Vammala Party 2025

The compos are on

The traditional summer event, Vammala Party, took place in Ikaalinen in mid-July. Part demoparty, part gaming event, all chaos.

The heatwave was unforgiving. Visiting Budapest earlier in the summer in 35+ degrees heat had hardened me somewhat, but the nights were still relentless.

This was the first time ever I had a full-size colour CRT at a party, but after going through the essentials (Rambo, Blue Max, Saboteur, Buggy Boy, Stunt Car Racer, Snoopy) it didn't serve much of a purpose, except perhaps adding one more SID wail to the party soundscape. Without a card reader I couldn't even transfer programs from the Linux to the C64.

The obligatory "fire up Rambo" session

A variety of activities can be crammed into an extended weekend. I actually have to think a little of where and how I spend time. As I can't currently concentrate much on coding or playing games at home, I wanted to make sure there's enough such entertainment at the party place.

Also, I've not been able to do much creative coding lately. I heard a rumor the democompo had less entries. As the opportunity now presented itself, I took it. I created a filler entry from nearly nothing using Processing/Java.

For audio, I used Suno-generated AI songs. For this reason I used a pseudonym "Dr. Errorz", surely no-one will ever associate it with me. I cut audio from two separate AI outputs, so some human sensibility was used. It didn't take many hours to do. It didn't finish last, which was positive.

A frame from Mega_Amiga_Boing_Filler

Making the minimal demo wasn't particularly stressing, as I had set the bar extremely low for code quality. Instead, trying to get audio to work and generating the video output turned out to be a chore, as the Movie Maker in Processing 4 didn't work.

The solution involved ffmpeg from the command line and Kdenlive. Instead of delving deeper into ffmpeg, I used Kdenlive for combining the video and audio, because I already knew it would work. Time optimization. Even then, using Kdenlive on a low resolution screen was a little confusing, as the UI didn't fit properly.

MSX Juhannus, for MSX. 256x192

For the graphics compo I had already an MSX bitmap, but I continued working on it on-site. A landscape is a rarity for me, but there's a reason for the choice. It's sort of a commissioned work. But the production it belonged to, did not materialize at this party. We'll see.

I made a PETSCII on location, as is almost the tradition.

I'd say neither gfx were my best work, but they did land me the 2nd and 3rd place in a competition that had perhaps more serious entries than I can ever remember.

Overall there was quite good attendance and good entries for all compos. Is Vammala Party becoming a more serious demoscene event?

Stunt Car PETSCII

I made a hasty entry into the Tuplain (audio-video combination) compo, and surprisingly it got the 2nd place. Both times this has happened, I lost to Marq. Curse you Red Baron!

The camping stove hobby was also present at the party. Well, it's another hardware to play with. At times it felt silly to boil water at the yard as a kitchen was available, but this way I got some peace and variety to the activities.

I used the combination of the Outzone burner and the Trangia coffee pot, although there were other pots too.

Morning coffee

From the fleamarket table I did buy a couple of things, a SiDi FPGA multicore and a real crappy joystick. Oh and Deactivators for ZX Spectrum. I'll get back to these later.

Vammala Party 2025 at Demozoo

Trangia, Primus and other explorations

A potpourri of camp stove-related things.

Trangia Coffee Pot 27

I felt a sudden urge to have the Trangia coffee pot for the 27 set. For completeness sake.

It's really tiny, for 0.6 liters. It's quick and simple to make water for a cup of coffee. I guess I'm disappointed with the Stormberg kettle set I mentioned earlier. It's too big for my purposes.

Playing with Furno stove and Trangia kettle

Although the pot fits snugly inside the Trangia kit, you can't really carry much inside it, and this also means the Trangia handle. A small camping gas cartridge goes through the opening, but the lid won't fit. 

The Trangia alcohol stove would fit in, but as the pot is best reserved for boiling water, I wouldn't risk dirtying the insides of the pot, as it takes more work to clean than the ordinary pots.

But I don't actually need to take the coffee pot with the Trangia full set. It could do well alone with bag-foods and then for some coffee/tea/cocoa afterwards. No need for Trangia handle either.

I did try some instant coffee, but it would also need milk powder. Vile stuff.

The lid is loose enough to drop off, which was easy to fix by bending the edges a little.

Trangia Duossal 27

One time I boiled eggs with the aluminum pot, which resulted in an annoying colorisation in the metal. Although unrelated, it reminded me of potential dangers of having the aluminum seep into the food.

Early 2025

As camping gear is not used very often, the ingested amounts would be meaningless. But as the Trangia has become my go-to pot for any burner, I wanted to make sure.

With the Duossal pots, the outer layer is aluminum, while the inner layer is steel. The outer shell ensures the heat gets distributed well, while steel... it's not aluminum.

It's more sturdy, heavier than an aluminum pot (145g vs 80g) and just as easy to cook with. No food has got stuck so far.

Duossal 27, pictured with the Primus Mimer mod

Primus Mimer mod

This is a wind screen modification for the Mimer stove. I've been thinking and discussing this move for a while, and it was high time to do at least something about it.

I rolled out some metal mounting tape (hole tape). Then I used a hacksaw to make four notches so it would stick better to the Mimer wings. Other than that, there's nothing that keeps it in place.

Had I been more lucky, tightening the bolt could have helped tighten the ring too, but the holes did not align that way.

I considered attaching the protection to the inner orbit, which would have been smaller and looked neater. But it would be quite close to the burner and I don't want to obstruct the flame itself. The Mimer flame should stay wide.

The circumference is rather large

Trying it out, I could hear additional sounds from the metal expanding and contracting, which isn't super pleasing but shouldn't indicate disaster.

As the Mimer should work well enough during summer, there's probably not much to say about the mod. Time will tell if it will work as a wind screen at all.

Fuel transfer device

A fuel flipper. This device goes between two gas cartridges. A temperature difference ensures the gas flows from the top cartridge (hot, donor) to the bottom cartridge (cold, receiver).

Why? It's suggested the remains of near-empty canisters could be combined. But I'd argue against this use, unless they are exactly the same gas. I had a combination of 3 different blends (Tarmo, Primus, Biltema), which worked well enough but was a little unpleasant with some unevenness.

It's not a complex thing

The better idea is to buy larger canisters and fill small ones multiple times.

I put the receiving cartridge in a freezer for a few minutes, while the donor gets a suntan on the balcony. This really shouldn't take long. Without the temperature difference, nothing useful will happen.

Then, connect cartridges, open valve and listen for the sound. After the loudest hiss has died out, it's better to close the valve and measure the weight of the cartridges.

Simulation

Yes, it's a good idea to weigh the cartridges when full, empty, and in-between, to be constantly aware of the amount of gas. I've moved roughly 40-50g of gas in one go. Overfilling is probably not a good idea.

And of course, you're not supposed to refill the cartridges, you're not supposed to put them under direct sunlight, and so on. 

I'd not re-use the cartridges indefinitely. Practically, after the large donor canister is empty, there's no point in refilling that one. It might be a good time to recycle the tiny canister too.