We SCORED a GRAIL GAME At the 2023 Illinois GameCon!

In this episode, we visit the 2023 Illinois GameCon in Bloomington-Normal Illinois where we sold a lot of stuff, bought a couple of things, made some trades, gave some folks a few gifts, and we received an award. Let's take a look.

For the last several years, we have participated in the Bloomington-Normal GameCon. We went first as shoppers, and for the last 3 years, we've actually helped our local store, Live Action Games, run their booth and sold products ourselves. This year, we once again shared our booth with Live Action Games, but we also shared part of our booth with Robert from Gaming off the Grid. This year also marked a slight name change for the convention, as it is officially the largest gaming convention in the state of Illinois it is now officially the Illinois GameCon.

I have been so busy lately, as you probably have noticed by the inconsistent uploads to the channel. As such, I hadn't even thought of things that I was looking for or hunting for at the convention. Looking back to what I was hunting for at Midwest Gaming Classic in April 2023, I wanted to see if I could find any of the Rock Man games for the Game Boy, and that was really about it. If something caught my attention I was of course going to give it some consideration but that was the main thing I was on the hunt for. It wasn't until later that I thought that I should see if I could find any Jaguar games. Dummy.

The setup for the show started on Friday afternoon. My oldest daughter and her boyfriend were actually with me as she made a number of crocheted characters and figures that she wanted to sell at the show. They have both been with me at Midwest Gaming Classic, but this was the first time they would actually be vendors at a show.

After set up, we headed back home, about 45 minutes away. There we waited for Kris from Game Dad and Jay from Square Pegs to show up. We met up with them At a local pizzeria and then headed back to the house to decompress and just hang out. I don't get many people down into the game room, but with both these guys coming I knew I had some gifts to bestow upon them.

I often mock Kris that he does not have a JVC X'EYE, and recently I traded for a second one. The idea was to give it to Jay, and while he appreciated it, he wasn't really excited about it. What he was excited about was my Sega Nomad which I received as a gift from Vorenge several years ago. I didn't play it, and since it was such a generous gift to me I didn't feel right selling it, so it got gifted to Jay. Kris, unfortunately, well I gave him the X'Eye.

As Saturday morning rolled around we were out the door before 7:00 a.m. as there was a VIP early entry to the show at 8:00 I needed to be ready for. We made final tweaks to our displays and got ready for the guest to come out in. Before the flood of people, I did have a chance to visit one of my favorite vendors who always has amazing import titles on his table. His brother has been in Japan for a number of years, which is where he is able to get great titles and send them back over here. I ended up picking up three games from him, Rock Man 3 for the Game Boy, Bonk's Adventure for the Game Boy, and a Grail that I never thought that I would own. He had the Japanese version of DuckTales 2, and the US version goes for silly money. I was able to bundle a few things, traded one of my LED lights that I sell, and we walked away with great deals on all three. In fact, these were the only three games I picked up all day long.

Around 1:00 Adrian and I had to go to the main stage to receive our 2023 Superstars of gaming awards from Walter Day. It's a bit surreal to think that I am now a member of an exclusive club that includes some of my best friends. I've also been able to talk with Walter quite a bit in the past, and I've always enjoyed his company. To be able to receive this was quite the honor and I really appreciate it.

Our final trade of the day came with one of our favorite people. He had a number of wood art an gaming signs that I was really digging, especially the Super Mario Bros one. He had come to our booth to check out our wares and wanted one of our TurboGrafx 16 LED signs. We worked a trade where he got one of my signs and I got one of his, and we were both thrilled.

We talked to so many people throughout the day at our booth, and we had a great time. I think my oldest daughter learned quite a bit about what it's like to be a vendor at one of these shows, not just a shopper. But she's already talking about going to the next one, planning to tweak her designs and make new ones.

Thanks to everybody who put on this event, it was once again amazing and has me excited to go to a few more conventions later this year I hope.