#13: The Big Three: Edinburgh, London, Margate (Fri 21st August 2015)
Hello once again, dear reader! What a week it’s been – on Monday, me and “King” Rob Sedgebeer performed WiFi Wars at the Pleasance, as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – a huge thank you to those of you who came along and said hi afterwards! Yesterday I was in London for the final voiceover session for my Minecraft TV series ‘Digging Deeper’ on Ginx TV – there’s still a little bit more work to be done capturing the game footage before it appears on your screens, but it shouldn’t be too much longer. Inevitably, I’ll bang on about it on here for ages when it surfaces.
As you read this, I’m almost certainly en route to the seaside as, this weekend, I’m lucky enough to be co-hosting GamerDisco’s awesome evening event alongside the wonderful Nicky Biscuit as part of Play Margate. It’s the first time Replay Events have brought their ‘Play events’ south, and there’s going to be three brilliant days of arcade, indie and retro gaming at Margate’s Winter Gardens.
In all seriousness, if you’re in the area, it’d be great to see you there – these events survive and flourish through the support of the community and, if we don’t engage with them, we risk losing them. Gaming’s massively under-served in terms of both live and broadcast entertainment, so we need to demonstrate the value of these sorts of things to us if we want more in the future. And, incase you’re concerned that I’m biased/creaming a slice off the top, I’m getting paid the same whether you turn up or not. By all means tip me a bit extra if you see me there though, I spent way too much on King Rib Suppers while I was in Scotland.
In terms of what’s on offer, they’re going to have their own classic videogame and pinball arcade set up with all the machines set to free play, a pile of original retro consoles and games to get your hands on, and the best the modern indie scene has to offer too. Their previous events in Manchester and Blackpool have been massively successful so it’s sure to be a lot of fun, if you like that sort of thing. Which I do, obviously. It’s basically nerd heaven. There’s even a whole area dedicated to Minecraft, which makes me happier than an elf covered in sugar canes being tickled by a kitten.
If you fancy yourself as a bit of a retro God, there’ll be the chance to take part in one of the qualifying heats of the Classic Gaming Championship, which is being staged there over the weekend. I gather there’s also cosplay stuff going on as well, although I’ve more chance of winning the lottery than that – unless there’s a prize for ‘worst cardboard box robot’.
Today and Saturday, me and the GamerDisco guys will be providing the night-time shenanigans, which will be a mix of live music from the wonderful videogaming DJs Jet Set Rory and Oliotronix, and audience head-to-heads on fantastic multiplayer indie games like Overruled, Speedrunners and Gangbeasts. Pretty sure there’s going to be prizes for taking part and/or winning, but I can’t find the spreadsheet that had all the info on it. I’m a stone cold pro.
If you’re around in Margate this weekend, do come and say hi! We’ll be up to mischief from 7-11pm and you can grab tickets here: http://playmargate.com/tickets/ – Or don’t. It’s up to you. I’m not your real dad.