My good friend Andrew Fell (trustee at Cottenham Community Centre, CCC, and volunteer at the UK Computer Museum in Cambridge) organised and ran independently of the museum a very successful retro gaming day at CCC.
It was a delight for gamers young and old and dozens of them packed the back hall to see everything from the pioneering Intellivision and Spectrum consoles to the classic Commodore, Atari, Nintendo, Sega, and BBC Micro machines, as well as a Virtual Boy with its 3D display based that used two spinning mirrors to give each eye a different view of the display.
The gamers and any +1s (and their kids) all got to partake of cream teas and cakes provided by Mrs Sciencebase and her staff in our coffee shop.
Chuckie Egg on the BBC
All in a very successful afternoon, in fact, one of our most successful non-musical events at CCC ever and all topped off with an evening viewing of the Spielberg film “Ready Player One”, which featured a vintage (1970s) VHS machine loaned by the Museum in the final scene.
Senior moment
Pleased I was to see two references to Rush the band. Specifically, one of the closing scenes features a poster of their “2112” album and one of the heroes wearing a 2112 teeshirt. As fans will know, 2112 was one of the band’s early concept albums and tells a messianic tale of a dystopian future. It is no small coincidence that Ready Player One tells a similar tale.
The next generation
Anyway, aside from the couple of hundred people (possibly more) who came through the Community Centre doors and enjoyed the digital and sconic feast, the event also raised a generous surplus for CCC coffers and a donation to the Museum was also made. Well done to Andy and the team. I’m sure the popularity of this event means he will be itching to run a second such event.
GamesMeister Andrew Fell with the Ferguson Videostar Deluxe that features in the 2018 Steven Spielberg film “Ready Player One”
Amazingly, Andrew and his able assistants got all the machines booted up, kept them running without a glitch, without a single fuse blown or gadget broken, right up until it was Game Over.
Fergie
