I made it down to Las Vegas, Nevada this past weekend to check out the Classic Gaming Expo, the Pinball Hall of Fame, and to meet up with some friends that were going to be in town. I stayed at Excalibur (hey, it was cheap and right across the street from the show) with my wife and son, but they hung out in the pool while I was at the show. The trip was great, but I'll focus in on the CGE. 
 
   

The first day I arrived a little later than I had hoped, but I still caught the Ralph Baer discussion. Ralph was live via Skype for a video conference and he talked about the days in the beginning of creating "television games" and producing the first home console. The conversation was great as Ralph Baer was extremely candid, open to all sorts of questions, and willing to deal with the hiccups Skype introduced into the experience. 
 
After Ralph Baer wrapped up his video conference, I hit the show floor and started browsing the selection of carts, disks, and various gaming accessories, consoles, and trinkets. There was a pretty nice selection of titles to be found among the various vendors ranging from the Odyssey I all the way up to current generation offerings. Homebrew was also represented well thanks to Homebrew Heaven and Atari Age. In fact, Ed Fries debuted his Atari 2600 homebrew project at the show, Halo 2600 (which I purchased immediately).  
 
   

While browsing, the crowd was treated to live performances by 8 Bit Weapon, ComputeHer, Descendants of Erdrick, and other chiptune/electronic artists. It was the perfect thing to drown out the noise of people trying to get $1 shaved off of the asking price for a game or two. Along the backside of the convention there were also some classic arcade games and consoles all set up for co-op or competitive play. Of course all the arcade machines were set to free play.  
 
    
Besides the hanging out with fellow geeks, my highlights of the show had to be picking up Halo 2600, the live music, and the museum that was set up to display classic consoles and accessories. While the show is very small in comparison to most gaming expos, this one was worth the 6 hour drive from home. It didn't hurt that I came home up $400+ on the slots either...