Leeds Super Retro Game Fair 2017

Jay

Earlier in the year, both Squidgey and I attended the Leeds Retro Games fair and wrote and published a blog post about our experience on the same day.

you can said post here

This post is a combination of our thoughts on the larger of the two Leeds Retro Games Fairs (one of which is held in spring and one in summer – the summer one being the larger of the two).

Squidgey

The second games fair of the year? Anyone might think I like going to these things. As ever I didn’t partake in this venture by my lonesome, my partner in waffling crime Jay was attending with me.

After grabbing supplies for the train journey, making sure I have a roomy bag to fit all my retro loot in, and jumping on said train, I met the reprobate in waffler in question.

We decided to get some foodage fuel

Jay: ‘we got breakfast’ is what he means

then figure out where in the seven hells we were meant to be going. Jay assured me that he knew the way, so I agreed to let him lead the way. What a mistake that was.

Getting There

Jay

So we met in Leeds, which was the easy bit. Finding the place wasn’t so easy.

It was hosted at the Leeds University student union. Did you know that Leeds has two universities? Well, it does.

I knew where the (relevant) university was, as I used to live near to it. Finding my way around the campus was a little difficult

I never studied at Leeds university, so it was all new to me

but we eventually found where we were going. There were signs… well, I say “signs”, what I actually mean is “sign”.

The only sign we were able to find, once on the campus.

Squidgey

Was it easy to find?

In a word: no.

In a longer statement: Carmen Sandiego was easier to locate!

Don’t get me wrong the Leeds University campus was clean, had some nice buildings and the few people we saw on a Saturday we’re friendly but once you’ve walked by Ancient Runes Studies and Prenatal Hula-Hoop Class buildings

Prenatal Zumba Class was cancelled, apparently

for the 7th time it gets a bit frustrating, that is for someone who doesn’t know the campus in question.

After a long time lamenting our predicament, soul searching and many

many, many, many

steps later I was sure if we found a big Q we would find our destination.

Not a queue you understand, but a big letter Q.

The Event Proper

Jay

Phone in hand,

ready to (badly) photograph everything that I thought would be interesting

we entered the student union building. On the way in, we saw a few familiar posters.

Talk about deja vu

Squidgey

Location and my giant Q found, we prepared ourselves for a retro blast from the past.

With my mighty sac in hand

backpack I assure you

my mind was at the task at hand: finding hidden gems (or retro stuff) we weren’t stuck in a crash bandicoot game after all. As soon as we walked in we were greeted by this:

By the power of Greyskull!

Holy crap that fair was HUGE!!!!

Jay: five exclamation marks? That’s a sure sign of insanity

Seeing all the different sellers with there various wares meant that I had to not only pace myself, but crafty and considered spending would have to be implemented into my shopping experience.

…Yeah, like that’s gonna happen!

Like a hunter stalking prey, I used my eagle eyes to spot said hidden gems

there should be an Assassin’s Creed joke is there, somewhere. It’s probably not easy to spot, though

The hall had everything, from the actual games from the past to consoles, and even things like plushies. Even magpies wouldn’t know we’re to look, and would probably suffer from neck trouble having looked around too much and would have to have a bit of a lay down to calm itself.

Seriously the pics of the place speaks for itself.

Jay’s Photos

Here are a sample of the photos (in a carousel) that Jay took of the student union building in which the fair took place. The room in the Leeds university student union that was chosen for this event is pretty large. It’s not as large as the ground floor of Leeds City Hall (which is where the 2016 summer event was held), but still large enough.

psst. click on an image to enlarge it

Our Haul

Squidgey

I would like to say I controlled myself while I was there.

…Would like to, but I’m not going to.

The last fair we went to, I didn’t have a big enough bag with me so I didn’t buy that much. This time however all bets were off!

With the overall mentality of “mine!” I was off like hell. Jay managed to keep up (I don’t know how, he did but still) and my mighty bag of holding soon got too heavy with awesome and memories.

I had a set ammount set aside for my ultimate prize… That back lit Gameboy!

Behold, and as luck would have it there was multiple sellers with the treasure I was seeking. With my bag full of weighty gaming goodies, I made the back lit Gameboy my final purchase of the day. Save the best till last.

All in all the day was a success and much memories were re-purchased; not only for me but Jay as well.

Jay

As with all events like this, no one tends to leave empty handed.

but it’s very easy to leave empty wallet-ed, so that’s something to be careful of

We both had a set of goals going into this event, mostly they were to have a lot of fun. Looking through the photos of our haul, it’s pretty clear that we hit our goals and then some.

What do you think of our haul? Did you go to the event? Where you weirded out by Squidgey’s sack? did you spot his Assassin’s Creed joke (because we didn’t)? Let us know in the comments below.