FantastiCon - 16 August 2014, Hull

dobbo

dobbo
What a great time. Loved every moment. To many fantastic moments to pick one, but here is a very short list.

The banana grins from those trying the DK2 out, especially for those seeing the game for the first time.

The book readings. It was late but they were well worth saying awake for.

The cos-players. Some great costumes.

But best of all where the people. The community is the best thing about the game. Meeting and chatting with every single person there.
 

Frank

Frank
Hull's Angel

A fantastic moment for me is when I somehow managed to find myself in the position where the gorgeous Kate Russell from offa the telly was hanging from my shoulder whispering a spoiler in my ear.

She begins with "Err... Ummm.."

and I stammer out "You just take as long as you need. We've got plenty of time and I'm quite comfortable here."


... I think I may have increased next year's attendance.
 

Phoenix_Dfire

Phoenix_Dfire
Having managed to get an Afternoon Pass from 'Da Boss', I made it across to hull for about 05:00pm.

I had three things on my checklist;-
  1. PLay on Occulas Rift
  2. Have a got at the RPG
  3. Pick up my copy of Mostly Harmless and get it signed.

Thanks to dobbo, I got a quiet half hour to play on the DK2. I must admit that it was a revolutionary experience.

The RPG was fun. Brought back a lot of the atmosphere of play the original Traveller or the West End Games Star Wars Game. Hats of to Dave Hughes as a superb Games Master. And the fact I got to shoot some people was very therapeutic.

Kate was kind enough to sign my book and then I got the 'Sad Puppy Dog eyes' from Senator Drew, so I had to get Drew's and Allen's (Who looked soo tired) as well to get it signed.

Darren Grey(Hats off to the man who was running around like a Blue Bottomed fly) sorted out a mix up with my backing of the Tales from the Frontier and I got a copy of that too. So Four out of 5 ain't bad. (Maybe the next pay packet for Mr Harpers).

So after 'letting' OneViGOR (James) beat me and Gabi (who was in desperate need to chill) at the X-wing game, the Raffle (How many times did we all shout Mug, much to the confusion of the guests), the presentation for Cmdr (Right on Cmdr) Dan and Allen Stroud giving pointers to the folks on the Great Expedition. I had to call it a night.

So congrats to everyone who was there for making it a great con. Dan, Gabi, Darren, Ian Phillips, Steph (ta for the extra mug) and everyone else. It was great to see Mike about so much as well.

But the funniest moment for me was the Cosplay girl who was trying the Occulas Rift while we were at the RPG Table. She was so enthusiastic about it, that they could here her in the Main Hall.

I'll be going over the latest happenings in the next Top Shift .
 

Bikky

Bikky
Frank said:
A fantastic moment for me is when I somehow managed to find myself in the position where the gorgeous Kate Russell from offa the telly was hanging from my shoulder whispering a spoiler in my ear.

She begins with "Err... Ummm.."

and I stammer out "You just take as long as you need. We've got plenty of time and I'm quite comfortable here."


... I think I may have increased next year's attendance.
Click to expand...

Nah, crowning moments might have been this...
IMG_20140816_155154575.jpg

Or this

DTJpmMU18-z2E2uNadiAn9f6cFCWn5akZ3hxR7zJkUE=w1397-h785-no

or this..... With thanks to KOW.
IMG_20140816_213152964-SMILE.jpg
 
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Darren Grey

Darren Grey
I'm still exhausted - got about 3 hours sleep on Friday and Saturday nights.

But wow, what a weekend! Many thanks to everyone for making FantastiCon such a huge success. Some particular highlights:

