Daniel Pesina

Mortal Kombat: Johnny Cage, Sub-Zero, Scorpion

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Master Daniel Pesina has been studying martial arts since he was 10, when his two older brothers introduced him to Judo. He has trained under many masters including Guo Jian Hua (Indoor student of Wen Jingming and Lui Yuhua), Zhu Baozhen (Luo Chengli, He Zhong Xiang, He Zhong Qi), Hu Jianqiang (Shaolin Temple movie fame), Wai Lun Choi (Lui He Ba Fa grandmaster), and Lin Jian Hua (head judge for international Wushu federation), to name a few. Master Pesina stepped into movies as a Foot Soldier in 1991’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze, and this led to other opportunities including the video game industry. He is best known for Mortal Kombat, where he not only portrays multiple characters: Johnny Cage, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile, Smoke and Noob Saibot, but also helped develop the characters and gameplay (including fatalities).

Ho-Sung Pak

Mortal Kombat: Liu Kang, Shang Tsung

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Ho-Sung Pak, well known for his role in the Mortal Kombat video game series as Liu Kang, is a martial artist, actor, stunt performer, choreographer, writer and producer with a long list of titles under his belt including Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and TMNT III, Drunken Master II and many more. Ho-Sung began acting after he was approached at a martial arts tournament by some people from the Ninja Turtles franchise and asked him to audition in LA. The rest is history, Ho-Sung landed the role as Raphael in TMNT II and went on to do motion caption acting the Mortal Kombat video game series after that. He continues to work in the industry as an actor, writer and choreographer, even working with Madonna on her Drowned World tour.

Elizabeth Malecki

Mortal Kombat: Sonya Blade

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Elizabeth Malecki is an actress, martial artist and dancer best known for her role as Sonya Blade in the game Mortal Kombat. Sonya was a last-minute addition to the game after the developers were given more time and budget and they decided that Mortal Kombat needed a female character to balance out the game. After Mortal Kombat, Liz worked as an RN at the Mayo Clinic and is an avid animal advocate. Since retirement from the Mayo Clinic, she occasionally tours video game conventions with the rest of the original Mortal Kombat crew.

Carlos Pesina

Mortal Kombat: Raiden

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Carlos Pesina, like his brother Daniel, has been a lifelong practitioner of martial arts and continues to practice and teach to this day. Martial arts also led Carlos into acting with a role in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III as a stunt double and eventually to motion capture acting in video games. Carlos is one of the frontrunning developers of motion capture technology as well. Carlos has been a part of the Mortal Kombat franchise from the very beginning, portraying Lord Raiden, working alongside his brother and friends to help develop one of the most groundbreaking fighting games of all time. Carlos continued working on Mortal Kombat at NetherRealm Studios as an actor, motion capture artist and animator until his retirement in 2022.

Phil Moore

Nickelodeon Arcade

Appearing: Saturday (and maybe Sunday)

Emmy Award winning host Phil Moore has a career which spans over 25 plus years. He is best known as the host of Nick Arcade and You’re On at Nickelodeon. During his time at Nickelodeon, Phil was a guest star on the pilot of All That and made over 25 appearances on Figure It Out before co-hosting The Big Help and The Nick Live Tour. His television producer credits include episodes for MrBEAST, Nickelodeon, Hulu, Twitch and most recently CBS and NBC.
Phil Moore may only be available on Saturday! TBA

Samantha Kelly

Super Mario Bros: Princess Peach, Toad

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

She's been falling into boiling lava and dodging shells for the last decade. Samantha Kelly is a voice actor and radio personality who has played Princess Peach and Toad since 2007. She's been playing characters in video games since 2003, including "Sunny Day" the sports announcer in the Backyard Sports series for kids. Born in Kenya, she's lived all over the world, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Germany. She loves doing games that cross borders and taking down bad guys without messing up her hair.

Autograph $40
Selfie $40
Combo $60

Laura Faye Smith

Super Mario Bros: Princess Rosalina

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Laura Faye Smith is an LA-based voice actor, best known for voicing Princess Rosalina for Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers games (starting with Super Mario 3D World in 2013) and Noelle in Genshin Impact. She has also voiced Kana (male) for Nintendo's English cast of Fire Emblem Fates, Tamara "Meds" Malari in the ongoing sci-fi audiodrama The Sojourn, as well as numerous characters for Mad Head Games. She has done an extensive amount of commercials, dubbing, theatre, and audiobooks. She appeared as DeEtta Calvert on NBC's Grimm, and has also appeared in TNT's Leverage, Brat TV's Chicken Girls, and Investigation Discovery's Betrayed and Stranger Among Us.

Autograph $40
Selfie $40
Combo $60

Kenny James

Super Mario Bros: Bowser

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Kenny is best known as the voice of Bowser in the Nintendo Super Mario Bros franchise with over 35 title credits. He has been providing the voice and personality of Bowser since Super Mario Strikers in 2005. Other voice work includes Zingo, a story telling dragon for a children’s program, narration and audiobooks. While he currently lives in Dallas working in voice-over, Kenny was also a prolific theater actor performing in musicals, dramas and comedies, in the Puget Sound area.

