4]--------------- 3]AMIEXPO ORLANDO 3]By Kevin Lude 4]--------------- Spirits were high and attendance low at the latest Amiga show, a Florida event in the convention center of the Stouffer Orlando Resort across from SeaWorld. There were only 38 exhibitors. Most conspicuously absent from the spectacle were Commodore and NewTek. Word was that both camps were preparing for the prestigious SIGGRAPH show. Yet, Amigas and Toasters seemed to be just about everywhere. Many booths displayed products that would enhance Toasterized Amigas, such as RAM cards or fonts. Developers and vendors filled the vacuum with the hottest new wares, from beta version '040 accelerator boards to the coolest video products. The show ran three days, though most Amiga fanatics probably found themselves re-tracing their own tracks after a couple hours or so. One vendor called the southeastern part of the U.S. an "Amiga desert." Nevertheless, fans found plenty of new and improved products to add to their beige toy boxes, and anyone involved with video, sound or personal productivity was in heaven. Several new icon-based multimedia programming tools were being used at the show. These included Showmaker, Scala, Hyperbook and a European entrant, CAPS XL. Inovatronics announced shipment of a more powerful and bug-free CanDo. These programs follow in the footsteps of established development systems such as AmigaVision, UltraCard and Deluxe Video III. DeluxePaint IV was officially unveiled and demonstrated by Electronic Arts. Advance orders were being taken for September fulfillment. DeluxePaint III is the best-selling paint/animation system ever for the Amiga. New DPIV features include HAM animation, automatic animbrush morphing, lightbox (onion-skin) and transparency effects. I was lucky enough to be a beta-tester for this product, and I assure you it will make a big splash. One of the newest trends in Amiga video presentations seems to be the "video wall," a matrix of monitors clustered to display a single super screen of moving imagery. Three separate booths featured video walls. One company, Breadbox, featured the Toaster-produced music video by Todd Rundgren, "Change Myself," as well as sneak peeks at Toaster effects coming soon. For those wanting a little guidance on various Amiga skills, classes were offered for both the novice and professional. Novice classes included "Your First Amiga" and "Using the Amiga CLI." Those for the more advanced were "The Amiga in Pro Video," "The Art of Amiga Art (Jim Sachs)," "Amiga Art in Motion," "3D Designs and Models," "True Multimedia on the Amiga" and "AREXX." There were price-of-admission-included sessions video production fundamentals, Workbench 2.0, extended graphic displays, Amiga music concepts, next generation Amiga graphics and an Amiga multimedia panel. There were presentations of the 1991 Art and Video Contest, in which prizes were awarded for excellence in Amiga graphics. A CDTV presentation was made on Saturday at the show. I believe that if this product survives the release of the CD-I box from Sony, it will branch away from the Amiga community. The product had a slow start from the gate, and sales have been sluggish in a market already saturated with CD-ROM technology. Many familiar Amiga personalities attended the show or spoke during the classes and presentations. These included AmigaWorld's Lou Wallace, artists Jim Sachs and Steve Segal, AREXX wizard Richard Stockton and EA's Jeff Bruette. Following is a listing of exhibitors and a bit of detail on each: 3]AMAZING COMPUTERS, 1441 E. Fletcher Ave., Ste. 1450, Tampa, FL 33612 (813) 977-6511 Featured a large selection of wares, and included representatives from GVP, Electronic Arts, Roctec and others. The exhibit was a large floor area housing several minibooths, including Merlin's Software, ECE MIDI and Amazing Express. 