SOUTH WEST AMIGA GROUP

We have our biggest Workbench meeting tomorrow and should be something quite amazing, please stay safe and if you cannot travel or have symptoms then please stay away, let me know.  Parking, yes we do have ample parking but we do ask if you’re a spectator (seat) ticket then please consider driving behind the Hall, try and keep the front parking slots available for the Table tickets.  So far, I have had very few pull outs, so there are no Spare tables at the moment.  On entry, come and see me and collect your badge, it will just be a sticker this time and that will help you socialise and help me keep an eye on those sneaking in, please wear it or I will keep asking you who you are.

You will all be entered into the raffle once, some of you have been fantastic and ordered up additional raffle tickets. Please keep doing so, we also have help tomorrow to try and sell some more.   These are the prizes offered by the Museum of Computing in Swindon, Keith has an interesting sense of humour, he has some explaining to do !

One of the most asked questions I get is, what’s’ the postcode for sat-nav.  We will see you there.

Dodington Parish Hall
Finch Road
Chipping Sodbury
South Gloucestershire
BS37 6JZ

Please be aware that there is a price did increase to £10 per person, CHILDREN ARE FREE but we need to know about them, so please put in the notes their name/age. The cost increases was to cover mostly Covid related supplies and any venue / food and drink prices increases, we will be following current government and council guidelines regarding the use of the venue. The booking system is limited to book a maximum of four people and please put their Full names in the NOTES section.

Please be aware that there is filming that does go on at our meets, we have been part of DVD documentaries, YouTube and Twitch channels which helps increase our exposure. Please let a SWAG team member know if you have a problem with this.

The Workbench event is primarlly focused on Amiga equipment, space is a premium so we wish to focus on the Amiga related activities.

For anyone booking a hotel, we suggest the Premiere Inn Bristol East (Emersons Green)

Food is a little different this time, we suggest putting in the notes any food allergies you may have, we are having catering done instead of the usual sandwiches.

After booking, sometimes the emails get caught up with spam filters, we sometimes have to force them thru. Make sure you complete PAYPAL and let it return to the website.

Your ticket purchase will enable you ONE entry into the Raffle, if you put additional names in the NOTES section, they will be added to the Raffle.

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We are finally putting final preparations for the Workbench event in May and tickets will be available this Sunday from 7pm.  Previously we have sold out of tickets within 4 hours which for a small group like us is an amazing achievement and we had some fantastic gatherings and also helped many projects showcase themselves.

The Booking Page will open Sunday the 3rd of April 19:00 BST.

Workbench 2020 - Hall

Presentaton at Workbench 2020

Crowded Workbench 2020

DJ Formula on mixing with PT1210

Workbench 2020 (Pixel Vixen in foreground)

Workbench 2020

ANT in the House

Pixel Vixen doing a DPaint Presentaton

Workbench Presenting

Keith with Guest presenting the Raffle

Workbench Hall

A full house of Amigas

Winner of the Raffle

Zeb and Scott from RetroBench

Adam and Ravi playing a tournament game

We did manage to have a Workbench before the dreaded virus took hold, which was a success and we did raise money for both ourselves and the Museum of Computing in Swindon.  Keith from the Digital Orphanage will be taking the small stage once again as he will present a line-up of talks and short presentations, like last time we were teaming up with the Museum and shall be doing the same again by raising money with a raffle and presenting it later on in the day.

Retro Games Ltd have been working on the A500 mini, which is a smaller version of the Amiga that first blew away the competition back in the late 80s, it is a solution for those who require an Amiga but doesn’t want all the problems associated with getting it running on a modern TV, it is a straight out of the box solution that also comes with preconfigured games and it is now possible to load onto the unit your own backup games.  You will be able to see the A500 mini which will be on show on the table at Workbench if you’re undecided about ordering one and they will be doing a presentation during the day.

We been working with Steven Fletcher now for the last few meets, himself (and with the help of the Retro Shed team) have been filming and interviewing *you* To be included in the Kickstarter that he launched about Amiga today, after the success of the Commodore Story, he brings us ‘Amiga: Alive and Kicking’ which talks about why we are looking back at the old computer today and how it shaped some of our futures.

We had a lot of raffle prizes in the past and this time with no exception and this is going to be a fantastic raffle, we got donations from Steve Jones who has donated a new and complete A1500 Plus Checkmate case that came from the original Kickstarter run, this allows you to make your A500 (or other system) look like A3000. The Museum of Computing is also donating a Amiga 500 which is still a favourite for many people and also a boobie prize, more to be revealed.  Other donations will be announced shortly including items from ourselves and Retro Lemon and if you want to donate something then please message us.

Later on in the day, we will be doing the first ever PT1210 DJ Battle between two well known Amiga enthusiasts DJ’s H0ffman and Formula (Retro Ravi mostly known from the Retro Hour) and we will see who will not make any mistakes and keep us entertained ! Most DJ’s today use modern equipment like a laptop but back in the day we had turntables made by Technics called the SL1210, a software project that H0ffman took on called PT1210 allows you to beatmap and mix Amiga music using the Amiga and it’s fantastic sampling capabilities.