From: ins739l@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (William Fang)
Subject: Future Entertainment Show, London
Organization: Monash University
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 03:31:49 GMT

[ Article crossposted from comp.sys.amiga.misc ]
[ Author was Richard O Lavey ]
[ Posted on 9 Nov 92 12:18:42 GMT ]

Greetings...

There now follows a summary of what I saw at the Future Entertainments Show held last weekend (6-8 Nov) at Earl's Court in London.

Overview
--------

This show was probably the most popular home computer show ever held in London. On the Saturday there were a reported 15,000 visitors, and on Sunday (the day I went) people weren't being allowed through the outer perimeter unless they had advance tickets !

The Earl's Court exhibition centre consists of two main Halls (called Earl's Court (EC) 1 and 2). EC2 was games related people, such as Sega, Nintendo, Commodore, Ocean, MicroProse, Electronic Arts and Philips.

EC1 was more business/retail orientated, containing lots of mail-order type places selling games and other software. Also present were Commodore, GVP and Citizen.

For those who don't know, the show's name comes from the fact that it was sponsored/organised by Future Publishing - who produce Amiga Format, Amiga Shopper and Amiga Power amoungst other magazines.

The Commodore Stands
--------------------

Well, what can I say ? I was VERY impressed by the Commodore stands at the show. They were large and well positioned and were showing the latest Amigas. The games stand was filled with A600's, A600HD's, CDTVs, a couple of A500+s with the A570 CD-ROM drive, and A1200's.

These were running a variety of games, and a couple of them were running demo versions of DPAINT IV AGA. I had a play with this and it seems to be very good - if a bit slow when in 1280x512 HAM8 mode !! The machine I used was fitted with an internal Hard Drive, but the versions on sale DO NOT come with one. The tech specs on the flier I picked up confirm that it comes with 2 MB of 32-bit Chip RAM as standard, with 4 MB 32-bit Fast RAM being an option in the trapdoor slot, with another 4 MB 16-bit fas
available via PCMCIA. The floppy drive is 880 K only. When I asked someone why this was, he said cost.

Leading between EC2 and EC1 was a corridor, with the CBM games stand at the EC2 end and a large partition at the EC1 end with embedded TV's running the new Amiga TV ad. This was great, as it meant that everyone going between halls had to walk past this large Amiga ad...

At the "business" stand in EC1, there was mainly PC clones. The A4000 and A3000 were also there, the former running SCALA. I picked up a flier here that contains some interesting info...

----begin quote----

       "The Commodore Amiga 4000 SERIES Technical Specifications"
				 ^^^^^^

PROCESSOR/SPEED : Motorola 68040 32-bit processor, 25 MHz clock speed *
			.
			.
			.
* On Amiga 4000/030 the processor is Motorola 68030

----end quote----

So ! It looks like an A3000 replacement will be with us soon.

Also on the CBM stand was a Technical help point - the first time I've ever seen one - WELL DONE COMMODORE UK !

I asked one of the guys there about 2.1 and 3.0. He said that 2.1 should be released before Christmas in the UK, and that there weren't any plans to release 3.0 for the A500/2000 in the near future, primarily because things like the colour wheel didn't work too well on non-AGA machines, although there could be a "re-unifying" release in the future.

On the question of "Power-up" deals in the UK, someone else I asked said that there were no current plans for such a deal, but that there had been a lot of people asking about it at the show. So, we can but hope...

In conclusion, I have to say that I was VERY VERY IMPRESSED with CBM UK's efforts at the show. They seemed very professional and the marketing dept. seems to have finally got it's act together. Let's hope they can keep it up.

GVP
---

GVP weren't showing anything completely new. The A530 was there, as was IV24 anf their new genlock, G-LOCK. More I couldn't say.


MicroProse
----------

were showing F15 Strike Eagle III and Harrier for the PC, and a demo version of Gunship 2000 for the Amiga was also on display. This looks quite impressive, and apparently has the same speed as the PC version - I thought it a bit slow, but it was only running on an A600.


Phillips
--------

were showing off CD-I. I don't know who their target market is, but if the size
and design of the trackball controllers on most of the machines is anything to
go by, it appears to be the pre-teens. (ie large brightly coloured buttons,
and a large trackball). On a more technical point, there was a demo disk
running and showed off FULL SCREEN FULL MOTION VIDEO. This was very
impressive, and if CDTV wants to compete then Commodore better have the same
thing ready soon !

Other Things...
---------------

Most of the other games companies were showing NES and Sega stuff.

Utilities Unlimited were NOT at the show (so don't ask about Emplant).

Opal Vision was widely available - price 700 pounds approx.

Anyway, that's all I've got to say. If you have any specific questions then
ask and I'll try to answer them.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Richard Lavey - cs90rol@brunel.ac.uk - Brunel University - Comp Sci Year 3 |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"He has engaged us in subterfuge and red herring...			      |
|	A fish I don't particular care for." 		- Dale Cooper	      |
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