The RISC OS North Show - 21st March 2026

It was that time of year to make the three-ish hour road trip to Warrington for the RISC OS North Show, once again held at the Village Hotel just outside the centre of town. Since we arrived in Warrington late on the Thursday afternoon, we had the opportunity on the Friday to sample the town's Indoor Market. We didn't have the time to take a proper look last year, so made up for that error on this occasion. Two decent pints for under a tenner at the Hop Emporium, and a lovely choice of food stalls. What was not to like? Definitely a place to try if you're in the area.

On the Saturday, the show opened promptly at 10.30am and after paying for my good lady (my entry was free due to an offer for WROCC members), we set about the main room.

The Show Banner

Orpheus Internet were at the first table, followed by RISC OS Developments. More from them in the talks section. 

Orpheus and ROD

R-Comp Interactive were on hand with their array of machines, as well as software packages including the new MailPrint, which received a full briefing in their theatre talk. It was also nice to see the 18-inch Asus laptop that R-Comp sell that can be supplied set up with emulators galore. It's a decent machine, and if you can stomach Windows 11 (I can't), then it's a very useful option to consider.

R-Comp

R-Comp

R-Comp

In the first corner was Nemo2000 who was there showing off software which included standalone modules and a modified version of BASIC: NemoBASIC. Sadly, due to the popularity of the stand (and my timing), I never got a chance to speak to them. Bugger.

Nemo2000

RISC OS Open

RISC OS Open

Elesar

There was a brief stop at RISC OS Open and a chat with Steve, followed by a look at Elesar's excellent keyboard (my good lady and I have one each, so it was more of a question of do we need a spare one? No, apparently, we don't), before reaching Dynabyte Software in the second corner. They were at last year's show but I never got round to speaking to them then. I remedied that this time and had a wonderful two player game of a Pong clone using hand built rotary controllers. There are future plans in motion so one to keep an eye on me thinks. 

Dynabyte

RISCOSBits

Just look at it (the keyboard/display in the middle). It's GLORIOUS!

RISCOSBits had their wide array of goodies, including some nice laptop stuff, wood-effect 5-litre ITX cases, and a really cool keyboard/screen that has no real use in the RISC OS world but I do want one. Whether it's £220 of want one is another question. I did pick up the Plus Five add-on for my existing DIY Three, and I will get round to putting it all together at some point. Lastly, a quartet of slate coasters rounded off the spend with Andy.

Martin Eastwood's set up.

North One Communications had their Organizer table set out for those needing a personal information manager application, and next to them was Martin Eastwood, showing off the Frosted Themes he's been working on. We had a lovely chat and I walked away with one of the many USB sticks he'd brought containing the software. 

Sine Nomine were showing off their updates to RiscOSM, including the new PlaneSpot 1.00, a Python app that can be used in OSM maps to show air traffic. 

Chris Hall sorted out a copy of the Impression manual, along with a USB stick with extra software on it, and OwlArt's table was a blaze of light and colour with multiple Pi-based projects. 

Drag 'N Drop

In the centre row of tables, Drag 'N Drop had their latest issue available as well as back issue collections and print copies of their listing books. I grabbed a copy of The Giant Book of Applications, and Chris kindly gave me details of the update service for people who had bought the 100 BBC and Electron Books collection. 

Steve Fryatt

Steve Fryatt had his usual array of applications to talk about, and it was pleasing to hear that development of Puzzles, the port of Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection has finished. I still drop into a few of these every now and again when time permits, and some are really, really, addictive. 

AMCOG (Kalimba in the background)

AMCOG Games' new game, Silver River Kingdom, was available to buy for the princely sum of £15. A modern day take on 1981's Yellow River Kingdom, this is a resource management simulator that has proven to be engrossing and challenging. One of the cool things about attending a show is that you get to see behind the scenes of the game's development, which is this case included discovering a musical instrument I'd never seen before: the Kalimba. Also known as a thumb piano, this was used to create some of the music in Silver River Kingdom, and whilst I really do not need another time sink, they're easily available and quite affordable... and one is being delivered Wednesday next week! Curse you, Tony!!! ;-)

Soft Rock Software

Soft Rock Software had no new software sadly, but work is progressing on a couple of fronts, so all I could pick up there was a neat RISC OS compatible mouse mat. As they were in the area, Vince, and Brian from ROUGOL, had taken the opportunity to visit Jodrell Bank observatory, so a few photographs were shown at the Soft Rock Stand. 

