However we hope to be able to open up some places for the Sunday soon - if you'd be interested in attending the Sunday only (or Friday and Sunday) please say so in the thread.
n.b. I've unapologetically pinched JudgeBeeb's format for this post, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery!
ABUG North
We're pleased to announce that booking is now open for the next in person ABUG North. The event will run from 2pm on Friday until 4pm on Sunday. If anyone's able to come earlier to help set up and stay later to help clear up, they're very welcome!
Venue
The event will be taking place at the Sports City Travelodge, Manchester.
Birch Street, Off Hyde Road, West Gorton Hyde, M12 5NT, United Kingdom
See also: viewtopic.php?p=406810
Travel
Easily accessible by road. It's about a 40 minute walk from Manchester Piccadilly, or you can get the 201/202/203 bus which goes directly there in about 20 minutes and costs £2. Other routes are available - I recommend grabbing an Uber if money's no object it'll undoubtedly be less than £10. The CityMapper app is very good and can suggest pretty much any viable route and associated timings.
How to book a place
Places are subject to a charge of £15 per head. The £15 charge covers the cost of the meeting together with snacks and drinks!
If you wish to reserve a place, please post in the thread below with an indication of when you're intending to arrive/leave. We will send payment details in due course.
Booking a hotel room
Book directly with the venue here:
https://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/285 ... hotel?sb=0
Of course if you wish to stay in other locations that's fine too. People living locally will be travelling in each day.
What happens at ABUG
Acorn & BBC Micro User Group (ABUG) events are open to enthusiasts of the BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Atom and Archimedes/RISC OS machines. Attendees will typically stay for two if not all three days. The events are always very informal and can involve:
- attendees bringing their own hardware to set up and show off
- time spent working on hardware and programming/games projects
- exchange of ideas/knowledge
- upgrade and repair of poorly Acorn machines
- collaborative work on community projects, such as software preservation, preparation/planning for displays at other events etc.
- sale of items by members (not guaranteed, but there are often opportunities to buy bits)
- general socialising, food/drink and the odd hi-score competition!
- Important! Ensure that any hardware you bring that features the RIFA/paper-type capacitors with a tendency to go POP (e.g. Beebs) have had the caps changed! We can't risk setting any smoke alarms off as that may incur charges!
Guest platforms
Enthusiasts of other platforms are also welcome. In the past we have seen people bringing along vintage systems from:
- Apple
- Commodore
- Sinclair
- Dragon
- Vectrex
- Amstrad
Rules
There are very few rules - we will confirm these with the venue as this is a new one. They are subject to change!
- no hot food is to be consumed at the venue other than that which is purchased from the bar/restaurant
- no alcoholic drinks are to be consumed at the venue other than that which is purchased from the bar/restaurant
- see below regarding children
ABUG meetings are not child friendly events because of the following:
- there is not often a lot to engage the interest of very young children
- people working with hot soldering stations
- people working with potentially toxic substances (lead, IPA)
- people working with exposed mains (and higher) voltages
- large amounts of electrical cabling representing potential trip hazards
- lots of fragile, expensive and sometimes rare equipment
Having said that, we do encourage well behaved/adequately supervised children who may be interested in an insight into computers (and, obviously, computer games) of days gone-by. In particular, there will almost certainly, be opportunities for gaming.
If, however, children become a risk to themselves or others, they will have to leave.
New members
We are particularly keen for new members of the forum to attend these events. You do not need to ‘join’ anything to come along. You do not need to have attended previously or being active on Stardot or on the Facebook group. You do not need to be working on developing a Cray 1 second processor for the Beeb or porting Crysis to the Acorn Atom. You just need to be interested in vintage technology.
We are a friendly bunch and we will make sure you feel welcome. If you have any questions or uncertainty about the event, please feel free to PM me.
Partners
Many people bring their partners to these events. They are all very welcome. Those of you who are lucky enough to have a partner who is genuinely involved in the retro-computing scene, will have to secure and pay for a separate place for your partner. But those partners who just attend to socialise are welcome free of charge and without needing to take-up one of the places.
Confirmed
Reserve list
- Arcadian (Dave) - arriving Friday morning, leaving Sunday evening
- danielj (Daniel) - arriving Friday morning, leaving Sunday evening
- daveejhitchins - whole weekend - paid
- philpem - whole weekend - paid
- flibble -whole weekend - paid
- Dave Footitt - paid
- tom_seddon - whole weekend - paid
- IanJeffray - whole weekend - paid
- baz4096 - whole weekend - paid
- helpful - whole weekend - paid
- MattH - whole weekend - paid
- elk1984 - whole weekend - paid
- dominicbeesley - whole weekend - paid
- SarahWalker - whole weekend - paid
- inky - whole weekend - paid
- IanS - whole weekend - paid
- dudleysoft71 - whole weekend - paid
- julians - Saturday - paid
- chrissawer - whole weekend - paid
- beebmaster - whole weekend - paid
- Joka80 - whole weekend - paid
- Prime - whole weekend - paid
- z0m8ied0g - whole weekend - paid
- budgie - Sunday - paid
- wmd- whole weekend - paid
