Texas Geek Bucket List: 30 Things Every Fan Must Do in the Lone Star State

Texas Fandoms Editorial Team  •  Last reviewed: May 2026  •  About our research process

Texas is one of the most geek-rich states in the country, and if you have not been taking full advantage of that fact, this list is your corrective. From the Alamo City’s anime-drenched summers to the vintage game dens buried inside Austin strip malls, the Lone Star State delivers experiences that rival anything on the coasts — and at prices that do not require a second mortgage. Bookmark this Texas geek bucket list, grab a road-trip playlist, and start checking boxes.

Conventions Every Texas Geek Should Attend Once

Texas punches far above its weight in the convention space. The state hosts dozens of fan events every year — check the full rundown on our Texas Con Calendar — but the following events belong on every geek’s must-attend list at least once.

1. Attend San Japan in San Antonio (August). San Japan at the Henry B. González Convention Center is the crown jewel of Texas anime cons. Three days of AMVs, cosplay contests, dealer hall deep-dives, and an industry guest list that rivals events twice its size. Go once and you will book your hotel room for next year before you leave the building.
2. Walk the floor at Comicpalooza in Houston. Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center hosts Comicpalooza every spring, and it earns its “Texas Comic-Con” nickname. The celebrity guest roster, artist alley, and gaming hall turn the entire convention center into a geek city-state for a long weekend.
3. Experience AnimeFest in Dallas. AnimeFest at the Sheraton Dallas has been running since 1992, making it one of the oldest anime conventions in North America. The schedule packs in Japanese industry guests, live music performances, and a masquerade that cosplayers train for months to enter.
4. Spend a weekend at Alamo City Comic Con. ACCC at the San Antonio Convention Center brings mainstream comic and pop culture fandom to the city’s doorstep every fall. Photo ops with major celebrity guests, a packed vendor floor, and free parking in the surrounding lots make this a great entry-level con for first-timers.
5. Attend OwlCon at Rice University in Houston. OwlCon is a tabletop RPG and board game convention that runs on the Rice University campus every February. The player density is high, the registration fee is low, and the game library is enormous. This is where you finally play that campaign your group has been talking about for years.
6. Hit PAX South if it returns to San Antonio. PAX South ran at the Henry B. González Convention Center and put Texas on the national gaming convention map. Keep an eye on announcements — the demand from the Texas gaming community is real, and the event’s legacy means any return would be massive.
7. Check out Texas Frightmare Weekend in Irving. For horror fans, Texas Frightmare Weekend at the DFW Hyatt Regency is the state’s definitive genre convention. Directors, scream queens, prop replicas, and a dealer floor stocked with vintage VHS and memorabilia make this one non-negotiable.

Stores and Venues That Define the Texas Geek Scene

Texas has a thriving network of local game shops, comic stores, and retro emporiums that you will not find on any tourist map. Our Venue Directory lists them all, but these specific stops are bucket-list tier.

8. Hunt back issues at Half Price Books on Lamar Boulevard, Austin. The flagship Half Price Books on North Lamar is a multi-story temple of cheap media. The comics section alone can swallow three hours. Bring a short box and low expectations — and leave with a full box and zero money.
9. Dig through Traders Village in Grand Prairie on a Saturday morning. Traders Village is a massive flea market where vintage gaming hardware and loose cartridges appear alongside furniture and livestock equipment. Arrive before 9 a.m. to beat the resellers to the good Saturn and Dreamcast lots.
10. Shop at Dragon’s Lair Comics and Fantasy in Austin. Dragon’s Lair on Burnet Road is Austin’s cornerstone LGS. New comics every Wednesday, a broad selection of TCG singles, and a game room in the back that runs Magic: The Gathering drafts most nights of the week.
11. Browse Ye Olde Comics in Dallas. Ye Olde Comics on Midway Road carries back issues going back to the Silver Age, plus a healthy stock of graded slabs and original art pages. The staff knows their material and will point you toward undervalued keys you missed.
12. Play a session at Emerald Tavern in Austin. Emerald Tavern is a board game café near the Domain that lets you pull from a library of over 1,000 games while drinking craft beer and eating wood-fired pizza. Reserve a table on weekends — walk-in waits hit 90 minutes by 7 p.m.
13. Visit Nerdvana in Frisco. Nerdvana in Frisco is a full-service restaurant and bar built around geek culture, with decor that includes arcade cabinets, movie props, and themed cocktail menus. The loaded fries are mandatory; so is the photo in front of the life-size R2-D2.
14. Play vintage arcade cabinets at Cidercade Dallas. Cidercade on Singleton Boulevard stocks hundreds of classic and modern arcade machines, and the price of admission covers unlimited play. The cider selection is solid, the AC is cold, and the Pac-Man cabinet in the corner is always free.

Creator Experiences: Maker Spaces, Game Jams, Artist Alleys

Consuming geek culture is one thing. Making it is another. Texas has a dense network of maker spaces, creative incubators, and community events where fans become creators. Visit the Local Creator Hub for a full directory of Texas creative spaces and events.

15. Attend a Global Game Jam site in Austin or Dallas. Global Game Jam runs every January, and Texas hosts multiple official sites. You show up Friday evening and leave Sunday afternoon with a finished game. The Austin site at St. Edward’s University regularly produces projects that go on to Steam Greenlight consideration.
16. Take an EVA foam armor workshop at a Texas makerspace. Makerspaces like ATX Hackerspace in Austin and Dallas Makerspace in Carrollton run cosplay fabrication workshops throughout the year. A one-day EVA foam class will teach you to build, heat-shape, and paint wearable armor that holds up to a full convention day.
17. Table in an artist alley at a regional Texas con. Tabling at a smaller event like San Antonio’s Spooky Empire or Houston’s Space City Con costs under $100 for a full weekend. The experience of pitching your prints directly to fans accelerates your art career faster than any social media strategy.
18. Attend a Dungeons & Dragons live-play event in Austin. Austin’s Elysium venue and several local bars host live-play D&D events with full theatrical production. Watching experienced GMs run encounters live changes how you approach your own table.
19. Join a fighting game community tournament at a Texas venue. The Texas FGC is nationally respected — Dallas and Houston both produce players who place at EVO. Drop into a local weekly at CEO Gaming in Houston or Versus in San Antonio, play a few sets, and get immediately and thoroughly educated.
20. Build a prop at Denton’s recycled sculpture park, Recycled Star Wars. North Texas has a community of junk artists who build full-scale sci-fi prop installations from salvaged parts. Visiting their open studio days gives you direct access to fabrication techniques you cannot learn on YouTube.

Hidden Gems and Off-the-Beaten-Path Experiences

Every geek tourist hits the conventions. These are the experiences most fans never find — the ones that make Texas worth a dedicated road trip.

21. Visit the National Videogame Museum in Frisco. The NVM on Bishop Road is a full-scale museum dedicated to the history of video games, with playable exhibits spanning Pong to PlayStation 5. The curatorial work is serious and the ticket price is absurdly low for what you get.
22. Tour the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin. The Bullock houses a permanent IMAX theater and rotating exhibits that occasionally cross into science fiction and space history territory. The Texas Story exhibit’s coverage of NASA and the space program is a quiet geek pilgrimage site.
23. Play pinball at Pinballz Arcade in Austin. Pinballz on Burnet Road has over 150 pinball machines spanning six decades of design. The staff maintains every machine to playable condition. Bring quarters and plan for two hours minimum.
24. Explore the vintage tech section at Austin’s Long Center flea markets. The weekend flea markets around South Lamar turn up old synthesizers, dead Macs, and stacks of software in original boxes on a rotating basis. Show up with a $20 bill and leave with something you genuinely need.
25. Attend a Rocky Horror Picture Show midnight screening in Austin. The Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar runs the Rocky Horror shadow cast regularly, and the crowd interaction is a full participatory performance. Bring a prop bag, know the callbacks, and sit in the first three rows.
26. Take the sci-fi history tour at Space Center Houston. Space Center Houston is the official visitor center for NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The tram tour that takes you behind the perimeter fence to see mission control is one of the most legitimately moving geek experiences available anywhere in the state.
27. Find the mural of the Alamo in geek-culture cosplay on South Congress, Austin. Austin’s South Congress Avenue has a rotating gallery of street murals. Several artists have produced geek-culture work that blends Texas iconography with science fiction aesthetics. Walking the strip on a weekday morning before the tourists arrive hits differently.
28. Watch a midnight movie at the Alamo Drafthouse, any location. The Drafthouse’s quote-along and themed movie nights run at locations across Texas. The drafthouse format — food, beer, and a no-phones policy enforced by actual staff — is the correct way to watch a movie in a theater.
29. Visit the Texas Renaissance Festival in Plantersville. TRF is the largest Renaissance festival in North America and runs every weekend in October and November. The cosplay culture inside its gates is indistinguishable from a fantasy convention — full plate armor, fur suits, and handmade chainmail are standard attire.
30. Road-trip the Texas Hill Country and find the geek shops in Fredericksburg and Kerrville. Small Hill Country towns hide surprisingly good antique and collectible shops. Fredericksburg’s Market Street antique row and Kerrville’s downtown strip regularly surface vintage gaming hardware, original movie posters, and pop culture ephemera at antique prices, not eBay prices.

