In a very rare event indeed, we decided that we’d leave Team Teabag’s secret underground HQ this weekend and venture out into the bright light of day. Thankfully we did have somewhere warm and cozy to go, as we’d been invited to Insert Coin ‘09, the UK’s only coin-op expo open to the general public.

Although only in its first year, the show had everything you could expect from such an event, including a “bring and buy” sale for arcade parts, t-shirt stalls, vendors hawking MAME cabs, and of course, over 200 genuine arcade cabinets all set to Free Play and lined up ready for the playin’. Other highlights included the “Cosplay Clash” competition, Radio SEGA pumping out a good selection of classic chiptunes, competitions to win arcade machines, and DDR:UK’s mad dancing skills on show for all to see.

There was also hog roast. Mmmm, hog roast.

So, how were things? Very, very good. Of course, it’s hard to mess up when you’re essentially letting people loose on a room full of free arcade games, but the atmosphere was excellent, there were plenty of games to go around, and the organisers were on hand to help out with anything and everything if needed.

If a picture tells a thousand words, a 7:45 video at 25FPS should tell all of about 11,625,000. So instead of boring you to tears with nearly 12 million of my poorly-chosen and probably factually inaccurate words, that’s exactly what I’ve got for you just here. As a bonus, it’s set to the wonderfully retro Daft Punk stylings of Da Chip.

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I think that’s probably the only video I’ve seen that features a stormtrooper on a waverunnner and someone (that’d be me) making a fool of himself on a Japanese dog walking arcade game.

Finally, here’s our photo gallery of the day’s events. As usual, click to embiggen.

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