Feedback thread for the first RCM Weekender

[muguk]

As usual, put your goods and bads (if there were any) in this thread.  If you can think of any improvements we can make, put them in too.

[muguk]

The goods:

The atmosphere over the whole weekend.  You just can't beat it at RCM.  

The banter - Innuendo Central would be a good description

The food.  OK so Thorsten bringing a packet of bratwurst with him from Germany along with the currywurst sauce helped too

Our German friends from the Oldenburg Museum paying us a visit.  Tim (from OCM) then leaving with a Gamecube and a smile on his face as the prices of them in Germany were a lot higher than the £12 he'd paid Filecore  The donation of Roger's Profanisaurus at the end was the icing on the cake for me

AndyRCM's face when he realised Archer MacClean was visiting

Going for a curry at the only Indian in the village .. damn good grub.  One to visit in December


The bads:

My only bad (and this is because I'm crap at the game) is to split the Bomberman tournament into the 'professional' players and those, like myself and GazTee who spend more time bombing ourselves than attempting to kill anyone else.  And to make it go quicker for those stuck waiting for Tournament 2 is to have the crap players' tournament first


Improvements:

A better internet connection? There was one there (WiFi: RCM Weekender) but I think it was someone's phone that was being used as a proxy connection?

[1200xl]

Sadly I only stayed a short while on the Saturday, but there seemed to be a good buzz in the main hall, the side room seemed dead IMO.
Also, maybe a "fast track" queue for people wanting to buy a drink only as the queue was pretty slow moving with the number of people wanting the (delicious) hot food.This is not to take anything away from the excellent job the ladies did in the catering dept.

[woody.cool]

The good

Excellent atmosphere
A nice selection of machines
Friendly people (as always)
A bit of banter
Nice food

Tha bad
None (that I can think of)
Wish I could have attended both days

Improvements
Somehow, it felt like there was less machines than usual at this event. It made it less cramped but felt a slight bit empty, would love to have seen a few more machines on display. However, what was there was really good and kept me entertained (along with the socialising) for the entire day and left me wondering where the hell all that time went as it just flew by.

[boyo]

Really enjoyed the weekend - there was consoles and computers at the event that I had never seen before. Hope to help out a little bit more at the next one.

Love you guys to visit my site - put up a little news snippet on the event : http://www.retrofusion.org.uk/news/190/retro-computer-museum-event-visit/

[Panther]

The Highs

Andy's face when he got Archer Mclean on IK+ 
The Jupiter Ace loading (on more than one occasion)
Taking part in the kick off tournament, even though I lost to Black Panther in the first round, not a footie fan, but found it very entertaining 
The very small FIGnition computer http://sites.google.com/site/libby8dev/fignition amazing little bit of kit !!
Actually getting time to play on some of the machines, seemed alot more relaxed than previous events
The great food, loved the chili and the bacon baps in the morning were excellent 
Sampling some lovely home-made marshmallow ! 

The Lows

Bomberman competition taking forever !
Only being there on the Saturday

Also, maybe a "fast track" queue for people wanting to buy a drink only

Not sure how this would work, but worth thinking about, as I was put off buying just a drink around the lunchtime period due to the queue

[TMC]

Thanks for the great RCM weekender this time was worth it to visit teh uk for a long weekend loved the two event days to play on retro machines. Havent seen so many you could play at an event around 50. See you all at a next event i hope.

Mike; RCM weekender wifi network was mine for controling my wireless ip camera during the event : )

[MaxHall]

Great weekend again Andy, really good, the 2 day event is a great idea, as I feel 1 day isnt quite enough.

Good points

Was getting to chat with Archer Maclean, him showing us all the easter eggs in IK+ and having a pint with him in the pub!, the food was great again, the chilli is exceptional!!! Being able to play Elite on my BBC for hours on end with no distractions, sharing banter and gamage with like minded people, and the general atmosphere is buzzing - Well done!

Bad Points

No complaints to be honest . . . only thing i missed was a C64 with a disk drive... Sx-64 great, but getting old and sometimes need bigger screen for gamage! hehe


Keep up the good work Andy!! - you deserve to fufill your dream...

