Assembly (demo party)
Encyclopedia
Demoscene
The demoscene is a computer art subculture that specializes in producing demos, which are non-interactive audio-visual presentations that run in real-time on a computer...
and gaming event
Demoparty
A demoparty is an event that gathers demosceners and other computer enthusiasts to compete in competitions. A typical demoparty is a non-stop event lasting over a weekend, providing the visitors a lot of time to socialize. The competing works, at least those in the most important competitions, are...
in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. The main organizers of the event are Pekka Aakko (Pehu of Accession) and Jussi Laakkonen (Abyss of Future Crew
Future Crew
Future Crew is a now-defunct Finnish demogroup who created PC demos and software, active mostly between 1992 and 1994.-History:The group was founded in 1986 by PSI as a Commodore 64 group, before moving to the PC demoscene in 1988; other members included, over time, Trug, Wildfire, Pixel, ICE,...
). The event takes place every year between late July and early August, and lasts three to four days. The most recent Assembly was held from the 4th to 7th August 2011 at Hartwall Areena
Hartwall Areena
Hartwall Areena is a large multifunctional indoor arena located in Helsinki, Finland...
in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
.
In the beginning of the year 2007 Assembly Winter was announced. The new winter party is a more gaming oriented event in Tampere
Tampere
Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in...
where the summer events continues the traditions of the original demoparty
Demoparty
A demoparty is an event that gathers demosceners and other computer enthusiasts to compete in competitions. A typical demoparty is a non-stop event lasting over a weekend, providing the visitors a lot of time to socialize. The competing works, at least those in the most important competitions, are...
in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
under the name Assembly Summer. Both parties will be held once a year.
History
The first Assembly was held from July 24th to July 26th 1992, in KauniainenKauniainen
Kauniainen is a small town and a municipality of inhabitants in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland. It is surrounded by the city of Espoo, in Greater Helsinki...
. It was organized by the Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
demo groups
Demogroup
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....
Complex and Rebels, and the PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
demo group Future Crew
Future Crew
Future Crew is a now-defunct Finnish demogroup who created PC demos and software, active mostly between 1992 and 1994.-History:The group was founded in 1986 by PSI as a Commodore 64 group, before moving to the PC demoscene in 1988; other members included, over time, Trug, Wildfire, Pixel, ICE,...
. 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
Hartwall Areena
Hartwall Areena is a large multifunctional indoor arena located in Helsinki, Finland...
in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, with over 5000 visitors and 3500 computers on the ice rink
Ice rink
An ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or hardened chemicals where people can skate or play winter sports. Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include ice hockey, figure skating and curling as well as exhibitions, contests and ice shows...
.
The 2004 edition of the party also set up a record: in July 2004, QuakeCon
QuakeCon
QuakeCon is a bring-your-own-computer computer gaming event with a competitive tournament held every year in Dallas, Texas, USA. The event, which is named after id Software's game Quake, sees thousands of gamers from all over the world attend every year to celebrate the company's gaming dynasty...
announced it was holding the world's first Doom 3
Doom 3
Doom 3 is a science fiction horror video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. An example of the first-person shooter genre, Doom 3 was first released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004. The game was later adapted for Linux, as well as being ported by Aspyr Media for Mac...
competitions on the event starting at August 12–14, roughly a week after the game's release on August 3. Assembly, however, managed to snatch the first place after acquiring copies of the game via FedEx
FedEx
FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee...
with the help of some contacts in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and holding the competition during August 5–8.
As of 2011 the party has been held for 20 consecutive years.
Competitions
The party includes multiple competitions, or compos including but not limited to:- DemoDemo (computer programming)A demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer subculture known as the demoscene. Demogroups create demos to demonstrate their abilities in programming, music, drawing, and 3D modeling...
- 64k intro64k introA 64k intro is a demo where the size of the executable file is limited to 65536 bytes. At demo parties there is a category for this kind of demos, where the one that gives the best impression wins....
- 4kKilobyteThe kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
intro - Vocal musicVocal musicVocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...
