North East Retro Gaming

In two weeks time the first North East Retro Gaming event will be going live over two days at Gateshead Stadium and what an exciting two days it's looking to be.

Over the weekend of 29th/30th June there will be the chance to play on arcades, consoles and pinball machines as well as partake in a Cosplay event and visit several traders.

At time of writing there is currently over 40 arcade machines including the likes of Tron, Defender, Gauntlet/Gauntlet II, Star Wars, Ghost'n Goblins and one of my all time favourites, those 'Heroes in a half shell', Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Console wise people will be in for a right treat with 40 machines currently on offer to play which includes both the Sega and Nintendo families (minus the Wii but does include the Panasonic Q), a Sharp X68ooo (an exclusive to the event), Panasonic 3DO and a Philips CD-I amongst other classic consoles.

Finally there will be over 30 Pinball machines based on games, film and TV including an exclusive Matrix machine. Alongside this will be machines based on Indiana Jones, Austin Powers, Street Fighter 2, Star Wars Trilogy, The Sopranos and Star Ship Troopers.

Alongside all of this there will also be the aforementioned Cosplay event (which includes a £100 prize for the best costume) and several traders of games, sweets, t-shirts and art. Traders include That Retro Game Shop, Pixel Generation, Village Sweet Shop, AnimeZ and Katie White Art (who will be the subject of a future post). So be sure to take plenty of cash for all of the retro goodies that will be available.

Talking of cash, the best thing about all of this is that to be able to play the games there is just a one-off upfront payment of £15 for one day or £25 for both days and then it's freeplay all the way. That's right, each and every arcade and pinball machine is on freeplay meaning that not a single penny has to be spent on the day (unless you buy a ticket on the day) which means that you can play until your heart's content or your fingers bleed.

One last thing is that your ticket also gets you into an after show party on the Saturday night at the Swallow Hotel which includes more free stuff in the way of a free buffet. Should be worth the ticket price alone.

So what are you waiting for? With just two weeks to go make sure that you have a ticket by heading along to www.northeastretrogaming.com and don't forget to the Facebook page while you are at it and join in all of the chat and announcements.

GameOverYeah will be attending and hopes to see you there.