The Web Log Experiment: CinciClassic '06

I actually freed myself from the gravity well of my domicile long enough to attend the CinciClassic gaming convention this past weekend. This was my first gaming convention of any magnitude, so I was pretty excited to be there.

The convention had a market atmosphere that encompassed several rows of tables. Every one craved attention and silently whispered, "Buy back your childhood, John". In all honesty, I had to come terms with something shortly after my arrival. As much as I pride myself on having played a lot of games in my youth, I had to accept the cold hard reality of my situation. My gaming experience is but the very tip of the proverbial iceberg of offerings that are out there. It's as true today as it was 20 years ago. Once I came to terms with this, it was much easier to enjoy the experience, even if it was sensory overload. Here's a short list of some of the things I saw at the convention (complete with linkies):

Bally Astrocade
Various Atari systems including the 2600, Lynx, and Jaguar
ColecoVision
Various Nintendo systems including the Virtual Boy, Famicom, and Super Famicom
Vectrex
Various Sega systems including the Sega Master System and the Nomad

And that's just the stuff I looked at longer than 2 minutes. Like I mentioned earlier, there were a lot of things there that were simply outside my realm. Systems I've never heard of. Games I've never played. The boundaries of my dorkdom became evident this past Saturday. I reached a very real place where my geek credentials were simply not high enough to enter. It was a very humbling experience.

Along with the sea of antiquities, there were also some scheduled activities to participate in. There was a quiz you could fill out that truly tested your knowledge of all that beeps and bloops. There was a head-to-head tournament featuring Dr. Mario, a high score tournament for Pengo, and a 2-on-2 tournament featuring Saturn Bomberman. I managed to take 3rd place in Pengo snagging a copy of 8 Bit Weapon's latest CD and a book on Gaming Hacks. Not too shabby if you consider the fact that it was FREE admission.

All in all I had a great time. I'd like to see a slightly more upscale setting next time but that's my only real complaint. If you'd like to see some of the pics I took, go here. It's not much but then again I didn't feel like lugging around a camera the whole time.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, I did manage to snag a few games for my collection. Some of them are games I've always wanted and some of them are simply meant to replace games I had the audacity to sell a few years back:

NES: