When I initially started this magazine this summer and began contacting writers, everyone told me I HAD to get to Portland for PGRE (the Portland Retro Gaming Expo). While I had heard of it before and was excited to go, it blew all of my expectations on the attendees, exhibitors, gaming spaces with arcades/pinballs, and home consoles, out of the water. It was… simply amazing.
Traveling with my assistant/son, Aaron, we arrived in Portland and took the metro train from the airport straight to the conven- tion center and walked into the convention and our eyes bugged out. The main exhibit floor was massive and hardly anyone had started to set up yet. We quickly set up our booths and waited for the magazines to arrive.
And then there was the big space right next to the main exhibit floor that was all set up for the massive arcade and gaming area. We headed over and introduced ourselves to some people and played some games. Unlike the Midwest Gaming Classic (www. midwestgamingclassic.com), which we are excessively familiar with, the arcade is primarily 4-5 different Portland arcades bringing some of their best stuff. Midwest instead depends on about 200 different people each bringing a couple games.Read the rest of this article on page 6 by clicking here!
