Anyone going to the repro at Blackpool this weekend?

[drawfull]

5th and 6th

?

[Franco B]

Sure am   

Craig/Turnarcades will be going and I imagine a couple of others too, Leedsfan perhaps?

I'm lending my New Astro City for the show this year and I have installed a Bishi Bishi panel and I'm sending Hyper Bishi Bashi with it for something a bit different It was picked up last night and should be making its way up to Blackpool this morning.



Its promising to be an awesome show, I can't wait! I would have liked to have gone over on the Friday but we can due to the GFs work commitments.

When are you going? Sat, sun, both?

[notroubleclubber]

Wish i was going but Blackpool is about 4hr drive for me and got family commitments.

[Turnarcades]

We will of course be there in full effect (see our recent facebook post for full details of our line-up) and Dave (leedsfan) will have at least 3 of his machines exhibited (one of which is a project based on a kit he won in our competition last year). Franco, cool to see they've recruited a bit more from the home build community this year and it'll be cool to see your candy there!

[drawfull]

I was going to both but just Sunday now. forgot football on Sat  afternoon

[drawfull]

Forgot to say that i offered to bring a couple of cabs over but didn't.get a reply. not had my tickets either absand am in UK now..

[Turnarcades]

Forgot to say that i offered to bring a couple of cabs over but didn't.get a reply. not had my tickets either absand am in UK now..

There was a similar issue with very late ticket arrival last year and it's the same story this year, but as I understand this will likely not be a problem if you have proof of purchase. E-mail/tweet or whatever and get them to confirm that though.

[EightBySix]

I would have loved to come if I had realised it was on earlier, got other arrangements for that w/e now. Next year.

[LeedsFan]

Yes I'm definitely going. Taking 4 of my projects along. I really want to get some feedback from people who play the original cabinets as to how my projects stand up in comparison. I have a feeling I will come home with some new project idea in my head, which I can ill afford if I'm quite honest. I have recently taken a real shine to those white sit down style Candy Cabs. I'd love one of those and this weekend will not dampen my enthusiasm for buying one at all, I just know it  

I will be meeting up with peeps from Jamma+ forum. I have been spending more time on that forum recently mainly because they are 90% UK people. I think I tend to miss out on UK events because I don't (or certainly didn't used to) visit UK forums enough.

[ark_ader]

I'll be there playing on LeedsFan's miniature marvels.  Hope you are going to place them near that tombola again.  Good airflow.

See ya there!

[lord-jaffa]

Wish I had known about this a bit sooner, would have made an effort to go, but commitments (8 month old!) mean I can't do it on short notice, shame as it looks really interesting!

[LeedsFan]

I'll be there playing on LeedsFan's miniature marvels.  Hope you are going to place them near that tombola again.  Good airflow.

See ya there!

I only took the DK machine last year as a last minute entry. The reason it was on the tombola stall was because there was nowhere else for it to go. I really had left it to last knockings to ask them if they wanted me to bring it. This year they have told me there is a designated "Home Build" section just for these kind of projects. So I will see what the set up is when I arrive on Friday afternoon.

[ark_ader]

I'll be there playing on LeedsFan's miniature marvels.  Hope you are going to place them near that tombola again.  Good airflow.

See ya there!

I only took the DK machine last year as a last minute entry. The reason it was on the tombola stall was because there was nowhere else for it to go. I really had left it to last knockings to ask them if they wanted me to bring it. This year they have told me there is a designated "Home Build" section just for these kind of projects. So I will see what the set up is when I arrive on Friday afternoon.

I sure had fun playing on your Star Wars build today.  I also had fun on the DK and Defender cabs.  A lot of detail work went into those designs, and I was really impressed how they looked and functioned. Kudos.

I wished the show was a better affair.  There was not as much content this year as was last year.  I was a bit miffed at the organisers charging 50p a go on some of the pins as everything was supposed to be on free play. There was lots of most specialist groups last year - that was absent.

