It is truly unbelievable that a computer platform that started its rounds about 20 odd years ago in the guise of the AMIGA A1000 is still being used today in such large quantities for different reasons and applications.
It is even more unbelievable that people still want to start a 'Club', (read User Group), and want to play with this platform in preference to the present day ultra-technology of the IA platform and using 'Windows TM' or 'Linux'......BUT, they do!; and what's more is that they are passionate about doing so.
What has transpired over the last few months is a NEW Amiga user group called 'LAG', an acronym for 'Lincolnshire Amiga Group'. They meet bi-monthly on the first Saturday of this period and it starts around 12:00 noon until around 4:00pm. Apparantly they go for a 'bevy', (NO, not a flock of quails, but a drink, alcoholic in nature :), after this time but I had to leave at around 3:00pm for personal reasons so I didn't get the chance to sample the 'ale' in that area... :(
I'm not sure whether 'LAG' is supposed to suggest that the technology of the MIGGY is slow, slow to catch up OR a bunch of ex-con's awaiting to go back to jail...... :) ......BUT, on my arrival at the venue I was greeted with the nicest bunch of guys you could ever wish to meet.
'LAG' is a 'splinter group' of the 'SCAG' that was; Scunthorpe Amiga User Group.
Initially 3 were there:-
Michael Domoney aka rockape:- The gaffer, erm sorry Chairman. :)
Gary Goddard aka gaz-god:- The 2IC, (2nd in command), erm Treasurer. :)
Mark Benson aka MacMiga:- The acorn, erm Intelligence Gatherer. :)
They had arrived early to set up some form of power source(s) and Internet access for 'us' to use and I arrived at about 11:45am on the Saturday 10-02-2007. It is around 50 Miles, (75(ish)KM), from my home in Loughborough with a journey time of an hour to an hour and a half, depending on the weather and traffic. It was in the middle of a big thaw and there was a lot of latent water around but I arrived there safely. :)
As I walked into the room, there was tea/coffee laid on for free and a plethora of gear already set up and raring to go.
Gary in his 'designer' look had his Pegasos 2 machine in action...
Michael had his A1200 Desktop and a uA1 up and running...
Mark was playing with an A1...
After about 30 to 45 minutes two others arrived:-
Robert Deary aka Robert17:- The young springer. :)
Rodney Terl aka Terl:- Rambling Sid Rumpo, who is old enough to remember that then eh!. :)
Robert, the yougest there at 20 years old, arrived with an A1200 with a 'faulty' keyboard. Michael stripped it down only to find that Robert had NOT replaced the KB ribbon after doing something to the A1200. DOH! Rodney came in last armed with some various capacity memory sticks and gave them to the Chairman, Michael, for the club's use. At that point I was VERY pleasantly surprised with a gift from Michael of a brand new unopened 64MB CompactFlash memory card, which will come in very useful indeed - MANY THANKS MICHAEL...
At this point I was convinced by the integrity of this bunch that I should become a part of it so the 'unarmed robber', Gary, grappled me to the ground and quickly seized my last 10UKP pocket money, put me through some Ku-Klux-Klan ordeal and VOILA, I am now a fully paid up member.
Only joking Gary... :))
I viewed the various machines in use and a couple of guys looked at what I use the MIGGY for on my HP Notebook, erm correction, in truth I was bragging about my AMIGA projects up on AMINET plus some of my lunatic ideas in progress for the MIGGY... :)
There were A1200(s), an A600 - term used very loosely - as it had a multitude of add-ons as to make it anything but an A600. Some serious time and energy has been spent on this machine and it has metamorphed into some serious tool now.
There was a(n) uA1, (MicroA1), belonging to Michael which he obtained for such a low price that people would kill for it...
There were other machines present, see below, but one that stood out was an old Mac laptop running a version of (E)UAE. Wonderful stuff.
The list of machines present were:-
1 x A1.
1 x uA1.
1 x Pegasos 2.
1 x A600, Apollo 030/40 16MB FastRam inside a Mac Desktop.
3 x A4000(s).
2 x A1200(s), (1 Blizzard/060 and 1 Blizzard 030/50).
1 x A1500.
A Mac laptop running (E)UAE.
And last but not least my HP notebook running Amiga Forever 2005.
After about an hour and a half of my arrival Rodney went into full song!.
I have never heard anyone who could continuously talk about computers and electronics but I got little chance to get a word in edgewise with the other guys so I gave him another alias - Foghorn Leghorn. :)
He took it in good fun fortunately.
(If you guys from LAG are reading this and you notice any errors please write to the editor and he will put an update in the next issue of the mag'.)
Robert, the youngest, seemed so 'laid back' and quiet, almost as though nothing could upset him; in fact he seemed almost invisible. :)
Photograph number 1 shows the room full of gear either in use or in a state of modification.
Left to right on photograph number 2:-
Left to right on photograph number 3:-
There should have been a couple of others but they didn't arrive - remember this is a hobby and it can be difficult to get to a venue when such 'bad' weather was abound.
All in all, it was a wonderful experience to meet up with like minded humanoids with a similar interest as mine and who are just as passionate as me about the AMIGA and its variants.
These guys do this for the love of it and require a lot of support so ALL of you so called dedicated AMIGANs out there visit:-
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