- And to think this is but one little corner of PRGE...
- The new Atari was in the house and had a very impressive display.
- And, of course, every year Atari Age always puts on a fantastic display as well.
In 2019 I went into quite a bit of detail explaining what PRGE is all about and why it's so cool. That year a stunning 10,000+ people attended the event.
Then Covid-19 happened and the show was put on pause for two years until relaunching in 2022. But that year one of my good friends passed away right before the show so I went to Sacramento instead to help out his family. Then in 2023 my own family hit some difficult times.
But this year I was able to finally go back and frankly it seemed even more crowded than I remembered - and that’s saying something. I’ll be so curious to see if they post attendance figures this time around.
And in 2024 there were a few things, both old and new, I'd never seen before.
- The Last Blockbuster is actually a real store that still exists in Bend, Oregon, but today is more of a tourist attraction. That said they had the real original sign on-hand, which was cool to see.
- Panic, the top-shelf Mac software company based in Portland, OR, was also in attendance with a gorgeous display for their groovy hand-held the Playdate. I really wanted to try out the larger-than-life hand crank on the display but knew I shouldn't.
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When I first attended the show in 2016, I ran through the vendor area (which is about the size of a football field) looking almost exclusively for the Commodore logo. Turns out I got really, really lucky and found a never opened Amiga 2000 still in the original box and pink plastic bag! I snagged it for a staggering $200. I also picked up a new-in-box Amiga 1010 drive for $35. Never opened!
The stuff came from the storage of a long-gone Amiga dealer in the Portland area. There was another A2000 and drive, but I could only carry so much stuff.
In 2017 I found a Commodore 64 still in the box with its original owner’s receipt from the day they bought it. From the look of the computer it didn’t seem like it had ever been used. Completely amazing. I’d also found a bread bin in the same condition. I got each for $100.
2018 rolled around and I found an Amiga Supradrive that still worked! When I got it to boot it was like discovering a rare gemstone at the bottom of a riverbed - felt the hair on my arms rise up with astonishment and glee.
Finally in 2019 it was really all about the people. I got to meet The 8-Bit Guy and MVG and listened to a presentation by Howard Scott Warshaw, among others. Warshaw was one of the game designers for Atari during the golden age of the 2600 and is often credited for having created one of the greatest games of all time (Yars Revenge) and one of the worst games of all time (E.T.). Many today would disagree with that latter assessment but there was even a documentary about the search for the mythological landfill site where thousands of unsold ET cartridges were supposedly buried.
This year, the Commodore logos have nearly disappeared from the vendor area completely. I did see a few tables with Apple II software, but out of the entire convention I only saw 3 breadbin C64’s and all 3 looked like they’d been sitting in the hot desert for years. On top of that, folks were asking Ebay prices for what I’d consider borderline garbage (not including the chips). Fact is the home computer market of the 1980s has just about moved on and all that remains of that era at PRGE are crusty Atari and Intellivision cartridges. And I guess it makes sense. What I found in past years these days are mainly going to be found on pricey auction sites.
However, I did run into Sean Kelly of Vectrex fame - and I didn't even realize it was him until after the fact! I picked up a mint copy of Star Trek for my Vectrex as well as an incredibly cool and surprisingly inexpensive carrying bag for it. This bag reminded me of the old Macintosh carrying bags from the mid-80s but this one is designed in Vectrex gray and adorned with a Vectrex and Minestorm logo. Now I won't be so nervous about transporting my Vectrex to future club meetings.
- Kelly wasn't able to bring the bags with him to PRGE so I'll be having mine shipped to me shortly. Looking forward to its arrival!
Other than that, I picked up a loose Colecovision cartridge of Mr. Do for $7 even though I've already got the game. Why not? I have the Atarimax Colecovision Ultimate SD Cartridge for my CV that allows me to dump all of the original ROMs on a single SD card, but having original cartridges of some of my favorites is always nice. I'll have some more exciting Colecovision news to share in the next week, by the way.
I was bummed to learn RJ Mical had to cancel his being there just days before the show. He was scheduled to speak on a couple of panels I was looking forward to attending. But the rest of the event was simply superb regardless. I did get to hear Howard Scott Warshaw speak again - and even get choked up on-stage when asked about witnessing his game being excavated from a dump. I also got to see Jeff Minter of Llamasoft fame speak for the first time, which was amusing. I was tempted to listen to Nolan Bushnell of Atari speak as well, but it would have required I go back for a second day and my family was ready to do the 3+ hour drive back home to Seattle.
It's amazing for me to think how much things have changed since we started going, yet how much some things have stayed the same.
- On the left are my two kids posing in front of one of the cool backdrops PRGE places in random places around the convention center back in 2017. On the right is my son 7 years later. He was mortified having his picture taken but did me the favor.
In any case, it was a jam packed show with thousands of attendees and I had a really great time. To next year!
