These are my pictures from the HCC Commodore User Group party and 20-year Amiga Exhibition in Maarssen, Netherlands, April 16th, 2005.
By a strange coincidence, I happened to be in the vicinity of Maarssen on the day where this event was taking place. I was on a long weekend trip with my wife, and one of our stops was to visit fellow Amigan and ATO member Ji Yong Dijkhuis in Lelystad, in order to buy his old BPPC A1200, which I was intending to use for betatesting OS4
We decided to visit the event together, and I also contacted Davy Wentzler, who would be there showing his Audio Evolution music recording "studio", and arranged for him to give me a quick tour of the program. I had been looking for that opportunity already in 2003 in Rotterdam, but unfortunately Davy had to cancel his attendance at that show.
We could only attend for the last couple of hours of the opening time, but it still gave us enough time to see everything and get a good impression of the enthusiasm of this user group. What is really amazing is that they have several of these parties/meetings per year, and that so many people attend. Good to see so much life in the scene.
I also had enough time for having Davy give me the grand tour of Audio Evolution, which was really useful and gave me lots of new ideas for exploring. All I now lack is the time to do so.
I should probably make it clear that although this event had a special focus on the Amiga because of its 20 years' anniversary, the user group is a Commodore user group, not (only) an Amiga user group. And there were certainly lots of C64s and other CBM machinery and stuff. Being strictly Amigan myself (I had a ZX Spectrum before my first Amiga), I probably haven't given the other CBM stuff the attention it deserved. It is not out of ill will, just a matter of ignorance and personal preferences.
I should also apologize for the dark roundish regions at the bottom of some of the pictures. I have finally jumped on the digital SLR train with a very nice Pentax *ist DS and a Sigma 18-125 zoom. It turns out that if I use the builtin flash and the widest angle on the zoom, the sunshade should be removed, otherwise the flash sees it and creates that shadow. History has a habit of repeating itself, it seems.
In conclusion, a very nice event. Thanks to the organizers, and especially to Ron van Schaik for welcoming me so warmly and giving me directions around the place.
Niels Bache
(webmaster@nbache.dk)
All slides in one page - for those with more memory than desire to be online
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