Sky Skipper Reveal UK-VAC Meet 2017@Arcade Club

[Flinnster]

Such an awesome weekend! My Arcade Club cherry well and truly popped! The place is just awesome (great to finally chat in person to Andy U72 too)

I finally got back home after midnight... early hours of Monday morning! God my head hurts today

Last Vaccer standing on Sunday evening?
I just had to have another last go on the Outrun DLX though..

Too many flashbacks of so many great moments, and snippets of alcohol fueled conversations with everyone. Hard to pick a fave!

Playing that crazy Japanese 'tip-the-tea-table' game with Alpha1 & John J? Long conversations with Whitney about Nintendo and potential Sky-Skipper daughterboards? Trying to manhandle a Robotron into John Buds minivan. And then fit a b####y Joust cocktail in too?
Behind the scenes dealings and parts pickups (Massive thanks Ahchay, Vic, Frothmeister and Zipper!), Playing my own game in VR and being totally sh*t at it! (Don't drink and drive dudes!),
playing that timed Namco gun game with JimB far too much! Stupidly close InitialD8 & Time Pilot games with Chunksin, Insane japanese drumming & rhythm games, on silly stupidly hard levels, pulled pork rolls and meaty meat pies, the list goes on....

Gotta say thanks to everyone who travelled from far and wide to make it such a great event.
And special thanks to Alex, Whitney and John for their epic Sky Skipper efforts and doing the cab reveal at AC - making it one for the history books too

Flinnster2017-10-16 18:21:27

 

[Flinnster]

Cheers for sharing all the photos above too! Epic!

 

[CharlieFar]

I had a great time at Arcade Club on Saturday. Managed to chat with new and familiar faces. If I only managed a "Hi" don't take it personally. I can be a bit shy when not in my indigenous environment; i.e. facing an arcade machine.

The Sky Skipper reveal was fantastic. Congratulations to all involved. As John said "You nailed it!". The cab is beautiful.

Arcade Club was the busiest I've ever seen it. Amazing atmosphere. Andy, family and AC staff do a fantastic job.

Only downside - now it's over, it's 360-odd sleeps until the next one.

 

[LAZORIAN]

The weekend went by so fast it was a bit of a blur really.
Not sure what I was doing but I don't remember meat pies or tipping tables at all.

Serves me right for drinking too much I suppose.

Anyway a massive thanks to all involved in the event, it was great to meet John and Whitney (poor guys they looked absolutely knackered) the atmosphere was superb and the 2nd floor was awesome!

Apologies to anyone who got in the way of my drunken banter lol.

I have to say though that each meet it feels like seeing old friends again (actually some of you I would count as friends anyway). What an awesome bunch you all are

 

[bonehead]

I must say ianski I have never met anyone who got so excited about winning a couple of games at warlords. You sounded like you had won the lotttery 20 times over!!!!
Still like you say it was an awesome weekend and thanks to those who organised it.

Also an apology to those I also spoke drunken banter too as I know I was very pissed and hard to get rid of at times.

Roll on next year. Hope I'm sober by then to do it all again.

 

[Flinnster]

At least we didn't drink Arcade Club dry, unlike Cambridge

 

[Beaps]

Just to say basically what everyone else has said really. Top night and the AC Club, Play was a bit disappointing for me this year (apart from the Arcs & Pins) there was nothing much else of interest to me. My lad said 'Its the best day of my life' bless him.

So thanks again to all involved.

 

[Robotgreg]

S.it for me was also great to finally meet a Robotron legend (legend on the forums anyway) Robotgreg

....had a 2 player game with him and it was great to play against a good player

....

Great to meet you too, Russ and really enjoyed our double even if you did kick my ass! Awesome brain wave play, mate and will have to get some practice in!!

And what a top evening at AC! Great to see some of the old guys again inc D-type, Dave 0, Virtvic, Darren, Danscu amongst others.

Really enjoyed Food Fight and some 4 player games on Warlords. Great to see my old one there although seems to have reproduced itself 3 times over!!!

For planning next year, can I suggest we have a different weekend than Play so we can make the most of both? Would have loved to have spent more time at AC but had to split my time between the two and seems a shame to have to choose between the two.

And to round weekend off, managed 2nd in pin comp at Play Expo on Sunday

Cheers
Greg

 

[muddymusic]

Literally just got home after my 700 mile round trip....What a mad weekend, can't believe it went by so fast and it's Monday night already!!!

