It was early in the morning (4:25 AM to be exact) as my alarm clock radio roughly woke me (Majestic) up. Following a quick breakfast I went to pick up Com. As I entered his house he was watching Video (at 5:15 AM!). Anyway, we both then drove to the railway station in Basel (Switzerland). A four hour railway ride awaited us. Would it be worth it?
Around 11 o'clock we arrived in K]ln. A long queue at the "Change Booth" extended the time before entering the Expo. The Expo was about 20 minutes (by foot) away from the station. As we arrived at the Expo we couln't believe our eyes. There were a few hundered people waiting Infront of the ticket-booth, and only to worsten our nightmare someone told us that they wouldn't sell tickets anymore. Two things to that now, the first one is that I must say this is typically Commodore (organization = 0), on the other hand it shows that there exist more fanatic freaks than the organization thought.
So we were infront of the AmiExpo, we travelled more than 400 kilometers, and we had NO TICKET. I felt like at a big concert were tickets are the most valuable thing. So our Brains Stormed, and we got to the conclusion to enter where the people go out. So me, Com, Olivision and a member of Headwave entered through the exit. There were a few barriers but since there was such a huge crowd around we weren't noticed and so we could easlily jump over the barriers.
Inside the Expo the crowd was bigger than we ever imgagined. You could hardly move. Anyway, the Expo was quite nice. Could have been better. NewTek showed some nice Ray Tracing movies. While most of the software houses were just selling their products. I expected more "hands-on" experience with the latest hardware, but there were so many people that you hardly got the chance to look at anything. For us who had a long trip behind us the Expo was crap, not enough action. So we hung around for about 2 or 3 hours and then left.
Then outside we looked for a Fast-Food place, and that for about 1 hour. After our stomages almost revolted against us we finally managed to find a place which suited our payable abilities. Quickly eating a Hamburger, we ran back to the Expo (since there was the meeting place for Paranoimia's Party). Arriving back at the Expo we met our German members; Shadow, Yankee and some members of D-Tect because they had the invitation.
So there we were about 50 people in front of the Expo all waiting to go to the Paranoimia Party. About an hour later we arrived at the Party Place. To our dissapointment we only saw -5- computers. Well, the party could have been better, but I don't want to make a general statment about the party since I didn't stay too long, and who knows maybe later on some more computers arrived. (?) Our visit in Köln ended about at 8 o'clock, when we took the train back home.
All in all I can say, is that I wouldn't do it again.
Majestic/BRS
This article originally appeared in the Amiga diskmagazine "Zine #2" by Brainstorm 1989.
Some content may refer to activities that are illegal in some countries. BitFellas does not support such activity.
Addresses and other contact information were only valid when this magazine was originally published, in december of 1989.
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