Replay FX gaming convention draws thousands to Pittsburgh
Blinking lights and sounds of bleeps and beeps filled the second floor of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center this past weekend.
It was the fifth year of Pittsburgh’s annual retro gaming convention, Replay FX, co-production between Pittsburgh’s esports team, the Pittsburgh Knights, and Replay FX.
The marquee event of the convention is the widely-known Pinburgh, a pinball machine tournament.
“The pinball tournament is the largest in the world,” said Matt Roche, an organizer with Pittsburgh Knights, who helps out putting the event together every year with Replay FX. “There are 1,000 competitors, and the tickets for the tournament sold out in 30 seconds.”
Roche said he expected this year to have the most amount of attendees in the history of the event. With expectations to surpass 20,000 attendees, as compared to last year’s numbers between 15,000 and 16,000 gaming enthusiasts.
“This year we’re also introducing more esports, and modern gaming elements,” added Roche.
The event attracts visitors from all over the country and world.
Germain Mariolle is a native of France, but now lives in Seattle and has made the trip from the West Coast of the United States for all five years to compete in Pinburgh.
“It’s not always about strategy, sometimes it’s just about surviving the game,” Mariolle said before strapping on a wrist guard to combat tendinitis of the wrist and concentrating on the retro pinball machine “Satin Doll” in one of Friday’s rounds of Pinburgh.
Shane Dunlap is a TribLive photographer covering Westmoreland and Allegheny counties. He grew up in the Ohio Valley near Pittsburgh and has worked for newspapers as far away as Fayetteville, N.C., where he covered the U.S. Army at Fort Liberty. He can be reached at sdunlap@triblive.com.
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