Autograph $40
Selfie $40
Combo $60

Mike Vaughn

Super Mario Bros: Iggy Koopa, Ludwig von Koopa

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Odds are high that you’ve heard Mike’s voice somewhere (extra points if you seen him on-camera), but just to be sure here’s an obnoxious list of the credits you might recognize: Iggy Koopa & Ludwig von Koopa from many Nintendo titles, Spider-man in Web of Shadows, any number of zombies from Back 4 Blood, Marvel’s What if…?, and Call of Duty: World at War. There’s also Jasper Sitwell in Marvel’s Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell, various voices in games like Lost Ark, Genshin Impact, Ice Scream 2 thru 4, Final Fantasy: Type 0 and Mobius, Rise of Nightmares, or even as Maryman on GTA: San Andreas. The full list of Mike’s work can be found on IMDB, and more fun clips at mikevaughn.com!

Carrie Tahquechi

Tempest 2000: Voices

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

A seasoned Bay Area drivetime radio personality and commercial spot specialist, Carrie Tahquechi made the transition to video game voiceover work by lending her special voice talent to iconic titles like Tempest 2000, Redline: Gang Warfare 2066, and Blue Lightning for Atari and Accolade.

Resident Evil Crew

Hope Levy, Heidi Anderson, Peter Jessop, Joe Whyte

Voice Actors

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Come and meet Hope Levy (Rebecca Chambers), Heidi Anderson (Jill Valentine), Peter Jessop (Albert Wesker), Joe Whyte (Chris Redfield) - the voices from the 2002 GameCube smash hit Resident Evil! They'll be doing autographs and pictures as well, so bring your items! These awesome guys are lots of fun, also check out our announcement video!

Prices for Hope Levy are:
Photo $40
Autograph (8x10 print) $40
Combo $60
Video games signed $50
Funko pop signed $60
Video $50
We don't know the prices for the other crew members yet, but they will likely be similar.

J.S. Gilbert

Sweet Tooth and many others

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

J.S. Gilbert has had a prolific career voicing characters in over 25 video games. Best known for his Sweet Tooth work in Twisted Metal: Black (2001), Twisted Metal (2012) and All-Stars Battle Royale (2012) he has also done Clyde in The Walking Dead (2012), multiples characters in Cel Damage (2001) and Astaroth in Soulcalibur II (2002). His ability to create a wide range of very different and memorable voices has made him a fan-favorite!

Paul Eiding

Actor and Voice Actor

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Paul has done an amazing amount of work. From TV acting (Star Trek TNG, Cheers, ER, The Pretender etc.), animation (The Tick, Ben 10, Avatar: The Last Airbender etc.), movie voices (Treasure Planet, Finding Nemo, The Iron Giant etc.) to voices in video games (Metal Gear Solid, MGS 2 - 4, MGS The Twin Snakes, Fallout 3 and 4, Skyrim, Starcraft etc.) he has acted in hundreds of productions! His passion to bring each of the diverse characters to live and instill them with a unique personality has made him a legend.

Tim Kitzrow

Mr. Boomshakalaka

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Tim Kitzrow is the iconic voice of your favorite sports franchises: NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, NHL Hitz and MLB Slugfest - and over a dozen classic pinball games. With NBA JAM, which grossed over $2 BILLION to date, Kitzrow introduced BOOMSHAKALAKA to the NBA lexicon and earned pop culture immortality. His hilarious panels are the stuff of legends, laughter guaranteed!

Jeff Libengood

Guile (Live Action)

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Jeff Libengood has had many accomplishments from his 38 years in Japan. Most notably, his time with Capcom as the first live-action Guile. Making his convention debut at PRGE, Jeff will share amazing stories including starring in the Japanese version of the  "Rocky Horror Picture Show", various Japanese shows and his time as a strength and conditioning coach for a major Japanese baseball team! SONIC BOOM

Signed 8x10 - $30
Selfie - $20
Combo - $40
Video shout - $25
Posters - $40
Autograph on game - $50
30th anniversary poster - $50

Sam Irvin

Hollywood Filmaker and Author

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Hollywood filmmaker / author / journalist Sam Irvin has directed over 50 movies and TV shows, including ELVIRA'S HAUNTED HILLS, OBLIVION, MAGIC ISLAND, GUILTY AS CHARGED, CHRISTMAS LAND and DANTE'S COVE. He co-executive produced Bill Condon’s Oscar-winning GODS AND MONSTERS; worked as Brian De Palma’s assistant on THE FURY and DRESSED TO KILL; and was the historical consultant on Liza Minnelli’s Tony Award-winning Broadway show LIZA’S AT THE PALACE. Sam authored the acclaimed biography KAY THOMPSON: FROM FUNNY FACE TO ELOISE (Simon & Schuster). He formed his own indie publishing imprint, Knuckle Samwitch Books, and through that enterprise has authored the children’s book parody SAM'S TOILET PAPER CAPER!; the novel ORBGASM: AN EROTIC PULP SCI-FI SATYRICON; the coming-of-age memoir I WAS A TEENAGE MONSTER HUNTER!; and the comprehensive “making of” coffin-table tome THE EPIC SAGA BEHIND “FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY”.
Sam has won six Rondo Awards, the 2023 Queer Screams Film Festival Career Achievement Award, and the 2023 Tod Slaughter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror. Sam and his husband Gary Bowers reside in Horrorwood, Karloffornia.

