Ukvac meet 2024

[funk]

Had a great day weather aside! It was awesome meeting a load of you I hadn't spoken to before.

@10shearers I resisted cheating, but you had me in the end, the number threw me so well played 😂

Theres a bit of a drought in the calendar for the first half of next year now, especially if NERG isn't happening too, so hoping something pops up before then 🤞

Thanks all for making it a cracking day 🙌

Safe travels for those heading home today.

Edit - Completely forgot to mention @r-type pulling a blinder doing a couple of circuits across 4 floors trying to round people up for 16:00, well played sir, wouldn't want your knees this morning 😂👍

 

[ChrisBEANS]

Pre post edit: This is way longer than I intended!!


Great day!

Nice to meet so many of you.

Brilliant opportunity to try some classic stuff outside of MAME, and use some cabs with bespoke controls.

Lunar Lander was a highlight cab for me, but great to try some twin stick stuff too (Robotron over Smash TV for me. Controversial??).
Karate Champ was as cool as I’d always hoped ever since seeing in in a Jean Claude Van Damme film a thousand years ago.
Tapper too might now be on my list of wants, but just the PCB. I assume the drinks can be served with a simple long button press rather than the fancy Budweiser stick the cab has??

Honestly could go on and on about the different cabs.

Fun to try out some proper pinball tables and was relieved to learn that such an expensive hobby really isn’t for me anyway (phew!!).

Spoke to a couple of people about how even though there was such variety and novelty on offer, many of us gravitated to stuff we have at home!
Even that was enhanced as I got to have a proper two player play through of Vendetta, a game I truly love but only ever play solo (cheers to my new bromance @Stokers for that).

Underrated section of the day goes to the Candy Cab room. Fantastic condition cabs, the vast majority of the screens were bright, vibrant, and sharp.
The selection of games was fantastic (I think I want a Mushi Futari now!).
For whatever reason the room was rarely busy and occasionally even empty!!
If they’d had a Metal Slug in there I’d have been on it all day!

MVP has to be @funk for the lanyards. Without those I wouldn’t have spoken to a soul. Nice to meet you and Mrs Funk.

Performance of the day has to be @Copperband and his better than perfect run of 15/15 targets on the skeet shooter… with 14 shots!!

Honourable mention to @RygarR who I watched playing Rygar for a bit (hope I didn’t put you off). That game looks hard as nails and you were smashing it!!!

I did notice @Nintendo Arcade shooting some B Roll while I was on SFIV… I really hope that either I was winning at that point, or it doesn’t make it to YouTube!

Next time I’ll make sure I stay up there, as 4h each way is a bit of a ball ache, and I’d have liked to have had a few drinks and a nerdy chin wag with more of you.

Thanks for letting me tag along!

 

[Chihiro]

Nice write up!

Candy cabs have always been a niche product in this country so better suited to home collectors

 

[Lurch666]

Thanks from me for all the dudes that put up with me.
Shoutout to RygarR and leeram for interesting chats (and leeram for the drinking session).

Surprise guest of Vamino turning up and giving me a good few games of street fighter IV on the twin cab setup.

 

[Vamino]

Thanks from me for all the dudes that put up with me.
Shoutout to RygarR and leeram for interesting chats (and leeram for the drinking session).

Surprise guest of Vamino turning up and giving me a good few games of street fighter IV on the twin cab setup.

Yeah, I drove up with Shane on his birthday as we both had time off from work.

I did speak to a couple of the guys I'd previously met up with at previous Revivals, never knew Jontron was the owner of Pixel Bunker! All the best growing the arcade mate!

But yeah, SFIV, You and that flippin' T.Hawk command grab!

I also said a quick hello to Alex, but he seemed busy so left him and his partner (?) to it.

It's an amazing arcade, but quite a few of the pinball machines had issues tho, hard to see whats going on due to lighting and most had weak/sticking flippers etc. Enjoyed Soprano's pinball though, never delved into that game before.

 

[r-type]

Just got back home. Could have done without that drive with a sore head!

It really was nice to meet so many of you. Lots of laughs and good chats. Sorry to those who I didn't introduce myself to, but think I got round most of you.

Thanks as always to @Nintendo Arcade even though he made film him and didn't come back round to us after asking us to think of the 5 games we'd take home if we could... 😉🤣

@funk Thanks for sorting out the lanyards. It was a great shout and made it much easier to find each other. Top work, sir.

@leeram Very nice to meet you and spend time with you on Hyper Sports. Thank you for talking to my son Joseph as he was a bit anxious and you made him feel at ease.

@frothmeister Thanks for all the tips with Spyhunter. Lovely to meet you properly and to find out we have quite a bit in common. Don't forget the Sactuary Forever rave next November in Milton Keynes! 😉

@TonyElyod Thanks as always for the laughs. Good to see you bud.

@shaunholley I promise I'll start listening to the podcasts. I can't believe I haven't listened before, but as I said, I'm new to podcasts so please forgive me. Looking forward to it. 😘

Special thanks to @iamjimmi for the lift back to the hotel. Very kind of you and very much aporeciated.

Can't wait for the next one and hope to see you all again soon!

