On Sunday morning, I left Seattle so that I could attend the 2009 Portland Retro Gaming Expo. Besides myself, over 700 other people decided to spend a day at the expo and have great time. I love gatherings like this since they always do a great job of fattening up my video game collection. As you can see, I came home with over 50 new games, plus some extra stuff. My photo-filled recap of the event and better shots of my purchases are after the jump!

Once you stepped into the portion of the Crowne Plaze Hotel that housed the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, you would be greeted by this table. Sadly, the systems were just for decoration!

I picked up my swag bag and admission bracelet from these volunteers. The first 500 people got a random Atari 2600 cartridge that you could plug into any of the expo's working systems. Three of those people would find a special message, winning them a $25 gift certificate to any vendor. Each person was also supposed to get a white raffle ticket for the expo's random raffles. My bag didn't have one, darn!

Pre-registered attendees like myself were allowed to enter the show an hour earlier. Quite a few people lined up to get the chance to grab some early deals. Yes, that is Fred from Scooby Doo chatting with a volunteer.

Freeplay fighting games like SNK VS Capcom: SVC Chaos and Street Fighter III: Third Strike kept attendees busy while they waited. Third Strike was always busy, while the same couldn't be said about SVC Chaos.

If you weren't a fan of fighting games, you weren't going to be excluded! Some of the more traditional arcade fare was also available for freeplay.

When the doors finally opened, the vendor room was packed! Looking at the faces of some of the staff members, they seemed slightly shocked by the large turnout at this hour.

Gerald's booth was my first stop since I remembered him from Seattle's Jet City Retro convention. He had a lot of great stuff, including a light blue Sega Game Gear and a complete Steam Heart's for the PC-Engine CD. I kind of regret not purchasing the loose MUSHA Genesis cartridge that he had in a bin at the start of the show for $50.

The console freeplay section contained games from many generations, ranging from the Atari 2600 to the Dreamcast. People playing Saturn Bomberman also had their matches projected on the large screen in the back.

No fancy alarms or security devices were used to protect the games, just the simple warning shown above. Honesty is the best policy!

This woman and her husband were selling Perler Bead magnets. They did an excellent job with their creations, especially Etna!

They started at $5 and went up depending on the size of the magnet. Quite a few of them were sold throughout the day.

I was particularly  impressed by the Chrono Trigger pieces that they had on display. That fused Masa and Mune was huge! To the right, you can see some of the framed artwork that they were also selling. Video game characters were inserted into various paintings.

I recognized John's booth since he was also at Jet City Retro. This time around, he had a couple items I needed for the Genesis, Sega CD, and NES.

This woman ran a booth called Deep End Gear. They sold neat customized dust covers for various video game consoles.

Y-Bot and his video game memorabilia returned for yet another expo. I looked around to see if they had any products that caught my eye, but didn't spy anything different from when they were at PAX.

Next to Y-Bot was the Billy Galaxy table. Some of the items they sold included vintage books and magazines. Does anyone else besides me remember Poochie?!

These brothers were selling games they found at local flea markets and were generally open to negotiation with their prices. I gave quite a bit of cash to these fellows, with the main highlights being a boxed copy of Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals for $25 and a complete Sega CD Snatcher for $90.

These guys also had the largest selection of Neo-Geo AES cartridges at the expo. Unfortunately, the only one I wanted was missing the box

The NorthWest Classic Gaming Enthusiasts were the people responsible for creating the show. Their booth sold a few video game pieces, displayed some auction items for later in the day, and held a high score competition on the homebrew Atari 2600 game Chunkout 2600. The girl in the photo playing Chunkout held the top score for most of the day.

One of the items that was on sale was this strange system, called Good Boy. A Google search tells me that it's just a Famiclone system, ewww!

Here's a closer look at some of the items up for auction. I've never been a big fan of collecting sealed items, but it was still interesting to see these things in person.

In this section, you can see a sealed copy of the Greatest Hits Final Fantasy VII and a reproduction Nintendo World Championships 1990 put out by NintendoAge. I'd say the most interesting item was the rare Hello Kitty Xbox console, which according to the owner Gerald is one of the only two known to be in the hands video game collectors.

Video Game Wizards had a rather large selection of classic games. According to the staff, this was just a small portion of what was available at their actual store. The prices were generally comparable to what you'd find on eBay.

Oh, how I miss sights like this at my local GameStop stores. Besides the obvious highlights like Suikoden II, I saw an almost sealed copy of The Misadventures of Tron Bonne in one of the stacks near the back of the case. Too bad none of those items found their way into my bag of purchases.

