Margate celebrates video games and pinball machines
- Published
Forty years of computer games are being celebrated at Margate's Winter Gardens at the Gaming Expo East Kent (GEEK).
About 3,000 people are expected to relive their memories at the four-day event, and take advantage of thousands of games on hundreds of consoles, including the rare and obscure, and some designed to help people with disabilities.
Eight working pinball machines dating back as far as the 1950s - which are normally on show at The Pinball Parlour in nearby Ramsgate - are also available to play.
It is the second year of GEEK, which organisers hope will build on the ongoing regeneration of the area and get people back to the seaside, even during the winter months.
Andy Francis, 43, from St Nicholas at Wade, chose the Judge Dredd pinball machine from 1993 on which to reminisce about his youth. "It's been years since I played on a pinball machine," he said.
An eye-controlled computer enables people with disabilities to play games without having to use controls or press buttons.
The outer-space themed Satellite pinball machine dates back to 1958 and is the oldest which visitors to GEEK can play.
GEEK organiser Kate Neale said Margate had "such a strong and long tradition of play" with gaming "a highly skilled, highly creative, very financially successful area". She added: "We would like to bring some of that sector to Margate."
Super Mario - a moustachioed Italian plumber from Brooklyn - was developed by the Japanese game giant Nintendo in 1985 alongside his brother Luigi, and has appeared in more than 200 games.
Matt Brown, 36, from Margate, said he grew up with the Spectrum ZX+, Commodore 64, and Atari ST consoles.
GEEK has been funded with more than £44,000 of Arts Council grants and plans to become an annual event. Computer games first started to hit the mass market in 1971 and are now worth nearly £2bn to the UK.
The Winter Gardens in Margate has been transformed into a playground of games, with everyone invited to come along and play over four days from 21 to 24 February.