CommVEx v12 room - 4,000 square feet!

Plaza Hotel employees Jillian and James in the pic

Yow!  What was originally a 2.000 square foot room has now doubled in size for the Commodore Vegas Expo v12 2016.  We have so much room now that I'll have to communicate with Dick E., who will be manning the attendance and raffle table, via walkie-talkie.

In Las Vegas,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 -
http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

Modded Commodore Plus/4

(Photo by Ray Carlsen)

Here is one of the modded Plus/4's that I had C= technician Ray Carlsen work on. The square power input has been replaced by a round DIN input so that common C64 power supplies can be used with it. Ray installed a Computer Saver to protect the machine from any over-voltages coming in from the power supply. For cooling the chips, he fashioned an aluminum heatsink plate to make contact with the heat-producing chips and left the BASIC ROM and the Kernal ROM free, because the former rarely fails and the latter is ready for a JiffyDOS replacement. Finally, he added in a tiny fan to get airflow moving through the cramped case of the Plus/4.

Going to the ViC 64 club of Victoria, B.C. tonight,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 -
http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

CommVEx v12 floor plan

The Commodore Vegas Expo v12 2016 is fast approaching!  For those who are curious, here is the floor plan of the third floor of the Plaza Hotel, the venue for CommVEx.  We are in Ballroom 9, partitioned from the giant Sierra Ballroom.

Writing from Portland, Oregon,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 -
http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

Photos from Growing the 8-Bit Generation premiere

Leonard Tramiel, Bil Herd before the premiere 

On-stage with Bil Herd

What the audience saw 

(l to r) John Hollar, Bruno Grampa, Bil Herd 

Executive producer Bruno 

John moderates 

Surprise speaker Chuck Peddle 

(center) Bruno, Al Alcorn, Chuck, Leonard, Bil 

Much discussion after the premiere 

Chuck tells about how Leonard worked for him. 

Jeri Ellsworth listens to Chuck. 

Now everybody is listening in. 

Outside the auditorium door, the talk continues. 

Dinner after - Bil, Chuck, Luca Severini, Chris Collins, Robert B. 

Signed by Jack Tramiel, Leonard Tramiel, and now Chuck Peddle

On March 30, the documentary, Growing the 8-Bit Generation, premiered at Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.  Here are some of the photos from the event.

More to come,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 -
http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

Pics from RJ Mical's birthday celebration

RJ's cake 

The ice sculpture

RJ's world... we just live in it. 

Spinning the music discs in front of the dance floor 

How RJ's house was divided into food stations 

Mysterious RJ!

RJ in your mind!

The bridge in front of the Mical house

The C64 game box (reverse) for RJ

The C64 game box (obverser) for RJ

3/4 view

The C64 game in the box

The new Commodore group introduced

RJ (in the foreground) and the others are entranced by the game.

Sprite RJ para-glides over the landscape.

The opening screen

Sunday at the beach

Very cold but beautiful

Back to gaming after the beach

On March 19-20, 2016, Amiga engineer celebrated his 60th birthday in a big event with about 200-250 people in attendance.  Here are some choice photos from Saturday and Sunday.  For videos, see RJ Mical's birthday speech at https://youtu.be/zLgpmzrzre0 and the Commodore 64 game created for RJ, RJ's Super Psychedelic Birthday Trip! at https://youtu.be/QDbhBMIkiU0

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

The Get-Together after Dave Needle's Memorial

The meeting room above a shopping center

Very fancy!

Amiga Lorraine was displayed. 

Another view of the machine

Close into a board 

The obvious spot for the Portia chip pinout 

Side view 

Another side view 

Lots of wire-wrapping! 

Dave Needle's game - Change Lanes

Very rare! 

Very difficult to play! 

Mike Battilana in a piece of art! 

Dave's Amiga 1000 serial #1

Where the Japanese engineers autographed 

The proof! 

View of the rear 

Multi-tasking while running the Boing Ball demo 

Farewell, Dave.

On Saturday, March 12, memorial services for Amiga engineer Dave Needle were held at Greer Mortuary in Alameda, California.  Afterwards, a reception was held at the Grandview Pavilion.  After the reception, all were invited to a late-night get-together at a meeting room above a shopping center (oh, what was the name?).  In attendance were Amigans, such as Trevor Dickinson, Dale Luck, Bill Bosari, Mike Battilana, Leo Schwab, and more.  Above are photos from that get-together.

Sincerely,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group

http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm