Replay FX is like a dream. Walking into that room at the top of the escalator in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center seriously felt like some dreams I had; I had never seen so many flickering neon lights, machines casting shadows across the walls of those who stood before them to defeat aliens, blast gangsters, solve puzzles, and outrace ace speedsters of ages past. I had never been to Replay FX before, and I remember seeing it advertised online a few years ago without really knowing what it was.
Here's a primer - Replay FX is a huge gaming convention in Pittsburgh that takes place in the late summer. I believe it started in 2015, but the organization that runs it, the Replay Foundation, has been around since 2012 with the intent of preserving pinball and arcade machines. The Replay Foundation also runs the Professional & Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA) tournaments which were originally founded in the 1980s. In addition to hundreds of arcade and pinball games, Replay FX also offers tabletop gaming and console gaming. It's basically got something for everyone.
I went to Replay FX on Saturday, August 3rd with my partner Kaiti, and I returned for a short time on Sunday, August 4th, alone. Like I said, walking into that room was magical. We were greeted by newer Japanese arcade machines full of rhythm and multiplayer. Beyond, there was just so much to do; it was hard to take it all in at once, as Replay FX took up almost the entire second floor of the convention center. There was even a Ferris wheel.
The first thing to do was to visit the Warp Zone booth, as I wanted to meet up with the owner, Carey, to get the copy of Gradius III and IV he was holding for me. Though there weren't hundreds of booths, there were enough that Kaiti and I got lost trying to find Carey's booth. We passed tables of 3D pixel art, arcade marquees, Atari computers, board games (from the store I got my first Magic: the Gathering booster packs and 3.5 edition Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, Game Masters), pins, magnets, plush Pac-Men, and tons of console games. We even saw another copy of Gradius III and IV, but it wasn't from Warp Zone and was in mediocre condition. I finally got directions from an over-heated Ninja Turtle in a Ghostbusters outfit, and Gradius III and IV was mine at last!
We walked around the vendor area a bit after we played some games. Kaiti got two packs of FernGully trading cards, and I ended up with some really weird Atari stuff that I had never seen before. I haven't got a chance to play any of it, as we just moved and have to set everything back up, but I'm excited to try Sewer Sam, Cosmic Commuter, Kool-Aid Man, and the others. On Sunday I ended up buying a neat looking game, Shark Attack, only to realize that I already own and seriously dislike it. I'd say Shark Attack is probably one of the worst games I've ever played. At least I have another variant of it now with a great cover?
The arcade selection was great. Kaiti and I both played many different games, some together and some apart. We met up with her friends after being there for a few hours as well and played some games together. Black Widow is a 1982 game from Atari that I never played before. It was pretty cool, and I liked the vector graphics. The controls are a bit stiff, but the frantic shooting action is great. Another game that we tried was Magical Truck Adventure, which we had a lot of trouble playing. This is a 1998 game from Sega where two characters are moving a handcar down a track. It reminded me of Love Love Truck. We couldn't really get the controls right. I played Atari's 1987 game, RoadBlasters, for probably 40 minutes, getting all the way to level 47. I had to run to the bathroom before I was able to beat the game, and somebody spilled a drink near the cab too. It got tiresome to play for so long, but it was great. I got pretty far in Virtua Fighter 2 but couldn't beat Kage. I had only played Virtua Fighter 4 before, and apparently, I had picked the same character, Lion, in both games. Being used to Tekken way before any Virtua Fighter game, this one played a little slower than I liked, but it was still cool.
Between messing around with Time Crisis, Pop'n'Music, and F-Zero AX, Kaiti and I also played some pinball games. I am no expert in the pinball world, but I enjoyed what I played. We tried out Star Trek, Gorgar, and Jokerz!. Some were hard; some were manageable. I had the most fun with Title Fight, a boxing-themed machine where two boxers duke it out depending on the player's actions on the pinball field. On the other side of the room, tournament players would go on to final rounds in the morning. I had fun just playing the games.
I didn't do much with the other events going on. I could hear Bit Brigade and Flashback playing rocking tunes as Kaiti and I tried to score goals in Pigskin 621 AD, a medieval football game. Tabletop gamers held cards and dice outside, and I considered joining them. I was too invested in my Blasteroids game to do so though. I didn't mess with any console games, failing to much at their arcade counterparts in Truxton and Vs. Castlevania. There was way too much at Replay FX to do it all in under two days, even with the short lines.
I had so much fun at Replay FX. I got to play so many games that I had never played before and others that I love, the environment was cool, and the vendors had great stuff. I'll be there next year for sure, and I'll have more time without being in the middle of moving. Replay FX isn't the cheapest convention (it's over $100 for the full weekend), but going for the whole day on Friday or Saturday is worth your $30-ish. I'll be there for sure, and maybe I'll see you at the CarnEvil machine.
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