Day 30 of #RPGaDay2020 bring out "Portal"
So let's talk about The Portal Comics and Games and Mepacon.
When I was a kid in the very early 90's, you had a few options for gaming.
Dreamscape Comics was literally two blocks away from my house. They had games and comics to satisfy most of my desires.
If we wanted to go find a much larger selection, we'd travel to Cap's Comic Cavalcade in Allentown. If we wanted more of a modelling/hobbyist kick, we'd travel across the river to Imagination Workshop.
As the years progressed, I began working for other fledgling game stores in the area, honing my knowledge, until I got the dream job at Dreamscape... the bulk of which was their other, smaller location twenty minutes away.
By the end of 2000, I was in "grown-up" profession, and the Gray Ladies of the area were showing their age. In response to retirements, going-out-of business sales for no good reason, and retraction, one store from out of the area moved in with new location (The Encounter), but there were a host of other people who thought they could run things better, host 40k and Magic nights for their friends, get product at discount, and make a boatload of money doing it.
I used to fancy myself as a historian of the game stores. Nowadays, I can't remember 3/4 of the stores that set up and failed.
The Portal was not one of those failures. In fact, it might be the only good game store left in the area.
I've got to admit, I never went into the Portal's first location. My friend Brian and I both worked shifts that ended around Noon, so once a week, we would grab lunch and travel the Valley, checking out the new stuff at each store. The Portal never interested me because (a) it was a horrible location with no parking and (b) other shops had opened up on that same stretch of road and had left a horrible taste in my mouth.
Flash forward many years, and add kids to my equation, and I finally ventured down to the "new" location, in an odd strip mall dominated by a CVS, but also a few steps from one of the local high schools. There was parking, there was stock, there were clean floors, and there was polite staff.
Holy crap they did it! They became a legitimate business, where many, many others had failed!
The industry dynamics have changed in the thirty years since I started playing games, and the Portal hit all the important points when I reviewed it two years ago.
They seemed to have slowly built their bases, overcome all the snags that new businesses have, and developed a dedicated clientele. Best of all, they're a sponsor for Mepacon, the largest local gaming convention in northeast and mid-eastern Pennsylvania.
I'm a big fan of Mepacon. Here's me running Hackmaster at their first-ever convention, circa 2001.
Here's hoping the Portal supports local gaming in all its forms, and here's hoping I can get some time to visit the old stomping grounds and perhaps swing in and spend some money.
So let's talk about The Portal Comics and Games and Mepacon.
When I was a kid in the very early 90's, you had a few options for gaming.
Dreamscape Comics was literally two blocks away from my house. They had games and comics to satisfy most of my desires.
If we wanted to go find a much larger selection, we'd travel to Cap's Comic Cavalcade in Allentown. If we wanted more of a modelling/hobbyist kick, we'd travel across the river to Imagination Workshop.
As the years progressed, I began working for other fledgling game stores in the area, honing my knowledge, until I got the dream job at Dreamscape... the bulk of which was their other, smaller location twenty minutes away.
By the end of 2000, I was in "grown-up" profession, and the Gray Ladies of the area were showing their age. In response to retirements, going-out-of business sales for no good reason, and retraction, one store from out of the area moved in with new location (The Encounter), but there were a host of other people who thought they could run things better, host 40k and Magic nights for their friends, get product at discount, and make a boatload of money doing it.
I used to fancy myself as a historian of the game stores. Nowadays, I can't remember 3/4 of the stores that set up and failed.
The Portal was not one of those failures. In fact, it might be the only good game store left in the area.
I've got to admit, I never went into the Portal's first location. My friend Brian and I both worked shifts that ended around Noon, so once a week, we would grab lunch and travel the Valley, checking out the new stuff at each store. The Portal never interested me because (a) it was a horrible location with no parking and (b) other shops had opened up on that same stretch of road and had left a horrible taste in my mouth.
Flash forward many years, and add kids to my equation, and I finally ventured down to the "new" location, in an odd strip mall dominated by a CVS, but also a few steps from one of the local high schools. There was parking, there was stock, there were clean floors, and there was polite staff.
Holy crap they did it! They became a legitimate business, where many, many others had failed!
The industry dynamics have changed in the thirty years since I started playing games, and the Portal hit all the important points when I reviewed it two years ago.
They seemed to have slowly built their bases, overcome all the snags that new businesses have, and developed a dedicated clientele. Best of all, they're a sponsor for Mepacon, the largest local gaming convention in northeast and mid-eastern Pennsylvania.
I'm a big fan of Mepacon. Here's me running Hackmaster at their first-ever convention, circa 2001.
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