Play Expo Manchester

[JohnnyChaos]

I'll be going with a couple of mates.
Shame there doesn't seem to be any big releases there this year.

I spent most of my time round the Sony, Nintendo and Oculus stands last year.

 

[LukeWells]

In fact when I see what is there, and then compare it to what I know is out there in peoples collections (J+ had the most awesome database) then the arcade event could easily be 2-3 times as big and include some of those rare, special cabs that we all know are out there in provate collections.

 

[IDCHAPPY]

It's an awesome database

 

[Hurray Banana]

Hey Luke how do we access the database now?

 

[LukeWells]

It's an awesome database

I was just looking at the stats last night funny enough and I was quite surprised to see just how many unique games are in the hands of us collectors, and that's when it was restricted to J+ members. Imagine what it would look like with all collectors collections
LukeWells2014-07-31 17:41:37

 

[LukeWells]

Hey Luke how do we access the database now?

It is a contentious issue at the moment. Someone wants to stop people from being able to access it at the moment, so I am currently working on that issue.

As far as I am concerned, if you entered your collection in there, it is your data and you own your own data, and no one can stop you from having it.

All data is safe and secure and I would love to make it available to people again for free as soon as issues can be resolved

 

[Hurray Banana]

Fair enough. I always thought it was your database to be fair

 

[Big Phil]

Being an organiser, I can sympathise with other event organisers but I can also sympathise with the cab donators.

I'm in amongst every aspect of an event. Organising, supplying machines, unloading, setting up and also dismantling.

First off, I'm in it for the love of gaming. I want to keep it alive and also bring on the next generation.

With the first NERG, I paid for everything. Event the hotel rooms of those supplying machines. The show was a great success but financially for me, not so much. A weekend ticket cost £25. My weekend ticket cost me £3000.

It didn't put me off though. I LOVED it! New addicts were born. The younger generation loved it and wanted more!

With NERG this year, I didn't pay for the hotel rooms. I still paid all the transport costs though. It's a huge chunk of money, especially with my show as I'm only allowed 900 attendees per day.

What I also do is, rope in all my friends and some volunteers to help unload, set up, patrol during the weekend and then clear away.

It's an exhausting weekend but all my friends and family love it. Again, they do it for me and for the enjoyment of the weekend.

What does hurt though is the odd negative comment. It certainly doesn't outweigh the positive feedback but it gets you thinking. It's a stupid tiny, tiny percentage! .2% or something like that.

Even during the weekend, one couple had a few concerns so I had to sit down and have a chat with them. "There aren't as many machines as last year, some machines aren't free play, there is no Crazy Taxi....etc....." When in fact, there were DOUBLE the amount of machines, I explained some machines can't be set to free play and have to be credited, just find a member of staff and Crazy Taxi IS here! I dunno....

Even on a forum, someone mentioned they didn't think much of the video arcade or the selection of games. FFS.....there were nearly 100 video arcade machines and everyone was different!

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here to be honest. I just love organising NERG. Even when it's costing me money. I give it everything and I guess my reward is seeing the smiles on everyone's faces during the weekend.

All I want to do is re-create the 80's arcade exactly how I remember it and I want to share it with everyone.

So errrr.....I sympathise with you all. It's a thankless task sometimes.

 

[IDCHAPPY]

Well said Phil

 

[Pacman83]

I am not being compeltely negative as the event was still a great success, but the origanisers do need to appreacite the sacrifice of time and money that we put in to donate and deliver our cabs for the event... and having more cabs would be great and I am sure last year we could have got more there, but Replay only set aside a certain amount of space which Olly spent alot of time trying to squeeze in as many cabs as he could... nearly 120 in the end if I recall.

I defintely agree, that having multiple cabs of a specific game would be a really good thing and something that James and Andy are working on for future events. The High Score idea would need more buy-in than it got last year, as Replay did not provide sufficient staging and barriers for Jon and Tony to carry out their Hi Score attempts... kids were all over the stage and messing with the cabs, which you definitely can't have if someone plans on doing it again and possibly in a larger scale.

If it weren't for you Roger, we'd have never finished anything

 

[rcantor77]

If it weren't for you Roger, we'd have never finished anything

Lol, yeah that was funny Jon... I remember turning up early on the Saturday morning to see you holding a load of cables with a look on your face that read 'So what am I supposed to do with all of these?'

It was a mess at that point, with not enough plug sockets for you guys and provided cables not long enough... it did feel good once we finally got it all sorted out and working... and it is those things that makes it all worth while being involved.

 

[LukeWells]

The last replay that I took my cabs to (2012) cost me around £200-£250 of my own money, getting the machines show prepped (re-capping monitors, replacing power supplies) constantly driving around to get bits and pieces. And then there was about 8 days of driving to and from James's place helping with getting things fixed, and fixing monitors till 2 in the morning several days in a row, the fuel getting there and back alone cost me about another £120. And that excludes the fact that some came back broken.

The straw that broke the camels back with that one, is a certain angry and jealous person from the arcade community, actually got his non arcade friends to make negative comments about the machines on facebook / gamer sites (particularly aimed at mine and James's machines), which I found out about a couple of weeks later when one of the friends confessed to me what he had been asked to do.

So £300 odd quid of my own money, zero thanks and some fake negative reviews is why I no longer loan cabs

I just received this on Jamma+ from Aran.

I just want this stuff to stop.

I don't want to be monitored anymore

I don't want to have to worry about what I am allowed and not allowed to say.

I didn't name anyone, and was not going to as I don't want to cause trouble. I was just stating my own personal reason as to why I stopped loaning cabs

Please can I just go back to collecting, fixing an playing arcade machines

 

[Purity]

Just ignore him and he goes away

 

[LukeWells]

Just ignore him and he goes away

I hoped that would be the case, but it is not happening

 

[Purity]

Just ignore him and he goes away

I hoped that would be the case, but it is not happening

Add to buddy list and block messaging

 

[cools]

the only reason my head didn't explode is because of all the guys who turned up first thing every day to help with all the setup and monitoring the cabs when the show was open.

This in spades.

I didn't go at all last year due to various commitments. Hats off to Pete and Gradius for handling all the AO stuff the past couple of years.

Always treated it as a working holiday. Hotel was paid for at the first Replay in Blackpool, but the rest of my trips came out of my own pocket. No big deal, and no negative feelings about that nor the effort put in - only thing I never liked was the commercialism (though I accept that it's a requirement for such an event).

Not sure if I'm going this year or not, but it'd be without cabs again. I'd *love* to have a shed full of (gamer condition) candies and a van I could take to events but I don't - the messing around with cabs and setup appeals more to me than the social aspect, I prefer smaller meets for the latter.

 

[IDCHAPPY]

Bens right, don't let him bring you down mate

 

[Hurray Banana]

You're not an admin there anymore so just ignore it luke

 

[Equites]

Just ignore him and he goes away

I hoped that would be the case, but it is not happening

You've nothing to worry about, you have done nothing wrong and have friends around you.

 

[JohnBud]

I believe I hold the record for the dirtiest cab at a show egret2 replay 2012. As I said to the candy boys " it's in arcade condition " nearly slapped a wee cheeky bitch for refusing to allow me a credit on a cab. Bothered ??? Nope .