Retrospelsmässan 2015

May 19, 2015 by stopXwhispering

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 ^^

Bead art jewelry!

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 ^^

So many games!!! *drool*

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!

Sci-Fi World 2015 – Malmö

March 1, 2015 by stopXwhispering

This saturday I went to Malmö to visit the Sci-Fi World convention! It felt a bit bigger than the last Sci-Fi World i attended in Helsingborg. The place was a lot bigger and they had vendors selling game and movie merchandise, cosplayers, celebrities signing autographs and doing Q&A, games setup to play, retro game retailers, fan-art and fiction and much more! Here’s some pictures from the day of things I found interesting ^_^

First up is a bunch of different cosplayers. There was a lot of Star Wars, all kinds of troopers, Stormtroopers, Scout troopers, Sandtroopers and also Jawas, Darth Maul, Vader, the Emperor and much more :) There was also some comic book character cosplay, and game characters. The last image of cosplayers here I’m not quite sure what characters they are, but they looked really cool ^__^

There was so much awesome stuff for sale, everything from movies, anime, manga, games, clothing, toys, action figures and other merchandise. Here’s some pics of some of the cool stuff for sale :)

This cap was my favorite! Too bad I don’t wear caps, otherwise I would have bought it and probably been rockin’ it right now! :D

I think these old vintage toy figures are adorable and some are right out hilarious! Like this Tarzan figure! What’s that pose?! hahaha ^_^ It’s always really nice and nostalgic to walk around conventions like this, you get reminded of so many things, like Alf! Completely forgot about him ^^

This Star Trek poster was 35 years old, and it says on the post-it note that it’s in “excellent condition” haha ^_^ Do you agree?

One of my favorite vendors was of course Pappas Pärlor! He makes some really awesome bead art! I love the lamps and the paintings with fuse bead sprites in them ^_^ So well placed! I adore the Peach/Contra mash-up! The bear punch is hilarious :D And yes, I got that pretty Samus Aran lamp ;D It will fit nicely into my retro game room! ^_^ Go check out Johan on instagram @pappasparlor :)

Apart from merchandise and art there was also some retro games for sale!! :D Retro Play and Pixel K.A.F.E had stands with only retro video games ^_^ And there were some other vendors that had a bunch of Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox games :) I bought some retro games at Sci-Fi World, I will make another post soon with all my pickups! But here’s some pics of some of the stuff that was up for sale :D

You could also play games at Sci-Fi world! They had TV’s setup with everything from the NES to Wii U ^_^ They even had an NES Power Pad with Athletic World that you could try out :D

No sci-fi convention is complete without props from actual sci-fi movies ;D Here’s the Alien hand from the Alien movie, the gun from Terminator 2 and Ewok hands! :D There was lots more, but these were things that I cared for ^_^

I also attended 2 Q&A’s for the first time! It was with Ray Park who played Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode One, he was really funny ^_^ The other guy was someone from Games of Thrones (which I’ve never seen..) so it wasn’t as special to me.. but I got a good shot, so maybe someone recognizes him ;D I’m really sad I missed the Q&A with Danny Glover :( But that took place the day after >_<

That’s all for now, I’ll be back soon with the pickup update ^_^

GAMEX / Comic Con 2014!!

November 5, 2014 by stopXwhispering

This last weekend I went GAMEX/Comic Con in Stockholm! This was the first year that the previous gaming only convention called GAMEX was cooperating with Sweden’s first Comic Con. It turned out great! I spent two days there with my friends @geeky_gals :)

The convention was huge and the cosplayers were many ^_^ They also had a bunch of great games on display and merchandise! SO MUCH MERCHANDISE!!

