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Assembly (demoparty)

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The Assembly demoparty 2004 in Helsinki Halli

The Assembly demoparty is an annual demoscene and gaming event in Finland. It is the biggest and the longest standing demoscene party.[1] The Summer event takes place every year at Messukeskus in Helsinki, between late July and early August, and lasts three to four days.[2] The 2020 edition was held online.

Assembly Winter was announced in early 2007. The winter party is held in January or February and 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.

History

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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, Helsinki Halli (formerly Hartwall Arena) 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 at the event starting on August 12–14, roughly a week after the game's release on August 3.[3] Assembly, however, managed to hold the first Doom 3 competitions 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]

Since 2014, the event has moved to Messukeskus Expo Centre. In 2022, the party celebrated 30 years of continuous operation.[5] The main organizers of the event are Pekka Aakko (Pehu of Accession) and Jussi Laakkonen (Abyss of Future Crew).

Boozembly

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Boozembly 2005

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]

Competitions

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Panorama view over the Assembly 2002 event

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]

Demo and intro competition winners

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Assembly demo/intro compo winners, 1992–2018
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)
Year Demo Oldskool demo 4k Intro 1k Intro
2020 ember dream (Adapt) Fantomas (Siesta) VIRGO 1302 (HBC) MONOSPACE (RIBBON)
Winter 2021 Argon (Wide Load) N/A N/A N/A
Summer 2022 (30 years of assembly competition) Shine 'n Flow (Adapt) Porridgy (hedelmae) Thir(s)ty (First) (oo) Vivid pixels (Digimind)
Summer 2023 The Legend of Sisyphus

(Andromeda Software Development)

The Scroll of Antonius

(Fairlight)

monoscan

(McBurrobit)

EXPI

(p01 / ribbon + pestis / brainlez Coders!)

Summer 2024 The Message

(Gray Marchers)

Transcend the Game

(PWP)

Olkiluoto 3-2-1

(Faemiyah)

Building from bedrock 1K

(Fulcrum)

AssemblyTV

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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

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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.

References

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  1. ^ "(Demoscene) Assembly 2019 | Geeks3D". geeks3d.com. 5 August 2019.
  2. ^ "ASSEMBLY Summer 2023". Assembly (in Finnish). 2023-03-17. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  3. ^ "QuakeCon - QuakeCon 2004 Tournaments Announced". Archived from the original on 2006-06-26. Retrieved 2006-07-17.
  4. ^ "ASSEMBLY 2004" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2016-11-02.
  5. ^ Assembly Summer 2022 - Opening Ceremony, retrieved 2023-02-21
  6. ^ Assembly special number of Skrolli computer culture magazine
  7. ^ "What's new in 2012". Assembly Summer 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-06-04. Retrieved 2016-11-02.
  8. ^ "Demoscene - ASSEMBLY Summer 17". Assembly Summer 2017.
  9. ^ "2000 Assembly demoparty Results". Archived from the original on 4 January 2007. Retrieved 27 February 2007.
  10. ^ "Kebu - Just Another Space Odyssey (live @ Assembly 2013)". youtube.com. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  11. ^ "64k intro compo cancelled - replaced by Demo compo!". Assembly.org. Archived from the original on 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2016-11-02.
  12. ^ "AssemblyTV - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  13. ^ Assembly Summer 2022 - Opening Ceremony, retrieved 2023-02-21
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