SOUTH WEST AMIGA GROUP

Once again, where do we start? the South West Amiga Group came back to Doddington Parish Hall in Chipping Sodbury for our tenth meet where within 48hours on our booking page, we were sold out of our tables. But the venue that week had sprung a leak, part of the building was roped off and toilets were outside, but this didn’t put us off from fitting everything in and having a good time.

We wish to thank so many people for all their help in bringing this together, there is a true feeling within the group that we made something special for the community and we are listening to you. Scott from Retrobench , who has been to virtually every meet helped sponsor this event, he had helpers to sell items on his table as well repair Amiga’s all day long. Retrobench not only sponsorred the meet, but ran a raffle where ‘3 Amigas’ were the prizes and the proceed’s of the raffle were reinvested for future meets.

We also had Chris Poacher with a music studio setup, he showcased his music catalog and how he used Octamed to remix dance music and how he was sampling back in the day. He also had an array of studio equipment that was on show.

A sligthly different presentation was from Chris Forrester from then ANT group , he showed how the Amiga was used in Stop-go frame-by-frame capture which was used for Felix the Cat commericals.

We also had demonstrations of Video capture from Andrew Reader, Retro Revival Craig and Arron with the latest games for the Spectrum next and an interesting lightgun project. Error 42 Paul was also at the meet and below is his preparation video.

We had so much going on it was hard get around and see everything, so with the help of our friendly YouTuber’s, Colin and James from Let’s Talk Retro, the other video will be from Neil of Retro Man Cave and currently that video will be shown to Patreon’s first and we will link it here soon.

So, two dates to add to your diary are 25th January 2020 and 30th May 2020, we are now starting to put together what we are going to do and invite anyone with ideas (amiga related) to contact us to share suggestions.

Most importantly thank you to everyone that came and enjoyed the day with us and we look forward to seeing you at the next one.

UPDATE 1st September 2019: Thank you to all that have purchased a ticket to go to the next meet and we soon filled the tables up with only a few seats left. Some have messaged me, some have messaged Rob, we introduced the booking system to help us keep on top of the money, we won’t be chasing you for the money at the meet’s, we won’t have a cash tin in any shape or form, we hire venue as a private-gathering. We also need to keep an account how many heads are coming as the food/drink needs to be divided fairly, this time round you have a chance to win a recapped Amiga courtesy of RetroBench, all you will need is your ‘paid entry’ to enter the competition. I know it sounds weird, but purchasing a seat just means ‘you are attending, you have entered the competition and you have been accounted for food’, it doesn’t mean you gonna be sat in it the entire meet so please don’t think of it like that, it’s just to help us count heads. We look forward to seeing you all and remember you will need your 4-way extension cables. Anyone bringing something ‘interesting’ please post in the ‘Declare your SWAG” Facebook / Twitter. please so we can help in anyway. Thanks and let’s have a good one.

SWAG Meet #10 – Sponsored by Retrobench.

Our meeting numbers are now into double digits as we can announce that the next SWAG meet will take place at Dodington Parish Hall, Chipping Sodbury, Bristol, BS37 6JZ, on Saturday 7th September.

Running from 10:00am – 10:00pm, this promises to be yet another packed day of gaming, coding, modding, repairing and more.

We can now also reveal that the event has been sponsored by Retrobench (www.retrobench.com). Scott has very generously covered all of our room hire fees for the meeting.

Prizes Galore!

Not only is Retrobench sponsoring the room hire, but they’re also running an amazing raffle with three stunning prizes up for grabs.

1st prize – Re-capped Amiga 1200
2nd prize – Re-capped Amiga 600
3rd prize – Amiga 500

Everyone who purchases an entrance ticket will automatically be entered into the draw. But, if you’d like to increase your chances of winning extra tickets can be purchased on the day for £2 each.

Scott at Retrobench has kindly offered these amazing prizes for free, with ALL profits going back into SWAG funds. So, dig deep!

Making Music

Amiga music maestro Chris Poacher will be setting up a one day music studio at the event. If you ever wanted to learn about making music on your Amiga or fancied brushing up on your skills then please feel free to drop-in and speak to Chris during the day.

Sell! Sell! Sell!

Regulars to SWAG meetings will know that we’ve been unable to allow people to sell merchandise due to the limitations placed on our venue booking. Well, you’ll be pleased to learn that this has now been cleared with the Parish Council.

So, feel free to bring items of kit to sell on the day!

Get Your Kit Repaired

The SWAG fit-it team will be in attendance throughout the day of the event. Bring along broken Amiga hardware and the team will do their best to get it up and running once again.

Whether it’s a recap, repairing of a floppy drive or just some general maintenance, the team aim to bring as much classic hardware back to life as they can.

Show Some Love and Tip the fix-it Team

Our fix-it team work non-stop throughout the day to help you get your kit up and running once more. They don’t charge a penny for the service (but do charge for caps if you’re after cap replacements) and do it for the love of keeping classic computer equipment up-and-running.

If you’d like to show your appreciation you’ll find a tip jar on the fix-it bench. Please dig deep and help buy the team a pint or two as a way of saying thank you.

Tickets

Tickets cost £5.50, and if you’re quick enough you can book one of the limited number of tables for you to set your kit up on. Once the tables have all been taken there will be a few spaces available if you’re able to supply your own table. When those have gone you can still book a ticket to attend but you will be unable to set up any kit.

All tickets cover a sandwich lunch, plus tea, coffee, soft drinks and nibbles throughout the day. As mentioned above, your entrance ticket also automatically enters you into the Amiga prize draw run by Retrobench.

The Booking Page will open on Tuesday the 6th of August at 20:00 BST.