The first thing I bought was a couple of tiny plushies, apart from the llama square and the happy kitty I also got a tiny Totoro plushie, but I think my cat has already found it, caught it and killed it…. >_< lol! I also got some cute Domokun decks of card and Beemo from Adventure Time ^_^ Plus a bunch of other stuff like T-shirts etc ^^

Then of course there were games! Even Retro Games!! :D

Me going through the stock of NES games at the GAME store ^_^ Unfortunately I already had them all >_<

I also met Gaminggrannar at the convention! DAVE was also finding some retro games ^_^

I found a few games as well, a few Game Boy Color games from the GAME store. Sylvester & Tweety and Lucky Luke :) I also found a C64 copy of Shadow Dancer that was pretty cheap ^_^

And I picked up some games for the Super Nintendo. Tetris 2, Mohawk & Headphone Jack, Spirou and The Adventures of Mighty Max which was in pretty bad shape, but it wasn’t too expensive :)

Then there’s the cosplays… so many amazing ones! I will just let you see for yourself :D First off is MissDeluxe getting attacked by Alien! Save her Ripley!!!

NinjaBrite got arrested by the Empire…

MissDeluxe made friends with the Storm Troopers ^_^

This was one of my personal favorites! PRINCE LEIA! Priceless ^__^

My friend Ulrik cosplaying as the Predator also attended GAMEX/Comic Con! Such a great costume!!! :D

Deadpool did some posing before my camera ^__^ haha

MissDeluxe & NinjaBrite met BumbleBee from Transformers ^_^

A Scout Trooper played some board games while awaiting instructions from the sith lord..

We got photo bombed by a Star Wars cosplayer… o_O haha

Here’s another favorite of mine! The Last of Us cosplay! So cool ^__^

An R2-D2 robot also graced us with his presence ^_^ And there were lots of great Ghostbusters cosplayers due to the anniversary :D

No! I haven’t seen Sarah Connor!!



Homer Simpson was also at Gamex/Comic Con 2014! Eating donuts!!!

Sly the Racoon! :D Did anyone play the PS2 game? ^_^



The cutest ever Minecraft cosplayers with NinjaBrite :D

And let’s finish off with Prince Leia once again! Brilliant!

All the major gaming companies were there displaying their games and also a bunch of indie developers :) It’s so interesting to get to see all these new games :D

I was really excited to try out Far Cry 4 :D

It was huge! Can’t wait for next years convention! :D

and….. we got to see a real-life batmobile!!!! :D

Sci-Fi World 2014!

November 4, 2014 by stopXwhispering

The weekend before this last one I went to a sci-fi convention in Helsingborg called Sci-Fi World. This was the first time I ever went to a sci-fi convention, and apparently this year they had more visitors than ever before! :D There were loads of cool things to see and do :) They even had two tables selling retro video games! :D And loads of amazing cosplayers all over the place ^_^

The first thing I encountered was while waiting in line to enter, a Jason Voorhees cosplayer was just standing in a glade, staring at people. So awesomely creepy! :D

Me and my friend NinjaBrite got our picture taken for charity with the emperor and guards ^_^

The first thing I bought were two really awesome illustrations by a guy called Anders Larsson. They pictured Super Mario riding Yoshi and Pikachu ^_^

Then I also found some retro games of course ^_^

There were two sellers there but both of them were quite pricey… I did however get a decent deal when buying a couple of games from one of them. I got 6 NES games: Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, The Hunt for Red October, Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge, High Speed, Addams Family and Wrestlemania Steel Cage. Nothing really exciting, but I didn’t previously have them at least ;D

I also picked up a game for Super Nintendo called King Arthur’s World, I’ve never played it before, but I do recall someone telling me it was good once.. so I bought it ^^

There were LOADS of amazing cosplayers as well! :D Like these baby storm troopers and jawas! :D Adorable!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There were loads of other Star Wars characters there as well :)

My friend NinjaBrite posing with the Silent Hill Nurse and some other guy I did not recognize (?). Damn that nurse is creepy though >-<

And last but definitely not least! I found out that it was my friend Ulrik that was hiding behind this awesome home-made Predator cosplay costume! :D Here’s the Predator with NinjaBrite ^^

Ok, now I’m off to prepare for this last weekends re-cap! Namely, the awesome Gamex/Comic Con convention! IT WAS AMAZING! Stay tuned … ^_^

Retrogathering 2014!

