10th Adventurers Convention Report John Ferris One of the things I really dislike about life is that often I'm required by forces beyond my control to drag myself out of bed at ridiculously early times. Like before 8 a.m. So you could imagine I wasn't feeling quite euphoric at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning trying to both think and work the toaster at the same time. Despite having driven to three previous conventions, I still felt the old thrill of fear as I left the comforts of the M6 and headed into darkest Birmingham. This was it; one wrong turning and I could spend the rest of the day driving around a maze of twisty carriageways, all alike. I arrived in good time, 08:45 and managed to unload the PC and get it working in about twenty minutes. I checked that I had a room for the night and the hotel was going to charge me the correct tariff. It was a good job that I checked; they seemed to be having problems in that department. This year's convention was the first to be completely dominated by the PC. I counted ten PCs, three of which were running the Megapoints competition, albeit in Spectrum emulation mode. There was one Amiga 600, which was offered for sale and Martin Bela bought along his trusty Amstrad and collection of games. There was, shock! horror! scandal! A Nintendo and Playstation in attendance playing arcade games! At the convention! Has anyone dared tell Barbara? I was just thinking about putting a wargame on my PC when Mr Frank Fridd asked if he could borrow it "for a while" to run his game under Amstrad emulation for someone. I agreed and after some fiddling, including having to run the PC in DOS mode we got the emulator and hence his game running. And that was the last I saw of the PC until 5 p.m. I ended up playing some duff Mario game on the Nintendo. At least I got an Amstrad emulator at the end of it. Edwina Brown was the author of this year's Megapoints game. I was saddened to note the end of a great, long running tradition in the Megapoints competition. All three monitors were working perfectly. There was no fuzzy screen, distortion or anything. So I really had no excuse at all for only getting 5 measly points. I spent too much time trying to get the receptionist (in the game) to give me the room key. Probe people came and went, Larry Horsefield was somehow only 6 inches tall, the lift didn't understand "down" and we had to keep away from a holdall. Hmm, I was somewhat confused. I vote we call it "Micropoints" next year. David Hebblethwaite won, two points ahead of second place. Just proves the value of a university education I guess. How can I hope to compete with a man who went inside a nightclub on a fork lift truck? Peter Clarke and Karen Tyres had demo games written in ACE, the PAW-like language for the PC, which is 95% done. This time next year it should be completed and in circulation. I await the results with interest. There was a great deal of interest in the "Blue Ice" game. At one point, there were chairs three rows deep around the "Blue Ice" PC. There was a thick folder full of notes and printouts from the game. I took a quick look over somebody's shoulder and decided it looked difficult and went back to Mario. Jenny Perry was, to put it mildly, ill with some form of virulent flu bug. But in the spirit of the Convention she soldiered bravely on, shuffling from one chair to another, whispering hoarsely and generally spreading bugs and silence far and wide. The afternoon passed, as always, way too quickly and suddenly it was time to pack up. I'd just like to say a big Thank You to Frank Fridd who helped lug my PC back to my room. After a long, deep bath (I love hotels) and a change of clothes it was time to gather in the Bar to decide where to eat. Seven of us decided to go to a Harvester, which was allegedly "five or ten minutes" down the Ragley Road. It was closer to twenty and it was fully booked. But we jumped into the taxis again and got to a place called Jeffries (I think, but I was fainting through hunger at the time, Edwina had to carry me to the table) where we were able to eat. Once back at the hotel, everyone gathered in the bar to talk the night away, making very good use of the extra hour due to the end of summer time. Once again it was a pleasant experience to be in a group of people from different generations (not sure about Edwina) and backgrounds and experience but with something in common. If it wasn't for fatigue, I'm sure Frank Fridd, Peter Clarke and I would still be talking now. I was toying with the idea of forgetting about the "Alternative Convention Awards" because there aren't any proper awards any more and some people were suggesting I make them more formal. Well, I thought about it and decided to carry on for at least this year... The "Ebeneezer Scrooge Award for Squeezing Blood out of a Stone" goes to the Hotel staff who managed to charge us œ40 for the iced water and 5 bottles of squash we had to drink at the convention. I really am in the wrong profession. The "Quietest Adventurer Award" goes to Jenny Perry. The "Marie Celeste Award" goes to the Hotel Bar during the afternoon. The award for "The Lady Most Determined to Prove She's Older than She Looks" goes to Edwina Brown. She might really is the age she claims to be, has grandchildren and great grandchildren (some of whom look suspiciously young to be grandmothers.) Alternatively Edwina has hired a group of actors to pose for those pictures just to outwit me. It was nice to see you again, Edwina. Thanks for the C64, I'll let you know how it goes. Hope to see you next year. The "Saddam Hussein Award for the Advancement of Germ Warfare" goes to Jenny Perry, or to be exact, the fifty billion bugs and viruses that were keeping her (and at the end of the convention, everyone) company at the time. I hope you're over it now. Hope to see you all next year. - o -