When Sony entered the video game business thirty years ago, it did so like an elephant in a china shop. The Japanese brand joined the console trend with a machine called PlayStation that no one was betting on, but whose innovative vision – thinking that the players were no longer those children of the eighties – ended up destroying the competition and completely surpassing the game. This weekend this moment will be remembered at RetroBarcelona, the event dedicated to the classic video game that will take place on May 18 and 19 at La Farga de l’Hospitalet.
A cultural legacy to preserve
The ninth edition of the fair will celebrate three decades of Sony’s gray console with various conferences, a tournament of its emblematic Tekken and an exhibition of different models of the machine, but it will not be the only thing that visitors will be able to see (and play). Obviously, one of the biggest attractions of the event will be the possibility of taking control of 250 original systems, including pinball and arcade machines, computers and classic consoles.
The RetroBarcelona 2024 poster is a tribute to 30 years of the first PlayStation
Fast and effective fun
“The classic video game is different from the current one as a concept,” says Oriol Dalmau, one of the members of the event organization. “Those were games designed to entertain in ten seconds, quick and effective fun that everyone could understand. The current video game industry does not have much to do with it, but in reality we are not so much lovers of a time as a way of playing,” he adds during the presentation of RetroBarcelona at the Gigamesh bookstore.
The fast and almost immediate playability that characterized arcade games is an experience that visitors will be able to relive thanks to the original machines that different user associations lend to the event each year. Furthermore, unlike what happened in the eighties and nineties, it is not necessary to carry loose change, since all the machines can be played for free – after paying the 14 euros entry fee, of course.
The selection of original arcade machines is one of the biggest attractions of the fair
A more diverse fair
Generally, the world of classic video games has always been predominantly male, but this is another of the trends that the organization of the fair wants to put an end to. “The work that is being done to make women present in the field of retro video games is very important, a type of video game where the advertising of the time did not usually take women into account,” explains the also member of the organization and streamerSusana Pérez, also known as Simmer Valencia. “Actively including women in the fair has been one of this year’s challenges, it is something that is noticeable if one takes a look at the list of speakers,” she adds.
It is not only a matter of appealing to the female audience, but also of making sure that anyone, regardless of age and whether or not they have lived through the heyday of the classic video game, feels welcome. This is underlined by the historian specialized in the video game industry and also a member of RetroBarcelona, Marc Rollán: “The youngest speaker is 26 years old, the history of the video game does not understand ages, so we hope that anyone can come and feel comfortable ”.
Two fairgoers play a dance machine
Surrounded by his collaborators during the presentation of the event in the emblematic bookstore on Bailén Street in Barcelona, the organizer of the event, Carles Garcia, has little more to add, who for more than a decade – the fair began in 2013 but had a hiatus coinciding with the pandemic – ensures that the event grows and attracts more and more visitors.
During this weekend, those people who come to the l’Hospitalet de Llobregat fairgrounds will be able to play great video game classics, learn about their origins and, of course, take home that cartridge that perhaps they had years ago and lost who knows where
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