WORLD OF COMMODORE SHOW REPORT by Rick Rosinski I recently took a short vacation and visited the World of Commodore Show held in Valley Forge, PA on Sept. 22-24. I was disappointed by the small size of the show, as I expected more. There were 45 dealers, distributors, and user groups present at the show. The largest booth was occupied by Commodore. They had the whole range of computers present running the following programs - C-64/Summer Games, C-128D/Dr. Doom's Revenge, PC-20 III connected to a Hewlett-Packard ScanJet, PC-40 III connected to a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet running First Publisher, Amiga 500/SkyChase game, Amiga 2000/Walker demo, Amiga 2000HD/Video Titling software, Amiga 2500/AmigaBASIC programs, Amiga 2000HD/DigiView Gold, Amiga 2500 connected to a NEC Silent Writer laser printer running Professional Page 1.2, and a Commodore Colt running some software. My most humorous moment here was when I was making notes for this report and looking at the MS-DOS machines. A representative from Commodore approached me, and after talking to him for about 30 seconds, he asked me if I had any good MS-DOS software for him to demo. I should have told him to trash the First Publisher software and get something like Microsoft Excel that actually looks good on an EGA screen. Actually my first stop at the show was at the booth shared by Creative Micro Designs and Twin Cities 128. I purchased the JiffyDOS 6.0 upgrade and examined two new products that CMD has planned for a December release. The first product is called "RAMLink" and is a "power-backed compatibility interface" for 64 and 128 RAM Expansion Units. This unit supplies the REU's with an independent power source which eliminates loss of data when you power down the computer. The device also provides a pass-thru connector for the cartridge port, thus allowing you to use a utility cartridge or MIDI interface along with a REU. The unit will allow the installation of additional RAM as well, and supports Commodore 1700, 1750, and 1764 REU's. The estimated retail price for this product is $79.95. It sounds well worth it to me. The second new set of products are their HD Series of Hard Drives. These hard disk drives promise full 64 and 128 mode compatibility, as well as GEOS and CP/M compatibility. These drives are 3 1/2" SCSI drives and are about the same size as a 1581. They can be interfaced to Amiga, IBM-compatible, and Macintosh computers to provide maximum compatibility when you upgrade to another computer. They are compatible with JiffyDOS and RAMLink technology for maximum speed, and come in standard 20 and 40 megabyte versions. The estimated price for the 20 megabyte version is $599.95. I have flyers available on both CMD products that give more information. Busy Bee Software was also sharing a booth with Brown Boxes, Inc., and were showing the new version of The Write Stuff as well as the custom versions for the Quick Brown Box. Two Q-Link Special Interest Groups were present, the Graphic Support Group and the Music Room. They were selling disks of public domain graphics and music, as well as T-shirts. Berkeley Softworks was present and was selling older software at $5 each (Fontpack 1, Deskpack 1, GeoDex, Writer's Workshop, etc...). On the Amiga side, Gold Disk has two new products being displayed, the Advantage spreadsheet, and Professional Page 1.3. I worked with the Advantage spreadsheet for about 20 minutes, and I was not overly impressed. It sorely needs compatibility with either Lotus 1-2-3 or Excel worksheets to be of any use. Their was also a definite lack of on-line help. Great Valley Products was showing their new 68030 board and their hard drives. Innerprise Software was showing their new Battle Squadron game, and Britannica Software displayed Archipelagos and some of their Educational software. Free Spirit was selling their entire line of software for the 64, 128 and Amiga, with sales concentrating on their new adult-style, graphic adventure, Planet of Lust. GEnie Information Services was also present, and I examined their service. Unfortunately the representative told me their is no Midland number to call. I think I'll stick with QuantumLink and PeopleLink. Oxxi was also present with MaxiPlan and their Accounting products, while Abacus was showing their complete line of 64, 128 and Amiga books and software. Mindware was highlighting their PageRender 3D program, and Xetec was showing their line of hard drives for the Amiga and printer interfaces for the 64 & 128. The magazine companies were present in force. Present were Amigo Times, Antic Publishing (Amiga Plus), Compute! Publications (Compute!, Compute's Gazette, and Compute's Amiga Resource), IDG Communications/Peterborough (Run and Amiga World), Transactor (Transactor and Amiga Transactor), and Twin Cities 128. Absent was Info magazine, although I did see editor Benn Dunnington wandering around. Perhaps the busiest booths were those of the retailers, the Software Hut, BriWall, and Comp-U-Save. These booths were among the largest present, and had the most people crowded around them. Software Hut was showing a demo of a new Psygnosis game for the Amiga called "Shadow of the Beast." This is by far the BEST looking game I have seen on the Amiga yet. The scrolling, 3-D graphics are marvelous and the animation is excellent. You even get a free T-shirt when you buy the game. This looks like a must-have game to demo to all you other computer friends. It is available now at local retailers. Their were seminars held during the three day event, and they discussed such topics as Desktop Publishing, GEOS, Animation, Home Office Computing, Education, and User Groups. Overall, the WOC was an interesting event, although I would have reservations about recommending it for everyone. Maybe next year I can try Toronto!