This summer was hot with no doubt. Roma.exe was the first demoparty in Italy since 19 years. We recently spoke with Razdee of TRSI, one of the main organizers. Most pictures taken by Irata/TRSI, text by Ghandy.
Ghandy: Hey, Fabrizio! Would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?
Razdee/TRSI: Howdy and thanks for ansking! I’m 52 and have been involved in the demoscene since the “old days”, starting with groups like Italian Bad Boys on the Amiga. My girlfriend EPR is also in the demoscene – we met at Revision and got together shortly thereafter! We don’t have kids, just two cats. When I don’t work or code or organize parties, I try to travel for fun or for surfing (which is also fun 😉
I love experimenting if a hardware “can demo”
Ghandy: I saw on your private website that you code on various computer platforms, such as Atari, Amiga, C64 and Ti-99. How did that come about?
Razdee/TRSI: I love experimenting on new (to me) and interesting hardware, and see whether “it can demo”. I also like developing some games from time to time. Anyway, I always go back to my beloved C64 and Amiga in the end 😉
Ghandy: Was Roma.exe the first demoparty in your country in more than 28 years? That must have been the Spoletium Party in March 1998 organised by my former group, Darkage. What inspired you to organise a demo party in Italy again?
Razdee/TRSI: I understand that Horde took place in 2007 in Italy, so Roma.exe was the first demoparty in my home country in more than 19 years – still quite some time! We have several local gatherings like the great “Passione Amiga Day” (organized by our good friend Mod3m/Darkage in Spoleto) and a few more, but no proper demoparty.
The idea for Roma.exe came up chatting with my mates FRK and Ra0ul/PRZ after attending one of such smaller events. We explored the possibility of organizing one ourselves, but after a while we said “let’s go the whole lenght and set up a proper party!”.” When we shared the idea with our scene friends, everyone was super supportive so we took courage and started doing things right.
Then Master Boot Record found us the perfect venue and suggested to play live as part of the event, involving also Kenobit and Arottenbit. It looked like all pieces were falling in place and we were meant to make it happen! 😀
A lot of people contributed
Ghandy: Who was involved in organising it and what were their tasks?
Razdee/TRSI: The core team, besides myself, is composed of FRK (former Team17 developer), Friol, Master Boot Record and EPR. We took care of all the planning, scheduling, relationships, hardware and software setups and really almost anything else you could think about, from printing the t-shirts to buying coffee!
Then, pretty much everyone in the area who is in any involved with the demoscene contributed: most notably, Elder0010/GP provided the Commodore compo machines, LRNZ did all the graphics design and Andrea involved the game dev community.
Our mates at TRSI were amazing in the support, with Astaroth creating the website and C64 invitation, Sachy and W.O.T.W who did the Amiga invitation with some contribution from me as well, and of course everyone else like Irata, Hamster, CoolCat, Madison and all spreading the word and connecting us with the right people.
Friol also did the PC 64K invitation and one evening he kinda pulled it out of a hat. “It’s ready!“. We were all quite impressed 🙂
Several friends then joined the staff and were invaluable in making everything work. It’s even more surprising as they are friends who never heard anything about the demoscene until like two months ago, but got excited with the project and put all their heart into it. We were about 12 in the end, and I think that with even just one less person we would have seriously compromised the final outcome!
Other notable sceners from around the world provided invaluable help, I’d like to mention Superogue and Hellmood regarding the (very successful) sizeconding compo, which happened thanks to their enthusiasm and to the incredible community they’re part of!
We worked real hard to promote the party by asking all other fellow orgas to display a slide, by word of mouth and in person at the other parties. And we had 3 invitations released at Revision!
Italy has a small community
Ghandy: How many people are active in the Italian scene, and how many visitors did you have? Where did most of the people from outside come from?
Razdee/TRSI: We are a small community, and if you round it down to the seriously active portion, then even smaller. I don’t follow everything, but I can tell you that in Rome we are about 6 overall. Roma.exe somehow “summoned” many inactive Italian sceners, and “re-activated” others. The Game Dev community is bigger and active, although that is often a diffent world.
