> On 26 Oct 03, at 23:16, Colin Macdonald wrote:
> > Greetings all,
> >
> > Am looking into options for getting down to the show at the weekend,
> > but given it'd be a 900-odd mile round trip for me, wanted to verify
> > that it'll be a decent turn out - who all's going?
> >
> > And in case anyone can't guess my next question, who's staying over
> > and fancies a few beverages in Norwich's finest?
> >
> > C.
Matthew J. Craven wrote:
> I have decided against going as a lot of things have come up in the
> past couple of weeks. Also I investigated the train times and coach
> journeys available and discovered it took an absolutely inordinate
> amount of time to get the small distance from Manchester to
> Norwich. :-(
People seem to backing out at the last minute, what they do not
seem to appreciate is that I spent a 3 figure some on this show,
not 75p and a pack of rolos. I am not cancelling the show at this
late stage. Over the last few day I have only just realised that
this is the SAM Coupe and ZX Spectrums last chance in the UK, if this
show fails there will be no more shows and these computers will be dead.
Sinclair QL magazines, QL Today and Quanta, only have 300 readers world
wide, yet they can manage to have 5+ successful shows in the UK each
year. While AlchNews has 600+ readers plus there is PD Power and
ZX Digest etc, and the internet based speccy users and the whole SAM
community in addition. So why when 10000 speccy games are rented at
50p for 3 days each week in the UK, can we not hold a show? The silence
from Alchemist Research is deafening.
Shows allow people to meet and conceive new projects (free and
commercial). It show cases new technology (we have moved on from 1993)
and allows reunions of old friends. When people are coming from the
continent, why are people from the shows back yard getting cool feet?
I can give free over night accommodation, and after the show there is
a big beer festival by CAMRA, which can be visited. The website has had
over 1200 hits in it's short existence with the number rising fast.
Manchester has a direct train to Norwich and back which my family has
used. I know some journeys take effort but you cannot get a Porsche for
the price of Ford. A lodger of mine travelled to Wales and back every
two weeks. People seem to be playing some kind of chicken thing, I will
go if you do. People are talking about next year, but there will not be
a next year at this rate.
There is still a regular ZX81 show in Germany, congratulations ZX-TEAM,
are we really saying that we are deader than a computer that has no sound,
no colour, virtually no graphics and has the poorest keyboard out? Did I
mention the wobbly RAM pack?
I created this show because I believe in retro computers, and have just
collected a commercially made sign for the show. Hope to see you there,
hope my straight talking has not offended anyone, it is not just a
response to the above email but also Sintech not coming.
--
Tarquin Mills
Norwich Spectrum and SAM Show (ORSAM 2003)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/speccyverse/orsam.htm
