The Coca-Cola Dome at Northgate has been a premier exhibition hall for many years now, and once again plays host to the rAge expo. Computers, Gaming &Technology, what more could the inner geek ask for?

This is the largest Computer, Gaming & Technology Expo in Africa, In this case seeing is believing.

This year shows a dramatic increase in exhibitors covering a wide range of  companies, products and services. From the shining white booth of Nintendo to the crowded merchants' stalls, this year's expo caters for every type and level of gamer. The newest releases from Nintendo, Ubisoft and EA are on offer alongside the latest in tabletop and board games, all surrounded by the newest and fastest technology available.

Video games make you lazy and inactive? A quick visit to the Nintendo Booth at Rage will get mom on board.

Immediately on entering the Dome, the lights and sounds cry out for attention, tearing you between the shiny and the loud. If you're new to the rAge experience, you'll quickly realise why it takes place over 3 days – there is just too much to see and do.

The quality and popularity of the show is certainly increasing, drawing massive crowds of gamers, hardcore and casual alike, as well as the just plain tech savvy. The obvious downside to this is that unless you're an earlybird, or a smooth-talking press-passer, you're likely to have to queue for a long time to experience any demos.

 Dance games made a big impact on the showfloor at this years Rage Gaming Expo 2012.

The good news is that there's plenty of other stuff to keep you entertained. In fact, you'll be spoilt for choice, with various contests and events on the main stage, a bustling artists' alley, and all kinds of merchandise from t-shirts to elf ears, board games to headsets.

With the tecstories team only together for one day, we had to divide our attention between the multitude of offerings. Setting up our base of operations in the crowded press room we planned our attack strategy.  Our director and chief Lans headed out with his right hand man John to cover the Cosplay and Entelect 100k Competitions while Liz and I went off to see what the booths had to offer.

The Entelect 100k Programming Challenge reached its culmination on Saturday with J.C. taking Top Honours. The Challenge involved programming a turn based A.I. to play a game of Tron Light Cycles on a Sphere. The Semi-Finals and Finals were played out at the Main Stage to the thrilling soundtrack from the movie. With this type of competioion, Entelect hopes to foster a greater interest in programming skills within South Africa and encourage the growth of our local software industry.

Jaco cronje managed to outwit his opponents, to win himself over R100 000.

The Legion Ink Cosplay Competition was a huge hit, especially as the participants had been wandering around the Dome all morning, making for exciting and sometimes alarming encounters with Manga/Anime characters, Superheroes, and Zombies. Best of show in our opinion was the appearance of the Caped Crusader himself, Batman, who took a swing at Lans and John and knocked them for a loop. Other noticable appearances included characters from Bleach, Pokemon, Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes, and Hitman. Agent 47 was lurking near the press room escalators, possibly checking for a good place to complete his mission, while I began mapping the exit routes in my head.

Exploring the booths we came across a range of hands on activities. The many games on demo included Far Cry 3 (see our interview with Robert Purdy ) NFS: Most Wanted, Assassins Creed III, FIFA 13, Medal of Honour Warfighter, and the new sensation for the upcoming Wii U – Zombi U which had a waiting list a mile long and was closed off from all outside view.

The merchandising stands catered to the board, card, and tabletop gamers, and had a huge variety of intricate games from the classic Magik to the new Avengers Heroclix.

NAG has once again come out in support of the local gaming community and a 52 hour LAN ensues while the madness that is rAge continues in the rest of the hall.

The bustling press room is where we were able to conduct our interviews with the amazing people who bring these games to life. Situated in one of the hospitality suites, it catered for the many journalists and crew who came to capture the event. A big thank you to Jaqui Jacobs and Kelly Olivier who saw to the organisation and smooth running of the media room, as well as helping to schedule interviews. 

All in all, rAge 2012 was a resounding success. If you missed the expo this year, it's worth taking the time to check it out next year – we definitely will!

Click the readmore to see the Rage 2012 Gallery