Review: X-10 Amiga Atlanta Banquet Video

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      Review: X-10 Amiga Atlanta 10th Anniversary Amiga Banquet Video
                            By:  Jason Compton 
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In January of this year, Amiga Atlanta was one of the first Amiga user
groups to reach its 10-year anniversary.  To celebrate the event, group
President Lamar Morgan and the organization decided to put on a major
production, a banquet in an upscale Atlanta hotel complete with notable
computer industry and Amiga guests.

Among those in attendance, apart from some 100 past and present members of
the club, were Tim Jenison and an entourage from Newtek, Dale Luck and RJ
Mical, (both late of Amiga Corp, with Dale still at and RJ recently
departed from 3DO), Dave Haynie, Fred Fish, and three Amiga Report editors:
Katherine Nelson, Addison Laurent, and myself.  The event was hosted by
PBS Computer Chronicles host Stewart Chiefet and CNN TalkBack Live host
Susan Rook, whose witty banter with RJ Mical almost entertained the crowd.

The event lasted what seemed like forever (actually 4 or 5 hours) and has
been effectively edited into just over 2 hours of VHS footage.  The AAi
membership includes a number of video professionals who shot and
subsequently edited the tape.  You get just about everything, from the
introductory loitering in the hall (which lasted about an hour in real
life--you get a minute or so) to the Governor of Atlanta's Amiga Day
proclamation, and all of the speeches and presentations of the evening.

The night was a lot of fun.  You don't get the plate of banquet chicken we
all were treated to, nor do you get to experience the night first-hand.
But you do get a great insight into the history of the group and of some of
the guests present, which is a capsule history of the Amiga itself. 

The evening was full of laughter (some of it cheap jokes about VCR clocks),
and not too much maudlin reminiscing performance.  (I have to admit that
most of that actually came from me during the now apocryphal "Message to
Escom" tape Amiga Atlanta put together last year)

About the only complaint I have with the tape is the train-wreck loss of
pace the AAi commercial has.  About 2/3s of the way through AAi advertises
its aging tape of Amiga demos.  Had there been other commercials in the
tape (which coincidentally wouldn't have been such a bad idea), it wouldn't
have seemed so out of place.

The rest of the tape is well worth having.  In terms of sheer power, it's
not a Deathbed Vigil, but as a source of whatever this thing we call
"Amiga" is, and what it means to people, there's few better places to look
than the X-10 vidoe.

X-10 Banquet Tape
Amiga Atlanta, Inc.
Available in NTSC and PAL

Contact lamar@mindspring.com for pricing and availability.

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