Words by Ed King
‘Thanks for helping us get to 6 years old. Here’s to endless insert coins in the future.’
On Tuesday 15th December, 8Bit Lounge celebrates its sixth birthday at the Hare & Hounds (Kings Heath).
Alongside the standard retro gaming and ‘experimental, action packed, geeky, lofi, bleepy, thumb ruining, 1up ing, barrel rolling, fun,’ there will be chiptunes from .mpegasus, B-TYPE + Auracle.
Doors open at 8pm with free entry all night. For more direct event info, click here.
Set up by Leon Trimble and Tony Grainger, two Birmingham based Audio/Visual artists/engineers, 8Bit Lounge has been the bastion of retro gaming in the second city for over half a decade. Nestling into the Hare & Hounds on a regular basis, the free to attend event has brought back most consoles and computers you can imagine over the past few years – with everything from Atari to Dreamcast showcasing games from Elite to Doom… and everything blink, blink, gulp in between.
Tapping into the growing digital nostalgia, as CGI and gameplay become both more graphic and elaborate, 8Bit Lounge is an arguable respite from the more ferocious modern marketplace. A throwback to the halcyon days when the most contentious thing a gamer could get caught doing was trading interstellar furs or narcotics.
But no anniversary or walk down memory lane would be complete without some relevant tunage, coming to the 8Bit Lounge sixth birthday bash in the form of chiptune protagonists .mpegasus, B-TYPE + Auracle. And if you’re not familiar with the genre… ever wondered what the bastard child of Nick Warren and Manic Minor would be like?
Or have a look at .mpegasus in action, performing a live set at the SuperByte Festival 2015:
8 Bit Lounge celebrates its 6th birthday at the Hare & Hounds (Kings Heath) on Tues 15th December – entry is free, with the event starting from 8pm. For direct info, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1650866971796932/
For more on 8 Bit Lounge, visit http://8bitlounge.co.uk/
For more from the Hare & Hounds, including further event listings, visit http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/
