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- Set up your computer, drive and
- monitor in a place where everyone can
- see it, preferably in the same room
- as your TV. We usually have several
- TVs set up around the house but have
- one main room where most people
- congregate. Our parties usually have
- 28-32 guests but until you get a
- tradition built up, you'll probably
- have fewer guests. I'd say that four
- is about a minimum and 32 is a
- maximum. The program is only
- DIMensioned for 32 so don't enter
- more than that.
-
- Option 1 is REVIEW BALLOTS.
- Prior to the awards show starting I
- allow guests to review their ballots.
- Most don't remember who they voted
- for and don't bother, but Dan Tobias
- always suspects me of sabotaging his
- ballot so he checks it first.
-
- VIEW SCORES is Option 2. At any
- time in between awards you can go to
- the SCORES screen which shows each
- guest and their two scores, which
- look like this:
-
- GUEST POINTS ON THE NOSE
-
- Fender 45 6
- Judi 42 5
- Dan 13 1
-
- and so on...
-
- Here's how the scoring goes. Say
- I gave Christopher Lee a 1 for best
- actor and he wins. I get 5 points
- for this plus 1 "on the nose" point.
- "On the nose" means that the guy I
- gave a 1 to actually won. Judi gave
- Mr. Lee a 2 so she gets 4 points
- only. Dan, who gave Mr. Lee a 5 gets
- only 1 point.
-
- See how it works? The number of
- points you get is 6 minus the number
- you gave the winning actor. A person
- guessing all 23 awards correctly
- would get a score of 115 and a 23 in
- the On the Nose column. So far, no
- one has ever gotten a perfect score.
- Reed Matthews, Softdisk's UNIX
- operator, once got 111 with 21 On the
- Nose, a feat which I don't think will
- ever be duplicated. It was the year
- "Schindler's List" won everything.
-
- Option 3 is AND THE WINNER IS...
- This is the option you (the host)
- press when they are at the podium
- ready to open the envelope. You see
- a list of all of the categories.
- Pick the correct one and enter the
- winner.
-
- The program tabulates the scores
- and sorts the players according to
- their scores. The sort is in BASIC
- which is why it takes a few seconds.
- In any case, the delay adds to the
- suspense as all of the guests rush to
- the computer screen to see who got it
- "On the Nose". All of the guests who
- gave the winner a 1 on their ballots
- are listed. Then you can press a key
- and go to the Scores Screen to see
- who moved up and who moved down in
- the standings.
-
- Remember, at almost any screen
- you can press RETURN to move back to
- the Main Menu. You can save the
- scores at any time. I put this in
- the program because I was worried
- that a crash might happen at a bad
- time. If I saved the scores between
- each award, then I could re-run the
- program, which will load the scores
- and I could continue with the party.
- However, the program has never crashed
- in the eight years that Judi and I
- have thrown our annual STATUE PARTY.
-
- We have T-shirts with "XXXXX Party
- 199X" made up as prizes. We used to
- have a booby prize for the worst
- score but then Peter Rokitski and a
- few other wise guys started voting
- for people they [knew] weren't going
- to win, so we stopped with the booby
- prize.
-
-
- [INSPIRATION]
- [-----------]
-
- I didn't make this party up. In
- fact, a version of this program was
- published on LS #58 using the
- forbidden five-letter appellation as
- a name.
-
- The credit for this great idea
- goes to novelist and Shreveporter
- Harold King. He and his wife have
- been having "XXXXX" parties for about
- 15 years now. When I first took over
- the Tower back in 1987 he called and
- asked me to spruce up and publish his
- program on LOADSTAR, which we did.
- He has since moved on to using IBMs
- for his writing, but the party is
- still a Commodore party.
-
- Hal is a very good writer. You
- may have read [Closing Ceremonies],
- [Red Alert] (a movie with William
- Devane was made from the book),
- [Shelkagari] or any of a dozen more
- novels. I was very pleasantly
- surprised to find that a person as
- famous as he lived right down the
- street and had a Commodore computer.
-
-
- [FINAL REMARKS]
- [-------------]
-
- I guarantee that the party is
- fun. Softdisk people rarely get
- together because of their varied and
- bizarre interests but they all have a
- healthy disdain for the overblown
- ceremonies of the disgustingly rich
- and famous. Yet we all have a blast
- poking fun at the awards ceremony and
- seeing who will win the coveted
- T-shirts. We give one shirt for the
- highest score and one shirt for the
- most "on the nose". If the same
- person wins both (which can easily
- happen) the person with the next
- highest "on the nose" wins the shirt.
-
- Please try out the STATUE NIGHT
- program before the night of the
- party. The "categories file" and the
- "nominees file" from year before last
- are on the disk so you can create a
- "players file", enter a few dummy
- ballots and go to the "statue night"
- module and select a few winners to
- see how it all works. Then scratch
- the "ballots file" and "scores file"
- (if you saved one), and get the
- updated "nominees file" from the LS
- BBS (1-318-425-4382) anytime after
- the nominations are announced (in
- late January or early February).
-
- The only hard work is entering
- all of the ballots but Judi and I
- have been doing it for 30 guests
- every year and it's not too bad.
-
- Take a look at the "nominees
- file" with a word processor to see
- how it's laid out. Just in case you
- can't get the file from our BBS you
- can always create one of your own.
- The nominees are listed all in
- lowercase and one right after
- another. 26 characters maximum.
- We've found that it's a good idea to
- list the movie in parentheses after
- each person's name. Many Softdisk
- people aren't familiar with people's
- names but will vote for a particular
- film they liked. Of course, many of
- the technical awards and foreign film
- awards are completely guessed at.
-
- In fact, these oddball awards are
- what make or break the competition.
- We all knew that "Forrest Gump" was
- going to win a bunch last year, but
- who knew anything about the foreign
- films?
-
- If a potential guest says, "But I
- haven't seen any of these films!"
- just tell them, "That's okay. We
- haven't either. And it doesn't make
- any difference who you think [should]
- win. You're trying to guess who the
- fatcats in Hollywood voted for, and
- you know how wishy-washy they are."
-
- Don't throw this program away.
- If you don't have a party this year
- you may have one next year.
-
- This program shows in a very real
- way how computers [can] improve our
- lives. Can you imagine what a hassle
- it would be to have a party like this
- with 30 guests and trying to compile
- all of the scores by hand?
-
- FT
-