Breakpoint 2004 — 'the real party is outside'

Breakpoint is a German demoscene party. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The demoscene is a Computer art Subculture that specializes in producing demos, which are non-interactive audio-visual presentations that run in A demoparty is an event that gathers Demosceners and other computer enthusiasts to compete in competitions. Since 2003, it takes place annually on Easter in Bingen. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. Easter ( Greek: Πάσχα Pascha or Pasxa) is the most important religious feast in the Christian Liturgical year. Bingen am Rhein (or Bingen or Bingen on the Rhine) is a city located at the junction of the rivers Rhine and Nahe in the district of Mainz-Bingen

Breakpoint is the successor to the legendary Mekka & Symposium. Mekka & Symposium (MS or M&S was a Demoparty held annually in Fallingbostel, Germany over the Easter days from 1997 to 2002 With over 1000 visitors, it is the world's biggest pure demoscene-party, attracting demosceners from not only Germany, but also from other European countries (e. Demogroups are teams of demosceners, who make computer-based audio-visual works of art known as demos. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. g. Sweden, Finland, Poland, Spain), or even from overseas (for example Australia, Canada). "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The party is also the traditional host of the Scene.org Awards ceremony. The Sceneorg Awards are the Demoscene awards established by Scene

History

The concept of Breakpoint was born in late 2002 when internal tensions within the Mekka & Symposium organizing team made another M&S party impossible. Mekka & Symposium (MS or M&S was a Demoparty held annually in Fallingbostel, Germany over the Easter days from 1997 to 2002 Part of the remaining organizing team teamed up with organizers of other German demo parties like Dialogos, Evoke and the Ultimate Meeting, and decided to create a new demoscene party for Easter. Evoke is the second largest demoparty held annually in Germany (the largest being Breakpoint) Easter ( Greek: Πάσχα Pascha or Pasxa) is the most important religious feast in the Christian Liturgical year. The location was changed, from the northern city of Fallingbostel to Bingen, a little town near Frankfurt. Soltau-Fallingbostel (ˈzɔltaʊ falɪŋˈbɔstəl is a district ( Landkreis) in Lower Saxony, Germany. Bingen am Rhein (or Bingen or Bingen on the Rhine) is a city located at the junction of the rivers Rhine and Nahe in the district of Mainz-Bingen The party place was decided to be an abandoned military depot out at the city borders.

Breakpoint 2003 proved to be an unmatched success among demosceners who attended, both veterans and newcomers applauded the party's incredible atmosphere and almost literally unlimited freedom, often designated by a large (often 25–30 feet tall) bonfire. See also Campfire. bonfire is a large controlled outdoor Fire. (The nearest residents lived kilometers away from the party, thus noise pollution and the general rowdiness was never an issue. Noise pollution (or environmental noise) is displeasing human- or machine-created sound that disrupts the activity or balance of human or animal life ) Criticisms of the party were minor, but pointed out that due to the failure of one of the heating pipes, the party hall became freezing during the night - this was actually parodied in various demos released there, entitling the party "Freezepoint". Freezing Point (Chinese 冰點 Bīngdiǎn is a news journal in the People's Republic of China which has been the subject of controversy over its criticism

Breakpoint 2004 saw a major change in the funding of the party: ATI Technologies became the main sponsor of the event, and apart from the lucrative prizes, offered various other features to the party, such as seminars and workshops, and also sponsoring a helicopter flight for willing visitors over the hills of the Rhine-region. The Rhine (Rhein Rijn Rhin Reno Rain Rhenus is one of the longest and most important Rivers in Europe at 1320 kilometres (820 mi with an average discharge (The sponsorship remained constant ever since. ) The party was an inarguable success, although not as buoyant as its precursor, especially considering that the heating issues from the year before turned out to be unsolvable due to the structure of the hall which served as a party hall — this caused the party to be even colder than the previous year.

View from the grand stand at Breakpoint 2005 while a competition was running.

Breakpoint 2005 caused some sad moments to the demoscene when it was announced that the military depot was scheduled to condemnation by the German government, and the next edition was scheduled to be held in the city's gym in the middle of Bingen. A part of the visitors feared that the degrees of liberty which made Breakpoint so popular will be lost at the new location, including the symbolic bonfire. They were, however, proven wrong when the party turned out to be what most people stated as "the best demoparty ever". The limited nature of freedom was proven to be enough for sceners to use the surrounding outdoors area as a chillout zone, even having a bonfire (although not as grandiose as in previous years). The new location also provided a solution to the heating problem. The floors inside were covered by the organizers by a layer of carpet so visitors were even able to walk barefoot or sleep on the floor. (Some visitors even joked about spending the night outdoors to get the "good old Breakpoint freeze-to-death-feeling". ) The party's atmosphere was improved with both seminars for the interested and 4 live concerts of bands playing demoscene music live. The competitions also featured high quality releases and the event was voted as the "Best Alltime Demoparty" in the PAiN diskmag. A disk magazine, colloquially known as a diskmag, and also known by the Portmanteau magazette (from "magazine on diskette" is a Magazine

