sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu (Scott Sutherland) (05/29/90)
Recently, Bob Rizzo, co-president of the StonyBrook Amiga users group posted a request for Amiga demos to use in demonstrating the Amiga's capabilities to his campus. In another posting, one person took a copy of the Ed. Disc. pricelist to the CS department for distribution to students wanting info in discount prices of various platforms, since the only info they had was for Mac's and IBM PC's. And, finally, there have been a lot of complaints about the lack of Amiga advertising by CBM, or the quality of the advertising they ARE doing. Even the new full-page ads in college newspapers has received SOME critique. Well, all this stuff got me to thinking. What is the greatest source of AMIGA advertising? We are! All the Amiga users around the world. We all love our machines, and we all want to see more people own them. Many of us have come to the Amy from other platforms (IBM, Mac, Atari, etc) and so we have knowledge of the Amiga's strengths AND WEAKNESSES w.r.t. these other systems. And we truly have a desire to see the Amiga prosper. Local authorized dealers have this desire as well, but often to a lesser extent, especially if they carry other platforms as well. So, what can we DO about this? Bob Rizzo has a good idea. In the reply to his posting below, which I emailed to him, I make some suggestions as to how he might expand on his diplay. Not all the ideas I suggest are possible to implement in all cases, but they represent some of the ideas which can be considered. Many schools have a "computer show" or a "technical expo", where local stores, and some companies, show off hardware for computer systems. At the University of Florida, these events usually occur in the early Fall and Spring semesters, and are well attended by IBM, Apple, and Zenith, all companies whose computer systems are available via a campus educational discount from the campus bookstore or the CS department. The CS dept. even has a PC room for demo compters that students can come and try out, and, frequently, a rep. from one of the companies above, (or another company, like NeXT), will be on hand to demo their wares and answer questions. CBM has never been represented here in this capacity. A So I put it to all the Amiga users out there to consider doing something about it. In my reply below, I outline some steps to this end. Contact your local authorized Amiga dealer. Have him get a booth at the next campus show. Tell him you or some of your friends will be there to help WOW the crowd. Get really GOOD demos for graphics (like Markoya's work), animation (BKDC entries, game sequences, like BAAL, Shadow of the Beast, Blood Money), sound (PD or BKDC stuff), serious software (business applications, CAD, etc.), and good multitasking stuff. Make sure the dealer has info to hand out on the Ed. Disc. program. Etc., etc.... Other possible ideas are outlined below. With many universities having these TECH-type days coming up this Fall, and with the Ed. Disc. program in full swing, and with the new A3000 available before summer's end, we, the Amiga users, and CBM, with their new, aggressive ad campaign, are in a unique position to compete with the IBM and Mac people for sales. I call upon the Amiga users to take the baton and run with it. As I said before, WE ARE THE BEST ADVERTISEMENT THE AMIGA HAS. Please note that I realize that a) the steps I mention here by no means represent a complete list, nor even the best set of ideas to pursue (they simply act as a guide to show what CAN be done), and b) that not all of these ideas can be used for every case. I hope others can voice their ideas as well. Scott Sutherland sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu In article <9427@sbcs.sunysb.edu> you write: > > > I am looking >for demos of the magnitude of the walker demos as well as cute little >screen hacks. My group is having a public demonstration of AMIGA grapics >and sound at the beginning of next semester, I am trying to get all of >the IBM and MAC people on campus to change their attitude about the AMIGA. >If anybody knows of any demos that truly show the full potential of the >AMIGA, PLEASE mail to me. I want any animation, sound, or an exceptional >DMCS or Sonix song. If you know of any ftp site that has them send me >the address or if you have one on disk let me know and if I dont have >it I will pay for the disk and the postage. PLEASE help me I am tired of >all the IBM and MAC people telling me to get a real machine, we'll see >who has the last laugh when I show them