I attended Zapcon 3.0 (its third year) at the Mesa Convention Center after being held at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Phoenix its first two years. Needless to say the move was great for the con in terms of space constraints. Crowded aisles of pinball players no longer existed and much space was available to maneuver around. It will be interesting to see if attendance was effected at all because of moving away from a centralized location in the city.
The selection of arcades and pinballs were fantastic. As expected, some of these would stop working (some of these machines are extremely old) but someone was always nearby to work on the non functioning machines. I spent most of my time playing pinball because that is an experience that can’t be replicated at home. When I needed somewhere to sit for a moment to upload pictures or check Twitter, the Atari and Nintendo lounge was the perfect place. Plenty of tables and chairs for you to hang out or have somewhere to enjoy your lunch. The room also featured bean bags and a few sofas where you could play your choice of Atari games or Nintendo games. I uploaded two quick videos of walking the floor on Youtube here and here.
My only issue with the con wasn’t really of the fault of Zapcon: the sign up process for the arcade tournaments (not pinball which was handled by Zapcon I believe) was a little unorganized and hard to determine who to ask. It should have been one dedicated person with a clip board or something of the sorts.
Enjoy the photos and if this looks like something you wish you had a attended then don’t forget about StarFighters Arcade in Mesa which should be able to hold you over until Zapcon returns in 2016.
Legion of Sand 