I was 10 feet away from John Romero, and you probably weren’t (although there’s a fair chance you were closer…)
I live – by road – between 130 and 163 miles from the Norbreck Hotel in Fleetwood, Blackpool, the venue for this weekend’s PLAY Expo event.
An early start should have got me there by 10, giving me 5 hours before heading home to pick up my children from a dance class. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas, with a wall of rain across the M62 near Huddersfield adding an hour to the journey. The threat of similar slowing conditions for the journey home lead me to depart the event earlier than planned — but happily I was able to see quite a bit.
Further disappointment out of the way first, though: I missed the session with Tony Warriner and Charles Cecil as I couldn’t find the right room!
So, what did I see?
Highlights of PLAY Expo Blackpool
Quick brag out of the way: I was stood *this far* from John Romero. Unfortunately, as he was on a meet & greet, I couldn’t speak to him as many people were queueing. But still!
Walking into the main room of the event is insane. Divided into coin ops (no coin required!) and classic computers, there is also a serious bank of LAN action, where the games of choice appeared to be DOOM and Counter Strike. I was more interested in rare and unusual hardware, though, like the Philips Videopac G7000 (running Monkeyshines), and the Commodore CDTV…
I spent quite a bit of time on that particular machine (an Amiga 500 in CD player, like a Hi-Fi separate, if you didn’t know), having never seen one in action before. Sadly, I was a little disappointed with it insofar as playing Xenon 2: Megablast went. The only controller available was the CDTV’s remote/game controller combo, which while impressed, wasn’t up to the job of controlling a game.
I also saw the Vectrex Mini in action:
There was quite the queue to see that, and this is as close as I could get, despite several attempts — it’s definitely created a buzz!
I spent some time chatting with some indie developers too, and learned about a ton of interesting games which I’ll be highlighting on the website during the next few days. Among them was inventory management game Overencumbered In Another World, which is worth checking out on Steam now. I also discovered PlanckMan, Grave Space, Wrongly Accused, 8 Bit Space 2, and learned about CAFFE, a project teaching computer skills in Bangladesh, which is planning on developing a retro-style video game. More on all of these projects soon.
Elsewhere, I explored the pinball games, and far too late found the room where the talks were taking place. But before I left, I spent some time in the trade room, where everything from Amiga games to arcade machine marquees could be found, as well as a huge selection of classic computer magazines.
Speaking of which, I was able to speak with Amiga Addict editor Ian Griffiths about something I hope to be writing for them soon. So that was good!
All-in-all, despite the early finish and enforced stop at Tebay Services (every motorway services should be like that), I think I managed to accomplish quite a bit.
I’m really looking forward to sharing the retro-style indie games with you over the next few days, as I think they’re all worth your time.
Would I go again?
Yes. Although, I’d make a weekend of it, book a hotel, and really enjoy everything that the event has to offer. Also: paracetamol — the main room is *really* noisy. Incidentally, if you have sensory issues, the light and noise of the main room really requires preparation, or you might prefer to avoid it completely.
I was relieved I couldn’t ultimately take my son for this reason. But that aside, this event is MEGA. Can’t wait to go again!
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Christian Cawley is a writer and editor who covers consumer electronics, IT, and entertainment media. He has written for publications such as Computer Weekly, Linux Format, MakeUseOf.com, and Tech Radar.
He also produces podcasts, has a cigar box guitar, and of course, loves retro gaming.