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Play Expo 2015 entered the fourth year of this event, held at EventCity, next to the Trafford Centre (accessible via M60 J9 and J10), and this was the second time I had been, following Play Expo 2014, and I enjoyed it even more than the first time, so much so that when it the whole two days were finished, the withdrawal symptoms began.
This time round, I worked out that I’d taken far more pictures than last year – 1083, to be exact, but there were a fair few duplicates, which I soon learned had to be done because you’re taking pictures inside and, depending on the area you’re in, the lighting can vary. The majority of them turned out well, but there were still a few which ended up in Blurryville, which is annoying, but I later learned that I was not the only one, so it happens to the best of us.
Note that the first picture you can see (which can be clicked on for the full-size image) is one of a number of Superheroes and villains playing football, but more on that later.
At Play Expo, there are plenty of arcade machines, a stack of retro computers and consoles, a nice addition of Virtual Reality, plenty of PS4s, a ball-breaking bevvy of pinball machines, and some incredible cosplay costumes – even more than I remember from last year. And this time round I made sure I took as many pictures as possible, although I subsequently realised that I *still* didn’t get round to everyone.
In each of the different sections to come – each given its own separate page (8! Count ’em!) – I don’t know the names of all the companies and organisations who brought these joys to us, so if I’ve missed you out, comment below and I’ll add a link back to your site and/or Facebook page.
And for fans of TV and movie stars, you could pay around £15 to have autographs or your picture taken with big names such as Dave Prowse, aka The Green Cross Code Man as well as a small low-budget film called Star Wars where he played Darth Vader; Mike Edmonds – Logray in Return Of The Jedi and Og in Time Bandits; and Colin Baker, the sixth Doctor in Doctor Who.
First up, the arcade machines are on display. There weren’t any hydraulic-based machines this time round, such as After Burner, although there was a sit-down (and rather small) Outrun cabinet, so those featured below are general uprights which are still wowing me thirty years on (I know I don’t look that old….), and you can find the full album of my arcade pictures on Facebook here.
Paperboy (1985, Atari) is a game that still holds a special place in my heart and it’s also a good one for adults to show their children because at no point do you kill anything, but before I turn into a pacifist, you still get to injure people, sometimes accidentally. The point is to delivery newspapers by throwing them from your bike. Make your way up an isometric 3D road, throw papers to hit the customers’ doors and land on their doormats, but avoid breaking their windows otherwise they’ll be cancelling their subscriptions. If all customers cancel, then it’s game over. Along the way, you’ll encouter various items trying to trip you up, but the clever controller – a bicycle’s handlebars – allow you to manoeuvre deftly. If you can keep going, then you’ll progress through the week, with each day’s delivery culminating in an obstacle course (the only time where crashing does NOT lose you a life)
I have great memories of playing this game at an arcade in Brixham, Devon, when my late father took me on holiday in the summer of 1985.
Tron (1982, Bally Midway): Released to tie in on the movie featuring groundbreaking special effects, plus a wonderful turn from David Warner as the baddie, this featured four mini-games that included a Combat-style tank game and a rudimentary light cycles game. The picture below shows the moment where you have to save the day at the end of the film with your disc, like a basic version of Breakout – break through the wall and run through the gap. It was followed in 1983 by Discs of Tron, a 3D-looking game which blew my mind as much as the film.
Q*bert (1982, Gottlieb) – another timeless classic, and one of its programmes, Warren Davis, also gave a talk at Play Expo about this and the other games he’s created. The game has a 3D-look as you, as the anteater-looking Q*bert, jump diagonally around a pyramid turning each block from one colour to another, whilst avoiding balls and snakes catching up with you. It’s completely hatstand and I’ve always loved it. Get caught by one of the baddies, and Q*bert almost swears. Sort-of 😉
Return Of The Jedi (1984, Atari) is based on the Star Wars film of the same name and shares many traits with Atari’s later Paperboy, above. It has the same isometric 3D appearance and also a controller that takes you forwards, backwards, left and right in similar style, feeling like a very long obstacle course from that title, and it was also a game which was insanely difficult, first travelling on a speeder bike towards the Ewok village, then a bonus stage as you fly the Millennium Falcon to destroy a reactor… or in my case this time round, fly straight past it. Whoops! Either way, it’s still as exhilarating as ever.
Berzerk (1980, Stern Electronics) – a game I haven’t partaken in many a moon, it plays as simple as it looks in the picture. Move from room to room as near-static robots shoot slowly at you, but they grow in number and you’ll soon find yourself OUTnumbered. It’s basic imagery gave rise to an excellent home conversion for the Atari 2600 VCS two years later. It’s still as gripping as ever.