- The indefatigable Dan running around and getting involved in everything. You all have no idea how much background work he put into this, getting the Dr Who celebs signed up and all the stalls organised. The man has boundless energy!
- Seeing the books in print. Wow. No, wait, what I really mean is WOOOOOOOOWWWW!!!! Just having something published in print is amazing, but the quality of these books is phenomenal! The hardbacks especially are absolutely gorgeous, really stunning in just how nice they are. I have my signed copies sitting on the shelf now. My geeky delight at having signed Elite books is mixed with pride at having my own stories included.
- The huge FantastiCon banner with Mobius' design on it - great stuff!
- Numerous Oculus Rifts with DK2s. It was brilliant to be able to give everyone plenty of opportunity to try these out. Huge thanks to everyone who brought their rigs along.
- Meeting lots of forumites and others I haven't met before and catching up with old friends from previous events.
- Having people walk in off the street who didn't even know Elite was back! Dan organised local TV adverts and they've been reaching out to old Elite fans who had no idea that a sequel was coming. You could really see them overwhelmed by the amount of activity going on.
- Meeting Penelope MacDonald! Many have credited her in this thread for her Doctor Who role, but far more important is her role in narrating the audio for many of the Elite short stories, including my two tales! I haven't heard the finished product yet but I have been assured by Chris Jarvis that it's really something special.
- Signing books! Something I've never had to do before. One person seemed a little disappointed at how messy my signature is ;)
- Playing the Elite Encounters RPG at last, though I would perhaps like a future session at an earlier time with more sober comrades ;) I was very impressed with how Drew got into his character - a natural role-player there!
- It was great to see all of the non-Elite stuff around, especially the cosplayers and the Doctor Who celebs. Everyone really got into the event, and Simon Fisher-Becker seemed to enjoy himself immensely. It was very cool to have all that variety on show! Oh, and having a full-sized lit up Dalek move towards you is nothing short of terrifying...
- Big thanks to Michael Brookes and Dav Scott from Frontier for attending. Beware though, Michael bought the One Ring from one of the stalls - don't let him bring it to Morgor... Michael also won a Golden Dockers mug on the raffle. Since he wasn't there to collect it we'll have to deliver it by catapult.
- Raffle was great fun. Congrats to whoever won the Braben-signed concept art and the awesome FEF boxset.
- Our video tribute to Dan. Kate had the idea for doing a surprise present to him, and Drew put the video together. All of us authors chipped in to buy him and Gabi some flowers, chocolates and a spa day for two. Hopefully they'll get some very deserved rest from that :)
- The "Dan's Way" video from Psykokow and Dan was epic beyond belief. Well done to Psykokow for joining the event in spirit!
- Drew's reading timed to dramatic audio and video was epic! The other readings were great to hear too, and it's nice to find out about some non-Elite fiction to get my hands on (everyone should check out Torc of Moonlight and The Doll Makers).

Everyone please be sure to post your photos up somewhere accessible, and check out the Facebook page for more reports and photos!
 

drew

drew
Can't add much to what has already been said. Darren has nailed it above.

Highlights for me were:

Meeting all the fans and chatting about the books and the game. Never stopped all day.

Kate not accepting a single 'soon' from Michael Brookes.

Signing books... my hand ached afterwards, I haven't written that much since doing my A-Levels back in '92. (In particular signing books for the Frontier staff. That was cool.)

Having a long chat with Penny about audiobooks and an impromptu rendition of my 'baddie' from ER (A nasty woman called Octavia Quinton).

DK2 Oculus, so much better than DK1, but still not quite there yet.

But the late night RPG session was hilarious. I played a character from my book and went of in a huff (in character I might add). Dan suffered a broken leg when I stole the transport and drove off, and Dave Hughes' son got impailed on a glass window trying to force feed Kate and me jellybabies...

...you had to be there.

Cheers,

Drew.
 
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Kipper

K
It was definitely great to meet all of the enthusiastic and friendly eliters and fellow writers, and I had my first experience the amazing oculus rift (wow!).

Being my first ever "non-work" con of any kind and not knowing anyone there (most of whom have met before) I was a little confused/overwhelmed at first, when it rolled around to a socially acceptable time for beer, that helped :)

Amazing to finally see my book in print - having worked so hard for so long getting it ready (learning to write fiction was only a small part, things to organise!) - great to finally meet the other authors too.

Very odd experience to have people genuinely want me to sign their copies, I hope my scrawl is readable!
 

cassius

cassius
Finally back online and thought I'd add my 2-pence to the mix :)

Highlights
- An absolutely amazing day from start to finish
- Meeting new people, and seeing a few familiar faces
- Playing Dave (Selezen) Hughes’ RPG again. Hats off to an excellent GM
- Getting a look at the non-Elite books under FBP's umbrella
- Trying out the Oculus DK2 (thanks Dobbo!!)
- The retro gaming section
- Collecting my set of paperbacks
- Dan and Grant’s rendition of My Way
- The video tribute to Dan, good work by all those involved
- A special mention for the honorable Senator Drew. His reading and the accompanying video were excellent and fitted together very well. I can’t wait for this to appear on youtube so i can watch it again!
- Winning two mugs in the raffle, then being offered a swap for one of them by Jurriaan (Voyager_NL). I now have one mug and a massive poster, thanks mate! :D


