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          THE 2006 CONSUMER
           ELECTRONICS SHOW

          by Robert Bernardo


    After spending all of Thursday and
most of Friday searching for a new Las
Vegas hotel venue for CommVEx v2, I
was able to rush to the International
Consumer Electronics Show for a quick
look. Because it was my first time to
attend such an event, I didn't know
what to expect.

    I found out by studying my
pre-registration pack that my
destination, The Sands, was not an
area within the Las Vegas Convention
but an entirely separate building. In
fact, CES was divided among 4 gigantic
expo buildings, with Sands being the
furthest away from the other three.
The Sands Exposition Center was my
goal, because Commodore Int'l. BV was
there at booth 71007.

    Thank goodness that Ron Gratreaks,
member of the Southern Nevada Amiga
Club, was able to talk to me the night
before and advise me on how best to
get through the horrific traffic and
find a parking spot. The trick was to
park across the street at the Treasure
Island Hotel & Casino and walk across
busy Las Vegas Boulevard to my
destination.

[4:45 p.m.] -- I arrived at the
Treasure Island multi-story parking
garage, parked on the third floor,
crossed over the street skybridge to
the hotel and down into the building.
Out of the hotel I went, but I turned
left and eventually found out that
crossing the street intersections that
way was the long way around. Darn, I
should have turned right. Fighting
through scores of tourists and CES
people on the sidewalks, I entered the
Venetian Hotel & Casino and wound my
way toward the Sands Expo (which was
connected to the hotel).

    With notepad and camera case in
hand, I trudged past what seemed to be
thousands of people and through
endless corridors. 140,000 people
expected to attend CES... now I knew
the television news was right, and
this was just one of the venues.

    Registration... that way... that
way... CES attendees and AVN
Entertainment Expo attendees in the
same building (AVN, the Adult Video
Network Entertainment Expo, a show
attracting its own particular crowd!).
Finally, I stopped to the last exhibit
hall door; if I continued walking
farther, I would have entered the AVN
Expo!

    I entered that last door and asked
the CES guide where registration was
located. He pointed the way to advance
registration. No problem at
registration.

    At that late time of the day,
there was no line, and I went right up
to the counter. I showed my license
and business card, but the lady behind
the counter just wanted my
pre-registration pack. She gave me the
plastic holder for the badge to be
worn around my neck, and she didn't
even bother to check my camera bag. I
asked where booth 71007 was, she
examined her map and found nothing,
and then she asked the associate to
her side. He didn't know, but she then
aimed me back toward the CES guide at
the door. He would know. Go to the
left and straight. Look at the huge
numbers hanging from the ceiling to
find your position.

    I followed his instructions, and
in no time I found the giant Commodore
booth! It was not a little table but a
space probably 20 x 50 feet. I stood
by the side, straightened my shirt and
jacket, checked my hair in the
reflection of a window, put on my "I
Adore My C64" and "J.E.R.C." buttons,
took a deep breath, and strolled into
the lion's den.

    The "lion's den" was populated by
a dozen or so Commodore business
people -- two women at the ends of the
area who were handing out brochures,
some casual-dressed Commodore
business-types, and the "suits" -- the
Commodore business men in their
expensive power suits. I felt like a
small fry in a pond of big fish.

    Not sure about whether photographs
were permitted, I wandered and looked,
eventually stopping by the Commodore
64, 1541, 1701 monitor, and
Competition Pro joystick sitting on a
stand in the center right of the area.
Everything was turned on, and the
Commodore was running the game, "Way
of the Exploding Fist" (but not the
original disk). I got to talking with
the man playing with the game, his
name -- Frank Cifaldi.

    Frank joked, "This is the best
thing here."  Finding a friend there,
I followed him over to the table which
was surrounded by benches. On the
table were 6-8 NavigatorCombos - a
black-cased, handheld device with a
3.5 LCD color screen. He showed me one
of the NavigatorCombos, went through
the menu screens, and got to a
platformer game which I did not
recognize.

    "It's running a NES game," he
remarked.

    "Well, that's not right," I
replied. "A Commodore device should
run Commodore games."

    "Yeah. That's the only emulator
that they have in it."

    He went back to gaming with the
device, complaining that the game
forced you to use in the right button
in 2 different directions at the same
time. As he played, he went on to
speak to an associate of his, and I
walked over to the long information
counter in the back, picked up
brochures for the 3 new Commodore
devices and started studying the
prototypes that were on display. The
Commodore MediaTower kiosk was on the
left end of the Commodore area.

    Standing next to it was Ian
Matthews, Canadian webmaster of
http://www.commodore.ca and employed
by Commodore as a representative in
this show. He was busy talking to
another business-type; I wanted to
talk to Ian, because he had been
recommended to me by Brian Bagnall,
author of the book, "On the Edge: the
Spectacular Rise and Fall of
Commodore." I waited, but he was
oblivious to everything else, as were
the "suits" talking to another
business types.

    Behind the MediaTower was the
Commodore MediaBox, shiny in brushed
metal (stainless steel?  aluminum?)
with a C= symbol that was backlit with
a blue glow. (Speaking of C= logos, I
noticed that almost all the logos in
the Commodore exhibit area had
reverted to their non-italicized form
but in monochromatic black or silver
instead of the multi-colored red and
blue).

