Hello from NZ

[iDLe]

Hi all, my name's Spiro and I'm based in Wellington, New Zealand.
My first Amiga was back in 88 or 89 and my path took me into the world of Linux. But I've always loved the Amiga and get back into retrocomputing every so often.
I ended up selling everything many years ago, and then started buying things back over the last few years.

A couple of years ago I bought an A500 (off the guy I sold all my retrocomputers to back in the day) and only just started working on it this last week. It's up and running, and has a new 3.2 ROM in it, albeit the internal FDD doesn't work and the PSU is a bit iffy (ordered a new one).

Currently considering my options for it. I think I want to keep it as a 68000, but want extra mem for WB 3.2 and want to get a hard disk/CF upgrade for it.

I've ordered an A600GS and that will scratch my itch for accelerated Amiga.

Pretty excited to see what's current in the Amiga scene as I've missed so much being away so many years. But there's so much good stuff out there.

My main goal with the Amiga is to do coding on it. Assembly/ML is where my heart is at and working my way through a couple of tutes/books.

I'd be keen on knowing if there are many NZers on here and if there are any meetups, clubs, or demo/copy parties still happening.  I remember Syntax party from Australia and I'm guessing they're still going (saw one last year online).. Do many/any NZers go to that?

Anyway, hi, nice to meet you all.

[Castellen]

Always nice to see more NZ people on the forums, I'm based in Christchurch.

The last Amiga group in NZ I was aware of, Amiga Auckland, hasn't been around since 2022, after one of the main committee members passed away.  Someone in Auckland still looks after the club software/document library, I can find contact details if interested.

Apparently there's a NZ Fascistbook group, I get contacted by them for repair jobs.  Not sure who's on there or the topics of discussion, I don't do social media.  Not aware of any physical meetups nationally either.

I tend to focus on national/international hardware repair jobs and support, contract/commercial Amiga hardware development work, and a bit of 68k software development.  I'm not particularly interested in games, the Amiga is mainly a work machine.   My website, which never gets enough attention from me, has been continuously running on an A4000T for nearly 25 years: http://amiga.serveftp.net/sysinfo.xgi

Not sure about trying to do software development on an unaccelerated A500.  While it's possible, the lack of a decent source code editor would be painful.  I use CubicIDE myself, mainly for C and ARexx, though you'd need an expanded system to run that.

[RobertB]

     I should be visiting the North Island in 2027 or 2028.  I usually fly into Wellington.

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group - http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
          Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network - http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan

[iDLe]

Always nice to see more NZ people on the forums, I'm based in Christchurch.
I tend to focus on national/international hardware repair jobs and support, contract/commercial Amiga hardware development work, and a bit of 68k software development.  I'm not particularly interested in games, the Amiga is mainly a work machine.   My website, which never gets enough attention from me, has been continuously running on an A4000T for nearly 25 years: http://amiga.serveftp.net/sysinfo.xgi

Hi. My friend Edwin told me about you over the weekend and sent me a link to your site. He mentioned a scan doubler in your past. 

It's great to see the site being hosted on an A4000.

Do you write software for yourself or for others too?

The last Amiga group in NZ I was aware of, Amiga Auckland, hasn't been around since 2022, after one of the main committee members passed away.  Someone in Auckland still looks after the club software/document library, I can find contact details if interested.

Thanks. I'd like to get in touch with groups currently running, or perhaps with people open to starting a group. Seems like low odds, but I live in hope.

Apparently there's a NZ Fascistbook group, I get contacted by them for repair jobs.  Not sure who's on there or the topics of discussion, I don't do social media.  Not aware of any physical meetups nationally either.

I joined it, but don't really use FB much. I probably should pay attention or ask on there about locals too I guess.

Not sure about trying to do software development on an unaccelerated A500.  While it's possible, the lack of a decent source code editor would be painful.  I use CubicIDE myself, mainly for C and ARexx, though you'd need an expanded system to run that.

I've heard of Cubic's predecessor GoldEd, but used Cygnus Editor back in the day.

I can imagine needing a more advanced editor/IDE for C, but for assembly, I like DevPac and AsmTwo.. I'll look into Cubic if my needs get more advanced. I sort of have Visual Studio Code on my Mac, but with Microsoft adding copilot into everything including Paint and Notepad, I'm losing confidence that documents I write or load into modern software won't be injected into an LLM. :/

[iDLe]

     I should be visiting the North Island in 2027 or 2028.  I usually fly into Wellington.

Hi Robert, well it would be great to catch up when you make it over. Be good to make some international friends.