Hi folks,

Nice meeting a lot of you - I had a great time, played loads of games, and all free too yipee.

Just thought i'd start a thread asking what was good and maybe bad about the ball.

My observations:

Charidy = great
Free machines = great
Guest speakers = great
Choice of tourny games = Sensi/Street fighter good

Speakers pa system = pants
Tournements = not very well arranged or taken up.
Choice of tourny games = every male playing konga looked gay :-)..Mike?!?

Oh and maybe an auction for charity would have been good, I expected one as some great guests where there that could have signed a few things but nope :-(

Also I want to thank boyo and everyone else for doing this - well done chaps!

I am interested in this myself. Was supposed to go but lack of pennies so close to xmas meant that I could not attend.

Spoke to Boyo on the phone yesterday and it all sounded good, however I am particularly interested in how it compared to RV56 and CGE05 as I managed to get to both of those this year. Id ask the main man himself but I have a feeling that he wuill be a little biased!

Hopefully there will be another next year and this time not so close to xmas :)

I have quicky added my pics to the events area of my webpage,i had a few problems with the venue and it was not as good as the CGE in London but the retro ball was nearer to me despite kenilworth being in the middle of nowhere.But it was a good event for a good cause and it was good to be apart of it. :)

pics: retroball page

I got home from the Ball a couple of hours ago. Turrican and I drove 5 hours (273 miles) to be at the show and it was fanatastic.
It was awesome to finally meet in person the people from the forums. I'd like to add my voice to the growing list of people thanking Boyo and all for all the obvious hard work that went into making the event possible.

I didn't get to meet helloall (though Turrican and Koops told me you were there this morning) so hi to you now! I did, however, meet:

boyo, merman, koopa, mike, btyler, cdr jameson, alzoxp, djmassive, rs200, psj3809, strider donkeyspank and tons more. sorry if I missed anyone out but it's taken me 5 hours to get home and I'm knackered!

What a top weekend.

Finally, in the abcense of Koopa42, Mr McT would like to say a few words:

"Don't give me no jibba jabba foo' " etc etc :rolleyes: :lol:

I spent most of the day there yesterday and I have to say it was absolutely bloody brilliant on so many levels!

Christ, just walking into the place I was engulfed by the sounds of the old 80s arcades and suddenly I'm 10 yrs old again - but this time they're all on free-play and there's a bar!!

It was great to meet some genuinely nice people and good to put faces to names - paricularly Boyo, Koops, Rossi46, RS200, Mike and Turrican, amongst others. It was also quite oddly "nice" to be able to introduce myself as DonkeySpank and have people react as if that's perfectly normal! ;)

The arcade section was great in my opinion, really great fun, loved playing StarWars Arcade again and KungFu Master! It was also great to see and play some of the old classic machines like the C64, SNES and tabletops like Astro Wars!

I met Strider at the bar and had a chat about the new RG mag, had a good flick though it and bloody hell it's fantastic!! Really, I mean it's FANTASTIC. For all my moaning about Live and the fact that "I'll never sub to a mag again" I can tell you, just from flicking through it for 5 mins and chatting to Strider about the plans for RG, I'm subbing. That's it. I need that frikkin' mag! :)

The icing on the cake for me was having a beer and chat at the bar with some people I "feel" like I've known for years - Archer McLean, Rob Hubbard and David Whittaker - all really great down to earth blokes, willing to have a chat and a pint, really happy to answer questions I'm sure they've been answering for years from fans! Great little anecdotes from Archer too, I've always wondered what inspired the little "extras" in IK+ for what must be about 20 years now and I got to ask the man himself over a beer!! You can imagine the smile on my mug!! Equally, having a chat to Rob and David about their time at Electronic Arts and of course chatting about writing some of the most enduring C64 tunes, what they think of the remake scene and retro scene, and just generally chilling out with a few ales. Got a few autographs too just to kinda prove to myself that it really DID happen! :lol:

The Q&A session about 5pm was good; interesting to hear what everyone thinks of the games industry at present, the differences between "then and now" and about the plans for the future of retro gaming - I was really exceited when I heard about the XBox Arcade project - 4-player online Gauntlet? Suh-weet! Was also good to meet people such as Andrew & Philip Oliver and Jon Hare.

I'd like to say a great big thanks to everyone involved in making RB happen, especially Boyo - it was a genuinely great experience and I'd love to get involved in RB2! ;)

I've got a few photos, I'll put them up online somewhere and post a link here.

Oh, and it was great to see that Corpsie made an appearance too! Haven't laughed so much in ages, eh Koops?! ;)

Got to echo everyone else's comments, it was a great day.

Admittedly, there were going to be a few problems, but by god. These guys put everything together in less than three sodding months. That's a bloody amazing achievement.

It was great to see that everyone liked the new look of the mag, and I met a lot of great people. Let's hope there's another next year.

Hi all,

I must admit, I was not expecting much from the Retro Ball, but I was wrong to think that! I thoroughly enjoyed it! I want to say a big "thank you" to all involved in the organising of the ball.

Here is a link to a zip file containing a number of photos I took (the first one is of me, so you may recognise me...). I was only able to attend on Saturday between 11am and 7pm, but I whish I had been able to stay longer.

Click here to download Retro Ball.zip

mrmessy

Goddammit I wish I could have went but I glad to hear it was a good show and that RG shaping up good.

I got back home less than an hour ago, and I'd like to echo what other people are saying... I had a great time, it was great to meet some of the guys from the forum and to meet the celebs, there were so many great games and machines to play, and the atmosphere was fantastic.

I'd like to say a VERY BIG THANK YOU to boyo and the rest of the guys who helped in some way to get this event together.

I'll post more tomorrow, but I need some sleep...

Well hello again everybody peeps.. :D

It's probably gonna be like a broken record going down this thread, but again, I have to say how much of a great time I had over the weekend. To meet the Forumites in their natural habitat (including Koopa propping up the bar, well at least til his legs gave way with the alcohol :P) was a great honour to me, especially when merman and myself were having a little giggle at Mike's expense (and no Mike we DIDN'T put you off :P )

Thank you all for being there and making the place feel like a retro survival family get-together and most importantly, thank you Boyo and the team for organising the whole thing in such quick time and making us feel so at home :D

I think a retro-auction would have been a good idea, probably on the Saturday night as that would have no doubt raised more money for the charity, but that's the only clear cut problem I can come up with, as all the little niggles can just be called teething problems, as I am sure that next year's will be bigger and better.... (and Koopa will STILL be beaten by me at Street Fighter II, 3-1 in case anyone is wondering ;))

Thanks again to all of you, brilliant weekend :D

Hi chaps, thanks very much for the positive comments and constructive critisism :D

Well from my point of view I feel the event went quite well. It was not without its niggles though I agree but for the budget I had to pull this off I thing we did ok.

The venue was in Kenilworth as to use it was free. I know the event organiser at the venue and she kindly gave it to us for FREE for 3 whole days - 1 day setup and 2 days for the event itself. That would have cost in excess of £25k if it was in the NEC!!

With such a smal budget I had the choice of paying £200 to hire a professional PA system or use that money more wisely like for a security guard etc. The PA system we did use was sort of adequate, a local chap leant it to us for free. Phillip Oliver's voice projected quite well through it but some of the other celebs seemed to have issues with being heard...

As Strider pointed out, Koops, DJMassive and myself pulled this off in a number of months - it was a challenge and great fun to do. All I heard was postive comments over the weekend from the exhibitors, celebs, journalists (Retro Gamer and Games TM) and the visitors I talked to which overall has made me extremely happy.

The primary objective was to make an atmospheric, arcade fueled social weekend which was I feel largely met - I hope you agree. We were still playing games (Donkey Konga and Mashed) until midnight on Saturday at which point we were effectively thrown out!

Re-looking at the agenda for the weekend I feel we did not do too bad. We had the Bomberman and Outrun competition on the Saturday followed by the Q&A session. An extra item then took place - Andrew Oliver spoke about next gen consoles. The Streefighter competition was then held. Late into the evening we held a Donkey Konga compo. Pop party and Samba Di Amiga unfortunately did not happen due to us not beng able to find the disks. So we had a Mashed compo instead. Sunday was a more relaxed day and the competitions unfortunately did not take place according to plan - not 100% sure why, sorry!

I would like to thank all of you guys who supported this event - it was an absolute pleasure meeting you guys in the flesh and it was good to meet up with some 'old' friends too, even Corpsie made a guest appearance.

I hope you liked the Retro Fusion magazine - remember the feedback is important.

I kept being asked all weekend if there would be another Retro Ball event - well a lot of people seem to want it and even the NEC has been mentioned with large sponsership deals....watch this space...

And who won the arcade cabinet - someone on this forum did! Have a guess who!

Oh god, I hope it's me :D

Hi All, It sound like you all had a fantastic time, including Corpsie :D I wish I could have been there, hopefully if there is another gathering next year I will be able to attend :D Might even give Koops some serious drinking competition :P :D

What if I bound and gagged Adrian Paul and brought him with me... eh Donna?

