Day: July 29, 2007

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

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

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.

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 went to pieces after Marty “marioallstar2600” bought him.

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

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

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

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 schmoozes with former Tips & Tricks editor Chris Bieniak.

Bit of a generation gap here.

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

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

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

End of level.… Read more

Whoever said there’s nothing worth watching on TV in a hotel obviously hasn’t seen this channel:

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

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

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

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

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

Somehow I’ll get a handle on it.

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

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

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, 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 at the Activision panel.

David Crane (Pitfall) at the same panel.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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