RetroCollect VIDEO GAME MARKET 2 - 7th FEb 2015

[necronom]

I'm thinking of going, but I don't know Leeds, and parking seems very expensive. I've picked a car park, but when I get there it might be full, then I'll be totally lost, trying to stop somewhere to re-program the TomTom, with no way to get on the internet, etc.

The parking is the thing that's putting me off the most. I'm not going to spend £8 to park my car to a few hours.

[the_hawk]

Your carparking prayers may be answered, from the website...

We recommend parking at the Merrion Centre and First Direct Arena CitiPark https://citipark.co.uk/car-parks/merrio ... rena-leeds which is circa 10 minutes’ walk away from our Town Hall Venue and offers manned security though the day. The Car Park offers a Special Weekend rate of £1/hour for the first 3 hours of parking. Please note that this offer is only for your first 3 hours- if parking exceeds the 3 hours tariffs, then normal tariffs will apply. Please be aware there is a height restriction of 1.83m in place at this car park.

Merrion Centre & first direct arena

5 Merrion Way, Leeds, LS2 8BT

[necronom]

I saw that, but if you go over the 3 hours, it's £7.40. There will be about 20 mins walking time, plus time to eat (no idea where to get food from), so I might lose nearly an hour with all that.

I might go, but it's 50/50 at the moment.

[necronom]

I went

£3 for 12 hours parking, Much more sensible.

Anyway, here are a few pics.

11:08 and the queue is all the way round to the back of the building:


The main hall when it was a bit quieter:


A horse playing Sonic the Hedgehog:


Another shot of the main hall in the opposite direction:


It was good, though as I feared, retro games (those that I class as retro games, i.e. C64, Spectrum, Vic-20, etc.) and computers were thin on the ground, though it was better than at NERG, where 99.99% was console stuff, which I have almost no interest in (apart from the VCS, which was also scarce). It baffles me when the C64, Spectrum and Amiga where what almost 100% of people had that I knew as friends and spoke to at work.

Bargain of the day:


All that for £0.00, from a very nice bloke in the corridor behind our very own flying_delorean81 (who had some great bead art there).

[felgekarp]

I didn't go last year so I can't comment on how things were but seeing that queue at just after eleven made me have second thoughts about going in, but I was in in under ten minutes, it was quite packed at times, especially in the corridors, but thats corridors for you, and it cleared up quite a bit as the day went on, only picked up one of those neca batman figures but at a tenner I couldn't pass up in it, overall a decent day out.

[samhain81]

Pretty small, no?

[felgekarp]

Medium sized I'd say, there wasn't just the main hall in use but the corridors around the side, if it was just the main hall then yes I'd have said small.

[the_hawk]

My experiences were very similar to necronom's, I parked in the multi-story they recommended for 2 h 54mins so avoided the hike in price.

It was great fun, very busy for the hour or so I was there but everyone was very friendly & my wife even managed to pick up a Zelda bracelet.

Shame it was so busy I didn't really get to say "hi" to flying_delorean81, but I did see some of your artwork in the flesh, it's great stuff sir! I Was drooling over the Bubble Bobble bartop, would love one of those.

Anyway, here's what I came away with, exactly £20!

[DPrinny]

The bloke I traveled with knew where the free parking places where, only 10 minutes walk from them

Strange we both got Star raiders

[necronom]

Pretty small, no?

As felgekarp said, there was more than that. I'd say there was about as much again. All round the corridors and there were two rooms, one small one where the horse was in my pic, and a larger one one where flying_delorean81 was with his bead art.

[Treguard]

I went about 12, there was no queue to get in but it was packed. Didn't see anything I really wanted (was really after some Amstrad or Mega CD stuff I didn't already have) but it was amusing to go from stall to stall and see the differences in price. You could walk 20 feet and save £20.00 on a GX4000 for instance. The layout was a bit confusing though, I know it tried to have types of sellers grouped in certain areas (all the import sellers were kinda in one area), but I wish it had been easier to compare prices between different stalls- one basket of SNES carts looks like any other after a while, you can't remember where you saw that cart you wanted once you'd looked round.

[felgekarp]

I thought there was a pretty decent showing for cassette based stuff as well, I saw quite a bit of Speccy stuff, not sure about other machines though as I have no interest in them

[mainvein]

Just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who came, bought, had fun, caught up with mates and enjoyed the music

We had 2741 people clicked through the door, which is just amazing. Hopefully you feel we addressed all of the feedback from the last event too. Looking forward to number 3 now!

[flying_delorean81]

Shame it was so busy I didn't really get to say "hi" to flying_delorean81, but I did see some of your artwork in the flesh, it's great stuff sir! I Was drooling over the Bubble Bobble bartop, would love one of those.

Ah, never mind, hopefully I'll see you at next year's event! I have to admit, Paul's bartop arcade machines on the stall next to me were amazing! It took all my self restraint to be sat next to them all day and not buy one... that Bubble Bobble one was my fave too.

All that for £0.00, from a very nice bloke in the corridor behind our very own flying_delorean81 (who had some great bead art there).

Thank you kindly sir!

It was my first market stall as a seller and I have to say I really enjoyed it. The hardest part was not spending all my profits on games. At the end of the day I did manage to have a little scout around and came away with boxed Super Thunderblade, Jungle Strike and Alien Storm on Megadrive for a tenner! And it's very true what has been mentioned about the wildly varying prices between vendors! The one that sold me the MD games was Gunstar Games (I think that's his name anyway), and he had a few good value ones. I was tempted by a few games elsewhere, but just can't bring myself to pay £16 for a loose SNES cart of Batman Returns, especially when there are *other* ways to play it.

And my artwork seemed to go down well, I shifted about half my stock and took a few orders and enquiries. Met many interesting people and had some wonderful discussions ranging from the tape method of beading, to the history of the Ninja Turtles! I'll post some pics when I get home after work, already looking forward to the next one!

[DPrinny]

A lot of people seem to know me that I don't know them, this is starting to happen a lot
But in saying that I do have a crap memory

Just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who came, bought, had fun, caught up with mates and enjoyed the music

We had 2741 people clicked through the door, which is just amazing. Hopefully you feel we addressed all of the feedback from the last event too. Looking forward to number 3 now!

2016?