Last year I wrote about going to the Cowlitz Gamers for Kids show in Kelso Washington. You can read more of the details of this show, put on for charity, in that blog:
http://www.rfgeneration.c...rs-for-Kids-Show-2147.phpRather than retell much of what is written there, I will mostly cover new stuff for this post.
I'm going to rely on "pictures being worth a thousand words," which is keeps me from having to write much, always a plus
So, if your internet is slow, sorry. The rest of you get to enjoy this multimedia extravaganza of pictures! other peoples videos! and text!
It was a beautiful sunny day here in the Northwest on Saturday April 13th 2013. If you read my post in the small scores thread, you will know that Zagnorch, giver of gifts, gentleman extraordinaire, sent me a lifetime supply of sunscreen. What a wonderful, and useful gift! Here in the NW we get so much sunshine, sunscreen is a constant necessity. The Saturday of the show turned out to be one of the hottest, sunniest days of the year. The temperature reached the mid 50's (F) and the rain let up several times. I took a picture of the blue sky:
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8239/8649264481_9eeea404a2_c.jpg[/img]The sun was burning down on everything!One of the neat things at this show is the silent auction. There were about 30 items set out for people to bid on throughout the day. The Nintendo 64 sign was a popular item.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8521/8650368424_a78c08278d_c.jpg[/img]The TRS-80 caught my eye right away but ended up being heavily bid on.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8530/8649266931_2e44983dce_c.jpg[/img]A couple dozen console stations were set up, each with a selection of games. Last year my wife and I had quite a bit of fun here. This year, they had fewer consoles and only two I don't own, one of which was shortly out of order. I did play some Jaguar though, that was fun.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8265/8649267381_8e23d8f9f6_c.jpg[/img]I had a better camera than last years show, but the lighting in this room is really hard for me to get good pictures in, that, and I don't really want to take pictures of people and put them on the internet as I don't care to have that done to me. Sorry for some weird pictures.
Here you can see tubs and tubs of games! Get out your wallet.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8394/8650366560_77cb20bbe2_c.jpg[/img]Silent auction is heating up. There was a bit more back and forth on price than last years show I think. It was fun stuff.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8388/8650366948_461db87b01_c.jpg[/img]Random Spartan walking around....
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8533/8650366754_52a9f6500b_c.jpg[/img]I wanted that Channel F but they actually wanted money for it! The nerve!
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8383/8650367162_33a261cdd2_c.jpg[/img]Three Vertices in one place! Or is that Vectrexces? Or Vectrexs? How do you pluralize Vectrex? How often do you need to I wonder?
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8384/8649265515_52b3197098_c.jpg[/img]That Super Bug arcade was raffled off for the charity. I bought a few tickets, the odds were really good, not too many people wanted it I guess. The guy who did win seemed pretty happy about it though.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8252/8649265765_1f9b0d3efa_c.jpg[/img]There was more sun later in the day. It was so bad I was nearly burnt to a crisp. The rain water covering the ground reflects and burns you from both sides! AARRRRGGHH!!! Thanks to the generosity of Zag, I won't have to worry about that again.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8122/8650367954_d7130f1d62_c.jpg[/img]There was a group of Spartans walking around the show. This event takes place in an unused section of a mall. These guys spent a bit of time out in the mall, posing for pictures and drawing attention of the regular mall goers.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8525/8650368168_0e40e7399d_c.jpg[/img]The group apparently does this sort of thing regularly and has a facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/405thpacificSomeone put up some video of the group dancing. Once you've seen a few seconds of it, you've seen it all:
More video game things and stuff
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8113/8649267143_8f11788f09_c.jpg[/img]There were only 4 or 5 arcade games this year, I was hoping for more. That Empire Strikes Back machine pretty much had a line all day long and I never got to use it
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8113/8649268099_3e129836a2_c.jpg[/img]Just more nick knacks and fiddly bits
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8244/8649268561_dca392905f_c.jpg[/img]I brought home some stuff. First thing I found was this nice Master System. I actually hadn't ever played one before. It was clean, wrapped up, tested and being sold by a familiar seller. I paid $25. What is the deal with the one controller and the wire coming out the side? Isn't that were your hand goes?
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8261/8666887878_af4b9f216a_c.jpg[/img]After getting the Master System, I had to buy some games. Nothing too exciting or expensive but since I didn't have any Master System stuff at the beginning of the day, it's a nice way to kick off the collection.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8256/8665786135_5f4c269915_c.jpg[/img]This is a complete Intellivision II setup. I won it at the auction. It is also a console I've never played.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8262/8666889154_4186b2d899_c.jpg[/img]After winning the Intellivision, I went to one of my favorite sellers at the show, a guy I've bought stuff from at last years show and the big yearly Portland show. I asked him if he had any games, he did, I bought them all for $10
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8259/8666888946_8e201c1070_c.jpg[/img]Some random stuff. The O^2 game came in the box for the Itellivision, how funny is that? Did someone not know they were different systems? Or were they just being funny? Either way, my wife and I laughed pretty hard when we opened the boxed Itellivision.
The Atari game Atlantis is to symbolize my hunt for the last O^2 game I need to finish the complete US set. Hey, at least I own some port of the game now.
What compelled me to get the Sega CD game? I don't know. I don't even have that console yet. Always did like the F-14 though.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8257/8665786693_051b2931a6_c.jpg[/img]One of the best parts of these shows, even for someone like me who requires only a small amount of socializing, is getting to to talk to and meet other game collectors. I met fellow RFGer Retrorage there. That was great, he's a good guy. Retrorage picked up a few things at the show too, Bill and Ted for the NES was highlight for sure. We also got to meet his girl and their entourage. Seriously, they came with a group of people following them around, that's just how cool RR & girl are.
I spent some time taking to a few of the vendors I've gotten to know a little over the years. If I was a Nintendo Age forum user there would have been all sorts of people from there to talk to, NA had a booth at the show. But I don't really visit that site much and was just all like, "RFG fo' life dudes!"
Got to talk to Paul and Jason from the MJR show on youtube. They did an episode on this show, if fact, it's more entertaining than my blog, so maybe you should have just watched that
This is kinda a small show but a good one. I had lots of fun, glad I got to meet Retorage and company. My wife even dug though boxes and boxes of comic books and came home with about 70 of them, so she had a good time too. Waiting for next year.....
******************************************************
Just for posterity, here is the gift the 'norch sent me
[img width=600 height=800]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8256/8666892420_012d0a9a83_c.jpg[/img]and the link for the show on the PRGE site:
http://retrogamingexpo.co...wlitz_gamers_for_kids.php
