MoGameCon 2018 Pickups! We Head to our FIRST Game Convention EVER!

In this video, we take you with us on a road trip to St. Charles Community College just outside St. Louis, MO for the MoGameCon 2018.

Give John Riggs a follow if you haven't already at https://www.youtube.com/user/riggstalgic

See the full panel featuring John Riggs and myself at https://youtu.be/G2wTBjYo2EY

It is weird to think how this channel has grown in the last 12-months. A year ago this weekend we just hit 100 subscribers. Now, we're at nearly 4,000 strong, over 250 uploads and attending our first game convention. And not only would we be attending our first convention but we'd be doing so being invited by the amazing John Riggs! Oh, I'd also get to co-host a panel with John too, but we'll get to that in a bit.

St. Charles is about 20-minutes outside of St. Louis, so Ginger and I were able to do quite a bit of sightseeing. Friday night we went to Pappy's BBQ, Ginger is a BBQ caterer by trade so this was right up her alley. The food was good, a bit fatty, and I really only cared for one of the 4 sauces they had on-hand. After dinner, we drove to one of the local malls to do some game hunting. I had heard of 2 stores in this mall, V-Stock and Slackers, from John from his visit with Adam Korlik and Radical Reggie the previous year. Seeing their finds last year I needed to go.

We hit V-Stock first as you could enter the mall right by their entrance. Man, this was a cool store with everything from current release DVD and Blu-Rays to classic retro games. There was a really nice selection of games, accessories, controllers and plushies in V-Stock. I could have spent a lot but only wound up getting an NES Satellite.

We walked through the mall and, man, for a Friday night, there was NO ONE in there! Upon speaking to some people we learned the mall was being sold to new and developers and was not long for this world. That was a bit disappointing because there was an amazing 2-story carousel that was intricately detailed and looked gorgeous. I certainly hope this finds a home in another location somewhere.

When we walked into Slackers I was, well, underwhelmed. Where V-Stock felt large and well stocked with good prices Slackers seemed stagnant, under-stocked and overpriced. Games were mostly $10-$15 over what I have typically seen, and in the end, I left with only Ginger buying a pin set.

Saturday morning came and we were able to get into the hall an hour early than the general public thanks to John getting us the hookup as VIPs. Walking in we were instantly greeted with 8-bit music, tons of vendors and, at least in my case, a pile of nerves. I whipped out the steady cam and went to work capturing footage. Coming into the event I was looking for some very specific items:

Sega Master System
Double Dragon (SMS)
Doki Doki Panic (FDS)
Earthworm Jim 3D (N64)
EWJ on the Saturn and Sega CD
Sega Saturn Nights Controller
Kid Dracula on the Famicom
Rocket Knight Adventures (Genesis)
Darkwing Duck (NES)

I stumbled in a lot of things I wanted, and not all I could afford. I had to be smart, especially as vendors, early on, were priced a bit higher. The first thing I saw where my heart really skipped a beat was a copy of RC Pro Am II. See, I love RC Pro Am, I have played the ROM of it too but I hadn't owned a copy in years. I had seen copies sell for well over $150 so when I found a loose copy I was definitely interested. It was priced at $70, a bit more than I wanted to pay, so I let it sit and checked other booths. However, that WAS the least expensive, they were willing to haggle, so I took it home for $60. I also managed to score the Master System and EWJ 3D I was looking for. However, I did not see ANY Famicom Disc System games, at all. Bummer.

As the panel approached I was more than a little nervous. I like to prepare for things like this and was going into ti completely cold. I knew John knew his stuff, but this being my first Con, I didn't want to make him look bad. Thankfully, we had a blast together. I wasn't surprised to learn that, in our first meeting, John was exactly the same fun, smart, friendly and engaging guy in-person that I had corresponded with this past year. I was a fan of his before, as a person, and left an even bigger one afterward.

Saturday night, Ginger and I headed out to eat to Landry's Seafood near our hotel for a late dinner. My goodness, they had the best crab cakes I had ever had! I mean, I love snow and king crab but have never been a big fan of blue but these were amazing.

Sunday AM we headed to the VIP After Party where we got to hang out with a bunch of people and organizers from the show at Two Plumbers Brewery. Its a fantastic bar/arcade with awesome pinball and arcade machines. Before heading home we hit up the St. Louis Science Museum where they had an amazing Apollo 11 exhibit featuring the Columbia space capsule. As a space nerd this was awesome.

I have to thank so many people for a great weekend. We made many new friends and we will definitely be back in 2019!