AdultDex displays seamy Comdex rejects

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

On one side of the street, the talk at the Comdex computer show in Las Vegas will be of RISC-based computing and power-parallel systems and megabytes and gigabytes.

Across the street -- Paradise Avenue -- the talk will be of "The Dollhouse," "Men in Motion," "Virgins 2" and other adult-oriented computer software.

For the second year, some three dozen vendors of material banned by Comdex are putting on a competing show, called AdultDex. It's much smaller, it's not organized as well and it draws much fewer people. And it begins today so, organizers hope, people can first drop by Comdex and then head to AdultDex.

"We have momentum and we're not going to let Comdex push us around," said Fay Sharp, an AdultDex organizer.

Good riddance, say Comdex officials.

"Their stuff is obscene and we don't need them," said Suzanne Lonergan, a Comdex spokeswoman. Show officials concede that they've lost about $500,000 in booth rental revenue.

The trouble began two years ago when Comdex organizers tightened the vise on exhibitors of multimedia CD-ROMs that they considered porn. They said the stuff itself was sexually explicit and models hired to draw attention to the booths were displaying too much nudity.

First, Comdex confined the X-rated developers to a basement exhibit area alongside mundane companies that sell wire. Then they ordered the exhibitors to leave. Some refused, and Comdex shut the power in their booths. Everyone was told they could not return to Comdex.

AdultDex organizers and exhibitors do not for a minute believe their show in a small hall at the Sahara hotel-casino can compete with Comdex at the Las Vegas Convention Center and a half-dozen other hotels and pavilions.

AdultDex last year drew 7,500 people and this year hopes for 10,000. Comdex regularly attracts between 200,000 and 250,000 people.

But Patty LaRocco, a Manhattan CD-ROM publisher of "The Girlie Game" -- an interactive offering that lets players pop balloons off strippers on a computer screen -- said they aren't about to be shut out of exhibiting their products.

"We'd love to be back at Comdex, but if they want to be a bunch of prudes, this will have to work out," LaRocco said.

CD labels

Labeling CDs has been a problem for software developers, musicians, graphic artists, corporate data base managers and photo CD enthusiasts.

Using a plain sticker could throw off the balance of the CD and possibly destroy the data. A high-volume silk screen printer costs about $4,000.

Now comes the NEATO CD Labeler Kit from MicroPatent, providing a low-cost, easy-to-use labeling system that eliminates problems like bubbling, creasing and off-center label placement. It's available in many retail outlets and most computer catalogs and is being shown for the first time this year at Comdex.

The complete kit costs $79.95. One hundred additional labels are available for $22.95 or 300 for $60. Clear labels are $49.95 for 100.

Video Wave

MGI Software Corp. is introducing a program that turns a PC into a personal video studio.

"Video on the PC is moving into the mainstream and PC users are eager to create and edit their own videos on computer and distribute them electronically," said Anthony DeCristofaro, president and CEO of MGI Software. "With MGI Video Wave they can use video from any source and produce movies as easily as producing any text document and distribute them on tape, CD, corporate network or the Internet."

It works with Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT machines. The estimated retail price will be $99.99 in the United States.

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