More conferences, conventions, and other industry related events are being added to Events for Gamers’ calendar every day for 2023! Check out the calendar’s current listings and let us know if you are attending an event we should add.
We also will be increasing our stories throughout next year, covering all the main events with interviews and other exciting updates from your favorite events. The trend in 2020 and 2021 of more Online and Hybrid events will also continue to be tracked in our monthly event updates. In 2020, there was a surge of Online events due to the pandemic and necessity in continuing conversations about game development. Then in 2021 and through most of 2022 the industry saw the benefits of Online and Hybrid events.
We at Events for Gamers expect 2023 to continue the trend that began in late 2021 but focusing this time on more Hybrid events than Online ones. Onsite events will dominate as they did in 2022, but we expect to see more of them support some form of Hybrid offerings to those who cannot directly attend.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Discord, and now Mastodon for the latest social updates and event news. If you have an event to share for our calendar, please let us know! Any support you can provide is appreciated.
What events in 2023 will be winners? Let’s find out together. See you next year as we join you at these industry’s events!
Last month, we took a look at a documentary-style longer-form video about the SoCal Gaming Expo. This time around, we shift our focus to the United States East Coast, where we have a shorter video to share that’s focused on boosting what made the Southeast Game Exchange video game culture-centered event in Greensville, South Carolina special from one content creator’s perspective.
The creator in question is Caleb, who owns the Phoenix Resale channel on YouTube and a secondary channel, Renix Pesale, where this walkthrough-style video is hosted.
In the 17-minute video, right at the start, Caleb compares the Southeast Game Exchange show favorably to the SoCal Gaming Expo. But what makes this event stand out from his perspective? It’s a huge event, with over 200 vendors, and it’s something of a hidden gem to find in South Carolina. Any show featuring over 100 vendors is particularly large. Caleb prefers shows with a high ratio (like this one, with 50% or over) of tables focused on video games instead of collectibles or cards. Also, the video game pricing featured there, he noted, is reasonable for a coastal event.
Huge aisles for such a large show are also a bonus, he notes, which gives plenty of room for exploring and navigating a show floor. The day he recorded, it was toward the wind-down on a Sunday afternoon, where there’s usually more room than usual for a weekend show.
While walking through the expo, sharing anecdotes from his experience as a frequent event-goer; dropping several high points for the Southeast Game Exchange; connecting with familiar faces; and showing off few of the features to be found on the expo floor; like the booths, some of the merchandise, voice actors, and more.
Scope out the entire video to get a closer look at the Southeast Game Exchange event!
Feel free to let us know in a comment below if you may have attended the Southeast Game Exchange, and some thoughts about what you might have experienced if you did!
Whether you are an event coordinator, press, or general attendee, if you have an event video to share with us, please let us know and we’ll be happy to feature it!
PHILADELPHIA – Oct. 24, 2024 – Show organizers ReedPop and Penny Arcade have revealed the first panel and event schedule for PAX Unplugged 2024, the East Coast’s most-attended tabletop gaming event, ahead of its return to the Pennsylvania Convention Center from Friday, Dec. 6, through Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024.
Kickstart PAX’s 20th-anniversary celebration on Friday, Dec. 6 with a keynote speech from Elizabeth Hargrave, Game Designer of the award-winning title Wingspan. The keynote is part of a stacked lineup with panels featuring fan-favorite internet personalities and game developers.
This year’s schedule features three full days of panels, with Critical Role’s Matthew Mercer and Ashley Johnson offering a first look at the upcoming TTRPG Daggerheart. Hear from the team publishing a lost tabletop game from a legendary sci-fi author in “Kurt Vonnegut’s GHQ: The Lost Board Game” on Friday at 4:30 pm in the Kelpie Theatre. Former NFL player Johnny Stanton and former professional fighter Tank Tolman will talk about how to join disparate enthusiast worlds in “Athletes in Tabletop: Walking the Jock/Nerd Binary” on Saturday at 10:30 am in the Kelpie Theatre, with more announcements anticipated before the show kicks off.
