The nice header might tell you where I am today. So while I am sitting here
The day started off waiting in a line. Exciting I know, but at least the big nerd next to me brought his 3DS and played some fighting game that had a partially nude and big breasted fighter.
The doors opened at 9am for press and pre-orders. So we hoarded ourselves through the gates and began hunting.
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| The size of the location this year was at least 2x bigger than last year! |
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| Drooling? |
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| How about now? |
If you know me at all then you are aware that I am an avid sega cd collector.
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| $250 for a 'GOOD' condition Snatcher is a bit steep but you could probably haggle the guy down a lot easier here than ebay! :) |
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| I mostly saw a lot of commons with a handful of sought after titles marked appropriately.... or inappropriately according to how much you want that item! |
When I couldn't find anything I didn't already have I just walked around and said hello to various people I met last year. I also picked up a T-shirt at the NintendoAge booth and said hello to a few members. I then made my way to picking up one of John Hancock's Nuts and Bolts DVD sets (for a really good deal!) where he discusses one of my favorite subjects...SEGA!
There was a pretty cool section with a couch and an XBOX hooked up to a big screen
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| uh oh look like someone is about to get stealth owned by Solid Snake! |
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| Check it out, they had Steel Battalion out to play! |
I also spent a good portion of my day fucking around in the sweet arcade free-play section on the Capcom Bowling arcade machine trying to win a contest Bill Carlton was running.
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| In addition to Vids they also had a number of Pinball units towards the back which I failed to show! |
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| Video Pinball 2.0 (shown on the right) is the only unit in the world! and you could play it! |
My highest score in the Capcom bowling tournament was a 206. There was a guy I was playing against that was the highest with a score of 213 but out came some guy who owns arcade machines and plays a lot and he scored something around 240 which crushed my dreams of winning Bill's HUGE PRIZE PACKAGE!... IT WAS HUUUGE!
Did I mention that Bill is the shiznit in Missile Command and is the star of a well made documentary covering his attempts at crushing the world record? Well as he would most certainly suggest to you... You should really see the movie! It's called High Score and I've seen it and you should definitely see it! .... Did I mention that you should definitely see the movie High Score? If you do watch it be sure to watch all the way til the end... it'll blow your mind.
But what might blow your mind even more is at some point we were greeted by semi-nude Mario and Luigi... but get this they were girls....Apparently there's some "GEEKLESQUE" show in Portland where girls dressed as video game characters dance around all smexy like...click here and check it out for yourself!
I ended up missing quite a few really interesting speaking panels BUT I was having fun with Capcom Bowling and having fun is what these things should be about. I did catch some of Pat the NES punk's panel where he was answering some question that a 12 year old sonic the hedgehog asked regarding dating video games... They also showed his newest video.
Here are some of the panels I missed or I guess...mostly missed.
- 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM - Programming Masters of the 2600 - Part 1
Discussion panel featuring pioneering Atari programmers Bob Smith, Rob Zdybel and Tod Frye.
- 12:30 PM - 1:45 PM - Nintendo World Championships: Flashback to 1990
Discussion panel featuring 1990 NWC champions Thor Aackerlund and Robin Mihara.
- 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM - Pat the NES Punk
Pat will headline this panel discussion where he'll discuss his collection and screen some video from his popular classic video game review show, Pat The NES Punk.
- 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM - Video Game Geek Trivia w/ Cort & Fatboy
Cort Webber and Bobby "Fatboy" Roberts hack their successful Geek Trivia event for the Portland Retro Gaming Expo with 100% video game trivia questions! Sponsored by Things From Another World.
For a more detailed list of events that occurred both Saturday AND Sunday pop over to the official PRGE website here and try not to weep.
All that Retro Goodness makes a Nerd VERY HUNGRY! So around 1pm I was in desperate need of food and I dipped out and had a really cheap but really tasty (and still healthy) lunch at the Hotel. Seriously, it was like $12 and it tasted a lot better than the nuclear waste I ate at the Mall later on that evening.
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| Quinoa encrusted chicken wrap in whole wheat, salad and pineapple juice. |
After a long day, One of my absolute favorite events began at about 7pm. This would be the Live Auction. It's really hard to put into words what exactly can make a live auction so much fun even if you don't win anything. The best and shortest way to explain it is that between hecklers asking if every item has LED lights or everyone insisting that the VHS from the Nintendo training manual being auctioned off should be played to 'prove that it works' but really doing it for the lulz makes the entire event very enjoyable.
Here's a few of the high points
- Halo 2600 went for about $270 (it helped that the programmer was in the audience and was happy to sign it). The heated bidding war was very entertaining.
- Some really rare NES prototype/beta's went for some fairly substantial amounts of cash. 1 of which was in the $400 range.
- There was a HUGE Pikachu
- Then there was this..
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| This was a hands free unit for the NES made for the handicapped |
There was a lot of really cool stuff that took place Saturday and Sunday and all of them better experienced first hand in real life rather than in some blog style article or a youtube video. I highly recommend you do yourselves a favor and keep the Portland Retro gaming Expo in mind for your travels. Both the venue and people are a lot of fun and down to earth. Every year gets bigger and bigger so I really look forward to Next Year!
And If you would like to see my coverage from last year click on these things!
- Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2010 - Part 1
- Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2010 - Part 2
- Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2010 - Part 3
- Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2010 - Part 4
http://retrogamingexpo.com/
Until next year I'll leave you with some 'bad-ass-ery'!
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| about 7ft tall! |
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| quick hide in the box behind you! |
Special Thanks to:
Chuck, Rick and John
along with all the volunteer's and sponsors
you and your passion make this awesome event happen!
1 comments:
I want one of those Big Boss statues. Also way sweet article.
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