the intros to Blood Money and >Wayne Gretzky hockey. Try doing that on a mac! Thanks in advance. > >Bob Rizzo >Co-president >StonyBrook AMIGA Users > >rrizzo@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu I know of a few you should try to find. They are RGB, and Doc. You can find them on xanth.cs.odu.edu. I think RGB is actually called WildCopperDemo. Other things to include would be stuff from Shadow of the Beast (over 20 layers of scrolling at different rates for a GREAT depth effect.) and the intro to Zoom (a really catchy animation with the music digitized from Rick James' Super Freak (?) song.) Also, if you have access to Blood Money, tape some footage from the first and second planets. There are some unbelievably sprite animations in there of small 2-legged walkers (look like Star Wars walkers) and some really smoothly animated jelly-fish like creatures. Can't think of other stuff yet. BTW, be careful. If you have been following the articles posted lately on VHS versions of Amiga Animations and other stuff, you will know that there is a potential for copyright infringement. Since you are NOT selling this, I do not think there will be a problem, but you should make the effort to contact the authors (either on the net, or by phone or mail) to get a RELEASE to show their stuff on tape (also call game companies, like Psygnosis, to make sure they do NOT mind). This is just to play is safe. Also, you should edit in a title page before each animation or image giving the title, author or source, etc. for acknowledgement of their work. This may be sufficient by itself to avoid copyright infringement. Oh, I just remembered. On xanth, in amiga/demos are 3 directories called badge0, badge1, and badge2. These contain ALL the entries from the respective BADGE killer demo contests, including the Award winning Sentinel (a MUST to WOW them!!!!!). Get ALL of these and look them over to choose. I'd like to find out how it goes. Can you let me know?? Thanks, Scott Sutherland sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu I am also tired of hearing stuff like, "the Amiga, that's a game machine, right?", or "the Amiga is going belly up". I suggest also that you contact CBM. They might be able to give you a flyer on the Ed. Disc. and features of the whole line of Amiga products. Just think, you can show these AMAZING demos, then show all those MAC and IBM users (or potential users) that the Amiga can be had for MUCH less, $$ wise that is. Make sure that you KNOW ahead of time where all the nearest authorized Amiga dealers are. You might contact them as well to work out something. Maybe they can pay for the cost of making a kick-a** brochure for the Ed. Disc., since, if you are successful in showing off the best of the Amiga, they stand to make a lot of sales. Perhaps a representative of their store can be there with the Ed. Disc. forms ready to be filled out. This could be a real boon for sales. Finally, besides showing off the graphics and sound of the Amy with these demos, do NOT forget to show off the SERIOUS side, including multitasking (make sure your demo Amigas have several Megs of RAM AND a hard disk!! I'd suggest, if possible, using 2-4 Amigas for this. Have one or two running DEMOS, one running SERIOUS software, and one for people to play with. Maybe some of your Amiga friends can help, or even the local authorized dealer. I guess what I am trying to say is that I really like the idea of what you are trying to do, but why not REALLY DO IT RIGHT. PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS. If it goes over well, you should post to the net. Get a statement from the local dealer, if they sell a lot of Amigas from this, so that other people on the net can go to their dealers and say, look what this did for SUNY and ***** (dealer name). Other options are, since CBM seems to be really attacking the advertising market in force, see if they can take out one of these full page (or even half page) ads in your school paper. (Contact CBM, either on the net, or, better yet, on the phone). People in comp.sys.amiga could probably give you a name to call. GO FOR IT. BTW, could you keep me posted on you success contacting CBM, and your dealings with the local dealers. I think that your idea has inspired me to attempt a similar thing here at the next Computer Show (usually early in the FALL). Unfortunately, there is NO authorized dealer within 2 hours of here (Gainesville, FL) so I will have a tougher time (unless I can convince the local campus bookstore to start carrying the Amy). Well, I've rattled on enough. Good Luck.
