ABug & Homebrew Gaming Weekend, July 11th + 12th

[sydney]

We're less than three weeks away from the second meeting at our new venue in Bolton!





The main event days will be Sat 11th and Sun 12th July 2015 (10am till late on Saturday, 10am till 5pm on Sunday).

There is no cost for this event!

If you would like to register your attendance, please post in this thread and drop me a PM for location details. If you would like to come but cannot commit 100%, then please state that your interest is tentative.

If you need somewhere to stay, then Holiday Inn Bolton is just around the corner (about half a mile away) , to keep costs down you could always share a twin with another member: http://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/gb ... oteldetail

This meetup was earmarked as 'Homebrew Gaming Weekend #5' but we've opened it up to all stardot members so it is now a joint ABug and Homebrew Gaming Weekend. ABug meetups are open to enthusiasts of the BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Atom and Archimedes/RISC OS machines - and typically involve:

• members 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 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!

** = please 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!

The room contains ...

• Lots of spare monitors/screens (including cables) which members can borrow if they do not have the capability to bring a screen with them. There are also lots of rare and unusual pieces of Acorn hardware and accessories lurking underneath the tables, and practically anything that works can be set up upon request.
  newroom.jpg
• Super-fast free internet (both wireless and wired) for all visitors, via the dedicated ABug Wifi Network:
  
  
• Complimentary soft drinks, tea/coffee and snacks; all courtesy of our host, Gary:
  
  

The meet-ups are very informal and are pretty much open-ended, but at some events there may be an additional focus on one or more particular areas.

Thanks to Beebmaster, JGH and Ian Stocks, we now have an Econet setup consisting of an A5000 fileserver, A3020 and BBC Master fileserver. At the July event we hope to add an A440/1 and a couple of Model B BBCs to the Econet network.

CONFIRMED

1. Gar2293 (Gary) Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday evening
2. Arcadian (Dave) Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday evening
3. Ian Stocks (Ian)
4. jbnbeeb (Jason)
5. Sydney (Simon) Arriving Saturday morning, leaving Sunday evening
6. Billy Humphreys (Billy)
7. UKRetroGamer (Mark)
8. jgharston (Jonathan)
9. Retrific (Doug)
10. daveejhitchins (Dave)
11. Prime (Phill)
12. flaxcottage (John)
13. billcarr (Michael) Fleeting visit!

TENTATIVE

1. Dave Footitt (Dave)
2. Dylan Smith (Dylan)
3. Stephen Wileman (Stephen)
4. Andy Ford (Andy)
5. Rob Hewson (Rob)
6. Steven Chester (Steven)
7. Daniel Jameson (Daniel)
8. davidb (david)

[jgharston]

I should be able to get there.

[Retrific]

Hi,

I would like to attend, but cannot PM you at the moment.

Thanks

[Arcadian]

*waves wand*

You may now PM!

[Retrific]

Thank you very much

[sweh]

*waves wand*

You may now PM!

[Arcadian]

Thank you.

That's quite a good likeness.

[Prime]

I can now confirm that I should be able to make this one, as I didn't get to the last and have several things in progress.

Plus my social secretary** has confirmed that we have nothing on that weekend, that I'm required to attend.

** Lesley

Cheers.

Phill.

[jbnbeeb]

Hi,

I'm hoping we can gather a few more game-programming types - though of course always good to meet ABug regulars

Is that davidb - as in Mr CastleRaider and Jungle Journey - on the tentative list ? Also it'd be great to see Dave Footitt, Tricky and Jools who've all done great stuff at RetroSoftware.

I'm hoping to have a demo/WIP of a new Beeb game in time for the meet up.

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon .

[davidb]

That's me on the list, yes.

[jbnbeeb]

That's me on the list, yes.

Woohoo Hope you can make it across to these shores for this event

[billcarr2005]

I'll hopefully be able to drive down, even if it's just a flying visit to return the three boxes of disks & clear some space!

[Prime]

BTW you can move me from the Tentative to the Confirmed list if you want. I'll bring the new Atom controller, the firmware for that may still need work.

I'd also like to take a look at some of your system boards, and dump the ROMS on them as I don't know if they are archived anywhere. Heheh then we could probably make a Systomulator

Cheers.

Phill.

[jbnbeeb]

Trying to decide which hotel to book.

