It’s just a couple more days until we all descend on Ottershaw Village Hall once again for Kickstart 5 – Our fifth user group all-day meet of the new era.
Kickstart 5 takes place on Sunday, 2nd February 2025. Doors open at 9am, and close at 9pm (or sooner if everyone decides to wind down a bit early and go to the pub, as can happen). We are looking forward to yet another brilliant day of Amiga fun. 2025 is also the 40th year of the Amiga, so we are starting a year of celebrations with this meet.
Ian Griffiths, editor of Amiga Addict will be joining us at Kickstart 5 on Sunday.
The essential read for all Amiga owners and fans, Amiga Addict is a fantastic magazine and a great supporter of the user group community. Ian will be bringing a range of back issues and Amiga Addict merch with him, but again, do get in touch with him ahead of the meet if there’s anything in particular you are after.
Jakub Kosiec from Retro Lemon will be joining us once again at Kickstart 5 this Sunday.
Retro Lemon sells a wide range of upgrades and accessories for the Amiga, as well as other systems such as the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, various Atari systems and more. If there are products you are interested in, it’s worth contacting Jakub ahead of the meet.
Table tickets are sold out, but we still have a handful of non-table tickets available. If you missed out on a table, you can still join us for the day and participate in all the fun.
Emails will be going out this week, along with a post here, detailing everything you need to know for the big day. If you have any questions in the meantime, do get in touch.
We’ve already confirmed our first date for 2025, so please mark it down now. Tickets are on sale now. Kickstart 5 will be a regular all-day meet, with guests, traders, contests, and hopefully our first attendee raffle. It’s also a very special year – 2025 marks 40 years of our beloved Amiga computer platform and we will be marking 40 years of the Amiga at all of our 2025 events! So, get ready for special events and surprises.
Five Tables Left
At the time of writing, there are just five table tickets left, so please don’t delay if you plan to attend with your Amiga.
A Look Back at Kickstart 4
There are loads of photos over on our Facebook group, please do visit if you have not already.
Attendee Leigh Malpas put together this walkabout video on the day:
Also, Chris Thomas, AKA Retronaut, put together another of his excellent videos covering the meet, take a look here:
Less than a week to go now until our next Kickstart meet. We are sending out emails to all ticket holders this week with everything you need to know for the day, so please keep an eye out!
Games, Trophies and Amigas
We have lots happening alongside the regular gathering of people and their Amigas:
Zool Top Score Contest
We’ll be running a top score contest on the iconic Amiga platformer Zool all day running on the 500 Mini. Highest score at the end takes away our first High Score Trophy!
Machine of the Meet
Something new, we are going to award a trophy for the top machine of the meet. Highly subjective, but we’ll be taking into account a number of factors, including interesting modifications, your machine’s backstory (such as whether it’s a trash to treasure recovery or a childhood machine still going strong), what it’s beuing used for, best visual makeover and more. It’s something fun we hope people will enjoy.
Last Call for Tickets
We are going to have to close off ticket sales in the next 48 hours so that we can confirm catering and other elements for Sunday. If you haven’t already bought a ticket, please get it now.
Where has 2024 gone? It’s been an incredible year Amiga-wise, with our meets in February and the BBQ in June. We will be rounding off the year with one more big meet before we start our programme of 2025 events:
When: Sunday 29th September 2024
Where: Ottershaw Village Hall, Brox Road, Ottershaw, Surrey, KT16 0HG
Time: 9am-9pm
Cost: £14-16 per person (price includes pizza lunch, the famous Kickstart cake, snacks and soft drinks throughout the day)
As it’s the end of summer, we are going to have a pizza party for lunch to celebrate.
As always, we only have a limited number of tables (though we have recently bought more tables to take us to maximum capacity at the hall), so book early to avoid disappointment.
After a very long absence, we brought back the most celebrated day of the year, the annual Kickstart BBQ, and what a day it was. We were very fortunate that the weather was perfect, so we were able to make full use of the outdoor space at Ottershaw Village Hall to make some memories over good food, the odd beer and a lot of technology chatter.
We are all ready here at Kickstart HQ to welcome you to our annual BBQ meet tomorrow. Ticket sales are closing at 2pm today for non-table spaces if you want to join us, but table places are all sold out.
What To Bring
If you have a table ticket (which most people will), there will be a table and a chair for you – all you need to do is bring your Amiga! This list will help ensure you don’t forget the essentials:
Your Amiga
A monitor
Mouse, Mouse Mat and Joystick
Power Cables and Power Supplies for your Amiga, Monitor and other peripherals
Any games or software you need
Speakers (if not built into your monitor)
Mains extension lead (the more sockets the better)
A screwdriver (just in case you need to open up your machine)
Other than that – we can’t wait to see everyone tomorrow at Ottershaw Village Hall in Surrey.
Saturday 22nd June 2024, 9am-9pm, Ottershaw in Surrey.
It’s the final week, with our BBQ meet happening this Saturday, 22nd June 2024. Doors open at 9am, and close at 9pm (or a little sooner if everyone decides to go to the pub). We are looking forward to a brilliant day of Amiga fun. Even the weather is threatening to behave itself once again!
Key Information
When: Saturday 22nd June 2024
Where: Ottershaw Village Hall, Brox Road, Ottershaw, Surrey, KT16 0HG
Time: 9am-9pm
Cost: £14-16 per person (price includes BBQ lunch, the famous Kickstart cake, snacks and soft drinks throughout the day)
