http://www.cucug.org/amiga/amiinfo/monitor/am1_9htm/amiga97.htm (Amiga Plus Extra No. 5, 08/1997)
Amiga '97
By Beth Wise, Associate Publicist, inky@csrlink.net
Well, I finally made it to an Amiga show. This was my first, and I was
impressed. 915 people attended the two-day event hosted by the
Gateway Amiga Club.
Everyone was friendly and optimistic about the future of the Amiga, which
was a pleasant surprise for two people going in wondering if this would
be the last Amiga show.
(Click on the thumbnails to view the full image.)
QuikPak Bailed
The most anticipated exhibitor in the show was a no-show. QuikPak, a major
contender in the bid for the Amiga, cancelled at the last minute. The rumors
flying around the show were: 1) They had made the winning bid and were too busy
in court signing papers to come. 2) They had lost the bid. Neither of these
rumors could be confirmed or denied at that time.
The Internauts Luncheon
The first thing we did at the show after a brief glance around was attend the
Amiga Internauts Luncheon hosted by Wayne Hunt of
World-Wide Amiga Online. The general topic of
discussion was ways to improve communication and cooperation among the groups of
Amiga users on the Internet (ie. IRC, on-line magazines, newsgroups, web sites, etc.).
If this were to be achieved efficiently, it would be a ground-breaking event
(something that is rare on the Internet these days). From what I've seen,
there's more competition than cooperation between companies and groups of users
of other platforms.
After leaving the luncheon, we explored the exhibitors' booths. Due to the
number of people attending the show, there wasn't much chance to talk to the
exhibitors, as every booth was mobbed by up to 20 people at a time, but there
was lots to see all the same.
Scharp Designs
My very first stop was at a booth that caught my eye immediately: Scharp
Designs. I'm always on the lookout for nifty souvenirs wherever I go, and on
display at this booth were bumper stickers, bright yellow smiley pins, and Amiga
mugs that change color when you fill them with something hot. The first
version of this mug has musical notes instead of the smiley. The day after the
mugs were finished, the factory burned down and no more mugs with that design
could be ordered that year. Mr. Scharp had promised a few people he wouldn't
reproduce the original design, and now the 144 mugs produced before the fire are
limited edition collector's items. The factory was rebuilt the next year, and
500 mugs with the new logo were made. Once these mugs are sold out, they too
will become collector's items.
To order these mugs, send a check or money order (no cash) for $13 US plus $5 US
(overseas, $8 US) shipping and handling to:
Bob Scharp
14850 Phelps Drive
Bridgeton, MO 63044
For orders of 2 or more mugs, e-mail your country, city and zip code to
bscharp@icon-stl.net and Mr. Scharp will
attempt to get a better shipping and handling rate.
The Scharps also had a booth with boxes and boxes of disk-based magazines.
There was a large selection and I could have spent hours leafing through them.
Next we went to a booth that had lots of Amiga t-shirts made by Amiga Atlanta. The
artwork for these T-shirts was done with Amigas. Naturally, we had to order a few
of these.
For the last two years, Amiga Atlanta members Aaron Ruscetta and Bob Castro
(Producers), and Mike Ellenberg and Eric Webb (Videographers) have been
interviewing Amiga users and historic figures in the Amiga scene. The project was
started when Escom bought Amiga Technologies to be part of a 2-hour
teleconference with Escom. Escom folded and the teleconference never happened,
but AAi had already recorded over 50 hours of interviews, so they decided to
expand it to a full, hour-long documentary. The aim of this production is not
just to document the technical history of the Amiga, but also the heart of the
Amiga community and the cooperation that has kept it alive during the 3 years AT
has been without an owner.
The next booth we went to was National Amiga. They had a large selection of
software available and we bought a copy of The Lion King for our three-year-old
son. (Now, if we could just get Mommy away from the game long enough for the boy
to play it... ;))
Amazing Computing
This is the one and only remaining print magazine in the US that has been with
the Amiga since the beginning. It was cool talking to these guys because Amazing
Computing has always been one of our favorite Amiga magazines. We bought a
subscription from them on the spot. These people have been hanging in there by
sheer force of will since the demise of Commodore, so get your subscription
today and show your support for their efforts!
Subscription info: US residents: 1-800-345-3360 - International calls:
1-508-675-6002
The portable Amiga! One step closer to that laptop we've all been dreaming
about. An 18"W × 12¾"D × 4½"H case with an auto-switching external power supply
(also uses Duracell DR31 Laptop batteries), and a 640 × 480 Color LCD screen, to put
your 1200 in. I'm told the installation is very easy.
On display at the SoftLogik booth was the latest version of PageStream. They
were very helpful about upgrades. It's nice to know that profesional desktop
publishing is still alive and growing on the Amiga.
Nova Design, the people responsible for ImageFX, had a very impressive demo
video on display at their booth. This is a must-have if you're into graphics.
The Toaster and Lightwave people. What can you say? NewTek has been impressing
people from the beginning. Their booth shows that they are still one of the
Amiga's leading supporters.
I.A.M. is the company founded by Dale Larson, former Commodore engineer. At this
booth, we got several things: Connect Your Amiga!, a very good book
containing information on all aspects of networking and the Amiga; S.Y.A. (Save
Your Behind), a software package containing Dave Haynie's DiskSalv4 and Robert
Hardy's MRBackup v2.5 (These we had occasion to use as soon as we got home, due
to a little mishap that occured while we were gone involving our toddler and our
DEVS: directory. :/); and a bunch of the Amiga/Boing logos originally produced
by Commodore for use on the A1000's, which we will mischievously stick on any PC
we come in contact with. :)
From this booth, we got a demo of TermiteTCP, a TCP stack that promises easy
installation without the burden of MUI.
A.R.C.U.G.
This booth provided us with the hardware deal of the year. Here we bought a
68030@28MHz board for the 2000 for $20. What luck! Mind you, we can't use RAM
on the card itself for some reason, so it's not running quite as fast as it
could be, but who's complaining? :)
A Meeting of Friends
In addition to seeing all the exhibitors' booths, I got to meet some of the people
I've been talking to on IRC all this time. Among those I met were Arvid, ScottW,
Misfit and JigSawMan. In the picture to the right are - left to right - Arvid, Sage,
and Axem of #Amiga Undernet.
That pretty much sums up our experience at the show. Sadly, we didn't get to
talk to everyone, because every booth was mobbed for the duration of the show,
but all in all it was a great experience.
Some Key Amiga and Amiga Monitor-oriented links:
Amiga Monitor Main Index
Amiga Web Directory
The first thing we did at the show after a brief glance around was attend the
Amiga Internauts Luncheon hosted by Wayne Hunt of
World-Wide Amiga Online. The general topic of
discussion was ways to improve communication and cooperation among the groups of
Amiga users on the Internet (ie. IRC, on-line magazines, newsgroups, web sites, etc.).
If this were to be achieved efficiently, it would be a ground-breaking event
(something that is rare on the Internet these days). From what I've seen,
there's more competition than cooperation between companies and groups of users
of other platforms.