 

[TheDaddy]

Is it me or do we have a ' Paranormal ' Image here :-



Where has that hand come from ?? lol

@Stokers I think Chris is having you on !! I am more a 'MightyMouse' than 'Powerhouse' !

Dave.

 

[whitecomet]

Didnt get to say hi to anyone, got there later than planned and was overwhelmed by the place.
Was a lot busier than I thought and louder than expected.
Was a good day though and maybe need to go back on a friday night, but was good to play some games on cabinets and try some games never played before.

 

[kingtreelo]

Didnt get to say hi to anyone, got there later than planned and was overwhelmed by the place.
Was a lot busier than I thought and louder than expected.
Was a good day though and maybe need to go back on a friday night, but was good to play some games on cabinets and try some games never played before.

its always very very busy

i havent been for about 12 months as i got fed up of people just allowing kids to run about screaming like it was a playground, i have heard Sundays are a better day to visit though

 

[jerryspaghetti]

I was there but only spoke to a couple of lads. Sorry I was feeling rough and the journey took it out of me. We only got up there about 6 and I had to bail by 9.

Amazing place though. The candy room was spectacular and seeing all those dedicated machines in the flesh was a real experience.

Fell in love with the Ice Cold Beer machine !

Gonna go again on the train sometime and really enjoy it.

 

[iamjimmi]

Just got back home. Could have done without that drive with a sore head!

It really was nice to meet so many of you. Lots of laughs and good chats. Sorry to those who I didn't introduce myself to, but think I got round most of you.

Thanks as always to @Nintendo Arcade even though he made film him and didn't come back round to us after asking us to think of the 5 games we'd take home if we could... 😉🤣

@funk Thanks for sorting out the lanyards. It was a great shout and made it much easier to find each other. Top work, sir.

@leeram Very nice to meet you and spend time with you on Hyper Sports. Thank you for talking to my son Joseph as he was a bit anxious and you made him feel at ease.

@frothmeister Thanks for all the tips with Spyhunter. Lovely to meet you properly and to find out we have quite a bit in common. Don't forget the Sactuary Forever rave next November in Milton Keynes! 😉

@TonyElyod Thanks as always for the laughs. Good to see you bud.

@shaunholley I promise I'll start listening to the podcasts. I can't believe I haven't listened before, but as I said, I'm new to podcasts so please forgive me. Looking forward to it. 😘

Special thanks to @iamjimmi for the lift back to the hotel. Very kind of you and very much aporeciated.

Can't wait for the next one and hope to see you all again soon!

Hope you made it home for midday 🤞

 

[Stokers]

@Stokers I think Chris is having you on !! I am more a 'MightyMouse' than 'Powerhouse' !

Not what I've heard, Chris was very specific. Refering to you as a lethal weapon

Thought i'd add some post gaming reflections as well - it was great to meet so may nice people first of all. I was in at 11am when it opened and left at 11pm and even then I felt I hadn't played enough games.

Most Fun:
For me it was a toss up between the 3 player Outrun 2 races I had with Ed (not sure of his ukvac name) and @ChrisBEANS. Not sure if Outrun 2 is doing something to keep the players close together, but it was right down to the wire every time. Street Fighter IV on the Vewlix Vs was a close second for me, really nice setup for one of my favourite fighting games.

Most Impressive:
Pretty much everything is impressive at Arcade Club, I kept walking around saying 'Oh they have an X cab' However there are some other noteable highlights for me. The Star Wars battle pod blew me away, the huge screen and sound made it very immersive. So immersive that I wanted to throw up after about 5 mins 😅 As a fan of Japanese cabinets the candy cab room was very cool, great selection of games and all the screens looked spot on.

Special mention for Ed managing to hit 15 targets with 14 shots on the clay pigeon shooting game, managing to hit the last two clays with a single shot! Does anyone know what that game actually was? It was an import and I think it was made by Namco.

@RygarR using the power stance while playing.

Inspirations:
Quite a few games passed me by when they came out, so it was great to try stuff like Vendetta, which great fun and had lots of nice touches like being able to kick people when they are down etc. It's been years since I played Toki, which used to be at my local arcade - i'll try and add that to my collection for sure.

I’m not a huge shooter fan but I really enjoyed Armed Police Batrider. It might have been the drink but it seemed quite playable and not overly difficult. Love the art style and design of the charcters as well , although given the price I might need to sell my cab to fund it 😬

Thanks again to everyone who came along.

 

[RygarR]

A belated thanks to all involved and everyone I talked to for making Saturday so much fun. Shame Sunday took the shine off. Thanks to line checks, I spent 2 hours at Bolton station, another 2 hours at Preston station and then 3 hours standing on a packed train to Edinburgh. Got home at midnight. Think I'll drive next time 🤣

PS: On the topic of stance, for those of you interested in arcade yoga, I'm thinking about putting together a training video. Now, where did I put those wristbands 🤔

 

[funk]

That sounds like a nightmare @RygarR (the travel not the yoga 🤣) Was a pleasure to meet you.

Turned out to be an awesome day for all @Nintendo Arcade thanks for getting everyone together 🙌