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Retro gaming is also one of the highlights with this sort of event, and it’s one of the few places you’ll get a chance to see the computers and consoles of yesteryear. The Atari 2600 was an incredible success, so in 1982 they brought out the Atari 5200, in view of the competition from the Intellivision and Colecovision. However, it couldn’t compete and, after its November 1982 release, it was discontinued in May 1984. The subequent Atari 7800 didn’t fare much better – it was released in 1986 in the US, 1987 in Europe, and was discontinued in 1992. Overall, it didn’t make any real impact in the UK, and the 2600 is the one everyone still wants.
Also check out the full set of photos here.
The game being played here is Robotron 2084.
And then we have the classic Atari 2600, brought to Play Expo 2014 from Video Game Carnival. This is the original ‘Woody’ style, and is playing Carnival. This was my first video games console and looks as gorgeous today as it did when it was first released.
And here’s something a bit different. Yes, the screen’s a bit obscured (and I forget which game I was playing), but you might notice is that the joystick is HUGE!!! It’s not easy to manoeuvre the stick AND press the button, but it still works perfectly well and is quite a feat of engineering.
The MicroVAX 3100 is not a computer I’m familiar with, and I don’t know the name of the game onscreen – even though it attracted a great deal of interest, but this 1990 machine with 72Mb RAM, a 1.5Gb disc drive and running the OpenBSD operating system reminds me of when I had a Tandy TRS-80 Model III in the early ’80s, playing many a green screen game, whether arcade or adventure.
The SAM CoupĂ© was a home computer released in 1989, and discontinued in 1992, and was similar under the bonnet to the ZX Spectrum, looking like a logical successor. This one here is playing a more colourful version of Manic Miner and while the machine didn’t go the distance, you can still buy them today. Just before I came here, I saw one going on Ebay for the crazy price of almost ÂŁ800, but at least one of the traders was selling them for the much more affordable and realistic price of ÂŁ200. If I had the money, I so would 🙂
The Philips CD-i player, released in 1992 in Europe, was also a short-lived machine – in the public consciousness at least. It played Video CDs, which were touted as the successor to a VHS machine, only you couldn’t record on them. And while the later DVDs use the MPEG2 format, Video CDs used MPEG1. Imagine early Freeview (when it was run by OnDigital), in a thunderstorm. The picture was blocky as hell. Even a slightly hazy VHS tape was better.
As such, as we emerged from the days of renting a VHS machine on a monthly basis, I can still remember the man at the local shop telling me, “Anyone looking to buy a VHS machine, should seriously consider buying a Video CD player”. I know it was his job to sell them, but I had to hasten myself out of the shop in order to control the giggles!
Dragon’s Lair – another milestone in gaming history. While the first laserdisc video game was Sega’s Astron Belt, released in 1983, playing the background scenes to a foreground of a computer-generated shoot-em-up, later that year saw this cartoon adventure featuring Dirk The Daring, having to rescue Princess Daphne from evil dragon Singe, who has locked her up in wizard Mordroc’s castle.
With animation from ex-Disney animator Don Bluth, you play each scene with only one way to succeed – either in one button press (using the sword) or directional movement of the joystick, or a mixture of both. Get it right and you’re on to the next scene, all of which are shown in rather random order but there are a fixed number until you reach the dragon’s lair itself. Given that there were some fairly duff home computer versions in the ’80s, and that now you can even play it on your smartphone, nothing compared to the arcade original, even though this minimised machine clearly wasn’t housing a laserdisc player, as those did have sizeable delays between the scenes – as well as during them when it was about to play the outcome of your move.
And finally, for this section, a PC Engine SuperGrafx, released in Japan in 1989, and was an upgraded version of the PC Engine, a machine which was released in the UK as the TurboGrafx-16 in 1990 – so we didn’t even get the original until after Japan got the sequel! I really need to move over there!
There’s still a great deal of love for the PC Engine and it’s successor, all around the world and at retro events like this, and I was playing Battle Ace, a 1989 game from Hudsonsoft. It’s a traditional shoot-em-up with the screen scrolling upwards as enemies come towards you. Yes, it may not sound original but this was my first time playing the game (and on the console), and it’s a hell of a lot of fun!
This console came from The Nights of Gaming (Facebook/website) and they hold gaming evenings on the last Tuesday of each month at Fab Cafe, Manchester.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.