My time at Manchester Play Expo 2017
A quite glorious weekend.
It's Monday, so as usual it's video time! However, today's is something a little different -- I have a vlog for you this time around which is all about my experience at the Manchester Play Expo, which took place on the 14th and 15th October in sunny Manchester, right up in the North West of England. It was a fantastic weekend, and if you want to see all the action then you can do so here:
After a quite hectic time actually getting to the venue on the Saturday, there was a hell of a lot on show -- if you liked old CRT's, then you'd certainly come to the right place as there were at least a couple of hundred of them, all with some fine games to play. There was a big corner filled with pinball tables, a big arcade section, some PC classics, as well as a lot of modern stuff on show -- you'll have already seen Hyper Sentinel and Tempest 4000, both of which I covered last week, but there was also the likes of new Mega Drive game Tanglewood, the Streets of Rage-esque Raging Justice, and of course Sociable Soccer -- which I will be reviewing in Early Access later on this week. There were also several great talks given by members of Psygnosis and the GoldenEye development team, Jon Hare showcasing the aforementioned Sociable Soccer, and a fantastic panel of Spectrum legends for the "Memoirs of a Spectrum Addict" Q&A, a new film directed by Andy Remic. All panels were hosted by Dan and Ravi of The Retro Hour -- a cracking pair of lads.
As fun as it was to play old games on CRT's again, or to hit up some pinball and so on, the best thing about the event was the community on display. Everything went off without a hitch, and the whole atmosphere was so friendly -- I met so many great people at the event, from fans of myself to my fellow colleagues, and everyone was utterly lovely. Consoles certainly had the advantage over computers, but the Retro Computer Museum had a great showing with a Commodore PET, vintage Speccys and more covertapes than I'd ever imagined. There were also some fantastic oddities like the Virtuality machine, and the Sega Activator. And of course, a lot of great cosplay and traders to boot.
On the whole...it was amazing -- my first Expo couldn't have gone any better, and it couldn't have been hosted in a better city to boot. Manchester is a place I love, and for the event to be hosted here is just another thing that's great for the city. The Play Expo now moves on to Blackpool in February -- and while it'll undoubtedly be quite freezing up there at this time of year, I can't wait to do it all again. Hopefully you enjoy the video and get a feel for how fantastic this event was!
