Classic Gaming Expo 2004 By Robert Bernardo Ah, another show... this time the Classic Gaming Expo 2004 at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California 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 three 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 TV/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, and 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, 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 that 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 bed sheet. 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)