ONE LIFE LEFT 2023
Faith Johnson reports on Norwich’s premiere gaming convention
Back for its second year, One Life Left, also known as OLL, brought together gamers from across the country for a weekend of entertainment, competitions, exhibits and plenty of hands-on retro fun. The convention took place at Norwich’s Norfolk Showground between 15 and 16 April with the aim to bring a wide variety of gamers, developers and exhibits together while celebrating games old and new.
Jon Gage, the event’s head organiser, told us that, “Games are for everyone and while people will have their own favourite games and genres, a physical convention brings everyone together to celebrate this shared interest.
We made a conscious effort to showcase as much variety as we could at OLL ’23, including both retro and modern indie titles, and both smaller and larger content creator guests.”
While all the glitz and glamour you would expect from a major videogame event was on display, there was also a strong grassroots community feel that is important to the organisers. Community projects, such as Norwich Amiga Group and the Nottingham-based Itsmuchmore, put on excellent exhibits for attendees, with Jon explaining that, “Having a local feel to the event is one of our unique attributes. There are some fantastic large gaming events across the country, but our approach allows us to deliver a more personalised service to both our attendees and our exhibitors, and this allows us to create that special atmosphere that larger events might not always be able to do.”
The sense of community was further cemented by the local businesses invited to set up stalls, which created a busy market in the centre of the venue. There was a great mix of games, collectables and retro-tech to peruse and the market also provided a vibrant social space for gamers to chat and catch up. Another aim of OLL ’23 was to provide fun for families and not just older retro fans. Seeing all the younger gamers run from console to console, eyes wide in amazement playing the games their parents enjoyed, was one of the convention’s successes. There was a sense that retro games can be just as exciting for a new generation of gamers now and not just those who remember them the first time around.
The large stage at the back of the venue featured a huge screen accompanied by a loud PA system that filled the entire space. A DJ played retro-inspired music throughout the weekend, that went down well with attendees. Situated in one corner was Norwich Retro Gamers which had tables filled with CRT televisions and retro consoles, computers and curios for attendees to enjoy. Everything