On September 30, I spent a geektastic day at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. I arrived early and got a look at many booths before they opened (later, they would be swarmed by thousands of attendees). For much of the day I was one of several referees for the Classic Tetris World Championship. The whole day was a joy — a convention hall filled with classic games, from Atari to Zelda, with pinball in between. And, this being a Portland event, there were game-themed crafts everywhere. The expo organizers summarized the weekend like so:
• Over 3,000 attendees came through the doors over the weekend
• Over 160 arcade and pinball machines were on display for freeplay
• Over 70 retro video game consoles were set up to play
• There were over 70 vendors in attendance
• Our after-hours event was a blast with over 200 people dining and drinking until midnight right in the Mega-cade
• Our live auction was packed with over 400 attendees. At the auction we raised nearly $900 for Portland’s Cat Adoption Team
I just want to emphasize that this event had a “Mega-cade” and it was, indeed, mega. I brought my camera and captured some scenes from the event — some before the action began, some in the midst of it. Have a look, and click on any photo to enlarge:
Oregon Trail, 2012
This actually happened. In 2012. I have hope for future generations. (To the side of the mega-cade was a large area with various classic computers and game systems set up for free play.)
Atari 2600 – Combat
This also happened, in a little time-warp area in the back of the hall. In the closeup you can see that the game is Combat. Remind you of your childhood much?
Scenes from the Mega-cade
The Mega-cade was frankly more mega than these photos convey. Rows of pinball machines, standup arcade games, co-op games, and lots of driving games — all in freeplay mode! — made for a geeky paradise. I kept returning to the updated X-Men co-op game, both because it was popular, but also because I had burned hours (and many dollars) on that game in years past.
I was particularly confused by this “Granny and the Gators” game. Click to enlarge, trust me. (The second photo is a detail of the play area.)
Here’s the X-Men game. Note that in this modified version, instead of two CRT screens, it has one large (and quite nice) LCD.
The family that plays X-Men together…stays together.
And here’s a Back to the Future pinball game on the fritz. When was the last time you got to see inside a BTTF pinball game?! (Click to see the guts, especially on the latter two shots.)
It’s hard to see here, but this is a parent teaching a child to play the Empire Strikes Back game. This kid’s gonna grow up right.
Games, Games, Games
There were thousands of game cartridges (and some floppy/CD games) on display, plus some other neat memorabilia. Here’s a look at part of what you missed.
NES Tetris: “From Russia With Fun.”
I picked up some excellent Tetris fridge magnets from this vendor:
Hey, look — modern Atari 2600 games!
In case of emergency:
This booth was helping an autism charity. There were crowds around it later in the day (this was taken before the doors opened).
Retro Systems
Lots of retro game systems were set up on the show floor — you could play most of them, and many were also for sale.
Guess what costs $200 these days:
The Power Glove: it’s so bad. (And it’s $249.99.)
Check out the price tag on this:
R.O.B. costs less on his own, out of the box:
My father had a system much like this one. Portable!