    In a vertical display case to the
right of the information counter were
eVICs, mPETs, NavigatorCombos, and C64
DTV's with pyramidal red boxes and
hexagonal white boxes (but no Hummer
DTV). To the right of the display case
was a wall of 3 large-screen plasma
t.v.'s, displaying the latest TV
commercials for the new Commodore
products.

    Frank and others were taking
digital shots, but I remembered the
CES warning to ask permission. As
Frank departed, he whispered, "I don't
think they care about you taking
pictures." To be sure, I went to
American Commodore rep, George, and
asked for permission.

    "Are you with the press?

    "No, I'm with the Fresno Commodore
User Group," and I handed over my
business card.

    "That's great!"

    "And I have a bunch of questions,
but I know it's the end of the day.
I'll be back tomorrow afternoon."

    With about 20 minutes before CES
closed for the day, I pulled out my
film SLR and started snapping shots.
After I took my photos, I noticed that
Ian and his business client from
Germany had sat down at the
NavigatorCombo table. I sat across
from them and tried to listen in. Ian
was explaining about Commodore's
marketing plans to the client. As he
did so, I pulled out the On The Edge
flyers from my camera bag. Other
attendees to the side of me noticed
the flyers, and smiling, they started
picking them up and passing them
around. One attendee asked the
"suits", "Have you read this book?"

    All the "suits" looked, and one
responded, "Yes, a fine book."

    Another attendee asked me, "Are
you the author of the book?"

    "No, but the author, Brian
Bagnall, asked me if I could possibly
leave these here for distribution."

    Ian gently cautioned, "This is a
business function. It's not for
marketing."

    "Hi, Ian, I'm Robert Bernardo from
the Fresno Commodore User Group," and
I handed over my business card. "I was
wondering if I could leave these here
so that passers-by could pick them
up."

    "And how do you know Brian?"

    "We sold his books at the Vintage
Computer Festival."

    "Oh, yes," Ian replied in
recognition. "The Dutch won't like it
if you start passing that, eh?"

    "Oh, no, we don't want to get them
angry. We want them to be on our
side."

    He smiled, and I put the flyers
away. Continuing with the talk of the
marketing plan, I said, "I thought
Commodore was going to go global,
except for North America."

    Ian responded, "We have Europe and
Africa, and we have deals in South
America... Chile...

    "Argentina?"

    He nodded. He then said that there
were plans of going into North America
6 months after that.

[6:00 p.m.] -- The "suits" wanted to
continue, but the other booth workers
were leaving, CES security was walking
in, and the lights were being turned
off. Time to go. I packed my camera
case and notepad and headed for the
exit. As I left, one of the "suits", a
longer-haired, brunette gentleman
waved. I waved back.

    The one-hour drive back to where I
was residing was hectic. Las Vegas
traffic was a pain, but I kept
thinking that I had to get all of this
down in print while the memories were
fresh.

    I arrived at Larry Lathrop's
house, my temporary residence while in
Vegas. He, his wife, and I went to
Joe's Crab Shack where I treated them
to a fine dinner. While waiting the
20-25 minutes for a table, I started
writing this article in my notepad.
Larry had the fried scallop dinner,
Penny had the seafood pasta, and I had
the dinner of salmon covered with a
chunky crab and lobster Rockerfeller
sauce.  For dessert I carried out a
slice of key-lime pie.

    Back at Larry's house, I continued
writing. Later on, I pulled out the
brand-new Hummer DTV game and
unwrapped it. Meanwhile, as I did
that, Larry tried a Jakk's game
joystick. Then I plugged in the Hummer
DTV and switched it on. Opening titles
were clear, but certain screens showed
horizontal "interference" lines.

    Gameplay was marred by a steering
wheel which was not proportional but
acted more like a paddle. Though the
Hummer DTV game was purported to have
256 colors, we only noticed a few
extra colors in the the hills and
other backgrounds. After much
trial-and-error, Larry was getting the
hang of the controls. I still need
much practice but at least had fun in
the "Demolition Derby" part of the
game.

    Finally, Larry brought me over to
his C128 and loaded Super Off-Road
Racing (in 64 mode, of course). He
found Super Off-Road to be superior in
control (with a joystick) and a
possible basis for the Hummer DTV
game. I noted that the Super Off-Road
game had a stationary screen of the
entire track, whereas the Hummer DTV
games had a scrolling track (i.e.,
when your vehicle moved, a part of the
track would scroll and be revealed,
your only view of the entire track
being a "radar" view in the upper
right corner).

    It was near midnight. I had to
finish writing, and Larry went to bed.
Tomorrow would be the Clark County
Commodore Computer Club meeting with
my report on the prospective CommVEx
v2 venues, a demonstration of the C64
PAL DTV, a demonstration of the Hummer
DTV, a viewing of the book, "On The
Edge"; and a look inside 2 Amiga 2000
Video Toasters. Also I had to prep and
mail off FCUG newsletters. There would
be another hotel meeting room to check
out for CommVEx v2. And most
importantly, I would return to CES for
another chat with those at the
Commodore Int'l BV booth.

(to be continued)

 RB