Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.107 | Nathan Grant from RetroGameCon

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

Exclusive Preview: RetroGameCon 2023 in Syracuse In this special episode of Good News York, hosted by Matt from Growth Mode Content, the spotlight is on the upcoming RetroGameCon 2023, taking place at the Oncenter in Syracuse, NY. The event is scheduled for October 10th through the 12th and features a variety of activities, including gaming tournaments, cosplay contests, and panels with special guests. Highlighted guests include Ben Starr from 'Expedition 33’ and Ellen McLean from 'Portal.' The event also features music performances, a charity auction raising funds for the Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital, and exclusive merchandise. Nathan Grant, the event coordinator, shares insights and details about the event's history and what attendees can expect this year. Despite high demand and sold-out Saturday tickets, weekend and individual day passes remain available for Friday and Sunday. 00:00 Introduction and Banter 00:16 Exclusive Media Coverage Announcement 01:53 Retro Game Con Event Details 02:10 Interview with Event Coordinator Nathan Grant 03:50 Retro Game Con Highlights and Attractions 15:01 Special Guests and Panels 19:59 Cosplay and Community Engagement 28:05 Charity Initiatives at the Convention 29:54 Record-Breaking Charity Auction 31:55 Supporting Local Businesses 33:13 Exclusive Merchandise and Collectibles 38:55 Exciting Panels and Musical Guests 42:07 Navigating the Convention 44:43 Final Thoughts and Event Details

Instagram teen accounts have automatic protections for what teens see and who can contact them. Plus, time management tools. And Instagram will continue adding built-in safety features to help create age-appropriate experiences. Learn more about teen accounts and Instagram's ongoing work to protect teens online at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley, Newman and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises L' Week Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection

with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey everybody, I'm Matt from Growth Mode content. Welcome to Good News York. This is a very, very special episode. We got some exclusive media coverage of one of the biggest events happening on the Northeast, not even in Syracuse, not even in New York. No. But first,

we should say hello to my spiky-haired orange-dressed frillo. Frello? I don't know if I want to tell you a fellow or friend. I like to Perthosa Post. Are you doing? No, I got to ask you a question, though. Hold on. This is Mike. Yes, sir. Can you hold up your your watch for a moment?

I got to know, all right. Your watch has a bright orange face. Yeah. It's better than me having a bright orange face. Do you always wear that watch or did you color coat it? Oh, no, color coat. So I have, I like to. That's what I was afraid of.

Yeah, you don't notice that? I have three watches. I have a black watch, a blue watch, and an orange watch, and I color coordinate to my outfit. Eventually, I want to get yellow. I want to get all the colors of the rainbow. But, you know, I don't make that kind of dough yet. So I'm sticking with three watches for now. I can't believe you just noticed that.

In the ninth grade, my English teacher, her name was Mrs. Coenetti. I like that. And she had Wobie Wett lipstick. Wobie Wett? That's how she talked and she was the English teacher. It was wild. But she was a nice old lady. And what was real interesting about her is every day she would have her dress,

her shoes, a pearl necklace, and her nails color coordinated. I like her. Identically. And now you just make me think of that sweet old lady. Should I start talking like this? I mean. Sorry, I wore my watch. We might get more clicks for that.

We might get more clicks. Anyway, we got... Anyway, yeah. So it is good news. York sponsored by ads on the go. Get ads on the go.com. Very excited because this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, October 10th through the 12th, it is retro GameCon at the On Center right here in Syracuse, New York.

Sold out, dare I say? It's sold out. On Saturday. On Saturday. And with us is the event coordinator, Nathan Grant. Nathan, welcome to the show, my name. Thanks for having me. We are so excited to have you for many reasons.

One, we're all, some more than others, but we're all gaming nerds of sorts. Our great friend, producer, co-worker Danny Tripodi, who's behind the board right now. He's kind of your second in command, your right-hand man. Yeah, we're all in the same. Yeah, so he's part of, he's another event coordinator for the event. So we've been very involved and supportive of Danny along the way. So we're just excited to have you and to talk about this. Yeah, I'm very excited.

I just want to throw this out there before we even begin. This is the exclusive media tour for Retro GameCon. So you guys are not doing it with anybody else? Yeah, we're just kind of, you know, we always open the door to any media of people who want to attend. But, you know, we wanted to give you guys a chance to really get in there and, you know, cover all the great stuff we're doing this year, you know, because it gets bigger and better every year. And there's only so much that we can do on our own to talk about. it and so I love this so much. Good opportunity for you guys to be able to help show

a lot of that stuff that we're doing and highlight it. I feel cool, man. We're special. Dude, we've arrived. We've arrived, Matthew. Now he's looking like E.T. I don't understand what's happening today. He's surprised. So last year was the first year that I attended GameCon and I didn't even

get to the second floor. So I took it all in and was overwhelmed and I'm super, super excited. We're going to talk a little bit about some of the things that are happening, I'd love you to just kind of give your rundown of what you're excited about and what folks are most looking forward to seeing this weekend. Yeah, so just baseline, one thing you can always look forward to at Retro GameCon is think of a Comic Con, lots of vendors, lots of artists, but it's all centered around gaming, whether that's retro gaming, modern gaming, arcade, computer, and even things like Arcade and Pinball together, you know, there's a lot of crossover. We also have a huge tabletop gaming segment.

And, you know, there's so much crossover in a lot of the different nerddoms, you know. So we try to cover that, you know, we try to make sure that, like, there's something for everybody there. But on top of that, we're multifaceted, Mike. Yes, very multi-man. I'm writing down nerddom. That's a new word. It's one of those things I've had to describe it. Because we have our own little kingdom with how big it's grown.

And it's all nerdy stuff like this. But, you know, not only are there going to be vendors selling games there. There's tons of free play games to play. We have a huge free play area. And what's cool about our free play area is we don't just have the classic consoles. We will have old PCs hooked up. So we have like computer land with multiple connected and people playing the same game together. As well as just, you know, the very retro stuff that, you know, maybe some people have never even played before.

The new generations get a chance to put their hands on. And then, of course, arcade units are always fun to play. And they're all set to free play. So you just go up and there's no coins needed, no tokens. You just go up and play. In addition to the free play stuff, we will have tournaments for various games going on, retro and newer games. And then I mentioned the vendors and artists. We have one of the biggest vendor halls for an event like this.

