CommVEx thoughts (fwd)

[rbernardo]

CommVEx Thoughts

By Lenard R. Roach, editor of the Interface


We just got back from sunny Las Vegas after attending the Fresno
Commodore User Group and Clark County Commodore Computer
Club's CommVEx v3. I must tell you that those who did not
attend missed a great time of Commodore fun and information. Alana
personally won two door prizes -- a RS232 interface and a 5.25" disk
cleaning kit, and I won one -- the Congo Bongo cartridge game. I
played the raffle and tried to win the Commodore SX64 for only $10,
but Lady Luck was not with me in Las Vegas for that venture.

Alana didn't know exactly what to do with the door prizes she won since
she doesn't use a Commodore as often as I do, so naturally she gave
those prizes to me. The RS232 interface is now a permanent part of my
C128 setup. I just need to find a modem or printer to hook up to it.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning. The
Roach clan left Kansas City at about 5:00 am to head for Las Vegas.
Everything went well for the first leg of the trip. We stopped in for
fuel and food in Junction City and left for Denver. Gabriel was at
the wheel during this leg of the trip, so he got to deal with his first
experience of a large city's rush hour. Nothing is worse than hitting
rush hour in a city that you know nothing about, and Gabriel got to deal
with both. We stopped at a truck stop and switched drivers.

Alana was at the wheel for the next leg of the trip through
the mountains. There are no words in our wonderful English language
to describe the beauty and majesty of the Colorado Rockies. If
your vehicle can handle the trip, please plan on a trip to see these
wonders of God's creative hand. However, amongst this beauty comes
a danger, and that danger is the major inclines and declines of the
mountains. Our poor Dodge 1500, which has not been on such a trip
in years, began to balk at the high altitudes and thin air. Several
times Alana had to drop it into second gear to keep the vehicle moving
around fifty miles per hour. But the Dodge was a tough old vehicle
and made it through the mountains of Colorado and Utah and into Las
Vegas.

We made it into the city by 4:00 am Kansas City time. Unknown to me, we crossed two time zones, so it was 2:00 am Las Vegas time. Our
rooms weren't going to be ready until 12:00 noon, so we had ten hours to do nothing before we could check in and get some sleep. So we took our
first tour of the Las Vegas Strip, trying to look for some place to buy
supplies. A Walgreens was there on the Strip, so we stopped for the
first time in Las Vegas.

Almost immediately upon alighting from the Dodge, we were pestered by a bum asking for money. Not thirty seconds later, we got pestered by a
woman hoboing it also. This was all done before we could step into
Walgreens. These people were made derelicts by the gambling and
losing done in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is truly a city that does not sleep. Even though there is a
5:00 am curfew on Friday and Saturday nights, the town remains
bustling until that very hour. The accomplishments of man can be
seen in Las Vegas as light upon light flashes in the retina. The Strip
cannot be described; it has to be experienced.

We cruised around for several hours, admiring the lights and sights,
then went back to our hotel to wait to get in. By 9:00 am Las Vegas
time, our rooms were ready, so we got to check in early, clean up,
and take a nap. It took us 25 hours to drive to Las Vegas from Kansas
City, so we were butt-ugly exhausted.

Upon getting up, we walked the Fremont Street Experience, kind of a mini
Las Vegas Strip that you can walk, which was right by the El Cortez Hotel
where we were staying. At the end of the Experience was the Plaza Hotel
where we knew CommVEx was going to be. We entered to locate the
room wherein CommVEx was. The bellhop informed us it was in Jockey
Room #1.

We went to the 3rd floor and entered the Jockey Room, and there amongst the tables of Commodore equipment sat Robert Bernardo and Larry Anderson of FCUG. Robert looked of Asian descent, but his six feet in height revealed the American in him. Larry was as tall with rough
features and long hair that unfortunately accented his bald spot. I
shook the hands of both men and began to look around. Since CommVEx
wasn't going to start until 11:00 am Saturday, there was nothing to
see except dismantled Commodores ready to be set up. We gave a quick
good-bye and went back to the El Cortez. Alana deduced that in order to
unload the Commodore equipment I brought, we had to get into the Plaza
Hotel's third floor parking garage. That way we could walk straight into
the Jockey Room and CommVEx. After that, it was dinner at Subway,
prayer, and then bed.

