On Saturday 24th February 5 members of AG-NES, Dave, Iain, Ben, Sandy and yours truly, travelled to Huddersfield for Alt-WOA. Here is my little lighthearted story of the day and how it unfolded.
6.15am and I drag myself from my pit, by this time Dave, Iain, Ben and Sandy had already been on the road from Aberdeen for 15 minutes. After applying the usaul array of chemicals (shower gel, after shave etc) I drag wife from aforementioned pit and get her to drop me off at the pickup point. Pickup point is the outskirts of Dundee and by this time "Dave and co" had been on the road for an hour. Mad or what.
Anyways, the journey to Huddersfield was uneventful, but it passed in what seemed a blink of the eye. During the next 5 hours, yes 5 hours, that it took to get to Huddersfield all things Amiga were discussed. Brilliant, anoraks the world over eat your hearts out. How good it is not to have to explain yourself to a Windoz user who thinks you must be nuts to be STILL using an Amiga.
High noon duly arrived and we found ouselves outside the venue, a nice watering hole that had a busy look to it. The car park seemed pretty full and the scene was set for my first visit to an Amiga only show, so far so good.
Ok, now it started to go downhill. We entered the main doors and there before our eyes a bloody queue waiting to get in. Can you believe it, we drive 6 hours and find we have to queue. I ask you, they keep telling us the Amiga is DEAD. More people for the nut house, thats what I say. It has since been reported on the net that around 500 people attended the show.
So now I have paid the required entrance fee, a modest �1.50 I might add (BTW guys, remind me of the lame excuse you used to get me to pay you all in), the next problem quickly becomes apparent.
Money, yes I know we are all minted (well you have to be to own an Amiga), but can you imagine going back to already grumpy wife, one and same dragged from pit at early hours of morning and explain why I exchanged our hard earned cash and in the process exceed my budget for all this lovely miggy software. Well call me old fashioned, but I buried head in sand and in the best traditions of us blokes left the formulation of an excuse till the deed was done. After all. I had 5 hours to sweat it out on the road home.
Eyetech was given body swerve on first pass. far to busy for bloke with low tolerance for shopping. First real browse was at the Classic stall (I think that was their name). Lots of software, new and not so new, then similar treatment was dished out to the stalls of 100% Amiga, Fore-matt Computing and Weirdscience. These folk deserve a big pat on the back for stocking the very best in Amiga software.
Next stop was a tour of the user groups, the very life blood of the Amiga and what a nice if not pretty bunch they were (sorry guys). Plenty of them and always ready for chat.
I then moved on to the games area where Payback, Heretic II, and Sensible Soccer were struting their stuff. This was great. Competitions involving Heretic and Sensi ran all day and our Dave got his ass wipped in the 2nd round of Sensi Soccer (actually he lost 1-0 with the winning goal coming in the last minute). Unlucky mate. This area was busy all day. A few words about the games.
Firstly to Heretic II, I bought this game when it first came out and loved it. If you have the hardware to run this game, buy it, it is worth every penny and Hyperion cannot be praised highly enough for doing the conversion. It is so good I understand that it sold out at the show. Nuff said.
Payback, the new GTA clone was also drawing the crowds. Now I played the demo of this game and was not impressed. I can't put my finger on it, whether it was the snow covered surface or what, but on the strength of the demo I had decided not to buy the game. Guess what, yep your are right, I bought the game. the game looked sooooo different and played well. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned here, first impressions etc. Another game that comes highly recommended.
And now, to arguably the greatest game ever, Sensible Soccer. I have not seen this game for years. More fool me. This was brilliant. It brought back so many memories and everyone playing seemed to be really enjoying themselves. The biz.
Ok, Eyetech had to be cracked, bite the bullet and wait my turn. Objective, secure an EZcam. To my disappointment they are having problems with this kit and it was not ready for sale. Ho hum.
Mention in despatches to for the Amibench crew, they always seemed to have plenty around their stall and the fellow who demonstrated the excellent Digital Universe. Well done.
Now, my only real criticism of the show was the Cybercafe. It was great that the guys made the effort and set this up. But they get a black mark for using old low res Commodore screens. It gave, in my opinion, the wrong impression of what our miggys are capable of. That aside and it is only a minor moan, the show was a great day out. HAUG did a great job. Well done.
We spent all day at the show and remained behind for the prize draw and presentations. Although the AmigaONE was to make an appearance, this did not happen. Instead we had to make do with a picture (sad or what). Prize draw made, all present piled upstairs for the words of wisdom from Eyetech and Fleccy. Being stuck at the back of the room (now you see where I got the title from) and the lack of any PA system, we heared buggar all. But from all repots, nothing new was said.
With the show over, we headed up north, all with a good amount of booty. Excuse in hand, sorry dear but a temporary madness had overcome me (well you come up with a better one), I arrived home around 11pm. The others had a further hour of travel. The day was done.
I would just like to thank those who took time to organise the show and hope you made a pile of cash so that you can do it again next year, but bigger and even better.