3]AMAZING COMPUTING P.O. Box 889 Fall River, MA 02722-0869 Phone 508-678-4200 AC now publishes three periodicals: the regular magazine, a technical one, and a comprehensive Amiga product guide which is updated from time to time. I spoke with associative editor Jeff Gamble, who was enthusiastic about AC's new endeavors. 3]AMIGA VIDEO MAGAZINE 200 W. 72d St., Ste. 53 New York, NY 10023 Phone 212-724-0288 This magazine is actually a cable TV show, similar to Computer Chronicles but 100 percent Amiga. I viewed one of its most popular "issues" on the Toaster, and was delighted to find the quality was high. The firm sells VHS tapes of all its shows. 3]AMIGAWORLD MAGAZINE 80 Elm St. Peterborough, NH 03458 Phone 603-924-0100 AW is now tied into AmiExpo. Though its presence was felt throughout the show, the AmigaWorld booth was a small area near the entrance. Booth workers gave away free August issues and sold various videos, books and AW software. AW is taking the risk that Amazing Computing has in producing its own technical journal. 3]AVID 4115-112 N. Mary #207 Sunnyvale, CA 94080 Phone 408-252-0508 Starting as an expanded newsletter format for Amiga video people, this magazine is now making the jump to a full-color expanded format. I find this the best source of Amiga video information now in print and a much needed source as the Amiga moves constantly into this niche market. 3]AMIGA VIDEO GRAPHICS GUILD 1649 Arcane Simi Valley, CA 93065 Phone 805-584-0863 This group publishes a quarterly journal for the growing number of Amiga art and video fans. 3]AXIOM 1221 East Center St. S.E. Rochester, MD 55904 Phone 507-289-8677 Axiom is rapidly moving into the professional market with upgrades of two important 3D products. Pixel 3D 2.0 is now not only the finest autotracer around (IFF 2D to 3D conversion), but also includes new loaders/savers, spin, point reduction, preview modeling and more. 3D Professional 2.0 will work on the Workbench 2.0 and is highly regarded by 3D enthusiasts. 3]BLUE RIBBON SOUNDWORKS 1293 Briar Dell Ln NE Atlanta, GA 30306 Phone 404-377-1514 Formerly Blue Ribbon Bakery, this developer is the lone champion for Amiga professional music generation. It features a large line of MIDI and composing software. BRS was on hand with studio musicians to demo Bars & Pipes Professional. 3]BREADBOX 5041 Cahuenga Blvd. North Hollywood, CA 91601 Phone 818-505-1464 While AVID may offer the most important general Amy video info, Breadbox features current coverage and instruction for Video Toaster users. Breadbox is not controlled by NewTek, which may give users a more subjective viewpoint. The newsletter is a bit pricey at $30 for 12 monthly issues, but video folks know such information can be golden. The Breadbox booth was an attractive and lively mix with a video wall and other displays. 3]CENTAUR SOFTWARE 4451-B Redondo Beach Blvd. Lawndale, CA 90260 Phone 213-542-2226 Both a developer and distributor, Centaur Software featured a display of MAST's Colorburst 24/48-bit graphics display system, the highest resolution on an Amiga to date. Other products on show were the disk optimizer B.A.D., the music product Pixsound, and the telecommunications program Mindlink. 3]CENTRAL COAST SOFTWARE, 424 Vista Ave., Golden, CO 80401 A division of New Horizons Software, Inc. P.O. Box 43167 Austin, TX 78745 Phone 512-328-6650 Now controlled by New Horizons, CCS has been an asset to the Amiga community with programs such as Quarterback, Quarterback Tools, Dos-2-Dos and Mac-2-Dos. 3]COMPUTER SYSTEMS ASSOCIATES 7564 Trade St. San Diego, CA 92121 Phone 619-566-3911 CSA is a hardware developer that has worked hand-in-hand with Commodore to facilitate accelerators in Amiga CPU's. At a general press conference, a CSA representative unveiled the impressive 40/4 Magnum, a switchable 68040 board for the A2000. CSA also makes the popular Mega-Midget Racer, an '030 board for the A500/A1000/A2000 series of computers. 3]CREATIVE COMPUTERS 4453 Redondo Beach Blvd. Lawndale, CA 90260 Phone 213-370-2009 Mail order Amiga products. 