i didn't live post this cos i was too tired & i didn't want to reveal my assassination coordinates but i went to blackpool over the weekend with some friends for play expo & it was a cool time. i'll post pics and stuff sporadically in this thread probably
it was held in the Norbreck Castle hotel which has kind of a shitty reputation but after staying there i can conclude that people are too fucking picky because it was fine. it's massive and has obviously seen (much) better days but that gives it charm tbh. beats the blandness of a premier inn
the hotel even had its own small arcade! many of the machines in there were even working! i won this red panda from a crane machine & my friend won me the handheld it's sitting on from a key master. the pool table had no cues and only like half of the balls
i didn't take many pictures inside the expo itself cos it was busy & i was busy but they had a lot of cool stuff there. i got to play on a real life super a'can for the first time!!! speedy dragon is.. well it's impressive for an AV Artisan game but unfortunately not that great to play
Eugene Jarvis was one of the guests & he gave a super interesting & entertaining 2 part talk about his career. here he is talking about his true masterpiece Target Terror, the game where you shoot live-action non-racially-stereotyped terrorists in the balls to stop 9/11 2
It was Raw Thrills' first arcade game, they'd blown a bunch of money failing to get into home games so they made this on a shoestring with staff & their partners & women from a tanning salon(?) as actors. they got a call from the FBI cos their location photography was apparently raising suspicions
There was of course also a marketplace area there but I didn't indulge in much shopping cos i'm in a Not Trying To Obtain More Video Games kind of era. I did however purchase a few small items which you could say are in character for me
one thing blackpool is well known for is its arcades, they run the gamut of size and quality from the massive coral island with the latest big name games, multiple restaurants and even rides to run-down places full of stuff like this
on the good side of things I found this 2025 game called Kaiju Rampage that I'd never heard of before, it's by IGS & it has really good Stupid Arcade Energy with goofy voice acted cutscenes and everything. i played a 2P deluxe motion cab and 4p standup version. highly recommend trying if you see it
another thing blackpool is famous for is the illuminations, light installations that are put out every autumn. it's really cool at night & i wish i'd taken more photos. but you can find 100000 online anyway
here are some pics I took on the Monday after my friends had gone & I had a couple hours to kill before my train. being early on a Monday in October a lot of the tourist stuff was closed or deserted but you could still wander round it
Blackpool is a place where Mario's and Pizza Luigi exist across the road from each other
Anyway here's a gay gin bar with the best name they could have possibly given it
@lion Pizza Luigi just out there using the copyrighted plumber on their sign???
@RavenWorks Copyright doesn't apply in Blackpool it's like a whole town operating under fairground rules
@lion these are delightful thank u
alright the rest of this thread is just going to be blackpool posting
for the non UK people it's a seaside town that used to be a huge tourist destination and still kind of is but is way past its heyday. i've been there as a kid but this was my first time back as an adult