DJ Yoda

This 5 day event sees workshops, big screen demos and the best in games designers, developers and writers from the gaming industry. Nestled between all this on the Friday night is a 90 minute set from the one and only DJ Yoda. He is here to share his mix and mash up of the best video games from the 80's to present day. Alongside clips of everyone's favourite games are music videos and retro TV ads, all picked to fit perfectly in a game sandwich. Yoda is here alone to mix the sounds and video, unlike the awesome Stranger Things mix tape shows where he has a VJ with him.

Tonight we are in the 306 seat Pictureville Cinema that has hosted the likes of Michael Palin, Ray Winston and Barbara Windsor. Its 4K projection is suited to the high colour spec of the footage, but it sounds at time that the sound can not handle the bass of some of the tunes, or something isn't right as it's 7.1 surround sound!

Just to the right of the stage is DJ Yoda's set up, and he's loving the crowds reactions. The closer to the 90's the games get, the whoops get louder and you an see a huge smile upon his face. Its odd making noise in a cinema but with more screenings of live gig concerts these days the line has been crossed so it depends on the viewer to do the right thing! Here whopping is definitely allowed.

Pac Man starts it all off, and from then on it's nostalgia land. Moving through Atari, to Donkey Kong, Tetris, Robocop, Duck Hunt, Zelda, Streetfighter, Pokemon, Simpsons, Golden Axe, Mario, Sonic, Mortal Combat, Wipeout, Guitar Hero… So many memories! There's cereal adverts for Nintendo, live action tetris, Zelda music videos… There's a ton on Mario, with the popular Mario and Luigi free running You Tube videos and Mario Kart and an interesting front view video of the platform game.

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The wise one that is Yoda knows how to mix up cultural references too, Mixing Lara Croft game footage to the Indiana Jones theme tune, Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Green Day's 'Basket Case' and Parapa the Rapper and Jay Z's '99 Problems'. He scratches a console time line, stopping on the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive to us) to show a You Tube video from a rapping fan. The amusing YouTube video from Mega Ran 'Infinite Lives' raises a few laughs.

Not leaving out the music there's the recognizable 8bit sounds of Metallica's 'Enter Sandman', Jackson 5's 'I Want You Back' and over the Moonwalker game footage there's 8bit 'Thriller'. Yoda really has the creativity to pull off the huge array of mash ups he produces and tours with. I hope this show was not a one off as more people need to see it!