October 6, 2014 by stopXwhispering

This year was the first time I visited the Swedish retro gaming gathering called Retrogathering, and it was not a disappointment! :D They had loads of retro games for sale, games to be played, people cosplaying, lectures by people from the industry, competitions and of course the Swedish Pong championships that they host every year! (yes I participated, and no I did not win >_<)

Here’s some pictures to re-cap the event! First off is some of all the trading tables where people and companies sold retro games, consoles and merchandise. Everything from old Atari and computers to Nintendo, Sega, Playstation and Xbox! I personally found loads of fun stuff! Went home with over 70 games!! :D

They also had a huge setup of old systems that could be played. Loads of classics but also some more unknown systems that was very interesting to see :) The last two pictures are of a Swedish version of the Magnavox Odyssey, it’s called “Kanal 34” (Channel 34) and it’s from 1976.

They held two competitions apart from the Pong championships. These were competitions in Tetris for Super Nintendo and Tekken for Playstation 1. My friends over at GamingGrannar participated in the Tetris competition and came in both 2nd and 1st place! Congratulations! :D

The cosplays at Retrogathering were absolutely fantastic! All costumes were home made and stunning! It was so much fun to see them walk around all day and interact with people! There was an Alien (that seriously scared the shit out of me at several occasions!) accompanied by Ripley, a Stormtrooper, Bison from Street Fighter, a Rainbow 6 soldier and even Wheatley from Portal made an appearance again (saw him at Retrospelsmässan as well this year, lovely costume) ^_^

I’ll make another post soon with all my pickups from this weekend once I’ve got them sorted ;D Meanwhile I’m looking forward to what Retrospelsfestivalen has to offer next weekend!

Retrospelsmässan 2014 (Sweden’s retro gaming exhibition)

May 4, 2014 by stopXwhispering

So I just got back from Tokyo 3 days ago and I’m still a bit jet lagged, and also very sick >.< But I refused to miss out on 2014’s RSM (Retrospelsmässan), Sweden’s yearly retro gaming exhibition in Gothenburg. So I drove there yesterday to see what they had to offer.

The setup was similar to last year, the biggest improvement though was that they had more registers at the entrance (6 instead of 1 or 2 last year) so the massive queues went a lot faster (but they were still there). Last year I waited almost 4 hours before I could get in, this year it took a little more than one hour.

The last 1/5 part of the queuing

There were as usual loads of cosplayers running around. It’s always nice to see ^_^ Here’s a few of the characters I managed to capture on camera:

It’s a me! Mario!

Street Fighter and Kingdom Hearts cosplay

My personal favorite: Wheatley from Portal ^_^ Brilliant!

Zelda & Link cosplay

At the fair there were loads of things to do. They had competitions, hundreds of systems, arcades and pinball machines setup to be played, artwork being made and sold, speedruns, street fighter tournaments, traders selling retro games and stuff and lots more.

And Charles Martinet was there (the voice of Mario & friends) and you could get his signature…

…which I did ^_^ He was very friendly and funny :)

I came in quite late since I had to drive for 2 hours to get there, so I didn’t have time to browse around a lot through the games. I also think that most of the good stuff had already been picked out, but I did manage to find a few things :) I found Sunset Riders for Sega Mega Drive, Wolfchild and Prince of Persia for Sega Mega CD. I’ve been curious about the Mega CD version of Wolfchild ever since I made the review for Wolfchild on Master System. I found it disturbing that the game lacked music, then someone told me that the Mega CD version had music, so I had to hear it ^_^ Sunset Riders has also been on my radar for some time but it has always been so pricey on eBay. I got it for approximately 40 GBP (or 69 USD).

I also found a mysterious Famicom pirate game which had no name, just an image of Tetris and airplanes?! So I had to buy it to see what it would be like ^_^

It turned out to be just Tetris, but I haven’t seen a Tetris that looks exactly like this one before. It had loads of gameplay options like 1 player, 2 player, cooperative, versus etc.

It also had loads of russian songs to choose from ^_^ Troika is my favorite :D

That’s it for now, soon i’ll make a big post about all my pickups in Japan, and also a small guide of Akihabara’s great assortment of retro game shops ^_^ But first I will have to sort out this mess on my desk of over 100 games that I bought during my 2 weeks there… o_O