Categories
Gaming

CGE Saturday highlights – BONUS LEVEL

Congratulations! You spelled out “EXTRA”! You get more pictures!

Crystal
From the auction: I was trying very hard to focus on Frog Frenzy instead of Crystal here. I can’t say I always succeeded.

Joe
Joe Santulli tries to get the huge number of DP forum regulars scrunched into one photo.

Me and Mr. Flibble
While everyone’s getting into position for the photo, I took my own. Left to right: Rob “Flack” O’Hara, Mr. Flibble, me, Paul “Pantechnicon” Cortez, and Drexel923.

QOF and Mayhem
Kristine “Queen of the Felines” and Mat “Mayhem” at the auction. Kris definitely has a “I hope you can fly back to London on the buoyant power of those Vectrex protos” look on her face here. 😆 The guy behind them is about to hurl at the thought of spending the kind of money Mat was bidding.

Solid Snake
Solid Snake went to pieces after Marty “marioallstar2600” bought him.

BREAKIN'
You’ve heard of bringing sexy back? Ian’s skipping that step and bringing breakdancing back. Either that or he’s sliding into home base in time for the group photo. At least I think that’s Ian – it’s a distinctly Ian-shaped blur.… Read more

Categories
Gaming

CGE Sunday highlights

More songs about buildings (full of games) and food!

Chris Koehler and Bill Kunkel
Chris Koehler (Wired) and Bill Kunkel (Tips & Tricks, Electronic Games) at a panel on the future of video game journalism.

8 Bit Weapon CDs
8 Bit Weapon had a new CD available this year, and you know, I swear to God that every time I go to CGE, these and the latest Tony Fox offerings are the things that I enjoy the most for the longest time after the show.

Flack and Chris Bieniak
Flack schmoozes with former Tips & Tricks editor Chris Bieniak.

Racing games
Bit of a generation gap here.

Joe and John
Joe Santulli and John Hardie at the last panel of the show, celebrating 10 years of CGE.

Cav Kong
Cav sneaks in a game of Donkey Kong in the DP Living Room.

Bum rush
This is the stampede that resulted after a “50 cent on all games special” was announced at the CGE Services table.

BONUS 1000 POINTS
End of level.… Read more

Categories
Gaming

CGE Sunday morning musings

Whoever said there’s nothing worth watching on TV in a hotel obviously hasn’t seen this channel:
Alphagen Image Capture ROCKS!
Seriously. Best thing on the in-house TV system. It helped me get to sleep last night.

While I’m wolfing down the blandest turkey sub ever recorded in the history books of either human or turkey, a few musings. The Expo’s been fun so far – really no hassles. I was truly appreciative of the DP forums’ own PapStu for winning my PS1 StarCon proto at the auction last night – I got $10 more than what I paid for it a few years back, so I’m happy. I wasn’t crazy about selling it, but it’s baby time back home and This Will Help. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I think you guys are gonna dig the auction on DVD. John Hardie at his best, the CoronaCam 😆 , and plenty of the lovely Crystal for ya, guys. 😛 It was quite a blast, lots of really active camera work (I haven’t had to sweat that much since the days of running live camera for sporting events). I can’t wait to get home and start editing this stuff together.

Huge thanks to Scott “Stonic” Stilphen and Scott “Tynstar” Williams for looking after me yesterday while I was hobbling around gathering video. I just didn’t get a chance to “break for lunch” yesterday and they at least helped me stay hydrated. Joe and John checked on me every chance they got to see if I needed anything. And I’ll admit I got a big kick out of being up on the auction stage with them, joining in the banter (“Well it’s not a very solid Snake then, is it?”) and mouthing “WTF!?” to the crowd when something sold to the book.

On the shuttle bus ride from the airport to the Riviera, I passed a place with a big sign out front that said CATHOLIC CHARITIES CHILD CARE CENTER. As God is my witness, I swear on my heart that the first time I glanced at that sign, I thought it said CATHOLIC CHARLIE’S. Um……no further comment. 😆 Come on down! Free balloons for the kids!

I didn’t make it to the Pinball Hall Of Fame Museum last night either just for myself or as part of the Retrotopia party. Dammit. I hope they’re open tonight.

