The Portland Retro Gaming Expo (PRGE) is an annual event where people gather to celebrate gaming and video games as a part of popular culture. This includes events related to current video games, retro gaming, arcade games, pinball, board games, collectible card games, and sessions where experts and famous people from the video game industry answer questions and discuss topics.
Origins
In the summer of 1997, a group of gamers from the Pacific Northwest called the NorthWest Classic Games Enthusiasts (NWCGE) met for the first time in the Seattle, WA area. They decided to create an annual event. In 2001, this event grew into a weekend show. It was combined with an annual Atari Championship that a local arcade had been hosting since 1996. In 2006, NWCGE started a local event in Portland, Oregon. This event later changed its name to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. It moved to a permanent location at the Oregon Convention Center.
Shows
The Portland Retro Gaming Expo began by focusing on old video games but later included many different types of gaming activities. The event has a large arcade where visitors can play games for free, with hundreds of coin-operated and pinball machines. There are areas to play on different video game consoles, official tournaments like the Blockbuster World Video Game Championship and the Classic Tetris World Championship, a museum with themed exhibits, art displays, indie games, old media formats, a live auction for collectibles, and many tournaments for both classic and modern games. Live music from DJs and bands is also part of the event. Presentations by people who worked in the gaming industry cover topics related to games and their culture. These presentations have included speakers such as Nolan Bushnell, David Crane, Garry Kitchen, Joseph C. Decuir, Howard Scott Warshaw, Jennell Jaquays, Rebecca Heineman, Ed Fries, Matt Uelmen, and others who worked for companies like Atari, Activision, Imagic, Nintendo, Sega, and Microsoft.
The logo of the Portland Retro Gaming Expo represents the event’s connection to retro gaming. It includes a design inspired by the Atari CX40 joystick, placed next to tree rings that symbolize Portland’s history in the lumber industry.