Classic Gaming Expo UK 2005

[squirmelia]

Step right into it- a room of retro cuboids with tiny power lights glistening. Faded logos haunt the cardboard packaging, amongst a jumble of dusty plastic crammed onto shelves. Graphics twisting in vectors, swirling, ancient. Cassette tapes clutter almost everywhere. The crazy feeling of loyalty to the ghost of a company, t-shirts gathering, logo text crackling. Eyes flicker, then fixate on the dazzling bolts of pixels. "I used to have one of those", they all say, excited, sating their nostalgia. Arcade machines glowering, whirring, squeezing out a few primary colours. Players gaining high scores, on games they never play anymore. Lights dim, crowded hall merges into darkness, as the Knight Rider theme tune is strum above.

Comments

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

Strum - the past tense of "strim"? I like it.

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Strim strim striminy.

[mikej-uk.livejournal.com]

Strim strim steroo

[cerebros-vivos.livejournal.com]

I know the worship of old machines is really very sad, and most definitely misplaced because of the over glamourisation of my hazey memory.

However, my first computer did seem to be a mysterious alien device, and because of this cool. I still remember the first time I got a program to "load" on my Commodore 64 (an Xmas present), it felt like such an achievement. I felt like I had bonded with a creature though a new foreign tongue I had learned.

Once I met a member a Zapp64 journalist. I genuinelly felt like I had met a
true a-list celebrity.

I remember when magazine's printed code? Not just hardcore publications either, even comics where getting in on the action - 2000AD used to include small programs for it's readers to try out on their home computers. It seems I wasn't the only one getting the computer bug (no pun intended), the world was hooked!

Maybe we take home computers for granted nowadays? Maybe we don't care enough about them and therefore fewer happier memories develop? Maybe retro worship is merely an acknowledgement how these fantastic machines could, and have, changed our lives?

Or prehaps just a meeting of a select obsessive few, who may or may not be overweight and may or may not have hygiene issues.

Who knows? One thing is certain though, light guns always have been shit.

PS Rob Hubbard rules.

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

The major celebrities that I wanted to meet (Matthew Smith - Manic Miner, and Jeff Minter - Llamatron) didn't turn up, but Archer MacLean was there. Unfortunately, I had been misled in my childhood to believe he was simply a pool champion.

I overheard people at the bar talking about magazines printing code listings, so it was obviously a popular topic.

The "select obsessive few, who may or may not be overweight and may or may not have hygiene issues" seemed rather attractive to me, but then maybe there is something about a CDTV t-shirt that could make anyone look cool?

Light guns, ergh.

You'll be glad to know that Rob Hubbard is composing the music for the mobile version of Pinball Dreaming (http://www.cgeuk.com/forum/index.php?s=6c9dafd651459f7f56f32d7adcd204fe&showtopic=244&pid=695&st=0&#entry695).

[cerebros-vivos.livejournal.com]

I read a lot about Jeff Minter when I was younger, he appeared a lot in magazines. I have to admit he is kind of cool in a not cool kind of way, if that makes sense.

I confess I hadn't a clue who MacLean was, so I just researched him. He did IK+, respect!

Thanks for the Rob Hubbard link. He is apparently originally from the Hull area, and I think I read that he moved back around these parts after leaving EA. I don't think I would recognise him if I saw him though.

so there is where Tron when to die

[bickichick.livejournal.com]

woee some of that is hauntingly familiar

a comedore w00t!
and a Pepsi cup.. huzzah.
here was my 1st cmputer: http://www.kjsl.com/trs80/ or http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=409
and from the website you introduced me to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80

feel free to do your own search for radio shack 'trs 80'

speaking of computers gotta get back at Access- then I am done done done!!

Re: so there is where Tron when to die

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Tron is still alive (or at least was still at the show!)

Re: so there is where Tron when to die

[grey-area.livejournal.com]

The lightcycle game is also still alive and kicking. Called Armagetron and still totally free, I think this (http://armagetron.sourceforge.net/) is the official website.

And the only thing missing from your picture is an Amiga 500. =)

Re: so there is where Tron when to die

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Do people play real life Tron, like they do real life PacMan?

I think I have another picture somewhere with an Amiga 500 in it. :)

Re: so there is where Tron when to die

[grey-area.livejournal.com]

That's that wearable computer project they're running in Singapore you're referencing, isn't it? I'm sure one could adapt that to use motorcycles and walls of light. It would be so very very cool to play...although the other traffic participants would perhaps not agree. OK, so one plays it at 3am. The occasional cab you'd run into could be classed as a Recogniser or something similar. =)

Re: so there is where Tron when to die

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Best to play real life Llamatron and dress up as a llama just to confuse the taxi drivers further.

Re: so there is where Tron when to die

[grey-area.livejournal.com]

Or combine the two and wear llama costumes while riding motorcycles to really sow chaos and confusion.

Re: so there is where Tron when to die

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Totally!

[potguns.livejournal.com]

oh man... I wish I had gone, I could have wrote something up for my next article.

I'm off to play Joust on the 2600 then.