All the best
Max Hall

[Rinoa]

An enjoyable weekend! Always good to see & chat to familiar faces, and to speak to people I haven't had a chance to before. I've always loved the fun, friendly atmosphere of RCM

Highs
The Pac-Man DX competition
Multiplayer gaming
The Raffles
Having a go on some systems I haven't seen or played on before
Filecore's stall which had a good selection of stuff for sale
Enjoying a drink with everyone on Saturday evening and chatting to the Oldenburg Museum guys
Not having to do all the travelling in one day!

Lows
Bomberman competition - I enjoyed it but like others have said, I thought it went on for a bit too long
Couldn't get the SX-64 to work

Improvements
Some of the systems could do with a second controller, plus more 2 player games. Also, some of the older systems had the odd faulty controller which could do with repairing/replacing.

[Andy]

I had a brilliant day on Sunday - thank you to all involved. It was one of the 'highs' that I needed.

Good
Finally got my EPROM burner working. Found a use for a SNES PSU. (thanks phu for your help)
Shifting some of my excess hardware.
Meeting people who ive not seen in ages.

Cons
None what so ever...

[theatticbug]

GOOD: See you next time  

BAD: That we missed it  

It's been great to see all the pictures and videos on Facebook though. Made us realise how much we're missing our friends.

[AndyRCM]

Well for me . . .

Good:
Quickest set up and close down EVER! (Thanks to Ian for the loan of himself and his van).
Machines all behaved themselves!
Seeing my good friends again
Our overseas visitors (hopefully) enjoying themselves
The amount of photographs/videos (as always) is fantastic
Archer Maclean . . . thanks to boyo for that!

Bad:
Being tired and my feet hurting
A few more people visiting would have been nice (my fault for not pushing as much on other forums)
Missing some of our friends

Overall though - it was a nice relaxed (me? relaxed? hell yeah! - first time!) event and I even got to play on a few systems.

Thanks must go to Linda (my wife) for sorting out so much stuff beforehand, working on the day and of course doing the lovely cakes, also to my Mum (Tina) and Sister (Sharon) for looking after the food side of things, further thanks to the other RCM staff, they were, without doubt, fantastic (as always).

Thank you to everybody else that turned up and supported us and of course for the support from our friends who couldn't be there.

See you next time . . . announcement to be made . . .

[StarshipUK]

Highs:
Pac Man Competition
Chuckie Egg on the Einstein
2 day event

Lows:
My Sega Master System Everdrive cart being blatantly stolen (no security in the side rooms). Still in a big state of bewilderment and depression over this, and still feel really low.
Being a veggie, the strong smell of burgers and bacon drifting into the main hall was a bit nauseating at times.
The Pub where the meet up took place having no food.

Improvements:
Have to agree with Rinoa that there was a lack of Joysticks and a few non-working ones. The Atari Joystick on the Atari 800 had a broken fire button and one of the joysticks on the Atari 2600 also had a very iffy fire button. One of the fire buttons on the Acetronic control pads also did not work. Boggy asked if he could borrow a joystick off me to play a two player football game on the Amiga, as there were not enough joysticks.

Would have liked to have seen some more multiplayer gaming, as alot of the single player machines seemed to be empty most the time, while the multiplayer systems (which had joysticks) were much more popular.

could only see one game available for the XBox, would have been nice to have a few more to choose from.

Most of the disks in the box by the SX64 did not seem to work, or perhaps the drive was a bit iffy.

A few instruction sheets on how to load/change games on a few of the more obscure systems, or having someone change games every so often rather than having the same games running all day/weekend. I could not get Chuckie Egg to load using the standard method on the Einstein, so not sure how someone got it to load?

Quite a few people just turned up for Sunday and missed out on a competition, as there were no comps on the Sunday.

The system information sheets have disappeared.

Doing away with the side rooms as they have no security, and there was no way I was gonna stay in the side room all day guarding and protecting my equipment - I took a chance and now really regret setting up my kit in that side room.

Please don't think I am having a go. I know some of those suggested improvements are just small details, but it's sometimes the small details which matter the most.

[HeadingtonBard]

Good:

Everything, lots to see and do. Loved the Canteen ! It was nice meeting different people and friends, buying retro kit and being able to test it.

Bad:

I didn't get very far on the Phoenix Cabinet ! Damn you birdies !

Looking forward to the next RCM Event !

[Scarlettkitten]

Good

Beating Stiggy at Soul calibur
Beating Blackpanther at Sensi soccer (victory dance)
Meeting everyone again.
Filecore's stall was excellent

Bad

I'm home now