The Spectrum Meeting in Sindelfingen

The Spectrum Meeting in Sindelfingen

Meetings in southern Germany suit me much better than Cologne anyway; after all, Stuttgart is about 650 km away, while Cologne is roughly 1000 km [misprinted as 10 km in the original]. Anyone who drives knows what such distances mean. You really have to be a true enthusiast to take something like that upon yourself.

Apparently, there are fewer hardcore Spectrum fans around, or Microsoft conspirators have already infiltrated executive suites everywhere, denying time off to anyone wanting to attend a Spectrum gathering. For whatever reason, only about 20 to 25 people turned up—likely also because the venue, a hotel, was exceptionally difficult to locate. Despite route directions and a map, I drove past it at least twice and finally arrived on the last fumes of petrol.

Parking was handled brilliantly: I was able to drive straight into the underground garage. Johan Koning showed me where to park, placing me very close to the lift, which made hauling all my luggage inside in one go completely hassle-free.

The fact that fewer people showed up also had its upside for me: I was the very first to snag some defective Spectrum boards that were being given away for free—some of them still had working ULAs. Secondly, the room wasn't overcrowded. And thirdly, had any Micro$oft terrorist staged an attack, the entire Spectrum scene wouldn't have been wiped out in one blow. Fortunately, no such terrorist appeared—he probably got lost along the way too.

The event room somewhat resembled a redesigned SUC dungeon (Thomas and Fred had managed to take the chains off the walls in time and camouflaged the "iron maiden" as a table), as there were no windows. Hardly surprising—it's quite a challenge to install windows in a second-floor basement! Somehow, I really liked it there; felt almost like home!

No sooner had I arrived than I was surrounded by an agitated crowd demanding something from me. Only after a while did I realise what they wanted: the latest issue of SCENE+! Unfortunately, it wasn't quite finished yet, so I set up my machine and was virtually chained to it until the issue was complete. Right next to me sat Peter Rennefeld with his Spectrum +3.5 and an attached LCD display (no relation to me, honest to God, as sure as my handle is LCD), running a few demos on it to distract me. However, as long as the controller board's refresh rate remains this sluggish and attributes aren't supported, it's not quite for me yet—though work is ongoing. Lest we forget: that card was originally designed for the ZX81!

Despite all distractions, I managed to finish the magazine and could finally enjoy the gathering once a copy was handed out to every club member present. The sales table wasn't exactly bending under the weight of items brought along—partly because an "iron maiden" makes for an exceptionally sturdy torture device, and partly because there were no 128K+ Spectrums on sale (funny how whenever I bring enough cash, there are never any 128K machines to buy).

Magazines brought over from the Netherlands obscured the view of everything else, particularly the affordable hardware offered by the SUC—after all, who else gets the chance to grab a +2A keyboard for a mere DM 5,-?

During the meeting, the club leadership organised a tournament that I found quite innovative: an Emlyn Hughes International Soccer contest. Unfortunately, I have zero interest in football (and yes, I am still a man!), so I would have vastly preferred a deathmatch in CHAOS, but sadly Thomas hadn't brought that game along.

FRED dropped hints that he suspects I write under the pseudonym Cat's Eye! Me! We'll see what Cat's Eye has to say about that—maybe later, as right now she has no time for the Spectrum and needs to focus on her studies (a pity, really, since she had several intriguing projects that will likely be put on hold for now).

Meanwhile, Thomas copied the latest demos for SCENE+ onto my disks; thankfully, they don't only run on the Pentagon! Good thing I didn't yet have those very special demos that I received only recently, otherwise the others would have tackled me just to get close to the Pentagon. Just wait for the reviews of those latest demos in one of our upcoming issues.

Back to the gathering, though: sadly, the people I had hoped to see the most weren't there—Wolfgang Haller, X-Terminator, and Frank Meurer. I can only hope this won't lead to further friction between the clubs. The British scene also split into pro-Davis and pro-Sherwood camps, and I lean more towards the latter, even though Martyn's magazine doesn't offer much Spectrum coverage these days.

I left around 21:00 to make sure I could catch an open petrol station, saying goodbye to everyone still around. The rest went off to paint the local restaurants red and convert a few PC users in the process—though I can't confirm that with 100% certainty, as I was already on my way to Ulm, where relatives were waiting for me.

I'll definitely be back for the next meeting!

Yours,
L.C.D.