Yet another scathing review of VGXPO

[Mark Wolfe]

all i can add is, I am not surprised to hear how it turned out. not one bit. I knew it would be a big turnout because NBC sunk a TON of television advertising in to it, and I mean that commercial was on like every commercial break during any local broadcasts. From the very beginning when I started working with Ed right up to the time he stuck a knife in my back I have known that he was incapable of planning and running a show, of ANY size, and this, along with several other reviews I've seen, seem to back up my assertions. I must admit to a certain amount of sour grape feelings when those commercials ran but I am not at all shocked that it was a total fuck up show.

 

While the author of this article is oblivious that VGXPO is in NO WAY affiliated with Philly Classic, I can understand his frustration even if some of it is self inflicted due to ignorance.

 

 

from IGN

http://retro.ign.com/articles/933/933285p1.html

 

IGN » Games » Retro » Features

Show Report: Retro Con at VGXPO

The death of a games convention.

by Travis Fahs

November 24, 2008 - Every year, I take the trek to Philadelphia to visit one of the biggest and best retrogaming shows in the country. I've been doing it since 2001, back when it was called Philly Classic, and still in its second year. That show might have been shoved into a small meeting room on the bottom floor of an airport hotel, but the community couldn't have been more committed. Within the cramped confines of its limited floors pace, there were many one-of-a-kind items; a table with the most impressive collection of handheld systems I've ever seen; a gallery of six ultra-rare Adventure Vision consoles on display for all to play, and a prototype Jaguar VR helmet that I still kick myself for not buying. Much of the show was something like a large yard sale of rare items, but it got enough attention to give the show some real momentum.

 

By the very next year, Philly Classic had moved to the convention center in Valley Forge, PA, and occupied a massive show floor all by itself. It attracted thousands of gamers from around the world, with aisles of homebrewers peddling their newest releases for the Vectrex and Atari Lynx. Plenty of vendors showed up to sell off their piles of classic games, but others showed up simply to pay homage to their cult favorites. One man drove eight hours from Buffalo, NY just to display a running Nuon so everyone could experience Tempest 3000. Another displayed a huge table of one-of-a-kind Atari prototypes – including that VR helmet I should have bought. There was even a table run by a Vectrex enthusiast who came all the way from Germany to show off his Battlezone prototype. The show also introduced a massive arcade collection featuring all sorts of rarities dating back to the '70s, including the pinball/game hybrid Baby Pac-Man, and sit-down Night Driver unit – no quarters needed.

 

 

Huge selections of homebrew and playable arcade history used to be the lifeblood of VGXPO.

 

That show had put Philly on the classic gaming map, and over the next couple years it came to rival the Classic Gaming Expo in size and draw. It was so successful, in fact, that it was bought out, and rebranded VGXPO. I was there for what would have been the sixth year of Philly Classic to find the "new" show, while slightly smaller, still retained what made it great. Wandering through the show, the father of videogames himself Ralph Baer could be spotted, alongside a man dressed up as a Pitfall cartridge. Baer was even kind enough to bring his brown box prototype with him, allowing gamers to traverse video game history from beginning to present. It's true that the new show also included tournaments for newer games and vendors selling current-gen titles, but we all still knew why were there.

 

This year, VGXPO was held in the Pennsylvania Convention Center in the heart of Philadelphia. It promised to be the biggest year in the history of the event, with a sizable sub-event called "Retro Con" to nurture the base. Alas, the crowded event was more of a funeral than a celebration, packed to the gills with angry, depressed visitors who waited hours to tour what amounted to a giant billboard.

 

 

The first of several lines to get in went all the way down the hall and back.

 

The turnout was absolutely staggering this year, which made the poor organization of the show that much more glaring. Lines wrapped all the way down the hall and back to get tickets, and even after that, a bouncer was placed at the bottom of the escalator to let people up a few at a time – for no apparent practical benefit. The main show floor certainly had an impressive layer of corporate glitz this year, thanks largely to the presence of Intel, who used the event to showcase their newly launched i7 processors. Nearby, Commodore re-introduced a beloved old brand to America once again, in the form of a line of high-end gaming PCs. But as I wandered past a booth for Suicide Girls and another selling ornamental knives, it became apparent that indiscriminately selling booth space to the highest bidder severely weakens the concept of this show.

 

The schizophrenic assortment of booths on the show floor only served to obscure anything of substance, and there wasn't much of that to be found. Thankfully, the usual all-free retro arcade was back once more, with dozens of cabs set to free play. It's always a good draw, but even that had shrunk and, more notably, the rarer items seemed to be missing. There was no I, Robot, no Major Havoc, no Computer Space. Time Traveler was a nostalgic new addition, but the show's organizers clearly did not want to invest money and valuable floor space that could be sold to more t-shirt vendors.

 

 

The show floor was flashy, but there was no substance.

 

After casing the show floor and finding no signs of retro gaming beyond the arcade, I started to look for show staff to see if I could find out what was going on. The staff was completely oblivious, but eventually one of the vendors told me the retro stuff had been moved down the hall. That's right, the retro-gaming booths that had been the lifeblood of the show for eight years had been isolated to a small meeting room hidden from view halfway across the convention center, with no signage to let people know. The promised 10,000 square feet of floor space dedicated to Retro Con was a lie.

 

 

There were still some real finds at Retro Con. Yes, that's a Marty, a SuperGrafx, and Twin Sticks all in the same picture.

 

What was left reminded me quite a lot of that first Philly Classic; a room lined with tables, piled high with games for every classic system you could name. The gaming "museum" was a pathetic effort to fend off a false advertising suit – there were rarer items for sale – but it was fun to roam the aisles and talk games with people that actually knew the difference between Intellivision and Colecovision. Amidst the stacks of games, I spotted a boxed FM-TOWNS Marty, a SuperGrafx, and a pile of Microvision titles. It was a great chance to fill in some gaps in the old collection, and a 3DO came home with me.

 

The small slice of show that was left was still fun, but I was truly saddened to see the homebrewers pushed out, along with so much of what gave this show its personality in years past. With CGE in Las Vegas on hiatus this year, it seems like there really isn't going to be an outlet for retro fans in 2008. Events like this fill me with concern that gaming history might be lost as more of us grow older and drift away, but my optimism was renewed when I saw a boy of about six years old tug at his fathers sleeve. He pointed to Nintendo's first motion controller lying on a table and said "I love the Power Glove. It's so bad." There's hope for the future yet, we just need to find a place to congregate.

Edited December 5, 2008 by Mark_Wolfe

[Albert]

Thanks for the link to that review, I was curious about how the show went. If you see any other reviews (especially ones that cover the show overall, not just lamenting about the lack of a decent classic gaming presence), I would love to see them.

 

..Al

[Carlson]

Thanks for the link to that review, I was curious about how the show went. If you see any other reviews (especially ones that cover the show overall, not just lamenting about the lack of a decent classic gaming presence), I would love to see them.

 

..Al

 

I was at the show as a vendor--the guy selling the Marty, Super Grafx and Twin sticks Every single vendor in the room thought the show was incredible from a sales perspective. Ed Flemming personally came by and asked if everything was alright about midway through Saturday which was something I would never expect. I saw volunteer staff members within sight pretty much at all times both days and they were very accessible and friendly.

 

It wasn't a perfect show. Some things really sucked (like the museum in retrocon), but they got the numbers that they needed to get (24000+) to get better content and guests next year. It seems like they were in a real catch 22 the past few years where you need the attendance numbers to get the guests and events, but in order to get the attendance numbers you need to have good guests and events. Moreover, the rate they were charging for a single day entry, $15 is about 50%-70% less than other gaming conventions of their size.

 

The author spent a lot of space going over the origins of the philly area classic gaming scene. Maybe he could write an article on why founders the hugely successful PhillyClassic (original) gave it up? To me that seems like the real tragedy here and almost worthy of the "death" hyperbole.

 

Carlson

[ed_fleming]

I don't post too often, but I need to point to a few reviews that show what people in Classic Gaming are saying about VGXPO and RetroCon... Also, please feel free to check out the VGXPO website www.videogame.net and blog http://www.videogame.net/vgxpo/blog/ -- lots of fun photos can be found on each.

