Life has been pretty draining for me as of late. I spent the past several months at work crunching and doing my part to get a project done. Toward the end, it was beyond stressful. Two weeks ago, I actually woke up at 5AM due to a nightmare/auditory hallucination (I can't really tell if it was either or, but at that point I don't think it really matters) induced by the stress I was under. It had been far too long since I had proper time off to myself, but as of the end of work yesterday, I am on vacation and actually have time to relax, blow off steam, and generally not worry about work. It was by coincidence that, earlier this week, a coworker alerted me to the fact that a video game convention was taking place right here in Seattle this very weekend.

No, not PAX. That's not for another couple of months. This particular show, the Seattle Retro Gaming Expo, is a much smaller, much more local event. However, it is being held at the Washington State Convention Center, also the home of PAX Prime, which does offer some ample opportunities for comparisons in terms of general size. Though before I even get that far, the expo is easily small enough that, with only a few days notice and pre-registration long since closed, I was easily able to walk up to the door and buy a two-day pass (the full length of the show) for twenty-five bucks. Compare that to the madhouse that is buying a PAX Prime pass for any day let alone the entire show, and that's not a bad deal.

But back to the physical space. When PAX Prime is held, it uses the entirety of the convention center. Every level, every room is consumed to the point that external venues have to host some of the panel theaters and other events. SRGE, on the other hand, takes up a portion of the fourth floor. And once you get past registration, there are really only a few key spaces. There's the main hall/artist alley:

Unlike PAX, which, once you're in the main space is a sea of humanity, SRGE is pretty easy-going. The blurry sign on the right of the picture is identifying the panel room. It's a small room, but the panels are generally well-attended. (Yes, that is "room" singular. If your sole game convention experience is PAX or one of the similarly gigantic conventions, this might all sound like a shock to you.) Off to the right, unpictured, is a small stage area where bands played for attendees for a Saturday evening concert which I did not attend because I did not buy that much-more-limited privilege with the pass.

Also like PAX, there are some gaming spaces. There's a console freeplay area, again smaller, but their selection of games runs the gamut from the classics to the not so much. I asked the guy at the check-out table to surprise me and he came back with Super Star Wars for the SNES. And yep. That game is still fucking impossible.

There's also a second freeplay area dedicated to original Xbox system link games, and the largest Steel Battalion set-up I have ever seen. Ten Xbox consoles. Ten Steel Battalion controllers. That's a lot of mech action.

The largest space at the expo is the vendor hall. A lot of small retro game businesses dealing their wares, with plenty of gaming-themed arts and crafts businesses present for good measure. These are all businesses that I have never seen in the years I've attended PAX, and the smaller crowd makes it a lot easier to find really cool stuff before it gets claimed by someone else.

As you can see, this was easily the busiest part of the show. But it's not really surprising, again because of the amount of diversity on display. A number of vendors were there selling games dating from the Atari 2600 to the the PS2/GameCube/Xbox era, with a few more modern games here and there. One vendor was there exclusively to deal in Intellivision. Others had random collectables and other items, ranging from old Super Mario Bros. Happy Meal toys to old console hardware circuit boards. That is something that you will never see at PAX, ever.

The one panel I attended today was hosted by John Hancock, a hardcore video game collector that's been collecting for decades and has, among numerous other collections, a complete collection of every NTSC NES game ever produced. I mean, all of them. He gave some good tips and advice for anyone looking to get into serious collecting while on a budget, including the nature of demand and how it causes prices to fluctuate, how each console goes through cycles where the prices are grossly inflated due to every collector hunting for specific items at once, and so on. Perhaps surprisingly, he says that currently, the easiest console to collect for is the original PlayStation, simply because of the plethora of games for it, and barring the RPG library, it's still largely affordable. It was really cool to sit in and listen.

And of course, I ended up buying a lot of stuff. Here's what I got:

These are bead portraits that were made by some pretty talented artists. They had far more complex (and far more three-dimensional) ones up for sale as well, including diorama-style portraits of Final Fantasy VI and Street Fighter II characters. Really cool stuff!

Easily my biggest prize of the expo. A top-loading NES, and a whole bunch of games, including a boxed copy of Dragon Warrior IV. The full list (for those that can't tell from the image above):

• Dragon Warrior
• Dragon Warrior II
• Dragon Warrior III
• Dragon Warrior IV
• King's Knight
• Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle
• Legacy of the Wizard
• The Legend of Kage
• Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode
• Baseball Stars
• Marble Madness
• Rad Racer

You may be asking yourself one question. Why in the fuck did I buy a Bugs Bunny game? Because nostalgia, that's why. It's one of the few NES games my entire family got hooked on. Me, my brother, Mom and Dad. And the only other console game Mom and Dad ever played was Tetris. Anyway, there were some other things I bought, including something I had been meaning to rectify for a long while now:

A Game Boy Advance SP and Final Fantasy VI Advance. I haven't been able to play GBA games since I traded in my original DS for a 3DS. Problem solved. Also, an awesome game to boot!

And now, a mug shot:

What the caption says.

And then there was this...

Yes, that is a Donkey Kong-themed version of Jenga. They also had a Space Invaders version. How this varies from normal Jenga, I have no goddamn idea, but I'm willing to find out. Also seen but not purchased: There's a Metal Gear Solid 4 version of Risk, apparently. I just...what?

Also, Crimson Sea 2, because I have been dying to try this forever. Or at least since the PS2 era. All hail Koei.

I'm planning to return for day two tomorrow. Based on my first day there, the Seattle Retro Gaming Expo may be a much smaller event than PAX, but in some ways, it's preferable. Less of a crowd, different sights to see, and generally much more subdued, yet still enthusiastic atmosphere.