AmiWest 2009 adds Amiga Game Competition to Show

[AmigaDave]

AmiWest 2009 adds Amiga Game Competition to Show

The SACC group responsible for organizing the AmiWest 2009 show has graciously approved the addition of an Amiga Game Competition to the show's events and festivities this year.

The Amiga Game Competition will consist of 5 different Amiga games to be played on 5 different types of Amiga computers. The planning is not set in stone yet, but it looks like it will have one game running on a Classic Amiga, another game running on a SAM440ep w/AmigaOS4.1, another game running on an Efika w/MorphOS2.3, another game running on either a MiniMig v1.1, or on a C-One computer running a MiniMig core via it's add-on FPGA board, and the fifth game running on a PC using emulation such as AmigaForever, or AmiKit/WinUAE.

Suggestions for which games should be used on the above listed hardware should be sent to amigadave@earthlink.net but each of the games chosen must have a numerical score given as the result of playing the game, as all scores for each of the 5 games will be totaled to determine the final winners (or finalists, see below). Prizes will be awarded to at least the top three scorers in the competition, as well as one prize raffled to a random person just for participating in the contest.

Pre-registering to participate is encouraged, so we will have some idea of how many contestants we might have and therefore can estimate the time needed to complete. The entry fee to participate is $2, but no money will be accepted before the AmiWest 2009 show begins. The registration fees collected will be used solely to offset the cost of obtaining the prizes, and if there is any excess money, it will be given back to the first place finisher in the contest as well as the first place prize.

If time permits, and the SACC organizers agree, the top three scorers after the 5 games have been completed, will play a sixth game head to head against each other, with the display shown on a projector screen for everyone to see easier, and if possible, we will try to stream this feed to the Internet as well. The placement for First, Second and Third places, to determine which prizes are awarded to whom, would be based on this sixth game without regard for the scores of the first 5 games and I already have a game in mind for this final head to head to head game, but will not be disclosing that information to anyone before the competition begins. I don't want anyone to be able to practice more than someone who may not own the games that are to be used in the competition.

So, what do you think? Please post your suggestions for which games should be used in the competition here, or send them to my email address. To pre-register so I can have an idea how many people will be there to participate in the competition, please send me an email to " amigadave@earthlink.net " with AmiWest game contest as the subject.

I hope you all like this idea and if it will get even one more person to attend AmiWest 2009 that was not planning on coming, or was not sure about attending, then I have succeeded in my goal to add value, entertainment and additional attendees to the AmiWest show.

See you all at the show. It is going to be a great time for all!

[illy5603]

Hi Dave,

I managed to make the last 2 SACC meetings and ended up joining! I will be at Ami-west, can't wait!

The tough part is going to be finding NTSC versions of anything worth playing unless we are going to be playing them on systems with Indivision AGA boards or multisystem TV's. Of course a 1084 will work if having the bottom of the screen cut off isn't a concern.

Seeya there!

-Chad (Sacramento)

[AmigaDave]

Originally Posted by illy5603

Hi Dave,

I managed to make the last 2 SACC meetings and ended up joining! I will be at Ami-west, can't wait!

The tough part is going to be finding NTSC versions of anything worth playing unless we are going to be playing them on systems with Indivision AGA boards or multisystem TV's. Of course a 1084 will work if having the bottom of the screen cut off isn't a concern.

Seeya there!

-Chad (Sacramento)

See you there Chad, make sure you come up and introduce yourself during the show (so I can forget your name 15 minutes later like I always do)

This will be my 4th AmiWest show in the last 10 years and I must say that I am looking forward to this one more than any of the previous ones I have attended. Hopefully the rest of you that can come will enjoy it at least half as much as I will be enjoying myself.

With any luck, AmiWest 2010 will be even better and bigger than this year. It can be if we do this year RIGHT! The great thing about the Amiga "Scene", or "Community" that still exists today, is that it is still active and that there are still developers writing software and engineers creating hardware designs for computers that were first produced over 20 years ago. That is an amazing fact of life that almost NO other computer platform can match or claim.

There has to be something special that keeps us going and wanting to keep improving "The Amiga Experience".l

Long Live Amiga - In whatever form it lives for you today and tomorrow.

Thankfully all the naysayers who said WinUAE would never be usable, were wrong and that there are so many other alternatives to try out that are Amiga compatible, or comparable. Splitting the existing community apart seems to have weakened us in some ways, but it has stirred up competition, which might actually have spurred on some development to go higher and farther than it might have reached on it's own without any competition. It seems fair to assume that WinUAE will continue and that we all will be able to keep emulating one of our favorite OSes for years to come. All the rest of the Amiga-Like systems are just a flash in the pan and could disapear tomorrow or the day after, for all I can tell.

Me, I am just going to enjoy what is left of it all for as long as I can. I suggest you do the same for as long as it makes sense for you to do so.

I think all of us would have preferred to have better management at Commodore which would have lead to better development plans and better marketing, back in 1990 and a green light to do better Amiga development starting as far back as the A2000 & A500's, where improvements to the custom chipset should have been happening faster and better, just as soon as the A1000 was completed and in stores.

Also, there should have been a REAL budget for advertizing the advantages of the Amiga's multitasking user interface, as well as dozens of other reasons to convince developers to write Amiga applications as well as users to buy new Amigas. I could go on and on, but this dead horse has been beaten to death so many times, it is just a lump of stinky glue by now. Just suffice to say that most of us would have preferred to have had Commodore Business Machines become many times more successful at selling and supporting the Amiga computer and all of it's peripherals, instead of the dismal fate that Mhedi Ali and friends dragged the Amiga through from 1989 to 1993. But none of that happened for us and nobody knows if it would have made any difference anyway, with Wild Bill buying up all the technologies and cheating the rest out of a chance to make a decent living honestly, so maybe nothing we or Commodore could have done at the time could have made any difference in the ultimate outcome.

[illy5603]

Hi Dave,

I personally love all of it. I think WinUAE is incredible and use it pretty much every day. I even set up my real A1200 in WinUAE before moving the files over to a compact flash card and installing it in my 1200.

Also right now we DO have new things being created for the Amiga. The Indivision series of video adapters, accelerators being built in limited quantities again, competition pro sticks getting a new run, with even more coming down the line soon.

It also helps to have forums like this one where you can interact with people like Toni, the staff at amigakit, old scene coders, sysops and the like.

Anyway, I will see you at Ami-west. I will have a PAL 1200 and a Multisystem TV on standby for the gaming if needed.

[AmigaDave]

Originally Posted by illy5603

Hi Dave,

I personally love all of it. I think WinUAE is incredible and use it pretty much every day. I even set up my real A1200 in WinUAE before moving the files over to a compact flash card and installing it in my 1200.

Also right now we DO have new things being created for the Amiga. The Indivision series of video adapters, accelerators being built in limited quantities again, competition pro sticks getting a new run, with even more coming down the line soon.

It also helps to have forums like this one where you can interact with people like Toni, the staff at amigakit, old scene coders, sysops and the like.

Anyway, I will see you at Ami-west. I will have a PAL 1200 and a Multisystem TV on standby for the gaming if needed.

Thanks, looking forward to meeting you and seeing everyone at AmiWest 2009.