Funny thing about being in another time zone... when you get up at your
time, it is early for the rest of the citizenry wherein you are staying.
We arose at 6:00 am Kansas City time and milled about the room, waiting
for 6:00 Las Vegas time to roll around. Robert and Erica, my son and
daughter-in-law, went out onto the Strip the night before and checked
out the local scene and were sleeping off the excitement. Alana, Gabe,
and myself departed and went to an all-night International House of
Pancakes and ate a breakfast of biscuits and gravy. We milled about for
awhile, then returned to the room to pick up the newlyweds [Robert and
Erica], then off to the Plaza Hotel to unload my Commodore wares and
begin the CommVEx.

What did I take to CommVEx? Well, from the Dodge we unloaded a SX64, a Commodore 64, a black-and-white JC Penney portable t.v. for a monitor, the GABE.U.PAK.64 v1, the remaining copies of Run/Stop-Restore (about 4), Gabriel's battery pack he invented for his Playstation One, some Interstate Batteries calendars and hats, and a copy of TEA 4 2. These were all arranged on my table. I loaded some games onto the SX64 and waited for CommVEx to start.

At 11:00 am Robert Bernardo introduced the CommVEx, and we started
working around the tables, introducing ourselves. Next to me on the
left was Charles Gutman of FCUG, who was selling wares from his
company, 8-Bit Designs. [He had] his invention of a video connector
that will allow a Commodore to use either the three-cable connector of a
t.v. or the S-video port found on most computers. To my right were the
Amigas set up by Robert Bernardo, which displayed such games as Elite
and SimCity 2000. The popular [C64] game of the show was
Bombmania from Protovision in Germany, which was purchased by
FCUG. Gabe spent much of his time on that game.

To lead off the festivities was the video of the Commodore engineers
celebrating 30 years of Commodore. These men discussed what it was
like to work on the machine and make it into what we have today.
Robert Bernardo divided the show into two parts, showing us part one
on Saturday, but Sunday's presentation [of part two] was cut short due
to the fact that the video wasn't edited so we could get the highlights.
So part two was dropped from the schedule. [Note: part two was shown
late Sunday afternoon.]

I was scheduled to be first speaker of the day, and I thought I was
ready, but unfortunately, things went terribly wrong, part was my doing
and part was just time. First of all, the GABE.U.PAK v1 [battery pack
for the SX64] unfortunately shorted out as I was hooking it up at my
table. It seemed that I committed an egregious error and crossed the
positive and negative wires, thus destroying the amperage in the cells.
The back-up plan was demonstrate Gabriel's Playstation One battery pack,
but the poor battery was rendered useless due to age. Attempts to
charge the packs proved failures, for at that time the charger for both
packs gave out. Even when Alana, Robert, and Erica rushed to get to
WalMart to find me a new charger, the new unit refused to charge the
packs. So I went with what I had.

I showed the GABE.U.PAK -- even though it was useless -- so that people
could see what it looked like, and I told them what it could do.
Thankfully, I have a spare GABE.U.PAK in Kansas City, so I won't be out
of a pack. I spoke of what it did, and questions were asked.

Next was the book, Run/Stop-Restore. I got to describe the contents and
why it was written. [At the Expo tables,] my book was in competition
with "On the Edge: The Rise and Fall of Commodore" and a book called
"Commodork: Confessions of a BBS Junkie". All books were
self-published, but my book stood out the most as the only book that
was completely done and printed on a Commodore machine. This was a
big selling point. All four copies that I took to CommVEx sold at the
cover price of $14.95. Of course, each copy autographed by me as they
were distributed. I will be producing more books later on towards the
new year, after I revamp the material and make a second edition.

Finally was the update on The Envelope Addresser, called TEA 4 2. The
new edition sports more features and eliminates some headaches that
made TEA hard to work with. I hope to make a full disclosure of TEA 4 2
to the CUGKC (Commodore Users Group of Kansas City) once the
program is finalized. What I showed at CommVEx was the work done
so far.

Next was a short visit by the people who are behind the company,
Oldergames.com . They [R.W. Bivens and John Armstrong] told of the
need for new games for older platforms, and Oldergames.com was
there to meet that need. They gave away free copies of their games,
Silo 64 and Weird World 2. Silo 64 was created by using the Shoot 'Em
Up Construction Set, and Weird World 2 was a text adventure. Please
check out their website at www.oldergames.com to get a complete list
of new Commodore products out.