ROUGOL stand

The Manchester User Group and RISC OS User Group of London had tables, and it was nice to chat to Brian. The Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club were also present, and they soon relieved me of another year's subscription fee. 

A tower of hybrid beauty at the WROCC table

That just left the charity stand and the North West Computer Museum display in a side room. Although there was a few good BBC offerings at the stand, I resisted temptation as, really, have you seen the size of a Beeb? They have a larger footprint than you'd think. 

NW Computer Museum

NW Computer Museum

NW Computer Museum

The Museum display started with an Acorn System 5 and ended with a Spectrum and C64, with a Beeb, Elk, A3000, and A7000 filling the gap. 

Charity stand

Charity stand

There were just four theatre talks this year, which actually worked to the show's advantage, as in previous years it has felt a bit rushed once the talks started, what with 45 minute limits to the talks (often over-running), and then only 15 minutes until the next one meaning you kind of had maybe the first hour or so to see the actual traders. This year, there was a good hour after the last talk, and of the three presentations I attended (an on-going back issue meant leaving the show early so I missed Sine Nomine's), they all kept to the designated run time. 

RISC OS Developments/Orpheus took the first slot, with discussion on Orpheus' increased speed capabilites, and details on RISC OS 64, a new path to try and get RISC OS into the 64-bit world. There was also a live demo of the new firewall for RISC OS.

R-Comp put their new MailPrint application front and centre, and for owners of modern wi-fi enabled printers, this is a real benefit for people who need to print things. There was an update on storage devices - namely namespaces, which permit more flexibility for users, especially with large capacity drives, and a comment that there was little new hardware as what was on offer was pretty much the limit of the 32-bit era. There was also a quick demo of R-Comp's Hydra computer.

RISC OS Open provided an update on the work towards the next stable version of RISC OS, 5.32, which should be available in the second half of this year. A Moonshot update brought into focus the funding that has been raised and the funding challenges that lie ahead. An anonymous benefactor has offered a donation matching window between now and the 20th of June, up to a total of £4,000 of donations, so that was a positive piece of news. 

Details were shared as to the status of various module updates, and the key message was that changes being made would also benefit existing users as best they could. There was a request for people to help out if they could, either development, testing or donations, and the possibility was raised of moving ROOL to charitable status in the future. 

These are but summaries and in due course, the videos of the talks will be available on YouTube. When they are, I'll update this post. 

All in all, this was another good show, and it was reassuring to see it make it to a second year - from my wargaming show experience, that is no mean feat! My only criticism of last year - that the noise from the show during the talks was rather distracting for those sitting at the back - was not an issue this time round.  I would say that the audio set up was louder this year, so that removed that thorn. The show itself did feel a little flat to begin with, but by mid-afternoon, there was a bit more of a buzz, and whilst a couple of familiar faces were missing, a couple of new ones filled the gaps. 

Hopefully we'll see a 2027 show, and yes, all being well, I'll attend that one too. I do keep looking at the London Show as an option, but the logistics are an issue.

OwlArt table

OwlArt table

As for RISC OS itself, well, it's still here and is still a very useful and fun OS to use. The keen of eye may have noticed the dual approach to 64-bit development. I'll say this loudly now: I have no horse in this race. I just want to keep using the OS, but the risk of duplication and wasted effort in what is, admittedly, a niche operating system, all seems a wee bit silly. We'll see how it goes, but there is a history of multiple approaches in the community and I don't think a repeat of that would be a good thing. 

You still have the option of emulation if actually hardware isn't your thing, but what about an FPGA core? Anyone considered that? After all, there are Gameboy Advance and 3DO cores in development, so is it not beyond the possibility of someone looking at that? 

Anyhoo, that was the 2026 RISC OS North Show and a fine one it was too. Shows are an important aspect of any hobby, and with just this and the London Show in the UK, and the Big Ben shindig in the Netherlands, trying to get to at least one of them should be a goal for any existing user or potentially interested party.