Regarding visitors, we sold about 230 tickets and had 200 people attending the party in person and 400 at the concert! And we were very, very pleased with the heavy international attendance, I’d say 50%.
I clearly remember that moment when I peeked out of the separated corner where we were sweating it out to coordinate all the on-screen compos and saw a completely packed room – my jaw dropped.
Ghandy: Do you think you can get the Italian scene active again? Or wasn’t that the main goal to reach?
Razdee/TRSI: I’d be glad to see more activity coming from the Italian scene for sure, and I think that Roma.exe somehow contributed positively in that direction. Anyway, our main goal was to set up a party where everyone could feel welcome, comfortable and of course have fun. We wanted to “follow the rules” of all major parties but also contribute some of the local lifestyle. I would like to believe that we succeeded in delivering that, and it will be a distinctive trademark of the party for the future editions as well!
They organized three pre-party events in Rome
Ghandy: I heard that the sightseeing tour of Rome before the party began was a real highlight. How many sceners participated?
Razdee/TRSI: We organized 3 pre-party events: a guided tour of rome, wine tasting and a dinner. They was fully booked in a flash since we opened up reservations and we will surely come up with some new pre-party events with future editions! I was super amazed at seeing 40-50 sceners from all over the world taking part and we will continue that way.
Ghandy: How did you come up with the idea of printing all those wallpapers featuring classic Tristar and Red Sector motifs? I heard that was very expensive.
Razdee/TRSI: The venue suggested that we print the wallpapers and pointed us to an unexpensive print service who did them for 20 euros each 6×3 print! Then I did the graphic design. Not that expensive in the end, and I think it made quite an impact!
Ghandy: Which computer platform do you address your party to most, and why? Amiga, C64 or PC?
Razdee/TRSI: The Italian scene is quite PC and Amiga-centric nowadays, but we would like to be flexible and allow other platforms too. Also, the 256-bytes compo is here to stay!
Ghandy: Were you satisfied with the number and quality of the Competition entries? Did you allow people to enter the competition by sending their work to you online?
More than 90 entries
Razdee/TRSI: Very very satisfied, surprised and flattered. We had 90+ entries between people attending in-person and remoters.
Ghandy: Did any of the former Ram Jam members eventually show up at Roma.exe? Or have they all completely lost interest in that hobby? Have you been active since the early ’90s, and are you still in touch?
Razdee/TRSI: Yes! yes they did and it was amazing. Some managed to contribute with productions, some came for the good times, but it was great meeting again. We know that all who didn’t make it – Ram Jam and others – were very disappointed for missing the party after they heard the reports 😉
“AI is not a huge issue in our small community”
Ghandy: I saw you are also painting here and then. What are your thoughts on the recent AI discussion? Some months ago, some graphicians were caught using this special kind of help. Did you allow any AI entries in your competition?
Razdee/TRSI: The way I see it, and I know it’s a shared feeling amongst all the Roma.exe orgas, is that we are meant to show our creativity and skills with the compos. Doing something 100% with AI and taking credit for it makes no sense and it means that the very objective of what we’re doing is being misunderstood. Unfortunately, a few cheaters always existed and will always exist. Before AI they used other techniques, but right now I don’t see it as a huge issue in our small community.
Ghandy: The next Roma.exe will be in 2028, so you will be taking a break next year. Is it that time-consuming, or did you plan it that way from the start?
Razdee/TRSI: It is really, really time-consuming. For the next edition we need to regroup and seek additional help, set up some legal stuff, possibly get some funding, prepare invitations and so on. We were also quite burned out and need to do something else for a while (e.g. make some demos :D)
Compos will be reorganized for 2028
Ghandy: What will definitely be different in two years? Do you expect even more international visitors next time?
Razdee/TRSI: We will have new pre-party events, new bands with concerts and we will reorganize the compos. We will also pick a different time of the year to avoid the heat. We had a lot of international visitors already, and I hope they will make it back and keep spreading the word!
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