The Penny Arcade Expo is a three-day game festival for tabletop, console

The Penny Arcade Expo is a three-day game festival for tabletop, console and PC gamers held anually in downtown Seattle. All photos by Bonnie Ruberg.Published on September 2, 2008

8. Believe it or not, inside this costume with a grandma-like bosom is a very large man pretending to look like a young girl from the Penny Arcade video game. Be scared.

8. Believe it or not, inside this costume with a grandma-like bosom is a very large man pretending to look like a young girl from the Penny Arcade video game. Be scared.

7. The Penny Arcade Expo brings together people and video game characters who might otherwise never play nice, like the cardboard sword samurai and Final FantasyaE™s cloud with a giant ass sword. Ah, diversity.

7. The Penny Arcade Expo brings together people and video game characters who might otherwise never play nice, like the cardboard sword samurai and Final FantasyaE™s cloud with a giant ass sword. Ah, diversity.

6. Even princesses, like this Rosalina cosplayer, canaE™t resist a little Rock Band.

6. Even princesses, like this Rosalina cosplayer, canaE™t resist a little Rock Band.

5. Spray paint to the face? This Jet Set Radio cosplayer had to take the elevator around the expo, since she couldnaE™t make it up the escalators in her rollerblades.

5. Spray paint to the face? This Jet Set Radio cosplayer had to take the elevator around the expo, since she couldnaE™t make it up the escalators in her rollerblades.

4. These Katamari girls look wiped before putting on their heads. In costume though, theyaE™re just perky.

4. These Katamari girls look wiped before putting on their heads. In costume though, theyaE™re just perky.

3. Ah, thereaE™s the Princess Peach we know and love. Sure, sheaE™s trying to sell you video merchandise with her pretty smile, but sheaE™s got a tiara!

3. Ah, thereaE™s the Princess Peach we know and love. Sure, sheaE™s trying to sell you video merchandise with her pretty smile, but sheaE™s got a tiara!

2. It takes real dedication to be a girl wearing blue tights and knee-high boots at a convention full of boys.

2. It takes real dedication to be a girl wearing blue tights and knee-high boots at a convention full of boys.

1. Ah, Master Chief, how could it be a gaming expo without you? That shiny red armor, that shiny mask. Now the only question is: can you breathe in there?

1. Ah, Master Chief, how could it be a gaming expo without you? That shiny red armor, that shiny mask. Now the only question is: can you breathe in there?