I’ve been meaning to get out and about a bit more and try to meet folks in and around the gaming industry. For a while, I’ve been meaning to go to some gaming shows but, one thing or another got in the way. This year, I took myself along to PLAY Expo in Blackpool. This article right here is going to be my little memoir of the whole event.

The UK’s longest running and most popular retro games expo returns for 2023! Organised by experienced video game events specialists Replay Events, the show will be crammed with games, features, exhibitors and video gaming mayhem. With everything you love about gaming under one roof, the show will have something for everyone.

Oh yeah, this sounds right up my alley. But first, I had to get to Blackpool and I don’t exactly live local, I live about 110 miles away. Not too far, but you wouldn’t want to walk it. There is also the issue that I don’t drive. So, train it would have to be then. I managed to book a train ticket to Blackpool, with the train leaving just after 9:00. Even so, I’d still have to get to the train station and that would mean my having to get up pretty early in the morning. Have a shower, maybe a quick cup of something, etc and then get to the city centre and then the train station.

Here’s the thing about me, I’m really fucking terrible with early mornings. My brain just does not kick in until around 11:30. I’m a stay-at-home father and I have to get up early in the week to get the kids up and ready for school. So, I’m somewhat used to getting up early morning… I’m still really bad at it though. Plus, the kid’s school is just a few minutes walk away from where I live. Blackpool isn’t. I had my alarm set for 6:00 just to give myself enough time to shower and all that guff before I would even leave the house and begin my journey to the city, to the train station early, to not risk missing my train, and then to Blackpool.

However, I woke up around 3:00 and just could not get back to sleep. After a lot of tossing and turning, I decided to just get up a little before 4:00. ‘Have a coffee, that’ll wake you up’ some of you may be thinking. Here’s the thing, I gave up drinking caffeine about 7 years ago. I dragged myself off to the shower, got myself ready and as I had a spare couple of hours (what with waking up too early), did a spot of writing. When it was time, I grabbed my overnight bag (packed the night before) and left the house.

It all worked out in the end. Bleary-eyed, I got to the train station early enough to grab a McDonald’s breakfast before I had to board my train that would get into Blackpool just over 2 hours later, around 11:15. Another thing about me, I really don’t like travelling. Don’t get me wrong, I like going places… I just don’t like the actual physical travelling bit. One of the reasons I don’t like travelling, I will cover right now. I got to the train station and checked the departure boards for my train… it wasn’t there. No train to Blackpool. I checked and double-checked my ticket. Yup, travel for the 7th of October to Blackpool from the very train station I was at. So where is the train?

I headed over to information and asked. ‘Yeah, that train has been cancelled’ the fella behind the counter told me. ‘You can get the train to Preston and then Preston to Blackpool instead’. A bit of a ball-ache but, the train to Preston was leaving 40 minutes earlier than the original one to Blackpool and even with having to change trains, I should be in Blackpool a wee bit earlier than the original 11:15 time. Bonus. However, I get on the train to Preston and it is delayed leaving the station. Fuck. Eventually, it set off and around 20 minutes from getting into Preston, the train was delayed on the tracks as they had (according to the announcer) mistakenly let a rather large and slow-moving freight train through ahead of us. So, we had to wait on the tracks for that to clear up ahead… which took a while.

I finally get into Preston and of course, will the delays, I’ve missed the connecting train to Blackpool. The next one was due in 15 minutes. It was already 11:45 by now, half an hour after I was originally supposed to be in Blackpool. Then, just to rub some salt in the wound, the train from Preston the Blackpool had been delayed too.  Eventually, I made it to Blackpool (over an hour later than I was supposed to get there and despite getting a train that was 40 minutes earlier than my original one), a place I’d not been to for a good 25 years or so. Next, I had to get on the tram and to my final destination and the place where PLAY Expo was being held, the Norbreck Castle Hotel.

Here’s the thing about the Norbreck Castle Hotel, it sounds amazing. It looks pretty damn awesome too. A MASSIVE castle-like building right there on the seafront with a hell of a history. From the outside and a bit of a distance, the Norbreck is quite impressive. As I got closer, I noticed the lack of care to the outside of the building, peeling paint and such. It really does look very tatty when you get up close. The place has a 2.0 rating on TripAdvisor and it is rated the 82nd best hotel in Blackpool out of 93. If you want a better idea of how horrendous the pace is, check out this video. Britannia, who own and run the Norbreck, was named the worst hotel chain in the UK last year, for the tenth year in a row. I already knew how terrible this place was long before I set foot in it. I had been pre-warned by a few people and I had read reviews ahead of time. Even so, as PLAY Expo was a weekend event… I booked a room to stay in at the Norbreck. Yup, I actually paid money to stay in one of the rooms.

Why, why would I do this knowing how fucking terrible the place was? Mainly for convivence. PLAY Expo was a 2-day event and if I stay at the hotel (as terrible as it is), I can cut down on commuting to and from. Plus, out of sheer morbid curiosity, I genuinely wanted to see just how shit the Norbreck was for myself. Besides, I knew that this trip would involve some alcohol consumption, so I could get pissed and not really be bothered about the state of my room. I readied myself for the unpleasantness of my stay before I walked into the entrance.

However, my very low expectations were not met. I walked into reception and there was a slight smell of new carpet, a sign hung on the wall apologising for any disruption while renovations were ongoing. The Norbreck was being updated. I checked in, grabbed my keycard and was eager to see just how bad my room was. I walked down the corridor to my room, along very new carpet and a strong smell of paint. The walls must’ve, very recently been done. I slid the keycard into the electronic lock and the door unlocked the first time. One of the bugbears from a lot of reviews of the place is that the keycards stop working and you have to keep going back to reception to reactivate them. Not once with me, my keycard worked the first time all the time I was there.

I entered my room. New carpet, freshly painted walls and thankfully, no paint smell. It was a small-ish room but as it was only me staying and only for the one night, it was also perfectly fine and exactly what I needed. I looked around for problems and found none. The room was clean and newly decorated. It even had an all-new bathroom suite. The terrible reviews that the Norbreck had did not match up with what was going on in my room. Clean and tidy. I was kind of disappointed as I wanted to see how bad the rooms (given what I was told and from the reviews I had read) were and mine was great.

Anyway, I had a handful of missions while I was at PLAY Expo. First, I had to go and get my press pass for the event itself. After all of the hassle of getting to Blackpool (over an hour later than originally planned), I was finally there and got into the event just after 13:00, just in time to see my friend, Lord Badger Nimahson host a gaming challenge on  Bullion: The Curse of the Cut-Throat Cattle. Some fella came all the way from New York to be there and got up on stage to play. After said gaming challenge, I finally got to have a beer with Badger and even met the main developer of Bullion.

After which, I had a little stroll around the hall to see what was about. There were classic arcade machines, pinball tables and pretty much every console you could think of set up and ready to be played on and all free! Numerous things going on all at once and a real retro/indie gaming vibe. The main stage was in constant use for multiple interviews, gaming challenges and so much more. There was always something to see and do all the time and I really could’ve done with being cloned to have taken everything in.

Just off from the main hall was the merchandise area. Loads of stalls from traders with  hundreds and thousands of gaming goodies to spend your money on. T-shirts, hats, figures, classic games, new games, consoles and more. Any and everything you could think of gaming-related from decades of gaming that could put you into some serious debt. I had to control my bank card as I was not there to spend money on gaming goodies. I had a very specific mission while at PLAY Expo.

I have written (well mostly written and now just editing) a Doom book for the game’s 30th anniversary this December and there were two people also attending PLAY Expo that I really, really wanted to meet.

Bill Thorpe is a massive Doom fan and has made several Doom-related videos/short films and was showing one of his Doom films at the event. I was at PLAY Expo wearing my custom-made Bill Thorpe Doom t-shirt and just randomly bumped into Bill in reception. He obviously recognised the shirt and we got chatting and I showed him an early version of my book. There was a screening of his awesome Doom film and a Q&A session afterwards. Bill Thorpe now has a video up on his YouTube channel covering the event. There’s some fella showing his pre-release Doom book at around 21:24…

As that video shows, my book was signed by none other than the Icon of Sin himself, John Romero. Yup, that was the other person that I really wanted to meet, and I obviously did. John held a talk, the topic was 30 years of Doom and it was great to actually (after years of research, writing my book and several exchanges of emails) to see the man in the flesh. I am genuinely amazed that even three decades down the line, John Romero is still so passionate and open to talking about Doom. He must’ve answered the same old questions hundreds nay thousands of times over the years. Yet, he never seems to be bored.

After his Doom talk, I got to meet the man himself, had a bit of chat and then he signed the pre-release version of my book. A massive smile on his face and was very approachable. When talking to John Romero, you almost get the impression that he’s not aware of how influential he is. He’s just so unassuming and laid back. One of the pioneers who changed the world of gaming forever, and yet he is just so cool about it.

That was it, I was happy. I got to meet Bill Thorpe and the legend that is John Romero. Even with my travel woes (they got so much worse on the way back and it took me from 14:30 to 20:15 to get back home… but I won’t bore you with that story), it was still worth it.

I had been to a few gaming events in the past, but it had been a good few years since the last one. I was a wee bit unprepared and really fucking tired due to the lack of sleep and travelling to Blackpool. I didn’t take in as much of PLAY Expo as I would’ve liked, I didn’t even play any of the games and I didn’t get on any of the arcade machines or consoles either. I had the opportunity (the press pass helped), just not the time. Plus, I really was tired and barely kept my eyes open. Still, I did get to meet a few people, game devs, Bill Thorpe and of course, John Romero. Plus one or seven beers with Lord Badger Nimahson. It was worth it in the end.