Working in collaboration, Chris Wilkins (Retro Fusion Magazine) and Craig Turner's (Turnarcades Custom Arcade Machines) Revival was billed as an all-new event focusing not just on retro gaming, but on the retro culture that has been inspired by the gaming explosion of the late 70's and early 80's.

Continuing where Chris left off with the 'Retro Ball' event in 2005, REVIVAL was an almost exclusively retro event aimed at bringing as many true retro gamers together as possible in one place for the classic gaming experience we all really love and remember so fondly, to share this whilst still retaining a very personal and grass roots level look and feel.

Many familiar faces attended and there was the chance for the retro gaming community to mix directly with some of the people that had made retro-gaming what it is today and to meet up with fellow hobbyists who continue to keep the scene alive.

Such luminaries as Sandy White, The Oliver twins and almost the entire Ocean Software house crew all descended on Wolverhampton Racecourse at Dunstall Park for this inaugarul event.

I travelled up from London with my regular retro gaming buddy Paul Jeakins in anticipation of what we might find, discover and play.

The rumours of a massive arcade where indeed well founded as the biggest ensemble of machines had been gathered together under one roof since PlayExpo back in October of last year. Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Defender, Amidar, Juno First were all there among the many many cabinets on display and all thankfully set to free play! Happy days indeed!

A pristine and original Mr. Do! cabinet much to my delight. It played like a treat with no joystick stickiness issues either as the little clown dug his way around the apple filled maze.

A very small but beautiful Puckman clone cabinet with colourful decals and Marquee again the cabinet was in great condition having fared much better over the last 30 years than I have!

I didn't recall ever having seen one of these but we are going back a long while into the early annals of arcade gaming with this one from Taito, 1976 I believe.

I thought I had seen almost all the different home consoles in my time but was amazed yet again to still find many that I had never set eyes on before. There were obscure Japanese systems that had never seen the light of day over here in Europe out on display and many more failed systems that had been scrapped almost as soon as they had reached the market. I unexpectedly found myself spending several hours playing on many of these old and obscure systems.

With such a selection of popular retro computers and consoles laid out to enjoy it was very easy to experience some of those special gaming moments shared from days gone by with friends, some now forgotten and some sadly missed, messing around with 48k Basic on an old ZX81 to multi-player Mario Kart sessions on the Snes, it was all there to enjoy and with the familiar 80’s arcade sounds as a backdrop while you played a better set up could not have been imagined.

I managed to grab a few minutes for a chat with the guys from Retro Gaming Roundup and sample their new (old) Atari 2600 offering CGE Adventures a new release on ROM and Cartridge on the ever popular Atari system.

Later I managed to sit in on a Q&A session with the original games division from Ocean Software regailing some great stories from back in the day when bedroom coders could become millionaires almost overnight.

There were cocktail tables, cabaret cabinets and full on Virtual Reality units all there to be played on and all in amazingly good working order. Coupled with a great selection of vendors all with resonably priced wares for sale (unlike some other events I have been to) this was a very solid expo.

Handhelds were also well represented at the event with plenty of opportunity to test your reflexes again just as you did as a kid all those years ago.

A big hats off must go to the organisers for getting it pretty spot on with this event and I am sure it will now become a regular date on the retro gaming calander, it certainly will be on mine.