Utah Retro GameXpo coming to Layton in August
Photo supplied, Tracy Charlton
The Utah Retro Game Swap in September 2023. The event was the precursor to the Utah Retro GameXpo coming to the Davis Conference Center in August.LAYTON — “Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle,” “It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this,” and “Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President?” — these are the siren calls for retro video game aficionados.
Next month, enthusiasts from around the region will descend upon the Davis Conference Center en masse to answer those calls.
On August 9-10, the venue will host the Utah Retro GameXpo, an evolution of the retro gaming events organized by Tracy Charlton — proprietor of Layton’s Minus World Games — in recent years.
Charlton started out with a gaming swap meet in a tent on the lot behind his store, located at 58 W. Gentile Street.
“That one, I wasn’t expecting a lot of people,” Charlton said. “It was about a thousand people that showed up. I was stressed and there was anxiety and everything. But … it was successful.”
Now, Charlton’s homegrown gamer gathering has the feel of a full-on pop culture convention. His fourth event, which was held last September, drew triple the amount of the first one, and this year’s expo could be the biggest to date.
The convention floor will be covered with 180-plus tables and booths, including more than 100 vendors peddling old favorites from consoles like the Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii and beyond.
And while such things are typically thought to fall solely within the purview of Gen Xers and millenials, Charlton says that more and more young people are taking up the retro gaming hobby.
“That stuff, older, my generation still collects it. Younger kids are starting to collect that and play it,” he said. “They want to play it more than anything; more than just have it sit on their shelves.”
They’ll have the opportunity to do just that at the Utah Retro GameXpo, where there will be arcade free play, a museum featuring classic consoles and computers and also Retro World Series tournaments for games like Super Mario Kart, Halo 2, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Tetris and more.
The event will also feature a multitude of panels and special guests, including actors Ho-Sung Pak, Paul Niemeyer, Daniel Pesina, Carlos Pesina and Elizabeth Malecki from the original Mortal Kombat, voice actors Cassandra Lee Morris, Sarah Anne Williams and Sean Chiplock and YouTubers John Riggs and AbdallahSmash, to name a few.
Additionally, there will be cosplay contests, an auction and a canned food drive.
During the pandemic, retro gaming became a pricy hobby for people looking for something to do or collect while lockdowns were happening, particularly in the latter case. However, prices are normalizing and the hobby remains fairly accessible for newbies.
“If you want a Nintendo and you want Super Mario Bros., you’re under $100 for doing that,” Charlton said. “Most NES games are $5 to $15 and some of the better ones are around $20 to $25. … It just depends on what you want to play and how you want to play it. There’s a lot of good options and it’s not too expensive.”
To see a full event schedule or to purchase tickets, go to https://utahretrogamexpo.com/. Admission is free for kids age 6 and under.