Finally for the day was [Andrew Wiskow] the SysOp of the Cottonwood BBS, who demonstrated a new program called Kaleidoscope Animator, a
computer animator which is similar to Screen Gem except that this
program not only draws but it can actually make a motion picture
cartoon for viewing on the Commodore. This feature would work better in
SuperCPU mode since without it, the animation is choppy.

After his demo was dinner at the Plaza buffet, then either going [back
to the rooms] or staying and playing some games. We left to go to the
hotel. Robert and Erica spent another night on the Strip, and we went
back to the hotel to enjoy a quiet night. Well, it would have been
quiet except for the sandstorm that blew in from the mountains; it sure
did cool off the town real quick. It must have dropped twenty degrees
when the storm hit.

The next day we checked out of the hotel and headed out to get something to eat, then off to the CommVEx. There were fewer attendees at the show than there were on Saturday. I showed up shortly after breakfast and noticed that since I had already sold all my books and did my little speech. There was really little else for me to do. Robert started the sesson with a video tribute to Jim Butterfield. The video was Jim's
visit to the LUCKI Expo 2005. The video also showed Jim on his
twelve-episode series on computers called "Bits and Bytes". It was
done for the Toronto educational system. This was when Jim was
sporting something close to an afro. The show was entertaining, and it
gave a person the feel of what things were like back when computers
were starting. The show also featured for a few moments the Commodore 64.

A surprise guest popped into CommVEx this time. Jeri Ellsworth came in
to see what all the to do. I got a couple of photos of me with Jeri that
I hope to show in our newsletter, provided such things will be permitted
and funds will be available. Sorry, Jeri had nothing new to show but did
discuss with a few some of what she had done.

Next was Charles Gutman's turn with his invention for the video port I
aforementioned. Charles got into more detail about how the unit was
built. Then it was time for a break.

Here is when I decided that it was time for me to depart, so the family
and I started to pack up all my equipment and put it into the Dodge.
We gave Robert our good-byes but not before giving him three dollars
to purchase the DVD-R of the CommVEx so I can have a copy of my
talk. As soon as I get my copy, I will be presenting it to CUGKC as
soon as possble, but Robert first has to transfer the images from his
video camera to a DVD.

Sadly, it was Robert's turn to speak, and he was going to take the last
three hours talking about Wheels and some new programs that came
in from Europe for the Commodore 64. I saw these programs, and I
was surprised to see that the manufacturer of the games put them on
cassette tape. I thought that such uses for Commodore was passe,
but boy, was I wrong!

After packing everything back into the Dodge for a final time, we set
out for Kansas City, but not through the mountains... oh, no. We were
concerned that the Dodge would not make it back over that terrain, so
we took US 93 south over the Hoover Dam to I-40 east through Arizona
and the New Mexico desert. Before we were even out of Nevada, we
were pulled over by the Nevada Highway Patrol, because we had the back
seat down for sleeping, and the law requires all people to wear seat
belts. The officer let us go with a warning, and we proceeded down US
93.

When we pulled into Kingman, Arizona, we noticed that there was green
liquid coming from under the Dodge. At first, we were worried that the
radiator had sprung a leak, but Robert, my son, informed me that he just
filled the radiator, and he might have spilled some. We let it go and
started on towards Phoenix.

When we got there, we again checked for the leak and sure enough, it was there. Now this would be bad except that when we started the Dodge, the leak stopped. This was a sign that there might be a seal failing in the water pump, and as long as the engine was running, we would get back to Kansas City in one piece. From here, it was a little touch-and-go, but with a lot of prayer and stopping as much as we could at truck stops for water and only one in Oklahoma to pick up some souvenirs, we nursed the Dodge home.

We got home about 4:30 pm on Monday, July 30. Robert and Erica got
their stuff and left almost immediately. We just unloaded the Dodge and
headed into the house, where we just sat down, almost passing out from
exhaustion.

I hadn't been to a Commodore convention since Gabriel was diagnosed with leukemia. The last convention I had high hopes for, but it turned out to be a dud, and we went sightseeing instead. But CommVEx was different. CommVEx proved to be the best of the two conventions I have attended. I want to thank Robert Bernardo and FCUG for making me and my family feel welcome. The Roach "Motel" had a great time.

Thank you for allowing me to speak on the items I brought for review. I
had a great time poking fun at Robert Bernardo, and he was up to the
task of reciprocating same. You all at FCUG have a great leader there,
and you did a great job in electing him president for life. His passion
for Commodore is evident.