jonabbey@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Jonathan Abbey) (05/29/90)
The user group here at UT put on an Amiga expo a month back or so.. they contacted a lot of people, including local amiga developers (New Horizons, Byte by Byte), GVP (which offered a board for a doorprize), Practical Peripherals, and others. Commodore was contacted, but it was with less than two weeks notice. Nonetheless, the local representative (one of only two in Texas 8-)) did show up with a 2500/30 in tow, and a splendid time was had by all. The whole thing was put together by some very scrappy Amigans in the University Amiga Users Group, but the event was sponsored by the Computer Science Department as well. It certainly boosted visibility a bit - currently there are less than five Amigas on campus in an official capacity.. one in the main microcomputer lab (an old 1000 with 512k, Workbench/KickStart 1.1 and an extra drive - the user group donated a 1.3 kit, and it has a 9600 baud link to the campus broadband network, so it makes a darn nifty Dnet terminal.. 8-)), and a couple sitting unused in the electrical engineering dept. Jonathan Abbey (512) 926-5934 | Amiga Programmer Wanna-be jonabbey@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu bix: jonabbey +----------------------------- The University of Texas at Austin - CS Undergrad | Speaking for myself, at best
amigaman@portiaStanford.EDU (Colin Gould) (05/30/90)
I think Scott's idea is a good one in that computer "shows" seem fairly popular and a logical place to introduce the AMi. I'll share some of my info & experience w/ that. C= hasn't seemed to do much directly, but some local stores (HT electronics, I think they're in SUnnyvale) does put on an AMiga computer fair. At Stanford we usually have several 'fairs' (of varying size, depending` on whether it's Apple or not!); there's a NeXT fair, AMiga fair, PS/2 fair, and of course Macs. HT Electronics had about 6 Amis, of which a few were 500s running games and sound prgs, others were 2000s running animations/demos or serious stuff. They also had a TV camera and FramGrabber hooked up, with a Xerox4020, anbd were digitizing couples and people and makinjg complimentary printouts. That went over well; I would suggest that anyone doing such a fair remember the video power of the AMi, which we take for granted, but my IBM friends still can't get over the idea of a genlock (or even the idea of my monitor displaying TV...sheesh.) People love video since it is so direct and live, and fun, especially if youcan take home a printout. DPaintIII also wows people (just from my experience in training people on it here at XTV, Stanford's student-run TV station)- it's quick & easy to generate a flying animated logo of someone's name spinning in space in a nice ColorFont(tm) , then gnelock it over their face. That can be much more impressive than just another WP prg. BE SURE to show people the price. SHow them the RETAIL. They won't believe you. Tell them they don't have to pay $100 for a decent keyboard, or $400 for `an external floppy drive (without an eject button.) THEN show them educational discounts and they will flip. People just plain don't believe me when I tell them- but you have to show them the power of the Ami first, otherwise they ignore it. I would suggest having a spokesperson running some sort of main demoshowing multitasking especially and the integration of all this power, then have him tell the price. Especially since C= never puts the actual price on the ads (I hate 'And all this at a price that's easy to swallow.') I also agree that we are the AMiga's best resource. I keep showing it off any chance I get, and I've sold around 4-6 machines to friends etc. that way. (PS C=/Amiga, hey what about some commissions, ok? I do it out of love and loyalty, but I'd at least like some support, if only verbal...) Sell it hard. The Ami deserves it. Talk to your local campus bookstore/ computer center also, if only to remind them of alternatives, although Stanford's didn't want to do it since the profit margin was too low compared to Apple ;) Someone else wrote in about Campus Reps- I know C= has them, my friend is applying to be one, but he said he was having a hard time- anyone else have info on that? EMail me..I'd like to be one when I get back from Berlin. Heck, the local Apple rep (one of many) put on a study break with 20 pizzas as a lure (and it WORKED) recently at one dorm. How about some of that, Commodore? You can't expect local dealers and loyal but time-pressed students to compete with that. Signing off Colin Gould amigaman@portia.stanford.edu (yeah, corny username, but hey it's caught some people's attention...& they remember the amiga's name!)
jdutka@wpi.wpi.edu (John Dutka) (05/31/90)
In article <1990May30.055657.22526@portia.Stanford.EDU> amigaman@portiaStanford.EDU (Colin Gould) writes: >I think Scott's idea is a good one in that computer "shows" seem fairly popular >and a logical place to introduce the AMi. I'll share some of my info & >experience I agree. I've organized a computer show here at WPI for the past 3 years, and with quite reasonable success. About 50 attended the first show (called MegaFest), 350-400 attended the second show, and 250-300 attended the 3rd show, down due to the smaller location and the rainy weather that day. There were Amigas from the 500 all the way up to the 2500/30, there were PC's (8088's up to '386 systems), Macs from a Mac 512 up to an SE30 and a Mac II. The systems which drew the most people were the higher end Amigas running animation/sound demos, most of which were done by the people showing the machines. Maybe 80-90% of the people gathered around the Amigas for the majority of the show, even though the Mac's, PC's, and GS's were showing some truly incredible demonstrations. I my opinion, the Amiga needs to be shown more frequently at some of the smaller shows, not just at Comdex, the World of Commodore, AniExpo, and so on, and the folks at Commodore-Amiga can help at this by being a bit more friendly to the small computer show organizer, something most of the people I know who organize shows would appreciate quite a bit. -- | husc6!m2c!wpi!jdutka | "Hey, baby - wanna do some HEAT TRANSFER? | | jdutka@wpi.wpi.edu | Heh, heh, heh!" | | John Dutka, Jr. | -Mechanical Engineers On The Prowl | | jdutka%wpi.wpi.edu%mitvma.bitnet __________________________________________|