When the show organizers contacted me, asking me to give a couple of talks, I was thrilled. I was sold when I learned they'd pay to fly me out and book my hotel stay. I got to see a lot of Canada that day, flying from Chicago to Vancouver to Kelowna to Edmonton to Calgary.
But the show was more important. It was a two-day event, kicked off early Saturday morning to a lined-up crowd outside the door. Demonstrating and hawking their wares at the show were Canadian dealer chain/distributor Wonder Computers; Oregon Research, publishers of Termite and On the Ball and distributors of several UK-based Amiga products including the Squirrel PCMCIA SCSI interface; AmiTrix, an Edmonton-based Amiga engineering and product distribution company, local dealers Software Supermart and The Computer Shop, and Spots, a local Internet service provider with active Amiga support.
These made up the main show floor. Two rooms, one large auditorium and a smaller, classroom environment, were used for presentations and seminars that went on during the course of the show. To fill the time, Dave Haynie, Dale Larson, and I were brought out to give a pair of presentations each. In addition, local experts on 3D rendering and Amiga programming got their day in court, and Wonder's Steve Vetzal gave an Internet presentation. For my part, I gave a couple of talks on emulation-neither of which went as well as I'd have liked, owing to difficulties in locating the right hardware combinations for the software I brought. I can't complain, though.
Dave Haynie, former senior hardware engineer for Commodore, presently employed in a similar capacity at Scala, launched the auditorium speech series with a Scala-assisted talk on the history of the Amiga. Nearly two hours long, Dave kept the crowd interested non-stop, covering little-known details and potholes in the development of key hardware products, complete with a lesson on how to dodge FCC regulations. Later, Haynie unveiled a prototype motherboard for Nyx, the AAA development machine. It was one of the basis for his seminar on Amiga hardware.
Dale Larson, former Commodore networking software engineer and presently el Presidente of Intangible Assets Manufacturing, gave a small-room seminar on Amiga networking (note: people had to pay to get into those small-room seminars) and an auditorium talk with a basic theme of "Fun stuff to do with an Amiga on the Internet." I made sure Amiga Report was mentioned at least twice.
The show floor marched on through both days, regardless of who was talking when. Wonder sprawled across nearly a quarter of the show floor, with software piled high off the tables. Of particular note were the products they were selling as a result of their buyout of the New Horizons "B" pack of liquidation assets, most importantly DesignWorks, the structured drawing package. Wonder's sister company Lazarus Engineering had turned DesignWorks into a 1.1 version, bringing it up to full 2.x/3.x OS compliance. Also being sold and shown was PowerManager, a drive caching/screen blanking/power conservation package. A week after the show, Lazarus' head engineer, Steve Cockwell, informed me that a totally revamped DesignWorks would be hitting the shelves soon with a new manual. He also informed me that PowerManager's future was uncertain-the product was completed specifically for AmiJAM (the box sleeves were printed with the designation "Special AmiJAM Version!") and Wonder has not committed to mass-marketing the product.
Oregon Research, across the hall, had its entire product line on hand for sale and display. The long-awaited Termite 1.1 was available (and I walked away with one for review). Bob Luneski, president, didn't mention any new upcoming products, but at least one, On the Ball, seems headed for something of a refit. We exchanged notes for a time, and I learned, among other things, that the rights to the Atari ST have been sold to a German company. (Oregon Resarch also distributes products for that line of computers and apparently does very well by it, particularly in dense pockets of users in the music business in California.)
AmiTrix had the SCSI-TV, SCSI-570, and AmigaLink on display. AmigaLink is the floppy drive-port SANA-II compliant networking solution that AmiTrix recently got distribution rights for. SCSI-TV and SCSI-570 are original products that bring a full SCSI interface to A570 and CDTV users via the special expansion port on those units.
Software Supermart brought a bunch of software and sold a ton of it.
Spots was a great outlet for people who wanted to check their e-mail and were far from home. Unfortunately, I never got my turn.
The Computer Shop seemed to want to sell this Toaster 2000 system really bad. I don't think they ever did, though.
The AMUC crew held down the fort, trying to make sure all participants registered (to get an accurate attendance figure), keeping the speakers and presenters and table-holders happy, and raffling off donated prizes (largely sent by companies who felt guilty about not attending). AMUC also organized an All Night Hacker's Party Saturday night and a post-show banquet on Sunday. I have no idea if the all night party really went all night, but I have my doubts, since everyone looked pretty tired around midnight.
The banquet was a chance to kick back, relax, and congratulate everyone for actually pulling the show off successfully. The food wasn't bad, either.
What was the general mood at the show? Maybe that can best be felt through the panel discussion held at the end of the Sunday events. It consisted of Brant Coghlan of AmiTrix, Dale Larson (who held a minor coup and became the MC of the discussion), Dave Haynie, myself, and Steve Vetzal and Steve Cockwell of Wonder. "Strong concern" is the term. People are strongly concerned about the path Amiga Technologies is headed down-one with cloudy skies and uninspiring decisions. It seems clear that strong leadership with populist motivation was the sort of thing Amiga users wanted and needed, and they're not getting it, and it's making them uncomfortable.
Also discussed was what the panel would like to see for future development of the Amiga line. PowerPC was a virtually unanimous choice. As Dave Haynie put it, "it will be the only RISC chip with a chance to be priced as a commodity item."
Was it a successful show? Everyone has to make their own decisions on that one. AMUC wanted better attendance (it was a matter of hundreds-registered attendees numbered somewhere around 300-400). Of course, the dealers wanted better attendance for more sales, although Software Supermart was said to be "very happy" and Wonder was in a pretty good situation-with the opening of Western Canada dealerships, much of the unsold inventory went directly to the new stores. I had a great time, got to put lots of faces to what were previously just names and (rarely) voices, and even got Dave Haynie to agree to do articles for Amiga Report and Amiga Report Tech Journal. I had a great time.
Friday night: After Dale and Dave finally arrived at our hotel suite, the three of us, along with AMUC and AmiTrix members went out to Jezebel's, a local bar and grill. As the night wore on, just about everyone got worn out, save Dave, who had consumed roughly 1.5 pitchers of Warthog beer. As a hint that maybe we should leave, Dale inquired, "What, does beer keep you awake?!?!"
The Karaoke Chronicles: On Saturday, many of Friday night's veterans went looking for a Karaoke bar. After some 6 different bars all over Calgary, we finally found one. Dale Larson blew a fuse on the Karaoke equipment about 1 minute into his rendition of "Wild Thing". Undaunted, he went on to restart the song, as well as sharing "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" and "Bad to the Bone" with the crowd, much to the delight of the guys with cowboy hats. Other notable performances included my Karaoke debut of "Stand", the Dale/Dave/Jason/Brant version of "Eat It", and an eventual sextet of "Addicted To Love."
On Sunday, we got a bar all to ourselves for about 45 minutes before the AmiJAM banquet. This gave us more chances to look silly, including a Dale/Dave/Jason performance of "Whip It" (we had tried on Saturday night but they wouldn't let us), Dave's "Losing My Religion", and a tag-team version of "Let It Be" (Dale decided after a minute and a half that it was out of his range, so Dave took over.)
Food and Drink: According to Dale Larson, el Presidente of IAM, Jezebel's serves one of the top 5 Zombie's he's ever had.
I spilled beer on AMUC member and Amiga game publisher Ken Pierce, which is less exciting than it sounds. It was just a wild gesture I made where he happened to be holding his bottle.
Canadian Subway shops aren't as good as those in the US. Still, it was fun seeing a bag of Doritos in both English and French.
Here's looking forward to AmiJAM '96.