Pull to refresh
What do you want to create?
List an Event Write a Post

Sign in or create a free account to get started.

SoCal Retro Gaming Expo 2026
Coming Soon
85 Gathering
5,540 exploring this week · 1,078 upcoming in SoCal

SoCal Retro Gaming Expo 2026

Going? You can check in after it ends.
10 people looking
Tomorrow · Sat, Jun 6 – Sun, Jun 7, 2026
Sat 10:00 AM PDT – Sun 6:00 PM PDT

85 Gathering · 1 person checked tickets

About

The console that defined your childhood is in a bin here. The person selling it has been looking for yours.

SoCal Retro Gaming Expo brings two days of competitive play, free-play stations, and a vendor floor to the Pasadena Convention Center — the annual show for people who still think the best game of their life was on hardware that no longer ships. NES, Sega Genesis, SNES, N64, Dreamcast — the full range, from the people who kept theirs.

The free-play arcade runs throughout both days. The vendor floor is where the serious trading happens — bring a want list and bring cash. Competitive tournaments run across multiple platforms. Speedrunning exhibitions and high-score challenges for the community that measures progress in frames.

The retro gaming show that doesn't apologize for the nostalgia. Pasadena Convention Center. The show is family-friendly on both days. The free-play arcade is the best reason to bring someone who doesn't collect yet.
85 people have found this event.
Your audience is already here. See exactly who found you.
I'm the one behind this →
More like this
Pokemon TCG League Challenge — Game Empire SD
Coming Soon
19 Gathering
11h away
19
Pokemon TCG League Challenge — Game Empire SD
Tomorrow · Jun 6 $5 entry 7052 Miramar Rd, San Diego, CA 921…

The monthly Pokemon TCG League Challenge at Game Empire San Diego is where the Miramar competitive scene earns Championship Points toward the World Championship invite. League Challenges are the grassroots infrastructure of competitive Pokemon — local enough to reach every week, structured enough to matter to the season, and meaningful enough that what happens here shows up in the standings that determine who goes to Worlds. Three divisions run simultaneously: Masters, Seniors, and Juniors. 60-card Standard format, Swiss rounds into a top cut, prize support for top finishers. Game Empire runs a well-organized event in a store that takes tabletop gaming seriously — the environment is competitive without being hostile, and the player base is consistent enough that you'll see the same opponents improving month over month alongside you. Game Empire San Diego is at 7052 Miramar Rd, San Diego. gameempire.com for registration details. Registration at 10 AM, rounds at 11 AM. Know your list, know your matchups. The Game Empire League Challenge field comes prepared.

Pokemon TCG League Challenge — TCS Rockets
Coming Soon
13 Gathering
11h away
13
Pokemon TCG League Challenge — TCS Rockets
Tomorrow · Jun 6 $5 entry 7626 Miramar Rd Suite 3900, San Di…

TCS Rockets, 7626 Miramar Rd, San Diego. June 6th. $5. The Pokemon TCG League Challenge at TCS Rockets in June — the early-summer competitive check-in for the San Diego scene, where the spring season's lessons get tested in a structured bracket against the players who have been working on the same problems. June is the first honest test after the spring Regional cycle. The lists have been refined since last month. The matchup theory has been updated. The players showing up for the June League Challenge know what they're running and why — which makes the bracket more informative than a casual session and more accessible than a Regional. The results reveal what the practice produced. $5 entry. June 6th at TCS Rockets, 7626 Miramar Rd. tcsrockets.com for registration and format details. The San Diego competitive Pokemon community uses League Challenges the way they're designed: as the consistent, measurable practice that builds the players who perform at Regionals. Come with your current list. See where June puts you.

SoCal Gaming Expo 2026
Coming Soon
95 Gathering
11h away
95
SoCal Gaming Expo 2026
Tomorrow · Jun 6 – Jun 7 Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E …

The cartridge is in a bin. The person selling it doesn't know what you paid for it, and doesn't care — they're looking for something too. That moment of physical contact with hardware from your childhood, at a table run by someone who shares the same obsession, is what the SoCal Gaming Expo is built on. Pasadena Convention Center, June 6-7, 2026: free-play arcade, 200-plus vendor tables, competitive gaming, and the specific joy of a room where everything is for sale and everyone is looking. Retro gaming at its core, which undersells it — this is the show for people who never stopped. The free-play arcade runs throughout both days: you don't have to buy anything to justify the ticket. But the vendor floor is the reason most people come back. NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, Game Boy, arcade cabinets — the full range. Free-play stations running throughout. Competitive tournaments on both days. General admission.