The fun continues on Friday and Saturday nights, with the latest live edition of Acquisitions Inc., the long-running Penny Arcade Dungeons & Dragons show full of surprises and ornate costumes from the players on stage. Saturday night will also feature the first concert in PAX Unplugged history, headlined by Jonathan “JoCo” Coulton (“Still Alive” from Portal, The Spongebob Musical, “Code Monkey”, and more), alongside long-running comedy music duo Paul and Storm performing live.
Illustrious tabletop game developers and publishers also take over the show floor including Games Workshop (Warhammer), Dice Throne (Marvel), Ravensburger (Disney Lorcana), CATAN Studio (CATAN), and R.Talsorian Games (Cyberpunk franchise). Check out a curated selection of up-and-coming titles as part of the PAX Rising Showcase.
Round out the weekend and experience Classic Cardboard, a collection of renowned board games attendees can play together. Witness high-stakes gaming tournaments including the Omegathon, a weekend-long tournament featuring multiple games. Newcomers to the tabletop gaming world can visit the Learn & Play area, led by a group of the industry’s biggest names.
“PAX Unplugged is the perfect end to a year of great shows, and there’s so much to do and see this year,” said Jerry Holkins, co-founder of PAX, Penny Arcade, and the Child’s Play Charity. “I’m glad we have the rest of the press release, because it would be hard to fit it all here in the quote.”
Attendees can purchase three-day badges for $91 (almost sold out), and pick up single-day badges for $43 each. Families can pick up Sunday Kids Day badges for children aged 7-12, for $14 each.
Media and content creators can apply for a media badge here before registration closes on Thursday, Oct. 31.
Happy November Opportunities! We’ve put together yet another great list of events you can attend for the month. November is one of the last month’s of the year packed with events. December does have some event life to it, but if you’re an event go’er, you’re paying attention still to this month.
Many of the listed events are included in the calendar from your contributions in submitting events to the calendar. Thank you for continuing to support us!
Check out this month’s event list below. We’ve made some additions to the overview, including a new test view of the events right from the calendar itself. Click in the event for even more details. You can also click here for the main calendar that includes events throughout the rest of the year and beyond.
Whether working from a coffee shop, at home, an office, or on the road (like from a game conference), a good set of wireless earbuds for phone calls, video or audio meetings, and so on can be a connected traveler’s best friend. Bring on the Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds as one possible solution to that need from global communications company, Poly (owned by HP).
These earbuds arrive at the mobile accessories table with a couple particularly distinctive features, such as a touchscreen smart charging case. But can these earbuds deliver the value users would expect from their current $329.95 MSRP? We’ll dig in and take a look (or listen, rather)!
The top of the Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC box (image: E4G)
The Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds, cables and earbud tips in their white box, and manuals and other docs. (image: E4G)
The package deal:
The Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC Earbuds come in an efficient brown cardboard box with branding, certifications and other basic product info. Inside, the documentation is what you’ll find first, a quick start guide, a multilingual guide, among other paperwork. The earbuds, BT700 Bluetooth adapter, and case are nested inside a fitted insert, with the earbuds wrapped in plastic featuring the QR code for the Poly Lens app. A small white cardboard box contains two different sets of earbud tips for larger or smaller ear shapes, a USB-C charging cable (just shy of 12 inches or 30.5 cm) long and a USB-to-3.5mm audio cable about 33 inches (84 cm) long.
The Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds in their opened case. Note the USB dongle in the upper half of the case. (image: E4G)
The Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds in their closed case with the power off (image: E4G)
The Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds themselves are packaged inside a smart-looking black case with a rubberized semi-gloss feel to it. Inside the case are, of course, the earbuds with medium ear tips attached in the bottom of the clamshell and the BT 700 Bluetooth adapter neatly wedged into the top half. The included adapter allows for multipoint connectivity, so that connecting between more than one device is possible, such as a PC or smartphone. They’re rated at the IP54 standard, protecting them from water spray or limited dust ingress. In other words, you definitely shouldn’t take them into a pool or the shower, but they’d probably survive a little dust or water exposure.
