The Nostalgia Column Part 2 - By Dean Garraghty
(c)1996 Dean Garraghty
In this issue I'm going to get nostalgic about another great part of
the Atari's history: The Atari User Shows.
These shows ran from early 1986 to early 1989, with two shows a year,
one in the Spring and the other in late Autumn. They were all held in
London, although they did move about a bit during their time! The first
one was held at the Hammersmith Novotel Hotel. It then moved to the
Horticultural Halls, then back to the Novotel and finally settling down
at Alexandra Palace. The shows were always over a few days finishing on
a Sunday. Although you were supposed to get a show guide when you went
in, I rarely got one and those I did get are now sadly lost. Therefore,
I am going to do this article entirely from memory! No easy task when
some of these shows were almost 10 years ago!! I can't remember
everything about every show in detail so I will talk about things I can
remember. I can sometimes remember which show things happened at, but
sometimes I can't so I'll just throw in memories as I remember them!
These shows were full of 80's glitz and over-indulgence, and no excuses
were made for this! The stands were big and expensively furnished. The
people behind the stands were over-keen. Everybody was trying to out do
everyone else! But all this just made it more fun for the visitors!
Sandy at Page 6 has told me that these shows were stunningly expensive
to exhibit at. The stands cost in the small thousands of pounds! You
also only got the space, the stand itself was your problem! Also, the
organisers had some deal going with a local TV hire company. If you
wanted to use a TV at the show (and let's face it, everybody would need
a TV!), you HAD to hire it from the organisers at some total rip-off
price. You could not bring your own! The organisers must have made a
fortune out of these shows!
I was a mere lad when I attended that first show in 1986. I went down
on the train on the Sunday with very little money in my pocket but
plenty of excitement! I had never been to a computer show before and I
had no idea what to expect. I can clearly remember that first journey
down. Getting across London on the tube was the biggest task! I've
never really liked the tube (I still try to avoid it even now when I
need to be in London!), but I had to use it to get to the show so I
didn't mind too much on this occasion. While walking to the show from
the station, I met up with an American guy who was on his way there
too. He was wanting to buy whatever he could for his new ST. He wasn't
too impressed that I had a lowly 8-bit machine, so he'd probably laugh
his socks off if I met up with him again now!! I can still remember
arriving at the show. You had to go under some sort of covered car park
to get to the entrance. Inside there were a few stands outside the main
part. You then went through some mirrored doors and then Atari stands
as far as the eye could see! Wow! First call was to the Atari User
stand. I needed some back issues to complete my collection. They had
some sort of deal running which allowed you to get 6 for the price of 5
or something. I only needed 5 so I stood and moaned a bit, and the guy
gave me a quid back!! Yes, I was even cutting deals as a kid! I also
bought Miner 2049er on cartridge from Silica. They had it on special
offer for about a fiver which was cheap back then!
I spent hours going around all those stands. Rows and rows of them! I
picked up loads of free catalogues and other bits and pieces people had
stuck in my hands on the way round. I probably went home with more
freebies than stuff I had actually bought! I also remember paying 50p
for a can of warm coke. And don't forget that this was 1986, so just
work out how expensive that can of coke would be today at those prices!
By the next show later that year, I had loads of money to spend and it
was at this show that I bought my first 1050 disk drive. I can still
remember it all perfectly! I first went to a supplier who was cheaper
than Silica but they didn't have any. They said they would send me one
by courier and throw in some free software as well, but I had waited
long enough and I couldn't bare waiting a few more days! Off to Silica
I went and handed over £130. They also threw in a copy of Miner 2049er
which I didn't want or need because I'd actually bought this at the
last show! Apparently, though I didn't know it at the time, I had
snapped up the last 1050 to be had anywhere at that show! Some guy
actually offered me £200 for it a bit later on, but I actually refused!
I must have been mad!! Next job was to get some blank disks. I actually
found a company selling Maxell branded disks at a mere £2.50 per box.
