A retro gaming event at Empire Cinema in Ipswich on Sunday gave children and adults alike the chance to play video games on the big screen.

Organised by Ipswich residents Miles Prower, Sean Hammond and Chris Turner from Bring Back Retro, the family-friendly event was free of charge and open to people of all ages.

%image(15845409, type="article-full", alt="The idea to have video games on the big screen came about following a series of events at Empire Cinema")

%image(15845410, type="article-full", alt="The family-friendly event was free of charge and open to people of all ages")

"We love doing things like this for the community," said Miles.

"Not only does it get the nostalgia flowing, but it's great to see people and kids who have never met each other before sitting down and playing with one another.

%image(15845411, type="article-full", alt="Miles said: "it's great to see people and kids who have never met each other before sitting down and playing with one another"")

"It's just really nice to see."

The idea to have video games on the big screen came about following a series of events at Empire Cinema.

%image(15845412, type="article-full", alt=""We try to get a range of games so that people of any age can just come down and play," said Miles")

%image(15845413, type="article-full", alt="The event took place at Empire Cinema's screen eight")

"We've done a number of things like this in the past," Miles.

"Every so often, we hold an event in Empire Cinema's café.

"We've been in talks about using one of their cinema screens for a while so, as well as doing retro gaming in the café on Sunday, we also had Mario Kart on in screen eight."

%image(15845414, type="article-full", alt=""As well as doing retro gaming in the café on Sunday, we also had Mario Kart on in screen eight," said Miles")

Due to the pandemic, the trio's plans for occasions similar to this were disrupted.

However, Sunday appeared to be a real success.

"We always get a lot of people come down," said Miles.

%image(15845415, type="article-full", alt="Miles said: "We try to get a range of games so that people of any age can just come down and play"")

"We try to get a range of games so that people of any age can just come down and play.

"Even if they don't have any gaming skills - I'm terrible - they're welcome to join in."

Looking forward, Miles, Sean and Chris are hoping to host more events similar to Sunday's.

%image(15845416, type="article-full", alt="Tony Edwards and Miles Prower")

"Every year we try to do a 24-hour gaming marathon for charity that we live stream," said Miles.

"But due to Covid we had to miss one year.

%image(15845417, type="article-full", alt="Tony Edwards and cinema manager, Adam Root")

%image(15845418, type="article-full", alt="Miles said Bring Back Retro "love doing this for the community"")

"In the future, we're looking do more stuff like this - perhaps branching into tournaments and getting people's names on a leaderboard.

"There's a lot of work and a lot of set up put in, but we love doing this for the community."