AmiWest is over and I made it home after a long drive. I must thank Tim and Chris for making the trip with me, helping with some of the driving and for all the entertaining stories told during the trip and at the show.

I took my EFIKA and a Dell 20" LCD monitor, among many other Amiga related items and I was able to show MorphOS2.1 to all the show attendees. Even with all the focus on the SAM440ep running AmigaOS4.1, most people there still took some time to come look at the EFIKA and MorphOS2.1. I know for sure that at least one person will be buying an EFIKA after seeing what it could do. Of course that was one of the two guys that drove up there with me and he spent a lot of time loading software on to my EFIKA and running demos and movie clips from it during the show.

The other guy that went with us bought a SAM440ep and AmigaOS4.1 after selling his A3000T at the show. Chris, who wants to buy an EFIKA will have to wait a little while longer because he bought a pre-built MiniMig from AmigaKit during the show and had it running before the end of the day. Since I have an inverter with a 110volt outlet in the back seat of my Dodge Nitro, Chris was also able to play on his new MiniMig during the drive home.

The show was good and I am glad that I was able to present MorphOS2.1 to many people there, but more than that I enjoyed seeing so many Amiga users again. Most of us went out to dinner after the show, must have been about 35 at one very long table at the Sacramento Brewery for some good food and conversation.

After dinner I said my good byes to everyone and returned to my hotel room because I needed to get my A1200 ready to have it's capacitors replaced by a fellow A.org member (da9000) who had offered his services FREE of charge. He had already replaced most of the capacitors on my A4000D/PowerTower during the show earlier before we went to dinner. Little did I know that about half the group at dinner would show up at my room along with Tony (da9000) including the two sponsors of AmiWest Jens Schoenfeld and Matthew Leaman, and the president of SACC who organizes AmiWest, or that they all would stay until midnight.

I have to give Tony a big thank you for staying so late and working so hard at replacing capacitors on my two main Amiga systems. It was preventative maintenance, as those systems were working just fine before the show, but it was good that it was done as some corrosion was found where some capacitors had started to go bad.

All I can say is that all of you that did not come missed out and you should try to come next year.

I'm glad that you made the trip safely, and I think most of us would like to make the trip to AmiWest in the future. Amigadave we are glad that you showed the EFIKA and MorphOS 2.1. I'm sure that everyone that saw MorphOS running will remember it. Thank you again for making the trip.

...Yes I wish I could be fiscally responsible enough
to be able to afford AmiWest 2009...even
better would be to get a sustainable show/meeting
on the east coast. Guess I should make that a goal?

Thanks for the show report Amigadave...


As far as an East Coast Amiga show - there was a lot of talk on A.org about organizing a show in Atlanta. I really hope that becomes a reality. You can check the thread on there - it was about a month ago.

The show was good and I am glad that I was able to present MorphOS2.1 to many people there, but more than that I enjoyed seeing so many Amiga users again... - AmigaDave

Nice ! I've been thinking about EFIKA and MorphOS2.1 rather than OS4.1 for my A1.

@amigadave
Thanks for coming! It was great fun for everybody. Many of the hard core AmigaOS 4.x guys were finally able to see MorphOS in action for the first time.

Quote:
Couldn't agree more. These shows are all about people helping people and having fun. Not AmigaOS versus AROS versus MorphOS versus [insert OS here].

I was lucky to be there when the Minimig came to life. A product I had sqrt(0) interest in until I saw tekmage having fun playing that tank game. Awesome!

[ Edited by ssolie on 2008/10/20 13:47 ]

Quote:

As far as being fiscally responsible, just look at as a gift to yourself and start saving now for the trip, you have a whole year and $10 a week should get you there and back plus your room cost. If you organize it with a couple of other people it will cost you even less.

I am definitely going again next year as AmiWest 2008 was the best one for me so far. Not because it was organized better than previous years (because it was not), but because I was more involved and interacted with more people.

I hope that an East coast, or MidWest show can be arranged as well, but still would like to see everyone make it to AmiWest just for my selfish reasons to meet you all. If I could make it to the Atlanta show (if it happens), I would come there AND also go to AmiWest next year.

Attend any and all Amiga shows that you can and get involved. It makes the experience all the more worth the effort.