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 Bryan 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 Bryan. 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.

Update 06.04.26 - The WROCC YouTube channel now has this talk available for viewing here.

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.

Update 20.04.26 -  The WROCC YouTube channel now has this talk available for viewing here.

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. 

Update 12.04.26 - The WROCC YouTube channel now has this talk available for viewing here. 

Update 27.04.26 -  The WROCC YouTube channel now has the Sine Nomine Software talk available for viewing here.

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. 

The RISC OS North Show - 29th March 2025

It was with some anticipation that we of TIT Towers journeyed to the town of Warrington in Cheshire for the inaugural RISC OS North show being held at the Village Hotel there (sadly not in a Lotus Super Seven S2, but neither being chased by giant white balloons, so clouds, silver linings etc). With the sad demise of the long running Wakefield show (which for the last three years had been held in Bradford, so another chance for the former West Wing star Bradford Wakefield gag to be exhumed for one last huzzah), RISC OS North found itself much like the titular space station in Babylon 5 - RISC OS's last best hope for a show north of London (by a matter of 8 minutes or so compared to the South West Show, according to Google). So how was it?

Well, pretty bloody good, to put it succinctly. I'm not going to repeat the contents of the rather excellent report from The Icon Bar, nor am I going to cover the four theatre talks in much detail - Mark has already done that here, as well as some nice photo coverage, so aside from the top image of the Soft Rock stand, there's no other imagery in this post - please click the link to TIB. An aside: if you want to keep up to date with all things RISC OS, not only do we have The Icon Bar, but also Riscository as well, so bookmark them to stay in the know. The ROOL forums are another font of knowledge that deserves your attention. What does follow, however, are my thoughts, impressions and random musings on the show and the weekend in general.

With TIT Towers location in deepest, darkest County Durham (north by north west at the cathedral, if you hit the old steelworks, you've gone too far, definitely DO NOT turn left at Albuquerque!), it was something of a near three hour drive to Warrington, including a nice little stop off at Kirby Stephen for refreshments on the way, and then a quiet Thursday night spent at The Waterside pub. The attached hotel to the Waterside was our base for the weekend, and just a couple of minutes walk from the Village Hotel itself - and much more reasonable value for rooms, too. 

The Friday was spent seeing what Warrington had to offer and, should we return (see below), we'll be making a quicker beeline to the Warrington Market, where numerous small food businesses are located along with a large seating area. The food we did have to go was lovely, so plenty of other options to try again in the future. As for the town itself, not a bad little place, and although some of it looks like Consett with the charm, none of it approached the level of Stanley without it. If you know, you know. Friday evening saw us back at the Waterside pub where the first points were scored on the "They're in with the RISC OS crowd" bingo card. Next year, we'll have an Observers book(let) ready. 

Saturday dawned and, after a frankly disappointing hotel breakfast (yet their evening meals were really good, so go figure), we wandered to the show venue. Admittance started at 10.30, and we were soon wandering the stalls. Conversations were had, some money changed hands, and it was great to catch up with familiar faces as well as talk to new ones too. It really is a friendly community should you wish to attend future events.

This year, the hardware purchase was a RISCOSbits DIY Three, as my near six year old PiHard began pining for the fjords a couple of months back. I'm looking forward to the build process as well as giving the new casing something of a funky paint job. 

Other pick ups included the Drag N' Drop back catalogue, Soft Rock Software's revised Software Collection, the latest title from Amcog Games, Morphix, and paying my membership dues for the Wakefield Club. A t-shirt from RISC OS Open covered the last of the cash purchases, and the only other item collected that day was the brand new issue of Archive magazine from its stand, manned this year by Colin from Samcoupe.com. It was nice to have a catch up, despite the very last minute delivery of the issues (about 9am, I believe he said), and he also had some top of the counter SAM Coupe goods for sale - issues of SAM Revival, key rings, a framed ASIC, and he was more than happy to show off some new hardware too. 

One thing I didn't pick up from the charity stall was a huge back collection of Archive issues, and although the appearance of an Iyonix was also a temptation, there simply isn't room at TIT Towers to do it justice. Opposite that stall was a lovely display by the North West Computer Museum. We visited (and donated kit) there last year, and although we had no time this year, quite a few of the exhibitors had either taken advantage of its proximity to have a gander before the show, or were planning to go the next day. Warnings were passed on about the rather generous cheese toasties we "experienced" last year. Seriously, there was a lot of cheese!

The layout of the show was dictated by the venue, with a dividing wall blocking off most of the exhibitors from the theatre area, which in the previous venue was is a separate room. This worked pretty well, but there was the slight quibble that if you were sat at the back rows of the theatre seating, there was a bit of noise overspill from the show area. A minor issue and one that was fed back to the organisers. They have thoughts for a show next year which will see that disappear so, yeah, that was my only criticism of the show.  

Everything else was spot on, and credit to Richard, Andrew and everyone else involved in putting this show together at relatively short notice. It was well organised and seemed to have a buzz that made the whole day feel even better. As you may have noted from the above, there are plans for a show at the same venue next year, and probably around the same time of year. Richard explained their reasoning clearly in his theatre chat, and to be honest, the small window between the winter weather and the wedding season is perfectly suited for a northern RISC OS show. What I can say is that if there is a RISC OS North, I will happily make the journey. It's a worthy successor to the Wakefield shows of lore and long may there continue to be a northern event!

There was also, however, talk of the London show at the end of October, and whilst it would make for a lovely trip (as well as seeing the capital because apart from a trio of wargames shows at the Excel pre-Covid, I haven't been to the capital proper for some twenty seven years, and there's a lot of cool stuff to see - the priority, obviously, would be the RISC OS show). I'll look at the logistics to see if that's a go-er, but in the meantime, it's just good to know that the UK has two RISC OS shows well spaced both geographically and in the calendar, and if you can make it, there's always the RISC OS eXperience in The Netherlands in May.

RISC OS is still a fun and funky hobbyist OS for people to use, and as long as you are aware of its limitations, there's no reason not to give it a try if you want to. Maybe the Moonshots Initiative will pick up support to secure the future of the OS in a 64-bit world (The Register covered that as well), but regardless of that, there has never been a better time than the present to dive in. You'll find the majority of the movers and shakers in the RISC OS world listed on the RISCOS North show website here.