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CommVEx 6.0 (Las Vegas Commodore Expo 2010) |
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Links to Photos and related links at bottom |
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Links to CommVEx videos have now been added below |
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The
Commodore Vegas Expo v6 (CommVEx) was held July 24th & 25th, 2010 at
the Plaza Hotel at the head of Pre-Expo Tuesday,
July 20: Wednesday,
July 21:
Thursday, July 22: We got out
to check out the Pinball Hall of Fame (p.s., don't look for that nifty,
colorful, window sign you see on the webpage. The Pinball Hall of Fame
is now located in a more unassuming stucco building with a smaller
banner sign on it). The Hall of Fame had over 200 machines, with 152 being pinball and the
remaining being various other arcade classics amongst the pinball units.
The pinballs ranged from pre-flipper machines to some of the latest
including a Pinball 2000 unit. Included was a rare prototype of a 3D
Circus pinball game. It was worth the effort to find the Hall of Fame
and actually play a few games I had only read about or had seen in
documentaries, to operate the ball elevator on the older pin machines,
and to hear the classic click, thump, and bing of the mechanical units.
Of the arcade machines, there were a few classic analog car driving
simulators and some shooting gallery and baseball units. There was also
a skee-ball and some interactive activity games - puppet, bulldozer, and
rocket ship games; unfortunately, only the skee-ball and puppet were the
only ones operating of those. Definitely a place to check out for the arcade/pinball fan. (I would
have snapped more photos, but my camera was low on charge.) The
unofficial start to CommVEx has been Friday, as we get access to the
room to start to set up. Usually it begins in the afternoon and
continues on until sometimes July 24, 2010:
Having made only three trips through Mojave and Barstow and across
the desert since February, it seemed only You can click the links to read about the background of this event and my earlier trips in 2006 and 2008, so I won't repeat that information, other than to state that the event is sponsored by the Fresno Commodore User Group (FCUG) and the Clark County Commodore Computer Club (CCCCC) of Las Vegas. Despite the apparent organizational power behind the event, the driving force is FCUG president Robert Bernardo, ably assisted by Larry Anderson of San Andreas, CA, with minor help from me and significant help in the form of equipment loaned by Al Jackson of CCCCC. (A sidebar: Al is an older gentleman who gets around Vegas on a bike. One member of CCCCC said that they have a saying - when the apocalypse comes, the only thing left will be cockroaches, Cher, and Al Jackson.) I set out a little before 8 a.m. Friday, July 23, and arrived a little after four. I avoided a lengthy lunch stop by bringing a sandwich, veggies and a soda. Instead of my usual 75 MPH on the desert, I held it to 70 most of the way, and arrived with at least an 8th of a tank of gas; usually I need to fill up at the California-Nevada border. Although there was a lot of traffic, it was moving fast, and there was only one brief slowdown where two cars had been in a fender bender and were off to the side of the road. Traffic through Las Vegas was the quickest I have ever seen on a Friday afternoon (probably because the economic downturn has hit this area fairly hard). Once I got checked in and settled into my room, I helped Robert and Larry with the set-up. At first glance the job looks hopeless, with computers, cables, power supplies and countless other items scattered all over the tables, chairs and floor. But by the official start time of 11 a.m. on Saturday, the mess had been reduced to simple organized chaos. Knowing that Robert will not stop until the room is completely ready (or until he collapses), Larry and I left to have dinner around 8, eating at the hotel's buffet. We went back and did a little more work, but by ten p.m. I could no longer function and went up to my room for the night. Although the official start time on Saturday is 11 a.m., people start drifting in by 9 or so, and if the past is any indication, the true enthusiasts will return after dinner to talk and play with the computers till late at night. As in the past, my job is that of registrar, collector of admission, seller of raffle tickets, and keeper of the accounts. By 11 a.m., we had a small but enthusiastic and knowledgeable group of about a dozen, with several more known to be coming later. Robert opened the event by welcoming attendees to the sixth annual CommVEx, and pointed out the raffle prizes and door prizes. The former included the ever-popular SX64, which is a complete system (computer, disk drive and monitor) in one box. Although it was called "portable" by the manufacturer, most owners referred to it as "luggable." I owned one for a while, but sold it some years ago; inexplicably I bought raffle tickets to try and win this one (I felt a mixture of relief and disappointment when my name was not drawn). By mid-afternoon we had a paid attendance of 25, good success with the raffle sales, and had covered our costs with a good amount of seed money for next year. Today's demonstrations included: Commodore on the
Internet: Robert Bernardo, a die-hard commodore 8-bitter,
demonstrated how easily you can connect the Commodore 128 to the
Internet, from dialing up, checking email and doing Google and eBay
searches, even without a fancy email program or graphical Internet
browser, using the tools the Internet pioneers have used. Robert showed the terminal program, DesTerm, that
he uses for Email and going on line with a computer that first saw
the light of day before anyone had heard of the Internet. Although
it dates to 1969, it was first called the ARPANET, and consisted of
a handful of government and university computers connected via wire.
