Life - Southeast Game Exchange! Yay!

It's finally here! The Southeast Game Exchange started today (ending tomorrow). Thanks to some creative saving, trading in, and art commissioning, I'd managed to get a two-day pass in advance, as well as have some spending money. Part of me wishes it was just a LITTLE bit later so that I could have gotten my first paycheck, but it still worked out.

I must say, I think I liked the venue better than previously. It seemed like there was more room - although it was hard to tell when the corridors were full of people at the beginning. Also, I appreciate the reasonably priced concessions that were available. There were a lot of tables and video games to look at, as well as a few art tables. Part of me regrets not having a table this year, but it was nice to be free to walk around and attend the panels at my leisure.

Speaking of which, I went to two today: one by a voice actor and another by some cosplay ladies. Both were fairly entertaining and/or informative. I actually entered the cosplay contest in my green jacket, dress shirt, tie and glasses; it was probably too weak even for the 'novice' category. I'm definitely looking forward to the speedrunning panel tomorrow.

On the other hand, I did win an item; the door prize I won is an N64 game called Shadow Man. I've never heard of it, but it was nice to win something.

I regret being too intimidated to try playing the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to try and beat the time best - it was one of the tournaments going on, and the only game there that I actually have any experience or skill in. Oh well! The time was pretty low anyway.

I never know what I want looking around a large collection of games like that; one thing'll remind me that I want a wired Xbox 360 controller, or an NES Mega Man will remind me that it'd be cool to find the Genesis collection one day. I think the key is to have a larger budget than I have right now, as well as a wish list and a pad of paper to write down if I want to compare prices. In fact, I can still do the latter.

Despite being terrible at them and not having my NES with me, I am enamored with the idea of getting an NES Mega Man game. Most of the ones I saw were around $30, which is almost all the money I have available. Maybe tomorrow I'll see something that I missed, or something that catches my eye more. We'll see.

I even got to see a college acquaintance!

It was a nice time.

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Image source: southeastgameexchange.com