4-399: The Portland Retro Gaming Expo ( PRGE ) is an annual gaming convention and trade show celebrating gaming and video games as part of popular culture. This includes current video games , retrogaming , arcade games and pinball , board games , collectible card games and panels and Q&As with videogame industry pioneers and personalities. In the summer of 1997 a group of gamers from
8-618: A themed museum, art shows, indie games, obsolete media formats, a collectibles live auction, many classic and modern tournaments and live DJs and bands. Multiple presentation tracks with industry alumni and content creators cover gaming-related topics and culture. An ongoing feature have been panel presentations by industry alumni such as David Crane (programmer) , Garry Kitchen , Joseph C. Decuir , Howard Scott Warshaw , Jennell Jaquays , Rebecca Heineman , Ed Fries , Matt Uelmen and other former Atari , Activision , Imagic , Nintendo , Sega and Microsoft employees. The retrogaming heritage
12-752: The Portland Retro Gaming Expo and found a permanent home in the Oregon Convention Center . Initially focused on retrogaming, the Portland Retro Gaming Expo quickly expanded to a wide range of gaming aspects. The show features a large free-play arcade with hundreds of coin-op and pinball machines, multiple console play areas, the official Blockbuster World Video Game Championship, the Classic Tetris World Championship ,
16-709: The Pacific Northwest called the NorthWest Classic Games Enthusiasts ( NWCGE ) gathered for their first meeting in the Seattle , WA area and decided to create an annual gathering. In 2001 this event grew to a weekend show and combined with an annual Atari Championship sponsored by a local arcade, which had been running since 1996. In 2006 NWCGE spawned a local event in the Portland, Oregon area which subsequently renamed itself to
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