Category: Gaming
Convention update: GlitchCon video game history panel
I’m going to be at Glitchcon in Springdale next month, showing off the various fruit that falls off of the multifarious branches of theLogBook.com – the books, the DVDs, the podcast, the ‘zine, the site itself. Heck, you can probably talk me into letting you hear some Kasatochi. I’ll have a table in the vendors’ room – drop by and say howdy! (Fear not, there are faaaaaaar more interesting things than me to see, including Steve Downes, the voice actor behind the helmet of Master Chief in the Halo games, sneak-previewing something perhaps Halo-related at his panel.)
I’ll also be hosting a panel of my own, though it’ll be unconventional to say the least. I’m going to do an early-history-of-video-gaming panel, and allow everyone to get their butts out of their seats and try stuff out hands-on. … Read more
Pooka Procurement Paradox: SOLVED
For better or worse, my son has grown up in a microcosm, a bit of a fantasy-land already created by his daddy long before he came along, in which video games have related toys and memorabilia that go with them. He got hooked on Mario, and boom, instant Mario figure collection (which has kept growing, incidentally – I suppose I started him young in this department)). He got hooked on Sonic, and boom, Sonic and Tails and friends arrive in plush form (he was more interested in plushies than in action figures). Pac-Man? No problem. There’a a pac for that. (Please don’t tell him that there are toys coming out for Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures.) But Dig Dug? Not so easy. There’s an insanely expensive plushie available directly from Namco ($30??!?), and as much as he’d like it… we’re a little strapped for cash. So I challenged him to make his own. I would provide supplies for him.
Wanna see the prototype Pooka he came up with? … Read more
The Arkadians return
It’s been waaaaay too long since we invaded the arcade, so today the boy and I capped off a weekend-o-fun together by heading to Fayetteville to mash some buttons and blow stuff up.
… Eye hunger
Not sure where this came from, but it’s one of those things I had to get out of my head and into graphic form before I went to sleep. I had also just eaten… because I HUNGER.… Read more
Boys’ day out!
This was a blog entry from a couple of weekends ago that sat unfinished for an unreasonable amount of time – so long, in fact, that we went a second time before the entry was finished! The good news is that the games described are still there!
Mom’s exhausted. The boy’s ready to get out of the house, having been stuck at home with dad for a few days with no car to go anywhere. I’m feeling a little cooped up myself. It’s time to let mom get some shut-eye and for the boys to do what they do best – find a place full of games and hang out! You can probably see where this is headed…
… Invade the arcade (again!)
It’s been a heckuva week. One of those weeks where you just want to blow stuff up. What better way to do that… well, legally anyway… than by hitting the arcade?
… Ah – the droid I was looking for
Remember back in my ComiCon-Way post-mortem when I asked:
I wonder if they got any photos of Artoo, stormtroopers, or Vader at this machine?
Looks like the universe takes requests. … Read more
Invade The Arcade 2012 edition
Five years ago, a bunch of my buddies and I drove for hours – some for quite a few hours – to invade a retro arcade in Springfield, Missouri. It was quite a unique destination at the time – an old-school arcade, complete with pinball machines and nostalgic items all over the place, where you could get in for five bucks and play to your heart’s content. It’s not a bad business model: once inside, they have a concession stand to keep you there (and keep draining your wallet), and they’re probably counting on their patrons only sticking around for an hour or two. Which, with the three-hour one-way drive time to Springfield, was a bit enforced in our case – we had real lives and crap to get back to.
If I had a buck for everyone I’ve ever heard in the arcade collecting hobby talking about how they’re going to start their own version of 1984, I’d be able to start my own version of 1984. Fortunately, some local collectors have beaten me to it and opened up shop last weekend in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and it’s gotta be said, the 40-minute drive (instead of a 3-hour tour, a 3-hour tour) may just make Arkadia Retrocade the happeist place on Earth for me and mine.
… Conventional thinking: Darkon & ComiCon-Way after-action report
What a long, strange couple of weekends it’s been.
Last weekend I went to Darkon in Tulsa (a first-year horror-themed event put on by the folks behind Tulsa Trek Expo), and this weekend I was at another first-time event, ComiCon-Way in Conway, Arkansas. But more than just the latest stops on my tour of nearby conventions to promote VWORP!1, these were Little E’s first conventions. Whereas previous conventions were “daddy is gone this weekend,” now he wonders what we’re going to do, and what we’re going to see, next weekend. … Read more