It was little known to anyone not directly involved. DesTerm was
developed back in 1980s, and the Internet experience on it would be
strange to today's generation - it is text only. However, anything
you could read on-line [within limits] with the latest Windows or
Mac PC could be read with DesTerm, as well as other Commodore
terminal programs. Demo Scene and Phoenix Warriors
game: Early demo makers learned the internal workings of the
Commodore (as well as other platforms) to make them display visuals
and sounds that were well beyond their apparent capability. Bilgem Cakir is a Microsoft employee from Seattle and a member of the
"demo scene" - computer whiz kids who create small programs
that show off the graphic and audio ability of their computers. Bilgem
not only is involved with this activity, but is using demo techniques to
develop "jaw-dropping, high-tech, crazy-fun" games for
Commodore 64. Bilgem - a.k.a. Night Lord - wowed the audience with his latest demo, an
attempt at a real-time shooter, which will be named Phoenix Warriors via
his Night Lore Games company. Where we have seen other coders get to 3-D
maze generation on a 64, Night Lord got his at 25 frames per second with
animated “sprites” (no, not Commodore sprites, 3-D sprites)
wandering the corridors. Just when you think the limit has been reached on the 1 mhz. C64, we see
another software technological leap bump it up another notch. I can't
wait to see how the game evolves in its development. Night Lord offered the game to CommVEx attendees for beta testing, starting in late October. He expected to have the game complete by December, and will offer it free on his company web site (http://night-lore.blogspot.com/). Players will also be able to buy a "collector's box" with professional quality cover design, user manual, game posters and other goodies. CommodoreServer.com and Comet64 Internet
Modem: Greg Alekel has developed a member based
community of Commodore users that lets them share ideas, "how
to" information, sell their products, and primarily,
manage D64 disks. The Comet64 Internet Modem (available from his
company for around $70), provides Commodore users with an Ethernet
connection so they can upload D64s, access their files from a
C64/C128, and run them, add more files, or copy them from one D64 to
another, through CommodoreServer.com The
modem with a small boot loader enabled the Commodore 64/128 (and I would
think soon the VIC-20) to easily access the Commodore Server as a
virtual 1541 disk drive to manage files virtually on the Internet.
Besides the 64 work, he developed a better Commodore font for modern
computers and a mature website for the Commodore Server. Check out the
many on-line tools and utilities, such as BASIC file listers and 65xx
disassembler. He planned on adding more development tools and disk
management interfaces as he goes. The service is free, as is the font, with notes on how to use it. It's
not too often you see someone's rapt attention given to a VIC-20 screen;
Greg tested to see if the Comet and Commodore Server were
VIC-20-capable, and from those early tests it looked very good! Commodore fans in attendance are anxiously awaiting the chance to develop Commodore programs with a web browser. When the day's official program ended, about 15 of us walked a block down the street and enjoyed the buffet at Main Street Station (far better than the Plaza's buffet). Now at 8:15 I'm heading for my room, Robert is crashed out across a row of chairs, and a hard core group of ten are just getting started for the unofficial evening version of CommVEx.