Just so many different collectibles, actual games and consoles to play, and then great artists there as well. So that's kind of like baseline stuff we always have every year, but just gets bigger and better. We also try to bring in a lot of great special guests and talent. So that could be voice actors from various games throughout the industry, old and new, as well as musical artists who either do video game cover music or, you know, variations of stuff like that that are popular within the communities or the nerddoms. The nerddoms. So, yeah, just those are a lot of the baseline stuff.

There's obviously a lot of nitty-gritty in each of those categories, but that's a lot of the stuff you can look forward to every year. Yeah, Nathan, this is amazing. So this is technically the 12th, but you could argue the 15th. We don't need to get in the weeds with that. Don't pay attention to the actual how many conventions we've had. Just know that for 12 years, we've been bringing this event to Syracuse and it's getting bigger and better every year. And it is getting bigger and better.

And you can monitor it on social media. You can see over the years how much it's grown. And again, you guys are sold out, which is phenomenal, the on center. But I'm curious and we're curious. Give us a little bit about your background. I mean, how does someone come from their own nerddom and say, you know what, I'm going to put together a retro game conference. Like, kind of give us the origin story of how this began.

Yeah, so, you know, when you go to the event, you might think, wow, what company's putting this on? Who's backing this, you know? But when it started, it was just one man, Ed Ford, he was the founder. He came up with this idea of, hey, we got a lot of like-minded people interested in this hobby in the area. It was 2013. We just had more video game stores than ever. Voltage video games had recently opened downtown, and they're like a staple of the community now. but they were relatively new back then.

And then a lot of the organizations that were here already that wanted to be involved were kind of around. And he basically brought people together who he knew liked the hobby and might want to be a part of this. And so I was, technically I was an attendee the first year, but he reached out to me personally because he knew I had some graphic design background and wanted me to design the flyer for it. So back then it was only $5 to attend.

And so I made the flyer. And then from that year on, I was on the planning committee and that's kind of how I got my foot in the door just by being, again, one of the local nerds who had this interest and wanted to come together. What was really interesting is the first year was probably about, you know, a little over 500 people probably came out to that one. And it was held at Driver's Village in one of the conference centers that you can, you know, reserve. So starting with very humble beginnings. And now here we are selling out days at the OnCenter, you know. And we've mostly stuck to the OnCenter as we've grown and gone from like,

one hall of the on center to both halls to now we have two floors and the stages and all this stuff like that. So it's very interesting to see the humble beginnings to where we are now. I can personally tell you you have succeeded because I went to a independent wrestling show at Drivers Village. Those conference rooms, they're not huge. So for you to go from there to the on center, man, congratulations. That's wow. You guys are doing something right. Honestly, it's pretty impressive that you had that many folks at your first event. Right, right. I think that was kind of like the sign of like, okay, there's something here.

And it definitely, we all came away from that first year feeling like that was amazing. This is something special. And I didn't know then how special it would be for the community. And now it's like, you know, one of those things where we're like, well, what have we created? We can't stop this. Now we just got to keep going, you know. And that's the blessing and the curse of social media. And it sounds like, if I'm doing the math right, when you guys kind of started this is right when the social media explosion happened and then TikTok came along.

You know, the one positive thing, and I guess you could say negative too, is that with social media, you can find like-minded individuals easier and create these sort of events and nerddoms. Yeah, and like, you know, that's a good point because I don't think any of us who work for retro game kind of really like Facebook and meta and stuff. Right. But through our social media, we've been able to grow our community so much and just, you know, create events. We do so many things throughout the years, not just about the one weekend.

And we do little promotional events throughout the year. We started doing for the past few years our smaller event, the Spring Edition, which was called Retro GameCon Jr., but we changed it this year to Retro GameCon Spring Edition, just because a lot of people assumed with Junior, it was four kids. When really we were just doing a Donkey Kong Jr. Or Pac-Man Jr. pun. But people took that as like it's a kids event. We're like, no, no, it's just a smaller scale.

So we call it spring edition. And yeah, it's obviously we aren't doing it at the OnCenter and it's a smaller. We did that at the elite gaming arena downtown this year. And before that, we were doing it at the Museum of Science and Technology, which was a really cool venue for it. So it's always been like its own little special thing. But yeah, it's because of social media that we were able to grow this community. And, you know, last year we started a Discord.

And, you know, that was great to just make sure we get the message out there. And like you mentioned, so we sold out for Saturday. We still have Friday, Sunday passes, and we have weekend passes still. So people can still get on Saturday if they get the weekend pass because we kept an allotment of those. but even with selling out, it's just, you know, being able to reach the people and let them know. So, okay, it looks like Saturday is going to be selling out. If that happened five years ago, there wouldn't be as many ways to get that message out there. Now it's like with the Discord, the website, the social media, it's, you know, we're still going to probably have some people that are like,

I didn't know what, I came out here. But, you know, that just happens with any popular event. So it's just, and what we try to do is just accommodate best weekend. And like we still have Sunday tickets available, you know, try to get it. And Sunday, by the way, is the cheaper ticket. So if you're really like, oh, money's tight this year and we all know it is, you still can attend, you know. And it's not like Sunday's the bad day or the slow day. No, we're actually one of the things I can take pride in for our event is that we go to so many events like this,

whether it's Comic-Conn's gaming events. And Sundays are usually the slower day. And comparatively it is slower compared to our other two days, but we still are pretty much as packed. When you see the crowds in the vendor hall and stuff, it feels the same as it did all weekend. So it's like you're not missing out on anything. There's not like people go away. There might be some programming.

Like, you know, there's an event on Saturday only. Okay, that might be something you'd miss out on. But you really get the full experience no matter what day you decided to go. Do you guys, are you able to field any sort of customer service issues during? Like you just mentioned, you know, oh, I showed up and I didn't. Is there a way for people to get in contact with any of the? organizers if there are any issues throughout the event. Yeah, so on retrogamecon.com, there's an email address there, info at retrogamecon.com.

That goes to myself and Pat, the director of the con. So we're running around. We're doing a million things. But we can at least get your messages and try to answer them as soon as possible. But the Discord that I mentioned has been a huge thing because if Pat and I are busy, you know, helping a guest get their panel started or whatever, we're not looking at our phones. There are people who are very familiar with the programming we got going on. They're able to quickly answer.

So the community kind of steps in and helps. And then at the event itself, the registration desk is full of a bunch of people who've been working with the con for years. So if they need to find one of us to answer questions or if they just know the answers because they know it themselves, we can usually get those things taken care of right away. So it's, you know, and that's just growing pains over the years. You learn what worked and what didn't the year before. So we've really refined. Like how can we help people the best? How can we get them the answers?

