This previous weekend was the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, and it was awesome! I was there all day both days.

I got some really good deals. Gaiares (loose) for $5! Tatsujin (import version of Truxton) for $8! I got a lot of games. Just don't ask how much I spent altogether...

One of the highlights of the show where the performances by 8Bit Weapon. You'll notice in the second image that she's playing an Atari paddle controller. You can also see a C64 (donated by the local Commodore User Group) in the last image.

The GIANT arcade was... amazing! There were some games there that I haven't played in years. My uncle would have enjoyed Mappy. And I didn't win the tabletop Asteroids game. I spent a lot of time playing APB (Hey Ground Kontrol: put that in the arcade!!!). I was also pretty surprised that the only console version of APB is for the Lynx. Oof.

I love the Space Wars instructions... I think those are still the instructions for Windows... lol.

There was a cool presentation about making games for the Atari 2600. There were even a couple "celebrities" in the audience. On the right is Darrell Spice Jr. (programmer of Medieval Mayhem), and on the left is Rebecca Heineman (programmer London Blitz for the 2600 among other things). She's also responsible for the awesome disassembly of the game Freeway.

Joe Decuir was also in the audience, and I met him later at the Atari Age booth (I had to get Medieval Mayhem and Moon Cresta ). I can't believe Joe doesn't have a Wikipedia page. He was one of the original designers of the Atari 2600, programmer of Video Olympics and Combat (with Larry Wagner). He was also one of the original Amiga designers. He was having a conversation with one of the Atari Age guys about wanting to design a new console in the style of an old Atari 8-bit or an Amiga. I told him that there's a group trying to make an Amiga 2000 from scratch (using FPGAs for custom chips). So now I'm tasked with finding that project again and getting him in contact with them. I'm sure they'd appreciate any help he could offer!

The Tetris World Championships was so tense!!! I think I have to watch the movie now. After being down 2 games, Jonas came back to win it... for the fourth time in a row!