Retrovision
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Retrovision is a semi-regular retrogaming event in the UK, presented as a social opportunity for retro gamers to meet each others and also to play games on hardware provided by the venue.
Retrovision was first organised as a meet for the Jeff Minter fan forum Yak Yak but then later became advertised as a public event.
[edit] Events
| Number | Open to public? |
Date | Event Location | Meal Location | Llamasoft event |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | 21 Sep 2002 | The Horse and Jockey, Oxford | Jamal's, Oxford | Initial "Yakfest" board meet; Guest of honour Jeff Minter |
| 2 | Yes | 7 Dec 2002 | The Pub Oxford, Oxford | Starlight Tandoori, Oxford | None |
| 2.5 | No | 11 Jan 2003 | The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford | Hired caterer | None |
| 3 | Yes | 9 Mar 2003 | The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford | Jamal's, Oxford | Guest of Honour Jeff Minter |
| 3.5 | No | 3 Aug 2003 | The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford | Jamal's, Oxford | Partially complete gameplay demo of Unity |
| 4 | Yes | 19 Jun 2004 | The George Hotel, Frome | Frome Tandoori | Guest of Honour Jeff Minter |
| 4.5 | No | 3 Nov 2004 | The George Hotel, Frome | Frome Tandoori | Guest of Honour Jeff Minter |
| 5 | Yes | 12 Feb 2005 | The George Hotel, Frome | Frome Tandoori | Demo of early version of Neon |
| 5.5 | No | 23 Sep 2005 | The George Hotel, Frome | Cancelled | |
| 5.25 | No | 21 Oct 2006 | The Port Mahon, Oxford | The Port Mahon, Oxford | Guest of Honour Jeff Minter |
| 2007 | No | 12 May 2007 | The Port Mahon, Oxford | The Port Mahon, Oxford | Guest of Honour Jeff Minter - Demo of Space Giraffe |
| 2008 | No | 8 Feb 2008 | The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford | The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford | Guests of Honour Jeff Minter, Ivan Zorzin, Steinar Lund |
| 2008.5 | No | 11 Oct 2008 | The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford | The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford | |
A "mini" Retrovision took place in Manchester on 10 September 2005, combined with a mini Back In Time Live. This was known by some as Mini-Retro-Bit-Live-O-Vision.
Another "mini" Retrovision, RV5.25, took place in The Port Mahon pub in Oxford on 21 October 2006. It was designated a "0.25" event as it was originally just meant as a small Llamasoft / Yak Yak get together, which then grew to about 50 people.
[edit] Traditions
- Jeff Minter remains a frequent guest of honour, together with others from the retro and current gaming industries.
- "Markie", the organiser of Retrovision, always dresses up as Ming the Merciless (including green face paint) on at least one day of the event. The origin of this tradition is unknown.
- The curry eaten at Retrovision is traditionally chicken vindaloo, with a milder and/or vegetarian alternative available for those who prefer it. Due to the events's origins with Jeff Minter, who is famously known for keeping several sheep as pets, consumption of lamb or mutton at a Retrovision is normally taboo; on the one occasion when someone was caught doing so, they were punished with the zeroing of their post count on Yak Yak.
- Most attendees who possess a Nintendo DS will bring it to the event, and huge Pictochat sessions and multiplayer games via wireless networking are standard. Other handhelds are also used, but the DS is the most commonly seen at Retrovision.
- At most Retrovisions there will be one or more games which are particularly "in fashion" at the time of the event, and will be run continuously throughout the event. Often, but not always, this is an obscure game. At recent events this has been Guitar Hero 2, Realflight (an RC flight simulator which attracted a strong following after being demonstrated there) and Rock Band; previous such games included Katamari Damacy.
- The work of a young Finnish cartoonist, who uses the forum handle Limb Clock, is often displayed at Retrovision events; many users on Yak Yak are keen on supporting and encouraging his work.
- In recent years Yak Yak user "Psycho Rob" has contributed to Retrovision by supplying many different retro games consoles and presenting them on a projector screen under the title of "Psycho Robs Game Zone", this has evolved into him attempting better and sometimes crazy ways of playing games on large scale, at Retrovision 2007 he joined forces with fellow Yak Yak member "Vintage Matt" where they showed The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures on the big screen with 1 master GameCube and 4 small screens and 4 GameCubes with 4 Game Boy Players acting as Game Boy Advances to play the game like never before.
