SHOW REVIEW¢¢¢THE ATARI CANADIAN EXPOSITION 92¢¢An 8-Bit Perspective by Mike Jewison¢¢¢ Over the weekend of April 4/5 Toronto played host to ACE 92, the Atari Canadian Exposition, sponsored by Atari Canada and the Toronto Atari Federation. Having previously read Ben Poehland's review of the WAACE show in issue 14 of 8:16 I had no illusions about finding some treasure trove of long-lost 8-bit hardware and software. I went in expecting the 8-bit pickings to be meagre at best, and I was not disappointed. Or, more correctly, I was disappointed but not surprised.¢¢ Expecting that my most likely source for finding 8-bit kindred spirits was at the user group tables, I decided to hit them first. The host group for the show, the Toronto Atari Federation (TAF), had selections from their large public domain library, as well as a number of other goodies (obtained from Atari Canada) for sale. Another user group from Hamilton (just west of Toronto) was demonstrating someone's home built SIO2PC, a shareware interface which allows you to use an IBM-PC as a file server for your 8-bit Atari. I've built an SIO2PC myself so I was familiar with the device, but many of the people stopping by the table had never heard of it and were impressed with its versatility and speed (it runs at up to three times the speed of a normal Atari disk drive).¢¢ Right across the aisle were Bill and Pattie Rayl of Unicorn Publications, publishers of Atari Interface Magazine. AIM is the only Atari-specific magazine to which I still subscribe, and I had a number of short conversations with Pattie about the current sad state of North American 8-bit magazines (I left whenever I started to create a backlog at their table). AIM is currently the only North American magazine offering an 8-bit Disk-of-the-Month and they had copies of their disk catalogues available for perusal.¢¢ The only commercial operation at the show which offered any 8-bit support was Best Electronics. Best is, in all likelihood the world's largest single supplier of hard-to-get replacement parts for almost any piece of Atari hardware ever produced. Brad Koda, the owner, didn't have a lot of 8-bit stuff at the show but I did have him send me a copy of their current catalogue. Anyone who owns an 8-bit Atari owes it to themselves to get a copy of Best's catalogue; when I received my copy a week after the show I simply couldn't believe the quantity of parts he has in stock. [Best Electronics, 2021 The Alameda, Suite 290, San Jose, CA 95126-1127, USA]¢¢ At this point I had pretty much exhausted the 8-bit end of things and just decided to cruise the floor for a while. Even though 8-bit support was pretty much non-existent, let me say that for an ST/TT owner this was the place to be. A number of the big ST developers (D.A.Brumleve, Codehead, Gadgets by Small, Clear Thinking, ICD, Branch Always, Gribnif, et.al.) were there and a number of them had impressive displays. Gadgets by Small was running their accelerator card in what they touted as the world's fastest ST. They had it running a graphics display which did look pretty fast, too.¢¢ Atari Canada had set up a huge hardware display. They had TT's, Mega ST's, Lynx's, and even an ST Book. Many local resellers had excellent prices on their Portfolios. It's almost enough to make one wish they owned an ST (but not quite:-).¢¢ Probably the most disheartening aspect of the show was the display labelled "Atari History - Museum of Computing". There, I saw a 400, 800, 810, 1027, XE, XEGS, and XM301, most of which I still have and use. It saddens me somewhat to think that the equipment I use for most of my everyday computing needs (and which, I might add, fulfills those needs admirably) are considered museum pieces by Atari. As 8-bit support continues to dwindle it becomes even more important to support those commercial operations which still give us the service we rely on. Let's see now, where did I put that Best catalogue...¢¢¢This article is from issue 15 of the 8:16 Newsletter. You can subscribe to 8:16 for only 6.50 (4 quarterly issues) from BAPAUG (see InfoFile!).¢¢¢-------------------------------------¢¢¢ED- "Atari History - Museum of Computing"????? I see Atari Canada shares the same IQ as Atari UK!¢¢ Mike Jewison is absolutey correct - we MUST support those who still offer an 8-bit service!!! Only by supporting the small operations will the big guns sit up and take notice.¢