Go to page 2 for the Retro gaming section.
Retro gaming is another highlight with this sort of event, you can see my full set of photos here.
Time Crisis 3 (2002, Namco) was one of a number of lgihtgun games on show at Play Expo, along with House of the Dead and Virtua Cop 2, and although it’s been a while since I last played a game on the PS2, this 2003 conversion is surprisingly fast and fluid and I was staggered that it came from a 15-year-old piece of technology. It makes me want to dust off my old unit and get the game for myself, but it’s worth noting that lightguns rarely like flatscreen TVs, so unless you’ve got an old-style tube then you may have trouble playing it.
Space Invaders (1982, Atari VCS) – originally released in arcades by Taito in 1978, while I also played that AND Space Invaders Part 2 in their arcade form, I just had to have a blast of the version I also remember played on this home console 33 years ago. This version claimed to have 112 different variants, but they were mostly essentially the same. You know what Space Invaders is all about and it delvers as much enjoyment as it did back in the day.
Various James Bond games (on a number of different earlier-gen consoles). A nice variety of titles in their own special zone, which was also complemented by other zones based around Star Wars, Street Fighter, Tomb Raider, Super Mario, Sonic The Hedgehog and many more.
Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1993, JVC/THQ) – the Star Wars game for the SNES, which I was completely hopeless at, but my excuse is that I never played it back in the day as I didn’t have a SNES. It still stands up very well for a game that’s 22 years old, however. The picture below is not my screenshot, but then mine just did not come out at all as it was on a CRT TV and they were very hit and miss.
Go to page 3 for the Cosplay pictures.
Cosplay was again a major part of this event, with the organisers devoting a catwalk masquerade on both days to those who had dressed up as their favourite characters from videogames and TV, ranging from Street Fighter, Pokemon and Mortal Kombat through to many Marvel films and modern cult drama Game of Thrones.
This time round I took pictures of many more people in their incredible outfits. Last time, there were occasional moments when I shyed away from asking to take a picture, as it’s not human nature to just stop someone in the street and ask to take a photo of them, and you see some people walking from A to B, and with a sense of purpose, and you feel bad for stopping them. However, I’ve realised that anyone cosplaying will be happy for you to politely take their picture.
Most of the following pictures can also be seen on my two Facebook albums for Saturday and Sunday, but occasionally my (lack of) camera skills let me down and so for those which aren’t my own, full credit has been given. Also, there are some characters/cosplayers I do not know, so please tell me if you do know.
Below are my Saturday Cosplay pictures plus a video of a number of Superheroes and Villains playing football, with the Sunday pictures on the next page.
This picture is courtesy of Cable Tie Photography.
Also, check out Jay Charlie Cosplay on Facebook.
This picture is courtesy of Team Neko UK.
Also check out his Psycho Mutant Facebook page.
Those taking part include Danielle Craig as Jade from Mortal Kombat IX, Dan Peter Logan Pearlman as The Amazing Spider-Man, Thomas Andrew Owen as Chris Redfield, Dave Starmer as The Joker and more.
After the football, the last minute is a brief Superhero fight – taken on October 11th just after the cosplay parade, featuring Danielle Craig as Chun-Li, Dan Peter Logan Pearlman as Comic Wolverine and more.
Go to page 4 for the Sunday cosplay pictures.
The Sunday Cosplay pictures include the following, and at the bottom of the page is Dark Cleo’s video of the Play Expo Manchester 2015 Sunday Cosplay Masqurade. Sadly, there was no video of the Saturday one.
Next: Bethan and Jayson, with Jayson’s sister, Molly, inbetween as the Madoka.
Also, check out Jay Charlie Cosplay on Facebook.
Go to page 5 for the Virtual Reality machines.
Virtual Reality was also at Play Expo in a number of gaming forms, the best new one being Push For Emor, and whether charging through caves to shoot some baddies, or zooming around space, with the Oculus Rift headset and some headphones, this is to gaming what porn is to an orgasm! Even just running around the streets, after I accidentally docked my spaceship, as I looked around it completely blew me away. And despite the fact I was just sat on an ordinary chair, I felt like I was floating in all directions in the X, Y and Z axes as if I was in a hydraulic chair!
The premise is as follows:
- When the Emorian Empire starts to expand it’s territories into Justicar federal space, Colonel Ferris Glutes sends you in under cover to join a resistance group allied with Justicar. Your mission, that you have no choice but to accept (because it’s your job and it would be a very short game if you didn’t) is to clear the way for Justicar forces.
