In the 2010s, I loved going to ReplayFX. It was a seriously fun environment with tons of neat arcade cabinets, pinball machines, interesting people, live music, and assorted talks on stuff I found neat.
Nowadays, with Replay sadly being ended due to covid, I've started going to other conventions. In 2022 I hit up two in Cleveland, the Classic Console & Arcade Gaming Show and Cleveland Gaming Classic. This page will just be a list of various events I'm showing up to, what I'm doing for said events, show prep, and show recaps.
I'll be back to CCAG and CGC this year. I'm hoping the third time's the charm when it comes to table setup 'cause I've done two ways, one focused on selling and the other focused on showing stuff, so the idea is mixing both and making sure I bring more interesting stuff.
A big change this year, one that I'm excited for but also a little scared of, is CGC being three days. Last year it was just one day, 10AM-7PM if I remember right, and that was a ton. This year it's going to be 6PM-10PM on a Friday, 10AM-10PM on a Saturday, and 10AM-4PM on a Sunday. How many gallons of water do you think I'm gonna drink with all the talking that's going to require? heh.
On March 14th or 15th, I don't remember, I got the start of my "sale stock" rolling. I always have bulk consoles, I think the crate has something like 20 Famicoms/20 PS1s/40 Super Famicoms in it, and I'd love to sell them as tested/working bundles for a bit under eBay. You can get a Super Famicom w/1 controller and hookups for like $40. What if, hear me out, I bundled a bunch of the crate supply with the same controller/hookups and a game for say $30? Price-wise I turn a small profit off of it, that pays for my time and helps fund bigger projects, and it's low enough that I think people would be happy with it.
Something I haven't usually had for that Super Famicom expample is pack-in games. I'm talking stuff that cost me less than like $2/cart which people would actually enjoy owning, not just bulk sports games in a foreign language. That all changed when a seller gave me a good offer, $50 for around 110 carts of Super Mario Kart/Super Mario World/Yoshi's Island. Said seller also did $40 for six boxed Super Scopes. I couldn't turn either down.
So cool, SFC is covered! Now to just cover Famicom and PS1. If I can get all the consoles tested/running, also complete the three Super Scope sets which are missing their carts/IR sensors, I think that's the majority of the "sale stock" I need to take. A quarter of it can go to CCAG, put out like four systems every hour until they all sell, and that'll pay just enough to cover the show/travel/food and give me like $30 extra to put towards something else. The rest can go to CGC, do a quarter the first day/half the second/the last quarter on the third.
In regards to stuff to take, well, I wanna keep bringing the obscure computers and I'd really love to put an honest effort into showing off homebrew stuff. The Sharp MZ-80C has to get fixed up and brought out, if seat's Leako/Soggy are built then they're going, if the Coal Burner gets moving then it needs a game and brought around, the list goes on...
If I can, I'd like to have shelves behind me this time. I saw other people do it and it was cool, they break up your space as a "wall" and also just hold things to display. It'd be fun to do something like throw an Amiga running demos, the Kenbak incrementing lights, a consolized arcade PCB running the attract mode, or (if it gets working) the PX-V7 running LaserDisc stuff up.
I think I need to sit down and just draw stuff out at this point. I have an 8ft workbench now, I can use that to test table setups, and if I can come up with some way to have a sit-down demo alongside a good sale area then I'd love that.
As-mentioned at the top of the page, in 2022 I went to the same two Cleveland shows which I plan on doing again in 2023. They were one-day events, they were a really fun time, and it was quite neat getting to see some people who I only knew from Discord.
CCAG was the first show I went to, running a very simple table with the idea of showing off some old computers while also selling off spare stuff I had in my house. That meant a lot of tested (but incomplete) Super Famicoms, a few PC98s, the good 'ol X68K, and the MSX1. It all went fairly well, people came up to play with the old stuff and I had my stuff priced low enough that selling the whole table wasn't hard. Got to see a lot of people happy, came out just enough to pay for the costs to go, and it was just fun.
CGC was like a month and change after CCAG. I didn't really prepare that well, I kinda rushed a truck-load of stuff together the day before going, but I'd say it also ended quite well. I had more of a focus on showing off PC-98s with the intent of letting people try them out, the highlight was definitely a dad and his son noticing Puyo Puyo 2 and coming to play for a good 20 minutes, and I also got the same "just enough to pay for the trip" amount of cash out of it. I definitely wish I did more, if I was smart I'd have had a few extra things built up that would've been quite neat for everyone to see, but no point in regretting not having it 'cause seeing others happy was all I really wanted.