 

In regards to the IGN article... From Jay at J2 Games:

 

I was kinda suprised this afternoon to have received a copy of an email from Ed Fleming to a writer at IGN with an explanation for a number of "issues" from this years VGXpo. The writer was alerting Ed to the fact that he was NOT going to post a good review of the show.

 

Part of the email and posting by this IGN writer just confused me. I have never been a part of nor visited the Philly Classic shows that people always go on about. Having said that, I have no frame of reference for what happened at these shows. I know Ed "took over" in all or in part this show and has evolved it into something that has his own spin on it. It just annoys me that people always compare this show to Philly Classic. As last years VGXpo has virtually NO retro vendors, I think the fact that we had 8 solid retro vendors for the fledgling 2008 RetroCon was a pretty decent turn out. Most of the participants seemed to be happy as I heard OVER AND OVER again. Maybe it's time to put Philly Classic in the category of "things fondly remembered" and lets move onto a new show with new and varied items and interests. As we've already seen, Atari 2600 systems and games are no longer collectible as much as they are "antique" and many of the oldest systems warrant a place more in a museum then on a store shelf. Just watching my own store sales I can plainly see that the generation that remembers the NES is slowly now making room for the generation that remembers the SNES. Time changes things and even us retro vendors need to be somewhat "contemporary" in order to have a survivable business model.

 

Here is a link to the IGN posting, I'm curious for your thoughts:

 

http://retro.ign.com/articles/933/933285p1.html

 

Now, I will agree on some of the disorganized comments as we all saw that about the main show. But I thought RetroCon ran pretty tightly.

 

 

From Bill Kunkel:

 

You can't please everyone, especially if they're looking for apples in an orange grove. However, I will be even more strongly urging Ed to go heavier on consoles next year -- I don't care if he makes a deal with Gamestop. There were consoles, but not enuf. They should have had many more Wiis with Wii Music (just released and lotsa fun) and not just the old sports games that everyone has seen. They also should have done more with game trailers and movies (actually running "Postal" would have helped). But the fact is that VGXPO was finally an undeniable success and that seems to rub a lot of people the wrong way.

 

 

////

 

Ed Fleming and VGXPO have finally made it to the big leagues, and no amount of cliquish animosity, personal jealousy or cynicism can deny that VGXPO is now a Major Player in the game convention world, based solely on attendance at this year's show. Everyone -- the vendors, exhibitors. attendees and even Ed and the VGXPO Players -- was overwhelmed by the number of people who descended on the PA Convention Center (PACC) today (Saturday).

 

J2, which officially ran the RetroCon area, was deluged all day by crowds that were wrapped around the block by 9 AM (the attendees began to be admitted at 10 AM), as were Video Game Trader, Digital Press and a dozen or so other vendors who saw locust-like purchasing activity on the part of gamers. Joe Santulli admitted that he had packed light coming from his legendary NJ game store, but with his inventory pretty much stripped to the bone, he was on his way back to Jersey tonight to lay in another load for tomorrow. (As late as 4 PM today there were still gigantic lines waiting to pay for a weekend pass, so while most conventions are pretty much comatose by noon on Sunday, this baby may well be blasting through closing time tomorrow.)

 

In the main room, meanwhile, despite a lack of cooperation by all three hardware manufacturers and the two software giants, an army of state-of-the-art PCs kept the LAN activity buzzing after a breakdown on Friday night, and just enough 360 and Wii activity was available to keep battalions of gamers waiting in line to play.

 

I gave a bunch of interviews with people and sites including Stephen J Wilfong (who is engaged in a fascinating series of studies regarding subjects such as the game industry's failure to market its creators) to Gamenook (or was it Gamenookie?), a site that combines gamer chat that can lead to actual personal interaction. That's right, Facebook meets Final Fantasy meets Match.com. They could be on to something, especially after Rob pimped me to them with a shamelessness I could not help but admire.

 

I personally came back to the hotel tonight spent as Michael Jackson's credit, but it's been great getting to spend time with the Two J's, Chris, Dave, Rob and more new and old friends than my feeble memory could ever compile. And seeing product disappear off our table as if being harvested by illegal immigrants was not a bummer at all.

 

Of course it wasn't perfect. There were a lot of operational breakdowns (after being postponed, the organizers couldn't get it together to show "Postal" despite folks who literally waited hours in two different locations), the hotel never believed VGXPO when they told them they were getting saturation TV advertising in the Philly area from NBC and, as a result, a whole lotta people could very well show up. Thus, despite VGXPO having 300 people there to help staff the event, hotel security was woefully inadequate. There were also a lack of panels and individuals talks and Q&As. These events may not have been the reason the people came, but they sure missed them when they kept getting canceled and they are the biggest issue VGXPO will have to address over the next year. Ed Fleming was the first to admit the show's breakdowns but let's face it, it's a wonder the show's unexpected turnout didn't cause the poor guy's head to epxlode.

 

Even the huge attendance itself had its downside in the Disneyland-like waiting times to register and actually get your hands on a game. But the public interest in Northeastern cities -- given appropriate marketing -- has been established beyond debate.

 

Oh yeah, they also had a booth that sold the best strawberry lemonade I have ever tasted.

 

I'll be back on Monday with a show wrapup but the big news from Philadelphia at 9:15 PM on Saturday night is already very clear -- VGXPO, in its make-or-break year, made it by a mile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Joe at Digital Press:

 

Back from my first day at VGXPO. I'm back early because I didn't exhibit or speak today. Tomorrow begins the "RetroCon" portion of the event.

 

The show floor looked great and for a Friday, had a good turnout and good energy. My buddies from PBC Productions were there, as was Mike Chassin from Collector's House (who is apparently being re-located to the RetroCon area tomorrow). If you're a tournament person there is a LOT to do. There were many, many clans in the house. My favorite was a group that travels with a pillow under their arms. If you're a "classic gamer", well, we'll see about that tomorrow, but the RetroCon area is rather tiny compared to the high-tech VGXPO main floor.

 

I was pretty impressed with the arrangement for day 1 overall!

 

I shot some video, of course. Should be at the top of the YouTube page here unless you're reading this thread in 2009. The "From the Market..." shows you the whole scene from outside to behind-the-scenes.

 

////

 

Just back from Day 2 (technically Day 1 for Digital Press as RetroCon started today) of the show.

 

Props to Ed Fleming for pulling this off. I went to this event with very low expectations and fortunately very prepared regardless. I loaded up the van with a dozen boxes of shit that I knew would sit in my store's basement for years. I blew it out for as low prices as I could (all of the XBox 360 games I sold were $5 and there were some good games in there like Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell that I have way way too many of in overstock) and I put a smile on a lot of faces and came home with a van full of empty boxes. I have to resupply 80% of what I brought today for tomorrow's show. If you've ever been a vendor, you know there's no better feeling that leaving "empty handed". I got that.

 

The vibe in the RetroCon room was GREAT. It reminded me a lot of the FIRST PhillyClassic. 8 or so vendors but everyone knows everyone and everyone has GOOD stuff.

 

The VGXPO NON-RetroCon side of things certainly pleased a lot of people as well as it was jam-packed all day long and I saw nothing but happy faces and kids playing Guitar Hero, driving simulators, LAN parties and what I'd estimate to be 30 or so arcade cabinets (which, by the way, were all working... and this wasn't Retrotopia stuff, either, was it?).

 

And despite being a vendor and now a pretty seasoned retailer I STILL had a good time selling things all day long. It was great catching up with old friends, meeting forum members for the first time, seeing "Uncle Bill " Kunkel and most importantly, really making a lot of people happy. This show was as much a successful promotion effort for Digital Press as it was a financial success for the store.

 

Big thumbs up and I'm actually looking forward to the final day tomorrow. This, after driving back and forth from north Jersey to Philly for two days in a row already.

 

Again, major props to Ed Fleming and the abundant staff and volunteers, as well as Jay from J2games who obviously oversaw the RetroCon portion of the show.

 

 

From Jay at J2 Games:

 

WOW! How do you explain this years show other then WOW!

