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Text File | 1995-12-03 | 9KB | 190 lines

066010303050000132002006006010000 11 2#1 F0110000001 9[....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆...]0110 üWe'vebeentovariousshowsintheUK,the16-BITwasoneofthe mostmemorable--well,untilNovember1993anyrate.Hereare tworeviewsof16-bitshows,thefirstin1990andthelastin February1993. Ç THE 16 BIT FAIR by Michael Schuessler What, two show reviews in one magazine ? Yes, it's been very busy here in London. I had to get up at 8 o' clock on the 29th of June (it was the Saturday). First of all I went to Spaz's and Manikin's place owho swore at me for coming round so early. It took us about one hour to get to the show. We have then managed to get in free with the help of some of our great friends. The show was mainly attended by software companies trying to sell crap games. The only companies which I found were worth visiting were Microedeal, 2 Bit Systems, 16/32 PD Library, PAGE 6 (great friends of ours, glad you like the mag), Riverdene PDL, Frontier Software, Hi Soft, GFA Data Media, Psygnosis, Soft Stuff Software and Softville. The rest of the companies were trying to sell their games cheaper than their opponent around the corner. Psygnosis were showing off their new game "Anarchy". This game is the defender type. The scrolling is extremely fast. You should avoid the bullets in order to survive the first wave. The second game that they were showing off is Matrix Marauders with some fast 3D arcade game concept. Soft Stuff Software were showing around their educational software with programs like : Let's spell at the shops, Let's spell at home, things to do with numbers and many other products. Stampede were trying to show off their disk magazine which has been voted the worst magazine on the Atari ST (sorry guys, but I just do not like it!!!). Something that I did not like too much from the show is that their were so many Amigas standing around, but in a way that was quite good as we got some more ideas for programs to convert to the ST. There were millions of great demos at the show with demos featuring very fast 3D animation which is bloody good !!! GFA Data Media brought some more useful products on the market like GFA Documentation, GFA Gup, GFA Draft plus and Mission Control / Gshell. This last program is a shell for the use with the interpretator and the compiler and the other products. There have been some more educational software releases for us older guys doing their GCSE's. The programs are Primary Maths ÇCourse (for 3 to 12 years) and micro Maths for the GCSe's. That's it for the soft and hardware. As at the last show many computer groups came to visit. These groups were Watchmen, TLb, many guys from Inner Circle, Andy, Derek, Wizpop (thanks for the great picture !!!) and New Order. Many new demos were released at the show, most of which are reviewed in the demo section. I am not going to go into much more detail now as I am rather in a hurry to get the second Issue of Maggie out. So I hope that you found this article at least informative to some extend. Bis Bald Michael Schuessler P.S.: The show was not as good as the Atari show but was definitely worth going to!!! 9[....