I saw Craig's cabinets and they looked super cool, but sadly there was no mini slim cabinet.  Chris over at the retro pit had a really cool mini slim cabinet, which I am going to get.  Chris also had some stonking good deals on £7 joysticks 2/4/8 selectable which will be perfect for my next sub-mini.  The finish on those full sized cabs was really cool, and he offered to deliver and install the cab, less than it would cost to ship via courier.

The tombola was pretty good this year but I just missed winning a boxed Amiga 600 (darn it!), but I snagged a bunch of cool games for the PC and Xbox.

The arcade machines on free play were fun, but there were a lot fewer than last year, and some of of the rarer games was switched off.

The Cosplay characters were pretty good, and the organisers had the queues sorted out this year. 

They need to do a better job if there is going to be another R3play as good as last year.

They did have a Funhouse and an Adams Family pin so that saved the day for me.   

[drawfull]

This post might be all over the place as i can't see what I'm typing on Android. Anyway, I went today and, with nothing to compare it to, thought it was ace.Tho I did spend all day playing on Craig's projector pedestal...

Yes, a few more older games wouldn't have gone amiss but I thought it was well run and a good laugh

[LeedsFan]

Got home about 2 hours ago and just finished unpacking everything. Thoroughly enjoyed this years event! It was bigger than last year as the extra "ballroom" area was open for competitions. The number of older "woody" dedicated arcade cabs was more than last year, though there weren't as many of the Japanese Candy cabs as last time. There were certainly many more pinball tables... well over double I would say. More trade stalls too and I would bet that those traders did much better business than last year.

I didn't play as much other stuff as last year because I was keeping an eye on my area. Helping people out on how to use the machines, answering questions etc.etc. Plus I had two machines breakdown over the course of the weekend so they will need fixing in due course. The DK machine again didn't last the full weekend. This time it's a software fault with the OS not booting into Mala, and because I have shelled it I can't seem to get into Windows itself to sort things out.

The Defender also went AWOL midway through Saturday afternoon. It's giving 3 loud beeps on power up (not even posting to BIOS) so I think it may be a memory issue. It had reset itself in midgame on some players during the day so the warning signs to imminent failure were there. However, the Star Wars and the projector Neo-Geo stayed strong throughout the weekend, and to be fair they were the two getting most attention. So I can't complain too much.

Meeting up and chatting with Craig and his good lady together with other peeps from the JAMMA+ forums helped to make it a really enjoyable weekend. I hear there is to be another even scheduled in July in Sheffield which is supposed to be just as big as Replay. So I will be keeping my eyes and ears open for more info about that.

[drawfull]

Yeah, was a shame Defender had packed up, but DK was working first thing on Sunday I think, along with SW. All three cabs, and the NG projector were excellent. SW especially so.

Craig was a star, I was really impressed with his cabinets too. The Street Fighter-themed upright was cool.

On a more modern note, the DDRUK guys are flipping amazing at it! Guy playing Doubles on Max 300 heavy especially so. He was knackered afterwards tho

I didn't get to play Franco's cab, but had a couple of games on R-Type next door. Didn't do too well but one guy was pretty good at it. As I said above, it needed more classic cabs - in a way that was the only downside (and I thought the tournament room was a bit, erm..)

Anyone get a pic of Yuna 

A

[LeedsFan]

Regarding the tournament room I thought it was OK.... and I very nearly set all my stuff up in there. When I arrived on the Friday afternoon I was told to set up where the Sonic Generation stand was (next to Jeff Minter's stand). That was because Gamestation were supposed to be there and gave last minute backword which didn't please the organisers. So they gave it to me and I duly got setup. Then I was asked to move because Sonic Generations were taking it instead. I suppose they pay their money for a prime position and without those backers there'd be no show. It's fair enough I suppose.

It was a toss up between moving into the tournament room or going to the side of the main stage. I'm glad I went to the stage as the tourney room closed each day at 4:00pm and was much brighter too. The projector looked great at the side of the stage and wouldn't have looked half as good in the tourney room.

