Going to ZX Spectrum events back in the day

[PeteProdge]

After getting a +2 in Oct 1987 and slowly integrating with the scene by buying a few magazines, I noticed an advert for the ZX Microfair being held later that year (November or December I think) and begged my parents to take me to London to see this thing. My mum took me over and that can't have been much fun for her, as she had absolutely no interest in computing, never did.

I didn't know exactly what to expect, having never been to any computer exhibition event. It was held at the Royal Horticultural Halls near Victoria Station, and looking back, it resembled a large indoor trader market. Lots of people with wallpaper pasting tables set up with Spectrums, TV and various gadgets.

It wasn't that game-centric. If you were expecting the likes of Ocean, US Gold or Elite to be there, you'd be disappointed. A lot of it was hardware-based. Romantic Robot showing off the Videoface - that blew my mind. I hit the BREAK key to see how it worked and that just crashed the machine, sorry, Romantic Robot! Datel were exhibiting their stuff, including the light pen but didn't want people to actually touch that (oh, how I later learned why).

Your Sinclair had a stall selling back issues, manned by some of their staff. I remember recognising Phil South. Having come into the magazines pretty late and reading the letters pages filled with readers' praise for Batty, I managed to get one of those from Phil, an incredibly enthusiastic guy. Some guy was selling a load of games from the barely-known K'Soft label. I picked up Skuldugery (sic) and A-Maze for a couple of quid, and they were probably the most obscure games I owned at the time.

Overall though, quite a spoddy event, very much like a church fete with a BBC Micro Live vibe about it, but I was still happy about it. (Also, I recall being ticked off by my mother for rapidly wolfing down a plate of chips at lunchtime as I just saw eating as a distraction from catching up on what these new-fangled home computers could do.)

Over the next few years, the big annual ones at Earl's Court found favour with me, dedicated to all computers and very game-centric, with all the big labels there (including a few that were barely known to us Speccy users, with the 16-bit computers gaining traction). A vastly more professional set-up, you could tell proper money had been invested to really show off the new releases, especially with Ocean having "the largest video wall in Europe" as their live PA boasted (12 x 12 CRT TVs, IIRC). Met Whistlin' Rick Wilson at the Your Sinclair stand and, unsurprisingly, he declined my request to sing his greatest hit. EMAP had a huge stand to promote C&VG, Sinclair User, Commodore User, The One and various other publications (still more dominant than Future at that time, but only just), but absolutely nothing on it other than a few staff members sitting there behind a huge yellow desk, expecting fans to meet them. Nobody was bothered. I recognised Tony Dillon, but had nothing to say to him.

Right in the arse end of the Speccy's life, probably 1992 or 1993, my brother's friend (who had just transitioned from his 48K Speccy to a Sega Master System) insisted we go to GamesMaster Live! (yes, themed around the hit Channel 4 gaming show) at the Birmingham NEC, and I, being the responsible (near-)adult accompanied him on the bus there and back. I mean, I was always ludicrously optimistic about the Speccy's commercial standing but at this point, the dust from the Chicxulub asteroid impacting the 8-bits had long settled and you didn't see a trace of anything Speccy related.

It was quite console-centric and at that point, I was vehemently anti-console (still am in a way), what with them offering no creativity, just play these unhackable cartridge games at £20-30 a throw. Even the Atari ST and Amiga felt like they were in the back seat. It really was for the arcade/console kids, the shellsuited types you'd see crowded round Street Fighter II in your local arcade. No Speccy/C64 playground rivalry, it was very much Nintendo vs Sega. Still, got to hear Dominik Diamond swear as he hosted a couple of presentations.

Anyway, that's the end of my waffle, so what was your experience of them?

[Morkin]

S0d all...

Would've loved to go to a Microfair though.

[Vampyre]

Unfortunately never went to one BITD - was a bit young for them I suppose and there was no chance in hell my parents would take me as they couldn't be arsed with anything outside of their own interests (there's a development here that I found out about very recently that I'm still quite bitter about).

Anyway - did go with Stupidget to the recent Crash Live at the Bescott Stadium in Walsall. That was pretty good - bet there were a few people on here there, but we had no way of recognising anyone

[Turtle_Quality]

My dad was good enough to drive me and a few friends there, until we were old enough to find our way there by Tube. Went to a few of them in the early days, Microfairs were more fun as they were more Spectrum oriented and also a bit less glossy and professional than the Earls Court games fairs with more of the big companies attending. At the Microfairs you could often talk to the people developing the hardware or software

At my first Microfair in '82 I asked a few software houses if they had games for my Spectrum yet and most answered that they haven't received their Spectrum yet, Quicksilva offered to buy mine !

