Report from the Midwest Amiga Exposition by Casey Williams

From: etherius@labyrinth.net (Casey R Williams)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: midwest amiga expo news?
Date: 03 Nov 97 07:18:27

> Hi folks! As I understand it, the Midwest Amiga Expo is on this weekend. I
> was hoping someone might have some news from the show. Of particular
> interest to me is the keynote speech from Amiga International. Does anyone
> have access to news from this show?? Thanks!!

Well, I only managed to be there for a few hours, but man, I had one hell of a good time! Petro gave a pretty standard Petro speech in which he revealed that Quikpak had a licence, and that a large chunk had been invested in DCE, I assume not because of the spec of their machines, but the overall design. He said much and little at the same time, but I got the impression that he'd have said more if allowed, obviously. He promised that the big news would be at Cologne, and we should feel free to be there. What's to do but laugh? Now that I've heard him speak in person, and even briefly talked one on one, I don't believe him to be incompetent at all. He is just the head of one small part of a larger Amiga whole, and I think he does his job well. Despite the outdated spec of the clone machines, there will be a new Amiga, and current liscencees will be the ones to produce it. If only a third of these groups have any luck, the Amiga will survive for quite some time.

One could rarely be farther than 3' (approx 1m) from another Amigan which, if you ask me is refreshing. Honestly though, it was a very busy place for the entire time I was there, and seemed to be in roughly the same amount of space as last year. It was so hard to tell, as it really was that much more packed. I felt as though there was a new optimism, and people really tried hard to be there. If Computer '97 were to see a similar increase percentage wise, it would flow into neighbouring towns.

Aurora Works were there showing off their very impressive H-Bomb, with some art by Eric Schwartz, who was also there. That boy never ceases to amaze...

I touched a PowerUp card like the one I've got on order, and felt sorry for the chap selling them as his credit arrangement didn't come through and he could only take cash. Kermit signed my Aladdin4D manual, but neither of us had the time for me to harass him any more than I did. I asked Vulcan US if they would be doing any US development, but the best answer I could get was that one of the World Foundry people was in the states. It seems to me that they're just for distribution purposes at the moment.

Compuquick had a large stack of goods, I picked up the new Format, but had not the cash to look further. Still, I did snag a real nice Powered by Amiga T shirt with the top 10 reason not to PC on the back. (#1? Win '95 Sucks!) All in all, I had a great time. There may not have been much news, but there was plenty going on.

etherius


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