 

Retrocon (the retro part of VGXpo) started with a bang today and the dozen vendors were literally overwhelmed by the numbers of gamers looking for games, systems and accessories. As I'm sure Joe will be telling you shortly, if Day 1 is any indication of what Day 2 will bring, we are guaranteed to be exhausted by the end of this show!

 

See Bill Kunkel's posting on the show here: http://www.j2games.com/new/forum/index.php?topic=2921

 

I'm exhausted and hitting the sack early. Between the show and after party we're beat but the energy from today will carry us through to show's end!

 

 

From the organizors at Too Many Games:

 

I was EXTREMELY impressed by the turnout, and major kudos go out to Ed and company for their work on putting the show together!

 

My original thought remains tho', it's not so much a Video Game Expo as it's a PC gaming expo. It's obvious that Intel sunk a great deal of cash into VGXPO, and a lot of the other exhibitors seemed to be PC-centric as well. I hope for future events they can pull more in from the console side of the equation, as it is right now it's VERY lopsided, and to be honest I didn't find much to do being a console gamer.

 

Overall, VERY impressive looking show tho', and I hope everyone who went had a great time!

 

 

 

from RCM on the Digital Press Forums:

 

As I told Ed on Saturday, he finally delivered. I've enjoyed myself at all of his shows, but this one should give the man some cred. in the community and beyond. What a huge improvement.

 

As for some of the negative comments and nitpicking in this thread, two come from a competing area show (I love you guys, but come on) and another from GAC and his encounters with unidentified show goers. Seems a little fishy to say the least.

 

This show had something for everyone and was strong all around. Perfect? No, but show me a show that is. Bottom line, this year’s VGXPO was absolutely the best game con I’ve been to since PC5.

 

 

From Frankie Says Relax on DP Forums:

 

While there were a lot of LAN party stuff and some non-gaming booths (colleges and schools featuring digital art/game design programs ... and some CRAZY ren-faire booths with swords, knives, crystals and the like) the classic arcade cabinet section should have been enough to keep any classic gamer happy for a good chunk of time ... and the Retro-Con section had something for everybody sales-wise.

 

I picked up a pair of BRAND NEW from old stock Ms. Pac-Man drinking glasses (the kind with the 4-color silk screen paint ... think 80's Burger King Star Wars glasses) and a Ms. Pac-Man TOMY wind-up (also 20+ years old & still brand spanking NIB) for a total of $17.

 

There weren't a lot of modern console stuffs there, but you could literally get anything else from a boxed Oddesy to a Vectrex, to an Atari Stunt Cycle to a top-loader NES at (for the most part) reasonable prices.

 

There were lots of desirable imports and there were PLENTY of classics from 2600 through PS1 at just about every table.

 

I can't see how anybody could walk away from this and say that it was anything less than a fun day full of neat stuff to see and do.

 

I just wish more people that come to conventions would bathe and/or wear clean clothes/cologne/perfume.

[atarian63]

I don't post too often, but I need to point to a few reviews that show what people in Classic Gaming are saying about VGXPO and RetroCon... Also, please feel free to check out the VGXPO website www.videogame.net and blog http://www.videogame.net/vgxpo/blog/ -- lots of fun photos can be found on each.

 

In regards to the IGN article... From Jay at J2 Games:

 

I was kinda suprised this afternoon to have received a copy of an email from Ed Fleming to a writer at IGN with an explanation for a number of "issues" from this years VGXpo. The writer was alerting Ed to the fact that he was NOT going to post a good review of the show.

 

Part of the email and posting by this IGN writer just confused me. I have never been a part of nor visited the Philly Classic shows that people always go on about. Having said that, I have no frame of reference for what happened at these shows. I know Ed "took over" in all or in part this show and has evolved it into something that has his own spin on it. It just annoys me that people always compare this show to Philly Classic. As last years VGXpo has virtually NO retro vendors, I think the fact that we had 8 solid retro vendors for the fledgling 2008 RetroCon was a pretty decent turn out. Most of the participants seemed to be happy as I heard OVER AND OVER again. Maybe it's time to put Philly Classic in the category of "things fondly remembered" and lets move onto a new show with new and varied items and interests. As we've already seen, Atari 2600 systems and games are no longer collectible as much as they are "antique" and many of the oldest systems warrant a place more in a museum then on a store shelf. Just watching my own store sales I can plainly see that the generation that remembers the NES is slowly now making room for the generation that remembers the SNES. Time changes things and even us retro vendors need to be somewhat "contemporary" in order to have a survivable business model.

 

Here is a link to the IGN posting, I'm curious for your thoughts:

 

http://retro.ign.com/articles/933/933285p1.html

 

Now, I will agree on some of the disorganized comments as we all saw that about the main show. But I thought RetroCon ran pretty tightly.

 

 

From Bill Kunkel:

 

You can't please everyone, especially if they're looking for apples in an orange grove. However, I will be even more strongly urging Ed to go heavier on consoles next year -- I don't care if he makes a deal with Gamestop. There were consoles, but not enuf. They should have had many more Wiis with Wii Music (just released and lotsa fun) and not just the old sports games that everyone has seen. They also should have done more with game trailers and movies (actually running "Postal" would have helped). But the fact is that VGXPO was finally an undeniable success and that seems to rub a lot of people the wrong way.

 

 

////

 

Ed Fleming and VGXPO have finally made it to the big leagues, and no amount of cliquish animosity, personal jealousy or cynicism can deny that VGXPO is now a Major Player in the game convention world, based solely on attendance at this year's show. Everyone -- the vendors, exhibitors. attendees and even Ed and the VGXPO Players -- was overwhelmed by the number of people who descended on the PA Convention Center (PACC) today (Saturday).

 

J2, which officially ran the RetroCon area, was deluged all day by crowds that were wrapped around the block by 9 AM (the attendees began to be admitted at 10 AM), as were Video Game Trader, Digital Press and a dozen or so other vendors who saw locust-like purchasing activity on the part of gamers. Joe Santulli admitted that he had packed light coming from his legendary NJ game store, but with his inventory pretty much stripped to the bone, he was on his way back to Jersey tonight to lay in another load for tomorrow. (As late as 4 PM today there were still gigantic lines waiting to pay for a weekend pass, so while most conventions are pretty much comatose by noon on Sunday, this baby may well be blasting through closing time tomorrow.)

 

In the main room, meanwhile, despite a lack of cooperation by all three hardware manufacturers and the two software giants, an army of state-of-the-art PCs kept the LAN activity buzzing after a breakdown on Friday night, and just enough 360 and Wii activity was available to keep battalions of gamers waiting in line to play.

 

I gave a bunch of interviews with people and sites including Stephen J Wilfong (who is engaged in a fascinating series of studies regarding subjects such as the game industry's failure to market its creators) to Gamenook (or was it Gamenookie?), a site that combines gamer chat that can lead to actual personal interaction. That's right, Facebook meets Final Fantasy meets Match.com. They could be on to something, especially after Rob pimped me to them with a shamelessness I could not help but admire.

 

I personally came back to the hotel tonight spent as Michael Jackson's credit, but it's been great getting to spend time with the Two J's, Chris, Dave, Rob and more new and old friends than my feeble memory could ever compile. And seeing product disappear off our table as if being harvested by illegal immigrants was not a bummer at all.

 

Of course it wasn't perfect. There were a lot of operational breakdowns (after being postponed, the organizers couldn't get it together to show "Postal" despite folks who literally waited hours in two different locations), the hotel never believed VGXPO when they told them they were getting saturation TV advertising in the Philly area from NBC and, as a result, a whole lotta people could very well show up. Thus, despite VGXPO having 300 people there to help staff the event, hotel security was woefully inadequate. There were also a lack of panels and individuals talks and Q&As. These events may not have been the reason the people came, but they sure missed them when they kept getting canceled and they are the biggest issue VGXPO will have to address over the next year. Ed Fleming was the first to admit the show's breakdowns but let's face it, it's a wonder the show's unexpected turnout didn't cause the poor guy's head to epxlode.

 

Even the huge attendance itself had its downside in the Disneyland-like waiting times to register and actually get your hands on a game. But the public interest in Northeastern cities -- given appropriate marketing -- has been established beyond debate.

 

Oh yeah, they also had a booth that sold the best strawberry lemonade I have ever tasted.

 

I'll be back on Monday with a show wrapup but the big news from Philadelphia at 9:15 PM on Saturday night is already very clear -- VGXPO, in its make-or-break year, made it by a mile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Joe at Digital Press:

 

Back from my first day at VGXPO. I'm back early because I didn't exhibit or speak today. Tomorrow begins the "RetroCon" portion of the event.

 

The show floor looked great and for a Friday, had a good turnout and good energy. My buddies from PBC Productions were there, as was Mike Chassin from Collector's House (who is apparently being re-located to the RetroCon area tomorrow). If you're a tournament person there is a LOT to do. There were many, many clans in the house. My favorite was a group that travels with a pillow under their arms. If you're a "classic gamer", well, we'll see about that tomorrow, but the RetroCon area is rather tiny compared to the high-tech VGXPO main floor.

 

I was pretty impressed with the arrangement for day 1 overall!

 

I shot some video, of course. Should be at the top of the YouTube page here unless you're reading this thread in 2009. The "From the Market..." shows you the whole scene from outside to behind-the-scenes.

 

////

 

Just back from Day 2 (technically Day 1 for Digital Press as RetroCon started today) of the show.

 

Props to Ed Fleming for pulling this off. I went to this event with very low expectations and fortunately very prepared regardless. I loaded up the van with a dozen boxes of shit that I knew would sit in my store's basement for years. I blew it out for as low prices as I could (all of the XBox 360 games I sold were $5 and there were some good games in there like Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell that I have way way too many of in overstock) and I put a smile on a lot of faces and came home with a van full of empty boxes. I have to resupply 80% of what I brought today for tomorrow's show. If you've ever been a vendor, you know there's no better feeling that leaving "empty handed". I got that.

 

The vibe in the RetroCon room was GREAT. It reminded me a lot of the FIRST PhillyClassic. 8 or so vendors but everyone knows everyone and everyone has GOOD stuff.

 

The VGXPO NON-RetroCon side of things certainly pleased a lot of people as well as it was jam-packed all day long and I saw nothing but happy faces and kids playing Guitar Hero, driving simulators, LAN parties and what I'd estimate to be 30 or so arcade cabinets (which, by the way, were all working... and this wasn't Retrotopia stuff, either, was it?).

 

And despite being a vendor and now a pretty seasoned retailer I STILL had a good time selling things all day long. It was great catching up with old friends, meeting forum members for the first time, seeing "Uncle Bill " Kunkel and most importantly, really making a lot of people happy. This show was as much a successful promotion effort for Digital Press as it was a financial success for the store.

 

Big thumbs up and I'm actually looking forward to the final day tomorrow. This, after driving back and forth from north Jersey to Philly for two days in a row already.

 

Again, major props to Ed Fleming and the abundant staff and volunteers, as well as Jay from J2games who obviously oversaw the RetroCon portion of the show.

 

 

From Jay at J2 Games:

 

WOW! How do you explain this years show other then WOW!

 

Retrocon (the retro part of VGXpo) started with a bang today and the dozen vendors were literally overwhelmed by the numbers of gamers looking for games, systems and accessories. As I'm sure Joe will be telling you shortly, if Day 1 is any indication of what Day 2 will bring, we are guaranteed to be exhausted by the end of this show!

 

See Bill Kunkel's posting on the show here: http://www.j2games.com/new/forum/index.php?topic=2921

 

I'm exhausted and hitting the sack early. Between the show and after party we're beat but the energy from today will carry us through to show's end!

 

 

From the organizors at Too Many Games:

 

I was EXTREMELY impressed by the turnout, and major kudos go out to Ed and company for their work on putting the show together!

 

My original thought remains tho', it's not so much a Video Game Expo as it's a PC gaming expo. It's obvious that Intel sunk a great deal of cash into VGXPO, and a lot of the other exhibitors seemed to be PC-centric as well. I hope for future events they can pull more in from the console side of the equation, as it is right now it's VERY lopsided, and to be honest I didn't find much to do being a console gamer.

 

Overall, VERY impressive looking show tho', and I hope everyone who went had a great time!

 

 

 

from RCM on the Digital Press Forums:

 

As I told Ed on Saturday, he finally delivered. I've enjoyed myself at all of his shows, but this one should give the man some cred. in the community and beyond. What a huge improvement.

 

As for some of the negative comments and nitpicking in this thread, two come from a competing area show (I love you guys, but come on) and another from GAC and his encounters with unidentified show goers. Seems a little fishy to say the least.

 

This show had something for everyone and was strong all around. Perfect? No, but show me a show that is. Bottom line, this year’s VGXPO was absolutely the best game con I’ve been to since PC5.

 

 

From Frankie Says Relax on DP Forums:

 

While there were a lot of LAN party stuff and some non-gaming booths (colleges and schools featuring digital art/game design programs ... and some CRAZY ren-faire booths with swords, knives, crystals and the like) the classic arcade cabinet section should have been enough to keep any classic gamer happy for a good chunk of time ... and the Retro-Con section had something for everybody sales-wise.

 

I picked up a pair of BRAND NEW from old stock Ms. Pac-Man drinking glasses (the kind with the 4-color silk screen paint ... think 80's Burger King Star Wars glasses) and a Ms. Pac-Man TOMY wind-up (also 20+ years old & still brand spanking NIB) for a total of $17.

 

There weren't a lot of modern console stuffs there, but you could literally get anything else from a boxed Oddesy to a Vectrex, to an Atari Stunt Cycle to a top-loader NES at (for the most part) reasonable prices.

 

There were lots of desirable imports and there were PLENTY of classics from 2600 through PS1 at just about every table.

 

I can't see how anybody could walk away from this and say that it was anything less than a fun day full of neat stuff to see and do.

 

I just wish more people that come to conventions would bathe and/or wear clean clothes/cologne/perfume.

One of the reasons I did not attend this year was due to all the new stuff, xbox, LAN,guitar hero etc. I could care less about that crap, plus New PC's on display?! Who cares about another pc? I'll return when it goes mostly retro again. Glad I did not attend.

[Chickybaby]

I can't stand the traffic through Philly and waiting for several hours in line with a kid around 2 would have been a disaster. I wish Ed the best since I know he does work hard and have seen him busting his tail in the past to do his best for a show.

I have focused on TooManyGames show in Reading PA that's more classicly oriented. Plus, they were great with Bean being in a Playpen at the show last spring right down to a good spot that'd be easiest and even watching things for a minute so I could make very necessary use of the facilities there. That right there won my loyalty unless proven otherwise in the future.

[atarian63]

I can't stand the traffic through Philly and waiting for several hours in line with a kid around 2 would have been a disaster. I wish Ed the best since I know he does work hard and have seen him busting his tail in the past to do his best for a show.

I have focused on TooManyGames show in Reading PA that's more classicly oriented. Plus, they were great with Bean being in a Playpen at the show last spring right down to a good spot that'd be easiest and even watching things for a minute so I could make very necessary use of the facilities there. That right there won my loyalty unless proven otherwise in the future.

Sounds like a nice show

[mos6507]

I guess massive foot traffic will help the retro vendors. Even if only a small percentage of them buy stuff it might be better than if the show were purely retro.

 

I understand the bit about things moving beyond collectable and into antique, though. I got that vibe when I went to California Extreme, which is starting to give off more and more of a museum vibe with a younger crowd walking in to experience stuff they weren't old enough to experience the first time around.

[Trade-N-Games]

This sounds like Ed pulled off the hype he has always pushed out. I supported his first 2 shows and lost my ass so bad on his hype and it was way to much of a risk for me to attend anymore of his shows. For his first show with what he said 20,000 plus people attending -I rented a big van had 2 employees and almost 2000+ games and tons of systems and ended up with 2 customers at the show and lost almost $2000 with rental, tables, hotel, gas and I still attended his next show in Philly. I did ok at Philly broke even, could have sold almost as much at local flea market. Glad to see the new show doing better.