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16bfairs.doc
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16bfairs.doc
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1995-12-03
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9KB
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190 lines
066010303050000132002006006010000
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üWe'vebeentovariousshowsintheUK,the16-BITwasoneofthe
mostmemorable--well,untilNovember1993anyrate.Hereare
tworeviewsof16-bitshows,thefirstin1990andthelastin
February1993.
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
THE7TH16-BITCOMPUTERSHOW-WEMBLEYCONFERENCECENTRE
Date: Friday19thFebruary
Asfaras16-bitshowsgo,(andIhadn'tbeentooneofthesefor
awhile)thisonewasquitegood.Certainlythecrowdswerea
bitlessthanonaSaturdayoraSunday-whichmadetheshowall
themoreimpressive.
Somegreatandnotsogreatcompanieswereexhibitingatthis16-
bitshow.Microdealwastherewithtwostands,oneshowingoff
theStereoMasterpackageandothers,whileanothercomplete
standwasgivenovertotheexcellent(andquiterightlyso)
VideoMasterpackagethatwasreleasedjustbeforeChristmas1992.
AtariWorkshopwasthere-theyhadasmallstandshowingoffthe
TowerCase-anexcellentpieceofkitthatIown,whichhas
recentlycomedowninprice.BestElectronicswerealsoatthe
show,sellingAtariMegaSTboards(yes...thecompletecircuit
boards!!unheardofinthiscountry..)andothervariousAtari
partsandbitsandbobs.GasteinerTechnologieswerealsothere
-withsomegreatbargainpricesonMegaSTs(Mega4for£450
comparedtoretailpricesomeyearsagoof£1200+)andsomeother
goodpricesonSTEsetc.
Thenotsogreatcompanies-iethesh*tones(wellitisbestto
beblunt,Ifeel!)werethereintheusualforce-Power
Computingwasonewhoweresellingtheirusualhardwarewhichis
actuallywellpastitssell-bydatenow(theUltimateRipper
beingacompletewasteoftimejudgingbyreviews).Whythehell
Powercan'tdesignstufffortheSTandportittotheAmiga
ratherthantheotherwayroundIdon'tknow.IfMicrodealcan
dothis-withVideoMaster-thentheyshouldtryatleast.
Ç
Thecrappyconsoleswerealsoinforceaswell-itisamazing
aboutthelargeamountofbrainwashingthatkidshavehadthese
daystopersuadethemtobuyoneofthesethings.Consolesare
justforgames,games.....andmoregames.Andthepricesofthe
gamesaswell-thereissupposedtobearecessionwhichis
hittingtheUKveryhard-sowhyareUKpeoplepaying£65+fora
consolegameinthiscountry?BothSegaMegadrive,SNESand
MasterSystemgamesareavailableondiscinotherEuropean
countries-theyarealsoalotcheapertoo.Takeitfromme
folks-trytofindaEuropeansupplierofdiscdrivesforthe
consolesandusetheseratherthanpayovertheoddsfor
cartridgestuff.
ButthegoodpartoftheshowwasthattheFalconwasondisplay
tothegeneralpublicfortheveryfirsttimeintheUK.....upto
apoint.TherewerefourFalconssetupinanabsolutelyjam-
packed'stand',withacollectionof'dummies'tryingtoanswer
people'squestionsaboutthemachine.Don'tgetmewrong,the
Falconisanexcellentmachine(andIsureashellwantone!!)
butIwishthatAtariUKwouldimprovetheirlevelof
knowledge..abitlessofthe'ohno,wecan'trevealthat'and
moreofthe'theremaybeplanstoproduce.....'
OneFalconwasrunningaGenlock-style'demo'-greatbutwe've
seenthisdoneontheAmiga(andtheST)foryears-abitmore
thoughtwouldhavehelpedonthisfront.
AnotherFalconwasrunningWindows(fortheIBMPC).Looklads,
aFalconissupposedtobetheretorunFalconsoftware-notPC
software-eventhoughitwasrunningreasonablyfasttobe
useable.
YetanotherFalconwasbeingusedforsamplingandplayingback
recordedmusic,toshowoffthesoundchip.Thiswasquitegood,
butIcouldhardlyhearwhatwasbeingproduced-withthe
generalhubbubinthebackground.Eventhepeoplewhowere
answeringquestionsabouttheFalconcouldnotbeheardvery
clearlywiththedin.
IsawChrisandhisfriend,Alan,attheshow-theyseemedto
think(accordingtome)thattheshowwasgenerallypoor(isthat
true,Chris??)
OnethingIwouldliketoseeabitlessofattheseshowsisthe
typeoflayoutwhichiscrammedeitherintoonecornerofan
incrediblylargeroomorthelayoutwhichusesjustoverhalfof
theroomspace.Imean,comeon,isfinancingtheextraspace
reallythathard??Therewasn'tverymuchspaceintheaisles
betweenthestandstomoveabout(particularlywhenpeoplewere
standingnearnoisystands)and,theperennialBritishshow
FAVOURITE,thecompletelackofseatingbothinsideandoutside
theshow,apartfromthebarupstairs(whichgotfullvery
quickly).
Ç
WhenIgottotheshow,Ihadtoqueuetogetin.Nowthisis
okayforme,beingayoungguy,Icanstandforlongperiods.
Buttherewasatleastoneelderlygentlemanwhonearlycollapsed
whilestanding-againIthinkthatseatingshouldbeprovided
forthesepeople-sothatallagescangettotheshow.Another
crazyreasonwhywehadtoqueuewasbecausetheshowwas
apparentlyFULL,but,theshowwasonlyjustoverhalfthe
floorspaceoftheentireroom,sohowcouldthishavebeenthe
case???
Overall,Ithinktheshowwasgood,butPLEASE,organisers,FOR
GOODNESSSAKE,useALLavailablefloorspaceinthemain
exhibitionroomANDprovidemorespacebetweentheaisles.All
thiswouldhavemadeajustgoodshowintoamuchbetterone.
Felice.