September 2018 Event - New Meeting Location

Adelaide Retro Computing Event
Time: 7:00pm
Date: Friday September 14, 2018
Location: Unley Civic Library Town Hall
181 Unley Road, Unley (corner Oxford Tce. & Unley Rd.)

With Spring comes change, and so it is with the ARC Group! In September we will be moving our monthly meetings to a new home. We hope you all will be happy with the new Unley location; please get in touch with us if you have any questions or comments about the new venue. After September’s event we will make a decision as to whether or not the change will be permanent.

This will be a general ‘free-for-all’ event, meaning as long as its retro and computer-related we want to see it. If you don’t have a system to bring, that’s completely fine too. And if you’ve never been to one of our events, please come along!

For this first event there will be no door charge.

We request that systems be dated 2001 or earlier. Please bring power boards and extension cables for your equipment. Tables and chairs are provided and we also have access to a kitchen and toilets.

Second hand sale tables for those wanting to sell retro systems and accessories will be available as usual. An Amiga 500 system with 1084 monitor that was kindly donated to the group will be auctioned off on the night. This is the rare early ‘Commodore key’ model!

The event starts at 7:00pm. For those exhibiting, please arrive by 6:30pm to set up.

There is parking on Oxford Terrace and in the shopping centre carpark opposite. If you have a lot of gear to lug in you can briefly park in the loading area behind the hall to unload your car. If you are not bringing in equipment please enter via the main library entrance on Oxford Terrace. A map can be found here.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

August 2018 Meeting Report

Thanks to everyone who came out for our Sega and Nintendo event!

Last week marked possibly the last time our meetings will be held in Eastwood. In September we will be trialling a new venue, so please refer to previous blog posts about that if you haven't already. 

A big thank you to the Eastwood Community Centre for having us for the last few years. It's been a fantastic venue and we're very grateful for their support.

Australian Computer Museum Society collection faces imminent demolition - Help Needed

Rather unfortunate news to report here. The Australian Computer Museum Society’s massive collection of vintage computer equipment, software and documents faces bulldozers this week unless a solution can be found.

Currently located in Villawood, Sydney, the warehouse containing the collection will be demolished this Friday to make way for apartment blocks. The Society’s collection is a gold mine of 70s mini-computers, rare EAI analogue computer, terminals, vintage test equipment and thousands of irreplaceable documents.

They are desperately seeking help to re-house the collection before it is destroyed forever.

Curator John Geremin:

“We need bodies, we need people with a corner of a garage, a bit of basement, a caravan not being used by the grandparents. So long as they come with transport and a bit of muscle, come and grab some stuff. I hope the collection is distributed to enthusiasts who have an idea what they are taking and its heritage, and who will care for it rather than scrape the gold off the connectors inside. If it stays here and the bulldozer gets it, it is gone forever. If it goes somewhere else we may not see it for a while, but that will be better than not having it at all.”

Here is YouTuber EEVblog rummaging through the collection a few days ago: https://youtu.be/mK4M8dv4NNU

If you’re able to help, contact John Geremin at info@acms.org.au.