Play Expo Glasgow 2026

[Spanky]

Play Expo Glasgow will once again be returning to Braehead arena on 11th and 12th July 2026.

 

[Dougsy]

Tickets on sale now.

 

[shaunholley]

Just got my weekend ticket 👍

 

[jasonm737]

Still trying to work out the specifics, but the aim is to have one pay per play pinball machine available with all proceeds being donated to a cancer charity in memory of John Bud, who a lot of you on ukvac knew. I'm taking up Merlins Arcade so will most likely use that. Dates changed from original first post of this thread.11th and 12th July. @Spanky can you update?

Link for tickets:

PLAY Expo Glasgow

Scotland's biggest video games expo

www.playexpoglasgow.com

 

[Spanky]

Well, that's a wrap.

The unexpected star attraction was this thing:

Half a dozen blokes spent most of today trying to fix it. One of the coils got stuck, I'm not sure how that ended.

 

[Yakama]

Really enjoyed the event. Getting to go on the outrun deluxe was a dream and I loved the vectrex I’d never played one before.

How do they get the cabs? Do people loan them for the event or do the organisers own them?

 

[Spanky]

Really enjoyed the event. Getting to go on the outrun deluxe was a dream and I loved the vectrex I’d never played one before.

How do they get the cabs? Do people loan them for the event or do the organisers own them?

The cabs are indeed owned by the organisers. Although a few years ago, I took my JAMMA cab along just for the hell of it. I've got a smaller car now, so I couldn't bring it this time.
The organisers (or perhaps their subcontractors, don't know) own all the consoles, CRT tellies, 8-bit computers and whatnot.
As for the pinball machines, each of those is someone's pride and joy, and they lend them for the weekend. Quite something to let the great unwashed (mis)use your most prized possession. Pinball machines being what they are, it takes a crew of volunteers to attend to stuck balls and running repairs. We don't really have the expert skills in Scotland, so these guys come up from England (even as far as Wales). All they get for their efforts is a room in a Premier Inn and unlimited cups of tea and bags of crisps.
There's also the logistics of getting the hulking pinball machines in and set up on the Friday, and breaking them down and getting them out late on Sunday. That's all done by volunteers too.

P.S. I was pleased to see a Sharp X68000, what a funny and cool thing

 

[Yakama]

Ah ok thanks. Yeah it was a great event, I was sad the T2 was broken as I really wanted to have a go on that but overall there was some awesome machines there. I will definitely go next year too. A few of the machines were quite tired and were playing with faults but I guess that’s to be expected from these old machines. The start wars for example had no sound

I didn’t even touch the consoles other than the vectrex, we just played the cabinets and pinballs

 

[jasonm737]

Ah ok thanks. Yeah it was a great event, I was sad the T2 was broken as I really wanted to have a go on that but overall there was some awesome machines there. I will definitely go next year too. A few of the machines were quite tired and were playing with faults but I guess that’s to be expected from these old machines. The start wars for example had no sound

I didn’t even touch the consoles other than the vectrex, we just played the cabinets and pinballs

The star wars was totally dead on the Friday night when i seen it so the fact they got it going at all was a miracle.

Loading/unloading the pins is a right pain as we have to park the vans outside so they need to go the full length of the arena. No need for a gym membership when you have these lumps to move about.

 

[Yakama]

I’m glad they got it going at all, I really enjoyed playing it, I’d only ever emulated it before.

The pinballs were great, the whole event was awesome so really appreciate everyone that was involved. Was lovely to see people of all ages there too