On Wednesday 19th July, over 150 Yorkshire and Northern game developers descended upon Leeds Arcade Club for Game Republic’s Summer Arcade Birthday Party! Members were treated to three floors of incredible classic arcade titles with everything from pinball machines, traditional shoot-em-ups, light gun shooters, beat-em-ups, racing games, rhythm action titles and much more. (See gallery below for pics, video by Other Things and cake photo taken by Andrew Crawshaw of Thunkd)
If you enjoyed the event please donate the price of a cup of coffee or more to our chosen Charity Partner of the year Special Effect
Game Republic celebrated its 20th anniversary in style, thanks to the official partners for this year – Red Kite Games, Barclays and Escape Technology. As well as the usual pizza, nachos and drinks, there was also cupcakes and a beautiful birthday cake made by Butterfly Bakery (please leave a review on her page to help a small business in Yorkshire), featuring iconic characters from games made in the region including Boneloaf’s Gang Beasts, Sumo’s Snake Pass, Team17’s Worms and Revolution’s Broken Sword.
The Arcade Club was packed with developers from companies including Team17, Revolution, Radical Forge, Claymatic Games, Rebellion North, Fat Kraken, TriPunk, Thunkd, Huey Games, Tanglewood Games, Boneloaf, Labrador Studios, Red Kite Games and Double Eleven as well as affiliate members Eaton-Smith, Other Things, Lewis Silkin, Fragomen, Tileyard North, Barclays and Escape Technology and educational partners from Huddersfield Uni and University of York to name a few. All enjoyed the SEGA Zone with classics such as OutRun 2, Space Harrier and After Burner, plus other amazing machines including Donkey Kong, Tapper, Tron, Joust, Defender, Punch-Out!!, Street Fighter, Dance dance Revolution and newer modern classics including Luigi’s Mansion Arcade.
Game Republic’s Jamie Sefton had his now-traditional arcade battle against Revolution Software’s Charles Cecil (Broken Sword, Beyond a Steel Sky), beating the games legend at Galaxian (pictured) but then losing in bouts of R-Type and Space Invaders (not pictured for obvious reasons). “I think Charles has an unfair advantage having made the conversion for R-Type in the late 1980s”, complained Sefton bitterly afterwards.
UPDATE – super video produced on the party by Other Things
The Game Republic Summer Arcade Party will return again next year. With an expansion planned for the Arcade Club, 2024 promises to be an an even bigger event. If you can’t wait that long (we can’t) then make sure to book a free ticket for GameDevDay on 23rd November which will feature lots of networking and playing of game demos as well as arcade games at the fabulous Tileyard North. Booking codes for free tickets have been sent out. Game Republic members get access to all of these events as part of the membership, so get in touch if you want to join us at our next events.
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