----------------------------------- 3]AmiEXPO: 8,200+ Amigans in New York By CHERYL PETERSON 1]----------------------------------- The first AmiExpo, held at New York's Sheraton Centre Hotel in October, was an unqualified success. Sponsored by Amuse, the New York Amiga User Group, the Expo featured more than 70 vendors showing their newest products: software, hardware, peripherals, magazines and specialty items. Several types of products were heavily represented. Three-dimensional graphics and desktop publishing were the most prominently emphasized, followed closely by music and video applications. Tools for Amiga musicians were also shown. According to Joe Lowery, one of the show organizers, more than 8,200 attended the show during its three-day run. This made it a little crowded on Saturday, Oct. 10, but by the time the show closed on Monday, things had settled down quite a bit. Patience was a necessity as waits of more than 15 minutes were common at the more popular booths. 3]INSTANT KNOWLEDGE 1] The more than two dozen seminars provided insight into both the machines and their uses. The well-attended hardware seminars focused on the new machines (the Amiga 500 and the 2000) as well as on expansion possibilities for the 1000. As you would expect in the case of a machine with the Amiga's great graphics capability, some seminars dealt with using the Amiga for video and for artistic and business graphics. Others dealt with computer-aided design (CAD) and engineering uses for the Amiga. There were programming language seminars featuring C, Basic, Modula 2 and Forth. 3]MAGAZINES ON HAND 1] The show provided a bit of international flavor -- two European Amiga magazines were present and distributing copies, and one vendor from Ireland was showing a fantastic statistical package for which he hopes to find a publisher. Information on subscribing to Enigma, Commodore Business, and Amiga User can be found at the end of this article. Three other conventional magazines, Amiga Sentry, Amazing Computing, and AmigaWorld, sponsored booths where they gave out copies of their latest issues. Editors from Transactor were also at the show. One showed me the logo planned for the new Transactor Amiga magazine which is slated for a January debut. 3]A COMMODORE 64 IN YOUR AMIGA? 1] A great deal of excitement was generated by two C-64 emulators being shown by Software Insight Systems and ReadySoft. ReadySoft's "The 64 Emulator" is a software-only product that enables access to thousands of Commodore 64 programs. An optional serial interface allows use of the Commodore disk drives and printers. GO - 64!, on the other hand, includes a hardware box that attaches directly to the parallel printer port on the Amiga 500 or 2000 (a conversion cable is required for the Amiga 1000). These products open the Amiga to a whole world of software, which many Amiga owners may already have from their first computer. 3]GRAPHICS STEAL THE SHOW 1] The folks of Newtek, Inc. were stopping traffic cold with a digitized Max Headroom-style animation sequence that featured their very pretty sales manager Laura Longfellow. Created with Newtek's DigiView product, the sign on the front of the monitor emphasized that the display was not a videotape. Instead, the graphics were being repeatedly generated by the Amiga from data stored on disk. Testing the color quality and true-to-life digitization was easy, as Longfellow was present to answer questions most of the day. A-Squared's Live! digitizer was also being shown, but the faces on the screen were those of the booth's visitors. A quick step in front of the video camera and there you were, Live! on the Amiga. The black-and-white digitizations were immediate and could track movement quite well. The color information took longer to process and so could not be done in real time. Still, it was an impressive display. Another display that really set people on their ears was the moving graphics being shown at the BYTE-by-BYTE booth. Their Khanakhas demo showed what amazingly realistic effects can be achieved using ray-traced drawing methods. Three other demos that they brought with them were excellent. An outstanding compression program that they use took a 1.6 megabyte drawing file and condensed it down to where it could fit on a disk with two other multi-megabyte drawings. Scott Peterson, their sales director, informs me that they will be placing some of the peripheral utilities (such as the animator player) in the public domain so Sculpt 3D graphics can be more freely distributed by their creators. 