Ok, so who's up for a weekend of Classic Gaming in Stoke on 7th-8th March?

Mat Corne aka "Witchfinder" has just announced BYTE BACK 2009 which will take place at Bidds Entertainment Club on Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th March in Longton, Stoke-On-Trent.



All proceeds from the event will go to charity and there'll be a licensed bar as well as catering facilities. You can expect to see and have access to a vast array of Classic Computers and Consoles and several notable figures from the classic-era of the gaming industry are bound to be present too. Tickets are due to go on sale in a couple of weeks time, and will initially be available at a reduced priced of £10 (this is set to rise slightly after a certain date, to encourage people to book early).

Now due to the central location, I think this could be an ideal opportunity for STH members, visitors and Acorn-fans alike to meet-up and spend an enjoyable couple of days putting faces to names, socialising and of course showing off your technique on Zalaga!

So I intend to use this thread to provide updates on the event, and to keep a record of who will be attending from within the Acorn community. Now I appreciate it might seem that I'm jumping the gun a bit (what with it being more than SIX months away) but I'm keen to ensure that anyone interested pencils the dates in EARLY, as these types of events are so infrequent they tend to sell out well in advance (take RETRO FUSION for example, where only a few of us were lucky enough to obtain tickets).

Also, the longer you leave it, the harder and more expensive it becomes to find a nearby hotel. Speaking of which, some of us are looking into block-booking a number of rooms at one particular hotel RIGHT NOW, at a discounted rate. So if you'd like more details please send me a PM or email me at dllm@usa.net asap.

Now if sitting around playing games all day really isn't your thing, then don't worry: most of the Acorn gear will be set up in the "quieter" of the two rooms, therefore you'll be able to chat about hardware/coding/footy/whatever to your heart's content, all over a nice pint! In addition to Electrons, BBCs, Archimedes and Atoms, we also intend to bring along some interesting/souped-up hardware (e.g. GoMMCs, ARM CoPros etc) so folks can find out more about how they work. S'pose I could bring along a Domesday setup too if there was interest ...

Oh yeah - I don't fancy my chances, but I'll try my best to entice some former 8-bit Acorn programmers into joining us too (which I think would be very cool indeed! ).

Lastly, Retro Software will have a presence, so attendees can once again expect to see WIP demonstrations of the latest BBC/Electron games currently in development.


Beeb Game Coders from the 80s!:



Ticket(s) Purchased:



Would Like to Attend:



Tentative, depending on other commitments:



Unable to attend:

Hi

Yeah im up for it. I will come down on the saturday and stop the night at the hotel you recommend. I'm happy to book it now or you 'block' book it and i pay you. It would be great to meet some ex beeb programmers.

I will be attending Sat and Sun!

Sure I'd like to come -- it was great fun at Retro Fusion, maybe this time there'll be enough room to swing a plastic guitar!

--G

Beer - check
Acorn-related nerdery - check
Everyone else is going - check

What more could you want?

I've got my GP2x packed - let's get it on!

Sam.

I will attend this event and bring along some stuff.

I'd like to come. Having recently written my very first Acorn assembly program, if I get anything worth showing off going before March then will someone be able to transfer a disk image to a real (Electron) disk for me?

I'd love to attend this event which would be my very first retro convention. All the great reviews of Retro Fusion have whetted my appetite and it would be good to meet with some of you friendly folks on the forum.

I'll be there, it was a good laugh at Retro Fusion.

Cheers for organising it Dave!

It'll be my first too; that's why I'm keen to bring something.

DaveM - thanks for the email. I'm not sure what on earth I'll be doing that weekend. However, could probably find accomodation.

I have a RiscPC sitting around unused which would be good to bring but don't have transport unfortunately.

Thanks for the email.

I can't commit at the moment, I've no idea where I'm going to be around then, but I'm definitely interested.

I shall make a note to check back in a month or two nearer the time.

Alas and alack, I'm now in a position to confirm I'll be unable to attend.

The advanced notice is greatly appreciated (I need this much nowadays), and Stoke-on-Trent is no distance at all for me; but March 7th-8th is the weekend before the Cheltenham Festival, and I'll definitely be engaged doing podcasts and / or punters' panels on both days.

Having missed Retro Fusion last summer owing to it clashing with the Latitude Festival, I'm not having a right lot of luck with these meet-ups, am I! Better luck next time...

Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)

Thanks to everyone who's expressed interest thus far ... I'm already getting a very good feeling about this event!

Later today I will communicate hotel details to those who have either posted or emailed me over the last couple of days.

Thomas: nice to have you back! I'm sure that we'll be able to find someone willing to transfer disc images etc.

Andrew: thanks for offering to bring hardware, but I think it would be unfair to burden anyone without transport the responsibility of bringing kit. Besides, I'm sure that it won't be too difficult to lay our hands on a RISC PC if required!

Jeremy:

(Guess there's always Retro Fusion? And I've read that somebody else may be arranging a "Retro South" later in the year too. Btw, did you manage to get in touch with Crispin?).

Unless anything comes up then I'm in as well. I can bring a beeb, elk and riscpc if needed (but probably not an arc this time).

I've notified him via his Facebook page - let's see what happens!

gc

Might be an idea to suggest what software people could bring along for any of the Acorn machines to show them off?

At Retro Fusion we just had an MMC card with all the gear on, although I seem to remember Chuckie Egg being a popular favourite

I think that may have been due to my modelling ...

Sam.

Haha aye, at one point I thought that crowd of fit women were nearly going to get through to you

Just so everyone knows, tickets for Byte Back can now be purchased from the homepage @ http://www.byte-back.info

They are priced £10 each if ordered before 30th November or £12 each thereafter.

The surrounding hotels are starting to fill up now, so if you'd like to book rooms at the same hotels where the rest of us are staying, please drop me a line asap, at dllm@usa.net

I'm not sure I can go right now - I'd like to...

Hi All,

I've just bought my ticket and I'm really looking forward to the event.

See you there!

Ant

Just to remind everyone that there are only a few days left before the 'early-bird' offer on tickets expires.

The price for a weekend ticket is currently £10, though this will increase
to £12 from December 1st.

I'm hoping to go (although I cannot commit 100% at the moment) , nearer the time will know

Not sure what I'll be doing that weekend so won't be getting tickets but it looks like it's going to be quite good by the number of projects lurking around.

PUT me in the 'hell yeah' table! LOL

I'm looking forward to it - With plenty of notice, I can arrange my life around it!!

thanks - Neil

Count me in

Neil and Kenton: I've just stuck you in the 'Would Like To Come' table - please let me know if/when you order your tickets, then I'll 'promote' you to the table at the very top!

Just noticed the following on the Byte Back homepage:


So if you wanna come but have yet to purchase tickets, here's an incentive for ya!

I just wanted to update my status

I am still not sure if I can make it or not, to be 100% honest I probably won't know till the day , but if I do it will be one day only (Probably Sunday) , and no to hotel (as its not too far from here)