I remember Mel Croucher was often highly visible and audible at Microfairs, often wearing outlandish costumes like his overly tight fitting PiMan outfit.

[Oloturia]

I remember going to a fair, but I can't say where and when. In Italy we didn't have video games companies because of software piracy, lack of a real distribution network, lack of game coders and especially the feeling that computers were made only for business (have you ever tried to play on an Olivetti M-20? or an IBM AS400?) so it was only a large building, probably at Bologna's fair, with a lot of computers, mainly Commodore 64s, and people playing games. I remember playing Aztec Challenge with some kids, but no one could beat the first few seconds of the game. Amazingly frustrating. There was also an Atari (maybe) with that horizontal shoot-em-up where you are a black plane defending a city from two red bombers. Can't remember the name even if I played a lot to a remake. Can't remember if there were also Spectrums. Probably there were some, as it was the second more common home computer of that period.

In Italy there weren't many computer fairs (or at least, none that I can remember) with the exception of business ones, with Milan's SMAU as the biggest one. I went there in my 20s and there weren't any video games in sight. Nonetheless, the paper shredders were truly funny to use.

A few years earlier I went to the Bologna's Futurshow with some friends from the school. Futurshow was the answer to the Motorshow, which was (or still is?) a car fair that used to attract a lot of interest. I can't remember 8-bits machines anyway, it was 1996 and there were even no more Amigas. There I played laser tag for the first time. There was a video game museum but IIRC it was arcades only (mostly broken).

Recently I went to one of those fairs that embeds many interests, Il Mondo Creativo (Creative World) that has many mini-fairs along. The main one, Creative World, is about sewing and embroidery, but there is also Model Game, about car, train, quadcopters and other kind of modelling, an electronic fair and a museum of old machines, where for the first time I saw a ZX81. There were a few working Spectrums linked to some annoyingly buzzing CRTs.

[PeteProdge]

I just remembered, that at that ZX Microfair I attended, a computer magazine reported that Sir Clive Sinclair attended it, albeit very briefly. I never did see him there, I'd have remembered that, certainly. Perhaps it was while I was wolfing down those chips. Clearly I wasn't fast enough.

Anyway, "Might have been in the same room as Clive Sinclair" is my pathetic boast from this.

[worcestersource]

I would have loved to have gone to something like that and especially to have met YS peeps. Wow!

I did get to go to a Mac Expo at the Barbican in the early 90s. What a day! I bought myself Civilization and played it to death. I saw ray tracing for the first time, albeit a very, very slow rendering, the new Mac Quadras and all sorts. Fantastic day out.

Years later, I got to work on some fancy pants stands for my former employer (naturally, a software company - I used to design stuff). The excitement of those earlier days came back! Never a dull moment if I was around!

[XTM]

I noticed an advert for the ZX Microfair being held later that year (November or December I think) and begged my parents to take me to London to see this thing.

[PeteProdge]

Years later, I got to work on some fancy pants stands for my former employer (naturally, a software company - I used to design stuff). The excitement of those earlier days came back! Never a dull moment if I was around!

I've been working mainly with IT firms for the past 16-17 years and much of it is B2B stuff.

Got to design a few exhibition stands for one employer (a data centre services/server maintenance company), got to have a say in what freebies could be given away and even help out on the stands, usually over in London's ExCeL or at the IBM AS/400 user group (I saw that legacy brand cited earlier in this thread!) That's the closest I'll ever get to those big gaming exhibitions back in the day, and it's nice to have a backstage pass, but obviously it really is all serious high-brow enterprise-level B2B stuff based on servers/routers/cybersecurity/sustainability. You do get to see some nods to gaming, like one of our competitors having a giant Pac Man screen, giving away a prize for the highest score. It's pretty dry stuff but there are some fun elements and I got to go to 'after parties' with some eye-opening antics. Always a lot of money sloshing around in B2B technology, which was in stark contrast for most 8-bit games companies by the late 80s/early 90s!

Anyway, Play Expo is the closest thing to the old shows that I go to these days (speaking of which, I was at the 2023 Blackpool exhibition and there is a video of that due out on my Reheated Pixels channel pretty soon, which is quite Spectrum-centric). I know there's Crash Live over in Coventry this Saturday, quite near me and I am in fact going to be driven past it while it's happening. I can't stop, alas, my destination is Liverpool. One day I'll turn up.

