CLEVELAND, Ohio — It started with a couple of friends playing Tecmo Bowl. Now, the Cleveland Gaming Classic is Ohio’s largest gaming convention and it’s coming to the I-X Center for the first time this Saturday.
The Cleveland Gaming Classic is filled with everything a gamer might want. Retro video games, arcade cabinets and pinball machines. Independent developers showing off their new games. They’ll be tournaments, cosplay, collectibles and even special guests for the annual event.
Tom Jenkins, the event’s founder, said it started small and snowballed from there. About 10 years ago he and his friends were meeting up to play “Tecmo Super Bowl”, a football video game released in 1991.
That private tournament grew and in 2017 they organized a public event called “Tecmo Cleveland” and held it at American Legion in Avon Lake. That event would turn into the Cleveland Gaming Classic and start being held at Wagner’s of Westlake — but now it’s outgrown that space.
Jenkins said seeing it grow has been an awesome and humbling experience.
“It started in my basement in North Ridgeville and now we’re at the I-X Center,” he said.
This year the Gaming Classic will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mortal Kombat with actors and a designer from the original game. The show will also sell raffle tickets to raise money for United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Cleveland.
The event is from 12 to 10 p.m. Saturday, with early-bird access at 11 a.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and free for children 10 and under.
Attendees can buy tickets at the door or visit gamecleveland.com/ticketsnow.
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