I'm just back from Play Blackpool 2018 so unfortunately haven't had a chance to try this one again.
I've made up for it with a weekend of playing other games though, here's some photos if you are interested.
There was even the appearance of a stand-up cab of a previous MAMEROW game - Carnival!
There were probably about 100 restored arcade cabinets there, including a few sit-down racers.
Carnival! My previous practice in the MAMEROW came in useful!
I liked this Battlezone stand-up cab, with a sort of periscope-like screen.
I thought this was an interesting old cabinet - "Video Pinball" - it had a physical playfield with various lights on it, covered by perspex on which a pretty crude white image was projected of the score, ball and the paddles. The controls were side buttons, and the whole control panel rocked to simulate nudging the cabinet. It was pretty cool actually.
There were of course, real Pinball tables as well. Not very many, perhaps 10 or so. They were busy the whole weekend.
There were also retro computers/consoles and modern consoles.
There were a few PCs set up on a LAN for multiplayer gaming.
Red Alert 2 (PC) is a personal favourite, but as a game typically takes an hour or so to play, there wasn't really time for a match, when there was a lot more stuff to try.
And a wheel of Xbox's all connected playing Halo. Unfortunately, being used to Unreal Tournament/Quake Arena on the PC, I've always found Halo horribly sluggish to play.
There were also some talks from various UK software industry legends, and YouTube 'celebrities'.
There was a merchandise hall as well, although unfortunately this wasn't as well attended as in previous years - a few stalls selling retro hardware/software (I picked up a PS2 Dual Shock controller for a few pounds), but mostly T-shirt sellers, Japanese Manga-merchandise (and food) sellers, and that sort of thing.
I resisted the temptation to purchase a boxed Vectrex machine for £200 - but someone bought it!
Overall, a pretty decent event, perhaps not as big or as varied as in previous years. Still well attended, despite Blackpool in February being absolutely freezing (and raining).
The venue is still this shonky old hotel, which looks a lot grander on the outside than it actually is! I didn't stay there, but a friend who did reported the ceiling was leaking rainwater!
Apologies for going off-topic, but I thought some of you might like to see what the event was like.