Sunday, July 25: Many folks stayed up late last night, so Robert didn't open the room till about 10 a.m., and even then, people didn't start drifting in till just before the official start time of 11. Although I got to bed by 11 p.m. and got up just before 8, I am suddenly tired and in need of a nap, right as I must go on duty. I made it through the day without my nap, and with a slightly lighter workload. We had only two additional persons sign in, although most of Saturday's attendees returned (the admission price covers both days). We did collect a fair amount in additional raffle ticket sales, finishing up with the most successful raffle ever. Ticket buyers could place their stub in any of seven boxes, in effect choosing the item they wanted to win. We seemed to have some people who had the gambler's attitude, "if I just buy three more tickets on this item, I will win it." My informal study showed that in one raffle, a person with three tickets won over several people who had deposited only one. But in another raffle, the winner had a single ticket, and beat out several entrants who had each deposited three tickets. Today's demos included: 1541 Ultimate 2: Josh
Shiflet showed off the mighty little 1541 Ultimate II cartridge, which
is a flash memory drive but tries to go for total 1541 drive emulation,
achieving 99.99% perfect emulation, so much so that it has all the disk
drive sounds if you hook it up to an external speaker. Beyond that, it has many amazing built-in tools including utility
cartridge and REU emulation and file tools to manage the flash drive
contents and easily load & manipulate disk images and programs. The product is available from the 1541 Ultimate web site for about $160. Amiga OS 4.12:
Amiga
OS 4.1 update 2: Lars Nelson had a truly amazing amount of Amiga
equipment set up and showed off the capabilities of this 25-year old
computer's 21st century operating system. With the use of his
AmigaOne G4 and his Big Blue Reader: Dick Estel presented a look at this program from about 1990 that converts Commodore text files for use on a Windows PC (and vice versa). When many Commodorians made the switch from their classic 8-bit computers to a PC, they had important text files, such as family history, genealogy, or books and articles they had written that they wanted to keep. The lucky ones converted them with BBR before they got rid of their Commodore. The others relied on someone (such as FCUG), to make these conversions for them, usually at a small charge. At least one observer at the gathering observed that a much better variation of this program could be created today, eliminating some of its drawbacks. Maybe we'll see BBR for the 21st century at the next CommVEx! In the meantime, FCUG's services are described here. Enhanced Music Player:
The Commodore 64 had sound quality that was well ahead of any other
computer at the time, and thousands of songs were created to take
advantage of the Joystick Switch: Greg
Alekel took the spotlight again to talk about the Portland Commodore Users
Group that
had recently formed. They were working to develop new
products, meeting monthly to discuss progress. Each member had an
assignment to work on part of the project. Their first effort was a
joystick switch to change a joystick from port 1 to 2 without physically
switching. On their webpage, you could make comments on projects or
suggest other ideas they might develop. Amiga
Forever: Michael
Battilana of Blocking the NMI
(Non-Maskable Interrupt): Steve Davison also reported on a cool
6502 coding hack that lets one override the NMI of the 6502 (it
boils down to you setting your own NMI and not giving it up). Commodore
cross platform development: Larry Anderson gave an intriguing
presentation on why it's a good time to be a Commodore software
developer. His points included looking at various Commodore
websites, including http://www.bombjack.org/commodore
where many Commodore books and magazines are archived. In addition to the demos, visitors had the opportunity to see and sometimes use various vintage Commodore computers, including Robert's Educator 64, a rare machine from 1982. And Tim Waite set up a table covered with hardware, software and other items for sale. During the early afternoon I slipped out and got a BLT sandwich at the hotel's cafe, which offers above average food. That evening we walked down Fremont Street, the famous brightly lit pedestrian walkway that highlights old downtown Vegas, to the Fremont Casino's Second Street Grill. Robert will only play a slot machine if it has a Star Trek theme, so after dinner Larry led us across the street to a casino with the appropriate machine. First he put in a dollar, and won $4; Robert followed suite and won $5. Speaking of good luck, congratulations from all the CommVEx workers to those who won the raffles, and contributed so greatly with their ticket purchases to the success of the event: Amiga A2000 - Jeff Krantz Amiga A1200 - Steve Davison Micro uIEC/SD Card Drive - Greg Alekel 1581 Disk Drive - Phil Groven SX64 Computer - Bilgem Cakir Comet64 Modem - Cameron Kaiser 1750 Clone RAM Expander - Paul Armstrong Although
most of the door prizes were "odds and ends," one stood out -
Petster - a fat, furry cat robot that moves about in response to hand
claps. Appropriately, the winner was 11-year old Connor Krantz.
