Virtual Calais XXL Heads Into Sunday With Retro Machines Sharing the Floor With VR and Robots

Virtual Calais XXL wraps up its October 3–4 weekend in France, proving that classic Commodore 64 and PlayStation hardware naturally belongs beside VR and modern robotics.

Virtual Calais XXL continues today at the Gambetta Forum in Calais, France, wrapping up its October 3–4 weekend of videogames, technology and digital culture. Created by the city of Calais in 2010, the event deliberately mixes generations rather than putting classic gaming behind velvet ropes. Retro machines and familiar videogame history sit alongside contemporary consoles, virtual reality, robotics, cosplay and other interactive attractions.

That mixture is increasingly representative of how retro gaming exists outside specialist conventions: the [PlayStation](/platforms/playstation), [Commodore 64](/platforms/c64) and old Nintendo machines are no longer isolated curiosities but part of a continuous history that younger players can encounter beside current technology.

For preservation, public events have an advantage that ROM archives cannot replicate. Somebody who has never touched an original machine can actually experience its controller, display, loading behaviour and peculiar limitations rather than simply watching footage of somebody else doing it. Virtual Calais also gives collectors and enthusiasts a useful opportunity to demonstrate why apparently obsolete machines remain interesting without requiring visitors to arrive already fluent in SID chips or scanlines.

The weekend closes today, proving once again that a room containing humanoid robots, VR headsets and modern hardware can still find space for videogames designed when 64 kilobytes sounded extravagant.