Resident Evil Crew

Charlie Kraslavsky, Eric Pirius, Greg Smith

Resident Evil Actors

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

We are pleased to announce a very special trio of Resident Evil talent!
Charlie Kraslavsky played the 'Chris Redfield' visuals in the live-action sequences of the original 1996 Resident Evil release. In addition, Charlie has also appeared in many Japanese films and projects.
Eric Pirius played the 'Albert Wesker' visuals in the live-action sequences for the 1996 release. He also has done lots of voice work as well.
Gregory "Greg" Smith is the actor who played 'Barry Burton' (visuals) in the live-action sequences of the game, and he rounds out our infernal trio of freshly added Resident Evil alumni.

Signed 8x10 - $40
Selfie - $20
Combo - $50
Video shout - $40
Autograph on games/toys - $60
Special group photo ops - $100

Group photo op times:
Saturday
11:30am - 12: 00pm
2:00pm - 2:30pm
4:30pm - 5:00pm
Sunday
11:30am - 12:00pm
3:00pm - 3:30pm (after panel)

Dan Molina

Dragon's Lair: Dirk the Daring

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Dan was the voice actor in the famous arcade smash hit "Dragon's Lair. Besides being "Dirk the Daring" he also voiced Fish out of Water of the Chicken Little franchise and others. Dan also did sound work for Disney's The Lion King and many feature films and projects by Don Bluth Studios: All Dogs Go to Heaven, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, The Road to El Dorado, Monsters at Work, Cats Don't Dance, Space Ace and The Pagemaster.

Autograph $40
Selfie $40
Combo $60

Lorna Cook

Space Ace: Kimberly

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Lorna voiced plucky "Kimberly" in the laserdisc-based arcade hit Space Ace. She also directed of "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron", nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and winner of four Annie Awards. Her extensive credits as an animator include "The Land Before Time" and the Universal Picture's "An American Tail". Ms. Cook was an animator on two Academy Award-winning films from Walt Disney Pictures "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King". Ms. Cook spent several years as a valued story artist at Disney as well, including the position of key story artist on "The Lion King", "Mulan", and was co-head of Story on DreamWorks "The Prince of Egypt".

Autograph $40
Selfie $40
Combo $60

Jeff Etter

Space Ace: Ace

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Jeff voiced hero "Ace" in the laserdisc-based arcade hit Space Ace. He is also known for lots of animation-related work on such stunning movies like "The Secret of NIMH", "Space Jam", "Quest for Camelot" and the phenomenal "The Iron Giant, as well as the quirky "Osmosis Jones". He has also worked in TV animation: "Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam", "All Grown Up!" and "Larry Boy: The Cartoon Adventures".

Autograph $40
Selfie $40
Combo $60

Bethan Walker

Final Fantasy XIV: Alisaie

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Bethan Walker is a stage, film, and voice actress best known in gaming spheres as the voice of Final Fantasy XIV’s sharp-witted Scion of the Seventh Dawn, Alisaie. Bethan began playing the character in Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward and has become a fan favorite ever since. Before Final Fantasy, Bethan trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Be sure to give her a warm PRGE welcome, as this is her first West Coast U.S. convention!

Autographs: $40 each
Photos at the table will be: $40
Autograph and photo combo: $70
Phone calls, videos, and voice recordings: $60 each.

Colin Ryan

Final Fantasy XIV: Alphinaud

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Colin’s first foray into video game voice acting was with 2011’s The Last Story for the Nintendo Wii, where he voiced the fire-wielding young mage, Yurick. Since then, he has appeared in Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward and each expansion since, voicing the ever charismatic Alphinaud. Colin is also providing his voice to Hades II, as Apollo, which is currently in early access.

Autographs: $40 each
Photos at the table will be: $40
Autograph and photo combo: $70
Phone calls, videos, and voice recordings: $60 each.

Cam Clarke

TMNT: Leonardo, MGS: Liquid Snake, and much more

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Cam Clarke is a prolific American voice actor and singer, well known for his work in animation and video games. Clarke is well known for providing the voices of Leonardo in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series and Shotaro Kaneda in the 1989 original English-dub of Akira. He often voices teenagers and other similarly young characters. He also voices Liquid Snake in the Metal Gear video game series. Cam began his acting career performing with his family on the musical variety show, The King Family . He continued to perform with his family on various TV specials until the 1980s when he got his first voice acting roles in the animated shows Snorks and Robotech. Clarke was taught by established voice actor Michael Bell. Clarke is best known for his roles as Kaneda in Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira (Streamline-dub), Max Sterling and Lancer in the 1985 Robotech series, Rigadon in Around the World with Willy Fog, Dogtanian in Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds, Leonardo and Rocksteady in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, and Liquid Snake in the popular Metal Gear Solid series of video games. Clarke is also the voice of Prince Adam and He-Man in the 2002 version of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe TV series. He is also known to RPG fans as Ryudo in Grandia II, Kratos Aurion in "Tales of Symphonia" and Will Raynard in "Tales of Legendia." He voices the male Blood Elf in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. He uses a voice similar to Liquid Snake's for this portrayal. He is also many of the male characters on Monster High, and the skater cartoon, Grinders. To date, Clarke has voiced over one hundred titles. Cam is easily recognizable by his distinct voice which can fluctuate from adolescent sounding (Leonardo) to deep and soothing (Kratos) and to a faux British (Liquid Snake). Also acts as Pavel - In the popular Neverwinter Nights PC release.

