CGE-UK SHOW REPORT

So, the CGE-UK has been and gone, and what a great event it was! We met so many people, made some new friends and generally just had a good laugh over the weekend.

The ‘fun’ for us started on the Thursday night, trying to load the cabinets into the Transit van – not the easiest of tasks – it took four people and a skateboard! We had to ditch loads of items last minute as we didn’t have the room in the van, and managed to leave a TV and the directions to Croyden behind. Not the best start!

After a nightmare seven hour journey in which we managed to get stuck in three (yes, three – M6, M40 & M25) traffic jams, we made it to the Fairfield Halls. We unloaded most of our stock, and then recruited Matthew Smith, Brad from Retroid Prime, the lads from Retro Passion and UK Retro’s Mike & Ste to help with the cabinets. Several minutes and several beers later and they were in place – thank you so much for your help everyone!

The Friday night we all went out for Beers & Pizza. This gave us a chance to meet all the other exhibitors, which was really interesting as we all obviously share the same interest, and had such similar backgrounds. The night ended in the bar (where else) at 2AM with Andrew Oliver shouting the beers for me & Anne, Ste & Mike from UK Retro and Matthew Smith. Probably not the best idea conceived, especially when we had a 7AM start!

The morning of the show was a panic for us as we had no power until about 9:30. The lads at Retro Passion calmly sat around playing Outrun on their awesome 28” Widescreen TV with 5.1 speakers while everyone else had chickens! I had only just managed to get everything switched on when the doors were opened.

The rest of the first day flew by – the only time I got a break was for a crafty ciggie with the UK Retro boys. Anne kept me well stocked with beer and Mini Cheddars, which pretty much seemed to be my staple diet for the weekend.

Of all the stuff we had on display, the Virtual Boy was very popular (although most people complained it gave them a headache after more than twenty minutes) as was the Vectrex which was sold within the first few minutes of opening (but later became available due to a misunderstanding!). Kids just seemed to want to destroy poor old Rob the Robot – one little lad kept smashing him over the head with a rolled up advert.

It was really great to meet so many of you who visit our site regularly – thank you to everyone for their kind comments and suggestions. I enjoyed chatting with people about their opinions on gaming, collecting, what their favourite games & consoles were and so much more; I was impressed with how incredibly knowledgeable everyone was – you all put me to shame!

The funniest part of the day for me was when Anne ran away because the Gamer TV crew came around doing their interviews. She came back when she thought it was safe only to have a radio mike clipped to her - the look of panic on her face was priceless – I would love to see the footage of her interview.

The day came to a wind down with Keith from Retrogamer moving in as our new neighbour, Russell from CGE-UK doing breakneck speed laps of the main hall and me playing and completing Monty on the Run in record time (using ‘I want to cheat’ of course!). We wandered back to the hotel at around 8:30PM for a well earned break & some much needed sleep.

Thankfully, the second day was a bit more relaxed. The morning didn’t have the same rush that the first day did and I got a chance to wander round and see all the stalls properly. I wish I’d bought some of the really cool Arcade signs that were on sale upstairs, but I completely forgot about it! I was also going to buy a Space Invaders T-Shirt, but got sidetracked by beer.

After having Magical Sound Shower from Outrun in my head the previous day, I was determined to drown it out with something equally annoying, so I had Bubble Bobble on the C64 at full volume. This prompted Matthew Smith to do an impromptu dance which was… interesting to say the least!

So Sundays show came to a close, and we had to call it a day. With a tear in my eye, I began to unpack – I was sad to be leaving, but even sadder that I had to move those cabinets back to the van! Thankfully, Retro Passion were there to help again, and two nice lads whose names I didn’t catch. We finally finished at around 7:30PM – another long day over and done with. The only thing about the show I regret was not going on the UK Retro Sinclair C5 – I may have to get myself one of those!

So there you have it. A good weekend was had by all. I can’t wait for next years show.

My thanks / hello’s go out to:

Chris & Christine for doing a sterling job of organising it

Barry & Crew from Retro Passion for being great blokes, and helping with the shelves.

(An extra big apology to for earlier insulting them - 'twas an accident ;) )

Ste & Mike from UK Retro for also being top blokes and helping with the shelves

Andrew Oliver for buying drinks at the bar

Matthew Smith for doing a ciggie run to the Supermarket on Sunday morning

Everyone who came and said hi / bought from us

Keith from Retrogamer fanzine

Wayne & Shaun from Retro Gamer magazine

Simon & Brad from Chronosoft / Retroid Prime

Adrian from Binary Dinosaurs

Here’s a few photos to remind you of the event – most have them have been nicked from UKRetro or were provided by Chris from CGE-UK as my camera took awful photos for some reason…