The weekend of 27 - 28 October saw the return of one of the UK's biggest retro gaming events to the northern seaside town of Blackpool. PLAY Expo Blackpool was a dedicated retro showcase, with hundreds - possibly thousands - of classic consoles, computers, arcade cabinets and pinball tables available to be played by event goers. Naturally, as 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the Dreamcast, we were in attendance to promote the system, its games and some of the more interesting hardware to come out of the whole Dreamcast story.
A surprisingly quiet moment at the DCJY area
On top of our fairly sizeable display section where we had almost 30 consoles available for people to play on, we also took part in a panel talk about the Dreamcast. The panel was organised by The Retro Hour, which for those who don't know is probably the biggest weekly retro gaming podcast there is. The panel was also made up of myself (Tom), Mike Phelan (author of our awesome A to Z of Dreamcast Games), our good friend and YouTuber Adam Koralik, and the whole thing was chaired by Daniel 'DJ Slope' Ibbertson of the awesome Slope's Game Room. It was a great panel and we took a range of questions from the audience, and thanks to the wonders of modern technology you can view the panel below from the comfort of your own home.
I'm going to get the panel uploaded as a podcast with an introduction too, so keep your ears peeled for that aural treat. Basically, the event was a roaring success, and our section of the main hall was bolstered by the inclusion of a couple of rare Treamcast consoles and a super-rare Divers 2000 Dreamcast; both of which were supplied by Quang of Asobitech.
Me with Quang of Asobitech
Huge thanks go to Quang and we have to give him kudos for the sheer number of other outstanding and rare consoles he had on display in his area of the hall. The FM Towns Marty, an N64 DD and even a Nuon made up the numbers at the Asobitech display and Quang could quite easily have put his Dreamcast rarities on show alongside them, but he loaned to us and that was an awesome gesture.
Anyone who follows the Junkyard on Facebook will no doubt know that we didn't win a UK Podcasters Award on Saturday - the best video games podcast award went to Retro Asylum, and we would like to extend our congratulations to the team - they're a great bunch of guys. To be honest, we didn't think we had much of a chance winning against such popular competition and the Retro Asylum podcast has such a large following and has been going for so long, that for DreamPod to win an award after only 14 episodes wouldn't have been entirely fair. So well done to Retro Asylum, and to PlayStation Radio UK for also being nominated.
Now though, our thoughts turn to the future. And to be more specific, the 10th and 11th of October 2015. That's because The Dreamcast Junkyard is thrilled to announce that we will be in attendance at one of the UK's largest gaming expos - Play Expo Manchester. Play Expo attracts tens of thousands of gamers to the Event City exhibition centre in Trafford Park, Manchester and is a weekend-long celebration of current and retro gaming and allows visitors the chance to mix with like-minded fans of the hobby and play a whole host of games. Furthermore, the massive trading hall is always full to bursting with stalls selling all manner of rare and unusual gaming items, both old and new. Celebrity guests from the world of film and TV, talks from games industry icons, cosplay competitions, arcade and pinball machines and competitive gaming championships round off the event. Hopefully industry legend Jeff Minter will again be in attendance wearing one of his 'interesting' woolly jumpers, too.
