MegaCon 2025: Shane’s Starcade Combines Video Games With A Good Cause
by Frank Martin
It’s hard to fully encapsulate what a comic book convention entails. There’s so much going on in so many different corners of the convention center that a lot of times the smaller moments get overlooked. Between the all-star creators, the A-list celebrity actors, the hundreds of vendors all vying for attention and sales — not to mention the plethora of cosplayers showing off their costumes — some of the convention’s smaller and more wholesome corners get lost in the shuffle. But for those looking for a bit of nostalgia and downtime while also contributing to a good cause, Shane’s Starcade at MegaCon was an overlooked gem.
The premise behind Starcade is quite simple. It’s a room filled with console games from a bygone era. Atari, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, all the way up to the Xbox and Playstation era of gaming were featured. There were no extensive lines of people hoping to get a turn. Starcade ran on a strictly first come, first serve basis, organized simply on players taking turns and hopping on empty controllers when available. There’s something genuine about strangers grabbing controllers and playing games together at the drop of a hat without any preamble. And that friendly atmosphere was cultivated without any expectation of payment or competition.
The idea was spawned by Shane, who decided to combine his love of retro video games with a charitable cause. Extra Life is an organization that seeks to increase awareness and charitable contributions for Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. Although Starcade was free for con-goers, a donation was encouraged to help with the cause. So much of a comic convention is meant to separate people’s money from their wallets that it was nice to see a wholesome space meant to bring joy and fun without the expectation of anything in return. But if you did want to chip and help, it was nice knowing the money would be going to charity rather than profit. For the amount of video game smiles Starcade brought to busy attendees, it deserves to be recognized.