Check out the Push For Emor website and watch the demo below. And bear in mind that while headsets can be bought now from the Oculus Rift website for around £230 including delivery and taxes, a consumer version is coming to the UK in Q1 2016 which is set to be even better so I’m holding out for that:
Tactics Forever was a bizarre but interesting use of Oculus Rift in a 2-player game where you’ll each separately have a few minutes to build your own spaceship – looking all around your headset. Then, once time is up, the CPU will pit both ships against each other on the central, large screen. I lost, but this is the kind of game where you really need to have a second crack at it soon after, were it not for the queues, since it took half of the build time to figure out what I had to do.
For more info, follow them on Twitter.
Jockey Rush is very similar to Starters Orders 6, which I played last year, where you can play as a champion jockey and ride around the world at over 50 racecourses. It’s a horse-racing management simulation which is a treat to play, but it’s the hydraulic ‘horse’ – aka the iJoy Ride excercise device – that makes it, and that’s something you can’t recreate at home without a lot of money.
Visit the Jockey Rush website.
Again at Play Expo, there was the Virtuality 1000CS Virtual Reality Pod, courtesy of Retro Computer Museum, playing the two-player version of it’s most popular game, Dactyl Nightmare. There’s a three-dimensional arena in front of you, allowing you to walk up and down stairs while the other player also walks about. They’re trying to kill you just as you need to kill them. This is achieved by launching grenades in their direction. Lift the sight up and ‘lob’ them towards him. After you’ve shot eight grenades, a pterodactyl will appear and lift you up, then drop you in another part of the map. The creature won’t kill you, he’s just annoying, meaning that once you land you’ll need to get your bearings again and find where your opponent is again. It is possible to avoid being picked up… except that you need to kill the pterodactyl before he gets to you. Which I found impossible. And while last time I won the game, this time it was a draw.
There’s a three-minute limit to the game and the 3D images appear inside your helmet, and the world turns as you turn. I was conscious of the fact that I was wearing a belt full of electronics that was linked to the circular platform and I didn’t want to twist the wires, but it’s fairly intuitive and whether or not you’ve played it before, it’s an unmissable experience.
You can see footage of the unit in action here, and check out Retro Computer Museum’s Facebook page and their website, as well as their Retro VR page.
Go to page 6 for the Pinball machines, including one of my all-time favourites!
Pinball machines where there by the zillion… almost, and I was blown away by a machine I haven’t clapped eyes on in almost 25 years – Pinbot! In fact, I remember once doing so well on the machine at Uni that I played for THREE HOURS on a single 50p and missed one of my lectures. What attracted me to it is the way that if you do well enough, its ‘eyes’ open up at the top of the machin, and you have to get a ball into one of them. Then it’ll give you a replacement and THAT must also go into the other eye, at which point Pinbot tells you it can see you. Yes, it’s a Multiball game at that point, but it’s orgasmically good!
It was also joined by two sequels that I’d never heard of before: The Machine: Bride Of Pinbot and Jackbot: A Pinbot Adventure.
The machines below and many more are including in my Facebook pinball album.
Revenge From Mars in 3D was another triumph in uniqueness, since inbetween the usual top and bottom halves, there is a reflected videogame screen adding to the enjoyment. It must be incredibly complex to program but the end result is unsurpassable.
Last but not least was Nautilus, a pinball machine which pre-dates electronic score readouts and, even though my pictures don’t really do it justice, you can see right inside!
Go to page 7 for the PS4 games!
There were plenty of Playstation 4 games on display – a demo of Dark Souls III (due out in April 2016) which was a bit of fun but it’s a game engine we’ve seen so many times, plus, respectively, Journey and Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, and a number of indie games below.
More PS4 games can be seen in our PS4 Facebook album.
When you’ve enjoyed these, head to the next page for a final selection of misc pics!
And finally, a round-up of some Misc pics, starting with two of the many board games on display; some more homegrown games such as the engaging fight-em-up Raging Justice, plus City of the Shroud and Wulver Blade, and party gaming in Jump Stars; LAN gaming with Play Minecraft, even though their website URL on the banner doesn’t actually exist and I couldn’t find an alternative (huh?); the talk with Q*bert creator Warren Davis; and since Mad Max drove in at a convenient time, I let him give me a lift home!
Check out more Misc Pics here!
Roll on Play Expo 2016 on October 8th & 9th 2016, but in the meantime, Play Blackpool takes play on April 30th & May 1st 2016, and there’s also Play Glasgow on June 11th & 12th 2016.
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.