October 2018 Event - Music Night!

Adelaide Retro Computing Event
Time: 7:00pm
Date: Friday October 12, 2018
Location: Unley Civic Library Town Hall
181 Unley Road, Unley (corner Oxford Tce. & Unley Rd.)

October’s event will have a music theme. Game soundtracks, compositional software and hardware, SID music, Amiga trackers, modified consoles, rhythm games, MIDI synths and drum machines are all welcome. Please provide your own amplification and speakers. We only request that computer systems be dated 2001 or earlier.

There is a $4 door charge. Children under 12 are free.

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.

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!

September 2018 Meeting Report

A big thank you to everyone who came out for our inaugural Unley event! It was a great turn out and it seems everyone is on board with our new home. We’re excited to do it all again in October!

After much discussion we have decided that the entry fee will remain at $4 for the forseeable future. We know it can be a bit of hassle to carry around cash so we’re looking into purchasing an eftpos machine. We'll keep you posted on any developments.

Thanks to Rowan for taking the following photos at September’s event.

The Importance of Raising Funds

The financial side of running a group is something I usually steer away from entirely, but I thought it was worth putting down a few words about how the ARC group operates.

With the recent move to Unley, the group no longer has a hall cost to cover. Of that we’re extremely pleased. Our initial reaction was to drop the $4 door charge entirely, but there are other factors to consider. If we lose the door charge, we also lose any revenue stream that might help us grow the group and make future events more interesting for everyone.

The ARC committee (consisting of Nick, George, Rowan, Ewan and myself) are all volunteers who in the past have put our own time and money into keeping things running smoothly. There are however expenses that come up from time to time that we can’t always afford to cover ourselves. These include having signage printed, registering as a community organisation, paying for web hosting, securing guest speakers, materials and prizes for an upcoming quiz night, end of year BBQ, flyers, possibly purchasing an eftpos machine to name a few.

We’ve also had the problem at Eastwood that many attendees were not always paying the door fee (we rely on people doing the right thing here). This means that we’re nearly always running on fumes. In fact Nick, our chairman, has had to reach into his own pocket on occasion to cover the hall hire cost. I’ve donated a bunch of my own equipment, software etc to the for-sale table to raise funds for our registering as a community organisation. A few weeks ago we had an Amiga 500 system generously donated to the group. We think its important that such donations should benefit the group as a whole, so after we discussed various options, the committee decided that we would auction it off at our September event with all of the proceeds going towards the group’s expenses outlined above. We’re not sure an auction is always going to be the right solution, but we’ll give it a go and see how it turns out.

Regarding a door charge, September’s event will still be free, but after that we might have to start charging again. It’s a subject that the committee is still debating, but we’ll let you know what we decide very soon.

If anyone has any concerns or questions about any of this, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We’re still feeling our way around all of this, but its all in service of making the ARC group the best it can be, for all of our members.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you all at our next meeting.

Best regards,
Dan

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.