Consumer Electronics Show, January 2005

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, 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 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 three 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 TVs, 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 six months after that.

6 p.m. came. 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. Game play 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 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)