- Instrumental music
- Drawn graphics
- Oldskool music/graphics/demo
- Fast graphics
- Short film (which replaced the wild compo and animation compo in 2004)
- Video game developing compo
For the first eight years of Assembly, the demo and intro competitions were split into separate PC
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
and Amiga categories. Starting in 2000, the platform
Platform (computing)
A computing platform includes some sort of hardware architecture and a software framework , where the combination allows software, particularly application software, to run...
s have been combined, with PC (Windows or Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
), Amiga, Mac
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
and even high-end console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
s competing in the same demo and intro competitions. Similarly, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
competitions were replaced with "oldskool" competitions that also allow entries for some other old platforms, such as various 8-bit
8-bit
The first widely adopted 8-bit microprocessor was the Intel 8080, being used in many hobbyist computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, often running the CP/M operating system. The Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 6800 were also used in similar computers...
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 copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
ed 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
Scene.org
Scene.org is a non-profit organization, providing the currently largest demoscene file repository. It was founded in 1996 by Jaakko "Mellow-D" Manninen, though originally it existed as ftp.fm.org, an FTP-server for releases from the group Five Musicians. In 1997, it re-opened as 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.
Demo and intro competition winners
| Year | Amiga demo | PC demo | C64 demo | Amiga intro | PC 64K intro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/1992/assembly92/results.txt 1992] | Sound Vision (Reflect) | Unreal Unreal (demo) Unreal is a demo created by Future Crew in 1992.-System requirements:The demo states that "[it] requires a 386 computer [and] runs perfectly on a 486/33 MHz [PC] with Tseng Labs SuperVGA"... (Future Crew Future Crew Future Crew is a now-defunct Finnish demogroup who created PC demos and software, active mostly between 1992 and 1994.-History:The group was founded in 1986 by PSI as a Commodore 64 group, before moving to the PC demoscene in 1988; other members included, over time, Trug, Wildfire, Pixel, ICE,... ) |
Gunnar 2 (Dual Crew) | Repo (Vectra) | N/A |
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/1993/assembly93/results.txt 1993] | Extension (Pygmy Projects Pygmy Projects Pygmy Projects is a demo group that creates demos and intros for the Amiga home computer. They have released several demos and intros, most notably Extension and G-Force . Extension won the "Amiga demo" competition at the 1993 Assembly demo party. G-Force won the "Amiga intro" competition at... ) |
Second Reality Second Reality Unreal ][ - The 2nd Reality , is a demo created by Future Crew for the Assembly '93 demoparty. In the PC demo competition, Second Reality placed first with its demonstration of 2D and 3D rendering. The demo was released to the public in October 1993. It is considered to be one of the best demos... (Future Crew) |
Four years (Origo Dreamline) | Bananamen (Stellar) | Eclipse (EMF) |
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/1994/assembly94/results.txt 1994] | Mindflow (Stellar) | Verses (EMF) | Attack of Stubidos 3 (Beyond Force) | G-Force (Pygmy Projects) | Airframe (Prime) |
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/1995/assembly95/results.txt 1995] | ZIF (Parallax) | Stars (NoooN NoooN NoooN was a French group in the PC demoscene. They are currently inactive. Known for the technical prowess of its members and the quality of their productions, NoooN won the Assembly '95 demo compo with the demonstration Stars which remains a reference for many members of the scene... ) |
Extremes (Byterapers) | Fad (Sonik Clique Sonik Clique Sonik Clique is a Finnish demogroup with members from Sweden, Denmark, UK and Greece. The group was founded under its original name Sonic in October 1990 by Stargazer and Tomy, and was active during the mid-1990s but still releases productions occasionally... ) |
Drift (Wild Light) |
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/1996/assembly96/results.txt 1996] | Sumea (Virtual Dreams) | Machines of Madness (Dubius) | Follow the Sign 3 (Byterapers) | Pure (Sonik Clique) | Blind (Eufrosyne) |
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/1997/assembly97/result.txt 1997] | Pulse (Nerve Axis) | Boost (Doomsday) | Speedway (Panic) | 911 (Limbo) | Mainstream (Moottori) |