My apologies to anyone to whom I’ve blurted out really vague greetings to, such as Mezrabad and Atarigirl. I wasn’t trying to “get rid of” anybody, I was just…on the move and on the clock, so to speak. If there’s anything that’s kinda bummed me out about this year’s show, it’s been that the camera work didn’t leave me huge amounts of time to catch up with old friends. Granted, Rob and Brian can see me any old time since they’re in the neighborhood more or less, but it’s not every day that I get to see everyone else. The keynote speeches end a bit earlier today, so maybe I’ll have a chance to shoot the bull a bit more. When I got back to my room after the auction last night and finally got off of my feet, which weren’t just content with killing me but were actually torturing me for information and then slicing bits off of me slowly, I felt like I had been eaten by a hideous grue. I didn’t move again until my wife called me this morning to wake me up at the appointed hour.

Jarett from PackratVG.com and I were talking baby stuff Saturday when, after about 5 minutes or so of talking about it, he reaches under his table and brings out the baby himself. I was amazed that kid could sleep in the roar of the crowd and the throaty thump of 8 Bit Weapon in the background. 😆 We spent a bit of time talking about how we don’t want to see the superstars of the Odyssey2 homebrew scene get burned out like some of the superstars of the 2600/5200 homebrew scene have. We’ve been spoiled with a glut of homebrew and repro stuff in the past 2-3 years, a lot of it really good, and it’s easy to let yourself think that Ted S., Rene and Dieter will keep cranking this stuff out. My take on it is: only if they’re encouraged politely and patiently. Calm the beef min and let these men do what they do best, rather than pestering them for constant updates.

This CGE may be my all-time lowest-spending gaming event, not just because I’m broke, but because I’ve had Important Work To Do. I’ve spent the following amounts on the following incredibly rare items:

1. $7 on a Startegy X for the 2600 with a decent label on it

Um…that’s it. Otherwise, I’ve been spending more time talking to people, listening to people and shooting people. (Um…with a camera – let me rephrase that.) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you come to CGE and pass up the opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new ones and put faces, names and voices to folks you only know online…you’re missing the best “CGE Exclusive” of them all.… Read more

Categories
Gaming

CGE Saturday highlights

Lappy 386
Here’s how I’m bringing you these exciting, action-packed reports.

Swimmy time in Vegas
Here’s someplace I’ve gazed upon fondly with great frequency, but just haven’t had a chance to visit.

Odyssey2 goodies
I brought a few things to loan to the CGE Museum, including – what else? – their Odyssey2 section.

Brown Box
Ralph Baer’s Brown Box prototype. We’re not worth.

Brown Box
Somehow I’ll get a handle on it.

Vintage video game figures
I brought some vintage video game toys too, but they weren’t still in their packages like these puppies are, so mine are on display in my room. 😆

Overhead view of CGE
Overhead wide angle view of the whole show floor, taken from the skybox. (It may not look crowded, but there was actually quite a crowd.)

Lasercade
A CGE exclusive release, programmed in the ’80s, unreleased until now: Lasercade.

Warlords
The famous DP Living Room, ready to play a game of Warlords. If only I’d had three other people with me at the moment…

Jay Smith
Jay Smith, inventor of the Vectrex. His keynote speech was absolutely fascinating – in addition to creating one of my favorite underdog game systems, he also worked on propulsion systems for the Apollo lunar module (!). He could’ve talked for three hours and I still would’ve been listening.

Garry Kitchen
Garry Kitchen at the Activision panel.

David Crane
David Crane (Pitfall) at the same panel.

Brett Weiss' book
Brett Weiss’ incredibly tasty new book. Kudos to him for getting it written and published. And wow, textbook binding. Total class!

Running down a dream
I admit it – before they admitted folks to the show floor, I ran down two whole rows of arcade games with the fisheye lens on. It looked kinda like this.

Arcade games
This is just one of those rows. Those are some rows.

Al Alcorn
Pong engineer Al Alcorn’s keynote. This year he had a Powerpoint presentation and tons of pictures he had left over from the early days of Atari.

Drexel923 vs. the Mystery Box O' Crap
Nick “Drexel923” takes a good-natured ribbing from his neighbors at the CGE auction after winning the auctions on not one but two Mystery Boxes O’ Crap – literally, cardboard boxes resembling the question block marks in Super Mario, containing either treasures that you paid too little for or insanely common stuff you paid way too much for – which contained…well…crap. At least he got a free beer for his trouble.

The tapes
Add five hour-long tapes of auction action to this stack, and this is what I’ve shot since I’ve been here.… Read more

Categories
Gaming

Lying on the floor in the transit lounge

What a ride. I’ve never flown out of XNA before. What they call a “departure gate” I call “Bob’s unpainted garage.” Wow. Denver was even stranger – it’s like we dropped out of the sky on approach (largely because of the mountains, I suspect), and the flight from Denver to Las Vegas was about the roughest flight I’ve ever been on.

