Whenever I visit a convention or exhibition, much like many other vloggers, bloggers, sloggers
and doggers.... well, maybe not that last one. I like to try and convey some of that
experience. So today, I thought I'd offer up a different angle on that experience, my
favourite experience, the experience of a deserted convention.
This is Play Expo 2019 Manchester. But it's Play Expo 2019 Manchester at 10pm, when everyone
has gone home, apart from a few guests invited to the after party, and this really is the
highlight for me. I really love meeting everyone during the day and seeing what's going on,
but at night, at these after parties, that's when every single machine, table, seat and
table is available. When you can walk around and not only see everything with clarity,
but experience everything that was too busy earlier in the day until the night draws to
an end.
Let's take a wander. See what we can find.
This is the tournaments, LAN, Fortnite and Minecraft area, all the hard disks are parked
up for the night, ready for action again tomorrow, across the way is the streaming area. This
is where we did the Youtube panel earlier in the day. I'll put some footage of that
at the end of this video, rather than upsetting our quiet stroll. To the side of the stage
are an array of Playstation 4 pods, all on, and waiting for input. We've got various industry
stalls dotted around, although I'm sure Jim Baggley has stowed the Spectrum Next away
for the night, probably for the best.
Up past the indie areas and escape rooms we have the traders section. All the finery is
still here, and it's mighty tempting not to throw back these covers and stuff a load in
my bag, but I'm a good citizen, I won't do that. We've also got my own table here, where
I've been signing books at. All that remains are a couple of T-Shirts for now, mainly because
books are heavy and I can only carry limited numbers here at a time.
Right then, onto the arcade machines. Look at them glowing in the distance. Just like
the glimmering lights of warm seafront evening. Inviting, enticing, memorising.
There are many machines here, from any eras, let's take a walk around and have a better
look at them.
I could easily spend days here, machines like Zaxxon and Crazy taxi would take hours alone,
but we've also got machines like Sega's Mega Tech, which took actual Mega Drive cartridges.
There's no real ordering here, 70s, 80s and 90s machines are all lumped together to create
an area of magnificence. Look at that, Robocop, one of my all time favourites.
Just metres away we have another oval of machines, ranging from Pac-Man, Defender all the way
to a sit down Space Harrier, which still had a queue, even in the after party! and for
anyone who's play it, that's probably not surprising.
Alright, let's break away for a bit, and take a wander further down the arena. Maybe stop
off at the retro console section. All of these can be switched on, they all have power, but
the choice is overwhelming. We'll come back, after mulling it over.
At the back is the main stage. This is where the talks with Matthew Smith, creator of the
seminal Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy games gave a talk, and also where events like Knightmare
Live and The Dark Room take place.
Directly behind that is the pinball area. I always forget how enticing pinball machines
are, until you get up close and the fusion of lights, mechanical wonderment and digital
draw you in like a magpie to a silver banquet.
Like the arcade machines, there are multiple decades covered here, some their own bespoke
designs, others are created around movies or even video games. I could stare at these
lights all day long, but we've got a few more places to check out.
First, a quick look at the more modern retro machine area. Here we've got consoles like
the Gamecube, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, which still seem relatively modern, but to
a lot of those who attend, they're dated as hell.
Next, let's take a wander around the food court. It feels like we're in the Penal Colony
from Alien 3 or something, quiet, calm, apart from the main man here, Andy Brown, chatting
to Dan Wood from the Retro Hour podcast at the bar.
Let's pop back to the main arena, because we haven't looked at this grand structure
really. This is Manchester Central Convention Complex, and it's actually the former Manchester
Central railway station, originally opened in 1880, with over 400 trains per day operating
from it. It closed as a station in 1969, but re-opened as a concert and exhibition venue
in 1986, being what it remains today. It's the first year Play Expo has been here, but
I think it works really well in this setting. It's a step up from Blackpool's Norbrek, that's
for sure.
Anyway, let's have a final wander around some machines.
The Battlezone arcade machine has always fascinated me. Released in 1980 by Atari, this was one
of the very first FPS games, albeit in a tank. Pretty impressive for the time.
In the end, I went back to the consoles to play the Nintendo Color TV-Game Block Breaker.
A dedicated console released in Japan during 1979. This console sold about half a million
units, and is from a line of other machines which Nintendo released before the Famicom.
We've also got a Sharp X68000 and the glorious Atari Falcon next to a Super Cassette Vision
from 1984. Nice.
Well, I guess it's time to leave this party, but I did also catch a little bit of day time
action as well, so let's have a peek.
Now this was quite late in the day, but you can imagine how busy it was earlier on. I
did purchase the odd item from traders, mainly Master System games. I'll show you exactly
what at the end of the video. But I didn't actually get to wander around a lot during
the day as I was busy talking to people, doing the Youtube thing, and stuffing my face with
food from the green room, but all in all 100% successful trip.
There's just enough time to show you the best part of the Youtube panel courtesy of Retrounlim....
ahhhh, poor DJ Slope. It's ok though, he's not dead. I'll pop a link below if you want
to see the whole thing.
And here's what I picked up on my travels. So.... Dark Side for the Amstrad CPC, Dungeon
Master on the Atari ST, Rack'Em for the C64 - a snooker game I didn't feature in my recent
video, Cool Spot on the Master System, a panel of a Packard Bell PC, courtesy of Chris from
GamesYouLoved, Rocky, Echo the Dolphin and Robocop vs. Terminator, Shadow Dancer and
Road Rash for the Master System. A nice stack of blank cassettes, a box of floppy disks,
David Pleasance's signed book, FEARS for the Amiga and a couple of Mortal Kombat Tee Shirts,
from Numskull Designs. The total cost of which was... I can't actually remember, let's call
is about £100. This isn't a Thrifts episode after all.
Big thanks to everyone who picked up a copy of my book whilst there. Really excellent
to meet everyone and if you didn't attend, well there's always next time, thanks for
watching, have a great evening.