Retztron Back at the Hoxton Pony!

It's been almost 4 months since I attended my last Reztron event - why? That's because they have a new venue for Saturdays so the Thursday events were on hold. Since they returned to the delightful Hoxton Pony in the heart of Shorditch.

I absolutely love their events purely becuase they are dedicated to Sega consoles. This includes: Megadrive, Saturn and Dreamcast


All the consoles were available to play at our discretion, friendly competition was encouraged for fighting games such as Mortal Kombat, House of the Dead 2 and Virtual Fighter 2. They used various tricks to utilise the space properly including over head projects on the wall and even ceilings which kept the gamers entertained.


Another addition was the Hoxton Pony Thursdays were now being sponsored by restaurants with free food sampling - it was Mexican theme by Killer Tomato. So after some button bashing on Sonic you could indulge in some tacos and cheesy fahitas upstairs by the bar.

From about 8-10 the event was jam packed with people arriving from work for a game of Virtual Tennis and a round of Karaoke. Karaoke included 80's rock to 90's cheesy tunes on the easy to use machine.

See more of my photos here. Follow me on Twitter for more event news.

Be sure to check out the official photos on their facebook page.

More events to be announced on twitter.

Photo by Sergio Hybrid Photography

Japanese People Don’t Like to be ALONE

I believe most things in life are fun when done in a group. It’s a given sometimes we need our independence and alone time but we’re naturally sociable being and it would really suck without the company of others.

Kotaku posted results of an online research poll of nearly one thousand of its users find flying solo depressing. Have a looksie yourself:

9. Eating at a ramen restaurant alone: 1.9 percent
8. Traveling alone: 2 percent
7. Seeing a movie alone: 2.3 percent
6. Going to a concert alone: 6.4 percent
4. Going to karaoke alone: 13.3 percent
4. Going to a bar alone: 13.3 percent
3. Going to a buffet alone: 21.5 percent
2. Going to a yakiniku (BBQ) restaurant alone: 23.4 percent
1. Going to an amusement park alone: 53.7 percent

Being asked “A table for one?” is generally seen as somewhat pathetic when going to places people usually go with their friends, family, or loved ones. Ramen restaurants are often (though, not always) places businessmen quickly grab lunch or dinner, so many people are more used to going to these types of restaurants by themselves. I’m not one to go Nandos on my own but there are some die hard chicken fans out there that would so fair dos to the peri peri fiends.

Recently, there’s been a trend to make certain kinds of solo activities less depressing, such as karaoke places that specialize in serving customers who want to sing alone. Great for people like me who generally have so much range you jealous fools can’t take my skills.

It’s interesting that arcades weren’t included in this poll as that’s an independent activity where you immerse yourself in the game and frankly zone out however after going to a Games tournament I enjoyed it more with a group of cheerleaders cheering me on :D