#Blaugust Day 6 -- Classic Game Fest 2015 Personal Recap

Going to a few cons here and there is my family's latest "thing" ever since we moved out here to Texas, and I joined KingsIsle. I've been shipped off by plane to talk at two different Syndcon events and invited to be on panels for a few other local cons like Comicpalooza, Realms Con, and Mizuumi-Con. On the local cons I've been lucky enough to drag my family along with me, and I always end up a few dollars poorer and a few geek items heavier thanks to the ever present booths full of awesome things sold at the conventions.

A couple weekends ago I decided to hoist the kids into my car and make it down to Classic Game Fest 2015 out of my own volition. At first I thought I might actually get a chance to sit down and watch Richard Garriott and Starr Long talk about Shroud of the Avatar, but being solo on the parenting gig with three kids that want to go three different directions was not going to let me do that.  Still, I was able to watch a bit from the distance and listen in when I could. (You can also get a glimpse of Richard and Starr in this recap video.)

This wasn't a huge con compared to some we've been to, but there was a fair selection of vendors, and my kids did indeed each end up with something they liked. The youngest went for a Zelda wallet, the middle went for a PacMan amiibo he had his eye on, and the oldest grabbed a couple posters. No one went for the Asian versions of the classic games though. What?!

I had a nice talk with the local reps from Extra-Life (which reminds me, I need to talk with Leala at work about a few things from that conversation -- our drive last year was pretty good). I like the organization and the guys at the booth were very nice.

It was pretty cool to see the 501st legion there for pictures, and of course we obliged.

Probably the most fun for us was sitting down to the Atari Age section where there were a wall of Ataris with some pretty amazing classic games redone on the Atari, and the games they had were way better than the old Atari games of my youth . . . then again we were playing on an Atari 7800, and I never owned one of those. Regardless, Froggie on the 7800 was far superior to the old Atari 2600 Frogger by Parker Brothers. The kids hopped to it and played several games.

I'd actually rate our AtariAge game experience the best of show for us.  To be honest, the classic stand up arcade cabinets were extremely crowded when we went, and you'd have to wait to get a game in (and again, with three kids pulling me in three different directions that just wasn't going to happen). But there was enough room to breathe, sit down, and each of us play Froggie and a few other games (like a Warlord clone that was AMAZING) multiple times as a family.  Even better, I was able to show the kids my joystick skrillz. *blows on callus between the thumb and first finger from 1981*

We all got tired quickly and were all only able to take it a few hours before we called it, but I really would have liked to catch a couple of the bands.  Maybe next time!

A big shout out to our favorite local classic game store for being the main sponsor of this show!  We love ya Game Over Videogames!

Happy Dueling.

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This post is part of the Blaughust challenge -- Thanks to Belghast from Tales of the Aggronaut for hosting.