3] (EDITOR'S NOTE: See the article on public domain software to learn how 3]you can obtain Byte-by-Bytes demo disk used at the show.) 1] Another popular booth was the MicroMagic booth. The folks there were also showing graphics. Theirs include an animator that allows projects to be played back in real time. Forms in Flight requires at least a megabyte of RAM to run but offers advanced features like hidden line removal and HP Plotter support. Impulse, Inc. was also showing graphics definition products, including their Prism HAM editor, Silver (a ray-tracing program) and Phoenix Full Frame Color Video Digitizer. 3]DESKTOP PUBLISHING PACKAGES -- NEW AND IMPROVED 1] The desktop publishing field is very hot. No fewer than four exhibitors were showing page layout software. If you consider that ProWrite can incorporate color IFF files in its documents there were five of them. Infinity Software was demonstrating Shakespear, which they said they would be shipping within a couple weeks of the show. Gold Disk, Inc. was showing Pagesetter with their companion program LaserScript and previewing their new package, Professional Page. Microsearch, Inc. was showing version 1.1 of City Desk, their popular page layout package. They promise free updates to users who return their master disk. Contact them at (713) 988-2818 for full details. They were also showing Head Coach, a football simulation program. Brown-Wagh Publishing was showing their DTP package, Publisher 1000, as well as the complete line of software from Micro-Systems Software, Inc. and TV Text, TV Show and Zuma Fonts. 3]GAMES -- FEW AND FAR BETWEEN 1] Activision and MicroIllusions shared a booth showing their latest gaming endeavors. Activision was showing Portal, and Gamestar's Championship series. MI's BlackJack Academy offers lessons in how to "beat the dealer." Their Fire Power package pits you against the computer or a live opponent in a tank attack game. If two players both have the game, they can play each other by modem. Software Terminals was showing their Telegames package, which also features interactive play via modem. Players can compete against each other or the computer in checkers, chess or backgammon. Psygnosis, an English developer marketing through an American distributor, was showing Terrorpods and Barbarian. Their earlier products include Deep Space, Arena and Brattacas. 3]MUSIC 1] Mimetics and Aegis seem to be working toward creating a video/music generation system that will allow users to create "home videos" with music, sound and special effects. Mimetics offers Soundscape PRO MIDI studio and a stereo sampler to help you get the musical score written and generated. Their Frame Buffer and ImaGen Genlock help you take your video data from life rather than through creation with a graphics package. Aegis is adding to their video and audio line. Their Videoscape 3D is already acknowledged as being a first-rate video package. They are adding VideoTitler and Audio Master to fill out their "digital video studio." Texture, from Magnetic Music, is MIDI music software that features real time recording, editing and sequencing. It also offers real time interaction, an undo feature, a record buffer and mouse driven controls. Sound Quest's Editor/Librarian for Yamaha DX-7-II and Roland D-50 brings the Amiga's music capability closer to what is available for the Macintosh. A common complaint among professional musicians that has kept them from thoroughly embracing the Amiga has been the lack of Librarian and MIDI editing software. Sound Quest's generic Master Librarian and DX Master Editor should help address this problem. Sunrize Industries was also showing their older Perfect Sound product. Their new line includes Studio Magic, a digital sound studio with MIDI and a realtime video digitizer. New Wave Software was showing their Amiga drum machine program, Dynamic Drums. The package includes a cassette instruction tape to make it easier for the user to understand the principles of electronic drum machines. 3]HARDWARE ON HAND 1] There were a few exhibitors showing hardware; ASDG, Computer System Associates, DesignLab, Spirit Technologies and Supra Corporation. The items ranged from hard drives and memory expanders to modems and sound and video digitizers. Computer Systems Associates was also showing their 68020 and 68881 co-processor products. Unlike many computer oriented shows, this one allowed the exhibitors to sell their products, and most of them were doing a brisk business. If these were any indication of the amount of interest in the Amiga computers, Commodore should have no trouble showing a profit in the coming months. 