In April last year, retro gamers got together at Arcade Club Bury to raise funds for Cancer Research UK and rekindle old friendships after the lockdown. The event, titled Extra Life, also helped raise awareness for the charities work as well as providing a cracking 24 hour gaming experience for the retro community.
After the event’s success, attendees asked if it could happen again in 2023. A spokesman for Extra life explains that “it was meant to be a one-off charity event to raise funds, meet friends after the lockdown and enjoy some social gaming once again. We had such a great time and it was such a success, people asked if we would do it again.”
And their wishes are being granted as Extra Life 2 is set to happen on 10th June 2023 at the Retro Computer Museum in Leicester. The spokesman explains that “the original event was a 24 hour ‘gameathon’ but we found that most people were less interested in that aspect and wanted to simply have a good time, meet friends and raise some money for a good cause.”
This years event will raise money for two charities, “the first one is Retro Computer Museum who are all about preserving the technological history of retro gaming and computing from the earliest computers and game consoles right through to some of the more modern platforms.” says Extra Life.
“The second charity is Manchester based Everyone Can that help disabled people through the use of technology to enrich their lives and participate in gaming. A large part of what they do is helping youngsters to get their game time on! And that sounded just awesome to us!”
Extra Life feels that “as gamers, we often take our hand dexterity for granted and don’t think twice about grabbing a standard game pad. But what would happen if we lost the use of our limbs or mobility? Disabled children and adults want to play video games just like the rest of us and that’s where Everyone Can comes to the rescue. They help by sourcing the latest assistive technologies to create custom control devices and equipment so they can enjoy the fun too!”
We will look forward to reporting on the event and hope that as many readers as possible can make it. You can also follow the event and catch up after on Extra Life’s Facebook group.
Sounds brilliant! And obviously rather close to my heart!