Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2024 (1994 was a good year)

Another fall has come and gone and as we move into 2025 it’s time to reflect on last year’s Portland Retro Gaming Expo aka PRGE. This year PRGE was focused on the year 1994 with some interesting exhibits and some great guest panels. One cannot forget the vendor hall and freeplay area. Overall the biggest question was how was the selection and prices?

Well, the vendor hall was packed and I feel bad for anyone just getting into retro gaming. Many of the classic games or consoles people loved as kids are getting pretty pricey. Good news for Atari and Colecovision fans, those prices really haven’t changed much in 10 years, still very affordable. But if you wanted a boxed console, say a complete in box NES system, N64, etc its going to get spendy!  The prices for games are still climbing for N64 and SNES, Sega Genesis is starting to climb too. Handheld stuff, the 3DS family and some DS stuff is getting pretty spendy.

But if gamers are only after the common and popular stuff then the prices are still semi-reasonable. There were more vendors this year with PC games, those like other games are getting spendy especially the complete in box games that people want. Games such as Doom 1, some of the LucasArts games and the hard to find CIB games from the early 90s. 

One of the most interesting things I saw on the show floor was the Polycade. A system that looks to blend interchangeable home arcade parts, making it easy enough for the user to get but customizable for a gamer that wants more out of it. I was on the hunt for some big box PC stuff and Sega items (a few games and a arcade stick for Genesis or Dreamcast) (pic)

There was a great blockbuster exhibit and an exhibit on Sega. Gamers could play Sega CD, Genesis, the Sega Genesis built in the Pioneer Laseractive. As well as Sega Saturn setups for Virtual On. There was lots of activity in that room. (pic). I also checked out the classic PC room for some early 90s retro PC games, plenty of activity in there. 

One of the more interesting panels to me was the history of Marvel games, everything from the games on NES to the much better games on SNES/Genesis. There was also talk of the arcade games and their home ports. There was also an interesting panel on the history of DnD and another panel with the Resident Evil voice actors. (pic)

Freeplay console and arcade were both robust. I took the time to play some Time Crisis 5 and the new Xmen stern pinball cabinet. I also dabbled in a few  fighting games. The new addition to the arcade was a small selection of claw machines.. Overall PRGE 2024 was a great show and I am looking forward to what 2025 will bring.