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/1998/assembly98/asm98results.txt 1998] | Relic (Nerve Axis) | Gateways (Trauma) | Speedway 2 (Panic) | Edit 0.5 (Haujobb) | Oxygen (Coral) |
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/1999/assembly99/results.txt 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 | ||
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2000/assembly00/results.txt 2000] | Spot (Exceed) | Oldskool Trippin (Haujobb) | Dead Flowers (Haujobb) | ||
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2001/assembly01/results.txt 2001] | Lapsuus (Maturefurk) | Riyadh (Bandwagon) | Sonnet (Threestate) | ||
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2002/assembly02/results.txt 2002] | Liquid... Wen? (Haujobb) | Impossiblator 2 (PWP PWP PWP is a Finnish demogroup founded in 1994. Having originally concentrated on humorous games and storyline-based text mode demos on the low-end PC's, PWP is now one of the leading demogroups on the Commodore VIC-20.... ) |
Squish (AND) | ||
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2003/assembly03/results.txt 2003] | Legomania (Doomsday) | Robotic Liberation (PWP) | Zoom 3 (AND) | ||
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2004/assembly04/results.txt 2004] | Obsoleet (Unreal Voodoo Unreal Voodoo Unreal Voodoo is a Finnish demogroup. Unreal Voodoo was founded by Sami Kyöstilä and Iikku Mattila in December 1997. Unreal Voodoo develops projects on Linux/UNIX, DOS, and Windows.-Members:*Sami "hiteck" Kyöstilä... ) |
Halfway There (Dekadence) | The Prophecy — Project Nemesis (Conspiracy Conspiracy (demogroup) Conspiracy is a Hungarian demogroup founded in late 2002. Being an amalgamation of various other groups, founding members were members of demogroups Digital Dynamite, Inquisition and Ümlaüt Design.... ) |
||
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2005/assembly05/results.txt 2005] | Iconoclast (ASD Andromeda Software Development 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... ) |
Boogie Factor (Fairlight Fairlight (group) Fairlight is a warez and demo group initially involved in the Commodore demoscene, and in cracking to illegally release games for free, since 1987. In addition to the C64, Fairlight has also migrated towards the Amiga, Super Nintendo and later the PC... ) |
Che Guevara (Fairlight) | ||
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2006/assembly06/results.txt 2006] | Starstruck (The Black Lotus) | Fruitcake (RNO) | Dead Ringer (Fairlight) | ||
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2007/assembly07/results.txt 2007] | Lifeforce (ASD) | High Hopes (Aspekt) | Basic Facts About Design (Immersion) | ||
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2008/assembly08/results.txt 2008] | Within Epsilon (Pyrotech) | Renaissance (Byterapers) | Panic Room (Fairlight) | ||
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2009/assembly09/results09.txt 2009] | Frameranger (Fairlight, CNCD, & Orange) | 3½ Inches Is Enough (Unreal Voodoo) | Transform (Ate Bit) | ||
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2010/assembly10/results.txt 2010] | Happiness is right around the bend (ASD) | Grind (Dekadence & Accession) | x marks the spot, Function-X invitation (Portal Process) | ||
| [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2011/assembly11/results.txt 2011] | Spin (ASD) | Chaotic (Dekadence) | |||
AssemblyTV
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 — 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. In addition to the opening and closing ceremonies, the competitions and party reports, the educational sessions that are being held during the party are broadcasted via AssemblyTV as well.ARTtech seminars
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.In the press
- "Girls Dig Demos Too" by Steve KettmannSteve KettmannSteve Kettmann is a best-selling American author living in Berlin who writes a weekly column on politics for the Berliner Zeitung Berliner Zeitung newspaper, appearing every Wednesday. A 1999 Arthur F...
of Wired magazine. (August 3, 2001)
External links
- Assembly.org — Official website
- Assemblytv.net — Official media
- Assembly 2006 — MBnet The Official Ezine of Assembly 2006.
- Assembly on Pouët
- The ARTS Radio (MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
) contains an interviewInterviewAn interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
with the primary organizer of Assembly, Abyss of Future CrewFuture CrewFuture Crew is a now-defunct Finnish demogroup who created PC demos and software, active mostly between 1992 and 1994.-History:The group was founded in 1986 by PSI as a Commodore 64 group, before moving to the PC demoscene in 1988; other members included, over time, Trug, Wildfire, Pixel, ICE,...
.