Retrópolis Valencia 1º edición – Retroinformática y videojuegos clásicos

For the third year in a row, Vera’s Campus of Universitat Politècnica de València hosted a public event focused on retro computing, with many new features at a glance. . Next Saturday 30 of April Retrópolis will start, and it will be presented in society as an event exclusively organised by the Museum of Computer Science from Higher Technical School of Computer Engineering (ETSINF), it relates in this way the centre’s cultural and social life with this initiative starting on Saturday 30 to Thursday 5th of May within the  
ETSINF cultural week.

There is great expectation around the inaugural session’s conferences of Retropolis on Saturday 30, with an expected attendance of more than one thousand people:

– Talk by José Vicente Pons, former programmer of Spanish Software Golden Age (8-bit systems), co-founder and president of Exelweiss Entertainment, video game industry, and also co-founder of Akamon Entertainment, developer of social games and which has been valued (and also purchased by Canadian group Imperus Technologies) at EUR 23 million in 2015.

 – Talk by Paco Portalo, co-author of La Pulga, the very first Spanish video game for 8-bit system, who will talk about his article in the journal Novática, published in 2015. He is co-author together with Eduardo Mena, Associate Professor and director of the Museum of Historical Computer Science at the University of Zaragoza, under the heading ‘Los videojuegos como paradigma de innovación en los orígenes de la industria del software español’ (‘Video Games as Paradigm of Innovation in the Origins of Spanish Software’).

 – Talk by Manuel Pazos and Daniel Celemín, authors of a new remake of ‘The Abbey of Crime’, which is considered the best Spanish video game from the Golden Age of Spanish Software, was presented in March and named ‘The Abbey of Crime Extensum’.

 – Talk by Fran Gallego, Collaborator Teacher of University of Alicante, in the fields of Maths, Automated Reasoning and Video Games, for Computer Engineering Degree and Engineering Degree in Multimedia. He is founding member and technical director of ByteRealms, registered trademark of video game development of University of Alicante, he is also member of the Scener CheeseTea group, he has a blog and several retro developers as part of Fremos group. He comes to talk about CPCTelera, an engine project for the creation of video games (Game Engine) for Amstrad CPC, an 8-bit system of the eighties.

In the following week, from Monday to Thursday different activities will start in a more academic context, they will be focused on University students.

Retrópolis is premiering in retro landscape with contents which that take us back to eighties and seventies computing landscape. It will include a Star Wars video game exhibition to celebrate International Star Wars Day (May the 4th Be with You).
The aim of this timetable is not only commemorating important dates from the Golden Age of Spanish Software, for example Ópera Soft 30th anniversary, but also giving a greater role several recent developments related with retro computing. It will include an academic field of scientific and technical research and amateur development field too, under what is known as ‘homebrew scene’, encompassing both areas software and hardware.

But that is not all, in Retropolis Valencia 2016 you will also have access to guided tours through the Museum of Computer Science, classic video game tournaments, practical development workshops, second-hand small market, presentations of Final Degree Projects related with the museum, and our solidarity contribution courtesy of a non-profit organisation “Videojuegos x Alimentos“,non-perishable food for second-hand videogames, this food will be donated later to Banco de Alimentos de Valencia. You can participate from now on to April 30th donating videogames of whatever platform, PC or video game console, modern or classic video games. These video games and those brought from ‘Videojuegos x Alimentos’ could be exchanged for non-perishable food for shipment to ONG.

Retropolis is organised by the Museum of Computing Science of ETSINF and it is promoted by the Área de Actividades Culturales(Area of Cultural Activities)of UPV.It will take place from April 30th to May 5th on the permanent exhibition space of the Museum of Computer Science (Building 1E) from 10am to 8pm.

More info: http://museo.inf.upv.es/retropolis/