Sunday, September 30, 2012
Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2012
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Events: This weekend was the 7th annual Retro Gaming Expo, taking
place in Portland, Oregon. Since it was just a three-hour drive away, and I had
never attended the RGE before, I made the trip accompanied by my wife and youngest
son.
Game family…Gooooooooooo!
The event occupied one floor of the Portland Convention
Center, and was split into two sections, more or less: on one half was an area
dedicated to used games, various game-related items for sale, arts and crafts,
and other things for people looking to add to their collections. The other half
was a series of arcade cabinets, pinball machines, and home consoles set up on
TVs for people to sit down and play for free.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I walked in, but I have to
say that the place won me over immediately. At the beginning of the show, there
were loud 80s tunes being pumped through the sound system. That, combined with
the banks of arcade cabinets instantly took me back to my teenage years when
arcades were actually a regular, normal thing. Tons of classics were there, in
addition to some lesser-known titles I had never seen before. The fact that
they were all set up on free play was like one of my childhood dreams come
true.
It had also been quite a while since I'd seen a pinball
machine live and in person, so to see so many and in such good shape was a real
treat. The same went for the home consoles. Although I grew up having an Atari
2600, a Vectrex, and pretty much everything from the NES onward, there were
still gaps in my game history that got filled at the show. (See below...)
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| My son, using a joystick for the first time, ever. |
Leaving the play floor, I spent a good amount of time combing
through the old games for sale, and I was very impressed with the level of
handmade art. There were some truly amazing wall hangings made out of perler
beads, and there were some wooden cut-outs that were nice enough to be hanging
in the office of any game-oriented CEO. Although I walked away with a couple of
things, I could have easily spent a ton more money…
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| I wanted that Ryu piece on my wall SO BAD! |
There were other happenings to see and do at the show such
as several panels that were being given (a few by Atari-age legends David Crane and Garry Kitchen) and
I would have really liked hearing some of the chiptune performances that were taking
place, but part of being a good parent is knowing when your little ones are
running out of juice and packing it up. My small man put up a valiant fight,
but he's still just a tiny guy. He’s getting there, though!
Even though we left a little early by game convention
standards, we still had a great time and it was a unique experience to see so
much old-school goodness concentrated into one place at one time. I would
definitely recommend it to anyone who's able to attend, and I could easily see
this becoming part of my regular yearly routine.
… and since a picture is worth a thousand words, let me
leave you with the images below.
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| It's hard to tell, but everyone here is playing an arcade machine, just like the olden days. * |
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| Haven't seen one of these in years! * |
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| That thing must have been SO hard to carry around. |
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| They had some great pinball machines, but I'm pretty sure that's an Alien and not a 'Space Invader'... * |
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| A legion of pinball fans. Lots of pinging sounds. |
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| NES carts by the boatload to be had. * |
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| Pretty sure this is the Magnavox Odyssey 2. Had never seen this IRL before. I'm a n00b, I know. * |
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| Colecovision, another one I've never had a personal history with. * |
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| These wall-hangings were totally sweet. * |
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| Take a VERY CLOSE LOOK at the game title on display here. * |
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| The Interton VC 4000. Had never even HEARD of this thing before. |
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| My son playing Pac-Man on an Apple II Plus * |
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| The obligatory Star Wars reference to maintain my nerd cred after that embarrassing Magnavox admission. * |
Posts
Hey Brad! That is fun man! Loved the pics... I also played these games on holiday in Italy I remember, Double Dragon was my favorite... Now I'll go back to my own new hobby, bought a puppy yesterday... pfffffff Tired!