computer clubs
 

i remember the days of computer clubs and gaming - you got to know a load of folk and discuss ideas etc, nowadays its all online, its no where near as good. that was around 1990 - 2002, the internet killed it off unfortunately, those were the days i liked.

I enjoyed them too up until people started bringing their consoles and taking over the tables - probs 1991ish.

Looks like i live near you, would love to get a quarterly or bi-annual meet up going in the north east for amiga users.

I used to go to one in Washington in the mid 90s in Fatfield I think it was, the hall was packed with about 100 Amiga's usually with 80 of them running Xcopy lol.... one rich kid used to lump a huge telly in and always had the latest consoles on it... I saw a PS1 first there and also an N64 with a Zip disk copier thing attached to it. Then for some reason that venue stopped doing it and it moved to a smaller community centre in Biddick. A guy called Steve Mason (iirc) I met there used to pick me up in the end as I first went there as a kid with a friend and his dad.

When it moved to the second venue that was where I first saw the Amiga online with them getting the latest stuff off Aminet for us. I think it was ran by a bloke called Dave but I always remeber this guy called Eddie who always had hundreds of coverdisks to sell as blanks for the aforementioned copying spree lol.

Maybe you went to these as well Mcgeezer? I really miss those Sunday mornings.

Ha small world mate!

I used to go to one in the oxclose community centre and then when that dried out i went to thr one in concord on a sunday afternoon.

I actually live in Washington, i venture into fatfield often - generally in thr havlock pub.

Just re-read your post, i bet u went to the same one as me in concord as the guy was also called dave (brown hair, jam jar glasses, quite a placid bloke.

Oxclose Community centre sounds familiar but when i google earth it it doesn't look right, the one I remember was right in the middle of a housing estate and when you went in the door you turned right for the main hall and there was a couple of small rooms to the left (about 6 pc guys used to sit in there as they were a complete minority to the Amiga users).

I wish I could remember where these places were but I was 16 and just a passenger..... even now unless i'm driving i take no notice of how I get somewhere lol

But Dave yes sounds about right, softly spoken and was always desperate for a shave - deffo remember the jam jar glasses. In the first venue I went to (93ish) it was a couple of quid on the door, and someone with bbs access used to get paid to bring in the latest warez for everyone to help themselves too.

Looking back I can see the harm it was doing to developers but at the time I was a poor kid not from a well off background so as far as I was concerned there wasn't any lost sales from me. I do my bit now though and I buy and back loads of stuff, i've dozens of games on loads of systems still shrink wrapped just never got around to trying them. I keep telling myself I will one day lol.

Yep - that is definitely the club in Concord I used to go to. When I was there it used to be 50p on the door. I was about 15 when I used to go there and was in one of those little side rooms probably with my Atari ST copying games or talking to the few demo coders/crackers that were there.

It hasn't changed much mind!

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.91...7i13312!8i6656

Like you I bought very few games as I didn't have much money. I've only just got back into the Amiga community in the last 8 months but absolutely love coding on it again.

Them were the days.

Many good memories of computer club meetings. Lots of warezing happened, but it's also where I learned my first few lines of m68k asm and so on.

I was a member of Amiga Auckland (New Zealand) for a few years, it still exists in name but the site hasnt been updated in years. Think they still have the occasional meeting. Was good times.... made a few friends there, picked up Amiga CD32's for $400NZD when they were retailing for $800NZD :D Their BBS was ok as well for picking up latest utilities etc.

I remember the Commodore 64 user groups. My friend heard of a get together at a local library. He called me, let's go check em out so we went.

It was a small group and the leader was a jerk with the members and us. I showed him up by asking pointed questions about advanced programming and how to solve this little problem I had (I didn't have any :D).

He couldn't answer it and the members grinned. Apparently they don't like him either.

We left.

In The Netherlands we still have a Commodore Computer Club. The meetings will be every two months in Maarssen, The Netherlands.

I am one of the volunteer of this club. Mostly I help other users with Amiga questions.

https://www.commodoreclub.nl/

Our local one suddenly disbanded and gave all its money and assets to the local Apple Users Group (!), I was not impressed...Surely they could have given it to somewhere that was not a direct competitor to the Amiga (eg. another Amiga user group elsewhere), it just helped push the Amiga further into the ground. Bunch of Mac fanboys. :-(

Brings back memories!

I went to one about 10 or so k's away from where I lived rekon back in 1988. It was suppose to be a "learn to program on the Amiga club" but pretty soon after a while it turned into an "XCopy" club! :D

Was kinda funny but the socialising aspect and the Amiga obsession was mindblowing! :great

It went on for 3 years and folded up in the end. I used to be a PC-IBM man before my Amiga coversion. Was an awesome time tho. ;)

Relevant video to the Computer Users groups today and back then:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvTN9siaT-M

In Stockholm we have an active Amiga club with a big venue of our own with meetings each Saturday. http://www.suga.se/

In Birmingham UK me and a friend started the group AmigaBrum in roughly 1999.

We went to the Amiga show in London and met Tony Horgan (CU Amiga) and Petro Tyschtschenko.

As a group we basically dicked around, played games, swapped software and made some music. I remember one of the guys going down a dry ski slope in an upturned shopping kart.