Revival 2019, UK, 8&9 June, mini review

[atariry]

Having listened to the Antic Podcast, I was aware of the vintage computer events which take place in the US, although not so sure about the amount of Atari stuff present.

So I while googling for information I stumbled across some events in the UK. I suggested visiting one of these later in the year to my niece, but she suggested a different event which was earlier in the year.

 

What: Revival 2019

When: Sat/Sun 8/9 June 2019

Where: Walsall football stadium (middle of England near Birmingham), UK

 

I visited on the Saturday and met up with my niece and her husband who is a big console collector.

 

Atari content was virtually nil, see later.

 

I was surprised at the size of the event, and pleasantly surprised at the number of dealers who were mainly selling console carts and CDs, but lots of other stuff too. There was a display of old 80's vintage computers, e.g. BBC micro, an Acorn Atom, a Memotech (rare), several types of Amiga, with one playing Doom, but only a solitary Atari ST playing Bubble Bobble. One dealer specialised in Sinclair Spectrum spares. There was a row of Vextrex machines. There was also about 10 pinball tables on free play. In the colsole area (which included some unusual Japenese consoles) was an Atari 5200 and a bunch of carts, which at the time I saw it was playing Frogger. There were also quite a few arcade machines on free play too. I quite enjoyed a few games of Missile Command, which reminded me how much I suck at video games.

 

I did look out for any Atari 400/800 carts, and found one in the junk box of one of the dealers. It was "Soccer", having a plain silver striped label with a hole punched through so you could see the screw. I asked "how much" and was answered "£10, because its very rare". So I threw it back in the junk pile. I would have paid £2 max.

 

I did buy an Atari tee shirt and Atari baseball cap for £35 (which seemed a bit expensive, but I wanted to leave with at least something).

 

One area had a significant Commodore presence, with a couple of guys selling different books covering the history of Commodore with DVDs to accompany. One of these was the ex-CEO of Commodore in the UK, with whom I had an interesting chat, and who later I saw getting asked for selfies. I assume that he is well known in the UK Commodore scene.

 

There were also a number of talks on various subjects throughout the 2 days.

 

To summarise I found it an interesting day and made a number of small purchases, but Atari-wise, it was a bust.