Autographs: $50 each
Photos with Cam at his table will be: $30
Autograph and photo combo: $70
Phone calls, videos, and voice recordings: $60 each.

Nolan Bushnell

Co-Founder of Atari

Appearing: Sunday ONLY

The Portland Retro Gaming Expo is honored to welcome one of the founding fathers of the global video game industry. In 1972, Nolan Bushnell created an industry when he co-founded Atari and gave the world Pong, the first blockbuster video game. Today his design credo—that games should be “easy to learn and difficult to master”—is inspiring a new generation of developers. A prolific entrepreneur, Bushnell has started more than 20 companies, including Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theater; Catalyst Technologies, the first Silicon Valley incubator; Etak, the first in-car navigation system; and uWink, the first touchscreen ordering, entertainment and check-out system at restaurant tables. In the process, he pioneered many of the workplace innovations that have made Silicon Valley a long-standing magnet for creative talent. Bushnell was the first and only person ever to hire Steve Jobs, which he details in his and co-author Gene Stone’s 2013 book, Finding the Next Steve Jobs. In October 2023 he released his second book, Shaping the Future of Education, which he co-wrote with Dr. Leah Hanes.
He is currently chairman of ExoDexa, a gamified education company, and an advisor to companies in the gaming and eSports spaces. Additionally, he sits on several boards, focusing on games, robotics and other advanced tech. A true icon of the digital revolution, Bushnell was named one of “50 People Who Changed America” by Newsweek. A biopic about Bushnell, tentatively titled “Atari,” was acquired by Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company and is in pre-production.
Nolan appears only on Sunday!
Nolan autographs are free but limited to ONE per person.

Jeff Minter

Llamasoft, Designer/Developer

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Legendary game designer and programmer Jeff Minter is coming to this year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo. Starting in 1979 on the Commodore PET with the game 'Deflex' Jeff created many of of early home computer classics like 'Gridrunner' and 'Attack of the Mutant Camels' for the popular machines from Atari, Commodore, Sinclair etc. He also created console classics like 'Tempest 2000' for the Atari Jaguar, 'Tempest 3000' for the Nuon and continues to write console games to this day. He is also passionate about light synthesizers for home computers and consoles such as the Jaguar CD, the Nuon and the Xbox 360. His modern games have a distinctly psychedelic retro-flair and Jeff was recently feature in Digital Eclipse's 'Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story' compilation.

Scott Adams

Adventure International, Clopas, Designer/Developer

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Inspired by mainframe computer software trail-blazing game designer and programmer Scott Adams created the first text-adventure game on microcomputers in 1978. These new interactive fiction adventures became so successful that he co-founded the company Adventure International and eventually released 18 games on a wide range of popular computers from Atari, Apple, Commodore, TI, Sinclair, BBC, Acorn, IBM PC and others. Later software included graphic adventure games and action games as well. In 2013 Scott released a bible-based text adventure game 'The Inheritance' and in 2016 he founded a new adventure game company 'Clopas' and released 'Escape The Gloomer' based on the 'Redwall' series of children's fantasy novels.

Rawson Stovall

The Vid Kid

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Rawson Stovall was the first regular weekly reviewer of video games with his nationally-syndicated newspaper column, "The Vid Kid," from 1982-1992. Rawson has appeared on numerous television shows including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Good Morning America, and the CBS Morning News. Articles about Rawson have appeared in the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. His 1984 book "The Vid Kid's Book of Home Video Games" was published by Doubleday.
Rawson was also the emcee of the event where Nintendo first announced / introduced the NES to the North American press. Since 1994 he has been an award-winning, multi-platinum-selling producer and designer with stops at EA, Activision, Sony, MGM, and Concrete Software. He has worked with brands such as The Sims, Pitfall, The Godfather, Medal of Honor, PGA TOUR Golf, NHL Hockey, and James Bond. His latest game, "My Arcade Empire," a story-based mobile idle game about a 1980s-era mall arcade was an Apple Game of the Day winner.

James 'Purple' Hampton

Atari, Producer

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

James began his career in video games as a playtester for LucasFilm Games. James worked on Monkey Island 1 and 2, Star Wars NES, and Night Shift. After a brief stint at Maxis, he was hired by the Atari Corporation as a Producer, where he oversaw games in development for the handheld Lynx and then led the design and production of 'Alien Versus Predator' for the Jaguar console.
After helping design games for PlayStation, James moved toward the internet, joining Macromedia and was part of the original shockwave.com launch team, accepting the 2000 People's Choice Webby Award for 'Best Game Site'. Since then, he co-founded a downloadable games company, worked on a social MMOG, produced games for i0s and Android, as well designing and producing award-winning educational game titles for LeapFrog, based on the Pixar movies 'Ratatouille' and 'Wall-E'. James currently enjoys life in Eugene Oregon.

