Well, another World of Amiga show has come and gone, did this years show match up to the previous years or was it as depressing as the current Amiga situation? Well, a bit of both really....

In general, the show actually seemed bigger then last year, it was spread over 3 floors with the bulk of the stands on the middle one and the usergroups spread over the other two. Amiga Inc had a big video wall which had various presentations on it throughout the day, they also had a prototype of what the new amiga would look like, it was certainly different, put it that way.

Games wise, probably the biggest news from the show was the release of T-zer0, it was being demonstrated on various machines around the show, all of which were drawing in big crowds. clickBOOM themselves were not actually there although they were sponsering the games arcade which unfortunalty didn't really seem to take off on the first day and rarely had more then a few people around the two hugh screens that they had there.

Probably the most interesting thing from the show was the beta version of Wipeout 2097 that was being demonstrated. The game was running on a PPC 603e 200 and was running at a fairly nice pace even though the code is yet to be optimised completly. I was somewhat pesimistic about W2097, but now I have seen this I believe that it is most certainly going to be something to look forward too. Going by information I received at the show there is very little chance of an AGA or 68k version of the game being released, so it looks as though the people that have spent a bit of money are going to have something decent to play on their high-powered machines. Digital Images also had the intro sequence from SpaceStation 3000 running, but there was nothing of the game to be seen whatsoever.

Allthough I didn't see them myself, Pagen Software were at the show demo'ing their forthcoming game, Dafel: Bloodline. Although I didn't see it at the show I can tell you that is one good looking game and it most certainly something to look forward too, hopefully a public demo won't be too far away.

The FUBAR developers were also at the show tucked away in the corner of the Blittersoft stand, they were running a slideshow of FUBAR on one monitor (Just don't ask what machine was running the slideshow ;) ) while on the other the programmer was actually coding the game, some people never know when to stop, eh Andy ;) ? Anyway, I'm told that the game isn't that far away from completion now, maybe even within 2 months. The developers also have plans for another game after FUBAR which could be developed for both PC & Amiga, more news soon.

Titan Computers we're also at the show, although they didn't have mush gamewise on show. They did have a demo of there driving game Joyride there but apart from that and some nice advertisments for forthcoming games Shogo & Heretic 2 there wasn't much to be seen there.

As expected, Alive Mediasoft were also at the show with a massive range of games including latest releases such as Phoenix Fighters, Moonbases & Turbo Racer 3D.

The Epic stand was very busy with a massive range of CD's on offer. They had the Gremline Classics CD on sale at the show as well as one surprising CD, this being Starfighter from Geosync, this game kinda crept out without much mention from either developer or publisher, in fact, I doubt anyone actually knew it was out. Epic also had a running demo of Virtual GP on their stand, unfortunalty, the full game wasn't actually at the show, I was told that had the show been a week later it would have been. Anyway, they were taking pre-orders for the game and it should be with use very soon.

As for the rest of it, well, not much to report games wise. I was unsable to find Darkage Software or Crystal Software, both of whom were supposed to be at the show, a shame really as both have some really good looking games in production. I'll hopefully get info from both of these developers regarding their forthcoming games very soon (hint, hint guys :) ).

As for non-games news, well, Ibrowse 2 was there as was Photogenics 4 - both of which looked very nice indeed. Annex were also there doing there rather riviting dance act to a number of songs including brand new one, to say that the whole hall came to a stop when they were on is an understatment, people seemed more interested in them then anything else at the show, great stuff though ;). Petro seemed to be enjoying himself when he said his little pieces in between songs as well....

Well, thats it from me, I'd just like to say a big hello to anyone I met at the show, the Amiga folk really are a great bunch of people. Also, i'd just like to say to those that are think of giving up on the Amiga, don't. Things may not seem to great, however, theres a lot of exciting stuff going on behind the scenes and the rolloercoaster ride that is the Amiga is far from over.

I'm sure i've missed something but i'm sure other reports will pick up on anything I have so go read somemore :). Anyway, see you next year folks....

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