RetroWorld Expo -- Oct. 15-16 -- Mark your calendars, Northeast gamers

[Retro STrife]

First off, I have absolutely no affiliation with the RetroWorld Expo. I'm simply from CT myself, love that this type of event is in my state, loved the event last year, and want to get the word out to you guys too.

RetroWorld Expo is a gaming convention in Wallingford, CT, going into it's 2nd year, and now expanding to a 2-day event. It focuses almost exclusively on retro gaming. (Which I love, since I am not a fan of comic books, superheroes, tabletop games, cosplay, or all the other stuff that conventions seem to have these days. But, for those that do like those things, you will find all that in small doses at RetroWorld too.) RetroWorld is all about vendors, freeplay arcade and console games, guest panelists (i.e., Pat the NES Punk, Game Chasers, etc.), a collectors auction, free tournaments (my favorite part), and an awesome atmosphere, and probably tons of stuff I'm forgetting. It's the best gaming event I've personally been to, and it's the perfect size--big enough but not too big for its own good.

I mentioned it on the forums last year, but, by the time I did, it was too late. So I'm mentioning it early this year. Here's a link for info:

http://retroworldexpo.com/



As a sidenote, Critic, if you see this, do you do any of these conventions ever? You would easily have the credentials to be a guest speaker/panelist at these types of events, and it might bring in a little extra income to help support what you do here.

[Retro STrife]

I get the sense that there aren't many gamers on the boards here that are up in the New England area of the US. But just in case, I want to revive this topic here as a reminder about this upcoming weekend.

Some new developments that have been added to the schedule in the past few months.

-A Video Game-themed Family Feud contest will take place with attendees and special guests as the contestants. My favorite game show, so sounds cool to me.

-This years free tournaments are: NBA Jam TE, NHL '94, Mortal Kombat II, Street Fighter II, WWF No Mercy, and Super Smash Bros. Last year I took 2nd in the NBA Jam tournament, after not playing it for years and originally not planning to participate. Looking forward to improving on that this year. (Meanwhile I bombed in the NHL tournament last year despite weeks of practice and might pass this year.) Unfortunately, while I petitioned for Tecmo Super Bowl this year, no one listened to me.

-Special Guests and panelists include Daniel Pesina (Johnny Cage from the early MK games), Pat the NES Punk, the Video Game Historian, and many more. Guests aren't that exciting to me, but I figure I should at least try to get a signature from Pesina on my MKII Genesis box.


For more info, these are the links:

https://www.facebook.com/RetroWorldExpo/

http://retroworldexpo.com/

[LoganRuckman]

I think Dave is from New England. I'd love to go, but it's still a little too far. I wish there was something like this in Pennsylvania, like the old PhillyClassic, especially in Western PA.

[Retro STrife]

I think Dave is from New England. I'd love to go, but it's still a little too far. I wish there was something like this in Pennsylvania, like the old PhillyClassic, especially in Western PA.

I think Dave is from the Maryland area, though I do wonder what it takes to become a paid panelist at these types of events, as I feel like he should go for it if he has the desire.

As for PA, have you tried the Too Many Games convention? It's a yearly retro gaming convention in the Philly area. Been around for like 10 years. I considered making the trek out there at a few points, back before CT got its own, but I never actually checked it out. It used to be the only retro gaming convention that I knew of in the entire Northeast, but conventions are starting to pop up all over now, including Long Island and Mass.

http://toomanygames.com/

[Fingers dripping ink]

I went to the expo with a buddy of mine. I go to a lot of cons, but my main draw at this one was games. Specifically, one particular uncommon game I was looking for, along with a Vectrex.

The event was very Nintendo-centric. If I was still collecting NES titles I would have been in heaven.

One vendor had a Vectrex. ONE. It wasn't plugged in but the dealer said it worked. I wasn't born yesterday so we had them plug it in, not only did it not work, but the controller was missing the ball on the joystick. The dealer claimed they "had no idea there was anything wrong with it." Screw that.

I ended up getting a new copy of Martian Gothic for the PS1 cheap which was nice, as I'd wanted it for a while. My buddy picked up a ten 5200 and Colecovision games - there were a few dealers with boxes to dig through and that's where they were. 5200: The Dreadnought Factor, CV: Star Wars Arcade, Tutankham, Zengi, Flipper Slipper, Subroc, Destructor, River Raid, Cabbage Patch Adventures in the Park, Congo Bongo, and a boxed copy of Omega Race.

I found one vendor who had the game I was looking for - only one - and I had talked to all of them. I picked up the copy and the game had two visible marks on it, and had been resurfaced, priced over what a new copy would have cost on ebay. I pointed it out and the guy scoffed at me, "You're never going to find another copy like this for this price." "Yeah well I don't buy scratched games." I walked away as he bitched under his breath.

I met Pat the NES Punk, he was super nice and genuine and we talked about PS1 platformers. On the way home, we hit a few tag sales. I got two Intellivision games: Chip Shot, with the manual, and Diner, with the box, for $5.

Overall, I had a more success going to the tag sales.

[JustLikeHeaven]

I also attended this. I didn't see this thread prior to going otherwise we could have met up!

This was my first year going and really the first retro videogame convention that I've been to. Overall, I enjoyed it. It was basically a bunch of vendors set up, with retro games looking to sell them. I went with a friend and we scoured the place looking for deals. Not many were to be had. If you wanted anything decent you were going to be paying premium prices mostly. I thought that was a bummer. I did manage to score some stuff, but nothing really exciting.