[drawfull]

From a game availability perspective jhe tourney room was cool - but was too bright like you said and didn't have the same feel as the rest of the place.

IMO you picked right.

I don't know how the funding works? I just assumed the guys in the middle paid a lot (notwithstanding the stalls and Craig, retropit) the rest did it for love lol.

Are your builds on here?

A

[ark_ader]

Regarding the tournament room I thought it was OK.... and I very nearly set all my stuff up in there. When I arrived on the Friday afternoon I was told to set up where the Sonic Generation stand was (next to Jeff Minter's stand). That was because Gamestation were supposed to be there and gave last minute backword which didn't please the organisers. So they gave it to me and I duly got setup. Then I was asked to move because Sonic Generations were taking it instead. I suppose they pay their money for a prime position and without those backers there'd be no show. It's fair enough I suppose.

It was a toss up between moving into the tournament room or going to the side of the main stage. I'm glad I went to the stage as the tourney room closed each day at 4:00pm and was much brighter too. The projector looked great at the side of the stage and wouldn't have looked half as good in the tourney room.

I didn't see the tourney room, but the pins were fun to play on as was your Star Wars cab.  I managed to snag a few good deals on Xbox 360 software.

My next show will definitely be CAX as a graduation present.  Well I hope. 

[LeedsFan]

Are your builds on here?

Yes. I've just edited my profile signature (below) with links for each one.

[Turnarcades]

OK, so it's been a few weeks since the show now and we at Turnarcades have now overcome the fallout from Replay and finally settling back into things. For those that haven't yet seen them, our photo's from Replay Expo 2011 can be viewed on our facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.234485066615008.62270.100001605484104&type=1 and our small amount of footage from the event has been compiled into a video now uploaded to our youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Turnarcades. Our videos mainly feature us and activities/exhibits in the vicinity of our show stand obviously, both because we know home-build features won't be highly featured by some bloggers/vloggers and because of purely how busy it was over in our area all weekend and we had little chance to do the coverage we would have liked. Most of it was snapped on mobile phones so excuse the quality, but we have been facebook tagged in many better quality features for those who missed our section of the show. We appreciate this may not be of much interest to purists but for those who are but couldn't get near ours or Dave Brown's machines all weekend for a game, these should give you an idea of what you missed.

This is pretty much a carbon copy of the review I gave over at the Retrogamer forums, so please forgive any direct references:

As far as the show goes, we'd first like to say that our personal feelings are that this show was easily double the show last year's was in terms of size, quality and attendance. There was so much more going on and closely observed the increased difficulty and resulting effort that went into the organisation of the show and say well done to the main bods and volunteer Replay crew who put so much into the previous promotional events to drum up interest and to support the extra mass of work on the actual weekend. I've noticed some criticisms in reviews  but can honestly say to everyone who was not involved that a lot of support was given to exhibitors and traders this year to ensure any help that could be provided was and ensure all the visitors were to have a good time. From our point of view, even with the late pre-show problems we experienced Dave Moore went to some lengths to ensure we had a comfortable time there in a suitable setting for our planned exhibits. With a bit more detail, here's our feelings on each aspect of the event:

Organisation/The Replay Team

I'd like to cover this first as being new to the show scene last year we had a very mixed experience at Replay 2010 - I was vocal about some evident apprehension of event regulars to accept the presence of our exhibits as they do tend to conflict with the purist view some people hold, particularly members of the RG forums, pinball groups and arcade collectors. I personally felt that all but a select few did not welcome anything surrounding emulation and being strangers to most, we witnessed a few comments from other exhibitors and some volunteers that did make us uncomfortable. This year however many of the same people and many more have been more aware of the work we do as enthusiasts and many crew members, casual facebook followers and others associated with the organisation kindly took time to nip over (even if just briefly) to drop in a compliment about the work we do and our general presence on the scene, and say thanks for the efforts we made to come despite prior circumstances that may have affected us making it to the show as well as the efforts we made to put on an impressive stand with original content. Many comments came forward from Dave, Mat, Simon, Gordon and others about the efforts we're making to bring some unique skills to the scene and I believe Vinny and/or Chris Wilkins popped their heads in during the show simply to say "gotta be said, your stuff now is just next level!" which made all the effort worth it. Many thanks to Vinny for the setup help and watching our back, Dave Brown for the same, and to Dave, Simon and Gordon who all stopped by several times to ask if we needed anything and how things were going. Prior to this event I personally had a little paranoia around the feelings towards us from organisers and can safely say after this weekend any hatchet that might have been has been thankfully well buried.

