All is going well so far – I uess I shouldn’t have worried so much about the “everyone’s selling, but nbodys buying” phenomenon. I’ve even sod some soundtracks and action figures (somewhat to to my surprise). Hooray for fellow geeks with more money than me!
I’m taking copious amounts of photos and video, will post later. TV Death Squad is playing right now – cool stuff, but I can barely hear myself think. 😆… Read more
OVGE is less than 48 hours away, and I’ve finally got the legendary OVGE price list ready for all the stuff I’ll be selling; you can read or download the PDF version of it here. Hey, it’s a PDF .pdf!
I’ve also gotten confirmation that the DVDs have arrived in Ohio for CCAG; if you’re going to be in Cleveland this Saturday, go see everyone at CCAG. There’ll be old video games aplenty, up and running (and for sale too, of course!).
I’ve spent this week and much of last week getting ready for OVGE full-time; literally all that’s left to do on my end is print the above price lists for folks to pick up from my table, pack up the car, pick up Kent at some ungodly hour of the morning, and head west. I guarantee plenty of fun for those who head west at a marginally more godly hour to visit the show. 😆
Leave your troubles and your swine flu paranoia behind, and catch some Pac-Man fever. See you there!… Read more
Sorry, I seem to have fallen off the blogwagon here lately.
One thing I take great pains to not do with my blog – not that I’ve always been able to stick to this and censor myself at just the right times – is bitch and moan about stuff. Sadly, that’s really all I feel like doing lately. I don’t like listening to/reading that sort of thing, and I don’t want to be the guy who decides that everyone else is entitled to listen to him whining. So…I just haven’t said a lot lately, anywhere.
I’ve got a new DVD out, which I’m in the process of writing a semi-technical post about for the 0.8 people who are interested, and I’ve already loaded raw footage into the trusty Avid so I can start editing the next DVD very soon. In and around that, I’m writing, editing and re-writing a book, and getting ready for OVGE this October in Tulsa.
All of this while looking for a job, which has really been the thing that’s had me in a deep blue funk lately. I originally had a big spiel written here, and then remembered that the first part of this post as about not venting uncontrollably in all directions. Oops.
One thing I’m really looking forward to is Evan’s second birthday. It falls on a Saturday this year, and I’m planning a “boys’ day out” to the Tulsa Zoo. Maybe the planetarium if he’s still up for it. I’d like to pick up my dad on the way, but I don’t know what his schedule’s like. I think it’d be neat to get all the Green men in one place…probably at the monkey exhibit, appropriately enough. I’ve never been to a zoo before – talk about a sheltered upbringing – and Evan loooooves animals, so I’ve been looking forward to this to the tune of actually having dreams about it. I just love the look on his face when he’s discovering stuff and figuring it out, and I’m sure this trip will give him plenty of chances to be “wowed.”
Amazing how a trip to someplace two hours away full of animals is becoming the light at the end of the tunnel for me. As long as little E is with me, that’s what makes it a good day.… Read more
Reports are rolling in that OVGE was a big success this year – that’s a relief. I have to give a big, Discs-Of-Tron-environmental-cabinet-sized heap of thanks to Flack for flogging the PDF DVD at his table. He so didn’t have to do that what with hawking his own wares – namely his new book – but it was much appreciated, and I also appreciate everyone who bought one. Having seen some of the first photos posted and seen some TV news footage on the one Tulsa station carried by our local cable system, I’ve started to get bummed out – sleepless bummed out – about missing the show this year. This is the first OVGE I’ve missed since it started in 2003, and as with several other retro video game conventions I enjoy, it seems to have fallen into an every-other-year pattern now that the hobby has fallen out of the public eye a bit (the golden years were really from 1999 through whatever year it was that they had those little all-in-one Ms. Pac-Man joysticks you could get at Wal-Mart – 2004/05 I think – once those and others like them reached the saturation point, I think everyone was ready to let the ’80s die again). With icbrkr joining the Gamer Dad Squad soon, I don’t even know where this leaves the usual small-scale get-togethers that we have (not that I’ve had a great attendance record with those either). I’ve been trying to just routinely get out more during the week with Evan, but even then it’s not quite the same as getting out with the grownups – as long as you’re hauling your kid around, your primary function is still obviously dad or mom (or in my case, Mr. Mom, which I’ve noticed with some people automatically places you off to one side in a whole different social bubble from other parents, as if there’s something wrong with a guy who’s staying home with the baby while the kid’s mom is out working). I’m kinda yearning for the time out with the grown-ups, and my dentist’s appointment last week, and hanging out with my in-laws, just doesn’t count. And yet when I am off on my own, what do I talk about? My son. I don’t know how much of this isolation is naturally occurring due to the factors in play, or how much of it I might be unconsciously/subconsciously doing to myself, but…yeah, I’m kinda missing the company of like minds. And there is was for the taking in Tulsa today, and I had to miss it.
It’s charming, and yet on another level very worrying, that I talk about a nearly-11-month-old baby and a couple of cats as being my best friends. But whether it’s cute or creepy…it’s very true.
Anyway, sorry, I probably shouldn’t be up at 2am thinking about this stuff. I’m probably gonna start to look emo soon.
Ah crap, too late.… Read more
Apologies for not having much to say recently; I’m launching a fairly major new feature on the site next weekend, so just about all of my spare time this week is devoted to that, to say nothing of getting the rest of the usual features ready (gotta do something cool to celebrate Star Trek’s 40th birthday, mind you). You probably noticed that the site went into “reruns” during August (mainly because there was simply no way I could do new features, continue to work on the aforementioned major new part of the site, and get ready for OVGE all at the same time; in the end, it turns out I was only able to accomplish one out of the three).
Olivia’s going to be spending the night at the vet one night next week – she’s being rewired and front declawed. She hasn’t even gone into her first heat yet, so that’s a good thing. I remember how Othello and Iago used to act before they got fixed when they’d get “frustrated” – it wasn’t pretty and cost me at least one apartment deposit. Hopefully our li’l kitten will pull through this with a minimum of pain and inconvenience. She truly is the #1 source of joy in our household right now, so we’re understandably apprehensive about her going under the knife.… Read more
The manufacturer of this one called it “psychedelic lights.” Kent called it a “color organ.” I called it “those disco lights in a box that looks like a speaker.” And Steve W. brought it to me at OVGE.
So now what do I do with it?
Well, I think I’ve figured something out. And yes, it is at least as goofy as you think it is. … Read more
And now…the stash.
Finding a vendor on the floor who was selling copies of Electronic Games Magazine for less than ten bucks was a joy to behold – I got January through August of 1983, and December of 1984. (The only issue I had before today was July ’82.) I’m aiming for nothing less than a complete collection of EG.
Big thanks to Steve W for the mini-disco light – it was smaller than I thought, but y’know, that means my wife will kill me about 30% less than if I had brought a huge, hi-fi-speaker-sized disco light (which Kent also called a “color organ”) home with me. 😆 Steve also gave me a stash of VIC-20 games so I can get started on archiving that machine!
Brian brought me the Apple joystick there – many thanks. Of course the book is from Rob’s table and I gladly plunked down the cover price and promptly started looking for my name in there. 😛
Linda’s Action Figures sold me the 2600 Raiders cart and manual. Believe it or not, I’ve never touched this game before. That’s also where I got the 2600 manual, just ’cause.
A huge thanks to both Steve and to Mr. and Mrs. MegaManFan for the six-pack of Dr. Pepper straight from the plant in Dublin, TX – where they still use real live sugar! Kent and I were wide awake for the trip home, that’s for sure. 😀
As always, a big thanks to Kent for coming with me yet again, and to Jesse Hardesty and his crew for putting on the show where all this fine madness took place.… Read more
Go here to see.
I’m staying home to recover today. No farm work for me.… Read more
Show’s over, and I’m back home winding down. Quite a fun shindig this year – I was awake for the whole thing, probably moreso than I’ve ever been for one of these. (Not that the show isn’t interesting, but I usually never have anything like enough sleep.
Here’s some pictures and descriptions for your amusement and/or edification. … Read more
I’m in the middle of my mad preparation action:
PREPARATION A:
Boxed stuff is good. This box has balls. Trackballs, that is.
PREPARATION B:
Coleco mini-arcade goodness awaits transport.
PREPARATION C:
How rare is the stuff you’ll be seeing at OVGE this year, you ask? Is this rare enough for ya?
PREPARATION D:
Due to some technical difficulties with my Magnavox Odyssey, it won’t be coming to the show this year – it may be old hat to everyone else, but I always enjoy seeing it get so much playtime. Instead, my modded PS1 will appear, with the World’s Greatest PS1 Joystick, and retro arcade compilations aplenty, including many imports. Qix? Crazy Climber? 10 Yard Fight? Yeah, we got dat. The CDs on the right are imported game soundtracks – that’s what’ll be playing along with some music from the one and only Mr. Tony Fox.
By the way, I’ll have some Tony Fox CDs to sell at the show, but hit me up early – supplies are limited!
This stuff is so cool, Olivia wishes she could come too.… Read more