I do hope everyone enjoyed the presentations that I brought to CommVEx. It did suck that I shorted out the GABE.U.PAK.64 ... it was embarrassing, but you were all gracious, and I thank you.

Thank you also for making the book, Run/Stop-Restore a sell out. This
means that I can list myself as a "best-selling" or "sold out" author.
For those who wanted a copy of the book, I hope that before next July I
can have a second edition of the book done up and ready for presentation.
I would like to hear from those who purchased a copy of the book so I can
know what they thought of it. Lord Ronin of ACUG (Anything Commodore
User Group) gave the book a "thumbs up", which was a great
encouragement for me to continue with more printed works for Commodore.

Speaking of works, what [about] Oldergames.com? It was so encouraging to see that there is now a company out there for us in the Commodore community to express ourselves and once again make the "smokes and beer" money that assisted in helping Commodore be a great success. I am looking forward to send stuff to them and see if lightning can strike again, and I can get some money for my Commodore work.

I got around to [reviewing] some of Mr. Gutman's material that he gave
me at CommVEx to hand out to the Commodore community. I am working on finding a way to upload the DVD-R to the Internet, but it seems that we are lacking the hardware and software in order to do the job. Also the Quicktime files he sent me will not open using either Windows XP or Vista. If Mr. Gutman can contact me and let me know more about the files and what I need to open them, I can try and upload them to the Internet or make copies of them to send to other Commodore users.

One of my big thrills was to meet and hug Jeri Ellsworth. She's a
humble person who reminds me a lot of the missus in attitude. I didn't
get to talk to her [much] since everybody wanted her attention. She did
stop for a couple of photos with me. One is a gag shot and another
more serious photo. I complimented her on her work with the 64 DTV, and she looked me in the eye, shrugged her shoulders at me, and said, "I'm just waiting for the next challenge." I pray I have that kind of
attitude when I accomplish my [next] big chore.

Going to CommVEx and experiencing what I did has strengthened my
confidence in my work in Commodore, and for that matter, other
projects that are not Commodore-related. It took me seven years to sell
the remaining copies of Run/Stop-Restore, and now I am going to make
more copies after I revamp the text. I am also working on more scripts,
plays, and stories. I am thankful for this instilled confidence.

Thanks again for listening to my spiel about the CommVEx and the trip to
Las Vegas. The fun thing about this trip was I got to meet some great
Commodore users, and I got to know my family a little better. If you
want to know if I gambled any, then I must say no; Robert and Erica did
a little gambling and won about fourteen dollars from the penny
machines. In any case, if you get a chance to go to CommVEx in 2008,
please plan to attend. You won't be disappointed.

[rbernardo]

It is time of the season to look back at the past year and to look
forward to the new year. It's also the appropriate time to give my
tardy response to our newsletter editor.

Many months ago Lenard R. Roach, editor of the Interface, wrote

> We just got back from sunny Las Vegas after attending the
> Fresno Commodore User Group and Clark County Commodore
> Computer Club's CommVEx v3. I must tell you that those who
> did not attend missed a great time of Commodore fun and
> information.

I'd like to sincerely thank all who came to CommVEx v3 back on
July 28-29. Traveling to Las Vegas in the middle of the summer is
not always easy nor cheap, and you are to be commended on your
devotion to Commodore and Amiga computers. I'd like to
especially thank Lenard and his family for driving all the way from
Kansas City, and Greg Soravilla and Theresa for coming all the
way across the continent from Florida. You guys are the heroes of
the show! Without you or those from the 5C's or those from the
Classic Gaming Expo who decided to visit, our show would have
been less than what it was. It would have been less fun.

> We went to the 3rd floor and entered the Jockey Room, and
> there amongst the tables of Commodore equipment sat Robert
> Bernardo and Larry Anderson of FCUG.

For the second year in a row, Larry Anderson, sysop of the Silicon
Realms BBS and PET guru of the West Coast, was my right hand
man. Without Larry and his logical, organizational abilities, I
would have had a harder time in getting CommVEx v3 off the
ground. Larry was there to plan, to pack and unpack and repack,
to see to it that things ran smoothly, to explain, and to help. A
sincere debt of gratitude goes to Larry.

I'd also like to thank Al Jackson and the members of the 5C's who
have attended the show and who have loaned us equipment to use
at CommVEx every year.

