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Flying Buffalo Con

Overview

Flying Buffalo Con (flyingbuffalo.com) was a gaming convention run by Rick Loomis, founder of Flying Buffalo Inc. (flyingbuffalo.com). Background Loomis and Flying Buffalo have a serious history in gaming. He appears to be the first person to run a commercial play-by-mail game as a full time job (Nuclear Devastation in 1970), the first person (with business partner and programmer Steve MacGregor) to buy a computer for gaming purposes (a Raytheon 704 minicomputer—$30,000 for a box with 4k of RAM!) and the first person to write and publish a solo adventure gamebook (Buffalo Castle in 1976). While its core focus has always been play by mail, Flying Buffalo has also published a number of games, including Ken St. Andre's Tunnels & Trolls (the second ever RPG, in 1975) and Douglas Malewicki's Nuclear War. It has also published magazines, The Flying Buffalo's Favorite Magazine (later Flying Buffalo Quarterly) from 1971 and Sorcerer's Apprentice from 1978. Many mainstays of local fandom, including Ken St. Andre, Michael Stackpole, Liz Danforth and Bear Peters are Flying Buffalo alumni. It also ran a game store in Tempe. Flying Buffalo Con was the first gaming convention in Arizona, first held in 1973, and it remained the only such until HexaCon 1 in 1991. Tunnels & Trolls Con ran within Flying Buffalo Con since 2008.

History

Chronology of Arizona Conventions

#	Date	Location	Chair	Guests	Book	Web	Notes
1	1973	Valley Ho Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
2	1974 28 Jun 30 Jun	Royal Inn Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
3	1975		Rick Loomis
4	1976 25 Jun 27 Jun	Valley Ho Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
5	1977		Rick Loomis
6	1978 25 Aug 28 Aug		Rick Loomis
7	1979		Rick Loomis
8	1980 25 Jul 28 Jul		Rick Loomis
9	1981 17 Jul 20 Jul		Rick Loomis
10	1982		Rick Loomis
11	1983 22 Jul 24 Jul		Rick Loomis
12	1984		Rick Loomis
13	1985		Rick Loomis
14	1986		Rick Loomis
15	1987		Rick Loomis
16	1988		Rick Loomis
17	1989		Rick Loomis
18	1990		Rick Loomis
19	1991		Rick Loomis
20	1992		Rick Loomis
21	1993		Rick Loomis
22	1994		Rick Loomis
23	1995		Rick Loomis
24	1996 18 Jul 21 Jul	Safari Hotel Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
25	1997 24 Jul 27 Jul	Safari Hotel Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
26	1998 24 Jul 26 Jul	Safari Hotel Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
27	1999 23 Jul 25 Jul	The Hospitality Suite Resort Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
28	2000 28 Jul 30 Jul	Quality Suites Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
29	2001 27 Jul 29 Jul		Rick Loomis
30	2002 26 Jul 28 Jul	Quality Suites Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
31	2003 22 Aug 24 Aug	Flying Buffalo Games Scottsdale	Rick Loomis				1
32	2004 23 Jul 25 Jul		Rick Loomis
33	2005 29 Jul 31 Jul	Flying Buffalo Games Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
34	2006 21 Jul 23 Jul		Rick Loomis
35	2007 3 Aug 5 Aug		Rick Loomis
36	2008 1 Aug 3 Aug		Rick Loomis
37	2009 31 Jul 2 Aug		Rick Loomis
38	2010 22 Jul 25 Jul		Rick Loomis
39	2011 24 Jul 27 Jul	Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
40			Rick Loomis
41	2014 18 Jul 20 Jul		Rick Loomis
42	2015 18 Jul 20 Jul	Valley Ho Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
43	2017 21 Jul 23 Jul	Valley Ho Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
44	2018 20 Jul 22 Jul	Valley Ho Scottsdale	Rick Loomis
45	2019 26 Jul 28 Jul	Valley Ho Scottsdale	Rick Loomis

Notes Flying Buffalo Con 31 was moved from the usual hotel to Flying Buffalo Games as numbers were dropping. It was also moved from July to August to be a joint convention and birthday celebration for Rick Loomis.

Last update: 26th February, 2025