I am currently sitting writing this article on my train home from Blackpool. I am hungover, my feet ache and I am extremely knackered…but I am so happy! Yet again Replay Events delivered another fantastic weekend and expo.
I mentioned in my previous article that Play Expo Blackpool is special for so many reasons. The games, the talks, the guests, but most importantly the community.
The Expo runs Saturday and Sunday at the infamous Norbreck Castle Hotel but, as has become tradition at this point, I got there on Thursday afternoon. The reason for this is that it is the one time of the year I get to see my amazing friends in person. Extremely talented and knowledgeable YouTubers that are hugely respected in Retro Gaming circles.
People like Novabug, Retro or Bust, Retro Unlim, YellowBelly and Slopes Games Room. As well as equally informed and dedicated friends and collectors like Al and Kate, David and Violet, Brian, Phil, Simmy, Kev, Rolling Cabbage, Legion and of course my good friend, respected author and games reviewer S.L Perrin. Play Expo Blackpool is a fantastic event and always delivers but it is the people I just mentioned that really make the weekend special year after year. I am truly lucky to spend the weekend with such wonderful people.
Thursday and Friday were spent catching up with each other, revelling in each other’s company. The days were full of laughter, joy, debates, stories and a lot of piss taking between friends.
Then 9:30 Saturday morning rolled around and it was almost time for the Expo to open. Now Play Expo Blackpool is always popular but this year seemed busier than ever. Seriously, the queues were mental! Weekend ticket holders queued the length of the corridor and rounded the corner into the next. On the opposite side of the doors day tickets snaked around the exit corridor. The expo staff were amazing, walking the line, checking tickets, directing people to the correct line and issuing wristbands. When 10am hit and it was time to open the doors people filled the event hall seamlessly.
I love the expo hall and playing some of the greatest arcade machines of all time, the tournaments are great fun and I do love a bit of pinball. But the biggest draw of Play Expo Blackpool for me is the guest talks and this year was no dissapointment.
The first talk of Saturday was Stoo Cambridge and Tony Warriner of Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder fame. They talked a bit about their history, what it was like making games like sensible soccer and how they managed the poppy controversy with Cannon Fodder. They finished off the talk discussing their new 16-bit game Urban X Warriors. It was a brilliant talk and The Retro Hour Podcast did a great job of hosting.
The talk finished about 1pm and instantly led to discussions and debates about Stoo and Tony’s impressive list of games in the smoking area outside the Norbeck. It was a wonderful discussion but we became so invested in it that we completely missed Eugene Jarvis’ talk at 1:30pm. I was so deep in discourse about Cannon Fodder that I missed the talk by the creator of Smash TV! I am assuming Eugene had a fantastic talk because I have never seen a queue that big for a meet a greet in all my years of going to Play Expo Blackpool.
I opted to miss out on meeting Eugene because its 2:45pm, there must have been about a 100 people in the queue and the talk I was looking forward to the most was about to begin in 15 mins. There was no possible way to do both. I love Smash TV. It is an amazing game but I am sorry Eugene. I had to get to the other side of the Norbreck because the talk with Dominik Diamond (host of Gamesmaster) was about to begin!
There was a fair bit of hype and buzz around Dominik being a guest at Play Expo Blackpool this year. The Guest Talk room was full. Every seat was taken, people were squeezing down the sides of the room and standing four deep at the back of the room.
Domink was everything I wished he would be and more. He was funny, sarcastic, charming and of course pinging out innuendo after innuendo. He had the entire room in his hand hanging off his every word. What surprised me in his talk was how open and honest he was about dealing with fame at such a young age, his addiction issues in the 90’s and his lack of memory for a lot of that period. It was sobering and beautiful to see a man being so honest about his flaws and mistakes.
After his talk however came the chaos. Dominik had to get from one side of the Norbreck to the other to do a meet and greet. However he kept stopping to talk to people in the room after his talk. This meant that when he finally got to his meet and greet (which obviously had a massive line) he only had 30 mins before he was due on stage for his Dominik Diamonds Sings the Video Games show. S.L Perrin and myself were waiting nervously in line to get the chance to meet Dominik. I did feel incredibly sorry for the event staff. They were doing their absolute best to make sure everybody got to meet Dominik AND be on stage on time. Dominik however had no qualms at all as he was happy to sign memorabilia, pose for photos and chat with fans.