3]CREATIVE EQUIPMENT 6864 W. Flagler St. Miami, Fl 33144 Phone 305-266-2800 Not affiliated with the above. One advantage of going to Amiga shows, as opposed to reading about them, is the special show pricing vendors like this one offer. A gallery of products and at least three salespeople were crammed into this tiny booth, which featured such rarities as Amiga beach towels and glasses. I was the first kid on my block. 3]CRYOGENIC SOFTWARE 1221 East Center St. S.E. Rochester, MD 55904 Phone 507-289-8677 These folks exhibited with Axiom, demonstrating the latest version of 3D Professional. 3]EAGLE COMPUTERS 2525 Aurora Road, Ste. 105 Melbourne, Fl 32935 Phone 407-253-1805 Eagle Computers is a vendor specializing in high-end output for Amiga desktop publishers and videographers. Besides its standard line of Amiga products, it runs one of the most complete Amiga service bureaus in the country. 3]ELECTRONIC ARTS 1820 Gateway Drive San Mateo, CA 94404 Phone 415-571-7171, ext. 428 Debuted DeluxePaint IV, covered above. 3]GRAPHICALLY SPEAKING INC. 2574 PGA Blvd., Suite 107 Palm Beach Garden, FL 33410 Phone 407-626-3447 This newcomer introduced Video Clipse Volume 1, a seven-disk set of fonts, animbrushes, clip art and video backgrounds. GSI has jumped on the Toaster bandwagon with included Toaster fonts. 3]GREAT VALLEY PRODUCTS 600 Clark Ave. King of Prussia, PA 19406 Phone 215-337-8770 Along with the complete hardware lines for which GVP is known (accelerators, hard drive solutions, RAM boards), it now produces the Pro Video Adaptor. This multi-featured hardware solution is packed with goodies for video users. Scala is a relatively new presentation product, and a new series of removable media hard drives give users an alternate to the Syquest system with a faster access rate. 3]HAITEX RESOURCES P.O. Box 20609 Charleston, SC 29413-0609 Phone 803-881-7518 Haitex is still plugging away with its unique X-Specs 3D, a stereoscopic system that synchronizes separate video fields with a pair of LCD-shuttered goggles to simulate 3D vision. Product additions include a TV interface and a space flight simulator. Very interesting. 3]HELPDISK 6671 W. Indian Town, Ste. 56-360 Jupiter, FL 33458 Phone 407-694-1756 "The Buddy System" is a series of online tutorials for DPaint III, Pagestream, AmigaDOS 2.0 and Imagine. These trainers provide help while resident within programs, supplying speech narratives, illustrations and animated visuals. New titles are on the way. 3]I.DEN 165 A Brittany Farms Rd. New Britain, CT 06053 Phone 203-827-8900 I.DEN, like JVC, was a video vendor that was not Amiga-specific. Products included a video wall and an external time base corrector which can be used with the Toaster. 3]ICD, INC. 1220 Rock St. Rockford, IL 61101 Phone 815-968-2228 ICD displayed peripheral products for all Amigas, specializing in affordable super-tiny hard drives and boards. For the first time, an Amiga 500 can be fitted with a high-capacity hard drive, an accelerator, Flicker Free Video and 8 MB RAM all inside of your 500 at once with low power consumption. 3]INOVATRONICS, INC. 8499 Greenville Ave., Ste 209B Dallas, TX 75231 Phone 214-340-4991 An update to CanDo, the popular authoring system, headed the line of tools offered from this developer. Also available: CAPE68K, InovaTools 1, PowerWindows 2.5 and HyperHelpers. 3]JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS 41 Slater Drive Elmwood Park, NJ 07407 Phone 201-794-3900 JVC was on hand to display several products such as cameras, monitors, TBC's and editing decks. Though the salesman I spoke to said that JVC has no current plans for Amiga-specific products, it was good to see a professional video company giving the Amiga some attention. 3]KIDS COMPUTER NEWS (80 TRACK SOFTWARE) 414 Maple Ave. Westbury, N.Y. 11590 No phone given This lively booth was actually a portable PD factory, with thousands of freely distributable titles available for on-the-spot copying. 