Commodore Free 5/Commodore_Free_Issue_05_2007_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.iv ron

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 6KB | 217 lines

uCommodore Free Interview with
Ron van Schaik from the Dutch
Commodore club

>who are you and what do you do?

My name is Ron van Schaik and I am
chairman of the Dutch Commodore Club
If you wanna know who I am, you can
find a picture on the page

http://commodore-gg.hobby.nl/okt2006co
l7.htm

I am the one who's being interviewed
by television and this link you can
find here:

http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid
=-
4814625904960876672&q=retro+computers

>I came across the site by accident,
is this normally how people find your
website?

I don't hope so.....I lot of well
known sites have a link to our
website. Also for example our calendar
is on the C64 portal and the biggest
Amiga sites. Also I post often news on
the different news portals about what
we are doing.

>HCC - Commodore GG what does this
stand for? HCC= Hobby Computer Club
(It's the biggest computer club of the
Benulux with 170,000 members) There
are a lot of groups in this HCC, like
DOS, Multimedia, Flightsimulator and
we!!! GG stands for: Gebruikers Groep,
this is in English: user group

>>how did the club start

Our club started in the mid eighties
when the Commodore computers were like
a virus in Holland Now we organize 6
times a year a C= Show in the
Trefpunt, Maarssen, Holland. Most C=
Shows we have a theme, like in
february Innovation. We demonstrate
than the MiniMig, The 1541-III and the
1541 ultimate. Also we had themes like
Retro Game and Computer Party with all
other retro computers, Tinker
workshop, SID music etc. Also we
participate with some members at other
Retro Game and Computer expos and we
organize sometimes a C= Show in an
other part of Holland or Belgium. You
can find a lot of photo's about this
on our report pages and for coming C=
shows you canlook at our calendar. All
this is a lot of work and we are now
leading our club with around eight
guys.

>do you pay to be a member

Yes, you pay 10 euro per year. You are
allowed than to participate (active)
on our clubmeetings (it's no problem
to come and see for the first time for
free). Also you can go to the HCC
Computer Beurs (the biggest computer
Expo in the Benelux) for half prize.
We are participating there every year
as well. You can use our "helpdesk"
and more.

>what is the clubs function

To have contact with other Commodore
and Amiga users, collectors, gamers
etcetera. To help each other with
problems, repairs, programming and
hardware. We have every C= Show a
table with stuff for free and you can
buy for little prizes more usefull
things (this is for our club)

>the clubs website has lots of
information can you tell readers about
what is on offer?

We started a few years ago with an
English part because we had more and
more vistors from abroad on our C=
Shows. Now we have every week new
news, articles, information about the
C= computers and devices, manuals,
scans from magazines and books etc .
Very interesting are for example the
pages about Vice, CCS64, Innovation
and C= computers and devices for
foreign visitors. We have a lot of
plans to make our website better and
better in the near future.

>what machines does the club support?
All Commodore and Amiga computers

>can you tell us a little of your
personal history

I started in 1986 with a C128D (always
in C64 mode...) and I sold it and for
that money (and a little bit more) I
bought an Amiga 500. Later on I bought
a PC (486) and in the mid nineties I
saw on a fleemarket a C64 and that was
the start of a flood of C= computers

>what Commodore machines do you own

VIC20, C16, PLUS4, 232, a lot of
different kinds of the C64, C64SX,
C128, C128D, A500, A1000 1400 original
C64 games, 150 original C16 and VIC20
games, hundreds of books and
magazines, all kinds of devices (a few
boxed)

>the website has both english and
Duth

primarily Dutch, are there plans to
convert all the website to english The
website is English and Dutch.......
Mainly it will have to stay in Dutch
because we're the only one, and that's
I think important for our members
(800) But it is our plan to convert
the most in English!

>I see you have links to Commodore
free magazine that's a good thing, do
you have any comments on my work?

I an very pleased about your work.
It's great that there are still guys
who are working at the popularity of
Commodore !

>the links to commodore free magazine
have generated quite a lot of traffic,
do you think people miss commercial
commodore magazines?

It's difficult to say because we have
also a magazine and that was not a big
success (as a paper magazine) Now we
are distributing our magazine as a PDF
file, and that's going a lot better

>what plans does the website and club
have?

We will try to have a leading role in
Holland about everything what's about
Commodore and Amiga Also we work hard
at our innovation plans, a new guy is
coordinating this now We are very
proud that our clubmembers have build
the MiniMig, the 1541-III and the 1541
Ultimate

>commodore free has been plagued by
copyright problems has anyone asked
you to remove pictures or news from
the website?

No, we had no problems about this

>how is the website funded?

With the money from our members we pay
the club building, the website, the
printer, viewer and all that sort of
things. We are part from a big Dutch
Computer Club called HCC and those are
supporting us too . >thanks you for
your time and efforts

Also thanks and I wish you a lot of
success with your work! Best regards
Ron van Schaik On our webpage

http://commodore-gg.hobby.nl/persber.h
tm

you can see all press reports of
our club: newpapers, magazines and TV.
You May also interesting is a peek at
our magazine:

http://commodore-gg.hobby.nl/download/
IB1006.pdf

Website and further information
available from
http://commodore-gg.hobby.nl/


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