How can we set up the event? So, you know, traffic flow is good. How can we communicate the messaging? There's all that stuff you've got to think about. And you don't think about when you first set out to do these things. But you're over. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting.

Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises L'Ik Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials.

Have you or a loved one ever suffered from an exploded head due to an extreme energy drink? Hi, this is Larry Deathstein, attorney at law. Every day, thousands of Americans pound extreme energy drinks and literally explode their heads right off. At Deathstein and partners, we fight for you. So take action today. It's stopped by the Deathstein and Portland. partner's office where we only serve liquid death's new sparkling energy. A better for you energy drink.

There's nothing extreme about it. With only 100 milligrams of caffeine, that's equal to a cup of coffee. Plus, liquid death energy has got zero sugar. And none of that freaky stuff like sucralose or aspartane. When it comes to extreme energy justice, Deathstein and Partners will fight to the death. Also, if you're not near our office, you can still try liquid death, Sparklin Energy at fine retailers like 7-Eleven.

Or learn more at liquiddeaf.com. Where? Liquiddeath.com. Here, there's always a, okay, what can we do better next year? You know, that's, we never are like, cool, we got it. Yeah. Let's continue it like we did. Book it.

Because we, you know, unfortunately, we've been to events that feel that way where it's like, I wouldn't say it's a bad event, but it's the same thing. You know exactly what you're going to get. Yeah. It might be a fun time, but you're not coming and going, wow. And we always try to plus it up. not just in terms of the amount of things we do, but customer service and how much fun people are having, you know. That's, it's such an incredible event that you guys have put together.

And I know we talked about a little bit in terms of selling out, but can you just take one second and talk about just kind of how this compares to other events and things like that that are around the country even? Yeah, so being in Syracuse, you know, we're limited in where we can host in. And luckily we have the on center here. But I think one thing that is a huge benefit of being in Syracuse is that it's not going to cost as much. as some of the other events. Now, this weekend we happen to time out the same weekend as New York Comic-Con. And you're going to be spending so much more at an event like New York Comic-Con. Not to say that New York Comic-Con is not a great event, but it's such a bigger scale that

the lines are going to be so much longer. The stuff's going to cost so much more. Even the autographs, you know, if you're paying, let's say, 60 to 70 bucks for an autograph or a photo at our event to meet one of our guests, maybe there's a guest you want to see more at New York Comic-Con, but you're probably going to be sending like $200 plus for somebody who's been in a Marvel movie or something like that. So you really got to think about like the value you're getting for the ticket price. And I think one thing that we can say is that for our ticket prices, you're getting really good value.

And like I said, no matter what day you're going, you're getting everything that we offer. So, and, you know, the only time that changes is like maybe there's a voice actor who's like, I'm only going to be there Saturday and Sunday. So we communicate that stuff when there are little one-offs like that. But for the most part, and I think this year we actually have all the guests there all weekend long. So that's not even a concern. And everything else is planted there. There's no vendors that take off after the first day or anything like that.

So you're getting it all. Let's talk a little bit about some of those guests. Because one of the things that you have going on, one of the things that we're going to kind of help you with is recording some of these things. There's some live panels with, I don't want to say some. Honestly, you have a full schedule Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of these events in multiple rooms. Can you talk a little bit about what people will see? So special guests.

they're always like a big draw at the con because people want to meet the voices of the characters that they've played as in these games and stuff. And we have a good mix this year where it's not just the old retro vintage game voices that people remember, but some of the up-and-coming artists or actors and stuff. So this year, probably one of our big highlights is Ben Starr.

He was in the game Expedition 33 that is sweeping all, like, a potential game of the year winner awards this year. In fact, he was just nominated for his performance or a supporting actor in a game or the Golden Joystick Awards that happens every year. So he's already like nominated for that and we have him. But he's also done, he was the main character Clive in the last Final Fantasy 15. So he's like the main lead in that. He's been in a bunch of other games, Hades 2, which just came out and is getting great awards and reviews everywhere. That he's one of the characters in that. So it's cool to have somebody like that who's like the new hotness. He's also, he's kind of like just a cool

dude and he's been on like podcasts and stuff before and just people like him as a person, not just because of his role, but who he is. And he's a gamer. He loves, he's like such a nerd himself. He's like, oh my God, I love this game and this game. So people are so happy to have somebody like that here because he's like somebody right now that people are like, oh my gosh, I want to meet him. So he's going to have his own panel and he's going to obviously have his table set up there so people can meet him. And we have the professional photo ops we mentioned too. So people can get a nice picture with them. they want to pay a little extra.

But that's, like I said, the modern examples. We also have a huge retro element this year, and not just retro like, oh, old consoles, in the PC gaming space. So one of the most popular gaming companies of all time is Valve. They've done the Half-Life games, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Left for Dead. They've done all these great games over years

that really were, like, legendary for PC gaming. This year we have a Valve reunion, basically. So probably the biggest highlight of the guests in that group is Ellen McLean. She's the voice of Glados, the AI that tortures you in the portal games. So a very iconic voice. You're hearing that the whole time you play the game. She's goading you on and everything like that. So to have that person be here at our event, you know, and she's, you know, she's older.

She's not like, you know, she did voice acting for years. And the fact that she's coming out to our city and going to do panels and meetings, fans at our event is just so exciting. So she's like probably the highlight of that group, but we also have Mike Shapiro, who's the voice of the G-Men, the mysterious man in a suit from the Half-Life games, and then we have multiple voice actors

from the Team Fortress games. And, you know, those games, they're multiplayer games where the classes that you pick to play as are very iconic because of their voice work. Their lines, their quips, they're funny. And these characters are so memorable in the actors who are coming to voice them,

they're just, they turn on their character right away. So so many fans are going to be excited to just be able to see them jump right into that. And, you know, so beyond those, those are like the, I'd say the highlights, but there's so many guests in that category that we could be here all day just going over each one. So I'm not going to highlight every single actor that we have, but it just goes to show you the variety. It's not just the new stuff. It's, you know, also a lot of the stuff that people maybe haven't played in a long time.

And so to go along with that, we have the voices of Valve panel we're going to do with everybody there. We have one of the returning voice actors First time that we're getting a returning voice actor is John St. John. So he's most popular for his voice as Duke Nukem. Oh, yeah. I loved that game. And he is such an amazing guest.

