I thought I wasn't going and then that all changed and I was off. But it was definitely not a easy journey, with Amiga Flame using all kinds of transport. I went by car, plane, train, and to finish it of by tube.

It was well worth the travelling with plenty of companies showing off Amiga products both games and serious. At the entrance there was Guildhall Leisure showing off their latest Re-releases and they brought a stack load. After a chat with them I found out that they are trying to get a deal to Publish Basket Island which is an excellent looking basketball game.

Moving on I decided to see Epic Marketing (Islona) newest games they plan to Publish. But no luck at all with them only selling their other CD-Roms. A funny competition Epic Marketing did have was to give your own meaning of PC and the best one got a stack of prizes. I would have loved to know what the answers were like. Sadness Software revealed ther latest CD-Roms, The Hidden Truth and AGA Experience Volume 3.

Got to be one of the best High Lights was Direct Software's stand with them of course selling plenty of Amiga Games but also showing of the New Power Amiga. It was actually a video tape showing some of the games it will run. Through a reliable Source at the show I heard that Direct Software not only have The Haunting and Phantasmagoria in development but are in fact getting support from other Developers and Publishers. I have heard that some of the Publishers used to support the Amiga and are now making Power Amiga versions for Direct Software. Hopefully this is true as the Power Amiga from them sounds awesome.

Power Computing cut most of there prices in half and plenty of Amiga Users were taking advantage of this with bags full of stuff being sold. They also were promoting there newest release, Big Red Adventure with people getting the chance to have a go.

There was also the appearance of TFX at the CU-Amiga stand which looked awesome, I just hope it gets released as it deserves to be and theres no excuse not to. I would have studied it closer but unfortunately quite a crowd had got there first but from what I could see it looked essentially ready to be released. The Amiga Format stand close by was rather empty with them only appearing to be selling the new issues of Amiga Format and back issues.

At the biggest stand of course was Amiga International showing off there current stock of which they are selling off. Petro Tyschtschenko, President of Amiga International was on hand along with others to answer any questions. But I did notice that there was alot of behind the scenes meetings between companies and AI which is a good sign. No further details of there plans for the direction of the New Amigas were revealed but I was told Press Releases would be more forthcoming soon.

Digita International were up holding the serious side with most of ther top products at special prices for the Show. Products such as Wordworth 6, Personal Paint 7, Wordworth 6 Office, TurboCalc 4 and a whole host more. Other companies supporting the serious side were HiSoft Systems, Scala UK, GP Software (from Austrailia), Nova Designs and Ireesoft.

If you wanted to pick up some good pieces of hardware the bargins were at Power Computing, Wizard Developents (get a New Amiga Magic Pack for around £280 UK Pounds.) and Gasteiner Technologies (who were giving a free game with every £10 spent).

So that was about everything I could find with from what I could see there was plenty of Amiga Owners all over the place spending huge amounts of money. I will hopefully bring you photographs soon.

E-mail - philip mailman.dnet.co.uk

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