We did indeed get to meet Dominik. He was happy to sign my copy of GamesMaster: The Completely Stuffed Pair of Trousers by S.L Perrin and pose for a photo.
Unfortunately though about half a dozen people were cut from the line in order to get Dominik on stage. The event staff were brilliant and waited for the last possible moment to cut the line as they didn’t want anyone to miss out if they could help it.
Dominik went straight form the meet and greet to the stage to perform his show. After a slight hiccup with the soundcheck the performance was brilliant, funny and unique. I wasn’t sure what the show would be like but I never expected to feel sorry for the Altered Beast and I genuinely walked away asking why can’t GTA 7 be set in Dundee?
Saturday night was the traditional gathering outside with too much drink, receiving Lego from Rolling Cabbage (who brought absolutely loads this year!!!) and generally enjoy the company of amazing people until the early hours of the morning.
Sunday morning rolls round too soon. By now I am accustomed to the morning hangover and the routine trip to Picnic Box for a brilliant breakfast at an extremely reasonable price. Tradition dictates that Sunday morning requires the purchase of an extra bacon and mushroom sandwich. Not for myself but for the security guard I have been winding up all weekend. I have never got her name but for the last three years we abused, argued and swore at each other and are generally just awful to each other. Then Sunday morning I buy her a sandwich, give her a hug and thank her for the weekend. She is a great example of how awesome all the staff at Play Expo Blackpool are. Plus she is tiny and I reckon I could take her in a fight. That is probably why I pick on her 🤠
Soon as breakfast and a catch up with friends is done it was time to head to the main hall to see Slopes deliver his Slopes Games Show. A wonderful, mad, weird look at gaming culture, music and adverts. Sometimes easy, sometimes impossibly hard. Unfortunately I did not get to see the answers as I had 4 minutes to get to the other side of the Norbreck for a talk by yet another set of industry legends …The Oliver Twins!
The Oliver Twins! The creators of Dizzy! So many happy childhood memories are linked to Fantasy World Dizzy and Treasure Island Dizzy. It was great to see the Oliver Twins talk. They have a natural chemistry and finish each other’s sentences. But I left the talk feeling somewhat conflicted.
Part of the talk was about their new story book/table top game Journey to the Emerald City (live on Kickstarter now) while the concept sounds good and the origin story Andrew Oliver told us in the room was wholesome I just cant shake the AI slop feeling.
Now, I am not piling on AI, I use it regularly for research. I created my first ever game Dartsland as an experiment into its limits. But there is something a little off about veteran game devs using ai for all the illustrations. Andrew said he had the idea on 15th June and wrote the book himself. But there is no way you can write a choose your own adventure book of any decent quality, have it printed and physically in your hand in just 111 days!
The announcement of Ultra Dizzy was brilliant. Being able to play iconic Dizzy games and flick between the different versions was amazing…although not as amazing as seeing a spectrum game actually scroll!
Again though the intro and outro videos they had featuring Dizzy were blatantly made with AI and it felt a little underwhelming from such a legendary pair. They were confronted about it in the Q.A section of the talk. They pointed out that throughout their careers they have always used the latest technology and this is no different. A fair point I suppose.
AI being used so that all the different versions of Treasure Island DIzzy play concurrently with each other is amazing. Using it to draw Dizzy not so much. I don’t know. Maybe I am wrong here. I have no problem with AI being used as a tool but veteran/legendary devs using it for artwork seems wrong to me.
The Oliver Twins did their meet and greet the day previous. Luckily I found a copy of Fantasy World Dizzy in Novabug’s box of games he was selling. So even though I don’t own an Amstrad CPC I bought it for £4 off Novabug so I had something to be signed.
Suddenly, before I knew it the time was 1:30pm and it was time to leave the Norbreck Castle Hotel for another year. I said goodbye to friends, thanked them for the weekend and Blue Badge, S.L Perrin and myself boarded the tram to the train station.
I left S.L Perrin at the train Station as he awaited the train to Birmingham. Blue Badge and myself boarded the train to Leeds armed with a veritable feast from Greggs. We were broken but extremely happy as once again PLay Expo Blackpool delivered an amazing weekend.
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