What a gorgeous day it was today! I had the opportunity to visit the Portland Retro-Gaming Expo (PRGE – here) and participate in the No kings 2.0 rally happening in Portland and across the country. As always, I took some pictures of what caught my eye while walking through the expo aisles, and I’ll share them at the end of this post.
This year, three things particularly caught my attention. First, I met David from Vectrex.com (here), who presented the adorable Vectrex Mini. It was a delight to converse in French and chat about such a cool vintage gaming console. I love the Vectrex, so feel free to search for its name on my blog to see all the cool things you can do with this fantastic machine. I’ve already signed up to be notified when the Kickstarter begins (which is very soon – you can check it out here), and I will definitely snag one. Merci, David!
Next, I had a conversation with the team at Atari. I’m expecting my special edition 2600 to arrive in a week or two, but I took the opportunity to discuss what might be coming for the 8-bit computer side. They piqued my curiosity, and now I’m eagerly awaiting 2026. Based on what I understood, we may see some new 8-bit systems (not just mini ones), which would be amazing! Perhaps one of the XL computers?
Lastly, the retro-computer section seemed larger this year, which is fantastic. While I do appreciate retro gaming, my passion lies in retro computing. I loved seeing several great systems, such as the Apple II and Atari 800, and many more obscure ones in working condition. In particular, the stand from the Interim Computer Museum (ICM) [https://icm.museum/] was fantastic. One thing that caught my attention again was that the Nabu seems to be usable now without any internal hardware changes; just a USB-DIN5 cable and the server software should suffice. Since I acquired a complete Nabu system a few years ago when they first hit the market, I’m definitely going to try this out.
That’s really it for now. I’ll let you enjoy the pictures. Have a wonderful weekend!