Miscellaneous: Vendors! Tim Waite brought along a wide range of Commodore and Amiga
goodies for us to shop for, from a VIC-20 Behr-Bonz Multicart to a CD32.
Larry snagged the VIC-20. In addition to the demos, visitors had the opportunity to see and
sometimes use various vintage Commodore computers, including Robert's Educator
64, a rare machine
from 1982. It was the 25th anniversary of the Amiga, and Robert brought cake!
Unfortunately our two featured Amiga engineer guests, RJ Mical and Dale
Luck, were absent. The cake couldn't wait any longer. With the most
technical of serving utensils (a blank CD-R), Robert cut the cake. The
cake was quite tasty. Well, Dale and RJ, we wish you could have made it
- and RJ, Robert has a bottle of CommVEx wine somewhere with your name
on it (literally!) Some of us take Commodore a bit more seriously than others, as Yul
Haasmann showed what well-equipped Commodore Army personnel should be
outfitted with. He wore a military uniform and on his back was an SX-64
strapped to a backpack frame. He claimed it was pretty comfortable to
wear. Wonder if he would have the same comment with a SuperPET strapped
to his back. Then again, he'd probably cause a lot of damage swinging
that around as he turned.
Elvis Tribute Competition
Packing up Sunday Evening It was great seeing some familiar faces, as well as meeting a number of new Commodore friends, who will hopefully become CommVEx regulars. My personal thanks to Al Jackson, who brought me lunch on Saturday when I was too busy to leave the registration table. As plans develop for the 2011 event, you can get the latest information at http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex or http://www.commodore.ca/forum (click on ComVEX). |
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Click photo for a larger view - Photos open in a new window |
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| The Pinball Museum | Larry tries his hand at Hotshot Basketball | Larry and Al Jackson load equipment into Robert's car |
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| Before the set-up | Tim Waite's sale table | More goodies for sale |
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| Chris Chapman with Tim | Yul Haasmann shows how a good Commodore soldier looks | The SX64 - lighter than a real field pack? |
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| Computers ready for playing | Robert packages copies of the new game "Berzerk" | Larry Anderson checks the room |
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| Greg Alekel prepares his demo | A vanishing breed - the 3.5" floppy | Robert's rare Educator 64 |
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| Petster, an obedient robot kitty | A beehive of activity | Another view of the beehive |
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| Paul Armstrong brought Barbra to CommVEx | Commodore t-shirt, donated by Jeff Krantz | An unusual collector's item for Coke fans |
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| Robert kicks off the day's presentations | Bilgem Cakir talks about his Commodore games | Knight Lore games artwork |
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| Greg introduces CommodoreServer.com | Commodore Server page | Dick Estel discusses Big Blue Reader |
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| Josh Shiflet talks about the 1541 Ultimate 2 | 1541 Ultimate screen | Lars Nelson, the Amiga man |
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| Dave Haynie on Lar's Amiga screen | Amiga screen shot | Lars brought a big collection of equipment |
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| Connor proves you can play Guitar Hero on the Commodore | Tim Waite faces some tough competition | The Amiga 25th Anniversary cake |
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| How you cut a computer-related cake | Anyone want to lick the frosting? | Keith Henrickson makes the iPad sing Commodore SID songs |
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| Keith and Alfredo | Robert and Bilgem at dinner | Keith facing Greg and Josh |
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| Saturday night dinner | Michael Battilana of Amiga Forever | An attentive audience |
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| Greg explains the Portland group's hardware project | Portland CUG home page | Schematic for the joystick switch |
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Steve Davison explains blocking the NMI |
Trying to block NMIs | Larry Anderson talks about the current state of Commodore |
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| Commodore resources on the web | The Sunday audience | Larry, Robert and Greg |
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| Drawing for a big prize | Connor picks the winner - Paul Armstrong! | End of the Expo |
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| The strip from the Plaza Hotel | All hail Commodore! | |
