PDXCUG.org Special Report
Team PDXCUG goes on assignment and represents the club with their recent visit to CommVEx. Here is their report of the trip.
CommVEx v6: July 24 & 25, 2010
CommVEx 2010 was a fun-filled weekend and both days were jam-packed with presentations and technical discussions. Here is a rundown on the topics that were given:
CommVEx opened up with set up of equipment, selling the special edition copies of Berzerk Redux, sales of used Commodore products, raffle entries, freebie table, introductions and lots of discussions.
CommVEx Presentations, Day 1
Robert Bernardo - from the Fresno Commodore Users Group - Commodore on the Net: Accessing a shell account with a C64
Bilgem - from Night Lore Games - Information on the demo scene and introduction of a new game, "Phoenix Warriors". Mixing the traditions and skills of demo coders, Night Lore games will create one of the first FPS games using the techniques that demo writers use. This game looks to be very exciting!
Goog - from the Portland Commodore Users Group (that's me!) - The many features and uses of CommodoreServer.com and how to access the Internet with the Comet64 Internet Modem.
We took a break and had dinner at a nearby buffet - after dealing with a grumpy hostess, we finally got our tables. We chose not to sit as one group because of a required 28% gratuity for parties over 10. That's right - 28%!! Ouch. Pretty steep for just getting drinks for everyone. Funny thing is, they still had to serve the drinks to all of us!
We went back to the meeting room and played some games and started the movie "Tron", although we were supposed to be watching it on a laserdisc, Lars pulled through and showed it on his Amiga through a projector. Very cool. Thanks, Lars!
CommVEx Presentations, Day 2
We started the day with more socializing and gaming. Then, dug into the presentations:
Josh Shiflet - 1541 Ultimate II. He showed us this awesome device and then told us kindly that we couldn't get one :(
Lars - showed us Amiga OS 4.1.2 and its fine multitasking capabilities.
Dick Estel - demonstrates Big Blue Reader. Another method for converting disks to D64 and back.
Mike - from C64Forever & AmigaForever showed us... well, the new version of C64Forever and AmigaForever.
Keith - from Spinnyphin Software showed off a new program he is working on for the iPad. A way to play SID music. Who needs iTunes, anyway!!?
Team PDXCUG.org - brief introduction to the Portland Commodore Users Group and current group project - the Commodore Joystick Switch
Agent Friday - from the PDX Commodore Users Group - shows a cool programming trick where you can mask a non-maskable interrupt.
Larry Anderson - of Port Commodore - explains why it is a good thing to be a Commodore programmer today with cross-platform development. He listed several handy programming tools and resources.
That about wraps up CommVEx for this year. Raffles were a big success and raised quite a bit of money for the club, so next year's show is ON!
Thank you to the Fresno Commodore Users Group, Robert Bernardo, Larry Anderson, the Clark County Commodore Computer Club, and all the other hands that were involved in making CommVEx 2010 a huge success! See you next year.
For more information about CommVEx, please visit the official CommVEx (Commodore Vegas Expo) Web site or the CommVEx Forums.
