2004-05-27
Boy, lots of stuff I talked about earlier has now happened, or is in my possession, or whatever - got lots of blogging to catch up on.
Okay, the Midwest Gaming Classic was pretty good. I drove down to Madison on Friday, and managed to go down the wrong highway in northern Wisconsin on the way. Pretty bad, considering there are only two highways up around there :/ Took me about 15 minutes to be certain I was going the wrong way and then another 15 minutes to get back to the highway.
I stayed at Jason and Katie's house - thanks guys! Very friendly, helpful and welcoming. Jason writes articles for computer publications, and Katie is a university professor. We watched Top Secret, and laughed a lot - and had some great "thin-crust Chicago style" pizza.
Saturday was the big show. Jason and I went in his car, and he drove the 1.5 hours or so to the hotel where the MGC was being held, near Milwaukee. The vendors and exhibits were spread all over the building in many smallish rooms which was kind of disappointing. As the day wore on, it would have been nice to be able to sit and hang out in one of the busier areas, but it was standing only, for the most part.
One area had several rooms filled with pinball and classic arcade games set to "free play". I played several games of pinball, and a few arcade games, like Donkey Kong and Centipede. I saw the fella who was declared "gamer of the century" by some outfit. Apparently he set a new world record for Donkey Kong at the show. Glad he's good at something.
Downstairs were several rooms filled with computers and video games. The Atari Age room was especially interesting, since I was so fascinated by pictures I saw of their display at another show earlier this year. They sell very professional looking "homebrew" cartridges for classic systems, especially Atari 2600 ones. I'd love to have a game of my own making sold that way. It was also cool to see the 2600 port of my C64 game "Splatform" on display, and watch people enjoying playing it.
The vendor room across the hall was great too - I bought about 20 VCS carts I didn't have before. It was somewhat overwhelming - in Thunder Bay, if I see some game cartridges or systems, I buy them with hardly a second thought, since it happens infrequently. Here, I was surrounded by hundreds, possibly thousands of games I don't own, and I just had to let it be, and be glad I got some.
Okay, that's enough for now - Bud Melvin and more, next.
Okay, the Midwest Gaming Classic was pretty good. I drove down to Madison on Friday, and managed to go down the wrong highway in northern Wisconsin on the way. Pretty bad, considering there are only two highways up around there :/ Took me about 15 minutes to be certain I was going the wrong way and then another 15 minutes to get back to the highway.
I stayed at Jason and Katie's house - thanks guys! Very friendly, helpful and welcoming. Jason writes articles for computer publications, and Katie is a university professor. We watched Top Secret, and laughed a lot - and had some great "thin-crust Chicago style" pizza.
Saturday was the big show. Jason and I went in his car, and he drove the 1.5 hours or so to the hotel where the MGC was being held, near Milwaukee. The vendors and exhibits were spread all over the building in many smallish rooms which was kind of disappointing. As the day wore on, it would have been nice to be able to sit and hang out in one of the busier areas, but it was standing only, for the most part.
One area had several rooms filled with pinball and classic arcade games set to "free play". I played several games of pinball, and a few arcade games, like Donkey Kong and Centipede. I saw the fella who was declared "gamer of the century" by some outfit. Apparently he set a new world record for Donkey Kong at the show. Glad he's good at something.
Downstairs were several rooms filled with computers and video games. The Atari Age room was especially interesting, since I was so fascinated by pictures I saw of their display at another show earlier this year. They sell very professional looking "homebrew" cartridges for classic systems, especially Atari 2600 ones. I'd love to have a game of my own making sold that way. It was also cool to see the 2600 port of my C64 game "Splatform" on display, and watch people enjoying playing it.
The vendor room across the hall was great too - I bought about 20 VCS carts I didn't have before. It was somewhat overwhelming - in Thunder Bay, if I see some game cartridges or systems, I buy them with hardly a second thought, since it happens infrequently. Here, I was surrounded by hundreds, possibly thousands of games I don't own, and I just had to let it be, and be glad I got some.
Okay, that's enough for now - Bud Melvin and more, next.
