Retropalooza Houston

Retropalooza Houston was this past weekend, April 30 and May 1. I had a blast selling games, hanging out with friends (including Pat the NES Punk), and in general being surrounded with gaming goodness. Props to Billy and Jay, the Game Chasers, for putting on a successful show.

The highlight of the weekend for me was meeting this kid and his dad. The kid, who is "on the autism spectrum" and is easily distracted, discovered his dad's original Atari 2600 recently and has been obsessed with it. From the conversation we had, and from listening to them talk to each other, it's obvious they have been bonding over playing the games that dad grew up with and that the kid likes "better than PlayStation." He's a sharp kid (he was rattling off video game stats like crazy), but dad said he can hardly get him to read, so he bought a copy of my first book, which the kid seemed eager to own--they immediately began looking up titles they had played recently and ones that were for sale that they didn't know much about. Not only was it fun meeting them, it was gratifying to know that my book just might help the kid discover the love of reading.