Commodore Free 19/Commodore_Free_Issue_19_2008_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.iv rb 2

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Tnterview with Robert Bernardo
Commodore enthusiast and C= promoter

Part 2 of 4

Nowadays FCUG meetings are monthly,
held on the third Sunday of the month
from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Pizza
Pit Restaurant.  As mentioned above,
when I joined up, meetings were in the
public library.  However, the library
kept reserving the meeting room to
other groups, though we supposedly had
a long-term lock on the room.  After
being frustrated several times in
getting the room, we made arrangements
to meet at the public meeting room in
a shopping mall.  After several months
of using that, we were moved into the
senior citizens' center of the mall.
We thought we had a permanent meeting
place for sure, but after a few years
there, we were told that the room was
to be used for other purposes and such
a senior citizens center would be
moved out... somewhere.  That answer
was not good enough for us; it might
have been months before a new venue
would be found.  With the help of
another FCUG member, we discovered the
Pizza Pit, the owner being happy to
host our group (and also make some
money from our hungry members, I'm
sure).

The Pizza Pit is a good place to meet,
though when the Daytona 500 or the
Indianapolis 500 races are broadcast
on the big-screen t.v.'s there, the
place is too crowded and noisy to hold
our meetings.  We then move to a
nearby, calmer Mexican restaurant and
its meeting room.

Membership in our club has stayed
steady at about 25, but few are now
from the Fresno area.  The rest are
spread throughout the United States
and England.  Our treasury has stayed
steady, too; in other words, we have
plenty of money in the treasury.  Our
newsletter, the Interface, is
nominally a bi-monthly newsletter. In
the early 2000's we had three
different newsletters coming out of
the club; the Interface from our
editor, C= Voyages from me, and The
Halfling, a more folksy newsletter
from another member.  Yeah, we were
writers in those days.

In 2005 Jeri Ellsworth, creator of the
CommodoreOne and the C64 DTV,
contacted me about organizing a West
Coast Commodore show.  I then contacted
Bruce Thomas of the Commodore Users of
Edmonton, who had the same idea of such
a show, too.  If it were not for the
backing of FCUG and the Clark County
Commodore Computer Club (of Las Vegas),
the Commodore Vegas Expo, CommVEx,
would have never gotten off the ground
in 2005 and would not have continued to
this day.

When I joined FCUG in 1995, there were
several clubs throughout California,
like the Commodore Hayward User Group
(CHUG), Fremont-UnionCity-Newark-
Hayward User Group (FUNHUG), C= West/
AWest in San Francisco, the Diablo
Valley Commodore User Group (DVCUG), A
Bakersfield Computer User Society
(ABACUS), the Valley Computer Club in
Modesto, the Long Beach Commodore User
Group, the C64 Preservation Society in
Red Bluff, CIVIC 64 in Ventura, the
Sacramento Commodore User Group, and
the Stockton Commodore User Group.  I
visited most of those clubs.  By 2007,
FCUG was the only one still in
existence.  Sure, there are two Amiga
clubs and at least two retrogaming
groups left in California, but if you
want nearly 100% Commodore, you come to
FCUG.  We remain devoted to Commodore.

CF - How would our reader join FCUG,
and what would they be entitled to as
a user?

RobertB - Club membership is only $12
a year.  You'd send us a check/money
order to our club address at 3487 E.
Terrace, Fresno, California 93703.
Alternatively, you can send us the
money through Paypal (but no credit
cards through Paypal).

For your membership, you get at least
6 issues of our Interface newsletter,
access to our disk library of 2,000 to
3,000 disks, and interesting,
late-breaking C= news by e-mail.

CF - Are you a member or promoter of
any other Commodore groups?

RobertB - I also belong to The Other
Group of Amigoids (TOGA), an Amiga
club out of the San Jose area of
California.  I'm an honorary member of
the Fort Collins Commodore Club (FC3)
of Fort Collins, Colorado and of the
Anything Commodore User Group (ACUG)
of Astoria, Oregon.  Also I'm trying
to start up a new club in Southern
California called SCCAN, the Southern
California Commodore/Amiga Network
(formerly known as CAN).  Based in the
northern area of Los Angeles, we've
had monthly meetings since December
and now those meetings are bi-monthly,
the next one being in May.

CF - What makes Commodore special?

RobertB - A Commodore computer is a
friend, and for many of us, a long-time
friend.  It's a way of life; a multi-
functional device long before the 2008
machines we have today.  On it, we run
games, compose and play music, write
documents, publish our newsletters,
balance our portfolio, keep records,
draw our art, digitize our photos, make
our animations, and code our programs.
It's a fun computer... with a different
feel when compared to the Windows & Mac
computers of today. It has its quirks,
as all computers do, but these quirks
are familiar, understandable, and
comforting.

CF - Our readers have noticed your
photo and name appearing everywhere
related to Commodore. Can you comment?

RobertB - That is just a misconception.
I can't be everywhere in regards to
Commodore.  I just report & record the
shows and meetings that I attend. I
just spread Commodore news to users;
whether through e-mail, at the forums,
or in the newsgroups.  I just try to be
helpful, friendly, and interested in
all things Commodore and Amiga.  If
that makes me a cheerleader for
Commodore, then so be it.  Of course,
when I retire from the teaching
profession, I'll have a lot more time
to attend many more Commodore & Amiga
events and meetings.

At such events I've met many good
people and some famous ones, too.
Whether they are C= newbies or
veterans, regular users or industry
types, it's been a honor to meet all
of them.  Speaking of those in the
industry, it was quite exciting to
meet such CBM notables as Jack
Tramiel, Bil Herd, Dave Haynie, Bob
Russell, and Dale Luck.

CF - Tell our reader about your treks
to collect and redistribute Commodore
hardware.

RobertB - I usually get e-mails from
former users who have discovered the
FCUG website.  They want to unload
their collection of Commodore and
Amiga goods, but they don't want to
dispose of the goods in the landfill.
They want to donate those items to our
club in the hopes that others may
productively use the Commodore and
Amiga goods they once enjoyed.

I've been up and down the state of
California, into Oregon & Nevada in
order to rescue the items; that's a lot
of gasoline used and many hours on the
road! Usually, the rescued items are in
good to excellent condition. Those
items are packed into my large car;
sometimes I must make several trips to
the same former user just to finish
getting everything.  Then those items
are brought to one of four storage
places; my house, the rental storage
facility, my parents' house, or the
"storage" house.  From there, they can
be distributed to those who need
hardware/software.

If a FCUG member needs an item, they
have first crack at getting it.  If an
inquiry comes from someone outside the
club, I do my best to find that item.
(We don't have a database of all the
goods we have.  To make up such a
database would take months of
cataloging!)  If the item has a good
prospect of being sold, then it is
brought to the few shows where we have
a vending table.  We've had a vending
table at the Vintage Computer Festival
and at the Classic Gaming Expo.
Perhaps this year we'll have a vending
table at the Commodore Vegas Expo.
The only problem; who is going to
transport all of that stuff all the way
to Las Vegas?!

I think our vending prices are more
than fair, maybe even outrageously low;
just enough to cover the cost of the
table and put a some dollars into the
club treasury.  $5 for a C64 with power
supply & box (if provided), $5 for a
1541 disk drive, $10 for a flat C128
with power supply, $10 for a 1571 disk
drive, 1701/2 monitor or similar - $15,
1902 monitor or similar - $20, packaged
software -$1, cartridges - $1 to $2,
extra computer magazines & books, take
them away for free.  Compare those
with prices at eBay.com, a place I
rarely visit these days when I have so
much in storage already.

I remember one year at VCF; we barely
covered the cost of the table, having
only a few dollars of profit to put in
the treasury.  It's chancy; one year
software sells big; another year it's
hardware.  You never know what the
public is into.  A big thank you to
all those who have bought items at our
table!

CF - "I ADORE MY 64"  What's all this
with the badges?  When we met, you
presented me with one.  I wear it all
the time, but the clip is slightly
broken & sometimes falls off. I really
need a new one; are they for sale?

RobertB - Hey, the badge is there to
show our solidarity in Commodore!  I
used to sell the replica badges for $3
each at shows, but now I just give
them away.  I'll give you another one.

CF - Videos and pictures of many C=
events are credited to you. Can you
tell our readers why?

RobertB - I started taking photos and
videos of the shows in the late
1990's.  First and foremost, they were
a record to which I could refer when I
needed information.  Then I found out
that other people wanted to see the
photos.  Not having a personal website,
I relied on the kindness of others to
host the photos, especially our club
treasurer who has put up many of the
photos at his website. In the late 90's
and early 2000's, when anyone wanted a
copy of the show videos, I would
transfer them to VHS tape, Beta tape,
and later DVDs for a nominal cost (a
dollar or two to cover the cost of the
tapes, some cents to cover the cost of
DVDs, and a few dollars more to cover
postage and to put into the FCUG
treasury).  I think the most we have
ever sold was 10 at one time. Who would
have known back in the those early days
that there would be video-sharing
websites on the Internet now?  (I
didn't know back then, and so, you can
hear my comments and other utterances
while I was taping.  Nowadays, I'm
much more careful.)

There are those who want me to put all
the videos up on the Web now. However,
as I have explained before to such
people, I only have a dial-up
connection at my house, and at work
the school district would take a very
dim view of me uploading hours & hours
of video on their work computers. For
my friends or those who buy the videos,
I am not loath to them putting up the
videos on the Net.

In my circumstances, I myself just
can't do it.

Just recently, Ian Matthews of
Commodore.ca and Dave Haynie (former
Amiga engineer who runs his own video
production company) have been kind
enough to post some of my videos but
not all.  They ask; I can provide.  If
they don't ask, then I don't force any
more videos upon them.

CF - What Commodore machines do you
own and use?

RobertB - Too many!  I have my main
C128DCR set-up, several back-up
C128DCRs, a couple of SX-64s (one
highly modded), a few Plus/4s (NTSC &
PAL), a few VIC-20s, several brown &
cream C64s (NTSC and PAL), a PET 2001,
a PET 4032, a couple of PET 8032s, a
64GS, a C128D (plastic, PAL), an
Argentinian Drean C64C, a calculator or
two, many different drives including
CMD, C64 DTVs (NTSC/PAL, unmodded and
modded), Hummer DTVs, CommodoreOne,
Amiga 1000s, 500s, 200s, an A3000, an
A4000, & a AmigaOne.

         CONTINUED IN PART 3