Retro Gathering Vintage Computer Edition 2016

This weekend I drove all the way to Västerås to attend the first Retro Gathering convention of 2016, they’ve started hosting two conventions a year since it’s become so popular with retro games and vintage computers here in Sweden. This Retro Gathering they called VCE, because it was a Vintage Computer Edition, and damn! There were a LOT of vintage computers there ^_^ I think it scared off a few of the Nintendo-fanatics though, since there were a bit less visitors than usually, but still there were loads of people! :D

Retro Gathering VCE 2016

It’s so much fun going to these conventions, mainly to meet with all the friends you’ve gotten to know through the common interests and also, of course, to buy shitloads of games!! This year was no different for me.. I came home with a massive haul. I will make a separate post once I’ve gone through it all XD Here’s  picture of most of it stacked up in a couch! Just so you can get an idea ;D

Retro Gathering VCE 2016 loot

I also really enjoy seeing all these odd old machines, they always have more things like this at Retro Gathering than any of the other conventions here in Sweden. Most conventions are strongly focused around Nintendo.. so it’s nice to see something different ^_^ Some of the things they had brought in this time I had never even seen before! So many cool machines ^_^ There was an Apple Pippin for sale (or even two, one was boxed and new!), there was also an Iris Crimson that appeared in Jurassic Park, and a bunch of other cool machines. These are just a few of them! Do you recognize them all? ;D I sure didn’t!

Most of the computers there were for sale, I was really close to buying the T2100 with the beautiful monochrome orange screen, but once I returned to buy it it was already gone >_< For only $34! I also glanced at the Japanese Commodore 64 which was quite rare, with a few boxed cartridges! So beautiful ^_^ I did however buy some other systems, like the Atari ST 1040 and a ZX 81 ^_^ Apart from computers there were LOADS of games for sale, both Nintendo, Sega and lots of other stuff! Pappas Pärlor was also there to sell some of his awesome custom bead arts ^_^ Apart from this you could find almost anything at Retro Gathering VCE! I even saw a Vectrex 3D imager! It’s 3D-glasses for the Vectrex, and they were boxed with 2 games! Super rare and also super expensive >_<

I’m super happy with my weekend trip to Retro Gathering VCE 2016! I met so many nice people, had lots of fun and I’m looking forward to the next Retro Gathering this fall ^_^ I’m quite exhausted now though, and I will be busy with my haul for a while, testing all the new games! :D :D :D I will update shortly with everything that I bought ^_^

Retrospelsmässan 2015

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 :)

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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

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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 ^_^

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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!!

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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.

rsm-2015-the-aquatic-adventures-of-the-last-human  rsm-2015-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

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There were so many consoles and systems to be played all over RSM! It’s almost overwhelming :D Just look at all these beauties!

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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

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I really want an Amiga CD32 myself!! The controllers are just so cool ^__^
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This cabinet is just so cute! Comic Game! haha ^_^
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I love how colorful the cartridges are for this Arcadia 2001 console! :D Never heard of this one before either ^_^
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This one’s also weird-looking :D It’s called a Bondwell, never even heard of! ^__^
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Here’s a display stand for Coleco Vision! So awesomely cool! ^__^
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This one looks so futuristic! :D Love it ^__^ Commodore CBM Model 8032
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This Pong Hockey machine is the prettiest pong machine I’ve ever seen! Bright red and beautiful! ^__^ WANT!!!
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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 >_<
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I really need an MSX as well, one that can play the only Castlevania game I’m missing, the MSX one ;D 
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And what the hell is a PCFX?! Apparently it’s made by NEC, the people who made the PC Engine!! :D I’m intrigued ^__^
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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!)
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I need this Sega SG-1000 as well! It’s so cute ^__^
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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 ^^ 
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Here’s a Videopac 7200, looks pretty rad huh? ;D The cartridges have handles! So smart ^___^
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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…
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And here’s some of the arcades and pinball machines you could play ^__^
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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 ^__^

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Here’s some PC Engine games and Sega Saturn :D Yes, I bought some stuff here ;D
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Beautiful old game boxes for Luxor ^_^
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So many vintage consoles and still boxed!! :D Spoiler alert!!! I bought two of these ;D Guess which??
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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 ^__^
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Here’s another colorful old Pong clone ^__^ Japan knows how to make things cute! 
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This is one out five known copies of a boxed Luxor in Sweden! coooool ^^
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Bead art jewelry!
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There were even Neo Geo games!! And yes, I came home with one ;D Not pictured though ^^
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You could find all kinds of systems boxed and pretty ^__^
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One of the developers behind Pier Solar was there to sell some re-printed copies :D 
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Amazing prints of retro gaming box arts ^^
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So many games!!! *drool*
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This Samus lamp is puuurdyyy!!! <3 
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KCL selling off his entire CiB NES collection ;D
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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 :(
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Pappas Pärlor was also in the house, selling his awesome retro gaming inspired perler bead artworks! :D
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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 ^_^

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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 ^__^
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And also loads of various collections of vintage games ^_^ Like handhelds, Swedish made retro games, Giana Sister, R-Type and lots of other things.
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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!

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Sci-Fi World 2015 – Malmö

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 ^__^

Sci-Fi World Malmö Cosplay  Jawa & SandtrooperSci-Fi World Malmö Cosplay Darth Maul
Sci-Fi World Malmö Cosplay emperor     Sci-Fi World Malmö Cosplay stormtrooper
Sci-Fi World Malmö Cosplay scout trooper
Sci-Fi World Malmö Cosplay starwarsSci-Fi World Malmö Cosplay stormtrooper 2Sci-Fi World Malmö cosplay umbrella corp
Sci-Fi World Malmö cosplay ?

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 :)
Sci-Fi World Malmö merch mortal combat
Sci-Fi World Malmö merch scorpion
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Sci-Fi World Malmö art

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

Sci-Fi World Malmö merch
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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 ^^

Sci-Fi World Malmö merch tarzanSci-Fi World Malmö merch toys
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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?

Sci-Fi World Malmö merch poster

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 :)
Sci-Fi World Malmö Pappaspärlor Sci-Fi World Malmö Pappaspärlor mini Sci-Fi World Malmö Pappaspärlor lamps
Sci-Fi World Malmö Pappaspärlor metroidSci-Fi World Malmö Pappaspärlor beadart Sci-Fi World Malmö Pappaspärlor björn punch Sci-Fi World Malmö Pappaspärlor commando peach

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

Sci-Fi World Malmö retro games consoles Sci-Fi World Malmö retro games Game Boy Pocket Sci-Fi World Malmö retro games Gameboys Sci-Fi World Malmö retro games
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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
Sci-Fi World Malmö gaming game pad NES Sci-Fi World Malmö gaming SMB3 Sci-Fi World Malmö gaming tetris n64

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 ^_^
Sci-Fi World Malmö props Alien hand Sci-Fi World Malmö props terminator Sci-Fi World Malmö props Ewok hands

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 >_<
Sci-Fi World Malmö q&a

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