Here’s my spacious, palatial boudoir for the weekend:
My hotel room at the Riviera
…okay, not that spacious, or palatial, but it’ll do.

I’ll report back later from the Alumni Dinner.… Read more

Categories
Gadgetology Home Base ToyBox

Tales of the Tape(s)

It seems as though the universe is conspiring to raise my blood pressure enough to make me sick before I can make it to CGE this weekend. Let’s see…

  • The baby room – still not finished. Probably won’t be by the time I go, though I had set that as a goal for myself to get done before I leave.
  • Right foot – still killing me. Now my heel is causing me an incredible amount of pain, which makes a certain amount of sense because I’ve been keeping the weight off my toes, but what doesn’t make sense is this amount of pain suddenly hitting me overnight – literally. I went to bed and the heel felt fine. I woke up this morning and I could barely walk. I have serious concerns about getting around like this in Vegas.
  • Tapes for CGE. I won two eBay auctions for 10 tapes each on July 8th & 9th from the same seller. Paid promptly by Paypal on the 12th. They hadn’t gotten here by Monday of this week, and I have to leave for CGE on Friday morning, so I started raising hell – first by e-mail, then by messages through eBay, with no response. Finally I filed a Paypal dispute requesting a refend and suddenly the guy starts talking (amazing, innit?). I requested a refund specifically because it’ll take me more than $54 to purchase 20 blank miniDV tapes at retail locally by Friday morning. And so naturally, the guy shipped by USPS, today, and sent a tracking number, at last. Guess what, jack? They’re still not going to get here in time. Avoid “daytrading1” on eBay at all costs. By contrast, a step-up ring I ordered on Monday of this week is already here.
  • The “honey do” list. I know I’ve got a lot of stuff to do, but there’s this sudden bum rush of things to do right before I go, and there’s a not-so-little voice in the back of my head that’s just screaming BACK OFF.

I guess I’m getting just a little bit cranky. I know I have lots of stuff I need to accomplish, and as I used to tell a certain TV station owner back in the days when he used to call me up at the station and go on endless tirades about changing luma and chroma settings on the time base corrector, “Bill, I can either do something about it, or I can talk to you about it. Pick one.” (That right there happens to be the kind of quality people skills that keep you in broadcasting for 17 years; if you get even crankier than that, you can escape sooner! 😆 )

By the way, I got pictures this morning of the litter of kittens that our little grey house guest had a while back, and they’re just adorable. I want them all, snuggled up on my pillow, stat. Lucky for them, my niece has already fallen in love with two of them, and I may have found a home for another one or two of them. They’re adorable. I’ll try to post the pictures here before I go to Vegas.

I’m looking forward to the Expo in a big way – this is kind of like my last hurrah with the gang, with Rob, Brian, Paul, Charles and, geez, just about everyone else going. Mat’s bringing me a Face of Boe (everybody should have one!), and I secretly hope he catches video of the TSA screeners puzzling over that one once he’s in the country. 😆 Many years ago, coming back from Promax ’98 in Toronto, I learned that declaring a squeeze toy to customs is a one-way ticket to getting oneself questioned for at least 30 seconds (and keep in mind, this was pre-9/11), so I’m going to enjoy this far too much. It’s a disembodied head from the distant future, and it’s got a recommended retail price of about 15 quid, more or less. (And the great thing is, technically, I already have cats hanging around to tend to it, no additional action figures required. Or maybe not so much tend to it as bat at the little dangly bits.) I’m going to set him up on a shelf in the game room where he can sit and have a conversation with the Ambassador Kosh figure all day.

Hopefully everybody dug the video feature and gobs of pictures I took for this week’s toy review. I’ll admit, I couldn’t help but mess with everyone’s minds by putting the old ’80s TARDIS console off in the background in some shots. And Homsar. (Actually, for anyone who’s been reading the toy reviews since the beginning of this year, Homsar’s gotten to be something of a recurring in-joke. Admit it, he just looks cool riding shotgun in a twin-pod cloud car.)

I’ll try to do some blogging from the Expo this weekend, though it may be pretty brief; I did a “test run” of everything this past weekend when I set up cameras for the baby shower, and it all worked just fine, so we’re set. Even though it’s going to be a working vacation…I’m still more than ready for it to begin, provided my head hasn’t exploded before I can pack my suitcase and make my escape.… Read more