MAGFest 2025

Hiya! It's certainly been awhile since my last blog. I planned on covering my Oregon trip few months ago but by the time I got around to writing it out, I figured it was too 'irrelevant' if that makes any sense? Well, anyway, enough of that crap.

So here it is; MAGFest 2025, my first one. I'm already starting to weep with joy writing this out. I must sound like a broken record to all of my friends with how many times I've said it but this may be the best convention I've attended in my whole life lol. The music, people, and games were great, but what really sold it for me was meeting folks I've known on the internet for a long time (as early as 2008 lol). Everybody was saying this to me during the event but there's some kind of magic MAGfest has over most conventions, and I'd have to agree! Just about every game reviewer and streamers from the early 2010s were there (Vinesauce, AVGN, TheRunawayGuys) and even if you couldn't catch their panels, you'd more than likely run into them.

Miniature memorial for the goat of surrealism in film. I'd be doing a huge disservice not covering this part. Very beautiful thing the people have done. Fuck you, LA!

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I guess I'll start off w/ the console museum. Now this little contraption was fascinating! It's an official cartridge tester Nintendo would use in their warehouse to check if a SNES cart was working or no good. What makes it interesting, though, is it uses components from an original Game Boy! In fact, when you turn it on, the little screen on the top has the GB logo and does the little *ding!* noise. Very educational!!! Anyway, here are more development kits:

Neat-o, huh? And of course they had playable consoles ranging all the way from Atari, Magnavox Odyssey, and some Japanese home computers!

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Still can't believe I played on an iQue Player (Chinese Nintendo 64) and got a shitty ending in Touhou on real PC-98 hardware lol.

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Saw Red Vox perform LIVE!!!! Gotta be one of the bigger highlights of the convention for me. They did a cover of Everybody Wants To Rule the World which sent me into a big crying fit hahahaha.

High quality rips... in real loife.

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One my friends I went to the convention with convinced me to attend a panel about golf in video games. Thought it was gonna be a snooze fest but I learned a couple of cool facts, like how there's an Evangelion and Aqua Teen golf game lmfao. It was impressive how good that panel was.

Right, so, onto the miscellaneous pictures I took. This section is mostly dedicated to the wicked cool cosplayers!
And that's a wrap! Again, this was the greatest convention I've been to... ever. Better than SDCC, better than Sakuracon. I partook in a Darkstalkers 3 tourney buuuuuut I got my ass handed to me big time during the preliminaries lol. More motivation to practice for next time!!! 

In time, I had forgotten who I was; the many odd jobs I've taken and miserable assholes I worked with corrupted my outlook on my hobbies and personal enjoyment, and oddly enough this convention has opened up my third eye. I missed being 'me' more than anything. But, had it not been for my good friends Brian and Logan convincing me to fly down, I'd still be jaded and mopey from my Kroger job lmfao.
If I'm able to go next year, great! If not, oh well! I'm beyond happy I was able to attend this year, and embrace the magic beauty MAGFest had to offer. I hope everybody who attended had an excellent time, 'cuz I sure as hell did! 🎊🎉🪅

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Bonus pic of me and my buddy recreating the cover flyer for Street Fighter Alpha 2. I swear I'm NOT that short. I had to bend my knees to be accurate to the source material! Really!!!

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