Welcome to the home of In da 80’s, a two day retro gaming event that will be taking place on the weekend the 16th - 17th July at the Lass O'Gowrie Pub in the heart of Manchester city centre, home of the long established monthly "Computer Club" gaming evenings.

Our theme for the weekend is “In da 80’s”, so expect a fulsome celebration of 80’s video games and culture, replete with Commodore, Spectrums, Beebs, Megadrives, classic coin-ops, obscure consoles and platforms, competitions, industry pro's from back in the day, live coding, burlesque, comedy and more.

The event is intended to be a laid back gathering for the retro gaming community, giving visitors the chance to play a selection of classic arcade machines, 8-bit home computers and consoles, whilst sampling a selection of fine ales and good food. We’re also laying on plenty of entertainment, including exclusive80’s gaming inspired burlesque routines from Miss Sweet Cherry Kiss and her Pac Man Boogie routine and Ginger La Rouge, with her exceedingly memorable Sonic the Hedgehog routine. Hot on their heels, we also have comedy from industry coder and comedian Graham Goring who will be delivering us his Nerds of a Feather show on the Saturday afternoon and the superb Danny Pensive pre-Edinburgh and fresh from touring with the One Man Star Wars on Sunday aft.

We will be running a selection of competitions throughout the weekend and will also be hosting the Homebrew Coding Geekend, an informal discussion forum for independent programmers from across the UK, and the chance to meet some legendary coders from the commercial era.

Talking of which, we’ve got some great coders and industry pros in attendance. Guests confirmed to date, subject to work commitments include;

• Andy Walker - founder of the legendary Taskset Software
• Jim Bagley - Jim worked on Spectrum Games for companies such as Ocean Software, US Gold and Melbourne House during the late 1980's and early 1990's. Some of his most well-known works include Cabal, Midnight Resistance, Hudson Hawk, Throne of Fire and the seminal golfing simulation classic - World Class Leaderboard
• Kevin Edwards, legendary programmer on the BBC Micro and creator of Galaforce 1 & 2 and Crazee Rider
• Kenton Price - another Beeb coder from the 80s, author of treats like Hyper Viper, Ripton and the brilliant conversion of Starquake
• Tim Follin – one of the great music composers of the 80’s and 90’s. Among Tim's works include the soundtracks to Software Creations' Amiga, C64 and ST conversions of Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (Dreamcast), Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge (Super Nintendo), and home computer ports of Bionic Commando (C64, Amiga).
• Paul Hughes - in the 1980s Paul worked on games for publishers such as Elite Systems and Superior Software, before joining Ocean's in-house development team. Paul, now Technical Director at TT Fusion, has since developed more than 40 titles throughout his illustrious career, including the mindblowing Privateer 2 - The Darkening.

We’ll be back with more names once we have confirmation as well as the programme of talks, interviews and other treats, no fear.

In da 80’s is being organised by the people responsible for past and future classic gaming events such as the 2010 Eurocon, REPLAY , Console Combat and Byte Back, so you can be assured that it will be of the highest possible standard! We’re a not for profit event too, so any proceeds from ticket sales after event costs will be donated to the Teen Cancer Trust.

Tickets for the weekend are available online now. This site will be updated with the latest news and information regarding the event, so check back regularly to keep up with all the developments!

For more info and lots of banter you can also visit the In da 80’s thread.

Latest news

First BBC Micro emulator for Android phones to be released at event!

Guest programmer Kenton Price will be launching the alpha version of Beebdroid at In Da 80s on Saturday.

Beebdroid is a BBC Micro emulator for Android-based mobile phones, written by Reuben Scratton and based on B-Em by Tom Walker.

If you have an Android phone, or better still a Honeycomb tablet, bring it along and Kenton will install it for you! :)

Andy Walker's Bridlington Bingo!

This exclusive talk/Q&A with Andy Walker, founder of Taskset Software, will take place at 2pm Saturday in the Salmon Rooms, and will be hosted by Retro Gamer freelancer Paul Drury.

Paul Hughes added to the In Da 80s guestlist!

Industry veteran Paul "Paulie" Hughes will be attending In Da 80s, joining fellow ex-Ocean coder Jim Bagley in the Homebrew Coding Weekend.

Saturday night film now confirmed – ITV Star Wars

Quite a rarity and a curio, all wrapped up into one! Taped off the telly back in October 1982, We invite you to experience this retro recording of Star Wars’ Granada TV debut, complete with adverts, continuity and more. Starts at 9pm.

In Da 80s is being supported by the organisers of: