SPRITE-TASTIC!

The daily free newspaper 'The Dose', aimed at 'young adults' has sadly come to an abrupt end. Canada has an abundance of free newspapers. While 'The Dose' was still going Vancouver had 3 free daily newspapers and numerous free weekly ones. Quite why is a bit of a mystery to me. Apparently this only became the norm a few years ago. I used to like 'The Dose', it was quirky and used essentially repeat stories from the BBC website and the UK newspaper 'The Guardian'. Seeing as this what I would read back home it was the ideal paper for me in a way. Now its gone, bankrupt. Apparently 'young adults' don't read enough.

'The Dose' though had a parting gift. In the last issue under the events section it mentioned that a retrogaming night was taking place. Now call me a nerd (lots do) but I quite enjoy a go on old computer games. Not only are they easy to play and fun but they remind me of my own wasted childhood, playing rubbish on the Amstrad and Amiga. They were happy times. Sort of.

So I rounded up some nerds and people with nothing better to do and headed down to a strange location on Main St for, wait for it, 'The Videogame Orgy'. Yes, really.

To be honest we expected the worst. In fact we almost didn't bother as we found a great bar (we thought we'd have a few 'loseners' beforehand) and was enjoying drinking bizarrely named sangria (anyone for a jug of 'Denial'?). I pictured lots of fat men sitting in silence, casting dark glances when anyone laughed. So it was with some trepidation that Gav, Paul, Si, Keenie and myself paid our entry fee (which was anything between 3 bucks and 20, I gave 10, the others 5 the cheap skates).

Once we got in though it became obvious this was going to be very different from how we imagined. For one there were girls there. Lots of them. And everyone was very trendy. Indeed it felt more like a launch show for a Hoxton art 'space'. We were in a large studio and they had set up loads of TVs and games consoles around the room. There was a bar in the corner and DJ playing a mixture of dance and trance (I think). It was quite simply fantastic.

A very blurry photo of the studio. You kind of get a sense of what it was like from this.

We all settled in and played some classics. I can't remember everything I had a go on, but I distinctly remember playing two unbelievably tense games of NHL '95 with Keenie and Simon, showing off some of my Resident Evil prowess (there were some modern games as well), playing Halo on a tiny black and white TV, racing Tails in Sonic 2 while sitting in a tent (for some reason) and eating/drinking far too many vodka jelly's.

We left about 4:00am. I did fall asleep at one point so it may of been later. It was one of the best nights out I've had in Vancouver. That probably says more about me though than the night.

They reckon they'll do another one. I'm praying that they put this on when my mate Lew comes to visit. I can't think of anyone in the world more suited to it. Lewis, better start praying to your Nerd God...