Retrovision

Retrovision is a semi-regular retrogaming event in the UK, presented as a social opportunity for retro gamers to meet each other and also to play games on hardware provided by the venue.

Retrovision was first organised as a meet for the Jeff Minter fan forum Yak Yak but then later became advertised as a public event.

Events

Number	Open to public?	Date	Event Location	Meal Location	Llamasoft or retro community event	"Featured" game
1	No	21 September 2002	The Horse and Jockey, Oxford	Jamal's, Oxford	Initial "Yakfest" board meet; Guest of honour Jeff Minter	Tempest 3000
2	Yes	7 December 2002	The Pub Oxford, Oxford	Starlight Tandoori, Oxford	None
2.5	No	11 January 2003	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford	Hired caterer	None
3	Yes	9 March 2003	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford	Jamal's, Oxford	Guest of Honour Jeff Minter
3.5	No	3 August 2003	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford	Jamal's, Oxford	Partially complete gameplay demo of Unity
4	Yes	19 June 2004	The George Hotel, Frome	Frome Tandoori	Guest of Honour Jeff Minter; concert by SID80s and Jon Hare	Katamari Damacy, Mashed
4.5	No	3 November 2004	The George Hotel, Frome	Frome Tandoori	Guest of Honour Jeff Minter	Katamari Damacy, Mashed
5	Yes	12 February 2005	The George Hotel, Frome	Frome Tandoori	Demo of early version of Neon; concert by SID80s and Jon Hare	Katamari Damacy, Mashed
Mini	No	10 September 2005	Manchester		Combined with Back in Time Live
5.5	No	23 September 2005	The George Hotel, Frome	Cancelled
5.25	No	21 October 2006	The Port Mahon, Oxford	The Port Mahon, Oxford	Guest of Honour Jeff Minter	Guitar Hero, Realflight
2007	No	12 May 2007	The Port Mahon, Oxford	The Port Mahon, Oxford	Guest of Honour Jeff Minter - Demo of Space Giraffe	Guitar Hero, Realflight
2008	No	8 February 2008	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford	Guests of Honour Jeff Minter, Ivan Zorzin, Steinar Lund	Rock Band, Space Giraffe
2008.5	No	11 October 2008	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford		Rock Band, Space Giraffe
2009	No	8 February 2009	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford	Guest of Honour Steinar Lund; concert by Ben Daglish and Jon Hare	Rock Band, Singstar, Let's Tap, Shredz64
2009.5	No	10 October 2009	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford			Rock Band, Singstar, Let's Tap, Taiko no Tatsujin Wii
2010	No	5 February 2010	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford	Chutneys, Oxford	Multiple forums invited, Playable preview of PC conversion of Armalyte	Rock Band, Muscle March, Armalyte
2010.5	No	9 October 2010	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford	Cancelled
2011	No	20 May 2011	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford	Chutneys, Oxford	YakYak, Retrogamer, STH. Free event to celebrate 10 years of RV	Hampster Ball, Sheepoid, Hyper Viper, Mixed Grill March, Rock Band 3
2012	No	6 May 2012	The Folly Bridge Inn, Oxford	Chutneys, Oxford	Multiple forums invited	Many

Traditions

Jeff Minter remains a frequent guest of honour, together with others from the retro and current gaming industries.
"Markie", the organiser of Retrovision, always dresses up as Ming the Merciless (including green face paint, matching the animated series - as opposed to movie - representation of the character) on at least one day of the event. This tradition appears to have originated from a Photoshopped picture made of Markie which was posted on Yak Yak and later became known and used as the logo for Retrovision.
Following the above, recent events have also seen increasing cosplay by attendees, with characters such as "The Space Giraffe" and Phoenix Wright being represented.
The curry eaten at Retrovision is traditionally chicken vindaloo, with a milder and/or vegetarian alternative available for those who prefer it. Due to the events's origins with Jeff Minter, who is famously known for keeping several sheep as pets, consumption of lamb or mutton at a Retrovision is normally taboo; on the one occasion when someone was caught doing so, they were punished with the zeroing of their post count on Yak Yak.
Most attendees who possess a Nintendo DS will bring it to the event, and huge Pictochat sessions and multiplayer games via wireless networking are standard. Other handhelds are also used, but the DS is the most commonly seen at Retrovision.
At most Retrovisions there will be one or more games which are particularly "in fashion" at the time of the event, and will be run continuously throughout the event. Often, but not always, this is an obscure game. At recent events this has been Guitar Hero 2, Realflight (an RC flight simulator which attracted a strong following after being demonstrated there) and Rock Band; previous such games included Katamari Damacy.
The work of a young Finnish cartoonist, who uses the forum handle Limb Clock, is often displayed at Retrovision events; many users on Yak Yak are keen on supporting and encouraging his work.
In recent years Yak Yak user "Psycho Rob" has contributed to Retrovision by supplying many different retro games consoles and presenting them on a projector screen under the title of "Psycho Robs Game Zone", this has evolved into him attempting better and sometimes crazy ways of playing games on large scale, at Retrovision 2007 he joined forces with fellow Yak Yak member "Vintage Matt" where they showed The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures on the big screen with 1 master GameCube and 4 small screens and 4 GameCubes with 4 Game Boy Players acting as Game Boy Advances to play the game like never before.

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