I capped off my week in a fine way yesterday by attending the 2012 Oklahoma Video Game Expo. Held in Bixby, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa, the convention featured many retailers and vendors hawking all sorts of classic video games. Seeing harder-to-find games and systems was sweet, but the best part was that tons were hooked up and available for anyone to play! I attended last year and not much has changed, but this time I spent most of my time actually playing games.

The moment I walked in I began playing Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar. The game is a remake of the classic arcade game but what’s most notable is designer Jeff Minter’s trademark psychedelic neon graphics and techno soundtrack. Afterwards I dabbled a bit with various home console games before finishing off along the wall of arcades and pinball machines. My friend and I had competitive matches in Street Fighter II: Champion Edition and a SNK vs. Capcom fighting game. We also competed in Pengo (a Sega game from 1982), Donkey Kong Junior, and a few others. I felt like I was among like-minded people and there was a super positive energy throughout.