Staying Motivated for Retro World Expo 2023

This is “Staying Motivated” week for Blaugust 2023.

A lot of time, I have stuff I think I would like to write about, but then I think that nobody will actually ever read it. Friends who blog toss around readership numbers in the hundreds like it’s nothing. The only time I had those number was when Google Reader was making reading easy, and I felt I had to work pretty hard.

I keep demotivated. Then I think about something that happened in the past, and I wonder if I blogged about it. Sometimes I did, and I love reading about something I really enjoyed when it was new or at least new to me. Sometimes I find I did not, like when we prepped for and played Frostgrave, and I regret that I didn’t.

I’m the one I am writing for. I definitely love it when someone else reads these words, but mostly it’s for me. It’s how I remember good things. That’s what keeps me motivated; so who I am right now, right at this moment, has her say.

So anyway. Retro World Expo this weekend.

I live in Connecticut, and I swear sometimes I think I’m the only one who likes living here. I grew up in Massachusetts, which was all rednecks, including my parents. We couldn’t afford all that Taxachusetts living, so when I was in middle school, we moved in with my grandfather in New Hampshire. New Hamster was BORIIING. After I got married, most nights was just watching TV or playing video games because we was poor. We lived in an attic apartment.

We moved to California and it was, like, wow, now we live where people want to live. I missed New England, though, and after the divorce and after my daughter had moved out, I got a job offer in Hartford, Connecticut. Close enough to visit my dad and stepmom in New Hampshire a couple times a month, but in a place where stuff occasionally happened.

I’d only driven through Connecticut on my way to Washington D.C. before, and that was at night and all I really remembered of the trip was toll booths — toll booths the state has since removed. There are no tolls in Connecticut, so two of our neighboring states, New York and Massachusetts, set up booths to grab those sweet Connecticut dollars. I think Rhode Island is looking at us hungrily.

While it seems like most everything fun happens in Boston or New York City, Connecticut has some fun of its own. For gamers, they have Connecticon last month, and Retro World Expo this month. I don’t know if I blogged about Connecticon. If I didn’t, I’ll probably forget about it. I did meet Tim Buckley there.

Retro World Expo is a celebration of classic video gaming. They also have a lot of the standard things you’re going to find at any con; panels with anime voice actors, cosplay contests, collectible card game tournaments and that sort.

But me, I’m going for the retro games. I am going with a shopping list.

Last year, I got my Sega Saturn up and running again, so I went looking for Saturn games and boy howdy were they expensive. I came home with Castlevania for the Nintendo 64 and Drakkhen for the SNES instead. But I saw a lot of things.

This year, here’s the list:

PaRappa the Rapper for the PlayStation. This is a tricky, fun rhythm game. It is incredibly hard to find in the original. It has been remade for the PS4 and, I believe, has been released for other systems. I want it for the PlayStation, though. The digital-only remake is $19.99 on the PlayStation store, and its sequel, PaRappa the Rapper 2, is $9.99. I expect to pay way more for the PS1 disk. Average eBay price for a complete-in-box version of the game is $100. It’s common enough that I don’t expect it to rise much in value, but if I see one there for that price, I will likely pick it up. If I see the PS2 sequel, I might do that as well.

UmJammer Lammy for the PlayStation. Another rhythm game, based around a character, Lammy, who was in PaRappa the Rapper 2. Where PaRappa rapped, Lammy jams. The kids and I used to be able to get through the entire game in less than an hour. I’d love to play it again. It doesn’t appear to be available digitally. eBay prices it somewhere between $60-$80, complete in box. So looking for that, too.

I’m enjoying Final Fantasy XIII, and Kasul (boyfriend, I am just going to start using his handle) bought me the sequel, Final Fantasy XIII-2 for when I finish that. Well, now I would like to complete the trilogy with Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns. This was the least popular of the trilogy and it got pretty poor reviews. A factory sealed copy is on eBay right now for $25, so that’s my target price at the Expo. If I don’t find it there, I’ll probably go for the one on eBay. I’d just rather buy locally. For certain values of “local” — vendors come from all over the area.

Lastly, something I have wanted forever but couldn’t afford, the Vectrex game console. This is the only home game console with vector graphics, as used in games like Asteroids, Space Duel, the original Star Wars arcade game and so on. And in fact these games are available for the system. This is really a “nice to have”. eBay lists prices all over the map, from $600 to $2,500, so I don’t know what I’m going to find when I get there. They had one last year but who knows if they still do. And if it will be affordable.

The Vectrex is really a stretch goal. I would clear room on my desk for it, though.

I may find other games, but these are the ones I’m most interested in.