Magazine #14.1 2/02

Classic Gaming Expo 2K2
Part I

It's alive!

30 years of Atari, 30 years of Odyssey, 20 years of Colecovision, 20 years of Vectrex and 5 years of celebrating it all! That was the motto at this year's Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas (August 10 & 11, 2002). After World Of Atari in 1998 and the 1999 - 2001 CGE events this marked the five year anniversary of classic gaming shows in Las Vegas - a nice tradition that has become a staple for classic videogame enthusiasts all over the US and beyond. Once again the show was being hosted by the Plaza hotel in old downtown Las Vegas next to the Freemont Street Experience. Accommodations were very reasonable but the Plaza is really showing its age: many escalators weren't working (no fun if you carry heavy boxes with videogames), many rooms are in desperate need of some maintenance and the location itself is getting a bit stale.

It's alive! Well... sort of...	The Plaza viewed from the Dome restaurant. This may look familiar from 'Back To The Future II'.	Always cool: Freemont Street Experience.

A tradition by now, a group of NorthWest Classic Gaming Enthusiasts (Lee, Rob, Rick and I) attended and Lee and I had a table right next to Rick and Paul Slocum (Marble Craze). Rob and Rick both drove their trucks to Las Vegas and were so nice to bring some monitors and take lots of goodies back home - thanks!!! We started to set up the tables around noon on Friday and then checked out the other booths. Two things I noticed right away: vendor attendance was very good and the museum had some new and exciting things (more about that later).

A few quick comments about this report: due to some feedback I decided to increase the size of the thumbnails to 200 by 150 and to break up the report into more pages. This report contains well over 300 pictures so give yourself some time!

Also a tradition by now is the Friday night party usually hosted by Geoff Voigt and the guys from SC3. Geoff couldn't attend this year (hope to see you in Las Vegas next year!) and so AtariAge helped out instead. We had a bath tub full of ice and beverages, loads of pizza, lots of games and lots of fun. I had the chance to chat with some guys from Namco and check out the amazing 'Dead To Rights' for the Xbox. In the other half of this two-room-suite the guys from AtariAge were still assembling carts for the next day. The party died down at around 2:00 AM and I finally made it back to the Golden Nugget (where me and my better half were staying) but not before chatting with Elvis on the street.

Checking out the Xbox	Matt and Joe (from PixelsPast)	Marc and Nicole & Cassidy	Rick (NWCGE), ? and Lee (NWCGE)
Glue press for 'Thrust' boxes	Late night cart assembly	Keita...	...and the Namco guys
Late night cart assembly...	Dead To Rights	Dead To Rights	Meanwhile down in the exhibition hall: final set-up work

Friday evening Lee and I had a chance to talk to Jerry Jessop (Atari 1977 - 1985) who had brought his yellow Computer Space arcade machine (due to space restrictions his original arcade Pong machine had to stay at home). Computer Space was the first commercial videogame and the very stylish cabinet was made out of glass fiber. The woodenmolds for the cabinet were $2500 each and lasted about 2 days (anywhere from 10 - 25 cabinets). Computer Space came in different colors but yellow is the rarest with only six out of about 1500 made. A yellow Computer Space can also be seen in the movie 'Jaws' although it is a later model which you can identify by the lock in front. Earlier machines didn't have this lock and for repairs the control panel had to be unscrewed from the inside - not an easy task!

Computer Space and proud owner Jerry Jessop (right).	Notice how the diodes form the rotated space ships on the board!	Computer Space innards, GE tube	The game itself is pretty bad but the glass fiber cabinet is a piece of art!

Continue with Part II

Thanks to:

The CGE2K2 staff - great show!
MK, Lee, Rick and Rob!

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Classic Gaming Expo, World Of Atari and others are claimed and/or registered trademarks of their owners!