Café på Bit | Retro Video Gaming

A lot of people have asked me if I know a place where you can find a calendar of all the Retro Gaming related events and conventions in Sweden, I don’t, but I can make one! ^_^ I’ve made a short calendar on the right side of the page, but also this page where I’ll update as soon as I find out about new conventions or events that are retro game related! If you know or hear about any events feel free to drop a comment and I’ll add it to the list :D

Upcoming retro game events & conventions in Sweden:

2018

MAY 26th
Göteborg
RETROSPELSMÄSSAN
Sweden’s largest retro gaming convention. Loads of games for sale, games to be played (both arcade and console), competitions like the Swedish Championships of Super Mario and other events.
See posts from previous Retrospelsmässan >>

SEPTEMBER 1st
Malmö
RETROSPELSFESTIVALEN
A retro gaming festival (convention) in the southern part of Sweden. Loads of games for sale, games to be played (both arcade and console), and usually some fun competitions and events.
See posts from previous Retrospelsfestivalen >>

SEPTEMBER 29th
Västerås
RETRO GATHERING
Retro gathering is a pure retro game and vintage computer convention, the longest running one in Sweden. Here you can find anything from old C64 and Spectrum to Nintendo and PS2
See posts from previous Retro Gatherings >>

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Events that will most likely come back next year:

RETROSPELSMÄSSAN, Gothenburg
Sweden’s largest retro gaming convention. Loads of games for sale, games to be played (both arcade and console), competitions like the Swedish Championships of Super Mario and other events.
See posts from previous Retrospelsmässan >>

RETROSPELSFESTIVALEN, Malmö
A retro gaming festival (convention) in the southern part of Sweden. Loads of games for sale, games to be played (both arcade and console), and usually some fun competitions and events.
See posts from previous Retrospelsfestivalen >>

RETRO GAMES, Stockholm
A retro gaming convention in the capital of Sweden with a lot of focus on arcade games. Loads of arcades are displayed there for you to try out. There’s also a market section and competitions, like the Swedish championships of Pac-Man.
See posts from previous Retro Games >>

COMICCON, Stockholm
COMICCON, Malmö
COMICCON, Copenhagen
NORDSKEN, Skellefteå
RETROSPELMARKNAD, Vetlanda

Apart from these events there’s of course a lot of permanent retro game inspired places to visit, I will fill up the list below with places that are worth a visit for any retro game enthusiast ^_^

STOCKHOLMS SPELMUSEUM, Stockholm
A video game museum filled with history of video games, and also playable games, both arcades and consoles :) See some pics from it here >>

HEY ARCADE @ Roq bar, Stockholm
An extensive arcade with loads of machines, everything from classic shmups to the great rhythm and music arcades from Japan ^_^ Read about my visit here >>

CAFÉ PÅ BIT, Skellefteå
A really cute café filled with retro games and some arcades that you can pay to play and retro games that you can buy ^_^ Read about my visit here >>

MACKAPÄR, Gothenburg
A vintage retro store containing everything from cool furniture and accessories to obscure retro video games :D

SPEL & SÅNT, Norrtälje
A video game store that also holds loads of retro games

This weekend I visited a dear friend way up north in Sweden :) I brought an NES so we could try out some adventure games and also play my latest Tetris acquisition, Tengen Tetris, since my friend loves Tetris! ^_^ We had loads of fun with the co-op mode of Tengen Tetris, and also played a bunch of other games, like Xexyz!

Xexyz is an awesome adventure game that merges platforming action with sidescrolling shooting ^_^ It’s also really pretty and colorful, and you get to see fairies in bath tubs! haha ^_^

Another game that we played was Wurm: Journey to the Center of the Earth which is also really cool :) It is also a merge of platformer/shmup, but it also has a strategic boss battle element :) This dinosaur was really annoying >_<

We also played Zen: intergalactic ninja! This game is hard!! But I love how they’re making it all about environmental friendliness haha ^_^ Every stage is about fighting pollution in some way, and in the bonus stages you recycle trash! LOL! I’ve never encountered such an environmentally aware Ninja ;D

Last game we played was Karnov, and we got stuck on the 5th stage with the dinosaur boss that appears a second time >_< The game was a bit glitchy, we got stuck sometimes inside walls and had to wait for the timer to run out and kill us, lol…

On Saturday we went into town and visited the GAME store. They had quite a lot of retro games, apart from three big glass cabinets by the entrance they also had more shelves around the counter :D I picked up quite a lot of games here ;D

At the end of they day we visited a really awesome place called Café på Bit! It’s a café/arcade! Mainly focusing on console gaming but they also had some pinball machines and an arcade machine with Pixelbot Arena (a game produced by a local talent) :)

Apart from all the setups, CRT’s and consoles, they also had a whole wall of games you could choose to play! :D They had the entire NES library that was released in Scandinavia ^_^ And some games were even for sale! I picked up a few great ones ;D I’ll tell you all about them in my next post ^_^

We spent 4 hours there, all three of us were playing the same game, the only game I was interested in playing since I knew I couldn’t play it at home: Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril! I’ve seen the game maybe once before, and I know it’s a new game released for the NES (in 2006 I think) made by one guy. It was extremely difficult! You just had to memorize every step! We were competing on who would finish it first, after four hours none of us were even close to finishing it haha ^_^ I made it the furthest though, to boss no. 2…

Café på Bit was really cosy, too bad it’s so far away from me :( Probably around a 15 hour drive! I recommend anyone visiting the north of Sweden to check it out though! ^___^

I’ll get right on writing my next post about my pickups! I came home with almost 20 games! :D