Show Report: Nottingham Video Games Expo 2026

Back in 2022, The Dreamcast Junkyard travelled to the fair city of Nottingham to take part in Nottingham Video Games Expo '22. Nary four years later we were back to our old shenanigans, once again gracing Robin Hood's stomping ground with our collective odious presence. That's because on Saturday 18th July 2026, NottsVGE returned with gusto, in a plush new city centre venue to welcome hoards of rabid enjoyers of electronic games to the hallowed event space hidden within the bowels of the (actually pretty nice) Crowne Plaza hotel.

Armed with a plethora of slightly dodgy display screens (some of which were salvaged from charity shops), and an overflowing Lidl carrier bag of Dreamcast consoles, we trudged through the back alleys of Nottinghamshire to set up our encampment in a small corner of the event space. The scene was set, the hangovers were negligible and the monitor connection issues were overcome by the crack team of weary Dreamcast apologists which staff this very blog. Eventually, the doors were flung open at 10:00 and we greeted our expectant audience.

Early drama during the setting up process, as Lewis and Brian discuss whether Jaz should be allowed to run another Spirit of Speed 1937 competition.

Multi-player Mario Kart 64 running on a Dreamcast seemed to go down well. 

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 was a particular crowd favourite while I played Suzuki Alstare. Um.

To be fair, there were probably far too many of us manning the 12 foot table as myself (Tom), Lewis, Andrew, Lozz, Brian, Kev, Jaz and Harvey (aka Pizza Hotline and composer of our podcast's epic outro tune) were on hand to bellow uncontrollably at anyone who dared come near our stand. But by the grace of Zeus we were there to spread the Gospel of Dreamcast™ to all who would heed our words...and I don't believe anyone was left disappointed.

The event was very popular with those seeking gaming goodies.

One of the talks, this one being an interview with Ocean Software's Gary Bracey.

Sega Bass Fishing was popular with everyone. Because it is class.

Throughout the day we welcomed all and sundry to experience the delights of Under Defeat and Radirgy in proper TATE mode; unreleased Atomiswave gems such as Kenju, Maximum Speed and Faster than Speed; CRT-enabled joy in the form of House of the Dead 2 with light guns; slightly unhinged prancing with Samba De Amigo and maracas; and a whole host of competitions with titles such as Crazy Taxi, Sega Bass Fishing, Power Stone 2, ChuChu Rocket!, and Virtua Tennis 2. 

There was an online-enabled Dreamcast showing off Phantasy Star Online, Quake III: Arena and web browsing functionality through the unbridled power of DreamPi; and we also managed to showcase some of the work of the Dreamcast community, with the excellent ports of GTA III, Mario Kart 64 and Super Monkey Ball all going down a storm.

As you can probably appreciate, many a conversation about the awesomness of Dreamcast was had and many a round of Soulcalibur was lost and won. We even managed to rope gaming royalty like Wil 'Super Play and N64 Magazine' Overton into a doubles tournament on the aforementioned Virtua Tennis 2/Tennis 2K2.

Several generations of Dreamcast enjoyers in one shot.

That is one sexy modded Dreamcast system, I think you'll agree.
Ignore the yellowed controller on the right. Cheers.

Wil Overton is actually pretty good at Virtua Tennis. Who knew?!

Away from The Dreamcast Junkyard's set up, there were numerous traders hawking their glittering warez. YouTuber TootyUK and the ever-present Sore Thumbs Retro Games were selling hardware and software; our good friend Marc Jowett (aka The Gaming Newsagent) had a massive assortment of games magazines and books on sale - I even grabbed a copy of Chris Scullion's excellent Dreamcast Encylopedia for an unbeatable price.

