This weekend was awesome!! I left on friday with my Geeky Gals to Gothenburg and met up with a bunch of friends and new acquaintances in the retro gaming community :)
On saturday morning we went to Retrospelsmässan! Sweden’s largest yearly retro gaming convention! This year I had a press pass so I could enter beforehand and get some nice pictures of everything they had set up ^_^ They had used a larger portion of the facility this year, more tables with things for sale, a whole corner for indie games, a live podcast being streamed, a bigger area for retro gaming with 60-70 consoles and old computers setup for people to try out and arcades, pinball machines, collections and art on display. There’s just so much going on at RSM! :D
First let’s talk about the gaming experience at RSM! There were a couple of indie developers showcasing their new games. I tried out Alwa’s Awakening which was inspired by the NES. Very cute and the graphics were beautifully made, controlling the character was a bit slow though, I prefer faster platforming games such as mario, this one was slower than Megaman.. They had some nice elements in it though, you could spawn a brick or a bubble to make you reach certain places or get past obstacles. It was just a demo though, I got through it without dying, they promised to make it harder by the time it gets released ;D Hopefully we’ll see it released on Wii U soon, I’m also hoping for an Xbox One release, they would look into that ^_^
I also tried out a game called 1993 Space Machine! This game felt more like a finished product and it was a lot of fun! A horizontal sidescrolling shooter which looked kind of futuristic but still felt old school ^_^ That’s probably because it was actually MADE back in 1993! But isn’t released until now. It was difficult! They also had a keyboardist integrating music live into the game, this was a really cool thing to experience :D I doubt that they’ll ship the game with a dude that plays keyboard with it though ;D haha! They’re looking at releasing the game on Steam and Xbox One! :D So yay!!
There were two other indie games showcasing, I did however not get the chance to try them out. They looked cool though ^_^ They were called The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human (brilliant name ;D) and else.heartbreak.
During the whole day they had retro gaming competitions and speedruns going on at Retrospelsmässan. We we’re so occupied with everything that we completely missed the Bomberman tournament, and when we tried to sign up for Super Mario it was too late >_< I did however compete in Asteroids on Arcade and guess what?!? I came in second place!! :D :D
There were so many consoles and systems to be played all over RSM! It’s almost overwhelming :D Just look at all these beauties!
The first one here I’ve never even seen! Adonbolagen AB is apparently a Swedish company and in the bottom it says Aleph, it’s so retro!! :D
I really want an Amiga CD32 myself!! The controllers are just so cool ^__^
This cabinet is just so cute! Comic Game! haha ^_^
I love how colorful the cartridges are for this Arcadia 2001 console! :D Never heard of this one before either ^_^
This one’s also weird-looking :D It’s called a Bondwell, never even heard of! ^__^
Here’s a display stand for Coleco Vision! So awesomely cool! ^__^
This one looks so futuristic! :D Love it ^__^ Commodore CBM Model 8032
This Pong Hockey machine is the prettiest pong machine I’ve ever seen! Bright red and beautiful! ^__^ WANT!!!
I really want a Mattel Intellivision! I have had games for it almost since I began collecting, but never had the hardware to play it on >_<
I really need an MSX as well, one that can play the only Castlevania game I’m missing, the MSX one ;D
And what the hell is a PCFX?! Apparently it’s made by NEC, the people who made the PC Engine!! :D I’m intrigued ^__^
I don’t know what the hell this one is, but damn it’s cool! I love retro things that are brown, orange or yellow, even better when all the colors are combined ;D haha (edit: I found out that it’s an Atari 400!)
I need this Sega SG-1000 as well! It’s so cute ^__^
I was on the lookout all day for a ZX Spectrum but couldn’t find one, except for this demo one. I really want the black one with a tiny rainbow in the corner, it’s so cuuute ^^
Here’s a Videopac 7200, looks pretty rad huh? ;D The cartridges have handles! So smart ^___^
And here’s the Videopac G7000 ^__^ Now I’ve showed off the systems I found different and cool, they had all the regular ones as well of course, NES, SNES, SMD, SMS, Famicom, Atari etc…
And here’s some of the arcades and pinball machines you could play ^__^
Apart from all the gaming there were also shitloads of games, consoles and merchandise for sale! :D I found so many things that I wanted!! I was mainly on the hunt for an Atari Lynx and a ZX Spectrum though, but it’s really hard not to get sucked into buying everything else that shines in pretty bright colours ;D You could find games from the 70’s up to the early 2000’s. There were of course a lot of NES, SNES and N64, but you could also find Sega Master System and Mega Drive, and loads of old vintage stuff like Commodore and Amiga. Below is a system called Alice! So cute ^__^
Here’s some PC Engine games and Sega Saturn :D Yes, I bought some stuff here ;D
Beautiful old game boxes for Luxor ^_^
So many vintage consoles and still boxed!! :D Spoiler alert!!! I bought two of these ;D Guess which??
I looked at this old system, the handle on the left is to hold the console while steering with the right one, haha, the console IS the controller! :D awesome ^__^
Here’s another colorful old Pong clone ^__^ Japan knows how to make things cute!
This is one out five known copies of a boxed Luxor in Sweden! coooool ^^
There were even Neo Geo games!! And yes, I came home with one ;D Not pictured though ^^
You could find all kinds of systems boxed and pretty ^__^
One of the developers behind Pier Solar was there to sell some re-printed copies :D
Amazing prints of retro gaming box arts ^^
This Samus lamp is puuurdyyy!!! <3
KCL selling off his entire CiB NES collection ;D
And more games… I don’t even feel like I had time to thoroughly check through all the tables! I think I even missed a few :(
Pappas Pärlor was also in the house, selling his awesome retro gaming inspired perler bead artworks! :D
All over the place you could spot cosplayers in amazing costumes inspired by games. Here are just a few of the ones I managed to catch on camera ^_^ You can check out more cosplay over at the Geeky Gals blog ^_^
There were also loads of things to just look at and admire ^__^ Like Love Hultén’s amazing crafts, his R-Kaid-R MAME mini cabinets and a full scale arcade cabinet that you even got to play on ^__^
And also loads of various collections of vintage games ^_^ Like handhelds, Swedish made retro games, Giana Sister, R-Type and lots of other things.
I’ll make a separate post with all my pickups from the convention, however it will take a couple of more days just to go through it all ;D Stay tuned!
Retro Video Gaming 