### After Sillyventure 2014 - Where to next? Right, we're all partied out now. Sillyventure 2014 was the best of times, a party which has decisively entered the gilded halls of Atariscene legend. We're all basking in the afterglow of great times remembered and awesome demo's enjoyed. But whilst bathed in the warm afterglow of recollection, we have to spare a minute for the future to consider the possibility that the Sillyventure parties have come to an end, for now at least. So what could replace it? The problem.. As it stands, whilst the 8-bit Atarians can probably find another home without too much trouble, the 16/32 bit Atari scene is in something of a state of flux and uncertainty. Looking at the likely alternatives for next year, our other major party, Outline, is currently homeless and keeping a low profile. I guess this is a case of them being sensible and not disappointing with premature announcements that lead to nothing. So hopefully we will hear something positive in the new year. The other big event aimed for the 16/32 bit Atari in 2015, the ST News International Christmas Coding Convention (STNICCC) 25th anniversary is slated to go ahead. However, there are no firm plans or a venue to hand as yet. So the only specific 16/32 bit Atari party to definitely go ahead for 2015, as far as I am aware, is Sommerhack, and this has severely limited growth potential! Issues to consider for a replacement party.. The unique features of Sillyventure are very hard to duplicate elsewhere. No other party has managed to get all the different parts of the Atari scene under one roof, from VCS 2600 to Falcon and Jaguar. This would be very hard to develop for another party, as we will see below. Sillyventure managed to bring the 8-bit Atari scene in its various forms out of obscurity. This scene tends to not travel too far from home and is less well known than some others to the wider demo scene. So any replacement party would have to be in Central Europe, probably close to Eastern Europe. Locations on the periphery like the UK and Scandinavia would be a trip too far for a lot of people. Even the Netherlands would be a push for some. Then there are the usual issues for the venue and facilities. For numbers, we would probably not need for much more than 100 people if it was ST/Falcon only, but there would need to be room for 200 plus, if all of the SV attendees, including the numerous 8-bit people came along too. The facilities provided were well up to standard and should be possible to offer similar amenities. Some extra's were very Silyventure specific and would not be on offer elsewhere, such as the Devils show or chip tune concert at a separate venue, with free transport laid on. The location should only be a secondary consideration, but the historic city of Gdansk is kind of hard to beat! Finally, anyone dreaming fondly about a replacement party will need to consider just how much work this will entail, and will want to look seriously at getting together a good organising team and be able to delegate key tasks appropriately. Reasons for a replacement party.. There are compelling reasons for a Sillyventure replacement event of course. There has been an awful lot of motivation to coax indefinitely delayed productions out of the door. The Sillyventure name seemed to make people try that little bit harder. The releases top a new record each succeeding year. This defies the previously established narrative of a slow decline of Atari scene activities. It even turned out that the 2014 party didn't exhaust all the possibilities offered by the Atari scene. A lot of people missed the party and the compo's. We did not really hear from the likes of Paradox, tSCc, BlaBla and that much from Live! to name some examples off the top of my head. There are still new entries of all kinds being worked upon, which is the really encouraging news .Along with 'old' people like ST Survivor, Tronic, Samurai and Doug Little making a comeback. These deserve a suitable venue to gain life and breathe. From various regretful postings to Facebook, it seems that quite a lot of people missed getting to the 2014 party, and regretted it. So we say on that note, hi, Ultrasyd! One of the nice tendencies of the Sillyventure parties, is to encourage new blood, or more correctly, older blood transfused from different vessels, to try their luck on a different platform. So there have been 8-bit crews tempted to code on the ST, people like 505 tempted into POKEY tunes and so on. We would very much like that to continue. If nothing else is forthcoming, where can we go to next? Our options for the immediate term, the next twelve months, are limited. Apart from the currently uncertain status of the other 16/32 Bit Atari parties, there are possibilities for guerrilla entries sneaked into big parties like the Revision old school compo, Assembly, and Evoke. Some French parties like Alchimie and Place 2 Be could take on more Atari stuff, as they already attract some new ST demos from local crews. Assuming that we do get an Outline 2015, maybe people should consider a bigger effort in that direction? From where I'm sitting, the only other event that could come close to generating the sort of excitement you got with the Sillyventure party, would be a revival of the classic 'Error in Line', which might happen one day, but don't hold your breath. Conclusion.. There isn't an easy answer, in fact, I don't have an answer. Sillyventure is literally irreplaceable. The perfect solution would be for more Sillyventure, whether after a suitable break for Grey to recharge his batteries, or else with a revamped organising team, where Grey doesn't have to carry the whole burden of responsibility on his shoulders? If Grey does shelve Sillyventure, I can totally understand why. If he does that, I hope it isn't forever. I bang on about "Never say never again!" It isn't just a pretty play on words for my part. Time marches on, unless you have a properly compelling reason to stop something, you need to fight off the notion that all your best times are behind you and you have nothing to look forward to, but decline and death! Anyway, something to think on. Suggestions to the usual place(s) please. CiH - December 2014. Back to the Index.