Elsewhere, the Derby Computer Museum had a whole array of classic consoles and computer hardware on display which were fully playable; Arcade Club had a range of classic arcade cabs availiable set to free play mode; Debug and Secret Mode had a pretty massive area showing off a range of brand new indie games (I was quite partial to SUPER 56 from Onion Soup Interactive - think WarioWare, but even more unhinged); and the UK Amstrad Group had an entire room filled with Amstrad games, hardware and slightly musty nostalgia.

I grew up with an Amstrad. Not this one. I had a proper
CPC 464+ though, not a CPC464+ monitor connected to a povo CPC 464. Cough.

Roland Perry (right, obvs) is royalty in the Amstrad scene.

Obligatory Atari Jaguar mention. This one was £300, 
but can you really put a price on being able to play Club Drive on native hardware?

The UK Amstrad Group's area was of particular interest to me, as my very first gaming device was an Amstrad CPC 464+, so speaking to people who are as passionate about the Amstrad platform as I am about the Dreamcast was very, very cool. I even got to meet Roland Perry, the visionary architect behind the whole Amstrad CPC range. Not sure he was too thrilled when I said I wasn't a fan of his eponymous Roland series...but I digress/cringe.

Look at it! It's pure art. The thing in the middle, I mean.

Is this basically Inception?

Back at The Dreamcast Junkyard's area, we welcomed one of the OG members of the editorial team, Aaron 'The Gagaman' Foster, where he was presented with one of the amazing objets d'art created by VGNYsoft - an acrylic sign of his own artwork, a visual representation of the beginnings of this very blog. By all accounts he was very humbled, but that was short-lived as he was press ganged into a session of Samba de Amigo. On the topic of VGNY though, we also had on display some of the very special, very limited edition Dreamcast Junkyard 20th Anniversary Dreamcast console shells...and they looked (look) absolutely superb, even if I say so myself.

Old favourites like Crazy Taxi still command so much attention.
Note the DCJY console shell on the left, courtesy of VGNY.

ChuChu Rocket! 4-player went down a storm.
We won't talk about the fights that ensued after a Cat Attack.

Soulcalibur on a crisp CRT won't ever not draw a crowd.
The Pokemon toys weren't ours, btw.

I think it's safe to say that NottsVGE 2026 was the biggest and best yet, and full respect goes to Alex (aka The Sega Guru) and his team for putting on yet another stellar event. Personally, my thanks go to the DCJY team for their outstanding efforts throughout the day, and also to the people who came to speak to us, share their love for the Dreamcast and play some quality games. 

Never, ever accept a donut (or a cupcake) from this man.

Had to keep a tight watch on Jaz, lest he sneak off and subject
the entire event to more janky racing games.

Another highlight was that Jaz didn't get to re-run his disgusting Spirit of Speed 1937 competition on a giant screen (see the 2022 event for that blasphemous display of hubris); meanwhile Kev forgot to bring his customary petrol station cupcakes to hand out to unsuspecting event goers. He did go to Wendy's and buy some tiny donuts (most of which he consumed himself while grunting feverishly under a table), but to be honest I think the less said about that, the better.

From left to right: Pizza Hotline, Lozz, Kev, Jaz, Andrew, Brian, Tom, Lewis and Aaron

So there we have it. NottsVGE 2026 was a resounding success, and no doubt we'll be there again in years to come. See you there!

Were you at Nottingham Video Games Expo 2026? Did you encounter any of the reprobates in the image above? Are you mentally scarred? Let us know in the comments!

Show Report: Nottingham Video Games Expo 2022

The weekend of 17 & 18 December 2022 saw the inaugural Nottingham Video Games Expo take place in...er...Nottingham. The city of Nottingham, England for the uninitiated, is the ancestral home of such luminaries as fictional horse jacker Robin Hood, painfully unfunny comedian Jon Richardson, professional face puncher Carl Froch, and Manchester United legend Andy Cole. It now also has its own gaming festival in the form of NottsVGE.

Naturally, The Dreamcast Junkyard took the opportunity to represent at this brand spanking new event, and it was a pleasure to be able to meet fellow Dreamcast enthusiasts, exhibitors and event visitors to spread the gospel of the Dreamcast to all who would listen.