Main screen turn on on! The Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds outside of the powered-on smart case (image: E4G)
The exterior of the touchscreen charging case is where the “+” comes into play over its $100 less expensive Poly Voyager Free 60 ($229.95) counterpart. But, it’s pretty darn cool to be able to interact with the 1.4” color screen for multipoint connectivity, volume and playback controls, and Bluetooth device connection.
Setup and usability:
The first step to getting the Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds online is to charge them in their case. It’s easy enough to do, if you can plug in the USB-C adapter into any USB outlet or charging port or a USB-enabled AC adapter. The earbuds set I was working with came with a 75% charge from the outset. Charging the buds was quick, and charging is doable either via the USB-C cable or Qi wireless with the case.
After initial setup, when updating the Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds and case to the latest software version, the release notes links for the case and earbuds updates went to “404 not found” pages on the Poly website from both the app and website. Hopefully, it was only a temporary hiccup and that information is usually available to customers who want to know what their device updates include.
Speaking of the Poly Lens web portal, it does allow for some sorts of control and enterprise-type device management features (many of which are shared in common with the mobile app). It’s possible to track usage, notification settings, sensor-based activity controls, muting and audio tones, and more. It’ll likely take a while to get used to the wide variety of options to customize the user experience with these earbuds, when accessing the Poly Lens web and mobile app.
From the desktop Poly Lens app, it’s possible to activate anti-startle and volume-capping controls for hearing and safety considerations. (image: E4G)
The mobile app has the lion’s share of the controls you’ll want to use, allowing you to follow a helpful walk-through for setup that shows some of the basic pairing and functionality. The app also allows you to manage notifications through the mobile device, such as for the battery, charging, pairing, software update statuses and more.
The main screen of the Poly Lens app, from which you can access battery and status info, plus online documentation and settings. (image: E4G)
Performance:
Once you get the Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds up and running, wanting to know how long they’ll hold up when used for calls is going to cross your mind.
In terms of battery charge, the officially listed capability for listening is 8 hours, but you can get 16 hours more when charging again through the case. Talk time is chalked up to 5.5 hours, with an extra 11 hours when charging with the case. My own experience had the numbers skewed a bit lower, by about half an hour to 45 minutes, but overall the battery life met my expectations. Especially handy to be able to use the case as an extra battery source, with up to 2x charges over the earbuds’ battery storage capability.
Audio quality projects well, and it’s definitely bass-heavy, which is great for music with those kinds of strengths, but the sound quality is ever-so-slightly less refined in the mid-range and treble ranges. Still, I was pleasantly surprised with the power those earbuds could produce.
While these earbuds have what’s described as “WindSmart” wind reduction technology and active noise canceling capabilities for minimizing sound, in my testing, I’d emphasize it only cuts some of the background sound, not necessarily most of it. Using the earbuds, I conducted a phone call with a fan on nearby (registering at about 75 decibels from where I was seated, according to a decibel-measurement app). To the caller, they described the sound that filtered through as “distracting” and like the sound of a “car driving nearby.”
In another test, to see how well the active noise canceling (ANC) held up, I played background music while listening to music (at about 55 decibels) while my phone played
The Poly Lens app (or the case) offers granular control over the earbuds’ ANC capabilities, but the effects are sometimes subtler than expected. (image: E4G)
music through the earbuds at 40% volume. I heard fragments of the background music, but it wasn’t distracting enough to negatively affect the music experience. Under 50 decibels, though, the background music didn’t affect my listening experience at all. I also had a podcast (spoken word) running in the background, registering at about 55-60 decibels. From the case’s controls, it was easy enough to switch between the adaptive and standard ANC controls, as well as the more specific environment, speech, and off modes. However, aside from changing the sound profile a bit, the effect on muting audio, whether music or speech, seemed inconsistent over 50 decibels.
