Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo - April 18th, 2015

Yesterday marked what I hope will be the first of many retro gaming expos that I attend.  Vancouver welcomed retro gaming fanatics to it's annual Expo and though I didn't stay long enough to check out all of the planned events, the dealer hall did not disappoint.  A wide array of tables lined the perimeter of the room and another inner circle of tables jutting out from the center in all directions.  Each table I visited seemed to boast more 8-bit treasures than the last and gazing upon it all I truly felt like I had reached the Mecca of gaming.

I buzzed from table to table trying to make a mental note of game prices and how they varied between vendors.  I wanted to try and get the most "bang for my buck" and even though I was tempted to buy some of my 'most-wanted' I decided to concentrate on the less common games I could get at a good price.  At one table I picked 5 loose games:  NFL, High Speed, Mindscape's version of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Fisher Price: Perfect Fit and the highlight of this group: Conflict.

At another table I picked up some boxed games:  Tiles of Fate (w/manual), Home Alone (w/manual) and the best of the bunch IMO: Power Punch 2.  I was very satisfied with my haul: 3 boxes, 2 manuals and 8 new games!!!

   

The rest of my time was spent just looking at some of the really uncommon titles and I took a picture of one of the Holy Grail of carts for the NES.  I'm referring to the Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak.  This was a game that was not, to my knowledge, available for retail purchase.  It was an exclusive rental game available at Blockbuster Video.  I would imagine the only way to get a copy of this game at the time was to have rented it during those days and conveniently forgetting to return it.  The other means would have been to have purchased it from Blockbuster when they moved to a newer generation console to rent. Because of the scarcity of the avenues to obtain this title it has a highly inflated value in collector's circles.  On a table at the back of the room I saw it (under glass) with the hefty price tag of $1950 on it.  As cool as it was I know I could never pay that much for a game.

Nes Carts:  488

Licensed games:  452/687

Unlicensed games:  36/90 

Boxes: 53

Games manuals: 80