Classic Gaming Expo

Updated on Nov 29, 2023

Edit

Comment

Status Active Location(s) Las Vegas		Genre Video games Country United States
Inaugurated August 14, 1999; 17 years ago (1999-08-14) Most recent September 12, 2014 (2014-09-12)

Classic Gaming Expo was a gaming convention dedicated to the people, systems and games of yesteryear, with an emphasis on historic video games. The Expo was founded in 1999 by John Hardie, Sean Kelly and Keita Iida, In 2000, Joe Santulli replaced Iida as the show's co-organizer.

The conventions have typically been held in the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, but have sometimes been held in Silicon Valley.

In addition to the expo, Kelly, Hardie and Santulli founded the Videogame History Museum, a traveling museum of classic video games and equipment that on display at events like E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) and GDC (Game Developers Conference). In April of 2016. the traveling museum celebrated the building of a permanent facility known as the National Videogame Museum National Videogame Museum in Frisco, Texas. Currently, one of the founding members, John Hardie. is the residing curator onsite.

History

In October 1995, videogame collectors John Hardie, Keita Iida and Mike Etler, founded NAVA (North Atlantic Videogame Aficionados), at Etler's Howell, NJ videogame store, Video Game Connections. The purpose of the quarterly event was to provide a meeting place where videogame collectors could get together and discuss videogame collecting as well as a place to buy, sell and trade games. The group was a hit and attracted videogame collectors from all around the Northeast from Canada to South Carolina.

In 1998 Hardie and Iida decided to bring NAVA to the national level. They teamed up with Richard Tsukiji to include classic gaming memorabilia to Tsukiji's annual World of Atari show. The show was held in Las Vegas at the Holiday Inn Boardwalk Hotel and Casino on August 21–23, 1998. The event was such a success that Hardie and Iida decided to break away from World of Atari and, along with Sean Kelly, created their own show, Classic Gaming Expo.

Classic Gaming Expo has been held at the following dates and places:

1999 – August 14–15 – Las Vegas – Plaza Hotel

2000 – July 29–30 – Las Vegas – Plaza Hotel

2001 – August 11–12 – Las Vegas – Plaza Hotel

2002 – August 10–11 – Las Vegas – Plaza Hotel

2003 – August 9–10 – Las Vegas – Plaza Hotel

2004 – August 21–22 – San Jose – McEnery Convention Center

2005 – August 20–21 – Burlingame, CA – San Francisco Airport Hilton

2007 – July 28–29 - Las Vegas - Riviera Hotel

2010 – July 31-August 1 – Las Vegas – Tropicana

2012 – August 11–12 – Las Vegas – Plaza Hotel

2014 – September 12–14 - Las Vegas - Riviera Hotel