The city of Toruń, May 16-18, 2014

The ninth edition of this well known Commodore 64 scene meeting called „Stary Piernik” (a playword which in this context means „Old Geezer”), took place at the „Camping Tramp” place, in a Polish city - Toruń - on May, 16-18's rainy weekend in the year of 2014. Despite an unpleasant weather, many visitors did not give up, and as in the previous edition, 7 months earlier, they were numerous. The „party-sants” brought a good sense of humor, nice atmosphere and, what is probably the most important, a handful of new productions.
One must never less mention, that this 9th edition were quite humble as it concerns attractions and surprises. The brotherhood of the Commodore 64 decided to stay or at the party-place or the local camping restaurant – Waliza (a „suitcase” in Polish language ;)).

But how did I get there?

Ha, my experimental journey started on Friday's morning (May, 16th). First, I spent 4 hours in the car going from Szczecin to Bydgoszcz (greetings my the-same-firstname driver:), there, I „took” (or rather in a BIG rush hopped in) a last-minute Regional train. To Torun, the FAMOUS city of delicious gingerbread („Piernik” in Polish, thus also the party's name ;) and the astronomer - Nicolaus Copernicus - I arrived just around 4 FM. Because I was quite early, I decided to visit this nice city. Unfortunately, due to the weather I was admiring it mainly from behind the public-transport window's panes.

Completely wet and starting being cold I knocked on the Camping Tramp's door, where at the „Suitcase restaurant” I meet the first „party-sants” - MCH, Kisiel and Splatterpunk. As the time flew, another scenners and groups showed up with a smile on their faces :). Funny thing was when Turbosnail was trying to guess the nicks of the scenners he did not know very well at that time (as Uka or MCH to name a few).

When Agis entered the party, the majority of the dudes stared without any word. Her new, extravagant and colorful hairdo was like a flashy spot moving all around ;). Grabba and Raf were proudly showing theirs pimped cars while one of last people from Warsaw (hi Jericho) finally arrived. At the dusk we were a few dozens.

The first party-celebrating day ended at the very early dawn.... almost for everyone :). Since MCH reserved and went to the first camping hut available, so did I, followed by Splatterpunk and Kisiel. Welll, the latter one was unfortunately „very active” during the night snoring like a honk of a crazy bunch of geese! Or like a Russian, rusted tank!

After not too comfortable, rather sleepless night, at the early morning, I went to Waliza, in order to meet some early birdies. After a small talk (not too many were already awaken) I went to the city centrum. It was a day of „European night of Museums” and I wished to visit an old Tramway yard. Everything was nice, until black clouds arrived again and it started, yes..., to rain very profusely. I managed to go to Old City's Pizza restaurant (yup ;). Happily, soon it got better and I could continue my old-town's visit.

I wanted to buy and taste those delicious gingerbreads the city is famous of, but after confrontation a long queue, I decided t give up... Next time.. Funny thing I saw, was a group of US army soldiers walking here and there, admiring the old buildings and all they could look at. It was kinda hilarious :).

It was about 3 PM when I decided to come back to the party. I did not expected too much changes there and so it was so: some of them traditionally were occupying the „Waliza bar”, the others, close to the common-room, were talking and discussing.

I noticed Wacek in the corner, who was helping out Roody with his small demo-compo entry (the latter one was not sure which music should he use). After Richard Joseph's Cauldron II, Wacek finally decided to use one of his old zaks from the „Hatework” era. TSL being aware how Roody was absorbed, tried to deconsecrate him by opening the doors frequently and giving a loud, rogue-like laughter.

To cheer himself up from the reality he was in, Browar decided to fire his Amiga 600 up. Other, already excited guys, helped him to connect the machine to a small room's LCD screen. Although everything was OK, no one could resolve the snow-like screen effect. Well, that was not a big problem for us to start playing the in/famous game entitled Sensible World Of Soccer. One-on-one is always fun here, so we started to play hard. Few games later, due to the noisy TV screen, we started to have problems to make a difference between the footbal teams and the footballers - with who or against who one is playing.

All of a sudden, from out of nowhere Luke together with his sweetheart – Anita showed up. But they did not stay long and soon waved goodbye all they had wanted to meet. I went to see what is up in another corner of the party, when I spotted Wacek preparing the compo-machine (Commodore G version). Soon, on the big-screen we could admire the well known „blue screen of”... nonono, of our Commodore 64, not the other one...;) informing everyone that the compo-machine is ready. Thanx to Prezes for bringing the Big Screen, by the way.

Saturday afternoon's weather changed her attitude. She finally started to treat us nice :). Another surprise was the visit of Albion Crew: KMEG and Questor, accompanied by Scarlet. They were not the only Stary Piernik's „rookies” since we spotted KB777 and a certain Łukasz. Both were quite unfamiliar with copy-parties. A scenner called Konrad had some personal obligations, hence he had to leave before the competitions, but luckily we could welcome again… Luke who came back! :)

The most important attraction of Stary Pernik 9 was the inauguration of the overture of „Palcerek museum” :). The initiative and full realization came from eLBAN's mind, back-upped by Ala, Prezes, Wacek and exceptionally absent Bimber. The entry to this noble institution of „culture and education” was granted once the slippers were on foot (those who did not have them they had to ask the fellow scenner – cheers Cancer!). Lotsa objects awaited to be admired, such as items of everyday use, a Provee 's picture gallery busted during unusual situations. Some museum display units (or even the artifacts) were directly connected to the person the exhibition was dedicated to (or even devoted ;)) such as a wig, broken china porcelain plate with a rotten apple on it, an unfinished movie stripo or a lost key to the room number 12.