Video Game Wizards also had a whole horde of manuals and inserts for random games. Some of them are slightly hard to find, but a great bargain at four for a dollar. I finally completed a few of my games thanks to them! Old magazines were also available for about a buck.

Another highly viewed booth was RecycledGamer. They had games, systems, manuals, and accessories all over the place!

The rear portion of the booth consisted of several TVs for console freeplay. They also had some nifty decorations, like an Iron Giant toy that wasn't for sale.

Best of all, RecycledGamer also offered free candy! I snacked on a few of their mints and the delicious lime Tootsie Pops. Too bad that Power Glove wasn't the same price!

Nearby the RecycledGamer booth was a recreation of a living room from the 1970's. Tired gamers could take a break to time travel and play a little bit of Atari while resting their legs.

I didn't get a chance to visit the famous Ground Kontrol arcade for the expo's afterparty. However, I at least made a stop by their booth at the show.

Ground Kontrol's boxed copy of Harvest Moon for the Super Nintendo caught my eye. I asked them how much the game was and soon set it down when I found out the $110 price.

A remote-controlled R2-D2 was sitting around at one of the booths. He blooped and bleeped at fans who walked by and was willing to pose for photos.

Michael Jackon was also at the show in cartridge form. For $50, you could honor the fallen King of Pop by picking up a copy of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker.

Unreleased classic video games rise from the dead at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo! Unlicensed versions of the Dreamcast Half-Life port and Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors for the Sega CD were on sale at the show.

Next to AtariAge was NintendoAge's setup. I made sure to snap a photo of their homebrew NES cartridges. I think the clear cases look kind of neat.

NintendoAge also held a high score competition using their replica Nintendo World Championships 1990 cartridges. The winner would receive one of the reproduction carts as a prize and star in the sequel to The Wizard. Just kidding about that last part!

A small number of cosplayers attended the show. That was partially due to a cosplay contest that was going on later in the day. Here we have Chris Redfield, who apparently ditched Sheva for his new partner Rikku.

I kind of ruined the effect of this Black Mage's mask thanks to the flash on my camera. My apologies!

CD Gamexchange had stores all over Oregon. Hey guys, how about opening some new branches up in Seattle?!

Brian Moy, owner of Specialty Gamer, had a nice assortment of games for sale. He gradually revealed more and more titles as the expo progressed. One of the major ones that I remember was the original Valkyrie Profile, which was priced at $80. I purchased quite a few NES titles from him at excellent prices.

Around this time, I asked this White Mage to pose for a photo. She obliged and complimented my Parappa the Rapper shirt. Thank you!

Taking a moment to step out of the vendor room, I spied a booth selling various arcade parts. Too bad I don't really collect any of this stuff. They had a few Neo-Geo MVS cartridges on the right, which looked quite inexpensive.

The Internet radio station pdx.fm and the Nerd Report were on hand. They seemed to be interviewing attendees and special guests of the expo.

GameTrader had a rather nice setup. Their collective of tables contained quite a few import and domestic video games. They were also one of the few booths that actually had items for modern consoles.

They also had a few somewhat pricey Dreamcast and PlayStation games on display. There would have been more in this photo if I'd taken it earlier in the day before I bought them!

These were trophies for the main tournament, which consisted of a gauntlet of classic video games. I ended up signing up for kicks, becoming the 60th and final participant on the list. The tournament began around the middle of the day. Of course, I wasn't paying attention and ended up being eliminated because I was so focused on shopping for games!

A fellow dressed up as Mario ended up winning the final round of the tournament. The last battle took place in a multiplayer GoldenEye 007 match. Luckily for Mario, his trophy was not in another castle!

Several moments after the main tournament came to a close, the cosplay contest began! The grand prize was a $50 gift voucher to any of the dealers at the show. Here's a shot of the Scooby Doo crew, minus Daphne and the famous talking dog.

Up next was a guy dressed up as Ness from EarthBound. Here he is showing off his backpack to the crowd. I would have rather seen some PSI powers!

The White Mage and her companion, a Black Mage, soon went up to the stage. Their spells didn't manage to win over the judges. The winner was...

...this young lad dressed up as Taizo from Dig Dug! He got the most applause from the crowd and was crowned champion rather quickly by the panel of judges. I'm curious as to how he spent his $50 certificate.

After the contest, I made sure to snap a shot of one of the late entrants. He was dressed up as the Purple Tentacle from Day of the Tentacle. As the guy pointed out, he's NOT the version from Maniac Mansion since he has arms.