So, a gamer might say, “All in all, these wireless earbuds sound good, have wireless control, and a whole bunch of other cool features. But are they good for gaming?” The answer is, unfortunately, probably not for gaming where latency is an issue, like for first-person shooters. The Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds don’t include low-latency capability, so if you use them for gaming, keep in mind your audio may not keep synchronized with the action.
Does the BT700 Bluetooth adaptor work as advertised? Yes, it’s basically a plug-and-play USB-C dongle that enables simple connectivity between more than one device. It works as advertised, jumping, in my case, between a YouTube sound source, podcast, and a phone call fairly effortlessly.
Official Specs:
Design: True wireless earbuds
Color: carbon black or white sand
Active Noise Cancellation (ANC): Hybrid and adaptive ANC with Transparency mode
Microphones: 3-mic array per earbud with WindSmart technology
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 5.3 for audio streaming
Charging: Qi wireless charging with a touchscreen charging case, 15-minute fast charge for 1.2 hours of talk time
Battery Life: Up to 24 hours of playback, 16.5 hours of talk time
Multipoint Connections: Connects to up to 2 devices simultaneously
Compatibility: Includes USB-C to 3.5mm cable, eartips, charge cable, and BT adapter
Certifications: Microsoft Teams Certified
Value:
The Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds are listed at $329.95, but they can be found for noticeably less with a little research. HP and Amazon, for example, periodically offer discounts, such as a recent low price of $209.99 through HP. In fact, for example, at the time of publication, HP offers a cost-saving bundle that’s almost 50% off, totaling $189.99 for both the Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds and the HP 635 multi-device wireless mouse. So, there are definitely deals to be found for these earbuds.
If a touchscreen case is not important in a buying decision, earbud options broaden considerably and are available for under $200 or less at retail.
For gamers, it’s possible to find true wireless gaming earbuds from ASUS, Razer and Sony for around the $175 mark, but they will have a different mix of strengths vs. the Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds and its feature set, which is optimized for business and mobility use cases.
Pros:
The touchscreen charging case is a gimmick — but it’s a useful and cool gimmick
Very good sound quality and range overall
The earbuds stayed put in my ears more reliably than I’d expected, which, in my personal experience, is not common
Overall, the earbuds offer a very solid offering of features and capability
Including the BT700 USB adapter, either in the USB-A or USB-C flavor, which is a helpful value-add
Cons:
While the ANC was reasonably effective, the wind reduction on the microphones wasn’t as good as one might expect for earbuds at this price point.
High price for the value proposition the Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds can deliver on — but the caveat is the earbuds can be found for notably less than MSRP.
Given that it’s a strength, it would be nice to customize the music and other sound output.
Ideal for:
The Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds offer a unique variation of a familiar product to mobile folks: earbuds. The combination of features, such as the touch-screen charging case, ANC, punchy and clear audio, multi-device simultaneous connectivity, will be appealing for frequent travelers, business and event mavens, and music lovers. I say “music lovers” because the sound quality is definitely on the top end of sound quality for Bluetooth wireless earbuds. I’d also add casual gaming, if device-to-earbuds latency between the sound and gaming action isn’t a negative factor.
Now, you can find competing earbuds with most of these features, with some features delivering more effectively, for a fair amount less. But, if the combination of these features bundled into a Poly brand product is appealing to you (especially at a discount), the Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds will be a solid choice for your needs.
Ever wonder what it’s like to create a complex, large video game event from scratch? Or, what might you do if you bought a game expo? How would you build it, launch it, grow it, make it your own kind of an event in one year?
If you asked an event planner that second question, they’d probably agree that it’s no simple thing to accomplish. But it can be done, and that’s what this recent YouTube documentary from Phoenix Resale and PixelGameSquad explores in some detail.
In 2023, the SoCal Gaming Expo was sold to four buyers, all of whom had never run a gaming event in California before. But they didn’t just want to only launch it, they were aiming to make it the largest gaming expo in California, featuring a three-day length for thousands of attendees, hundreds of vendors, athletes, cosplay, (oh, and the Tetris World Championship) and more. The SoCal Gaming Expo was held on June 8-9, 2024 at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California.
The 50 minute-long video has a polished documentary feel, with slice-of-life moments, interview snippets of the process — from planning and organizing ahead of the SoCal Gaming Expo event, to executing the event from the unloading, managing and multitasking through the hectic days of the event itself, to the teardown at the end. There’s moments of excitement, joy, conflict, stress, and more. In watching the video, event planners might see themselves in the experiences of the organizers. Event attendees may learn a little more about the behind-the-scenes process how an event is planned for, launched, and run. At the very end, like any good cinematic-like story, you can find out how the journey ends, whether the organizers met their objectives or not.
Feel free to let us know in a comment below if you may have attended the SoCal Gaming Expo, and some thoughts about what you might have experienced if you did!
Whether you are an event coordinator, press, or general attendee, if you have an event video to share with us, please let us know and we’ll be happy to feature it!
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, the owner and producer ofCES®, the world’s most powerful tech event, is announcing NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang will deliver a keynote at CES 2025. CES 2025 will take place in Las Vegas from January 7-10, 2025. Huang will deliver his keynote Monday, January 6, at 6:30 p.m.
“We are thrilled to welcome Jensen Huang as a keynote speaker at CES 2025,” said Gary Shapiro, CEO, CTA. “Jensen is a true visionary in the tech industry. His insights and innovations improve the world, enhance the economy, and will inspire our CES audience.”
Known for his forward-thinking approach and passion for technology, Huang has been named the world’s best CEO by Fortune and The Economist, as well as one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. His CES 2025 keynote will set the scene for an exciting conference featuring the latest in technology.
Huang’s career and contributions as the founder and CEO of NVIDIA demonstrate the power of ideas, technology, and conviction to drive innovation and impact in business and society. NVIDIA’s accelerated computing and AI platforms are installed in several hundred million computers, available from all major clouds and server makers, power 76% of the TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers, and have more than 5 million developers.
“NVIDIA exemplifies the cutting-edge innovation we celebrate,” said Kinsey Fabrizio, President, CTA. “We couldn’t think of a better time to dive in and bring a beacon of innovation like NVIDIA to our global keynote stage.”
CES 2025 will convene the brightest minds and most innovative companies from around the world to showcase the latest advances in technology. Registration for CES 2025 is open now. Details and programming will be available atCES.tech.
Happy October Opportunities! We’ve put together yet another great list of events you can attend for the month.
October is the last month of the year packed with events. November and December do have life to them, but if you’re an event go’er, you’re paying attention still to this month.
Many of the listed events are included in the calendar from your contributions in submitting events to the calendar. Thank you for continuing to support us!
Madison, WI – October 3, 2024 – The Wisconsin Games Alliance is thrilled to announce that Matt Wyble, Chief Operating Officer at Second Dinner and former Commercial Leader for Overwatch at Blizzard Entertainment, will deliver the closing keynote address at MDEV 2024—the 6th edition of this premier event for games industry professionals. The event will take place on November 8th, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin.
Wyble’s keynote will focus on the interdisciplinary nature of game development, exploring how various skills and roles—including design, engineering, art, marketing, and product management—come together to create magical gaming experiences. His insights will be invaluable for professionals looking to enhance collaboration and innovation in game development.
“I’m excited to be part of MDEV this year,” said Wyble. “As the Midwest gaming industry grows, MDEV stands out as the premier event where our community comes together to share ideas, learn, and find inspiration. It’s a unique opportunity to celebrate the creativity and growth happening around us.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to have Matt Wyble share his extensive expertise and experience from working at Blizzard on Hearthstone and Overwatch to Second Dinner on MARVEL SNAP,” said Ben Kvalo, President of WGA, Co-Executive Chair of MDEV, and Founder of Midwest Games. “There is so much talent right here in Wisconsin that has led and contributed to some of the largest games in the world. Matt is a perfect example of that here in Madison.”
MDEV has experienced tremendous growth recently, doubling attendance last year, with early ticket sales indicating another record-breaking event this year. The conference began in 2017 as a celebration of the local video game development industry and continues to establish Wisconsin and the Midwest as a thriving hub for game development and business. The two-day event will feature speakers, panels, and workshops across four tracks, providing a wealth of learning opportunities for attendees. Developers will have the chance to showcase their games, and artists can present and sell their work in the Artist Alley. Additionally, pre-MDEV social events and a Virtual Ticket option will be available for those unable to attend in person.
As the Midwest’s games industry continues to grow exponentially, MDEV seeks to be the central meeting point for the region’s community, drawing participants from regional hubs such as Chicago, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, Indianapolis, Columbus, and Cincinnati.
For more information, or to purchase your tickets visit www.mdevconf.com
SEATTLE – Sept. 26, 2024 – Show organizers ReedPop and Penny Arcade have revealed the full list of exhibitors for PAX Unplugged 2024 ahead of the annual show’s return to the Pennsylvania Convention Center from Friday, Dec. 6, through Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024.
Some of the biggest names in tabletop gaming will grace the exhibit hall, including Dice Throne (Marvel), Ravensburger (Disney Lorcana), CATAN Studio (CATAN), R.Talsorian Games (Cyberpunk franchise), Chaosium (Call of Cthulhu), Renegade Game Studios (Vampire: The Masquerade), and Goodman Games (Dungeon Crawl Classics). See the full list with more than 350 exhibitors here.
In addition to the exciting exhibitors, PAX Unplugged features a packed schedule of panels and fan events. On Friday, the show kicks off with the Storytime keynote speech from Elizabeth Hargrave, the renown game designer behind the award winning title, Wingspan. The Penny Arcade crew also returns with the latest Acquisitions Inc. liveshow! The full schedule including new panels and events will be announced soon.
Unplugged will also see the return of the always-popular Classic Cardboard area, where attendees can experience favorites from the pre-digital age. As with every PAX, the show will close with the final round of the Omegathon, the mega-tournament featuring tabletop games of all platforms and genres. Fans can also partake in community meetups and join freeplay areas featuring a variety of classic and modern games. New show features to look forward to this year include a puzzle room, megagames, an indie games night market, and more!
“I gotta be honest – I look forward to PAX Unplugged all year,” said Jerry Holkins, co-founder of Child’s Play, Penny Arcade, and PAX. “Don’t tell the other shows.”
Media and content creators can register for PAX Unplugged here. Attendees can purchase three-day badges for $91, and pick up single-day badges for $43 each. Families can pick up Sunday Kids Day badges for children aged 7-12 for $14 each.
Media and content creators interested in covering the event can apply for badges here.
Seattle, WA (September 24, 2024) – GameSoundCon, the largest professional conference for video game music and sound design, celebrates its 15th anniversary today.
It all started when Brian Schmidt, who had been creating video game music and sound effects for companies like Electronic Arts, Capcom, Namco, Sega, and others for many years, joined the original Xbox design team at Microsoft. One of his roles was to educate composers and sound designers on the intricacies of creating interactive music and sound effects for the specialized and powerful Xbox audio hardware. At that time, the game industry was attracting the attention of traditionally ‘linear’ composers and sound designers from the film and TV industries, who had little or no experience in games.
In working with those aspiring game composers, Brian realized there was an education gap—composers and sound designers wanted to work on games, but didn’t understand the unique challenges of creating interactive music and sound. So he decided to create a conference dedicated to sharing knowledge on video game music and sound design. The idea was to give those coming from a more traditional music background an intensive ‘boot camp’ to learn the many differences between creating sound for games and creating sound for film or TV.
The first GameSoundCon took place in September, 2009 at the Century Hyatt in Los Angeles, with around 40 attendees and 12 speakers and panelists, and was targeted primarily at those “Hollywood” composers who wanted to learn about opportunities in game audio. Over the past 15 years, GameSoundCon has grown into the industry’s largest professional conference on game music, sound design, dialogue and education, attracting seasoned game audio professionals and novices alike.
GameSoundCon 5 years ago – back then in the Millenium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles
Having moved to the Burbank Convention Center, GameSoundCon now has over 130 speakers sharing their knowledge and experience across 7 rooms, and attracts over 700 in-person attendees with another 350 attending remotely from around the world.
This year, GameSoundCon will be held at the Marriott Burbank Convention Center in Burbank, CA on October 29 & 30. Register here: https://www.gamesoundcon.com/registration for either the live or the streaming event, attending in person or remotely online.
If you look deeper into the worlds of retrogames and classic computers, you just might find gems of events like the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest (VCFM). One of many of these events are held regionally in the United States and internationally. The midwestern U.S. version was held at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel (in the Chicago, IL area) on September 7-8.
At VCFM, retro computer enthusiasts showed off some showcase-worthy examples of hardware and software from the early days of Apple, Atari, Commodore, among other computer and gaming brand names of the 70’s to the early 90’s era. And, interestingly, some new evolutions made possible by innovations, such as miniaturization, emulation, and more.
What really shows the goods, off, though, is an insightful video from the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest event itself. And luckily, we have one to share. From YouTube, RetroTV1 Tech presents their day one experience in a 45-minute walkthrough-style video.
This video begins with the process to enter the event, including how surprisingly shoulder-to-shoulder busy the event was as well. From there, the point of view transitions to the expo floor, which is not necessarily polished, but it’s jam-packed with retro computers; displays of game cartridges and discs; some excellent restorations; memorabilia, including advertisements from their era. Among the particularly interest demos was an attendee wearing a hardhat fitted with a display running the original Doom. (Is there anything that doesn’t run Doom anymore?)
While most of the footage was from the action-packed expo floor, around the 30 minute mark, for about five minutes snippets from a panel featuring tech and classic/vintage computing YouTubers was captured, followed a few minutes later by an auction showing off some of the vintage computing items up for bid.
Feel free to let us know in a comment below if you saw something particularly unique or special in the RetroTV1 Tech video, as there’s a lot to see! Regardless, there’s plenty to check out in this video, especially if you’re a fan of old school computers.
Whether you are an event coordinator, press, or general attendee, if you have an event video to share with us, please let us know and we’ll be happy to feature it!
TOKYO — Sept. 16th, 2024 — The organizers behind INDIE Live Expo, Asia’s biggest indie game broadcast with more than 100 million combined viewers across ten shows, are now accepting applications for the upcoming winter showcase on Saturday, Dec. 7th, 2024.
The upcoming winter showcase will give the gift of world premieres as well as content updates to fan favorite titles. Enjoy a heaping helping of rapid-fire, bite-sized news announcements during the return of the INDIE Waves segment.
The annual INDIE Live Expo Awards also returns to bestow recognition upon critically acclaimed titles, with awards given by a panel of games industry veterans from around the world.
In the last four years, INDIE Live Expo has showcased more than 2,750 games across the globe with broadcasts in English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Last year’s show accumulated more than 7.4 million viewers.
Sponsorship opportunities are available with a plethora of options for exposure to millions of gamers across the globe, including original segments, promotional videos, logo placement, and more. For more information, please view the sponsorship video here.
Rewatch the full stream of INDIE Live Expo 2024 on YouTube here, and keep up with the latest indie with a free subscription to the “INDIE Live Expo Letter” digital magazine where developers, publishers and creators can keep up with the latest industry trends.
