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.
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'm remembering it right, and I was wiped out at the end of it. For their second show, this year, it's going to be 6PM-10PM on Friday + 10AM-10PM on Saturday + and 10AM-4PM on Sunday. How many gallons of water do you think I'm going to have to drink for all the talking? heh.
A recurring theme from last year, I'll be selling random bulk-import Japanese game consoles which I bought for cheap. They won't all be in the greatest condition, of course the really crappy units will get things like new shells and mods, but they'll all be tested and come with hookups/games.
Also going the same route, I have a bunch of bulk games and accessories.
I want stuff to be cheap, I'm not looking to turn that much of a profit (if I can make enough to cover gas/food/hotel I'm a happy camper), but I admittedly shouldn't be scamming myself. Last year I had someone come up and buy all five of my modded Famicoms at minue -15 from CGC opening because I did $25/unit and just said "yeah sure", I probably shouldn't do that again.
The current "pricing idea" for what I have available goes as-follows, note that the stock is going to get cut up "evenly" between the four convention days:
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. For a list of things that I would love to bring along as "demo units":
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.