Breakpoint 2006 was probably the demoparty with the highest expectations of all time; promotion started almost directly after its precursor and many sceners who have been avoiding demoparties for years signaled that they would attend. The party excelled all other previous demoparties in the amount of decoration the organizing team created to the "jungle"-theme: the partyplace was adorned with torches, rocks, skeletons and vines, doors were surrounded with totem pole-like ornaments, speaker stands and other accessories were wrapped in an Inca-esque setting. The party theme revolved around sceners losing their scene spirit and fighting their ways in competitions to retrieve and free them. The event featured the annual Scene. org Awards ceremony in a much more formal and ceremonial setting, and various live acts, including a performance by Welle:Erdball. Welle Erdball (often abbreviated as WE) is a group from Germany often credited with being the pioneers of Bitpop.

Breakpoint 2007 lost one of its major sponsors, ATi, as a result of their merger with AMD (Intel remained a primary sponsor). To keep a balanced budget, the organizers decided to not only raise the entrance fee to 60 Euros, but to remove the "girls get in free" tradition and charge females equally. Please update other articles as well to avoid contradiction within Wikipedia e Despite the financial challenges, 2007 featured the usual array of competitions and seminars, including one from the infamous film director, Uwe Boll. Uwe Boll (ˈuːvə bɔl (born June 22 1965 Germany) is a German director, producer and Screenwriter of films often adapted from The Scene. org Awards ceremony was restructured with shorter screening times to reduce the show length. The regular party band, BASS, returned with a slightly revised lineup, and the Danish Commodore revival band Press Play On Tape performed a live set as well. PRESS PLAY ON TAPE is a revival and tribute rock band to the music used in games on the 1980s' Commodore 64 home computer

Breakpoint 2008 got nVidia as a further major sponsor and thus was able to lower the entrance fee to 55 Euros. This time the "big screen" got bigger again to 70 m² this time as the organizers got two Full HD beamers sponsored.

Events

1. Breakpoint 2003 — (April 18, 2003 – April 21, 2003)
2. Breakpoint 2004 — "The Code Inside" (April 9, 2004 – April 12, 2004)
3. Breakpoint 2005 — "Aliens Ate My Demomaker" (March 25, 2005 – March 28, 2005)
4. Breakpoint 2006 — "Rumble in the Jungle" (April 14, 2006 – April 17, 2006)
5. Breakpoint 2007 — "Demoscene Through Time and Space" (April 6, 2007 – April 9, 2007)
6. Breakpoint 2008 — "Digital Garden" (March 21, 2008 – March 24, 2008)

Competition winners

External links

• Official Site
• The ARTS Radio (MP3) contains an interview with Breakpoint organizer Steeler, live on location at Breakpoint 2004. Farbrausch, or Farb-rausch, is a German group of demomakers who made themselves particularly famous in the Demoscene in December 2000 Conspiracy is a Hungarian Demogroup founded in late 2002. Being an amalgamation of various other groups founding members were members of demogroups mfx is a Finnish demogroup. They were closely tied with Kewlers and shared members with this group after Kewlers' farewell to the scene a lot of Kewlers This article is about the demo/warez group See Fairlight (disambiguation for other meanings of Fairlight Fairlight ( FLT MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a Digital audio encoding format using a form of Lossy data compression An interview is a conversation between two or more people (the interviewer and the interviewee where Questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from
• Breakpoint on Pouët
• Breakpoint 2006 on Demoparty. Pouët, or pouetnet, is one of the largest comprehensive on-line directories for the Demoscene today net
• Breakpoint 2006 photos on Slengpung
• Report from Breakpoint 2003 by ARTE
• Breakpoint 2005 report by 3sat
• Breakpoint 2004 press statement by ATI

Invitation demos

• Breakpoint 2003 Invitation Intro - fr-024: welcome to. Arte (Association Relative à la Télévision Européenne is a Franco-German TV network. 3sat is the name of a public advertising-free television network in Central Europe . . by Farbrausch
• Breakpoint 2004 Invitation Demo - fr-037: The Code Inside by mfx and Farbrausch
• Breakpoint 2005 Invitation Demo - Aliens Ate My Demomaker by mfx and keWlers
• Breakpoint 2006 Invitation Demo - fr-049 of spirits taken by Farbrausch and Vacuum
• Breakpoint 2007 Invitation Intro - Frameskool by Equinox
• Breakpoint 2008 Invitation Intro - Digital Garden by Rebels