RetCon 2024/The (Unofficial) West London SAM Coupé Expo Roundup

[HEXdidnt]

While we didn't quite reach the dizzy heights of 2022, when we had (I think) 5 SAMs in one room, nor did we attract the full pantheon of SAMazing, we had a strong enough presence. The Amstrad Anniversary table may have had pride of place at the entrance, with Roland Perry on the endtable, but the SAM contingent fired back with a dazzling display by @Quazar on our endtable, featuring the new and improved version of the Surround Soundcard amongst other cool bits of hardware.

David Ledbury and Howard (Balor) Price were on hand, as always, with some very exciting projects in the offing, including a Mario Kart-style racing game, planned as a networked game for up to four players. Andrew Gillen, currently working on a SAM port of l'Abbaye des Morts, came along as well, so I was able to meet him for the first time (albeit only briefly, as I'm RetCon staff, and had to dash about quite a bit) and Rob Evans had worked long into the night to provide the latest build of his fantastic work-in-progress Arkanoid 2 tribute.

And, being the cheeky bugger that I am, I'd put together one of my slideshow demos, specifically for the event, of the new project David and I have started: A SAM Coupé conversion of the 2021 MSX homebrew masterpiece, Westen House, by Santiago Ontañón Villar. For those who couldn't make it, I've put it up on YouTube as well:


It was a fantastic day... Several other GCC members have already said it felt like the best one yet. Setup - Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday morning - went far more smoothly, and stripdown after the event was much faster than last year, even though we had fewer staff.

The layout of systems may not have been optimal (some only found their homes on the Saturday morning), but we were able to give them all much more breathing room this time. The Econet network of four BBC Micros was very nostalgic, and TX-1696 looked great, both running on an N-Go and in a custom-built arcade 'table'. It may actually be the first Spectrum Next game that has thoroughly impressed me (I can be a bit of a snob about scrolling shooters). Graphically, it's clean and clear, enemy movement and firing patterns follow true arcade traditions, the power-up mechanic is novel and the difficulty is pitched just right for that "One more go, and I'll beat this level" feeling.

Aside from chatting with the SAM contingent, one of my highlights of the day was the brief chat I had with Ian McCranor (Angus McGregor from Kasumi Ninja on the Atari Jaguar) and his partner Kerry Reeve (who played a part in the PS1 adaptation of Batman & Robin). When I was growing up, I was aware that a lot of software, generally, not just games, was made by bedroom coders, and it took time for the 'industry' to evolve, but McCranor's story about learning of the opportunity to appear in the game, arriving at the developers' office (which was basically a house with a green screen set up in one room), and getting a sinking feeling that he'd been set up as a prank, only to then essentially be given free reign in creating the character and move set of Angus McGregor, because the developers themselves had no plan, was yet another sign that the facade of the 'industry' has always been pretty much paper thin, and probably still is, considering the horror stories of developer 'crunch' we get these days.

[wub]

I really enjoyed reading this write up of the event from your perspective!

It was an amazing day and I'd recommend it to anyone as it's a lot of fun, and the ticket price is extremely good value considering how much there is to see and do.

[Spud]

WUBSOFT GUY