Organisation/Event

We felt that the organisation of the whole event was great, and all those in the crew we saw were busy all weekend finding as little time as we did to play games. The efforts that went in with promotion prior to the event are likely the main reason attendance was so high as awareness is always going to be the biggest factor in getting an event with this theme into big figures. I noticed several forumites criticised the size/capacity/commercial aspect of this event and in their defence I can understand that many do like to attend events for the social aspect. Being realistic and in defence of the organisers though I would also re-iterate that the intention of the event is not just retro-gaming and it is not just an RG member event; it is meant to encompass all aspects of gaming from different generations, and also to appeal to casual enthusiasts and those without an online presence, so inevitably this will mean high visitor numbers and maintain future event popularity by word of mouth. With regards to the commercial aspect, I disagree slightly with both the organisers on this and those in forums who are adamant it should be all about playing the games. In an ideal world I'd love to attend a huge show where everyone just plays games, but the economics demand that sellers of various kinds will need to be present as their pitch fees will be the main source of initial funding for any event and their presence (particularly those with stands that feature attractions like the big game companies or even small businesses like us as we simply bring machines to play) can determine early ticket sales, which contrastingly will generate the cover of any sundries and possible potential profit of a show. For those who want it less commercial, bear in mind that depending on one or two large-input investors keeps commercial presence down but also means that in the event of a problem there is little fallback, such as happened with the dropout of gamestation, Sega, reduced Nintendo presence and the last-minute absence of competition prizes as the main contributor did not come through - in worse case scenario this could cancel an event and it'd be unfair to expect Console Passion to bear the entire burden with the money they already put into the event. On the flipside of this too many low-price opportunities would allow an eyesore of too many 'market stall' style stands with sellers taking up too much space peddling low-quality wares, which would ultimately ruin the credibility of the event and it's understandable the organisers want to avoid this. Maintaining what I mentioned both last year and this year, I think the balance was getting better this year with a few more medium-level vendors like us, so at least if a few more credible vendors could be invited and space allocated carefully, there are not too many too ruin the atmosphere of the event but enough that the burden of the event does not fall on one or two and there are fallback options. Let's not forget that a great majority of feedback we received last year during and after the event were that those attending events like this have money they'd like to spend if they wish, so it's nice to have something to spend money on - not everyone just comes to socialise and drink and both forumites and casual visitors want show-reduced bargains and souvenirs to take away.

In short, I'd say to those wanting a more social event that they are best kept to small meets as at least no-one has to foot a massive venue bill - there is still opportunity to socialise outside this venue if you want and if not there's plenty of smaller events going on already. Replay is the biggest event of it's kind and encompasses a broad spectrum of gamers so it's never going to be a big opportunity for personal socialising, and more casual gamers enjoy the vibe of a big event which may be their only opportunity to play games on the level witnessed there; not everyday like some of us die-hards do.

The Crowd

This year I would say that the overall crowd in general was much friendlier and enthusiastic for the reasons mentioned above. Non-crew members who have a regular presence on the show scene seemed much more welcoming of us this year, and those that weren't were probably able to give us a wider berth as there was much more to do this year - this means the hardcore purists who spit at anything that remotely deviates from their memories (such as our products) could happily stay glued to their favourite piece of old hardware in their little bubble! Casual gamers represented the largest percentage of visitors to our stand as they'd simply never seen these kind of creations, and I'm please to say we've inreased both our own fanbase and got a few more casual gamers more interested in the home-build and retro scenes in general. That's not to say we didn't get our fair share of pro gamers, arcade enthusiasts and modern gamers too with the stuff we had on offer catching their eye (such as our SF4 machine pulling PS3/X-Box gamers, our unique compact arcades or Dave Brown's scaled replicas), and thankfully some self-confessed former doubters of our work praised and enjoyed our products. As others have said, there were still one or two friendless basement-dwelling neckbeards who felt it necessary to be very rude and unsociable with some and although we only witnessed one such instance and promptly addressed it Wolverhampton-style (maybe it was something to do with the correctly-assessed intimidating air of me and my guys?), some visitors to our stand also reported some offensive behaviour elsewhere. We're very grateful to the mostly-casual visitor crowd mentioned who formed the crowd at our stall all weekend and our gamer friends who correctly fed off the positive vibe of these visitors for making our event, but to those few remaining hard-core fanboys who turn their nose up at anyone with thoughts outside their small-minded social circle or those idiots who fuel their egos with drink, complaining and rude behaviour towards anyone they perceive as too polite or weak to answer back, I'd say stay the hell away and go back to living in your mom's cellar. You aren't welcome, no-one wants to hear your "unusual senses of humour" excuse for a bad attitude and you should be careful as these events are not all filled with those who will quietly stand by and let you talk to others like that if you catch my drift. Might do better going back to live in your Mom's basement with your left-handed websites for company.

Trade Experience

Simply put, this event was a huge success for Turnarcades! Although this event clashes somewhat with our work schedule (our Christmas order cut-off was the week before the show), we took orders well into next year, greatly increased our exposure, sold most of the small amount of sale items we had and made some great new business friends and contacts. The mix of traders was great and although there were some selling similar goods, no direct competition for anybody to cause problems or atmosphere. The majority of our custom and attractors to the stall were casual visitors unfamiliar with us or our products, and I'd like to think we were viewed as a unique attraction that may bring visitors back next year. It would not matter to us if we didn't make a single sale (though always nice as it may facilitate future giveaways) as we attend as enthusiasts and happily represent a combination of the arcade scene, the emulation scene and the modern retro scene. Everyone who came to our stall enjoyed playing on our machines and some former followers were happy to view some 'fresh material' from us as our contribution to the show. Some didn't recognise us as vendors immediately which was nice, and I'm glad to say we spent the whole weekend glued to our stall so we could discuss everything from orders with customers to business progress and general gaming with our followers and retro game event regulars. It's a great shame that this year I personally didn't get to play a single game elsewhere or witness any events or competitions, but we of course are grateful this was due to our popularity and not due to any problems! Next year we hope to be more involved yet again and be able to make a major donation/contribution to the show with our own main stage competition and the highest value prizes of the show!

Venue and other factors

A common complaint I've seen is regarding Norbreck and/or Blackpool itself, which quite frankly highly surprised me. Norbreck itself is an ideal location; true the hotel itself is very qestionable and the rooms leave a lot to be desired, but the number of potential show areas gives plenty of scope for expansion, the ground floor facilities are clean and fairly priced and access to the place is great, particularly as it is actually so far up from the golden mile as not to cause parking problems. As for Blackpool itself, I can think of fewer better locations. Firstly, I'm a massive fan of the place as t holds some of my fondest childhood gaming memories and although had stiff competiton from the south coast, really is the home of the British arcade gaming scene of the last 30 years. I still frequent the place now, and the amount that's been spent and done improving the place in recent years is incredible. No-one can argue with it's volume of attractions, bars, eateries etc. and all I seem to see is a certain amount of snobbery by those who either forgot their roots or was so spoilt by foreign package holidays in some of the toughest decades for working-class people they just can't see past the tip of their sunbeds. Coupled with these, Blackpool is super-accessible for everyone, giving even the Scots a fair chance of getting there, decent motorway access for everyone else and makes a change from having to head towards the chaotic capital for a decent event for a change. Some including us would argue that the Midlands is equally accessible for everyone but there's no real gaming heritage here, venues want to charge the earth (shame that places like the NEC are so greedy) and if I'm honest it's a bit of a hole, and I live here!