I know it wasn't me.... I ain't THAT lucky to win the machine, although I wouldn't mind being told otherwise :D

WEll I have to say that this event was amazing. What? Its been said before? GOD DAMMIT LEEROY!

Anyways it was so nice to meet most of you especially the other fellow scots ;) and Koops well his conversation slowlwy degrading has the Cider worked it way through his bloodstream :P. I am so sorry for those of you I missed as I feel my shyness module kicked round about 10 am but about 10.30 once the beer was flowing I was fine.

The mashed tournament was quality although I feel there was some jiggery pkery goin on :P.

Any nice to meet you all and roll on the next event w00t w00t

P.S. did you all like RetroFusion?

Hey Turry, well if you did that I would never leave my hotel room :D :lol:

Well i'm glad i went to the Retro Ball on saturday. Wasnt there for that long as i was late due to traffic and i had my work do that night.

I thought it was excellent, tons of arcade machines, those weird pinball ball bearing type things were cool also. I thought the show was very well laid out, i did like CGEUK but it was very crammed. The layout for this show was very good though

Highlights were meeting a fair few off the forum, seeing the new look Retro Gamer (looks very nice !) and trying quite a few old games and that.

Hats off to Boyo and other people for running Retro Ball. Nice to see a lot of people there.

Looking forward to Retro Ball 2006 now !

My photos have just been uploaded to Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/92617338@N00/

You can also see my pictures from other retro events this year...

Gutted isn't the word,

Really enjoying hearing about the event and looking at peoples pictures, please please please tell me there will be another one next year.

Even though I wasn't there I've got to applaud everyone involved, including the people who donated things for free i.e. venue people.

All I got off my misses at the weekend was why are you so grumpy :angry:

ahhh if only she could hope to understand :(

<insert green with envy smiliey here>

Would have loved seeing koops after his defeat mind, bet that was one of the weekend highlights hehehe

Hi ~Strider
so it was you that approached me holding the mag,i must apologise if i seemed a little out of it :D i had just downed 2 pints and i was really tired ,i work nights and had finished my shift 6am sat morning so had only a few hours sleep befrore leaving for the ball as u can imagine by the evening you was waving the mag at me i was really struggling to concentrate (damn u work! :( ).Yeah the mag looked great in fact it appeared to have more relevant info inside so as i said i would support the mag in any way pos so i will subscribe to it.

Yeah i have made a point of the PA system but the PA was more than adequate it was more of an ambient noise prob which was nobodys fault it was just the size of the venue although i personaly felt that outrun2 was way too loud.I was dissapointed at the time and i could see people walking away from the Q&A to play pinball but i dont think it ruined anyones day,certainly not mine :lol: A lot of work goes into planing a venue like that and thats what a lot of people dont see so you get a thumbs up from me boyo.

Sorry to hear that you thought the Outrun 2 set-up was too loud - just thought it added to the 'experience' (i.e engine noise, arcade style sound etc).

I think that might be the last time we do a Outrun set-up (either Outrun 1 or 2), as I think it has been worn to death, athough everytime we try to drop it on the last 2 occasions, we get talked into making it stay...

Thought the event was great, good work by all involved and really good to meet some old and new faces over the weekend!

How can you ever have Outrun 2 to loud? <_<

Is that even scientificly possible? :blink:

NO WAY - thats 2 events where RP's outrun 2 set up RAWKED :)

Yeah gotta agree with that, I missed out on grabbing a seat at the Outrun2 hotseat, but spent a good bit of time watching what was going on - so I'd love to see at the next event just coz it's great tourny-type game and I'd love to get me mitts on it!

;)

The only thing better than that would be if at the next show me & koops brought our xbox's for 4 player games. :o AND double the noise. :D

and my plasma! wow that would be cool

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!

:lol:

Barry, nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Got to get my Out Run 2 fix at the next retro event!

Ya can't pull out the Outrun 2 setup! I'll cwy!! :( :(
Was the best thing I've ever played on.... that and Donkey Konga, but I'm useless at it :lol:

I know.... you can't get rid of it.. I have to do better than my first round exit, simply because I KNOW I can do better than that.. :(

pure gutted I was...

Oh, and I read someone else suggesting a musical part to any future event - I like the sound of that, being a big fan of the Back in Time events.

Nice write up in Retro Gamer, Issue 20, on The Retro Ball.

Thanks Strider.

On the Sunday of the Ball, Strider took a pic of me, Koops, Turrican, Mike and a few others standing chatting: did that pic get published in the mag (RG 20) ?

that would be a reasounding no, mate. :(

Rather bummed about that myself. Any chance of Strider posting it in the thread?

Turrican

Boo-hiss <_<

Darren - post the pic, man! :)