London Meet VI! (Mar 1st and 2nd '08 definite)

[Icarus]

So, throwing out a thread to gauge interest for another big meetup sometime next year in London. Some of our friends at Arcade Extreme might be interested, and I'm definitely up for another big meet early next year, therefore, I'd like to get some idea of interest before we think about planning and organising for another biggie.

For those interested, we had a big meet around Feb just gone, and it was well received with AEX, shmupsforum, some guys from super-play.co.uk and others visiting for the week. Another good big social meet like that would be preferable, maybe with some of the guys who came last time making a reappearance (would be nice to see everyone again).

A current tentative date is around February/March of 2008, which should give us all enough time to chat about it, and to give us enough time to sort out travel, accomodation and money once a final date has been decided. I know Mills suggested January, but that might be a little too soon after New Years and Christmas for some.

• Date for the main meet:
  Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd March '08.
  Add a few days before and after if you want to do other stuff, too.
  
  We'll have to discuss the time to meet up a little closer to the meet date. It'll be important to arrange a set time for everyone to get together, just so that there's no possibility that someone will turn up at the wrong place or time.
• Attendance List:

  CONFIRMED ATTENDEES (4 listed):
  Icarus, Plasmo, spadgy, RGC

  UNCONFIRMED (? listed):
  To be compiled...

• Accomodation:
  Most of us will probably be able to fix up somewhere to stay in the city, either with friends or with relatives. Those without those available options can book accomodation with DEL's friend, who owns a Central London hotel. Quoting DEL from the Meet 3 thread:
  

  To make a booking please complete and return the booking form below or book online at our web site: www.barryhouse.co.uk
  
  Barry House Hotel
  12, Sussex Place, Hyde Park London W2 2TP UK
  Tel: +44 20 7723 7340 Fax: +44 20 7723 9775
  Email: hotel@barryhouse.co.uk
  Web: www.barryhouse.co.uk
  
  Here's the London hotel info you need. You can ask for Bhupinder Singh Bhasin and mention the name DEL when you guys book. I'll ask him to give you a good deal.

  If you need more information on booking at this location, ask DEL.
• Travel, Transport and Directions:
  Regarding maps, you can pick up some touristy maps from any main Underground, rail or bus station, or you can purchase a guide to the city from any major attraction or transport hub (I recommend Art/Shop/Eat: London for anyone interested in art and design attractions, and it comes with decent maps too).
  
  As for travel/transport, most of the key locations will be reachable by Underground or bus. The Casino Arcade is right next door to Goodge Street Underground Station, so make sure you commit it to memory if you get lost while on your wanderings in the city.
  
  If you need to travel a lot, make sure you get an Oyster travelcard on your first day there (a weekly pass is recommended), as you can use it on the bus, Underground and overground trains.
• Contacts
  When the time comes and the day(s) of the meet are upon us, I'll start up a secret thread at namakoHQ for meet attendees to leave contact details like mobile numbers (secret to ensure that the details being passed around are hidden from spammers etc).
  
  As proven at Meet IV, it'll make it easier to keep in touch during the weekend, just in case we need to let everyone know that we'll be late, or where to find the group and so on.

Anyone interested?

[DEL]

Sometime from February onwards sounds good. It'll also give us locals some time to put a new title in, or two.
At the moment we've got Ketsui, Progear, Strikers 1945 Plus.
Mills and I had Strikers 1945 put back in Casino and whacked up to 'very hard' to see if it will help Mills' 1st loop leeching.
Giga Wing has been taken out and Progear put in the cab.

[Lordstar]

Sounds like it could be fun Will keep my eye on this if its happening in feb onward. if theres enough people I could bring some tees down with me too

[RGC]

.

[Icarus]

Sometime from February onwards sounds good. It'll also give us locals some time to put a new title in, or two.

I don't mind sending stuff down in advance for the meet if required. I have a small but healthy collection of PCBs, although mainly Raizing/Cazing with some others here and there. Hoping to get Muchi Muchi Pork early next year if the price is right.

Although the London Meet is usually a social thing, playing time is usually small and whenever people can be bothered, usually. In Feb I played little, preferred to watch others in action, and spent most of my time chatting with people. ^_-

[DEL]

Although the London Meet is usually a social thing, playing time is usually small and whenever people can be bothered, usually. In Feb I played little, preferred to watch others in action, and spent most of my time chatting with people. ^_-

Watching other people play is a major thing, to be honest. You learn new things .

Icarus wrote;

I don't mind sending stuff down in advance for the meet if required. I have a small but healthy collection of PCBs, although mainly Raizing/Cazing with some others here and there. Hoping to get Muchi Muchi Pork early next year if the price is right.

^Now that's the key to a successful Meet. Pink Sweets, Muchi Muchi Pork or Futari are pretty much required.
Security of PCBs has been 100% in Casino (apart from 1 board stolen in 1990 by a guy who's no longer around). Plus Bob will put a ca$h guarantee on our boards.
A board can be installed at short notice and will be returned to the owner at the end of the Meet.
I haven't bought any of the new Cave/Raizing boards due to high bills on my car this year, so I've gotta be looking at Icarus or Mister Mulletgeezer for a Meet board loan.

[Super Laydock]

Since this fall isn´t an option for me after all, I am interested in this.

Could we just set a date like you guys did last year (how about the last weekend in February again?) and just see who can make it?

I´ve got to hand in my provisionary vacation/day off schedule to my boss before December, so I´d love to know well in advance.

Would love to be there again, since it has been a while...

[CHI]

i'll be back on 8th-20th November.....
sorry off-topic.....

hoping to hook-up with DEL, KAC, MILLS, MASAMUNE and the regulars at Casino.....

oh and also take some pictures with 'The New Comer' Truxton Hill.....

[Herr Schatten]

End of February sounds good to me. I'd love to attend another London meet. It's always been well worth the trip. If I can get days off work, I'm in. Looking forward to see you guys again (especially Super Laydock - you've been absent from London shmupmeets far too long).

[neorichieb1971]

I'm defo up for it. Never been before.

[PROMETHEUS]

May be interested in coming again as well~
even though London is expensive >.<

[LUNardei]

London is expensive >.<

Indeed!
Anyway, I'll do my best to be there again ^_^

[neorichieb1971]

May be interested in coming again as well~
even though London is expensive >.<

I assume France is really cheap then?

[Super Laydock]

(especially Super Laydock - you've been absent from London shmupmeets far too long).

Yeah I know.

Hope you can get the days off as it would be nice meeting up again.
Also looking forward seeing some other ppl in person, hell I might even get a chance to demonstrate my suckiness at shmups to LUN and Icarus... so they know I am not kidding around with my scores here...

May be interested in coming again as well~
even though London is expensive >.<

I assume France is really cheap then?

The GBP exchange rate will make paying in Euro´s seem really cheap for you Brits (almost like paying only 2/3th of what your used to while we Eurozone people effectively pay 1.5 times what we are used to.

Also London IS known as one of the most expensive cities in the world.
Now I am not saying that getting a pint of lager in St. Tropez or Paris is cheap, but those are exceptions andin general we get more for our Euro here than we do when in London.
At least that is how experience it.

[sven666]

i dont know man, paris is a very expensive city, theres no cheaper alternative there either, pay up or youll get shit (food especially).

in london you can always get by..

anyways, im up for a meet, set a decided weekend so i can make arrangements with overnighting and all that

[Plasmo]

Anyway, I'll do my best to be there again ^_^

same here
the last meet was awesome i dont want to miss such a thing so ill probably be there in feb/march.
see ya

[Icarus]

I think people should run around and prod some of the guys who came down the last time to see if they have interest in coming along this time. Would be nice to see some of them again, even if they don't frequent this forum as much now.

@LUN/Plasmo/overseas guys:
Last time the meet was organised around you guys, as it is more important for our international visitors to sort themselves out in advance. Do you guys have any preference to dates, so we can throw out a more concrete idea of a date instead of something general like "Late Feb/early Mar"? As some have already mentioned, would be handy for some to be able to sort out holidays in advance.

[Ayanami]

I can't guarantee that I will be there, but I will try. I would love to visit London again. Date really does not matter to me.

[LUNardei]

I'll be really glad to meet you all again and put some new faces on some other names!

About the date: I'll check and see asap.
About the people: Fontaz was quite interested, for example. The ikaruga/superplay.co.uk people will have the link to this thread asap!

Meanwhile I'll try to think about a game to play that I could find in London too. Besides Third Strike of course ^_^

[PROMETHEUS]

Besides Third Strike of course ^_^

CHESUTO!

[spadgy]

Count me in - I just got back from Casino this moment (is that where this is hosted?) - I live fairly close in Brixton.

Anyone up for a smaller meet anytime at all? - I'm always shmupin' on my own down there, and I can get from laying in bed to sitting at a cab in about 30 minutes!

[Super Laydock]

Do you guys have any preference to dates, so we can throw out a more concrete idea of a date instead of something general like "Late Feb/early Mar"?

Since someone must be the first to throw out a date, and it doesn´t matter to me that much whether it´s a week earlier or later...

What about the weekend of 1 & 2 March?

Again I am fine with a week earlier or later, just wanting to put on a date to see if we can agree on this.

[DEL]

Big CHI wrote;

oh and also take some pictures with 'The New Comer' Truxton Hill.....

Sure CHI you'll have to come round my yard for a meal and bambino viewing

Anyway, here's the reason why I put next to no time into STGT07:-
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j262/ ... G_0314.jpg
Not 'Truxton' Im afraid CHI . He's ARH. We considered giving him a first name starting with 'H' for the Big HRH , but came up blank with the Hs - Horatio and Humfrey ain't happening!

Mr Laydock - I'll see you there!

[Shatterhand]

Oh, how I wish I was rich so I could attend to this.

But then you guys would laugh at my english

[spadgy]

1 and 2nd March sounds good to me....

I don't even know what I'm up to this weekend, so I'm certainly free then!

[sven666]

id prefer late (or even early) february to march.

[Kaede]

As a Londoner I have no excuse to miss this. Watching LUN at the last meet tearing up Mushi was...

[Plasmo]

i might have exams and stuff in february. something like the first week in march would be fine.

[spadgy]

Just a thought - I'm a full time freelance games journalist in the UK. I'd quite like to see if I could cover this for any of the UK games mags/websites I write for.

If anyone would rather that not happen just say, as I'd hate to do that if nobody wanted me too. I'm just as happy to turn up as a plain old shmuper, which I definately am, and not cover it at all - I just thought it might be cool to get some coverage for here, The Goodge, and shmups in general. You never know, if I do secure some work from the event, I could put the money into a board to bring to the event. (always looking to justify buying more shmups!)

[PROMETHEUS]

Just a thought - I'm a full time freelance games journalist in the UK. I'd quite like to see if I could cover this for any of the UK games mags/websites I write for.

If anyone would rather that not happen just say, as I'd hate to do that if nobody wanted me too. I'm just as happy to turn up as a plain old shmuper, which I definately am, and not cover it at all - I just thought it might be cool to get some coverage for here, The Goodge, and shmups in general. You never know, if I do secure some work from the event, I could put the money into a board to bring to the event. (always looking to justify buying more shmups!)

That would be great! Shmups definitely need and deserve some attention from the media to stay alive (or grow?). As far as I'm concerned I'm all for it.