The following rules apply to both the Main Tournament and the daily Mystery Game competition (where applicable).

The games will be chosen as randomly as possible from a combination of the venue's classic arcade machines and games running on MAME cabinets. The daily mystery games will be played on a selection of home consoles. All games must be played in single-player mode. Additional settings may be required for each game, and these will be advised by the organisers.

The main competition runs from 11:00 on Saturday until 16:30 on Sunday, with the last new game start limited to 16:15. Anyone playing when the time limit expires will be allowed to complete their game and log a score if they wish. The daily mystery game competitions will end at 20:00 and 16:30 on their respective days.

In a change to the 2011 rules, you no longer have to log a score in every game in order to be included in the overall rankings and be in with a chance of winning a prize. Obviously if you choose to not log a score for each game then your overall total score will be affected!

In the event of a dispute or complaint all decisions made by the organisers will be final and we will endeavour to make them as fair as possible.

Scoring
If you achieve a score that you wish to be recorded, add it to the provided scoresheet and get the score verified by one of your fellow competitiors. You may have as many attempts on a game as you wish before the time limit set for the competition expires - obviously you do not need to record scores that are lower than you 'personal best' for the day.

Each score will be ranked against the highest score recorded for a game on a percentage basis. The players percentages for each game will then be added together and the highest combined percentage will determine the winner.

Example (simplified to 5 games)

In the unlikely event of a tie on combined percentage between two players in a prize-winning position, their ranking positions will be determined based on a sum of their rankings in each of the ten games, with the lowest overall sum being given the higher placing.

Etiquette
If somebody else is waiting to play on a particular game, please allow them to take their turn once you have completed your attempt and had you score recorded.

If you hold the high score on a game, it would be preferred that you do not play that game again unless your score is beaten. In the event that somebody beats your score in the final game of the time period, you would be given one chance to regain your high score.