Retrovision 1 - one year on...
Reflections on a phenomenon by RetroVision's creator MARK RAYSON

Happy Birthday RetroVision! Blimey a year gone past... what a perfect opportunity to reflect on what was, and on what will be.

This flyer began, somewhat mysteriously, to attach itself to Oxfordshire lamposts a few weeks before the event

"I saw the poster and smelled something that I'd last smelled 16 years before, the hand of my old gaming mate Mark Rayson. RetroVison re-united one lost friendship and brought an extra-life to the game of this player 1. Damn special indeed." - RICHARD, St Albans

It was indeed a very scary time, the build up to an event that in reality I had no training for or even experience in. I just wanted to play games with like-minded others. The whole Retrovision concept was what then emerged out of a drunken night in Oxfords' Horse and Jockey pub.

In July of 2002 my wife Sarah and I were sitting at our usual places in the pub. That's right in front of the bar for anyone who's in doubt. We were chatting to Ben, Hanna and of course our good friend Rachel. Ben, who ran the place, was a game mad demon like me and most of our nights were filled with playing when he should have been running the pub instead. Downstairs at the Horse and Jockey was a little-used bar area. This had a massive 50" TV in it that usually played host to his MegaDrive but rarely anything else.

Banner says it all

Talk started on the subject of putting on a game show, maybe using that lost downstairs room... We both loved the old games the best so I decided the event should be retro-based. The word 'retro' then was a must-be in the title. Beer made the next bit happen. Sarah came up with 'Vision' as a word that would encapsulate the idea of SEE the stuff and play... RETROVISION was born... there in that pub after many pints! Fab!

Mark's had more alter egos than you've owned hats - that's two then

A date was set and a website was put together, posters were made and the llamasoft community (members of the web's fluffiest forum www.yakyak.org) was called upon to lend support. As the poster at the top of this page shows, the feel was utterly 'oldschool' and I couldn't have been happier! The idea was being realised, it was going to happen.

As I remember it llamasofties got in free and public paid £3; a bargain! 'This has to work' I thought. Much getting together of tech was going on including wild loft rummages at my place and back home at my Mum's too. I was buying spare RF leads from ebay like a man possessed an' all. This was fun but frightening also.

Saturday was to be the day.

The Friday before the gig arrived and the first person to wander in was a chap called Mayhem; first of the llamasofties! We met, and then played. Matt had with him, on one disk, all the C64 games software house llamasoft had ever put out and he set about loading them onto the C64 that we'd positioned in an upended bath.

"I wandered into the pub far too early on the Friday to make sense, but like I figured, I might help out or something" - MATT, Epsom

Chris Ahachy came too! With arcade cabs! oh my ghod this was getting good. I was nearly wetting myself at the prospect of this weekend. After some time setting up he then disappeared back to London to fetch a key for the coin-op... silly boy!

Llamasoft classics were much in evidence

That friday night was spent in Jamals, a legendary Jericho Curry House, then more pub and finally off to the Youth Hostel for most. Comfy home bed for me though.

* Saturday Morning *

I woke early; 7am... I was starring at the ceiling... wondering what today would bring?

Bog

It would bring BOG! And of course a multitude of others... the pictures below speak for themselves. The attendence was great and the crowd packed-out our tiny venue. But for the longest time before they came I recall sitting at the bar wondering if anyone would actually turn up.

"...it was still pretty empty but you could taste the potential in the air, or was that the ozone from all the old circuit boards?" - JOHN, London

Chris came up with the perfect solution: GUINNESS! and it worked.

"YAK HEADS IN THE GUINNESS!" - BOG, Reading

The day began. We had hooked-up Jaguars, C64s, Arcade Cabs, Amigas, STs, Dreamcasts, PS1s, Saturns, Nuons, N64s, Plus 16s, a VIC-20, Vectrexs and many, many portable TVs!

"I remember frantically looking round for a friendly Spectrum or a VCS. It was all Vic 20s and C64s and funny pastelly things that made me a bit frightened. And then Mark set up the Jaguar with T2K on a big telly and it made me happy. Then Chris turned up with a Robotron and I thought: 'Home, sweet home'" - ANDY, London

"Like stepping back in time" - STEPHEN, Kent

Heroic coder Jeff Minter stalks a rubber sheepie

50" telly plasma madness, top!

Ebony and ivory, side-by-side on my beer crates, oh lord lalala

Blimey but did we ever get through some joysticks that day?

"I walked in dead nervous. I didn't know anyone and hugging my beloved Vectrex, I felt like a bit of an outsider. Chatted about Radiohead to the barstaff and was pointed in the direction of the basement. Peered round the corner. First thing I see is Robotron. A couple of games of Roby later and there's a small group of people chatting to me. I'm relaxed, I'm smiling and it has been that way ever since. It's good to feel at home." - IAN, London

Eventually, at last, after a mad and wonderful day, the public went home. Of the core Llamasofties no one actually returned to the YHA that night, folk just crashed on the floor. WonderSwans, GBAs and NeoGeo Pockets all then came out. Despite a lack of formal pub-trade training Chris ran the bar till around 4am.

"My favourite memory of the first RV is of playing barman in the downstairs bar at about pi o'clock and talking, at great length, about the possibilities of a fully interactive, player controlled VLM. There was a moment when I suddenly realised who I was talking to and I just trailed off..." - CHRIS, London

I think I left around 1am. I was tired, real tired. It was a retro success. Indeed the pub itself is now quite retro, they knocked it down just months after our event.

"Not being able to make it, I read with envy all the reports on the forums and realised even though I wasn't physically there my brain was able to make the leap. And I then spent three hours playing speccy games at home..." - SIMON, Felixstowe

Sunday

Sunday was fun, we played some more and packed a few bits up. Lunch! then we said some goodbyes...

"On a totally personal note a couple of very significant things happened around this time, first Elaine discovered she was pregnant, and I discovered Retrovision. We now have a lovely daughter Niamh and I am refreshed in my gaming, both old and new." - JOHN, London

RV was the start, quite where it will eventually end up is anyone's guess. We've held a further three RV events, each bigger than the last. But your first time is always special and it will remain so for me. RV is and will be about fun; it forms friendships, it brings people back together and it's all a great time. It is a very important part of my life, RV is a place I can go and lose myself with my mates, it is a place that will always be shared by the people who mean so much to me.

"Walking down the stairs from the main bar to RV was liking taking yourself back in time 20 years to the golden age of gaming. The slightly darkened room, the smokey atmosphere, and the sounds man, oh the sounds. Truely a life changing experience!" - MARK, Bedford

The big man himself - Mark

Minter watches a new player blast through his own Tempest 3000

"There were girls there too, honest." - ROSY, Oxford

Maybe this is not the place to make a dedication but I'm going anyway. I'd like to dedicate RV to friends old and new. To my dear friend sadly passed on Mr Simon Steed. Few of you knew him, but he is always remembered in my heart. Koworld met Simon and will vouch for the fact that Simon would have been in there retro'ing it up with the best of us. I'd like to say thanks too; to the llamasofties who helped me get there, to Ahchay, Korruptor, Sickboy, Koworld, Jools, and my dear and close friend Ely.

But especially I'd like to say thank you to my wife Sarah, for she makes me feel like I can fly, she is all and everything I could ever want.

RV is alive, and will pop up from time to time... it is our place...

"Here I was in 1983 with lots of me clones, all different but on the same wave length. For 15 years I’d kept my feelings of games secret and hidden. Now I was able to openly talk about Manic Miner and AOTMC and not feel a prat. It was magical." - ALAN, Edinburgh

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