Punters puntering

Several members of the editorial and podcast crew from the 'Yard manned our small but perfectly formed area, with Tom, Jaz, Andrew, Lewis, Kev and Lozz all taking turns to stand around and bore anyone who happened to wander near on the intricacies of the Dreamcast's genetic makeup or the splendour of the system's library and range of peripherals. Poor souls. The public, I mean.

Lozz, Lewis, Jaz, Andrew, Tom and Kev

It wasn't all fun and games though (or was it?), as we had a rather special competition to run. As alluded to in a recent post, our friends at Bitmap Bureau supplied us with several copies of the excellent Xeno Crisis to give away to those who were hardy enough to register a high score on the superlative Smash TV 'em up using the Dreamcast Twin Stick controller. 

Around 30 people took to the hotseat to test their mettle, including both Dan and Nick of WAVE Game Studios, and Dean Mortlock of SEGA Powered. Alas, the ultimate winner turned out to be none other than Aaron 'The Gagaman' Foster, a man who assisted in the early days of both the DCJY blog and DreamPod. It wasn't a fix, honest.

Elsewhere, anyone who visited our little section of the expo floor was able to sample some lightgun action with Houe of the Dead 2 and Confidential Mission, or the traditional delights of Sega Rally 2, Power Stone, Virtua Tennis, Cosmic Smash, Crazy Taxi, Yu Suzki's Gameworks and a range of other titles when they were available/the Dreamcasts were behaving and not throwing up random issues such as controller ports not working or AV ports refusing to play ball with the screens.

NottsVGE was a much more intimate event than previous excursions (Play Expo Blackpool 2018 was probably our largest, with around 15 Dreamcasts available for people to play), but what was especially nice was the abilty for all of us from The Dreamcast Junkyard team to actually hear and engage with visitors, and have some audible conversations (other events tend to be quite loud due to the size of them). 

It was also quite fascinating on a personal level to see how the younger visitors approached the Dreamcast and the peripherals on offer, many of them having never seen the console before. The impressions were overwhelmingly positive, showing that the SEGA brand can still bring a smile to the faces of kids who aren't as au fait with the brand's hardware as us old farts are.

The next generation of Dreamcast gamers.

Paul, Marc and Dean from SEGA Powered.

NottsVGE offered a range of sellers who were hawking their gaming wares, along with a couple of teams you'll no doubt be familiar with if you're in any way interested in the Dreamcast. First up, and as mentioned, WAVE Game Studios were in attendance selling and demonstrating a range of titles from their impressive stable, with Intrepid Izzy, Alice Dreams Tournament, Rush Rush Rally Reloaded, Shadow Gangs and Postal all popular. 

Dean was forced at gunpoint to autograph a copy of SEGA Power.

Our friends from both SegaMags and SEGA Powered were also at NottsVGE and it was really nice to be able to meet the legendary journo/editor Dean Mortlock in the flesh for the first time. Matt and James from Shenmue Dojo were also in attendance, as were Get Well Gamers, YouTuber TootyUK, and community magazines Evercade Evolution and Amiga Addict.

Tom and Lewis with Dan and Nick from WAVE Game Studios.

On the main stage, the team from The Retro Hour interviewed a trio of guests from the golden era of Rare's time as Nintendo's third party development darling; while later a Q&A session was hosted by Paul Drury from Retro Gamer Magazine. 

The Retro Hour introduced guests from Rare.

Tom with Skilljim and Matt from Shenmue Dojo.

A rather popular Mario Kart 8 tournament was facilitated by Nottingham Nintendo, but the real coup de grâce was a battle royale between WAVE Game Studios and The Dreamcast Junkyard. In a true test of guile and skill over the course of two games of three rounds (Power Stone 2 and Virtua Tennis), these two behemoths went toe to toe...only for WAVE to trounce us 2-0. Naturally, the blame was levelled at Lewis' cack-handed Power Stone 2 skills and Tom's controller port only working intermittently. Um.

