Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2023: The Jaguar Lives
Portland Retro Gaming Expo continues to be one of the best places to hunt for retro games. This year with the layout changes there were more opportunities to see and play the games from yesterday. The biggest questions this year were what were the prices like? Were there any unique pieces or odd historical gaming items?
I apologize for the delay in coverage of this year’s show. Let's start with the basics, the show continues to grow and expand, and starting next year they will add an additional day to the convention. Normally it's Saturday and Sunday, with Fridays being open for the arcade only. Next year it will be all 3 days. Anyway, I arrived at PRGE and one of the first things I looked at was the Museum. Last time I went it was the SuperNintendo CD. This year was an exhibit dedicated to the Atari Jaguar. Several consoles were set up for play, lots of interesting marketing and promotion materials. There was a fun exhibit with kittens to adopt as well, to go with the Jaguar theme, an interesting idea.
Here is a pic of the Jaguar set up to be used in a Dental Office to look at teeth.
There was also a big Blockbuster video exhibit. Con goers could walk through what a Blockbuster used to look like, always interesting for the younger generation. The free play arcade was always busy. I sampled a few games and checked out the pinball, this is always one of my favorite places and I really need to spend more time there.
The main draw of the show besides the panels is the vendors. The larger and better known vendors were in the front and the back wall had smaller booths. The back wall is where I found most of the good deals. Picked up some Dreamcast games and a few items I needed for the Wii. Prices were interesting. Here is one example. 3Ds stuff is getting spendy.
I saw plenty of Original Xbox items, Dreamcast and Saturn. Some modded consoles, I saw a decent selection of PS1 and N64. There was plenty of PC games, I was hoping for more Atari stuff or classic PC games from the early 90s
I also wandered by the booth that had the Prototype Sega Saturn Pluto as well as the Saturn Karaoke machine. A booth near the front featured the creator of Toxic Avenger, the famous and interesting, Lloyd Kaufman. He was happy to meet fans and sign items. He was also part of a panel discussing the series and promoting the new Toxic Avenger game.
I went to a few panels, even as someone that is a regular con-goer I try to make time for 1 or two panels. There was a pretty interesting Sega Panel that focused on Saturn homebrew and fan translations, it helped me make a list of games I want to try. The Retronauts panel on the different Mario cartoons was insightful. Overall it was a great show and there was a lot to offer. I look forward to the next one. Readers can look forward to my coverage of the Sidequest Expo in Portland in March of 2024, Portland’s other retro gaming expo.