Simon/DaveM - Do you think it likely we'll be heading out for meal and drink on Saturday night? If so, will we be returning to the venue afterwards (in which case perhaps better for me to book hotel nr venue instead of town centre)?

[daveejhitchins]

You've got a choice of Travel Lodge or Holiday Inn. I stayed at the Holiday Inn and wasn't impressed! However, the Travel Lodge is a little further to walk (or drive!) and it's lower cost, slightly . . .

Dave H

[jbnbeeb]

Any more peeps looking to come along to this meet? A fair few tentatives..?
I'll be coming along sat morning staying til sunday.

Looking forward to it

[flaxcottage]

I shall be there Saturday. Looking forward to it.

[IanS]

I'm already on the confirmed list, but I'm only going to be there Sat & Sun, driving over each day. I won't be there Friday.

As for the Econet setup, JGH should get a shout out, he did the software setup on the A5000, I just bodged a few socket boxes on a bit of Cat 5.

[Arcadian]

Simon/DaveM - Do you think it likely we'll be heading out for meal and drink on Saturday night? If so, will we be returning to the venue afterwards (in which case perhaps better for me to book hotel nr venue instead of town centre)?

Yes, definitely.

If the last one is anything to go by, I think we went to Frankie and Benny's at 8pm then came back to Acorn HQ at 10pm for a final hour's hacking ...

[Arcadian]

As for the Econet setup, JGH should get a shout out, he did the software setup on the A5000, I just bodged a few socket boxes on a bit of Cat 5.

Good call. Post(s) updated.

[JoolsH]

Is that davidb - as in Mr CastleRaider and Jungle Journey - on the tentative list ? Also it'd be great to see Dave Footitt, Tricky and Jools who've all done great stuff at RetroSoftware.

I'm not going to be able to make this one, unfortunately...

[davidb]

I'm changing from a tentative to a definite, just coming on the Saturday, I think.

[Prime]

Right, since I'm deffo going to be there, is there anything anyone wants me to bring... so far planning on bringing a couple of Electrons with the first of the "production" MRBs fitted.

Plus an Atom with the new disk interface. I can keep in the spirit of this being a coding event maybe by working some more on the firmware....

Cheers.

Phill.

[Gar2293]

Hi all,

Address for the abug event is,

Unit 23
Queensbrook technology park
Spa Road
Bolton
BL1 4AY
( the post code in sat nav will take you straight to the business park )

Upon arrival at the business park there is a entry barrier, either

Ring 07576 464175 and we will come and let you in.
Press '23' and then the bell symbol, and we will operate the barrier
( if no answer from unit 23, press '7' and then the bell )

If arriving after 4.30pm Friday, all day Saturday / Sunday, the security guards will let you in. There is plenty of car parking.

Any questions please reply.

Thanks
Gary

[flaxcottage]

Be there on the Saturday. Bringing an A5000 keyboard to repair + A5000, a B+192K with MMC to play games and a Pi RISCOS pico trying to get CommunITel working on it.

[jgharston]

I'm having to start in Whitby, so will be staying in Sheffield on Friday night, and in Bolton all day Saturday, so won't make the curry/pizza/whatever evening.

[Prime]

Hi all,

I should be there sometime Friday afternoon, M6 permitting, and will be leaving sometime Sunday.

Cheers.

Phill.

[jbnbeeb]

Hi there
I'll be there saturday morning.
Are there any plans for a meal/drink out on saturday evening?

I'll bring my datacentre Beeb (just for the datacentre really) and my laptop.. will demo work-in-progress game and jbiplane to anyone who's interested

Will work on the new game and take a look at what everyone else is up to. Intrigued by Phill's MRB board for Elk.

When I was at secondary school, we had a room full of Beebs and Masters, but not networked, so will be interested to see Econet in action.

And I will definitely be interested in all the other kit. Does the Acorn System machine work?

[Prime]

And I will definitely be interested in all the other kit. Does the Acorn System machine work?

Well if it doesn't I'm sure we can have a bloody good go at repairing it!

Cheers.

Phill.

[IanS]

And I will definitely be interested in all the other kit. Does the Acorn System machine work?

Well if it doesn't I'm sure we can have a bloody good go at repairing it!

There were no obvious signs of life when we tried it at the last get together. No video output, the power supply seems to be ok, no other testing was done.

A spare din41612 connector to power and test the boards outside the rack might be useful. Anyone got a spare they can bring along?