At least someone was having fun...

Liberties were taken to be honest.

The final insult of the event came when James 'Jaz' Harvey unironically subjected several hundred paying event-goers to a disgusting display of hubris, with gameplay from Spirit of Speed 1937 being displayed on a giant projector screen. If NottsVGE don't invite us back again, I'm confident this act of wanton terrorism will be cited. Oh, and there was Kev wandering around offering people cupcakes of questionable origin.

Would you take a free cupcake from this man?

Congratulations and thanks to both James (ItsMuchMore) and Alex (gamesreup) for inviting us to be a part of their successful debut event. It all ran smoothly and they should both be immensley proud for putting on such a great expo and generally just being top blokes. 

Overall though, it was just really nice to meet people and talk face to face with fellow gamers who either have a passion for the Dreamcast; or who had never even seen one before. Here's to the next Nottingham Video Games Expo, whenever that may be.

Come and see us at Nottingham Video Games Expo and win cool Xeno Crisis swag!

It's been almost four years since The Dreamcast Junkyard last attended a live gaming event, and that is definitely four years too many. It was back in 2018 that we attended Play Expo Blackpool and hung out with those lovely chaps Adam Koralik and Dan 'DJ Slope' Ibbertson; and to be honest it seems like a lifetime ago. This is set to be rectified in December 2022 when The Dreamcast Junkyard attends Nottingham Video Games Expo in...erm...Nottingham, UK.

Adam was impressed with Kev's home made T-shirt.

Taking place over the weekend of 17th & 18th December (which is also the weekend of the 2022 World Cup final, footy fans) at the Richard Herrod Centre, NottsVGE is a fairly intimate event but one which is bristling with the cream of the UK gaming scene. Amongst the confirmed attendees are WAVE Game Studios, SEGA Powered, gamesreup_, It's Much More, SEGA Mags, Rare, and The Retro Hour and many others too; alongside a whole host of special guests and traders selling gaming gear. There's also a bar. Important detail, that.

Tried to make this lot look as sexy as possible.

Alas, this thing was a lost cause.

As mentioned, several of the Junkyard's podcast and editorial crew will be there manning our dedicated stand (where you can play some Dreamcast games or just generally loiter and chat if you so wish), and we've teamed up with those lovely folks at Bitmap Bureau to run a pretty cool little competition. 

The rules are simple: play a game of the excellent Xeno Crisis and record your highest possible score using the Dreamcast Twin Stick controller. If you place among the top scorers on the day, you'll bag an awesome prize! We have Xeno Crisis T-shirts and 6 copies of the game to give away on several formats (Mega Drive, Dreamcast and Neo-Geo CD), as well as a copy of the Xeno Crisis OST and a wad of Xeno Crisis promotional postcards.

If you're not familiar with Xeno Crisis, we reviewed it here at the Junkyard upon release for the Dreamcast in 2020, and Mike Phelan was pretty impressed with what the sci-fi themed top-down shooter had to offer:

"I'll be playing Xeno Crisis for some time, and I look forward to each and every re-entry into that damned colony and it's ugly denizens...Because it's fun. Bloody, silly, exciting fun. And that, really, is the greatest compliment I can pay any game. Indie Dreamcast developers - a new challenger has arrived in the arena, and it's here to show you how it's done."

Big thanks to Mike Tucker at Bitmap Bureau for supplying these prizes. If you haven't got your tickets already, head over to the NottsVGE website or give the event a follow on Twitter. 

We're only in attendance on Saturday 17th December so if you want to be in with a chance of either meeting Kev and seeing/touching/sniffing his glorious bootleg T-shirt, or bagging one of our Xeno Crisis prizes, then you know what to do. We look forward to seeing you there!