Does anyone else on here have retro gaming gatherings with their friends? Show us some photos of your event!
I recently hosted one, and we had about ten friends show up for a weekend of retro gaming goodness!
We had an Excitebike tournament with prizes, and it was an awesome time!
Here are some photos from the event: https://imgur.com/gallery/U7I2jq2
Absolutely amazing, looks like you guys had a great time. You sure know how to host raskulous!!
Hello Raskulous! I recently attended a interesting retro party that also featured murderous cats! Maybe I could host my own someday…
You should! I’d be there for sure.
I would but none of my buddies are really big into retro stuff ;(
I’ll be your buddy
looks really awesome. maybe we can do this at a con.
Awesome party Raskulous!
Looks like some decent party games, as well as a mix of single player, for fun (Keen), showcase (Another World), and torment (R-type).
A friend of mine hosts these sorts of things about 2 or 3 times a year, with around 10-16 people most of the time.
I haven’t got many photos, but the last one featured 8 player (on 8 consoles/lcd screens) Mario Kart DD, as well as some NBA jam, ps1 Micro Machines, Smash Brothers Brawl, a Neo Geo Mvs w/multicart, Goldeneye, Sega Rally w/racing wheels.
All of which were running on CRTs. About 8 of them go back into storage afterwards.
It’s always a blast to play these multi-player games. There is always much chaos, and good banter.
I’ll be pushing for some more “hardcore” content, with a mini tournament, or score attack.
A few years ago, another group of friends had a games Olympics day. It was structured in a round robin format, with events picked for being fair for all participants. There was about 50/50 male and female, and the trophies were awarded in pretty much the same split.
It was not entirely a video game event, but we had a smattering of them. Street fighter 2 (SNES), Bomberman '93 (PCE/Wii), and Pong (Atari emulated on Laptop).
Not surprisingly, the competition was fierce.
Other games were: Rock, paper, scissors (honestly the most sought after title on the day), Bocce/petanque, backyard Badminton, downball, Spit (card game, like competitive patience), Connect 4x4, and checkers.
Highly recommended for including nongamers, casuals, and significant others, but takes a bit of organising.
Man, that picture of 8 GameCubes running is spaghetti heaven! 
Indeed.
I’ll see if I can get some shots of the other rooms.
Not exactly a retro gathering, but last week, when my friends were at my home for a BBQ, we played some retro games
Some Dreamcast goodness (I think it was Power Stone 2)
KOF98
“LOL Saturn Daytona was total shit and…hey, Its way better than I remember”
“We CAN choose Shin Akuma right?”
ive had more than a few, me & my current roommate are big retro fans, and we found a few people on GAF/ERA that were down (Mzo, cj_iwakura & others) and we’ve had several sega-cd FMV game nights, where cj put on clinics on how to beat Night Trap & Double Switch to packed houses, haha. i did Wirehead for my turn!
Not quite retro, but we host a New Years Nerdery at my house every year. This was last year, we had 2 Switches with Pac Man Versus competitions.
I run a tournament for three fighting games (or “fighting” games) every year for my kids and their friends. We’re going into year four of Season’s Beatings: A Cereal Bowl Event. It always occurs between Christmas and New Year.
The current format is I choose the three games by December so everyone can practice. Last year we played Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, Nidhogg, and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Smash for Wii U has been a staple since the first year. We will definitely be playing Ultimate this year as the capper.
Past years have included Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, King of Fighters XIII, and Tekken 6. Street Fighter V is running on side stations for people to hang out and play all throughout the event, but it will likely be in the tournament this year as I think I’ve finally taught enough of them how to play that they can be competitive. The wildcard “fighting” game this year is probably going to be Windjammers. We played recently with a couple of probably attendees and they were in love. I’m also going to set up the Neo Geo via the RetroTINK-2x and go with old school Samurai Shodown II as a side game along with Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury 2/Special, World Heroes 2 Jet, etc. Cart swapping throughout the day.
The format is essentially a round robin for seeding (you play everyone else one time… your record determines your seed in the actual tourney format) and then a double elimination fighting game tournament just like the professionals. We use Challonge for that. Here’s last year’s Wii U bracket…
https://challonge.com/seasonsbeatings2017
Nidhogg…
https://challonge.com/NidFencing
Ultimate…
https://challonge.com/itsmarvelbaby
The pop off from my middle son in the video is now legendary even if the play is unusually very defensive…
So what makes it “A Cereal Bowl Event” you ask? A buddy of mine ran a similar thing a couple times at his place called “Cereal Bowl”. It was a fighting game tournament, but with lots of invitees with zero fighting game experience. It was a blast. The only rule was you had to bring a box of cereal. That was the only food on offer until dinner time rolled around when we’d either Wa (got to Wawa…) or get “Pizza Food”. It left a lasting impression on my kids the year I had to take them along. I loved the idea of cereal too because people bring all sorts of oddball sugary garbage. It’s great! I just supply milk, bowls and spoons along with drinks! The kids who have come the last three years have loved it and everyone’s already asking about 2018. I’ve only told them Ultimate for sure so far. 
Another thing we do is have them invite kids over for Halo Night. We set up multiple Xbox 360s (or Ones if we have enough controllers for that) and play System Linked Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo ODST, Halo 4, or in the next one, Halo Reach. We do all sorts of stuff but with a lot of team games, small and big. We have some cool gametypes we’ve built ourselves like “Shotswords” which is an only shotguns and energy swords (and grenades) loadout, Rockets, Crazy King with a super long win timer, and then a lot of the built ins like Oddball, etc. Of course we also play Grifball. “Smash enemies! Score goals!” I adore eight or more player Grifball.
I have a 360 and a One and we can usually get kids to bring their dusty old console to get at least three and usually four setups. I have four copies of each game so that’s really all we need outside of some extra controllers which a lot of folks also have. I have bought used ones here and there to be sure we have enough. If you want to get together a big crowd and have a blast, definitely have a Halo Night!
Sounds amazing! I use challonge too, it’s a great little tool.