[PeteProdge]

Oh, you know how to push my buttons! And yeah, Fri 24th, next week, Alexandra Palace, fourth Prodigy gig this year!

• Firelordstarter
• Rhythm Bomb Jack
• Out Of Space Harrier
• Get Your Final Fight On
• Space Invaders Must Die
• Light Up The Sky Ranger
• No Good
• Give Me A Signal

[worcestersource]

@PeteProdge I’ve been to Play Expo a few times many years ago when it was in Manchester. Blackpool’s way too far for me to go. I really loved it there.

Apparently, we nostalgic types are generally more contented with life than average. I guess we have fond memories to look back over. If we own retro gear, even more so. As well as a Speccy, I own a Fiat Uno and it makes me feel like I’m 19 again when I drive it.

[Joefish]

I remember going to a 16-bit one in London with my brother and friend from school; I can't remember if we took the train or if he was driving by then. I don't know which fair it was though. There weren't any consoles, it was just STs and Amiga, and the major magazines and big game labels weren't there, that I recall. There were booths, but it was all a bit low-rent, a few bits of obscure hardware from small manufacturers, some stands selling the usual mail-order listings of printers, monitors, hard drives, and slightly dated discounted games. OK-ish, and I bought and swapped a few cheap things (it's not like I went there pockets stuffed with cash or anything), but nothing really showy or memorable. As I say, I don't even remember the name of the show or where it was! Might have been near one of the mainline stations, not St Pancras as that would have been too easy, and it just looked like one open floor of an office block. No great fancy hall or anything.

[arkannoyed]

The Microfair was brilliant! I remember going with my dad many times. He even met a guy who worked for Saga systems that he’d worked with back in the 70s. He asked him if he could copy The Last Word that a friend had just bought. Cheeky!
The Horticultural Halls was a great venue. I met Christian Urquart too, who tried to sell me Robot Messiah. No sale.

[MatGubbins]

I remember going to a 16-bit one in London with my brother and friend from school; I can't remember if we took the train or if he was driving by then. I don't know which fair it was though. There weren't any consoles, it was just STs and Amiga, and the major magazines and big game labels weren't there, that I recall. There were booths, but it was all a bit low-rent, a few bits of obscure hardware from small manufacturers, some stands selling the usual mail-order listings of printers, monitors, hard drives, and slightly dated discounted games. OK-ish, and I bought and swapped a few cheap things (it's not like I went there pockets stuffed with cash or anything), but nothing really showy or memorable. As I say, I don't even remember the name of the show or where it was! Might have been near one of the mainline stations, not St Pancras as that would have been too easy, and it just looked like one open floor of an office block. No great fancy hall or anything.

Sounds very similar to the Novotel Hammersmith International centre, 1 Shortlands London. Went to an Amiga show there back in 1987, met and chatted to Simon Goodwin (he of Crash Techniche and Your Spectrum) and Andy Davidson (writer of Worms) and he gave me a cheat sheet for the new worms game because he saw I had bought it a few moments earlier. Managed to get a grey cuddly squirrel toy from HiSoft stand. Looked at the Lorraine laptop, an A600 in a laptop case with a whole lot of bits inside, and a towered A1200 with clear side panel to show off the motherboard with expansion bits inside. Ended up spending £500 odd pounds on a Blizzard 060+PowerPC 603 expansion board for my A1200.
That A1200 expansion board ended up requiring the tower, keyboard and a whole lot more money to get it fully working.....

[PeteProdge]

I suppose I should point out that on my recent visit to Play Expo Blackpool (last month), with a hotel just a block away from the venue (no sane person would stay in the Norbreck Castle Hotel, so I turned up early on the Sunday. I pulled my car up just as Jim Bagley was getting out of his.

Anyway, he was part of the team promoting the Spectrum Next scene, and there were a few Nexts sitting in a dedicated space, alongside the usual array of rare consoles and computers. But there was barely any interest in these machines, and bearing in mind this was the second day, I was astonished that they were packing up and leaving before 1pm. I didn't get to play on one this time round!

Well, there was more Spectrum activity later on in the day with @RoseTintedSpectrum's live panel which I was in the front row for, and you can see all the stories about St Bride's, Flying Train, Mastertronic's Pod, Mined Out and more, for nowt, here!: