Retrovision 2010

Greetings Programs!

Firstly, an apology for the lack of blog updates recently. This has been due to various factors - some personal, some mundane (including repainting the Psytronik office which took a MONTH due to all the retro stuff that had to be moved around!) All this resulted in the Psytronik releases being put on hold for a while and, unfortunately, this meant the games I was hoping to release just before Christmas (Armalyte PC & Star Sabre 128) were not completed in time. But don't worry folks, work has now resumed on these releases and both games will soon be available.

So what has been happening with Psytronik Software recently I hear you cry. Well, I've just got back to the Psytronik HQ after attending the awesome Retrovision 2010 event and I thought I'd better type up a report of the event while it's all still fresh in my mind! So are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin ...

My epic voyage to RV2010 began on Friday February 5th 2010 with me pointing the Kenzmobile(tm) in the direction of Milton Keynes. I was being accompanied to the event by my good buddy DJ Skitz (of SlayRadio fame) and in order shorten the journey a tad I crashed at the SkitzHQ after some tasty pizza scoffage (a Dominos "big smoky" - for techno buffs who are listening).

Me & Skitz zzoomed off to Oxford on Saturday morning and arrived at the event venue (The Folly Bridge Inn) just before noon. We would have arrived a bit earlier had it not been for a slight navigational error. I noticed I already had "RV guesthouse" programmed into my TomTom but what I didn't realise was it was actually a different place we stayed at a couple of years ago - so I was expecting it to navigate me to the White House View Hotel opposite the Folly and we ended up somewhere else completely! Nyeeeeeuurrrrrr!

Dunnu-dunnu-dunnu-dunnu-BEERMAN!

Anyhoo, once at the Folly a quick recce revealed the main room to be pretty much set up and operational (and stuffed with an amazing amount of retro-tech, the most I'd ever seen at an RV event in fact!) Me & Skitz unloaded the car and got the Binary Zone / Psytronik stand set up and running. This was the first time I had taken three separate systems to an event so I had a bit more setting up to do than normal.

The Binary Zone table crammed with Psytronik goodies!
(Photo by VinnyM)

My table featured a Spectrum 128 +2 complete with audio CD loading system and supa-clear SCART TV lead, the Specadore 64 (I couldn't NOT bring that along as it always proves to be popular at these events!) along with my new addition to the Specadore family, the 1541 MK II Microdrive (okay, it's a 1541 drive sprayed black complete with Speccy stripes to match the Specadore!) I also took my PC with me in order to demonstrate the full PC version of Armalyte for the first time - and this proved to be VERY popular.

Armalyte on the PC complete with a packaging mockup next to the screen!
(Photo by VinnyM)

This was the first time the FULL version of Armalyte had been on show and it gave people the chance to play the later levels of the game - which caused some "ooo-ing" and "aah-ing" as the beautiful graphics by Smila went scrolling past. I also demonstrated some of the bonus goodies that will be featured with the game including the mix-e-load music demo, the artwork "making of" demo and the jukebox (although anything music-related was pretty much drowned out by all the other retro noises in the room!) The PC conversion of the game is now pretty much 100% complete, I just need to finish off some of the bonus items that will be featured on the CD-ROM. (The game will be officially released and shipped in April 2010 - in case you were wondering!)

Frank "Games That Weren't" Gasking blowing up stuff on Armalyte!

One of the great things about these retro events is that you meet various people from the retro scene and retro forums. It was great to see lots of familiar faces from the YakYak forum, some new faces from the Retro Gamer forum, people I've met at various events and people I've known for years thanks to my retro related shenanigans! The atmosphere at RV is always really friendly and there's always people you can chat too and play classic games with. The namebadges also help to put faces to forum ID's!

Alex Aris battles the H'siffian Empire

The rest of saturday was spent playing games (Trashman on the Speccy! Yayy!), drinking Guinness (double-yayy!), playing MORE games and drinking MORE Guinness! As well as being able to demonstrate the Psytronik releases on the screens I also took along some prototype artwork from forthcoming releases - some of which was exclusively unveiled at RV. The picture below shows the first ever Psytronik Compilation which was inspired by the famous They Sold A Million compilation released back in 1985. Despite not quite selling a million the Psytronik compilation features four cracking Psytronik games, will fill four disk-sides (or two tapes) and will be released in March 2010 - you heard it here folks!

The first Psytronik compilation COMING SOON!
(Photo by VinnyM)

A herd of us then ambled off for a curry at Chutneys (shouldn't that be "Chunteys", Speccy fans?) - who (after keeping us waiting for a yonk outside) managed to accomodate over 30 retro fiends and I was soon replete with a surprisingly hot madras curry which made me hiccup somewhat.

More Armalyte blastage - this time with Piku at the helm

The evening was rounded off back at the Folly with a bit more retro gaming before the racket from Rockband was starting to damage my brain (it was very hard trying to play Bugaboo the Flea with all that din!) so I ambled over the road to the hotel to entertain DJ Skitz with lots of curry induced windypops.

RV2010 - It was just a blur!
(Photo by VinnyM)

And then all of a sudden it was SUNDAY! The very nice people at the White House View Hotel (plug plug) laid on a scrummy cooked brekkie which energized me & Skitz for another day of gaming FUN! I always like Sundays at RV as it's a great chill-out type day. I spent Sunday alternating chatting with RV peeps downstairs in the pub and gaming upstairs. A deelish Sunday roast was then consumed before me & Skitz began dismantling the Zone for the long journey home.

The brill Armalyte artwork demo runs in the background while
the main game runs happily in Windows 7 on the laptop.

And so that was Retrovision 2010 - an excellent weekend! Before I go, I'd just like to do a few shout-outs to various peeps at the event. Due to brain addledness I can't remember everyone I chatted with but special menchies go to:- My most excellent travelling companion DJ "Zer0page" Skitz, Vinny "C64 Endings" Mainolfi (thanx for the photos!), Frank "Games that Weren't" Gasking (thanx for the VIC warez), StarshipUK, VintageMatt, PsychoRob (thanx for the great event!), Amy & Piku, Dungeon Dave & Dawn (I'll bump into you in Malvern ONE day!), the awesomely awesome Bog (good luck in the U.S of A, old friend), Markie (there was no way I was gonna let you miss an RV dude!), THE Jon (not just any Jon), Bane, Alex Aris, Beerman, Mayhem, Jools, MadHippo, Juice, Paul "RG" Drury, Rinoa, SirClive, Renegade Si, Dave Moore & the RS gang and the RCM posse (see you guys in May!) ... Special thanks also for the staff at the Folly Bridge Inn for looking after us (or should I say "putting up with us") and for filling us with copious amounts of lovely food and drink. Sorry to everyone I forgot to mention here - blame the guinness!

If you would like to see the complete set of photos that I took at RV2010 CLICK HERE!

And that's yer lot for now. In the next blog entry I'll be detailing the making of one of the extras that will be featured on the Armalyte CD-ROM. And just to whet your appetite I can tell you that a certain One Man will be setting up his NEW Mic in order to record something very special for the Armalyte CD!

See you ... IN THE FUTURE!

Kenz / www.psytronik.com