Howard Scott Warshaw

Atari, Author

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Howard Scott Warshaw is a video game pioneer and a Portland Retro Gaming Expo fan favorite! He created several of Atari’s most famous and infamous products. Now he is the Silicon Valley Therapist, healing the emotional wounds of hi-tech leaders and their partners. In his latest book, “Once Upon ATARI: How I made history by killing an industry,” Howard shares his unique perspectives on the birth, death and resurrection

Tim Lapetino

Atari, Author

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Tim Lapetino is an award-winning creative director, writer, and geek culture historian. For nearly 25 years he has helped brands tell compelling stories through design and creativity, while connecting deeply to their passionate fans. He is the author of the best-selling book, Art of Atari, and co-author of Pac-Man: Birth of an Icon. His work has been featured in more than a dozen books and magazines, and has drawn worldwide press coverage, including The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Wired, Forbes, IGN, Polygon, SyFy Wire, MAXIM, Kotaku, and more. His books have been published in five languages. (He also owns a super rare environmental Discs of Tron arcade cabinet!)

Ted Tahquechi

Atari, Producer and Voice Talent

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Ted Tahquechi worked as a Senior Producer for Atari, Accolade and Mattel Toys, publishing 35 titles to market for consoles, handhelds, and PC. Ted created the infamous Kasumi Ninja for the Jaguar, was the associate producer and the male voice talent for Tempest 2000, and later created the Test Drive: Off-Road franchise for PlayStation and PC. Ted finished his years in the gaming industry as a Senior Producer for Mattel Toys for their Hot Wheels Division.

Faran Thomason

Atari, Sega, Nintendo, Developer/Designer/Producer

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Faran has worked for many legendary video game and toy companies - Atari, Sega, MGA and Nintendo. While at Atari he worked on Lynx classics like Lemmings and Malibu Bikini Volleyball. At Nintendo Faran contributed to many classic Game Boy Color games such as R-Type and Bionic Commando. Faran has also developed many other handheld games including pint sized versions of Pac-Man, Galaxian, and Missile Command. He has also created virtual pets and pocket-sized versions of Shrek and Bratz LCD Games. He also appears in the documentary portions of Atari 50.

Steve Mitchell

Atari, MGA, Hasbro, Developer/Engineer

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Steve is a software and hardware development wizard who has created a variety of games such as the Atari Lynx cult classics Kung Food, the long-lost impressive platformer HOTDOG and the rockin' Fat Bobby. He also worked on a variety of handheld obscurities like MGA's award-winning Miuchiz and Hasbro's wireless messaging device E-chat. Steve has also done engineering work on next-generation video game controllers.

Paul E. Niemeyer

Artist

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Fitting with the presence of the Mortal Kombat actors, we present Paul E. Niemeyer who is best known for being the artist of the first Mortal Kombat game cabinet, control panel, and header, including illustrating the Mortal Kombat logo. But Paul's artwork appears on dozens of other iconic and famous games as well. The most notable are TRON, Tapper, Satan's Hollow, Spy Hunter, Wacko, Super PacMan and many more!

Phillip Tanner

Creator/Producer

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Phillip Tanner is an Australian television and games producer with over 40 years of experience in both industries. In the early 1980s he joined forces with fellow television reporter Brett Clements to form 'A Couple 'A Cowboys Pty Ltd', a company that specialized in both games and television. Together they created a number of games including 'DARE', The Truth Hurts, A Bit Sketchy and The Video Boardgame Nightmare™/Atmosfear™ series. Nightmare™ (or Atmosfear™ as it was known in Europe) spawned three sequels and was distributed in Australia by Village Roadshow Entertainment and internationally by various board game companies such as Spears Games (Europe) and ChieftainGames in Canada/ North America. The next big hit was ATMOSFEAR™ -The Harbingers that was picked up globally by Mattel. This included the add-on game THE SOUL RANGERS. After the pair parted ways Phillip retained A Couple 'A Cowboys and all the rights to the games. He has subsequently joined forces with fellow producer Geoff Watson to create three new games in the Atmosfear brand and a Kickstarter relaunch of the original game. When he is not doing games, Phillip has produced/ executive produced and/ directed over 400 hours of broadcast television in the kids, lifestyle and factual genres winning a number of awards along the way.

Eugene Jarvis

Video Game Pioneer, President of Raw Thrills Inc.

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

A pioneer in arcade video games, Jarvis got his start working for Nolan Bushnell at Atari in 1977. Jarvis is best known for the hardcore classic arcade action videos: Defender (1980), Robotron: 2084 (1982), NARC (1988), and Smash TV (1990). These classic vids pioneered scrolling, computer synthesized sound tracks, particle effects, photo-realistic human and background digitization, and unprecedented levels of action and body count. In the ‘90s Jarvis created the arcade driving trilogy Cruis’n USA, Cruis’n World, and Cruis’n Exotica. Cruis’n combined hyper realistic digitized 3-D art with the emerging 3-D texture mapping and rendering tech to create the most successful arcade driving sim ever. In 2001, Jarvis founded Raw Thrills, Inc. studio to continue his passion of arcade video game creation. Raw Thrills today is one of the world’s leading developers of video arcade games. Current titles include Jurassic Park Arcade, Halo Fireteam Raven, Fast & Furious, SuperBikes 3, Big Buck Hunter Reloaded, and their latest motion sim Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR.

