Retro Gamer visits Retro Reunited
The biggest problem with visiting retro events is that they always come to an end far too quickly.
The same thing happened with this year’s Retro Reunited, a truly impressive effort pulled off by first time retro organiser Gordon Sinclair (or SirClive as he’s known on the Retro Gamer forum). Thanks to able help from the likes of Chris “Retro Fusion” Wilkins and Matt “Byte Back” Corne, Gordon was able to pull off a truly spectacular event that not only raised many hundreds of pounds for the homeless charity Shelter, but sold over 300 tickets and saw avid retro gamers travelling from all over the country.
Housed at the Cedar Court Hotel in Huddersfield (enabling many a visitor to stay overnight and indulge in both alcohol and classic gaming conversation) the even itself took place in two huge halls and was wisely split up.
The main hall featured practically every key console and computer you could think of (as well as quite a few other more obscure machines) while the second hall housed Acorn World and the many interviews that took place over the two days.
While Jon Hare was sadly unable to attend, Jamie Woodhouse, Jon Ritman, Archer Maclean and Charles Cecil were just a few of the celebrities who were on hand, and all of them gave fantastic discussions on both their pasts and the current state of the industry.
Archer even brought his new game Wheelspin down, which immediately impressed everyone thanks to its slick gameplay and fantastic visuals.
For many though the main reason for going was to play classic retro games and Retro Reunited certainly didn’t disappoint. Split into many zones, there were a huge variety of machines and games on offer ranging from the humble C64 and Spectrum, to more exotic fare like the Famicom Twin, PC Engine and PCFX. Arcade machines were on offer as well, including Tony Temple’s Missile Command (on which he got the world record) and John Stoodley’s Pac-Man cab. There was even a Battlezone standup, which I’ve not played since I was a nipper.
