Here’s a report on a gaming event. Yes really. And no, not by us. The photographs were taken on a mobile phone so it’s kind of hard to understand what’s really happening, but he put the effort in so ought to be rewarded.

In summary – he expected way too much from a fan-organised retro event.

OPENING PREAMBLE:

“When I heard SEGA would have an exhibit stand at R3PLAY Arcade, Retro & Videogaming event I could only think of one place to send a review of it. However they declined and gave me a link to your site instead. The event is held in Blackpool, sometimes referred to as the UK’s version of ‘Las Vegas’ (If Las Vegas was hit by an earthquake, then a missile strike and all the refugees had to wear tracksuits it’s a fair comparison).

“All pictures taken on my shitty old Samsung phone.”

r3play 1

“According to the floor plan this is the SEGA booth. Times must be tough when you can’t even afford a sign, so instead it’s a poster of Sonic 4 and a flipchart using at least 2 COLOURS to advertise its wares.”

r3play 2

“Such savvy marketing manages to attract five people, however three of them just wanted directions to the Nintendo exhibit.”

r3play 3

“Behold a poorly arranged row of LCD TVs displaying: Xbox Live Trial version of Crazy Taxi (all the pop-up of the DC version but none of the music, later changed to Afterburner), Virtua Fighter 5, two Sega All Star Racings, Mega Drive Version of Virtua Fighter 2 (WTF?!?!), Sonic Episode 1 Xbox Live Trial version. So no Vanquish, Virtual On Force, Sonic Colours, Sonic Free Riders. Just a bunch of old games. Thanks SEGA!”

r3play 4

“SEGA held a competition for you to win every game they release on Xbox, PS3 and PC in 2010! Just get the fastest speedrun on the 1st level of the trail version of Sonic 4. This guy really wants the Mega Drive collection Vol.2 on PC, look at him go! On a positive note there was a Cosmic Smash arcade cabinet on freeplay to remind me of SEGA’s glory days and Xbox 1 LAN multiplayer OutRun setup (None of this setup by SEGA)” – Warp Warp.