That's why we wanted to bring him back. He also was in one of the Half-Life side games that came out, opposing force or Blue Shift, one of those side games outside of the main series. So we were like, perfect. He fits in with the Valver Union as well. But he's a returning guy.

He's also the voice of Big the Cat from the Sonic the Hedgehog games. So people who are into that, again, totally from the Elspuff. It's just cool. Or Duke Nukem especially. So he's going to be there. And he's just a great guest. We had him there before. He came to our after party and hung out with people.

So just the fact that fans might have a surprise like that, where they're actually rubbing shoulders, not just like meeting the guests, but maybe they're going to have a drink with him at the after party. You know, stuff like that sometimes happens. It's really fun surprise at the event as well. So Nathan Grant of Retro GameCon this weekend, 10th, 11th, and 12th of October at the On Center. In addition to these panels, though, there's way more than that. There's cosplay.

There's some free play. Talk about some of the other events. Yeah, so cosplay is one of those huge parts of the convention that some people just come specifically because they love cosplay. They love making their own costumes based off characters they like or some original characters. And so we want to give them a platform and a stage literally to walk on. And so there's a lot of cosplay events. We have a whole cosplay department that helps come up with fun programming for the cosplay fans. That sounds like a great department.

I want to work in the cosplay department. Hell yes. Hell yes. So that could be technical where they are helping. We have a cosplay repair station. And then we have events about, like we have a cosplay speed run on Sunday where people are like given a short amount of time to try and come up with, like, craft supplies. Cool. That's way cool.

But the biggest thing when it comes down to it is. the cosplay contest. People love doing the stage walk, showing out, so even if they don't win, they get to like, go on the stage, show their costume they made.

That's awesome. And probably one of my favorite things about the con is the kids stage walk because it's just the cutest thing ever to see these kids that are so excited. Yeah. And so small sometimes, dressed up as these characters going out on stage.

So, you know, we have prizes and stuff for the top winners for different categories in both the kids and adults cosplay contest. But that's just such a huge element of it as well. Because for every game, and comic and other nerddom out there,

it's like there's so many different options for what people could mess up as. And sometimes they're really creative and really technical. Sometimes you're really impressed with what people come up with. And so a lot of stuff to see. And even when you're just going around the vendor hall, seeing some of these cosplays walking around

is just impressive. You're like, look at that. And people are taking pictures on the fly and asking, oh, can I get a shot? And so it's just really exciting to see that element grow over the years for Retro GameCon as well. I feel like this is one of the only type of events where the audience, the participants also become part of the event.

Yeah. You know, it's so neat how that. Yeah, whether it's the panels that they get to take part in and some of them are interactive and stuff too, a lot of the fun panels, the thing is that we put together like the cosplay speed run I mentioned, but then even just free play, it's like if you want to come and just play a bunch of games, you have access to that. And you don't have to. And it's the cost of the ticket and then you're free to do that.

You're going to fire me because that's what I'm going to be doing the whole town. Listen, I'm not going to lie. That was my original draw. He's playing police quest from 1996. No, listen, you got to see, if you haven't been there and you described it a little bit, but I just got to tell you, man, it's like a museum, but you can play with everything. That's the best part, literally. And, you know, so I went last year and I brought my kids and everything was like, oh, yeah, that was the first computer I used here. And here's one that we did this.

And by the way, this is this awesome game. And here, sit down and play it. I'll show you how it works. Right. That's, you know. You were talking about that. I was just going to say that reminds me of our talk about the generational aspect. It's something we've seen every year, and it's probably one of my favorite parts,

is how you'll see families with their kids showing them the games they grew up with. And it's not like, you know, oh, I don't want to play that old crap dad. Like, no, they're sitting down and they're getting into it. Yeah. And then, you know, they're going, okay, well, what's this? Oh, what's, I've never even seen this thing. What's an Atari, you know? And it gives them a chance.

It's like the captive audience is there to see all. this stuff that we put out there for them. And seeing that generational impact where it's like kids playing with their parents who played this with their parents and like it's all there under the same roof is so exciting. Dude, I tell you what? And people might roll their eyes at this, but for people who game like ourselves, they'll understand. You know, there was a time when this happened with my daughter and it recently just happened with my son where I'm playing a game and they came down and they're, and they picked up a control and they're like, dad, can I play? And you have that moment where you're playing a game, not even a modern game, that's cool too, but like,

I'll be playing a game that's, you know, an older one from my childhood, and they're just as into it as I was. And it's just like such a special moment, man. It really is. Crazy. Yeah. And so being able to host something like that where it's like it can happen multiple times over the weekend, like for all the attendees, it's so exciting. It's just, it's one of those things that, you know, there's always the fun and the nostalgia is great, but like seeing stuff like that is just one of those things that really makes the event feel special. And you know what? I'll say that you guys do an incredible job with that too, because when we talk about this, we're not talking about like three or four things. You know, you've got a significantly

large section. And I remember last year going incredibly busy con. There's people all over the place. But there was no problem getting to, you know, some if you really want to one particular, somebody you might have to wait for them to finish their turn. But there was more than enough other things to put your hands on and see. And it's, it's really impressive. One of the things I want ask you, let's just peel the curtain back if we, what do you do with this stuff when it's not content? So we have, we have a retro game

con office now. I got that for a couple years now and it used to be a storage unit, but now we have our own office. So after the convention, it's a lot of dumping everything in the office and organizing it for next year and it takes a long time. Like, you know, it's not something that like, oh, everything's put away nice

and neatly. But it's, you know, we have great volunteers for this convention. And, you know, it's not just the people who are putting on the event that come together and volunteer their time to do it. But there's some people that maybe throughout the year, we don't hear from them, but they show up for the event. And they help bring, I mean, these retro TVs are so compared to the modern TVs. And we do have a lot of the modern ones too, but to bring old tube TVs at the scale we're bringing, that takes a lot of effort. And so those volunteers that I mentioned are so helpful. And some of them do offer to store some

stuff too throughout the year. So it's a it's just it's another example even behind the curtain of the coming together that this event creates. It's and you know friendships are made too. Like there's a lot of a lot of my friendships were formed around 2013 and when retro kingcon started because of the coming together of like minds. And we have some volunteers that even, uh, they just started last year and they were telling it's a gentle cruising you start to see the village almost like a painting. Join me travel expert Darley Newman and Uneworld River Cruises Luik Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been standing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection

with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unuworld's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey, it's Trevor from the Jim Kerr Rock and Roll Morning Show. Have you ever had an energy drink that makes you feel like your head's going to explode? Liquid death now makes a better for you. energy drink. Liquid death, sparkling energy feels like a coffee, not an electric chair. It has zero sugar and just five calories. No sucralose, no aspartane, or artificial colors and dyes,

plus it has essential vitamins. You can find it in four delicious flavors that have clean taste. Scary strawberry. Strawberry with a hint of lemon. Tropical terror, which is like a pinocalada. Orange horror. Tasty orange with a hint of orange cream and murder mystery, a blend of cherry cola and spices. I love a good energy drink, and when I wake up at 2.30 and the morning to get us on the air at 5 a.m. I need something that's going to keep me going, and now I have Liquid Death, Sparkling Energy. I can't wait to keep drinking all these amazing flavors. They have an unextreme, only 100 milligrams of caffeine, same as a cup of coffee. You could buy Liquid Death, Sparkling Energy drink at fine retailers like 7-Eleven, or learn more at

LiquidDeath.com. Patrick and I, that this is, I met somebody who's one of my best friends just last year, and it feels like I've known them my whole life. They met them just for volunteering. Yeah. So it's just really cool to hear stuff like that, aside from the event itself and the attendee perspective, hearing that from within is just, it warms our hearts. And it makes it worth doing because there's times where we're like, this is worth doing it.

Yeah, because it's such hard work, especially for Patrick, the director. He's constantly 24-7 just on for this. You know, I'm like, all right, I've got to go to work now, Pat, good luck. But during the work, I'm getting those emails I mentioned that come to the website, and I'm like, oh, Pat's doing all right, you know. So it's like, you know, the effort that goes. into putting this on is just it's well spent but it's it's a lot

and it's really exciting to see. There's videos that are circulating more and more on social media now of just that in a different form where you're seeing gamers that have become friends by playing online and then they meet for the like their family members

arrange it so that they get to finally like they're across the country and they finally like surprise them by meeting each other does that anything like that happen at the yeah because one thing that you forget about too is there's events like this going around on the country. So sometimes this is the opportunity for people who are, oh, you know what I live in Texas,

but I kind of want to come up for this event. And oh my God, that's where my friend on the way. So we see that. And even the people, like when we do like table swaps with other events and we'll go to, let's say, Long Island Retro Gaming Expo or something, we're seeing familiar faces that we haven't seen in a while. And it's like, so the convention is often a time. And I'll even say that extends to like some of our great vendors and stuff

and artists that we've had year after year. it's like oh so good to see you again it's like you don't think about that part of the community aspect of it it's like we're always focused on making sure the attendees are are enjoying themselves and everything but it's like even the people who are helping put it on or are there to sell stuff it's like there's this feeling of family you know like it's it's really interesting to see and that's the stuff you can never predict with events like this it just kind of comes natural something that you guys do that needs to be talked about and and it's important is that you guys actually do stuff for you do a lot lot for charity with this. Talk about that. Yeah, this might be the most important thing at the convention because all the fun, I mean, nostalgia sells, we know everybody wants to go back to the good programs. So that's why an event like this can thrive. But we, you know, for all the complaints we might have about Syracuse here and their weather and all that stuff, we do love our community. And being able to help our community is important. And we always wanted to do a charity element for the con. And so for years, we've been very lucky because, uh, we've been very lucky because, uh,

We work with a charity called Extra Life, which is a gaming-focused charity. But what's really special is that their money helps Children's Miracle Network hospitals throughout the country. And the upstate Alessana Children's Hospital happens to be in their network. So it's not like we're just going to this great network that helps hospitals and then it's going off somewhere nearby. It's like right here in Syracuse. And every year we've raised, for at least the last five years, we've raised over $10,000 through the charity efforts. And some of those are at the con. We have charity raffles, so like there's raffle baskets that people can enter to win.

And usually great donations from like vendors and sponsors and stuff to help create those different sponsorship packet or sponsor. I'm saying sponsorships, but I mean charity efforts. And so, you know, it's exciting to have stuff like that to help raise money locally. But we also started doing a charity auction. So if we get like really hard to find things or maybe stuff that was signed. from guests. Like every year when we have the guests, we'll be like,

oh, if you want to sign your banner that was hanging up behind you, those banners can be auctioned off for a charity. So they often will be like, oh, I'm not even going to charge you for this autograph. Let me do this for the charity auction.

And that culminated last year with the biggest item to ever auction was we had all the, or not all, but most of the voice actors from the big Balders Gate three game that was popular last year, one game of the year awards and stuff.

We had all the actors that were here for that signed their big giant 10-foot banner at least in- Oh, wow. And we were shocked. That thing sold for $10,000. Oh, my gosh. He was a guy, and this is another thing talking about community.

I'm not going to out who it was, but it was a local business owner here in Syracuse who loves the con, loves the game, and he really wanted to, he knew he wanted to donate a big amount for the charity. And then he saw that, he was like, perfect, this is the thing I want. Yeah. And so it was less about, I want this item. It was like, I want to donate. And so we had a record-breaking $23,000 raised last.

year. I'm not going to say we'll match that again. Maybe we will. But that was just, that just goes to show, just like the event growing and the attendance going up, stuff like this, the charity elements that's so important to us, seeing it grow to that level is just amazing. So, and there's lots of other charity things throughout the event. Like if you want to just directly donate, we make sure there's like QR codes and stuff to do that. But the charity raffle baskets, like I mentioned are such a fun way because it's like we try to, you know, take the donations and stuff and spread them into like different categories. So there's a lot of people who do do come. I mentioned the tabletop gaming.

We haven't really gotten too much into that, but, you know, stuff like trading card games, D&D, and even just board games, we have a huge free play area for that as well. And so some of our charity baskets, it's like, there might be something that has like all the dice, the starter kits for D&D, and then like a couple board games,

and we have some sponsors that donate stuff. So, not only can you play the board games there, just like you can for the video games, but there's an opportunity to win some and it's all going to charity. So really huge important element. I'm glad you wanted to touch on that too because it's easy to forget in the excitement

of the nerdiness of like, oh my God, the games are so fun to play. But it's like, wow, we're actually impacting our community and that is huge. And just being able, you know, we could be like, oh, we sold out on Saturday this year and last year. That's so we're so proud of that. But really what

that is telling us is we're bringing that many people to our city. And that's a huge important element too. What we did last year and this year too is we offered it up for any local businesses that wanted to do a retro game con discount at their business, let us know we'll advertise it. And so what happened was last year, a lot of the local downtown restaurants and stuff said they had like their busiest day ever sales. And just through an easy thing that we

could be like, again, thinking of the community first, we have all these great businesses here. They know about us. We're bringing the people here. And even for our guests, we try to get little baskets and care packages for all the special guests at their tables. And we try to throw and like local stuff, you know, barbecue sauces and stuff we've done in the fast for dino. And, you know, just things like that that are, you know, signature for Syracuse, why don't we throw it in there? So they're not just like, oh, I got extra markers and hand sanitizer in my bag, but they're like, oh, little touches, you know, and it's stuff like that.

And we've worked with Visit Syracuse. They're a partner of ours to really help plus that up because they know, like, hey, this would be a good thing to do. They have the connects, and we just try to implement that. So then that's what this shows about, you know, is all the good news. around New York. I mean, you're injecting money into the local economy. Yeah.

It's huge. So speaking of the local economy, the one of the thing that we should touch on that is incredibly wild is the shopping opportunities, right? We've touched on a little bit the vendors. Talk just a little bit more about them, but also let's jump into Retro GameCon itself has some of the coolest custom. And I guess you'd say sort of limited edition merch, right? It's just a run for this year.

So, yes. have our vendor hall i mentioned there's great artists selling wonderful uh themed art of various mediums too it's not just like all painting and sure there's all sorts of stuff and then of course the collect for the collectors out there you're gonna if there's a game you're looking for it's a really good chance you're gonna find it i can't guarantee that the vendor's prices are going to be under retail but you know you go in with that expectation you might still find i don't care i know how much it costs i want to get it so there's that element but every year we've plused up our merchandise so we have a whole retro gamecon merch booth in the front right in the main

lobby near where registration is. We have a huge multi-table setup. And we always have like a annual shirt and there's the VIP special edition shirt for the VIP ticket holders, which is another element. They're sold out for this year, but we always do that every year too that has like a VIP package that comes with it in addition to early access to the con every day, so like a half hour early. Our merch this year is incredible. I'm wearing one of our favorite. I love it. It's called Retro Boy's Awakening. So Retro Boy is our mascot. He started out. as a humble PNG of a Game Boy with a smiley face on it.

Sorry, Nintendo. We didn't mean to steal your intellectual property. So a few years back, maybe 2016 or so, I sat down, I was like, let me see if I can draw him and anthropomorphize him a little bit to like a character.

So if you notice, this one doesn't really show up, but if you look at our logos and stuff, he has like the Mickey Mouse gloves, Sonic the Hedgehog looking shoes, something that's a little more like iconic and then makes him our own rather than just like,

because you see that a lot. see a video game console with a smiley face is like kind of a character people have just done all over the right so we made retro boy our character so not only does he usually show up on our graphics and on our shirts so this one like i said retro boy's awakening is a really nice one done by one of our artists and volunteers desi um she's amazing she's done more than just this too we have stickers and art pieces from her as well but i won't spoil the surprise here um so we'll have all that there we have you know limited edition art stickers um multiple shirts and this year we got actually a really fancy kind of retro-looking button-down shirt that's going to be limited quantities.

It has kind of like that unique pattern, almost like fresh prints of belly. That's you. Yeah, I've got to get me one of those, too. I may have heard about that shirt, and I think I might have already put in my order with me. But I got to make sure I get one of those. I was going to say it's one of those things that's limited supply, so we wanted to make sure we advertise that. Another limited thing that we did this year, and why I wanted to touch on Retro Boy, We actually have a plush retro boy that we're at this year.

So really fun and exciting. He's a real boy. Yeah, he's a real boy now. It's just like Pinocchio. So, you know, it's really cool to like just have fun stuff like that. And that's, you know, again, there's a limited supply of that. But just being able to offer more because people always, we always sell out of different shirt designs every year. And, you know, we have some of the coolest shirt designs that I've seen of events like this.

And we're always trying to come up with new stuff. but we have custom pins. And a lot of times we think, like, who are our guests? What can we theme some of the shirts and stuff around? So there's just a lot of variety. There's a lot there. It's not like, oh, the one shirt. I don't really like it.

I'm not going to get it. We try to make sure there's a lot of options there. And, you know, our merch, there's lots of surprises. One thing that's really interesting this year. So I can't remember which year it was, maybe 2015 or 2016 around there, or 2017, maybe. There was a limited edition game called Haunted Halloween 85. And it was like, you know, there's, that's a whole scene in video.

games where it's like repro carts and custom-made games and modern games for old consoles being made. So this game had a limited allotment made for Retro GameCon. And that now is a limited, you know, we only had a limited supply back then. It had like Retro GameCon logo on the box. And in the game, there was even Retro GameCon mentioned. It blows my mind. That sold out. And so that, you'll find copies of those on eBay for a lot of money and stuff. Well, they made a sequel to that Haunted Halloween 86 now, and they did a collaboration with Spirit Halloween stores. So that was something they did on their own.

And they actually made a, they call it, chiller-blue cartridge version of this old N-E-S game, or new, I guess, N-S game, and gave us a limited allotment. So at our merch booth, we're going to have a limited supply of the sequel to the game that we had at our convention years ago.

And, yeah, and it's going to have the box and everything, and we got little decals so, you know, what number you have and stuff. It's right there. So, yeah, it's really cool to have. stuff like that. So it's not just like a shirt and a hat and that's it. Like we love having those things.

It's great. And, you know, I'm wearing proudly the shirt I have on right now. But it's just cool to. You have a new NES game. Yeah, dude. That's wild. For your event. Yeah.

Think of what you just said. New NES. In 2025, this is the coolest. Everybody, every Jemoke can make T-shirts. I'm not, you know, it's cool. This is mind-blown. Yeah, that's awesome, man. That's going to go quick.

There's limited to 100 copies. I think they're, and they're gone. But I bet you don't have a ceramic Mario that possibly smuggled methamphetamine across the border that Danny bought. One thing I want to make sure we hit, and this is for you, Danny. I thought of this as we were talking. I've heard you may have had a problem with people not realizing there's a downstairs at the Oncenter. Can we just do a quick PSA of go downstairs?

Yeah, explore. I'll highlight some of the stuff that's down there. Our panel room, our individual panel room, is down there. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman, and Univorl Boutique River Cruises L'ouique Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection

with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on Eyeheart, and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey, it's Cubby. Have you ever had an energy drink that makes you feel like your head is going to explode? Well, liquid death now makes a better for you energy drink. Liquid death sparkling energy feels like a coffee, not an electric chair. It has zero sugar and just five calories. No sucralose or aspartame or artificial colors and dyes. Plus, it has essential vitamins. You can find,

Find it in four delicious flavors that have a clean taste. Scary strawberry, strawberry kind of a hint of lemon, tropical terror, which is like a pinocalada. Orange har, tasty orange with a hint of orange cream and murder mystery. A blend of cherry cola and spices. You see, I love a good energy drink to keep me moving, and I'm glad now I have liquid death sparkling energy to keep me awake. I can't wait to keep drinking all these delicious flavors. They have unexstream 100 milligrams of caffeine. same as a cup of coffee.

You can buy Liquid Death Sparkling Energy at a fine retailer near you like 7-11 or to learn more at LiquidDeath.com. There are also our bigger panels. They take place on the main stage. And now that we mention the main stage, I talked about the voice actor guests we've had, but we also have musical guests.

We have a returning orchestra from Utica, the Half Moon Orchestra. They did an amazing set last year of orchestrations of video game music on our main stage. They're returning to do more so we're super excited about that. We have a couple bands that we've had in the past coming back.

Super Thrash Bros. They've come in a retro game con before. They do metal covers of Retro GameCon. I mean, retro gaming music. So that's really cool to have them back. And our main stage is downstairs. So you'll miss that, all that stuff. Also, the food.

There are concessions at the OnCenter. If you're hungry. We basically took the second ballroom. We're like, make that the food area. So all that good stuff. there's full bars and stuff like that down there too. So you get your food and drink on while you're at the con. And then speaking to the music, we're unfortunately sold out,

but we have an after party on Saturday that's taking place at the song and dance. And we have a nationally known video game cover band Power Glove. Yeah. That's going to be headlining it. So super excited to have them there for the first time. We saw them. Patrick and I were at Magfest down in Maryland this year, and they performed. And then they had their table next to us there where we had our table.

So we were like talking to them. We're like, we got to get them to retro game. So I'm super excited to have them there. And our after party is always a lot of fun. Like I might have said earlier, we had some of our special guests show up there and stuff too. So who knows what surprises will be there. But, you know, it's not just limited to this private event.

You know, there is music at the con too. And that's a huge part of it is. And giving them that stage at our event, we want to make sure people know that that's where it is and they can find it. And there are some big panels like the the voices of Valve reunion one that has all those Half Life and Team Fortress and Portal actors all in one. That's a big event. So they're going to be sharing the stage to do that downstairs.

If I could recommend a band, there's a band out there that strictly does the Tony Hawk's skater soundtrack. I mean, iconic. We sell out wherever they go. I forget what their name is. Look them up. Just at least consider them for me. I will say we've thought about trying to get Tony Hawk here.

Obviously, hitting gust guarantees and stuff is tough, but he has, he did, we're friends with a lot of the other con runs throughout the country. You know, they're friends with us, and we always share ideas back and forth. And one of our close friends did have Tony Hawk at his show last year in Arizona, and it was awesome. So, you know, not promising anything, but it's just so you know how the gears are working by the things. We're always thinking of stuff like that.

And that would be perfect if we had him there. Yeah, for sure. If we had him there, we'd get a half pipe. I was going to, we'd make room for it. You're going to have to build a half pipe. But, you know, it's ideas like that. Even you just saying, like, oh, there's this band that does this. When we hear about stuff like that, we jot it down.

take a no or even if it's a mental note. We've got to remember that for next year. That's how Retro GameCon has grown to what it is. It's always learning from the last year. What can we do to make this bigger and better? It's a great mindset. So thank you for reminding to highlight that there's more than just the vendor hall. There's little side rooms next to the vendor hall that we have a...

Downstairs. We have like a side quest room we're calling it this year. And a lot of those fun things like the cosplay speed run that I mentioned will take place in there. So there's a ton of programming. And speaking of your program, one thing I want to highlight is, The best way to know what's going on is our convention program. We're one of the few that still make a physical printed program. I love that.

And, you know, it always sucks when we throw out leftovers at the end of the year because it's a cool piece of memorabilia to have it as well. But all that info is in there. So a lot of the questions we get could be answered if more people know. And what we started doing, too, is have available digitally on the website. Oh, yeah, Danny pulled it up right here. That's great. When you open the website, there's a splash screen first thing that helps you go right to the program.

And so you can look at it now to figure out what's taking place. It flips. Plan your events. What a time to be alive. And, you know, just scanning through it right now, you can see there's shows our map of the vendor hall and the downstairs. There's a lot of great sponsors and ads from vendors that are going to be there. So, you know, whatever your reason for coming to Retro GameCon is, you're going to be able to find something that appeals to you. and our programming, we try to make sure it's varied and detailed in the program so people know what's going on, where and when.

And like I said, even if, oh, I wanted to go Saturday, but it sold out, well, I'll grab a Sunday ticket. You're going to pay less for that ticket, and you're not going to be missing out on anything because we make sure the whole convention experience is there. I think you guys are going to have to make this a week long. This is the second year we did three days. We went from one day to first year, and then I remember the first. time we did a two day was a couple years later and then now it's up to a three day you never know i mean we're not near a comic con level but they are a you know Thursday through the weekend events reality is at this point you could use a bigger place but we we ain't got no bigger place

so all you can do is more we get we get a lot of questions about that is like what are you going to and and that's kind of yeah we'd have to it would have to be something totally different we tried to do the fairgrounds a few years back but there's a lot of red tape with state property and you know i mentioned that charity element was a huge part of it and any that could infringe on being able to do our charity efforts. We're like, sorry, we're not going to do it. We'd rather, we'd rather sell out on a Saturday than not be able to do the stuff. You'd rather sell out and actually sell out.

Yes, exactly. Very good. I'm going to remember that one. I love that. See, I taught you the nerddom thing and I remember that one. There you go. It's a two-way street. Any time, Mike, you can learn something.

That's important. Retro GameCon this weekend. Come check it out. Sounds like even though Saturday is sold out for just Saturday tickets, you could still get in for the whole weekend. Yep, we do, you know, we made sure there was an allotment. We have the number. We work with the fire marshal and stuff and how many people would be there to figure out what our cutoff is.

So we have that as a start. And that's what we go by. But yes, Friday and Sunday are still available. Weekend passes are still available. So if you know, and that's what we always tell. We get emails and stuff. The best way to secure your spot is to just get your ticket out of time. There's obviously online fees when you order online.

but it's also a little cheaper ticket than at the door. So it evens out. We try to make it so people aren't like, we've all dealt with concerts through Ticketmaster and Live Nation stuff. So it's like we don't want to be that. We want people to just, you want to get in, you get in, you know. And like I mentioned in the beginning, compared to other events, you know,

let's take advantage of the fact that here we are in Syracuse where we can afford to have a cheaper ticket for an event like this. And we have family passes too. So, you know, a family four pack might be, oh, I'm going to bring my family anyway. This is perfect to save a little bit and get in and guaranteed. It's stuff like that you may want to consider as well. Yeah, like I said, I would just buy the weekend pass because here's the thing.

This is one of those things. It's literally so big that I don't know that you can necessarily even see it in one day. So you might as well just go multiple days anyway and take advantage. I also love that you guys are in this beautiful sweet spot of like you're big enough where there's this wow factor and you're going to get a big draw and sell out, but it's still small enough to where it's an intimate experience and it's very locally focused

as far as charity and the community and just the experience itself. And not to compare to Comic Con again, but that's kind of why you touched on something that I mentioned in the beginning too is that the experience you're going to get, I think you're going to be able to do more with your time and money at record GameCon

than if you did go to, you know, probably you have a great time at an event like New York or San Diego Comic Con. Those are awesome. but you really are going to be selling yourself short in terms of the amount of things you can do in a weekend. And I mentioned in the beginning, we're all trying to save money right now.

So it's understandable, but if you can spend a little less, and then you're like, hey, I have time to buy some stuff at the vendor hall, play some free play games. And in our free play area, we also are going to have some tournaments and stuff, too. So we have, you know, there could be some new games like Mario Kart World on the Switch 2, but then there's some retro ones like Tetris and stuff. So people, maybe they got that competitive spirit in them. They want to play something like that.

They have that too. So it's just bang for your buck. That's what we try to make sure retro game kind is, is that whatever. And maybe that money is, like I said, going to charity efforts. We've had so many people, and this really warms our heart is when we have somebody come up and said, like, oh, my God, my son had to stay at Galasano for a while. And they were so helpful. And, you know, it's always hard when somebody says that because you don't want to say, that's great. Right, right.

But it's like, no, you're like, I'm sorry to hear that you had to go through that, but I'm so glad they were there. few. And what extra life does is for the kids that are staying at places like Galasano, it provides games for them and stuff. So there were, I remember a few years ago, they told us like, there was like pictures of kids and there was like

these PS3 consoles were provided by extra life. So the kids are actually hands on seeing the fruits of that charity efforts. So it's really heartwarming. And like I said, probably my favorite thing about That's so cool. You're a good man, Nathan

Grant. Nathan Grant, the event coordinator, Retro GameCon. This weekend at the On Center here in Syracuse, October 10th, 11th, and 12th. Retrogamecon.com. Is that right? Yep. Easy peasy. And we will be there all weekend.

We will. We are the exclusive. There will be excessive amounts of content coming from Good News, York, on all of our stuff. So follow that. We'll be showing you the show. We'll be also helping to it. It's not necessarily going to be live stream, but we're going to be recording a lot of the panels in advance and making them.

available for folks after the fact. I'm glad you mentioned that because looking at Saturday being sold out, well, if you guys are recording some of those panels that are happening and you get to attend Friday or Sunday and then you get to see the panel on this on Saturday, it's like that's why we really were thankful to be able to partner with you guys with this because it's like another one of those things year after year. How can we make it so people who missed out on X, Y, and enjoy it? So thank you guys for partnering with us and we're proud.

We're honored. Talk about stepping it up. We're even already talking about ways how we can. do it even better for you next year. Yeah. That's how it goes. Year over year, it's all creating partnerships and, you know, growing on them. That's like, that's what's made retrogamingana success, and I'm sure you guys as well.

So very happy to get the ball rolling. Thank you for coming. That's it. Retro Game Ton. Big, big, just, you know, tip of the hat, before it even happens this weekend. Thank you. I've seen the caliber of this event before. You guys absolutely kill it.

And I mean that to Dan. Danny's been quiet behind the board back there. But I know. how hard all you guys work to put on this just incredible event. And I'm sure you're so proud and incredibly exhausted next week.

Yeah. I made sure to take Monday off. I'm not going back to work after this weekend because I've made that mistake in the past. And you know what? Let me just quickly mention if, you know, one thing to remember is if you're in Syracuse and you love this event, we are always looking for volunteers every year.

Usually around the summertime is when we like are putting out the feelers for that. So if If you volunteer for the con, you work usually like two, four hour shifts whenever you want throughout the weekend or where you're assigned. You get full access to the convention otherwise. So you're like, I want to volunteer Saturday. Well, come on Friday and hang out and check out the con early and stuff. So it's a good thing for people locally who want to really get involved. We need to help.

And some of, like I said, those great friendships and stuff that are born. What a great way to do it. It came from people volunteering. So I wanted to highlight that as well. That's so cool, guys. Nathan Grant, thank you. for coming on the show. Retro GameCon, Retrogamecon.com this weekend.

It's all we're going to be talking about. So strap in, folks. We're going to have a lot of fun. And go downstairs when you're there. Check out every room. The side rooms, the downstairs, the main level. So much going on. Listen, I'm going to give you my last bit of advice.

And then we'll be on our way. Go check out that program that's online. Make your plan. Include a little walking around in food time because you're going to need that. You're going to need to take a break halfway through. true and you know power up it's true power up I love it oh we're on I love it I like that Mike just discovered that I'm a nerd today it's really funny uh but make that plan so you can you know in these events especially when you get having fun you're wandering around the floor

you're looking at things you're playing with games you don't realize oh shoot the panel that I wanted to see is about to start set those alarms on your phone man like do it right and you will have the time of your life absolutely and that's all I got to say about that so thanks a lot got to say about that. Thank you, folks. This has been Good News, York. Like, follow, subscribe, do all that fun stuff. And also check out our buddy, Zach, from Ads on the Go.

That's the official sponsor of this shindig. We love it. Thank you, Zach, for sponsor and Good News York. And we will see you tomorrow. Peace out. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman,

and Univoreau Boutique River Cruises L'OWique Bali. about river cruising in France. As we have been setting there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unuworld's 50th anniversary summer specials. You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RR.R. RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy.

Upload an episode, and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this. Even with just 10 listeners a month, if you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com.