So glad I finally got to see Arcade Club after all this time, and what a way to do it. I made sure I was there as much as possible over the 2 days, played a load of cabs and had some great laughs on the 4 player stuff. Andy has done such a great job setting it up there with the atmosphere, variety of games and different zones, food, beer and everything really nicely priced. If you haven't been it's well worth a weekend away to get some proper time in!

As always with meets it's nice to get to meet people face to face, and have a good chat about this hobby we all love so much. Saturday was a bit crazy and I was dashing about a bit so sorry if I wasn't very chatty to some of you. The Skipper reveal was amazing, it was the first time I'd actually seen the finished cabinet with all the artwork fitted so was a very special moment for me, due to timings and stuff after months of chatting with Whitney over Skype I only actually met him 5 mins before the covers came off the cab so it was all a bit surreal!

Was a great crowd to see the unveiling happen and the atmosphere was buzzing. It's certainly a weekend I'll never forget.

 

[JohnBud]

good call

 

[Mark H]

Sounds great all, I'm sorry I missed it especially as I'm only 40 minutes away in Cheshire but I had to work. I will be there next year. I'm due an AC visit as I try and get there once every 4 to 6 weeks.

I had a good day Sunday though at the Play Expo event in Manchester!!!

Cheers all

Mark

 

[Alpha1]

Was nice to see everyone!

 

[Anunaki]

A little recap

Only four of us made it from Holland because one missed the plane. Our rental car broke down with a lot of smoke coming from the clutch. The car worked just fine ones the service guy arrived. Four player fun. Beer. Epic battle Wonderboy Australia vs Holland. Getting soaked playing Track n Field. More beer. Seeing familiar faces from last year. I suck at remembering names, sorry guys. Skyskipper. Alex. John. A lot of chatting. Huge bottles of corona. A lady telling she recognized me from my videos (.....). Ianski’s humor. Tony Temple is more awesome than Mr Awesome. John trying to roll sjek. Totally wasted in the hotel bar. Day 2 some more gaming. Andy and his staff are amazing. 4PM had to go home. Already over. See you next year.

To the guys I games with, spoke with, joked with, laughed with, drank with..... thanks buddies.

Special mentioning for the pretty girl behind the 2nd floor bar..... she actually happens to speak Dutch and look very good...... great combo Anunaki2017-10-16 22:06:36

 

[Jon-A-Tron]

Wow! What can I say that hasn't already been said in the past few pages.

I echo what everyone has said about it being an awesome weekend. The atmosphere in the Arcade Club was just fantastic. Thanks to Andy for putting on such a great venue and all the staff were great on such a busy weekend. Actually got to sit down and have a chat with Andy on Saturday for a few minutes which was nice.

Saturday evening was a bit of a blur to be honest. I do remember trying to decipher the crazy Table Flip game with Chris (cNp - great pictures btw

). That was a lot of fun. As was a crash course from Vic on the Japanese spinny disc music rhythm game with added arm sensor bar at the top..

I did try to speak with as many guys as I could but I cant remember everyone's names. Being my first ukvac meet, it's a shame we couldn't get a group photo so I could maybe piece together the evening now I'm sober.

Sky Skipper. What a beautiful cab and great work done all round. Artwork was top notch Olly

.

Got to have a coffee and chat with Alex on Saturday morning at the hotel. Certainly the calm before the storm as he was in high demand through the rest of the day.

Got a good chat with Whitney too when I drove him to the Arcade Club on Saturday morning. Although he was nearly driving me there when he nearly got in the wrong side of the car and I lobbed him the keys... What a great guy, who I hardly saw leave the stage on Saturday night, batting questions and meeting all of us. Said he was going to join the forum too so look forward to seeing him on here in the future.

Good times!

JonTron2017-10-16 22:28:31

 

[Flinnster]

Epic battle Wonderboy Australia vs Holland.

That sounds like fun, wish I'd seen it!

it's a shame we couldn't get a group photo so I could maybe piece together the evening now I'm sober.

I'm sure we could knock up a photoshop job of some sort with most people's headshots from loads of photos that were taken

 

[lesdawsonslovechild]

What a weekend. My first VAC meet, but won't be my last, I think if you asked me to imagine what a perfect night out looked like I would have imagined Saturday, friendly people, buzzing atmosphere and loads a great games to play. Managed to get on a good selection, including having a go on the VR car racing.

