I am one of the founding partners of RetroWorld Expo. I sold my interest in the event back to two very good friends last year and they brought in another very good friend to move forward with the show. This was the first year that I attended RWX as an attendee and not as an owner/showrunner.
My five year old son Callahan attended RWX last year. My wife brought him and he had a fantastic time playing in the console freeplay and arcade areas. I was able to break away from my expo duties to hang with the fam for a little while.
Good times had by all but because of my duties, I was not able to spend a ton of time just playing games last year. Now that I am free to attend without worrying about work, though...
2019:
The first day of RWX was the same day as my wife's baby shower (boy #3 on the way this month!) so I had to drop my younger son off with Grandpa before hitting the road. We got packed up and left around 10:30AM. The casual pace that we enjoyed the morning compared to the frantic pace of years past reminded me of when I used to work retail. Black Friday was a beast of a weekend to work but then years later it was a nice casual shopping trip. I felt very fortunate to be able to enjoy the time leading up to RWX instead of stressing about it.
Once we were in the car, I asked for music requests and Callahan picked Pneuma, his favorite song from the new Tool album, and then he wanted to hear Moth into Flame and the rest of the car ride was a mix of everything in between. Once we got there and grabbed out wristbands, the first thing we saw was a familiar car that belonged to a familiar face. Also, yes, Callahan wanted to wear the same shirt as last year.
We snapped a pic a little later in the day of the owner of that car, he is masked in the pic below but it's our great buddy Russ Lyman! Big fan of Russ' cosplay as the main bad guy from A Nightmare on Halloween Street: Freddy VoorMeyers
But there is only so much shopping and walking around that a young boy can put up with when there is a large freeplay arcade close by. The first game we played was one that I played a TON as a kid.
Nearby in the same aisle was a Super Nintendo with Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Callahan told me he played this game on the SNES classic with Grandpa in Florida.
Since he has such a good time on the small screen, I asked him if he wanted to play the BIG version. Once he figured out how to bite me, that's all he wanted to do. "I'm biting your head, I'm biting your head!"
We also sat down to play Sunset Riders but this didn't last too long. It was way too tough for my little guy, he handed me the controller and watched me play the first level.
One of the big surprises of the day was Pac Man Vs. They had a setup with a GBA and a link cable so one player controls pac man on the GBA and the other player controls the ghosts on the tv screen. This was a blast.
There were a ton of arcade games that I would like to have played but I let Callahan pick whatever he wanted and we spent most of our time with Super Mario Bros, Dr Mario (PC-10), and Pac Man.
And what video game expo would be complete without sitting down for an extended play session of a game that we can play at home whenever we want. This kid is really getting into Minecraft. Its actually great setting up a weekly "Minecraft Time" at home where we will sit down in creative mode and play together as long as he has completed his chore/behavior chart. We're looking forward to Minecraft Earth later this month.
I ran into our very own Izret and got a chance to chat with him and his son. No pictures because I wasn't thinking but it was great to see him and catch up a bit. I'm kind of bummed that I didn't run into Pam or Will. I was planning to go to Pam's panel but it was on Sunday and couldn't make it both days. Catch you at the next one, guys!
And that about wraps it up. After we gamed as much as we could, we walked across the street to Bear BBQ. I've eaten at this place a few times during RWX before and I feel like I go there more out of tradition than for love of their food. As always, the food was just OK. Also the Counterweight Headway IPA had just kicked so I had to settle for a session IPA
In closing I will leave you with a funny little video of Callahan singing a song from Super Mario World opera style when he realized how great the reverb was in the empty area of the parking garage we were in.
Love it man! He has grown so much.... Can't wait to get up there again for a visit and another RWX. Perhaps I can bring my older kids.
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Like many of the people who visit this site, I am a lifelong gamer who loves and appreciates classic gaming as well as the current generation. When I started collecting games, I realized that some of the stories of my collecting might be interesting, educational, or just plain funny. The stories that I share here are meant to entertain as well as inform and they are all 100% true, which is why I include pictures.
