ZapCon taps into vintage arcade-game revival, 4/18-19

In the early 1980s, America came down with a raging case of "Pac-Man Fever." And now it's having a relapse.

We're not just talking about the recent Google Maps gimmick. With Gen-Xers entering their prime years for disposable income and/or midlife crises, classic arcade games are undergoing a nostalgia-fueled revival.

Picking up on a trend in cities from Brooklyn to San Diego, Phoenix soon will get its first retro-arcade bar, the Cobra Arcade, with plans to open in early summer on Second Street in downtown Phoenix. And this weekend, the third annual ZapCon Arcade and Pinball Convention will cater to geeks of a certain age in Mesa with more than 200 cabinet and pinball games, plus an Atari Lounge and Nintendo Lounge for folks who miss their old-school home systems.

The event is organized by classic-game collectors Wes Cleveland and Zack Johnson, founders of the non-profit Classic Game Preservation Society.

"Zack and I went out to an event in Northern California called California Extreme, which is essentially what ZapCon is, only a lot bigger," says Cleveland, 40, an animator who lives in Phoenix.

"Zack wanted to buy some games for a home arcade, and that seemed like a good place to do it. So we drove out there with a U-Haul and just had a mind-blowing experience. We thought, 'How come no one is doing this in Arizona?' So we took it upon ourselves to do it."

After drawing more than 1,000 visitors last year, ZapCon is moving from the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel to the Mesa Convention Center. Expanded offerings include such top titles as Space Invaders, along with more obscure games, most of them on loan from private collectors.

"A lot of people want to play the classics that they grew up with, the Galagas and Pac-Mans and Donkey Kongs, but I really like the oddball stuff," Cleveland says. "Last year we had a guy come out from California with a lot of oddball titles, a Turkey Shoot and Pooyan."

Pooyan? In that game, from 1982, the player controls a "Mama" pig trying to shoot down balloon-riding wolves that have kidnapped her piglets.

"It's kind of bizarre," Cleveland notes.

Among the novelties this year will be Space Paranoids. That was a fictional arcade title from the 1982 Disney film "Tron," which was re-created as a real game in 2009 as part of the marketing push for the sequel, "Tron: Legacy."

In addition to privately owned games, the event also hosts such vendors as Phoenix's Firebird Pinball, which repairs, buys and sells used machines.

Cleveland says most people who come to the event are fans of either the arcade or the pinball games. Teenagers and 20-somethings are a rarity in both camps, he says.

"I think it's primarily people our age who grew up with it and now have the money to buy these things and relive some of the fun from our youth," he says.

ZapCon Arcade and Pinball Convention

When: 10 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, April 19.

Where: Mesa Convention Center, 263 N. Center St.

Admission: $25 per day or $40 for a weekend pass; $15 and $25 for age 11 or younger; free for age 2 or younger.

Details: 480-644-2178, zapcon.com.

Reach the reporter at kerry.lengel@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4896.







