Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Pure Bollocks Issue 22_007
----------------------------------
* F A L C O N * I N F O
----------------------------------
THE 16 BIT SHOW FROM WEMBLEY
A PERSONAL VIEW
By Peter Sharpe
Arriving at Wembley on a freezing cold friday morning I parked my
trusty motorbike outside the conference centre and made my way round to
exhibition hall 1, the home of this years 16 Bit Show.
After visiting the show last year, I commented on this network
about just how poor computer shows had become, how they had been overrun
by games, and the poor support shown for the Atari. So I was shocked to
find that there was a queue of people going half way round the building
!!
As a matter of fact there were two queues, one for pre-paid ticket
holders, and another for those without. The show was filled to
capacity, the man on the door said. A maximum of 2000 people are allowed
in at any one time, and until more people came out, no more could go in,
with the pre-paid ticket holders getting priority.
I was faced with a dilemma. I could either join the queue, with
the prospect of waiting a couple of hours to get in, or I could go back
home and come back later in the afternoon. Yup, you guessed it, I joined
the queue. I don't know what it is about us British, but we seem to love
queuing. The prospect of standing outside in the freezing cold for an
hour or so doesn't seem to bother us. If anyone had set up a hot dog
stand down there that morning they would have made a killing. At least
it isn't raining, said one particularly cheerful individual as we stood
around waiting. Quiet, said someone else, don't tempt fate.
I could continue on this vain for a few more pages, but to cut a
long story short(ish) I got chatting to the people around me and after
about an hour we were in. After all that queuing I was expecting
something fairly spectacular. What a disappointment. The show didn't
even fill the first hall. There was a time when it filled 3 halls, with
500+ exhibitors. This time there were less than 100. Determined to get
value for my 6 ukp entry ticket, I ignored the opportunity to waste
another pound on a show guide, and went for a wander round.
The first stand you see on entering the show is HiSoft, always a
stand worth a look at, as they are usually at the sharp end of Atari
technology. Naturally they had a Falcon, in fact they had two, one
running a very short demo from CD-ROM, and another running TruePaint,
busy loading in various still images, mostly from Star Trek-The Next
Generation. And very nice they were too. Very pretty. Boring, but
pretty, none the less. And that sums up the whole show really. Very
nice, but nothing of particular interest.
Further round I was surprised to see yet another group of Falcons
(I am sure some clever sort will tell me what the collective word for
Falcons is). One was running a very boring slideshow routine, a second
was connected though a genlock to a video camera, overlaying a still
image onto the video signal, while a third was running Windows 3.1,
though not very well. So although the Falcon was in attendance, there
was no sign of any serious software for it, or at least none that worked
well enough to demonstrate.
Watching all this Falconry from a discreet distance was System
Solutions, or whatever they are calling themselves. Aha I thought, they
will have some TOS 1.4 ROMS for me. Nope, not a dicky bird. They had
2.06 though, as did lots of people. I don't want 2.06 I said, I have
NeoDesk and 2.5Meg of memory to play with. I only want 1.4 for its hard
disk routines and its file move commands. Nothing doing till March they
said, something about Atari not allowing it to be distributed yet.
Typical Atari again, no wonder they are in trouble.
Okay, I'd seen the Falcon, I'd totally failed to get hold of TOS
1.4, time to see what else there was around. I was glad to see Analogic
were there, showing the new 8Meg expansion for the Mega ST/STe/TT. They
said they didn't have TOS 1.4 with them, but they might have it back at
the shop. A visit to Kingston on monday. A good little company, who will
bend over backwards to help you out if you just ask them nicely.
Another company who helped me out was Deal Direct. I went there in
search of a monitor stand (8ukp), a printer stand (2.99) and a disk box
(2.50). Unfortunately I somehow managed to forget to pick up the
monitor stand, and it wasn't until I got home that I realized my
mistake. I gave them a ring. "Never mind", they said, come back tomorrow
and pick it up. I'm impatient, so I went back that evening and got it,
but the fact that they trusted me, even though I had no receipt said
that this was a company worth dealing with in the future, so if you need
any computer stationary, disks, boxes, stands etc then you could do
worse than give them a ring. I'll put the details at the bottom.
I don't know if you've noticed, but modems seem to be all the rage
at the moment. You only need to open a computer magazine to find 14k4
modems for 300 quid. They all seem to be jumping on the bandwagon. There
were at least 4 different makes of a speed modem on offer, none BT
approved (naughty). Maybe they will have some cheap fax software. Fat
chance. All that was on offer was Tele Office, a snip at 60ukp mono
only. Since I didn't have 60 quid or a mono monitor I passed. I can't
believe there isn't some bright spark out there who has written a PD fax
program. I only want it to fax the odd letter or two, so 60 quid is a
bit much really.
Well, what else was there. Virtual Reality of course. Two people
with funny hats trying to shoot each other in a virtual room. Talk about
looking silly. They were like Thunderbird puppets without the strings.
Still got a bit of work to do there me thinks.
16/32 PDL were there as well. They had FzT 2.12. When I asked when
they would be getting 2.20 they said it would be a while yet. Ha Ha.
So that was it apart from lots of stands selling Amiga (pah)
parts, the usual collection of games stands, the NASA pens, and an odd
little stand who's name escapes me but was selling various bits and bobs
for the Atari. Memory, plugs and sockets, even whole motherboards. He
didn't have any TOS 1.4 ROMs though. What he did have was a confidential
draft copy of the technical spec for the Falcon. Interesting reading.
Very interesting. More interesting even than '20 things you didn't know
about Steve Davis'. It was manned by an oriental gentleman who's name
also escapes me, but his stand was on the far right of the hall, and if
anyone knows which stand I mean, would they let me know, as I wouldn't
mind getting a catalogue.
Another stand worth a look was R J Simulations (I think that was
their name), they had a very nice simulation of a remote control
helicopter, with a proper 'radio' control unit to fly it with. I first
saw this stand at the Model Engineers show at Olympia in January. The
graphics are simple but functional, and the simulation is VERY good. It
really flies like a real model ( I don't own one, but I was watching
someone who did, and he said so). And of course it doesn't matter if you
crash, you just reset it and start again. It can be adjusted for
different models and different weather. You view it from a fixed
viewpoint on the ground, just like you would if it was real. If you fly
it directly towards you, you can crash it into yourself. A nice touch of
realism. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to take up model
flying.
I was getting bored by now, fed up with seeing stand after stand
of Amiga games and hardware, so I was pleased when I came across Air
Warrior. This is flight combat over the phone. You download a program,
then dial into a central computer and try to shoot down other players,
who are also connected. I know some of you lot already play. They gave
me a card, which you send off and they give you 3 hours free play time.
Hasta la vista baby !!
Thanks again to Deal Direct mail order for being so helpful when I was
so careless, I said I'd give you a plug. [Yawwwnn... Wot? Aaargh! -tired
EGBSS]
Future Computing,
20.. [Right that's enough of the plugs! -EGBSS]
----------------------------------------------
