Event: Play Expo Manchester 2016

Play Expo Manchester is one of the largest events in the UK gaming calendar, and once again The Dreamcast Junkyard will be in attendance. Last year's event was absolutely brilliant, and the Junkyard team got to speak to hundreds of gamers, cosplayers and subscribers to the church of geek over the course of the two-day bash. You can read the show report and see some photos here, but you're probably more interested to know what we'll have in store this year should you be lucky enough to be attending the show.
Nerds, as far as the eye can see...and it's glorious!
Play Expo, first and foremost is about the games. The various events held around the UK by organiser Replay Events are a celebration of games both new and old and this is reflected by the sheer number of freeplay arcade cabinets, pinball tables, boardgames, and consoles and computers from all eras and generations. On top of this, there are talks from industry figures, cosplay parades and competitions, and movie memorabilia displays. Oh, and there are usually hundreds of traders selling all kinds of gaming paraphernalia. It really is a fantastic carnival celebrating everything great about gaming, and this year The Dreamcast Junkyard will be located in the Community Zone, along with a range of Dreamcast consoles, peripherals and games for the general public to experience. You can find out more about the Community Zone by visiting the official Play Expo website, but we'll be there rubbing shoulders with the likes of RetroCollect, GamesYouLoved and Bordersdown.


Current gen gaming is also a big part of Play Expo
We're planning our biggest showing yet at a live event, and will have at least seven Dreamcasts of all different colours and flavours on the stand. Alongside these, we'll have the trusty light guns, arcade sticks, the twin sticks, steering wheels, fishing rods and of course Scott's Rez Dream Trance contraption! We're also hoping to be able to allow event goers the opportunity to play some brand new Dreamcast indie titles...although we can't say which just yet! Naturally, these will be accompanied by the usual favourites so expect to see Virtua Tennis, Soul Calibur, Crazy Taxi, Sega Rally, a myriad of 2D fighters, shmups galore...and whatever else we can think of to entertain the masses (including Rob doing the lambada wearing nothing but a VMU over his unmentionables).
The DCJY area at Play Expo 2015
The DCJY Team
LAN parties are pretty huge at Play Expo
A shot of a talk with Mr Biffo of Digitiser fame
Play Expo Manchester is spread across the weekend of the 8th - 9th October and is being held at the Event City exhibition centre a stone's throw from the Trafford Centre shopping centre in Trafford, Manchester. Full details on ticket prices, opening times and other attractions can be found at the Play Expo website, and we hope to see some of you there!

3 comments:

CD ageS said...

Wow! This Expo looks to be amazing, even moreso with what sounds like a strong Dreamcast presence once again thanks to you guys.
Interesting you should mention, I wanted to have a setup specifically for running indie titles at the Anniversary event as well here in the states.
Unfortunately we were running out of room and equipment. With 16 setups fully operational, I was running out of CRTs/monitors and Controllers for even one more setup :(
Please take plenty of pictures and if at all possible some video.
Best of luck!

CD ageS said...
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a16cpu said...

Great event. Hopefully I can get there again this year and say hello.