GamesYouLoved on tour - northeastretrogaming.com in Gateshead

At GamesYouLoved we want to get out there in the community to get involved with gamers like us -  talk about the thing we love and play some great games at the same time. A great way to do this is by going to one of the many retrogaming events that are establishing a new wave of arcade, console, pinball, handheld interest - across the UK and Worldwide.

The GamesYouLoved Team headed up to Gateshead, Tyne & Wear to do that very thing on Saturday 30th June. In weeks previously we had been following the journey of the organiser and brains behind this unique retro event Phillip Murphy.  Phillip had taken his passion for retrogaming and put something back into the community. As in the North East  - nothing like this had been seen before.

For the months preceeding GamesYouLoved had felt the excitement around the event and put out facebook posts, tweets and even interviewed Phillip on his quest for gaming goodness.

It was a great event in the making...

So we arrived at 7am from the early drive from 'down south' and Phil was there with the keys to open up Gatehead Stadium and nothing could prepare us for what was to happen.  The doors opened and silence...it was quiet! But we were silenced as there was rows upon rows of arcade machines and pinballs from a time gone by - a golden time of gaming when nothing else mattered except the joy of play.

We had a job to do in setting up our stand. But as the machines started to be turned on from the early arrival of the engineers and amazing people (mentioned below) who's dedication means that gamers today can get into this world. We were back to the 70s and 80s all over again.

Afterburner, Outrun, Space Harrier...and that was just SEGA...Bombjack, Phoenix, Spy Hunter....the Point Blank and OMG they have ATARI STAR WARS.!
..it was 1984 all over again....

...compose...focus...we're GamesYouLoved...come on guys

...we couldn't for a while!!  This was retrogaming at the heart of our passion and we loved what was there and what everyone who was just about to arrive was going to enjoy...this was going to be a great day.

And it truly was!  We set up our stand - fired up the Pac Man arcade machine, turned on the consoles we had brought and set out our display of flyers and lollipops and were ready to go.  Gamers from all parts of the UK came...like the bisto kids who smelled the gravy from afar. The games they had maybe forgotten or still remember but could never play now - were there to see.

The noise!! The awesome sounds of row upon row of machines pumped out..the DJ played retro tune..we played out gaming music from our own system from commodore 64 original tunes, arcade sounds to the new wave of remixed sounds from Audio Sprite

The great thing about the day fo us - was talking to gamers - what they felt about gaming and why they had came to NERG. Every story was different - some guys ran their own YouTube channel and had a massive life dedication to the gaming world.  Others played now and again and were getting into retro more and more. Some were just fairweather gamers curious for the old world of gaming. But what was true having spoken to people - was that events like www.northeastretrogaming.com had brought this passion of retrogaming alive back in them..And now it was never going to leave.

And at GamesYouLoved that was all we could ask for!



You can see our mini Tour of the show and just a few of the Gamers we spoke to
via our YouTube Channel. Click the link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf0JRd1BkAI


We would like to thank and recognise the following people
for their massive contribution to NERG.

The event wouldn't have been same without them:

Retro Games Party - www.retrogamesparty.co.uk
Northern Lights Pinball Show - www.ukpinball.com
Arcade Dreams - www.facebook.com/pages/Arcadedreams
UKVAC - http://www.ukvac.com/forum