The Full Texas Geek Bucket List

Here is the complete 30-item list for easy reference and printing. Each item is a specific, concrete action — no vague suggestions, no placeholder destinations.

1. Attend San Japan in San Antonio (August)
2. Walk the floor at Comicpalooza in Houston (spring)
3. Experience AnimeFest in Dallas (Labor Day weekend)
4. Spend a weekend at Alamo City Comic Con (fall)
5. Attend OwlCon at Rice University in Houston (February)
6. Track PAX South’s return to San Antonio
7. Visit Texas Frightmare Weekend in Irving
8. Hunt back issues at Half Price Books on Lamar Blvd, Austin
9. Dig through Traders Village in Grand Prairie on Saturday morning
10. Shop at Dragon’s Lair Comics and Fantasy on Burnet Road, Austin
11. Browse Ye Olde Comics on Midway Road, Dallas
12. Play a session at Emerald Tavern in Austin
13. Eat at Nerdvana in Frisco
14. Play vintage arcade cabinets at Cidercade Dallas
15. Attend a Global Game Jam site in Austin or Dallas (January)
16. Take an EVA foam armor workshop at ATX Hackerspace or Dallas Makerspace
17. Table in an artist alley at a regional Texas con
18. Attend a live-play D&D event at Elysium in Austin
19. Join a fighting game community tournament at CEO Gaming in Houston or Versus in San Antonio
20. Visit a prop-building open studio in the North Texas junk-art community
21. Visit the National Videogame Museum in Frisco
22. Tour the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin
23. Play pinball at Pinballz Arcade on Burnet Road, Austin
24. Explore the vintage tech section at South Lamar flea markets in Austin
25. Attend a Rocky Horror midnight screening at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
26. Take the tram tour at Space Center Houston
27. Walk the South Congress mural strip in Austin on a weekday morning
28. Watch a midnight themed movie at any Alamo Drafthouse Texas location
29. Visit the Texas Renaissance Festival in Plantersville (October–November)
30. Road-trip the Hill Country and hit antique shops in Fredericksburg and Kerrville

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the biggest geek convention in Texas?

Comicpalooza at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston currently holds the title for sheer floor space and attendee count, routinely drawing tens of thousands of fans across a three-day run. San Japan in San Antonio is the largest dedicated anime convention in the state and rivals Comicpalooza in cultural impact. Both are worth attending in the same calendar year.

Is there a Texas equivalent of San Diego Comic-Con?

Comicpalooza in Houston is the closest Texas equivalent — it covers comics, film, gaming, cosplay, and celebrity guests under one roof in a major convention center setting. Alamo City Comic Con in San Antonio fills a similar role for South Texas fans. Neither has the media industry presence of SDCC, but both deliver the full fan convention experience without the four-year waitlist for badges.

What are the best geek attractions in San Antonio?

San Japan is the crown jewel, running every August at the Henry B. González Convention Center. Beyond the convention calendar, Versus hosts regular FGC events, and the local Half Price Books locations carry strong back-issue comic stock. Alamo City Comic Con in the fall rounds out San Antonio’s annual geek event calendar with mainstream pop culture programming.

What should a first-time Texas convention-goer attend?

Alamo City Comic Con is the best entry point — the crowd is welcoming, the programming is broad enough to appeal to fans of any genre, and the San Antonio Convention Center layout is easy to navigate. OwlCon at Rice University in Houston is the ideal first tabletop con because the event is small, the community is friendly, and you can get into organized play sessions with no prior experience. Pick whichever matches your primary fandom and go with a loose schedule rather than a packed itinerary.

Is SXSW good for geeks and gamers?

SXSW in Austin runs a dedicated Gaming track that features indie game showcases, developer panels, and hands-on demos every March. The interactive media programming covers technology, AI, and emerging platforms in a way that appeals directly to tech-forward geeks. Badge prices are high and Austin hotels during SXSW are brutal, but the Gaming Expo floor offers free walk-up access on several days, making it accessible even on a tight budget.