Carole Ruggier is an actress well known for her voice acting, casting & voice directing on award winning video games. Notable voice roles include Athena in God of War (2005) & God of War II (2007) with a cameo in 2018's God of War, as well as Athena in Age of Mythology & Age of Mythology: Retold, Auntie Dot in Halo: Reach, Doreen Hackel in the animated horror-thriller film Abruptio & Professor Jocelyn Peabody in the animated TV series Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future. TV roles include playing Amanda Carter in Marvel's Agent Carter on NBC & multiple voice & sketch appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC.
Her first role as a voice actress was in the 1995 video game MechWarrior 2 as the Narrator (aka Bitchin' Betty) and she was invited to reprise the role for MechWarrior Online in 2013 & MechWarrior 5: Clans. She was also the narrator throughout the Tom Clancy series including Rainbow Six, Heavy Gear, Rogue Spear, Ghost Recon, Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, Jungle Storm, Rainbow Six 3, & Raven Shield.
In other video games, she voiced the InteLink in Spycraft, the Geologist in Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Eowyn in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Aphrodite in God of War (2005), Bralsa Drel & Dreyla Alor in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Elynea Mothren in Skyrim: Dragonborn. Her voice can also be heard in Battlezone II: Combat Commander, Crimson Skies, Timeline, Red Faction II, The Sum of All Fears & Dante’s Inferno. Carole also cast the voices for numerous notable games including Rainbow Six, Red Dead Revolver, Resident Evil, Dino Crisis 3, Quake II, Maximo, Red Faction II, Chaos Legion, Devil May Cry 2 & also served as Voice Director on Freelancer, Resident Evil (English voices), Chaos Legion, Devil May Cry 2, Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: WW2 Pacific Theater & Dino Crisis 3.
Tofer.A has been playing games & collecting his entire life. As a child of the 80s, he grew up obsessed with video games & arcade machines, & enjoys showing his love for them on Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, & his YouTube channel; where he likes to specialize in obscure video game history. His channel consists of many videos ranging from video game facts & history, TCGs, & gardening; & he uploads new content every day!
Joe Cain is a game/level designer, producer, & a former Sega of America lead/general tester with over 30 years of experience in the Video Game industry, from QA to Production & Creative Direction. He has worked with Sega of America, Atari, The 3DO Company, Digital Eclipse, Electronic Arts, App Ant Studios, GREE, IGT, & iWin. Joe was the lead/general tester on over 40 Sega Genesis titles including Ecco the Dolphin, Ecco: The Tides of Time, Eternal Champions, Disney’s Aladdin, X-Men, X-Men 2: Clone Wars, Sonic the Hedgehog: Spinball, Sonic & Knuckles, Taz in Escape From Mars, Shadowrun, Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition, Streets of Rage 3 & many more. Joe worked on game/level design & production on Gubble, Gubble 2, Disney’s Bonkers, Mort the Chicken, Disney's Tarzan: Return to the Jungle, Disney's Kim Possible: Revenge of Monkey Fist, Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000, Fight for Life, Ruiner Pinball, Tiny Tank & many other titles. Joe has spent the last 20 years working on online games & worked on Pogo.com for Electronic Arts for 8 years!
David O'Connor is the Director of the Online PlayStation Museum (PSM) that collects, studies, interprets, & preserves the hardware, video games, design, & all related materials regarding the history of the original Sony PlayStation game console; & has been doing it for over 27 years. David works with former executives from Sony, publishers, & development studios to document their experiences & he has also consulted & supported the International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG) at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York for a fascinating exhibit featuring Sony development related products.
Beyond collecting & preserving such materials, the PSM is a highly interactive, media-based educational web resource devoted to Sony PlayStation history. The PlayStation Museum gives developers a platform to document & share in depth their challenges & accomplishments developing PlayStation video games. Developers often share with the PlayStation Museum their experiences, artwork, design documents, & other media with the goal of preserving their work & receiving recognition for their hard work & creativity. The PlayStation Museum has garnered support from developers & publishers worldwide with the same goal of preserving the history of PlayStation game development. Developers, former or current, include: 989 Studios, Acclaim, Accolade, Activision, Argonaut, Blue Sky, Capcom, CAPS, Electronic Arts, Gray Matter, GT Interactive, Infogrames, Namco, Naughty Dog, Neversoft, Player 1, Psygnosis, Realtime Associates, Runecraft, SCE Worldwide Studios, Sony Interactive Studios America, Squaresoft, Universal Studios Interactive, Viacom New Media, Virgin Interactive Entertainment, Visual Concepts, & more.
David will be bringing never-before-seen design documents, development tools, marketing pieces, concept art, & rare PlayStation consoles for display. He will also be bringing a working debugger to showcase never-before-seen PS1 prototype games for people to play.
Mark Androvich is an author, editor & marketer. After contributing to fanzines such as The 2600 Connection, he got his start in the industry in 1998 writing video game reviews & feature articles for PSExtreme (later PSE2) & Q64 magazines. He authored over 30 official video game strategy guides published by Prima & Brady Games for titles such as Dino Crisis, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, The Mark of Kri & many more!
From 2007-08 he was the first US news editor for UK-based GamesIndustry.biz. He joined PlayStation in 2009 as a Marketing Publishing Director overseeing the monthly “Qore” digital publication on PS3 & working with Future Publishing on PlayStation: The Official Magazine. In 2010, he joined the newly formed Network Advertising team & worked with companies such as Progressive, Axe, Dr Pepper, Toyota & others to promote their products via downloadable content & advergaming inside PlayStation Home as well as integrating them into games (Axe body spray in Pain!, Progressive in ModNation Racers, Toyota in LittleBigPlanet, etc). He spent ten years at PlayStation leaving in 2019.
Robert J. Mical is a pioneer and an influential figure in the video game industry. He is best known for contributing to the design of the Amiga and creating the user interface for Commodore's Amiga personal computer, and for co-designing the Atari Lynx color handheld and the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer video game system.
He also created video games at Williams Electronics where he worked on such titles as Sinistar and Star Rider; and worked at Sony Computer Entertainment from 2005 to 2011 as a senior manager on many PlayStation games and worked on developer tools for the PS3, PSP, and PS Vita.
Erik Braa is known as the Viking of Voiceover. He got his start in video games and has garnered success in all areas of acting. He is most well known as the voice of Draven, Jax and VelKoz in League of Legends, Gallagher in Honkai: Star Rail, Kohga in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and most recently known for Porter in Bendy and the Dark Revival, and Moon Knight in Marvel Rivals. He has lent his voice to 100's of games, from Heroes of the Storm and many Blizzard titles, to The Walking Dead game for Telltale Games.
In the world of video games he has also voiced Baron von Aubrecker in Dungeons & Dragons Online: The Chill of Ravenloft, Truck in Broken Arrow, Fosco in Slender Threads, Shauk in Ember Sword, Etalus in Rivals of Aether II, Satan in The Holy Gosh Darn, Burning Spice Cookie in Cookie Run: Kingdom, Wawlika & Pepoane in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, Swimmer's Papa in SAND LAND, Garr in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, Bertrand in Unicorn Overlord, Sombron in Fire Emblem Engage, Fishmonger in Return to Monkey Island, Travis in Triangle Strategy, Allegro in Lost Ark, Zelot in Fire Emblem Heroes, Cedar in Action Henk, General Mikiel in Strider (2014), Harlan Fitzpatrick in Law & Order: Legacies, Marcus Kunchai & Guillermo Rice in CSI: Fatal Conspiracy, Lieutenant K'Gan in Star Trek Online, Taupy Toplan in Sands of Destruction, Major McKenzie in Nick Chase: A Detective Story, Xil in Galacticare, CDR Vincent Woodard in Starfield, Husband Painter in Layers of Fear, Odysseus in Asterigos: Curse of the Stars, Tengis & Baxter in Elex II, Zhenlong in 9 Monkeys of Shaolin, Andre in Helheim Hassle, Kwolok & the Narrator in Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Draven in Legends of Runeterra, Schaefer in GTFO, Alfred Burton in Phantasmat: Remains Of Buried Memories, Marlowe in Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing, Knolan in Battle Chasers: NightWar, Spirit Tree in Ori and the Blind Forest, Muhummad & Juan de Marillo in Assassin's Creed II: Discovery, King Mohammad in Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines, and his voice work can be heard in NBA 2K Series, The Hidden Expedition Series, Kelvin and the Infamous Machine, The Amaranthine Voyage Series, SMITE, BackStab, Street Fighter 6, MLB: The Show Series, Street Outlaws 2: Winner Takes All, Chivalry II, Magic Legends, Mystery Case Files: Black Crown, SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest, Command & Conquer: Rivals, Myths of the World: Fire from the Deep, World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, World of Warcraft: Legion, Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi, StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Neverwinter, and SimCity.
In the world of animated shows he has voiced King Seaford & Dave Silver in Mermaid Magic, Mahko Nagwara in Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, Papa Swimmer in Sand Land: the Series, Morgan in Synduality: Noir, Elias Devere in The War at Home, Artak in Raid: Call of the Arbiter, and Genryusai in Ninjala.
Terrence C. Carson is an American actor & singer, best known for his long-running voice role as Kratos in the God of War video game series from 2005 to 2013, voicing Mace Windu in various Star Wars video games & animated shows since 2002, portraying Kyle Barker on the FOX sitcom Living Single (1993-1998), for the role of Eugene Dix in Final Destination 2, & recently as Danny on the Netflix series Miss Governor.
He has voiced many roles on well-known games, such as the Green Lantern in DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos, Tensay in Far Cry Primal, Big Tony in Saints Row IV, Calchas in Tron Evolution, Sword Master in Afro Samurai, Ajihad in Eragon, Guillo in Baten Kaitos Origins, Anthony Green in Saints Row, Grimgash the Black in Everquest II, Stuart Coleman in Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, Othello in Unreal Tournament III, Blue Shift in Anki Overdrive, Agent Hardtack in Agents of Mayhem, Cobra Bubbles in Lilo & Stitch: Trouble in Paradise & Hawaiian Discovery, & J.D. Tyler in The Outfit.
In the world of TV animation, he has voiced Aang in Star Wars: the Clone Wars, Sword Master & Brother 4 in Afro Samurai, Samuel & Fire Chief Campbell in Clifford the Big Red Dog, & Norton Jensen in Life with Louie. In animated movies, He voices Ra's al Ghul in Justice League vs Teen Titans, & Clarence in The Animatrix.
David Crane is one of the most successful designers of entertainment software in the world. His award-winning video games, led by Pitfall!, Ghostbusters, A Boy and His Blob, and Amazing Tennis are acknowledged as some of the most innovative and popular in the interactive entertainment industry. Prior to his days at Activision, Crane was employed at Atari, where he wrote such hits as Outlaw, Slot Machine and Canyon Bomber. He was also instrumental in the design of the Atari 800 computer's operating system.
Crane's industry awards continued to mount with each new product. Pitfall! maintained the top slot on the Billboard charts for 64 weeks and was named video game of the year in 1982. Pitfall II: Lost Caverns was also the number one rated game in the country for over six months and won the 1984 Golden Floppy award for best game and the Video Adventure Game of the Year award for 1984. The Activision Decathlon was in the top 20 video games for more than one year and won several sports game awards. Ghostbusters achieved unprecedented sales in the United States, throughout Europe, and Japan. Crane's Little Computer People was awarded the 1985 award for the most innovative program of the year. A Boy and His Blob received the best of show award at its introduction and was the video game of the year for 1989. Crane was named designer of the year in 1983 and 1984.
David Crane, along with Dan & Garry Kitchen, founded Audacity Games in November 2020 to develop Atari 2600 games to be played on retro consoles. They plan to release these games as both physical copies alongside digital versions that are emulator-friendly.
Guests announcements
on Tuesdays & Thursdays!
