Our Retro Arcade World Tour - The RENDR Festival at Portview Trade Centre in Belfast

Before we took the plunge and decided to start our own retro arcade we toured the world on a quest for some inspiration but mostly some fun. In the next while we'll write up our experiences starting, like charity, at home with the RENDR Festival at the Portview Trade Centre in East Belfast.

For those unfamiliar the annual RENDR festival brings together an impressive array of people and themes cutting across film, gaming, creative writing, AR, VR and more. It's held at the cavernous Portview Trade Centre in East Belfast, a former linen spinning mill on the Newtownards Road. Here's a vid that'll explain it all better than we can...

We visited in 2023. We were very taken with the events and folks they had talking, exhibiting and more (including our old Apache bud Kev Largey) but what really got us moving on a cold February night (and into a notoriusly cold venue!) was the talk that there was a retro arcade going on!

In truth it wasn't the gaming classics we were looking forward to but rather a retro themed arcade. It definitely had a bunch of interesting stuff to offer from velocity based games to a tie your shoelaces simulator. One of the more bizarre arcades we've visited!

Next up: Blast Galaxy in Amsterdam!