With regards the uncontrollable issues, bear in mind some things will always hold true. Stinky people will always stink - hold your breath and hope they get the message. We were pretty much stuck in the same clothes all weekend, but me and the missus are very clean people and had no trouble with offensive odours, but that's just us. Some will never get the message. The after-party problems were probably due to the screw-over by Hilton and pesonally I'm glad us and the table next to us decided to censored on their chips a little by starting the aeroplane fight (yes I'm afraid it was us!) Many were very disappointed about SID80's as we'd heard great things and expected stuff like VideoGamesLive, but instead it turned out to be an unbalanced jam that killed conversation and the mood - we received an aeroplane in the back with a crude picture of a piccolo player being killed, which thankfully meant it wasn't just us being picky! I think though this idea could be expanded upon for next year and to arrange an after-show thing so those seeking the 'social' element get chance to get that element - it's a shame a side-room at Norbreck couldn't be rented with a few consoles thrown in or something even if using the main hall is out of the question? That would be awesome!

Overall

Overall the event seemed a success both from our business point of view and with comments from visitors and exhibitors, seemed very well received. I understand the calls for keeping it about the games but everyone should remember the event needs funding, and as long as the vendors are kept in check the vibe will remain good but they will ensure the future of the show, so embrace the opportunity to pick up some gifts and souvenirs. We absolutely loved the show as enthusiasts and I think the right steps are being taken to balance the commercial/games balance of the event and should be perfected the third time around. Organisation will always be a challenge with so many volunteering due to other commitments and I think things like tournaments and talks and other PA duties will improve with comments given in feedback. All we'd recommend is that perhaps alongside the promotion at other shows, the website should see earlier updates about attractions and more information on anticipated layouts should be published their to build a bit of hype - it seems this year the only abundance of info went up in the fortnight before the show, which considering the site went up at the start of the year would have been too late to capture interest in those who may have made alternative plans. Everything about the show was better this year and now I think it's a case of streamlining the ideas for smoother delivery - the complainers about show format have other alternatives and you're never going to totally please everyone, so as long as there's enough to please each gamer type moderately, an inrease in casual gamers will maintain a balance in the crowd between attractions and keep ticket sales high. I'd say most of the online forumites already attend or have enough turn up to represent their field, so it'll be the casual gamers you need to keep sweet.

Sorry this has been a lengthy post folks but it's late now so I'll just sign off with anything I've forgot and say thanks to the organisers for putting the show on and to all our followers, forum friends, customers and casual Replay visitors for making Replay 2011 such a great event to be part of and making the event a success we hope is always repeated!

On a personal note, thanks to Dave Brown for the mutual support over the weekend and for being an all round great guy, and thanks to all BYOACers who stopped by over the course of the weekend too. Seems the turnout from this forum was lower than last year but I hope those of you who came enjoyed it anyway. We will be attending many more shows this year in some context, so I hope we get to see more of you guys at them. Of worthy note is the Geek2012 festival (15-19 Feb in Margate), HiScore tournament at the Arcade Barn in Exeter which we will be sponsoring (April-ish), and Games Britannia Replayed (7-8 July in Sheffield), all of which we hope to attend in some extended capacity. In the meantime, check out this facebook link for a load of postings I've made of blogs, photo albums and videos from Replay 2011: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.245249822205199.64041.100001605484104&type=3&saved#!/groups/110453982333268/

[Turnarcades]

Forgot to say in my last post, but GamerDads did an interview with me at the expo, reviewing our stand and some of the machines we were exhibiting at the show. As it's been a while since I posted updates in our build thread in buy/sell/trade and I've not had chance to upload any prototype or demo machine builds to 'project announcements' topic, here is the video in full in case anyone out there wants to see the type of machines we are creating these days:



and here is our own video of the event: