I had another excellent time at this year's show. I brought the wife this time just so she could see what it was all about. She thought it was interesting, but didn't spend a whole lot of time on the show floor. We did get in some Area 51 - Maximum Force, and played some pinball. We also played a session of Panic Park (I think that's the name - where you bump each other's handle) after Endofline showed me how it worked. I thought the hotel was much better than last year's. We got a car and were able to break away for meals. I would not have thought the venue was smaller had I not been told. The place seemed huge, and was equally packed with games as last year.
Again, I was very impressed by the way the show all comes together. There are so many games, and so many people, and it seems as well organized as a convention that any large company would put on. I couldn't help but be disappointed when some games I wanted to play weren't working, but I know from the problems I've experienced with my own few games sitting still in my garage, that the fact that some will not work for 2 days straight after being dollied and loaded and trucked and jarred…is inevitable. The fact is that there were a huge number of working games. It was quite a feat.
I really do spend a ton of time playing the games, but this time I did break away and meet many of you, which was great. Its awesome to finally see some of the faces behind all these posts. It was cool to shake hands with Phet after recognizing him from some pictures here. I quickly met Chris25810, Gibbous and PM1234(#?). It was awesome to finally get to chat with Jow a bit; I wish I could have swapped some 720 action for Paperboy skills, but it was not to be. It was great to finally meet Vectorinvader and Endofline in person. I had a nice time in our couple quick chats. Got to briefly catch up with Happyday. Avidgeek was very cool in person as he is on these forums, and I got to meet Full Throttle for about 5 seconds, I felt bad for rushing off; I was hoping to get to chat more, but was walking my wife up to the room. I also had a brief, but cool chat with jkoolpe and rikitiki; both guys who make great contributions to the show and hobby. Anyway, hope to catch up more, with more folks, next year.
And of course the games that stood out for me:
** Blaster - Don't think I'd ever played this before. Awesome! Some excellent sound and great 3D effects.
** Arm Wrestling - I was on this one quite a bit. Really underrated in my book. Very fun. I'd love to someday have a single SPO cabinet with PO, SPO and AW.
** Reactor - There was some KLOV discussion on this one recently. The one at the show was in beautiful condition and played great. Very fun.
** Star Castle - As mentioned previously, this one didn't work early on Saturday, but by late evening it worked great. Such a fun game.
** Vector Row - what an amazing line-up of vector games…Some very cool Cinematronics Vectorbeam titles lined up, then just about all of the Atari vectors.
** Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix - I had a blast with this one again this year - I can't believe how good the game looks.
** Return of the Jedi - I've always been part of the minority that loves it. I got to play Avidgeek's a few times before it started resetting - very fun. No, I didn't sabotage it to make you a lowball offer.
** I also spent lots of time on Zookeeper, D2K, Phoenix, Gravitar, APB, Berserk (once fixed), Robotron and Venture (reminds me of my Coleco days). Thanks again to the organizers, volunteers, and especially everyone who brought games.
Again, I was very impressed by the way the show all comes together. There are so many games, and so many people, and it seems as well organized as a convention that any large company would put on. I couldn't help but be disappointed when some games I wanted to play weren't working, but I know from the problems I've experienced with my own few games sitting still in my garage, that the fact that some will not work for 2 days straight after being dollied and loaded and trucked and jarred…is inevitable. The fact is that there were a huge number of working games. It was quite a feat.
I really do spend a ton of time playing the games, but this time I did break away and meet many of you, which was great. Its awesome to finally see some of the faces behind all these posts. It was cool to shake hands with Phet after recognizing him from some pictures here. I quickly met Chris25810, Gibbous and PM1234(#?). It was awesome to finally get to chat with Jow a bit; I wish I could have swapped some 720 action for Paperboy skills, but it was not to be. It was great to finally meet Vectorinvader and Endofline in person. I had a nice time in our couple quick chats. Got to briefly catch up with Happyday. Avidgeek was very cool in person as he is on these forums, and I got to meet Full Throttle for about 5 seconds, I felt bad for rushing off; I was hoping to get to chat more, but was walking my wife up to the room. I also had a brief, but cool chat with jkoolpe and rikitiki; both guys who make great contributions to the show and hobby. Anyway, hope to catch up more, with more folks, next year.
And of course the games that stood out for me:
** Blaster - Don't think I'd ever played this before. Awesome! Some excellent sound and great 3D effects.
** Arm Wrestling - I was on this one quite a bit. Really underrated in my book. Very fun. I'd love to someday have a single SPO cabinet with PO, SPO and AW.
** Reactor - There was some KLOV discussion on this one recently. The one at the show was in beautiful condition and played great. Very fun.
** Star Castle - As mentioned previously, this one didn't work early on Saturday, but by late evening it worked great. Such a fun game.
** Vector Row - what an amazing line-up of vector games…Some very cool Cinematronics Vectorbeam titles lined up, then just about all of the Atari vectors.
** Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix - I had a blast with this one again this year - I can't believe how good the game looks.
** Return of the Jedi - I've always been part of the minority that loves it. I got to play Avidgeek's a few times before it started resetting - very fun. No, I didn't sabotage it to make you a lowball offer.
** I also spent lots of time on Zookeeper, D2K, Phoenix, Gravitar, APB, Berserk (once fixed), Robotron and Venture (reminds me of my Coleco days). Thanks again to the organizers, volunteers, and especially everyone who brought games.