George Petro

Programmer at Midway, Founder of Play Mechanix

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

George Petro started his journey in the amusement industry as an arcade game technician in 1981. By 1983, he secured a job at Williams Electronics, affording him the opportunity to meet legendary game designer Eugene Jarvis. After several years climbing the ladder, he became the lead programmer on NARC, Williams' return to the video game market in 1987. He led the Midway video game department from 1991 to 1995 along with developing Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Revolution X. He left Midway in 1995 to start Play Mechanix, creators of the Big Buck Hunter franchise, NBA Superstars, Pulp Fiction Pinball, Minecraft Dungeons Arcade, Halo: Fireteam Raven, The Walking Dead Arcade, Terminator Salvation and much more. In 2006, Petro and Jarvis joined forces once again as Raw Thrills/Play Mechanix, merging their companies to form the world leader in the design, development and manufacturing of arcade video games.

Joshua Tsui

Director of the Insert Coin Documentary

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Joshua Tsui is the director of the documentary Insert Coin which was a selection for 2020 South By Southwest and other notable film festivals. Prior to that he worked in the videogames industry for over 25 years, working on major franchises such as the Mortal Kombat and Tony Hawk series. Companies he has worked for include Midway Games, Microsoft,and Activision. He was also the co-founder of independent developers Studio Gigante and Robomodo. He is currently the Director of Innovation at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.

Michael Witwer

Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, Lore & Legends

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Michael Witwer is a New York Times bestselling author known for the Hugo-nominated Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, the critically acclaimed Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons, and the bestselling Heroes’ Feast: The Official Dungeons & Dragons Cookbook. His most recent works include Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Visual Dictionary, Dungeons & Dragons: Lore & Legends, Heroes’ Feast: Flavors of the Multiverse, and his award-winning debut fantasy novel, Vivian Van Tassel and the Secret of Midnight Lake. He also stars on the eOne/Lionsgate cooking show Heroes' Feast, based on his book of the same name. Michael holds degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Chicago and resides in Chicago, Illinois, with his wife, two daughters, and two sons.

Kyle Newman

Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, Lore & Legends

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Kyle Newman is a Hugo-nominated, New York Times bestselling author and award-winning filmmaker who has directed numerous feature films including the Star Wars-fueled comedy Fanboys starring Kristen Bell and Seth Rogen, the action-comedy Barely Lethal starring Samuel L. Jackson and Hailee Steinfeld for A24 Films, and Lionsgate/Prime Video’s esports comedy 1UP starring Ruby Rose and co-directed the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons Documentary exploring the game's storied history for Hasbro Studios.
He has directed the music’s industry’s biggest stars including Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, and Katy Perry with his work garnering billions of views. He also produced the acclaimed documentaries A Disturbance In The Force about the making of the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special and Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made.
As an author, he is known for his work on the Hugo Award-nominated Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, the bestseller Heroes’ Feast: The Official Dungeons & Dragons Cookbook (which also spawned a cooking show) and their respective 2023 sequels Dungeons & Dragons: Lore & Legends and Heroes’ Feast: Flavors of the Multiverse. Newman, an honors graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of Film/Television and a member of the Directors Guild of America, resides in Los Angeles with his partner Cyn and his four children.

Jon Peterson

Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, Lore & Legends

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Jon Peterson studies the history of wargames and role-playing games. He is the author of Playing at the World (2012, revised edition 2024/5), The Elusive Shift (2020), and Game Wizards (2021). He also co-authored the Hugo Award finalist Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana (2018), the New York Times bestseller Heroes’ Feast: The Official Dungeons & Dragons Cookbook (2020), as well as Heroes’ Feast: Flavors of the Multiverse (2023), Lore & Legends (2023), and the Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons (2024). He furthermore contributes to academic anthologies on games and a variety of online periodicals.

Ralph D’Amato

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Producer

Appearing: Saturday

Ralph D’Amato started in production on the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game franchise where he was a producer on the first eight titles. One of the soundtracks he helped produce for the franchise won the first ever MTV Video Music Award for Video Game Soundtrack. Ralph became the Director of New Media for Tony Hawk Incorporated where he created one of the most-visited Action Sports websites on the internet, ShredOrDie.com. Recently Ralph produced his first film, the award-winning, full-length documentary Pretending I’m a Superman - The Tony Hawk Video Game Story, (THPSfilm.com), that tells the story of how skateboarding went mainstream. Ralph is currently the Director of Production for a video game startup called Playgig and hopes to continue his success in the video game industry.

Nolan Nelson

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Character Artist

Appearing: Saturday

Nolan Nelson has been working in the video games industry for over 20 years. He started his career in Video games as a Character Artist working on WCW "Mayhem" a wrestling game for PS1/N64. He later landed his dream Job at Neversoft Entertainment to work on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, where he grew his career from Character Artist to Art Director. He also had the privilege of helping to build the THPS Soundtrack. Nolan worked on nine THPS games including 2, 3, 4, THUG, THUG 2, American Wasteland, Project 8 and Proving Ground. He also worked on several Guitar Heroes including 3, World Tour, 5, Metallica, Band Hero and Warriors of Rock as well as Spider-Man PS1 and a COD NX1 prototype. He has continued his career working on Epic Skater 1 and 2, LEGO Hidden Side, Nickelodeon Kart Racers , NBA Ball Stars, Hotel Transylvania and a few other unreleased tiles . Nolan currently works for Playgig as an Art Director.

