Spring is finally here on the east coast and The TooManyGames Expo 2013 is fast approaching! The show will be held once again at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks the weekend of June 14th, 2013. For anyone who can get there I suggest pre-registering and going early as the lines to get in can get very long. I waited over an hour last year before I was cleared.
This year’s show promises to be one of the biggest and best with a roast of The Angry Game Nerd, music by Powerglove, and comedy by Keith Apicary “The Internet’s Bad Boy of Video Game Comedy.” But if you’re reading this you care more about the games and outside of E3, TooMany Games delivers.
The show is really geared to the retro and indie scene. There are dozens of arcade and consoles lined up for free play. I spent a solid hour last year on Neo Geo AES Blazing Star and was demolished over and over on a beautifully refurbished R-Type arcade cabinet. My friend kept coming back to a pretty rare and mint mini cabinet of the game Leprechaun (video here).
Indie developers have a solid presence each year and I hope with the eminent release of the OUYA console one of the 24 indies on the floor this year will bring a dev unit and show what this little machine can do. But for those interested in having a collection on something other than a hard drive there will be tons of vendors selling everything from brand new 360 and PS 3 titles to Magnavox Odyssey and Atari 2600. Last year I picked up a very nice copy of Psycho Fox for the Sega Master System. And speaking of the SMS…..
This year the show will have three exclusive titles available for the first few show attendees interested:
Bread and Butter is the first Master System game by the developers 64kb Games. Only 30 copies will be available.
Dragon Leap is an NES homebrew also limited to 30 copies at the show.
Makai Island is a localized version of one of Capcom’s first NES titles. This game comes in vintage NES Capcom packaging and also includes an 11″x 17″ game map. Unlike the first two titles, Makai Island will have an inventory of 40 copies at the show.
This show is always a blast to attend so bring a friend and plan on spending a few hours sifting through tables of titles, playing some great looking arcade units, and participating in some of the talks and special game events.
