I had the great opportunity this year to take part in the first annual North East Retro Gaming [NERG] convention in June (Saturday June 29th and Sunday June 30th). I am only new to really taking part in the convention circuit here in the UK and was cautious to throw myself into a none art or comic related convention, but as a girl who has grown up on games and often spent my weekends hanging about in arcades trying to best my older brother (and succeeding on more than one occasion I might add), gaming has been a pretty big part of my life and influenced my hobbies and even my art over the years so even I was there 100% as a gamer and I wasn’t going to miss the chance at once again playing on the arcade machines, consoles and gear of my youth.
It was quite a surreal experience and I joked at one point over the weekend about it to my older brother who attended as a guest (and table helper). I was sitting eating a happy meal, a slushie drink and 20p mix-up at hand, the distinct smell of smokey old arcade cabinets and the music and sounds of all the machines blending into an old familiar hum… I honestly felt like a kid again and it really did make me smile. This little experience alone made the weekend a wonder for me and I think I am not the only old gamer who experienced it. It is an even bigger delight to feel this way myself and then to see kids with their fathers and mothers experiencing all of this anew and with massive smiles on their faces. This unfamiliar world, a gathering of machines and players, high on the power-ups and the free plays… I do love modern gaming and the developments made over the years but the days of meeting friends at the arcade to play the machines and attempt to crack some unknown nemesis only known to you as some 3 letter highscore villain have long sinced passed. NERG brought that all back and I will be smiling for a long time yet for having gotten to relive that feeling again.
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| NORTH EAST RETRO GAMING 2013 |
Traders were given the opportunity to arrive and set-up on the Friday afternoon before the convention and I am so glad I took up the offer as I got to see the whole place come together and see all the machines roll in one by one and the room to become a real thing of beauty.
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| THE MACHINES BEING SET UP. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY... OK, LOTS OF WORK BUT LOTS OF PLAY TOO! |
My attention jumped straight to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cabinet which I had spent far too much of my pocket money on as a child busting through the levels with my older brother everytime we visited the arcade. When I finished setting up my table and had a chance to look amongst the machines I was stunned at how many I recognised, had played and how many I hadn’t – don’t worry, I soon made sure I had a go on everything I could get my grubby mits on! Guests when they arrived on the Saturday were greeted with over 50 arcade machines and more than 50 pinball machines as well as old gaming consoles and computers, all free to play after the admission fee. When you consider some of these games would run on a couple or pounds a credit the value for money was unbelievable!
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| TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES - I ONLY EVER MANAGED TO DEFEAT THIS ONCE AS A KID WITH MY BROTHER, GETTING ANOTHER GO AT IT WAS GREAT! I FORGOT HOW HARD THEY USED TO MAKE THESE GAMES THOUGH... |
I went through a pretty serious pinball obsession in my
mid-teens and they were always my main target in the arcade on a weekend, so
seeing the machines all lined up and ready to go was glorious! A few I knew I had declared numerous
vengeances upon as I had lost my last ball in a fit rage over a long lost
weekend. There were also a lot of
machines I hadn’t had the chance to play before and NERG was hosting an
exclusive ‘first-time’ appearance of The Matrix pinball machine which was a
thing of beauty in itself.
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| SO MANY MACHINES READY AND WAITING TO BE PLAYED - THIS WASN'T EVEN HALF OF THE PINBALL MACHINES THERE EITHER... |
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| THE MATRIX PINBALL (via North East Retro Gaming) |
The weekend also boasted official merchandise, cosplay,
raffles and a whole host of traders – retro gaming dealers with stacks of
classic consoles, games and accessories, to modern merchandise dealers, apparel,
retro sweets and jewellery. I was
pleased to see my friend Charles Bazaar was in attendance with her goodies as she has quickly become one of my favourite traders to pester because she is so damn awesome! I had lots of awesome customers over the weekend and met some awesome people, it was a really great weekend. I worked on a bunch of new cards and prints especially for the weekend including retro characters and games like Link, Megaman, Princess Peach, Metroid and Day of the Tentacles (a personal favourite).
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| MY TABLE AS OF THE FINAL DAY - I WAS TRYING LOTS OF NEW IDEAS AND LAYOUTS FOR DISPLAYS OVER THE WEEKEND AND HAD A BIT OF FUN WITH SOME OF THE 8-BIT PIXEL CARDS AND CRAFTS I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON. |
It was quite a surreal experience and I joked at one point over the weekend about it to my older brother who attended as a guest (and table helper). I was sitting eating a happy meal, a slushie drink and 20p mix-up at hand, the distinct smell of smokey old arcade cabinets and the music and sounds of all the machines blending into an old familiar hum… I honestly felt like a kid again and it really did make me smile. This little experience alone made the weekend a wonder for me and I think I am not the only old gamer who experienced it. It is an even bigger delight to feel this way myself and then to see kids with their fathers and mothers experiencing all of this anew and with massive smiles on their faces. This unfamiliar world, a gathering of machines and players, high on the power-ups and the free plays… I do love modern gaming and the developments made over the years but the days of meeting friends at the arcade to play the machines and attempt to crack some unknown nemesis only known to you as some 3 letter highscore villain have long sinced passed. NERG brought that all back and I will be smiling for a long time yet for having gotten to relive that feeling again.
The event was a huge success and I can’t thank the team from
NERG enough for putting the event together.
The guys and gals who made this happen along with all the machines
owners who put in a hell of a lot of work to make the weekend happen and they
did a fantastic job. They announced in
the last few days NERG will be returning again for 2014 with even more machines
and fun plan, I am going to be there without question and I hope any other
gamers in the UK (and beyond) make the trip because it is a great convention.
You can stay up to date with North East Retro Gaming via Facebook for all the news for the convention in 2014.
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