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆...]0110 THE7TH16-BITCOMPUTERSHOW-WEMBLEYCONFERENCECENTRE Date: Friday19thFebruary Asfaras16-bitshowsgo,(andIhadn'tbeentooneofthesefor awhile)thisonewasquitegood.Certainlythecrowdswerea bitlessthanonaSaturdayoraSunday-whichmadetheshowall themoreimpressive. Somegreatandnotsogreatcompanieswereexhibitingatthis16- bitshow.Microdealwastherewithtwostands,oneshowingoff theStereoMasterpackageandothers,whileanothercomplete standwasgivenovertotheexcellent(andquiterightlyso) VideoMasterpackagethatwasreleasedjustbeforeChristmas1992. AtariWorkshopwasthere-theyhadasmallstandshowingoffthe TowerCase-anexcellentpieceofkitthatIown,whichhas recentlycomedowninprice.BestElectronicswerealsoatthe show,sellingAtariMegaSTboards(yes...thecompletecircuit boards!!unheardofinthiscountry..)andothervariousAtari partsandbitsandbobs.GasteinerTechnologieswerealsothere -withsomegreatbargainpricesonMegaSTs(Mega4for£450 comparedtoretailpricesomeyearsagoof£1200+)andsomeother goodpricesonSTEsetc. Thenotsogreatcompanies-iethesh*tones(wellitisbestto beblunt,Ifeel!)werethereintheusualforce-Power Computingwasonewhoweresellingtheirusualhardwarewhichis actuallywellpastitssell-bydatenow(theUltimateRipper beingacompletewasteoftimejudgingbyreviews).Whythehell Powercan'tdesignstufffortheSTandportittotheAmiga ratherthantheotherwayroundIdon'tknow.IfMicrodealcan dothis-withVideoMaster-thentheyshouldtryatleast. Ç Thecrappyconsoleswerealsoinforceaswell-itisamazing aboutthelargeamountofbrainwashingthatkidshavehadthese daystopersuadethemtobuyoneofthesethings.Consolesare justforgames,games.....andmoregames.Andthepricesofthe gamesaswell-thereissupposedtobearecessionwhichis hittingtheUKveryhard-sowhyareUKpeoplepaying£65+fora consolegameinthiscountry?BothSegaMegadrive,SNESand MasterSystemgamesareavailableondiscinotherEuropean countries-theyarealsoalotcheapertoo.Takeitfromme folks-trytofindaEuropeansupplierofdiscdrivesforthe consolesandusetheseratherthanpayovertheoddsfor cartridgestuff. ButthegoodpartoftheshowwasthattheFalconwasondisplay tothegeneralpublicfortheveryfirsttimeintheUK.....upto apoint.TherewerefourFalconssetupinanabsolutelyjam- packed'stand',withacollectionof'dummies'tryingtoanswer people'squestionsaboutthemachine.Don'tgetmewrong,the Falconisanexcellentmachine(andIsureashellwantone!!) butIwishthatAtariUKwouldimprovetheirlevelof knowledge..abitlessofthe'ohno,wecan'trevealthat'and moreofthe'theremaybeplanstoproduce.....' OneFalconwasrunningaGenlock-style'demo'-greatbutwe've seenthisdoneontheAmiga(andtheST)foryears-abitmore thoughtwouldhavehelpedonthisfront. AnotherFalconwasrunningWindows(fortheIBMPC).Looklads, aFalconissupposedtobetheretorunFalconsoftware-notPC software-eventhoughitwasrunningreasonablyfasttobe useable. YetanotherFalconwasbeingusedforsamplingandplayingback recordedmusic,toshowoffthesoundchip.Thiswasquitegood, butIcouldhardlyhearwhatwasbeingproduced-withthe generalhubbubinthebackground.Eventhepeoplewhowere answeringquestionsabouttheFalconcouldnotbeheardvery clearlywiththedin. IsawChrisandhisfriend,Alan,attheshow-theyseemedto think(accordingtome)thattheshowwasgenerallypoor(isthat true,Chris??) OnethingIwouldliketoseeabitlessofattheseshowsisthe typeoflayoutwhichiscrammedeitherintoonecornerofan incrediblylargeroomorthelayoutwhichusesjustoverhalfof theroomspace.Imean,comeon,isfinancingtheextraspace reallythathard??Therewasn'tverymuchspaceintheaisles betweenthestandstomoveabout(particularlywhenpeoplewere standingnearnoisystands)and,theperennialBritishshow FAVOURITE,thecompletelackofseatingbothinsideandoutside theshow,apartfromthebarupstairs(whichgotfullvery quickly). Ç WhenIgottotheshow,Ihadtoqueuetogetin.Nowthisis okayforme,beingayoungguy,Icanstandforlongperiods. Buttherewasatleastoneelderlygentlemanwhonearlycollapsed whilestanding-againIthinkthatseatingshouldbeprovided forthesepeople-sothatallagescangettotheshow.Another crazyreasonwhywehadtoqueuewasbecausetheshowwas apparentlyFULL,but,theshowwasonlyjustoverhalfthe floorspaceoftheentireroom,sohowcouldthishavebeenthe case??? Overall,Ithinktheshowwasgood,butPLEASE,organisers,FOR GOODNESSSAKE,useALLavailablefloorspaceinthemain exhibitionroomANDprovidemorespacebetweentheaisles.All thiswouldhavemadeajustgoodshowintoamuchbetterone. Felice.