PLAY EXPO BLACKPOOL 2018 - With Rick Nerdgasm

February 10, 2018

Nothing particularly exciting has really happened in the Cleveleys area recently. I did hear something about some famous Blackpool footballer or other, but as I have only ever played FIFA on consoles and have no interest in real sport it didn’t really seem that significant.

This weekend however promises to be all kinds of geek heaven when retro-gaming event PLAY returns to Blackpool. For those of you who aren’t cool like me and don’t even understand what ‘retro-gaming’ is, let me put it into non-nerdy terms that even neuro-typicals can understand - you know how Doctor Who can go back in time by travelling in his TARDIS through the time vortex? It’s a bit like that. A retro-gaming event is one that hosts loads of classic video games and you can imagine you are back in the 1980s, which was an amazing time for emerging gaming technology, even though they didn’t have the internet which must have been rubbish.

So join me as I cover all the coolest bits of this amazing dork-fest….

The first video game cabinets appeared in bars. That’s because the graphics were so bad you’d have to be drunk to want to play them. ‘Pong’ for example, widely regarded as being the first video game (even though it wasn’t) was a game of ping-pong, but even the ball was square.

Pong. It's a terrible game, but it's 'retro', so that's okay.

It wasn’t long before rubbish computers were available to buy for home use. Parents quickly parted with the sort of cash that would buy a PS4 today to buy their little Johnny a ‘computer’ that was barely more than a calculator in the belief that he would become a genius and survive beyond the threshold of a futuristic world which was being promised. In actual fact little Johnny just used it to play Jet Set Willy all day long. I’m not old enough to remember the ZX Spectrum personally, although I am often told that I am on THE spectrum.

Here’s a few classic games some of you older dweebs might remember for the ZX Spectrum grown from Cleveleys software houses:

But these conventions aren’t just about the technology. Nerds are people too, and when we aren’t playing World of Warcraft online for days on end while wallowing in our own stench, we like to get out and have fun too, at least a couple of times a year. One way we do this is Cosplay, which is basically dressing up, but whereas dressing up is for kids, Cosplay is a very serious business for intelligent grown-ups.

There are lots of ways to Cosplay. You can do it in the privacy of your own home. Believe me, playing the latest installment of The Legend of Zelda while you are sat dressed up as Link brings a whole new level of enjoyment to gaming. It was a very moving experience for me the first time I did it. Even my mother cried, although she often does that to be fair.

Here are some Cosplayers enjoying the convention:

Cosplay is normal.

Cosplay is very normal.

Conventions like this also give you a great opportunity to meet games developers both from the past and present. This is perhaps my favourite aspect of PLAY as it reminds me that all the great games developers are ordinary people, just like me. Most of them don’t wash or have any social skills, and still live like students even though many from the golden age of computing are well into their late fifties. It gives you something to aspire to.

A software developer. Just like me.

Well, that’s all for this year. Join me again next year for exactly the same event with exactly the same games and equipment on display. It’s a retro-gaming event, remember? Duh.

Rick Nerdgasm is Technology Correspondent for Cleveleys News. He is a certified computer expert, and also holds a platinum achievement trophy on Shadow of Mordor.