With video game industry expositions always being about the latest and most hyped products of the upcoming years, the other kind of video game expo while not as famous as their razzle-dazzle kin can produce just as much excitement for the fans who feel more inclined to the eras of gaming’s past.

One such expo of the gone by generations is the Retro Gaming Expo in Portland, Oregon. While not the only retro gaming expo out there, it’s design and events are what you’d expect from this genre of convention, with each expo having it’s own unique events and twists that make them worth checking out.

The Retro Gaming Expo for instance may not have a tournament featuring the first person shooters you see at most game-related conventions, but instead offers a ten-man Saturn Bomberman tournament and a Nintendo World Championship competition as well. The competition may not have the same glitz as Video Game Armageddon had in The Wizard, but the same concept of competing through three different NES games for points against other gamers is still intact.

These expos are always interesting to see just how far gaming has come in the last half century, not just to see how technology has progressed, but how things can still keep their “fun value” years, even decades after release. The next modern gaming convention may have Gears of War 2 or the next Call of Duty competition going on. But there’s a chance that ten years from now the only game you’ll constantly see appearing in retro gaming tournaments won’t be titles such as those, but Saturn Bomberman getting the most attention from attendees when it’s a ten-man bomb-fest. – The Ben