> What did I take to CommVEx? Well, from the Dodge we
> unloaded a SX64, a Commodore 64, a black-and-white JC
> Penney portable t.v. for a monitor, the GABE.U.PAK.64 v1, the
> remaining copies of Run/Stop-Restore (about 4), Gabriel's
> battery pack he invented for his Playstation One, some Interstate
> Batteries calendars and hats, and a copy of TEA 4 2.

> At 11:00 am Robert Bernardo introduced the CommVEx, and we
> started working around the tables, introducing ourselves. Next to
> me on the left was Charles Gutman of FCUG, who was selling
> wares from his company, 8-Bit Designs.

Thanks for the support of the vendors, namely Lenard who sold his
book and Charles who sold his 8-Bit Designs gear. Our vendors
didn't bring enough! Attendees were looking to buy C= computers
and disk drives and just lots of software. We'll know better for the
next CommVEx.

> To lead off the festivities was the video of the Commodore
> engineers celebrating 30 years of Commodore. These men
> discussed what it was like to work on the machine and make it
> into what we have today.

It was a treat to have another C= engineers' video to show, this time
the engineers with Chuck Peddle teleconferencing into the Vintage
Computer Festival East. It has become a tradition to have a Bil
Herd/Dave Haynie et al production to start off each CommVEx, a
video greeting to CommVEx attendees. Of course, I'd like to thank
Bil, Dave, Bob Russell, the faraway Chuck Peddle, and Evan
Koblentz (organizer of VCF East) for allowing me to tape and
present the video at CommVEx v3. Crossing my fingers, I hope to
lead off the next CommVEx with another worthy video.

> I was scheduled to be first speaker of the day...

> Next was a short visit by the people who are behind the
> company, Oldergames.com . They [R.W. Bivens and John
> Armstrong] told of the need for new games for older platforms...

> Finally for the day was [Andrew Wiskow] the SysOp of the
> Cottonwood BBS, who demonstrated a new program called
> Kaleidoscope Animator...

> Next was Charles Gutman's turn with his invention for the video
> port I aforementioned...

> ...it was Robert's turn to speak, and he was going to take the last
> three hours talking about Wheels and some new programs that
> came in from Europe...

And what would CommVEx be without our presentations? Thanks
to Lenard, R.W., John, Andrew, and Charles for standing up and
speaking out.

> A surprise guest popped into CommVEx this time. Jeri
> Ellsworth came in...

Not so much of a surprise, because Jeri had confirmed her
attendance months in advance. I'd like to thank Jeri for her
continued support of CommVEx. She has showed up at every
show, and her presence has brightened the proceedings every time.

> The last convention I had high hopes for, but it turned out to be
> a dud, and we went sightseeing instead. But CommVEx was
> different. CommVEx proved to be the best of the two
> conventions I have attended.

I'm glad that the show met your expectations. We try hard to keep
the show moving, not too formal nor too informal. There's time
to listen to presentations; there's time to relax and talk and play
with the computers. You come for the fun, for the learning, for the
socializing.

> Thank you also for making the book, Run/Stop-Restore a sell
> out.

If you produce more books, we'll gladly sell them at our
CommVEx tables. My thanks to Lenard for bringing his book,
and to Rob O'Hara for bringing his book, “Commodorkâ€￾, to
present and to sell at CommVEx.

> Thanks again for listening to my spiel about the CommVEx and
> the trip to Las Vegas. The fun thing about this trip was I got to
> meet some great Commodore users...

Likewise. It was great to meet you and your family. It was great
to meet or re-meet all the other C= attendees at CommVEx.

> In any case, if you get a chance to go to CommVEx in 2008,
> please plan to attend. You won't be disappointed.

The Commodore Vegas Expo v4 is set for Saturday and Sunday,
July 26-27, at the third floor Jockey Room 1, Plaza Hotel &
Casino, 1 Main Street, Las Vegas, Nevada. Official times are
11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Unofficial times are whenever the
Jockey Room 1 door is open. Admission is $10, whether you
come for one day or for both days. Raffle prize tickets are
one for $10, three for $20. Door prize tickets are given to each
attendee. Eight to ten Commodore and Amiga systems are set up
for attendees to use. Presentations and exhibits are still being
lined up.

Happy New Year!
Robert Bernardo
CommVEx organizer
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug