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Text File | 2004-01-01 | 11.9 KB | 413 lines

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         CLASSIC GAMING EXPO
          by Robert Bernardo


    Ah, another show... this time the
Classic Gaming Expo 2004 at the San
Jose Convention Center in San Jose,
CA, on August 21-22. Our club, the
Fresno Commodore User Group, had a
vending/exhibit table at the show.It
was going to be a hectic weekend. I
looked forward to meeting up with C=
friends and acquaintances and meeting
new people at the show.

    Riding low on its rear springs, my
car was packed with all the Commodore
hardware and software I could stuff
into it. Friday after work, I left for
Stockton 3 hours to the north and not
directly to San Jose. Why? Because I
had to pick up more C= materials at
the storage house there. I arrived in
Stockton at 7 p.m., crammed more gear
into the car, had a bite to eat, and
left for San Jose at 8:30.

    My destination for the night was
Clark Murphy's house. I arrived at
Clark's house at 10:00, and we spent a
bit of time talking, but not too much
because of my long day on Saturday. I
took a shower, and by midnight, I was
asleep on the spare cot he had.

    At 5:30 a.m. I was on my way to
the convention center, a twenty-minute
drive toward downtown via city
streets. When I found the center, I
found no signs directing me to vendor
parking. The streets were empty; no
people were around. How was I to
unload all my gear? I parked in the
5-minute passenger unloading zone in
front of the center's McEnery Hall,
got out, and began my search for
anyone in charge.

    The front doors were open. All was
quiet as I walked the spacious but
vacant hallways. Hearing some
intermittent noise, I walked up to the
second level and found a security
guard in front of exhibit hall A. John
Hardie, Sean Kelly, and Joe Santulli,
the organizers, were nowhere to be
found, though Joe had assured me via
e-mail that the place was supposed to
stay open all night for vendors to
bring in their wares. In other words,
without the say-so of any CGE
official, I couldn't get past the
guard.

    Peeking into the hall, I saw that
everyone had set up their wares the
previous night! Good grief! I only had
3 hours to get the table ready. The
guard telling me the organizers had
gone off to breakfast, I wandered the
convention center and adjoining hotel,
searching for them. Half an hour
later, I went back to hall A and met
an assistant who gave the approval to
let me in.

    However, my troubles were not over
yet. I still had to move my car to the
unloading area in back of the center
and somehow get my carload of gear
across hall B to hall A. Hall B
appeared to be the length of a
football field, and it was going to be
tough going for me to traverse hall B
with a small cart of materials.

    But I did it. Cart by cart, I
unloaded my auto. The long journey
between vehicle and vending table was
repeated over and over. I was running
out of time. The 9 a.m. opening of the
show was coming fast.

    I rushed to the CGE museum room
and spoke to one of the assistants
about the 2-XL robot I had brought to
display. 2-XL was an educational toy
from the late 1970's, a plastic
8-track player in the shape of a
robot, used to play educational tapes.
The assistant already had a display
card printed out for use in front of
the robot. I took the card and set it
and the 2-XL and several of its tapes
down on a table.

    Back in hall B, the vendors were
trickling in. One vendor who had come
the night before said that if the hall
gates were open, you could drive your
vehicle to hall A. He phoned on his
cell phone and got the managers of the
center. A few minutes later the gates
opened, and I was able to drive my car
to hall A and unload the last few
items.

    8:30 -- I was running out of time.
Co-organizer Sean Kelly made an
appearance and walked past everybody's
tables. I told him that no one was
around to let me in earlier and that I
had wasted precious time. He had no
answer for me.

    The doors for the public opened on
time. Dozens and dozens and dozens of
early CGE attendees who had been
waiting in line rushed in. I muttered
to myself, "Aw, heck!", as I tried to
get the incompletely set-up table in
some kind of order. At least the boxes
of C= software for sale were in the
general area where they were supposed
to be. And the Commodore SX-64 was
powered up, showing off a game on my
external 20-inch t.v./monitor.

    The first hour or two were the
most frantic. It seemed as if everyone
was making a bee-line toward the FCUG
table. In fact, Paula Capobianco and
her business partner, Tony, of
Software and More, wasted no time in
getting to my table, buying all the
game software, 33 game boxes worth.

   "That's $33, Paula," I said.

    "Robert, we've known each other
for a long time. Can you give us a
discount?" she smiled at me.

   "O.K., $30," I said, surprised at
her bargaining for already dirt cheap
software. My thoughts -- they were
going to mark up the price on the
software and sell it on-line.

    Still in the back of my mind,
where was table partner, Ed Hart?  Ed
Hart, member of the defunct Commodore
Hayward Users Group, had shared a
table with me for years. I had phoned
him the evening before, leaving a
message on his answering machine. I
started to worry.

So many people, so many questions to
answer, so much advice to give --
my mind was racing.

  -Is that a Commodore?

  -Yes, that is an SX-64 transportable
   computer.

  -I've never seen one; did you mod it
   out?

  -No, it came from the factory like
   that.

  -Is it for sale?

  -No, that's my own personal one, but
   we do have some C64 and C128
   keyboards and 1541 disk drives.

  -Do you have a Commodore piano
   keyboard, one that fits over the
   keys?

  -Yes, it's in storage.  I can get it
   later.

  -Do you have more C128's?

  -Yes, but they are in storage.

  -Do you have any monitors?

  -We do, but I couldn't bring
   everything.

  -Do you have any more software?

  -Well, the games were bought out
   early this morning. All we have
   left are these educational and
   productivity programs.

    I glanced at the other vendors;
they were busy, too. The Cloanto table
had a regular stream of people who
were considering a purchase of the
Amiga Forever 6.0 CD. The XGameStation
people had a wall of 1701/1702
monitors displaying games running off
their board. The Atari people to my
left had plenty of boxed Atari 2600
cartridges for sale, and they had
plenty of interested on-lookers. The
t-shirt people to my right were
selling many appropriately-designed
gaming t-shirts.

    Around 11:30 Jeri Ellsworth and
Jens Schoenfeld showed up. Jens went
off to the Cloanto table to set up his
Individual Computer hardware. Jeri
came over to greet me, a big smile on
her face. She being on the opposite
side of the table, we couldn't exactly
get close,

    I spread out my arms and shouted,
"Air hug!  Air hug!" Not satisfied, I
stumbled past the Atari people to my
left and finally got up close to Jeri.
We babbled rapidly to each other, but
in no time at all, she was off to
investigate the other tables and meet
the vendors.

    Some time later, she came back to
set up the C1 Reconfigurable Computer
(CommodoreOne) board at my table. The
Amiga 1942 multi-scan monitor, that I
had bought at the July AmiWest Show in
Sacramento, was too dim and fuzzy for
her purposes, and so, she brought out
her own monitor. Unfortunately, she
didn't bring any loudspeakers to
connect to the C1's audio jacks. That
didn't deter the constant stream of C1
on-lookers at the table. When Jeri was
there at the table, the questions
would fly, and she was all too happy
to answer them.

    She had gone to talk to the
XGameStation people at their table,
and I asked her about her take on
their hardware. She verified what the
XGameStation people had told me, that
the XGameStation and the C1 were aimed
at different audiences. She also
thought that the XGameStation project
was "cool".

    FCUG member, Mitch Zollinger,
showed up, and we tested out his C64
that he had bought the previous year.
It tested good, but the black power
supply was flaky; he traded for
another power supply I had brought for
him.

    I introduced him to Jeri, and he
too had plenty of C1 questions for
her. Later, he invited me to a dinner
(bring yourself and Jeri), but I had
to beg off, because I wanted to attend
the CGE aution and because I surmised
that Jeri had other plans.

    By three o'clock almost all of the
Commodore hardware had been sold. I
was turning buyers away, pointing them
to the large 4Jays booth on the other
side of the hall. "They may have the
Commodore item you are looking for." I
blamed myself for not bringing more to
sell.

    By five or so, the expo was over
for the day. Over the hall
loudspeakers, John Hardie,
co-organizer, beckoned the crowd to
the CGE auction in the room next to
the museum room. I shut down all power
to the equipment at the table and
covered everything with a bedsheet.

    Jeri and Jens decided to forego
the auction in order to go off to
dinner. Thinking that Commodore and/or
Amiga items might be at the auction, I
walked over to find a good seat in the
auction room. Soon it was standing
room only.

    British Commodore and game
enthusiast, Mat "Mayhem" Allen, and
his girlfriend, found me and sat next
to me. As usual, Mat had brought some
rare Commodore cartridges to display
at the museum. He also offered to sell
me some rare carts, but my money was
low, and I had to politely had to say
no. Maybe next year. On the other side
of the aisle and a few rows back, I
saw famous Atarian, Dan Kramer. I had
last spoken him a few weeks back at
the California Extreme arcade game
expo. I'd have to talk to him later.

    The auction commenced. As usual,
John Hardie was the auctioneer -- and
he was in a good mood. The first day
of CGE was over, and he had several
bottles of beer ready to keep him
going through the proceedings.

    Plenty of rare cartridges were
auctioned off, all for Atari and other
game systems and none for Commodore.
Unlike the previous year's CGE, there
was no Commodore SX-64 up for auction.
However, R.W. Bivens of Oldergames.com
had a package deal in which he offered
several of his table's cartridges
along with his Commodore disk, "Weird
World". Dan Kramer also had rare Atari
items from his collection auctioned
off.

    This year the auction had some of
the collected monies go to charity --
the Special Olympics, if I remember
correctly. By the end of the auction 2
1/2 hours later, John Hardie was
auctioning off his bottles of beer for
the charity. Wow, did the prices go
high! A hundred twenty-five dollars or
more for each bottle. One winner even
drank his prize in front of the crowd!
That was an expensive drink.

With the end of the auction, it was
time to look for food, but not
without
one last look at the FCUG table to
make sure everything was all right.
The C1 board was gone; Jeri must have
taken it away. Mat had left; Ed
Hart had not shown; Dan Kramer was
gone. I was on my own.

    I walked a couple of blocks to the
trendy Italian restaurant on the
corner. It was packed. At a crowded
table I saw Jeri and Jens busily
chatting with others. Jeri noticed me
and smiled; I smiled back. But since
there was no room at their table, I
found a seat along the luncheon
counter of the restaurant.

    After one look at the prices on
the menu, after thinking about the
noisy restaurant and my seat at the
counter, I decided that I needed a
more relaxed setting. I left and a few
steps away, I found the Chinese-
Cambodian restaurant I had discovered
while attending California Extreme.
Peace and quiet. And lower prices,
too. I loaded up on Cambodian beef
soup and seafood chow fun.

    On the walk back to the convention
center parking lot, I peered through
the windows of the corner Italian
restaurant and noticed that Jeri was
still there, happily talking away. I
was exhausted and just wanted to go to
sleep. Back in my car, I drove around
downtown San Jose for a while, trying
to figure out how to get back on the
correct route for my night's stay at
Motel 6. Finally, I made it back onto
the highway, found the motel, and was
asleep by 11.


(to be continued)

 RB