ITC Adventures:- Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2024
Entry posted by CrossBow in ITC Adventures:-
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My wife and I were able to attend the Portland Retro Gaming Expo that just took place this past weekend Sep 27 -29, 2024. It was our 4th trip to the event over the years. To say that it was awesome isn't telling the full story. The pictures that follow are only but a small portion of what the event has to offer for those interested in video games.
Atari was present this year with their own fairly large dedicated booth showcasing Atari merchandise, upcoming and current games for modern systems and even two of the upcoming 7800+ consoles setup for people to play and be hands on with.
The 7800+ is pretty nice I do have to say! It mimics the original look of the 7800 just 20% smaller all around. The new CX24+ wireless controllers are really nice as well. They felt quite sturdy and I was advised that they have very good battery life as well. My only issue with the 7800+ that I saw was that similar to the 2600+ it does take a bit load up the games. Additionally even the 4:3 aspect mode the games still look a little too stretched.
Atari also had this fun display that I would call as being Atari through the ages. It had lots of Atari related items on it including a replica blaster similar to what Harrison Ford's character Decker used in the movie Blade Runner. The CRT at the bottom was playing classic Atari commercials on a loop.
The Champ Bros were present with their Champ Games booth with their games on sale including some home brews released in the past that had been removed from the AtariAge store are now under the hands of Champ Games.
Here you can see Paul of Champ Games teaching the basics of Champ Games newest release Tutankham Arcade for the 2600.
Of course Champ Games other releases from the past were setup for playing and to buy. Including another new release Zevious for the 2600!
A large part of PRGE is being able to meet up with other friends and enthusiasts in the hobby and from the various forums. Here you can see a rare picture of me, @socrates63, and @sramirez2008 buying our copies of Tutankham Arcade in front of the Champ Games booth.
There is a lot to see and do at PRGE. There is a very large area of different video game systems setup for folks to sit down and play. Pretty much every era of video gaming can be found so your favorite gaming console is likely to be found for you to show off your gaming skills!
There is also a very large section with upright original arcade cabinets setup with most of the classics represented to be found and played for free! This picture is just a small part of the arcade section.
In addition to the arcades, there is also a lot of pinball machines setup for folks to play and checkout!
There are ton of vendors at PRGE selling everything video gaming related from merchandise, games, jewelry, and other crafts. Again, every era of gaming can be found with items for sale.
Some vendors have large setups in their booths like are like mini stores of their full retail setups. These you essentially walk into from one side and back out at the other with a lot to check out and buy if you have deep enough pockets!
The Intellivision had a large presence at PRGE with a large section consisting of Intellivision Blue Sky Ranger alumni, enthusiasts and of course games from Intellivision Revolution, Intellivision Collector and others. Here are two pics of that booth space area:
There were new release home brews for the Intellivision on display, for play, and for sale too of course. Here is just a sample of what could be purchased at PRGE 2024.
AtariAge had an amazing booth as always with over 40 Atari consoles setup for playing new released home brew games for sale along with the latest playable demos of current home brew games still in development. Older home brew classics that can still be purchased were also swapped in during the day on different consoles for folks to play. Here are the pics from the AA booth and it was the location I spent most of my time at during PRGE 2024. As you can see, pretty much every Atari console from the 2600 to the VCS was setup with games to play and enjoy!
A big draw to the AtariAge booth each year is of course to pick up the latest released home brew games for sale that make their debut releases during PRGE. Here you can see part of the large center island with the games for sale on display.
With the new releases, AtariAge also brings along quite a few of their other home brew releases over the years for folks to check out and purchase.
Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2024 was a great time and even with the extra Friday night added onto the event, there still never seems like enough time to enjoy everything that there is to do. Examples are that there are booths of gaming celebrities for autographs and lots of panels with developers, enthusiasts and gaming legends speaking and giving their experiences in their careers.
I will leave you with one last picture. This is of Darryl Guenther's currently still in development game Mouse Trap for the Atari 7800. During the event, Darryl and I snuck the latest demo of his game along with his custom two port controller setup and tested it out on one of the new 7800+ consoles in the Atari booth. It worked just fine!
For those interested, the 7800+ consoles at PRGE were running a later revision 2.0 firmware that hasn't been released publicly for use on the 2600+. Although the two consoles are essentially the same hardware inside, there are some things that Atari plans to keep exclusive to the 7800+ and so further development will most likely continue with the 7800+ going forward as compared to the 2600+. Some features mentioned is that Atari is working with Fred (Batari) from the AtariAge forums to try and get CDFJ games implemented and working. This would add quite a few more of the recent home brews as being playable on the 7800+. Additionally support for the 2600 trak-balls has been added already to the new FW and they are looking to get other controllers working as well. However, the FW on these 7800+ consoles still didn't have full communications through the controller ports as they still couldn't detect save keys or the AtariVox. Not sure if Atari is planning to get that added but I will say that after my long discussion with them, I'm looking forward to seeing what more they bring and they very much appreciate and know what their retro gaming customers want.
Edited by CrossBow
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