Just had the most fantastic weekend at Retro Collective with my wife, Tasha, giving a talk on Games That Weren’t and the digital preservation of unreleased games over the past 25 years or so. A huge thank you to Neil and the team for inviting me – I was completely blown away by how many people had paid to come along (some from quite far, including the Netherlands!) just to hear me ramble on for just over an hour. It was especially great to see my friends Paul Drury and Paul Savage, who had traveled a long way – mostly to heckle me!
I was incredibly nervous at first, especially with a few hours to wait before my 2 PM talk and the challenge of cramming everything into an hour. But Neil and the whole Retro Collective team made us feel so welcome, and the crowd was fantastic – laughing at the embarrassing photos and bad jokes, asking loads of questions, and generally making it an interactive and fun experience. I even managed to sneak in some audience participation to give them a breather from my voice!
UPDATE: You can now view the talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsLHpIC2Ycs
Afterwards, there was a book signing and some great chats with people who had come along. I couldn’t believe it when Neil told me that all the copies had sold out!
One of the biggest surprises was seeing Jeff Minter and Giles Zorzin in attendance, which made me slightly more nervous – especially as I hadn’t included AMC89 in my talk and was half-worried Jeff would be disappointed! But having Jeff come up afterward to say how much he loved the talk – and then ask me to sign a copy of my book – was an incredibly special and surreal moment. He’s been one of my gaming heroes for years, so that really meant a lot.
The museum (both the RMC Cave and Arcade Archive) was fantastic. I completely fell in love with the recreated WHSmith games section – it instantly transported me back to being 8-10 years old again. I also got to see the ultra-rare NES game demonstration/selector, which I used to play endlessly in Dixons as a kid, squeezing in as much Super Mario Bros. as possible before the dreaded two-minute reset. The arcade section downstairs was equally impressive, with incredible attention to detail.
More highlights was meeting Neil for the first time after years of listening to his Retro Gaming Podcast and watching The Cave emerge and grow over the years. Catching up with Jason Daniels in the Developer Den – finally meeting in person after being in touch for about 15 years! He showed us Autoguard, an unreleased gem with an incredible build section I’d never seen before. I also met Dan at the very start, who used to work at Microprose and showed us Boo, an unreleased SNES prototype.
We rounded off the day with a great meal and a few beers in one of the local ale houses. The only downer was the terrible train service on Sunday coming home – but nothing could spoil what was an absolutely amazing time. Still buzzing!
Some photos pinched from various sources. Video coming very soon from Retro Collective! Please check out Retro Collective and support their amazing museums!
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Actually I was rather glad AMC89 wasn’t in your talk, as that story has already been told a few times and the stuff you presented was far more interesting!
(I’ll never look at Star Castle the same way again)
Thanks Jeff, and thank you and Giles again for coming along. I thought that might be the case with Star Castle, hoping its “Oops!” origins will someday be recovered.
It was a joy to host you Frank at what I hope is the first of many meet ups. Thanks again for sharing your wealth of experience with us all.