What attracted the most attention were the prints of Provee’s private conversations with scene dudes who tried to trick him or make a fun of (ofcourse in a respectful way). Some of the people gathered around entrance to museum didn’t hesitate to inform their Facebook friends where they are at this moment.

The Palcer's spirit was among us almost everywhere manifesting itself by slamming the door, or blocking windows' shutters. At the end of the exhibition we took a photography of all of us. As a nice souvenir. This happening made some people tired. Thus they decided to move to the bar. Those who did not go there decided to watch demos, served by Wacek.

The hour was almost 20:30 so... the competition time finally has come! We waited for this with an impatience and... at the end were a little bit surprised, if not deceived. The competitions took no longer than 30 minutes so the audience felt kind of unsatisfied. The reason of that was the number of entries: 3 SID tunes, 4 graphics, 3 demonstrations and 1 wild production. What should be mentioned that every entry was interesting. I especially would like to underline a graphic presented post-mortem by Toush (R.I.P).

Ha! Who would pick the gauntlet up, thrown by Dream crew? Kenji with his latest demo „Ustawka” wished to motivate all the active scenners to code something new. The time will show who it will be. :)

Not so old demo crew - Sabat – showed us a short intro entitled "Czarująca Pani" („A charming Lady”). As it comes to Arise crew, they pleased the crowd with a mysteriously entitled production – "VS." where Mr Wergi, Wacek, Jammer and Bimber presented their skills with some nice effects, graphics and sound. I personally liked the effect showing a graphic shrinked to the central screen area.

Due to the fore above-mentioned fact about the number of compo-entries, the results were available just two hours later. Every participant read by Wacek, was overwhelmingly applauded and greeted. So... The results (and the prices) were given as follows. The music compo: 3rd place – „Lizak” by Raf (as a price he got a not-too-handy termofor), 2nd - „Sky Captain” by MCH (a drum’n’bass music CD), 1st - „Extreme Tree” by Surgeon (he received a cheapy headphones).

The votes for the graphics compo gave the following results: 3rd place - „PhenoMe” by Questor (a jar of salted cucumbers), 2nd place - „Kreator” by Uka (original disc version of Kacper game), 1st place - „The Wicked” by JSL (Lazarus C64 game). Sebaloz received a T-Shirt with a printed sentence „Nie pozwól, by trawa Cię przerosła” - „Do not let the herb overgrows you” for his wild entry. Demo compo results and prices were as following: 3rd place - „Ustawka” by Dream (a book guide „A computer for the elder” for Kenji), 2nd place - „Czarujaca Pani” by Roody (a bottle of Polish vodka), 1st place - „VS.” by Arise. (they received a mysterious package with an unknown content).

Grabba received a special price founded by eLBAN – an original disc version of „Driving Licence course” software released years ago by Marex company. Prezes, who was kind to support the party with a big screen, was thanked too. He was handed a special plastic table-cloth entitled „Party time”. And the last special price – a „Tai Chi” guide - went to TSL for his stunt-capabilities show we were able to watch on Friday.

After the prize-giving ceremony, all the party-sants gathered in the day-room could watch different scene production, such as „Boom Boom” by Aspekt or a „Surprise” by Klaudiusz (who, as always, made all the people laugh to tears). After few more presentations it was a time of bonfire and the sausage roasting (yum, yum!). The camping service was so nice that even the rousting sticks were prepared and waited for us. The time was pleasantly and idyllically passing by, until (as this weekend's tradition wanted it), another heavy rain chased all the banqueters... So I decided to have a rest and went to my camping house. At this point I did not know yet, that there will be no rest at all...

In the house I bumped into sleeping Splatterpunk. My „night” started by his mobile phone – Splatterpunk got waken up by a SMS message's sound. Next to it - the storm. It started to rain really heavily with thunders „power supply”. The rain drops were giving its gig on the roof while the thunders gave its best thru the windows. Not an hour later, Jericho looking for a place to sleep, opened the door like if he was a battering-ram! Soon Raf made some mess looking for smoothing here and there.

At 4:30 I woke up once again. Yes. This time a certain Sebaloz started arguing with Kisiel. The first mentioned wanted, at all costs and by all means, to stay at our camping house. The dialogue they had was quite funny I must admit, but from the other hand, it was not a pleasant exchange as the gentlemen should have had ;). Sebaloz entered the house and even managed to stop Kisiel from escalating on his the bunk-bed. Kisiel, quite pissed, gave Sebaloz his last warning and... suddenly Sebaloz, to his surprise, ended on the floor, pushed and kept firmly by Kisiel. Splatterpunk was close to heart attack when finally Sebaloz gave up and left us, heading in the end to his camping-house. To make it attractive, Kisiel started to snore. And gosh, he knows how to do that! It was a hard and short night.

The morning welcomed us with a warm sun. The early scenners started to prepare their lagguages (no, this time I am not talking about the bar ;). Some stayed in their beds till noon (guess who...). Raf, using his personal megaphone, tried to wake... Sebaloz up. No use in saying „Wake up!”, or „Police!! Please go out with heads up!” Black Light was kind of lucky and not. He could, in fact, sleep as long as he wanted to, but he was completely forgotten by his crew, who already left to Warsaw. At almost the same time, Jericho, Randy and me, we decided to leave to. We were already in central Torun, when suddenly Jericho got a call. It was BlackLight gently asking Jericho to come back and take him with us to Warsaw. Well... We did so and after a brief snack, we took him and waved goodbye to Grabba.

At this point we were one of the last leaving the party place. Phew, the party was over.

EEEeeeend :).

V-12/Tropyx on June, 1st, 2014.

Translation: Sim / Wanted Team, Lamers, Resistance, Titan...