Atari QuickTime

Shiuming Lai has a shorter visit to CCC than it usually takes to nip around the corner for a pizza

By now you're probably familiar with my journey to Cheshunt Computer Club, on those occasions I'm not already up to my eyeballs in it: rush out from work as close to 17:30 as humanly possible, then charge through London to get on the good old A406 North Circular. On a good day, I can get there before opening time - I've probably only ever managed this once. October was the opposite extreme. Despite the best will in the world and a heavy right foot, I had to consign myself to being slightly late, and tried to console myself that the club doesn't usually get busy until about an hour into the meeting anyway.

Unfortunately it was raining rather heavily this particular Wednesday evening, and after the relief of getting past the usual jams near Ealing's Hanger Lane I was able to cruise comfortably towards the A10, except at the first junction before the A406/A10 intersection, there was a diversion with police vehicles and the sound of a hundred emergency vehicles! "This way, mate" said the policewoman as my turn was up, there were no diversion signs, so it was left to drivers' intuition to find the way around. In my mind it was quite simple, assuming the next junction was actually operative. At this stage there was no point venting a spleen, I just had to deal with the situation calmly. One wrong turn too early and I ended up heading back towards the diversion, so around the block I went once more.

I used my mad navigating skills to find a route to the road running parallel and right next to the A406, albeit on the wrong side but that was no big deal. Here's where I got really stuck, as I suddenly hit a solid block of traffic heading far out of sight. It was a one-way road as well, so there was no going back (except for one BMW driver who mounted the pavement and miraculously squeezed between the wall and lamp posts without making scrunching metal noises). The truck driver next to me got out and told me there was a jam ahead, I don't know if he was expecting me to wave a magic wand, so just nodded politely. Some hood-topped teenagers wearing bling jewellery walked by, seemingly oblivious to the rain still coming down thick and fast. Most people kept their engines running, I hit the air recirculation button to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning (that would scupper my plans for the evening for sure) and actually started listening to one of those radio stations that broadcasts monotonous talk instead of music.

Once I got to the club it was 21:00. Some confusion was caused by refurbishment works in the building - the usual room in which we convene was shut and toilets were cordoned off like a crime scene. It didn't take long to find this noisy lot in one of the other rooms, though. It was a good gathering - Ian Smith and some new members chatted at the table by the door, where non-Atari machines were on display, from Ian's PowerMac G4 to an interestingly modified PC. Paul Gibbs played an old flight simulator on his hand-held computer, the 3D animation was surprisingly fluid.

Over on the other side was all the Atari stuff, Mark Branson had his omnipresent CT60 Falcon and boxes full of books and manuals, plus a few bits of Mega ST and monitors. A new Atari member and his friend were being shown the wonders of Mark's collection, while Marshall Sweet and I struggled to get his PlayStation 2 connected up to any sort of screen to play some new Atari games I brought along. Nobody had a monitor with composite input, Mark's Philips monitor was the really old style one that only had RGB, shame!

Among the various topics of conversation I once again told Mark to sort out the rat's nest of cables inside his Falcon tower, and also mount the rear exhaust fan in the correct orientation, not that it matters a lot until he connects it to a power source!

In the foyer, I checked out the coffee machine for any Atari related details, then before I knew it 30 minutes was up and people were packing to go home. All a rather hurried visit but was still good to catch up and chat with the gang, and so I drove home, on an empty stomach.

shiuming@myatari.net

MyAtari magazine - Feature #3, November 2004