WWW.OLDSCHOOLGAMERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE #2 • JANUARY 2018 Midwest Gaming Classic midwestgamingclassic.com CTGamerCon .................. ctgamercon.com JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE #2 EVENT UPDATE BRETT’S BARGAIN BIN Portland Classic Gaming Expo Donkey Kong and Beauty and the Beast 06 BY RYAN BURGER 38BY OLD SCHOOL GAMER STAFF WE DROPPED BY FEATURE Old School Pinball and Arcade in Grimes, IA 45 Years of Arcade Gaming: 1980-1983 08 BY RYAN BURGER 40BY ADAM PRATT THE WALTER DAY REPORT THE GAME SCHOLAR When President Ronald Reagan Almost Came The Nintendo Odyssey?? 10 To Twin Galaxies 43BY LEONARD HERMAN BY WALTER DAY REVIEW NEWS I Didn’t Know My Retro Console Could Do That! 2018 Old School Event Calendar 45 BY OLD SCHOOL GAMER STAFF 12 BY RYAN BURGER FEATURE REVIEW Inside the Play Station, Enter the Dragon Nintendo 64 Anthology 46 BY ANTOINE CLERC-RENAUD 13 BY KELTON SHIFFER FEATURE WE STOPPED BY Controlling the Dragon A Gamer’s Paradise in Las Vegas 51 BY ANTOINE CLERC-RENAUD 14 BY OLD SCHOOL GAMER STAFF PUREGAMING.ORG INFO GAME AND MARKET WATCH Playstation 1 Pricer Game and Market Watch 52 BY PUREGAMING.ORG 15 BY DAN LOOSEN EVENT UPDATE Free Play Florida Publisher 20BY OLD SCHOOL GAMER STAFF Ryan Burger WESTOPPED BY Business Manager Aaron Burger The Pinball Hall of Fame BY OLD SCHOOL GAMER STAFF Design Director 22 Issue Writers Kelton Shiffer Jacy Leopold MICHAEL THOMASSON’S JUST 4 QIX Ryan Burger Michael Thomasson Design Assistant Antoine Clerc-Renaud Brett Weiss How High Can You Get? Marc Burger Walter Day BY MICHAEL THOMASSON 24 Brad Feingold Editorial Board Art Director KING OF KONG/OTTUMWA, IA Todd Friedman Dan Loosen Thor Thorvaldson Leonard Herman Doc Mack Where It All Began Dan Loosen Billy Mitchell BY SHAWN PAUL JONES + WALTER DAY Circulation Manager Walter Day 26 Kitty Harr Shawn Paul Jones Adam Pratt KING OF KONG/OTTUMWA, IA King of Kong Movie Review 28 BY BRAD FEINGOLD HOW TO REACH OLD SCHOOL GAMER: Tel / Fax: 515-986-3344 Postage paid at Grimes, IA and additional mailing KING OF KONG/OTTUMWA, IA Web: www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com locations. 35 Years Later We Celebrate For subscriptions, address changes or back issues Subscription rates: US and possessions: $30 for 1 year go to: Postmaster – Send address changes to: OSG • 222 SE 30BY TODD FRIEDMAN www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com Main St • Grimes IA 50111 or contact Old School Gamer by mail at: 222 SE Main Copyright © 2017 by BC Productions, Inc. OSG PROFILE St • Grimes IA 50111 - Back issues (if available): $6 plus shipping All rights reserved. Reproduction of copy, photography, Billy Mitchell or artwork is prohibited without permission of the Shipping address: OSG • 222 SE Main St • Grimes IA 50111 BY SHAWN PAUL JONES + RYAN BURGER publisher. All advertising material subject to publisher’s Old School Gamer Magazine (ISSN# 2574-8076 35 approval. ONLINE/2574-8068 PRINT) is published by: BC OSG PROFILE Productions, Inc. - 222 SE Main St • Grimes, IA 50111 Steve Weibe TO ADVERTISE IN OLD SCHOOL GAMER OR WORK WITH US ON SOMETHING ELSE, CALL 515-986-3344 37 BY SHAWN PAUL JONES x300 OR EMAIL [email protected] 4 OLD SCHOOL GAMER MAGAZINE • ISSUE #2 Retro City Festival.......... retrocityfestival.com EVENT UPDATE Portland Retro Gaming Expo KNOWN AS THE TOP EXPO ACROSS THE COUNTRY... AND IT PROBABLY IS! By Ryan Burger hen I initially started this magazine this A couple weeks ago I got some nice time to spend with Chuck W summer and began contacting writers, Van Pelt - Secretary/Marketing & PR. Who along with Rick Weis - everyone told me I HAD to get to Portland for PGRE President and Vendor Coordinator, were the people I leaned on at the show to show me the ropes of the event. Chuck told us a little (the Portland Retro Gaming Expo). While I had about how he got into gaming and PGRE. heard of it before and was excited to go, it blew all of my expectations on the attendees, exhibitors, CHUCK: This is our 12th event. I keep coming up here, and I’ve gaming spaces with arcades/pinballs, and home been around since the first one. I’ve always been a video game consoles, out of the water. It was... simply amazing. fan and I collected video games, but I didn’t really engage with other people who were doing it until I saw that there was going Traveling with my assistant/son, Aaron, we arrived in Portland to be this event in Portland. That was 12 years ago. and took the metro train from the airport straight to the