RETRO VIDEO GAMES
Pinball Expo and Video Game Summit Have Joined Forces
Whether you collect the consoles or the games, this year's event will feature vendors selling both the most current as well as the early collectibles.
In 2019, the Pinball Expo reserved a room to bring retro video gaming to the pinball expo. It was our first introduction to this genre. It was a big hit, so the last few years we decided to expand on this idea and create a whole section of the expo with retro gaming. It was a great turnout and a fun event. Now, in 2024, The Video Game Summit will be partnered with the Pinball Expo to bring the largest retro gaming area ever for this event. From Atari to PlayStation, ColecoVision to PS5, the combination of pinball, arcade machines and retro gaming will complete the ultimate video game conference in the Chicagoland area. Vendors will be there to sell games, systems, and other accessories. Special guests will be there as well to sign autographs and take pictures. Come live in the past in this amazing area of the pinball expo. More information on the events, guests and vendors are below.
Current Retro Gaming Vendors for 2024
SPECIAL GUEST:
PAUL E. NIEMEYER
Paul E. Niemeyer is probably best known for being the artist of the first Mortal Kombat, the game cabinet, control panel, and header, including illustrating the Mortal Kombat logo. Paul's artwork appears on dozens of iconic and famous games. The most notable are TRON, Tapper, Satan's Hollow, Spy Hunter, Wacko, Super PacMan, PacMan Plus, Professor PacMan, and Demolition Man Pinball. Just recently he did the sculpts for the American Pinball game "Legends of Valhalla", and a myriad of other games and prototypes in the years of doing electronic game art.
He was an employee of Bally-Midway from 1982-1984. From the mid 1980's, Paul worked in the big ad agencies on movie licenses like Jurassic Park 2, Men in Black, Star Trek 6, Little Mermaid, Hercules, Star Wars Phantom Menace, Pirates of the Caribbean, and many more. Paul has an endless array of behind the scenes stories and experiences from the early gaming days and 30 years in the Chicago ad agencies to share.
SPECIAL GUEST:
BRIAN COLIN
Brian Colin is an American video-game designer, artist and animator. Among his best-known works are the coin-operated arcade games Rampage, Arch Rivals and Rampage: World Tour as well as General Chaos for the Sega Genesis game console. He is the CEO of Game Refuge Inc., an independent video-game design and development studio with offices in Downers Grove, Illinois. He has been noted for his work in the field of bitmapped video-game graphics and animation, creating video-game sprites and tiled background graphics with a recognizable, identifiable style.
SPECIAL GUEST:
JEFF LEE
Jeff Lee is the original video artist at D. Gottlieb and Company. He is best known for creating the character of Q*Bert, the popular arcade game from 1982.He also produced the video graphics for Cave Man (a video-pinball hybrid), Mad Planets, Krull, Q*Bert's Qubes, The Three Stooges, Quizimodo, M.A.C.H. 3 and Us vs Them. He also developed graphics for a number of video games that were never manufactured, such as Protector, Tylz and Wiz Warz.
SPECIAL GUEST:
Bob Rose
Bob Rose is an Emmy Award Winning television producer/filmmaker from Tampa, FL and the director of Token Taverns: An Arcade Bar Documentary. This is Bob’s 3rd movie but it’s the first film where he is actually part of the community that is being documented. Bob’s first video game system was the Atari 2600 and he grew up going to the arcade with this Dad, so directing Token Taverns was a no brainer.
Token Taverns was filmed over 2 years in Tampa but with some interviews and footage actually taken at Chicago Pinball Expo. Bob will be doing a panel Sat at 12:30 and things are about to get super meta as the movie is screening here Saturday night at 7:15. Bob will having out on the floor all weekend promoting the film’s release on Amazon and getting in some Pinball.
SPECIAL GUEST:
Drew Robishaw
Drew played one game of Stern's Stranger Things for a new Guinness World Record of 62 hours and 20 minutes, and streamed it all live on Twitch.
SPECIAL GUEST:
John Hancock
John is a longtime collector and publisher of video games with a comprehensive video game collection spanning all generations. As one of the original organizers of the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, John went on to establish a YouTube channel where he uploads weekly content that covers everything from Atari to Xbox. He also loves to support the indie and homebrew scene including showcasing his own published video games.