What would a party be without competitions? A prty. That's why UC does not have any of that old-fashioned stuff. Our competitions are special, for "special" people. Also, taking part in competitions is mandatory - the "No release - no entry" rule is absolutely enforced at the door, which is kind of a problem given that the location does not have doors.
Thursday, June 20 |
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16:00 |
Doors open |
Mainhall |
23:00 |
Crest Demoshow I |
Seaworld |
Friday, June 21 |
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18:00 |
Harddisk throwing |
Mudlands |
21:00 |
Pixel Graphics |
Mainhall |
21:30 |
SID Music Headbanging |
Mainhall |
22:00 |
Opening Ceremony |
Mainhall |
22:30 |
Paralymp3 |
Mainhall |
23:30 |
Combined Oldschool / Real Wild Demo / 64k / 4k |
Seaworld |
0:00 |
DJ Set sir_yoda |
Seaworld |
Saturday, June 22 |
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1:30 |
Crest Demoshow II - Best of C64 2015-2019 |
Seaworld |
12:00 |
Seaworld Graphics |
Ducktales |
14:00 |
Seaworld Graphics results |
Mainhall |
14:30 |
180 BPM Topfschlagen |
Mainhall |
15:00 |
Multichannel with Livesupport |
Mainhall |
16:00 |
Offroad Live Shader coding |
Mudcentral |
18:00 |
Offroad Live Shader coding results |
Mainhall |
18:15 |
Topy's shirt pixel compo |
Mainhall |
19:00 |
Shitmusic |
Mainhall |
21:00 |
Bombjoe |
Seaworld |
22:30 |
Happy Hardcore |
Seaworld |
23:00 |
Demohass |
Seaworld |
23:30 |
Combined PC Demo / 64k / 4k |
Seaworld |
Sunday, June 23 |
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0:30 |
DJ Set RP |
Seaworld |
12:00 |
Fakevoting / Prizegiving |
Mainhall |
14:00 |
Doors close |
Mainhall |
The following old-fashioned compos will be held:
Combined PC Demo / 64k / 4k
Combined Oldschool / Real Wild Demo / 64k / 4k
Pixel Graphics
This is the longest-running compo at Underground Conference, existing since back in 1995. Beat on an old pot with a stick. We will sample it and measure the BPM-Rate. You have to get as close as possible to 180 BPM and then stay there to win.
That's actually not at all easy.
PerfectPC is disqualified and banned from this compo, due to cheating at UC8. This means he is more than welcome to enter again.
Love is all around? Not so at Underground Conference. We want you to show your hate. All of it. Pick any demo/intro you really really hate, and screw it up. Replace parts, distort it, whatever. Just make really plausible that you really hate it.
Happy Hardcore used to be a non-mainstream kind of electronic music. Cheesy vocals, strings and pianos, combined with a hard beat at between 180 and 190 BPM. The dutch flavour of it often also contained break beats.
These days Happy Hardcore is typically called "UK Hardcore". This is because the dutchies went for Hardstyle (which is related) instead, where the UK guys kept it up for a couple of years, before the scene over there also mostly died.
Back when Happy Hardcore was close to what could be called "popular", a couple of commercial tracks from people like "Blümchen" or even (yuck) "Scooter" entered the charts. But there is much better stuff than that.
Anyway, this compo is about creating a Happy Hardcore (aka UK Hardcore or Hardstyle) track.
This is the compo most often underestimated by first-time UC visitors. The general idea is to hand in a really bad tune.
But as you'll learn, Shitmusic is a true art form.
No, it's not just a matter of not hitting the notes, or having a crappy beat, or tempo changes. To stand any chance against world-class record holders, you'll need to have all of that and far more.
"Just because you are bad at it doesn't mean you are good at being bad."
Let's face it, music compos often are boring, especially if the music compo orga is corrupt, deaf, or both, and/or no pre-selection happens.
We'll have nature do the pre-selection.
You may hand in any track you've done, and we don't care if it's good or bad. However, it will only be played while and as long as you are executing any directions that your "creative drill instructor" is giving you, which typically is much worse than it may sound.
This competition one day used to be about doing headbanging on stage while some c64 SID track was being played. It escalated quickly from there, from people beating each other with ladders, over hurtful body slams, up to rather weird on-stage performances.
Basically, anything goes, as long as you are on stage and a SID song is playing in the background while you are doing whatever you believe to have to do.
Throw these bloody HDDs into the air! Due to a (very) long-standing tradition, measurements are done in Elitegroup member steps.
No SSDs allowed!
(However, it has been a proven tactic in the past to try build catapults that then fail miserably)
Well, this is not really a compo. However, due to the RULE card payment system, we can track how much you are drinking at the party. So let's make a challenge out of it: Try to impress your "friends" by drinking far too much alcohol just to become the top of the pops.
And in case you are wondering: The amounts on the picture here are given in LITERs, so don't believe this one to be easy to win.
Everyone loves it, so make sure not to miss this chance for a contribution. Create a module with your favourite tracker (mp3s are ok too, these days...). At the party you have to "support" your song live. Either with your voice or with some weird instrument or whatever comes into your mind.
This compo is taking place on the private lake using boats provided by the organizing team.
There will be three teams (with one boat each) formed per round. Each team may consist of up to 4 people. Each member of the team may select one item of the below:
• Painting tools
• A massive supersoaker water pistol of doom
• Paddles
(Bonus: Everyone will receive a life vest as this lake is seriously “deep in the underground”)
The goal of the compo is to paint the best graphics entry on a canvas that is mounted to the boat.
To win, there are multiple strategies:
• Try to destroy other peoples entries using the super soaker
• Try to flee from other people trying to destroy your entry using the paddles
• Make sure you are the only one to actually have an entry
• Try to do all you can to protect your graphics artist from attacks
All entries that have survived afterwards will be judged by the audience, and the best one will win.
Since 2013, multiple demo parties have hosted the “Shader Showdown” live shader coding competitions.
Here is what it used to be:
“It's the ultimate fight of knowledge, persistence and crowd-pleasing skills: Two coders face off writing a shader from scratch in 25 minutes, live on stage, with a DJ supporting them with pumping beats. The crowd gets to watch both shaders evolve in parallel on the big screen, enjoying the action and cheering on the participants. The objective is simple: At the end of the 25 minutes, whoever gets more cheers from the spectators wins. All battles will be moderated live by hosts who can’t code and coders who can’t host.” (taken from here)
And here is what we are making out of it:
Every coder may team up with one driver of his own choice. They together will sit in a offroad buggy car. The coder will be sitting on his laptop in the backseat of the buggy, with cameras live-streaming his progress. The driver at the same time will try to beat a nightmare off-road parkour containing lots of hills and mud.
At the end of each round, scores will be counted for the time it has taken to complete the parkour.
In the end points will be given by the audience for the entries itself. Scores from both the audience and the time it has taken to complete the parkour will be added, determining the winner.
This means that if you are a shitty coder, you still have a chance of winning: Just find a good driver inside the audience. Now, that’s what we call inclusive!