conven- tion center and walked into the convention and our eyes bugged It was at one those smaller motels, and they had a little ballroom out. The main exhibit floor was massive and hardly anyone had you could rent. And this was in Vancouver, Washington, right started to set up yet. We quickly set up our booths and waited for across the river from Portland! So that was where I first met the magazines to arrive. Rick Weis and Toby Wickwire (VP/Arcade Coordinator), and And then there was the big space right next to the main exhibit some of the other people that floor that was all set up for the massive arcade and gaming area. are still with the organization. We headed over and introduced ourselves to some people and And for me, it ended up being played some games. Unlike the Midwest Gaming Classic (www. this really good time and midwestgamingclassic.com), which we are excessively familiar something I enjoyed. I like with, the arcade is primarily 4-5 different Portland arcades having a hobby that was social bringing some of their best stuff. Midwest instead depends on with other folks. about 200 different people each bringing a couple games. It wasn’t until the fourth year 6 OLD SCHOOL GAMER MAGAZINE • ISSUE #2 WE STOPPED BY that we all kind of got together and OSG: So why is this event so successful? On off hours when the floor was decided that we needed to be a little closed or when it was quieter for a few more formal with the event and move moments at our booth, I was able to spend it in to downtown because we weren’t a lot of time on the floor visiting with getting still maybe 300 people, 350 industry veterans, new writers and more. people and so we moved to downtown to The interest in the magazine was very the Crown Plaza Hotel and we renamed strong and overall very supportive. it the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. Up More to come from this show as until this point it had been called the things start happening, but needless to Northwest Classic Games Enthusiasts say, Retro USB, Intellivision Revolution, or NWCGE. AtariAge, Seedi, Arduboy, Atomic Plush, So we went a couple years at the Crown CHUCK: We have a really solid board Good Deal Games and many other industry Plaza and kind of maxed out the amount of people and we’ve all been together members will be referenced in this issue of available space they had there. All through this. For years we’ve all stayed in other places or coming up soon! Great the time we’re getting, we’re building together as a group and we’ve been retail stores are going to be starting to momentum, building momentum, really successful by staying consistent. carry the magazine! And look for a list of getting -- you know, there’s something So we have the show every year. We such soon in the magazine. about Portland. Video games are really don’t skip a year; decide not to do it or Podcasters and Youtubers a-plenty popular here and there are a huge whatever. we were able to talk to alot of them and number of video game stores as a Also we listen to our attendees. So the word has been getting out about the percent of our population. And so I think we have surveys and we ask a lot of magazine to some of you, and some of you it’s been easier for us to grow the show questions and we act on the things that will be seeing this issue in your mailbox here. people want us to do. You know they thanks to hooking up with OSG at the say we want more of this, we do more show. If we haven’t talked yet, please OSG: How about the latest couple years of that. If they want less of something contact me directly at rb@oldschoolga- after the Crown Plaza? else, we do less of that. mermagazine.com asap. CHUCK: We went to the Doubletree and Back to my experience in the PGRE we increased our floor space to almost behemoth that is 90,000 square feet 18,000 square feet, which for us was a large with 10-15,000 attendees including really big deal. And that year we started thousands that travelled from outside bringing in YouTube celebrities. Like the immediate area. Once things got people who had channels on YouTube going on Friday night, 1/3rd of the space or they were talking about classic video was open...the arcade and open gaming games. We got a big sponsorship that area with a couple vendors. DJ Switch helped us sort of capitalize the show was spinning and keeping us all in the a little bit. And that provided us a little retro groove with cool gaming soundtrack more capital for advertising, things like music, 80s and 90s music including lots of that.