Crusaders logo by Bustman/Crusaders (picture taken from http://artcity.bitfellas.org/index.php?a=show&id=17904)
Review of Drammen Party Report by Crusaders for the Amiga 500
Introduction
This review is not about an ordinary demo, but of a slide-show that was created by a group that called themselves Crusaders. It was released way back in 1990, over 20 years ago!
The slide-show was a direct response to the Police raiding a copy-party in the city Drammen the same year.
Guys from Crusaders looking forward to have a good time amongst fellow Sceners (screenshot by Old School Game Blog)
Before we start looking at the slide-show, let’s have a quick peek at the credits:
- Dr. Claw (intro) (programming)
- Switchblade (programming)
- Gunders (graphics)
- Zeb (graphics)
- Dr. Awesome (music)
- Dr. Outtasight (text)
Requirements
No special requirements. I think it works on most configs. Please give me a sign if it doesn’t. A regular Amiga 500 should be fine.
Cryptoburners, IT and Visual Arts Party 1990
The party started on the 7th of April in 1990 and it was arranged by three Norwegian demo groups, namely IT, Cryptoburners and Visual Arts. The location was a school in Drammen, Norway. It was supposed to be the biggest gathering of Amiga freaks in the country at the time, but things didn’t turn out that way, since the Police decided to launch a raid against the party.
I’ve taken a screenshot of a text in the slide-show that shows Crusaders views on what happened:
Crusaders providing you with an insight into what happened (screenshot by Old School Game Blog)
As you can see from the story, the Police didn’t really know what they were doing.
They probably confiscated quite a few games, but they also took away stuff that people had spent a lot of time working on. Many of those attending were members of the Demoscene and spent their time drawing pixel-art, programming, writing articles and making music. The Police took their work with them as evidence and I guess a lot of interesting art disappeared at that moment.
With this slide-show, Crusaders wants to show us what went on during the razzia. I’ve taken a few screenshots for you to see:
The cops are coming! (Screenshot by Old School Game Blog)
Desperate Amiga users packing up stuff (Screenshot by Old School Game Blog)
The raiding starts (Screenshot by Old School Game Blog)
Local Police (Screenshot by Old School Game Blog)
The guy on the right is not very popular at the party place (Screenshot by Old School Game Blog)
Lot’s of people outside the school (Screenshot by Old School Game Blog)
I’ll let the picture speak for itself (Screenshot by Old School Game Blog)
Summary
I think this slide-show represents an important piece of computing history. The production is well made, the pictures are of good quality and the humour is nice. :) This demo takes you on a journey back in time, to a society without the Internet and The Pirate Bay.. to a place where people traded demos, games and programs through snail-mail and met each other at copy-parties a few times a year. Definitely worth watching in my opinion. :)
Thanks for reading! :)
Download
ftp://ftp.amigascne.org/pub/amiga/Groups/C/Crusaders/Crusaders-PartyReport.adf
