ReportScunthorpe Amiga Gathering 2005The whole idea of a show came about back in early January when I read a few comments on places like Amigaworld.net asking when the next Amiga show was going to be. I started to think about the possibility of putting on a show myself.So it was around mid February when I seriously started considering the idea and looking for a venue and by the end of February I had found a venue that seemed to suit my needs fine. It was reasonably close to Scunthorpe and a railway station, cheap and had its own bar and toilets. I thought what more could you ask for and booked it. Around the end of February I put up a website to gauge interest and it was then that panic really started to kick in. For weeks I worried I wouldn't get a good turn out or enough machines on show. As it turns out I needed have been so worried. Run up to the showWith just 9 tickets sold through the pre-booking offer I was still worried but was ploughing ahead regardless. Jonathan Haddock had confirmed he would be able to come and bring his uA1 and I was to show my BPPC A1200 both showing the latest OS4. The venue was booked and my nerves were really on end. I had a guy from Norway coming to stay here and Jonathan was coming up too.They both arrived on the Friday and we set about getting Jonathan's uA1 updated, and after spending all night trying to get one install going we gave up around 3am. The morning of the show we finally got it working with literally just 10 minutes to spare. A friend of mine, Michael had agreed to help me get all my kit and guests to the venue so he turned up in his big car to take us down to the show. Before we even got there I was getting phone calls from people lost, and from people who were already there waiting for me to arrive and at that point I realised there was no going back. Two trips later I had all my kit at the venue and I was already surprised to see the venue filling up. The ShowWhile I was busy getting my Amiga up and running I heard rumours that Alan Redhouse of Eyetech was there, which I didn't believe until I spotted him asking Jonathan who was sat on the door where I was… I was amazed. I hadn't invited him because I had assumed he would be busy, he even brought me some gifts. He gave me one of the Amiga Inc SDK's which is about as useful to me as the MorphOS super bundle I won at the Benelux Amiga show, an Amiga mouse and a bag of pens that I gave out to people at the show. After speaking to Alan and Geoff, one of the members of the Huddersfield Amiga User Group who used to put on the excellent Alt.WoA shows I went back to my Amiga.At this point it was running OS4 but I thought I'd reboot into 3.9 to show off some of the scene demo's that I particularly enjoy watching. It rebooted but wouldn't boot up. I tried and tried and tried no go. In the end I had to abandon trying to get it running. Sorry to anyone who went to specifically see OS4 on the classic. All in all I think there was something in the order of 15 machines running at the show, from the classic Amiga's like a CSPPC A4000 right through to AROS machines and of cause AmigaOne's. From memory there was: An AmigaOneSE running OS4 public beta My A1200 that wasn't running John's CD32 that I never got a chance to setup Jonathan's uA1-C Alan's BeOS box that was suffering from a broken sound card John's linux box that was running as a web server with a few sites stored on Raoul CD32 Raoul's AmigaOne XE running the public OS4 beta Raoul's A1200 running OS3.9 Another XE, sorry but I can't remember who it belonged too Kevin's A1200 with a nice paint job 2 X-box's James' AROS machine I'm sure there was more but I can't remember. It total we sold 37 entrance tickets and 50 raffle tickets, so my costs were more than covered. Everyone seemed to have a good time and I got a very warm round of applause when I closed the show, for which I am very grateful for. I think everyone who attended had a good time, and many expressed an interest in doing the same thing next year, so I will deffinetly be considering it. I guess it all depends on the state of the Amiga scene… After the showAfter the show 10 of us went on for something to eat and a bit of a knee's up. Unfortunately the place I had picked to go and eat at messed us about and we didn't get anything to eat until around 10:30 but I don't think anyone who was there really minded. We all sat around talking and drinking the SCAG takings away :).After we had eaten the bar had closed so some of us went home, some of us went onto one of the hotels some were staying at (the larchwood). They had an open bar, where you help yourself to what you want and just put some money in an honesty box. I believe I was there until shortly after 3am talking before finally going home and passing out on the sofa. Thank youI would like to thank the following people for all their help before, during and after the show:Michael Domoney Raoul Panel Alan Fisher John Nelson Jonathan Haddock David Patterson In fact I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who showed their support by being there. It was a pleasure to meet up with old friends and hopefully make some new friends. Let's see what next year brings. |
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