The Play Expo - Manchester thread

[QualityChimp]

I have tickets. I repeat, I have tickets!
Things are a bit crazy in Chimptown at the moment, so that's not a 100% guarantee I'll be there, but I want to!

I'm going on the Saturday as that's when Mr Biffo is there.
Last time, I really enjoyed playing all the old arcade cabs the most.
I also liked the pinball machines, but the best ones were constantly busy, so I might look at them first.

I also just enjoyed mooching around, looking at what was there and beating [MENTION=13193]nakamura[/MENTION] at Time Splitters.

[speedlolita]

Gosh I haven't played Timesplitters in years. Time to boot up the og Xbox methinks.

[QualityChimp]

This is TOMORROW! Woop woop!

There were lurkers last year (looks at SuperCrazyManTaxiFallsNext), so no hiding in between the Puck-Man and Xevious cabs this year.

Who's coming then?
[MENTION=1259]Katsujinken[/MENTION], [MENTION=3542]Team Andromeda[/MENTION], [MENTION=13863]speedlolita[/MENTION] and [MENTION=13193]nakamura[/MENTION]?

[nakamura]

On my way.

[speedlolita]

Heading up tomorrow morning!

[Team Andromeda]

This is TOMORROW! Woop woop!

There were lurkers last year (looks at SuperCrazyManTaxiFallsNext), so no hiding in between the Puck-Man and Xevious cabs this year.

Who's coming then?
[MENTION=1259]Katsujinken[/MENTION], [MENTION=3542]Team Andromeda[/MENTION], [MENTION=13863]speedlolita[/MENTION] and [MENTION=13193]nakamura[/MENTION]?

Me and the girlfriend will be calling up 2morrow

[Team Andromeda]

Bit gutted to say this, but work have phoned and the ward is short . So my Girlfriend got to go into work. So I'll not be able to make it at the moment sorry

[QualityChimp]

[nakamura]

Good little event. Didn't get to talk to people for as long as I would have liked sadly but saw Chimp, Noel Edwards, Katsu and Speedy from here! Speedy was a mess in the pub on Saturday night because he hadn't slept for over 30 hours!

[QualityChimp]

I messaged you to say I came looking for you to say "bye" as I was leaving, but you weren't on your stand. You were hardly there all weekend! Lazybones!

Some interesting stuff again. There's so much there, you can spend your whole time doing one thing and not see anything else.

I couldn't believe how popular the card game section was. Rows upon rows of people with ring-bound folders full of cards. *yawn*

The scary dedication of the Vs. Fighters table saw lots of people bringing along their own controllers! :SCARED:

I enjoyed Mr. Biffo's talk. He did the animations for the screens at Wembley for a while. He scanned his face, then walked onto the pitch to look at it!

Lots of pinball machines and slightly less arcade cabs this year with a bunch of them shorting out from the surge in power. No candy cabs this year either.

They also did less movie stuff. One Mad Max car and about four celebrity signings. Why bother?

Cosplay was popular again. Some real thought and effort goes into the costumes. Impressive.

Retro consoles were nicely themed into sections: wrestling; Tomb Raider; Turtles; Lego; James Bond and so on. Behind them was a selection of consoles to play.

I played some FMV games like Road Avenger and Dragon's lair. Very pretty but really dull gameplay!

I liked the boardgames section, but I wouldn't want to spend an hour or so playing a game when there's so much to see.

One of the quietest bits was a table of PS4s running Indie games. I get the point of Shovel Knight, but it's hardly pushing the console. Arguably I'd seen better graphics on much older consoles a few metres away!

Nice to see Katsu and Nakamura again and to meet Speedlolita. Glad your stands seemed busy.

I'm hoping to go again next year.

[Neon Ignition]

Interesting to hear how it went. This was the year I decided to skip as the news updates were pretty dull in its lead up and each year it's been a little less fun than the one before. Sounds like that continued in terms of what would interest me. Too much about the cosplayers and ni he fans and less about the games as it goes. Hopefully its continued success will eventuay attract something more games showesque up north in time.

[Arashikage]

Once again it proved more of a diversion than an amazing event. All the pop culture stuff seems to be of less and less quality, the Emperor's Throne and the Jurassic Park photoshoot opportunity just seemed to be ropey props plopped in front of a green curtain. It looked particularly shabby. No real presence from the current games industry apart from Sony with only Dark Souls 3 headlining.

The retro console section seemed to be smaller than previous years and, I kid you not, the best time I had on them was playing Pong with my mate on a Binatone. There were no interesting machines like the Marty and X68000 that we've enjoyed previously. The MSX section was nice though. As ever it was always nice to see the arcade and pinball stuff, I actually managed to try a few pinball tables this year as it wasn't as busy.

Highlight of the day? Finally managing to nab 1st place on Star Wars Trilogy Arcade. It eluded me last year but I got it this year. If anything it highlights the magic of the arcade scene, going for that high score and bettering yourself on a game. Plus it's always great to show off in front of a crowd

[QualityChimp]

Do you think a more focused approach would be better or the "bit of everything" style means they get more punters?

[Arashikage]

Well there is no doubt that the format works for the crowd that goes there, it's always busy.

It seems the true retro event is the show in Blackpool and this event is the one to attract a different kind of punter, it's like a mini Comic Con with retro gaming bolted onto the side. After going for 4 years I can see that it's changed alot in it's evolution, and from my perspective it's beginning to lack something every year. But that is only because it's drifting more from a gaming show into a multi faceted Comic Con type beast instead.

Don't get me wrong, I do like going. It's just that for a show of it's size I kind of expect something a little better. While the format works I think what comprises of the content needs revision.

[speedlolita]

I enjoyed myself.

The highlights for me were meeting people from here and Twitter, and seeing some lovely MSX computers in action.

It was a delight to see so many people enjoying video games in the venue though. I don't necessarily care about modern or indie stuff but that was definitely in force too, along with a few select booths of wanky YouTubers being knobs whilst sucking at games - but anyway. Spent most of my time bouncing between the Retro Collect and Dreamcast Junkyard tables. Should definitely book some time off work next time, quite a time squeeze with all the travel but I made it work.