The 2021 Wakefield Show will take place online next Saturday, 24th April, from 10:30am until 6:00pm – and you now have the opportunity to register for the event, which you’ll need to do if you wish to attend via the Zoom video conferencing system.
Free to register and attend, the format for the event will be a series of talks, with each exhibitor having a slot to talk about their products, with demonstrations for software, and for visitors (that’ll be you, if you register) to ask them questions about it. In other words, the ‘show theatre’ that you’d expect at a normal, physical event, but with a few more people giving talks – and for most people, much more comfortable chairs!
The current schedule for the day, which may change so keep your eye on the Show website, is:
- 10:30am: AMCOG Games
- 11:30am: RISC OS Developments & R-Comp
- 1:30pm: Lunch time
- 2:00pm: RISC OS Open Ltd
- 3:00pm: Sine Nomine Software
- 3:30pm: Elesar Ltd
- 4:00pm: CJE Micro’s
- 4:30pm: Soft Rock Software
- 5:00pm: RISCOSbits
- 5:30pm: Cloverleaf Project
There is very little news at this stage about what the various speakers will be talking about – whether there will be any new hardware or software from Elesar Ltd, for example, or updates (or additions) to any of Sine Nomine’s titles.
However, I can tell you that you can almost certainly expect to see two new games on the day – well, okay, one brand new one, and one updated version of an old one.
The brand new game is one that AMCOG Games is currently working on and expecting to be able to release at the show, called Spy Mission: The Ice Caves of Doctor Atom, in which you play the part of an MI7 operative who was captured by Doctor Atom and held in his Antarctic base, but you’ve managed to escape from your cell and steal one of the good bad doctor’s experimental cars, in which you are trying to get out of the base.
The new version of an old game should come from yours truly. Escape from Exeria was Soft Rock Software’s first game, released just over thirty years ago, and then rewritten and released again in a new form in 1994. An update to that version exists, with new graphics, the number of playable mazes doubled from forty to eighty, there’s a new twist to the behaviour of the baddies – and I’ve even fixed a twenty seven year old bug. So, hopefully, that should see a release next week.
As well as taking place using Zoom, the show will also be live-streamed on both Facebook and YouTube – links for these can be found on the Show website – but if you want to participate in a more interactive way, i.e. ask questions of any of the speakers after their presentations, you’ll need to be logged in on Zoom. To do that, you need to register as soon as possible in order to receive the necessary details. Simply send an email to zoom@wakefieldshow.org.uk and you’ll receive the information in time for Saturday.
And then, on the day, simply get your Zoom-equipped gadget set up, and log-in any time from 10:00am (i.e. there’s a thirty minute window before the show). The show ‘proper’ is scheduled to end after the last presentation and Q&A session, but will remain open for a while afterwards for an informal chat, a nod to the usual after-show meal and evening in the bar.