AniFest 2026
Coming Soon
123 Gathering
11h away
123
AniFest 2026
Tomorrow · Jun 6 Torrance Cultural Arts Center, 333…

One day at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center. Over a hundred vendors, twenty-plus celebrity guests, an idol performance on the V-Stage, cosplay showcases, LAN Hero gaming tournaments, and a maid cafe. Twenty dollars at the door. Children under 12 free with a paid adult. AniFest is small enough to actually meet people and large enough to fill the day.

Pokemon TCG League Challenge — Artificer San Diego
Coming Soon
24 Gathering
11h away
24
Pokemon TCG League Challenge — Artificer San Diego
Tomorrow · Jun 6 $5 entry 5005 Shawline St Suite B, San Dieg…

The monthly Pokemon TCG League Challenge at Artificer San Diego runs in Linda Vista — one of San Diego's dedicated hobby gaming spaces, purpose-built for exactly this kind of organized play. League Challenges are the consistent competitive foundation that builds the players who perform at Regionals: local, structured, and meaningful to season standings in ways that casual play never is. Three divisions: Masters, Seniors, Juniors. 60-card Standard, Swiss rounds, top cut, prizes. Artificer draws a competitive-minded crowd — the players who come monthly are building toward something, and the rounds reflect it. The Championship Points earned here accumulate toward the World Championship invite pool, which means a good day at Artificer is a good day on the season, full stop. Artificer San Diego is at 5005 Shawline St, Suite B, San Diego. artificersd.com for registration and entry details. Registration at 10 AM, rounds at 11 AM. Come with your best 60. Come knowing the meta. The Artificer field has been doing the same preparation you have.

Magic: The Gathering — Final Fantasy Prerelease at Game Empire
Coming Soon
17 Gathering
13h away
17
Magic: The Gathering — Final Fantasy Prerelease at Game Empire
Tomorrow · Jun 6 – Jun 13 Game Empire, 5037 Shawline St, San…

Game Empire San Diego, 5037 Shawline St. June 6th. The Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy Prerelease at Game Empire — the set that the overlap between Magic players and JRPG fans has been waiting for, on the day it's first legal, with the sealed format that makes every player's experience equally unpredictable. The Final Fantasy set is the kind of Magic release where the IP does extra work. The card names, the mechanics built around specific game moments, the art that references thirty years of the franchise — these land differently for players who grew up with the games. The Prerelease sealed format means you're building your deck from what you open, which means the sorceries and creatures and enchantments you pull aren't guaranteed. You build with what you get and play what you built. magic.wizards.com for the full Final Fantasy set spoiler and mechanic previews. June 6th at Game Empire San Diego. The prerelease pod runs through the day — show up early for your allocation. The Final Fantasy set is one of those release events where the whole store is excited before the first pack opens. Be in the room when the packs do.

MTG Final Fantasy Prerelease: Materia Mastery — Bards & Cards
Coming Soon
14h away
MTG Final Fantasy Prerelease: Materia Mastery — Bards & Cards
Tomorrow · Jun 6 $30 936 5th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101

Magic: The Gathering meets Final Fantasy in the most anticipated crossover set in the game's history. Before the cards hit shelves, Bards and Cards in Downtown San Diego opens the Final Fantasy Prerelease with the Materia Mastery tournament — a sealed event where your six boosters determine your fate, just like a materia loadout before a boss fight. Limited to 16 players, which means table space is real and you actually talk to the people across from you. Pack-per-win prizing keeps things competitive without the grinder energy of a large open. The set pulls from Final Fantasy VII through XVI — iconic characters, summons, and bosses from across the franchise rendered as Magic cards for the first time. If you grew up with both hobbies, this is the event you have been waiting for since the crossover was announced. Located in the Gaslamp Quarter. Doors at 12:30, first packs cracked at 1 PM. Register in advance — 16-player cap means this fills quickly once the community learns it exists.

Board Game Night — Meeples Games SD
Coming Soon
10 Gathering
18h away
10
Board Game Night — Meeples Games SD
Tomorrow · Jun 6 Free / $5 game rental Meeples Games, 3821 Ray St, San Di…

Meeples Games, 3821 Ray St, San Diego. June 7th. Free to come, $5 game rental. Board Game Night at Meeples is the Sunday evening that turns a game store into a living room — the tables fill with people who came for the same reason, and by the time the last game box closes, the room has done something the city doesn't always make easy: connected strangers over something they all love. Meeples Games is a dedicated board game café with a library of hundreds of titles. The rental fee gets you access to any game on the shelf — the deck builders, the worker placements, the cooperative titles that make the table argue for the right reasons, and the light party games that work when you need something everyone can learn in five minutes. The staff knows the library and can recommend exactly what fits the group you brought. Free to come. June 7th at Meeples Games, 3821 Ray St in North Park. meeplesgamessd.com for hours and the full game library. You don't need to bring anything — not a game, not a group, not an agenda. Show up. Find a table. Sit down with whoever's already there. The games handle the rest.

You found this before it happened.

That's not a coincidence.