Congrats to Alex, Whitney and all the people who contributed to the Sky Skipper project it looked fantastic, and was a credit to you all.

I'm lucky enough to live quite close, so I get there quite a lot, but
I've never seen it as busy as it was on Saturday, the team of people who
work there deserve a lot of credit for keeping everything running smoothly. Managed to say hello to Andy, and Shaun & Vic from the 10 Pence podcast and John Jacobson, spoke to a few more, including a couple of Dutch guys who were a great laugh, but kept forgetting to ask what people's forum names were!

To the guy who ended up playing games on the classic floor for hours with me and my mate, Martin his name was I think, I didn't catch your forum name mate, but thanks for the thrashings you handed me on every game we played!

Hi mate, that was me! thanks for hanging out, chatting & sharing a few games. Say hi to your mate (cant remember his name though - think there will have been a lot of that this weekend!). Get some practice in & we'll have a rematch or two one day

Thanks to everyone who shared a chat, beer, game etc on the Saturday: Andy & Gaynor, Frothmeister, CharlieFar, Adrian Purser & Tactical Genius to name but a few. Its just a shame that its logistically impossible to meet everyone. I went on my own & sort of didn't know what to expect. I've been a lurker on the forum & an occasional poster, but i don't own any cabs - a situation that's not likely to change in the near future. I just love the games & the memories of playing them bitd & like a lot of us, really appreciate the nostalgia. Being able to experience all that again in an arcade setting was something i didn't think would be possible.

i have to say though, the scale of Arcade Club blew my mind. The formula is bang on. I think i spent an hour or so upon arrival wandering around in a daze. I haven't set foot in a place like that for nigh on 30 years. Congratulations to all involved in putting it all together & keeping it running. It must be a tremendous undertaking. I was there from about 12 - 12 & lost count of the massive coronas & ciders that were downed

. I will definitely be back though!

lesdawsonslovechild2017-10-17 00:25:43

 

[d-type]

Great event at AC! Play was OK, seemed to lack a bit of an X factor.

Great to meet many of you all

 

[Steveylou]

This was my first VAC meet and also my first time at Arcade Club since the Bury move. I had an absolute blast!

It's such an amazing venue! I didn't get to meet as many of you as I'd have liked but those I did meet were simply awesome! So friendly and so incredibly passionate about this crazy business (JonathanClayton I definitely owe you a drink next time for that marquee). The Sky Skipper unveiling was awesome too! That whole story is one big incredible journey and everyone involved is an absolute legend for getting it over the line.

I did struggle quite badly to find the people I'd arranged trades with but I guess that's just a by-product of how busy it was (plus some pesky spinning lanyards). I also failed to find JohnBud's rubber matting. I did manage to find JohnBud at one point (at about 10pm I think) but he looked a little worse for wear so I decided not to ask after it

It was a really great night and I had a fantastic time. Thank you all for being such wonderful people.

 

[Danscu]

Had a brilliant evening at Arcade Club, was my second visit and it has got even better which I thought was not possible - Andy has done a fantastic job.

Thanks to Alex and all concerned with arranging the meet, icing on the cake was the Skipper unveil!

Nice to see new and old faces, and thanks again to Chunksin, Muddymusic and Robotech for the bits you brought along for me, including the freebies!

Also thanks Robotgreg for the lift back to the hotel and bringing stuff back home for me, and congrats on the pin comp

 

[Mr20to5]

Hi guys.

First chance to write anything since getting back. It's all been said, but absolutely great event, thanks to all those involved and to everyone for supporting it.

Sky Skipper looked awesome - job well done to everyone that had a chapter in that amazing story.

Floor 2 had came on a long way at Arcade Club since my last visit, and I fell in love with the Qubell Jubeat macines. The 4 player Pacman and Gauntlet were such good fun in 4 player mode.

As with any fun event, the time flew by, even with the lock in and there were a host of people I never got to meet, or speak to. Those pesky lanyards just insist on hanging the wrong way round.

I started accosting random people wearing them in an attempt to uncover people's identities!!

So to those I met, thanks for the chat, to those I never, it wasn't on purpose.

Huge thanks also to (who is Jimmi?) IamJimmi, for the hospitality and bedrest.

The most important thing I learned from the whole gig - get to the toilet first!

See you all next year.