Chris Rausch

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Designer

Appearing: Saturday

Chris Raush is a 30+ year industry veteran. He Started at Virgin Interactive in 1993, before leaving to join Neversoft as one of the original developers of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise. He worked on game design, level design, and music, among others. Eventually, Chris left Neversoft and co-founded SuperVillain Studios — working with partners like Disney, Microsoft, and Sony. Currently Chris is the Studio Director for Nicalis, overseeing design and production for numerous projects, and involved in non-gaming projects like a VR experience for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia!

Darren Thorne

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Level Artist

Appearing: Saturday

Darren was born and raised in Alaska and started pursuing a degree in graphic design there, but finished college in New Mexico. He got his start in the games industry at American Laser Games in Albuquerque as an intern in the summer between his junior and senior years, where he continued working until after graduation. During his years in the video game industry, Darren worked at ALG, Novalogic, Digital Dialect, and eventually Neversoft. After working on the final Tony Hawk game in 2007, he left the industry to try new things. Nowadays he spends summers working on a log cabin in Alaska, and during the rest of the year, resides in California where he plays tennis, fixes an old house, and practices photography.

Gary Goldman

Dragon's Lair & Space Ace, Producer

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Gary was the producer of the ground-breaking arcade smash hits Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. These interactive animated movie games based on laserdiscs were a first of their kind in US arcades. Before video games, Gary worked in animation at Disney and was part of the famous trio of "Disney Defectors", together with Don Bluth and John Pomeroy, which founded Don Bluth Studios - where he worked on The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail and others, ending his animation movie work with the amazing Titan A.E.

Autograph $50
Selfie $50
Combo $80

Kelsey Lewin

Video Game Historian

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Kelsey Lewin is the co-owner of the famous Pink Gorilla Games and a part of the MinnMax content network. She has a history in history, previously serving as the co-director of The Video Game History Foundation and making video game history content on YouTube.
She is also an expert and avid collector of all things Wonderswan!

Johnny Millennium

Happy Console Gamer

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Johnny Millennium is the Happy Console Gamer on Youtube. He has one of the longest running retro video game shows on Youtube for over 16 years. Covering everything gaming from the oldest to the latest, Phantasy Star to the Ys series to the Shin Megami Tensei series.

Adrian Black

Adrian's Digital Basement

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Adrian Black has been fixing vintage computers on his YouTube channel "Adrian's Digital Basement" since 2016. He got his first computer, a Commodore VIC-20, in 1982 at the age of 7. This put him on a lifelong journey of tinkering and working with computers and technology which brings us today, where Adrian can often be found down in his basement making videos about troubleshooting and repairing broken vintage computers. Entirely self-taught, Adrian specializes in pinpointing exactly what is wrong with faulty computers and explaining to his viewers how they can use logical thinking to figure out what has failed on the system.

Paul Docherty

Film Director - "Heart Of Neon" documentary

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Paul Docherty is a documentary film editor whose work includes "Jodorowsky's Dune", released by Sony Pictures Classics, and "Facing Forward: A Student's Story" which still airs on national PBS. His animation work was featured in the documentaries “LENNONYC” and “Genesis: Sum Of The Parts”. In a previous life he was a video game graphics designer who worked on over twenty home computer and console software titles for international companies such as Activision, Acclaim, and Virgin Software. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
His first feature documentary as director is “Heart of Neon”, a film celebrating the love of making and playing arcade video games.

Andrea Subissati

Rue Morgue Magazine, Faculty of Horror Podcast

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Andrea Subissati is an award-winning writer, podcaster and content creator. Just don’t say her name five times in a mirror. In 2010, her master's thesis on the social impact of zombie cinema was published under the title When There’s No More Room In Hell: The Sociology of the Living Dead. Since then, she has been published in The Undead and Theology (2012), The Canadian Horror Film: Terror of the Soul (2015) Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television (2017) and Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in the Horror Film (2020). Andrea joined the staff of Rue Morgue magazine in 2014 and became Executive Editor in 2017. In addition to writing, she is co-host and producer of the award-winning Faculty of Horror Podcast with Alexandra West. She hosts Rue Morgue TV and has appeared in the horror documentary Why Horror? (2014), CTV’s Pop Life, Banger TV‘s Locked Horns and Hollywood Suite’s A Year In Film. Andrea stalks the streets of Toronto, Ontario, with her undead Pomeranian, Dante.

Adam Koralik

FigureItOutCast

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Adam Koralik is a content creator who has been producing videos for 13 years on YouTube. Whether he’s unboxing a PS5, cleaning and restoring a Sega Saturn, or just giving an engaging history lesson on previous console generations; Adam’s videos are a must-watch for any gamer. He features consoles from different generations of gaming and provides many videos detailing how to repair them. He even has whole videos with incredible access to one of a kind prototypes like the Sega Pluto and Nintendo PlayStation! Adam has also contributed to the YouTube channel “GameSocietyPimps” with work on Skyrim for Pimps, Christopher Walkenthrough, and Disneyland Adventures videos; and also contributed to “BlameSocietyFilms” with work on Chad Vader and Beer & Board Games. An avid game collector, Adam owns nearly every video game console ever made (including Japanese and European models).

Brett Weiss

Video Game Historian

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Gaming historian Brett Weiss has been a professional writer since 1997. He’s the author of 13 books, mostly about the NES, Super NES, Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Sega Genesis, and other retro games and gaming consoles. His latest book is The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1988-1998. He's also got a YouTube show, Tales from a Retro Gamer, and has been in various gaming documentaries. Weiss has written countless articles for numerous publications, including Game Informer, Fangoria, Filmfax, the Comics Buyer's Guide, and Old School Gamer, among many others. Weiss also has a national column in AntiqueWeek called The Pop Culture Collective.

G Gracin III

G To The Next Level

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

“G” Gracin, aka G to the Next Level, is a 25+ year retro gaming enthusiast. In addition to their YouTube Channel, G hosts regular live hangout streams on Twitch, is an official Capcom Creator, works with Sega for various charity efforts, and has been featured in Retro Gamer Magazine. Though G’s channels are about all retro gaming, they are a Sega Genesis fan first and is currently in a project called “Growing Up Genesis,” which involves G weekly livestreaming the entire US Genesis library from A-Z on Twitch, a YouTube compendium reviewing the entire library, and soon a coffee table book.

Pat Contri

Pat the NES Punk

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Pat Contri is a game historian, collector, and online content producer best known for Pat the NES Punk, Flea Market Madness, the Completely Unnecessary Podcast, and The Video Game Years. He has produced Nintendo guidebooks for the NES, SNES, and N64. Pat Contri celebrates 15 years of being a retro gaming YouTuber! Pat will discuss his history of being a retro gaming "influencer," talk about his projects and the new N64 book, do a Q&A, and maybe have a surprise or two, including the “famous” Play the Punk Challenge!

SHIRO! MEDIA GROUP

SEGA SATURN, SHIRO!

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

SHIRO! is the only podcast, website & fanzine completely dedicated to the SEGA SATURN! Since 2017, SHIRO! has spread that Saturn love far and wide to get more folks onboard with this amazing, yet underappreciated 32-Bit machine from the 5th console generation! From reviews & retrospectives to news about new Saturn products & fan projects, SHIRO! covers it all...

John Hancock

YouTuber, Helping with the Museum

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

The 'Immortal' John Hancock and the Portland Retro Gaming Expo go back a long way. Not only has John contributed to our show museum exhibitions for many years, he is also one of the most popular retro gaming YouTubers from the Pacific Northwest. On his channel he focuses on new retro releases and oddball and obscure systems. He is back at the Expo and will bring his latest games!

Metal Jesus Rocks

YouTuber

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

This long-haired metal rocker is one of the most popular retro gaming YouTubers from the Pacific Northwest and a fan favorite at PRGE. Over the years he has created tons of videos highlighting the forgotten (and often inexpensive!) gems on many of the past systems. MJR also brings gaming industry experience to the table, having worked for Sierra On-Line in the 90s. He is also known for his buying guides, covering everything from spotting fakes to game hunting tactics.

Radical Reggie

YouTuber

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Radical Reggie is an avid collector of various game types. He is especially a big fan of import gaming. Reggie is also a veteran of the U.S. Army where he served his country. Reggie continues to delight everyone that follows him with his knowledge of retro and current gaming while keeping it real and down to earth. He’s very proud of his great collection of games that he’s acquired throughout the years and is happy to share his passion for video games with the world.

Yasmina Ketita

Rue Morgue Magazine

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Yasmina Ketita is a Columnist and Host of The Rewind Zone for Rue Morgue Magazine. She’s also a VHS, '80s, and nostalgia connoisseur. At PRGE she will bust out the VCR and take us on a nostalgic look back with a presentation on all things VHS.

John Riggs

Rigg'd Games

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

John Riggs runs the popular Rigg'd Games YouTube channel. His tutorials on how to edit and modify NES games for beginners all the way to advanced modders are awesome and a huge hit! He also frequently covers how to troubleshoot and fix broken video games. Join him at PRGE!

Hosts from Debate This!, The Mass Effect Lorecast, The Witcher Lorecast, and Two Girls One Ship

A (Family) Feud Between Podcasts.

Appearing: Saturday and Sunday

Cyberpunk Lorecast hosts Jennasis and Toastie discuss the foundations of the past, the state of Night City today, and the news of the future for all things Cyberpunk. N7 Legend, aka Sam, is a journalist and the creator of the Mass Effect Lorecast, a podcast diving into the extensive lore around the Mass Effect series. Debate This! is a podcast debating the questions about comic books and video games that no one is asking. Things like “What’s the best Sonic game you can make from public domain literature?” or “How could a classic video game collectable become a nightmare cryptocurrency?” or “Which X-Men villain would make the best college roommate?” In this show, no one is right but someone is definitely wrong.