Welcome to
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Commodore Users Group of Ireland
Retro lovers unite for a not-for-profit, friendly annual meeting of enthusiasts of Commodore, Amiga and life in general. Active since 1983, we meet every January in Athlone and anyone can book a ticket. There is something for everyone whether you are into games, hardware, software, demos or just meeting like-minded people.
Event
CUGI hosts the annual Amiga Ireland event and tickets are available from Eventbrite. Please follow us [ there ] to get notified about tickets for the next event.
Note that the 2024 event will be a more laid back event compared to other years with less content than usual. Instead of a block booking for a meal on Friday night, we will send a list of recommended places to eat for people to organise themselves. If in doubt, you can join the organisers wherever they go.
Ticket types are generally:
- Weekend: Attend the full event from Friday 1pm - Saturday night.
- Saturday: Just Saturday.
You can also include other things with your tickets/order that we'll have ready for you on arrival:
- Extras: On Eventbrite, you can add the cost of a set menu meal for Friday, Saturday or both. A sample menu will be available in advance.
- Merchandise: We usually have t-shirts available in different sizes and colours that you can include with your order. Sometimes we even have mugs!
Read on to learn more about a typical event...
- Game Competitions like SWOS, Stunt Car Racer, Paper Plane and more. Also, spontaneous competitions – host your own.
- Exhibits WiFi, Dropbox, new machines such as A1222, classics like the Commodore 64, Amiga 500 – 4000, Vampire & ARM systems.
- Social aspect is important. We also go to an atmospheric local pub on the Saturday night (everyone welcome). On Sunday morning, a casual gathering nearby.
- Guests to date have included (and we hope to see again):
- Trevor Dickinson, A-EON
- David Pleasance, Commodore
- Thomas Rolfs, Gremlin Graphics Ireland
- Mike Battilana, Cloanto
- Neil Cafferkey, Amiga WiFi
- Eddy Carroll, SnoopDOS, CUGI co-founder
- 2018 Jon Hare - Sensible Software*
- 2018 Niall O Brolchain – Ireland’s 1st commercial game (C64), Seanadóir Seanad Éireann, Galway City Mayor
- 2019 Volker Wertich – BlueByte & The Settlers*
- 2020 Dave Haynie (2020) – Dave was with us for both days of the event!
- 2021 Jacob Gorm Hansen - The Silents/Melon Dezign/Naughty Ones
- 2023 Nick Veitch - Amiga Format, Linux Format, CU Amiga, Linux Voice, Canonical*
- 2024 -
( * = virtual guest )
- Prizes
Donation-based, but have included: Trophies for some competition winners, Runner-up Champion Floppies, WiFi cards for classic Amiga, boxed games, sometimes hardware, books, magazines, manuals & posters. A previous highlight: a boxed Amiga 500 which was donated.
- Sponsors Sincere thanks to:
- Shopping Hardware and software vendors (including some of our sponsors) are normally here. The Utopia Spa is an excellent massage therapy center just a five minute walk away.
- Workshops: Get creating on Amiga. We aim at introductions rather than advanced topics. But, advanced info is often available.
Workshops have defined learning outcomes. Follow guidance on your Amiga and try to achieve the objective.
If you have a skill you can share, please contact us. It can be anything once attendees can engage/participate. Thanks to our past instructors:
- Rob Cranley - Soldering, BASIC programming, AREXX programming, SOLAS
- Karl Jeacle - Cross Compilation for Amiga, First Steps Amiga Surfin, AmiSpeedTest, AmiGemini
- Vicky Lamburn - Pixel Art with Deluxe Paint
- Mike Clarke - Music creation with Pro Tracker
- Klearchos Gourgourinis - Lightwave 3D
- Dimitris Panokostas - AmiBerry, RPi render farm
Every January for one Friday & Saturday in Athlone, Ireland. There may be an unofficial gathering on the Sunday morning :)
Immerse yourself in the past and future of Commodore and Amiga loveliness and meet like minded folks from Ireland/Northern Ireland and those who travel from Greece, Holland, Norway, England, Scotland, Wales, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, New Zealand, USA, Australia...