Regrets
- Not speaking with people enough
- Not getting my pic taken on the speeder bike (I felt a bit sorry for the sellers there. Just like Lavecon I don’t think they got the traffic they were hoping for)
- Not seeing some of community members that we’ve grown to know and love who couldn’t make it... I’m looking at you Psykokow, Fozza, Mobius, John Stabler and Kerrash :)
- Not getting my books signed! Nooooo!!!!!! I collected them straight away, but then got sidetracked helping someone on my rig in the pc room. By the time I got back, the signing seemed to have stopped and I didn't want to bother anyone by asking :p


Suggestions for next year ;)
- More power cap'n!!! The power socket situation for the pc room wasn't too bad, but if there had been more rigs things might have been different. But i was looking forward to showing off Virtua Cop 2 on the Saturn I'd brought but there wasn't enough plugs for the whole retro-gaming section :(
- A better network connection. The hotel wifi was a bit weak so we had to resort to some powerline adapters (I believe we have John Whitehouse and Iain McNeil to thank for that, cheers guys and anyone else involved)
- Make it two days! One day was awesome, two can only be awesomer :D


And of course, we wouldn’t be saying any of this without the dedication and hard work of Dan and Gabi Grubb. You guys pulled out all the stops and created something magnificent. I’m sure everyone here will agree... a job very well done! Right on, Commanders... now go get some sleep!!!! ;)
 

Darren Grey

Darren Grey
cassius said:
- Not getting my books signed! Nooooo!!!!!! I collected them straight away, but then got sidetracked helping someone on my rig in the pc room. By the time I got back, the signing seemed to have stopped and I didn't want to bother anyone by asking :p
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Wahh, that's a real shame! Certainly on my part I felt extremely flattered by anyone asking for signatures. Be sure to catch all the authors at future Elite events!

cassius said:
Suggestions for next year ;)
- More power cap'n!!! The power socket situation for the pc room wasn't too bad, but if there had been more rigs things might have been different. But i was looking forward to showing off Virtua Cop 2 on the Saturn I'd brought but there wasn't enough plugs for the whole retro-gaming section :(
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Sorry about that. As you saw there were a lot of power demands for the event - ultimately there is only so much we can fit in.

I also find it weird that the Saturn is considered retro :p

- A better network connection. The hotel wifi was a bit weak so we had to resort to some powerline adapters (I believe we have John Whitehouse and Iain McNeil to thank for that, cheers guys and anyone else involved):D
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Yeah, great work from those two. Unfortunately this is a common complaint across most event venues. And unfortunately it's difficult to really know what it's like before the event (though we did guess it would be bad). Ethernet ports would be much preferred, but few venues are set up for this.
 
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nats

Banned
nats
cassius said:
Suggestions for next year ;)
- More power cap'n!!! The power socket situation for the pc room wasn't too bad, but if there had been more rigs things might have been different. But i was looking forward to showing off Virtua Cop 2 on the Saturn I'd brought but there wasn't enough plugs for the whole retro-gaming section :(
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I must admit thinking back I am a bit surprised that there wasn't at least some old machines playing the previous three Elite games! They surely must be there for next year! I would love to see an Amiga 600 playing Frontier and have a go on it for old times sake. And I still havent even played the first Elite game! I know its terrible.
 
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Zieman

Zieman
nats said:
I must admit think back I am a bit surprised that there wasn't at least some old machines playing the previous three Elite games! They surely must be there for next year! I would love to see an Amiga 600 playing Frontier and have a go on it for old times sake. And I still havent even played the first Elite game! I know its terrible.
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May I should ditch the extra clothes (which I didn't need anyway) next year & bring my Commodore 64 instead. ;) Would need to borrow a TV from someone though. :)
 

Zieman

Zieman
A few photos more, click on the pics to see 'em bigger.

The first Saturday afternoon Elite RPG session & spectators from a player's perspective:


Kate Russel signing my copy & Ian Phillips receiving a special mug:


Didn't win anything in the raffle, but brought something home anyway - 7 books (6 new & 1 second-hand), anaglyph clip-ons, keyring & something to drink on very special occasions :) :
 
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Zieman

Zieman
MikeSnos said:
It's not me..... The chap with the Great Adventure T-Shirt is Ian Phillips while just behind Kate is the Senator himself :)
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Ah, okay. I'll amend the post. :eek:

Senator Drew I did recognise, got him to sign my copy of Reclamation right after taking the photo. :)

Thanks for correcting! :)
 
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