RetCon: The Retro Gaming Festival - 17/6/23

Submitted by HEXdidn't... on Wed, 06/14/2023 - 19:48

If anyone's stuck for something to do this coming weekend, I'm going to be exhibiting my SAM Coupé, along with a couple of retro consoles, at RetCon.

Based in Greenford, west London, RetCon is an annual festival of retro gaming put on by the Greenford Computer Club since 2018. There are guests delivering talks, and a room stacked with actual retro hardware (the Spectrum is always well represented!) playing a huge variety of games. Event sponsor Monster Joysticks will be unveiling their brand new Vectrex joystick, and we're introducing some merch this time round, including a new and event-exclusive ZX Spectrum game, Ghostly Capers, by Lee Chops Stevenson.

We have a couple of talks by the Oliver Twins, who will also be creating a new game on the day. Kevin Toms (Football Manager) will be giving a talk, and Trevor Dickinson (A-EON Technology) and David Pleasance (Commodore UK) will be discussing their latest projects. Journalist and streamer Faith Johnson (Retro Faith) has visited RetCon for several years, and is joining a talk panel this time, along with Steven Fletcher (WavemStudios - The Commodore Story, Amiga 2020 documentaries, Cosmic Force), Steve Jones (Checkmate Amiga cases and gaming monitors) and Colin Porch (coder on the Atari ST version of Head Over Heels, creator of Head Over Heels 2 for the ST/Amiga). Talks are in an upstairs hall, but will be streamed to a large screen TV on the ground floor, and BSL interpretation is available on request.

There will be a FIFA 97 tournament in place of our legendary Sensible Soccer tournament this year, along with high score competitions in Head Over Heels and a little game called The Lower Caverns, a SAM Coupé game for which I've been designing graphics over the last few years. Winners will get a nice trophy to take away from the event.

It's at the Greenford Community Centre, 170 Oldfield Lane South, Greenford UB6 9JS, running from 10am to 5pm on Saturday 17th June.

More info is available on the event's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/RetConFestival

And tickets can be bought in advance via Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/retcon-the ... 9773576027

(Tickets available on the day as well!)