I still felt like participating in some sort of contest, so I decided to take a stab at Chunkout 2600. I noticed people having a hard time beating the top score, which was approximately 136,000. I picked up the controller for the first time and started playing.

Wow. I miraculously scored over 147,000 points on my first try. Beginner's luck, I guess. The girl who had the old score tried with all her might to topple my record, but to no avail. I shook her hand after getting my prize, which was a free autographed copy of the game. The girl was shocked to learn that I only played once when she'd been there for hours. Sorry!

Chiptune artist Leeni gave the crowd a live performance towards the end of the expo. She also had a whole new look compared to when she was at a Seattle charity event called Pinkapalooza earlier in the year.

After Leeni's great performance, another crowd started to form. It was almost time for the live auctions to begin! This was a first for the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, so quite a few of the items had a reserve set on them just in case the bidding didn't go so well.

The bidding on the Hello Kitty Xbox went to a whopping $700. Unfortunately, the reserve was not met, so the item was sold to the house. The owner of the system was asking for at least $1,000. If I won the lottery, I'd certainly go for it!

Around 7 PM, I took one final look around the expo. As you can see, things were beginning to clear up towards the end of the evening. I said goodbye to the expo and took the elevator up to my hotel.

Now, time to take a closer look at what I purchased! As usual, I put extra effort in attempting to get as many NES games as I could find. Each one brings me a step closer to owning a complete set.

Lufia 2 didn't include the manual, but it did have the map. Either way, it was a great deal for $25! I haven't seen Mega Man Soccer in a while, and the $10 price was right.

Snatcher is obviously the bread winner in this Sega CD assortment. I've had a Sonic CD disc for a while since it was waiting inside a Sega CD I purchased at Deseret Industries. I couldn't find an empty case, so I picked up Gerald's complete copy since it was marked down to $7.50 near the end of the expo.

Most of these Saturn games ranged from $10 to $15 a piece. I finally found a Panzer Dragoon disc to go in my empty case after all these years!

I honestly have no idea what the heck CrossFire and Normy's Beach Babe-O-Rama are about. At least they were cheap enough to buy with little hesitation!

I scored quite a few PlayStation items I've been seeking. Sadly, Brigandine didn't come with the map or manual, but I picked it up for $50 since I haven't seen a copy in ages. I can work on acquiring those pieces later. Gubble was free, my choice out of a spindle of disc-only games for making a $15 purchase at a booth.

I picked up these three Famicom titles from the NWCGE booth. I scored 3 for the price of 2 thanks to some haggling.

I have barely any Atari Lynx games, and didn't do a great job of bulking up that aspect of my collection. Strangely, Electrocop had two copies of the game inside of the box. Each of them had a different overall shape, which apparently is common for a few Lynx titles.

Wherever he is, Johnny Turbo would be smiling if he saw these purchases. At $30, Devil's Crush was slightly cheaper than the usual eBay rates.

I picked up Trip'd on the 3DO since I liked the creatures on the cover. I also bought Kingdom: The Far Reaches since I finally stumbled upon a copy with the manual.

Missile Command was the free Atari 2600 game in my swag bag. Sadly, my cartridge wasn't one of the $25 gift certificate winners. Also pictured is my autographed Chunkout 2600 that I won in the high score competition.

You've got to love that simple artwork on the Master System boxes. I thought that I already had both of these games, but a quick look on my iPhone showed that I was wrong.

Here are some miscellaneous buys from the expo. The Atlus Virtual Boy game Jack Bros. was kind of expensive at $60 but I don't believe I've ever seen the cartridge in person.

Random memorabilia is shown in this photo. I finally broke down and bought a Ghaleon puppet.

Varous instruction manuals that I picked up at the show. The 4 on the left cost me a single buck. The other two were free.

The Portland Retro Gaming Expo is the place to go if you're looking for empty cases. Thanks to the convention, I finally found proper housing for a few of my  games!

Business cards, pamphlets, and advertisements from throughout the show. I'll need to take a look at the sites when I have some time, especially the one Bitmob member Alex gave to me.

Last but not least, my swag bag and admission bracelet. The bag didn't get to endure the same amount of stress as my PAX sacks since I had a hotel room to use as storage.

Overall, my trip to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo was a huge success and I'll certainly try to be back in 2010. Any serious video game collector who can get to Portland should consider stopping by next year's event. Just make sure to bring a load of cash with you!