Fingers Dripping Ink was correct that this was an incredibly Nintendo focused Con. Almost every dealer had NES, SNES and N64 games. I was in the market for Genesis, Xbox, Saturn, Dreamcast, PSP and PS1 games. Kind of slim pickings for those systems.

The guy I was with recently bought a Genesis and he was looking to build a decent collection. So I spent most of my efforts tracking down Genesis essentials for him. He ended up with a pretty decent haul and a good mix of Genesis classics as well as bizarre Genesis stuff. I told him he HAD to buy the complete in box copy of DEATH DUEL for $7!

It was a good time, but it's kinda of depression to see how expensive and retail focused the retro-collecting hobby has become. Seeing people GLADY pay $30 for Castlevania 1 or $25 for Kid Icarus makes me shake my head in disbelief. If I were starting a NES collection these days I can't even imagine how much it would begin to cost. It's crazy. SNES? Fahgettabouit!

[Robotrek]

I'd have gone, if I didn't hate Conneticut with every fiber in my body.

[Fingers dripping ink]

I'd have gone, if I didn't hate Connecticut with every fiber in my body.

The home of Coleco? Aww, come on now, you don't mean that

[Retro STrife]

Hey good to see some others who checked this out! I was surprised to see these responses.

First off, I have to say that I enjoyed last year a little better. Perhaps it was because it was the first year, so it blew me away, whereas this year I had higher expectations. Perhaps stretching it to 2 days hurt the event by stretching out all the events. Or perhaps it was just weaker overall. I don't know for sure. But I do agree with both of you that it was very focused on Nintendo, which was annoying to me. Look, I like Nintendo--I grew up on the NES and SNES and they are two of my biggest collections today--but nothing annoys me more in retro gaming than people who LOVE Nintendo. Go pick up a leaf off the ground outside, draw a Tri-force on it in crayon, and you'd make at least $90 on it at the Collector's Auction. And they'd all gather 'round while petting it and saying "owwww". It's ridiculous. At the same time, I understand that vendors are there to make money and they only have so much space on their table, so, if Nintendo is what sells, then they're going to fill their table with Nintendo.

Personally, I was hoping to pick up stuff for the less mainstream '90s systems--3DO, Saturn, CD-i, Jaguar, etc.--and the selection was definitely weak for that. Of those, I got like two cheap Saturn games, that's it. That being said, I still love the vendor floor. I really like gaming stores and just combing through games and digging through boxes, and this was like being in one GIANT game store. Deals were few and far between, but that is to be expected at any gaming con--these are vendors, so they paid money to buy their inventory, they know what their games are worth, and they're trying to make money. So I wasn't expecting flea market or yard sale prices. Nonetheless, I still got plenty of great deals--the key was to always be haggling, and buying several games to get deals. For example, I bought like $100 worth of games from one guy, so he was willing to sell me a factory sealed Dr. Mario for NES (in mint condition with the real seal) for just $14 more. (It goes for like $60-$100 on ebay). The same guy also sold me a set of 14 Playstation Underground Magazine demo discs for just $10 (ebay auctions show them being worth around $80 total; and just need 3 more for the complete set of 17). I dreamed of having that subscription as a teenager but I couldn't afford it; and on top of that, these are really cool looking sets (not your standard pack-in demos in a cheap cardboard sleeve). Besides that, I picked up tons of games to flesh at my collection. My N64 collection was weak (under 50 games), so I picked up at least 20 new ones, several as low as a $1 or $2 (and not just sports titles). So I guess in that sense I got to benefit from the Nintendo focus there.

I went both days, and Saturday was more enjoyable and the more hardcore retro gamers came in. But Sunday was good too, I liked the lighter crowd, which was also good for checking out vendors without being crowded. And to second JustLikeHeaven, yes, it is now extremely cost-prohibitive to build a large collection if you are just starting out. That part is depressing--though I guess it works both ways, since it makes our collections worth a lot more too.

Beyond the vendors, there was still a lot to take in. They had the freeplay arcade area and freeplay console area, but really I don't bother with that. I can play all the consoles at home and there are arcades to go to year-round, so I consider it a misuse of time. (Though I did stop for a quick Power Stone 2 session with my brother in the arcade area.) It was cool to get Daniel Pesina (Johnny Cage) to sign my boxed copies of MK and MKII for Genesis. He was a good guy. I also checked out the Pat the NES Punk panel, since he is the only Youtube person I actually have watched that was there, and that was pretty good. I never buy at the Collector's Auction, but it's still entertaining to go sit in on. Sadly, the tournaments were awful this year. They were far less organized than last year and jammed in a very small corner of the floor space. It was so bad that I dropped out of the NHL '94 tourney and only played NBA Jam. It didn't help that I get paired up against another good player in the first round of NBA Jam and got knocked right out, losing by one point. Why the tabletop gaming area even exists at that con--I have no idea. Save that for other cons, and use the space more productively. It wasted a lot of room. Family Feud was sort of interesting to watch on Sunday, although very disorganized.

But overall to me, it's mostly the vibe that draws me in. Being surrounded by the games, the game music playing, and people enjoying it all. It's just cool to me.

[Retro STrife]

I'd have gone, if I didn't hate Conneticut with every fiber in my body.

I feel like you either live in NY near NYC, or you live in RI, or you used to live in CT (I'm guessing the first one). If it's any of those three, then you're reasoning for hating CT (and, in those cases, I already know what it is) is wrong. If you live anywhere else, then your reasoning is probably right.

Also, while you sounded it out well, you actually spelled Connecticut wrong.