PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Attention, gamers! The Portland Retro Gaming Expo is back this weekend for the first time since 2019.
Portland Retro Gaming Expo, Inc. is a Portland-based nonprofit organization run by video game enthusiasts. PRGE aims to raise awareness of classic video and arcade games through events such as the one occurring this weekend from Friday, Oct. 14 to Sunday, Oct. 16.
Toby Wickwire was a vendor at the first-ever expo back in 2006 and has since become the vice president of PRGE. The first show was in a small event space in Vancouver, but it has relocated throughout the years to accommodate the growth in attendees.
The 2022 expo is being held at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. With the OCC being one of the largest event venues in the Pacific Northwest, it is a great fit for the potential 10 to 20,000 attendees that Wickwire expects this year.
Portland gamers can expect retro Nintendos and Ataris, vendors who sell classic game cartridges, guest appearances from gaming historians, live auctions, a cosplay contest and more at the convention center — including the Classic Tetris World Championship.
“They’re always really excited about the Tetris tournament,” Wickwire said. “It’s a big deal. It started out as this kind of small thing, but it’s a huge deal. There’s people coming in from all over the world to compete in this tournament.”
PRGE has also partnered with the world’s last remaining Blockbuster store to bring back a long-awaited event.
“In the ‘90s, they had a couple of championships where you went and played in a tournament at an actual Blockbuster and then the winners went to another location and played against each other,” Wickwire said. “It was kind of like a special thing in the mid-‘90s, and it hasn’t happened since then.”
OG and new-school gamers alike can rejoice for this weekend’s highly-anticipated return of the Blockbuster World Video Game Championship after the event went on an almost-30-year hiatus.
There are more surprises in store for the upcoming expo. In previous years, the PRGE team would share a list of the games available to attendees. This year, they will have to wait and see which games from the ‘70s until now will be featured.
Tickets are available online now for $15 to $65. Once the expo starts on Friday, Oct. 14, tickets are only available at the door at an additional cost.