Celebrating The Arcade 1971-1999 at PLAY Expo

A bit late after catching up with work, but had a fantastic weekend up at PLAY Expo Blackpool after last going back in 2015 (!) when I was then running the Games That Weren’t stand. This was a really special occasion, as it marked the launch of Paul Drury’s The Arcade 1971-1999 from Bitmap Books, which he’s been working incredibly hard on with Sam Dyer for the past few years. It’s come out amazingly well! John Szczepaniak, Martyn Carroll and myself had the honour of being asked to contribute too, with me putting together the unreleased arcade games chapter, so Paul invited us along to celebrate with him.

A huge bonus was Eugene Jarvis, of Defender, Robotron and Smash TV fame amongst many others, coming over to celebrate with Paul. Eugene’s games of course feature heavily in the book, and he also contributed the afterword, so it was amazing to be able to hang out together as a group. I was pretty nervous, and it was slightly surreal having a curry with Eugene and the others, then all jumping in an Uber to Arcade Club afterwards. Eugene was extremely friendly, down to earth and very funny too. A great case of meeting one of your heroes, although I failed badly to impress him while playing his F-14 Tomcat pinball game! :D It was also nice to finally thank Eugene in person for his help with some of my own past research and writing.

Paul hosted two great panels with Eugene (sadly I missed the second as I had to start the long journey home), and it was lovely to see the queues afterwards for the book and merch signing. Paul looked really happy and was rightfully buzzing :) We were all chuffed to bits and incredibly proud of him. Paul is one of the kindest and most generous people you could ever know, and fans of Retro Gamer will know the incredible interviews and articles he’s been producing since the very beginning. All the copies of the book completely sold out at the event, and it’s already getting some wonderful reviews online and in the press. Thoroughly deserved!

It was also great catching up with so many friends, old and new, and finally meeting people who I’ve spoken to online over the years but never met in person. That’s always one of my favourite parts of these events.

Then of course there were the arcades, which I don’t get to play nearly often enough. Loved getting back onto Robotron, Gyruss, After Burner and Out Run amongst many others. I also had great fun with the obscure Prop Cycle, which John had taken a shine to, trying to beat the story mode with John and Paul on the final day before I had to head off. The only thing I was slightly gutted about was once again failing to get battered haggis/black pudding from the chippie over the road, which I keep meaning to try every time I go to Blackpool. Next time! :-)

PS. Borrowed some pictures from Paul, Dan Wood (The Retro Hour) as well as posting a few from myself.

For more details on Paul’s fantastic book, please check out:
https://www.bitmapbooks.com/products/the-arcade-1971-1999-the-stories-behind-classic-coin-ops-told-by-their-creators

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