3]MEMORY AND STORAGE TECHNOLOGY 1395 Greg St., #106 Sparks, NV 89431 Phone 702-359-0444 Demonstrated Colorburst, mentioned above. 3]MEMORY WORLD 2476 Croydon Ct Bensalem, PA 19020 Phone 215-244-7930 This vendor advertises as the world's largest seller of Amiga chips. Prices were competitive. 3]MICROSEARCH 9896 Southwest Freeway Houston, TX 77074 Phone 713-988-2818 "SECRETLY RULE THE WORLD" buttons were given away at this booth, where two clowning demonstrators for ChromaKey drew large crowds throughout the show with their video magic. For the unfamiliar, chromakeying is somewhat the reverse of genlocking. The computer or first video image shows through anywhere the second video image has the key color, such as blue. Weather people use this all the time in broadcast video. The MicroSearch version does sport a bit of annoying fringing along the keyed edges, but it's a steal at around $300. A genlock is required. 3]MOONLIGHTER SOFTWARE 3208-C E. Colonial Dr., Ste 204 Orlando, Fl 32803 Phone 407-628-3005 This developer presented Ami-Back version 1.04, a major upgrade to the top-selling hard disk backup system. 3]NEW HORIZONS SOFTWARE, INC. P.O. Box 43167 Austin, TX 78745 Phone 512-328-6650 New Horizons shared its booth with its newly acquired company, Central Coast Software. On display were many of New Horizons' fine software products such as ProWrite, QuickWrite and DesignWorks (the new structured drawing program). Also shown was a working copy of the soon-to-be-released Flow 3.0, the "idea processor." 3]PROGRAMS PLUS AND VIDEO 544 Queens St. Chatham, ON N7M2J6 Canada Phone 519-436-0988 This company caught my attention with a terrific demo. It was a 24-bit animation made with Real-3D, played through DCTV with AmigaVision. Real-3D has enjoyed popularity in Europe for the last couple of years, and it looks like a real contender in the 3D wars. It was developed by two students studying for masters' theses who had never previously seen a ray-tracing program. The program evolved to prove certain parts of the project. The result was Real-3D in its earliest form, a system with both standard and unique tools. It appears to be fast and powerful. Another product on show was CAPS XL, an integrator that allows IBM, Mac and Amiga displays to be scripted together for video in even remote locations. 3]RGB COMPUTER AND VIDEO 4152 Blue Heron Blvd. West, Ste. 118 Riviera Beach, FL 33404 Phone 407-844-3348 These folks are the producers of AmiLink, the video editing systems which can automatically piece together finished video by means of an edit decision list. There are several versions for the variety of video equipment out there, and all work along with the Toaster. 3]ROCTEC 170 Knowles Dr., Ste. 202 Los Gatos, CA 95030 Phone 408-379-1713 Exhibited at Amazing Computers' booth. 3]SAFE HARBOR W255 N499 Grandview Blvd. Ste. 204 Waukesha, WI 53188 Phone 414-548-8125 A mail-order vendor. 3]SOFT-LOGIK PUBLISHING CORP. P.O. Box 290070 St. Louis, MO 63129 Phone 800-829-8608 Soft-Logik is the developer of Pagestream, and presented the latest version, 2.1. Other products, many of them just released, include Plus Pack, Font Disk A and Business Forms. Coming soon: Art Expression, HotLinks, Bit- Map Editor (BME) and PageLiner. 3]SPACE COAST AMIGA USERS' GROUP 2511 Auburn Dr. Coco, FL 32926 Phone 407-853-5981 This local club featured many helpful people its booth. There was a sharp-looking 10-page newsletter. The club offers a monthly disk, along with its prodigious distributable program library. 3]SUPRA CORPORATION 7101 Supra Drive SW Albany, OR 97321 Phone 503-967-9075 Supra has expanded its hardware line with new drives and the lightning- fast new SupraModem 9600. The WordSync hard drive and software from Supra promise speed gains and greater expansion options. Supra offers an array of supporting software and hardware products. 4]END OF TEXT