If you've never attended an expo like this before, you can expect to enjoy a whole load of retro gaming goodness all crammed into one place. You've got retro game sellers (some independent, some bigger resellers), cosplay areas, retro game machines to play, new indie releases being demonstrated, and some really great talks and panels from different industry people.
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| Bristol Video Games Expo in full flow. |
The Bristol show didn't disappoint. There was far too much goodness amongst the various tables in the hall for me to mention everything, but outside of the many traders, it was great to see John Riggs from Rigg'd Games there with Dreamcast copies of the excellent Chew Chew Mimic up for grabs. Debug were also in attendance, with a bounty of magazines and Dreamcast indie titles for sale. There was a great selection of brand new indie games from different systems being shown off, with Crisis Island —a twin-stick shooter that takes inspiration from Time Crisis— being my personal "best indie game of the show" winner.
One of my particular highlights of the entire event was seeing Duncan Gutteridge —the original artist of Sonic the Hedgehog— onsite to not only sell some brilliant signed Sonic artwork prints, but also give a live talk about how he got into the industry and ended up working for Sega; all whilst live illustrating Sonic on stage. Fantastic.
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| Duncan Gutteridge, the original Sonic artist, during his live illustration. |
As well as Duncan, the VGE team had lined up talks on the main stage from the likes of James Hannigan (BAFTA award winning game composer who worked on the likes of Runescape, Harry Potter, and Command and Conquer), Frank Gasking (author of the Games That Weren't book) and The Oliver Twins, who need no introduction! An eclectic mix of gaming personalities, all offering some great insight into the industry.
As for me, I picked up a few things; some retro reading material from The Gaming Newsagent, a few racing games on various consoles that I didn't already own, and two Dreamcast games for the collection; a PAL copy of Incoming and the Japanese version of Sega GT.
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| My personal pickup haul from Bristol VGE. |
As an aside, I'm constantly amazed at how well the Japanese seem to look after their games. Most I've picked up are always in incredible condition and when I popped open Sega GT, I was very happy to find some really cool stickers amongst the many original inserts as well!
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| Free car stickers with Sega GT! |
All in all, I had a great day at Bristol VGE and I'm looking forward to the next one. VGE have events planned in Norfolk and Nottingham in the coming months, and it's worth checking out their website as they often add new events as the year rolls on.
If you're a retro gaming fan and you've yet to experience an expo like this, I'd wholeheartedly recommend attending one. Entry tickets are around the cost of a couple of cups of coffee, and you'll have a blast playing some games, adding a few trinkets to your collection and, perhaps the best thing: meeting a whole load of likeminded people.
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| Marc, The Gaming Newsagent, with a selection of magazines and books. |
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| The Oliver Twins take centre stage. |
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| Indie developers showing off their latest releases to the public. |
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