Are exciting electronic challenges your bottle of Beam's? Then join in this year's networked computer game — Spectre. The full rules of this fast-paced tank strategy game will be discussed before the beginning of each elimination round. 25 participants will play in groups of 5 at a time. Winners of the initial rounds will go on to play the winners of other rounds in the final battle. Register for time slots at the registration desk. The first round will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday; participants should report to the Board Room (lower level) at their registered time. And let the fun begin!

A true DemiCon original, the !tang Apology Contest returns for a third year. In case you've missed it the last two years, but don't think you can manage to escape the agony this time, here's a rerun of the rules:

The idea for this event (submitted by Jim Carroll and Karen Schloss; thanks a bunch, guys) finds its inspiration in a Joe Haldeman story entitled "A !tangled Web" (originally published in Analog and later re-printed in the anthology Dealing in Futures). The !tang (the ! is pronounced as a sort of glottal click) are an alien race with a rather unsual code of etiquette. The slightest social faux pas is immediately followed by a long, ritualized apology. All apologies begin with the phrase "I die," and end with "All die. O the embarrassment." The lengthy middle section of the apology describes, in graphic detail, the misery the speaker's death causes others. For example:

"…I die. O my hair falls out and my flesh rots and my bones are cracked by the hungry ta!a'an. He drops me behind him all around the forest and nothing will grow where his excrement from my marrow falls. As the years pass the forest dies from the poison of my remains. The soil washes into the sea and poisons all the fish, and all die. O the embarrassment." (Reprinted from "A !tangled Web" by permission of the author.)

If you think you can handle this sort of public display of self-effacement, bring your pathetic plea for forgiveness to the Main Programming room Friday at 11 p.m.

Gee, guys. We keep trying to come up with new contest ideas, but you keep telling us that you love the old ones so much. So, "Win, Lose, or Draw" returns Sunday morning at 11 a.m. No advance registration is required; simply show up at Main Programming, and watch as our fabulous and talented artists try to compete with one another to see how quickly they can get you to guess noted SF titles or phrases from their sketches. Don't miss it.

This page created by: Kevin G. Austin