In just three weeks time it will be my favourite day of the year – and exactly one week before that is a day that should be one of a small number of firm favourites amongst discerning RISC OS users.
What am I talking about? Well, as a long time fan of things that go bump in the night, Halloween will always rank highly as a date to look forward to. And one week before that it will be 24th October – the date of this year’s RISC OS London Show, which will take place at:
Harrow District Masonic Centre,
Northwick Circle,
Kenton,
Harrow,
London,
HA3 0EL
The doors will be open to the public from 11:00am until 4:00pm, with an entry fee of £7 (free for those under the age of 16). That fee can be paid by cash or card – and if paying by cash, the use of the words “Please keep the change” will be hugely appreciated by the organisers.
There is a lot to see and do this year, and it should prove to be an exciting event – a claim that you might think about countering with “You always say something like that!” That’s true, and it’s a statement that tends to be true as well, because developers tend to use the shows as a target for their next significant releases. There’s always something new to see.
This year, however, you can set your expectations a little higher, because there have been some very interesting things happening of late – and some of that is going to be at the London Show.
Amongst the – currently nineteen – exhibitors listed on the show website, you’ll find the two magazines that cater to the RISC OS community present. Gavin Smith is the editor of Archive, and he is set to appear in person this year with the latest issue of the magazine, and you will also find Chris Dewhurst manning the Drag ‘n Drop stand with the latest of the PDF title, along with a selection of books and other items.
There will be a selection of stands exhibiting games, including AMCOG, who are currently working on a new game called Ghost Hunter. This is actually an evolution of a game developed as a case study for the AMCOG Development Kit, and Tony Bartram has made a video about it:
Technically, Ghost Hunter won’t be AMCOG’s only new title for this event, because the game developed for RISC OS North back in March, Silver River Kingdom, will also be making its first London Show appearance.
Meanwhile, Soft Rock Software (that’s me folks) will have an old title resurrected, in the form of Floopy. This was a game developed and released all the way back in 1993 – the first full program I ever wrote in C. The source code became lost until a few years ago, and over the last few weeks I’ve been hastily working through it to get the game working on modern hardware. It lacks sound, and still has the naff graphics from 1993 – looking even worse because of a necessary change of resolution – but it is now running on 32-bit RISC OS, though it’s far from releasable… as yet.
Check out Cameron Cawley’s stand as well, where he’ll be showing off the latest version of ScummVM, a virtual machine that allows a whole wealth of games originally written for other platforms to be playable on RISC OS.
On other stands you’ll find all sorts of other software, such as Steve Fryatt with his CashBook, PrintPDF, and Locate software, and – since we’ve just touched on games – his port of a puzzle games collection to the platform. Or you could head for the Sine Nomine stand for mapping application RiscOSM, database package Impact, and much more. And, yes, more does include puzzle games such as SuperDoku, and patience-style game collection House of Cards.
Continuing the crafty segue from games to other types of software, another stand you can visit and from which you can obtain both is the R-Comp stand, where you’ll find stuff covering almost every category of software; games, database software, internet software, graphics packages, and so much more.
It doesn’t stop at software with R-Comp, though (so here’s another segue) – they also have a growing range of hardware solutions; different computer systems to meet whatever your RISC OS computing requirements – and you might also be able to solve your requirements on another platform, too.
If R-Comp has any new hardware lined up (or updates to their extensive range of software), expect announcements much closer to the day.
They aren’t the only source of hardware, of course. You could also look towards RISCOSbits – especially if you want something with a more imaginative (and sometimes much more risqué) name.
And yet another source of hardware is CJE Micro’s, who were briefly missing in action from RISC OS shows. CJE’s hardware range doesn’t just include computers, though. It also includes home-brew add-ons and gadgets, and (probably) just about everything you need to build a computer yourself.
Then there’s the operating system itself, which is looked after by RISC OS Open Ltd. They’ll be on hand to show off the latest developments and the progress towards the next notable release. They also have a range of merchandise you can purchase, software that is handy for developers, and a range of manuals that have been updated since their original release.
And while RISC OS Open looks after the operating system, it’s owned by RISC OS Developments, who will also be in attendance with their latest offerings, such as the latest Pinboard, LanMan98, Iris, and much more, including some new items: a new FilerFind application, and a unified ToolBox.
Related to those new items, another (sort of) new exhibitor is RISC OS Technologies. This is a non-profit organisation set up by Martin Eastwood, who exhibited at last year’s show to promote his new theme, Frosted. Under the RISC OS Technologies brand, Martin is making use of AI to develop things RISC OS needs at a rate that wouldn’t otherwise be possible – which includes some work towards a 64-bit version of the OS.
And for another route towards running RISC OS on 64-bit ARM processors, pay a vist to the ZFP Systems stand, where Paolo Zaino will have the latest build of Merlin to show off. Merlin is a new operating system that will have what he describes as a ‘RISC OS personality’ and which will run RISC OS modules and software – but, importantly, because Merlin isn’t itself RISC OS, one of the benefits it will offer is a higher level of security and stability.
As well as the set up in the main hall, there will be the usual show theatre, in which a selection of exhibitors will be giving talks throughout the day. Although the schedule for this is still to be finalised, the speakers currently lined up include CJE Micro’s, R-Comp, RISC OS Open Ltd, and what is being described as an extra long ‘mega demo’ from RISC OS Developments, because they have a lot to talk about.
So, if I were you, I’d get your train tickets bought now!