A.J. Kirsch has carved out quite the career for himself both in and out of gaming. Within the world of gaming, he's most recognized for providing the voice and motion-capture for "Buzz," the main character in MyCAREER mode of WWE2K19, WWE's flagship video game. His voice can also be found in WWE2K25 and Mafia: Definitive Edition. Outside of gaming, A.J. has a decorated history with pro wrestling, having won Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's "Rock the Promo" competition and making it to the final four contestants in reality show "WWE Tough Enough." A.J. is also an actor in dozens of commercials, major movies, and several TV shows, but is busiest as a host, MC, hype man, presenter, and announcer for live and televised events of all kinds including conventions, fundraisers, conferences, combat sports, festivals, and nightlife events. He has hosted events leading up to and at the past three Super Bowls, he's host and PA announcer at other NorCal conventions including StocktonCon and Fire & Ice RGX, and more recently, he became the new in-game host for the social media sensation baseball team, the Savannah Bananas, and their arch-rivals, the Party Animals. Sac Gamers Expo is thrilled to have A.J. as our official host!
Dave Rivas has been a professional actor, singer, comic, & voice over artist for over 25 years. He has a growing fan base for his work as the voice of Joey Drew from Bendy & the Dark Revival as well as the multiple characters he voices for Star Trek Online, primarily the voice of Va'Kel Shon, Captain of The U.S.S. Enterprise-F.
Additionally, he has also voiced Solo in Strider, Vasco Montez in Beasts of Maravilla Island, Dr. Lovebomber in Reset Generation, Abdullah Bakhoum in Nancy Drew: Tomb of the Lost Queen, Colton Birchfield in Nancy Drew: Ghost of Thornton Hall, The Master Alchemist in Myths of the World: The Black Sun, Gene in Lucius, Horseman Famine in Heroes of Newerth, Grymlok & Valdane in Dungeon Lords, Gray Samuels in Conduit 2, Chuck Downfield in Backyard Football, Rutger & Joshua Nakayama Smith in Runaway: A Road Adventure & Runaway 2: The Dream of the Turtle, J.J. Sawyer in AirBlade, Frogger, Dr. Starkenstein, & King Ijnek in Frogger: The Great Quest, Skypolice in Rochard, Brink & Miner in Torchlight, Dr. Ohm, Black Ice, & Jack Flash in Champions Online, Ancoron, Hamlock, & Neisbeck Foreman in Drakensang: The Dark Eye, Napalm in Escape from Paradise City, Murphy in Jack Keane, Jandrim in Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars, Zadok Allen & Lance Corp Norman Flynn in Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Ivan in Cold War, Bazooka in Gangland, and his voice work can be heard in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Tabula Rasa, High Seize, Duel Masters, Rogue Ops, Chrome, Backyard Baseball, Burnout, Magic: Legends, Earthrise, Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, PAIN, Caesar IV, ATV Quad Frenzy, Pathway to Glory, Humvee Assault, Backyard Soccer, Gunship!, Broken Arrow, and Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter.
Garry Kitchen is a video game designer, creator, and programmer who is best known for his work at Activision during the early years of the company's history. His career in interactive entertainment spans over 30 years, initially as a toy designer and quickly transitioning into a pioneer in the launch of the video game industry. From 1981-1995, Garry was an industry leader in the development of home video games. He has developed games for the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. His port of Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600 was a major hit for Coleco, selling over 4 million copies.
Kitchen co-founded Absolute Entertainment, Inc. with ex-Activision developers, building it into one of the leading video game developers in North America. Under his leadership, Absolute created more than 120 software titles while working with such leading entertainment companies as Nintendo, Sega, Sony, 3DO, Paramount Pictures, MCA, 20th Century Fox, and Acclaim.
Garry Kitchen, along with his brother Dan Kitchen and David Crane, founded Audacity Games in November 2020 to develop Atari 2600 games to be played on retro consoles. They plan to release these games as both physical copies alongside digital versions that are emulator-friendly.
Cake Hoarder has been making content on YouTube for the last 4+ years & has already made a big impact on the retro scene. He is known for is amazing collection of rare Nintendo game displays & promotional items, discovering an unreleased GameCube game prototype, collecting every NTSC North American Game Cube game released, & has recently opened his own retail game store. Cake’s least favorite Nintendo character is Luigi, & he has proven this time & again by destroying Luigi toys & plush dolls every time he does not pull a special item out of a Nintendo blind bag; in a long running series on his YouTube shorts/TikTok.