number of small intros and demos in the mid-1990s for the PC, most notably CounterFactual and Beyond. ASD was quiet for the following years until 2001, when they presented Cadence & Cascade - their first accelerated demo - and won the Digital Nexus demoparty, held in Athens, Greece.
Moppi Productions was a Finnish-based demogroup founded in 1996. It is mainly known for their story-based demos and the demo authoring tool Demopaja. The demo ix, released in 2003, won a total of three awards in the Scene.org Awards gala.
The Nullarbor demo party is a combined game development and demoscene event in Australia. The event takes place at the beginning of every year in Perth, Western Australia. It was named Nullarbor in reference to Perth's physical isolation from the rest of Australia. Like other similar demo parties worldwide, it provides a platform for game developers and graphic artists to showcase their skills.
The 2007 dance-pop song "Do It" performed by Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado features elements sampled from "Acidjazzed Evening", a chiptune-style track composed by the Finnish demoscene artist Janne Suni. This was considered plagiarism by some. Timbaland, "Do It"'s producer, admitted to sampling Suni's work, but did not believe his usage constituted "stealing", calling the allegations "ridiculous". Although users had noted the similarities between the two tracks on Finnish demoscene forums in July 2006, the Timbaland plagiarism controversy attracted mainstream attention in January 2007, when Internet users posted videos to YouTube alleging Timbaland had plagiarized Suni's work. Soon afterwards, the controversy attracted the attention of the Finnish news portal eDome, and the MTV and Rolling Stone websites, who all published articles detailing the events of the controversy. "Do It" was released as the fifth North American single from Loose on July 24, 2007.
Janne "Tempest" Suni is a Finnish demoscener, pixel artist and tracker musician, and a member of the demogroup Fairlight. He is best known outside the demoscene for being the creator of the song "Acidjazzed Evening", the melody of which hip-hop producer Timbaland plagiarized in the 2006 song "Do It" by Nelly Furtado.
Wired was a Belgian annual demoparty which ran from 1994 to 1998. Typical competitions included PC and Amiga demos and intros, handmade and ray traced graphics, music and surprise competitions.
Linger in Shadows is a demoscene-project by the Polish demogroup Plastic, released on the PlayStation 3. It was first announced at Breakpoint 2008 in Germany.
Razor 1911 (RZR) is a warez and demogroup founded in Norway, 1986. It was the first ever such group to be initially founded exclusively as a demogroup, before moving into warez in 1987. According to the US Justice Department, Razor 1911 is the oldest software cracking group that is still active on the internet. Razor 1911 ran the diskmag 'Propaganda' until 1995.
Kindergarden (KG) is an annual demo party first organized in 1994 in Fjellfoten, Norway. During the first few years it was held irregularly, eventually settling into being an annual event. Since 2001 it has been held in Haga, Norway, the location also used for Kindergarden 4 and 5.
Phenomena (PHA) was a Swedish Demogroup making Amiga demos that was productive during the formative years of the Amiga Demoscene founded in 1987.
Chaos Constructions is the oldest demoparty in Russia, previously known as ENLiGHT. Nowadays, it is considered to be annual computer art festival and IT conference.