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Add you favorite old User Groups...


DavidMil

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I liked HAAUG (Houston Area Atari User Group), and I remember LAACE (but can't remember what it stood for.

And AMNUG (Atari Microcomputer Net User Group) which was where I talked to H. V. Stacey (stace).

There were so many others.  Add what you remember...

 

DavidMil

 

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I joined MilAtari in the early 90s.  Some of us are still around as MCS (Milwaukee Computer Society).  Fancy name for a small bunch of guys the still get together to talk about computes and whatever else we can think of.  There was also a MAST (Milwaukee Area ST users group).  They eventually merged with MilAtari.

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14 hours ago, adam242 said:

CHAOS - Capitol Hill Atari Owner's Society (Lansing, Michigan)

Were there two groups in Lansing, or was that the only one?

I had a great time doing a presentation of a voice digitizer at a Lansing club in the mid-80s.

 

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There was a local Atari users group in Redding CA/Cottonwood CA. I believe it was called the Cottonwood Computer Club. The owner was actually an Optometrist I believe, and he ran a part time Atari store during the XL/ST era in the back half of his rental building. The club met around there as well.

I wasn't a huge fan of his pricing (which was exorbitant at the time) and he screwed me over on my one purchase, so I never really did much with the group, as he was also the head of the users group as well, I think. 

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I have told this sad tale in the past.  My one personal experience with a live, in-the-flesh Atari User's Group was terrible.  I had just moved back to the city after being all over the world with the Air Force.  About 30 mins from home is a city called Moore, OK.  They had a real user's group meeting there once a month.  The Tinker Atari Computer Enthusiasts (TACE).  I arrived there, went to the meeting area. There four or five guys there milling about, some staring at a monitor (some game).  Being the 'new guy', I expected to draw some attention.  Nope.  No one ever approached me, ever introduced themselves, nothing.  I was invisible.  I stayed about 15 mins and left, never to return.  What a bust.  What a waste.  You'd think they'd be delighted with a new member.  Nope.  Their demise soon followed, I am sure.  

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9 hours ago, bhall408 said:

Were there two groups in Lansing, or was that the only one?

I had a great time doing a presentation of a voice digitizer at a Lansing club in the mid-80s.

 

 

Not sure.. I don't live in Lansing and I've never actually attended a CHAOS meeting. I just like the name, and they did put on a three-day event at a hotel more in my neck of the woods that was a great time.

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I went to a few meetings located in a computer store in Meriden, CT. From what I remember, it was not well organized. They had pirated software sitting around which I was able to copy stuff from. I thought it was weird since they sold Atari software. I did buy my ST from there but my memories are vague. I later joined an ST user group that was better organized. They also were anti-piracy. I would have loved to have gone to the better run user group meetings.

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I remember another little user group:  CAFE  (Cypress Atari Family Enthusiasts).  This was the first place that I dropped my Atari 800

about 12 inches onto the table top to show everyone how well they were made.  My wife said that when I did that, she held her breath

till it powered back up.  This was mainly a family orientated group so there was lots of demos of different games by preteens.  It was

fun watching four kids under ten play MULE (very, VERY cut throat)!

 

DavidMil

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Reminds of the infamous 1 inch drop used to fix a lot of things back then, we used it on XL's, as you can imagine it basically reseated most of the socketed chips, wasn't always the fix but surprised by how many it did sort..

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I live in the Australian Capital Territory which is usually abbreviated to ACT.

 

So, ACTARI was the name of our local user group.  At it's peak, probably near 20 people showed up to meetings.  As you'd probably expect, somewhat smaller than the local Commodore group (I only went to one of theirs, from memory it was probably closer to 40)

I was a regular at ACTARI from around 1983 to 1987.  Once the ST was established about 1985 it started to take over.  I'd finished school at the end of that year so after that, interest dropped off a bit for me.

 

There were other big groups interstate, MACE (Melbourne Atari Computer Enthusiasts) is the only one I can remember at the moment.

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On 6/1/2021 at 8:07 PM, adam242 said:

 

Not sure.. I don't live in Lansing and I've never actually attended a CHAOS meeting. I just like the name, and they did put on a three-day event at a hotel more in my neck of the woods that was a great time.

I don't remember a second club but CHAOS later morphed into something else IIRC.

 

At the founding meeting the president, being a Get Smart fan, suggested naming us Capitol Hill Atari Owners Society. Lansing is the capital of Michigan but there is no hill there and no one calls it Capitol Hill. Still the name stuck. It was a fun club!

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