Amstrad Australia Day - 22 June 2024 in Sydney!

[Amagni]

To celebrate 40 years of the mighty Arnold, the Australian Computer Museum in Croydon, Sydney will be hosting a special one-off event next month.

Amstrad enthusiasts of all ages are invited to drop in, load up and play on with some of Australia's most incurable computer hoarders, surrounded by as many working machines as we can squeeze into a light-industrial-zoned warehouse just off Parramatta Road!

I'll have my own game CPC Wars with the custom twin-stick controller I built, and show off a new one I'm working on: 

We'll also be unboxing some new sealed games from Poly.play and trying them out together.  It's been some time since I've seen a fresh 3-inch diskette, so I'm very excited for this!

Both Rod Lawton (long-serving Amstrad Action editor) and Roland Perry (yes, the Roland!) have agreed to do video interviews, which I'll be recording soon and will play on the day.  If I can convince either to get up really early on Saturday we might get a live call-in later in the day, but no promises on that.

I'm still chasing up any old Amstrad Australia staff who might want to speak, if anyone out there is or knows one of these guys please let me know.  The last one I spoke to is keen to come but really doesn't like public speaking, maybe just give him a nod and a wave or something...

At the museum we have a 464, a 6128, a PCW8256, a PC1512, an NC100 portable and a PPC640D still in the original box.  There are also a couple of Spectrums and I'll put the Oric out because I think it looks nice.
I'm chasing up a Plus owner in another city, but if anyone in Sydney has one please get in touch.  More generally, we'd love for people to bring in their own CPCs, games, magazines, software or peripherals to show off.

We're setting up an Eventbrite page and I'll post the link when it's ready.  June 22, save the date!

[Amagni]

Here's a video from our Commodore day in 2022: 

Don't worry, I'll be checking carefully to make sure no Commodore machines are on display for Amstrad Day!

[cwpab]

Very nice! Quick question: Is there any Australian game for the CPC?

[Amagni]

Very nice! Quick question: Is there any Australian game for the CPC?

I found an old disc at the museum that had files from a Queensland Amstrad user group, including some BASIC games.  You can check them out in the Zip below.

A quick Google search turned up an AFL game: https://cpcrulez.fr/GamesTest/australian_rules_football.htm

There's also "Aussie Games" but it's published by US Gold so it may not have been made in Australia: https://cpcrulez.fr/GamesTest/australian_rules_football.htm

I'm sure there were loads of homebrew games back in the day, but they'd be hard to find unless the authors get in touch with the museum and send us a copy.

[Amagni]

Ticket sales are now open: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-acms-presents-40-years-of-amstrad-tickets-910149189727

If you have any way of getting to Sydney on the 22nd, you should come along, as I can't imagine there being any other Aussie Amstrad events in my lifetime unless I organise those too!

[Amagni]

I spoke with Rod Lawton last night, he was really nice and had some great stories to tell!

[chinnyhill10]

I spoke with Rod Lawton last night, he was really nice and had some great stories to tell!

When can we see/hear this?

[ervin]

Ticket sales are now open: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-acms-presents-40-years-of-amstrad-tickets-910149189727

If you have any way of getting to Sydney on the 22nd, you should come along, as I can't imagine there being any other Aussie Amstrad events in my lifetime unless I organise those too!

I would love to come along to this, but I'll have to miss out, as travelling from Adelaide and renting accommodation is a bit too hard at the moment. 
I hope it all goes well.

[Amagni]

I spoke with Rod Lawton last night, he was really nice and had some great stories to tell!

When can we see/hear this?

Book a flight to Sydney, I'll be playing it for the attendees on the 22nd!

Failing that, I'm planning to put the video up on YouTube at a later date but not sure when.

[Amagni]

Ticket sales are now open: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-acms-presents-40-years-of-amstrad-tickets-910149189727

If you have any way of getting to Sydney on the 22nd, you should come along, as I can't imagine there being any other Aussie Amstrad events in my lifetime unless I organise those too!

I would love to come along to this, but I'll have to miss out, as travelling from Adelaide and renting accommodation is a bit too hard at the moment. 
I hope it all goes well.

We should get a bus and tour around the country like Timothy Leary, but instead of handing out LSD it'll be 8-bit games!

[Amagni]

As we've had a lot of interest from people in other states or countries, we've added a Streaming ticket option.

For AUD$5 you can watch all the presentations live, ask questions or comment online, and in between we'll take the camera around to look at all the exhibits in detail: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-acms-presents-40-years-of-amstrad-tickets-910149189727

[Amagni]

Roland Perry interview has been recorded, he was also really great to talk to.  I told him it was like meeting Mario in real life!

[Amagni]

I spent today preparing the space for Amstrad Day, there are still a few machines due to come on the day but we've already got a very nice collection of playable CPCs (and a PCW) up and running!

[Amagni]

I took a quick video showing what we've got set up so far.