3]SPEAKERS 1] The first day's keynote speaker, Jay Miner, gave a historical perspective on the Amiga. The leader of the Amiga development team in Los Gatos, he is often called the "father of the Amiga." The second day started with an address by R. J. Mical, who told of the development of the software which drives the Amiga. On the third day, Richard McIntyre, senior vice- president of sales and marketing at CBM, told of the marketing plans for the Amiga 500 and 2000. His talk included a fifteen-minute video that describes the Amiga 500 and all the wonderful capabilities it has. Commodore's plans to market the Amiga 500 include a TV commercial telling folks to call to receive the video advertisement. According to McIntyre, Commodore feels the Amiga 500 is the home computer that will soon dominate the market. The marketing plan for the 2000 is, of course, quite different. Commodore will be emphasizing the graphics capabilities, multi-tasking, IBM compatibility (with the addition of a card), and affordability of the Amiga 2000. 3]CONCLUSIONS 1] The AmiExpo was a fine chance to learn about the Amiga, get a look at the excellent software that is available and glimpse the products of the future. The accommodations were very good. The difficulty caused by the passage of the subway directly beneath the exhibition hall was annoying, though minimal (all the computer screens would dim down each time a subway train passed). The speakers were fairly interesting, although a couple of talks lacked definition and at least one scheduled speaker failed to show up. Since this was the first show of its kind, some problems could have been expected. Perhaps improvement will be forthcoming in the next two shows: January 16-18, 1988, at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles and July 22-24, 1988 at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago. If the next two shows are as well-organized as this one, those who attend should be pleased. 3]PUBLICATIONS ADDRESSES 1]Amazing Computing Pim Publications, Inc. PO Box 869 Fall River MA 02720 (617) 678-4200 Amiga Sentry TAS Publications 706 Old Maple Road Springfield PA 19064 (215) 544-6394 AmigaWorld CW Communications 80 Elm Street Peterborough NH 03458 (603) 924-9471 Enigma Publishing LTD US Distributor 1703 46th Ave. Long Island NY 11101 (718) 937-4606 Amiga User Croftward LTD Finsbury Business Centre 40 Bowling Green Lane London EC1R 0NE U.K. 01-278-0333 3]COMMODORE 64 EMULATORS 1]ReadySoft, Inc. PO Box 1222 Lewiston NY 14092 (416) 731-4175 Software Insight Systems 16E International Drive East Granby CT 06026 (203) 653-4589 3]HARDWARE 1]ASDG, Inc. 280 River Road, Suite 54A Piscataway NJ 08854 (201) 563-0529 Computer System Associates 7564 Trade Street San Diego CA 92121 (619) 566-3911 DesignLab 87 Chestnut Street Oswego NY 13827 (607) 687-5740 Spirit Technology Corporation 220 West 2950 South Salt Lake City UT 84115 (801) 485-4233 Supra Corporation 1133 Commercial Way Albany OR 97321 (503) 967-9075 3]SOFTWARE 1]A-Squared 6114 LaSalle Ave., Suite 326 Oakland CA 94611 (415) 339-0339 Activision/MicroIllusions 2835 Bayshore Parkway Mountain View CA 94039 (415) 960-0410 Aegis Development 2115 Pico Blvd. Santa Monica CA 90405 (213) 392-9972 Brown-Wagh Publishing 16795 Lark Ave., Suite 210 Los Gatos CA 95030 (408) 395-3838 BYTE-by-BYTE 9442 Capitol of Texas Hwy North #150 Austin TX 78759 (512) 343-4357 Firebird Licensees, Inc. 71 Franklin Turnpike Waldwick NJ 07463 (201) 444-5700 Gold Disk, Inc. 2171 Dunwin Drive, Unit 13 Mississauga, Ontario, CANADA L5L 1X2 (416) 828-0913 Impulse, Inc. 6870 Shingle Creek Parkway, #112 Minneapolis MN 55430 (612) 566-0221 Infinity Software, Inc. 1144 65th Street, Suite C Emeryville CA 94608 (415) 420-1551 Magnetic Music RD 5, Box 227A Myrtle Dr. Mahopac NY 10541 (914) 248-8208 Micromagic 261 Hamilton Ave., Suite 320B Palo Alto CA 94301 (415) 327-9107 Microsearch, Inc. 9896 Southwest Freeway Houston TX 77074 (713) 988-2818 Mimetics Corporation PO Box 60238, Sta. A Palo Alto CA 94306 (408) 741-0117 New Wave Software 22615 Carolina St. Claire Shores MI 48080 (313) 771-4465 Newtek, Inc. 701 Jackson, Suite B3 Topeka KS 66603 (913) 354-9332 Psygnosis Limited, US Distributor Computer Software Service 2150 Executive Drive Addison IL 60101 (800) 422-4912 Software Terminal 3014 Alta Mere Fort Worth TX 76116 (817) 244-4150 Sound Quest, Inc. 5 Glenadan Ave. East Toronto CANADA M84 2L2 (416) 234-0347 3]END OF TEXT