Firstly, a huge thank you to everyone who has bought a ticket for the first Kickstart meet in October – we’ve been absolutely blown away by the enthusiasm for reviving Kickstart and our first meet back is going to be a very busy day with no shortage of people. There are a few table tickets left, so please don’t delay in buying your ticket – we don’t want you to miss out.
The news that Kickstart is coming back has generated some nostalgia. A big thanks to Mike at the Yorkshire Amiga Group, who sent us this 22 year old flyer that one of his members found promoting the last Kickstart Amiga Show we ran – our biggest as well – which we held in Banstead in Surrey as the show had outgrown Ottershaw Village Hall.
Just a quick update to thank everyone who has bought a ticket for the Kickstart 15th October 2023 meet. The response has been fantastic so far and we really appreciate all the support in bringing Kickstart back as a user group.
There are still a few table tickets left and we would really like to see you there. You can buy your ticket here:
After considerable input and interest I am excited to announce we have booked a venue for the first Kickstart Amiga Group meeting of the new era!
Rather than September, we’ve opted for 15th October to avoid clashing with other Amiga user group events and so we can welcome many of our friends from other neighbouring user groups.
Kickstart is a non-profit event. The price we are charging is purely to cover the cost of renting the hall for the day and for the cost of the refreshments. If by some miracle, we have money left over, 100% of it will be put towards the cost of booking the hall for the next meet. Yes, there will be more of these!
Well, the interest in getting Kickstart back up and running with physical meets has been far greater than I could have imagined. So much so, that I’m going to look at arranging an inaugural meet some time in September.
Venue is still to be confirmed, but Brook Hall in Ottershaw, our original home (now renamed Ottershaw Village Hall), is definitely a possibility given the nice location, it has plenty of parking and there’s a pub next door. Wherever we end up booking, it will be in the Surrey, Bucks or Berkshire area on the border with London to allow for good motorway access and ideally, a nearby train station.
The Commodore Amiga – A Range of Computers That Spanned Two Decades
Back in 1997, the Amiga as a platform was dying. Commodore had gone bust, Escom (the company that bought most of Commodore’s assets, including the Amiga) also went bust after over-stretching itself. Various other attempts to rescue the Amiga platform from the wreckage ended up being little more than a joke that came to nothing. It fell to the remaining users and the rest of the grassroots community such as the vendors still in the market and the last embers of Amiga media to support each other and keep the platform alive. This is how Kickstart was born.
