As L.A. “burned” we visited the So. Cal Retro Gaming Expo a couple weeks back. The Worst Game Visits The So. Cal Retro Expo On the Sunday day of the So. Cal Retro Gaming Expo on June 8th, 2025 there was a tactical alert that arose from protests over ICE actions in the area.  As 2000 National Guard Troops moved in, I made my way through the downtown LA area, towards the Pasadena Convention Center.  There were no incidents on the way down. However, as we waited in line outside with our very diverse and very peaceful fellow LA area retro enthusiasts,  a police helicopter hovered above us.  It appeared they were looking straight down,m wondering why such a crowd had gathered. I want to say it was because they were protecting the gathering, but I’m pretty sure they had no idea what was going on, but saw this crowd of (mostly) young people, and were trying to figure out what we were doing.  It might not have helped that ICE, apparently, were staying in a hotel near-by.  Luckily, there were no incidents, except a long line for the restroom once the doors finally opened. As we waited in line, T1LT and Bruce showed-up.  Happy to see both of them, I was eagerly anticipating T1LT, who brought his new board for “Worst Game”.  He decided on his own to create a logic board for 2600 carts that could support a flashed ROM.    He opened the case so I could see his work on getting the images for the game screen and ITVB logo burned on the PCB.  It was thrilling to see in person! A game I made on an Atari 2600 cartridge.  The perfect start to my first visit to a retro game show in years! I’d like to say the show floor and vendors was a panacea of Atariage goodness, but I’d be lying to you.  There were lots of vendors, and the tables were set-up in a really interesting way, where there was enough space between them, that you could circle fully around some of them..   Most of the vendors were friendly, and we even spied Pat The NES punk selling his books.  The space was large, maybe 6 times the size of the So. Cal. Vintage Computer Festival floor…but different.  These were mostly small retro small shops and eBay sellers, with very little of the “show and tell” of the VCF.   .Most of what was for sale was from the NintendoAge.  In fact, very very little was from The AtariAge.   There were almost no computer games to speak-of. A couple IBM PC games, and a few C64.  Nothing Amiga or ST at all.    I would surmise that much less than 1%, maybe 1/10 of 1%  of the product on sale came from before 1985.  Maybe a few dozen loose Atari carts, a small handful of boxed games, a few Jaguar, and a couple Lynx, a smattering of Intellivision.  That’s it.  I did find a CIB copy of the Astro Chase for the Atari 800, which was nice, but the lack of AtariAge goods made me switch gears mid-flight, and instead I looked for SEGA Master System games.  Of the literally 1000’s of Nintendo and Genesis carts, there were maybe 30 SMS carts to choose from, most of them multiple duplicates of easy  to find games.   This might have been a symptom of going on the last day, Sunday, as one vendor said his stuff had been “well picked over” by then, so next year my goal will be to hit the first day and see what I find.  I don’t think it will be much better though.  It’s obvious these shows are really “millennial nostalgia”.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it was still a bit disheartening. Still, I carefully looked through every booth, twice. Being old and Gen-X, I realize I could come off as an asshole, no matter what I did, so I tried to be very careful and polite.   I found that a smile and nod went a long way to build an instant rapport with almost everyone  Speaking of nods,  The one nod to The Atari Age was the table manned by David Crane, Garry and Dan Kitchen selling their three titles from Audacity Games.  I own all of them, so I said a quick hello (they did not recognize us. We’ve interviewed them multiple times, and even hired them to make games for us in the 2000s, but we are still randos in their universe). One of the reasons to attend on Sunday was to go to their panel at 1:00.  We made it inside, and there were just about 20 people to hear them speak.  I have to say, the So. Cal Retro Expo REALLY LET THESE GUYS DOWN for this panel.  There was no moderator, and no tech person to help them with the PA.  So they sat about 20 feet away, and tried to talk loud.  Of course they are older and so are we, and no one can hear as well as they used to.  So a lot of the time there was strain to hear and understand what they were saying.   They also strained to hear the questions Jeff and I asked them.  This was kind of a travesty.  Added to that, the Tetris competition was in the room next door, and the loud cheers wafting through the mostly vacant panel room,was  like a double smack of diss.  These were the pioneers of the industry being drowned out by kids playing a game that was basically stolen by Nintendo from Atari/Tengen in the 80’s and forever after presented as their own..  It was like a microcosm of everything I truly hate about the game industry post-Nintendo, a  company that  managed to, through somewhat illegal business practices (and admittingly, a lot of great games), drown-out everything that came before them.  I wanted to go back and talk to them, but the Audacity guys packed-up early and left soon after,  maybe because of the poor treatment they received for their panel discussion. But I digress. The game play area was large.  There were lots of console games to check out, and even some board gaming.    Before we went for lunch, T!LT, Jeff, and I found an Atari 2600 Junior, and occupied it to test out Worst Game.  It felt sort of like a guerilla operation putting this untested cart in someone else;s machine, but it was also thrilling to see if the carty worked on the game room floor.  I stuck it in, and turned on the console, and like magic, the game fired up.  So I tried to play it, and you know what, with a joystick, it’s actually not that bad!  I have to say, making The Worst game is no easy thing to do.  It was actually kinda fun to play.   The next step now is to get a label printed, and I will have a very very limited edition Atari 2600 game.     While the Tetris competition was annoying in the panel room, I have to say, watching  it was something else entirely.  The kids (mostly kids anyway) competing had otherworldly skills.  We were mesmerized, and stood to see how one of the heats turned out.  I can see why people were cheering.  Watching the competition was sublime.  It occurred to me then that some people here probably believe Nintendo invented Tetris, and not Alexey Pajitnov.   While watching, it occurred to me that it’s probably the best single screen game ever made.  You cannot win Tetris.  It’s inevitable that the game will end.   It really came from the time before Nintendo.  It capped off the “Atari” age of gaming, before the narrative age of video games started in earnest.  Even if people here don’t outwardly appreciate AtariAge games, by competing in a game of Tetris they are celebrating the age, even if they don’t realize it.   We capped off the day by playing a few games in the free-to play arcade, before parting ways and going home. There was a diverse set of people at the So. Cal Retro Expo.  Every color, creed, and gender represented.  No one seemed to care about any of that, for good reason, as everyone was there to kneel at the altar of the games we love so much.  Games that come from a time of physical media, when playing “multiplayer” was mostly playing with your brother or sister  or a friend on the couch.  Sitting inches away, while friendship and bonds being formed (or lost) in real time, while playing games that were  abstract representations of real-world activities.  It was a place  where reality was created between the gaming participants who were there in person, not by the comments on the on-line game stream.,   After I left and drove home I made it just through the gauntlet of DTLA, before all hell broke loose. I saw a few cops on tactical alert, looking nervous,  watching freeway entrances on the 110, but mostly it was all fine, and I got home in 45 minutes.    Later on youtube.com I watched  of a bunch of cars burning in the street, and some protesters barricaded as the rubber bullets, foam batons, and tear gas grenades flew by.  I saw the freeway I just traversed, occupied by people trying to make their voices heard.  When I found out that the burning cars were driverless Waymos, I was struck by how appropriate that seemed.  Waymo cars have cameras the police can access. In an era where we worship technology at the expense of actual people, the first victims of the revolution are a means under which people are subjugated.    But that did not ruin my mostly good day. Even without a lot of AtariAge goodness, the So. Cal Retro Expo was a good experience. While LA is being invaded by an unnecessary militarized force based on an illusionary fantasy created by mad men, the So. Cal. Retro Expo reminded me that the physical world is basically good, that the real world is basically good, and the people that inhabit it are also, for sure, basically, good.