That was a staggering bargain in 1986, and even now some office supply
companies are charging more than double that for a box of 5.25" DD
disks! I still have all 20 Maxell disks I bought at that show and they
all still work perfectly! I then attempted to find some software to
transfer all my tapes to disk. Off to Page 6 I went, but the sales
person didn't seem to have a clue what I was talking about and just
slung a catalogue at me and suggested I look myself. After some
searching I found some bit of PD which sounded about right. It worked,
but not that well! Visitors to this show may well remember a large guy
shouting the odds about having software at bargain prices. He had a big
mound of software behind him which all looked a bit battered. I asked
him about my transfer to disk problem and he obviously didn't have a
clue about anything! He just shoved a bit of paper in my hand and said
ring this number and ask. Box shifting at its very worst! I ended up
buying PILOT on cartridge from these people. The box had scribble on
it, and it looked like it had been run over by a steam roller! I can
remember getting home from that show as though it were yesterday! I
dashed straight in to try my new drive! For some reason, the first
thing I tried was to copy some Basic programs from tape to disk. Being
a tape only user for a year, I had no idea about DOS and such things! I
remember a sinking feeling as I attempted to save a program to disk
only to be greeted with an error. I knew that disks had to be formatted
first, and I had already done this with DOS. What I didn't know, was
that the driver for disk access had to be loaded from disk (in other
words I didn't realise that you had to boot the DOS disk before you
could do anything with the disk drive from Basic!). After some time I
realised that you had to boot the DOS disk before you could do what I
wanted to do. What a delight when I finally got it to work hours later!
I remember at one show passing the Llamasoft stand. What a bunch of
weirdos these lot were! The stand was in total darkness, except for a
few coloured flashing lights. Some very strange music was playing, and
about 5 hippies were sat on the floor with their eyes closed just sort-
of nodding to the music. How on earth this would help sell their stuff
is beyond me!
I can remember that at one show there was a power cut while I was
wandering about near the Page 6 stand. It only lasted a couple of
minutes, but obviously when the power came back on all the machines
started re-booting. A guy was talking to a load of people and said "Ah,
yes that's called re-booting", and everybody looked really impressed
and stunned at his apparent technical knowledge! Heck, some people were
naive back in the old days!!
I can remember the train journey from Kings Cross station to Alexandra
Palace. It was usually full of people going to the show. Everybody
seemed to bring their copy of Atari User along with them and would
flick through and discuss what they were going to buy at the show. This
all added to the build up and made me want to get there even faster!
For people who have never been, Alexandra Palace is on top of a great
big wacking hill! There should have been a free bus service to collect
you at the station and take you up the hill, but I never saw one!
Every time I went I had to walk up the hill, and it was a heck of a
walk! I could almost guarantee that half way up the hill the mystery
free bus would fly past me!
I remember arriving at one show at Alexandra Palace one nice sunny
April day, only to be met by a queue like you've never seen! It must
have been half a mile long! We walked past all these people thinking
that they must be for something else. There was some sort of craft fair
or something going on in one of the other halls. We got to the front
only to be met by a security guard. We told him we were for the
computer show, and he said "the hall's full. You'll have to queue". He
pointed in the direction of the queue, and I thought I'd never get in.
As luck would have it, a guy came out with a megaphone and said that
anybody with advance tickets to the show (which I always bought), could
go in. We were wandering about near the entrance and as soon as he said
that we legged it in!! Yes, we jumped the queue big time!
At the very last show in 1989, there were very few 8-bit suppliers
there. It had gone virtually all ST by that stage. There were some
bargains to be had though. There was a stand selling off 8-bit tapes
and cartridges. Some kid in front of me got a wacking great pile of
brand new tapes for a fiver! Even today I would snap that deal up! He
must have got at least 30 tapes. I hung around for some deals. The guy
behind the stand was a bit sure of himself, and kept having what he
described as "a mad moment" during which he would sell stuff off at a
stupidly low price. Luckily for me he had one of these moments soon
after and plonked a load of cartridges on the stand and said "10 quid
the lot. You've got 10 seconds to say yes starting now!". I stood there
looking cool even though I knew I was getting an amazing deal. I said
"Throw in some of these disks and I'll think about it!", pointing at
some disk-based stuff. He said "I'm throwing in nothing!". I said "OK,
don't want them then!". I was just about to walk off when he agreed to
throw in some more stuff! I ended up with so much stuff for my 10 quid
that I had difficulty carrying them! I got about 100 quids worth of
stuff for a tenner! I was happy!
After that last show in April 1989, the Atari User show became part of
history. The idea was that it would merge together with other shows
that Database Exhibitions organised including one for the old BBC
Micro. The new show was to be called the Computer Shopper show which
is, of course, still going and is now probably one of the biggest shows
there is. I have never gone to a Computer Shopper show. For me the
magic had gone never to be seen again. Computer shows today are usually
one of two types: massive shows like the Shopper show, and tiny "car
boot under a roof" [U.S Readers: A "Car Boot" sale is a flea market type of event] type of events like AMS. For the 90's these new
bargain basement, get it out cheap shows had taken a stronghold. The
glitz and glamour of the 80's computer shows had pretty much gone.
Later that year, in November 1989, what was left of the Atari 8-bit
industry moved itself to the AMS show. But that's another article for
next time!
Originally published in The Atari 8-bit News-Paper.
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